I had a chance to catch up with Jimmy after he left the house. While he's still not entirely caught up on the episodes yet, he is streaming Big Brother online and reading what the fans have to say about Season 27. Given that he's had the weekend to digest all of that, Jimmy shared his thoughts about the Houseguest he thought audiences would adore and the one player who exceeded his expectations.

Jimmy Says The Houseguests All Thought Rylie Was The Star

While I was talking about how I had a bad feeling about Rylie Jeffries even before the game officially started, Jimmy shared a surprising reveal. Per Jimmy, Rylie is one of the most beloved competitors amongst the Houseguests. Here's what Heagerty specifically had to say about that:

Jimmy didn't clarify those "understandable reasons." Still, there are a few reasons as to why fans wouldn't want to be in Rylie's corner. For instance, Rylie did mention early on that he "didn't need" to win Big Brother and that there are better opportunities for him outside of the house.

Some fans have also been uncomfortable with Rylie's romantic pursuit of Katherine Woodman. On that front, the episodes have shied away from his aggressive flirting style, which many fans have noticed on the live feeds. There are also court records (as shared on Instagram) regarding a woman alleging Rylie is the father of her unborn child. Of course, all of that plays out while he engages in a romance with someone else on TV. All this to say, viewers will form opinions on the legal drama, and it's possible the Big Brother Houseguests aren't aware of any of that.

Jimmy Realized Ashley Is A Better Player Than He Thought

Jimmy also admitted to CinemaBlend that he had a totally inaccurate impression of another Houseguest. The Big Brother 27 pre-juror admitted he had Ashley Hollis all wrong, and that she might be one of the best currently playing the game:

I think the live feed viewers themselves are still deciding if Ashley knows how to use a Swiffer mop or not, but she does have a good read on the house. That was much better than what Jimmy or his other associates thought for sure, as Ashley gave off the energy of an oblivious Houseguest who didn't want to do more than stir the pot.

Now that Jimmy has access to the live feeds and can use a Paramount+ subscription to tune in, I wonder if he'll have an even greater appreciation for the way that Ashley is playing the game. Despite all the drama caused by "Showergate," she's managed to keep a target off her back every week since, which is a rare feat when you're one of the first targets.

Whether Ashley is playing Big Brother well enough to win remains to be seen. In all honesty, Season 27 feels like a crap shoot, because the collective bad strategy of several players has unwittingly led to the eviction order feeling random over the past couple of weeks. That's also a credit to the BB Blockbuster, which is forcing players to show their cards earlier.

Viewers will see how Ashley and other Houseguests further navigate the game, as Big Brother continues (sans Jimmy) on CBS on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. ET amid the 2025 TV schedule. Of course, the live feeds are always available, but don't forget there's a feed on Pluto TV if Paramount+ is not an option.

FX’s Alien: Earth has finally landed on the 2025 TV schedule, bringing with it a new chapter in the Alien movie timeline spearheaded by Fargo’s Noah Hawley and the show’s impressive cast. While it seems like the new sci-fi series will deviate from the canon somewhat, there is one aspect of Ridley Scott’s original classic that came back this time: practical Xenomorphs.

Ahead of the new Hulu arrival’s debut, CinemaBlend sat down with members of the Alien: Earth cast to talk about what it was like sharing the screen with one of the scariest movie monsters of all time. When asked if there was a period of adjustment working with an actor in a Xenomorph suit, star Alex Lawther (who plays soldier and medic CJ “Hermit") opened up about how wild it was going from seeing the Xenomorph as something trying to kill his character to a guy from New Zealand hanging out on set:

Running from a deadly stowaway on the space vessel Maginot after it crash lands on Earth one moment and then bumping into “a guy from New Zealand” the next? I'd say that had to be totally trippy.

Adding onto this experience of the stuntman playing the Xenomorph, Sydney Chandler, who plays a hybrid human/synthetic and CJ’s sister, recounted how “calm” and “casual” the guy looked between takes:

The mental image of a Xenomorph chomping down on a celery stalk is something that’s now stuck in your head. Though they didn’t say one way or another, I'm sure you're wondering the same thing we are: if the creature’s iconic piston-like inner mouth popped out to grab the stalk from the veggie tray.

Having a Xenomorph played by an actor could make things awkward in craft services and all, but taking the franchise back to its roots in this regard is one of several nice touches by Noah Hawley and company. You may recall that Ridley Scott cast Nigerian visual artist and actor Bolaji Badejo to play the original alien back in Alien, and that helped make it one of the best sci-fi movies of all time.

How Alien: Earth will stack up to the movies is anyone’s guess at this point, but critics have had great things to say about the FX on Hulu series so far. In fact, it was still rocking a 94 % on Rotten Tomatoes on the day of its premiere.

The first two episodes of Alien: Earth are now streaming on Hulu, and the remaining installments will be released every Tuesday until the Season 1 finale in late September. We won't get to see a Xenomorph eat a celery stick (or watch a Facehugger latch to a meat plate), but we can expect some intense sci-fi horror.

I spoke to the cast of King of the Hill at San Diego Comic-Con and asked Huss if there were any bittersweet feelings about having to pass the torch from Kahn. Without hesitation, the voice actor, who had previously voiced the character and others for the entirety of the previous series, explained why he wasn't upset about losing the role:

King of the Hill did the same thing many other animated shows have done before it, as other shows evaluated whether it was appropriate to have white actors voice minorities of a different cultural background. It remains a topic of debate in the animation world in 2025, and it feels the series and its cast made a statement about where they stood on the matter.

Toby Huss was happy to step aside, and with the vacant position left open, now voices Dale on the back half of the latest season available with a Hulu subscription. Connie and Minh actress Lauren Tom spoke about how she felt about Huss stepping away from Kahn, and applauded him on his attitude throughout it:

It did make sense, and much like how King of the Hill figured out what to do with Bobby's voice now that he's an adult, the series found a way to keep one of its prominent contributing voice actors in the mix. It also set a precedent for how casting will go with future characters, assuming new characters join the series along the way.

This does raise the question of what will happen with John Redcorn, given the death of voice actor Jonathan Joss. It's unclear if King of the Hill will find a new voice actor to play the character, or if it'll avoid featuring John Redcorn as it has done with other characters whose voice actors have passed away.

There has been some mixed reception online regarding the voice casting decisions King of the Hill made. The gist is that many don't believe Ronny Chieng sounds enough like the original voice of Kahn, and it's jarring for some classic fans to hear the new voice. Again, this is nothing new to animation; however, comparisons always get made when new voice actors take on a role.

On the other side of the coin, I believe that when listening to Dale's voice in the newest episodes of King of the Hill, he sounds more like the classic version of the character when Toby Huss is voicing him. Voice acting can be strange in that way, as almost everyone's voice changes with age.

For that reason, I defer to what makes the actors happy, and if Huss is fine with the way things are, I don't see much reason to complain. Of course, I had Rick and Morty to help me come to this realization a while back, so I'd understand if it'll take others longer to adjust.

King of the Hill's latest season is available to stream over on Hulu right now. I'm eager to learn if there are more episodes on the way, so I hope we get an announcement about that soon.

Video Chapters

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:16 - Zach Cregger Talks Stephen King’s Influence On ‘Weapons’

00:01:07 - Julia Garner Didn’t Realize Zach Cregger Was A Big Influence On How She Played Justine In ‘Weapons’

00:01:58 - That Time Josh Brolin Fell Asleep Mid-Scene

00:04:06 - [SPOILERS] Julia Garner And Alden Ehrenreich On The Making Of Their Intense Final Scene

00:05:25 - Shooting ‘Weapons’ Final Scene Haunted Zach Cregger For Weeks

00:06:16 - Josh Brolin Still Doesn’t Know Why The Kids In ‘Weapons’ Run The Way They Do, But He’s Here For It

00:06:55 - Zach Cregger Had To Be ‘Okay’ With The Plot Holes In ‘Weapons’

Fronted by stand-up megastar Leanne Morgan, the new show is a slice-of-life comedy that stems in part from the comedian’s real life and stage act. Though performing comedy for an audience is technically quite different from performing filmed scenes, Morgan was apparently an extremely quick learner, and showrunner Susan McMartin told CinemaBlend the comic’s skills in front of live crowds helped make filming that much easier. In her words:

I think it woulc have been fascinating as a studio audience member to watch a stand-up queen like Leanne Morgan learning the ropes when it comes to blocking scenes and acting opposite her co-stars. It's a completely different world from speaking directly to crowds on a nightly basis, even though many of the skills are shared, as far as timing, facial reactions, vocal projection, and more.

That's not all, of course. While a headlining stand-up act will usually last between 90-120 minutes, it takes many more hours to properly film a 30-minute episode of TV. So that could have been a major hurdle for Leanne Morgan to deal with, but Susan McMartin said it wasn't even a minor issue, and that working with co-star Kristen Johnston definitely helped keep things on track.

Not just from a comedy standpoint, but also from a women-in-power perspective. As she put it:

Despite much of it happening in front of an audience, McMartin said that Leanne Morgan was always willing to take new suggestions and hear advice for how to handle something. To the point where the creative team considered her to be a true actress by the time the show was wrapped.

I can imagine fictional Leanne would have used a black belt to open up a can of whoopass on Ryan Stiles' Bill at one point or twelve others.

Susan McMartin also talked to me about how she, Chuck Lorre and Leanne Morgan crafted the sitcom's central story, and how they used the comedian's stand-up act to inspire the new show without making it the only source material.

It is indeed strange to see a well-known part of a stand-up comedian's act get morphed into a live-action sitcom joke. Granted, it seems to happen far less often than it used to, given how many fewer sitcoms get produced now compared to in the '90s.

Next up for Chuck Lorre on the 2025 TV schedule, beyond a possible second season for Leanne, will be the newest season of Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage hitting CBS, while many fans are also pumped about HBO Max's official Big Bang Theory spinoff Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, which is still in the development phase.

While the 2025 movie schedule has featured big-budget blockbuster films throughout the summer, fall isn't too far off with at least one suitably spooky movie set for October. Shelby Oaks, hailing from writer/director/producer Chris Stuckmann, will debut as Neon's upcoming horror flick starring Camille Sullivan, Brendan Sexton III, Michael Beach, and Keith David, among others. Stuckmann spoke with CinemaBlend about the finished product of the film after getting the budget for reshoots and adding practical effects for the blood and gore. And it certainly shows in the trailer!

Executive produced by Mike Flanagan (who directed, wrote, and produced The Life of Chuck for Neon), Shelby Oaks follows the story of Mia (Camille Sullivan), who becomes convinced that her sister wasn't murdered after all despite evidence seeming to point to the contrary. When clues begin to drop that something more sinister is at work... well, the trailer (seen above) reveals that Mia is in for a rough ride with all the blood. Originally funded by a Kickstarter campaign that totaled nearly $1.4 million, Neon picked up the film and gave Chris Stuckmann the extra money to reshoot and add gruesome shots that originally weren't possible.

I spoke with Stuckmann at San Diego Comic-Con about going back to add to what had been a finished product of Shelby Oaks, and he immediately described Neon as "the most incredible partners who picked up a movie that was shot on a shoestring budget." He went on:

Just like with cuts being made with book-to-screen adaptations, cuts from a finished script sometimes have to happen during the process of shooting a movie. Shelby Oaks was first viewed by an audience before the reshoots back in July 2024 at Fantasia Fest in Montreal, not too long after the production company found horror success with the exceptionally creepy Longlegs. Upcoming audiences will get to see the finished product with the increased budget, which IndieWire reported was roughly $1 million. Stuckmann continued:

Shelby Oaks will release in theaters on Friday, October 3, which is toward the end of a year that has already delivered some popular horror films. Fortunately, the stars aligned for Chris Stuckmann to film the movie that was in the script.

Of course, not all productions will go the extra mile for practical effects when computer-generated effects are an option. Some actors have opened up about preferring practical effects, including Murderbot's Alexander Skårsgard despite challenges. Chris Stuckmann went on to share why he prefers doing things practically:

Shelby Oaks was the first feature that Chris Stuckmann has directed, with the added weight of writing and producing it. So, he only had good things to say about getting to go back, reshoot, and add the practical effects that can really sell horror. He concluded:

You can find Shelby Oaks in theaters starting on Friday, October 3. The timing makes it one of the first horror movies to release theatrically in October, so be sure to check it out if you want some scares to kick off the spookiest month of the year.

Mild spoilers below for those who haven’t yet caught up with Twisted Metal’s fourth episode via Peacock subscription, so be warned!

The first five episodes of Twisted Metal’s second season, at least to me, deliver as many fun and exciting moments as the entire first season did, and it’s a huge highlight on the 2025 TV schedule. (And I’m not bumping on Season 1, which I adored.) From the barrage of weirdo new characters like Lisa Gilroy’s Vermin to exploring the ins and outs of Calypso’s tournament, I’m having a blast, and never more than when Joe Seanoa’s Sweet Tooth and Mike MItchell’s Stu are sharing the screen.

I talked to the hilarious co-stars about their highly gory buddy-comedy escapades in Season 2, and I had to ask Seanoa (who dons the Sweet Tooth costume while Will Arnett provides the voice) if having the character’s signature clown mask on made it easier to hide his laughter while filming. As seen in the video above, he confirmed that it is indeed easier to shield his reactions to certain moments. In his words:

For all the fun and hilarious moments that show up on the screen, it means Twisted Metal's cast and crew were bringing their all-serious A-game to the production. Despite being a big dude who can handle criticism, the WWE and AEW vet doesn't want to be the guy holding filming up because he's visibly chuckling behind the clown mask. (Of all the on-screen foibles to make, a laughing clown doesn't seem that sinful.)

Seanoa continued, saying he thinks it's a top-tier get where necessary masks are concerned:

If Sweet Tooth's vibe was more about oozing charm and empathy, that mask would not be the way to go. We all know that's not his M.O., though.

For all that Joe Seanoa knows how to keep his professional composure while filming, he hilariously let some of that slide during our interview to lightly troll Mike Mitchell just as he was sharing a variety of compliments.

• MIKE MITCHELL: Joe is such an incredible actor and performer, and his physicality is incredible. So it's, honestly, it's easy to…
• JOE SEANOA [interrupting]: Mitch is a great high jumper. I don't know if you guys know that. He's one of the better ones that I've seen on set. So just don't let that fact go unsaid. Thank you.
• MIKE MITCHELL: He's right. I can get like, two inches off the ground. Joe such a good actor, such a good performer. It's so easy to play across from him for that reason. If it's not six in the morning, it is hard to not break.

I can imagine that getting to set and ready for filming before 6 A.M can lead to some moments where absolutely nothing seems funny or worth breaking over. But once that misery evens out, let the good times roll.

To that end, though, Mitchell pointed out that there were moments where the duo went off-script and took moments a bit too far comedically, to the point where someone else chimed in.

• MIKE MITCHELL: There's a scene when I'm in my underwear where I was trying to get a missile out and turning around in circles. And I think Joe and I will push it to the limits where we'll go extremely silly, and they'll be like, 'Okay, reel it back.' Or they'll just cut it out.
• JOE SEANOA: Right, 'Knock out the Keystone Cops. Bring it back into reality, boys.'

One might think it'd be easy to get away with performing behind a mask like Sweet Tooth's, but not being able to deliver facial expressions means everything else about the physical performance needs to be top-notch. And Mike MItchell says that Seanoa is even able to keep up with the flow when the actors start improvising during scenes. In his words:

I gotta say, there's no way I would have been able to make it through this particular moment without guffawing in the most plainly visible way to anyone paying attention. "Sweet Toot's Tournament" alone is enough to send my into giggling hysterics.

Don’t expect Sweet Tooth to get all obsessed with The Baby-Sitters Club books like Anthony Mackie’s John Doe. That said, I wouldn’t put it past Stu, especially if he can lay down on a comfy couch instead of riding around looking for victims.

All creative teams working on upcoming video game adaptations should take note of how to have a good time. Twisted Metal will bring even more when new episodes drop on Thursdays, with the sixth and seventh episodes arriving on August 14.

Warning: spoilers ahead for the first two episodes of Outlander: Blood of My Blood, available streaming now with a Hulu subscription and the STARZ app.

The long-awaited Outlander spinoff has officially premiered with two back-to-back episodes in the 2025 TV schedule, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who was glad to get the double dose of time travel romance in one night. After the first episode focused largely on Brian (Jamie Roy) and Ellen (Harriet Slater) in the 18th century, only the last ten minutes of the premiere focused on Julia (Hermione Corfield) and Henry (Jeremy Irvine) before the second episode really delved into their story.

As it turned out, their story on screen in those last ten minutes of the premiere started with a sex scene that seemed reminiscent of Claire and Jamie on Outlander, so I asked the stars for their thoughts on working with intimacy coordinators after Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan spoke highly of the practice. First things first!

What Caitriona Balfe And Sam Heughan Have Said

Outlander didn’t have an intimacy coordinator in the earliest seasons, as staffing somebody in that role wasn’t common when the show kicked off back in 2014. That changed for Season 6, and both stars only had good things to say about the new practices. Speaking with EW, Balfe recounted that it was previously a "constant negotiation between the director and the producers and how much do the producers want versus how much we feel comfortable with,” which were “never comfortable conversations, and sometimes it can cause tensions.” She went on to say this about Vanessa Coffey, who came on as the intimacy coordinator:

Sam Heughan, who brought Vanessa Coffey into the production in the first place and then worked with her again on Starz’s The Couple Next Door, shared his own thoughts in the same 2022 interview while reflecting back on the earliest days of Outlander:

Charles Vandervoort, who plays William on Outlander, also praised working with the show’s intimacy coordinator. She made sure that he and his scene partner “were very comfortable with what was going to happen” with “established boundaries.” So, what about Blood of My Blood as the spinoff wasted no time in getting steamy with two of the four leads?

What Hermione Corfield And Jeremy Irvine Told Us

I’d predicted that Outlander: Blood of My Blood might take a few episodes before getting into any sex scenes, but I clearly underestimated how much of Julia and Henry’s love story we’d see in the 20th century before Claire’s parents accidentally traveled back a couple hundred years. The actors’ first such scene took place in the premiere, when Henry and Julia took a brief break while driving through the Scottish countryside for a romantic rendezvous before the car crash that took them away from their young daughter.

It was an intimate scene for two costars so early in a show that will run at least two seasons thanks to an early renewal, so I took a moment while speaking with Hermione Corfield and Jeremy Irvine during Starz’s Blood of My Blood press day to ask about about their experiences with an intimacy coordinator after what Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe said. Corfield, who previously recounted how paparazzi almost spoiled a huge Blood of My Blood twist, shared:

Fortunately, the two actors clearly have a strong working relationship as well as the advocacy of an intimacy coordinator. Vanessa Coffey fills that role on the prequel after doing the same on Outlander, so the show certainly recruited somebody with experience in that world of period drama romance. Jeremy Irvine shared his own take:

It remains to be seen just how much romance Outlander: Blood of My Blood will deliver for Julia and Henry in Season 1. While Brian and Ellen only seem to be getting closer, Julia and Henry were separated before traveling back in time, and Julia currently doesn’t even know that her husband is anywhere other than post-WWI Scotland. If nothing else, I predict that fans should probably prepare for some yearning!

See what’s next for the love stories of Outlander: Blood of My Blood on Fridays at 8 p.m. ET on Starz, or streaming on Hulu or the Stars app. After Harriet Slater wore more than thirty feet of tartan silk for the premiere and the promise of a second season, there’s plenty of buzz surrounding the new show.

SFX Magazine had a chance to chat with Lawrence ahead of the film's September release and asked about the rating, as well as the need to make the movie exceptionally brutal. The director, who notably directed other dystopian thrillers like I Am Legend and The Hunger Games franchise, explained why he felt a need to make this an R-rated movie, and why there wasn't an option to make it any other way:

Beyond Stephen King's insistence the movie be as brutal as possible, Francis Lawrence wanted The Long Walk to look and feel as brutal as its source material. I daresay it was a necessary feat, as while book readers may tolerate a movie where the primary action the characters are doing is walking, a movie-going audience may not have the same tolerance.

On that note, Lawrence said:

Rest assured, as the trailer for The Long Walk showed no punches were pulled when it came to the heart-wrenching story of young men volunteering for a televised death march for a chance at being the sole winner. The person walking on the stump that used to be their foot was enough to make my stomach churn, and I'm sure that's not even the start of disturbing moments.

CinemaBlend learned from the cast at San Diego Comic-Con that the filming process was also brutal at points. Star Garrett Wareing revealed they walked around 300 miles filming the movie, most of which was resetting to their original marks between filming scenes. In any case, one would think it wasn't hard to fake exhaustion on those long days of shooting.

While The Long Walk isn't typical horror like other upcoming Stephen King adaptations, it sounds like Francis Lawrence is fully prepared to give audiences something to squirm and cringe over while this story unfolds. As he said above, it should be a "tough watch," and from what I know of the book, it certainly will be.

The Long Walk is in theaters on September 12th. Among the many upcoming 2025 movies, this remains one of my most-anticipated, and I can't wait to be so uncomfortable watching it.

While I’ve only been lucky enough to spend a single day at Epic Universe so far, that one day delivered one of the most incredible theme parks I’ve ever seen. As a mega-fan of themed entertainment and classic cinema, my favorite land in the park has to be the Universal Monsters-inspired Dark Universe. It has one of the best rides at all of Epic Universe, and boasts countless references to the classic Universal horror movies.

Dark Universe is technically set decades after the events of the movie Frankenstein, and the attraction The Frankenstein Experiment: Monsters Unchained introduces Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s granddaughter, Victoria, as the central character. However, the original Doctor from 1931's Frankenstein is seen via portrait in the ride’s queue. Chris Frisella, Executive Producer for the Dark Universe land recently told SFX on CinemaBlend that the team actually pulled out and dug through nearly 100-year-old contracts to be absolutely sure they had the rights to use the likeness of actor Colin Clive. He explained:

While the fact that Universal Pictures is over 100 years old is something I am consciously aware of, I’m not sure I ever considered that somewhere the company still has paperwork from that long ago. It’s blowing me away to think about some people digging through those documents in order to find the contract and verify what it said. Congratulations go to the lawyer who worded the contract in such a way that almost a century later Universal would be able to use Colin Clive’s likeness at a new theme park in Florida.

While Universal was welcoming visitors to its backlot as early as 1915, the Universal Studio Tour only celebrated its 60th anniversary last year. The rest of the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park came much later. There was certainly no way to know how Universal might want to use an actor's likeness decades later.

As with any theme park, it’s the little details that elevate the experience from something good to something great. A portrait of Dr. Victor Frankenstein that didn’t look like Colin Clive just wouldn’t have been the same. It's far from the only callback to the original Frankenstein that can be found in Dark Universe.

It was a somewhat lucky break that the contract gave Universal the rights to his likeness, I expect Universal would have gone to Clive’s family to try and get the rights if the contract didn’t already grant them, but the same thing would have been necessary if the contract simply couldn’t be found, which feels like the more likely result of trying to find a document after almost 100 years.

The fact that Dark Universe’s Victoria Frankenstein is canonically the granddaughter of the doctor from Universal’s original Frankenstein gives the already incredible attraction some extra weight. Monsters Unchained is the best attraction at Epic Universe, according to many, and these little details only make it better.

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Weapons. If you have not seen the film, proceed at your own risk!

I went into my screening of Weapons purposefully knowing as little about it as possible, and one of the things that wowed me very early on is its structure. Akin to Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, it is not constructed as a straight line but instead a collection of character-driven vignettes that each tell a different part of the larger story. And instead of progressing in a single direction down a timeline, it frequently rewinds the tape to have the tales of the protagonists overlap – up until its totally wild ending.

It’s fascinating as delivered to the big screen (and my favorite movie of the year thus far, as reflected in my five-star Weapons review), but it also made me wonder: if everything were to be recut, would everything properly fit together? As I learned during the Los Angeles press day for the movie and interviewing writer/director Zach Cregger, the answer to that question is a purposeful and knowing “no.” He told me that there was an effort made to get each piece of the puzzle to perfectly lineup, but he ultimately found that it just wasn’t possible. Said Cregger,

So what is the explanation for this? It comes down to a matter of perspective and the way that events depicted are influenced by the eyes of the character who is serving as a protagonist at any given time.

A perfect example of this kind of storytelling from another film with a similar structure can be found in the beloved 1990s classic Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. In the opening scene, Amanda Plummer’s Honey Bunny waves a gun and screams to a diner full of patrons, “Any of you fucking pricks move, and I'll execute every mother fucking last one of you!”… but in the film’s climax, she can be heard saying, “Any of you fucking pricks move, and I'll execute every one of you motherfuckers!” This may read as a continuity error, but not to be discounted is that the second time we see the scene is through the eyes of Samuel L. Jackson’s Jules Winnfield.

Zach Cregger confirmed that this is a proper way to read the intersecting and noncongruent aspects of the new horror movie, as I followed up asking if events in the film are meant to be recognized as subjective. Said Cregger,

It’s tricky to fully comprehend the way in which all of the pieces of Weapons fall together after just a single viewing – but I imagine that there will be plenty of cinephiles who will eagerly revisit the movie over and over again to study it. And when the movie eventually arrives on home video, I’m sure that every frame of it will be parsed.

How do I know this? Because Weapons is already a massive hit. After weeks of building hype with positive word of mouth from early screenings, the film had a dominant opening weekend at the box office, and audiences are seemingly enjoying it just as much as critics. It’s a big win for movies in general, and be sure to be on the lookout for more features and interviews here on CinemaBlend in the coming days.

Seeing Carol and Daryl back together again helped Season 2 rebound after that major death we still haven’t fully gotten over yet, but those characters were destined to share the screen as soon as the spinoff was first conceived. The fact that the characters are in Europe made it impossible for either to drop by during the solo season of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, even if that finale did feature a couple of reunion-specific guest stars. But could there be a point where the storyline allows the characters to cross paths anew?

Speaking with SFX on CinemaBlend’s Darren Scott, longtime TWD star Norman Reedus addressed potentially reuniting with former Walking Dead-verse co-stars, and despite being personally interested in the idea, he addressed why it’s not as easy as throwing them all together in the same setting, and why it might happen differently from the idealized version in fans' minds. As he put it:

Wouldn't that be the biggest pisser imaginable to be a Walking Dead fan who has stuck it out for all these years, and whose biggest pop culture desire is to see Daryl and Rick tag-teaming once more to take down a horde of walkers, only for them to see each other again and not get along at all?

The more chaotic side of my personality would actually enjoy the hell out of that outcome, sinc eit would potentially create a unique dynamic for these characters that wouldn't just arbitrarily have them on the same side just because of their history together. Daryl and Rick did get into it pretty heavily before the Season 9 bridge explosion that left Rick's fate a mystery, so even though Daryl spent years trying to track his friend down, it's possible that finding him won't necessarily lead to a perfect rekindling.

Reedus continued, telling SFX that he also doesn't think Daryl and Carol's exploits in Europe can easily be concluded by just jettisoning them back to the U.S. In his words:

Now, for all that I can understand the logic behind Norman Reedus’ explanation, I also think that there is indeed at least one way to get Rick and Daryl back together again in a way that not only appeases fans but also works inside the narrative parameters without their respective adventures causing any strife.

Showrunner David Zabel previously talked about having a reunion plan that was discussed with Reedus, and during the TWD: Daryl Dixon panel during San Diego Comic-Con, he explained that the spinoff’s story was intended to last four seasons, and that the ending was put into place early on in the creative process, saying:

It wouldn't take a whole lot of imagination to read into Zabel's comments as possibly teasing an ending that brings Daryl and Carol back into the lives of other familiar TWD characters. (Unless, of course, he's hinting at one or both of those characters dying, which would make the whole reunion idea slightly harder to pull off successfully.)

Before any of that can play out in full, though, we still need Season 3 to arrive on the 2025 TV schedule. Speaking of...

Watch The Season 3 Trailer For The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is among the list of exciting upcoming horror TV shows, and Season 3 will arrive on AMC starting on Sunday, September 7, 2025.

It was a whirlwind summer for Nico Parker and Mason Thames, who have been busy promoting How To Train Your Dragon across the globe. As part of this whirlwind tour, I spoke with the two actors about some of their other fun side gigs, and of course I had to know about what it was like filming for the long-running game show. Turns out, it was more “difficult” than one might expect.

Nico said the teleprompter and the nature of the questions didn’t make it the most comfortable gig, but her rambunctious co-star didn’t help. Parker said he was trying to prank her and get her to mess up, and his strategy worked.

Mason also jokingly told CinemaBlend he "kept throwing things at her" to get her off her a-game.

You can’t tell in the end result. Nico actually got to ask two questions for Jeopardy! while Mason asked one, though both are very professional. Gerard Butler has a funny moment where he introduces the category and host Ken Jennings joked that he “can’t compete with that accent,” too. And some of the answers are quite hard. I, for one, would never have gotten “Île de la Cité.”

I’d always wondered how Jeopardy! filmed those fun spots with actors, and it was interesting to find out they’d just schedule the filming in the middle of a normal press day. I’m still left wondering how the game show decides what movie and TV categories to highlight and what actors should be involved. But that’s a question for the writing staff.

Stay tuned!

Although The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day rank among the best sci-fi movies of all time, the later movies in this franchise were met with mixed or outright negative critical reactions. 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate, which was a direct sequel to the first two movies, arguably fared the best among this group, though whatever positive reception it received was outweighed by how poorly it performed at the box office. But even before Dark Fate came out, I learned from co-writer David S. Goyer that he already had an inkling the movie “might be in trouble.” Strangely enough, a pinball machine helped him realize this.

My recent conversation with the Man of Steel writer was wide-ranging, covering topics like The Sandman Season 2 finale’s big twists, his thoughts about James Gunn’s Superman, and how he expects Murderbot Season 2 will adapt the next books in the series. Before the interview was over, though, I had to ask him having written an early draft of Terminator: Dark Fate, specifically if there were any elements from his version that he wished had been kept in the movie. After Goyer told me most of what he’d written made it into the final product, he shared the following while reflecting on his time attached to the last Terminator movie:

The Terminator was released in 1984, and Terminator: Dark Fate followed 35 years later. While some movies/franchises appeal across multiple generations, like Star Wars, when it came to Terminator, David S. Goyer’s sons knew absolutely nothing about it. The oldest son had only ever come into contact with it from seeing that pinball machine once upon a time. I’m curious about which one he specifically saw and if it’s anywhere nearby where I can play it… but I digress.

The point being, while Terminator: Dark Fate may have been a big draw for the people who’d been fans of the first two Terminator movies for a long time, Goyer’s experience with his son made him realize the premise might not be enough to draw in newcomers. Goyer liked the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton came back to respectively reprise the T-800 and Sarah Connor, but even with new characters like Mackenzie Davis’ Grace, Natalia Reyes’ Dani Ramos and Gabriel Luna’s Rev-9, there was too much tying Dark Fate to the past. It might’ve been better to just make a complete reboot in order to properly revitalize the franchise.

So just like Terminator Salvation and Terminator Genisys before it, Terminator: Dark Fate failed to launch a new trilogy. Although the anime series Terminator Zero was released to Netflix subscription holders in August 2024, there’s still no news about if/when the Terminator film series will continue.

Universal's assistant director of creative development for HHN, Lora Sauls, spoke to SFX Magazine's Darren Scott for its latest issue. In it, she spilled the beans on what to expect from The Horror of the Wyatt Sicks portion of the event. Apparently, it kicks off with a scene wrestling fans might've peeped if they were tuned into Monday Night Raw for the Wyatts' premiere as a faction:

My head is spinning over the idea of a fictionalized recreation of a actual fictionalized event that was, of course, not real. Be that as it may, the wrestling fan in me who enjoyed WWE: Unreal loves the thought of being a part of this scene and pretending I'm a part of it all. Sometimes it's fun to get lost in the immersion of it all!

That point above is especially true with the next portion, which leans heavily into the ideas first thought up by the late Bray Wyatt. Those who miss all the kookiness and utter insanity of the Firefly Funhouse will get to experience all of that madness firsthand:

It sounds like fans are going to get the more supernatural versions of the Firefly Funhouse crew. However, I wouldn't expect to see "The Boss," which was a puppet likened to resemble former CEO Vince McMahon with devil horns. Not that it's needed, as seeing the rest of the Wyatt bunch could be a big treat to anyone who loved that era of Bray's career.

Of course, it wouldn't feel complete without The Fiend, which has been absent in the WWE since Wyatt's death, despite there being some ideas his brother Bo Dallas has slowly implemented. Rejoice, wrestling fans, because The Fiend will return in Halloween Horror Nights, and there will be other tributes to Bray's past eras as well:

As someone who was a huge fan of Bray Wyatt and was absolutely crushed when he passed, this is exactly the type of tribute I hoped for. I can't think of a better way to honor the bizarre world he played a heavy hand in creating for his character. This ultimately serves as a bittersweet, if not unconventional, memorial for one of the scariest wrestlers of the modern era. To me, this is better than when The Undertaker passed the torch to Wyatt, and I hope this theme park attraction is just as amazing as it sounds.

Universal's Halloween Horror Nights kicks off on August 29th and will go all the way through November 2nd. It seems like you're really going to want to get in on this year's festivities.

When it comes to funny family movies that have come out as part of the 2025 movie schedule, I’m sure you never thought of one about sketched monsters that come to life. However, that’s the premise of Sketch, a new fantasy comedy about a little girl whose sketches come to life, and it turns out that the ending actually had a lovely easter egg from the director.

In Sketch's ending, the kids are able to work together to create these visions of love in order to fight all of the monsters that had come to life from Amber’s sketchbook, literally creating a hurricane of adoration in order to stop them. The director, Seth Worley, spoke to me about where the idea originally came from, and that it was all because he believed the “good and the bad” can exist in what he would call an “emotional ecosystem”:

The film, starring Tony Hale as Amber's (Bianca Belle) father, explores grief and its impact on children, and the ending shows that both love and sadness can coexist. Then Worley went and dropped a little easter egg on me – that those visions of love were actually all drawings featured from his real-life kids:

Now that is the kind of sweetness I didn’t know I needed. I always love it when directors find ways to somehow sneak the loves of their family and everything else into their work. That makes it all the more personal.

And with a movie like Sketch, where drawings are turned into monsters and everything else, that feels like something that could easily happen. I know mentioning monsters might make it sound like something that would appear on the best horror movies list, but in reality, they’re all destroyed by water or heat, like how a crayon or a pencil sketch would be in real life.

Truthfully, the film is literally about fighting your demons in the best way possible – and sometimes, that’s through creative means. It echoes many classic family films, and makes it all the more fun.

Even so, that doesn’t mean that Sketch isn’t still the kind of movie that’s open to fun things. In fact, Tony Hale and D’Arcy Carden named-dropped past characters they'd love to see come back to life – and others that should probably stay in a sketchbook. They referenced characters from the Good Place cast, the Arrested Development cast and more, and I love it. There’s so much you could do with the opportunity of sketches to take on a physical form suddenly if you’re not connecting it to the feelings of the movie.

But honestly, I’m happy with how it ended. It makes me think of all the sketches I used to draw and feel good that somehow, those never came to life. I’m still happy with how far I’ve come, and that Sketch ending made me realize that. I think we could also use a little love in our lives, so maybe it’s time I sketch my little lovebug to combat the bad.

The world of Outlander is officially back on Starz in the 2025 TV schedule, with the Blood of My Blood prequel spinoff taking viewers a few centuries back in time. The new show follows the separate but similar stories of Brian Fraser and Ellen MacKenzie as star-crossed 18th century lovers, and the married Julia Moriston and Henry Beauchamp from the 20th century. Harriet Slater and Jamie Roy portray Ellen and Brian as the main 18th century Scots of the series, and Slater wore a very special tartan skirt for the premiere that I immediately fell in love with even before she told me the significance.

The cast of Outlander: Blood of My Blood was already working on Season 2 by the time they walked the carpet for the premiere of Season 1, and two stars were not only dressed to the nines, but dressed in ways that were pretty perfect for their characters. Jamie Roy, who plays Brian Fraser, wore a black kilt. Harriet Slater, who plays Ellen MacKenzie, wore a voluminous tartan skirt with a modern top. And unlike when paparazzi almost spoiled a major twist, the stars were ready for the cameras on premiere night! Take a look at Slater's standout skirt:

Anybody who tuned in to the first two episodes of Blood of My Blood (complete with a new theme song) already know why it’s particularly meaningful for the actress playing Ellen to wear that plaid, but you don’t have to know all the spoilers for the new prequel to see why her choice of tartan is appropriate for the world of Outlander. I spoke with Harriet Slater and Jamie Roy ahead of the Blood of My Blood premiere (as the wait is still on for Outlander Season 8), and the actress shed some light on the skirt:

The English actress honored her Scottish character and a clearly skilled Scottish designer for the Outlander: Blood of My Blood premiere, and I’m willing to bet that I’m not the only one to fall in love with it. Jamie Roy, whose kilt was also one of Siobhan Mackenzie’s designs, shared his own reaction when he first saw the skirt:

According to Siabhan Mackenzie’s Instagram account, Harriet Slater was wearing a “statement silk skirt crafted from Mackenzie tartan silk – a deliberate nod to her character – pleated from over ten metres of silk for effortless fluid movement.” For those of us on the American side of the pond, that’s more than thirty feet of silk! Slater went on:

While Jamie Roy’s kilt certainly wasn’t as voluminous as Slater’s skirt, a lot of thought went into it. The designer’s Instagram account sheds more light on how the custom look was “crafted in couture metallic houndstooth” that was “tailored into a modern kilt and reflected in flashes on kilt pins adorning a sleek black jacket and waistcoat.”

His wasn’t traditional tartan, however, and for a good reason that ties to what his costars said about wearing a kilt every day on set to film. Roy shared:

His character is known as “Black Brian” in the Outlander world for the color of his hair rather than the color of his tartan, so the premiere look was a nice nod to Brian Fraser without the actor donning the same kind of plaid that he wears for work.

Outlander: Blood of My Blood kicked off on Friday, August 8 with two back-to-back episodes, and the first season will continue airing new episodes on Fridays at 8 p.m. ET on Starz. It’s probably fair to predict that nobody will be looking glamorous on Blood of My Blood for as long as action is set in 18th century Scotland, but only time will tell.

Wednesday Season 2 has finally premiered on the 2025 Netflix schedule after a nearly two-and-a-half-year-long wait. So, with new mysteries come new storylines, and that includes a big one for Morticia and Gomez. And this season features a particular tribute to The Addams Family Values in an iconic couple scene between them, and I was just absolutely in love with how well it was done.

As someone who grew up with the Addams Family, Wednesday became one of the most bingeable shows on Netflix for me, but I always wanted so much more from her parents, Morticia and Gomez. Now, in Season 2, they have a much bigger part to play, and as a perk of my job, I had the chance to ask the creators of the series, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, what it was like to bring their love story to the forefront this time around. Their instant answer? It was so much fun, as Gough explained:

Miles Millar continued to explain this idea, saying that because of the love they have for each other and how they deal with their problems, it still makes them a couple to look up to, even through all their weirdness and how different they look:

But of course, there's the tribute that we see when Luis Guzmán and Catherine Zeta-Jones do the famous tango scene that Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia did back in The Addams Family Values. That's right, I'm talking about the one that you see everywhere where we see Gomez kiss up Morticia's arm, and they are just absolutely in love. They did that in Wednesday Season 2, too!

As a fan of the two characters, of course, I had to ask about the tribute and how they brought it to life, and the creators said it felt like their own because both Guzman and Zeta-Jones really made it "their own," as Millar said:

The idea of Luis Guzmán taking dance classes in order to keep up with Zeta-Jones is something that I didn't know I needed, but it is literally everything.

Wednesday Season 2 has made a lot of changes. The Wednesday cast has increased, and there's been a lot more horror added to the series as a whole. So to have this moment, where it really does feel like an everlasting love tribute to these two characters that I love so much, made it that much better.

While I don't think anything can quite beat the Huston and Julia tango from The Addams Family Values cast, this scene really captured the love of Gomez and Morticia. And I really hope that as the series goes on, we see so much more of these two, because we all need some overwhelming, blinding, and adoring type of love on our television.

SPOILERS are ahead for the ending of Freakier Friday.

Now that the Freakier Friday release is here, it’s time to start unpacking all the fun developments to the characters in the sequel. When I had the chance to talk to Chad Michael Murray during the Los Angeles press junket for Freakier Friday, I asked the actor about one element concerning Jake that I had only theorized might serve as unfinished business after the first movie.

In the latest of the 2025 movie releases, Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan once again play mother/daughter pair Tess and Anna Coleman. But this time around they swap bodies with two teenagers (one of them being Anna’s daughter), who decide to use their time as adults to break up her upcoming marriage that would make them sisters. That brings Chad Michael Murray’s Jake back into the picture, as a way to use Anna’s high school sweetheart to break them up. Here’s what Murray said about the development:

In the hilarious record store scene that had been teased in the latest trailer, Harper and Lily (who are in Anna and Tess’s body) try to flirt with Jake, but rather than him still having the hots for his high school sweetheart, he’s still blushing over Jamie Lee Curtis’ character. As Murray shared, he always imagined he was still secretly in love with her, and even had a shrine dedicated to her. As he continued in our interview:

While I had initially seen Jake and Tess’ chemistry as Jake and Anna falling for each other, just in the wrong body, as I’ve watched the movie over the years, I’ve noticed that he and Anna really didn’t fit as well as when he was with her mom. I absolutely love that in the sequel they decide to explore that he really felt the magic with Tess, and it was her that he was really interested in all along. Murray advocated it himself, and it’s a really funny bit for the sequel to have in it.

The cherry on top? It's when he arrives at Anna's wedding at the end with a woman that is dressed exactly like Tess from the first movie.

It’s certainly successful in providing fan service. We gave it a 4 out of 5 stars in our Freakier Friday review, and it’s expected to have a solid opening weekend at the box office. During our exclusive interview with Murray, he also talked about filming that Britney Spears scene when he was 19.

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains massive spoilers for writer/director Zach Cregger’s Weapons. If you have not yet seen the film, proceed at your own risk!

Audiences have seen some pretty exceptional big screen moments thus far in 2025, but there are few movie moments that can compare to the insanity that is the ending of Weapons. This film hits a climax as Justine (Julia Garner) and Archer (Josh Brolin) enter the Lilly house and get attacked by Paul (Alden Ehrenreich) and James (Austin Abrams) while young Alex (Cary Christopher) evades his entranced parents… but everything changes when Alex successfully casts a spell targeting Aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan). In an instant, 17 children locked in a basement are driven to attack the woman responsible for their abduction, and the result is riotous and glorious.

I’ll never forget my screening and feeling the movie theater erupt all around me as over a dozen children on screen start savagely plowing through, windows, doors, and walls so that they can tear Gladys to pieces – so I naturally felt compelled to ask writer/director Zach Cregger about filming it when I sat down with him late last month during the Los Angeles press day for Weapons. I inquired how the filmmaker was able to pull off the magnificence that is guaranteed an instant place in horror history, and he explained that the answer was preparation. Said Cregger,

I can imagine that the children on set performing the stunts had a blast making the new horror movie (I would have loved the opportunity to smash my way through a series if fake doors and windows when I was a third grader), but I can also appreciate the ridiculous challenge of the production process. Anyone with experience around kids knows that corralling 17 of them for a very specific activity that can extremely difficult – let alone getting them to do that activity repeatedly with major resets required after each take.

Julia Garner was on set to witness the insanity, and she was certainly impressed by how it came together. When I asked her about seeing the kids rampaging after Aunt Gladys, she noted that there was a lot of exhaustion on set, but as soon as there was work to be done, everybody perked up. Said the actress,

It took a great deal of work for everyone on set, and each and every single person can be proud of what they accomplished in the making of Weapons – but the experience did also have some unexpected side effects. It was such an ordeal to put together that even weeks after production was finished, Zach Cregger continued to have nightmares about orchestrating the sequence. The filmmaker continued,

It’s perhaps a bit callous to say, but Zach Cregger’s nightmare is our gain, because the ending of Weapons is a special cinematic experience, and I will never forget the palpable energy that I felt growing in my theater during my screening after Alex snaps the stick and targets Aunt Gladys. Not only is seeing kids blindly rampage as they do utterly hysterical, but the way they tear apart Gladys is also ridiculously cathartic, as the audience is delighted to see the orchestrator of extreme nightmares get her proper comeuppance.

The satisfaction from the ending of Weapons is a perfect example of why people love going to the movies, and it not only left me totally blissed out as I first left the theater, but I am psyched to witness it over and over again in the years to come as the film gets properly deemed a modern genre classic. It’s special and a proper result that is worth every ounce of energy that was put into its creation.

Spoilers below for anyone who hasn’t yet watched Twisted Metal Season 2’s fourth episode with a Peacock subscription, so be warned!

Following its three-episode Season 2 debut, which featured a literary cameo from the family-friendly book series The Baby-Sitters Club, which Anthony Mackie’s John obsessed over, the action-comedy eschewed all-ages subject matter for a motherfluffing orgy in its fourth installment. It brought a totally different kind of action for quite a few characters, such as Quiet, John and Stu, and easily topped the first season’s amusingly gross ball-pit sex scene.

Twisted Metal’s cast and showrunner Michael Jonathan Smith talked to CinemaBlend ahead of the season hitting the 2025 TV schedule, and I couldn’t possibly make it through those conversations without putting a heated spotlight on Episode 4, “LZGTBZY.” Check out the video above and read on!

Stephanie Beatriz On Quiet And John's Hottest Sex Scene Yet

In the episode, Stephanie Beatriz's Quiet and Anthony Mackie's John infiltrate a group of horned-up insiders who are posing as outsiders, all to gain access to better weaponry. Upon fooling the group's leader Emperor, portrayed by Jon Daly — no, not Happy Gilmore 2 highlight John Daly, but the comedian — the protagonists soon realize they're not just surrounded by strangely dressed weirdos, but they stumbled across a genuine orgy.

Quiet and John are able to avoid mixing bodily fluids with others for a while, but the pheromones take over, and they end up banging it out in front of a rather lovely wall of fire. When I asked Beatriz how this scene compared to knocking boots in a ball pit for Season 1, she told me:

If you thought a professional like Stephanie Beatriz would balk at the idea of faux intimacy with Anthony Mackie amidst so many flames, think again. In the scheme of things, though, the Brooklyn Nine-Nine vet said that sequence was basically par for the course in a show that goes as hard on batshit storytelling as Twisted Metal. She continued:

Considering Twisted Metal skews more PG-13 than a hard R with its subject matter, it was wild to see an orgy play out with minimal nudity on display, even though there were definitely plenty of scantily clad bodies throughout. Beatriz told me some of those bodies were not as well-kept as others, which made for a smelly experience.

In an era where intimacy coordinators are a regular and expected part of the filming process, one can only hope that hygeine coordinators will be mandated soon as well.

Showrunner MIchael Jonathan Smith Talks The 'Horny Heist' And The Fun Idea Anthony Mackie

Showrunner Michael Jonathan Smith told me that the concept of a horny heist was one the creative team really wanted to nail down this season, semi-pun semi-intended. But talking and planning for an idea like that is on a wholly different level from actually pulling off (also semi-intended) such a large-scale endeavor. Here's how he put it:

You can't have a bunch of half-naked eggs standing around if you don't want to make a naked omelet, amirite? Wait, no, that's not how that saying goes. Maybe it's something about not fucking your chickens before they've hatched? I'll look it up later.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from accidental nudity, Smith laughed while telling me that it wasn't solely background actors involved, as several members of the show's crew volunteered to take part. He continued:

I can't say I've ever had any kind of makeup sex that compared to what went down in this episode, and I doubt we'll see anything similar in any other upcoming video game adaptations. (Although I'll give Nintendo all the kudos in Hyrule if the Legend of Zelda movie attempst a similar sequence.)

Michael Jonathan Smith shared that one of the funniest details from the episode — John and Quiet's in-tandem shimmying and scooting across the floor — was Mackie's idea. As Smith put it:

The way they moved around should enter the annals of camp games like three-legged sack races and the like. We can call it The Doggystyle Shuffle or something.

Joe Seanoa And Mike Mitchell Talk Stu Being King Of The Orgy And Filming Comedic Nude Scenes

Not that Quiet and John were the only characters who actually got busy during "LZGTBZY." Mike Mitchell's loyal and bumbling dimbulb Stu also found himself in the midst of abject affection after he and Joe Seanoa's Sweet Tooth also infiltrated the rowdy event. While the masked killer was busy fighting off Dollface in back rooms, Stu found himself to be a lust magnet before long.

When I asked Seanoa and Mitchell about filming the episode, the WWE and AEW vet joked that he wasn't allowed in the area, but that he was rooting for his co-star from the sidelines.

• JOE SEANOA: Well, they wouldn't let me on set because, you know, obviously you have to be respectful to the intimacy coordinator and Mitch's wishes, so whatever. . . . I was rooting from outside the hangar. I was like, 'Get 'em, Mitch, yeah!' I was really trying to [be like] Tyson, get him hyped up for the for the role.
• MIKE MITCHELL: You know what's crazy is that, as a big guy — and Joe, it did work; I was hyped up and I was ripping my shirt off every day — but as a big man, I've done so many more scenes, like, I've had so many scenes in my underwear, or like basically nude, that I'm shocked that this has happened to me over the course of time. I was on the show Love on Netflix, and I was basically...you see almost everything in that show. Here, it was the same thing. I was a little self-conscious, but you know, Joe does this every episode. Joe is shirtless all the time.
• JOE SEANOA: Yeah, but you know, us in the biz, we do call you a bit of a flesh merchant. You know what I mean? You kind of do flaunt it a lot in a lot of your projects. I'm just saying, like, 'Reel it in a little bit, bud.'

Anybody familiar with the sketch comedy group the Birthday Boys (and their IFC series) is probably also aware of Mitch's sporadic bouts with nudity for comedy's sake. Total flesh merchant behavior, amirite?

Both actors talked about how, depsite Quiet and John's sex scene happening in front of a wall of fire, it wasn't quite as hot in the building while filming their scenes.

• MIKE MITCHELL: The only issue is that, we've said this, but it was freezing cold the day, so you could cut glass with our nips that day
• JOE SEANOA: Yeah, absolutely. Sign us up for the Union. We were ready to get through some Pyrex, let me tell you.

I half-jokingly asked Joe Seanoa if anyone brought up clown fetishes during that portion of the production, and he confirmed that was not the case, which he was appreciative for. While Mitch gave his screen partner credit for making it easier to not be embarrassed about anything happening in his scenes. As they put it:

• JOE SEANOA: Thankfully, no. But yeah, we got too weird too early. We started having to dial it back midseason.
• MIKE MITCHELL: I will say this, though: Joe would be leading by example, with his shirt off and the leather straps and the clown mask. You can't be embarrassed to do anything. You know what I mean? It's that sort of thing where the show pushes the limits, and it's fun to see where they push it, and for me, being the King of the Orgy was an honor. It was great. It wasn't my mom's favorite episode, but I had a blast.

As if getting sexed up by random women wasn't enough for Mitch's Stu, he also had his foot licked by another character whose butt he ended up biting during a hilarious confrontation, for lack of a better word. As the Doughboys co-host told me about that moment, Seanoa jokingly went hoighty-toighty in complimenting the show's subject matter.

• MIKE MITCHELL: Poor John, the man. He’s the man for licking my foot for real. And I bit his butt for real. That was real for both of us.
• JOE SEANOA: This is art, guys. This is what we call art. This is how it works out, right? Don't let anybody tell you any different.

Art indeed! This was easily one of my favorite Twisted Metal episodes to date, given just how over the top and unpredictable it was from beginning to end. You can't tell me anyone predicted Stu having too much sex at any point. Not a single person.

Will his streak as King of the Orgy be contested in the next episode, or will these characters find another hectic and potentially deadly situation to get into? My money is on the latter. No offense, Stu.

Twisted Metal's sixth and seventh episodes will be available to stream on Peacock on Thursday, August 14, with two more weeks of episodes to follow.

Movie fans have known for decades that that Liam Neeson is an immensely talented actor, but it has nonetheless been surprising this past week to witness his gift for performing comedy. The Irish star best known for playing Oskar Schindler and the revenge-seeking Bryan Mills is hilarious and brilliant as he deadpans his way through the extreme goofiness of The Naked Gun – and it makes one wonder what could be next. Might he fully follow in Leslie Nielsen's footsteps and turn spoof into a specialty? Perhaps he could star in a sendup of his action movies like Taken?

The former is still an open question, but we can probably close the door on the latter. CinemaBlend's Jeff McCobb asked Liam Neeson about the idea last month during the press day for the critically acclaimed new comedy, and his answer had an interesting evolution – as you can see watching the video above. He goes from being modestly interested in a good take, to joking about it, to deciding that it probably wouldn't be the best idea. Said Neeson,

If, however, that movie did get made, who would be the proper star for it? That's a debate that social media could have for a full day, but Liam Neeson was quick to produce a name:

Whether on purpose or not, it's a funny namedrop when one considers the development history of the new Naked Gun movie. This is a project that has been in the works for over a decade, and has taken multiple different forms. Back in 2013, the property was put in the hands of screenwriters Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, and you can probably guess who was lined up to play the new Frank Drebin: Ed Helms.

Did Liam Neeson know this before providing his answer to the question during the junket? I can't say for certain, but there's a part of me that hopes he did. I want it to be a situation akin to a friend getting a job that you were both going after and them putting in a recommendation for you to get another position at the same company.

As for whether or not the release of The Naked Gun will inspire a new wave of big screen spoof movies, time will tell. The new 2025 release has been on a mission of sorts to save comedy, and while it landed in third place at the box office during its opening weekend, it ended up earning on the higher end of projected ticket sales and it has plenty of buzz. It has some substantial competition arriving in theaters tomorrow in the form of Weapons and Freakier Friday, but word of mouth will hopefully keep it afloat and keep cinemas filled with the sound of hysterical laughter.

The inciting incident that kicks off the story in writer/director Zach Cregger’s new horror movie Weapons is incredibly freaky all by itself: in a small town, 17 children wake from their beds simultaneously, leave their homes, and flee into the night. But it’s not just the event itself that is scary, but also the way it happens. The kids don’t just stroll away from their houses but instead sprint at full tilt with their arms angled straight out at their sides. It’s a seriously creepy image that has been used very effectively in the marketing – and it even successfully sends a chill down the spine of star Josh Brolin.

Knowing how the proverbial sausage is made certainly takes some of the edge off of scary movies for the actors who make them, but the case of the eerie arm positioning in Weapons is kind of a special case for Brolin. When I spoke with him late last month during the Los Angeles press day for the upcoming 2025 movie (as captured in the video above), I brought up the subject of the special physicality, and the actor explained that he made a point of not wanting to know the “why” of it all. On set, he wasn’t sure if it would work on screen, but he now recognizes that it definitely does. Said Brolin,

In addition to Josh Brolin not asking Zach Cregger about it on the set of Weapons, the “reason” behind the way the kids hold out their arms as they run isn’t something that is ever explained in the film either, and like Brolin, I think that’s a great move. Explanations tend to take a bit of the spookiness out of a scary mystery, and while there is plenty of other spookiness in the film awaiting audiences this weekend, it’s one of many nice things to excitedly mentally chew on as you walk out of the theater.

In Weapons, Josh Brolin plays Archer Graff, who is the father of one of the 17 children who go missing. He starts letting his whole life fall apart out of grief, and much of his frustration is directed at Julia Garner’s Justine Gandy – who is the teacher of all the kids who went missing. His story is one of a collection of interlocking tales in the horror film, which also stars Alden Ehrenreich, Benedict Wong, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher and Amy Madigan.

After months of building up hype with creepy trailers and earning buzz from early reactions and critics (allow me to recommend my five-star CinemaBlend review), Weapons is finally almost here, as it will be arriving in theaters everywhere this weekend. After you see the film, I would highly recommend heading back here to the site, as it’s definitely a movie that you’re going to want to read about, and we have plenty more articles and features coming your way.

I had the honor of speaking with both actors at San Diego Comic-Con, as they're in the midst of touring and hosting screenings of Napoleon Dynamite across the United States. After hearing about how they aren't tired of talking about the film all these years later, Jon Heder told me the line fans quote at him the most:

I'm not surprised one of the options from our funniest Napoleon Dynamite quotes was the one Heder hears the most often, but I am shocked at which one resonates with fans the most. If insulting Tina the llama was really that popular amongst fans, I'd hate to be anyone Tina! I'm also not surprised that tater tots get a mention, given we mentioned it when the stars reunited close to a decade ago, and I think of the movie anytime I eat them.

Efren Ramirez's quote is likely easier to guess. Even though he's been up to a lot in the acting world since Napoleon Dynamite left theaters, everyone loves to remind him of his character's political aspirations in the comedy:

Yeah, no surprise there that Efren Ramirez is hearing that as the two travel along with co-star Jon Gries (Uncle Rico) to screen Napoleon Dynamite for audiences and reminisce about the movie. No doubt, this is only going to make fans more eager to finally see a sequel, and according to Ramirez in an interview last year, that's not off the table yet.

A sequel for Napoleon Dynamite might be perfect, given Jon Gries fame as of late for his role as Greg in The White Lotus. With this, combined with the tour, now might be the time to pull the trigger and join the growing number of cult classic films that decided to use streaming as a vehicle for their second movie.

If that's not in the cards, at least we still have one great movie and a lot of fun quotes to fall back on. Those feeling nostalgic can check out the movie right now with a HBO Max subscription, or check the tour schedule and see where Jon Heder and Efren Ramirez may pop up next!

Readers can enjoy Napoleon Dynamite on HBO Max, though I like to think I have most of the lines still memorized in the back of my mind. Fortunately, I don't remember the dance moves to the auditorium sequence toward the end, otherwise I'd still be doing it to this day.

Ever since it was announced Epic Universe would get a land full of Universal’s classic monsters (the same monsters that make regular appearances during Halloween Horror Nights), fans have wondered if Epic Universe might become part of HHN. Ahead of the upcoming print edition of SFX Magazine, Universal Orlando Resort Creative Director Lora Sauls opened up to SFX on CinemaBlend about whether such a thing might happen. While she didn’t discount the possibility, she also made it clear it it's not on the roadmap right now. Sauls said…

It certainly makes sense to let Epic Universe “breathe.” The park is brand new, and thousands of people are showing up every day to experience the park in its “normal” mode for the first time. You want to give people a chance to take in everything that’s there now before jumping in and changing things around.

And Halloween Horror Nights in 2025 is shaping up to be an incredible event on its own. With houses dedicated to Fallout, Five Nights at Freddy's, and Terrifier, and even a WWE house, this year's event is setting a high bar.

That said, the opportunity to bring together Dark Universe and Halloween Horror Nights seems too perfect to ignore forever. As great as HHN is, there’s only so much that can be done to transform Universal Studios Florida, a traditional theme park most of the time, into a haven of horror for a couple of months. Dark Universe is built to bring the scares. And being able to experience something like Monsters Unchained, one of the best rides at Epic Universe, alongside other HHN events, would be amazing.

While there’s no guarantee in this statement that anything related to HHN will ever happen at Epic Universe, it also doesn’t shut down the idea entirely. It’s rare for anybody in the theme park world to ever say “never” to anything, because minds can always change, but to me, this feels much more like a case of waiting for the right time to pull the trigger.

The only question is how long Universal will want to let Epic “breathe.” Could we see something HHN-related as early as next year? It might come down to simple attendance numbers. If Epic Universe continues to see enough new guests every month that HHN isn’t seen as a necessity, we could see things remain as they are for the foreseeable future.

When I spoke to the pair about their new film, Sketch, which releases on August 6th as part of the 2025 movie schedule, I was curious. The film's premise focuses on a little girl's sketches that, when dropped into a magic lake, come to life and cause mayhem. This could lead to so many opportunities in real life, which, of course, absolutely led to me asking Hale and Carden about the possibility of bringing some of their past famous characters to life.

Who D'Arcy Carden Would And Would Not Sketch To Life

Sketch itself is a film where anything that Amber (Bianca Belle) sketches into her notebook comes to life when thrown into a magic lake, which could lead to so many opportunities. When I asked D'Arcy Carden what character from her past she herself would love to sketch into real life if she were given the chance, her answer didn't surprise me -- as it's a character from one of her famous TV shows, The Good Place.

What makes it even better is that her second answer -- who she would not sketch back to real life -- is also from The Good Place:

Janet is a character from The Good Place. As part of the The Good Place cast, D'Arcy Carden played Good Janet, a knowledge guide for the entirety of The Good Place. She also portrays multiple varieties of Janet, including "Bad Janet," which is a Bad Place variant of Janet, and, of course, she's a menace to society.

Who Tony Hale Would And Would Not Sketch To Life

When I asked Tony Hale the same question, his answer was everything -- because it involves one of my favorite films and favorite TV shows:

Forky was a character that debuted in the Toy Story movies, specifically the fourth in 2019, as a new toy that was purely created from Bonnie's imagination. He was also a toy that didn't believe himself to be a toy and basically had an existential crisis, which immediately helped audiences to fall in love with him.

As someone who loves all of the Pixar movies – and is looking forward to the upcoming Toy Story 5 – I think Forky is the best choice. But Hale's pick for who he would keep in the past also makes so much sense, too:

What an answer. Hale was a principal actor in the Arrested Development cast for many years, where he played Buster Bluth. The character was terrified of everything, had many panic attacks, and went through a lot of mental duress. It's actually almost sweet that Hale would rather have Buster's time to rest rather than be brought back to life and experience all that trauma again.

While we won't be seeing any of these characters come back to life any time soon, you can check both Hale and Carden out in theaters when Sketch releases and see them take on monsters from a little girl's sketchbook – and witness how a crayon picture could somehow be so terrifying in real life.

Wednesday Season 2, Part 1 was finally released as part of the 2025 Netflix schedule , and when I say finally I mean it had been a long two-and-a-half year wait. One of the biggest criticisms, especially from the show's central star Jenna Ortega, was the series initially focused a little too much on relationships and less on the weirdness and horror of the Addams family. Thankfully, Season 2 has found its stride, and the creators told me how they got there.

While the first season of Wednesday was a huge hit, including that iconic Wednesday dance that was everywhere, Ortega has been candid that she wanted to dig deeper into the horror aspects of the character. Enter Season 2.

When I had the chance to chat with creators Alfred Gough and Miles Miller about how they approached horror vs teen drama (while keeping the show still relatively family-friendly), they openly shared it's a "line" they had to balance. Because they are horror fans, like Ortega they knew it needed to be a bigger part of Season 2:

If those moments are "too scary" for younger viewers, they hope that it's something audience won't be "traumatized," over longterm. They also told me they blended horror with comedy a lot in the new episodes, calling it a "weird marriage" of sorts:

In my opinion, this is precisely how the show should go. While I'm someone who spends plenty of time watching as many of the best horror movies or the best horror anthology TV shows that I can, I actually got into the genre originally because, as a kid, I was introduced to weirder elements through The Addams Family. So, I can absolutely see how it's a Gateway show.

I do feel diving deeper into these ideals on Wednesday is the natural course that the series should take, and it's clear this has been the goal since the beginning of filming. Jenna Ortega herself has even called Season 2 much more "graphic" than before, a stark change from the heavily romantic plotline (with a twist) in the first. It makes sense, as Ortega is an executive producer this time around, and has expressed “trust” for the Wednesday Season 2 writers to make sure the new eps weren't just another love triangle.

Either way, there are a couple of scarier-ish moments that the kids might be scared of, but if they cover their eyes, the creators assured me the next scene will most likely make them laugh instead. Just be sure to be prepared when the children ask how zombies are created, when Pugsley decides to bring one back to life, somehow.

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains spoilers about a particular scene in writer/director Michael Shanks’ Together. If you have not yet seen the film, you can ready my spoiler-free CinemaBlend review; otherwise, proceed at your own risk!

Being a very proud new entry to the body horror subgenre, Together is a movie with plenty of nastiness and extremes, and easily one of the best examples is what can casually be called the “bathroom stall scene.” When Dave Franco’s Tim is meant to be going away for rehearsal with a band that wants him to tour with them, he instead finds himself supernaturally drawn to the school where Alison Brie’s Millie works. A mix of uncontrollable urges and a chance to end their sex drought as a couple leads them to hook up in a public toilet – but things go from passionate to panicked as Tim disturbingly can’t seem to... disengage.

It’s a complicated scene: it’s both humorous and horrific, it features some of the movie’s most graphic material, and you can tell just from watching it that it must have been supremely difficult to film. So, of course, I felt compelled to ask about it last month when I interviewed Michael Shanks, Alison Brie and Dave Franco during the new horror movie’s press day in Los Angeles.

Alison Brie And Dave Franco Love The Bathroom Stall Scene, But It Was Exceptionally Uncomfortable To Film

For actors, there is surely a natural expectation of awkwardness that comes with filming a sex scene. That’s true for sequences where two characters are getting intimate on a comfortable mattress covered in silk sheets – but now swap out that comfortable setting in your mind for a stall in a public bathroom, and you can understand why the sex scene in Together was a special challenge.

The sequence is one of the best in the film, and Alison Brie identified it as her favorite moment in the script when she first got the chance to read it, but she also totally underestimated just how grueling it would be to perform. She loves how it turned out, but both the physical and emotional aspects of it ended up being tremendous. Seated beside her co-star/husband Dave Franco, Brie said,

As captured in the video at the top of the article, the two actors detailed how their closeness in filming the sequence got a bit gross even without any supernatural forces trying to fuse them together. Because Tim is basically a slave to his urge to be with Millie in the moment, Dave Franco was given spritzes of fake sweat to suggest a sickness caused by being without her, and that combined with real sweat he was producing as a result of physical exertion/close quarters in the stall. It was not comfortable.

Director Michael Shanks estimated that it took somewhere in the range of eight hours to shoot the sequence in the bathroom stall, and Dave Franco acknowledged that there was a level of claustrophobia that colored things:

It was tough to shoot, but shooting the sequence also had some surprising wins – like lucking into a box of sex toys that the effects team was able to use for what is arguably the most shocking shot in Together.

Facing Budget Problems, Together Lucked Into ‘A Shoebox Full Of Genitals’

Alluded to above, the Together sequence in discussion here ironically doesn’t reach its climax as the characters are having sex, but instead in the immediate aftermath. For a brief moment, Tim and Millie and giggly and happy, but those positive emotions evaporate as the former is physically unable to separate himself from the latter. Initially, it seems that the audience is only going to register the drama via the fear expressed by the characters, as they are only framed from the waist up – but then there is a shocking angle that goes between them, and we see what I’m going to politely refer to as the compromised circumstances of Tim’s penis.

It’s graphic, and you probably would not expect the title that Michael Shanks used as a reference point:

As far as actually getting the shot, however, there was a practical issue: money. Released into theaters this past week by Neon, Together was made an independent production shot in Australia, and budgetary restrictions meant that not every part of the vision for the movie could be realized. But for the graphic shot of Tim’s stuck penis, luck ended up winning out over frugalness.

Michael Shanks told me that there wasn’t room in the budget for the practical/visual effects required to get the shot, but he ended up being fortunate in that his partner at the time was working for a sex toy company and was able to supply the production. Said the writer/director,

In most workplaces, someone showing up with a shoebox full of sex toys would probably be grounds for dismissal, but I suppose that’s why you have to love the specialness of the film industry.

This Is Where A Married Couple Acting Together Is Super Helpful

The sex scene in Together is graphic, and shooting it was immensely uncomfortable for the stars, but getting free dildos via the director’s partner wasn’t the only “organic” benefit the production had: filming would have been much more awkward if the two stars were relative strangers, but Alison Brie and Dave Franco have been a romantic couple since 2012, and they have been married since 2017.

Working with a spouse isn’t necessarily always a boon, and one watches the romantic drama of Together wondering if the on-screen conflict between the characters had the actors reflecting on their own relationship – but in the case of the bathroom stall scene, their shared history allowed Alison Brie and Dave Franco to be a bit more emotionally free. Discussing how shooting the scene with her husband made it different than it would have been with a different co-star, Brie said,

Adding to her comments, Franco noted that they were both able to make certain choices and take certain chances that they otherwise may not have been able to make because they had the inherent trust and support of their scene partner:

It’s a special working relationship, and one that helped yield one of gnarliest big screen moments of 2025 so far.

Also starring Damon Herriman, Together premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival and is now playing in theaters everywhere – the low-budget, critically acclaimed feature landing in sixth place at the weekend box office.

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains minor spoilers for the newly released The Naked Gun. If you have not yet seen the film, proceed at your own risk!

In the third act climax of The Naked Gun, the whole world has gone primal due to the activation of the nefarious P.L.O.T. Device. A chase between a cadre of motorcycles and an owl ends in front of a fountain, and a final showdown is set up between villain and hero: Danny Huston's Richard Cane and... Dave Bautista. For a brief scene, Liam Neeson is recast with the Dune star as Frank Drebin Jr., the latter reading a few dramatic lines before the former tags back in, and it's a wonderfully out of left field gag that got big reactions from the audience both times I've seen the movie.

As for how the cameo came together, CinemaBlend's Jeff McCobb got the answer to that particular inquiry when he recently interviewed director Akiva Schaffer and producer Erica Huggins during the virtual press day for The Naked Gun. As it turns out, it wasn't a case of hunting for the right fit and trying to find someone who would say yes; instead, having Dave Bautista appear was one of the first names considered, and he was the first person who said yes. Said Schaffer,

Following up, Erica Huggins explained that they didn't exactly have a lot of back-up ideas, and they quickly recognized him as a great fit for the part:

It is indeed quite awesome. In addition to having the great joke where Dave Bautista temporarily subs in as Frank Drebin, he is subsequently attacked by people influenced by the P.L.O.T. Device, and he comically screams out in pain, "I'm not even supposed to be in this movie!" Of course, he eventually survives and even makes peace with his attackers with Frank Drebin and Pamela Anderson's Beth Davenport flick the switch that makes everyone go from being "Calmed Up" to "Calmed Down."

It's another feather in the acting cap for Bautista, who has shown that he has surprising range as a performer. The Naked Gun is the latest title on the comedy side of his resume (other entries including his time as Drax in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies as well as his two-hander Stuber with Kumail Nanjiani), but he has also become a close collaborator with filmmaker Denis Villeneuve via the Dune movies and Blade Runner 2049. John Cena recently called Bautista the "GOAT of wrestlers-turned-actors," and the argument for his case is only getting stronger.

I can personally confirm that The Naked Gun is a delightful cinematic experience to have more than once in theaters, as it's not only amazing to bathe in the laughter of a full auditorium, but there are also so many jokes in the film that you are guaranteed to discover something you missed during your first watch. The comedy is now playing in cinemas everywhere, having landed in third place at the box office during its successful opening weekend.

Though my recent conversation with Goyer was largely covering the final season of Netflix’s The Sandman, including him breaking down those big twists in the finale and how he and co-creator Allan Heinberg were originally going to cameo in Morpheus’ funeral, we did spend some time discussing other topics. Along with the Man of Steel writer sharing his thoughts on James Gunn’s Superman, he also had this to say when I brought up Murderbot Season 2 and how showrunners Paul and Chris Weitz had said before Season 1 premiered that the next season could mash up the following three books in Martha Wells’ series:

In this age of streaming, it’s a lot harder to get a gauge on how long a show will last. Currently For All Mankind and Slow Horses are Apple TV+’s longest-running shows, with the former eventually returning for a fifth season and the latter guaranteed at least three more seasons. Rather than risk assuming the critically-acclaimed Murderbot will air for a similar amount of time, it sounds like David S. Goyer and the other folks in charge of this show are leaning more towards streamlining the available literary material, which could mean a shorter run in the… well, long run.

Then, as David Goyer pointed out, there’s also the other main cast members besides Alexander Skarsgård to consider. Without getting into spoilers, the next few books in the Murderbot Diaries series see the titular character embarking on a journey where he meets other characters and doesn’t reunite with the likes of Mensah and Gratin until much later. It’s not as though Apple TV+ can just tell actors like Noma Dumezweni and David Dastmalchian to just wait however many years, and then expect them drop everything once it’s time for their characters to be brought back into play.

But like Goyer said, nothing’s been decided yet, and considering that there’s often a couple years of waiting between seasons of Apple TV+ shows, it may be a while until we learn what’s happening for Murderbot Season 2. For now, Season 1 is available to enjoy in its entirety, and you’re always welcome to star reading Martha Wells’ books to learn what’s coming up.

One of the most intriguing franchise entries among the upcoming 2025 movies has to be Predator: Badlands. It will feature the Predator as the main character for the first time as he teams up with an android (played by Elle Fanning) in search of the “ultimate adversary.” In the trailers for Badlands, there’s a lot of hints at who Predators have come up against, but one that really caught my eye was the massive T-Rex head. So, when I spoke to director Dan Trachetenberg, I asked him about said dino skull.

If you haven’t been following the Predator: Badlands marketing, you might not have seen this image of a Predator trophy wall, which features all sorts of skulls from different species, including another Alien nod (aside from Elle Fanning’s Thea being from the franchise’s own Weyland-Yutani Corporation). When I brought up how I specifically want to see the dinosaur fight that brought back the biggest skull on the wall, here’s what Trachetenberg had to say:

Well that quote has me thinking! Of course, the writer/director is absolutely teasing here, and he offered no follow-up to what he’s talking about is quite “the trophy,” but it does signal that there will be some exciting kills in the movie that will perhaps rival my hopes for a Jurassic crossover of sorts.

During the interview, which took place at San Diego Comic-Con with a backdrop of the trophy room behind us (which was also used as an activation for fans to go through throughout the weekend), Fanning shared that she “can’t say” what her favorite trophy is in the movie. In other words, there’s a lot in the movie we don’t yet know about and the filmmakers and cast are hiding from us.

I don’t know about you, but it had me walking away from the interview racking my brain about what they are hiding. After Dan Trachetenberg’s last Predator movie, Killer of Killers, we were left with a lot of burning questions, such as how the filmmaker was connecting the animated movie with movies like Prey and the original Predator. Now, I’m wondering if things like the Alien easter eggs will mean something bigger is brewing between those two franchises, or if what he’s talking about will be completely out of left field from what I could even imagine.

When Predator: Badlands’ first teaser came out, there was a lot of negativity coming from fans about the upcoming release, but so far, I’m only getting more sold on the movie as I see more about it. I appreciate Trachetenberg for always trying something fresh with the franchise, starting with Prey, and I expect Badlands to be another solid entry. The movie comes out on November 7, so there’s plenty of time to theorize further until then.

When I spoke to Egerton about his new thriller on the 2025 movie schedule, She Rides Shotgun, I asked him what the difference was in filming the intense, raw fight scenes for this film and the precise battles in movies like Kingsman, Carry-On, and more. I also asked about which was more difficult. Egerton was honest in his response, expressing that the fighting he does in this film, where it's a lot more grounded and emotionally based, is much more "reflective" of what he loves:

This lines up, as Egerton has openly said in response to journalists asking about the idea of him playing James Bond that he wouldn't be good at it and be “too messy.” In any James Bond movie, the character is all about stylish fighting. While he can pull it off, he made it clear that he prefers the style of his She Rides Shotgun character, Nate, who is about as grounded as it comes.

The film overall leans in that direction too. It follows a former convict who is looking to start a new life with his daughter, but of course, some evil men are after him the moment he gets out of prison, and he has to protect his kid. You can't get more relatable in fighting when you're taking on someone to keep your child safe, which is why Egerton feels that the fights are better, because the "stakes" are higher:

The stakes in the best spy movies, to me, are rarely a lot more personal. Most of the time (at least in my experience), it's the whole world at stake, or some big business, or secrets that could be unleashed to the ether – in other words, the stakes revolve around something huge that is crazy to think of but doesn't necessarily affect you personally. Therefore, it's not as relatable.

While She Rides Shotgun isn't a spy thriller whatsoever, Egerton is right that the stakes feel much higher. The idea of a little girl, who has nothing to do with the bad things happening to her, being forced to get involved in something like this is awful. And that led to the expert story.

It's clear that She Rides Shotgun means a lot to Egerton – in fact, he almost got a tattoo from the movie, but his family stopped him. And if these are the kinds of fights we might see him in the future, rather than super spy flicks, then I'm all for it.

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Together. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk!

Watching Together at a screening last month, I found myself wowed, impressed, and mesmerized by the movie’s final shot. The film builds well to its freaky, body horror-centric climax, which sees Alison Brie’s Millie and Dave Franco’s Tim submit and embrace the force that is fusing them together, and I left the theater instantly curious how the final shot came together with the Mille/Tim hybrid that greets Mille’s parents at the door of their home when the older couple arrives for a Sunday visit.

Fortunately, one of the best aspects of my job is that I get to satisfy that kind of curiosity via interviews with filmmakers and actors, and that’s exactly what I got to do when I sat down with writer/director Michael Shanks, Alison Brie and Dave Franco during the Los Angeles press day for the new horror movie late last month. In separate interviews (as captured in the video above), I asked them all about how that final shot was accomplished, and not only did I learn about the execution of some amazing special and visual effects work, but I discovered that the married stars have a hilarious “qualm” with the final look.

How Together Accomplished That Final Shot

Did they find an actor who looks like a hybrid of Alison Brie and Dave Franco? Is it entirely a VFX creation? I had questions like those running through my head after witnessing the wild final moment of Together, and when I asked Michael Shanks about how the shot was created, I found myself impressed and amazed. It’s a mix of practical and digital artistry, and the work that went into it is fantastic.

The Millie/Tim hybrid is played by Alison Brie, but you can be forgiven if you don’t recognize her at all. In addition to extensive makeup work on set that saw parts of Dave Franco’s visage applied to the actresses, there were also visual effects employed that changed the shape of her face to be more like her co-star’s/husband’s. Shanks explained,

Our society is presently without advanced cloning/genetic engineering technology that could perfectly generate a hybrid, nor do we have time travel technology that could age the creation up, so this is really the best option that the production of Together had… and it worked out perfectly. That being said, there is one issue with the final shot that the stars of the movie don’t love, and it was something that the actors came to understand after test screening early cuts of the feature and getting some weirdly insulting feedback…

The Mille/Tim Hybrid Is A Combination Of Two Attractive People… But Alison Brie And Dave Franco Are A Bit Perturbed That They Aren’t More Attractive

Together had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year – where it was met with critical acclaim and eventually picked up by Neon for distribution – but before it had its big debut, unfinished versions of the work were shown during test screenings to determine how the movie would play with audiences. One of the “unfinished” aspects was the final shot… and one unfortunate side effect was a reaction to the work that particularly hurt Alison Brie’s feelings.

While it’s not super common for creatives to attend test screenings, the Community star snuck in to secretly observe how people felt about the movie. At the time, the VFX for the final shot and the applications of details from Dave Franco’s face on top of the makeup were still being experimented with, and the audio wasn’t finished either, so the voice that the audience’s heard from the hybrid was the actresses. It didn’t look perfect… and it led to Brie being shocked by one person’s response:

It was this super funny comment that led to a confession from Alison Brie and Dave Franco, which is that they’re a bit upset that a blend of their movie star good looks didn’t yield a more attractive person. They don’t feel that the hybrid is ugly – but it wasn’t quite what they expected. The actors explained:

Dave Franco: We will say one qualm we have with that final creature is we were just disappointed with how unattractive...
Alison Brie: We wish they were a little more attractive. Like the merging of our two faces made that face.
Dave Franco: They're not unattractive, but we just wanted them to be a little cuter.

Humorous niggles aside, it’s a great conclusion to the film, and one with which Michael Shanks is particularly happy, if not especially because it was an element of Together that featured in the very first draft and was the only conclusion that the writer/director could envision for the movie. Said Shanks,

I’m excited to see the film again just so that I can really focus on the face of the hybrid creation and appreciate the high level movie magic that went into it. And if you want to do the same, Together is now playing in theaters everywhere (having landed at sixth place with a strong debut at the box office this past weekend).

I'm watching Big Brother online and streaming the live feeds with a Paramount+ subscription, so I was excited to talk to Adrian following his eviction. While he had built a replica of the infamous wall challenge and several other competitions in his backyard, Adrian did tell me in our interview that he hadn't considered how his playing the game with other Houseguests, namely Kelley Jorgensen, would impact his standing in the game:

Kelley has struggled to find true allies in the game outside of Adrian, and yes, it's fair to say her association with him played into why he was evicted. She has been on the outskirts of the house, and because Adrian associated with her, he was also quickly moved to the outskirts as well.

Of course, Keanu Soto's veto win also factored into Adrian ending up on the block in the first place. Both he and Kelley have managed to save themselves from eviction since the game began. Adrian being collateral of them being voted out is the same story for Amy Bingham in Week 2, and will continue to be the story for whoever leaves in Week 4 should Kelley win the BB Blockbuster again. While Adrian thinks Kelley played a factor in his eviction, he still loves her as a player, and credits one thing that has led to her survival:

Adrian did point to some subtle genius in Kelley's game that Big Brother fans might not have clocked. While it's hard to defend her first nomination where she volunteered to go up for Vince's Week 1 HOH, volunteering the other weeks knowing she'll likely be a target gives her two chances to take herself down off the block.

Kelley is certainly more of a wildcard than anyone expected, even stating she's more about sowing chaos than actually winning the game. It's not a great strategy for winning Big Brother, but it has provided some entertainment in a season that, thus far, has been marred by some bad gameplay all around.

I would even argue that voting out Adrian was a bad move by several Houseguests, who would've much sooner benefited from having him in their corner as opposed to Will Williams, who seems little more than a warm body for votes at this point. With no true solid alliance at this time, it would've been helpful to have a competent comp threat in your fold to tip the scales of the house in your favor.

We'll see if anyone gets wise to that strategy here soon, as Big Brother continues on CBS on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. ET. I'm curious to see who goes home this week, or if Kelley's wild run in the game will finally come to an end.

I had a chance to speak to actors Garrett Wareing and Tut Nyuot about The Long Walk, and had to know how long it took them (or others) to approach Hamill and ask him what he knew about any upcoming Star Wars projects, as well as seeking out stories from his many years in the franchise. Wareing talked about how the movie's sizeable cast of youngsters followed headlines about Hamill's involvement, and was quick to pounce when they saw the famed actor arrive on set:

Mark Hamill was seemingly as kind as could be, but had to give a reminder that he was there to work more than share anecdotes. It looks like he was indeed granted that time to get into his monologue and drill down on playing The Major. He's as chilling in the trailer as anything I've seen so far, so it was quite the worthwhile rehearsal period.

Wareing had nothing but kind things to say about Mark Hamill, who was by his account, a joy to work with. He showered the actor with praise and noted that they did get their Star Wars questions asked:

Those stories about Mark Hamill's days on the Star Wars set probably were needed, given just how dark the source material is. The screenwriter has promised the movie pulls no punches, and that's apparent enough in the footage we've seen so far.

The Long Walk adaptation hails from The Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence, but the story itself predates the existence of that story, others like it, and the concept of reality television. Now, the story of a group of men all signing up to be the sole survivor in a walk that doesn't end until only one remains all for a lavish prize, doesn't just sound feasible, it feels like something we'd stream with a Netflix subscription.

It's a great premise that is relevant in modern times, though when it was written, it was an allegory about the Vietnam War and the draft. It doesn't seem as though the adaptation is going to lean on that allegory as much, but as mentioned, there's plenty more happening in society today that makes the story work in a way it might not have back then. I'm excited to watch it, as well as the rest of Stephen King adaptations on the way this year.

The Long Walk is in theaters on September 12th. I would watch the trailer first before buying a ticket if you're squeamish, but I think I'm going to be there regardless despite my weak stomach.

King Of The Hill is now out in the 2025 TV schedule, and while it's great to see Hank and friends back for more fun and adventures, a lot has changed since we saw them last. CinemaBlend discovered as much with creator Mike Judge talking about how the series isn't meant to be nostalgic, but he also talked about a major change with Bobby Hill that was heavily discussed ahead of the return.

Those with a Hulu subscription can watch all ten episodes right now, and if they do, they'll see Bobby has changed a lot since Hank worried quite a bit about his son. He's off in Dallas, living with Joseph, and running a restaurant that is a fusion of Japanese and German cuisine. He has all this at only 21 years old, and Mike Judge talked about how his father plays into that amount of success at a young age:

As fun as it might've been to make Bobby a successful show pony as an adult doing anything from being a rodeo clown to a prop comic, King of the Hill's creative team wanted to make a more realistic outcome for Bobby, and they landed on co-owning a restaurant in a big city and living with Joseph Gribble.

As is touched on in King of the Hill, Bobby decided to opt out of going to college, and immediately went to work making his dream of running a Robatayaki once he got out of high school. Showrunner Saladin Patterson said that Bobby's decision to go right into the workforce was a topic of much discussion, and one deliberately made at the request of the co-creators Greg Daniels and Mike Judge:

A lot has changed in King of the Hill since Hank and Peggy returned from Saudi Arabia, both locally and politically. While it may come as a surprise about how Bobby turned out as an adult, there is some more predictable elements to the series. For example, I'm sure no one will be shocked that Bill went into seclusion once the Hills left, and no one knew how to get him out until Hank returned.

It's all part of the fun of seeing the series return, as King of the Hill very deliberately makes Hank a fish out of water in 2025. Years in Saudi Arabia have made him unaware of the etiquette of rideshare services, or all sorts of other tech his friends have had to contend with.

As someone who saw all ten episodes ahead of their release, I was a big fan of the return. While the pilot episode felt a bit wonky due to needing to set up the return, the rest of the series feels in line with classic episodes of King of the Hill. As a longtime fan, I was more than happy, and am hoping we hear more about future episodes soon.

Catch all episodes of King of the Hill on Hulu right now. It's an easy watch for anyone that has an afternoon or evening free to watch, and I'd highly recommend it if you were someone who watched and enjoy the original run of the series.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is the next upcoming Trek series after Strange New Worlds closes out Season 3, and the first look revealed at San Diego Comic-Con has me amped to see this new cast get to work in the 32nd century. I'm especially excited to see Robert Picardo's EMH back in the saddle for the first time in live-action since he starred on Voyager, and the actor confessed he had to adjust to some significant changes getting back into the role.

I had the honor to speak to Robert Picardo at San Diego Comic-Con about his latest adventure in Trek, which is set to stream for those with a Paramount+ subscription in early 2026. During our conversation, he talked about his return to live-action since Voyager (and in animation via Prodigy Season 2), and the adjustment his character had to make in going from the 24th century to the 32nd:

Robert Picardo wouldn't be the actor behind one of the best Star Trek characters if he didn't put a lot of thought into these things, and fortunately, he does. I love his explaining how the EMH has to modernize from his 24th-century mindset in Starfleet Academy, and will absolutely love his attempts to try and blend in with his new surroundings and environment.

As CinemaBlend previously confirmed in other articles, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy does intend to give standalone storylines to the EMH. Any time the EMH tried to "blend in" or understand the human condition, it resulted in some of the best episodes Voyager had in its run. Speaking of his old show, Robert Picardo talked about the responsibility he felt stepping on set as the most veteran actor representing the franchise to a young cast:

Robert Picardo is just as protective of the Doctor/EMH as the most die-hard Star Trek fans, so I expected he'd be keeping a close eye on scripts to make sure this wasn't some drastic reimagining of his character. With that in mind, how long do we think it'll take before we hear him singing opera in the new series?

Robert Picardo, along with the return of some Discovery actors, will offer some familiarity amongst a cast that is new to the Star Trek franchise. Of course, Disco was a series that caused fervent debate amongst fans, with arguments that it was too far of a deviation from the standard formula of Trek television.

We'll see if that has any bearing on the response to Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, which has stacked its cast with acclaimed actors like Oscar-winner Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti. It feels like a big series that the franchise needs to work for Paramount+, which has cut all shows, including the currently airing Strange New Worlds, which will end with Season 5.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is expected to premiere in early 2026, but we still don't have a firm release date for it yet. There was no further word on Trek projects beyond this one, so perhaps we'll learn something later this year about a new show in development.

I recently sat down with Kenan Thompson, the major Saturday Night Live mainstay, to talk about his part in the new Autotrader “Auto Intelligence” campaign. During our chat, I asked him about the characters he loved playing the most, but what I received instead was an insightful story about him and Kel Mitchell coming up with the “Mavis and Clavis” characters from All That. Interestingly enough, that was also the first time the pair ever got to work together:

For those who don’t remember, Mavis (Thompson) and Clavis (Mitchell) were two elderly hecklers who’d appear in everything from introductions to an All That episode’s musical guest. The pair also appeared in sketches of their own, during which they danced, sang and made some of the most ridiculous statements, all in the hopes of not making each other laugh. In terms of coming up with the characters, Thompson said he and Mitchell realized that they were onto something, and not just with the bit from one of the best ‘90s Nickelodeon shows:

Mavis and Clavis would end up becoming a staple of All That’s first five seasons, with their signature back and forth of “Hey Clavis, wake up! The show is over!” and “Ah yeah, kick it!” being played during the closing credits of every episode during that stretch.

Similarly, Thompson and Mitchell would forever be tied to one another after being main cast members on All That for years. They'd eventually branch off on their own for their eponymous sitcom and Good Burger. Though their relationship wasn’t without its ups and downs, the two have worked together in recent years, and Thompson still holds his longtime comedy partner in high regard. (He also isn’t opposed to a Kenan & Kel revival.)

Hopefully, there’ll come a day when Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell revive Mavis and Clavis for old time’s sake, either for another Autotrader campaign to help folks find a new car (without all the cantankerous observations) or on Saturday Night Live. Speaking of which, you’ll be able to watch SNL Season 51 when the show lands on the 2025 TV schedule on October 4.

Between the 2025 movie calendar and the 2025 TV schedule, we have both Predator and Alien installments to look forward to in the near future. Plus, since they are both being made under Disney banners, fans have been wondering if the two franchises could merge once again. When I spoke to Predator: Badlands writer/director at SDCC last week, he shared thoughts on the possibility.

While at San Diego Comic-Con, fans could look one way and see a massive poster for the new Alien series coming to FX/Hulu this month, and look another and see marketing for Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator: Badlands movie. So when I had the chance to talk to the filmmaker, I asked him if the environment brings about any thoughts regarding the next Alien and Predator crossover. Here’s what he had to say:

By “this,” he is talking about Badlands, which already includes some nods to the Alien universe. For example, Elle Fanning’s character Thea is an android from the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which started in the Alien movies. Trachtenberg has previously said that when he was coming up with the idea for his third Predator movie, he decided he wanted to make one without human characters, and figured there was already “a company that makes robots” from the Alien movies.

As a fan of both franchises, I really appreciate how he handled this question. The writer/director sounds like he’s into the idea, and he is already finding ways to connect the dots, but wants to make sure that if he is part of the two coming together, it doesn’t feel like two action figures being smashed together for no reason. As Fanning added, perhaps a “build” to the next Alien vs. Predator is the best way to go.

While there are definitely theories out there that Predator: Badlands could become a full-blown Alien/Predator movie, Trachtenberg simply called it a “toe dip” into them sharing universes. As you might have also noticed in the trailers, there’s the skull of a Xenomorph on a trophy wall, along with things like a dinosaur head and so forth. When I asked him about those easter eggs, here’s what he had to say:

I think we’re going to have to wait for the movie’s release on November 7 to fully understand the implications of Badlands on the Alien universe, but it’s definitely worth noting that Alien: Romulus director Fede Álvarez has shared interest in connecting them, once suggesting that he and Trachtenberg could collaborate as directors. I know I’ll be paying close attention while watching both Alien: Earth and Predator: Badlands in the coming months.

With the release of Happy Gilmore 2 on the 2025 Netflix schedule, some funny new characters were introduced, including Happy Gilmore's sons. Just like Happy himself, these four had some hilarious reactions and celebrations whenever their father would achieve a good putt, a hole in one, or anything else worth freaking out over. So, when I asked them what their favorite Happy Gilmore-esque celebration was to film, they had answers galore.

In Happy Gilmore 2, the four sons are played by Maxwell Jacob Friedman (MJF), Ethan Cutkosky, Philip Fine Schneider, and Conor Sherry, and all of them have their moments where they absolutely freak out about golf just like their on-screen dad does in the film. Of course, I had to ask them about their favorite over-the-top reactions onscreen, and Friedman's answer was instant:

MJF is a wrestling star who would willingly do a tag team-up with on-screen dad Adam Sandler, and his take on getting to basically beat up his co-star -- "for the love of film" of course-- had me in stitches. Another one of the brothers, Schneider, also told me this scene was entirely improvised.

That sounds like something that would happen in a film like this. After all, Happy Gilmore is one of Adam Sandler's best comedies and has some of Sandler’s best quotes, and the actor is known for making jokes on the fly that tend to live on in infamy. The fact Happy's "sons" were participating in the improvisation makes me happy.

Happy Gilmore 2 boasts plenty of hilarious moments the boys brought up, including running around screaming 'daddy' while swinging sports equipment. It's also already attracted notice for some of its insanely funny cameos. Even for those on set, some of the cameo moments were spectacular, with Cutowsky telling me:

While it's not as prominent as Travis Kelce's slicked-back hair cameo that everyone is talking about, thanks to a mailbox peeing gag, Steve Buscemi in this movie is hard to miss. Not the kind of neighbor I'd want in real life, but still very funny, and clearly filming with him was memorable for the gang.

All of this makes me want to rewatch the film again for all the great callbacks to former Adam Sandler films – and if there happens to be a Happy Gilmore 3, I'm going to need these boys to come back as soon as possible.

Asking people if they prefer to binge a show or watch it week to week can cause quite heated debates; in fact, I’ve been in them many times. For years now, there’s been a big, passionate discussion about which release strategy is better, and it feels like it only gets more heated as the 2025 TV schedule features a mix of the two release methods. So now, Chuck Lorre, an acclaimed producer and writer who has a hit on Netflix right now and has created shows that were dropped both ways, has weighed in.

As Chuck Lorre’s latest sitcom, Leanne debuts at No. 2 on Netflix’s Top Ten TV Shows in the U.S., he spoke to us about his 2025 Netflix release as well as how TV shows are released these days. When asked by CinemaBlend’s Nick Venable about the weekly episodes vs. binge-all-at-once strategies, he started out by saying each have their own merits:

He’s right, they both have benefits, and you can get major hits with both.

Some of the biggest hits of the last few years came after all their episodes were dropped at once. For example, all four seasons of The Bear have been dropped the binge way for those with a Hulu subscription. Also, some of Netflix’s most binge-worthy shows, like Wednesday and Stranger Things, have found major success this way (even though both will premiere new seasons with Netflix’s largely disliked parts model, where the season is dropped in two or three chunks).

However, the week-to-week schedule also has major benefits, and shows like HBO’s The White Lotus and Apple TV+’s Severance have thrived on it. This model is great because it has the ability to easily keep audiences talking for weeks on end. That’s a point Lorre made to us, too, when discussing the advantages of it, saying:

With a week-to-week model, there’s already a built-in weeks-long timeframe for folks to talk in great detail about what happens on a given show. That's incredibly valuable, and something binge shows can't naturally have. However, as we've seen, if projects dropped all at once can hold on to the public's attention and create mass discourse, they can stick in the zeitgeist for a very, very long time.

Lorre likely personally knows the benefits and pitfalls of both models. Since 2007, he’s had either The Big Bang Theory or one of its two spinoffs airing week-to-week on CBS, and we can’t forget the hit sitcom Two and a Half Men either. Meanwhile, he’s also worked on hits you can stream with a Netflix subscription, like The Kominsky Method.

His new series, Leanne, which stars Leanne Morgan and follows her titular character in the aftermath of her husband leaving her, is also proving to work well. It’s only been out for a few days, and it's trending on Netflix, so clearly, people are tuning in to stream it.

However, there’s something about the week-to-week way that hits different. Lorre continued to make a point about how much deeper conversations about shows can be when you’re only given one episode at a time:

I’ve experienced this water cooler talk Lorre is referring to first-hand. Using examples from only 2025, every week, for months, my friends and I would check in and discuss shows like Severance, Eslbeth and Abbott Elementary in detail before theorizing about what would happen next. Meanwhile, when Season 4 of The Bear dropped, we enjoyed the episodes in one sitting, talked about it for about a week, and then moved on to the next thing.

To me, week-to-week is the way to go; however, you can’t deny that a good binge is nice here and there. And right now, you can do just that with Cuck Lorre’s sitcom, Leanne, which recently dropped all 16 of its episodes on Netflix.

As a kid who grew up on the Disney comedy Freaky Friday, when I hear Britney Spears’ “... Baby One More Time,” it’s impossible not to think about the scene where Chad Michael Murray’s Jake sings the song from the top of his lungs. Ahead of getting hyped for his return in the Freakier Friday release, we spoke to the actor about filming that scene, and he had a funny story that makes me think about it in a whole different way.

Since Freaky Friday was actually Chad Michael Murray’s first movie, during the Freakier Friday press junket in Los Angeles, I had to ask about what it was like for him to film that scene that still lives so rent free in my brain. In his words:

As you may recall, Chad Michael Murray’s character of Jake decides to serenade Jamie Lee Curtis’ Tess with the Britney Spears song from outside her house after hitting it off at his coffee shop. But the fun twist is Tess isn’t actually Tess, it’s her daughter Anna, and she’s swapped bodies with her mom after a supernatural occurrence at a Chinese restaurant.

I love his story about being a young actor who was new to the business who was told to sing loudly in an actual neighborhood until neighbors started to catch on and acted as his audience. Murray also said this:

While it might have been embarrassing at the time, it obviously turned out hilarious and is fondly remembered by many. It goes to show that actors just have to do the “terrifying” thing all the time and hope it stands the test of time. Murray’s comments come as he’s set to return as Jake in Freakier Friday. Per the latest trailer, we know that Jake will be in the picture when Anna, Tess, Anna’s teen daughter and to-be step-daughter all get body swapped. The two teens decide to pay Jake a visit in order to sabotage Anna’s upcoming wedding.

Previously, Murray has shared his honest thoughts on Jake, and how he shouldn’t have started dating Anna as “sloppy seconds” after having a crush on her mom. He’s also talked about a funny backstory idea he had for Jake going into Freakier Friday.

As Freakier Friday’s place on the 2026 movie release calendar draws closer, we also spoke to Lindsay Lohan about the Parent Trap reunion in the movie. It hits theaters on August 8.

It's certainly not a return that will invoke nostalgia, but as Toby Huss and Mike Judge said when I spoke to the them and the cast at San Diego Comic-Con, that's by design. America as a whole has changed in the decade and a half since King of the Hill left television, and Huss mentioned a comparison creator Judge made about how viewers should see this series:

Things have changed for every character in King of the Hill, as CinemaBlend wrote about when we pointed out key details in posters and other footage we've seen. Arlen is not the same place it was when Hank and Peggy left, and it takes both a while to find their footing.

Fortunately, Mike Judge said that exact premise is what really got the ideas rolling in the King of the Hill writers' room. The creator told me that once they landed on the idea of Hank taking a contract to live on an American base in Saudi Arabia for several years, it began to make sense why they felt like fishes out of water when returning to Texas:

Living on an American base abroad has, as one might guess, made Hank and Peggy a bit out of touch as to how much America has changed in their absence. Not to worry though, as the entire alley gang and Bobby have been there, and are ready to fill them in as I've witnessed across the episodes I received ahead of the premiere.

The good news is that while the series is not nostalgic in tone, it certainly feels like classic King of the Hill. Despite the tragic deaths of past actors (including the more recent losses of Dale actor Johnny Hardwick and John Redcorn actor Jonathan Joss), the series hasn't lost a step in finding ways to give new adventures on par with some of the greatest episodes of the show's past.

I saw the entire series ahead of its arrival, and as a longtime King of the Hill fan, I can confidently say I want a lot more episodes. I particularly like the decision to age up characters like Bobby, Joseph and Connie, as it presents a fresh new storyline that not only is interesting, but incredibly relevant to the lives of young adults today.

Readers will get to see for themselves when they watch King of the Hill's return on Hulu on Monday, August 4th. I'm excited to see the world's response to the show returning, and I'm hoping it's big enough that a Season 2 renewal is just around the corner.

The film features Egerton as Nate, a former convict who is trying to make a life for himself and his daughter (played by Ana Sophia Heger), but they are both chased down by enemies. In the film, Nata sports several different tattoos, all of which were drawn onto Egerton's body, and he openly admitted he loved the process of obtaining and designing them:

Egerton admitted he loved them so much he "very nearly" got one from the film fully tattooed on his body. He had the appointment booked and everything. But at the last moment, his mother found out, stepped in and told him it was a bad idea.

The actor may be 35, but it's nice to know he's still taking his mom into account. Honestly, it's very sweet that a star like Egerton has such a close connection with his mother and took her advice when she stepped in.

Tattoos in general have become even bigger in Hollywood; the Avengers cast getting matching ones always comes to mind when the subject comes up. Major stars like Jason Momoa have taken great care with tattooos and even shared the meaning behind many of them, so it's not like getting a She Rides Shotgun tattoo would have been that outside-the-box of a choice. It just didn't work for Egerton's mom.

I still think if he were to have gotten a tattoo from a film, She Rides Shotgun would have been the one. The movie is thrilling from beginning to end and tells an exciting story about what a father would do for their daughter, and how trauma changes people. The tattoos were just an extra piece of the puzzle.

Egerton's had a big year with Smoke and now She Rides Shotgun in limited theatrical release. People keep asking him about James Bond and Wolverine lately, too. But now I'm mostly curious about whether or not he'll ever bit the bullet and ink himself. Only time will tell.

Video Chapters

0:00 - ‘The Fantastic Four’ Cast Is In Love

0:25 - “Those Are My Secrets”: ‘The Fantastic Four’ Cast Reveals Their Character Backstories

1:25 - Pedro Pascal Is Jealous Of Spider-Man And Namor

2:17 - Julia Garner Talks About The Silver Surfer’s Painful Past

3:50 - Can Galactus Taste The Planets? Ralph Ineson Weighs In

4:25 - ‘The Fantastic Four’ Cast Is Grateful For Their Suits, Which Are “Ribbed For Pleasure”

5:20 - Julia Garner Felt Like The Fifth Member Of The Fantastic Four

6:04 - Pedro Pascal Defends Reed Richards As A Father

7:15 - The Fantastic Four Power That Julia Garner And Ralph Ineson Want

Video Chapters

0:00 - Intro.

0:18 - Director Matt Shakman Explains ‘The Fantastic Four’s’ Timeline

2:30 - The Thing’s Stand-In, “Jenny From The Rock,” And Where She Is Now

3:07 - Who Is Natasha Lyonne’s Character, And Why Didn’t She Play Alicia Masters?

4:10 - Will Paul Walter Hauser Return? Matt Shakman Reflects On Giving Him His First Job

4:57 - Matt Shakman Explains John Malkovich’s Cut Role From ‘The Fantastic Four’

6:18 - Who Was In That Costume During ‘The Fantastic Four’s’ Post-Credit Scene?

6:35 - When Matt Shakman Found Out Who Was Playing Doctor Doom, And How The Post-Credit Scene Came Together

7:05 - How The ‘Thunderbolts*’ Post-Credit Scene Aligned With ‘The Fantastic Four’

7:45 - The Incredible Story Of How Matt Shakman Got The Baby To Clap In ‘The Fantastic Four’

There’s no question about it, Chuck Lorre is an incredibly successful and well-renowned writer, producer and creator. He’s the mastermind behind megahits like Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory and Mom, and now he has a new show on the 2025 TV schedule. So, when CinemaBlend got the chance to chat with the creative team behind this new Netflix series, Leanne, we asked what they’ve taken away from their time working with the super producer.

Ahead of Leanne’s premiere (you can stream it with a Netflix subscription now), CinemaBlend’s Nick Venable sat down to chat with Lorre as well as his fellow executive producers, Nick Bakay and Susan McMartin. He asked them what they’ve learned from working with The Big Bang Theory’s co-creator that they wouldn’t have learned otherwise, and after some joking around – which you can see above – and Lorre humously saying “careful,” Bakay sincerely said:

Nick Bakay has quite the history with Lorre. He wrote here and there on shows like Sabrina the Teenage Witch and King of Queens, and he penned the movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop before he started writing and producing with Lorre on Two and a Half Men in 2013. After that, he became a frequent collaborator of his as he wrote and produced on Mom, The Kominsky Method, Young Sheldon and more before Leanne, which just premiered on Netflix’s 2025 schedule.

All these projects are so different, too, so it sounds like Nick Bakay got to put this knowledge to use in a lot of different ways. However, along with being great sitcoms, they all have a fair dose of heart to go along with the humor, and as the EP explained, knowing how to write something real and emotional is vital, because the funny will always follow.

While he took a writing approach, Susan McMartin’s takeaway was significantly more personal. She’s also a long-time collaborator of Lorre’s, as she’s worked on Two and a Half Men and Mom as a writer and consulting producer. Both those were very long-running shows, and that sustained success gave McMartin, who co-created Leanne with Lorre, a security she’s eternally grateful for, as she explained:

The success of Lorre’s shows cannot be underestimated. Just think about the fact that along with 279 episodes of The Big Bang Theory, he created another wickedly successful show by spinning it off with Young Sheldon, which then inspired another successful spinoff, Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, which will continue on CBS’s fall lineup this season. And that’s just one example. Mom also had over 100 episodes. Meanwhile, as those were running, he also worked on series like The Kominsky Method, Bob Hearts Abishola and more.

That kind of success was able to provide job security and opportunities for many people, McMartin included. So, I see why she told us this when we asked about working with Lorre.

Now, let’s hope that Leanne can see the kind of success these other series have found over the years.

The sitcom stars Leanne Morgan and Kristen Johnston, and it follows Morgan’s titular Leanne after her husband of 33 years left her. Like the other comedies these three have worked on, Leanne seems like it's hilarious and full of heart, which speaks right to the points both of these producers and writers made.

I tuned in for the three episodes of Animals on Drugs, which all aired on Discovery on July 28 and are available streaming now with an HBO Max subscription. As somebody who was always fascinated by the tale of Pablo Escobar’s cocaine hippos in Colombia and a regular viewer of Forrest Galante’s attempts to find alien sharks each year (even when orcas pose a problem), the show was a natural fit for me. When I spoke with the host, he explained what sets Animals on Drugs apart and makes it important beyond a somewhat sensationalist title:

With Discovery airing all three episodes back-to-back-to-back in one night and the show having such an incredibly specific premise, I really assumed that Animals on Drugs really had to be a one-and-done series. After all, how many animals could there really be that are so specifically affected by pharmaceuticals with enough evidence to make up a full special?

Well, according to Forrest Galante, there are a lot more animals that could fit the bill for future seasons of Animals on Drugs. He said:

I’d known about the cocaine hippos from other documentaries, but meth gators and drunk bears were new to me! I won’t go too deeply into what happens with Forrest Galante’s efforts to learn more about how these species are affected by human pharmaceuticals, but I will say that there’s one segment of the meth gator episode that would have been too much for me to be part of in real life even if I was an alligator aficionado.

Galante didn’t list the sixteen species that he could cover in future seasons of Animals on Drugs, but sadly, there are apparently a lot. (Fun fact: Discovery aired a Shark Week special called Cocaine Sharks a couple years ago, also available streaming now on HBO Max.)

This year’s installment of Alien Sharks proved that he definitely hasn’t run out of sharks to cover in his recurring series of specials focusing on very specific, lesser known shark species that are often in danger from human encroachment. With 2025’s Alien Sharks: Death Down Under taking him to the waters of Australia and involving the host injecting himself with shark venom, I had to ask: is it ever hard to find a new angle for a series of species? He explained:

If you missed the wild ride of Shark Week 2025 or Animals on Drugs, you’re in luck with them all available on HBO Max. I went in not knowing what to expect from Animals on Drugs, interested but not really expecting that there could be more than those three species so affected by human pharmaceuticals that a full Discovery special could be focused on them. That just goes to show what I knew about… well, animals on drugs! Perhaps Galante will have the chance to cover more of those sixteen species he has in mind.

Haas came to Countdown with plenty of experience on long-running shows as well, as he was the showrunner on NBC's Chicago Fire for more than a decade, and the hard work that he (and Jensen Ackles) put in for stunts in fact reflects some of his comments about Fire often getting snubbed for stunts on the awards circuit. When I spoke with Haas for Countdown during Prime Video's press day, I had to ask: what benefits were there for him to have written all ten episodes of Countdown himself instead of sharing that load? He shared:

The cast who provided Derek Haas with his "embarrassment of riches" is made up of Jessica Camacho as DEA Agent Amber Oliveras, The Flash's Violett Beane as FBI Agent Evan Shepard, Elliot Knight as FBI Agent Keyonte Bell, Uli Latukefu as LAPD Detective Luke Finau, and Grey's Anatomy's Eric Dane as FBI SAC Nathan Blythe in addition to Jensen Ackles as LAPD Detective Mark Meachum. (This Is Us vet Milo Ventimiglia was very briefly part of the cast.)

Writing a full ten episodes is surely a lot of work for a new TV show no matter how talented the cast is and/or how experienced the showrunner is, however. So, I asked Haas if he would want to write all of the scripts himself again if Countdown is renewed for Season 2. He responded:

Well, it's technically only been about six weeks since I spoke with Derek Haas about Countdown Season 2 and got the suggestion to ask him again in a year, but can I be blamed for having high hopes for news of a second season coming sooner rather than later? Eight of the first season's ten episodes have released so far, to a fair amount of buzz. Jensen Ackles even used his post confirming a return to Tracker to hype the latest episode.

For now, keep checking out new episodes of Countdown on Wednesdays with a Prime Video subscription. At the very least, adding to the view count for the series can't hurt its renewal chances, and I for one would love the relief of an official order for Season 2 coming before the Season 1 finale. Most ideally, that Season 2 wouldn't take much longer than the year that Derek Haas mentioned!

Spoilers below for anyone who hasn’t yet watched the first episode of Twisted Metal’s second season with a Peacock subscription, so be warned!

The tournament is coming, drivers! Now that Twisted Metal Season 2 has finally arrived on the 2025 TV schedule, it’s time for Anthony Mackie’s John Doe to get serious. Wait, no, that would probably go against the entire concept of the loosely connected video game adaptation. Though in the very first episode, John does get serious about reading through a bunch of Baby-Sitters Club novels, and while it might have started out as desperation, it seemingly became a true obsession.

When I talked to showrunner Michael Jonathan Smith ahead of the big Season 2 premiere, I had to ask about that unexpected cameo from Ann M. Martin’s beloved novels for teens and tweens. As seen in the video above, here’s what he told me inspired that reference from a personal level:

Awww, gotta love that The Baby-Sitters Club had such a key connection point for Smith that he felt the urge to bring it into the wonky remnants of pop culture in Twisted Metal. And that John went through a pretty specific panic at the thought of continuing to read through the series despite one book being missing. Just when you think it’ll be non-important, that’s when whole new characters come into play.

Smith continued, saying he wanted that to be a familial nexus for John and his sister rekindling their relationship. In his words:

People love the book series enough that it became a critically acclaimed live-action Netflix series years ago, though it made for one of the more disappointing cancellations in 2022 when the streaming service pulled the plug. Sadly, attempts to further the show went unfulfilled as well.

One has to wonder if John Doe would have been as invested in the TV series as he was in the novels. I have to think he’d have made himself just as comfortable on the couch with his feet swinging behind him. And that dichotomy between the two is part of the fun for the showrunner, who continued:

I wonder if John could talk Sweet Tooth and Stu into spending an afternoon speed-reading through a bunch of Baby-Sitters Club books instead of murdering anyone with a deadlier reputation. Probably not. Sweet Tooth would likely just burn all the books eventually anyway.

Find out if John Doe will ever finish the series — could he even stand the little sisters? — when Twisted Metal Season 2 drops new episodes on Thursdays on Peacock.