It’s all about the surprise-packed trailer drops in this week’s recap of the biggest news from the worlds of film, television, and gaming. Here are our highlights.

Film

Best known for his parody songs and polka medleys, the comedian, singer, musician, record producer, and actor known to the world as Weird Al Yankovic now has his own biopic starring Daniel Radcliff. It’s a parody biopic, of course, because this is Weird Al. Based off a short Al Yankovic made for Funny or Die in 2010, which poked fun at dramatic rock star biopics, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story will be streaming on Roku in Q3 2022. P.S. It also has Rachel Evan Wood playing Madonna.

This next trailer, we’re not entirely sure how to describe. Don’t Worry Darling is an upcoming psychological thriller from actress-director Olivia Wilde. It’s the story of Alice (Florence Pugh) and Jack (Harry Styles), who are lucky to be living in the idealized community of Victory, the experimental company town housing the men who work for the top-secret Victory Project and their families. The 1950s societal optimism espoused by their CEO, Frank (Chris Pine)—equal parts corporate visionary and motivational life coach—anchors every aspect of daily life in the tight-knit desert utopia. It’s… weird. And we’re here for it.

Don’t Worry Darling hits US cinemas on 23 September.

When was the last time you watched a cheesy action movie with a badass woman lead? Feels like it’s been a while. It turns out that Netflix and Fast & Furious star Elsa Pataky – who also happens to be Chris Hemsworth’s wife – are rectifying that shortfall with Interceptor. Packed with all the nonsense action, cringey dialogue and glistening lady muscles you could hope for, Interceptor sees Pataky’s seasoned military officer stepping up as the US’s last line of defense when terrorists attack the remote missile interceptor station she commands.

Interceptor hits Netflix on 3 June.

One final bit of movie news is that The Fantastic Four continues to be cursed when it comes to movie adaptations. Well, at least after the first two distinctly Noughties movies starring Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis and Chris Evans. Following the public directorial drama around 2015’s FF reboot, another filmmaker has walked. This time, Jon Watts, the man behind all three Tom Holland Spider-Man movies, has exited the project, which is intended to bring Marvel’s first super-powered family officially into the MCU. There evidently isn’t any drama inherent to this departure though; Watts just has superhero fatigue and an already busy schedule. More here.

Television

For those of us who still have a craving for bloodthirsty plots, battles and backstabbing aplenty, the official teaser trailer for House of the Dragon has released. The prequel story to Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon is based on George R. R. Martin’s 2018 novel Fire & Blood. Set two hundred years before the start of Game of Thrones, the series chronicles the beginning of the end of House Targaryen, the events leading up to the Targaryen civil war, known as the “Dance of the Dragons”, and the war itself. House of the Dragon starts streaming on HBO Max on 21 August.

Thanks to Star Wars Day (or, May the Fourth), there’s a new trailer out for the much-hyped Obi-Wan Kenobi, in anticipation of the show’s release on 27 May on Disney+. At least by then, we’ll have access to Disney+ in South Africa! If the multitude of teaser images, teaser trailers and general teasing by Disney hasn’t piqued your interest yet, here’s the full, official trailer (filled with more teasers for the series at large).

Speaking of Obi-Wan, and Disney+ in general, this week the streaming service unveiled its full launch day line up for South Africa. Come 18 May (less than 2 weeks to go!), local viewers will have access to over 1,000 films, more than 1,500 series and a slate of 200 exclusive Originals.

This includes everything Star Wars, over 60 Marvel movies (don’t forget all the animated ones), access to the Disney and Pixar animation vaults, and content that falls under the adult-orientated Star banner. With Star, you’ll be able to watch movies and series from FX, Searchlight Pictures, Disney TV studios, and 20th Century Studios (formerly 20th Century Fox). See the image below for some examples.

In terms of the technical details, users will have access to features like high-quality viewing, up to four concurrent streams, 4k video quality for select titles and the ability to set up to seven different profiles, including the ability for parents to create age-fenced profiles for their children’s viewing.

Don’t forget you have until midnight on 17 May to claim the special Disney+ introductory offer, and get 12 months of subscription (normally R1190) for the price of 8 (R950).

Gaming

The biggest gaming news of the week? Publisher Square Enix has offloaded most of its Western franchises, including Tomb Raider and Deus Ex, selling them and key studios Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal and Square Enix Montreal, to Sweden-based Embracer Group.

Frankly this feels like a good thing. Square has never seemed particularly supportive of its Western properties, letting them go stagnant as they consistently cite “disappointing” performance. The Japanese conglomerate intends to use the $300 million from the sale to explore blockchain, AI and other new technologies. *insert wide eyes emoji here*

For a little more info on Embracer Group, they were formerly known as THQ Nordic AB, and have an extensive catalog of over 850 owned or controlled franchises, such as Saints Row, Goat Simulator, Dead Island, Darksiders, Metro, MX vs ATV, Kingdoms of Amalur, TimeSplitters, Wreckfest, Insurgency, World War Z, and Borderlands. Last year, they purchased Gearbox for $1.3 billion.

More on the Square Enix-Embracer Group “agreement to acquire” here.