Time to look back at the past week of pop culture news, which was an unusually announcement packed period. In addition to all the news, two dashing American actors died.

After years of battling throat cancer, Val Kilmer succumbed to pneumonia aged 65. Kilmer’s blockbuster filmography includes the likes of Top Secret!, Top Gun, Willow, The Doors, Tombstone, Heat, The Saint and Batman Forever, where he was the first actor to replace Michael Keaton in the title role. Kilmer’s last role was in Top Gun: Maverick, where his cancer was made part of his character’s storyline.

Less surprising, but just as sad, was the passing of Richard Chamberlain, aged 90. Chamberlain made his name as a heartthrob in 60s medical series Dr Kildare, but is perhaps better known for starring in such 1980s prestige miniseries epics as The Thorn Birds and the original adaptation of Shogun.

Lifestyle

Comic Con Cape Town is less than a month away… and the pop culture celebration is still adding celebrity guests. Now you can look out for Michael Trucco on the last two days of the four-day event (3-4 May) taking place at the CTICC.

Trucco’s career includes key roles in the likes of Battlestar Galactica, The Big Bang Theory and, currently, Fire Country. He’s also a regular Mike Flanagan collaborator, appearing in the likes of Hush, Midnight Mass and The Fall of the House of Usher.

Still on matters of Comic Con in South Africa, Comic Con Africa, held in Johannesburg, has just been forced to move its 2025 dates forward by almost a month – from 25 – 28 September to 28 – 31 August. This is no fault of the organisers but rather a result of major renovations taking place at the con’s home of JHB Expo Centre in preparation for a major end-of-year event there. All tickets already purchased for CCA 2025 will automatically roll over to the new dates, although people travelling from out of town have now been hit with the costs of changing flights and accommodation dates.

Film

CinemaCon has been underway in Las Vegas, and while this gathering of movie theatre owners is a largely behind-doors event, where film studios present their upcoming release slate to cinema owners, enough news (if not footage) has made its way to the public. You can check out Deadline’s collection of presentation reveals here, or this Gizmodo rundown, but below are a few highlights as we see them:

  • A live-action The Legend of Zelda video game adaptation is being lined up for 26 March 2027.
  • Filmmaker and DCU head James Gunn unveiled a five-minute clip from Superman, which is out this July.
  • Amazon is releasing a remake of stylish heist tale The Thomas Crown Affair, directed by and starring Michael B. Jordan.
  • Tom Holland’s fourth Spider-Man film has a confirmed title: Spider-Man: Brand New Day. It’s set for release on 31 July 2026.
  • Trilogy capping animated Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse has a release date of 4 June 2027.
  • Sci-fi survival thriller Project Hail Mary comes to cinemas on 20 March 2026. It’s based on the novel by The Martian’s Andy Weir, and stars Ryan Gosling.
  • Sony is releasing four Beatles movies in April 2028. Made by Sam Mendes, these biopics star Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr.

Now it’s time for some trailers, and there were A LOT dropped this past week.

Let’s start with TRON: Ares, which was teased at CinemaCon by Disney. The third film in the TRON series, Ares comes to cinemas from 10 October this year, and sees program Ares (Jared Leto) cross over from the digital world to our reality. No idea whether he’s on our side or not. Jeff Bridges once more appears as programmer and company head Kevin Flynn. Following the lead of Daft Punk with TRON: Legacy, Nine Inch Nails provides the soundtrack here.

Keeping things dark and moody, here’s the first full trailer for Bring Her Back, the next Australian horror film from Talk to Me’s Danny and Michael Philippou. A24 and Sony Pictures are handling distribution duties on this tale of siblings who discover their new foster mother (Sally Hawkins) is performing disturbing rituals to cross the boundary between life and death. The film releases at the end of this May.

We’d say we were keeping things horror with M3GAN 2.0, but as the below trailer reveals, that’s not the case at all. Embracing the camp side that turned 2022’s M3GAN into a surprise hit, 2.0 is a more consciously over-the-top sci-fi actioner, with deadly AI-powered doll M3GAN brought back into service when her technology is used to create an unstoppable rival robot called Amelia. M3GAN 2.0 comes to cinemas on 27 June.

Did you say silly comedy? Police spoof The Naked Gun returns to life (after a decade and a half in development hell) with this reboot, coming to cinemas from 1 August. Liam Neeson steps in to play Lt. Frank Drebin Jr., the similarly deadpan son of the original detective Drebin (Leslie Nielsen). Lonely Island troupe member turned filmmaker Akiva Schaffer directs, with Seth MacFarlane’s name attached as producer.

Finally, it looks like Apple TV+ is attempting to claim its share of the Uncharted and National Treasure pie with globetrotting adventure Fountain of Youth. Coming to the streamer on 23 May, Fountain of Youth follows two estranged siblings (John Krasinski and Natalie Portman) who partner on a quest to find the mythological Fountain of Youth. Also embroiled in the mystery solving are Eiza González, Stanley Tucci and Domhnall Gleeson. Guy Ritchie is behind the camera.

Series

May the 4th is around the corner and that means more Star Wars across the media spectrum. On Disney+, following Tales of the Jedi and Tales of the Empire, is new animated miniseries Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld. As you may have guessed from the title, this set of shorts looks at outlaws, in the form of Clone Wars characters, and bounty hunters, Asajj Ventress and Cad Bane, continuing their individual stories. Watch all 6 episodes from 4 May.

Gaming

The second Nintendo Direct in two weeks took place this past Wednesday, and it was a long-awaited deep dive into the Nintendo Switch 2, the handheld console that becomes available as of 5 June. You can watch the full hour-long presentation here, or view all the features here.

While fans were hyped up by games like launch title Mario Kart World (out 5 June) and surprise From Software exclusive The Duskbloods (2026), plus a glimpse finally of Silksong (2025), they weren’t happy about other announcements. Like needing to pay a monthly fee to use GameChat, and purchase “upgrade” packs in order to play optimised versions of some current Switch games that they already own.

As for pricing of the Switch 2 itself, Glitched put together a pre-order (now open!) and pricing guide for South Africa. It will cost you R12,499 for the standard Switch 2 (the US recommended retail price is currently $449.99) and R13,499 for the Mario Kart World game + Switch 2 bundle. Switch 2 games range from R999 to R1,999.