It’s been a case of last-minute movie reviews bumping our weekly news recap from its traditional Friday slot, so here’s a bumper two-week catch up – covering movies, series, comics, gaming and pop culture events.

The past fortnight has been unusually heavy in terms of high-profile celebrity deaths. These include the passing of Pee-wee Herman creator and star Paul Reubens (70), who had been privately battling cancer for the past six years; singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor (56) with a cause of death not yet confirmed; and 25-year-old Euphoria star Angus (Fez) Cloud from a possible overdose a week after the passing of his father. The cosplay community was also rocked by the death, at age 29, of Indian cosplayer Akanksha Sachan (AKA Sewchaan), who represented the country at the World Cosplay Summit pre-COVID. Sachan died 2 August reportedly from a severe allergic reaction to anesthetic.

Film

Normally we wouldn’t really care about another demonic possession-centred horror film, even if it had the name The Exorcist attached. However, The Exorcist: Believer, is a little different. Mostly because it brings back original star Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil, an actress whose life was forever altered by what happened to her daughter Regan five decades before.

From Blumhouse and the creative team behind the recent Halloween trilogy, The Exorcist: Believer sees desperate father Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom, Jr.) turn to Chris when his daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) and best friend Katherine (newcomer Olivia Marcum) disappear in the woods, and return horrifyingly changed.

The Exorcist: Believer comes to cinemas on 13 October 2023, followed by a sequel The Exorcist: Deceiver in April 2025. There are plans for a third film as well.

So it begins. Once the Actors Strike kicked off, joining the already underway Writers Strike, murmurs started almost immediately about release date shifts – to ration out already complete content and wait until actors can promote their work again. Sony Pictures is one of the first studios to make an official announcement, removing highly anticipated animated threequel Beyond The Spider-Verse from its March 2024 release date, with no alternate date announced.

Meanwhile, Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Kraven the Hunter, which was set to hit cinemas on 6 October, has been pushed all the way back to 30 August 2024, and the next Ghostbusters shifts from 20 December to 29 March next year.

Netflix is also spacing out its upcoming original movie releases, with a handful sliding into 2024 as well. These include Millie Bobby Brown’s fantasy survival tale Damsel; Joey King, Zac Efron, and Nicole Kidman age-gap romantic comedy A Family Affair; and airplane heist actioner Lift, starring Kevin Hart, Vincent D’Onofrio, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sam Worthington and Jean Reno.

Two other movie news tidbits:

  • Gal Gadot may not be done playing iconic superhero Wonder Woman after all. In an interview with ComicBook.com, the actress revealed that discussions are underway with DC Universe heads James Gunn and Peter Safran to make a third Wonder Woman film after all – despite filmmaker Patty Jenkins seeing her vision stalled, and leaving the project last December.
  • Top of the rumour mill right now is that Mission: Impossible and The Crown star Vanessa Kirby is the new first choice to play Sue Storm (AKA The Invisible Woman) in Marvel’s Fantastic Four film. This after Margot Robbie eventually passed on the role.

Series

Also subject to a strike-related delay is this year’s Emmy Awards. While the rescheduled date for television’s most prestigious awards ceremony is still up in the air (January seems likely), it definitely won’t be happening on 18 September as originally planned.

Probably the most watched TV trailer of the past few weeks belongs to Loki Season 2, the first Marvel Cinematic Universe series to get a second set of episodes. Loki S1 is also notable as the most watched Marvel Studios series on Disney+ to date.

Loki S2 picks up exactly where Season 1 left off, with Asgard’s infamous God of Mischief (Tom Hiddleston) thrust into a new set of time and universe-jumping adventures with the Time Variance Authority, alongside Owen Wilson’s agent Mobius. Sophia Di Martino, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Tara Strong, and Jonathan Majors all return, while new cast additions include Ke Huy Quan and Kate Dickie.

The six-episode Loki S2 starts screening on 6 October 6, exclusive to Disney+.

Speaking of Disney+, in South Africa, mobile service provider MTN and the streamer have just launched a new mobile plan so more locals – the vast majority without fibre Internet access – can enjoy the full Disney+ catalogue.

MTN’s Disney+ Mobile Plan costs R49 per month, and gives subscribers 500MB of streaming data per month. MTN will also offer its customers a Disney+ mobile entertainment pass that includes 2GB of streaming data for R59 per month.

MyBroadBand has delved into some of the restrictions of this new Disney+ offer, which includes a two device simultaneous login limit; no screencasting and no Apple AirPlay; and maximum video quality on mobile devices of up to 480p.

Finally, here’s the teaser trailer for upcoming The Boys spin-off, Gen V. Evidently as no-holds-barred as the original subversive superhero series, Gen V takes place at Vought International’s Godolkin University, a training facility where young, aspiring heroes have their physical and moral boundaries put to the test while competing for a top spot that could set them up to join the prestigious Seven. Look out for blood benders, gender shifters, empaths and more.

The cast includes Jaz Sinclair, Chance Perdomo, Lizze Broadway, Shelley Conn, Maddie Phillips, London Thor, Derek Luh, Asa Germann, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sean Patrick Thomas, Marco Pigossi, Clancy Brown, Alexander Calvert and Jason Ritter.

Gen V comes to Prime Video on 29 September.

One other piece of TV news:

Ryan Reynolds is spearheading a Biker Mice From Mars revival. The 90s animated series (arguably a Ninja Turtle rip-off, let’s be honest), centred on a trio of motorcycle-riding Martian mice, Throttle, Modo, and Vinnie, who crash-land on Earth, and must defend it from their old resource-stealing enemies, the Plutarkians.

With Seth Rogan involved in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot, it looks like there’s a new trend of getting cool comedic celebrities to help resuscitate cartoon franchises of yesteryear.

On that note, the recent “Kenneth Branagh is bringing back Gargoyles” rumour is untrue, having been debunked by the show’s creator.

Lifestyle

Two more international guests have been announced for Comic Con Africa 2023, which is coming up in Johannesburg on 22 – 25 September. Walking Dead star Ross Marquand, who was at Comic Con Cape Town back in April, will be back for the local Comic Con flagship event, alongside voice actor Veronica Taylor, who is probably best known as the original voice for Pokémon’s Ash Ketchum.

Gaming

Call of Duty is going Fortnite. By that we mean multiple unexpected crossover skins are coming to the game. Like the game’s first-ever woman celebrity Operator: Nicki Minaj! Minaj, Snoop Dogg and 21 Savage will be Operators in Warzone and Modern Warfare 2 Season 5 as part of the game’s “50 Years of Hip Hop Celebration.” They will be joined at some point by Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft when a new Operator bundle arrives mid-season, although she may be a PlayStation exclusive.

Speaking of Fortnite, the next few days are probably your last chance to take advantage of a surprise Futurama Fortnite crossover to celebrate the animated comedy’s return to Hulu/Disney+ after a full decade. The event has brought Fry, Bender, and Leela to the Item Shop as skins, along with a Planet Express ship glider, Zoidberg scuttle emote, and more.

To end off this week’s pop culture news recap, here’s some bad news, and good:

Ubisoft has reportedly cancelled its never-officially-announced sequel to mythological action adventure Immortals Fenyx Rising. Evidently it’s all about redirecting resources to work on the publisher’s bigger, established franchises. That means the Immortals follow-up, which was to be set in Polynesia, is no more.

On a more positive note, one of the grandaddies of the survival horror genre, Alone in the Dark is making a high-profile return, complete with a special physical edition limited to 5,000 units worldwide. The Dark Collector’s Edition comes with a Dark Man statue, glow-in-the-dark steelbook, spooky Do Not Disturb doorhang, additional DLC content, sticker pack and more.

In case you need a reminder, Alone in the Dark is a mix of Psychological Horror and Southern Gothic, and lets you explore a cursed 1920s manor house as either Emily Hartwood (Jodie Comer) or private investigator Edward Carnby (David Harbour). Alone in the Dark is developed by Pieces Interactive, and will be coming to PC, Xbox Series S/X and PlayStation5 on 25 October this year.