On the pop culture front, this past week was dominated by the news out of Disney’s D3 fan event. Closer to home, Comic Con Africa revealed their next big name guest for 2024. You’ll find these stories, and more, below.

On a sadder note, actress Gena Rowlands died this week aged 94, as a result of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. For cinephiles, two-time Oscar nominee Rowlands will probably best be remembered for her regular collaborations with director husband John Cassavetes on independent film classics like A Woman Under the Influence, Opening Night and Gloria. More casual movie fans will associate Rowlands with romantic tear-jerker The Notebook, where she played the older Allie. Son Nick Cassavetes directed her there.

Lifestyle

We’re leading with geek lifestyle and event news this week because the organizers of Comic Con Africa casually dropped a doozy of a celebrity guest announcement for this year’s show: Joe Manganiello will be attending on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and will even be doing paid autographs (R450) and photos (R850).

Manganiello has not only starred in the likes of True Blood, Magic Mike, and Rampage, but he’s had key roles in both the original Spider-Man film series, playing Flash Thompson, and Zack Snyder’s DC Universe, as imposing assassin Deathstroke. Then there’s his extra geek cred as an avid Dungeons & Dragons player and DM.

As for other CCA 2024 news of the past week, the Geek Meet & Mingle social events that made their debut at Comic Con Cape Town earlier this year are coming to Joburg on the Thursday and Friday of the con. You can register interest here. Also, we now know the line-up (at least for the first three days) for this year’s Otaku Town section. The popular Japanese Culture-centred area is back after last year’s successful launch.

CCA 2024 is taking place 26 – 29 September at the Johannesburg Expo Centre, its home for the past two years. Day passes are R200, with kids 5 and under attending for free.

Film

Most film (and TV) news this week was dominated by Disney’s D23 fan event. You can find everything announced and shown during the three-hour entertainment showcase here (see also the D23 Twitter feed), which includes a slightly creepy look at the live-action Stitch, the official title for Avatar 3, the reveal of Fortnite’s Absolute Doom season, and the announcement of a Freakier Friday reunion between Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, which comes to cinemas next year.

One note is that the showcase was an exclusive, largely behind-closed-doors event with sneak peeks at the likes of The Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts and upcoming Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again. Phone camera recordings of these may still be found online if you’re desperate for a first look, and are happy to sacrifice quality in the process.

On the other hand, Disney was happy to show off the teaser trailer for one of its upcoming animated classics turned live-action movies: Disney’s Snow White. Arriving in cinemas on 21 March next year, the CGI-heavy Disney’s Snow White stars Rachel Zegler as the title character, while Gal Gadot is the beauty-obsessed Wicked Queen. The Amazing Spider-Man and (500) Days of Summer’s Marc Webb directs this all-new musical.

Away from Disney news, well kind of, a new trailer dropped this week to remind us that Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is expanding later this year (on 13 December) with Kraven the Hunter. The reminder is necessary because the super-powered anti-hero actioner was originally scheduled for January 2023, before shifting at least two other times, most recently due to the SAG-AFTRA actors’ strike.

With Aaron Taylor-Johnson playing big-game-hunter-turned-hunter-of-men Sergei Kravinoff / Kraven on the screen for the first time, Kraven the Hunter also stars Russell Crowe as Kraven’s crime lord father; Ariana DeBose as voodoo priestess Calypso; Fred Hechinger as Chameleon (also Kraven’s brother); and Alessandro Nivola as beastly mercenary Rhino.

Kraven the Hunter is R-rated for graphic violence.

Put this one on your radar. Releasing on 21 February next year, horror movie The Monkey features some attention-grabbing, big name pedigree. It’s based on the 1980 short story by Stephen King, produced by The Conjuring and Saw’s James Wan, and written and directed Longlegs and Gretel and Hansel’s Osgood Perkins. In front of the camera, meanwhile, is Theo James, as a man who discovers a cursed cymbal-banging monkey toy in his family home.

Series

Also thanks to D23, we have a better look at the upcoming Disney+ series Agatha All Along, with a new official trailer. Cast members Kathryn Hahn, Joe Locke, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, Debra Jo Rupp and Patti LuPone also performed the Sacred Chant version of the show’s theme song The Ballad of the Witches Road at D23, which you can watch here.

Delving a little more into what we can expect from the upcoming show, the infamous Agatha Harkness finds herself down and out of power after a suspicious goth teenager helps break her free from a distorted spell. Her interest is piqued when he begs her to take him on the legendary Witches’ Road, a magical gauntlet of trials that, if survived, rewards a witch with what they’re missing. Together, Agatha and this mysterious teen pull together a desperate coven, and set off down The Road.

Agatha All Along will premiere with two episodes on 19 September, with new episodes releasing weekly thereafter.

Mega-big budget fantasy series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power returns for its Season 2 at the end of this month, with the first three episodes airing on Prime Video on 29 August, and new episodes releasing weekly after that. With production shifting from New Zealand to the UK this time, the second season focuses on the growing influence and manipulations of Dark Lord Sauron as war spreads across Middle-earth.

Your TV news tidbit for the day: As it continues to rack up awards, don’t expect the second season of Blue Eye Samurai until 2026 at the earliest.

Gaming

Some actual good news from the business side of gaming this week. After months of studio closures, retrenchments and project scupperings, there’s a promising new chapter for one set of developers.

Back in May, Microsoft faced outrage for their closure of Japanese studio Tango Gameworks, which had not only made the horror-themed Evil Within games and Ghostwire Tokyo in their pre-Xbox Studios days, but also the massively acclaimed rhythm actioner Hi-Fi Rush.

Now Tango Gameworks has been thrown a lifeline by publisher Krafton, the company behind PUBG: Battlegrounds. Krafton has acquired the game makers, as well as the Hi-Fi Rush IP, promising to support future entries in the series and other new projects from Tango.

Okay, maybe that isn’t the only good gaming news this week. We also have release date reveals for two highly anticipated games:

All Possible Futures and Devolver Digital’s charming storybook adventure The Plucky Squire is out 17 September for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch. Meanwhile, single-player RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard, from BioWare releases on 31 October of PS5, Xbox Series consoles and PC.