Sarah J. Maas Wants to Make an ACOTAR TV Show on Her Own Terms
High fantasy television is everywhere right now, from HBO’s Game of Thrones universe and Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. And even more heavy hitters are waiting in the wings, with big-budget adaptations of everything from Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing saga to Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere universe in the works. But, despite the genre’s massive popularity, somehow we’re still waiting for a take on the most popular romantasy title of them all: Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses.
This isn’t for lack of trying. Tempo optioned the film rights in 2015, and the project progressed to the point where Maas herself teased an early look at the script, but it sputtered out soon thereafter. In 2021, a TV version was in the works at Hulu, with no less than Ronald D. Moore (of Battlestar Galactica and Outlander fame) attached. But it, too, was ultimately scrapped. Now, the project is back in limbo, but hopefully not shelved forever, at least if f the author herself has anything to say about it.
During an interview on the popular Call Her Daddy podcast, in which Maas announced the release dates for the next two books in her megapopular ACOTAR series (arriving in October 2026 and January 2027, respectively), she also addressed the question of the television series we’re all still waiting to see.
Like Taylor Swift before her, Maas has reclaimed the rights to her works and, though she says she’s focusing on the books for the foreseeable future, she is also clearly thinking about what onscreen versions of those stories might look like one day.
“I have the rights back to everything now,” she told host Alex Cooper. “Getting the rights back to all my things has been a big part of my journey in recent years that maybe at some point soon I will talk more about, but right now my focus is on books, and it’s been a little while since you guys have had something, so I’m focusing on that.”
A Court of Thorns and Roses ostensibly follows the story of Feyre Archeron, who finds herself journeying to the magical world of Prythian after she accidentally kills a fairy wolf to feed her family. What follows is a sprawling tale of magic, royal fae courts, bonded mates, ancient curses, and complex political intrigue. And Maas apparently has a very specific idea about how it should be brought to life.
“Any TV movie adaptation is kind of like another facet of the worlds that I’ve created, and it’s something that I want to be in charge of—I want to be figuring out,” Maas said. “I want to be learning everything that I can. I’m a type A, like, control freak a little bit. I want to know everything about how it gets made—not because of that control but just because I love movies. I love TV. I want to be a part of that, and I want to see everything adapted the way I envision it and the way I know fans want it.”
While that insistence may (and likely has) hindered development on any onscreen projects connected to her work, it’s comforting for fans to know that Maas is so determined to adapt her works on her own terms.
“I don’t ever want to hear like, ‘Oh, we need to change this to appeal to XYZ’s demographic’,” she said. “I’m like, ‘No, that’s not how you make art. That’s not how I create my stories.’ So when I do it, it’s gonna be me, and I will dedicate everything that I have to making it right.”
Maas is also the author of two other popular romantasy series — Throne of Glass and Crescent City — which could also theoretically get live adaptations someday. And she’s as fiercely protective of those stories as she is of ACOTAR.
“I view it as my legacy in a way where I’m like, I put my books out into the world. That’s one way that the fans are interacting and seeing these characters, but the physical version of that needs to be aligned,” she noted. “It can’t just be someone’s take on that.”
Removal of a Beloved Torchwood Memorial Marks the End of a Doctor Who Era
Doctor Whofans are, as most of them will freely tell you, occasionally an odd bunch. From hosting conventions and traveling to filming locations to cosplaying their favorite Time Lord on the regular, it’s a fandom that loves its chosen subject hard. (And I say this as someone who’s part of it.) Now, Whovians worldwide are mourning the true end of an era: The removal of Ianto’s Shrine, a fan installation in honor of a popular Torchwoodcharacter that has existed in Wales’s Cardiff Bay for nearly two decades.
The shrine was created following the broadcast of Torchwood’s third season. Subtitled Children of Earth, it’s particularly memorable for its dark themes, super creepy aliens who wanted to steal kids, and the unexpected death of Ianto. The show had only recently begun to focus on Ianto’s romance with the series’ lead, Captain Jack Harkness, and many viewers criticized the decision to kill off such a fan favorite character as a prominent example of the “bury your gays” trope in action. Fans were so upset at this development that they not only created websites lobbying for the character’s resurrection and raising money for charity, but also an honest-to-goodness real-life memorial in Mermaid Quay, near where the fictional entrance to Torchwood headquarters was located in the show.
Visitors from all over the world would leave messages, flowers, stuffed toys, and other trinkets. (And a surprising amount of Starbucks cups.) But all good things must come to an end, and it seems the shrine will be officially dismantled this spring to make way for necessary maintenance work on the area’s lower boardwalk. It will apparently not be restored, though there’s no word about what will happen to all the materials already on display there.
Fans everywhere are quite upset about this development, and not only because Ianto’s Shrine has become a regular stop for tourists in Cardiff. It’s one of the only real pieces of public Doctor Who history left in the area where the series does the bulk of its filming. The Doctor Who Experience, a permanent museum-style exhibition that once hosted costumes, sets, props, and even a TARDIS, closed down in 2017.
But while the shrine itself’s days are numbered, the legacy of Ianto will live on. Per the Radio Times, a spokesperson for Mermaid Quay has confirmed that they “hope to work with the local community to explore a new plaque for Ianto once the maintenance works have completed.”
Outlander Boss Reveals the Biggest Creative Challenge Behind the Scenes
Starz’s beloved historical fantasy series Outlander will take its final bow this May, wrapping up over a decade of storytelling adapted from the pages of Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling books. But choosing how to do so has never been an easy task, showrunner Matthew B. Roberts tells Den of Geek ahead of the final season’s debut. “We always thought it was going to get easier. We were wrong. It always got harder.”
Roberts explains that when Gabaldon writes, she can access “any character, anytime, anywhere,” whereas the series has to tackle logistical problems that shape how the Outlander team tells its version of her stories.
“We found that when you deal with real human beings who have real lives, scheduling is probably the biggest challenge,” Roberts says. “If you hope you have someone for an arc that you want to do in the show, and you don’t have that character, then you have to figure out, ‘okay, how do we still get this story in the show, but without that particular character?’ Because we don’t have that particular actor.”
The show started out relatively small, telling the tale of former WWII nurse Claire Randall (Caitríona Balfe) traveling back in time to 1743 and falling in love with Highland warrior Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan), but as Gabaldon’s books expanded beyond Scotland to Paris and then North Carolina, so did Outlander, along with the hundreds of extras needed to make its settings believable and historically accurate.
“Bringing hundreds of people out to certain locations is always challenging,” Roberts explains. “And we do have time and budget constraints. All those things are huge challenges. As Diana’s books upped the ante, the show had to do that as well.”
Despite the show’s challenges, both creatively and logistically, Roberts describes making it as an amazing experience.
“We were wrapping up the second season of [prequel series] Blood of my Blood recently, and my assistant put together all the crew photos from all the seasons of Outlander on one big poster. For the first season, there was just this small crew, and it just kept growing and growing. In the last one, there are hundreds of people, and I think that was the thing that really struck me, how huge Outlander became, not only in our lives, but in Scotland and for our crew and cast. It was pretty astonishing to see that poster.”
Outlander season 8 begins streaming on Starz on March 6.
SXSW VP of Music Brian Hobbs Teases 2026 Festival’s Biggest Shows
South by Southwest has long given stages to emerging musicians, casting them a wider line to attract new fans and adapt the scene. This year, many of those artists have the chance to perform at multiple locations over the course of the seven-day festival; a benefit to both the musicians and audiences that felt necessary for SXSW vice president of music Brian Hobbs, who understands the time and money people spend to travel for the event.
Coordinating all aspects of SXSW this year, which will be running in tandem for the first time in the festival’s history, is no easy feat. Hobbs invited the challenge as a way to make this 2026 SXSW stand out by meticulously coordinating with other areas of the festival, whether that be TV and film, comedy, or technology, to collaborate with even more artists.
Den of Geek got the chance to speak with the VP about all the innovations to this year’s music lineup and the artists and experiences Hobbs is looking forward to. Below is a transcript of the interview.
DEN OF GEEK: This year is especially exciting for SXSW because the comedy, film and television, and music programming are all running concurrently for the first time. What level of coordination and collaboration does it take to pull it off?
BRIAN HOBBS: We have a really good relationship with all the festivals inside SXSW, but this year music and film have been killing it together because they have some really great music documentaries and films premiering and then those artists are turning around and doing showcases with us. They’re already here promoting their films, so why not give the fans what they want, too?
For instance, that’s how the Lainey Wilson performance came about. Lainey is down here with a Netflix documentary and we have one combo with her team. Cool organic stuff like that comes together. I don’t know what changed this year, but the collaboration has been for the better and things have been running so smoothly. We have six high-level film and music collaborations, which is the most that I can remember us ever having.
There’s Charley Crockett. He’s been on a tear recently and spoke out about some stuff that country music artists don’t usually speak out about, politically, and we were like, hell, we’ve got to support Charley. So he’s coming with a full-blown film. He’s doing his film premiere and then headlining the Luck Reunion showcase. Los Lobos have a documentary and they’re going to come down and do like a pop-up set at the iconic Continental Club. There’s a secret Noah Kahan show that’s going to happen to go along with his documentary that’s premiering. Zhu, the DJ, did the score for a film called He Bled Neon and they’re doing an afterparty show and Zhu is going to do the DJ set there.
What was the selection process for assembling this year’s programming? What are you looking for?
By the end of the festival, we’ll have over a thousand artists, whether that’s solo artists or bands. I think our peak number ever was in 2015 when we invited 2200 bands. It’s wild, but it’s also too much! We had to book a lot of venues and it was really chaotic. We’ve found a really good spot now where we’re booking about 50 to 55 venues a night and we’ve got a thousand total artists booked. So that gives them more opportunities to perform multiple times.
We respect how much time, money, and energy it takes to come to SXSW, especially if you’re an international artist who has traveled across the world. We don’t want them to just have one performance once they’re in town, we want them to be able to perform multiple times in front of multiple different audiences and reach as many people as possible. We want them to have the best experience possible. We want SXSW to be part of your journey where you leveled up to the next level, no matter where you’re at.
You’ve also got some exciting headliners assembled this year, including Junior H, Lola Young, The All-American Rejects, and Gogol Bordello. Why did these feel like the right groups to showcase and represent this year’s Music Festival?
I’ll start with All-American Rejects because that came together through such crazy synergy. I’m doing a lot of music discovery when one of my team members, Berkli Johnson, and I were seeing these like pop-up house party shows that All-American Rejects were doing. We knew we had to figure something out with them. I looked up who their agent is and it’s someone who I have a really long, successful history of booking shows at SXSW with. I sent him an email and he was like, “Man, get out of here, I just talked to the band about SXSW two days ago!” It was like fate.
They’ve been so cool to work with and they’re going to headline our music opening party. This is my 13th festival and this is the biggest music opening party that we’ve done since I’ve been here. Then with Junior, we’ve been trying to get Junior for three years. I think some of that is the effect of his team seeing that Peso was here, Frontera was here. It makes sense for him to be here. There’s going to be people crying and falling out in the crowd! With Gogol, it was a situation of them coming through on tour and their booking agent hit us up.
We’re so fortunate with Lola Young, too. We’re so blessed that she kept us on her schedule because she trimmed her 2026 schedule down to just a couple of things. She’s locked in now and stuck with us. She’s coming off her Grammy win and she’s just such a dope authentic artist. She’s played SXSW before as a developing act, so now it’s so cool to have her on this side of things. That’s what this shit is all about. We love an artist who comes here, plays a small show, and then their career blows up – whether we had an effect on it or not. It’s just cool to see whenever someone plays some smaller shows and then a few years later they’re headlining for Rolling Stone at one of our biggest shows of the week.
You’ve been with SXSW for nearly 15 years now. What are some of the biggest changes you’ve noticed in both the music industry’s trends and the types of people attending the festival?
We always try to either stay on the wave of the trend or like right in front of it. I think we’ve done a really good job of that, especially in the past five years or so. Our Latin music programming has just absolutely exploded through the stratosphere, but I also think that reflects the music industry in general. I mean, we just had Bad Bunny do one of the greatest Super Bowl Halftime Shows of all-time, in Spanish, and the explosion of regional Mexican music out here has just been like out of control.
Our Latin music programming has kind of mirrored that. It really started in 2023 when we did a showcase with Del Records and they had Eslabon Armado perform – they were the headliners – and the night of their showcase they were releasing their new single, “Ella Baila Sola” with Peso Pluma. It was played at SXSW publicly for the first time before it was officially released and now it’s the highest streaming regional Mexican song of all time. This year we have Sony, Universal, Interscope, and Warner all coming in just to do Latin music showcases. So I think that we were definitely ahead of the curve on that.
This year we have a lot of country, and we haven’t had a lot of country music in the past. We had a Garth Brooks show in 2017. We had a Keith Urban show and then some low-key Texas country stuff. This year though it’s the doors being kicked open. We’ve got Lainey Wilson. Charley Crockett. Los Lobos are back. We have a lot of really cool country stuff. That’s reflective of the music industry in general. Country radio used to kind of run it and now country streaming has blown up so much in the last few years. I think it’s opened it up to like a younger generation of fans.
I haven’t seen a huge change in attendees, except maybe a little bit less of the spring break party crowd who want to come to just party. We’re seeing more real, dedicated music fans. The industry’s not going anywhere so we try to keep everybody in mind with our programming, but first and foremost we’re always going to program out showcases with talent discovery in mind. We’re always trying to introduce somebody to their next favorite band.
Lastly, what are one or two under the radar selections from your SXSW Festival block that people need to check out?
I wish the whole team could answer this because everybody on the team has something that’s their speciality. For me, it’s a lot of the bigger stuff now. So it’s not going to be as underground, low-key. A band that I really love that’s coming this year is The Paradox. They’re in that same vein as the mid- to late-’90s, skate punk, pop punk explosion. You could throw a Paradox song in the middle of a mixtape with Blink-182, Goldfinger, and Less Than Jake, and they would fit in perfectly with them. So I’m super excited to see what The Paradox does down here. They’re playing a show at the Mohawk, which is the perfect venue for them. I expect some mosh pit action, some stage-diving, some real hot going on in the crowd.
There’s a guy from Louisiana, but he’s based in Texas. He’s a soulful singer. His name’s Gavin Copeland, but he fits in perfectly doing hooks on hip-hop songs, too. Personally, he’s probably the artist who I could see coming out of the festival this year with agents, labels, and people chasing him. He’s had some real success on TikTok, but his music is deep, soulful, Southern, and he’s just incredibly talented. I’m really excited to see him come down here and open up a lot of people’s eyes.
Heated Rivalry Show Creator Is Bringing an Unlikely Epic Project to Netflix
Though we’re unlikely to see the second season of everyone’s favorite gay hockey romance until 2027, Heated Rivalry creator Jacob Tierney isn’t slowing down at all. He’s already announced his next project, and it’s something of an unexpected swerve for him. (Read: it’s not about Canadians in any way.) Tierney’s focus will shift from fictional NHL teams to Ancient Greece to tell the story of one of the most influential men the world has ever known: Alexander the Great. Netflix has given a straight-to-series order to Alexander, a sprawling epic that explores the little-known story of the young Alexander and his tutor, Aristotle.
For those whose memories of ancient history are poor, Alexander was the son of King Philip II of Macedon and rose to power after his father was assassinated by a member of his personal guard at a wedding banquet. Aristotle is still considered one of the greatest philosophers who ever lived, a polymath who pioneered the scientific disciplines of biology and zoology, and greatly influenced Western thought through his ideas about logic and deductive reasoning. He also spent somewhere around three years as a tutor to Alexander during his teenage years.
That teen would go on to conquer the largest empire in history, which stretched from Greece to northwestern India. He was undefeated in battle, and his military prowess reshaped much of the Middle East and Asia, founding anywhere from 20 to 70 cities, depending on who you read, most of which were named after himself or close friends. (One, in Egypt, still exists today.) He created centers of learning and trade that lasted well beyond his death, and some of his military tactics are still studied today. And he did all of this by the time he was just 30 years old.
Tierney’s series will be based on the novel The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon, which is narrated by Aristotle and begins just as the philosopher arrives in Macedonia. But since the Netflix series is called Alexander, we likely have to assume that it will focus more heavily on the story of the young prince. Plus, since this show is also apparently a passion project from the same guy who gave us Heated Rivalry, it also seems like a pretty safe bet that it will, at least to some degree, dive into questions of Alexander’s sexuality. Same-sex relationships weren’t uncommon in ancient Macedonia, and though Alexander had multiple wives and fathered an heir, he also had extremely close emotional attachments with men, most notably his childhood friend Hephaestion, who also studied alongside him with Aristotle.
The title of Lyon’s novel refers to the philosophical principle of the same name, a desirable middle between two extremes, an idea that may point to the way that Teirney will approach telling this particular story. (Or maybe it’s just a cool title, who can say?) But either way, it’s going to be an interesting shift for him as a storyteller, and something definitely worth keeping an eye out for.
The Boys Season 5 Trailer Breakdown: Homelander’s Endgame, Supernatural Reunion, and More
The Boys are back, one last time. The fifth and final season of the Prime Video adaptation of the comic book series reaches its conclusion, leading to a stand-off between amoral cape killer Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and the all-powerful and all-insane Homelander (Antony Starr).
Where The Boys began life as a nasty takedown of superheroes by writer Garth Ennis and artist Darick Robertson, showrunner Eric Kripke has found a way to turn the unpleasant source material into biting political satire, and has even managed to insert some real human emotions.
We get peeks of all that absurdity and urgency in the latest trailer for The Boys season 5, so let’s break it down before Butcher and Homelander break it all apart.
Homelander and Butcher’s Endgame
“My power is absolute,” declares Homelander at the opening of the trailer, a declaration matched by images of him entering the Oval Office. “But I have a bigger destiny.” Over the course of the trailer, we learn that the destiny in question involves immortality, something Homelander can accomplish if he gets ahold of V-One, the original and still most potent version of Compound V. We’ve seen V-One at work recently in The Boys universe, as Thomas Godolkin (Ethan Slater) used it in Gen V to launch his own power grab. By the end of Gen V‘s second season, Godolkin had failed, but if an extremely powerful Supe like Homelander took V-One, the results would be different.
To stop him, Butcher has sacrificed everything, even becoming what he hates. He has been taking Compound V since season 3 to battle Homelander, which eventually manifested in a darker alter-ego with tentacle powers called Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). While we get plenty of shots in the trailer of Butcher using his tentacles, it’s not clear how much of that is him and how much is Kessler’s influence. Regardless, Butcher seems committed to releasing a Supe-killing virus, even if it takes him out in the process.
Supernatural Reunion
To help him against Butcher, Homelander calls upon the one person who almost took him down, his own father, Soldier Boy. Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) has been frozen by President Calhoun (David Andrews) since his defeat in season 3, during which Homelander learned that the patriotic Supe is his father. The TV show’s depiction of Soldier Boy differs quite a bit from the comics—a point underscored by the trailer, in which Homelander insists he did not have sex with Soldier Boy—which makes their team-up new territory, story-wise.
However, the trailer also teases a far more familiar team-up, at least in the credits. Ackles is joined by his Supernatural co-star Jared Padalecki, seen briefly in the trailer. We don’t know yet who Padalecki is playing, but he sure looks freaked out about whatever he’s seeing, which means more funny reaction gifs for the internet!
New Roles for the Seven
As the Justice League of The Boys universe, the Seven have been in flux for as long as the series has been on the air. Homelander has largely turned them into his personal goon squad, and Firecracker (Valorie Curry) appears to be happy to continue playing that role. But the trailer also suggests that A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) is ready to completely run away from his past as the air-headed jock who couldn’t care less about killing the girlfriend of Hughie (Jack Quaid).
Throughout the trailer, we see A-Train running past pro-Homelander propaganda signs and joining up with Hughie and Starlight (Erin Moriarty). Does all this attention mean that A-Train will be one of the big heroes of season 5? Or is this all a tease for an early demise at Homelander’s hand? If it’s the latter, then Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) is sure to be involved. The brilliant recent addition to the Seven gets lots of screen time in the trailer, but we mostly see her watching and reacting, which means that she’s playing angles that no one sees coming, especially not her teammates.
The Female No More
Even those who love Garth Ennis’s style of writing have pointed out that he doesn’t always take much interest in his female characters, especially the one woman in the Boys, named just the Female. In the comics, the Female is hardly human, a feral, nonspeaking figure who only shows hints of kindness to Frenchie (Tomer Capone) and respects Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso).
The show has taken pains to flesh out the Female, giving her both a full backstory and a proper name, Kimiko. Moreover, Karen Fukuhara has done wonders with her facial expressions and body language to give Kimiko a voice even before she could speak. However, the very fact that she speaks a line of dialogue in the trailer (“You guys are friends?”) shows that she’s matured far past being just the Female.
Resistance and Religion
Even though we’re headed toward the end, the series still has some new characters to add. We briefly get a glimpse of Daveed Diggs as Oh-Father, a Superman-like revival preacher. In the comics, Oh-Father leads Capes for Christ, the fundamentalist Christian organization for teen heroes. Eventually, Oh-Father joins Homelander’s efforts to conquer the world, but dies during the coup. Also, because he’s in a Garth Ennis comic, he regularly molests his young charges. Although the show made Ezekiel (Shaun Benson) the head of Capes for Christ, his death leaves an opening for Oh-Father, especially as Homelander plots his final mission.
Oh-Father’s charisma and religious rhetoric will certainly help convince some humans to submit to Homelander’s rule. For those who don’t, there are Freedom Camps, glimpsed briefly in the trailer. The Freedom Camps are one of the more obvious bits of political satire in the otherwise plot-heavy trailer, showing how empty patriotic rhetoric can cover a host of human rights violations in the world of The Boys as easily as it does in the real world.
Gen V Graduates
The spinoff series Gen V introduced viewers to the Godolkin University School of Crimefighting, a college for young Supes. As with everything else in the world of The Boys, not even the education system could escape the clutches of Vought International, and the series both expanded on the Nazi origins of the Compound V that gives people their powers and poked fun at influencer culture.
With Gen V seemingly concluded after season 2, the main characters are ready to join the big leagues and fight against Homelander. The trailer gives a brief look at Starlight recruiting Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), the one-time Seven hopeful who can manipulate her blood, and Jordan Li, who can shift between male and female forms (London Thor and Derek Luh). The knowledge they and their classmates gathered about the history of Compound V may be essential for preventing Homelander from gaining access to V-One.
The Deep Gets Deep, Bro
The Deep has a podcast. Of course he does.
The Deep (Chace Crawford) has been one of the most fascinating characters in the show, a himbo with gills who cannot seem to stop sacrificing his genuine (sometimes physical) love of aquatic life to his admiration for Homelander’s power. While actor Chace Crawford has brought enough pathos to the Deep to make us love him despite his many failures, that sympathy may come to the end now that the Deep has found his final form, as a manosphere podcaster with a co-host in the form of Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) on a soundboard.
The Boys season 5 premieres on April 8, 2026, on Prime Video.
“This Show Has Balls” – Jonathan Frakes Talks Directing Starfleet Academy Episode 9
The following contains spoilers for Starfleet Academy episode 9.
The penultimate episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’sfirst season has to serve many masters. From a high-stakes plotline that puts the very future of the Federation at risk once more to the conclusion of the institution’s first school year and all the conflicting emotions that big change can spark, it’s an hour full of both big feelings and big threats. So it makes sense that the show brought in someone who knows the franchise well to help guide it.
Jonathan Frakes is best known for playing William Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation, but he’s also a talented and prolific director. He’s helmed episodes across seven different Trek series and directed two feature films, all while continuing to make guest appearances onscreen in various properties, including an extended run on Star Trek: Picard season 3. And, according to him, Starfleet Academy is doing just fine — despite the negative criticism the more youthfully-minded property is getting from some corners of the internet.
“What’s with the haters? This show is great,” Frakes tells Den of Geek. “Really, I’m thrilled with it. I think it has a real optimism. It’s representative of Star Trek moving into the future. I mean, it’s all really in the future, but this is after the Burn, this is after so much other stuff. There’s a lot of canon that is in place that Starfleet Academy is reestablishing itself in San Francisco after a hundred years, so there’s a lot for the hardcore Trekkies to dig into, to say, ‘Oh, okay, this is where they are now’ while still being [full of] surprises.”
Frakes takes the helm on one of the season’s more complicated episodes, which reveals the extent of space pirate Nus Braka’s plan to cripple the Federation, pays off a big emotional moment for Caleb, and sees Chancellor Ake break the rules to save a group of missing cadets. But for the man behind the camera, it’s the emotion underneath the action that was most interesting to highlight onscreen.
“Alex Kurtzman and Noga [Landau], they laid out the season in a way that I thought brilliantly gave a lot of the characters key moments to reveal who they are, which let the audience get to know them,” Frakes says. “So by the time I got there at episode nine, Alex had really already established a lot of things, including a motif of how he wanted the show shot. He shared the first two episodes with me when I got there, and he was using these new lenses, these anamorphic spherical lenses. They’re wide, but we could shoot very tight with them on people’s faces. And this episode, as you see, is filled with emotion for that kind of shooting.”
Though the season’s penultimate episode features a fair amount of action set pieces – a face-off between the runaway cadets and police, the sudden arrival of the Athena to rescue them — its heart revolves around a key character moment: The long-awaited reunion between Caleb and the mother he’s been searching for since he was a child.
“It’s really all about the emotions of these scenes,” Frakes continues. “Especially the reunion of mother and son. But my favorite is the confrontation where I lined up the cadets opposite Sandro [Rosta, who plays Caleb], and he goes down the line just reading them the riot act, ‘you’re full of shit’ and this and that. But then Sam turns the tables on him and throws herself into his chest. It’s such a great payoff for that scene that she can totally see through him, can see how much he’s struggling with what’s going on. It really shows off the relationship he has reluctantly developed with all these cadets with whom he was in such conflict at the beginning. So I love this episode and everything it teased up for Tunde’s [referring to frequent Trek director Olatunde Osunsanmi] finale.”
“300th Night” is the first half of Starfleet Academy’s first two-part story, and the events of this episode lead directly into the season finale, an episode that Frakes isn’t directing. But, to hear him tell it, a lot of thought went into the transition between the two halves of the story.
“Tunde and I have done this before on Discovery, where we did the two-parter finale together,” Frakes says. “The handoff takes place in that little medbay with the two actors, and he and I were together to set up the way he wanted to start. So certainly that, specifically, was in place. But when I prep, I prep. He’s around all the time. I’m very close with him, and we’ve worked together quite a bit, and we’re very competitive. He inspires me, and I think I inspire him, and we have a ball making stuff.”
Frakes also delighted in the opportunity to work closely with the “brilliant” Holly Hunter, whose casting he describes as “magical.”
“She’s spectacular,” Frakes says when asked about working with Hunter. “What brilliant casting! She’s funny. She’s so smart, she’s tough… and she works barefoot! She’s fearless. By the time I got there, it was clear she has a methodology for how she works. We had built in Sunday rehearsals so that we could go through the scenes in her office and on the bridge, because she finds her blocking organically. So she and I and the other actors and my cinematographer and the first AD, we spent hours going through the beats in the scenes and figuring out the blocking we all wanted to pursue, so by the time we got on the floor to do the scenes, we had a pretty good idea of where we were going to put the cameras. To have the privilege of the company giving us the time to rehearse without a hundred people waiting around for us to find a scene was a really good choice.”
Frakes himself once played a character who was known for his… let’s just call it a cavalier approach to furniture. His famous “Riker manuever” is so well known that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds even poked fun at it during a season 2 crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks. (A move Frakes himself apparently found hilarious.) Hunter’s Chancellor Ake is something of a spiritual successor to this trend, draping, lounging, and sprawling across virtually any surface she encounters.
“I’ll tell you how Frakes reacted,” he laughs when asked about how his famous character might see Ake’s sprawling approach to interacting with the set. “When I saw that in the first episode, I said, ‘This is going to be it. This is the defining moment of her captainship.’ It made me smile. I thought, ‘This show has balls doing this.’ And she just embraced it.”
The Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1 finale premieres Thursday, March 12 on Paramount+.
Revisiting the Forgotten DC Animated Series: Batwheels, Vixen, Plastic Man, and More
In 1938, the DC Universe as we know it was born with the introduction of Superman in Action Comics #1. An equally important event occurred three years later, when brothers Max and Dave Fleischer released the first Superman animated short. From that moment on, animation became inextricably tied to Superman, Batman, and the Justice League.
For that reason, DC has seen its characters appear in cartoon series that range from the goofy but influential Super Friends to the perhaps perfect Batman: The Animated Series to the exciting Creature Commandos. But not every DC animated series has been as influential or as remembered. So let’s look back at some of the cartoon adventures of DC heroes that haven’t had quite the same legacy.
The New Adventures of Superman (1966–1970)
Given how well the fluid and dynamic Fleischer cartoons are today, the Filmation series cannot help but pale in comparison. Even Super Friends and its spinoffs are more well-remembered for their embrace of the wild, weird DC Comics world than for their quality. For that reason, it’s easy to dismiss the 68 shorts that Filmation released as The New Adventures of Superman as janky time wasters. Indeed, they do suffer from stiff animation, inconsistent models, and voice-over narration that explains exactly what’s on screen. Yet, as silly as they are, The New Adventures of Superman does have a jolt of pop art energy that matches the hip Batman animated series or the comics published by Marvel.
The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure (1967–1969)
We’re cheating a bit here, because The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure is effectively the second and third seasons of The New Adventures of Superman. But we’re including it because enough material was added to Superman and Superboy stories to count as its own show. The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure plays like a test run of Super Friends, with Filmation digging deeper into the DC bullpen to give animated adventures to the Atom, the Teen Titans, and more. Surprisingly enough, the standout hero was Aquaman, whose underwater confines gave Filmation’s animators something to play with.
Plastic Man (1979–1981)
Few superheroes are better suited to animation than Plastic Man. The original comics by Jack Cole stretched the limits of the comic book form as much as Plas himself reshaped his body, and movement would only make his exploits more wacky. Some of that playfulness certainly makes it into the Plastic Man cartoon show, which eventually expanded into The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show.
However, the series mostly avoided stuff from the comics, making Plastic Man into a secret agent, replacing his comic sidekick Woozy Winks with a Polynesian man named (ugh) Hula-Hula, and eventually giving him a wife and a child called Baby Plas. The series was a hit for about a year, but the buzz quickly died, living today only as a half-memory for Gen Xers.
The Kid Super Power Hour With Shazam! (1981-1982)
Like Plastic Man, the hero originally called Captain Marvel (now called Shazam, for copyright reasons) is uniquely well-suited to cartoons. After all, what kid wouldn’t want to see themselves in Billy Batson, the boy who gets Superman-style powers whenever he says “Shazam!” The series did a nice job adapting Captain Marvel’s whimsical adventures to animation, and Filmation hoped to capitalize on the appeal by pairing them with Hero High, a series about students at a superhero high school. However, the potential never paid off and The Kid Super Power Hour With Shazam! ended after one season.
Swamp Thing (1990–1991)
As a big green pile of mush who protects the environment, Swamp Thing makes perfect sense as the star of a Captain Planet-type show. But the Swamp Thing cartoon that ran for five episodes across 1990 and 1991 was less a standard comic book adaptation and another instance of that strange ’80s phenomenon of making a kid’s cartoon out of an R-rated property. Instead of drawing from Swamp Thing’s more superhero stories, the cartoon followed the 1982 Wes Craven movie and the horror-focused live action series that debuted on the USA Network at the same time. Despite a toy line and a theme song based on “Wild Thing” by The Troggs, Swamp Thing failed to grow on kids.
Wild C.A.T.s: Covert Action Teams (1994–1995)
We’re going to cheat a bit here, as Wild C.A.T.s was not a DC property when the cartoon aired for one season on CBS. Instead, creator Jim Lee published the series through Image Comics. When X-Men: The Animated Series became a big hit using his art style, Lee managed to bring his Wild C.A.T.s to the screen. But like their comic book counterparts, the animated Wild C.A.T.s didn’t have nearly the same level of characterization or drama as Marvel’s mutants, and the series remains a footnote, especially now that the team is part of the DC Universe.
Lobo (2000)
Writer Keith Giffen may have introduced Lobo in the 1980s, but the character hit it big in the ’90s, when Giffen, co-writer Alan Grant, and artist Simon Bisely used him to parody the edgy comics of the era. So it makes a certain amount of sense that Lobo would star in a then-relevant and now dated cartoon series in 2000. A series of webtoons animated in Flash, Lobo offered 14 episodes of swears and gory, random violence, all presented in herky jerky movements that would stress the graphics card on your new Dell.
Gotham Girls (2000–2002)
Like Lobo, Gotham Girls spun out of the DCAU that began with Batman: The Animated Series, even bringing producer Paul Dini along to co-write the episodes with veteran Hilary Bader. Watched today, the choppy animation distracts, but the rest of the show is classic DC animation. While Dini and Bader go for a more comedic tone for the first two 10-episode seasons, the final set of episodes tell a more coherent story. Even better, Gotham Girls retains the great voice actors from the mainline Batman show, including Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn, Adrienne Barbeau as Catwoman, and Diane Pershing as Poison Ivy.
The Zeta Project (2001–2003)
Even more than Gotham Girls, The Zeta Project is the lost Timm-verse show. The Zeta Project takes place within the DCAU and has designs consistent with Bruce Timm‘s work on the Batman and Superman animated series. Moreover, the show spins directly out of Batman Beyond, following the Infiltration Unit Zeta introduced in season two episode “Zeta.” However, Warner Bros. wanted a lighter, more kid-friendly show than the other DCAU series, which meant that The Zeta Project felt very different from Batman Beyond. The network gave the show two seasons to catch on and canceled it after 26 episodes.
Krypto the Superdog (2005–2006)
Speaking of kid-friendly projects, Krypto the Superdog attempted to launch Krypto-mania twenty years before James Gunn made him a screen king in Superman. Krypto the Superdog comes from Batman: The Animated Series producers Paul Dini and Alan Burnett, but it takes a decidedly more silly approach.
Krypto (voiced by Samuel Vincent) is still Superman’s pet from his home planet, but he has now been adopted by a nine-year-old named Kevin, who thinks he’s just a normal dog. When duty calls, Krypto joins with fellow super-pets Streaky the Supercat (Brian Drummond) and Ace the Bat-Hound (Scott McNeil) to stop animal-based baddies.
Legion of Super-Heroes (2006–2008)
The Legion of Super-Heroes are one of DC’s oldest and most beloved superhero teams, having spun out of Superboy comics in the 1950s. But the Legion has yet to break out into the mainstream, in part because they exist 1000 years from the future, which separates them from more well-known heroes.
Across two seasons, the cartoon show Legion of Super-Heroes tried to fix that problem by putting the team into the spotlight. Creator James Tucker, formerly a producer on Justice League Unlimited, gives viewers a clean entry point by focusing on a teenage Superman (Yuri Lowenthal), who goes to the future to learn about being a hero from a streamlined Legion line-up, which includes visually-interesting characters Bouncing Boy (Michael Cornacchia) and Triplicate Girl (Kari Wahlgren).
DC Nation (2011–2014)
Again, a bit of a stretch here, but we have to pay tribute to perhaps the most wonderful set of DC animated episodes, the shorts that aired as part of the DC Nation programming block. Each short lasted a couple of minutes, and while some featured well-known characters—including a comedic take on the Teen Titans that eventually became the mega hit Teen Titans Go!—the best either went deep into character bench or reimagined familiar characters.
The Animal Man shorts starred Weird Al Yankovic as a particularly ineffective hero who’s more interested in pets than people. Indie comics legends Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer created episodes about the robot team the Metal Men. And Rich Webber of Aardman Animations created claymation versions of the Justice League for “Worlds Funniest.”
Beware the Batman (2013–2014)
Even to this day, Batman: The Animated Series remains the most beloved and well-known cartoon about the Dark Knight. However, later entries such as The Batman and Batman: The Brave and the Bold have acquired their own followings. The same cannot be said about Beware the Batman, the strange CGI cartoon produced by Glen Murakami of Teen Titans fame. The series paired a younger Batman (Anthony Ruivivar) with former MI6 agent Alfred (JB Blanc) and Katana (Sumalee Montano) instead of Robin. The series had some interesting ideas, but between scheduling shenanigans by Cartoon Network and its radically different visual style, Beware the Batman never had the chance to catch on.
Vixen (2015–2016)
Vixen is truly an odd series, and not just because it starred a perennial C-lister and played on the streaming platform CW Seed. Rather, Vixen takes place in the Arrowverse, and features cameos by Grant Gustin as the Flash and Stephen Amell as Green Arrow, as well as others from the franchise. Vixen itself isn’t a bad idea, as the character’s animal-based powers are always compelling and star Megalyn Echikunwoke gives a strong performance. But the exuberance that made the Arrowverse shows so exciting in live action gets dulled in animation.
Justice League Action (2016–2018)
Justice League Action is to Justice League Unlimited what Batman: The Brave and the Bold is to Batman: The Animated Series. That is, the silly, young kid-friendly Justice League Action doesn’t try for the dramatic depths of Justice League Unlimited. But it does take full advantage of the weirder corners of the DC Universe. Shazam (formerly known as Captain Marvel) gets a lot more attention than one would expect, but that leads to delightful moments, such as a story in which Space Cabbie (voiced by Patton Oswalt, of course) helps Superman and Hawkman protect the evil inchworm Mister Mind from Lobo. Thematically rich? No. Ridiculously fun? Yes!
Batwheels (2021–Present)
Even for a superhero show, the premise of Batwheels sounds insane at first. Its heroes are not Batman and Robin, but rather the Batmobile (Jacob Bertrand) and Robin’s car (Jordan Reed and Titus Blake) and Batgirl’s motorcycle (Madigan Kacmar). Also, Ethan Hawke voices Batman. Yet, the show totally works for its young audience by injecting the energy of the Cars franchise into Batman’s wonderful toys.
Beast Boy: Lone Wolf (2024)
Beast Boy: Lone Wolf may be the most forgotten of the forgotten series on this list, at least outside of the U.K., where it played on Cartoon Network. The 10 three-minute shorts find Beast Boy taking a break from the Teen Titans and going on his own adventures under the moniker Lone Wolf, fighting mostly animal-themed villains. The series splits the tonal difference between the original Teen Titans cartoon from 2003 and the far goofier Teen Titans Go!, letting Beast Boy do superhero things while still leaving plenty of room for silliness. However, after voice actor Greg Cipes was fired for reasons that are still unclear, the show is unlikely to make it to the US, let alone continue for more seasons.
SXSW Comedy Director Sam Schles on the Stand-Ups, Podcasts, and Game Shows of 2026 Festival
South by Southwest is known for showcasing exciting innovations in entertainment and technology, and based on this year’s hefty lineup, the 2026 festival will be no exception. Staying with the ethos of identifying and spotlighting emerging trends, the 2026 SXSW Comedy Festival is sure to deliver innovative performances by established comedic icons, while also spotlighting the next generation of comedy.
Sam Schles, the director of comedy for SXSW, is dedicated to showcasing comedy influenced by contemporary culture. In doing so, the festival’s lineup will feature stand-up comedians, podcasters, social media influencers, and improv troupes across a wide range of styles and formats.
The festival’s lineup, featuring heavyweight comedians Eric André, Bill Burr, and Chelsea Peretti, will showcase where comedy is now as well as where it’s heading. But beyond the big names, this year’s programming is rooted in discovery and experimentation; two facets Schles is proud to spotlight.
Den of Geek got the chance to speak with Schles about her thought-process behind this year’s lineup, the challenges of curating a wide-ranging program, and what audiences can expect from the 2026 SXSW Comedy Festival. Below is the transcript of the interview.
DEN OF GEEK: This year is especially exciting for SXSW because the comedy, film and television, and music programming are all running concurrently for the first time. What level of coordination and collaboration does it take to pull it off?
SAM SCHLES: That was actually a huge priority of mine coming in. This is my first year at the festival and that’s exactly what I wanted to take advantage of. I see comedy as this nexus point where there’s a confluence of culture. That’s all coming together at SXSW and comedy has an awesome opportunity to spotlight the talent that we have in a different way.
It made sense to look at what comedy movies and talent were coming through and featuring them as guests on podcasts or elsewhere. We’re working with the music programmers to see which artists can get invited into one of our spaces that highlights them in a funny or unexpected light. That was definitely top of mind for me when I started programming.
What was the selection process for assembling this year’s programming? What are you looking for?
I see it as an opportunity to speak to all the different types of comedy that are happening today, whether that’s inviting a lot of digital native talent or brands or shows that could pop up live at SXSW. It’s improv, sketch, stand-up, game shows, podcasts, and even drag and cabaret. I see SXSW as the perfect place to spotlight all different types of voices, so making sure we’re hitting all of those points is integral to what defines the SXSW Comedy Festival.
I’m glad you brought that up because the Comedy Festival in particular is not just screenings or musical performances. There’s such a variety in what’s put together. There’s experimental stuff that you’re not going to see anywhere else. Was it difficult to find a balance so that there’s something for everyone and not weighted too much in one field?
That’s always on the mind from both a talent perspective and a showcase perspective. It also speaks to the other festivals too. There’s this element of discovery alongside hearing from luminaries and the people that are at the top of their field. There are people who are disrupting, alongside the previous disruptors. We have our marquee SXSW stand-up showcases that pull in a mix across the festival where you might see somebody that you already know. You might discover a new stand-up. You might see a podcast that you’re familiar with or be introduced to one that you’ve never heard before. That level of discoverability, even if you’re coming to a showcase that’s presented by a certain brand. Hopefully it offers a taste that both stretches people’s appetites for comedy and gives them something that’s also a little new in addition to fan-favorites.
It’s so much fun to see talent doing something that you haven’t seen them do before. Something I’m really excited about is that we’re bringing CHAOS to SXSW — that’s Chelsea Peretti, Natasha Leggero, and Sabrina Jalees. I think a lot of comedy fans are familiar with them, but maybe haven’t seen them do this type of show before. It’s a great opportunity to see folks in different lights.
You’ve always done a good job at amplifying female voices and it’s encouraging to see that carried over into SXSW, in terms of the diversity of comedy that’s on display.
I think it’s part of what comedy is today. I don’t think it’s something that you need to be too intentional about. That’s just where all the comedy is coming from. For example, one of the partnerships that I’m excited about this year that’s coming here for the first time is Reductress. They’re known online for being feminist, but also just having generally relatable types of content. They’re breaking out more to stand-up. They have a monthly show at Union Hall in New York. This is their first time bringing a stand-up showcase to somewhere else.
Partnering with them and comedians that fit within the ethos of what Reductress is is something that I’m excited about. The headline for me would be that there’s something for everybody and something unexpected. It speaks to the roots of the Austin comedy scene, too. I think this is a very cutting-edge city in so many different ways. That was another thing that was just exciting to me about the opportunity of leading the Comedy Festival here.
Is there a broader theme or message to this year’s festival that you’re trying to convey?
That’s going to be something that we’re really growing into. The Comedy Festival has always been amazing, but it maybe hasn’t been as visible or people didn’t come to SXSW with a comedy show top of mind. I think a big focus of this year is integrating it more into everything that’s happening at SXSW so attendees know to make comedy a priority, too. It’s something that we can definitely grow into. If this is year one, then what can we do next? I think we have a huge ramp upwards from here.
Dropout Comedy is featured at this year’s Comedy Festival and I’ve just been so impressed with their branding and evolution. What about their growth has impressed you, and why were they talent that you wanted to showcase this year?
Dropout was one of the first people that I wanted to reach out to for this festival. The partnership that we were able to create with them this year was bigger than I even imagined. We have this ACL Live show that’s a Platinum perk exclusive for SXSW Platinum badgeholders. We have something for the public and something for SXSW and then we’re also doing two live shows in our venue with them. We’re doing a live version of Dirty Laundry and a live version of Crowd Control.
As somebody who comes from a TV, digital, and film background, Dropout is taking the model of what I’ve loved about working with comedians and developing with them. They’re able to talk to their fans so organically and I’m so impressed with how they connect with their audiences. It just felt like a no-brainer to me. This is the type of brand that is indicative of where comedy is today and what people want. They have interactivity, live, digital. They have all these different parts of their machine that are so cool and non-stop funny. I’m just completely thrilled with their partnership with us this year. I’m excited to see where we can take it.
After working in comedy for so long, what emerging trends are you noticing right now in the industry and how is SXSW responding to those? What do you see in the festival’s future?
Somewhere that SXSW is uniquely positioned to amplify, and perhaps hasn’t taken full advantage of yet, is how it can really grow in the podcast space, both in terms of comedy and other topics. We can really grow as podcasts and big emerging talent move into live spaces. I think that’s strangely been the biggest growth in comedy. It’s already a huge genre, but digital creators are moving into live experiences that aren’t necessarily comedy-first. For example, Mary Beth Barone doing the Golden Globes Red Carpet content, to me, is a no-brainer. She’s a fantastic comedian and actress.
SXSW happens once a year and it’s on top of a city with all these different people coming in from all over the world. I think comedy is uniquely positioned here to play an unexpected role. Even going back to like in the early 2000s there were those Fred Armisen music journalist videos. That kind of unique comedy has always been happening, but I want it to happen more. I want SXSW to facilitate that more and play into it.
What are some of the biggest highlights from this year’s SXSW Comedy Festival that you’re excited for fans to experience?
The big one is Dropout. We have three shows with them — three different types of shows. CHAOS is a big one for me. The Reductress showcase we’re doing. Eric Andre’s podcast is going to be here and it’s sure to be nutty. I have no idea what’s going to happen and I’m glad I don’t know what’s going to happen. We’re also really excited about our opening night. We have banger after banger every day, but opening night in particular is great.
Lastly, what are one or two under the radar selections from your SXSW Festival block that people need to check out?
Our curated showcases, like SXSW stand-up, you might not know the name of everybody in the line-up, but trust me, they’re here for a reason. They’re great at what they do and they’ll be your next new favorite. So if you want to discover somebody that you haven’t heard before or see an unexpected drop-in then definitely check out one of those shows. A cabaret and drag show is something that we’ve never done at SXSW before, so if you’re looking for a totally different type of flavor then that’s going to be happening at Esther’s Follies. And then, just for some good old-fashioned stand-up, bringing Reductress here for the first time just really speaks to audiences here in a different way.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Episode 9 Review — 300th Night
The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 9.
The penultimate episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s first season is a story of endings and new beginnings. Set at the conclusion of the newly reformed institution’s first year, there’s a sense of success and accomplishment mixed in with the bittersweet feel that also accompanies major change. And there’s plenty of it. Betazed is about to be dedicated as the new seat of the Federation government, post-Burn. And an attack from Nus Braka and his Venari Ral seems imminent, as we finally uncover what it is that the space pirate stole back at the season’s midpoint. The kids have all finished their tests and assignments, and several are struggling with how to reconcile the people they were when they arrived at Starfleet Academy with who they are now.
Sam is struggling to reconcile her memory of her previous self with her newfound life, shaped by a childhood growing up with the Doctor. Jay-Den is embracing his new Starfleet found family by inviting them to become members of the Kraag clan. But Caleb, in particular, is going through it, torn between the life he’s managed to build with his classmates and friends and the one he thought he was meant to be living. (Look, his decision to reject Jay-Den’s invitation to join his family by way of a Klingon drinking ceremony was rude.) There’s a certain level of guilt at work here — Caleb’s had little luck in his search for his mom, but he also doesn’t seem to be dedicating all that much time to it anymore. He’s settling into a very different kind of life, one he never expected to have and isn’t supposed to want but clearly does, despite himself.
This interior conflict becomes very literal when Sam helps him realize he’s had messages from his mother for months, but he just didn’t come up with the right encryption code to read them. To the surprise of exactly zero people, Caleb springs into action without telling anyone what’s going on, despite having regular access to the most powerful people in his organization who might be able to help him get to his mom without putting her or himself in danger. But, because this is Starfleet Academy and we love some youthful hijinks, Sam, Darem, and Genesis end up getting sucked into his crazy scheme to steal a shuttle and cross the Federation border on their own.
He immediately plots a trip to Ukek, a planet just outside the border of Federation space that has a real rundown cantina from Star Wars vibe, full of rough types, criminals, and people living on the fringes. It’s also being targeted for annexation by the Venari Ral, the powerful group of marauders and space pirates of which Nus Braka is a member. And now they have more power than ever before, thanks to the Miyazaki-related heist he managed to pull off back at midseason.
Braka’s crew stole a very dangerous substance called Omega-47, a synthetic variant with apocalyptic-level destructive properties. A single particle is capable of shredding space and subspace so thoroughly that it makes warp travel through the area impossible, and Braka has managed to use some of the other high-tech weaponry to turn the Omega time-delayed mines that can be detonated remotely. This is all standard Star Trek technobabble that doesn’t really make a lot of sense, but the result is a nightmare scenario for the Federation, the prospect of another Burn-level event that might cripple warp travel and cut off all Federation worlds from each other once more, just as they’ve started to finally rebuild.
It is, admittedly, wildly convenient that Caleb manages to stumble upon his mother within roughly 120 seconds of beaming into Ukek’s run-down space market, but their reunion is very moving, even if it comes complete with some uncomfortable undertones. After all, these two people may love each other, but they don’t know each other anymore, and Caleb’s been on his own and making his own decisions for a long time. That Anisha steps back into his life and starts making choices for him is almost certainly something they’re going to butt heads about repeatedly in the future, particularly since now that Caleb’s achieved his impossible dream of finding his mother, he doesn’t seem to know what he’s meant to do next.
Your mileage may vary about whether or not you think he’d have left his Starfleet friends behind for good if they hadn’t all almost been arrested and/or shot, but his angry outburst toward Genesis and Darem seems to be more about forcing them to push him away than anything else. But it’s very evident that Caleb has had few people in his life he’s felt he can count on — his mother included — and really doesn’t know what to do with those who actually try and show up for him. And one of those people, clearly, is Chancellor Ake, who immediately starts breaking rules to save Caleb and the other cadets.
Ake’s guilt-based blind spot where this kid is concerned has been mildly to extremely annoying over the course of this season so far, and on some level, I wish this show were more interested in exploring some of the psychological issues Braka called her out on when it comes to her relationship with him. But Holly Hunter plays a determined avenging angel well, and Ake’s insistence that she keep the promises made to protect these kids is perfectly in keeping with the woman we’ve come to know her as. (Plus, the Doctor’s peak dad vibes the minute he learns Sam’s in danger are so great.) How she and Anisha will react to one another is something I’m very much looking forward to (hopefully) seeing next week.
“300th Night” is Starfleet Academy’s first real cliffhanger, an hour that ends with what appears to be Braka and the Venari Ral’s fairly complete victory. With Federation space ringed with destructive omega mines, the entire Starfleet fleet is boxed in, essentially leaving the rest of the galaxy open to a hostile takeover. Ake, Reno, the Doctor, six Academy cadets, and Caleb’s mom are stuck on the Athena’s saucer section, hiding just outside the minefield. They can’t get back to Betazed, the Federation can’t get to them, and they’re not exactly equipped for surviving on their own for very long. It’s…less than ideal, and that’s before we consider that Ake defied some very specific orders to go rescue her students. That’s a lot of ground for the season’s final episode to cover, but at this point, Starfleet Academy’s earned a certain degree of trust that the show will manage to pull it off.
The Bride! Review: A Beautiful Abomination
Never mind spare body parts. In Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride!, our eponymous newlywed is composed of three entirely separate and competing personalities. There is Ida, a seeming gangster’s mol hanging out in 1930s Chi during the post-Prohibition boom when we meet her; no less than the ghost of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, who possesses Ida from time to time like a regal Pazuzu that speaks the Queen’s English with perfect diction; and then, finally, the Bride(!), a resurrected blur of both personas that is revealed to be more Faye Dunaway-as-Bonnie Parker than Elsa Lanchester’s Bride of Frankenstein.
If this sounds bizarre, counterintuitive, and utterly chaotic, well… yes. But every tic and characterization, I should add, is played by tenacious Irish performer, and likely soon-to-be future Oscar-winner, Jessie Buckley. So it is also strangely fixating, even when the hodgepodge of ideas and influences Buckley and her writer-director fuse together add up to substantially less than the sum of their parts. At the risk of banality when discussing a Frankenstein picture, it’s a monstrosity of half-finished flourishes and fancies that’s been stitched together into what could charitably be called an abomination. Still, it is not one without a wacky sense of beauty to it.
As Gyllenhaal’s follow-up to her intimate and engrossing character study, The Lost Daughter, The Bride! is a daring swing; the kind of movie a budding auteur spends their creative capital on early before studios get enough perspective following a buzzy awards season (The Lost Daughter won Best Feature and Director at the Independent Spirit Awards). And in that context, the boldness of The Bride! is something to appreciate despite its many stumbles and falls.
As best can be gleaned, Gyllenhaal took a familiar, ancient intellectual property, called up all her old friends and family—including husband Peter Sarsgaard, The Dark Knight co-star Christian Bale, and brother Jake Gyllenhaal—and got them to chase every muse they could dream up with Hollywood money. This thing is, again, an expansion on The Bride of Frankenstein, the 1935 masterpiece wherein the titular character never left the lab or uttered a line. She was played, however, by Lanchester who also narrated that film as Mary Shelley.
It’s a trick Gyllenhaal replicates with galaxy-brained daftness since not only is her and Buckley’s Mary telling the second part of a story you never knew you needed, but she’s doing so from the Great Beyond where in the afterlife, she is still bedeviled by the fact she failed to flesh out the Monster’s mate (a concept that does exist in the original 1818 novel but is never fulfilled by the literary Dr. Victor Frankenstein). Thus in The Bride!, Shelley possesses Ida about 80 years after the author’s death and… promptly gets Ida murdered by gangland thugs.
Not to worry, though, because around the same time, the Frankenstein Monster, who now is already taking his cues from pop culture and simply going by “Frankenstein,” or Frank to his friends, manages to make another buddy in Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening), a scientist who isn’t mad, exactly, but is prone to take pity on lonely creatures. And Frank is one with tears in his eyes as he laments being denied “the garden of pleasures” that come from having a woman in his life.
He’s apparently wandered the world a century alone, finding solace only in the newfangled cinema screen, particularly whenever his favorite star Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal doing a pretty fantastic Fred Astaire impression) has a new musical in town. Before you can say “it’s alive!,” Frank and the good-ish doc are digging up Ida and quickening her back to life. The conscripted Bride has no memory of who she was, or why she inexplicably starts sounding like Kate Hepburn in The African Queen from time to time, but she is okay (for a while) with the notion of marrying the guy with the funny face. So long as they can go out to party, pillage, and eventually go on a vaguely feminist crime spree the leaves crooked cops and would-be rapists dead across the highways and heartlands.
If right about now you’re asking yourself how exactly all of these tonal extremes and expansive leaps in logic are bridged—they aren’t. This is a movie wherein both Mary Shelley’s ghost and her fictional creations exist simultaneously without rhyme or reason. It’s the type of movie where after Frank and Penelope (as the Bride is briefly convinced to call herself) take in a screening of White Zombie (1932), they see themselves up there on the screen as the ghouls.
The Bride! exists in a nether-realm between reality and multiple layers of fiction and artifice. Think of it as an Inception styled Purple Rose of Cairo. Or simply a mess. But within its clutter is plenty of fascinating elements to be fixated by, not least of which are the two central performances.
It’s serendipitous that The Bride! is opening right on the eve of Buckley receiving her ultimate flowers within the industry. Until roughly five minutes ago, Buckley was an incredibly versatile and underrated star of the indie scene, doing soulful work in Wilde Rose or the otherwise portentous Men. And yes, she is unforgettable in Hamnet. But the universal praise of the latter makes her star-turn here as Gyllenhaal’s post-modern avenging angel of cinematic fantasies—from Lanchester to Dunaway, and even a bit of Ginger Rogers thrown in—all the more whiplash-inducing. Buckley has been tasked to play a 1930s collage with legs, sometimes all in the same scene, by an unwieldy script that is equal parts under- and overwritten. And she is never anything less than intensely watchable while nearly the whole movie falls apart around her.
Bale is another solid anchor, particularly in the movie’s first half. More lonely and pathetic than Jacob Elordi’s recent deified version of Shelley’s Creature, Bale gets to revisit the pools of yearning humanity that made him so tragic in Hostiles or the most vulnerable (and best) Bruce Wayne to date. When he’s asked to be monstrous and violently decadent in The Bride!, he might have less success but one suspects that is the byproduct of discordant direction in a film which seeks to flitter between hardboiled shootouts and 1930s toe-tappers.
Which reminds: yes, there are musical sequences too! It begins when Frank watches Gyllenhaal hoofing with a top hat and cane, but soon goes quite literally the full Young Frankenstein, with Bale’s Monster putting on the Ritz while Buckley is doing some Lady Gaga thing in the background. On one hand, it might be the best scene in the entire movie, and on the other, it is so diametrically opposed to what else Gyllenhaal is trying to communicate about these characters and this story that it is nothing short of a catastrophic derailment of the film’s train of thought.
Curiously, this is the third Frankenstein movie we’ve had in almost as many years when you count the similarly Bride influenced Poor Things. In some ways, Gyllenhaal is more proud of embracing her pulpy influences than Yorgos Lanthimos or even Guillermo del Toro, who succeeded at turning Frankenstein into an Oscar-nominated prestige drama. The Bride! doesn’t want awards. Yet it does seem to want to be all things at once. Which is unfortunate because in the ensuing chaos it amounts to not much at all. But it sure does leave a spectacular looking trail of nonsense in its wake.
The Bride! opens on Friday, March 6.
Lanterns Trailer Name Drops One of DC’s Weirdest Heroes
Even those of us who love the first teaser for the HBO Max show Lanterns have to admit that it’s pretty light on the superhero stuff. It might be about space cops, and it might feature a founding member of the Justice League, but most of the teaser features Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and new recruit John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) traveling across the Nebraska countryside in plainclothes.
That is until the final seconds. That’s when Stewart asks Jordan if he ever talks to any other Green Lanterns. Jordan scoffs at the suggestion, (wisely) ignoring Guy Gardner to claim that he’s the only human before observing, “One of them’s a fucking squirrel.” That squirrel is a surprising deep dive for a teaser with little DC Comics lore, drawing attention to the late and loony Ch’p of H’lven.
Ch’p first appeared in 1982’s Green Lantern #148, as part of the “Tales of the Green Lantern Corps” backup stories that regularly ran after the main story. Written by Paul Kupperberg and drawn by Don Newton, the story introduces Ch’p as the noble defender of the planet H’lven, also populated by intelligent squirrels. The Guardians of the Universe, the founders and chiefs of the Green Lantern Corps, order Ch’p to come to the aid of the planet Berrith, whose dog-like inhabitants threatened to destroy H’lven long ago.
Ch’p soon became a regular fixture in Green Lantern, especially when he and several other members of the Corps were permanently stationed on Earth around the time of Crisis on Infinite Earths. That period saw the most development for his character, where he was the playful, sensitive counterpart to the cold and calculating Lantern Salaak. Artist Joe Stanton started drawing Ch’p less like a real squirrel and more like Mickey Mouse, which led writer Steve Englehart to add more Disney-inspired characters from H’lven, including girlfriend M’nn’e, best friend D’ll, and arch-enemy Doctor Ub’x.
As a favorite among fans but largely unknown to those who don’t read Green Lantern comics, Ch’p was the perfect candidate to get a tragic death. So in a 1992 issue of John Stewart’s solo book Green Lantern: Mosiac, Ch’p gets hit by a truck created by villain Sinestro. Ch’p’s roadkill end matched the tragic comedy that has always marked the character, an effect lessened some by the fact that he returned as an energy ghost until Mosiac ended a year later.
Since then, Ch’p was succeeded by fellow H’lvenite B’dg, who was introduced in 2011’s Green Lantern Corps #1 and currently serves as a member of the Blue Lantern Corps. Ch’p remains alive in other media, having appeared in a few episodes of the Green Lantern animated series that ran between 2011 and 2013 and, most recently, in the kid’s movie DC League of Super-Pets, where he was voiced by Andor‘s Diego Luna.
Ch’p is a weird character, but he’s not a weird Lantern. Throughout the ’70s and ’80s, the Green Lantern Corps gained plenty of oddball members, ranging from the blind, sound-based Lantern Rot Lop Fan to the living planet Mogo to Arkkis Chummuck, who’s basically just a giant head. The teaser for Lanterns certainly keeps things tethered to the Earth, but the very fact that its acknowledging Ch’p’s existence indicates that the DCU’s Green Lantern Corps is just as weird and varied as the group in the comics.
Lanterns premieres on HBO Max in August 2026.
Lanterns Trailer Has Hardly Any Green Lanterns And That’s Okay
Since the dawn of creation, the Guardians of the Universe have sought to atone for the sin of one of their own, a scientist whose meddling introduced evil into our reality. Those efforts reached their potential with the creation of the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic team of peacekeepers who protect their space sectors by using powerful rings. These rings harness the user’s willpower to create whatever constructs they imagine, and have been used to stop mad gods, conquerors of galaxies, and weaponers from the anti-matter universe.
None of which appear in the first teaser trailer for Lanterns. Instead, the two-and-half minute teaser follows veteran Green Lantern Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and new recruit John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) across a dusty landscape. The duo butt heads with local sheriffs and infiltrate meetings full of rednecks. While we do get a glimpse of a uniform and even an actual green lantern (the power battery the Lanterns use to charge their rings), no constructs or emerald energy appear on the screen.
And yet, Lanterns absolutely feels like a Green Lantern TV show.
The central appeal all comes down to Chandler’s take on Hal Jordan, older and more grizzled than we’ve seen in previous non-comic book incarnations. Jordan was the first Silver Age Green Lantern, created by Gil Kane and John Broome for 1959’s Showcase Comics #22. A test pilot who gets recruited into the Green Lantern Corps after his predecessor Abin Sur dies in a crash landing, Jordan quickly became the most dashing hero in the DC Universe—a quality helped by the fact that Kane modeled his look after Paul Newman.
For 1990s relaunch Green Lantern #1, artist Pat Broderick aged-up Jordan, giving him white streaks in his hair to match the twinkle in his eye. The older look suited a narrative about Jordan drifting through the American west after the Guardians disbanded the Green Lantern Corps. By the end of that story, Jordan joined with fellow human Lanterns Stewart and Guy Gardner (whom moviegoers met in last summer’s Superman) to take down a mad Guardian who had been stealing cities from various planets, including Earth.
With his dusty leather jacket and salt-and-pepper hair, Chandler fully looks the part of the Jordan from those comics. Even better is the incredible charm he brings to Jordan, even at his cockiest. This version of Jordan has already seen it all and, unlike his fresh-faced partner Stewart, isn’t overwhelmed by the mystery that’s facing them.
Chandler’s calm elevates Lanterns from the generic buddy cop show it initially seems to be. Take the previously leaked scene of Jordan testing Stewart by driving a car off a cliff. Even Martin Riggs at his most loony or Jake Peralta at his most obnoxious wouldn’t attempt something like that, but Jordan treats the act as a reasonable part of training—a point that Stewart apparently concedes when he meets back up with Hal after surviving the incident.
Lanterns certainly takes its cues from grounded police shows, most obviously True Detective. But the trailer never forgets that these are space cops with fantastic powers. Even the few glimpses of Jordan flying and the tease of a construct is more than enough to remind us that he and Stewart are indeed superheroes.
The trailer nails the personalities of its central characters and presents us with a compelling mystery. Even if the show doesn’t culminate with Qwardians, Volthoom, or any other far-out concept from the comics, Lanterns is a Green Lantern show through and through.
Lanterns premieres on HBO Max in August 2026.
How Resident Evil Requiem Celebrates the Past and Charts a Future
This article contains spoilers for Resident Evil Requiem.
Just in time for the franchise’s 30th anniversary, Capcom’s iconic survival horror franchise Resident Evil has released a new mainline game with Resident Evil Requiem. Given the series’ penchant for remaking prior titles to acclaimed effect, Requiem is the first brand-new game for the title since 2021’s Resident Evil Village. More than just continuing the overarching narrative, Requiem does what many entries in the series do so well by finding fun ways to incorporate the franchise’s extensive legacy into the game.
The number of references and allusions to past Resident Evil games throughout Requiem is staggering and it’s impressive how it not only figures out how to present them organically but not feel like overt fan service. At the same time, Requiem is fully accessible for newcomers, offering a solid survival horror experience. Here’s how Resident Evil Requiem provides a full-on celebration of Resident Evil’s extensive history while forwarding these plot threads to potentially tease its tantalizing future.
The Story of Resident Evil Requiem
Requiem is set in September 2026, 28 years after the destruction of Raccoon City as depicted in Resident Evil 2 and 3. New protagonist Grace Ashcroft’s latest assignment working for the FBI is investigating a string of deaths related to a strange contagion found in survivors from the Raccoon City incident, with the latest victim found in an abandoned hotel where Grace’s mother was murdered eight years prior to the start of the game. Upon inspecting the crime scene, Grace is ambushed by a mysterious figure named Victor Gideon, who reveals that she is the key to his latest genetic experiment involving the zombie-creating T-Virus.
Grace’s story is juxtaposed with returning protagonist Leon S. Kennedy mounting his own investigation on behalf of the Division of Security Operations (DSO). As a Raccoon City survivor himself, Leon is already beginning to exhibit visible symptoms as other victims from the pathogens, adding a sense of urgency and personal stakes to his mission. The two heroes’ paths converge at Gideon’s remote hospital before the duo eventually make their way to the ruins of Raccoon City to uncover the long-forgotten secrets of the sinister Umbrella Corporation which unleashed the terrors of the T-Virus nearly 30 years prior.
How Requiem Honors Resident Evil’s Legacy
Apart from the game’s return to Raccoon City premise, as well as Leon back in the saddle as one of the game’s protagonists, Requiem is chock full of elements from Resident Evil’s past. Grace is the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft, one of the playable characters in the 2003 online multiplayer PlayStation 2 game Resident Evil Outbreak and its 2004 follow-up. Other playable characters from the two games are alluded to through in-game files that can be found and read throughout Requiem.
Other clear references and nods to past games include an appearance by Sherry Birkin, the girl that Leon and Claire Redfield rescue in Resident Evil 2 while Chris Redfield is directly name-dropped in the game’s ending while his elite squad arrive to lend their support to Leon and Grace. In regard to the opposition, Gideon is revealed to be working with the Connections, the shady organization pulling the strings behind the events of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. These hostile forces are drawn to Raccoon City to continue the research behind the ultimate project by Oswell Spencer, Umbrella’s founder, which was sealed away in a secret laboratory under Raccoon City.
In terms of its level design, Requiem also directly evokes past Resident Evil games as well. The clearest example is the inclusion of the Raccoon City Police Department, the city’s orphanage, and Umbrella’s secret subterranean labs, without the layout resembling similar levels in the 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2. Even the game’s initial setting at the foreboding Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center is reminiscent of ornate hub settings in prior games like Spencer Mansion, the Baker estate or Castle Dimitrescu.
Mechanically, the game feels like a mix of the more stealth and tension-driven sequences in Resident Evil 7 and the combat-heavy sequences in the 2023 Resident Evil 4 remake. To solidify that connection, Grace’s portions are recommended to be played from a first-person perspective, like RE7, while Leon’s are encouraged from third-person, like RE4. But even the inventory systems evoke the two past games, with Grace’s inventory operating like the RE2 remake while Leon brings back his attaché case from RE4. Like the 2002 Resident Evil remake, fallen zombies can occasionally rise again stronger and much more agile while characters can get upgrades, including charms similar to RE4’s system, to even the score.
What Requiem Sets Up for Resident Evil’s Future
More than just bringing in a new protagonist to Resident Evil’s ongoing survival horror party, Requiem proves that the franchise is nowhere near done with the legacy of its earliest titles. Though the fight against Gideon seemingly comes to an end in Umbrella’s dilapidated heart of darkness, there are still plenty of plot threads intentionally left dangling to set up future DLC and/or sequels to continue the story. A post-credits scene goes as far as to directly suggest that the fight against the Connections is only just beginning.
But beyond the narrative, Resident Evil Requiem is a strong reminder that the franchise can be both utterly terrifying and action-packed in relatively equal measure. Every Resident Evil gradually empowers the player as they progress through the game and Requiem makes that an explicit part of Grace’s character arc, something that could guide her and similar protagonists in subsequent follow-ups. With a series as long-running and diverse in tonal and gameplay experiences as Resident Evil, Requiem serves as something of a synthesis of these disparate elements, blending them together within a familiar template that the franchise can springboard off of further.
Resident Evil Requiem is the perfect anniversary game, honoring and incorporating so much of the franchise’s past while bringing something new and fresh to the experience without alienating its legacy. The game is a full showcase of what the survival horror genre can be while reminding fans that there is no developer in the industry that consistently gets it better than Capcom. The future of Resident Evil is looking bright and like any number of zombies that Grace and Leon put down, this franchise will thankfully never stay down for too long.
Developed and published by Capcom, Resident Evil Requiem is available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, the Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
Young Sherlock Review: Guy Ritchie’s Rollicking Origin Story Forges Its Own Path
Our pop culture simply can’t get enough of Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s great detective has featured in over 250 film and television adaptations and been played by notable actors ranging from Jeremy Brett and Christopher Lee to Robert Downey, Jr. and Benedict Cumberbatch. It’s difficult to find a new angle to tackle such familiar and well-trod material, let alone one that hasn’t been done before (and likely better) by some previous adaptation. Yet, somehow, the sheer volume of Holmes in everything from films and TV shows to radio dramas, stage plays, and even video games means that, at this point, almost anything goes, an attitude that Prime Video’s Young Sherlock fully embraces from its opening moments.
The series hails from director Guy Ritchie, who helms its first two episodes and who casts a long shadow over the entire production. He has spent a fair amount of time playing with Conan Doyle’s toys already and if this eight-part series isn’t the third installment in his Sherlock Holmes feature film franchise that we all probably wish it was, it’s still a remarkably similar substitute. It is (extremely loosely) inspired by Andrew Lane’s series of YA novels, but includes none of their actual plot. It features characters from classic literature who bear little real resemblance to their on-page counterparts as we know them, but who are comprised of recognizable enough archetypes to feel familiar. The show seems as though it ought to be a prequel to Richie’s larger Holmes film universe, but it isn’t. And somehow all these disparate pieces combine to form something that is…a surprisingly good time?
Dripping with plenty of Ritchie’s favorite aesthetic tics — slow motion fight scenes, elaborately staged chase sequences, tastefully dressed Victorian men with impressive mutton chops — Young Sherlock is as much about the vibes as it is about its story. And, as a result, the show is actually a lot of fun. Its propulsive pace and seemingly endless string of increasingly wild plot twists keep things moving quickly enough so that you’ll never get bored (or think all that hard about what you’re watching). The banter is top-notch, the cast is gamely committed to the bit, and its brash, youthful attitude meshes perfectly with Ritchie’s go-for-broke storytelling style. No, this is not a particularly faithful adaptation, either of Holmes as a character or any of Conan Doyle’s stories. But the show is self-aware enough to know that, winking at its source material even as it barrels straight past it and dares you to complain about having a good time.
Young Sherlock is, as its name implies, an origin story. It follows a 19-year-old Sherlock (Hero Fiennes Tiffin), forced to work as a servant at Oxford University as punishment for a recent jail stint. According to his brother Mycroft (Max Irons), the experience is meant to teach the young man some much-needed humility — his jail sentence was less for theft and more for showing off in front of the judge — but, instead, it sees him almost immediately embroiled in a murder investigation where he himself is a primary suspect. His attempts to prove his innocence ultimately see him dragged into a much larger conspiracy, one that spans several continents and even touches on his own tragic family history. Along the way, Holmes meets a scholarship student named James Moriarty (Dónal Finn), who’s determined to help him clear his name, as well as a mysterious Chinese princess (Zine Tseng) with plenty of secrets of her own.
The series doesn’t offer a particularly deep take on Holmes as a character, preferring to wink at the audience via plenty of references about the man he’s destined to become rather than lay any real groundwork for how the undisciplined, immature boy we meet in these episodes will manage to pull such a transformation off. But, hey, a deerstalker definitely makes an appearance! The show also makes liberal use of the idea of Sherlock’s infamous mind palace as a deductive tactic, and a handful of famous lines from Conan Doyle’s original works are peppered throughout.
But Young Sherlock’s most interesting trick is the way it reinvents the idea of Holmes and Moriarty’s relationship, casting them as youthful besties in a way that both foreshadows Sherlock’s future bond with John Watson and adds an air of inevitable tragedy to almost every scene the two share in the present day. The idea of a prequel in which two future archenemies are revealed to have once been close friends isn’t exactly new in our modern-day television landscape. Still, Young Sherlock going there with Holmes and Moriarty, two of literature’s most famous enemies, actually manages to feel fresh, and their dynamic is undoubtedly the series’ strongest element.
Unlike poor Watson, Moriarty is clearly portrayed as Holmes’s intellectual equal, and the two share the investigative workload from the start, hatching mad schemes and theories together in ways that highlight how truly similar they both are. Yet James’ background as a working-class orphan who’s had to scramble for his opportunities and is constantly threatened with losing his scholarship sits in sharp contrast to Sherlock’s, who comes from a well-off family and has a powerful older brother whose entire existence seems to be dedicated to getting him out of trouble. It’s when Young Sherlock sits in these differences that it’s at its most compelling, as they’re clearly the root from which their diverging moral codes and priorities will one day spring.
Fiennes Tiffin makes for a serviceable if not particularly memorable Holmes. Boyish and intelligent but without the cruelty that can so often go hand in hand with Sherlock’s genius, he’s an easy character to like, even if he suffers from fairly inconsistent characterization over the course of this first season. Instead, it’s Finn who steals the show, crafting a Moriarty who is charismatic, cunning, and gregariously charming in a way that frequently overshadows his BFF whose name happens to be in the series’ title. The supporting cast is stacked, from Colin Firth’s turn as the pompous Sir Bucephalus Hodge to Natascha McElhone and Joseph Fiennes as Sherlock’s mentally ill mother and absentee father, respectively.
As the season rockets toward a conclusion that upends most of what young Holmes was given to understand about his life, things escalate in ways that are, honestly, fairly ridiculous if you look too closely at them. (Or if you happen to be a Conan Doyle purist of any stripe.) But as the elaborate set pieces and witty quips pile up, you’ll probably be having too much fun to care.
All eight episodes of Young Sherlock are available to stream on Prime Video now.
SXSW Vice President of Film & TV Claudette Godfrey Talks 2026 Festival Line-Up
With South by Southwest set to begin on March 12, it’s time to start planning out what film and TV premieres, concerts, panels, and comedy shows to attend. As much as one might want to experience everything the festival has to offer, there’s simply too much to see it all. In the spirit of innovation, the festival is adapting this year, featuring TV, music, film, and comedy programming running concurrently for the first time in SXSW history.
What goes into curating a lineup that’s intriguing for audiences while also benefiting the creatives behind these ambitious projects? Den of Geek got the chance to speak with Claudette Godfrey, SXSW’s vice president of film and television, about planning around tricky timeslots, program locations, the coveted midnight movie slots, and the “super, super weird” picks in the lineup that may turn out to be the best films and shows of the year. Below is the transcript of the interview.
DEN OF GEEK: This year is especially exciting for SXSW because the comedy, film and television, and music programming are all running concurrently for the first time. What level of coordination and collaboration does it take to pull it off?
CLAUDETTE GODFREY: I think it’s definitely a big change. Part of the reason they were staggered before was because Austin just didn’t have the infrastructure for everyone to be here. It used to be that there wouldn’t be a room left in the city, but now there are like 100 more hotels or something and we don’t have those capacity and logistic issues that we used to have. Everybody can be together, and I think it’s going to be very exciting.
In terms of the coordination, it’s really the same as always. We’ve been the spine of the event, where we were going the full 10 days, so we’ve always had a lot of coordination with all of the other events that were happening during it. It kind of just lifted some of the previous restrictions that existed around scheduling.
What was the selection process for assembling this year’s programming? What are you looking for?
The biggest difference this year is that we had a much tighter schedule because we lost three days. So the process was actually just a bit more deliberate because we were very concerned we would fall in our normal programming habits and end up with too many films and not the right slots for them. That’s why we did kind of a more split thing between our two announcements because we just really wanted to make sure we were getting the right films and the right locations. We do our final programming in tandem with the schedule so we can kind of fit in as many projects as we can. In terms of our shared programming vision, that really doesn’t ever change. It’s really, really focused on finding the most exciting gems in the program.
I think it’s so hard to explain the taste of a festival. Even the idea that festivals have different “tastes” is sort of a revelation for some people. But for us, our taste is really focused on two main things: the films and the filmmakers. If this festival is the right place for this film and if the filmmaker will have a great experience, we really want to give that to filmmakers because we know we can. A really serious war documentary could be great, but it’s not really what our audience is going to go see. If we program that then it might be a little bit of a disappointing experience for the filmmaker.
We’re really focused on the discovery aspect of things. At the very end, the last decisions become the hardest because we get into this crazy headspace. We always end up with a good spread and we want those last spots that we fill to be opportunities to take chances. We want to have space for things that aren’t perfectly polished. We want to make sure we’re making an ideal space for the newest voices. Our program this year has about 50% first-time feature directors, which is what we usually have. That’s the most exciting part of things to bring people who have not had a film into our existing community. I’ve started calling it the South by Southwest Filmmakers Club.
We’re also just really focused on our audience because we want to make both sides successful. We want our program to reflect a super broad spectrum so filmmakers see that we celebrate all kinds of film and TV and not just what’s supposed to be important. Everybody is at the same screenings and it’s a different experience for everyone because we don’t separate press and industry. Austin has such a great movie-going tradition and there are so many people here in town that may only go to a few things, but we have a bit more of a general audience than some festivals do. We’re really just trying to have a big party and celebrate the filmmakers.
This year I started saying that our event is like an inflection point for the younger people who are volunteering and attending, who become inspired, and those whose work is being seen for the first time at a festival. Even the big talent who are coming attached to tent pole films still get to see their work with an enthusiastic audience.
I’m always really impressed with the different programming blocks that are assembled for television and film, like Visions, 24 Beats Per Second, and the Midnighter block. You guys always go above and beyond with the Midnight picks. How do you meet expectations there and does it always seem appropriate to heavily program horror in that space?
I think there’s been a growing feeling that a lot of festivals’ genre blocks have become broader with their interpretations, but that’s not the case here. We’ve had a few documentaries in those sections over the years, but it’s also been within a logical context. It can be jarring with some festivals when you’re like, “Why is this airing at midnight?” A midnight movie sets your expectations and you want it to be a dark, bloody, weird affair, but also one that prompts a real emotional reaction.
I think we have pretty high expectations for what goes in that block, while we want to maintain the diversity and different kinds of filmmakers. They’re all really different and crazy. One of our favorites is Fifteen, which is about a Mexican girl who’s on the eve of her quinceanera. It’s a horror movie centered around a quinceanera, which is awesome. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before.
This year has some extremely interesting headliner films, like Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters, Jorma Taccone’s Over Your Dead Body, and Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. Why did these feel like the right movies to stand out as showcase pieces for the year?
I wouldn’t make I Love Boosters the opening night film if it wasn’t phenomenal. I’ll say that much. It’s perfect for opening night because it sets the tone. It’s a party. Everybody in it is so good, but then Boots is also such a unique filmmaker who actually has a distinct vision. Everything he makes has his fingerprints on it and this film is no different. I can pretty much predict what’s going to happen in most films, but I could not do that with this. They’re going to do so many cool activations around it because it’s such a unique piece. It’s a match made in heaven for opening night.
We’re hoping that some of these other first-time filmmakers with their weird movies and visions are going to keep making that kind of groundbreaking stuff. Ready or Not 2 is also phenomenal. We’re not playing a sequel unless it’s amazing. And it starts like the minute after the first one ends. And Pretty Lethal? Have you ever seen teenage girls who have to fight their way out with just their wits and their ballerina outfits that they happen to be in.
I love that SXSW doesn’t just celebrate film, but also television, which only seems appropriate as lines continue to blur between these industries. You’ve got some great TV programming this year between The Audacityand The Comeback. Claudette, what has it been like to see this festival element continue to expand?
I just always want more of it. But it’s harder to program TV because they get finished later and they are moving their dates even more wildly than the film release schedule. So there’s a lot of stuff that we saw that ended up moving around. Margo’s Got Money Troubles is here opening night and it presents such a next-level situation. Michelle Pfeiffer is maybe one of the best people that’s ever been alive and she’s amazing in this, especially when she’s together with Elle [Fanning]. And then Nick Offerman is playing a totally different kind of character than he normally does. Nicole Kidman shows up. Greg Kinnear, too.
Then there are also things like Family Movie, which is quite literally the Bacon family making a horror-comedy movie together. It’s ridiculous and hilarious. I’m kind of excited for there to be a renaissance of genuine people who are involved in amazing artistic projects. The Dark Wizard is really interesting, too. It’s not from [climber Dean Potter’s] point of view, but it’s all the people in his life talking about what makes you into a person. It’s a really interesting portrait of a life.
Lastly, what are one or two under the radar selections from your SXSW Festival block that people need to check out?
The Peril at Pincer Point is super, super weird. It’s like a prophecy that has to do with crabs. It’s in black-and-white and it’s a whole thing. Once I was like 10 minutes in, I knew we’d be getting it. There’s not going to be anything else like it, which is always exciting. There’s another film called Perfect, that’s in the Visions block. It may not end up being that under-the-radar because Julia Fox is in it, but they do a really good job of taking what appears to be a super micro-budget and creating what feels like a much bigger story and world.
Amazing Live Sea Monkeysis also exactly for SXSW audiences. It’s like Grey Gardens, but it’s the woman who was married to the guy who invented Sea Monkeys. She’s older now and trying to keep the legacy going, but there’s all this crazy history and this toy company is fighting her for the patent. It’s just really interesting. Power Ballad isn’t getting its premiere at SXSW, but it’s going to be the number one crowd-pleaser. It’s John Carney’s new film with Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas. It’s unbelievably charming and there’s a ton of singing in there. A lot of conflict, too. It’s pretty great.
The Case for Michael B. Jordan Winning Best Actor at the Oscars
For a lot of awards prognosticators, the race for Best Actor comes down to two names. In one corner, you have Leonardo DiCaprio, a perennial awards favorite who only nabbed his first piece of hardware over a decade ago, putting himself through the wringer for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant. In the other corner, there’s Timothée Chalamet, an up-and-comer who already has acclaimed performances in blockbusters and art films. Best Picture contenders One Battle After Another and Marty Supreme gave both men opportunity to play complicated characters, all but confirming that it will all come down to DiCaprio and Chalamet.
And then on March 1, Michael B. Jordan won the Actor Award for Best Actor. Not only did Jordan’s win disrupt the two-man race, but he might have rendered it irrelevant, becoming the new front-runner for the Oscar.
At first glance, Jordan has the easier assignment in Sinners. Yes, he does play two characters, twin brothers Elijah “Smoke” and Elias “Stack” Moore, and yes, the twins are both criminals. But the movie treats the pair as clear heroes, at least until Stack gets turned into a member of the thrall led by vampire Remmick (Jack O’Connell).
Contrast that to Chalamet’s work as Marty Mauser, a mewling, selfish jerk who somehow guesses correctly that he’s at the center of a bombastic sports movie. Chalamet never apologizes for his character, and invites the audience to dislike him, even when Mauser himself is convinced that everything he does is great. Then there’s burned out revolutionary Bob Ferguson, who stumbles his way toward rescuing his daughter, with none of the cool that once made DiCaprio a teen heartthrob.
Yet, that reading overlooks the nuances that Jordan infuses into the characters to distinguish them beyond their different color schemes. As the more serious of the two, Smoke has a more stoic disposition, getting right down to business and asking the tough questions. Conversely, the good natured Stack has a less cynical nature, and is more open to what life offers him.
Different as these two personalities are, Jordan never overplays them. Instead, the differences show in subtle ways. When Smoke finds two men stealing from his truck outside a general store, he has no problem shooting them, even after identifying one as an old accomplice. But he thinks carefully before doing so, with Jordan creasing his brow and letting the sides of his mouth droop as Smoke feels a bit of sadness about his actions.
Contrast that to the openness displayed by Stack, especially when he first hears Sammie Moore (Miles Caton) play guitar. Director Ryan Coogler trains his camera off to the side of the instrument’s neck, letting us see all of Jordan’s face as Stack takes in the sounds he hears. Jordan holds Stack’s excitement for a moment before finally exploding in excitement, showing us everything we need to know about the character’s joie de vivre.
While Jordan’s technical prowess is impressive, that’s not the only element to his performance. He’s a full-on movie star in Sinners, bursting with charisma. When he swaggers into the town as Smoke and Stack, we viewers have no choice but to watch. In the second half of the movie, he makes Stack into a seductive villain and Smoke into a proper action hero, playing both sides of a classic genre flick all by himself. Just as much as Coogler’s bombastic direction, Jordan’s pure magnetism helped Sinners become a blockbuster sensation, despite the hard truths it has to tell.
Having already earned acclaim for his work in The Wire, Black Panther, and Creed, Jordan is clearly one of our most exciting actors. The Actor’s Award only proves that his technically complex but incredibly satisfying take in Sinners deserves attention. It reminded us that the Best Actor race was never just a two-man affair, and is far, far from over.
Sinners is now streaming on HBO Max.
Game of Thrones Franchise Continues to Evolve With Movie in Production
Since 2011, Game of Thrones has been the defining franchise of HBO. And as the channel’s famous slogan taught us, HBO is not TV.
The latest Game of Thrones project is about to take that slogan seriously. According to The Wrap, a movie based on the George R. R. Martin books has gone into production. The screenplay will be written by Beau Willimon, former showrunner for the Netflix series House of Cards and a writer on Andor. The film will be the latest continuation of a franchise that seeks to expand beyond books and television to become an enduring pop culture powerhouse.
Game of Thrones began life as the 1996 novel A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, which was followed by four more full-length novels through 2011 and several novellas and companion books. The series launched a host of comic books, board games, video games, and other media, but it truly became a pop-cultural sensation with the release of Game of Thrones on HBO in 2011. Even though the show ended on a down note with the unpopular eighth season in 2019, new shows House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms have renewed interest.
Impressive as all of that is, Game of Thrones still doesn’t have the reach of, say, Star Wars or even Lord of the Rings. Which is to say, that it doesn’t have a movie, the one last entertainment sector left untouched by Martin’s work. Clearly, HBO and its studio Warner Bros. can change that.
Still, the question remains: what will the movie be about? Martin has certainly given adapters plenty to work with, and Warner could even create new versions of the stories covered in the TV series, in the same way that the studio is readapting the Harry Potter books with a new cast. But with so much lore from the books untapped, it seems most likely that Willimon will explore some aspect of Westeros unseen on TV.
The most obvious choice would be the conquest of Aegon I, which has long-been rumored as the subject of a movie. Aegon I Targaryen a.k.a. Aegon the Conquereror established the world of Westeros as we know it. With his two sisters and three dragons, Aegon took control of six of the seven kingdoms and was the first to sit upon the Iron Throne. The Targaryen dynasty flows from him, and every Game of Thrones show has been in his shadow. Few events in the history of Westeros are more deserving of the big screen treatment.
The conquest of Aegon isn’t necessarily the most exciting story in the franchise’s history, as it just involves regular people getting smooshed and burned by dragons. But, then again, the HBO series became a sensation by showing horrible things happening to people, so maybe that’s exactly how Game of Thrones will conquer the movies the way it conquered the TV screen.
Scream’s Carpenter Sisters Shouldn’t Just Be Forgotten
This article contains spoilers for Scream (2022) and Scream VI butNOT Scream 7.
Even before the 2022 movie called Scream hit theaters, most anticipated how it would begin. A young woman gets a call from a stranger speaking in the voice of Roger L. Jackson. The stranger asks the young woman about her favorite scary movie, and then begins quizzing her on horror trivia, with the threat that wrong answers will end the life of a loved one. When the stranger gets bored by the game, someone in a Ghostface mask will attack the woman, stabbing her several times as the sound of her shrieks accompanies the movie’s title card.
Everyone knew Scream 2022 would begin this way because the first Scream began that way in 1996. In the first movie, the death of Casey Becker, played by big-name ’90s girl Drew Barrymore established the slasher’s stakes. 2022’s Scream threatened to do the same with Tara Carpenter, played by Generation Z it girl Jenna Ortega. But when Tara survives, and especially when she learns her sister Sam (Melissa Barrera) is to be revealed the daughter of original killer Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), the latter movie moves into new territory, even for a legacy sequel.
From that moment on, the Carpenter sisters became a different type of Scream final girl, one that deserves more than the offhand reference they receive in Scream 7.
The Rules Have Changed
At the end of Scream (2022), one of the Ghostface killers, Amber Freeman (Mikey Madison), strangles Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and gloats about killing her ex-husband Dewey Riley (David Arquette). Amber had just beaten down original final girls Gale and Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and was ready to take control of the franchise. “Time to pass the torch!” she sneers, just before Gale recovers and she and Sidney both shoot Amber and set her ablaze.
Amber’s death fits perfectly with the legacy sequel narrative that the movie set up about an hour earlier, when everyone except Sidney and Gale gathered together to discuss the plot of Scream. After realizing that the most recent victim, Vince Schneider (Kyle Gallner), was the nephew of Matthew Lillard‘s character Stu Macher, cinephile Mindy Martin-Meeks (Jasmin Savoy Brown) concludes that the killer is creating a “requel” or legacy sequel. Mindy postulates that the latest Stab film—the franchise-within-the-franchise based on the Woodsboro Murders of Scream (1996)—has disappointed some fans so much that they’re bringing things back to the first film by murdering people involved with the franchise.
That’s bad news for most people in the living room, as it includes Dewey, Billy Loomis’ daughter Sam, Wes Hicks (Dylan Minnette), son of Sheriff Judie Hicks (Marley Shelton) from Scream 4, in addition to Mindy and her brother Chad (Mason Gooding), children of Martha (Heather Matarazzo) and relatives of the first guy to explain the horror rules, Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy).
Mindy’s theory makes perfect sense for a legacy sequel like Scream (2022). As Mindy herself points out, everything from Halloween to Star Wars had been following those rules, and the 2022 movie was executing it well. The franchise had always been self-aware, ever since screenwriter Kevin Williamson began penning a film called Scary Movie, which he and Wes Craven would bring to the screen as Scream. New directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and screenwriters James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick followed that lead by having the Meeks-Martin twins and Sam’s boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid) comment upon the state of horror, before revealing that Richie was the other Ghostface, mirroring the romantic partner twist from the first movie.
Just like Sidney, Sam has to kill her boyfriend Richie, while it’s up to Gale and Sidney to take down Amber. Except, that’s not what happens. Before the credits roll, a burned and bloody Amber pops up for one more attack, and Tara grabs a gun and shoots her. Moreover, Sam doesn’t just kill Richie out of self-defense. She stabs and slices him with the brutality she inherited from her father Billy, who appears as a hallucination and stares in approval.
Sam prefaces her attack with a new rule, adding and expanding on the franchise’s vernacular: “Never fuck with the daughter of a serial killer.”
New Kids in New York
Of course, the rules line and the Carpenter girls’ connection to Billy are all knowing winks to the rest of the franchise, an expected part of any legacy sequel. However, the ending to Scream (2022) went far beyond simply commenting on genre. It turned the Carpenter girls into complex characters, very different from Sidney or even the oft-prickly Gale.
Nowhere is that more clear than in Scream VI, which moved Sam and Tara out of Woodsboro and relocated them to New York, leaving Sidney behind. Certainly, Scream VI had its connections to earlier in the franchise, as Gale returns, as does Kirby Reed, Hayden Panettiere’s fan-favorite from Scream 4. Moreover, the climax takes place in a theater playing the Stab movies, filled with memorabilia from previous murders.
Yet, within that overabundance of references, Scream VI gives Sam and Tara room to breathe. The killers this time are Richie’s father Wayne (Dermot Mulroney) and his siblings Quinn (Liana Liberato) and Ethan (Jack Champion). The trio seek revenge for Richie’s death, which they undergo by staging an elaborate campaign to convince her that she’s a killer.
The plan works, but not in the way that the family intended. Sam once again gives into the urgings of her father, going so far as to put on the Ghostface mask and to make threatening phone calls to Wayne and his family before killing them. The movie ends on an ambiguous note, suggesting that Sam may not be able to resist her legacy much longer.
By focusing on Sam’s deteriorating mental condition, these two Scream movies add something new to the franchise. No longer are the movies about people who take their love of scary movies too far. Now they’re about someone who cannot escape the legacy of violence her father left to her, a legacy that not even her sister’s love can break. The Carpenter sisters deepened the themes of the franchise and moved them into a new direction, reviving the franchise once more.
And then, they were tossed away because studio heads got their feelings hurt.
Goodbye, Carpenters; Hello, Sidney
It’s hard to be excited about the return of Sidney Prescott for Scream 7, but it’s equally hard to hate her return too. Campbell was an integral part of the franchise’s success, and Sidney remains a compelling final girl.
But the Carpenter sisters were something different, something new to the Scream franchise and something rarely seen in horror in general. Sam’s fight against her father’s memory and the connection she had with Tara made her distinct from Sidney, Gale, and any other character who came before her.
With the Carpenter sisters at the center, Scream could still deliver all the great kills and smart commentary that people wanted. But they could also deliver a depth and complexity that no Scream fan anticipated.
Scream 7 is now playing in theaters worldwide.
Mike Flanagan Will Bring Carrie into the 2020s By Updating the Bullying
Even if you’ve never seen the 1976 Brian De Palma classic Carrie, you know the central image: telekinetic teen Carrie White, covered with pig’s blood at the senior prom. The scene comes directly from the 1974 Stephen King novel, and has rightly earned its place in horror history. However, like many of King’s concepts, it’s rooted in teen culture from decades ago, even feeling a bit outdated by the time the movie arrived in the mid-1970s.
While teen culture may change, bullying is eternal. So while Mike Flanagan‘s upcoming miniseries adaptation of Carrie for Prime Video will certainly share some elements of the King novel and the De Palma movie, its depiction of bullying will feel fresh. According to Matthew Lillard, who plays high school principal Henry Grayle in the series, Flanagan “went back, pulled out other elements from the book, then took real-life examples of what’s happening with bullying in America and applied them to this new adaptation.” Lillard told Screen Rant that Flanagan’s “literally ripping things from the headlines and applying them to modern day so that people can relate to what Carrie’s going through.”
More than just ensuring verisimilitude, Flanagan’s updates can enhance the story’s central themes. Carrie follows the last days of high schooler Carrie White—played by Sissy Spacek in 1976 and by Summer H. Howell in the miniseries—a sheltered teen who manifests telekenetic powers. Originally portrayed by a thundering Piper Laurie, and now by Flanagan regular Samantha Sloyan, Carrie’s religious fundamentalist mother Margaret abuses her daughter, making her afraid of herself and making her a target of high school bullies.
As such, Carrie plays as a twist on the classic trope that regular humans are the real monsters. Carrie is a sweet and vulnerable girl who is mistreated by her classmates and, in the novel, by townspeople. Even after her powers manifest, Carrie doesn’t initially embrace them to lord over others. Only after a prank leaves her covered in pig’s blood at the prom does Carrie crack and go on a rampage, killing friend and tormentor alike.
Since 1976, Carrie has been updated three times, with most trying to bring the tale into the present. 1999’s The Rage: Carrie 2 continues the story of the first film by having survivor-turned-guidance-counselor Sue Snell (Amy Irving) encounter another telekinetic girl (Emily Bergl), who experiences date rape instead of bullying. While the 2002 TV movie starring Angela Bettis brought little new to the story (which is surprising, given the involvement of screenwriter Bryan Fuller), the 2013 remake starring Chloë Grace Moretz and directed by Kimberly Peirce integrates social media into the story.
Even more than the 2013 film, Flanagan’s update will have to deal with the reality of school shootings, which fundamentally change the tenor of King’s novel. In 1974, a school massacre seemed unthinkable. In 2026, they are old news. However, Flanagan has never been one to go for shock value, and his soulful, monologue-heavy approach may be just what Carrie needs to make even tired images feel fresh and scary again.
Carrie streams on Prime Video in October 2026.
Batman v. Superman: Inside Zack Snyder’s MPA Rating Battle
Zack Snyder is known to be a vocal defender of his own work. The Rebel Moon director, who was considered the overseer of the DCEU for a number of years before the torch eventually passed to James Gunn and Peter Safran, is still defending some of the decisions he made while crafting those movies today, and his 2016 DC superhero movie, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, is no exception.
The theatrical cut of the film, which saw Henry Cavill’s Superman and Ben Affleck’s Batman duke it out before bonding over their moms both being called Martha, was a smash hit despite largely negative reviews from critics, but Snyder’s director’s cut is often held up as a better version of the story.
In a recent episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Snyder told host Josh Horowitz that his “100 percent honest reaction” to the movie and how it’s been received is “Do you really want a movie that’s [had] all the edges shaved off it by the focus groups? Do you really want a movie that has [had] decisions made in the boardroom, or tested ideas being rendered for your enjoyment? Do you really want the Kmart version of your story? Is that what you really want?”
Snyder also revealed that he was locked in a battle with the MPA (then known as the MPAA) over the content of Batman v. Superman before its release, saying that when they attempted to secure a PG-13 rating for the movie, the MPA kept “kicking” it back to them, maintaining it was still an R.
“I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? We’re taking everything out!’ And I remember someone saying we got a report from the MPAA saying like, ‘We just don’t like the idea of Batman fighting Superman. So that kind of makes it an R,'” Snyder recalled, adding that when the two DC characters battled each other, the MPA thought it was “rude” for them to also destroy various surroundings, such as radiators.
“We should’ve realized then that we were kind of kicking the zeitgeist in the nuts a little bit,” he said. “That we were going to anger people, because not only do they not want their heroes deconstructed, they don’t want their heroes battling each other on a road to deconstructing the ‘why’ of their existence. That is another sacrilege.”
Yes, that was definitely the issue with Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. For sure.
Original Scream 7 Plan Would Have Given Us a Unique Final Girl
With Scream 7 out in theaters, slasher fans are saying “Hello, Sidney” all over again… for the sixth time in 30 years. Neve Campbell remains a scream queen for her work as Sidney Prescott, survivor of the Woodsboro Murders, but this latest outing has revealed that the franchise may have long run out of things to say about its central character. That feeling only is only intensified by the fact that Sidney had moved away from the chaos, ceding the attention to Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera), a very different type of survivor.
Unlike her sister Tara (Jenna Ortega), Sam had hallucinations of her father Billy Loomis, the original Scream killer, once again played by Skeet Ulrich. More than just a call back, Billy’s return would have been a longer arc, as “part of coming back for five and six was being a part of seven,” Ulrich told the New York Post. “It was a three-picture arc for Billy Loomis, or the imagination of Billy Loomis in Melissa Barrera’s character’s head. But when all that went down with her, obviously you lose her and you lose what’s in her head.”
The “her” in question is Barrera, and “all that went down” was the decision by Paramount and CEO/Trump sycophant David Ellison to fire her from the project after she spoke out against ethnic cleansing in Palestine. Ortega and eventually director Christopher Landon soon quit in solidarity with Barrera, forcing the studio to restructure Scream 7. They settled on a tired slasher rehash with Campbell back in the lead, the return of the other original killer Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), and original screenwriter Kevin Williamson behind the camera to direct.
Even those who liked the Scream 7 that hit theaters must admit that the Loomis/Carpenter plot was building up to something more interesting than the standard slasher story. From 2022 reboot Scream through the NYC-set Scream VI, directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and writers James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick had found a new twist to the franchise’s central premise about obsessions with killers.
Certainly, both films had murderers whose love of scary movies drove them to put on a Ghostface mask and stab people to death. But where Sidney Prescott was always a woman hunted for the actions of her mother Maureen, Sam was a woman hunted by her father and his expectations for her. Both Scream (2022) and Scream VI played with the idea that Sam would eventually succumb to the family madness and start killing.
That tension made Sam both a victim and a potential killer, something rarely seen in slashers. The concept showed up in 1981’s Happy Birthday to Me, the very end of 1988’s Halloween 4 (only to be botched by Halloween 5), and more recently in James Wan‘s insane Malignant (2021). But the slow burn of Tara’s struggle made her conflict more rich and complicated.
But in the end, she said something that offended the boss’s political preferences, so now we don’t get that movie. Instead, we have Sidney still dealing with Ghostfaces in her 50s. It almost makes you want to scream.
Scream 7 is now playing in theaters.
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.
DATE
SHOW
NETWORK
Thursday, March 5
Vladimir
Netflix
Thursday, March 5
Ted Season 2
Peacock
Friday, March 6
Boyfriend on Demand
Netflix
Friday, March 6
The Dinosaurs
Netflix
Friday, March 6
Hello Bachchon
Netflix
Friday, March 6
Still Shining
Netflix
Friday, March 6
Friends Like These: The Murder of Skylar Neese
Hulu
Friday, March 6
Outlander Season 8
Starz
Saturday, March 7
Beastars Final Season Part 2
Netflix
Sunday, March 8
Rooster (10:00 p.m.)
HBO
Tuesday, March 10
One Piece Season 2
Netflix
Wednesday, March 11
Age of Attraction
Netflix
Wednesday, March 11
Love Is Blind: The Reunion
Netflix
Wednesday, March 11
Scarpetta
Prime Video
Wednesday, March 11
Sunny Nights
Hulu
Thursday, March 12
Virgin River Season 7
Netflix
Thursday, March 12
Love Is Blind: Sweden Season 3
Netflix
Friday, March 13
Dynasty: The Murdochs
Netflix
Friday, March 13
Fatal Seduction Season 3
Netflix
Friday, March 13
That Night
Netflix
Saturday, March 14
Rooster Fighter (12:00 a.m.)
Adult Swim
Saturday, March 14
The Madisons
Paramount+
Monday, March 16
Born to Bowl (9:00 p.m.)
HBO
Wednesday, March 18
Eva Lasting Season 4
Netflix
Wednesday, March 18
Radioactive Emergency
Netflix
Wednesday, March 18
Furies: Resistance Season 2
Netflix
Wednesday, March 18
Invincible Season 4
Prime Video
Wednesday, March 18
Imperfect Women
Apple TV
Thursday, March 19
Steel Ball Run JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
Netflix
Thursday, March 19
Meal Ticket
Prime Video
Friday, March 20
Deadloch Season 2
Prime Video
Friday, March 20
Jury Duty Presents Company Retreat
Prime Video
Sunday, March 22
The Comeback Season 3
HBO
Sunday, March 22
The Bachelorette Season 22 (8:00 p.m.)
ABC
Sunday, March 22
The Faithful (8:00 p.m.)
Fox
Sunday, March 22
The Forsytes (9:00 p.m.)
PBS
Sunday, March 22
The Count of Monte Cristo (10:00 p.m.)
PBS
Monday, March 23
Inside Season 3
Netflix
Tuesday, March 24
Ready or Not: Texas
Netflix
Tuesday, March 24
Daredevil: Born Again Season 2
Disney+
Wednesday, March 25
Heartbreak High Season 3
Netflix
Wednesday, March 25
Homicide: New York Season 2
Netflix
Wednesday, March 25
Bait
Prime Video
Thursday, March 26
Jo Nesbo’s Detective Hole
Netflix
Thursday, March 26
Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen
Netflix
Friday, March 27
The Parisian Agency: Exclusive Properties Season 6
Netflix
Friday, March 27
Privilèges
HBO Max
Friday, March 27
For All Mankind Season 5
Apple TV
Monday, March 30
The Feud on Shelbury Drive
Acorn TV
Wednesday, April 1
Love on the Spectrum Season 4
Netflix
Thursday, April 2
XO, Kitty Season 3
Netflix
Friday, April 3
Your Friends & Neighbors Season 2
Apple TV
Monday, April 6
Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord
Disney+
Wednesday, April 8
The Boys Season 5
Prime Video
Wednesday, April 8
The Testaments
Hulu
Thursday, April 9
The Miniature Wife
Peacock
Sunday, April 12
The Audacity (9:00 p.m.)
AMC
Thursday, April 16
Beef Season 2
Netflix
Friday, April 17
Roommates
Netflix
Sunday, April 19
From Season 4 (9:00 p.m.)
MGM+
Monday, April 20
Kevin
Prime Video
Monday, April 20
Sullivan’s Crossing (8:00 p.m.)
The CW
Thursday, April 23
Stranger Things: Tales from ’85
Netflix
Wednesday, April 29
The House of the Spirits
Prime Video
Wednesday, April 29
Widow’s Bay
Apple TV
Thursday, May 7
M.I.A.
Peacock
Friday, May 8
Unconditional
Apple TV
Tuesday, May 12
Devil May Cry Season 2
Netflix
Friday, May 15
Berlín and the Lady with an Ermine
Netflix
Friday, May 15
Rivals Season 2
Hulu
Thursday, May 21
The Boroughs
Netflix
Wednesday, May 27
Spider-Noir
MGM+
Thursday, May 28
The Four Seasons Season 2
Netflix
Friday, May 29
Star City
Apple TV
Wednesday, June 3
The Legend of Vox Machina Season 4
Prime Video
Thursday, June 11
Sweet Magnolias Season 5
Netflix
Friday, June 19
Sugar Season 2
Apple TV
Thursday, July 9
Little House on the Prairie Season 1
Netflix
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.
Baz Luhrmann Nearly Made a Silver Surfer Movie
Elvis director Baz Luhrmann was once a big fan of the Silver Surfer, revealing that he came close to making a solo movie featuring the Marvel character back in the ’90s.
On the Happy Sad Confused podcast recently, Luhrmann told host Josh Horowitz that he also “very stupidly” turned the first Spider-Man and Harry Potter films, adding that he “would be a very wealthy person” if he’d decided to helm those movies instead of choosing projects like Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!.
“My brand is about taking stuff that people think is cheesy or forgotten or even new works, but primary stuff,” Luhrmann mused. “I need to prove it to be relevant and new and fresh and of the moment. I’m not quite sure why, but it is [my] brand.”
Still, the Aussie director was tempted by the offer of making a Silver Surfer movie following the release of his successful debut feature film, Strictly Ballroom. “Way back in the day, I just thought, oh, I love Silver Surfer so much. Before Marvel was so big, you know, this was really early. And the guy who owned Marvel sent me all those Silver Surfer toys and books, and I went like, hmm, philosophical, surfer in space, you know. But alas, no, I did Romeo + Juliet instead. It worked out for everybody.”
Astronomer Norrin Radd was originally created by Jack Kirby for Marvel in 1966, when Radd saved his homeworld by agreeing to become a herald for the planet-devourer Galactus and was imbued with immense power. He also got a new silver body and a surfboard that allowed him to travel faster than the speed of light, becoming the Silver Surfer.
The Radd version of Silver Surfer has appeared in a clutch of Marvel TV shows and movies over the years, including in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, where he was portrayed by Doug Jones and voiced by Laurence Fishburne. 2025’s The Fantastic Four First Steps featured the Shalla-Bal incarnation of the Silver Surfer, played by Julia Garner.
A standalone Silver Surfer movie has so far eluded Marvel, but 1998’s Silver Surfer: The Animated Series did a grand job of telling Norrin Radd’s tragic tale.
