“At my signal, unleash hell.” For those of us that were alive back in the year 2000 and avid movie fans, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator was an event. While historical dramas aren’t especially rare nowadays, back then, they were relatively rare. Sure, there was the occasional Braveheart or Rob Roy, but they weren’t considered a bankable genre. Yet, that all changed when director Ridley Scott, whose career was at a low ebb following the failure of almost every movie he made in the 90s (1492: Conquest of Paradise, White Squall, G.I. Jane) decided to revive the so-called “sword and sandal” genre with a gritty, lavish redux of the historical epic.
In the fifties and sixties, these types of movies were commonplace, although in movies like The Robe or Ben-Hur, they usually told biblical tales. That changed a little with Spartacus, El Cid, and The Fall of the Roman Empire, but before long the genre was considered a mainstay of Italian “pablum” pics and somewhat trashy. For Ridley Scott, this was a challenge as a modern Roman epic hadn’t been done in a long time. One of the reasons was that studios couldn’t afford the amount of sets and extras needed for a film like this, but cutting-edge CGI suddenly made the creation of sets and animated extras affordable and convincing, so Scott was able to make an epic for a budget that wouldn’t wreck a studio were it to go awry (such as what happened to Carolco with Cutthroat Island).
In the lead, he cast a rising star named Russell Crowe, who was respected following his acclaimed turn in L.A. Confidential and an Oscar-nominated role in Michael Mann’s The Insider. Yet, he was never considered an action hero, but the film’s massive success turned him into an icon overnight. This week sees the release of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, which aims to make Paul Mescal the next iconic big-screen hero and is already earning excellent reviews (read ours here). But, how does the original fare after nearly a quarter of a century? Check out our video retrospective above and find out!
If there’s one horror genre that gets the blood pumping in this particular gore-hound; it’s vampires! Ever since the German silent classic, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, bared its teeth way back in 1922, I’ve been obsessed with the genre. And no, you cheeky undead humanoid creatures, I’m not old enough to have caught that movie way back when. I can’t even remember where I first caught the sight of Max Schreck as Count Orlok, but it left a lasting impression. Ever since, I’ve gorged on human blood, figuratively speaking of course, with everything from The Lost Boys, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Let the Right One In, to more action oriented series like Blade and Underworld. Plus many, many more. The small screen has also had its fair share of awesome vampire action, with the countless TV re-imaginings of Dracula, the sex and claret spilling extravaganza that was True Blood, plus of course, the hilarious What We Do in the Shadows, on both the big and small screen. Leading up to the early noughties, the vampire genre had been simmering nicely, if not spectacularly, and the nineties brought us the aforementioned Bram Stoker’s Dracula plus other fun entries like From Dusk Till Dawn. We also got a young Kirsten Dunst drinking blood alongside Tom Cruise in platform shoes, in the better-than-you-may-remember Interview with the Vampire from 1994. These are just a few examples of how the genre had legs, or should that be fangs? However, for every decent entry, we also got prize turkeys like the lamentable Eddie Murphy horror comedy, Vampire in Brooklyn. So, by the time the year 2000 arrived, it also brought a deeply bizarre black horror-comedy about the Nosferatu vampire legend, with awesomely absurd central performances, including a vampire performance that you could legitimately compare to the silent 1922 classic. However, looking back on Shadow of the Vampire (watch it HERE) twenty four years after it was first released, does it still have fangs? Terrible jokes aside, let’s find out here on WTF happened to Shadow of the Vampire.
On March 4, 1922, eager members of the public filtered into the Marble Hall of the Berlin Zoological Garden to witness horror movie history with the aforementioned Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror. The legendary silent movie opens with a young clerk traveling to see a wealthy count at his castle in the mountains. When he gets there, a tall man dressed all in black greets him. Before long the clerk soon begins to realize that his host has been spending his days asleep in a coffin beneath the building and may in fact be a blood sucking vampire. The movie brought many memorable images to the big screen that have been pilfered ever since; Count Orlok’s shadow creeping across a wall, or his fatal reaction to sunlight, are now tropes of the genre the film helped to create. However, Nosferatu’s innovations were overshadowed by a copyright battle over the film’s blatant similarity to Bram Stoker’s famed 1897 novel, Dracula, the result of which burned all but one existing print. Much like a vampire in the sunlight.
However, artistic license wasn’t much of an issue for Shadow of the Vampire director E. Elias Merhige, when it came to his vision of a piece of Hollywood folk legend. I mean, this was the guy who brought to the world the experimental silent horror movie Begotten, which features an opening scene where God disembowels himself with a straight-razor. Subtlety wasn’t in his wheelhouse, clearly. Which, let’s face it, is no bad thing gore-hounds! So, instead of making a formulaic, traditional Hollywood picture, Merhige proposed the theory that Max Schreck was so completely and utterly convincing as vampire Count Orlok because, and here’s the kicker; he was actually a vampire. He makes a pact with the movie’s director, F.W. Murnau that he would agree to appear in the movie, in return for the promise of feasting upon the blood of its leading lady.
The premise is great, and as well as featuring holy disembowelment in his previous movies, director Merhige had form for creating horrific imagery in his work; which is probably why the likes of Marylin Manson and Danzig came to him to direct music videos for them. However, who did Merhige turn to in order to bring to life, so to speak, not only a convincing real life vampire, but also an egotistical and delusional director? For the latter he turned to the great John Malkovich whose previous work was more than enough evidence that he could play an unhinged movie director in his sleep. Just take a look at any scene from the weird and wonderful Being John Malkovich from 1999 and you’ll see that the prolific actor was the perfect choice as Friedrich Wilhelm.
The role of ‘real life’ vampire Count Orlok was arguably a touch more difficult to cast, but with the movie being produced by Nicholas Cage’s Saturn Films, another one of his past co-stars ultimately won the role; Willem Defoe. Cage was initially keen to play Orlok but later turned to the versatile Defoe when he expressed an interest in the project. Defoe is amazing in the movie but just imagine what kind of crazy shenanigans Cage would have brought to it. Perhaps that’s why he chose not to play the count, as the production needed something slightly more subtle, rather than bombastic. Joining the lead cast members was an eclectic cast featuring the awesome and hilarious English comedian / actor Eddie Izzard as actor Gustav von Wangenheim, and Udo Kier as producer Abin Grau. We also get the evergreen Cary Elwes (I mean, does this guy ever properly age?) as photographer Fritz Arno Wagner, Catherine McCormack as leading lady Greta Schroder, plus smaller roles for Aden Gillett, Nicholas Elliot and Ronan Vibert.
Another cool little tasty morsel to note is that the movie was originally due to be called Burned to Light, which would have been a neat way of shoehorning some vampire and filmmaking terminology into the movie. However, bizarrely, Willem Defoe thought the title was ‘Burn Ed to Light’ and asked his perplexed director who this Ed dude was. Shadow of the Vampire is a cool title and ties in nicely with the classic imagery from 1922’s Nosferatu, but Burned to Light would have been a decent alternative. Also, to create the aesthetic of old film sock, cinematographer Lou Bogue shot much of the film with Kodak Vision 800T film stock, a high speed specialty stock with very coarse grain, in Super 35mm format, which further enhanced the effect when cropped and enlarged to anamorphic.
When all is said and done though, does Shadow of the Vampire have enough avant garde bite and blood spilling to satisfy the most hardened gore hounds? Well, there’s plenty of the former and very little of the latter, but that isn’t a criticism, at all. I thought the movie was a delight. Bizarrely, I hadn’t caught the movie when it was first released all those years ago. Seriously, where has twenty four years gone? But watching it for the first time for this retrospective reminded me just how much I enjoy this kind of almost experimental, art-house filmmaking, and also really brings home how pumped I am now that the awesome Robert Eggers is also taking on the classic, Nosferatu.
You can see that Merhige may have been inspired by the legendary relationship between Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski, who of course brought us the 1979 Nosferatu remake. The plot follows the making of the 1922 movie and focuses on the efforts John Malkovich’s flamboyantly selfish director goes to bring his vision to the world. It’s set in Berlin in 1921, and we meet the confused cast and crew of Murnau’s film who go about their roles in the production without any real clue as to what the film is about, and they have no idea a real vampire will be joining them on set.
This is where the film really comes to life, as we first meet Defoe’s wonderfully unhinged Count Orlok, facial tics, teeth and long menacing claws in all their macabre glory. At first the crew mock Count Orlok, thinking he’s little more than an actor with a massive method-sized chip on his hunched shoulders. He takes part in the movie with the pretense to the crew that he’ll stay in character every waking second, without breaking out of the role for any reason. Before long, however, he starts munching on crew members and begins to fuel the ire of his increasingly unhinged director, before getting his wish to feast on the blood of the movie’s leading lady.
Both Malkovich and Defoe are great in their roles and while the avant garde art-house stylings of the movie won’t be to the taste of anybody looking for Interview with the Vampire style big star action, the movie holds up as a curious look into the making of a vampire classic. Plus, the lead actors nail every moment they’re on screen. You really believe Defoe is an undead humanoid creature, such is his dedication to getting into character, and one scene where he goes full Ozzy Osbourne and chomps on a poor bat is a hoot. While this film may not appeal to anybody expecting more mainstream vampire madness, if you get a chance to sit down with Count Orlok and friends, and you understand the art-house sensibilities on display, I highly recommend revisiting this little gem of a movie.
Shadow of the Vampire had its world premiere at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and It was also given a limited release in the United States on December 29, 2000. It had a wider release on January 26th, 2001 and grossed a total of $8.3 million domestically and $11.2 million worldwide. Its widest release saw it launch in 513 theaters and although it didn’t set the box-office alight, it at least brought in a small profit theatrically off of its estimated $8 million budget, not taking into account home entertainment sales.
Critically the movie was mostly met with a positive reaction, with a lot of the accolades thrown in the direction of the excellent Willem Defoe as Count Orlok. The film holds an 82% approval rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on one hundred and forty reviews, with an average rating of 7.0/10. The site’s critical consensus states: “Shadow of the Vampire is frightening, compelling, and funny, and features an excellent performance by Willem Dafoe.” Roger Ebert also had kind words for the film, writing that, “director E. Elias Merhige and his writer, Steven Katz, do two things at the same time. They make a vampire movie of their own, and they tell a backstage story about the measures that a director will take to realize his vision”, and that Defoe “embodies the Schreck of Nosferatu so uncannily that when real scenes from the silent classic are slipped into the frame, we don’t notice a difference.” This is one of those instances where a modestly budgeted genre flick manages to achieve great acclaim from critics but probably missed the mark with more of a mainstream audience.
For this writer at least, Shadow of the Vampire is an intriguing, creative delight with exceptionally over the top performances and an aesthetic that harks back to the 1922 classic perfectly. While I’m not sure those looking for generic vampire thrills will buy into what director Merhige and the cast brought to the movie, it’s nonetheless a great throwback to the days where horror could be found in the most unsuspecting, and silent, places. However, the most important opinion we always love to hear is from YOU guys, so what’s your take on Shadow of the Vampire? Did you buy into the wonderfully over the top performances, especially Defoe as the very real Count Orlok? Or was it one chewed bat away from absurdity? Let me know in the comments and I’ll see you wonderful gore-hounds next time. Thanks for watching!
A couple of the previous episodes of What Happened to This Horror Movie? can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
The Alien franchise is set to continue on the small screen with an “FX on Hulu” TV series called Alien: Earth, from Fargo creator Noah Hawley. The show began filming in Thailand last year, then had to halt production after a month due to the actors strike. Filming resumed earlier this year and wrapped a few months ago – and now a teaser trailer has made its way online to let us know that the show has a Summer 2025 premiere window! You can check it out in the embed above.
One of the first things we heard about the Alien TV series – and one of the most surprising things about it – is that it will be set on Earth (thus the title), a couple of decades before the events of the first movie. FX chairman John Landgraf has said the show will take place “right near the end of this century.” According to Deadline, the setting puts it “a few years before Prometheus,” which Hawley has previously said he has chosen not to acknowledge. Hawley decided to set the show on Earth because “The alien stories are always trapped… Trapped in a prison, trapped in a space ship. I thought it would be interesting to open it up a little bit so that the stakes of ‘What happens if you can’t contain it?’ are more immediate.“ Variety noted that the Alien TV series will “explore the formation of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation and the race to create android life.”
Alien: Earth has the following synopsis: When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat.
Chandler’s Alien character is the meta-human Wendy, who has the body of an adult, but the brain and consciousness of a child. Her co-stars include Essie Davis (The Babadook) as Dame Silvia, Alex Lawther (The End of the F*cking World) as a soldier named CJ, Samuel Blenkin (Black Mirror) as a CEO named Boy Kavalier, Adarsh Gourav (The White Tiger) as a character named Slightly, Kit Young (Shadow and Bone) as a character called Tootles, and Timothy Olyphant (Justified) Kirsh, a synth who acts as a mentor and trainer for Wendy. Babou Ceesay (Guerrilla), Jonathan Ajayi (Wonder Woman 1984), Erana James (The Wilds), Lily Newmark (Sex Education), Diêm Camille (Washington Black), Adrian Edmondson (The Young Ones), Moe Bar-El (The Peripheral), and David Rysdahl (Fargo season 5) are in the cast as well, but no details have been revealed about their characters. Sandra Yi Sencindiver of Foundation will be playing “a senior member of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation” in multiple episodes, and her role could be expanded as the series continues.
What did you think of the Alien: Earth teaser trailer? Will you be watching this show when it premieres next summer? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
It’s been a long road to see the mutants finally enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ever since Disney acquired Fox, it seemed like the play to make. However, before the X-Men officially reboot, Deadpool & Wolverine would give us one last look at Logan and certain other Fox universe characters in a collision of both worlds. And while Hugh Jackman finally got to don the comic-accurate costume and Channing Tatum brought the Cajun card player, Gambit, to life in a new depiction, fans await how the whole X-Men team will get their entrance in the MCU.
Deadline reports on Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige’s virtual appearance at the Disney APAC Content Showcase, which was held in Singapore. When he spoke about some upcoming projects like The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Thunderbolts*, it would lead him right into teasing the X-Men. Feige talked about Thunderbolts*, saying, “It’s taking characters from all different types of places and franchises and putting them together. That’s what the Avengers is, that’s what Guardians of the Galaxy is.” Which, then, segued him into bringing up the famous mutants,
I think you will see that continues in our next few movies with some X-Men players that you might recognize. Right after that, the whole story of Secret Wars really leads us into a new age of mutants and of the X-Men. Again, [it’s] one of those dreams come true. We finally have the X-Men back.”
His excitement would stem from Jackman’s return to the Wolverine role in Deadpool & Wolverine and putting him in the yellow and blue for the first time, “When we first started working on the film for the first time, we wanted to see Wolverine in a yellow costume. I had goosebumps on set when he walked out wearing that costume and put on that mask for the first time. I’ve been waiting 25 years to bring that to life.” Feige would not also forget about Mr. Wade Wilson, who was the anchor for the crossing over of these properties, “We were very excited to see Ryan Reynolds bring the R rating to Disney. It was fun — the heart and the humor.”
Mortal Kombat director Simon McQuoid is back at the helm for the sequel Mortal Kombat 2, and while the video game adaptation wrapped production back in January after a bumpy ride through the year of the strikes, they had to go back for some reshoots this past summer. So we still don’t know when this movie is going to be released – but it shouldn’t be much longer before we’re hearing release date news, because the Motion Picture Association ratings board has seen the movie and given it a rating! Mortal Kombat 2 has been rated R for strong bloody violence and gore, and language. The previous movie was rated R for strong bloody violence and language throughout, and some crude references.
The screenplay for Mortal Kombat 2 has been written by Jeremy Slater, who was the lead writer on the Marvel / Disney+ series Moon Knight. Last year, Slater said that working on the project had been “really fun so far. … I’m working really closely with the director and the studios, and the game guys, and I think—I can’t say anything about the actual story, but I think they definitely learned some lessons the last time around in terms of, ‘Here’s the stuff fans responded to, and here’s what people liked out of the movie, and here’s the stuff that didn’t work out as well as we hoped.’ … (The sequel is) the chance to take everything that worked in the first one and do it even better and give the audience even more, and make something that is just incredibly satisfying, and really exciting, and unpredictable.“
The sequel stars returning Mortal Kombat cast members Lewis Tan as MMA fighter Cole Young, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Josh Lawson as Kano, Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden, Mehcad Brooks as Jax, Chin Han as Shang Tsung, Joe Taslim as Bi-Han and Sub-Zero, Hiroyuki Sanada as Hanzo Hasashi and Scorpion, and Max Huang as Kung Lao. New additions include Karl Urban (Dredd) as Johnny Cage, Adeline Rudolph (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) as Princess Kitana; Tati Gabrielle (You) as Jade, the friend and bodyguard of Princess Kitana; Damon Herriman (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) as Netherrealm demon Quan Chi; bodybuilder/actor Martyn Ford (F9: The Fast Saga) as Outworld emperor Shao Kahn; Ana Thu Nguyen (Suka) as Kahn’s wife Queen Sindel; and Desmond Chiam (Joy Ride) as Jerrod, who was the King of Edenia (and married to Sindel) until Edenia’s warriors lost in the Mortal Kombat tournament.
Are you looking forward to Mortal Kombat 2? What do you think of the reasons given for the R rating? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
There has been no shortage of thoughts on the effects of artificial intelligence, with the most notable names in Hollywood – we’re talking James Cameron, Guillermo del Toro, Nicolas Cage, Robert Downey Jr., etc. etc. – giving their opinions and predictions on just where it could lead the industry. Now we can add Ben Affleck to the conversation, as the actor/director/you name it at this point recently gave his thoughts on both the limitations and dangers of AI.
Speaking at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha Summit (via The Hollywood Reporter), Ben Affleck took the stance that certain parts of the film industry will be safe from the harm of artificial intelligence for a while because, unlike monkeys with all the time in the world, it can never actually reproduce works of brilliance. “Movies will be one of the last things, if everything gets replaced, to be replaced by AI. AI can write you excellent imitative verse, that sounds Elizabethan. It cannot write you Shakespeare. The function of having two actors or three or four actors in a room and the taste to discern and construct that is something that currently entirely eludes AI’s capability and I think will for a meaningful period of time.”
Ben Affleck added, “What AI is going to do is going to disintermediate the more laborious, less creative and more costly aspects of filmmaking that will allow costs to be brought down, that will lower the barrier to entry, that will allow more voices to be heard, that will make it easier for the people who want to make Good Will Huntings to go out and make it. Look, AI is a craftsman, at best. Craftsmen can learn to make Stickley Furniture by sitting down next to somebody and seeing what their technique is and imitating. That’s how large video models and large language models basically work. Library of vectors of meaning and transformers that interpret it in context, right? But they’re just cross-pollinating things that exist. Nothing new is created.”
Ben Affleck is putting a lot on the table with his comments on AI, particularly because he and Matt Damon launched Artists Equity in 2022, with the mission being to give more monetary meaning to those in the industry, from A-list stars to costume designers. But as we see artificial intelligence emerging in ways that we have long been skeptical of, its companies like Affleck’s that we expect to defend artists and not rely on AI.
As for those who might not fall under certain blankets, Ben Affleck does predict dire things for VFX artists due to the growing use of and reliance on AI. “I wouldn’t like to be in the visual effects business. They are in trouble. Because what costs a lot of money is now going to cost a lot less, and it’s going to hammer that space, and it already is. And maybe it shouldn’t take a thousand people to render something. But it’s not going to replace human beings making films.”
What do you think of Ben Affleck’s take on AI? Let us know in the comments section below.
The Witch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman writer/director Robert Eggers‘ remake of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent classic Nosferatu (watch it HERE) is set to reach theatres on Wednesday, December 25th – and with that date just one month away, the Motion Picture Association ratings board has revealed that they’ve given the film an R rating. Nosferatu earned that rating with its bloody violent content, graphic nudity, and some sexual content.
An unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the original Nosferatu has the following synopsis: In this highly influential silent horror film, the mysterious Count Orlok (Max Schreck) summons Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim) to his remote Transylvanian castle in the mountains. The eerie Orlok seeks to buy a house near Hutter and his wife, Ellen (Greta Schroeder). After Orlok reveals his vampire nature, Hutter struggles to escape the castle, knowing that Ellen is in grave danger. Meanwhile Orlok’s servant, Knock (Alexander Granach), prepares for his master to arrive at his new home. Werner Herzog directed his own remake of the film in 1979.
Eggers’ take on Nosferatu is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman in 19th century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him.
The cast includes Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man: No Way Home) as crazy vampire hunter Von Franz, Lily-Rose Depp (The Idol) as Ellen Hutter and Nicholas Hoult (Renfield) as her husband Thomas – a role Skarsgard was going to play at one point. Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Bullet Train) is in there as Thomas’s friend Friedrich Harding, with Emma Corrin (The Crown) as Friedrich’s wife Anna, Ralph Ineson (The Witch) as Von Franz’s cohort Dr. Wilhelm Sievers, and Simon McBurney (The Conjuring 2) in an unspecified role. Bill Skarsgard (It) is the title character and has said that playing Nosferatu / Count Orlok was like “conjuring pure evil. It took a while for me to shake off the demon that had been conjured inside of me. … I do not think people are gonna recognize me in it.“
The first reactions to the film recently made their way online, and they were very positive.
Are you looking forward to the Nosferatu remake? What do you think of the film’s R rating? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
The acclaimed actor stars as “respected former U.S. President George Mullen, who, as head of the Zero Day Commission, is charged with finding the perpetrators of a devastating cyber attack that has caused chaos around the country and thousands of fatalities. As disinformation runs rampant and the personal ambition of power brokers in technology, Wall Street, and government collide, Mullen’s unwavering search for the truth forces him to confront his own dark secrets while risking all he holds dear.“
In addition to De Niro, the six-episode series stars Angela Bassett, Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemons, Joan Allen, Connie Britton, Dan Stevens, and Matthew Modine. Guest stars include Bill Camp, Gaby Hoffmann, Clark Gregg, and McKinley Belcher III. That’s quite the cast, and I’m very curious to see what De Niro’s first major TV series looks like.
Zero Day is created by Eric Newman (Narcos) and Noah Oppenheim (The Maze Runner). “Zero Day is about the aftermath of a devastating cyberattack that kills thousands of people and threatens to push a nation already on the precipice over the edge,” said Newman. Oppenheim added that “the show also looks at the cost of power for those who are asked to take on these enormous challenges — what it means for them personally, and what it means for their families.” Lesli Linka Glatter (Homeland) will direct all six episodes of the series and is also an executive producer.
As well as starring in the series, De Niro is also involved as a producer. “[De Niro] very much became our partner in this process — very hands-on, very involved, read everything at every stage, and it’s been an incredible honor and privilege,” said Newman. “You can count on one hand the actors and actresses in history who bring this level of gravitas, pedigree, and talent to their work.”
Peter Friedlander, Vice President of Scripted Series on Netflix, added, “Zero Day is a shrewd, heart-pounding conspiracy thriller that will keep audiences at the edge of their seat. What an honor to have this A-list caliber of talent assembled, led by the iconic Robert De Niro and brought to life by the unrivaled talents of Eric Newman, Noah Oppenheim, Lesli Linka Glatter and Michael S. Schmidt.“
The Night Agent received an early season 3 renewal last month, and the cast is already coming together. Genesis Rodriguez is now in talks to join the new season of The Night Agent in a series regular role.
Details on her role are being kept under wraps, but The Night Agent season 3 is slated to start shooting in Istanbul at the end of the year and continue in New York in early 2025. Based on the novel by Matthew Quirk, The Night Agent is “a sophisticated, character-based, action-thriller centering on a low level FBI Agent who works in the basement of the White House, manning a phone that never rings — until the night that it does, propelling him into a fast moving and dangerous conspiracy that ultimately leads all the way to the Oval Office.” The series stars Gabriel Basso, Luciane Buchanan, Hong Chau, D.B. Woodside, Eve Harlow, Sarah Desjardins, and more.
The Night Agent won’t be Rodriguez’s first experience with an action spy thriller, as she’s currently starring in the second season of Taylor Sheridan’s Lioness. The Paramount+ series stars Zoe Saldaña as Joe, an agent who leads undercover CIA operations in the war on terror by enlisting women operatives that are known as Lionesses. Rodriguez plays Captain Josephina Carrillo in the second season, a US Army Apache pilot who is recruited into the Lioness program.
The first season of The Night Agent was hugely popular upon release, with 98.2M views in its first 91 days. It currently occupies the #7 spot on Netflix’s Top 10 Most Popular (English) TV Shows of all time, standing alongside Netflix heavyweights such as Stranger Things, Bridgerton, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, and Wednesday. The official synopsis of the upcoming second season reads: “Based on the novel by Matthew Quirk, The Night Agent is a sophisticated, character-based, action-thriller centering on a low level FBI Agent , Peter Sutherland, whose efforts to save The President in Season 1 earn him an opportunity to become a Night Agent in Season 2. But working in the secretive organization of Night Action will propel Peter into a world where danger is everywhere and trust is in short supply.“
The Night Agent season 2 will debut on Netflix on January 23, 2025.
The DC Universe will officially kick off with the release of Creature Commandos next month, but as certain elements and actors from previous DCEU projects are returning, fans have been confused about what is canon and what isn’t in the new universe. While speaking with IGN, DC Studios co-head James Gunn said almost all of the first season of Peacemaker is canon, with one big exception.
“Now in Creature Commandos, you’ll hear them talk about things that happened in [The] Suicide Squad or Peacemaker. Well then, those things automatically become canon,” Gunn said. “The truth is almost all of Peacemaker is canon with the exception of Justice League… which we will kind of deal with in the next season of Peacemaker.” The finale of Peacemaker‘s first season involved the Justice League (with Jason Momoa as Aquaman and Ezra Miller as Flash) showing up late to the party, with Peacemaker (John Cena) and friends having already saved the day.
I still believe the DCU should have started from scratch. New actors. New stories. Bringing in actors from the DCEU just feels like it will be confusing to general audiences. However, I do have faith that Gunn will be able to pull it off. That said, some fans have questioned why the elements which have made the cut happen to be from Gunn’s own projects.
When asked why he didn’t make a different show instead of risking confusion with Peacemaker season 2, Gunn has promised that the shift from DCEU to DCU will work out just fine. “Because it’s my favorite thing to do, it’s the biggest original Max show ever, and I have a way in,” Gunn said. “It won’t be confusing.” Peacemaker season 2 will debut on Max in August 2025.
Creature Commandos features the voices of Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr., David Harbour as Eric Frankenstein, Indira Varma as The Bride, Maria Bakalova as Princess Ilana Rostovic, Alan Tudyk as Doctor Phosphorus, Zoe Chao as Nina Mazursky, and Steve Agee as John Economos, and Sean Gunn as Weasel. The series tracks a secret team of incarcerated monsters recruited for missions deemed too dangerous for humans. When all else fails… they’re your last, worst option. Creature Commandos will debut on December 5th on Max, with Superman hitting theaters on July 11, 2025.
Do you think Peacemaker season 1 should be canon to the new DCU?
