The announcement of a new steady hand for the DC Comics cinematic universe, game release dates and new trailers for highly anticipated series. That’s your at-a-glance summary of the week’s pop culture news. You can find each of these stories in more detail below.
As for obituaries, this week saw the surprise passing of beloved character actor and comedian Leslie Jordan, aged 67. Diminutive Jordan was probably best recognisable for his work in Will & Grace, American Horror Story, RuPaul’s Drag Race and Call Me Kat, although during the pandemic he also enjoyed a surge of popularity on social media, amassing over 5 million followers on Instagram.
Film
Following the conclusion of Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever next month, the third Ant-Man film, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania kicks off the MCU’s high-stakes Phase 5, opening the door to new multiversal big bad Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), who first appeared as one of his multiverse versions in the Loki series.
In Quantumania, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), along with Scott’s daughter Cassie ( Kathryn Newton), and Hope’s parents Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), return to the Quantum Realm, which is filled with strange creatures and new threats. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania comes to cinemas on 17 February 2023.
Big news regarding Warner Discovery’s DCEU. Well, for one thing, it’s no longer the DC Extended Universe. It’s now the simpler DC Universe.
Also, while Walter Hamada is out as the head of DC Films, James Gunn is in. With producer Peter Safran, filmmaker Gunn (who’s made The Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy for Marvel, plus The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker for Warner Bros.) will head up DC Studios, a newly formed division that will replace DC Films. Discovery CEO David Zaslav wanted his own version of Marvel’s Kevin Feige to oversee all its superhero properties, and now he has him (or, rather, them).
It’s been a tumultuous few months for Warner Bros. Discovery post merger, with a lot of drastic, and at times shocking, house-cleaning that started with the binning of Batgirl shortly before release. Up to $2.5 billion will reportedly be spent on writing off projects as part of the grand restructuring.
It’s not all gloomy though. The Green Lantern HBO Max series is still going ahead, but will now focus on architect-turned Lantern John Stewart, a black man, instead of white heroes Guy Gardner and Alan Scott. Oh, and following a surprise post-credits appearance in Black Adam, Henry Cavill is back as Superman, promising a less grim and tormented version of the character moving forward. Hell, it even looks like Kal’s s-curl is back. Cavill posted the following image and video on his Instagram account.
We missed this one when the trailer dropped at the end of September, but as it’s lesser spotted LGBT+ holiday fare (remember the fuss around Happiest Season?) we’re squeezing it in now before the flood of seasonal cis het romcoms.
Jim Parsons, Ben Aldridge, and Sally Field star in romantic comedy-drama Spoiler Alert, based on Michael Ausiello’s best-selling memoir. The film centres on the relationship between Michael and Kit, and how it is transformed when one of them falls ill. The Big Sick and The Eyes of Tammy Faye’s Michael Showalter directs. In cinemas from 2 December.
One final movie note is that a few more details have been revealed about writer and producer David Lindelof’s upcoming Star Wars project. Since The Rise of Skywalker, we’ve been on a big screen break from the galaxy far, far away. That will change with Lindelof’s film, to be directed by multi-award-winning Canadian filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. Likely out earliest December 2025, the untitled film will reportedly be set after Rise of Skywalker, but will no longer focus on the Skywalker family and their legacy. More here.
Series
1899 is almost upon us. This mix of history, supernatural elemts and dark mystery is an international collaboration from the makers of cult hit Dark. In 1899, immigrants from Europe to the New World are crossing the Atlantic aboard ocean liner the Kerberos. They sail into a nightmare when they encounter the Prometheus, a ship missing for four months, which is now adrift and apparently abandoned.
The eight-episode 1899 releases on Netflix on 17 November.
We always pay attention to anything filmmaker Rian (Knives Out, Looper, The Last Jedi) Johnson is doing. On 26 January, his new series Poker Face, comes to Peacock. This 10-episode “mystery-of-the-week” show centres on Charlie (Russian Doll’s Natasha Lyonne), who has an extraordinary ability to determine when someone is lying. She hits the road with her Plymouth Barracuda and with every stop encounters a new cast of characters and strange crimes she can’t help but solve.
This all sounds fairly generic, but have you seen the cast? Poker Face’s rotating roster includes Adrien Brody, Benjamin Bratt, Chloë Sevigny, Clea DuVall, Jameela Jamil, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Judith Light, Luis Guzman and many more. Poker Face will debut with four episodes. The remaining episodes will premiere weekly on Thursdays.
Now for a few TV news tidbits:
It’s official. Disney+ is the new global home of the BBC’s iconic sci-fi adventure series Doctor Who moving forward. The House of Mouse will be screening the upcoming season, starring Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor, to the world.
Nobody asked for this, but Seth Rogan’s raunchy animated comedy Sausage Party is making the leap from film to TV series. Amazon’s Prime Video has ordered eight episodes of spin-off Sausage Party: Foodtopia, for release in 2024.
With the exception of its mobile gaming service Apple Arcade, Apple has hiked the prices of all its subscriptions, including Apple TV+ and Apple Music. Many Apple products have also seen a quiet price increase. Glitched has the rundown of all the South African price bumps, but notably Apple TV+ makes the greatest leap, from R84.99 to R124.99 per month. This 47% increase (in the US it’s 40%) is the first since the service launched in November 2019. IndieWire has a very interesting read on the reasons for the TV+ pricing change.
Finally, in celebration of the Fallout franchise’s 25th anniversary, Prime Video released a first teaser image from its upcoming live-action adaptation of Bethesda’s retro-futuristic game series. The TV series version of Fallout is being overseen by Westworld’s Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan. The cast includes Walton Goggins, Ella Purnell, and Kyle MacLachlan.
Gaming
Not content to work on an almost half dozen new The Witcher game projects, Polish game studio CD Projekt Red is also remaking its OG fantasy role-playing actioner The Witcher, which released all the back in 2007. Turns out the already-announced project known by codename Canis Majoris is actually this remake, which is “being rebuilt from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5.” More here.
On the game release front, we have confirmed release dates for two titles. And one is right around the corner!
Somerville is a sci-fi adventure about a family trying to make itself whole in the aftermath of an apocalypse induced by alien invasion. It comes from Jumpship, a new indie studio founded by the executive producer of moody independent hits Limbo and Inside. Somerville is out 15 November for Xbox consoles and PC. The game will also be coming to Xbox Game Pass day one.
Also coming to Game Pass is Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, a new action-RPG developed by Team Ninja, who have made the likes of Nioh, Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive. Described as a soulslike (i.e. expect it to be brutally tough), Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty mixes dark fantasy with history, as a nameless militia soldier battles monsters and enemy soldiers in 184 AD Later Han Dynasty. Wo Long is coming to PlayStation and Xbox consoles, as well as PC, on 3 March next year.