Last December, Empire's Ben Travis asked the question 'Can film save cinema?', digging into the recent revival of interest in films shot on, well, film, and presented on the biggest screens possible. And now, with the likes of Project Hail Mary and Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey having just supercharged Hollywood's biggest year at the box office in recent memory, Lucasfilm is preparing to get in on the action. In 2027, George Lucas' Star Wars and Shawn Levy's Star Wars: Starfighter will both release in IMAX and IMAX 70mm, marking the first film in the franchise's debut in the format as the saga celebrates its 50th anniversary. Check out the announcement below;

For those wondering, the IMAX release of Star Wars (1977), currently set for 19 February 2027, will be the previously announced restoration of George Lucas' original space opera — so no CG Jabba the Hutt jumpscares to fear, there, then. As for Star Wars: Starfighter, "filmed for IMAX release, shot with IMAX-certified film cameras and converted to IMAX 70mm film prints for release in a select number of IMAX film locations" as per Star Wars' official website, Levy's Ryan Gosling led standalone blockbuster is still on course to hit the big screen on 28 May, 2027, the same weekend the OG Star Wars had its premiere. You could say it's like poetry, it rhymes...

At this point, we still know precious little about Starfighter, beyond its post-The Rise Of Skywalker setting and a short synopsis teasing "when a cynical rogue is confronted by his mysterious past, he is hurled into a dangerous adventure across the galaxy that puts him on a crash course with destiny." On the other hand, we think it's safe to say we're a little more familiar with Lucas' original film. And, it goes without saying, we'll be feeling the Force... of our fingers on the 'checkout' button, just as soon as they go live. Punch it!

Witch stories have always had a particular feminist power. Whether antagonists or protagonists, the best witches embody feminine rage and possibility, women refusing the limits imposed upon them. Perhaps that explains the glut of belated revivals of millennial witchy touchstones, from The Craft to Hocus Pocus. For many of us, these were the women who raised us. Unfortunately, resurrection is a tricky business. Practical Magic 2, while hardly an abject failure, joins the pile of witchy sequels perhaps better left burned at the stake.

Twenty-five years on, the Owens family faces another crisis when Kylie (Joey King), daughter of Sally (Sandra Bullock), falls for dreamy Gideon (Xolo Maridueña), only for the family curse to put him in a coma. Kylie heads to England seeking a cure, pursued by sisters Sally and Gillian (Nicole Kidman), who seek help from sexy magic academic Ian Wright (Lee Pace) — sadly not that Ian Wright, which might have been cool.

More disappointing is how male-centred and heteronormative this return feels.

There are pleasures to be found here. The glittering jewel-toned aesthetic, Stevie Nicks-inspired costuming and commitment to aspirational fairy-tale architecture remain a joy, as does reuniting Sally, Gillian, Frances (Stockard Channing) and Jet (Dianne Wiest). Even saddled with woeful dialogue and plot machinations that literally could have been an email, these formidable actors remain enchanting presences, and their gentle teasing and bickering is where the film feels the most alive. King rises gamely to the occasion, while Maisie Williams is squandered, largely wandering about with an inauspicious ’90s-prom updo.

More disappointing is how male-centred and heteronormative this return feels. The original understood romantic love was only one ingredient in the potion; its real fantasy lay in sisters, aunts and daughters building a strange, unruly world together. Decades later, when women, witches and sequels can be anything, it’s dispiriting to find so little imagination in what their lives might become.

Ever since he first stomped onto the cinema screen, Godzilla has been big. But Godzilla Minus Zero looks seriously BIG. Not just because it’s the sequel to Toho’s instant classic Minus One, with the mega-lizard rising back up from the depths, seemingly very unhappy at being blown to bits – but because it’s an all-out IMAX production, letting the legendary kaiju fill the extra-tall frame with his fearsome form. And the new Godzilla Minus Zero trailer makes the most of that fact – delivering a jaw-dropping aspect ratio shift as the big guy prepares to wreak more havoc. But it seems he won’t be the only one turning Japan (and maybe other places too) to rubble…

First things first, let’s talk those mega Godzilla shots. Returning Minus One director Takashi Yamazaki is once again overseeing the VFX here too, and given that this is Japan’s first ever IMAX production, it seems he’s going all-out on making Godzilla as imposing as possible in that expanded ratio. And there’s more human drama from Shikishima and Noriko, now two years removed from the Godzilla attacks of Minus One, and still caring for orphaned youngster Akiko.

But the thing that’s going to get all the Godzilla fans talking? Technically, you don’t even see it, and yet there are plenty of hints: all signs point towards King Ghidorah, the three-headed extra-terrestrial dragon kaiju, being an additional antagonist this time around. First up, there’s all that gold lightning, a key hallmark of Ghidorah; there’s a mention that “this isn’t Godzilla we are talking about” amid the city-razing action; and then there’s that distinctive skreee-onk! cry, which is highly familiar to fans, and a world away from Godzilla’s bellowing roar. It seems like Yamazaki is about to deliver some major monster brawls: see that ending shot of Godzilla plummeting out of the sky. That’s got to hurt!

Here's a shiny new poster, also featuring that pesky yellow lightning...

Hopefully, Godzilla Minus Zero will prove a worthy follow-up to one of the greatest Godzilla films ever made. We’ll find out when it hits UK cinemas on November 6.

Earlier this year, Empire's own Alex Godfrey went to see Christopher Nolan sci-fi epic Interstellar live in concert at The Royal Albert Hall. The experience, as he wrote at the time, left him weeping uncontrollably. And on Sunday, 23 May, 2027 you too can weep uncontrollably if you're lucky, as Cutting Edge Group Presents and City Light Concerts have announced that Interstellar Live is heading to The O2, London, bringing with it the full 65-piece Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and a big screen experience befitting of Nolan' tearjerking blockbuster.

Set for two performances only — one matinée, one evening show — Interstellar Live, conducted by Hans Zimmer conductor Matt Dunkley and featuring the original soundtrack's organist Roger Sayer, is already shaping up to be a must-see for Nolanheads and Zimmerphiles alike. And with it being a one night — or, technically, one night and one day — only affair, fans looking to follow Matthew McConaughey's pilot-turned-farmer-turned-pilot-again Coop and his team of explorers into deep space once again can expect a Mann vs Coop worthy tussle for tickets to this arena-scale space odyssey.

Tickets for Interstellar Live officially go on public sale this Friday, 11 September, at 10am BST (more details on that one are available at MyTickets), but there are a couple of opportunities to bag seats early, too. For anyone with an O2 account, O2 Priority presale kicks off at 10am on 9 September, while the venue presale gets underway on 10 September, again at 10am. Now, if you don't mind us, we're off to plot an intricate slingshot manoeuvre around the black hole Gargantua in the hopes it'll give us the burst of speed we need to get to the front of the queue for this one. *Alexa — play 'No Time For Caution'*

If 100 minutes of weather chat sounds like your idea of hell, then feel the Pressure. A well-mounted, extremely efficient World War II thriller, this latest from director/co-writer/editor Anthony Maras delivers an absorbing lesson in filmic forecasting, as the fate of the free world seesaws on the vagaries of wind speed, precipitation, cloud cover and visibility levels. The result is a comfy old-school pot-boiler — at one point there is a literal ticking clock — anchored by the ever-brilliant Andrew Scott on tip-top form.

Based on David Haig’s 2014 play, Pressure is essentially a chamber piece set in the Allied military HQ in the run up to D-Day. We are shadowing meteorological expert James Stagg (Scott), a dour Scot deemed a “genius” by Churchill, who is brought in to assess whether the weather conditions are suitable for Operation Overlord. Reporting to General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser), it’s a case of cloudy with a chance of meatheads as the military establishment — including Damian Lewis’ Field Marshal Montgomery — refuse to hear Stagg’s prognosis that the weather is too inclement to launch. It’s an all too resonant take on powerful Americans rejecting expertise.

If this is competency porn of the highest order, Andrew Scott is its Dirk Diggler.

Soon Stagg is locking horns with American meteorologist Irving Krick (a slick-ass Chris Messina), Eisenhower’s right-hand weatherman who once predicted the conditions on the Gone With The Wind set. Krick relies on historical weather patterns. Stagg believes in science, fresh data and informed guesses. There’s tons of fun to be had in the two men battling for the ear of Eisenhower, a quiet new guy treading on the established loudmouth’s toes.

If this is competency porn of the highest order, Scott is its Dirk Diggler. The actor never makes Stagg likeable or sympathetic; instead, he is uptight but magnetic, his subdued personality underpinned by a bedrock of integrity and conviction. In a career full of highs, this is another stand-out. In some respects, given Scott’s subtlety, Fraser feels like he is in a different movie. His Eisenhower is a larger-than-life figure — like the weather, big and blustery — although he finds moving moments expressing his doubts about the invasion. He is well matched by Kerry Condon as his personal secretary. As in The Banshees Of Inisherin and F1, she is the gal among the guys, adding common sense and emotional weight amid all the testosterone.

When it comes to D-Day, Maras works wonders meshing staged combat action with wonderfully restored archive footage. But Pressure’s pleasures are mostly cerebral, smart people figuring stuff out under extraordinary duress. It’s so gripping, even your dad might stay awake.

It’s somehow been over a year since Season 2 of HBO’s The Last Of Us aired its final episodes, leaving those who haven’t played the games with a big cliffhanger. While the continued story of Ellie and Abby looks set to head our way next year in the show’s third season, fans were taken by surprise when Neil Druckmann announced that he would be stepping back from working on the show to focus on his priorities at Naughty Dog, most notably their new game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

Now, in an interview with The Washington Post, Druckmann has confirmed that not only has he stepped back, but Naughty Dog itself is not involved in Season 3. “I wasn't involved in shaping this season's creative direction, and Naughty Dog did not have a creative role in the direction of this season,” he said. This also includes The Last of Us Part II co-writer Hayley Gross, who stepped away from the project alongside Druckmann.

Those who have played the games know the story takes a slightly different direction in its second half. Given how tonally delicate it is, we’re hoping it’s safe in Craig Mazin’s careful hands after he delivered two great seasons alongside his Emmy-winning work on Chernobyl.

The good news is, we probably haven’t seen the last of The Last Of Us in the gaming world. After a cancelled online project, it’s all been very quiet on whether players will end up avoiding Clickers again. But Druckmann has confirmed we haven’t seen the last of them. “We’re not done with The Last Of Us,” he stated. “There's a couple projects in the works that, when the time is right, I'm very excited to talk about." What this could be, we don’t know. A Part 3? A spin-off? Who wouldn’t want to see the return of the criminally-underrated ‘Grounded’ online mode?

It shouldn’t be too long until we get more The Last Of Us, with the third season expected to conclude the television adaptation of the two games, scheduled to arrive in 2027. And if we hear so much as a click about any more game news, you’ll hear from us.

Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC

Game development is a harsh business. Some developers struggle to ever make a mark, while others land such colossal hits that anything else they ever create is forgotten or ignored. Take Game Freak – you’ve probably never played HarmoKnight, Drill Dozer, or Tembo the Badass Elephant, but you definitely know Pokémon. How could you not? It’s a cultural juggernaut – and a standard that Beast of Reincarnation could never stand up to.

That’s not to say Game Freak’s latest is bad – far from it, in fact. This open field action game is a delightful blend of ideas, mechanics, and concepts that sees the developer operating far outside its decades-long comfort zone. However, it also feels as though the studio was so desperate to prove it can create something distinct from its monster-catching megahit that it’s taken inspiration from just about anything else in an attempt to avoid being typecast.

The game follows Emma, a “Sealer” in a post-apocalyptic world some 2,000 years on from our own. After a mysterious blight emerged in the distant past, corrupting the land and mutating creatures into aggressive plant-animal hybrids dubbed “malefacts”, most of humanity abandoned our weak meatsack bodies for robotic golems, awaiting the day they can cleanse the Earth and restore their mortal forms. Emma is one of the few still possessing a seemingly organic body, albeit one infected with a rare strain of the blight, allowing her to extend her hair into plant-like vines and combat the malefacts. She also has a strange connection to Koo, a wolf-like malefact who seems to bear some degree of sentience, and who aids her in combat. He’s also a big fluffy pupper you can pet between missions, and the goodest of boys.

Summoned to the Capital to investigate reports of the titular beast awakening from a century-long slumber, which could have dire consequences for the remnants of humanity, Emma and Koo travel the ruined world, tackling the colossal Nushi – overgrown malefacts who rule over each region – while uncovering the secrets of their past. This is the core path of the game, and also where its plethora of influences becomes increasingly obvious.

This open field action game is a delightful blend of ideas.

The world itself is beautiful, but clearly a result of taking the wild, rural, feudal setting of Princess Mononoke and transplanting it to some time after Judgement Day – right down to a first boss fight ripped right from the denouement of Miyazaki’s masterpiece. Combat liberally lifts from Soulsbornes, a dance of weapon strikes, deflections, parries, and dodges, with enemies respawning each time you rest at a campsite – the same campsites where you spend points from levelling up to improve Emma and Koo’s attributes. Yet it also has elements of Monster Hunter and even Shadow of the Colossus, with its battles against gargantuan opponents that leave you feeling as though you may have done something terribly wrong in their aftermath.

Exploration takes notes from Horizon: Zero Dawn, with plenty of components to craft and the addition of ranged weapons and stealth kills to manage enemies without directly engaging, although there’s also a dash of Death Stranding, forcing you to think about how to traverse impassable terrain. That often involves Emma’s hair, which can propel her into the air, create bridges, or grapple her to anchor points like Batman or Spider-Man swinging between skyscrapers. Those same follicular abilities then bleed back into combat, to increasingly Bayonetta-esque effect.

To Game Freaks’ credit, it does a surprisingly good job of juggling all those disparate elements. Everything gels well here, even when the individual components seem an odd fit, and it’s clear the studio is enjoying creating for hardware more powerful than Nintendo usually offers. Players who get drawn into its oddball mythology or who put the effort into mastering its speedy combat and signature boss battles will undoubtedly have a good time. However, there’s also nothing about Beast of Reincarnation that particularly stands out – it very much is the sum of its parts, nothing less, but sadly nothing more.

It's time to fire up the Fiat Cinquecento one more time, friends ("Ooh, friend!") — The Inbetweeners are back back back! Now, yes, technically we've known that Will, Jay, Simon, and Neil are heading back to our screens for a little while now, with Netflix officially confirming the misfit bunch's cinematic comeback just last month, but now we've got actual actual proof that the boys are back in town: Iain Morris and Damon Beesley's crude comedy comeback has now entered production and we've even got a nostalgia triggering first teaser for the lads' return. Check it out below;

Oral sex joke? Check! Hideous, yellow clapped-out banger with a replacement red door? Check! A vague look of bemusement on Simon Bird's face, a vague look of bewilderment on Blake Harrison's, Joe Thomas muttering "For fuck's sake" as his car won't start, and a now-beardy James Buckley looking ripe for mischief in the rear? (Steady on...) That'll be a quadruple check, folks. Yeah, we're thinkin' The Inbetweeners is back! And while 40-odd seconds of all-teaser, no-trailer doesn't exactly tell us much about the film heading our way, we'd be lying if we said the sight of the boys together again didn't hit us in the feels just a bit... after all, it has been 12 whole years and about seven Prime Ministers since Will and co were last causing chaos on our screens.

Now, we've still got no actual idea what Morris and Beesley's sequel to 2014's The Inbetweeners 2 — itself a follow-up to both The Inbetweeners Movie and its originating three-season spanning Channel 4 high school comedy — will entail just yet. Could it be a thoughtful, melancholic road movie reckoning with the ghosts of an impetuous, misbegotten youth and the inexorable march of time as one approaches middle age? Or perhaps a straight-up cavalcade of clunge jokes, inappropriate sexual remarks, and cringe-out moments held together by in-jokes, nostalgia, and the winning chemistry of the show's original cast? Honestly, all bets are off. But with the cameras rolling, the Fiat out of storage, and the communal need to return to simpler times via the medium of pop culture nostalgia at an all-time high, consider us locked in and ready for The Inbetweeners 3. Briefcase wankers of the world, unite!

At a glance, Spider-Noir — Prime Video's live-action twist on Into The Spider-Verse's scene-stealing Spider-Man variant — has it all. Nicolas Cage. Slick noir stylings. Critical acclaim. 11 Emmy nominations. Five stars from Empire Magazine. But despite delivering a knockout first season, there is one thing Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot's Great Depression set treatment of Marvel's egg-cream-drinking, Nazi-punching, Humphrey Bogart homaging webslinger doesn't have: a second season. Yes, per Variety's reporting, Spider-Noir has been cancelled at Amazon after a mere eight episodes and just one single season.

The first series to come out of Amazon's agreement with Sony Pictures TV to develop series based on characters from SPUMC (that's the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters to the uninitiated), Spider-Noir proved an instant hit when it dropped on Prime Video and MGM+ back in May. Bringing viewers into the world of former Spider-Man turned PI Ben 'The Spider' Reilly (Cage), Uziel and Lightfoot's show — produced by Spider-Verse movie maestros Phil Lord and Chris Miller — pitted Cage's retired wallcrawler against Brendan Gleeson's crime boss Silvermane while reimagining comic book faves like Black Cat and Robbie Robertson in the process. At this stage, no reason has been given for the show's cancellation, though we may look to its relatively short time in Prime Video's Top 10 charts and significant production costs (the show was filmed in both black-and-white and colour, lest we forget) for potential factors at play in Amazon's decision making.

Reacting to news of the show’s cancellation, star Nicolas Cage seemed pretty positive on the whole. “For me, one season is perfect, having said what I wanted to say with this dangerous, innovative, pop-art Spider-Man,” said the Oscar-winning actor in a statement delivered to Deadline. “Onwards, upwards, inwards.”

Despite learning Spider-Noir won't live to swing another day, it's not all doom and gloom, true believers. For starters, the show's first season really does function perfectly well as a limited series offering, and remains incredibly satisfying and rewatchable as it already is. And, buried within the news of Ben Reilly getting his P45 is also the tease that Amazon is already actively pursuing another SPUMC project that could be set to receive an official announcement imminently. Who knows? Maybe whatever the folks at Prime Video and Sony are plotting next might get a little further than Spider-Noir managed. One thing's for sure: it'll be a hell of a tough act to follow.

We tried to tell you already: if you’re not watching Silo, boy do you need to start watching Silo. Apple TV’s hit drama – based on the novels by Hugh Howey – has proven to be some of the most meticulous streaming sci-fi in recent memory, taking its time to lay the groundwork before dropping major bombshells. And the Season 3 finale was perhaps its most mind-bending instalment yet, packed with revelations, head-scratching new mysteries, and a dollop of human tragedy too. And the good news? The wait for Season 4 is not going to be long; it was shot back-to-back with Season 3, and will bring the whole saga home.

The Season 4 trailer dropped as a little bonus at the end of the Season 3 finale – but be warned, this is majorly spoilery stuff if you’re not up-to-date. If you have seen all of Season 3, feast on the hugely tantalising Season 4 trailer here:

Blimey. After those huge reveals in the Season 3 finale – how nice does Silo 1 look? – there are still plenty of mysteries to solve. Exactly how much time has passed. What’s the point of the whole endeavour? Who dropped the nuke? Is the rest of the world a wasteland too? And the trailer showed more major moves: Sheriff Billings announcing to Silo 18 that there are other Silos out there; Juliet declaring all-out was on Silo 1; flashbacks of the earliest days of Silo life after Helen is bundled inside 18; and Daniel, seemingly wiped of all his memories (and his Troy persona), coming face-to-face with Juliet. It’s going to be one for the ages, by the looks of things.

And there really isn’t long to wait: Silo Season 4 will be coming to Apple TV next summer, beginning on July 9, 2027. Frankly, we don’t want to wait a second longer.

“It’s quite shocking,” says Bella. The 22-year-old film fan, who dressed as Lightning McQueen for her last birthday, is contemplating the notion that Cars was not a universally beloved Pixar movie when it first revved up in 2006. It wasn’t reviled. But it was called “a dud” by the BBC. “Bland and forgettable,” said The Guardian. Following that astonishing run – the first two Toy Story films! Monsters, Inc! Finding Nemo! The Incredibles! – the studio’s seventh feature put a dent in the sparkling Pixar bodywork. Even Empire’s review is a lukewarm three stars: “This is not Pixar firing on all cylinders,” wrote our Olly Richards.

“It actually really does surprise me that other people at Empire don’t love it,” continues Bella. It’s true. When I announce that I’m planning an article for Cars’ 20th anniversary, there is confusion among the Empire team. But Bella is far from alone. As Cars returns to the big screen this weekend in a 20th anniversary re-release, it does so as a victory lap; the film has become a titanic part of Gen Z culture, a staple part of the Pixar canon that they quite literally grew up on. “As I've got older, it felt like the Cars franchise also moved with me,” says Jed, 24. Today, he has a Cars sun-shield for his own vehicle, a Rust-eze phone case – and a brain-load of useless Cars facts. “I know that the Japanese car from Cars 2 was called Shu Todoroki,” he offers. “No-one's ever going to ask me that. It's never going to be useful knowledge.”

'Cars was one of the first films I remember seeing in the cinema'

For this generation, Cars was always there. There was no before Cars (BC) or after Cars (AC?) in the Pixar roster; it sat alongside the other greats. “Cars was one of the first films I remember seeing in the cinema,” says Jed, who was 4 at the time. He spent his childhood years playing with Cars toys. For Ella, 26, the film is a family affair; she loves it, her mum loves it, her little brother is an all-out Cars-head. “He went through a phase where that was the movie that was on continually, forever, for days,” she says. “It’s one that we all quote at each other a lot. It has that role within my family unit.”

So, what it is that makes Cars special? Why does Lightning McQueen run laps around his cartoon competition? It helps that a a bright red anthropomorphic race car voiced with lackadaisical swagger by Owen Wilson is scientifically engineered to be rad. “The characters are cool,” Jed asserts. “You've got Lightning McQueen, the cocky race car, and Tow Mater, the comic relief. The other side characters in Radiator Springs each bring something different to the film.” This hangout vibe is essential to the film’s charm, agrees Ella. While Ratatouille and Up are her top two Pixars, “Up, especially, is not one that you want to have on all the time,” she says. The good vibes and low stakes of Cars make it “a wholehearted comfort watch”.

It is this middle portion of the movie – in which the lost Lightning McQueen discovers the slow charms of forgotten town Radiator Springs – that Empire’s Olly Richards recalls being most caught out by. He’s a big Pixar fan, but hasn’t revisited Cars in the intervening two decades since his review. “It felt a lot younger in terms of its comedy, which is kind of weird because the story of this guy who’s lost his way and is trying to find his relevance again is really a lot older,” he points out. He’s right about the humour skewing young; all the Cars fans I speak to attest to how funny they find the film (“’Fly away, Stanley, be free!’ is a line I think about too frequently,” says Ella).

'It really speaks to me, this idea of honing your craft, and honing yourself.'

The middle-aged messaging, meanwhile, can likely be attributed to John Lasseter; Cars was his long-gestating passion project, a love-letter to Route 66 and retro Americana, a reminder to slow down and enjoy the smalltown life in a world rapidly upping gears. This sentiment is revealing itself more and more to the Cars generation – notably also the internet and smartphone generation – as they grow. “Lightning McQueen’s relationship with [mentor] Doc Hudson is really special,” says Bella. “It really speaks to me, this idea of honing your craft, and honing yourself.” She screened the film for her birthday (hence the McQueen costume), surrounded by her nearest and dearest. “It's such a testament to friendship as well,” she says. “It was really nice watching with my friends for that reason.”

Cars has also successfully hooked in younger viewers to the visual splendour of Radiator Springs’ desert roads and neon lights. “It's become something that I refer to in my head, of like why I like certain aesthetics,” says Ella.

For everyone I speak to, Cars is constantly cruising in their minds. Jed’s friends “know me as the Cars guy,” he says, as he prepares to see it again in cinemas this weekend, in 4DX. The film sparked an obsession with cinema that’s drawn him to work in the industry. Ella was soothed by the thought of Lightning McQueen during a recent driving test, when she was asked to do an emergency stop at 40mph. “It takes slightly longer to stop than if you're coming down from 20,” she recalls. “I remember having the thought, am I going to fail on this? No, it's fine. In Cars, when Lightning McQueen does an emergency stop, it takes him ages.” And Bella is fuelled by the character’s big ambitions. “I joke that I want to be the Lightning McQueen of film criticism,” she laughs. “I want to be the underdog. I want to be the rookie that goes through this transformation.”

'I don't think any other Pixar film has made me feel the way that Cars does.'

After speaking to me, Olly Richards decides to finally rewatch Cars. All these years later he stands by his three-star review; still confused by the inner logic of the world (“I’d forgotten that they go into male and female gendered toilets,” he notes), still finding the middle hour baggy, still thrilled by the opening and ending. Mater has improved, in his estimation. “I actually found him quite sweet, and fun,” he says. He cannot count himself among the Cars generation, though he’s glad they exist. “I’m very pleased that people out there like it a lot more,” he says.

Like any film that adults didn’t quite get at the time, and that the younger generation adores, they become more than just films. Cars isn’t just Cars. It is toys, memories, family relationships. Sequels, too. Cars 2 is a “bad film,” Bella admits, though they all confess a secret love for it. “I don't think any other Pixar film has made me feel the way that Cars does,” Bella says. As the Cars generation continues to grow, the film will forever be there with them. Because, like a wise man once said: life is a highway. Kachow.

Cars is in cinemas this weekend, and streaming on Disney+

Don’t do it. Don’t be that person. Don’t be that person who turns their nose up at the prospect of seeing Gail Daughtry And The Celebrity Sex Pass, doubtless put off by either that unwieldy title (who the hell is Gail Daughtry? What the actual eff is a celebrity sex pass?) or its knock-down-ginger release strategy, finally appearing on UK cinema screens two months after its opening in America, but with zero promotion or publicity, more a rumour than a release.

Because if you are that person, you’ll be missing out. Missing out on some serious bragging rights when, ten years from now, Gail Daughtry And The Celebrity Sex Pass begins appearing on Letterboxd lists like The Greatest Comedies Of The 21st Century or hectoring think-pieces entitled something like The Best Comedies You’ve Never Seen (And Why You Should Feel Ashamed That You Haven’t Seen Them). Because if you are not that person, you’ll be able to don a smug grin and say, “I was there. I was there right at the beginning for Gail Daughtry And The Celebrity Sex Pass. And yes, that title still sucks.”

Because Gail Daughtry And The Celebrity Sex Pass is arguably the funniest film of the year (so far; there’s still a chance it could be eclipsed by Paul Greengrass’ The Uprising), with writer-director David Wain and writer-star Ken Marino deliberately, determinedly throwing every joke they could think of into the mix, along with virtually every style of comedy that exists. Sight gags, puns, surrealist humour, OTT violence, meta nods and winks — it’s all here. And while not everything hits, the hit-rate is astonishing, and while this isn’t a direct parody, the gag-rate recalls the halcyon days of Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker and Mel Brooks.

The extraordinary Zoey Deutch is the film's magic glue.

It is, though, an utterly demented riff on The Wizard Of Oz, with the innocent hairdresser Gail Daughtry (or Dorothy Gale) and her best friend Otto (have a wild guess what that’s an anagram of) going from Kansas to a land even more demented than Oz: Los Angeles. There, they team up with three utter buffoons in need of a heart, a brain, and courage (Ben Wang, Marino, and John Slattery, on extraordinary form as a total nitwit called John Slattery), who band together to help Gail achieve her goal: to get revenge on her feckless fiancé, who used his Celebrity Sex Pass to cheat on Gail with the A-list Jennifer Aniston, by slammin’ ham with Jon Hamm.

However, unbeknownst to Gail and the gang, a wicked witch of the West Coast, Sabrina Impacciatore’s Mafia boss Ludovica, wants Gail dead, for reasons, and has dispatched her best/worst henchmen (Joe Lo Truglio and Mather Zickel) to track her down.

Will Gail find the yellow brick road that leads to the Hamm behind the curtain? And what will happen behind said curtain if she does meet him? Who will survive, and what will be left of them? The fun is in finding out, as Wain and Marino stud Gail’s path with deliciously daft moments (an extended Slattery/door interface is arguably the film’s funniest bit) and ridiculous obstacles, all of which she meets with boundless enthusiasm. The cast, often bolstered by cameos pulled straight from Wain’s big black book of comedy all-stars (including Wain himself), is outstanding, but it’s the extraordinary Zoey Deutch who is the magic glue, able to effortlessly navigate the film’s frequent tonal shifts with aplomb.

Deutch, who, as the daughter of Pretty In Pink director Howard Deutch and Back To The Future’s Lea Thompson, seemed almost genetically engineered to be a light comedian, has been superb for a few years now, in the likes of Zombieland: Double Tap, Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, and Voicemails For Isabelle. But this is her biggest role yet, and she snatches the opportunity with both hands, able to smoothly sell those tonal shifts even as Gail’s journey takes her from a naive urchin who thinks tipping 79 cents is generous to… well, that would be spoiling things. But let’s just say there are things that sweet, innocent Gail does that only an actor of considerable charm could pull off. It’s the kind of role that could launch her as a major comedy star, if more than four people see it. Let’s hope that happens.

In a way, it’s apt that this movie comes out in 2026, 25 years after Wain and Marino launched their careers (and about a dozen others, many of whom show up here) with Wet Hot American Summer, a movie that died upon release and now shows up frequently on those Letterboxd lists and think-pieces. That seems almost certain to be Gail Daughtry And The Celebrity Sex Pass’ fate, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can do something about it. So get out there and do it. Be on the right side of history. Spread the word. But maybe, when you’re spreading the word, just call the film ‘Gail Daughtry’. It’ll be easier that way.

Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PS5, PC

Developer Asobo Studio’s A Plague Tale games are best known for two things: guiding desperate orphans Amicia and Hugo out of harm’s way across a Europe blighted by the black death, and rats. Lots and lots of rats. Yet both are absent in Resonance, a prequel to the existing duology that feels more like a wholesale reboot.

Set fifteen years before the first game, the focus switches to Sophia – the pirate queen introduced as a supporting character in the second game – in her youth. As a child, she’s held captive and experimented on by a shady convent of nuns, forced to document strange visions that torment her, flashes of an ancient island and a terrifying minotaur lurking in its depths. Rescued by her father, she grows into a talented young warrior, before ultimately being drawn to the same island that haunted her, aided by her friend – and implied love interest – Leni, and guided only by a book of her childhood drawings, full of half-formed images that hint at the challenges that await.

It all makes for a chance to expand the world of A Plague Tale, both narratively, with an expanded cast and a tale that ultimately taps into Greek myth (offering an inspired twist on the tale of Theseus in the labyrinth along the way), and structurally, shifting the series into action game territory. As an older, more capable protagonist, Sophia doesn’t need to skulk in the shadows, avoiding or distracting rival pirates or marauding soldiers – she can more than handle them herself, allowing Asobo to step away from pure stealth to deliver some surprisingly solid sword play.

Resonance starts off with a basic round of attacks, parries, and critical strikes, but builds up Sophia’s repertoire with more advanced skills allowing her to break through enemy defensive stances, shove foes off balance, and take control of the battlefield. New swords found in hero’s tombs hidden across the island afford new skills, while charms and trinkets improve Sophia’s chances to avoid attacks or dish out more damage.

It’s all smartly balanced, Asobo clearly knowing they have to transition returning players from predominantly stealth to action gameplay, and while it never reaches the technical heights of something like Elden Ring, it does demand a fair degree of skill. Unfortunately, those enjoyable bouts of combat are strictly scripted. Although the island is peppered with open areas, progress is strictly linear, meaning battles occur precisely when the story wants them to, and nowhere else.

It’s the best Plague Tale yet – even without a rat in sight.

One aspect of the series that’s not changed is its embrace of environmental puzzles to solve. Sophia is soon equipped with an ancient sphere that serves as key to successive areas of the island, which gets upgraded with various lenses allowing her to manipulate light. Early on, these are pretty simple, with the orb’s beams revealing hidden messages, before evolving to refracted red/blue/green beams that unlock ancient mechanisms when properly aligned, which in turn might require clambering to some tricky-to-reach spot to find the right perspective. The result is that Resonance often feels like a hybrid of Assassin’s Creed and modern Tomb Raider.

That is until about halfway through, when there’s a marked shift and Resonance remembers the series’ roots as a stealth game. As Sophia learns more of the island, its history, and the source of her visions, she finally encounters the minotaur. Asobo crafts an incredible twist on the familiar monster, although one curiously similar to the Nemesis from Aphelion. It hunts in the shadows, tracking Sophia through its terrifying breath, forcing you to inch between spots of cover to avoid detection, or make desperate dashes for too-rare sources of light, which it cannot stand. Like the combat, these sections are scripted into place, rather than you spending the back half of the game perpetually on edge, but they’re brilliantly executed.

The sheer linearity of Resonance may chafe some players – there’s no backtracking at all, and the only reason to replay chapters is if you missed a collectible or two – but its blend of strong combat, intriguing puzzles, and desperately tense sections avoiding the minotaur make for a compelling experience. Throw in excellent voice acting in both French and English, and some fantastic cinematic moments that move its rich, mythologically infused story along, and it’s the best Plague Tale yet – even without a rat in sight.

With its enigmatic Biblical title, and acknowledged debt to It Follows, Australian writer-director Adrian Chiarella’s debut horror may sound derivative. Yet the fears bubbling beneath the surface are so vivid, it easily transcends its inspirations.

Naim (Joe Bird), love interest Ryan (Stacy Clausen) and Hunter (Jeremy Blewitt), who Ryan also messes around with, are ordinary kids trying to understand their sexualities. But because of the god-fearing backwater they live in, they are forbidden from being themselves. Chiarella grew up in Sydney, but he has a feel for the textures and strictures of rural town life: the empty arcades and derelict factories; the sense that there is nothing to do but have sex, fight or leave.

A fright flick that has something to say.

Leviticus refers to the Bible chapter that forbids homosexuality, or so conservative Christians believe, and the ritual Naim, Ryan and Hunter are forced to undergo is horrifying — almost as bad as Bird’s gruesome fate in Talk To Me. Instead of finding themselves saved, however, they are instead stalked by demons who take the form of their loved ones, attacking them at school, at work, anywhere they are alone. The debt to It Follows here is so strong it may as well be a sequel. But it’s one David Robert Mitchell could be proud of.

With the help of a gorgeous score and luminous cinematography, Chiarella captures the flare of first love, alongside some memorable scares. A sequence in which Naim, home alone, has to defend himself against an interloper escalates from fight-or-flight panic to shocking violence in a moment.

At times the subtext — that, for LGBTQ+ people, openly loving someone can be the greatest danger — is stretched almost to breaking point. But Chiarella never allows us to forget that the fight is real, and as scary as anything the movies could make up. What emerges is precious indeed: a fright flick that has something to say, and lots of ugly/beautiful ways to say it.

Good news for anyone who found the ticket scramble for Game Of Thrones: The Mad King more bloody than the Battle Of The Bastards: the hit play is going to be much easier to see in the not-so-distant future. The stage show has been a hit on stage in Stratford-Upon-Avon this summer – staged there by the RSC, in the home of Shakespeare himself. And as that limited run winds down, none other than George RR Martin himself has delivered some great news: the show is getting a bigger release when it transfers to London next year.

Game Of Thrones: The Mad King has been confirmed to be moving to the capital at some point in 2027 – though a specific theatre and date is yet to be announced. “I had an absolutely splendid time in Stratford-upon-Avon for the premier and am thrilled the production will be moving to London to share the experience with a wider audience,” Martin said in a statement. “It promises to be an exhilarating journey.” The show is written by Duncan Macmillan, directed by Dominic Cooke, and explores the events around ‘Robert’s Rebellion’ – a key point in the overall Game Of Thrones timeline, never before explored on screen or in the books.

Once The Mad King has settled into a new home, it should be able to open its doors to thousands more Westeros obsessives – and next year will also bring the second season of A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms. It’s a Game Of Thrones feast! (And hopefully not the Red Wedding kind.)

Willem Dafoe has a reputation for weird and wacky performances, from Poor Things, The Lighthouse and Nosferatu stretching all the way back to Wild At Heart. So it’s disarming to see him inhabit a role so rooted in normalcy. In critic-turned-filmmaker Kent Jones’ low-stakes drama, Dafoe plays ageing New Yorker Ed Saxberger, once a promising poet, now an unassuming post-office worker sorting the writing of others while his pen lies dormant.

A chance meeting with Wilson Meyers (Edmund Donovan), a young writer with ambition bursting out of his turtleneck, leads Saxberger to The Enthusiasm Society, a group composed of sprightly writers (read: New York nepo babies). They become his devoted disciples as they excitedly plan a recital where he can premiere new material. However, his attention is drawn to flamboyant actor/singer and self-described ingénue Gloria Gardener (Greta Lee). The subtlety of Dafoe’s grounded performance clashes beautifully with Lee’s flirtatious theatricality; she sidesteps Manic-Pixie-Dream-Girl cliché with wonderfully sarcastic declarations: “There is nothing more exciting than a rediscovered male genius.” Though she has two impressive set-pieces, you can’t help but crave more screen time for Lee and her velvety croon.

Willem Dafoe’s stripped-back performance is a compelling treat.

Samy Burch comfortably adapts Arthur Schnitzler’s posthumously published 1895 novella for contemporary New York, while Jones frames dialogue as if it’s poetry, with staccato back-and-forth cuts before still shots imitating a breath between stanzas. Still, as Late Fame settles into its lyrical rhythm, following Saxberger as he roams the streets with acute familiarity, Dafoe’s poetic voice-over does teeter towards the sentimentality that it satirises.

Jones flits between Saxberger’s “lowbrow” pool-bar pals and lowlight literary events without judgement. Saxberger’s writer’s block, Meyers’ snobbery and Gardener’s aspiration are all regarded with dignity. Even the film’s conclusion, a sort of unflashy anti-climax, feels wise; like a ruminative line of meaningful poetry that lingers in the silence.

Check any ranking of the all-time great HBO series, and you’re guaranteed to find Band Of Brothers in there. And for good reason – the 2001 miniseries, from none other than Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, is a World War II masterpiece, deserving to stand alongside Spielberg’s own Saving Private Ryan. And for those who loved the show, and have rewatched it over the years, there’s a new treat coming your way. To mark the 25th anniversary of the show, a new feature documentary Band Of Brothers: Legacy is coming to HBO Max. Watch the trailer:

This one looks like a real treat for Band Of Brothers heads – especially featuring new interview material with the likes of David Schwimmer, Damian Lewis, Ron Livingston, and Michael Cudlitz. The documentary film is directed by Chase Millsap, a former Green Beret in the US Army. It will be streaming on HBO Max from 9 September, less than a week away – coinciding with the exact date the original show aired (which, the doc points out, began airing just two days before 9/11).

It’s the perfect excuse to rewatch Band Of Brothers, and get some extra insight into the real story behind the show, and the series’ creation. Now, who can we petition to try and get documentaries for The Pacific, and Masters Of The Air?

What a joy it turned out to be when Saturday Night Live UK proved to actually be good. Great, even, already boasting a handful of sketches for the ages. And after a successful Season 1, with an extended run of episodes, the live comedy show is gearing up for Season 2 – hopefully set to bring even more bangers, now that its cast and writers know what connected first time around. And to set things off with a bang, they’ve found a host who should be game to get stuck into the usual SNL madness.

Taking the reins on the first show of Season 2 will be none other than Jurassic Park legend Jeff Goldblum – who’ll be given the usual duties of delivering an opening monologue (we’re already expecting some jazz riffing), and joining the cast (all of whom are returning from Season 1) in several sketches on the night. Also, for lovers of great tunes, Dunboyne Diana herself CMAT has been confirmed as the musical guest for the night. (Yup CMAT?) The first season of SNL UK also kicked off with a big-name American guest host in the form of Tina Fey – and saw the likes of Jamie Dornan, Nicola Coughlan, Ncuti Gatwa, and Riz Ahmed sign up for subsequent episodes.

There isn’t long to wait until SNL UK returns – the new season begins on Saturday (duh) 12 September. The season is currently set to consist of 12 episodes, with the first block of three airing through September. Can it prove even funnier than the first time around? Here’s hoping Jeff Goldblum, uh, finds a way.

Here’s proof that we’ve been living through our own ‘Blip’ recently: it is, somehow, five years since Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings hit cinemas. Destin Daniel Cretton’s MCU debut arrived not only among the first wave of Marvel movies released post-Avengers: Endgame, but came in the wake of the first rush of Covid too. Even amid those circumstances, it proved a blast, introducing Simu Liu’s martial artist Shang-Chi into our roster of heroes, battling family demons, and actual demons too. The film was well-received, and performed admirably at the box office at a time when audiences were still wary of entering enclosed spaces with strangers. So, where the hell has Shang-Chi been for the last five years?

It’s a good question, and there’s no obvious answer. While the Multiverse Saga of the MCU has undeniably been a shakier road than the Infinity Saga that preceded it – expanding not just into other realities, but widening the character roster considerably too – Shang-Chi emerged as one of the coolest and most likeable new faces in the shared universe. The film made $432 million worldwide, which is more than 2021’s Black Widow and Eternals, and on track with Phase 1 origin movies like Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger. We should be swimming in Shang-Chi stories by now.

Perhaps Shang-Chi’s cinematic comeback got lost in the shuffle. It shouldn’t have.

Or at least, other appearances from Shang-Chi himself. To take another hero introduced that same year, just look at Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova – who arrived in Black Widow, and along the way has popped up in Hawkeye, had a major role in Thunderbolts*, and had a part to play in this summer’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day too. It’s baffling that Shang-Chi hasn’t been seeded through other MCU projects; Liu has only returned to voice the character in animation, on What If…? and Marvel Zombies.

There are many reasons why we’re desperate to see Shang-Chi again. The Ten Rings’ martial arts-driven fight sequences are outstanding – not just the oft-mentioned bus brawl (the action highlight of the movie), but the scaffolding showdown too. As well as proving ultra-likeable in the role, Liu really moves when the action kicks into gear. The addition of the MCU’s take on Eastern folklore brought something fresh to the already sprawling universe, and Shang-Chi’s ring-based power-set has a unique visual identity.

The film boasted a stacked supporting cast too: the great Tony Leung adding major gravitas as Shang-Chi’s grieving father Wenwu; Michelle Yeoh was here just a year before bagging her Everything Everywhere Oscar; the dependably amiable Awkwafina shines as Katy in the ‘sweet sidekick’ role; and Meng’er Zhang, another instant standout, kicked ass as Shang-Chi’s sister Xialing. All of them would be welcome return presences.

Maybe, if all had gone to plan, there would have been a Shang-Chi sequel by now; or at least other appearances from the character. The film pre-dates many of the troubles that seem to have hit Marvel Studios over the course of its second major Saga: a pivot in direction away from a Kang storyline, an explosion of output with a barrage of Disney+ shows, the underperformance of several features. In among that time, the studio more or less took a year off from releases to recalibrate; Destin Daniel Cretton was due to make Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, and when that fell apart he ended up directing Spider-Man: Brand New Day – on which he did an excellent job. Perhaps Shang-Chi’s cinematic comeback got lost in the shuffle. It shouldn’t have, though.

Thankfully, we will – at long last – be seeing Shang-Chi again soon. Avengers: Doomsday will finally bring the character back to the screen, already seen in the film’s trailer going toe-to-toe with Channing Tatum’s mutant Gambit. Hopefully he’ll have a significant role to play, and the film can hint at what he’s been up to over these five years. And while Marvel has major plans for the X-Men in the wake of Secret Wars, here’s hoping they can factor in a return of Shang-Chi, and the Ten Rings too. Better late than never.

Shang-Chi And The Ten Rings is streaming now on Disney+

If you know, you know. The Mandalorian And Grogu continued a fun easter egg from its parent series, The Mandalorian, in which many of the key creatives behind the show have brief cameos as X-Wing pilots. And the Adelphi Squadron re-appeared briefly in Jon Favreau’s film too, flying into action in the final reel to deliver some much-needed back-up on Nal Hutta. Among them you’ll see Dave Filoni’s Trapper Wolf, Deborah Chow’s Sash Ketter, Lee Isaac Chung’s Dok Suri, Rick Famuyiwa’s Jib Dodger, all of whom have directed on The Mandalorian and other Star Wars projects in recent years.

But it seems Filoni is a little camera-shy – while his Trapper Wolf appeared in a few shots of the movie, he revealed on the Mandalorian And Grogu Official Podcast that he asked Favreau to chop down his screentime. “Let it be known that I asked for you to cut me out of the movie a lot more,” he revealed, owing to his own self-deprecation. “I was in there more, and I was like, ‘Please, I want the movie to be good. Let’s not have a lot of me in there’.”

Who he did heap praise on, though, was Chung as Dok Suri. “I will say this – Lee Isaac, Y-Wing pilot, he was aces,” Filoni says. And there’s more to that story: Chung got to fly a ship with serious Star Wars lore, which has never actually appeared on screen before.

He’s in ‘Red Jammer’, a prototype Y-Wing model created in the ‘70s to help develop the Dykstraflex technology, used by the fledgling ILM to shoot the spaceship models in the original Star Wars. And since the Red Jammer model was recently unearthed from storage for George Lucas’ new museum, Favreau saw a chance to finally get it on screen. “[ILM’s John Knoll] was mentioning, ‘We got Red Jammer, I’m dusting it off for the museum.’ We were like, ‘Could we film it?’,” recalls the director. After a wait – and granted permission from George Lucas himself – it made the cut.

Keep an eye out for Adelphi Squadron, Red Jammer, and many more easter eggs now that The Mandalorian And Grogu is streaming on Disney+, as is the film’s Official Podcast two-parter.

The Star Wars galaxy has always been rife with freaks. I use this term affectionately. And you know exactly what I mean: funny little guys (non-gendered) and oddball life-forms that beep and boop or squawk or trill. Droids, and creatures, and indescribable beings who – from a single look – you’d willingly give your life for. Right from the beginning you had Chewie, and the Jawas, and R2, and the Gonk droid. And ever since, the galaxy just got wilder and weirder. Ewoks! Kowakian Monkey Lizards! Anzellans! Hutts and Gungans and whatever the hell Ben Quadinaros is! These delightful oddities are the lifeblood of Star Wars. And I can think of few films in the saga that embrace that idea so wholeheartedly as The Mandalorian And Grogu.

Jon Favreau’s big-screen Mando adventure is unique among live-action Star Wars movies. Because, these films have always been primarily driven by human faces – whether that’s Luke and Han and Leia in the original trilogy, or Anakin and Obi-Wan and Padmé in the prequels, or Rey and Finn and Kylo Ren in the sequels. Rogue One’s ragtag squad is entirely humanoid, Solo driven by… well, Han Solo. But you go lengthy stretches of The Mandalorian And Grogu without ever seeing a human face. The iconography of Mando himself is the T-visor helmet. His apprentice is a little green puppet. Here, his enemies are giant slugs, whose henchmen are robots, and his back-up consists of a big purple alien and some more little puppets (these ones grey). It is a film that fills the screen with wall-to-wall freaks.

It’s the closest thing we have to a Star Wars monster movie.

And honestly, who couldn’t love that? There are the occasional humans in the mix; the odd Imperial warlord here or there. Plus you sense that Sigourney Weaver was cast in the relatively small role of the New Republic’s Colonel Ward in some part to ensure that Pedro Pascal had someone else to go on the press rounds with him.

This is the first Star Wars film that really could exist in this way; unless you’re making an animated film about, say, animals, human faces are what anchor the action. But the profile of the Mandalorian is bigger than any one person; it’s not just that there are several performers behind Din Djarin, but that the image of the Beskar-helmeted bounty hunter and his Force-wielding son has become instantly recognisable in its own right. And with that as the core of his film, Favreau filled the rest of the adventure with as many creatures and droids as possible – some of them actors in make-up, some practical effects, some VFX additions.

This might be my favourite thing about The Mandalorian And Grogu. I get why the film arrived to a mixed reception; it is not significantly bigger than Mando’s streaming outings, nor is it a film that builds on that show particularly, or one that evolves the overarching New Republic storyline. But it is an all-out adventure filled with the most Star Wars of Star Wars creatures, all intermingled together. You feel – or, at least, I felt – Jon Favreau’s glee at getting to play with all the toys, all at once: heroes in head-to-toe armour, multiple puppet units, CGI creatures, stop-motion elements, often interacting within a single scene. It’s the closest thing we have to a Star Wars monster movie, with its Dejarik arena brawl, the dragonsnake showdown, and the final Hutt face-off.

And then there’s Rotta the Hutt. The big, buff slug who proves one of the most surprisingly prominent figures of the movie. Before release, fans scratched their heads, wondering how a gladiator Hutt voiced by The Bear’s (very nice but very serious) Jeremy Allen White – and introduced as a baby in The Clone Wars movie – could possibly work. And it turns out, he sort of doesn’t. It is a bizarre concoction, strange and sincere and very silly too. The incongruous combination of that Hutt physicality and that gentle voice is the whole point of the character, and yet also a deeply odd thing to parse.

But then, you get to that scene where Rotta and Grogu are sweetly frolicking together on a beach, and it’s one of the most oddly touching moments you’ve seen in a movie this year. In the months since, I have come to embrace Rotta the Hutt, love him even, as if he were my own son. Except, of course, I would encourage him to be his own man.

It isn’t just Rotta the Hutt that deserves a second chance. It’s The Mandalorian And Grogu, too – a film that undeniably underperformed at the box office. Maybe it did need a human face to anchor it after all (Pedro Pascal’s unmasked mug only gets around five minutes of screen time). Or maybe it’s just too tricky to translate even the biggest of Disney+ hits into global blockbusters. Maybe that small-stakes story approach wasn’t enough to attract Star Wars casuals. But now that it’s on Disney+, the duo’s adventure is worth a watch – even if just to revel in its deep love of Star Wars’ greatest freaks.

The Mandalorian And Grogu is streaming now on Disney+

Technically, ‘Back To Hogwarts’ day was September 1. Except, someone must have missed the memo – because it’s on September 2 that we’ve got our latest look at HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter series, re-adapting the books in episodic form. The show is going back to the beginning, starting with a retelling of The Philosopher’s Stone, and the latest trailer shows off more of what looks to be a very faithful adaptation. Check it out here:

This is our most comprehensive look yet at what showrunner Francesca Gardiner has been cooking up – leaning heavily into the iconography established in the Potter films (which were themselves very faithful to the source material), but expanded with more material that was excised in adaptation. And we see plenty more of the show’s version of Hogwarts, several teachers – including Paapa Essiedu’s Severus Snape, Janet McTeer’s Minerva McGonagall, and John Lithgow’s Dumbledore – some Quidditch action (in first-person), and how the film will visually represent magic. And it’s all anchored by the new trio: Dominic McLaughlin as Harry, Alastair Stout as Ron, and Arabella Stanton as Hermione.

There are some hints of new material here; it looks like we’ll see Ron get his Hogwarts letter, when previously we’ve only been introduced to Harry’s best friend once they reach the Hogwarts Express. We should be getting more classroom action too, since the films largely skipped over Harry and co’s lessons. And there’s an ominous conversation between McGonagall and Dumbledore hinting at the inevitability of Lord Voldemort’s eventual return. While the books largely keep Harry as their point-of-view character, it seems the show might break outside of that format too.

We’ll find out more when Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone begins streaming on HBO Max this Christmas.

Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S

The year is 2207, and UACM starship Endeavor lands on planet LV-558 after picking up a distress signal from a Weyland-Yutani mining facility. If that particular sequence of letters and numbers mean nothing to you, don't worry; despite its title, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 does not demand franchise familiarity. The only mission briefing you need is that Xenomorphs have overrun the place, and it's your job to send them packing.

Despite a middling critical response, 2021 co-op shooter Aliens: Fireteam Elite quietly went on to become one of the surprise success stories of gaming's initial post-pandemic years, making a follow up all but inevitable for Cold Iron Studios. The developer hasn't rested on its laurels for the sequel, either, harnessing its player-affirmed mandate to expand not just the playable squad size from 3 to 4, but their individual and collective capacity for combat expression.

Unfortunately, perhaps as a result of this raised ambition, Fireteam Elite 2 struggles to shake off the general lack of polish that also held back its predecessor, ultimately undoing much of the progress it does make towards delivering a superior sequel. Take its story, for example, which plays out dynamically along a narrative throughline that's immediately more compelling than the first game's throwaway, threadbare plot, where characters were unable to even move their mouths during dialogue interactions.

And yet both character models and their dialogue remain pretty wooden, making the execution of that story feel more like a straight-to-video affair than a piece of science-fiction worthy of its cinematic namesake, despite some of the fun connections to the wider universe for those who want to find them.

In better news, you can play Fireteam Elite 2 with up to three other players across a lengthy campaign, and for those struggling to enlist human recruits, the game can also be enjoyed alongside Android AI companions instead. Like any co-op game, Fireteam Elite 2 is best enjoyed with friends where you can communicate tactics and strategy in real time, but the Androids can hold their own rather impressively too, with the game's ping system allowing you to easily issue commands at the press of a button.

Despite its many rough edges, Fireteam Elite 2 still manages to capture the tone and atmosphere of its cinematic counterparts.

As for the Xenomorphs themselves, Cold Iron have gone further than perhaps any other Alien adventure in expanding their evolution as killing machines, with a wide variety of enemy types that demand tailored combat approaches. Take the Warden, a quadripedal tank of a Xeno that presents a very different type of threat to the Harbinger, a foe mutated by Prometheus' black goo pathogen, who will obsessively hunt down players in an angry tangle of limbs, teeth, and terror.

Your arsenal is equally expanded to match this enemy onslaught, which - without spoiling too much - isn't just exclusive to the Xenomorphs themselves. Up to six classes are available for your squad to pick from, each with their own kit made up of perks, abilities, and signature weapons, and Cold Iron now lets players run duplicate classes to explore new permutations to squad composition. Further elevating this focus on experimentation is the Specialist, a new endgame class that can mix and match loadouts from any other classes for advanced buildcrafting options. Want to play as a Flamethrower-wielding Medic with a penchant for explosives? Game on, man.

Combat encourages a "shoot first, aim later" approach to accommodate the sheer number of enemies you'll be dealing with at any one time, but this comes at the expense of kills that singularly satisfy with the crunchiness you'd find in other contemporaries, such as Gears Of War. Another area that feels particularly wanting relates to character movement, which feels stilted and unintuitive at the best of times, not least when you're trying to effectively navigate through high-density combat scenarios. Weapons do, at least, feel fun to use across the board, with certain gadgets such as the shoulder mounted rocket a particular highlight, adding an unofficial Aliens Vs Predator dynamic to the action.

Despite its many rough edges, Fireteam Elite 2 still manages to capture the tone and atmosphere of its cinematic counterparts, right down to the percussive spatter of its pulse rifles. That sense of authenticity is enhanced by composer Austin Wintory's welcome return to scoring duties, too, lavishing the action with another brassy, operatic score that perfectly invokes the unholy majesty of the Xenomorph horde.

All of these ingredients serve Fireteam Elite 2's core offering of mindlessly entertaining spray n' pray action, of which there is plenty both within the campaign and its returning horde mode. Even so, the game's higher asking price makes it difficult to overlook the same general wonkiness that its predecessor that could pass off as B-movie charm. This sequel is far from the perfect organism, then, but remains a half-decent way to have fun killing them for those who gravitate towards its schlocky Xeno slaughterhouse.

When you hear the words “buddy-comedy action movie starring Ryan Reynolds”, you probably feel like you have a good idea of what to expect — some slick fights, endless witty quips, and a reasonably entertaining time. Mayday delivers on all of that, and a little bit more.

The film opens with Reynolds’ pilot, Troy, waking up post-crash-landing, a huge bit of plane poking out of his leg and an unknown potential adversary walking towards him, right as he passes out. It’s a very Deadpool-esque, record-scratch, ‘you’re probably wondering how I got here’ moment, but Mayday never fully succumbs to Reynolds’ most grating one-liner-spouting tendencies. It instead balances his comedic charm with genuine tenderness — Troy is just a guy who loves flying planes, loves his dad, and (as he learns in quite a clichéd way, misguidedly) loves his country.

A genuinely entertaining, if highly predictable, watch.

Turns out that potential adversary was in fact a newfound friend, in the form of Kenneth Branagh’s straight-talking, slightly unsettling Nikolai Ustinov. Obsessed with an idealistic version of the USA, his bootleg copy of Top Gun and the promise of tasting a McDonald’s, Nikolai’s also a lethal ex-KGB agent, and gets almost all of the cool action moments in this movie — think hand-to-hand combat, a police chase involving a nuclear missile, and enough pool-fu to make John Wick jealous.

Game Night and Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves directing duo John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein bring their signature filmmaking flair to said action moments, swinging their camera around, attaching it to car doors and dropping in impactful overhead angles — a lovely side-shot of Nikolai and Troy driving their car against numerous rural and urban Russian backdrops sticks in the mind. The sequence of Troy’s plane crash is also impressive, with one shot tracking him flipping the plane vertically, ejecting right before the enemy aircraft hits, and perilously parachuting down to the ground.

This camera trickery is vital in elevating _Mayda_y’s thoroughly conventional script, and while Maria Bakalova brings a lot of heart with barely any screen time as Nikolai’s estranged daughter Anna, Reynolds and Branagh’s crackling odd-couple chemistry is the star of the show. Throw in some almost interesting gestures towards questioning American patriotism, and the morality of a nation that consistently casts itself as the hero, and you’ve got a genuinely entertaining, if highly predictable, watch.

Early on in The Blood Of Dawnwalker, protagonist Coen seeks sustenance by sucking the life out of scurrying rats before proclaiming how “revolting” the act is. He clearly doesn't enjoy draining the rodents dry, but as the dark fantasy RPG’s titular half-human/half-vampire he has no choice but to feed off vermin if he wants to survive.

However, snacking on pests to stay alive is a no-brainer compared to the game's myriad moral dilemmas, difficult decisions, and choice-and-consequence interactions that tempt you with precious rewards while simultaneously repelling you with accompanying risks. Continuing to satiate Coen’s blood thirst, for example, will unlock much more powerful vampire abilities, but at the cost of further abandoning his humanity.

Developer Rebel Wolves – comprised of many former The Witcher 3 creatives – revels in placing players in such predicaments, not to torture them, but to ensure they make Dawnwalker’s story their own. The game’s an open-world RPG, but aside from map-filling vantage points that’ll feel familiar to anyone who’s scaled a towering structure in the Assassin’s Creed series, it does far more to evolve the genre than merely evoke it. And the endless choices and enormous amount of freedom players are afforded to shape their path and gameplay is largely responsible for that.

Coen lives among the picturesque Carpathian mountains, a lovely spot… save for the fact his village must pay a monthly blood tax to the evil neck-biter who’s decided to take it over. This awkward arrangement quickly leads to Coen’s family being kidnapped and scheduled for a ritual sacrifice in 30 days’ time. The player’s only goal is to save his father and siblings before the clock runs out.

Having just that single, straightforward primary objective frees up the rest of the journey to be incredibly fluid and flexible. Main missions, side quests, and optional activities all blur together in the best ways, often interconnecting unexpectedly. Supported by fantastic storytelling and nuanced characterisation, all objectives – big and small – also feel like meaningful pieces of the larger narrative puzzle.

An enthralling action-adventure.

Of course, assembling that puzzle also means carving through hordes of enemies, from minor human adversaries and massive mythical monsters to your fang-baring brethren. Thankfully, Dawnwalker’s combat is just as layered and flexible as its quest structure, progressing along deep skill paths for sword mastery, witchcraft, and vampirism. And like everything else in the game, dealing death comes with its share of compelling choices. Most notably, you can attack and defend in specific directions for more efficiency, or leverage easier, but less effective all-purpose swipes and blocks.

You also need to consider the differences between battling during the day versus fighting after dark. The former, for example, might see you using a combination of blades and blood magic to clear a battlefield, while the latter could have you unleashing your razor-sharp fangs and claws. Embracing your inner bloodsucker also means being able to teleport between enemies, occasionally swooping in to siphon their life-replenishing plasma, before, you know, boiling a target’s blood until he blows up.

Toss in an abundance of perks, abilities, craftable consumables, and other combat-shaping factors, and the contrasts between fighting beneath the moon or under the sun are just the beginning. But whether you decide to unleash a flock of attacking ravens using witchcraft or stalk the world as a wolf with your vampiric shapeshifting skills, the biggest choices you’ll make are informed by that aforementioned ticking clock.

While this clever mechanic never puts any undue pressure on you, it does factor into almost every decision you make. Time moves forward when certain objectives are completed, abilities unlocked, or other significant progress is made. But because the game gives you so much freedom, you can tick off the seconds however you see fit. This could mean spending your coveted time segments recruiting allies to help save your family, or investing those same valuable minutes to make Coen super-powerful, fuelling a more lone-wolf approach.

The Blood Of Dawnwalker is an incredibly deep, layered, rewarding experience that’s an easy recommendation for RPG fans craving a fresh, riveting take on the genre. But even if you’ve never sunk hours into looting, levelling, and laying waste to dark fantasy foes, its engrossing story and characters, rich worldbuilding, engaging systems, and freeform quest structure make it an enthralling action-adventure worth leaving your coffin, er, comfort zone for.

Great things happen when you get Danny Boyle and Jack O’Connell in the same circles. Just see the double-whammy of 28 Years Later and the Boyle-produced The Bone Temple, still rattling our synapses. And Boyle is back already with another supercharged slice of cinema, that looks set to continue his reputation as the chief chronicler of contemporary Britain, with O’Connell as his leading man. Before we (hopefully) get the third chapter of 28 Years Later, Boyle has directed Ink – about the rise of The Sun newspaper under the editorship of Larry Lamb, and the ownership of Rupert Murdoch; effectively, the birth of the tabloid press. Check out the trailer here:

Once again, it looks like the director is going maximum-Boyle here, bringing his signature kineticism to the story – a fitting complement to the nation experiencing the dizzying rush of tabloid sensationalism, as well as the sobering comedown that it resulted in. See the film’s snappy headline: ‘They broke the news.’ O’Connell here plays Lamb, with Guy Pearce as Murdoch, and Claire Foy as reporter Jules Davies. The script is by James Graham, adapted from his own play of the same name. The official synopsis describes Ink as “an explosive cinematic rollercoaster about a group of visionaries and misfits who had an idea for a new kind of news – one that would give the people what they want and would change the face of the world we live in today.”

Hopefully Ink proves another great film for Boyle’s roster – and keeps the momentum up so we can close out the 28 Years Later saga too. The film comes to UK cinemas from January 8, 2027, but it’s also screening imminently at the Venice Film Festival so expect the first reactions very soon. It’ll play at the London Film Festival, too, from October 12.

Calling all UK-based cinephiles: the line-up for the BFI London Film Festival 2026 is officially out! And it is, of course, stacked with hugely exciting titles which will be getting early screenings not just in the capital, but across the UK too in various partner venues. This year’s festival takes place between 7-18 October, and the line-up contains world premieres, various galas, and more. It is a gigantic roster, so head here to check the complete programme – but here are a few highlights.

The festival will open, as previously announced, with the Andrew Scott-starring Elsinore, and close with the UK premiere of Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain follow-up The Debut. And in the meantime, there will be screenings of Danny Boyle’s newspaper drama Ink, Spanish early Oscar favourite La Bola Negra, Taika Waititi’s Klara And The Sun, Boots Riley’s much-anticipated I Love Boosters, this year’s Palme d’Or-winner Fjord, James Gray’s mob thriller Paper Tiger, Martin McDonagh’s return with Wild Horse Nine, and the film adaptation of acclaimed play Prima Facie starring Cynthia Erivo.

There are plenty of films for genre fans to look forward to. Notably, Empire’s own presentation: the first two episodes of VisionQuest, Marvel’s mega-trippy follow-up to WandaVision and Agatha All Along. Plus, hugely-anticipated kaiju sequel Godzilla Minus Zero will be at the festival (on the BFI IMAX screen, no less), as will the world premieres of Travis Knight’s epic stop-motion fantasy Wildwood, and Brad Bird’s passion project Ray Gunn.

Also screening at the festival will be Bassam Tariq’s hitman thriller Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, the return of cult Brit comedy favourite The Trip with Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan in The Trip To The Northern Lights, and Ava DuVernay’s new documentary 14th.

There is tons to look over – and while this is the BFI London Film Festival, there are partner venues across Nottingham, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Sheffield, Belfast, Bristol, Cardiff and Glasgow. Take a look at the full line-up here, and be sure to join the ticket scrum on Thursday September 17.

Ask any Silo fan, and they’ll tell you: you really need to be watching Silo right now. As it barrels towards its Season 3 finale, Apple TV’s sci-fi smash is paying off years of storytelling investment, delivering the kind of massive moments that you’re dying to discuss with… well, whoever else you can find that’s watching Silo. You’re not? Why?

The show gets its big hooks in right from Episode 1: what, exactly, lies outside the Silo? The show – based on Hugh Howey’s Wool books – is driven by such gigantic questions. We follow a small subsection of humanity (roughly 10,000 people) living deep below ground in a colossal purpose-built silo; they don’t know exactly how long their people have been living down there, or why. Long enough that none remember what the world outside used to be. Nobody really knows what exists beyond the front door, and anyone who leaves can’t come back. With one final season to go, those massive questions are starting to be answered (don’t worry, no spoilers here), and it is making for staggering viewing.

While the series starts by getting viewers to contemplate what might be up there in the outside world – big mysteries that become the engine of the whole story – it then spends much of its time ploughing downwards; digging deep into the machinations of the Silo itself. It gets into the minutiae: exploring the rules and regulations that keep the society – and the giant metal structure – working, the fascistic demands on its rulers to quell disruption, and the inner dramas of its people as they live their confined lives. The show’s obsession with meticulous detail gives the world a lived-in authenticity; thought has been given to every facet of the Silo dwellers’ existence, with extensive tangible sets (give that staircase a raise, please) that make the whole thing feel real.

It has the clockwork precision of early Game Of Thrones.

The complex ecosystem of the Silo is a setting just as much as it is a central mystery. Season 1 is, primarily, a cop drama, with Rebecca Ferguson’s Juliette Nichols (one of the most satisfyingly capable characters on TV right now) investigating what happened to her dead boyfriend; the Silo itself is a dystopian backdrop, both incidental and integral to the human story. Because, as soon as anyone starts digging at the little queries, it inevitably leads back to the big ones: what in the (possibly apocalyptic) world is going on?

It’s this cause-and-effect between the daily workings of the world and the gigantic reveals that makes Silo so exciting. It has the clockwork precision of early Game Of Thrones, spending ample time laying the groundwork and investing you in the human dramas, so that when the sweeping story tides inevitably shift, you feel how seismic it is. And you’re given enough knowledge of how things work to start to imagine what comes next.

So far, Silo has already dealt some major shocks, none of which we’ll reveal here. After spending most of Season 1 going deep into the bowels of the Silo, the finale delivers a revelation that changes the game. And Season 2 follows up on that knowledge in a deeply human way, delivering big ideas through individual characters who you come to love and care for.

Now, the final stretch of Season 3 is filling in some of the big blanks, while creating whole new questions in the process – and, again, anchoring it all in the stories of people. It’s an idea-filled show that never lets its ideas become abstract, because you’re always feeling it through the impact it’s having on the characters. Season 3, Episode 9 (‘Farewell’) delivered both visual and emotional spectacle, hitting as hard as it does because of the 29 hours of story preceding it.

With only one season to go, long-time Silo dwellers are having their faith rewarded. Except, after all this time – and all that wondering of what lies beyond – saying goodbye might prove to be the toughest test of all.

Silo is streaming now on Apple TV

There are no Merry Men in The Death Of Robin Hood. In fact, it’s pretty low on merriment all round. Based on a 17th-century ballad, this bleak and brutal drama takes a blood-soaked battle axe to one of Britain’s most enduring legends, of a courageous bandit who robbed from the rich to give to the poor. What if that icon were in fact a monster, the film asks? Someone who slaughtered and stole for pleasure? A man confused and quietly tortured by how tales of his violent exploits had somehow entered folklore? In its opening 30 minutes, children are slain and eyes are gouged before this version of the noble archer impales a person’s face with a flaming spike. A bushy-tailed cartoon fox or man in tights, this Robin Hood most certainly is not.

The film stars Hugh Jackman back in Logan terrain, playing another grizzled warrior worn down after a life of violence. Like Wolverine in that 2017 super-coda, his Hood is thrust into caring for a young girl, who awakens in him a new appreciation for life. After suffering gruesome injuries in a late-night attack on the farm his best friend Little John (Bill Skarsgård) calls home, Hood is taken to a remote island, where Jodie Comer’s Sister Brigid attempts to heal him. There, he develops a connection with Margaret (Faith Delaney) — Little John’s daughter — that opens his soul to all the things he missed out on amid his senseless campaigns of carnage.

Michael Sarnoski coaxes brilliantly tender performances from his cast.

Writer-director Michael Sarnoski has made a name for himself with stories about complicated loners like this, who cling to a single source of joy. In 2021’s Pig, it was a prized swine; in 2024 alien-invasion prequel A Quiet Place: Day One, it was a New York pizzeria. In The Death Of Robin Hood, it’s the found-family that Hood discovers in this gentle hideaway that gives him reason to stay alive. In Margaret, Brigid and a nameless leper wrapped head-to-toe in cloth, played by The White Lotus’ Murray Bartlett, he begins to learn, for the first time, to put down his bow.

Like with his previous films, Sarnoski coaxes brilliantly tender performances from his cast, and captures rural splendour like few other directors operating right now. After a punishing first act, shot in sombre greys, the movie erupts into colour as Jackman’s wounded killer contemplates his past. For some, what follows might feel like an unsatisfying left-turn. A plot thread involving Noah Jupe (Hamnet) as Arthur, a new arrival at the monastery, teases a bloody comeuppance that never arrives. Instead, Sarnoski condemns Hood to a final showdown with a foe far more menacing than any mace-waving maniac — his own crumbling conscience.

Ack, ack, ack! In 1996, Tim Burton unleashed one of his most raucous and playful films – a crazy, colourful sci-fi satire that let marauding Martians loose on (then) modern America to wreak havoc. While the legendary filmmaker is often associated with the macabre and the gothic, Mars Attacks! saw Burton indulge his inner pop-artist with an anarchic alien invasion movie whose tongue is lodged firmly in cheek. And, in making a big summer blockbuster, Burton got to pay tribute to the 1950s B-movies he loved too.

Right from its opening scenes, Mars Attacks! sees Burton lean into the tropes and iconography of ‘50s outer-space horrors, all fused with the 1962 trading card series that gave the film its name and distinctive alien design. It’s a film that delivers flying saucers, little green men, ray guns that turn people to green goo – all accompanied by a Danny Elfman score that heavily features the theremin, the go-to sound for classic science-fiction soundtracks. This is Burton’s loving homage to the schlocky (and often shonky) alien-attack movies of his youth – like Invaders From Mars, Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers, and Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space; notably, Burton’s latest film prior to Mars Attacks! was Ed Wood, his love letter to the largely-lambasted director.

Burton brings the same ironic view of Americana he deployed in Edward Scissorhands

Just like those 1950s films were speaking to the nuclear fears and Cold War paranoia of their time, Mars Attacks! presents a playful satire of an America entirely unprepared for alien invasion. Jack Nicholson’s POTUS, James Dale, is proven to be an incompetent leader, incapable of taking down the extra-terrestrial nasties; legendary actor Rod Steiger hams it up as General Decker, all too happy to go gung-ho at any given opportunity, despite his firepower being entirely ineffective; and Vegas big-shot Art Land (also Nicholson, in a dual role) is so obsessed with his space-themed ‘Galaxy’ casino that he doesn’t see the invaders coming until it’s too late. Burton skewers all of this with the same ironic view of Americana he deployed in Edward Scissorhands’ pastel suburbia.

30 years on, it’s still a blast to see Burton deliver this kind of summer movie mayhem – blowing up scale models of global landmarks as the martians descend (goodbye, Big Ben!), turning hapless humans to slime as they run riot in congress, and laying waste to Las Vegas in the third act. The aliens look as great as ever, too – especially in this brand new 4K transfer from Warner Bros ­– created by the masterminds at Industrial Light and Magic. While Burton initially wanted stop-motion animation for the martians (in part as tribute to the great Ray Harryhausen), the cutting-edge computer effects courtesy of ILM allowed for them to be as expressive as possible, all the better for channelling Burton’s mischievous humour.

Mars Attacks! was both a retro throwback, and ahead of its time too

While the martians are the real stars, Mars Attacks! boasts one of the most impressive human ensembles Burton has ever amassed. Beyond double Jack Nicholson, there’s Glenn Close as the First Lady, Marsha; a young Natalie Portman as their daughter Taffy; Pierce Brosnan as scientist Donald Kessler; Sarah Jessica Parker as talk show host Nathalie Lake; Michael J. Fox as her boyfriend Jason; Martin Short as the President’s Press Secretary, Jerry; Annette Bening as Art Land’s wife Barbara; Burton regular Danny DeVito as Galaxy gambler Joe; sports legend Jim Brown as boxer Byron Williams. And that’s not to mention the film’s secret weapon – a bonkers extended cameo from none other than Tom Jones, whose Vegas stage show is besieged by the cackling creatures. It’s a Hollywood who’s-who of all-time greats, ‘90s legends, Burton favourites, and rising stars.

Now available on 4K Ultra-HD for the first time, Mars Attacks! has never looked better – and still stands as one of Burton’s most entertaining and vibrant movies, with all the distinctive visual invention he’s known for. With its wholehearted embrace of ‘50s B-movies and subversive satire, it was both a retro throwback, and ahead of its time too. Celebrating its 30th anniversary, now is the perfect time to revisit Mars Attacks! and surrender to its chaotic and cheesy charms – available on standard 4K Ultra-HD, SteelBook, Collector’s Edition, and on digital too.

Buy Mars Attacks! now on 4K at warnerbros.com

Forget the wind and rain outside, folks, your trusty Empire news team is here with a breaking weather alert that'll be sure to quicken the heart of any movie buff. Days Of Thunder 2. Summer 2028. Yup, you heard us right: our world-exclusive Digger issue cover star, Mr. Movies himself Tom Cruise, is revving up to return to the role of hotshot NASCAR driver Cole Trickle in a sequel to Tony Scott's 1990 rubber-burning racing classic, set to hit cinemas two years from now. And what's more, he's bringing actual Anne Hathaway along for the ride, too, as you can see in the duo's official announcement video below;

Annie in a cowgirl hat. Cruise beaming a megawatt grin. Daytona's legendary asphalt track beneath their feet, souped-up stock car emblazoned with that iconic Days Of Thunder logo behind them, and the promise of an adrenalised Summer 2028 ahead. You really can't stop the thunder, can you? And while Anne Hathaway has the small matter of impending childbirth to prepare for before she puts the pedal to the metal with Cruise on his latest high-octane legacyquel (Deadline reports the Oscar-winner will play a team leading engineer in the film), there's already an undeniable early buzz that — whisper it! — we may have another Top Gun Maverick situation on our hands here. Even if we don't know just yet how exactly a sequel to Scott's OG dirtrags-to-Victory-Lane-riches tale will shake out in terms of plot and premise.

While story specifics are under wraps for now, there are some things we do know. Long Shot and Warm Bodies director Jonathan Levine — whose upcoming David Corenswet vehicle Mr. Irrelevant, itself a sports drama, has been scoring raves with test audiences and hits cinemas this Christmas Day — is set to helm the movie, which is being filmed for IMAX. Without Remorse scribe Will Staples is tackling the script, with Cruise producing alongside Jerry Bruckheimer and Tommy Harper. And, most importantly, we also know that with Cruise and Hathaway front and centre, we are already beyond hyped to hit the track with Trickle one more time. Vroom vroom!

Many of the films produced under the Russo brothers’ AGBO banner feel – in a good way – like ‘90s throwbacks. 21 Bridges was a solid cop thriller elevated by the late, great Chadwick Boseman. Extraction was a solid hardman action movie elevated by the muscular Chris Hemsworth. The Whisper Man might not boast an MCU leading man, but it is – you guessed it – a solid serial killer thriller elevated by its star-studded cast.

The plot is nothing you haven’t seen before: a long-solved serial killer case of the ‘Whisper Man’ – who abducts emotionally-vulnerable young boys, with a nursery rhyme-esque ‘tapping at the glass’ mythology surrounding him – rears its head again many years later, when a new crop of kids start to go missing. The spree’s re-emergence coincides with emotionally shut-down widower Tom Kennedy (Scott) returning to his hometown, paying no attention to his son Jake’s (Acston Luca Porto) queries about seeing and hearing strange things in their new house. Before you know it, little Jake has been spirited away, sparking a quest to find him before he’s left for dead by… well, is it even the Whisper Man, since he’s firmly behind bars?

An extended scene between Michael Keaton and Robert De Niro is the highlight here

What heightens director James Ashcroft’s adaptation of Alex North’s novel is the eye-poppingly stacked cast. Jake’s disappearance causes Tom to reconnect with his distant detective dad Pete, a substantial role with which Robert De Niro imbues a baseline level of gravitas. The material hardly stretches him, but De Niro is – of course – extremely watchable in this kind of serious thriller fare. He is also believably cold in his relationship with Scott, their distance echoed in the survival-mode emotional wall Tom also displays to young Jake; running throughout The Whisper Man is a succession of broken father-son relationships, with ruinous results for all involved. Michelle Monaghan is handed a cookie-cutter role as the current cop on Jake’s case, but brings another dependable presence.

The juicier roles lie on The Whisper Man’s more sinister side. Hamish Linklater, still in his post-Midnight Mass career boom, brings an eerie calm to murder-enthusiast Norman, his true crime obsession making him a prime suspect in the Whisper Man 2.0 killings. And Michael Keaton makes the most of limited screentime as the original Whisper Man, long locked away for his sick deeds, ready to play Hannibal Lecter-esque mind games with the police when they seek his advice on who might be picking up where he left off. An extended scene between Keaton and De Niro is the highlight here; two titans simply going head-to-head across a table.

There are no surprises to be found in The Whisper Man; it isn’t destined to go down as a new classic of the genre. But with a cast this great, well-crafted tension, and just enough character meat on the bones, it’s a film that deserves neither whispers, nor shouts, but a regular-volume recommendation. May AGBO’s ‘90s throwback project long continue.

In recent years, few new actors have stood taller than Jacob Elordi – and not just because he’s 6’5. The human lead of The Dog Stars burst onto the scene in Netflix’s teen romance trilogy The Kissing Booth, and has since found himself blazing one hell of a trail, carving out a career path that’s been as eclectic as it is exciting.

From Euphoria to Deep Water, to Saltburn and Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights, Elordi has been racking up quite the resumé. But there are a few great Elordi performances that might have passed you by – so Empire’s experts have gathered to present a trio of top-tier Jacob Elordi projects that deserve your attention.

Priscilla (2023)

Streaming on: Netflix, MUBI

A huge part of what makes Sofia Coppola’s 2023 Priscilla Presley biopic so compelling is the auteur’s commitment to crafting a portrait of her subject that doesn’t hinge on, glorify, or in any way mythologise Priscilla’s husband. And in a star-making performance that still feels underrated even now, Jacob Elordi brings a real rawness and volatile vulnerability to his interpretation of Elvis Aaron Presley, channelling both The King’s charisma and his more morally murkisome qualities in order to illuminate the darker, more private corners of Elvis’ personality. While Priscilla is, by design, not an Elvis movie by any stretch of the imagination, some could argue that Elordi has actually given us the best — or at least most true-to-life seeming — portrayal of The King on screen yet. Also, this Elordi performance comes with the added bonus of a free “Priscilla, baby” vocal stim… so there’s that, too!

On Swift Horses (2025)

Streaming on: Now TV

While Daniel Minahan’s textured, complex treatment of Shannon Pufahl’s literary tale of queer love and repression in mid-century America may skew a tad formulaic at times, a tad unwieldy at others, its starry young cast — Daisy Edgar Jones, Will Poulter, Diego Calva, Sasha Calle — are all on top form throughout. And nobody impresses more here than — you guessed it! — Jacob Elordi. In a second, very different war-veteran-in-a-2025-released-book-adaptation role, Elordi plays Korean War vet turned drifter Julius, who finds himself falling for Calva’s casino worker Henry, while sparking off-the-charts sexual tension with basically any character he shares screentime with. Again, Elordi’s innate charisma is on full display here, but it’s the sense he’s able to create within that of Julius’ inner turmoil — and his gentle, delicate handling of his character’s heart and innermost desires — that really sticks with you. TL;DR version: On Swift Horses is a safe bet for some peak Elordi drama.

The Narrow Road To The Deep North (2025)

Streaming on: BBC iPlayer

Justin Kurzel’s limited series take on Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize winning The Narrow Road To The Deep North is a visceral experience. Visceral in its depiction of the horrors experienced by Australian POWs on the Burma Railway at the height of World War II. Visceral in its encapsulation of a half-century-spanning love story that simultaneously keeps a man together in hell, and denies him any sense of heaven on the other side of it. Visceral in its exploration of survivor’s guilt, of PTSD, and of bone-deep grief. And our anchor as Kurzel takes us into the very heart of darkness here is a never-better Jacob Elordi, who brings pathos in abundance and puts himself through the emotional and physical wringer as Aussie doc Dorrigo Evans. It's not all doom and gloom, though, folks. There are moments of beauty, of sensuality, of profound humanity throughout that'll keep you on this road with Elordi to the very end.

———

Finished with our runthrough of Jacob Elordi’s essential, lesser-seen performances? Why not dig into our rundown of some of Tom Holland’s best non-Spider-Man roles? Or branch out with the best movies on Netflix UK right now? Heck, you could even go the whole hog and start working through our 100 best movies of all time! Whatever your fancy, Team Empire has you covered.

Gregg Araki’s first film in over a decade opens with chaos: a naked female body facedown in a pool and a terrified male onlooker in pink lingerie, nose bloodied. Sex and shock are on a par with oxygen in the cult filmmaker’s oeuvre — his ‘Teenage Apocalypse’ trilogy features suicide, the forcefeeding of a severed appendage and an abundance of boundary-crushing fornication. In 2026, however, the teens ain’t what they were, and Araki and his co-writer, sex journalist Karley Sciortino, have mined Gen Z’s tangled relationship with pleasure for their BDSM two-hander.

Taking the role of dom is Olivia Wilde’s Erika Tracy, a strikingly assembled artist-turned-floating-body. She hires Elliot (Cooper Hoffman), an aimless soul 14 years her junior, as an assistant. Told through flashbacks, with Elliot as a witness speaking to detectives Zola and Zem (Maggie Cho and Johnny Knoxville), we learn that a week into the job, Erika invites him to enter into a sexual relationship with her. Partly for her art, also for fun; the motivations aren’t dwelled upon, as Elliot’s hungry eyes can barely stay in his skull.

A rallying cry for the young, insecure and horny.

A kaleidoscope of coitus ensues, more screwball than sensationalist. Elliot crawls on the floor upon Erika’s command and splays out blindfolded, thirstily awaiting her touch. In no time he’s intoxicated, his tantalising second life a tonic compared to his modest houseshare and uninterested girlfriend Minerva (Charli xcx, an eye-roll in human form). He bears all the surface traits of a modern, liberal young man: a “Forever Feminist” laptop sticker, a shabbiness that feels part-accidental, part-curated. Yet Hoffman makes him an open book: earnest, charming, and easy for even the icy Erika to warm to. In a sweet, stolen moment, Wilde slides her thumb into Hoffman’s mouth while he sits on her lap, her fingers gently stroking his beard.

Erika is assigned little backstory but Wilde knows when to give a little more and when to take even more away. What few personal breadcrumbs Erika dispenses Elliot devours, hoping the trail will lead to a steady relationship. It’s predictable yet understandable: on his podcast he describes his generation’s “conflicted and confusing” feelings about sex, amplified by the pandemic. Erika is all answers in a world of overwhelming questions (Elliot even has “Yes?” and “No?” tattooed above his knuckles). I Want Your Sex, alas, is hung up on the questions. The mystery of the opening scene drives the story towards a spirited but ambiguous conclusion, instead of burrowing further down the kinky rabbit hole. Yet a somewhat stilted end to the dynamic doesn’t undo the fizz and thrills that have come before.

Streaming on: Apple TV

Episodes viewed: 10 of 10

Anyone who’s lingered at a restaurant until the staff, already sweeping the floors, aggressively turn the house lights up, will know all too well that there’s such a thing as outstaying your welcome. Blake Crouch’s 2024 Apple TV series Dark Matter — adapted from Crouch’s own 2016 novel — told a self-contained story of one man’s struggle to find his family after being abducted by an alternate version of himself. With a clear narrative through-line, it offered a multiversal rumination on the road not taken, padding the novel somewhat to stretch over nine episodes, before ending on the same bittersweet note: a family reunited but forced to flee their world, cast into a void of infinite possibility with no North Star to guide them. An open-ended conclusion, to be sure, but a satisfying one nonetheless.

Had the author signed away the rights, we might dismiss this speculative continuation as a cynical cash-in. But Crouch himself remains very much at the tiller, steering this story beyond his own final page while co-writing each episode alongside Jacquelyn Ben-Zekry. He picks up here precisely where he ended, with Jason Dessen (Edgerton) faced with countless versions of himself, all intent on being reunited with ‘their’ family. And so he, his wife Daniela (Jennifer Connelly) and son Charlie (Oakes Fegley) step into the trans-dimensional box, walk the corridor between worlds and leave their own behind.

It’s a bold sideways move, shelving adventures in the multiverse in favour of a far quieter, more introspective rhythm...

A more obvious follow-up might have returned to the Sliders format that punctuated much of Season 1, with the protagonists skipping between increasingly deranged and dystopian visions of 21st century Chicago. However, while there are a few false starts (Tech World rumbles them instantly with billboard-based facial recognition, Tornado World blows), the Dessens quickly stumble across what seems the perfect destination: a Luddite Earth with no computers, no internet and no sign of their alternate selves. And so, rather than explore the far corners of reality itself, they attempt to build a new, more mundane life in a place forever denied the digital revolution — That ’70s World, if you will.

It’s a bold sideways move, shelving sci-fi adventures in the multiverse in favour of a far quieter, more introspective rhythm as Jason, Daniela and Charlie finally stop and take the time to reckon with the trauma of everything that’s happened to them. It may sound deathly dull compared to the propulsive nature of the first season’s narrative, but the result is a surprisingly compelling, character-led arc. Daniela tries to reconcile memories of her abusive childhood with a newfound wariness of her husband, relying on secret passwords and identifying tattoos to continually convince herself it’s really him. Meanwhile, Jason’s obsession with the box still haunts him, and with it a festering insecurity over his alternate self’s achievements that drives an increasingly wide wedge into the cracks of his marriage.

It’s not all family drama and self-reflection this time around, though. Those looking for shadowy conspiracies and dimension-hopping exploits are also well-served as Jason’s former colleagues Amanda (Alice Braga) and Ryan (Jimmi Simpson) are themselves catapulted back into the multiverse, while ruthless billionaire Leighton Vance (Dayo Okeniyi) scours different realities in the hopes of constructing a perfect world. Meanwhile, Chris Diamantopoulos joins the cast as, variously, a ’70s World P.I. and a ruthless Homeland Security agent, unravelling the mystery of why hundreds of Jason Dessens have suddenly turned up in the original Chicago.

All of these strands combine to form a story that, while certainly more deliberately paced, ends up deeper and more thought-provoking than the first. Less concerned with missed opportunities and fulcrum events, this instead explores the nature of contentment and expectation and whether it’s ever possible to be truly happy in your lived reality when infinite alternatives wait just out of sight (the Hinge Paradox?). As viewers, it’s gratifying to finally get under the skin of these characters, though, surprisingly, the season high points don’t feature them at all. Two masterful capsule episodes — one following a Jason variant as he attempts to carve out his own existence, trading in quantum physics for artisanal hand-made chairs; another featuring Margo Martindale as the keeper of a trans-dimensional B&B — serve as a pair of beautifully crafted mini parables that, perfectly placed, serve to emphasise the season’s underlying humanity.

Lacking the simple narrative hook of the first story, this second chapter might have ended up feeling both unnecessary and unfocused, but just as The Leftovers truly found its feet — and a markedly different tone — once it stepped out from beneath the shadow of Tom Perrotta’s novel, so Crouch’s story flourishes here with a new, more meditative pace and a vibrant inner life.

Pedro Almodóvar has explored his own profession before, in Antonio Banderas’ suffering filmmaker of Pain And Glory, for example. But there’s a sense of intense self-examination and even self-flagellation in his new film, as he looks at the tendency of artists to cannibalise the lives of those around them — to the detriment, perhaps, of their personal relationships.

Not that that’s immediately clear. We open in 2004 with a typical Almodóvarian heroine. Bárbara Lennie’s Elsa is a sometime filmmaker and commercials director who is afflicted with incapacitating migraines over the Christmas holidays. Her supportive boyfriend Bonifacio (Patrick Criado) is a firefighter/stripper who tries to nurse her through her affliction, as she recovers enough to reach out to friends like Patricia (Victoria Luengo), in crisis over her cheating husband, and Natalia (Milena Smit), a mother grieving for her son.

We have beautiful people in enviable apartments, having interesting conversations to no real end.

Quickly, however, we learn that Elsa is the creation of Raúl (Leonardo Sbaraglia), a filmmaker crafting his new script. He has his own problems: his assistant Mónica (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón) has to leave for personal reasons, so now he relies on his boyfriend Santi (Quim Gutiérrez). Shifts in Raúl’s life are reflected in Elsa’s story; he shapes her narrative, the god that determines her fate and that of everyone around her, so that the thrust of Elsa’s story shifts abruptly when he learns something new about one of his own loved ones.

Almodóvar films have frequently been metafictions and stories within stories, and it is in the interplay between reality and artifice that Almodóvar here explores the moral failings of… well, maybe himself, but certainly people like him. Raúl toys with his characters and cruelly exploits his friends in pursuit of a compelling story. The problem is that, like Almodóvar himself here, he hasn’t found a satisfying ending. Instead we have beautiful people in enviable apartments, having interesting conversations to no real end. It is no hardship to spend time with these characters, because Almodóvar’s faculty with dialogue remains undimmed. But this needed a stronger finish than simply pointing out an artist’s compromises along the way – even if the open-endedness does succeed in further blurring the lines between life and art.

MCU movies are dominating the Disney+ Top 10. Avengers: Endgame is coming back to cinemas. The streets are talking about X-Men, incursions, Secret Wars, and Jonathan Hickman comics. All of which can only mean one thing: the countdown to Avengers: Doomsday is officially on. And, as of today, the Countdown To Avengers: Doomsday Official Podcast is also on, hosted by Marvel Studios' own Ms. Marvel, the one and only Iman Vellani, alongside The Basement Yard podder Frank Alvarez. And you can literally watch the entire first episode directly below;

It's easy to write this off as just another piece of marketing, but seriously, how cool is it to have two ball-knowing MCU superfans — one of whom is literally a Young Avenger in waiting, no less — joining forces to recap the Marvel Cinematic Universe's major movies and moments ahead of Doomsday? If this first episode is anything to go by, filled with nerdy tangents and sidebars and incisive observations and full-on fangirling moments as Alvarez and Vellani revisit Avengers Assemble, then it looks like we've got our appointment viewing/listening sorted for the next month leading up to Endgame Encore's 25 September cinema release. Also, with it having been a solid three years since we last saw Iman Vellani in live-action in the MCU (Nia DaCosta's The Marvels, in case you wondered pub quizzers), it's just pretty nice to see one of the self-proclaimed biggest Marvel fans among Marvel Studios' roster getting to geek out and remind us all what we've been missing in her absence.

With Avengers: Age Of Ultron next on Vellani and Alvarez's agenda, there's plenty more MCU chat to be had in the coming weeks — and with the pod available on Disney+, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and basically all podcasting platforms, we'll be tuning in to Countdown To Doomsday and dreaming of a big Empire Pod x Doomsday crossover event for the foreseeable future.

If you've had the pleasure of heading to see Studio Ghibli's witchy classic Kiki's Delivery Service in the last week or so — or have a trip to your local multiplex planned imminently for Hayao Miyazaki's anime classic — then you have the legendary Japanese animation studio's new UK distributor, GKIDS, to thank for that. And, as promised back in July, there's plenty more where that came from on its way. Today, GKIDS has confirmed that unsung Ghibli classic Whisper Of The Heart, one of the all-time great coming of age movies, is heading for IMAX screens on 16 September ahead of a wide cinema release of Yoshifumi Kondō fantasy-lite gem on 18 September. Check out the trailer below;

Sorry not sorry for planting the Japanese 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' earworm in your heads by sharing that trailer, folks — it's worth it! Sure, Studio Ghibli has more than its fair share of memorable coming-of-age yarns (the above-mentioned Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away, The Boy And The Heron to name but a few), but Whisper Of The Heart is just different. Sadly the only Ghibli film veteran animator Yoshifumi Kondō directed before his untimely passing at the age of just 48, Whisper is singular in Ghibli's catalogue as one of the studio's few films that eschews fantasy entirely to face the growing pains of adolescence head-on. The film, set in then-contemporary Tokyo (actually 1995), not only depicts 14-year-old budding author Shizuku falling for Seiji – a boy who checked out all the same library books as her – but also takes the time to explore its protagonist's discovery and pursuit of her passion, too. It’s a tale of discovering purpose, of committing to your craft and coming into your own, that remains massively underseen if not underrated (everyone who has seen it near-unanimously agrees it's a banger.)

And with this swish new 4K restoration and IMAX cinema release also comes, of course, a gorgeous new poster for Kondō's classic — which you can see below;

Set to screen in both its original Japanese form with subtitles and in English dub, this new restoration of Whisper Of The Heart is sure to be a must-see for dyed-in-the-wool Ghibliheads and anime newcomers alike when it hits cinemas in mid-September. And with more Ghibli classics — including modern fave The Secret World Of Arrietty — still on their way, we can look forward to (re)discovering more Ghibli gems in the weeks and months to come. No complaints here! *Alexa, play ''Country Roads'... Shizuku's Version*

Peter Cullen, the beloved voice actor who lent his gravitas to Transformers leader Optimus Prime, has died at the age of 85, his agent has confirmed.

While Cullen worked prolifically across TV and film, primarily as a voice actor, Optimus Prime – the leader of the heroic Autobots – was a role he returned to over several decades, in many mediums. He first voiced the character in the original 1984 cartoon (also voicing the likes of Ironhide, Wingspan and more in the show), and voiced him in 1986’s Transformers: The Movie – a film which, notably, killed off Optimus Prime in its first act, to much controversy (and many upset children). As a result, the character was revived in 1987 two-part episode ‘The Return Of Optimus Prime’.

When Transformers came to live-action cinemas in 2007’s Michael Bay-directed Transformers, Cullen was brought on to voice Prime – and he continued to do so in Bay sequels Revenge Of The Fallen, Dark Of The Moon, Age Of Extinction, and The Last Knight. He also returned in Travis Knight’s spin-off Bumblebee, and 2023’s Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts, in what would be his final film role, and his last time speaking as Prime (aside from a 2024 episode of The Masked Singer). From 2007 to 2016, he also voiced Optimus in several video games, often tie-ins to the feature films.

Other major roles for Cullen included many years voicing Eeyore in the Winnie the Pooh cartoons, beginning with 1988’s The New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh, through to 2007’s My Friends Tigger & Pooh, via several feature films; his final performance as Eeyore came in a 2017 episode of Disney Jr. show Doc McStuffins. Elsewhere, he also voiced Monterey Jack in Chip ’N Dale: Rescue Rangers, antagonistic car KARR in Knight Rider, and contributed to the voice of the Predator in John McTiernan’s sci-fi action-thriller. Cullen’s final major role came in the animated superhero series Invincible, voicing Viltrumite rebel Thaedus.

As Optimus Prime – and many, many other characters besides – Cullen proved the voice of many people’s childhoods, and adulthoods too. Our thoughts are with his friends, family, and loved ones. Roll out.

The elevator pitch for One Night Only probably read “The Purge, but for one-night stands.” It’s a promise it lives up to in all the wrong ways. The first Purge movie — in which crime is legal one night a year — was a bog-standard home-invasion thriller. Similarly, One Night Only could have unfolded on a regular holiday (Valentine’s Day, perhaps, or even Halloween) without much changing by way of plot. That it features such a bizarre, half-baked idea driving it, however, is morbidly fascinating.

Romcom connoisseur Will Gluck (Friends With Benefits, Anyone But You) transposes the genre’s tropes into an odd quasi-dystopia, a world where non-married couples are barred from sex for 364 days of the year. As the clock counts down to a night of state-sanctioned debauchery, newly single New Yorker Owen (Callum Turner) searches for a sexual partner. A comedy of errors has him bumping repeatedly into Allie (Monica Barbaro), a woman on the lookout for her special someone, whose imaginative daydreams are about the only times the film gets funny or saucy. The appealing duo share physical chemistry, but don’t click emotionally at first. You know the rest. But given its audacious premise, One Night Only shouldn’t be so predictable.

The premise would be easy enough to hand-wave were it a mere background detail.

Gluck’s awkward mapping of a traditional romcom onto a high concept more befitting of a political thriller leads to characters shedding all recognisable human traits. The backdrop is one of control, robbing people of the power of choice. But the movie’s strangely slapdash approach embodies that very same conservatism, which makes things a whole lot less fun and sensual. The narrative rests on happenstance, stripping Owen and Allie of active decision-making. This yields a film of emotional and sexual passivity, when it ought to feel explosively charged.

The premise would be easy enough to hand-wave were it a mere background detail, rather than a distracting centrepiece. Each exchange dovetails into exposition meant to convince us of a world that just doesn’t fit together, even with its amusing array of “one night”-themed advertising on every street corner. Perhaps the creative energy spent on in-world billboards would have been better deployed elsewhere — like ensuring Turner and Barbaro shared enough screen time. It takes about an hour for Owen and Allie to have a real conversation.

As the pair help each other navigate the evening, their banter flows naturally enough, but often ends in flailing punchlines. The humour, like the drama, rarely stems from a coherent sense of character or setting. Despite the actors’ best efforts to conjure sparks, they’re at the mercy of a tale that insists that this world is a functional satire of either fascism or social prudishness (take your pick). In the end, One Night Only submits to the oppressive forces it purports to reject, robbing its characters and viewers alike of the raucous good time promised by its ticking clock.

Platform: Nintendo Switch 2

When Hidetaka Miyazaki’s Demon’s Souls landed back in 2009, it forever altered the gaming landscape. A punishingly difficult, absurdly opaque game that made no effort to explain its mechanics, nor accommodate less capable players (dying just makes the game harder), it set the stage for FromSoftware’s incredibly successful series of dark fantasy RPGs, each sharing similar mechanics, difficulty and mournful atmosphere. With that title, the ‘soulslike’ was born, but in 2022, with the release of Elden Ring, the formula was finally perfected.

A sweeping, open-world title that broadened the traditional soulslike canvas beyond anything before it, Elden Ring is a towering monument to inspired game design. The vast geography of The Lands Between lends players the feeling of being able to go literally anywhere at any time — if you can see a distant fortress or a mist-shrouded mountain peak on the far horizon then you’d better believe that, atop your trusty steed Torrent, you can find your way there and explore what lies within.

Four years after it debuted on Playstation, Xbox and PC, this magnificent game now makes its debut on Nintendo’s portable handheld in the form of this Tarnished Edition. Essentially a bundle of the base game and its similarly colossal expansion, Shadow Of The Erdtree, along with a few minor cosmetic additions, now playable in the palm of your hand. Except, if you’ve been paying attention, then you’ll know it seemed very much on course for absolute disaster. Early play sessions revealed a port so jerky as to be almost unplayable, clearly stretching the Switch 2’s hardware to breaking point. A lot has clearly happened since then, however, as we’re delighted to report that, in its final form, the Switch 2 port of Elden Ring is near faultless. Aside from some minor pop-in and very occasional slowdown when there’s a particularly large horde of dragons, trolls and assorted soldiery on screen, the frame rate remains buttery smooth throughout, with visual polish that, while not quite on a par with a high end PC or PS5, makes the game look absolutely gorgeous, whether in handheld mode or docked to a big screen TV.

The Tarnished additions boil down to three new customisable looks for your mount (including golden Tree Sentinel attire, complete with clanking plates as you gallop) picked up at various points in the story, four new armour sets (including the rakish Lucatiel set last seen in Dark Souls 2), and two new starting classes. Of the latter, the Idus Knight is a lightweight dexterity class with a long but nimble blade, while the chonky Heavy Knight lives up to its name, clad head to toe in plate and wielding a giant, two-handed scimitar. None of these additions have a huge bearing on the gameplay and while the two starting classes can make for a slightly more varied early game, by the time you step foot outside of Limgrave, you’ll likely have moved on towards whatever endgame build you were considering anyway. It’s also worth noting that all of the Tarnished Edition upgrades are available on existing consoles for a nominal DLC fee anyway, so there’s no need for completists to pick up the port just to have them. The only question here, is do you want to play Elden Ring on the Switch 2?

Few games have managed such a feeling of overwhelming scope and scale.

If you’ve never yet had the pleasure then the answer is a resounding ‘yes’. Four years on and Elden Ring has lost none of its majesty, more than having earned its place among the pantheon of the greatest games every made. Even those Ninty fans who’ve never yet sampled a soulslike and could be put off by the notorious difficulty should give this a try. The freedom to go anywhere means you’re rarely left bashing your head against the same insurmountable boss. Getting your arse handed to you? Go explore that distant forest, or delve into an underground city until you’re feeling stronger. The addition of spirit summons makes things yet more accessible than Souls past, too. Found through various hidden ashes, these let you summon (and upgrade) assistance for major boss fights without having to wait for other player to answer your call for help. Taking down a giant, sword-wielding lava lizard with a pack of spectral wolves (or a knight, a pair of puppets, or gaggle of greatshield-wielding skeletons) is no less rewarding than facing them solo and allows even players of modest ability to comfortably progress the game’s main story.

The story itself is as nebulous as that of all FromSoftware games, with dense background lore (here provided by George R R Martin), gleaned largely through item descriptions. But the central narrative isn’t the draw here so much as the environment itself and everything in it. There’s a dizzying assortment of enemies to put to the sword (or axe, or spell, or flaming incantation) as you progress through the world, but the primary joy here is in simple exploration. As you make your way through the castles of Limgrave, the watery expanse of Liurnia, the festering wastelands of Caelid, the gilded Royal Capital of Leyndell and far, far beyond, the vast landscape offers up a treasure trove of easily-missed nooks and crannies. Mines hidden in the crook of mountain passes, catacombs ensconced behind illusory walls, even entire play areas that you could easily miss in a single run-through if not taking your time to follow every path, scour every dead end or follow the silvery clues left by players who have come before. Few games have managed such a feeling of overwhelming scope and scale such that you could sink several hundred hours into exploring, while only turning up a fraction of what the game has to offer.

Put simply, Elden Ring is a must-play title and if this is your first opportunity to set foot in The Lands Between then we advise you to jump in with both feet. The Switch 2 port proves an unexpected triumph, too, capable of running this colossal game while losing precious little in the jump from big screen to handheld (though don’t expect your battery to last much more than a couple of hours playing this one). With the Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC providing more game hours than the majority of full-priced games, the Tarnished Edition represents incredible value, too. This is one Elden Ring to rule them all.

It’s nearly September, which means school’s back. And that’s true, too, for Rupert Grint – who has confirmed that he’ll be heading back to Hogwarts. From 2001 onwards, Grint spent a decade of his life portraying young wizard Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter movies. And like Tom Felton (aka Draco Malfoy) before him, Grint has announced that he’ll be reprising his childhood role in adult form in the stage play Harry Potter And The Cursed Child on Broadway.

The show, which originated in the West End where it’s still performed now, features a grown-up Harry, Ron, and Hermione, with a plot that largely focuses on their kids as they enrol at Hogwarts and face a time-twisting evil. Weasley, now 38, will play Ron as a dad who ushers his daughter (with Hermione) Rose onto the Hogwarts Express. “Ron Weasley has been a part of me since I was 11 years old and I can’t wait to meet him again in this stage of life,” said Grint in a statement. “There is something so full-circle and so special about stepping back into Ron’s shoes now when we are both fathers; it is somehow both very familiar and completely new. And the joy of being back on Broadway, this time in a role that defined so much of my life is truly exciting.”

Grint will be starring as Ron starting in February 2027, for a 17-week engagement. Tom Felton is currently appearing on Broadway as Draco Malfoy, expected to play the role until January 3, 2027. It remains to be seen if his tenure will be extended to cross over with Grint’s. Meanwhile the role of Ron on the HBO Harry Potter series is being taken on by Alastair Stout.

It is with great sadness that we bring you the news Tim Curry, iconic star of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Stephen King's It, Clue, and much more has died at the age of 80. The multitalented stage and screen actor and singer, who suffered a major stroke in 2012 from which he never fully recovered, passed away at his Toluca Lake home in Los Angeles today, as confirmed by his longtime manager and friend Marcia Hurwitz.

The son of a Royal Navy chaplain and a school secretary, Timothy James Curry was born on 19 April, 1946 in the English village of Grappenhall, Cheshire. Suffice it to say, Tim Curry was never destined to follow in his folks' footsteps. Having sampled the travelling actor's life as a boy, moving from Cheshire to Hong Kong to Plymouth to Bath all before the age of 12, a young Tim soon found himself catching the thespian bug performing in school plays, going on to study Drama & English — or, rather, ditch classes and dive into extracurricular productions — at Birmingham University.

A talented soprano with undeniable acting ability and no compunction when it came to spinning a yarn to have that talent recognised, Tim Curry's acting breakthrough came in the original production of Hair in 1968. It was while working on Hair that Curry first encountered Richard O'Brien, who some five years later would go on to write — and invite Tim to audition for — an experimental new musical: The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was with his insatiable, provocative, fearless turn as that sweet transvestite from transexual Transylvania Dr Frank-N-Furter — first in London, then Los Angeles, and eventually in director Jim Sharman's cult classic 1975 movie — that Tim Curry announced his arrival as a bona fide star. Sure, Broadway may not have known what had hit it when Rocky Horror closed after just 45 performances in 1975, but with the likes of Mick Jagger and Tennessee Williams turning up and taking notice, it was clear Curry was only just getting started.

Alongside continued success on stage and on the small screen, Tim Curry became a household name and a fully-fledged movie star in the 1980s and heading well into the 90s with a slew of memorable turns in a wild variety of movies. He brought ineffable sleaze to Annie's moustachioed con man Rooster Hannigan; operatic malevolence (and an insane amount of prosthesis) to the literally devilish Darkness of Ridley Scott's Legend; breathless, bumbling, wild-eyed brilliance to butler Wadsworth in the nutty boardgame based murder-mystery movie Clue; even more sleaze to Home Alone 2: Lost In New York's pompous Concierge; and, in one of his most out-of-left-field, outré turns, Curry proved perfectly cast as killer clown/force of ancient cosmic evil Pennywise in the OG miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's It.

The thing about a performer such as Tim Curry is that once you start listing his roles — start reeling off his many, many movies, TV shows, and even video games (the man's extraordinary delivery of the word ‘Space!’ in Command And Conquer: Red Alert 3 will always be famous) — you soon realise that he was the ultimate 27 percenter who always gave 100%, no matter the assignment. You need someone to play Long John Silver with a straight face while surrounded by literal Muppets? There's Tim Curry. You need an eccentric Romanian philanthropist for your very silly Michael Crichton post-Jurassic Park cash-in? There's Tim Curry. You need a voice for Nigel Thornberry, for an animated Emperor Palpatine, to read the entirety of Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events? There's Tim Curry. You remember that ill-conceived Addams Family Reunion reboot in 1998? Its existence is justified almost entirely by the presence of Tim Curry as Gomez Addams. Tim Curry's name in the credits of a project is a guarantee you'll have had at least one reason to smile in whatever you've just watched, heard, or played.

In the hours since Tim Curry's passing, tributes have poured in from friends, family, collaborators, and peers alike in their droves. Luke Evans, who's just wrapped up an acclaimed run as Broadway's latest Frank-N-Furter took to Instagram to pay tribute to 'a force, a bright fierce flame, an exquisite charm', sharing a letter he penned to the actor before finishing his Rocky Horror run. Curry's Annie co-star Carol Burnett remembered 'a dear friend' on her own account, attesting that "nobody could play a lovable villain like he could." Lesley Anne Warren, who starred alongside Tim Curry in Clue, paid her own tribute to her 'companion in crime' on Instagram, too, writing: "The brilliant, hilarious, hysterically funny , magician of artistry has left us. What an unbelievable joy to have shared a sound stage with him and to engage with such a master talent. I adored him. Bless his wild and inspired soul. Love you Tim”

Whether a sexual vampire, a breathless butler, a West Country accented pirate or a horned Lord of Darkness, Tim Curry was a singular performer who loved what he did and did what he loved his whole life through. He will be remembered for his immense talent, magnetic charisma, and a body of work that is destined to live on and bring joy to viewers of all ages for generations to come. Our thoughts are with his friends, family, and loved ones at this incredibly difficult time.

Fare thee well, ‘Untitled Cliff Booth Movie’. See also: ‘The Adventures Of Cliff Booth’. Because, finally, we know what the unexpected sequel-of-sorts to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is actually going to be called. The film is a fascinating combination of talents – with Brad Pitt returning, of course, as Cliff Booth (Hollywood stuntman and counterpart to Leonardo DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton), Quentin Tarantino penning the screenplay, and none other than David Fincher taking the editorial reins.

Now, it’s official: the film is called The Further Mis-Adventures Of Cliff Booth. So, the rumours weren’t far off. But now we know these are ‘Mis-Adventures’ (does Booth have any other kind?) and further to any we’ve seen before. There’s little extra info on the film itself, but Netflix has confirmed that it’s set in 1977 – eight years after the events of OUATIH – and that it sees booth in “a very different Hollywood”. What we do know is that Cliff Booth will be getting an IMAX release from November 25 this year, ahead of a lunch on Netflix just in time for Christmas on December 23.

As for what Mis-Adventures await Booth this time, that remains to be seen. But Pitt will be joined by the likes of Scott Caan, Carla Gugino, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Peter Weller. Will we get an appearance from Rick Dalton? Will it feel equal parts Tarantino and Fincher? And will Pitt win himself another Oscar for his return to the role that bagged him the gong in the first place? We’ll find out later in 2026.

Shovels at the ready, people: Digger is coming. And while the world waits for Tom Cruise’s wild new movie, the new issue of Empire is here to give you a world-exclusive sneak peek.

It’s not on shelves until Thursday August 27 (or you can order a copy online here), but here’s an early look inside its pages.

Digger

Get ready for Tom Cruise as you’ve never seen him before – literally. Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu and his cast – including Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, and of course, Cruise himself – present a first look at their wild new disaster comedy, set to be one of the year’s boldest originals.

Street Fighter

Game on! As Hollywood finally readies an adaptation of the legendary fighter game, director Kitao Sakurai and stars Andrew Koji, Noah Centineo, Callina Liang, David Dastmalchian, and Mel Jarnson talk Empire through the ultimate movie brawl.

Whalefall

You’ve never seen a film like Whalefall – in which a diver is swallowed by a whale with one hour to escape. Director Brian Duffield and star Austin Abrams take Empire into the belly of the beast.

VisionQuest

Buckle up: Marvel is getting weird again. Paul Bettany’s Vision takes centre stage in a show that plunges him into existential crisis – alongside James Spader’s Ultron, of all beings. Empire goes on set to get into Vision’s fractured mind.

The Uprising

Paul Greengrass and Andrew Garfield are ready to fight the powers that be in a dramatisation of the Peasants’ Revolt. They talk to Empire about getting down and dirty in a vital part of history.

The Frighteners At 30

It’s been three decades since Peter Jackson unleashed his spooky horror-comedy on an unsuspecting public – and in the meantime it’s become a cult classic. He revisits the film 30 years on in a major new Empire interview.

Ke Huy Quan On Temple Of Doom

How great must it be to be childhood friends with Indiana Jones? Ke Huy Quan shares an excerpt from his upcoming memoir with Empire, detailing his experiences on Steven Spielberg’s Indy sequel.

First Word

In this month’s news section, we discuss the biggest Marvel revelations from Comic-Con; prepare for The Social Reckoning with Aaron Sorkin; rev up with Matchbox: The Movie’s John Cena; pick out the Bad Apples with Saoirse Ronan; venture into the wilderness with David Ayer on Heart Of The Beast; give Murray Bartlett the Pint Of Milk interview; chase Wild Horse Nine with writer-director Martin McDonagh; and plenty more.

Final Cut

In the home entertainment section, we speak to Taika Waititi, Julian Dennison, and the late great Sam Neill on 10 years of Hunt For The Wilderpeople; revisit Nuts In May with stars Roger Sloman and Alison Steadman; rank the Indiana Jones movies; go spoiler-by-spoiler on art-heist-of-sorts The Christophers; give Get Carter the Masterpiece treatment, and much more.

Reviews

In this issue, you’ll find reviews of the DCU’s Lanterns series; medieval elegy The Death Of Robin Hood; dark comedy thriller Bad Apples; the return of Gregg Araki with I Want Your Sex; horny-purge romcom One Night Only; D-day thriller Pressure; and many more.

With The Dog Stars hitting cinemas this week, Sir Ridley Scott is clearly back in his sci-fi bag after spending the last few years primarily plying his trade with historical epics (Napoleon, Gladiator II, The Last Duel, and, er, House Of Gucci). As such, the question of whether Sir Ridders would ever consider returning to arguably his most famous speculative fiction progeny, Alien, has reared its head once again. And per a new interview with The LA Times, it turns out that the answer is, well, yes actually — and the great Scott already has some pretty big plans in mind.

In a wide-ranging interview that elsewhere revealed Scott's Treasure Island movie with Hugh Jackman is set to shoot in November and several other movies (a Bee Gees biopic, WWI thriller Covenant With Death) are on the octogenarian auteur's horizons, Scott revealed that a long-awaited third Alien prequel — following up 2012's Prometheus and 2017's Alien: Covenant — is in the works. According to Scott, the plan is to get Michael Fassbender back to reprise his role as rogue AI android David in a movie that'd see the soft-spoken but incredibly sinister synth creating "a brave new world for himself." Scott, whose aversion to AI is well-documented in both his movies and his public statements, is keen to explore the concept of malfunctioning artificial intelligence further in a potential 'David Trilogy' capper. "AIs can go off,” Scott tells The LA Times. “And if they do, it’s like a bomb.”

At this point, Scott's Alien plans remain just that — plans. As such, we've no idea when we could expect to see David's return or who would even be involved. Suffice it to say however, with Alien Covenant having ended with David assuming control of 2000 sleeping colonists and a couple of face hugger embryos, there's no shortage of directions for Scott to explore in bridging the gap between his prequels and the original movie. Honestly, between this news, the upcoming Alien: Earth Season 2, and an Alien: Romulus sequel still heading our way, there's never been a better time to be a mighty xenomorphin' fan. Now if you'll excuse us, we're off to practice the flute in preparation for David's return — and yes, we will do the fingering.

Sometimes, Street Fighter is more than just a game. That was the approach of David Dastmalchian when getting ready to press play on Kitao Sakurai’s film adaptation of the beloved fighting series, as the star stepped into the boots of the series’ villain: M. Bison. A cruel dictator who wields considerable power, Bison has been a major figure in the games since Street Fighter II – and in preparing for the role, Dastmalchian wanted to go more than pixel-deep on what exactly makes Bison such a compelling leader.

“I’m curious about films where there are these villainous leaders that have endless armies of foot soldiers willing to throw themselves into certain death to defend them,” he tells Empire. “I was like, ‘How do you achieve that authentically? How do you become the person that all of these people are going to follow into the fire?’” He looked for answers in much more serious places than you might expect from a side-scrolling video game movie. “We started studying cult leadership and historical figures that were able to use terror and intimidation, but also cunning, charm and seduction, to make these major movements happen,” he says. “People like Idi Amin, Jim Jones and Mussolini. We dove in with a very serious approach. People might think, ‘Oh, it’s just a video-game bad guy. It’s just a big boss,’ and I was like, ‘No, it’s something much deeper than that.’”

After putting in the background research, Dastmalchian really found the character when he donned Bison’s costume – stomping around in it while listening to Tool, and the Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back. “Putting on the costume for the first time was right up there with the greatest moments in my career,” he enthuses. “I had my boots the summer before we started filming, so, much to the chagrin of my children, I had been wearing them around and learning how to live in them and feel the power in them. I’m not someone who can find a character without first figuring out how he walks. So that was so crucial.”  Get ready for a KO.

Read Empire’s full Street Fighter feature in the Digger issue, on sale Thursday August 17. Pre-order a copy online here. Street Fighter comes to cinemas on October 16.

Post-apocalyptic films aim to reduce us to our essence, to make us question what, in the end, we need to hold onto and who we can’t live without. Ridley Scott’s latest also tries to go deeper, to examine the difference between surviving and thriving. The only problem is that it doesn’t seem entirely convinced of its own answers.

Jacob Elordi stars as Hig, an everyday guy who’s just trying to get by in the newly depopulated America. With his dog, Jasper, he flies scavenging missions into Denver and brings back supplies for his companion at the airfield where he lives, the warlike Bangley (Josh Brolin). But there are signs of “reapers” in the city, semi-feral gangs that steal from other survivors, and they could threaten both men and their Mennonite neighbours. And when Hig sets off to chase a faint radio signal he’s heard from Grand Junction, he faces new friendships and new threats.

It doesn't seem quite sure what it wants to say.

Scott shot the film in Italy, and the jagged teeth of the Dolomites lend the scenery an appropriately threatening edge. Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt’s aerial photography is glorious (nominative determinism at work?), as Hig soars between peaks entirely devoid of humanity. The now 88-year-old Scott shoots action with an energy that filmmakers half his age struggle to match, and has assembled an enviably talented cast. The issue is more that the narrative fails to match his drive, sunk in the same fug as these depressive characters. There's only so much magnetism a cast can emit when in a state of near-suicidal resignation.

The first half has an effective sense of threat, albeit from a particularly ill-defined and confusingly portrayed group, but given that characters make bizarre decisions like lighting fires in the wilderness for all to see, it's not clear if they're as worried as we are. Then things slow to a crawl to half-cook a new relationship for Hig and plucky survivor Cima (Margaret Qualley). And there are the abrupt and at times bewildering shifts of tone. One deeply odd sequence at an airport, an addition to the book, belongs in an entirely different emotional universe — or maybe nowhere at all. It might have been an attempt to pep things up, but it's misguided.

Still, you understand the impulse to add some zing. Little here feels fresh; perhaps because its 2012 source novel, by Peter Heller, has inspired other work since, or perhaps because it coincidentally shares elements with other, better stories. There’s the loyal dog of I Am Legend, the manic berserkers of Mad Max (though without their wit or characterisation) and even the bonkers future-nostalgia of Fallout at one point. Such common touchpoints wouldn’t be a problem if the resulting film hung together, but this one does not; it doesn't seem quite sure what it wants to say. There's a touch more hope at the end than at the beginning, with a new reason for Hig to keep living and a new outlook on life, but even that largely relies on him appreciating what he already had rather than any fundamental change in his circumstances. The film wants to thrive, but it's barely surviving.

In recent times, we have seen Dan Stevens play a Titan veterinarian in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, head of a crew who unwittingly kidnap a vampire ballerina in Abigail, a sinister resort owner in Cuckoo, and are imminently awaiting his turn as *checks notes* a boot-licking Nazi scientist in Adam Wingard's Onslaught. Now, in his efforts to affirm his status as the most unpredictable actor working today, Stevens has lined up his next major project: per Deadline's reporting, the in-demand actor is set to play RoboCop in Prime Video and Blumhouse Atomic Monster's upcoming James Wan produced RoboCop series.

Hailing from showrunner Peter Ocko and based on Paul Verhoeven’s legendary 1987 satire – a sharp-edged cyberpunk sci-fi charting the literal dehumanisation of Peter Weller’s law enforcer Murphy as he's brought back from the dead and turned into a crime-exploding cyborg — Prime Video's RoboCop is set to give the source material a contemporary, eight-episode update. Stevens will be stepping into Weller's mechanical boots as the fallen officer whose consciousness powers a nefarious tech conglomerate's mission to bring metal men in uniforms to a near-future Detroit.

When RoboCop first got the greenlight last month, producer Wan shared his excitement and passion for his upcoming return to Verhoeven's cult classic universe. “I’ve been a massive fan of RoboCop forever, so getting to help bring this world to television is a dream,” he said in a press release. “What Paul Verhoeven created in 1987 was decades ahead of its time, and its questions about technology, identity, and who corporations really serve have only grown more urgent.” Continuing, Wan also celebrated “Peter’s distinctive vision and bold approach to storytelling”, promising Ocko's self-penned take on the material would “honour what made the original iconic and highlight its relevancy in this modern, tech-driven world, while building something unmistakably new for a global audience.”

Over the years, RoboCop has remained in the public consciousness thanks to its sequels (1990's RoboCop 2 and 1993's utterly bizarre RoboCop 3), TV adaptations, kids' cartoons, and that 2014 Joel Kinnaman reboot, but nothing has quite measured up to Paul Verhoeven's original darkly satirical genre masterclass. With Stevens on board though, TV veteran Ocko showrunning, and the might and clout of Amazon and Blumhouse Atomic Monster powering this new series, perhaps now is the right time to have RoboCop back on the beat, serving the public trust, protecting the innocent, and upholding the law. Colour us very intrigued...

At the heart of The Uprising is serious business. The 1381 Peasants’ Revolt was no joke; and Andrew Garfield’s central character, an unnamed ploughman, is someone pushed beyond breaking point, having lost his wife and children to the plague, fighting back against the tyrannical Richard II (Woody Norman) when raised taxes threaten to squeeze the life out of him and his fellow working class people. But the latest film from Paul Greengrass looks to be a cinematic ride too – taking that topic and making it a screen spectacle.

“I think if you watch the film, it’s a rip-roaring adventure, but it’s also got something to say without hitting you over the head,” the filmmaker tells Empire, promising a good time at the movies. “I don’t like doing films that are lectures. I want them to be entertaining.” It is also, seemingly, something of a Robin Hood story; while Peasants’ Revolt figure Wat Tyler is here – played by Cosmo Jarvis – The Uprising is also somewhat inspired by William Langland’s 1377 poem Piers Plowman, which represents “the fevered dreams, hopes, fears, and enragements of a common farmer,” says Greengrass. “It was also very interesting to me that it is the first moment the character of Robin Hood appears in print”.

Preparing for his Ploughman role, Garfield watched Robin Hood movies, as well as 2010 horror Black Death, and Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel. Greengrass is thrilled with what the pair have pulled off together. “It was a hard, physical, ambitious film to make with limited resources, and I’m very, very proud of what Andrew achieved,” says the director. “It’s a really outstanding performance.” Here’s hoping the Ploughman hits a bullseye.

Read Empire’s full The Uprising feature in the Digger issue, on sale Thursday August 17. Pre-order a copy online here. The Uprising comes to UK cinemas on October 9.

Legendary country musician – and global star – Dolly Parton has passed away at the age of 80, her family has confirmed. Her death comes after a “brief battle with cancer”, according to a publicist.

While the Tennessee-born Parton was best known for her extensive musical career, she had a major impact on the screen too. Her first film role came in 1980, starring alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in 9 To 5, the beloved comedy in which a trio of working women fight back against their sexist boss (played by Dabney Coleman). The film was a critical and commercial hit; and Parton wrote and performed the platinum-certified theme song of the same name, earning two Grammys and an Oscar nomination.

Through the rest of the 1980s, Parton continued her move into moviedom. She starred in The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas – re-teaming with 9 To 5 director Colin Higgins – which featured a re-record of her song ‘I Will Always Love You’, later covered by Whitney Houston for 1992’s The Bodyguard. The film was nominated for two Golden Globes, including a Best Actress nomination for Parton herself. 1984 saw Parton appear opposite Sylvester Stallone in Rhinestone, and she rounded out the decade with 1989’s beloved Steel Magnolias.

Much of Parton’s later movie roles consisted of cameos; she popped up in 1993’s The Beverly Hillbillies, 2005’s Miss Congeniality 2: Armed And Fabulous, and animation Gnomeo & Juliet. She appeared in three episodes of Disney series Hannah Montana as ‘Aunt Dolly’; notably, she was Miley Cyrus’ real-life godmother. Parton also appeared on-screen once more with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, in a cameo for the pair’s Netflix hit series Grace And Frankie. She also had her own festive Netflix special, Dolly Parton’s Christmas On The Square, in 2020, a feature-length musical in which she appeared as an angel.

Parton also played a key role in bringing Buffy The Vampire Slayer to TV; she was an unnamed producer on the show (and the original movie) which was created in part with her production company Sandollar. Star Sarah Michelle Gellar revealed in recent years that Parton used to sent Christmas presents to the Buffy cast in its early seasons. In 2021, Parton said on Watch What Happens Live that she thought Buffy was “a wonderful little show”.

Dolly Parton’s legacy will be long remembered, not just across music, but across movies, TV, her philanthropy, and her outlook of positivity and togetherness. Our thoughts are with her friends, family, and loved ones.

Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S

Set during Star Wars’ Clone Wars period, Zero Company sidesteps the era’s endless brawls between Troopers and Droids to reveal a new threat: the Infinite Coil, a dangerous cult spreading a terrifying plague across the galaxy. The only ones capable of stopping them? A rag-tag crew of plucky mercenaries, of course.

Led by Hawks – a customisable avatar who can be male or female, and from one of six species, including Ahsoka's head-tentacled Togruta and Darth Maul’s Zabrak – the eponymous Zero Company gets by on two-bit jobs, until Republic agents Bennic Halloren and Jae Mordant recruit them to investigate the Coil, a mission that could turn them into unlikely heroes.

This feels fresh in a way that Star Wars hasn’t for a while.

Zero Company is at its strongest when it’s focused on its galaxy-spanning story, building on existing lore while throwing new characters and settings into the toy box. Infinite Coil leader Kundri Fathom is a particularly great villain, having a sympathetic edge to their malign motivations, while ally Kabb introduces a brand-new species to the Star Wars universe. This feels fresh in a way that Star Wars hasn’t for a while.

While there have been several real-time strategy games putting the “war” in Star Wars, Zero Company is the series’ first turn-based tactical outing, playing a lot like the XCOM series. Or rather, exactly like XCOM – a handful of characters take to the field each battle, carefully budgeting action points to move, attack, or use abilities. Each encounter is high risk, with characters permanently dying if you plan poorly, and you’ll be forced to pick and choose which battles to take on, with unavoidable penalties from whichever you ignore.

Excessive familiarity aside, Zero Company is a solid if not quite spectacular tactics game. While a few key characters have unique skills – Jedi Padawan Tel-Rea uses the Force to shove enemies around, while Mandalorian Cly employs jetpack attacks – developer Bit Reactor wisely leans into gunslinger classes for most characters, forcing players to carefully consider range, verticality, and vulnerabilities in combat. As Coil cultists grow in power, each victory feels hard-earned.

Unfortunately, it’s somewhat undermined by how buggy the game is. Otherwise impressive visuals that perfectly capture the Star Wars feel are marred by constant texture pop-in, and cutscenes often bizarrely contort character models. Worse, twitchy controls, cluttered UI, and an awkward camera can undermine your planned manoeuvres – and that’s when the game isn’t crashing entirely mid-battle, eradicating progress.

If those frustrations can be patched out, this emerges as an engaging side story for Star Wars fans – but even then, one you’ll remember more for its storytelling than its gameplay.

Over the years, there's been no shortage of attempts to recreate the magic of Hanna-Barbera's Stone Age sitcom The Flintstones, with a brace of ill-fated live-action movies and non-starter projects from Will Ferrell, Seth MacFarlane, and Elizabeth Warren having all sought to bring the Rubbles back to the proverbial Ritz to no avail. But now, in an intriguing development, Deadline is reporting that Canadian national treasure and certified Kenergy haver Ryan Gosling is in early development on a new live-action Flintstones reboot movie with his producing partner Jessie Henderson at Warner Bros. But this trip to Bedrock won't be just another adventure with Fred, Wilma, Barney, and Betty. This one's about a grown-up Bamm-Bamm Rubble.

First introduced as Barney and Betty Rubble's adoptive club-swinging tot in the original Flintstones cartoon, Bamm-Bamm Rubble was mostly known for shouting "Bamm, Bamm!" and having freakishly outsized strength for such a small kid in the OG show. Character development eventually came in the form of The Pebbles And Bamm-Bamm Show, which found a now-teenage Bamm-Bamm cruising about in a prehistoric dune buggy, rocking out with his band, The Bedrock Rockers, dating next-door neighbour Pebbles, and navigating the world of adolescence at Bedrock High School. Which direction Gosling is looking to head in with this fresh take on Bamm-Bamm is unclear right now, but with his own Barbie having recently gone down the meta, irreverent route to great effect, it seems unlikely his Rubble Jr. movie will be a straight-laced adaptation of any existing material.

While there's no news yet on who'll direct, star in, or even write this Flintstones reboot just yet (Deadline reports that Gosling and Henderson are searching for a scribe as we speak), there's plenty to keep Gosling occupied in the meantime. Coming off the back of the amaze, amaze, amaze Project Hail Mary, RG already has Star Wars: Starfighter coming up next May and the small matter of a Blazing debut as the MCU's Ghost Rider to look forward to in 2028. We'll bring you more on all things Bamm-Bamm just as soon as we get it though... hopefully the movie will rock. (Sorry not sorry.)

Between the likes of The Thursday Murder Club, Ludwig, and Death Valley, cosy crime dramas are having something of a moment just now. But regardless of the murder mystery movies and shows vying for our eyeballs of late, six seasons in, Disney+ and Hulu's Only Murders In The Building remains the undisputed GOAT of the genre. And with Charles, Oliver, and Mabel's next outing set to take the crime solving podcaster trio away from the Arconia and across the pond to London, Disney+ has today confirmed an 8 December release date for OMITB Season 6 — and dropped a few first-look pictures from the season ahead. Check them out below;

Well there you have it — that's certainly Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez in a variety of locations that look distinctly like London! But arguably, it's who we don't see here that should have you really excited for Only Murders' return, because the gang's trip to Blighty is bringing with it one hell of an ensemble of Britain and Ireland's finest to bolster the victim/suspect line-up. For those who didn't already know, OMITB Season 6's role call includes *deep breath* Olivia Colman, Nicola Coughlan, Martin Freeman, Sharon Horgan, Jim Broadbent, Jennifer Saunders, Geri Halliwell, Sean Teale, Simone Ashley, Rhea Norwood, Richard Ayoade, Jamie Demetriou, Derek Jacobi, Kathryn Hunter, Lesley Nicol and not one, not two, but three Doctors in the form of Peter Capaldi, David Tennant, and Jodie Whittaker. Yeah, we're thinkin' that's one hell of a line-up!

The official synopsis for Only Murders In The Building Season 6 — which will also see the returns of series regulars Meryl Streep and Tina Fey — reads as follows: "In Season 6, after successfully bringing the guilty to justice once again, our trio Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) embark on their hardest case yet when the next victim — Cinda Canning — arrives at their doorstep, summoning them to London to catch her killer. Our beloved trio of true crime-solving podcasters must now navigate their way through the home of the cozy murder mystery, replete with a whole new collection of suspicious and particularly English-eccentric characters. But can they follow in the footsteps of the woman whose podcast started it all for them … without having their story end the same as hers?"

London awaits. There's another murder to be solved. And co-creators Martin and John Hoffman have the most who's-who-iest (and Who-iest) of whodunits on their hands for us this time out. So sharpen your pencils, dust off your magnifying glasses, and crack open a fresh moleskin for Only Murders In The Building Season 6's return on 8 December. It's shaping up to be a real killer...

A new Martin McDonagh movie is always something to relish – sure to be packed with razor-sharp dialogue, caustic characters, and a melancholy undertone that gets under your skin. And now, after the hit of The Banshees Of Inisherin, the filmmaker is back with Wild Horse Nine. Re-teaming with old favourites (hello, Three Billboards’ Sam Rockwell!) and welcoming new faces into the McDonagh fray (hello, John Malkovich!) it sends two bickering CIA operatives on a mission in the 1970s, with explosive results.

As McDonagh tells Empire, the film has something to say about how America conducted itself in the ‘60s and ‘70s. “It’s definitely my most political thing,” he explains. “I haven’t expressed a political opinion, really, in my films, and this one’s pretty out there.” As Malkovich’s veteran CIA officer Chris and Rockwell’s younger Lee venture to the Chilean territory of Rapa Nui, aka Easter Island (of stone heads fame), it’s clear they’re up to some shady business. “I wanted to analyse the history of the CIA, what they’ve done in the world since the Second World War,” McDonagh says.

It’s a set-up that allows for the classic character dynamic you expect from the man behind In Bruges and Banshees. During the course of Wild Horse Nine, we’ll see “a character starting, for the first time, to be questioning or regretful, or guilty about it...” explains McDonagh. “That was the gist of what I wanted to talk about. Those covert ops were not necessarily very secretive. I wanted to speak on that, with a character who’s becoming more open and honest as the film goes on. And I think the film is open and honest in what it’s saying about America at that time.” Get ready for the Martin McDonagh you know, and the one you don’t.

Read Empire’s full Wild Horse Nine story in the Digger issue, on sale Thursday August 17. Pre-order a copy online here. Wild Horse Nine comes to UK cinemas from November 6.

A David Ayer movie never seems like a walk in the park. But for his latest film, the director of End Of Watch, Fury and Sabotage pushed things even further – he’s back with Heart Of The Beast, a survival drama in which Brad Pitt’s Army veteran James Belmont is stranded in the Alaskan wilderness with his military dog Odin by his side. With 58 miles of dangerous terrain to cross, they find themselves battling against the elements in search of safety.

And by the sounds of things, it was just as gruelling for Pitt himself. “He beat himself up for this thing,” Ayer tells Empire. It was a shoot of mountainous terrain, river rapids, and extreme temperatures. “He was in the water all the time. He was cold all the time,” Ayer explains. “Going into this, neither of us realised just how exposed we would be as filmmakers. There’s nowhere to hide. You just can’t cut away to someone else.”

It was exposing, too, emotionally – with Ayer tapping into his own feelings when exploring the bond between James and Odin. “I lost my father when I was very young and the story tapped into a very personal sense of mourning,” he says. “This journey of love between these two creatures, these two beings, felt like my own grieving journey. There was something universal and very human about it, which is ironic because it’s a person and an animal. That almost gives you permission to be even more emotional.” Stay tuned for chances of surviving to the end credits without shedding a tear.

Read Empire’s full Heart Of The Beast story in the Digger issue, on sale Thursday August 17. Pre-order a copy online here. Heart Of The Beast comes to UK cinemas from September 23.

In the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, Ali G was a sensation. If he’s since been overtaken by Borat in terms of cultural ubiquity, he was once Sacha Baron Cohen’s most famous character – from Da Ali G Show, to 2002’s big-screen outing Ali G Indahouse, and even appearing in Madonna’s ‘Music’ music video. But it’s been a decade since Ali G last made an appearance, at the 2016 Oscars (a secret until Cohen literally stepped on stage in the role) – and now, he’s back to trouble Hollywood once more. Ali G: Who Iz I? is the official sequel movie, 24 years after Indahouse, and the first trailer is here.

Word of an Ali G sequel emerged earlier this year when Cohen was spotted filming as the character, and the shroud of secrecy was officially dropped when he showed up at the Wimbledon’s Men’s finals this summer. The sequel – directed by Cohen himself, his directorial debut – sees Ali G back to cause more mayhem, while also pondering his own existence in the face of impending fatherhood with his girlfriend Julie (Morgana Robinson). Though, any narrative is really just an excuse for the character to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting public. Who Iz I? arrives six years after Cohen returned as Borat for sequel Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.

Does Ali G still work as a character in 2026? Will the film prove just as worthwhile as the surprisingly decent second movie Borat movie? And will he be menacing Madonna again? We’ll find out when Ali G: Who Iz I? hits cinemas on October 23.

Back when Aaron Sorkin wrote The Social Network, Facebook was still primarily just a social media platform – albeit one that brought revolutionary levels of connection for people around the world, for better and worse. All of which proved fertile ground for a tech-startup-as-Greek-tragedy tale of Mark Zuckerberg’s rise, penned by Sorkin and directed by David Fincher. But cut to 2026, and Facebook has come to symbolise something much more complex, with much starker implications; ample material, then, for Sorkin to write and direct The Social Reckoning, a follow-up of sorts.

“Brexit, Cambridge Analytica — every time a Facebook event would crop up, I’d get phone calls from people saying, ‘You gotta write about this,’” the filmmaker tells Empire. But there’s a reason it’s taken until now to make a second film. “I just couldn’t see where the movie was,” he says. “Before a film can be thought-provoking, relevant or important, it has to work as something that you’ll watch while eating popcorn.”

Rather than a straight sequel, Sorkin describes Reckoning as “another movie about Facebook written by the same guy”, dramatising the 2021 Facebook leak with Mikey Madison as whistleblower Frances Haugen, and Jeremy Allen White as reporter Jeff Horwitz. Stepping into the role of Zuckerberg this time is Jeremy Strong, taking over the role from Jesse Eisenberg; fresh casting for a totally different conception of what Facebook has become. “He didn’t feel like he was stepping into Jesse’s shoes,” says Sorkin of Strong’s take. “He felt, as I did, that it’s not the same character. I think that a few minutes into Jeremy’s performance, people are going to forget about anything else.” Status update incoming.

Read Empire's full The Social Reckoning story in the Digger issue, on sale Thursday August 17. Pre-order a copy online here. The Social Reckoning comes to cinemas on October 9.

Okay, okay, so it would appear — at least according to THR — that reports of Meghan Markle joining The Gentlemen may have been somewhat premature. But news of Guy Ritchie's mob movie spin-off travels fast, and while a Duchess may not be joining the (Crime) Lords and Ladies of The Gentlemen anytime soon, Netflix has just confirmed that Season 3 is officially happening and dropped a tasty new trailer for the series' imminently dropping second season — which you can check out below;

For someone who said "I didn't ask for any of this" back in Season 1, Theo James' once-reluctant duke and criminal empire heir apparent Eddie Horniman sure has changed his tune pretty fast, hasn't he? And after striking up an alliance with Kaya Scodelario's mob boss Susie and her in-the-clink daddy Bobby (Ray Winstone) last time out, it looks like The Gentlemen is going bigger, bolder, and darker with its sophomore season as Eddie attempts to consolidate power, having his cake and eating it as he and Susie expand their operations to Italy and tangle with a slew of new, dangerous individuals (including a Hugh Bonneville with emphasis on the 'evil').

Commenting on both the Season 3 announcement and what fans can expect from Season 2, creator Guy Ritchie — who's also got another mob drama, MobLand, about to drop its second outing next month — has teased: "The ambition of The Gentlemen has accelerated, the world has expanded, and the consequences carry weight. A third season felt inevitable, and I’m looking forward to pushing the boundaries of it further.”

With Eddie well on his way to becoming London's answer to Michael Corleone, the stage set for a wild second season, and a third round of fast-talking, fixing, and general criminality already in the works, The Gentlemen really is only just getting started. And honestly, if it continues to be as fun as last season, then long may it continue. Roll on 3 September, me old chinas.

If you’re pressing start on a Street Fighter movie, you’d better know how to, well, fight. The long-running game series has been a staple of the side-scrolling brawler, and now finally makes it way to the big screen courtesy of director Kitao Sukarai – assembling a wild roster of stars to step into the ring for outlandish showdowns. Among them you’ll find Andrew Koji (of Bullet Train and Warrior fame) as Ryu, and Noah Centineo (next playing Rambo in Jalmari Helander’s First Blood prequel) as Ken Masters, battling the likes of Blanka (Jason Momoa), Balrog (50 Cent), and Chun-Li (Callina Liang).

But, as Koji tells Empire, he wasn’t always a K.O. when it came to playing Street Fighter in his youth. “I wasn’t very good at the game, growing up. I was a button-basher,” he admits. “I found it really hard. But being an Asian dude growing up in the West, I’d always play as Ryu because he was the one that was like me.” Thankfully, he has all the skills to bring Ryu’s martial arts mastery to life on screen. “My task was to try and bring as much depth and nuance as possible,” he says. “Ryu’s fighting style is more karate, so I was training and studying Shotokan karate as well as judo, jujitsu, and kickboxing.”

It’s no surprise that a Street Fighter movie required its cast to get in fighting shape. “For the physical side, me, Andrew and Callina trained together every day, six days a week, for six weeks straight,” explains Centineo of the regimen.  “I felt like I had something to prove. I think a lot of us did, as we were given an opportunity with this movie to step up into a position we had never been in before. So I think we all felt that responsibility.” Bring on the Vs.

Read Empire’s full Street Fighter feature in the Digger issue, on sale Thursday August 17. Pre-order a copy online here. Street Fighter comes to cinemas on October 16.

Kit Harington has already held many titles. King in the North. Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. The Prince That Was Promised. Now, the man formerly known as Jon Snow can add Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five times winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award to the list as he prepares to trade the Westeros, The Wall, and Game Of Thrones for the Wizarding World. Yes, just days after Nicholas Hoult was confirmed as Gilderoy Lockhart in Season 2 of HBO's Harry Potter series, the cable giant has confirmed 'a slight change due to scheduling', and now Harington's set to don the blonde. Check out the announcement below;

As a not-so-wise wizard once roughly said, "fame is a fickle friend, celebrity is as celebrity does, and scheduling conflicts really do just sneak up on you out of nowhere." But while fans of Nicholas Hoult will doubtless be disappointed/pleased (delete as applicable) to see their ever-booked and busy fave — who's currently hard at work on his return as Lex Luthor in James Gunn's Superman sequel Man Of Tomorrow — drop out of Potter, if ever there were a suitable replacement then Harington would be the one. As devout Potterheads will doubtless already be aware, Harington has actually played Gilderoy Lockhart before, voicing the outspoken and underqualified Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher in Audible's recent all-star Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets full cast audiobook.

With Francesca Gardiner and Mark Mylod's ambitious Wizarding World reboot due to take flight with The Philosopher's Stone on HBO Max this Christmas, and filming expected to get underway on The Chamber Of Secrets before the year is through, the Potter reboot train has well and truly left the station. As for what this much-discussed and debated return to Hogwarts has in store for us however, only time will tell. Accio 25 December, we guess!

Oddly enough, history is replete with stories about being in the belly of a whale. There’s the biblical version with Jonah (see: The Bible, duh) and its reinterpretation in Pinocchio, finding the puppet-boy stranded in the cavernous innards of Monstro. But never before has a cinematic telling truly explored how exactly it would feel to be eaten alive and swallowed down into a whale’s stomach. Until now. Enter Whalefall, the wild new survival thriller from director Brian Duffield, which finds Austin Abrams’ diver Jay in deep, deep trouble.

Stuck in a whale’s stomach with only an hour to escape, Jay’s predicament had to feel real – so Duffield opted for practical effects wherever possible, “to give you that visceral feeling of, ‘This is really happening to him’,” he tells Empire. As an audience member, you should feel it, and hear it too. “The whale’s heart is beside the stomach, so throughout the movie it is beating and the stomach is reacting to the beats,” says Duffield.

As if that wasn’t enough, Jay will face more than acid and a dwindling air-supply in the literal belly of the beast. “For a while, there was a squid puppet in the stomach, too,” says Duffield – describing the stomach set as “a diva”, for all the issues it posed. “We would fill it up with water and then drain the water out, and the stomach would assume a completely different shape overnight. All our storyboarding, previs and planning — none of it worked once we got inside the whale,” he says. “That was really hard and challenging, and could lead to really dark days.” Even a fake whale’s stomach can be a dangerous place.

Read Empire’s full Whalefall feature in the Digger issue, on sale Thursday August 17. Pre-order a copy online here. Whalefall comes to cinemas on October 16.

Who is Vision? It’s a good question. Paul Bettany’s Marvel character has a long and storied history in the MCU, predating even his official Vision debut in Avengers: Age Of Ultron, right back to voicing Tony Stark’s JARVIS operating system in Iron Man. Since then, he’s been melded with Ultron and the Mind Stone, become an automaton, been killed by Thanos, revived in a fake reality by his lover Wanda, and re-emerged as White Vision back in his original body. No wonder his new series, VisionQuest, finds him questioning who he is.

For showrunner Terry Matalas, the series – ending a trilogy that began with WandaVision and Agatha All Along – is the perfect way for Vision to get existential. “This is the first time where we get to watch Vision drive the narrative, and understand who he is, who he thinks he was,” he tells Empire. “We watch this character go through an identity crisis. It’s kind of the Vision movie, if you will.” Part of that exploration involves Vision reverting into an internal virtual reality, where Ultron, EDITH, DUM-E and U are given human-avatar form. “They’re there to help him,” Bettany explains. “He is attempting to move about in the world in a small way, and then at night download this data and discuss the things that have happened to him with these different AIs, who have different characteristics and help him understand different qualities and skills. But he is also very much using it as an excuse to keep the world and himself at arm’s length. And of course, events conspire to drag him actually into the world.”

For Matalas, the show is – like WandaVision and Agatha before it – all about what it means to be a human being. “I think ultimately, what Vision is going through are things that we all go through, and deal with,” he says. “Trauma, dealing with relationships, dealing with how we react to experiencing love or not experiencing that. It’s strange that a show about an AI is the most human of them all.” Let the ’Quest begin.

Read Empire’s full feature on VisionQuest in the Digger issue, on sale Thursday August 17. Pre-order a copy online here. VisionQuest streams on Disney+ from October 14.

Saoirse Ronan never misses. Right from her early child performances, through to her recent work, she’s proved one of Ireland’s greatest talents – often playing characters who the audience can root for wholeheartedly, flawed as they may be. See Lady Bird, Jo in Little Women, Rona in The Outrun, or burgeoning detective Constable Stalker in See How They Run. But it’s rare to see Ronan go full wrong’un, a mode she’s keen to explore going forward.

“I want to go dark,” she emphatically tells Empire. And she wouldn’t mind doing so in one of cinema’s biggest franchises. “I said that I wanted to be a Bond villain and I’m dead serious,” Ronan elaborates. “I think it would be really interesting, having a young female villain. Especially for girls and women, to see someone who can just take all that pent-up anger and direct it somewhere, there’s something interesting in that dramatically. So I would love to do more of that.”

She is, however, playing someone caught in a devilishly dark predicament in her latest film Bad Apples – as teacher Maria who, through various means, winds up holding captive a particularly disruptive pupil. And once he’s out of her classroom (and locked in her basement instead) her lessons undeniably become a much happier place. “The whole point, and the reason why the writing is so clever, is that it’s gone past being black and white,” she tells Empire of the film. “I don’t know what I would do in that situation, but I certainly don’t feel like Maria is an out-and-out psychopath. I think she’s the nicest villain you could play.” Next stop: all-out Bond nastiness?

Read Empire’s full Bad Apples story in the Digger issue, on sale Thursday August 17. Pre-order a copy online here. Bad Apples comes to UK cinemas from September 18.

Cinema has brought us so many visions of the apocalypse across the decades. We’ve seen the human race face towering infernos, asteroid armageddons, icebergs ahead, marauding martians, and climate deep-freezes, to name but a few. But with Digger, filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu is preparing a different kind of disaster movie. Already, he’s sent Michael Keaton into an existential tailspin in Birdman, and stranded Leonardo DiCaprio in the icy wilderness in The Revenant (both to Oscar-winning effect). And now, he’s got Tom Cruise – as you’ve never seen him before – at the heart of a story about the thing that might be the world’s greatest threat: humans.

“The disaster isn’t a comet or an earthquake, or an alien invasion. The disaster is us,” he tells Empire of his new movie, in which Cruise’s oil tycoon Digger Rockwell unwittingly unleashes ecological hell, and is charged with trying to undo the damage he’s wrought. “Most disaster movies ask, ‘What if something terrible happened to humanity?’ Our question was much simpler: ‘What if humanity happened to humanity?’”

In true Tom Cruise movie style, the stakes couldn’t be higher. And yet, Iñárritu worked with the Hollywood legend to try and conjure a wild and unique presence at the centre of the movie – someone who could represent the best and the worst of us, all at once. “I knew exactly this guy,” says Iñárritu of creating the character. “Reality gives us the events, but imagination lets us recognise ourselves in them. Literally, this film is about us. The film revolves around these three ancient forces, which are greed, power, and responsibility.” Here’s hoping Digger Rockwell can shovel us out of the end of days.

Read Empire’s world-exclusive Digger cover story – speaking to Tom Cruise, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed and more – in the October 2026 issue, on sale Thursday August 27. Pre-order a copy online here. Digger comes to UK cinemas from October 2.

After portraying the neurotic sister in Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, Sian Clifford serves up another dynamic performance on a silver platter as haughty aristocrat Lady  Isabella in Samuel Abrahams’ spirited debut feature. The mockumentary comedy follows Isabella, an eccentric 40-something woman living alone at the sprawling Ravenhyde Hall estate, who has tricked inquisitive director Sam (Laurie Kynaston) — no doubt loosely based on Abrahams — into believing that her marooned existence is worthy of documentation as she’s “aristocracy’s answer to the Kardashians”.

Shot like a low-budget fly-on-the-wall documentary, Lady’s intriguing blend of mockumentary and surrealism matches the bizarrely engaging chemistry between Kynaston and Clifford, as a young director, vying for a candid study, clashes with a woman desperate to control her narrative. Clifford is particularly potent as Isabella, who in impassioned moments of pseudo-performance art (declaring that she’s the canvas, the paint and the brush) decides to compete in the annual talent show Stately Stars, which she hosts and judges for local children. As Abrahams’ sharp script, co-written with Miranda Campbell Bowling, reveals the reality of Isabella’s life, including dealing with menopause and struggling with grief, she begins to fade away, disappearing figuratively and literally in her gilded cage.

Jonny Woodley’s intensely haunting, vocally operatic score and Terri Higgins’ costume design (from a bright-azure tartan pantsuit to leopard print layered with a trench coat) add a psychedelic touch. While there are moments where the mockumentary format hiccups with the camera’s questionable positioning, and Clifford’s raucous performance tips into frenzied territory, Abrahams is quick to get the film back on track with moments of deep vulnerability. With shades of Saltburn’s opulent aesthetic and Grey Gardens’ ruminative loneliness, Lady embodies unexpectedly poignant ponderings on the invisibility of middle-aged women and the relationship between artist and muse.

Ordinarily, the prospect of a gruelling 15-hour shift would be pure nightmare fuel to us — and, in fairness, to the overworked staffers at the fictitious Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center we imagine that very much is pure nightmare fuel. But for those of us that just love watching The Pitt, TV veteran R. Scott Gemmill's critically acclaimed real-time medical drama, the prospect of another 900 or so minutes with Noah Wyle's Dr. Robby and his team is the stuff dreams are made of. And as the newly dropped trailer for The Pitt Season 3 shows, it looks like we're in for another doozy down at the ED when HBO Max's smash streaming series returns. Check it out below;

Robby's off sabbatical, honey! After that emotionally charged The Pitt Season 2 finale, this teaser trailer for Season 3 — which very much is mostly all tease, little trailer — wastes no time confirming that of course Dr. Michael Robinavitch is back, ready to take the reigns from Shawn Hatosy's Dr. Jack Abbot and his nightcrawlers for another bloody, mad, probably bloody mad stint in The Pitt. And as we see here, all our faves — Isa Briones' Santos, Gerran Howell's Whitaker, Katherine LaNasa's Dana, Patrick Ball and Taylor Dearden and Fiona Dourif et al. (sans Supriya Ganesh's much-loved Dr. Mohan) — are scrubbing back in to deal with a fresh batch of gruesome injuries, grieving family members, and, er, a guy repeatedly whacking his head against a glass door. "I knew my first day back was going to be hard, dealing with what we go through here," Wyle's Robbie astutely says over this new trailer, "And I knew that it could get a little bit crazy... but it's time to get back to it." And honestly, fair enough!

With The Pitt Season 2 currently up for approximately eleventy billion Emmy awards (and sitting pretty in the top spot of our best TV shows of 2026 so far), everyone and their nan talking about HBO Max's must-see hit, and Season 3 already looking like another instant classic case of out of the frying pan and into the fryer for Dr. Robby and co, we're already seated and ready for another 50cc hit of pure adrenaline from R. Scott Gemmill. Roll on January!

Platform: PC

The original 1982 anthology film Creepshow was an instant cult classic. It paired the directorial clout of horror maven George Romero with five tales of terror penned by Stephen King in his screenwriting debut, all brought to life by effects guru Tom Savini, with everything modelled on the classic EC Comics horror titles of the 1950s.

Conversely, Creepshow the video game isn’t worthy of cleaning up the popcorn from a particularly messy midnight madness screening of the original material. Ostensibly based more directly on Greg Nicotero’s recent TV show adaptation for horror streaming platform Shudder, developer PHL Collective – whose priors include slapdash brand tie-ins Barbie Horse Trails and SpongeBob Squarepants: The Patrick Star Game, which should be the first warning – tries to translate the unpredictable nature of each episode into a collection of 3D point-and-click narrative adventures, but ultimately serves up a messy, buggy, boring, short, ill-thought mess that feels unfinished and, worse, packs zero scares.

There are countless head-scratching development decisions to encounter during Creepshow’s meagre four hour play time, but let’s kick off with the near total absence of The Creep, the iconic ghoul who frames each episode of the show. The cackling figure is front and centre on the game’s start screens, and occasionally pops up for an audio cameo to mockingly narrate or introduce some of the on-screen events, but is otherwise absent.

Instead, the framing narrative focuses on a group of archetypal ‘80s teens – nerdy Danny, goth Mel, cheerleader Liz, and jock Jack, investigating a burned down mall where Danny’s father died years before. Separated from the group, Danny encounters reject ‘horror host’ The Reader, some sort of fortune telling zombie mariachi musician sat in an arcade cabinet, who promises to help him escape the ruined mall if he reads him some stories found in the form of Creepshow comic books.

That serves as threadbare set-up for the rest of the game which, like the show, comprises two unrelated narratives. Another bizarre decision – that format works for weekly episodic television, but makes the package here feel almost embarassingly devoid of content. The first story, “Metamorphic Love”, sees fast food worker and amateur entomologist Andrew caring for his soon-to-be-late wife Laura but, unable to deal with her passing, descending into insectoid delusions. The second, “The Toll Keeper”, follows Father Torosian, a disgraced priest sent to a remote church as penance for some past transgression, but instead of tending to its restoration starts following otherworldly voices promising him vitality and glory — all in exchange for a few measly souls, of course.

A good point-and-click thrives on its puzzles, yet Creepshow offers a paltry and pathetic few in each of its tales...

There’s spooky potential in both, but it remains almost completely unrealised. Metamorphic Love seems to want to be a horror tinged take on Franz Kafka, but its moments of body horror as Linda’s corpse is slowly corrupted, mutated, and ultimately puppeted by a giant cockroach are undermined by dated visuals. PHL seems to be trying to blend Creepshow’s comic book influences with TellTale Games’ well-honed aesthetic, but even TellTale’s earliest, roughest outing looks better than this. The Toll Keeper fares a little better, having a sense of rural, isolated unease that evokes a mix of The Wicker Man and Apostle, but still lacks and real frights. And while Creepshow, in any format, never quite masters the satisfyingly twisted moral comeuppances that Tales From the Crypt often excels at, both the ‘comic’ stories and the framing narrative surrounding Danny and The Reader ultimately just sort of… stop. You’ll put your pad down thinking “was that it?”.

Across it all, there’s barely any actual game here, either. Objectives tell you exactly what to do in what order, and any attempt to deviate or explore the tiny settings of each story offers no reward. A good point-and-click thrives on its puzzles, yet Creepshow offers a paltry and pathetic few in each of its tales – an insect-themed panel sliding one is the most challenging that Andrew faces, although Torosion does have a slightly trickier task of piecing together bible verse clues to open a lockbox. There are hints of other puzzles scattered through, but none can seem to be completed or fully implemented within the game and remain inessential to completing it.

Worst of all though is how broken the game is, functionally, as a piece of software. Tested across two computers it routinely crashed, ultimately to the point of needing to be reinstalled after every play session. When it did deign to run, the game presented numerous glitches including interactive objects not being interactive, collectibles reappearing after picking them up, supporting characters walking “off camera” during cutscenes but then floating around as immaterial models if you followed them, and cutscenes not triggering until the player character walked through a trigger point multiple times.

About the best that can be said for Creepshow is that it has decent voice acting and some good moments of dark humour – with one actual laugh out loud moment in Metamorphic Love – but that’s nowhere near enough to salvage this mess. The only scary thing? That someone, somewhere thought this was in an appropriate state to release.

The world of Guy Ritchie's Netflix gangster series The Gentlemen — spun-off from the Brit auteur's same-named 2019 Matthew McConaughey movie — is no stranger to Dukes, Duchesses, Lords, and Ladies. But at the end of a week in which we've learned that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are moving back to Britain after six years across the pond, THR is reporting that one of those very real royals might be gearing up to drop into Ritchie's morally murky world of crime families, crosses, and double-crosses. And we'll give you a clue: it ain't Harry.

Yes, as first scooped by Deadline and then reaffirmed by THR, it looks like Suits star Meghan Markle is eyeing a return to acting after some nine years away, with a part already being written for the Duchess of Sussex in an as-yet-unconfirmed third season of The Gentlemen. Per THR's sources, Markle and Ritchie met through mutual acquaintances, and clearly hit it off well enough for the former to start seriously considering an acting return to our screens and the latter to get to work with his mob drama's writing team on finding a way to weave Markle into the show's narrative. It remains unknown at this point the extent of Markle's proposed role in the show, but presumably it's fairly substantial — well, substantial enough at least to lure her back to our screens after the best part of a decade out of the game.

Regardless of whether Meghan Markle winds up joining the cast of The Gentlemen or not, there's no shortage of excitement ahead for fans of Guy Ritchie's sweary spin-off series. Season 2 of The Gentlemen is right around the corner, with the latest instalment in the saga of Theo James' Eddie Horniman, Kaya Scodelario's Susie Glass, and their many, many friends/foes/associates due to hit Netflix on 3 September — bringing with it high stakes and tough calls for Eddie and Susie both as they look to consolidate their combustible alliance and expand the criminal empire of mob boss Bobby (Ray Winstone). Watch this space for more on The Gentlemen — and The Duchess' potential involvement in its future — just as soon as we get it...

The Insidious franchise has been treating audiences to various thrill rides for over 15 years at this point, and with the Lamberts finally getting closure (literally) in 2023’s The Red Door, it’s time for The Further to unleash fresh horror onto a new, unsuspecting family.

Enter Amelia Eve’s Gemma, a young mother still living in her childhood home and clinging to the trauma that shaped her. She’s raising her daughter Maya (Island Austin), holding down a solid job, and dating a handsome cop (Brandon Perea). Naturally, their fragile peace doesn’t last: it’s soon shattered by a supernatural nightmare bleeding straight out of The Further.

Director Jacob Chase creates some atmospheric set-pieces that feel tangible in their terror, and delivers the well-crafted jump scares that Insidious fans have come to expect. There are definitely moments here that rival the iconic shock of the Lipstick-face Demon from the first film, but there's more devious dread here too. A pillow‑fort sequence is a standout — all panicked claustrophobia and spooky peeking faces — and for anyone who suffers from odontophobia, let's just say that Gemma's career as a dental hygienist garners plenty of opportunities to set your teeth on edge.

Delivers the polished, popcorn‑friendly terror that fans come for.

Sam Spruell’s big bad brings convincing menace, and his three earthbound disciples add decent sideshow creepiness, even if they lean heavily on the tired ‘old people are gross’ trope. Unfortunately, the clichés don’t stop there: Maisie Richardson‑Sellers’ Clare is saddled with the lazy ‘magical negro’ archetype, and is given fairly short shrift, including a baffling heist-planning scene involving a punnet of tattooed grapefruits.

Still, the performances are solid across the board, and it’s always a pleasure to have Lin Shaye back as Elise – the franchise’s stalwart paranormal investigator – now offering guidance from the other side.

Insidious: Out Of The Further doesn’t reinvent the franchise, but when it leans into its eerie set‑pieces and fresh family dynamic, it delivers exactly the kind of polished, popcorn‑friendly terror that fans come for.

Tom Cruise is not a man who’s easy to forget. He’s one of the biggest stars Hollywood has ever seen. A man whose contributions to cinema range from some of the most jaw-dropping action spectacles ever pulled off (see: the Mission: Impossible movies, Top Gun and its sequel, and many more) to arresting character dramas that made him a megastar in the first place (from A Few Good Men, to Rain Man, to Jerry Maguire). And yet, during production of his latest film Digger, Cruise’s co-star Riz Ahmed found himself lost in the larger-than-life character that the star has worked up with director Alejandro G. Iñárritu: a certain Digger Rockwell.

“I kind of forgot about Tom. Because Tom was Digger, and he became Digger, and he stayed in Digger,” Ahmed tells Empire of Digger, in which he plays scientist Ganesh. “Whatever people say about method acting, whether you try or not, lines blur between yourself and a character. They have to. That’s the process, right?” While he’s keeping schtum on any further details about Ganesh, or how he crosses paths with Digger Rockwell – a brash oil tycoon who unleashes ecological catastrophe, and is charged with making it right – Ahmed has much to say on his experience shooting with Cruise. Or, more accurately, with Digger. “I joked, at the end of it all we had a wrap dinner, I was like, ‘It’s really good to meet you, but I wish my pal Digger was here’,” he says. “It was that kind of feeling. We’d joke around like, ‘Man, I’ve heard Tom Cruise is meant to be on set somewhere.’”

It’s a move that Cruise himself has described as a “leap into the unknown” – and Ahmed was thrilled to join him in the freefall. “Honestly, I think it was quite liberating for him as well, to be able to lose himself, lose that globally recognised face into a character. I could see that allowing him to be open, in a different way,” he says. That’s Digger Rockwell: nothing is done by halves.

Read Empire’s world-exclusive Digger cover story – speaking to Tom Cruise, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed and more – in the October 2026 issue, on sale Thursday August 27. Pre-order a copy online here. Digger comes to UK cinemas from October 2.

From the people who bring you the Empire Podcast every week, comes Empire+, which brings you dedicated show digging into the twists, third-act revelations, and juiciest talking points of major movies that the spoiler-free regular podcast has to avoid. From access to the creators behind the films to extensive discussions among the Empire pod-team and more, it’s the ultimate movie companion, there for you to get more out of the films you love. Plus you'll also get additional bonus podcasts like The Ranking and Mount Rushmore, as well as ad-free access to the regular weekly podcast.

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This week's episode of the Empire Podcast sees Jane Schoenbrun, director of Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma, chat to Harry Stainer on Zoom about their new movie, creating a new horror icon, and their own filmmaking journey. Either side of that, Helen O'Hara is joined in the podbooth by James Dyer and Jamie Graham to take a bunch of listener questions, discuss the week's movie news (including their takes on the X-Men casting from D23), and review the aforementioned Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma, The Stath's latest movie, Mutiny, & Sons, and Stop! That! Train! Enjoy.

And if all of the above isn't quite enough Empire Podcast for you, then there's plenty more where that came from. You can listen to this week's episode (which, if you're counting, is #730) on the pod app of your choice. There, you'll also find the latest episode of Empire Pod regular The Shameless Plug, in which we bring you inside the making of the world's biggest movie magazine. The most recent edition finds Chris Hewitt and Editor Nick de Semlyen chatting about our world-exclusive The Rings Of Power Season 3 cover feature, our also-world-exclusive collaboration with Laika for a very special 16 page Wildwood mini magazine, and much, much more besides.

And if you're after even more podcasting goodness, then our newly launched Empire+ subscription awaits... go check it out! Also, if you want more of the Empire Pod live and in person, then we are returning to Kings Place on Saturday 5 September for a very special edition of the Empire Podcast as part of this year's London Podcast festival. You can find out more about that one on the Kings Place website.

Carving a bloody, Emmy-winning path through the competition, Amber Noizumi and Michael Green's Kurosawa inspired adult animation Blue Eye Samurai was, comfortably, one of the best TV shows of 2023. Now, some three years later, Maya Erskine's mixed-race samurai Mizu is about to set sail for London as her bloody quest for vengeance continues in Blue Eye Samurai Season 2. And with Netflix's Anime NYC event confirming a third — and final — season of Edo era slicing and dicing is already in the works, the first trailer for Season 2 is here to tease the middle chapter in Mizu's tale. Check it out below;

Well, well, well, after *that* cliffhanger Season 1 finale, it looks like Blue Eye Samurai is about to pick up right where it left off, with Mizu's blade having just been at the throat of Kenneth Branagh's Fowler and two men still out there, waiting to be tracked down as our sword-wielding heroine continues trying to find (and off) her potential fathers. And as we see in this visually stunning Season 2 teaser, our gal Mizu is braving hell and high waters to cross the ocean and make it to London, where the sprawl of Europe — and the end of a mysterious figure's blade (let's face it, that'll probably be the hitherto below-deck-bound Fowler) — awaits.

The official synopsis for Blue Eye Samurai Season 2 reads: "In the coming season, Mizu’s bloody quest continues in London, where she faces new friends, old foes, and her own demons. In Japan, Akemi (Brenda Song) and Taigen (Darren Barnet) navigate Edo Castle under a dangerous new shogun, while Ringo (Masi Oka) searches for a new purpose."

With Blue Eye Samurai set to slice its way back onto our screens for Season 2 in January 2027, and Season 3 strafing its way around an expected 2028 release, our journey with Mizu has still barely even begun. Colour us very intrigued to see where it takes us next.

Wake up Samurai, Cyberpunk is back. While CD Projekt Red’s original game had a bumpy launch, a bit of TLC has turned Cyberpunk 2077 into a much-loved RPG. Along with the success of spin-off anime series Edgerunners on Netflix, fans have been clamouring for a reason to revisit Night City. The good news is we now have an all-new season of Edgerunners on the way, and with its newly announced release date, we’ve also got a brand-new trailer:

Released as part of a slate of announcements for Netflix’s anime lineup, the new trailer gives us a glimpse of what we can expect from the action-packed second season, including an all-new cast of characters, plenty of wild-looking cyberware, and what appear to be some Braindance sequences that seem to have been ripped straight out of the game. Given how insane some of the action sequences were in the first season, it’s good to see that the show’s second outing looks to be upping the ante and doubling down on its over-the-top style – with guns firing literally everywhere, and diving into some of the murky politics of the city. And we won’t have to wait long to see it, as the season is dropping on October 20.

This season was once again created as a collaboration between game developers CD Projekt Red and famous animation studio Trigger, and it certainly looks like they’ve cooked up something that Johnny Silverhand would be proud of. See you back in Night City.

Over the last few weeks, the internet has been ablaze with rumours about Charles Melton and whether or not he could be in the frame to play Beast in Jake Schreier's MCU X-Men movie. But with D23's X-Cast announcement having come and gone and no big blue Melton reveal having materialised, it would appear — for now at least — that Marvel Studios is keeping its Beast (whoever that may be) under wraps for now. But fear not because, per Variety's reporting, Melton may have another major blockbuster — namely Destin Daniel Cretton's upcoming live-action Naruto movie — on his near horizon.

According to Variety, Melton is in talks to play fan-favourite character Kakashi Hatake — elite ninja mentor to young wannabe Hokage Naruto and his pals — in Cretton's movie, which just last month announced a global casting call is now underway to cast the titular kid hero and his fellow Team 7 squad members Sasuke and Sakura. News of Melton's potential involvement comes hot on the heels of the Warfare and May December star's recent Emmy nomination for his fantastic turn in Netflix's Beef Season 2 — and given the diversity of the roles the Alaskan actor has played in recent years, it's not hard to see why Cretton would be keen to see him explore a character as simultaneously mysterious, emotionally rich, and frankly damn cool as sensei Kakashi Hatake.

While Destin Daniel Cretton could be forgiven for resting on his laurels and taking a summer vacation after seeing his Spider-Man: Brand New Day swing to a staggering $2 billion and counting at the box office in recent weeks, it seems the in-demand filmmaker is already locking in for his next major franchise blockbuster. And honestly, after the one-two punch of Shang-Chi and Spidey, we could not be more seated for Cretton tackling ninjas, jutsu, and giant fox spirits. Bring. It. On!

For much of the past 15 years, Tom Cruise has been in all-action mode. There are all his Mission: Impossible collaborations with Christopher McQuarrie, his return to the cockpit in Top Gun: Maverick, interspersed with the time-looping alien warfare of Edge Of Tomorrow and outings as the cinematic Jack Reacher. All of which might make you think, it’s been a long time since he did something like the upcoming Digger – a big, wild, out-there character performance, with director Alejandro G. Iñárritu aiming that signature Cruise charisma in a very different direction. Except, the truth is, nobody – not even Tom Cruise – has made something like Digger before.

As the star tells Empire, the process of crafting this larger-than-life character was “a real leap into the unknown,” from which all his other projects were the runway. “It took all of my knowledge, from all of the years of every film I made, to be able to play this character and fulfil the ambition of this movie,” he says. So, who is Digger Rockwell? The literal answer is, an uber-powerful oil tycoon who’s in it up to his neck. The truthful answer? Our doom, and perhaps our saviour too; the best of us, and the worst of us; an American nightmare at the apex of the American dream. Cruise knew he wanted in. “[Iñárritu] showed me, ‘Here’s kind of the character that I want,’” he recalls. “I was like, ‘Let’s fucking go.’ I couldn’t wait.”

Key to crafting that character was a very special script-read – with Iñárritu performing the screenplay aloud to Cruise across several days. “I’ve always done that,” says Cruise. “I want the writer to read me his idea, because then I can see where we’re going. We’re exploring rhythms, and I’m feeling the world. I’m literally an audience. I want to hear his voice. I want to understand, and see the world the way he sees it.” The seeds of Digger were planted there, and continued to flourish as Cruise found his way into the physicality of the character. “I can change the voice and as the make-up’s coming on, you start feeling the movement, you put the suit on, the boots, and I find my own rhythm with it,” he says. Tom Cruise has left the building; Digger Rockwell has arrived. And, action!

Read Empire’s world-exclusive Digger cover story – speaking to Tom Cruise, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed and more – in the October 2026 issue, on sale Thursday August 27. Pre-order a copy online here. Digger comes to UK cinemas from October 2.

When you’re looking at the most important names in the movie poster game, you’ll always find mention of the great Dawn Baillie. That’s because she’s behind some of the most iconic one-sheets ever created – instantly memorable designs that cut right to the heart of whatever film is being represented, immaculate in choice of colour, composition, and tonality, while never shooting for the obvious. This is the mind behind Dirty Dancing’s legendary graphic, The Silence Of The Lambs’ moth-mouthed Jodie Foster, The Truman Show’s larger-than-life Jim Carrey billboard, Zoolander’s gravity-defying pout, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade’s ‘The Man In The Hat Is Back’ piece, and Little Miss Sunshine’s bold yellow splash.

All of which is to say, the subscriber cover for Empire’s upcoming Digger issue is a big deal – designed exclusively for us by Dawn Baillie herself.

Encapsulating the man and the myth that is Digger Rockwell – Tom Cruise’s wild new character, in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s apocalyptic comedy – it cuts the shape of the mysterious figure, complete with cowboy hat, bolo tie, and wild-eyed cat. Except, Digger’s distinctive visage is replaced by his weapon of choice: his shovel. It’s an instantly eye-catching design, a fitting companion piece to Baillie’s own distinctive Digger poster, with its deep Western hues and graphic title treatment.

The cover variant is exclusive to existing Empire print subscribers – and will be arriving through letterboxes in the coming days. If you want to receive bespoke designs like this with your copy of Empire, be sure to sign up for a magazine subscription here for future issues.

The newsstand edition of Empire’s Digger issue hits shelves on Thursday August 27, speaking to Iñárritu, Cruise, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller and more about the year’s boldest original movie – which comes to cinemas on October 2. Can you dig it?

Tom Cruise has appeared on the cover of Empire many times over the years, often in different guises. In full navy get-up for A Few Good Men. Long-haired, circa Interview With The Vampire. In Japanese armour for The Last Samurai, and a battle-mech suit for Edge Of Tomorrow. Several appearances for Mission: Impossible movies, sometimes surrounded by flame, others riding a motorbike in mid-air. But among those – and many other – Tom Cruise covers, you’ve never seen one like this. Because on the cover of the new issue of Empire, it isn’t really Tom Cruise in the traditional sense: it’s Digger Rockwell.

This month’s Empire is a world-exclusive deep-dive into Digger – the daring new collaboration between Cruise and director Alejandro G. Iñárritu – getting to the dark heart of their apocalyptic comedy. Inside, we speak to the director about his vision for a different kind of disaster movie, and hear the full story from Cruise on getting into the mind and body of a character like he’s never played before, as Hollywood’s biggest star takes his biggest swing. Plus, we speak to Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman and more on inhabiting Digger’s wild world, with never-before-seen images from this year’s boldest original movie. Check out the newsstand cover in full here:

And that’s not all – also in this issue, we get the full story on Marvel’s new T’Challa in Black Panther III, go into the belly of the beast on Whalefall, get a status update on Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning, step into the ring with Street Fighter, get existential with VisionQuest, take a bite with Bad Apples star Saoirse Ronan, start a revolt with Andrew Garfield on The Uprising, and much more. You won’t want to miss it.

Empire’s Digger issue comes to newsstands from Thursday August 27. Pre-order a copy online here. Digger comes to cinemas from 2 October.

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC

Soulslike game developers have been gleefully punishing players ever since FromSoftware unleashed Demon's Souls on unsuspecting action-RPG fans back in 2009. But while the genre has grown increasingly competitive – and crowded – in the 15-plus years since PS3 owners braved the foreboding kingdom of Boletaria, it hasn't seen many significant evolutions in that time. Mortal Shell II remedies this, delivering a refreshed, more accessible take on the formula while still retaining the brutal boss battles, permanent currency loss, and dark fantasy vibes fans adore.

Like any good soulslike worth its weight in dropped XP, Mortal Shell II checks all the expected boxes. Its combat is deep and challenging, its world cleverly interconnected, and its health-reviving checkpoints have a habit of respawning all the nightmarish creeps you just carved up. And, of course, if you're unable to recover your valuable, player-progressing resources – dubbed "gloom" here – upon death, you lose it for good.

But while Mortal Shell II includes all the staples seasoned players crave, it also tweaks them in a number of welcome ways. First and foremost, its combat drops the genre-defining stamina bar, making melees much faster and more fluid. Fights are still challenging, weighty, and rewarding as hell. But they also favor speed and aggression over the more deliberate, measured approach of similar entries. It doesn't hurt that up-close strikes also fuel the ability to use powerful specials and ranged sidearms, encouraging you to feverishly bring the fight to your enemies.

Speaking of freeing foes of their innards, the dynamic combat cadence is nicely complemented by this heavier focus on distanced attacks. You're welcome to rely on the awesome assortment of handheld death-dealers – like dual katanas that can somehow morph into a beefy battle axe – but it's far more satisfying to swap between melee and sidearm attacks on-the-fly. This is especially true when wielding some of the more creative "guns," like a lute that turns targets against each other with its twisted tunes.

The stellar combat is further elevated by seals, which ensure the challenging battles are both more flexible and accessible. These acquired items inform your defensive options, allowing you to switch between the genre's signature high-risk-high-reward parry, a more forgiving guard, a block that literally turns you to stone, and a difficulty-decreasing defense that's great for newcomers.

Cold Symmetry's second crack at a soulslike is leaps and bounds better than its first effort

Toss in a ton of active and passive perks, and tailoring and tweaking builds quickly becomes an addictive metagame in Mortal Shell II. Of course, this is before you even account for its titular shells, inhabitable husks of former warriors that significantly shape your playstyle. With a total of eight discoverable, class-based shells, you can freely swap between them, tackling the adventure like a tank, adopting a stealthy approach, or crafting a combo that borrows from various disciplines.

Beyond injecting the gameplay's core mechanics with plenty of new, welcome layers, Mortal Shell II introduces a number of minor changes that further file down the genre's rougher, off-putting edges. Its more streamlined world isn't bloated or confusing, while its lore isn't unnecessarily obtuse. More than that, its tighter, well-paced campaign respects that you have more to do than wander aimlessly for hours or die dozens of times at the feet of the same insurmountable foe.

Developer Cold Symmetry's second crack at a soulslike is leaps and bounds better than its first effort, but it's not without a few cracks in its, er, shell. A few glitches and bugs occasionally break the immersion, as do some frustrating late-game difficulty spikes.

Still, these minor headaches are worth suffering for an evolved take on the tried-and-true template that makes an enduring formula feel fresh as a newly resurrected corpse run.

From the writer (J.P. Davis) and director (Jean-François Richet) of Plane, this action-thriller is reported to have begun life as a sequel to that 2023 Gerard Butler vehicle. It was entitled, naturally, ‘Ship’, but retooled after Butler, well, jumped ship, thus clearing the way for Jason Statham to board a movie that might be described as Die Hard On A Boat, had Under Siege not got there already. Thirty-four years ago.

Mutiny is a throwback, the kind of contained, no-nonsense action picture that Hollywood thrived on before CGI made anything possible… except, in most cases, realism and peril. Statham has previously played getaway drivers, bank robbers, cops, hitmen, construction workers and a beekeeper, but nearly all of his tough guys are ex-somethings, and so it is here. In fact, bodyguard Cole Reed is doubly hard because he’s an ex-cop and an ex-Royal Marine (“I pissed off the wrong people”). He’s also a master strategist, always three moves ahead. We know this because, early doors, he wins a game of chess without so much as a stroke of his perma-stubbled chin. As particular sets of skills go, his are particularly particular, so who better to creep through the dingy hull and cranking air vents of the KMG Artemis in an effort to learn how the captain and crew are involved in the murder of Cole’s shipping tycoon boss, Tibu (Ramon Tikaram)?

Statham simply takes care of brutal business and there’s nothing fun about it.

Dealing death dressed in denim, Reed fights at close quarters, brief and brutal. His fists are hard and heavy as anchors, and he makes violent use of whatever objects are at hand — hook, padlock, harpoon — with nary a quip. “I wonder how many steaks I could make out of you?” the Stath mused in Crank; “Do I look like a man who came halfway across Europe to die on a bridge?” he snarled in Transporter 3. In Mutiny, he simply takes care of brutal business and there’s nothing fun about it, the tone prescribed by a grim plot-turn that’s only surprising in that Statham should choose to cover such similar ground to his last movie, A Working Man.

Viewers will probably have more fun than Reed does, but only just. For while Mutiny’s adherence to back-to-basic, crunchy action is to be applauded, it often drags between fight sequences, with neither the conspiracy thread nor the characters, most of whom are disposable goons, engaging heart or mind. Even Reed teaming up with the third mate (Annabelle Wallis) only brings a dynamic that chugs like the boat’s engine. What’s odd is that Mutiny begins with a Leone-style close-up of Statham’s narrowed eyes, but any stylisation ends there. The next 90 minutes are all breezeblock-grey visuals, and a climactic scrap between a literal boatload of Marines, pirates, ex-military and ex-mercenary henchmen never threatens to be anything more than solid.

Legacy sequels and TV show revivals are all the rage these days, aren't they? Whether it's Frasier or Fuller House, Picard or Cobra Kai or And Just Like That, telly makers — and viewers — just love a story without an ending. And now we can add Kurt Sutter's biker gang drama Sons Of Anarchy to the list of shows making a comeback... although unlike the others, this one is coming with a wild meta twist.

Per THR's reporting, FX has ordered a 'meta-thriller' spin-off, Legends, from Sons Of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam and Jonathan Groff. The show, a limited series, is set to bring back all the main players from the original show, including Hunnam himself, Ron Perlman, Katey Sagal, Maggie Siff, Mark Boone Junior, Tommy Flanagan, Kim Coates, and Theo Rossi. But here's the twist: they won't be playing their motorcycle club members from Sons here — they'll be playing fictionalised versions of themselves, Galaxy Quest style. The show's official description reads: “When the cast of Sons of Anarchy reunites at a fan convention after more than a decade, the line between life and art blurs as the fractured brotherhood finds itself up against a real-world threat more dangerous than anything they ever faced in their show.” That's certainly one way to work around Sons' sizeable body count!

“When Charlie brought us this inspired idea, we instantly sparked to his bold and entertaining vision,” said FX Entertainment president Nick Grad in a statement accompanying Legends' announcement. “Charlie’s talents are on full display as a writer, performer and executive producer, leading the real-life brotherhood on an adventure that is both a love letter to the series and a fun meta twist on what fans think they know.”

Given Sons Of Anarchy's status as one of the greatest TV shows of all time, and just how good its sequel/spin-off show Mayans M.C. wound up being, the prospect of a return to Northern California would be a tantalising one in any form. With a meta new wrinkle being introduced though, consider us fully revved up and ready to see what Hunnam and co have cooking with this one. Watch this space for more casting confirmations and updates in the weeks to come.

It may have been 15 years now since Laika Studios first acquired the rights to adapt Colin Meloy's YA fantasy epic Wildwood, but as the saying goes, all good things come to those who wait — and Travis Knight's stop-motion epic does look very good. With the first teaser for Knight's movie having racked up a staggering 90 million views and counting on YouTube alone, today Laika has unveiled a new trailer for its long-gestating latest — this one bringing Carey Mulligan's complex human antagonist Alexandra into the spotlight as Wildwood's tale of love, loss, and war comes into sharper focus. Check it out below;

Ooft... talk about all the feels! 'How far would you go for those you love?' asks this latest trailer for Wildwood. And the answer appears to be resounding: however far it takes. As we see here, Kubo And The Two Strings director Knight and veteran Laika writer Chris Butler are pulling out all the stops to tug the heartstrings and take the breath away with Wildwood, positioning this Narnia-esque fantasy yarn as the story of a grieving mother trying to reckon with and seek some sort of retribution for the loss of her son, and a distraught sister (that'd be Peyton Elizabeth Lee's plucky Portlander Prue McKeel) desperately trying to find her crow-nabbed baby brother in an enchanted, well, wild wood.

Throw in a war for the very soul of Wildwood, a slew of factions — human and otherwise — all fighting for their own deeply personal causes, and some thorny politics at play as Prue and her classmate Curtis (Jacob Tremblay) head into the woods, and you've got yourself a recipe for what appears to be another nailed-on Laika banger. (Also, did you see the trebuchets? The armies? The sword-wielding coyotes? Knight wasn't kidding when he said he wanted told Empire he wanted to make the stop-motion Lord Of The Rings... sheesh!)

The official synopsis for Wildwood — whose starry ensemble includes Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, Richard E. Grant, Awkwafina, Amandla Stenberg, and actual Tom Waits — reads: "“After her baby brother is abducted by a murder of crows, headstrong teenager Prue McKeel (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) launches a desperate rescue mission into the Impassable Wilderness—an enchanted forest hidden just beyond Portland, Oregon. Joined by her hapless but loyal classmate Curtis Mehlberg (Jacob Tremblay), Prue navigates a world of talking animals, bandits, and powerful figures driven by grief and ambition. As the pair is drawn into a conflict threatening the balance of the forest itself, Prue must discover the strength and belief she never knew she possessed. If she hopes to save her brother and protect Wildwood’s fragile future, she will have to risk everything.”

We look forward to heading into the woods with Wildwood when Laika's latest hits cinemas globally on 23 October. And if you can't wait that long, then Empire has got you covered. Pick up a copy of our Rings Of Powers Season 3 issue, available at all good and evil magazine sellers right now, and you'll find a bonus 16-page Wildwood magazine filled with exclusive interviews, images, insights, and more. What are you waiting for? Quick! Grab one! Now!

Platforms: PS5, PC

For players of a certain… vintage, let’s say… the pinnacle of Marvel fighting games was Marvel vs. Capcom 2, originally released back in 2000 for arcades and Sega Dreamcast. Other superhero brawlers from the House of Ideas since then have mostly fallen flat – the likes of Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects or the mobile Contest of Champions are best forgotten, and even later MvC entries never quite replicated the majesty of its second outing. Now though, after more than a quarter century, a new challenger has appeared – and it might finally take MvC 2’s crown as king of 2D fighters.

Developed by Arc System Works – the studio behind the fantastic anime-styled fighting series Guilty Gear and BlazBlue – Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls brings together a host of Marvel heroes and villains for a tag-team battle with the fate of the world at stake. When cosmic big bad The Champion sets his sights on Earth, hoping to finally find a worthwhile challenger to test his own skills against, he models the competition around the first heroes of the Age of Marvels, gathering groups of four to fight it out for a shot at his curious brand of glory. The only catch? If they underperform, our blue marble goes kablooey.

The five quartets of fighters make for quite the varied roster. The Fighting Avengers teams up Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, and Black Panther (Shuri); Unbreakable X-Men features Storm, Wolverine, Magik, and Danger; The Amazing Guardians consists of Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, Star-Lord, and multiversal spider-hero Peni Parker and her SP//DR robot; Blade, Ghost Rider, Loki, and Deadpool make up the Samurai Outriders (meant to be the Midnight Suns, but Deadpool overrode the decision); while the Knights of Doom comprise some of Marvel’s deadliest villains – Doctor Doom, Magneto, Green Goblin, and Carnage. Oddly, given the set up, the iconic Fantastic Four themselves are absent bar a glaringly lampshaded mention – surely a contender for future DLC.

Tōkon offers a surprisingly robust single-player story mode, tapping long-time Marvel writer Kieron Gillen to pen a storyline for each team, and pairing him with an assortment of artists from the worlds of American and Japanese comics to produce cutscenes that play out a living comics. These are all fairly short, eleven chapters each with a battle interspersed in each chapter, but allow Gillen space enough to establish the characters and play with some of the stranger character grouping – the Amazing Guardians is a standout here.

However, Tōkon truly excels as a 4-on-4 tag fighter thanks to its exceptional mechanics. You’ll control each team as one unit, with a shared health bar for all four members. Starting as the leader for each team, you can call on your allies to either deliver additional strikes at pivotal moments, or to tag out entirely, allowing you to take advantage of another member’s unique moves. Each fighter feels unique, from Spidey’s speedy, agile moveset – Arc has even incorporated his spider-sense, allowing players to react to and dodge attacks – to Hulk’s lumbering brute strength or Green Goblin’s suite of aerial moves on his glider. You’ll also need to build an “Assemble” gauge over the course of each fight before being able to let loose with an all-powerful full team attack.

Tōkon hits that sweet spot between immediate accessibility, thanks to a combo system that at its simplest mixes light, medium, and heavy attacks, and the complexity fighting fans crave, with a high skill ceiling. While casual players can get by on button bashing – and will have a fun time doing so, thanks to the exquisitely animated visuals and dynamically destructible stages – more competitive players will be challenged to master exactly when to switch between characters to take control of the or unleash their most powerful team moves. Already, online multiplayer is filled with some extremely competent players.

It’s crammed with niche characters and deep cut references to the source material

Marvel Tōkon also features an odd little extra mode called Arcadia Rumble, which swaps the detailed anime visuals of the main 2D fighter mode for chibi versions of the characters running around 3D maps, gathering stat-boosting power-ups in one round, before swapping back to the familiar fighting interface for the next. It’s an interesting experiment, with the 3D rounds feeling inspired by Power Stone, another classic Capcom game, though it might need a few post-launch updates to evolve into a robust experience in its own right.

What really cements Marvel Tōkon as the long-delayed successor to Marvel vs Capcom 2 though is how much respect it shows to the original comics. Like its predecessor, it’s crammed with niche characters and deep cut references to the source material, and while it never feels like it’s snubbing anyone who doesn’t have strong opinions on which version of Ghost Rider should be featured (it’s the modern Robbie Reyes incarnation, for those who do), there’s something really special in this not feeling like a soulless project forced out the door for maximum MCU #synergy. A blazingly brilliant brawler only slightly let down by its half-formed party game mode, Marvel Tōkon is a worthy rival to the best of the genre.

It's hard to believe that in a world where we regularly wait several years between seasons of The Rings Of Power and House Of The Dragon (or, by the time it comes out, six years between The Batman movies), Apple TV has somehow managed to put out five stonking seasons of top-notch spy series Slow Horses in the last four years alone. And, like clockwork, Slow Horses Season 6 — adapting Mick Herron's sixth and seventh Slough House novels — is set to hit our screens next month, promising more Jackson Lamb, more high stakes spycraft, and... the return of Olivia Cooke's Sid Baker? (We never did see a body, did we?) Yeah, those Slow Horses ain't slowing down — and you can check out the Season 6 trailer below;

Well, that was about as tense, dark, and ominous as a lethal Jackson Lamb fart, wasn't it? Blimey! Sure, it starts — as you would rightly expect at this point — with Gary Oldman's Jackson Lamb pissing off MI5 First Desk Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas). But it isn't long before we learn that someone (or sometwo — namely The Witcher‘s MyAnna Buring and Andor‘s Kyle Soller) is targeting Slough House agents past and present, forcing the team to go dark as they face a major existential threat and deal with other pressing matters, like the aforementioned return of Olivia Cooke's Sid... and, if you're Jack Lowden's River Cartwright, then a showdown with a Hugo Weaving shaped ne'er-do-well father. Yikes!

The very brief official synopsis for Slow Horses Season 6 — which also stars Saskia Reeves, Christopher Chung, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Rosalind Eleazar, Joanna Scanlan, Samuel West, Ruth Bradley, Tom Brooke, Jonathan Pryce, and cast newcomer Lenny Rush — simply reads: "Season Six sees the Slow Horses on the run as Diana Taverner embroils them all in a fatally high-stakes game of retaliation and revenge."

What has Sid been up to all this time? Who exactly is it that's tracking down and killing Slough House's alumni? And when oh when will Roddy learn to put his ruddy phone down, eh? We'll find out the answer to those questions and more when Slow Horses Season 6 canters onto Apple TV on 16 September. (And yes, just in case you were wondering, Season 7 is already confirmed and on its way!)

There's just no keeping an ancient, evil, shape-shifting vessel of cosmic terror down now, is there? Not content with scaring our socks off in Andy Muschietti's IT and its 2019 sequel, everyone's favourite dancing clown Pennywise returned to our screens for more macabre, make-up clad malevolence last year in spin-off series IT: Welcome To Derry, a prequel set 27 years before The Loser Club first encountered Bill Skarsgård's vaude-villain. Now, in news that'll come as a surprise to approximately nobody, _Variety'_s reporting that Welcome To Derry Season 2 is officially floating our way... and we already have some plot details to share.

With Season 1 of Welcome To Derry having taken viewers to 1962, following a fresh batch of kids as they took on Pennywise and unearthed IT's ancient origins, Season 2 is now set to turn the dial back further to 1935, where a fresh batch of unsuspecting folk await to satiate the killer clown's ravenous appetite. "Season two takes place in 1935 during the Great Depression and centers on the bloody massacre of the Bradley Gang, a group of bank robbers who stop in Derry to buy ammo and end up facing unimaginable horror," reads this new season's official synopsis. Given the backwards time-jump here, we aren't expecting many — if any — of Season 1's cast to show up in Welcome To Derry Season 2 (beyond, perhaps, some flashback/forward shenanigans), but Andy Muschietti has previously teased that the parents and grandparents of the families we've already met will be involved in expanding the Pennywise mythos, so there is that to look forward to.

With Brad Caleb Kane (Crystal Lake) returning as now-sole showrunner, plans already long-since in place for a third season set in 1908, and that Season 1 finale having completely changed our understanding of IT, how IT works, and what IT even is, consider us very intrigued to see how the next piece of HBO's chilling puzzle slots into place when IT: Welcome To Derry Season 2 arrives on our screens. We don't have a release window for this one just yet, but given that a writers' room has already opened and fan appetite for a return to Derry is positively ravenous, we'd advise covering up any nearby storm drains and disassembling any paper boats you may have made recently. Just in case, y'know?

Avengers: Doomsday isn’t far off, and fresh off D23, we’ve now had a closer look at Victor von Doom raising Sentinels and giving the Avengers, X-Men and co. what looks to be a pretty hard time.

Needless to say, the MCU has expanded somewhat in the last few years. Now juggling TV shows, films and a whole host of new characters, it can sometimes be a struggle to know what’s actually a must-watch before a new entry hits cinemas. Thankfully, with Avengers: Doomsday, Disney+ has put together a must-watch list to make sure your Marvel knowledge is up to scratch once Doom arrives.

You can see the full list here:

• X-Men

• X2

• Captain America: The First Avenger

• The Avengers

• Avengers: Infinity War

• Avengers: Endgame

• Loki

• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

• Spider-Man: No Way Home

• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

• Captain America: Brave New World

• Deadpool & Wolverine

• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

• Thunderbolts

• The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Notably, Fox’s first two X-Men films are on the list, so there’s no need to get lost in the incredibly complex X-Men lore if you’re new to the mutant series. You’ll also need to take a trip all the way back to Cap’s first outing, as well as the Avengers films – bar Age of Ultron (but it does look to be one to watch before VisionQuest).

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever also makes the cut, and given that the trailer suggests Shuri, M'Baku and Namor could be a big part of the team up film, it’s probably worth brushing up on what went down last time we visited Wakanda. The list seems to prioritise some of the more recent entries in the series, too, with the only TV show you’ll need to lock into being Loki. You’ll also be diving back into the multiverse nonsense with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. And, frankly, it won’t take much to convince us to watch Shang-Chi again.

So there you have it. Those stressing that you’ll have to watch every MCU film and show to make sense of Doomsday can rest easy – you’ve got a full four months to get yourself up to speed. These are all notable picks, and while some will presumably just be about reacquainting ourselves with the many characters populating Doomsday, it’ll be interesting to see which of these films end up having a bigger impact on the latest Avengers film. Given Reed Richards’ dramatic words to Victor in the latest trailer, it’s probably best to revisit The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Until then, get started on your Doomsday watchlist before he man himself arrives 18 December.

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, less than one week ‘til Spider-Man… Yes, true believers, Destin Daniel Cretton’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day is only a few short days away. But even as the MCU movie’s press tour kicks into overdrive, with Tom Holland, Zendaya, and co flying around the world to promote their street-level Spidey movie, it’s kind of wild just how little we actually know for certain about what’s coming in Peter Parker’s big-screen return.

Trailers have teased enough to leave us all tangled up in Brand New Day’s web of intrigue, flashing glimpses of a crazy caper involving some rogue’s gallery deep cuts, a potential Jean Grey, a possible Savage Hulk, and, er, ‘Spider-Puberty’. When it comes to how everything ties together and what it all might mean however, Brand New Day’s mysteries remain, well, a mystery.

So, Team Empire has hit the books — comic books, that is — to try and find some clues as to what Spider-Man: Brand New Day may have in store for us on 29 July. From title-based teases to thematic through-lines to character-specific key books, we’ve dug into Marvel Comics’ back-catalogue to pull seven stories that may offer a taste of what Cretton’s been cooking. And just to be absolutely clear, these recommendations are purely speculative — we'll find out what revelations Brand New Day is dawning on us at the same time as you guys.

And so, whether you’re a comics superfan or hardly know your Hand from your elbow, scroll on and prepare to bulk up your pre-BND reading list…

1) Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2008)

The Amazing Spider-Man #546 — 564

Writers(s): Dan Slott, Marc Guggenheim, Bob Gale, and Zeb Wells

On 27 December, 2007, the world of Marvel Comics was changed forever by the final instalment of J. Michael Straczynski’s ‘One More Day’. A divisive yet hugely consequential run of The Amazing Spider-Man, JMS’ dramatic storyline climaxed with Peter Parker making a deal with the actual devil, Mephisto, to spare Aunt May’s life in exchange for his marriage to MJ, erasing their entire history as husband and wife in the process.

When Spidey swung back onto the scene in the Dan Slott spearheaded ‘Brand New Day’, he reemerged in a world that didn’t know his true identity, to an MJ he still loved but couldn’t be with, and essentially found himself getting back to basics — a real Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man mostly tackling gangsters, goons, and otherwise non-superpowered folk. All of which is to say that if you’re looking to catch the vibe Destin Daniel Cretton’s movie is going for, to see the ‘classic elements’ of Spider-Man Kevin Feige’s been talking about bringing into the MCU, then there’s a very good chance that you’ll find it within these comics’ pages. (Also, for comic book newcomers, this is a pretty solid place to start.)

2. The Other (2005 — 2006)

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1-4; Marvel Knights Spider-Man #19 — 22; The Amazing Spider-Man #525–528

Writer(s): Peter David, Reginald Hudlin, J. Michael Straczynski

If you’ve been watching the most recent Brand New Day trailers and wondering just what the hell is actually happening to Peter Parker in this movie then, honestly, fair enough. Blacked out eyes, organic webbing, and heightened aggression in our lovable, dorky webslinger is hugely foreign territory for the MCU. But these alarming new developments in Pete’s powerset have strong roots in the comics. Enter ‘The Other’.

To cut a long and strange story short, ‘The Other’ is a four-act comic arc that sees Peter Parker die, shed his skin (yes, literally), and re-emerge from a cocoon having learned to embrace both the ‘Spider’ and ‘Man’ parts of himself. Both spiritually and literally reborn (seriously, this has to be read to be believed), Pete finds himself newly powered up with night vision, hypersensitivity to his webbing’s vibrations, and also like a super sticky back. So if you want to chart a possible route we’re about to head down as Pete tackles ‘Spider-Puberty’ in Brand New Day, give this fascinating, freaky, lore-heavy arc a swizz. There could however be an altogether stranger yet explanation for Pete’s seeming BND transformation…

3. Man-Spider’s Marvel Debut (1982)

Marvel Fanfare #2

Writers: Chris Claremont, Roger Mckenzie

If you’re looking for an out there but not entirely implausible explanation for Peter Parker’s extra spidery characteristics in Brand New Day, then we have to consider the possibility that the MCU is heading into Man-Spider territory. No, that isn’t an alternate universe where a spider gets bitten by a radioactive man and takes on all of his human abilities. Rather, this is a full-on humanoid spider – pincers, extra limbs, and all – as first seen in Spider-Man/Angel team-up series Marvel Fanfare.

In the comics, Man-Spider is brought about by an unidentified machine transforming Spidey into the above-mentioned humanoid spider, a pitiful beast fully aware of — and able to articulate — his humanity slipping away. Perhaps more notable however is Man-Spider’s appearance in Spider-Man: The Animated Series’ ‘Neogenic Nightmare’ arc, where we learn that this arachnoid evolution is actually the final part of Peter Parker’s post-spider-bite genetic mutation. When Tramell Tillman talks about the life cycles of a spider in Brand New Day’s trailers, could he be teasing a more monstrous change in store for Peter? Perhaps that’s why everyone and their nan seems to be out for Spidey in this film…

4. The Punisher Strikes Twice! (1973)

The Amazing Spider-Man #129

Writer: Gerry Conway

The prospect of seeing Tom Holland’s Peter Parker and Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle — aka The Punisher — sharing the screen at long last is easily one of Brand New Day’s biggest draws. (Especially since Holland himself promised us we’re getting “the Frank Castle we know” here.) And if you’re looking for a sense of the chalk-and-cheese duo’s dynamic before heading into the multiplex, there’s really only one place to start: The Punisher’s Marvel Comics debut in The Amazing Spider-Man #129.

For starters, this issue perfectly tees up the ideological conflict between the merciful Pete and the merciless Frank as The Punisher finds himself hunting Spidey down. Further, it also comes just a few issues after ‘The Night Gwen Stacy Died’, and sees Peter Parker trying to find a way forward after losing his first love — a familiar headspace to the MCU’s own heartbroken webhead. And — AND! — TASM #129 introduces Brand New Day’s rumoured secret big-bad Jackal, a biochemist and geneticist with a special interest in cloning… who just so happens to work at Empire State University. (Yes, that is the same ESU Bruce Banner is seen lecturing at in BND’s promos.)

5. X-Men Origins: Jean Grey (2008)

X-Men: Origins Jean Grey One-Shot

Writer: Sean Mckeever

We’re just a few days out from Brand New Day’s release now, and we still haven’t had confirmation who Sadie Sink is playing in this movie. But c’mon, she’s wearing a Jean-coded green and yellow hoodie in the trailers, clearly has telepathic/telekinetic powers, and is being introduced in the same movie that’s bringing anti-mutant baddie William ‘Bill’ Metzger (Tramell Tillman) into the MCU. Surely that can’t all just be a coincidence, right? Right? Right?!

If you’re unfamiliar with Jean Grey/Phoenix/Marvel Girl’s work, then our pick for the best place to start with Marvel’s most powerful mutant would be Sean Mckeever’s 2008 Origins one-shot. While Chris Claremont’s iconic Dark Phoenix Saga may be the definitive Jean Grey story, it’s not exactly a straightforward jumping-on point for the character. Mckeever’s book however, gorgeously drawn by Mike Mayhew, is a quick read that covers all bases — from traumatic origins, to the extent of her powers, to the gift and the threat her abilities represent. If — and it’s still a big if — Sadie Sink is playing Jean, then you could say that the balance of power in the MCU is about to change…

6. Hulk: Gray (2003 — 2004)

Hulk: Gray #1-6

Writer: Jeph Loeb

Here’s a mad thought: by the time Brand New Day comes out, it will have been eight years since we last saw Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner go full Savage Hulk mode, and fourteen years since the Green Goliath last transformed on-screen. But with cast members teasing a potential appearance from Banner’s alter alter-ego Grey Hulk in Cretton’s film, and the trailers teasing Savage Hulk’s return, we reckon now’s the time to revisit Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s seminal Hulk: Gray, in which Hulk is both grey and savage.

A key inspiration for Louis Leterrier’s The Incredible Hulk, this all-timer limited comic series offers a borderline Universal Monsters style redux of Hulk’s origin story, indelibly capturing both the Hulk's savagery and Bruce Banner's vulnerability. For more on Grey Hulk specifically, Peter David’s fun 2023 miniseries Joe Fixit — which actually features Spidey swinging into action to deal with a mob enforcer Hulk — will serve you well. Whether Brand New Day’s Hulk winds up being Savage or Grey, suffice it to say that Smart Hulk’s days seem well and truly numbered. For some wildly speculative further reading, maybe try Tom Taylor's The Immortal Hulk: Great Power. Bruce Banner may not remember Peter Parker, but how about Hulk?

7. Frank Miller’s Daredevil (1981)

Daredevil #174

Writer: Frank Miller

The last time we saw The Hand in the MCU, the mystical troupe of ninjas seemed to have been dismantled for good — digit by digit — by New York’s Defenders. But following the Defenders’ return in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, The Hand are also back back back in Brand New Day, tangling with Spider-Man in what looks to be some sort of high-security prison. If the MCU’s Netflix era somehow passed you by however, then A) rectify that immediately, and B) get on Frank Miller’s legendary Daredevil run.

The Hand first surface in Daredevil #174, where they’re hired by Wilson ‘Kingpin’ Fisk to take down Matt Murdock’s Daredevil — and find themselves fighting both The Man Without Fear and his twin-sai wielding ex Elektra. Straight away, The Hand’s, er, hand-to-hand combat prowess is clear to see, and if you continue with Miller's stellar run then you'll leave with a more-than-solid primer on Marvel's agile assassins. As for their Brand New Day involvement, our best guess is that there’s a really good lawyer who needs busting out of jail, and Spidey’s gonna have to go through The Hand to free him. But don’t quote us on that!

———

So there you have it, a solid comics starting point to tide you over until Spider-Man: Brand New Day thwips its way into cinemas on 29 July. In the meantime, if you’re still craving more Marvel and more Spidey, then why not check out our ranked list of every MCU movie? Or our ranking of all the Spider-Man movies so far? A Brand New Day is coming, webheads… and our alarms are set!

This morning, we are incredibly saddened to share the news that Hayden Panettiere, star of Heroes, Nashville and the Scream franchise, has sadly passed away at 36 years old. Beginning her acting career at just 11 months old in a toy commercial, Panettiere graced our screens for more than 30 years. She died on Sunday, August 16. No cause of death has been announced.

 
First reported by ABC News on Sunday night, a statement from her father, Skip Panettiere, read as follows: “It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden. She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her — and to the millions who watched her onscreen,”. He asked for privacy “as our family takes time to process this unimaginable loss”.

Born Hayden Lesley Panettiere on August 21, 1989, and raised in New York, Panettiere was the daughter of an opera singer and a New York Fire Department captain. She acted from an incredibly young age, starting in commercials, but many will remember her voice from her childhood vocal performance as Dot in Pixar’s A Bug’s Life. In the following years, the actor starred in the likes of Remember the Titans, Malcolm in the Middle, and Disney Channel’s Tiger Cruise.

 
In 2006, the actor took a starring role in Heroes, playing Claire Bennet, a high school student with healing powers. A fan favourite among sci-fi fans, it rocketed her to further success across the show’s four seasons. Panettiere enjoyed further fame opposite Connie Britton on the music drama series Nashville, as country singer and former teen star Juliette Barnes. Running for six seasons, it became one of her defining roles, earning her two Golden Globe nominations across its run.

In 2011, she joined Wes Craven’s Scream franchise as the charismatic film geek Kirby Reed. Scream 4 was ahead of its time in tackling legacy sequels, and Panettiere’s performance fit perfectly in Wes Craven’s world. She became so beloved among fans of the franchise that she eventually returned in Scream VI, delivering another standout performance. Her voiceover work was also widely acclaimed, with two memorable appearances in video games, as Kairi in Kingdom Hearts and Samantha in Until Dawn.

It’s with a deep sadness that Panettiere won’t light up our screens anymore. Tributes to the actor have poured in; Viola Davis called her an “amazing talent” and a “old, wise soul with such a deep heart.” Our thoughts are with her family, friends and her 11-year-old daughter, whom she leaves behind.

If you were paying attention to Zootopia 2, it should come as no surprise that threequel hopes have been bubbling away. And we’re not just talking about the fact that the 2025 sequel made a whopping $1.86 billion worldwide. No, the final moment of the film saw a feather falling from the sky: the first indication that, yes, birds exists in the expanse of Zootopia (or, Zootropolis, depending on your territory).

As confirmed at Disney’s D23 Expo, Zootopia 3 is officially in the works – and it’ll bring feathered friends into the animal kingdom, just as Zootopia 2 brought in reptiles like Ke Huy Quan’s Gary DeSnake. While there was confirmation that Gary and Ginnifer Goodwin’s Judy Hopps will both return for the third film (with Quan and Goodwin in Anaheim to present the entire D23 Showcase), there was – curiously – no mention of Jason Bateman’s foxy favourite, Nick Wilde. It’s currently unknown, too, who’ll be directing.

Still, since Zootopia is clearly one of Disney’s most beloved properties in recent years, it makes sense that audiences will be returning to that bustling zoo metropolis once again – becoming the animation studios second threequel, following 2027’s upcoming Frozen III.

After months of speculation about who Sadie Sink would be playing in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, one of Marvel’s worst-kept secrets is finally out there. That’s right, the mysterious, mind-controlling, red-haired baddie glimpsed briefly in trailers is none other than Jean Grey, one of the X-Men’s most famous, and most powerful, members. As one of Marvel’s very first mutants, Jean has a long history in comics, animation, and movies, but she’s never been seen quite like this. Always portrayed as a straight-up good guy (when she’s not going Dark Phoenix mode – more on that later), it’s rare to see her take on a villainous role, even temporarily. But though it might move her away from her comics roots in some ways, this new take on Jean manages to stay true to the spirit of the character while also setting her up for a bright future in the MCU.

Jean debuted in 1963’s X-Men #1 as ‘Marvel Girl’, a nondescript name for a pretty nondescript character. While her teammates quickly took on distinct and enduring personalities – class clown Iceman, erudite Beast, rich kid Angel and boy scout Cyclops – Jean suffered from a clear case of ‘Smurfette Syndrome’; much like her Fantastic Four counterpart the Invisible Girl, who debuted two years earlier, she was defined simply as ‘the girl’, relative to the more individualised male characters around her. Her role was to be alternately ogled and rescued by the boys, with her character development mostly revolving around her budding relationship with Cyclops.

Jean Grey has an incredibly complicated comic-book history, even by X-Men standards.

Since then, Jean has had an incredibly complicated comic-book history, even by X-Men standards. Rare is the X-Man who hasn’t been killed, cloned or driven to the dark side, but Jean has done all three – and then some – to the point that it’s hard to keep track. She’s spent so much of her comics career dead, possessed or replaced that she hasn’t had the opportunity to develop in the way that other ‘60s superheroines have. There’s a long list of things that have happed to her,sure. Even her defining storyline – the ‘Dark Phoenix’ saga – doesn’t give her all that much agency. The iconic comics run, in which Jean gains uncontrollable cosmic power from a big fiery space bird, mostly involves her being captured and controlled by others, until her final noble sacrifice saves the universe from the deadly Phoenix inside her.

Even this was later taken away from her: when she eventually returned from the dead, a retcon revealed that this wasn’t Jean all along, but just the Phoenix itself wearing her face. Jean got to come back with a clean slate, without the Phoenix’s crimes on her conscience, but also without the character growth that should have resulted from such a seminal comics arc.

When she’s not Dark Phoenix-ing about – a fate that awaits all on-screen Jeans – the Jean that we tend to see in later comics and adaptations is generally portrayed as smart, capable and fundamentally good. She’s a dependable figure at the centre of the team, much like Cyclops, but without the tragic powerset, smug charisma, and uneasy relationship with the burden of leadership that make him so interesting. This is essentially how we find her in the ‘90s animated series and the 2000 X-Men film, played by Famke Jassen. Sophie Turner’s teenage take in X-Men: Apocalypse never got that far, introduced as a troubled girl struggling to control her powers, already well on road to Phoenix-dom.

Jean’s history with the X-Men makes her a must for any adaptation – but other X-Women like Storm, Rogue, and Jubilee have tended to overshadow her. Introduced in the ‘70s and later, once comics writers had begun to take female superheroes more seriously, those characters are much more clearly-defined in their own right. Jean, meanwhile, remains largely defined by her relationships with others – namely Cyclops, Wolverine, Xavier and the Phoenix itself.

This is especially true in the Fox X-Men films, where her most important role is as a love interest for Wolverine, something which is drawn from the comics but given an outsized focus on screen. For Logan, Jean represents a moral purity that sits just out of reach for the savage superhero. After he’s forced to end her life to stop the Phoenix in X-Men: The Last Stand, she also comes to represent his guilt, with her memory haunting him in future films long after her death.  As with many female characters who fall victim to superhero storytelling’s long history of ‘fridging’, her impact is felt mostly in the mark she leaves on our male lead, which feels like a disservice to such a major member of the team.

The version of Jean we meet in Brand New Day has a lot of things going for her, but moral purity isn’t one of them. Some of her actions range from morally, well, grey to outright nasty. During her spell as the film’s body-hopping antagonist, she causes havoc as the Hulk, walks an unsuspecting citizen right into a speeding car, and pulls a shocking switcheroo with MJ that even Peter says in unforgiveable. For some fans this will no doubt be a step too far for a character mostly known as one of the kindest, noblest mutants around. However, while not super-faithful to more typical depictions of Jean, I’d argue this more aggressive take on the character fits just fine within her history in the comics, and paves the way for a more interesting journey for the character.

It’s easy to see Sadie Sink’s character growing into the Jean Grey we know.

Given where we find Jean in Brand New Day – orphaned, on the run, and just getting to grips with her massive mutant potential – it’s probably best to look at this as a what-if scenario, rather than a straight-down-the-middle adaptation. More specifically: what if Jean Grey didn’t have Professor X to look after her, or Cyclops and the other X-Men to support her? In both the comics and the Fox films, Jean is one of Xavier’s first students, and he trains her from a young age to harness her incredible powers. In one of his dodgier moral decisions, he also secretly puts a dampener on her psychic abilities, to help her control what could be extremely dangerous powers. Jean grows up with a much more limited skill-set, not really knowing her full potential until the Phoenix is unleashed.

In Brand New Day, Jean hasn’t yet had the chance to thrive in the hallowed halls of Xavier’s Academy, but she has started to reckon with the scale of her mental abilities. She goes from taking over one body at a time to a fully-fledged psychic powerhouse, telepathically shutting down a good chunk of New York, and wrecking house with her trademark telekinesis. She also, eventually, taps into her compassionate side, with a pep talk from Spidey (and an assist from Aunt May) unlocking a glimpse of something closer to her classic comics persona. She’s not there yet, but it’s easy to see Sink’s character growing into the Jean we know, just taking a different, more independent route to get there.

If anything, this brings her more in line with a more recent comics take on the character. In a 2012 run called All-New X-Men, Beast – bear with me here – goes back in time to fetch the original teenage X-Men at the start of their career, bringing them to the present day. His plan was for these wide-eyed idealists to speak some sense to their jaded older selves, especially Cyclops, who had taken a turn for the supervillainous and murdered Professor X (like I said, bear with me). With Jean in particular, it had the opposite effect. Learning that she’s fated to die twice, kill a bunch of people, and get possessed by a psychic space bird does a number on her, leading to a much more cynical and antiheroic take on the character, quite close to what we get in Brand New Day. With Xavier out of the picture, she also taps into her telepathy at a younger age, which she wields a lot more indiscriminately than her adult counterpart. Sink even looks more like the time-displaced Jean, who ends up rocking shoulder-length hair with a fringe like she does in Brand New Day. Crucially, this version of the character is more complex, more independent, and even ends up coming out of Cyclops’ shadow to lead her team of X-Men.

With the MCU positioning Jean as the jumping off point for mutants as a whole, we could be about to see her take on a similarly major role in X-world – and not a moment too soon.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in cinemas now. Marvel's X-Men film comes to cinemas on May 5, 2028.

Be honest: you’re still crying about Coco now, nearly 10 years on. Pixar’s musical fantasy film, set in the Mexican Land Of The Dead, might stake a claim as the studio’s most tear-jerking movie – a certified 10 on the sob-scale thanks to its emotional gut-punches. It is, of course, a colourful and joyous adventure too, sending guitar-playing kiddo Miguel into the great beyond on a family adventure. And following the announcement in 2025 that Coco 2 was coming, the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California saw fresh details – and the first concept art – emerge from the sequel.

First up, the film will bring back Miguel, this time a teenager with a snazzy new haircut (see the image above). And he’ll be returning to the Land Of The Dead once more, because the first film’s dastardly villain – murderous crooner Ernesto de la Cruz – is back too, with Benjamin Bratt returning to voice him. “Remember me?” Bratt asked the D23 audience on stage. “I can’t wait to bring my character back to death,” he said, noting that the character is “back for revenge”. Watch out, Miguel.

There’s still a while to go until Coco 2 makes its way to cinemas – it’s due for release in 2029. That’s just enough time to stockpile industrial amounts of tissues, in case this one also cranks the tear dial way up.

Ask anyone with small children in their lives, and the sentiment will likely be echoed unanimously: Bluey rules. The adorable kids show – that plays just as well to grown-ups, with its witty and insightful ruminations on childhood and parenting – has been a global sensation thanks to its charming Aussie characters, its emotionally-nuanced world, and its sharp sense of humour. Which means the not-too-distant arrival of The Bluey Movie is just as exciting for grown-ups as kids – and at Disney’s D23 Expo, the first teaser trailer for the film was debuted. Check it out here:

It’s just a brief first look, but the charming small-scale nature of the show is replicated already here, with Bluey and Bingo simply playing a game of keepy-uppy in their back garden with a red balloon. Except, there’s an immediate different here too: The Bluey Movie, like many cartoon-to-film adaptations before it, will see the characters take the leap into 3D form. The never-revealed voices of the kids seem to still be the same, though – hopefully everything fans love about Bluey on the small screen (including that earworm title music) will remain present in their first fully-fledged cinematic outing.

The Bluey Movie is nearly a year off yet – Bluey, Bingo, Bandit, Chilli (and maybe some figures from Kindy too) will be hitting cinemas on August 6, 2027.

Among everything Marvel Studios has brought to the small screen over the years, one ongoing narrative has emerged as a rare and interesting thing. WandaVision – the first streaming series to arrive in the MCU – was an instant beloved masterpiece, followed in 2024 by the gloriously witchy adventure, Agatha All Along. And now, the threads of those series continue in VisionQuest, a series which culminates an MCU streaming trilogy. After Wanda and Agatha each went on reality-warping metaphysical journeys in their respective series, this time it’s the turn of Paul Bettany’s Vision (in the all-white form he became at the end of WandaVision) to go on an existential odyssey, this time joined by none other than his sort-of-dad – and Avengers mega-baddie – James Spader’s Ultron. Check out the trailer.

In keeping with the playful presentation and reality-breaking nature of WandaVision and Agatha, VisionQuest looks to be another psychedelic unravelling in MCU form, as Bettany’s Vision ponders the nature of his existence. Is he a normal guy, working in a pub? Or is he an android – reconstructed from a formerly-deceased prior model of himself – now trying to understand his own nature having been extricated from the fabricated reality he blissfully inhabited with Wanda Maximoff? Well, quite.

We see Vision entering a mansion that seems to be a digital projection of his own mind, in which also resides Spader’s Ultron – sometimes also assuming a human form, with a Hot Fuzz-worthy great big bushy beard – and James D’Arcy’s Jarvis, butler of Howard Stark (Tony’s dad), who proved the inspiration for Tony’s J.A.R.V.I.S operating system, which in part birthed Ultron. Still following? We also see Vision looking back on fond family ‘memories’ (or are they, since they were maybe not real?) from WandaVision. And, it seems, their son Tommy Maximoff is still out there somewhere, now a teenager played by Ruaridh Mollica – just as his brother Billy Maximoff, aka Wiccan, proved to be a significant figure in Agatha All Along, played by Joe Locke. “Free your soul, and save your son,” Ultron implored Vision.

In short, it looks like a real brain-teaser, continuing one of the more ambitious experiments from Marvel’s TV era – here’s hoping it lives up to the previous two shows. We’ll find out when VisionQuest comes to Disney+ from October 14.

Ready for a return trip to Arendelle? Seven years after Frozen II followed up the global phenomenon that was the original film, Disney is gearing up to unleash the long-awaited threequel, furthering the adventures of Anna, Elsa, Olaf, Kristoff and Sven. And while Frozen III won’t be arriving in cinemas until November 2027, fans at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California got the first peek at what directors Jennifer Lee and Trent Correy have been working on.

Stars Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel took to the D23 stage – singing a moody and mysterious new version of Frozen’s opening number, ‘Frozen Heart’ – and revealed the first plot details for the third film, which will see supernatural events encroach on the wedding (and honeymoon) of Anna and Kristoff. Footage presented in the room showed Elsa being struck by a small flying ice creature on the wedding day – an event which later sends the gang into a crystalline wonderland, where more butterfly-like icy beings reside.

As the group ventures into this new realm, it becomes clear those flying ice creatures are connected to the film’s new villain; a figure who wasn’t shown in full, but whose sharply manicured hand was seen emerging from a cloud of the critters, who became the razor-like neckline of her dramatic villain cloak. It seems the baddie this time around be another human magic-user, like Elsa, with nefarious intent.

Elsewhere, it seems like Frozen III will find love in the air not just for its newlyweds, but for Olaf – striking up a romance with another snowman, Samantha (the name being something of an in-joke for Frozen II fans). The audience was treated to a sneak peek of Olaf’s take on love, with actor Josh Gad singing live one of Frozen III’s new songs – a disco-y toe-tapper about Olaf’s feelings for Samantha.

Who is that mysterious villain? How will the ever-older and ever-wiser Olaf find his first experience of romance? And will we get even more costume changes for Anna and Elsa? We’ll find out when Frozen III comes to cinemas in November 2027.

Just a few weeks ago, new footage from Avengers: Doomsday brought the house down at Hall H in Comic-Con, shown to the lucky few at San Diego. But great things come to those who wait – and after the footage was also shown at the D23 Expo in Anaheim this weekend, it has now been released online for all to enjoy.

This latest look at the long-awaited fifth Avengers movie still shows off the multiversal scope of the Russo Brothers’ comeback plot – spanning the original Fox X-Men universe, the MCU prime, and the world inhabited by the Fantastic Four – but it also hones in more tightly on Pedro Pascal’s gang, as Reed Richards and Sue Storm reckon with the Victor Von Doom they once knew, and the Doctor Doom who looks to be wreaking all kinds of havoc on our heroes. As an expansion on the first teaser, it’s a confident and action-packed look at an MCU movie with considerable weight on its shoulders.

There isn’t long to go until Doomsday marks the beginning of the end for the MCU’s Multiverse Saga – watch Doom’s plot unfold in cinemas from December 18.

Ryan Gosling has a busy few years coming up. Just a few weeks ago at Comic-Con, he came on stage with director Shawn Levy to announce their new Ghost Rider movie. But before then, the two of them are presenting Star Wars: Starfighter, the next movie in the Star Wars galaxy – and D23 brought new details, character reveals, and the first footage from the film.

As he confirmed on stage in Anaheim, California, Ryan Gosling’s rogue hero in Starfighter is called Kade Auberon – described as a guy “from the wrong side of the galaxy whose fate is intertwined with the fastest starfighter ever built”. Footage shown in the room saw Flynn Grey’s incoming youngster uncovering Auberon’s secret speeder, kickstarting an adventure that will send them out into the galaxy far, far away. Previous reports that the film is set roughly five years after Episode IX – The Rise Of Skywalker were bolstered by Levy, who stated that Starfighter “takes place in a period of time that had never been shown in a Star Wars adventure”.

Other details on Starfighter remain scarce for now, but the film arrives in cinemas in May 2027, marking the 50th anniversary of the original Star Wars – and coming hot on the heels of Ahsoka Season 2, which will stream on Disney+ from January 2027. Punch it.

Ever since the first season of Ahsoka ended, Star Wars fans have been left on a series of major cliffhangers: Ahsoka Tano and Sabine Wren are stranded in another galaxy on Peridea, where giant statues of the Mortis gods are hewn in rock; Grand Admiral Thrawn has returned to the main Star Wars galaxy with domination on his mind; and Ezra Bridger has finally been reunited with Hera Syndulla and Chopper. And from the first look at Season 2, the wait will have been worth it – Dave Filoni’s next chapter looks gigantic and action-packed, as seen in a new trailer that played at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California.

Phew! That’s a big trailer, showing all-out galactic war courtesy of Thrawn, lots of fiery Nightsister brawling (that red planet has to be Dathomir, right?), Ahsoka and Sabine venturing out into the wilds of Peridea, and Ezra and Hera trying to muster New Republic support amid the rising threat. Plus, Rory McCann’s Baylan Skoll – inheriting the role from the late, great, dearly missed Ray Stevenson – and Ivanna Sakhno’s Shin Hati are exploring the ancient mythos of the Force. And that’s not to mention more flashbacks from Hayden Christensen’s Clone Wars-era Anakin Skywalker joined by Ariana Greenblatt’s young Ahsoka, probing at an existential question: is she a Jedi or not?

It looks like an ambitious return for the series, which put Ahsoka centre stage while continuing several characters from Star Wars Rebels, expanding the New Republic era with the Imperial Remnant’s comeback plot, and bringing an epic fantasy sweep to the whole thing. What’s in store for Ahsoka? Will a streaming series be able to deliver a full-scope war from Thrawn? And will we see more Loth-cats? We’ll find out when Ahsoka Season 2 streams on Disney+ from January 10, 2027.

We’ve known for a while now that the MCU is getting ready to mutate. And while Marvel Studios kept its powder dry on any X-Men announcements at Comic-Con, the recent confirmation that Sadie Sink is indeed playing Jean Grey (see Spider-Man: Brand New Day) saw the floodgates open for more mutant casting at D23. Taking to the stage at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, Marvel boss Kevin Feige officially announced the first major batch of X-Men casting.

Describing Jean Grey as a “founding member” of the superhero team, Feige announced several other characters. As previously reported Kit Connor is Cyclops, and Samara Weaving is Emma Frost. And joining them will be Christopher Abbott as Professor Charles Xavier, Obsession breakout Inde Navarette as Rogue, and newcomer Maya Boyd as Storm – all of whom came to the D23 stage (with Connor, Weaving, and Sink too) having gathered together for the first time backstage.

But that’s not all: while he wasn’t present at D23, a video message from Adam Driver confirmed he’s finally joining the MCU, as Nathaniel Milbury, aka Mister Sinister – after initially joking that he’d be playing Magneto. That cast of incoming talent will be starring in the X-Men movie directed by Thunderbolts*’ Jake Schreier. More new names will be confirmed for X-Men in time, Feige stated on stage, noting that those revealed at D23 are all the cast members confirmed so far.

Feige also confirmed that the MCU’s X-Men will be coming to cinemas on May 5, 2028, following this year’s Avengers: Doomsday, and 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars. 2028 will also bring Ghost Rider and Black Panther 3, in what looks set to be a massive year for Marvel. Let the age of mutants begin.

It’s a universal truth that we need more dinosaur movies. What’s not to love about seeing once-extinct raptors run headfirst stainless-steel kitchen cabinets, or even watching a harmless assistant get swallowed whole by a Mosasaurus? The Jurassic franchise has had a monopoly on prehistoric creatures for the last few decades, and while there are few complaints about the series that gave us a dinosaur-filled park, a prehistoric island and eventually an entire world of horned, winged and razor-toothed creatures, it’s good to seeThe End of Oak Street stomping into cinemas with an all-new and incredibly entertaining take on dino mayhem.

Nonetheless, we’ve been mining not for amber, but for a whole bunch of dino movies that deserve to be seen. Take a look below:

The Valley Of Gwangi (1969)

Director: Jim O'Connolly | Runtime: 1hrs 36m | Streaming on: Sky

Starring: James Franciscus, Gila Golan, Richard Carlson, Laurence Naismith

A lesser cited but absolute must-see entry in the DCU (that's Dinosaur Cinematic Universe, obvs), Jim O'Connolly's 1969 B-movie The Valley Of Gwangi is, in a word, nuts. Boasting incredible special effects courtesy of the legendary stop-motion maestro Ray Harryhausen and a nutty western-meets-sci-fi-creature-feature premise, O'Connolly's film — about a band of cowboys who nab an allosaurus from a hidden Mexican valley for their travelling rodeo show (naturally) — truly has to be seen to be believed. It's got very small horses. It's got very big dinosaurs. It's got pteranodons, ornithomimuses, and even a bad-ass styracosaurus. And while it may essentially be a slightly-less-good, slightly-more-nonsensical Western riff on King Kong, its back-half is a wonderful Harryhausen showcase with plenty there to fuel fossil heads. It certainly works for me, anyway! JK

King Kong (2005)

Director: Peter Jackson | Runtime: 3hrs 21m | Streaming on: Prime

Starring: Jack Black, Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody, Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Kyle Chandler

What do you do with your blank cheque after shepherding a billion-dollar fantasy franchise to Oscar glory? You make your passion project of course. In Peter Jackson’s case, that meant remaking 1933’s King Kong and, in doing so, going bigger than the ape himself. Where other dino movies rack up the tension, Jackson uses his Lord Of The Rings clout to go all-in on spectacle. No expense is spared getting the primates of Skull Island on screen, from its bananas dino stampede, to a rock-’em-sock-’em showdown between Kong and a V-rex (it stands for “Vastatosaurus”), and even a nightmare-inducing sequence involving prehistoric creepy crawlies. Confidently riffing on the lost-world adventure serials of the 1920s and ’30s (only with 200 times the budget), Jackson also lands two note-perfect performances from Jack Black and Naomi Watts. His epic is worth the price of admission and then some. HS

65 (2023)

Director: Scott Beck & Bryan Woods | Runtime: 1hrs 32m | Streaming on: Prime

Starring: Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt

It got slightly sniffy reviews on release, but 65 is a fun and fast dinosaur B-movie that deserves a bit more love. Scott Beck and Bryan Woods – the minds behind A Quiet Place – came up with a great, hooky premise for a different kind of dino flick: Adam Driver is a futuristic astronaut who crash-lands on a planet, stranded alongside little kid Koa (Ariana Greenblatt, later seen in Barbie and Ahsoka). Except, said planet turns out to be prehistoric Earth, seeing the pair battle for survival among dinosaurs and an everything-wants-to-kill-you environment. The dino thrills are solidly delivered, Driver brings some welcome intensity, and the final act has a bonkers – and spoiler-y, so we won’t ruin it – race-against-time element that is both deeply silly and incredibly fun. It doesn’t quite knock it out of the (Jurassic) park, but 65 is a big swing, and doesn’t outstay its welcome at 93 minutes. BT

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Finished with our list of three great Dino movies? Why not check out our guides to the best movies on Netflix and what to watch on Apple TV? Or, for those with an even bigger appetite, our lists of the 100 best movies and 100 best TV shows ever made have got you covered.

Is it too soon to say that 2026 is the year of cinema in gaming? We’re only halfway through, but we’ve already had James Bond’s first all-new adventure in years, with 007 First Light showing players how the world’s greatest secret agent got started, and Resident Evil Requiem delivering scares worthy of the silver screen. Even the likes of Lego Batman are getting in on the action, revamping the familiar kids’ series into a Tim Burton-esque brick-built bit of brilliance, while other contenders rifle through John Hughes’ filmography or tap 2001 for a bit of AI-battling inspiration.

Then again, there’s also a host of more “classically minded” video games vying for players’ attention, with a mix of Metroidvanias, bullet-hell roguelikes, and, of course, Pokémon among the best games 2026 has had to offer so far. Read on for Empire's ranking!

The 10 Best Games Of 2026 (So Far)

10. MIO: Memories In Orbit

Outside of the very dedicated community of Metroidvania obsessives, no-one was expecting MIO to be anything special. Instead, it proved itself one of the most compelling action platformers in years. As the titular robot, you awake on a colossal, decaying, empty ship known only as “The Vessel”, and are left to simply explore. What you uncover is a desperate last gambit for survival, and a powerfully human story despite the absence of any humans. Its gorgeous watercolour-style visuals, painted atop 3D models, elevate the strange environments that have spread through the ship over the years, while the skills Mio acquires along the journey make for some best-in-class gameplay. Sharp and snappy combat, challenging bosses, and a fantastic sense of discovery make this a new highlight for the genre.

Read Empire's review of MIO: Memories In Orbit.

9. Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight

Riddle me this: when is a Lego game not really a Lego game? When it’s secretly the best Batman game since the heydays of the beloved Arkham series. OK, not exactly a brain-teaser that’ll have the Caped Crusader scratching his cowl, but TT Games’ reboot of the brick-build series is a delight for fans old and young. It does away with much of the formula of past Lego Batman games – of past Lego games as a whole, really – and instead of drowning players with thousands of unlockables and hundreds of interchangeable characters, this opts for a well-told story tapping into key moments of Bat-lore, a tight cast, and more interesting mechanics than “hammer A to win”. Combat has nuance, advanced skills are unlocked RPG-style for a real sense of progression, and racing the Batmobile around the staggeringly detailed streets of Gotham is a joy. And, while it all feels very grown up, it still packs in that quintessential Lego charm throughout.

Read Empire's review of Lego Batman: Legacy Of The Dark Knight.

8. Pokémon Pokopia

Take the life-sim elements of Animal Crossing, blend in the entirely re-buildable worlds of Minecraft, and pour it into a _Pokémon-_shaped mould. The result is Pokémon Pokopia, an adorable sandbox game featuring everyone’s favourite blob of purple goo Ditto – as they rebuild after global disaster has forced humanity to evacuate the planet. That sting in the tail (tale?) of Pokopia is the hook that draws you through the story mode of co-developers Game Freak and Omega Force’s strange mash-up, but the sense of satisfaction you get from exploring, rebuilding, attracting hundreds of abandoned Pokémon into Pokésociety, and reshaping entire biomes single-handedly keeps you coming back day, after day, after day, after… The worst thing about Pokémon Pokopia? It’s basically going to steal your life.

Read Empire's review of Pokémon Pokopia.

7. Pragmata

It’s always good to see fresh ideas in games, and Pragmata doesn’t disappoint. Sure, as both a sci-fi epic set on a moonbase overrun by a deranged AI, and a touching story between a man, gruff space mechanic Hugh, and his adopted (robot) daughter, Diana, you can see the influences, even as Capcom remixes them in interesting ways. The game’s real genius is in its combat though, which is probably the world’s first hybrid of first-person shooter and real-time puzzler. As Hugh, you’re racing around, trading fire with disturbingly designed robot nightmares, while as Diana, you’re simultaneously hacking those enemies via a glorified panel-flipping puzzle grid to create vulnerabilities for Hugh to exploit. It plays like nothing else, it’s a stunner to look at, and there’s even some surprisingly thought-provoking commentary on the current real-world problems with AI. A fantastic debut for what will hopefully be a strong new series from Capcom.

Read Empire's review of Pragmata.

6. Cairn

If the depiction of the ardour and risks of mountain climbing in the likes of 127 Hours or Touching the Voidput you off so much as looking at a rockface, Cairn might instead convince you of the splendour you’re missing out on. As Aava, you’re out to conquer Mount Kami, a 9,000 metre tall landmark steeped in mythology and folklore. You’ll chart your own route, independently controlling each of Aava’s limbs as you spy grips and footholds to inch upwards, with developer The Game Bakers painstakingly balancing the skill and technique required for climbing with survival mechanics such as hunger, thirst, and exhaustion management. Cairn is as much adventure game as it is climbing sim though, with Aava’s motivations for tackling the ascent, and the mysteries of the mountain itself, slowly revealed along the way, drawing players into a mesmerising otherworld. Tense and demanding, yet strangely zen-like, and all gorgeously painted in a striking cel-shaded art style, Cairn is like little else.

Read Empire's review of Cairn.

5. Mixtape

There’s been quite the furore over Mixtape, developer Beethoven & Dinosaur’s ode to music, ‘90s hipsters, and the joys of a gloriously misspent youth. “It’s not a game!”, cry some. “Press X to win!”, complain others. “Woke nonsense!”, bleat the usual tiresome chorus, offended whenever a video game dares to feature [checks notes] women. The first two cohorts have some fair points – as a narrative adventure, Mixtape really is an incredibly linear, practically unfailable experience. Yet it’s also unforgettable. Playing as music-obsessed Stacey Rockford, it follows her last days with best friends, Van Slater and Cass Morino, before high school ends and they oh-so-reluctantly begin adult life. That’s where the magic of the game is – it’s about feelings, memories, regrets, with each beat of the trio’s journey set to a painstakingly chosen music track that builds up the soundtracks of their lives. It’s essentially a playable John Hughes movie, and like the best of the Brat Pack era, you’ll be thinking of these kids long after you put down the controller.

Read Empire's review of Mixtape.

4. 007 First Light

We might still be waiting on a new cinematic Bond, a half-decade on from Daniel Craig having No Time To Die, but this prequel outing from IO Interactive does a commendable job of filling the gap. Inspired by original creator Ian Fleming’s stories, it’s basically “Bond Begins”, following a 26-year-old James (convincingly played by Patrick Gibson, should Amazon MGM Studios still be looking) as he’s recruited into MI6, through his training, and earning that iconic 00 call-sign. The plot is as twisty-turny as any great spy thriller demands, giving us first meetings with major supporting characters such as Moneypenny, Q, and M along the way, while the mix of shooting, driving, and stealth gameplay is as flawlessly executed as you’d expect from the makers of Hitman. Plus, it’s even got the requisite smokey-vocals opening number, the eponymous title song by Lana Del Ray. First Light might not quite be the same as Bond back on the big screen, but if your telly’s big enough, it’s close enough.

Read Empire's review of 007 First Light.

3. Forza Horizon 6

The Forza Horizon series has long been a crossover delight – a racing game for people who don’t have to like racing games. While past entries have taken drivers around gorgeous recreations of Australia, Mexico, and even rain-swept Blighty, the sixth tournament opts for a race around Japan. It’s a breathtakingly beautiful, if somewhat condensed, locale, cramming the urban streets of Tokyo next to idyllic rural communities and striking natural wonders, but respectfully and realistically taps into Japanese car culture – expect plenty of nods to the likes of Tokyo Drift and classic anime Initial D. For dedicated motorheads, Horizon 6 is the pinnacle of the genre – a gargantuan festival of fuel, with more than 500 stunningly detailed and customisable cars, hundreds of nail-biting races to participate in, and a host of online and challenge modes to keep the pedal to the metal, but for anyone else, there’s still an almost meditative delight to be found in simply roaring around this vast open world.

Read Empire's review of Forza Horizon 6.

2. Saros

Don’t call it a comeback – Saros isn’t strictly developer Housemarque’s sequel to early PS5 stand-out Returnal, but it is built very much in its predecessor’s image, keeping its timeloop structure and roguelike mechanics intact but improving just about every other aspect of the game. As corporate space soldier Arjun Devraj (Rahul Kohli), you’ll make plenty of comebacks though – sent by the shady Soltari conglomerate to investigate missing assets-- sorry, colonists on the strange world of Carcosa, expeditions into the ever-shifting terrain ends in death, followed by mysterious resurrection. Each attempt sees you gather resources to power up, allowing you to get further each run, creating a captivating cycle of trial and error. What really elevates Saros above its predecessor though is its pure polish. Exquisitely precise combat against monsters spewing bullet hell levels of projectiles keeps you constantly on your toes, but never feels unfair when you inevitably fail, while the mysteries of Carcosa – a darkly beautiful planet full of forbidden wonders, Giger-esque architecture, and ominous eclipses – build up into a far stronger, weirder, tale tinged with cosmic dread. Saros is the kind of game that keeps you playing through the night: go on, just one more go...

Read Empire's review of Saros.

1. Resident Evil Requiem

It’s shaping up to be a banner year for Capcom. Beyond the aforementioned Pragmata, the Japanese giant has also impressed with the wonderful RPG Monster Hunter Stories 3, and has the long-awaited return of Onimusha on the cards for later in 2026, but nothing looks capable of dethroning Resident Evil Requiem. Split between returning action hero Leon S. Kennedy and newcomer Grace Ashcroft, this is a classic two-pronged tale of terror. As Grace, you’re investigating a string of deaths, starting with one in the same hotel her mother was killed in years earlier; as Leon, you’re chasing down more Umbrella Corporation monstrosities. You’re nudged to play as Leon in third-person to emphasise the combat elements and Grace in first-person for maximum fear, but either way, Requiem brings the scares in a way Resident Evil hasn’t in years. It’s also damn near photo realistic in places, leaving you dreading what hides around each corner. A masterful return to form for the series, and the best game of the year so far.

Read Empire's review of Resident Evil Requiem.

It’s fair to say that James Gunn’s DCU is currently on the back foot. Peacemaker’s second season started brilliantly but fizzled out as it concluded, and while Superman was a solid-enough hit in bringing the Man Of Steel back to the big screen, Supergirl was a critical and commercial disappointment. Thank the Guardians, then — no, not Gunn’s ragtag group of MCU heroes, but rather the founders of the Green Lantern Corps, DC’s intergalactic peacekeeping force — for Lanterns. For this grounded, gritty series stands as the best thing to come out of the DCU’s early slate so far.

Perhaps that should come as no surprise given the pedigree involved. The series was created by Ozark’s Chris Mundy (who also serves as showrunner), veteran comic-book writer Tom King, and screenwriter Damon Lindelof. Lindelof, of course, had great success with the 2019 Watchmen series, which built on the source material while also charting its own bold, fascinating course; that same energy is evident in Lanterns. While some fans have bristled at the Earth-bound nature of a series about space cops, the True-Detective-meets-Training-Day-meets-Men-In-Black approach to the story here mostly works.

Indeed, it’s hard not to think about the black suits, once Lanterns’ central 2016-set narrative takes hold, given that it involves aliens who can pass as humans, causing trouble in the small rural town of Rushville, Nebraska. It’s an engaging, involving, unpredictable mystery that only gets more propulsive once Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) come under more pressure to identify and stop the threat before it’s too late. Trying to keep things together as best she can is former Gothamite-turned-local Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald), a likeable presence whether she’s being stern or sympathetic to the Lanterns’ plight. (Her surname is a neat reference to comics artist Gil Kane, who created the modern-day version of Green Lantern during the 1950s.)

This is a show that gets a lot of mileage out of its central duo. On the one side is Jordan, long past his prime but still a fearless Green Lantern who’s adamant about not giving up the ring. On the other is his potential heir-apparent Stewart, who’s spent a lifetime preparing for the day he will take up the mantle. The tension between the two men as they argue over who most deserves the coveted jewellery while trying to work together — with Jordan proving to be downright Denzel-in-Training-Day-esque in his unconventional teaching methods at times — is the backbone of the series. Chandler and Pierre enjoy an entertainingly easy friend-foe chemistry.

What it lacks in traditional superheroics, it makes up for with strong performances and bold storytelling.

And just as it was with Watchmen, Lanterns isn’t afraid to dig into the racial undercurrents inherent in this story. This is particularly true of the exceptional third episode, which focuses on John’s very purposeful upbringing. Where traditionally the ring has chosen its wearer — which is how Hal got his alien bling — the Guardians here take a different approach to John’s recruitment, essentially marking him for potential selection as a baby. The lifelong journey we then watch unfold as he is taught to be fearless, in a world where there’s plenty for Black boys to be fearful of, is an important and heartfelt piece of character work, one that makes the adult version Pierre plays make complete sense. Bolstered by brilliant turns from J. Alphonse Nicholson and Jasmine Cephas Jones as John’s determined parents and a clever flashback structure, it’s one of the finest hours of TV we’ve had all year.

It isn’t all perfect. There are times when the pace is too slow for its own good, especially in the 2026-set storyline, as John tries to solve a murder. The action, though entertaining enough when it comes — the fifth episode provides the best showcase of a Green Lantern’s battle prowess — can be a bit too sporadic. Fans hoping for more than just a passing mention of the cosmic world beyond the frame, or anything more substantial than quick cameos from Lantern-turned-Justice-Gang-member Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) or former Lantern Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen), may feel a bit disappointed. But what Lanterns lacks in traditional superheroics, it makes up for with strong performances and bold storytelling. And that’s a construct that’s hard not to admire.

If you have any interest in the film festival circuit, you’ve probably heard about Na Hong-jin’s bonkers Korean monster-action epic Hope. The film had a huge response following its premiere, and marks a departure from the director’s previous films, the thrilling The Chaser and certified horror banger The Wailing. This time around, Hong-jin has gone all-out with a relentless action spectacle.

The film has already had one South Korea’s biggest film openings of 2026 following its July 15 release. The good news is that you won’t have to wait long to see Hope, because it now has a UK release date.

NEON announced today that the film will be released in UK and Irish cinemas on 25 September, meaning we’re now just over a month away from seeing it for ourselves. The film follows two police officers who are called to investigate a mysterious creature that has wreaked havoc on a village. And, supposedly, once the action kicks off, the spectacle rarely lets up. Monster Movie Fury Road, anyone?

Most impressively, Na Hong-jin has assembled an impressive cast for the film, including Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung and Squid Game breakout HoYeon. Not only that, but Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Taylor Russell and Cameron Britton are also part of the very starry line-up.

If you’ve seen any of the director’s previous films, this is certainly one to get excited about. So, see you at the cinema on 25 September.

Streaming on: Disney+

Episodes viewed: 5 of 8

Furious — based loosely on the 1987 thriller Black Widow — is not the detective show you think it is. Just as its complicated hero draws parallels between murders old and new, showrunner Elizabeth Meriwether connects the dots between crime dramas past and present, prestige or otherwise, deconstructing classic tropes. The results are as thoughtful as they are riveting.

The story begins with the brutal murder of a billionaire’s son, who takes his last breath while kids play outside in their Halloween costumes. We next meet down-and-out police detective-turned-FBI agent Alice Black (Emmy Rossum), dismissed by pretty much everyone around her, even when she’s the only one to smell that a serial killer is involved. As the hunt unfolds, it becomes evident that Black and her suspect, Catherine Grace (Lola Petticrew), share more in common than either of them expect.

If this sounds generic, that’s very much the point. Furious eases you in with the trappings of a more conventional thriller before gradually introducing far weightier subject matter. “Women are supposed to be hit and raped and go away and die quietly,” Black’s new supervisor, Nora Washington (Quincy Tyler Bernstine), notes early on. It’s in fascinating conversations between these two agents where Furious grapples most with victimhood, and how women are expected to act in the face of abuse.

Crafts a story that’s just as pulpy as it is cerebral.

Meriwether doesn’t rip up the crime-drama playbook completely. Rather than avoid clichés of the genre, Furious wields them with precision, crafting a story that’s just as pulpy as it is cerebral, in ways that make the genre feel fresh. Such complexity is matched by stellar performances throughout, from Rossum’s haunted husk of a lead to Petticrew’s eerily childlike killer. Bernstine is the true breakout though, deliberately off-kilter as the burned-out head of the FBI’s sex crimes unit.

Together, with their very different approaches, this trio reject the limited playbook that society affords women, and in doing so, asks us to reconsider how their stories are shaped on and off screen. That Furious does this while being more entertaining than any other crime show this year is hugely impressive.

It’s not long until we return to the Wizarding World this Christmas, with HBO’s new take on Harry Potter heading to TV screens. However, those in the gaming world have been eagerly awaiting news of a follow-up to 2023’s open-world role-playing game Hogwarts Legacy — a game that allowed everyone to live out the childhood fantasy of attending the famous school of witchcraft and wizardry, but, most importantly, let you fly around on a broomstick to your heart’s content.

Although rumblings of a sequel have been around since the original launch, it seems Warner Bros. has officially confirmed that a follow-up is in the works. In a letter to shareholders detailing the importance of growth in gaming, and noting the successful release this year of LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight and Game of Thrones: Dragonfire, the company also confirmed development of the magical sequel, stating: “We expect games to more meaningfully contribute to segment profitability going forward as our pipeline expands, including the second installment of Hogwarts Legacy.”

Well, there you have it. There’s no trailer or images just yet to give us a glimpe of what the sequel might have in store, but that hasn’t stopped us from wondering where the game could go next. With Hogwarts Legacy allowing players to create their own character and explore the wizarding world for themselves, the possibilities are pretty much endless. The original game was set in the 1890s, so perhaps the sequel could jump forward to a completely different era of wizarding history. And then, of course, there’s Quidditch. One of the most notable omissions from the original game, surely it’s only a matter of time before we get the chance to take to the skies and chase the Golden Snitch for ourselves?

There’s little to go on for now, but we can assume this will also be developed by Portkey Games, who made the first game. But watch this space, because if there are any updates on the magical sequel, we’ll be screaming like a Mandrake for more news.

Befitting its disaster-prone title character, Coyote Vs. Acme has faced many near-fatal obstacles in its path to cinemas. Originally set for release in 2023, by Warner Bros., it was shelved (for confusing tax reasons) and seemed destined for deletion, but was eventually sold to a new distributor. It’s an unpromising backstory. Yet, for once, Wile E. Coyote has emerged victorious. His film is no also-ran. It’s a work of unabashed chaotic comedy fun.

For over 75 years, Wile E. Coyote has devoted himself to catching the elusive Road Runner. Unable to compete in terms of speed, he employs a series of fantastical ACME-branded gadgets ­— rocket boots, giant magnets, a jet-propelled pogo stick — to help him snare the bird. They inevitably malfunction, blowing up Wile E. or sending him plummeting to the bottom of a ravine.

In Coyote Vs. Acme, after yet another foiled plan, Wile E. decides ACME is at fault. He’s going to sue the company for negligence, and he’s found just the wrong man to help him: Kevin Avery (Will Forte), a lazy, cheap lawyer who likes to settle cases quickly and is appalled at his new client’s silent determination. Where Coyote will stop at nothing to achieve his goals, Kevin believes you should try only until things start to get vaguely challenging.

The love for the Looney Tunes world is what makes this movie work so well.

It’s an enjoyably stupid set-up, logically ridiculous but somehow making perfect sense. Director Dave Green and screenwriter Samy Burch get this balance just right across the movie, taking a very similar approach to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the Godfather of animation/live-action hybrids. It’s simply accepted that cartoon characters live among humans and the flesh-and-blood world is every bit as full of outsized villains with harebrained schemes, only theirs are more secretive and involve fewer anvils. Forte, often a very big comic actor, effectively plays the straight man to Wile E.’s silent madman. Their dynamic is well drawn, with a classic mismatched-buddy comedy arc. If the plotting in the final act gets a smidge muddled, leaning a little too much on formula, it never seems to matter too much.

For any Looney Tunes nerd, it’s a real treat to search the screen for innumerable Easter eggs. It goes so deep into the archives that it may leave the less Looney-attuned occasionally confused, wondering why Peter Lorre is ‘playing’ a scientist or why there’s an old lady chicken on a jury. But that respect for the viewer and love for the Looney Tunes world is what makes this movie work so well. It even feels edited to the same comic rhythms as a Looney Tunes short and, over its 100ish minutes, it maintains the same daffy joy.

Every Toy Story movie has its tear-jerking moment. Maybe several of them. And Toy Story 5 is no different, using its Jessie-centric focus to revisit one of the most gut-wrenching sequences in the series’ history. Andrew Stanton’s latest sequel continues the growth of kid Bonnie, who looks set to abandon her toys when everyone around her is consumed by tablets and tech – even though her new Lilypad doesn’t bring her the same joy and fulfilment as Jessie, Buzz, and the rest of the gang. In the course of the plot, through a series of misadventures, Jessie and Bullseye end up returned to Jessie’s original address, from when she was first owned by Emily – of that tear-stoking ‘When She Loved Me’ sequence in Toy Story 2.

(SPOILER WARNING for Toy Story 5!)

In the version of Toy Story 5 that came to cinemas, there’s a beautifully emotional scene where Jessie digs up a memory box planted by her former owner, under the tyre swing where they used to play together decades previously – and inside we see a photo of Emily, now as a mother to a call she named… Jessie. But, as revealed in a clip shared by Entertainment Weekly, it’s clear that an earlier story iteration actually saw Jessie and Emily reunite, with Jessie’s former owner now a grandmother.

An early storyboard animatic has been released, showing how the scene would have played out – with Jessie prodded by Bullseye and the multi-Buzz to come face-to-face with the older Emily. Even in sketched-out form, with that classic Toy Story score overlaid, it’s an emotional scene. Still, it’s interesting that the Pixar team considered going all-out with the Jessie-Emily reunion, only to pull back into a more subtle version. Either way, tears were shed. And if you haven’t shed them yet, you can still see Toy Story 5 in UK cinemas.

Has anyone had as strange or circuitous a career as David Robert Mitchell? The American filmmaker started out with 2010’s hazy teen drama The Myth Of The American Sleepover, broke out with 2014’s cult hit horror It Follows, and then took a sharp left-turn into surreal neo-noir thrills with 2018’s Under The Silver Lake (which featured a nude owl-woman, a random skunk, a mysterious pirate, and a bit where Andrew Garfield shoves an egg into a child’s mouth). Now this former indie darling takes a swerve into summer-blockbuster territory with The End Of Oak Street, a film that wholeheartedly embraces its big, brash genre pleasures.

This is 1982: a suburban America of Polaroids and perms, picket fences and playdates. It’s here we meet the Platts, a seemingly perfect nuclear family, soundtracked by Michael Giacchino’s sweeping, John Williams-esque score. Under the surface, however, all is not well: dad Greg (Ewan McGregor) has lost his job and has started drinking, mum Denise (Anne Hathaway) is a frustrated writer, son Brian (Christian Convery) is secretly smoking, and daughter Audrey (Maisy Stella) is worrying her parents will divorce, while very saliently quoting Carl Sagan.

A Jurassic-coded dino-movie which largely out-dinos recent Jurassic entries.

As if that weren’t enough to be dealing with, strange prehistoric plants begin cropping up in the neighbourhood, and before they know it, the entire town has been mysteriously transported back in time, to when dinosaurs — those with paleontologically accurate feathers and fur, please note — roamed the earth.

If you were thinking this sounds a bit like a suburban Jurassic Park (‘Jurassic Park Crescent’?), you’re not far off. Mitchell wears his Spielberg influences on his sleeve, from the shots of kids riding bikes, to the fractious family unit, to the close encounters with bright light, to the T-Rex earning top billing. There’s even one big pile of shit. Sneakily, Mitchell has made a Jurassic-coded dino-movie which largely out-dinos a lot of the recent Jurassic entries, chock-full of deliciously tense set-pieces. It’s mounted robustly and handsomely, too. Like the New Hollywood auteurs of old, the cinematography deploys careful, deliberate framing and some very prominent split-diopter shots; if it weren’t for all the (excellent) CGI, it could pass for a 1980s period piece.

Which is not to say it isn’t supremely daft. How and why the dinosaurs arrive is never explained, the film fairly hoping you will enjoy the tense fun on its own silly terms, its internal logic hardly standing up to too much scrutiny. The Platts make some terrible decisions, too (going on a suicidal rescue mission for a dog, jumping off a roof, walloping a T-Rex with a small hammer). But it is, ultimately, the convincing character work that makes this outlandish trip such a delight: suburban anxiety, played out through the Cretaceous period.

Before we even see a single episode of HBO’s Harry Potter streaming series, things are already gearing up for Season 2. That’s because there’s a time pressure to continue the show before the young cast – led by Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout and Arabella Stanton, playing Harry, Ron and Hermione respectively – ages up. And since the second season will adapt The Chamber Of Secrets, that means we’re already getting some new Hogwarts teacher casting too. The latest to enter the castle: Nicholas Hoult.

According to Deadline, Hoult will be playing the role of Gilderoy Lockhart, the new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher – whose vainglorious buffoonery is masked by his status as a successful author, having penned many memoirs of his globe-trotting wizarding adventures. The role was portrayed in the film series by Kenneth Branagh. While Lockhart primarily features in Chamber Of Secrets, there’s potential too for Hoult to show up in later seasons, in sequences that weren’t adapted in the films. Hoult is currently reprising his role as Lex Luthor in James Gunn’s Superman sequel-of-sorts Man Of Tomorrow, with Season 2 of Potter expected otherwise begin shooting this autumn.

As for what the team – led by showrunner Francesca Gardiner and director Mark Mylod – have cooked up so far, fans will get to see Season 1 beginning this Christmas on HBO Max. The season will cover the events of the first book, The Philosopher’s Stone. Now, who’s good with a memory charm?

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, the multiverse came calling. Because, the ultimate geek crossover is on the way. When Avengers: Infinity War dropped in 2018, it was dubbed the “most ambitious crossover event of all time” – and the same could perhaps be said for Star Wars | Marvel: Hope Assembles, a comic book series in which the worlds of, you guessed it, Marvel and Star Wars collides.

The five-issue season, which will launch to mark the 50th anniversary of Star Wars in 2027, is being written by somebody who knows both of those worlds intimately: Kevin Smith. And art comes from Marvel regular David Marquez. Details on the story are scarce, but it’s set in the Earth-616 universe, with a spell causing the events of A New Hope to crash into reality – meaning the likes of Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Princess Leia, Chewbacca and Han Solo will be crossing paths with Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Guardians Of The Galaxy, the Fantastic Four, and Black Panther. The covers were revealed by Entertainment Weekly.

“Back in the early ‘80s, I had a subscription to Marvel’s Star Wars comics. And as fun as it was to follow the continuing adventures of Luke, Leia, and Han, I always wished that Spider-Man or Doctor Doom could cross over into their cinematic saga,” Smith said in a statement, reported by EW. “So when the opportunity arose to actually tell that story, nobody had to Force my hand! I’m ecstatic to be writing Hope Assembles for the 50th anniversary of Star Wars! Many thanks to Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm for trusting me to fly the Falcon and the Quinjet!”

The crossover is a significant partnership – though Marvel and Star Wars have long existed in similar spheres, both owned by Disney, and with Marvel publishing many official Star Wars comics. Still, the Force will hopefully be Infinity Stone-strong with this one – prepare for the issues to drop between January and May 2027.

Good news for those shaken by the divorce of Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson in Marriage Story: they’re back together (in a fashion) in the new film from James Gray, Paper Tiger. Technically, they’re siblings-in-law, but they look set to bring some major clout to a stacked cast – also featuring Miles Teller. The film, marking Gray’s latest since 2022’s Armageddon Time, is a retro crime thriller, in which Driver and Teller play brothers caught in the crosshairs of the Russian mob. Check out the trailer:

Looks tense, huh? And with some gorgeously grainy 35mm cinematography courtesy of Joaquín Baca-Asay (who previously worked with Gray on We Own The Night and Two Lovers). Driver and Teller play Gary and Irwin Pearl, respectively, with Johansson as Irwin’s wife Hester – and it seems the whole family is danger once shady figures decide to target the Pearl brothers’ loved ones. Here’s the official synopsis: “Two brothers become entangled in a scheme that turns out to be too good to be true. As they try to navigate their way through the dangerous world of the Russian mafia, family bonds begin to fray with life-altering consequences.”

Paper Tiger received positive reviews out of Cannes earlier this year, and is hitting US screens on 13 November courtesy of Neon. Here’s hoping it won’t be too long a wait for UK audiences.

Game Of Thrones fans have eaten well this year. The first half of 2026 gave us A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms, further expanding the timeline of Westeros on screen, followed by a barnstorming third season of House Of The Dragon. And while Season 3 delivered huge moves – with Rhaenyra ascending the throne, several major deaths, and new foes emerging in the ongoing Targaryen Civil War – the finale comes with a pang for fans: it’s going to be another two year wait before we get the fourth and final season.

But, as showrunner Ryan Condal assured Empire – speaking on the Pilot TV podcast – the development process on Season 4 is all on track to bring the Dance Of Dragons to a close. And it’s going to be a full-throttle ride. “The whole season is payoff,” says Condal. “We’re all on schedule, prep starts in the fall. So we’ll go back and start revising the scripts, planning sets, location scouts are already happening over the course of the summer to figure out new places we’re going. And then before you know it, hammers will be swinging and 3.4 million screws will be being put together at Leavesden.”

Beyond pre-production in the later months of 2026, Condal says they plan to begin production itself at the start of the new year. And, in the meantime, Thrones fans will get A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Season 2 next year while they wait. “We’ll start again filming early 2027, and I’m really looking forward to the Last Dance, as we’re calling it on our side,” he confirms. Expect much more fire, and blood, as the Targaryen family tree tears itself apart. “There will certainly be more dragons, I can guarantee you that,” he promises. Dracarys!

If you are a fan of the ’90s pop-punk heroes, Nimrods is a major work. This film is very much an extension of the Green Day brand: the band as a collective have “produced by” and “story by” credits and the story is heavily inspired by their early years as struggling musicians on the road, before they became Millennial pop-punk heroes. The plot revolves around three obsessive Green Day fans, and Green Day also star as themselves, the film culminating in a gig in which multiple classic Green Day songs are performed.

That might suggest strictly-for-fans-only territory — but what is surprising about Nimrods (which previously carried the title ‘New Year's Rev’) is how accessible and charming it manages to be. It’s directed by Lee Kirk, who ten years ago directed Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong in the semi-fictional film Ordinary World. The filmmaker clearly has a lot of love and affection for the band, but this story trains the focus on its young cast, Green Day acolytes loosely based on the band members themselves.

For all its faults, Nimrods is a joyful expression of what it means to be young.

Our three scruffy heroes here are rebellious truant Tommy (The Black Phone’s Mason Thames), green-haired masturbator Fred (Kylr Coffman), and bespectacled “narc” Chad (Ryan Foust), who the other two lambast for being too reliable (“If you want to be a punk rocker, you’ve got to be late!”). Tapping into the Gen-Z obsession with ’90s nostalgia, these three are obsessed with Green Day and juvenilia of that era: their band, in fact, is called Analog Dogs (they get repeatedly mistakenly pronounced as “Anal OG Dogs”), and they delight in recording demos on a four-track and filming their punky exploits on an old-school camcorder.

Kirk reflects this in his filming style, shooting Kansas City grungily and grainily as a kind of suburban Nowheresville, USA. After a prank goes wrong, the band incorrectly believe they are supporting Green Day at their headline New Year’s Eve gig in Los Angeles, and scrabble together whatever resources they can to make the journey West — along the way meeting all manner of colourful characters, including indie-cool love interest Olivia (Mckenna Grace) and an eccentric motel owner (Fred Armisen).

Along the way, the familiar formula of a coming-of-age road-trip can be keenly felt. Some comic interludes — Fred takes mushrooms; hijinx ensue — land a little too broadly, and you find yourself wishing that the characters had been fleshed out a touch more. The looming absence of Tommy’s late father is the only real emotional backstory we get.

So, it’s scrappy and a little rough around the edges. You sense that’s exactly how Green Day would like it. The film’s heart and sincerity are never in doubt, and if the ending is predictable, it’s nothing less than sweet and triumphant. And if you are a Green Day fan — or at the very least had working ears during the 1990s and early 2000s — you will be cheered by the excess of the band’s anthems on the soundtrack: of course mournful ballad ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’ plays during a key second-act turning point! Of course ‘Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)’ plays as the film ends! For all its faults, Nimrods is a joyful expression of what it means to be young. While listening, crucially, to Green Day.

As with Game Of Thrones before it, the big question hanging over House Of The Dragon is: who should ascend the Iron Throne? In fact, should anybody? (A question answered with some finality in the ending of Thrones.) The Targaryen Civil War explodes when the descendants of King Viserys are divided over who they think he intended as his successor – and all kinds of terrible things have already unfolded across both Team Black and Team Green, as different factions of the family tree all vie for power. Given the current state of play in the immediate aftermath of the Season 3 finale, who is the current best candidate to rule Westeros right now?

This is exactly what Empire posed to Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal – via the Pilot TV podcast – asking for his best pick to ensure a sane and stable rule. And, after 17 seconds of mulling over his answer, his pick wasn’t a Targaryen. “I mean, honestly I think Alicent,” he says, pointing to the experience held by Rhaenyra’s matriarchal rival. “There’s not a character in the show that has seen more of a differential between power, to lack of power. She’s seen it all. She doesn’t ride a dragon, which I think is probably important for a sane and stable leader. But I think where she is now, where we find her now in the story, and certainly where I think she’s going, she’s a person that has the proper experience and training to make the right choices.”

While the events of the Dance Of The Dragons has, so far, brought up all kinds of personal grievances (fair play, given the number of bodies piling up, children included), Condal sees Alicent as a figure capable of reconciliation. “Even though Alicent could be vindictive about things – and we’ll see where it goes from here based on what happens in the [Season 3] finale – we have seen her let go of vindictiveness, in a way that other people seem to double down on it as things get darker,” he says. “And that’s where I think you get to see the real true nature of a character.”

Aside from Alicent? The creator points to Lord Corlys as a promising candidate. “I think Sea Snake would be a great king too, in terms of experience,” says Condal. “I was just trying to pick somebody that wasn’t blonde.” Hear that, Targaryens? You’re not the good guys!

Listen to the full Ryan Condal interview – talk about the entirety of House Of The Dragon Season 3 in full spoiler detail – on the Pilot TV podcast, coming soon. House Of The Dragon is streaming in full on HBO Max / NOW.

While classics Doom and Wolfenstein 3D are credited with creating the enormously popular first-person shooter genre, 2001's Halo: Combat Evolved did much of the heavy lifting in morphing it into what it is today. 25 years later, the original Xbox's system-seller has er, evolved another gaming category – the increasingly competitive and ubiquitous remake.

Like so many recent remakes – and remasters and reboots and reimaginings – Halo: Campaign Evolved updates a beloved title for both a new audience and existing fans craving a nice dose of nostalgia. But where many of these do-overs fail to fully deliver, Master Chief's return goes above and beyond.

Campaign Evolved checks all the expected “remake” boxes, updating the visuals and tweaking the gameplay to meet modern FPS standards. But even these predictable refreshes are much more than your typical bog-standard inclusions. The graphical update, for example, isn't a mere paintjob with slightly prettier polygons, but a breathtaking, built-from-the-ground-up overhaul that easily stands toe-to-toe with today's most cinematic shooters.

The remake further raises the bar with brand new content.

The Covenant-crushing action is equally impressive, retaining the fast and fluid gunplay that made the original a clip-emptying favourite a quarter century ago, but also building on that formula in welcome ways. From significant additions – many of which have been pulled from later series' instalments – such as new weapon and enemy types, to quality-of-life tweaks, like the ability to sprint and hijack enemy vehicles, every update complements the comfortably familiar gameplay.

Campaign Evolved’s eye-popping visuals and refined mechanics make this a fight worth finishing… again. But the remake further raises the bar with brand new content. A trio of prequel missions – in which the iconic Space Marine teams up with fan-favourite side character Sergeant Major Avery Johnson to infiltrate a Covenant craft – add a few hours of play that never feels like tacked-on filler, but an organic part of the existing lore.

If there's a gripe to be made about Campaign Evolved – which also recruits PlayStation owners for the first time – it'd be that it doesn't bring back the competitive multiplayer modes largely responsible for the original's success. But that critique is about as strong as 343 Guilty Spark's loyalty, as the game's content intentions are clearly stated in its subtitle. Besides, the superior supplemental mode from Combat Evolved – couch co-op – is back and better than ever.

It’s no secret that Squid Game has been one of Netflix’s biggest hits. Alongside the likes of BTS and Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, it became a flagship in the boom of Korean pop-culture phenomena – and the most popular show on the world’s biggest streaming platform. After three critically acclaimed seasons of the original drama, and a successful reality gameshow series as well, it’s hardly a surprise that Netflix would want to expand the franchise. For years now, there have been rumours of a US-produced spin-off with David Fincher involved, which fans theorised might link to Cate Blanchett’s appearance as an American recruiter in the series’ finale. However, it seems that the project has been given the red light.

According to The Playlist, the US Squid Game spin-off – codename ‘Heckler’ – is no longer moving forward. The reports states that Netflix’s goals for Squid Game have changed, with thoughts of having many culture-specific spin-offs for many international markets, rather than one large American companion show. That said, there is no indication that any of these off shoots have begun to move into production. Fincher’s show was never officially confirmed in Netflix’s upcoming releases, and though Blanchett had said that she was willing to return to her brief role, there is nothing definitive to suggest that the rumoured project was ever supposed to have her reprise that character.

Still, the original Squid Game isn’t going anywhere, so fans will have to remained satisfied in rewatching that for the time being. Meanwhile, for those interested in Fincher’s next project, he is directing the upcoming Once Upon A Time In Hollywood spin-off film, The Adventures Of Cliff Booth, which is set to arrive on Netflix on December 23 this year.

WARNING: Contains spoilers for House Of The Dragon Season 3

In the Targaryen Civil War, it’s hard to know who to root for. Which is the whole point, really – the splintered family of the late King Viserys spends the whole of House Of The Dragon ripping each other apart. It’s death by 1000 cuts. Or, 1000 dragon skirmishes. And while the show positions viewers with sympathy for Emma D’Arcy’s Rhaenyra Targaryen – denied her rightful rule by scheming usurpers – the events of Season 3 saw her finally ascend the Iron Throne, only to have a frankly terrible time in the hot seat. So, who do we root for now?

The answer appears to be Daeron Targaryen, on the opposite side of the fractured family tree to Rhaenyra – he’s the son of Viserys and Alicent Hightower, long sent away from King’s Landing to be the squire to his uncle Ormund, a deliciously nasty piece of work (gleefully portrayed by James Norton). Season 3 finally brought Daeron into the fray after remaining off-screen previously, and he’s everything you’d want from a ruler: clever, and calm, and magnetic. His heart genuinely seems in the right place. He knows how to play people, and how to self-preservate. And it’s all been delivered in a great performance from relative newcomer Benjamin Evan Ainsworth – a young actor with a major upcoming destiny of his own.

Next – and before the final season of House Of The Dragon arrives in 2028 – Ainsworth will be lifting the Master Sword in Hyrule; yes, he’s Link in Wes Ball’s live-action The Legend Of Zelda movie. The film shot in late 2026 and the first half of 2026, with a release date in Spring 2027 – at which point Ainsworth, best known for his role in The Haunting Of Bly Manor as a very young child, was a largely unknown quantity. But off the back of HOTD Season 3, his casting seems extremely promising.

There's a quiet power to the way Benjamin Evan Ainsworth holds himself.

Link is a curious figure to cast. He is, of course, entirely non-verbal in the games, a challenge in itself – and it’s currently unclear if he’ll remain that way in Ball’s film. Link is also somewhat light on personality, as the avatar for the player – a literal chibi sprite in the early games, and a strong but silent 3D figure in the likes of Ocarina Of Time and Breath Of The Wild. You play through Link, more than as him. But Ainsworth’s turn as Daeron showed him as a figure that radiates presence – there’s a quiet power to the way he holds himself. In the early episodes of Season 3, he stands firmly in the background while Norton chews the scenery as Ormund. Even there, he had a surprising magnetism, an intensity in his eyes that bodes well for Link.

Notably, Ainsworth succeeds in bringing a stoic decency to Daeron. As of Season 3, he has become the character who seems perhaps best suited to winning the Dance Of Dragons; since Rhaenyra’s rule has brought out her most dangerous tendencies, and bickering siblings Aegon and Aemond have too much damage (some literal), Daeron seems like the most sensible choice for audiences – and the people of Westeros – to get behind heading into the fourth and final season. This innate benevolence is an ideal trait for a live-action Link, too, who through so little expression has to convey a sense of general heroism.

What the future holds – for Daeron, and HOTD, and Zelda – remains to be seen. (No spoiler-y tapestries here.) But Ainsworth made a strong impression in House Of The Dragon’s most exciting series yet, an early sign that the central figure of The Legend Of Zelda might be in strong hands. He’ll be right at home holding the Master Sword. As for the Iron Throne? Maybe that’s something nobody should inherit.

House Of The Dragon Season 3 is streaming in full on HBO Max / NOW. The Legend Of Zelda comes to cinemas in April 2027.