Dune: Prophecy will premiere on HBO and Max on November 17, 2024.
New York Comic-Con kicked off today and among the highlights was an HBO panel devoted to the platform’s forthcoming new series, Dune: Prophecy—including the release of a two-and-a-half-minute trailer.
As previously reported, the series was announced in 2019, with director Denis Villeneuve serving as an executive producer and Alison Schapker (Alias, Fringe, Altered Carbon) serving as showrunner. It’s a prequel series inspired by the novel Sisterhood of Dune, written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, exploring the origins of the Bene Gesserit. The first season will have six episodes, and it’s unclear how closely the series will adhere to the source material. Per the official premise:
Set 10,000 years before the ascension of Paul Atreides, Dune: Prophecy follows two Harkonnen sisters as they combat forces that threaten the future of humankind, and establish the fabled sect that will become known as the Bene Gesserit.
Emily Watson co-stars as Valya Harkonnen, leader of the Sisterhood, with Olivia Williams playing her sister, Tula Harkonnen. Mark Strong plays Emperor Javicco Corrino, while Jodhi May plays Empress Natalya, and Sarah-Sofie Boussnina plays Princess Ynez.
The cast also includes Shalom Brune-Franklin as Mikaela, a Fremen woman who serves the royal family; Travis Fimmel as Desmond Hart, “a charismatic soldier with an enigmatic past”; Chris Mason as swordsman Keiran Atreides; Josh Heuston as Constantine Corrino, the illegitimate son of Javicco; Edward Davis as rising politician Harrow Harkonnen; Tabu as Sister Francesca, the Emperor’s former lover; Jihae as Reverend Mother Kasha, the Emperor’s Truthsayer; Faoileann Cunningham as Sister Jen; Chloe Lea as Lila; Jade Anouka as Sister Theodosia; and Aoife Hinds as Sister Emeline.
The first season opened with the murder of Juliette’s lover, George (Ferdinand Kingsley), who collected forbidden historical artifacts, which silo sheriff Holston Becker (David Oyelowo) investigated at Juliette’s request. When he chose to go outside, he named Juliette as his successor, and she took on George’s case as well as the murder of silo mayor Ruth Jahns (Geraldine James). Many twists ensued, including the existence of a secret group dedicated to remembering the past whose members were being systemically killed. Juliette also began to suspect that the desolate landscape seen through the silo’s camera system was a lie and there was actually a lush green landscape outside.
In the season finale, Juliette made a deal with Holland: She would choose to go outside in exchange for the truth about what happened to George and the continued safety of her friends in Mechanical. The final twist: Juliette survived her outside excursion and realized that the dystopian hellscape was the reality, and the lush green Eden was the lie. And she learned that their silo was one of many, with a ruined city visible in the background.
The official S2 trailer picks up there but doesn’t provide many additional details. We see Juliette in her protective suit walking across the desolate terrain toward the other silos, human skulls and bones crunching under her feet. When Juliette’s oxygen runs out, she finds shelter and survives, and we later see her trying to enter a silo—whether it’s her original home or another one is unclear. Meanwhile, Holland gives an impassioned speech to his silo residents, declaring her a hero for sacrificing herself. But rumors swirl that she is alive, and rebellion is clearly brewing, with Juliette becoming a symbol for the movement.
The second season of Silo debuts on Apple TV+ on November 15, 2024. Ferguson has said that there are plans for third and fourth seasons to wrap up the story, which will hopefully be filmed at the same time.
And in the end, the ratings just weren’t strong enough, especially for a Star Wars project. The Acolyte garnered 11.1 million views over its first five days (and 488 million minutes viewed)—not bad, but below Ahsoka‘s 14 million views over the same period. But those numbers declined sharply over the ensuing weeks, with the finale earning the dubious distinction of posting the lowest minutes viewed (335 million) for any Star Wars series finale.
Writing at Forbes, Caroline Reid noted thatThe Acolyte was hampered from the start by a challenging post-pandemic financial environment at Disney. It was greenlit in 2021 along with many other quite costly series to boost subscriber numbers for Disney+, contributing to $11.4 billion losses in that division. Then Bob Iger returned as CEO and prioritized cutting costs. The Acolyte‘s heavy VFX needs and star casting (most notably Carrie Ann Moss and Squid Game‘s Lee Jung-jae) made it a pricey proposition, with ratings expectations to match. And apparently the show didn’t generate as much merchandising revenue as expected.
As the folks at Slash Film pointed out, The Acolyte‘s bloated production costs aren’t particularly eye-popping compared to, say, Prime Video’s The Rings of Power, which costs a whopping $58 million per episode, or Marvel’s Secret Invasion (about $35 million per episode). But it’s pricey for a Star Wars series; The Mandalorian racked up around $15 million per episode, on par with Game of Thrones. So given the flagging ratings and lukewarm reviews, the higher costs proved to be “the final nail in the coffin” for the series in the eyes of Disney, per Reid.
Are you not entertainment? We’ve got a shiny new trailer for Gladiator II.
When the first trailer for Gladiator II dropped in early July, it racked up more than 180 million views in its first 48 hours, so clearly there’s an audience for Ridley Scott’s long-awaited sequel to his 2000 blockbuster Gladiator. And no wonder; as I noted at the time, the film “promises to be just as much of a visual feast, as a new crop of power players (plus a couple of familiar faces) clash over the future of Rome.” We’ve now got a shiny new trailer, and I stand by that initial assessment—especially since this trailer confirms what had previously been hinted about the protagonist’s biological father.
(Some spoilers for Gladiator below.)
Gladiator II centers around Lucius Verus (Paul Mescal), son of Lucilla and former heir to the Roman Empire, given that his father (also named Lucius Verus) was once a co-emperor of Rome. Lucius hasn’t been seen in Rome for 15 years. Instead, he has been living in a small coastal town in Numidia with his wife and child. Like Maximus before him, he is captured by the Roman army and forced to become a gladiator after the death of his family. Per the official premise:
Gladiator II continues the epic saga of power, intrigue, and vengeance set in Ancient Rome. Years after witnessing the death of the revered hero Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius is forced to enter the Colosseum after his home is conquered by the tyrannical Emperors who now lead Rome with an iron fist. With rage in his heart and the future of the Empire at stake, Lucius must look to his past to find strength and honor to return the glory of Rome to its people.
Pedro Pascal plays Marcus Acacius, a Roman general who trained under Maximus, tasked with conquering North Africa. Although the young Lucius once idolized Maximus, Marcus Acacius apparently will be a symbol of everything Lucius hates. Connie Nielsen reprises her Gladiator role as Lucilla, who does not recognize her son when she first sees him fighting in the arena as a gladiator. But she figures it out, since we see her urge Lucius to “take your father’s strength. His name was Maximus, and I see him in you.”
Derek Jacobi also returns as Senator Gracchus, who is opposed to growing corruption in the Roman court. Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger play young co-emperors Geta and Caracalla. Denzel Washington rounds out the cast as Macrinus, an arms dealer who keeps a stable of gladiators. Tim McInnerny plays Thraex, Alexander Karim plays Ravi, and Rory McCann plays Tegula.
Gladiator II hits theaters on November 22, 2024, in the US. Internationally, it will premiere on November 15, 2024. Scott recently said that he is already developing a third film, Gladiator III, which would also star Mescal as Lucius. So we already know Lucius will survive, which might be why Scott has compared the ending of this film to The Godfather: Part II (1974).
Florence Pugh heads an assembly of misfits in Marvel’s Thunderbolts*.
Marvel Studios has dropped an extended teaser trailer for the final feature film in its Phase Six slate: Thunderbolts*, now with a mysterious asterisk to the title. The studio has touted the film as having a different tone from other recent MCU offerings—thanks in part to hiring “a crew of indie veterans who sold out” to make the film—and judging from the teaser, it looks like they just might deliver on that.
As previously reported, Thunderbolts* is a follow-up of sorts to 2021’s Black Widow. It’s directed by Jake Schreier and stars Wyatt Russell as US Agent/failed Captain America from TheFalcon and the Winter Soldier, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Contessa Valentina Allegra, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, David Harbour as Alexei/Red Guardian, Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr/Ghost, Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster, and Lewis Pullman as Bob/The Sentry.
In addition, Geraldine Viswanathan plays Valentina’s assistant, Mel, and Harrison Ford will appear as Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, aka Red Hulk, aka the US president. (Ford’s character will also appear in February’s Captain America: Brave New World.) Laurence Fishburne and Rachel Weisz will reprise their MCU roles as Bill Foster and Melina Vostokoff, respectively.
There’s no official synopsis yet, but the studio describes the film as “an irreverent team-up featuring depressed assassin Yelena Belova alongside the MCU’s least anticipated band of misfits.” It’s basically the MCU’s version of The Suicide Squad; in fact, James Gunn was originally attached to direct Thunderbolts but bowed out after making The Suicide Squad because he felt the projects were just too similar.
Enlarge/ “Look at you. So adorable.” Valentina Allegra de Fontaine assembles the Thunderbolts.
Marvel Studios
The three-and-a-half-minute teaser trailer appears to be similar to the footage shown to attendees at San Diego Comic-Con. It opens with Yelena visiting Alexei, who initially thinks it’s a DoorDash order. Alexei is clearly not doing well despite insisting that he has plenty of work and is “so full, so filled.” But Yelena confesses feeling empty despair since Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) died in Avengers: Endgame, despite throwing herself into her assassination work. As she describes herself as drifting and lacking purpose, we see Bucky and US Agent looking similarly depressed.
We see Yelena doing her work with impressive efficiency until she walks into what appears to be a trap. As she battles US Agent and Ghost, they stumble upon a nebbishy Bob lurking in the background—and then the room locks down. Cue Valentina shown at a fancy gala as she ruminates about the long-standing belief in good guys and bad guys. “But eventually you come to realize that there are bad guys and there are worse guys, and nothing else,” she says. Naturally she wants all those depressed assassins and antiheroes for her own warped version of the Avengers.
There’s plenty of action and lots of wisecracking humor, including an amusing shot of Bucky removing his arm from the dishwasher and reattaching it. And unlike Alexei’s “bulletproof-ish” car, Bob turns out to be truly bulletproof (thanks to a hefty infusion of super soldier serum).
Robert Pattinson’s character didn’t read his contract’s fine print in Mickey 17, director Bong Joon-ho’s latest film.
It has been five long years since director Bong Joon-ho’s film Parasitetopped Ars’ list for best films of the year, whose prior work on Snowpiercer and Okja are also staff favorites. We’re finally getting a new film from this gifted director: the sci-fi comedy Mickey 17, based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton. Judging by the trailer that recently dropped, it feels a bit like a darkly comic version of Duncan Jones’ 2009 film Moon, with a bit of the surreal absurdity of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (1985) thrown in for good measure. And the visuals are terrific.
Ashton’s inspiration for the novel was the teletransportation paradox—a thought experiment pondering the philosophy of identity that challenges certain notions of the self and consciousness. It started as a short story about what Ashton called “a crappy immortality” and expanded from there into a full-length novel.
Ashton told Nerdist last year that Bong’s adaptation would “change a lot of the book,” but he considered the director a “genius” and wasn’t concerned about those changes. The basic premise remains the same. Robert Pattinson plays the space colonist named Mickey Barnes, who is so eager to escape Earth that he signs up to be an “expendable” without reading the fine print.
Expendables are basically disposable employees (aka “second-hand baloney boys”). If they happen to die on the job, their consciousness is uploaded to a new body, and the cycle starts all over again. When a multiple unexpectedly survives while on an expedition to colonize the ice world Niflheim, Mickeys 17 and 18 discover that the policy in such cases is to exterminate all the multiples, and they must fight for their right to keep existing.
In addition to Pattinson, the cast includes Steven Yeun as Berto, Toni Collette as Gwen Johansen, Mark Ruffalo as Hieronymous Marshall, Naomi Ackie as Nasha Adjaya, Holliday Grainger as Red Hair, Angus Imrie as Shrimp Eyes, and Steve Park as Agent Zeke. Anamaria Vartolomei, Thomas Turgoose, Patsy Ferran, and Daniel Henshall have also been cast in as-yet-undisclosed roles. Perhaps one of them plays the person in the giant pigeon costume who briefly appears in the trailer.
Mickey 17 hits theaters in the US on January 31, 2025. It will premiere in other countries on January 28, 2025. Ashton penned a sequel, Antimatter Blues, which was published last year, so maybe Bong Joon-ho will adapt that one, too.
Tom Hardy returns for one more round as host of an alien symbiote, in Venom: The Last Dance.
Tom Hardy is back for one last hurrah as investigative journalist Eddie Brock, host of an alien symbiote that imparts superhuman powers to its host, in the final trailer for Venom: The Last Dance. The trailer has all the wise-cracking “buddy cop” vibes and fast-paced action we’ve come to expect from the franchise, including a trip to Vegas where Venom discovers the addictive allure of slot machines. But there are also hints of an inevitable bittersweet farewell—because this time they’ll face off against Knull, god-creator of the symbiotes.
(Spoilers for Venom and Venom: There Will Be Carnage below.)
As previously reported, the first film in the franchise served as an origin story for our antihero. A bioengineering firm called the Life Foundation discovered a comet covered with symbiotic lifeforms and brought four samples back to Earth. Brock’s then-fiancée, Anne Weying (Michelle Williams), showed him classified documents revealing that the foundation was conducting human/symbiote experiments. The symbiotes needed oxygen-breathing hosts to survive, but they invariably ended up killing those hosts.
Brock ended up infected with one of the symbiotes, named Venom. Venom revealed that the symbiotes are intent on taking over Earth by possessing/devouring all humans, but Brock ultimately struck up a bargain with Venom, and they decided to protect Earth instead. Together, they took on Life Foundation CEO Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), infected with a symbiote called Riot. Naturally, they won.
Venom was released in October 2018 and was roundly panned by critics, several of whom specifically bemoaned the lack of a Spider-Man connection. Audiences, however, begged to differ. Venom racked up $856 million globally. Hardy had already committed to two sequels, and a mid-credits sequence featured Harrelson’s Cletus Kasady taunting Brock (who was interviewing Kasady for a story) from his cell. Kasady vowed to escape and bring “carnage,” leaving little doubt as to the villain’s identity in a sequel.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage, directed by Andy Serkis, was released in 2021, also to mixed reviews and a strong box office, grossing $506.9 million worldwide. That film ended with Brock and Venom victorious over Kasady and heading off for a well-deserved vacation while the duo pondered their next steps. In a post-credits scene, Venom told Brock that he and his fellow symbiotes knew about other universes, at which point there was blinding light, and they were transported into the Marvel Cinematic Universe—a direct result of the spell cast by Doctor Strange in Spider-Man: No Way Home.(At the time, there were plans for a future crossover film with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man.)
“With you to the end”
Serkis was unable to return as director for The Last Dance, but Kelly Marcel, who wrote the screenplay for Carnage, stepped in to make her directorial debut. Per the official premise:
In Venom: The Last Dance, Tom Hardy returns as Venom, one of Marvel’s greatest and most complex characters, for the final film in the trilogy. Eddie and Venom are on the run. Hunted by both of their worlds and with the net closing in, the duo are forced into a devastating decision that will bring the curtains down on Venom and Eddie’s last dance.
In addition to Hardy, Peggy Lu is back as convenience store owner Mrs. Chen, who befriended Eddie and Venom early on. Also returning is Stephen Graham as Detective Patrick Mulligan, who figured prominently in There Will Be Carnage and is now infected with his own symbiote named Toxin.
Cristo Fernández will reprise his role as the bartender in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man. Rhys Ifans played Curt Connors/Lizard in that film but will play a man named Martin in The Last Dance. Is there a secret connection? We’ll have to wait and see. (It seems after two outings, Williams won’t be reprising her role as Anne in the third and final film.) The cast also includes Chiwetel Ejiofor as a soldier intent on capturing Venom; and Alanna Ubach and Clark Backo in as-yet-undisclosed roles.
Venom: The Last Dance hits theaters on October 25, 2024.
Jason Momoa and Jack Black star in A Minecraft Movie.
Minecraft is among the most successful and influential games of the early 21st century, winning many awards and selling over 300 million copies (so far) since its 2011 release. So it was only a matter of time before Hollywood gave us a feature film based on the 3D sandbox game, simply titled A Minecraft Movie. Sure, one might have reservations about yet another video game-based movie, but on the plus side, we’ve got Jason Momoa and Jack Black co-starring. And the first teaser is full of eye-popping candy-colored cubic visuals and sly references to the game that should please fans.
Within a year of Minecraft‘s initial release, Mojang Studios was fielding offers from Hollywood producers about making a TV series based on the game, but the company wanted to wait for “the right idea.” There was a 2014 attempt to crowd-source a fan film, but game creator Markus “Notch” Persson didn’t agree to license that effort since he was already negotiating with Warner Bros. about developing a film based on the game. Thus began a long, convoluted process of directors and writers being hired and leaving the project for various reasons.
When the dust finally settled, Jared Hess (who worked with Black on Nacho Libre) ended up directing. The COVID pandemic and 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike delayed things further, but filming finally wrapped earlier this year in Auckland, New Zealand—just in time for a spring 2025 theatrical release. Per the official synopsis:
Welcome to the world of Minecraft, where creativity doesn’t just help you craft, it’s essential to one’s survival! Four misfits—Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Jason Momoa), Henry (Sebastian Eugene Hansen), Natalie (Emma Myers) and Dawn (Danielle Brooks)—find themselves struggling with ordinary problems when they are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into the Overworld: a bizarre, cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination. To get back home, they’ll have to master this world (and protect it from evil things like Piglins and Zombies, too) while embarking on a magical quest with an unexpected, expert crafter, Steve (Jack Black). Together, their adventure will challenge all five to be bold and to reconnect with the qualities that make each of them uniquely creative… the very skills they need to thrive back in the real world.
Game players will recognize Steve as one of the default characters in Minecraft. The teaser is set to The Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” and opens with our misfits encountering a fantastical Tolkien-esque landscape—only with a lot more cube-like shapes, like a pink sheep with a cubed head. We get the aforementioned Piglins and other creatures before Black appears and dramatically announces with great fanfare, “I…. am Steve.” Honestly, we’ll probably watch it just for Black’s performance alone.
Enlarge/ We have doubts that any amount of Force powers will bring the show back.
YouTube/Disney+
In news that will delight some and disappoint others, Disney has canceled Star Wars series The Acolyte after just one season, Deadline Hollywood reports. The eight-episode series got off to a fairly strong start, with mostly positive reviews and solid ratings, albeit lower than prior Star Wars series. But it couldn’t maintain and build upon that early momentum, and given the production costs, it’s not especially surprising that Disney pulled the plug.
The Acolyte arguably wrapped up its major narrative arc pretty neatly in the season finale, but it also took pains to set the stage for a possible sophomore season. In this streaming age, no series is ever guaranteed renewal. Still, it would have been nice to see what showrunner Leslye Headland had planned; when given the chance, many shows hit their stride on those second-season outings.
(Spoilers for the series below. We’ll give you another heads-up when we get to major spoilers.)
As I’ve written previously, The Acolyte is set at the end of the High Republic Era, about a century before the events of The Phantom Menace. In this period, the Jedi aren’t the underdog rebels battling the evil Galactic Empire. They are at the height of their power and represent the dominant mainstream institution—not necessarily a benevolent one, depending on one’s perspective. That’s a significant departure from most Star Wars media and perhaps one reason why the show was so divisive among fans. (The show had its issues, but I dismiss the profoundly unserious lamentations of those who objected to the female-centric storyline and presence of people of color by dubbing it “The Wokelyte” and launching a review-bombing campaign.)
The Acolyte opened on the planet Ueda, where a mysterious masked woman wielding daggers attacked the Jedi Master Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss) and killed her. The assassin was quickly identified as Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg), a former padawan now working as a meknek, making repairs on spaceships. Osha was arrested by her former classmate, Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett), but claimed she was innocent. Her twin sister, Mae, died in a fire on their home planet of Brendok when they were both young. Osha concluded that Mae was still alive and had killed Indara. Osha’s former Jedi master, Sol (Lee Jung-jae), believed her, and subsequent events proved Osha right.
Mae’s targets were not random. She was out to kill the four Jedi she blamed for the fire on Brendok: Indara, Sol, Torbin (Dean-Charles Chapman), and a Jedi Wookiee named Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo). The quartet had arrived on Brendok to demand they be allowed to test the twins as potential Jedi.
The twins had been raised by a coven of “Force witches” there, led by Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith), who believed the Jedi were misusing the Force. While Mae was keen to follow in their mother’s footsteps, Osha wanted to train with the Jedi. When the fire broke out, both Mae and Osha believed the other twin had been killed along with the rest of the coven. How the fire really started, and the identity of Mae’s mysterious Master who trained her in the dark side of the Force, were the primary mysteries that played out over the course of the season.
(WARNING: Major spoilers below. Stop reading now if you haven’t finished watching the series.)
Enlarge/ The camera moved on a single axis for the wuxia-inspired fight scenes.
Lucasfilm/Disney+
From the start, The Acolyte was a bit of a departure from a typical Star Wars series, weaving in elements from wuxia films and detective stories while remaining true to the established Star Wars aesthetic and design. That alone made it an intriguing effort, with fresh characters and new takes on classic Star Wars lore. And the martial arts-inspired fight choreography was clever and fun to watch—especially in the shocking, action-packed fifth episode (“Night”).
But there were some obvious shortcomings as well, most notably the clunky dialogue—although that’s kind of a long-standing attribute of the Star Wars franchise. (Alec Guinness notoriously hated his dialogue as Obi-Wan Kenobi in A New Hope.) The pacing lagged at times, and there was a surprisingly high body count among the central characters.
Enlarge/ A high body count: All of these Jedi are dead.
Lucasfilm/Disney+
That alone might have made a second season challenging. I mean, they killed off Moss’ Jedi master in the first 10 minutes (although she reappeared in flashbacks), with Torbin and Kelnacca meeting the same fate over the next few episodes. By the time the final credits rolled, almost all the Jedi lead characters were dead. And senior leader Vernestra (Rebecca Henderson) opted to blame the murders on Sol (RIP) rather than Mae’s master, who turned out to be Vernestra’s former apprentice, Qimir (a scene-stealing Manny Jacinto)—now apprentice to Sith lord Darth Plagueis. (This was strongly implied in the finale and subsequently confirmed by Headland.)
Ultimately, however, it all came down to the ratings. Per Deadline, The Acolyte garnered 11.1 million views over its first five days (and 488 million minutes viewed)—not bad, but below Ahsoka‘s 14 million views over the same period. But those numbers declined sharply over the ensuing weeks, with the finale earning the dubious distinction of posting the lowest minutes viewed (335 million) for any Star Wars series finale. That simply didn’t meet Disney’s threshold for renewal, so we won’t get to learn more about the Qimir/Darth Plagueis connection.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Bullet Train) plays the title character in the forthcoming film Kraven the Hunter.
Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU) got off to a strong start with Venom (2018) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), both of which racked up high box office earnings despite mixed-to-negative reviews from critics. But then the studio foundered badly with a couple of box office flops: 2022’s Morbius and 2024’s Madame Web.
Sony hopes to right the ship with a third Venom film in October (The Last Dance) and the much-delayed Kraven the Hunter this December. We’ve got a new trailer for the latter, leaning heavily into R-rated gore and set to Johnny Cash’s moodily atmospheric “The Man Comes Around.” It’s an entirely different, darker vibe from prior offerings: a revenge narrative rife with violence and daddy issues. Color us intrigued.
Comic book fans are well acquainted with Kraven as one of Spider-Man’s most formidable foes, a founding member of the Sinister Six. He’s a Russian immigrant with an aristocratic background who fled his home country when Tsar Nicholas II’s reign collapsed in 1917. He’s a big game hunter with enhanced abilities thanks to ingesting a mysterious potion made from jungle herbs. He’s very hard to injure, has super-human strength, and enhanced sight, hearing, and smell, as well as being a good tactician with excellent hand-to-hand combat skills.
Screenwriter Richard Wenk has said that Sony intended to adapt the critically acclaimed 1987 storyline in Kraven’s Last Hunt by J.M. DeMatteis, Mike Zeck, and Bob McLeod, which leaned heavily into the character’s Russian origins to create a very Dostoyevsky-like arc of a tortured soul. That storyline features an older Kraven whose health is failing who decides to hunt Spider-Man one last time, whereas the film is clearly an origin story. And Kraven actually dies by suicide in that comic arc, but we’re guessing Sony has plans to use him in other SSU films, with or without his arch-nemesis Spider-Man.
Per the official premise:
Kraven the Hunter is the visceral, action-packed origin story of how and why one of Marvel’s most iconic villains came to be. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Kraven, a man whose complex relationship with his ruthless father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe), starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared.
In addition to Taylor-Johnson and Crowe, the cast includes Ariana DeBose as the voodoo priestess Calypso, Kraven’s love interest; Fred Hechinger as Dmitri Smerdyakov, aka Chameleon, Kraven’s half-brother; Alessandro Nivola as Aleksei Sytsevich, aka Rhino, a Russian mercenary who can transform into a human/rhino hybrid; Christopher Abbott as a mercenary and assassin called the Foreigner; and Levi Miller as young Sergei.
Kraven the Hunter hits theaters on December 13, 2024.
Kathryn Hahn seeks a new witchy coven in Agatha All Along.
Disney introduced the poster and first full trailer for Agatha All Along during its annual D23 Expo this weekend. The nine-episode series, starring Kathryn Hahn, is one of the TV series in the MCU’s Phase Five, coming on the heels of Secret Invasion, Loki S2, What If…? S2, and Echo.
As reported previously, Agatha All Along has been in the works since 2021, officially announced in November of that year, inspired by Hahn’s breakout performance in WandaVision as nosy neighbor Agnes—but secretly a powerful witch named Agatha Harkness who was conspiring to steal Wanda’s power. The plot twist even inspired a meta-jingle that went viral. That series ended with Wanda victorious and Agatha robbed of all her powers, trapped in her nosy neighbor persona.
Head writer Jac Schaeffer (who also created WandaVision) has said that the series would follow Agatha as she forms her own coven with “a disparate mixed bag of witches… defined by deception, treachery, villainy, and selfishness” who must learn to work together. And apparently we can expect a few more catchy tunes—one of which is front and center in the new trailer. This new series picks up where WandaVision left Agatha. Per the official premise:
The infamous Agatha Harkness finds herself down and out of power after a suspicious goth teen helps break her free from a distorted spell. Her interest is piqued when he begs her to take him on the legendary Witches’ Road, a magical gauntlet of trials that, if survived, rewards a witch with what they’re missing. Together, Agatha and this mysterious teen pull together a desperate coven, and set off down, down, down The Road…
In addition to Hahn, the cast includes Aubrey Plaza as warrior witch Rio Vidal; Joe Locke as Billy, a gay teenage familiar; Patti LuPone as a 450-year-old Sicilian witch named Lilia Calderu; Sasheer Zamata as sorceress Jennifer Kale; Ali Ahn as a witch named Alice; and Miles Gutierrez-Riley as Billy’s boyfriend.
Debra Jo Rupp reprises her WandaVision role as Sharon Davis (“Mrs. Hart” in the meta-sitcom), here becoming a member of Agatha’s coven. Also reprising their WandaVision roles: Emma Caulfield Ford as Sarah Proctor (aka “Dottie Jones”); David Payton as John Collins (“Herb”); David Lengel as Harold Proctor (“Phil Jones”); Asif Ali as Abilash Tandon (“Norm”); Amos Glick (pizza delivery man “Dennis”); Kate Forbes as Agatha’s mother, Evanora; and Brian Brightman as the Eastview, New Jersey, sheriff.
The first two episodes of Agatha All Along drop on September 18, 2024, on Disney+, with episodes airing weekly after that through November 6.
The Star Wars universe continues to expand on streaming television with the release of the first trailer for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew this weekend at Disney’s annual D23 Expo. The eight-episode standalone series is set in the same time frame as The Mandalorian and Ahsoka.
Executive producer Kathleen Kennedy was intrigued when series co-creator Jon Watts pitched a Star Wars series inspired by the 1985 film The Goonies. (Kennedy had co-produced that film and co-founded Amblin Entertainment.) She told co-creator Christopher Ford that The Goonies hadn’t been created specifically for kids, instead telling a story that just happened to be about kids going on an adventure. So Ford and Watts wrote Skeleton Crew with the same mindset: a show for everyone that just happened to feature kids as the central characters. Per the official premise:
Skeleton Crew follows the journey of four kids who make a mysterious discovery on their seemingly safe home planet, then get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy, crossing paths with the likes of Jod Na Nawood, the mysterious character played by [Jude] Law. Finding their way home—and meeting unlikely allies and enemies—will be a greater adventure than they ever imagined.
Jude Law leads the cast as the quick-witted and charming (per Law) “Force-user” Jod Na Nawood. Ravi Cabot-Conyers plays Wim, Ryan Kiera Armstrong plays Fern, Kyriana Kratter plays KB, and Robert Timothy Smith plays Neil. Nick Frost will voice a droid named SM 33. The cast also includes Tunde Adebimpe, Kerry Condon, and Jaleel White in as yet undisclosed roles.
The trailer opens with our young protagonists at school, preparing to take a test that will set the course of their respective futures. At least one of them is bored with the daily routine and longs to do something more exciting. “What if we could go anywhere we want in the whole galaxy?” he asks. “A real adventure. No more pretend.” Naturally they find a mysterious “lost Jedi temple” buried in the woods and soon find themselves rocketing away on a spaceship—and getting lost. Can they survive all the dangers of space and find their way back to their home planet? With the help of Law’s Jedi, we like their chances.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew premieres on December 3, 2024, on Disney+.
