It’s the return of the in-person version of iconic San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) this weekend, complete with jam-packed Marvel and DC presentations. There’s sure to be a lot more superhero news (plus the Interview with a Vampire TV series trailer reveal) the next few days – including, hopefully, clarity about the rumour that Henry Cavill will once more be playing Superman – but here’s what has already made headlines this week.
P.S. For everyone with event envy, there’s a great day-by-day breakdown of everything happening at the most famous Comic-Con of them all.
Television
We’re less than one month to the premiere of HBO Max’s Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon on 21 August. Below is the latest trailer, which establishes the primary rivalries in this ten-episode series about a pivotal war of succession in dragon-riding House Targaryen, 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones.
Leading the cast are Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Olivia Cooke and Steve Toussaint. House of the Dragon is based on George R.R. Martin’s 2018 novel Fire & Blood.
Joining the burgeoning list of video game adaptations in the works is Grounded. Described as Honey, I Shrunk the Kids meets A Bug’s Life, this animated series is based on Obsidian and Microsoft’s backyard survival game about four teens shrunk down to insect size during a botched experiment. Brent Friedman (Star Wars: Clone Wars, Star Trek: Enterprise) is writing. It’s very early days for the Grounded show, so don’t expect to see anything before the tail end of 2023 at the earliest.
Finally, there’s some good news for anime fans. Specialist streaming service Crunchyroll has slashed monthly, and annual, subscription prices in a hundred countries, including South Africa. An entry level monthly sub will now be R39 (previously R136), while annual membership is R490 (previously R1364). Sugoi!
Film
Will there finally be a Dungeons & Dragons movie that isn’t an instant contender for a Razzie? The write-up for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and its jarring accents, suggest no. But watching the trailer for this fantasy actioner comedy, based on the tabletop roleplaying game, well, there is a chance this could work. Maybe.
Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Sophia Lillis and Hugh Grant head up a cast of predominantly human bards, barbarians, paladins, sorcerers and druids. As its title suggests, the film is about a band of thieves who set out to steal a relic, and then have to make amends for the evil they unleash on the world. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves hits cinemas on 3 March 2023.
We’re not sure why Netflix action thrillers are traditionally so conventional and underwhelming, but Carter, out of South Korea, looks like it’s ready to buck the trend – by pouring on the visual flair and kinetic battles. A man (Joo Won) wakes up missing his memories, but a mysterious voice from a device in his ear instructs him to rescue and escort a young girl in the midst of a viral apocalypse. The Villainess’s Jung Byung-gil writes and directs.
Watch Carter on Netflix from 5 August.
We love a good summer camp slasher as is, and They/Them puts a topical spin on the horror sub-genre by shifting the action to a conversion camp for LGBTQ+ youths.
The official synopsis: When campers arrives at Whistler Camp, run by Owen Whistler (Kevin Bacon, who starred in the OG Friday the 13th), they are promised a “new sense of freedom” by the end of the week. But as the counselors attempt to psychologically break down each of the campers, a mysterious killer starts claiming victims, and they must reclaim their power if they’re going to survive the horrors of the camp.
The ensemble cast includes Carrie Preston, Anna Chlumsky, Theo Germaine, Quei Tann, Anna Lore, Monique Kim, Darwin del Fabro, Cooper Koch, and Austin Crute. John (Penny Dreadful, Gladiator, The Aviator) Logan writes and directs. They/Them hits Peacock from 5 August.
As for movie tidbits this week:
Release date news: Pixar’s Toy Story spin-off Lightyear arrives on Disney+ from 3 August. Meanwhile, there are already plans for A Quiet Place prequel and spin-off A Quiet Place: Day One to release in cinemas on 8 March 2024.
Updates on “limbo” projects: Remember when sequel Tomb Raider 2, with star Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, was derailed by the Pandemic? And then, after director Ben Wheatley, they brought Lovecraft Country’s Misha Green on board to revive the project? And then things went radio silent again? Turns out the video game adaptation has stalled a second time because of “the politics” inherent to Amazon’s buyout of MGM. More here.
In happier news, The Graveyard Book has been resurrected. This adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s award-winning 2008 novel – which reimagines The Jungle Book as a ghost story, and has a boy raised in a cemetary by an eclectic band of spirits and undead – has bounced between filmmakers for years. Now Disney, which owns the rights, has brought on Stranger Than Fiction and Christopher Robin’s Marc Forster to produce and direct what presumably will be a live-action take. More here.
Gaming
It’s a relatively quiet week for gaming news, but a notable announcement is that Xbox has become the first console to support Discord voice chat. The implications here is that cross-play between players on different gaming platforms will now be streamlined, as cooperative play can more easily be coordinated while you’re using your console. See how it works here.
If you’re a “Geriatric Millennial” (we prefer the term Xennial) or older, there’s a good chance that your first gaming console was the wood paneled Atari 2600. Tapping into that nostalgia is the new LEGO Atari 2600 set, a 2532-piece build with functioning switches, replica cartridges and 3D vignettes for three classic Atari games. The Atari 2600 LEGO set releases on 3 August, and is priced at $240 (R3500 in South Africa). Check out more images and set details here.
Books & Comics
Another influential name in comics has passed. Scottish writer Alan Grant died at the age of 73 this week. With John Wagner, Grant was an instrumental figure during the 80s Golden Age over at 2000 AD, writing the likes of Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog. In the late 80s through the 90s he worked on various Batman titles and Lobo. With artist Norm Breyfogle, Grant is notable for co-creating Batman villains Anarky, Victor Zsasz, and the Ventriloquist. Read more about Grant’s contribution to the world of comics here and here.
