The past fortnight has been relatively light on pop culture news. But, as has become the sad custom this time of year, there were several notable celebrity deaths. These include pioneering journalist and interviewer Barbara Walters (93); Maxi Jazz, the lead singer of Faithless (65); and Modest Mouse drummer and co-founder Jeremiah Green (45). Other high-profile deaths during this period include fashion designer Vivienne Westwood (81), football legend Pelé (82), and stepped down pontiff Pope Benedict XVI (95).

Meanwhile, MCU and The Hurt Locker star Jeremy Renner ended up in intensive care after an incident involving a snowplow. Though bruised and battered, and having undergone two operations already, he has been keeping fans updated via his social media channels.

Film

Back in late 2021, we got excited at the thought of Nicolas Cage playing Dracula, the most famous vampire of them all. Now that particular movie is on the not-too-distant release horizon. In horror comedy Renfield, Nicholas Hoult is the title character – Dracula’s perpetually tortured servant. However, in the present day, after centuries of being forced to do his master’s debased bidding, Renfield is ready to quit. The question is how? Also with Awkwafina and Ben Schwartz.

Renfield is directed by Chris McKay (The Tomorrow War, The LEGO Batman Movie) from a screenplay by Ryan Ridley (Ghosted series, Rick & Morty series), based on an original idea by The Walking Dead and Invincible creator Robert Kirkman.

Renfield comes to cinemas on 14 April. Check out more images from the movie, and the poster here.

The next Evil Dead movie is also out in April. Evidently taking a page from the Evil Dead 2013 remake, at least in terms of serious tone and twisted gruesomeness, is Evil Dead Rise. Two estranged sisters, played by Alyssa Sutherland and Lily Sullivan, have their reunion cut short when they uncover the dangerous magical tome known as the Necronomicon. Shifting the action from the woods to a Los Angeles apartment block, the family must battle flesh-possessing demons, and the mother of all evil. Literally.

Evil Dead Rise arrives in cinemas from 21 April 2023. Check out the new poster here too.

For even more familial horror, there’s Paramount’s upcoming There’s Something Wrong with the Children (not be confused with comic adaptation Something Is Killing the Children). When Margaret (Alisha Wainwright) and Ben (Midnight Mass’s Zach Gilford) take a weekend trip with longtime friends Ellie (Amanda Crew) and Thomas (Carlos Santos) and their two young children (Briella Guiza and DavidMattle), Ben begins to suspect something supernatural is occurring when the kids behave strangely after disappearing into the woods overnight.

Available on Digital and on Demand 17 January.

Once PlayStation tasted success with the Uncharted movie, you didn’t think they would stop adapting their biggest exclusive game franchises for the big screen, did you? Of course not.

So, coming 11 August 2023 is racing drama Gran Turismo. This project is a little different, though, as it’s based in our reality and tells the dream-come-true story of Jann Mardenborough (played by Archie Madekwe), a teenage Gran Turismo player whose gaming skills would see him become an actual professional race car driver. The cast includes David Harbour, Orlando Bloom and Djimon Hounsou, while known video game fan Neill Blomkamp (District Nine, Demonic) is in the director’s chair.

A new image was unveiled by Netflix for Nimona, the animated film based on ND Stevenson’s web comic. In queer-friendly fantasy sci-fi tale Nimona, Chloë Grace Moretz voices the title character, a teenage shapeshifter, who joins forces with former knight-turned-villain Ballister Blackheart (Riz Ahmed). Nimona had a tumultuous path to release as the well-into-production project was binned when Disney bought Fox, only for Annapurna and Netflix to revive it in April last year.

There’s no release date yet for Nimona, although Northern Hemisphere “Summer 2023” is the time frame we should be expecting.

One final movie tidbit: If you missed Black Panther sequel Wakanda Forever on the big screen, the movie now has a Disney+ release date: 1 February.

Series

While we celebrate Netflix for reviving Nimona, the streamer can be criticised (yet again) for killing one of its more high-profile series for not performing to its expectations. The latest casualty is 1899, a mystery-sci-fi series from the makers of Dark. The showrunners had announced plans for a three season storyline, which has to do with head-scratching events during a steamship crossing of the Atlantic at the turn of the 20th Century. However, that tale will now go unfinished.

There wasn’t a Doctor Who Christmas Special this year in the UK, but the BBC did did treat fans to one present on 25 December: the trailer for the three upcoming Doctor Who specials to celebrate the iconic sci-fi franchise’s 60th anniversary. The episodes will premiere starting in November, and feature a returning David Tenant as a “bridging” 14th Doctor (who isn’t the same as Tenant’s 10th Doctor, for the recordAvatar), and then Ncuti Gatwa’s new 15th Doctor. Also appearing in the specials are Catherine Tate as returning companion Donna Noble, and Neil Patrick Harris as the specials’ villain.

Take this news with a pinch of salt as no official statement has been made by Paramount / Nickelodeon, but apparently a new Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series is in the works. Avatar News revealed that a sequel series is coming in 2025 that focuses on the Earth Bender who assumes the responsibilities of Avatar from Korra.

As a sidenote, in 2023, the live-action The Last Airbender series is debuting on Netflix, and it has been confirmed that an animated film focused on adult Aang and his friends will be released in 2025.

Gaming

Before the tsunami of 2023 game releases begins, PlayStation has used the gap to reveal its work-in-progress accessibility controller kit, codenamed Project Leonardo, at this year’s CES technology expo. The new highly customisable controller kit is intended to “help many players with disabilities play games more easily, more comfortably, and for longer periods.” It provides an alternative for gamers who struggle to hold a conventional controller and can’t easily use small clusters of input buttons and triggers.

Xbox released its Adaptive Controller, which features a very different design, in 2018.