The Wuthering Heights Trailer Is Peak “I Can Fix Him” Fantasy

The trailer for Emerald Fennell’s already controversial feature film adaptation of Wuthering Heights is here, and if this clip is anything to go by, the capital D-discourse around the movie is definitely not going to get any less divisive any time soon.

Plenty of Emily Brontë purists will — and quite rightly, if we’re honest — find much to complain about when it comes to our first real look at the movie, from its anachronistic costumes and vaguely inaccurate casting choices to its almost complete lack of the soulful grief that infuses so much of the original novel.

But for plenty of folks (read: me), there’s also something wildly appealing about its completely unhinged and vaguely demented approach to its source material, which here is reimagined as an almost peak rehabilitation fantasy. Fennell seems to want to sell us a Cathy and Heathcliff we can root for, or that at least will somehow be better together than they are apart. (To which, I say: Good luck, babe.)

The idea that some women prefer bad boys isn’t exactly new. In fact, it’s so prevalent that a lot of fiction in recent years has taken things one step further, embracing the idea that what women really love are the problematic heroes, the kind with deep-set emotional issues and psychological traumas that are probably best treated with therapy rather than a wedding band. The kind of man that needs saving — from his past, from himself, from his inner demons. Heathcliff, one of the most universally acknowledged Problematic Men in all of literature, can perhaps be read as a kind of prototype for this movement.

But the concept remains popular, and there’s admittedly something quite powerful in the idea that love — love with the singularly right person — can fix the most broken of souls is still the foundation of half of the modern-day romance publishing industry today. So, it’s probably only natural that Fennell is as susceptible to it as anyone else. Savior complexes, we apparently all have them! But can she make the ultimate bad boy hot again? (Even if he’s actually abusive and manipulative and cruel?) Is Heathcliff a character that’s possible to “fix”?

Look, if the release of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein has taught us anything, it’s that Jacob Elordi can be hot in any form. He’s at Gothic Romance Final Boss levels of swoon in this trailer, as Heathcliff smolders in the rain, dramatically rides off into the literal sunset on horseback, and delivers lines like “So kiss me, and let us both be damned” without a single hint of irony or archness. For those of us (cough cough me again cough) who spent our youth loving movies like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Kenneth Branagh’s take on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this melodramatic asshole is basically our dream man. And apparently, he’s Fennell’s, too. 

The trailer—once more, completely unironically!—refers to Wuthering Heights as “the greatest love story of all time,” leaning into the star-crossed vibes of Cathy and Heathcliff’s romance and referencing several of the novel’s most iconic lines. (“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same” is an all-timer of a sentiment, and I will not be taking questions at this time.) Fennell seems to be approaching this story like she’s remaking Romeo & Juliet on acid—there’s licking of walls, artfully placed fingers in mouth, even shots of sensual breadmaking.

But for all the dizzingly strange visual elements and gorgeously out-of-place costumes, the trailer seems strangely honest and straightforward about one thing: the achingly romantic nature of Cathy and Heathcliff’s forbidden relationship. That Fennell ships it is evident; that she believes in the power of love to save a pair of broken and awful people, even more so. But it’s definitely weird that the film appears to be intentionally leaving out—or has at least declined to mention in its marketing materials thus far—the fact that their love story is also deeply and thoroughly toxic. Yes, their unabashed longing for one another can be read as a form of Peak Romance, but in the novel, their inability to be together is also what turns each of them into the absolute worst versions of themselves, ruining multiple lives (including their own!) in the process.

To be fair, it’s probably too soon to fully tell how this Wuthering Heights will handle its depiction of the (considerable) parts of Brontë’s novel in which Cathy does not appear, and where the full scope of Heathcliff’s viciousness is made plain. But since its twisted romance vibes definitely lean more toward the tragic than the cautionary tale, a not-so-small amount of viewers may well find themselves taken aback by how decidedly dark this story has the potential to become. Or maybe we’ll all end up wanting our own Heathcliff-style fixer-upper in the end.

Wuthering Heights will be released on February 13, 2026. 

Ruth Wilson’s Return Makes the Next Luther Film a Must-Watch

Idris Elba is officially set to put his signature tweed overcoat back on for another Luther movie. But while many people are likely eager to see the gritty detective (anti?) hero back on the crime-solving beat once more, it’s the return of Elba’s co-star, Ruth Wilson, that’s really the most exciting piece of this announcement. Yes, somehow, some way, Alice Morgan is coming back to our screens, and all is now right with the British mystery world once more. 

The original Luther series ran for five seasons between 2010 and 2019, followed by the feature film Luther: The Fallen Sun in 2023. Netflix’s first outing in the Luther universe was decidedly mid, a film that couldn’t decide if it was more interested in appeasing longtime fans or targeting newcomers to the franchise. It also lacked Wilson’s Alice, whose complicated and obsessive relationship with Luther (not to mention her generally psychotic demeanor toward… well, pretty much everything) was a big reason the original series was so successful. 

This latest sequel will reportedly pick up directly after the events of Fallen Sun, but it’s got its own set of initial problems to solve—namely that it looked a whole lot like Alice Morgan died during her last appearance on the show. In the finale, she murdered Luther’s partner as payback for his lying to her. (Their relationship is really complicated, okay.) This all culminated in a dramatic face-off between the pair at a construction site, where it certainly looked as though Alice fell to her death. Granted, we only briefly saw her body, and this has never been a series that’s been terribly concerned with things like internal narrative logic, but it is something they’ll presumably have to deal with fairly early on. 

But the return of Wilson is fantastic news for this new installment’s likely quality. Alice has always been Luther’s most interesting character, a wild card capable of shaking up the status quo at any moment. She occupies a strangely liminal space within the world of the show, one part overt antagonist, one part uncomfortable accomplice, and even sometimes both at once, depending on her mood. Wilson and Elba’s fantastic chemistry is reason enough to tune in on its own, and the complicated, obsessive dance between their characters is the sort of relationship the franchise has never managed to duplicate or equal elsewhere

Beyond Wilson’s return, we don’t know much about what this next Luther installment will involve. It will once again be written by series creator Neil Cross, and what we do know is that its story will see a new wave of brutal, seemingly random murders hit London. Luther is secretly called back into service, because of course he is, but how can he save the day when everyone on all sides seemingly wants him dead?

Filming on the as-yet-unnamed sequel is set to begin in February 2026. 

George R.R. Martin Calls Out a Controversial Spider-Man Story

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is coming to theaters next year, a brand new big-screen adventure starring Tom Holland as our favorite wall-crawler. But even that movie can’t distract from the comic book series One More Day, which preceeded the storyline that inspired the new movie. It may be almost two full decades since One More Day released, but fans are still irritated about the conclusion of that story, in which Peter Parker makes a deal with the satanic Mephisto to save the life of his beloved Aunt May. All it cost was his marriage to Mary Jane.

Those disgruntled fans include Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, who expressed his irritation to Popverse. “I do have frustrations with it, too, I have to admit,” he said. “I don’t like retcons. I don’t like reboots. You know, I’m watching, I’m following a character or a superhero or something for years, sometimes decades, and then they come and say, ‘Oh, no. None of that stuff happened. We’re just going to start the whole thing over again.’ That always annoys the hell out of me.” And when asked for an example, Martin offered just one: “Peter Parker married Mary Jane.”

One More Day definitely came out of an impulse to say “none of that stuff happened.” The most immediate problem that Marvel needed to deal with was the fact that Spider-Man had unmasked on live television during the Civil War crossover, revealing to the world that he is Spider-Man. Although that made for some fun beats in which people who hated Spidey but loved Peter or vice versa had to deal with the reveal, the decision undercut the essential blue-collar nature of the character.

Yet, for Marvel editorial at the time, Spider-Man’s identity reveal was just the latest in a long line of bad decisions involving the character. Originally created by Steve Ditko, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby, Spider-Man was a gangly teenager who had to balance his superheroing with high school, social calls, familial obligations, and work. That dynamic more or less stayed in place as Peter graduated and went to college.

However, editorial felt that Peter’s dynamic changed for the worse as he got older, especially when he married actress/model Mary Jane and later had a child with her. Marvel had tried a few different ways of dealing with the issue before One More Day, including revealing that he was in fact a clone of the real Peter Parker in the infamously convoluted Clone Saga and introducing a teen Peter in the Ultimate Universe. But when all of these issues reached a boiling point, Marvel decided to use magic to reinvent the character, erasing the marriage as well as all knowledge of his secret identity and making him a single young person in NYC.

Since One More Day, Peter and Mary Jane’s status has been on an off, at least in the real world. But in the pages of the new Ultimate Spider-Man series by Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto, Peter and Mary Jane are indeed happily married with two kids. That is a reboot, one of the dreaded rewritings of history that Martin despises, but it does restore a marriage he likes, so will he allow a retcon this time?

Someone should ask Martin about that… after he finishes The Winds of Winter.

Win a Copy of There Is No Antimemetics Division by QNTM in our Penguin Random House Giveaway

They’re all around us, hiding in plain sight. One could be in the room with you right now, just to your left. You could be seeing it this very second, but from one heartbeat to the next, you’ll forget that you did. If you wrote down what you saw, the page would appear blank moments later. These things feed on what makes you you: your memories, your sense of self, your connection to the world, and you’ll never even know it happened.

Welcome to the world of There Is No Antimemetics Division, the cult phenomenon by the author known as QNTM, now reimagined and expanded into a full-length novel from Penguin Random House. To celebrate its release, Den of Geek is giving readers a chance to win one of five free copies. To enter, simply visit Den of Geek’s Instagram page, find the post promoting the giveaway, and leave a comment. That’s it! No secret codes, no bureaucratic clearance, no memetic inoculations required.

There Is No Antimemetics Division has earned a devoted following for its chillingly clever take on the idea of an invisible, unknowable enemy. Humanity is under assault by malevolent “antimemes,” ideas that attack memory, identity, and the fabric of reality itself. They’re predators equipped with the ultimate camouflage, living black holes for information that consume our awareness of their existence. The Antimemetics Division endeavors to study, contain, and neutralize these threats, though its operatives can never quite remember what it is they’re fighting.

QNTM invites readers to enjoy his beloved piece of online storytelling, now transformed into an entirely new reading experience for its print debut. So if you’re drawn to stories that challenge perception, twist logic, and make the forgettable unforgettable, this is one you won’t want to miss.

Quickly now! Before your memory fades, head on over to Instagram, find Den of Geek’s giveaway post, and leave a comment. Five winners will be chosen to receive a free copy of There Is No Antimemetics Division from Penguin Random House.

Participants can also sign up for more information from QNTM and the Random House Publishing Group, including updates on upcoming releases and exclusive offers (see PRH’s privacy policy). You may also contact Penguin Random House, Inc. by mail at 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

And if you don’t win, have no fear… you probably won’t remember entering anyway.

Tom Cruise Taught Glen Powell How to Not Die Making The Running Man

The Running Man, of course, is the title of the 1982 Stephen King novel (published under the pen-name Richard Bachman) that has been made into a movie twice, once in 1987 as an Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle and again as the Edgar Wright film releasing this weekend. But the title “running man” may also belong to the guy who has one of the most famous sprints in Hollywood, Tom Cruise.

So it makes perfect sense that The Running Man star Glen Powell would reach out to Cruise for some advice about his latest blockbuster film. Cruise didn’t tell Powell, who together in Top Gun: Maverick, how to give the latter’s character Ben Richards a distinctive sprint; but he did tell Powell how to pull off great stunts. “Most of the advice I got was really just about how not to die on this movie,” Powell recalled to Hollywood Reporter. “That was most of it.”

“He was just always telling me, ‘Don’t do some of these stunts late at night when you’re tired.’ He was asking me questions about what the movie was like and what it looked like and how it spanned,” continued Powell. Upon learning that many of Powell’s stunt sequences for Running Man took place at night, Cruise expressed concerned. “He was like, ‘That’s going to be a problem. Your body is extremely tired at night. People get hurt more often when shooting at five in the morning [because] you’re rushing to make it before sunrise.'”

Cruise’s advice is very useful, for a couple of reasons. First, staying alive is a big part of The Running Man experience, both on and off the screen. Set in a dystopian future, The Running Man is also the title of a gameshow in which contestants try to stay alive for thirty days to win cash prizes, evading both highly-trained hunters and even ordinary citizens looking to collect a bounty. Desperate for money to help his daughter, Powell’s character Richards joins the game.

Second, the advice matters because it comes from Tom Cruise. For years now, Cruise has added to his movie star persona a certain daredevil streak, a commitment to doing real stunts himself, not relying on CGI or a stunt man. Cruise’s death-defying set-pieces have become a hallmark of the Mission: Impossible series, setting a standard that movies like The Running Man have to clear.

For his part, Powell is just glad that he has access to such a unique expert. “I feel so grateful that I can call him for advice,” he said. “The reality is there’s probably only one person on the planet that can give this type of advice, and it’s him. So the fact that he’s one call away and he’s always willing to pick up, it’s unbelievable.”

The friendship may be unbelievable to Powell, but Cruise is in the business of making us believe the unbelievable. So if Powell and Wright want to their version of The Running Man to stand out against its predecessors, then they’ve got to sell the danger, making Cruise’s advice invaluable.

The Running Man is now playing in theaters across the country.

Ghostbusters: Dan Aykroyd Revealed Surprise Spinoff Is Canon

Dan Aykroyd may be the chief creative force behind Ghostbusters, but his approach has always been a little different than most fans of the series. As a true believer in all things paranormal, Aykroyd originally envisioned the movie as a vast epic, filled with lore drawn from real myths. To this day, Aykroyd rarely misses the opportunity to discuss the unexplainable parts of our world, especially on his History Channel show Strange Sightings, which is what brought him to the Talking Strange podcast, hosted by Aaron Sagers.

Yet, what Aykroyd revealed to Sagers surprised everyone. When Sagers asked, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, if the actor’s cameo as Ray Stanz in the 1995 movie Casper is canon to the Ghostbusters franchise, Aykroyd answered in the affirmative. “I think so, given that [Steven] Spielberg asked for me and they built me in there,” he explained in serious deadpan. “Of course, it’s a beautiful nod to what we were doing with Ivan [Reitman, Ghostbusters director] and everybody. You’ve got to include it in the canon, no doubt.”

Released 30 years ago by Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, Casper stars voice actor Malachi Pearson as the titular apparition, who lives inside Whipstaff Manor in Friendship, Maine, with his three bullying uncles. When heiress Carrigan Crittenden (Cathy Moriarty) discovers she has been left the Manor in her uncle’s will, she decides to search it for treasure, but is constantly rebuffed by Casper’s uncles. Eventually, she enlists the help of “ghost therapist” Dr. James Harvey (Bill Pullman), who brings along his daughter Kat (Christina Ricci). But before that, Crittenden seeks help from other, more famous ghost fighters, including Ray Stanz.

The short scene finds Ray running out of the house in full gear, proton pack on his back, stopping only to address Crittenden and her attorney Dibs (Eric Idle). “Who you gonna call?” Ray asks rhetorically; “Someone else.”

Clearly, Akyroyd extends the Casper cameo to the Ghostbusters family out of his generosity with the franchise, but it does raise some questions about the rest of world. Is Don Novello’s profane priest Father Guido Sarducci, also used by Crittenden to deal with the ghost problem, part of the Ghostbuster’s world now too? What about Clint Eastwood, Rodney Dangerfield, Mel Gibson, and the Cryptkeeper, all of whom Dr. Harvey sees in the mirror when the uncles start messing with him?

Obviously, the answer is to simply not worry too much about it. Ghostbusters canon has always been shifting, as demonstrated by the fact that Aykroyd and his co-stars Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, and Ernie Hudson originally said that the 2009 video game was canon, but several of those plot points have been overwritten by Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. And then there’s the question of where 2016’s Ghostbusters fits into the whole thing.

Akyroyd doesn’t seem to worried about making the pieces fit, and instead cares more about having fun with his characters. So when Sagers brought up the comic book The Blues Brothers: The Escape of Joliet Jake, which includes Aykroyd’s daughter Stella among its creative team, and asked about the possibility of Jake and Elwood Blues meeting the Ghostbusters, Aykroyd was once again amenable to the idea.

“Well, that would be for some young accomplished writer to figure out, maybe Stella,” he allowed, before taking it more seriously. “It would be an interesting meeting, let me put some thoughts to that.”

That’s good news for Ghostbusters fans, because whenever Aykroyd starts thinking about things, some wonderful and unexpected things can happen.

The Anne Rice Renaissance Is Moving Beyond Vampires

It’s an amazing time to be an Anne Rice fan. Is this a weird thing to say in the year of our Lord 2025? Maybe. But ever since AMC launched its critically acclaimed Interview with the Vampire series in 2022, we’ve essentially been living in a golden age of Rice adaptations, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

Interview will rebrand itself The Vampire Lestat when it returns for its highly anticipated third season next year, and the series has already spawned two spinoffs in the network’s “Immortal Universe”—Mayfair Witches and Talamasca: The Secret Order—and there are rumors that more are in the pipeline. (Give me a Marius series, Mark Johnson! Pandora is right there!) But our new Rice Renaissance doesn’t seem content to stay in the world of vampires—or on the small screen. 

Fashion maven and occasional director Tom Ford is currently set to helm a feature film adaptation of Cry to Heaven, one of Rice’s most lyrical, melodramatic, and disturbing stories. Set in 18th-century Italy, the book delves into the mysterious and uncomfortable world of Italian castrati, male singers who were castrated before puberty to preserve their high-pitched voices for church choirs and opera performances.

Cry to Heaven focuses on a pair of central characters: Peasant-born Guido Maffeo, who was castrated at the age of six, and his eventual pupil, Tonio Treschi, the son of a Venetian noble family. As the pair struggles to succeed in the competitive and often cutthroat world of opera, a dark tale of revenge, family strife, and political intrigue unspools around them. And, because this is an Anne Rice book, there’s also lots of sex and violence, all written using some of the most decadent and memorable turns of phrase imaginable. 

Ford will write, direct, and produce the project, and the book’s opulent setting and lush feel seem a natural fit for him as a storyteller. Its darker narrative elements will give the A Single Man director plenty to work with when it comes to themes of betrayal and identity—much of the story is about how becoming castrati affects our characters’ sense of self and belonging. He’s also assembled a positively stacked cast of A-listers to help bring Rice’s version of early modern Italy to life. 

The film will reportedly star (deep breath) Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ciarán Hinds, George MacKay, Mark Strong, Colin Firth, Paul Bettany, Owen Cooper, Hunter Schafer, Thandiwe Newton, Daryl McCormack, Hauk Hannemann, and Pedro Pascal’s sister Lux Pascal. It will also, for those who are interested in such things, mark the feature film debut of pop superstar Adele (and if she doesn’t somehow manage to sing in this movie, I’ll eat my proverbial hat). 

Who’s playing who is still under wraps, but with filming slated to get underway in early 2026 with an eye to an autumn release, hopefully, we won’t have to wait all that long to find out. 

Rob Liefeld Revives Youngblood in the Twilight of His Career 

The career of Rob Liefeld is not unlike a superhero story. From scrappy origins to assembling powerful teams to striking off on his own, the comic book creator’s life is mirrored by the genre of his work. Now, in true superhero form, the artist is back to revive one of his early ventures, Youngblood, during the final stage of his career.  

Liefeld’s origin story began, as many do, in his teenage years. The artist grew up as a comic book enthusiast and he committed to the craft as a late teenager by taking life drawing classes, attending comic book conventions and sending samples to editors across the country. 

Early on, editors were apprehensive of Liefeld, due to his distinct art style. Although his drawings were not lacking in story or concept, they displayed anatomical proportions that were less than favorable to the eye, let alone inconvenient for the characters boasting them. 

Nevertheless, Liefeld was tapped by Megaton Comics (who published the first Youngblood character design) in the mid-’80s, and DC and Marvel comics soon after. 

Despite his success with Marvel, Liefeld left in 1992 alongside Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Whilce Portacio, Jim Valentino and Marc Silvestri. The team founded Image Comics, each with their own studio under the banner. Youngblood was the first series published under Liefeld’s moniker, Extreme Studios. 

The original run of Youngblood followed a superhero team a-lá-Teen Titans in a society that treated heroes as celebrities. The original team was split in two, a cohort to handle domestic disputes and a group to handle battles overseas. Home Team consisted of Shaft, Badrock, Link, Vogue, Chapel, and Diehard; and Away Team comprised Sentinel, Cougar, Riptide, Psi-Fire, Brahma, Photon, and Combat. 

The two teams included telepaths, aliens, weapon masters, cyborgs, archers, therianthropes, aliens, and numerous other archetypes any good superhero team shouldn’t be without. The characters, in addition to Liefeld’s action-packed style, caused Youngblood to break records for independent comic sales.

The original run of Youngblood came to an end when Liefeld left Image Comics in 1996, but the series was revived when he rekindled his relationship with Image in 2007. The revival was brief and was followed by two more in 2012 and 2017, neither of which lasted longer than 11 issues. 

Now, Youngblood is back with a momentous new release. Shipping of the first printing of Youngblood #1 (2025) has already sold out and is currently available in comic book stores. 

“Comics as a whole are better off when there’s a Rob Liefeld Youngblood comic on the stands,” Robert Kirkman, co-creator of Invincible and The Walking Dead, said. “Rob always brings the fast-paced high octane action spectacle you’re looking for but I love that there’s always some kind of new idea or innovation present in everything he does. If this series isn’t on your pull list, you must like dull comics so I can’t help you.” 

The longstanding iconism of Youngblood and its sentimental bookending of Liefeld’ career certainly make this release exciting, but the comic’s modern relevance is arguably even more captivating. Youngblood #1 (2025) is coming at a time when federal involvement in any superhero narrative makes for a compelling concept, and when the idea of celebrity superheroes is foregrounded by consumerism and idol culture like it’s never been seen before. 

“This is the time for gratitude,” Liefeld said. “Grateful to the ‘Youngblood’ fans that have roared with their enthusiasm. Grateful to every retail partner that took the leap with their support. Grateful to comic stores, the backbone of our market, we rely on them to reach the masses. And I gotta express my thanks to everyone at Image Comics who provided guidance and enthusiasm. Enjoy this comic! The road to ‘Youngblood #100’ starts here!” 

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie: Meet Your New Favorite Character Rosalina

The first trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie features a lot of familiar faces and voices. There’s Jack Black as Bowser, Chris Pratt as Mario, Charlie Day as Luigi, etc. We even get a new favorite with Benny Safdie as Bowser Jr., bringing in a new dimension from the games. But the most significant character is the one who only gets a couple lines in the trailer, even if the person speaking them is notable.

The trailer features Rosalina, voiced by Brie Larson. Although a relatively recent addition to the Super Mario canon, Rosalina has already endeared herself to gamers, and she’s sure to do the same for moviegoers.

Rosalina debuted, appropriately enough, in Super Mario Galaxy, the 2007 video game for the Nintendo Wii. While Galaxy contains the standard Mario plot in which Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach, forcing Mario and his brother Luigi to travel the cosmos to rescue her, director Yoshiaki Koizumi adds another wrinkle in the form of Rosalina.

Rosalina lives within the Cosmic Observatory alongside Lumas, living star creatures (like the adorable lil’ nihilist previously seen in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. When Bowser steals the Power Stars from the Cosmic Observatory to make his escape with Peach, Rosalina tasks Mario with recovering the Stars so that she can turn the Observatory into a rocket to chase after his beloved.

In other words, Rosalina serves as a gameplay driver in Super Mario Galaxy, giving a reason for the star collecting mechanic of the title. Were she just that, she probably wouldn’t have garnered the fan-following she has. However, Rosalina has won over so many gamers because backstory that unfolds throughout Mario’s adventure. Through a storybook conceit, players learn that the orphaned Rosalina helped reunite a Luma with its parents when she was a girl, and has since become something of a mother figure for all of the star creatures.

That combination of familial warmth and cosmic reach makes Rosalina an ethereal figure, a warm and reassuring character at the center of the Mario universe. Later games in the franchise only underscore those qualities. In 2010’s Super Mario Galaxy 2, Rosalina initially appears as a Cosmic Spirit who aids Mario, particularly when the player dies too many times. Later, she sends support to Baby Mario and tells the Lumas about magical Green Stars.

Since then, Rosalina has gone the way of most supporting characters in a Mario game, joining in on their racing and sports activities. Players can put Rosalina behind the steering wheel for Mario Kart, they can have her compete for the gold against Sonic the Hedgehog characters in Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and she can beat up Solid Snake in Super Smash Bros. Those who want to put Rosalina into more of a traditional adventure can choose her as the player character after unlocking her in Super Mario 3D World.

Fun as all of these off-shoot games are, they don’t get at the true appeal of the character, established in the two Super Mario Galaxy games. Rosalina represents a cosmic good that lends meaning to the Mario story. Fans love her for both her tragic backstory, and also for the enduring kindness she represents, especially as she meets out that kindness on a galactic scale.

We only get to see a few glimpses of Rosalina in the trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, but it’s clear that Illumination has translated those elements for the film. Even when she takes down a giant robot created by Bowser Jr., Rosalina does it with simplicity, grace, and a great deal of power. Moviegoers may not know who she is yet, but Rosalina is clearly destined to become a new favorite.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie releases April 3, 2026.

Predator: Badlands Director Almost Made Guardians of the Galaxy

Even though he now runs DC Studios and makes movies about Superman and shows about the Peacemaker, it’s hard not to think James Gunn when you hear the words “Guardians of the Galaxy.” Who else in Hollywood would look at weirdos like Drax the Destroyer or Rocket Raccoon and decide to make them the main characters of a Disney blockbuster? Only the guy who made Mister Terrific one of the best parts of a Superman movie, right?

Not necessarily. Turns out, the guy who decided that a Predator movie needs a cute animal sidekick—and was right!—could have done it too. Predator: Badlands director Dan Trachtenberg recently revealed on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he was once in the running for the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie. “I will say that I met a producer named Jeremy Latcham at [Marvel Studios] and [Kevin Feige], because of Jeremy, to meet for Guardians of the Galaxy before James Gunn, based on my short film Portal [No Escape] he recalled (via The Playlist). “They were like ‘That’s creative, let’s find someone interesting and cool.’ I did not get the job, obviously, and rightfully so, but still so so awesome.”

Hard to believe as it may be today, there’s a certain logic to the potential Trachtenberg hire. He knows how to work within established worlds; in fact, the short movie that got him so much attention is Portal—No Escape, based on the hit Valve video game. Since then, Trachtenberg not only turned his tense locked room thriller into the franchise film 10 Cloverfield Lane, but he also has been revitalizing the Predator series with interesting and unexpected turns, first by sending the Yautja to the Great Plains in 1719 for Prey, then with the animated romp Predator: Killer of Killers, and now with Badlands.

And what about the weird love of Z-list heroes that drives Guardians of the Galaxy? Surely James Gunn brought that to the Marvel movie, right?

Yes, but not as much as you think. Not only is the first Guardians film co-written by studio hand Nicole Perlman, who also wrote Captain Marvel and Pokémon Detective Pikachu, she was the one who advocated for it in the first place, itself a comic book series recently reimagined by writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. Before Abnett and Lanning came aboard, the Guardians of the Galaxy were essentially the Avengers of the future, a team of aliens who band together in the 31st century to battle the oppressive Badoon.

In 2006, Marvel enlisted writer Keith Giffen to revamp the company’s cosmic line with the crossover Annihilation. Out from that, Abnett and Lanning brought together space-based C-listers into a new team, revising their characteristics along the way. Originally a Hulk-like idiot in a purple cape, Drax the Destroyer became a stoic killer; originally a Buck Rogers-esque space adventurer, Star-Lord became a complicated hero struggling with failure; originally an invading monster from Planet X, Groot became a tree man who says “I am Groot.”

Of course, Gunn put his own spin on those characters, making Drax a different kind of idiot and giving Star-Lord a love of ’70s and ’80s pop music. But the basics were there before he came aboard.

All of which means that Dan Trachtenberg could totally have worked on Guardians of the Galaxy and given us something similar to what we now have, albeit with a different spin. Given the success that both Gunn and Trachtenberg have had lately, we’re glad things worked out the way they did. But imagine what weirdness Trachtenberg could bring to the superhero genre should he ever have the opportunity again to walk in James Gunn’s footsteps.

Predator: Badlands is now playing in theaters.






TV Premiere Dates: 2025 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 2025 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 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
Thursday, November 13Had I Not Seen the SunNetflix
Thursday, November 13Delhi Crime Season 3Netflix
Thursday, November 13The Beast in MeNetflix
Thursday, November 13Last Samurai StandingNetflix
Thursday, November 13Unicorn Academy – “Winter Solstice”Netflix
Thursday, November 13The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season 3Hulu | Disney+
Thursday, November 13Tiffany Haddish Goes OffPeacock
Friday, November 14The Crystal CuckooNetflix
Friday, November 14The SeductionHBO Max
Friday, November 14The Creep Tapes Season 2Shudder
Sunday, November 16Landman Season 2Paramount+
Sunday, November 16The American Revolution (8:00 p.m.)PBS
Monday, November 17Gabby’s Dollhouse Season 12Netflix
Monday, November 17June FarmsPrime Video
Monday, November 17Epic Ride: The Story of Universal Theme ParksPeacock
Wednesday, November 19Envious Season 3Netflix
Wednesday, November 19The Mighty NeinPrime Video
Thursday, November 20A Man on the Inside Season 2Netflix
Thursday, November 20The Great British Baking Show: Holidays Season 8Netflix
Thursday, November 20Jurassic World: Chaos Theory Season 4Netflix
Thursday, November 20The Celebrity Traitors UK Peacock
Thursday, November 20The AssassinAMC+
Monday, November 24Missing: Dead or Alive Season 2Netflix
Monday, November 24Bel-Air Season 4Peacock
Tuesday, November 25Is It Cake: Holiday Season 2Netflix
Wednesday, November 26Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1Netflix
Monday, December 1CoComelon Lane Season 5Netflix
Wednesday, December 3The HuntApple TV
Thursday, December 4The AbandonsNetflix
Friday, December 5HHBO Max
Wednesday, December 10Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2Disney+
Monday, December 15The Creature Cases: Chapter 6Netflix
Wednesday, December 17Fallout Season 2Prime Video
Thursday, December 18Emily in Paris Season 5Netflix
Thursday, December 25Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2Netflix
Saturday, December 27The Copenhagen TestPeacock
Wednesday, December 31Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 3Netflix
Thursday, January 8His & HersNetflix
Friday, January 9A Thousand Blows Season 2Disney+
Thursday, January 15Star Trek: Starfleet AcademyParamount+
Sunday, January 18A Knight of the Seven KingdomsHBO
Tuesday, January 27Wonder ManDisney+
Wednesday, January 28Shrinking Season 3Apple TV
Thursday, January 29Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1Netflix
Thursday, February 26Bridgerton Season 4 Part 2Netflix
Friday, February 27Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2Apple TV
Friday, March 4Daredevil: Born Again Season 2Disney+
Tuesday, March 10One Piece Season 2Netflix

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 2025? We’ve got you covered here.

Shang-Chi Star Calls for Fan Favorite Marvel Character to Make His MCU Debut

When Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin introduced Shang-Chi in 1973’s Special Marvel Edition #15, they gave him an impressive title: the Master of Kung Fu. In the 50 years that followed, Shang-Chi has not only cemented his position in the Marvel Universe, often working with top-level characters and serving with the Avengers. Moreover, his MCU debut Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is indisputably one of the best post-Endgame entries.

So it’s understandable that Shang-Chi star Simu Liu might be kind of sensitive about great Marvel characters being underserved by the MCU. Liu mentioned one by name during the Shang-Chi panel at NYCC. When asked about the character he would like to see join the franchise, Liu had an answer at the ready reports The Popverse: “Amadeus Cho.”

No Marvel Comics fan needs to be told who Amadeus Cho is. Created by Greg Pak and Takeshi Miyazawa, Cho first appeared as a smart-alecky, super-smart teen in 2005’s Amazing Fantasy #15. Cho quickly became a key part of Pak’s excellent run on The Incredible Hulk, including the character-defining World War Hulk storyline and then as a sidekick to Hercules during Pak’s series The Incredible Hercules.

Cho works so well in those books because he’s an update on a classic Marvel character, Rick Jones. Rick Jones is a foundational Marvel character, the dumb teen who unwittingly drives his jeep onto a bomb testing site, forcing scientist Bruce Banner to get irradiated by gamma rays trying to stop him, way back in 1962’s Incredible Hulk #1. Since then, Jones went onto become a full-time sidekick for various Marvel heroes, briefly taking the role of Bucky alongside Captain America, hanging out with the Avengers, and body-swapping with the male Captain Marvel, back when that character was more similar to the DC hero of the same name (now known as Shazam).

Cho fills the same role as Rick Jones for Hulk and Hercules, but with a twist. The fact that he’s Korean-American better reflects the population of the real U.S., and he’s not an idiot who wanders into test sites. In fact, Cho is canonically the seventh-smartest person in the world, a fact that he proudly (read: arrogantly) shares with anyone who listens.

That arrogance makes Cho a fun character, especially when he gains his own Hulk powers and briefly becomes the Totally Awesome Hulk during Banner’s absence and, upon Banner’s return, takes the name Brawn. Cho loves having both brains and brawn, just like any other teen would. And, just like any other teen, his mental and physical strength doesn’t prevent him from making very dumb mistakes, which results in some entertaining stories.

Cho has become a mainstay in the Marvel Universe, so important that he has almost appeared in the MCU. Claudia Kim portrayed Dr. Helen Cho in Avengers: Age of Ultron, the scientist who helps make the artificial skin that eventually covers Vision, and was intended to be the mother of Amadeus. In the MCU-adjacent animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Aleks Le voices Cho, a snotty colleague to Peter Parker.

As fun as all these little winks are, Liu is right: it’s time for the real thing. “He’s a new generation Hulk, Korean-American. Very cool,” Liu argued at NYCC and it’s hard to disagree with him. Just, it would also be nice if we could get some more Shang-Chi in the MCU too.

Elizabeth Olsen Predicts VisionQuest Will Complete WandaVision Trifecta

These days, it’s hard to love Marvel television. Not only has much of it been so substandard or immediately forgettable (remember Ironheart? That happened this year!), but it’s also often blamed for the lack of quality that’s plagued even the mainline MCU movies. Yet, there is one TV series that has avoided all that criticism, the very first Marvel show on Disney+: WandaVision. And even though it seemed like a terrible idea at the time, last year’s WandaVision follow-up Agatha All Along continued the quality of the first series. Now, VisionQuest is coming to complete the trilogy. And as far as WandaVision star Elizabeth Olsen is concerned, the third time’s a(nother) charm.

“I didn’t know anything about it until [VisionQuest star Paul Bettany] and I spent time with each other just the other week, and he’s so proud of it,” Olsen said in an interview with Inverse. “It really sounds like a trifecta between Agatha All Along, his show, VisionQuest, and what we made with WandaVision. So, I’m excited to see that.”

More than any of the remaining MCU shows still in production, VisionQuest certainly has a lot in its favor. The series takes its name from a well-liked arc from John Byrne’s run on West Coast Avengers, in which Vision gets dismantled and put back together as a mindless, and now completely white, version of his formally more human self.

But WandaVision fans will note that those plot beats were already covered in the final episodes of their show. And while many would like to see Marvel adapt the excellent Vision miniseries by Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta, in which Vision creates his own idyllic suburban family, a cast that includes James Spader returning as Ultron and Todd Stashwick as fun C-level antagonist Paladin (as well as Diane Morgan, a.k.a. Philomena Cunk, as Paladin’s assistant) doesn’t lend itself to that story.

What, then, will VisionQuest be? Bettany himself has teased a story of self-discovery, one that will have a line as resonate as the one he delivered in WandaVision: “What is grief, if not love persevering?” The series comes from Terry Matalas, who helmed two shows that were much, much better than anyone expected, 12 Monkeys and season three of Star Trek: Picard.

Perhaps the greatest indicator of VisionQuest‘s success is closer to home. WandaVision worked because it totally upended anyone’s expectations for a Marvel series, telling a surprisingly grounded story about loss and sadness through a fun metatetextual romp through television history. Instead of the snarky spinoff it could have been, Agatha All Along managed to both be a structurally inventive and emotionally resonant tale about unexpected community, while also giving us fun easter eggs in the form of Wiccan of the Young Avengers.

So while we can’t really guess what VisionQuest will ultimately be, there’s some reason to believe that Olsen is exactly right. VisionQuest could very well finish off the trilogy and complete a trifecta that justifies the whole MCU TV project. Well, almost justifies it.

VisionQuest will stream on Disney+ in 2026.

Werewolf by Night Sequel Shows Marvel’s Commitment to Supernatural MCU

Tucked away in a recent Deadline interview with celebrated composer-turned-director Michael Giacchino was welcome news – a sequel to his 2022 TV special, Werewolf by Night, is finally on the way.

Werewolf by Night came along at a point in the MCU when it seemed like Marvel was keen to develop a supernatural corner of the franchise. Moon Knight had just come and gone, the Black Knight had been teased in Eternals, and Marvel was cooking up a new solo Blade movie with Mahershala Ali set to star. It felt like it was a good time to be a fan of Marvel Comics’ darker side.

Since then, Marvel has changed strategy. A second season of Marc Spector’s adventures never got off the ground, and star Oscar Isaac has shown little interest in reprising the character. Kit Harington’s Black Knight went no further than encountering his iconic Ebony Blade in a post-credits scene. The Blade movie kept stalling. A four-episode animated series based on the Marvel Zombies comics series emerged, but the supernatural corner of the MCU just didn’t seem to be a priority for Marvel anymore. They had new toys to smash together in the form of the X-Men, the Thunderbolts, and the Fantastic Four.

So it’s great to hear that Giacchino will be directing another installment of Werewolf by Night for Marvel. Not only did the Disney+ special presentation introduce the lesser-known, complex character, but it also brought other great comic characters to life, like monster hunter Elsa Bloodstone and the misunderstood Man-Thing.

For fans whose hopes were dwindling that Marvel might consider developing a Midnight Sons movie, it’s also a welcome lift, as Werewolf by Night and Elsa Bloodstone have proved to be key members of the supernatural superhero team in the past, along with Blade, Man-Thing, and Moon Knight. Though a supernatural team-up movie might be a long way off, it feels like more of a possibility now, especially with the MCU heading for a reset after Avengers: Secret Wars.

The supernatural side of the MCU is still largely unexplored, but with the first Werewolf by Night’s critical success and fans hungrier than ever for more Blade action after a daywalking Avatar of Khonshu popped up in Marvel Zombies, there’s still time for Marvel to get really weird.

Why Is the Pope Listing His Four Favorite Movies to Anyone But Letterboxd?

For the millions of people who follow Letterboxd on social media, the online film cataloging service’s regular “Four Favorites” segment is usually must-watch stuff. Whether it’s celebs on the red carpet narrowing down their four favorite movies or ordinary patrons getting the opportunity to pick their own, the interview series is endlessly compelling because a person’s favorite movies can reveal so much about them. Are they a “cinephile” who’s about to wax lyrical about Fellini’s 8½? Or are they about to defend Event Horizon as the greatest film ever made? Once you find out, it’s time to head to the comment section to celebrate or judge them – sometimes both.

So there was a little confusion this week when a short interview with Pope Leo XIV popped up on Variety’s Instagram account. In the clip, the Pope is seen listing his four favorite movies (It’s a Wonderful Life, The Sound of Music, Ordinary People, and Life Is Beautiful, if you’re curious), just not with Letterboxd. Instead, the Vatican itself had released the video ahead of a “World of Cinema” gathering at the pope’s residence. The likes of Cate Blanchett and Spike Lee are expected to attend the forthcoming event, which aims to explore “the possibilities that artistic creativity offers to the mission of the Church and the promotion of human values.”

That’s fine, and we hope they all have a lovely evening, but why isn’t the pope giving his four favorites to Letterboxd, the people who are synonymous with the Four Favorites segment? If it’s a little love letter to the brand, why didn’t the Vatican say that? We’re fine with watching Leo XIV name Ordinary People as one of his personal cinematic pleasures in front of a plain background and without the expected orange, green, and blue Letterboxd mic, but shouldn’t they at least get a nod? It’s rather like watching Leo XIV do Carpool Karaoke without James Corden, or nibbling on a series of hot sauce chicken wings and talking about how he prefers working on the stage without Sean Evans nodding along. It’s just weird!

It’s also worth noting that Letterboxd put a lot of time and effort into making the Four Favorites series a success. Though the app allows anyone to put their own four favorite movies at the top of their profile, the video series was “a long time of trial and error”, according to editor-in-chief Gemma Gracewood (via IndieWire). “We’d discuss it with the publicity teams, try to make them buy into the concept, and allow us to actually ask this question,” Gracewood explained. “We felt like it was part of who we are. It’s part of the ecosystem of the website, and it’s a continuation of that.”

It would be easy to look at the situation with the pope’s video and say, “Come on, it’s not that deep”, but if the Vatican wants to forge a deeper connection with Hollywood, it could start by giving the creatives who cover the industry a little credit.

Toy Story 5 Trailer Makes Buzz and Woody Obsolete

At the climax of Toy Story 3, the unthinkable seemed to be happening. Buzz, Woody, Jessie, and the rest of Andy’s toys found themselves in a trash heap, riding a conveyor belt toward an incinerator. Although the toys try for a while to find some means of escape, they finally realize it’s useless. And so they decide to face death the only way they can: by holding hands and sharing it together.

Of course, the toys don’t die, plucked from oblivion from at the last minute by the claw aliens. But for those watching Toy Story 3 in theaters back in 2010, it really seemed like Pixar would do it, that they would really let Buzz and Woody meet their end. After all, more than a decade had passed between Toy Story 2 and the third entry. Moreover, their beloved owner Andy had grown up, and passed them all. Surely, there was nothing more to say about our favorite cowboy and spaceman. Surely, they had met their proper end.

That thought is even more front of mind in the first trailer for Toy Story 5. Much of the trailer just features reaction shots of familiar faces: Buzz, Woody, Jessie, Mr. Potato Head, even newcomer Forky. In the final kicker, we see Andy’s successor Bonnie open her new present, an iPad-like device called a Lilypad, voiced by Greta Lee of Past Lives. Have the toys finally become obsolete?

Even if you’re not a parent who has seen your children lose all interest in anything that doesn’t have a screen, the answer has to be “Yes.” The first ever fully-CGI feature length film, the original Toy Story from 1995 both inaugurated Pixar as a major studio but also made computer animation a viable, and now dominant, medium for cartoon movies. But now, it looks far clunkier than any of the traditional hand-drawn animated movies it supplanted.

Moreover, the characters reached the natural end of their arc. Buzz had accepted that he was a toy. Woody had put aside all of his insecurities and learned to live amongst his regular toys. Jessie had learned to trust and love again. There was nothing more to say.

It’s something of a miracle that both Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4 managed to find new things to do with the toys… well, most of them anyway. Buzz feels like he’s a lead just because he was a main character in the first two films, but he has no more to do than Slink or Rex in those movies. That said, both of those films find compelling base narratives, a prison break and a road trip, to distract from the lack of motivation. Moreover, they do find increasingly rich thematic ground, with the toys dealing with Andy growing up in 3 and Bo Peep discovering life outside the toy box in 4.

Theoretically, Toy Story 5 could continue in that vein, pulling out another good movie against all odds. Reliable Pixar hand Andrew Stanton writes and directs, and early reports have the suggested that the film puts Jessie in the spotlight, finally returning to an underserved character.

But the introduction of Lilypad seems a little too direct, a little too ominous. Certainly, the central conflict will involve the toys trying to get Bonnie to turn away from the shiny new gadget and play with them again. And while it will certainly have something to say about imagination and avoiding passive watching, it’s hard to believe the tech company that abolished hand-drawn animation won’t suggest that the toys and Lilypad have to learn to live in harmony. Heck, there might even be something about AI thrown in because it somehow always is.

Will that be enough to continue to meet the high standards set by the previous Toy Story films? Or will Lilypad finally force us to accept that the time of Buzz and Woody has passed. They’ve staved off death before; let’s see if they can do the same to stave off obsolesce.

Toy Story 5 releases on June 19, 2026.

Stranger Things Finale Spoilers Are So Real Even the Cast Isn’t Allowed to Watch It

The cast of Stranger Things won’t see the series finale before its release on New Year’s Day. They’ll have to wait, just like us.

Noah Schnapp, who plays Will Byers in the hit Netflix series, confirmed to EW that the final episode is being kept under wraps, saying that he’s watched episodes five and six, but that “the finale—they’re not gonna show any of us, so I won’t see it until the world sees it, and I’m just as excited as you guys are.”

Though many TV actors have a good understanding of the end of their own shows, the bigger the show, the more precious the spoilers. Seinfeld famously kept its ending under lock and key, to the point where script copies were destroyed immediately after a table read. Emilia Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones, said the cast of the HBO show had no idea how the series would end (which was probably for the best), and everyone got to have their turn shooting J.R. on the set of Dallas’ classic cliffhanger episode back in the ’80s – producers, makeup artists, continuity people – all to keep spoilers at bay.

The benefits of this kind of secrecy may be to preserve the emotional impact of the ending for everybody, including the cast. Just watching episodes five and six, Schnapp said he was “sobbing.” But there’s also a tradeoff because it limits the cast’s ability to prepare for press interviews. They can’t even take a good guess if they don’t know what went down in the edit suite.

The stakes are definitely high for Stranger Things in its final season, which is set over a year after the events of season 4. It starts with Eleven hiding from a U.S. government that wants to weaponize her, while the rest of the gang tries to track down the elusive villain Vecna amid a militarized occupation of Hawkins.

We don’t know much beyond that, but it’s clear that everyone hopes the popular sci-fi horror series sticks the landing, even its cast.

Welcome to Derry Suffers From the Same Problem as the It Movies

It: Welcome to Derry is a show that It fans really want to love, and there are plenty of reasons to do so. The series, coming from It alums Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs, has a gorgeous color palette and does a terrific job of creating its 1960s setting. The various intertwining stories also draw on parts of Stephen King’s iconic book, while giving viewers who have never read it brand new characters and events to explore.

Where the show suffers is definitely not in its surprisingly great cast, including the child actors, nor in its writing, which has to reckon with the distinct lack of peril usually associated with prequels: we know none of these people are really going to solve the Pennywise problem because that bloody clown doesn’t ultimately eat dirt until the end of It Chapter Two. The problem with Welcome to Derry is that it can’t help but undermine its scares with ludicrous CG effects, just as the movies did, especially Chapter Two.

Let’s look at the very first scene of the pilot episode, which sets up a truly unsettling encounter. A young boy stands by a road on the outskirts of Derry and pleads with a random family to take him the hell out of there. His relief is palpable as their car picks him up and they start to move away from the cursed town. As their behavior slowly becomes strange and erratic, we know what’s happening because we’ve seen the It movies. We’re terrified for him, and when the woman in the front of the car starts to moan as she goes into labor, the thought of whatever thing she’s about to spawn is super distressing in this claustrophobic environment.

The scene is really well set up, but the punchline is that the thing that emerges from between her legs ends up being a quite frankly hilarious CG bat baby that screeches and flails as it attacks. It’s not scary, it’s silly. It is laugh-inducing, which makes for a really weird tonal shift in a show that has a nasty, mean streak when it comes to tormenting and killing its characters.

Episode two continues using the CG bat baby, while three flashes back to 1908 and has a young boy stalked by a horrible man who pursues him through a forest in broad daylight. This setting only highlights the CG enhancements, making the twisted man’s maw-mashing about as scary as your standard Scooby-Doo encounter. To date, the show is littered with spooky moments that rely on obvious, computer-generated additions.

Muschietti’s movies had the same issue. Though the first installment was relatively reserved and thoughtful when it came to using CG (the painting attack was perhaps the most underwhelming use of it), Chapter Two leans closer to Welcome to Derry’s approach, giving us a CG Paul Bunyan statue attack before going hog-wild in the climax and throwing everything from a flowing shower of CG dirt to an enormous CG Pennywise-spider hybrid at us.

The film’s spinoff has picked up this mantle. No slight on the show’s VFX department, who probably worked very hard to deliver and are clearly keen to mix practical effects in there as much as possible, but CG bat babies are not scary. Everything leading up to the bat baby is scary because not knowing is scary. Teases are scary. Pennywise is scary. Even when CG was used to enhance Pennywise’s antics in the movies, it could be frightening because Bill Skarsgård’s physical involvement makes that villain work.

Unfortunately, showing us some random monsters, especially CG-enhanced monsters with no fully tangible physical presence, has undermined what is otherwise a quite disturbing and violent series. And since Skarsgård has been MIA in Welcome to Derry for a while, what we are left with is not quite enough to make the show’s flashy horror work on its own.

James Bond Continuity Concerns Might Bring Back the Dumbest Fan Theory

For some reason, Amazon cares about James Bond continuity. Having newly acquired the rights to Ian Fleming‘s superspy from Eon Productions, who have held those rights since producing Dr. No in 1962, the streamer is reportedly having trouble picking up from the last entry, No Time to Die. “The last time we saw Bond, he was poisoned and blown to smithereens—how will they get past the fact he is dead with a capital D?” said author Anthony Horowitz (via Radar). “I think that was a mistake, because Bond is a legend. He belongs to everybody, he is eternal—except in that film. If I was asked tomorrow to write the script, I wouldn’t be able to do it. Where would you start? You can’t have him waking up in the shower and saying it was all a dream.”

That’s… a weird concern for a character that has been played by six different actors over the six decades that Eon controlled the license. Only the most recent Daniel Craig movies have carried storylines across entries, and now all of a sudden Amazon has the character and strict storytelling rules are a key part of the franchise? This never happened to the other fella.

The scariest part of about Amazon’s apparent concern for continuity is that it threatens to bring back one of the oldest, and dumbest, fan theories in genre history. For years, some fans would contend that James Bond is not the name of the MI6 Agent designated 007. Rather, it was a code name, something that could be assumed by anyone assigned a particular mission.

On a surface level, it’s easy to see why fans would be attracted to the code name theory. After all, he gets played by different guys, sometimes with very different accents and personalities. He’s brutal and menacing when played by Sean Connery and Timothy Dalton, he’s refined and kind of silly when played by Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan, he’s soulful when played by Craig, and Australian when played by George Lazenby. Moreover, he’s the greatest spy of all time who also tends to walk right up to the bad guy and declare himself as James Bond of British Intelligence. Surely all of this has to be a cover, right?

Well, not really. First of all, it ignores the way that all of these versions share the basic backstory, in which he was educated at Eton College and reached the rank of Commander in the English Navy. He plays baccarat, he badgers Q and flirts with Miss Moneypenny, and he orders his martini shaken not stirred. He lost and loved Tracy as Lazenby and sought revenge for her death as Connery and Moore.

But the bigger issue gets at the nature of fan theories in general. What is to be gained by saying something that no one in 27 movies thought worthwhile to explained? Does it make Bond more interesting? Does it enrich the themes of the movies? No, it doesn’t. It just distracts from the fun and spectacle of the franchise.

The great advantage of the Bond franchise has been its elasticity. Bond has been able to survive disastrous moments like bird double-takes and disrespecting the Beatles because he changes with the times and follows after trends, often putting a new spin on them. That can only happen if the character isn’t stuck in a strict timeline or continuity.

So yes, the Bond played by Daniel Craig is dead. But Bond is bigger than any one actor, not because he’s a code name to be passed around, but because he’s a character in a big, silly, delightful franchise that continues to change over time. Amazon needs to let Bond live by letting the plots from the Craig era die.

’90s Star Trek Creators Blast Modern Trek’s Tone

Every era of Star Trek gets its own fans and detractors. The Original Series had its incredible colors and sci-fi adventures, but had to deal with people mocking it for its cheesiness. The Next Generation had a strong ensemble cast and some of the best speeches in the franchise, but people complained about its beige decor and lack of adventure. Deep Space Nine was too dark. Enterprise went backwards to a more militarized Starfleet. So it goes.

But when the complaints about Trek come from two of the guys responsible for crafting some of the most-loved series in the franchise, they carry a little more weight. Which is exactly what happened when Rick Berman and Brannon Braga dropped by the D-Con Chamber podcast (via TrekMovie), hosted by Connor Trinneer a.k.a. Trip Tucker and Dominic Keating a.k.a. Malcolm Reed of Enterprise. “I watched an episode of one of the newer Star Treks, where people were saying things like ‘Give me five,'” observed Berman. “And it just doesn’t sit right to me. There’s a certain classical element to Star Trek.”

Berman didn’t identify which of the new series he watched, but his example would fit right into any of them. Whether it’s the adorably awkward Tilly on Discovery or the latest Spock love plot on Strange New Worlds, the franchise has endorsed modern vernacular like its Kirk rocking out to the Beastie Boys.

For Berman and Braga, that’s the wrong approach to the world. “Writing Star Trek… it’s just a particular thing,” said Braga. “The tone is kind of a timeless one; it’s a bit more formal, but at the same time, you don’t want it to be too stiff. You want it to not be tainted by contemporary idioms, but at the same time, it can’t be free of them.”

On one hand, Berman and Braga certainly know about writing Star Trek. Berman helped co-create TNG with Gene Roddenberry and Maurice Hurley, and became the primary producer when Roddenberry’s poor health forced him to step aside from the series. Berman also co-created DS9 with Michael Piller, Voyager with Jeri Taylor, and Enterprise with Braga. For his part, Braga began as an intern on The Next Generation and rose up to a chief creative in the franchise, eventually becoming showrunner of Voyager before co-creating Enterprise.

On the other, the two men leave behind a complicated legacy. Berman in particular has been charged with nixing gay characters in the shows (Berman defended himself by saying he chose allegory over representation) and with various forms of sexism, most notably the skin-tight catsuits worn only by female characters Troi, Seven of Nine, and T’Pol.

Terry Farrell, who played Jadzia Dax for six seasons on DS9 has been most open about these charges, blaming Berman for her early exit from the show. “The problems with my leaving were with Rick Berman. In my opinion, he’s just very misogynistic,” she said in the book The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams. “He’d comment on your bra size not being voluptuous. His secretary had a 36C or something like that, and he would say something about, ‘Well, you’re just, like, flat. Look at Christine over there. She has the perfect breasts right there.'”

Curiously, the guests did concede that sometimes, Trek could embrace modern vernacular. “One of the reasons we wanted to do Enterprise was to loosen that up a little bit and have characters that talked a little more like you and me,” shared Braga.

Of course, Enterprise continues to be one of the least-loved of the ’90s series, if not in the franchise altogether. Which either proves their point that Trek works best when avoiding modern speech, or proves that every one has a least favorite Trek and, therefore, their point isn’t worth noting.

James Gunn Courts the Wrath of Alan Moore, Greenlights V for Vendetta Series

To our knowledge, legendary comic figure Alan Moore hasn’t weighed in on Superman, Peacemaker, or any of the other projects James Gunn has made for his DCU. But we can probably guess that he doesn’t like them. The master author behind Watchmen, The Killing Joke, and other superhero classics has long had a (well-earned) skepticism of the major publishers in general and DC Comics in particular, taking his name off of even well-done works like HBO’s pseudo-sequel to Watchmen.

So it’s hard to imagine that Moore is thrilled at the Variety-reported news that Gunn and co-head of DC Studios Peter Safran have signed on to produce an HBO series based on V for Vendetta. Attached to write is Pete Jackson, he of Somewhere Boy and The Death of Bunny Munro, not Lord of the Rings.

Written by Moore and illustrated primarily by David Lloyd, V for Vendetta released originally between 1982 and 1985 as a black and white feature in the anthology Warrior, before being finished and collected as a 10-issue color series released by DC Comics in 1988 and 1989. Set in an alternate 1990s in which a fascist party called Norsefire controls England, V for Vendetta focuses on teen Evey Hammond, who gets captured and becomes the eventual associate of V, a freedom fighter/terrorist in a Guy Fawkes mask.

The story has made it to live action twice, in very different ways. The more conventional adaptation came in 2005, in a film directed by James McTeigue and written by the Wachowskis, which starred Natalie Portman as Evey and Hugo Weaving as V. The far less expected adaptation came in an actual TV show that exists called Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler. In addition to being a prequel series about Alfred (Jack Bannon), the man who would become the Dark Knight’s trusted aide (specifically, the version played by Sean Pertwee in Gotham), Pennyworth deals with England’s slide into fascism. By the second season, the Norsefire government has been formed and characters are fighting against it wearing Guy Fawkes masks.

Different as these two approaches certainly are, neither has lived up to the original work by Moore and Lloyd. In addition to just the pure power of the duo’s craftsmanship–the incredible storytelling and panel rhythms from Lloyd, the florid language from Moore–V for Vendetta has a level of thematic complexity neither adaptation has matched. While all three versions clearly understand fascism is evil, the two live action takes more or less understand V to be a hero. Moore and Lloyd let the question linger, making us wonder if anyone who would treat Evey the way he does is not just another byproduct of fascist destruction, even if he’s a byproduct that also harms Norsefire.

If the new HBO take on V for Vendetta is going to be worthwhile at all, it will need to attempt for that level of complexity, something that may not be needed or welcome during a period of real rising fascism in the West. And even if they do pull it off, Alan Moore’s still not going to like it anyway.

The Running Man Review: Edgar Wright Reinvents Stephen King for the Post-Truth Age

In the first shot of The Running Man, protagonist Ben Richards looks directly at the camera and declares, “I’m not angry.” Well, actually, Richards is looking through a window during this opening, staring out at the factory where he once worked but now must beg for a second chance at his old job. The rejection that soon follows will lead him to becoming a contestant on the titular game show where a man runs. Until he dies.

Still, this play of images, and the fact that Ben Richards is lying about his feelings as he looks out a window—all while Glen Powell the actor looks toward us, the audience—captures the play of realities that makes Edgar Wright‘s update of The Running Man urgent and unique.

Like both the 1982 Stephen King novel and the 1987 movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Wright’s The Running Man follows bad-tempered Ben Richards as he becomes a contestant on the titular game show and, eventually, a reluctant revolutionary. Like fellow runners Jansky (Martin Herlihy) and Laughlin (Katy O’Brian), Richards must try to survive for 30 days, earning cash rewards for each day he avoids being killed by not just the highly-trained hunters, led by the masked McCone (Lee Pace), but also by any citizen eager to claim a bounty.

Along the way, Ben receives help from a cast of odd-balls, which include black market merchant Molie (William H. Macy), super-fan and analyst Bradley (Daniel Ezra), revolutionary Elton (Michael Cera), and middle-class captive Amelia (Emilia Jones). As Richards adopts disguises and moves from town to town, he’s tracked by camera drones that broadcast his actions every night on a show hosted by Bobby T. (Colman Domingo) and overseen by smarmy producer Dan Killian (Josh Brolin).

Not unlike Mike Flannagan‘s Doctor Sleep, Wright’s The Running Man both adapts a King novel while also riffing on a fairly unfaithful ’80s Hollywood iteration—and sometimes with uneven results. With his mask and beret, McCone plays more like a supervillain than the upscale antagonist in King’s book, and he does lead a quintet of beefy hunters. But gone are Fireball, Captain Freedom, and the other costumed killers that Schwarzenegger battled.

Although the shredded body he shows off during a fun escape sequence makes Powell’s hero just as unbelievable as Arnold’s as a man living in poverty, this Richards better fits King’s depiction of a man mad at the world. That rage only intensifies when his wife Shelia’s (Jayme Lawson) waitressing job veers toward sex work and still does not generate enough to buy proper meds for their daughter.

But as stated and re-stated in an incredibly clunky script by Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright, Powell’s Richards looks out for his fellow man, repeatedly stopping to help beleaguered folks along the way. The shift away from the loner that King imagined helps make Wright’s adaptation work, for two reasons. First, it better fits Powell’s skill set as an actor. Even though he’ll state his anger in insults, sneers, and flipped birds, Powell cannot stop the twinkle in his eye. He has a natural charm that no amount of post-explosion grit can diminish, or how many times he fantasizes about knocking out Killian’s too-white teeth.

That charisma pairs with the second reason that the softer Richards works, because it makes him feel unreal in a cinematic way. When King released The Running Man in 1982, under the pen name Richard Bachman, America had just three television networks. But it also had a reservoir of working-class anger that only intensified as the economic crises that plagued the Carter era made way for Ronald Reagan’s administration and its self-satisfied embrace of free-market capitalism. For King, there was a clear analogue between the spectacle of game shows and the rhetoric of deregulation and trickle-down economics that Reagan sold to the nation with his Hollywood smile. The result is a bleak work, one angry at television’s ability to obscure the truth but still convinced that the truth is out there.

Edgar Wright’s take comes at a time when we’re surrounded by screens in our pockets, cars, and homes, each with access to endless channels. Deepfakes and editing allow the average person to create their own reality, easily dismissing inconvenient facts as “fake news,” resulting in a post-truth age. Furthermore, Wright’s work has never been concerned with the truth. From his breakout series Spaced through Last Night in Soho, Wright’s maximalist style blurs fiction and reality. The characters of Shaun, Scott Pilgrim, and Baby don’t just express their feelings via the media they love, they seem to live within it.

The Running Man takes place in a world saturated by media, which serves as a tool for fascism. So while Wright indulges in his usually bravado filmmaking to create the primetime Running Man TV show, powered by Domingo’s electric performance as the host, he tamps down his style when focusing on our hero. This isn’t to say that he makes Richards’ scenes boring, certainly not when augmented by the costumes by Julian Day and production design by Marcus Rowland, both of which recall the dystopias of 1980s blockbusters. But outside of a delightful sequence in which Daniels and Michael Cera’s Elton unleash a series of Home Alone-style traps on invading cops, Wright shoots the action in competent but anonymous cinematic language.

That is, until the ending, which won’t be spoiled here. Suffice it to say that the film could be read as running even further away from the despair of King’s original conclusion than the 1987 movie did, drowning the viewers with Hollywood saccharine. Or it could be read as the type of hyper-real nightmare described in Jean Baudrillard’s philosophy, in which truth gets buried under layers of screen images.

The meaning of those final moments make the difference between The Running Man being a fun but dumb exercise in blockbuster filmmaking or a true nightmare of totalitarian media control. The interpretation all comes down to the challenge that Richards makes when he looks at what might be nothing and might be you the viewer and declares his anger. Are you angry? If so, then The Running Man might make you angrier; it could also simply entertain you; or it might just take away your hope altogether.

The Running Man hits theaters on Nov. 14, 2025.

Doctor Who Needs to Do Better By the Rani

Despite Disney, the BBC, and returning showrunner Russell T Davies being adamant that the Ncuti Gatwa era of Doctor Who would be super friendly to newbies who hadn’t dipped their toes into the franchise’s vast 60-some odd years of history before, that claim didn’t turn out to be all that true. Davies’ second turn in the TARDIS saw him bring back a former Doctor (David Tennant), multiple previous companions (Catherine Tate’s Donna Noble and Bonnie Langford’s Mel Bush), and a barrage of classic villains and old school characters that ranged from ancient enemy The Toymaker to death god Sutekh. Heck, even the Time Lord’s long-lost granddaughter, Susan (Carole Ann Ford), showed up at one point. Doctor Who 101, this was not. 

But while it was genuinely fun for longtime fans to see so many references to the show’s storied history, greet familiar characters, and indulge in some serious deep cut lore, many of those stories weren’t exactly what you might call fleshed out. In fact, most of these reappearances lacked the context to really hit all that hard as part of their respective stories outside of the nostalgia and fan service of it all. (And please don’t get me started on whatever the heck that mess was with Omega.) But this era of the show has failed no character harder than the Rani, a figure whose return fans had been clamoring for and speculating about for literal decades, but whose arrival satisfied almost no one. 

A classic Doctor Who villain who hadn’t appeared on the main series since 1987’s “Time and the Rani,” the character had grown rather infamous in the modern era for not returning to the show’s canvas. (The characters who turned out to be Madame Kovarian, Missy, and the Fugitive Doctor? All were initially speculated to be the Rani by many fans. We’ve been waiting a while.) But almost none of us expected that Ruby Sunday’s (Millie Gibson) bizarro neighbor, Mrs. Flood (Anita Dobson), would turn out to be the renegade Time Lady, or that she would ultimately bi-regenerate into two separate versions of the character, with the second played by former The Good Wife star Archie Panjabi. And, neither, it turns out, did the woman who played her. 

“For the first series, I was oblivious and just really enjoyed all the little character things and mannerisms that Russell was throwing at me,” Anita Dobson, who played Mrs. Flood, told the Radio Times. “Then, when he asked me back for another series, my curiosity was piqued as to who she was… But it wasn’t until I read the last few scripts of that series that I found out, and I was completely shocked.”

Girl, we were too. Not just because we got two Ranis—but because neither of them felt all that much like the original incarnation. The character is one of the Doctor’s more intriguing adversaries, sort of an antihero more than an outright villain, albeit one that is less interested in simply getting the Doctor’s attention or using violence as a love language in the way that pretty much every incarnation of the Master is. A scientist who is willing to sacrifice anything in the name of her research, the Rani is an amoral figure, but not a particularly vicious one. She doesn’t care much (or, really, at all) about who gets caught in the crossfire of her various projects, but her goal isn’t to cause harm or mayhem for its own sake. 

But while it’s obvious in “The Reality War” that the Rani is basically seeking to resurrect Gallifrey for her own personal ends, that’s… kind of the only thing either of these new incarnations has in common with her former self. Dobson’s in particular was wildly strange, suddenly completely subservient to her other half and more than a little stupid. (And while the Rani is certainly many things, no version of her should ever be dumb.)

Plus, there are still tons of unanswered questions about Dobson’s version of the character, which seemed so very different than any version we’d ever seen before. Why was Mrs.Flood so obsessed with Fifteen’s companions, sometimes seeming more interested in them than the Doctor himself? (How many houses did that woman own anyway? Is she everyone’s neighbor?) Why did all of her outfits so frequently mirror other characters from the Doctor Who universe? (That cape at the end of “Empire of Death” screamed Romana.) How did she know about Sutekh’s existence back in season 14? And what happened to her after the Archie Panjabi version was unceremoniously (and far too quickly) killed off?

Dobson’s not saying, but she’s not averse to stepping back into the role again to find out. “Anything is possible,” she said. “And if Russell asked me now, I’d be out that door so quick.”

In all honesty, it’s not the worst idea. Dobson’s an actor who’s more than capable of walking the fine line between drama and camp that a significant villain role in this universe requires, and fans deserve more from the Rani’s return than a muddled reappearance and quick death. Heck, the character deserves better than that! So let Dobson take another crack at it, as the real and only Rani this time, and give the character a chance to face off against her long-time adversary in a way that actually feels important and necessary to the story. Don’t make us wait another few decades to see her again. 

Josh Brolin Fuels Speculation of Thanos’ Return in New Avengers Movies

Josh Brolin’s recent choice of words has fueled speculation that Thanos might return in an upcoming Avengers movie. 

Brolin, who has brought Thanos to life across several major MCU projects, including Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, recently dropped a tantalizing hint in an interview with ET when reminded that he would reprise the role in a heartbeat, saying, “If [Marvel director] Joe Russo comes to me – which he may have – I don’t know. And has an idea, then I might acquiesce. Probably pretty quickly.” 

The “which he may have” part of Brolin’s comments has got fans pretty convinced they’ll see some future Thanos action. Though the Mad Titan’s story seemed finished at the end of Endgame, nothing is really off the table when the multiverse is involved, and especially not in a movie based on the Secret Wars comic book event. 

Thanos has popped up in two major versions of Secret Wars in the pages of Marvel Comics. In Jim Shooter’s original event series, he appears on Battleworld as one of the villains brought by the Beyonder. He engages in battles with the Avengers and Fantastic Four, but isn’t pivotal to the plot, whereas in Jonathan Hickman’s Secret Wars, Thanos appears more peripherally during the multiverse collapse and on the patchwork Battleworld created by Doctor Doom, serving as a reminder of the ongoing cosmic threats within the fractured universe. Since both Doomsday and the Secret Wars movie seem to be centering Doom as the main antagonist, it makes sense that Thanos (among other major villains from the past) will show up at some point in the latter rather than the former, which will likely “set the stage” for Secret Wars just as Infinity War did Endgame.

Of course, it’s important to stress that there’s no official confirmation from Marvel that Brolin will reprise Thanos, or that Thanos will appear in Avengers: Secret Wars. What we have right now is a tease, but whether it’s a full-on comeback or a multiversal variant, one thing is clear: Thanos is not necessarily gone for good.