Multiverse News

Sony didn’t wait long to release the Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer we’ve all been craving and oh, how it delivered! Unsurprisingly, the trailer now holds the record for the most-watched ever, garnering 718.6 million views in a 24-hour period. The new film shows Peter Parker banding together with familiar characters such as Bruce Banner and Frank Castle while he anonymously serves New York City as Spider-Man. Let’s not delay - who wants to take a bite out of this big apple first?
It’s a three-for-one MCU week, with the announcement that a second season of Wonder Man is beginning production, and a title plus release date for the Punisher special presentation. All of the creatives behind Wonder Man are returning for the second season, including Destin Daniel Cretton as director and executive producer. Marvel announced the news with a social media post of the front of the script for the next season. Today, the film studio let us know that the Punisher tv special will be called “One Last Kill,” and is set to drop on May 12 the week after the finale of Daredevil: Born Again season two. So much here to bite off, what are we chewing on the most?
Remember how all we can do is rave about Project Hail Mary? Well the box office agrees, as the Ryan Gosling-led film opened to $141 million globally last weekend, with $80.6 of that being domestic. In the era of sequel-verse, Hail Mary rivals only Oppenheimer for being the other film to pass this kind of benchmark that isn’t a continuation of a franchise. No one here is surprised, but is the industry?
Lightning Round
Disney has announced release dates for Lilo & Stitch 2 which is coming out on May 26, 2028, Memorial Day weekend, and Pixar’s Incredibles 3, which debuts on June 16, 2028.

Netflix has rounded out the main cast of the upcoming live action Scooby Doo series. Tanner Hagen will play Shaggy Rogers, Abby Ryder Fortson will portray Velma Dinkley and Maxwell Jenkins is set as Fred Jones, joining previously cast Mckenna Grace as Daphne Blake. Paul Walter Hauser has also joined the cast as a series regular in an undisclosed role.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 has added Ben Kingsley and Nick Offerman to the cast in undisclosed voice roles.

Sony Pictures has tapped Wonka director Paul King to write and direct its upcoming live action Labubu project, a film based on the popular line of toys. King will write the film with Tony Award-winning writer Steven Levenson.

Kirsten Dunst has joined the cast of the untitled Minecraft Movie sequel from Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary.

Chuck Norris, star of 1980s action movies like Missing in Action and the long-running CBS drama Walker, Texas Ranger, has died. He was 86.

Netflix‘s live-action “Assassin’s Creed” series will be an original story set in Rome in 64 A.D., the streamer revealed last week. The hotly anticipated series, directed by Johan Renck, has started filming at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios. The series has also added Louis McCartney, Mirren Mack, Youssef Kerkour, and Sandra Guldberg-Kampp to the cast in recurring roles.

“Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” will end with its upcoming second season, Variety has learned exclusively.

Disney has released the first full trailer for the upcoming live action adaptation of Moana which will hit theaters on July 10.

Two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali has joined the cast of season 2 of Task, a detective drama for HBO alongside Mark Ruffalo.

Jumanji 3 has shifted release dates from December 11th to December 25th of this year.

The HBO Harry Potter series showcased an official first look at the show via a photo posted to the show’s official Instagram page. The image shows Harry with his back to camera donned in his Quidditch gear as he approaches the field.

Have you seen Project Hail Mary, question?
Matt, Jay and Scotty have seen the movie starring Ryan Gosling, directed by Lord & Miller, and adapted from Andy Weir's book, and are here to sing it praises!

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Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another won Best Picture at the 98th Academy Awards, capping a ceremony that saw the film earn six Oscars including Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and the inaugural Best Casting award. Ryan Coogler's Sinners made history as the most-nominated film in Academy Awards history with 16 nominations, taking home four trophies including Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan, Best Original Screenplay for Coogler, and Best Cinematography for Autumn Durald Arkapaw; the first woman to win in that category. Jessie Buckley won Best Actress for Hamnet, Amy Madigan won Best Supporting Actress for Weapons, and KPop Demon Hunters took Best Animated Feature. 
Hot off the heels of his debut in HBO's Lanterns teaser trailer, Aaron Pierre has been officially confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter to reprise his Green Lantern role as John Stewart in James Gunn's Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow, joining returning cast members David Corenswet as Superman, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and newcomer Lars Eidinger as Brainiac. 
The Dunesday festivities have officially commenced as Denis Villeneuve shared the first teaser for Dune: Part Three earlier today, currently slated to release the same day as Avengers: Doomsday: December 18, 2026. The heavy and moody two minute and thirty second look showcased returning stars Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, and Rebecca Ferguson as well as Anya Taylor Joy as Paul’s sister Alia, a role that was reduced to a cameo in the last film, and the seeming return of Jason Momoa’s Duncan Idaho. Newcomer Robert Pattinson also pops up as the villainous Scytale, a character featured in Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah. 
Kate Winslet has joined the cast of Andy Serkis' upcoming Lord of the Rings prequel The Hunt for Gollum in an undisclosed role.
Netflix has closed the deal for KPop Demon Hunters directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans to return to direct a sequel as part of a new, multi-year writing and directing pact.
During an interview with Hello Sidney, Scream writer and Scream 7 director Kevin Williamson said that he does not expect to write or direct Scream 8, the potential follow-up for the Paramount 
Nathan Fillion revealed at Awesome Con this weekend that an animated Firefly series is in advanced development based on the sci-fi franchise, with original cast members returning to voice their characters. 
Hulu has opted not to proceed with its Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, starring and executive produced by Sarah Michelle Gellar. She broke the news to fans on Instagram Saturday morning. 
Paramount Pictures is not moving forward with Max Landis‘ G.I. Joe movie, sources confirm to The Hollywood Reporter. 
The next book in the Reign of the Empire trilogy from Star Wars will be Edge of the Abyss by Rebecca Roanhorse. It is set one year before the first season of Andor and will feature Mon Monthma, Bail Organa, and Saw Gerrera again. The book comes out on September 15.
Paramount has officially green lit A Quiet Place Part 3. John Krasinski will return to direct and cast members Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy, Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe will all return for the sequel. A number of new additions to the cast have also been made including Sinners villain Jack O’Connell, Jason Clarke and Love Lies Bleeding breakout Katy O’Brian. 
Jason Ritter and Patrick Wilson have signed on to the cast of HBO's The Last of Us season 3. Wilson will recur as Abby’s father, Jerry. Ritter will play Hanley, a Washington Liberation Front soldier.
First looks at the upcoming teaser trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day have begun dropping on Spider-Man social media accounts in short clips, with a full trailer confirmed for Wednesday morning.

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It’s been a bit quiet on the DCU front other than the Supergirl trailers, but we finally got a first look at Lanterns, the series starring Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre as Green Lantern characters Hal Jordan and John Stewart, respectively. 
Hoppers topped the weekend box office with a domestic haul of $46 million and $88 million globally, the biggest launch for an original animated film since the studio’s Coco was released in 2017. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! bombed with a third-place domestic debut of $7.3 million. Overseas was just as weak for the new take on Frankenstein and his spouse as it limped to $6.3 million for a worldwide launch of $13 million against a net budget of $80 million before marketing.
Prime Video has released the first teaser trailer for the fifth and final season of The Boys where we see Homelander on a quest for immortality using a new version of the Compound-V serum. The trailer also confirmed some Gen V character crossover and takes a turn at the end with Homelander sitting in the Oval Office.
Director Lee Isaac Chung has exited Warner Bros.‘ planned feature prequel for its Ocean’s Eleven property. Chung had been developing the movie with the studio and Margot Robbie, who is attached to star with Bradley Cooper and produce through her LuckyChap banner. A representative for Warner Bros. confirms that Chung left amicably amid “creative differences.”
John Leguizamo has joined the cast of Mike Flanagan’s untitled The Exorcist feature, joining Scarlett Johansson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Laurence Fishburne and Diane Lane.
Disney has entered the early stages of development on Tink, a live action series based on Tinkerbell. Liz Heldens and Bridget Carpenter are teaming up to write the project.
Jamie Lee Curtis, who has a recurring guest role on Hulu's The Bear, has confirmed that the upcoming fifth season which is currently in production will be the final season of the show.
Two-time Emmy winner Jeff Daniels has joined the cast of the fifth season of AppleTV's news drama The Morning Show.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is returning for King Conan, a new Conan the Barbarian movie in development at 20th Century Studios that has the Mission: Impossible franchise’s Christopher McQuarrie attached to write and direct.
During a recent Reddit AMA, filmmaker Carlos López Estrada confirmed that Disney was not moving forward with his planned live action adaptation of Robin Hood, a planned adaptation of the 1970 animated film
During a Nintendo Direct presentation, Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri announced a handful of voice cast members for the upcoming Super Mario Galaxy Movie including Luis Guzman as Wart, Issa Rae as Honey Queen, and Donald Glover as Yoshi.
Over the past two weeks, Firefly fans have been speculating as Nathan Fillion has taken to social media to post videos of himself visiting the cast of the cult favorite show.  He has visited 6 members of his former firefly crew and said in effect, “It’s time”.  An announcement will apparently be made March 15th.

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Netflix has walked away from its bid to buy Warner Brothers, refusing to raise an initial offer after a counter offer from Paramount Skydance at $31 dollars a share, its largest push to buy the studio to this point. This move sets up Paramount as the favorite to acquire Netflix with no real competitor left in the field. The Ellison family has made an extended political push, as well as a financial push to raise the offer enough to secure the chance to purchase the studio and all the intellectual property included. Netflix is also expected to walk away with a $2.8 billion dollar termination fee, paid by Paramount. On an investor call on Monday, David Ellison confirmed that eventually, HBOMax and Paramount+ will merge into one streaming platform.
‘Twas two weeks before the Oscars and during awards season, Sinners took a surprise award home and we don’t care for what reason! The awards show formerly known as the SAG Awards, now called the Actor Awards, livestreamed on Netflix this past Sunday, hosted by Kristen Bell. The biggest surprise of the night was Michael B. Jordan winning the lead actor award for his roles in Sinners, which Viola Davis announced in a way that went viral. In other horror film news, Amy Madigan took home her second award this season for best supporting actress in Weapons.
Scream 7 blew past all expectations at the weekend box office, where it opened to a franchise-best $64.1 million domestically and $33.1 million overseas for a global start of $97.2 million, the best opening weekend in the franchise's history. It’s a quiet time otherwise at the movies, as we look to May for the beginning of a hot summer season, with Sony Picture’s GOAT pulling ahead of Wuthering Heights, both of which are in their third weekends.
Amazon has unveiled a first look at the live-action “God of War” TV series, with production on the show now underway in Vancouver. The image offers fans their first glimpse of Ryan Hurst as Kratos, the titular god of war, and Callum Vinson as his young son, Atreus. On Saturday, David Jaffe, the creator of the “God of War” video games, took to his YouTube channel to criticize the first look, calling it a “dumb fucking image," and saying "could you find a picture that doesn’t look like he’s shitting in the woods? Cause that’s what the picture looks like.”
Paramount has tapped screenwriter Max Landis to pen the script for an upcoming GI Joe feature, sources tell the Hollywood Reporter. At the same time, the studio has also hired The Righteous Gemstones star and creator Danny McBride to work on a separate script for GI Joe, although it is unclear if these are two separate projects or not. Notably, Landis' career imploded in 2019 during the Me Too Movement after an expose in the Daily Beast in which several women accused him of sexual and emotional abuse.
A24 has released the first trailer for Kane Parsons' upcoming horror film The Backrooms, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor. The film, which is a directorial debut for Parsons, is based on his viral YouTube horror series that has amassed more than 190 million views.
The first trailer has been released for the Wayans brothers' upcoming Scary Movie 6, which releases in theaters on June 12th. The trailer has begun appropriately playing in front of Scream 7.
Warner Brothers is officially developing a Game of Thrones movie with Andor writer and House of Cards showrunner Beau Willimon attached to write the script. The movie is believed to be about Aegon I Targaryen’s conquest of Westeros, which would serve as a prequel to the mainline HBO series.