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+.
Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga star in Joker: Folie à Deux.
This weekend will be all about San Diego Comic-Con and the hotly anticipated theatrical release of the summer blockbuster Deadpool and Wolverine, but Warner Bros. is already looking ahead to the fall. The studio dropped the official trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux, the sequel to 2019’s smash hit Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix. This time, he’s joined by fellow asylum inmate Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga) to bring a comic book criminal partnership for the ages to gritty life.
(Spoilers for 2019’s Joker below.)
Joker was intended to be a standalone film—part of DC Films’ decision to move away from the shared-universe approach of its prior franchise DCEU films. (DC Studios CEO James Gunn is now calling it the “DC Elseworld” project.) It had no relation to the Justice League films that came before, so that freed Phillips to create his own darker, grittier version of this iconic character. He cited Martin Scorsese films like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The King of Comedy among his influences. There’s no real origin story for the Joker in the comics—not a definitive one, anyway—so Phillips and screenwriter Scott Silver were able to cherry-pick the canonical elements they needed and make up the rest. (In Batman: The Killing Joke, for instance, the Joker is a failed comedian.)
The sequel was officially announced in 2022. In addition to Phoenix and Gaga, Zazie Beetz returns as Sophie, Arthur’s former neighbor and a single mom, on whom he had a crush, and Leigh Gill and Sharon Washington reprise their roles as Arthur’s therapist and social worker, respectively. The cast also includes Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Jacob Lofland, Steve Coogan, Ken Leung, and Harry Lawley.
Per the official premise, “Joker: Folie à Deux finds Arthur Fleck institutionalized at Arkham awaiting trial for his crimes as Joker. While struggling with his dual identity, Arthur not only stumbles upon true love but also finds the music that’s always been inside him.” The first teaser was released in April and showed Fleck meeting Gaga’s Dr. Harleen Quinzel, a fellow inmate who becomes increasingly obsessed with Arthur… and vice versa. It was clear the pair fed one another’s particular delusions, right down to show-stopping fantasy musical numbers.
This latest trailer, set to the dulcet tones of Frank Sinatra, mostly offers more of the same, although we do get some new footage of Joker representing himself at his trial: “Look around at all these people!” he exclaims, perhaps referring to the throngs of frenzied admirers cheering him on outside. “I will no longer allow any of you to keep me down.” With Harley by his side, he’s ready to give the people what they want. We’re guessing they’re going to choose violence.
Joker: Folie à Deux hits theaters overseas on October 2, 2024, followed by a US theatrical release on October 4, 2024. The film will make its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September.
The HBO Original Series Dune: Prophecy will premiere this November.
Fans of director Denis Villeneuve’s epic two-part film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune have no doubt been curious about the upcoming HBO Max series, Dune: Prophecy. 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 studio just dropped a tantalizing teaser rife with political intrigue, ominous warnings, and a bit of hand-to-hand combat.
The series was first announced in 2019, with Villeneuve serving as an executive producer and Alison Schapker (Alias, Fringe, Altered Carbon) serving as showrunner. The first season will consist of 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, described as “a man from a great line of war-time Emperors, who is called upon to govern the Imperium and manage a fragile peace,” 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, described as “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, all acolytes at the Sisterhood School.
Power = control
A short teaser was shown in May during the Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront presentation in New York City. It was heavy on the exposition, with a voiceover describing the founding of a sisterhood assigned to the Great Houses “to help them sift truth from lies.” The result was a “network of influence throughout the Imperium… but power comes with a price.” They want to place a Sister on the throne and arrange a marriage to make it possible. Not all the Sisters were on board with the plan, however, with one warning that the Sisterhood was playing god “and we will be judged for it.”
This latest teaser opens with an admonition to acolytes of the Sisterhood: “You wish to serve the Great Houses and shape the flow of power; you must first exert power over yourself.” The emperor seems to be easily wooed by the “sorceresses,” much to his empress’s chagrin, but the more influence the Sisterhood wields, the more enemies it gains. Desmond Hart also has his suspicions about the Sisterhood, probably with good reason. “Our hands are poised on the levers of power but yet our grasp on it is still fragile,” Valya tells her sister Tula, assuring her that “I am trying to protect the Imperium”—and “sacrifices must be made.”
Ryan Reynolds and High Jackman join forces in Deadpool and Wolverine.
If there’s anything the Deadpool franchise is known for, it’s R-rated cheeky irreverence. The forthcoming Deadpool and Wolverine clearly has that in spades, but the final trailer strikes an uncharacteristically somber note, reminding us just what Wade Wilson/Deadpool stands to lose if Wolverine can’t rise to the challenge. Bonus: There’s a surprise cameo from Hugh Jackman’s co-star in Logan.
As previously reported, Ryan Reynolds found the perfect fit with 2016’s Deadpool, starring as Wade Wilson, a former Canadian special forces operative (dishonorably discharged) who develops regenerative healing powers that heal his cancer but leave him permanently disfigured with scars all over his body. Wade decides to become a masked vigilante, turning down an invitation to join the X-Men and abandon his bad-boy ways. The first Deadpool was a big hit, racking up $782 million at the global box office, critical praise, and a couple of Golden Globe nominations for good measure. Deadpool 2 was released in 2018 and was just as successful.
Deadpool and Wolverine reunites Reynolds with many familiar faces from the first two films. Morena Baccarin is back as Wade’s girlfriend Vanessa, along with Leslie Uggams as Blind Al; Karan Soni as Wade’s personal chauffeur, taxi driver Dopinder; Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead; Stefan Kapičić as the voice of Colossus; Shioli Kutsuna as Negasonic’s mutant girlfriend, Yukio; Randal Reeder as Buck; and Lewis Tan as X-Force member Shatterstar.
Along with Sabretooth, the mutants Toad and Dogpool should be on hand to make some trouble. New to the franchise are Matthew MacFadyen as a Time Variance Authority agent named Paradox and Emma Corrin as the lead villain. There have been rumors that Owen Wilson’s Mobius and the animated Miss Minutes from Loki may also appear in the film.
Marvel released a two-minute teaser for the new movie during the Super Bowl in February, featuring the trademark cheeky irreverence that made audiences embrace Reynold’s R-rated superhero in the first place, plus a glimpse of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine—or rather, his distinctive shadow. And yes, Marvel is retaining that R rating—a big step given that all the prior MCU films have been resoundingly PG-13. Marvel dropped a full trailer in April that was chock-full of off-color witticisms, meta-references, slo-mo action, and a generous sprinkling of F-bombs. And last month, another one-minute trailer dropper with a surprise appearance: Sabretooth, played by the same actor, Tyler Mane, who portrayed the character in 2000’s X-Men.
Someone needs a pep talk
This final trailer takes an entirely different tone, playing like a love letter to the Wolverine of the X-Men franchise. It’s basically Wade/Deadpool having a bona fide heart-to-heart with the Wolverine in this alternate timeline. “I know I turn everything into a joke, but I care,” he says in a voiceover accompanying footage from prior X-Men films, rendered in nostalgic gray tones. “I waited a long time for this team-up. In my world, you’re well-regarded. You were an X-Man. Fuck that, you were THE X-Man. The Wolverine. He was a hero in my world.”
Wolverine’s response: “Yeah well, he ain’t shit in mine.” We learn that this version of Wolverine resisted all attempts to persuade him to officially don the suit and join the X-Men and now he believes it’s just too late to make a difference. As a last-ditch effort, Wade shows him a picture of the nine people he loves who make up his entire world and tells him he has no idea how to save them—but Wolverine does.
And who shows up at the crucial moment but Dafne Keene’s Laura Kinney, the cloned mutant formerly known as X-23, who inherited the Wolverine mantle in the comics. When Wolverine insists they’ve got the wrong guy, she replies, “You were always the wrong guy… until you weren’t.” We’re betting Wolverine’s gonna step up.
Deadpool and Wolverine hits theaters on July 26, 2024.
Director Fede Alvarez brings us Alien: Romulus, coming to theaters next month.
The face huggers and chest bursters return with a vengeance in a few weeks when Alien: Romulus finally hits theaters. It’s the latest installment in the Alien franchise from horror director Fede Alvarez (Don’t Breathe, Evil Dead), and the final action-packed trailer just dropped.
(Spoilers for Alien and Aliens below.)
As previously reported, Alien: Romulus is set between the events of Alien and Aliens (and is not related to FX/Hulu’s Alienprequel series slated to premiere next year). 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 (Carrie Henn). Per the short-and-sweet 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) plays Tyler, Spike Fearn (Aftersun) plays Bjorn, and Aileen Wu plays Navarro. But we aren’t likely to see iconic badass Ellen Ripley (immortalized by Sigourney Weaver) in the film. At this point in the timeline, she’s in the middle of her 57-year stasis with Jonesy as her escape shuttle travels through space toward her fateful encounter with a xenomorph queen.
Haunted house in space
We got our first look at Alien: Romulus, the ninth installment in the sci-fi franchise, in March with a brief teaser. That footage showed promise that Alvarez could fulfill his intention to bring this standalone film back to the franchise’s stripped-down space horror roots. There was also some special footage screened at CinemaCon in April featuring the expected face-huggers and chest-bursters. A full trailer dropped in March, and it looked as gory, intense, and delightfully terrifying as the seminal first two films in the franchise, with some spooky haunted house-in-space vibes thrown in for good measure.
Space is beautiful, but horrors lurk.
YouTube/20th Century Studios
The face huggers claim another victim.
YouTube/20th Century Studios
That feeling when something alien is about to burst out of your chest.
YouTube/20th Century Studios
Kay is justifiably horrified.
YouTube/20th Century Studios
XENOMORPH!
YouTube/20th Century Studios
The xenomorph stalks another victim.
YouTube/20th Century Studios
This final trailer has a lot of the same footage but gives us a few more details as to the plot. The young space colonizers are gearing up to steal “highly regulated equipment” from the aforementioned derelict space station, mostly because Tyler thinks it “could be our only ticket out of here.” The team thinks it should be a quick job, in and out in 30 minutes. But we know better, don’t we?
They are welcomed to the Romulus Space Station by MU/TH/UR (the ship’s computer), and Bjorn is the first to say out loud that this space station is super creepy. Poor Bjorn gets the first face hugger, followed by Navarro—she’s the one we’ve seen in prior footage discovering she’s got an alien growing inside her chest. In this trailer, we see the chest burster preparing to emerge, to Kay’s understandable horror. Kay, Rain, Andy, and Tyler break out the weaponry, prepared to face the monsters together. But how well do we like their odds of survival against the ultimate killing machines? Especially given that ominous final countdown to an “impact event”…
Ryan Gosling hosts a round of carpool karaoke with his stuntmen for the forthcoming action comedy The Fall Guy.
Universal Studios has been going meta with its marketing for its forthcoming action comedy The Fall Guy. Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt are the marquee stars; Gosling plays a Hollywood stuntman trying to make a movie with his estranged ex-girlfriend (Blunt). But it’s the actual stuntmen standing in for Gosling during action sequences who get the spotlight in a new promotional video for the film.
As previously reported, The Fall Guy is directed by David Leitch, who also brought us the glorious John Wick (his uncredited directorial debut with Chad Stahelski). It’s a loose adaptation of the popular 1980s TV series of the same name starring Lee Majors. Per the official synopsis:
Oscar nominee Ryan Gosling stars as Colt Seavers, a battle-scarred stuntman who, having left the business a year earlier to focus on both his physical and mental health, is drafted back into service when the star of a mega-budget studio movie—being directed by his ex, Jody Moreno, played by Golden Globe winner Emily Blunt—goes missing. While the film’s ruthless producer (Hannah Waddingham), maneuvers to keep the disappearance of star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) a secret from the studio and the media, Colt performs the film’s most outrageous stunts while trying (with limited success) to charm his way back into Jody’s good graces. But as the mystery around the missing star deepens, Colt will find himself ensnared in a sinister, criminal plot that will push him to the edge of a fall more dangerous than any stunt.
In this incarnation, Gosling’s Colt Seavers isn’t a bounty hunter on the side; he’s just a stuntman—a bit past his prime—who stumbles into solving a mystery. Blunt costars as Jody Moreno, Colt’s ex-girlfriend and a former camera operator who finally gets the chance to direct her first film. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays movie star Tom Ryder, who goes missing mid-shoot. Stephanie Hsu plays Ryder’s personal assistant, and Winston Duke plays Colt’s stunt coordinator and BFF. Ted Lasso‘s Hannah Waddingham appears as Gail, the producer of Jody’s film. And OG Fall Guy Lee Majors (now in his 80s) is expected to have a cameo; perhaps he’ll perform the theme song, “Unknown Stuntman,” that he wrote and recorded for the original series.
Last week, the studio released three short promotional videos in which Gosling, Blunt, Leitch, and Waddingham try to come up with creative marketing ploys for the film. But today’s release, “Car Pool,” is the best of the lot, precisely because it pays clever homage to the actual stuntmen.
The video opens with Gosling getting a call from Leitch, instructing him to pick up his three stunt doubles in a flashy lime green Nissan GT-R. (Per Ars Automotive Editor Jonathan Gitlin, it’s the R35 generation, on sale since 2007.) The concept is meant to evoke a carpool karaoke vibe, only without the actual music (no, not even Journey).
Of course, Gosling can’t resist blasting Journey’s “Any Way You Want It” en route to the various pickup points. And, of course, the stuntmen—Logan Holladay, Ben Jenkin, and Troy Brown—can’t resist showcasing their stuntman skills. Halladay takes over driving duties, Jenkin stages getting hit by the car and rolling onto the hood, and Troy falls off a roof onto an inflatable stunt bag. They all have a grand time singing along to Journey, and Jenkin actually has a decent voice. If only they can make sure they get the song rights….
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
