We have two weeks of pop culture news to recap in today’s post. It’s full of trailers, release date announcements and updates on castings and projects in progress. You’ll find those all below.

As for notable creative industry deaths over the past fortnight, actor Tom Sizemore did not recover from the brain aneurysm that put him in critical condition in late February, and has died aged 61. Meanwhile, in South Africa, much loved radio presenter and media personality Mark Pilgrim (53) finally lost his battle with Stage 4 lung cancer. Mark’s colleagues share memories of him here.

Film

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are returning to the big screen in animated form on 4 August in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Jeff Rowe, who was the co-writer of 2021’s The Mitchells vs. The Machines, directs the CGI-animated film, which clearly copies Spider-Verse’s homework… although there is nothing wrong with that.

The official plot synopsis for Mutant Mayhem: After years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers through heroic acts. Their new friend April O’Neil helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them.

While the Turtles are voiced by actual teen actors, Mutant Mayhem features a star-studded supporting cast. Producer Seth Rogan is Bebop, John Cena as Rocksteady, Jackie Chan voices Master Splinter, and then there are the likes of Paul Rudd, Rose Byrne, Ice Cube, Post Malone, Natasia Demetriou, and Giancarlo Esposito all as other mutants. If that wasn’t enough, along with the trailer, a gnarly new teaser poster was also unveiled for the movie.

Coming to Apple TV+ on 21 April is Ghosted, a rom-com about salt-of-the-earth Cole (Chris Evans) who falls head over heels for enigmatic Sadie (Ana de Armas). But then she ghosts him. Travelling to London in a grand romantic gesture, Cole discovers that Sadie’s a secret agent. Before they can decide on a second date, Cole and Sadie are swept away on an international adventure to save the world.

Disney’s live-action take on The Little Mermaid releases on 26 May, and to remind us of that fact, a new poster has been unveiled that pays tribute to the 1989 animated classic on which it’s based.

After making Mary Poppins Returns for Disney, Rob Marshall is directing this reimagining, about spirited mermaid princess Ariel, who makes a deal with sea witch Ursula to experience the surface world after accidentally encountering dashing Prince Eric. Singer and actress Halle Bailey plays Ariel, while the rest of the cast includes Jonah Hauer-King as Eric, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Javier Bardem as King Triton, and Art Malik as Grimsby. Daveed Diggs voices Sebastian the crab, Jacob Tremblay is Flounder, and Awkwafina rounds out the creature cast as Scuttle.

The full trailer (we’ve only had a teaser up until now) for the new The Little Mermaid will be revealed during the Academy Awards ceremony this Sunday.

Also in movie news the past two weeks:

  • Wednesday actress Jenna Ortega is apparently in talks to star in Beetlejuice 2 alongside a returning Michael Keaton as the title character, a treacherous poltergeist. Ortega would play the daughter of Winona Ryder’s Lydia Deetz, the goth teen from Tim Burton’s 1988 supernatural comedy.
  • If you were excited for Patty Jenkins making a Rogue Squadron movie, focused on the selfless fighter pilots of the Star Wars universe, we have some bad news for you. Evidently the project is no longer going ahead. The same goes for an untitled film from MCU head Kevin Feige. This means the only upcoming big screen Star Wars tale looks to be coming from Taika Waititi, and that likely won’t be in cinemas before the end of 2025. Learn more here.
  • Out the blue Hellboy prequel The Crooked Man (which is based on the Dark Horse comic arc, and has a dark folklore focus) has been quickly filling out its cast roster. Most important is Deadpool 2’s Jack Kesy playing a younger version of the title character, but he’s also being joined onscreen by Jefferson White and Adeline Rudolph. Brian Taylor, who made the Crank movies, directs.
  • The cast for Robert (The VVitch, The Northman) Egger’s remake of horror classic Nosferatu grows ever bigger. Aaron Taylor-Johnson has now joined the project, which sees Bill Skarsgård play vampire Count Orlok, while Lily-Rose Depp (replacing Anya Taylor-Joy due to scheduling conflicts) is the female lead. Also appearing are Nicholas Hoult, Willem Dafoe (who played Skarsgård’s character in Shadow of the Vampire), and Emma Corrin. Production on Nosferatu has just started in Prague.
  • The Oscars take place this Sunday, but right now you can watch the 2-hour 29th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony online via YouTube thanks to Netflix. With an acting-centric focus, and voting body of over 122,600 members, the SAG Awards have the largest and most diverse group of voters in the awards circuit, and hand out accolades for solo and ensemble performances in film and TV productions. You can find a list of all the 2023 nominees and winners here, but in summary, Everything, Everywhere All at Once dominated with four wins, the most for any film in SAG Awards history.

Series

The return of Yellowjackets draws near. Season 2 of the genre- and decade-spanning dark drama premieres on 24 March, and in the lead-up, an official trailer has been released. Set in the present day, with flashbacks to 1996, the series centres on a high school girls’ soccer team who had to survive for 19 months after a plane clash in the wilderness in the mid 90s, and how their actions there, under the influence of a mysterious dark force, shaped the survivors’ adult lives. Season 2’s notable cast additions include Lauren Ambrose as adult Van, Elijah Wood and Jason Ritter.

Out of interest, although nothing is certain these days when it comes to series, Yellowjackets’ creators have a five-season plan to tell their story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krFohHX8WeU&ab_channel=SHOWTIME

Premiering on Paramount+ on 30 April is Fatal Attraction, an 8-episode miniseries based on the 1987 thriller of the same name, which starred Michael Douglas and Glenn Close back in the day. Married man Dan Gallagher (Joshua Jackson) has a passionate affair with Alex Forrest (Lizzy Caplan) only to discover that things aren’t so easy to break off, as Alex refuses to give up their connection. Fatal Attraction 2023 promises to treat Alex’s character with greater nuance and sympathy. Also starring Amanda Peet as Dan’s wife Beth.

We love a mix of dystopian science fiction and conspiracy, so consider us intrigued by upcoming Apple+ series Silo. Below is the trailer for the show, which is based on the Silo series of novels by author Hugh Howey, where, in the future, the Earth’s surface has turned toxic, forcing thousands to live in a giant silo deep underground. After its sheriff breaks a cardinal rule and residents die mysteriously, engineer Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) starts to uncover shocking secrets about the silo. Also with Tim Robbins, Rashida Jones, and David Oyelowo. Silo premieres on 5 May.

Why should you care about upcoming Prime Video series Citadel? It’s the latest effort from the Russo Brothers, whose work on Captain America: The Winter Soldier saw them helming Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The brothers certainly know their way around action. Anyway, Citadel is a new six-episode spy series with sci-fi elements. Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas star as elite agents of independent global spy agency Citadel, who have their memories erased when their organisation falls to syndicate Manticore. Eight years later, the former spies and lovers reconnect, and must embark on a globe-trotting mission to stop Manticore. Citadel premieres on 28 April.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0JG6V-12ac&ab_channel=PrimeVideo

Now for some other TV news:

  • Amazon is clearly looking for its own The Last of Us, seeing as they are now turning influential post-apocalyptic novel (and 1963 movie) The Day of the Triffids into a series. Johan Renck, who directed the acclaimed HBO series Chernobyl, is attached to this tale of how civilization collapses as a result of sentient alien plants invading the Earth, and turning most of humanity blind.
  • In some exciting news, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally and David Cross have all joined the cast of the fourth and final season of Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy. Real life husband and wife Offerman and Mullally will play Drs. Gene and Jean Thibedeau, a married pair of community college professors from New Mexico who wear sensible footwear and suffer from the most extreme case of deja vu this timeline has ever seen – according to Deadline – while Cross will play the “upstanding, shy business owner and family man” Sy Grossman.
  • A bittersweet announcement now. Jon Bernthal is confirmed to reprise his role as brutal vigilante The Punisher, in Disney+’s upcoming Daredevil series, which is currently set for release in 2024. The downside is that Deborah Ann Woll and Elden Henson, who played supporting characters Karen Page and Foggy Nelson in Netflix’s original Daredevil hit, will not be returning. Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio are, however, both back as blind superhero Daredevil and powerful crime lord The Kingpin respectively, having already appeared as the characters in MCU series like She-Hulk and Hawkeye.
  • Prequel series Dune: The Sisterhood is a show in flux. Director Johan Renck (who is now evidently moving on to The Day of the Triffids) and actress Shirley Henderson have both left the project, which is in a production hiatus. There may be more rewrites and recastings as delays impact other creatives’ schedules. The Sisterhood is set 10,000 years before the events of Dune, and delves into the founding of the Bene Gesserit, a powerful women-only sect that seeks to secure the future of humankind across the star systems.
  • Period crime drama The Devil in the White City seems to be another cursed project. The adaptation of Erik Larson’s novel – about the real-life serial killer operating in the shadows of 1893’s Chicago World’s Fair – has just lost its home at Hulu, and is being shopped around. The Devil in the White City been been in development for over a decade, most recently gaining and losing Keanu Reeves as its star and Todd (Tár) Field as its director.
  • Finally, the spiritual successor to Batman: The Animated Series, Batman: Caped Crusader has found a streaming home, after it fell victim to Warner Bros. Discovery cost-cutting last year. Once in development for HBO Max, the series, which brings together J.J. Abrams, Matt Reeves, Batman: TAS co-creator Bruce Timm, and celebrated comics writer Ed Brubaker, will now be coming to Prime Video instead – with an immediate 2-season order.

Gaming

Bethesda’s long touted, highly ambitious space exploration RPG Starfield has a new release date: 6 September. The game is coming exclusively to Xbox and PC, as well as Game Pass for both platforms. Before that, Starfield is getting its own dedicated Developer Direct Showcase on 11 June. Out of interest, Starfield was originally set to debut on 11 November last year, before being given a “first half of 2023” release window. Players now have just slightly longer to wait.

Speaking of game release date shifts, while this has yet to be officially confirmed, Warner Bros. and Rocksteady’s squad-centric supervillain game Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has reportedly been delayed yet again, from 26 May to the second half of 2023. Initially the game was supposed to come out in 2022. Suicide Squad will be coming to PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S.

The rabid Elden Ring fanbase probably knows this already, but developers FromSoftware have finally confirmed that DLC is in the works for their smash-hit soulslike. There’s not even a hint of a release date but we now know that the additional content is titled Shadow of the Erdtree.

Apart for picking up a trophy at the annual Video Game Awards, held at the end of the year, one of the most prestigious accolades in the game industry is a BAFTA Games Award. At the end of last week, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced the nominations for the 2023 BAFTA Games Awards, celebrating the best titles released during 2022. A total of 45 games received nominations, with the most nominated being:

  • God of War Ragnarök (14 nominations)
  • Stray (8 nominations)
  • Elden Ring (7 nominations)
  • A Plague Tale: Requiem (5 nominations)
  • Horizon Forbidden West (5 nominations)
  • Immortality (5 nominations)
  • Tunic (5 nominations)
  • Vampire Survivors (5 nominations)
  • Citizen Sleeper (4 nominations)

The BAFTA Games Awards are also notable for their Game Beyond Entertainment category, which celebrates the games that impactfully explore social issues such as environmental destruction and mental health. Nominees in this category in 2023 are: Citizen Sleeper, Endling – Extinction is Forever, Gibbon: Beyond the Trees, I Was A Teenage Exocolonist, Not For Broadcast and We’ll Always Have Paris.

Find all the categories and nominees here.

The BAFTA Games Awards winners will be announced on Thursday 30 March, with the ceremony set to be livestreamed. The event forms part of the London Games Festival, which runs from 29 March to 8 April online and at in-person venues.