Supergirl’s Milly Alcock Reveals Favorite Scene from Woman of Tomorrow Comics

This week’s upcoming Supergirl movie starring Milly Alcock and directed by Craig Gillespie isn’t entirely adapted from Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s famed graphic novel, per se, but it’s heavily influenced by it. And if you’ve ever cracked open Woman of Tomorrow and its sci-fi, space-opera riff on True Grit, it’s easy to see why.

Even Milly Alcock admits to being blown away when she first devoured the book in preparation—and on social media—for Supergirl.

“It’s such a visceral world, it’s so vivid, and I was so seduced by the colors and the imagery of the world Tom King and Bilquis Evely presented,” Alcock tells us when we catch up in Beverly Hills. “Also the story was so surprising, I did not expect to read a comic book and find this messy, resilient, and incredibly kind person within the book.”

That emphasis on messy, and kind, is the recipe Alcock, Gillespie, and screenwriter Ana Nogueira are specifically following for a Supergirl movie that feels distinct from many other caped movies out there. While the marketing has obviously emphasized the space adventure aspect of the tale, which echoes producer James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy at Marvel Studios, the actual Kara Zor-El film has a fairly somber and wistful tone.

The colors of Evely’s pages were eschewed in favor of a grungier, faintly dystopian aesthetic by Gillespie—whose vision has been compared not unfairly to Mad Max—but the core narrative of the book remains: a disaffected and traumatized superheroine gets roped into a road-trip journey with a young girl named Ruthye (Eve Ridley) after Ruthye’s family is slain by a space brigand. One element that especially carries over is witnessing the action from Ruthye’s POV.

Nogueira tells us framing the set pieces this way was another Gillespie choice, but the broader sense of adapting the graphic novel’s narrative with a child’s perspective was something the screenwriter brought to the material before a director was ever attached.

“It’s because Kara doesn’t feel extraordinary in her own life,” Nogueira explains about the two-hander nature of the story. “She feels like she’s less than, but in the eyes of this little girl she is the most incredible being Ruthye has ever come across, and so it was important to see Kara through the eyes of that child, and hopefully Kara can eventually see herself through the eyes of that child and learn to love herself and accept this mantle that feels so large.”

Indeed, Alcock reveals to us and Nogueira both that her favorite scene in the book is a simple sequence where King’s prose takes a backseat and Evely meticulously draws across two pages Kara teaching Ruthye, a provincial from a planet that is a cross between the Old West and feudal Japan, how to use running water.

“My favorite scene within the comic book is the scene where Kara teaches Ruthye how to wash her hands,” Alcock says. “That broke my heart, because it gave me such an insight into this person who has such extremities to care for others, I just adored it.”

An appreciation for the source material seems acute on this one, though, with co-star Jason Momoa getting to live his own adolescent fantasy by at last playing Lobo, the space-biker bounty hunter. Technically Lobo isn’t in King and Evely’s Woman of Tomorrow, but it proved true to another comic fan’s vision.

“I remember the walls of my comic book store in Iowa, and I remember being there with a friend who was the guy who introduced me to everything,” Momoa muses. “I don’t remember which one I got first. At that time I just bought a bunch of stuff, and it was just tons and tons of comic books.”

The ones featuring Lobo cumulatively left an impression on the Hawaiian actor, too, who originally lobbied to play the bounty hunter years ago before being cast instead as Aquaman in Zack Snyder’s version of the DC Universe in the 2010s. And it was also Momoa who directly texted James Gunn when news first trickled out that Gunn was probably rebooting the DCU in this decade. Much of the iconography we associate with Lobo—the motorcycle, the cigar, the leather—is here, as are elements that the actor invented wholecloth, such as giving Lobo basically metal talons on his fingers.

“It’s just more weapons,” says Momoa. “I think it’s just fun to be able to rip someone’s face off with claws. He’s got the fangs and everything, he’s just a big beast…. he’s a Grizzly Bear.”

Momoa seems to be a genuine fan of the material. When we even mention an infamous comic book story wherein Lobo is hired by the Easter Bunny, the actor interjects “to kill Santa Claus” before we finish our sentence. With that said, he’s not sure his Lobo would take that job.

“I mean, it’s tough to say. I like Santa Claus,” Momoa laughs. “I’m a fan of the character. But sure, I think there should be something funny in there, and Santa should definitely be in there, and I should definitely give him the eye.”

Of course not everything that works in a comic book works in a movie and vice versa. Some of this is due to commercial considerations, such as the fact that while Tom King’s Kara swears like a sailor, Alcock’s is only permitted one F-bomb in a PG-13 rating. Hence why they shot multiple scenes where Alcock dropped the four-letter word, leaving choices in the final edit.

“I had a favorite but it didn’t get in, it didn’t make the final cut,” Alcock sighs with a chuckle. “I can’t say what it is, because it might spoil things, but yeah, I had a favorite, and it didn’t make it in.”

It’s apparently the same as Nogueira’s, who half-jokingly teases that maybe on the Blu-ray they will include “all the F-bombs that we had.”

Other elements that are left out of the film are, perhaps, more fantastical, such as Supergirl’s winged Pegasus-like horse who can soar through the cosmos, Comet. Then again, while the magical steed (and his shockingly complex backstory) is not in Supergirl, the screenwriter doesn’t rule out the possibility of revisiting the character down the road.

“The Comet situation,” explains the screenwriter, “needs its own [story]—the reason it’s not here is there are certain things you need to move away from, but they need their own run to let the rest of the audience know about him.”

Perhaps in another movie Kara can form her own team of super-pets with Krypto the Super-Dog and Comet the Space Horse?

Supergirl is in theaters on Friday, June 26.

Marvel Rivals’ Biggest Roster Problem Isn’t Mutants, It’s Role Balance

Any X-Men fan knows that the team just isn’t complete without a certain optic-blaster. Thankfully, the NetEase Games developers behind Marvel Rivals seem to feel the same way. On June 12, Cyclops made his debut in the team-based hero shooter as part of the game’s season 8.5 update, finally bringing the X-Men’s field leader to the game’s hero roster. 

Other than excitement for such a fun character, Cyclops’ arrival ignited a steadily growing debate within the community: is Marvel Rivals adding too many mutants? It’s not an unreasonable concern at first glance…until one takes into account that there are 51 playable characters in the game and only 13 of them are mutants. 

Simply put, Marvel Rivals doesn’t have a mutant problem, it has a role balance problem. In fact, focusing on the mutant count distracts from what has increasingly been the game’s even deeper roster issue: the growing divide between damage dealers, tanks, and supports.

That imbalance stems from the ever-expanding Duelist roster. As more DPS heroes are added, and Vanguard and Strategist additions remain relatively scarce, team compositions become harder to balance. In recent seasons, this has created problems that have a much greater impact on actual matches than whether a character comes from the X-Men or Avengers.   

To understand why Marvel Rivals’ growing Duelist roster is becoming a problem, it’s important to first understand how team compositions work in hero shooters, and what Duelist, Vanguard, and Strategists even are for those unfamiliar with the game.

Often shortened to “team comp,” team composition refers to a combination of roles and skills a team chooses in order to create balance and achieve a shared goal, often protecting a moving convey or maintaining control of a designated area.  While individual skill matters and can either make or break a match, games like Marvel Rivals are designed around teams filling different responsibilities in order to create synergy. 

Marvel Rivals divides its playable characters, or “heroes,” into three primary roles: Vanguard, Duelist, and Strategist.

Vanguards serve as the game’s tanks, using their durability and defensive abilities to create space for teammates and to absorb incoming damage.

Duelists are the damage dealers, often referred to as DPS (damage per second), whose primary job is securing eliminations and applying offensive pressure. 

Strategists act as supports, offering healing, buffs, crowd control, and other utilities that help keep a team alive. 

Because each role serves a different and specific purpose, Marvel Rivals team comps function best on a 2-2-2 structure: two Vanguards, two Duelists, and two Strategists. This arrangement gives teams enough frontline presence to contest other players and protect convoys, enough damage output to win fights, and ensures equal healing to sustain pushes and survive enemy pressure. 

The problem arises when too many players gravitate towards the same role because of the lack of options in other roles. A team with four Duelists might seem intimidating in theory, but without enough healing or frontline protection, those damage dealers often struggle to stay alive long enough to make any impact in a match. 

That’s why many hero shooters encourage balanced role distribution through matchmaking systems or evenly spread role design. Marvel Rivals has neither. 

For Marvel Rivals, team comps are entirely up to player choice. There can be a team of all healers for all anyone cares (and from experience while that is fun, it doesn’t yield the most winning results). 

In theory, the freedom allows for creativity and experimentation, but in practice it often leads to teams overloaded with Duelists as they are typically the most favored role in team-based shooters.

Now compare this system to Blizzard Entertainment’s Overwatch, which utilizes a role queue system that requires teams to enter matches with one Tank, two Damage heroes, and two Supports. Players choose their preferred role before matchmaking begins, ensuring not only that every team starts with a functional composition but players maintain freedom of choice as well. 

While some players dislike the restrictions that role queues can sometimes impose, it largely eliminates the chaos of entering a match only to discover four teammates instantly locked DPS heroes. 

This issue becomes even more noticeable when comparing the makeup of each game’s roster. Marvel Rivals currently has 11 Stratigests, 13 Vanguards, and 27 DPS heroes. 

Compared to Overwatch that, while having a nearly identical roster size at 52 heroes, distributes the roles much more evenly: 11 Tanks, 13 Supports, and 18 DPS heroes. While damage dealers remain the largest role in both games, one clearly dominates the roster compared to the other. 

The result is a compounding problem for Marvel Rivals players that is much more frustrating than mutants. The game lacks both a system that guarantees balanced team compositions and, more frustratingly, continues to add DPS heroes to a role that players are already most likely to pick.  

The last Marvel Rivals season that didn’t introduce a new Duelist was season 5 in November 2025. For those unfamiliar with the game’s update structure, each season is split into two major content drops: an X.0 update that kicks off the season with a new hero and an X.5 midseason update that introduces additional content and one more hero. 

Season 5 expanded the roster with Rogue as a Vanguard and Gambit as a Strategist, giving tank and support players fresh options while keeping the game’s role distribution in check. 

Since season 5, every new hero added to Marvel Rivals has been a Duelist. Three straight seasons of damage-focused additions might not sound significant at first, but when Duelists already make up the largest role in the game, every new DPS hero added pushes the roster further out of balance. 

The issue isn’t that Duelists shouldn’t be added at all, either. Marvel has no shortage of iconic damage-dealing characters, and many fans have been waiting for heroes like Cyclops to arrive. What’s frustrating is that NetEase continues to prioritize DPS heroes despite having a massive pool of potential Vanguard and Strategist candidates to choose from. 

Marvel’s universe is filled with characters who could easily fit the tank and support roles. For the former, characters like Doctor Doom, Luke Cage, Ghost Rider, She-Hulk, and Carnage are some fan suggestions that have been thrown around on r/marvelrivals Reddit, the first of which being nearly confirmed for the future thanks to leaks and in-game teaser appearances. For the latter, characters like Silver Surfer, Nightcrawler, Wiccan, Quicksilver, and Vision have also been wished for.

Which makes the current trend of DPS-heavy seasons so puzzling. Marvel Rivals isn’t running out of characters to add, nor is it limited by the source material when it comes to assigning roles. In fact, NetEase has already shown a willingness to get creative with role design, with characters like Ultron being reimagined as a Strategist despite being one of Marvel’s most notorious villains.

Whether the developers pull from The Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, or Marvel’s extensive roster of villains, there are countless characters who could help strengthen the game’s Vanguard and Strategist lineups while generating just as much excitement as Duelist reveals. 

Cyclops was a welcome addition to Marvel Rivals, and, again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with adding popular damage-dealing characters. However, if NetEase wants to improve match quality and keep players invested for the long haul, future roster expansions should place a greater emphasis on tanks and supports. 

The game doesn’t need fewer mutants, it simply needs more reasons for players to choose something other than DPS.

Who Remembers That Peter Parker Is Spider-Man in Brand New Day?

At the end of 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) cast a spell that ensured no one would remember Peter Parker or that he is the MCU’s friendly neighborhood webslinger, but in Sony’s upcoming fourquel, Brand New Day, there is someone who remembers Spidey’s secret identity.

Brand New Day star Tom Holland, who is reprising the role of Spider-Man once more this summer, recently teased to IGN that the real villain of the movie is “still very much a secret” and “unlike anything we’ve seen in one of these movies before”, while also confirming that “one person” remembers Peter Parker after the events of No Way Home, stopping short of naming the character in question. Still, we have a few ideas.

Our first guess is the Hulk, and with good reason. Though Hulk seems to be in smash mode when it comes to Spidey in the latest Brand New Day trailer, and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) clearly doesn’t recall ever meeting Peter, his Jade Giant counterpart has a history of remembering secret identities.

In Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee’s Sentry comic book series for Marvel, Bob Reynolds (portrayed by Lewis Pullman in the Thunderbolts movie) begins to remember the Void after wiping everyone’s memory and tries to warn everyone that the Void is coming. However, no one remembers who he is, except one hero: Hulk. Having been hidden inside Banner during the memory wipe, Hulk’s memories remained intact. Could this be the case with Peter’s identity as well? After all, we do see Banner wearing a gamma inhibitor device that completely suppresses his Hulk transformation—for a while, at least.

Hmm, perhaps. Yet, like many of you, we’ve also heard the rumors that Sadie Sink is playing the X-Men mutant Jean Grey in Brand New Day, and that she will turn out to be the “secret” villain of the film. In the Marvel universe, magic and psionics are often written as distinct. Strange’s spell may well have worked on someone like Jean initially, but she’s powerful. Canonically, she can both alter mental pathways to repair psychic trauma and restore hidden memories. It’s totally possible that by the events of Brand New Day, Jean knows exactly who Peter is.

Of course, there are other (way more obvious) MCU characters who may know that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. We just might not have all the pieces of the puzzle yet. Frank Castle, a.k.a. The Punisher, seems to know exactly who Peter is in Brand New Day if we take the movie’s trailers at face value. There may also be other cameos in the movie that have yet to be revealed. If Doctor Strange doesn’t show up in this one, Wong (Benedict Wong) still might, as he’s done in a handful of other MCU projects. It’s far more likely that the Sorcerer Supreme himself is immune to spells cast on his memory, and he’s been keeping tabs on Earth’s Mightiest (potential) Heroes since the events of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

One more interesting possibility remains, and that’s the piece of the Venom symbiote that Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) left behind in Peter’s universe in the post-credits of No Way Home. While Brock was returned to his own universe (where people hate “murderer” Spider-Man), the piece left behind will possess its own memories, which may not have been affected. The symbiote may well have found a new host by now and could have reminded them of what was lost during Strange’s spell.

It’s fun to speculate, but we’ll find out for sure when Spider-Man: Brand New Day is released on July 31.

Movie Scenes That Still Give Us the Chills Each Time We Watch Them

Movie fans will rewatch their favourite films over and over again with a joyful smile, remembering how it felt to watch those moments for the first time. Certain scenes, however, hold the same impact no matter how many times you watch them, making them particularly special.

Here, we’ve gathered the scenes that have most impacted audiences in cinema, although it is only a small selection. Even if your standout moment isn’t here, you won’t be able to deny the iconic nature of these moments, what they meant to cinematic history, and the power they still hold over audiences.

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For Frodo – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

After three films of buildup, Aragorn turns to his friends and says, “For Frodo.” The charge that follows remains one of fantasy cinema’s most emotional and inspiring moments.

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Bullet Time – The Matrix

The first time Neo bends backward to dodge bullets changed action movies forever. Combined with the music and visual effects, the scene still feels like witnessing cinema reinvent itself in real time.

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Maximus Reveals Himself – Gladiator

After winning in the arena, Maximus removes his helmet and announces his identity to Commodus. The mixture of triumph, rage, and fear makes it one of the most satisfying reveals ever filmed.

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Barbossa Steps Into the Moonlight – The Curse of the Black Pearl

Captain Barbossa’s warning about ghost stories becomes unforgettable when moonlight reveals his skeletal form. It’s a perfect combination of atmosphere, visual effects, and delivery that still lands today.

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I Just Want to Go Home – Moon

The emotional weight of Moon builds toward a heartbreaking realization. The simple desire to return home becomes devastating once the full truth of Sam Bell’s situation is revealed.

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Jake Understands the Setup – Training Day

Sitting at the kitchen table, Jake slowly realizes he’s been abandoned by Alonzo. The scene is terrifying because the danger arrives through understanding rather than any particular action.

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Yoda Lifts the X-Wing – The Empire Strikes Back

Yoda effortlessly raising Luke’s sunken X-Wing remains one of the defining moments of Star Wars. John Williams’ score elevates the scene into something genuinely awe-inspiring.

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Gandalf Returns at Helm’s Deep – The Two Towers

As dawn breaks over Helm’s Deep, Gandalf appears exactly when hope seems lost. The combination of visuals, music, and payoff makes the sequence impossible not to feel.

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The Ceasefire – Children of Men

A crying baby briefly halts a brutal urban battle. Soldiers and civilians alike stop to stare in silence, creating one of the most powerful and unexpectedly moving scenes in modern cinema.

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The Stranger in the Background – The Strangers

One of horror’s most effective scares requires no loud noise. A masked stranger quietly appears behind Liv Tyler’s character and simply watches, creating unbearable tension through stillness alone.

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Michael Emerges from the Darkness – Halloween

Laurie backs against a wall, unaware that Michael Myers is standing behind her. His pale mask slowly materializes from the darkness, creating one of horror’s most iconic images.

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My Boy – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The return from the graveyard is horrifying, but Amos Diggory’s realization that Cedric is dead is what truly breaks the audience. His cries transform a fantasy adventure into genuine tragedy.

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The T-Rex Escape – Jurassic Park

The lack of music makes every sound matter. Rain, footsteps, and the creaking fence combine to create a sequence that remains one of the most suspenseful scenes ever filmed.

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The Opening Interrogation – Inglourious Basterds

Colonel Hans Landa’s conversation with the farmer begins politely and grows increasingly terrifying. The tension is almost unbearable because everyone involved understands the danger long before violence begins.

Google and A24’s AI Partnership Announcement Is Not Going Down Well

Earlier this month, Backrooms director Kane Parsons, who helmed the highest-grossing film to date for studio A24, said, “If I could snap my fingers and make generative AI disappear forever, I probably would. Creatively, I get no enjoyment from using those tools. It defeats the purpose entirely for me.” Smash cut to this week, and A24 has inked an AI research partnership deal with Google’s DeepMind outfit to help develop AI-powered tech for filmmakers.

A24 Labs head Scott Belsky defended the deal, telling The Wall Street Journal that “We think there are better uses [of AI] that preserve creative control and support risk-taking,” and that these new AI tools “won’t look anything like the prompted generation type of AI that people feel uncomfortable with,” while Eli Collins, a VP at DeepMind, added, “We believe breakthroughs happen when you get technology into the hands of the best minds in the field.”

As you can imagine, Google’s $75 million investment in A24 for these purposes has not gone down well with fans of the indie entertainment company, which has already been scoring home runs at the box office with lower-budget titles like awards darling Everything Everywhere All at Once and Parsons’ Backrooms. Instead, social media feeds have been blasted with negative comments since the deal was announced.

“It’s quite disappointing that a company that just enjoyed the triumphant box office returns of staunchly anti-AI Kane Parsons’ BACKROOMS would make such a deal,” wrote filmmaker and actress Justine Bateman over on X. “All A24 directors should prepare to have your films altered against your wishes with this deal. Google is the company who bastardized THE WIZARD OF OZ for the Vegas Sphere run, inserting corporate CEO’s faces into the crowd, removing the director’s focus choices, etc.”

Other negative reactions also flooded in. “Incredible how Backrooms marketing and so much of the director’s stuff involves talking about how cool Blender is and how anyone can use it for production,” posted one writer. “To see that from A24 and then decide ‘yeah we need to push for ai’ is just insane. We really are in the worst timeline.” Another artist, posting “with all the love in the world for A24”, wrote, “You guys are doing just fine, you don’t need google money.”

Variety notes that the deal “does not give Google access to A24’s content library or its data,” and that it will allow A24 access to DeepMind’s research and infrastructure, while DeepMind collaborates with A24 to “build out new workflows.”

Although many filmmakers and fans remain unhappy about A24’s new partnership with Google, it’s unlikely to reverse the deal even as the backlash continues. This marks the first collab of its kind between DeepMind and a studio instead of a specific filmmaker, and it’s reportedly a multi-year contract.

15 Movie Facts Nerds Love to Pretend Other People Don’t Know

Every fandom has a handful of facts that get repeated so often they practically become part of the movie itself. Mention a beloved sci-fi, fantasy, comic book, or adventure film, and someone will inevitably bring up a famous behind-the-scenes detail.

The funny thing is that many of these facts are no longer obscure. They’ve been shared in documentaries, interviews, conventions, and countless internet posts for years. Yet movie nerds still love dropping them into conversations as if they’re revealing a closely guarded secret. These are the kinds of movie facts that real fans adore reminding everyone about, whether anyone asked or not.

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Han Shot First

One of the most famous movie debates revolves around Star Wars. Fans never tire of pointing out that Han Solo originally shot Greedo first, before later special editions altered the scene and sparked decades of arguments.

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The Stormtrooper Head Bump

A stormtrooper accidentally smacks his head on a doorway in Star Wars: Episode IV. The mistake was left in the film and became so famous that later productions jokingly referenced it.

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The Wilhelm Scream

The famous Wilhelm Scream has appeared in countless films, especially beloved genre movies. Once fans learn to recognize it, they tend to point it out every single time it appears.

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The Orc Knife Throw

During The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, an Uruk-hai actor accidentally threw a real knife directly at Viggo Mortensen. Aragorn’s deflection in the finished scene was genuine, making it a favorite piece of trilogy trivia.

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Sean Bean Dies Again

Sean Bean’s reputation for dying in movies and television has become a meme unto itself. It’s often brought up whenever he appears in a new role, regardless of genre.

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The Asteroid Field Sound Effect

It’s hard watching The Empire Strikes Back without someone pointing out that one of the sounds used during the asteroid chase came from striking steel support cables. It’s a classic example of creative movie sound design.

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Blade Runner’s Unicorn Dream

Fans of Blade Runner love discussing the unicorn dream sequence and what it supposedly reveals about Deckard. Entire essays have been written about a scene that lasts only moments.

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The Raptor Sounds Are Tortoises

The terrifying velociraptor noises in Jurassic Park weren’t made by reptiles at all. Sound designers mixed recordings from several animals, including mating tortoises.

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The Alien Costume Secret

The actor inside the Xenomorph suit in Alien was 7-foot-2 Nigerian artist Bolaji Badejo. His unusual physique helped make the creature feel genuinely otherworldly.

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The Matrix’s Green Tint

Fans love pointing out that scenes inside the Matrix feature a green tint inspired by old computer monitors. It’s a consistency that has survived to its fourth installment.

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The One Ring’s Inscription

Lord of the Rings enthusiasts enjoy explaining that the inscription on the One Ring is written in the Black Speech of Mordor. It is one of Tolkien fandom’s favorite bits of trivia.

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The Back to the Future Refrigerator

Before settling on a DeLorean time machine, early concepts for Back to the Future involved a refrigerator. Fans have been sharing this fact for decades whenever the movie comes up.

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Boba Fett’s Tiny Screen Time

Boba Fett became one of Star Wars’ most popular characters despite having surprisingly little screen time in the original trilogy. Both admirers and detractors of the character love reminding people just how brief his appearances actually were.

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The Dice in the Millennium Falcon

Long before Disney turned them into a plot point, observant Star Wars fans noticed a pair of fuzzy dice hanging in the Millennium Falcon’s cockpit in the original film. It became a surprisingly famous background detail.

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The Improvised Handshake

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s iconic handshake challenge in Predator was improvised between him and Carl Weathers. Action movie enthusiasts rarely miss an opportunity to mention the story behind the handshake.

15 Celebrities You Didn’t Realize Lived So Long

Sometimes, we see a movie (usually an old one) and wonder what the life of that person must have been. Well, those actors might have been young in that film, but they continued on with their lives, often without us even noticing. A full life can be lived out of the spotlight.

Their careers may have peaked years before their deaths, creating the impression that they were gone long before they actually were. These celebrities all lived remarkably long lives, often spending decades beyond the period when most people stopped seeing them regularly on screen.

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Olivia de Havilland

Best remembered for Gone with the Wind and her classic Hollywood career, Olivia de Havilland lived to the age of 104. She spent decades as one of the last surviving stars from Hollywood’s Golden Age.

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Kirk Douglas

Kirk Douglas was already a screen legend by the 1960s, yet he lived until 2020 at age 103. Many younger movie fans were surprised to learn he survived well into the twenty-first century.

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Bob Hope

Bob Hope’s career stretched across vaudeville, radio, film, and television. Although many associate him with mid-century entertainment, he lived to 100, passing away in 2003 after a lengthy retirement.

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George Burns

George Burns seemed old even when he was young. The comedian and actor reached age 100, remaining active in entertainment far longer than most of his contemporaries.

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Mickey Rooney

A major child star in the 1930s and 1940s, Mickey Rooney remained active for decades and lived to 93. His lifespan connected some of Hollywood’s earliest years with the modern era.

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Zsa Zsa Gabor

Known for her glamour and celebrity status more than any single role, Zsa Zsa Gabor lived to 99. She spent many years largely out of the spotlight before her death.

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Betty White

Although remembered for The Golden Girls, Betty White’s television career began in the 1940s. She remained beloved into her late nineties and narrowly missed her 100th birthday.

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Norman Lloyd

Norman Lloyd appeared in films directed by Alfred Hitchcock and worked throughout television history. He lived to 106, making him one of the longest-lived performers in Hollywood history.

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Christopher Lee

Known for Dracula, Saruman, and Count Dooku, Christopher Lee continued acting into his nineties. Many fans forget he lived to 93 and remained professionally active almost until the end.

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Don Rickles

The legendary insult comic entertained audiences for generations. Even though his fame peaked decades earlier, Rickles continued performing and making appearances until his death at age 90.

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Ernest Borgnine

From Marty to The Wild Bunch, Ernest Borgnine built an impressive career before living to 95. He remained a familiar face on television and in films for decades afterward.

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Angela Lansbury

Many remember Angela Lansbury from Murder, She Wrote, but her career began in the 1940s. She lived to 96 and continued working on stage and screen for much of her life.

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Carl Reiner

Carl Reiner shaped American comedy as a writer, actor, and director. Despite being associated with much earlier eras of television, he lived until 2020, reaching the age of 98.

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Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks belongs on this list simply because many people forget he is still with us. The comedy legend was born in 1926 and has outlived many of his famous contemporaries.

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Dick Van D

Dick Van D became a household name in the 1960s, yet he remains active well into his nineties. His longevity continues to surprise audiences who associate him with much earlier television eras.

Klara and the Sun Trailer: Scream Queen Jenna Ortega Tries Sci-Fi in Delayed Taika Waititi Movie

Taika Waititi’s adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s beloved dystopian sci-fi novel Klara and the Sun was first announced in 2020 and finished filming all the way back in April 2024, but Sony Pictures has only now finally pulled it off the shelf and announced an October 23 release date. The studio has also blessed us with a first trailer for the movie, which seems to have an odd tone but boasts a stellar cast that includes scream queen Jenna Ortega, Amy Adams, Natasha Lyonne, and Simon Baker.

Thor: Ragnarok director Waititi confirmed to Screen Daily in January of this year that he was still in talks with Sony about “when and where” Klara and the Sun would be released, adding that “festivals and stuff like that” were part of the movie’s outlook. It hasn’t been revealed which festivals are being targeted for preview screenings, but our best guess is the Toronto International Film Festival, which takes place in September. Waititi’s last movie, Next Goal Wins, also premiered there in 2023.

Here’s the official synopsis for Klara and the Sun:

“Klara (Jenna Ortega) is an Artificial Friend who wants nothing more than to find the perfect home. When Klara meets Josie (Mia Tharia), each immediately senses a kindred spirit in the other. Josie has a fraught relationship with her mother (Amy Adams) and they’ve suffered great loss, but Klara’s innocent wonder and unwavering loyalty begin to heal the family and bring light to Josie’s complicated world.”

You can take a look at the first trailer for the movie below…

It’s an interesting change of pace for Ortega, who seemed to have been aware that she’d found a bit of a niche as the “weird girl” in the likes of Wednesday, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, and The Babysitter: Killer Queen. Of course, since filming Klara and the Sun, Ortega has appeared in projects like Winter Spring Summer or Fall, and last year’s A24 fantasy movie Death of a Unicorn, but Klara and the Sun saw her break out of her mould at the time.

“Klara had just a pure, completely innocent, untainted optimism about her that you can’t find in a person of that age,” she told The New York Times. “Eventually you get older, and you’re a bit jaded or a bit scarred by certain things. You’ve learned a lot. You’ve maybe built a bit more of a wall. Klara didn’t have that wall, which is the complete opposite of a lot of the other characters I play where, you know, they hide who they are, or they don’t want their emotion to be seen. I just felt like it was a good place to be vulnerable and try something new.”

Klara and the Sun will be released in theatres on October 23.

The Best Versions Of Spider-Man

If we’re talking about who’s the best Spider-Man, then the original Peter Parker has no competition. There’s a reason why nearly every adaptation focuses on him, with only a handful changing the character either completely or with a few alterations. But the multiverse has more Spider heroes to offer.

What we have today are the best Spider-Man variants that do something different with the formula, either perfecting it, flipping it on its head, or straight up ignoring it. While 616 Peter will forever exist in our hearts, there is also room for some wackier versions of the character as well.

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Ultimate Spider-Man (Earth-1610)

The original Ultimate Spider-Man reimagined Peter Parker for a new generation without losing what made him relatable. Brian Michael Bendis’ long-running version remains one of the most beloved alternate takes on the character.

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Spider-Man 2099

Miguel O’Hara brought a darker, more futuristic edge to Spider-Man. His high-tech suit, tragic backstory, and willingness to bend Peter Parker’s moral code made him an instant fan favorite.

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Ben Reilly

As the Scarlet Spider and later Spider-Man himself, Ben Reilly gave fans another Peter Parker with his own personality and struggles. His redemption arc has only become more appreciated over time.

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Spiders-Man

One of Marvel’s strangest Spider-variants, Spiders-Man is literally a colony of radioactive spiders that consumed Peter Parker and now believe they are him. It’s bizarre, unsettling, and surprisingly memorable.

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Mayday Parker

Peter Parker’s daughter inherited both his powers and his sense of responsibility. As Spider-Girl, Mayday became one of Marvel’s most successful legacy heroes, earning a devoted fanbase through her long-running series.

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Assassin Spider-Man

This darker Peter Parker abandoned his usual no-killing rule after being recruited into a multiversal strike force. Seeing Spider-Man embrace lethal methods made this version stand out among countless alternate realities.

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Spider-UK

Billy Braddock’s Spider-UK combines Spider-Man’s powers with Captain Britain’s leadership qualities. He became one of the key organizers during Spider-Verse, helping unite dozens of Spider-heroes against overwhelming odds.

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Miles Morales

Miles Morales successfully accomplished what many thought impossible: becoming a second Spider-Man without replacing Peter Parker. His personality, powers, and stories have made him one of Marvel’s biggest modern successes.

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Pavitr Prabhakar

The Indian Spider-Man adapts Peter Parker’s origin to Mumbai while creating a unique cultural identity. His popularity exploded after Across the Spider-Verse introduced him to a much wider audience.

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Superior Spider-Man

When Doctor Octopus took over Peter Parker’s body, he genuinely tried to become a better Spider-Man. His ruthless efficiency and eventual growth created one of Marvel’s most compelling modern storylines.

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Spider-Gwen

Gwen Stacy’s reinvention as Ghost-Spider quickly became more than a clever alternate-universe concept. Her distinctive costume, emotional stories, and unique supporting cast turned her into one of Marvel’s breakout characters.

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Spider-Man Noir

Set in the Great Depression, Spider-Man Noir trades bright colors for trench coats, revolvers, and hard-boiled detective stories. His pulp-inspired world gives Spider-Man one of his most distinctive alternate identities.

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Spider-Punk

Hobie Brown fights oppression with electric guitars, punk rock, and complete disregard for authority. His rebellious attitude and unforgettable design helped turn a once-obscure variant into one of Marvel’s most popular Spider-People.

14 Actors Who Spent Entire Movies Looking Confused

Most actors have range beyond a single emotion, something we’ve seen time and time again as they perform. However, some movies don’t require more than one: an everpresent state of confusion. This can work for a while in movies with complex moving parts, but even then, you’d expect them to eventually get used to their situation.

Either due to a directorial mandate or lack thereof, these actors went through their movies with one face: bewilderment due to their non understanding. It’s amusing once you notice it, particularly for characters famed for being problem solvers.

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Keanu Reeves

In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Keanu Reeves spends much of the film reacting to increasingly bizarre events with a perpetually bewildered expression. His confused demeanor has become almost as memorable as his much-discussed accent.

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Tom Cruise

Eyes Wide Shut follows Tom Cruise from one strange encounter to another. Nearly every scene leaves his character looking increasingly confused as he wanders through a mystery that never fully explains itself.

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Jesse Eisenberg

As Columbus in Zombieland, Jesse Eisenberg spends most of the movie looking like he can’t believe what’s happening. His constant uncertainty perfectly complements the film’s mix of horror and comedy.

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Chris Pratt

Peter Quill enters Guardians of the Galaxy believing he’s an ordinary outlaw. By the end, he’s encountered talking raccoons, living trees, and cosmic artifacts, spending much of the adventure visibly bewildered.

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Brendan Fraser

The Mummy repeatedly throws Brendan Fraser’s Rick O’Connell into supernatural chaos. Between resurrected priests and ancient curses, he often reacts with the expression of someone improvising every second.

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Martin Freeman

Bilbo Baggins spends much of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey wondering how his quiet life turned into a quest involving trolls, goblins, and dragons. Martin Freeman’s baffled reactions sell every absurd situation.

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Will Smith

In Men in Black, Will Smith’s Agent J discovers that aliens have been hiding in plain sight all along. His constant disbelief provides many of the film’s funniest moments.

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Jeff Bridges

The Dude in The Big Lebowski rarely understands why events keep spiraling out of control. Jeff Bridges spends much of the film looking pleasantly confused as increasingly bizarre people enter his life.

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Sam Neill

Few actors have looked more genuinely overwhelmed than Sam Neill in Jurassic Park. From seeing living dinosaurs to surviving a T-Rex attack, his stunned expressions mirror the audience’s own amazement.

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Daniel Radcliffe

Harry Potter spends much of the early films reacting to magical revelations with wide-eyed confusion. Daniel Radcliffe expertly portrays someone constantly discovering that the wizarding world is even stranger than he imagined.

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Michael J. Fox

Marty McFly barely has time to process one problem before another appears in Back to the Future. Michael J. Fox spends nearly the entire movie trying to understand increasingly impossible circumstances.

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Kyle MacLachlan

In Dune (1984), Kyle MacLachlan’s Paul Atreides is bombarded with prophecies, political conspiracies, and mystical visions. Much of the film finds him looking understandably uncertain about his destiny.

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Ryan Gosling

As Officer K in Blade Runner 2049, Ryan Gosling quietly pieces together a mystery that continually upends everything he believes. His restrained, confused reactions fit the film’s existential tone perfectly.

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Edward Norton

Before the truth becomes clear in Fight Club, Edward Norton spends much of the film looking exhausted, uncertain, and increasingly confused by the strange events unfolding around him.

14 Obvious Movie ‘Twists’ Everyone Saw Coming

Who doesn’t enjoy a good plot twist? You’re enjoying a movie, following the story closely, when all of a sudden everything gets turned on its head. Looking back, you can see the seeds of what’s going on, but you know that you could’ve never guessed it.

Now, a bad plot twist is one you see from a mile away. Sometimes you have the hope that, since it’s so obvious, the twist will be something else. But no, it’s just a bad script on a poorly made plot. These are the most obvious plot twists we’ve found, so we’re not that sorry to spoil most of them.

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Thanksgiving

Eli Roth sprinkles clues almost immediately, beginning with the opening sequence. By the halfway point, many viewers had already narrowed down the killer, making the eventual reveal feel more like confirmation than a genuine surprise.

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Spiral

Marketed as a fresh take on the Saw formula, Spiral telegraphs its central reveal early. Genre fans quickly suspected the true mastermind, leaving the final act with far less impact than intended.

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Alien: Covenant

The moment Walter and David disappear together, many viewers expected a switch. The reveal that David had replaced Walter plays out dramatically, but countless fans saw it coming long before the finale.

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Ghost Ship

Ferriman is mysterious, always appears at convenient moments, and even has an ominous name. It doesn’t take long for audiences to suspect he isn’t an ordinary salvager, making the supernatural reveal fairly predictable.

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MaXXXine

The mystery surrounding the killer generates suspense, but many horror fans identified the likely culprit early. The film succeeds more through style and performances than through keeping its central reveal secret.

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Intruder

Slasher fans often point out that simply studying the film’s promotional artwork gives away the killer. Once that clue is noticed, the mystery becomes far easier to solve before the ending.

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The Prowler

Despite some memorable kill scenes, The Prowler doesn’t hide its mystery especially well. Many viewers correctly identify the killer after only the opening stretch of the movie.

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Scream 4

Longtime Scream fans were already looking for the least obvious suspect, making Emma Roberts’ Jill an early favorite. Her motive is memorable, but her identity surprised fewer viewers than intended.

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Prometheus

Charlize Theron’s Vickers behaves less like a corporate executive and more like someone with a personal stake in Weyland’s mission. Her eventual connection to Peter Weyland felt obvious to many audiences.

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Reindeer Games

Charlize Theron’s character appears almost too perfect from the beginning. Thriller fans quickly suspected she was manipulating Ben Affleck’s character, making her betrayal one of the film’s least shocking moments.

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Incredibles 2

Evelyn Deavor’s name alone raises eyebrows, and her constant criticism of superheroes points suspicion in her direction. Many viewers guessed she was the Screenslaver long before the official reveal.

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The Forgotten

The film spends so much time insisting everything has a rational explanation that many viewers immediately suspected something far stranger. When aliens finally enter the story, the twist felt surprisingly unsurprising.

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Saltburn

The closing montage spells out Oliver’s manipulations in detail, but many audiences had already pieced together his schemes. Instead of revealing new information, it mostly confirms what attentive viewers already believed.

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Smile 2

Even before release, trailers led many horror fans to predict exactly where the sequel’s curse would end up. The marketing unintentionally made the movie’s final direction easier to anticipate than expected.

15 of Our Fittest Celebrities

Often, celebrities need to stay in shape because a given role demands it. That is not the life for all of them, however, since some of them want to stay in shape at all times. They include marathon runners and triathletes, martial artists and even endurance athletes; these stars have proven their dedication extends well beyond a movie set or concert stage.

Many have completed major races, embraced demanding training regimens, or spent decades mastering physically challenging disciplines. Their commitment isn’t about looking good on screen, rather about discipline, consistency, and pushing personal limits. These celebrities have earned reputations as some of the fittest and most athletic figures in entertainment.

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Terry Crews

Before becoming an actor, Terry Crews played in the NFL. He still maintains an intense workout routine focused on strength training and has become one of Hollywood’s most recognizable advocates for lifelong fitness.

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Jennifer Connelly

Jennifer Connelly is an accomplished distance runner who has completed the New York City Marathon multiple times. She has spoken about running as both a physical challenge and a way to clear her mind.

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Ryan Reynolds

Ryan Reynolds has transformed his physique repeatedly for action roles like Deadpool. His long-term commitment to strength training and conditioning has made fitness a consistent part of his career.

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Gordon Ramsay

The celebrity chef is also a dedicated endurance athlete. Gordon Ramsay has completed numerous marathons, Ironman triathlons, and other demanding races, often sharing his training progress with fans.

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Ellie Goulding

Singer Ellie Goulding is passionate about running and endurance sports. She has completed multiple half marathons and regularly discusses how fitness plays a major role in her mental and physical well-being.

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Mark Wahlberg

Known for his famously disciplined daily routine, Mark Wahlberg trains year-round with a combination of weightlifting and cardio. His commitment to fitness has remained consistent throughout decades in Hollywood.

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Zac Efron

Zac Efron embraced demanding workout programs for films like Baywatch and has maintained an active lifestyle involving hiking, climbing, swimming, and outdoor adventure sports beyond movie roles.

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Hugh Jackman

Preparing to play Wolverine required years of strength training and disciplined nutrition. Even between superhero films, Hugh Jackman has continued lifting weights and maintaining an impressively athletic lifestyle.

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David Goggins

Although better known today as an author and motivational speaker, David Goggins has appeared in films and television. His resume includes ultramarathons, Ironman triathlons, and some of the toughest endurance races on Earth.

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Natalie Dormer

Natalie Dormer completed the London Marathon in an impressive time while raising money for charity. She has consistently emphasized running as an important part of her overall fitness routine.

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Jason Statham

Before acting, Jason Statham competed nationally in diving for England. His background in athletics, combined with martial arts and functional strength training, helps him perform many of his own action sequences.

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Matthew McConaughey

Matthew McConaughey is an avid runner who has completed major road races and frequently trains outdoors. His lean physique has long reflected a lifestyle built around consistent physical activity.

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Joe Manganiello

Joe Manganiello’s muscular build comes from years of disciplined resistance training and careful nutrition. He has openly discussed treating fitness as a long-term commitment rather than something reserved for film roles.

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Chris Hemsworth

Chris Hemsworth has built his career around athletic roles, but fitness remains a priority off camera as well. He regularly trains with functional workouts, surfing, boxing, and high-intensity conditioning, even launching his own fitness platform.

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Cameron Diaz

Cameron Diaz has long been known for her commitment to an active lifestyle. She has completed the New York City Marathon and has frequently spoken about strength training, nutrition, and exercise as lifelong habits rather than temporary goals.

15 Vintage Photos of Gaming in the ’70s & ’80s

Video games have been around for quite a while, and it’s always a good time remembering the roots of it all. Mostly because, for most of us, the golden era of gaming is behind us. We might envy the children that grow up with today’s gaming scene, but we aren’t kids anymore.

For those of us that can still enjoy gaming, it’s still a warm feeling to remember the good old days. Back then, the sky was the limit, a few pixels represented eternity and you got what you paid for. These pictures represent a trip down memory lane, with all its ups and downs.

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Indie Developers

Gaming was for everyone, even back in the 70s. Here, we see soon-to-be engineers preparing to finish their final senior project, their very own video game.

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Ads In Comic Books

The comic book and video game scenes are somewhat related today, at least in terms of audience overlap, but back then it was even more so. Here, we see an ad for a video game on the back of a, you guessed it, comic book page.

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Video Game Wonder

The children born in the back end of the 80s were the first generation that grew up with video games. Of course, that wasn’t the case for the whole population, but like this picture shows, it was the case for some of us.

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Steven And E.T.

You might not know the legend, but the E.T. video game is considered by most the worst game ever made. That makes this image of Spielberg testing the game with awe on his face a little bit sad.

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The Video Game Store

Nowadays, the video game store is slowly dying in favor of purely digital purchases, but here we can see the craft on its first legs. Of course, before having dedicated stores, games were sold alongside other products, like at a cafe in this case.

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Test Your Future Games

A very common practice in video game stores was letting customers try out the games, like what we today know as a demo. Some people used these opportunities to beat entire games in one sitting, something frowned upon by the store owners.

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Space Invaders Competition

Unlike other, more casual competitions, the ones held for Space Invaders in the early 80s were quite organized, with devices made specially for the event. Since PvP wasn’t really a thing, players competed for the highest score.

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Trying The Atari Controller

As we know, adults were into video games just as much as children, and with home consoles, they were the ones that needed to know how the system worked. A small child wasn’t going to fix the console if something broke, after all.

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Perfect Distraction Tool

I think we can all agree that having a waiting area at the dentist, one filled with toys and video games, would make going there less of a hassle. This doctor was ahead of its time.

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Mystery Game

Here, we can see a bunch of kids hunched over a computer with excited poses. Now, we don’t know what they’re watching, but we doubt that’s homework; they’re more likely playing some new videogame at someone’s house.

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Waiting Game

The dentist wasn’t alone in modernizing the way we wait for things, since the Powell Street BART Station added Atari consoles for people waiting for their trains. We can only imagine the number of trains lost due to people having a bit too much fun.

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Console Wars

You might think that the console wars were always between Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, but these companies weren’t reality a thing the further back you go. The original console wars were between the Coleco Vision, Intellivision and Atari.

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The Tech Store

The one place where you can still see physical video games being sold is at department stores around the world. The things on offer today may be different, but visually, little has changed at these places.

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The One That Started It All

No vintage video game list is complete without mentioning the progenitor of the medium, Pong. Here, we see some kids enjoying an afternoon of gaming, bouncing that ball around like their lives depended on it.

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First Spinach, Then Video Games

As we all know, the concept of Popeye was conceived so kids in America would eat more vegetables, spinach in particular. Well, Popeye did such a good job at that, that he was then used to sell other things like video games. Sadly, to lesser results.

15 Embarrassing Moments in Otherwise Great Movies

We can excuse some ‘bad’ moments in movies we love, because the overall message is there for us to enjoy. Particularly on first time viewings, we can excuse almost anything. The problem comes when we rewatch these films knowing how it ends, the surprise gone, we are now left looking at the smallest details.

And those details, for some, can ruin great movies. Fans of such productions often overlook these moments, use them for bathroom breaks, or scroll on their phones until they are over. Here we will point them out not only for true fans, but for those who are thinking of watching these films and need a fair warning.

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The Secret Life of Walter Mitty – The Benjamin Button Joke

Most of Walter Mitty balances heartfelt adventure and self-discovery remarkably well. That’s why the brief Benjamin Button parody feels so strange. The gag lands with a thud and clashes with the movie’s otherwise sincere tone.

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The Godfather – Sonny’s Fake Punches

The tollbooth sequence is legendary, but Sonny Corleone’s earlier street beating has aged less gracefully. James Caan’s punches often miss by a noticeable margin, making an otherwise intense scene look surprisingly stagey.

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Edge of Tomorrow – Dr. Carter’s Reaction

The film moves at a relentless pace, making Dr. Carter’s extended look of confusion stand out. The reaction lingers just long enough to feel exaggerated in a movie that usually keeps things tight.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – The Final Duel

After years of buildup, many fans expected something more satisfying than Harry and Voldemort flying around ruins together. The movie abandons the book’s public confrontation for a visually busy but less impactful showdown.

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Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Mr. Yunioshi

Few aspects of a classic film have aged worse. Mickey Rooney’s broad caricature is so distracting that it pulls viewers completely out of a movie that otherwise remains charming and influential.

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Monty Python and the Holy Grail – The Abrupt Ending

The film is packed with brilliant sketches, but the police suddenly arriving to stop the quest has always divided audiences. Some find it hilarious, while others see it as an intentionally unsatisfying punchline.

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Django Unchained – Tarantino’s Accent

Quentin Tarantino’s cameo is brief, but his attempt at an Australian accent is memorable for all the wrong reasons. It momentarily breaks the immersion in a movie filled with otherwise excellent performances.

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Psycho – The Psychiatrist Explanation

The mystery has already been solved visually by the time the psychiatrist begins explaining everything. Many viewers feel the lengthy exposition spells out details the audience had already figured out.

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Apocalypse Now Redux – The Plantation Sequence

The original theatrical cut moves with a dreamlike momentum. The restored plantation sequence is fascinating historically, but many viewers feel it interrupts the film’s descent into madness rather than enhancing it.

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The Godfather Part III – Mary’s Breakdown

Sophia Coppola’s performance has long been a target for criticism. Her emotional scenes, particularly moments of distress, stand out awkwardly in a film populated by some of the strongest actors in cinema.

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The Boondock Saints – The Psychic Twin Moment

For most of its runtime, the movie stays grounded in stylized crime action. Then the brothers suddenly share a strange synchronized awakening that feels almost supernatural and is never really explained afterward.

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When Harry Met Sally – The Deli Scene

The famous ‘faking it’ scene is iconic, but some viewers argue it doesn’t quite fit Sally’s established personality. Its popularity has largely overshadowed questions about whether the moment feels earned.

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Arrival – The Mandarin Conversation

Arrival is celebrated for its intelligent approach to language, making one detail especially noticeable to Mandarin speakers. Amy Adams’ pronunciation during the phone call scene has often been criticized as unconvincing.

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The Dark Knight – Harvey Dent in Court

Harvey Dent disarming a gunman with a quick swipe is already a stretch. The courtroom’s applause afterward pushes the scene into territory that feels oddly theatrical compared to the movie’s grounded tone.

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The Addams Family – The Tornado Finale

Most of the film thrives on witty dialogue and eccentric characters. The climactic storm and large-scale chaos feel like a studio-mandated attempt to create spectacle in a movie that hardly needed it.

Voicemails for Isabelle is a Love Letter to Healing from Grief

This article contains some spoilers for the Netflix film Voicemails for Isabelle.

You’re proof that sometimes life rigs things in our favor. In a movie that encapsulates the sometimes silly messiness of grief and the warmth of loving through healing, Netflix’s Voicemails for Isabella is a refreshing, poignant reminder to keep living. 

Zoey Deutch stars as Jill, currently a prep cook in San Francisco who aspires to be a baker. As she navigates her life’s challenges, she shares them through a series of phone calls and voicemails with her sister, Isabelle (Ciara Bravo), whose cystic fibrosis has prevented her from leaving their home in Austin, Texas. While Jill is her sister’s only looking glass into the outside world, Isabella is the only voice of reason in hers. 

When Isabelle abruptly dies, a devastated Jill continues to leave voicemails and life updates to her sister on her old phone number, unaware that the number has been reassigned. Here enters the movie’s male lead, Wes, played by Nick Robinson, a real estate agent in Austin whose new work phone is the new recipient of Jill’s audio diaries. 

While the voicemails are all silly, wacky, and provide TMI comedic relief, hopeless romantics can watch as these two unlikely and chaotically lovable characters find a love that is remarkably grounded, capturing the realities of love with an authenticity that feels both refreshing and deeply moving. Deutch and Robinson provide powerful performances that show that the process of grief and healing can be beautiful. 

Directed and written by Leah McKendrick, the romantic comedy-drama is based on her own experiences with leaving her sister voicemails after moving to Los Angeles to pursue her writing dreams. McKendrick’s sister, Olivia, lived in New York, which meant the time difference made it hard to catch up with each other when they weren’t busy. So, McKendrick started leaving her sister long voicemails just talking about everything in her life — noting that the messages helped her during some of the darkest times in her life. 

Thankfully, McKendrick’s sister is still very much alive, but using the voicemails as a medium for remembrance is a masterful storytelling tool. The start of the film shows Jill and Isabelle’s relationship, how close they were, and establishes Isabelle as her own character. We are introduced to her humor, her sadness, and her love for Jill. She isn’t just a plot device for the narrative — we learn about her gradually, even her desire to love life in gentle self-deprecating humor. 

Even with a brief introduction, Isabelle is built into a fully formed character whose death is felt in more than just the impact on the characters, but the loss of her as a person. Despite her prognosis and being stuck in a room, she felt the liveliest out of all the characters introduced. Viewers feel the absence of that liveliness to the point where one looks forward to hearing her voicemails play when Jill needs to hear her sister’s voice. 

The voicemails set up who both Jill and Isabelle are without having to manufacture scenes of character development. The way they talk to each other through technology reveals a bond and a familial intimacy that encapsulates their relationship for all to see. It makes it even more profoundly melancholic when Isabelle can no longer leave new messages of her own. Despite this, Jill’s continuing to talk to her sister as if she never left, even though she acknowledges her death, is beautiful to see. There is a rawness and complete vulnerability that, at times, feels like you are watching a vlog rather than a film. 

Grief isn’t linear, and that phrase encapsulates the main theme of the film. Grieving, as a process, is never truly over — the difference is learning to find warmth in remembering what you lost. Wes, despite losing his mother at a young age, still deals with the grief in small ways. Jill’s grief is a constant battle between moving forward and feeling lost. Despite this newfound missing piece, the romance between Jill and Wes never feels like a bridge to avoid grieving or to replace Isabelle. 

Wes’ intrigue and love for Jill comes from hearing who she was at her worst and her finding her way back. Jill loves Wes because of his willingness to be himself and have fun, even if at times he is shy or pessimistic. Their connection is defined by their ability to be empathetic, vulnerable, patient, and understanding with each other. Both put themselves aside to understand the other – showing that love can coincide with grief. 

Wes’ grief for the loss of his mother isn’t a main focus point of his character. It also isn’t mentioned often; he even downplays it at times due to his lack of memories of her. Yet, in moments like their first date, when Jill makes the dish that his mother used to make him, we see his grief manifest. In one subtle moment, he is seen by Jill and remembers one of the most important people he’s lost. It is a deeply intimate scene that marks a turn in their relationship. 

The chemistry between Deutch and Robinson is built upon these little moments of understanding between the characters. Acknowledging the way those they have lost impacted them, and motivating each other to continue. Wes was the one to motivate Jill to lean into her specialty of desert tacos, Isabelle’s favorite food that Jill made, to start her own business and finally be the baker of her dreams. 

That is why this story resonates the way it does. The voicemails represent a security blanket for the loss and nostalgia of grief until the healing process progresses enough that they’re not needed. 

Turning grief into something tender, hopeful and profoundly human, Voicemails for Isabelle is more than a romance — it suggests that the people we lose continue to shape us through memories, lessons, and love. It is a heartfelt letter to healing — learning to carry grief instead of overcoming it. 

Voicemails for Isabelle is now streaming on Netflix.

Spider-Man’s New Popcorn Bucket Is Getting the Dune Treatment

Not long ago, film theater merchandise was fairly straightforward. You got a themed popcorn tub, maybe a collectible cup, and went on with your day. Somewhere along the way, however, Hollywood has started to churn out merchandise that has you stop and think, “Did nobody look at this before it went into production?” 

This trend arguably (but not really) started with Dune: Part Two’s infamous Arrakis sandworm popcorn bucket, which instantly became an internet sensation for reasons that had very little to do with Denis Villeneuve’s 2024 sci-fi epic. What should have been a relatively standard piece of film merch instead took on a life of its own, becoming the subject of endless memes and social media jokes jabbing at the bucket’s admittedly questionable appearance. 

Since then, theaters have found themselves repeatedly at the center of accidental, or possibly not so accidental, questionable merchandise designs. The latest entry comes courtesy of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, whose newly revealed Cinemark popcorn bucket on Instagram has already caused many double-takes online. 

The collectible is designed to look like Spidey’s signature web-shooting pose with a large cone-shaped web structure with a straw to serve as both a popcorn holder and drinking vessel. It’s a clever idea in theory, one must admit. In execution, many fans have started to point out that the web portion of the collectible evokes something considerably less family-friendly. 

In response to Cinemark’s post, an Instagram user wrote a mellow, “We need to chill on the popcorn buckets, I think.” Others were less restrained in their commentary, with one joking, “Chum bucket remove the ‘h,’” while another added in disbelief, “No one actually thought about the cup, I see.” Possibly the most blunt (and hilarious) commenter said, “I don’t want a Spider-Man jizz tornado, thank you.”

Still, as bizarre as Spider-Man’s concession stand may be, it’s far from an isolated case. In fact, it’s not even the only superhero collectible to spark this kind of reaction this year. 

A  promotional “gripper” cup for James Gunn’s upcoming Supergirl went viral after fans noticed that its suited-torso design featuring Kara’s jacket from the Superman film looked suspiciously like another body part entirely. The internet immediately dubbed it the “Supergirl foreskin cup,” prompting many people to assume the images circulating online had to be AI-generated. They were not. The cup is very real, proving once again that reality continues to outperform parody when it comes to film merchandise. 

At this point, the pattern is becoming difficult to ignore even if you insist your mind isn’t in the gutter. Which raises an increasingly real possibility: none of this is accidental. 

Studios and theater chains have now seen firsthand what happens when a collectible goes viral. While some make their intentions clear, like the Deadpool-designed Wolverine popcorn bucket for the 2024 Deadpool & Wolverine film (there was something in the air in 2024, wow), others are harder to read. Items like the Supergirl cup and Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s combo container make it less obvious whether these designs are simply unfortunate coincidences or deliberate attempts at engineered viral marketing.  

To be fair, plenty of fans genuinely like Cinemark’s batch of Brand New Day merch. The simple but classic Spidey-face water bottle and comic-printed blanket have received much warmer reception, offering something a little more understated for the non-freaky fans. Well, in all fairness, Spider-Man collectors rarely need much convincing to add any new item to their shelves.

Regardless, as the Dune bucket proved, and as the Supergirl cup and Spider-Man container now seem to be proving once more, the weirdest item at the theaters almost always becomes the story. 

Spider-Man: Brand New Day doesn’t arrive until July 31, yet the buzz around the movie is well underway. Regardless of intensity, the design choices have clearly done their job of sparking conversation, going viral, and keeping the film in the spotlight. At this point, whether it’s accidental or not, it’s hard to argue with the results, and Hollywood may well find there’s no reason to not push things even further into absurdity.

Leviticus Ending Explained and Unpacked with the Director

This article contains major Leviticus spoilers.

On the same Friday that first-time feature director Adrian Chiarella’s Leviticus is opening nationwide in the U.S., the Australian filmmaker is having lunch in Los Angeles with someone else in the industry. They’re there to discuss work, presumably some prospects for the future, and maybe the SoCal weather. And yet, as Chiarella recounts a few hours later, the most passionate, driving topic of conversation came down to the end of his new horror film and Mia Wasikowska’s portrait of bad parenting decisions in it.

“They really wanted to get to the heart of that,” Chiarella recounts with a wry smile. If you’ve seen the movie, you’d understand why.

In a summer full of potent, “elevated” horror with heavy subtext, Leviticus might be the heaviest. Here’s a film where deeply religious rural communities in Australia turn to a holy man for guidance. This so-called “deliverance healer” practices a form gay conversion therapy prayer that instead of blessing queer teenagers curses them to be stalked by their own desires. A literal demon (or the like) hunts the children down by taking the form of the person they desire most, attempting to lure them to a horrifyingly brutal death.

For Chiarella, it began in part by researching various different gay conversion therapy practices around the world and looking for a through-line.

“What they all seemed to have in common was there was an element of performative scaring people out of their feelings,” the writer-director explains. “There were cases of exorcisms performed in cultures all around the world on queer teenagers, and I started to think about what are they actually doing? Are they taking something out, as they’re claiming to do, or are they just putting something in? They’re infecting people with a fear of their own feelings and their own desires. That’s really how I came up with the idea of this monster that takes the shape of the person you’re most attracted to.”

That is the devastating hook of Leviticus, but the ending revelation is the final gut-punch. Before that moment, poor Naim (Joe Bird) has lost the ability to trust Ryan (Stacy Clausen), both because half the time he sees Ryan it might be a dream-demon trying to lure him to his death, and the other half of the time… well, it’s complicated. Yet as a teenage kid who’s in way over his head, the one person Naim should be able to turn to is his mother Arlene (Wasikowska). But she also disabused Naim and the audience of her trust when she became the one to drive her son, kicking and screaming, to the deliverance healer.

However, it is only in Wasikowska’s final scene with Bird that the full extent of the betrayal become clear. After refusing to hear any of her son’s laments, she belatedly confides, “It can’t be undone.” What was done to him, she was told, is irreversible. She isn’t apologizing though; as Mom sees it, she won’t be around forever and she thinks her son, like everyone, “needs fear” to stay on the righteous, narrow, and Christian path.

“I want the audience to take what they want from that,” Chiarella tells us. “She knew that she was putting her child at risk, how far she thought she was going, I want the audience to try and attach their own meaning to, depending on their own experiences. It’s why we have that little subplot of the pastor and, and his wife losing their child, and the grief that they were experiencing is just sort of glimpsed.”

Indeed, the helmer spoke at length with actors Ewen Leslie and Edwina Wren about how much the parents of another gay child—a kid who ends up butchered by the demon—knew about their deal with the deliverance preacher before going to him, and who was more supportive of the act. And, of course, he spoke about the level of complicity with Wasikowska.

Says Chiarella, “Those little things are the reason why I went with such experienced and qualified actors to play the adults in the film, because they don’t really get a lot of screen time. We don’t follow them off for their own subplots. They have to bring the weight of all of that in the brief moments that we see them.”

Varying levels of complicity and moral culpability are part and parcel for the horror genre though. As a young Millennial filmmaker, Chiarella grew up inheriting the American horror cinema of the 1980s where the parents are often obstacles, an antagonistic presence in their children’s lives that’s incapable of accepting the ghosts of Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees are real.

“Quite often those films were about sex and sexuality, and turning sex into [violence],” he adds. “For most of those films, it was heterosexual sex, but turning it into a transgression that was going to bring doom and curses upon these young characters, that was something I was very aware of, ever since I watched those films as a very young kid.”

It was also something he wished to duplicate in Leviticus, and not only with the parents. The film, indeed, asks a lot of the audience when it comes to sympathizing with Joe Bird’s Naim since this kid also, in a fit of jealousy upon learning his semi-boyfriend Ryan is hooking up with the pastor’s son, tells said pastor about the kiss. In effect, by outing the two other closeted kids in his religious community, Naim helps invite the deliverance healer’s twisted brand of Christianity into the town.

“What I’ve always loved about horror movies is the convention where there’s some transgression committed—don’t feed this thing, don’t cross this land, don’t do this thing that we’re warning you about—and then the transgression is committed and that is what unleashes the curse or the monster or the horrible thing that starts terrorizing the characters. But I really love the horror movies where it’s a little gray who committed the transgression and what that was. So I wanted with this film a sense of, ‘Well, did this happen because of the parents and what they did and what they believe in? Did it happen because Joe’s character went and committed this betrayal? Did it happen because of what Stacy’s character did?’”

To the writer-director, it began with forces far beyond any individual character in his movie. While Chiarella was not raised in a religious household, he had friends and extended family who were, and he has always been deeply aware of Pentecostal and other Christian communities Down Under who might embrace homophobic ideology. And he cites the germ of Leviticus being specifically planted around the time of the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, a national survey sent out in 2017 asking every voter if they would support letting same-sex couples marry.

Says Chiarella, “Every single person in the country got to put in their ballot about whether or not same-sex marriage would be legal, and then what that led to was this public debate in the lead up where a lot of homophobic language was being thrown around. So even though we won that vote—I think it was about two-thirds of the country approved of it, and so they did legalize same-sex marriage—in the aftermath of that, there was still all of this language that had been platformed and all of this rhetoric that was still going around.”

For the record, the filmmaker does not consider his film or his personal perspective to be anti-religious. However, by virtue of titling the movie Leviticus, he is calling down a religious text that can be triggering for many in the audience.

“For people in our community, [Leviticus] is a word that carries a lot of weight because of the way it has perhaps been weaponized and communicated,” Chiarella considers. “I think this is a film that’s not so much anti-religion as it is about an interpretation and how people take particular meanings from things and then use them to weaponize those ideas against people.”

The intent of the film is to use horror as a metaphor for literalizing that anxiety. The filmmakers want you to feel as much anxiety and apprehension as relief when Naim and Ryan share a moment on a bus, because like the characters, you’ve been conditioned to think moments of romance or sensuality come coupled with violent pain and anguish.

In Chiarella’s mind, though, he didn’t really know if it worked until he saw it playing at Sundance earlier this year—to such a rapturous reception that indie tastemaker NEON acquired the film for $5 million.

“You can test it out on people you know, but until it’s in an actual theater in front of hundreds, you actually don’t know if the emotion and that sort of gut feeling I’m trying to give everybody actually land,” Chiarella says. “So it was such a relief to play the film at Sundance and just hear those reactions in the first few minutes of the film and just know that it was all landing. That was the bit where I really was able to feel like, ‘Okay, we’ve done something here.’ And then the fact that NEON picked it up, and now it’s opening today on, I think a bit over a few over 1,000 screens, I didn’t really expect it to reach that wide.”

The most rewarding aspect, however, might be how it’s already found a place in the LGBTQ+ cinema landscape. “I certainly didn’t expect all of the fan art and the fan edits and fan fiction to come out of it,” the filmmaker gratefully adds. And particularly seeing the film premiere in Park City, Utah and then play in Austin, Texas for SXSW was illuminating.

Explains Chiarella, “Sundance and South By, they’re held in these regional parts of the U.S., which has been really interesting. You just don’t get industry people going to those festivals, you get people who are from those areas, and local viewer audiences, and a lot of them came forward and spoke about their experiences growing up queer in particular communities, and how the film, shapeshifting demons aside, really spoke to them and their experience. So that was actually really special to know the film was landing with the people I had made it for.”

It’s meant to be an escape from the Arlenes of the world.

Leviticus is playing in theaters now.

Famke Janssen Thinks Avengers: Doomsday Is Missing an X-Men Staple

Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday has promised a truly massive cast, bringing together core groups from across the MCU’s  biggest corners The Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the Thunderbolts, and the X-Men. 

For longtime fans of the Fox X-Men era in particular, the appeal in the upcoming film lies in seeing so many familiar faces return after years away from the franchise. Nearly the entire original cast is set to return, with Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Ian McKellen as Magneto, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, James Marsden as Cyclops, Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, and Kelsey Grammer as Beast. 

Three of the franchise’s most iconic figures, Halle Berry’s Storm, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, and Famke Janssen’s Jean Grey, are notably absent from the announced returnees, however. 

Berry last expressed her disappointment in being excluded in Doomsday in February, telling ScreenRant, “While I’m sad I won’t be in Doomsday this round, there are other rounds,” and that she would play the Mistress of the Elements “in a heartbeat” if given the opportunity. 

Around the same time, while promoting Crime 101, Berry joked with us that co-star Chris Hemsworth might help change her involvement status with the project. When the idea of her absence from the new ensemble came up, Berry laughed and said “Chris is going to fix that,” with Hemsworth quickly playing along, agreeing “I”m going to fix that” 

Like Berry, Hugh Jackman also faced questions about whether he’ll suit up again for the film. Speaking with Adam Lupis in May while promoting The Sheep Detectives, the actor played coy when asked about a potential Wolverine return, saying, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. What is it? Dooms-what? Who knows?” 

More recently, Janssen adopted a more pointed tone when discussing the film at Spacecon 2026 with Nerdtropolis, saying, “I think they made a mistake, but hey, who am I? I’m just a little me who thinks that.” She also addressed the ongoing speculation around her involvement, insisting she is not part of the project and joking about how difficult she finds it to hide anything from fans. “I am so bad at keeping secrets that I always say to everyone, ‘I’m the worst actor in the world,’” she said. “It’s all on my face. You right away will read it.” 

Janssen made her Jean Grey debut in the 2000’s X-Men, introducing audiences to the telepathic mutant also known as the Phoenix. She went on to reprise the role in X2: X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand, continuing the character’s arc across the original trilogy. Later, she returned for brief appearances in The Wolverine and X-Men: Days of Future Past. 

Although Janssen has previously expressed interest in stepping back into the role, she revealed last November that she has “never ever” been contacted by Disney about returning as Jean Grey for any upcoming MCU projects. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, she noted how often the topic comes up in interviews, saying, “Every time I do an interview, it’s mentioned.” 

Janssen added that she understands why fans continue to bring the return even years later, though. “I should be flattered, I suppose, that this character has resonated with people. It’s been so long, but it’s nice that people are still talking about her.” It’s no wonder too seeing how much of a crucial role Jean Grey plays in any X-Men story, movie, or otherwise. 

That being said, it seems there might be a reason for why Janssen’s version of the character may be left behind in particular. Some fans have speculated that Sadie Sink will take up the Phoenix mantle in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, seeing as her mysterious character has been described as a dangerous mind-controller. 

That theory becomes even more plausible when considering Marvel’s new MCU plans for the mutant franchise. With Jake Schreier now set to direct the upcoming X-Men reboot, the studio appears to be looking toward the future with a younger cast in mind rather than simply extending the Fox-era cast’s stay indefinitely. 

Of course, much of this remains speculation. Marvel has only revealed what they want to reveal of Doomsday’s sprawling cast, and there are surely surprises no one could expect yet to come. 

Whether Janssen’s comments truly signal the end of her time as Jean Grey, whether Sadie Sink is playing the MCU’s version of the character, and how Marvel ultimately plans to introduce its new generation of X-Men are questions that likely won’t be answered until Avengers: Doomsday arrives in theaters on December 18, 2026. 

Turok: Origins Brings the Dino Hunter Back from the Dead

Any millennial who had a Nintendo 64 will tell you that one of the staples for the console was Turok, a franchise which began with 1997’s Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and released four games on the N64 alone. Since then, the first-person shooter title has struggled to maintain its relevance and audience over subsequent gaming generations, seemingly coming to an end with 2008’s Turok, published by Disney Interactive Studios of all companies. Saber Interactive has now taken the reins on the series with the upcoming Turok: Origins, which we got to play at Summer Game Fest 2026 as part of their demos available on-site, including Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival.

Playable solo or in a team of up to three people, Turok: Origins unfolds like a linear mission-driven shooter in the tradition of Saber’s recent Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 albeit with its sci-fi/prehistoric aesthetic mash-up still very much intact. Players have an option between three character classes to choose from between deployments, each with their own loadouts and special abilities to support the squad. We personally went with the more acrobatic Raven class and the middle of the road Cougar class, though we were intrigued by the hard-hitting, tank-like Bison class and teamed up with several Bison players in our run.

Once deployed, Turok: Origins feels right within the arcade-style wheelhouse that made its original titles so much fun. There is no question of where to go next, no set of complex mission objectives, at least not in the build that we played. It’s simply a matter of progressing to the next enemy encounter, usually in an arena-like portion of the level, and blasting and/or cutting down every enemy in the immediate area into digitized viscera. And, naturally, this straightforward approach is where the entire game excels.

All of the weapons that we tried felt intuitive and distinct from one another, be it futuristic assault rifles to chugging shotguns with plenty of up-close stopping power. The action is as frenetically paced as you can imagine, but we never got lost in the chaos, being able to tell where the enemies were coming from and keep track of where the ammo and health restoratives were around a given level. And every class has their own glory kill animations for each major enemy type in the game when the target’s health is low enough, denoted by a glowing outline, which had us rushing in to finish off each vulnerable opponent in gruesomely satisfying ways.

And did I personally get the glory kill on the final boss of this demo build? I sure did and, yes, it felt fantastic.

The game also looks much more visually impressive than I anticipated, rather than the repetitive environments and assets that tend to get used in a lot of contemporary extraction shooters. While not the most eye-popping game that we played during SGF 2026 weekend, Turok: Origins also isn’t necessarily trying to go for the most detailed and hardware-pushing presentation. The game keeps its levels varied enough and the combat runs smoothly, even with the controlled chaos of having multiple players and enemies running around trying to kill each other.

The big thing to get used to, and this was more noticeable in a primarily interior mission that closed out our demo, is some of the level traversal mechanics. There are some areas where you can just sprint and jump and others where you need to use a grappling hook mechanic to swing across wider gaps. These moments were some of the less intuitive sequences in the demo compared to the more open environments, with minimal climbing and jumping. In the grand scheme, these are more quibbles than anything else but if I had to cite one area of improvement in the demo, that would definitely be it.

Thankfully, those segments seem to be few and far in between, with the developers recognizing that Turok handles better as a fast-paced shooter than a platforming experience. And even with this in mind, we were never fully taken out of the experience and would’ve loved more time, if only to see what the Bison class was all about on the battlefield. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t have a confirmed release date yet, leaving us on the hook to see how the final build will play out.

Who would’ve thought, in the Year of Our Lord 2026, that the most overtly fun first-person shooter we got to play at Summer Game Fest this year would be Turok: Origins. But it’s true and it’s caught us by surprise as much as anything else, reminding fans that the once-prolific dinosaur hunter should never be counted out completely. Though we only played an early build of the game, we definitely have the title on our radar now rather than regarding it as another attempt to revive a ‘90s franchise. Turok: Origins has enough of the sauce to bring the series back to prominence, or at least does its fans justice in a way its 2000s era titles didn’t.

Welcome back, Turok. We missed you.

Developed and published by Saber Interactive, Turok: Origins is slated for release in late 2026 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

Tom Hanks Can’t Face Watching One Cast Away Moment Again: “I Will Get Up and Leave the Room”

Though some found Robert Zemeckis’ survival drama Cast Away flawed (usually for its abrupt ending), it was well received by critics and a box-office hit for the director and his star, Tom Hanks.

The 2000 movie was also parodied to death in the decades following its release, after a pivotal scene saw FedEx systems analyst Chuck Noland (Hanks) lose his Wilson volleyball companion to the ocean during a final escape from the deserted island he’d washed up on. “Wilson!” Hanks screams-sobs as the ball floats out of reach. “Wilsonnnnnnn!!!!” Hard not to hear it in your head even now, right?

But Chuck losing Wilson isn’t the Cast Away scene that still haunts Hanks today; it’s an entirely different moment in the movie he has a problem with—and it’s likely a moment that no one else got stuck on but him.

“I do not watch these movies after the first time,” Hanks first revealed to Richard Osman and Marina Hyde on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast. “There are movies that have moments in that I cannot watch because I didn’t get there. There is a moment that it was painful for me where I just think, ‘I’m not there.’”

Hanks added, “At the end of the 47th day of shooting, in the 14th hour of the day, you still have to capture an emotional bit of lightning in a bottle that is going to last forever, whether you do it well or not. There remains forever a terrifying moment of, ‘Am I going to be escorted off the set and off the lot because the authenticity police have dubbed me a crook?’”

Hanks then singled out Cast Away as a specific film he can’t fully rewatch. “There is a moment in that it was painful for me in Cast Away in which I am back, and Chuck is back in Kelly’s house and he gives her watch back. And there is a moment where I just think, ‘I am not there.’ All it is is a turnaround on me, but I do this gesture that I just think is false and is me and is not Chuck. And if the movie is on, I will get up and leave the room before that scene comes on.”

The Toy Story 5 and Saving Private Ryan actor says he didn’t notice the Cast Away moment in question until he finally saw the movie, but it seems to have bugged him ever since. He also won’t really give himself credit for the great moments he did ace.

“I don’t sit there and say, ‘Oh, watch this movie. Watch this move that comes up, we really nailed that.’ I look at it, and all I can say is, ‘I was cold. It looks like I’m warm. I was really freezing that day, or that beard was sticky’. I can say things like that.”

TV Premiere Dates: 2026 Calendar

Wondering when your favorite shows are coming back and what new series you can look forward to? We’ve got you covered with the Den of Geek 2026 TV Premiere Dates Calendar, where we keep track of TV series premiere dates, return dates, and more for the year and beyond. 

We’ll continue to update this page weekly as networks and streamers announce dates. A lot of these shows we’ll be watching or covering, so be sure to follow along with us! 

Please note that all times are ET. 

Note: These are U.S. releases. For upcoming British releases, head on over here.

DATESHOWNETWORK
Monday, June 22Rhythm + Flow: Italy Season 3Netflix
Wednesday, June 24The American ExperimentNetflix
Wednesday, June 24Another Self Season 3Netflix
Thursday, June 25FX’s The Bear Season 5 (9:00 p.m.)FX | Hulu
Thursday, June 25Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2Netflix
Friday, June 26Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Happiness (9:00 p.m.)HBO
Friday, June 26StrungPeacock
Saturday, June 27Agent Kim ReactivatedNetflix
Monday, June 29Adventure Time: Side QuestsDisney+ | Hulu
Tuesday, June 30Ruthless Season 6Paramount+
Wednesday, July 1Worst Neighbor EverNetflix
Wednesday, July 1Elle Season 1Prime Video
Wednesday, July 1X-Men ’97 Season 2Disney+
Thursday, July 2Survival of the Thickest Season 3Netflix
Friday, July 3Silo Season 3Apple TV
Wednesday, July 8Trying Season 5Apple TV
Thursday, July 9Little House on the Prairie Season 1Netflix
Thursday, July 9The Five Star WeekendPeacock
Sunday, July 12The Westies (9:00 p.m.)MGM+
Wednesday, July 15Ride or DiePrime Video
Wednesday, July 15LuckyApple TV
Thursday, July 16The HawkNetflix
Monday, July 20King of the Hill Season 15Hulu
Thursday, July 23Stuart Fails to Save the Universe (9:00 p.m.)HBO Max
Sunday, July 26The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 3 AMC
Monday, July 27FuriousHulu
Wednesday, July 29Diarra from DetroitParamount+
Sunday, August 2Lioness Season 3Paramount+
Monday, August 3Futurama Season 14Hulu
Wednesday, August 5Ted Lasso Season 4Apple TV
Wednesday, August 5The Shards (9:00 p.m.)FX | Hulu
Friday, August 7Alley CatsNetflix
Sunday, August 9The Chosen in the Wild with Bear GryllsPrime Video
Thursday, August 13Tires Season 3Netflix
Sunday, August 16LanternsHBO Max
Thursday, August 20Outer Banks Season 5Netflix
Wednesday, August 26One Hundred Years of Solitude: Part TwoNetflix
Wednesday, September 9Last SeenApple TV
Wednesday, September 16Slow Horses Season 6Apple TV
Wednesday, September 16South Park Season 29 (10:00 p.m.)Comedy Central
Thursday, September 24A Different WorldNetflix
Thursday, October 15Crystal LakePeacock
Wednesday, October 21The Terminal List Season 2Prime Video
Friday, October 23Lupin Part 4Netflix
Wednesday, November 11The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of PowerPrime Video
Thursday, November 12The Good DaughterPeacock
Friday, December 25Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s StoneHBO Max

If we’ve forgotten a show, feel free to drop a reminder in the comment section below!

Want to know what big movies are coming out in 2026? We’ve got you covered here.

Movies from the ’70s & ’80s You Can’t Watch Anymore

The 70s and 80s gave us many classics we still enjoy today, movies that have shaped what we understand cinema to be. However, during that experimenting period, many other movies came out that challenge our sensitivities today. We aren’t just ‘emotional,’ we are more comprehensive today when it comes to what is ok to show in movies.

These are the films that you can’t enjoy today due to their content. We’ve also included a few entries that, while technically fine content wise, are physically hard to find, fitting with the theme of media lost to time.

IMDb

The Kentucky Fried Movie

This 1977 sketch comedy from the creators of Airplane! is packed with jokes that would never survive a modern studio release. Some sketches are now remembered as much for their offensiveness as their humor.

IMDb

Cruising

William Friedkin’s 1980 thriller remains controversial decades later. Its depiction of New York’s gay leather subculture sparked protests upon release and continues to divide audiences and critics today.

IMDb

Soul Man

The premise alone makes modern viewers wince. In this 1986 comedy, a white student darkens his skin to qualify for a scholarship, making it one of the most frequently cited examples of an aging poorly concept.

IMDb

The Toy

Richard Pryor remains hilarious, but the film’s central premise involving a wealthy man effectively purchasing another human being as a plaything makes many viewers uncomfortable today.

IMDb

Revenge of the Nerds

Once considered an underdog classic, the film has undergone major reevaluation. Several scenes involving consent and intimate deception are now discussed far more than the movie’s comedy.

IMDb

The Gods Must Be Crazy

This 1980 international hit remains beloved by many viewers, but critics have increasingly questioned aspects of its portrayal of African characters and cultures through a modern lens.

IMDb

The Cannonball Run

Packed with celebrity cameos, the film also includes racial and ethnic stereotypes that were common in broad comedies of the era but draw far more scrutiny today.

IMDb

Sixteen Candles

John Hughes’ coming-of-age classic remains influential, but several jokes and character portrayals have become recurring points of criticism among modern audiences revisiting the film.

IMDb

Bachelor Party

Tom Hanks’ early comedy was a success in 1984, yet many of its jokes reflect attitudes and humor that have become far less acceptable to contemporary viewers.

IMDb

The Day the Clown Cried

Jerry Lewis’ infamous unreleased film about a clown in a Nazi concentration camp became legendary largely because almost nobody has actually seen it. It remains one of cinema’s most famous lost movies.

IMDb

Let’s Get Harry

This 1986 action film has never achieved widespread availability on modern streaming platforms. It occasionally resurfaces through specialty releases but remains largely forgotten and difficult for casual viewers to locate.

IMDb

Nothing Lasts Forever

Despite starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Zach Galligan, this 1984 fantasy comedy was shelved before receiving a proper theatrical release. For years it was nearly impossible to see outside rare broadcasts.

Superman Returns Editor Looks Back at Some of the Film’s Biggest Problems

Superman Returns definitely has its fans—including Quentin Tarantino—but it was a “one and done” DC movie for director Bryan Singer and his version of Clark Kent, Brandon Routh. Though there’s been much discussion over the years about both Singer and Routh’s co-star, Kevin Spacey, Superman Returns was released at a different time in a different cultural landscape, yet it still didn’t meet the studio’s expectations at the box office back in 2006.

Editor John Ottman, who worked on many of Singer’s films until he stopped making them midway through 2018’s award-winning Bohemian Rhapsody, has been looking back at the main issues with Superman Returns in conversation with Half the Picture and says that one of the movie’s problems was actually its deep respect for Richard Donner’s original movie.

“I think one of the problems with Superman Returns is that we were so trying to be so reverential to the ’78 version,” he mused. “It was crippled to go in a new direction. At the same time, I like the fact that it stayed true to the feeling that Superman should have. He should be a very positive, good force.”

Ottman went on to hint that Superman Returns’ “positive, good force” contrasted with Zack Snyder’s take on the character, which began in 2013. “When those dark ones came later, I was like, ‘What is this garbage?’ you know? So, not that ours was great; it’s like ours was very flawed as well. It was a beautiful film. I think it was beautifully done. I just think the plot by Lex Luthor was derivative of before.”

According to Ottman, other perceived problems in the movie were Parker Posey’s Kitty Kowalski, one of Lex Luthor’s henchwomen, who Ottman says “had nothing to do”, and Kate Bosworth’s Lois Lane, who was “fantastic” but “miscast”.

“Not that everyone has to be Margot Kidder [but] she needed to be more endearing,” Ottman explained. “We need to laugh with her at least once or something, and she was so ‘hard-hitting reporter with a Pulitzer’ at like, what, 12? You know, I just didn’t buy it.”

The editor, who also worked on this year’s box-office hit Michael, also discussed the irony of Bosworth’s miscasting after initial concerns focused on Routh’s performance as Superman.

“The funny thing is we were so concerned about [whether] Brandon pulled it off, [but] the whole time it was really her character that was the problem, I think,” Ottman told the podcast. “Not that she was bad, she was excellent in the film and she’s a really good actress, it’s just I felt she was miscast or she was miswritten or something. It wasn’t her fault. So all along it really wasn’t Brandon that shouldn’t have been the worry of ours, it was that role, I think. I think they would have had a more fun relationship, had she been a little more endearing in a way.”

Ottman also thinks Superman Returns’ long title sequence “bogged it down” and that the movie should have got its plot going faster.

Are you a Superman Returns defender? Is it better than Snyder’s movies? Do you think Routh should have continued on in the role? As always, let us know in the comments.

15 People Share the Oldest Video Game They Remember Playing

Video games have been with us for quite a while now, helping many generations grow and discover new ways to solve problems. As we grow older, we often look fondly on the first few games that introduced us to the medium, and the different ages have their own ‘classic’ games.

Users of Reddit gathered to discuss just that, and the different ages of the participants couldn’t be more obvious. Some remember playing the very first video game in existence, while others played as children what others consider games from their teenage years. These are a selection of games they were discussing.

r/OldSchoolCool/harleybug88

Pong

For many older gamers, Pong wasn’t just their first video game, it was their introduction to electronic entertainment entirely. Two paddles and a bouncing square were enough to create a lifelong hobby.

IMDb

Duck Hunt

The NES light gun made Duck Hunt feel magical to kids. Pointing a plastic pistol at the television and actually affecting what happened on screen seemed like futuristic technology at the time.

YouTube/Game Archive

Space Invaders

Arcades and home conversions introduced countless players to Space Invaders. The simple task of shooting descending aliens became one of gaming’s earliest worldwide phenomena.

YouTube/nineko

Battle Chess

Many PC gamers fondly remember Battle Chess on floppy disks. The game followed normal chess rules, but every captured piece triggered elaborate animated battles that made the ancient board game feel exciting.

IMDb

Super Mario Bros.

Nintendo’s landmark platformer served as a first gaming experience for an entire generation. Running, jumping, and discovering secrets in the Mushroom Kingdom created memories that have lasted for decades.

YouTube/wc10k

Leisure Suit Larry

Some players discovered gaming through the notoriously adult-oriented Leisure Suit Larry. Whether they were old enough to play it or not, its humor and puzzle-solving left a lasting impression.

IMDb

Pac-Man

The yellow dot-eating icon became one of the most recognizable video game characters ever created. For many people, Pac-Man was the first game they encountered in an arcade.

YouTube/4k Retro Gaming

Intellivision Baseball

Sports fans often remember Intellivision Baseball as their introduction to gaming. Its graphics seem primitive now, but the ability to play a baseball game on television felt revolutionary.

IMDb

Tetris

Countless Game Boy owners received the handheld bundled with Tetris. The puzzle game’s simple design and endless replayability made it one of the most memorable first gaming experiences ever.

IMDb

Streets of Rage 2

Many Sega fans have vivid memories of cooperative sessions in Streets of Rage 2. The side-scrolling action and memorable soundtrack helped make it a defining game of the early 1990s.

IMDb

Frogger

Crossing roads and rivers sounds simple, but Frogger became an arcade classic. Many gamers still remember desperately trying to guide a tiny frog safely across increasingly dangerous obstacles.

YouTube/kiraa96

Minesweeper

For a generation of PC users, Minesweeper arrived preinstalled and ready to play. It introduced countless people to gaming during school breaks, office downtime, or long afternoons at home.

IMDb

Sonic the Hedgehog

The original Sonic the Hedgehog showcased the Sega Genesis with speed unlike anything many players had seen. For countless kids, it was their very first console gaming experience.

YouTube/Shortmandesigner

The Oregon Trail

Many students encountered The Oregon Trail in school computer labs. Learning about westward expansion while trying not to die from dysentery became a surprisingly memorable gaming experience.

IMDb

Crash Bandicoot

The original PlayStation introduced many players to 3D platforming through Crash Bandicoot. Navigating its colorful levels became a formative gaming memory for countless late-1990s kids.