The Watchers is being released in theatres later this week, and the new horror film is based on the novel of the same name by Irish author, A.M. Shine. In addition to taking place in Ireland, the film is also rooted in Irish folklore. In honor of the project, ComicBook recently had the chance to chat with the film's director, Ishana Night Shyamalan, in addition to stars Dakota Fanning (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and Georgina Campbell (Barbarian). During the interviews, they spoke about working in Ireland and what they learned about folklore.

"I have worked in Ireland before and loved it, I worked in Dublin," Fanning shared. "So going back was something I was very excited about and I loved that this story was incorporating that folklore and that fairytale kind of mythical vibe. And I think it was something that I felt like I hadn't seen in a movie in the genre before, of getting to kind of blend the realistic parts and the groundedness with that kind of fairytale magic. And the nature in Ireland is so - it lends itself to the story so much - and really is a character. So yeah, it was really fun to feel like you were in an Irish folk tale."

"I feel like I kind of got to know a little bit," Campbell shared. "Olwen Fouere was really good. She kind of knew a lot about the folklore and had lots of stories to tell. I can't really remember any of it now. But yeah, I learned a little."

"I mean, it's just such a wonderful place," Shyamalan added. "I was so kind of enamored with just both the culture and the storytelling of the Irish culture, so it was totally cool for me to sort of dive into that mythology and I read a bunch of stuff and it's just really, really rich and kind of a wonderful story that they sort of have. So it's just really cool to kind of go into that particular folklore."

What Is The Watchers About?

The Watchers follows an artist (Fanning) named Mina "who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland." Mina eventually finds shelter, but she "unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night."

Joining writer/director Shyamalan behind the camera are director of photography Eli Arenson (Lamb, Hospitality), production designer Ferdia Murphy (Lola, Finding You), editor Job ter Burg (Benedetta, Elle), and costume design by Frank Gallacher (Sebastian, Aftersun). The music is by Abel Korzeniowski (Till, The Nun). The film is produced by M. Night Shyamalan, Ashwin Rajan, and Nimitt Mankad. The executive producers are Jo Homewood and Stephen Dembitzer.

"Well, it was very much just imagining what the four or five of these people were like, and what they would be like together. Then, as the continual lesson that I learned during the filmmaking process, there's just a certain alchemy that happens," the filmmaker revealed during a Q&A in which ComicBook.com was in attendance. "If you're lucky enough to catch it, you do. With this path, there were all these movements that just led to this group being together. They have such an electric energy when they're all together. It's really, really cool. It's so fun. It felt like theater!"

The Watchers lands in theaters on June 7th.

All eyes have been on Dominik Mysterio since King & Queen of the Ring thanks to his unexpected kiss with Liv Morgan, but truthfully Mysterio has had people talking long before that. Whether it was his continued relationship with Mami Rhea Ripley or his heated rivalry with his father Rey, Dominik is always getting a reaction. That was also true when fans started noticing a pattern in regards to his Judgement Day teammate Finn Balor, as in several different celebrations with the group Mysterio could be seen hitting Balor, and Balor was always surprised. That led some to wonder if this was part of a storyline or just accidental, and ComicBook had the chance to finally ask Mysterio what was really happening.

"Dude, those are all genuine accidents, I swear. And I think that's what makes it so funny. If you notice this, I think it was last week or two weeks ago when we were out in the ring and we all hugged. I made sure after we all hugged, I looked at him and I was like, you good? He's like, yeah, I'm good," Mysterio said.

Mysterio wouldn't have even known it was happening if social media hadn't started picking up on it either, because Balor never told him. "Because really, I don't mean to hit him, man. It kind of just happens. It's an accident. And I think the best part about it is, he doesn't tell me that I'm doing it. He's like, it's almost like a dad. He kind of just lets it happen because he knows that I'm not doing it on purpose or he's like, I don't know what he thinks. I just think he likes me too much to not say anything or he's being too nice about it. But yeah, he never said anything to me up until the last one where he was like, hey, do we have an issue here? Those are all accidents, I swear," Mysterio said.

The Judgment Day have been through a lot over the past year, with internal conflicts, losses of Championships, winning new Championships, new members, and unexpected injuries being just a few. It's been an unforgettable experience for Mysterio, and he counts himself as blessed to have been a part of this group during this journey.

"Man, it's been a hell of a ride. And it gets me emotional talking about it because they really do mean so much to me. All of them. Rhea, Damien, Finn, especially JD man coming in there a little bit late, but he's been with us for the past couple of months. But it's all been so special," Mysterio said. "I don't know who's done it. Especially just the diversity of the group to how the group started to where we are now. And it's just like no one does it like Judgment Day. And it's like the amount of segments we're on for TV, the amount of things that we do, it's pretty surreal, man. And I'm very blessed to have been a part of this and just continue this journey with them. It's been a wild ride, man, and I'm very thankful."

Clash at the Castle Card

• World Heavyweight Championship Match: Damian Priest (C) vs. Drew McIntyre
• WWE Women's Championship Match: Bayley (C) vs. Piper Niven

WWE's Clash at the Castle takes place in Glasgow, Scotland on June 15th, and will stream live on Peacock at 2 PM EST.

What do you want to see next for the Judgement Day and Dominik Mysterio? You can talk all things wrestling with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!

The Watchers is being released in theatres next week, and the new horror film was helmed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, the daughter of M. Night Shyamalan. The new movie was based on the novel by A.M. Shine and marks the younger Shyamalan's first feature. Previously, she directed multiple episodes of Apple TV+'s Servant, so ComicBook asked Shyamalan what she learned from working on the horror series, and if it is a genre she plans to continue working in.

"Oh my God. So many lessons," Shyamalan said of working on Servant. "Yeah, I think those experiences I really used as sort of a training ground. I felt really unequipped to embark on this artistic process that I loved so much. And so it was very much kind of looking, observing as much as I could and watching as much as I could and trying out different skills and techniques, and then really got to put those all I think into this feature process."

"[It] wasn't really an intentional choice that I go into horror. It's just sort of the material that I think I'm interested in," she explained. "I feel for whatever reason, I just connect to darker, scarier things I think I have since I've been young. So yeah, it's more so the palette that I enjoy playing in, but I really enjoy this kind of expanding the genre and touching other things. So for example, this sort of fantasy horror intersection I think is really compelling and cool to me, and would love to go even deeper into that."

Dakota Fanning Talks Working With Ishana Night Shyamalan:

During ComicBook's interview with The Wachers star, Dakota Fanning, she shared what it was like to work with a first-time feature director.

"Yeah, she's super, super excited. Always had a smile on her face, such a bright person and somebody that was clearly put on this earth to create," Fanning said of Shyamalan. "She's super creative, super collaborative, comes from a family of artists who love to make cool things, and so that's inspiring to be around."

"She wrote this and was directing it and had such a clear vision of what she wanted to do and you can't help but feel inspired to collaborate with someone like that," Fanning added.

In addition to Fanning, The Watchers stars Georgina Campbell (Barbarian, Suspicion), Oliver Finnegan (Creeped Out, Outlander), and Olwen Fouere (The Northman, The Tourist). Joining writer/director Shyamalan behind the camera are director of photography Eli Arenson (Lamb, Hospitality), production designer Ferdia Murphy (Lola, Finding You), editor Job ter Burg (Benedetta, Elle), and costume design by Frank Gallacher (Sebastian, Aftersun). The music is by Abel Korzeniowski (Till, The Nun). The film is produced by M. Night Shyamalan, Ashwin Rajan, and Nimitt Mankad. The executive producers are Jo Homewood and Stephen Dembitzer.

The Watchers lands in theaters on June 7th. Stay tuned for more from our interviews about the upcoming horror film.

The Watchers is being released exclusively in theaters next week, and the new horror film was adapted from the novel by A. M. Shine. ComicBook recently had the chance to chat with the film's director, Ishana Night Shyamalan, in addition to stars Dakota Fanning (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and Georgina Campbell (Barbarian). During the interviews, Fanning and Campbell revealed how they approached bringing book characters to life.

"I usually go more with the script just because ultimately that's what you are bringing to life," Fanning explained. "I think it's so lucky that this story has such a great book behind it to be inspired by and the source material is so excellent. I met the writer A.M. Shine of the book and he was awesome. And so he created such a great world to make this movie off of. But I usually focus more on the script. I feel like if you're doing something that's in the book, but maybe it's not necessarily relevant to the story ... just can be kind of complicated to mix them. So I usually focus on the script."

"Yeah, I read the book before I took my meeting, so I just wanted to kind of get more of an understanding, and it's great to be able to look at more of a reference of the character, but Ciara, you don't find out that much about her," Campbell explained. "You're only from her perspective for one chapter of the book, which gave me a lot of freedom to be able to also build upon her, which was really nice because actually when A.M. Shine came to the set, he was like, 'Oh my God, you've made Ciara really interesting. She's kind of annoying in the book.'"

"I think that compassion and that kind of sweetness and she really just wants to take care of people and sometimes to her detriment, but I think that's kind of a lovely, she's kind, she's a kind person, which is good," Campbell added of her character.

What Is The Watchers About?

The Watchers follows an artist (Fanning) named Mina "who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland." Mina eventually finds shelter, but she "unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night."

The film also stars Oliver Finnegan (Creeped Out, Outlander) and Olwen Fouere (The Northman, The Tourist). Joining writer/director Shyamalan behind the camera are director of photography Eli Arenson (Lamb, Hospitality), production designer Ferdia Murphy (Lola, Finding You), editor Job ter Burg (Benedetta, Elle), and costume design by Frank Gallacher (Sebastian, Aftersun). The music is by Abel Korzeniowski (Till, The Nun). The film is produced by M. Night Shyamalan, Ashwin Rajan, and Nimitt Mankad. The executive producers are Jo Homewood and Stephen Dembitzer.

"Well, it was very much just imagining what the four or five of these people were like, and what they would be like together. Then, as the continual lesson that I learned during the filmmaking process, there's just a certain alchemy that happens," the filmmaker revealed during a Q&A in which ComicBook.com was in attendance. "If you're lucky enough to catch it, you do. With this path, there were all these movements that just led to this group being together. They have such an electric energy when they're all together. It's really, really cool. It's so fun. It felt like theater!"

The Watchers lands in theaters on June 7th.

Criminal Minds has built many iconic on-screen relationships over the years but perhaps none with as big of a following as Luke Alvez and Penelope Garcia -- Garvez, for short. Since Luke debuted in season 12 of the show, his dynamic with Penelope has become a significant part of his storyline. In season 15 before the series' switch to Paramount+ and got a revamped title, Penelope and Luke finally tested the waters and went on a date. The aftermath of that wasn't shown given that was the series finale so fans were almost able to come to their own conclusion. However, that changed when Evolution was announced.

When Evolution debuted, it left a lot of unanswered questions and raised even more as the 10-episode 16th season went on. Penelope got involved with Tyler Green (Ryan James-Hatanaka) who began as an anonymous informant feeding information about Sicarius to Penelope in order to locate him and get justice for his missing sister. They began a relationship that lasted but a blip before Penelope realized that it wasn't appropriate. One of the biggest detesters of their relationship was none other than Luke.

Comicbook caught up with Vangsness and Rodriguez to chat about Criminal Minds: Evolution season 17 and the two dished about Garvez's relationship dynamic this season. Vangsness noted that they "have a blast" doing it while Rodriguez added that "it makes it better."

"Yeah, because I'm suddenly, like, I think before it was always 'ugh, ugh' with him and then last season it was like, 'I have no one else to talk to, I have to talk to you' and we had that date that wasn't a date, like all these things," Vangsness said. "So it's both neutral but not, you know what I mean? Because we have chemistry. So it's like there's that, but it's been really fun. There's a scene where I had to make a bunch of affirmations and I'm reading them off to him and every time I read something off to him, it's just fun. That's my experience."

Rodriguez added, "Yeah. I love it as well. I think, you know, it puts the relationship to a new test. We had this certain dynamic before and then we very briefly like Kirsten said, explored it, went on a date and decided, 'ok, we have to put this in this space. This is what works for both of us here.' And then this guy gets added to the mix and there's a whole bunch of reasons to be cautious about it. And for Alvez, I mean he gets to sort of play a different role, really a friend, which you haven't seen him get to be in that way. [A] big brother kind of thing or little brother, however you wanna call it, where there's a different layer of protection. He's guarding her because he cares and you get to see that part of the relationship, which I think is really important for wherever this thing decides to go in the end."

Vangsness added how significant it is to have Penelope interacting with the "hunks" which we have seen over the entirety of the show with her and Derek Morgan's iconic friendship, Tyler, and Luke. "And I love that they let the character actress, like, usually the character actress does not engage with the hunks and by the grace of God, I get a lot of hunk action! I think it's good for everybody. I think it's good. I think it's good for the world at large."

Criminal Minds: Evolution season 17 premieres on June 6 on Paramount+.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will bring back Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz, the goth girl whose fascination with the paranormal had her stumble into the world of the afterlife and almost become the bride of Michael Keaton's Beetlejuice. We know that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will have Lydia as a mother to her teenage daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega), but there's also more to Lydia's continuing story.

Winona Ryder (along with the rest of the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice cast) is getting some feature attention in Empire Magazine. During the interviews, Ryder shared a few more details about where we find Lydia in the Beetlejuice sequel.

"I went through so many stages of, 'Who is she now?', but I always wanted to have it be Lydia. She can't lose who she was," Ryder explained to Empire. "She can't be the same person, she can't be just completely deadpan, she has to have evolved, but she also has to have kept that thing she had when we first met her. So that was the big challenge for me."

One of the big changes in Lydia's life (besides motherhood) is that she now has Elvira-style TV series called Ghost House With Lydia Deetz. If you watch the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice trailer, you can catch a small snippet of Lydia doing the show - a great reflection of all the paranormal reality series (ex: Ghost Hunters) that have come along since the original Beetlejuice's release. Given Lydia's experience with seeing the afterlife, she is uniquely suited to offer expertise on the subject - although we suspect the reception from the Internet wouldn't be universally glowing.

Behind the scenes, Ryder admitted that getting back into the character was hard - especially after so much real life has passed since she first played the role. "You know, you grow up, and things change. Life happens."

Still, the process of making the Beetlejuice sequel seems to have been a breakthrough experience for Ryder. She echoes Michael Keaton and director Tim Burton in her excitement over what they've done with the sequel.

"I struggle to find the words. It's just one of the most special experiences that I've ever had. The fact that we're coming back to it, it's... It's beyond," Ryder explained. "I don't know if I've ever felt this way. This is a first for me. I've never revisited a character, ever."

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will be released in theaters on September 6th.

Danny Huston recalls what it was like to work with Viggo Mortenson on The Dead Don't Hurt. Mortenson is a jack of all trades, writing, directing, and starring in The Dead Don't Hurt, a Toronto International Film Festival selection. The Western takes place during the Civil War and also stars Vicky Krieps in a complicated love story. Legendary actor Danny Huston stars in The Dead Don't Hurt as Mayor Rudolph Schiller, and is also a director in his own right. This gives him the perfect knowledge of the highs and lows of being behind the camera, and gives him the insight into what Mortenson went through during production.

ComicBook spoke to Danny Huston about The Dead Don't Hurt, where he was asked how Viggo Mortenson's directing style compared to other directors he's worked with, as well as what are the benefits of working with a director who is also an actor.

"I felt very protected by Viggo because he wrote the screenplay, he acted in it, but he also wrote the music, so he's kind of embracing the film," Huston said. "To have that clarity of vision is a wonderful thing as an actor. The film was shot under a certain schedule, it was shot in Durango, in Mexico, so we also had the elements to contend with, so sometimes I could see the wheels turning from wearing many hats. I described it as him being slightly schizophrenic. He disagreed with that description [laughs]."

He added, "You're kind of holding each other up in a sense. It creates a sort of waltz. You're there to help each other out."

Danny Huston on starring in movie reboots

Danny Huston stars as the villain in the upcoming reboot of The Crow, which hits theaters later this year. In 2025, he'll appear in the reboot of The Naked Gun, which is gearing up for production. While speaking to ComicBook about The Dead Don't Hurt, his new movie hitting theaters on May 31st, Huston opened up about the challenges that come with remaking a popular title.

"What I find challenging is, in a way, the idea of remaking something that's already good," Huston told ComicBook. "It's like you kind of don't want to touch it. You want to leave it alone. I remember my father saying, 'Why are we remaking good movies? We should be remaking the bad ones and make them good.' So that's where you're cautious. And yet you have to kind of reinvent it. You can't imitate it. But you're inspired by it and that's the tough balance to get."

The Dead Don't Hurt is in theaters nationwide on May 31.

Star Wars: The Acolyte heads to Disney+ soon, telling a character-driven story that will surely stand out in the Star Wars galaxy. The Acolyte's ensemble cast of characters includes a young alien Jedi named Jecki Lon, played by Logan and His Dark Materials star Dafne Keen. While speaking to ComicBook about Star Wars: The Acolyte, Keen made a connection between Jecki's journey and her own path as a young actor.

"I think I did bring a bit of my own experience into it," Keen explained in our interview, which you can check out above. "Being someone who has been working for over ten years at 19, [it] throws you in at the deep end and forces you to kind of be an adult from a very young age. And I think Jecki has that in her, and sort of this adultness that's not that common in an 18 year old, which is how old Jackie is. So there was a lot of that, and a lot of my perfectionism and her perfectionism, and just how hard-working I think we are, and also how hard on ourselves we are, and competitive. So, a lot of me and her was very similar, which was pretty easy to access."

When Is Star Wars: The Acolyte Set?

Star Wars: The Acolyte is set at the very tail end of the High Republic era, decades prior to the events of the Prequel and Original trilogies. The Acolyte marks the first time that the time period has been portrayed in live-action, after it has already been brought to life in novels, comics, and in the animated series Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures.

"We're taking a look at the political and personal and spiritual things that came up in a time period that we don't know much about," Headland explained in a previous interview. "My question when watching The Phantom Menace was always like, 'Well, how did things get to this point?' How did we get to a point where a Sith lord can infiltrate the Senate and none of the Jedi pick up on it? Like, what went wrong? What are the scenarios that led us to this moment?'"

"We actually use the term the Renaissance, or the Age of Enlightenment," Headland added. "The Jedi uniforms are gold and white, and it's almost like they would never get dirty. They would never be out and about," Headland says. "The idea is that they could have these types of uniforms because that's how little they're getting into skirmishes."

What Is Star Wars: The Acolyte About?

In Star Wars: The Acolyte, an investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi Master (Lee Jung-jae) against a dangerous warrior from his past (Amandla Stenberg). As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems.

Star Wars: The Acolyte stars Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner- Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Suotamo, and Carrie-Anne Moss. Leslye Headland created the series, based on Star Wars by George Lucas, and serves as an executive producer along with Kathleen Kennedy, Simon Emanuel, Jeff F. King and Jason Micallef. Charmaine DeGrate? and Kor Adana are the co-executive producers. Rayne Roberts, Damian Anderson, Eileen Shim and Rob Bredow are the producers.

The first two episodes of Star Wars: The Acolyte will debut exclusively on Disney+ on June 4th at 6pm PST. If you haven't checked out Disney+ yet and you want to give it a go, you can do that here.

Note: This is not a sponsored post, but if you purchase one of the awesome products featured above, we may earn a small commission from the retailer. Thank you for your support.

Star Wars: The Acolyte is debuting on Disney+ next week, and the new series features an exciting line-up of actors. The new Star Wars series stars Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Suotamo, and Carrie-Anne Moss. ComicBook recently had the chance to chat with some of the show's cast, including Barnett, who talked about the origin of his Jedi character's name, Yord Fandar. Turns out, series creator Leslye Headland actually got the name from somewhere pretty fun...

"Lowkey, I just heard the story from Leslye and I don't know if she's going to beat me in the butt for saying it. But apparently, she is in a gaming group online and one of - I can't remember what game they play - but I think it's a live-action role-playing game," Barnett explained.

"The friends invented a character named Yord Fandar on the game, and she stole the name and they didn't know basically until they read the first couple scripts and they're like, 'Hey, that's our guy,' and she was like, 'Trust me, he is very Yord.' So I think I have to give credit to them. But it is the fit for his humanity... or lack of humanity," he added with a smile.

You can watch our interview with Barnett at the top of the page.

Charlie Barnett Teases Yord Fandar:

During Star Wars Celebration in London last year, Barnett had a chat with Collider and teased his character, and talked more about working with Headland.

"I am a Jedi Knight, and I've got some really cool hair. I can tell you that." Barnett joked without revealing much else about his Star Wars role. "Leslye is an incredible writer, first and foremost, and the entire team. She's a playwright so she is invested in the story. I think what's most exciting for me, and exciting about working on this, is that through the language, through the development of these characters, you realize that bad and good is at the eyes of the beholder. You know, things are so multilayered and complicated, and it takes a really talented person to write a person that you can see from all of those angles."

"It's a comment on policing, honestly, in my mind, which is why it's so exciting," he added. "We're at a point where we're at our highest, and power can be a difficult thing."

What Is The Acolyte About?

Set during The High Republic, Star Wars: The Acolyte delivers an investigation into a mysterious string of crimes, which pits a Jedi master against his former apprentice in a race to uncover the truth. The more that the pair learn about the situation, the darker their journey becomes, as they confront things that darker than either of them could have imagined.

Star Wars: The Acolyte premieres on Disney+ on June 4th.

At the end of Criminal Minds: Evolution last season, Elias Voit (Zach Gilford) was officially apprehended by the FBI for his involvement in killing Deputy Director Bailey. We learn that there's something known as "Gold Star" and that, apparently, Voit and Bailey are the only ones that know what it is. Gilford's storyline seemed to be pretty wrapped up last season, but it was eventually announced that he would be returning as the prolific killer.

Gilford joined the cast of Criminal Minds when it was officially moved to Paramount+ more than three years ago. He discussed retuning to the series in season 17 with Comicbook and what his conversations with showrunner Erica Messer looked like. Additionally, Gilford is set to make his directorial debut on this season of the show, something that's become commonplace for the cast every season.

Gilford explains that Messer and company "really" liked him, so they decided not to kill him and instead bring him back for more episodes. Though he wasn't consulted about what his storyline would look like this season, he was up for anything.

"Well, they were twofold. One was halfway through last season, she said to me, 'I don't know what we're gonna do next season, but we really like you. So we're not gonna kill you.' And I said, 'yeah!' And then when they actually asked me that, I said, 'of course, I'll do anything.' You know, she didn't really consult me about the storylines, but I was really excited. I was really happy with how it turned out and they planted the seed of this Gold Star thing at the end of last season. And, due to the network that Voit had created, he's got a lot of information that the BAU and any sort of law enforcement doesn't have. So it's kind of his ace in the hole or whatever the expression is. It's his Trump card and he can use it and he uses it to his advantage. And as always, he tries to manipulate everyone in every situation to kind of get what he wants and what he wants obviously is to get out of prison and get his family back. And, as we all know, he's smarter than everyone. So he works the system well."

This season will see the BAU trying to get to the bottom of Gold Star once and for all but, per the synopsis, "as the conspiracy unfolds, the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) is met with an unexpected complication when serial killer Elias Voit negotiates a deal that transfers him to federal custody in the BAU's own backyard. The team faces its biggest threat yet and cannot emerge unscathed from the mind-bending consequences."

Criminal Minds: Evolution season 17 premieres on June 6 on Paramount+.

The Watchers is heading to theaters next week, and the film is based on A. M. Shine's novel of the same name. The movie stars Dakota Fanning as an artist named Mina who "gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland." Mina eventually finds shelter, but she "unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night." Early in the film, Mina listens to a voicemail from her sister, and ComicBook recently admitted to Fanning that we initially thought the voicemail was a cameo from her real-life sister, Elle Fanning. This led to us wondering if the sisters plan to work together in the future.

"Oh, funny!" Fanning replied when we mentioned our mistake. "I'm wondering if people ... what they're going to think," she added. "We have definitely talked about it," she shared when asked about a collaboration with her sister. "We never acted together on screen. She's played me younger, but definitely you'll see it one day for sure. I feel confident saying that."

You can watch our interview with Fanning at the top of the page.

Dakota Fanning Talks Working With Ishana Night Shyamalan:

The Watchers marks the feature directorial debut of M. Night Shyamalan's daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan. During ComicBook's chat with Fanning, she shared what it was like to work with a first-time feature director.

"Yeah, she's super, super excited. Always had a smile on her face, such a bright person and somebody that was clearly put on this earth to create," Fanning said of Shyamalan. "She's super creative, super collaborative, comes from a family of artists who love to make cool things, and so that's inspiring to be around."

"She wrote this and was directing it and had such a clear vision of what she wanted to do and you can't help but feel inspired to collaborate with someone like that," Fanning added.

In addition to Fanning, The Watchers stars Georgina Campbell (Barbarian, Suspicion), Oliver Finnegan (Creeped Out, Outlander), and Olwen Fouere (The Northman, The Tourist). Joining writer/director Shyamalan behind the camera are director of photography Eli Arenson (Lamb, Hospitality), production designer Ferdia Murphy (Lola, Finding You), editor Job ter Burg (Benedetta, Elle), and costume design by Frank Gallacher (Sebastian, Aftersun). The music is by Abel Korzeniowski (Till, The Nun). The film is produced by M. Night Shyamalan, Ashwin Rajan, and Nimitt Mankad. The executive producers are Jo Homewood and Stephen Dembitzer.

The Watchers lands in theaters on June 7th. Stay tuned for more from our interviews about the upcoming horror film.

When Star Wars: The Acolyte arrives on Disney+ next month, it is expected to play with the conventions of the galaxy far, far away. Set during the franchise's High Republic era, The Acolyte will explore a dark conspiracy among early Force users, including Mae (Amandla Stenberg). In an exclusive interview with ComicBook about Star Wars: The Acolyte, Stenberg spoke about showcasing her Force powers in an unconventional physical way.

"It is the coolest thing ever," Stenberg said in our interview, which you can check out above. "And there's so many things to think about when you think about Force wielding, because we almost get a lot of creative freedom, particularly with this character, around what that looks like for her, because she's not a Jedi and she's not strictly a Sith. So I thought a lot about my hand positioning, I talked about [it] a lot with my master Lou who taught me all my stunt choreography. For me, I thought it would be more interesting... This movement is utilized often and it's the way you're maintaining chi and balance. But I thought for Mae, having it be a little crooked, a little more twisted, would make more sense for her."

When Is Star Wars: The Acolyte Set?

Star Wars: The Acolyte is set at the very tail end of the High Republic era, decades prior to the events of the Prequel and Original trilogies. The Acolyte marks the first time that the time period has been portrayed in live-action, after it has already been brought to life in novels, comics, and in the animated series Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures.

"We're taking a look at the political and personal and spiritual things that came up in a time period that we don't know much about," Headland explained in a previous interview. "My question when watching The Phantom Menace was always like, 'Well, how did things get to this point?' How did we get to a point where a Sith lord can infiltrate the Senate and none of the Jedi pick up on it? Like, what went wrong? What are the scenarios that led us to this moment?'"

"We actually use the term the Renaissance, or the Age of Enlightenment," Headland added. "The Jedi uniforms are gold and white, and it's almost like they would never get dirty. They would never be out and about," Headland says. "The idea is that they could have these types of uniforms because that's how little they're getting into skirmishes."

What Is Star Wars: The Acolyte About?

In Star Wars: The Acolyte, an investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi Master (Lee Jung-jae) against a dangerous warrior from his past (Amandla Stenberg). As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems.

Star Wars: The Acolyte stars Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner- Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Suotamo, and Carrie-Anne Moss. Leslye Headland created the series, based on Star Wars by George Lucas, and serves as an executive producer along with Kathleen Kennedy, Simon Emanuel, Jeff F. King and Jason Micallef. Charmaine DeGrate? and Kor Adana are the co-executive producers. Rayne Roberts, Damian Anderson, Eileen Shim and Rob Bredow are the producers.

The first two episodes of Star Wars: The Acolyte will debut exclusively on Disney+ on June 4th at 6pm PST. If you haven't checked out Disney+ yet and you want to give it a go, you can do that here.

Note: This is not a sponsored post, but if you purchase one of the awesome products featured above, we may earn a small commission from the retailer. Thank you for your support.

On June 6, Paramount+ will release the first two episodes of Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 17, a continuation of one of the longest-running crime shows on television. The show concluded with season 15 on CBS but was quickly revealed to be in development during the pandemic. The show gained so much popularity when people were watching from home that it introduced an entirely new audience to the franchise. Season 16 of Evolution debuted in November of 2022 on Paramount+ with most of the original cast, minus Matthew Gray Gubler and Daniel Henney as SSA's Dr. Spencer Reid and Matthew Simmons, respectively.

In anticipation of the newest season, Comicbook spoke with the cast all about what season 17 has to offer. As is tradition with the cast, many of them will return to the directors chair this season -- including AJ Cook and Aisha Tyler who directed episodes two and seven. A new face is set to take on the chair this season, though, and that's Zach Gilford who plays serial killer Elias Voit.

"Yeah, no, it was my directorial debut. Every one of my cast members who directed before were so open and helpful and held my hand through it," Gilford told Comicbook when asked if he'd be making his directorial debut this season. "I shadowed Doug, the director of the opening episode. I just talked to so many directors that I've worked with in the past just because I kind of -- I didn't want to fail. And I worked my ass off, it was so fun. And like these guys, I mean, it's very intimidating directing the first time and having scenes of Joe Mantegna and Felicity Huffman. But yeah, everyone was just so kind and I learned so much. I think I'm gonna be such a better actor because of it. But it was exciting, it was one of the most exciting times I've had in awhile."

In the wake of last season's shocking finale which saw Voit get taken into custody by the FBI and a mysterious figure stepping into the room to speak to him, season 17 picks up as the FBI's elite team of profilers investigates the deadly mystery of Gold Star. Per the synopsis, "As the conspiracy unfolds, the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) is met with an unexpected complication when serial killer Elias Voit negotiates a deal that transfers him to federal custody in the BAU's own backyard. The team faces its biggest threat yet and cannot emerge unscathed from the mind-bending consequences."

Stay tuned to Comicbook for more on season 17 of Criminal Minds: Evolution.

Season 17 of Criminal Minds: Evolution premieres June 6 on Paramount+ and it sees the return of everybody's favorite profilers -- AJ Cook (Jennifer Jareau), Aisha Tyler (Dr. Tara Lewis), Joe Mantegna (David Rossi), Paget Brewster (Emily Prentiss), Adam Rodriguez (Luke Alvez) and Kirsten Vangsness (Penelope Garcia). The most notable omissions are Matthew Gray Gubler (Spencer Reid) and Daniel Henney (Matthew Simmons) who were both written off last season "on assignment" though it's unclear when exactly they'll return.

In the wake of last season's shocking finale which saw Voit taken into the custody by the FBI after killing deputy director Bailey and Tyler Green working with the BAU, season 17 of Criminal Minds: Evolution picks up as the FBI's elite team of profilers investigates the deadly mystery of Gold Star. Per the synopsis, "As the conspiracy unfolds, the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) is met with an unexpected complication when serial killer Elias Voit negotiates a deal that transfers him to federal custody in the BAU's own backyard. The team faces its biggest threat yet and cannot emerge unscathed from the mind-bending consequences."

From watching the first two episode of the new season, it's clear that it's some of the most cinematic work the entire crew has done thus far, and Rodriguez has to agree. While speaking to Comicbook, Rodriguez broke down the cinematic differences between the CBS property and the Paramount+ series.

"Oh, man, well first of all, thank you, because we feel the same way. I mean, we're just so reinvigorated to be doing the show on Paramount+ now in more than one way. I mean, it's obviously Criminal Minds: Evolution. So it's slightly different from what Criminal Minds was. But we've got these characters that have been around for all of these years, and have built up this relationship with the audience that we now get to explore in a new way. So it lends itself to feeling more cinematic just in the amount of breath, time, and space that we have to do that kind of exploration. I think another big part of that is the addition of Anthony Pietro, who's our Director of Photography now, is amazing and just has a has a great eye and a great feel for the show. And on top of all of that fits into the culture of the show as well."

Yeah, I mean, we really just have such a great group of people there. And that starts with our boss, Erica Messer [Criminal Minds' showrunner], who is incredible, and just knows how to pick the people that are going to be invited to play in this space. Her decision making along with our feedback has really gotten us to a place that like, you just can't be more happy than we are to show up at work. It's just amazing every day. So, that I think is, of course, part of what all translates to the screen. And the fact that now our writers have the latitude that they have to be able to write on a streaming service versus writing on a network, you know, they're able to dig into their talents and their craft and do things in ways that they weren't able to do before. And we have really the pleasure of getting that kind of material to work with and doing what we do with it. I'm so happy that you feel that way because that's what we're going for. I mean, we keep saying on set, 'this is the best season of this show ever.'

We know the show has graduated, it's evolved, its Criminal Minds: Evolution. We were also resistant to the title change at first, that little edition of the subtitle, we're like, 'it's still Criminal Minds, what are they talking about?' But as we've gotten into the second season, it's really fitting because the show has truly evolved. It's evolved even in what we're getting to show, not just the look and the material that we're doing. But the way we've evolved now from wrapping up each serial killer in a 142 minute package, we're now spreading that out over the course of two seasons, and inside the mind of a serial killer for two seasons where the audience is getting to see things in a way they never have. So I know that was a long winded answer, but there's so much to be excited about."

The first two episodes of Criminal Minds: Evolution season 17 premiere June 6 on Paramount+.

NWA owner Billy Corgan has a list of wrestlers he believes will become household names. Billy Corgan purchased the National Wrestling Alliance back in 2017, helping to bring the fledging company back to prominence with the revival of the NWA Worlds Championship, along with securing a television deal for his new reality show Billy Corgan's Adventures in Carnyland. Some iconic wrestlers have stepped foot in an NWA ring over the years, and there's a new crop of wrestlers looking to make a name for themselves. As far as names that fans should keep an eye out for, Corgan has a pretty impressive list.

Speaking to ComicBook while promoting Billy Corgan's Adventures in Carnyland, NWA owner Billy Corgan ran down the names of NWA wrestlers he thinks will be household names within five years. "Joe Alonzo, Kenzie Paige, Kerry Morton, Alex Taylor, Carson Drake, Kylie Paige, Kenzie's sister... I think we have in the neighborhood of 7-10 young talents who all have the capability to take it up to the next level," Corgan said. "Of course, when they do take it up to the higher level, I want them standing in an NWA ring. And that's why we made such a big commitment to younger talent, because I want to be there as they mature from the first stage of their wrestling career to the second stage."

He added, "Symbiotically, I want them to help the NWA grow, and in exchange, I want to help them grow as talent. If you look at who's scouting for us... Jazz, Patt Kenney, Dr. Tom Pritchard, Homicide... we've got some serious people who can look at a talent in the ring and maybe see something I can't see. I'm very grateful to them because our farm system is really starting to see the NWA turn into a new era."

You can watch the interview in the player above.

Billy Corgan comments on chance of NXT/NWA crossover

With WWE's NXT moving from USA Network to The CW this year, and Billy Corgan's Adventures in Carnyland also airing on CW, it's time to wonder if there could ever be a cross-promotional event between the two. Corgan says it's something he'd love to see happen.

"I would love that. With NXT coming [to The CW], we respect that. WWE is a huge, huge company. We've seen recently where they are reaching out to some independents," Corgan told ComicBook. "They worked recently, of course, with TNA. I would love to work with the WWE but we don't sort of thinking on it in the sense like we're waiting for the phone to ring, but I would love to work with them."

WWE has embraced the greater wrestling world since the Triple H regime took power. TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace wrestled at WWE Royal Rumble. Shinsuke Nakamura competed in a one-off match for Pro Wrestling NOAH. Karl Anderson was able to finish his NJPW commitments, including a match at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17, while on an active WWE contract.

"I've certainly interacted with them through the years, both before I was in wrestling and then of course, now being in wrestling," Corgan said of his relationship with WWE. "They've always treated me great. I have nothing bad to say about them. They're a class organization through and through as far as how they treat people like myself. My experience has been so positive. I have nothing but good feelings towards them."

Billy Corgan's Adventures in Carnyland is now streaming on The CW App.

Early next month, Disney+ subscribers will be treated to Star Wars: The Acolyte, the latest live-action series set within the galaxy far, far away. The Acolyte already stands out for being set years before the main Star Wars saga, but the franchise timeline has naturally begged the question of whether or not certain canonically older characters will make cameo appearances. While speaking to ComicBook, The Acolyte creator Leslye Headland confirmed that Yoda and other existing Star Wars characters will not factor into the series, with a handful of exceptions.

"Can you imagine?" Headland said in our interview, which you can check out above. "Can you imagine if they were like, 'No problem, you can use Yoda. Not a big deal. Go for it.' No, there is not... We are pulling characters from the High Republic and characters from EU, but that's it."

When Is Star Wars: The Acolyte Set?

Star Wars: The Acolyte is set at the very tail end of the High Republic era, decades prior to the events of the Prequel and Original trilogies. The Acolyte marks the first time that the time period has been portrayed in live-action, after it has already been brought to life in novels, comics, and in the animated series Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures.

"We're taking a look at the political and personal and spiritual things that came up in a time period that we don't know much about," Headland explained in a previous interview. "My question when watching The Phantom Menace was always like, 'Well, how did things get to this point?' How did we get to a point where a Sith lord can infiltrate the Senate and none of the Jedi pick up on it? Like, what went wrong? What are the scenarios that led us to this moment?'"

"We actually use the term the Renaissance, or the Age of Enlightenment," Headland added. "The Jedi uniforms are gold and white, and it's almost like they would never get dirty. They would never be out and about," Headland says. "The idea is that they could have these types of uniforms because that's how little they're getting into skirmishes."

What Is Star Wars: The Acolyte About?

In Star Wars: The Acolyte, an investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi Master (Lee Jung-jae) against a dangerous warrior from his past (Amandla Stenberg). As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems.

Star Wars: The Acolyte stars Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner- Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Suotamo, and Carrie-Anne Moss. Leslye Headland created the series, based on Star Wars by George Lucas, and serves as an executive producer along with Kathleen Kennedy, Simon Emanuel, Jeff F. King and Jason Micallef. Charmaine DeGrate? and Kor Adana are the co-executive producers. Rayne Roberts, Damian Anderson, Eileen Shim and Rob Bredow are the producers.

The first two episodes of Star Wars: The Acolyte will debut exclusively on Disney+ on June 4th at 6pm PST. If you haven't checked out Disney+ yet and you want to give it a go, you can do that here.

Note: This is not a sponsored post, but if you purchase one of the awesome products featured above, we may earn a small commission from the retailer. Thank you for your support.

Will Ospreay may be a relative newcomer to the AEW locker room, but he is all too familiar with many of his fellow roster members. The Aerial Assassin spent years on the British independent circuit not far from AEW Women's Champion Toni Storm, danced to "Uptown Funk" with AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland, and even bested former AEW International Champion Roderick Strong nine years before beating him for that very title at AEW Double or Nothing. While most of his past with the AEW roster is looked upon fondly, the same cannot be said for Ospreay's pre-AEW relationship with Kenny Omega.

Prior to signing with AEW in November 2023, Ospreay was engaged in a bitter social media beef with the Best Bout Machine. Omega criticized Ospreay for not being able to fill the void he left in New Japan Pro Wrestling as the company's top gaijin, despite the fact that much of Ospreay's years in that position were spent during the COVID-19 pandemic were crowds were limited in capacity and restrained in cheering ability.

Ospreay and Omega's Twitter fingers turned to trigger fingers at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17 in a critically-acclaimed contest that saw Omega leave with the victory. Ospreay got his victory back six months later at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2023. Omega is currently out of action battling diverticulitis, leaving any potential plans to conclude the trilogy on the back burner for now.

Will Ospreay On Sharing a Locker Room With Kenny Omega

The Aerial Assassin and The Cleaner have kept their distance.

When asked by ComicBook's Liam Crowley if he had spoken to Kenny Omega since officially signing with AEW, Will Ospreay responded bluntly.

"No," Ospreay said. "I don't want to."

Crowley expressed hope that the next time the two cross paths will be in the squared circle, which Ospreay noted will come with violence.

"Yeah, well, any opportunity I get to pave that little c--t's head in," Ospreay added. "Anytime, mate, any f--king time."

Omega last appeared on AEW programming on the May 1st edition of AEW Dynamite, cutting an emotional promo about his current health condition and the risks of getting back in the ring. He was attacked by The Elite and has been written out of programming to undergo surgery for his diverticulitis. Ospreay currently reigns with the AEW International Championship and is undefeated since joining the company full-time this past March.

DC's young-adult graphic novel line has been thriving for several years now, recontextualizing the stories of a lot of the publisher's heroes and villains for a new generation. One of the next to join that list will be Barda, a new graphic novel that arrives in bookstores and comic book shops in early June. Set during her years serving under Darkseid and Granny Goodness, Barda follows Big Barda as she finds herself curious about the idea of love, even on the harsh world of Apokolips.

Barda is brought to life by cartoonist Ngozi Ukazu, who has already built a loyal fanbase thanks to her work on the beloved hockey webcomic Check, Please!. Ahead of Barda's debut on June 4th, ComicBook spoke with Ukazu about putting a new spin on Barda's origin story, as well as on the iconic mythos of Jack Kirby's Fourth World.

ComicBook: I was so delighted to see that Barda was a part of the Free Comic Book Day offerings. I know at my store, it was flying off the shelves. It was really hard to get a copy. How does it feel to be a part of Free Comic Book Day?

Ngozi Ukazu: Oh, it's a huge honor. DC Comics, when they decide they want to put your title or your series as part of a Free Comic Book Day, it means that they really believe in your story. It's a wonderful co-sign from marketing, publicity, and my editors that they were like, "We want as many people as possible to get their hands on it." Also, getting to do Free Comic Book Day as an author for the first time, it's so exciting just giving your stuff away. It's just like, "No, this is free. This is free."

What was your familiarity with the DC universe beforehand? What is your story, just as a DC fan?

DC Comics is why I make comics. I watched Justice League and Justice League Unlimited when I was in middle school and high school. I was just devouring DC Comics when I was in middle school and high school. I have the story from when I was in the seventh grade. I was reading Kevin Smith's [Green Arrow:] Quiver with my best friend, and we're reading it in English class. Our English teacher comes up and snatches up our book because he's like, "What are you girls doing? What are you hiding under your desk?" Then he opens the book to the most scandalous page. It's some demonic sacrifice orgy thing. We were really cool seventh graders, obviously. He gives it back to us. He's just like, "You know what? I'm just glad you guys are reading." DC Comics has been part of my nerdy interest since I was a kid. It's just exciting to get to finally play with the characters and not get in trouble for it.

On the topic of getting to play in the DC sandbox, I was so surprised to see you attached to Barda. It felt like a perfect fit, but it was never something that would've occurred to me. What drew you to want to tell Barda's story out of all of the characters that the universe has?

When I was originally pitching to DC, I was just thinking about the vast catalog of characters that I've been interested in. Of course, I was thinking about Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. I was thinking about different unexplored aspects of Superman and Metropolis. But I landed on Barda, because it's really this unusual story about this big, strong woman who is not a damsel in distress. In fact, she's credited with rescuing the character who becomes her husband in the comics. I love that. I love that role reversal where she's the protector and she's really strong. Scott Free, her husband, he adores her. I love romance. Check, Please, my webcomic series, is a romance that is about a little bit of unexpected characters falling in love. It did seem like a natural jump.

You mentioned Barda and Scott's love story. How did you approach recontextualizing it for this younger context?

It's interesting, because it is part recontextualization, showing Barda and Scott as younger characters. But we actually never really see their love story and how it develops. In the original comics, Jack Kirby introduces Barda out of nowhere and just says, "Don't worry, they have a past!", which is actually storytelling I appreciate. Over the course of the Mister Miracle comics, they just work together, and live together, and eventually get married, and that's wonderful. But when we first see them first introduced, I think Barda literally strangles Scott within five seconds of meeting him, and then ten comics later, they're married. I'm like, "Wait, what happened in between?"

When it comes to recontextualizing it, I was like, "Okay, let's take what we know and just make this a fun story about teens who have the most bizarre crush in the world, because it's a crush that they're having on a planet where love is forbidden." Yeah, I think, it's very Romeo and Juliet off the bat. It's like Romeo and Juliet meets Star Wars.

I also love your take on the Furies. They're all delightful, and heartbreaking at times as well. How did you approach that ensemble?

One thing I do love doing is writing ensembles. My webcomic is about a hockey team, so you have to write the entire team. Also, something I learned in college is that, whenever you have a protagonist, they may be on a team, or they may have ancillary characters. Those characters actually all represent different parts of your protagonist. It goes back to Greek Theater, the chorus says what the protagonist is thinking. With the Furies, it's like Batman with his rogues' gallery. They're all different parts of Bruce Wayne. With the Furies, each one of them represents just a little part of Barda. Lashina is like Barda's really insightful nature. Bernadeth is, kind of, Barda's curiosity. Stompa is her toughness. Aurelie is her heart. Then you have a character like Mad Harriet, who's just maybe Barda's insanity, I don't know. But I really wanted each of them to comment -- everything they say is exactly what Barda would say, but just with a little bit of a twist to it, which is why they're not Barda.

I really loved seeing your art style interpret the Kirby-isms, and a lot of the character designs that were already there. What was the biggest challenge, or the thing you were most excited to play around with, when filtering that through your art style?

Probably doing action. Even though my background is drawing stories that are more sports-based, I've never really drawn a comic that is so much combat, so much animated violence. Jack Kirby has a really particular way of approaching action. No spoilers for the story, but the scene that I really wanted to convey action and that "boom! pow!" comic book feel, was towards the end where we have this huge splash page. Barda finally gets back at the person who's been holding her down, and I wanted it to feel as much of a tribute to Kirby as I could. I learned so much drawing this comic.

How did you approach leaning into the darker elements of Fourth World, while still knowing that this was going to be read by a younger, all-ages sort of audience?

That's the most interesting thing about Fourth World comics. These were comics that were for kids. Kids would go to the comics rack, pick it up. Kirby loved throwing around a word like "Holocaust", like "apocalypse." Slavery and evil were taking place, and it's really, really brutal. Very intense. Honestly, I really didn't do much, because I was like, "If it was for kids then, then I'm kind of even lightening it a little bit with my art style, which is more open and cute, with the humor in it, with the romance." Yeah, I honestly think those comics were, even, maybe darker.

What would you say surprised you the most about the experience of working on Barda?

The biggest surprise, 100%, was how viscerally I react to all of Jack Kirby's work now. I always say that I am now an acolyte in the cult of Kirby. I'm an ambassador. I now have strong opinions on Stan Lee. I didn't think it would get that way.

Welcome to the club.

I was in Boston and I was at Comicazi, a wonderful bookshop. One of the owners was talking about Orion. They're like, "Orion, that guy sucks, doesn't he?" The way that I left my body for a moment to say, "Actually, no, he's a noble hero and he's been misinterpreted." I didn't think I'd ever be that way, but here I am. Working on this book, that's how it's affected me.

What do you hope readers take away once they've read Barda?

Oh, I hope they just dive into DC comics. I hope they ask questions, because my biggest question is "What happens to Barda and Scott?" I hope they go into the vast backlog of DC comics and DC comics characters. I really hope a kid reads Barda for the first time, has no idea what happens, and then picks up Mister Miracle and then goes, "Oh my God, they get married." That's my spoiler, that they've been married for fifty years, but I really hope that's what people get.

You mentioned the comics that are already there, but without getting into spoilers, it definitely seems like there's room for a sequel, if you wanted to tell it. Would you want to tell that story, or another story in Fourth World, or in the DC universe?

Yeah! No spoilers, but there is something in the works. I am really excited that I might get to really investigate other Fourth World characters. I will say that on May 28th, DC Pride 2024 #1 comes out, and that does feature Orion in a very interesting mentor role. I've already gotten to write more Fourth World characters, but there might be more to come.

***

Barda will be available wherever books and comics are sold on June 4th.

The two-episode premiere of Star Wars: The Acolyte is almost here, weaving an ambitious tale about various Jedi during the High Republic era. The Acolyte is already being praised for its star-studded cast and massive fight sequences -- and we have new insight about how those sequences came together. While speaking to ComicBook about Star Wars: The Acolyte, Jecki Lon actress Dafne Keen revealed one unexpected side-effect of working on the series -- accidentally breaking the prop lightsabers during fight scenes.

"Well, first of all, I broke at least five lightsabers on my first day, because I'd hit them really hard in the lead," Keen explained in our interview, which you can check out above. "I was like, 'I'm fired.' Also, how much money did I just cost Disney? Truly, there is no sense of shame stronger than when an AD looks at you with disappointment, and the looks of disappointment I was getting from ADs. They just look at me and they'd be like, 'Dafne broke another saber.' And you're like, 'Oh my God, I wanna actually die.' And they're like, 'It's ok. Can you bring another one in?' And you're like, 'Oh God.' So, a lot of that. Also, very shamefully, I'm short, so my saber kept hitting the ground whenever I spun it. So they had to give me a shorter saber, which also not very cool when they're like, 'Here's a smaller one.' They're like, 'Oh, cute.'"

What Is Star Wars: The Acolyte About?

In Star Wars: The Acolyte, an investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi Master (Lee Jung-jae) against a dangerous warrior from his past (Amandla Stenberg). As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems.

Star Wars: The Acolyte stars Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner- Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Suotamo, and Carrie-Anne Moss. Leslye Headland created the series, based on Star Wars by George Lucas, and serves as an executive producer along with Kathleen Kennedy, Simon Emanuel, Jeff F. King and Jason Micallef. Charmaine DeGrate? and Kor Adana are the co-executive producers. Rayne Roberts, Damian Anderson, Eileen Shim and Rob Bredow are the producers.

The first two episodes of Star Wars: The Acolyte will debut exclusively on Disney+ on June 4th at 6pm PST. If you haven't checked out Disney+ yet and you want to give it a go, you can do that here.

Note: This is not a sponsored post, but if you purchase one of the awesome products featured above, we may earn a small commission from the retailer. Thank you for your support.

Kung Fu Panda has reminded the world why it is one of the most cherished animated franchises. This past March, Dreamworks released a fourth installment into the Kung Fu Panda franchise eight years after the first trilogy concluded. Despite having the widest gap between sequels in franchise history, Kung Fu Panda 4 crushed both critically and financially, boasting an 86 percent audience score en route to over half a billion dollars at the box office. Prior to its release, there were conversations about Kung Fu Panda 4 being the first of a new trilogy, as Dreamworks has ideas for the franchise to go all the way up to a sixth film.

Kung Fu Panda 5 Release Window Teased

It will be at least a couple of years before fans see Po and The Furious Five again.

When asked by ComicBook's Liam Crowley if fans would have to wait another eight years between Kung Fu Panda movies, Kung Fu Panda 4 director Mike Mitchell admitted that it will be at least three.

"The technology does move ahead, but somehow these things always take three years to make," Mitchell said. "I don't know why that is. I think it's because it's actually harder to make a sequel because we have to make it now five times better than the first one."

And going "five times better" remains a priority, as Mitchell dismissed the idea of ever scaling down the Kung Fu Panda franchise.

"There's so much story to tell and it never feels to me like it would be something intimate. It's always got big action," Mitchell added. "It's hard for me to imagine it's just taking place in one room. I mean, we had so many ideas from this film that we just couldn't fit in."

Kung Fu Panda 5 has yet to get the green light, but Mitchell's comments indicate that the soonest it could hypothetically arrive would be 2027. Beyond the technological limitations, Mitchell added that the creative side in the writers' room takes time to fine tune.

"It's very difficult to do, especially when you love all the stuff that's there I think that's what takes the longest, is all of us passionately arguing from within about what's the coolest aspect of Kung Fu Panda," Mitchell continued. "It's worth it. I think it's going to be worth the wait."

Kung Fu Panda 4 is available to own on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD now.

X-Men '97's director told us how things were going with Season 2 right now. ComicBook's Phase Zero podcast spoke with Jake Castorena about the wild finale and the wait for another season. He confirmed they werre already hard at work on another batch of mutant adventures. However, no one is trying to rush things after the well-received first salvo of X-Men '97. Fans were hooting and hollering at the work showrunner Beau DeMayo and the team assembled. While that makes all the viewers extremely thirsty for Season 2, these things take time. People have to realize that Marvel Studios was working on X-Men '97 for multiple years before the animated series took Disney+ by storm. Check out what else the creative had to say during our interview right here!

"I equate it like, 'We're baking a cake right now.' Nobody wants to ruin a cake. I don't want to ruin a cake. Let us bake it," Castorena laughed. "The cake is well underway and being made, being fabricated as we speak. There is no rest for the wicked I guess. To use that phrase. We rolled right into Season 2, while we were on Season 1!"

Later in our conversation, the director also mentioned keeping things in line to not stray far from what folks really loved about X-Men: The Animated Series. "It's all about, we're on a team. It's something we realize that we give ourselves false parameters to make sure we're checking our math," Castorena claimed. "Whether it's nerd math, geographical math, whatever it is. We gave ourselves false parameters to make sure to keep us in check, to make sure we're not going too far away from the original DNA that is the OG show. But, also adapting it. Fresh, but familiar."

X-Men '97 Sparks Calls For More Animated Series

With the success of X-Men '97, now fans want more animated adventures in the '90s. Castorena was very happy to bring Spider-Man into the fold during their show. Now, that's basically Peter Parker from Spider-Man: The Animated Series. (He even found MJ somehow after the events of that show?!?!) Fans now want the Fox Kids/Saturday Morning Cartoon staple to get the X-Men '97 treatment. Whether that occurs or not remains to be seen. Clearly Marvel Studios has seen the chatter. But, even if that possibility is on the table, it will be a while before we see anything from another 90s cartoon.

"Honestly, I think that came down to, one again, Beau was a fan. We're all fans. We're all nerds," Castorena told us. "I think there was something that Sony was like, 'MJ and Peter? Ok.' You know, it just worked out. And, I'm pretty sure, I'm like 99.9% sure, it's real MJ. I don't remember off the top of my head. But, I remember talking to Beau and it was like, 'Well, if we're gonna do it, we're, we're gonna do it! Let's give the bump. And, so it's not a clone, I'm pretty sure it's end game. I'm 99.9%."

What do you want to see in X-Men '97 Season 2? Check out the wild moments down below!

MJF has a score to settle with Adam Cole. The self-proclaimed generational talent returned to AEW at AEW Double or Nothing and set his sights on his former friend, striking him with a low blow and a brainbuster. Cole is partially responsible for MJF losing the AEW World Championship at AEW Worlds End this past December, a loss that ended his record-setting title reign at 406 days. When it comes to getting his hands back on that prize, current AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland teased that MJF has some work to do before he is willing to give him a title match.

This past December, MJF spoke with ComicBook and shared high praise for Swerve, applauding his ability to transcend the squared circle.

"I think Shane Strickland has all the momentum in the world. He used to not be very good at talking. He's clearly proven that's not the case anymore," MJF said. "He is broken outside of the proverbial glass bubble of professional wrestling fandom and has become a part of cultural zeitgeist. There are names that I would like to add to my hit list as far as guys that I got to be inside the squared circle with, whether it be bumping microphones or bumping 'em in the f--king ring with my fist. Strickland is one of them."

Days before this interview, MJF confronted Swerve at his locker room when he suspected that Swerve and his then-faction Mogul Embassy were behind the devil mask attacks on him. That segment drew big praise from fans, as many likened their first encounter as a premonition to what awaits down the line.

"A feud between me and Shane Strickland is absolutely massive. I think if me and him, that was just a taste that three minutes of us talking backstage, imagine us in the ring in front of thousands of people, whether that's on the microphone or bell to bell," MJF continued. "I think that does numbers and I think that sells merch and sells tickets. I'm a massive fan of Shane Strickland as a professional wrestler. As a human being? I think he's a little b---h."

While MJF and Swerve Strickland are on the younger side of the business, they have both been in the game long enough to be considered veterans. As a result, both have leveled up drastically since joining AEW, and MJF has noticed.

"What I like most about Shane is he's like me. We both very easily could have rested on our laurels and on our God-given ability," MJF said. "My God-given ability was my gift of gab. He's God-given ability was his athleticism. We've both managed to upgrade by working on our weaknesses until they became strengths. I respect him for that.

"This is coming from one of the best promos in the history of the business, me, and I don't think that that's an unfair thing to say as I've cut some of the most legendary promos this sport has ever seen: I think Shane Strickland is on my level as far as talking goes," MJF added. "Is he on my level in the ring? No. I'd love a chance to prove that I would beat him. I think I'd beat him pretty handedly. I think it'd be a very fun match for the fans because it's something that the fans want to see. He's still a b---h, though."

AEW returns to programming this Wednesday, May 29th with AEW Dynamite on TBS at 8 PM ET.

jThis weekend brings the launch of Netflix's Jurassic World: Chaos Theory, the latest extension in the ever-sprawling Jurassic franchise. Set several years after the events of the fan-favorite animated series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, Chaos Theory follows the "Camp Fam" -- Darius Bowman (Paul-Mik?l Williams), Ben Pincus (Sean Giambrone), Sammy Gutierrez (Raini Rodriguez), Yasmina Fadoula (Kausar Mohammed), and Kenji Kon (Darren Barnet) as young adults, as they must rejoin forces to investigate a shocking event tied to one of their own.

Now that the first season of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory is out into the world, ComicBook sat down with showrunners Scott Kreamer and Aaron Hammersley to break down the show's debut, as well as its many twists and turns. Obviously, full spoilers for the first season of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory lurk below! Only look if you want to know!

ComicBook: Camp Cretaceous had such a perfect happy ending. What made Chaos Theory the right story to return with and completely shake things up?

Scott Kreamer: Well, if we were going to revisit these characters who we told this story with, with a beginning, middle, and end, then we wanted to do something different with it. You want to put your characters in places that they've never been before. And then you put on six years of this shared life, and then layer in a conspiracy thriller on top of it all. It just seemed like if we were going to do another one, we'd want to take a big swing with it, and this is where we landed.

Aaron Hammersley: I think the cool thing about this is that we got to return to the same characters. Scott found a really great avenue to take this story, and to take this story into sort of a different genre. I thought that that was sort of the most exciting part about returning to this franchise. We get to try something a little different, a bit more mature and aged up. And we get to return to our characters who, when you're on a show this long, you kind of look at them as your children or your babies.

Having covered the original show, it felt like the cast grew up before my eyes, season to season. How did it feel to work with the returning cast members on these older versions of their characters, and kind of grow the characters up along with them?

Kreamer: At the end of Camp Cretaceous, we were constantly re-recording Paul[-Mik?l Williams], because his voice had changed. It was like, "Okay, let's get that again, up in your higher register." He, recently, just turned 18, and he was 12 when he started Camp Cretaceous. So I do remember when we started moving forward and they went, "Oh, well, is Paul going to be able to play 18?" Paul's voice will be fine, because he was already there at the end of Camp Cretaceous.

It's great. You become friends and they become the Camp Fam. It was wonderful to be able to come back and to meet others. Raini, Kausar, Sean, Paul[-Mikel], these are all really good actors, but they're all really quality human beings too, and watching them grow up and watching their careers and everything, it's been very cool. I'm on a text thread with all of them, but I know there's one without me, because I am sort of the dad. So yeah, it's great. It's great to get to work with super talented people, who work really hard, who you like a lot.

Going off of that, what was it like to work with the new voice actors for Brooklyn and Kenji, and bring them into the fold as well?

Kreamer: Initially, we were hoping everyone could come back, but we were able to find really, really great actors to come in and do that. Sure, you wish they sounded exactly like [before]. You have all these things, but at the end of the day, you want actors who give great performances grounded in real emotion. We just hit it out of the park. Hats off to our casting department, because couldn't be happier.

Hammersley: And to the Brooklyn and Kenji of it all, I feel like the big thing was that we found actors who, it might not be exactly verbatim the same voice or soundalike, but they embody the characters well. That was the most important thing, I think, to us.

Kreamer: Absolutely. These characters, six years later. It all seems to work.

You mentioned this new series almost being in a completely different genre from Camp Cretaceous. Were you worried at all, when getting into the darker themes, that it might be too much of a shift for the younger viewers?

Kreamer: Honestly, I don't want to say we disregarded the audience, but this just seemed like, if we're going to do more of this, this was the show we wanted to do. In the way that kids who watch the first Harry Potter movie grew up with the franchise, so by the time we're at the end and it is darker, we kept [that] in our mind. And also, let's face it, kids are watching darker stuff than when Aaron and I were kids. But yeah, that was the hope, that you have this audience that would come along and grow up alongside of our characters. And then, hopefully, start bringing a new audience who maybe is looking for something darker and grittier, like we were.

Hammersley: Also, we have this string of Jurassic films and tonally, they all fit in a pretty similar space. I think this afforded us an opportunity to sort of branch out and try something that we haven't seen before in this franchise. The elements that we had, with the components that we were playing with with this story, really lent itself to that mystery, sort of political thriller vibe and tone that we'd set. So it was kind of cool that we found this opportunity. It's not a total deviation, but enough of a departure that I think people are going to notice it.

There's some really fascinating bits of world-building in Season 1, from dino immersion therapy to the dark web forums. What were you most excited to help contribute, especially considering where the show fits in the larger timeline?

Kreamer: I sound like a broken record: Everything always starts from our characters. So, when we were imagining what the characters are like six years later. It's the chicken and the egg, the characters came first. Ben was not believing about what's going on with Brooklyn, and maybe he's gone down the rabbit hole a little bit. A website like Dark Jurassic felt like a no-brainer, as far as him chasing conspiracy theories onto the dark web, and everything like that. And in the same way, we followed Yaz from the trauma she suffered at Camp Cretaceous, and we had always imagined she'd go on into psychology to help kids or something like that. We were just kind of like "Well, how would Yaz deal with it? How would Yaz try to help other people with it?" So that kind of led us into the dinosaur immersion therapy. So yeah, it all started with the characters, and that's where the world started to get bigger, as we started really figuring out what this thing was going to be.

Hammersley: The thing that was most exciting to me about this was, because we had more time and we were sort of slow rolling the story... Scott and I talk about this quite a bit. The films give you sort of a bird's eye view of all of these big events, but our show got to take this story and show it from the ground floor, and see it from a more intimate perspective. And to me, the fun part was sort of thinking through "Okay, well what would it actually look like if there were dinosaurs roaming about?" It's the footprints on the street or on the road, the dinosaur sleeping at the gas station, the convoy of dinosaurs being transported across the country. It always was us trying to find "How would this really look? What would this look like if you were just like Joe Schmoe living in the middle of the country coming upon dinosaurs?" I think that was sort of a fun exploration for us.

Kreamer: When I was figuring out the pilot, just the stuff on the radio. You just start imagining, "There's going to be some talk radio guy who's looking for someone to blame. There's going to be some ambulance-chasing attorney who's going to be wondering, how can I make a buck that there's dinosaurs here?" One of the fun things about what we get to do, is you can just kind of let your imagination run wild, and go put yourself in the shoes of the characters. What would a world look like? You can't hit everything, but you do what you can to make it feel like a real world.

What elements of their new status quos and their relationships with each other were you most excited to explore?

Kreamer: The first thing that comes to mind is Sammy and Yaz. They were kids on the island, and they needed each other. But again, no one's the same at twenty as they were at fourteen, and that was without fighting for your life every day against dinosaurs. What does that relationship look like, as you get older and start becoming more of the person you're going to become? Again, we always want to put people in situations. We wanted to see the characters in places and feelings that we hadn't seen them before. What does a poor Kenji look like? What is a Sammy, who's always been pro family, and now her family and her are maybe at odds? We didn't want it just to come and [decide] everyone's life is terrible now. But again, we didn't want it just to pick up and like, "Well, everything's great. We'll fight the bad guys together." There's the mystery and the danger and the intrigue and all that, but also we really love the idea of digging into putting this family back together. And we didn't want it to come together wrapped in a bow. People change, and what does that look like when you start here, and now you're not as in contact, and you end up here? What does that all look like?

Hammersley: In addition to that, the Brooklyn of it all was really fun for us to explore. These characters obviously are coming back together, and having to be confronted with the feelings and everything that happens, the trauma and the grief that you deal with after losing someone close to you. I think the really interesting part about it was that, as they're discovering, learning new bits and pieces about what Brooklyn was doing, all of a sudden your character... Someone who's deceased, you often turn them into a saint, but this character is no longer looked at as a saint. There's this sort of moral gray area that, obviously, she was dabbling in. And I think that's kind of the most fun that we got to have was taking a character that was a very popular character from Camp Cretaceous that people really loved and then sort of casting Brooklyn in a new light. I think was sort of the most fun element to me.

Jumping ahead to Brooklyn: were you always planning on bringing her back, and what can you tease about what you hope to explore with bringing her back?

Kreamer: Yeah. The plan was always to bring her back, but we didn't want to do the cartoony thing where like, "Oh, there was some blood and she was missing." obviously there's already a ton of people on the internet going, "They wouldn't do that, would they?" Or would they? When we were kicking around ideas like "How can we make the stakes feel real, but still bring her back?" We were banging our heads against it and our supervising producer said "What if she loses a part of her arm? What if she loses her hand?" And then we started thinking about it and all right. That raises the stakes. They haven't done that. They haven't had a heroic character in Jurassic get injured significantly by a dinosaur, and it just felt like a great way to go.

Obviously, you want to find out what Brooklyn was up to. You want to know, delve more into that story. What's that like? As always, we want to tell an authentic story. So delving into the story about what led to everything, all these breadcrumbs we've left as far as what was she up to, and then her going through obviously a significant change in her life and her body. What does that look like?

Hammersley: What was really fun about this season was: you start with this mystery of "What the hell is happening?" And we start to answer some of those questions, but then, when you get to the very end and she's still alive. It opens up a whole other slew of questions. I think that, obviously, that's the thing we were hoping to do is pose new questions for the audience. What was she doing? What is she still up to? And what are we going to learn about her now?

Kreamer: Yeah, and if she's alive, why didn't she tell anyone? She's keeping track of what's going on, so why is she keeping it all a secret?

Given how long Camp Cretaceous did run, and the fact that there are more movies on the horizon, do you envision Chaos Theory having as long of a tenure and running for multiple seasons?

Kreamer: Well, we got plenty of story to tell. I don't know if it'll run as long as Camp Cretaceous did, but obviously where we are in the timeline, we definitely have more story that we're excited to explore.

Hammersley: I have nothing to add.

***

The first season of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory is now available to stream exclusively on Netflix.

Will Ospreay found himself at a career crossroads in 2023. It had become well documented that the Aerial Assassin's New Japan Pro Wrestling contract was due up in early 2024, and every major wrestling company under the sun expressed interest in bringing him in. AEW President Tony Khan made signing Ospreay a massive priority, as he was able to get him on the books in November 2023, three months before he would have hit free agency thanks to NJPW giving Ospreay its blessing to sign early. Before this, while Ospreay was pondering about his future, he received a phone call from the wrestler he credits as being his inspiration to get into the business: AJ Styles.

"I was blown away by it. He was so complimentary of what I've been doing," Ospreay told ComicBook. "That honestly means so much to me that he would just take time out of his day. He didn't need to do it. He could just let it be a little Twitter message or whatever. I'll always feel like its a moment in time where a guy that, I still say to this day is my hero, phoned me up in the middle of Japan just to chat with me, just to talk with me, and just to give me some advice."

Ospreay has long proclaimed himself to be a "TNA kid," having grown up watching high-flyers in the X-Division. The talent he marveled at the most was Styles. Ospreay's relationship with Styles evolved from fan to friend once he started wrestling, and the two would even get the chance to compete against one another in 2015.

During that call, Styles did make an effort to throw WWE feelers Ospreay's way.

"I guess just when you hear stuff through the grapevine, he wanted to fly the flag for his company," Ospreay continued. "The fact that he just kept an eye on it and just saw that there was an opportunity to potentially bring me over to his company. It didn't work out and it worked out amazing for me.

"I can't tell you enough how much I've admired that guy's work and I've so much respect for him, just how he's completely changed from the guy that I used to watch wrestle when he was in TNA, how he's completely adapted. He's still AJ Styles to this day, man."

Ospreay challenges AEW International Champion Roderick Strong for his title this Sunday, May 26th at AEW Double or Nothing.

Will Ospreay and Ricochet will be tethered to one another for the rest of their careers. The two innovative high-flyers set the wrestling world on fire in 2016, having multiple matches that need to be seen to be believed. Their last in-ring encounter came in August 2017 for WhatCulture Pro Wrestling. From there, Ospreay and Ricochet went their separate ways. Ospreay put his focus in New Japan Pro Wrestling while Ricochet signed with WWE and began competing for NXT. Today, Ospreay is a centerpiece of All Elite Wrestling and Ricochet competes on WWE Monday Night Raw and is also the champion of the newly-launched WWE Speed digital series.

"I keep up with him all the time and sometimes I get a little bit sad about it. I hope he's not sad and I hope he's real happy. I keep up with him as much as I can, but I feel like people are forgetting who Ricochet was once upon a time," Ospreay told ComicBook. "All of these high-flyers that you see, and myself included, we all took inspiration from Pac and Ricochet."

That "little bit sad" feeling from Ospreay is a response to Ricochet's booking in WWE. The 35-year-old has had start-stop momentum during his six years in the sports-entertainment giant, having yet to reach the main event scene on the main roster.

"The fact that they only value his time for under five minutes is appalling to me," Ospreay continued, referencing Ricochet's current position on WWE Speed, a social media wrestling show that limits its matches to three minutes. "I just want people to remember who he is. If you go and look at 2012-2013 Dragon Gate Ricochet, he was untouchable at the time. When it came to this generation of high-flyers, he was the greatest. He's the greatest high-flyer ever. I know it sounds weird, but I do include put him on the same level as Rey Mysterio."

There had been rumblings that Ricochet's WWE contract is due up at some point this summer. Whenever that time comes, Ospreay encourages the One and Only to "bet on himself."

"I don't know how much longer he has got in his contract, but I think it might be up soon, man, I don't know. I want him to know that there are people here that genuinely appreciate his work and I want to wrestle him again. I want him back here," Ospreay added. "I want him to know that there isn't a bar. You are the f--king bar.

"I just want to see him with more time and ability to showcase himself how I saw him. He's one of the best going, and if the opportunity presents itself, I think he should bet on himself. I think he should remind himself that he's one of the best high-flyers to ever do it. If it means he's got to come for me, then do it, boss, because I'm right here waiting for you."

Ospreay challenges AEW International Champion Roderick Strong for his title this Sunday, May 26th at AEW Double or Nothing.

Michael Beach is back for round three with Mayor of Kingstown. The veteran actor joined the Paramount+ production as Captain Kareem Moore, appearing in the Jeremy Renner-led series' pilot episode and going on to sporadically factor into the back half of the first season. Beach's role became more pronounced in the sophomore season, and that momentum continues going into Mayor of Kingstown Season 3.

"I think as a production, they're finding more things to do with these other characters," Beach told ComicBook when asked what has changed the most over the course of the three seasons. "Obviously it's show and we follow Mike (Renner), but I think over the seasons, particularly Season 3, you delve a lot more into some other characters' personal stories and how they're affected by Kingstown in general."

Mayor of Kingstown Season 2 aired its finale in March 2023, just four months before the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes swept Hollywood. While those holdouts forced dozens of blockbuster productions to be delayed, Mayor of Kingstown was about to shoot its third installment without a hiccup after the strikes were resolved.

"Obviously it affected other productions and couple that I was on, but Mayor of Kingstown, I think they were ready," Beach detailed. "I think the budget was cut a little bit, but I got to tell you, this season was very, very smooth. The writing is fantastic and everyone was so happy to be back."

Those enthusiastic about returning included Mayor of Kingstown's leading man Jeremy Renner. Renner has been performing with a new lease on life ever since his near-fatal snowplow accident in January 2023.

"We didn't see each other on our first days of being on the set, but the first day that we did see each other, it was great," Beach reflected on reuniting with Renner on Mayor of Kingstown Season 3. "Obviously, like many others had all these questions. Are you okay? Is everything good? He is so open to talking about everything because it's so profound for him.

"He literally died, which I didn't know. He told me a lot of details about what he went through and how it's, I don't know if changed him is the right word, because he was always a pretty cool guy, but he just is so grateful that he's here. He's excited that he can still work. He just seems to be a lot more appreciative of life in general. It was a good day. It was good to see him. He's excited, he's happy. He kept saying throughout the production that each week keeps getting better and better and he's stronger and stronger."

Renner's recovery is good news for the future of Mayor of Kingstown. While the series has not yet been renewed for a fourth season, Beach teased that there is reason to believe there is more to explore in the Michigan-based town.

"I really think they're open," Beach teased. "I mean, I've been told certain things that give me hope that there'll be a Season 4."

Mayor of Kingstown Season 4 premieres on Sunday, June 2nd on Paramount+.

Will Ospreay is challenging for his first AEW title. This Sunday at AEW Double or Nothing, the Aerial Assassin faces AEW International Champion Roderick Strong with his gold on the line. The prize is new to Ospreay, but the prize holder is not. Back in 2015 when he was just three years into his wrestling career, a young Ospreay faced Strong in a singles capacity twice on the British independent circuit. While the record books show wins for Ospreay in both matches against the Undisputed Kingdom member, he doesn't feel like the victories were definitive enough.

"I still feel like I was learning the trade," Ospreay reflected to ComicBook about his in-ring history with Strong. "If you watched those matches, I didn't win the match, I just survived it personally. Now is the point where I'm a fully grown man. I have all these accolades under my belt. Roderick is without doubt one of the best wrestlers in the world today. He's a Ring of Honor legend, he's a wrestling legend, and he's now entering this new stratosphere of who he is as a professional wrestler. Now finally I feel like I'm at my peak and he's at his peak, and we're going to probably put on one of the best matches on that card."

The setting for Ospreay and Strong's renewed rivalry is AEW Double or Nothing, the pay-per-view that served as AEW's pilot episode back in 2019. In another timeline, Ospreay could have been on that inaugural show.

"I think I was in Japan for the Best of the Super Juniors. I was in the processes of sorting out my apartment and moving over to Japan. Tony Khan, back in February of 2019, came to York Hall for a Revolution Pro Wrestling show where I faced Pac in the only match that we've ever done, a 30-minute time limit draw. Tony came backstage to ask how I'd feel about doing, even if it was just dream matches for AEW. I just said that with all due respect, I just want to focus on New Japan right now because I feel like I'm really starting to understand the Japanese style of wrestling and I still felt like I was learning the trade. I wasn't rude, I just said, 'I want you to do your own thing, but I want to do my thing first and I'm going to be supporting on the sidelines.' I've supported ever since."

AEW Double or Nothing goes down on Sunday, May 26th at 8 PM ET and is available to watch on various pay-per-view platforms.

AEW Double or Nothing Card

• AEW World Championship: Swerve Strickland (c) vs. Christian Cage
• AEW TBS Championship: Willow Nightingale (c) vs. Mercedes Mon?
• Anarchy in the Arena: The Elite (The Young Bucks, Kazuchika Okada, Jack Perry) vs. Team AEW (FTR, Bryan Danielson, Darby Allin)
• AEW TNT Championship - Barbed Wire Cage Match: Adam Copeland (c) vs. Malakai Black
• AEW Women's Championship: "Timeless" Toni Storm (c) vs. Serena Deeb
• AEW International Championship: Roderick Strong (c) vs. Will Ospreay
• Unified Trios Championships: Bullet Club Gold (c) vs. Death Triangle
• FTW Championship: Chris Jericho (c) vs. HOOK vs. Katsuyori Shibata
• Trent Beretta vs. Orange Cassidy
• IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Eliminator Match: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Konosuke Takeshita

For decades, Ashley Judd has been appearing across movies and television, in everything from the Divergent series to Star Trek: The Next Generation to Twin Peaks. This month, Judd steps into the spotlight in the thriller Lazareth, in which she plays an aunt going to great lengths to protect her family. While speaking to ComicBook about her role in Lazareth, Judd dove into the characterization she ultimately decided on for Lee, and how she wanted her approach to be more than just a "likable" character.

"Alex Tibaldi, the director, is a very confident performance director," Judd explained in our interview, which you can check out above. "He asked for a lot of takes, which I was delighted to give, because the acting portion on set is actually quite short. It takes a long time to set up the camera, to light the candles, because we didn't use electricity, or to get the flashlights, right? We used some flashlights to light scenes and, you know, the acting is kind of over. It's a little disappointing. We got to go back outside. I did try to make Smores, and they wouldn't let me have a fire, for safety."

"I gave a lot of different kinds of performance and what ended up in the edit is a kind of a severe stern arc, until I'm not," Judd continued. "And I'm really comfortable with the way that turned out because first of all, anybody who still says that all female characters have to be likable needs to be shamed and scorned. I just think that that's how we are when it comes to our kids. We want to protect them, we want to keep them safe."

What Is Lazareth About?

In Lazareth, following the death of their parents, Lee (Ashley Judd) adopts her nieces, Imogen (Katie Douglas) and Maeve (Sarah Pidgeon), and raises them in a remote cabin as a deadly pandemic rages on around them. For over 10 years, the girls are raised to never leave the woods, avoid any and all interaction with outsiders, and ultimately rely on Lee as their only connection to the outside world. Lee has convinced the girls this is the key to survival in what is now an infectious and violent world. But when Imogen and Maeve discover an injured man in the nearby woods, Lee's absolute control begins to disintegrate as their faith in her, and everything they've ever known, begins to unravel.

The cast of Lazareth also includes Asher Angel as Owen, and Edward Balaban as Morian.

Lazareth is in Select Theaters and On Demand.

Cable stepped up in a big way during the first season of X-Men '97, though his storyline had some heartbreaking moments. Fans barely got a chance to meet the young Nathan Summers before his parents, Cyclops and the Jean Grey clone Madelyne Pryor, were forced to send Baby Cable into the future to save his life. Of course, Cable returned with a vengeance, teaming up with the X-Men to bring down Bastion and Mister Sinister. If Cable's story arc was emotional for viewers, just think how the creators behind-the-scenes felt crafting the time traveler's experience.

ComicBook spoke to X-Men '97 director Emi/Emmett Yonemura, where we asked Yonemura about the show's soap opera elements. When asked what relationships were the best to explore, Yonemura turned to Cable. "I mean, I really like exploring more of Cable. Cable was one of my favorites in the original series, and I love that he's basically just our Kurt Russell who comes in, says A one-liner, does his action," the director said. "But I love that we can explore him a little bit more now. And especially with Madelyne, I really love that we elaborated on him trying to save her over 200 times in that moment at Genosha, and that we give Maddie that moment with him. I mean, that was one that I was really excited to explore because I hadn't fully seen it myself, but it's heartbreaking."

X-Men '97 directors discuss the Season 1 finale

While speaking to ComicBook about their work on the first season, X-Men '97 episodic directors Chase Conley and Emi/Emmett Yonemura shared their thoughts on how Season 1 ultimately wrapped up.

"We're just happy to stick the landing," Conley revealed in our interview, which you can check out above. "I think that we had a lot of storylines that we wanted to try to wrap up, but really, we planned for all that stuff anyway, so it was really just about executing. And the main theme of our season, I think from Episode One all the way to Episode Ten was escalation. And Episode Five is peak level. It's like, 'How do we escalate from here on an emotional level?' But there's a lot of things that we set up that we needed to pay off that, I still think, hit just as hard. I mean, of course, seeing Gambit die is, it is hard to rival that as far as just a guttural kind of reaction. But it's nice to see Xavier rejoin the team. It's nice to see the world, how they view essentially what they perceive to be the X-Men lying about his death in order to garner sympathy from the world. And how his reemergence, in terms of the scheme of things, has a ripple effect as far as extremists and things of that nature. And also too, it's not just the typical upping the stakes, in terms of it's going to get bigger and scarier and the world is going to end. But it's truly earned, as far as everything goes. And nothing would radicalize someone like being ground-level, witnessing millions of people like you, that are just trying to live their lives, be murdered. You may want to go up and consider destroying the Earth if you had the opportunity. Righteous indignation is a thing."

The first season of X-Men '97 is now available to stream exclusively on Disney+.

A number of iconic horror franchises have been revived in a variety of ways over the years, whether that be with reboots, sequels, or prequels, and many of which fall short of fan expectations due to merely being opportunities to cash in on familiar brands. With The First Omen, however, writer/director Arkasha Stevenson and star Nell Tiger Free saw an opportunity to venture into a world that was seemingly familiar to tell an entirely unexpected tale that offers a more layered exploration of unexpected topics within that recognizable world. The First Omen hits Digital on May 28th, Hulu on May 30th, and Blu-ray and DVD on July 30th.

The First Omen is described, "In this psychological horror prequel to the classic Omen films, a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church. Soon, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her faith, and that reveals a terrifying conspiracy to bring about the birth of evil incarnate. The First Omen stars Nell Tiger Free (Servant), Tawfeek Barhom (Mary Magdalene), Sonia Braga (Kiss of the Spider Woman), Ralph Ineson (The Northman), and Bill Nighy (Living). The film is directed by Arkasha Stevenson based on characters created by David Seltzer (The Omen), with a story by Ben Jacoby (Bleed) and a screenplay by Tim Smith & Arkasha Stevenson, and Keith Thomas (Firestarter)."

Certified-Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, The First Omen comes with never-before-seen bonus extras on the May 28th Digital release and also on the Blu-ray/DVD release arriving July 30th. Limited-edition Blu-ray and DVD packages include collectible artwork and special edition packaging designed to celebrate the legacy of The Omen franchise.

ComicBook caught up with Stevenson and Free to talk about developing the prequel, challenges on set, and more.

ComicBook: If I get no other answer today, Arkasha, there's one thing that's been plaguing my mind ever since I saw this movie: as someone from western Massachusetts, why was Margaret from Pittsfield, Massachusetts?

Arkasha Stevenson: Man, that was not the question I thought you were going to ask me. I thought, you were wearing a Possession shirt, I was like, "Yes, you're right. It's a Possession homage."

Just for the record, that was in the script before I came on board.

Nell Tiger Free: I think it was purely for the "Pissfield" gag. I honestly do.

Stevenson: Yeah, all love to Massachusetts.

That's not the first time I've heard Pittsfield referred to as "Pissfield," so you know more about western Massachusetts than you're letting on, trying to claim that it was in the script beforehand. But I can rest easy now, I can finally sleep at night. I really appreciate you answering that for me. Nell, I know that with this movie, Arkasha did such a great job of using the script and the direction and the editing to really evoke the 1970s and capture the spirit of the original The Omen. For you as a performer, did you approach the material in any different way than you would with a contemporary storyline? Did you heighten or change things in your performance, or leave that all up to your director?

Free: No, I didn't. I think I just approached it ... I think I performed Margaret the same way that I would've performed her if she was from 2024. Just because when we watch films from the '70s, the acting is heightened, but I think we wanted this to feel as real as possible. So yeah, no, there's not much of an homage or a nod to the '70s in my performance. I left that in the far more capable hands of Kash, and just tried to play her as real as possible, really.

Arkasha, you brought this up with the Pittsfield reference specifically, just about how this project had changed hands and bounced around between a few different concepts and filmmakers over the years. How drastically did you overhaul what the project was when you came on board? Was it pretty similar to those origins and then. also, once you got involved, did you go through major rewrites on your own script?

Stevenson: Yeah, it's interesting because I think that it was so fun to see these different iterations of The First Omen, because there's so many different parallel universe movies out there. But I think what was interesting was, I thought the structure was really fantastic, how it ended up bridging into the original 1976 Omen, because that meant that we had a lot of real estate to play around with a new character and being able to create our own style and sensibility. But it was a little bit more focused on the relationship between Carlita and Margaret and a little bit more grounded in religious horror. And I think just, naturally, because I was bringing my own fears to the story, it became much more about the body, and I think the paranoia that women live in, and how the female body is such a target. And so with that in mind, I think all of the set pieces really started to morph into more body-horror set pieces.

Speaking of body horror, Nell, was there a particular scene, whether it was maybe something much more gruesome or physically taxing than you imagined, or even something more subtle that required a lot of takes, was there a scene from the script that you thought was just going to be a simple thing to take care of that once you actually got on set, proved to be way more challenging?

Free: The scene where I get possessed, I think on the page, originally it was written as, "Margaret crawls out of the car."

Stevenson: It was a classic, "Atlanta burns."

Free: Something like that. "Margaret crawls out of the car, becomes possessed." Honestly, it was really truncated and so small. And then one of the earliest conversations me and Kash had was her saying, "So ..." She gave me the Possession reference and it was also like, "I want to create something like this and this is what I imagine it to be." And I was like, "Oh. Right, okay." And that was really early on when we spoke about that.

And so it was building up because I knew how important that scene was to you, and I had no idea what my version, my interpretation of Kash's image in her head, what that was going to turn out and look like. That was definitely a fun one to anticipate and get to figure out. But a lot of things evolved from the page to what they ended up being. Reading it and watching it, it's a very different experience, for sure. But yeah, and it's always fun. You never know with Kash, we just keep pushing and changing and trying stuff out, really.

Stevenson: It was really fun because we did ... Before you came on board, we were missing the biggest part of the movie. So when you were finally there and we were creating Margaret, and you have amazing instincts, and so everything was evolving once Nell was able to bring input and everything. And for the record, when I showed you the Possession reference, your reaction was like, "Okay, got it. Yes." And I was like, "Oh."

Free: I was like, "Yeah, cool."

Stevenson: And then beyond that, we didn't really talk too much, and you just did it. And I loved that because it was explosive. It was like, "No, I've got this."

Free: I mean, I was totally faking. I had no idea what I was going to do.

Stevenson: I mean, it was electric. It was four in the morning, we just smashed a car, and Nell came on set and I said, "Do you want music? Do you want to talk?" And she said, "No, I'm just going to do it." And then she did it and everybody was terrified and just electrified. It was amazing.

Arkasha, there's the scene, the, "It's all for you," the homage to the original movie, but taken up to a more horrifying version of it. Was that another thing that was in the script when you came on board? Was that something you avoided but then it just came up organically? Was it a touchstone that you knew you wanted to work in? How did that specific scene, specific mirroring of the original, come into your story?

Stevenson: Yeah, it was interesting. I think that's such a pivotal scene for horror fans and just for horror history. And so that was always in the script and I was always not wanting to even talk about it because I was very nervous, and just knew that, because it's such a sacred scene, that it would be hyper-analyzed. And how do you redo that? How do you redo that scene in a new, fresh way? Because the whole horror of that scene is that it's this random act of violence that comes out of nowhere. And if you do that in the prequel, the second somebody goes to a height, you know exactly what's going to happen and it deflates the entire scene.

Something that we were all talking about quite a bit is that this is a horror movie, but also a lot of the horror comes from tragedy. Because you fall in love with Margaret so much, it's a painful movie to watch, more so than it is a scary movie to watch. And so reapproaching that scene through a very different tone, which is Ishtar [Currie-Wilson], who plays Sister Angelica, who hangs herself, she said, "I don't think she wants to do this. I think she's really quite scared and feels obligated to, but maybe doesn't want to do it." And so she brought this almost like a very childlike sadness to the performance, which makes you just ... It's more heart-wrenching, I feel like.

I know you didn't want to get ahead of yourselves before the movie came out, about, "How are we going to do sequels?" But now that it's out there, people love it, it's got such great reviews, clearly fans were interested in this, have there been talks between the two of you about how to continue Margaret's journey? Or do you think it's like, "Let's take some time to breathe and relax and get away from this horrifying body horror,"?

Free: I mean, I don't want any time to breathe and relax, personally, I don't know how you feel.

Stevenson: I'm relaxed already. I'm always relaxed.

Free: We talk about it together just conversationally, what it would be.

Stevenson: Yeah. We've also taken a blood oath to only work together on Omen movies for the rest of our lives.

Free: We'll be making 100 of them.

And lastly here, Nell, your costar Ralph [Ineson] is going to play this guy called Galactus in the Marvel universe. And The Omen, of course, is a big franchise IP--

Free: Is he?

Stevenson: This is news.

Oh, yeah. This was maybe two weeks ago, Ralph was cast as Galactus in The Fantastic Four.

Stevenson: What?

Free: We have to call him.

Stevenson: Oh, my God.

Free: Oh, my God, That's so exciting.

Stevenson: Brilliant.

So for you, Nell, I'm just curious, whether it's Marvel or a Star Wars or a Star Trek, do you have a big franchise that you're a fan of that you'd like the chance to play in, like a big, studio universe type of thing?

Free: I mean, if Harry Potter was still going.

Stevenson: Oh, my gosh.

Free: When it was the OG, I would've loved to have been Hermione.

Stevenson: You would've been a wonderful wizard.

Free: But yeah, that's probably my one. I mean, to be honest, I actually haven't seen Star Wars, so I don't know if I could be, what, an Ewok or something?

Stevenson: Oh, the most beautiful Ewok.

You're a little too tall.

Free: Oh, really?

Ewoks typically are like three, three and a half feet tall.

Free: Are they? Okay. Then I'd be a big one. [Arkasha and I] could be Ewoks together.

Stevenson: Yes.

Well, Marvel is Disney, so Ralph, I'm sure, will put in a good word for the two of you to be able to play Ewoks in the next Star Wars.

Free: Oh, we got a room full of Disney peeps. They heard it here. We want to be Ewoks. We're getting a thumbs up.

Stevenson: Sold.

Free: We're sold.

The First Omen hits Digital on May 28th, Hulu on May 30th, and Blu-ray and DVD on July 30th.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You can contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter.

Where is the Sky High sequel? Back in 2005, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution released a rare original superhero ensemble piece just a couple years before the comic book boom of the 2010s. While Sky High only brought in $86.4 million dollars at the box office, the positive reviews from critics at the time as well as the strong word of mouth over the past two decades has has transformed the film into a bonafide cult classic. This traction was enough to get Disney to at least entertain expanding the franchise, as both a sequel and a spin-off series were put in early development, but nothing has come from either in recent memory.

Who Would Return in a Sky High 2?

Even if it never sees the light of day, there are fleshed out concepts for a Sky High sequel.

Speaking to ComicBook in promotion of the home media release of Kung Fu Panda 4, Sky High director Mike Mitchell noted that he would make it a priority to bring back the original ensemble for a hypothetical second installment.

"All the original kids would be back again, including Cousin Greg. That was one of his first films," Mitchell said of Sky High star Nicholas Braun, who went on to have a career-defining role in HBO's Succession as the aforementioned Cousin Greg. "Mary Elizabeth Winsted as Royal Pain, Kurt Russell would have to be back as well."

As for what Braun's Zack Attack, Winstead's Royal Pain, Russell's The Commander and others would be up to, Mitchell revealed that all the former students would now be teachers at a new collegiate superhero campus.

"We figured all the kids are now grown up and they're all university teachers at a place called Save U," Mitchell continued. "You just take all that fun and we bring it from the high school into the college years. It would be such a blast."

Regardless of what the future holds for the Sky High world, Mitchell looks back on his work on the 2005 film fondly and still sees traces of that experience in the films he makes today.

"I was a huge fan of that film as well. I've never had so much fun working on something," Mitchell added. "That is also to say Kung Fu Panda 4 was pretty great to work on as well. Both of them got to incorporate funny action too, which I think is really important. I love a film where you don't just get to be funny, but you get to really have fun and also insane action. Those films are similar in that way."

Kung Fu Panda 4 will be available to own on May 28th on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD.

Todd McFarlane's journey to get a new feature film of Spawn off the ground has been a battle in the trenches for years, but when speaking with ComicBook he told us he feels "more confident now" than at any other point in the process. What began as a project that McFarlane was going to write and direct himself for a smaller budget, the new Spawn movie has brought in two-time Academy award nominated screenwriter Scott Silver (The Fighter, Joker) to help it get in front of cameras. McFarlane took us slightly behind-the-scenes of what his conversations with Silver are like for the new Spawn movie, and revealed how they hope to have an official studio partner ahead of the release of Joker: Folie ? Deux.

"There's a script but the writers are, they're not quite sort of satisfied with their own work, which is what all of us creative people are," McFarlane revealed. "We put it on paper and then we criticize ourselves. So they're going through sort of an extensive sort of rework and rewrite of it. I was just on the phone a couple of days ago with Scott Silver, the guy who's sort of manning the lead of it right now. He's also the writer of Joker and Joker 2. We're all planning and hoping and moving towards having this done so that we can take it out so that we can find our studio finally pre-Joker 2 launch, which comes in October."

In order for the movie to get to that place though the script itself will need to be in a place where Todd and the other writers have signed off on it, insuring its the version they want to take out into the world. McFarlane went on to open up about some of the intense storytelling conversations that he has had with Scott Silver, noting that the writer has high hopes for how the Spawn movie's ending will "have some meaning and some purpose, not just that the good guy won."

"I wish everybody could hear the conversation because he is so impassioned about what he's talking about. He is so engrossed in what he's doing...It's not like he's just like, I'm just trying to get it done. It's just not a good guy versus bad guy story... He said the other day, 'I'd rather take a swing and it be too big of a swing then to not take a hard enough swing at it....He's kind of fearless and he doesn't want to replicate what he knows is sort of the safe, probably predictable path that most people would go because it's the proven path, right? Just wants to bend it. He wants it because we're gonna do R rated and we're gonna do it and it can't be mini-Marvel and mini-DC. It can't."

McFarlane went on to predict that there's potential for Deadpool & Wolverine and Joker: Folie ? Deux to become the two highest grossing movies of the year. Should that come to pass, he expects Hollywood to do what it always does, replicate the success and start a trend.

"Between Deadpool and Joker Two. What's the commonality? Comic books, R rated....If they do their work and they look at it and they pay attention and they vet it. They're gonna see that there's like Spawn and then it's a precipitous drop. If you want comic book, sort of superhero, R rated stuff. He's built for it. He's been built for it and he's staring you in the face at the time you're looking for it. He's available."

To cap it all off, McFarlane noted, "I feel more confident now at any point in the process, given all the dynamics that are there right now. So I'm excited, man. I can't wait for it."

Having starred in a number of smaller-scale productions throughout her career, actor Maria Caballero made her debut in a major international release by starring in The First Omen as Luz. Not only was the project backed by 20th Century Studios, but it's also a prequel in The Omen franchise, an iconic string of horror films that set the standard for what can be accomplished in religious-themed terror. Despite its place in cinematic history, Caballero didn't let those pressures get to her, as she knew The First Omen was an entirely singular beast. The First Omen hits Digital on May 28th, Hulu on May 30th, and Blu-ray and DVD on July 30th.

The First Omen is described, "In this psychological horror prequel to the classic Omen films, a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church. Soon, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her faith, and that reveals a terrifying conspiracy to bring about the birth of evil incarnate. The First Omen stars Nell Tiger Free (Servant), Tawfeek Barhom (Mary Magdalene), Sonia Braga (Kiss of the Spider Woman), Ralph Ineson (The Northman), and Bill Nighy (Living). The film is directed by Arkasha Stevenson based on characters created by David Seltzer (The Omen), with a story by Ben Jacoby (Bleed) and a screenplay by Tim Smith & Arkasha Stevenson, and Keith Thomas (Firestarter)."

Certified-Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, The First Omen comes with never-before-seen bonus extras on the May 28th Digital release and also on the Blu-ray/DVD release arriving July 30th. Limited-edition Blu-ray and DVD packages include collectible artwork and special edition packaging designed to celebrate the legacy of The Omen franchise.

ComicBook caught up with Caballero to talk joining the franchise, the complexities of her character, and more.

ComicBook: When you got this role of Luz, was that inspiration to go back and revisit the whole Omen franchise to inform your performance? Or did you just stick with the script and ignore anything else that might've happened in the series?

Maria Caballero: I revisited the original a few times, but not the other ones. Not the ones that go after because I didn't want to be influenced in that way. I just wanted to know the atmosphere, the world I was stepping into, but not more. It's just like knowing where to stop in that sense.

Luz is an interesting character, we learn some interesting things about her the further into the story that we get. What do you feel you brought to Luz that maybe wasn't initially there in the script that came about through collaborating with the director? And the other end of that, once the film wrapped, what do you feel you took away from playing Luz?

I think, for Luz, I gave a complexity with the masks that she has. And I think I tried to give her a background of a really, really dark background, which, for me, was really important for her to be the survivor and the warrior she is. She's trying to belong somewhere. She's trying to be protected and to be seen and to be loved in such a powerful way that, for me, that comes from trauma. That comes from a really difficult background, as I said. And I try to bring that into Luz and I think it's there.

And Luz gave me lots of things, but one of, I guess the main thing for me, is the security she has in herself and the way she protects herself and her goals. Nothing stands in her way. And that, in the good side of that concept, for me, it's really useful.

When you got this project, it's a huge international production in this iconic franchise. It's from 20th Century Studios, this major production house. Other than the language barrier of the international cast, did this project feel much different from some of the other projects you've been part of? Or, at the end of the day, is it still just a cast and a crew all trying to tell a story?

It felt really different. It felt like I was stepping into a whole different, I don't want to say level, because it's not about level, but it's like a whole different universe because there's much more pressure, I guess, in a way. It shouldn't be like that, because I also feel I work the same, I try to work at the same level, even if I'm doing a French movie.

But it is true that you feel the pressure and the weight. So yeah, you have to really work on your confidence and your self-value and your self-worth to be able to be free and really, really experience what life brought you, which was a gift. It felt like I was stepping into a whole different ground, but I always felt ready for it. That's also true.

Looking back at the experience, do you have a particular favorite day on set? Whether it be going out and doing the nightclub scenes, which is clearly a lot more fun, as opposed to the more intense ceremonial scenes, did you have a favorite day on set?

I have many different days, I would say. All of the days were amazing for me, but the day I married Jesus, for me, it was the most special day ever. Just being in this amazing dress, being married by Bill [Nighy], having that change from white to black, what it means to her being in this beautiful church. I also don't know if I'm ever going to be married. So, for me, as Maria, was like, "This is my actual wedding forever." No, but it was very beautiful ... And also, that was the last day of shooting.

WARNING: Mild spoilers below for The First Omen

Regardless of official sequel plans, what do you think happened to Luz after this movie? Do you think her karma caught up with her? Do you think she was punished for some of the things she did or do you think she's just slowly climbing the ranks of things going on at the church?

I think she's climbing the ladder of power. I think she has every ingredient to be at the top and she will get there eventually. What goes into her mind in terms of regret and guilt and all these things, we all go through that. She has that, of course. She's not a monster. But as I said, I think she's been so traumatized in the past that she doesn't feel it anymore. So she's going to be at the top.

The First Omen hits Digital on May 28th, Hulu on May 30th, and Blu-ray and DVD on July 30th.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You can contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter.

The latest Kung Fu Panda reached the franchise's gold standard once again on both a critical and financial level. Kung Fu Panda 4 currently sits as the third highest-grossing film of the 2024, sitting only behind juggernauts Dune: Part Two and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. The fourquel also brought the franchise past the $2 billion dollar mark, making it one of the most successful animated series of all time. This all came after the longest gap between Kung Fu Panda movies as well, as the eight-year space between Kung Fu Panda 3 and Kung Fu Panda 4 far exceeded the average four-year wait between installments.

Kung Fu Panda Director Anticipates "Going Bigger" With Sequels

The success of Kung Fu Panda 4 has the creators ready to continue upping the ante.

Speaking to ComicBook, Kung Fu Panda 4 director Mike Mitchell declared that he wants prospective sequels within the series to "keep going bigger."

"I think no matter what, we keep going bigger. Whether I'm working on it or not, I'm in the theater watching these things," Mitchell said.

Mitchell pointed to titular star Jack Black's vocal charisma as giving the franchise eternal life while also pointing to the untapped potential within the larger ensemble.

"If Jack Black is performing as Poe the Dragon Warrior, I just think that character could last forever. He's so charming, he's so action packed. Not to mention this world is so filled with characters," Mitchell continued. "We just took a little break from The Furious Five, which everyone can't wait to see those guys and what they're doing and what they're up to. There's so much story to tell and it never feels to me like it would be something intimate. It's always got big action. It's hard for me to imagine it's just taking place in one room. I mean, we had so many ideas from this film that we just couldn't fit in."

Head of Animation Sean Sexton added that he specifically sees a big future for Awkwafina's Zhen, an anti-hero of sorts that just joined the franchise.

"I think meeting Zhen and training Zhen, I think there's a lot to be told there," Sexton added. "I think it could be a really fun sequel."

Kung Fu Panda 4 will be available to own on May 28th on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD.

Across its first ten episodes, X-Men '97 delivered plenty of surprises, all while building towards a massive conflict for its ensemble of mutant characters. One of the most buzzed-about elements of X-Men '97 has been its stylistic flourishes, particularly in fight sequences. This included one sequence in the eighth episode of X-Men '97, which briefly showed Wolverine (Cal Dodd) being pulled across reality by Nightcrawler's (Adrian Hough) BAMF-ing powers. While speaking to ComicBook about the entire first season of X-Men '97, episodic director Chase Conley spoke about how that sequence came to be a reality, arguing that previous Marvel media hasn't shown the act of BAMFing from that point of view before.

"Well, we wanted to showcase powers in ways that we hadn't seen before," Conley explained in our interview. "Nightcrawler has BAMFed in so many different ways, but we had never seen the POV of someone else being in the portal with them. And also, we know for a fact that he can BAMF you and completely exhaust you. That's a thing that he can do to incapacitate you. Wolverine having a healing factor and might be the only person that wouldn't be so disoriented. That was the main approach. And even from the beginning of that scene, Marvin Britt, who's an amazing board artist, that was his handout. He did a first pass on it, and when he came to me with the script, he was like, 'I don't know what to do for this scene.' I was like, 'I got you.'"

"So I just was like, I'm going to go to town,'" Conley continued. "And I was very intentional. I boarded the hell out of it. I did a lot of background stuff. And I just wanted to see, I had a very specific vision for it, and I was just happy that our execs and Studio Mir, they adhered to some of the storyboards that I gave them. We really wanted to try to exaggerate a bit, and like I said, do something that we hadn't seen before. And also make sure that we watch Nightcrawler looking towards where he's going, as opposed to... We always see him BAMFing all over the place, but it's like he's traveling through a dimension as a shortcut, just like how you would fold a piece of paper, as far as time goes. Yeah, that was the thought process, but really just trying to see something that we've never seen before."

Is X-Men '97 Influenced by Anime?

While speaking to ComicBook earlier in the season, episodic director Emi/Emmett Yonemura revealed that one of the biggest priorities of X-Men '97 was folding in an influence from anime of the 1990s.

"One of the biggest things that even Larry Houston talks about on the original was being restricted by budget," Yonemura explained at the time. "But then you go over, and you look at the Japanese animation that was coming out at the time, and I'm sure that they were restricted by budgets as well. But look at them. Look at them. They're gorgeous. We both grew up with that as well. And Larry talked about how he was even referencing that stuff as much as he could that it meant, 'Oh. Good.' So we're all in the same mind frame here that 'Let's just bring that to the X-Men. We've got this budget now thanks to Marvel. Let's show some cool sh-t.'"

The first season of X-Men '97 is now available to stream exclusively on Disney+. If you haven't signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.

X-Men '97 made sure to give Magneto a chance to shine in the final hour of the first season."Tolerance Is Extinction Part 3" decided to focus on both the world-rattling stakes of Bastion's attack and what makes Magneto tick. ComicBook's Phase Zero podcast spoke to director Jake Castorena about the choice to center the X-Men antagonist so much in the finale. First, we had to joke about keeping the secret of Magneto's resurrection last time we spoke. "I was trying to be t tactful about Magneto, but I buried it under the Gambit question," Castorena smirked. "So, I technically didn't lie to you."

Once we got past that bit of misdirection, he went on to explain how showrunner Beau DeMayo wanted to focus on this trauma from Magnus' youth. The essence of being a survivor and how that shaped his worldview. It's all very affecting stuff. But, at the same time, it's completely coherent with X-Men: The Animated Series and the path that it laid down for X-Men '97 to run and then fly as the season got going. Here's what he had to say:

Castroena began, "The third part? That's been in, in the vision and mission statement from Beau DeMayo from day one. Telling that side of Magnus and leaning into the Holocaust trauma. That foundation of why Erik is the way he is, why his ideology is shaped the way it is. So, being able to lean into that, and not shy away from those themes even more. So, not in a gratuitous nature, right?"

"But, in the writer's room, having the blessing and the mandate from Marvel to go, ' If you're gonna do that, lean into that, go do that stuff.' Because that's what was so great about the OG show, right? It was [about these issues], even though it was in the bubble of a Saturday morning cartoon. A Saturday morning serial, it never shied away from the themes that it was talking about," Castorena recalled. "'Beauty & the Beast' is one of my favorite ones.This dude was mad at this adorable blue world renowned scientist, one of the most renowned scientists ever. I'm going to give your blind daughter sight and he's like '*bleep* you!' What? As a kid, that made me so angry. As a kid it hurt me and I didn't understand I was being taught about prejudice right there."

X-Men '97 Continues to Build On Animated Series Foundation

As our interview continued, the director talked about one of his favorite entries in the older X-Men show. Focusing on Beast, "Beauty & the Beast" focuses on Hank McCoy helping a small blind girl regain her sight. However, his noble cause is complicated by the fact that even his brilliance can't eradicate prejudice.

"I had no idea but I was receiving it and that's the best part about what the OG series did. It didn't shy away from what the themes and the allegories of what X-Men is. Prejudice," Castorena clarified. "They had to adhere to that Saturday morning bubble. We get to expand a little bit out of that. And, to that point, as you see in the show, just because we can, doesn't mean we will or should."

"It's all about, we're on a team. It's something we realize that we give ourselves false parameters to make sure we're checking our math. Whether it's nerd math, geographical math, whatever it is. We gave ourselves false parameters to make sure to keep us in check, to make sure we're not going too far away from the original DNA that is the OG show. But, also adapting it. Fresh, but familiar."

Did you love how much Magneto got to shine in the final episodes of X-Men '97? Check out the wild moments down below!

The first season of X-Men '97 culminated this past week, after delivering plenty of unexpected moments across its ten episodes. This included the contentious meeting between Rogue (Lenore Zann) and Captain America (Josh Keaton), which culminated in Rogue throwing his trademark shield into the frozen tundra during their disagreement. While speaking with ComicBook about the entire first season, X-Men '97 director Emi/Emmett Yonemura responded to the larger-than-life reaction to that scene.

"I'm glad that it did [break the Internet], because at first, when we had Cap cameoing, I was like, 'Is he just going to take away from Rogue's precedence in all of this?' But then the writers had a really good point that it was like, 'No, we're showing that even the Avengers, they're going to play it by the book. They're going to be boy scouts about it.' And that Rogue is like, 'No, I'm not here for that. And if you're going to wait to pick sides, that is picking sides.' And so I loved it. And then we also had this issue of, 'Well, how does Cap not show up in Mexico, and then not show up in Madripoor?' Well, because he's got to go find his shield. I just honestly loved it. It was such a great thing. She's just going to yeet it and 'Good luck, man.'"

Is X-Men '97 Renewed for Season 2?

Work has already begun on a sophomore season of X-Men '97, which was already renewed by Marvel Animation prior to the show's premiere.

"It's still an animatic phase. Animation takes so long to make as I'm sure you know. There was a great bit about this in Invincible Season 2," X-Men '97 Executive Producer and Marvel Studios Head of TV, Streaming, and Animation Brad Winderbaum explained to ComicBook in a recent interview. "They just nailed it so hard, it is the greatest. And it takes a long time. Because the studio wants to see how successful the first season is before they greenlight the second season there's a lag. We were lucky enough to get the greenlight before we aired so there's maybe less of a lag. People are just going to have to be patient with us.

The first season of X-Men '97 is now available to stream exclusively on Disney+. If you haven't signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for X-Men '97 episode 10, "Tolerance is Extinction -- Part 3." The first season finale of Marvel Animation's X-Men '97 had everything fans expect -- not just from an episode of X-Men: The Animated Series, but a Marvel movie blockbuster.

There was a world-ending threat as the Sentinel-human hybrid Bastion (Theo James) tried to send Asteroid M crashing to Earth after Magneto (Matthew Waterson) wiped out the planet's power. There was a cliffhanger calling into question the fate of the X-Men, who have been mysteriously displaced through time. And there was a post-credits scene setting up future episodes of X-Men '97 with a season-ending cameo by En Sabah Nur, a.k.a. Apocalypse (Adetokumboh M'Cormack).

But the biggest surprises were sprinkled throughout the episode. Over the course of its 43-minute runtime, episode directors Chase Conley and Emi/Emmett Yonemura included a staggering two dozen cameos (see them all in our X-Men '97 cameo checklist). With the entire planet under threat, there was an opportunity to check in on the Silver Samurai in Japan; the Winter Guard (Omega Red, Crimson Dynamo, and Darkstar) in Russia; and Wakanda's King T'Chaka (Isaac Robinson-Smith, pulling double-duty as Bishop) and the Dora Milaje in Africa.

"I think a lot of [the cameos are] just to serve the purpose," Conley told ComicBook. "When we check in in Russia, we have those [Winter Guard] characters. We wanted to show that, especially once the EMP goes global and Magneto does his thing, that we're just checking in all over the world. And then just cutting to respective characters from those places. That was the main thing."

As the Marvel Animated Universe faced extinction, Avengers Iron Man and Captain America appeared as advisors to U.S. President Kelly (Ron Rubin), sorcerer surgeon Stephen Strange performed emergency surgery, and street-level heroes like Daredevil and duo Cloak and Dagger were spotted cleaning up the city streets as Bastion's Prime Sentinels wreaked havoc across New York City. Meanwhile, an out-of-costume Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson, and Flash Thompson, appearing just as they did in 1994's Spider-Man: The Animated Series, witnessed the looming apocalypse from the ground.

"As far as going back to New York, how we chose a lot of those cameos, I think we all love the street-level," Conley said. "I've always loved the street-level Hell's Kitchen group of heroes. We got a lot of those in the adaptations already, but we didn't get Luke Cage in there. But we got Daredevil, we got Cloak and Dagger. That was really cool. And just to show that this is affecting everyone, and they're also trying to keep order on the streets from complete chaos because that's actually what's happening. People think the world is ending, or this extinction-level event is about to take place. In typical human fashion, people start stealing stuff and preparing for the worst."

While the X-Men were trying to prevent human and mutant extinction aboard Asteroid M, Earth's mightiest heroes were "trying to keep order, and so that was to serve the story," Conley added. The only hero to receive lines is T'Chaka's Black Panther, whose sage advice to President Kelly goes unheeded.

"I was very happy to get Black Panther in there as well, which was cool," Conley said. "I was like, 'I'm going to board this myself.' Actually, I believe Jaylen Harden did a pass of that scene first, and I just wanted to add a shot myself. I was like, 'I'm going to do a little bit more.' That was cool as well."

All episodes of Marvel's X-Men '97 are now streaming on Disney+.

The season finale of X-Men '97 was released on Disney+ this week, and Marvel fans are eager for Season 2. The next season is already in the works, but there's still a ways to go before the animation is complete. In fact, ComicBook recently had a chat with Marvel's head of streaming, Brad Winderbaum, and he revealed that Season 2 is currently in the animatic stage.

"It's still an animatic phase. Animation takes so long to make as I'm sure you know. There was a great bit about this in Invincible Season 2," Winderbaum explained. "They just nailed it so hard, it is the greatest. And it takes a long time. Because the studio wants to see how successful the first season is before they greenlight the second season there's a lag. We were lucky enough to get the greenlight before we aired so there's maybe less of a lag. People are just going to have to be patient with us.

Is Beau DeMayo Involved With X-Men '97 Season 2?

As fans were gearing up for the release of X-Men '97, the surprising news broke that showrunner Beau DeMayo had been fired from the series. Details of his firing have remained under wraps, but DeMayo has still been openly talking about the show on social media. In fact, he recently took to Twitter to clarify his Season 2 involvement.

"I did write a lot of Season 2," DeMayo shared. "However, unlike Season 1, I will not be heavily involved or leading production, cast records, design, editorial, post, music, etc., nor doing any production rewrites as it relates to the creative vision of the show."

"This is why I've said I can't really speak to Season 2," he added. "But, looking forward to seeing the final product with you all whenever it airs. I have high hopes."

Winderbaum recently addressed DeMayo's firing in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

"I can't talk about the details," Winderbaum explained. "But I can say that Beau had real respect and passion for these characters and wrote what I think are excellent scripts that really the rest of the team were able to draw inspiration from [to] build this amazing show that's on screen." When asked if he would consider what happened with DeMayo as a "firing" as had been the wording used in the press, Winderbaum added, "I don't. 'We parted ways' is the best way I could say."

X-Men '97 is now streaming on Disney+.

X-Men '97's first season came to an end this week, and it featured a lot of surprises, including some epic cameos. The episode saw appearances by many big names in Marvel, including Iron Man, Captain America, and Doctor Strange. The episode also featured Daredevil, Peter Parker and MJ, Cloak and Dagger, and more. Some folks have wondered if the fan-favorite Avengers vs. X-Men storyline from the comics could be in X-Men '97's future. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Marvel's head of streaming, Brad Winderbaum, and he addressed the finale's big cameos and the possibility of Avengers vs. X-Men.

"The path is laid out for us from that," Winderbaum teased. "Larry Houston was famous for adding cameos to the original show, [X-Men: The Animated Series]. In our goal to try to emulate that original series, we were trying to do the same. We had all these great ideas. Every cameo idea you see on screen, there's 50 more that didn't make it. It's fun to look at the '90s universe through this X-Men lens and to think about the greater Marvel universe of that period. I don't want to close the door on anything. But for now, the X-Men are going to be our window into the '90s. But we'll see, we'll see what happens."

X-Men '97's Brad Winderbaum Explains Why Retro Setting Was a Major Advantage:

In another interview with Winderbaum, the producer explained to ComicBook why setting the show in 1997 was an advantage.

"Well, actually, it was kind of liberating to be able to stay in the 90s," Winderbaum began. "It allowed us to go places that we could just do what we want. To be so iterative. Things that we couldn't do if we were more MCU adjacent like What If...? is. I mean, What If...? is like we're literally remixing the MCU. So, it's harder to introduce characters. Because you want to see them in live-action. Although, we do see Bill Foster as Giant Man in the second season. That's new!"

Original X-Men: The Animated Series cast members Cal Dodd (Wolverine), Lenore Zann (Rogue), George Buza (Beast), Alison Sealy-Smith (Storm), Adrian Hough (Nightcrawler), and Christopher Britton (Mister Sinister) reprise their roles from the '90s series while returning cast members Catherine Disher (original Jean Grey), Chris Potter (original Gambit), Alyson Court (original Jubilee), and Lawrence Bayne (original Cable) voice new characters. The new cast includes Ray Chase (Cyclops), Jennifer Hale (Jean Grey), JP Karliak (Morph), AJ LoCascio (Gambit), Holly Chou (Jubilee), Isaac Robinson-Smith (Bishop), and Matthew Waterson (Magneto).

X-Men '97's first season is now streaming on Disney+.

It has been over three years since Marvel Studios branched out into the world of television, telling the stories of characters from across the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a new medium. The grand experiment has evolved in some fascinating ways in the time since, resulting in Internet-breaking projects like WandaVision and Loki, as well as the forming of the Marvel Spotlight banner for more standalone projects like Echo. This week, during Disney's Upfronts presentation, Marvel Studios unveiled new release dates or windows for its next three live-action shows -- Agatha All Along, Daredevil: Born Again, and Ironheart. In the process, these announcements revealed the return of the Marvel Television label, which was previously used as the standalone production company behind projects like Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the "Defendersverse" of shows.

While speaking with ComicBook about the recent Season 1 finale of X-Men '97, Marvel Studios Head of TV, Streaming, and Animation Brad Winderbaum explained the decision to resurrect the Marvel Television label, and how it could help future projects be more accessible to audiences.

"We want to make sure that Marvel stays an open door for people to come in and explore," Winderbaum revealed. "On the heels of Endgame, I think there was, maybe, a little bit of an obligation to watch absolutely everything in order to watch anything. As you know, as a comics fan, they're designed to just pop in, find something that you like, and use that to enter you into the universe, and then you can explore and weave around based on your own preferences. So part of the rebranding of Marvel Studios, Marvel Television, Marvel Animation, even Marvel Spotlight is to, I think, try to tell the audience, 'You can jump in anywhere. They're interconnected but they're not. You don't have to watch A to enjoy B. You can follow your bliss. You can follow your own preferences and find the thing you want within the tapestry of Marvel.'"

What Is the Next Marvel Television Show?

The next live-action Marvel Television project is expected to be Agatha All Along, which will debut on Disney+ with a two-episode premiere on Wednesday, September 18th. In addition to Kathryn Hahn reprising her WandaVision role of Agatha Harkness, the cast of Agatha All Along will include fellow WandaVision alums Deborah Jo Rupp as Sharon Davis and Emma Caulfield Ford as Sarah Proctor. New cast members will include Joe Locke, Aubrey Plaza, Ali Ahn, Maria Dizzia, Sasheer Zamata, and Patti LuPone. Agatha All Along will be directed by head writer Jac Schaeffer, as well as Gandja Monteiro. Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, and Brad Winderbaum serve as executive producers on the series.

"I know a little bit, but I can't say anything," Caulfield told ComicBook in a previous interview. "I can't tell you what to expect, because that would reveal something. I know little, just enough to keep me in the right zone. I think it's all going to be really fun. I haven't seen [Kathryn Hahn] yet. I really love her. She's just the best, effortlessly cool."

The first season of X-Men '97 is now in the books, culminating an epic animated journey for fans of the Marvel Universe. The series is just one of several titles under the Marvel Animation banner at Marvel Studios, with projects like returning series What If...? and new series Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and Eyes of Wakanda on the horizon. Earlier this week, Marvel Television announced release windows or dates for some of its upcoming live-action offerings, including Agatha All Along, Daredevil: Born Again, and Ironheart. Those announcements did not include the aforementioned projects from Marvel Animation -- but we might have a better idea of what's next on the docket.

While speaking with ComicBook about the recent season finale of X-Men '97, Executive Producer and Marvel Studios Head of TV, Streaming, and Animation Brad Winderbaum revealed that the upcoming third season of What If...? could be the next Marvel Animation show released, without confirming an exact release date or window.

"What If...? Season Three is -- that might be the one that comes out next, in terms of animation," Winderbaum revealed. "That is the culmination of a trilogy. We're actually close to completing that one, and it really feels like you've gone through this amazing emotional experience with Uatu, in a way that's... What's great about The Watcher is that he presents himself as uncaring, and cold, and just an observer, but he cares more than everybody [and] anybody. That is on full display in that third season."

What Will What If...? Season 3 Be About?

Early looks at What If...? Season 3 were released shortly after the show's sophomore season wrapped in late 2023, confirming that Sam Wilson / Captain America (Anthony Mackie) Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), Bill Foster / Goliath (Laurence Fishburne), Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) and Alexi Shostakov / Red Guardian (David Harbour) will all factor into the episodes in some way. Additionally, ComicBook previously exclusively confirmed that America Ferrera will join the cast as Agent Morales.

"She's great," writer and executive producer AC Bradley said of Ferrera. "I'm so glad she is getting her flowers when it comes to Barbie, because -- I shouldn't say this, but hey, I no longer work at Marvel -- Barbie was my favorite movie of the year, my favorite superhero movie, because Barbie's a hero. And, so is America. That was the best. So, we're so happy that she was willing to come in, and do this part in this random episode of What If...?. She was so lovely about it."

The first season of X-Men '97 is now available to stream exclusively on Disney+. If you haven't signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.

The Safe Man has been realized into a fully fleshed out story. Nearly two decades after it was published anonymously in The Secret Society of Demolition Writers, Michael Connelly expanded his short story into a feature-length audiobook on Audible. The Lincoln Lawyer author reunited with longtime collaborator Titus Welliver (Bosch) and Jack Quaid (The Boys, Oppenheimer) to bring The Safe Man to listenable life. While the story, one which interweaves Connelly's familiar mystery and suspense flavors while dabbling into some supernatural elements, is currently exclusive to the audio format, there are aspirations to bring it to live-action.

"That's the hope," Connelly told ComicBook when asked if there are plans to turn The Safe Man into a film or television series. "The pyramid gets skinnier and skinnier at the top, so it's a tough thing to go the distance. But yes, we're definitely in discussions about that. Now that this is out, we'll definitely move forward with that."

Connelly is no stranger to turning his works into motion-pictures, as The Lincoln Lawyer has been made into both a feature film and Netflix series while his recurring leading character detective Harry Bosch is the centerpiece of the Bosch television program.

With The Safe Man existing under the umbrella of Audible, an Amazon company, there is a direct pipeline to Prime Video.

"Audible has a branch that is kind of like a way of delivering this to Prime, and hopefully they'll be interested in it," Connelly continued. "We'll see how it does on Audible first, and then we'll go from there."

The Safe Man also has the luxury of already existing with a stacked cast. Should a live-action adaptation move forward, Connelly noted it would be "amazing" to bring the likes of Welliver and Quaid back to portray their characters on camera.

"If we could get all these people, it would be pretty amazing," Connelly said. "They're all extremely talented and they're all in-demand people. I kind of scratched my head a little bit at how we got them. I think that was the power of Titus, to tell you the truth, to get some of the people that we got. It was kind of a case of, 'Well, if Titus is doing it, then yeah, I want to be part of that.' That worked for us on this level, and hopefully it would work again on live-action."

The Safe Man is available now on Audible.

Between the rise of attention being paid to streaming platforms and the coronavirus pandemic taking a major toll on movie theaters, the past few years have been full of unexpected developments when it comes to how movies are both made and also released. The Strangers: Chapter 1, for example, was originally developed as an experience that would likely have been released directly to the streaming market, though producer Courtney Solomon confirmed that the excitement from studio Lionsgate allowed the project to pivot to earn a theatrical release. In addition to the creative components of the project, the studio was also confident in that filming three slasher films in a sprawling production would be vastly different from attempting to film three major blockbusters. The Strangers: Chapter 1 is in theaters now.

"On the filming side of it, [Lionsgate said], 'Okay, make the giant movie, we understand that they'll be three parts.' When we went into it, we didn't know the first one was gonna be a theatrical movie," Solomon confirmed to ComicBook. "That's not how we went into it, because in the world we live in, so many places where you can put a movie out, streaming, everything else, nobody was really worried. And it wasn't like we were spending $800 million a movie, so that wasn't the biggest concern, either. So all the business and the numbers of everything, whichever way it might have gone, worked out."

He continued, "We were fortunate that once they liked the creative and we presented them a pretty detailed treatment, they let us go ahead and make the movie and they were very supportive, and that was great. As they saw the first cut of the first movie and then we went on further, they were like, 'Okay, this is a theatrical movie, we're good.' And we're like, 'Yay! That's good.'"

Understandably, Solomon, the rest of the filmmakers, and audiences would prefer if the upcoming second and third chapters also earned theatrical releases, with the producer confirming the fate of those films will likely be dependent on how this first chapter performs financially.

"So now, I guess, obviously, it depends on how we do, they're business people," the producer pointed out. "The hope is that they'd love to bring out these next two movies at the same size that they brought out this movie ... Thankfully, we don't have the most giant mountain to climb like a lot of these movies do these days, on that side of it. We feel confident and they feel very good, but you never know which way it's gonna go, right? That's life."

He added, "It was a smart way of doing it, in so much as, we just looked at it from a fan satisfaction point of view. We want to tell this story, the only way we can tell it is as this giant thing, it will, in fact, be three parts. 'Let's figure out economically, for you guys, how that works, great, you're covered.' Now, we'll do our job and hopefully the audience will get to see it in the best possible way."

The Strangers: Chapter 1 is in theaters now. Stay tuned for updates on The Strangers: Chapter 1 and The Strangers: Chapter 2.

Are you hoping the rest of the trilogy is released theatrically? Contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

One element about 2008's The Strangers that set it apart from its peers is that our main characters are going through a tense time in the wake of a rejected marriage proposal, putting the audience in an uncomfortable situation right from the start. With The Strangers: Chapter 1, however, the script called for a different type of dynamic between Maya and Ryan, played by Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez, respectively. Rather than merely being an arbitrary change, the cast addressed what made this spin on the familiar formula so compelling to them as performers. The Strangers: Chapter 1 is in theaters now.

"I watched the 2008 version when it first came out, and I was 14, so I didn't really understand adult relationships, but I was always a little frustrated by, 'Why are they fighting in the middle of this chaos?'" Petsch shared with ComicBook. "And so when I got the ability to jump into this, I was like, 'How cool would it be if they are just genuinely so in love and happy?' There were still obvious miscommunication issues, as every couple has, but that was very important to me and I was very excited to see that on the page."

While this first chapter makes some tweaks to the original concept, the upcoming The Strangers: Chapter 2 and The Strangers: Chapter 3 won't entirely deviate from expectations, with Petsch also addressing the balance of shedding more insight into the antagonists while also keeping their origins shrouded in secrecy.

"It's really integral to the original story that you don't know why they're doing it or who they are, that's what makes it so scary, so I think we dance a fine line of never really giving you all of it, but giving you a small taste of it," the actor expressed. "Because, otherwise, it's not as bone-chilling anymore if you know exactly what's going on and why and who they are."

The movie is described, "From master director Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger, Die Hard 2, The Exorcist: The Beginning) comes a new trilogy of terror. In Chapter I, Madelaine Petsch (TV's Riverdale) stars as a young woman starting a new life with her fianc?. Suddenly, during a road trip stop in a remote vacation rental in the woods, they become the prey of a mysterious gang of masked strangers who attack without warning or reason. What begins as a fight to stay alive becomes one woman's journey of courage and cunning in this horror series bridging three compelling films."

The Strangers: Chapter 1 is in theaters now.

What did you think of this change to the original story? Contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

George Miller has some thoughts on which shot was his favorite from Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The movie set in the Mad Max Universe is a prequel, featuring the origin story of Charlize Theron's Furiosa. Anya Taylor-Joy takes on the role of a young Furiosa in the flick, where she's joined by Chris Hemsworth's villainous Dr. Dementus. Prolific filmmaker George Miller is behind the camera on Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and while he admits it's hard to decide on which of his shots is his favorite, he does note one that sticks out to him.

ComicBook spoke to George Miller about Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, where he was asked if there were any shots that he held in high regard. "My response to that is not so much one shot.... it's a little bit like asking me, or a composer or songwriter, what's your favorite note or favorite chord?" Miller said. "It's in conjunction with the others around them. That the experience is offered to the audience. As you're making the film, there's a little competition and you say to yourself, 'Oh that's my favorite shot. Oh no, it's been replaced by this one."

He added, "There's one that when I saw it, even when we were shooting... when Dementus is on foot, running away towards the end, and he's running into the mist. And then you hear a rumble, and you're not sure if it's score or what. Then you realize it's the vehicle that Furiosa's in. Just as it creeps into frame, he disappears into the mist and then reappears again. That's the shot where I saw it, I thought, 'That works elegantly. That tells the story very well."

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga's Rotten Tomatoes score revealed

The Rotten Tomatoes score for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga came out two days ago, and at that time, the movie had a Rotten Tomatoes score of 87% critics rating after 30 reviews. You can check out what some of the critics are saying below:

"Furiosa is a fine prelude to that mighty arc. Its initial rattling gradually gives way to the robust and satisfying purr of Miller, despite everything, making it work," Richard Lawson (Vanity Fair) shared.

"Furiosa is such a thrilling ride, packed with set pieces that are a masterclass in staging action, that it's a little sad when the plot veers towards the events of the previous movie - because we know that's where the ride ends," Liz Shannon Miller (Consequence) explained.

"You soon reach the point where you're sick of sand, sick of explosions, sick of off-puttingly sadistic violence, and sick of thunderous drums bashing away on the soundtrack, and yet the film keeps piling on more and more and more of them," Nicholas Barber (BBC.com) wrote.

Set more than a decade before the events of Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga explores how Furiosa was kidnapped from her home in the Green Place of Many Mothers by the treacherous Warlord Dementus and his Biker Horde. As Dementus and Immortan Joe vie for control of the wasteland, Furiosa must survive every challenge in front of her as she seeks vengeance against her kidnappers on her way to return home.

Mad Max creator George Miller returns to direct Furiosa, which stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Nathan Jones, Angus Sampson, and Quaden Bayles. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga releases in theaters on May 24th.

A new era of Doctor Who has officially begun, and the return of the beloved sci-fi series definitely isn't pulling any punches. The latest season, which revolves around the adventures of the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), has already played off of the character's connection to Gallifrey and the Time Lords, which were shaken up massively by the controversial "Timeless Child" reveal. While speaking to ComicBook about the new season of Doctor Who, returning showrunner Russell T. Davies revealed that he has always been intrigued by the idea of The Doctor being the last of his kind, and was more than happy to work with the canon laid out before his return.

"For those who might not know the history while I was not working on the show: Gallifrey was brought back to life and then destroyed again," Davies explained in our interview, which you can check out above. "I think that kind of says it's inevitable, and I like that fact. I like the phrase 'The last of the Time Lords.' It makes him legendary, makes him unique. It makes him scary in some ways, and makes him precious. So it's a phrase I'm very fond of. If I hadn't been able to use it, I simply wouldn't have used it and he would have said 'I'm an adventurer and a philosopher and a traveler.' There are many more adjectives to apply to The Doctor, so that wouldn't have worried me. But I don't think he would have gone home often."

What Is Doctor Who's New Season About?

From Disney+ and the BBC, this season of Doctor Who follows the Doctor and Ruby Sunday through infinite adventures across time and space in the TARDIS. From the Regency era in England to war-torn futures, the duo champion the forces of good while encountering incredible friends and dangerous foes.

Guest stars on the new season of Doctor Who will include Aneurin Barnard, Anita Dobson, Yasmin Finney, Michelle Greenidge, Jonathan Groff, Bonnie Langford, Genesis Lynea, Jemma Redgrave, Lenny Rush, Indira Varma and Angela Wynter. Doctor Who is produced by Bad Wolf, with BBC Studios for Disney Branded Television and BBC. Under the creative vision of Davies, the additional executive producers include Phil Collinson, Joel Collins, Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter. The new season features episodes directed by Ben Chessell, Jamie Donoughue, Julie Anne Robinson and Dylan Holmes Williams.

Doctor Who airs new episodes on Fridays at 7pm ET on Disney+, followed by a debut on BBC iPlayer at 12am GMT on Saturdays, and a broadcast premiere on BBC One later that day. If you haven't signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.

Note: If you purchase one of the awesome, independently chosen products featured here, we may earn a small commission from the retailer. Thank you for your support

Dune: Part Two has become something of a phenomenon over the past few months, with the film earning rave reviews, a hearty box office haul, and plenty of online chatter. The film, which continues Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of Frank Herbert's iconic books, is chock-full of moments that stuck with audiences -- and apparently, with some of its crew as well. While speaking to ComicBook about the recent home release of Dune: Part Two, cinematographer Greig Fraser shared the scenes from the film that he himself is the most fond of.

"I love the sandworm riding sequence, to be frank with you," Fraser explained in our interview, which you can check out above. "It changes on a week to week basis. I love that sequence. Love, love, love that sequence. But I think, at the moment, the sequence that I'm loving is the end of the film. I'm loving Chani's journey. At the end of the film, I'm loving her silent walk to the sand dune, her thumper. I love her journey at the end. That's a beautiful little moment. And the other thing I love as well -- you asked for one, but I'm giving you three -- is Jessica's journey, while she's talking to Alia. There's a time she's walking in the sietch where she's kind of talking to Alia, and she's kind of talking to herself. [She] really sounds, a little bit, like a crazy person. She's talking about converting the weak minds, and she comes across a family who are a little bit scared of her. And the push in on Rebecca is one of my favorite shots in the film, too. I mean, as far as acting goes, it is supreme acting that her eyes shift at a certain point in the film. So I love that."

Will There Be a Dune 3?

As fans of Herbert's books know, the grand narrative of Dune extends far beyond the events of the first book, which has led to a lot of speculation about whether or not Dune: Messiah could become the franchise's next film. Villeneuve has teased that a script for Dune: Messiah exists, and that he is focusing on telling the best possible distillation of the source material.

"I'm working on four different screenplays -- I know that Dune: Messiah will be one of them, I don't know if it will be the next or the second next," Villeneuve shared in an interview earlier this year. "My job was to try to keep the spirit of Frank Herbert alive as much as possible -- the whole meaning of Dune becomes clear with Dune: Messiah."

What Is Dune: Part Two About?

Dune: Part Two explores the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a warpath of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.

The big-screen epic Dune: Part Two includes Timoth?e Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and L?a Seydoux, with Stellan Skarsg?rd, Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem. Denis Villeneuve directed from a screenplay he co-wrote with Jon Spaihts based on Frank Herbert's iconic novel.

Dune: Part Two is available now on Digital and on 4K UHD.

Dune: Part Two is the biggest movie of 2024 so far, and it will soon be heading to Max. ComicBook has gotten the chance to chat with many folks who worked on the film, which is currently up on Rotten Tomatoes with a 92% critics' score and a 95% audience score. In honor of the movie's upcoming 4K release, ComicBook spoke with editor Joe Walker about the film. One big moment from the project that came up was the duel between Paul Atreides (Timoth?e Chalamet) and Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen (Austin Butler).

"Roger [Yuan], the stunt coordinator, and the actors sort of developed a really - there's a lot of meaning that goes into those fights," Walker explained. "They aren't just scraps. They have the energy of scraps, but there's continuity. In fact, the moment where he looks down and sees the knife in his guts, that's kind of a reference, isn't it? I think to Gurney, one of the initial scenes of Dune 1. There's always a kind of - the character is baked in - the sort of different fighting styles in opposition. And you know, the adeptness of Paul to adapt as a person, which is his survival. He adapts to the desert, and so does his fighting style."

"In the case of that [scene], they shot it, I think, over about four or five days, and I think two cameras at a time with the kind of dawn lighting going on. And, of course, the entire cast save the Baron are there, so there's a lot to cut to that sort of amplifies and ramps up the drama of the story, and not least Paul and Chani and the kind of access between them that Feyd tramples upon," he continued.

"[Director Denis Villeneuve] always kind of pays me the most enormous compliment that an editor can get, which is if something works perfectly, he doesn't change it. We change things that aren't working a lot until they work. But in the case of Paul and Feyd's fight, that was pretty much what I showed him in Hungary, a week after he shot it. We were jumping up and down saying ... 'We've got a great ending'"

Dune: Part Two is now available on Digital and on 4K UHD. Stay tuned for more from our interview with Joe Walker.

Thelma the Unicorn is coming to the streaming screen. Based on Aaron Blabey's fan-favorite children's book series, Thelma the Unicorn tells the tale of the titular pony's (Brittany Howard) efforts to become a world-famous singer, which accelerate dramatically after she accidentally disguises herself as a unicorn. Netflix wasted no time in adding top talent to the animated adaptation, bringing in Jared and Jerusha Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre) to pen the script. Jared also occupied one-half of the director's chair, sharing that title with Lynn Wang.

"They were working with Netflix for about a year, I believe, before I came on, just working on script and working on story and writing and stuff like that," Wang recalled to ComicBook when asked about her production timeline on Thelma the Unicorn. "Once they got to a place where they felt like it was in a pretty solid form where we could kind of take it and start putting visuals to it, that's when I came in. I had just come off of show running for Unikitty! at Warner Brothers, which is another unicorn property. I was primed for this one."

Thelma the Unicorn represents Wang's feature film directorial debut. Prior to this project, Wang had worked on numerous animated television installments in a variety of different roles, from character designing on Spongebob Squarepants to guest directing an episode of Teen Titans Go!. While this movie was a bit of new territory for Wang, she praised the Hesses for welcoming her in with open arms.

"I think it is always hard to have someone come in and who has opinions and thoughts of their own on something that they've already been working on, but they've been so great at welcoming me in," Wang mentioned. "I mostly worked with Jared on the day to day, and then Jerusha would come in at crucial moments to help write and give notes during specific times in the pipeline. Those two people are so nice and so sweet and they're just ready to hear any idea and throw spaghetti against the wall."

Some of those ideas are inspired by the some of the most cherished films in both the animated and live-action space.

"I love Chris and Phil Lord's movies. I think they are really high energy and super funny. And also when they hit emotionally, they really hit emotionally. Stuff like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was my general influence," Wang detailed. "For Thelma specifically, we had musical biopic influences from A Star is Born. We also had Sing Street, which is really fun and also high energy and also big emotions. Then of course, I think Jared's own library of work. His movies like Nacho Libre and Napoleon Dynamite really showcase how silly and funny he can be, but then are also grounded in human emotions and human wants. I think all of that went into Thelma."

Wang also had the luxury of a stacked vocal cast behind Thelma the Unicorn. Beyond Brittany Howard in the titular spot, the ensemble features iconic comedic voices like Zach Galifianakis, Fred Armisen, Will Forte, and Jon Heder.

"They're such pros at what they do, and this is a comedy of course, and so they're like comedy geniuses," Wang applauded the ensemble. "Jared's really good friends with a lot of them, which I think also really helps to make the recording room feel casual, which I think is always really conducive to comedy."

It might not be long before that ensemble is back in the booth either. Blabey has multiple Thelma the Unicorn stories in his archive, meaning there is framework for sequels should Netflix pursue it.

"I hope so," Wang said of a possible Thelma the Unicorn 2. "That would be amazing to get the team back together."

Thelma the Unicorn hits Netflix on May 17th.