Mike Mignola’s Hellboy and its myriad spinoffs are up there as my favorite comics of all time. The mix of Gothic, cosmic, and monster horror with a helping of gallows humor works for me so, so much. Guillermo del Toro famously made a couple of Hellboy movies with Ron Perlman. While good in their own GDT way, neither of them (especially the second one) truly felt like a proper adaptation of the source material. The 2019 Neil Marshall Hellboy movie with David Harbour adapted the source material directly, but the movie itself was very, very bad. Now we get Hellboy: The Crooked Man and…well, just take a look. Then we’ll talk.

First some context. The Crooked Man was a three-issue arc from Mignola and artist Richard Corben from 2008. It detailed one of Hellboy’s earlier missions for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense. In 1958 Appalachia, Hellboy encounters some witches and witch-adjacent people and eventually cross paths with the titular Crooked Man, a hanged war profiteer from the 18th Century who has returned from Hell to act as the region’s resident Devil. He’s pretty terrifying, especially as Corben illustrates him.

Hellboy: The Crooked Man looks to be a very faithful (and small) adaptation of that particular story. On its face this is a good thing. One of the major issues with the 2019 movie is that it adapted way, way, way too many stories, not least of which The Wild Hunt, the longest and most epic story in the Mignola canon. Focusing on a one-off adventure and maximizing the horror is a pretty good idea.

However, just looking at it, you can see the very low budget. You may have noticed the movie comes our way from Ketchup Entertainment. KETCHUP ENTERTAINMENT. Brian Taylor (of Crank franchise fame) is directing, with himself, Mignola, and Mignola’s Baltimore collaborator Christopher Golden on screenplay duties. Jack Kesy (who very briefly played Black Tom Cassidy in Deadpool 2) portrays Hellboy and he just kind of looks unfinished. If Harbour was TOO made up, Kesy looks like a decent amateur cosplay attempt.

So who knows! It may be good. It certainly seems focused more on the actual horror. Which is the proper direction to go following the dark fantasy mishmash of the last movie. But I’m not convinced after this wack first look. I would love it if one day any live-action outing properly snags the tone of the comics. Whether Hellboy: The Crooked Man can do that will have to wait until it comes out later this year.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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This past spring, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures launched not one but two movies. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two premiered March 1 and is currently the second highest grossing movie of 2024. Adam Wingard’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire hit theaters March 25 and currently occupies the number three slot for the year. So, yeah, makes sense they’d want to do it again. According to Deadline, the two studios have set release dates for the next Monsterverse movie and the next Villeneuve movie.

The Villeneuve movie in question officially has a working title of “Untitled Denis Villeneuve Event Film.” This may in fact be Dune: Messiah, the proposed third film in the Dune franchises, based on the second Frank Herbert book. But it also may be an unrelated Villeneuve movie. In either case, this movie is on the books for December 2026.

As for the next Monsterverse movie, we know it will be directed by Grant Sputore. Now we also know it has a release date of March 26, 2027. Effectively exactly three years after the release of GxK. So get ready for those!

Editor’s Note: Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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We currently live in a world where video game movie and TV adaptations have finally, in most people’s estimation, reached their peak. HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us broke ratings records; the Sonic the Hedgehog movies made all kinds of money. And hell, even the 30-year stink of Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. live-action movie has given way to what looks to be a pretty excellent animated film. Another franchise with a bad 1990s movie will soon get a similar reprieve. In 2023, we learned that Legendary obtained exclusive live-action film and TV rights to Capcom’s Street Fighter franchise. What’s more, a Street Fighter movie is on the way from Legendary and Sony. The Street Fighter movie will release in 2026.

According to Deadline, the movie lost its original set of directors, Danny and Michael Philippou, who created the popular A24 horror movie, Talk to Me. The publication additionally reports there is no word yet on the Street Fight movie’s plot.

Legendary will co-develop and produce this Street Fighter movie with Sony and Capcom, and Legendary and Capcom will work together on any future titles. Capcom has had success with the Resident Evil movie franchise, though those aren’t particularly faithful to the games. Legendary, meanwhile, saw success with its live-action Pokémon Detective Pikachu movie in 2019.

One of the highest-grossing video game franchises in history, Street Fighter all but invented the fighting game as we know it today. From 1987, the games have introduced and perfected a particular kind of superpowered brawler and introduced memorable and beloved characters like Ryu, Chun-Li, and Guile. Dozens of anime adaptations grew the game’s lore and roster, showcasing a global fight tournament against the evil M. Bison.

A 1994 live-action adaptation starring Jean-Claude Van Damme didn’t quite live up to anybody’s expectations, but is still fun if you’re into that particular mood. We can’t wait to hear more about this Street Fighter movie as it develops.

Editor’s Note: Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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In a real “didn’t we already know this?” piece of news, HBO has officially greenlit the DCU drama series Lanterns based on the Green Lantern comics. This was one of the titles James Gunn mentioned in his now infamous DCU slate video in early 2023. That certainly made it seem like it was a sure thing. However, given how fickle Warner Bros. is these days, I suppose it wasn’t. At any rate, HBO has given an eight-episode, direct-to-series order to Lanterns. Emmy-nominee Chris Mundy (True Detective: Night Country; Ozark) will serve as showrunner.

The synopsis of the series says it follows “new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.” Pretty interesting concept for a Green Lantern series. Intergalactic cops solving an mystery on Earth. Definitely has True Detective vibes.

Joining Mundy in the writing of the show are none other than heavy hitters Damon Lindelof (Watchmen, The Leftovers) and comic writer Tom King (Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow). James Gunn and Peter Safran said of the announcement: “We’re thrilled to bring this seminal DC title to HBO with Chris, Damon and Tom at the helm. John Stewart and Hal Jordan are two of DC’s most compelling characters, and Lanterns brings them to life in an original detective story that is a foundational part of the unified DCU we’re launching next summer with Superman.”

No word yet on when the series will debut. We will, of course, keep you up to date on any casting news as it develops.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Finding new and interesting takes on vampire stories is a pretty tough row to hoe at this point. They’re among the oldest and most famous folklore monsters and the lore surrounding them, at least as laid out in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, feels mostly concrete. It’s strange, then, why more movies don’t explore the folklore in a different way, from a different part of the world. Adrien Beau’s debut feature The Vourdalak does this, exploring the Russian/Slavic vampire legend through its most popular written work. Oh, and it also makes the vampire a creepy puppet. That helps.

The Vourdalak adapts Aleksey K. Tolstoy’s 1839 novella, The Family of the Vourdalak, which predates both Le Fanu’s 1873 Carmilla and Stoker’s 1897 Dracula. Vourdalaks differ from our traditional understanding of vampires. They drink blood, sure, and they are undead, but the sun has little to no effect on them, and they tend to only feast on members of their family. That aspect forms the foundation of the story. It’s the breakdown of a family unit in a time and culture that values family, and respecting elders of the family, above all else.

The movie places the action in the late 1700s wherein French nobleman Marquis Jacques Antoine Saturnin d’Urfe (Kacey Mottet Klein) finds himself stranded in Eastern Europe, looking for a place to spend the night. The Turks had recently raided the village, but the villager tells the Marquis to seek shelter at the house of an elder named Gorcha. On the way, the Marquis meets Gorcha’s daughter Sdenka (Ariane Labed) and immediately becomes infatuated. Unfortunately for him, Sdenka—who desperately wants to leave for a better life—has other things on her mind.

The Gorcha household, we and the Marquis learn, consists of the aged Gorcha, Gorcha’s three children—eldest Jegor, Sdenka, and younger son Piotr—and Jegor’s wife and son. Jegor left to find the Turkish raiders and, returning after a month, discovers Gorcha himself went out after the Turks. Gorcha told his family if he does not return in six days, they should assume he’s dead. If he returns after the six days, they should assume he’s a vourdalak and refuse him entry. Jegor finds this absurd and the Marquis finds it peculiar.

However, after assuming the missing Gorcha had indeed died, the old man appears at the edge of the forest at exactly six days, to the minute. He looks like a corpse, clearly little more than a skeleton with skin, but he holds so much sway over his children, especially Jegor, they allow him to stay. Would you be surprised to hear he’s a vourdalak?

Beau makes a couple of really clever choices that set this movie apart from other adaptations. Famously, Mario Bava’s 1963 anthology film Black Sabbath adapts the story with Boris Karloff as Gorcha. Less famously, the 1972 Giorgio Ferroni film The Night of the Devils moved the action to the modern day. But Beau in fact moves it further back in time, so that our French nobleman is a ridiculous, white-makeup-faced fop. He’s a ridiculous sight to us, but it makes him especially ridiculous to the locals who know nothing of French courtiers. He’s an outsider.

The other major change, obviously, is that Gorcha himself when we see him is so inhuman, so far gone down the road of undead monster, that he’s not even a person. Gorcha is head to toe a full-size rod puppet, with Beau providing the voice. He has full scenes of dialogue, in full light—more than enough to make it clear, this ain’t a man. This is entirely the point! It’s easy to look at Boris Karloff and, even with some makeup, recognize he’s the man you used to know. It’s impossible to look at the thing in this movie and see anything but a grotesquery. And yet…

The Vourdalak uses its uncanny visuals to its benefit, heightening a story that certainly feels pretty familiar to horror fans. In addition to the puppetry, we have some lovely, gloomy dream sequences and bloody set pieces. The cast acquit themselves very nicely, perfectly playing the severity of the situation, even amid the unreality of the threat. Klein also manages a compelling protagonist who is at once compassionate and forthright, and a ridiculous buffoon who is a rich creep.

I think if The Vourdalak has any downside, it’s that none of it is particularly scary. Parts of it, especially later in the story involving Gorcha’s feeding, should be eerier than they are. Perhaps that isn’t the point, however the aforementioned Italian versions certainly slanted toward a growing creep factor I don’t think The Vourdalak ever comes close to. Doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie, and if grotesqueness is all you’re after, this French-language offering has plenty for you. The puppet alone is worth the 90 minute watch.

The Vourdalak ⭐ (3.5 of 5)

The Vourdalak opens exclusively in US cinemas on June 28th from Oscilloscope Laboratories.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

The post THE VOURDALAK Gives Us a Vampire Folk Tale with One Major Selling Point appeared first on Nerdist.

For decades now, LEGO has brought its singular brand of brick-building fun to licensed properties. Almost as long as that, it has also produced video games based on those licensed properties. After dozens of Star Wars, Marvel, Batman, and more titles hit consoles, we finally have an ouroboros. The latest LEGO video game, announced at the Nintendo Direct, is based on a non-LEGO video game for PlayStation. Feast your eyes on LEGO Horizon Adventures.

The open-world action game puts players in control of Aloy, a girl from a future agrarian society after an unspecified apocalypse made animal-like machines the dominant creatures on the planet. She must learn about her past and save her people while also battling robot velociraptors and shit. This LEGO edition will bring together the events and characters from 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn and 2022’s Horizon Forbidden West, but in the inimitable cute building style.

Why this game exists, I don’t really know, but for fans of both the LEGO games and the Horizon games, this is probably a no-brainer. LEGO Horizon Adventures hits Nintendo Switch this holiday season.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Nintendo sure does love putting the Mario Bros. on islands. It feels like that’s all they ever do! But at least they’re together. That continues in Mario & Luigi: Brothership, the latest entry in the franchise which the company announced during the Nintendo Direct. The below announcement trailer starts with Mario once again saving Luigi from any number of silly troubles before arriving on the island…that is also a ship.

The RPG takes the brothers to Shipshape Island, on which they travel the vast world of Concordia. Along the way, players and the brothers will meet new people and familiar faces like Peach and Bowser. They’ll need to use patented Bros. Moves in order to get by obstacles and solve puzzles, and just generally need to be adorable brothers to accomplish anything.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership will hit Nintendo Switch November 7, 2024.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

The post MARIO & LUIGI: BROTHERSHIP Trailer Promises Adorable, Fraternal RPG appeared first on Nerdist.

Get your friends together and compete in 110 new mini games in Nintendo’s Super Mario Party Jamboree. The below announcement trailer was just one of the new games offered as part of Nintendo Direct for June 2024. The game also boasts seven new game boards, including the Rainbow Galleria, which is literally a mall. You can go to a mall within a Mario game. What a world.

The latest in the super popular party game series, Super Mario Party Jamboree will take players to a massive resort setting, which will include five brand new game boards and two fan-favorites returning. The new Koopathlon mode will also allow up to 20 players to go head-to-head online. That is a lot of players, I think you’ll agree.

Super Mario Party Jamboree launches on the Nintendo Switch October 17.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

The post SUPER MARIO PARTY JAMBOREE Announcement Trailer Takes You to a Mall appeared first on Nerdist.

The first season of the Ncuti Gatwa era of Doctor Who has felt incredibly short. There’s a reason for that; it is incredibly short. Even so, the season-long mystery has been right at the forefront of every episode. Who is the lady played by Susan Twist who keeps appearing briefly? Why is she in so many times, places, and circumstances? And why did it take the Doctor and Ruby so long to realize it? Well, the penultimate episode, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday,” finally answered at least a few of these enigmas. We now know who the villain is! And it may require a bit of explanation.

There’s Always a Twist at the End

It may have taken you a little bit to notice, but Susan Twist played a small character in each of the previous episodes. She’s the old hippie who requests a song from Ruby’s band at Christmas. She played a nurse in “Space Babies” and a dinner lady in “The Devil’s Chord.” Infamously she was the face of the ambulance in “Boom!” and the hiker in Wales in “73 Yards.” Susan Twist even played Lindy Pepper-Bean’s mom in “Dot and Bubble” and was the portrait of the duchess in “Rogue.” As the song at the end of “The Devil’s Chord” proclaimed, “there’s always a twist at the end.”

This is Russell T Davies’ most shrewd season arc, because it gave the audience double and even triple bluffs. The actress is Susan Twist, and for decades fans have speculated that we’d eventually see the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan return. Could Susan Twist be the “Susan twist?” This episode tackles it head on.

S. Triad

While the Doctor, Ruby, and UNIT discuss who the mystery lady could be, the UNIT folks know right away. It’s Susan Triad, the famous tech developer who at that moment prepares to announce her biggest public offering yet. So there it is: Susan. The Susan twist must be that Susan Twist is Susan…TWIST! In addition, her name is Susan Triad. S. Triad is an anagram of TARDIS, which the crew rightly points out. This is too much! Susan Triad must have knowledge of the TARDIS and in fact is Susan, the Doctor’s granddaughter.

One interesting wrinkle the show offers is that, while the Doctor has a granddaughter, he doesn’t have a son or daughter…at least not yet. The series has never discussed the Doctor’s children, or even really alluded to them existing, but he still has a grandchild. Ergo, through time and wime, he can raise a granddaughter before he has children…or whatever.

Sue Technologies

Ah, names. As Mel (Bonnie Langford) learns while undercover working for Susan Triad, she prefers to be called “Sue.” This was our first clue Susan Triad maybe wasn’t Susan TARDIS after all. As the rest of the episode explores Ruby’s past and whatever evil entity emanates through time and space, using the TARDIS as an entry point, we maybe forget what Susan Triad could directly be involved.

Alas, she is. And, for whatever reason, Susan Triad has been a sleeper agent the whole time. In fact, the real words we ought to have paid attention to were “Sue” and “Tech,” because in actuality, she is the reborn embodiment of Sutekh, the ancient evil that begat the ancient Egyptian god Set. Set, traditionally, is the god of deserts, storms, disorder, violence, and foreigners. (Foreigners?! The hell, Ancient Egypt?)

The episode closes with the entity of Sutekh, as embodied by a giant dog-headed cloud, and the skeletal face of Susan Triad, claiming victory. Also Harriett Arbinger, a member of UNIT, was annoying the “harbinger” of doom. H. Arbinger. Dumb.

Who Is Doctor Who‘s Sutekh?

Sutekh only appeared in a single televised Doctor Who serial. That was “Pyramids of Mars,” a Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith story from 1975. In it, the Doctor and Sarah end up in 1911 where English archaeologists (some might save tomb raiders, but po-tay-to, po-tah-to) unearth the burial chamber of Sutekh, the alien Osiran, whose race came to Earth and formed the basis for the pantheon of Ancient Egyptian deities.

Sutekh waged war against his kind, and 740 Osirans under the leadership of Horus managed to defeat and imprison Sutekh on Earth. Keeping him at bay is a beam emanating from a pyramid on Mars. Damn Edwardians and their obsession with digging up shit. The excavator, Professor Marcus Scarman, falls under Sutekh’s thrall and, using Sutekh’s robot mummies as muscle, attempts to fire a missile at Mars to destroy the pyramid. Naturally, the Doctor has to stop this, but not before he and Sarah have to beat the many obstacles and traps in the pyramid.

Actor Gabriel Woolf who voiced Sutekh in “Pyramids of Mars” reprises his role in “The Legend of Ruby Sunday.”

Has Sutekh Ever Shown Up Again?

As with just about every villain in the classic era of Doctor Who, Sutekh appeared in several novels and audio dramas as part of the show’s spinoff media. The series does namedrop Sutekh a fair amount, usually in relation to powerful, Lovecraftian gods who may or may not be the basis for the devil.

So Wait, Is Nobody Susan?

So here is where I think RTD is pulling yet another Susan twist. Given we’ve seen her a couple of times, and she has a very weird—possibly unearthly—quality to her, I think it’s much more likely Mrs. Flood (Anita Dobson) is actually Susan. She knows what a TARDIS is, and she definitely behaved incredibly strangely when Cherry Sunday (Angela Winter) asked for some tea.

I’m not saying she definitely is, but if anyone we’ve seen thus far seems like they could be the Doctor’s granddaughter in disguise, it’d be Mrs. Flood.

We’ll just have to wait and see how it all shakes out when “Empire of Death,” the finale of season one, premieres June 22 on Disney+.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

The post Who Is Sutekh, the Villain of DOCTOR WHO Season 1 appeared first on Nerdist.

Companions don’t stick around forever, but few of Doctor Who‘s costars feel as “we hardly knew ye” as Melanie Bush, played by Bonnie Langford. Initially appearing on the show, in a timey-wimey way, after she’d already met the Doctor, Mel only stuck around for six stories, a total of 20 episodes, from 1986-1987. But no one’s ever really gone in the Whoniverse, and the accomplished stage actor returned to the series 35 years later with a brief appearance in “The Power of the Doctor.” Little did we know, Mel would get bumped up to proper costar in “The Giggle.”

Now, Melanie returns for “The Legend of Ruby Sunday,” the first part of Ncuti Gatwa’s first season finale. Nerdist spoke to the delightful Bonnie Langford about getting to continue Mel’s story, joining UNIT, and being present for the game-changing “bi-generation.”

Nerdist: At what point did you learn that you would not only come back for “The Giggle,” but you’d be coming back for multiple episodes?

Bonnie Langford: Well, let me think. [Showrunner] Russell [T Davies] just sent me the scripts and I just moved everything to be able to do it. It was very exciting. In fact, actually I was doing another show at the time. I was doing a musical, Anything Goes, and so I had to duck out of it for a couple of weeks. But yes, so Russell said, oh, we want you in the season finale of the Ncuti season, which is terribly exciting because we felt that we’d set up this whole UNIT thing as well.

Mel had been given a little bit of a slight backstory, but not too much. But now she has a job, she has a purpose, she has a place, and to be able to revisit it again [was great]. We had such a good time on “The Giggle.” I was really thrilled to be able to go back and she’s quite intrinsic to the plot, which is a gift that every actor dreams of.

You said around the time “The Giggle” came out that you were just excited that Mel got a job.

I had a computer job, a job that she actually could be doing, something that was supposedly her skills because she’d never been given that before.

You obviously played Mel again in audio form over the years. Did you have an idea in your own mind before this, what Mel would’ve been up to?

You never really knew. But it was great to be able to do the audio dramas and sort of develop those different avenues as well. And to keep in touch with her, really. It was a bit like sending postcards. I could do those things. So when it came to, they asked me to do a little tiny scene in “The Power of the Doctor” with Jodie Whittaker. It was as if, oh yeah, this is nice. I wonder what she’d looked like. And we moved her on a little bit. And then the same with “The Giggle,” and she found her place. She’s still rooted in the past. She’s got all that wealth of experience, but she’s very much up with the generation, the current generation, and wanting to look to the future.

So yeah, I think it was nice to revisit her, to be able to help her grow. She’s grown. Not as sort of perky and irritating as perhaps she was before. And she’s not a scaredy cat, she’s much more calm, much more grounded. And yet she still has this joy and dedication and devotion really, to the Doctor.

I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but I checked to make sure, but I believe Mel is the only companion who is present at multiple Regenerations. Yeah, that adds Mel to the history books, I guess.

(Delighted gasp) I love that. That’s great. Yeah, no, at one point I thought Mel was the one who sounds terrible being with most Doctors, but I don’t think she is at the moment. But you never know, because I was, I’ve worked with, well with Colin and Sylvester, obviously with Jodie, although I wasn’t in a scene with her, with David, with Ncuti. And I did a one-off special for Children in Need with Jon Pertwee. So six is quite a lot. She gets around too much.

Well that’s the headline.

You might call her flighty.

What was it like in “The Giggle” shooting the big bi-generation, pulling the Doctors apart along with Catherine Tate?

Wild. It was wild. I’m so grateful to have been present. It was very exciting. A lot of people were there. Suddenly Russell was there and everyone, Ncuti was very excited and anxious as well. But he brought such great energy and he and David just got on like an absolute house on fire. They were talking a lot. They both trained at the same drama school in Scotland. So they were talking all about that. They had that in common.

It was a very jolly celebratory atmosphere because I suppose it wasn’t really the ending that it normally would be. A new beginning, but it wasn’t final for anybody else. It wasn’t like, oh, you are leaving, bye. It was all still, oh, there’s so much hope here. And we had a lot of fun. Sun was shining all those days. We did quite a few days on it as well.

What was your impression of Ncuti and the new production during those first scenes?

It felt like the show was going to be in great hands going forward, and it seemed very exciting. Ncuti and I really just connected from the word go. So that was brilliant. I’d never met him before, but I was a great fan of his work. It just kind of came out of nowhere. And I think there was a lot more laughter than was expected. I think that brought such an extra beautiful dimension to that whole scene was that there was this fear, there was this wonder, there was this fear of the unknown, but then at the same time, suddenly, oh wow, this is exciting. This is jolly. We just laughed a lot because it was the unexpected. Yeah, it was great.

After being there for Ncuti’s first day on set, what was it like coming back and seeing how he had grown as the Doctor for the finale of the season?

Well, I mean, he certainly got his feet under the table. It’s very difficult. You take over a part or you start re-create a part and everyone’s saying, well, whatcha going to do? Whatcha going to do? And you think, ‘I dunno till I get there.’ It was great to see that he’d found different styles. I love the fact that he blends, he embraces wherever he’s going to be. He doesn’t wear just one costume. It’s going to be difficult for the fans with all the cosplay. It’ll cost a fortune! But he definitely is a person who wants to blend in with whatever environment that he’s with, that he’s the Doctor that wants to be part of that world, literally as they would say in The Little Mermaid. But he, and yet he still is very much this larger than life, beautiful spirit.

Last question: you have obviously spent a lot of time with many Doctors. Do you think there is something that Ncuti has that they all have had in terms of what it means to be The Doctor?

Yeah, I think it’s a sincerity. It’s sincerity and authenticity and in whatever form. And also inclusivity in a world where lots of the time people are not seen or heard. And it’s a way of, I think there was a beautiful line in one of the first episodes, I think it was of this season where he says, people aren’t monsters. I shouldn’t be frightened of anyone. It’s just someone I haven’t met. There’s a lot to learn from this. It’s very poetic. The show has always been about trying to help us to be better people, those that watch it, that you sort of might take something in that you go, oh, hadn’t thought of life that way before. And he is very much an advocate of it being a show for everyone, but also to learn from everyone and to embrace everyone.

And we can still be our own individual self. So we embrace our individuality, but we also embrace everybody else’s as well. And yeah, I think it’s, what he brings to it is this wonderful spirit of inclusion of all generations too. And that’s different about the show is that it has that legacy that is from the past. So it goes back to the past because we are here because of what happened in the past, whether that be good, bad, or indifferent. And maybe we can change that in the future going ahead. Sometimes we have to revisit that past to be able to deal with it, to put it to bed, or to change ourselves going forward, pay it forward differently. And that is very much suit and it’s very much part of this show, and I’m really proud to be part of all that.

Doctor Who drops at 7pm ET on Disney+.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Somehow, it’s been 25 years since the release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. As if I didn’t already feel like ambulatory dust. In the time since its release, it (and the prequel trilogy as a whole) has gone through the many stages of public perception. From a flawed blockbuster, to hated pariah, to underappreciated childhood favorite, to finally begrudging acceptance. Some people will never like it, others never didn’t. In either case, its legendary status (and, let’s face it, silly script) has made it perfect for a live staged reading with a cast of comedians.

As a co-production between the Star Wars Minute and George Lucas Talk Show podcasts, the reading of The Phantom Menace was performed May 19 at Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles. The George Lucas Talk Show added the recording to their YouTube channel and now you can watch it!

The cast includes:

• TAWNY NEWSOME
• HALEY JOEL OSMENT
• DIANA LEE INOSANTO
• LARAINE NEWMAN
• ERIC BAUZA
• VIC MICHAELIS
• TONY HALE
• KRYSTINA ARIELLE
• BOBBY MOYNIHAN
• CORIN WELLS
• MARK MCCONVILLE
• JEREMY CARTER
• HAL LUBLIN
• JOJO GINN
• MATT GOURLEY
• JAMES BLADON

Love it or hate it, The Phantom Menace is definitely much funnier in staged reading form.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise given he didn’t even stick around for the entirety of the original series run, but Steve Carell will not return for The Office reboot, according to Variety. Carell famously stepped away from the top-rated NBC comedy in 2010, a few episodes before the end of the show’s seventh episode. Though he’d return for the series finale a few years later, the Michael Scott era was well and truly over. And that won’t change in the upcoming spinoff, The Paper. However, the actor did provide some advice to the show’s new lead, Domhnall Gleeson.

“I know Domhnall Gleeson – who I did The Patient with – is going to be one of the leads. I know that for sure,” Carell told Jimmy Fallon during a recent interview on The Tonight Show. “He’s an excellent actor. And he actually called me and asked, you know, ‘Should I do this? Is this something… Did you enjoy it?’ I said, ‘Of course.’”

The Paper from Greg Daniels and Michael Koman will follow an office of workers at a failing local newspaper in the same fictional version of Scranton, PA, as The Office. The same faux documentary crew will shoot the show within the show. So far, only Gleeson and Italian actress Sabrina Impacciatore have been cast in the series, which will begin production in July 2024. The series will debut on Peacock at some point.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Since 1971, Toei Studios’ Kamen Rider franchise has been at the forefront of tokusatsu. (Kamen means “masked” for reference.) Despite not having the westernization of Super Sentai with Power Rangers, or the push into international markets like Ultraman, Kamen Rider has an amazingly fervent fanbase, perhaps the most of any toku in the west. Each season has its own, completely different Rider(s), and beginning in 2000, each has its own theme and focus. It’s easily the most varied of the big three.

While only a few seasons are available through *traditional* means here in North America, it’s worth tracking the others down. They each offer something unique. Not all of them will work for you, but the action, characters, and suit designs always bring something of value. Below are my 10 favorite seasons, and ones that will give new fans some fun. Keep in mind each season is quite long, 40 episodes at least. So give them a couple episodes and see if you dig it.

10. Kamen Rider Gaim (2013-2014)

This season is certainly singular. Written by prolific and iconoclastic anime scribe Gen Urobuchi (Psycho-Pass), Kamen Rider Gaim is about rival dance teams who turn into fruit-themed samurai to fight against an evil organization hoping to use the forbidden fruit of a mystical forest to begin Ragnarok and remake the world. It’s a trip of a season for sure, made all the stranger given how much teen angst and drama it packs in. But Gaim is a blast and the armors are among the best in the show’s history.

9. Kamen Rider OOO (2010-2011)

One theme of the early seasons on my list is that they just evoke fun times. From the ska-punk theme song to the hero Eiji’s surfer vagabond vibe, OOO (said aloud like “Oze,” as in the letter O pluralized), is a delight. The concept follows the awakening of the Greeed (three Es), evil beings which feed on human desires. Ankh, the floating, disembodied arm of an ousted Greeed, takes over the body of a slain police officer and recruits Eiji to find and collect various Medals of power, giving the abilities of various animals.

When Eiji puts three in his belt, he can transform into Kamen Rider OOO. We also eventually get a secondary Rider in Kamen Rider Birth, a jovial mercenary who works for the mysterious Kougami Foundation. I confess, this season’s happy-go-lucky tone actually put me off at first, but eventually I had to give in. It’s fun, start to finish.

8. Kamen Rider Fourze (2011-2012)

If OOO put me off at first, you’d probably assume Fourze did too. But actually, nope! I knew what I was in for from the beginning. Set entirely in a high school, Fourze‘s lead character, Gentaro, is a bad-boy-styled transfer student who loudly decrees he’s going to make friends with everyone in the school. And through sheer force of will, he begins to do just that. At the same time, strange alien creatures called Zodiarts begin attacking the school, and Gentaro uses space-themed inventions to turn into rocket-ship-looking Kamen Rider Fourze.

If you go into this one with the right frame of mind, it’s a blast, often literally. It mimics American high school drama shows (including a beefy football player and mean girl cheerleader) while also having a theme of space travel and going to the moon. What a mix!

7. Kamen Rider (1971-1973)

The OG, the one that started it all. Toei didn’t have the money or the effects to compete with Tsuburaya’s Ultraman series, but what it did have was the iconic design and concept of mangaka Shotaro Ishinomori. Insect-themed cyborg hero fights other monster-like cyborgs while riding a motorcycle. It just works.

One of the easier shows to find in North America, I also need to warn new fans that, at 98 episodes, it’s a beast. Luckily, it easily splits up into different segments. The first 13 episodes follow motorcyclist collegiate genius Takeshi Hongo who is the latest experiment by evil organization Shocker to create cyborg threats. He manages to escape with all the strengths but with his mind his own. The is first arc relies heavily on mood and an almost horror movie atmosphere.

While filming these first episodes, actor Hiroshi Fujioka broke his leg doing a motorcycle stunt necessitating first a sidekick character in Taki (Jiro Chiba) and later a whole new main character in Hayato Ichimonji (Takeshi Sasaki). Ichimonji, a brash and stylish photographer, led the series as Kamen Rider 2 from episodes 14 through 52. These episodes lightened up the tone and incorporated children side characters as well as a group of Rider Club members. During the Ichimonji tenure, the show became a hit.

Fujioka returned for a couple of guest appearances before retaking the series beginning in episode 53, at which time Sasaki went to guest status on occasions. This second Hongo tenure is pure action and introduces the best main villain of the early franchise, Ambassador Hell.

Its lower placement on this list might indicate I don’t love it thoroughly. I do. But it’s very, very samey after a while. Watch 1-13, some from the middle 30s, the crossovers, and the final like 10 episodes and you’ll get the gist.

6. Kamen Rider Kuuga (2000-2001)

The first Rider season following a decade-long drought, Kamen Rider Kuuga needed to hit big to reestablish the franchise. And boy did it. Its mix of police procedural, J-drama, and mystical superhero adventure made it feel very modern. Didn’t hurt that lead actor Joe Odagiri was a favorite of women viewers.

The story follows young polymath adventurer Yusuke (Odagiri) who becomes preternaturally drawn to an artifact belt discovered at an archaeological dig site. The dig also releases the Grongi, a race of ancient creatures who take human form to once again conquer Earth. Yusuke puts on the belt and unleashes the power of Kuuga, the ancient warrior who defeated the Grongi millennia earlier. Helping him are police detective Ichijo, college researcher (and eventual love interest) Sakurako, and Yusuke’s younger sister Minori.

The very last series to date to only have a single Rider. But, the story and characters are so good you’ll hardly miss it. Kuuga is really great, and if you can get passed the early 2000s video and CGI, it’s a very rewarding watch.

5. Kamen Rider V3 (1973-1974)

Everything I love about the original Kamen Rider but half the length. The direct sequel to the original has a young man named Shiro (tokusatsu legend Hiroshi Miyauchi) witness Destron (an offshoot of Gel-Shocker, an offshoot of Shocker) commit a murder. The villains pursue him and, not finding Shiro, slaughter his whole family. He seeks aid from the two Kamen Riders who turn him into a cyborg following a near-fatal wounding. He becomes V3, or Version 3, the third Kamen Rider, who takes up their mantle to protect Japan from evil.

I Showa-era tokusatsu a lot, and V3 has a lot less filler than its predecessor. The series eventually introduces Riderman, a Destron cyborg sent to kill V3 who slowly becomes an ally.

4. Kamen Rider Geats (2022-2023)

The most recent series on my list, I’m honestly shocked I love Geats as much as I do. The original concept was to capitalize on the global success of Squid Game with a series about contestants forced to compete in the Desire Grand Prix, a Battle Royale televised event in which Riders (each with animal-themed armor) fight plant-monsters called Jyamato who attack innocent people. The winner gets their true wish, no matter what it is. We quickly learn that the DGP is the plaything of wealthy people from the future who laugh at misfortune and drama.

At the center of the story is fox-themed Kamen Rider Geats, the alter-ego of Ace Ukiyo, the undefeated champion several DGP running. He knows there’s more to the games, and the mysterious overseers, than meets the eye and he’ll do whatever it takes to learn the truth. This goal puts him at odds with Kamen Rider Buffa who only wants to destroy Kamen Riders, and Kamen Riders Tycoon and Na-Go who are in it for more personal reasons.

This series just came to Blu-ray from Shout! Studios so I’d highly recommend picking it up.

3. Kamen Rider W (2009-2010)

Kamen Rider W (spoken “Kamen Rider Double”) has one of my favorite gimmicks ever. It follows a self-styled hard-boiled private detective named Shotaro and his “guy in the chair” Philip, who has a mysterious past and encyclopedic knowledge of everything. They work in Fuuto, or “Windy City,” and every two episodes is a different case involving monsters called Dopants arising from people implanting Gaia Memories. It’s basically like kaijin PCP. At the beginning of the series, Akiko Narumi, the daughter of the detectives’ mentor, arrives to take ownership of the agency and hit Shotaro with a shoe.

Luckily, our heroes have a method to battle Dopants without succumbing to the evil effects. They pool their abilities, Philip loses consciousness, and they become Kamen Rider Double, both minds inside of Shotaro’s body. I truly love this gimmick and these characters. Over a decade later, we’d get a manga and then anime follow-up to this series called Fuuto P.I.

2. Kamen Rider Black (1987-1988)

After a brief hiatus in the ’80s, the series returned with a pair of seasons that effectively rebooted the franchise, taking a darker and scarier tone. For the first season at least. Kamen Rider Black is awesome, eschewing the silly excesses of the ’70s for straightforward, more mature storytelling with great fights, stunts, and monsters. The hero is one of two brothers stolen by the evil organization and forced to undergo cyborg conversion. Like the original, he doesn’t lose his autonomy and fights against the baddies, while his brother dies… or does he. The season has a gorgeous Blu-ray release from Diskotek Media, so it’s relatively easy to watch.

The story continued with the following year’s Kamen Rider Black RX with the same lead character. However, it decides to turn fully back into a kid’s show and, while fine, it’s not great. It was also the Japanese footage that gave the U.S. the short-lived Saban’s Masked Rider, so it has a lot to answer for. Just stick to Black.

1. Kamen Rider Build (2017-2018)

My very favorite season of Kamen Rider, and not coincidentally its theme is science and experimentation. Build begins after Martian artifact causes a cataclysmic event, which splits Japan into three regions, separated by enormous walls. (Just go with it.) Along with complex socio political turmoil between regions, the event also unleashed creatures called Smash which terrorize everybody. Our hero is Sento, an amnesiac genius who was taken in by a cafe owner who gives him the Build Driver. The driver, which coupled with two bottles of power essences, turns him into Kamen Rider Build. Like W, each one of Build’s forms requires two different abilities combined.

The story of Kamen Rider Build has dozens of twists, turns, and double-crosses. Characters go from hero to villain or vice-versa. It’s one of the more emotionally resonant seasons, which gives it more heft than it could otherwise have. But what makes Build take my top spot, it’s that all of the characters work and have their own inner life and circumstances. I genuinely care what happens to all of them, and the final arc is heartbreaking in the best way. Plus Banjo, aka Kamen Rider Cross-Z, is the himbo we all want to root for.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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The imminent release of the animated feature Ultraman: Rising on Netflix might have you curious as to learning more about this weird “Ultraman” thing. You may have heard of Shin Ultraman which came out in North America in 2022, but did you know the Ultra series is one of the longest running in TV history? Take a hike, Doctor Who! Get outta here, The Simpsons! Ultraman and its spinoffs have been going in some form since 1966! 35 official seasons, plus special seasons, miniseries, and dozens of movies. That is, by anyone’s estimation, a long-ass time.

But, you may ask, which seasons are the best? Lucky for you, yours truly has watched all of the Ultra series and has you covered. Below is a list of my favorite seasons, with an edge toward people who haven’t seen any or much of it. I’ve already written about why you should watch Ultraman, so check that out. Like all tokusatsu shows, every Ultra season is standalone, however with occasional crossovers with other seasons and characters. By and large, very easy to watch since they have their own circumstances and worlds.

10. Ultraman: Towards the Future (1990)

Perhaps an out-there choice for many people. This was one of two English-language productions from the ’90s. The second of those, Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero from 1993, was an American co-production and is largely quite terrible. However, this first one from Australia is super fun. It was actually the very first Ultraman thing I ever saw, likely in 1990 or ’91 when I was five or six.

This is an easy show to like. The characters are fun, the monsters—original and unique to this particular production—are great looking, and the central Ultra (Ultraman Great) is incredibly likable. That’s often the key to an enjoyable season: do you like the main hero who turns into Ultraman?

Towards the Future has a lot to recommend it, and I think it just gets the vibe of what the Japanese Ultraman seasons offer.

9. Ultraman Geed (2017)

I confess to not being the biggest fan of the early “New Generation” era, which began in 2013. The seasons are fine, but they feel very small in a lot of ways. However, Ultraman Geed is another matter entirely. Like other seasons it deals with a young person who becomes an Ultra with the aid of a small group of experts and/or friends. Unlike others, it brings in a huge amount of story from the greater Ultra universe and especially the Ultraman Zero continuity, a smattering of feature films that sustained the franchise during the fallow period.

Geed concerns the son of Ultraman Belial, a once-great warrior who succumbed to evil. Belial became the main antagonist of the Zero movies, and Zero himself (a fan-favorite) became the secondary Ultra of the season. Geed, and his human form Riku Asakura, have to learn about their legacy and choose whether to follow in their father’s footsteps or attempt to bring him back to the Light. It’s a rad season.

8. Ultraman Nexus (2004-2005)

Tsuburaya Productions took some risks in the 2000s while attempting a full, darker reboot of the franchise. Among the films that tried to age-up the saga was the season Ultraman Nexus, the first specifically aimed at adults. Most seasons before this employed an episodic, monster-of-the-week ethos. Nexus went for deeper character development and a continuing, unfolding narrative. The titular Ultra and his host was not the main character, instead following a young member of the kaiju-fighting organization Night Raider as they investigate the mysterious Ultra.

The experiment at the time didn’t really work, and the Tokyo Broadcasting System shortened the series order of Ultraman Nexus from 50 to 37. Even truncated, it’s still an interesting and complex series with great action and a pretty dope design. Plus the theme song kinda rips.

7. Ultraman Decker (2022)

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of perennial favorite Ultraman Tiga in 2021, the Ultra series have audiences Ultraman Trigger: New Generation Tiga. The series—owing in no small part to COVID—felt very jumbled and disjointed, and seemed like it didn’t know what kind of show it wanted to be. It wasn’t my favorite. That’s why I was pretty unsure if I’d enjoy the following year’s Ultraman Decker, a 25th anniversary season for Ultraman Dyna. What we got instead was a fantastic, fun, and thought-provoking season.

The series takes place years after Trigger with Earth in a period of peace and kaiju having long since disappeared. Right then, the alien Spheres decide to strike, cutting Earth off from the rest of the solar system. A young shop worker obtains the means to embody Ultraman Decker and joins up with GUTS-Select, the small group of specialists who try to take down these new threats.

Decker deals with some heavy sci-fi ideas, including a very cool arc in which a descendant of our hero comes from the future with the ability to become an Ultra himself. Decker also brings back many characters and storylines from Trigger, retroactively making me like that earlier series better. Truly a feat in and of itself.

6. Ultraman (1966)

The very first series to feature an Ultraman and the second in the Ultra series overall. This one is essentially the most important series of them all. The first in color, it also gave us the basic setup for everything going forward. A government agency employs a small monster investigating unit (here, the Science Special Search Party, or SSSP) to keep Japan safe from kaiju. One member (rookie Shin Hayata in this case) obtains the ability to grow to the size of the kaiju and become the alien hero Ultraman. It’s beautiful in its simplicity.

The reason this one is relatively low (one might argue) on the list is for a few reasons. First, while very fun, the episodes all eventually feel very samey. Of the series’ 39 episodes, you probably could only watch half and feel like you’ve seen everything integral. Second, the episodes all hew very close to the edict that Ultraman himself only appears for three minutes toward the end of the episode. It’s a good series, an important series, a fun series, but—honestly, for the best—the franchise continued to grow from here.

5. Ultraman Tiga, Ultraman Dyna, Ultraman Gaia (1996-1999)

This is 100% a cheat and I don’t care. I’m putting three seasons in this spot because it’s so hard to split them up, and they’re all of such high quality that they all deserve your time. Beginning with Ultraman Tiga in 1996, the Ultra franchise’s triumphant return to Japanese production after 16 years made a big splash. The effects were great, the cast of characters were huge and varied, and these seasons all explicitly took place in a different universe, with more a focus on myth and legend than science and tech.

The TDG seasons, as people call them, are consistently great. It’s hard to say if I had to give an edge to any one of them, however Gaia (the third one) feels to me a lot like Space Battleship Yamato. These seasons also introduce the concept of different forms or power types for the Ultras, each with a different color scheme. I just love them all, and they each give something a little different.

4. Ultraman Mebius (2006-2007)

The 40th anniversary season, Mebius is in many ways the same as pretty much all the shows before it. However, as the series progresses, it begins to overlap with the entire Showa era. Each legacy Ultra makes an appearance or two, and each teach this season’s young hero, Mirai, a lesson on how to be a better Ultra. This is also the first mainline season to have a regular secondary Ultra—Ultraman Hikari—who takes human form and joins the crew.

I will say, it’s perhaps better to check out at least a few episodes of each of the 1966-1980 seasons to better appreciate the last half. But even if you don’t, Mebius is an epic and exciting story with endearing characters and fun action.

3. Ultraman Z (2020)

Here’s where we get into the heavy hitters for me. Ultraman Z, along with the two seasons next on the list, are the reason I love this franchise. Z aired in 2020 when we really knew lockdown was going to go on and on. This was the first of the seasons to drop on YouTube concurrently in North America and on TV in Japan. It also coincided with me catching up on earlier seasons, making my enjoyment grow week to week.

Ultraman Z again follows a small, underfunded group of kaiju fighters who utilize mechs to fight them off. Haruki, a young and naive member of the team, meets Ultraman Z, a young and naive Ultra, and the two team up to merge and fight against alien threats both large and very large. This season has a few big guest stars, including Ultramans Geed, Zero, and Ace, and a couple of surprise crossovers I won’t spoil here.

These shows will occasionally have a (very, very chaste) romance between the hero and the touch gal on the crew and this show’s (along with Tiga and Dyna) is maybe my favorite. Due to the pandemic we never got a post-season movie for Z but that didn’t stop him from being a beloved Ultra among the fandom.

It also has absolutely the very best theme song in show history. Friggin’ banger.

2. Ultra Q (1996)

The very first Ultra show, its success led TBS to ask Tsuburaya for another show quickly, and in color, which gave us Ultraman. Ultra Q is essentially the Japanese X-Files, 30 years earlier. A helicopter pilot, his goofy sidekick, and a plucky young woman reporter team up to investigate strange, paranormal occurrences in the country. These usually include giant monsters, utilizing Eiji Tsuburaya’s knowhow from directing the effects for all of Toho’s Godzilla movies.

Some of the episodes don’t involved giant monsters and instead focus on bizarre and often terrifying phenomena. The writing on the series is top notch, the acting from the leads is uniformly great, and the camaraderie between the three of them is truly special. I love Ultra Q to bits, as I’ve written about here. Even if giant silver superheroes isn’t your thing, give this one a try.

1. Ultraseven (1967-1968)

And finally, the very best Ultra show and my personal favorite. Think of it like a mix of Ultra Q and Ultraman, with an alien as our lead character working for an investigative unit. Ultraseven was not meant to connect to Ultraman beyond similar premises, however it proved to popular that by the time of The Return of Ultraman in 1971, it was firmly ensconced. Seven himself also recurs the most of any Ultra in the series, because he’s incredibly popular.

Ultraseven is a little bit more mature than Ultraman, with a little more focus on alien invasion plots rather than simple monster fights. The writing and direction here are some of the best ever, especially the work of the legendary director Akio Jissoji. Seven can also change size to fit the situation, so he can be human-sized if needed, or even smaller. The theme song will get stuck in your head, just be prepared. But for 48 episodes, you’re going to be in tokusatsu heaven.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Traditionally a director’s cut is a way for a filmmaker to show the public their preferred version of a particular film. Studios often cut movies their own way, either for content or for creative differences. In the DVD age, director’s cuts, or “Unrated Cuts” would offer fans of movies a little extra. These could be just a few more minutes cut for time, or more salacious elements that would have cost it an R rating. Until Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon, however, I’ve never heard of a movie touting its director’s cut alongside the, I dunno, non-director’s cut? It’s Netflix; why wouldn’t you just release the longer cut to begin with?

At any rate, Netflix has released new images for the director’s cut, which Zack Snyder kept saying would have more sex and violence. Evidently, they’ve decided the films are different enough that they have new titles. Rebel Moon – Chapter One: Chalice of Blood and Rebel Moon – Chapter Two: Curse of Forgiveness.

Both films will drop on Netflix August 2. The original part one, A Child of Fire, has a 21% critics score and 57% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Part two, The Scargiver, has a 15% and 48%, respectively. Not sure how much more graphic violence or nudity can fix story and character problems, but maybe it will. The director’s cut of part one will be 67 minutes longer, while the director’s cut of part two will be 48 minutes longer.

This of course raises the question…why didn’t you just release them how you wanted to begin with? Was it just for the hype? The world may never know. (But it was that.)

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Following the smash success of Baldur’s Gate 3 last year, it only seems reasonable for other game devs to want to replicate some of that success. A fantasy RPG with a colorful and varied band of classes and races, sounds pretty fun, right? BioWare is hoping to grab some of that BG3 magic with the latest game in their perennial Dragon Age series, Dragon Age: The Veilguard. And the trailer, which you can view below, sure looks upbeat and irreverent!

In the trailer, we get to meet a ragtag band of whosits and whatsits, each with their own specialty. They are: Harding: The Scout; Neve: The Detective; Emmrich: The Necromancer; Taash: The Dragon Hunter; Davrin: The Warden; Bellara: The Veil Jumper; and Lucanis: The Mage Killer. Your player character, the mysterious hooded figure toward the end, will get to be the leader. Pretty good gig if you can get it.

The official synopsis for the game reads:

When corrupt gods break free from centuries of darkness, the odds will be stacked against you. You can’t do this alone. Rally a team of seven companions, each with rich lives and deep backstories. These are characters to befriend, and even fall in love with. Among them, an assassin, a necromancer, and a detective will each bring their own expertise and unique abilities to the fight. You are never alone; decide who to take into battle and together face down demons, dragons and even ancient gods.

The gameplay trailer for Dragon Age: The Veilguard will drop June 11, so come back to take a look at that. Release date for the game is Fall 2024. It will be available on PlayStation, Xbox, Steam, and the Epic Games Store.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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No one thought a 1:1 Earth flight simulator would have been among the best games in recent memory. That sounded dumb and boring. But in the midst of lockdown, people loved the peace and grandeur of Microsoft Flight Simulator. Now, as part of the Xbox Games Showcase 2024, the follow-up is here. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 somehow looks even more beautiful, robust, and real than its predecessor. Just take a look!

Microsoft promises the game will be “the most ambitious consumer flight simulator ever undertaken,” and will utilize the “latest technologies in simulation, cloud, machine learning, graphics and gaming.” Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 goes beyond merely operating the aircraft; it will allow simmers to pursue their dream of an aviation career. Loads more aircraft types, and actual life out there in the game.

The game is an Xbox Games Studios project, so it’ll only be for Microsoft devices (sorry PlayStation gamers), but it’ll be available on Gamepass day one, so that’s nice. And what is that day? November 19, 2024. Just in time to pretend to fly for the holidays.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Doctor Who at one time had a seemingly very concrete canon and continuity. That has gone out the window, essentially for the last 10 years. The 50th anniversary special, “The Day of the Doctor,” introduced a Doctor, the War Doctor, from the middle of the Doctor’s life that the audience never knew about. Since then, radical departures and additions to lore have been commonplace. The Fugitive Doctor, plus a series of other pre-First Doctor incarnations, debuted a few years ago. Now, once and current showrunner Russell T Davies has ostensibly made another once-non-canonical Doctor canon.

In “Rogue,” the sixth episode of the first Disney+ season, we see a familiar beat. The current Doctor, in an effort to prove he’s a Time Lord rather than the shapeshifting villain, projects a rotating circle of former selves around him. We see all the ones you’d expect, plus the Fugitive Doctor. But you might say “wait a minute, is that Richard E. Grant? From Loki? Was he ever a Doctor?” Yes. And no.

In 2003, prior to RTD and company rebooting the series with Christopher Eccleston in the lead role, BBCi, or the BBC’s internet arm, commissioned a six-part story from writer Paul Cornell as a Flash animation story for the Doctor Who website. This story, “Scream of the Shalka,” cast long-ballyhooed Richard E. Grant to play a vampirish-looking Doctor opposite Sophie Okonedo as companion Alison Cheney and Derek Jacobi as the Master. David Tennant also had a small role. Grant also played one of the Doctors in the 1999 Comic Relief special “Curse of Fatal Death,” written by Steven Moffat.

Due to the live-action series announcement, “Scream of the Shalka” almost didn’t come out at all but eventually aired in late 2003. Ultimately the series wasn’t part of the continuity, despite that being the idea at the time. Obviously Tennant went on to play the Doctor after Eccleston. Okonedo would play Liz 10 in “The Beast Below,” Jacobi would indeed play the Master in “Utopia,” and even Grant himself would play the Series 7 recurring villain, the Great Intelligence.

Seeing Grant in the wheel of Doctors is a fun nod to this animated anomaly. RTD himself said not favorable things about Grant’s portrayal in the role, but that was 20 years ago. Things change. Whether we ever see Grant full-bodied on screen certainly remains to be seen, but I guess we can expect a Peter Cushing picture at some point soon too?

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

The post DOCTOR WHO Just Made Another Doctor Canon appeared first on Nerdist.

Dune: Part Two proved the excitement around the world of Arakkis and the plight of Paul Atreides is sky-high. The audience is certainly there for at least one more movie. However, in the meantime, you can soon take your own chances in Frank Herbert’s sci-fi universe with Dune: Awakening. The open-world action MMO will let players explore Dune and all its many dangers. Sandworms, yes, but other factions. At Summer Games Fest 2024, we finally got a story trailer for the game, and it gives us a fascinating look at when (and when not) the game takes place.

Just a heads up, the Dune: Awakening trailer has spoilers for some of the later books and potential movies. Watch with caution if that kind of thing puts you off.

The Dune: Awakening trailer gives us narration from Paul himself, some time after the events of the first book/second movie. Paul explains his visions of various timelines where key events of Dune never happened. One vision shows what if his mother Jessica gave birth to a girl, where Dr. Yueh was caught before his treason, where the Atreides don’t die at the hand of the Harkonnens, or if the Emperor and his Sardaukar army took control of spice production on Arrakis. He then explains how his path was the one path that would prevent the utter destruction of the human race, but that in these alternate Dune: Awakening timelines, we, the players, also forge potential timelines toward salvation.

The future is ours to write, and it seems parts of the Dune: Awakening game will take place off of Arrakis and potentially further into Paul’s life. How much jumping back and forth in timelines we’ll get in the game is not clear. What is clear is that all the visuals look very inspired by the Legendary Pictures films. And who wouldn’t want to live in that desert?

Dune Awakening will be released on PS5, PC and Xbox Series X/S.

Editor’s Note: Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Ahead of the 40th anniversary of Joe Dante’s Gremlins, Max has announced a second season of its hit animated prequel series, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai. In a fun nod to the movie’s sequel, 1990’s Gremlins 2: The New Batch, the show now has the subtitle The Wild Batch. Returning cast members include Ming-Na Wen, James Hong, BD Wong, Izaac Wang, AJ LoCascio, and Gabrielle Nevaeh.

While the above teaser is all we have so far, Max did provide a logline for Gremlins: The Wild Batch.

The Wild Batch follows Gizmo, Sam, and Elle as they travel from their home in Shanghai to San Francisco, bringing even more magic, mystery and Mogwai mayhem. Hot on the trail of a new brood of evil Mogwai, our heroes journey deep into the American West, coming up against new supernatural creatures and picking up a few mysterious characters along the way.

No release date for Gremlins: The Wild Batch yet. However, you can catch up on season one, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai now.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Filmmaker Adam Wingard directed the two most recent entries in Legendary’s Monsterverse franchise. Godzilla vs. Kong in 2021 did very well considering the world was still hip-deep in COVID. This year’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire crossed half-a-billion dollars worldwide to make it the highest-grossing yet in the series. But Wingard will step back from directing the next installment. Taking his place is Grant Sputore, working from a script by Dave Callaham (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings). Deadline shared the news.

Sputore is a successful commercial director whose debut feature film is 2019’s I Am Mother. That movie, starring Hilary Swank and Rose Byrne, was a Sundance fave which then went to Netflix. It’s a pretty interesting sci-fi thriller about a girl raised by a robot. This is obviously a huge step up in budget for Sputore. However, the Monsterverse has made its name utilizing indie genre directors, so Sputore is right at home.

The next movie, still untitled, will be the sixth feature film in the franchise. It will follow Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island (2017), Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024). This year also saw the release of the first live-action series in the franchise, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters on Apple TV+.

Editor’s Note: Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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I recently turned 40. That is a particularly weird thing to say considering, you know, the way I dress and behave the things I enjoy. But time goes on and numbers don’t lie. Case in point, The Lion King, which came out when I was 10 years old, is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Isn’t it fun how that works? To celebrate—and to hope against hope people will go back and spend money on tickets—Disney will re-release the classic animated film to cinemas July 12.

While The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin are beloved and made tons of money, it’s hard to argue the cultural phenomenon that was The Lion King. It made a worldwide gross of $763 million in its initial run, making it the highest-grossing movie of 1994, and the second highest all-time behind only Jurassic Park. The soundtrack, with songs written by Elton John and Tim Rice, sold nearly 5 million copies in ’94 alone, and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” won an Oscar for best song and John a Grammy for best male vocal performance.

The Lion King also spawned sequels, a successful Broadway show, a television spinoff, and merchandise of all kind. With the state of the box office at an all-time summer low, it makes sense for Disney to want to grab some of that sweet moolah with a reissue. That said, The Lion King is available readily on Disney+ and on physical media, so will people venture out for a movie they’ve seen a million times? Maybe people will say “Hakuna Matata” and hit the cinemas.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Fresh off his Oscar win for Best Actor in Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy will star in a feature film follow-up to hit period crime drama Peaky Blinders. We saw the news at Deadline. The series initially ran from 2013-2022. True to form with British productions, that nine years encompasses six seasons with a total of 36 episodes. Incredible. Anyway, series creator Steven Knight has written the script and Tom Harper will direct. Harper previously directed the final three episodes of the show’s first season.

When asked about the project—which had been kicking around for a bit awaiting the official greenlight—Murphy had this to say. “It seems like Tommy Shelby wasn’t finished with me. … It is very gratifying to be recollaborating with Steven Knight and Tom Harper on the film version of Peaky Blinders. This is one for the fans.”

Knight added: “I’m genuinely thrilled that this movie is about to happen. It will be an explosive chapter in the Peaky Blinders story. No holds barred. Full-on Peaky Blinders at war.” No idea when the movie will come out, but rest assured, those blinders will peak one more time.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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The argument over the use of generative AI, in which a program aggregates from sources across the globe to create something like text, videos, images, etc., is hot these days. Should production companies use it to cut some corners? Is the product actually inferior? (Yes, it is.) And why do CEOs seem intent on using it, no matter what? Well the final question has been a big one, and producer Chris Miller has responded. Beyond the Spider-Verse will not employ any generative AI.

IndieWire reported on May 30 that Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Tony Vinciquerra told investors that the studio was “looking at ways to produce both films for theaters and television in a more efficient way, using AI primarily.” Obviously, this made people scared, especially for movies like the third Spider-Verse. Those movies, which have gorgeous visuals, are difficult to make. Would this mean Sony would push to use generative AI for “efficiency” sake? Chris Miller had something to say about this, which we first saw on Gamespot.

Miller responded on Twitter: “There is no generative AI in Beyond the Spider-Verse and there never will be. One of the main goals of the films is to create new visual styles that have never been seen in a studio CG film, not steal the generic plagiarized average of other artists’ work.”

It’s worth noting that the Spider-Verse movies have used AI programs, but not generative AI. They instead incorporated ethical and smart-use machine learning to eliminate repetitive tasks and help the artists better adhere to 3D geometry.

Per the effects supervisor Pav Grochola, “We determined that in order to speed up artists’ productivity over the course of the project, we would utilize machine learning to help our animators get an initial predicted result that would give them a reasonable first pass of creating ink lines on the characters.”

We’re not going to see an end to the AI debate in film and TV for some time. As a tool, machine learning can help artists achieve the desired result more quickly. But generative AI undermines the work of hundreds of real humans, not to mention all the people whose work the machine samples. And so far at least, people can tell the difference.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Physical media is the only way to actually have ownership over the movies, TV shows, and music you love. FACT. Blu-rays and the like take up room, but they aren’t subject to the whims of a streaming service and its licensing agreements. How many of us have purchased a film or TV episode on Prime or Apple only to later learn it isn’t in your library? With Netflix, as we’ve seen with other services like Max, you never own the media. It can disappear without warning. That’s why we’re so thrilled to hear at least one of our favorite horror filmmakers’ film will get a physical release soon.

As we learned from Collider, Mike Flanagan spoke to SlashFilm recently about his 2016 Netflix-exclusive movie Hush. Starring Flanagan’s frequent collaborator and spouse Kate Siegel, the movie follows a deaf novelist who lives in a house in the woods unaware a home invader lurks. It’s a very straightforward thriller, but offers some great tension. But Netflix took the movie off the platform, and it’s nowhere to be find at the moment.

“We took it back because I really value physical media,” Flanagan said. “Netflix, by policy, it does not work in their business plan. So we took it back. We do have a new home for it. I can’t say where.” He went on to say that they’ve been working on a fancy schmancy physical release for a year. “There will be a lot of really awesome surprises that we’ve been working on for a year to make this release awesome. It’s something that will be really exciting.”

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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For just over a decade, if anyone could claim to be the center of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was Robert Downey Jr. His Tony Stark began the whole franchise in Iron Man and remained its wisecracking core up until his bombastic final bow in Avengers: Endgame. That ending seemed pretty definitive, and we certainly didn’t expect he’d return to the role ever. But, movie and comic magic is a real thing. Yet, on a recent installment of Variety‘s “Actors on Actors” series (h/t: ComicBook), he said he’s “surprisingly open-minded” about putting on the suit again.

Downey told fellow Oscar nominee Jodie Foster “It’s just crazily in my DNA. Probably the most like-me character I’ve ever played, even though he’s way cooler than I am. I’ve become surprisingly open-minded to the idea… It really is crazy because we look pretty good. I was actually looking at the stills we were taking, making sure: “Do we still look kind of OK?” I’m like, ‘We look pretty good.'”

The royal “we,” evidently.

With a Secret Wars movie still in the cards, it’s highly likely Kevin Feige will find a way to bring some of the old guard back. That saga merges universes, after all. Who says other Iron Mans aren’t still kicking out there, if the price is right. Robert Downey Jr. don’t come cheap. Either of them.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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I did a cursory check and 100% of people stream music. It’s everyone, in the whole world. Remember when people used to buy music, as a society? Now rather than pay for albums, or even songs, they liked, most people use one of a small number of music streaming platforms for everything. But nothing’s for free, especially if you don’t want your listening interrupted by ads. Spotify, maybe the biggest of the bunch, announced on Monday that all of its premium subscriptions prices will go up.

In the article by The Hollywood Reporter, Spotify’s individual plan will go up $1 per month to $11.99, the duo plan rising by $2 per month to $16.99, the family plan rising by $3 per month to $19.99. The student plan, which is offered at a discount to verified students, remains at $5.99. All of this will go into effect immediately for new subscribers and on the next billing cycle for existing.

This is just the latest hike for a streaming service, all of which—video and audio alike—have been skyrocketing as streaming media becomes the norm. Still, Spotify has all the music, so, pros and cons, ya know?

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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The legend of the 300 Spartans is one of the most thrilling in all of Ancient Greece. A small army against a billion guys? How ’bout it! Several movies have featured the story, but the 2006 version from Zack Snyder is very probably the one that will live in people’s memories forever. The film—an adaptation of Frank Miller and Lynn Varley’s graphic novel—effectively put Snyder on the map and led to his long career of comic book adaptations. Makes perfect sense, then, that Warner Bros. Television would bring Snyder in for a television series adaptation.

According to Variety, Snyder and his producing partner (and life partner) Deborah Snyder will executive produce the project, with Zack taking on directing duties. Other info is sparse, and no writers or cast are on board. It’s likely an exciting prospect for fans of Snyder’s directing style, to get a full series of his speed-ramping action.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Pixar was at one time the pinnacle of theatrical filmmaking, animation or otherwise. Hits like Finding Nemo, Wall-E, and Inside Out won awards and made tons of money. And while not every movie, especially once all the sequels started, was a masterpiece, they still proved a major success. Like so many things, the pandemic threw that into disarray. Starting with Onward in 2020, several feature-length Pixar projects went straight to Disney+. Once theaters began opening up again, Pixar movies returned to the big screen, but would end up on Disney+ very quickly. Pixar president Jim Morris recognizes this and isn’t happy with it.

As reported by Bloomberg, which we saw at ComicBook.com, Morris recognizes the perceived downturn in box office of Pixar movies and shares that the Disney+ of it all has confused the marketplace. “I hope that we will not release another feature film on Disney+,” Morris said. “If we do more stuff for Disney+, it should be a series, and then that makes a clean demarcation between what we do for theaters and what we do for streaming.”

I think it’s incredibly important, in an age when streaming services just need as many movies as possible to bolster their catalogs, to give quality films their proper context. As Martin Scorsese once said, without that, they get lost amid garbage and risk being forgotten. Pixar shouldn’t just be an enticement method for Disney+ subscriptions. Series? Go for it.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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We loved X-Men ’97 pretty much from beginning to end. It’s the best X-Men thing, maybe ever. The three-part finale offered some intense action for our band of merry mutants. One such memorable moment came when Rogue—still raging about Gambit, et al—begins pummelling villain Bastion and punches him through the side of Asteroid M and into outer space. If that seemed familiar, that’s not a coincidence. Former showrunner Beau DeMayo explained in a Twitter post that the moment was a subconscious homage to 2013’s Man of Steel.

“The action is driven by emotion not plot,” DeMayo shared along with a video of his television. On it plays the scene from about the midpoint of Henry Cavill’s first Superman movie. As Zod threatens Martha (something we know is very touchy to people in this universe), Clark flies in, picks up Zod, and carries him across the cornfield and through a silo. It’s an example of wanton superhero destruction in the movie, but it’s also a great encapsulation of the moment of Superman’s first strike, as it were.

We’ll have to wait a very long time, likely, for a second season of the show. At least we can rest assured we’ll probably get a bevy of behind-the-scenes tidbits between now and then. We’re never mad to revisit such a great series.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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David Lynch is one of the best filmmakers ever in the history of films and making things. He’s also, as evidenced by his entire body of work, a very weird guy. He used to do Los Angeles weather reports on his YouTube channel every day for years. These were usually like a minute long and consisted of him just saying what the weather was like at his house at that moment. We love it. And true to form, he’s also a delightful weirdo when it comes to cryptic promotion surrounding, what turned out to be, a new music video and album collaboration.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, Lynch posted to his Twitter (never X) account that *something* would drop on the Fifth of June for us to “see and hear.”

Now, naturally the most optimistic among us will hoped it’s a trailer for a new season of Twin Peaks or a new movie. But Lynch also loves to add portent to very not exciting things. Case in point, the reality of things. On June 5, Lynch’s YouTube channel dropped a music video for the song “Sublime Eternal Love” from Lynch and musician Chrystabell. You may remember Chrystabell (or Chrysta Bell) as Agent Preston from Twin Peaks: The Return. The video comes ahead of their new album, Cellophane Memories, out August 2.

Lynch shot and directed the video, and the music definitely has that certain Lynchy vibe. So it is something new from David Lynch. We can’t get mad about that. But it’s not entirely on the level of the movie or new season of TV that many eagerly awaited. But let us not forget David Lynch once made an announcement that he was going to keep doing his weather reports after originally planning to stop. So who knows, man?

What we’re saying is David Lynch is going to David Lynch. We saw and heard it.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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The casting director for HBO’s The Last of Us television adaptation did a pretty masterful job of assembling the right people to assay the game’s various characters. Pedro Pascal was Emmy nominated for his portrayal of Joel, even. Many of the actors from the game appeared in the series playing other roles. Most prominently these include game-Ellie Ashley Johnson playing Ellie’s mom, and game-Joel Troy Baker as cannibal James. For season one, only Merle Dandridge as Marlene played her exact game character. Season two will add Jeffrey Wright to that list.

According to Variety, Oscar nominee Wright will play Isaac in the TV series’ second season. He also played Isaac in the controversial 2020 video game, The Last of Us Part II. The character is “the quietly powerful leader of a large militia group who sought liberty but instead has become mired in an endless war against a surprisingly resourceful enemy.”

When you have an actor of Wright’s calibre both familiar with the property and the character, it’s a no-brainer to try to bring them aboard. We’re even more psyched now for The Last of Us to return in 2025.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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One of the big talking points surrounding Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is that George Miller and his co-writers had so much material for Mad Max: Fury Road, in the form of backstories and character biographies, that all of Furiosa was written before Fury Road even filmed. This is, naturally, incredibly impressive. What’s more impressive is that it’s true, and we have quantifiable evidence. In 2015, Avalanche Studios and Warner Bros. Interactive released a video game of Mad Max with seemingly tenuous connections to Fury Road. However, a ton of that material actually came from the full Furiosa bible.

The game Mad Max takes place, it would seem, just before the events of Fury Road. It begins with Max (a.k.a. you, the player) attacked by War Boys and the Interceptor stolen. Max has a fight with an all-powerful warlord who runs Gas Town. Despite Max lodging a chainsaw in his head, the war lord survives. Max then has to build a new car with the help of the Blackfinger (master mechanic) named Chumbucket.

I’ve played the game all the way through four times, the most recent of which in the past few weeks after seeing an early screening of Furiosa. I knew the game’s story came from some of Miller’s notes, but I didn’t expect there to be so many characters and events from the game in Furiosa. When seen in isolation, it feels like the game is unrelated other than name and a few basic concepts. After Furiosa, it feels like Mad Max the game is the prequel to Fury Road from Max’s point of view after all.

Gastown

First main point: Gastown is the end goal location of the game. As you and Chumbucket collect scrap throughout the dunes and wastelands, you know you eventually need to make it to Gastown in order to retrieve your Interceptor. Chumbucket calls Max “Saint” and refers to the car you build as the “Magnum Opus,” but for Max, it’s just a car for right now.

Gastown is one of the discussed locations in Fury Road, but it’s a major location in Furiosa. Dr. Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) and biker gang besiege Gastown and take it over, killing Immortan Joe’s brother, the former ruler of the refinery, in the process. The Gastown in Furiosa looks a great deal like the location in the game, including the gates and various winding roads surrounding the refinery itself.

Scrotus

The main villain of the Mad Max gang is Scabrous Scrotus, who we learn in the game is one of Immortan Joe’s sons. In Mad Max: Fury Road we only see Rictus Erectus and Corpus Colossus, so you can imagine Scrotus is just a character made up for the game. But no! In Furiosa, while we don’t see Corpus Colossus, we do see Scrotus alongside Rictus. Scrotus here is played by Josh Helman, who played War Boy Slit in Fury Road.

Scrotus in the film is a lot different in appearance and attitude than he is in the game. The film has him slightly smarter and wilier than his hulking, dimwitted brother Rictus. The game’s Scrotus is basically a Rictus clone. Another sub-boss, Stank Gum, seems a bit more like the Scrotus of the movie. That was nearly 10 years ago so maybe the original idea for Scrotus was more Rictus-like. Things can change.

Really, in the game, you only see Scrotus for one scene at the beginning and the final boss fight. However, his name and influence are everywhere. All the War Boys and War Rigs Max destroys in the game are Scrotus’. It’s clear, after the events of Furiosa, Scrotus got a chance to rule Gas Town. By the time of Fury Road, it’s Joe’s acolyte the People Eater running it. Scrotus dies at the end of the game, which explains why he’s nowhere to be found in Fury Road.

Chumbucket

Chumbucket is the player’s sidekick character in the game. He talks a lot (like a LOT) and he both fixes your car on the fly and fires the harpoon during car combat. Chumbucket offsets Max’s more stoic demeanor really nicely in the game, and he has a pretty sad arc. We learn from his dialogue that he used to be a Blackfinger for Gas Town but left after “seeing the light” of the Angel Combustion.

In Furiosa, toward the end, Furiosa builds herself a prosthetic arm and wants a vehicle to go after Dementus. She asks if anyone has a car, though non-War Party people in the Citadel shouldn’t have one. Suddenly, a little guy says he’s building a car and reveals a shabby little buggy that looks to be falling apart.

I wasn’t sure, but I had an interesting feeling. I checked the end credits and sure enough, an actor has the credit “Chumbucket,” and it was indeed that character. Thrilling is the only word for this.

Dr. Dementus

Once again, spoiler warning for Furiosa, but Dementus does not last until Fury Road. He’s Furiosa’s nemesis, not Max’s. As such, I didn’t think I’d find Dementus anywhere else. However, we do get a reference to him in the game, which I only realized on my post-screening playthrough.

Throughout the game, you get little quests from various NPCs that take you out in the wasteland. These often include finding vehicles or supplies or what have you. One such quest—given to Max via Hope, the closest thing the game has to a heroine—takes Max out to the furthest south part of the map. She tells Max that he’ll find a car designed to honor one of the Biker Lords of Old. She mentions the name “Dr. D,” and when you find the car, it has a motorcycle on the roof with a skeleton riding. The name of the car is “Demented Chariot.”

This was the coolest Easter Egg ever for me. It’s such a minor, inessential part of the game’s story, and even that utilizes lore from Miller’s universe bible. Dementus in the movie literally rides a chariot made of motorcycles. And sure enough, that is the exact car Dementus drives toward the end of Furiosa. Finding this car, in a video game, nine years before they’d even made the movie, felt amazing.

Mad Max isn’t the best video game in the world, but it’s one I return to time and again. Now knowing it really is part of the greater story, I encourage others to go check it out. Or play it again!

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Steven Spielberg is only one of the world’s most famous and acclaimed filmmakers. I’d wager even if you didn’t care anything about movies, you know the name Steven Spielberg. Jurassic Park, Catch Me If You Can, the rest. Even if a particular movie he makes isn’t our cup of tea, we’re still always interested to hear about it. That being said, we still like to know what the movie, you know, is. But, according to Deadline, the next Spielberg movie is a legitimate mystery.

Universal has added an “event title” to its slate for Summer 2026. Spielberg will create and direct the original project along with frequent collaborator, screenwriter David Koepp. And guess what! That’s all we know right now. Spielberg can make event movies, we know that. It’s what he’s done for almost the entirety of his career. And the idea of an original creation certainly has us intrigued, given the glut of IP-driven fare we always have in the works.

So add May 15, 2026 to your calendar and hope it’s not secretly Ready Player Two.

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If there’s one thing horror fans love, it’s an icon they can root for. And root they have! Early and often. One of the first theatrical releases of 2023, Blumhouse and Atomic Monster’s M3GAN has made a whole heap of cash and its titular robotic moppet has marched into the hearts of fans everywhere. Kind of like a mix of the Terminator and Chucky in the guise of a little girl. Except M3GAN is way saltier and likable. (She did nothing wrong!) And those myriad successes have allowed the studios to announce a sequel. M3GAN 2.0 will now drop on June 27, 2025, slightly pushed out from its initially planned January release. And that means plenty of time to master that dance, friends.

We originally learned the info from The Wrap who report the whole band will be back together for M3GAN 2.0. Stars Allison Williams and Violet McGraw will return, with the original film’s screenwriter Akela Cooper penning the script. Williams will produce with Atomic Monster founder James Wan and Blumhouse founder/CEO Jason Blum. The movie has made over $91 million in its two weeks of release against a $12 million budget. That is a hefty win for both Blumhouse and Atomic Monster. Cooper and Wan co-wrote Wan’s 2021 nutso horror flick Malignant, so we hope this means we’ll get a sequel where M3GAN has to fight Gabriel, the back-of-the-head evil of twin. We can dream, can’t we?

Additionally, Deadline recently reported that Ahsoka‘s Ivanna Sakhno will play a “major role” in M3GAN 2.0. What that role entails exactly remains under wraps for now.

The first film followed Cady (McGraw) having to stay with her aunt Gemma (Williams) following the tragic death of her parents. Luckily for the young, grieving girl, her aunt is a robotics genius who has made a life-size robot toy prototype who learns from a child its paired with. That robot is, of course, M3GAN, who takes it upon herself to protect Cady, physically and violently if necessary. And it’s necessary a lot of times.

We look forward to M3GAN (2.0) and her new murderous exploits.

Originally published on January 18, 2023.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Getting people I know to care about Ultraman, the iconic Japanese superhero series that began in 1966, was once a herculean task. I love it, and I want to share it with other people! But the language barrier is real. The success of Shin Ultraman has made it much easier, and now that Netflix is set to debut the English-language animated film Ultraman: Rising, it’s even more so! The film comes to us from the multi-talented writer-director Shannon Tindle (Kubo and the Two Strings). He, like me, is a huge Ultraman fan, but he never set out to make a film with the giant silver kaiju-fighter. It’s a fascinating story.

I got to speak to Tindle about creating his version of Ultraman universe tied to a brand new trailer. Check out the trailer, then read my interview below.

Nerdist: I know you had this idea for years and years and years. At what point did it become clear, oh, I could actually do this idea with Ultraman? How did that whole process even come about?

Tindle: I developed the idea at another studio. The film went into turnarounds. They were very gracious about me taking it out. And when I came over to Netflix to pitch it, I came into a room with Melissa Cobb and Greg Taylor and a lot of other folks. I didn’t know there were going to be that many folks in the room. And Armi Kubian, who had just gotten back from a trip to Japan, he was living in Singapore at the time, and he said, hey, I met with Tsuburaya Productions and… there had been all these rights issues for years with the characters, and they finally got it cleared up in 2018, just as I was leaving Sony.

They’re like, how would you like to make this an Ultraman movie? And I said, well, as long as I can make this story that I wanted to tell. Because I didn’t want to make a superhero story, I wanted to make a story about family and about conflicts between parents and children. If Tsuburaya supports that, then let’s do it. I’ve met with Tsuburaya and they could not have been more kind, and they’ve been so incredibly supportive from day one, and I’ve become friends with them and they said, yeah, we want to tell the same story that you want to, and we’d love for it to be an Ultraman story. So, that’s how it came about. I keep saying like fan fiction became reality.

Man, that’s such a great story. Once Tsuburaya was on board, and it was an Ultraman movie, you got to dig through their toy box, so to speak, with all those kaiju and amazing sound effects. What was the process like of deciding what of theirs would fit into your story?

Tindle: I created, as the original Kaiju, Gigantron, before it was Ultraman and there was no reason to change her. She served purposes of the story and I did the design, so I was like, hey, I’m happy with this design and let’s do this. But I’ll never forget, the first time that we visited them was in October of 2018. And it was crazy because we got on the plane, it was when the Dodgers had that insane six hour game.

I remember getting on the plane with Melissa Cobb, who was running the division at that time, and we were about to take off and the Dodgers won. So that was like, oh my gosh, there’s this team that we’re actually featuring in the story and they’ve just won, that’s cool, and now we’re going to Japan. So, I pitched the story to Tsukagoshi-san, who’s the chairman, and CEO [of Tsuburaya] and Minamitani-san, who is kind of head of global there, and Onda-san, who is one of the creative directors there, the whole team.

They let me go through the binders of all of the Tsuburaya stuff. And that’s not just Ultraman, it was like Redman and all these other really cool characters. And I was just freaking out kind of going through it. I’m like, oh my gosh, now I’m going to take the script and I’m going to get to incorporate Ultraman into it. But really the goal was, preserve the story because everybody responded to the story. Let’s just work the mythology into the story in a way that supports the story we’re already telling. So, if we’re going to have our version of the science team—it’s what you kind of need to do when you do an Ultraman series—can we approach it in a different way?

And my point of view is like, let’s show them in a different light. Let’s show what happens if they’ve been kind of twisted from their original goals. But we wanted to have little tips of the hat to that. So, the orange costumes that KDF wear in our movie are actually inspired by the SSSP costumes in the first series. So, those were the things that, there’s the gift wrapping that you want to put on it and the frosting, but it always has to be in support of story that you’re trying to tell.

But ultimately, I wanted to make the film for people who don’t know anything about Ultraman. I wanted to get them excited by it, and as anybody who’s watched the Ultra series knows, they evolve constantly. Every couple of years, it’s a new Ultraman. So, it’s one of those characters that, because that’s traditionally what it’s been, there’s no locked-in canon. I mean, there’s some things that are kind of like afterthoughts, I think, but it allows for evolution and reimagining.

Talk about serendipity, because you were meeting with them in 2018. During the pandemic, I feel like is when people in the West really started to get—that’s when all the Blu-rays started coming out and everything like that. So, the knowledge of Ultraman in the West has really grown in the time that you’ve been making the movie.

Tindle: So, that I would say in terms of Ultraman, there’s just a… one could say serendipitous, one could say, I just waited around long enough for this whole thing.

I guess that’s true.

Tindle: But yeah, it’s been pretty incredible in that regard, that there are all these things that seem to be happening at the moment, but I still think that, although there could be a lot more awareness. When we have our test screenings, there’s still people that don’t know who Ultraman is, and they may not ever watch a superhero film. Just something they’re not interested in but they’re engaging with the film on the level that I want them to engage on, and that’s the personal emotional level.

I hope it draws people to see the film. Because I want as many people to see it as possible. But more importantly, I want them to be like, that reminds me of the arguments I’ve had with my dad, that reminds me of my little girl or my little boy. Those are the things I really want them to connect with.

On the tip of parent-children dynamics, specifically about the main character Ken Sato, there’s sort of the inherited trauma of the character, but also the inherited responsibility. He doesn’t want to be Ultraman, he doesn’t want to be a father. He just kind of wants to be this brash baseball player. What was it about that specific story that you thought a superhero movie would suit?

Tindle: Well, again, it was more about what one experiences when they go from just having to worry about themselves to having to worry about your family. So, I don’t think anybody is prepared to be a parent. I certainly wasn’t. I wanted to be a parent, I just didn’t know what that meant until I fully committed to being a parent and I had a daughter. So, I used to be able to go to a movie anytime I wanted to. I could go to the comic shop anytime I wanted to. I could go hang with friends anytime I wanted to. But when I had a daughter, I had to understand that she needed me and needed to… what I started to do, is I just got up earlier and earlier and earlier, so I could do the things that I’d like to do.

I had to find balance. And that’s what the story is about. As a parent finding balance, you’ve got so many things going on, and to me, that makes it a compelling character regardless of genre, whether it’s a superhero film or not. I just wanted to make a relatable character. Because I thought there were a lot of people who might be parents and might be young parents who go, oh my gosh, I know exactly what that feels like.

When you’re exhausted after a long day, maybe you had a tough day—in this instance, Ken is humiliated at work, but he’s still got a child to deal with when he’s at home, and he has to be patient, and he has to reserve some time for her. There are times with my daughter where I would be playing with her on the floor and I would fall asleep playing with her. And I can still remember I’m just fading out of consciousness.

But that’s what it’s like to be a parent, is there’s this imbalance at first because you’ve got this new life that’s been brought into your life and disrupts it, and then how do you find a way to make it all work? And that seemed like a compelling story to me, and something that wasn’t typical of a superhero story. I mean, you could look at The Incredibles, which is a beautiful example of that. And of course, if you look at Spider-Verse now, those films work because people connect with them in an emotional way. Not because they’re superhero stories, not because it’s a Spider-Man story, but because they told compelling stories about interesting people. And so, I hope we did the same with this film.

Before I let you go, what is your favorite of the Ultraman special moves that you got to put into the film?

Tindle: I had to have Ultra Slash in there. I think that’s unique with the buzzsaw. It’s such a unique weapon that Ultraman uses, and it had to be in the movie, but I wanted it to be in defense of a Kaiju rather than to attack a Kaiju. So again, to turn those things on their heads, where Ultraman is using his powers to help a creature rather than to hurt it. So, Ultra Slash is a big one that’s up there. And then the other big one, I think fans are going to be happy.

Ultraman: Rising debuts on Netflix June 14

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Nine years after the fact, it’s still astonishing to think a legacy sequel to Ozsploitation favorite Mad Max is one of the best movies ever made. Not only that, but it garnered so many Oscar nominations, and won several. But here we are, in a better cinematic world because George Miller finally got to make Mad Max: Fury Road. That movie is a miracle. With all of those plaudits, how could a follow-up ever dream to match it? In the case of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, it doesn’t. How could it? What it does do is give us a compelling, exciting adventure in a world I love being in.

Infamously, Miller and co-writer Nico Lathouris (credited here as “Dramaturg” as well) had so much of Fury Road planned out ahead of time, that the meat of this movie was written before they’d shot that movie. All of what happened to Imperator Furiosa in her life leading up to that fateful moment in the War Rig existed in writing. Because of that, Furiosa is more narrative focused than Fury Road, taking place over many years rather than a couple of days. It feels much more like a regular-ass movie, which, again, is not a bad thing.

The story follows Furiosa as a child (played by Alyla Browne) as fate takes her away from the idyllic Green Place of Many Mothers and puts her in the clutches of the insane biker warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). Dementus—who is brutal yet charismatic leader with an enormous horde of followers—while looking for the “place of abundance” runs afoul of Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). The two make an uneasy alliance of mutually assured destruction while the supremely capable and patient Furiosa (played by Anya Taylor-Joy in older years) gains skills and lets her anger guide her.

Along the way, Furiosa meets Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke), a capable wastelander who works for Immortan Joe as a driver. It’s through this character that Furiosa sees more than her own survival, her own escape. Naturally, as we know what comes later, we know it’s not likely to last. This is an unfair place for decent people.

To say the least, this is an atypical Mad Max movie. Rather than a single adventure, it tracks a life. Instead of standing alone, it fleshes out the circumstances of the previous film. And Max isn’t even the central character. So because of that, it’s possible some people won’t vibe with Furiosa. However, the action, the bombast, and the filmmaking prowess are all still on display in full force. Miller knows this world inside and out and it’s a joy to spend time in it.

Additionally, Miller offers us various action scenes in parts of the Wasteland ecosystem we haven’t really seen before. Gastown and the Bullet Farm are real locations in Furiosa, not simply far-off ideas. Weirdly, we get a sense for how the economy of these three places work in tandem. If you ever wondered why the War Rig is so important and how the People Eater got his groove back, this is the movie for you.

The centerpiece of the movie is a 15-minute action extravaganza that reportedly took 78 days to film in which Furiosa and Jack, in the newly minted War Rig, have to fight off a horde of raiders attacking from both land and air. The sheer ability of Miller and company to give the rig its own geography is astounding. We always know where Furiosa is on the machine, and where the weapons are at her disposal. It’s exhilarating to watch.

While we watch the adventure through Anya Taylor-Joy’s seething eyes, she has, effectively, the Max Rockatansky role. And by that I mean, she doesn’t say a whole lot. (Only 30 lines, apparently.) The actor who probably has the most lines is Hemsworth, who is absolutely killing it as Dementus. He plays the biker boss as a kind of violent wasteland messiah, attempting to recruit others to his cause. His performance is phenomenal. A just world would give him a Best Supporting Actor nomination, but I can’t claim that’s where we live.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga probably won’t revolutionize the film industry the way Mad Max: Fury Road did, but it’s a damned exciting action film with a great mix of familiar and new additions to the franchise. It even has some references to the 2015 video game Mad Max which I absolutely did not expect. I hope George Miller gets to make his proposed sequel to Fury Road, because after Furiosa, he’s proving what a wonder this unlikely franchise is.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga ⭐ (4 of 5)

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Shock of shocks! Hot on the heels of The Super Mario Bros. Movie making—conservatively speaking—a s**t-zillion dollars earlier this year, it seemed only reasonable for Nintendo to keep that ball a-rolling. However, while an animated Mario movie was a sure bet, the next project might prove a bit trickier. Recently, Nintendo announced it will develop a live-action film of The Legend of Zelda, arguably the game manufacturer’s second most important property. The franchise began in 1986 and has continued to this very year with Tears of the Kingdom. And while we still don’t know too many details about the live-acton The Legend of Zelda movie, its director has revealed a few teases.

The Legend of Zelda Live-Action Movie’s Director Sheds Light on the Film

Wes Ball, director of The Maze Runner movies and the upcoming Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, will direct. Speaking to Total Film, Bell recently shared a bit more about his vision for The Legend of Zelda movie. He revealed, “I have this awesome idea. I’ve been thinking about it for a long freakin’ time, of how cool a Zelda movie would be… I want to fulfil people’s greatest desires. I know it’s important, this [Zelda] franchise, to people and I want it to be a serious movie. A real movie that can give people an escape.” Total Film further shares that escapism as a huge impetus for the movie. Additionally, Bell notes, “That’s the thing I want to try to create—it’s got to feel like something real. Something serious and cool, but fun and whimsical.”

Ball won’t, however, say what his favorite Zelda game is. But it’s not because he’s not a fan! “Relax guys, I’m one of you,” Ball noted on Twitter alongside photographic evidence.

More About The Legend of Zelda Movie

There’s no word yet, though, on a writer, cast, or any of the other fun stuff for the live-action The Legend of Zelda movie. Nintendo’s Representative Director, Shigeru Miyamoto, will produce the movie alongside Avi Arad’s Arad Productions. Arad’s name should be familiar to our readers, having executive produced all of the Spider-Man films, many of the X-Men films, and a number of other Marvel properties. Nintendo will co-finance the movie with Sony Pictures Entertainment, with Sony handling worldwide theatrical distribution. The press release also points out Nintendo will put up “more than 50%” of the money for the movie, assuring they retain the most creative input.

Over the years, many Zelda films and TV series, both live-action and animation, have been in development. None have managed to make their way much beyond that point. This, however, feels a bit different. Nintendo is in its own driver’s seat and coming off a monster global hit movie. The big question is which of the many Zelda games will be the basis of the film, or if it’ll end up as a totally separate story that doesn’t remake or contradict any previous game. The Legend of Zelda game timeline is one of the most complex in gaming, so probably they’d be smart not to mess with that.

And as long as we don’t get a Link saying “Well excuuuuuuuse me, Princess,” we should be in good shape.

Originally published on November 7, 2023.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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When Max, formerly HBO Max, the Warner Bros-owned streamer, decided to sell off its highly anticipated Batman animated series to Prime Video, we were shocked. Why would the people who own Batman not want to keep Batman? It’s yet another in a series of baffling moves from David Zaslav’s company. However, at the very least, we know the show is coming out. It won’t fall into the void that other unreleased (or even released) projects have. Batman: Caped Crusader will premiere on Prime with all 10 episodes on August 1 of this year, and we now have a solid look showcasing its 1940s vibe.

The animated series, from producers Bruce Timm, J.J. Abrams, and Matt Reeves, clearly takes inspiration from the original Golden Age comics of the ’40s. Batman’s costume, with its slightly convex ears and black hand gloves, is testament to that.

The other Batman: Caped Crusader images showcase Bruce Wayne, Catwoman/Selina Kyle, Commissioner Gordon, Clayface, and Dr. Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn. Definitely not directly from the comics, but certainly a completely unique take on everyone.

Click To View Gallery

Timm’s work on the 1991 Batman: The Animated Series was and is the hallmark of Batman’s look in animation. Here even more than that show, we get the influence of the Fleischer Brothers Superman shorts. We can’t wait to see a trailer to get an even better sense of the tone. But that Harley look is pretty terrifying. Batman: Caped Crusader has us very excited, to say the least.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

The post First Look at BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER Animated Series appeared first on Nerdist.

If you have a time machine, you’re gonna go to the past at some point. Since the very beginning, Doctor Who has made adventures in Earth’s history one of its staples. Like literally from the beginning. The very first TARDIS trip we see takes the new crew back to caveman times. For a few years, owing to the desire to make the family series educational as well as exciting, the BBC mandated the show’s historical serials take precedent over “googly eyed aliens.”

Even after the show stopped doing “pure” historicals and added science fiction to the mix, adventures in the past have been one of the hallmarks of the Doctor and their myriad of shenanigans. We have a separate piece about the modern series, but in terms of the classic series, here are the best. I’m going to attempt to include at least one from every Doctor, but be aware some Doctors have more than others, and some Doctors may have a few but only one good one…

“The Aztecs” (1964)

This is not the very first historical, but the first truly great one. The TARDIS crew land back in 15th century Mexico. As usual in these early stories, they attempt to blend in to the local society. However, many of the Aztec people suddenly believe forthright history teacher Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) is the embodiment of the god Yataxa. While she at first assures the Doctor she’d never do anything, upon hearing that a human sacrifice is forthcoming, she commands that they stop and quickly tries to enforce 20th century British values of human rights and onto the Aztec people.

This story also has some lighter moments—including the First Doctor accidentally marrying an older Aztec lady—but what makes it wonderful is how, in only the show’s sixth serial, the show contends with all the perils of time traveling and seeing the past as flawed. The Doctor emphatically tells Barbara, “you can’t change history, not one line!” which became a calling card for the series.

“The Romans” (1965)

Effectively, during the First Doctor era, every other story is a historical. A lot of them are, well, pretty boring, or at best enjoyable jaunts through a history book. That is, until, season two’s “The Romans.” It’s the first comedic story in Doctor Who, and moreover, it’s an out-and-out farce. The Doctor and companion Vicki end up in Emperor Nero’s court, the Doctor pretending to be a murdered lyre player. Meanwhile, teachers Ian and Barbara are sold into slavery; Ian an oarsman on a Mediterranean galley and Barbara a handmaiden to Nero’s wife Poppaea Sabina. Throughout the story, they all just barely miss running into each other until the very end, when the Doctor accidentally starts the Great Fire of Rome.

The story mixes real historical events with rampant silliness and even some darkly comedic moments. I love “The Romans” for all of that, but it definitely wasn’t everyone’s favorite in the ’60s. Still, it’s much closer to modern Who sensibilities these days.

“The Time Meddler” (1965)

Later in the same season, the same writer (Dennis Spooner) gave us the very first in what would soon become the norm for stories taking place in Earth’s history: The “pseudo-historical.” These are stories that may have real people from history, real places, real events, but with some sci-fi element added. Here, the Doctor, Vicki, and brand new companion Steven land in Britain in 1066, just as the Vikings were about to attack Harold Godwinson’s Saxon army. Though the Saxons won, it left them too tired and spent to fend off William of Normandy’s invasion at the Battle of Hastings.

Sounds like a pretty normal setup, yes? The Doctor thinks so, until he starts noticing anachronistic items, including gramophone music and power cables. Quickly we learn that a time traveler is about. This man, the Monk, is another member of the Doctor’s race and has his own TARDIS. While the Monk isn’t a villain per se, he does want to annihilate the Vikings with nuclear weapons so that the Saxons can defeat William’s Normans. And as we know, changing history is bad. This story is phenomenal and one of the most important in Whostory.

First Doctor’s Missing Historical Masterpieces

I should note that due to the BBC’s “junking” policy, many stories from the First and Second Doctor’s time are missing all or some of their episodes. While we can listen to them thanks to off-air audio recordings from the time, and some have been animated, many of these historicals remain unviewable. From the First Doctor’s time, several are among the best. “Marco Polo,” half of “The Crusade,” “The Myth-Makers,” and “The Massacre” are all pure-historicals we can no longer see. I recommend listening to the last two especially as they are truly some of the best of the ’60s.

“The Evil of the Daleks” (1967)

By the time of the Second Doctor, the pure historicals were largely gone. The only one of the bunch was “The Highlanders,” which is also missing entirely. There weren’t even that many pseudo-historicals. “The Evil of the Daleks” is really the only one that truly fits the bill. The Doctor and his companion Jamie McCrimmon, after bidding farewell to modern Londoners Ben and Polly, find themselves in 1866 where the Daleks,using their own time traveling tech, demand the Doctor’s help in isolating the “Human Factor” which has made them vulnerable to defeat for so long.

This is arguably in the top three Dalek stories of all time, and it finds the Doctor teaching the Daleks what it means to be human. For a brief moment, it’s joyful, it’s a triumph, the Daleks play and have fun. This didn’t last. Stupid Daleks. The fact that this takes place in the Victorian era is pretty secondary, however.

“The War Games” (1969) (Nice)

Okay …so this one’s an interesting case. It’s the Second Doctor’s final story, and one of my favorites of all-time. It introduces us to Time Lords in earnest and results in the Doctor’s exile to Earth. Now, how is it a historical? The Doctor and friends find themselves in 1917, on the frontlines of World War I. After some bureaucratic nightmares, the pompous British general believes them to be German spies and wants them executed. But this general, it appears, uses some kind of mind controlling technology. Before long, the heroes escape and find themselves looking headlong into an advancing Roman Legion.

The story is actually that a group of aliens from the future, in an effort to learn how to master warfare, have each recreated a specific period in Earth’s history and kidnapped real soldiers from those eras to take part in their endless war games, hence the title. So, while we see WWI, Ancient Rome, the American Civil War, and other wars from history, they’re all not real and are actually on another planet. But it counts in my book.

“The Time Warrior” (1973)

The Third Doctor’s five seasons are essentially their own thing. Set almost entirely on modern day Earth, the stories tended to be a lot more sci-fi James Bond and a lot less time traveling hobo. Once the Doctor started venturing in the TARDIS again, it was pretty much entirely to the future. There are only two instances where the Third Doctor went back in time: One, “The Time Monster,” sucks wad. The other, “The Time Warrior,” is excellent.

The Doctor and investigative reporter Sarah Jane Smith (this is her first story) find themselves back in medieval times where a local warlord named Irongron has teamed up with an explorer from far away…the Sontaran scout Linx. Naturally, just like always, the Doctor needs to stop future tech from messing up the past. We get some lovely banter, some excellent castle-set filming, and the first appearance of a Sontaran. It’s pretty great all around.

“Pyramids of Mars” (1975)

The Fourth Doctor’s second season consisted of many Gothic horror pastiches, and for most, the best of those is “Pyramids of Mars.” The Doctor and Sarah Jane head to 1911, at the height of the Egyptology craze, and some malevolent force seems to be behind some gnarly deaths. It appears like real Egyptian mummies are attacking. Turns out, the gods in the Egyptian pantheon were a race of Martians called the Osirans. Sutekh—the entity that became the Egyptian god Set—is unearthed and threatens to destroy all of Earth.

This isn’t my favorite, but it is a nice mix of plummy English Gothic/Hammer Horror iconography with Doctor Who science fantasy. It does represent Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen at their very best, which goes a long way with me.

“Horror of Fang Rock” (1977)

Unless I am completely missing an obvious one, “Horror of Fang Rock,” which began Tom Baker’s fourth of seven seasons in the lead role, is the very last historical he made. Several stories take place on alien worlds that resemble elements of Earth mythology, and even sort of act like historical Earth stories, but none of them actually do. At any rate, this story also happens to be outstanding and creepy in equal measure.

The Doctor and companion Leela find themselves on a lighthouse in the early-20th Century where someone or something is killing the wickies and the crew and passengers of a yacht which wrecked on the island. The Doctor is at his grumpy best here as he acts as Sherlock for this alien whodunnit. It’s also a semi-sequel to “The Time Warrior,” which is pretty cool in a roundabout way. Excellent stuff, cracking dialogue, superbly chilly atmosphere. It’s one of the Fourth Doctor’s best.

The Fifth Doctor Had No Good Historicals

There were exactly three historical stories during Fifth Doctor Peter Davison’s time on the show, a total of eight 25-minute episodes. I know they probably all have their defenders but I don’t think any are really worth your time unless you’re doing a full watch.

“The Visitation” has the Doctor and company end up in the 1600s where a race of vaguely reptilian aliens try to unleash a plague to take over the planet. The very next story, “Black Orchid,” is for some reason a pure historical, meaning no sci-fi element at all. It has the crew land in 1925 at a posh garden party where there’s a “monster” killing people and a girl who looks inexplicably like Nyssa. It’s only two episodes and is very boring.

The final historical of the era is “The King’s Demons” where the Doctor and crew end up in 1215 in the court of King John where the Master, posing as a Frenchman, tries to use a robotic duplicate named Kameleon to keep King John from signing Magna Carta. Dream bigger, the Master. Dream bigger.

“The Mark of the Rani” (1985)

I think the only story that gets close to being actually good in the Sixth Doctor’s brief tenure is “The Mark of the Rani,” his one and only historical. The Doctor and companion Peri find themselves in a 19th-century mining town where seemingly unmotivated attacks and riots are taking place. Turns out the Master and another renegade Time Lord known as the Rani are behind these. The Rani is an amoral scientist who is experimenting on the locals for her own research, and the Master wants to use the top minds of the Industrial Revolution to speed up Earth technology. Again, dream bigger, the Master.

This story is one of only two to feature the Rani and is by far the better of the two. She’s a fascinating Time Lord villain, not concerned with doing evil, but also not at all interested in the lives she destroys to further her research. The Master is silly in this, but the setting, the Rani, and most of the plot are all great.

“Remembrance of the Daleks” (1988)

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Doctor Who, the Seventh Doctor went back to 1963 with his new companion Ace to foil a Dalek plot which we didn’t know at the time but was cooking offscreen during the show’s pilot. He needs to retrieve the Hand of Omega, a powerful Time Lord device which he needs to keep away from the Daleks at any cost.

It’s very fun that the series had been on long enough at this point that traveling within its existence counts as a historical. But it does! Ace, a modern-era teen, views some of the racial and social norms of the ’60s with disgust, and the story plays with the show’s history as well as the history of the UK. Possibly the best Dalek story since the mid-’70s, it’s also a fine example of using history for a purpose.

“The Curse of Fenric” (1989)

The final historical to air (the penultimate story of the classic era) is one of the Seventh Doctor’s very best. A true epic, it takes him and Ace to WWII where the ancient (we’re talking Lovecraftian) evil entity Fenric is using vampiric future-humans called Haemovores to destroy all life on Earth. The Doctor has to clash with Fenric in a battle of wills and wits that is thoroughly engrossing. It furthers the Seventh Doctor tenure’s penchant for making the Doctor a trickster god from the Before Times who fights against enormous malevolent machinations.

The story—all shot on location—also gives Ace a really nice turn as the Doctor forces her to contend with meeting the infant who will grow up to be the mother she hates. The story has a devastating impact on their friendship…for a hot minute, though the Doctor’s manipulation of Ace is fodder for a lot of the novels that came out post-series.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Inarguably, it was director Justin Lin who turned the Fast and Furious franchise into the juggernaut it is. He directed entries three, four, five, six, and nine. But after departing the upcoming tenth installment a week into filming, no one was sure what Lin would do next. Until now! According to Deadline, Sony has tapped Lin to bring manga and anime powerhouse One Punch Man to the big screen. Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner, who wrote Venom and Jumanji: The Next Level, will write the screenplay for this One Punch Man movie adaptation, and Avi Arad (who produces a million things, including the Spider-Man movies) will produce.

Lin’s movie will also include a familiar name on the writing front. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Rick and Morty creator Dan Harmon and writer Heather Anne Campbell are currently writing the One Punch Man live-action movie. This totally makes sense considering the tone and general weirdness of both properties.

One Punch Man debuted in 2009 from mangaka ONE and quickly shot to prominence in the manga community. An anime series followed in 2015 and became a behemoth around the world. It follows a regular guy named Saitama who becomes the most powerful superhero of all time. The problem is, his power is that he can defeat any foe with only one punch. He gets immediately bored with no one able to even give him a challenge. The story parodies superhero and Shonen media alike, indulging in all the excess and ridiculousness of both.

Lin is not a stranger to bringing a beloved franchise to the screen. In addition to Fast and Furious (which wasn’t really anything until he took over), Lin also directed the criminally underseen Star Trek Beyond. Easily the best of the Kelvin Timeline Trek movies; it had the unfortunate problem of coming out after Into Darkness. He has also directed episodic television, including True Detective and Community. Lin certainly has the chops to bring the enormous battles and hilarious awkwardness to live action. Here’s hoping Sony has learned the lesson from other recent western manga adaptations that have been…well, bad.

No word on a release date or anything else as of yet for this One Punch Man movie adaptation. But we shall keep you all up to speed.

Originally published in June 2022.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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What’s this? Another new trailer? The Disney+-era—aka, Russell T Davies v. 2—of Doctor Who has only barely gotten underway and they aren’t wasting any time getting us hyped. So 10 days after the first trailer for Doctor Who season one (yes, that’s what they’re calling it), we get another! It’s got a lot more fun to pour over than the first. We see some guest stars, some monsters, and loads of Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor looking fabulous. But more exciting than the trailer is the full slate of episode titles for Gatwa’s season of Doctor Who. Each of the titles came with its own flavor card, plus we know who wrote and directed each of them. Eek!

Doctor Who Season One Shares Episode Titles and Mini-Teasers

Those are super cool and give us a really interesting idea of what the upcoming episodes could be about. But for an even better idea, here’s the full list of Doctor Who‘s season one episode titles and the creatives involved.

• SPACE BABIES: Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Julie Anne Robinson
• THE DEVIL’S CHORD: Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Ben Chessell
• BOOM: Written by Steven Moffat, directed by Julie Anne Robinson
• 73 YARDS: Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Dylan Holmes Williams
• DOT AND BUBBLE: Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Dylan Holmes Williams
• ROGUE: Written by Kate Herron and Briony Redman, directed by Ben Chessell
• THE LEGEND OF RUBY SUNDAY: Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Jamie Donoughue
• EMPIRE OF DEATH: Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Jamie Donoughue

Of the eight episodes, six come from Davies’ pen. He always did write a lot of the episodes in his original run, but it stands out quite a bit here with fewer episodes. Not to mention, he already wrote all four of the previous Disney+ episodes.

The two episodes he didn’t write have big guest writers involved! Another former showrunner, Steven Moffat, returns to write this Doctor Who season’s third episode, “Boom,” which looks like a space adventure of some sort. “Rogue,” the sixth episode, comes to us from the writing team of Kate Herron and Briony Redman. Herron, you might know, directed all of Loki season one and several episodes of Sex Education. This one, given the title card, appears to be the Doctor Who episode that will feature Jonathan Groff and the Regency time period.

A few other things of note, via doctorwho.tv. First, “Space Babies” and “The Devil’s Chord” will drop on the same day (on May 10th). The former features Bridgerton‘s Golda Rosheuvel, the latter with Jinkx Monsoon. All the episodes from there on will debut weekly. So, we’ll only have seven weeks of new Doctor Who rather than eight.

Doctor Who Releases New Trailer for Ncuti Gatwa’s Season

Oh, and I guess we ought to get to the second trailer.

We see snippets of everything here, but one thing that really stands out is it looks like we’ll get yet another Doctor Who musical number. Both “The Giggle” and “The Church on Ruby Road” had musical numbers; “The Devil’s Chord” takes place in the 1960s as the Doctor and Ruby try to meet The Beatles, and this looks like it’ll have another such scene. Fascinating stuff.

We’ll have to wait and see what other excitement is in store when Doctor Who season one premieres May 10 on Disney+.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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The latest Monsterverse outing, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire offers some truly enormous battles as the titular Titans face off against the Skar King and his band of ape minions. But they aren’t the only such behemoths to appear in the movie, not by a long shot! One of these other titans has a history within the franchise, but Godzilla x Kong offers them their first major big screen appearance: Tiamat!

Who Is Tiamat?

Tiamat is the enormous sea serpent titan. Her name comes from the Ancient Babylonian salt sea goddess who gave birth to gods that later killed her and used her carcass to create the world. Pretty gruesome stuff. According to the official Monsterverse files, Tiamat is 847 feet long and possesses several tendrils coming off her face.

When Did Tiamat First Appear in the Monsterverse?

The first Monsterverse mention of Tiamat came in 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Her name appears on a Monarch map as one of many Titans who begin attacking under the control of King Ghidorah. We can assume she went back to hiding when Maddie Russell (Millie Bobby Brown) turned on the Orca machine in Boston.

The first time we actually see Tiamat is in the 2021 comic Godzilla: Dominion, the prequel to Godzilla vs. Kong. In it, Godzilla traverses the Hollow Earth looking for one of his old lairs and finds Tiamat had taken it over. She becomes very territorial and the two creatures fight, as they often do. Under the water, Tiamat had the advantage; the tide only turned to Godzilla’s favor when he dragged her to land. She eventually disengaged and skulked away to fight another day.

Tiamat Fought the Justice League

Tiamat also appeared in issues four and five of DC and Legendary’s Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong event. After Toyman fused the two universes, Tiamat attacked Atlantis. Aquaman tried to quell the sea serpent but could not and was forced to release the Kraken, Clash of the Titans-style. Godzilla eventually joined the battle, naturally, and Green Lantern and Flash had to join in to keep the three giant creatures from destroying the underwater city.

Later in the saga, Lex Luthor and Mechagodzilla brought Tiamat and some other Titans to Metropolis where she nearly ate Hawkgirl. Luckily, Red Hood piloted a transforming Batplane, in humanoid form, into Tiamat and broke off her tooth allowing Hawkgirl to escape. (Sidebar: What a wild sentence series of sentences to have to type.)

What Does Tiamat Do in Godzilla x Kong?

Finally we come to Tiamat’s first on-screen appearance. During the early part of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the Skar King begins to shore up his plans to return from his forced exile in the lowest depths of the Hollow Earth. Simultaneously, Godzilla awakens from his new lair in the Roman Colosseum and begins seeking out other Titans to pick fights with. We learn later he’s absorbing energy from them in order to evolve to better fight off the Skar King’s coup attempt.

One of these Titans is Tiamat. We see Godzilla and Tiamat fight briefly in the movie. The battle ends with Godzilla syphoning power from her which gives him his pink power upgrade.

Will we see Tiamat in the future? We know she’s resilient, so only time will tell.

Editor’s Note: Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

The post Who Is Tiamat, GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE’S Serpentine Titan? appeared first on Nerdist.

The Monsterverse loves to give fans updated versions of beloved monsters. Obviously we have Godzilla and Kong, but we’ve also gotten the likes of Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Rodan. It’s a delight for fans of these older movies, especially the Showa era of Toho monster flicks. But a single appearance isn’t enough! We want these Titans to come back for more. Thankfully Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire heeded our wishes and brought back one of the most beloved of all giant monsters.

It’s Mothra! Yes, the Queen of the Monsters returns following her heroic yet all-too-brief appearance in 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters. We’d hoped for her return (or even her own solo movie, hint hint) ever since, but since she didn’t appear in 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong, we weren’t sure. Thankfully, Godzilla x Kong brought her back to us.

As our human heroes—especially the former Skull Island-resident Jia (Kaylee Hottle)—make their way into the Hollow Earth, they find out Jia isn’t the last of her people after all. They had gone inward, inside the Hollow Earth. They now live behind a barrier to keep the Skar King from reaching them. Jia then learns that she is the conduit to speak to the Hollow Earth’s guardian. When said guardian awakens from inside a massive chrysalis, it’s none other than Mothra!

While it’s never entirely explained how Mothra got away at the end of King of the Monsters, we now know she went into hiding, perhaps to heal from her wounds. Whatever the reason, she is clutch in defending Jia and her people from the Skar King’s hordes during the above ground fight with the other two Titans.

Mothra’s screen time here is also pretty brief. However, now that she’s back and has her own job to do, we can hope she makes many more appearances in the Monsterverse.

Editor’s Note: Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

The post How GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE Brings Back a Fan-Favorite Titan appeared first on Nerdist.

We’ve always known Godzilla is the “King of the Monsters,” owing to, well, him being absolutely royal. But with so many other Titans in the Monsterverse, it’s somewhat difficult to parse out which of them are the, pardon the term, Apex of the Monarchs. This is especially true now that the Hollow Earth has so many other creatures within it. Where do they all fit in the greater hierarchy? While not everything is set in stone, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire solidifies the roles for at least three of the biggest Titans. Somewhat ironically, that news did come from a stone.

The audience has known for a bit that Godzilla is in some fashion the defender of the Earth. However, he clearly has little interest in humans or their structures. Kong is the one who cares about people! But who else is involved in this? Is it just a two-horse race? No! Y’all didn’t realize this was a trifecta this whole time, did you?

We learn, via cave drawings in the Iwi people’s temple, that the third prong of the Hero Titan trident is Mothra. She’s not only alive, she has a very important job to do. The breakdown is thus:

• Godzilla – Guardian of Nature
• Kong – Guardian of Humanity
• Mothra – Guardian of the Hollow Earth

How this ultimately shakes out in the movie is that Godzilla’s main focus is to keep the planet and its flora and fauna safe from harm. That harm can come from people, so we need to watch it. Kong—after the fight in Godzilla vs. Kong—needs to live in the Hollow Earth, but his calling is to defend humanity against various threats. Sometimes that threat might be Godzilla; again, very complicated. The G-Man does not cotton to Kong up on the surface.

Mothra, therefore, effectively acts as the Godzilla for the Hollow Earth. She defends the creatures living down there. This also means she defends breaches between the realms of the Hollow Earth and the outside world. In the movie, she keeps the Skar King’s hordes from traversing the breach. She also breaks up the squabbling between Kong and Godzilla.

So look out, other Titans! These three are the Monsterverse’s toughest, and they’ll kick your butt if you get out of line.

Editor’s Note: Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Once Russell T Davies was announced as taking over Doctor Who again, wheels turned about what else might be in the pipeline. During RTD’s first regime (2005-2010), fans saw two successful Doctor Who spinoffs: the adult-oriented Torchwood and the kid-focused The Sarah Jane Adventures. And with a new Doctor, and a new distribution deal with Disney+, we wondered what other shows we’d see in the Whoniverse. Now, according to a report from Deadline, we have an idea. The latest Doctor Who spinoff will be a show focused on UNIT and star Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart.

Kate first debuted on screen in 2012’s “The Power of Three,” the daughter of fan-fave classic ally Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. She has acted as head of Doctor Who‘s UNIT, the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, in all of her appearances. Kate also appeared in “The Power of the Doctor,” Jodie Whittaker’s final story.

Most recently, Kate Stewart and UNIT were seen in “The Giggle,” the last of three 60th-anniversary specials starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate as the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna Noble, respectively. Stewart had recruited former companion Mel Bush to the UNIT team and, towards the end of the episode, offered Donna a position there, too.

A UNIT/Kate spinoff is perhaps the biggest no-brainer for a new Doctor Who show. It has the potential to do what Torchwood tried to do; that show couldn’t decide how adult it wanted to be. “The Power of the Doctor” introduced the idea that Kate had been recruiting past companions and she has two great ones under her belt. Plus, in the trailer for Doctor Who‘s upcoming season with Ncuti Gatwa, we see that Fifteen will return to UNIT. This season could be a bit of a backdoor pilot for the UNIT spinoff series.

It is highly likely that we will see Donna, Mel, Rose Noble, and others in the mix. Maybe, just maybe, Martha is done freelancing and will come to UNIT for an adventure, too. What a great way to have legacy characters pop in and out for various missions! Plus, we just love Redgrave! Yes, give her a show.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

Originally published on March 15, 2023.

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Japan’s biggest superhero, Ultraman, continues its march toward global domination. A few years ago, Tsuburaya Productions’ Ultraman series broke into the North American market in a massive way. Blu-ray and streaming distribution of their 55-year-old franchise; a new Marvel Comics series; an English dub of the CG-anime series based on manga. In 2021, we got the premiere of Shin Ultraman, a live-action film from the makers of Shin Godzilla. And, Tsuburaya announced a brand new CG-animated feature film for Netflix. One that has yet a different story from the ongoing Ultra live-action series, the Netflix anime series, the Marvel Comics, and Shin Ultraman. Ultraman: Rising will hit the streaming service on June 14 and we have new images to accompany that release date.

Click To View Gallery

A full trailer will surely come soon but, for now, this Ultraman: Rising teaser does the job:

Shannon Tindle and Marc Haimes, a storyboard artist and writer, respectively, on Kubo and the Two Strings, will write the film. Tindle, who is also a longtime character designer for animation, will co-direct Ultraman: Rising with John Aoshima. Aoshima also worked on Kubo and has directed episodes of Gravity Falls and DuckTales among others. Some pretty good talent.

Netflix/Tsuburaya Productions

The official synopsis for the movie is as follows:

With Tokyo under siege from rising monster attacks, baseball star Ken Sato reluctantly returns home to take on the mantle of Ultraman. But the titanic superhero meets his match when he is forced to adopt a 35-foot-tall, fire-breathing baby kaiju. Sato must rise above his ego to balance work and parenthood while protecting the baby from forces bent on exploiting her for their own dark plans. In partnership with Netflix, Tsuburaya Productions, and Industrial Light & Magic, Ultraman: Rising is written by Shannon Tindle and Marc Haimes, directed by Shannon Tindle, and co-directed by John Aoshima.

In all the iterations of Ultraman over the years, I don’t believe any of them have starred a pro baseball player. So that’s new. The theme of fatherhood has appeared throughout the series, most recently Ultraman Z which aired in 2020. However, never before has an Ultraman had to raise a baby kaiju. That’s, I’m gonna say it: weird.

“Making this film is a dream come true,” said Tindle in a statement. “What began as an original story inspired by my love for Eiji Tsuburaya’s Ultraman somehow became an actual Ultraman film thanks to the incredible trust of the team at Tsuburaya Productions, and the support of the folks at Netflix Animation. We’ve assembled an all-star team and I can’t wait to share our unique take on Ultraman with the rest of the world.”

Tsuburaya Productions

Ultraman began in 1966, a follow-up to Tsuburaya’s Ultra Q. With the intent to bring Tsuburaya’s landmark model and suitmation work in the Godzilla films to television, Ultraman was a full-color explosion of monsters and mayhem. In 2020, select Ultra series began streaming on TokuSHOUTsu while Blu-ray releases hit shelves from Mill Creek.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!

Originally published on May 13, 2021.

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The third episode of Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary celebration, “The Giggle,” did something the show had never done before—a bigeneration! The Doctor always “regenerates” whenever one actor gives way to another, but it’s always a direct change, one to another. “The Giggle” split the Doctor into two, one David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor, and the other Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth.

And as you can bet, fandom responded to this very rationally and with an open mind. Just kidding, they did the exact opposite. “But! The Doctor is the same person each time, there’s not two separate people! Time Lord biology doesn’t work that way! Why has this never happened before?! The Doctor’s regenerations are sacred and unchangeable.”

No, no they aren’t folks. In fact, I’m going to say something controversial: regeneration in Doctor Who has NEVER been the same, any of the times it happened. Why should now be any different? Let’s take out of the equation the fact that the show is fictional and Time Lords aren’t real to begin with, even within the context of the show it’s mainly suggestion based on what makes for good drama at the time. As long as Doctor Who has had regeneration rules, it’s looked for ways to break them.

Jump To: Doctor Who‘s First Regeneration // Doctor Who Regenerates Again // Regeneration in the ’70s // Tom Baker (Four)’s Regeneration // Regeneration Arrives in Modern Doctor Who // River Song and Regeneration // Doctor Who‘s 50th Anniversary Changed Regeneration Again // A New Cycle of Regenerations // Time Lord Regeneration Encompasses Race and Gender // Thirteen’s Regenerations // The Timeless Child // Bigeneration in Doctor Who // Doctor Who Regeneration Is Ever Changing

The First Regeneration on Doctor Who

Regeneration as a concept, only exists because William Hartnell, the actor playing the Doctor, was getting too old to remember the tome of lines the character had every week. And we’re talking 40-some episodes every season. Tons of episodes. But what to do when the character of the Doctor is the main focus of the series, and is seemingly unique? One idea in season three was to just…change the actor. Hey, he’s an alien, the show is science fiction! The story “The Celestial Toymaker” presented an opportunity for this godlike trickster to just make the Doctor look different for lolz. They didn’t do that, and good thing, too.

The replace-the-actor-in-continuity angle needed to be something replicable. Cut to “The Tenth Planet,” the story that introduced the Cybermen, and which Hartnell already sat out two full episodes. At the very end of the fourth episode, the Doctor wanders away from his companions, appearing in a lot of discomfort. He mutters something about his old body wearing thin. He then collapses on the floor of the TARDIS. What’s really interesting about William Hartnell’s transformation into Patrick Troughton is how sparse and inexplicable it is. The TARDIS groaning sounds play over it and the visuals flash in an out. It’s not entirely clear what’s even happening, or even that the TARDIS itself isn’t causing the transformation.

Doctor Who Regenerates Again

The Second Doctor, three seasons later, was also wearing thin. Mostly, this was just Troughton getting tired. At the end of season six, Troughton’s final season, the wheels were coming off the production cart a little bit. So much so that the final serial, “The War Games,” just kept ballooning as they were making it in lieu of any other usable scripts. It went from four episodes into the eventual 10 episodes, the second longest single serial in the show’s history.

Partway through the serial, the Doctor meets a character called “The War Chief,” who turns out to be another member of the Doctor’s race. We’d met other such characters before but with the War Chief, we learn for the first time the name of the Doctor’s race—the Time Lords. Despite running from them since the show began, things get so bad that the Doctor has no choice but to signal to the Time Lords to intervene, giving himself up in the process.

The Time Lords put him on trial for the horrible crime of helping people and so decide to exile him to Earth, removing his ability to fly the TARDIS, and forcing his face to change. The Time Lords don’t say “you’re going to regenerate, a thing we all do all the time.” Rather they say “your face has changed before, it will change again.” Unlike “The Tenth Planet,” we don’t actually see the Second Doctor turn into the Third Doctor. Once again it’s not clear if this is a thing that his body can do normally and they’re just forcing it, or if it’s a punishment that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

Regeneration in the ’70s

Beginning with the Third Doctor, we get the word “regenerate” in relation to the Doctor changing shape. This would begin major lore creation for the series with regards to Time Lords. The Third Doctor’s change proved it was something Gallifreyans had the ability to do. However, it remained unclear whether this is something all Time Lords do or just something Time Lords can do.

That all changed during the Tom Baker era. In the now classic story “The Deadly Assassin,” the Fourth Doctor returns to Gallifrey in order to foil an assassination plot against the Time Lord president. Along the way, the Doctor discovers it’s the Master, decrepit and decaying at the end of his life cycles, trying to utilize the Gallifreyan citadel’s mystical Eye of Harmony to give him a new set of regenerations. One of the Doctor’s allies says “After a Time Lord’s twelfth regeneration, nothing can save them.”

This was, in no small way, massive. After 13 years on the air and three onscreen regenerations, the show slaps us with lore that, whether by nature or design, Time Lords can only regenerate 12 times, meaning 13 separate lives. Retroactively, the show tells us the first two Doctors did in fact properly regenerate, and moreover, they’d put a number on it.

Now, in fairness to writer and script-editor Robert Holmes, it seemed HIGHLY unlikely at the time the Doctor would ever need to worry about this. Since we live in the future, it saddled Doctor Who with storytelling limitations that future writers would have to try to figure out how to deal with.

Tom Baker’s Regeneration Had a Time Ghost

After a whopping seven seasons in the role, Tom Baker’s scarf began to unravel for the last time. His final story, “Logopolis” is about entropy and a planet run by math. I do not want to explain it further. Throughout the story, the Doctor and companions keep seeing this weird ghostly figure watching them. This thing just stands around and the Doctor seems to know what it is but won’t say.

As the story comes to a close, and the Doctor falls from a great height after defeating the Master, he says “it’s the end, but the moment has been prepared for.” The then gestures to the white alien thing who walks over and like, merges with the Doctor’s body which triggers the regeneration. Nyssa has the ADR’d line “The watcher…he was the Doctor all the time.”

Hang on. So this weird ghost was a spectre of the Doctor’s next incarnation? Like, tapping his watch? “Come on, curly, we’re burning daylight here.” Why does this happen? How does this happen? And how did Nyssa, who literally only showed back up an episode prior, know all about how Time Ghosts work?

Jump To: Doctor Who‘s First Regeneration // Doctor Who Regenerates Again // Regeneration in the ’70s // Tom Baker (Four)’s Regeneration // Regeneration Arrives in Modern Doctor Who // River Song and Regeneration // Doctor Who‘s 50th Anniversary Changed Regeneration Again // A New Cycle of Regenerations // Time Lord Regeneration Encompasses Race and Gender // Thirteen’s Regenerations // The Timeless Child // Bigeneration in Doctor Who // Doctor Who Regeneration Is Ever Changing

Doctor Who Made Regeneration a Rule…and Then Broke It

The next several regenerations were all weird in their own way. The Fifth turned into a guy he’d met before. Number Six regenerated from hitting his head on the TARDIS console. The Seventh Doctor was gunned down by Triad gangs in the 1996 TV movie on Fox. They bent the rules but never broke them. By time the series returned in 2005 under Russell T Davies, regeneration had been fully codified into Doctor Who‘s DNA.

However, following the Ninth Doctor’s regeneration into the Tenth, things got a bit more complicated. “The Christmas Invasion” finds the newly minted Tenth Doctor in bed for most of the adventure, cooking after regenerating. When he finally gets up, he runs his gob and has a sword fight with a bad alien skull had man. During the fight, the baddie cuts his hand off, but because he’s still in the first 12 hours of his regeneration cycle, he grows a new one.

In the cliffhanger to the previous episode, “The Stolen Earth,” a Dalek zaps the Doctor in the heart and he starts to regenerate. The viewing public knew David Tennant was leaving the show so it was a great and shocking surprise. However, the first seconds of “Journey’s End” has the Doctor heal his wounds with the regeneration energy and then shoot the rest off into his severed hand, which has been in the TARDIS in a water-filled specimen tank after Torchwood found out and Captain Jack Harkness brought it back to him.

This makes the hand grow into a separate version of the Doctor but—and this is a big thing—is a one-hearted, non-regeneratable human. All of this was basically to give Rose Tyler, who was full-on in love with the Doctor but got banished to another dimension, a boyfriend. It’s so weird. It’s SO weird. 

Fans call him “The Handy Doctor.” Presented without commentary.

The Wild Saga of River Song

Series 6 is a whole thing which is very complicated and deals with the origins of girl-out-of-time River Song. It turns out River is actually the daughter of the first married couple companions, Amy and Rory. We learn that she can regenerate and was kidnapped as a baby and programmed to be an assassin to kill the Doctor. Why can she regenerate? Well, the show tells us since she was conceived in the TARDIS while it was traveling through the time vortex, the baby was somehow fused with Time Lord DNA.

In the series’ eighth episode, “Let’s Kill Hitler,” we find that the Doctor is for-sure going to die but then River bestows upon him her remaining regenerations through a kiss. So she’s a regular ol’ human person now, but the Doctor is back to having the same exact amount of regenerations he was already up to.

Doctor Who‘s 50th Anniversary Changed Regeneration Again

The 50th anniversary was the first multi-Doctor story, really, since the ‘80s and brought back David Tennant to team up with Matt Smith, and folks, it’s so good. But, for our purposes, it also has some very particular things to say about regeneration.

At the end of the previous series, the Doctor and his companion Clara Oswald end up within the Doctor’s own time thread, and they see versions of all his previous selves. One of them is unknown to Clara, who had met all the ones we’ve talked about. The Doctor says “We don’t talk about that one,” whose name is apparently Bruno.

The cliffhanger shows John Hurt, and it says introducing John Hurt as the Doctor. And my dudes, people lost their damn mind. How can this be!? He’s not one of the canonical Doctors! The numbering! Think of the numbering!

This was all part of the wild mix of necessity and contractual requirements writer Steven Moffat had to contend with. The new series, and especially the Moffat era, had made sure to confirm in continuity that the Eleventh Doctor was, in fact, the Eleventh Doctor. But because the presumed Doctor to fight in the Time War—the Ninth Doctor—was played by an actor who did not want to return, Moffat had to figure something else out. Moffat created a new Doctor that fit in between the Eighth and Ninth, who didn’t count himself as a Doctor. The War Doctor.

What Regeneration Limit?

In the very next episode, “The Time of the Doctor,” Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor strands himself on the planet Trenzalore, protecting the town of Christmas for hundreds of years. He gets markedly ancient and then he explains to Clara that he’s out of regenerations. He counts them thusly: Each regen we see from 1-7, then Eighth Doctor to War, then War to Ninth, Ninth to Tenth, then Tenth to Handy Tenth, then Tenth to Eleventh. So he’s out of regenerations, apparently.

Lucky for him, he finds his home planet in a crack in time and through that, the Time Lords bestow on him a new cycle of regenerations. 

People were mad about this. That’s a get out of jail free card, a deus ex machina, a third trope that means the same thing. My response is: Yeah, of course it is. Do you want the show to be over? If you never change canon, if you never think of clever ways out of painting yourself in a corner, or a corner someone else painted you in 40 years prior, then you can’t keep a series going for 60 years. Feel free to stop watching and make your head canon that the Doctor died and we’re done. But we’re not done.

Jump To: Doctor Who‘s First Regeneration // Doctor Who Regenerates Again // Regeneration in the ’70s // Tom Baker (Four)’s Regeneration // Regeneration Arrives in Modern Doctor Who // River Song and Regeneration // Doctor Who‘s 50th Anniversary Changed Regeneration Again // A New Cycle of Regenerations // Time Lord Regeneration Encompasses Race and Gender // Thirteen’s Regenerations // The Timeless Child // Bigeneration in Doctor Who // Doctor Who Regeneration Is Ever Changing

Time Lord Regeneration Encompasses Race and Gender Too

After the Twelfth Doctor era, the Doctor changes genders for the first time on screen, going from Peter Capaldi to Jodie Whittaker. This was a pretty groundbreaking moment, however to quote a previous regen, “The moment had been prepared for.”

Earlier in the Eleventh Doctor era, we hear about a friend of his named the Corsair who had changed gender upon regeneration. Then there’s Missy, of course, a female-presenting version of the Master. And just for good measure, in the story “Hell Bent,” the Doctor shoots a Time Lord general who then regenerates from Ken Bone, and old white man, into T’Nia Miller, a younger Black woman.

Wild Thirteenth Doctor Shenanigans

In the episode “The Fugitive of the Judoon,” the Doctor works to protect a woman named Ruth played by Jo Martin from being unduly captured by the intergalactic rhino police guild, the Judoon. As the episode goes on, we eventually learn, along with the Doctor, that Ruth is a version of the Doctor in hiding who had used a chameleon arch to wipe her memory and make her human. Naturally the Doctor assumes this is a later incarnation, because she doesn’t remember this version, but the Ruth Doctor also doesn’t remember the Thirteenth Doctor. So, a mind-wiped future incarnation? NO.

We learn that Doctor Ruth (not the sex one) was a pre-Hartnell Doctor whom Division, which is basically the Time Lord CIA, the government of Gallifrey used to carry out clandestine murder missions. At some point, we’re further led to believe, the Doctor’s memory was fully wiped, given a full new set of regenerations, and as far as they were concerned, they were living their first life.

Now this is obviously a huge, huge revelation. If you thought the War Doctor mucking up the 1-11 numbering was a problem, try not even knowing what number this new one is! Is she Doctor Zero? Is she negative numbers Doctor?

The Timeless Child

The Thirteenth Doctor hardly gets time to wrap her head around this before she gets a whole new wallop of backstory. The Master, ever the thorn in the side of things, has wiped out the citadel on Gallifrey, because he learned a fact he couldn’t handle. Eons ago, a Gallifreyan scientist named Tecteun found a strange child that seems to have come out of nowhere. This child has the innate ability to turn into a new person on the genetic level whenever they die. And yes, a child dies on Doctor Who.

Tecteun then figures out a way to harness this energy and give it to other Gallifreyans to keep them alive for millennia longer than they otherwise would have been. Simultaneously they’d developed time travel, so couple with effective immortality, they became the Time Lords.

Time Lord government imposed the 12 regeneration limit, because who wants to live forever, as Freddie Mercury once said. The child, if you hadn’t figured it out yet, was the Doctor, who was not only exploited for their natural resource, but forced into servitude in the Time Lord CIA who basically used them as a Winter Soldier, mind-wiping and regenerating them after every mission.

The amount of rewriting to lore this creates is gargantuan, not to mention it brings into question all of the times throughout the years we’ve heard the Doctor muse about their childhood on Gallifrey. Did they turn the Doctor back into a child when Division was done with them? Because we know from the Twelfth Doctor episode “Listen” that the Doctor was a child living in a barn at one point. We also know they grew up and went to school with the Master, so again I ask, how and why?

One Face, Two Face, Old Face, New Face: Bi-Generation in Doctor Who

Eventually, the Thirteenth Doctor’s time arrived. She stands on a mountain and regenerates into…David Tennant?! Well, it’s not unprecedented at this point! It’s canonically a new Doctor, the Fourteenth, but he’s reusing the Tenth Doctor’s face a) because it’s for anniversary special reasons, and 2) so once and future showrunner Russell T Davies can right some wrongs with the character of Donna. And we already know revisiting faces is a thing.

Which brings us, finally, to “The Giggle,” the third of the three Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials.

The Toymaker, the trickster god from another plane of existence and who has powers of reality manipulation, zaps the Fourteenth Doctor and he starts to regenerate again. But no! He doesn’t regenerate, at least not quite. He asks Donna and returning Sixth and Seventh Doctor companion Mel Bush to pull on his arms and this splits him in two, with one remaining David Tennant and the other the trouserless Ncuti Gatwa, the Fifteenth Doctor.

The show makes a point of explaining this has never happened before, it’s new and unique due to the Toymaker’s reality manipulation. It’s not a re-generation, it’s a bi-generation. There are now two Doctors, the former of which seemingly mortal.

And you wanna know something? I love it. I think it’s genius. Why, why, why keep doing the same damn thing you’ve been doing for 60 years? Especially when, basically all of those previous examples were not “the same” in any way?

Jump To: Doctor Who‘s First Regeneration // Doctor Who Regenerates Again // Regeneration in the ’70s // Tom Baker (Four)’s Regeneration // Regeneration Arrives in Modern Doctor Who // River Song and Regeneration // Doctor Who‘s 50th Anniversary Changed Regeneration Again // A New Cycle of Regenerations // Time Lord Regeneration Encompasses Race and Gender // Thirteen’s Regenerations // The Timeless Child // Bigeneration in Doctor Who // Doctor Who Regeneration Is Ever Changing

Doctor Who Regeneration, Now and Forever

Regeneration was one of the most brilliant conceits a TV production ever dreamt up. You might be able to get away with recasting a character once and have the audience buy it. But only Doctor Who has built it into the fabric of the show. Change is the show’s key to longevity. Updating the cast every few years, bringing in not only new companions but a new Doctor who is the same Doctor but not, keeps the series fresh.

There’s a reason the first episode of a new Doctor is routinely the most watched of any era. People are excited about how the new person will be in the role. And that’s still what’s happening. Nothing is different on that front. We’re still getting brand new adventures with a new actor in the lead. So what if now they have no regeneration limit or the Doctor can split rather than fully change?

A younger me would have been annoyed by this but I also have changed with the times. As long as we’re still getting a show that’s willing to take weird risks and swing for the fences, even if they don’t make sense, I say go for it. If you can justify it and make it resonate with the characters, I’m here for it.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

The post DOCTOR WHO’s Regenerations Have Never Been Normal appeared first on Nerdist.

Odds are if you know anything about Italian horror, you’ve heard of Dario Argento. The iconoclastic filmmaker gave cinema some of the most bombastic and gruesomely beautiful murder set pieces of all time. From his 1971 debut, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, through his fittingly sweeping epic Opera in 1987, he effectively had nothing but hits. And then he just started not to make good movies. From 1990 forward, Argento’s output was on the low end, peppered by a few decent-to-good outings on occasion.

This alone would have made an interesting focus of a documentary. So would his time as one of the most photographed people in Italy during his celebrity director era. His complicated and troubled family history also would have made for a compelling watch. Unfortunately, Simone Scafidi’s documentary Dario Argento Panico doesn’t pick any one of these, but attempts to touch on all of them. In under 100 minutes, Scafidi’s focus feels a bit scattered, as we see talking head interviews with family, collaborators, celebrity fans, and even the man himself.

In 2019, Scafidi made a seemingly similar documentary on Lucio Fulci called Fulci for Fake with the interesting conceit of painting the Zombie and The Beyond director as an unknowable enigma, unable to pin down. Whether or not Fulci was as strange as the film portrayed is less important than having the clear and defined point of view while taking the audience on a guided tour of his life and career.

Dario Argento Panico, perhaps by centering so much on the very much still-alive Argento and his interview, feels like it’s pulling punches, afraid to get too deep into any of the possibly less savory aspects of his life. Rare exceptions include actor Cristina Marsillach, the lead of Opera who famously had a rough go with Argento during filming. She says his curtness with her led to a better performance. Later, when asked to describe Argento as a person, she breaks down saying she doesn’t know him at all. This felt so out of place, I wasn’t sure whether it was scripted for some added drama or if it was genuine.

The usual suspects of people in Argento’s orbit also appear. These include his daughters Fiore and Asia, the latter, a controversial figure in her own right. Asia gives the movie its lone discourse about how Dario treated her mother, Daria Nicolodi, as well as her own fraught working relationship with him. It was absolutely weird and creepy that he cast her in roles that required nudity and torment. Other than mentioning this, we never get a ton of justification from Dario nor any real condemnation.

Acolytes Luigi Cozzi, Lamberto Bava, and Michele Soavi—all of whom owe their own directing careers to Argento to varying degrees—provide little beyond specific filming anecdotes, while opposing viewpoints from writers and producers are all-too brief. Directors Guillermo del Toro, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Gaspar Noe pop up to discuss Argento’s filmmaking prowess in his heyday, and while I found this stuff interesting the way I always find filmmakers talking about influences interesting, these bits feel out of a different film.

So, here’s the rub. Dario Argento Panico is not a bad documentary. It’s well-made, has plenty of interviews and clips, and will give viewers a passable potted history of his life and best films. At 98 minutes, however, the material is little more than an overview. I knew most of this stuff from just years of watching his movies and listening to audio commentaries, so I don’t find much here to call it “definitive.” As the movie will debut on Shudder, it’s reasonable to assume horror buffs will be the ones watching it. Really, it’s much better suited to newcomers.

It’s worth a watch for the Argento family interviews, but don’t expect a deep analysis of either the man’s life, mind, or work.

Dario Argento Panico hits Shudder February 2, 2024.

Dario Argento Panico ⭐ (2.5 of 5)

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

The post DARIO ARGENTO PANICO Paints a Colorful If Shallow Portrait of a Horror Maestro appeared first on Nerdist.

It’s been a full ten years since the first season of HBO’s True Detective, which feels at once like an exceptionally long time and like no time at all. Time is, it has been said, a flat circle, but it’s like it’s from a different era. Given the show’s lackluster sophomore season, and the four-year gap between then and season three premiering January 13, it wouldn’t be that surprising if you’ve forgotten most things about season one. But in addition to a few bravura directorial flairs and some ponderous bloviating by Matthew McConaughey’s Rust Cohle, the one thing everyone remembers is the season’s terrifying villain, the Yellow King, and his cosmically strange home base of “Carcosa.”

What separated the first season from all other gritty police procedural was how the mystery worked in troubling metaphysical themes. The aforementioned flat circle of time is one example, but even the serial murders at the heart of the story. Women left dead, bound, naked, and adorned with antlers gave the impression of some dark, deep evil, far more ceremonial and ritualistic than the usual murder. As the investigation continued, Cohle and his long-suffering partner Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) began to uncover long standing corruption and cover-ups which allowed the cult of the Yellow King to thrive. The powerful will protect the powerful.

There’s a lot of cosmic horror in everything having to do with the Yellow King in the series, and they all point back to Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Errol Childress, the Yellow King’s true identity, is described by children as the “spaghetti-faced man” owing to his distinctive facial scars. This could be an allusion to Cthulhu himself, the bat-winged behemoth with the head of an octopus and tentacles over his mouth. He is, in the story “The Call of Cthulhu,” the harbinger of the apocalypse, his mere awakening would mean the end of all life as we know it. Childress never gets that bad, but the themes are still there.

Childress–in his very first appearance, when he is just a weird lawnmower guy that Detectives Gilbough and Pipania ask for directions–makes mention of his family having been in that area a “long, long time.” This explains why he was protected by the families of the county for so long, but also parallels the ancient, almost eternal way he–as a representation of cosmic evil–has been lurking in similar places in similar times immemorial. One of the hallmarks of the Cthulhu Mythos is that the entities are ancient and forever, never destroyed, but merely dormant.

A much more pronounced reference is the Yellow King himself and his home of Carcosa. The American author Robert W. Chambers wrote a book of short stories first published in 1895 entitled The King in Yellow. The book contains ten short stories, the first four of which are weird, macabre tales relating to the fictional in-universe play called The King in Yellow, which causes anyone who has ever read it or seen it to fall into deep despair and madness.The four stories that begin the collection all deal in some way with the King in Yellow and his accursed Yellow Sign, the very sight of which, or possession thereof even unknowingly, is susceptible to some form of insidious mind control, or possession, by the King in Yellow. The first story, “The Repairer of Reputations,” is one of the most celebrated examples and evidently takes place in a dystopian future version of 1920s New York, although it’s possible–and likely–the main character and narrator is unreliable and insane due to a head injury and his connection to the cursed play.

The second story is only minorly connected, but the third story, “In the Court of the Dragon,” tells of a man who goes to a church in Paris and is suddenly overcome with an unending fear of something. He soon is put at ease by the church organist playing music, but that quickly gives way when the organist plays loudly and discordantly, and the organist himself stands and stares at the narrator with a look of unfathomable hatred. The man runs away, but sees the organist everywhere until he finally attacks him. The man awakens back in the church and realizes he’s been overtaken by the King in Yellow, and the church fades away to reveal the majestic and terrible city of Carcosa.

And the fourth story, “The Yellow Sign,” finds an artist troubled by a churchyard watchman who resembles “a coffin worm,” and explains how the Yellow Sign’s original creator was not human. Lovecraft and other writers such as August Derleth who followed Chambers incorporated Carcosa and the King in Yellow into their storytelling, and it has since become part of the Cthulhu Mythos that the King in Yellow (given the Outer God name of Hastur) is a brother of Cthulhu and a key figure in the Mythos.

This all relates back to True Detective in truly upsetting ways. Is Childress truly the Yellow King, or is he merely a servant? In the final episode when Rust and Marty finally confront Childress and the psycho retreats into a massive, labyrinthine set of ruins, we know it to be Carcosa, and it looks just as creepy and unknowable as we’d been led to believe. Rust runs into a large antechamber with skeletal remains strung up in a tree, and he even briefly sees a swirling vortex in the roof before Childress attacks.

True Detective season one never fully explains this strange, cosmic occurrence, nor many of the other unexplained mysteries, but the end result is something troubling and chilling. Lots of edgy crime series will have a serial killer tied to devil worship or demonology, but True Detective, to my mind, was the first to tie a serial killer to the nihilistic, apocalyptic cosmic horror of Lovecraft and his ilk.

If time is indeed a flat circle, then we may yet again see the awe and terror of sweet Carcosa, where true evil lies. True Detective‘s fourth season, True Detective: Night Country, is currently airing on HBO. And already, it seems like this latest chapter of the series may just take us back to where it all began.

Featured Image: HBO

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

Originally published on January 9, 2019.

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