This week’s highlights package from the realms of film, series, comics, gaming and pop culture events is pretty much what you’d expect for this time of year: namely a combination of awards show results and hype-generating promotion material and announcements for the next six months. Below is your chance to catch up.

Film

Featuring serious Guardians of the Galaxy energy, and some surprising star power to match, is upcoming video game adaptation Borderlands, which this week enjoyed a trailer reveal along with first-look photos and poster (via People.com).

In Borderlands, bounty hunter Lilith (Cate Blanchett) returns to her home, Pandora, the most chaotic planet in the galaxy, to find the missing daughter of Atlas (Edgar Ramírez), the universe’s most powerful S.O.B. That means assembling a ragtag team of misfits – including mercenary Roland (Kevin Hart), teenage explosives expert Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), muscle Krieg (Florian Munteanu), oddball scientist Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), and robot Claptrap (Black). Rounding out an unusually “veteran” cast are the likes of Gina Gershon as Mad Moxxi. Eli Roth directed the film with Deadpool’s Tim Miller doing reshoots.

Borderlands releases in cinemas on 9 August.

A few more movie news tidbits:

  • Luc Besson has recruited Christoph Waltz and Caleb Landry-Jones for a fresh take on Dracula.
  • While Bullet Train and Deadpool 2 filmmaker David Leitch has passed on the next Jurassic World movie, Gareth Edwards, who helmed Godzilla (2014), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and The Creator, has stepped up.
  • Between the off-screen drama centred on Jonathan Majors (including his firing by Disney), the under-performance of Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania and general superhero fatigue, the next big Phase-ending Avengers film will no longer be called The Kang Dynasty. In fact, Kang will probably no longer even be the Big Bad.

Series

The 51st Annual Annie Awards took place this past weekend in Saturday, paying tribute to the world’s best in animation. You can see all the winners here, but below are a few notable achievers.

  • Best Feature went to Sony Pictures Animation’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which beat Nimona, TMNT: Mutant Mayhem, Suzume and Studio Ghibli’s The Boy and the Heron.
  • Netflix’s Blue Eye Samurai won every single award for which it was nominated (all six, including Best TV/Media – Mature).
  • And South Africa’s Triggerfish won two awards: Best TV/Media – Limited Series for Afrofuturist Kizazi Moto, and Best Music – TV/Media for the Aau’s Song episode of Star Wars: Visions (Season 2).

Two series news tidbits:

  • Netflix’s adorable stop-motion Pokemon Concierge is getting more episodes to join its initial bite-size four.
  • The Boys Season 4 has a new promotional poster and release date: 13 June.

Gaming

The biggest gaming story of the week: The trailer reveal for long-awaited Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree. Of the brutal new bosses and other characters introduced in From Software’s dark fantasy expansion, most important is Miquella, brother to Malenia, the original game’s infamously tough opponent. Players can venture forth into the Land of Shadow from 21 June.

February’s Nintendo Direct included loads of game announcements, and release date reveals. Among them was, yes, confirmation of the Xbox exclusives that are now coming to other gaming platforms, i.e. the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation.

The rumours are true. The first of these are Pentiment (Playstation 4/5 and Nintendo Switch from 22 February), Hi-Fi Rush (PS5 from 19 March), Grounded (PlayStation 4/5 and Switch from 16 April) and Sea of Thieves (PS5 from 30 April). Read the Xbox press releases here.

Comics & Books

EC Comics is back from the dead. For the first time in nearly seven decades, there will be new anthology comics released under the banner associated with notorious horror and pulp titles like Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, and Weird Science, not to mention Mad Magazine (the only EC release to survive the great moral panic and Comics Code Authority crackdown of the 1950s).

The return is made possible by a partnership with Oni Press, and kicks off with horror series Epitaphs From the Abyss and science themed Cruel Universe, debuting in July and August 2024 respectively. Other publications are planned as well.

Oni Press’s new curated EC titles will feature contributions from a rotating cast of high-profile comics creators like Jason Aaron (Thor, Southern Bastards), Brian Azzarello (Batman: Damned, 100 Bullets), Corinna Bechko (Invisible Republic), Stephanie Phillips (Grim), Peter Krause (Irredeemable), Malachi Ward (Black Hammer: The End), Dustin Weaver (Avengers, Paklis), and more.

Lifestyle

Still on matters of comics, Comic Con Cape Town, in partnership with FanCon, has announced two more industry guests for the upcoming 2024 event, happening 27 April – 1 May at the CTICC2. Zimbabwe’s Bill Masuku, the creator of Captain South Africa and more, is back for all five days of the con, while a newcomer to comic conventions in South Africa is American Todd Nauck, a veteran artist who has worked on DC and Marvel books in addition to his own series. Todd will be present on the Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday.

On matters of Comic Con Cape Town, there will be more for the littlies at the second-ever CCCT. KidsCon – presented with Toys “R” Us – is being added to the mix, having proved a hit at previous Comic Con Africa events in Johannesburg. Covered with a standard Comic Con Cape Town ticket, KidsCon is a dedicated area on show floor that has activities and toy shopping specially for young attendees. As a reminder, children under 5 can attend Comic Con Cape Town for free.