Multiverse News

Welcome to Multiverse News, Your source for Information about all your favorite fictional universes
Disney, Paramount and Universal are lining up trailers for Super Bowl LX ywith spots expected for The Mandalorian and Grogu, Pixar's Hoppers and Toy Story 5, Steven Spielberg's alien thriller - Disclosure Day, Illumination's Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Minions 3, and Paramount's Scream 7 among others. In a surprising Super Bowl anomaly, Marvel Studios is apparently sitting the Big Game out despite having Avengers: Doomsday and Spider-Man: Brand New Day releasing this year, while Sony and Warner Bros seem to be following a similar strategy with their reported absences.
Sony Pictures unveiled first-look images of Sam Mendes' ambitious four-film Beatles project through postcards hidden at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, revealing Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr. The unprecedented biographical event will tell the story of the Fab Four from each member's perspective in separate films all releasing in April 2028, with production now underway in London and the cast anticipating 15 months of consecutive shooting across all four movies.
Disney's board unanimously voted to name Josh D'Amaro, chairman of Disney Experiences, as the company's next CEO effective March 18. D'Amaro, a 28-year Disney veteran overseeing the company's largest business segment with $36 billion in annual revenue, beat out Disney Entertainment co-chair Dana Walden, who was named to the newly created role of President and Chief Creative Officer reporting directly to D'Amaro. Iger will transition to senior advisor and board member through his retirement on December 31, 2026, having spent the past three years stabilizing the company and grooming successors after his previous handoff imploded.
AppleTV has closed a deal to land the rights to the Cosmere books, the fictional literary universe by fantasy author Brandon Sanderson. The first titles being eyed for adaptation are the Mistborn series, for features, and The Stormlight Archive series, for television.
Mandy Patinkin has been cast as Odin in Amazon Prime Video's live-action God of War series, joining Ryan Hurst as Kratos, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Thor, and previously reported Max Parker as Heimdall. The series has also cast Danny Woodburn and Jeff Gulka as the dwarven blacksmith brothers Brok and Sindri, along with Alastair Duncan reprising his role from the games as Mimir.
Legendary’s live-action feature adaptation of Gundam looks to have found a home as sources tell Deadline that Netflix is on board to distribute the film. Sydney Sweeney and Noah Centineo are on board to star with Sweet Tooth director Jim Mickle helming.
The long-awaited fourth season of Apple TV‘s hit Ted Lasso will make its global debut in summer 2026. Along with the announcement, the streamer released four first-look images from the new season of the Emmy-winning comedy starring and executive produced by Jason Sudeikis.
Catherine O’Hara, the beloved, multi-award-winning actor, writer and comedian died last week at her home in Los Angeles following a brief illness. She was 71.
Universal announced last week that the next film in the Fast and the Furious franchise is titled Fast Forever and is set for theatrical release March 17, 2028. 
Netflix has unveiled the trailer and premiere date of April 23rd for “Stranger Things: Tales From ’85,” the highly anticipated animated spinoff from showrunner Eric Robles and executive producers the Duffer Brothers.
A24 released the official trailer for The Drama starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson.
Jorge Lendeborg Jr. (“Spider-Man: No Way Home”) has joined Season 3 of the HBO drama, The Last Of Us, taking over the role from Danny Ramirez after he had to be recast due to scheduling issues.

On the day of Wonder Man, Marvel also gifted us with the teaser trailer for Daredevil: Born Again season two, which will begin on March 24. Our full cast of characters returns, with the teaser even showing Foggy Nelson, and debuts Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones in the MCU. The eight episode second season looks promising and we know a third season is already greenlit.

Lucasfilm’s first property of 2026 will be the animated series Maul: Shadow Lord. The show’s trailer dropped online last Friday to acclaim from fans of Star Wars animation. The eight episode series will premiere with two episodes on April 6 and release two episodes a week leading up to the finale episodes on May 4th - a significant day for Star Wars fandom. The character of Maul debuted in The Phantom Menace and has a storied reputation through other animated properties such as The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels.

It’s Mattel’s next outing bringing toys to life on screen as the trailer for Masters of the Universe premiered a few days ago. The popular 1980s franchise is becoming lifelike through performances of Nicholas Galitzine as He-Man, Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn, Jared Leto as Skeletor, and more stars like Idris Elba, Kristen Wiig, and Sasheer Zamata.

Christina Hodson has been tapped to write The Brave and the Bold, an upcoming Batman film set in the DCU for DC Studios with Andy Muschietti set to direct. Hodson has several other DC credentials, having worked with Andy Muschietti on The Flash. She also penned the Margot Robbie-led Birds of Prey movie. Her other credits include the 2018 Transformers movie Bumblebee.
Max Parker, star of the Netflix series Boots, has joined the cast of Prime Video's God of War adaptation series. Parker will play Heimdall who first appeared in the second God of War game, God of War Ragnarök, as an antagonist.

Oscar nominations have been announced and Ryan Coogler's Sinners set a record with 16 total nominations. Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another followed with 13 nominations. Warner Bros. scored 30 nominations in total, tying its record number of nominations set in 2005. Indie distributor Neon and streamer Netflix had 18 noms each, while Focus Features had 13 and A24 had 11. Netflix’s Frankenstein, A24’s Marty Supreme and Neon’s Sentimental Value all garnered nine nominations, while Focus’ Hamnet had eight. All are in the marquee Best Picture race joining Sinners, One Battle, Focus’ Bugonia, Apple’s F1, Neon’s The Secret Agent and Netflix’s Train Dreams.

Illumination and Nintendo’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will now open on Wednesday, April 1 instead of April 3. Illumination also revealed an extended teaser trailer that features the first look at Yoshi.

A massive winter storm impacting much of the U.S. is taking a toll on the domestic box office as numerous communities and cities advised citizens to stay home, and more than 400 hundred theaters closed. Overall revenue is expected to fall to the lowest point of the year to date. The weekend’s winner is new thriller Mercy, starring Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson. On Saturday, MGM Amazon Studios reported an estimated $12.6 million opening before the extent of theater closures was known. Overseas, it started off with a promising $11.6 million.

AppleTV has renewed Shrinking for a fourth season ahead of its season 3 premiere this week.

Last week Lucasfilm announced that Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down from her role as studio president, a position she has held since Disney’s 2012 acquisition. Succeeding her are George Lucas’ protégé and Ahsoka creator Dave Filoni, who will oversee the franchise’s creative direction as co-president alongside former Lucasfilm General Manager Lynwen Brennan handling the business side of things. Kennedy still has an active hand as an executive producer of both Star War’s next theatrical offerings: May’s The Mandalorian & Grogu as well as 2027’s Starfighter and will continue to produce other projects independently. Kennedy’s tenure saw its fair share of highs and lows, especially contending with an often fickle fandom, but with multibillion dollar films under her belt her exit marks the end of an era.
It was a surprisingly noteworthy MLK weekend box office– outside of Avatar: Fire & Ash’s continuing reign, Marty Supreme became A24's top-performing film of all time with 80 million dollars domestically, surpassing Everything Everywhere All at Once, while Zootopia 2 became the highest-grossing animated film of all time globally with over 1.7 billion dollars, passing Inside Out 2. Meanwhile, Nia DaCosta's 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple opened below expectations with just 15 million dollars over the four-day weekend, falling well short of the 30-million-dollar debut of its predecessor and behind tracking projections of 20 million dollars. Despite the horror sequel’s muted debut, it’s been an unusually robust box office this January.
Netflix has revised its $83 billion dollar deal for Warner Bros. Discovery to an all-cash transaction valued at $27.75 dollars per share, simplifying the structure to provide greater certainty of value for shareholders and accelerate the path to a shareholder vote by April. The amended deal, unanimously approved by both boards, maintains the same per-share valuation while WBD stockholders will still receive additional value from shares of Discovery Global following its spinoff, with Netflix financing the deal through cash on hand, credit facilities and committed financing. This update comes on the heels of Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos’ renewed promise to keep WB studio films in theaters for at least 45 days before hitting streaming.
Prime Video has released a first look photo of Sophie Turner as Lara Croft in the upcoming Tomb Raider series, which has begun production.
Hans Zimmer, who has scored more than 500 movies and TV projects, will officially score the upcoming Harry Potter series for HBO Max in partnership with Bleeding Fingers Music, a composer collective that he co-founded.
Sons of Anarchy star Ryan Hurst has been cast as main character Kratos in Amazon's upcoming God of War series, which is currently confirmed for two seasons and has begun pre-production. Teresa Palmer was also cast last week and will play Sif, Thor’s wife and the goddess of family.
Cate Blanchett has signed a deal to reprise her role as Viking warrior Valka in Universal Pictures’ live-action How to Train Your Dragon 2.
Warner Bros. has set Jorge R. Gutiérrez to direct an animated feature centering on the classic Looney Tunes character Speedy Gonzales, The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively learned.

Welcome to Multiverse News, Your source for Information about all your favorite fictional universes
The fourth Doomsday teaser trailer arrived today, showcasing Shuri as the Black Panther, M’Baku as King of Wakanda, and Namor overseeing his people. Far from the lush landscapes we’re used to in Wakanda, the scene takes place in a desert and features M’Baku meeting Ben Grimm. The Russo Brothers Instagram account also posted today, clarifying that these are not “teaser trailers” as we’ve been treating them, but rather clues to the story. 
Netflix may be lamenting the end of their biggest hit, Stranger Things, but the streaming giant is still looking forward to its 2026 television slate. Netflix standbys The Witcher, Nobody Wants This, Beef, and Bridgerton, are all returning this year as well as many others. The Duffer Brothers may not be writing Stranger Things anymore, but they have three shows premiering instead, The Boroughs, Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen, and the animated Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85. 
At the 2026 Golden Globes last weekend hosted by Nikki Glaser, the big winners were: Hamnet for Best Motion Picture – Drama with Jessie Buckley winning Best Actress (Drama), One Battle After Another for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy with Paul Thomas Anderson also winning Best Director (and Best Screenplay) and Teyana Taylor taking Best Supporting Actress. Wagner Moura won Best Actor (Drama) for The Secret Agent, Timothée Chalamet won Best Actor (Musical/Comedy) for Marty Supreme, and Sinners took home the award for Best Cinematic and Box Office Achievement. The Pitt and The Studio won best TV drama and comedy series respectively ,and Adolescence took Best Limited Series. Amy Poehler’s podcast Good Hang with Amy Poehler also won Best Podcast.
Disney has cast Australian actress Teagan Croft and Disney Channel star Milo Manheim to star in the live action adaptation of Tangled according to the Hollywood Reporter. Scarlett Johansson who was previously cast as villain Mother Gothel in the film has also exited the project due to scheduling conflicts and has been replaced by Kathryn Hahn.
HBO Max has renewed Emmy award winning series The Pitt for season three. Season two debuted its first episode last week.
Johnny Knoxville has confirmed that a new Jackass movie will debut in theaters this summer on June 26.
AppleTV has released the first trailer for season 2 of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters which begins streaming on Feb. 27th.
Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker has confirmed that the anthology series will return for an 8th season at Netflix.
A release date for Godzilla: Minus One sequel titled Godzilla: Minus Zero has been set for November 6th in North America, three days after releasing in Japan.
Blumhouse has released the first trailer for the  horror reboot of The Mummy from Evil Dead Rises director Lee Cronin. The film will hit theaters on April 17.
Amazon has tapped executive producer Anna Ouyang Moench to write and produce season two of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. She has previously been a producer on Netflix’s Beef and AppleTV’s Severance.

Welcome to Multiverse News, Your source for Information about all your favorite fictional universes
As has become par for the course these last few weeks, Marvel Studios released the third Avengers: Doomsday trailer, which focuses on the X-Men, Tuesday morning after an exclusive week run attached to theatrical showings of Avatar Fire and Ash. 
Sebastian Stan is in talks to join The Batman Part II opposite Robert Pattinson and Scarlett Johansson, making him the second Marvel Cinematic Universe alum to jump to Matt Reeves' Gotham. The Oscar-nominated Apprentice star, best known for playing Bucky Barnes aka the Winter Soldier in multiple Marvel films, would join returning cast members Colin Farrell, Jeffrey Wright and Andy Serkis ahead of spring production for an October 2027 release.
Avatar: Fire and Ash crossed the 1 billion dollar mark at the global box office after 18 days in theaters, led by 40 million dollars domestically in its third weekend for a total of 306 million dollars and 777.1 million dollars internationally, making it Disney's third billion-dollar release of 2025. Meanwhile, Netflix's Stranger Things series finale generated between 25 to 28 million dollars from a limited two-day theatrical run across 600 theaters on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, with exhibitors selling concession vouchers rather than traditional tickets and keeping all revenue themselves as an olive branch between the streamer and theaters. 
Simu Liu has publicly endorsed his Copenhagen Test co-star Melissa Barrera to play Wonder Woman in James Gunn's DC Universe, praising her stunt training as Wonder Woman-esque and calling her a total badass who puts in the work. DC Studios boss James Gunn confirmed in July that Wonder Woman has not been cast yet and won't be discussed until the script is finished, with Supergirl screenwriter Ana Nogueira tapped to write the new Wonder Woman film.
Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another dominated the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday night, winning Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, while Timothée Chalamet won Best Actor for Marty Supreme and Jessie Buckley took Best Actress for Hamnet. Ryan Coogler's Sinners and Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein tied for the most wins with four awards each, with Jacob Elordi scoring a surprise Best Supporting Actor victory for his performance as the Creature in Frankenstein. On the television side, The Pitt won Best Drama while The Studio took Best Comedy, with Adolescence earning four awards including Best Limited Series.
Horror director James Wan has expressed interest in directing Avatar 4 if James Cameron decides to step back from the franchise, telling Screen Rant he would love to take a crack at the billion-dollar series. Cameron has indicated he may scale back his hands-on involvement with future Avatar films to pursue other projects, potentially delegating more directorial duties to second unit directors or another filmmaker while remaining as producer.
Paramount+ has renewed Mayor of Kingstown for a fifth and final season consisting of eight episodes, down from the usual ten episodes per season. The Taylor Sheridan crime drama starring Jeremy Renner and Edie Falco will conclude after its upcoming season, which follows the bloody Season 4 finale that aired in December 2025.
Amazon Prime Video has announced the cast for its Tomb Raider series starring Sophie Turner as Lara Croft, with Sigourney Weaver joining as Evelyn Wallis, a mysterious woman seeking to exploit Lara's talents, and Jason Isaacs as Atlas DeMornay, Lara's uncle. The series, created and co-showrun by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, will also feature several characters from the video game franchise including Bill Paterson as butler Winston and Martin Bobb-Semple as tech support Zip.