The new actors who will bring iconic couple Superman and Lois Lane to the screen. Warrior Nun saved after all. Comic Con attendees and surprising skippers. Plus, all the Annapurna Interactive Showcase announcements. You’ll find these and more pop culture stories from this week, below.

Film

The biggest movie news of the week: We have a new Superman and Lois Lane. This week started with revelation of a casting shortlist that included the likes of Nicholas Hoult and Emma Mackey. Barely a day later, the top 6 had become the locked-down 2.

Henry Cavill lookalike David Corenswet, from The Politician, and Pearl, will be the new Man of Steel, while The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Rachel Brosnahan will play the intrepid investigative reporter who doesn’t realise mild mannered journalist Clark Kent is the superhero she’s fallen for.

In writer-director James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy, audiences will meet a younger Superman juggling the values introduced by the two father figures in his life: Kryptonian scientist Jor-El and Kansas farmer Jonathan Kent.

Superman: Legacy is set for release on 11 July 2025.

And now for a quite different video game adaptation. From Blumhouse comes Five Nights at Freddy’s, based on the hit horror survival series. The Hunger Games’ Josh Hutcherson stars as Mike Schmidt, a down-on-his-luck security guard who accepts a night-time job at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a once-successful (but now generally abandoned) family entertainment center. Shortly after, he discovers its four animatronic mascots – Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy – move and kill anyone that is still there after midnight.

Five Nights at Freddy’s comes to cinemas, and will be simultaneously streaming on Peacock, from 27 October.

Tetris. Air Jordans. Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. And, now, joining this weird subset of biopics centred on the business decisions that gave us 80s and early 90s cultural phenomena, is a Beanie Babies movie.

Based on the 2015 book The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute by Zac Bissonnette, The Beanie Bubble explores how frustrated toy salesman Ty Warner (Zach Galifianakis) collaborated with three women to create one of the biggest collectible toy crazes in history. Aso starring Elizabeth Banks, Sarah Snook and Geraldine Viswanathan.

Following a very limited cinema release, The Beanie Bubble is coming to Apple TV+ on 28 July.

To wrap off this week’s movie news, here are 17 new character posters for upcoming all-star animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. The film somersaults into cinemas on 11 August.

Series

A fan campaign has worked! After being cancelled following two seasons on Netflix, supernatural actioner Warrior Nun is being resurrected. Showrunner Simon Barry made the announcement on his Twitter account. While it’s unclear what form the “epic” return of Warrior Nun will take, we can speculate two likely probabilities: a movie to round off the story, or a new series on a rival streamer.

Good news, everyone. While we’re talking TV shows returning from the dead, Futurama is back on Hulu as of 24 July. Here’s the official trailer for the next season of the sci-fi comedy series, which features the original voice cast, including Billy West, Katey Sagal, and John DiMaggio.

The last episodes of Futurama were screened a decade ago, in 2013 on Comedy Central, which picked up the show (created by The Simpsons’ Matt Groening) after Fox cancelled it following 4 seasons, starting in 1999.

The official plot synopsis of the new season of Futurama: “New viewers will be able to pick up the series from here, while long-time fans will recognize payoffs to decades-long mysteries – including developments in the epic love story of Fry and Leela, the mysterious contents of Nibbler’s litter box, the secret history of evil Robot Santa, and the whereabouts of Kif and Amy’s tadpoles. Meanwhile there’s a whole new pandemic in town as the crew explores the future of vaccines, bitcoin, cancel culture, and streaming TV.”

Lifestyle & Events

The Comic Con Africa guest roster is growing. Joining already announced YouTuber Aki Dearest is fellow content creator The Anime Man, (AKA Joey Bizinger), a Japanese-Australian YouTuber, voice actor, songwriter, and podcaster whose work focuses on anime and manga. The Anime Man has over 3.3 million subscribers on YouTube.

Even bigger news (at least so far) is that British actor Anthony Daniels, AKA anxious Star Wars droid C-3PO, will be at the Johannesburg event on 3 of the 4 days: 22 to 24 September.

Comic Con Africa is taking place at the Johannesburg Expo Centre on 22 – 25 September this year.

While in South Africa we talk about who is coming to our biggest comic con, over in the US, the focus is on who isn’t. Marvel (+ Star Wars and Disney in general), Netflix, Sony, HBO and Universal have all passed on presenting at San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H, formerly the place to make your big announcements, and engage with fans who have queued for literal days to get a seat in the room.

This isn’t quite the same situation as video game expo E3, which was deserted by game publishers when they could host their own events for much cheaper, and in a spotlight and space they controlled. Many of the big entertainment brands will still be present at SDCC; just not running panels. Their A-list absence is also due primarily to uncertainty: if the Screen Actors Guild goes on strike, stars will not be participating in promotional events, which would rule out convention appearances. The 4-day SDCC is coming up on 20 July.

Gaming

One more gaming livestream! In what has become an annual tradition, the Annapurna Interactive Showcase took place yesterday, 29 June. The indie game publishing powerhouse used 30 minutes or so to reveal new games, release dates for known titles, and new platforms and updates for its already available titles.

You can watch the Showcase in full here, but here’s a summary of what stood out for us:

Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth is not only the first Blade Runner game in 25 years but it’s also the first game developed in-house at Annapurna Interactive. Set between the original dystopian sci-fi classic and 2049, Blade Runner 2033 takes place after the events of the Black Out and asks: what does a Blade Runner do when there are no Replicants left to hunt? Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth will be playable on PC and consoles.

For photographers and digital photography fans, there’s tranquil and exploratory Lushfoil Photography Sim, from developer Matt Newell. Coming to PC and consoles, the game features realistic in-game cameras and a vast selection of landscapes to snap away in as you strive to take the perfect shot, and discover secret rewards.

Also:

  • COCOON, from the lead designer of LIMBO and INSIDE, has a release date: 29 September for Game Pass on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One as well as for PlayStation, Switch and Steam.
  • The wild Scott Pilgrim-esque Thirsty Suitors is launching into Game Pass on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, as well as Steam, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch on 2 November.
  • Feline adventure Stray is finally coming to Xbox on 10 August as the PlayStation exclusivity deal ends.
  • Narrative puzzle game Storyteller will debut on the Netflix mobile gaming service on 26 September, with a free content update that will also be available on existing platforms.