The show must go on, but it will have to continue without Ian McKellen. The Lord of the Rings actor had been hospitalized this week after suffering an accident while performing in the play Player Kings in the West End. The actor, who plays John Falstaff in the production, was involved in a fight scene when he reportedly lost his footing and fell off the stage. He cried out for help, and the house lights came on. One member of the audience said it was “very shocking.” A representative for the Noël Coward Theatre shared a statement which said that McKellen will “make a speedy and full recovery.“
McKellen has been in high spirits after an outpour of support came from fans following his accident. Although McKellen assured fans that he that he will get better, Deadline has reported that he will not be able to return to perform in the last three shows for Player Kings for the end of its run. A statement from the Noël Coward Theatre had announced that David Semark would be replacing McKellen in the role of John Falstaff for the final three performances while McKellen “recuperates.” Fans need not worry, though. It also said that McKellen is planned to return when the production begins a national tour in two weeks’ time.
“Thank you to our audience and the general public for their well wishes following Ian’s fall during this evening’s performance of Player Kings,” reads the statement from the theatre following the accident. McKellen also released a statement to thank fans for their support after he was hospitalized due to falling off a stage. “I want to thank everyone for their kind messages and support,” McKellen said. “Since the accident, during a performance of Player Kings last night, my injuries have been diagnosed and treated by a series of experts, specialists and nurses working for the National Health Service. To them, of course, I am hugely indebted. They have assured me that my recovery will be complete and speedy and I am looking forward to returning to work.“
SPOILERS for The Boys comic-book series. Although The Boys does follow many of the events in the original comics, there have been some fairly big departures, including one major change involving the character of Black Noir.
In the comics, Black Noir is revealed to be a clone of Homelander and is actually the one responsible for many of the heinous acts attributed to Homelander throughout the series, including the rape of Billy Butcher’s wife. The TV series took a different approach with the character, and showrunner Erik Kripke explained to Variety why he was never interested in the Homelander clone twist.
“No, and I don’t mind saying it. In the comics he’s a clone of Homelander this entire time and is actually the one doing all these horrific things,” Kripke said. “And again, it’s a hell of a twist. But it’s like, well wait, the villain I’ve been following isn’t really the villain. And mileage varies, and I’m sure fans are mad I’m not going that way, but that felt not as satisfying to me. I’m like, if I’m going to follow this villain, I want this guy to be the villain. So I was never really into the clone idea.“
Kripke added, “Plus, cloning feels like too — I’m going to sound silly — but cloning feels too magical for the show. We try to say that superheroes are the only slippery banana, and that everything else we try to make as grounded as possible.“
The first three episodes of The Boys season 4 are currently streaming on Prime Video, and it was announced last week that the series will be coming to an end with its fifth season. “Season 4 premiere week is a good time to announce: Season 5 will be the final season!” Kripke said. “Always my plan, I just had to be cagey till I got the final OK from Vought. Thrilled to bring the story to a gory, epic, moist climax.“
The official synopsis for The Boys season 4: “The world is on the brink. Victoria Neuman is closer than ever to the Oval Office and under the muscly thumb of Homelander, who is consolidating his power. Butcher, with only months to live, has lost Becca’s son and the rest of The Boys are fed up with his lies. With the stakes higher than ever, they have to find a way to work together and save the world before it’s too late.” You can check out a review from our own Alex Maidy right here.
Are you disappointed that The Boys TV series won’t follow the Black Noir twist from the comics?
A new Supergirl will soon be taking to the skies, but before she does, the previous incarnation of the character has a few words of advice for her successor. Melissa Benoist played the character from 2016 to 2021 on The CW’s Supergirl series, but Milly Alcock (House of the Dragon) will be taking on the role in the new DC Universe.
Melissa Benoist recently sat down with Perri Nemiroff for an episode of Collider Ladies Night. As the character is truly iconic, Benoist was asked how she dealt with that pressure while also trying to deliver her best performance. She also dropped a little advice for any future Supergirls.
“That’s a really good question. I think what always drove me while working on that show was the audience and who I knew I was making the show for,” Benoist said. “Of course, I know that she is an iconic character that spans many generations of fans, but the people that I was making that show for while we were making it were young women, and if I kept that in the forefront of my mind, it always made everything palatable.“
Milly Alcock will be starring in Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, with the film set to be scripted by Ana Nogueira and based on the Tom King comic series of the same name. Craig Gillespie (Cruella) is expected to direct the movie, but DC Studios co-chief James Gunn has teased that this version of Supergirl will be different. “In our series we see the difference between Superman who was sent to Earth and raised by loving parents from the time he was an infant, versus Supergirl who was raised on a rock, a chip off Krypton, and watched everyone around her die and be killed in terrible ways for the first 14 years of her life, and then came to Earth when she was a young girl,” Gunn said. “She’s much more hardcore, she’s not exactly the Supergirl we’re use to seeing.” Production will begin later this year, with the film slated to be released on June 26, 2026.
The Supergirl movie will be the second theatrical installment of the new DC Universe, following Gunn’s Superman movie, which will hit theaters on July 11, 2025. It has been teased that Supergirl might appear in another DC project before her solo movie.
It wouldn’t be the summer blockbuster season without some well-placed brand crossovers. The much-anticipated release of Deadpool & Wolverine is a little over the month away, so the mutant besties have teamed up with DiGiorno to release four limited-edition pizzas.
Here are the four different Deadpool & Wolverine DiGiorno pizzas just waiting to be stuffed down your pizza-loving pie hole:
Gimme Chimi: A chimichanga-inspired pizza that is a fiesta for your tastebuds and topped with spicy cumin sauce, beef topping, jalapeno, and cheddar & mozzarella cheeses.
Spicy Wolvie Pie: Crafted with Wolverine and other meat lovers in mind, this pie is stacked with pepperoni, chorizo and bacon.
Maximum Pep: Made with maximum flavor and zero regrets – just like Deadpool’s decisions – Maximum Pep is piled high with sliced and diced pepperoni.
The Wade Special: A sweet and salty combo not just for mercs, made with pineapple and black olives to pay homage to Wade Wilson’s pizza in the first movie.
Each pizza, with the exception of the Spicy Wolvie Pie, comes with a cut-out Deadpool mask, which you can wear while your pizza bakes… or anything else your sick mind can think of. The pizzas are rolling out nationwide this month.
“DiGiorno is always looking for ways to tap into mainstream culture by pushing culinary boundaries through unique innovations and flavors, from our recent Thanksgiving Pizza to our all-onion ‘cry-pie,’ and we are now introducing our latest, most chaotic pies yet,” said Kimberly Holowiak, Senior Brand Manager for DiGiorno. “This summer, we’re taking it up a notch by teaming up with Marvel Studios’ DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE to create limited-edition pizzas that fans won’t want to miss—so we encourage fans to get them while they can.“
DiGiorno is also running a special sweepstakes from June 17 to August 26. The sweepstakes will offer various prizes, including tickets to the movie, Deadpool merch, and a trip to Los Angeles. You can check out more information here. “No matter if you are a die-hard pizza stan or movie fan, consumers are constantly on the hunt for unique and bold ways to engage with brands they love, so we wanted to show up big with a movie collab that fits just like a glove (or mask),” Holowiak added.
Deadpool & Wolverine will hit theaters on July 26th,
Plot: Set in the near future, Orphan Black: Echoes takes a deep dive into the exploration of the scientific manipulation of human existence. It follows a group of women as they weave their way into each other’s lives and embark on a thrilling journey, unraveling the mystery of their identity and uncovering a wrenching story of love and betrayal. Ritter plays Lucy, a woman with an unimaginable origin story, trying to find her place in the world.
Review: It has been seven years since the original Orphan Black concluded its five-season run. The series, which turned Tatiana Maslany into a star, was an innovative blend of thriller and genre storytelling that gave Maslany a showcase to create multiple characters who each had a distinct personality. Fans flocked to the Canadian series for good reason, as it delved into the ethics and repercussions of cloning. Orphan Black: Echoes treads in similar thematic territory to the series that inspired it but does not boast new leading actor Krysten Ritter playing variations of the same genetic template. Set decades after Orphan Black, Echoes is at once both a sequel and a spin-off of the original series. By distinguishing itself in the time period and style, Orphan Black: Echoes works best when it does not try to connect to its predecessor but cannot avoid the obstacles of maintaining a vast mythology.
Orphan Black: Echoes opens with Lucy (Krysten Ritter) awakening in an apartment without knowing who she is or how she got there. A mysterious doctor (Keeley Hawes) tries to calm her, but Lucy eventually leaves the room and discovers a facility full of vats of pink goo. When confronted by the doctor, Lucy is told she is a printout. That’s right, instead of clones like in the original series, Orphan Black: Echoes now deals with 3D-printed humans. It is a slight difference and mainly a technicality. Still, the concept becomes key to the main story. It facilitates the idea that multiple actresses can play the variants now instead of Krysten Ritter in a series of distinct hairstyles and accents. After the opening sequence, the series shifts two years later to 2052, when Lucy is living in isolation, having escaped from the facility. She has a boyfriend, Jack (Avan Jogia), and cares for his deaf daughter, Charlie (Zariella Langford-Haughton). When an accident pops Lucy back onto the doctor’s radar, she must go back on the run.
Instead of being a chase narrative, Orphan Black: Echoes quickly reveals to Lucy that another printout looks like her teenage self. Jules Lee (Amanda Fix) initially distrusts Lucy, but over the course of the series, they become allies in unraveling the truth of where they came from. This involves Keeley Hawes’ character, who I have avoided naming as her character, which is a major connection between Echoes and Orphan Black. Since Orphan Black: Echoes debuted in Australia in 2023, all of the spoilers regarding Hawes’ character are already online, but if you want to go in fresh, I would avoid looking them up. The conspiracy at the core of Orphan Black: Echoes is not nearly as fascinating as it thinks it is but does involve Dr. Eleanor Miller (Rya Kihlstedt) and billionaire Paul Darros (James Hiroyuki Liao). We also meet Darros’ head of security, Tom (Reed Diamond), Xander (Vinson Tran), and a bevy of other characters who are both allies and enemies of Lucy and Jules.
Where Orphan Black dealt with identity, Echoes is more about memory. I enjoyed the conceit of the variations of Lucy being of different ages, which allows for a larger range of performances from different actors, none of whom try to imitate or emulate one another. Krysten Ritter is a talented actress, but most of her screen time in this series feels like a superpowerless take on how she played Marvel hero Jessica Jones. Ritter often gets to play the more subdued side of the story, with newcomer Amanda Fix having a breakout performance as Jules. With the potential for this series to continue for several seasons, seeing Ritter and Fix work with each other will be a treat. While both actors are key to this story, Keeley Hawes is the true core of this story. Hawes has a solid American accent and shows why she has been a mainstay on British television for years. She has a character that is heartbreaking to watch while also frustrating to follow as she makes decisions that have a massive impact on the path of this series. As a female-led series, Orphan Black: Echoes turns virtually all male characters into villains or underdeveloped personalities, but there is room to build on that in subsequent seasons.
Series creator Anna Fishko brings a fresh take to the universe of Orphan Black without turning this into a reboot but does rely heavily on the first series a bit too much. Because the two shows are connected to one another, it feels like callbacks to the original Orphan Black take away from the momentum of this new narrative rather than enhancing it. There are connections that I will not divulge here, which will both frustrate and please fans of the original series for very different reasons. Orphan Black director John Fawcett returned to helm three of the ten episodes of Echoes alongside Dawn Wilkinson, Ingrid Jungermann, Samir Rehem, and Jem Garrard. Fishko led a writing team of women who delved into gender and sexuality as inherent to the story rather than as curiosities or direct plot elements. Orphan Black: Echoes features straight and gay characters, but it never feels forced and often helps the story. I kept finding that Orphan Black: Echoes does not have enough stakes for the characters to make it feel different than what we have seen before.
Orphan Black: Echoes is the best kind of science fiction. It raises themes directly related to human emotions and obstacles while delivering them in a consumable genre format. As well-acted as the series is, the stakes do not rise to the level that Orphan Black did, which reduces the impact of Orphan Black: Echoes. The bad guys are not bad enough to make the heroes seem as heroic as they deserve. Krysten Ritter takes a back seat to the rest of the cast, which, after Tatiana Maslany stole the show in the series that inspired it, Orphan Black: Echoes feels like an echo of the show it could have been. There is certainly room for this story to grow in subsequent seasons, but I anticipate fans of the original will be divided over this new chapter in the Orphan Black universe.
Orphan Black: Echoes premieres on June 23rd on AMC, AMC+, and BBC America.
SPOILERS for the fourth episode of Star Wars: The Acolyte. The latest episode of Star Wars: The Acolyte set the stage for the second half of the season with a major cliffhanger ending, which featured the terrifying appearance of Mae’s mysterious master.
Jedi Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae), Jedi Knight Yord (Charlie Barnett), Padawan Jecki (Dafne Keen), Osha (Amandla Stenberg), and a few other Jedi arrive on the planet of Khofar in search of Mae and the Wookie Jedi Kelnacca (Joonas Suatamo). However, Mae has had a change of heart and plans to surrender to Kelnacca, but upon her arrival at the Jedi’s hut, she discovers that the Wookie has already been killed, just as the Jedi search party approaches. In a rather eerie scene, the master floats down from the jungle and calmly approaches Osha before igniting a red lightsaber and casually tossing her to the side. As the other Jedi charge forward, the master uses the Force to send them all flying backwards, and the episode cuts to black.
Picking up from that cliffhanger, the next episode of The Acolyte will likely feature one hell of a lightsaber battle between the master and the various Jedi (there’s a reason they brought along a few Jedi red shirts). Series creator Leslye Headland spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the master and what we may learn about him in the upcoming episodes.
“I find him to be very scary,” Headland said. “I think that because this is a show about the bad guys, he is incredibly powerful, menacing, all of those things.” She added that we should get some answers about the mysterious villain, saying, “You are going to get, I would say, drawn into his world a bit, and it’ll be a little different.” The Acolyte creator teased that this is just the beginning of the action as we enter the second half of the season. “Hopefully it just continues down that road for people,” Headland said. “You have to keep watching the show, and I think the audience will continue to be excited by where we end each episode.“
Despite a rather divided reaction, The Acolyte has proven to be a success for Disney+, with the streaming service’s biggest series premiere of the year. You can check out a review from our own Alex Maidy right here.
The Inheritance, the latest horror film from director Alejandro Brugués – whose previous credits include Juan of the Dead, Into the Dark: Pooka Lives!, segments of the anthologies ABCs of Death 2, Nightmare Cinema, and Satanic Hispanics, and episodes of From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series and 50 States of Fright, is set to receive a VOD and limited theatrical release on July 12th, and with that date right around the corner a trailer has arrived online. You can check it out in the embed above.
Scripted by Chris LaMont and Joe Russo (no, he’s not the Joe Russo who co-directed Avengers: Endgame), The Inheritance has the following synopsis: On the eve of his 75th birthday, billionaire Charles Abernathy invites his estranged children back home out of fear that tonight someone or something is going to kill him. He puts each of their inheritances on the line, to ensure they’ll help keep him alive.
The film stars Bob Gunton (The Shawshank Redemption), Peyton List (Cobra Kai), Briana Middleton (The Tender Bar), Austin Stowell (Battle of the Sexes), Rachel Nichols (P2), David Walton (About a Boy), Reese Alexander (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), and Chris Wood (A Beautiful Place to Die: A Martha’s Vineyard Mystery).
The Inheritance was produced by Paul Schiff, with Dan Clarke executive producing and John Jesensky serving as associate producer. Vivian Lin was the executive in charge of production, while Jonathan DuBois was the line producer.
What did you think of the trailer for The Inheritance? Does this look like a movie you would like to check out – on the big screen or in the comfort of your own home – next month? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
The movie seems interesting enough to me and I’m a fan of several of the cast members, so I will definitely be watching The Inheritance at some point. Just six days after The Inheritance is released, I will also be watching the first block of episodes that make up Cobra Kai‘s sixth and final season, so Peyton List will be on my TV screen quite a bit next month.
The streets are about to stream, as David Simon has announced that plans have moved forward to bring Homicide: Life on the Street to your TV sometime in the future. The groundbreaking series – a precursor to Simon’s The Wire – has been tied up in music rights limbo for years but now that red tape has been cleared, we’ll soon enough be crossing the police tape.
As David Simon posted on X, “Word is that NBC has managed to finally secure the music rights necessary to sell Homicide: Life On The Streets” to a streaming platform. Andre, Richard, Yaphet, Ned, and so many others who labored on that wonderful show on both sides of the camera will soon regain a full share of their legacy. Stay tuned for more details.” He would go on to credit showrunner Tom Fantana, EP Barry Levinson and producer Gail Mutrux for their efforts in getting the initiative moved forward. Simon added, “In the case of “Homicide,” the rights were negotiated long ago before streaming existed as a viewing platform. A fair compensation for the new use needed to be negotiated.”
Word is that NBC has managed to finally secure the music rights necessary to sell Homicide: Life On The Streets" to a streaming platform. Andre, Richard, Yaphet, Ned, and so many others who labored on that wonderful show on both sides of the camera will soon regain a full share…
Homicide: Life on the Street was created by Paul Attanasio but based on Simon’s book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. Simon would go on to have numerous writing credits on the series. It featured a stellar cast that includes far too many people lost too soon, including those Simon mentioned: Andre Braugher, Richard Belzer, Yaphet Kotto, and Ned Beatty. There, too, was Daniel Baldwin, Clark Johnson, Melissa Leo, Joe Polito, Kyle Secor, and more.
Throughout its seven season run, Homicide: Life on the Street earned 16 Primetime Emmy nominations, winning once for directing, once for casting and even for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, with the late Braugher taking the award.
Music rights end up being one of the biggest issues older series run into when trying to make it to streaming. For a recent example, that’s precisely what happened with Moonlighting, which didn’t hit Hulu until just this year. Fortunately, the wait for Homicide shouldn’t be terribly long now after that positive update from Simon.
Were you a fan of Homicide: Life on the Street? If you haven’t seen it, will you be binging the series once it finally hits streaming?
If ever a soundtrack helped boost a movie’s legacy, it’s that of Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, a non-stop party album that encapsulated not just the era in which the movie is set but the essence of the film. But despite there being around 30 songs in Dazed and Confused, Linklater had trouble securing rights to one Led Zeppelin track, leading to him to say he would be boycotting singer Robert Plant for life.
Interestingly, when coming up with the perfect Led Zeppelin song to use, Linklater didn’t want “Dazed and Confused” itself but rather “Rock and Roll.” As he recounted in his “Dazed by Days” journal, in the spring of 1993, Linklater got permission from Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page after sending him a five-minute video of non-stop begging. But in July, singer Robert Plant denied the use of any Zeppelin tunes. As Linklater wrote, “We’re out of time, so two days before the absolutely final mix, I throw in the Zeppelin towel. I’ve never worked so hard for something like this and not gotten it. I’ll boycott Plant for life. Even if he never really was too much involved with the decision, he’s responsible for the assholes around him he’s empowered to do this thinking. The official reason is that “it is in direct competition with his solo career.” Plant doing lame covers of old songs and uninspired new garbage is not much of a solo career.” Linklater would go on to smear Plant’s legacy by saying he was a “lesser talent” and that the real artist of the band was Page.
Linklater continued to tear into the rock band for the Dazed and Confused diss, saying, “But, hey, by not having a Zeppelin tune in this movie, everyone will naturally forget that Zeppelin and Mr. Plant’s only viable blip on the music history’s scene ever existed. Then they will all run out and purchase this pathetically aging rock star’s (who still wants to look and act like he did 20 years ago) illustrious solo album. Yeah, right.”
Even without Linklater securing “Rock and Roll”, Dazed and Confused still has one of the more iconic soundtracks you’ll ever hear. But there were still execs in control, telling the director he couldn’t release a double album to fit all of the songs. As such, the first release only has 14 tracks, with a notable omission being Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion”, which opens the film. Only later did a follow-up come out…and it still didn’t feature Aerosmith.
Dazed and Confused further marked Richard Linklater as a true visionary of the indie scene. It may not have made him any money but it lives on as the best last day of school movie and a capsule of two key eras: mid-’70s high school and early ‘90s cinema. A decade after the film’s release, Linklater enlisted Jack Black and a crowd of people to beg Led Zeppelin to let them use “Immigrant Song” in School of Rock – and that time, it worked out!
Are you a fan of Dazed and Confused? What do you think is the best needle drop in the movie? Take a slow ride and give us your picks below!
More than a decade after the 2011 release of Steven Spielberg’s criminally underrated The Adventures of Tintin hit theaters, fans of Hergé’s beloved characters continue to wonder if we’ll ever see a sequel. Andy Serkis, who voices Captain Archibald Haddock and Sir Francis Haddock in the 2011 original, says Tintin producer Peter Jackson is still working on another film featuring the dynamic duo of Captain Haddock and Tintin. In October 2011, Peter Jackson said he would directThe Adventures of Tintin 2. However, the silence on the project has been deafening ever since.
Originally, Steven Spielberg wanted to release The Adventures of Tintin 2 in 2015, but the legendary filmmaker’s schedule had other plans. At the time, Spielberg said a follow-up to the 2011 animated film would adapt two books in the Tintin saga. Screenwriter Anthony Horowitz was reportedly working on a screenplay but left the project in 2018. Jackson and Spielberg have yet to announce a new writer for the long-gestating sequel.
While my hopes for The Adventures of Tintin 2 continue to fade, a new update on the film arrives courtesy of French entertainment journalist Alexandre Loos, who caught up with Serkis at the Annecy Animation Festival. According to Serkis, Peter Jackson is “definitely still working on it,” referring to a Tintin sequel.
Pour ce que ça vaut : « Peter Jackson is definitely working on it » quand je lui ai demandé si on allait voir une suite à Tintin @annecyfestivalpic.twitter.com/nCKIEci83T
You guys, The Adventures of Tintin is still so incredibly good. The creative team for the original film is absurd, with Spielberg directing, Jackson producing, and the duo of Edgar Wright and Steven Moffat co-writing the screenplay. The animated marvel stars Jamie Bell as the voice of Tintin, Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock, Daniel Craig as Sakharine, Simon Pegg as Thompson, Nick Frost as Thomson, Toby Jones as Silk, and more. The film is mysterious, action-packed, beautifully animated, and remains true to the source material’s spirit.
I would give almost anything to see The Adventures of Tintin 2 come to fruition. I understand the supergroup of creators involved with the project is incredibly busy, but to leave Tintin in the dust after the original film’s quality is madness. Am I alone in loving The Adventures of Tintin? Sound off in the comments if you want to see Jackson and friends return for The Adventures of Tintin 2.
