Ronald D. Moore hit IGN’s San Diego Comic-Con 2025 live show today to discuss his long career writing some of the most memorable sci-fi and fantasy shows of the past several decades, from Star Trek to Battlestar Galactica to Outlander to For All Mankind. Next up for Moore is Amazon’s adaptation of God of War, which Moore is serving as Executive Producer and showrunner on.
For starters, Moore said that while of course Kratos will lead the show, his son Atreus will also be a big part of the series. This perhaps isn’t that surprising, but is still the first confirmation we’ve got on that front that the father and son team will be core to Amazon’s God of War.
Indeed, the notion of parent/child relationships, and in particular missing or absent parents, has been a theme of Moore’s work, going back all the way to his first Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “The Bonding,” which depicted a child onboard the Enterprise who was orphaned after an away team mission. Deep Space Nine, which Moore worked on after TNG, features Captain Sisko and his son Jake moving forward in life after the death of their wife/mom. Battlestar Galactica also deals with themes of parent/child strife, and now here we are with God of War which, in the 2018 game, literally starts with Kratos and Atreus preparing the funeral pyre for Kratos’ wife.
Read on to find out everything the tight-lipped Ronald D. Moore had to say about God of War.
IGN: What drew you to God of War? I know you've said you're not really a gamer. What was it about the property that interested you?
Ronald D. Moore: It was just when I started watching it, I started looking at the cutscenes together, and there's so much material there, and I really responded to the characters. I responded to the story of Kratos and his son, and then they set out on this epic journey in this world that was finely detailed and really interesting, and there's a lot of combat and interesting monsters along the way.
But I kept coming back to this story of father and son, and it was just emotional and it was different, and I hadn't seen anything like that before, and I had no expectations because like you said, I'm not a gamer. I knew the title, but I didn't really know what the story was, so I didn't really know what I was going to be looking at, and I was just taken with it. And so I said, yeah, I'd love to do it. I think it's really interesting.
IGN: And you haven't really played, you've watched cutscenes, but you haven't actually played it?
Ronald D. Moore: I've tried to play it. I continue to try to play it, but I grew up in the arcade era, so I can bang away, just give me a Defender console or an Asteroids console, I'll kick your ass. But it's just a different thing. My family can do it. My wife can play video games. My wife plays Skyrim, but I lack the muscle memory of my thumbs. And so Kratos is fighting the troll and I'm constantly like, okay, which one's the B button? No, I'm dead. It is that kind of thing. But I try.
IGN: How would you describe the tone of the show?
Ronald D. Moore: The tone of the show is trying to emulate the tone of the game, which is there's this epic journey, this heartfelt story of these two men setting out on this thing to honor the memory of his wife, Atreus’ mother. So it has this emotional heart, but there's this sense of history of who Kratos is, this mystery about his past, what he represents, the emotions that he's going through. So there's a weight to it, but not so much weight that there's not enjoyment along the way and there's spectacle and there's lots of things going on in this world.
IGN: I think there's a bit of a theme through your work, which is a single parent or a missing parent that goes back to your Next Generation spec script where we dealt with a crew member who died and left behind her son. I know you didn't create Deep Space Nine, but obviously Ben Sisko and Jake are dad and son. The mom's gone like Atreus’ mom. Battlestar Galactica gets into this stuff. Is this something that’s a theme that you're aware of that's in your work? And could this be part of why you're interested in God of War?
Ronald D. Moore: It's a recurrent theme. I mean, I'm always interested in it, and it's a classic theme. It goes back many, many eons. It's not something I do in particular, and I think it's because it's a broken family. Broken families with missing people that have ruptured relationships are endlessly interesting. There're ways of bringing out character because there's a pain, there's a trauma, there's something that's happened and they're trying to work through it. So it's always a good way to set up a drama to sort of explore character, and I think that is why I respond to it.
IGN: What is your take on Atreus as a character? Obviously Kratos has long been the face of the franchise, but what are you hoping to achieve through the portrayal of Atreus?
Ronald D. Moore: Well, again, we want to honor the game and what they laid out for Atreus’ journey. Here's a young man who doesn't know his father very well, that sets out on this mission, and along the way they learn about each other.
IGN: So in terms of Kratos, there've been different incarnations of him. Are you familiar with the earlier versions of God of War? And is there a chance that we will get little dollops of that?
Ronald D. Moore: Well, maybe, you'll have to wait and see it.
Interview conducted by Scott Collura.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
At San Diego Comic-Con today, a very enthusiastic Hall H crowd greeted the team behind Project Hail Mary, the upcoming film based on the beloved book by The Martian author Andy Weir. Several scenes from early in the movie were shown, as we saw Ryan Gosling’s mild-mannered teacher, Ryland Grace, be recruited for a mission to space to save the Earth from imminent destruction thanks to a strange cosmic event.
And while the moments of Ryland adjusting to life in space – completely on his own, no less – and being introduced to something like Zero-G for the first time were very fun and entertaining, the scene the fans were clearly most excited for was our best look yet at the onscreen depiction of Rocky. Rocky is the alien Ryland encounters during his journey, who has been sent from his planet to stop the same crisis as Ryland, which also threatens his people. Rocky is a name eventually given to him by Ryland, because the two can’t speak to each other on account of Rocky looking like, well… rocks, which includes having no discernible face or features.
The scene the fans were clearly most excited for was our best look yet at the onscreen depiction of Rocky.
We were shown the scene where Ryland first spots Rocky’s ship, which is far larger than his, and itself resembles two large, asteroid-like objects from afar that turn out to be connected together. But when it came to Rocky himself, we got a shadowy taste via his entire very first scene, which expanded on moments briefly shown at the end of the trailer.
In the scene, we see Ryland descending out of a hatch from his ship into an opening in the alien spacecraft, wearing a spacesuit and breathing heavily. He floats down the large, cavernous opening of the other ship and notices that the rock-like walls are covered in intricate lines and designs. Finally, he reaches the bottom of the cavern and sees a small window, possibly indicating a door is there - except he can’t find anything on the wall that would seem to help open it up.
He begins to knock on the window when suddenly Rocky’s hand slams onto it from the other side with a very effective jump scare for both the audience and Ryland, who stumbles back screaming. When he gets back up, Rocky’s hand touches the glass again. Ryland gets closer as he sees Rocky hold up a small, thin figurine, looking like it might be been made from metal. It’s crude – somewhat evoking a skinny version of A Nightmare Before Christmas’ Oogie Boogie – but Ryland begins to understand, asking, “Is that me?!”
Rocky’s body remains hidden in the shadows, as we only see his arms and hands, as he holds up a representation he’s also made of Ryland’s ship and then puppets the Ryland figurine so it’s moving back up towards his toy ship. Ryland asks, “You want me to go back into my ship?” Rocky’s hands repeat the motion of the figurine, gently but insistent.
Ryland nods and enthusiastically tells Rocky, “Okay. I'll talk to you later! Bye!” before waving back through the window and going back up towards his ship, ending Ryland and Rocky’s first encounter and the scene.
The panelists spoke at length about the challenges of depicting Rocky onscreen, with co-director Phil Lord saying that their approach was to take Weir’s ideas from the book and treat them like “creative provocations to us that we honored. We never wanted to make our lives more convenient by changing something that Andy did.”
Lord's directing partner Christopher Miller said that when they were asked how the audience could care about a character without eyes, a mouth or a face, their reaction was, “Pixar made us care about a lamp. It’s possible!”
Lord and Miller ended up reaching out to Neal Scanlon at Lucasfilm to create Rocky, with Miller noting he “built a practical creature that was puppeteered by an amazing puppeteer named James Ortiz and his team of five. We call them the Rocketeers. And it was amazing having Rocky there on set every day so that we could have a real interaction and shoot the whole thing practically. And ultimately, it's going to end up being a beautiful blend of creature puppetry and animation. He comes alive in a way that you really would die for this character. Rocky does not have a face. He has no eyes. He has five legs with three fingers on each leg.”
'It was amazing having Rocky there on set every day so that we could have a real interaction and shoot the whole thing practically.' -Christopher Miller
Lord added praise for visual effects supervisor Paul Lambert, whose work will be blended with that of Scanlan and Ortiz for the final version of Rocky, describing it as “a real handshake to create this really lovable person out of minerals.”
Lord and Miller said the final crucial component to believing in Rocky was Gosling and his performance and how he interacts with the character, with Lord describing him as akin to “the sixth puppeteer, because you need a scene partner to bring those characters to life, because he has to treat it like somebody that's really there.”
Gosling meanwhile was humorously coy about his onscreen dynamic with Rocky, remarking, “He's my friend, and he's not here to speak for himself, so I don't want to give up his secrets.”
Shortly after the panel, Lord, Miller and screenwriter Drew Goddard (who previously adapted Weir’s The Martian) stopped by IGN’s SDCC studio, where Goddard spoke more about the challenges of imagining Rocky’s onscreen depiction, saying, “It’s always the screenwriter's nightmare, because you don't even have a face, right? So how do you communicate? I think the very thing that makes it hard is the thing that makes it special. The challenge is what gets us all excited. The book is about empathy and about seeing something from someone else's point of view, even if that other person is a cosmic alien who has no relation to humans whatsoever. That's the point. And so every scene is about empathy.”
Describing Project Hail Mary, Lord remarked, “The movie is not a Mac, it's a PC. It's a machine. The ship is a machine. There's complexities that are visible to the audience. We're not trying to buff them out; when there were weird edges, we embraced them. The movie is very beautiful, but it's not pretty, and it's not ever slick.”
The rebooted DC Universe is in full swing, with Superman out now and HBO Max show Peacemaker Season 2 out soon. But what else does DCU steward James Gunn have up his sleeve for fans? In an interview with IGN at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, Gunn gave us a scoop that fans who have worked out who’s who in the History of Metahumans DCU Mural will find very interesting indeed.
If you haven't seen Superman yet and you're wondering what all the fuss is about, the movie reveals that metahumans have played an active role in the DCU for the past 300 years, and the mural depicts which costumed heroes have appeared so far.
This week, Gunn published the full Hall of Justice History of Metahumans mural online for all to see, sending fans into a frenzy as they tried to work out the identity of each of the 26 featured characters. This was the first time fans could see the mural clearly after it was shown in blink-and-you’ll miss it form during Superman.
“Listen, fans have done a pretty good job,” Gunn told IGN. “I think they've found all of the different characters. But yeah, I will just say that in one of our scripts we're working on two of those characters are kind of important.”
Which characters are they, we followed-up?
“I’m not going to tell you!” Gunn responded in typically tantalizing fashion.
We recently learned that Booster Gold will at least get an HBO Max pilot. Paradise Lost is still supposedly in the works, as is Sgt. Rock. Then there’s Swamp Thing, Lanterns, Clayface, The Brave and the Bold (the DCU's upcoming Batman movie), Waller, and plenty more.
As for who’s actually in the mural, we’ve got a rundown of every character we were able to identify, including the likes of Atomic Knight, Gunfire, and Sandman (Wesley Dodds). In truth, it could be anyone in the mural, and it could relate to any project, announced or unannounced, in the works at DCU. But given Gunn went as far to drop this big tease, he must be confident they will eventually be realized on-screen.
All 26 characters in the History of Metahumans DCU Mural:
Sister Symmetry/Madame Xanadu
Silent Knight
Exoristos
Black Pirate
Miss Liberty
Whip Whirlwind (Max Mercury's Wild West persona)
Super-Chief
El Diablo
Iron Munro
Ghost of Flanders
Sandman I (Wesley Dodds)
Amazing-Man
Zatara the Magician
Liberty Belle
Bulletman
Bulletgirl
Max Mercury
TNT
Dan the Dyna-mite
Phantom Lady
Atomic Knight
Freedom Beast
Wildcat
Vibe
Gunfire
Sean Gunn's Maxwell Lord IV
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
James Gunn and the cast of Peacemaker stopped by IGN’s studio at San Diego Comic-Con today, where Gunn revealed some new info about what to expect in Season 2 of the series and where Christopher Smith/Peacemaker is in his life... including how he feels about Superman following the events of the movie.
John Cena makes a brief cameo as Peacemaker in Gunn’s recently released Superman, where he’s seen on a talk show, giving a litany of reasons he’s never trusted Superman. So did the end of that movie change his perception of the Man of Steel? Said Gunn: “I think that Peacemaker probably admires Superman a little bit more than he did.” But Gunn notes there is a bit of a murky area there, because as we see in Peacemaker Season 2 trailer, Chris is trying to join the Justice Gang in Season 2.
As Gunn put it, “We see him in the movie and he's talking crap about Superman and I think he probably admires him a little bit more than he did beforehand [now], but also he really wants to get in with the Justice Gang. So he's not going to say any more mean things about Superman knowing they're his pals.” As for his previous statements about Superman, if they were brought up, Gunn said Peacemaker would “walk it back. He's got no backbone with stuff like that.”
Regarding his overall approach to Season 2, Gunn explained, “I think the theme of Peacemaker Season 2, if anything, is about redemption. This is a character who knows he did wrong in the past. He has changed dramatically from Season 1. The one thing I didn't want to do is have Peacemaker act exactly like he did at the beginning of Season 1. We saw dramatic things happen to him in the way he's connected with other people in Season 1, and he has changed because of that. His friendship with Leota Adebayo has changed him completely. And now this is a new Peacemaker who is struggling to try to be the best person he can be. Often failing, but really trying his best to do that, and then all of a sudden his past won't let him go, whether it's his relationship with his father, who's now gone, or his relationship with Rick Flag Jr's dad [played by Frank Grillo]. So it's really about that struggle about looking for redemption and also looking for love.”
On that last point, Gunn elaborated, “There is a love story in this. The first season was about the relationship between Leota Adebayo and Peacemaker. This in a lot of ways is about Peacemaker and Harcourt and their relationship.”
Among the additions to Season 2 is Sol Rodríguez as Sasha Bordeaux, a character primarily associated with Batman in the comics. Rodríguez said she felt “Sasha's essence is still there from the comics, but she's bringing new vibes,” and that when it comes to the DCU's eventual version of Batman, “She has nothing to do with that.” Though who’s to say if Gunn was joking or not when he replied, “Yet!” to that statement about Sasha and Batman having no connection.
When Rodríguez added she very much didn’t know who will eventually be playing the DCU’s version of Batman, Gunn then added, regarding all of the fan speculation, “I don’t know who’s playing Batman!”
Coming in hot from San Diego Comic-Con 2025 is a new trailer for Peacemaker Season 2, which finally reveals how John Cena’s Chris Smith jumps from his DCEU dimension to an alternate DCU dimension.
DCU steward James Gunn is bringing most of Peacemaker Season 1, which was a part of the DCEU, into the DCU canon with Season 2, which takes place one month after the events of Superman.
Making peace with yourself is harder than it looks.
Peacemaker discovers a new universe via a Quantum Unfolding Chamber (QUC), with Frank Grillo’s Rick Flag Sr. out for revenge for the death of his son. We see Peacemaker go through to the other side, which he instantly finds more appealing (the grass is always greener etc.). However, as teased in the video, Peacemaker ends up meeting alternate dimension Peacemaker and of course the two end up in a fight.
However, there are 100 alternate dimensions of the DCU, and we see one of those in the trailer with a war-torn battlefield packed with what look like giant spider creatures with skulls for heads.
Peacemaker returns for its eight-episode second season on Thursday, August 21 at 9pm ET on HBO Max. James Gunn wrote all eight episodes of Peacemaker and directed three, including the first episode, which features Guy Gardner and Hawkgirl from Superman.
During a panel at Comic-Con, Gunn confirmed other characters from Superman (besides Rick Flag Sr., Hawkgirl, Guy Gardner, and Maxwell Lord) will return in Peacemaker Season 2. Michael Rooker (who starred in Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy films for Marvel), plays a character named Red St. Wild, who acts as "Eagley's Lex Luthor," according to Gunn.
Here's the official blurb:
In season two, Peacemaker discovers an alternate world where life is everything he wishes it could be. But this discovery also forces him to face his traumatic past and take the future into his own hands.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Marvel Comics held a panel focused on the wildly popular Ultimate Universe imprint at SDCC 2025. There they revealed that Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto's Ultimate Spider-Man will be ending with December's issue #24, as the entire Ultimate Universe braces for the imminent return of The Maker.
Marvel and Hickman alike are adamant that the series isn't being canceled, but merely reaching its natural, preplanned conclusion.
“This was everything that I pitched,” Hickman said at the panel. “Nothing has deviated. It’s been really nice to execute the plan well and everything culminates into this issue. Fans of the Ultimate Universe are going to love it. It’s been a real pleasure being the writer of Ultimate Spider-Man.”
Even as Ultimate Spider-Man ends, Marvel will be launching a new crossover series called Ultimate Endgame. As the title suggests, Ultimate Endgame pays off on a long-running plot point from the end of 2023's Ultimate Invasion. Ever since that series concluded, the evil Reed Richards known as The Maker has been locked away in another dimension. The entire Ultimate line has been unfolding in real time, slowly counting down the 24 months until his return. Ultimate Endgame explores what happens when he does return.
Ultimate Endgame won't be written by Hickman, but rather The Ultimates writer Deniz Camp. Camp will be joined by artist Jonas Scharf and other artists for a series that unites the casts of all the current Ultimate books.
“This is the craziest and most impactful crossover [I've worked on],” Camp said. “I’m really excited about it. It’s all the characters: everyone coming together in this big way, coming up against each other in a big way, and the resolution of some long plot threads we’ve all been seeing. It’s very big, very dramatic, and with the Ultimate Universe, we can change the world. We can actually do it as creators because we have this incredible playground that Marvel has not just allowed, but encouraged us, to use. It’s such an honor to do something like this. It’s been amazing, and this is the culmination of a lot of what we’ve been doing together.”
Given that Ultimate Spider-Man is consistently one of Marvel's top-selling titles, we doubt the series will stay dormant. More likely, Marvel will relaunch USM with a new creative team in 2026 after Ultimate Endgame wraps. Let us know in the comments below which creators you think are up to the task of following Hickman and Checchetto.
Ultimate Spider-Man #24 will be released on December 24, followed by Ultimate Endgame #1 a week later on December 31.
Family Guy Halloween and Holiday Specials return exclusively to Hulu later this year.
Announced during a panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, the Halloween Special premieres Monday, October 6 on Hulu.
In the Halloween special, “A Little Fright Music,” Brian and Stewie realize there is a shortage of quality Halloween songs, so they set out to write a hit, and Peter and the guys discover that lying about trick or treating can have deadly consequences.
The first-look image is below:
Family Guy Season 24 premieres in 2026 on Fox, and streams on Hulu.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
The winners of the 2025 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards have been revealed at San Diego Comic-Con. Essentially the equivalent of the Oscars for the comic book industry, the Eisners highlight the best and most noteworthy releases of the past year.
Among the notable winners this year were Absolute Wonder Woman winning Best New Series, Joe Sacco's "The War on Gaza" winning Best Single Issue/One Shot, and upcoming TMNT writer Gene Luen Yang winning Best Writer and Best Graphic Album - New for his and LeUyen Pham's graphic novel Lunar New Year Love Story. IDW's lavish hardcover collection David Mazzucchelli’s Batman Year One Artist’s Edition won two awards - Best Archival Collection/Project - Comic Books and Best Publication Design. DC Comics was the biggest winner of the show with five awards (including two shared).
The full list of nominees is below, with the winners in bold:
Best Short Story
“Anything Sinister,” by Ross Murray, in NOW #13 (Fantagraphics)
“Day 1703,” by Chris Ware, in Smoke Signal #43 (Desert Island)
“Pig” by Stacy Gougoulis, in NOW #13 (Fantagraphics)
“Spaces,” by Phil Jimenez, in DC Pride 2024 #1 (DC)
“Water I’ve Loved: Moving Day” by Pam Wye, in MUTHA magazine,
“You Cannot Live on Bread Alone” by Kayla E., in NOW #13 (Fantagraphics)
Best Single Issue/One-Shot
Abortion Pill Zine: A Community Guide to Misoprostol and Mifepristone by Isabella Rotman, Marnie Galloway, and Sage Coffey (Silver Sprocket)
Ice Cream Man #39: “”Decompression in a Wreck, Part One,” by W. Maxwell Prince and Martin Morazzo (Image Comics)
PeePee PooPoo #1, by Caroline Cash (Silver Sprocket)
Sunflowers, by Keezy Young (Silver Sprocket)
Unwholesome Love, by Charles Burns (co-published with Partners and Son)
The War on Gaza, by Joe Sacco (Fantagraphics)
Best Continuing Series
The Department of Truth, by James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds (Image)
Detective Comics, by Ram V, Tom Taylor, Riccardo Federici, Stefano Raffaele, Javier Fernandez, Christian Duce, March, and Mikel Janín (DC)
Fantastic Four, by Ryan North, Carlos Gomez, Ivan Fiorelli, and others (Marvel)
Santos Sisters, by Greg & Fake, Graham Smith, Dave Landsberger, and Marc Koprinarov (Floating World)
Ultimate Spider-Man, by Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto (Marvel)
Wonder Woman, by Tom King and Daniel Sampere (DC)
Best Limited Series
Alan Scott: The Green Lantern, by Tim Sheridan and Cian Tormey (DC)
Animal Pound, by Tom King and Peter Gross (BOOM! Studios)
The Deviant, by James Tynion IV and Joshua Hixson (Image)
Helen of Wyndhorn. by Tom King and Bilquis Evely (Dark Horse)
Rare Flavours, by Ram V and Filipe Andrade (BOOM! Studios)
Zatanna: Bring Down the House, by Mariko Tamaki and Javier Rodriguez (DC)
Best New Series
Absolute Batman, by Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta (DC)
Absolute Wonder Woman, by Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman (DC)
Minor Arcana, by Jeff Lemire (BOOM! Studios)
The Pedestrian, by Joey Esposito and Sean Von Gorman (Magma Comix)
The Power Fantasy, by Kieron Gillen and Caspar Wijngaard (Image)
Uncanny Valley, by Tony Fleecs and Dave Wachter (BOOM! Studios)
Best Publication for Early Readers
Bog Myrtle, by Sid Sharp (Annick Press)
Club Microbe, by Elise Gravel, translated by Montana Kane (Drawn & Quarterly)
Hilda and Twig Hide from the Rain, by Luke Pearson (Flying Eye)
Night Stories, by Liniers (Astra Books)
Poetry Comics, by Grant Snider (Chronicle Books)
Best Publication for Kids
How It All Ends, by Emma Hunsinger (Greenwillow/HarperCollins Early Readers)
Next Stop, by Debbie Fong (Random House Graphic/Random House Children’s Books)
Plain Jane and the Mermaid, by Vera Brosgol (First Second/Macmillan)
Weirdo, by Tony Weaver Jr. and Jes & Cin Wibowo (First Second/Macmillan)
Young Hag and the Witches’ Quest, by Isabel Greenberg (Abrams Fanfare)
Best Publication for Teens
Ash’s Cabin, by Jen Wang (First Second/Macmillan)
Big Jim and the White Boy, by David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson (Ten Speed Graphic)
The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag (Scholastic)
The Gulf, by Adam de Souza (Tundra)
Lunar New Year Love Story, by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham (First Second/Macmillan)
Out of Left Field, by Jonah Newman (Andrews McMeel)
Best Humor Publication
Adulthood is a Gift! by Sarah Andersen (Andrews McMeel)
Forces of Nature, by Edward Steed (Drawn & Quarterly)
Kids Are Still Weird: And More Observations from Parenthood, by Jeffrey Brown (NBM)
A Pillbug Story, by Allison Conway (Black Panel Press)
Processing: 100 Comics That Got Me Through It, by Tara Booth (Drawn & Quarterly)
Best Anthology
EC Cruel Universe, edited by Sierra Hahn and Matt Dryer (Oni Press)
Godzilla’s 70th Anniversary, edited by Jake Williams and others (IDW)
Now: The New Comics Anthology #13, edited by Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics)
Peep #1, edited by Sammy Harkham and Steve Weissman (Brain Dead/Kyle Ng)
So Buttons #14: “Life and Death,” by Jonathan Baylis and various artists (So Buttons Comix)
Best Reality-Based Work
Djuna, by Jon Macy (Street Noise Books)
The Heart That Fed: A Father, a Son, and the Long Shadow of War, by Carl Sciacchitano (Gallery 13/S&S)
The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C. S. Lewis & J. R. R. Tolkien, by John Hendrix (Abrams Fanfare)
The Puerto Rican War: A Graphic History, by John Vasquez Mejias (Union Square)
Suffrage Song: The Haunted History of Gender, Race, and Voting Rights in the U.S., by Caitlin Cass (Fantagraphics)
Best Graphic Memoir
Degrees of Separation: A Decade North of 60, by Alison McCreesh (Conundrum)
Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir, by Tessa Hulls (MCD/Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
The Field, by David Lapp (Conundrum)
I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together: A Memoir, by Maurice Vellekoop (Pantheon)
Something, Not Nothing: A Story of Grief and Love, by Sarah Leavitt (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Best Graphic Album—New
Final Cut, by Charles Burns (Pantheon)
Lunar New Year Love Story, by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham (First Second/Macmillan)
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two, by Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)
Sunday, by Olivier Schrauwen (Fantagraphics)
Victory Parade, by Leela Corman (Pantheon)
Best Graphic Album—Reprint
Breaking the Chain: The Guard Dog Story, by Patrick McDonnell (Abrams ComicArts)
Lackadaisy, vols. 1–2, by Tracy J. Butler (Iron Circus)
The One Hand and The Six Fingers, by Ram V, Dan Watters, Laurence Campbell, and Sumit Kumar (Image)
Rescue Party: A Graphic Anthology of COVID Lockdown, edited by Gabe Fowler (Pantheon)
Seattle Samurai: A Cartoonist’s Perspective of the Japanese American Experience, by Kelly Goto and Sam Goto (Chin Music Press)
UM Volume One, by buttercup (Radiator Comics)
Best Adaptation from Another Medium
Thomas Piketty’s Capital & Ideology: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, by Clare Alot and Benjamin Adam (Abrams ComicArts)
The Hidden Life of Trees, by Peter Wohlleben, adapted by Benjamin Flao and Fred Bernard (Greystone)
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, adapted by Manu Larcenet (Abrams)
Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne, adapted by Travis Dandro (Drawn & Quarterly)
The Worst Journey in the World, Volume 1: Making Our Easting Down, by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, adapted by Sarah Airriess (Iron Circus)
Best U.S. Edition of International Material
All Princesses Die Before Dawn, by Quentin Zuttion (Abrams ComicArts)
The Jellyfish, by Boum, translated by Robin Lang and Helge Dascher (Pow Pow Press)
Mothballs, by Sole Otero; translated by Andrea Rosenberg (Fantagraphics)
Return to Eden, by Paco Roca; translated by Andrea Rosenberg (Fantagraphics)
Sunday, by Olivier Schrauwen (Fantagraphics)
Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia
Ashita no Joe: Fighting for Tomorrow, by Asao Takamori and Tetsuya Chiba, translated by Asa Yonola (Kodansha)
Hereditary Triangle, by Fumiya Hayashi, translated by Alethea and Athena Nibley (Yen Press)
Kagurabachi, vol. 1, by Takeru Hokazono, translated by Camellia Nieh (VIZ Media)
Last Quarter, vol. 1, by Ai Yazawa, translated by Max Greenway (VIZ Media)
Search and Destroy vol. 1, by Atsushi Kaneko, based on the work of Osamu Tezuka; translated by Ben Applegate (Fantagraphics)
Tokyo These Days, vols. 1–3, by Taiyo Matsumoto, translated by Michael Arias (VIZ Media)
Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips
All In Line, by Saul Steinberg (New York Review Books)
Frank Johnson, Secret Pioneer of American Comics, vol. 1, edited by Chris Byrne and Keith Mayerson (Fantagraphics)
Stan Mack’s Real-Life Funnies: The Collected Conceits, Delusions, and Hijinks of New Yorkers from 1974 to 1995, by Stan Mack, edited by Gary Groth (Fantagraphics)
Thorn: The Complete Proto-BONE Strips 1982–1986, and Other Early Drawings, by Jeff Smith (Cartoon Books)
Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books
The Complete Web of Horror, edited by Dana Marie Andra (Fantagraphics)
David Mazzucchelli’s Batman Year One Artist’s Edition, by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW)
DC Comics Style Guide (Standards Manual)
The Farewell Song of Marcel LaBrume, by Attilio Micheluzzi, edited by Gary Groth and Conrad Groth (Fantagraphics)
Wally Wood from Witzend: Complete Collection, commentary by J. David Spurlock (Vanguard)
X-Men: The Manga Remastered, vol. 1, edited by Glenn Greenberg and others (VIZ Media)
Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism
The Beat, edited by Heidi MacDonald and others, https://www.comicsbeat.com
ICv2: The Business of Pop Culture, edited by Milton Griepp, icv2.com
INKS, The Journal of the Comics Studies Society, edited by Susan Kirtley (Ohio State University Press)
SOLRAD: The Online Literary Magazine for Comics, edited by Daniel Elkin, www.solrad.co (Fieldmouse Press)
Zdarsky Comics News, edited by Allison O’Toole (Chip Zdarsky)
Best Comics-Related Book
American Comic Book Chronicles: 1945-49, by Keith Dallas, John Wells, Richard Arndt, and Kurt Mitchell (TwoMorrows)
Kate Carew: America’s First Great Woman Cartoonist, by Eddie Campbell with Christine Chambers (Fantagraphics)
Q&A, by Adrian Tomine (Drawn & Quarterly)
Reading Love and Rockets, by Marc Sobel (Fantagraphics)
Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund, by Caitlin McGurk (Fantagraphics)
Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: The Ultimate History, edited by Daniel Kothen Schulte with text by David Gerstein and J. B. Kaufman (TASCHEN)
Best Academic/Scholarly Work
Comics and Modernism: History, Form, and Culture, edited by Jonathan Najarian (University Press of Mississippi)
Drawing (in) the Feminine: Bande Dessinée and Women, edited by Margaret C. Flinn (Ohio State University Press)
From Gum Wrappers to Richie Rich: The Materiality of Cheap Comics, by Neale Barnholden (University Press of Mississippi)
Petrochemical Fantasies: The Art and Energy of American Comics, by Daniel Worden (Ohio State University Press)
Singular Sensations: A Cultural History of One-Panel Comics in the United States, by Michelle Ann Abate (Rutgers University Press)
Best Publication Design
Bill Ward: The Fantagraphics Studio Edition, designed by Kayla E. (Fantagraphics)
Brian Bolland: Batman The Killing Joke and Other Stories & Art, Gallery Edition, designed by Josh Beatman (Graphitti Designs)
David Mazzucchelli’s Batman Year One Artist’s Edition, designed by Chip Kidd (IDW)
One Bite at a Time, designed by Ryan Claytor (Elephant Eater Comics)
Scott Pilgrim 20th Anniversary Color Hardcover Box Set, designed by Patrick Crotty (Oni Press)
Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: The Ultimate History, designed by Anna-Tina Kessler (TASCHEN)
Best Digital Comic
The Beauty Salon, based on the novella by Mario Bellatin, adapted by Quentin Zuttion; translated by M. B. Valente (Europe Comics)
Beyond the Sea, by Anaïs Flogny; translated by Dan Christensen (Europe Comics)
Gonzo: Fear and Loathing in America, by Morgan Navarro; translated by Tom Imber (Europe Comics)
My Journey to Her, by Yuna Hirasawa (Kodansha)
The Spider and the Ivy, by Grégoire Carle; translated by M. B. Valente (Europe Comics)
Best Webcomic
The Accidental Undergrad, by Christian Giroux, https://solrad.co/tag/the-accidental-undergrad (Fieldmouse Press)
Life After Life, by Joshua Barkman, https://falseknees.com/comics/24ink1.html (False Knees)
Motherlover, by Lindsay Ishihiro, https://motherlovercomic.com (Iron Circus)
Practical Defence Against Piracy, by Tony Cliff, https://www.delilahdirk.com/dd4/dd4-p188.html
Rigsby WI, by S. E. Case, https://rigsbywi.com (Iron Circus)
Best Writer
Tom King, Archie: The Decision (Archie); Animal Pound (BOOM! Studios); Helen of Wyndhorn (Dark Horse); Jenny Sparks, The Penguin, Wonder Woman (DC)
Ram V, Rare Flavours (BOOM! Studios); Dawnrunner (Dark Horse); The One Hand (Image); Universal Monsters: Creature from the Black Lagoon Lives! (Image Skybound)
Kelly Thompson, Absolute Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey (DC); Scarlett (Image Skybound); Venom War: It’s Jeff #1 (Marvel)
James Tynion IV, Something Is Killing the Children, Wynd (BOOM! Studios); Blue Book, The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos (Dark Horse); Spectregraph (DSTLRY); The Department of Truth, The Deviant, WORLDTR33 (Image)
Gene Luen Yang, Lunar New Year Love Story (First Second/Macmillan)
Best Writer/Artist
Charles Burns, Kommix (Fantagraphics); Final Cut (Pantheon); Unwholesome Love (co-published with Partners & Son)
Emil Ferris, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two (Fantagraphics)
Jon Macy, Djuna (Street Noise Books)
Paco Roca, Return to Eden (Fantagraphics)
Olivier Schrauwen, Sunday (Fantagraphics)
Maria Sweeney, Brittle Joints (Street Noise Books)
Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team
Filipe Andrade, Rare Flavours (BOOM! Studios)
Nick Dragotta, Absolute Batman (DC)
Bilquis Evely, Helen of Wyndhorn (Dark Horse)
Manu Larcenet, The Road (Abrams ComicArts)
Javier Rodriguez, Zatanna: Bring Down the House (DC)
LeUyen Pham, Lunar New Year Love Story (First Second/Macmillan)
Best Painter/Multimedia Artist
Frederic Bremaud and Federico Bertolucci, Donald Duck: Vacation Parade (Fantagraphics)
Leela Corman, Victory Parade (Pantheon)
Benjamin Flao The Hidden Life of Trees (Greystone)
Merwan, Aster of Pan (Magnetic Press)
Eduardo Risso, The Blood Brothers Mother (DSTLRY)
Maria Sweeney, Brittle Joints (Street Noise Books)
Best Cover Artist
Juni Ba, The Boy Wonder (DC); Godzilla Skate or Die, TMNT Nightwatcher and others (IDW)
Evan Cagle, Dawnrunner (Dark Horse), New Gods, Detective Comics
Bilquis Evely, Animal Pound (BOOM!); Helen of Wyndhorn (Dark Horse)
Tula Lotay, Helen of Wyndhorn #1, Count Crowley: Mediocre Midnight Monster Hunter #3, Dawnrunner #1, Barnstormers TPB (Dark Horse); Somna and other titles (DSTLRY); The Horizon Experiment (Image)
Hayden Sherman, Absolute Wonder Woman, Batman: Dark Patterns, Superman, Ape-ril, Batman: The Brave and the Bold) (DC)
Best Coloring
Jordie Bellaire, Absolute Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey, John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dead in America, The Nice House by the Sea (DC); The City Beneath Her Feet (DSTLRY); The Exorcism at 1600 Penn (IDW; W0rldtr33 (Image); G.I. Joe, Duke (Image Skybound)
Matheus Lopes, Batman & Robin: Year One (DC); Helen of Wyndhorn (Dark Horse)
Javier Rodriguez, Zatanna: Bring Down the House) (DC)
Dave Stewart, Dawnrunner, Free Comic Book Day Comic 2024 [general], The Serpent in the Garden, Hellboy, Hellboy and the BPRD, Paranoid Gardens, Shaolin Cowboy Cruel to Be Kin Silent but Deadly Edition (Dark Horse); Ultramega, Universal Monsters: Creature from the Black Lagoon Lives! (Image Skybound)
Quentin Zuttion, All Princesses Die Before Dawn (Abrams ComicArts); Beauty Salon (Europe Comics)
Best Lettering
Becca Carey, Absolute Superman, Absolute Wonder Woman, Plastic Man No More! (DC); Radiant Black, Rogue Sun (Image); When the Blood Has Dried, Murder Kingdom (Mad Cave Studios)
Leela Corman, Victory Parade (Pantheon)
Clayton Cowles, Animal Pound (BOOM! Studios); FML, Helen of Wyndhorn (Dark Horse); Absolute Batman, Batman, Batman & Robin: Year One, Birds of Prey, Jenny Sparks, Wonder Woman (DC); Strange Academy, Venom (Marvel)
Emil Ferris, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Book Two (Fantagraphics)
Nate Powell, Fall Through (Abrams ComicArts); Lies My Teacher Told Me (New Press)
The upcoming series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy got a teaser trailer today at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 that not only offers our first real look at what to expect from the show, but also some references to the Trek of yesteryear — including a major Deep Space Nine reference.
While Starfleet Academy is set in the same time period as Star Trek: Discovery's later seasons — in the 32nd century, so some 900 years after the Original Series era — the trailer features several namedrops of favorite characters, like the James T. Kirk Pavilion at the Academy and a wall of names of past officers, from Tom Paris to Data to Nog to Scotty and beyond. But the biggest callback is to DS9's Captain Sisko.
At around the 1:10 mark, we see Kerrice Brooks' character Sam looking at a display about "The Fate of Benjamin Sisko." Captain Sisko, of course, was played by Avery Brooks on Deep Space Nine. In addition to being a Starfleet officer, he also became known as the Emissary of the Prophets, a holy figure in the religion of Bajor (the planet that Deep Space Nine was based near). Spoilers for a 26-year-old series, but in the DS9 finale, Sisko seemed to sacrifice himself to save the day, falling with the villainous Gul Dukat into the Bajoran Fire Caves. But while his physical form was apparently destroyed, he continued to exist on a higher plane with the Prophets, the god-like beings worshipped by the Bajorans.
So that's a lot right there, but the question is, why is Sisko being teased in the trailer for Starfleet Academy? Will the show somehow connect back to Deep Space Nine and Sisko' fate? Modern Star Trek has certainly been willing to bring back older characters, like Jeri Ryan's Seven of Nine on Picard and Robert Picardo's The Doctor on Starfleet Academy itself. That said, Brooks has seemed disinterested in pursuing his connection to Star Trek in any meaningful way in recent years, so the idea that he might actually return in some form seems unlikely.
In any case, there's a lot more to the Starfleet Academy trailer, including a look at the show's main starship, the USS Athena, and the new characters. Here's a breakdown of who's who from a Paramount Plus press release:
Academy Award winner Holly Hunter as Nahla Ake, the Chancellor of Starfleet Academy and Captain of the U.S.S. Athena, who also happens to be a long-lived half-Lanthanite. (Note that Strange New Worlds character Pelia, played by Carol Kane, is also a Lanthanite.)
Sandro Rosta is Caleb Mir, an orphan with a troubled past – and unlikely Starfleet cadet.
Karim Diané is Jay-Den Kraag, a Klingon cadet who dreams of becoming a medical officer.
Kerrice Brooks is Series Acclimation Mil, a.k.a. Sam, the first of her kind to ever attend Starfleet Academy.
George Hawkins is Darem Reymi, an aspiring captain from a wealthy home world.
Bella Shepard is Genesis Lythe, an admiral’s daughter determined to make her own name in Starfleet.
Zoë Steiner as Tarima Sadal, a Betazoid and daughter of the president of Betazed.
Robert Picardo, reprising his iconic role as The Doctor.
Tig Notaro, reprising her role as Jett Reno.
Oded Fehr, reprising his role as Admiral Vance.
Recurring guest star Gina Yashere as Commander Lura Thok, a Klingon/Jem’Hadar hybrid who is the chancellor’s First Officer and Cadet Master.
Recurring guest star and Academy Award nominee, Paul Giamatti, as part Klingon, part Tellarite Nus Braka, the season’s villain with an ominous past connected to one of our cadets.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is expected to debut in early 2026, which is the 60th anniversary of the franchise.
Other news out of the Comic-Con panel included a Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 announcement video that promises an episode where the crew are turned into Jim Henson puppets, and the latest info on the Star Trek: Khan audio podcast, which has added George Takei as Captain Sulu and Tim Russ as Ensign Tuvok to the cast. Sonya Cassidy has also joined the cast, which is led by Naveen Andrews as Khan Noonien Singh and Wrenn Schmidt as Lieutenant Marla McGivers. The scripted podcast series debuts on September 8, 2025.
The Star Trek: Strange New Worlds team surprised the crowd at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 today with an announcement video teasing Season 4 of the sci-fi series... and a puppet-themed episode.
In the video, a puppet version of Captain Pike sits in the captain's chair of the USS Enterprise and gives his familiar order to "hit it," before realizing that he's all alone on the bridge. "Did you go to Season 4 without me?" he says.
The episode will feature Enterprise crew members in puppet form, with the puppets created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Jordan Canning (Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock) will direct the episode.
Strange New Worlds has become known for its high concept episodes, including a crossover with the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks, a musical episode, a LARPing episode, and this week's Season 3 episode “A Space Adventure Hour,” which features a murder mystery (on the holodeck, of course).
“A Space Adventure Hour” was screened for the Comic-Con audience today in advance of its Paramount Plus debut. (The episode will be free to stream from Thursday, July 31, through Wednesday, August 6, on Pluto TV, Paramount+ channels on Amazon, Apple and Roku, the Free Content Hub on Paramount+, and the Paramount+ YouTube channel.)
Today's panel was moderated by Robert Picardo, who will soon be returning to the screen as his fan-favorite Star Trek: Voyager character The Doctor in the new series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Find out what was revealed about Starfleet Academy in the panel, including a deep-cut Trek reference, here.
Paramount Plus recently announced that Strange New Worlds will end with a six-episode fifth season. Production will begin on the season later this year.
We've rounded up the best deals for Saturday, July 26, below, so don't miss out on these limited-time offers.
Mario Kart World for $71.99
Mario Kart World was the big Nintendo Switch 2 launch game, and today marks the first time we've seen the game on sale. Nintendo opted to release the game at a price point of $79.99, but you can pick it up for $71.99 at Woot. Mario Kart World features a brand-new open world design that interconnects each of the 30 tracks. A battle royale-like mode called Knockout Tour is hugely popular among players, as it offers a racing experience unlike anything we've seen in Mario Kart before.
Nintendo Switch 2 Available at Walmart & Target
While Nintendo Switch 2 has been quite challenging to find if you didn't secure one at launch, both Target and Walmart have the highly popular console in stock. This is the Mario Kart World bundle, too, which packs in a digital copy of Mario Kart World for $50. The Nintendo Switch 2 is an upgrade to Nintendo Switch in almost every way possible, featuring a 1080p display with a 120Hz refresh rate, improved Joy-Con, and much more.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for $34.99
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was my favorite game of 2024, and it's available for just $34.99 at Woot this weekend. This is the lowest I've seen the PS5 copies so far, and I cannot recommend picking it up enough. Cloud and the rest of the party leave Midgar to step into the open world of Gaia for the very first time, and there is well over 100 hours of content available for you to complete.
Pre-Orders are Live for the LEGO Game Boy
This week, Nintendo and LEGO unveiled the new LEGO Game Boy set. You can assemble your very own Game Boy in LEGO form, and there's even images of games included for the screen. Plus, this set includes buildable cartridges of some of the system's most popular games, including Super Mario Land and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake for $34.99
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake was one of the most enjoyable RPGs of 2024, featuring a gorgeous remade HD-2D world and voice acting. If you haven't had the chance to check this one out yet, Amazon has copies available for only $34.99. This is by far the definitive way to experience this classic, and now is the perfect time to catch up before Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake this Fall.
Save on Breath of the Wild & Tears of the Kingdom for Switch 2
Woot also has both The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for Nintendo Switch 2 on sale. These editions pack in both the original game on Nintendo Switch in addition to the Nintendo Switch 2 upgrade. Both games are some of the best experiences on Nintendo Switch, and they are even better on Switch 2 with support for higher resolutions and frame rates.
Ace Attorney Investigations Collection for $26.99
Ace Attorney Investigations Collection brought both Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth and Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit in one package, with Prosecutor's Gambit releasing in English for the very first time. This release features updated visuals, new animations, gallery mode, conversation history, and more. You can even switch between the old and new sprites! Both of these games are quite excellent, and I absolutely recommend picking this up, especially for only $26.99.
Announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon has been renewed for a fourth season that will also mark the end of the line for the series. Following the reveal, the show’s stars, Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon) and Melissa McBride (Carol Peletier) stopped by the IGN SDCC studio to discuss the series now heading towards its conclusion, with Season 3 first debuting this fall before they go into production on Season 4.
Asked about the decision to wrap up the show with Season 4, Reedus explained: “That was always sort of the plan.” After the first two seasons took place in France, Season 3 will move the action to Spain and Reedus revealed that’s where the show will remain through its conclusion, as he remarked that the story had gone “through France, through Spain, and it wraps up in Spain.” He then declared: “it wraps up in a satisfying way.”
While The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon will be wrapping up after four years, viewers obviously have a much longer connection to Daryl and Carol, given the fan favorite characters were the only two to be a part of the original The Walking Dead series for its entire 11-season run prior to the spinoff. Reedus and McBride were mindful to avoid any specific spoilers about what’s to come, and when asked if they could elaborate on how fans might feel when the series concludes, Reedus reiterated, with a grin: “All the storylines wrap up in a way that will be satisfying to the viewers.”
He did stress that the last couple of episodes have yet to be written so he couldn’t actually speak to specifics, though it’s worth noting that Reedus and McBride, who are also both Executive Producers on the show, are likely well aware of what the overall plan is for the ending by now — but understandably, secrets must be kept!
The bond between Daryl and Carol became an integral one on The Walking Dead, making it a big deal when they were reunited in Season 2 of TWD: Daryl Dixon after a long separation. Asked how either of the characters might handle it if they were separated again, Reedus said he felt that at this point, even if they weren’t together physically, “There’s a bond there between them that they probably won’t ever lose each other.”
Both McBride and Reedus said they’ve seen their fair share of fan theories about where storylines might go but revealed they felt it was never a good idea to let that guide the actual storytelling. As Reedus put it: “Sometimes it’s better to do the opposite of what people expect so they’re surprised.”
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3 premieres September 7, 2025, with Season 4 expected sometime in 2026.
The long-running saga of the infamously shelved live-action/animated hybrid film, Coyote vs. Acme, looks like it will finally see a happy ending with a global theatrical release in August 2026.
Announced by Will Forte during a panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, Coyote vs. Acme hits theaters on August 28, 2026.
Eric Bauza voices nine characters in the film, including Bugs Bunny, who acts as a deep throat type informant for Will Forte's lawyer character. Animated cameos include Miss Prissy and a sheep on the jury, and Playboy Penguin carving ice sculptures as courtroom sketches.
Coyote vs. Acme, which stars big-name talent like John Cena and Lana Condor, was on the fast-track and even managed to finish filming in 2022. It was originally set for HBO Max and is said to follow the legendary Wile E. Coyote as he launches a legal battle against Acme due to its “countless faulty products.”
Things were looking good as director Dave Green pressed forward, but that all came to a halt in 2023 when Warner Bros. announced that, despite finishing the filming process, Coyote vs. Acme would no longer find its way to Max — or anywhere else — as the company pivoted to focus more on theatrical releases.
What resulted from its shelving was a campaign from audiences and filmmakers alike as movie enjoyers sought to see it released, not only to appreciate the film but the work that went into it, too. Then, in March, American film distribution company Ketchup Entertainment, which is responsible for handling the release of projects like The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie and Ferrari, signed a deal with Warner Bros. Pictures to bring Coyote vs. Acme to theaters.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's Dutch is back in the world of Predator via an extended version of animated movie Killer of Killers — and it’s sent fans of the long-running sci-fi franchise down a lore rabbit hole that calls into question the endings of the original movies and what was thought to be a canon Predator video game.
The extended version of Killer of Killers is out now, so fans are already analyzing it to within an inch of its life. Reaction appears to be mixed. While some are excited about the iconic characters' return, some are disappointed with the idea that the Yautja kidnap victorious humans in the first place. Let’s remember the iconic scene at the end of Predator 2 where an elder Yautja rewards Harrigan with an antique flintlock pistol as a trophy. The suggestion now is Harrigan was later kidnapped and put in stasis, which some believe devalues the human victories seen in previous Predator movies.
“It just feels like shit knowing your favorite human survivors are just going to be kidnapped and probably killed in an arena by another human or by the Warlord,” said redditor Vector_Mortis.
“Why would the Yautja congratulate Harrigan, give him the pistol, and leave just to come back, take the pistol, and kidnap him?” wondered Slow_Obligation2286.
“I'm not a fan of this at all,” added Hanesman12. “Harrigan and Dutch had good endings. Zero reason this needed to be done. Purely nostalgia bait.”
“This removes everything we previously knew about Dutch and Harrigan’s timelines after the movies,” said Originalname888. “This removes the honor code. This removes everything.”
Fans are now latching onto a potential explanation for what is going on here: that the whole kidnap human survivors thing is the work of the Yautja tribe we see in Killer of Killers, which does not represent the Yautja as a whole. Perhaps this particular tribe has gone rogue and will eventually be put in its place. On that we’ll have to wait and see, but what is irrefutable is that it is now canon that Dutch and Harrigan were kidnapped soon after the events of their movies and remain in stasis at this undetermined point in the future.
But there’s an additional tricky Predator lore question that revolves around Dutch. 2020’s Predator: Hunting Grounds, developed by IllFonic, features Arnold Schwarzenegger reprising his role as Dutch. In the run up to the game’s release, the developers talked about working with people at previous rights holder Fox (this is before Disney bought the company and its franchises) to cement Hunting Grounds’ place within the official Predator lore.
This was exciting for fans as it meant Hunting Grounds officially revealed what happened to Dutch after the events of the first Predator movie — and there was no mention of being kidnapped by Yautja. Indeed, Hunting Grounds shows an older Dutch in the year 2025.
So, is Hunting Grounds no longer canon? Is Trachtenberg ignoring it? Is there another explanation? These are just some of the questions fans are trying to answer in the wake of Dutch’s return in Killer of Killers.
Whatever Trachtenberg’s master plan, there remains huge interest in the upcoming Predator: Badlands, the first 15 minutes of which were shown at Comic-Con. The Alien franchise links are clear, but will there be an AVP movie afterwards? We’ll have to wait and see.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
The MCU’s take on the Fantastic Four is finally in theaters with Fantastic Four: First Steps. And unlike other movies from Marvel Studios, this doesn’t take place on Earth-616, AKA the main MCU… Instead, it’s set on Earth-828, an alternate, retro-futuristic universe otherwise unconnected to the other Marvel movies. And because of that, it’s relatively devoid of the regular Easter eggs that are hidden everywhere in your run-of-the-mill Marvel film.
…Or is it? There are actually a fair number of references littered throughout the film, mostly to villains, as well as a few inadvertent parallels to other Fantastic Four movies. And given how the world of First Steps is packed to the gills with ads, movie marquees, and other details that zip by faster than a Fantasticar, it’s hard to catch them all with one viewing of the movie.
We did spot a bunch of Easter eggs, though, and we’ll detail them all here. But did you catch some that we missed? Then let us know in the comments so we can pick them out on the second, third, and of course, fourth time viewing the movie.
‘Well, Folks, We All Know Their Story’
Right after the opening scene of the movie, we’re taken to a montage playing on The Ted Gilbert Show, hosted by Ted Gilbert (Mark Gatiss), recounting the origin and exploits of the Fantastic Four on the occasion of their fourth anniversary.
In it, we’re introduced to three villains they previously fought: Mole Man (Paul Walter Hauser), the Red Ghost (John Malkovich) and his Super Apes, and the Mad Thinker. Mole Man doesn’t really count as an Easter egg since he plays a crucial (and very funny) role in the movie… Though if you want to see much more of what happened around the FF’s initial clash with the underground labor organizer, check out Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps comic book by Matt Fraction and Mark Buckingham, which is set in the MCU and gets into the events around the battle at greater length.
The Red Ghost and His Super Apes
As for the Red Ghost: Yes, he was played by John Malkovich; no, Malkovich wasn’t in the movie. In fact, director Matt Shakman revealed that Malkovich’s role was cut from the film. However, one of Red Ghost’s Super Apes remained in the final cut: Peotr, who is an orangutan.
Confused? Sure, it’s confusing. Introduced in Fantastic Four #13 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Red Ghost, aka Ivan Kragoff, is a Soviet scientist who tried to reproduce the shuttle flight that gave the Fantastic Four their powers, but with three apes. It worked, of course, with Red Ghost able to turn into a living ghost, Peotr able to repulse and attract objects, a gorilla named Mikhlo becoming super-strong, and a baboon named Igor gaining the ability to shape-shift. Not to jump ahead too much, but Red Ghost and his Super Apes all appear, in animated form, in the second end credits scene of the film, which is the title sequence to the in-universe Fantastic Four animated series.
The Mad Thinker
Last is Mad Thinker, who we don’t see in the film, and at this time it’s unconfirmed whether someone was cast and then also cut from the movie – though it would be pretty funny if Mad Thinker was also Malkovich. Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich! Mad Thinker, aka Julius, is another early Fantastic Four villain, first introduced in Fantastic Four #15, once again, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Normally, he’s just incredibly smart and therefore a rival to Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), and that’s pretty much his whole deal! He’s mad thinking, yo.
Giganto
Actually, there’s one more villain we should talk about: Giganto, the giant green monster the FF is fighting in this same montage, who is also the fifth star of the cover of a little comic book called Fantastic Four #1. The scene we see is a near direct reproduction of that cover, which also happens inside the book. Giganto is one of the monsters who is controlled by Mole Man, and though this has zero importance to the movie, he was created by the Deviants, the arch-enemies of the Eternals. Hopefully some day they’ll make a movie about the Eternals, that would be great!
‘You Baby-Proofed the World’
Another big villain name-drop happens right before the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) shows up, as Reed reveals that he’s been “tracking a small number of criminal organizations, regional and worldwide” to shut them down before his baby is born. He specifically points out three operating in New York that he’s had the police take down: Puppet Master, the Wizard, and Diablo.
Diablo
Diablo was introduced in Fantastic Four #30 by – you’re not going to believe this – Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. AKA Esteban Corazón de Ablo, Diablo is an alchemist who has lived for over a thousand years thanks to a deal with Marvel’s devil, Mephisto.
The Wizard
The Wizard, AKA Bentley Wittman, was also created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, along with Lee’s younger brother Larry Lieber, and was actually introduced in Strange Tales #102. However, he is most associated as a Fantastic Four villain, and usually a leader of the Frightful Four. The Wizard isn’t actually magic; he’s just super intelligent and passes off his science experiments as magic tricks. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) would love that.
Puppet Master
And Puppet Master is back to the usual, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Fantastic Four #8. Philip Masters is a sculptor who uses radioactive clay to create small puppets of people that allow him to control their minds and bodies. Also of note, he’s the father of Alicia Masters, the blind sculptor who is usually romantically involved with The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach).
Dragon Man
Last, just to wrap up the villains section, we get one more in the cartoon end credits: Dragon Man. He was introduced in Fantastic Four #35 by (crazy how this keeps happening) Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. A 16-foot-tall purple dragon android, he was brought to life by Diablo and battled the Fantastic Four… Though he much later joined the team as part of the Future Foundation.
Doom?
Okay, fine, one more villain Easter egg – which given the mid-credits scene is more of a setup than a pure egg. During that opening montage, while Sue speaks at the United Nations, we check in with various countries around the world, but one is noticeably absent: Latveria, the home of the Fantastic Four’s arch-enemy, Doctor Doom. Latveria’s presence – or rather absence – at the United Nations is the only impact it has in the movie proper. But Doom does show up to hang out with Franklin in the mid-credits scene, mask off. We don’t see if it was Robert Downey Jr. in that scene or a body double, though the mid-credits scene is directed by the Russo Brothers, who are directing Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars.
And when Doom does show up, we hear a snippet of score that we’re likely going to hear a lot of in Avengers: Doomsday: “Doom?” composed by Alan Silvestri, who is doing the music for the upcoming MCU movie.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Get Their Flowers
There are multiple nods to Jack Kirby and Stan Lee throughout the movie, most notably that the designation Earth-828 is a reference to Kirby’s birthday, August 28.
Meanwhile, in the beginning montage, we discover that the ship that initially launched the Fantastic Four on the space flight that gave them their powers is called the Excelsior, a clear reference to one of Lee’s most famous catchphrases.
Yancy Street, home of The Thing, is chock-full of references to both creators. There’s one store named “Stanley’s” which is clearly calling out Stan Lee’s real name, Stanley Lieber. And another is “King’s,” which is slightly less obvious to non-comic book fans… But Jack Kirby is nicknamed “King Kirby” because he was the King of comics.
Perhaps the wildest reference to Lee and Kirby is when the Silver Surfer zooms past the office of two guys who are clearly making comics -- Timely Employee #1 and Timely Employee #2.
Perhaps the wildest reference to the duo is when the Silver Surfer zooms over to Times Square to announce she’s the herald of Galactus. Right before she “lands,” she passes by the office of two guys who are clearly making comics, and are stunned by the Surfer. On the wall and drafting tables are inked and penciled pages, including one that is “Ogg Lives Again!” an image Jack Kirby drew in Tales of Suspense #27 from 1961, written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber. Is it possible that the two guys depicted there were, indeed, supposed to be Stan and Jack? In the credits, they're Timely Employee #1 (Martin Dickinson) and Timely Employee #2 (Greg Haiste), and Timely Publications was the original name for -- you guessed it -- Marvel Comics. Whether it's Stan and Jack or not, it's a fun detail that shows comics are still being made, even with superheroes in their midst.
And not necessarily an Easter egg, but the movie ends with a quote from Kirby: “If you look at my characters, you will find me. No matter what kind of character you create or assume, a little of yourself must remain there.” It also drives home the “828” thing because it puts 828 right after the quote, which then changes into 8/28/17-2/6/94 – the day he was born, and the day he died.
Look to the Signs
As mentioned above, there are signs and billboards everywhere. Some seem to just be fun names of movies that fit the ’60s setting: Subzero Intel, The Emperor’s Twin, and Sunrise in Minsk seem to be all normal enough, while fans think that Attack of the Fungus might be a reference to Pedro Pascal’s role on The Last of Us.
However, there is one clear reference: A store in Times Square is called Westview Appliances Television, which is a direct nod to Westview, the setting of the Matt Shakman-directed WandaVision. And in fact, there was a Westview Appliance store on that show. The more you know!
The Original Fantastic Four Appear – No, the Other Ones
Marvel’s Kevin Feige revealed a few days back that the original cast of the Fantastic Four would cameo in the new movie. No, not the Tim Story-directed one from 2005… The Roger Corman-directed Fantastic Four from 1994, which was never released in theaters. And sure enough, there they are. Alex Hyde-White, who played Reed Richards, appears as ABC Newscaster William Russell. Jay Underwood, who was Johnny Storm, plays Power Plant Worker #1. Michael Bailey Smith, who was Ben Grimm, is Power Plant Worker #2. Rebecca Staab, who was Sue Storm, is Channel 9 Newscaster Carolyn Haynes.
Joseph Culp, who was Doctor Doom, is not credited in the final movie. Cursed Richards!!
Coincidence? Or Multiversal Incursion?
These stretch the definition of Easter egg further than Galactus (Ralph Ineson) tearing apart Reed Richards, but there are a few plot points that are weirdly reminiscent of other Fantastic Four movies. In Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, a stand-out scene finds Johnny Storm (Chris Evans) chasing the Silver Surfer (Doug Jones), before having his flame snuffed out in space and falling back to Earth. With some variations, nearly the exact same thing happens to Johnny (Joseph Quinn) in First Steps.
Perhaps weirder is that the whole plot of 2015’s Fantastic Four hinges on Reed Richards (Miles Teller) creating a teleportation device. Only problem is, he can’t even transport a little toy car or plane without blacking out the whole neighborhood. So what does Pascal’s Reed do in the new movie? Create a teleportation device that, at least initially, can’t transport an egg across the room without blacking out the whole neighborhood. In the case of the new movie, the device is called The Bridge, which is a reference to Jonathan Hickman’s run in the comics, which found Reed inventing a machine that let him see the multiverse. Here, it’s basically the same sort of thing as in the 2015 movie instead.
And while also not a one-for-one, Sue Storm (Jessica Alba) dies in Rise of the Silver Surfer, only for the Surfer to use his power cosmic to revive her. Similarly, Sue dies in First Steps, only for Franklin Richards (Ada Scott) to use his power cosmic to revive her.
Are these specific references to the earlier movies? Almost definitely not. But are they eerie parallels? For sure.
There’s one other thing we can point out here under the category of incursions, which is that Reed very casually mentions how there are parallel universes, a multiverse of them, with some much like our own, during his initial science lecture to a bunch of bored kids. It’s possible this is included to explain how we, the viewing audience, are watching a different universe than the MCU. But it also sets up that Reed knows about the multiverse, something that’s about to become vitally important in Avengers: Doomsday.
For Inez Shakman
The movie is sweetly and sadly dedicated to director Matt Shakman’s mother, Inez Shakman, who passed away on April 3. You can read her obituary here.
What other Fantastic Four Easter eggs did you catch? Let’s discuss in the comments…
Warning: this article contains spoilers for The Fantastic Four: First Steps!
Marvel Studios may be sitting out their traditional Hall H panel at SDCC this year, but Robert Downey, Jr. is at least ensuring that MCU fans have some food for thought during Comic-Con. Downey posted a cryptic teaser video on Instagram, showing him listening to music and reading a copy of 1988’s The West Coast Avengers #35. Of course, Doctor Doom’s face is featured prominently on the cover, leading to immediate speculation about that comic’s relevance to the plot of Avengers: Doomsday.
So, what exactly is Downey teasing here? What happens in The West Coast Avengers #35, and how might it inform Downey’s portrayal of Doctor Doom? Here’s what you need to know.
What Happens in The West Coast Avengers #35?
As the name suggests, The West Coast Avengers was a companion series to the core Avengers comic that focused on a different group of heroes operating out of California. The roster in this issue includes Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Wonder Man, Tigra, and Moon Knight. In that sense, we’re not expecting much overlap between the comic and the movie, as none of those characters are confirmed to appear in Doomsday (though we wouldn’t be surprised to see Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton at some point).
That said, the comic may be a nod to the fact that there are indeed two different Avengers teams operating in the MCU. Anthony Mackie’s Captain America has reformed the Avengers in the wake of Captain America: Brave New World, and Thunderbolts* ended with Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Valentina Allegra De Fontaine christening her team “The New Avengers” (with the movie’s title being altered post-release to match). The post-credits scene in Thunderbolts/The New Avengers makes it clear the two teams aren’t really getting along, which is surely a hurdle our heroes will have to overcome in Doomsday.
As for what happens in The West Coast Avengers #35, this issue deals with Doom’s adopted son, Kristoff Vernard. At this point in the Marvel timeline, Doom is believed to be dead, and Kristoff is ruling Latveria in his place, implanted with the memories of his father and believing himself to be the real deal. In this issue, Kristoff captures several of the Avengers and battles Moon Knight’s godly benefactor Khonshu.
Again, while we’ve met Oscar Isaac’s Moon Knight and F. Murray Abraham’s Khonshu in the Moon Knight series, there’s no reason to assume either has a part to play in Avengers: Doomsday. We assume this tease has more to do with Kristoff, and more specifically, Doctor Doom’s history with fatherhood.
Is Avengers: Doomsday About Fathers and Sons?
Indeed, fatherhood seems to be the key takeaway from Downey’s teaser. It’s worth pointing out that the song Downey is listening to, “Change of Scenery,” is performed by his son Indio. That, combined with the image of a comic about Doctor Doom’s son, suggests that Downey wants fans to be thinking about fathers and sons.
That’s likely to be a big theme in Doomsday. For one thing, we know Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards is a central character in the film. Father/son relationships is already a big theme in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, with Galactus essentially being a metaphor for the looming specter of parenthood (as well as being a very literal threat to Earth). That’s likely to continue in Doomsday.
Based on how First Steps ends, Doomsday will probably open with Doctor Doom kidnapping young Franklin Richards and making a beeline for Earth-616, forcing Reed and his family to pursue. Reed and Vanessa Kirby’s Sue will be desperate to reunite with their son, forming what will surely be one of the key emotional throughlines of the film.
There’s also the fact that Doomsday and its sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars, are drawing heavily on the Marvel Comics work of Jonathan Hickman. Hickman’s Fantastic Four and Avenegrs runs are both also heavily steeped in parenthood themes. His Avengers run opens with Reed bemoaning the fact that “everything dies,” only for it to end with Reed’s faith restored, his family reunited, and Reed declaring “everything lives.” Downey’s tease would seem to suggest that Doomsday and Secret Wars have similar ideas in mind.
What about Doom himself? How does he play into the theme of fatherhood? We suspect it somehow has a lot to do with Doom’s origin and motivations in these movies. There’s still the all-important question of why Downey of all people has been cast as Doom. Is Doom the Tony Stark of Earth-828? Given that First Steps takes place in the ‘60s, is it possible that Doom is that universe’s Howard Stark? Or is he Victor Von Doom, a man who just happens to share the face of Tony Stark?
Whatever the answer, we wonder if some tragedy robs Doom of his family, compelling him to kidnap Franklin and harness the boy’s abilities to create new worlds and universes. Is Doom trying to build a world where his family lives again? Or is the idea that Battleworld will be a refuge for those he cares about when the rest of the multiverse collapses? The MCU’s Doom could wind up having very different motivations from his self-absorbed comic book counterpart.
Leatherface hasn't been on the big screen in a few years, but that hasn't stopped rumors and speculation about when the character will return. At one point, Longlegs director Osgood Perkins was rumored to be in the running to make a new entry in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, but those plans seem to be on hold. Perkinis did reveal, however, that he still has some inside info about how Leatherface must be treated on screen.
Speaking as part of Neon's "Next Wave of Horror" panel at San Diego Comic-con, Perkins responded to a fan question about Leatherface saying that there were no updates as to whether he was still pushing to oversee a new adaptation. Perkins did reveal, however, that he received a huge amount of information from the owners of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre IP, implying that he's had advanced conversations about bringing Leatherface back to life. Part of that information is that "Leatherface can't have a love interest," under any circumstances.
Perkins humorously followed up saying "well now you've said it!" perhaps revealing that he'd like to make a Leatherface relationship part of any potential revival.
Responding to the same questioner, Perkins also said that it would be a "beautiful thing" if Leatherface, who some fans have speculated to be neurodivergent, was played by a neurodivergent actor.
A new season of King of the Hill is headed to Hulu August 4, and the cast and creators of the beloved series stopped by San Diego Comic-con to show off a new episode and talk about bringing the popular show back to life.
Executive Producer and Showrunner Salading Pattersonwas joined by Executive Producers and Co-Creators Greg Daniels and Mike Judge (who also provides the voice of Hank Hill) along with series stars Kathy Najimy, Pamela Adlon, Nicole Tom, and Toby Huss.
The audience at the panel was able to screen the entire second episode of the show's 14th season, titled "The Beer Story." In the episode, Hank, who has just retired and is desperate for hobbies, starts brewing beer at home (his kit is powered buy - you guessed it - propane) and enters a beer making competition, competing against Bobby, who's now somewhat of an expert in brewing thanks to his job as a chef in Dallas.
Throughout the episode, we got an inside look at some Easter eggs showing how Arlen has changed (and how it hasn't) in the 15 years since the show went off the air.
Show-within-a-show Monsignor Martinez is still on the air, although it now features the son of the original titular character, who is avenging his father's death.
Peggy's spanish is still sub-par to say the least, evidenced by her failed attempt to translate Monsignor Martinez's dialogue.
Bobby’s restaurant, called Robota Chane, is located in Dallas and seems to be financed by Bobby's childhood frenemy Chane Wassanasong and his father Ted.
After Hank and Bobby decide to enter a beer brewing competition, Hank and Peggy visit a local brewery to understand the appeal of newer "fruity" beers. Unsurprisingly, Hank is disgusted with anything other than Alamo.
In a subtle tribute to Tom Petty (who voiced the character Lucky in the show's original run), the song "Runnin' Down a Dream" is featured in a beer making montage.
Joseph is still Bobby's best friend. He's seen driving his biological father's (John Redcorn's) Jeep from the original series and also smokes cigarettes with his, um, "real" father Dale.
Nancy and John Redcorn show up to the competition and are seemingly still together. Dale, of course, is still as ignorant of their relationship as ever.
The show's theme song (by The Refreshmants) still plays over the end credits, although it's an updated version.
The series' famous tag (where a funny line from the episode is spoken over the studio logo) is still there. The screened episode features a line where Dale insults Bobby.
After the episode screened, the cast and producers came on stage to talk about reviving the show. The conversation featured news about what fans can expect once Season 14 drops.
Pamala Adlon (Bobby Hill) says that Bobby didn't go to college and is struggling with working in the restaurant industry while his friends took different paths. Still, Adlon says Bobby is her favorite character she's ever played and that when she sees a picture of Bobby, she "thinks she’s looking at a picture of (her)self."
We've already learned from the new season's synopsis that Hank and Peggy moved to Saudi Arabia, where they lived for 10 years. Judge says they were able to survive there because they lived in a fabricated "American" town built for employees of Hank's employer. Judge also said that Hank, who was always a bit of a stick in the mud, didn't mind that women there tended to be "covered up."
Lauren Tom, who voices Bobby's on-again, off-again, girlfriend Connie, says that Connie started off in the series as shy, but now is much more confident now that she's older. Tom also said that when we see Connie in the revival, she's "practicing ethical non-monogomy."
Toby Huss, who voiced many characters in the original series, took over the role of Hank's conspiracy-addled neighbor Dale Gribble from the late Johnny Hardwick. "I'm not going to improve on what Johnny did," Huss said. "But I hope he approves of it."
The crew also confirmed that at some point during the show's hiatus, Dale actually became mayor of Arlen, which Huss said was "wacky and appropriate."
Season 14 of King of the Hill streams on Hulu August 4.
A version of Predator: Killer of Killers with an extended ending featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character Dutch and Danny Glover’s character Mike Harrigan will broadcast tonight.
Predator: Killer of Killers is an animated Predator movie that ends with a tantalizing look at how the Yautja store people who survive a Predator hunt. This extended ending, due to be broadcast tonight, July 25 at 7pm PT on Hulu, sees Arnie’s Dutch from the original Predator movie and Danny Glover's Mike Harrigan from Predator 2 captured and frozen by the Yautja.
Director Dan Trachtenberg revealed the news during a panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, where he also confirmed Arnold Schwarzenegger had given him his blessing to tell new stories with the Dutch character. Fans had already expressed hope that they might see Dutch return, and it looks like this may happen in a follow-up to Killer of Killers.
Dan Trachtenberg has set up new Predator lore that sees the Yautja kidnap beings who survive a hunt and store them in stasis for later use. This is what has happened to Dutch, Harrigan, and Amber Midthunder’s Naru from Prey, all of whom we will presumably see in action again.
There’s no suggestion the 77-year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger will play Dutch again in live action, but it will be interesting to see if the actor lends his voice to the character for an animation.
Photo by Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Alien: Earth includes three different types of high tech lifeforms created by mankind, but one of them is old news from the perspective of the characters.
During the panel for the new Alien TV series at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 today, cast member Babou Ceesay (Into the Badlands, Rogue One) was asked about his character Morrow’s unusual nature. Morrow is one of the crew members onboard the Maginot, a ship returning from a mission in deep space to collect samples of five alien lifeforms for Weyland-Yutani.
Morrow is also a cyborg, something we see represented by how he can transform his hands, making weapons and tools appear. But as Ceesay points out, the Maginot is wrapping up a 65-year mission when the show begins, meaning in terms of technology, he’s ancient. Or as Ceesay put it, “He’s coming back to a planet where he’s essentially an iPhone 1 in an iPhone 20 world.”
In the Alien: Earth premiere, Morrow is the only cyborg we meet, though that doesn’t mean he’s the only one around. But synths have been the prevalent such being in the Alien franchise (including in the original 1979 movie, set two years after Alien: Earth). This makes it feel like beyond Morrow himself being outdated, cyborgs might be considered the old and possibly mostly passé tech in general, synths the current and most prevalent tech, and hybrids are definitely the newest tech, given we meet the first-ever example of such a being (Sydney Chandler’s Wendy) in the series. But given all of the other Alien movies — some set long after both Alien: Earth and Alien – lean so much on synths, it feels like not only do cyborgs completely fall by the wayside but that something stops hybrids from becoming a successful technology…. Though the question remains why that is.
For now though, Alien: Earth will feature both hybrids and at least one cyborg in a prominent role in the form of Morrow. And while Morrow might be seen as ancient, old-timey technology for the people of 2120, Ceesay still proudly proclaimed, “He’s got his swiss army knife arm!”
Welcome back, Twisted Childhood Universe fanatics. We’ve seen Winnie the Pooh slaughter innocents, watched Peter Pan kidnap children, and now we get the Poohniverse’s first creature feature in Bambi: The Reckoning. Writer Rhys Warrington morphs the lovable mule deer who first appeared in author Felix Salten’s Bambi, a Life in the Woods into a monstrous killing machine hellbent on vengeance. It’s a razor-toothed take on what might be one of Disney’s saddest animated classics, and stands as one of the TCU’s better films. Maybe that’s a low bar given it’s only the fourth entry and they’re all schlocky by design, but heck, at least we’re not reliving the worst-of-all terribleness of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.
This retelling opens with Bambi’s tragic backstory, but doubles down on the heartache. Bambi not only watches his mother die, but later finds his mate turned to roadkill by a Wilbexr Pharmaceuticals truck and his child taken. It’s the impetus for the titular reckoning, which comes to pass after he sips spring water tainted with the company’s toxic waste. A ghastly, demonic-looking Bambi mutation with jagged teeth and zombie-ish features appears in all its computer-generated glory, with muscular definition inspired by David Bruckner’s godlike deer entity in The Ritual (because, without any shame, these TCU films all ape ideas from far superior, more popular horror movies). The effects don’t look horrible, especially under the shade of night, but it’s still clearly a knockoff.
Enter Xana (Roxanne McKee) and her son Benji (Tom Mulheron), the central protagonists. Their relationship parallels Bambi and his child’s, given how Xana’s deadbeat husband, Simon (Alex Cooke), is as absent as Bambi’s dead lover. There’s an attempted commentary about chasing parental love from the wrong source and ignoring what’s available, but it’s hardly interesting. Bambi’s rage is provoked by humanity’s desecration of nature, which leads to a more inviting subplot about mercenaries hired by Wilbexr to track down Murder Bambi. Unshockingly, Bambi: The Reckoning is strongest when hunters are maimed and decapitated – that’s when this movie isn’t taking itself too seriously.
Director Dan Allen tries to balance B-movie splatter effects with an emotional tale of parental protection, but it’s a futile effort. The worst decision Bambi: The Reckoning makes is veering away from the grim fable’s inherent silliness, sucking the fun out of gruesome forest rampages. The inclusion of Benji’s extended family is merely victim fodder, never fleshed out beyond how their flesh will be ripped out. The best we’ve got is obnoxious teenager Harrison (Joseph Greenwood), a bratty youth so annoying that his death can’t happen soon enough. Allen desperately wants to take a stand for finding hope in dysfunctional family dynamics, yet his nobler intentions never align with the after-midnight thrills these TCU slashers chase. Either that, or he fails to read the room in terms of hammering us over the head with sadness, like that inexcusably bleak ending that left me with a sour taste in my mouth.
As for the violence, you’ll be delighted (die-lighted?) to hear that Bambi is a human-seeking missile carrying out Mother Nature’s cruelest orders, goring threats on his antlers and leaving trails of blood. Even better, an homage to Thumper gets in on the carnage, because any woodland creature could have sipped the same infected water, right? Bambi: The Reckoning finds its groove as guilty parties meet vile fates, with hooves and chompers causing repulsive brutality. Had it not felt weighed down by melodrama and throwaway development of uninteresting characters, perhaps the chaotic joy of Bambi’s murderous mayhem could have risen to the top of the TCU.
But, alas, Bambi: The Reckoning sinks into a forgettable cycle of one-by-one kills and nods to its superior influences. You can’t help but see Death of a Unicorn (minus the comedy) reflecting in countless scenes, which is a shame because Bambi: The Reckoning was supposed to be released before A24’s fantastical farce in 2024. There are also numerous Jurassic Park references, which feel doubly recycled because Death of a Unicorn itself remixes Jurassic Park: The Lost World.
Of course, Bambi: The Reckoning is hardly original, even beyond the public domain, because these movies tend to rely on imitation rather than reinvention. It’s a shame, because characters like Peter Pan and Bambi are begging for their own breakouts, not to become cut-rate versions of someone else’s successes.
Gen V has a new Season 2 trailer fresh from San Diego Comic-Con 2025.
The Boys spinoff premieres September 17 on Prime Video with the first three episodes, and this new trailer includes a number of characters fans of the over-the-top anti-hero show will know and love.
This season of Gen V introduces “key events and revelations that feed directly into the final chapter of The Boys,” Prime video said. We see The Boys characters Starlight, played by Erin Moriarty, Nathan Mitchell’s Black Noir, and The Deep, played by Chace Crawford in the trailer teasing their roles in Season 2.
Perhaps the most surprising news is the casting of Ethan Slater, who plays Boq in Wicked, in a recurring role as Thomas Godolkin. Sean Patrick Thomas, who portrays Polarity, has been promoted to series regular for the upcoming season.
Here’s the official blurb on Season 2:
In Season 2, school is back in session. As the rest of America adjusts to Homelander's iron fist, back at Godolkin University, the mysterious new Dean preaches a curriculum that promises to make students more powerful than ever. Cate and Sam are celebrated heroes, while Marie, Jordan, and Emma reluctantly return to college, burdened by months of trauma and loss. But parties and classes are hard to care about with war brewing between Humans and Supes, both on and off campus. The gang learns of a secret program that goes back to the founding of Godolkin University that may have larger implications than they realize. And, somehow, Marie is a part of it.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Writer Jonathan Hickman and artists Federico Vicentini and Iban Coello are busy reshaping the fabric of the Marvel cosmos in Imperial. And much like Hickman's 2023 series Ultimate Invasion, which served as the foundation for a brand new version of the Ultimate Universe line, Imperial is laying the groundwork for a new line of cosmic-focused Marvel titles. Thanks to Marvel's "Next Big Thing" panel at SDCC, we now know what those books are.
Marvel has plans for five comics spinning out of the pages of Imperial and launching between November 2025 and Winter 2026. That lineup includes Planet She-Hulk, Nova: Centurion, Black Panther: Intergalactic, Exiles, and Imperial Guardians.
Marvel only revealed plot details and creative teams for Planet She-Hulk and Nova: Centurion, as those will be the first two out of the gate. Planet She-Hulk builds on a plot point from Imperial #1, where Hulk leaves his cousin in charge of the chaotic planet of Sakaar. An assignment that was supposed to last a few days has now stretched out indefinitely, forcing Jen Walters to embrace her savage side and figure out how to bring peace to a planet that seems perpetually at war.
Planet She-Hulk is written by Stephanie Phillips (Phoenix) and drawn by Aaron Kuder (Daredevil). The first issue releases in November 2025.
Nova: Centurion focuses on Richard Rider, the last member still standing of the once-mighty Nova Corps. Richard finds himself resorting to increasingly shady work-for-hire jobs in order to fund the expensive energy transfusions necessary to keep the Xandarian Worldmind functioning. But how long can this ailing hero keep getting his hands dirty?
Nova: Centurion is written by Stephaine Phillips (Phoenix) and drawn by Álvaro López (Predator: Black, White & Blood). The first issue releases in November 2025.
Also at the panel, Marvel revealed a first look at One World Under Doom #9, the final chapter of Marvel's big crossover event for 2025. The solicitation for issue #9 teases, "Doom has confronted all of Earth’s heroes in battle – and he’s won. What’s more, he’s used the magical power of Sorcerer Supreme to ensure that this victory has become a fixed moment in time: a thing that will stand forever, impervious to magic or time travel alike. But unbeknownst to Doom, in that climactic moment that can now never be changed, the seeds of Doom’s downfall were also fixed for all eternity. Left with an intolerable defeat that cannot be changed, Doom makes a choice he can never undo – and the rest of the world will pay his price..."
One world Under Doom #9 will also release in November 2025.
If you’ve seen The Empire Strikes Back, you’ll probably remember Chewbacca carrying C-3PO in pieces on his back during the escape from Cloud City scene. It’s a scene that has gone on to be featured in various merchandise and even the LEGO Star Wars games. Now, it has become the unlikely inspiration behind the central idea of the upcoming Predator: Badlands movie.
The problem is, Thia has been cut in half, and her torso must be carried by the Yautja on his back as he seeks out what is described as "a creature that can’t be killed" and "the definitive apex predator." Predator: Badlands’ working title, Backpack, makes a lot more sense now.
It turns out, the Predator carrying a synth idea was directly inspired by Star Wars. In an interview with IGN at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, Predator director Dan Trachtenberg confirmed the link, saying: “That was the initial inspiration for it.”
Star Wars, however, wasn’t the only inspiration. In prior interviews Trachtenberg has mentioned masterpiece Shadow of the Colossus as inspiring Predator: Badlands, but it turns out there are many other games that factored into the film’s companion mechanic, including Half-Life 2, Uncharted, and God of War.
“There's a few that have influenced me over the years and definitely come together in this,” Trachtenberg explained.
“One would be the combination of Half-Life 2, when you meet the robot dog, it's like your pet, but you befriend it, and the reboot of Prince of Persia, and Uncharted where it's like having the companion along with the journey makes it that much more rich and entertaining. And then of course, the 2018 God of War. All of that influenced the nature of Dek and Thia in this movie, along with many other things.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Connexion
