Before we jump into our curated set of news picks from the entertainment and gaming industries this week, it’s time to pay tribute to a star who passed unexpectedly. Ray Liotta, whose long career of playing mobsters and cops included starring roles in Scorsese’s Goodfellas and video game GTA: Vice City, has died in his sleep suddenly and surprisingly at age 67. More here on Liotta’s life and career.

Film

The seventh, and apparently penultimate, Mission: Impossible movie is on the horizon-ish. Out 14 July 2023 is espionage actioner Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, with Christopher McQuarrie returning to the director’s chair after Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, and Mission: Impossible – Fallout.

Continuing on from those films (and the three before them), Tom Cruise is back as IMF (Impossible Missions Force) agent Ethan Hunt to conclude the character’s frequent world-saving story. He’s joined by series regulars Ving Rhames as Hunt’s best friend and reliable teammate; Simon Pegg as another IMF field agent and member of Hunt’s squad; Rebecca Ferguson’s slippery former MI6 agent; and Vanessa Kirby as a black market arms dealer known as the White Widow. A newcomer to the franchise, meanwhile, is Hayley Atwell as another ambiguous woman caught up in the fast-paced destructive mix.

Dead Reckoning Part One is unsurprisingly followed by Part Two, which releases a year later, in June 2024.

For more punchy globe-trotting action, government secrets and treachery, there’s novel adaptation The Gray Man, from Marvel Cinematic Universe veterans the Russo Brothers. Highly skilled ex-CIA operative Court Gentry (Ryan Gosling) finds the tables have turned when he’s targeted for assassination by sociopathic former colleague Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans), and other international killers. Only Agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) has his back. Also starring are Jessica Henwick, Billy Bob Thornton and Alfre Woodard.

The Gray Man comes to Netflix on 22 July, and is notable as the streamer’s most expensive movie to date.

Following the teaser reveal just last month, the official trailer has dropped for fourth standalone Thor movie, and 29th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor: Love and Thunder. The new preview gives audiences better looks at Natalie Portman’s returning Jane Foster, now super powered as The Mighty Thor; Russell Crowe as Olympian apex god Zeus, and Christian Bale as the film’s antagonist Gorr the God Butcher.

Filmmaker Taika Waititi is even more hands on with Love and Thunder than his previous Thor movie, Ragnarok. Plotwise, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) embarks on a cosmic journey of re-discovery only to have his peaceful ambitions sidelined by a villain intent on murdering every god, and the surprising reappearance of ex Jane.

Thor: Love and Thunder releases 8 July.

Moving away from the mainstream, there’s George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing, based on the short story The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye by A.S. Byatt. Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba star in this trippy fantasy about a scholar who encounters a Djinn (otherwise known as a genie) in Istanbul, and is gifted three wishes. Three Thousand Years of Longing had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this past week, and is set for wider cinema release on 31 August.

Speaking of George Miller, it’s been confirmed that he’ll once again be working with composer and musician Junkie XL on a project set in the Mad Max universe. Junkie XL, AKA Tom Holkenborg, will be scoring Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. The dystopian actioner is set for release in May 2024.

One final bit of movie-related news:

If you’re a fan of stop motion animation studio LAIKA, and Converse sneakers, a supremely cool partnership has just been born. In regions that have access to Converse By You, a platform that lets you customise your shoes, you’ll soon be able to incorporate patterns and other elements from LAIKA movies, like Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings, into your unique designs. In addition to this, a limited tie-in line of Converse will release alongside LAIKA’s next film, Wildwood. More here.

Television

Where there’s a Willow, there’s a bunch of nostalgic kids of the 80s and 90s. George Lucas’s other, more traditional fantasy creation is getting a sequel in the form of a new Disney+ series, which debuts on 30 November. Sorcerer Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis) aligns with a group of new young heroes to look for a princess’s missing twin… or something. Joanne Whalley returns as Willow’s old ally Sorsha, an accomplished warrior who is now a respected queen.

Also coming to Disney+, but on August 31, is Andor. This prequel to Rogue One is set five years before the events of that film, and focuses on the evolution of Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) into a pragmatic rebel hero. Except, the twelve episode first season of Andor looks to be a bit more than that, depicting the formative days of the Rebellion against the Empire. At the show’s core is the gritty grassroots-level efforts of ordinary people to take back their worlds, no matter the cost.

Also starring are Stellan Skarsgård, Fiona Shaw, and Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma, a key figure in founding, and leading, the Rebel Alliance.

For some local flavour there’s six-episode survival horror series Pulse, a Showmax Original that debuts on the African streamer on 23 June. Thapelo Mokoena, Tarryn Wyngaard, Carel Nel, Sven Ruygrok and Earl Wan star in this tale of a group of game creators who have to contend with the results of an electromagnetic pulse that fries every electrical circuit in their office high-rise – and people’s minds.

In your TV news tidbits this week:

True Detective has always packed a lot of star power, and Season 4 is no exception with Jodie Foster joining the anthology crime series in her high-profile return to TV. Season 4 will focus on disappearances at an Artic research base.

Speed Racer is coming to Apple TV+, with JJ Abrams overseeing a live-action adaptation of the beloved anime racing series. This won’t be the first flesh and blood take on the anime – you may remember the truly wild 2008 movie from the Wachowskis.

We still don’t know much about it, but Amazon Prime Video’s live-action She-Ra series is trundling along. Completely separate from the Netflix animated series, this standalone adaptation of the Mattel toyline and characters (a He-Man spin-off) has landed a director in the form of Watchmen’s Nicole Kassel. Well, at least for the pilot episode.

Oh, and we know when The Mandalorian is returning to our screens. Season 3 hits Disney+ in February next year.

Gaming

It’s pretty quiet right now on the gaming front, with the midyear glut of publisher showcases and announcements only a few weeks away – in what used to be the old E3 period. So there’s not much to say here. Except…

As video games are clearly the new comics when it comes to TV series adaptations, Sony has plans for the following shows based on its properties: Horizon (at Netflix), God of War (at Amazon), and Gran Turismo as well. These series are in addition to the highly anticipated The Last of Us (coming to HBO in 2023 with Pedro Pascal) and Peacock’s upcoming Twisted Metal series, starring Anthony Mackie and Neve Campbell.

Meanwhile, there’s been another update on sci-fi horror game The Callisto Protocol, an indie title which comes from the creator of Dead Space, and is actually set for release this year. Josh Duhamel is game protagonist Jacob Lee, a cargo ship pilot who must make his way through a prison on Jupiter’s Callisto moon, which has become overrun with horrifying, formerly human monsters. The game is coming to PC, PS 4/5, and Xbox One/Series consoles.