Singapore-based microdrama distributor RisingJoy has struck content licensing deals with more than 50 apps and platforms across 30-plus countries, the company said, as it positions itself for a broader role spanning original production and co-development.
The expansion arrives as the microdrama market outside China is projected to reach $4.2 billion this year, according to Media Partners Asia. RisingJoy’s confirmed long-term platform partners include Viu, Kuku TV and IDN App. The company says its selection approach is driven by performance data, with every title required to show active audience traction rather than simply occupying catalog space.
The catalog runs to more than 400 Chinese-language, 200 English-language and 50 Korean titles spanning variety, reality and comedy. Three flagship Chinese productions – “Summer Rose,” “The Blade of Rouge” and “Good Girl’s Dark Secret” – have each surpassed 1 billion views, while more than 80 further titles each cleared 100 million views in 2025.
“Curation is at the heart of everything we do,” said Cassandra Yang, CEO and co-founder of RisingJoy. “Each title has been chosen because it works – capturing audiences, driving retention and delivering real commercial results. That discipline stays non-negotiable as we grow, and it’s what attracts the bold, innovative partners we want to build with.”
RisingJoy’s 2026 first-window slate includes “The Doppelganger,” produced by South Korea’s Barunson E&A, and “When Fish Swim to the Land,” from China’s Netease Antelope. The company is co-developing micro IP with studios across China, Korea, Japan, India and the U.S., and is working with investor and strategic partner Double Vision on original micro formats. Beyond those arrangements, it is pursuing co-production and production partnerships with producers, studios and platforms across all content genres. The catalog also encompasses AI anime and AI-generated content aimed at Gen Z audiences.
The American Music Awards are drawing some of the biggest stars in music to Las Vegas to perform present or collect honors on the three-hour CBS/Paramount+ telecast, and Variety has photographers on the carpet and backstage to capture all the looks heating up Memorial Day weekend.
Queen Latifah is hosting, and among those making their way to the stage to perform are Sombr, Katseye, Karol G, lifetime achievement honoree Billy Idol, Teddy Swims, Teyana Taylor and New Kids on the Block. Others parading their best couture on the blue carpet have included “KPop Demon Hunters” singers EJAI and Rei Ami, John Legend, Linda Perry, Bebe Rexha, Nikki Glaser, Tinashe, Melanie Martinez and Maluma. Scroll down to see all these stars and more…
Sombr at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Christopher Polk
Lara Raj, Sophia Laforteza, Megan Skiendiel, Daniela Avanzini and Yoonchae of KATSEYE at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Gilbert Flores
Ejae at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Gilbert Flores
Rei Ami at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Brian Friedman
Karol G at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Christopher Polk
Teddy Swims at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Christopher Polk
Teyana Taylor at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Gilbert Flores
Rei Ami and Ejae at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Gilbert Flores
Nikki Glaser at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Christopher Polk
Billy Idol at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Christopher Polk
Tinashe at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Gilbert Flores
Donnie Wahlberg, Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Danny Wood and Jonathan Knight at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Christopher Polk
Maluma at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Gilbert Flores
Alysa Liu at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Gilbert Flores
Queen Latifah at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Christopher Polk
Melanie Martinez at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Gilbert Flores
Leon Thomas III at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Gilbert Flores
Linda Perry and Sombr at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Christopher Polk
Megan Skiendiel of KATSEYE at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Christopher Polk
Daniela Avanzini of KATSEYE at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Christopher Polk
Sophia Laforteza of KATSEYE at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Christopher Polk
Lara Raj of KATSEYE at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Christopher Polk
Jim Sonefeld, Mark Bryan, Darius Rucker and Dean Felber at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Christopher Polk
Mariah the Scientist at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Gilbert Flores
Riley Green at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Christopher Polk
Lara Raj of KATSEYE at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Christopher Polk
Paula Abdul at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Gilbert Flores
Teyana Taylor at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Spanish directorial duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi are the talk of the town in Cannes this morning after the joyous reception for their Cannes Palme d’Or contender La Bola Negra (The Black Ball) and 22-minute ovation.
Revolving around the interconnected stories of three men in three different eras of 1932, 1937 and 2017, the picture is inspired by Alberto Conejero 2015 play La piedra oscura (Dark Stone) and an unfinished work by poet and playwright Federico García Lorca who was murdered in the early days of the Spanish War.
“It’s a movie about how not being able to communicate to each other is the way to violence, and we have different contexts, the pre-civil war in ‘32, the civil war in ‘37 and a kind of present, 2017, where being a gay man is very different because you can express yourself, but you find other difficulties,” said Ambrossi.
“There’s a physical inheritance in the movie, like the black ball Federico used as a metaphor, of our fear, the shame you have inside,” added Calvo, referring to Lorca.
“It’s something we feel we’ve inherited as gay men and LGBT people and queer people. There’s this black ball that comes through generations, and there’s something about that connection that talks about inheritance, talks about the art that survives through time. It about the inheritance of the shame and the pain and the black ball.”
The cast combines three openly gay actors in the lead roles, singer-songwriter Guitarricadelafuente, Miguel Bernardeau and Carlos González, with stars Penelope Cruz, Glenn Close and Lola Dueñas.
“I don’t think it has to be mandatory, but I think it’s very special when it happens,” said Ambrossi of the casting of openly gay actors for the lead roles.
“We tried to make a casting with gay actors, openly gay actors, and behind the cameras, with a lot of LGBT people, making a queer movie, because at the end it’s a tribute to Federico Garcia Lorca, who is the most important gay man in Spanish history,” he said.
“It’s a tribute to him, and I’m sure this makes it very special. When gay people and queer people watch La Bola Negra, I’m sure they’re going to connect and feel the truth, also gay actors, they know how to express what it’s like to be rejected, what it’s like to be given the black hole in your life, and we wanted to do that.”
At the same time, he said, the casting of Cruz, Dueñas and Close gives the film another, wider, universal dimension.
“We wanted to make a big movie. We had enough of this feeling that LGBT stories should be small because LGBT stories can talk to anyone in the world… we wanted to make it big, and to have Penelope is like a dream, because a lot of people will be like, ‘Oh, Penelope is there’ and willl connect with the story also”
To see the full conversation, click on the video above.
The Deadline Studio at Cannes is sponsored by SCAD.
‘Euphoria’ is the latest TV series to kill off a major character. Here are some of the biggest small-screen fatalities over the decades.
From left: Steven Yeun in ‘The Walking Dead,’ Patrick Dempsey in ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and Drea de Matteo in ‘The Sopranos.’
Gene Page/AMC; Bob D’Amico/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images; Anthony Neste/Getty Images
[Warning: Spoilers ahead. Yes, some of these episodes aired years ago, but others are from more recent — very recent — history.]
For fans, TV characters sometimes feel like old friends. That’s why their death often hits hard — even in the fictional world they live in.
Over the years, several hit shows have killed off major characters at the peak of their popularity, for various reasons. Maybe an actor was ready to leave; perhaps the storytelling necessitated it; maybe the writers were following the original source material; or, in some cases, there was some bad behavior going on behind the scenes.
Whatever the reason, fans are often hit hard by the departures, especially given that the series itself isn’t finished. Here, we’ve rounded up 23 of the most shocking deaths in television history. From Henry Black’s heartbreaking and tragic journey home in M*A*S*H to Glenn Rhee’s brutal end at the hand of Negan’s bat Lucille on The Walking Dead to Logan Roy’s death on an airplane in the fourth season of Succession and Joel’s brutal ending on The Last of Us, every one of these deaths packed a serious punch. Read on for more. (This story first published in 2023 and has been updated.)
Joffrey Baratheon, ‘Game of Thrones’
Image Credit: HBO
It wasn’t a happy wedding for King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) after all. Thrones made a series-changing move, with Joffrey getting poisoned at his own wedding feast. Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) is falsely accused and arrested, but the true perpetrators were later to be revealed as Lady Olenna Tyrell (Diana Rigg) and Lord Petyr Baelish (Aiden Gillen).
Logan Roy, ‘Succession’
Image Credit: HBO
He escaped death in the pilot episode, but it finally caught up to the Roy family patriarch and media mogul three episodes into season four of the HBO drama. While traveling to Sweden for business, Logan (Brian Cox) was found in the bathroom of his private jet. Despite medical attention and a series of chest compressions, he died as his children (except for Connor) took turns saying their goodbyes over the phone. Though it’s the last and final season of the Emmy-winning series, there are still seven episodes left in which to deal with the aftermath of Logan’s death.
Gus Fring, ‘Breaking Bad’
Image Credit: Everett
Giancarlo Esposito had to face hard facts for the season four finale of AMC’s Breaking Bad when creator Vince Gilligan told him his character, drug kingpin Gus, would have his face blown off in the final episode of the year. “He gave me a full heads up. I said, ‘Well, OK, as long as it’s fantastic!’ He said, ‘It will be! We want to to blow your face off!’ We both thought it would be like Gus to survive an explosion for a few seconds — that he would button his jacket, straighten his tie — then just keel over and die,” the actor told THR. “Vince came up with this brilliant way for me to leave — I give him full credit.”
Lane Pryce, ‘Mad Men’
Image Credit: Everett
Nobody messes with Don Draper. Mad Men’s Lane Pryce’s (Jared Harris) office door was never the same. The character opted to take his own life rather than resign his position after Jon Hamm’s Draper found out that Lane forged a company check in Don’s name. “That’s a bad time when someone says, ‘Come on up to my office,’” Harris told THR. “There was some inane chit and chat on the way up the lift, but as we got to the door, [showrunner Matt Weiner] said, ‘So, I’ve got something I want to tell you.’ I went, ‘Uh-oh.’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’m sorry.’ And then he offered me some very good brandy.”
Will Gardner, ‘The Good Wife’
Image Credit: Heather Wines/CBS via Getty Images
In The Good Wife’s “Dramatics, Your Honor,” Lockhart Gardner attorney Will Gardner (Josh Charles) was shot in the courtroom by his unhinged client and was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Charlie Harper, ‘Two and a Half Men’
Image Credit: Everett
After a bitter — and public — dismissal from CBS’ Two and a Half Men, creator Chuck Lorre wrote embattled star Charlie Sheen’s exit into the series when his character, Charlie Harper, was hit by a speeding subway train, opening the door for Ashton Kutcher’s Internet billionaire to arrive.
Glenn Rhee, ‘The Walking Dead’
Image Credit: Gene Page/AMC
With so many shocking deaths, it’s hard to pick which one was the most surprising. But the death of Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun), who’d been with the AMC drama since the beginning, hit fans especially hard. His brutal death came at the hands of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his bat Lucille in the seventh-season premiere. Glenn’s death also was reminiscent of how the character died in Robert Kirkman’s comic book series. The episode also included the brutal killing of Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz), also by Negan.
Adriana La Cerva, ‘The Sopranos’
Image Credit: Anthony Neste/Getty Images
After so many years of reluctantly playing informant to the FBI, Adriana (Drea de Matteo) finally came clean in the fifth season of The Sopranos only to have boyfriend Christopher (Michael Imperioli) sell her out to the family. Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt) did the dirty work, taking her out into the woods, never to be seen again.
Ned Stark, ‘Game of Thrones’
Image Credit: HBO
For Game of Thrones fans who weren’t familiar with the George R.R. Martin books, watching Ned Stark’s (Sean Bean) beheading in season one was quite the surprise as the HBO fantasy drama whacked its leading man.
Charlie Pace, ‘Lost’
Image Credit: Everett
Dominic Monaghan’s Charlie Pace made the ultimate sacrifice for his fellow castaways in season three. After Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) begins to foresee Charlie’s demise in dreams and visions, the ex-junkie one-time rock star sacrifices himself by drowning to save the other survivors. His character later appeared in flashbacks and as a guide to his friend Hurley (Jorge Garcia) as well as in the season finale.
Edie Britt, ‘Desperate Housewives’
Image Credit: Everett
Nicollette Sheridan’s Edie Britt died in an accident involving a downed power line after discovering her new husband’s plan for revenge. But behind the scenes, there was just as much drama over her departure: The actress sued ABC and Desperate Housewives creator and executive producer Marc Cherry, claiming she was dropped after she told the network that Cherry had been abusive to her and other cast and crew and had struck her while they were on the set. In October 2013, a judge denied her effort to revive the trial.
Derek Shepherd, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
Image Credit: Bob D’Amico/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
Patrick Dempsey’s Derek Shepherd — Meredith Grey’s husband and longtime love interest — was killed off in the season 11 finale. He reappeared in a dream sequence during the season 17 premiere and returned for a subsequent episode as well. For Dempsey, a fan favorite, the decision to exit the veteran medical drama came early, as he still had a year remaining on his contract. “There were HR issues. It wasn’t sexual in any way. He sort of was terrorizing the set. Some cast members had all sorts of PTSD with him,” recalled exec producer James D. Parriott, who was brought back to the series to oversee Dempsey’s exit, in Lynette Rice’s book How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy.
Mark Greene, ‘ER’
Image Credit: Everett
Anthony Edwards’ fan favorite Dr. Mark Greene was written out in 2008 after he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. It was an emotional send-off to the character that came a year after he was first diagnosed that allowed the character to marry Dr. Elizabeth Corday (Alex Kingston) and see the birth of their daughter.
Gary Shepherd, ‘Thirtysomething’
Image Credit: Everett
A big twist for fans waiting to see if Nancy (Patricia Wettig) had gone into remission, the good news at the hospital was followed by word that lead Peter Horton’s character Gary had died in a car crash.
Kenny McCormick, ‘South Park’
Image Credit: Everett
“Oh my God! They killed Kenny! You bastards!” became one of South Park’s catchphrases for its weekly offing of Kenny McCormick in various ways — from getting his head bitten off by Ozzy Osbourne to getting beaten by spastic monkeys — over the course of nearly 80 episodes. But in 2001, co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker killed the hooded fourth-grader for good with a slow, painful death related to a muscular disease. Stone said at the time it was an “easy decision.” “I think a lot of people probably haven’t noticed,” Stone said at the time. “I couldn’t care less. I am so sick of that character.” He was soon replaced by Stan’s new friend Butters.
George O’Malley, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
Image Credit: Frank Ockenfels/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
Whose heart didn’t sink when T.R. Knight’s George O’Malley, unable to speak after being struck by a bus, identified himself by writing “007” in the hand of one of his best friends on the ABC medical drama. His exit came after Knight asked to be released from his Grey’s Anatomy contract after behind-the-scenes clashes about reduced screen time.
Prue Halliwell, ‘Charmed’
Image Credit: Everett
Prue Halliwell (Shannen Doherty), one of three sisters who were witches, was murdered in season three by Shax, the personal assassin of the dangerous Source of All Evil. Doherty’s departure came amid reports of a feud with co-star Alyssa Milano. While Doherty denied any discord with her co-stars, Milano has admitted to some “rough days” on set. Following her departure, Rose McGowan was brought in as a long-lost Halliwell sister to fill the void.
Marissa Cooper, ‘The O.C.’
Image Credit: Everett
Mischa Barton’s Marissa Cooper was headed to Greece to live with her father at the end of The O.C.’s season three. As on-again, off-again boyfriend Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie) drove her to the airport, her vengeful, drunken ex Kevin Volchok (Cam Gigandet) drove them off the road, causing the car to flip several times and leading to her death. Series creator Josh Schwartz later said the decision to kill Marissa was purely a creative one: “It had as much to do with creatively feeling like this was always in the cards for this character and she was an inherently tragic heroine, and part of the Ryan/Marissa story was him trying to save her from a fate that she couldn’t be rescued from.”
Rita Morgan, ‘Dexter’
Image Credit: Everett
Julie Benz’s Rita Morgan was — until the series finale claimed Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) — the biggest victim in the life of serial-killer-with-a-code Dexter Morgan. After going head-to-head with John Lithgow’s Emmy-winning Trinity Killer, Dexter’s (Michael C. Hall) discovered his wife dead in a bathtub filled with blood — with their young son Harrison sitting nearby in a scene reminiscent of Dex’s childhood.
Henry Blake, ‘M*A*S*H’
Image Credit: Everett
Lt. Col. Henry Blake, M.D. (McLean Stevenson) suffered one of the more tragic, heartbreaking deaths in TV history. After Stevenson announced his intention to leave the show at the end of season three, it was decided to “use the departure of the character in some meaningful way,” creator Larry Gelbart said. “M*A*S*H was not about everybody having a good time. M*A*S*H was not about happy endings.” So Blake, after finally getting his discharge, says his goodbyes and departs by helicopter. In the final scene of the episode, Radar (Gary Burghoff) announces that Blake was killed when his plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan. The character’s fate shocked the nation — and most of the cast and crew.
Nicholas Brody, ‘Homeland’
Image Credit: Kent Smith/Showtime Networks/Courtesy Everett Collection
As one character once eloquently pointed out, Brody (Damian Lewis) was something of a cockroach — until, of course, the Showtime series killed off half of its central duo by hanging him in front of an angry mob at the end of the third season. Brody technically died a hero, though after his rocky three years as a terrorist-turned-informant, his motivations were still a little muddy. However, he wasn’t entirely gone for good: In the fourth-season episode “Redux,” Brody appears in Carrie’s (Claire Danes) drug-induced hallucination.
Joel Miller, ‘The Last of Us’
Image Credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO
In alignment with the story of the video game it’s adapted from, the second episode of season two of The Last of Us saw Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby bring Pedro Pascal’s Joel to his death. For viewers unfamiliar with the video game who merely tuned in to the hit HBO series, Joel dying may have come as a surprise, though die-hard fans knew Abby would avenge her father’s death. For the cast, it was a demise they’d been painfully waiting for. “[Pascal] had been looking forward to the moment because it had been hanging over everything for so long,” co-creator Craig Mazin told THR. “But I know that also for him and for Bella [Ramsey], it was hard because they have become so beautifully entwined with each other.”
Nate Jacobs, ‘Euphoria’
Image Credit: Eddy Chen/HBO
In the penultimate episode of Euphoria’s third, and rumored final, season, Jacob Elordi’s Nate Jacobs dies from a venomous rattlesnake bite after being buried alive in a coffin over debt he owed to Naz (Jack Topalian). When his wife, Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), and ex-girlfriend Maddie (Alexa Demie) attempt to save him, they discover he is already dead after the coffin is dug up. This moment marks the first time a main character has been killed off in the series. Following the episode’s release, the Oscar nominee said he thought the scene was “a cool way to go.”
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The first vampire descends from the shadows, high above the stage, barely visible as he comes in for the kill. Four vampires disappear into a dark void below the stage after dropping, one by one, from a trestle bridge.
In “The Lost Boys,” a new musical based on the 1987 film, spectacle abounds. It is being staged in a Broadway house with an only-in-New-York real estate story: After a century on the ground, the Palace Theater was hoisted 30 feet in the air to make room for street-level development. That project led to an unusual amount of space below the stage, and “The Lost Boys” is the first show to demonstrate the stagecraft potential offered by the theater’s height and depth since the building reopened in 2024.
“We wanted the space to feel incredibly cavernous, and we were interested in playing with vertical space,” said Michael Arden, the show’s Tony-nominated director. “We’re used to things coming on from stage left and stage right, but we wanted to deliver things from above and below, given that vampires attack from above, and pull you down below a little bit.”
“The Lost Boys,” about a family hoping for a fresh start in a California town that turns out to have a vampire problem, is nominated for 12 Tony Awards, including for its set, lighting and sound. It’s a big show, in every sense of the word — costly, with a $25 million budget; loud, with a pop-rock score by the Rescues; and spectacle-heavy, with nonstop motion, much of it automated, involving set pieces, and people, moving on and offstage, left and right, up and down, with a lot of backstage work required to ensure nothing collides.
“Things evaporate in every direction,” said Dane Laffrey, the show’s Tony-nominated scenic designer. “We wanted the space to materialize and dematerialize.”
The outer set is dark, industrial-looking and 65 feet high. So when the house, the store, the boardwalk and the playground that sometimes nest within it are hoisted up or dropped down or tracked aside, the stage becomes the abandoned iron works that is the vampires’ lair. Even a freight elevator is part of the three-tiered set, another element suggesting deep descent.
“It’s awesome. It’s vast. It’s scary,” said Shoshana Bean, nominated for a Tony Award for her portrayal of Lucy, a newly single mother of two teen boys, Michael and Sam, struggling to find their place in the world. “We hear noises, often, and the space is so big you don’t know where it’s coming from. I’m often terrified, but the whole show is a massive trust fall.”
Because the show is about vampires, one effect matters more than all the others. “We need the audience to believe people are flying,” Laffrey said.
It’s a feat with a long history — think of Mary Martin in “Peter Pan” — and still involves wires and harnesses, though with a lot more technological bells and whistles than there were in the 1950s. “Oddly enough, I’ve been asked to do flying tricks for a bit now,” said Ali Louis Bourzgui, who plays David, the lead vampire, and is a first-time Tony nominee. “When I was 12 years old I did a production of ‘Seussical’ in Pittsfield [Mass.], and for my number I had pretty much the same flying rig that I’m in now.”
“Growing up, I had a big fear of heights,” he said, “but it’s been kicked out of me.”
Bourzgui said flying has required a considerable amount of physical training to build core strength; a lot of safety practice, and regular cold plunges for recovery.
“It was scary in the beginning, just because of the height aspect, but it’s really interesting how your nervous system can get used to anything after a while,” he said. “Sometimes it genuinely feels like I’m flying.”
But there’s more: Vampires, like bats, sleep upside down, at least in the world of “The Lost Boys.” That means that the actors must, for a little over a minute, hang by their feet.
“When we first started doing that, it was pretty intense, because all the blood rushes to your head pretty quickly, and it’s not really a natural thing your body’s used to doing,” Bourzgui said. “But because we’ve been doing that so much, I just do some deep yoga breaths so my nervous system doesn’t freak out. If I just breathe, and let my body know it’s OK, then sometimes it just feels like a good stretch.”
The musical diverges from the film in multiple ways. But one scene was deemed so iconic that it needed to be preserved: The moment when the vampire gang hangs off a railway bridge and then drops into the clouds. In the show, the vampires, untethered, drop off a trestle and fall through an opening in the stage — landing out of sight of the audience.
“You need the bodies to build up enough velocity that it feels like, ‘Oh my God, they are literally dropping into an abyss,’ and if you’re sitting in the orchestra and you see them pass out of view, they’re continuing to fall pretty far in order to ask for that effect to work for all of the people in the theater,” Laffrey said. “That extra depth was an amazing asset.”
A sort of padded trampoline at the bottom of a deep orchestra pit breaks their fall. “It feels like landing on a cloud,” Bourzgui said.
As in the film, Michael, the older brother, played onstage by LJ Benet, floats in the clouds after letting go of the bridge.
The theater’s depth and height can also be seen in less perilous moments.
The vampires, when not feasting on the blood of unsuspecting citizens, moonlight as a rock band, and one of the most effective uses of the theater’s orchestra elevator is to create a mosh pit in which fans of that band can dance. The song, nodding to the band’s sinister motivations, is called “Have to Have You.”
“It’s one of my favorite moments, when they all sink down and suddenly we are there with them,” Arden said. “I wanted to be able to play with perspective, so that we first start with Michael and the group looking toward the audience, and then we drop them down into a mosh pit, they turn around, and it’s as if we turned a camera around and we are in the mosh pit.”
And why so much emphasis on spectacle?
“We have to create a world that is magical and realistic at the same time, and therefore spectacle always seemed important for this,” Arden said. “I’m sure one day, when there’s a revival, there will be an amazing version of the show someone comes up with that uses nothing and is in a black box, but I felt like if you’re coming to see a vampire rock musical, you want to see something pretty spectacular.”
In a statement released on Monday evening, after weeks of queries from viewers and media, the SABC explained that following a thorough review process and careful consideration, “Pimville” will be discontinued from tonight, due to unresolved contractual obligations and breaches identified and communicated formally to Bakwena Productions.
“This outcome is deeply regrettable, particularly considering the dedication and hard work demonstrated by the cast, crew, as well as the unwavering support received from audiences, partners, and all stakeholders who contributed to the programme’s success,” read the statement.
Two weeks ago, alarm bells rang when “Pimville” made headlines due to claims of nonpayment and actors and crew. The SABC released a statement, not long after news broke that they had fulfilled their contractual obligations to Bakwena Productions.
Repeat episodes of the brand new Season 2 of the telenovela “Amalanga Awafani” will now occupy the 21:00 timeslot.
The SABC has assured the acquisition and commissioning of “Pimville”, which followed the Corporation’s standard approval and commissioning processes applicable to SABC productions. This comes after numerous questions were raised about how Bakwena Productions was commissioned, yet they have a history of having issues with payments to actors and crews.
“Following concerns that emerged during the production process, the SABC implemented enhanced oversight and risk mitigation measures aimed at strengthening production monitoring and governance controls.”
The “Pimville” debacle resulted in the suspensions of SABC head of content, Lala Tuku, along with executives Nirvana Singh and Reatlegile “Ree” Mampa.
“Consequently, an internal consequence management process has been initiated in accordance with applicable policies, procedures, and labour law requirements.”
The SABC also revealed that a legal process is currently underway regarding the production company, including the issuing of a notice of breach in April 2026.
The SABC has also engaged with cast and crew representatives regarding concerns raised.
The 2026 Summer Movie Season is shaping up to be a strong recovery period for the theatrical box office, thanks to its crowded slate of franchises, sequels, and originals headlined by The Mandalorian and Grogu, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and Supergirl. The return of Star Wars and Peter Parker on the big screen serves as a massive boost for the 2026 Summer Movie Season, while the likes of The Devil Wears Prada 2and Toy Story 5 offer strong nostalgia to lure moviegoers back to theaters. The variety of films, combined with the unprecedented star power, suggests a rebound summer for movies following a disappointing 2025 season that included multiple Marvel flops.
Fandango officially kicked off the Summer movie season by releasing a video of Spider-Man star Tom Holland promoting what he loves most about going to the movies this time of the year, with the video ending with part of the trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
As part of the Summer movie season, Disney also highlighted its three big theatrical releases in a new promo, showcasing footage from The Mandalorian and Grogu, Moana, and Toy Story 5:
This new promo best positioned Disney as the ultimate destination for family-friendly entertainment this summer.
Every Major Movie Release in 2026’s Summer Season
The Mandalorian and Grogu
Lucasfilm
Release Date: May 22, 2026
Directed by Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian and Grogu brings the adventures of Din Djarin and Grogu to the big screen, focusing on the titular pair’s mission for the New Republic as they hunt down Imperial warlords while saving Jabba the Hutt’s son, Rotta, from the dangerous Hutt twins.
The Mandalorian and Grogu is the first theatrical Star Wars film since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, making it a major cinematic event set between the events of the original trilogy and the sequel trilogy. With a star-studded cast led by Pedro Pascal and Sigourney Weaver, the movie is positioned as the perfect kickoff to Summer 2026 due to its massive family appeal and the spark Star Wars needs to reignite excitement for the franchise.
Masters of the Universe
Amazon MGM Studios
Release Date: June 5, 2026
Masters of the Universe is the live-action reboot of the He-Man franchise, chronicling the story of how Prince Adam of Eternia returns to his rightful position as the protector of his kingdom from the tyrannical sorcerer, Skeletor, and his dark forces. The story features epic action sequences and team-up dynamics, featuring He-Man’s key allies like Teela and Man-At-Arms.
While exact plot details are still being kept under wraps, Disclosure Day revolves around a UFO conspiracy unfolding in real time across the world. The film perfectly blends intimate character drama with large-scale spectacle, a trademark of Spielberg’s style.
Another reason the anticipation for Disclosure Day is high is its star-studded cast, featuring Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, and Colin Firth.
Toy Story 5
Pixar
Release Date: June 19, 2026
The nostalgia train continues with the arrival of Toy Story 5.Directed by Andrew Stanton and billed with a “Toy Meets Tech” premise, Pixar’s latest movie reunites Woody and Buzz as they face a tech-based villain named Lilypad who threatens to replace traditional toys entirely.
Beyond the franchise’s built-in love, Toy Story 5 directly addresses the real-world challenges parents and children face in finding the right balance between tech and toys.
As a family-friendly Pixar tentpole with a mid-June release, it is perfectly positioned to draw a large family audience, which is a good sign for its box-office potential.
Supergirl
DC Studios
Release Date: June 26, 2026
The DCU continues on the big screen with the imminent arrival of Supergirl starring Milly Alcock. Based on Tom King’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow comic, the film follows Kara Zor-el’s revenge quest against Krem of the Yellow Hills after he put Krypto’s life in danger.
Supergirl’s wilder canvas allows Milly Alcock’s Kara to let loose and become a DC heroine who embraces raw intensity. Directed by Craig Gillespie, the cast also includes Jason Momoa, Eve Ridley, David Corenswet, David Krumholtz, and Matthias Schoenaerts.
As expected, chaos ensued when they accidentally partnered with a mysterious green creature, leading to them unleashing real monsters onto the world.
Minions & Monsters is expected to be another wild ride for fans, featuring classic Minion slapstick humor, movie-making parody, and more monster mayhem.
It chronicles Moana’s adventure, alongside demigod Maui, as she answers the Ocean’s call to restore the heart of Te Fiti and save her people. Moana features a star-studded cast, headlined by Catherine Laga’aia, Dwayne Johnson, John Tui, Frankie Adams, and Rena Owen.
As one of Disney’s most beloved modern classics, the live-action version has strong potential to replicate the animated movie’s success. While some are complaining about Johnson’s take on Maui, Moana is still positioned as a major blockbuster heavyweight amid the stacked summer lineup.
The Odyssey
Universal Pictures
Release Date: July 17, 2026
There are many reasons to be excited for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, the large-scale adaptation of Homer’s ancient Greek poem and the director’s return to event cinema following the success of 2023’s Oppenheimer. The film revolves around the story of Odysseus during his 10-year journey home after the Trojan War.
The Odyssey is considered a mythic action epic, filled with mythical creatures, engaging conflict, and trials that test Odysseus’ intellect and humanity. The Odyssey boasts an impressive, star-studded cast headlined by A-listers, such as Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, and Robert Pattinson.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Sony Pictures
Release Date: July 31, 2026
Following the Multiversal reset that Peter encountered in No Way Home after memories of him were erased by Doctor Strange’s spell, the anticipation surrounding Spider-Man: Brand New Day is sky-high due to the film’s foray into street-level storytelling and the personal stakes for Tom Holland’s Peter Parker.
Brand New Day is expected to be one of the summer’s biggest earners due to its intriguing plot, the hype surrounding Sadie Sink’s mystery character, and its role in the next two Avengers movies.
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, Spider-Man: Brand New Day stars Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Mark Ruffalo, Sadie Sink, Jon Bernthal, and Michael Mando.
Interview with the Vampire season two is one of the finest TV shows we’ve ever seen. The dramatic, queer, and rich world of the show aged like fine wine from its first to second seasons. And that makes us especially excited to see what Interview with the Vampire season three has in store for us. We don’t know too much about what awaits us yet, but we do know it will be sexy, stylish, and rock and roll.
Recently, a new The Vampire Lestat teaser/ad gave us Lestat reciting some Pomegranate ASMR from the heart. (He doesn’t do scripts.) And yes, it’s sexy.
AMC
Here’s everything we know so far about Interview with the Vampire season three.
Title
Normally, for a season of TV, we’d skip the title section. But it’s Lestat’s world and we’re all just living in it. Interview with the Vampire season 3 will be called The Vampire Lestat, natch.
Interview with the Vampire Season 3 Plot
Veering away from the inner-world of Louis de Pointe du Lac, season three of Interview with the Vampire is all Lestat, all the time. The Vampire Lestat, as we say. This season, Lestat, put out by his portrayal in Louis and Daniel Molloy’s book Interview with the Vampire is going on a rock star tour to correct the narrative. What could go wrong? Interview with the Vampire season three will be an adaptation of the novel The Vampire Lestat, but we’re sure it will make the book its own, as the prior seasons of the show have done with Interview with the Vampire.
AMC
You can catch the official Interview with the Vampire season three teaser trailer up top, and check out its official synopsis below:
In season three, resentful of the perfunctory portrayal in the trashy bestseller “Interview With The Vampire,” the Vampire Lestat sets his story straight in a way only the Vampire Lestat can—by starting a band and going on tour. Gabrielle. Nicholas. Magnus. Marius. Those Who Must Be Kept. They join Louis, Armand, Molloy, Sam, Raglan, Fareed and others we can’t tell you about yet on a sexy pilgrimage across space, time and trauma. No Auto-Tuning. No Trigger Warnings. All Feels Amplified.“
Additionally, a new synopsis for The Vampire Lestat, released in celebration of The Vampire Lestat’s streaming debut, teases, “In the new rock and roll centric season, the Vampire Lestat goes on an electric multi-city tour while being haunted by ‘ muses’ from his wild and rebellious past. As his band’s popularity and star power rises, so does Lestat’s influence over vampires and humans alike, leaving others to contend with Lestat’s power in the face of the Great Conversion, an unnatural surge in the vampire population. In addition to Reid, The Vampire Lestat stars Jacob Anderson, Assad Zaman, Eric Bogosian, Delainey Hayles and Jennifer Ehle and is executive produced by award-winning producer Mark Johnson, creator, writer and showrunner Rolin Jones, Hannah Moscovitch, along with Christopher Rice and the late Anne Rice.”
AMC
We’ve heard a little bit about “the Great Conversion” before. But it sounds like this new fluctuation in the vampire population is going to cause some serious trouble for Lestat and co. And we wonder what Lestat will do with all his new star power and influence… nothing too wild, obviously. We know Lestat isn’t like that…..
Behind the Scenes
Interview with the Vampire season three is executive produced by Mark Johnson (who oversees AMC’s Anne Rice Immortal Universe). Rolin Jones serves as creator, writer, and showrunner. Mark Taylor, Christopher Rice, and the late Anne Rice also serve as executive producers.
Sam Reid returns in Interview with the Vampire season three as the titular Vampire Lestat. Joining him are his true love, Louis de Pointe du Lac, played by Jacob Anderson, the newly turned Vampire Daniel Molloy, played Eric Bogosian, the vengeful/gremlin Armand played by Assad Zaman, and many other faces familiar to fans of the Interview with the Vampire books.
Additionally, on May 24, a series called The Vampire Lestat: After Dark will premiere on AMC+. The show will give a behind-the-scenes look at The Vampire Lestat. It seems to feature Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid, but will most likely include other stars from the series as well.
Back when IO’s James Bond adventure, 007 First Light, was first revealed, eagle-eyed watch enthusiasts immediately noticed the new Omega watch that this latest iteration of the MI6 spy was wearing. That watch wasn’t real then but now, on the eve of the game’s release, Omega has started selling the Seamaster Diver 300M Chronograph 007 First Light. And no, it’s not cheap.
This iteration of the existing Seamaster Diver Chronograph mirrors the contemporary version quite closely, but adds some places of bronze to the dial to set it apart and tie it to the color palette of the game. The ring around the hour and minutes sub-dial, as well as the seconds hand, are now coated in nine-karat bronze gold, which makes it stand out a lot more than the regular, monochromatic version. You’ll be able to see 007 First Light stamped on the sapphire crystal caseback, which showcases the watch’s beautiful movement. This edition doesn’t have a premium over the standard version, although given that this watch will still retail for $9,400, it’s not something all fans of First Light are likely going to bundle with their game purchase.
It’s also the first time Omega has released a Bond-specific watch that wasn’t first seen in a Bond film. James Bond has worn Omega since GoldenEye in 1995, replacing Rolex as the spy’s watch brand of choice. The last release came alongside Daniel Craig’s last Bond film, No Time To Die, with the Omega Seamaster Diver 300M 007 Edition. Without a new film on the horizon, or a replacement for Daniel Craig, having a new edition tied to the re-launch of James Bond in the video game space makes sense.
That’s especially so when you look at how many modern games have started collaborating closely with prestigious watch brands. Hamilton, which, like Omega, is owned by the Swiss watch giant Swatch, has released numerous watches to tie in with their appearances in games like Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, Resident Evil Requiem, and Call of Duty Black Ops 7.
If you have a high school student in competitive sports, then when it comes to Apple TV‘s Stick, if you know, you know.
Although set in the world of golf, the Jason Keller-created series captures the idiosyncrasies, cynicisms, headaches and ambitions of young athletes no matter how talented they are. Oh, and that nagging coach who’s in their head.
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Owen Wilson plays a former pro golfer, Pryce Cahill, who has seen better days, now working on the fumes of a gambling habit and dealing with a divorce. He takes on a wunderkind in Peter Dager’s Santi, who like Al Pacino in Godfather III, just when he tries to get out, they pull him back in. Of course, blame Dad for any handicaps. If you played competitive football, baseball, volleyball, etc., you’ll live vicariously through Pryce and Santi. (Growing up in Texas, Wilson was, during his high school days, you got it, a football player.
Stick has already shot Season 2 and Keller is in post. No drop date yet. We chat with Keller and Wilson on working with the actor’s fave film directors who helmed episodes in Season 1, the state of comedy and Wedding Crashers II.
Plot: Expanding the world of For All Mankind, Star City is a propulsive paranoid thriller that takes us back to the key moment in the alt-history retelling of the space race – when the Soviet Union became the first nation to put a man on the moon. But this time, we explore the story from behind the Iron Curtain, showing the lives of the cosmonauts, the engineers, and the intelligence officers embedded among them in the Soviet space program, and the risks they all took to propel humankind forward.
Review: With For All Mankind in the midst of its penultimate season, Apple TV is taking the story back to the beginning and providing a unique glimpse behind the Iron Curtain with their new show Star City. More of a companion to For All Mankind rather than a spin-off, Star City proves how different it is from the very beginning of the first episode. Taking audiences through the Soviet Union’s side of the Space Race, the series introduces new characters and familiar ones as it unpacks the vastly different approach the U.S.S.R. took to beat the United States to the Moon. Led by Rhys Ifans and Anna Maxwell Martin, Star City is another fascinating revision of one of the pivotal moments in the twentieth century, while also showing us what could have been. It does so through a new tone and storytelling approach that will make fans of For All Mankind very happy, as this is not just a rehash of what we have already seen on that series.
As with For All Mankind, Star City opens with the historic landing on the Moon by the Soviet Union. Immediately, the significance of this event is palpable to the Chief Designer (Rhys Ifans), the anonymous head of the Soviet space program. Given a medal for his achievement before being told he cannot leave the government building with him, the iron grasp of the communist regime shows a completely different focus on power and control rather than scientific advancement for the betterment of humanity. As soon as the first Moon landing took place, the Chief Designer was tasked with landing the first woman on the Moon, which then led to increasingly significant milestones in the competitive race between the Cold War adversaries. In the first episode, we meet Anastasia Belikova (Alice Englert), who must step into that iconic role and the risks it entails. Star City gives us a pulse-pounding space journey in the premiere and sets the tone for the intense season to follow.
Named after the incredibly secret home base of the Soviet space program, Star City is about more than the science of spaceflight. Across the first six episodes made available for this review, we follow the cosmonauts who train and participate in the initial voyages, including Valya Markelova (Adam Nagaitis) and the reckless Sasha Polivanov (Solly McLeod). There are also the scientists who work with the Chief Designer, including Sergei Nikulov (Josef Davies), a character who appeared in For All Mankind. The series also chronicles others involved in the larger Soviet government, like the head of the KBG surveillance, Lyudmilla Raskova (Anna Maxwell Martin), a terrifying and badass soldier who is one of the main antagonists of Star City. Raskova has a fraught relationship with new worker Irina Morozova (Agnes O’Casey), a young, idealistic woman who butts heads with Raskova’s dedication to the government. The series also looks at the spouses of the cosmonauts, notably Ruby Ashbourne Serkis as Tanya Markelova, who find the constant monitoring and control in Star City to be suffocating.
This first season centers on the years immediately following the first Moon landing, but feels unlike anything in For All Mankind. The secrecy and militant control within the Soviet space program fill Star City with an ever-present feeling of paranoia, as saying the tiniest thing that does not embrace Communist ideals could land you in prison or dead. As relationships evolve through the season, some characters must decide whether they truly want what the government tells them they want, leading some to become rebels and others to shift in ways I did not expect. The massive ensemble of actors, which also includes Priya Kansara as scientist and cosmonaut Lakshmi, all dig into this faithfully recreated world of the former Soviet Union in a way that is more dangerous and mysterious than the American aspirations in For All Mankind. By the midway point of the season, where For All Mankind was focused on America trying to get to the Moon and eventually Mars, we find the Soviets aiming for another target in the Solar System.
Directed by Nick Murphy, Stefan Schwartz, Kasia Adamik, and Jamie Payne, Star City hails from For All Mankind showrunners Ben Nedivi and Matt Wolpert, who scripted the premiere episode from a story they developed with Battlestar Galactica producer Ronald D. Moore. The perception I had going into Star City was that it would be an unnecessary return to where For All Mankind began, telling a story that didn’t need to be told again, even from a different point of view. I am glad to find that I was wrong. Like The Americans and the recent Peacock series PONIES, Star City delves into the side of a well-known story that many of us in the Western world may not know. There are obvious changes and fictionalizations in Star City, but the root of how much further ahead the Soviet Union was compared to the United States is completely accurate. Some of these figures are in the historical record, and the potential ripples through history are fascinating to watch. Star City is also full of intrigue, deception, romance, and tension that few shows have captured so well.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was invested in Star City from the outset. The first episode is expertly crafted in getting you invested in the Soviet perspective and this group of characters. All of the actors are excellent, with Rhys Ifans the most recognizable face in the cast, while Anna Maxwell Martin steals the show as the ruthless Roskova. You will be surprised by how unprepared you are for where the narrative takes this first season, as the major moments that For All Mankind addresses are just a small portion of what Star City covers in this debut season. Having only seen the first six episodes, I am anxious to find out how this season wraps up and whether season two will feature a time jump similar to the decade-long advancement we saw in For All Mankind. As ambitious as its predecessor but a wholly distinct series that feels like a companion and expansion rather than a spin-off, Star City is another reason to go back and check out For All Mankind if you haven’t yet, while still working as a series of its own. If you are a fan of hard sci-fi, espionage thrillers, or period dramas, Star City is worth checking out.
Star City premieres with two episodes on May 29th on Apple TV.
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A new analysis of the top-grossing U.K. films of the past three years has unveiled that they are more likely to star actors named Chris or feature a talking animal in the lead role than a woman over the age of 60.
The study, conducted by the Centre for Aging Better as part of the nation’s first anti-ageism campaign, found that among the 100 highest-earning films for 2023, 2024 and 2025, six films featured someone named Chris as opposed to just five centering on older women. Movies are also four times more likely to include a talking animal as a lead character than an actress over the age of 60, per research from the Age Without Limits campaign.
Emma Thompson, among the supporters of the campaign, commented on the findings: “Women are half the population and we get older. So where are the stories about us? The older we get, the more interesting we are. I want to see more films center aging women; we are compelling, relatable, and overdue for center stage. Older women don’t need permission to exist on screen. They already exist in the world; cinema just needs to catch up.”
The five films starring an older woman that made the Top 100 list over the three year period — with British Box Office gross figures sourced from Box Office Mojo — were: Allelujah (2023) with Jennifer Saunders, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (2023) with Nia Vardalos, Book Club: The Next Chapter (2023) with the late Diane Keaton, The Substance (2024) with Demi Moore and Freakier Friday (2025) with Jamie Lee Curtis.
Meanwhile, Chris Pratt composed half of the six top-grossing films of the past three years: 2023’s The Super Mario Bros Movie, 2023’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and 2024’s The Garfield Movie. The rest were made up by Chris Pine (2023’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves), Chris Hemsworth (2024’s Transformers One) and Christian Friedel (2024’s The Zone of Interest).
Get ready, chooms! It’s time to head back to Night City. Netflix, CD PROJEKT RED, and Studio TRIGGER are returning to Anime Expo this July to give us our first real look at the highly anticipated Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2.
If you’ve been itching for more neon-soaked, high-octane anime action since the massive success of the original series in 2022, your wait is almost over. Following up on last year’s massive announcement at Anime Expo 2025—where the renewal was officially confirmed with a teaser poster and logo—the creators are heading back to Los Angeles to show off what they’ve been cooking up. Of course, Netflix first teased a universe expansion in September 2024 during Geeked Week.
Here is everything you need to know about the upcoming Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 panel and what we can expect to see.
When and where is the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 panel?
CD PROJEKT RED has confirmed that a massive panel dedicated to the anime’s second installment will take place during Anime Expo 2026.
Date: Friday, July 3, 2026
Time: 7:30 PM PT
Location: Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles
The panel will be hosted by popular content creator Danny Motta and will feature some of the heavy hitters behind the series. Joining him on stage will be showrunner Bartosz Sztybor and executive producer Saya Elder from CD PROJEKT RED, alongside series director Kai Ikarashi from legendary animation studio TRIGGER.
According to the official press release, guests and press will dive deep into the origins and reception of the first Edgerunners series before shifting focus to the creative process behind the new season.
But the biggest news? Fans in attendance will be treated to an “exclusive closer look” at the new story. Whether this means a teaser trailer, character designs, or a full-blown first-look clip remains to be seen, but it’s guaranteed to be the biggest update on the series since its initial announcement. To date, we still don’t know exactly when this series will be hitting our screens, although it could easily be 2027 depending on what this update entails.
The official Cyberpunk: Edgerunners X account hyped up the upcoming panel, teasing the introduction of the new standalone story:
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 is coming to @AnimeExpo 2026!
Join us for a first look at the next standalone story from Night City, plus a behind-the-scenes discussion with the creators bringing it to life.
Hosted by Danny Motta, featuring Director Kai Ikarashi, Showrunner Bartosz Sztybor, Executive Producer Saya Elder, and special guests.
We’ll see you at Anime Expo on July 3 at 7:30 PM PT at Crypto.com Arena.
What is Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 about?
While the title carries the Edgerunners name, CD PROJEKT RED and TRIGGER have made it clear that this new installment is a standalone story.
The original 2022 series famously followed David Martinez, a street kid who rises through the ranks of Night City’s mercenary underworld. Without diving into spoiler territory for the uninitiated, David’s story was a complete, contained narrative.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on Anime Expo 2026 and will bring you all the latest trailers, casting announcements, and release date news for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 as soon as it breaks.
Are you excited to return to Night City? What do you hope to see from the new standalone story? Let us know in the comments down below!
After the American studios criticized Canada for raising its cash call on large U.S. streamers, skeptical local creative guilds and unions have raised questions around the CRTC’s latest Online Streaming Act ruling.
Those are the same Canadian filmmakers supposed to benefit from the country’s TV czar slapping another 10 percent levy on foreign streaming platforms on top of an interim 5 percent obligatory expenditure on homegrown Canadian content production in controversial legislation often referred to as a “Netflix tax.”
The Writers Guild of Canada said the Canadian Radio-television and telecommunications decision was “a significant step forward” in the years-in-the-making OSA legislation, first made law in 2023 and now held up in the Federal Court of Appeals due to a legal challenge by foreign media players.
On May 21, the CRTC ordered American digital platforms to contribute 15 percent of their Canadian revenues to subsidize local indie film and TV production, while reducing spending obligations on local broadcasters. But local screenwriters took issue with the TV regulator ending a policy of putting a priority on Programs of National Interest (PNI), or homegrown dramas and documentaries, including kids and youth programming and animation, to receive subsidies from foreign streamers.
“Drama, kids’ shows, animation, and documentaries are fundamentally at-risk genres of Canadian programming. When we talk about the need to support Canadian content and Canadian voices, it is the vulnerability of these genres in particular that is at the root of the discussion,” WGC president Bruce Smith said in a statement.
The Directors Guild of Canada also cited the loss of key Canadian programming protections for putting the jobs of local directors and creative teams at risk.
“The market alone will not reliably protect Canadian storytelling without clear and measurable rules. This framework contains spending requirements, but very few direct obligations tied to original Canadian storytelling itself. Without those protections, there is a real risk that investment shifts away from original Canadian drama and documentaries and towards safer, lower-cost, or internationally optimized content that does little to sustain Canadian creative voices, key Canadian creators or long-term domestic production capacity,” Alistair Hepburn, national executive director of the DGC, said in a statement.
Beyond good intentions, show us the money was the call from ACTRA, the country’s actors union, as it reacted to the decision by the CRTC to dig deeper into the pockets of U.S. digital platforms doing business in Canada.
“While yesterday’s announcement contains encouraging language about supporting Canadian and Indigenous production, performers cannot build a future on aspirations alone. The test is whether these proclamations will lead to meaningful, enforceable investment in Canadian culture. ACTRA needs to see clear rules, accountability, and measurable outcomes, while also asking why Canadian broadcasters will pay less into investment while billion-dollar foreign streamers will only see a modest increase,” ACTRA national president Eleanor Noble said in another statement.
Even the Canadian Media Producers Association, representing indie film and TV producers, said it was reading the fine print in the CRTC decision before giving any thumbs up. “We are reviewing the decisions in detail, and will work to ensure that they enable Canadian independent producers to continue to make a significant contribution to the production of Canadian programs,” the CMPA said in a statement.
The Motion Pictures Association, representing major studios and streamers in the U.S., earlier slammed the CRTC decision for imposing “unprecedented, unnecessary, and discriminatory investment obligations” on U.S. companies and breaching Canada’s obligations under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a trade arrangement currently being renegotiated between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico amid an ongoing tariff war.
That’s left the threat of a trade battle on top of the current legal challenge, which is holding back implementation of the OSA to underwrite the cost of homegrown content production in the streaming era.
Japanese manga culture has become one of the most influential creative movements in Asia and around the world. From mainstream manga titles to independent fan-made works, readers are constantly looking for new ways to explore stories, artwork, characters, and creative styles. Within this wide culture, doujin has become an important part of the manga community because it gives independent creators and passionate fans a space to express their imagination more freely.
For Thai readers, interest in Japanese manga and doujin-related content has continued to grow over the years. Many fans in Thailand enjoy Japanese art styles, character-driven storytelling, and niche creative communities that are not always easy to discover through mainstream platforms. This is why organized discovery websites are becoming more valuable. Instead of searching across many scattered sources, readers prefer a platform that is simple, easy to browse, and built around the type of content they are already interested in.
One platform created with this idea in mind is mikudoujin. It is designed as a Thailand-focused doujin discovery website for readers who want a smoother way to explore Japanese-style doujin content. For Thai manga and doujin fans, the platform aims to become a preferred destination by offering clear navigation, simple categories, regular updates, and a user-friendly browsing experience. Rather than making visitors feel lost, the website helps them move naturally from one section to another.
A good doujin platform should not only depend on having many pages. The real value comes from how well the content is organized. Readers usually want to browse by category, theme, style, update time, or popularity. When a website has a clean structure, visitors can quickly understand where to go next. This is especially important for users who are new to doujin culture and may not know exactly what they are looking for yet.
For Thai users, convenience is also a major factor. Many readers browse from mobile devices, so the website experience needs to be fast, simple, and easy to understand. A platform that loads smoothly, has clear menus, and presents content in a straightforward way can encourage users to return more often. In a competitive online reading environment, the overall experience matters just as much as the content itself.
This is where a focused category page such as miku doujin can be useful. Instead of sending every visitor to a general homepage, a more specific page can help users discover a particular type of Japanese doujin content more directly. From an SEO perspective, this kind of structure is also helpful because each page has a clearer purpose. The homepage can introduce the brand and overall platform, while category pages can support more specific search intent.
Another reason doujin culture continues to attract readers is its diversity. Unlike commercial manga, which often follows publishing schedules and market expectations, doujin works can be more experimental in art direction, storytelling, and themes. Some readers are interested in the artwork, while others enjoy discovering different creator styles or exploring fan-driven communities. A platform that understands this variety can make the browsing journey more enjoyable.
For users who want a wider starting point, a general page such as doujin can help them explore the broader content collection. A page like this works well for readers who do not yet have a specific category in mind. They can begin with a wider overview, then move into more focused sections based on their preferences. This type of internal structure is useful for both new visitors and returning users.
From a content and SEO point of view, the best websites are those that balance search visibility with real user experience. It is not enough to place keywords on a page. The website should help users understand what the platform offers, why it is useful, and how they can browse it easily. When a website is built with clear page structure, natural content, and relevant internal links, it becomes easier for both readers and search engines to understand.
MikuDoujin’s positioning as a preferred doujin discovery platform for Thai readers comes from this combination of focus and usability. It is not trying to be a general entertainment site for every type of content. Instead, it is centered around doujin discovery, Japanese-style manga culture, and a browsing experience that suits Thai users. This gives the platform a clearer identity and makes it easier for readers to remember.
A strong discovery platform should also support returning habits. Readers often come back when they know the website updates regularly and when they can easily find new content. Sections for latest updates, popular content, and category-based browsing can help create this habit. Over time, a simple and reliable browsing experience can turn casual visitors into regular users.
For Thai manga fans, having a platform that focuses on their interests can make the discovery process much easier. Instead of jumping between unrelated websites, users can visit one place that is built around doujin content and Japanese-inspired manga culture. This is especially useful for readers who want a cleaner and more organized way to explore new works.
In the long run, doujin culture will likely remain an important part of the wider manga ecosystem. It represents creativity, independent expression, and the passion of fan communities. As more readers in Thailand become interested in Japanese manga culture, platforms that organize and present doujin content clearly will continue to play an important role.
MikuDoujin is built for this purpose. By focusing on Thai readers, simple navigation, and organized doujin discovery, it positions itself as a preferred platform for users who want an easier way to explore Japanese-style doujin content online. For readers who value variety, convenience, and a smoother browsing journey, a dedicated platform like this can become a trusted place to start.
Commuters who use the Macdonald Bridge between Halifax and Dartmouth will soon notice an upgrade to traffic signals that should hopefully improve congestion.
The technology uses adaptive camera signals to sense traffic volumes and change traffic lights accordingly.
For Nova Scotia’s public works minister, it’s all about getting traffic on and off the bridge faster.
“This may seem like a small step, but big projects always start small,” said Minister Fred Tilley.
The provincial government is contributing $700,000 to the new traffic lights at key intersections along the Macdonald Bridge corridor, reaching from the intersection of North and Oxford streets to Nantucket Avenue and Victoria Road.
Halifax Regional Municipality will lead the installation, implementation, and ongoing monitoring of the upgrades.
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“Looking at our current system, where it stands now, improvements we can make to that added together with the future major projects (…) will make a big difference,” said Tilley.
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The technology should improve travel times and mitigate congestion during rush-hour periods.
Justin Tanner, planning and partnerships executive director with Link Nova Scotia, says when all the signals work together, it should reduce commute times.
“There’s the cumulative benefit of all the signals on the corridor. So if it may be just five seconds on one intersection, it could be more on another,” he said.
“And when you add that up over an entire corridor, we’re hoping to see pretty good benefits.”
Halifax aims to reduce city traffic congestion through carpool lanes
Halifax Mayor Andy Fillmore said he’s supportive of the project, adding in a statement this is a step in the right direction for tackling congestion in HRM.
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“Projects like this are a practical way to improve traffic flow and reliability by making better use of the infrastructure and transportation system we already have,” he said.
“Not every improvement requires years of construction or major disruption — some of the most effective changes come from using smarter tools and better coordination.”
The equipment is expected to be installed this summer.
“Then we’ll move into a period where the system will start to collect data. And once it builds up that database, then the adaptive aspect will be switched on in the late fall,” said Roddy MacIntyre, HRM’s traffic authority director.
“And that will give us a good before and after (comparison).”
The pilot only focuses on the Macdonald Bridge corridor, but other arterial roads will be included in future upgrades.
The province has already budgeted $1 million in 2026-27 for future corridors, including Barrington Street.
With one week until the primary election, producer and podcaster Jamie Patricof and political strategist Mathew Littman plan to host what may be a final candidates’ forum for those seeking city, congressional and statewide office.
The Zoom forum, to start at noon PT on Tuesday, will feature mayoral candidates Karen Bass, Nithya Raman and Adam Miller. Also scheduled are Michael Tubbs and Josh Fryday, candidates for lieutenant governor; Falizah Malik, candidate for City Council; Jake Levine and Esther Kim Varet, congressional candidates; and Zach Sokoloff, city controller candidate.
Each contender will get 10 minutes, with three to five minutes of rapid fire questions from Patricof and Littman. Each candidate will be asked the same opening question: “In 60 seconds or less, this is one of your last chances to make your case to voters. What’s the single reason someone should vote for you?”
Patricof hosts the podcast Lunch with Jamie. Littman is a principal in the firm HowLitt.
The audience will be of subscribers to Jamie’s List, with signups here to register. The recording will be released as a special edition of the post later in the week.
Patricof noted that the primary is happening just as Los Angeles and California will be on the world stage with events like the World Cup and the Olympics.
“Yet we’re staring down major issues — homelessness, affordability, public safety — that need to be addressed immediately,” he said in a statement. “But because we’re overwhelmed by memes, clickbait, and TikTok clips, we have an election one week away where we still don’t know what these candidates are going to do to get us on track. The goal with this forum was to create a place to cut through the noise and get specific answers on why they are the right choices.”
Littman said, “For years I’ve brought candidates into rooms with the Hollywood community because this industry has always been a leader in shaping the national conversation. But right now the candidates need to come to the voters, not the donors. That’s what this forum is — no green room, no script, just answers.”
BTS, the trailblazing global boy group who helped popularize K-pop internationally, made their grand return to Las Vegas Memorial Day weekend.
The seven-member outfit, comprising members RM, Jin, Suga, J-hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook, sold-out four nights at Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium as part of their Arirang World Tour. BTS played their first show in Vegas on Saturday (May 23) and will resume on May 27 and 28. The K-pop group last played the stadium in 2022 during their concert series Permission to Dance on Stage — it was one of the few locations the group performed the show due to COVID regulations at the time.
The Bangtan Boys had just as many fans lining up to see their Sunday night two concert as the group did four years ago. The stadium inside was illuminated by the group’s lightsticks, known as ARMY Bombs, and the screams were near deafening. Lines to get in wrapped throughout the stadium’s parking lot, and there wasn’t an empty seat visible throughout the venue.
Sunday’s concert was a just over two-hour show of elaborate production and cool performances. The tour’s been highly anticipated as Arirang, the group’s album that the tour’s named after, is their first album in years. BTS, much like all young men in South Korea deemed fit to serve, spent the last few years completing their mandatory military service. Seeing BTS onstage, however, you’d never know the members each had to take a minimum 18-month hiatus over the last few years.
The crowd at BTS’ Arirang World Tour in Las Vegas.
BigHit Music
Much like Arirang the album, Arirang the tour is saturated in Korean culture. BTS has long been the end of accusations of being “too westernized” in their music as their popularity has exploded globally over the last decade. But it’s hard to believe one could see a show like this one — which included introductions and interludes of traditional Korean music, an elaborate homage to the Korean flag motif and a 360-degree “jeongja” style pavilion inspired by Gyeonghoeru Pavilion in Gyeongbokgung Palace — and deny that the group’s cultural identity has been infused into every moment.
The show, which kicked off with “Hooligan” off of Arirang, was performed in the round. While their 2021-2022 run of shows felt like a celebration of their careers up to that point, a healthy mix of new and old songs, Arirang solidly felt like a show for those who have stuck by the group and are fully immersed in Arirang as an album.
Sunday’s show leaned heavily on Arirang, performing only nine older tracks. If there are older fans looking to relive past tours, Arirang is not the tour for them. BTS has made it very clear they’re looking ahead, not backward, while staying true to their roots and the fans who got them to this point.
Among the non-Arirang songs performed were some of BTS’ legendary hits — “Fake Love,” “Mic Drop” and “Idol” — along with two of their pandemic-era English language singles — “Butter” and “Dynamite” — and two surprise songs. “Black Swan” off their 2020 chart-topping album, Be, was the first surprise song, and their 2014 song “Spinebreaker,” a longtime fan favorite, was the second.
BTS perform onstage at Arirang World Tour in Las Vegas.
BigHit Music
A highlight of the set, however, was the performance of their new track “FYA,” which transitioned into one of the group’s most iconic songs, “Fire,” which the group mashed up with the beat of “FYA.” It felt like a truly special musical moment that could only be witnessed at a BTS concert.
Many fans, like 21-year-old Natalie Nuntapreda, traveled from outside of Nevada for the show. She’s been a fan for nearly a decade, she said, and traveled with a group from Utah. “I love that they dance because I’m a dancer,” she said from inside the stadium about why she’s drawn to BTS. “It’s fun to see all the different, unique voices and styles. I just think they’re so talented.”
Knowing fans would travel, Hybe, the parent company of BTS’ label BigHit Music, once again put on “BTS The City” activation. The group all but took over the entire city for the weekend, turning red to match the Arirang color scheme. BTS put on a similar activation when they performed in the city in 2022. The Arirang activation, however, took things to a new level.
Fireworks kicked off the weekend Saturday night at the MGM Grand. V cheekily mentioned the firework display during Sunday’s concert, joking that the noise was preventing him from sleeping, so he looked out the window of his hotel room only to discover it was due to him and the group.
The Las Vegas Strip, as part of a partnership with Visit Las Vegas, turned fully red at 11 p.m. local time, with the group’s picture and a message “Las Vegas Welcomes BTS” splashed across the marquees on the Strip. The nearby Sphere also featured Arirang displayed on its rotation.
BTS The City
BigHit Music
The City also hosted a slew of retail, dining and cultural events. Certain restaurants and cafes offered special BTS-themed items, official afterparties followed the concert at nearby nightclubs, the Arte Museum Las Vegas opened a BTS exhibit and the iconic Welcome to Las Vegas sign was even illuminated red in honor of the group.
BTS is slated to make a special appearance tonight (May 25) at the American Music Awards, which was announced last week. Monday’s award show appearance marks the group’s first in four years. They’re up for three awards at the show including artist of the year, song of the summer and best male K-pop artist.
French YouTube sensation Sébastien Frit, more commonly known as Seb or Seb La Frite, was at the Cannes Film Festival last weekend for the premiere of his new introspective feature film Trente (Thirty).
Seb is a videographer and content creator, who has been active on YouTube since 2012 and has amassed 5.84 million subscribers since then. He started off by making face-to-face comedy videos before evolving to create exploration documentaries like Seb In Papua (2020), Seb In Kyrgyzstan (2023), and his latest travel documentary Trente.
Produced by Seb’s production company Olibrius, Trente is a personal exploration of what it means to turn 30, an age that is often a turning point or a milestone where expectations, responsibilities, and one’s sense of identity become more defined.
Trente premiered in a special screening at Olympia Cinema as part of the Cannes Marché du Film on May 16, which was followed by a theatrical release in France on May 18 and 19 through the YouTube Ciné-Club by mk2.
In a special French episode of On The Go With Deadline, Seb revealed the inspiration behind making the deeply personal film at this stage in his life, “I’ve always been very touched by the documentary genre. The reality of it affects me deeply. On top of that, I love telling myself that I can go meet people and capture unplanned moments. I find that there’s something imperfect and touching about people in their real life.”
He added: “Also, having to tell a somewhat intimate story, I know there are films that have been in Cannes, but are much older, like Tarnation, which is about people with VHS tapes and raw footage. I find that it tells a story that is sincere and authentic. And I just realized, I never had a diary, even when I was a child. And I thought to myself, why don’t I do that? And what if I try, for the first time in my life, to take notes and do a little review and see, understand what it means to grow up and how I want to grow up.”
Having made Trente on the verge of turning 30 after discovering an old video of himself as a teenager talking to his future 30-year-old self, Seb reflected on the advice he would give his younger self at 15-years-old.
“I don’t like to live with regrets. So I would say, ‘Carry on, even if it seems weird,’” said Seb.
Wil Wheaton, who recurred as a heightened version of himself in the mothership series, makes a very quick cameo appearance in a new sizzle reel released Sunday by HBO Max. At the 0:30 mark, he flashes by, appearing inside Stuart’s comic book store, apparently firing an energy blast at Stuart, Denise, Bert, and Kripke. You can watch the clip below.
Wheaton appeared in 17 episodes in seasons 3 through 12.
The spinoff revolves around comic book store owner Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman) who is tasked with restoring reality after he breaks a device built by Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki), accidentally bringing about a multiverse Armageddon. Stuart is aided in this quest by his girlfriend Denise, geologist friend Bert, and quantum physicist/all-around pain in the ass Barry Kripke. Along the way, they meet alternate-universe versions of characters we’ve come to know and love from The Big Bang Theory. As the title implies, things don’t go well.
Stuart Fails To Save The Universe is written and executive produced by Chuck Lorre, co-creator and executive producer of Big Bang and all of its spinoffs to date, Zak Penn and Big Bang co-creator Bill Prady. Emmy, Grammy winner and Oscar-nominee Danny Elfman composed original them music for the series.The spinoff is produced by Chuck Lorre Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.
Stuart Fails To Save The Universe premieres this July, streaming on HBO Max.
We all think we know our cartoons, but can you really name the characters just from their silhouette and nothing else? Well, it’s time to put that to the test! And if you score less than 12/20, maybe hold back a little before bragging about “knowing your cartoons.”
The idea grew as organically as the purple cauliflower at Erewhon. One day, I walked from my place in Los Feliz to the beach. I stopped at two Erewhon locations on the way to refuel. I made a reel about my journey and posted it to Instagram. My friend Fish saw it and said, “You should walk to all the Erewhons.”
I thought: I don’t have time to do that. I’m a very serious person who needs to write her novel.
But later I found myself mapping out an 89-mile hike in my Notes App, starting in Pasadena and ending in Calabasas, stopping at all 10 Erewhon locations on the way. (My route did not include the Palisades, which is closed because of the fires; nor did it include LACMA or the new Glendale locale.)
“I need to write my novel” is a thought I have a lot. I usually heed this thought and sit at the desk like a soldier, imagining the wonderful day when I’ll sell said novel — for an amount that would probably be comparable to a fraction of an Erewhon employee’s yearly salary.
Erewhon Trail map illustration by Swan Huntley.
(Erewhon Trail map illustration by Swan Huntley. )
I really wasn’t in the mood to write the novel, though. When I imagined myself pecking away at the keyboard, I felt bad. When I imagined myself walking around L.A. in my Home Depot gardening hat, I felt good. So, I put on my hat, got into an Uber headed for Pasadena, and texted my sister, “Carpe diem, bitch.” Or at least that was my intention. What I actually sent was, “Carpet diem hitch.”
Over the summer, I hiked a little bit of the Pacific Crest Trail. A few years ago, I biked the Camino in Spain. I’ve walked from Los Feliz to the beach a handful of times. I’ve traversed the length of Manhattan thrice. Before that, when I was a teenager, I used to trek from La Jolla to Del Mar while drinking beer (I carried a cooler; yes, I’m sober now) and listening to Sarah McLachlan on my Discman. I’ve always been drawn to activities that many people find tedious. Like walking forever. Or writing a novel.
Starting in the fourth century, pilgrimages were served up by the church as a way for Christians to pay penance for their sins. They were hard and dangerous and a lot of people died. Fast-forward to now: Such treks have taken on an “Eat, Pray, Love” aura. Or a “Wild “ aura. They live in the realm of self-help and of sport. They’re a way to create friction in an increasingly frictionless world. By walking from Mexico to Canada, or from Erewhon to Erewhon, I wonder whether we’re trying to get back to the part of ourselves that wants to try harder.
Or we just want to become more valuable dinner party guests.
What do you do?
I do really long walks.
I ordered a Goddess Smoothie in Pasadena, and then I repeated this tradition at every store thereafter. The smoothie costs $19, tastes like heaven, and it’s green, which my brain reads as “good for me.”
It took me a little over three hours to walk 11 miles to Silver Lake. I got a Vegan Avocado Sandwich for lunch, took an Uber home and posted a reel on Instagram about my first day on the trail. A lot of people liked it. Some of them called me a genius.
In the last 10 years, I’ve published four novels and two illustrated books for adults. I was naïve and just totally blindly happy about the publishing process in the beginning. People wanted to buy my work? Other people wanted to read it? Cool.
The first book, “We Could Be Beautiful,” did well because the publisher put real money into the marketing of it. Then that stopped happening. At a certain point, I realized that expecting too much was unwise. It was up to me to market my books myself. Which meant: social media.
They say you have to see a book cover six times before you buy the book — or consider buying it. There are a lot of book covers on Instagram. Actually, there’s a lot of everything on Instagram, and out of all the everything, is a book cover that exciting?
No.
My second reel, which depicted my journey from Silver Lake to Studio City, went a little bit viral. To date, almost 10,000 people have shared it with their friends. Why? I think the answer has something to do with a desire for levity.
If the atmosphere of the world could be depicted by an Erewhon beverage, it wouldn’t be a vibrant, cheerful one, like the bright magenta Pitaya Smoothie. It would be the dark and brooding Germ Warfare Shot. I find it perplexing that people talk about the apocalypse as if it’s happening later. It’s happening now. If we were really thinking about how climate change is affecting us, we’d be out in the streets screaming. All the time. But we’re not doing that. We’re carrying on with our usual lives. Apparently, for me, that includes walking to Erewhons.
Any long-distance trek is as much an internal journey as it is external. As I continued the trail, I started to think that maybe my endeavor was a reaction to my feeling of total powerlessness. I can’t save the polar bears. I can’t force the president to go to therapy. But I can add some levity to the brooding atmosphere.
Recently, someone commented on one of the reels, “Transplants make LA locals look bad.” This person, and many others, hear the name Erewhon and assume I’m poking fun at it. Erewhon has become a joke about L.A. — a joke that was amplified after Hailey Bieber invented her smoothie in 2022 that Erewhon dubs the “Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie.” I’ve never had it, but I can tell you that it looks like a sky full of strawberry clouds. According to an Erewhon employee I spoke to, this smoothie was a turning point. It aligned the brand with wealth and power. Now, Erewhon evokes the image of smooth-skinned, health-conscious Angelenos with money to burn.
The Erewhon Trail, then, inevitably becomes a conversation about privilege, my own included. Instagram hid my two favorite comments, because it was worried they’d be too rude to show, but I think they’re the funniest ones.
This is what white people do on Prozac.
This is what happens when a liberal arts teacher gets fired.
To both of these comments, I say: Yes.
I’m not on Prozac yet, but maybe after I get fired, I will be.
In order to get fired, though, I’d have to get an actual job, which might never happen.
The most intense leg of the trail was from Santa Monica to Calabasas. My friend Fish joined me. Google said it would take 27 miles. After marching through the mountains, I decided to use my own intelligence to make the route shorter. This cut out four miles, bringing the total to 23. For long stretches, Fish and I walked in the bike lane, or in the bramble by the side of the road. That’s the penalty for straying from Google. Your sidewalks disappear and your chances of getting hit by a car go way up.
My legs were noodles by the time we got to Calabasas. I crawled across the parking lot to show my viewers how weak they’d become. The employee at the door smiled at me and handed me a basket, and I thought about the pain of my legs, which no one could see, and about all the secret battles people are fighting all the time, and I wished that we cared about each other as much as Erewhon cares about us. Multiple employees were perfecting the already-perfect plateaus of bell peppers and apples in the produce section. Their thoughtfulness was the opposite of the vibe I encounter in most public restrooms, which is that the strangers who were there before me didn’t have many thoughts about my experience. As lame as the fact that an Erewhon smoothie costs $19 is that so many of us need to be paid to be nice to each other.
When I tell people about my love for Erewhon, they either say, “Duh, I know,” or something along the lines of, “That place is ridiculous, right?” This is almost always followed by the mention of a food item and some amount of money. Like, “Doesn’t a carrot cost $12,000?”
Actually, I tell them, no. Although sometimes, yes. There is a Japanese strawberry that’s famously expensive ($20), but that’s avoidable. I then explain that contrary to popular thought, there is a way to shop at Erewhon on a budget. A jar of soup, for example, costs $15.50. If you return the bottle, you get $3 back. In my opinion, the soup can be two meals, so that’s $6.25 per meal. A lot of the produce is either the same price or only a little bit more expensive than at other health food stores, and it’s in consistently better shape. The most important piece of making Erewhon more affordable, though, is becoming a member. You get 10% off, a free drink of the month and discounts on a bunch of items.
You might be wondering: How many Erewhon memberships has she personally sold?
She’s lost count.
The other reason to go to Erewhon is the environment. It’s visually appealing and the employee-to-customer ratio is notable, and the result is that you feel like you’re at a resort. And frankly, these simple things — a nice environment, high quality food — should be available to everyone.
Back to the question of whether or not Erewhon is ridiculous — yes, of course it is. If you sit at any of the locations and listen to the conversations around you, you’ll probably feel like you’re an extra in a satirical movie. At Studio City, I overheard two moms in white pants and cashmere sweaters talking about how, based on their Instagram recon, they figured out that so-and-so was sitting next to so-and-so at a benefit dinner. Another snippet I overheard in Studio City: “You gotta make music from the heart, man, and the label will feel it.”
It didn’t occur to me to ask for free merch until after I’d finished the trail. Armando at the Santa Monica location was the lucky recipient of my request. I explained my uniquely heroic feat to him, and then wondered aloud if perhaps I could get a sweatshirt, or at least a hat.
Sadly, Armando was unauthorized to give me merch, but he did offer me a gift card in a tiny envelope. I was very grateful. I assumed the card was worth $50 at least.
After we parted ways, I opened the envelope.
Ten dollars.
Enough to put a down payment on a smoothie.
My dreams now are so different from when I was younger. Back in grad school, I imagined that maybe I’d write a bestselling novel, and maybe it would be adapted for the screen, and maybe my tombstone would read: She contributed very serious literature to civilization.
What I never accounted for was, of course, the unknown. Maybe one day, over a decade after school ended, I’d get a lot of attention for making performance art about walking to grocery stores.
Huntley’s novels include “I Want You More,” “Getting Clean With Stevie Green,” “The Goddesses” and “We Could Be Beautiful.” She’s also the writer/illustrator of the darkly humorous “The Bad Mood Book” and “You’re Grounded: An Anti-Self-Help Book to Calm You the F— Down.” She lives in Los Angeles.
A new Spider-Man: Brand New Day spoiler regarding Hulk brings to light Marvel Studios’ ongoing marketing issues and their need to change ahead of Avengers: Doomsday. Anticipation for Tom Holland’s next Spider-Man outing, set to release on July 31, reached a fever pitch following its March 2026 trailer. Now, instead of Marvel controlling the narrative, a toy company has seemingly revealed a major twist months ahead of the movie’s release.
The spoiler comes from a Hasbro action figure set depicting Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner as the Hulk engaging in combat with Spider-Man. This reveal undermines the film’s official marketing, which only showed Banner briefly in human form wearing his Hulk Inhibitor Device.
Hasbro
Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures had been notably careful with presenting Bruce Banner in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The Destin Daniel Cretton-helmed film’s first trailer featured Ruffalo for only a few seconds, during which he wears the wrist device that allows him to remain in human form instead of the polarizing Smart Hulk form he first adopted in Avengers: Endgame. This device, first used in 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, was later explained in 2022’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. This toy reveal quickly undid that meticulous setup.
Hasbro
The full action figure set showcases a battle between the infamous green rage monster and Spider-Man, with the included pose clearly depicting a mid-battle moment. In a film already confirmed to feature multiple antagonists, a trailer reveal of this moment, or keeping it a secret until the film’s release, would have sent shockwaves through the Marvel fandom. Instead, the merchandise spoiler lands with a thud at a time when Marvel Studios has enjoyed some much-needed critical and audience wins after several rocky years post-Endgame.
Fans have not seen Ruffalo’s Hulk fully unleashed since the opening moments of 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, making his return to form a highly anticipated moment. Pairing that with a fight against Spider-Man only raises the stakes further. Unfortunately, that excitement has now been diluted before Marvel had the chance to present it on its own terms.
MCU Marketing Needs a Reset Before Avengers: Doomsday
Sony Pictures
This situation underscores a broader issue that Marvel Studios can’t afford to ignore as it heads into Doomsday, Secret Wars, and beyond. The MCU has previously excelled at secrecy and controlled reveals, but recent missteps suggest that coordination between marketing and merchandising has slipped.
There was a time when Marvel set the gold standard for protecting major surprises. Endgame famously avoided revealing key plot points in both trailers and merchandise, preserving its biggest moments for theaters. Similarly, Spider-Man: No Way Home went to great lengths to hide Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s involvement, even editing them out of promotional footage entirely.
By contrast, Brand New Day now faces a situation where one of its most exciting twists has already been exposed. The film has secrets left to reveal, but it’s still anyone’s guess as to who actress Sadie Sink is playing. This isn’t just about spoilers, though. It’s about losing control of the audience’s first impression. When fans see something for the first time in a merch drop instead of a carefully crafted trailer moment, or better yet, on the big screen, the impact simply isn’t the same.
What This Could Mean for the MCU’s Future
Marvel Studios
Avengers: Doomsday represents a critical turning point for the MCU. As the franchise builds toward another star-studded, universe-defining crossover event, maintaining secrecy and maximizing surprise will be essential. If merchandise continues to reveal key plot points ahead of official marketing, it risks undermining the very excitement these films depend on.
This becomes even more important with projects like Doomsday and Secret Wars on the horizon. Both films are expected to feature sprawling casts, massive character reveals, and dynamic twists that will shake up the MCU’s future. Those surprises need to land with full impact, and that can only happen if Marvel regains tighter control over how and when information is released.
While the Hulk spoiler from Brand New Day may seem like nothing more than a frustrating misstep, it reflects a larger vulnerability in Marvel’s current strategy. If Avengers: Doomsday is going to deliver the kind of cultural moment Marvel Studios hopes for, it must ensure that its biggest reveals happen on-screen or in its own marketing, not in a photo of a toy box. For a franchise known for shocking its fans and subverting expectations, that should be a given.
The DC Universe will not slow down in 2027 and beyond.
James Gunn was recently asked on Threads if he could share what the next DCU project will be after Man of Tomorrow. The DC Studios co-CEO stated, “Well Creature Commandos season 2 won’t be long after. And more stuff as well shortly thereafter,” confirming that the animated show won’t be back in 2026, but sometime in 2027.
While Creature Commandos season 2 is currently in production, it was presumed that the next season would arrive at the end of 2026. The DCU show was officially renewed by HBO Max in December 2024, before the season 1 finale aired in January 2025.
However, when it comes to upcoming DCU movies, there are a number of titles that Gunn could be hinting at in his latest update. Several films have been revealed to be in development that may finally be close to arriving after 2027.
Two of the biggest projects from the DCU’s Chapter 1: “Gods and Monsters” slate are the upcoming Wonder Woman reboot and the Batman film, The Brave and The Bold. Supergirl’s Ana Nogueira is penning the script for Diana Prince’s big-screen debut, while Christina Hudson is writing the screenplay for the Dark Knight’s adventure in Gunn’s franchise.
While the DCU’s Wonder Woman movie hasn’t landed a director yet, there are many theories that Adria Arjona has been tapped to play the iconic heroine in Man of Tomorrow. As of writing, it’s unknown who she has actually been cast to play in the 2027 installment. However, if Arjona is the new Wonder Woman, having her solo project be one of the next installments for the franchise would make the most sense.
When it comes to The Brave and the Bold movie, Andy Muschietti is attached to direct. Based on Gunn’s tease, it’s possible that things are finally coming together for the creative vision of Bruce Wayne’s DCU debut.
James Gunn at the UK premiere of SupermanImage by INSTARImages.com
Another hypothetical 2027 release for the franchise is Lanterns season 2, as they have recently hired a new writer. While HBO hasn’t officially renewed the show, it wouldn’t be shocking if the Green Lantern drama is eyed to return next year after season 1.
Creature Commandos season 2 may not be the only DCU animated show in 2027, as DC Studios is currently working on Mister Miracle. While it hasn’t been given a release date yet, they may be eying the Tom King-produced series for next year rather than this year.
The DCU resumes on June 26 with Supergirl opening in theaters, followed by Lanterns premiering on August 16 on HBO, before the Clayface film is released on October 23.
First Film
Man of Steel
First TV Show
Peacemaker
Cast
Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher, Jason Momoa, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Cara Delevingne, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Zachary Levi, Dwayne Johnson, Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Mark Strong, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Djimon Hounsou, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett, Rosie Perez, Ella Jay Basco, Ali Wong, Ewan McGregor, Idris Elba, John Cena, Michael Keaton, George Clooney, Xolo Mariduena
Character(s)
Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, Cyborg, Harley Quinn, The Joker, Shazam, Darkseid, Amanda Waller, Lex Luthor, Doomsday, Deadshot, Deathstroke, Black Canary, Black Adam
Created by
Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson
Movie(s)
Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Justice League, Aquaman, Shazam!, Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman 1984, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, The Suicide Squad, Black Adam, Shazam! The Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle, Superman, The Brave and the Bold
Epic Games has announced Unreal Engine 6, the latest iteration of its popular game-making technology, and unveiled Rocket League as its first title.
Announced during the Rocket League Paris Major in France this weekend, Epic debuted a minute-long trailer for what it called “the next era of Rocket League”.
According to the trailer, the footage shown is running in real-time in Unreal Engine 6, which is the first mention of the next-gen game engine, which sports a new purple logo.
No further details on UE6 or the new iteration of Rocket League were unveiled, though many fans of the vehicle sports title will likely welcome the news, since the current version runs on the two-decade-old UE3.
Unreal Engine 6’s announcement comes four years after the initial release of UE5, which powers many modern games, including Epic’s own Fortnite.
It’s likely that the engine will power many games planned for the next generation of game consoles, which could be released as soon as next year.
Cable-cutters can also stream the ceremony live on DirecTV and Hulu + Live TV via your local CBS channel. Plus, these live TV streamers are both currently offering free trials, making them the best way to stream the AMAs live online at no cost.
Some of this year’s nominees at the world’s largest fan-voted music awards show include Taylor Swift, who leads the pack with eight nominations, while Sabrina Carpenter, Morgan Wallen, Olivia Dean, and Sombr each received seven nominations apiece. Nominations are determined by a combination of sales, streaming, airplay and touring data points from Billboard and Luminate.
The American Music Awards can be streamed live and online via CBS or a Paramount+ Premium account. Paramount+ essential subscribers will not be able to stream the show live, but will have access to it on demand the next day in the U.S.
Queen Latifah is hosting this year’s ceremony, where Billy Idol will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award and Karol G will be honored with the International Artist Award of Excellence.
Idol and Karol G are also set to perform during the awards ceremony, joined by Darius Rucker and his Hootie & the Blowfish bandmates, Katseye, Keith Urban, Maluma, New Kids on the Block, The Pussycat Dolls + Busta Rhymes, Riley Green, Sombr, Teddy Swims, Teyana Taylor, and Twenty One Pilots.
Presenters include Alysa Liu, Anthony Ramos, Ejae, Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, Hannah Berner, Hilary Duff, Jason Derulo, John Legend, Lisa Rinna, Ludacris, Mariah the Scientist, Matt Rife, Megan Stalter and Paul W. Downs, Melanie Martinez, Nikki Glaser, Paula Abdul, Rei Ami and Russell Dickerson.
The award ceremony will air live from Las Vegas and honor the nation’s troops for Memorial Day. The show is produced by Dick Clark Productions. Clark created the award show in 1974.
Stream the 52nd American Music Awards on Paramount+ below:
The 2026 Cannes Film Festival has come to a close after two weeks packed with new world cinema in the south of France. Saturday marked the annual awards ceremony, in which the competition jury revealed the winner of the Palme d’Or and more prizes out of the Palais des Festivals. The Palme went to Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord,” his second Palme win after “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” in 2007 and the seventh consecutive win for the film‘s North American distributor, Neon.
Mungiu isn’t the only repeat winner; “Fatherland” filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski, who won Best Director in a tie with “The Black Ball” filmmakers Los Javis, also won Best Director in 2018 for “Cold War.”
South Korean director Park Chan-wook headed the jury as president, with the rest of the jurors including filmmakers Diego Cespedes, Laura Wandel, and Chloé Zhao; actors Isaach de Bankolé, Demi Moore, Ruth Negga, and Stellan Skarsgård; and screenwriter Paul Laverty.
The Camera d’Or, the distinguished prize for best first feature across the entire festival, is decided upon by an independent jury.
The short film jury featured filmmaker Carla Simón as president, deciding on the Short Film Palme d’Or alongside artist/actress Park Ji-Min, screenwriter/producer Ali Asgari, actor/director Salim Kechiouche, and director/screenwriter Magnus von Horn.
French actress Eye Haidara hosted the event, with an Honorary Palme d’Or given to Barbra Streisand, who could not attend the festival in person but gave a video message thanking presenter Isabelle Huppert and Cannes for the award.
IndieWire’s favorite films out of the Cannes competition included “All of a Sudden,” “The Black Ball,” “Fatherland,” “Fjord,” “Minotaur,” and “Paper Tiger,” all of which have been tipped to win prizes. The New York Times’ Kyle Buchanan shared an X thread with intel on what filmmakers and talent were invited back to the festival. Folks from “All of a Sudden,” “The Black Ball,” “Coward,” “The Dreamed Adventure,” “Fatherland,” “Fjord,” and “Minotaur” were seen back at the festival, and all won prizes. From the YouTube red carpet live stream, I spied “Fatherland” director Pawel Pawlikowski, “All of a Sudden” director Ryusuke Hamaguchi and his cast, Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo and their “Black Ball” cast, Lukas Dhont and the stars of “Coward,” and Andrey Zvyagintsev and his “Minotaur” actors among the returning attendees.
For a refresh, the last six consecutive Palme d’Or winners were also distributed by Neon in North America, including last year’s “It Was Just an Accident,” as well as Oscar Best Picture winner “Anora.” Other distributors could’ve disrupted the streak, as Netflix acquired “The Black Ball” and “Gentle Monster,” and Mubi has “Coward,” “Fatherland,” and “Minotaur.” But no.
Cannes Film Festival 2026 Award Winners
Palme d’Or: “Fjord,” Cristian Mungiu
Grand Prix: “Minotaur,” Andrey Zvyagintsev
Jury Prize: “The Dreamed Adventure,” Valeska Grisebach
Best Director: Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, “The Black Ball”; Pawel Pawlikowski, “Fatherland”
Best Actress: Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto, “All of a Sudden”
Best Actor: Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne, “Coward”
Best Screenplay: “A Man of His Time,” Emmanuel Marre
Camera d’Or for Best First Feature: “Ben’imana,” Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo
Short Film Palme d’Or: “Para Los Contrincantes,” Federico Luis
For four decades, Ira Sachs has chronicled queer life in New York, shining a light on the artists and iconoclasts whose work gives the city such a vibrant, transgressive edge.
“The Man I Love,” which Sachs describes as one of his most personal films, adds to the canon. Set in the 1980s at the height of the AIDS crisis, it follows Jimmy George, a downtown performer who is dying of the virus but desperate to take on one final role. The 60-year-old Sachs drew on his own experiences starting out in theater and film at that time to shape the story.
“I moved to New York in 1988, and the city was both dark and also full of life,” Sachs says. “People knew they could be next; death was all around them. But it led to this explosion of creativity. And this film is about what it means to live a creative life and what it means to work, which is what most of my films are about.”
“The Man I Love” premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where Sachs’ direction, as well as the central performance of Rami Malek as Jimmy earned some of the strongest reviews of their careers. Sachs spoke with Variety during the production of “The Man I Love,” as well as on the eve of its premiere.
When it was announced, “The Man I Love” was described as a musical fantasy. Is that how you describe the finished film?
That’s not the movie I made.
Was that the movie you set out to make?
There was one fantasy scene that didn’t make it in the film. Ultimately it became a drama with a lot of music in it. One of the producers I worked with said they’d never seen a film transformed throughout the process of making it the way this is. That doesn’t make any sense to me, because all my films feel like that — they’re all in process until they’re completed, and so they sort of define themselves. The first short that I made, “Lady,” was abstract, and someone asked me when I started, “What do you want it to be?” And I said, “I only know what it is when I see it complete. It reveals itself.”
Is “The Man I Love” drawn from your own life?
When I started the film, I thought I was making a biography, but I ended up making an autobiography. It’s very personal.
Who is your surrogate? Rami’s character Jimmy George or the men who orbit him: Dennis (Tom Sturridge) or Vincent (Luther Ford)?
Well, I’m still alive, so I’m not Jimmy. I could say Vincent. To an extent, the film is about survival. It’s also about memory. It comes from a place that is very much out of my experience, having known people and been connected to people and have been in love with people who had a terrible illness. I had a boyfriend who had AIDS, and I lived in a time in which AIDS was not just present, but it created an intense atmosphere of both dread and possibility in New York. I made a film that’s a testament to creativity as a form of survival. Art and art-making are so vital to life and to breathing. In that way, I connect very much to Jimmy.
In what ways were ’80s New York a time of possibility? I look at the death toll from AIDS and it seems like a scary, almost apocalyptic time to be a gay man.
It was, but also there was so much creativity. I arrived in the city as a youthful person, so everything lay in front of me. Our intention was to make a film that was testament to the fact that one lives until the very end. One doesn’t die actively, one lives actively, and so what is life? When I first described this film to someone, I was probably in my early 50s, and I said it’s about what do you do with the time left. This is a compressed, dramatic version of that intellectual exercise, as well as a specific one, because it shows the horrors of the AIDS epidemic. But there was such an artistic flourishing that came out of the East Village in the ’70s and ’80s. I’m still running on the fumes of that time. I’m so grateful to have been part of it.
Do people think enough about that era? It feels like some parts of the gay community have kind of memory-holed it, because there’s Prep now and AIDS in this country isn’t as much of a public health crisis.
Historical amnesia is prevalent and not specific to gay people. It’s like that line about war — the winners are the ones you remember. The ones you hear about with AIDS are often the ones who lived. A lot of people disappeared who I knew that time in an intimate way. There are fewer and fewer of us left who can tell that story.
One of my favorite parts of the film is when Jimmy goes back to his hometown for his parents’ anniversary party. He looks so uncomfortable in his suit — like a fish out of water. It’s so striking because he basically struts through New York City.
There’s often this great divide between the person you become and the person you were; the family you create for yourself and the one you come from. Sometimes if you’re in a room full of people in New York City, your contemporaries, and you imagined everyone’s grandmother on their left side, and you imagine all those grandmothers around the table, what an odd assortment of people would be there. None of them would have any connection to each other. When I think of my own friends, we all were transformed by our arrival to New York. It molded us.
What made you think of Rami Malek to play Jimmy?
From ‘Mr. Robot.” In that series, he had this very natural, easy kind of acting in which I couldn’t see the beginnings and ends of his sentences, and I was curious about it. He’s also such a unique presence. Rami is a star, and he has something magnetic that allows him to hold a movie together.
Jimmy performs several musical numbers. What was it like to shoot those?
I’ve made movies with quite a bit of music, but I’ve never met a movie where the protagonist actually performs on that scale. What I like about the musical scenes is they become scenes of dialogue. They become conversations between Rami and the other actors, and between Jimmy and his boyfriend and his lover and his mother and his sister and his nephew. They became forms of language.
Rami Malek and Tom Sturridge are straight, but they are playing gay roles. Do you have any issue with straight actors playing gay parts?
I don’t ask people who they’ve slept with, and what I have found out is, you never know.
“The Man I Love” is your second time having a film in Cannes. What does that mean to you?
I’m an American who has watched and digested and considered primarily European cinema as my precursors and my mentors and my educators. I’ve been very engaged with the language of European cinema and its connection to naturalism. American cinema has traditionally been rooted in theatrical transformation. I think my approach to finding the truth of something is more through discovering its essence than engaging in transformation.
Do you read reviews of your work?
I do read reviews, but I read them less intently as I get older.
When you do read them, do you fixate more on the positive ones or the negative ones?
The positive reviews have the potential to affect you more deeply. The negative reviews get under your skin and make you want to fight back. John Kander of Kander & Ebb is a cousin. He was opening a show, and I sent him an email saying “break a leg.” He’s 35 years older than I am, which means he sits in a position of mentorship, and he said “the terror never leaves you.” I found it very comforting that the man who wrote “Cabaret” and “Chicago” and all these great works still gets scared, because I still get scared when I’m starting something new.
You make very personal, indie films that defy easy categorization. Is it hard for you to get the money to produce them?
I’m a hustler. I take money seriously. I don’t belittle money. I don’t expect a lot of money, but I work closely with my producers who understand what I need, and then they give me the range in which that will be possible. I would never go below that range, but I would never spend above it either. I had to understand that Hollywood offered me next to nothing. I had to work in a different system. In 2012, I worked briefly on some studio things, but I quickly understood that it was not for me, and I was not for them.
What wasn’t for you about Hollywood?
A lot of people operated in extraordinary ways under the studio system, so it’s not that great work can’t be produced in it. But if I’m going to do something, it can’t be in a corporate system. Also, major studios don’t make the kinds of movies that I make — non-genre driven, domestic dramas that are about queer people. They literally don’t make those stories. And my work is inherently political.
What were the studio films that you worked on?
I worked on a biographical film about Montgomery Clift for HBO, and I worked on an adaptation of a book called “Christodora” for Paramount.
Was it a valuable experience?
No. The only thing I learned from it was what I didn’t want to do.
In what ways is your work political?
I am a gay man, and I primarily make movies about gay men. Every time I make a movie, I’m overturning the idea of what is interesting to people because the dominant culture says our lives are not interesting. That’s something I refuse to accept.
At the Americana Film Festival last year, you warned that “darknessis falling on cultural expression” because of the re-election of Donald Trump. Why?
We don’t have freedom of speech anymore. I’m despondent. It would be hard to look at this country and not feel shocked. Everything we held to be unchangeable and precious is disappearing. Cinema under repressive regimes adapts in ways that can be fascinating. Look at Spain during Franco or Iran under the mullahs. They kept making great art, but they did so by leaning into metaphor. That’s something queer cinema has often tried to do. But because of the times we’re living in, it seems like a good opportunity re-engage with the artists I remember from the East Village, who were always brave risk takers. No matter what, their work always felt deeply personal and very, very free.
When will your favorite CBS shows be coming back? Have they been cancelled or renewed for another season? How many episodes have been ordered this time around?
Below, you’ll find a list of CBS recent/current/upcoming primetime TV shows and their current status. To see a series’ ratings, click the links in the middle column (where applicable). You can also see the full season’s ratings.
Here are other cancelled/renewed listings: Broadcast TV shows: ABC | CBS | The CW | FOX | NBC | PBS Scripted Cable & Streaming TV shows (listed by title): A-D | E-L | M-R | S-Z
To see a series’ ratings (if available), click the links in the “current season” column.
Note: If you do not see the full chart, please try reloading the page or use the chart’s scroll bar. You can also see it here.
TBD = To Be Determined.
Here are other cancelled/renewed listings: Broadcast TV shows: ABC | CBS | The CW | FOX | NBC | PBS Scripted Cable & Streaming TV shows (listed by title): A-D | E-L | M-R | S-Z
We do our best to keep these lists up to date but finding information on some of these shows can be tricky. Sometimes, the networks aren’t very forthcoming with their information so, if you see something that we’ve missed, please let us know.
What do you think? Which shows are you hoping will be renewed? Are you looking forward to checking out any new ones? Have any of your favorites been cancelled?
As the shock of Canadian actor Stewart McLean‘s homicide last week transitions to numbed grief, friends and family of theVirgin Riverand Murder In A Small Town performer are struggling to make sense of the tragedy.
In recent social media posts since Saturday’s announcement by Canadian law enforcement that McLean’s weeklong disappearance was being investigated as a homicide with the discovery of a body, some who knew the actor have been sharing their thoughts.
Jeff Seymour, a friend in Los Angeles and show business colleague who recently spent time with the Vancouver-area-based McLean, writes on Facebook, “I lost a great friend today. Stew McLean was a wonderful human being. He visited me recently to act in a project I wrote for him. He was such a lovely and thoughtful actor. He was a joy to work with. He was intelligent, well read and an excellent story teller. The day before he headed back to Vancouver, a few of us drove along Mulholland Drive, looking at the views while Stew sang along to songs from the 60s and 70s. He seemed know the lyrics to everything. You will be greatly missed, my friend. You were a good egg. I’m grateful to have had you in my life.”
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Seymour, an acting coach, said he realized something “was seriously wrong” when McLean failed to appear for a scheduled filming commitment last week. “He was meticulous about everything,” Seymour said. “There would be no chance he just blew something off or overslept. As soon as I heard he didn’t make it, I knew there was big trouble.”
Seymour described McLean as “incredibly situationally aware.”
“For the life of me, I don’t know how anybody could get the drop on Stewart,” Seymour said. “Everybody loved this guy. He was more of a loner who enjoyed reading and spending time at home.”
Director-writer Ryan Minaker also shared his thoughts about his friend Stewart. The two worked together on the web series Cloud Van Tales.
“It’s with painful realization that we are saying goodbye to Stew McLean,” Minaker writes on Facebook. “Taken from us far too young and in such a heinous way. What a rockstar he was. A loved guy everywhere he went and an inspiration when it came to his talents as an actor. I was blessed to have him in my life as was everyone who had the privilege to know him.
“I met Stew back when he auditioned for one of my projects and from then on he continued to be a part of our film family. For the last decade Stew was a constant example of raw talent, stealing the show in every project while remaining professional, humble and approachable. He had the most contagious laugh. I’ll miss our long chats and creative collaborations. Blessed to have so many great memories but sad there won’t be more. Stew was a wonderful soul. I miss my friend. Condolences to the McLean family.”
McLean’s reps at the Vancouver-based Lucas Talent Inc. also offered tributes. Jennifer Lee and Derek Nordick wrote, “We have lost a beloved member of the Lucas Talent family. Derek and I had the pleasure of working with Stew McLean since 2014 and he was always the most positive, kind, funny, chill dude you could ever know. He embraced any opportunity to work on set, in any capacity – PA, Background, Actor roles, weekend Indies or big budget streaming projects – with enthusiasm & joy. That is how we will honour and remember him. Sending love and condolences to his family, many friends in the film community and beyond. Stay groovy Stew, you will be deeply missed.”
Also with the agency, Jodie Caplan wrote, ‘I was fortunate to have worked with Stew for more than 10 years. He was always such a pleasure to deal with, dedicated, professional, eager, and endlessly funny!” Caplan added, “Many casting directors have reached out to share their condolences with Stew’s family and with our agency, and every message says the same thing: what a truly great guy he was, and how deeply he will be missed. Rest in peace, Stew.”
McLean’s sister Kat, writing on Facebook for herself and siblings Laura Ferguson Cam McLean, said of their “dear younger brother” that he “was genuine, honest, caring, and funny as heck. We will miss him incredibly.”
The Canadian TV actor’s remains were located last week in Lions Bay, British Columbia, outside Vancouver, after he had gone missing about a week earlier. Squamish Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced Friday, May 22, that the remains had been identified as McLean.
The homicide investigation, being conducted by Canada’s Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, is ongoing.
McLean had maintained a career as a working TV actor since about 2015, appearing in single episodes of Arrow, Supernatural, Travelers, Blue Steele, Loudermilk, Murder in a Small Town and Netflix’s Virgin River, among other series and TV movies.
On “The Cure,” Olivia Rodrigo is infatuated, but also distracted. “All the pretty girls in the foreground of my mind,” she murmurs in the opening verse. As she strums an acoustic guitar, her thoughts unspool. Wasn’t love supposed to be the antidote to a head full of poison, a heart full of doubt? And sure, he does his best to suck out the venom, offering compliments and reminders that comparison is the thief of joy. He means it every time, and you’re always grateful, because maybe affirmations are like apples; one a day keeps the doctor away, something like that.
While self-doubt and jealousy are well-established themes across Rodrigo’s catalog, here she seems to finally internalize a bitter truth: Love isn’t a quick fix. Some problems are your own to solve. But it’s exhausting to lay awake at night, batting down bad thoughts. “I’m unraveled,” Rodrigo admits, her voice fraying into multi-tracked harmonic strands. “The Cure” builds gradually across five minutes, with orchestral strings and a stately piano weaving through the chorus. As the realization that nothing—or no one—will be enough overcomes the final bridge, a flurry of drums gallop in and the track explodes into fireworks as Rodrigo screams her guts out. “The Cure”’s emotional wallop feels like a mature step forward for the 23-year-old songwriter. There’s no toxic ex to rage against, only her own reflection. And, somehow, that has to be enough.
Leading Middle East streamer MBC Shahid has picked up Lebanese comedian John Achkar’s stand-up comedy special “Tryin’” (“Aam Jarrib”) filmed at Paris’ legendary L’Olympia concert hall in what is being touted as a milestone for Arabic stand-up comedy.
Achkar’s performance of “Tryin’,” filmed in Paris on Oct. 23, marked the first-ever Arabic-language performance by a comedian on the iconic L’Olympia stage that has hosted world comedy greats such as Chris Rock, Gad Elmaleh, and Eddie Izzard.
Achkar’s live stand-up comedy tour featuring sold-out shows across 85 cities around the world was produced by Dubai-based distributor and producer Front Row Filmed Entertainment that announced the deal with MBC on Monday.
MBC Shahid will be dropping the John Achkar special across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region exclusively starting from May 27. The “Tryin” special is the first of a planned six-title Arabic stand-up slate that Front Row currently has in development with other artists’ names yet-to-be revealed.
In “Tryin” Achkar uses an “unfiltered, fast-paced” approach and “dives headfirst into the hilarity and heartbreak of modern Arab life,” according to a statement. It noted that the show, performed in Arabic around the world, “speaks to both those who stayed and those who left; the Lebanese and Arab diaspora scattered everywhere.”
“For me, this special is bigger than comedy,” said Achkar in a statement. “It’s about proving that Arab stories, Arab humor, and Arabic stand-up deserve to stand shoulder to shoulder with the world’s biggest productions and performances,” he added. “We’ve spent years building this community around the world, and seeing an Arabic special reach streaming platforms like MBC Shahid feels like a huge step forward for the industry as a whole.”
Commented Front Row CEO Gianluca Chakra: “John managed to do something incredibly rare: create comedy that feels deeply personal to Arabs everywhere, while still being universally relatable.”
“This agreement with MBC’s Shahid is not only a milestone for John, but a milestone for Arabic stand-up comedy entering the streaming era at scale. MBC’s Shahid is the leading home for Arab content, and the fact that they believe in this vision, and are backing it properly, is a huge positive sign for comedic talent across the region and beyond.”
Lisa, Anitta, and Rema are confirmed performers at the FIFA World Cup USA Opening Ceremony in Los Angeles, and they marked the announcement with a brand-new collaborative music video dropping the same day.
FIFA’s official World Cup account shared the news on Instagram on May 22, naming all three artists for the Opening Ceremony stage alongside a release of “Goals,” the new track they recorded together. The account called it “an unforgettable performance” in the announcement.
The post pulled in close to 950,000 likes by the end of the day. A number like that says this lineup landed well beyond soccer audiences.
“Goals” is streaming through FIFA’s official channels now. The music video and the ceremony confirmation arrived at the same time.
Audiences didn’t have to wait. The track brings three very different sounds into one space, and that combination is worth hearing before the live show. It gives a real sense of what the Opening Ceremony in Los Angeles might actually feel like.
Lisa is the Thai member of BLACKPINK and one of the group’s most globally recognized faces. She’s been building her solo career steadily over the past couple of years, and her profile keeps growing.
Her performances are tightly crafted and hold up at any scale. A World Cup Opening Ceremony is exactly the kind of stage her career has been building toward.
Anitta has been Brazil’s most consistent crossover pop and funk act for years. She’s worked with artists across genres and continents, built a strong international fanbase, and earned her place on some of the world’s biggest stages.
Her energy translates everywhere. On a platform this big, she’s going to light it up.
Rema has been one of the biggest names out of the Nigerian Afrobeats scene for a while. His 2022 hit “Calm Down” crossed from West Africa to just about every corner of the world.
His sound is effortlessly smooth. It travels naturally across musical cultures. That quality matters a lot on a stage shared with two artists from completely different backgrounds.
Together, this trio spans Thailand, Brazil, and Nigeria. That range says something real about the state of global music right now. A decade ago, a bill like this at a major Western sporting event would have been rare.
These three artists built their careers on different continents and in different genres. Putting them together for one performance at the world’s biggest sporting event just hits different.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup runs across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The Opening Ceremony in Los Angeles kicks the whole tournament off. With this lineup confirmed, it’s already one of the most globally diverse opening acts the World Cup has produced.
“Goals” is out now. The music video is a good preview of what that Los Angeles stage is going to feel like. The Opening Ceremony can’t come soon enough.
“The job market for security people is getting hotter and hotter,” Dr. Kissner added.
Cybersecurity is not the only area where A.I. has spurred a hiring boom. It is also creating jobs in private equity and venture capital firms, recruiters said, as investors look to cash in on the A.I. boom and to use the technology to assess and enhance their portfolios. The A.I. industry itself is hiring — the fastest-growing job title for recent college graduates is A.I. engineer, according to LinkedIn.
“We need more software engineers than ever,” Nick Fox, the senior vice president of knowledge and information at Google, said on a panel at the company’s marketing conference last week. But engineers’ roles have shifted to managing A.I. agents, or bots that act as assistants in accomplishing various tasks, he said.
“That’s a change to the work of a software engineer,” he said. “But it doesn’t mean the job of a software engineer goes away.”
Still, those areas of growth are unlikely to offset widespread job cuts in other parts of the tech industry. On Wednesday, Meta laid off 10 percent of its staff, or about 8,000 people, as it reallocated spending to A.I. Amazon cut 16,000 jobs in a recent round of layoffs. Other tech companies, including Stripe, Snap and Block, have also shed thousands of workers.
Cybersecurity hiring has particularly picked up speed as A.I. models have made rapid advances.
Last month, the A.I. start-up Anthropic announced that it had built a new model, Mythos, that was exceptional at finding and exploiting flaws in the software that supports the world’s power grids, financial institutions and major companies. The announcement set off a global scramble to prepare for how attackers might eventually use the technology. A week later, OpenAI unveiled similar technology, GPT‑5.4‑Cyber.
South Korean director Na Hong-jin has returned to Cannes for the fourth time with his long-awaited sci-spectacular Hope in which a remote hunting community, situated on the edge of the untouched forests of the Korean Demilitarized Zone, is terrorized by the arrival of aliens.
South Korean mega-star Hwang Jung-Min leads the cast as hapless police chief Boem Seok, opposite Squid Games breakout Hoyeon, as a steely younger officer, and Zo In-Sung in role of the leader of a group of hunters who venture into the forbidden forests in search of the uninvited guests.
They are joined in the cast by Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender, Taylor Russell and Cameron Britton, who have been transformed into the aliens through motion capture and CGI.
“The film deals with a story that is a bigger, much more extended narrative and I had an opportunity to talk to Alicia about it,” said Na of Vikander’s involvement. “Their metamorphosis was done through facial and motion capture at the same time.”
Na has said in the past that the film could be the first part of a franchise but it remains to be seen whether “the extended narrative” in his head will eventually reach the big screen.
Hwang, who previously appeared on Na’s Cannes 2016 Un Certain Regard-selected film The Wailing told the Deadline Studio that the suggestion of sequel had been one of the draws of the project for him.
“I thought maybe I would be doing this job for a longer time,” he said.
Na said the idea of the sequel was still on the back-burner, but nothing had been set in steel: “It is still in my mind, that doesn’t mean it will happen, but it’s still in my mind.”
To see the full conversation, click on the video above.
The Deadline Studio at Cannes is sponsored by SCAD.
Pope Leo XIV on Monday launched an impassioned call for regulation of Artificial Intelligence, warning that “opaque algorithms,” controlled by a handful of powerful private companies, can bring “new forms of dehumanisation.”
In his eagerly awaited new encyclical called (Magnificent Humanity) – an encyclical is an ancient form of Vatican communication – Pope Leo also warned that it is crucial that AI must not remain in the hands “of a few,” underlining that AI technology was recently used during the U.S.-Israel War on Iran.
The pontiff also said it was crucial that the technological revolution underway must not be driven by “the idolatry of profit.”
While pontiffs do not usually physically attend the presentation of their encyclicals, Pope Leo – in what is considered an unusual move – presented “Magnifica Humanitas” himself at the Vatican alongside Christopher Olah, the founder of major A.I. developer Anthropic, as well as a host of Catholic prelates and theologians.
Anthropic, during the past year, has held several events targeting religious communities and invited Christian leaders to its headquarters to discuss spiritual-related matters and the development of its AI systems.
In February, Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei clashed with U.S. President Donald Trump and the U.S. Department of Defense when he refused to comply with Pentagon demands to grant the U.S. military unrestricted use of its AI assistant, Claude.
“Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together,” Pope Leo said, in the encyclical’s opening words. In the biblical Tower of Babel story, humans are driven by hubris to try to create a tower tall enough to touch the sky, angering God in the process.
“Magnifica humanitas,” which is divided into five chapters, “has an underlying premise: technology is not “a force antagonistic to humanity, nor is it “inherently evil,” according to the Holy See’s official news outlet, Vatican News. However, “technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate, and use it,” it noted.
In terms of regulation, “What is needed is a more active political involvement that is capable of slowing things down when everything is accelerating,” Leo said in the document, which some experts say is likely to become a benchmark for policymakers, and also ordinary citizens, in the ongoing debate over AI.
The pope went on to call for “robust legal frameworks, independent oversight, informed users and a political system that does not abdicate its responsibility.”
It was the world’s most famous movie built around a slide show: Al Gore, in a darkened auditorium, clicking through images that warned of a heating planet. Within the film’s first minutes, Mr. Gore described a “moral imperative to make big changes,” a call he echoed several times onstage.
Twenty years after the release of “An Inconvenient Truth,” his Oscar-winning documentary, it is remembered mostly for its cultural resonance — for bringing awareness of global warming into the mainstream. Mr. Gore and his intense focus on climate change energized both supporters on the left and critics on the right. In a self-effacing bit on “Saturday Night Live,” Mr. Gore warned viewers about glaciers on the attack. A year later, he shared the Nobel Peace Prize.
As the years passed, Mr. Gore has kept going with his slide show, giving presentations in hundreds of cities worldwide, most recently in Nashville earlier this month.
And with time, the slide show has changed in ways that reflect how the conversation about climate change has shifted over the course of a generation.
Onstage in Nashville, Mr. Gore made a central argument that would have been inconceivable two decades ago. Rather than directly invoking morality, he led with economics.
The cost of renewable energy had plunged. He talked about “market forces” and about the “spectacular, unprecedented” technology revolution — including low-cost solar panels and wind turbines — that now make aiding the planet an affordable choice.
“We’re in a different world now,” Mr. Gore said in Nashville. “The options are terrific.”
The moral aspect of climate advocacy has had a long legacy, burnished not only by Mr. Gore but also by Pope Francis, who portrayed a link between environmental degradation and societal rot. In the late 2010s, a wave of youth protesters argued that political leaders and corporations had a duty to safeguard the planet for future generations.
But as that movement waned, some felt the moralizing had at times brought a political backlash. After the documentary’s release, Mr. Gore was criticized in some right-wing circles for hypocrisy given that he traveled widely and lived a lifestyle reliant on fossil fuels for energy. Later, to attend climate events, the activist Greta Thunberg twice crossed the Atlantic by sailboat in a conspicuous effort to avoid polluting air travel, a move that some critics called a publicity stunt out of reach for noncelebrities.
Environmentalists, meantime, made a new case: that wind and solar energy were becoming cheaper than fossil fuels. Bill McKibben, a founder of the campaign group 350.org, said climate advocates no longer had to “fight against the force of economic gravity.”
“This is the place where we have the most leverage,” he said. “Instead of having the economic wind forever blowing at us, now it’s in our sails. We do finally have a tool to work with.”
Johan Rockström, the scientist who leads the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, went so far as to say that the “winning argument” in pushing for cuts to greenhouse-gas emissions “is not the ethical and moral one, it is the economic one,” in part because of the political blowback the moral argument can attract.
In an interview, Mr. Gore spoke at length about his evolving slide show, which he estimated he had given thousands of times. Did he move away from the moral message?
“It remains the central argument,” Mr. Gore said, pointing out that he was still making this case in speeches and at meetings. But he also noted that “experience says there are a lot of people who will be more easily be persuaded by the impact on their pocketbooks.”
He described his target audience as people “whose minds are changeable,” and that’s where he thinks an economic argument, as well as one about health implications, has grown more effective. He also reasoned that the moral case, as strong as he felt it was, had perhaps reached its persuasive limits.
President Trump has forcefully rejected the idea that renewable energy has an economic advantage, last year calling green energy a “scam” and describing climate change as the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.” During his first term, Mr. Trump criticized “prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse,” with Ms. Thunberg, the climate campaigner, in the audience.
The consequences of climate change, of course, still raise moral questions. Wealthy countries are responsible for the bulk of emissions, while poorer nations disproportionately face the damage. Deadly heat waves singe countries where most can’t afford air conditioning, while hurricanes barrel into small islands and slice their G.D.P.s. Last year, the top United Nations court ruled that nations had a duty to prevent environmental harm and that any breach constituted a “wrongful act.”
“The idea that there is one way to talk about climate, it never was true and isn’t true now,” said Rachel Cleetus, a senior policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Mr. Gore still begins his slide show as he did in the “An Inconvenient Truth” days, with an image of Earth taken during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968. After that, the differences in content are immediately apparent. Back then, though he cited examples of how climate change was driving extreme events, he said the phenomenon was just “beginning” to show itself. Now, he devotes a full hour to current events such as fast-intensifying hurricanes, wildfires and shrinking glaciers that are reducing water supply.
In the 2006 documentary, he noted that the 10 hottest years on record had come over the previous 14 years, since the 1990s.
Compare that with his current slide show, in which he notes that the 10 hottest years have all happened since 2015.
“It’s still getting worse much faster than the solutions are being deployed,” Mr. Gore said in the interview.
Mr. Gore said he had been presenting some version of the slide show since the 1980s and had performed it more than 1,000 times even before the documentary’s release, using a Kodak Carousel projector in the early days. He said that “one of the most important presentations” was on the deck of a houseboat in Center Hill Lake in his home state, Tennessee. He was with longtime friends, with beer flowing. They weren’t the most obvious audience for a climate talk. But, he said, they were interested.
“It emboldened me to start taking it on the road in a much more forceful way,” Mr. Gore said.
A scene in the documentary showed him at a desk, laptop open, jotting notes on paper. “I guess the thing I’ve spent more time on than anything else is trying to identify all those things in people’s minds that serve as obstacles to them understanding this,” Mr. Gore said at the time.
Asked why he continued with the slide show 20 years later, he described it as a “challenge of a particular kind.” But this time he was talking about himself, not the planet. “It’s one of those, when you pick it up, you can’t put it down,” he said.
Neon may be the toast of Cannes — again — after landing its seventh consecutive Palme d’Or on Saturday thanks to “Fjord,” but according to Boots Riley, the distributor could have had another hot film in its 2026 lineup.
With the musician and filmmaker’s latest movie “I Love Boosters” having hit cinemas on May 22, Riley has been busy promoting the crime comedy — starring Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu, Eiza González and LaKeith Stanfield — across social media.
But when asked by someone on X why Neon chose to launch the film at SXSW rather than in Cannes, Riley said that it was down to the French festival, which he claimed had also rejected his previous projects, including his 2018 dark comedy feature debut “Sorry to Bother You” (which bowed in Sundance that year) and 2023 surrealist comedy series “I am a Virgo.”
“Cannes didn’t pick Sorry to Bother You altho they picked other stuff that had been played in their home country,” he wrote. “They picked The Idol over I’m a Virgo. They didn’t pick I Love Boosters.”
Riley concluded: “They just don’t like my stuff. All good.”
“I Love Boosters,” Riley’s second feature, is a absurdist comic send-up of consumerism, following a Robin Hood-like gang who shoplift high fashion from the rich and then sell it on on for a fraction of the price.
In Variety‘s review, it described the film as an “incendiary prank of a movie” that “begs our indulgence at times yet also invites us to get high on what a playful provocation it is.”
Pixar confirmed that its next movie’s cast will be led by a mainstay from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While countless Marvel stars have gained new levels of fame through their work in the MCU, the franchise’s biggest names are also widely known across the entire entertainment industry. One of the biggest crossovers with other franchises comes via Pixar movies, which continue to run strong into the back half of the 2020s.
Pixar confirmed that Mark Ruffalo will portray the leading role in Pixar’s first 2027 movie, Gatto. Specifically, veteran Pixar art designer Gaston Ugarte shared with the OLGA YouTube channel that Ruffalo will play the leading role in this new movie, portraying a black cat named Nero. In this movie, Nero is indebted to a feline mob boss and will be forced to forge an unexpected friendship with a street artist.
Sony Pictures, Pixar
Ruffalo is perhaps best known to fans for his work as Bruce Banner/the Hulk in the MCU over the last 14 years. First playing the role in 2012’s The Avengers, he has made starring appearances or cameos in nine MCU movies overall. He also voiced the role in multiple animated What If…? episodes and starred in three episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law on Disney+. His new Pixar movie Gatto is being prepped for a theatrical release on March 5, 2027.
8 Marvel Stars With Major Pixar Roles
Willem Dafoe
Sony Pictures, Pixar
Willem Dafoe has been a staple in the Marvel universe for nearly a quarter-century, first playing Norman Osborn (better known as the Green Goblin) in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy from 2002 to 2007. He then made an epic return to his iconic role in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, in which he was the main villain and fought against Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire’s web-slingers.
Dafoe also shone in the Pixar world in 2003’s Finding Nemo, portraying a Moorish Idol fish named Gill. This fish was the leader of the Tank Gang in the fish tank in Dr. Sherman’s office, scarred from multiple escape attempts before helping Nemo escape and get back to his father.
Samuel L. Jackson
Marvel Studios, Pixar
Samuel L. Jackson is one of Marvel Studios’ longest-tenured stars, playing former SHIELD director Nick Fury for the last 18 years. As of writing, Jackson has cameos or full roles in 12 MCU movies, a leading role in 2023’s Secret Invasion on Disney+, and guest-starring roles in two Season 1 episodes of Agents of SHIELD (along with a voiceover role as Nick Fury in What If…?).
Jackson is also highly regarded for his place in Pixar’s history, playing a major supporting role in 2004’s The Incredibles and 2018’s Incredibles 2. Here, he played a powerful hero named Frozone, known for his cryokinetic abilities that allow him to manipulate moisture and ice (as long as he is properly hydrated).
Michael Keaton
Sony Pictures, Pixar
Michael Keaton made a big impact on the MCU in Spider-Man: Homecoming, portraying the movie’s main villain, Adrian Toomes/the Vulture (he also appeared in Morbius, to many fans’ displeasure). Eventually revealed to be Liz Allan’s father, Toomes is a former salvage worker who was put out of work after the Department of Damage Control took over clean-up after the Battle of New York. He eventually turned to selling Chitauri-based tech on the black market, which put him in Spider-Man’s crosshairs and landed him in prison.
Keaton has a pair of roles in past Pixar films. His first work with the animation giant came in 2006’s Cars, in which he played a 1980s stock car named Chick Hearns, Lightning McQueen’s biggest rival. Four years later, he joined the Toy Story universe with a role as Ken (famously played by Ryan Gosling in Barbie) in 2010’s Toy Story 3.
Tom Holland
Sony Pictures, Pixar
During his path to superstardom, Tom Holland took on the challenge of bringing Spider-Man to the MCU, introducing his Peter Parker in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. Also starring in his own solo Spider-Man trilogy and the two most recent Avengers films, he will continue playing the web-slinger this year, making his return to the MCU in Spider-Man: Brand New Day in July.
While shining in the MCU, Holland also played a big role in Pixar’s 2020 movie Onward. In this movie, he played a co-leading role as Ian Lightfoot, a teenage elf who longs for a relationship with his father, who passed away before he was born.
Chris Pratt
Marvel Studios, Pixar
Chris Pratt has nearly a decade of work with Marvel Studios, portraying the wild space outlaw Peter Quill, better known as Star-Lord. Playing the headlining role in all three Guardians of the Galaxy movies (and the team’s 2022 Holiday Special on Disney+), he also played a big role in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame and made a short appearance in 2022’s Thor: Love and Thunder.
Pratt’s Pixar work comes directly opposite Holland, as they reunited in the animated world of Onward in 2020. Here, the Marvel legend portrayed Ian Lightfoot’s older brother, Barley, who wants nothing more than to set out on a magical quest across the world.
Jamie Foxx
Sony Pictures, Pixar
Jamie Foxx has starred in two different Marvel franchises, first playing the villainous Max Dillon/Electro in 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 for Sony Pictures. He later reprised the role in Spider-Man: No Way Home, serving as one of the movie’s five multiversal villains who were transported to Earth-616.
In between those movies, Foxx joined the Pixar world for the first time, playing the leading role of Joe Gardner. This character is a middle-school music teacher and jazz pianist who accidentally dies, leading to him visiting the Great Beyond and going on a mission to get back to his body before it is too late.
Chris Evans
Marvel Studios, Pixr
After starring as Johnny Storm in two Fantastic Four movies from 2004 and 2007, Chris Evans became one of the MCU’s biggest names through his role as Steve Rogers/Captain America. He has starred as the star-spangled man with a plan in 12 MCU movies and reprised his role as the Human Torch in Deadpool and Wolverine; he will also return as Steve Rogers in 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday.
Between his two most recent MCU appearances, Evans took on a massive role with Pixar, playing Toy Story‘s Buzz Lightyear in the Lightyear movie from 2022. Here, he voiced the version of Buzz that inspired his popular line of toys, working as a Space Ranger and protecting the galaxy.
Zoe Saldana
Marvel Studios, Pixar
Alongside Pratt, Zoe Saldana made her way into the MCU in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Portraying the delay Zehoberei alien Gamora, she made appearances in all three Guardians movies and the two most recent Avengers films, even meeting her tragic end in Avengers: Infinity War before an alternate timeline variant returned for her last two movies.
Saldana then joined the Pixar family in 2025’s Elio, playing the role of Aunt Olga. This character is a highly respected U.S. Air Force Major who takes in her nephew, Elio, after he loses his parents and works through the challenges of being his legal guardian.
James Gunn’s DCU is finally opening its doors to new genres in 2026. All three of the DCU’s released projects so far – Creature Commandos, Superman, and Peacemaker Season 2 – are from the mind of James Gunn himself, who is known for using the action comedy genre with a superhero spin. Granted, the big-screen blockbuster of the bunch may be less of an outright action comedy than its TV counterparts, but it still leans heavily into humor and light-heartedness.
As the DCU finally starts delivering projects that aren’t written or directed by Gunn, starting this year with Supergirl, Lanterns, and Clayface, DC Studios will seemingly abandon the action-comedy genre for the rest of the year.
Gunn has been open about his drive for the DCU to vary in genres, from the beginning, telling CBS Mornings last year that there will be no “company style,” simply as they “don’t want people being bored” with repetitive projects:
“There’s not a company style. It’s not like every movie is gonna be like Superman. The artists and the directors and the writers that create each one will bring their own sense to it… We don’t want people being bored.”
Clayface‘s female lead, Naomi Ackie, recently spoke with Empire Magazine and described the movie’s switch to a “genre-led influence” as “really smart of DC,” as it can combine the comicbook and horror fanbases:
“I really love genre films, and I love acting in genre films. The fact that it’s the DC world with this indie influence and this genre-led influence feels like the world I belong to… So this mash-up [between] a horror film and a comic-book film is interesting. I think it’s really smart of DC, because it brings in horror lovers and comic-book lovers.”
What Genre Is Every Upcoming DCU Movie & Show?
Supergirl – Space Adventure (Confirmed)
DC Studios
DC Studios’ next blockbuster release is Supergirl on June 26, and its unsurprising genre has been announced as “space adventure”akin to Guardians of the Galaxy. Based on the trailers, Supergirl looks to have a rather traditional tone for the superhero genre, although seemingly with far less comedy than Superman.
Lanterns – Sci-Fi Crime Drama (Confirmed)
DC Studios
While Supergirl seems rather similar to Superman in tone, the next HBO venture, Lanterns, looks to be a complete 180-degree turn. The eight-episode show is a buddy cop story in the DC universe with something of a grounded crime drama feel, with the sci-finess of the Green Lantern Corps and alien threats thrown in.
Clayface – Body Horror (Confirmed)
DC
Perhaps the first definitive example of the DCU’s genre-shifting will arrive in theaters this October with Clayface. The shape-shifting Batman villain’s origin story is firmly an R-rated body horror with dark tones and seemingly no superhero or comedy elements, proving the DCU’s ability to cross genre lines.
As a superhero comedy series for HBO Max, Booster Gold will presumably have a similar style to the DCU’s early projects, even if it isn’t led by James Gunn himself. However, only time will tell if the tale of “imposter syndrome” in the DCU leans more family-friendly or strays into Peacemaker levels of adult.
Jimmy Olsen Show – Crime Mystery Comedy (Confirmed)
DC Studios
Skyler Gisondo’s Jimmy Olsen is getting his own HBO Max show in a true-crime style, with him investigating DC villains, starting with Gorilla Grodd. Co-creator Dan Perrault confirmed that his untitled DCU project is a “crime mystery comedy,”meaning that it will blend the Grodd investigation with a touch of Olsen’s humor.
Paradise Lost – Political Fantasy Drama (Confirmed)
DC
HBO Max’s Wonder Woman prequel show Paradise Lost will officially lean into the political scheming and intrigue on the all-female land of Themyscira. Its usage of the political genre will be reminiscent of Game of Thrones, paired with all the mythological Greek gods one would expect from Wonder Woman’s lore.
Man of Tomorrow – Sci-Fi Action-Adventure (Expected)
DC Studios
As Man of Tomorrow is James Gunn’s kinda, sorta sequel to Superman, one would imagine that it will maintain the same PG-13 action-adventure style with some lightheartedness and comedy. However, due to the looming arrival of the superintelligent alien Brainiac, it ought to pull more from the sci-fi genre too.
Mister Miracle – Psychological Sci-Fi (Expected)
DC Studios
Just as Supergirl is adapting Tom King’s Woman of Tomorrow comic storyline rather closely, Mister Miracle will be based on the DCU writer’s run with the New God. As such, it ought to be an animated psychological sci-fi, opening up the DCU’s New Gods lore through the lens of Scott Free’s mental descent.
Brave and the Bold – Action-Adventure (Expected)
DC
As Matt Reeves’ The Batman saga already has the Dark Knight’s detective side locked down, the DCU’s Brave and the Bold seems likely to lean more into the action-adventure genre, paired with some father-son family drama between the next Bruce Wayne and his biological son/Robin, Damian Wayne.
Deathstroke & Bane – Action-Comedy (Expected)
DC
DC Studios is developing a Deathstroke and Bane team-up movie from writer Matthew Orton, and recent reports claimed that Peacemaker and Superbad director Greg Mottola is the front-runner to helm. Due to the reported director choice, it’s highly likely that this will be another adult action-comedy affair.
Fans currently know very little about the Wonder Woman reboot script in the works from Supergirl writer Ana Nogueira. It’s easy to imagine it taking a similar tone to Supergirl while trading sci-fi for fantasy, perhaps set in modern-day to differentiate it from Gal Gadot’s DCEU superheroine franchise.
Nearly nine years after its release, live service support for Destiny 2 is coming to an end. Bungie has announced that it plans to release the last content update for the online shooter on June 9, 2026.
In a blog post, Bungie explained that after the game’s last big expansion, The Final Shape, it felt that it had reached time on the stories it wanted to tell with Destiny 2. Content for Destiny 2 had been trickling in at a slower pace after Bungie focused more on releasing its extraction shooter, Marathon, with more time now being spent on determining what the studio’s next game will be.
“As our focus turns towards a new beginning for Bungie, we will begin work incubating our next games,” the post reads. “To that end, on June 9, 2026, we will release the final live-service content update for Destiny 2 to begin that new journey as a studio.”
Bungie has reassured fans that Destiny 2 won’t be going offline, with the studio planning to continue supporting it to ensure it remains playable and welcoming to new and old players alike. The blog post did not specify if previously vaulted content would be returning, however.
Bungie’s latest title, the PS5 and PC shooter Marathon, is being significantly changed soon with the introduction of a PvE mode, in an attempt to attract players that might not be as enthusiastic about the game’s highly competitive PvP action. Bungie was acquired by Sony in July 2022 for $3.6 billion, with the PlayStation 5 manufacturer shifting its strategy away from live service titles significantly since then.
Martin Scorsese’s The Departed came out when I was in high school, and I don’t think I was mature enough to understand the first time I watched it how much it was about tension and identity.
But the older I get, the more I love how it establishes a brilliant thesis statement that sets the tone for the next two and a half hours right from the opening voiceover.
To me, it’s one of the best-written stories I’ve seen.
William Monahan’s Oscar-winning screenplay wastes absolutely no time telling you exactly what kind of world you’re in as Jack Nicholson’s Frank Costello monologues.
Let’s break down the exact screenwriting techniques you can emulate to write a killer opening for your own spec script.
The film opens with archival footage of the 1960s Boston desegregation busing riots, and that immediately establishes a real-world backdrop of structural breakdown and societal anger. We can see there’s a level of chaos in the city.
Then, Nicholson’s iconic, raspy voice cuts through the audio mix.
“I don’t want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me.”
Think about how most crime films operate. Usually, the protagonist or the antagonist justifies their criminal lifestyle by blaming their surroundings.
This goes back to the classic gangster films, where we had to show someone was a public enemy or see them killed at the end and justice served.
But this is a modern crime film, so it can flip that sentiment on its head.
Costello frames his criminality not as a survival mechanism, but as an act of absolute, terrifying willpower.
That chaos you see? That’s him. He’s the one calling the shots and driving the animosity. This is who he is through and through.
On a script-writing level, this instantly tells the audience that this character isn’t just a local mob boss; he views himself as God.
‘The Departed’ CREDIT: Warner Bros. Pictures
Highlighting the Mechanism of Corruption
As the monologue continues, Scorsese cuts to a young Colin Sullivan sitting at a diner counter. Costello enters, shrouded heavily in shadow, and begins grooming the boy. He hands him comic books, some cash, and pats his head.
“Years ago they had the Church. That was only a way of saying – we had each other. The Knights of Columbus were real head-breakers; true story. They took care of their own. But 20 years ago you could get to be a cop in Boston. If you wanted to do that, it was a good life. But what we had was inside. This is the cost of doing business.”
Now we get a progression of power where Costello is shown to bridge the gap between traditional pillars of community.
He’s got both the church and the cops in his pockets.
And if you want to determine your own fate, you have to do it with him on your side.
When he delivers the crucial phrase, “This is the cost of doing business,” it strips away any romanticized, Godfather-esque notions of “honor” or “family” in organized crime.
This guy runs a very cold corporation.
Summing It All Up
Opening a movie with a voiceover can sometimes feel like an info-dump, but when it’s used to establish a thesis on how power actually operates in your world, it grabs the audience by the throat.
And then it never lets them go until the end of the movie.
Taylor Swift just confirmed barrel jeans aren’t going anywhere this summer.
At her core, Taylor Swift is not a particularly trendy person. Swift’s fashion philosophy can largely be described as classic, feminine, and relatable. Clock-able shifts in her aesthetic typically reflect a purposeful projection of a new musical era, rather than a permanent change in personal style.
Even when she’s bread-crumbing a new project—she was dropping hints about Tortured Poets into her outfit for months before the album’s release—she tends to gravitate towards specific silhouettes and styles that speak to her (surprisingly shoppable) tastes. This is part of the reason Swift’s brief stint in logo-mania was such a jarring moment for the portion of her fanbase that were used to shopping her looks, even if they had to find an attainably priced dupe of a designer piece.
Swift’s latest date night outfit is a prime example. Though she was dressed in head-to-toe Stella McCartney for the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball game against the New York Knicks, the outfit formula was a millennial classic: jeans and a black going-out top. Plus, a black denim jacket in case it got chilly inside Rocket Arena.
Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift attends the game between the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio on May 23, 2026.
David Liam Kyle/Getty Images
That being said, the fact that Swift was wearing a subtle barrel jean is extremely telling. Since the death of the skinny jean, Swift’s denim collection rarely sees the light of day. And when she is photographed in jeans, they tend to be the focal point of her ensemble, from her bedazzled butterfly jeans to her favored rhinestone cutout jeans by Area.
This time, her Stella McCartney PURE.TECH Relaxed Curve Jeans (which happen to be on sale for $445.00), serve as the base for the real stars of her look: Dior’s new “La Cigale” bag and a chainlink black tank top from Stella McCartney’s recent H&M collaboration. More on that in a minute.
Peaky Blinders is barrelling through time, recasting new Shelbys along the way. After recasting Duke Shelby with Jamie Bell earlier this year, Netflix has confirmed that Charlie Heaton will step into the role of Charles Shelby, a role that has been played by a variety of actors through the years, most recently by Alfie Thomas Bland in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.
“Having fought a violent war, much of it behind enemy lines, Charles Shelby is now embracing normality. He hasn’t seen his half-brother Duke … in years,” reads a description from Netflix. “Charles severed all ties to the Peaky Blinders gang, and the hedonistic Shelby lifestyle. But can you ever escape your own blood?”
There’ll be at least two seasons’ worth of television to answer that question. As Netflix previously shared, the two new Peaky Blinders seasons will pick up about a decade after World War II (when Netflix movie The Immortal Man took place) in a still-rebuilding Birmingham. The new, six-episode seasons will also star Jessica Brown Findlay, Lashana Lynch, and Lucy Karczewski in her first television role; the details for these roles haven’t been shared publicly yet, which has so far meant that the roles will be aged-up versions of characters we’re familiar with. No official release timeline has yet been shared for the new episodes of Peaky Blinders.
Two problems, though: Cassie can’t un-delete her OnlyFans, and the network behind “LA Nights” doesn’t want an actual OF star playing one on the show. So Patty praises Lexi’s writing, then asks her to fire her sister. (Lexi happily agrees.) All of a sudden, Cassie’s revenue streams have dried up. Meanwhile, Maddy’s boss learns that she sent Cassie in for the audition and fires her on the spot.
Maddy finds out Cassie deleted her OF account, slaps her around a little bit, then demands that Cassie do exactly as told. Mads engineers a date with the “LA Nights” star, Dylan, and makes sure the paparazzi are there to capture it. Cassie takes him back to her place, strokes his ego, serves him lots of vodka, and has loud sex with him… then posts a photo of them together to his Instagram.
“I stole his passcode, I f**ked him, and when he left the room, I uploaded it,” she proudly announces to Maddy when the newly indie manager maven shows up the next morning, while Dylan is still sleeping off his drunken state in the bedroom. Thanks to the post, Cassie’s subscribers are back in droves. But when Maddy sees Nate’s unfrozen finger — which Dylan scooped out of the ice drawer (but didn’t notice) while grabbing a post-coital glass of water — she wants to know exactly what’s going on.
Back at Naz’s, his thug measures Nate for a coffin and Naz taunts Nate that his wife enjoys her freedom too much, and that’s why they haven’t received payment from her yet. Still, though: Dude wants his money. So the henchman goes to her place, knocks her out, ties her up, and tells her she has 72 hours to get Naz the cash. Why 72 hours? Because Naz has buried Nate alive on the property he was trying to develop, mere feet from those pesky white flowers, and 72 hours is how long it’ll take Nate to die of dehydration.
Or… maybe not that long! Because as Nate is screaming and banging on the lid of his coffin, a curious snake slithers down the air pipe Naz left for him. Nate goes from thinking someone’s coming to help him to realizing he’s about to die. As he screams, the snake rears back and goes for his neck.
Thing is, Cassie doesn’t know any of that, and she still hasn’t come up with Naz’s money. So she calls Maddy, and Naz tells her he needs $1 million, pronto, or bad things are going to start happening to Cassie.
Hong Kong-based ACT3 and Philippine production company Blackops Studios Asia have set Cuba Gooding Jr., Luke Ford, Keith Duffy and multimedia artist Qymira in “Lotus,” an international action thriller that marks the first production under the companies’ multi-year, five-film slate deal.
The project was introduced to international buyers and distribution partners at the Cannes Film Market. Principal photography is scheduled to run from September through October in Manila, with additional sequences to be shot in Brazil.
Filipino filmmaker Pedring Lopez, founder of Blackops Studios Asia, directs from a screenplay he co-wrote with his longtime producing and writing collaborator Rex Lopez. Pedring Lopez also produces alongside Rex Lopez and Maia Yambao-Lopez. Leslie Loh serves as executive producer for ACT3.
Gooding Jr. (“Jerry Maguire”), Australian actor Ford (“The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” “Animal Kingdom,” “The Black Balloon”) and Irish singer and Boyzone member Duffy headline alongside Qymira, who previously starred in Lopez’s “Shadow Transit.” Also cast are actor-producer Cristian Lavin (“NCIS”) and Brazilian actor Alberto Cowboy, a “Big Brother Brasil” alumnus.
“‘Lotus’ marks my first major project shooting in the Philippines and Southeast Asia,” Gooding Jr. said. “There’s an energy to this project and to Manila that immediately pulled me in. The vision Pedring and the team have for this film is raw, dangerous and global.”
Ford added: “What drew me to ‘Lotus’ was how grounded and unpredictable the world felt. There’s a rawness to the story and the way Pedring wants to shoot the film that makes it feel immediate and immersive. Manila and Brazil are incredible backdrops for this kind of action-thriller, and I’m excited to be part of something that feels both intimate and global at the same time.”
“This film is bigger, darker and even more ambitious, and I’m excited to be part of a story that connects Manila and Brazil in such a visceral way,” Qymira said. “Brazil has also held a special place in my heart especially after having performed at the Salvador Carnival and released several Portuguese and English songs with local artists which topped the Bahia radio charts, so bringing those worlds together in this film feels incredibly personal.”
Sonny Sison, a Filipino-American choreographer and producer, will handle stunt and action coordination, working with his local crew and an international stunt team drawn from the U.S. and Hong Kong. Noel Teehankee will shoot the film, with the production drawing from a crew across the Philippines, Hong Kong and Brazil. Additional Filipino casting is ongoing.
“This is a film designed for a global audience but rooted in the energy and chaos of Southeast Asia and Latin America,” Lopez said. “We want ‘Lotus’ to feel dangerous, emotional and alive, the kind of film that throws you directly into its world.”
“Lotus” is the first of five planned productions under the ACT3–Blackops Studios Asia collaboration. The partnership’s other cornerstone project, the China-set action epic “A Thread of Steel,” is scheduled to shoot in 2028.
Earlier this month, Drake turned a long-teased album drop into a three album bonanza, releasing the new LPs Iceman,Habibti, and Maid of Honour at once on May 15. Now, Billboardreports that he has become the first artist to hold the No. 1, 2, and 3 spots on its Billboard 200 chart in the same week since it began publishing on a consistent weekly schedule in 1956.
The feat does, in a sense, arrive on the back of a technicality. In 2009, Michael Jackson—whose iconic bejeweled glove Drake wears on his Iceman cover—should have occupied the top three spots on the Billboard 200 after his death based on unit count alone. However, due to a Billboardrule at the time that prohibited albums released more than 18 months ago from factoring into the weekly charts, Jackson’s sweep was not counted.
Iceman,Habibti, and Maid of Honour marked Drake’s first new solo albums since 2023’s For All the Dogs. (Crucially, it’s also his first LP drop since the Kendrick Lamar beef that became so ubiquitous it reached the Super Bowl LIX halftime show and led Drake to sue his own label, UMG, a legal dispute he references multiple times across his latest trio of LPs. The suit was dismissed in October 2025.) He also released a joint album with longtime collaborator and fellow Canadian PartyNextDoor, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, in 2025.
Explore why casino movies continue to captivate viewers worldwide. From the glamour of Las Vegas to the psychology of risk and reward, discover what keeps audiences hooked on gambling cinema classics.
Why Casino Movies Still Fascinate Audiences
Casino movies have been around for decades, yet people still binge-watch them like they just hit streaming platforms yesterday. Strange, right? You’d think audiences would eventually get tired of poker tables, smoky lounges, tense card games, and sharply dressed gamblers whispering into whiskey glasses. But nope. Somehow, these films keep pulling people back in.
Maybe it’s the atmosphere. Maybe it’s the danger. Or maybe — and this is probably closer to the truth — casino movies let ordinary people flirt with risk without actually losing money. Some fans even compare that feeling to the adrenaline people describe when talking about “1xbet 게임” late at night with friends online. That’s the magic trick. Viewers get the rush while sitting safely on the couch with leftover pizza and a phone at 12% battery.
Think about films like,, or. They aren’t really about gambling alone. Not even close. They’re about ambition, greed, confidence, luck, ego, and sometimes total self-destruction. In other words, they’re about people. Messy, unpredictable people.
And honestly, audiences never get bored of that.
The Thrill of Risk Feels Weirdly Personal
Here’s the thing about casino stories: they tap into emotions most people already understand. You don’t need to know blackjack rules or poker odds to feel tension when someone pushes all their chips into the center of the table. The emotional stakes are obvious immediately. Win, and life changes overnight. Lose, and everything falls apart.
That simplicity matters.
A lot of modern movies overload viewers with complicated lore or endless exposition. Casino films usually don’t. The setup is clean. There’s money on the line, someone has a secret plan, and pressure keeps building minute by minute. It’s almost primal.
And let’s be honest — people love watching confidence under pressure. That cool, controlled character who never blinks? Audiences eat it up. Even when the character is morally questionable, there’s something magnetic about someone who walks into chaos looking completely calm.
Interestingly, casino films also mirror everyday life more than people realize. Maybe not the million-dollar poker hands, obviously. But the idea of taking chances? Everyone does that constantly. Career moves, relationships, investments, even sending a risky text message at midnight — it’s all gambling in some form.
That connection makes the genre feel oddly intimate.
Glamour, Neon, and a Little Bit of Fantasy
Casino movies also sell fantasy better than almost any genre out there. Not superhero fantasy. Something softer. More believable.
The expensive suits. Velvet dresses. Private rooms. Penthouse views overlooking Las Vegas at 2 a.m. It’s exaggerated, sure, but not impossible. That’s the key difference. People can imagine stepping into that world for one night.
And filmmakers know exactly how to present it.
The lighting tends to glow instead of shine. Music slides underneath scenes like a secret. Chips click against polished tables with almost ridiculous precision. Even the chaos looks elegant. It’s funny, actually — casino movies often portray deeply unhealthy lifestyles, yet somehow make them look incredibly appealing for two hours.
Then reality kicks in.
That contrast keeps audiences hooked because glamour in casino films rarely lasts forever. There’s always a crack somewhere. A betrayal. A debt. Someone getting too greedy. So viewers get both fantasies at once: the dream of sudden success and the satisfaction of watching it collapse.
Kind of like watching a sports team dominate all season and then implode in the playoffs. Painful, but impossible to ignore.
The Characters Are Never Truly Safe
Action movies often rely on explosions. Horror films rely on fear. Casino movies? They thrive on uncertainty.
A conversation can become dangerous in seconds. One bad hand can destroy a character’s future. Even silence feels loaded sometimes. And audiences feel that tension because the danger isn’t always physical. Social humiliation, financial ruin, betrayal — those hit close to home.
That’s why many casino films age surprisingly well. The emotional mechanics still work years later.
Take, for example. The gambling itself almost becomes secondary after a while. What really matters is obsession. Self-sabotage. That strange urge some people have to push things too far even when they know better. Audiences recognize those impulses because, honestly, everyone has done something irrational before.
Maybe not lose thousands at a blackjack table. Hopefully not. But people understand temptation. They understand chasing a feeling even when it’s clearly a terrible idea.
And casino films lean into that human contradiction hard.
Poker Faces and Psychological Warfare
Another reason these movies still work? Dialogue. Great casino films are packed with conversations that feel like hidden battles.
People bluff constantly — emotionally, financially, socially. Characters rarely say exactly what they mean. Instead, viewers watch tiny facial expressions, pauses, nervous habits, shifting confidence levels. It becomes psychological chess with cocktails nearby.
That’s incredibly engaging to watch.
A car chase is exciting for thirty seconds. A tense poker scene can hold attention for ten full minutes because audiences participate mentally. They start guessing. Who’s lying? Who’s panicking? Who already knows the outcome?
And you know what’s fascinating? The cards themselves almost stop mattering. The human behavior becomes the real spectacle.
That’s probably why poker exploded culturally after movies like gained popularity. The game looked intellectual, strategic, even artistic in a strange way. Suddenly poker wasn’t just gambling anymore — it became performance. Identity. Ego management under pressure.
Cinema reshaped how people viewed the entire activity.
Why the Genre Keeps Reinventing Itself
You’d expect casino movies to feel repetitive by now, but the genre keeps adapting. Some films lean heavily into crime. Others focus on psychological drama or dark comedy. A few even become love stories disguised as gambling films.
That flexibility helps a lot.
Modern audiences also crave stories about systems — power systems, money systems, social systems. Casino environments naturally expose those dynamics. Wealth moves quickly there. Status changes overnight. Rules bend for the rich. Sound familiar?
Casino films often reveal uncomfortable truths about society while pretending to entertain people with roulette wheels and luxury suites. Sneaky, honestly.
And streaming platforms changed things too. Viewers now consume films differently. They pause scenes, replay poker tells, discuss theories online, argue about endings. Casino movies fit perfectly into that culture because they invite analysis. Fans love dissecting strategies and hidden motives.
Plus, there’s nostalgia. A huge amount of it.
Classic Vegas imagery still carries emotional weight even for younger audiences who never experienced that era firsthand. Neon signs, old-school lounges, tuxedos, cigarette smoke curling through dim rooms — it feels cinematic instantly. Timeless, even.
So… Why Are We Still Watching?
Maybe casino movies survive because they reflect one uncomfortable truth people don’t like admitting: life often feels random. Skill matters, sure. Hard work matters too. But luck? Timing? Those matter more than most people want to admit.
Casino films dramatize that reality beautifully.
One person wins everything after making reckless choices. Another loses despite careful planning. It’s frustrating because it feels familiar. Audiences recognize pieces of their own lives hidden beneath the glamour and tension.
And despite all the cautionary tales, there’s still something seductive about watching characters bet big. Humans are drawn to risk. Always have been. Maybe it’s hope. Maybe ego. Maybe curiosity about what happens when someone ignores fear completely.
Whatever the reason, casino movies continue pulling viewers into that glittering world of ambition and danger — and viewers happily return every single time.
Even when they already know the house usually wins.
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As The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has officially come to an end, CBS revealed who will fill the longtime late-night slot after Stephen Colbert signs off. The network announced that comedian and media mogul Byron Allen will bring his syndicated comedy series, Comics Unleashed, to CBS at 11:35 p.m. as part of a new agreement with Allen Media Group for the 2026-2027 season.
“I truly appreciate CBS’ confidence in me by picking up our two-hour comedy block of ‘COMICS UNLEASHED’ and ‘FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK,’ because the world can never have enough laughter,” Byron said in a statement. CBS’ arrangement with Allen Media Group is reportedly a buy-time agreement, meaning Byron pays the network to air his programs.
In an interview published May 6, Colbert revealed that he sent Byron a congratulatory note after learning that Comics Unleashed would replace The Late Show, adding, “God bless him.”
The cancelation of The Late Show was announced last year, shocking viewers across the board as many speculated that politics played a role in the show’s axing. However, CBS executives insisted that it was a “financial decision.”
“We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire The Late Show franchise in May of 2026,” CBS said. “We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late-night television.”
The network added, “This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
Learn about Stephen’s replacement in his late-night time slot, Byron, below.
(Photo by Jamie McCarthy/WireImage)
Byron Allen Is a Comedian
While CBS concluded The Late Show franchise, the network is still keeping comedy in the 11:35 p.m. slot with Byron. Long before becoming a media mogul, Byron began his career as a stand-up comic and wrote his first comedy routine as a teenager.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Colbert mentioned the fact that Byron became the youngest comic to perform on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carsonwhen he was just 18 years old.
Byron insisted that he was not “trying to replace Colbert” during an interview with NPR. “I am not trying to hold on to his audience because Comics Unleashed has been around 20 years and has its own audience,” the businessman added. “Not everyone’s going to love me. Not everyone’s going to love the fact that I’m not being racist or antisemitic or sexist.”
Byron Allen Is the Founder of Allen Media Group
As previously noted, Allen Media Group has a buy-time agreement with CBS. Byron is the founder of the group, and he is buying time on the cable network to air his Comics Unleashed.
Byron Allen Once Sued McDonald’s
In 2021, Byron filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the fast-food chain McDonald’s for allegedly discriminating against Black-owned media companies through its television advertisements. Both sides settled out of court in 2025.
In his lawsuit, Byron claimed that McDonald’s was discriminatory by buying advertisement time on media outlets targeting Black viewers, alleging that the burger chain’s purchases were created from a budget described as “the African American tier” of outlets. The lawsuit claimed that the action damaged Black media owners because this tier was limited in cash in comparison to the general tier that the company used for broader audiences on larger platforms.
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