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Lanterns teaser swaps superhero hijinks for gritty realism

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James Gunn and Peter Safran injected a much-needed shot of levity into the DC Universe when they took over the franchise and launched their “Gods and Monsters” chapter. But they’re getting a bit more serious with the latest installment: Lanterns, an eight-episode series that reimagines the Green Lantern mythology as a gritty prestige crime drama/spy thriller in the vein of True Detective and Slow Horses.

The logline says the show will focus on two versions of the Green Lantern who find themselves “drawn into a dark, Earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American Heartland” (i.e., Nebraska). Will it work? We’ll see. This series was barely on my radar before, but the extended teaser that dropped last night is tonally unique for the DCU and so well done that the show now has a place on my must-watch TV list for 2026.

Kyle Chandler plays Hal Jordan, a former test pilot who is nearing his retirement from the Green Lantern Corps. He’s training a new recruit, John Stewart Jr. (Aaron Pierre), to replace him. Nathan Fillion reprises his Superman role as the obnoxious Guy Gardner. The cast also includes Kelly MacDonald as Kerry, a small-town family-oriented sheriff; Jason Ritter as Billy Macon, Kerry’s husband; Garret Dillahunt as William Macon, Kerry’s cowboy father-in-law; Poorna Jagannathan as a woman named Zoe; Ulrich Thomsen as Sinestro, a former Corps member who’s gone rogue; and Paul Ben-Victor as an extraterrestrial called Antaan.

Sherman Augustus plays John Stewart Sr., with J. Alphonse Nicholson playing the younger version; Nicole Ari Parker plays Bernadette Stewart (mother to John Jr.), with Jasmine Cephas Jones playing the young version of the character. In addition, Chris Coy plays a suspiciously nervous truck driver, Waylon Sanders; Cary Christopher plays a gifted child named Noah; and Laura Linney and Paula Patton will appear in as-yet-undisclosed guest roles.

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It’s outright war for the Iron Throne in House of the Dragon S3 teaser

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With HBO’s critically acclaimed A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms gearing up for its season finale on Sunday, it’s time to check in on that other Game of Thrones spinoff: the far darker House of the Dragon, which now has a suitably ominous teaser for its upcoming third season.

(Spoilers for the first two seasons below.)

The series is set nearly 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, when dragons were still a fixture of Westeros, and chronicles the beginning of the end of House Targaryen’s reign. The primary source material is Fire and Blood, a fictional history of the Targaryen kings written by George R.R. Martin. As book readers know, those events culminated in a civil war and the extinction of the dragons—at least until Daenerys Targaryen came along.

The first season spanned many years and featured some pretty significant time jumps, which required replacing the younger actors as their characters aged. For those who might need a refresher: King Viserys (Paddy Considine) died, and his second wife, Alicent (Olivia Cooke), conspired with her father, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), to crown her eldest son, Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), as king instead of Viserys’ declared heir apparent, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy).

Even though she was technically the rightful heir, Rhaenyra actually seemed to be considering House Hightower’s conditions for concession—until the arrogant Prince Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), Alicent’s younger son, went after Rhaenyra’s young son, Lucerys (Elliot Grihault). Both dragonriders failed to control their dragons, and Aemon’s much bigger dragon, Vhagar, gobbled up poor Lucerys and his little dragon, Arrax, in mid-air. The season closed with Rhaenyra and her husband/uncle Daemon (Matt Smith) receiving the devastating news, effectively dashing any hope of a peaceful resolution.

House of the Dragon has always taken a leisurely, more focused approach to its characters’ political maneuverings, interspersed with bursts of bloody violence, and S2 was no exception. But it opened with a bang: the infamous “Blood and Cheese” incident (well-known to book readers), in which assassins sent to take out Aemond as vengeance for Lucerys can’t find him and butcher Aegon’s eldest son instead. We lost a couple more dragons and several supporting characters in the ensuing chaos, and Aegon was so severely wounded that Aemond became regent—with no plan to relinquish the Iron Throne any time soon.

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Here’s the fun, action-packed trailer for Mandolorian and Grogu

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At long last, we have the official full trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu, a feature film spinoff from Disney’s megahit Star Wars series The Mandalorian.

Grogu (fka “Baby Yoda”) won viewers’ hearts from the moment he first appeared onscreen in the first season of The Mandalorian, and the relationship between the little green creature and his father-figure bounty hunter, the titular Mandalorian, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), has only gotten stronger. With the 2023 Hollywood strikes delaying production on season 4 of the series, director Jon Favreau got the green light to make this spinoff film.

Per the official logline:

The evil Empire has fallen, and Imperial warlords remain scattered throughout the galaxy. As the fledgling New Republic works to protect everything the Rebellion fought for, they have enlisted the help of legendary Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his young apprentice Grogu.

In addition to Pascal, the cast includes Sigourney Weaver as Ward, a veteran pilot, colonel, and leader of the New Republic’s Adelphi Rangers. Jeremy Allen White plays Rotta the Hutt (son of Jabba, first introduced in 2008’s The Clone Wars), Jonny Coyne reprises his Mandalorian S3 role as an Imperial warlord leading a surviving faction of the Galactic Empire, and Dave Filoni will be back as New Republic X-wing pilot Trapper Wolf. We can also expect to see Garazeb (“Zeb”) Orrelios (Steve Blum) from the Star Wars Rebels animated series, Embo from The Clone Wars, and Anzellan aliens from The Rise of Skywalker. There’s also a shiny new version of Mando’s ship (destroyed in S2).

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A Valentine’s Day homage to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

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That thief turns out to be Jen, who has secretly been studying martial arts. And Jen’s really not keen on her upcoming arranged marriage because she has fallen in love with a bandit named Lo “Dark Cloud” Xiao Hou (Chang Chen). They are the symbolic tiger and dragon, with Lo as the unchanging yin (tiger) and Jen as the dynamic yang (the hidden dragon).

(WARNING: Major spoilers below. Stop reading now if you haven’t seen the entire film.)

Longtime friends Mu Bai (Chow Yan-Fat) and Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) have refrained from declaring their love out of respect for Shu Lien’s late fiancé. Sony Pictures Classics

There are multiple clashes between our main characters, most notably Jen battling Shu Lien, and a famous sequence where Mu Bai pursues Jen across the treetops of a bamboo forest, deftly balancing on the swaying branches and easily evading Jen’s increasingly undisciplined sword thrusts. It’s truly impressive wire work (all the actors performed their own stunts), in fine wuxia tradition. Jen is gifted, but arrogant and defiant, refusing Mu Bai’s offer of mentorship; she thinks with Green Destiny she will be invincible and has nothing more to learn. Ah, the arrogance of youth.

Eventually, Jen is betrayed by her former teacher, Jade Fox, who is bitter because Jen has surpassed her skills—mostly because Jade Fox is illiterate and had to rely on a stolen manual’s diagrams, while the literate Jen could read the text yet did not share those insights with her teacher. Jade Fox is keeping her drugged in a cave, intending to poison her, when Mu Bai and Shu Lien come to the rescue. In the ensuing battle, Mu Bai is struck by one of Jade Fox’s poison darts. Jen rushes off to bring back the antidote, but arrives too late. Mu Bai dies in Shu Lien’s arms, as the two finally confess how much they love each other.

(sniff) Sorry, something in my eye. Anyway, the ever-gracious Shu Lien forgives the young woman and tells her to be true to herself, and to join Lo on Mount Wudang. But things don’t end well for our young lovers either. After spending the night together, Lo finds Jen standing on a bridge at the edge of the mountain. Legend has it that a man once made a wish and jumped off the mountain. His heart was pure so his wish was granted and he flew away unharmed, never to be seen again. Jen asks Lo to make a wish before swan-diving into the mist-filled chasm. Was her heart pure? Did Lo get his wish for them to back in the desert, happily living as renegades? Or did she plunge to her death? We will never know. Jen is now part of the legend.

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Spider-Noir teaser comes in colorized “True Hue” and black and white

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The footage was shot digitally and processed separately to create the black-and-white and color versions. The team coined the term “True Hue” for the latter, since the intent was to create something that looked supersaturated, like classic Technicolor. (Cage compared the feel to the 1944 Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks.) Per the official premise: “Spider-Noir tells the story of Ben Reilly (Nicolas Cage), a seasoned, down on his luck private investigator in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life, following a deeply personal tragedy, as the city’s one and only superhero.”

In addition to Cage’s Ben Reilly/The Spider, the cast includes Lamorne Morris as Reilly’s friend Robbie Robertson, a freelance journalist who clings to optimism in the face of his buddy’s cynicism; Li Jun Li as nightclub singer Cat Hardy, the classic underworld femme fatale (Li based her portrayal on Anna May Wong, Rita Hayworth, and Lauren Bacall); Karen Rodriguez as Reilly’s secretary, Janet; Abraham Popoola as a World War I veteran; Jack Huston as a bodyguard named Flint Marko; Brendan Gleeson as New York mob boss Silvermane, who is being targeted for assassination; Lukas Haas as one of Silvermane’s subordinates; Richard Robichaux as the editor of the Daily Bugle; and Kai Caster.

Frankly, we’re digging the black and white, but here’s the True Hue color version of the teaser for good measure:

Spider-Noir premieres on May 25, 2026, on MGM+, with all episodes becoming available on Prime Video on May 27, 2026. Viewers can choose to watch in black and white or True Hue.

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Disclosure Day Super Bowl trailer: Could it be… aliens?

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David Koepp, who has worked with Spielberg on numerous projects (including Jurassic Park and War of the Worlds), wrote the screenplay. Emily Blunt stars as a TV meteorologist in Kansas City. Her co-stars include Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo, Wyatt Russell, Elizabeth Marvel, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Michael Gaston, and Mckenna Bridger. Professional wrestlers Chavo Guerrero Jr., Lance Archer, and Brian Cage will also appear.

Disclosure Day hits theaters on June 12, 2026.

And for those eagerly awaiting the May 22, 2026, release of The Mandalorian and Grogu, we give you this 30-second glimpse of our favorite bounty hunter and his ward in a sled pulled by Tauntauns. We still don’t have much information about that plot either, but at least it’s a known property thanks to the hit TV series. Plus, we get a suitably sonorous voiceover by none other than Sam Elliott: “Sometimes we choose our path, other times the path chooses us. Through it all, we keep pushing forward, driven by a deeper purpose, guided by an unseen force. The journey never gets any easier; the bond just gets harder to break. This is the way.”

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A Project Hail Mary final trailer? Yes please

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Sure, most Americans are glued to their TVs for the today’s Super Bowl and/or the Winter Olympics. But for the non-sports minded, Amazon MGM Studios has released one last trailer for its forthcoming space odyssey Project Hail Mary, based on Andy Weir’s (The Martian) bestselling 2021 novel about an amnesiac biologist-turned-schoolteacher in space.

As previously reported, Amazon MGM Studios acquired the rights for Weir’s novel before it was even published and brought on Drew Goddard to write the screenplay. (Goddard also wrote the adapted screenplay for The Martian, so he’s an excellent choice.) The studio tapped Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The LEGO Movie) to direct and signed on Ryan Gosling to star. Per the official premise:

Science teacher Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the riddle of the mysterious substance causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction… but an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.

In addition to Gosling, the cast includes Sandra Huller as head of the Hail Mary project and Ryland’s superior; Milana Vayntrub as project astronaut Olesya Ilyukhina; Ken Leung as project astronaut Yao Li-Jie; Liz Kingsman as Shapiro; Orion Lee as Xi; and James Ortiz as a new life form Ryland names Rocky.

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Godlike Titan threatens humanity in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters S2 trailer

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Last month, Apple TV released a teaser for the second season of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, part of Legendary Entertainment’s MonsterVerse, which brought Godzilla, King Kong, and various other monsters (kaiju) created by Toho Co., Ltd into a shared narrative. But we only got the most fleeting glimpse of the promised new mythical Titan threatening the human race. The full trailer just dropped and rectifies that: it’s a gigantic tentacled undersea being dubbed Titan X—and only Kong and Godzilla can stop it.

(Spoilers for Season 1 below.)

As previously reported, the first season picked up where 2014’s Godzilla left off, specifically the introduction of Project Monarch, a secret organization established in the 1950s to study Godzilla and other kaiju—after attempts to kill Godzilla with nuclear weapons failed. In the S1 finale, Godzilla fights off an Ion Dragon, tossing it through a rift back to the Hollow Earth, and Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) seemingly sacrifices himself to save his colleagues. Per the official Season 2 premise:

Season two will pick up with the fate of Monarch—and the world—hanging in the balance. The dramatic saga reveals buried secrets that reunite our heroes (and villains) on Kong’s Skull Island, and a new, mysterious village where a mythical Titan rises from the sea. The ripple effects of the past make waves in the present day, blurring the bonds between family, friend and foe—all with the threat of a titan event on the horizon.

In addition to Russell, returning cast members include Wyatt Russell (son of Kurt) as the younger Shaw; Anna Sawai as Cate Randa; Kiersey Clemons as May; Ren Watabe as Kentaro Randa; Joe Tippett as Tim; Elisa Lasowski as Duvall; and Anders Holm playing the younger version of Monarch researcher Bill Randa. Takehiro Hira, Amber Midthunder, Curtiss Cook, Cliff Curtis, Dominique Tipper, and Camilo Jiménez Varón will join the S2 cast as guest stars.

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The brothers meet Yoshi in Super Mario Galaxy Movie trailer

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The main voice cast is returning for the sequel: Chris Pratt as Mario, Charlie Day as Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as the anthropomorphic mushroom Toad, and Kevin Michael Richardson as Bowser’s advisor and informant Kamek. We’re also getting two new cast members: Brie Larson as Princess Rosalina, protector of the cosmos and the Lumas, and Benny Safdie as Bowser, Jr., Bowser’s son and heir to the throne. Directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic are also back, as is screenwriter Matthew Fogel.

Details on the actual plot are fuzzy, but the first trailer (released last November) focused on Bowser and Bowser Jr., who seemed intent on freeing his dad and (one assumes) taking revenge on the brothers. This latest trailer shows Mario and Luigi at the scene of a “troubled” pipe in the desert of San Kingdom, populated by the sombrero-wearing Tostarenans. When they clear away some rubble covering an opening, who should be lurking inside but Yoshi—not a monster to hit with fire flowers, but a friendly green dinosaur. Yoshi is keen to join the team, although Toad seems less than impressed.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie hits theaters on April 1, 2026.

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Check out the first trailer for Masters of the Universe

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Ars readers of a certain age no doubt remember the 1980s He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series (and its spinoff, She-Ra: Princess of Powers) and the many, many offshoots of this hugely popular Mattel franchise, including an extensive line of action figures. Amazon MGM Studios no doubt hopes to cash in on any lingering nostalgia with its forthcoming film, Masters of the Universe. Judging by the extended teaser trailer, we’re getting an origin story for He-Man.

It’s not the first time someone has turned He-Man into a feature film: Dolph Lundgren starred in 1987’s Masters of the Universe, a critical and box office bomb that also featured Frank Langella as arch-villain Skeletor. Its poor reception might have stemmed from the 1987 film deviating significantly from the original cartoon, angering fans. But frankly, it was just a bad, cheesy movie, though it still has its share of cult fans today.

This latest big-screen live-action adaptation has been languishing in development hell for nearly two decades. There were rumors in 2007 that John Woo would direct a He-Man feature for Warner Bros., but the project never got the green light. Sony Pictures gained the rights in 2009, and there were multiple script rewrites and much shuffling of possible directors (with John Chu, McG, and David S. Goyer among the candidates).

This went on until 2022, when Netflix acquired the rights on the heels of its success with a pair of animated shows starring Kyle Allen as He-Man. Netflix canceled the project the following year, citing budget concerns, so Allen never got that big-screen break. And Amazon MGM stepped in, tapping Travis Knight (Bumblebee, Kubo and the Two Strings) as director and casting Nicholas Galitzine (2021’s Cinderella, 100 Nights of Hero) as He-Man.

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Magneto, Xavier reunite in new Avengers: Doomsday teaser

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Marvel Studios continues to dribble out brief teasers promoting Avengers: Doomsday, which is slated for a December 2026 release—first playing in cinemas prior to Avatar: Fire and Ash screenings before becoming publicly available.

We reported previously on the first, which featured Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), the former Captain America. Over the holidays, a second teaser highlighting Chris Hemsworth’s Thor was released. Both are familiar faces in the MCU, but we now have a third teaser that brings in some new players. No, not Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom as rumored. Instead, we’ve got Magneto (Ian McKellen), Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), and Cyclops (James Marsden) from the X-Men franchise.

The film takes place 14 months after the events of this year’s Thunderbolts*. In addition to Thor, we have the new Captain America (Anthony Mackie), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Falcon (Danny Ramirez), and Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Then there’s the Wakandan contingent: Shuri as the new Black Panther (Letitia Wright), M’Baku (Winston Duke), and Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejia).

Naturally, the Thunderbolts(aka New Avengers) will appear: John Walker/US Agent (Wyatt Russell), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bob/Sentry (Lewis Pullman), Red Guardian (David Harbour), and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen). So will the Fantastic Four: Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn). From the X-Men franchise, Xavier, Magneto, and Cyclops will be joined by Beast (Kelsey Grammer), Mystique (Rebecca Romijn), and Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming).

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Marvel rings in new year with Wonder Man trailer

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Marvel Studios decided to ring in the new year with a fresh trailer for Wonder Man, its eight-episode miniseries premiering later this month on Disney+. Part of the MCU’s Phase Six, the miniseries was created by Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of Five Rings) and Andrew Guest (Hawkeye), with Guest serving as showrunner.

As previously reported, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II stars as Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man, an actor and stunt person with actual superpowers who decides to audition for the lead role in a superhero TV series—a reboot of an earlier Wonder Man incarnation. Demetrius Grosse plays Simon’s brother, Eric, aka Grim Reaper; Ed Harris plays Simon’s agent, Neal Saroyan; and Arian Moayed plays P. Clearly, an agent with the Department of Damage Control. Lauren Glazier, Josh Gad, Byron Bowers, Bechir Sylvain, and Manny McCord will also appear in as-yet-undisclosed roles

Rounding out the cast is Ben Kingsley, reprising his MCU role as failed actor Trevor Slattery. You may recall Slattery from 2013’s Iron Man 3, hired by the villain of that film to pretend to be the leader of an international terrorist organization called the Ten Rings.Slattery showed up again in 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,rehabilitated after a stint in prison; he helped the titular Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) on his journey to the mythical village of Ta Lo.

A one-minute teaser that leaned into the meta-humor was released just before New York Comic Con last fall, followed by a full trailer during the event itself which mostly laid out the premise as Simon prepared to audition for his dream role. The new trailer repackages some of that footage, except Simon is asked to sign a form stating that he doesn’t have superpowers. The problem is that he does, and the stress of the audition and the acting process itself brings those superpowers to the fore in explosive fashion. So the “Department of Damage Control” naturally declares Simon an “extraordinary threat.”

Wonder Man premieres on Disney+ on January 27, 2026.

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