News Around the Net

Let’s kick things off with this spectacular full trailer for James Gunn’s Superman movie:

That’s 10/10 — no notes.  The tone is perfect — funny, but with real stakes.  David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan both look and sound perfect as Clark/Superman and Lois.  (I love the way Clark changes his voice when he leans forward and says “Ms. Lane”!)  I’m so happy this isn’t another origin story, and that Lois already knows that Clark Kent is Superman.  The visual effects looks dynamite.  I’m super excited to see Superman actually engaged in all different kinds of superheroics, fighting giant monsters and saving people.  I love seeing Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner and other DC characters from the comics (Hawkgirl, Mr. Terrific, The Engineer, etc.).  I love seeing Krypto defend the Fortress of Solitude.  I even love the way the text on the “From Director James Gunn” graphic mimics the font effects on the main title credits of Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie.  I am all in on this!!  I hope it’s good!!!

We also got a trailer for Ironheart, the Disney+ TV show spinning off Riri Williams from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever:

Riri (created by Brian Michael Bendis & Mike Deodato) is a great character from the comics and I really like the actress, Dominique Thorne, who plays her.  I’m excited to see a Riri TV show, though the long delays in releasing this show (this show was announced way back in 2020 and it was filmed in 2022!) don’t bode well.  But that trailer looks great to me!  I’d love for this to be good.

This trailer for Darren Aronofsky’s new film, Caught Stealing, looks great to me:

I love some of Mr. Aronofsky’s films (with Black Swan being my favorite), while others are borderline incomprehensible to me.  This trailer makes this new film seem like a Coen Brothers style funny, violent black comedy crime romp, which I am totally down for.  Is that really the tone of this film?  That’d be a new approach for Mr. Aronofsky, but based on this trailer I’m excited to give this a try.

I loved Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator film Prey, which focused on a young Comanche woman in 1719, and I am super-excited for his follow-up, Badlands, which looks badass.  Here’s the trailer:

We’re getting this live-action film AND an animated anthology film (Predator: Killer of Killers) this year??  Fantastic!  They just dropped a new trailer for Killer of Killers:

I’m not sold yet on the animation style, but I love the idea of Predator adventures in different time periods.

Meanwhile, another beloved sci-fi/horror franchise from my young is also returning this year, with Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion)’s new series for FX, Alien: Earth.  Here’s the latest short teaser trailer:

They still haven’t shown us anything substantial enough for me to get a sense of whether or not I think this will be any good.  Right now, I’m just hoping for the best.

This is very exciting: Michael J. Fox is joining the cast of Shrinking for season three!  That’s an amazing addition to the already amazing cast of that show that I love.

Click here to read a great, comprehensive article on Deadline, in which they interviewed all of the directors of the Mission: Impossible film series: Brian De Palma, John Woo, J.J. Abrams, Brad Bird, and Ralph McQuarrie.

Disney/Lucasfilm made big news recently with the announcement of a new Star Wars film, called Starfighter, to be directed by Shawn Levy (Deadpool & Wolverine) and starring Ryan Gosling.  Will this film actually happen (while so many other Star Wars films announced by Lucasfilm over the last five or so years have yet to actually materialize)?  It seems like this one feels more real than those other projects, but we’ll see.  I’m not a huge Shawn Levy fan, but I like Ryan Gosling, and I’m excited to see them moving the Star Wars story forward by setting this film after the events of The Rise of Skywalker.  (I wonder what this film’s announcement means for the two post-Skywalker Rey movies that have been discussed over the past few years…?)

I’m also excited by the announcement, finally, of a new Star Wars animated series, this one to focus on Darth Maul.  That’s a great idea!!  Like so many Star Wars fans, I was super excited for Maul from the moment we first saw him (wielding his double-sided lightsaber) in the first teaser trailer for Episode One… but then I was so bummed that he was only in the movie for five minutes before being killed off.  But one of the great miracles of Dave Filoni’s animated Star Wars shows, Clone Wars and Rebels, was how they made use of Maul and developed him into a fascinating and tragic character.  Maul became one of my favorite Star Wars characters ever in those shows!!  So I’m thrilled to see the animated universe of Star Wars return to Maul, to hopefully finally pick up on the tease of him as a crime-lord from the 2018 Solo film (which is set between those two previous animated shows, Clone Wars and Rebels).  And it’s great that Sam Witwer is returning to voice Maul.

We’re also getting a third season of the animated anthology show Star Wars: Visions, as well as a spin-off of an episode from the first season (“The Ninth Jedi”, from writer/director Kenji Kamiyama).  Cool!

Apparently Amazon and Michael B. Jordan are working on a Creed spin-off TV show called Delphi.  I’d first guessed that maybe this would focus on Creed & Bianca’s daughter, but apparently Delphi refers to the gym where Creed trains, and the show will be about other boxers there.  I’ve enjoyed all three Creed films, but I’m not sure I’m interested enough in this universe to be interested in this show…

I was intrigued to read Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker talk about his unrealized plans to make a sequel to Bandersnatch, which was the choose-your-own-adventure Black Mirror episode (that I loved).  I was also bummed to read that Netflix is now removing that episode (along with the amazing interactive Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt movie Kimmy vs the Reverend).  This is why I love physical media and don’t trust streamers!!!  So will we never again be able to re-watch either of those brilliant TV episodes/movies???  That’s awful!!

It looks like the next Game of Thrones spin-off series, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, will be coming to HBO Max in 2026, rather than later this year as originally planned.  (This reminds me that I still haven’t watched the second season of House of the Dragon… I do want to find time to get to that…)

I was sad to read that George Wendt, who played Norm on Cheers, passed away.  Click here for a great piece about Mr. Wendt on nytimes.com.

News is trickling out about the in-production Toy Story 5… I’m excited to learn that Conan O’Brien will be voicing a new character in the film!  That’s a great choice!

I’m thrilled that the long-discussed Scrubs reboot/relaunch has taken another step closer to existing with the news that Zach Braff has agree to return as J.D.!!  I really hope this happens.  (And I really hope it’s good!!)

Let’s conclude for today with this great article exploring the making of Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg’s fantastic show, The Studio.  I’ll be posting my review of this show soon, but here’s a quick summary: it’s easily my favorite show of the year so far!!  Go watch it!!  (If you love The Studio, I also encourage you to listen to Seth Rogen and Ike Barinholtz‘s recent fantastic appearances on Dax Shepard & Monica Padman’s podcast Armchair Expert!!  Both episodes are amazing, so funny and such fascinating deep-dives into the making of The Studio.)