streaming television

Lanterns teaser swaps superhero hijinks for gritty realism

culture, DCU, DCU Chapter One, Entertainment, HBO, HBO Max, James Gunn, Lanterns, streaming television, Trailers / Kris Guyer / March 5, 2026

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

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

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

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

Lanterns teaser swaps superhero hijinks for gritty realism Read More »

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

culture, Entertainment, George R.R. Martin, HBO, house of the dragon, streaming television, Trailers / Paul Patrick / February 21, 2026

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

(Spoilers for the first two seasons below.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

culture, Entertainment, Nicolas Cage, prime video, Spider-Noir, streaming television, Trailers / Mike M. / February 12, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

Apple TV, culture, Entertainment, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, streaming television, Trailers / Rejus Almole / February 3, 2026

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

(Spoilers for Season 1 below.)

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

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

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

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

Marvel rings in new year with Wonder Man trailer

culture, Disney Plus, Entertainment, marvel studios, streaming television, Trailers, Wonder Man / Tim Belzer / January 1, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

Marvel rings in new year with Wonder Man trailer Read More »

Stranger Things series finale trailer is here

culture, Duffer brothers, Entertainment, netflix, Stranger Things S5, streaming television, Trailers / Rejus Almole / December 30, 2025

Stranger Things fans are hyped for the premiere of the hotly anticipated series finale on New Year’s Eve: they’ll either be glued to their TVs or heading out to watch it in a bona fide theater. Netflix has dropped one last trailer for the finale—not that it really needs to do anything more to boost anticipation.

(Some spoilers for Vols. 1 and 2 below but no major Vol. 2 reveals.)

As previously reported, in Vol. 1, we found Hawkins under military occupation and Vecna targeting a new group of young children in his human form under the pseudonym “Mr. Whatsit” (a nod to A Wrinkle in Time). He kidnapped Holly Wheeler and took her to the Upside Down, where she found an ally in Max, still in a coma, but with her consciousness hiding in one of Vecna’s old memories. Dustin was struggling to process his grief over losing Eddie Munson in S4, causing a rift with Steve. The rest of the gang was devoted to stockpiling supplies and helping Eleven and Hopper track down Vecna in the Upside Down. They found Kali/Eight, Eleven’s psychic “sister” instead, being held captive in a military laboratory.

Things came to a head at the military base when Vecna’s demagorgons attacked to take 11 more children, wiping out most of the soldiers in record time. The big reveal was that, as a result of being kidnapped by Vecna in S1, Will has his own supernatural powers because of his ties to Vecna. He can tap into Vecna’s hive mind and manipulate those powers for his own purposes. He used those newfound powers to save his friends from the demagorgons.

Stranger Things series finale trailer is here Read More »

Stranger Things S5 trailer teases Vol. 2

culture, netflix, stranger things, streaming television, Trailers, TV trailers / Mike M. / December 15, 2025

We’re 10 days away from the next installment of the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, and Netflix has released a new trailer for what it’s calling Volume 2. This will cover episodes five through seven, with the final episode comprising Vol. 3.

(Spoilers for Season 5, Vol. 1 below.)

Season 4 ended with Vecna—the Big Bad behind it all—opening the gate that allowed the Upside Down to leak into Hawkins. We got a time jump for S5, Vol. 1, but in a way, we came full circle, since those events coincided with the third anniversary of Will’s original disappearance in S1.

In Vol. 1, we found Hawkins under military occupation and Vecna targeting a new group of young children in his human form under the pseudonym “Mr. Whatsit” (a nod to A Wrinkle in Time). He kidnapped Holly Wheeler and took her to the Upside Down, where she found an ally in Max, still in a coma, but her consciousness is hiding in one of Vecna’s old memories. Dustin was struggling to process his grief over losing Eddie Munson in S4, causing a rift with Steve. The rest of the gang was devoted to stockpiling supplies and helping Eleven and Hopper track down Vecna in the Upside Down. They found Kali/Eight, Eleven’s psychic “sister” instead, being held captive in a military laboratory.

Things came to a head at the military base when Vecna’s demagorgons attacked to take 11 more children, wiping out most of the soldiers in record time. The big reveal was that, as a result of being kidnapped by Vecna in S1, Will has his own supernatural powers. He can tap into Vecna’s hive mind and manipulate those powers for his own purposes. He used his newfound powers to save his friends from the demagorgons.

Stranger Things S5 trailer teases Vol. 2 Read More »

Benoit Blanc takes on a “perfectly impossible crime” in Wake Up Dead Man trailer

culture, Entertainment, film trailers, netflix, streaming television, Trailers, Wake Up Dead Man / Kris Guyer / November 17, 2025

Wake Up Dead Man garnered early rave reviews after screening at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September, and an initial teaser released shortly after showcased Blanc puzzling over a classic locked-room mystery. The new trailer builds out some of the details without giving too much away.

Rev. Jud is the prime suspect in Wicks’ murder, since he loathed the man and hence had a clear motive, but he insists to Blanc that he is innocent. We learn that Wicks was wealthy, and this being a classic whodunit, we know the rest of the characters no doubt have their deep, dark secrets—one of which could have led to murder. And Johnson brings the humor, too, as Blanc, the groundskeeper, and Martha discover the desecration of Wicks’ tombstone with scrawled graffiti penises. “Makes me sick, these kids painting rocket ships all over his sacred resting place,” the unworldly Martha says.

Wake Up Dead Man will be in select theaters on November 26, 2025, and will start streaming on Netflix on December 12, 2o25. We can’t wait.

Benoit Blanc takes on a “perfectly impossible crime” in Wake Up Dead Man trailer Read More »

Civil war is brewing in the wasteland in Fallout S2 trailer

culture, Entertainment, fallout s2, prime video, streaming television, Trailers, TV trailers / Rejus Almole / November 13, 2025

Purnell, Goggins, MacLachlan, and Moten all return for S2, along with Moises Arias as Lucy’s younger brother, Norm, and Frances Turner as Barb Howard, Cooper’s wife and a high-ranking Vault-Tec executive. Justin Theroux joins the S2 cast as Mr. Robert House, founder and CEO of RobCo Industries, as well as Macaulay Culkin (possibly playing Caesar) and Kumail Nanjiani, both of whom appear briefly in the new trailer.

The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) has been searching for his family for 200 years. YouTube/Prime Video

The trailer opens with Maximus chatting with another denizen of the wasteland, who insists that while he’s seen lots of crazy and unnatural things in his struggle to survive, he’s never seen good people. Maximus has met one good person: Lucy. But his acquaintance isn’t having it. “I would be a good person too if I grew up in some cozy impenetrable home,” he says. “Wouldn’t have to steal and stab and fib all the time just to get by.”

Lucy, of course, has been challenged to hang onto her fundamental decency while navigating the brutal surface world, hardening just enough to do what’s necessary to survive. She’s now looking for her father with a new motive: to bring him to justice, “so people know that how they conduct themselves matters, and they don’t give up hope.” (We catch a few glimpses of Hank, most notably experimenting on a mouse in the lab, with disastrous results.) The Ghoul, for his part, is looking for his family; it’s the only reason he’s hung around for 200 years. Meanwhile, civil war is brewing, and you just know our main cast will all end up caught up in the conflict.

The second season of Fallout premieres on December 17, 2025, on Prime Video.

Civil war is brewing in the wasteland in Fallout S2 trailer Read More »

Netflix drops a doozy of a trailer for Stranger Things S5

culture, Entertainment, netflix, Stranger Things S5, streaming television, Trailers / Mike M. / October 30, 2025

We’re a few weeks away from the debut of the fifth and final season of Stranger Things—at least the first of three parts of it—and Netflix has dropped one doozy of a trailer that shows things looking pretty bleak for our small-town heroes of Hawkins.

(Spoilers for prior seasons below.)

As previously reported, S4 ended with Vecna—the Big Bad behind it all—opening the gate that allowed the Upside Down to leak into Hawkins. We’re getting a time jump for S5, but in a way, we’re coming full circle, since the events coincide with the third anniversary of Will’s original disappearance in S1. The fifth season will have eight episodes, and each one will be looong—akin to eight feature-length films. Per the official premise:

The fall of 1987. Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna. But he has vanished — his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding. As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming — and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone — the full party — standing together, one last time.

In addition to the returning main cast, Amybeth McNulty and Gabriella Pizzolo are back as Vicki and Dustin’s girlfriend, Suzie, respectively, with Jamie Campbell Bower reprising his role as Vecna. Linda Hamilton joins the cast as Dr. Kay, along with Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler, Jake Connelly as Derek Turnbow, and Alex Breaux as Lt. Akers.

Netflix drops a doozy of a trailer for Stranger Things S5 Read More »

It’s troll vs. troll in Netflix’s Troll 2 trailer

culture, film trailers, netflix, Norwegian mythology, streaming television, troll 2 / Paul Patrick / October 21, 2025

Netflix’s international offerings include some entertaining Norwegian fare, such as the series Ragnarok (2020–2023), a surprisingly engaging reworking of Norse mythology brought into the 21st century that ran for three seasons. Another enjoyable offering was a 2022 monster movie called Troll, essentially a Norwegian take on the classic Godzilla formula. Netflix just dropped a trailer for the sequel, Troll 2, which looks to be very much in the same vein as its predecessor.

(Spoilers for the first Troll movie below.)

Don’t confuse the Netflix franchise with 2010’s Trollhunter, shot in the style of a found footage mockumentary. A group of college students sets off into the wilds of the fjordland to make a documentary about a suspected bear poacher named Hans. They discover that Hans is actually hunting down trolls and decide to document those endeavors instead, but soon realize they are very much out of their depth.

Writer/director André Øvredal infused Trollhunter with the driest of wit and myriad references to Norwegian culture, especially its folklore and fairy tales surrounding trolls. There are woodland trolls and mountain trolls, some with tails, some with multiple heads. They turn to stone when exposed to sunlight—which is why one of the troll hunters carries around a powerful UV lamp—and mostly eat rocks but can develop a taste for human flesh, and they can smell the blood of a Christian.

Directed by Roar Uthaug, the first Troll film is based on the same mythology. It had great action sequences and special effects and didn’t take itself too seriously. A young girl named Nora grows up with the mythology of Norwegian trolls turned to stone buried in the local mountains. An adult Nora (Ine Marie Wilmann), now a paleontologist, teams up with a government advisor, Andreas (Kim S. Falck-Jørgensen), and a military captain, Kris (Mads Sjøgård Pettersen), to take out a troll that has been rampaging across Norway, charting a path of destruction toward the heavily populated city of Oslo.

It’s troll vs. troll in Netflix’s Troll 2 trailer Read More »

New Starfleet Academy trailer debuts at NYCC

culture, Entertainment, New York Comic Con, paramount plus, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, streaming television, Trailers / Rejus Almole / October 12, 2025

Rosta’s Caleb is front and center in the new trailer. We see him as a child with his mother (Tatiana Maslany), who is torn away from him by armed guards as Nus Braka cackles, “You hold on to how much you hate me right now, kid. It’ll keep you warm at night.” Cut to Captain Ake finding the now-grown Caleb and recruiting him to the Academy with a promise to help him find Nus Braka—presumably to exact some kind of revenge. We get to see instructors put the new cadets through their paces as they strive to be worthy of the Starfleet uniform. Love might be in the air for Caleb. And Captain Ake seems to have her own twisted history with Nus Braka.

As Ars senior editor Sam Axon pointed out in 2o23, there have been Kobayashi Maru references throughout the franchise, as well as substantial plotlines about the academy in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, among others. There were also Starfleet Academy video games in the 1990s for various platforms.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premieres on January 15, 2026, on Paramount+.

First look at Strange New Worlds S4

Let’s be honest, the third season of Strange New Worlds has been pretty uneven. But a course correction could be in the offing, judging by a four-and-a-half minute clip from the upcoming fourth season that was unveiled at NYCC. It’s an extended sequence in which Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and his crew respond to a distress signal from another ship, only to encounter a massive space storm that knocks out almost all their systems. They decide to take a shuttle to a nearby planet to gather some much-needed iridium to power their warp drive. (Is anyone else hearing echoes of Galaxy Quest and the hunt for a replacement beryllium sphere?)

Still, the tone does seem more of a return to form for the series. (For what it’s worth, producer Akiva Goldsman has attributed the S3 issues in part to production delays as a result of strikes and staffing changes.) The fourth season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is slated for release sometime next year. The series has already been renewed for a truncated fifth and final season of six episodes.

New Starfleet Academy trailer debuts at NYCC Read More »