October is coming to a close, but the spooky season is far from over. This week sees a pair of new series that are likely to send chills down your spine, along with much more family-friendly fare and the return of a fan favorite romantic comedy. There’s something for everybody this week.

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle - October 22 (Hulu)

1992’s The Hand That Rocks The Cradle was number one at the domestic box office for a month. While the remake (which sees Mary Elizabeth Winstead take over from Rebecca De Mornay) will only be available with a Hulu Subscription, we can guess that Disney hopes this film about a woman who becomes a nanny to terrorize a family she believes wronged her will be just as successful.

Lazarus - October 22 (Prime Video)

Mystery and thriller author Harlan Coben has written numerous bestsellers. In 2022, he signed a deal with Amazon, which led to a well-received adaptation of his novel Shelter. The newest project from this partnership (available with a Prime Video subscription) is Lazarus, starring Bill Nighy and Sam Claflin as a son who begins to see the dead following the apparent suicide of his father.

Nobody Wants This, Season 2 - October 23 (Netflix)

The hit romantic comedy series starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody returns for a second season as your favorite couple continues to deal with the beautiful and complicated relationship. Despite the title, it seems clear that everybody with a Netflix subscription wants this.

Weapons - October 24 (HBO Max)

A last-minute addition to this list, it was just announced this past Friday that one of the best movies of 2024 so far, Weapons, will be making its streaming debut this week. Make sure you have your HBO Max subscription ready because you won't want to miss this wild ride.

LEGO Frozen: Operations Puffins - October 24 (Disney+)

It’s still going to be a few years before fans get the long-awaited Frozen 3, but those who let it go (sorry) will have some new Frozen fun available with their Disney+ subscription in the form of the latest Disney and LEGO animated collaboration. LEGO Frozen: Operation Puffins sees the Duke of Weselton use the sea birds as an army to attack Arrendale. Several members of the Frozen voice cast, including Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, and Josh Gad, all reprise their roles.

A House of Dynamite - October 24 (Netflix)

From the director of Zero Dark Thirty comes A House of Dynamite. With a stellar cast including Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Jared Harris, and more, the new film from Kathryn Bigelow sees an apparent ICBM launch against the U.S., and the government must take what little time it has left to figure out the right way to respond, and possibly avoid the end of the world.

IT: Welcome to Derry, Season 1 - October 26 (HBO Max)

IT is considered by many to be Stephen King’s greatest work. It’s a story so big it required two films to tell the whole story. And yet, the story isn’t quite complete. From Andy Muschietti (the director of IT) comes IT: Welcome To Derry, which serves as a prequel to the films that explore the evil that came to town in the years before. Be sure to have your HBO Max subscription to check out this one.

Halloween is almost here, so we can bet that a few spooky surprises will be in store on your favorite streaming platform next week. Be sure to check back here to see what’s coming to Netflix, Disney+, and all the rest.

Some of our best horror movies have been centered around characters who just so happen to be legendary creatures of the night: vampires. And, because of the enduring popularity of these mythological bloodsuckers, not only do we also have a number of TV vamps, but many famous actors who’ve portrayed some version of the famed, usually-human-looking beasts. Here for you now are 32 actors who’ve played a vampire.

Eddie Murphy (Vampire In Brooklyn)

So many vamps have been seen on screen that even a comedy and action movie legend like Eddie Murphy has played one. The 1995 horror comedy, Vampire in Brooklyn, saw the star play the last member of a group of Caribbean vampires, who hits New York to find a mate so that he can continue his family line.

Tom Cruise (Interview With The Vampire)

Who could forget the 1994 film that gave us Tom Cruise as the captivating and cruel (And blond!) bloodthirsty fiend, Lestat de Lioncourt, from author Anne Rice’s legendary novel series, The Vampire Chronicles? Of course, it also gave us Brad Pitt’s tortured vamp, Louis, and made a star out of young Kirsten Dunst.

Dakota Fanning (The Twilight Saga: New Moon, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse)

While there are some obvious stars to add to this list, let us not forget that the cast of famous (and soon-to-be-famous) vampires in The Twilight Saga films was quite stacked. That roster included noted child star Dakota Fanning, who portrayed the villainous Volturi guard member, Jane, who was able to mentally create sensations of pain in those who she deemed worthy of punishment.

Evan Rachel Wood (True Blood)

Several vampire-focused TV shows have hit the airwaves over the past 20 or so years, so we would be remiss if we didn’t mention the HBO hit, True Blood. Many of its stars portrayed members of vamp-kind for most or all of the series’ seven seasons, but Evan Rachel Wood made an equally impressive (bloody) splash as the Vampire Queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne Leclerq, during her recurring guest appearances in Seasons 2-4.

Robert Pattinson (Twilight)

Back to Twilight! It’s not worth mentioning this franchise without bringing up lead romantic vamp Edward Cullen, as well as the man who brought him to life in five movies, eventuall live action Batman actor Robert Pattinson. Despite the fact that his love interest’s portrayer, Kristen Stewart, would have dumped Edward “immediately”!

Chloë Grace Moretz (Let Me In)

It’s possible that we don’t get creepier than kid vampires in movies and television shows, and that’s what we got with Chloë Grace Moretz’s Abby in the 2010 film, Let Me In. She befriends a young loner after moving into his apartment complex, but is (you guessed it) hiding nefarious purposes he could have never guessed, which end up taking his life in a most unexpected direction.

Salma Hayek (From Dusk Till Dawn)

This might be the shortest movie vampire appearance on the list, as 1996’s From Dusk Til Dawn saw Salma Hayek play the fanged exotic dancer, Santanico Pandemonium, only for about five memorable minutes that simply cannot be forgotten once witnessed.

Taika Waititi (What We Do In The Shadows)

Undead life isn’t always filled with glamorous globe-hopping adventure, gorgeous mates who can’t resist you and other perks, at least according to 2014’s What We Do in the Shadows, which concerns the rather mundane day-to-day lives of vampire roommates, of whom Taika Waititi’s uptight and nearly 400-year-old vamp, Viago, is among.

Theo James (Underworld: Awakening, Underworld: Blood Wars)

Another big screen franchise that depended on heaps of stars to populate its supernatural world is that of Underworld. Two sequels saw Theo James play the heroic vampire, David, heir to one of the main vamp covens, and lead Selene’s one steadfast ally during an important time in her journey.

Willem Dafoe (Shadow Of The Vampire)

Not many cinematic vampires are said to be based on a real person, but the one played by Willem Dafoe in 2000’s Shadow of the Vampire is. He portrayed a fictionalized version of the real Nosferatu lead actor, Max Schreck, whom the crew begins to suspect is an actual vampire because of his behavior and the strange goings-on surrounding filming.

Gerard Butler (Dracula 2000)

Speaking of vampires who are based on real people…Author Bram Stoker based his Dracula on Vlad the Impaler, and Gerard Butler played yet another version of the ever-popular character in a film from, yes, 2000. This tale sees the ancient vamp accidentally awoken by a group of thieves who find and steal his highly protected coffin, which had been watched over by generations of the Van Helsing family.

Wesley Snipes (Blade)

A Marvel character that will soon have another portrayer when the upcoming Blade reboot finally begins filming, the original action/horror trilogy famously saw Wesley Snipes take on the vampire/human hybrid titular lead, who’s a nearly unstoppable vamp hunter bent on taking down all members of the species who bit his mother and infected him with their supernatural blood while he was still in utero.

Colin Farrell (Fright Night)

If a scary and suave undead night stalker is your type, look no further than Colin Farrell’s Jerry Dandrige in 2011’s remake of the 1985 cult classic, Fright Night. He may have to eventually do battle with a couple of teenagers, but he sure looks darn good doing it.

Ethan Hawke (Daybreakers)

A movie that takes a more science-fiction approach to a world overrun by vampires is the 2009 film Daybreakers, which sees Ethan Hawke play a vamp hematologist who refuses to drink human blood and is looking for a synthetic option to their usual meal of choice that will stop humanity from being wiped out by his more brutal peers.

Luke Evans (Dracula Untold)

Again with Dracula? Why, yes! This time, Luke Evans plays a Vlad the Impaler who only becomes a vampire to have the strength, speed and ferocity to turn back an invading army in an attempt to save the people of his kingdom. Does it work out for him? Well, yes…and no.

Kate Beckinsale (Underworld)

There’s no mentioning the Underworld franchise without giving respect to the main heroine, Kate Beckinsale’s Selene. In the first film she’s a vampire looking to destroy the werewolves that killed her family, but she ends up uncovering a major secret about the two sets of creatures and falling in love with a human, instead.

Alicia Silverstone (Vamps)

This 2012 horror comedy sees Alicia Silverstone play Goody, an old vampire who tries to stay young and hip while helping her much younger bloodsucking buddy, Stacy (Krysten Ritter), get used to her powers as they try to abstain from the red stuff during their immortal and unholy (sorta) lives.

Pedro Pascal (Bloodsucking Bastards)

Ever wondered what working in an office that was slowly being overrun by vampires who care as much about the bottom line as they do about drinking blood would be like? Just watch Bloodsucking Bastards, where beloved The Last of Us cast member Pedro Pascal begins turning his employees into the titular immortals.

Jim Carrey (Once Bitten)

Jim Carrey’s first leading role came in this 1985 comedy, where he played a teen virgin turned into a vampire by an alluring, 400-year-old creature of the night, who seduced him so she could use his blood to keep her youthful appearance.

Paul Reubens (Buffy The Vampire Slayer)

In the 1992 horror comedy that eventually led to the long-running series of the same name, the late Paul Reubens starred as Amilyn, a vamp doing the bidding of a much more powerful bloodsucker who’s ruling his kind in Los Angeles.

Alexander Skarsgård (True Blood)

While HBO’s True Blood was positively filled with the undead, few of them made as much of an impact on audiences (and the lead, Sookie) as Alexander Skarsgård’s cunning and alluring (but sorta evil) 1,000-year-old Eric Northman. This also happens to be the role that really made Skarsgård famous.

David Boreanaz (Buffy, Angel)

When it comes to popular TV vampires, no one can discount the reign of David Boreanaz as evil vamp turned heroic vamp (and then sometimes evil vamp again) Angel, whom he played on Buffy the Vampire Slayer beginning with the first episode in 1997, through wrapping his run on the fifth season series finale of his own show, Angel, in 2004.

Sterling K. Brown (Supernatural)

Sterling K. Brown may best be known now for delivering heartfelt emotions as Randall Pearson on This Is Us, but for four episodes across Seasons 2 and 3 of the CW mega-hit, Supernatural, he played Hunter and dedicated vamp-hater-turned-vampire, Gordon Walker, to astounding, understandably cold-blooded effect.

Kiefer Sutherland (The Lost Boys)

Even though Kiefer Sutherland was certainly a star on the rise by the time he starred in The Lost Boys in 1987, his part as apparent vampire motorcycle gang leader David cemented his leading man qualities and turned him into a household name.

Rami Malek (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part II)

Sure, Bohemian Rhapsody is one of the best Rami Malek movies to watch, but let’s not discount his turn as the powerful (and ancient) Egyptian vampire, Benjamin, in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part II, one of the few creatures of the night in the franchise who can directly manipulate things, with his specialty being controlling fire, water, air and earth.

Bryce Dallas Howard (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse)

Yet another actor you may have forgotten was fanged in the expansive Twilight franchise is Jurassic World star Bryce Dallas Howard. She took over the role of evil, vengeful vamp Victoria (who’s looking to kill Bella in retaliation for Edward killing her love, James) from Rachelle Lefevre, for the third movie, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

Tilda Swinton (Only Lovers Left Alive)

As one half of the very old vampire couple at the center of the 2013 dramedy, Only Lovers Left Alive, Tilda Swinton is a wife forced to visit the husband (played by Tom Hiddleston) she’s long been separated from once she realizes his lengthy undead existence has begun to bring him down, as she tries to force him to reevaluate the value of living forever.

Bill Nighy (Underworld, Underworld: Rise Of The Lycans)

Every good vampire needs a parental figure to show them the ropes, and for Underworld’s Selene, that role was filled by Viktor, who was portrayed by Love, Actually star Bill Nighy. His Vampire Elder turned out to be more of a threat than the heroine ever expected, though, leading to some tense moments between Selene and her mentor.

Gary Oldman (Bram Stoker's Dracula) 

Back to Drac! One of the most popular films about the character is still 1992’s Bram Stoker's Dracula, which saw eventual Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban star Gary Oldman play Vlad Dracula.

Christopher Meloni (True Blood)

Where there is one vampire there are generally enough to have a whole hierarchy among their brethren, and as with the series True Blood, sometimes we get to see what that could look like. In Season 5, Law & Order: SVU and Organized Crime star Christopher Meloni portrayed the Guardian, Roman Zimojic, who led the Vampire Authority and (ostensibly) set the rules for all vamps. Many, however, didn’t agree with his desire to have his kind fit in with human society, which caused a lot of problems for the calm, determined and deadly when challenged leader.

Nicolas Cage (Renfield)

If you guessed that this is yet another Dracula story, well, you’re sort of correct. 2023’s horror comedy, Renfield, stars Nicholas Hoult as the count’s titular long-time familiar, who’s tired of helping him kill innocent people and all the abuse he’s taken from the being who gifted him with immortality, as well as super strength and speed (when he eats bugs) 90 years prior. So, he gets help from a support group for people in codependent relationships in order to be able to live his own life again. Nicolas Cage is our Dracula here, and he’s a perfectly winking one, who still manages to be creepy and deadly.

Johnny Depp (Dark Shadows)

Johnny Depp has become known for his outrageous characters, and his Barnabas Collins is no different. The 2012 Dark Shadows film (which was based on the 1966-1971 gothic daytime drama of the same name) follows Barnabas after he’s cursed with vampirism in 1760, buried alive in a coffin, and then accidentally freed in the early 1970s. He rejoins the Collins family at the estate they still hold, while trying to keep his true nature a secret, but hijinks ensue as his past comes back to haunt them. 

This, of course, is just a small sampling of the famous actors who've portrayed vampires over the years, but if you decide to do a vamp movie/TV show marathon, you can start right here and have hours of entertainment.

March is coming to an end, which means we can look forward to the monthly content rotation that many streamers do at the beginning of the month soon. However, the last week of this month still has more than a few interesting new additions that viewers will want to watch. Here’s a look at a few of the highlights from the end of March 2024.

From brand-new original series to some movie franchises that are changing their streaming home, here’s a look at where to find some of your favorite movies, and possibly your next favorite movie or series, on streaming this week.

What's On Netflix This Week

When it comes to sheer content volume, Netflix is still the king. There aren’t enough hours in the day to watch everything that gets added to the platform every single day. Still, there’s something for every type of viewer as this week shows.  

The Accountant - March 27

There are two types of people: those who love Ben Affleck’s The Accountant so much that they have been demanding a sequel for nearly a decade, and those who have never seen Ben Affleck’s The Accountant. If you are in that second group, you’ll be able to remedy that situation this week. Once you have done so, you can join the first group that is waiting for the Accountant sequel that we keep being promised will happen someday. 

The Conners (Seasons 1-5) - March 27

One of the most popular current TV sitcoms, previous seasons of The Conners haven’t been previously available on any streaming platform until now. Even though the show airs on ABC, and thus might end up on Disney+, the first five seasons of the show will instead arrive on Netflix this week. If you haven’t seen the show that so many people love, or you want to watch it all again, now is your chance. 

Is It Cake? (Season 3) - March 29

Clearly enough people are watching Is It Cake?. If the show is getting a third season, and if you are one of those people, you’ll be happy to know the new season arrives on March 29. The show sees professional bakers attempt to create cakes that look so much like other objects that they can fool a panel of judges. It's simple, more than a little silly and tons of fun. If you haven’t seen this one yet, you have two seasons to catch up on before the 29th.

The Beautiful Game - March 29

There’s nothing quite like a good underdog sports movie, and there may be no underdog sports movie quite like The Beautiful Game. The Netflix Original stars Bill Nighy as the coach of a team competing in the Homeless World Cup, a real international competition where homeless players from around the world compete as a way to draw attention to the problem of homelessness.  

Kill Bill - March 31

Whether you consider Kill Bill one movie or two, you’ll be able to watch it however you like on Netflix when both Kill Bill Part One and Part Two arrive on the platform. The movies have previously been available to those with a Peacock subscription, but when the movies arrive on Netflix, they’ll be leaving Universal’s streamer. 

The Hunger Games - March 31

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes hasn’t arrived on a major streaming platform yet, but for any Hunger Games fans who want to get ready for the prequel by binging the previous films, you’ll have to swap streamers this week. Previously the movies have been available on Peacock, but at the end of the month, the movies will make the jump to Netflix.

What's On Disney+ This Week

Disney is the king of animation, so it's perhaps fitting that two animated series continue to draw viewers to the service this week, with new episodes of both Star Wars: The Bad Batch and X-Men ‘97. But this week’s new addition for Disney+ subscribers is something quite a bit different.  

Renegade Nell - March 29

The newest Disney+ original series is called Renegade Nell, and it stars Louisa Harland as the title character, a woman in 18th century England who finds herself on the run following a murder charge. What sets the story apart is that Nell also finds herself allied with a fairy named Billy Blind, who has come to her aid because Nell’s life is more important than even she realizes. 

What's On Peacock This Week

The ability to watch every part of a franchise in one place is one of the big benefits of any streaming service. Peacock will find itself in a much better place this week when a popular action franchise makes the jump from Netflix.  

John Wick 1-3 March 31

Peacock is the exclusive home to The Conentintal, a limited series about the iconic hotel from the John Wick films, but up until this week, you haven’t actually been able to watch the John Wick movies there. The first three John Wick movies will arrive at the end of the month, so Peacock subscribers will have most of the franchise at their disposal.  

What's On Apple TV+ This Week

An Apple TV+ subscription is one of the cheapest you can get, but part of the reason for that is that it adds less content than most. Still, this week’s new addition will be worthwhile to anybody with kids, and a lot of people who used to be one. 

Fraggle Rock: back to the Rock (Season 2) - March 28

For those of us of a certain age who grew up with cable, the original Fraggle Rock is remembered quite fondly. But everything old is new again, and Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock is back for a second season on Apple TV+

With March coming to a close, we can look forward to massive content drops hitting on the first of April. For a complete look at everything that’s on the way for streamers be sure to check out what’s new on Netflix as well as everything upcoming on Disney+ and what’s new on Hulu.

Doctor Who is a British institution, and while it’s made household names of the actors who take on the mantle of The Doctor, it’s also cast many stars in guest roles. So, with that in mind, we took a journey through the iconic modern era run of the beloved BBC show, and found 32 famous actors who played a minor role in this time lord’s journey. 

Jonathan Bailey

While we know and love Jonathan Bailey as Anthony Bridgerton on one of Netflix’s best series, Bridgerton, and as Fiyero in the Wicked cast, you might not be aware that he was in Season 8 of Doctor Who in the episode “Time Heist.” He starred alongside Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor, playing the hacker Psi. 

Brett Goldstein

Brett Goldstein appeared in the Season 11 episode “The Tsuranga Conundrum '' alongside Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor. During the episode that saw The Doctor and co. stuck on a spaceship while an enemy tries to destroy it, and the Emmy-winning actor played the head nurse Astos. Then, two years later, Goldstein became a household name when he joined the Ted Lasso cast as the beloved grouchy player-turned-coach Roy Kent. 

Carey Mulligan

Before Carey Mulligan starred in movies like Drive, Promising Young Woman and Maestro, she played the young Sally Sparrow in the Season 3 episode “Blink.” Not only is this episode one with some of Doctor Who’s best quotes, but it’s also one of the most iconic stories in the show’s history as David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor took on the Weeping Angels. 

Olivia Colman 

In one of Doctor Who’s best episodes, and Matt Smith’s first as the Eleventh iteration of the time lord, Olivia Colman played “Mother,” a woman who is taken over by Patient Zero in “The Eleventh Hour.” After that, the actress, of course, went on to win an Oscar for The Favourite, and she starred in various other successful projects including the film The Lost Daughter, and the series Broadchurch and The Crown. 

James Corden

Long before James Corden was hosting The Late Late Show, he guest starred in two of Matt Smith’s episodes as his pal and flatmate Craig, most notably in the Season 5 episode “The Lodger.” 

Andrew Garfield

He may be best known as The Amazing Spider-Man and for films like The Social Network and Tick, Tick…Boom! but before all that, Andrew Garfield starred alongside David Tennant in two Doctor Who episodes, “Daleks in Manhattan” and “Evolution of the Daleks.” He played Frank, a boy who gets the Doctor to help get rid of the Daleks. 

Bill Nighy 

In one of the most moving episodes of Doctor Who, “Vincent and The Doctor,” Bill Nighy plays Dr. Black, who works at the museum where Vincent Van Gogh’s self-portrait is held. Before starring in the emotional Matt Smith-led episode all about the aforementioned painter, Nighy was best known for movies like Love, Actually and Pirates of the Caribbean. Since then, he’s been in films including About Time, Emma. and Living, which he got an Oscar nomination for. 

Daniel Kaluuya

You know Daniel Kaluuya? That’s right, the star of Jordan Peele’s movies Get Out and Nope and the man who won an Oscar for Judas and The Black Messiah. Well, before all of that, he played Barclay in Season 4 of Doctor Who in the episode “Planet of the Dead,” where he helped the Tenth Doctor fix an engine after a double-decker bus they were on got stuck in a very sandy place.  

Felicity Jones

Before she entered a galaxy far, far away in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story or received her Oscar nomination for The Theory of Everything, Felicity Jones guest starred on Doctor Who. In 2008, she played Robina Redmond opposite the Tenth Doctor in the episode “The Unicorn and the Wasp,” which was a fun take on Agatha Christie and her mysteries. 

Ian McKellen

While you don’t see Sir Ian McKellen in Doctor Who, his voice is undeniable, as he was the man behind The Great Intelligence in Matt Smith’s 2012 Christmas special  “The Snowmen.” This special appearance was just another feather in this iconic British actor’s cap in the world of genre as he’s best known for playing Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings films as well as Magneto in the X-Men movies. 

Maisie Williams

Obviously, we know Maisie Williams as Arya Stark, an integral character in the Game of Thrones cast. However, she also starred in another series that’s considered a British institution when she appeared in four of Peter Capaldi’s Season 9 Doctor Who episodes – “The Girl Who Died,” “The Woman Who Lived,” “Face the Raven'' and “Hell Bent” – as Ashildr (AKA Me) the immortal Viking. 

Michael Gambon 

In Doctor Who’s 2010 Christmas special, “A Christmas Carol,” the Eleventh Doctor finds himself with a very Scrooge-like character named Kazran Sardick, played by the late Michael Gambon. The actor also played the antagonist’s father Elliot Sardick. Of course, before this, he also starred in another tentpole fantasy franchise by playing Albus Dumbledore in six of the eight Harry Potter movies. 

John Hurt 

In the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, John Hurt joined Matt Smith and David Tennant as a regeneration of the time lord named the War Doctor, who lived between the eighth and ninth versions of The Doctor. He was, of course, played by the late great John Hurt, who was known for iconic films like Alien and The Elephant Man. He was a legendary British actor, and he played a pivotal role in the long-running BBC series.

Gemma Chan

From the beloved and star-studded rom-com Crazy Rich Asians to Marvel’s The Eternals, Gemma Chan’s star has grown immensely over the last few years. However, before that, she played geologist Mia Bennett in the 2009 episode “The Waters of Mars” alongside David Tennant’s Doctor. 

Michael Sheen

David Tennant plays the demon to Michael Sheen’s angel in Good Omens, but before they shared the screen together, the Aziraphale actor voiced a House on the show that made his co-star a household name. During Matt Smith’s run as The Doctor during the episode “The Doctor’s Wife,” the actor known for Frost/Nixon and Masters of Sex voiced the evil entity that lived just outside the universe. 

Richard E. Grant

With over 140 credits to his name, including Gosford Park and Hudson Hawk, Richard E. Grant is a legendary British actor. In Doctor Who he played an equally iconic role as the antagonist Dr. Simeon in the Eleventh Doctor-led Christmas special “The Snowmen.” After that, the actor who played a variant of Loki in Marvel’s most timey-wimey show, returned to Dr. Simeon for the Season 7 episode “The Name of the Doctor.” 

Jonathan Groff

As one of the first big actors to guest star in Ncuti Gatwa’s run as the Fifteenth Doctor, Jonathan Groff joined the cast for a Regency-era episode. Before making a brief appearance on Doctor Who, Groff made a name for himself on Broadway in shows including Merrily We Roll Along and Hamilton. He also voiced Kristoff in both Frozen films, and starred in David Fincher’s series Mindhunter. Talk about range. 

Stephen Fry

During the Thirteenth Doctor’s run, Stephen Fry played a role in the Season 12 episode “Spyfall" as C, the head of MI6. An iconic character actor, Fry has over 190 credits to his name, and he is best known for films like Wilde and V for Vendetta. 

Simon Pegg

Long before he was choosing to accept missions with Tom Cruise in the Mission: Impossible movies and leading Edgar Wright’s Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy – which is Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End – Simon Pegg guest starred on Doctor Who. He played The Editor in Season 1 of the modern era, and went up against Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth generation of the time lord. 

Kylie Minogue

Yes, you read that right, Australian pop icon Kylie Minogue, singer of “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” and “Chiggy Wiggy,” did star in a 2007 episode of Doctor Who titled “Voyage of the Damned.” During Season 4, she was featured alongside Tennant’s Doctor as Astrid, an alien waitress. 

Helen McCrory

Helen McCrory played Rosanna in the 2010 Doctor Who episode “The Vampires of Venice.” The Peaky Blinders star joined Matt Smith’s Doctor as the leader of the Saturnyns. Along with the two iconic BBC shows, the actress also played Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies and starred in The Count of Monte Cristo. 

Toby Jones

In the episode “Amy’s Choice,” Toby Jones played the Dream Lord. This spooky villain that comes from the darker side of The Eleventh Doctor is another fun character in Jones’ cap, as he also voiced Dobby in the Harry Potter films and played Dr. Zola in the Captain America movies as well as Claudius Templesmith in The Hunger Games. 

Neil Patrick Harris

Joining the episode of the three-part 60th Anniversary special, Neil Patrick Harris played the Toymaker and witnessed the historic bi-generation. The How I Met Your Mother alum faced off against David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor as well as Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor. 

Timothy Dalton

Yep, you read that right, James Bond was in Doctor Who too. Timothy Dalton – who played 007 in License to Kill and The Living Daylights – guest starred in the Tenth Doctor’s 2009 episodes “End of Time” parts one and two where he played The Narrator and Lord President Rassilon, the founder and first leader of The Doctor’s home planet, Gallifrey. 

Brian Cox

In “End of Time,” Brian Cox wasn’t seen on screen with David Tennant, however, you can hear him, because he voiced Elder Ood, who is of an alien race the Doctor works to protect. While you don’t see Cox physically in the episode, you can see him as the patriarch of the Succession cast, Logan Roy, and you can check out movies of his, including Troy and Manhunter. 

Letitia Wright

Letitia Wright’s future is as the Black Panther, but prior to playing Shuri in the MCU and starring in other fun projects, she appeared in the Season 9 episode “Face the Raven” with Peter Capaldi’s Doctor. In Doctor Who, she played Anahson, an orphan looking for her mother. 

Gugu Mbatha-Raw

While Gugu Mbatha-Raw is best known for travelling through time and space as Ravonna Renslayer in Loki, she also played Tish Jones in four episodes of Doctor Who’s fourth season alongside David Tennant. The actress who played Martha’s sister in these episodes then went on to star in many films, including Belle, and series like The Morning Show. 

Thomas Brodie-Sangster

You likely know Thomas Brodie-Sangster as the kid from Love, Actually or from his work in The Maze Runner movies and The Queen’s Gambit. However, he also starred in a pair of Doctor Who episodes in Season 3 alongside David Tennant as Tim Latimer, a schoolboy from 1913.  

Alan Cumming

The host of The Traitors and star of The Good Wife, Alan Cumming starred as King James I in the Season 11 episode “The Witchfinders.” In the episode featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, this star of stage and screen played the king of a nation that was in the midst of a witch trial when the time lord showed up. 

Iain Glen

Iain Glen played Octavian in the 2010 Doctor Who episodes titled “The Time of Angels” and “Flesh and Stone.” While the actor made a name for himself on Game of Thrones as Jorah, Daenerys’ protector, he was trying to protect his team and The Doctor from the Weeping Angels in this set of Matt Smith-led episodes. 

Anthony Head

Anthony Head played Rupert Giles in 123 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Uther Pendragon in 43 episodes of Merlin. He also portrayed the evil headmaster Lassar in one episode of Doctor Who – “School Reunion” – back in its second season alongside David Tennant. 

Jacob Anderson 

You likely remember Jacob Anderson as Grey Worm from Game of Thrones or Louis de Pointe du Lac in the series Interview with a Vampire. In the midst of all that, he joined Season 13 of Doctor Who for a recurring role as Vinder, a pilot and guardian who watches from Observation Outpost Rose and worked with the Thirteenth Doctor across seven episodes. 

As you can see, the list of actors who have made minor appearances on Doctor Who is long and wickedly impressive. From legendary actors like Ian McKellen and Olivia Colman and modern TV staples like Jonathan Bailey and Brett Goldstein, it’s hard to believe that all these folks aided (or tried to stop) The Doctor on their wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey journey through time and space, but they all did!

When Michelle Yeoh won her Oscar for Everything Everywhere All At Once, she told the ladies watching at home never to let anyone tell them when they’re past their prime. She’s not old enough to be on this list, but her words of wisdom apply to everyone that follows. 

Some of these actors had success their entire careers and then just kept having success as they got older. Some of these actors didn’t find a ton of success until much later than life. All reached the mountaintop of acting past the point when many others stop working because they kept pushing and doing groundbreaking work. Here's a look at great actors who had Oscar success later in life...

Anthony Hopkins

Anthony Hopkins didn’t get his first Oscar nomination until his mid-50s, but once he got his first recognition, the praise did not stop. His work was consistently recognized well into his eighties when he was nominated in consecutive years for The Two Popes and The Father in which he gave very different performances. 

Bill Nighy

Nighy mostly acted in theater productions for the early portion of his career, but he turned to films later in life and found incredible success with Love Actually. That led to key roles in a variety of huge franchises like Pirates Of The Caribbean and Harry Potter, and eventually in his mid-70s, it led to Living, which netted the popular actor his first Oscar nomination. 

Bruce Dern

Bruce Dern worked from the sixties forward on a wide variety of interesting projects in many different genres. He picked up his first Oscar nomination back in ‘79 for his work in Coming Home and got another surprise nomination at 77 more than three decades later for his work in Nebraska, a fantastic Alexander Payne road trip movie shot in black and white.

Charlotte Rampling

Charlotte Rampling made a fantastic career for herself as a model and actress drawn to unusual and daring projects, but it was her work much later in life that attracted huge recognition. Her performance in Swimming Pool was particularly popular with critics and awards voters, but it was 2015’s 45 Years that finally broke through at the Oscars and gave her a well deserved first nomination at age 69.

Clint Eastwood

There aren’t many total people who have had more Oscar success than Clint Eastwood. Over the course of his life, he picked up more than ten nominations, but only two of those were in the acting categories. He got one in ‘93 for Unforgiven and another in ‘05 for Million Dollar Baby. In both, he was also the director and clearly knew how to get the best out of himself as an actor. 

Henry Fonda

A movie based on a play about a couple in their mid-70s doesn’t sound like a likely box office winner, but On Golden Pond won seven weekends in a row at the box office in 1981. It also netted its leads late in life Oscar nominations including one for Henry Fonda at 76. It marked his second acting nomination, more than four decades after the first one for The Grapes Of Wrath in 1940.

Jessica Tandy

Jessica Tandy experienced a ton of success throughout her career in a variety of mediums, but it was her work on the stage that drew the most acclaim. At least that was the case until her 80s when she picked up two Oscar nominations for Driving Miss Daisy and Fried Green Tomatoes. She won for the former and the latter capped a fantastic six year run that also saw her earn raves for her work in Cocoon.

Jonathan Pryce

Jonathan Pryce was ten years younger than Anthony Hopkins when the two picked up acting nominations for their work in The Two Popes. It was his first recognition from The Academy, but it was far from his first recognition overall, as he netted both Emmy and Tony nominations earlier in his career. 

Judi Dench

Judi Dench didn’t pick up her first Oscar nomination until her 60s, but that’s mostly because she was too busy crushing the British theater scene. She somehow netted an astonishing eight nominations after her 62nd birthday, including one at age 78 for Philomena and age 87 for her performance in the touching Belfast. In between all that, she also found time to appear in eight James Bond movies, which introduced her to a new generation of fans.

Katharine Hepburn

Between 1934 and 1969, Katharine Hepburn was nominated for an astonishing eleven Best Actress Oscars. It’s arguably the greatest run in movie history, and yet, she wasn’t finished. At the age of 74, thirteen years after what everyone assumed was going to be her last nomination, she walked the red carpet one more time as a Best Actress nominee for On Golden Pond in 1982. The win made it that much sweeter. 

Laurence Olivier

There aren’t many people on this list that had more success throughout their careers than Laurence Olivier. The beloved thespian won Emmys, Oscars and now is the namesake for London’s version of the Tony’s. At 71, he picked up his last Oscar nomination for The Boys From Brazil but continued to act for another full decade.

Peter O'Toole

Peter O’Toole was nominated for acting Oscars in the '60s, '70s, '80s and '00s. The last of those recognitions came when he was 74, and while he famously lost all eight of his Best Actor nominations, he was given an honorary Oscar by The Academy, who recognized him for his entire body of work, including the fantastic performances he gave late in life.

Morgan Freeman

Many of the nominations on this list came as a bit of a surprise. Not Morgan Freeman’s for Invictus. Playing Nelson Mandela sounded like the sort of thing that could pick him up an Oscar nomination for Invictus, and that’s exactly what happened when the movie came out and at 72, he was quickly given a nomination. It was his fifth overall.

Christopher Plummer

Christopher Plummer’s entire career was accompanied by praise from critics and numerous nominations, including three at the Oscars, all past the age of 75. None were a bigger surprise than the one he got at age 88 for All The Money In The World. The role was originally shot with Kevin Spacey, but after allegations of misconduct surfaced, producers reshot everything with Plummer in just 8 days.

Judd Hirsch

From Taxi to Dear John to The Goldbergs, Judd Hirsch was a part of numerous popular television shows and worked constantly from the mid-70s forward. Along the way, he was in a ton of good movies, but it was his work first in Ordinary People in 1980 and then in The Fabelmans in 2022 that were singled out by Oscar voters. 

Robert Duvall

Robert Duvall was nominated for seven Oscars, but six of those came between 1973 and 1999. His last one was, by far, the biggest surprise, as it came for The Judge when he was 84. It was proof that the popular actor was still capable of greatness, and it was also a sign of how much fans and critics connected with his work at various stages of his life. 

Max Von Sydow

During his incredible career that spanned seven decades, Max Von Sydow played everyone from Jesus Christ to the Three-Eyed Raven on Game Of Thrones. He was nominated for an Oscar in 1987 for his work in Pelle The Conqueror, but he wound up getting recognized one more time at the age of 82 for his incredible work in Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close.

George Burns

George Burns had a fantastic run as a radio star and then an early huge name in television, but he started losing momentum as an actor and shifted to producing until he signed on for The Sunshine Boys in 1975. It was his first movie in 36 years and won him an Oscar at 80, as well as paved the way for the fantastic final act of his career.

Jack Palance

After a successful stage career, Jack Palance became a huge movie star in the early 1950s, picking up tons of fans and multiple Academy Award nominations. He later went to Europe and made a series of popular movies, but his career was starting to fizzle out by the 1980s. Then he was hired to host a revival of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, and the popularity of that show, netted him a bunch of parts including in City Slickers, which proved so popular it won him an Oscar at 73.

Alan Arkin

Alan Arkin worked constantly for sixty years because what director wouldn’t want to hire him? He was seemingly always in very highly seen projects, often in key supporting roles. Little Miss Sunshine and Argo are, of course, the two most notable examples, as both netted him Oscar nominations in his seventies and the former landed him his only win. 

Ethel Barrymore

There aren't many, if any, bigger families in the history of Hollywood than The Barrymores. They were firmly established when Pinky came out in 1949 and netted Ethel Barrymore another Oscar nomination. For much of her career she focused on the stage, but she later shifted to mostly Hollywood and picked up four nods in her 60s and 70s. What a run.

Ruth Gordon

Ruth Gordon had a lot of success earlier in her career as a screenwriter. She picked up three nominations for her writing between 1947 and 1952. Later in her career, she found new life as an actress, picking up multiple Oscar nominations, the last at 72 for Rosemary's Baby, and starring in cult classics like Harold And Maude.

Youn Yuh-jung

With fantastic reviews and strong word of mouth, Minari made a lot of noise throughout award season. It eventually picked up six Oscar nominations, but it was the one for Youn Yuh-jung that fans were most delighted with. The 73-year-old wound up winning in the most feel good moment of the entire ceremony, becoming the first Korean actress to pick up a trophy at The Oscars. 

Helen Hayes

You won’t find many people on this entire list with more success than Helen Hayes. She’s an EGOT winner with at least one additional nomination from all four of those award shows. She picked up her last Oscar at age 70 for her work in Airport, where she stood out next to a ton of other acting legends including Dean Martin, Burt Lancaster, Jean Seberg, Jacqueline Bisset and more. 

June Squibb

Mostly a theater actress, she didn’t appear in her first movie until she was in her sixties. In her mid-80s, she found the perfect role opposite Bruce Dern in Nebraska. Audiences fell in love with her performance, and she picked up a surprise feelgood nomination. That opened the door for a ton of fun parts in everything from Pixar movies to Shameless. 

Gloria Stuart

I’m not sure there’s a single quote from Titanic referenced more often than Gloria Stuart’s “It’s been 84 years.” For her, it took 87 years to find a performance that resonated with that many people, but it was so good and connected with so many people that she picked up an Oscar nomination. Well deserved too. One of the most famous movies ever just wouldn’t have the same emotional punch without her. 

Peggy Ashcroft

Peggy Ashcroft made less than twenty film appearances during a career that was mostly dedicated to the stage, but despite that limited output, she was nominated for four BAFTAs and won an Oscar at 77 for her supporting work in A Passage To India. She then turned her focus toward television, where she was picking up Emmy nominations into her 80s. 

Hal Holbrook

Holbrook had plenty of success in his career with wins at the Tonys and Emmys, but it wasn’t until later in life when he was finally singled out by The Oscars for his work in Into The Wild. With more than 130 acting credits, his nomination at 82 was a good reminder that sometimes the best way to get acclaim isn’t by shopping for possible Oscar roles, it’s by consistently doing good, creative work and waiting for the right project to resonate. 

Don Ameche

Cocoon features a ton of fantastic performances from older actors, but it was veteran funnyman Don Ameche’s supporting role that voters most gravitated toward. He picked up a surprise win at 77 for his work as the revitalized Arthur Selwyn. It was a fantastic outcome, especially after the studio fired an early-in-his-career Robert Zemeckis from the director’s chair during pre-production.

Melvyn Douglas

If you want to have prolonged success in Hollywood, you need to find a way to reinvent yourself and start playing different kinds of roles. Melvyn Douglas had a great run early as a leading man, who acted opposite some of the industry’s top leading ladies, but it was later in his career, when he started playing more mature characters that he found Oscar success with three separate nominations, including one for Being There when he was 79.

John Houseman

Probably best known for his work alongside Orson Welles, John Houseman worked regularly as a director and especially producer, but he also found time to be an actor. Late in his career, he picked up an Oscar at 71 for The Paper Chase in a role fans loved so much he later played it on TV too.

Edmund Gwenn

You never know what your defining role as an actor is going to be until it happens. Edmund Gwenn carved out a really nice career for himself on the stage and screen, but his biggest success came when he was seventy. His role as Santa Claus in Miracle On 34th Street is still being watched decades later, and it also opened up the door for some great late career work, including another Oscar nomination in Mister 880.

At this point movie fans have become accustomed to movie characters that are mostly, if not entirely, CGI creations. Bill Nighy was one of the pioneers of that when he transformed into Davy Jones for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, and the actor admits that he couldn’t really believe what he’d gotten himself into as he didn’t understand what the job would require. It’s a good thing the money was good. 

Bill Nighy recently appeared in a video interview for Vanity Fair where he talks about many of his most famous roles, including the one that’s probably been seen by the most people, Pirates of the Caribbean’s Davy Jones. He explains that he didn’t realize what would be required to do the motion capture until he asked the wardrobe department where his costume was, only to learn that he wouldn’t be getting one. Nighy said… 

It’s probably one thing when you’re making a movie like Avatar and everybody on set is dressed in the same motion capture rig, but when it came to Dead Man’s Chest, everybody was dressed like pirates except Nighy, who, as he says, was wearing “computer pajamas.” 

Nighy says that he’s quite proud of the fact that he didn’t just walk away from the role, though that implies that the thought at least crossed his mind. In the end, because he was playing the lead villain in a tentpole Disney movie, Nighy was paid quite well for the work. We know Johnny Depp was certain well paid for the Pirates films. The films made a lot of money, the Pirates films have been worth billions to Disney, and so they had money to spend. Bill Nighy says remembering that was what got him through. He continued…

In the end, Nighy says he was quite impressed with what the digital effects people did to create Davy Jones, and so he likely is glad he stuck with it. Whatever he spent the money on was probably also nice.  And who knows, the last movie teased a Davy Jones return, so maybe he'll be back one day, for the right price. 

No one could have predicted that a movie based on a theme park attraction could attract multiple theme parks-worth of movie-goers into theaters around the world and spawn a massively successful, long-running franchise. However, that accurately describes the success of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean movies -- starring Academy Award nominee Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow, Lord of the Rings star Orlando Bloom as William Turner, and Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swann.

The trio would reunite with the main antagonist of the first film, Geoffrey Rush as Capt. Barbossa, but this time as an ally in what was initially said to be the third and final installment of the franchise. A decade-and-a-half has passed since the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End cast (also including Bill Nighy as Davy Jones, Naomie Harris as Tia Dalma, Chow Yun-fat as Sao Feng, and rock star Keith Richards as Jack's father) gathered for the high-seas adventure's world premiere. Relive that night and check out how the actors look today by swiping through photos in the slideshow below.

Before Underworld, never had the fantastic world of victorian horror been so… Matrix. That is, by no means, an indictment on the 2003 thriller that brings the mythical conflict between werewolves and vampires to modern times. Other than its bleak color palette, stylized choreography, and dress code that favors skin-tight leather, Len Wiseman’s feature-length directorial debut is unique in its own ways with much to admire, especially making a household name out of Kate Beckinsale.

What about the rest of the cast from Underworld and its three follow-ups with a prequel right in the middle? I can think of a couple other well-known efforts from Scott Speedman, the male lead of the first two films, but, additionally, I would not be surprised if some of you forgot about some of the bigger names who would join the cast later.

In that case, how about we go take a look at the most notable actors known for joining the war between the two most notorious species of the undead? These are the current whereabouts of a handful cast members since rising above the Underworld.

Kate Beckinsale (Selene)

After gaining notoriety in Pearl Harbor and Serendipity, to name a few, playing Selene, the face of the Underworld franchise, made Kate Beckinsale one of the most sought after action stars in Hollywood, but she was sure to never limit herself to just one genre. In between reprising her role as the vampire warrior three more times, the British beauty would take on the affections of the eccentric Howard Hughes in The Aviator, a husband obsessed with an enchanted remote in Click, a sadistic hotel manager in Vacancy, and even more vampires and werwolves alongside Hugh Jackman in Van Helsing. 

Beckinsale has also voiced Queen Ayrenn in two iterations of the online role-player The Elder Scrolls, and will return to action in Jolt and comedy in director Charlie Day’s El Tonto, both of which are in post-production.

Scott Speedman (Michael Corvin)

Selene would find a love interest in medical student Michael Corvin after he becomes a hybrid of the two warring creatures at the story's center, thanks to a bit from her and a lycan named Lucian (a little more on him soon). One of Scott Speedman's more notable roles after starring in two Underworld films saw him, with onscreen wife Liv Tyler, facing off a different kind of monster in the 2009 home invasion thriller The Strangers and later, a creature even more obscure, but equally malevolent, in a small role from the A24 creature feature The Monster. 

The British former Felicity star made his most recent return to television in a recurring role on TNT's series of adaptation of Animals Kingdom and will make in a rare appearance in a comedy, alongside Aubrey Plaza and Michael Caine, Best Sellers, which is now in post-production.

Michael Sheen (Lucian)

As Lucian, the progenitor of the lycan race, Michael Sheen had the advantage of playing both an antagonist in the Underworld franchise and a protagonist, particularly in the 2009 prequel, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, as well as receiving a taste of a bloodsucker's life as Aro in the Twilight films. The 51-year-old British actor has played a hefty variety of characters onscreen, onstage, or on-air, from either fiction or real life, including an angel with a demonic best friend in a miniseries adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Good Omens or Prime Minister Tony Blair, whom he has portrayed in three respective films, two of which he received award nominations for. 

More recently, Sheen appeared as the serial killer father of an criminal psychologist in the Fox drama series Prodigal Son and is preparing to star in existential dramedy The Price of Admission alongside Jeff Goldblum and voice a character in an animated adaptation of Heart of Darkness.

Bill Nighy (Viktor)

It is always exciting to see Bill Nighy make an appearance, but as the sinister Vampire Elder Viktor (whom he would reprise twice) he convinced audiences how much they love him as a villain, made further evident by his performance as Davy Jones in two Pirates of the Caribbean films. Underworld was also the first of several memorable death scenes for the 70-year-old, Golden Globe-winning actor, most notably Shaun of the Dead, as well as many more roles rooted in fantasy, such as Harry Potter ally Minister Rufus Scrimgeour, the target of some secret agent gerbils in G-Force, and a time-traveling father in About Time for Richard Curtis, who directed him in a reprisal of his Love, Actually character in honor of Red Nose Day in 2017. 

Bill Nighy made a return to the world of vampirism on the animated Netflix original Castlevania, but is focusing more on family entertainment for more of his upcoming projects, including a new adaptation of the classic novel Heidi.

Kevin Grevioux (Raze)

In addition to playing Raze, a lycan and the second-in-command to Lucian, Kevin Grevioux was the original creator of the concept for Underworld and would team up with director Len Wiseman and screenwriter Danny McBride (no, not that Danny McBride) to develop the story, in addition to producing the first three installments of the franchise. The film would become his first writing credit, after years in Hollywood landing small roles in big movies (some that were nameless) like Batman Forever and The Mask and even performing stuntwork, before starting his own comic book imprints, later writing a few titles for Marvel and DC, and eventually voicing characters from both respective comic book universes in various animated projects. 

Grevioux continues to work behind and in front of the camera and recently wrapped filming sci-fi adventure The Prey with co-star Danny Trejo.

Rhona Mitra (Sonja)

Rhona Mitra has a career much like Kate Beckinsale's, but in reverse, having starred in multiple thrillers and action projects before she was cast as the Sonja, daughter of Viktor and the female lead of the 2009 prequel Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. The role would spark several more opportunities in the action and fantasy genres (some more successful than others) and mostly on television, two of which also involved vampires, such The Gates, a suburban crime drama on which she played modern day bloodsucker, and The Strain, on which she hunted bloodsuckers this time. The British actress will also soon be seen in the third chapter of the Skyline franchise, Skylin3s, and has joined the star-studded voice cast of the upcoming science-fiction video game Squadron 42.

Theo James (David)

After making his franchise debut as pure-blood vampire David in Underworld: Awakening, English actor Theo James would be promoted to male lead in 2016's Blood Wars. However, he grained further recognition playing second-in-command to a film's female hero 2014 as Tobias "Four" Eaton opposite Shailene Woodley in Divergent trilogy. Even with that success, it seems James has felt a bit homesick for his first big franchise since the last installment, given how many of his subsequent projects have involved fellow Underworld alums, such as voicing a role in Castlevania alongside Bill Nighy, starring in a 2018 musical audio drama adaptation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds with Michael Sheen, and playing a widowed engineer desperate to achieve the perfect AI in Archive, which he and Rhona Mitra recently wrapped up and is slated for 2021.

Charles Dance (Thomas)

Making his first Underworld appearance in Awakening as David's father, Thomas, was Charles Dance, whom film aficionados may also recognize as Clemens from Alien 3, Commander Denniston in The Imitation Game, or an evil sorcerer taking on Eddie Murphy in The Golden Child. The three-time Emmy nominated, English acting veteran, who recently played a villain in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, has had an equally prolific career on television, including Netflix historical drama The Crown, Amazon exclusive miniseries The Widow (also starring Kate Beckinsale), and, especially, as Tywin Lannister on Game of Thrones. Dance's next big cinematic role will be in Kingsman prequel The King's Man, followed by David Fincher's biopic of Citizen Kane's screenwriter Mank, and he is preparing to making his sophomore writing and directing effort with an adaptation of Alice Thomas Ellis' The Inn at the Edge of the World.

Michael Ealy (Detective Sebastian)

Aldo joining the cast in Underworld: Awakening was prominent actor Michael Ealy, not as a vampire nor a lycan, but a human whose dark past has earned him a rare sympathy toward vampires. You could draw comparisons from Detective Sebastian to his role as a human-like android policeman in a world overrun with conflict between man and machine in the short-lived futuristic crime procedural Almost Human, but probably less so to the other TV cops he has played since on Secrets and Lies and Stumptown. 

Since his sole Underworld franchise appearance, Ealy has also starred in three remakes (About Last Night, Jacob's Ladder, and HBO's hit series adaptation of Westworld) and recently reunited with Deon Taylor, the director of the 2019 thriller The Intruder, for upcoming crime drama Fatale, which will also star Hilary Swank and Mike Colter.

India Eisley (Eve)

It was Detective Sebastian's sympathy toward the vampire race that convinced him to help Selene protect Eve, her daughter with Michael Corvin and played by India Eisley in her first major motion picture performance after breaking out on the teen drama series The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Playing the unprecedented tri-hybrid of vampire, werewolf, and immortal strains sparked her scream queen reputation that would carry on in roles like the title character of twisted fairy tale retelling The Curse of Sleeping Beauty, the psychological Netflix exclusive Clinical, and the upcoming stalker drama Every Breath You Take, also starring Sam Claflin and Michelle Monaghan. 

Following her role opposite Chris Pine in Patty Jenkins' crime miniseries I Am the Night, the 26-year-old has been rumored to co-star with her mother, veteran actress and fellow scream queen Olivia Hussey, in a rare comedic role for the satire One Week In Hollywood.

Be sure to check back for more information and updates on the Underworld franchise as well as the whereabouts of your favorite movie and TV show cast members here on CinemaBlend.

After spending more than two decades of entertaining fans young and old through video games, TV shows, animated movies and a card game, the Pokemon franchise is finally making the jump to live action through Detective Pikachu. Based off the Great Detective Pikachu video game (which was initially only released in Japan, but will finally be released in North America, Europe and Australia in March), this live action Pokemon movie has been assembling its cast over the last couple months, and the latest two additions are Love Actually's Bill Nighy and You're The Worst's Chris Geere.

While there weren't any details provided about who Bill Nighy and Chris Geere will be playing in Detective Pikachu, thanks to THR, we're now aware that they're part of the main cast. Along with playing Billy Mack in Love Actually, Nighy's notable credits include Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Hot Fuzz, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 1, The Best Marigold Hotel and The Limehouse Golem. As for Chris Geere, he can currently be seen playing Jimmy Shive-Overly in the FXX series You're The Worst, and his resume also includes After Earth and Waterloo Road.

Like the video game that came before, Detective Pikachu will follow a boy who goes adventuring with one of these electrically-charged mouse creatures. However, while this Pikachu isn't as strong as others of his kind, he makes up for that with his smarts, which he puts to good use solving mysteries. Oh, and Detective Pikachu speaks like a normal human rather than just repeats some variation of his name like most other Pokemon. When the father of Detective Pikachu's male protagonist, Tim Goodman, goes missing, Tim must team up with the eponymous Pokemon and a junior investigative reporter named Lucy to find him. It's hard to say how Bill Nighy and Chris Geere will fit into the story, though I wonder if Geere is playing a trainer or gym leader who crosses paths with the main characters. As for Nighy, I'm crossing my fingers that he's playing Professor Oak, but I realize that the chances of that being the case are slim since Detective Pikachu isn't connected in any way to the Pokemon anime or original video games.

Along with Billy Nighy and Chris Geere, Detective Pikachu's cast includes Ryan Reynolds as the voice of Pikachu, The Get Down's Justice Smith as Tim Goodman, Big Little Lies' Kathryn Newton as Lucy and Godzilla's Ken Watanabe as Detective Yoshida. Goosebumps director Rob Letterman is helming the adaptation, and the script's contributors included Letterman, Nicole Perlman, Eric Pearson and Tom McCarthy.

Detective Pikachu will be released in theaters on May 10, 2019. To find out what movies are hitting theaters sooner, scan through our 2018 release schedule.

The following story contains spoilers for the post-credits scene in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Whether or not we'll see another Piratesof the Caribbean movie is unclear. However, that didn't stop the most recent entry in the franchise from teasing a potential follow-up, even though the actor attached to that tease apparently had no idea. Not only was Bill Nighy not involved in the post-credits cameo of Davy Jones himself, he apparently wasn't even aware the moment had happened until just recently. When asked about the moment in an interview, Nighy said...

We didn't really expect that Disney brought Bill Nighy in to film the cameo scene. If the movie had, you almost certainly would have seen the actor's face, and you never do. Still, it's pretty funny that not only did nobody at Disney tell him it was happening, apparently, three months after the movie came out, nobody else had either. Does nobody talk to the actor about movies?

If you haven't seen Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and yet spoiler warnings hold no power over you, then we'll get you caught up. At the end of the latest Pirates movie, the curse that kept Orlando Bloom's Will Turner attached to the Flying Dutchman was broken and he was able to return home to his wife and son. The post credits scene shows Will and Elizabeth Turner asleep in bed together as the audience hears footsteps approaching their room. We see a pair of boots enter the room and walk up to the bed. An arm is raised as if it's going to strike at the bed, only the arm is actually a claw, one belonging to Davy Jones, Bill Nighy's character in two previous Pirates movies. Will wakes up to find nothing there, implying that perhaps what we'd just seen was a dream, before the camera pans down to the floor to show a small pool of water and some ocean detritus.

It turns out, according to Bill Nighy's comments to Empire, that he apparently hadn't even gotten around to seeing the movie yet, so it took a random comment from a cab driver to inform him that his character did appear in the new film. For what it's worth, Nighy says he'd "be there like a shot" if he was asked to return for another Pirates movie, so if anybody actually had a plot in mind that justified that scene, there may actually be a chance that it could happen.

While Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales produced a somewhat anemic $171 million box office domestically, as compared to its $230 million budget, it put up huge international numbers, reaching almost $800 million around the world. The franchise certainly still has enough audience interest to justify a sequel, and now it seems to have a bad guy lined up if Disney wants him. One assumes Disney will actually call him and tell him this time if the studio decides to bring back Davy Jones.

While it's probably a stretch to call the impending Love Actually follow-up a proper sequel, especially since it's only going to be 14 minutes long, audiences still can't wait to see what's happened to all those characters that have only become more beloved since the original's 2003 release. So there's quite a bit of pressure to make sure that Red Nose Day Actually provides the requisite amount of romance and whimsy to impress. Bill Nighy, who will be reprising his role of Billy Mack, has now admitted that he felt nervous going back to the character almost a decade and a half after originally playing him. Bill Nighy explained,

Bill Nighy made this admission to me when I sat down to discuss his work on the upcoming World War II romantic comedy Their Finest. Of course, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to discuss Red Nose Day Actually with the legendary British thespian, especially since him showing up on NBC for the special will be one of the first times he'll have a major role for U.S. primetime TV. Not the usual way most actors go about it, but it works for us.

While talking about slipping back into the Love Actually mindset (and costume-set), Bill Nighy went into further detail about why pretty much all of the original cast jumped at the chance to return. In his words:

It seems likely that everyone involved would have been completely down to return to such a beloved rom-com universe anyway, but no one can plainly guarantee such a large ensemble cast's reformation. However, because of Richard Curtis' ceaseless charitable efforts, all the actors had additional motivation to spark their interests in Love Actually's reemergence.

You can watch a snippet of my discussion with Bill Nighy regarding the Love Actually sequel, and see just how spiffing he looks in his fantastic suit, by clicking on the clip below.

Red Nose Day Actually will be a part of The Red Nose Day Special, which will broadcast on Thursday May 25 at 10/9c on NBC. Those cheeky blighters across the pond will be able to watch it on Friday March 24, though, as Red Nose Day unfolds on the BBC from 7 GMT. Those of you that are counting down the weeks, days, and even seconds until the airing of Red Nose Day Actually can take some comfort in its trailer, which is on the next page. And in the meantime, head to our midseason TV schedule and our summer premiere guide to see what else the small screen will offer in the near future.

Now that Benedict Cumberbatch has been officially cast as Doctor Strange, Marvel is focusing their attention on finding the rest of the 2016 blockbuster’s cast. Daniel Bruhl, whose character is debuting in Captain America: Civil War, is rumored to be the main villain in Doctor Strange, and now a new report states that Marvel has its sights on Morgan Freeman, Bill Nighy and Ken Watanabe to possibly play the man who taught the titular character all he knows about sorcery.

According to Latino Review's report, Morgan Freeman, Bill Nighy and Ken Watanabe are being looked at to play The Ancient One in Doctor Strange. As with many early casting rumors, these names might be subject to change, and since the film isn’t due for release until November 4, 2016, it may be many months until we learn who is playing Strange’s mentor. While Nighy has yet to star in a comic book film, Freeman and Watanabe have previous experience with the genre. Freeman starred as Lucius Fox in the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy, and Watanabe appeared as Ra’s al Ghul’s decoy in Batman Begins. What’s interesting is that despite The Ancient One being an Asian character from Tibet in the comics, Marvel is looking at actors of different ethnicities for the role. Race changing happens in comic book adaptations from time to time, so Marvel might be trying to think outside the box for this character.

In the comics, Dr. Stephen Strange traveled to the East to seek a cure for his hands, which had been damaged in a car accident. The Ancient One initially turned Strange away because of his amoral nature. Strange later learned of an attack planned on The Ancient One by Baron Mordo, but was unable to reveal the plot due to Mordo’s magic. Determined, Strange committed himself to The Ancient One’s magical teachings, which not only resulted in Mordo’s plan being foiled, but Strange inheriting the title Sorcerer Supreme from his master. The Ancient One continued to advise Strange over the years, both in the land of the living and in spirit form after he was killed.

Earlier this year, it was suggested that Doctor Strange would not delve into Strange’s origin story, so it’s unclear how big of role The Ancient One would play in the film. One possibility is that like in the comics, Strange’s master will give him counsel from the afterlife. On the other hand, the story might change to include flashbacks of Strange’s tutorage, so we get brief glimpses of The Ancient One teaching the former surgeon the mystical arts. Considering the important role he plays in both Strange’s life and his nemesis Mordo's, The Ancient One is sure to be a big player in Doctor Strange, regardless of who’s playing him.

Opening opposite The Avengers seemed like a bad idea for the arthouse ensemble dramedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. And in reality, it was. While Joss Whedon’s mega-massive blockbuster banked $207 million in its opening weekend, Marigold earned $737,051 (in 27 locations, mind you, but still). But Marigold didn’t completely disappear-- and in fact, it's now taken its surprise success on the road to a sequel.

Now it sounds like Fox Searchlight is actively pursuing a follow-up to the winning film, asking screenwriter Ol Parker to deliver a treatment that it involves the principle members of the original cast. If you had asked me to list 10 movies from 2012 that would have spawned a sequel, Marigold would have landed somewhere near No. 57, and yet, the decision makes a lot of sense. The original film, budgeted around $10 million, went on to earn a wildly successful $134.3M internationally, making it a huge hit for Fox Searchlight. The studio’s currently shopping the film for awards consideration, and it’s possible one of the elite members of the cast could break through into a critics’ group’s conversations.

Vulture, which breaks the story, says that the bulk of the cast “all wants to come back,” from Dame Judi Dench to Bill Nighy and Maggie Smith. And really, if you managed to catch John Madden’s feature – which followed a gaggle of Brits as they attempted to vacation at an off-the-beaten-path Indian resort – you know that you’d be willing to follow this graceful, funny and endearing ensemble virtually anywhere. Vulture goes on to point out several of the projects in the works that focus on older cast members. But for now, we’ll see where a Marigold sequel takes the audience. For now, consider us in.

It ain’t easy getting work in this industry, especially a film like Wrath of the Titans, but boy did director Jonathan Liebesman take on, well, a monster. While Clash of the Titans went on to make a killing at the box office, $493.2 million worldwide, many moviegoers weren’t particularly happy with the experience. In a way, not only is Liebesman responsible for making his own movie good, but also for making up for the last one a bit.

Sam Worthington is back as Perseus, who is now a father. With the gods’ power waning, Zeus (Liam Neeson), Hades (Ralph Fiennes) and Poseidon (Danny Huston) are unable to maintain control of the Titans and, led by their once banished father Kronos, they threaten humanity yet again. Perseus has no choice, but to leave his son and quaint life as a fisherman behind to go head to head with some of the most vicious monsters of the underworld.

Kronos, Chimeras, Cyclopes, explosions an ever-changing labyrinth, some of the most prominent actors in the business, an extra dimension and more – forget the franchise’s past; Liebesman had his hands full regardless. Now, in honor of Wrath of the Titans’ March 30th release, Liebesman took the time to sit down and run through the entire process from the preparation needed to do 3D right to the steps to making the real world elements blend with those digitally created and much more. Check it all out in the interview below.

How does something like this fall into your hands?

Jonathan Liebesman: It doesn’t really fall into your hands. [Laughs] In my case it took like ten years now that I think about it. You work on movies and then I did this film Battle: Los Angeles where I had to fight for the job really hard and fortunately on this one they approached me. And obviously the cast is incredibly and the subject matter is fun and the budgets they give you are amazing, so it’s kind of a no-brainer as an opportunity.

So after you get this great opportunity is there ever a moment where you go, wow, now how am I going to pull it off?

There’s always that. Even when you’re doing a student film, you go like, ‘Fuck, how are we gonna do this?’ There’s the exact same anxieties. It’s no different. It’s just as big a part of your life.

And how about the fact that there’s another film in this franchise and that that film made a ton of money, but some people didn’t necessarily think it was worth theirs?

Well, it’s hard because you hope that they’ll pay for this one and come back and see it. Everyone acknowledges and wants to make something better and, you know, they’re such talented people whether it’s the cast, the crew, everybody. Look, if you’re gonna go into something completely intimated, don’t do it. I think what money gets made is out of my hands. There’s The Hunger Games this week, which no one expected, which is destroying the universe. So you can’t expect these things; you just try and make the best movie you can make.

How about the 3D because a big reason people weren’t thrilled with the first is you pay so much money for the ticket and then the 3D wasn’t that great?

The thing is, that was an easy solve because the 3D on the last movie was shit because they finished the film and decided to convert it and gave it six weeks to be converted, which is 1,800 shots in six weeks, no shots were even planned to be 3D shots, no sequences were planned to be 3D sequences. You can’t win. We knew we were gonna be a 3D film so you plan everything for 3D, you have a stereographer on set everyday, you start your post conversion a year in advance instead of six weeks in advanced and you create moments that suit 3D. It was a different ballgame. Those poor guys were set up to fail. This was a completely different situation. We had a great team from Harry Potter that did great conversions, so we always had our best foot forward with the 3D on this movie.

Now how does that affect your preparation process in terms of storyboarding or whatever it is you do to get ready to shoot?

You think in terms of what can we bring into negative space or what happens often, I had to learn this, negative space means when something is in the audience and so if you bring Perseus and Pegasus into negative space, there’s an effect where they feel miniaturized, but we actually used that to the advantage, say, in scenes with Kronos, because you really feel like Perseus is tiny and Kronos is massive with the 3D. So the 3D really enhances things. Also I believe the best looking 3D is when you bring little things into the audience, like embers or water droplets or stuff like that, so we added a lot of that or showed a lot of that stuff so you could bring it into the audience.

Funny you say that, at one point there was this one ember that felt like it was coming right towards my eye and I actually winced!

I think that stuff works the best. For 3D to be good you can’t cut things off in the frame and so embers are tiny, so they’re not gonna be framed out and the longer something stays in frame for 3D, the more effective it is, so those are always best - bubbles, embers, dust.

So going from the highly technical to black and white, when you get a script like this what happens if you come across something that isn’t working? Do you have the ability to make adjustments?

Well, you ask a lot of people, you sit down with the writers. It’s always a discussion on a movie like this. Unless you’re Chris Nolan, it’s always gonna be a discussion of can we make this better, this is what I’m going for, it’s about fathers and sons, maybe we can push that more in this scene. That’s studio filmmaking. The benefit of a studio filmmaking is you get an incredible distribution and you get an incredible budget. The downfall is obviously you are responsible to the people giving you the money.

Speaking of the father son stuff, the added drama here kind of creeps into the action, too, specifically in terms of the use of close-up shots in the battle sequences.

I think for me the most effective action that I’ve seen is movies like Private Ryan or the Bourne movies where it is subjective and the action is character driven. In say Bourne, it’s like Matt Damon’s stress as he goes through situations or Private Ryan, the fear of the soldiers or even in M:I 4 it was really great the way they used Tom Cruise and he’s always under pressure in every scene and it’s about him so you don’t even think you’re in an action scene. You just know you’re in a scene where he has to win. So those are my favorite action scenes and we were just trying to, I guess imitate that kind of stuff.

How do you do that and also make sure that the audience understands the geography of a battle?

It’s interesting. I think it’s more important to know emotionally what the character wants. I asked that exact question to Paul Greengrass after I saw Bourne Ultimatum because I was like, ‘Paul, I don’t know how you managed to let me know where the hell I was because it was just so quick and fast.’ I said, ‘How do you know when to cut wide, when do you go in close?’ He didn’t really answer me, but what I realized was you just know what the character wants and you go with it and you feel like you know the geography. Of course you have a wide shot that shows you a vibe of the location, but it’s more about if emotionally you’re with the character, the geography matters a lot less.

Can you tell me about your locations? Obviously there’s a ton of green screen and CGI, but imagine a lot of the material must have been there physically, too.

We were on a ton of locations, which is important. We wanted to shoot as much on location as possible and I think effects have gotten to a point now that sometimes you don’t even know it was green screen. Especially in contemporary modern movies, you have characters in a city and the city wasn’t there and you’re like, really? There was a lot of stuff here where they put a landscape behind someone and it was like, holy shit, I forgot we were on a green screen there. So location as much as possible, but for practical reasons, sometimes you have to shoot green screen and just know how to light so you look like you’re outside.

How do you go about blending the real people with all your digital monsters?

If you want effects to work, they have to interact with the world and the characters as much as possible, so what you’ll do is set charges on trees that’ll blow a tree up and then the animator has something to interact with and it’s always gonna look real. With the Chimera running through a village, you’re blowing up walls and stuff. And also, Sam is excellent at creating things. There’s a shot where the labyrinth is coming apart and reconfiguring, and Sam’s looking all over the place and that’s giving everyone cues to do things. If the actor’s not giving you that, it’ll never seem real. It’s a lot of how you light a scene. I like hard sunlight on CGI because it blows out the highlights. When you design a creature, make sure the textures you’re picking for them are textures that computers render well. That’s why Transformers looks so good, because steel and plastic is very easy to render with CGI whereas flesh and biological stuff is difficult. So it’s just a lot of making decisions to make your life easier.

Speaking of that labyrinth scene, you’ve got one shot during the reconfiguration where it looks like a piece of the set legitimately slid under Sam’s feet. Is that practical at all?

That’s CG. That’s all CG. That was what blew me away. You want to know the one which really blew me away was where Bill Nighy is doing that thing with the door [mimics motions of Nighy grabbing portions of the door], the door isn’t there and I was like, ‘Holy shit.’ That, to me, blew me away when I started seeing those dailies. He’s just doing this to green blocks and they rendered it so photo-realistically, I was like, holy shit, I should have made like a door monster or something. [Laughs]

How was it working with guys like Bill, Liam and Ralph? You’ve had great casts before, but these guys are some really heavy hitters.

Fantastic. These guys are incredible and you feel stupid directing them because they’ve been directed by like geniuses in genius movies and you feel not worthy and stupid, like you’re gonna fuck their career up.

Was there ever an awkward moment, like maybe the first day you were directing them, and you just didn’t know how to do it?

There’s always awkward moments, but, as the director, you must always pretend you know. Even when they go, ‘That’s a stupid idea,’ you’re like, ‘It’s a joke guys. Calm down. Did you think I’d really ask you to do that?’

Does that trick work on a set with hundreds of crewmembers and extras?

Always. Always works. ‘Guys I was just joking. Come on! We don’t have to do this,’ you know? [Laughs]

What’s the hope from here with this movie? I assume if all goes to plan, there’ll be round three.

I hope it makes some money!

Is there any option in your agreement to return?

No option in my agreement, but I hope it makes a lot of money and they want to keep going. That’s up to them, not to me.

Because the movie will no longer be set on Mars, some things about Len Wiseman's remake of Total Recall will have to change. Obviously the evil Cohaagen, who is set to be played by Bryan Cranston, likely won't be depriving his citizens of air, but the bigger change will have to be in terms of character design. Take, for example, Kuato: chances are he won't be portrayed as a mutant baby growing out of Marshall Bell's chest. In fact, we now know for a fact that the character won't be designed like that because Bill Nighy has just taken the role.

According to THR, Nighy will be teaming with Wiseman for the first time outside of the Underworld franchise and will play the rebel leader (whose name is now spelled "Quatto.") The news comes just a little while after it was announced that both Jessica Biel and Kate Beckinsale have officially signed on as well. In the new film, Colin Farrell stars as Douglas Quaid, a factory worker living in a future where the world has been divided into two nationstates: Euromerica and New Shanghai. Quaid then discovers that he may actually be a spy, but doesn't know which team he is actually fighting for.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to spend the rest of the day imagining what Bill Nighy will sound like whispering "start the reactor."

Gore Verbinski's Rango remains a bit of a mystery. Even after an announcement piece came out earlier this month, audiences were perplexed why a movie about a chameleon suffering from an identity crisis would be advertised with a giant toy fish. Even stranger, the film sports a cast that includes Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Bill Nighy, Ray Winstone, and Timothy Olyphant, and not a single character was revealed. The newest update to the film's website doesn't give us much information as to who the characters are, but at least we get to see them.

When the site first launched alongside the announcement piece it featured a long strip of desert, and not much more. Now there are all kinds of interactive goodies, three of which reveal some characters from the film:

• The guitar - Scrolling over the guitar produces a strum, but if you wave your mouse over the strings long enough, an owl wearing a mariachi hat shows up on screen to play a little diddy on his electric guitar.
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• The toad - On the right side of the first screen you can see what, at first glance, appears to be a gray lump. Clicking on the lump, however, reveals that it is actually a giant cane toad who is trying to catch some z's. Clicking on him multiple times will result in different reactions, all of which have the same general message: go away.
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• The pillbug/gophers - After clicking on the toad, move your mouse slowly down and to the right - this should reveal a second page. Click on what appears to be a ball (and is actually a pillbug) and it will roll into a nearby gopher hole. If you do this enough times, a pair of gophers will emerge and will say something about a bank and making a wrong turn. It seems that these two little rodents are trying to pull off a heist.

Unfortunately, I can't pick out any of the individual voices, but perhaps you can. The rest of the site is full of goodies that don't produce characters, such as a radio that plays soft country music and a plastic palm tree that you can use to chuck rocks at cars, but are fun to mess with nonetheless. Check it out over at RangoMovie.com.

A few weeks ago we told you here that Johnny Depp might be done with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and that the whole thing could be in trouble. Today Pirates co-star Bill Nighy chimed in on the issue and confirmed that, yep, things aren’t looking good for Captain Jack’s next adventure.

Talking to SciFi Wire Nighy says, “I understand that there was an announcement that there was going to be a fourth, and now I've been told since that that was not a reliable announcement.” The announcement said, rather simply, that Pirates of the Caribbean 4 was about to set sail. Now it sounds like it’s stuck in port. Nighy doesn’t think that producer Jerry Bruckheimer is in any rush to get the fourth movie made. He says, “Jerry at one point said we have to wait until the world is pirate-hungry again.”

It’s pretty clear though that the world is Pirates hungry. Even the tiniest tidbit of news on the future of the franchise is met with an avalanche of interest from fans and casual moviegoers alike. It’s a sure moneymaker and all indications are that Disney is eager to make more swashbuckling money. Odds are that the holdup here is Johnny Depp who, according to rumor, only agreed to do the movie as a favor to Disney exec Dick Cook. Disney fired Cook after making the aforementioned Pirates 4 announcement and now maybe Johnny’s not so interested.

It wouldn’t be much of an over exaggeration to say that the Harry Potter films have employed just about every English actor currently alive (and even some that are no longer with us). They would have to, though, considering that J.K. Rowling filled each one of her books with more characters than any film would ever be able to handle, forcing directors to cut many out with each new flick.

Added to that less than exclusive Actor-In-A-Harry-Potter-Film club is Bill Nighy, who, according to The Leaky Cauldron will take on the role of Rufus Scrimgeour in next year’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. For unaware muggles out there, Rufus Scrimgeour is, of course, the Minister of Magic. Filming for the movie started way back in February, so this casting choice comes a bit late into the production process but with director David Yates filming the movie in two parts, I’m sure he has plenty of time to pick parts.

This news comes hot on the heels of a brand new two-minute clip of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince being released on iTunes. You can check that clip out by <="" href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=322041709”clicking">. Now disapparate!