Before we jump into the weekly recap of pop culture news that caught our eye, a moment of silence for Scottish actor and comedian Robbie Coltrane, who died this past week aged 72. Perhaps best known for playing half-giant Hagrid in the Harry Potter film series, Coltrane had a long career, including 13 years playing crime psychologist Fitz in acclaimed British crime drama Cracker. Read his BBC obituary here.

Film

First up, we have the official trailer for the third entry in the “Creed” film series, aptly titled Creed III. The first entry in the “Rocky” franchise without Sylvester Stallone also serves as the directorial debut for Michael B. Jordan, who returns to star as Adonis Creed. Jonathan Majors enters the franchise as the new antagonist, Anderson Dame, a figure from Creed’s past who returns to take it all from him. Creed III opens on 3 March 2023.

Before the trailer dropped, also fans got to see the film’s impactful poster pair:

DC Films has lost its head, literally. The news broke this week that Walter Hamada has officially stepped down as the head of DC Films at Warner Bros. Discovery. Having served as President of DC Films for four years, Hamada is the fifth studio executive to leave since President and CEO David Zaslav combined Discovery Inc. with WarnerMedia earlier this year. He was reportedly offered another producing deal, but instead he turned it down and criticised the decision to scrap “Batgirl”, a sentiment that many fans can get behind.

While a replacement is sought, Zaslav had been open about wanting to bring in a Kevin Feige-style exec. to run DC, we assume in the vain hope of achieving something as sprawling and successful as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. More here.

Meanwhile, The Batman filmmaker Matt Reeves is reportedly plotting more than just a sequel to The Batman. It’s already been confirmed that filming for a television series spin-off focusing on Colin Farrell’s The Penguin starts next year, but Reeves is cooking up even more for his own “Batverse” – including potentially multiple movies and series showcasing different members of Batman’s iconic and well known rogue’s gallery.

According to THR, Reeves has been meeting with writers and directors to flesh out characters like Clayface, The Scarecrow and Professor Pyg, among others. Please tell him to get in touch with Mike Flanagan, that’s a team-up I really want to see!

Thanks to Konami’s recent Silent Hill livestream event, we have some new details on the upcoming film based on the franchise. So far titled Return to Silent Hill, the film sees a man returning to the eponymous town to find his lost love.

Director Christophe Gans says that even though Return to Silent Hill is literally a return to the same town as his 2006 film, there will be more of a focus on psychological horror and updated for modern audiences. The film will be based around game franchise entry Silent Hill 2 as well as the Greek myth of Orpheus. The filmmakers stressed that Return will acknowledge the passing of time and contain new surprises – but that some eponymous figures like Pyramid Head will return.

Television

Unfortunately for fans of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, CD Projekt Red have confirmed that there are no plans for another season, making the current ten episode run a standalone series. This comes in spite of its critical and commercial success, with overwhelmingly positive reviews and hanging out in Netflix’s global top ten for over a month.

Satoru Honma, CD Projekt Red’s Japan country manager, confirmed the news this week, adding:

I personally would like to continue to work with Japanese studios to produce more anime in the future, partly because we have received very good feedback.
However, just to be clear, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was planned as a standalone work, so there’s no such thing as ‘we are actually working on Season 2 in the background’.
Even if we could make more anime in the future, I don’t know if it would be Season 2 or something completely different.

Speaking of Netflix, they are still committed to making binge-watching shows, and will not change to a weekly release strategy as some rumours have claimed. As reported by Variety, Netflix confirmed in their Q3 shareholder letter that they will be sticking with the formula they pioneered, stating:

We think our bingeable release model helps drive substantial engagement, especially for newer titles. This enables viewers to lose themselves in stories they love.
It’s hard to imagine, for example, how a Korean title like ‘Squid Game’ would have become a mega hit
globally without the momentum that came from people being able to binge it. We believe the ability for our members to immerse themselves in a story from start to finish increases their enjoyment but also their likelihood to tell their friends, which then means more people watch, join and stay with Netflix.

Are you ready to binge watch a British tragedy? In addition to the recent first look images, which you can view on courtesy of Empire, Netflix has released the official trailer for Season 5 of The Crown. Premiering on 9 November, the upcoming season focuses on what was one of the most difficult decades for the Royal Family – the 1990s. Diana and Charles wage a media war, cracks start to splinter the royal foundation and the nation’s first family starts to lose relevance in 1990s Britain.

The new season stars Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II, Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana, Dominic West as Prince Charles, Olivia Williams as Camilla Parker Bowles, Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret and Jonny Lee Miller as Prime Minister John Major.

Gaming

Let’s get the bad news out the way first. There is controversy swirling around the release of Bayonetta 3 on Switch next week, 28 October. Voice actress Hellena Taylor, who played Bayonetta in the first two games of the over-the-top action-adventure series, has explained her lack of involvement in the new release as stemming from an insultingly low wage offer. She has called on fans to boycott the game. PlatinumGames has denied the allegations. The result is back and forth mudslinging on both sides about “untruths.” Read more about the saga here.

There’s now a release date and price for the PlayStation DualSense Edge wireless controller, the PS answer to Xbox’s high-end Elite Series 2 controller. Read the blog here for more on this customisable controller, which first becomes available in the US, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg starting 26 January. Excluding the replaceable stick modules, which are sold separately, The DualSense Edge wireless controller will be available for a recommended retail price of $199.99 USD/€239.99/£209.99.

Looking at the South African Rand exchange rate currently, as well as pricing for the comparable Xbox Elite Series 2 controller (R4,499) and S2 Core (R3,199), we can probably expect to pay around the R4,000 mark for the DualSense Edge.

Konami delivered a big Silent Hill Showcase this week, outlining their revitalisation plans for the long dormant psychological horror franchise, across all media (we’ve already mentioned the movie sequel above in this week’s Film section). While you can read the full rundown of announcements here (which includes 4 game projects in the works), here are two standouts.

The first is that Observer, Blair Witch Project and The Medium’s Bloober Team are remaking Silent Hill 2 with the help of original artist Masahiro Ito and composer Akira Yamaoka. The plot sees James Sunderland head to the abandoned town of Silent Hill after he receives a letter from his apparently dead wife, directing him there.

We knew that developer No Code Studios, the makers of Stories Untold and Observation, were working with indie publisher Annapurna Interactive on their first fully fledged horror game (this was announced back in 2021 as part of the first Annapurna Interactive Showcase). Well, it turns out that project is a mysterious Silent Hill spin-off called Silent Hill: Townfall, promising something completely new for the franchise.

Speaking of video game horror, Capcom’s Resident Evil franchise also received a 30-minute digital showcase yesterday. You can read every announcement, and watch the recorded stream, here. From our side, while much of the spotlight has been on the upcoming Resident Evil 4 remake, out in March 2023, we were glad for the reminder about the release of Resident Evil Village Gold Edition next week, 28 October, for all major gaming platforms.

The Gold Edition of the game includes a new third-person mode for the main game, as well as new content for the action challenge Mercenaries mode. More importantly, it includes story DLC The Winters’ Expansion, which focuses on now grown-up Rose Winters, daughter of Biohazard and Village protagonist Ethan. The Winters Expansion can also be bought seperately for those who already own Village. On Steam, the expansion is priced for preorder at R359 for South Africans.