It’s a double up on pop culture news highlights today, and it’s been an exceptionally busy two weeks for announcements and trailer drops. So much so that we couldn’t feasibly cover everything. Below you’ll find our “cream of the crop” picks from the past fortnight, focusing on the series, films and games that have caught our eye.

On the obituary front, Mad magazine cartoonist Al Jaffee has passed away aged 102. Jaffee holds the Guinness World Record for the longest career of any comic artist (72 years), and is perhaps most famous for inventing Mad’s signature back page fold-in gag.

Meanwhile, if you were wondering what actually happened to The Wire and John Wick actor Lance Reddick, who dropped dead a month ago, heart disease has been listed as the official cause of death. That said, the star’s family is disputing the results of the autopsy.

Also, the criminal charges against Alec Baldwin, relating to the deadly firearm incident on the set of upcoming Western Rust, have been dropped. Well, one set of charges anyway. While there is lack of evidence to charge Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter, relating to the on-set death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, various civil cases are ongoing against the actor and film’s producers.

Series

As expected, the Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023 event, which took place in London over the Easter weekend, was full of exciting news about all things A Galaxy Far, Far Away…

You can check out the full list of announcements here (relating to film, series, comics, merchandising and events), but what we’re most excited for is upcoming live-action series Ahsoka, where Rosario Dawson plays the title character, a former Jedi once apprenticed to Anakin Skywalker. Also appearing in the eight-episode series are Lars Mikkelsen as Grand Admiral Thrawn; Ray Stevenson as former Jedi Baylan Skoll; Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla, a Twi’lek New Republic general and pilot; Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren, a rebellious Mandalorian warrior; and Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker (AKA Darth Vader).

Ahsoka comes to Disney+ this August.

Then there’s animated anthology series Star Wars: Visions Vol. 2. Debuting on Disney+ on May the 4th, Visions Vol. 2 features nine new shorts set in the Star Wars universe, all made by nine celebrated animation studios across the globe. These include Aardman (United Kingdom), Studio Mir (South Korea), and South Africa’s very own Triggerfish.

P.S. The second and final season of Rogue One prequel Andor is currently set to premiere in August 2024.

Come 23 May, streaming service HBO Max will be renamed Max, as it merges with Discovery Plus. Warner Bros. Discovery used a press event on 12 April to announce the official new title, and punt content coming to the service.

This includes another Game of Thrones prequel (based off of George R.R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg stories); a series centred on horror smash hit The Conjuring; that multi-season small screen Harry Potter reboot mentioned a few weeks back; DC animated series Creature Commandos; and an in-production teaser for The Penguin. The last one on the list there is an eight-episode spin-off from Matt Reeves’s The Batman, which looks at the rise to power of Oswald Cobblepot (Colin Farell) to become the new kingpin of crime in Gotham City.

A full list of Max announcements can be found here.

Also featuring in the Max presentation was True Detective: Night Country.

HBO’s True Crime anthology series has always delivered star power, featuring the likes of Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Monaghan, Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, Taylor Kitsch, Vince Vaughn and Mahershala Ali in previous seasons. True Detective Season 4, AKA True Detective: Night Country, is shaping up to be no different. Jodie Foster leads the cast as detective Liz Danvers, who investigates the disappearance of six men from a research station in Alaska, just as the area enters a 2-month polar night.

True Detective: Night Country is set for release sometime this year.

If you love stylish action film John Wick, you’ll definitely want to watch prequel event series The Continental when it comes to Peacock, reportedly in September.

Three 90-minute episodes will explore how Winston Scott (played by Colin Woodell here and Ian McShane in the Keanu Reeves movie franchise) came to head up The Continental, a hotel that acts as a safe haven for assassins in the John Wick universe. The Continental takes the action back to the grimy, turbulent 1970s, and also includes Mel Gibson in its cast.

More like “Doctor Who Is That?!” The upcoming Doctor Who series is really bringing the style, leveraging the youthful appeal and energy of new star Ncuti Gatwa, playing the 15th Doctor, and Millie Gibson as companion Ruby Sundae. The official Doctor Who Twitter account posted a thread of images from the set, where filming is underway on a episode that sees the pair apparently time travel to the Swinging 60s.

Finally, you may want to check out the latest trailers for two upcoming apocalyptic tales. First, there’s Netflix’s immensely likeable Sweet Tooth Season 2, available from 27 April; and Apple TV+’s highly anticipated Silo, which premieres on 5 May.

Film

Three Marvel-ously powered women come together in The Marvels, one of this year’s big screen Marvel Cinematic Universe releases. Following events in movie Captain Marvel, and the Disney+ series WandaVision and Ms. Marvel, The Marvels sees Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), and Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) swapping places every time they use their powers. This forces them to team up to determine why. Candyman’s Nia DaCosta directs.

The Marvels arrives in cinemas on 10 November, having bounced around the release calendar quite a bit since mid 2022. Most recently, the film was scheduled for 28 July.

If you loved the vampire designs in Netflix and Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass, here’s another one for you. The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a historical horror tale based on a single unforgettable chapter from Bram Stoker’s classic novel Dracula. In the book, the captain of merchant ship The Demeter logs nightmarish events on board his vessel while carrying fifty unmarked wooden crates from Carpathia to London in the late 1800s. By the time the ship reaches England, it is wrecked and deserted.

Described as “Alien at sea,” The Last Voyage of the Demeter is directed by André Øvredal (Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark, Trollhunter), and stars Corey Hawkins (In the Heights, Straight Outta Compton) as Clemens, a doctor who joins the Demeter crew; Aisling Franciosi (Game of Thrones, The Nightingale) as an unwitting stowaway; Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones, Clash of the Titans) as the ship’s captain; and David Dastmalchian (Dune, The Suicide Squad) as the Demeter’s first mate.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter comes to cinemas on 11 August.

Here’s another horror movie to keep an eye on, largely because it comes with the A24 (Hereditary, Men, X, The Witch) stamp of approval.

Talk to Me is an Australian production that had its international premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and was swiftly snapped up for distribution by indie powerhouse A24. From directors Danny and Michael Philippou, the film sees a group of friends use an embalmed hand to conjure spirits, only to go too far and unleash malevolent supernatural forces. It may sound “seen it all before,” but evidently Talk to Me is elevated by its raw performances (by leads Sophie Wilde and Joe Bird), practical effects and thematic depth.

The film releases in cinemas starting 28 July.

Now for some film tidbits from the past week:

  • Horror’s current It Girl, Mia Goth has joined the cast of Blade, the MCU’s upcoming take on the half-human-half-vampire monster hunter, played this time by Mahershala Ali. While her role is unannounced, there’s a convincing theory that Goth will play Lillith Drake, the daughter of Dracula.
  • Prepare to see Halle Berry and Angelina Jolie face off as rival spies in espionage actioner Maude v Maude. The Oscar winners have never shared the screen before.
  • Pre-production on James Gunn’s Superman reboot Superman: Legacy is under way. New co-head of the DCU, Gunn is writer-director on the project, which explores how a younger Man of Steel acts on the values instilled by his two father figures, Kryptonian scientist Jor-El and Kansas farmer Jonathan Kent. Gunn announced the film’s status update by posting a photo of the script on social media.
  • It’s been an exceptionally long time coming, but filming is happening right now for fantasy musical adaptation (and Wizard of Oz spin-off) Wicked. Director Jon M. Chu posted these moody teaser images of Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp, Oz’s future Wicked Witch of the West, and Ariana Grande as Glinda Upland, future Good Witch of the North. If you want better behind-the-scenes imagery of Grande in action, you can find more pics here. Wicked (Part 1) releases on 27 November 2024.

Gaming

As part of cost-cutting and operational consolidation, Electronic Arts is ending its direct involvement in physical game distribution in South Africa. While digital copies of EA games will still be easily available through digital storefronts, the move will have repercussions in a country where high-speed fibre connectivity is a luxury not available to the majority of people. Fans of, and gaming leagues centred on, EA’s vast series of sports tie-in titles, like the FIFA, Madden NFL, F1 and PGA series, will have to download future titles to play them.

A follow-up to this story is that UAE company ZAMZAM Distribution will be taking over EA game distribution in South Africa. However, as business operations still need to ramp up locally, it’s unlikely that highly anticipated sequel Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will have a physical release in the country come its launch day of 28 April.

Still on matters of EA, the company has basically shadow dropped a new magic-centred first person shooter. Revealed out of the blue, and set for release 3 months from now, Immortals of Aveum comes from new studio Ascendant Studios, and is set in an original fantasy universe torn apart by conflict. The game centres on protagonist Jak, as he joins an elite order of battlemages embroiled in a eternal epic struggle for control of all magic in the world.

Immortals of Aveum comes out on 20 July 20 for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC. Read the full press release here.

Finally, here’s another game reveal for you, courtesy of this week’s Nintendo Direct. Quilts and Cats of Calico is an adaptation of Monster Couch’s popular puzzle boardgame for 1-4 players. In Quilts and Cats of Calico, players piece together quilt patches to earn points and interact with adorable, if disruptive, cats. Compete against other players in multiplayer gameplay, play solo or delve into the story of a tailor battling a large corporation. Quilts and Cats of Calico comes to PC and Nintendo Switch in the Northern Hemisphere Autumn of this year.

Now for some gaming tidbits:

  • Still talking wholesome games with cats, organisational puzzle game A Little to the Left (one of our faves from last year) will be receiving DLC. Developers Max Inferno have just announced upcoming Cupboards & Drawers, which will consist of 25 new levels of satisfying tidying up, all at a micro level. Cupboards & Drawers is coming to PC and Switch in June.
  • In case you were wondering why there wasn’t any quidditch in open world fantasy adventure Hogwarts Legacy, turns out there was a very good reason for that. A separate Wizarding World game centred on the magical, broom-based sport is coming out at some point in the future. Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions is an competitive multiplayer title for PC and unannounced consoles.
  • That’s some potentially good news, but on the opposite end of the spectrum, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has been delayed yet again – this time all the way to 2 February 2024. The DC supervillain-themed action adventure, which can be played single-player or co-op, was most recently set to release on 26 May of this year.
  • Finally, Ubisoft’s game subscription service, Ubisoft+, is now available on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles in Multi Access form. Much like EA’s EA Play Pro, Ubisoft+ gives fans access to Ubisoft titles – including the latest releases on day one, DLC and classic games, as well as discount benefits for in-game currency purchases. Ubisoft+ Multi Access will cost you $17.99 (that’s R209 for South Africans) per month. For the record, the PC-only version of Ubisoft+ costs $14.99, but is limited to that platform, while Multi Access login provides membership benefits across all gaming platforms.