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review:-pitch-perfect-renegade-nell-is-a-gem-of-a-series-you-won’t-want-to-miss

Review: Pitch-perfect Renegade Nell is a gem of a series you won’t want to miss

culture, Disney Plus, Entertainment, Renegade Nell, Reviews, streaming television, TV reviews / /

Don’t call her “Nelly” —

It’s a good old-fashioned swashbuckling adventure that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

–

A young prodigal tomboy returns home from war and finds herself framed for murder in <em>Renegade Nell</em>.” src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/nellTOP-800×536.jpg”></img><figcaption> <p><a data-height=Enlarge / A young prodigal tomboy returns home from war and finds herself framed for murder in Renegade Nell.

Disney+

Award-winning British TV writer Sally Wainwright is best known for the dramatic series Happy Valley (2014–2023) and Gentleman Jack (2019–2022), the latter produced jointly by BBC and HBO. Wainwright partnered with Disney+ for her latest series, the resolutely PG-13 Renegade Nell, which is a different beast altogether: a good old-fashioned, swashbuckling comic adventure with a supernatural twist, featuring a sassy cross-dressing heroine forced to turn to highway robbery to survive.

(Some spoilers below, but no major reveals.)

Set in 1705 during the reign of Queen Anne (Jodi May, Gentleman Jack), the series stars Louisa Harland (Derry Girls) as Nell Jackson. Nell is a headstrong young woman with tomboy flair and a taste for adventure who returns home to her village of Tottenham after running off five years before to marry one Captain Jackson against her father’s wishes. She’s now widowed and possessed of occasional supernatural skills whenever someone threatens her, courtesy of a fairy sprite named Billy Blind (Nick Mohammed, aka Nathan from Ted Lasso), who has been tasked to protect Nell. Nell’s family thought she’d been killed on the battlefield alongside her husband, so her homecoming is a bit of a shock.

Alas, Nell soon runs afoul of one Thomas Blancheford (Jake Dunn), the louche, drunken offspring of the town’s landlord, Lord Blancheford (Pip Torrens, Preacher). Let’s just say things escalate, and Nell soon finds herself on the run and framed for murder, along with her two sisters, Roxy (Bo Bragason) and George (Florence Keen), and the Blanchefords’ former groomsman, Rasselas (Enyi Okoronkwo, The Lazarus Project). The group gets further assistance from a charming aristocratic dandy/secret highwayman named Charles Devereaux (Frank Dillane, The Essex Serpent).

Nell just wants to evade capture long enough to find an honest magistrate to clear her name. In the process, she finds herself battling the formidable black magic of the Earl of Poynton (Adrian Lester, Euphoria) and his acolyte, Thomas’ sister, Lady Sofia (Alice Kremelberg, The Sinner), and stumbles upon a sinister plot to dethrone the queen.

  • Louisa Harland stars as Nelly Jackson, who finds herself framed for murder.

    Disney+

  • Nick Mohammed plays a sprite named Billy Blind, charged with protecting Nell.

    Disney+

  • Charles Devereaux (Frank Dillane) is an impoverished aristocrat who does highway robberies on the side.

    Disney+

  • Nell returns home to her family: father Sam Trotter and sisters George and Roxy.

    Disney+

  • Thomas Blancheford (Jake Dunn) is a drunken louche who torments the villagers.

    Disney+

  • The Earl of Poynton (Adrian Lester) dabbles in black magic and has sinister plans afoot.

    Disney+

  • Lady Sofia Wilmot (Alice Kremelberg) chafes at the limitations imposed upon her by society.

    Disney+

  • Nell and her sisters end up on the run.

    Disney+

  • The Blanchefords’ former groom, Rasselas (Enyi Okoronkwo), helps the sisters.

    Disney+

  • Rebellious young socialite Polly Honeycombe (Ashna Rabheru) is rather thrilled to be robbed by a dashing highwayman.

    Disney+

The writing, pacing, and production values are top-notch, and the cast is terrific across the board. Lester brings a ruthless authority to Poynton’s spooky supernatural machinations, while Kremelberg is all seething bitter resentment and steely resolve as Lady Sofia, a brilliant, ambitious noblewoman (also widowed) who is far more qualified to run the family estate than her worthless brother, yet prohibited from inheriting by the laws of the time. Dillane’s Devereaux provides much of the witty repartee and comic relief, as does Joely Richardson’s (The Sandman) newspaper magnate, Lady Eularia Moggerhanger. And Ashna Rabheru (Red Rose) is delightful as a spoiled young aristocrat, Polly Honeycombe, with a lively romantic imagination who longs for something more in life than an arranged marriage.

But it’s Harland’s sensational portrayal of Nell that anchors it all. This is a role that requires her to be a tough rebellious tomboy in one scene and sport a posh accent and fancy dress in another; to balance action comedy with moments of genuine fear and heartbreaking tragedy. It’s also a highly physical role: Harland underwent several months of stunt training prior to filming. She does it all with refreshingly unpretentious aplomb.

Renegade Nell keeps the action flowing and wisely never takes itself too seriously. Sure, there is injustice, class warfare, and strong intelligent women chafing within the strict confines of traditional binary gender roles—and Polly Honeycombe definitely qualifies as bicurious. But Wainwright never lets the story get bogged down in heavy-handed symbolism or didacticism. Even Nell’s cross-dressing is handled with the lightest touch. Asked to comment on her character’s gender politics, Harland told the Guardian that there was no ulterior motive or agenda: “Why does she dress as a man? To pass as a man.” Simple as that.

Will we see more of feisty Nell and her delightfully eccentric compatriots? That’s up to Disney. There are plenty of questions left unanswered and definitely more stories to tell, both past and present. Series director Ben Taylor told Radio Times just after the premiere that a second season was currently being written and that it would likely involve some kind of time jump (given that some of the younger actors will visibly age), picking up with the various surviving characters from where they left off in the first season. But Disney has yet to confirm this. Here’s hoping this series finds the broader audience it so richly deserves. We’re rooting for you, Nelly… err, Nell.

Renegade Nell is now streaming on Disney+.

Trailer for Renegade Nell.

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will-there-be-a-dune:-part-three?-yes…-with-caveats-on-timing

Will there be a Dune: Part Three? Yes… with caveats on timing

culture, denis villeneuve, Dune, Dune: Messiah, Entertainment, Frank Herbert, Legendary Pictures / /

Prepare for the Messiah —

Timing of a big-screen return to Arrakis mostly depends on director Denis Villeneuve.

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Legendary Pictures has confirmed that it plans to make <em>Dune: Part Three</em> with director Denis Villeneuve.” src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/dune2-800×537.jpg”></img><figcaption> <p><a data-height=Enlarge / Legendary Pictures has confirmed that it plans to make Dune: Part Three with director Denis Villeneuve.

YouTube/Warner Bros.

Dune: Part Two is still raking in the moolah at the box office, and deservedly so. But judging by my various feeds, fans are already swooning over the prospect of director Denis Villeneuve extending his vision into a trilogy by adapting Frank Herbert’s 1969 sequel, Dune Messiah, for the next installment. Will there be a Dune: Part Three? Most signs currently point to yes, with a couple of caveats. Exactly how soon we’ll be seeing a return to Arrakis depends a lot on Villeneuve.

Variety confirmed that Legendary Pictures is working with the director on developing Dune: Part Three, although it remains unclear from the wording of the plethora of news items whether the project has officially been greenlit. (“Development” can mean a lot of things.) Naturally, the studio is eager, as are we: the film is the biggest hit of 2024 thus far, with global earnings of $630 million (although the hotly anticipated Deadpool and Wolverine this summer might give it a run for its money).

That confirmation sent fresh frissons of excitement across the Internet, although Villeneuve had been talking about the prospect as far back as September 2021. Those plans always depended on the success of Part Two, and that hurdle has obviously been cleared. By August 2023, the director was on record saying there were “words on paper” for a third film. And we learned just last month that composer Hans Zimmer was already working on the score for Dune: Part Three.

That said, Villeneuve has yet to commit to an actual release date publicly, emphasizing his desire to take a little break from the Dune franchise to work on something else. (Per Variety, Legendary has already tapped him to adapt Anne Jacobsen’s nonfiction book, Nuclear War: A Scenario, but that project will likely come after Dune: Part Three.) He even hinted at one point that it might be a good idea to let star Timothée Chalamet age a bit, given the 12-year gap in the novels.

And in February, Villeneuve told The Times UK that while he had nearly finished a draft script (“barely an embryo”), he was not inclined to rush things: “I want to make sure that if we go back there a third time that it’ll be worth it, and that it would be make something even better than Part Two.” That’s a tall order, given the critical raves that have accompanied the film’s box office success. But we’re betting Villeneuve can pull it off… in his own good time.

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Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor rocks the fashion in new Doctor Who trailer

culture, Doctor Who, Entertainment, Fifteenth Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, Russell T. Davies, streaming tele, Trailers, TV trailers / /

The Fifteenth Doctor is in —

The return of Russell T. Davies as show runner has been a welcome one.

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Ncuti Gatwa officially begins his tenure as the Fifteenth Doctor in May, when the new Doctor Who season premieres.

Heads up, Whovians! We’ve got a newly regenerated Fifteenth Doctor in Ncuti Gatwa and a new season of the long-running British sci-fi series Doctor Who on the way. Judging by the latest trailer, we’re in for another wild ride of time-traveling hijinks, punctuated by an irresistibly charismatic Gatwa sporting some very colorful outfits with confident aplomb.

(Spoilers for most recent seasons and specials below.)

Look, I loved Jodie Whittaker’s incarnation of the Doctor, but her tenure was hampered by the unavoidable fact that showrunner Chris Chibnall just didn’t give her a lot of great material to work with. Among other issues, there was an unfortunate tendency toward didacticism and preachiness in the writing at the expense of genuine emotional resonance. While there were a number of notable episodes, and Chibnall gamely trotted out all the fan-favorite monsters and tropes, nothing ever fully captured the imagination in quite the same way as the show has always done at its best. Whittaker deserved better.

But then the BBC announced the return of Russell T. Davies—who revived the series in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor—as showrunner, setting up another reset of this beloved series. When Gatwa’s casting was announced, everyone assumed Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor would regenerate accordingly at the end of “The Power of the Doctor.” Instead, the newly regenerated Fourteenth Doctor was played by none other than David Tennant, everyone’s favorite Tenth Doctor—a little older with a few tweaks to his trademark look.

It was great casting for the 60th anniversary specials, in which Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor reunited with Donna Noble (Catherine Tate)—one of my favorite companions. Donna had her memories of the Doctor wiped by the Tenth Doctor to save her life since she had taken on some Time Lord knowledge that human beings just aren’t designed to carry. Donna now had a teenage daughter named Rose, and of course, a major crisis forced the Doctor to restore the erased knowledge to save London yet again. Donna should have died, but her Time Lord knowledge ended up being safely split between her and Rose instead.

The Doctor and Donna next encountered an abandoned spaceship filled with doppelgängers (Not-Things) in “Wild Blue Yonder.” In “The Giggle,” they faced off against the Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris), and during the climactic battle, the Fourteenth Doctor was shot. Fans expecting the usual regeneration were in for a surprise. The Fourteenth Doctor “bigenerated” instead, resulting in both a Fourteenth Doctor and Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor, a separate physical entity.

  • Ncuti Gatwa is ready for his first full season as the Fifteenth Doctor.

    YouTube/BBC

  • His new companion is Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson).

    YouTube/BBC

  • “Space babies!”

    YouTube/BC

  • The Doctor and the dinosaurs.

    YouTube/BBC

  • Going full-on Bridgerton.

    YouTube/BBC

  • “We are going to rock through time…”

    YouTube/BBC

  • Sporting a snazzy tangerine-colored knit.

    YouTube/BBC

  • Looking very Mod Squad, Doctor!

    YouTube/BBC

  • Recreating a famous album cover because why not?

    YouTube/BBC

The two Doctors teamed up to defeat the Toymaker and then figured out how to duplicate the TARDIS by drawing on the power of the remnants of the villain’s reality-warping domain. And Gatwa’s Doctor embarked on a fresh adventure with the 2023 Christmas special “The Church on Ruby Road,” which also introduced us to his new companion, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson).

All of that brings us to season 14. All we really know about this new season is that it will have eight episodes, beginning with the Davies-penned “Space Babies” and “The Devil’s Chord.” Davies wrote six out of the eight episodes, in fact, closing out with “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” and the finale, “Empire of Death.”  The latest trailer doesn’t give us much more than some exciting visual teases of what’s in store, including the aforementioned space babies, dinosaurs, a mysterious spacecraft—and all those outfits.

The Fifteenth Doctor is apparently something of a clothes horse. Each incarnation of the Doctor has always had a trademark “look,” but costume designer Pam Downe decided to broaden the scope for Gatwa, incorporating design elements from previous Doctors all the way back to Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor, whose style Gatwa particularly admired. That Regency-era burgundy velvet jacket is definitely a nod to the Third Doctor. There’s even a 1960s suit and Afro reminiscent of the Mod Squad or Austin Powers (with a sly allusion to The Beatles’ Abbey Road). Gatwa is clearly having a blast, which bodes well for the upcoming new season.

Season 14 of Doctor Who premieres on BBC and Disney+ on May 10, 2024, in the US and May 11 in the UK.

Listing image by YouTube/BBC

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openai-shows-off-sora-ai-video-generator-to-hollywood-execs

OpenAI shows off Sora AI video generator to Hollywood execs

AI, Entertainment, movies, openai, syndication, video / /

No lights, no camera, action —

CEO Sam Altman met with Universal, Paramount, and Warner Bros Discovery.

–

a robotic intelligence works as a cameraman (3d rendering)

OpenAI has launched a charm offensive in Hollywood, holding meetings with major studios including Paramount, Universal, and Warner Bros Discovery to showcase its video generation technology Sora and allay fears the artificial intelligence model will harm the movie industry.

Chief Executive Sam Altman and Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap gave presentations to executives from the film industry giants, said multiple people with knowledge of the meetings, which took place in recent days.

Altman and Lightcap showed off Sora, a new generative AI model that can create detailed videos from simple written prompts.

The technology first gained Hollywood’s attention after OpenAI published a selection of videos produced by the model last month. The clips quickly went viral online and have led to debate over the model’s potential impact on the creative industries.

“Sora is causing enormous excitement,” said media analyst Claire Enders. “There is a sense it is going to revolutionize the making of movies and bring down the cost of production and reduce the demand for [computer-generated imagery] very strongly.”

AI-generated video of a cat and human, generated via video generation model Sora.

Those involved in the meetings said OpenAI was seeking input from the film bosses on how Sora should be rolled out. Some who watched the demonstrations said they could see how Sora or similar AI products could save time and money on production but added the technology needed further development.

OpenAI’s overtures to the studios come at a delicate moment in Hollywood. Last year’s monthslong strikes ended with the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild securing groundbreaking protections from AI in their contracts. This year, contract negotiations are underway with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees—and AI is again expected to be a hot-button issue.

Earlier this week, OpenAI released new Sora videos generated by a number of visual artists and directors, including short films, as well as their impressions of the technology. The model will aim to compete with several available text-to-video services from start-ups, including Runway, Pika, and Stability AI. These other services already offer commercial uses for content.

An AI-generated video from Sora of a dog.

However, Sora has not been widely released. OpenAI has held off announcing a launch date or the circumstances under which it will be available. One person with knowledge of its strategy said the company was deciding how to commercialize the technology. Another person said there were safety steps still to take before the company considered putting Sora into a product.

OpenAI is also working to improve the system. Currently, Sora can only make videos under one minute in length, and its creations have limitations, such as glass bouncing off the floor instead of shattering or adding extra limbs to people and animals.

Some studios appeared open to using Sora in filmmaking or TV production in future, but licensing and partnerships have not yet been discussed, said people involved in the talks.

“There have been no meetings with OpenAI about partnerships,” one studio executive said. “They’ve done demos, just like Apple has been demo-ing the Vision Pro [mixed-reality headset]. They’re trying to get people excited.”

OpenAI has been previewing the model in a “very controlled manner” to “industries that are likely to be impacted first,” said one person close to OpenAI.

Media analyst Enders said the reception from the movie industry had been broadly optimistic on Sora as it is “seen completely as a cost-saving element, rather than impacting the creative ethos of storytelling.”

OpenAI declined to comment.

An AI-generated video from Sora of a woman walking down a Tokyo street.

© 2024 The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved Not to be redistributed, copied, or modified in any way.

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Choose your side in a civil war with House of the Dragon’s dueling S2 trailers

culture, Entertainment, HBO, HBO Max, house of the dragon, streaming television, Trailers / /

Green vs. Black —

Is it a war for the good of the realm, or the “satisfaction of vengeance”?

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This short teaser for S2 of HBO’s House of the Dragon lets you choose between two full trailers.

It’s been a long wait for the second season of HBO’s House of the Dragon, in which House Targaryen descends into civil war over the heir to the Iron Throne. It’s set to premiere in June, and HBO is ramping up its marketing with a rather clever twist: not one official trailer, but two, each presenting the perspective of one side in the bloody conflict. And we get to choose which trailer we’d like to view—although if you’re like us, you’ll elect to watch both.

(Spoilers for the first season below.)

As I’ve written previously, HBO’s House of the Dragon debuted in 2022 with a solid, promising pilot episode, and the remainder of the season lived up to that initial promise. The series is set nearly 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones 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 made some pretty significant time jumps, which in turn required replacing the younger actors as their characters aged. The S1 finale brought Westeros to the brink of civil war. 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).

This kicked off a lot of political maneuvering as both sides tried to shore up support for their chosen heir in preparation for the inevitable fight. Even though she was technically the rightful heir, Rhaenyra actually seemed to be considering House Hightower’s conditions for concession—until the arrogant Prince Aemon (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.

Most of the S1 main cast members are returning for S2 (those whose characters survived). And we have some new faces in the mix: Abubakar Salim as Alyn of Hull; Gayle Rankin as Alys Rivers; Freddie Fox as Ser Gwayne Hightower; Simon Russell Beale as Ser Simon Strong; Clinton Liberty as Addam of Hull; Jamie Kenna as Ser Alfred Broome; Kieran Bew as Hugh; Tom Bennett as Ulf; Tom Taylor as Lord Cregan Stark; and Vincent Regan as Ser Rickard Thorne.

The first teaser for S2 dropped in December during CCXP23 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We got the expected footage of dragons and dragonriders, a beheading, troops gathering and getting wiped out by dragon fire, and Rhaenyra and Aemon facing off with their dragons. And we also had a brief glimpse of a particularly brutal plot point in the source material that we already know closes out S2 (i.e., the “Blood and Cheese” incident, well-known to book readers).

As for the two new trailers, if your loyalties are with the claimed “rightful heir” Rhaenyra and the Blacks, this is the trailer for you:

Official Black trailer.

But perhaps you’d prefer to side with Greens, i.e., Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower and her odious offspring, Aegon Targaryen, who has laid claim to the Iron Throne as King Aegon II:

Official Green trailer.

The second season of House of the Dragon premiers on HBO on June 16, 2024.

Listing image by HBO

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alien:-romulus-teaser-has-all-the-right-elements-to-pique-our-interest

Alien: Romulus teaser has all the right elements to pique our interest

20th Century Studios, alien franchise, Alien: Romulus, culture, Entertainment, film trailers, Trailers / /

Be afraid —

Originally meant for Hulu, the franchise’s ninth installment heads to theaters instead.

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The long-standing science fiction franchise looks to be returning to its horror roots with Alien: Romulus.

We learned way back in 2019 that horror director Fede Alvarez (Don’t Breathe, Evil Dead) would be tackling a new standalone film in the Alien franchise. Personally, I had mixed feelings on the heels of the disappointing Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017). But the involvement of Alvarez was a hint that perhaps the franchise was returning to its stripped-down space horror roots. Now we have the first teaser for Alien: Romulus, and yep—that seems to be the case. And that’s very good news for those of us who adored the original Alien (1979) and its terrifying sequel, Aliens (1986).

(Spoilers for Alien and Aliens below.)

Alien: Romulus is set between the events of Alien and Aliens. That is, after Ellen Ripley, the sole survivor of the Nostromo, destroyed the killer Xenomorph and launched herself into space in the ship’s lifeboat—along with the ginger cat, Jonesy—and before she woke up after 57 years in hypersleep and battled more Xenomorphs while protecting the young orphan, Newt. Per the official premise: “While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.”

Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla, Pacific Rim: Uprising) stars as Rain Carradine, Isabela Merced (The Last of Us) plays Kay, and David Jonsson (Murder Is Easy) plays Andy. Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Spike Fearn (Aftersun), and Aileen Wu also appear in as-yet-undisclosed roles.

That’s about all we know five months out from the film’s release, but the teaser has all the right elements to pique our interest, right down to the minimalist aesthetics of its original forebear. In this case, less is more: We hear panicked calls for help (“get it away from me!”), piercing screams, and a shot of a gore-spattered wall. Then we get a few frenetic shots of panicked crew members fleeing a monster—and it’s a suitably terrifying threat based on the brief glimpses we’re offered.

Alien: Romulus hits theaters on August 16, 2024. It was originally meant to be released on Hulu. Clearly, the studio thought it had a potential hit on its hands and opted for a theatrical release instead.

20th Century Studios

Listing image by 20th Century Studios

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We’ve got a new trailer for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Verdict: Not mediocre

Anya Taylor-Joy, culture, Entertainment, film trailers, Furiosa:A Mad Max Saga, Max Max, Warner Bros. / /

“Where were you going, so full of hope?” —

“Whatever you have to do, however long it takes, promise you will find your way home.”

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Check out the latest trailer for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, starring Anya Taylor-Joy.

We got the first trailer for the spinoff prequel film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga in December, starring Anya Taylor-Joy as the younger incarnation of the character immortalized by Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road. We’re now just a couple months away from the film’s much-anticipated release—i.e., the perfect time to drop a second trailer to keep that anticipation high.

(Spoilers for Fury Road below.)

As previously reported, we met Furiosa early on in Fury Road, working logistics for Immortan Joe (the late Hugh Keays-Byrne), who charged her with ferrying oil from Gas Town to his Citadel with the help of a small crew of War Boys and one of the war rigs—basically tractor trailer trucks souped up with armor and novel weaponry. Furiosa stole the war rig instead, taking Joe’s five wives with her.

She teamed up with Max to fight off Joe’s army as they made their way to the Green Place, where Furiosa grew up. When they finally encountered the Vuvalini of Many Mothers, Furiosa learned that the Green Place was now an uninhabitable swamp. They ultimately returned to the Citadel and overthrew Immortan Joe, and our last image of her was a triumphant Furiosa on a lift rising into the Citadel.

Fury Road received almost universal critical acclaim, in no small part due to Theron’s fiery performance and director George Miller’s stunning apocalyptic vision. The film snagged 10 Oscar nominations and grossed $380 million globally. By 2019, Miller had expressed interest in making both a sequel and a prequel, with the latter focusing on Furiosa.

  • The Garden of Eden symbolism is strong in this black-and-white shot.

    YouTube/Warner Bros.

  • A young Furiosa (Alyla Browne).

    YouTube/Warner Bros.

  • Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) in his souped-up biker chariot.

    YouTube/Warner Bros.

  • Furiosa’s mother fights to get her daughter back.

    YouTube/Warner Bros.

  • The fight does not seem to be going well.

    YouTube/Warner Bros.

  • Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) is out for vengeance.

    YouTube/Warner Bros.

  • “Remember me?”

    YouTube/Warner Bros.

The film is set 45 years after the Collapse. Per the official premise:

As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.

In addition to Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth co-stars as Warlord Dementus, who leads the biker gang that kidnaps a young Furiosa. Nathan Jones and Angus Sampson reprise their roles as Rictus Erectus (son of Immortan Joe) and the Organic Mechanic, respectively. Lachy Hulme plays the younger Immortan Joe, and the cast also includes Daniel Webber as War Boy, David Collins as Smeg, and Alyla Browne as a young Furiosa. Tom Burke, Quaden Bayles, and Charlee Fraser have been cast in as-yet-undisclosed roles.

This latest trailer gives us a glimpse into Furiosa’s Garden of Eden-like early childhood, rendered (initially) in black and white with a young Furiosa reaching for a bright red apple. Symbolism! Dementus and his boys are nearby and snatch the young girl. Once they realize there’s a land of plenty ripe for pillage, conflict with Green Place is inevitable, with Furiosa’s mother leading the charge to get her daughter back and fend off the invaders. It doesn’t end well for Furiosa, who, as an adult, is determined to take her revenge on those who stole her mother and childhood from her.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga hits theaters on May 24, 2024. We can’t wait.

Listing image by YouTube/Warner Bros.

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darkness-rises-in-an-age-of-light-in-first-trailer-for-star-wars:-the-acolyte

Darkness rises in an age of light in first trailer for Star Wars: The Acolyte

culture, Disney Plus, Entertainment, Lucasfilm, star wars, streaming television, The Acolyte / /

a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away —

“This isn’t about good or bad. This is about power and who is allowed to use it.”

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Amandla Stenberg stars as a former padawan turned dangerous warrior in Star Wars: The Acolyte.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the Galactic Republic and its Jedi masters symbolized the epitome of enlightenment and peace. Then came the inevitable downfall and outbreak of war as the Sith, who embraced the Dark Side of the Force, came to power. Star Wars: The Acolyte is a forthcoming new series on Disney+ that will explore those final days of the Republic as the seeds of its destruction were sown—and the streaming platform just dropped the first trailer.

The eight-episode series was created by Leslye Headland, who co-created Russian Doll with Natasha Lyonne and Amy Poehler. It’s set at the end of the High Republic Era, about a century before the events of The Phantom Menace. Apparently Headland rather cheekily pitched The Acolyte as “Frozen meets Kill Bill,” which is an intriguing combination. She drew on wuxia martial arts films for inspiration, much like George Lucas was originally inspired by Westerns and the samurai films of Akira Kurosawa.

(Some spoilers for the prequel trilogy below.)

Star Wars fans already know that the evil mastermind behind the demise of the Republic was Sheev Palpatine, but The Acolyte focuses on other Sith who came before him during the Republic’s golden age of peace. Headland will be introducing new characters to add to the existing canon but is also cognizant that some fans might not be open to the new series. (For the record, she’s okay with that, given the diverse breadth of Star Wars stories out there.)

She specifically wanted to address a common fan complaint about certain plot elements of the films (especially Episodes I-III), namely how Yoda wouldn’t sense Darth Sidious’ rise to power or how Palpatine managed to infiltrate the Galactic Senate without a single Jedi noticing. In keeping with the visual style of the prequel trilogy, The Acolyte will sport a sleek-looking, advanced civilization look, before the inevitable decay in the wake of the Republic’s collapse and establishment of the Empire.

  • School is in session for all the young padawans.

    YouTube/Disney+

  • Carrie-Ann Moss plays Indara, a Jedi master.

    YouTube/Disney+

  • An unexpected adversary.

    YouTube/Disney+

  • Amandla Stenberg plays a former padawan turned warrior named Mae.

    Lucasfilm

  • Sol (Lee Jung-jae) is a respected Jedi master.

    YouTube/Disney+

  • Manny Jacinto plays a former smuggler named Qimir.

    YouTube/Disney+

  • Joonas Suotamo plays Kelnacca, a Wookiee Jedi master.

    YouTube/Disney+

  • Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith) heads a coven of witches.

    YouTube/Disney+

  • Lightsabers at the ready! Dafne Keen (right) plays a young Jedi named Jecki Lon.

    YouTube/Disney+

Per the official premise:

In Star Wars: The Acolyte, an investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi Master (Lee Jung-jae) against a dangerous warrior from his past (Amandla Stenberg). As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems…

In addition to Jung-jae (best known from Squid Game) and Stenberg (Rue in The Hunger Games), the cast includes Manny Jacinto (Jason on The Good Place) as a former smuggler named Qimir; Dafne Keen (Logan, His Dark Materials) as a young Jedi named Jecki Lon; Carrie-Ann Moss (Trinity in The Matrix trilogy) as a Jedi master named Indara; Jodie Turner-Smith (After Yang) as Mother Aniseya, who leads a coven of witches; Rebecca Henderson (Russian Doll) as a Jedi knight named Vernestra Rwoh; and Charlie Bennet (Russian Doll) as a Jedi named Yord Fandar.

In addition, Joonas Suotamo plays a Wookiee Jedi master named Kelnacca. Suotamo portrayed Chewbacca in the sequel trilogy of films (Episodes VII-IX) and in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Also appearing in as-yet-undisclosed roles are Abigail Thorn, Dean-Charles Chapman, Amy Tsang, and Margarita Levieva.

The trailer opens on an appropriately ominous note, with Sol instructing his young padawans to close their eyes because “your eyes can deceive you. We must not trust them.” They meditate on life and balance, but one young padawan sees fire. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure in a long purple cloak strides purposefully through city streets—none other than Indara, who soon finds herself battling a mysterious masked figure.

It seems that somebody is out there killing Jedi, and there is a growing sense of darkness. “This isn’t about good or bad,” Mother Aniseya says. “This is about power and who is allowed to use it.” Naturally the trailer ends with a group of Jedis brandishing their lightsabers against a foe wielding one that is glowing red.

Star Wars: The Acolyte debuts on Disney+ on June 4, 2024.

Listing image by Lucasfilm

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Bill Skarsgård takes revenge from beyond the grave in The Crow trailer

culture, Entertainment, film trailers, Lionsgate, The Crow, Trailers / /

True love never dies —

“You know that love promises only pain.”

–

Bill Skarsgård takes on the role of Eric Draven in the Lionsgate reboot of The Crow.

The 1994 cult classic film The Crow turns 30 this spring, so it’s as good a time as any to drop the first trailer for the long-in-development reboot directed by Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman, Ghost in the Shell). Bill Skarsgård takes on the starring role made famous by the late Brandon Lee.

(Spoilers for the original 1994 film below.)

Based on a 1989 limited comic series by James O’Barr, The Crow was directed by Alex Proyas. The film starred Brandon Lee as Eric Draven, a rock musician in crime-ridden Detroit. He and his fiancée, Shelly Webster (Sofia Shinas), are brutally murdered on Devil’s Night by a gang of thugs on the orders of a crime boss named Top Dollar (Michael Wincott). A year later, Eric is resurrected, dons black-and-white face paint, and proceeds to take his bloody revenge before returning to his grave. Alas, Lee was accidentally killed by a prop gun during the final days of shooting; the film was completed with the help of Lee’s stunt double (Chad Stahelski, who launched the John Wick franchise) and some clever special effects.

Despite the shadow of Lee’s tragic death, The Crow went on to gross $94 million against its modest $23 million budget and establish itself as a cult classic. Sure, the dialogue was occasionally hokey, and most of the characters were pretty one-dimensional, but there was no denying Lee’s star power and the striking visual energy, augmented by a killer soundtrack. There were three sequels focused on different characters with none of the original cast members, but none of those were as successful as the original.

Plans for a reboot first emerged in late 2008, but the development process proved rocky. O’Barr initially expressed pessimism about any reboot but later warmed to the prospect. As recently as November 2019, Proyas remained adamantly opposed: “It’s not just a movie that can be remade, it’s one man’s [Lee’s] legacy,” he said at the time. “And it should be treated with that level of respect.”

The project cycled through directors, stars, screenwriters, and so forth for more than a decade before Sanders signed on as director in 2022. Along with Skarsgård, the cast includes FKA Twigs as Shelly and Isabella Wei as Zadie. Danny Huston, Laura Birn, Sami Bouajila, and Jordan Bolger will also appear in as-yet-unnamed roles. Per the official premise:

Soulmates Eric Draven (Skarsgård) and Shelly Webster (FKA Twigs) are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Eric sets out to seek merciless revenge on their killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right.

The fact that Eric apparently has a chance to save Shelly by sacrificing himself is a marked departure from the 1994 film and in keeping with Sanders’ stated desire to let the love story be the primary driver for his reboot. The trailer opens by introducing us to the young lovers, moving quickly from their first meeting to the consummation of their love. They’re basically two broken people who find happiness in each other—until Shelly witnesses a murder that results in the couple being brutally and fatally attacked. Eric comes back as The Crow, bent on revenge, even as he’s “running out of time to save her.”

  • Eric Draven (Bill Skarsgård) falls in love with Shelly (FKA Twigs).

    YouTube/Lionsgate

  • Shelly saw something she shouldn’t have seen, bringing violence to their door.

    YouTube/Lionsgate

  • Crows are supposed to carry away the souls of the dead.

    YouTube/Lionsgate

  • Sometimes that doesn’t happen until the very bad things are set to right.

    YouTube/Lionsgate

  • “I’m gonna kill them all.”

    YouTube/Lionsgate

  • Danny Huston plays a villain in a very nice suit.

    YouTube/Lionsgate

  • “We have a problem.” When Laura Birn is right, she’s right.

    YouTube/Lionsgate

  • He knows exactly what hell awaits him.

    YouTube/Lionsgate

Look, the trailer seems perfectly fine. Skarsgård is a phenomenal acting talent, but while Huston generally makes a great villain, one rather misses the wry humor of Wincott’s Goth sadist Top Dollar. The truth is, this reboot could be a tough sell to longtime fans of the original (like me), although it’s encouraging that the director seems to have won over O’Barr with his decision to hark back to the source material.

Sanders is very much aware of this challenge and is taking pains to emphasize his deep regard for Lee’s legacy. “What Alex Proyas did with The Crow in 1994—and Brandon Lee’s iconic embodiment of that character—will forever impact that generation and others to follow,” he said in a statement accompanying the trailer’s release. “It expressed its time in a very specific, music-driven vision.” Sanders added that his own vision strives to bring The Crow (including the original book) to a new generation of young people, calling the character of Eric Draven/The Crow “the original anti-superhero” who grapples with universal themes of “love, grief, and rage.”

Skarsgård also issued a statement that he has long been a fan of the original film; it was Sanders’ vision that convinced him to star in the reboot. “[Sanders] wanted to completely reimagine the story and the character and tailor it towards a modern audience,” he said. “It’s a character that I know many revere and have a strong connection to—he is unlike any I’ve ever taken on before. I felt a responsibility to Eric’s story and endeavored to stay true to the spirit of the source material.”

The Crow was originally scheduled for release on June 7, 2024. But the trailer tells us it’s coming “this summer,” which is vague. I guess we’ll see.

Lionsgate

Listing image by YouTube/Lionsgate

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Ghouls, gulpers, and general mayhem abound in Fallout official trailer

culture, Entertainment, Fallout TV series, prime video, streaming television, Trailers, TV trailers / /

A story of haves and have-nots —

“Everyone wants to save the world. They just disagree on how.”

–

A Vault Dweller navigates a post-apocalyptic wasteland in Fallout, based on the bestselling gaming franchise.

Amazon Prime Video has dropped the full official trailer for Fallout, the streaming platform’s forthcoming post-apocalyptic sci-fi series. It’s based on the bestselling role-playing gaming franchise set in a satirical, 1950s-style future post-nuclear apocalypse. There’s plenty for gaming fans to be pleased about, judging by the trailer, but casting national treasure Walton Goggins (Justified) as a gunslinging Ghoul was quite simply a stroke of genius.

The first Fallout RPG was released in 1997, followed by several sequels and spinoffs. According to the game’s lore, modern civilization is destroyed in 2077 by a global nuclear war between the US and China. Survivors live in various underground vaults (fallout shelters). Each iteration of the game takes place somewhere across a post-apocalyptic US metro area and features a Vault Dweller—someone born and raised underground—as the protagonist. The first game takes place in 2161 and features a Vault Dweller from Vault 13, deep in the mountains of Southern California. The Vault Dweller must complete various missions to save the residents of Vault 13, which takes said protagonist to in-world places like Junktown; a merchant city called the Hub; and Necropolis, filled with Ghouls, i.e., humans badly mutated by exposure to nuclear radiation.

The series was announced in July 2020, with Westworld writers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy serving as executive producers. In January 2022, it was revealed that Nolan would direct the first three episodes but that two other writers—Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner—would be the showrunners. Todd Howard, who directed several games in the franchise, is also an executive producer and has said the series is not an adaptation of any particular game, but it is set within the same continuity. Per the official premise:

Based on one of the greatest video game series of all time, Fallout is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have. Two hundred years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind—and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird and highly violent universe waiting for them.

In addition to Goggins, Ella Purnell stars as a young Vault Dweller named Lucy, who must venture out into the wasteland on a mission to save her community in Vault 33. Aaron Moten plays a squire of the Brotherhood of Steel named Maximus; Kyle MacLachlan plays Lucy’s father, Hank, who is a Vault Overseer; Mike Doyle plays Mr. Spencer; Moises Arias plays Lucy’s brother, Norm; Michael Emerson plays an enigmatic wanderer named Wilzig; Johnny Pemberton plays Thaddeus; Cherien Dabis plays Birdie; Dale Dickey plays Ma June; Matty Cardarople plays Huey; Dave Register plays Chet; Rodrigo Luzzi plays Reg; and Annabel O’Hagan plays Steph. Sarita Choudhury and Leslie Uggams also appear in the series.

  • Nuclear weapons have devastated Los Angeles.

    YouTube/Prime Video

  • Ella Purnell stars as a young Vault Dweller named Lucy.

    YouTube/Prime Video

  • The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) is a mutated gunslinger and bounty hunter.

    YouTube/Prime Video

  • Aaron Moten plays Maximus, a squire with the Brotherhood of Steel.

    YouTube/Prime Video

  • Hey, it’s Michael Emerson of Lost fame, playing an enigmatic wanderer named Wilzig.

    YouTube/Prime Video

  • Kyle MacLachlan plays Lucy’s father, Hank, a Vault Overseer.

    YouTube/Prime Video

  • Sarita Choudhury looking fierce!

    YouTube/Prime Video

  • A glimpse of the Ghoul when he was still Cooper Howard, trying to save his daughter from a nuclear blast.

    YouTube/Prime Video

  • “I’m simply going to harvest your organs.”

    YouTube/Prime Video

  • Look out for Gulpers!

    YouTube/Prime Video

  • “There you are, you little killer.”

    YouTube/Prime Video

A teaser dropped in January, chock-full of details instantly recognizable to longtime fans of the games. The new trailer opens with a pre-apocalypse Goggins in a snazzy suit, pitching “a veritable Camelot of the nuclear age”: underground vaults housing residential communities, “because if the worst should happen tomorrow, the world is gonna need you to build a better day after.” The worst does happen, of course, and we catch glimpses of a devastated Los Angeles in the wake of a nuclear war, including a ruined Santa Monica Pier and Griffith Observatory. Then we see Lucy preparing to leave her Vault, despite warnings that “it isn’t like the Vault out there; it’s big.”

Lucy first encounters a hardened Ma June, who laughs derisively when Lucy naively asks what’s happened in the last 200 years. (Frankly, she thought all the Vault Dwellers were dead.) Lucy also has several run-ins with the Ghoul formerly known as Cooper Howard. Pretty much everyone she meets seems to want her dead, although the robot Mr. Handy helpfully informs her it just wants to harvest her organs. Maximus gets his share of screen time, both in and out of full Brotherhood of Steel armor, and we get a glimpse of the Brotherhood’s airships, as well as a mutant monster called a Gulper. It’s a violent, chaotic wasteland, but apparently, “there’s always somebody behind the wheel.”

All episodes of Fallout will premiere on Prime Video on April 11, 2024.

Listing image by YouTube/Prime Video

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The people of Earth prepare for war in final trailer for 3 Body Problem

3 Body Problem, culture, Entertainment, netflix, streaming television, Trailers, TV trailers / /

“What do you think is happening?” —

“When your consciousness ends in one world, it could continue to exist in many other worlds.”

–

Netflix’s new sci-fi series 3 Body Problem makes its world premiere tonight at the SXSW Film & Television festival in Austin.

The countdown continues for the hotly anticipated debut of 3 Body Problem, Netflix’s eight-episode sci-fi series adapted from the award-winning novel The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, the first book in his Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy. Those attending the SXSW Film & Television Festival in Austin will get to see the series’ world premiere tonight. The rest of us have to wait until later this month, but in the meantime, the streaming platform has released a final trailer.

(Some spoilers for the novel below.)

The 3-Body Problem‘s narrative is told in a nonlinear fashion, jumping between a young astrophysicist, Ye Wenjie, who witnesses her father being beaten to death by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution, and Ye’s return to Tsinghua University as an established professor many years later. During the earlier timeline, Ye figures out a means of sending an interstellar message to possible extraterrestrial civilizations and receives a response from a planet called Trisolaris. (As its name implies, the planet has three suns, which wreak havoc on Trisolaris via unpredictable “chaotic periods”—hence the novel’s title, which refers to a classic problem in celestial mechanics.) Despite being warned that the aliens intend to invade and conquer Earth, Ye responds to the message and invites them to do so, disillusioned by the state of the world.

The Trisolarians depart on their 450-year journey. Meanwhile, there have been complicated developments on Earth as people learn of the pending arrival of aliens. There is a secret society of scientists, political leaders, and other scholars who share Ye’s sentiment about the state of humanity, which, over time, splits into three competing factions. Some members continue to support the full destruction of humanity; others plan to help the aliens in exchange for the survival of themselves and their descendants; and still others regularly play a VR game called Three-Body and attempt to find a computational solution to the actual three-body problem that plagues Trisolaris. That’s a recipe for tension and conflict, which plays out in various ways throughout the novel.

The Netflix series was created by David Benioff, D.B. Weiss (Game of Thrones), and Alexander Woo (True Blood). Per the official premise:

A young woman’s fateful decision in 1960s China reverberates across space and time into the present day. When the laws of nature inexplicably unravel before their eyes, a close-knit group of brilliant scientists join forces with an unorthodox detective to confront the greatest threat in humanity’s history.

Zine Tseng stars as the young Ye Wenjie, with Rosalind Chao playing the older version. The cast also includes Benedict Wong as Da Shi, an intelligence officer who is investigating the mysterious deaths of scientists; Liam Cunningham as Thomas Wade, the charismatic leader of a global intelligence operation; Saamer Usmani as Raj Varma, a naval officer; and Jonathan Pryce as a wealthy eccentric named Mike Evans who helps set up a secret society. Ben Schnetzer plays the younger version of Mike Evans, while Marlo Kelly plays Tatiana, who was raised in Evans’ organization.

The “Oxford Five” are John Bradley as Jack Rooney; Alex Sharp as Will Downing, a sixth-form physics teacher; Jess Hong as Jin Cheng, a brilliant theoretical physicist whose curiosity is both a strength and a weakness; Jovan Adepo as Saul Durand, another physicist; and Eiza González as Auggie Salazar, a pioneer in nanotechnology (comparable to the character of Wang Miao in the novel). Sea Shimooka plays Sophon, an avatar in the show’s mysterious VR game.

The first teaser was released last June, followed in November by an exclusive clip showing Jack Rooney trying on a mysterious VR headset—only to learn from the avatar Sophon that he wasn’t “invited.” Netflix debuted the official full trailer for 3 Body Problem at CES in Las Vegas in January, and it focused heavily on the central mystery surrounding the deaths of 30 scientists in a single month, as well as people starting to see numbers representing some kind of countdown before their eyes.

This final trailer focuses a bit more on the backstory, namely the detection of the famous WOW! signal in 1977 with a glimpse of Ye Wenjie’s personal tragedy during China’s Cultural Revolution. The older Ye Wenjie tells us that “they are coming,” as others wonder who “they” might be. Of course, it’s aliens, bringing the threat of impending war as Dinah Washington croons “This Bitter Earth” in the background, lending an almost elegiac mood to the trailer. At one point, Ye Wenjie asks Jin how she will be remembered, and Jin replies, “As someone who fought back.”

All eight episodes of 3 Body Problem will hit Netflix on March 21, 2024.

Listing image by YouTube/Netflix

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Plucky crew of Star Trek: Discovery seeks a strange artifact in S5 trailer

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Their final adventure begins —

“It has been a hell of a journey. But everything ends someday.”

–

Star Trek: Discovery returns for its fifth and final season after a two-year hiatus.

It’s been two years since we had new episodes of Star Trek: Discovery, which debuted in 2017. Now Paramount+ has dropped the official trailer for the fifth and final season of the spinoff series.

(Spoilers for prior seasons below.)

As previously reported, Sonequa Martin-Green plays Michael Burnham, an orphaned human raised on the planet Vulcan by none other than Sarek (James Frain) and his human wife, Amanda Grayson (Mia Kirshner)—aka, Spock’s (Ethan Peck) parents. So, she is Spock’s adoptive sister. As I’ve written previously, the S2 season-long arc involved the mysterious appearances of a “Red Angel” and a rogue Starfleet AI called Control that sought to wipe out all sentient life in the universe.

The big reveal was that the Red Angel was actually a time-travel suit worn by Michael’s biological mother. She had accidentally jumped 950 years into a bleak future in which Control had achieved its nefarious goal and had been traveling through time, leaving signals (in the form of the visions), hoping to alter that future. In the S2 finale, Michael donned a copy of her mother’s suit to lead Discovery over 900 years into the future. The crew of the Enterprise told Starfleet that Discovery was destroyed in the battle and was ordered never to speak of the ship or her crew again.

In S3, Michael, Discovery, and her crew arrived in the future and found that Control’s plan had been thwarted: Life still exists. But the galaxy was very different thanks to something called The Burn, a catastrophic event that caused all the dilithium in the Milky Way to explode and destroy much of Starfleet in the process. In the aftermath, with no warp drive possible, all the planets had become disconnected and were no longer governed by the Federation. Michael did, however, manage to locate one sole Federation liaison on a remote space station with the help of a new ally, Book (David Ajala).

The Discovery crew reunited with what was left of Starfleet, figured out what caused The Burn, and managed to defeat a rival syndicate known as the Emerald Chain, inspiring planets to start rejoining the Federation. Burnham finally became captain of Discovery after Saru (Doug Jones) opted to return to his home planet of Kaminar for a spell. And we bid a sorrowful farewell to Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh).

S4 opened with the plucky crew—including Saru as first officer—helping rebuild the Federation and celebrating the reopening of Starfleet Academy. They soon encountered a “gravitational anomaly” five light-years in diameter that destroyed Book’s home planet of Kwejian as it moved through the galaxy. It turned out to be a powerful technology belonging to an alien species with interconnected minds called 10-C, whose language employed mathematical equations. In the S4 finale, the aliens ultimately agreed to turn off their technology, thereby sparing Earth and other Federation planets.

The fifth season was already in development by March 2020, and the plan was to film those episodes back-to-back with S4. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and put those plans on hold. Filming didn’t happen until 2022. While S5 was originally meant to air last year, once Paramount decided to pull the plug and make it the final season, they needed to shoot additional footage in order to wrap up the series properly. Per the official premise:

The fifth and final season will find Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery uncovering a mystery that will send them on an epic adventure across the galaxy to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries. But there are others on the hunt as well… dangerous foes who are desperate to claim the prize for themselves and will stop at nothing to get it.

In addition to Martin-Green, Jones, and Ajala, much of the main cast is returning for S5: Anthony Rapp as Stamets; Mary Wiseman as Tilly; Wilson Cruz as Dr. Culber; Blu del Barrio as Adira Tal; and Callum Keith Rennie as Rayner. Eve Harlow and Elias Toufexis will reprise their recurring roles as Moll and L’ak, respectively. Returning as notable guest stars in S5: Oded Fehr as Starfleet Commander-in-Chief Charles Vance; Chelah Horsdal as Lair Rillak; Tara Rowling as T’Rina; David Cronenberg as Kovich; and Tig Notaro as Jett Reno.

The first two episodes of the fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery will premiere on Paramount+ on April 4, 2024; the remaining eight episodes will air weekly after that through May 30.

Listing image by Paramount+

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