It’s so tough for a prequel to achieve the level of greatness established by its predecessor, let alone beat the original at its own game. It certainly happens from time to time, and that seems to count doubly for horror movies. There are rare examples – like Annabelle: Creation, The First Purge, and Ouija: Origin of Evil (though that one had a low bar to beat) – but they’re conspicuous for their scarceness. Though these instances may be few and far between, they certainly exist and should be celebrated accordingly. A more recent example that fits the bill is a horror prequel directed by William Brent Bell.

Orphan: First Kill takes place prior to the events of Orphan, catching up with an adult Estonian woman called Leena (Isabelle Fuhrman), who has the physical appearance of a young child, as she escapes confinement in a psychiatric hospital. Leena ultimately assumes the identity of a missing American girl called Esther. When Esther is “reunited” with her parents, Allen and Tricia (Julia Stiles and Rossif Sutherland), things initially seem to go well. Yet, as Esther “rejoins” her “family,” strange things begin to happen, and we quickly realize that absolutely nothing is what it seems. Even in the age of streaming abundance, Orphan First Kill is only available to watch on Paramount+, and it’s worth looking out for.

This 2022 Horror Prequel Is Even Better Than Its Predecessor

We’re not alone in our assessment that Orphan: First Kill outdoes the original. One need look no further than the aggregate film review site Rotten Tomatoes to verify that claim. Orphan is narrowly fresh on the site, with a critical approval rating of just 60%. However, Orphan: First Kill boasts a more impressive approval rating of 70% with an even higher audience rating.

As for why critics favor the prequel, there are a number of good reasons for that — not the least of which is the way the follow-up takes some of the best parts of the original and runs with them. The original features moments of camp that make the flick stand out from similarly themed offerings, yet the film never goes into full-fledged absurdity like Orphan: First Kill does.

Read Next

Orphan 3 Announced With Isabelle Fuhrman Returning as Esther, But How?

Orphan: First Kill hits the ground running, thanks, in no small part, to the fact that the cat is out of the bag from the get-go. Rather than waiting to learn that Esther isn’t a child at all, we know that going in. That allows the film to start with a crazy, unhinged baseline, and then just continues to build.

Seeing as the first film hinges on a twist, it seems only appropriate that the follow-up does as well. We won’t veer into spoiler territory to tell you how; we’ll only say that the twist here is just as shocking as the one featured in the original, if not more so. At the point at which all is revealed, we learn of a chilling revelation that forever shifts the dynamic between Esther and the couple that takes her in as their missing daughter.

Aside from a great twist, the flick also features a terrific sense of humor. Screenwriter David Coggeshall dreams up a series of chilling scenarios that are often tinged with campy humor. The scene where we see Esther (who looks like an 11-year-old) piloting a stolen car with a cigarette pressed between her lips is a stroke of genius. There are several other standout sequences likely to make you chuckle, but we’ll stop there so as not to spoil all of the comical setups in store for the uninducted.

On the whole, Orphan: First Kill takes the groundwork laid by its predecessor and improves upon it. This is a prequel that leans heavily into the camp value inherent to the setup and delivers an undeniably good time in the process. Moreover, this follow-up effort features a killer twist and a wicked sense of humor. If we’ve successfully sold you on checking out the flick, you can find the film streaming on Paramount+.

If you’ve experienced Orphan: First Kill, we’d love to hear your thoughts. How do you rank it compared to the 2009 original? Let us know in the comments section below!

The post Paramount+ is the Only Place to Watch One of the Only Good Horror Prequels appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Like her Fantastic on-screen husband, Vanessa Kirby isn’t only celebrating the release of Fantastic Four: The First Steps. While that film may be the biggest title out with Kirby at the moment, the actress is currently dominating one popular streaming platform with her most recent release.

Night Always Comes, which was released on Friday, August 15th, is already an instant global streaming hit for Netflix. The movie, which is led by Kirby, has taken to the Top 10 on Netflix’s Top Movies. Per Flix Patrol, the movie is the top film in Netflix’s Top 10 Global Movies, however, domestically the film is currently in third place on Netflix, behind K-Pop Demon Hunters and Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw, which are in first and second, respectively. Here’s the trailer:

Of course, Kirby also stars in Hobbs & Shaw, giving her two films in Netflix’s Top 10 Movies in the U.S. currently. Not bad, for the in-demand actress. Especially as Fantastic Four: The First Steps is still in the top four at the domestic box office. Night Always Comes is a Netflix film that follows Kirby’s character, Lynette, as she opts to risk everything in order to try to secure a future for herself and her brother by ultimately setting out on a “dangerous odyssey, confronting her own dark past over the course of one propulsive night.” The film hails from director Benjamin Caron from a screenplay penned by Sarah Conradt.

Kirby’s new movie is based on the book, “The Night Always Comes,” by author Willy Vlautin. The film adaptation stars Kirby, as well as Zack Gottsagen as Kenny, Jennifer Jason Leigh as Doreen, Jennifer Lanier as Shirley, Jason Rouse as Elvis, Randall Park as Scott, Julia Fox as Gloria, Eli Roth as Blake, and Jake McDorman as Jack. The movie currently has a rating of 53% on Rotten Tomatoes with only thirty-four reviews accounted for, while audiences gave the film a slightly worse score of 49% on the Popcornmeter, suggesting that critics and audiences appear to be on the same page with the film. Most seem to agree that while Kirby delivers a strong performance, the film is incapable of properly telling the powerful story it attempts to tell.

Read Next

Fantastic Four: Vanessa Kirby Praises Pedro Pascal & Co-Stars

Night Always Comes is seemingly a big project for Kirby as she serves as a producer on the film adaptation, alongside Benjamin Caron, Jodie Caron, Lauren Dark, Ryan Bartecki, Gary Levinsohn, and Billy Hines. While the film may be a miss for audiences and critics alike, the film does have a talented crew behind it. Caron, of course, has previously directed episodes of Andor, The Crown, Sherlock, and Skins, all of which are critically acclaimed television shows. On the film side, though, Caron is still building his resume as the only other feature film Caron has helmed is 2023’s Sharper.

Luckily, fans of Kirby have a wide range of titles they can currently check out if they’re looking to see more from the actress. Along with Fantastic Four: The First Steps currently playing in theaters, Hobbs & Shaw is now streaming on Netflix along with Night Always Comes. The actress also appeared in Netflix’s The Crown, which fans can watch now on the streaming service.

The post Fantastic Four Star’s New R Rated Movie Is an Instant Global Streaming Hit appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Many of the best partnerships in the Marvel Cinematic Universe unfortunately don’t exist now as characters and relationships have come and gone. Marvel Studios has adapted dozens of characters from Marvel Comics into live-action since the MCU began with 2008’s Iron Man. Marvel has done a fantastic job of developing these characters into fully-fledged, well-rounded, and relatable people, and their interpersonal relationships and powerful friendships have been at the forefront of this development.

It’s a shame that some of these most interesting and beloved duos don’t exist in the MCU, but the removal of many characters, some deaths, and some developing rivalries mean these partnerships aren’t around anymore. With the MCU barreling towards a reset after Avengers: Secret Wars, it’s possible we could see some of these duos come back to the MCU. For now, however, since the likes of Tony Stark, T’Challa, Wanda Maximoff, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and more are missing from the MCU, these partnerships are still sorely missed.

Read Next

Every New MCU Character Replacing The Original Avengers 

7) Tony Stark & Rhodey

2008’s Iron Man, the MCU’s first movie, introduced this iconic duo that persisted for the next 11 years until Tony Stark’s departure in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. Robert Downey Jr. and Don Cheadle – who debuted in 2010’s Iron Man 2 – had fantastic chemistry on-screen as Stark and James “Rhodey” Rhodes, the armored heroes Iron Man and War Machine, and contributed to one of the MCU’s fan-favorite and longest-running friendships. Stark sacrificed his life in Endgame to defeat Thanos with the Infinity Stones, and it’s surprising we haven’t seen Rhodey’s reaction to this loss yet.

6) Peter Parker & Ned Leeds

The ending of 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home saw everyone in the world forget Peter Parker, meaning he also lost his closest friends. The loss of his friendship with Jacob Batalon’s Ned Leeds will surely leave a huge void in Spider-Man’s life. Ned was the first of Peter’s peers to learn of his identity as Spider-Man, and became his “guy in the chair” on various missions, and he proved pivotal in many of Spider-Man’s missions. Tom Holland will be returning in 2026’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but Peter will have new responsibilities to deal with without his closest friend.

5) T’Challa & Okoye

The tragic and sudden passing of Chadwick Boseman in 2020 not only forced the removal of one of the MCU’s most exciting and potential-filled characters, T’Challa’s Black Panther, but also meant that this fantastic partnership could no longer continue. T’Challa’s friendship with Danai Gurira’s Okoye, the General of Wakanda’s Dora Milaje, was full of respect, wit, and love. They were two of Wakanda’s most formidable and talented warriors, and while Okoye has gone on to foster a strong bond with Letitia Wright’s Shuri, her partnership with T’Challa replicated that of a sibling bond that was brilliant to watch grow.

4) Wanda Maximoff & Vision

One of the MCU’s most emotional storylines has been the development of the romance and grief shared by Wanda Maximoff and the vibranium synthezoid, Vision. Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany’s evolution – taking them from Avengers to lovers, and then to parents – has been explored beautifully in the MCU, and the exploration of their loss of each other and everything they hold dear was even more heartfelt. Vision’s death in Avengers: Infinity War and Wanda Maximoff’s death in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ended this duo, but there is speculation that the pair will somehow reunite.

3) Steve Rogers & Bucky Barnes

One of the longest-running friendships in the MCU is that shared between Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes. They were childhood friends in the early 1900s, fought during World War II together, and reunited years later as super soldiers in the modern era. Their history has been tumultuous, but Rogers has always remained loyal to his closest friend. Rogers’ departure in Endgame – which saw him retire with Peggy Carter – allowed Barnes to build a new friendship with Sam Wilson, but it’s not quite the same as the bond between the original Captain America and Winter Soldier.

2) Natasha Romanoff & Clint Barton

It’s seldom we see such a strong bond between male and female heroes in superhero franchises that don’t have a foundation in romance, but the friendship between Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff and Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton was one for the ages. Black Widow and Hawkeye had a long history before joining the Avengers, as the latter chose to spare the former during a SHIELD mission, instead enlisting her to SHIELD and enabling her defection to the United States. Romanoff ultimately sacrificed her life for Barton and her friends, leaving Hawkeye somewhat untethered in recent years.

1) Thor & Loki

Here’s a missing MCU duo that we might actually be about to see reunite, as both Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston have been confirmed to be involved with 2026’s upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. As of now, however, the main iterations of Asgardian brothers Thor and Loki haven’t been seen on-screen together since 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, which opened with Thanos brutally killing Loki. The growth of Thor and Loki’s bond over the years has been remarkable, taking them from enemies to allies, and now that Loki is the multiverse’s staunch protector, his partnership with his brother will surely be even stronger.

Which lost MCU duos do you miss the most? Let us know in the comments!

The post 7 Great MCU Duos That Don’t Exist Anymore appeared first on ComicBook.com.

One of the Cartoon Network’s best shows ever is on Amazon Prime Video, not HBO Max. This is obviously a little strange because Cartoon Network and HBO Max are both in the Warner Bros. Discovery family so you would expect a popular Cartoon Network show to be on HBO Max, if not an exclusive to the HBO streaming service. Yet, it is not only not available on HBO Max, but it is on Amazon Prime Video. In the future this could obviously change, but in the meantime, Warner Bros. is sending Cartoon Network fans to another streaming service rather than its own.

The Cartoon Network TV show in question is Dexter’s Laboratory from the mind of Genndy Tartakovsky, a name you may also recognize as the creator of Star Wars: Clone Wars and Samurai Jack. Unfortunately, while HBO Max subscribers can’t enjoy this Cartoon Network classic at all, Amazon Prime Video subscribers can only enjoy the first two seasons. Season 3 and Season 4 are not available with an Amazon Prime Video subscription. That said, as Dexter’s Lab fans will know, the first two seasons are the best, and a quality above the two that followed.

Read Next

This Cartoon Network Classic Is Now Pretty Much Impossible to Stream

Streaming Exclusivity

Not only are the first two season of Dexter’s Laboratory not on HBO Max but Amazon Prime Video instead, they are also streaming exclusives for Amazon Prime Video, making the whole situation all the more odder. That said, how long this will be the case we don’t know. They are obviously not permanent fixtures in the Amazon Prime Video library, but we have no information on when they will leave Amazon Prime Video, let alone come to HBO Max.

Amazon Prime Video Having a Noteworthy Month

Beyond being the exclusive streaming home of the first two seasons of one of the best Cartoon Network shows, Amazon Prime Video recently added one of 2024’s biggest and best movies as part of its new lineup this month.

Compared to the likes of Netflix, HBO Max, Peacock, Disney+, and others, Amazon Prime Video has a massive library, and the biggest. So perhaps it should come as no surprise that Dexter’s Laboratory is on Amazon Prime Video. What is more surprising though is that it is, at least currently, an exclusive.

For more coverage on Cartoon Network, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, and all things streaming — including the latest Cartoon Network news — click here. Meanwhile, and as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think.

The post One of Cartoon Network’s Best Shows Is on Prime Video (And Not HBO Max) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

It’s hard to imagine a time when Tom Hardy wasn’t a household name. Long before he suited up as Bane, snarled his way through Mad Max: Fury Road, or became the chaotic anti-hero in Venom, Hardy was still carving out a reputation as one of the most daring actors of his generation. But the world hadn’t seen the full storm he was capable of unleashing. That all changed seventeen years ago when Hardy stepped into the role of Britain’s most infamous prisoner in Nicolas Winding Refn’s Bronson. In that hour and thirty minutes, Hardy unleashed a beast, unpredictable yet enigmatic.

The film encapsulates the moment he transformed into the actor who would one day go toe-to-toe with superheroes, action icons, and cinematic legends. If you’ve ever wondered where the legend of Tom Hardy truly began, you don’t look to Bane or Eddie Brock. You look to Bronson.

The Film That Unleashed Hardy’s Madness

Bronson isn’t your typical crime biopic. Refn could have easily told the story of Charles Bronson (born Michael Peterson) as a straightforward tale about a man who spent decades behind bars. Instead, he turned the film into a surreal, theatrical odyssey. Hardy’s Bronson literally performs his life, often standing on a stage recounting his violent episodes with a mix of humor and menace. It blurs the line between performance and reality, which fits perfectly with a man who spent most of his life locked away in solitary confinement, yet could not stop craving fame. The movie is chaotic, violent, and deeply unsettling. And none of it works without Hardy at the center. He consumes the role, becoming one with the madness. Every scream, every laugh, every explosive act of violence feels so lived-in that you forget you’re watching an actor. 

We’ve seen actors go through dramatic physical changes before, but Hardy’s preparation for Bronson remains one of the most jaw-dropping examples of method commitment. To capture Bronson’s hulking, intimidating frame, Hardy put on over 40 pounds of pure muscle. He emerged as a man who could take on an entire prison block by himself. The physicality of the performance is staggering. The way Hardy carries himself, shoulders back, chest puffed out, fists clenched like weapons, makes him look the part of the rabid, caged animal that Bronson embodies. Hardy’s Bronson is brutal one moment, philosophical the next, and oddly charming in between. It’s that unpredictability that keeps the audience locked in, never knowing if he’ll break into a smile or break someone’s jaw.

Read Next

5 Underrated Tom Hardy Movies & TV Shows

Seventeen years later, the actor has played some incredible characters. He broke Batman as Bane, reinvented Max Rockatansky in Mad Max: Fury Road, and turned Venom into a beloved anti-hero. But even stacked against all of those iconic roles, Bronson still stands out. Why? Because it’s Hardy at his most raw. There are no masks, no heavy prosthetics, no blockbuster spectacle. Just Hardy and a camera, and that’s all it takes to command one’s attention. Unlike his comic book roles, which rely on larger-than-life production, Bronson is entirely powered by Hardy’s performance. Every scene is built around him, and it’s impossible to look away. He turns Bronson into a sort of mythic figure, larger than life, terrifying yet magnetic. It’s the kind of performance that haunts you long after the credits roll.

Looking back, it’s clear Bronson was the launchpad for everything that came after. The fearlessness Hardy displayed here carried into all his later roles. In Warrior, you witness the same physical intensity. In Peaky Blinders, you see the same unpredictability. In Venom, you notice the familiar chaos. But what makes Bronson different is that it was the first time audiences got the full package. Hardy showed us his willingness to go to extremes for a role, even if it meant becoming unrecognizable. He embraced the madness and the malice, and in doing so, he set himself apart from every other actor of his generation.

Seventeen years on, Bronson still hasn’t lost its unsettling charm. It’s not the kind of movie you watch casually. It demands your attention, challenges your expectations, and leaves you feeling oddly uncomfortable. But if you’re a Tom Hardy fan, it’s essential viewing. It’s the film that proved he was a force of nature, one who would soon dominate Hollywood blockbusters and prestige dramas alike. Hardy’s career is filled with highlights. But when it comes to his best performance, the one that first showed us what he was truly capable of, Bronson remains unmatched. 

The post 17 Years Ago, Tom Hardy Gave His Best Performance in This Crime Movie appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Not all great action movies emerge as box office hits, with some true action gems floundering in theaters. Action movies are one of the greatest and longest standing monuments to the human desire for thrills and adventure. Stunts, gun play, martial arts, and vehicular spectacle, and other kinds of displays of physical grit, strength, and determination are everything action fans yearn for when they pay to see an action movie. However, box office success is never written in stone, with action movies becoming hits, flops, or everything in between just like any other genre. That, unfortunately, also applies to great action films as much as it does lackluster one.

In fact, some truly phenomenal action movies have debuted in theaters only to be largely ignored by moviegoers. Fortunately, the silver lining of home media and streaming often gives action movies that bombed in theaters a second chance to find their audience, with some action movie theatrical flops later becoming wildly popular and beloved in the world of home media. Here are 10 great action movies that flopped in theaters despite deserving much better results.

1.) Waterworld

Once upon a time, the title Waterworld was synonymous with over-budget, troubled productions that drown at the box office, but it has aged fantastically as a sea-faring riff on Mad Max. Set in a post-apocalyptic future in which Earth has been submerged by water after the melting of the polar ice caps, Waterworld centers on the Mariner (Kevin Costner), a loner of the high seas with gills, who finds himself protecting Helen (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and Enola (Tina Majorino), the latter of whom bears a tattoo that could be a map to the fabled oasis known as Dryland. Waterworld‘s scope and high-seas battles make it an engaging popcorn adventure, along with the ruthlessly evil performance of the late Dennis Hopper as the Deacon, leader of the pirate gang known as the Smokers who also seek out Dryland. Waterworld eventually turned a profit through home media and other revenue sources, exemplifying that box office numbers are not the be-all and end-all of a movie’s bottom line, while Waterworld‘s sequel comic Children of Leviathan expanded the movie’s mythos and universe in epic fashion.

2.) Chill Factor

1999’s Chill Factor got a decidedly chilly response from critics and at the box office, but it deserved a much warmer one on both counts. Chill Factor focuses on short order cook Tim Mason (Skeet Ulrich) and ice cream delivery truck driver Arlo (Cuba Gooding Jr.), who find themselves transporting a chemical weapon codenamed “Elvis” in order to keep it out of the hands of terrorists. Chill Factor flips the numerical gimmick of Speed to great effect, with Mason and Arlo having to keep Elvis from ever reaching 50 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent the release of its flesh-eating virus. While consistent chase-fueled momentum and hilarious buddy banter between Ulrich and Gooding Jr., Chill Factor is an underrated action comedy that action fans should definitely pull out of the freezer.

3.) Gemini Man

Ang Lee’s Gemini Man was never marketed with the “Will Smith vs. Will Smith” tagline that it arguably should have had, which could at least partially account for the movie’s underperformance in late 2019. Nonetheless, Gemini Man is a splendid action-packed yarn following retired sniper Henry Brogan (Smith), who finds himself pursued by a younger clone of himself. Smith’s range really shines in his side-by-side performance as the veteran Henry and the youthful and conflicted killing machine, Junior, while the movie’s stunts and fight sequences (including an outstanding smackdown between Henry and Junior) deliver in spades. Gemini Man might be the rare Will Smith box office flop, but it is quite arguably the best of the bunch.

4.) Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Nine years after 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, director George Miller followed up one action classic with another with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, a prequel devoted the origins of Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa (played here by Anya Taylor-Joy). Despite deservedly earning every bit of the acclaim that Fury Road did, Furiosa saw a far lower box office return. With Miller’s deft command of the incredible automotive action and stunts in Furiosa rivaling Fury Road‘s and the power of Anya Taylor-Joy’s performance as she seeks revenge for her mother’s death on Chris Hemsworth’s voraciously hammy Dementus, Furiosa‘s box office failure is a sad loss. Nonetheless, Furiosa is a worthy addition to the Mad Max universe and a truly stellar post-apocalyptic action spectacular primed for cult classic status.

Read Next

5 Underrated ’90s Action Movies

5.) Last Action Hero

In his first big summer box office showdown, Arnold lost to the dinosaurs with Last Action Hero‘s close release to Jurassic Park in the summer of 1993, but it has stood the test of time as one of Arnold’s best action movies as well as his most underrated. In Last Action Hero, a magic movie ticket transports action movie fanatic Danny Madigan (Austin O’Brien) into the world of his favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger franchise, the Jack Slater movies. Last Action Hero is at once a fantastic Arnold Schwarzenegger action vehicle and a hilarious spoof of one, going out of its way to point out plot holes and making a memorable in-universe switcheroo with Sylvester Stallone as the star of Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Charles Dance and Tom Noonan’s cold and maniacal villains Benedict and The Ripper add flair to Last Action Hero‘s meta fun, which also fully capitalizes on the layers of being two Arnold actioners for the price of one. A flop in its day, Last Action Hero has long since emerged from the wreckage as a true Arnold classic.

6.) Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Edgar Wright directed what is arguably the most video game movie of all time in 2010’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, in which Michael Cera’s dorky protagonist must defeat the Seven Evil Exes of his new girlfriend Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Based upon Bryan O’Malley’s graphic novel series, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a delight for gamers and especially martial arts fans, with the movie’s wild fight sequences explosions of primary colors and kung fu madness, culminating in the literal explosion of the losing combatant into arcade game tokens. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World decidedly did not explode at the box office in 2010, but has since gone on to be a cherished nerd classic, a gradually achieved but well-deserved win for the video game-kung fu movie combo that Scott Pilgrim vs. The World energetically embodies.

7.) Dredd

Judge Dredd is 0-2 on making it big in movie theaters, but where 1995’s Sylvester Stallone-led Judge Dredd is remembered without much affection, 2012’s Dredd is the complete inverse, with many fans continuing to campaign for Dredd 2. Karl Urban portrays Judge Joe Dredd, with the movie following a “day-in-the-life” story of Dredd responding to a call in the Peach Trees city block with rookie Judge Anderson (Olivia Thirlby). The two are forced to fight for their lives when the building’s crime boss ruler, Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), orders their deaths. Dredd‘s close proximity to and shared single-location premise with 2012’s action hit The Raid: Redemption did it no favors, but the similarities between the two are superficial, with Dredd a wild sci-fi action ride anchored by Karl Urban’s grizzled and at times even chilling performance as Judge Dredd, delivered with his face consistently hidden by his helmet, a true flex of real comic book accuracy. Standing as a revered sci-fi action powerhouse over a decade after its debut, Dredd may be a comic book box office flop, but one that earns the Judge’s rating of “pass”.

8.) Ganapath: A Hero is Born

Tiger Shroff leapt to Bollywood stardom with the action-packed Baaghi franchise, but despite bringing the same charisma and martial arts prowess to 2023’s Ganapath: A Hero is Born, the post-apocalyptic actioner did not find similar success either in India or in its Western theatrical release. Set in the year 2070, Ganapath‘s world is one with a literal wall dividing the haves from the have nots, with young gangster Guddu (Shroff) finding himself kicked out of his bosses inner circle and taken in by a rebel group in the desert, with many coming to believe he is the prophesied savior of their people known as “Ganapath”. Sure, the CGI might be a little on the Sharknado side, and Guddu’s training gets him up to the level of a world class MMA champion in roughly a week or two, but those nitpicks are easy to set aside when Tiger Shroff snaps into action as a twirling machine of fists and kicks in Ganapath‘s many outstanding martial arts sequences. Shroff’s ring fights in particular, including his showdown with Monkey Man‘s fight choreographer Brahim Chab, are some of the best of his career. Ganapath sadly tanked theatrically, with the movie having seemingly yet to be given a streaming or physical media release, but for fans of Bollywood martial arts action, Ganapath is a spin-kicking blast.

9.) Boy Kills World

Bill Skarsgård trades in his usual sinister villain chops for those of a mute, formidable warrior in the action-comedy Boy Kills World, set in a dystopian future in which the Van Der Koy family rules with an iron fist. After the murder of his family by the Van Der Koys, the child known only as “Boy” trains for years under the wise Shaman (Yayan Ruhian) to exact revenge, finding a collection of both unexpected allies and unexpected enemies when he finally embarks on his vendetta. Skarsgård synchronizes his versatile range to portray Boy entirely without words while H. John Benjamin provides the voice of his arcade console-derived inner monologue. Boy Kills World amassed a paltry $3.3 million at the box office, a baffling outcome with the movie’s wild, video game-inspired tale and outstanding martial arts action scenes, including a show-stopping smackdown in which Yayan Ruhian brings all the power and grit of his roles in The Raid movies. Boys Kills World is essentially a streaming release that found its way into theaters, and hopefully, it will thrive over time in its real home in the streaming world.

10.) The Killer’s Game

Speaking of streaming or direct-to-video action movies that snuck under the radar into theaters, 2024’s The Killer’s Game also falls neatly in that classification. The second directorial outing of stunt coordinator extraordinaire J.J. Perry following 2022’s Day Shift, The Killer’s Game focuses on professional assassin Joe Flood (Dave Bautista), who discovers he is dying of a terminal illness and puts a contract on himself in order to give his girlfriend Maize Arnaud (Sofia Boutella) his life insurance money. Unfortunately, Joe learns too late that he was misdiagnosed, with an active assassination contract on his head. Dave Bautista brings his strengths as both action star and character actor to The Killer’s Game with a healthy dose of comedic hops to boot. Action fans will also thrill to not only the movie’s abundant stunts, gun play, and martial arts fights, but its ensemble that includes action greats like Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, and Daniel Bernhardt along with Terry Crews and Bautista’s fellow pro-wrestler Drew McIntyre as the many assassins pursuing him. The Killer’s Game fizzled out at the box office, but the streaming world should hopefully be kinder to it as a stellar, action-packed second chapter of J.J. Perry’s transition from stunt coordinator to action filmmaker.

The post 10 Great Action Movies That Unfairly Flopped at the Box Office appeared first on ComicBook.com.

This year has seen some great horror releases, but 2024 still remains a standout year for the genre. Films like Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu, Osgood Perkins’ Nicolas Cage-led Longlegs, and Tim Burton’s long-awaited Beetlejuice sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, pulled in massive box office hauls and earned rave reviews from critics and audiences alike. Many of those titles have since made their way to streaming platforms, including the best horror movie of 2024, but there’s a major catch.

Streamers like Netflix, HBO Max, and Prime Video are some of the most well-known platforms out there, and their libraries frequently boast some of the biggest titles in recent years. However, a lesser-known platform, Mubi, is streaming The Substance as of this August. Director Coralie Fargeat’s epic body-horror satire centers around Elisabeth Sparkle, a fading actress who in an effort to recapture her youth injects herself with a mysterious drug that promises a younger, better version of herself, but also comes with horrible side effects.

Why You Should Watch The Substance

In a year filled with memorable releases, The Substance was a standout. The movie is one of the best horror movies of 2024 and also one of the best horror films of all time. The Substance managed to find an ounce of originality in a crowded genre, and is self-aware in its societal commentary on aging and Western culture’s obsession with female beauty and youth, depicted through truly gruesome and grotesque body horror. Both thought-provoking and visually disturbing, The Substance made for an unforgettable cinematic experience that will be just as enthralling at home.

The Substance earned plenty of praise for its unflinching and often grotesque storyline, but where the movie really shines is in its cast. Fargeat’s movie is led by Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle, alongside Dennis Quaid as her producer Harvey and Margaret Qualley as Sue, a younger version of Elisabeth. All three actors deliver unforgettable and emotionally-charged performances, but Moore in particular is a standout in the film. The actress delivered a raw and visceral performance as a self-loathing and fading Hollywood star trying to deal with societal pressures in what is without a doubt a career-best. Her portrayal of Elisabeth in The Substance even earned Moore her first Oscar nomination, a rare feat for a horror film, a genre often overlooked at the Academy Awards. Moore didn’t take home the Oscar for Best Actress, but she did win a Golden Globe Award, Critics’ Choice Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award.

Other Top Horror Movies Now On Mubi

Mubi is not as well-known as other streamers in the growing field of subscription streaming options, but the platform has a can’t-miss collection of movies for fans of all genres. The streamer has an especially impressive collection of horror titles, and The Substance is just one of them. See some of the other horror movies streaming on Mubi now below.

Sick of Myself
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
Four Unloved Women, Adrift on a Purposeless Sea, Experience the Ecstasy of Dissection
The Babadook
The House That Jack Built
Night Tide
A Field in England
The Nest of the Cuckoo Birds
House of Seven Bells

The post The Best Horror Movie of 2024 Is Available to Stream (But There’s a Catch) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Back in 2000, Darren Aronofsky directed one of the most intense and shocking dramas in cinema history, and it’s now available to stream for free on Peacock. In the years since his 1998 directorial debut with Pi, Aronofsky has become well-known for producing some of the most surreal, psychological, and disturbing movies in history, including acclaimed hits Black Swan, Mother!, and The Whale. Austin Butler, Matt Smith, and Zoë Kravitz will soon star in Aronofsky’s latest movie, Caught Stealing, but one of his earliest movies paved the way for his more recent projects to take some huge risks.

BE WARNED: This article contains discussion of drug addiction.

Aronofsky’s sophomore movie, Requiem for a Dream, became available to stream on Peacock in May 2025, a quarter of a century after its original release. Requiem for a Dream hit theaters in October 2000 after a successful showcase at Cannes, and despite grossing only $7 million on a $4 million budget, the movie has been lauded as one of Aronofsky’s best and one of the most intense and psychologically-demanding movies in history. Adapted from Hubert Selby Jr.’s 1978 novel, Requiem for a Dream follows four characters affected by drug addiction, and the subsequent alterations of their physical and emotional states.

Requiem for a Dream follows Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn), her son Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto), his girlfriend Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly), and his best friend Tyrone C. Love (Marlon Wayans). They each watch as their lives spiral out of control as they descend deeper into their drug addictions. Sara becomes addicted to amphetamines to lose weight ahead of an appearance on a TV game show, while Harry, Tyrone, and Marion all deal with the impact of their heroin addiction. Harry and Tyrone end up imprisoned, with the former’s arm being amputated, while Marion falls into a life of prostitution.

Read Next

The 10 Best Horror Movies According to IMDB

This incredibly dark subject matter gave Aronofsky the perfect opportunity to show off his experimental, surreal, and psychological filmmaking style early in his career. Requiem for a Dream is one of the most visually-striking movies of Aronofsky’s career, with some images hard to watch, but heightened throughout by strong performances from Academy Award-nominee Burstyn, Leto, Connelly, and Wayans. Each of the actors lost weight for their roles, and immersed themselves in the lives and histories of real individuals dealing with the same issues as their characters, which made for remarkable performances.

Requiem for a Dream is not for the faint-hearted, as a challenging exploration of drug addiction and the real people it affects. However, if you’ve got the stomach for it, it’s certainly worth the watch, as it’s celebrated as one of the best examples of Darren Aronofsky’s work, and one of the most thought-provoking and shocking dramas of all time. You can stream Requiem for a Dream on Peacock.

What do you make of Requiem for a Dream? Let us know in the comments!

The post Peacock Now Streaming One of the Most Intense Dramas of the 2000s appeared first on ComicBook.com.

By bringing the Hulk back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe after a four-year hiatus, Spider-Man: Brand New Day can finally break a surprising and disappointing 13-year-long streak. Bruce Banner has been a staple of the MCU since the franchise’s early days, even though he’s only been the subject of one solo movie, where he was played by Edward Norton. Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk has appeared in all four Avengers movies, and has crossed over with the likes of Thor, Shang-Chi, and She-Hulk, and 2026 will see him join forces with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home ended the complete origin story of Peter Parker in the MCU, ending Jon Watts’ trilogy and allowing new director Destin Daniel Cretton to explore exciting new avenues in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The MCU’s fourth solo Spider-Man movie was confirmed to be in development in 2023, with Tom Holland set to return as a now-anonymous and forgotten Peter Parker. Filming for Spider-Man: Brand New Day started on August 3, 2025, and, since then, we’ve been given some major updates, including the confirmed return of an original Avenger, which promises to break a long-running MCU trend.

Read Next

Brand New Day’s Spider-Man Costume Finally Ends a 6-Movie MCU Trend

The Hulk Hasn’t Transformed On-Screen Since 2012’s The Avengers

On August 1, 2025, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Mark Ruffalo would be reprising the role of Bruce Banner in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Ruffalo will be joining Holland and Jon Bernthal in a suspected three-way battle between Spider-Man, Frank Castle’s Punisher, and the Hulk, with the latter perhaps reverting to his much-wanted savage form. We haven’t seen the Hulk in this unabashed and unhinged form since 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron – which saw the Scarlet Witch put him under a destructive spell – but the Hulk’s appearance in Brand New Day will break an even more surprising streak.

Reverting the Hulk to his savage form in Spider-Man: Brand New Day means we might finally see the former Avenger transform on-screen. We haven’t seen this happen since 2012’s The Avengers, which saw Bruce Banner declare he’s “always angry” before quickly turning into the Hulk in time to punch a Leviathan. In Age of Ultron, we saw the Hulk turn back into Banner, but not the other way around, and the same occurred in Thor: Ragnarok. In Avengers: Infinity War, the Hulk’s impotence meant we saw no transformations at all, while Avengers: Endgame revealed Banner had become the Smart Hulk.

Read Next

A Major Hulk Theory Just Got a Lot More Likely After MCU Update

Smart Hulk requires no transformation, as he is a combination of the human and Hulk personas. This iteration returned in 2022’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, though we did briefly see the beginning of Banner’s transformation into the Hulk, but not the full sequence. We’ve seen Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany), Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), Todd Phelps (Jon Bass), and Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) all Hulk-out in recent years, but not Bruce Banner. Spider-Man: Brand New Day promises to change this, which makes Mark Ruffalo’s return even more exciting.

Mark Ruffalo’s Return as the Hulk in Spider-Man: Brand New Day Explained

Mark Ruffalo’s return in Spider-Man: Brand New Day will mark his first appearance in the MCU since 2022’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and could prepare him to reprise the role yet again in the Russo brothers’ upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. Ruffalo took over from Norton as the Hulk in 2012’s The Avengers, and he has remained as one of the franchise’s most prominent characters in the years since. The distribution rights to the Hulk still reside with Universal Pictures, making the development of new solo movies very difficult, but this doesn’t stop the character from appearing in other heroes’ adventures.

He has been central to the Avengers team, fought alongside Thor in 2017, appeared to welcome Shang-Chi to the MCU in 2021, and partnered with his cousin, Jennifer Walters, in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, all before his upcoming adventure with Spider-Man in Brand New Day. After Spider-Man: No Way Home, however, Bruce Banner will seemingly have no memory of Peter Parker, even though they fought the Mad Titan, Thanos (Josh Brolin), together during Avengers: Endgame. This has spurred speculation that Banner and Parker will not be teaming up, but could actually be enemies in Brand New Day.

It’s possible that, after brief battles, Spider-Man and the Punisher could team up to take on a savage version of the Hulk. With Michael Mando returning as Mac Gargan’s Scorpion, and rumors of Mister Negative, the Inner Demons, and perhaps even Mephisto’s (Sacha Baron Cohen) appearance in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, these antagonists could revert the Hulk to his original form. This would provide Banner with a fantastic transformation sequence, and pose a significant threat to New York’s heroes, as an unhinged and uncontrollable Hulk could cause an immense amount of damage.

Are you excited to see Bruce Banner’s Hulk appear in Spider-Man: Brand New Day? Let us know in the comments!

The post The Hulk’s MCU Return Can End A Ridiculous 13-Year Streak appeared first on ComicBook.com.

When the first Ghostbusters film debuted during the summer of 1984, it revolutionized the horror-comedy genre, and had us all proclaiming that we weren’t “afraid of no ghost.” While that may be true, there are still plenty of scares to found in Ghostbusters in between the laughs. Who can forget the movie’s iconic opening at the New York Public Library with the formidable Library Ghost? Or Slimer terrorizing the Sedgewick Hotel? We’ve never looked at marshmallows the same after Gozer took the form the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and trudged down Central Park West. However, there’s one scene that definitely skewed more horror than horror-comedy in Ghostbusters, and it’s still the scariest scene in the movie, along with all the other films that have followed.

The scene comes at the end second act of Ghostbusters as Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) heads back to her apartment to get ready for her date with Ghostbusters Peter Venkman (Bill Murray). On her way, she bumps into her neighbor, Louis Tully (Rick Moranis). Louis cajoles Dana into stopping by his party with Peter. Dana hedges and enters her apartment, where she takes a call from her mother.

As Dana has her very ho-hum conversation with her mother, the foreboding starts to build. We, the audience, see that the door to Dana’s bedroom is eerily glowing before she does. The film’s score turns ominous, and just as Dana glimpses claws pushing at the door, the scaly, clawed limbs emerge from the armchair she’s sitting in! They hold her down against the chair, making escape impossible, no matter how much Dana screams. Her armchair magically turns and slides toward the now-open bedroom door, where a massive Terror Dog with fangs and glowing-red eyes await her. The next time we see Dana, she’s been possessed by the otherworldly gatekeeper, Zuul.

Dana’s Possession in Ghostbusters is True, Undiluted Horror

Dana’s possession is so darn scary because director Ivan Reitman chooses not to undercut it with any humor. Dana’s not the only character to get possessed in Ghostbusters, but in contrast, there’s more wackiness and gags when Tully succumbs to the Keymaster in the following scene. In Dana’s case, we’re lulled into a false sense of security with the friendly exchange between neighbors that comes before her possession. Especially since Dana’s engaging in a mundane task—talking on the phone with a loved one—right before she’s attacked, adding to the sense that what follows can happen to us too.

Read Next

The Scariest Part of Ghostbusters Has a Surprising Origin Story

Reitman expertly builds the suspense and apprehension after Dana hangs up with her mom. The camera pans around so we see Dana’s glowing bedroom door before she does, and the imprint of the Terror Dog’s paws against the door is plays on our sense of dead of what’s on the other side. It’s a clever misdirect, both Dana and the audience are so busy trying to figure out what’s knocking against the door that the jump scare of the limbs ripping out of chair and pinning her to it can fully land. Also, integral to the scene’s scare factor are Bernstein’s eerie score. The composer’s use of strings underscores the uncanny’s steady increase during the scene.

Of course, the scene wouldn’t have worked at all without Weaver’s arresting performance. No stranger to horror after her star turn in Alien five years prior, Weaver plays Dana’s placidity and then discovery of the monster a moment too late perfectly. It’s a swift shift, but we’re right there with Dana screams and thrashes against the ghoulish limbs and unseen forces dragging her to her monstrous fate, albeit temporary. Funnily enough, the Terror Dogs themselves stemmed from Weaver, who in her audition with Reitman, acted out being possessed by a dog. The director was so taken with her fearlessness and performance, he included it in the film.

This dose of undiluted horror, albeit tame enough to exist in a movie children adore, comes at the exact right spot in Ghostbusters. It introduces a heightened sense of danger to the film as the story goes into its finale and establishes the scale of the monster that the Ghostbusters will be up against. Further proof of the scene’s fear factor is how the Terror Dogs have endured in pop culture. Even before their reprisal in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the monsters were one of the most recognizable memorable creatures to come out of Ghostbusters, since they scared the bejesus out of us, and also created the terms of the balance to be struck between the two genres in future movies in the franchise.

What scene scares you the most in the Ghostbusters films? Let us know in the comments!

The post This Is Still the Scariest Scene in the Ghostbusters Franchise appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Since 2008, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has been breaking records left and right, upping the ante across the board. It’s had everything from box office hits, such as the highest-grossing solo superhero film and the biggest opening weekends for IMAX. Likewise, the MCU has even made it into the Guinness World Records, thanks to Wesley Snipes. We’re not going to sit here and pretend that every record broken has been a positive one, as Marvel has seen its fair share of slumps. Most fans will be quick to point out what hasn’t worked for the larger MCU. For example, Marvel famously caused a bit of burnout with its fans after releasing too many simultaneous projects.

With Marvel officially moving into its planned Phase Six, it’s now clear that the MCU has a new record to brag about. With The Fantastic Four: First Steps officially out in the wild, we’re looking at a total of 37 MCU movies, and their ratings say a lot about the franchise. Taking a look at the Rotten Tomatoes ratings for all 37 films reveals that the franchise has more films certified “Fresh” by Rotten Tomatoes standards. Out of the 37 films, 29 are “Fresh,” putting the franchise at a cozy 78%.

Certified Fresh Marvel Productions

Dedicated fans won’t have a difficult time guessing the top-rated films of the MCU, with Black Panther, Avengers: Endgame, Iron Man, Thor: Ragnarok, and Spider-Man: No Way Home ranking in the top five. None of these films dip below 93%. In fact, viewers will have to look to the 13th spot to see any film get a rating below 90% (Doctor Strange, coming in at 89%).

Interestingly, the two newest films are sitting right below Doctor Strange, in the 14th and 15th spots, respectively. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is holding steady at 86%, while Thunderbolts* has a solid 88% (despite its box office failure).

As predicted, the films failing to land a certified “Fresh” status are largely sequels, with a few exceptions. Eternals and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania sit on the bottom, not too far below Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Love and Thunder.

Marvel’s Record-Breaking Trends

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is no stranger to breaking records and making a name for itself. While recent years may show the franchise is struggling to find the right path forward, early years showcased a strong plan. Iron Man came out swinging, and that character became a huge part of many stories, including Marvel’s highest-grossing film, Avengers: Endgame. Incidentally, that film battled for the highest-grossing film of all time, totaling $2.797 billion at the global box office.

Those numbers starkly contrast the conclusion to Marvel’s Phase 5, which reportedly only brought in $3.66 billion in total. That includes the numbers from Deadpool & Wolverine, so it’s safe to say that the earnings dropped significantly during Phase 5. To see the two most recent films ranking well may offer some hope and guidance to future Marvel productions.

Read Next

Every Avengers Team in the MCU’s History, Ranked

Closest Comparisons

Given how massive the MCU is, spanning dozens of films, characters, and events, it may seem challenging to find an accurate comparison for record purposes. However, one franchise that comes surprisingly close is James Bond. It’s beloved series that goes back decades, totaling 26 films to date. Given all the talk about reboots and recasting, we’ll probably be seeing newer additions sooner rather than later.

Out of those 26 Bond films, 19 landed a Fresh rating. That’s 73%, which is incredibly impressive, given the range of actors, styles, and eras the franchise has encompassed. The top five films, Goldfinger (1964), From Russia With Love (1963), Dr. No (1962), Casino Royale (2006), and Skyfall (2012), all sit comfortably above the 90% mark.

Ultimately, the records of major franchises such as the MCU and Bond help us gain more insight into what is and isn’t working in the industry. Marvel’s numbers give them an edge to records like these, but we’re seeing them happen more often across the industry.

The industry is changing, as it is now taking more to get people into theaters for major releases. How the industry continues to change, and what that means for our favorite franchises, remains to be seen. News revolving around Avengers: Doomsday makes it clear that Marvel execs are aware of this, and they’re quickly trying to formulate a plan for their future.

What was your favorite Marvel movie, and do you agree or disagree with its Rotten Tomatoes rating?

The post The MCU Has a Rotten Tomatoes Record That May Never Be Broken appeared first on ComicBook.com.

In March 2027, the MonsterVerse will unleash its sixth installment in the form of Godzilla x Kong: Supernova. The franchise’s major Apple TV+ show Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, meanwhile, will soon drop its second season. Its streaming home has always announced plans for more spinoffs of the show in the near future. The MonsterVerse is on a roll, in other words. This saga keeps roaring mightily in the pop culture landscape and doesn’t appear to have any plans to stop its ubiquity anytime soon. All of that makes it amusing to remember that the MonsterVerse basically collapsed for one brief moment in May 2019.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters brought the MonsterVerse to its critical and especially financial nadir just before that big Godzilla vs. Kong showdown.

What Went Wrong With Godzilla: King of the Monsters?

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is no misunderstood misfire in the history of the MonsterVerse. While no post-2017 entry in the saga has hit the creative heights of either Godzilla or Kong: Skull Island, King of the Monsters is an especially misguided affair. Writer/director Michael Dougherty does pack the script with more monsters, seemingly as a response to all the complaints of Godzilla’s minimal screentime in 2014’s Godzilla. However, he constantly cuts away from any of the carnage involving Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah to an even more plentiful cast of humans than Godzilla’s human characters.

This abundance of flesh-and-blood Earthlings all talk in irritating quips, making any screentime spent with them insufferable. Meanwhile, Ken Watanabe’s Ishiro Serizawa’s storyline eventually dovetails into a self-sacrifice scene that somehow paints nuclear weaponry as “heroic” in a Godzilla movie. It’s a misguided decision exemplifying how little thought has gone into the grating humans populating King of the Monsters. Whenever those big beasties are on-screen, meanwhile, Dougherty frames them through strangely busy framing and jumpy editing.

The crisp, awe-inspiring imagery of the Gareth Edwards Godzilla (which truly made Godzilla and the MUTOs feel towering) is gone. In its place is an excessively crowded visual scheme, drowning Godzilla and his foes in busy snowstorms and buckets of rain. It’s a decision that left viewers uttering “what just happened?” rather than “whoa!” That alone exemplifies why King of the Monsters couldn’t click with audiences. Even other weaker MonsterVerse titles like Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire at least made the monster fight scenes visually coherent.

Read Next

The First Godzilla Teaser Trailer Is the Best MonsterVerse Movie

If King of the Monsters couldn’t deliver on giant monsters duking it out, what good was it? That reality led to box office returns that totally should have spelled doom for everything related to the MonsterVerse.

How the MonsterVerse Bounced Back From King of the Monsters

In its domestic box office run, Godzilla: King of the Monsters only grossed $110.5 million, a sharp 45% drop from Godzilla’s domestic haul five years earlier. It’s also, to date, the only MonsterVerse film to gross under $300 million internationally. Normally, outright flopping like this would’ve inspired the MonsterVerse to end before that long-teased Godzilla vs. Kong showdown. However, this franchise got lucky, since Godzilla vs. Kong was already deep into principal photography when King of the Monsters came up short theatrically.

Meanwhile, Godzilla vs. Kong beat out box office expectations in March 2021 thanks to the external circumstances surrounding its release. With New York and Los Angeles finally reopening their theaters in March 2021, Godzilla vs. Kong was the first major blockbuster to open all across North America in over a year. This Adam Wingard directorial effort didn’t register with audiences, then, as a King of the Monsters sequel. It was instead a grand return of big blockbusters to your local multiplex. Between that and Godzilla vs. Kong doing significantly better internationally than its predecessor, the MonsterVerse was back.

The significantly pared-down human cast of titles like Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire also suggests that the MonsterVerse took to heart complaints over the ludicrously excessive human cast eating up screentime in King of the Monsters. Even the emphasis on Hollow Earth and its brightly colored, daylight-heavy in the Godzilla vs. Kong movies feels like a shift away from the drably lit backdrops of King of the Monsters. Unforeseen external circumstances gave the MonsterVerse a new lease on life at the box office. However, its most recent installments have shown a tangible commitment to not replicating the failures of the saga’s weakest installments.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is now streaming on HBO Max.

What do you think of Godzilla: King of the Monsters? Let us know in the comments below!

The post One MonsterVerse Movie Almost Derailed The Entire Franchise (And For Good Reason) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

When Nobody was first announced, many commenters thought that Bob Odenkirk was an odd choice to star in an R-rated action movie, yet the actor has drawn on his own real-life experiences for this role. In a new interview with Variety, stunt coordinator Greg Rementer explained how the fight scene set on a duck boat in Nobody 2 was Odenkirk’s idea, inspired (loosely) by real-life events. Even after the filmmakers decided to run with the idea, Rementer was surprised by how they wanted to go about it, but he was excited for the challenge. The scene was actually filmed on a real boat on the water rather than in front of a green screen.

“It came from this childhood experience that Bob had,” Rementer recalled as he discussed the scene in question. He said, ‘I remember going on these duck boats when I would go to the Wisconsin Dells as a kid.’” Rementer agreed with others on set that this would be a fun and interesting set piece, but he didn’t expect to be choreographing around moving water. He assumed “they’d park a boat on a blue screen, and we’ll go through the fight.”

Rementer said he was pleasantly surprised when he heard they would be filming this scene outside on a real boat. “That immediately opened up twice the possibilities, due to interaction, movement and ambiance,” he said. Many have compared the sequel’s duck boat fight to the fight on a bus in the first Nobody film, but Rementer highlighted the differences between these two brawls. It was a buildup that allowed a character to exert frustrations. The duck boat fight was the opposite of that. Hutch is like, ‘I’m going to restrain myself,'” he pointed out.

Read Next

Bob Odenkirk Thinks Nobody Will Be More Than a Trilogy (& for Good Reason)

Odenkirk told ComicBook about the duck boat fight himself in an interview earlier this month. He said that a few colleagues tried to talk him out of shooting an action sequence on an unstable surface, but he was already comitted by then. He felt that the duck boats would be recognizable to just about everyone who has been in a vacation town anywhere in the U.S., including the Wisconsin Dells.

“They told me. Don’t do that. Don’t do it,” Odenkirk said. “I mean, really, the producers are like, you don’t want to fight on a boat. It’s just a pain in the ass. But the truth is, when I was a kid, my family went on two vacations, the Illinois State Fair and the Wisconsin Dells. And this film is inspired by my trip as a kid to the Wisconsin Dells. And we rode on duck boats. And duck boats are famous for being in almost every vacation town … I was told don’t do the fight on the duck boat because being on water is hard, but I insisted upon it. I wanted to make that dream come true.”

Nobody 2 hit theaters this weekend, and is now showing around the world. The first movie is streaming now on Prime Video.

The post Bob Odenkirk’s Wild Childhood Influenced Nobody 2’s Bloodiest Fight appeared first on ComicBook.com.

For better or worse, there is no Spider-Man without Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Tony Stark saves a young Peter Parker during the Stark Expo in Iron Man 2 without thinking anything of it, but he earns a lifelong fan who becomes a hero when he gets the chance years later. In Captain America: Civil War, Tony recruits Peter to join his team, which is gearing up to fight Steve Rogers’ group in Germany, even giving the young hero a new suit. After that, the two are as thick as thieves, always having each other’s backs when times get tough.

Of course, Tony has to watch Peter die on Titan in Avengers: Infinity War, and while he tries to lock all the pain away, he gets back on the horse and finds a way to bring everyone back. The plan works like a dream, but Tony loses his life after using the Infinity Gauntlet to wipe out Thanos and his army. Ever since, Spider-Man has been working to be a hero Tony would be proud of. Well, in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Peter is going to have a chance to put his money where his mouth his by providing another hero with a major upgrade.

Frank Castle Is Going to Be in Over His Head in Spider-Man: Brand New Day

With Iron Man out of the picture, the Wall-Crawler has been hanging out with some other notable MCU figures in his solo movies. Nick Fury (who is actually the Skrull Talos posing as the spy) brings Mysterio and Peter together to take on the Elementals in Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Doctor Strange offers to make everyone forget the connection between the young man and Queens’ resident hero in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Brand New Day will continue the trend by bringing Frank Castle, aka the Punisher, into the fold. Since the movie is still about a year out, his role is a mystery at this point, but it’s probably going to have something to do with the Hulk, who’s going to pick a fight with a couple of New York’s best.

As confident as the Punisher is while battling rogue cops and ninjas, the Hulk is in a whole different league, as he can go toe-to-toe with massive wolves and Asgardians. Peter is sure to recognize the pickle that he’s in, so he may offer to help Frank out by gifting him a suit of armor. That way, when the Hulk starts throwing punches, the Punisher won’t be down for the count after one blow. The decision also wouldn’t be completely out of left field, as the Punisher has a history with Iron Man armor in Marvel Comics.

Read Next

The MCU Updates Its Official Timeline To Include a New Earliest Entry

Marvel Comics Makes the Punisher a New Version of War Machine

Marvel is constantly reinventing its characters to keep things fresh. Big characters like Captain America and Spider-Man get a lot of the attention because they’re the cream of the crop, but the wave of change hits everyone eventually. Punisher has been Ghost Rider and something resembling Frankenstein’s monster that leads a group known as the Legion of Monsters. However, one of his most effective eras sees him don the War Machine armor after Nick Fury calls him in to take out ex-SHIELD soldiers. Frank likes the power that the suit gives him, so he takes it back to New York with him and cleans up the streets.

It doesn’t take long for Punisher to take things too far, though, and the Avengers have to intervene. While the anti-hero doesn’t want to give up his new toy, he does after having a heart-to-heart conversation with James Rhodes, the original War Machine. Rhodey is still around in the MCU, and he’s probably not looking to hand over his baby to someone like Frank. But if Peter vouches for him and promises to return it after defeating the Hulk, Rhodey may relent because lives are on the line. At that point, it’ll be up to Frank to not let the power go to his head.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day hits theaters on July 31, 2026.

Do you think Frank Castle could use the War Machine armor in Spider-Man: Brand New Day? Is there another way for him to fight the Hulk? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Spider-Man: Brand New Day Could Replace Iron Man in The Coolest Way appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Superman isn’t just a reset for the Man of Steel, but an entire DC Universe, and as such, it brings with it multiple other new heroes who’ll go on to play key roles in the future. There’s the Justice Gang – Green Lantern, Mr. Terrific, and Hawkgirl – all of whom will return in Peacemaker, with Guy Gardner also expected to appear in Lanterns when it debuts on HBO Max sometime in 2026. And towards Superman‘s ending, there’s also the appearance of Kal-El’s cousin, Kara Zor-El, better known as Supergirl (played by House of the Dragon star Milly Alcock).

We’ve seen multiple iterations of the Girl of Steel on-screen over the years, from Helen Slater’s take in the 1980s through to Melissa Benoist in the Arrowverse, and most recently, Sasha Calle in The Flash. However, we haven’t seen Kara appear quite like this. Supergirl is, rather surprisingly, drunk, stumbling her way in (and out) of the Fortress of Solitude and calling her cousin “b*tch” for good measure. Clark explains that Kara has been on a planet with a red sun, which allows Kryptonians to become intoxicated, but the reasoning behind it makes for a great way to set up her solo movie.

Why Supergirl Is Drunk In Superman

The “why” of Supergirl being drunk is more intriguing than the “how,” and speaks to the differences between the Maiden of Might and the Man of Steel in James Gunn’s new DC Universe. In an interview with ScreenRant, Gunn himself described this version of the character as “a total mess,” adding that she had a “different… much more difficult background” than her cousin.

The Supergirl movie, taking inspiration from the comic book run Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (written by Tom King, with art by Bilquis Evely and color from Mat Lopes), will explore more of just what happened to her. But, in a nutshell, whereas Kal-El was sent to Earth and raised by a loving family, Kara remained on a chunk of Krypton. She spent years there, watching people she knew and loved die, turning her into a much darker, more depressed, and disillusioned character and one who, yes, turns to alcohol as a coping mechanism.

Read Next

All 6 DCU Projects Set Up By Superman

The comic book story even begins with Kara getting drunk at a bar on her 21st birthday, so the DC Universe’s take seems to be sticking reasonably close to that blueprint. It’s a version of the character who has no clear sense of purpose and has suffered a huge amount of loss, which should lead directly into her solo movie.

Superman’s Setup For DC’s Supergirl Movie Is Perfect

Supergirl’s cameo in Superman is very much played for laughs, and it works, in part thanks to Alcock’s performance (I like to think that Gunn’s choice was at least partially inspired by the actress being drunk on stage at the Golden Globes 2023). That’s something that should continue, allowing for moments of levity and real humor in the 2026 movie, but there’s also an opportunity for something much deeper to go alongside it.

Supergirl should be about exploring Kara’s trauma, guilt, and anger. There’s a real chance to dive into her psyche in a way that brings a lot of pathos and likely a lot of superpowered rage (Woman of Tomorrow‘s story is, in a basic sense, a revenge mission that Kara ends up joining). The movie needs to maintain a careful tonal balance between comedy and tragedy, but the setup is very much there to do so. It can use the cameo as a springboard to unpack what led to Kara being this way, which should make it a more complex character study.

That would pair perfectly with Superman. Gunn delivered a very classic take on the character, which focused on his humanity; it’s about the hope he both carries with him and instills in others. Supergirl should be an exploration of a superhero who has lost that hope and has to work to regain it. About, to use Gunn’s phrasing, a messy individual (and her adorable-if-also-messy dog) who has to untangle that mess. It will be a unique journey, one that is entirely hers and distinct from her cousin’s, and will hopefully show the richness and diversity of stories in the burgeoning DCU.

Supergirl will be released in theaters on June 26th, 2026. Superman is currently in theaters and available on digital.

The post Supergirl Being Drunk in Superman Is Perfect for James Gunn’s DC Universe appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Zach Cregger’s Weapons continued to perform very well at the box office in its second weekend, and the acclaimed horror film has already made more money domestically than one of the year’s most infamous flops. According to Deadline, Weapons is poised to repeat as box office champion this weekend, bringing in about $25 million in the United States. Not only is that a very strong hold for the feature (a drop of just 43%), it raises Weapons‘ domestic total to roughly $89 million over its first 10 days. That surpasses the $87.2 million Disney’s live-action Snow White remake earned for its entire run.

Embroiled by multiple controversies as it entered theaters, Snow White struggled to make much of an impact in theaters. Budgeted somewhere between $240-270 million, the remake opened with just $42.2 million domestically and quickly fell down the charts. It suffered a staggering 66% drop in its second weekend, becoming a bomb. Snow White grossed only $205.6 million globally.

Snow White eventually found an audience when it hit streaming. It was the most popular movie on Disney+ back in June, beating out titles such as the original animated Lilo & Stitch and Predator: Killer of Killers. Still, that wasn’t enough to make up for its lackluster box office performance — especially as the live-action Lilo & Stitch remake broke records en route to $1 billion worldwide. Snow White‘s struggles forced Disney to hit the pause button on the live-action Tangled remake.

Read Next

Weapons Is Hiding a Hilarious Easter Egg for a Cult Comedy Show

In contrast, Weapons had no problem leaving an impression on audiences. Bolstered by very strong word of mouth and a mysterious marketing campaign, the original horror film exceeded projections in its first weekend, grossing $43.5 million in its first three days. That opening frame was more lucrative than the entire box office run of Cregger’s previous film, Barbarian.

Weapons has emerged as another box office win for Warner Bros., which has enjoyed a resurgence this spring and summer. It was the studio’s sixth straight film this year to debut with $40+ million domestically, a new record. Weapons is already profitable, having recouped its $38 million production budget last weekend. Its success has generated excitement not just for what’s next for Cregger (his Resident Evil movie just became that much more anticipated), but also further stories in the Weapons universe. In particular, there’s interest in building a prequel film around breakout character Aunt Gladys, played by Amy Madigan.

There’s no reason why Weapons shouldn’t be able to continue to hold well over the next few weeks. The rest of August doesn’t feature much in the way of high-profile competition. This week’s new arrival, Nobody 2, had to settle for third place in its debut (just $9.25 million). In addition to bringing in general moviegoers thanks to the word of mouth, Weapons can also corner the horror/thriller demographic until September, when movies like The Conjuring: Last Rites and The Long Walk open. It’ll be interesting to see how high Weapons goes.

The post Weapons Just Made More Money in 10 Days Than a Major Disney Flop Did in 2 Months appeared first on ComicBook.com.

One hero’s powers were significantly weakened in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, making us question what might be next for the iconic father of Marvel’s First Family. First Steps marked the Fantastic Four’s official debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach finally doing the legendary superhero team from Marvel Comics justice in live-action. However, one of the team’s members wasn’t quite what we expected, and may have already become a victim of Marvel Studios nerfing its strongest heroes.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps pitted the titular team against the god-like being Galactus (Ralph Ineson), who sought the Power Cosmic inside Reed Richards (Pascal) and Sue Storm’s (Kirby) newborn son, Franklin. The Four lured Galactus to Earth, fighting the planet-eater in an attempt to push him through a teleportation bridge. During the battle, Mister Fantastic struggled to go toe-to-toe with Galactus, and failed to show off the full extent of his elastic powers – particularly when Galactus almost tore him apart just by stretching him what seemed to be a very small distance.

Read Next

Fantastic Four: First Steps Almost Totally Avoids Showing One Character’s Powers

In previous live-action adaptations, Reed Richards has been shown to be able to stretch incredible distances. Marvel Comics has, at times, depicted him stretching up to 1500ft, at which point he starts to feel discomfort, but he can indeed stretch much further. This was not the case in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, as Galactus only stretched Richards a short distance before he started to feel intense pain and his specially-designed costume began to tear. It’s surprising that The Fantastic Four: First Steps depicted Mister Fantastic’s power as so limited, but this could spell good news for the hero’s future.

In First Steps, Galactus is clearly a massive being, so he could have been stretching Reed Richards much further than we think, which could explain the hero’s pain. He could have indeed been stretched over 1500ft, though this does seem unlikely given the fact that Galactus shrunk himself to walk the streets of New York City. This limitation on Mister Fantastic’s power in First Steps, however, does leave the hero with room to grow in his future MCU appearances, which means he can continue a great pattern from previous MCU instalments.

Marvel Studios’ heroes seldom debut in the franchise at their full capacity, and this could be the case for Reed Richards in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. In the same way that Peter Parker’s power was honed, T’Challa gained kinetic energy abilities, Sam Wilson has grown in strength over the years, and Wanda Maximoff unlocked her Scarlet Witch abilities, Reed Richards’ stretching powers could expand. This gives us hope for his appearances in the upcoming Phase 6 crossovers, Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, and in inevitable sequels to The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

What did you think of Reed Richards’ powers in The Fantastic Four: First Steps? Let us know in the comments!

The post I’m Still Disappointed The Fantastic Four: First Steps Nerfed One Hero’s Iconic Superpower appeared first on ComicBook.com.

A shocking movie is about to leave Netflix. The platform tends to make a big deal of the viewing statistics of their original movies and shows: when releases like KPop Demon Hunters become smash hits, you can’t avoid the success story. Netflix is, after all, a success engine: anything that does well – particularly Originals – ends up getting a sequel, or further seasons, all thanks to whatever algorithm is judging the numbers. But what happens when one of Netflix’s biggest successes doesn’t actually belong to them? Well, they lose it, sooner or later.

That’s the case for the most watched movie of the last 2 years on Netflix (by their own What We Watched admission), which, improbably, is The Boss Baby. Yes, the Alec Baldwin-led animation about a baby that’s secretly a spy, which has amassed more than 220 million views since 2023. And disastrously for all parents who’ve had their Netflix accounts hijacked by children repeat-binging the movie, it’s leaving Netflix on August 22. That might not mean a lot to most people, but The Boss Baby has been a frequent power player in the Netflix movie Top 10 for the past 2 years, and it’s not without reason.

So, Why Is Boss Baby So Popular?

In a word, kids. Animation is big business for Netflix, which is why the company lavishes millions on deals like the one that licensed CocoMelon to the platform in recent years. The movie has a simple, compelling premise that has a lot of good jokes for adults, but is laser targeted on the prime young demographic who will watch and rewatch, racking up countless viewing hours. It’s funny, silly, and timeless, and crucially, it doesn’t really ask much of the audience.

The Boss Baby and its sequels have actually accounted for an astonishing 327M views in the last two years alone (without considering the Back in Business TV series spinoff). And the top 10, is pretty healthily dominated by animation: the second placed movie in the past two years is The Super Mario Bros. Movie, with 209M views, and third is Adam Sandler’s Leo, with 207M.

Read Next

One of Netflix’s Most Watched Movies of All Time Is Leaving in Days

Beyond the top 3, Minions (of course), Sing!, and Dr Seuss’ The Grinch account for more than 530 million views. That’s a vast amount of viewing hours, and only Leo is a Netflix original. That partly explains why Netflix will be so delighted with the huge success of K-Pop Demon Hunters, which is now listed as the second highest watched Netflix original of all time, according to Tudum. It still has a long way to go to beat Boss Baby, though.

Other Big Movies Leaving Netflix Soon

Thanksgiving (Aug 17) – Eli Roth’s surprisingly great horror from 2023 stars Patrick Dempsey as the sheriff of a town stalked by a vengeful killer a year after a Black Friday disaster.

Kung Fu Panda 4 (Aug 21) – Another popular animation, this time with Jack Black’s high-kicking panda Po trains his potential successor and takes on another mystical villain.

Melancholia (Aug 25) – Pretty much the single most depressing movie you’ll ever watch in your life, but it’s inarguably well made.

The Hitman’s Bodyguard & The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (Aug 31) – Ryan Reynolds’ other comedy franchise, which saw him team up with Samuel L Jackson and Salma Hayek.

The post One of Netflix’s Most Watched Movies of All Time Is Leaving in Days appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The sci-fi genre has long been one of the most consistently popular and inventive in modern fiction. Its very definition requires looking into the future, examining humanity and its progress as the world around us and the fabric of our society evolves, often with technological advancement at its heart. Science fiction has fascinated audiences for many years, with modern blockbusters further broadening the genre’s scope to deliver thought-provoking stories. However, there’s another side to many common sci-fi tropes that sees the genre often feature moments of horror, where the march of progress is often imagined to have overtaken mankind’s ability to control the world around us.

There are many great sci-fi movies, but making a truly terrifying piece of sci-fi horror is something else entirely. As well as delivering plausible and well-presented science fiction, these movies must also capture the terrifying essence of their central themes in order to appropriately frighten their audience. It’s a delicate balance to strike, and one that requires careful consideration, but when executed well, it makes for some of the most terrifying movies out there.

1) Annihilation (2018)

Directed by Alex Garland and loosely based on the novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer, 2018’s Annihilation is often hailed as one of the best sci-fi movies of the 2010s. It follows a team of scientists who enter a quarantine zone named the Shimmer, which is populated by mutated plant and animal life caused by an extraterrestrial presence. With a star-studded cast featuring Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tuva Novotny, and Oscar Isaac, Annihilation captured the imagination of many.

What makes it such a terrifying movie isn’t jump scares or a frightening villain, but a simple dedication to depicting the sheer horror that an alien presence could visit upon humanity. The Shimmer is a place where reality becomes increasingly warped, altering those who step inside drastically and in horrifying ways. It’s a calculated and mind-bending story that makes great use of purely existential horror, making Annihilation a deeply unnerving watch from beginning to end.

2) Possessor (2020)

Written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg—son of David Cronenberg, the master of body horror—2020’s Possessor is a frightening and underrated piece of sci-fi horror. Starring Andrea Riseborough as Taysa Vos, an assassin who transfers her consciousness into unwitting host bodies in order to perform hits, Possessor‘s story concerns Vos’ difficulty in controlling her latest host body in a fight for control with its original owner. Also starring Rossif Sutherland, Tuppence Middleton, Sean Bean, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, Possessor boasts an impressive range of talent both on and off the screen.

A deeply unnerving movie, Possessor delivers a masterclass in sci-fi horror. Described by critics as an unsettling psychological thriller, it taps into key elements of both sci-fi and horror to deliver a film that examines deeper themes in a way that both engages and terrifies on multiple levels. It’s a tense and provocative film that pushes boundaries while also making timely examinations about modern society, making Possessor an incredibly frightening and interesting movie.

3) Predator (1987)

The very beginning of the Predator movie franchise started incredibly strong, spawning one of the most beloved sci-fi horror series in modern cinema. 1987’s Predator features an elite team of paramilitary operators tasked with saving hostages from guerrillas in a Central American rainforest, only to discover it has become the hunting ground of a powerful alien presence. The movie has gone on to earn a place in sci-fi history, with its gleefully violent action a terrifying introduction to one of the genre’s most frightening villains.

What makes Predator so scary is that it is a surprisingly nuanced movie. On the surface, it’s a relatively simple piece of sci-fi horror about overconfident humans facing an enemy much stronger and more advanced than themselves. However, it’s also a cutting examination of the machismo of the action genre, subverting numerous tropes by making its action heroes fodder for a largely unseen foe. There’s a very good reason that the franchise it spawned remains so popular, and that’s because of the exceptionally scary foundations laid by the first movie.

4) Under the Skin (2013)

2013’s Under the Skin features Scarlett Johansson in one of her most memorable sci-fi roles to date. The movie follows a character identified as the Female (Johansson), an extraterrestrial disguised as a woman who preys on men. However, what makes it such a terrifying movie isn’t necessarily its story, but rather the atmosphere of dark introspection that it creates.

Under the Skin‘s depiction of a predatory alien living on Earth and carving out her own survival at the cost of others’ lives is standard sci-fi fare in many ways. However, the unnerving and inhuman performance of Scarlett Johansson is a key part of Under the Skin‘s ability to send chills down the spine of its audience; even while she commits horrific acts, the movie conjures an element of empathy for her character. Her own fate is every bit as horrifying as her victims, lending the movie even more of an air of the deeply uncomfortable and intimately frightening.

5) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

1978’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers is one of the best-known sci-fi horror movies of all time, not just for its quality but for its wider impact on pop culture. The movie, based on Jack Finney’s 1955 novel The Body Snatchers, follows a pair of San Francisco health inspectors who discover that humans are being secretly replaced by alien duplicates devoid of any humanity or empathy. It’s also known for delivering one of the most perfect sci-fi movie endings of all time.

It’s the nature of Invasion of the Body Snatchers‘ villains that make the movie so terrifying. The notion that a person could be replaced by a perfect biological duplicate makes for a distinct air of paranoia that cannot be denied, with the movie taking this idea and using it to build towards a deeply unsettling climax. It’s a movie that remains terrifying even decades after release through the simple merit of its sci-fi story, and one that has truly left its mark on the genre for all to see.

6) Event Horizon (1997)

While Event Horizon isn’t considered a sci-fi classic, its status as something of a spiritual successor to 1979’s Alien has helped cement its cult reputation. Its story concerns the titular ship, long considered lost in space, found seemingly derelict in orbit of Neptune, and the rescue mission that ensues. The presence of an extradimensional entity on board is the driving force behind the movie’s plot, and proves to be appropriately horrifying as to make Event Horizon an especially memorable cinematic outing.

The level of gruesome visual horror on display is either sheer brilliance or stomach-churning, depending on who you ask. There’s a wider, existential level to Event Horizon‘s story that brings a whole new layer of horror to the movie, with humanity’s own place in the universe seeming insignificant thanks to the terrifying perspective it offers. Though audiences continue to share mixed opinions on the movie, it’s nonetheless a frightening chapter in the cinematic history of sci-fi.

7) Altered States (1980)

Unlike many other movies in the genre, 1980’s Altered States doesn’t rely on sci-fi movie twists or excessive violence to make its story memorable. It follows a psychopathologist researching sensory deprivation, who, over a decade of obsessive experimentation, reaches a terrifying breakthrough. While it may have become relatively obscure in comparison to some of its contemporaries, Altered States remains a flawless piece of horrifying sci-fi.

While it doesn’t feature extraterrestrial or robotic villains, Altered States boasts something arguably more terrifying. Its story explores the dangers of unlocking the darker parts of human consciousness, and its delivery of this idea using both psychological and body horror is truly exceptional. Altered States is a deeply unsettling, memorably terrifying, and sadly underrated piece of sci-fi that deserves to be mentioned alongside all of the genre’s most frightening entries.

8) The Thing (1982)

John Carpenter’s The Thing is one of the best-loved sci-fi movies of the 1980s. Its story follows a team of American researchers on an Antarctic base who encounter a malevolent and deceptive extraterrestrial being. After inadvertently allowing it into their base, it begins consuming and duplicating the scientists, prompting the survivors to grow increasingly distrustful of one another. Starring Kurt Russell, Keith David, A. Wilford Brimley, and T.K. Carter as part of a large ensemble, The Thing remains a sci-fi horror classic.

What makes The Thing such a terrifying movie is the way it blends its sci-fi premise with visual and psychological horror throughout. While the titular alien being is capable of perfectly mimicking other lifeforms, its transformations make for grotesque body horror, while other scenes highlight the futility of being isolated and distrustful of everyone around. In many ways, The Thing is a bleak movie that outlines just how hopeless a struggle against a more powerful and advanced being can be.

9) The Fly (1986)

While David Cronenberg can boast being responsible for multiple instances of iconic body horror, few are as impressive as 1986’s The Fly. The movie stars Jeff Goldblum as eccentric scientist Seth Brundle who develops revolutionary teleportation technology, only to inadvertently fuse his own DNA with that of a housefly while using it. The movie chronicles Brundle’s transformation from a brilliant scientist to a grotesque, insectoid villain.

The Fly is commonly considered one of the greatest examples of body horror in sci-fi cinema. David Cronenberg’s mastery of the subgenre is plain to see, as The Fly is deeply disturbing on multiple levels. Its visual presentation of Brundle’s transformation, as well as the thematic implications of its story, combine to make The Fly one of the most terrifying and profoundly unnerving movies in the history of the sci-fi genre.

10) Alien (1979)

Ridley Scott’s Alien is commonly considered one of the best sci-fi movies ever made, and its legacy certainly lends credence to the notion. Following the crew of the mining spacecraft, the Nostromo, Alien sees the vessel unwittingly transporting an extraterrestrial being known as the Xenomorph. What follows is a space-set slaughter at the hands of the Xenomorph—one of the best sci-fi movie villains ever—ending with just a single survivor in the form of Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley.

There’s a reason that Alien remains one of the most horrifying sci-fi movies ever made. The movie’s deep-seated claustrophobia, which stems from its setting on an enclosed ship, makes the threat of the Xenomorph all the more pressing, and the movie’s use of darkness and visual misdirection only increases the tension. Alien is a rare example of a movie that blends a perfect balance of sci-fi and horror, fitting squarely into both genres as one of the most brilliant and terrifying movies of all time.

The post 10 Most Terrifying Sci-Fi Movies of All Time  appeared first on ComicBook.com.

There are many fantastic actors who could take over the role of Steve Rogers’ Captain America if the iconic character is recast after Avengers: Secret Wars resets the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel boss Kevin Feige has recently revealed that 2027’s Secret Wars will culminate in a “reset” of the MCU into one singular timeline. This could open the door for notable characters to be recast, including Tony Stark’s Iron Man and perhaps even Steve Rogers’ Captain America, who has been absent from the MCU since 2019’s Avengers: Endgame.

Chris Evans debuted as Steve Rogers in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, and became one of the MCU’s central characters during the following eight years. Evans appeared in at least one MCU movie in every year he was in the franchise, but Avengers: Endgame saw Rogers retire and travel to an alternate timeline to get his happy ending. While there is speculation Evans could reprise the role in Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars, Marvel Studios has the perfect opportunity to officially recast him after the MCU’s reset, and these ten actors would be perfect for the role.

Read Next

10 Captain America Moments Ranked From Worst to Best

10) Sam Worthington

Sam Worthington has had a career of two halves. On one hand, he’s the star of the highest-grossing film series in history, as he portrays Jake Sully in James Cameron’s Avatar movies. On the other, many of his other movies haven’t been well-received or major box office draws. Worthington deserves more prominence outside the Avatar franchise, and being cast as a new Steve Rogers could give him that. He has the build, notoriety, and action experience make him a great fit, while he’s also proven his leadership abilities that could prove helpful in a new iteration of the Avengers team.

9) Garrett Hedlund

When recasting Steve Rogers for the MCU’s future, Marvel Studios could pick someone who was previously considered for the role, such as Garrett Hedlund. Hedlund originally auditioned to play Captain America in The First Avenger, but had to pull out due to his casting in Tron: Legacy. In the years since, Hedlund has displayed an impressive acting range and screen presence, but has failed to find the role that skyrockets him to major fame. Being cast as a new Steve Rogers in the MCU could do this, with him possibly delivering a grittier, more rugged, and more realistic Captain America.

8) Stephen Amell

Best known for portraying Oliver Queen in The CW’s Arrow series, Stephen Amell could make the jump from DC to Marvel to portray a new Steve Rogers. If Marvel leans towards a younger iteration of the character, this casting may not come to fruition, but Amell has showcased his action skills and his dramatic talents with roles in Code 8, Heels, and Suits LA, and has the perfect physique and established persona to take on such an iconic role. He already led a superhero team in DC TV’s Arrow, so could do the same for the Avengers.

7) Colton Haynes

While Stephen Amell would be a strong choice to replace Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, his Arrow co-star, Colton Haynes, might be the better of the two options. Haynes portrayed Roy Harper’s Red Arrow and Arsenal in Arrow, and has also displayed his acting range in Teen Wolf, American Horror Story, Dollface, and San Andreas, among others. He has a youthful yet strong appearance, and the muscular physique needed for Steve Rogers, post-transformation. Haynes even voiced Thor in the Marvel Avengers Academy video game in 2016, so he may already be on Marvel’s radar for a live-action role.

6) Scott Eastwood

The son of legendary actor and filmmaker Clint Eastwood, Scott Eastwood has the physical presence, commanding screen presence, leadership qualities, and action experience necessary for Steve Rogers. Similarly to Garrett Hedlund, Scott Eastwood also auditioned for Captain America before Chris Evans was cast, and he’s still young enough for this casting to come to fruition in the MCU. He has superhero experience after an appearance in Suicide Squad, and has been a part of some huge franchises, including the Fast & Furious, Pacific Rim, and the Texas Chainsaw franchises, so is perfectly primed for an MCU role.

5) Chris Carmack

Best known for roles in The OC, Nashville, and Grey’s Anatomy, Chris Carmack has the mass audience appeal that would benefit a recast Steve Rogers in the MCU. His impressive physique and action-based acting experience make him a great fit, too, but has also shown the ability to pull off the sort of comedic moments and heartfelt emotion that a role in the MCU also demands. Similarly to Hedlund, Chris Carmack would be a slightly older iteration of Steve Rogers, which may be counterproductive to the MCU’s new direction, but this casting is still a real possibility.

4) Nick Robinson

After rising to prominence with roles in The Kings of Summer, Jurassic World, and Love Simon, Nick Robinson has proven himself to be a hugely talented actor. While he might currently be missing the domineering muscular physique that is essential for Steve Rogers’ Captain America, many actors have transformed themselves for roles in the MCU, and Robinson could be next. His clean-cut and earnest persona along with his youthful, all-American energy would make him a fantastic choice to take over from Chris Evans, and he’s young enough to give the character plenty of room to grow over time.

3) Glen Powell

Glen Powell has recently been embarking on a huge upwards trend in his career, with notable roles in Top Gun: Maverick, Anyone But You, and Twisters putting him on the map as a very bankable star. He is clearly gearing up for a role in a major superhero franchise, and he would be brilliant as a new version of Steve Rogers. Top Gun proved his capability to deliver confident and sometimes-arrogant characters, and his other memorable roles have put his charisma and screen presence front-and-center. Powell has stated he’s had no conversation with Marvel, but this could soon change.

2) Jacob Elordi

At only 28-years-old, Jacob Elordi might be the perfect young star that Marvel may be looking for when recasting Steve Rogers in the MCU. Elordi rose to prominence in Euphoria, but has branched out into notable projects such as Saltburn, Priscilla, and The Kissing Booth film series, and his career is expanding even further with the upcoming Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights. Elordi has the acting range and notoriety demanded by Captain America, though he has stressed his desire to take on more grounded, serious, and artistically-fulfilling roles, so a superhero franchise part may not be on the cards for him.

1) Patrick Gibson

While Elordi would be a great Steve Rogers, Patrick Gibson would be even better, and he hasn’t yet discounted the possibility of joining the MCU. Gibson is best known for roles in The OA, The Darkest Minds, and Dexter: Original Sin, some of which have given him experience with superhuman abilities, perfectly priming him for a role in the MCU. The blond hair and blue eyes combined with his muscular physique match Steve Rogers perfectly, while his acting range is also incredible, being able to deliver moments of levity as well as more serious and emotional sequences to perfection.

Patrick Gibson would be an inspired choice for a recast version of Steve Rogers’ Captain America after the MCU resets in Avengers: Secret Wars. Who would you want to see replace Chris Evans in the MCU, though? Let us know in the comments!

The post 10 Perfect Actors to Replace Chris Evans As Captain America (If He’s Recast) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

James Gunn’s Superman continues to climb the all-time box office chart and is now set to pass a major Marvel movie sequel from the pre-Marvel Cinematic Universe era. As of Friday, August 15th, Superman has earned around $337 million in the United States. This means that by the end of the weekend, it will have grossed enough to surpass 2007’s Spider-Man 3. The conclusion to Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy made $337.2 million domestically during its run, which was good enough to make it the highest-grossing film of the year. It beat out other notable sequels such as Shrek the Third, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Granted, this does not take into consideration the nearly 20 years of inflation between Spider-Man 3 and Superman. In 2025 dollars, the Marvel movie’s lifetime domestic gross comes out to about $524.3 million — a figure Superman is unlikely to reach. It’s also worth mentioning that Spider-Man 3 proved to be a much larger draw overseas — even unadjusted for inflation. Spider-Man 3 grossed $890.8 million worldwide, while Superman‘s global total currently stands at $588.7 million. Still, it’s impressive to see the first film in the DC Universe reach these heights, especially as other superhero titles have struggled at the box office this year.

Bolstered by positive reviews and strong audience word of mouth, Superman exceeded box office expectations by grossing $125 million domestically over its opening weekend. It held well over the past few weeks, claiming the title of the year’s highest-grossing superhero movie. Superman was performing so well at the box office that it likely would have had a longer theatrical run were it not for Peacemaker Season 2 debuting this month.

Read Next

I Think Robert Pattinson’s Batman and David Corneswet’s Superman Are the Perfect Odd Pair the DCU Needs

Superman‘s success has generated excitement for the future of the DCU. Gunn has already confirmed he’s busy working on a Superman follow-up and hopes to begin production in the not-too-distant future. Movies about the franchise’s Batman and Wonder Woman are also in development, though no release dates have been set.

Notable titles ahead of Superman on the all-time chart include Zootopia ($341.6 million), Thor: Love and Thunder ($343.2 million), and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ($345.5 million). It will be interesting to see how higher Superman can soar before its time in theaters is over. The film is now available to rent and purchase on digital PVOD platforms like Apple and Amazon, meaning people now have less incentive to check it out in theaters. Since Superman is on home media, things will likely slow down at the box office even more than they already have (last weekend’s haul was $7.9 million).

Regardless of where it settles on the all-time charts, Superman has accomplished what it set out to achieve. DC was in dire straits before Gunn’s film arrived, as 2022’s The Batman was the only real bona fide box office hit over the past few years. Now, the DCU has gotten off on the all-important right foot, allowing Gunn and Peter Safran to further develop their 10-year plan for the franchise. Hopefully, Superman will be the first in a long string of DC Studios blockbusters.

The post James Gunn’s Superman Passes Major Marvel Sequel at Box Office appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The future of the DC Universe is becoming clearer by the day. Following the success of Superman, James Gunn is wasting no time getting his version of the Man of Steel back on the big screen, writing the next movie in the “Superman Saga,” which he plans to direct. Details about the project are scarce, but it’s sure to feature both Superman and his cousin, Supergirl, who is getting her own solo movie in 2026. Rather than hanging around Earth, Supergirl will send its titular character to the stars as she searches for another planet that enjoys partying as much as she does.

Gunn has made it clear that the DCU’s version of Supergirl is a hot mess, attempting to drown out her sorrows with booze. It’s hard to blame her because she lost everyone she cared about growing up, but Krypton didn’t seem like that great of a place, given the message that Kal-El received before leaving for Earth. However, I think there’s another Krypton-based twist coming in the next Superman film, one that will shake the Man of Steel to his core.

Jor-El Might Not Be Who He Says He Is in the DCU

Lex Luthor’s plan to take down Superman in the 2025 movie leads him to the Fortress of Solitude, where he discovers a control panel that houses a message from the hero’s parents, Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van. The first part of it is wholesome, informing Kal-El that he’s heading to a planet in need of help. However, Luthor obtains the second half of the holographic video, which has a significantly different tone. It turns out that Superman’s parents meant for him to conquer humanity and force women on the planet to bear his children. The twist takes the character into new territory, as he’s never had to deal with the idea of his parents being evil in live-action.

The message’s contents have been controversial, to say the least. There is a lot of heat on Supergirl, as she fails to tell her cousin the truth. It may not be her fault, though, as there’s a chance the Jor-El she came to know and love isn’t the one in the video. There’s no doubt that the next DCU movie to feature Superman will continue to tackle his identity crisis head-on, and the only way to properly do that is for another Kryptonian to arrive and provide clarity. I believe that Jor-El could show up, potentially after escaping the Phantom Zone, and try to encourage his son to embrace his true destiny. Of course, Superman would be hesitant, and it would soon come to light that Jor-El is actually the evil General Zod, who posed as his nemesis to ensure that his vision for Krypton lived on. Pulling the rug out for a second time will allow Kal-El to embrace his dual citizenship, which is a much-needed message in today’s day and age.

Read Next

I Think Robert Pattinson’s Batman and David Corneswet’s Superman Are the Perfect Odd Pair the DCU Needs

The DCU Doesn’t Need to Start Off on the Wrong Foot With Superman

One of the biggest issues with making Krypton something Superman wants to forget is that it tells the audience that being from two worlds means choosing one over the other. Countless people struggle with their identity, and a character like Superman typically provides relief by showing what embracing every aspect of one’s self looks like. However, unless the DCU decides to swap out Jor-El with Zod, it runs the risk of alienating a large portion of its fanbase. By doing the right thing, the door would open for Gunn and Co. to really explore Kryptonian culture, good and bad aspects, and allow both Superman and Supergirl to choose which lessons they want to take away from their home world and its people.

An added bonus of taking this route would be having Bradley Cooper play General Zod. While it was great to see a familiar face as Jor-El, it felt like the actor was wasted in a minor part. Taking over as Zod would make up for that and let Cooper let loose as a villain who would rather die than let his dream disappear. The Kryptonian ball is in Gunn’s court, of course, as he’s the one in charge, but he shouldn’t feel like he has to stick to his guns because he made a strong choice the first time around.

Superman is in theaters now.

Could you see the next Superman Saga movie revealing that Jor-El is actually Zod? How would that change the DCU for you? Let us know in the comments below!

The post I Think the DCU Super-Family Movie Will Throw a Major Twist Into Superman’s Controversial Origin Change appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Legendary actor Terence Stamp, known for iconic roles such as General Zod in Superman, has died at age 87. Terence Stamp is one of the great actors that even if you didn’t know his name, you likely know his face and his voice. The British actor was in a long list of great films, TV shows, and even video games throughout his long career, even garnering an Oscar nomination for one of his first ever film performances in Billy Budd as the titular character. The actor would go on to play some of the most important supporting comic book characters out there including General Zod, Jor-El, and Stick.

Stamp died on Sunday, August 17th with his family confirming it via a statement to Reuters. The cause of death is currently unknown, but his family paid tribute by noting his extensive career that left an indelible mark on audiences. You can read the statement from Terence Stamp’s family below.

“He leaves behind an extraordinary body of work, both as an actor and as a writer that will continue to touch and inspire people for years to come,” the family said. “We ask for privacy at this sad time.”

As already noted, Terence Stamp played General Zod twice in Richard Donner’s Superman and its sequel, Superman II. He gave a career-defining performance as the Superman villain and set a high bar for future actors in the role, such as Michael Shannon. Ironically, Stamp would eventually play another important Kryptonian in Smallville, a CW series that follows Clark Kent before he properly becomes Superman. In that series, Stamp played the voice of Jor-El, Superman’s biological father from Krypton, who existed within the Fortress of Solitude.

Around the same time of joining Smallville, Stamp also played Stick, a martial arts mentor who trained both Daredevil and Elektra in the comics. However, he only appeared in Elektra starring Jennifer Garner and he didn’t have any connections to Matt Murdock in that iteration of the character. It was the second comic-book character he ever played.

As if starring in one of the biggest superhero films of all-time wasn’t enough, Terence Stamp also played Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, serving as one of the most notable political characters in the Star Wars universe. His character was removed from office before Attack of the Clones, so he did not appear in any of the sequels, but his character did appear in the TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars where he was voiced by a new actor.

The acclaimed actor also lent his iconic voice to a number of video games including Halo 3 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The actor’s original performance for the latter was re-used earlier this year in a remaster of Oblivion for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC.

What was your favorite Terence Stamp performance? Let me know in the comments down below.

The post Terence Stamp, Superman and Star Wars Actor, Dies at 87 appeared first on ComicBook.com.

It’s easy to lose track of how much time has passed until certain landmark anniversaries cross our paths. Movies come and go, but the memories they help form remain, even years after we’ve sat down to enjoy them. The ’90s were full of fun and memorable films, covering a vast range of genres and themes; from technological dystopias (thanks, The Matrix) to postmodernism reconstructions and beyond. Then there are the genre-defying ones…

Notably, A Kid in King Arthur’s Court turns 30 on August 11th. It’s hard to believe it’s been so long, but many of us likely remember catching this film playing on TV, so that alone should date it. A look back on A Kid in King Arthur’s Court brings up a lot of interesting details that our younger selves may have missed. To start with, the film is loosely based on Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. As such, it’s not even Disney’s first adaptation of the novel, as Unidentified Flying Oddball came first (in 1978).

Time Travel, Baseball, and Arthurian Courts

It’s shocking how much A Kid in King Arthur’s Court fits into one film, when you think about it. It all begins with Calvin Fuller, a 14-year-old baseball player. He falls through the ground (yes, really) during an earthquake, only to wake up in another timeline. Somehow, this earthquake sent him back in time, so of course, the story is just getting into gear. The new setting is the 6th century, with King Arthur’s court.

While the film does require some suspension of disbelief (somebody traveling that far back in time would be at great risk of illness, not to mention have a fair bit of trouble communicating), it’s certainly a whimsical adventure. That puts it nicely within Disney’s comfort zone, which explains why the film tones down Twain’s more satirical writing style in favor of something more family-friendly.

Calvin’s adventure includes re-inspiring King Arthur to keep up the good fight, rescuing Princess Katey (a few times), and becoming a Knight of the Round Table. It’s the sort of thing many fantasy readers have only dared dream about, and Calvin somehow stumbled his way into it. Oh! And of course, Calvin makes it back to his timeline just in time to finish his oh so important baseball match, because we can’t forget what matters most.

Read Next

10 Disney Movies That Prove It’s All One Big Shared Universe

Familiar Faces Everywhere

If there’s one standout feature of A Kid in King Arthur’s Court, it’s the cast. It contains an interesting mix, such as established actors like Joss Ackland. More notably, it has some early roles for actors many fans have come to know and love. Thomas Ian Nicholas, the actor who played the protagonist, was later seen in the American Pie films.

He’s not the only familiar face! Danial Craig can be spotted playing the role of Master Kane, a knight in King Arthur’s court. Not only is he a talented knight (and quite possibly a bit of a bully), but he’s the sun to Princess Sarah’s moon. Did we mention that Princess Sarah just so happened to be played by Kate Winslet? What a pairing.

Read Next

This Underrated Dark Fantasy Is One of Disney’s Best Adventures

From Critical Panning to Cult Classic

We’re not going to sit here and pretend that A Kid in King Arthur’s Court was some sort of theatrical success. Truthfully, the critics had a lot of fun panning the film, which currently sits at a whopping 5% on Rotten Tomatoes. That probably has something to do with the flat humor and forced whimsy of the adventure. Arguably, it’s a clear example of why stories shouldn’t be dumbed down for the sake of making them family-friendly. Children are smarter than corporations give them credit for, and they likely could have handled the original plot.

On the bright side, A Kid in King Arthur’s Court has earned a bit of a cult following over the years. People have learned to embrace the “so-bad-it-is-fun” aesthetic, which has become a genre in its own right over the years. Yes, that does mean having to embrace the campier side of A Kid in King Arthur’s Court, from introducing Camelot to inline roller skates and rock and roll to the instant-love romance of two teenagers from different worlds. It’s all in good fun, right?

A Kid in King Arthur’s Court is available to stream on Disney+.

The post 30 Years On, This Cult Classic Time Travel Movie Has Aged Surprisingly Well appeared first on ComicBook.com.

We’re currently in a very interesting era of the horror genre where two things are working very well: elevated horror like Midsommar and reboot-sequels like Scream. But most horror fans still point to the 1980s as the definitive decade for the genre, and while it was genuinely difficult to narrow 10 years down to 10 entries, what follow are the best of the best. A few big names didn’t qualify because they were genre blenders where the primary emphasis was only arguably horror or definitely not horror, e.g. Altered States and An American Werewolf in London (which is as much comedy and romance as it is horror). Other examples include Evil Dead II, Videodrome, Gremlins, Fright Night, Re-Animator, The Return of the Living Dead, April Fool’s Day, Night of the Creeps, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, The Lost Boys, Predator, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, and The Monster Squad.

We would also be remiss to not at least give a shout out to some excellent straightforward horror movies that nonetheless just missed the cut. These were The Fog, Alligator, The Burning, Halloween II, The Howling, My Bloody Valentine, Christine, Cujo, Sleepaway Camp, Day of the Dead, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Angel Heart, The Stepfather, Creepshow, and Possession.

1) Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th, be it the original film or the franchise as a whole, is primarily known for one thing: inventive kills. But there were plenty of gory slashers released in this film’s wake that did the same thing, yet they’re not nearly as effective.

In other words, Friday the 13th doesn’t receive nearly as much respect as it deserves. It’s perfectly paced, with a consistent upping of stakes that slowly makes you grip the seat. It also possesses a very natural look, making the viewer feel as if they’re a camp counselor right there at Camp Crystal Lake with Alice, Bill, Steve Christy, Brenda, Jack, Marcie, Ned, and Annie (though poor Annie never quite makes it to the premises). Toss in an iconic soundtrack, an unhinged performance by Betsy Palmer, likable characters it’s hard to say bye to, and one of the best horror movie kills of all time (experienced by a young Kevin Bacon, no less), and Friday the 13th is a true classic.

Rent Friday the 13th on Amazon Video.

2) The Shining

A film so elaborately constructed that people are still discovering things about it 45 years later, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is a masterclass on tension building, cinematography, and acting. It was a filming process that took a major toll on some involved, but it’s hard to argue with the end result.

This is, of course, the Jack Nicholson show. Author Stephen King has oft pointed out that Nicholson’s Jack Torrance is blatantly unhinged from the first frame, and he’s not wrong, but like Heath Ledger’s work in The Dark Knight, this is a performance that is fully captivating throughout.

Rent The Shining on Amazon Video.

3) The Evil Dead

Evil Dead II may not have made the cut because it’s more of a live action Looney Tunes movie than something that is actively attempting to frighten the audience, but 1981’s The Evil Dead is still fair game. And, while Evil Dead II is most fans’ favorite installment of the franchise, it doesn’t quite have the particular horrifying, hair-raising power of the original.

Like with the counselors at Camp Crystal Lake, the audience feels stuck in the cabin with the film’s protagonists. This is the ultimate cabin in the woods movie, and the scene where the now-possessed Cheryl correctly guesses the cards in the deck in spite of being 10 feet away looking out the window is one of horror’s most terrifying scenes.

Rent The Evil Dead on Apple TV.

4) Poltergeist

If there’s a film on this list that is a starter horror movie, it’s Poltergeist. The bathroom mirror scene is gross but, overall, this one is fine to show to the kids.

Poltergeist‘s greatest strength is just how believable the primary cast is as a family. When the youngest member is taken from them, the audience wants to join in the hunt to get her returned to the Earthly plane. The suburban setting was also fantastic. All of the film’s events are taking place in an area we most frequently associate with safety. But in this house, no person is safe—they’re all equally susceptible to the ghostly interference.

Rent Poltergeist on Amazon Video.

5) The Thing

John Carpenter helmed two perfect films throughout his directing career: Halloween and The Thing. An ingenious look at Cold War era paranoia punctuated by what may very well be the best practical effects ever seen in a horror film, it’s a masterpiece. It also comes equipped with a doozy of an ambiguous ending.

Like quite a few of the best movies of all time, The Thing was not properly appreciated in its time. Some found it too grotesque, others found it too slow; it was divisive at best. But time has seen its reputation grow immensely, and deservedly so. If any Carpenter film deserved a Best Picture nomination, it was this one.

Rent The Thing on Amazon Video.

Read Next

Friday the 13th Part 2 Is a Classic, But Some of It Makes No Sense

6) A Nightmare on Elm Street

Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street was the shot in the arm the slasher subgenre needed. While it would keep cranking out forgettable entry after forgettable entry for another five years, it was a subgenre already running on fumes by 1984.

Enter Freddy Krueger and the game-changing idea of having a killer come for you while you are at your most vulnerable. You can’t run from Freddy, you can’t even kill him, you can just try and figure out what’s happening to you only to realize it’s too late. Visually inventive, displaying an iconic turn by Robert Englund, and featuring an early role for Johnny Depp, A Nightmare on Elm Street is tied for first with Scream on the late, great Craven’s filmography.

Rent A Nightmare on Elm Street on Amazon Video.

7) The Fly

The sequel may have been incredibly weird and unnecessary but David Cronenberg’s “original” (it was a remake, but far different from the ’50s version) The Fly was, and remains, a heartbreaking work only he could have produced to its maximum potential impact. And The Fly does carry a ton of impact.

While the film’s Academy Award winning makeup effects are certainly a selling point, it’s really the gradual descent into madness and desperation experienced by Jeff Goldblum’s Seth Brundle that keeps the audience viewed to the screen. Not to mention, Goldblum’s chemistry with Geena Davis (the two would marry the following year) was white hot and forces you to feel for their characters and believe their suffering.

Rent The Fly on Amazon Video.

8) Hellraiser

Hellraiser gave birth to a franchise that continues to this day, with even a video game on the way. But, in spite of the quality of Hellbound: Hellraiser II, the only one that is necessary viewing for fans of this film, Clive Barker’s best film works optimally as a one-off.

Everything about the original Hellraiser works. It was a genuinely impressive directorial debut by novelist Barker, who knew exactly how to bring his vivid, grim imagination to the big screen. The central hook of having a woman bring her dead lover (who is on the run from demons) back to life via sacrificing unsuspecting men is a great core, but even better is the design of the Cenobites, who have just enough screentime to make a skin-crawling impression.

Stream Hellraiser for free with ads on Pluto TV.

9) Near Dark

Near Dark is a severely underrated vampire movie that is having a hard time expanding its audience considering it’s almost impossible to find. This was The Hurt Locker helmer Kathryn Bigelow’s solo directorial debut, and right out the gate she proves herself an auteur who knows how to pay serious attention to character development.

It’s a tragic story, one that makes you hate some of the vampires while feeling outright empathy for others. It’s also something of an Aliens reunion. Bigelow knew James Cameron at the time (they would marry two years after Near Dark‘s release), and one year after Aliens came out this film brought on three of its cast members: Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and Jenette Goldstein. Not to mention, Cameron has a blink and you’ll miss it cameo.

Near Dark is not available for digital rental or streaming.

10) Child’s Play

There’s an argument to be made that Child’s Play isn’t a particularly scary film. And, while it’s the scariest of the franchise, it’s also a fair enough argument.

But it was without a doubt influential. Thanks to Brad Dourif’s on-point vocal work as Chucky (not to mention the character’s design), the killer doll became a motif that horror tried to emulate repeatedly in subsequent years. With snappy pacing, the aforementioned iconic antagonist, an underrated soundtrack, and top-tier work by Catherine Hicks, Child’s Play is a winner.

Stream Child’s Play on MGM+.

The post 10 Best Horror Movies Of The 1980s appeared first on ComicBook.com.

After Pedro Pascal’s debut as Reed Richards’ Mister Fantastic in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, new fan art has teamed him up with his Marvel Cinematic Universe variants. First Steps took us to Earth 828 to introduce a new iteration of Marvel’s First Family, with Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn bringing Marvel Comics’ most iconic superhero team to life in the MCU. This version of the Fantastic Four is the fifth to grace our screens, and the Multiverse Saga creates the opportunity for previous iterations to return.

Pedro Pascal has already been confirmed to be returning in 2026’s multiverse-focused Avengers: Doomsday, which also marks the return of several classic Marvel stars. This could include past iterations of Mister Fantastic, and this team-up has been imagined in striking new fan art shared by @clements.ink on Instagram. This art brings together Alex Hyde-White, Ioan Gruffudd, Miles Teller, John Krasinski, and Pedro Pascal as all previous versions of Reed Richards’ Mister Fantastic, setting the stage for these five stars to join forces in the MCU’s Phase 6.

Alex Hyde-White was the first actor to portray Mister Fantastic in live-action, debuting in the unreleased The Fantastic Four movie from 1994. Hyde-White most recently made a cameo appearance alongside his The Fantastic Four co-stars – Rebecca Staab, Jay Underwood, and Michael Bailey Smith – in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, paying homage to their widely unseen adventure as Marvel’s First Family. It wasn’t until 2005 when Ioan Gruffudd appeared as Mister Fantastic in Tim Story’s Fantastic Four, a role which he reprised in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

Read Next

Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Box Office Exposes a Harsh Reality for the MCU’s Future

Eight years after Story’s 2007 sequel, Josh Trank and 20th Century Fox attempted a reboot of Fantastic Four in 2015, which took inspiration from the Ultimate Universe version of Reed Richards in Marvel Comics. This iteration was portrayed by Miles Teller, who encapsulated some of Richards’ darker elements, but was wasted in a poorly-written narrative. After the Fantastic Four fell back into Marvel Studios’ hands in 2019, John Krasinski made an appearance as Reed Richards from Earth 838 in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, where he was a member of the Illuminati superhero team.

Krasinski had been a popular fan-cast for Mister Fantastic prior to his appearance in Multiverse of Madness, but his debut didn’t go down so well among MCU audiences. This spurred Marvel Studios to search for a new Reed Richards for the MCU’s official The Fantastic Four: First Steps reboot, but it would be great to see these past iterations return to redeem some of their more disappointing qualities and bid a fond farewell to them. Pedro Pascal is the MCU’s permanent Mister Fantastic, so he’ll get the chance to develop his Reed Richards more than any previous incarnation.

Do you want to see the former Mister Fantastic actors reprise their superhero role in the MCU? Let us know in the comments!

The post Pedro Pascal’s Mister Fantastic Meets His Pre-MCU Variants in Brilliant Fantastic Four Art appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Even a sci-fi masterpiece isn’t immune to a few glitches in the space-time continuum!

A fan favourite amongst Trekkies, the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is widely regarded as one of the better Star Trek movies and proved a hit after the somewhat lackluster response to The Motion Picture. A tense, emotional, and deeply human story, it helped revitalize the franchise, proving Star Trek was just as relevant as ever nearly 20 years after Gene Roddenbury’s Original Series began in 1966 and paving the way for The Next Generation and many more spin-offs in the years that followed. From Ricardo Montalbán’s return as the legendary antagonist Khan, to Spock’s heartbreaking sacrifice to save the crew, the movie ticks all the boxes and hits hard on both the action and emotion front.

But even the best Sci-fi blockbusters can’t escape a few filming hiccups and continuity errors. Whether it’s a background prop behaving strangely, a uniform that won’t stay put, or a line that got changed after filming, The Wrath of Khan certainly has its fair share of mistakes. We’re not sure how these gaffs slipped through into the final cut, but once you notice them, they’re impossible to unsee!

1) Creepy Corpse

A key part of the appeal of The Wrath of Khan for die-hard Star Trek fans was the return of iconic villain, the genetically engineered superhuman Khan Noonien Singh, first seen in The Original Series episode “Space Seed,” with actor Ricardo Montalbán returning to reprise his role in the film. At one point in the movie, Khan cradles his dying first officer, who then dies suitably dramatically with his eyes left wide open. Khan embraces the body, then looks up at the viewscreen to vow his vengeance on Kirk. It’s a chilling scene, however eagle eyes viewers may have noticed something rather odd about the body Khan is holding—if you watch closely, the “corpse” blinks.

It’s a split-second error and obviously simply down to a very human reflex from the actor, but unfortunately once spotted, it does somewhat shatter the illusion that we’re looking at a lifeless corpse! For a death scene meant to cement Khan’s rage, it’s hard not to focus on the blinking body below him and it does rather detract from the poignancy of the scene.

2) Where’s the Funeral?

While repairing the Enterprise’s warp Core, Spock takes a lethal dose of radiation poisoning, sacrificing himself to save the crew. The death of the Enterprise’s usually seemingly unflappable and indestructible first officer came as a true shock to fans. Spock’s funeral is one of the most emotional scenes in the film, and indeed Star Trek history, but its location is… somewhat confusing. The script and exterior shots establish the funeral is happening in Torpedo Bay 1, cool, gotcha… But the interior footage shows the ceremony is clearly taking place in Torpedo Bay 2—you can even see the “2” label and the airlock from earlier in the movie. The arm lowering Spock’s torpedo coffin as the crew prepare to send him in to space, is also marked with a “2.”

Now this doesn’t sound like so much of an issue. Maybe it could be chalked up to an extremely last-minute change in location by the Enterprise crew—except Torpedo Bay 2 was destroyed in the battle with the Reliant earlier in the film, meaning there shouldn’t even be a Torpedo Bay 2 left in which to hold the service! Apparently, Starfleet regulations don’t cover continuity at funerals…

3) Magic Mirror

One of the key appeals of The Original Series which continued throughout the subsequent films and has kept fans enthralled by the franchise time and time again is the bromance between Kirk and Spock. It’s a friendship that defined the ages, and some of the best Star Trek scenes are those where we get to take a break from the action and see Kirk and Spock talk it out—there’s nothing better than a heart to heart amongst friends!  However, in the Director’s Cut of Wrath of Khan during one such moment in Spock’s, there’s an odd quirk that rather detracts from this sweet moment.

During a front-facing shot, we can clearly see that in the background on the wall, right behind Spock’s head, is a mirror. But when the camera then cuts to a slightly different side angle, the mirror has vanished and Spock is suddenly sat farther away from the wall. The change in perspective doesn’t explain the disappearance of the mirror, as it should definitely still be in shot and visible from the new angle, making it a simple set slip presumably when setting up in-between shots that’s hard to unsee once spotted!

4) Tighten the Tunic!

During Spock’s emotional death scene, some viewers may have had a hard time paying attention to his moving final words as something else far more riveting is happening in the shot. Kirk’s red uniform tunic seemingly has a mind of its own!

When Kirk races to engineering to see Spock as he meets his untimely demise in the radiation chamber, his tunic is open as Scotty and McCoy desperately hold him back to stop him entering the chamber and meeting the same fate as his friend. Then, as Kirk first begins to talk to Spock through the radiation chamber glass, the tunic is suddenly partially closed with only the top button undone. Moments later, it’s fully fastened. The constant changes suggest the scene was filmed over multiple takes with little regard for button continuity. Given the emotional weight of the moment, it’s likely the heart wrenching dialogue covered a multitude of sins for many fans—until now!

5) The McCoy Head Shuffle

During the Kobayashi Maru training simulation at the beginning of the film, Doctor McCoy gets “knocked out” and “collapses” onto the deck. In one shot, his head is resting on the floor, another shot it’s high on Sulu’s hip. Cut to the next, and it’s lying much further down on Sulu’s leg…

No, shifting the head position of an unconscious patient isn’t some lesser-known Starfleet medical technique—it’s just continuity editing that forgot to keep the good doctor in one place. However, there is an in-universe argument to be made that perhaps all this flailing around was simply McCoy’s attempt to get comfortable during the scene. As Kirk later remarks when asked to comment on the Doctor’s acting skills, ‘I’m not a drama critic.’

6) Glasses, I Can’t Find My Glasses!

After Kirk and his former flame, Doctor Carol Marcus, along with their son David, are marooned on a planetoid by Khan, Carol asks David to show them the cave where the Genesis Device, a new terraforming technology designed to transform unlivable planets into habitable worlds is being hidden. Kirk puts on his glasses to check his watch. In the very next shot, the glasses are gone—without him taking them off.

The sequence is jarring because there’s no movement or cutaway to explain the disappearance; it’s as if the glasses were simply beamed off his face between shots. Perhaps, as hinted at earlier in the movie, Kirk simply dislikes the reminder of his age and wanted to do away with the glasses as soon as possible!

7) Slip of the Tongue

Early on in the film, when Kirk orders “Stop energizers,” take a closer look at William Shatner’s mouth—he’s actually clearly saying, “Stop engines.” According to Mike Okuda, (a graphic designer who has worked on multiple Star Trek projects), who pointed out the gaff in the text commentary on the Director’s Edition DVD, the line was apparently dubbed in post-production after someone pointed out that stopping the engines instantly wouldn’t really be possible or make sense in the context of the scene.

The fix makes sense in-universe, but once you’ve seen the mismatch between Shatner’s lips and the audio, it’s impossible to miss on future rewatches.

Notice any more continuity quirks in The Wrath of Khan? Drop them in the comments!

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is streaming now on Paramount+

The post 7 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Mistakes You’ll Never Be Able to Unsee appeared first on ComicBook.com.

In 2015, Universal Pictures released what was easily one of the most anticipated biopics of one of the biggest rap groups of all time. The movie was a huge hit for the studio, earning an impressive 89% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and $201.6 million at the worldwide box office. Not bad for a film that was reportedly produced for a meager $28 million. More impressively, the movie earned $60.2 million domestically in its opening weekend alone, surpassing box office expectations and its budget without issue. Now, the film is finally available to stream on one of the free streaming platforms: Tubi.

So, what’s the movie in question? None other than Straight Outta Compton. The movie tells the story of the legendary rap group NWA as they emerge from the mean streets of Compton in the mid-1980s and revolutionize hip-hop culture with their music and tales about life in the hood. The film features an impressive cast of young talent that includes O’Shea Jackson Jr. as his father Ice Cube, Corey Hawkins as Dr. Dre, Jason Mitchell as Eazy-E, Neil Brown Jr. as DJ Yella, Aldis Hodge as MC Ren, Marlon Yates Jr. as D.O.C., and R. Marcus Taylor as Suge Knight.

Read Next

Tubi Just Saved a Canceled Sci-Fi Series You’ve Definitely Never Seen

The film hails from acclaimed director F. Gary Gray, who helmed the feature from a screenplay by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff. The R-rated film won a few notable awards following its release, including the MTV Movie Award for Best True Story, NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for O’Shea Jackson Jr., NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Motion Picture 2016, and BET Award for Best Movie 2016. It was also nominated for Best Acting Ensemble at the 2016 Critics Choice Awards, Favorite Dramatic Movie at the 2016 Nominee People’s Choice Awards, and Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures for Ice Cube, Matt Alvarez, F. Gary Gray, Dr. Dre, and Scott Bernstein at the 2016 PGA Awards.

At the time of its release, the movie had earned three big records by becoming the highest-grossing R-rated August opener with $60.2 million, topping the box office for three consecutive weeks, and becoming the highest-grossing movie from an African American director. Some of those records have since been beaten (the highest-grossing movie from an African American director is now Marvel Studios’ Black Panther), but they were still notable in 2015.

The movie is a mixture of fact and fiction, as is often the case with biopics, but the surviving members of NWA were heavily involved with the production of the movie. Dr. Dre and Ice Cube served as producers on the project. Along with their involvement, parts of the film were filmed on location in Compton and Watts to add to the authenticity of the film. Fans can now stream Straight Outta Compton on Tubi. The film is also available for rent through Apple TV, YouTube, Prime Video, Fandango at Home, and Google Play for $3.99.

The post Tubi Now Streaming One of the Biggest Movies of 2015 appeared first on ComicBook.com.

We’re more than halfway through the month of August already — if you can believe that — and another week of new streaming additions is on the horizon. August has already been a big month for movie and TV fans with a Netflix subscription, especially after the debut of Wednesday Season 2, and the coming week has even more in store.

Starting Monday, August 18th, Netflix has five consecutive days of new additions planned for its roster in the United States. There aren’t any titles coming this week that can match up to the popularity of something like Wednesday, but this wave does include a brand new animated series from the creator of BoJack Horseman.

You can check out the full list of this week’s Netflix additions below!

Monday, August 18th

CoComelon Lane: Season 5 — NETFLIX FAMILY
The CoComelon Lane kids are back, exploring their world and embracing their imaginations on fun field trips to the airport, an apple orchard and more!

Extant: Seasons 1-2

Tuesday, August 19th

America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys — NETFLIX SPORTS SERIES
Through never-before-seen footage and interviews, this series tells the definitive story of the Dallas Cowboys and Jerry Jones’ impact on NFL history.

Titans: The Rise of Wall Street: Season 1

Wednesday, August 20th

Fisk: Season 3

Rivers of Fate (BR) — NETFLIX SERIES
When a teen is kidnapped by a sex trafficking ring, a river pirate and a fierce mother embark on separate quests to find her — until their paths cross.

Read Next

Netflix’s Best Animated Movie This Year Could Be Getting a Sequel

Thursday, August 21st

The 355

Death Inc.: Season 3 (ES) — NETFLIX SERIES
When the founder of Torregrosa Funeral Home dies, his scheming right-hand man is poised to take over the business. But the owner’s widow has other plans.

Fall for Me (DE) — NETFLIX FILM
Lilli is suspicious of her sister’s new fiance, but when an attractive stranger enters her life, she’s suddenly distracted by the thralls of desire.

Gold Rush Gang (TH) — NETFLIX FILM
At the tail end of World War II, a bandit leader and his crew go up against his sworn enemy and the Japanese army to rob a train full of gold.

Hostage (GB) — NETFLIX SERIES
When the British prime minister’s husband is kidnapped and the French president starts receiving threats, both leaders must face an impossible choice.

One Hit Wonder (PH) — NETFLIX FILM
These two singers never had much luck with their careers. Now, they’re risking everything for a chance at stardom — and love.

Friday, August 22nd

Abandoned Man (TR) — NETFLIX FILM
After serving time in prison for his brother’s crime, a man warily reunites with family, finding hope and healing in a life-changing bond with his niece.

Long Story Short — NETFLIX SERIES
From the creator of “BoJack Horseman” comes this animated comedy about a family over time, following siblings from childhood to adulthood and back again.

The Truth About Jussie Smollett (GB) — NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY
From RAW, the producers of Don’t F**k with Cats and Tinder Swindler, comes The Truth About Jussie Smollett?, a shocking true story of an allegedly fake story that some now say might just be a true story. Featuring interviews with police, lawyers, journalists, investigators who claim to have uncovered new evidence about the case, and with Jussie himself, this compelling documentary invites the audience to decide for themselves who is telling The Truth About Jussie Smollett?

The post Everything Coming to Netflix This Week (August 18th) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

It looks like Sony has found its next PlayStation game to adapt for the big screen. A new rumor, courtesy of scooper Daniel Richtman, suggests The Last Guardian is being eyed for a film adaptation by Sony Pictures. The rumor was posted by Richtman on his Patreon, but unfortunately, no further details were made available as to any potential directors or writers. The Last Guardian was first released for PlayStation 4 back in 2016, with a VR experience being announced the following year by Sony. The video game hails from Japan Studio and GenDesign and is published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.

The Last Guardian takes place in a strange and mystical land and follows a young boy who discovers a mysterious creature with which he forms a deep, unbreakable bond. As the two form an unlikely companionship, they must rely on each other to escape towering, treacherous ruins filled with unknown dangers. The video game is described as a touching, emotional story of friendship and trust. It has a Metascore of 82 and received a user score of 7.8 through Metacritic. The game was in development for over eight years, and despite having some mechanical issues, it’s been hailed as fully developed and full of emotion.

Read Next

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet Is Almost Certainly Getting Adapted Into a Movie

The Last Guardian is the latest PlayStation game to be rumored for a big screen adaptation. Another huge PlayStation game being eyed for a feature film is Horizon Zero Dawn. That project was previously in development as a television series at Netflix. However, that is no longer the case, as Sony has a movie in early development. Other games getting the big screen treatment include Ghost of Tsushima, Days Gone, Gravity Rush, Helldivers, Jak and Daxter, and Resident Evil. The latter, of course, is in pre-production now from writer and director Zach Cregger with production expected to kickoff soon.

The Last Guardian video game has earned a few awards since it was released, including the BAFTA Games Award Audio Achievement in 2017. Other awards the game won or was nominated for include, but are not limited to, the Best Original Property and Artistic Achievement at 2017’s BAFTA Games, Best Video Game at 2017’s Empire Awards UK, and Character Design and Art Direction, Fantasy at 2017’s NAVGTR Awards. In 2018, the video game received a vinyl pressing of its soundtrack, featuring performances by the London Symphony Orchestra, the Trinity Boys Choir, and London Voices on a 2-disc vinyl LP.

With little details provided on the rumored film, it would appear the film adaptation of The Last Guardian is currently still in the early stages. This also is not the first time an adaptation of The Last Guardian has been rumored, as speculation has been circulating since 2020, with no confirmation yet to come from Sony Entertainment or PlayStation. Until it is officially confirmed, this should be treated as a rumor, which will hopefully be confirmed one way or another in the coming weeks or months.

The Last Guardian is currently included in the PlayStation Plus membership. Those without the premium membership can purchase the game for just $19.99 now through the PlayStation Store.

The post Next PlayStation Movie Revealed in New Report appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Rarely is a situation cut-and-dry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The powers that be love leaving a gray area that allows for discussions about who’s right and who’s wrong. The franchise’s most recent moral conundrum revolves around the New Avengers, whom Valentina Allegra de Fontaine assembles after her rollout of Sentry fails in Thunderbolts*. Sam Wilson is working on building his own Avengers team, so both groups are now fighting over who deserves to have the name. It remains to be seen how things will shake out, but Sam and Bucky Barnes aren’t the first MCU heroes to be on opposite sides of the aisle. No, that honor goes to the two most important characters in the history of the franchise.

After years of bickering, Steve Rogers and Tony Stark come to blows in Captain America: Civil War over the Sokovia Accords, which will put safeguards in place to keep the Avengers from acting unilaterally when the next world-ending threat arrives. While the movie invites a deep discussion about each side’s point of view, it’s obvious which team ultimately has the moral high ground after all these years.

Captain America: Civil War Tore the MCU Apart

Earth’s Mightiest Heroes come out on top in Avengers: Age of Ultron, destroying the titular villain and saving the people of Sokovia. Captain America and Black Widow feel good enough that they put together a new team when Hawkeye, the Hulk, Thor, and Iron Man decide to call it quits. However, the second Avengers team isn’t nearly as efficient as the first, taking part in a mission in Lago that leaves many dead. The incident is all the United Nations needs to move forward with the Sokovia Accords, which Thaddeus Ross presents to the MCU’s heroes. The arguments begin immediately after the presentation, with Steve explaining that he feels like government interference will hurt more people than it helps. Feeling guilty about his part in Sokovia, Tony backs them from the jump and gets a few more people on his side.

Things cool down until someone who looks like Bucky Barnes bombs the UN conference in Vienna. Immediately, Captain America jumps into action, but since he didn’t sign the accords, he’s viewed as a criminal. While all the heroes are distracted, Helmut Zemo, a Sokovian resident, unleashes the Winter Soldier and leaves for Siberia. Steve puts his former best friend first once again and saves him before battling Team Iron Man and following Zemo. Around the same time, Tony learns the truth about Zemo and goes to help. However, it’s all a trap, one that reveals that Bucky is responsible for the deaths of Howard and Maria Stark. When Steve explains that he knew, Tony lashes out, and a massive fight breaks out. This is where it’s easy to lose sight of Civil War‘s true debate, as the battle in Siberia takes up too much of the focus.

Read Next

The MCU Just Revealed Its Original Super Soldier (& It Isn’t Captain America)

Tony Stark Isn’t Even Team Iron Man By the End

When Tony decides to go to Siberia, he ignores a direct order from Ross, meaning he’s as much of a criminal as Steve. Of course, Cap and Iron Man fail to find common ground after that, opting to let out their frustrations rather than look at the situation logically. Bucky and Steve fighting Tony in that moment is the leg that Team Iron Man stands on, but it’s a pretty weak one. After all, as soon as the fighting is over and Cap breaks everyone out of the Raft, Tony never goes after his old friend or pushes Ross to do so. He continues to ignore the secretary’s calls, and Rhodey, another member of Team Iron Man, does the same when the world is under attack in Avengers: Infinity War.

By the time it’s time to fight Thanos, feelings are hurt, but no one is ready to dredge up the past to prove a point. In fact, it’s clear that Tony regrets pushing the Sokovia Accords and wishes he could make things right. Steve also wants to own up to his mistakes, so once the opportunity arises in Avengers: Endgame, there’s nothing left to do but shake hands. In the moment, Civil War creates a worthwhile discussion about superheroes and their place in the world. However, the rest of the MCU disagrees with its sentiment, portraying Team Iron Man as a group of misguided individuals who don’t even understand what they’re fighting for.

Captain America: Civil War is streaming on Disney+.

Were you Team Iron Man or Team Captain America when Captain America: Civil War came out? Do you feel differently nine years later? Let us know in the comments below!

The post 9 Years Later, the Answer to Captain America: Civil War’s Big Debate Is Clearer Than Ever appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The X-Men have found yet another streaming home. The Fox movies have been available to stream on Disney+ since shortly after Disney acquired 21st Century Fox, alongside X-Men ’97 (which remains a Disney+ exclusive), and the original X-Men: The Animated Series. In a surprise move, the entirety of the X-Men movie franchise is now available to stream on Hulu.

With Disney now fully owning Hulu, the following movies are now available to stream on the service: X-Men, X2: X-Men United, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men: First Class, The Wolverine, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, The New Mutants, and Logan. Some of the films, though, are only available through Premium Subscriptions.

Read Next

Everything Coming to Hulu in August 2025

The move comes as Disney is getting ready to eliminate the Hulu app altogether, in favor of creating a unified Disney+ and Hulu streaming app sometime next year. Disney will begin to make changes to Hulu and Disney+ over the next few months that should help to improve both services. As the two streaming platforms prepare to merge over the next few months, it’s more than likely more titles from 20th Century Fox will be added to Hulu’s offerings.

Fox’s X-Men movies have a complicated history among fans of the mutants. The films, which didn’t always give people comics-accurate portrayals, saw several ups and downs. The first movie, 2000’s X-Men, earned an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and $296.3 million at the worldwide box office. It was a positive start for the long-running franchise, but over time, the franchise would see its Rotten Tomatoes scores continue to decline. Interestingly, despite some the films being poorly received among critics and fans alike, they continued to perform well enough at the box office for 20th Century Fox to continue to order new installments over the years.

The franchise earned a reboot with 2011’s X-Men: First Class. The film earned an impressive 86% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and earned $352.6 million worldwide on a $160 million budget. It was followed by 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, which earned even stronger reviews (90% on Rotten Tomatoes) and grossed $746 million worldwide. After that, the series lost steam with X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016, and X-Men: Dark Phoenix in 2019. Apocalypse earned a terrible 47% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and Dark Phoenix earned an even worse 22% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While the First Class series was uneven, Fox found success with the Deadpool movies and the Wolverine movies of the 2010s.

Next up for the X-Men is Avengers: Doomsday, which will see the return of some of the original X-Men cast. Confirmed to appear are Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier/Professor X, James Marsden as Scott Summers/Cyclops, Ian McKellen as Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto, Alan Cumming as Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler, Kelsey Grammer as Hank McCoy/Beast. Avengers: Doomsday will hit theaters on December 18, 2026. Until then, fans can now stream all of the X-Men movies on Hulu and Disney+, along with X-Men ’97 which is exclusive to Disney+.

The post The X-Men Movie Franchise Surprise Added to a New Streaming Service appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Robert Downey Jr. has finally returned to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with an uncredited cameo appearance as Doctor Doom in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and the supervillain is taking Downey back to his Marvel Studios roots in the best possible way. Downey was confirmed to be bringing Victor Von Doom to life during 2024’s San Diego Comic-Con, and was then teased to be starring only in 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday and 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars. Since this announcement, there has been speculation about how Doom will connect to Downey’s previous role of Tony Stark’s Iron Man.

Theories have been rife suggesting Doctor Doom could be a Tony Stark variant from Earth 828, or Marvel Studios could finally be bringing Stark’s adoption storyline from Marvel Comics to life in the MCU. While it’s unclear how Marvel will explain why Doom looks like Stark, there is another thing connecting these iconic characters that deserves exploration in Avengers: Doomsday, too. Both Iron Man and Doctor Doom wear metallic armored suits, which prompted Downey’s “new mask, same task” comments last year, and these suits may be more similar than we originally expected.

Doctor Doom Doesn’t Use Nanotech for His MCU Costume

The bulk of The Fantastic Four: First Steps saw Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn’s Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Ben Grimm battle Galactus (Ralph Ineson), who sought the Power Cosmic contained inside Reed and Sue’s newborn son, Franklin. They eventually succeeded with the help of Shalla-Bal’s Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), enabling Franklin to grow up into an intelligent young boy. The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ mid-credits scene reflected this, taking place four years after Galactus’ attack on Earth, but this scene debuted yet another terrifying villain.

It was Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom who showed up in The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ mid-credit scene – making his first uncredited appearance in the MCU. We didn’t see Doom’s face, but Franklin Richards did, as the hooded supervillain held his metal mask in his hand while Franklin reached out to Doom’s presumably-scarred face. This proved one crucial detail about Doom’s suit of armor – it won’t be made using nanotechnology. This means that Robert Downey Jr will be returning to his MCU roots by bringing Doom to life, as Tony Stark’s first few suits weren’t nanotech either.

Read Next

7 MCU Villains That Should Help Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday

The fact that Doctor Doom will have a physical suit that needs to be put together in Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars will make him an even more terrifying and realistic villain. He may have forged this armor himself, just as Tony Stark did in the early days of the MCU, which may give the armor a handmade and authentic feel. This is the best choice for Doctor Doom, and will remind audiences of Iron Man’s original adventures, during which he sported suits he needed to physically suit-up in, before he turned his attention to nanotechnology in his later years.

Why Iron Man Became So Reliant On Nanotech in the MCU’s Infinity Saga

2008’s Iron Man marked Robert Downey Jr.’s debut as Tony Stark, and cemented him as the face of the MCU for the next decade. The first Marvel Studios movie included several scenes of Stark physically suiting up in his initial bulky Iron Man suits, and also struggling to get out of them – in one memorable moment joking that Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) had caught him doing worse things in his workshop. Audiences loved watching Stark get in and out of the Iron Man armor, and subsequent movies found new and interesting ways to accomplish this.

Read Next

10 Perfect Actors to Recast Iron Man After Avengers: Secret Wars

2010’s Iron Man 2 saw Stark suit up in armor that sprung from a briefcase, 2012’s The Avengers suited Iron Man up in a geo-locked suit during his fall from the top floors of Stark Tower, and 2013’s Iron Man 3 saw Stark test his new microchip-locating armor to the tune of “Jingle Bells.” 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron took this one step further by suiting up Iron Man in an even bigger suit of armor, the Hulkbuster, which proved capable of taking on the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) himself. Since then, however, Stark upgraded to using nanotech armor.

Stark’s nanotech Iron Man suits in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame certainly provided a sense of futurism and sleekness, but lost a lot of the magic of these previous, celebrated suit-up scenes. Nanotech provided more ease when suiting up, and provided Stark with more weapons and gadgets than ever before – many of which proved helpful during the fight against Thanos (Josh Brolin). Even so, we can’t wait to see Doctor Doom bring physical armor back to the MCU, especially with Robert Downey Jr. in the driver’s seat, so we’re even more excited for Doomsday now.

Are you excited to see Doctor Doom in his suit of armor in Avengers: Doomsday? Let us know in the comments!

The post I’m So Glad the MCU is Returning to Iron Man’s Roots for RDJ’s Doctor Doom Debut appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Horror comedies seem to be a common trend in recently released films. From Stephen King adaptations like The Monkey to A24 fantasies like Death of a Unicorn, studios are frequently deciding to utilize comedy within horror films. One of the best examples of a horror/comedy is the Zombieland franchise. With an incredible ensemble, including Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Woody Harrelson, and an all-time great cameo by Bill Murray, the duology successfully delivers on both genres, bringing a new perspective to the zombie film that made a massive impact on the viewer. Whether they are looking for a Twinkie or decapitating zombies, these films have great stories despite their absurdities.

Both Zombieland movies do an incredible job of building character and creating fantastic zombie sequences, and a third film is necessary to end a trilogy. With the way the second film wraps up, there are so many directions that the next film could go in, and it’s strange that there has yet to be an announcement for a third movie.

Why Is There Not a Zombieland 3 in Development?

Zombieland was a critical and audience hit upon release, scoring an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and an 86% from audiences. On a $23-million budget, the film went on to gross $102 million at the worldwide box office according to BoxOfficeMojo, making it a relatively big success for Columbia Pictures. Despite being a success on nearly every front, it took ten years for a sequel to come out. Zombieland: Double Tap was not as successful with critics, but still holds a fresh 68% on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences, however, gave it an 88% approval rating, surpassing the score of the original. With a doubled budget of $42 million, the film ended up grossing more than the first film, picking up $122 million at the worldwide box office. Despite receiving worse reviews, the box office of the sequel shows that people are still eager for more content in the Zombieland universe.

With the box office success and moderate acclaim of both films, why hasn’t a third movie been announced? There have been tons of rumors about why the studio has not greenlit the film yet, with a heavy emphasis on scheduling between the actors being the main issue. With actors like Emma Stone and Jesse Eisenberg becoming A-list movie stars since the release of the first film, it’s justifiable that they have yet to green-light a third movie. Director Ruben Fleischer and the rest of the cast have been asked numerous times, and while they have expressed interest, according to interviews, nothing has been set in stone on a potential third movie in the series.

Another reason why filmmakers may be skeptical about making a third movie is the failure of the 2013 television show, Zombieland: The Series. Acting as a reimagining of the original film, the series never made it beyond the pilot episode, as no studio picked up the show, which led to its eventual cancellation. Whereas that show failed for not having the original cast returning, people would be much more excited for a third Zombieland movie, as the cast is one of the main reasons why people enjoy the films.

Read Next

Ryan Reynolds Was Supposed to Cameo in Zombieland 2

There Are Many Directions to Take a Third Zombieland Movie

It wasn’t until the second movie that the filmmakers began to fully develop the world of Zombieland, introducing a plethora of new characters and locations for the characters to explore and call home. The end of Zombieland: Double Tap saw Columbus and Wichita, played by Eisenberg and Stone, getting engaged after a short-term break-up. The film also saw Nevada, played by Rosario Dawson, joining the main crew on their adventures as they drive away from Babylon. With newly introduced love interests and marriages, a third film could explore the idea of potentially raising children in a zombie apocalypse. Not only would this further develop the main antagonists, but it could strengthen the tension by giving the characters more to lose.

A third film also has the potential to make Little Rock, played by Abigail Breslin, a much stronger character. In both Zombieland movies, Little Rock is sidelined to the “child” role, being constantly told what to do by everyone around her, with too many rebellious subplots. In a third film, now that she has aged out of adolescence, it allows the writers and filmmakers to give her a stronger progression, other than the stereotypical “child in a horror movie” trope. Not only would a third Zombieland movie be a welcome addition to the franchise, but it would also give the filmmakers the opportunity to build on their previous work.

Even though the Zombieland movies aren’t making hundreds of millions of dollars in profit for their studio, they are extremely fun and well-made movies that deserve to have more sequels. With their signature sense of humor and incredible cast of A-listers, this is a franchise that should be pumping out new releases every few years, not every decade.

Do you think there should be a third Zombieland movie? Put in the comments below what you think Zombieland 3 should be about!

The post 6 Years Later, This Zombie Franchise Still Deserves a Third Movie appeared first on ComicBook.com.

At the end of March, Marvel Studios confirmed the first 27 actors cast in Avengers: Doomsday, but many more Marvel Cinematic Universe veterans are expected to join them soon. Marvel’s first Avengers: Doomsday cast announcement – which took the form of a five-and-a-half-hour chair-laying ceremony – included some predictable casting choices, as well as some major surprises. However, there were many MCU stars who were curiously omitted from the announcement, but with production well underway, another chair-laying ceremony might be on the horizon.

As well as MCU mainstays such as Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Mackie, and the casts of the New Avengers and Fantastic Four teams, Marvel Studios also confirmed that several members of 20th Century Fox’s X-Men team would be returning in Avengers: Doomsday. This promises a multiverse-spanning storyline that could lead to even more surprises in another cast announcement. With 27 actors already confirmed, including Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, there could be 27 more on the way, and these are our best predictions for who could appear in the Russo brothers’ upcoming crossover event.

Read Next

Major MCU Locations Confirmed for Avengers: Doomsday by Marvel’s Kevin Feige

27) Don Cheadle as James “Rhodey” Rhodes’ War Machine

It’s been a shame to see one of the MCU’s original armoured heroes wasted during the Multiverse Saga, as Rhodey was revealed to have been replaced by a Skrull in Secret Invasion, but this transition hasn’t been explained. Avengers: Doomsday presents the perfect opportunity for Don Cheadle to return, perhaps briefly examining his experience with the Skrulls, before moving on to allow him to be a true custodian of Tony Stark’s legacy as Iron Man. With Downey Jr. returning as a villain, it would be great to see Stark’s best friend’s reaction, so we’d love to see War Machine again.

26) Brie Larson as Carol Danvers’ Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel has been central to the MCU since her debut in 2019, but she has unfortunately been at the center of some confusing and misplaced criticism in recent years. The Marvels became the MCU’s lowest-grossing movie ever, despite positive reviews, making it essential for Brie Larson to return to fully redeem her cosmic character in Avengers: Doomsday. She proved pivotal to Avengers: Endgame’s narrative, and has already dealt with the multiverse in 2023, so it would make sense for her to rejoin the Avengers in 2026 to battle Doctor Doom.

25) Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner’s Hulk

It was very surprising to not see Mark Ruffalo’s name among the first roster of MCU actors returning in Avengers: Doomsday. Bruce Banner has been at the core of the MCU since the very beginning, and has been through some pretty wild changes, leading to him becoming Smart Hulk in Endgame. We last saw him alongside his Sakaarian son, Skaar (Wil Deusner), so Doomsday could give this introduction more meaning, while expanding the Hulk’s storyline even further. The Russo brothers made some controversial choices with the Hulk in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, so Doomsday could provide redemption.

24) Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters’ She-Hulk

Alongside Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner, it would be fantastic to see his cousin, Tatiana Maslany’s Jennifer Walters also return in Avengers: Doomsday. She-Hulk has been absent from many conversations surrounding an MCU future since She-Hulk: Attorney at Law debuted her with poor visual effects and unfounded review bombing, even though she’s one of the most exciting, satirical, and powerful characters introduced to the MCU in recent years. We’d love to see Maslany reteam with Ruffalo to bring these Hulks back to life in Avengers: Doomsday – especially if this comes with better CGI.

23) Sophia Di Martino as Sylvie

Tom Hiddleston has already been confirmed to be returning as Loki in Avengers: Doomsday, and set photos from the movie’s production have seemingly confirmed the Time Variance Authority will be revisited. This all creates the perfect opportunity for Sophia Di Martino to reprise her role as the Loki variant, Sylvie, who formed a close bond with Loki in his self-titled Disney+ series. Sylvie could inform other heroes about the state of the multiverse, as she has more knowledge than most, and her inclusion could open the door for Owen Wilson, Wunmi Mosaku, Ke Huy Quan, and more to also return.

22) Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie

Chris Hemsworth was the first actor confirmed to be returning in Doomsday during Marvel’s chair-laying announcement, which means the city of New Asgard could be revisited in the upcoming Phase 6 movie. This means New Asgard’s king, Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie, must be included, especially after defending her people in 2022’s Thor: Love and Thunder. Valkyrie fought Thanos alongside the Avengers in Endgame, so could be included as a more central hero in Doomsday, alongside her Asgardian allies, though Natalie Portman’s Mighty Thor likely won’t be involved.

21) Chris Pratt as Peter Quill’s Star-Lord

The end of 2023’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 saw Peter Quill leave the titular team and return to Earth, where he reunited with his grandfather. The movie ended with the promise that the Legendary Star-Lord will return, and Avengers: Doomsday is the best place for Chris Pratt to come back. Despite not having any innate superhuman gifts, Quill is a skilled fighter, an experienced leader, and has an intimate knowledge of cosmic goings-on in the MCU, so would be a huge asset to the Avengers, and he could be joined by his former Guardians of the Galaxy teammates.

Read Next

Why Chris Pratt Is Missing From Avengers: Doomsday Cast Explained

20) Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector’s Moon Knight

Aside from an appearance in the animated What If…? series, Oscar Isaac has not appeared in the MCU as Marc Spector or his alters since his debut in Moon Knight. Moon Knight is one of the most exciting new heroes in the MCU, so it would be fantastic to see him return in Avengers: Doomsday, though he might be too focused on the street-level MCU to take part. Doctor Doom has godly power, however, as down Spector, so it would be brilliant to see these two powerhouses go toe-to-toe, especially if Layla El-Faouly’s Scarlet Scarab (May Calamawy) joins them.

19) Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Stephen Strange

2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness saw Benedict Cumberbatch’s titular Master of the Mystic Arts travel across the multiverse, providing him with an intimate knowledge of multiversal ideals and concepts. This perfectly set him up for a huge role in Avengers: Doomsday, so it’s shocking he hasn’t yet been confirmed to be involved. Strange was last seen entering the Dark Dimension with Clea (Charlize Theron) to stop an incursion, so it would be fantastic to see them both return in Doomsday to fulfil this goal and perhaps help to thwart more incursions and stop Doctor Doom.

18) Benedict Wong as Wong

If Doctor Strange and Clea return, it would make sense for Benedict Wong’s Wong to be involved in Avengers: Doomsday, too. Wong, as the current Sorcerer Supreme, is one of the most important figures in the MCU, and perhaps an easy target for Doctor Doom on his hunt for power. Wong played a crucial role in Infinity War, Endgame, and Multiverse of Madness, so it would be great to see him come back in Doomsday to continue this strong streak, displaying more of his power, maybe building a team of his own, and perhaps even becoming a victim of Doom.

17) Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff’s Scarlet Witch

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness might have ended with Wanda Maximoff’s demise, but teases in Agatha All Along and speculation of her return in the upcoming Vision Quest series could set up her return for Doomsday. In Marvel Comics, the Scarlet Witch is a very important figure alongside Doctor Doom, who manipulates her into being his wife, so this could be explored in the MCU’s Phase 6. With Joe Locke portraying the reincarnated Billy Maximoff, and a new Tommy Maximoff expected to debut alongside Paul Bettany’s Vision in 2026, it’s high time for a Maximoff family reunion.

16) Paul Bettany as Vision

If the Scarlet Witch returns, then it would be no surprise to see Vision come back alongside her. Paul Bettany is set to return as the white version of the vibranium synthezoid Vision in 2026’s Vision Quest series – the latest spinoff from 2021’s WandaVision. It’s assumed that Vision Quest will premiere before Avengers: Doomsday’s December 2026 release, which means Paul Bettany’s solo series could provide the perfect set-up for his role in Doomsday. One thing’s for sure – the vibranium Avenger would prove very useful in the fight against Doctor Doom.

15) Tom Holland as Peter Parker’s Spider-Man

Tom Holland is currently filming Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which is scheduled for release in July 2026, and will see Peter Parker’s Spider-Man team up with Jon Bernthal’s Punisher on the streets of New York City. The fact that Spider-Man will be jumping back into action shortly before Avengers: Doomsday, and Brand New Day will likely mark some huge set-up for the Phase 6 crossover, there’s little doubt Tom Holland will be involved in the Russo brothers’ next MCU instalment. Spider-Man proved to be a huge asset in Infinity War and Endgame, and he’s grown even stronger since then.

14) Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams’ Wonder Man

Scheduled to premiere as Simon Williams’ Wonder Man in the self-titled Disney+ series, Wonder Man, in December 2025, we can easily see Yahya Abdul-Mateen II having a role in Avengers: Doomsday. As Wonder Man, Abdul-Mateen will debut as one of the MCU’s most powerful new characters, a superhuman who has ambitions of becoming a Hollywood star, so he’ll be crucial in the fight against Doctor Doom. It’s no wonder he wasn’t confirmed in the first round of casting for Doomsday, as the release of his own series was still a way off, but this is no longer the case.

13) Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton’s Hawkeye

After making a miraculous recovery from his 2023 snowplow accident, Jeremy Renner is ready to rejoin the MCU as Clint Barton’s Hawkeye. Barton has seemingly retired from a superhero career several times, but he surely has one or two more adventures in him. With Robert Downey Jr. returning, and Chris Hemsworth already being confirmed for Doomsday, it would be great to see the other members of the original Avengers team join them. Barton is also the mentor to one of the MCU’s most exciting new heroes, which could hint at a bigger role for her in Doomsday, too.

12) Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop’s Hawkeye

Hailee Steinfeld joined Jeremy Renner in 2021’s Hawkeye series as Kate Bishop, a sharp-shooting archer who idolized the Avenger and eventually became his mentee. Clint Barton seemed to pass on the Hawkeye mantle to Kate Bishop at the end of the Phase 4 series, setting her up to become a central hero in the MCU’s future, perhaps as a member of the Young Avengers – who were teased in 2023’s The Marvels. Avengers: Doomsday would be a great place to bring the Young Avengers together, and, as the oldest member, Kate Bishop’s Hawkeye could become the group’s natural leader.

11) Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams’ Ironheart

The most recent live-action Disney+ series released by Marvel Studios was Ironheart, which developed Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams in the wake of her debut in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. With a relationship to Letitia Wright’s Shuri – who has already been confirmed for Doomsday – it would make sense for Riri to return in the upcoming crossover event. After Ironheart’s finale saw Riri strike a deal with Mephisto (Sacha Baron Cohen), her role in Doomsday could come with some unexpected and thrilling dark twists.

10) Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan’s Ms. Marvel

If the Young Avengers are set to appear in Avengers: Doomsday, they won’t only include the likes of Kate Bishop, Riri Williams, Billy Maximoff, America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), Skaar, and more, but Kamala Khan’s Ms. Marvel would also take a central position. Iman Vellani’s mutant superhero is one of the most important figures in the MCU, and will surely bridge the gap between the old and reset MCU after Avengers: Secret Wars. After partnering with Captain Marvel and Monica Rambeau to save the universe in The Marvels, there’s no doubt Ms. Marvel will reunite with them in Doomsday.

9) Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau

The end of The Marvels saw Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau become trapped in an alternate reality inhabited by the X-Men – including Kelsey Grammer’s Beast, who has already been confirmed for Avengers: Doomsday. This means that her return in Doomsday is practically inevitable, as it would be silly to explore a multiverse-spanning story without revisiting the Earth Rambeau is now trapped on. This could explain the confirmation of so many X-Men members returning in Doomsday – perhaps Monica is trapped on Earth 10005 – and would open the door for another exciting new character to return alongside her.

8) Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau’s Binary

The Maria Rambeau of Earth 616 passed away during the Blip, but several of her variants have already been introduced to the MCU. While Lashana Lynch’s Captain Marvel was killed by the Scarlet Witch in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, The Marvels introduced her Binary variant, who had teamed up with the X-Men. Revisiting this alternate reality – where Monica Rambeau found herself trapped – presents the opportunity for Lashana Lynch to better develop Maria’s Binary persona, perhaps establishing herself as one of the MCU’s most powerful new characters, and giving Lynch a more substantial role in the franchise.

7) Famke Janssen as Jean Grey

So far, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, Alan Cumming, Kelsey Grammer, and Channing Tatum have all been confirmed to be reprising their X-Men roles in Doomsday. There are many omissions, however, and one of the most prominent is that of Famke Janssen’s Jean Grey. Jean deserves to return after X-Men: The Last Stand fumbled her delivery of the Dark Phoenix, as she needs some serious redemption. We hope Jean Grey is finally done justice on-screen in the MCU, but, before Marvel Studios recasts the iconic X-Men hero, we’d love to see Janssen get another chance.

6) Halle Berry as Ororo Munroe’s Storm

Another iconic X-Men member who wasn’t included among those in the first cast announcement for Avengers: Doomsday was Storm, with neither Halle Berry nor Alexandra Shipp being confirmed to be reprising the role. Berry has been the subject of rumors for several years, with speculation suggesting she’ll reprise the role of Storm, who never quite got the chance to display her almost god-like power in Fox’s X-Men franchise. After Earth 10005 was revisited in Deadpool & Wolverine, and with many X-Men members already confirmed, we would love to see Halle Berry’s Storm return to action before the role is recast.

5) Hugh Jackman as Logan’s Wolverine

Speaking of Deadpool & Wolverine, Hugh Jackman recently shared footage of him back training in the gym, which may have teased his upcoming appearance in Avengers: Doomsday. Jackman retired from the role of Wolverine after 2017’s Logan, but returned as a variant of his original Earth 10005 hero in Deadpool & Wolverine, and could reprise this role in Doomsday. It’s every comic fan’s dream to see Wolverine and the X-Men in comic-accurate live-action costumes, and Doomsday is promising to make this happen, so, before someone else takes over from Jackman, we want him to come back just one more time.

4) Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson’s Deadpool

It would be hard to have a Deadpool & Wolverine reunion with just the latter, so it would make sense for Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson to also return. Deadpool & Wolverine became the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time in 2024, making a return for the titular Merc with a Mouth practically inevitable. While Reynolds is working on a new Deadpool and X-Men team-up project, it would also be brilliant to see Deadpool team up with the Avengers and the pre-established heroes of the MCU. Doomsday could reunite Deadpool with the X-Men while introducing him to the other heroes of the MCU.

3) Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury

Even after the disappointment of 2023’s Secret Invasion, Nick Fury is still one of the most important figures in the MCU’s history. He helped found the original Avengers team, so it would be fantastic to see Samuel L. Jackson reprise the role for their upcoming adventure, especially with Robert Downey Jr. returning. Fury’s involvement with SABER in The Marvels means he has knowledge of the MCU’s cosmic and multiversal powers, which could prove crucial to Doomsday. Fury deserves redemption after his controversial Phase 5 adventures, so we hope he comes back and cements himself as a formidable hero once again.

2) Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter

Hayley Atwell was previously rumored to be involved with Avengers: Doomsday, but this hasn’t yet been officially confirmed by Marvel Studios. Atwell debuted as Peggy Carter back in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, and she was last seen as this original iteration in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. It’s possible this version of Peggy Carter could return, but Atwell could also play a Captain Carter variant of her character, who has previously been seen in animation and even in live-action in the MCU. A mirror to Steve Rogers’ Captain America, Captain Carter would be a great addition to Doomsday’s roster.

1) Chris Evans as Steve Rogers’ Captain America

After the shocking reveal that Robert Downey Jr. would be coming back to Marvel – as Doctor Doom rather than Iron Man – speculation stirred about who else could return. While he’d remained mum about the idea of returning as Captain America since his departure in Endgame, Chris Evans came back to the MCU as Johnny Storm’s Human Torch in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine, presented a number of opportunities for him to also return in Avengers: Doomsday, whether as the Human Torch, Captain America, or another variant altogether. We want to see all the original Avengers return, so perhaps Scarlett Johansson will join, too, but only time will tell.

Who do you want to see return to the MCU in Avengers: Doomsday? Let us know in the comments!

The post Predicting the Next 27 Actors Cast in the MCU’s Avengers: Doomsday appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Much of John Carpenter‘s filmography has gotten the appropriate amount of love given the respective merits of the projects. Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog, Starman, Christine, Big Trouble in Little China, and They Live are all rightly deemed minor classics while Halloween, Escape from New York, and The Thing are all completely appreciated as full-on classics of cinema. Furthermore, Memoirs of an Invisible Man and Escape from L.A. were and continue to be (justifiably) dismissed as missed opportunities. But what about the movies that have fallen between the cracks, as it were? The ones that have merit yet have been lumped in with Memoirs of an Invisible Man by some, if not most, cinephiles.

Those are the ones that follow. They’re not golden eggs in Carpenter’s oeuvre, but they’re not lumps of coal, either.

1) Ghosts of Mars

A flawed but underrated action-horror movie, Ghosts of Mars unsurprisingly bombed hard when released during 2001’s summer movie season. It was always going to be niche, and its over-stylization and surprisingly cheap production values (at $28 million in 2001, it didn’t have a microscopic budget) were bound to kill repeat business.

And, admittedly, it’s perfectly understandable why Carpenter fans saw it as arguably his worst film. But time has been fairly kind to Ghosts of Mars. It’s not fully trying to be scary, it’s more trying to be fun, and once you get past how much of a drop it is from his Halloween and The Fog days, it succeeds in being that. For all intents and purposes, this is Carpenter’s swan song (in no way does The Ward feel like his), and it was an interesting final project to tackle.

Stream Ghosts of Mars for free with ads on The Roku Channel.

2) Village of the Damned

Like the next entry on this list, Carpenter’s Village of the Damned remake is an excellent example of the primary issue with the director’s latter half filmography. Specifically, many of the films start out very well but then proceed to gradually lose their way.

But unlike a few other examples, Village of the Damned opens phenomenally, then merely dips down to average. It’s also Christopher Reeve’s theatrical film swan song, and that alone gives it a considerable cultural curiosity factor (though the less said about Kirstie Alley’s performance, the better).

Rent Village of the Damned on Amazon Video.

Read Next

2 John Carpenter Movies Get Exclusive Limited Edition 4K Steelbook Releases From Scream Factory

3) In the Mouth of Madness

There’s enough of a cult following for In the Mouth of Madness to warrant the release of a book in 2025, 31 years after the film’s release, but it’s still not one of Carpenter’s more popular films. It’s not hard to see why, as it’s arguably the best example of the main problem with Carpenter’s later career, which is the aforementioned tendency to open well then go downhill.

But, even after going downhill, Madness is still impressive in its ambition. And, for H. P. Lovecraft fans, it’s an unmissable love letter. It also puts Sam Neill to better use than the regrettable Memoirs of an Invisible Man.

Stream In the Mouth of Madness for free on Hoopla.

4) Vampires

As a whole, Carpenter’s ’90s output was far inferior to his ’80s output, but Vampires is a lot of fun. It’s impressive because vampire movies are a well-worn staple of the horror genre, and outside the odd Abigail here and there, they mostly feel played out.

The key to Carpenter’s vision for the monster is that most of the focus isn’t on the monster (though Thomas Ian Griffith is well cast as Jan Valek), it’s on the vampire hunters. Admittedly, Daniel Baldwin isn’t particularly great as Anthony Montoya, but as the head vampire hunter Jack Crow, James Woods is magnetic. One wishes the film had more scenes of the whole vampire team doing their thing, because those first 20 or so minutes are so fun, but it’s not as if the movie treads water after they’re all slaughtered. It’s a mixed bag of a movie, but still the high point of Carpenter’s ’90s.

Stream Vampires for free on Netflix.

5) Prince of Darkness

A grim horror flick with an incredibly messed-up ending, Prince of Darkness is arguably Carpenter’s most ambitious work. And, because of that, it can occasionally feel a bit all over the place. But in that inconsistency, there’s quite a bit of gold and a few of the director’s scariest scenes.

The plot follows a classroom of quantum physics-studying college students (most of whom do not look college-aged) as they go to an old church to analyze a big cylinder filled with a pulsing green liquid. It turns out this liquid is the embodiment of Satan, and it’s desperate to be released. This was Carpenter’s middle installment of his “Apocalypse Trilogy,” which started with The Thing and ended with In the Mouth of Madness. And, while it’s no The Thing, it’s better than Madness.

Rent Prince of Darkness on Amazon Video.

What do you think are Carpenter’s most underrated movies? Let us know in the comments below!

The post 5 John Carpenter Movies That Don’t Get Enough Love appeared first on ComicBook.com.

James Bond is entering the Amazon era, with the former Sony chair Amy Pascal and producer David Heyman selected to take over for longtime Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. The changes follow Daniel Craig’s exit from the role, which means the search is underway for the next actor to step into the 007 role. And that search has turned up quite a few names from across the acting world, with a wide range of ages and ideas for the next James Bond assignment. There are even odds on Pierce Brosnan possibly returning or Jeremy Irons portraying an old Bond, which both seem like outliers at best.

Dune director Denis Villeneuve will handle the duties in Bond 26, with Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight penning the script. According to reports earlier in the summer, the Prisoners director and the Amazon bosses are keen on casting a British actor in their 20s. This would be a younger push than the departed producing team of Broccoli and Wilson, who were reportedly considering actors in their 30s or 40s.

So, scouring the internet’s many oddsmakers, comments on Reddit, and official news, we’ve taken some time to pare down the potential James Bond actors list to fewer than ten actors. That’s a hefty feat given that almost every British actor and a few British actresses have been considered for the iconic spy role. Don’t expect Tom Hardy or Idris Elba to appear on this list, though both are in some conversations. And there will be a few that don’t make the final cut, but they deserve some honorable mentions. Scroll down to start things out and see who could be suiting up as 007 in Bond 26, ranked by likelihood.

Honorable Mentions

Aside from those already mentioned, there are quite a few heroic choices that won’t land in the top seven, instead being held near the top when the film was first released. Both Dev Patel and Bridgerton‘s Rege-Jean Page are on a lot of lists to take up the mantle, with Patel growing to be quite an action star in the years since Slumdog Millionaire. F1 and Snowfall star Damson Idris is also rising on a lot of lists, though he’s also reportedly up to become the new Black Panther for Marvel. Superman standout and Marvel alum Nicholas Hoult is also in the running, but he’s sure to have a busy schedule. And he’s not the only one.

7) Paul Mescal

The Gladiator 2 star was once a frontrunner for the Bond role on the heels of a slew of successes and awards consideration at only 29 years old. Audiences enjoyed him in Aftersun and All of Us Strangers, but Ridley Scott’s Roman epic is Mescal’s biggest role to date. Could he be ready to jump into a major franchise? Or will Mescal be too busy playing Paul McCartney in the upcoming Beatles series of films?

6) Aaron Pierre

If you haven’t watched Rebel Ridge on Netflix, stop and drop everything you’re doing and make the time. Aaron Pierre delivers a performance that’s up with the best Denzel Washington revenge films. It also helps to show that the Mufasa and Underground Railroad actor is comfortable with physical action. He’s currently the highest-ranked actor of color with oddsmakers, and his name continues to move up the list.

If he did end up in the role, it would surely be a flashpoint for people too dedicated to their own opinions. But they’d have to come around, or completely miss out.

Read Next

Amazon Breaks Silence on the Future of James Bond

5) Jacob Elordi

The Saltburn and Euphoria actor is set to appear in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein later in 2025, but many have wanted him for the Bond since the producing changes were made official. His Australian background would also have people calling back to the original replacement Bond, George Lazenby. He’s also free of any franchise entanglements at this point, with Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars being the only project he’s filming for at the moment outside of Euphoria in 2026. He’s got the look and has been the frontrunner several times, but will he make it through?

4) Henry Cavill

If you were to type in a prompt about the perfect James Bond, nine times out of 10, you’d get Henry Cavill. The former Man of Steel star showed he had spy chops in several films, including doing his best James Bond in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. opposite Armie Hammer. He also delivered an iconic performance in Mission: Impossible Fallout, loading his arms to blast off in that bathroom fight. He also dipped a toe into Bond territory with Argylle, but returned to a meatier espionage role with The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

The point here: he’s a veteran of the game, and he’s still fairly young, despite being 42 years old. If that’s not an issue, Cavill has to be on the official list.

3) Harris Dickinson

Dickinson is the best of both worlds with youth on his side, but with some prior experience within the genre, thanks to his role in The King’s Man. He’s also delivered a memorable performance as the doomed David Von Erich in The Iron Claw and stood out among the pretty faces in Triangle of Sadness.

Now he’s high in the odds and on a few major lists for the next James Bond. It’s just enough notoriety to give him the edge at this moment.

2) Tom Holland

The Spider-Man star has been vocal about his interest in playing the next James Bond, even pitching a young James Bond reboot in 2019. He called it an origin story, but noted that the Bond producers at the time weren’t interested. Could the newer officials have a change of heart?

Fans think he is a frontrunner, according to online betting site Polymarket, with Holland landing at third and averaging just below Dickinson, Elordi, and Cavill across online oddsmakers. The big problem for Holland could be his busy superhero schedule, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled. There is one other name leading the pack, however.

1) Aaron Taylor-Johnson

The Bullet Train and Kick-Ass star has grown in popularity to become the next James Bond, with quite the track record to support his ascension. He recently became Omega watches latest global ambassador, making his chances for the role look even better according to GQ. Omega has long been a James Bond partner since Pierce Brosnan took the role in Goldeneye.

Taylor-Johnson’s age is the only real hurdle, according to most reports, though he’d still be in the sweet spot below Cavill at 35 years old. An interesting wrinkle is the reports that Taylor-Johnson had been officially offered the role once before by the departed producers Broccoli and Wilson, and never announced it. So he’s definitely in the running and currently is the favorite due to his Omega partnership.

Do you agree with our list? Feel that one of the other dozens of names mentioned with James Bond could do a better job? Let us know in the comments.

The post 7 Best Contenders for the Next James Bond, Ranked appeared first on ComicBook.com.

KPop Demon Hunters has become a global sensation on Netflix, and for good reason. I’ve watched it multiple times, and I’m sure that I’m not alone in feeling like this is the kind of movie that I can continue re-watching without getting tired of it. It has a great blend of humor mixed into the seriousness that keeps the content from feeling too heavy, and the visuals alone are stunning. On top of that, the songs are incredible, and I can’t stop listening to the soundtrack on repeat. Yet in the middle of all the positive qualities, I have a question that only a prequel can fully answer.

While KPop Demon Hunters tells the story of Huntrix against Saja Boys and their plan to feed souls to Gwi-ma, it doesn’t tell the story of Rumi. Rather, it doesn’t explain the story that led to Rumi, namely, how her mother ended up having a half-demon child despite being a hunter. If I had to guess, it would be a situation similar to Rumi’s relationship with Jinu, albeit one that developed more and ended differently. With this in mind, I think that a prequel could reveal a lot about hunters overall by following Rumi’s mom.

We’re Left With Unanswered Questions About Rumi

It doesn’t take long for KPop Demon Hunters to reveal a crucial detail about Rumi: she has the patterns of a demon on her arms. We also see that her patterns are spreading, which is also shown with the help of a few flashbacks where her patterns cover a much smaller amount of skin. This is the result of Rumi’s dad being a demon. Since we also know that Rumi’s mom was a hunter, the revelation about her dad’s nature raises quite a few questions.

While Jinu and Rumi almost have a romantic arc, romance is far from the focus of KPop Demon Hunters, and it doesn’t come to fruition. I believe that making this part of the movie into more of a side plot was the right move, since keeping the focus on the bonds between Rumi, Mira, and Zoey creates a powerful narrative. However, this almost-romance gives us an important piece of information: some demons retain emotions. It might not be the same as when they were a human, but it’s clear that Jinu has a greater measure of humanity left in him compared to other demons.

With that in mind, I think we could reasonably say that there are other demons who have more humanity left compared to the majority of demons. Their memories that keep their humanity intact could vary greatly, but I suspect that Rumi’s dad was a demon like Jinu that still retained memories from his lifetime that kept him connected to his humanity. I would also be willing to bet that the demon who is (theoretically) Rumi’s dad ended up dying to the hunters, who would’ve been the Sunlight Sisters at that time. If KPop Demon Hunters had been a full anime series instead of a movie, then we could’ve had this as a flashback arc. Since that’s not the case, we need a prequel to explain it.

Read Next

KPop Demon Hunters Has A Big Surprise Planned for Fans

Rumi Could Have Led to Her Mother’s Death

KPop Demon Hunters doesn’t explain the cause of Rumi’s mother’s death. It just says that she died when Rumi was a baby, and Celine—having made a promise to protect what Rumi’s mom left behind—took in Rumi and raised her, apparently without knowing that Rumi is half-demon, as evidenced by Celine’s comment that she “didn’t know it would be a child like you.” Looking at these supernatural and fantasy elements included in the movie, it’s possible that Rumi led to her mother dying, but not in a way that was a direct fault of hers.

It’s common enough for stories that include multiple species, such as having both humans and demons, to include drawbacks unique to one species having a child with the other species. If that’s the case for KPop Demon Hunters, then a lot about the setup makes sense. Rumi’s mom would know that she wouldn’t have the chance to raise Rumi, and that other hunters would see Rumi as something wrong. So, she prepares ahead of time and makes Celine promise her that she’d protect what’s left behind, knowing that it would be Rumi.

I don’t have a way to prove if my theory is correct or not, but it feels plausible enough when I look at other fictional universes that have similar dynamics. Only a prequel or a sequel that includes flashbacks could provide the answers to what happened that led to Rumi being born with a demonic nature, and I certainly won’t be complaining when KPop Demon Hunters starts expanding its universe.

The post A KPop Demon Hunters Sequel Sounds Great (But I Need a Prequel) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

A great horror movie ending is an art form, often delivering the last twist of the knife that recontextualizes everything the audience has just witnessed. However, while many horror films opt for a triumphant finale where the surviving heroes vanquish evil, some of the most memorable horror movie endings choose a different path. They steer directly into the darkness, concluding with an outcome so bleak, so shocking, or so profoundly unfair that it lingers long after the credits roll. These are the endings that spark debates and leave viewers stunned, endings that feel both completely wrong and absolutely perfect.

This brand of messed-up finale is a high-wire act. If mishandled, it can feel cheap or nihilistic for its own sake. When executed perfectly, however, it serves as the thematic capstone to the entire story. We’ve selected the horror endings that achieved a legendary status because they dare to deny the audience any sense of comfort, leaving them with a chilling truth.

WARNING: Major spoilers below 

1) Sleepaway Camp

The 1983 slasher Sleepaway Camp spends most of its run time as a fairly standard, if exceptionally strange, summer camp murder mystery. The story follows the painfully shy Angela Baker (Felissa Rose), who is sent to Camp Arawak with her cousin Ricky (Jonathan Tiersten). Soon after their arrival, a series of grisly and inventive killings begins to plague the camp, with each victim having recently bullied or wronged Angela in some way. The film plays with audience expectations, setting up multiple red herrings as it builds toward its infamous final reveal.

Read Next

10 Disturbing Horror TV Scenes We Can’t Believe Got Past the Censors

Sleepaway Camp‘s place in horror history was cemented in its final moments, which remain one of the most jarring and controversial twists in the genre. Counselors discover a naked Angela on a beach, humming eerily while holding the decapitated head of her crush, Paul (Christopher Collet). As she stands up and turns, it is revealed that “Angela” is actually her long-lost brother, Peter, who was raised as a girl by his eccentric aunt after the real Angela died in a boating accident. The image of Angela’s face on a male body, accompanied by an animalistic hiss, is a truly unsettling conclusion that fans were not prepared for. While the initial reaction to this ending was divisive, Sleepaway Camp has since been reappraised for a perfectly wacky ending.

2) The Descent

Neil Marshall’s claustrophobic masterpiece, The Descent, follows a group of female friends on a caving expedition that goes horribly wrong. One year after a tragic car accident claimed her husband and daughter, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) joins her friends for an adventure intended to help her heal. Their trip becomes a fight for survival when a cave-in traps them in an unexplored system, which they soon discover is home to a species of vicious subterranean predators. The Descent is a relentless exercise in tension, compounding the terror of the monstrous “crawlers” with the paranoia and betrayals simmering within the group.

The Descent is famous for having two different endings, but it is the original UK version that delivers the truly devastating blow. In this cut, Sarah manages to escape the caves, drive away, and then hallucinates her dead friend Juno (Natalie Mendoza) in the passenger seat. This is revealed to be a fake-out, as Sarah awakens back in the darkness of the cave. She then has a peaceful vision of her deceased daughter holding a birthday cake, a brief moment of happiness before the sounds of the approaching crawlers seal her doom. This finale is a perfect encapsulation of the film’s title, showing a psychological descent from which there is no escape.

3) Drag Me to Hell

Sam Raimi’s return to horror, Drag Me to Hell, is a gleefully cruel cautionary tale starring Alison Lohman as Christine Brown, a mild-mannered loan officer who, in an attempt to secure a promotion, denies a loan extension to a mysterious old woman named Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver). In retaliation, Mrs. Ganush places a powerful demonic curse on Christine, dooming her to three days of escalating torment before the demon Lamia drags her soul to hell. 

Drag Me to Hell is a chaotic blend of supernatural horror and Raimi’s signature dark humor as Christine desperately seeks a way to break the curse. After numerous failed attempts to appease or transfer the curse, Christine believes she has finally succeeded by burying the cursed object, a button from her coat, with Mrs. Ganush’s corpse. In the final scene, her boyfriend Clay (Justin Long) proposes to her at a train station. As he gives her an envelope containing a rare coin she thought she had lost, he reveals she accidentally gave him the envelope with the cursed button. Realizing her fatal mistake, a terrified Christine stumbles back onto the train tracks just as fiery hands erupt from the ground and drag her screaming into hell.

4) Rosemary’s Baby

Roman Polanski’s 1968 classic Rosemary’s Baby is a slow-burn psychological horror following Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow), a young wife who moves into a new apartment building with her aspiring actor husband, Guy (John Cassavetes). After being drugged, she has a terrifying dream of being sexually assaulted by a demonic entity. Soon after, she becomes pregnant and is isolated by her overly helpful neighbors and her own husband, who are all part of a satanic coven with sinister plans for her unborn child. Of course, the truth is only revealed in the movie’s final stretch, leaving both Rosemary and the audience questioning her sanity.

The film’s horrifying conclusion validates all of Rosemary’s worst fears. After giving birth, she is told the baby died, but she soon discovers her child alive in the neighbors’ apartment, surrounded by the coven. They reveal that she has given birth to the son of Satan, the Antichrist. Though initially horrified, Rosemary’s maternal instincts take over when she hears the baby crying. The final shot shows her rocking the demonic infant’s cradle, a quiet acceptance of her horrific fate and her role as the mother of evil.

5) Saw

The film that launched one of horror’s most successful franchises, 2004’s Saw introduced a new level of intricate plotting to the genre. The story centers on two men, Adam (Leigh Whannell) and Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes), who awaken chained in a derelict bathroom with a corpse lying between them. Through a series of cassette tapes, they learn they are pawns in a deadly game orchestrated by the Jigsaw Killer, a moralistic murderer who forces his victims to endure horrific trials to prove their will to live. According to the game’s rules, Dr. Gordon is tasked with killing Adam before his time runs out, or his wife and daughter will be murdered.

The ending of Saw is a series of stunning revelations that fundamentally redefine the entire film. After a desperate Dr. Gordon saws off his own foot to escape, the supposed hospital orderly Zep, who the players believed was Jigsaw, is revealed to be just another victim of the game. The true gut-punch comes in the final moments when the “corpse” that has been lying in the center of the room the entire time rises to its feet. It is John Kramer (Tobin Bell), the real Jigsaw Killer, who was present and watching them the whole time. He seals the door, leaving Adam to die in the dark, a perfect twist that left audiences speechless.

6) Hereditary

Ari Aster’s debut feature, Hereditary, became famous for its deeply disturbing exploration of grief, trauma, and inescapable fate. The film follows the Graham family as they unravel following the death of their secretive matriarch. Then, after a horrific accident leads to the death of her daughter, Charlie (Milly Shapiro), Annie (Toni Collette) descends into a spiral of grief and desperation, which makes her vulnerable to a seemingly benevolent support group member named Joan (Ann Dowd). What starts as a harrowing family drama slowly transforms into a supernatural nightmare, revealing that a sinister force has been manipulating the Grahams for generations.

The final act of Hereditary reveals that the family was always doomed. Annie’s mother was the leader of a cult dedicated to the demon Paimon, who needed a male host. The cult orchestrated every tragedy to break down the family and prepare Annie’s son, Peter (Alex Wolff), for possession. In the finale, a possessed Annie decapitates herself while a naked cult watches, and Paimon’s spirit successfully enters Peter’s body. The film ends with Peter, now King Paimon, being crowned in a treehouse shrine surrounded by the headless corpses of his mother and grandmother, a truly bleak culmination of the family’s inherited curse.

7) Eden Lake

James Watkins’s 2008 British thriller Eden Lake stands as one of the most relentlessly punishing films in the survival horror subgenre. The story follows a young couple, Jenny (Kelly Reilly) and Steve (Michael Fassbender), who travel to a remote quarry for a romantic weekend. Their peaceful getaway is quickly shattered by a confrontation with a gang of aggressive local youths, led by the intimidating Brett (Jack O’Connell). 

The film’s infamous ending delivers a soul-crushing blow that has haunted viewers for years. After enduring unimaginable torment and witnessing Steve’s brutal murder, a battered Jenny manages a desperate escape from the woods. She finds help in a nearby town, collapsing in a home during a house party. Her momentary relief turns to absolute terror when she realizes she is in the home of her tormentors. The parents, upon understanding what their children have done, do not offer aid but instead close ranks to protect their own. The last we see is Brett deleting incriminating footage from his phone while Jenny’s muffled screams confirm she is being murdered by the adults, erasing the last witness.

8) The Wicker Man

The 1973 version of The Wicker Man is a foundational film in the folk horror subgenre. The story follows the devoutly Christian police sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward), who travels to the remote Scottish island of Summerisle to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. Upon his arrival, he is disturbed to find a community that has abandoned Christianity in favor of pagan Celtic rituals. Furthermore, the islanders, led by the charismatic Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee), are welcoming but evasive, denying the girl ever existed. As a result, Howie’s investigation becomes a battle of faith as he grows more horrified by the island’s culture.

Howie eventually discovers that the missing girl was a lure, and he was the intended target all along. The islanders’ crops have failed, and they believe that only a human sacrifice, a willing virgin who comes of his own free will, will appease their gods. In the film’s iconic and horrifying finale, Howie is forced inside a giant wicker man statue and burned alive. His terrified Christian prayers are drowned out by the joyous singing of the islanders as they watch him burn, a truly unsettling ending where the hero’s faith is powerless against the community’s beliefs.

9) The Cabin in the Woods

The Cabin in the Woods is a brilliant deconstruction of the horror genre. The film starts with a familiar premise, as five college students, who each fit a specific horror archetype, head to a remote cabin for a weekend of fun. Meanwhile, from a secret underground facility, two technicians (Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford) manipulate the environment, unleashing zombies upon the students. As the story unfolds, it is revealed that this is part of a ritual sacrifice, enacted worldwide, to appease malevolent beings known as the Ancient Ones who live beneath the Earth.

The Cabin in the Woods‘ ending subverts horror tropes one last time. The two survivors, Dana (Kristen Connolly) and Marty (Fran Kranz), discover the truth and unleash all the facility’s monsters, causing chaos. They are confronted by the Director (Sigourney Weaver), who explains that for humanity to survive, one of them must die. Instead, Dana and Marty choose to let the world end, sharing a final joint as a giant hand erupts from the ground, destroying the facility and everything else. It is a cosmically bleak and hilarious finale that punishes the audience and the genre itself for its rigid demands.

10) The Mist

Frank Darabont’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novella, The Mist, is famous for having one of the most soul-crushing endings in cinema history. Following a violent storm, a mysterious mist envelops a small town in Maine, trapping a group of shoppers, including David Drayton (Thomas Jane) and his young son Billy (Nathan Gamble), inside a supermarket. They soon discover the mist is filled with otherworldly creatures that tear apart anyone who dares leave the building. At the same time, inside the store, fear and paranoia take hold, with a religious zealot, Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden), convincing a faction of survivors that a human sacrifice is needed.

In the final moments of The Mist, David and a small group, including his son, manage to escape the store and drive into the mist. After their car runs out of gas, they lose all hope. Believing a gruesome death by the creatures is inevitable, David agrees to use his four remaining bullets to mercifully kill the other four passengers, including his own son. Out of bullets for himself, he steps out of the car to face the monsters, only to see the mist recede and the US Army emerge, having defeated the creatures and ready to rescue the survivors. The realization that he killed his son for nothing, just moments before rescue, is an absolutely perfect gut punch.

Which horror movie ending do you think is the most perfectly messed up? Let us know in the comments.

The post 10 Horror Movies With Messed-Up (But Perfect) Endings appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe owes much of its prestigious reputation to its Avengers movies. Four years after its launch in 2008, the franchise first assembled its trademark group of heroes in The Avengers. Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) returned in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, which saw Earth’s Mightiest Heroes take on the artificial intelligence threat Ultron (James Spader). 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War brought Thanos (Josh Brolin) to the forefront as the MCU’s first big bad and incorporated all of the world’s most prominent superheroes. Finally, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame concluded the Infinity Saga with one last battle against Thanos and some poignant farewells.

In December 2026, more than seven years since the MCU’s last Avengers movie hit theaters, Avengers: Doomsday will bring new and returning heroes to the big screen. The introduction of Doctor Doom (Downey Jr.) as the MCU’s next Avengers-level villain should pave to the way for 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars and the end of the Multiverse Saga. Before the MCU’s next big movie event commences, it’s a great opportunity to look back and rank all four Avengers films.

4) Avengers: Age of Ultron

Avengers: Age of Ultron may be under-appreciated in the larger MCU, but it’s still the weakest Avengers movie. The original squad of heroes battles Ultron and seeks to curb his plan to wipe out humanity, producing some great action sequences and interesting character interactions as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes work as a team for the second time. The debuts of the morally gray twins Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Jonhson) are a major highlight, however the latter was sadly wasted when the film killed him off toward the end. Moreover, Black Widow and Hulk’s clumsily written romance comes across as forced and completely unnecessary.

Ultron isn’t the most memorable villain despite his fascinating origin story. Thus, as a result of the aforementioned missteps, Age of Ultron ends up as only a mediocre Avengers film.

3) Avengers: Endgame

A significant portion of MCU fans would rank Avengers: Endgame as the best Avengers movie, but the widely beloved installment contains more flaws than most believe.

With the world in shambles five years after Thanos erased half of the universe’s life forms with a single snap, the remaining heroes regroup for one last scheme to defeat Thanos and restore mankind. Endgame pulls off some amazing moments, such as the final fight against Thanos, the fallen heroes’ epic return through portals, and Iron Man’s emotional sacrifice, however, the movie stumbles in other areas.

Black Widow’s sacrificial death around the midpoint unfortunately removes her from the Endgame‘s biggest and best scenes, rendering the iconic character nearly forgotten by the end. Additionally, Endgame‘s puzzling underuse of Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) after setting her up as an important piece of the finale is a disappointment. The triumphs of Endgame aren’t quite enough to diminish its blunders, but the film is still a terrific viewing experience.

Read Next

Will Avengers: Doomsday Reunite the Original Avengers Stars?

2) The Avengers

Over a decade later, The Avengers has wonderfully stood the test of time.

After years of buildup, the team assembles on screen while Loki (Tom Hiddleston) tries to take over the world using the Tesseract. With a compelling group of heroes and an exquisite villain, The Avengers delivers an excellent superhero story. There’s a palpable thrill in the air when the Avengers fight together on the streets of New York City, and their banter throughout that works well to flesh out their personalities and group dynamic. Black Widow and Hawkeye’s friendship, Iron Man’s heroics, and Loki’s trickery are standout qualities that separate The Avengers from Age of Ultron and Endgame. The Avengers remains a legendary comic book film thanks to its exhilarating action, high stakes, and strong foundation for ensuing MCU installments.

1) Avengers: Infinity War

No Avengers movie to date has managed to surpass the greatness of Avengers: Infinity War. With giant expectations to fulfill, the MCU delivered a spectacular high-stakes narrative with a gut-punch of an ending.

When Thanos emerges to collect the remainder of the Infinity Stones and snap half of humanity out of existence, the Avengers take heavy blows as they scramble to combat this immense threat. Infinity War truly feels like the monumental MCU it was meant to be, because it involves all of the saga’s heroes — from the original six Avengers to the Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), and more. Thanos’ victory in the final act shocked audiences, and it remains arguably the most memorable ending of any superhero film.

Without a glaring flaw to cheapen its tense atmosphere, action-packed sequences, and captivating convergence of MCU characters, Infinity War topples all other Avengers movies.

Which Avengers movie is your favorite? Let us know in the comments!

The post Every Avengers Movie, Ranked Worst to Best appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Disney Studios has created some wondrous adventures, many of which sparked imaginations for children of all ages. However, for every fantastical scene and earworm sing-along, there’s at least one scene that is a thing of nightmares. If you’ve spent enough time watching Disney films, you know exactly what we’re talking about. Who can forget how traumatic it was to see Bambi’s mom die, or what it felt like to watch poor Simba try to wake his father? These moments hit hard, and they certainly left a mark. When it comes to traumatic Disney movies, there is a long list, but this one film sits at the top.

Disney’s Dumbo is a musical fantasy, and while it’s marketed as more of a comedy-drama, boy, is it a traumatic movie. Most people know how the story goes: adorable little Dumbo (Jumbo Jr., if you want to get technical) is mocked for having oversized ears. By the time the film is over, he’s embraced his oversized ears (and how they grant his flight). It’s a classic, right? This movie has been around a shockingly long time, having first been released in 1941. It’s also one of the shorter Disney films, clocking in at around 64 minutes. Given the shorter timeframe, it’s even more surprising that this film fits in so many upsetting and disturbing scenes.

A Traumatic Start

We might as well start this conversation with one of the most obvious parts of the story: Dumbo’s upsetting childhood. Right from the beginning, the film makes it clear that Dumbo is different and thus treated very differently. There’s a lesson there. Thankfully, Dumbo has a loving mother who goes above and beyond to take care of her son. Mrs. Jumbo works hard to make her son feel happy and loved.

Therein lies the first tragedy, as this overprotective mother goes into a rage when her child is tormented in front of her eyes. She’s desperately trying to get to her son, while those around her tie her up. To make matters worse, the ringmaster begins whipping her. The scene ends with the mother/son pair being forcibly separated.

Don’t worry, it gets worse! We later get to see poor Dumbo visit his mom while she’s in elephant prison, and it is even more heartbreaking than it sounds. In a moment that is all too real, the two entwine their trunks and get as much contact as they can through the bars, knowing it’s only a matter of time before they’re separated again.

In perfect Disney fashion, there’s a song that helps drive these emotions home. “Baby Mine” is a haunting song about a parent’s unconditional love, which hits pretty hard given the moments leading up to this scene.

Read Next

10 Classic Disney Movies That Are Totally Traumatizing

Themes of Bullying and Exploitation

Let’s be real, Disney films, especially classic Disney films, love to create a heartbreaking scene, usually one revolving around the loss of a parent. Dumbo isn’t an exception to this rule. What makes Dumbo stand out as a traumatic film is the additional layers thrown onto this loss.

Right from the beginning, Dumbo is mocked and bullied, all while he and his mother are being exploited by a circus. Dumbo’s physical differences make him the center of a sideshow act, where he’s repeatedly humiliated and manipulated. It’s a heavy-hitting theme for anyone who has ever felt judged for being different.

Read Next

10 Modern Disney Movies That Are Totally Traumatizing

Pink Elephants On Parade

Finally, there’s one more upsetting scene we need to discuss, the “Pink Elephants on Parade” scene. This scene is deeply disturbing, especially to a younger audience. It begins when Dumbo accidentally drinks a bucket of booze and begins to hallucinate. Again, this is really part of the film—a movie made for children.

At first, Dumbo sees one pink elephant, and before long, one becomes four, four becomes a dozen. These pink elephants parade around in a strange fashion, all while poor Dumbo looks on with a confused (and drunk) expression. They morph and shapeshift, and while they’re dancing around the scene, there is something oddly menacing about the way they move.

The scene is bizarre and psychedelic, feeling out of place and deeply unsettling. The scene, intentionally or not, screams emotional breakdown, which is in keeping with what Dumbo is going through. This gives the scene that horrifying edge, turning something strange into something haunting. It became the nightmare fuel for a generation of viewers, especially those who were not prepared to see something like this (everyone).

At the end of the day, we know that Dumbo is one of many traumatic films that Disney produced. These films all had different impacts on viewers, depending on their personal history and views. There’s nothing wrong with those who watched Dumbo and thought it was a cute film, just like there’s nothing wrong about being freaked out by it.

Dumbo is available to stream on Disney+.

The post This Is Still the Most Traumatizing Disney Movie appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Some genres refuse to die. There’s a touch of irony to that statement, given that the era of zombies is back (again) and quite possibly stronger than ever. Zombie movies have been making waves for what feels like generations, terrorizing and thrilling fans while showcasing the terrifying feats of the undead. Horror history is littered with zombie films and franchises, though some have left a larger imprint on our memories than others. The zombie horror trend has admittedly come and gone a few times, and all signs point to another zombie resurgence, and we are here for it. The latest Paramount news helps solidify this fact.

In case you didn’t hear the latest undead news, Paramount Pictures has announced its intention to bring a decade-old movie back for another run. That’s right, World War Z is finally getting the teased sequel, proving that zombies will never stay down for long. It’s sort of their thing.

The Zombie Moment of the Early to Mid-2000s

People love zombies and creatures of the undead. It’s a fascination that society never wants to fully let go of, though we can clearly get burned out on a subject. We’ve all seen its popularity wax and wane, and realistically, we know that this current wave will probably come to an end within the next few years.

The early 2000s brought several new zombie franchises to the forefront, including a film adaptation of the beloved video game series, Resident Evil. The first film hit theatres in 2002, with new additions coming out every few years. Notably, the Resident Evil films were a little bit hit or miss, especially later additions that didn’t necessarily follow the source material.

This same zombie boost gave rise to 28 Days Later, a post-apocalyptic horror film starring Cillian Murphy. Let’s be real, this movie is still one of the most unforgettable zombie movies of its time. A mere two years later, Shaun of the Dead hit the scene. The latter is a zombie comedy that put a fresh spin on a premise similar to the classic Dawn of the Dead, so it immediately earned a soft spot in our hearts (or is it brains?).

Read Next

7 Zombie TV Shows That Deserve To Be Brought Back From The Dead

Coming Back to Life During the 2010s

The zombie phenomenon died back a bit after that, though films like Zombieland squeezed in between bursts of popularity. When a treasured comic series got a TV adaptation, we saw the beginning of another wave. The Walking Dead took the world by storm in 2010, and it still has a strong hold over a dedicated audience. This franchise quickly spiraled, with spinoffs still popping up to this day.

It was this boost in popularity that allowed Max Brooks’s World War Z to get an adaptation, albeit one that doesn’t follow the book all that closely. Paramount put a lot of faith (and money) into the adaptation, and while it made its money back, the margin was small enough to presumably cause some hesitation about that promised sequel.

The same year World War Z was released, there was another notable adaptation. Warm Bodies was a zombie romantic comedy based on Isaac Marion’s novel. Obviously, the Resident Evil movies were still in full swing. Let us not forget other zombie classics of the time, such as Train to Busan (2016), Anna and the Apocalypse (2017), and Juan of the Dead (2011).

Read Next

A Surprising Zombie Movie Franchise Is Dominating Disney+’s Streaming Charts

Zombies Are on the Rise Again

The returned promise of a World War Z sequel is the latest addition proving the zombie train is on the move. HBO was quick to lock in the rights for a live-action adaptation of The Last of Us. Season 1 broke waves and records, and that almost certainly got a lot of other streaming services paying attention. Season 2 continued to make waves, increasing the stakes, breaking our hearts, and portraying a new take on the zombie story, complete with infected humans and haunting settings devoid of humanity.

Last, but certainly not least, we have to acknowledge the impact made by 28 Years Later. This post-apocalyptic film is the long-awaited sequel to the 28 Days Later franchise, releasing over two decades after the first movie infected our nightmares. If people weren’t falling back in love with the living dead before this point, they certainly were after. 28 Years Later reportedly pulled in over $150 million worldwide, easily beating the budget. In other words, it was enough to get Paramount searching for IP to revive.

World War Z’s sequel could be primed to debut before the latest zombie craze comes to an end, bringing Brad Pitt back for another daring adventure. Fans have been waiting a long time to see what this sequel has to offer.

Are you glad to see zombies making a comeback? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Paramount’s Sequel to the Biggest Zombie Movie Ever Continues the Best Horror Trend appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The upcoming Predator: Badlands could be covertly laying the groundwork for the biggest chapter of the Predator franchise in ages—one that brings another popular extraterrestrial monster into play. Predator: Badlands is set to be the first movie in the franchise with a Predator (a.k.a. “Yautja”) protagonist, namely the rookie hunter Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), who finds himself shunned from his culture and sent on a hunt to prove his worth. As Dek battles one terrifying adversary after another on a planet filled with aggressive, carnivorous creatures, he also finds an ally on his harrowing hunt in the Weyland-Yutani cyborg Thia (Elle Fanning).

The fact that Thia is specifically a Weyland-Yutani cyborg is a major signal that the renewed Predator franchise’s ultimate destination might be another crossover with the Alien franchise and, by extension, another cinematic Aliens vs. Predator project. Dan Trachtenberg’s phenomenal re-invigoration of the Predator franchise already makes that an exciting potential future for Predator right alongside Alien experiencing its own resurgent wave of popularity. As it turns out, it could be Predator: Badlands itself that makes the next Aliens vs. Predator movie happen, and not just because of the involvement of Thia and Weyland-Yutani.

Predator: Badlands Could (Potentially) Feature a Xenomorph as a Surprise Antagonist

While Dek’s exile from the Predator culture and his team-up with Thia form the story basis for Predator: Badlands, the movie’s trailer provides a subtle hint to a Xenomorph role in the movie. This is seen not just in the heavy presence of the Weyland-Yutani logo in the trailer, but also the arrival of a Power Loader similar to the one piloted by Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in her final showdown with the Xenomorph Queen in Aliens. Additionally, some of Thia’s dialogue in the trailer could be more revelatory than it seems.

At one point, Thia comments on Dek’s hunt to prove himself worthy to earn his place among his fellow Yautja, stating “You’re after a creature that can’t be killed, the definitive apex predator.” While on the surface, this seems to be a reference to the huge quadripedal beast Dek is seen battling at multiple points, this could also be a case of misdirection, with Thia actually referencing off-screen Xenomorphs. Additionally, Thia also states “We might not be alone in this hunt” just before the reveal of the aforementioned Power Loader, which could also shine a light on Weyland-Yutani’s role in Badlands. Given the ruthless corporation’s determination to capture and study a live Xenomorph throughout the Alien franchise, Badlands could be throwing a big surprise in not just Dek being on a Xenomorph hunt, but finding himself in competition with Weyland-Yutani in doing so.

Read Next

Every Human Who Killed A Predator In 8 Movies

There Have Already Been Major Signs of an Upcoming Alien & Predator Crossover

Aside from the Xenomroph hints in the first full Predator: Badlands trailer, there have also been numerous indications that a future crossover with Alien is the destination that Trachtenberg has in mind. In addition to Weyland-Yutani’s role in Badlands, Thia herself is also a Weyland-Yutani produced robot (or “artificial person”, as some, like Aliens‘ Bishop, prefer to be called). This establishes, at a bare minimum, that the movie takes place in the same universe as the Alien franchise. Add in smaller but still noticeable teases like the Yautja King wearing a headdress made of what appear to be Xenomorph tails as one of many Easter eggs and major teases in Predator: Killer of Killers, and the inclusion of what sounds like the Predator’s famed clicking sound in the trailer for Alien: Earth, the building blocks for another Alien and Predator crossover are visibly being laid out in real time.

There are also the public comments made by both Dan Trachtenberg and Alien: Romulus director Fede Álvarez. Speaking to ComicBook, Trachtenberg previously stated that the Alien elements seen in Predator: Badlands “certainly wasn’t a frivolous thing—involving Weyland-Yutani, woven into the fabric of this movie. It would be awesome to be able to tell more stories that have further connections.” Meanwhile, Álvarez also commented in an interview with Collider “The best AVP will be the one that you don’t know is AVP until the other guy shows up.” That certainly fits right in with what appear to be allusions to either Alien or Predator in the other’s recent projects without an outright confirmation of an impending crossover, especially the allusions to Alien in the marketing for Predator: Badlands.

An Alien vs. Predator Crossover Could Be the Perfect Pay-Off to Both Franchise’s Revivals

The restored energy of both the Alien and Predator franchises has been exciting and invigorating for fans of both to see unfold, and there is reason to think that re-uniting the two might well be the perfect mutual victory lap for them to take. Conceived in comic book form as the ultimate smackdown of two of Hollywood’s greatest movie monsters, Alien vs. Predator has found success and popularity in virtually every medium except for the big-screen, with 2004’s Alien vs Predator and 2007’s Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem not landing with audiences. Instead, both the Alien and Predator franchises have actively distanced themselves from the AVP films, which are generally rated near or at the bottom of each for fans of both franchises.

In turn, Alien and Predator are both clearly on a winning streak individually, with the recent streaming and theatrical projects from each building out the mythos and worlds of both creatures on scale not seen in ages. If Alien and Predator can each return to the level of popularity each saw in their heyday, Alien vs. Predator could be both a great pay-off for both individually and a second chance for the two as a movie crossover. While Alien and Predator seem to still be tip-toeing towards another big screen showdown, Predator: Badlands might finally push it into center stage, and with the skill both franchises have managed their comebacks with, it could be the epic Alien and Predator combo fans of both have waited decades to see.

Predator: Badlands will be released in theaters on November 7th.

The post The Next Predator Movie May Secretly Be Setting Up the Franchise’s Biggest Story in 18 Years appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Resident Evil film franchise, particularly the six-movie saga helmed by Paul W.S. Anderson, holds a strange place in the history of video game adaptations. The movies were a massive commercial success, grossing over a billion dollars worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing film series based on a video game for a time. Yet, for many fans of the original Capcom survival horror games, they are a source of endless frustration. The films famously diverged from the source material, prioritizing stylized action over atmospheric horror and, most controversially, sidelining the games’ beloved protagonists in favor of a new, movie-exclusive hero. This creative decision to center the story on Milla Jovovich’s Alice meant that when iconic characters from the games did appear, their roles were often drastically altered.

Instead of leading the narrative, fan-favorites like Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, and Leon S. Kennedy were reduced to supporting characters in Alice’s story. Their complex backstories, defining character arcs, and critical relationships from the games were frequently simplified or ignored entirely. In addition, villains were stripped of their nuance, and heroes were rendered less capable to ensure Alice remained the central figure. Even the 2021 reboot, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, which aimed for a more faithful adaptation, struggled to do justice to its ensemble cast, cramming the storylines of two games into one film. As a result, the cinematic legacy of Resident Evil is littered with characters who were arguably ruined by their big-screen counterparts.

1) Carlos Oliveira

In the narrative of Resident Evil 3, Carlos Oliveira is a character of surprising depth, an Umbrella mercenary whose innate decency wins out against his corporate allegiance. He begins as a cocky soldier, but through his partnership with Jill Valentine, he grows into a genuine hero, risking his life to navigate a zombie-infested hospital in a desperate search for a vaccine to save her. This arc, from a man just following orders to one making a moral stand, gives him a substance that makes him a fan favorite.

Read Next

Resident Evil Reboot Director Teases How New Movie Will Actually Feel Like the Games

The film franchise, after a passable introduction for Carlos (Oded Fehr) in Resident Evil: Apocalypse, systematically demolishes that integrity. His arc is immediately subverted to serve Alice, and his significance is tied exclusively to her survival. The ultimate insult to the character arrives when he’s given a heroic sacrifice in Extinction, only for the series to bring him back as a series of mindless clones in Retribution. This transformation from a man who found his honor in a moment of crisis into endlessly disposable cannon fodder is a complete betrayal of his character’s core appeal.

2) Claire Redfield

The cinematic failure of Claire Redfield stems from a total misunderstanding of her origins. In her video game debut, Claire is not a soldier or a hardened survivor, but a resourceful college student searching for her missing brother, Chris. Her appeal comes from witnessing an ordinary person adapt and fight back against impossible horrors, her strength forged in her resolve to protect others, especially the young Sherry Birkin. The audience connects with her because they see her become a hero in real-time, her courage and empathy shining through the terror.

Both film adaptations rob Claire of this essential journey. The Anderson movies introduce Claire (Ali Larter) as an already-established leader of a heavily armed desert convoy, presenting her as a finished product without a past. The 2021 reboot takes a different but equally flawed approach, making Claire (Kaya Scodelario) a paranoid conspiracy theorist driven by a separate orphanage trauma. Neither version trusts the audience to engage with her transformation, instead opting for a pre-packaged figure who shares little with the source material beyond a name and a red jacket.

3) Chris Redfield

Chris Redfield is a character built on legacy. In the games, he is a man carrying the weight of a lifelong war against bioterrorism, from his traumatic experiences in the Spencer Mansion to his globe-trotting missions with the BSAA. His history, his intense rivalry with Albert Wesker, and his protective bond with his sister Claire are the pillars that support his entire character, making him one of the franchise’s central figures, a man who famously punched a boulder into a volcano out of sheer will.

The movies present a version of Chris (Wentworth Miller) with no legacy at all. Introduced in Resident Evil: Afterlife, locked away in a prison cell, he is immediately diminished and treated as a forgotten relic. Plus, his epic feud with Wesker is reduced to a single weightless fight scene where the dialogue is hollow because the two share no history. The reboot’s take on Chris (Robbie Amell) is similarly anemic, portraying a generic soldier completely detached from his gravitas. The films gave us the uniform, but not the man inside it.

4) Nemesis

The terror of the Nemesis in Resident Evil 3 is rooted in its absolute inhumanity. Nemesis is a biological weapon of singular purpose, whose entire existence is justified by its desire to hunt and destroy its targets. As an unstoppable force that stalks the player with intelligence and a rocket launcher, it creates a unique and persistent dread that few video game villains have ever matched. As a result, Nemesis is frightening precisely because it is an “it,” a relentless, intelligent killing machine that cannot be reasoned with, only survived.

The filmmakers behind Resident Evil: Apocalypse made the catastrophic error of trying to give the creature a backstory. By revealing their Nemesis (Matthew G. Taylor) to be a mutated version of the sympathetic Matt Addison (Eric Mabius) from the first film, they instantly neutered its menace. The narrative choice to give the monster a conscience, culminating in a moment where it defies programming to help Alice, is a profound misunderstanding of what made the creature work. It’s a classic case of explaining the monster away, trading lasting dread for a moment of cheap pathos.

5) Jill Valentine

In the source material, Jill is a top-tier hero, and her later brainwashing plot in Resident Evil 5 is a dramatic storyline built on her deep history with Chris Redfield, making her rescue a crucial and emotional mission. For a brief moment in Resident Evil: Apocalypse, it seemed the Anderson movies got Jill Valentine right. Sienna Guillory’s look and attitude were a perfect match for the elite S.T.A.R.S. operative from the games, a fan-favorite known for her cool-headed competence and unbreakable will.

That strong start makes her subsequent treatment in the films a story of squandered potential. After being written out, Jill returns in Resident Evil: Retribution as a mind-controlled henchman in a shallow echo of the game’s plot, her rescue feeling like a minor inconvenience in Alice’s story rather than a critical objective. Furthermore, the reboot version of Jill (Hannah John-Kamen) has a personality so far removed from the original that she is unrecognizable. Both timelines took one of gaming’s most capable protagonists and relegated her to a supporting role or a side note.

6) Leon S. Kennedy

Leon S. Kennedy’s evolution from a rookie cop on his first day to a seasoned government agent is one of the great character arcs in gaming. His persona is a finely tuned mix of wry humor, professionalism, and the quiet confidence of a man who has survived hell and come out the other side. Fans appreciate him because his incredible skill feels earned, making him one of the franchise’s most popular heroes.

The film adaptations have managed to fail Leon twice in completely different, yet equally disastrous, ways. The Anderson series gave us a Leon (Johann Urb) who was little more than a mannequin, a stoic action hero with none of the charm or personality that makes the character tick. The 2021 reboot swung in the opposite direction, turning its Leon (Avan Jogia) into an incompetent oaf for comic relief, a character so useless it’s a wonder he survives the night. One version was hollow, the other was a joke, and both were a slap in the face to the famously capable agent of the games.

7) Albert Wesker

The entire sprawling narrative of the Resident Evil games orbits the magnificent ego of Albert Wesker. He is the ultimate villain, a brilliant, treacherous mastermind whose ambition is nothing less than to remake the world in his image. From his initial betrayal to his evolution into a superhuman megalomaniac, Wesker’s charismatic menace and personal hatred for Chris Redfield make him a truly legendary antagonist. In addition, his desire for power is his entire reason for being, a force that drives the plot for decades.

The Anderson film franchise inexplicably turns Wesker into an underling. Across his appearances, Wesker (played by Jason O’Mara and later Shawn Roberts) is a corporate executive who takes orders from others, including a computer program. This is a complete contradiction of the character’s core motivation for absolute control. The reboot’s Wesker (Tom Hopper) is even worse, a blandly written cop with a flicker of moral conflict who is totally devoid of the original’s style or presence.

Which Resident Evil character do you wish had a better representation in the movies? Share your picks in the comments!

The post 7 Resident Evil Characters Ruined by the Movies appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The MCU has found a solid amount of success with its past two movies. While the box office hasn’t been as satisfying as the studio hoped for, Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps received great reviews from critics and audiences. Movies like The Fantastic Four: First Steps show that Marvel is going in the right direction with how they do introduction movies, but it also displays the issue with the last couple of phases of Marvel. Every year, the MCU has introduced a slew of new characters that are meant to be utilized throughout the Multiverse Saga, but Marvel has failed to make them involved in the connected universe

While projects like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Ms. Marvel have been great introductions to new characters, Marvel needs to slow down on introducing characters and focus on building a universe again. There are so many great characters and actors in the MCU’s franchise, and to see so many of them underutilized is disheartening.

Marvel Needs to Include More Post-Endgame Characters in Their Projects

2021 saw an incredible number of MCU projects released. Disney+ released five MCU TV shows, including one animated project, in the span of a year, while there were four MCU movies released in the span of six months. TV shows like WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier have since seen characters carry over into different projects, but everything else has yet to have a continued story. Despite Loki being one of the highest-rated MCU television shows, almost none of the characters have carried over to different projects. The only character from that show that has appeared in another project is Kang, which we now know is a character we will likely never see again. While the TVA played a major role in Deadpool and Wolverine, none of the main cast has appeared in anything outside of a post-credit scene in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Loki isn’t the only project that has yet to see new characters implemented in other MCU projects. Despite being released over three years ago, Moon Knight has had no characters appear in anything outside of its show. With the talented Oscar Isaac at the forefront, it’s insane that Marvel hasn’t even attempted to include him in anything. The same goes for the Eternals. Even though they have a stacked cast of A-listers, including Angelina Jolie and now Harry Styles, the most that audiences have seen from Eternals is the giant celestial that grew from the ground at the end of the movie, and even that took four years to bring up. With the talented ensemble they have hired for their projects, it’s sad to see them underutilized.

The post-credit scenes of the recent set of Marvel projects are arguably the worst offenders in introducing characters and doing nothing with them for years. Movies like Thor: Love and Thunder teased the introduction of Clea and Hercules over three years ago, yet nothing has been seen of them since. In prior post-credit scenes, whatever is introduced usually appears in the next couple of movies, with examples including the Maximoff twins at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Nick Fury at the end of Iron Man. The MCU has since ended this trope, which has made the universe extremely overstuffed and convoluted, and something needs to change.

Read Next

Avengers: Doomsday – Every MCU Multiverse Saga Project You Have to Watch to Prepare

What Can Marvel Do to Fix Their Issues?

Given their handling of character introductions, it is clear they need to stop introducing new ones altogether. Instead, they should take the Thunderbolts* route, which is to take a group of minor supporting characters they’ve introduced in past projects and dedicate a project to exploring their traits and figuring out how they fit into the universe. Thunderbolts* was not only able to make minor supporting characters feel like A-listers, but they also successfully managed to rebuild the MCU by teasing what the future looks like. The Marvels is another example of the route they should take. Although the film didn’t have as strong a script as it should have, bringing together characters who were introduced in other projects was a great idea for a movie. Taking this route with their projects would be the perfect way to tie up loose ends and start making the universe feel cohesive again.

Too many recent MCU projects, ranging from spin-offs like Echo to Thor sequels, have stood too much on their own, and Marvel needs to shift away from that and start developing a fleshed-out universe again. While individual projects can be good, Marvel has become overly focused on them in recent years, and with Avengers: Doomsday coming out in a little over a year, it is time for the spin-offs, side projects, and new character introductions to stop in favor of building up to their next big event.

With an Avengers movie in close proximity, it is insane that Marvel is still continuing to push out projects that are looking to have no implications on the MCU timeline. Projects like Vision Quest and Wonder Man sound interesting at face value, as they will see the return of past MCU villains, but these should not be Marvel’s focus right now. Introducing new characters that will have no ramifications to the MCU when it is this close to a big event film is not a smart move on Marvel’s part, and if Marvel doesn’t do something about it, then their universe will fall apart.

What do you think? Comment below if you like the MCU’s current trajectory or if there’s something they need to change.

The post Marvel Needs To Stop Introducing New Characters appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Zach Cregger’s Weapons includes an Easter egg to his career in comedy that is as moving as it is funny. The second horror movie written and directed by Cregger, following 2022’s Barbarian, Weapons centers on the unexplained disappearance of 17 children at 2:17 am in the town of Maybrook, Pennsylvania. The children were all students in the class of local elementary school teacher Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), with her student Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher) the only one turning up in her classroom the following day. The kids’ disappearance shakes the entire town to its core, with Weapons telling a non-linear story from the perspective of characters like Justine, Alex, one of the missing kids’ father Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), and others as the mystery unfolds.

While Weapons is not packed with a huge amount of comic relief, the movie does have its moments of dry humor. One such moment is found in a scene in which Maybrook Elementary School’s principal Marcus Miller (Benedict Wong) meets a student’s family member, with the scene also involving a collection of seven hot dogs prepared for Marcus’s lunch. While that might seem like an arbitrary detail to zero in on, it turns out the scene is actually an in-joke to Zach Cregger’s history in sketch comedy and specifically a tribute to one of his dearly departed colleagues from that era of his career.

WARNING: Spoilers below for Weapons

The Hot Dog Scene in Weapons Pays Tribute to the Show The Whitest Kids U’Know

The hot dog scene in Weapons takes place when Gladys (Amy Madigan), who is responsible for the children vanishing, visits Marcus Miller’s home, with Marcus’s husband Terry (Clayton Farris) in the midst of preparing lunch. Specifically, Terry has prepared a collection of seven hot dogs topped with mustard, along with a few side items like chips, carrots, and cookies. The specific count of seven hot dogs will likely go right over the heads of many moviegoers, but it is a clever reference to a skit on the sketch comedy series The Whitest Kids U’Know called “Hot Dog Timmy.”

In “Hot Dog Timmy,” Trevor Moore portrays a doctor who asks his patient, Timmy (Timmy Williams), what his average daily intake of hot dogs is. Timmy replies that he usually eats seven hot dogs per day. Zach Cregger overtly including the specific count of seven hot dogs in the scene in Marcus’s home in Weapons is a sly tribute to this scene, which becomes especially clear when looking back on Cregger’s own pre-directorial history and working relationship with Trevor Moore.

Read Next

Weapons Teases Its Big Reveal Right From the Start (Did You Catch It?)

Zach Cregger’s Comedy History Was Part of the Genesis of Weapons

The Whitest Kids U’Know originally began as a comedy troupe consisting of Zach Cregger, Trevor Moore, and Sam Brown, with the group originally forming in the year 2000, with other members like Darren Trumeter and Timmy Williams joining. The group’s growing popularity eventually led to the development of the The Whitest Kids U’Know sketch comedy show on the network Fuse (later moving to the channel IFC), with the show airing for five seasons between 2007 and 2011.

While The Whitest Kids U’Know troupe continued in the entertainment world after the end of the show, Trevor Moore tragically died on August 7th, 2021, at the age of 42 after falling from his home’s balcony. The untimely death of Moore deeply affected his co-stars from The Whitest Kids U’Know, including Cregger, and this played directly into Cregger’s development of Weapons.

Speaking to the Rolling Stone, Cregger revealed that he had been in post-production on Barbarian when Moore died, and he began writing the script for Weapons as an outlet while dealing with the loss of his friend and colleague. As Cregger puts it in the Rolling Stone interview, “The town is dealing with a loss. And so was I. It was the biggest direct hit I’d ever taken,” which illuminates the subtle importance of the Easter egg to The Whitest Kids U’Know in Weapons.

The Hot Dog Scene in Weapons Is Both Funny & Moving in Its Tribute to Trevor Moore

At face value, Terry’s carefully prepared lunch of seven hot dogs might seem like a throwaway moment, but it plays on the same kind of humor as the original “Hot Dog Timmy” sketch on The Whitest Kids U’Know. Many people can relate to the concept of having very specific and seemingly peculiar culinary practices, such as a very precise number of hot dogs whenever one is preparing lunch. Like Timmy before him, Marcus and Terry seem to have the idea that no fewer than seven hot dogs make a full meal, which adds a touch of humor to the horror story of Weapons.

On a deeper level, Cregger, like the population of Maybrook, was experiencing a period of tremendous personal grief and tragedy when he penned the spine-tingling screenplay for Weapons. With the movie focusing heavily upon how the townspeople, and especially the parents of the missing kids, do their best to cope and go about their daily lives while trying to locate the kids, the story itself reflects Cregger penning Weapons as a healing mechanism for his own real-life loss. The hot dog scene in Weapons adds some sly humor to the movie, but in the end, it is also a loving Easter egg and tribute to Cregger and Moore’s comedy collaboration and friendship on The Whitest Kids U’Know.

Weapons is now playing in theaters.

Did you catch this Easter egg in Weapons? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Weapons Is Hiding a Hilarious Easter Egg for a Cult Comedy Show appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Most Star Wars fan theories end up being as wrong as Anakin Skywalker killing younglings. Rey isn’t Obi-Wan Kenobi’s granddaughter or the reincarnation of the Chosen One. Star Wars: The Last Jedi reveals that she’s no one before Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker walks that back and explains that she’s the daughter of a Palpatine clone. It’s not worth spending too much time thinking about that can of worms, though, as Rey’s lineage is far from the only aspect of Star Wars that opens the door to speculation. In fact, a detail as minute as an empty chair in a meeting can cause serious debates.

It’s a gamble whenever Star Wars attempts to recontextualize a moment from the original trilogy. After all, those movies are sacred ground. That doesn’t stop Lucasfilm from pushing the envelope though, even going as far as to have Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi meet up one more time after their battle on Mustafar. How the powers that be connect Star Wars: Andor and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story to Star Wars: A New Hope using a supporting character isn’t as brazen, but it’s noteworthy nonetheless.

The Latest Projects About the Empire’s Reign Introduce an Important Imperial Figure

Star Wars loves the era between Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Star Wars Rebels and the Star Wars Jedi: Survivor games are just a couple of the projects that fall in that 19-year window. However, they’re chopped liver compared to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: Andor, which follow the events leading up to the destruction of the Death Star. It comes to light that the one pushing the super weapon hardest is Director Orson Krennic, who recruits Galen Erso for the project and forces the scientist out of retirement when work stalls. All of Krennic’s hard work, including the destabilization of Ghorman, is an effort to get a real seat at the Imperial table alongside the likes of Grand Moff Tarkin.

What Krennic doesn’t account for is the Rebellion growing right under the Empire’s nose. His subordinates, including Dedra Meero, fail to keep the details of the Death Star in-house, providing Cassian Andor and everyone else on Yavin 4 an opening. Andor and Co. are able to infiltrate the Imperial stronghold on Scarif and transmit the Death Star plans to the Rebel fleet. Krennic is present on the planet, and in a poetic form of justice, the very weapon he worked so hard to get operational kills him. With Krennic being an important part of Imperial history, many fans thought it was strange that A New Hope makes no mention of him. They had to create their own theory to find a place for him in the story. Unlike Director Krennic, though, Star Wars fans can enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Read Next

George Lucas’ Advice to Solo Director Is Sure to Anger Star Wars Fans (but He’s Right)

Director Krennic’s Star Wars Legacy Is a Tragic One

A New Hope is, of course, the first Star Wars project to have ever been released, so fans have had nearly fifty years to comb through all its details. One thing that has always stood out is the empty chair in the meeting room on the Death Star. As the Imperials discuss the threat the Rebellion poses with the Death Star plans, Darth Vader and Tarkin walk into the room and assure everyone that there’s nothing to worry about. However, Vader doesn’t sit down, seemingly confirming that the empty chair in the room doesn’t belong to him. A New Hope doesn’t mention a missing Imperial, so fans have taken that to mean Krennic’s death is the reason for the meeting feeling incomplete.

The idea remained nothing but a fan theory until the release of the canon-ish 2017 anthology novel From a Certain Point of View. In the short story “Fully Operational” by Beth Revis, General Cassio Tagge discusses his arrival on the Death Star shortly after the Battle of Scairf and his feelings about Krennic. He remembers the last meeting in the room, when Krennic had discussed using the weapon on something bigger than Jedha City. Of course, that line of thinking got Krennic killed, and while Tagge remembers his colleague’s childish attitude, he also can’t help but think about how passionate he was about acquiring power.

Did you believe the theory that Director Krennic was the Imperial missing from the meeting in Star Wars: A New Hope? How do you feel that it turned out to be true? Let us know in the comments below!

The post A Confirmed Andor Fan Theory Will Change How Star Wars Fans Watch the Original Movie appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Marvel Studios already had the perfect storyline for its struggling Blade movie, according to this wild new theory that connects the Marvel Cinematic Universe reboot to 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. Marvel boss Kevin Feige confirmed the development of a Blade reboot back in 2019, when Academy Award-winner Mahershala Ali was announced to be the MCU’s vampire hunter, Eric Brooks. Since then, however, Marvel has struggled to crack the right formula for the MCU’s much-anticipated Blade reboot, even though the perfect story might have already been set up seven years ago.

A fantastic fan theory shared on Instagram suggests that the MCU’s Blade movie could have kicked off in the wake of Thanos’ snap with the Infinity Stones in Avengers: Infinity War. Josh Brolin’s Mad Titan acquired the six Infinity Stones in 2018 and used them to wipe out half the living population of the universe, thrusting everyone into five years of turmoil, before the Avengers reversed this event. It’s important to distinguish that Thanos wiped out half of everything alive, as this wouldn’t have impacted the MCU’s vampires – who are considered to be the undead.

Vampires are still a very new addition to the MCU, so we’re still not entirely clear on the exact lore surrounding these creatures. We’ve heard Mahershala Ali’s voice as Blade in Eternals’ post-credits scene, and we met Saracen (Terrence Clowe) as a member of Emil Blonsky’s (Tim Roth) wellness retreat in 2022’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, but they’ve had little development. Even so, it’s common knowledge that vampires aren’t technically alive, which gives them the illusion of immortality, and means they may have been immune to Thanos’ snap, which would have effectively doubled the vampire-to-human ratio after Infinity War.

Read Next

We Need a New Blade Ongoing Series While We Wait for the MCU

This means that, had Blade released in the wake of Avengers: Infinity War and the game-changing snap, the movie could have seen Mahershala Ali’s Daywalker battling an influx of vampires who survived Thanos. This would have been a brilliant story, not least because it could have connected Blade’s never-ending battle to a major MCU event, but could have also better explored the Blip. Marvel Studios has routinely shied away from exploring life during the five-year-long Blip, despite this being a lengthy period rich with fertile storytelling opportunities, but Blade could have solved this problem.

Blade was removed from the MCU’s upcoming release schedule in October 2024, following a long period of turmoil that saw two different directors and several different writers pass through the project. Since last year, Marvel has been quietly continuing development on its Blade reboot, and is apparently now heading in a good direction with the movie, but we’re yet to hear any solid updates. It would be fantastic to see Blade explore the MCU’s Blip, but it’s more likely we’ll be getting a present-day story that integrates Mahershala Ali into the modern MCU.

What story do you want to see explored in the MCU’s Blade reboot? Let us know in the comments!

The post Marvel Already Set Up the Perfect Blade Storyline 7 Years Ago According to This Shocking MCU Theory appeared first on ComicBook.com.

It’s been six years since we last had a Tarantino film hit theaters with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Despite the film grossing nearly $400 million and winning two Oscars, the prolific filmmaker has been quiet since. In 2022, Tarantino teased his next project that would mark his first foray into television—an eight-episode mini-series titled The Movie Critic, set in 70s Los Angeles. Though he claimed that The Movie Critic would have nothing to do with his last film, Tarantino had cast Brad Pitt, whom he worked with on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. But now, according to Tarantino, The Movie Critic has been scrapped, and the auteur opened up as to why on an episode of The Church of Tarantino podcast.

“It was too much like the last one,” he explained, referencing Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which takes place in 1969 Los Angeles. “I wasn’t really excited about dramatizing what I wrote when I was in pre-production, partly because I’m using the skill set that I learned from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood [of] ‘How are we going to turn Los Angeles into the Hollywood of 1969 without using CGI?’”

Many of Tarantino’s films have sweeping period settings such as World War II Germany in Inglorious Basterds and the antebellum South in Django Unchained. But returning to previously charted territory ultimately compelled Tarantino to scrap the project. “The Movie Critic there was nothing to figure out. I already kind of knew, more or less, how to turn L.A. into an older time.”

While there may have been a lack of filmmaking challenge with The Movie Critic, the story itself and its subject seemed to be a nut Tarantino struggled with cracking.

“The thing about The Movie Critic is I really, really like it. But there was a challenge that I gave to myself when I did it. ‘Can I take the most boring profession in the world and make it an interesting movie?’” Tarantino said. “Who wants to see a TV show about a fucking movie critic? Who wants to see a movie called The Movie Critic?”

What’s Next for Quentin Tarantino?

The filmmaker has famously said that he would direct a total of ten films, making his next project his final one. Even though The Movie Critic may not be moving forward, Tarantino is still keeping busy. He’s writing and producing a Once Upon a Time in Hollywood spinoff film The Adventures of Cliff Booth for Netflix. However, fellow legendary director David Fincher is helming the project, and Brad Pitt is reprising his Academy Award-winning role as the Hollywood stuntman and fixer Booth.

Read Next

Quentin Tarantino Confirms Long Wait for His Final Film

Tarantino is also planning to mount a stage play on London’s West End next year before he returns to directing for film—but don’t accuse him of avoiding the medium.

“It’s a little crazy to listen to podcasts and hear all these amateur psychiatrists psychoanalyze as if they fucking know what they’re talking about about what’s going on with me, about how I’m so scared, alright, of my 10th film,” Tarantino lamented before doing an impression of the fans themselves. “‘Oh my god! Oh my god! I’m so fragile about my legacy. What’s going on? I’m paralyzed with fear!’ I’m not paralyzed with fear. Trust me.”

Given his track record, what ever Tarantino’s next directing project will be, whether it’s his last film or not, will likely be worth the wait.

The post Quentin Tarantino Finally Reveals Why He Scrapped His Tenth Movie appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Every superhero has to come up with a code when they take to the streets for the first time. What works for some characters might not work for others, which is why there is so much arguing in comic book media. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is rife with superhero duos that love to bicker, such as Captain America and Iron Man, who get under each other’s skin so much that they tear the Avengers apart to avoid giving any ground in the debate over the Sokovia Accords. Spider-Man finds himself in the middle of the conflict in Captain America: Civil War, and while he takes Tony Stark’s side, it’s clear that he would love it if everyone stopped fighting and made up.

The MCU’s Peter Parker always sees the good in people, to the point that it’s a character flaw. Being trustworthy makes him overlook all the red flags surrounding Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home, which puts the entire world in danger. The next time Peter has a chance to let a sketchy character in, he does it, and it costs him dearly. Fortunately, there’s someone in his corner who stops him from going too far. It’s just a shame that Peter’s guardian angel steals the thunder from the real hero.

Doing the Right Thing Tears Spider-Man Apart in No Way Home

Peter is stuck between a rock and a hard place when No Way Home kicks off. His identity is public knowledge, and the media circus following him around is hurting his friends and family. While it’s a long shot at best, Peter reaches out to Doctor Strange, who offers to cook up a spell that will make people forget Spider-Man. Everything’s going swimmingly until Peter tries to make modifications to the incantation that screws the whole thing up and unleashes villains from the multiverse onto Earth-616. After capturing all the bad guys, Peter learns that they’re all marked for death, which doesn’t sit right with him. Ned Leeds and MJ agree to help their friend find cures for the doomed villains, so they waste no time getting to work.

Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin, throws a wrench in the plan, though, rallying his fellow villains to seize their second chance and conquer the world. During the chaos, Green Goblin calls his glider, hitting Aunt May and killing her. A devastated Peter goes off on his own to wrestle with his mistakes, but two Spider-Man variants, played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, don’t let their grieving counterpart sulk for too long. The three heroes formulate a plan to cure everyone and push forward. It looks like they’re really going to pull it off until Green Goblin arrives and taunts Tom Holland’s Peter. Giving into his rage, Spider-Man attempts to kill his greatest villain, but he can’t get the job done because Maguire’s hero stops him in his tracks, which isn’t surprising. After all, another Sam Raimi character taught him an important lesson about life being sacred.

Read Next

Spider-Man: Brand New Day Villain Takes Inspiration from Samurai (What Does That Mean?)

Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man Gives Into His Rage

The only Spider-Man to get a third movie outside of Holland’s is Maguire’s, who discovers that his uncle’s real killer is still out there in Spider-Man 3. Flint Marko picks a bad time to resurface because Spider-Man has the symbiote on his side, making him angrier and stronger. When Peter finally catches up to Sandman, he doesn’t hold back, dousing the villain with water, seemingly killing him. Peter’s next move is to deliver the news to Aunt May, who he believes will be happy to hear that Spider-Man killed the man responsible for her husband’s murder. However, May is disappointed, explaining that nobody, not even Spider-Man, should decide whether someone lives or dies.

It takes some time for that lesson to sink in for Peter, but he comes to regret his choices and even teams up with Marko when Venom becomes a problem for both of them. Years later, Peters gets to show off what he’s learned by stopping his variant from breaking his code. Whether Earth-616’s Peter knows it or not, he made more than one version of his aunt proud by putting down the glider and making a different choice.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is streaming on Disney+.

Are you glad that Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man stopped Tom Holland’s hero from killing Green Goblin? How do you feel about Aunt May’s lesson coming back around? Let us know in the comments below!

The post A Familiar Face Stopped the MCU’s Spider-Man From Crossing the Line (But They Don’t Deserve the Credit) appeared first on ComicBook.com.