It’s a double-up pop culture news recap this week, and we start with some notable deaths from this period. First up, American filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, best known for his documentary Supersize Me, died on 23 May at 53 years old as a result of complications from cancer. In addition to the controversy around Supersize Me’s methods and scientific conclusions, in later years Spurlock implicated himself as part of the problem that initiated the Me Too Movement against sexual harassment and assault in the entertainment industry.

A day later, on 24 May, the beloved shiba inu Kabuso, the dog whose viral photoshoot became the template for the doge meme, passed away after battling leukemia and liver cancer. Owner Atsuko Sato, who rescued Kabuso from a puppy mill in 2008, wrote on her blog, “I think Kabo-chan was the happiest dog in the world. And I was the happiest owner.” Kabuso reached 18 human years.

Now, here’s what else you might have missed in lifestyle and entertainment news. We’ll be keeping the gaming stories for later, collecting all the key announcements from showcases and livestreams that took place during the former E3 period.

Lifestyle

The first international guests have been announced for Comic Con Africa 2024, in the form of comic creators Dan Parent and Yanick Paquette. The pair will be present on all four days of the upcoming pop culture celebration. Parent is best known for his extensive work on the Archie comics, while Paquette (who has been to South Africa before, attending Cape Town’s FanCon in 2018), is an Eisner Nominee for his work with Grant Morrison on Wonder Woman: Earth One.

Out of interest, Comic Con Africa is returning for the third year to Johannesburg Expo Centre in Nasrec, but has new dates. For the first time, the four-day gathering isn’t including the Heritage Day public holiday on 24 September. Instead CCA 2024 runs 26 to 29 September. The reasoning for this change, which includes two work days, is that the con now falls after payday for a lot of people.

Still taking South African pop culture events, rAge, the country’s long-running Really Awesome Gaming Expo, has locked down its dates and location for 2024.

The chosen time of year isn’t really a surprise – 29 November to 1 December – but the venue is. After two years at Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, this year rAge will shift across the city to take place at the Johannesburg Expo Centre. The official word is that “This venue change will allow the event to expand and will have many more exciting food and beverage options.” Get your (very) Early Bird tickets here, starting at R155.

Series

First up in series news, we have a release date announcement trailer for Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. The animated series picks up after the events of the highly successful Tomb Raider video game Survivor trilogy (Tomb Raider; Rise of the Tomb Raider; Shadow of the Tomb Raider), and charts the globetrotting heroine’s next chapter as an iconic adventurer. Voiced by Hayley Atwell, Lara Croft will debut on 10 October 2024, only on Netflix.

Speaking of Netflix animation in general, the streamer has just dropped a three-minute sizzle reel for its upcoming animated series and movies. Finally we hear Hayley Atwell as Lara Croft, get our first footage from Arcane Season 2, see more of Roald Dahl’s The Twits along with Zack Snyder’s Norse mythology tale Twilight of the Gods, and, hey, there’s a new Wallace and Gromit movie out in time for the holidays, subtitled Vengeance Most Foul. Check out the full written rundown of upcoming releases here.

It’s the final timeline for Umbrella Academy. The fourth and final season of the Emmy-nominated series will arrive on 8 August on Netflix. As we can see in the teaser trailer for Season 4, the Hargreeves siblings will be dealing with the fallout of their actions in Season 3, and try to band together again after ending up depowered and separated in a new timeline, orchestrated by Reginald Hargreeves himself.

Over on Prime Video, the Yakuza: Like a Dragon video game is getting a television adaptation. As reported by Variety, Like a Dragon is directed by Take Masaharu (“100 Yen Love”) and Takimoto Kengo (“Kamen Teacher”) and stars Takeuchi Ryoma (multiple “Kamen Rider” titles) as the lead character, Kiryu Kazuma. Billed as a crime-suspense-action series, Prime Video will release the six episode season in two batches of three episodes each, on 25 October and 1 November 2024.

In more TV tidbits:

Film

There’s a lot of sequel and franchise news in the film section this week, starting with the next entry in the Knives Out franchise.

Titled Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, the whodunnit franchise from Rian Johnson is back with another stacked cast. Obviously Daniel Craig returns as Benoit Blanc, our favourite contemporary Poirot. So far, confirmed to be joining him in the next film are Josh O’Connor (Challengers, The Crown), Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla, Civil War), Andrew Scott (Ripley, Fleabag), Kerry Washington (Scandal), Mila Kunis (Bad Moms), Daryl McCormack (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande), Josh Brolin (Deadpool 2, Dune) and Glenn Close.

We have our first look at the upcoming Moana 2, the sequel to the 2016 animated Disney hit, as well as new still images and posters. Moana 2 reunites Moana (voiced by Auliʻi Cravalho) and Maui (Dwayne Johnson) three years after the events of the first film. After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything she’s ever faced. Moana 2 opens in theatres on 27 November 2024.

While it’s not a sequel, or even directly billed as a prequel, the new entry in the Aliens franchise will have fans excited. The official trailer for Alien: Romulus is here and is taking the franchise back to its roots, with a group of young space colonisers scavenging a derelict space station and coming face-to-face-hugger with the most terrifying life form in the universe. Directed by Don’t Breathe and Evil Dead filmmaker Fede Álvarez and produced by Ridley Scott, Alien: Romulus debuts in theatres on 16 August.

Speaking of evil space aliens, there’s also news about that other famous monstrous extraterrestrial franchise Predator. After the wildly successful series revival Prey (2022), 20th Century Fox are looking to expand the Predator universe with more standalone films. As reported by Deadline, the upcoming film Badlands with Prey director Dan Trachtenberg now has Elle Fanning in discussion to star. Plot details for Badlands remain under wraps, but it sounds Western-like.

More evil space aliens? Ok, maybe not evil, but certainly chaotic. In any case, the official trailer for the latest Venom film has released. The final entry in the Sony/Marvel Venom trilogy, Venom: The Last Dance sees Tom Hardy return as Eddie, on the run with Venom while they are hunted by both humans and symbiotes, and facing devastating decisions. In addition to Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Peggy Lu, Alanna Ubach and Stephen Graham also star. Venom: The Last Dance is scheduled for release on 25 October.

After the Oceans franchise and Burn After Reading, George Clooney and Brad Pitt are once again teaming up (albeit reluctantly), in Wolfs, the upcoming action comedy by director Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home). Wolfs sees Clooney and Pitt as two lone-wolf fixers hired to do the same job; then forced to team up when a simple clean up goes horribly wrong. Wolfs releases in cinemas on 20 September 2024.

There’s a brand new trailer for MaXXXine, the movie that completes the A24 slasher tribute trilogy already comprising X and Pearl. For this 1985-set tale, writer/director Ti West reunites with his series leading lady Mia Goth, and adds in some extra all-star oomph via Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito and Kevin Bacon.

In MaXXXine, aspiring movie star Maxine Minx finally gets her big break, joining the cast of a hit horror franchise. But she faces two threats to her dream – the resurfacing of her bloody past, and a serial killer known as the Night Stalker. MaXXXine comes to cinemas on 5 July.

The 77th annual Cannes Film Festival has drawn to a close, and the jury led by Barbie director Greta Gerwig has crowned their winners.

The highest honour, the Palme d’Or, went to the comedy-drama Anora from American director Sean Baker, with the second prize, the Grand Prix, bestowed to All We Imagine as Light from Indian director Payal Kapadia. The Best Screenplay award went to Coralie Fargeat for The Substance, the upcoming body-horror film with Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley.

Still from Palme d’Or winning Anora, about a Brooklyn sex worker who gets her Cinderella story.

Best Director was given to Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes for Grand Tour, a period drama set in colonial-ruled Burma in 1918. Jesse Plemons took home the prize for Best Actor for his three different roles in the absurdist dark-comedy anthology film Kinds of Kindness from Poor Things’s Yorgos Lanthimos.

For Best Actress, the award was expanded to be given to the four leads of Emilia Pérez, the Mexico-set musical about a cartel boss who disappears in order to re-emerge as a woman. The ensemble cast of Adriana Paz, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, and Zoe Saldaña all shared the Best Actress spotlight, while the Jury Prize was also awarded to the film.

A special award, the Prix Spécial, was created for Mohammad Rasoulof and his film The Seed of the Sacred Fig. Rasoulof escaped an eight year prison sentence and fled Iran in order to debut his film, and shed light on the brutal treatment of Iranian citizens.

Finally, some movie tidbits to end off today’s news catch-up:

  • Horror master Mike Flanagan, the filmmaker behind the likes of Doctor Sleep, Hush and The Haunting of Hill House has officially been confirmed as the director of the next Exorcist film. Just note that this will be a wholly new film and not a sequel to last year’s panned The Exorcist: Believer, which was intended to jumpstart a whole new trilogy.
  • Some good news: After announcing last month that it was shuttering nine cinemas and retrenching a significant percentage of its workforce (impacting over 200 employees), South African cinema chain Ster Kinekor has had an improvement in fortunes. After undergoing restructuring, the company has instead only closed two movie houses – the names of these cinemas have yet to be revealed – and cut 60 jobs.
  • The planned live-action He-Man and the Masters of the Universe movie reboot has been languishing in development hell for decades now, bouncing between creative treatments and studios. But as the project finally enters production, with Bumblebee’s Travis Knight at the helm, and a 2026 release date in mind, we have our He-Man: Red, White & Royal Blue star Nicholas Galitzine.
  • With the success of The Last of Us and Fallout, series and movies based on video games are enjoying a fresh surge of interest. Now joining the in-development list is film adaptation Watch Dogs, based on the Ubisoft game series about hackers using their skills to fight crime and corruption. Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds And Snakes star Tom Blyth will star alongside Talk To Me’s Sophie Wilde.
  • Speaking of The Hunger Games, just as author Suzanne Collins has unveiled that a new prequel book, Sunrise on the Reaping, is coming out on 18 March 2025, Lionsgate has confirmed a film adaptation is in the works, with November 2026 release plans. Set in between the primary The Hunger Games trilogy and The Ballad of Songbirds And Snakes, Sunrise on the Reaping centres on the 50th Hunger Games (the Second Quarter Quell), which saw District 12’s Haymitch Abernathy (played by Woody Harrelson in the films) crowned as the surprise winner.