As quickly as the TV Gods giveth, they also taketh away, even when it’s a Marvel TV series that was already given the thumbs up to move forward. It was understandably shocking when Wonder Man got the axe despite previously earning a Season 2 renewal. Co-creator Andrew Guest confirmed the news, saying it wasn't due to any movie plans or scheduling conflicts among the cast or creative team. The ink was dry on the contracts and production was supposed to begin in early 2027, until the Yahya Abdul-Mateen II-starring series abruptly came to a halt.

In a sadly ironic bit of news, Abdul-Mateen landed an Emmy nomination for his performance as Simon Williams, an actor who also happens to have superpowers that give him superhuman strength and the ability to create explosions. Luckily, he wasn’t completely blindsided by the cancellation when it spread online, as he’d learned the unfortunate news ahead of the co-creator's post. During an interview promoting his 2026 movie release By Any Means, on the , the Candyman star told Screen Rant:

It’s never fun to have the plug pulled on a TV series while you still feel like there is more story to tell. It’s especially devastating when you know what you were doing connected with viewers in the way that you hoped it would, which was definitely the case with Wonder Man. But it’s great to hear such a positive attitude about the entire situation from Abdul-Mateen II, who still seems hopeful that maybe we could see his character again in the future.

I know I hope that will certainly be the case. You can check out the full clip of the comments here:

Even with all of this, fellow co-creator Destin Daniel Cretton doesn’t blame Marvel for Emmy-nominated Wonder Man’s cancellation, instead believing that if it were up to the president of Marvel Studios and primary producer of the MCU franchise, they would still be making the show. After all, Kevin Feige was directly responsible for helping convince Abdul-Mateen to sign on. Instead, it seems more likely that all the claims of Disney+ pulling back on live-action MCU TV series to focus more on theatrical releases are true, not of which makes it any less heartbreaking.

Somehow, through all of this, the Watchmen actor is just happy to be working and making projects that he’s clearly proud of. He’s happy about how the show turned out and the experience he had making it, which is really all you can ask in the unpredictable entertainment industry where you have no control over the final product or outcome. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II instead chooses to focus on the really great time it is to be in his shoes right now.

While the future of Marvel on Disney+ seems to be up in the air, there is still at least one more MCU TV show coming soon, with VisionQuest debuting via Disney+ subscription on October 14^th.

We're more than halfway through the year, and so far, 2026 has delivered some pretty great movies. From heavy-hitters from the 2026 movie schedule to a variety of streaming exclusives, there’s a little something for everyone.

Between what's new to streaming and what's available on VOD, there are some great movie options as we move further into September. This week, you can catch Anne Hathaway's new movie The End of Oak Street on VOD. Also available to rent or buy are It Ends, and the Anthony Bourdain biopic Tony. Get the lists of what's available streaming and on VOD below.

New Movies Streaming By Platform

If you'd rather see the titles broken down by streaming platform, read on!

New Movies Streaming On Apple TV

Though a lot of us use our Apple TV subscription to watch the streamer’s great shows like Ted Lasso, Shrinking, and The Studio, there’s also a nice library of movies.

New Movies Streaming On Disney+

This year has been great for folks with a Disney+ subscription, as the platform has dropped some serious bangers, with more on the way. There’s a massive library of new and recent movies on Disney+ right now, even more if you have the Hulu bundle.

New Movies Streaming On HBO Max

When it comes to new movies streaming, an HBO Max subscription is going to give you the most bang for your buck.

New Movies Streaming On Hulu

A Hulu subscription gives you access to some great recent movies, like Ready or Not 2: Here I Come.

New Movies Streaming On Netflix

A Netflix subscription gives you access to original shows, but let’s not forget the movies.

New Movies Streaming On Paramount+

Check out some of the recent movies available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription...

New Movies Streaming On Peacock

And here are some of the great movie titles you can watch with a Peacock subscription...

New Movies Streaming On Prime Video

Do you have an Amazon Prime subscription? If so, there are a couple of movies you’ll for sure want to check out this month, including Project Hail Mary, which you can now watch on Prime Video.

New Movies Streaming On Starz

If you have Starz, you’ll be able to watch The Housemaid if you missed the Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried thriller during its massive box office run late last year. But that isn’t the only recent movie streaming on the platform.

New Movies Streaming On VOD

Don’t want to wait for your favorite movies (or maybe those you missed on the big screen) to hit one of your go-to streaming services? You’ll have to pay a premium for the convenience of watching a movie early (some of these titles cost $20+ on Amazon), but sometimes it’s totally worth it. If you’ve been wanting to catch Motor City, Young Washington, or some of these other titles, now's your chance.

We'll continue to update this page as new titles and streaming dates are announced.

While Marvel fans have largely been busy anticipating upcoming MCU movies like Avengers: Doomsday and the X-Men reboot, Kevin Feige has taken some critical flak from the fandom recently for Wonder Man's cancellation. Two weeks after receiving an Emmy nomination, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II learned Wonder Man Season 2 had been nixed despite Season 2 already being confirmed. Since then, the lead actor has been addressing why he thinks the renewal was reversed, and has given his take on why he believes it takes longer for Black audiences to find projects like Wonder Man.

Part of the fans’ criticism is that along with Wonder Man, other Black-led projects have been shelved, which has many calling out an alleged pattern Marvel has. Tonya Mosley, from NPR Fresh Air, is one of many who have asked Abdul-Mateen his opinion on this pattern and how it connects to Black audiences:

In the case of Wonder Man, Abdul-Mateen was told that the viewership numbers couldn’t make the math work to balance against production costs. Many lapsed fans saw the series as the perfect show to return to Marvel for, so the loss hits hard. I’m still hopeful we’ll see Simon (and Trevor) again in a future project, even if it’s part of an ensemble. (Meanwhile, you can still watch the award-nominated first season with a Disney+ subscription.)

However, fans are also pointing out canceled plans for Armor Wars (which was supposed to focus on Don Cheadle’s Rhodey) and the shelving of the Blade movie. Mahershala Ali has since been candid about Blade going nowhere, though he harbors no ill will toward the studio, and has moved on to other things. But it still isn't the best optics for Marvel's part. Especially after another project led by a Black star, Ironheart, had poor viewership for its first season, while the animated series Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur was canceled after two seasons.

Seeing all these projects gone so soon, Abdul-Mateen admits:

Despite the unfortunate outcome, the actor continues to feel “thankful and blessed” to be part of the series. Abdul-Mateen feels the love from fans and believes it’s because people “love that show.” He has since shared what his dreams were for a Season 2 and at the time, stated his believed solution: “So our show does deserve some study and some real, hard information about why a show like this did not continue forward.”

Additionally, Wonder Man co-creator Destin Daniel Cretton has defended Kevin Feige after the news was announced. He said that he believed, “If it were up to Kevin, we’d be doing that show,” and spoke about how much the Marvel CEO loved the series. Hopefully, this means we Simon and Trevor’s adventures will live to see another day.

Hopefully, Marvel will produce plenty of future projects led by POC talents. And if that includes bringing Abdul-Mateen back in some way, that's just fine with us.

The return of Obi-Wan Kenobi is currently nowhere among upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows. And, apparently no one is more surprised than Ewan McGregor. In fact, the actor just called for more of his character (again). Plus, he brought up one big reason why it makes sense for the character to come back.

Ewan McGregor reprised the role of his Jedi Master for the 2022 series Obi-Wan Kenobi. The show earned mixed reviews from fans, but pretty much everyone agreed it was great to see the actor back in the Star Wars Universe. And the actor is simply waiting to yield that lightsaber again. In his words:

It’s not like Ewan McGregor has been shy about wanting to play Obi-Wan again before. A couple of years ago he shared hopes for Season 2 of the series that’s available to stream with a Disney+ subscription. The actor continued in the new interview by explaining why he thinks there’s plenty of story to tell that I hadn’t realized before. As he told E! News:

Hey, he’s got me convinced! Ewan McGregor is talking about the finale of Obi-Wan Kenobi which occurs when Luke and Leia are both 10 years old. That puts almost a decade between the ending of the show and A New Hope. This leaves a gap of story for Obi-Wan Kenobi that’s yet to be explored.

Ewan McGregor is currently 55, which is getting close, but not quite where Alec Guinness was in A New Hope aka his early sixties. As McGregor points out, that gives Disney some time, but also makes now a great time for him to get back in the robe. I hope someone at Lucasfilm has seen this and is scrambling to get a writer’s team ready for an Obi-Wan Season 2... or a movie even! Especially since McGregor seems very interested in reprising his role.

At the moment, there’s only a few known Star Wars projects on the way. The only movie that’s been officially made and dated for release is Star Wars: Starfighter starring Ryan Gosling. We also know that Ahsoka Season 2 is well on its way and a Rey movie starring Daisy Ridley is still reportedly in development. Seems like as good a time as any for Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan to swoop in, doesn’t it?

With the exception of the very first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, I have not been super enthusiastic about Disney World rides being turned into projects for the screen. Now, movies turned into rides at Disney World are a whole other thing, but when it comes to the former category, entries I’ve seen include The Haunted Mansion (2003). The Haunted Mansion (2023), Tomorrowland and Jungle Cruise. Given these movies range from fine to what I like to describe as “eh,” I was not super enthusiastic to hear another Disney attraction getting the screen treatment. That is, until I heard one key detail.

A few days ago, the studio broke the news that it has plans to bring a Disney ride into the homes of anyone with a Disney+ subscription. The ride in question? None other than Epcot’s infamous Spaceship Earth. You know what I’m talking about: that giant, white spiky ball thing that’s become the icon of the theme park, and is also notable for occasionally serving as a landing point for lightning strikes. The streamer itself dropped the bombshell news, noting the new project will be a Disney+ series, and it’s landed a pilot order at the streaming service.

With me so far? At this point I was not hyper enthusiastic. Sure, people who have been going on family trips to Walt Disney World Resort for decades do have fond feelings about Spaceship Earth, and it’s a fun ride to cool down on during a hot day at Epcot. However, it’s not really the type of ride that I’d say screams “storyline” nor is it the type of ride that screams “cool.” My first instinct here was obviously to be underwhelmed. My mistake.

But One Detail Makes A Spaceship Earth Project Stand Out

Then, I read a little bit closer and this one component of the potential project caught my attention: Loki’s head writer Michael Waldron is involved. This is intriguing for two reasons. The first is that Loki low-key is probably the most interesting series to have ever graced the app that is Disney+. Tom Hiddleston was already a beloved MCU character before the show hit, but the half-hour series really hit helped move the needle for the MCU, and to me it stuck the landing with all the time travel stuff.

Which brings me to reason No. 2 the writer stood out to me. Waldron is on board to executive produce and co-write the pilot order, which to me became very important once I read Disney’s logline for the potential series.

So, yes, there’s going to be more wibbly-wobbley, timey-wimey stuff headed up by a guy who has already nailed the landing with time travel stuff. So, now I’m getting more enthusiastic (though I thought Jungle Cruise’s backstory had great potential too, and it only ended up being fine).

To note, time travel has been a nice little subgenre for Disney+ between Loki, the underrated Find Me In Paris, and Doctor Who also being housed on Disney+, though the latter will be shifting for the next streaming season.

I’m still not super clear on what the logline has to do with the big ball that is Spaceship Earth, and I don’t know if this will even make it out of the pilot stage and become a real series. However, at this point, I am willing and open to give it a chance, which is more than I I know I would have said prior to learning all these juicy time travel details.

Spoilers ahead for the most recent episode of X-Men '97 "The Dead Man's Hand"

Nostalgia is a powerful force in the entertainment industry, with plenty of millennial fans looking to return to a simpler time with titles from their childhood. Case in point: X-Men '97 (streaming with a Disney+ subscription), which is a direct sequel to the beloved 1990s animated series. The second season has been a fun ride so far, and while I loved the recent Gambit episode, I noticed a mistake with Jean Grey. Hear me out.

Critics raved about X-Men '97's first season, and fans were hyped about Season 2 ahead of its release. The most recent episode featured a corrupted Gambit attacking our heroes, following his tragic death in Season 1. When his forces in the air attack the X-Force's jet, the flying heroes immediately exit and take to the air. That includes Archangel, Sunspot, and Jean Grey.

But just moments later, the latter mutant is seen inside the ship when Bella Donna and the Thieves Guild board the ship and fight those within it. You can see Jean in the background of one such shot below:

Since Jean was already shown flying outside of the X-Force jet, this seems like a clear continuity error to me. It's easy to not clock this, but as a Jean fan I was paying extra attention to where she was and how she used her telekinetic powers in this fight scene. Although after Sadie Sink debuted as Jean in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, I might not be the only one who was giving the beloved character extra attention.

Errors happen on both TV and film all the time, so this isn't a huge deal. There's been a learning curve for the folks making X-Men '97, and I assume that someone noticed the Jean mistake before it was released. But perhaps it was just too late to go in and fix it, especially in an expensive action sequence that features lots of mutant power animation. I'm still a big fan of the animated series, but I had to go rewind and make sure I wasn't losing it when Jean was two places at once. You can see the shot of her in the flying battle below (which happens right BEFORE the above image).

There is just one episode left of X-Men '97 Season 2, and it should be interesting to see how the ambitious narrative comes to an end. In addition to the battle with Apocalypse across the timelines, this season we saw three different teams of mutants: the X-Men, the X-Force, and X-Factor. And now that Gambit has been revived, there's no telling what's going to happen in the finale.

New episodes of X-Men '97 air Wednesdays on Disney+ as part of the 2026 TV schedule. Luckily for fans like me, Seasons 3 and 4 are already in development. Mutants forever!

Even as Marvel and Disney are celebrating the box office behemoth Spider-Man: Brand New Day, whose success can be heavily attributed to director Destin Daniel Cretton, the MCU took a hit when the Emmy-nominated Wonder Man was canceled, despite having previously earning a Season 2 renewal. Cretton was also behind the camera on the Hollywood-skewing series, which is perhaps the most critically adored Marvel show without any witches in it, and not even he fully understands why the plug was pulled.

When speaking about his disappointment regarding Wonder Man’s fate, and also championing star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as a class act, Cretton made sure not to lay the blame at Kevin Feige’s feet, saying he doesn’t think the studio boss would have canceled the show without it being mandated from those above. He told The Wrap:

Kevin Feige was directly responsible for helping convince Abdul Mateen to take on the role of Simon, as the actor was wary about potentially wasting his Marvel hero shot on a bum deal. So that speaks to Feige having a lot of confidence in the show. The Marvel bigwig has also spoken highly of bringing the show's specific comedic tone to the MCU. It's too bad he apparently wasn't the one with the final say in the matter.

Rumors have surfaced claiming Disney+ is pulling back on live-action MCU TV series to avoid oversaturation and keep anticipation high for theatrical drops. It's also been reported that despite the somewhat early season renewal, no forward progress had been made on getting a writers room started. Whether or not either or both of those claims is legitimate, one has to assume that the total viewership also weighed on execs' minds. Not that anyone outside of the company will ever know those numbers.

Destin Daniel Cretton addressed that detail when asked if he'd ever be interested in directing a Wonder Man feature, saying that his interest would be piqued for a specific reason:

In the immediate aftermath of Disney reversing course and axing Wonder Man after its lone season, some fans speculated that it meant the superpowered Simon Williams was getting his own movie, or was being brought into Avengers: Doomsday. Co-creator Andrew Guest confirmed it wasn’t a marketing stunt or anything of the sort, and that for the foreseeable future, the character has been shelved.

In the meantime, at least one more adult-skewing MCU TV show is coming soon, with VisionQuest set to debut via Disney+ subscription on October 14, 2026.

We keep talking about Tom Holland and Anne Hathaway having big years, but sneakily Tom Hiddleston’s having a pretty solid one, too. He’s coming off the return of The Night Manager and he was already one of Marvel’s chair reveals for the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday movie. Amidst these high-profile roles, he also executive produced and narrated a documentary for National Geographic and Disney+ called Pompeii: Out Of Time.

Hiddleston’s been very candid that he’s been obsessed with Roman history and the famous Italian archaeology site for a long time. He’s the person who recommended Loki’s Pompeii-related events be set there. Later, National Geographic came calling after working with his MCU brother Chris Hemsworth on Limitless, and Hiddleston was inspired to discover more about what happened at Herculaneum and Pompeii in 79 A.D. His approach? Use historical facts and sites to tell stories of real-life people who’d been alive on the day the infamous event happened.

His hook is immediate upon watching, as he tells the audience exactly what drew him to the narrative:

Of course, many of us know some people did survive Mount Vesuvius’ eruption, but I personally had never taken that journey a step further and wondered what happened next during that historical day. In Pompeii: Out Of Time, Hiddleston and a group of experts follow clues from graffiti and records to scabbards and tombstones to follow three people who were in Pompeii and Herculaneum at the time the volcano erupted, walking us through what we know happened and connecting dots that have not been connected formally before.

I thought the concept was really cool even before I threw on the three-part docuseries with my Hulu+ subscription this weekend. (You can also get it with a Disney+ subscription or YouTube TV subscription.) However, I did not understand and could not prepare for how emotionally Pompeii: Out Of Time wrecked me.

In fact, I was sobbing in the first five minutes of the Out Of Time, and the emotional moments only continued until the third episode when we learned the fates of the three characters: a soldier just known as The Praetorian, female landowner and renter Julia Felix, and the young apprentice Avianius Felicio.

It’s The Final Moments Of Pompeii Out Of Time That Will Stick With Me

Surprisingly, the project hasn’t resonated with audiences as much as it seems to have with me. The Rotten Tomatoes score from the audience is only 49%, while critics have it ranking at a 92%. The doc’s IMDB rating is an OK 69%. Personally, I just thought it was wonderful.

I’d be willing to bet the low scores come from the disconnect between regular documentary viewers and critics who are less into history and more want a good narrative throughline. Pompeii: Out Of Time doesn’t follow a traditional documentary style, format or structure when it comes to sharing what truths we know about the history of the world. It’s more of a storytelling vehicle to help give us a better understanding of the city, the place, and the time just before and after the volcano erupted. It helped me to fill in a lot of blanks in my own knowledge bank. Clearly, it also took me on an emotional journey.

In this case, it’s also true the documentary does take some creative liberties. For example, Hiddleston and co. paint The Praetorian as a hero who tried to evacuate those in Herculaneum. We don’t know if The Praetorian was a good man and helping or if he was scared and huddled in the background; we only have an idea of what soldiers who had seen hardships at the time were like. As for the other two followed characters, and without giving to much away, we don't know why Julia made the choices she did or exactly how Avianius' tale played out. Much of what really happened in the moment is still lost to history, but the impact of Avianius’ story, in particular, is one that will stick with me for a long time.

In its final moments, Tom Hiddleston invites us backstage on the soundstage where Out of Time was created. He sits down in a chair with his name on it, and watches as the young actor who plays Avianius stands by a forge with his mentor Marcus Masurius. We see the actor himself flub his line, and we’re reminded that we’re only given a window into the past, and we’ll never have quite the full picture.

I think acknowledging this is key to the story and how it unfolds. Yet, putting names to these events helped me to see Pompeii come alive in a way I’ve never been able to see it before. It was the story Hiddleston says in the doc he wanted to tell, rather than one for the history buffs who already know so much about the Roman Empire. I found this to be a gift, and I watched the whole thing in one sitting. Now, please excuse me while I replenish my Kleenexes.

There are popular franchises, and then there's Star Wars. Generations grew up with the movies, as well as live-action shows that are available with a Disney+ subscription. There are countless questions about upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows, and actor Timothy Olyphant recently had a hilariously uncomfortable reaction when Craig Melvin pushed him for questions about his character Cobb Vanth. Let's break it all down.

The Mandalorian and Grogu underperformed in theaters, but fans are still eager for any information about their adventures on the small screen. Olyphant starred in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, and during an appearance on The Today Show, he was "interrogated" about his future in George Lucas' franchise. You can see the funny exchange between him and Melvin below:

Nice try, Craig. As you can see from the above post, Timothy Olyphant wasn't taking the bait and refused to confirm or deny that he'd be back as Cobb Vanth in a future Star Wars project. And I love how flustered he got before coming back at the Today Show journalist and calling his interview an interrogation. Hey, at least he's got a good sense of humor about it.

Fans have been curious about when we might see Vanth again since The Book of Boba Fett's finale revealed he was still alive and recovering in the Fett's bacta tank. Some folks were hoping Olyphant would appear in The Mandalorian and Grogu, but that didn't happen.

At the start of the Scream actor's interview on Today, he mentioned his ongoing enthusiasm about Star Wars, saying:

Ultimately, the journalist wasn't satisfied with this ending, and pushed back, asking Timothy Olyphant if he knows anything about his future as Cobb Vanth. After some give and take, the 58-year-old star jokingly responded with:

Olyphant laughed it off, and the clip of this interview is thoroughly delightful thanks to how exasperated he was by all the Star Wars questions. After all, it's already been a number of years since he was last seen in The Book of Boba Fett. So he probably wasn't expecting this line of questioning while appearing on The Today Show. But given the popularity of Star Wars, perhaps he should expect these queries for the foreseeable future.

The next Star Wars movie hitting theaters will be Ryan Gosling's Starfighter on May 28th, 2027. The Mandalorian and Grogu recently hit theaters as part of the 2026 movie release list and is expected to arrive on Disney+ in the fall.

The upcoming Marvel projects slate just got a little smaller, as it was announced that Wonder Man won't be returning for Season 2 as expected, and has been formally canceled. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley's comedy series, available with a Disney+ subscription, will stick with just its current batch of episodes, as the streamer previously announced a renewal and then backtracked.

Within the news of the cancellation, as reported by Variety, it's stated the writers' room for Season 2 allegedly never officially opened despite the announcement that Wonder Man would return for more episodes back in March. It's certainly a bummer to not see more of Simon Williams on an episodic basis, but even as someone who loved the series, I'm more than OK with this happening.

Wonder Man Season 2 Wouldn't Have Been Like Season 1

Wonder Man received no shortage of praise from critics and audiences alike, thanks in large part to how it portrayed Hollywood and the meta nature of a superhero show existing within the MCU. Of course, Season 1 ended with Simon and Trevor Slattery on the run from the Department of Damage Control, effectively making them fugitives.

With that premise, I can imagine Season 2 of Wonder Man would've been much different than the first. Sure, Simon and Trevor's fun dynamic would still be there, but with the television deal effectively dead, we'd lose a lot of the Hollywood cameos and other elements to the plot that made the series so fun. It's possible Season 2's writers' room never got off the ground simply because creatives realized recapturing that magic would be nigh-impossible, so why not end it on a high note?

Simon And Trevor's Future Adventures Can Definitely Continue In The MCU

The report about Wonder Man's cancellation did reveal that Simon and Trevor could return in the MCU, which feels like a better way to bring them back. Assuming Season 2 was going to be tonally different from Season 1, any updates on Trevor or Simon might be better handled as subplots in another Marvel movie or television series.

After all, these episodes thrived on being brief and snappy. In my mind, it tracks that it would be perfect for Simon and Trevor to get the Hulk treatment, serving as supporting characters to other Marvel heroes in future adventures. That's certainly better than nothing, which, to be clear, is still on the table as there is no guarantee Marvel is using these characters in Avengers: Doomsday or other projects.

Why Did Disney+ Renew Wonder Man In The First Place?

Even if Season 2 wasn't needed, the circumstances around this are strange. Wonder Man's Season 2 renewal came two months after the series was released on Disney+. One would gather the decision was made with knowledge of its viewership, availability of its stars, and an idea of how to proceed, but that's just speculation.

Obviously, something changed, but I can't imagine what. I'd be curious to learn more about the cancellation, and what this could mean for future MCU shows that are made on Disney+.

The good news is that we'll always have Season 1 of Wonder Man, which is available to stream over on Disney+. It joins the ranks of other one-and-done Marvel television shows, all of which are over there on the platform as well.

Season 3 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians is officially set to premiere later this year on the 2026 TV schedule, and Demigods, we’re entering uncharted territories! The upcoming season marks the first time Rick Riordan’s The Titan’s Curse will be adapted, and this week we learned something big about it. As it turns out, a big change is being made from the source material, and I'm here for it.

The Big Change To Titan's Curse I'm Cool With

During Percy Jackson’s San Diego Comic-Con panel, which CinemaBlend attended, fans had a chance to catch up on what’s next for Camp Half Blood. Yes, the big news is that Season 3 officially has a release date, but I need to talk about something said by showrunner Dan Shotz. The EP's comments on the season really struck me like one of Zeus’s lightning bolts. In his words to Hall H:

I should put a bit of a SPOILER ALERT here for those who haven't read the novels but, in Book 3, Annabeth is kidnapped by the Manticore early on. It leads to her later being forced to hold up the sky in place of the god, Atlas. This admittedly isn't unlike Grover was kidnapped in Sea of Monsters last season, and our beloved trio were torn away from each other as a result.

While that meant Annabeth wasn’t in The Titan’s Curse book much, that’s not going to be the case in the series. And I’m so happy to hear that. Throughout the first two seasons of the show (which is executive produced by Riordan), there’s been a lot of talk about all the changes that have been made. I happen to be a fan of most of what’s been done, to be honest. It keeps us guessing and, hey, if you can get more Annabeth, you should have more Annabeth.

Leah Jeffries Is Sort Of Percy Jackson's Secret Weapon

Sure, one could say some time without Grover gave Percy and Annabeth’s relationship to strengthen. But I simply can’t go for missing out on Leah Jeffries’ Annabeth in the adaptation of The Titan’s Curse. I think this is a natural decision for the show, given the creative team gets to explore outside of Percy’s first-person perspective. Plus, I think Jeffries’ role is really one of the biggest strengths of this streaming series.

Jeffries couldn’t make it to the SDCC panel, because she’s currently shooting the new Cheetah Girls movie. And, honestly, the event was kind of weird without her. Walker Scobell ended up bringing a printout of Jeffries’ face to the panel, but she was missed. Check it out:

Rest assured, fans can look forward to seeing the real Jeffries and not a that printout when Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 3 premieres on November 20 for those with either a Disney+ subscription or Hulu subscription. I can’t wait to see what the show does with the next installment of the series!

We got some great news recently, as it was announced that “the definitive documentary” about Julie Andrews will be released for those with a Disney+ subscription in 2027. However, many assumed this was very bad news at first, because they thought the post was implying that the iconic actress had died.

To be clear, she’s alive. Fans simply misunderstood the documentary announcement, so let’s break it all down.

Disney+ Announced A New Documentary About Julie Andrews

The documentary about Julie Andrews was announced on July 22 across Disney+’s social media accounts. The post included an image of the actress as well as a statement about the legend she is. Here's what it said:

The project will premiere on the 2027 movie schedule; however, a specific date and title have not been revealed. It’s being produced and directed by R.J. Cutler, who has directed documentaries like Belushi, Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry and American High.

With this project, we’ll get a look into Andrews’ life as it covers everything from “her early days in British vaudeville to her meteoric rise as a global superstar.” Themes of “resilience, heartbreak, reinvention and enduring grace” will be explored, and the documentary will feature footage and interviews that haven’t been seen before.

Like many, I grew up on Julie Andrews' movies, like The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins and The Princess Diaries. So, I cannot wait to watch this next year. I’m also relieved that the news was about a documentary focused on her, not the much darker news some fans thought it was.

Fans Thought This Julie Andrews Died When They Saw This Post

Like I said, many didn’t get that this post was to announce a documentary at first. In fact, a lot of fans thought the 90-year-old actress had died, and this was a tribute to her. Here are some examples of people reacting to the nonexistent news:

• They cannot post a pic like this, I thought she was dead -@Shane_Monster
• If I see one more Disney+ ad about Julie Andrews that makes me think the worst happened -@SUNFLWRMAL
• DONT SCARE ME LIKE THST 😭 I thought she went to the kingdom above 😭-@melanwisegirl
• Bitch. I almost just started having the worst day -@R0SYLNS
• Don’t ever fucking scare me like that again -@wandasattorney

I do get why some thought Andrews had died and this post was a tribute to her. Tributes happen every time a well-known celebrity passes away. For example, right after news broke of Sam Neill’s death, fans, friends, and co-stars were posting tributes for the Jurassic Park star. If the Mary Poppins lead had died, her “courage, resilience, grace” would surely have been acknowledged in tributes.

But she’s not dead; she's alive and working.

She’s been the voice of Lady Whistledown on Bridgerton for four seasons, and I hope she’ll continue to be it for the new Lady Whistledown in Season 5. As showrunner Jess Brownell told CinemaBlend, they “didn’t want to squander the voice of Julie Andrews” after last season. So, I’d assume she’ll be back to tell us all the gossip going around the ton.

Along with that, The Princess Diaries 3 is in the works, and the author of the books said the script she read is “amazing.” So, hopefully said script includes Julie Andrews’ character. I mean, it’d be hard to have Princess Diaries without Clarisse Renaldi.

All this is to say, not only is Julie Andrews alive, there’s still opportunity to see her in new projects, including a documentary all about her life!

Have you ever noticed how often Walt Disney used to point with two fingers? If you look at enough archival photos from his lifetime, you’ll notice him gesturing this way a lot. Personally, I've wondered why that was a go-to pose of his. Now, because Tom Hanks played him in Saving Mr. Banks, he actually learned the reason why Disney did this and shared the story behind it.

While Hanks was playing Mr. Disney in the 2012 movie about the making of Mary Poppins, he learned the secret behind the pose. In his words:

Whoa! I don’t know about you, but I thought Disney just pointed that way. But the secret is Walt Disney was a heavy smoker and never gave up the addiction. So, the studio ended up hiding his habit by airbrushing his cigarettes from photos later on. Reportedly, Disney didn’t want to set the example for children. As Hanks also revealed in a throwback interview on The Ellen Show:

Disney died at the age of 65 in 1966 due to lung cancer. He was diagnosed just weeks before his death when doctors discovered a tumor in his left lung, per OncoDaily. He had surgery to remove the tumor, but the disease had already advanced too far, and he died on December 15, 1966. Nowadays, the outlook for patients with lung cancer is much better than it was at the time.

Interestingly enough, cast members also point with two fingers at Disney Parks. In some cultures, it's actually offensive to point with a single finger, and from a distance it's easier to see two fingers rather than one. But now I have to wonder if it was in part inspired by Walt Disney’s smoking addiction.

When Hanks played Walt Disney for Saving Mr. Banks, he thought it was important to portray him accurately, which included bringing attention to his heavy smoking. As he shared:

If you haven’t seen it already, in Saving Mr. Banks, you can see how Hanks implemented what he learned about Disney. You can check out Tom Hanks’ performance as Walt Disney right now with a Disney+ subscription, along with numerous documentaries featuring the man himself. Hanks is also the star of the most successful Disney movie of the year so far, reprising the role of Woody in Toy Story 5. It’s now playing in theaters.

The Princess Diaries’ Mia Thermopolis may not be an official Disney Princess, but she certainly shares one popular thing many of them sadly have: a dead parent. But I just learned that Mia’s dad is very much alive in The Princess Diaries books. When it came to Meg Cabot's novels being turned into a movie from Walt Disney Pictures, the producers had a big reason for why they felt Mia's dad needed to be dead, and what a revelation!

Why are the characters in Disney movies always without parents? When it came to Cabot’s The Princess Diaries books, she had no intention of following that trend and leaving Mia without a father. However, here's why the storyline changed for the 2001 movie, per Cabot:

If you’re a reader who follows along with all the book-to-screen adaptations, you know that changes between the book and movie are inevitable. A film script just doesn’t have the kind of time to get into as much detail as a novel can, and characters being combined into one role is common. As Cabot also said in a new interview with CBS Mornings:

So, I’m never looking at The Princess Diaries movies the same again whenever I watch them with my Disney+ subscription. While it’s kind of sad that the studio felt they needed to give Mia a darker backstory, they also had a really good reason for it: Julie Andrews. And all they had to say was her name for Cabot to get on board, too.

When Julie Andrews was approached for The Princess Diaries, it became her first Disney film since 1964’s Mary Poppins; it was also a big deal because she only worked on six projects during the '90s. And, four years prior to signing on for The Princess Diaries, Andrews actually had surgery to remove a non-cancerous lesion on her vocal cords that ended up leaving her without the four-octave soprano range she once had.

Ultimately, Walt Disney Pictures made a good decision to give Andrews the bigger role as Queen Clarisse rather than balancing the characters of Mia’s grandma and dad in one movie. But, wow!

Cabot just released a graphic novel version of her classic middle-grade novel as we look forward to the third Princess Diaries movie that's currently in development. Cabot also recently said The Princess Diaries 3 script is “amazing,” and she’s “so excited” for it.

I'm also hyped after hearing that it's going to be shot in Europe and be a “wish fulfillment movie for queens” per the director's most recent update about it in May. Right now, the star of The Princess Diaries movies, Anne Hathaway, is booked and busy on her third press tour of the year, The Odyssey. (She's the lead of five 2026 movies). So, it's unclear when exactly production will begin on The Princess Diaries 3. However, we do know that it's being actively worked on.

I felt like Mia Thermopolis when she learned she was a princess when coming across this story of Mia's dead dad's origins, and I will feel that way again when my burning questions about The Princess Diaries 3 are answered. While we wait, you can grab The Princess Diaries graphic novel on Amazon and see Hathaway in The Odyssey when it hits theaters on July 17.

We just passed the halfway point of the year, and I can confidently say that Toy Story 5 is definitely one of my favorite 2026 movies. Pixar’s latest gave me everything I wanted out of a sequel to a franchise I’ve grown up with my whole life, and seeing Jessie finally get her moment is a big reason why. Days after I walked out of the theater with a big smile on my face over the new animated film, I decided to give its predecessor, Toy Story 4, another shot, and I’m very happy I did! Let’s get into it.

What I Thought About Toy Story 4 When It First Came Out

While it took me a double-take to believe it, Toy Story 4 came out seven years ago. I remember going to see it in the theaters opening weekend just like I did for its newest installment – but I recall being very disappointed and feeling kind of icky about it. Given, for context – it was the first Toy Story movie that came out since I became an adult.

My most potent memory about the movie was the Toy Story 4 ending where Woody and Buzz say goodbye to each other with “To infinity and beyond”. I can recall the heavy sigh the scene incited from me like it was yesterday. To me, I think it felt like Pixar was trying to recreate the perfect ending of Toy Story 3 with another heartfelt goodbye between two major characters, and it just didn’t hit the same as last time, in what I would consider one of the best Pixar movies ever made.

Otherwise, I remember liking Forky and thinking Toy Story 4 was OK overall, but just kind of unnecessary. What a difference seven years makes!

What I Think After My Recent Rewatch After Seeing Toy Story 5

After loving Toy Story 5 as much as I did, I started to question my previous feelings about Toy Story 4. Was it really as bad as I thought it was? After my latest viewing, I can confirm that I was way too harsh on the sequel, and I think I know why. Toy Story 4 had to follow Toy Story 3, and even though it had been almost a decade since it had come out at that point, I wasn’t sold on the idea of Woody, Buzz and the gang coming back yet. Technically, I still think of Toy Story 4 as the weakest of the movies, but really not by much.

This time, I really appreciated Toy Story 4 for how it took some time to explore Woody’s life post-Andy. I kind of think of it as a metaphor for being an empty-nester parent who’s trying to find your purpose after your kid goes to college. I haven’t had that experience myself, but I’ve seen my parents struggle to redefine themselves since I went away to college and became an adult. With that in mind, I found Woody’s journey to be really meaningful, and his decision to “retire” (which becomes a hilarious gag in 5) and go after Bo Peep isn't sad, but a really beautiful start of a new chapter for him.

After watching Toy Story 5, I also was curious about seeing more of Bonnie from before and how the toys adjusted to being part of her room before. I really like how both 4 and 5 explore different ways that toys can be helpful to kids through Bonnie – who I realized now is very different from Andy and very much of her generation. And, I'm happy we have multiple kids in the Toy Story franchise.

The conclusion that I’ve come to is that every Toy Story movie has been made with complete love and care, and I’ll be happy to take more as long as there’s another good story to tell. And I like how each one has a few different main characters to come back to depending on how I feel the next time I want to go back and watch a Toy Story movie. If you felt similarly to me about Toy Story 4, I very much recommend a rewatch!

Heading into a holiday weekend, one can obviously make entertainment choices by seeing which 2026 movie releases are in theaters, or what new shows are premiering. But isn’t it better sometimes to just sit back and rely on the classics? That’s the American way, and the perfect approach to the States’ big 250th celebration for July 4. Avoid the heat and noisy fireworks by streaming a trio of movies that fully represent the idea of ‘90s action movies.

What’s more, they’re all streaming in one place, so you don’t even need to use a remote to change platforms. So take advantage of the deal below and then scroll down for movies filled with 'splosions, speeches and snazzy hairstyles.

Independence Day - No-Brainer Must-Watch

If you truly love America, you probably already own Independence Day on VHS, laserdisc, DVD, Blu-ray, 4K, digital and more. But there's no harm in putting it on one more time to witness some of cinema's biggest on-screen destruction for the era, as well as one of the most enduring ensemble casts of any '90s blockbuster.

This is the flick that turned Will Smith into a movie star, that cemented Jeff Goldblum as a nebbish-nerd hero, that gave us one of the most memorable Presidential speeches ever spoken, real or fictional. It's an all-time greatest '90s movie for a reason, or like 20 of them.

Air Force One - President Harrison Ford Is The Best

Speaking of increasingly memorable movie POTUSes, it's hard to think of a more ideal version than Air Force One's President James Marshall. It absolutely helps that he's portrayed by Harrison Ford, who'd already portrayed at least three all-time iconic characters in Han Solo, Indiana Jones, and Jack Ryan. There's seemingly no threat the actor's characters can't stop.

Which obviously includes terrorists hijacking what's meant to be the most secure aircraft in the nation. It might feel weird to celebrate America with a movie about threats to the country's safety, but such is life in 2026.

Con Air - Cameron Poe Is America

The connective tissue here isn't a Presidential matter, but one of aircraft. It's wild to think that around 6 weeks before Air Force One hit theaters, they were taken over by the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced splendor of Simon West's Con Air. Nicolas Cage is in peak form physically and thespian-ically as Cameron Poe, whose Alabama accent is thicker than his biceps. To that end, key villain John Malkovich's Cyrus The Virus almost sounds more naturally American than Poe. It was a wild time.

The cast here is a who's-who of A+ actors beyond those named above. Steve Buscemi, John Cusack, Ving Rhames, Monica Potter, Mykelti Williamson, Dave Chappelle, Sons of Anarchy vets Danny Trejo and Emilio Rivera and many more. Everytime Con Air is on, it should be watched. And if it's on streaming, that means 24/7.

Still needing more to watch after the above? Here are some more on-theme offerings.

More Classic '90s Action Movies Streaming On Disney+

• Pearl Harbor
• Armageddon
• The Rock
• G.I. Jane
• Die Hard 2
• True Lies

Maybe next year, when the U.S.A. turns 251, we can find a bunch of on-theme horror movies to binge through. For now, though, reliving the '90s is the way.

Zoe Saldaña isn’t the queen of the worldwide box office by chance. The actress seriously worked for it, especially when it comes to portraying the iconic Neytiri for the Avatar movies. When CinemaBlend talked to the actress for Fire And Ash about playing the role for the past fifteen years, she flexed on all the things she can do now. And one really stands out.

The Skills Zoe Saldaña Learned For The Avatar Movies

Saldaña’s Na'vi role is done through performance capture, meaning that she actually does physically perform just about every moment in the film – she just looks very different from the final product we see on the big screen. Here’s what she told us about what she can do because of Neytiri:

What can’t she do? You can check out the interview moment in the clip below:

I’m pretty sure Saldaña could survive on her own in Pandora at this point. There’s one acquired skill she named that I want to talk about though.

I Love How One Of Her Skills Has A Neytiri Twist

As she said in our interview, she’s got solid archery proficiency, but it’s not the normal way one would shoot a bow and arrow. Zoe Saldaña knows how to be an archer “the Na’vi way”, which is sideways. What’s interesting about this little fun fact is that apparently shooting a bow and arrow this way is actually way harder and less precise than the typical way people do archery. So when she says she has good aim it's a really awesome flex. Especially, since she probably doesn’t have to target anything on set well if she doesn’t want to.

Zoe Saldaña has been playing Neytiri since she was 28 years old, and by her estimation she’ll be well into her fifties once the last one comes out. The Oscar winner just turned 48 last week, and the trilogy of movies has helped her become the highest-grossing actor of all time with her name on $15.46 billion across her lifetime so far.

Following Fire And Ash’s release during the holiday season, we’re not sure which direction Avatar will go next or if the franchise will “put on the brakes” after earning less money. Currently Avatar 4 and 5 are on the Disney movie release calendar for 2029 and 2031.

Right now you can see Zoe Saldaña’s Neytiri in the entire Avatar trilogy at home – on Disney+, digital or physical media.

The best streaming services have become so instrumental in many of our lives that sometimes it’s hard to imagine living without them. So, when those with a Disney+ subscription turned on the service at one point this week and couldn’t watch their favorite TV show or next movie on their watchlist, a little bit of chaos ensued. Fans of Bluey will be particularly amused by some of the comments about the alleged worldwide outage.

A Disney+ Outage Left Subscribers Annoyed

If you noticed that you couldn’t watch what you wanted on Disney+ on Thursday night (Pacific Time), you absolutely weren’t alone. The streaming site seemed to be completely down for over an hour, and lots of people weren't happy about it. Check out this comment:

Disney+ clocked the issue and posted on Twitter that they were “investigating issues affecting login for some users” as subscribers got frustrated over the inconvenience. It wasn’t too long before Disney+ announced that the issue had been “resolved” and directed those who were still dealing with problems to the site’s “Help Center”.

Before it got resolved, for those who use Disney+ all the time, it was certainly an interruption to their routine. As one subscriber wrote:

But not everyone was feeling helpless over the short outage. One subscriber decided to take the opportunity to dig out their DVD copy of a movie they already had and watch it instead. As you can see:

The Toy Story movies have been particularly popular on Disney+ as of late since Toy Story 5 just hit theaters this weekend. Funny enough, the new film itself explores how technology can disrupt our lives. Ironic, right?

But, The Bluey Jokes We’re Pretty Great

But for many subscribers with kids, Bluey is the main draw of Disney+, and it feels like the internet immediately thought about the sudden drought of the children’s TV show as soon as the outage went viral. Here’s one comment:

Bluey is one of those shows that’s constantly playing for countless families, and for a couple of hours earlier this week, there suddenly were no talking cartoon dogs in sight! As one parent joked:

You've got to love how the outage reminded the internet of how integral Bluey has become! While Bluey is not a Disney show, the animated series does have an ongoing licensing and distribution deal with the House of Mouse that has proved successful for the pair.

Earlier this year, Disneyland opened a Bluey attraction, and it was extremely popular. Additionally, a Bluey movie is on the upcoming Disney movie schedule for next summer, and we expect that to be a big hit.

Thankfully, Disney+’s outage didn’t last too long. But without it, we wouldn’t have time to think about what happens when the world suddenly doesn't have Bluey.

The hype surrounding Dancing With the Stars Season 35 is growing as its arrival on the 2026 TV schedule gets closer, at least theoretically. A date has not been revealed yet, but it is confirmed to be airing this fall on ABC, with celebrity contestants already being announced, and with a new pro on the way. The Disney-owned network will be airing DWTS: The Next Pro in July, but that new series likely isn't enough to prepare for the insanity, at least according to a Ezar Sosa.

For the first time ever, DWTS is recruiting a new pro via reality comeptition, and The Next Pro will be hosted by Season 34 Mirrorball champ Robert Irwin, with judging from Mark and Shirley Ballas. Fans can expect an intense training and audition process from the 12 hopefuls vying for a single DWTS spot, but that’s only the beginning. While being on the long-runing series is definitely a dream for dancers, it can also be grueling. Sosa, a Season 34 finalist, told Parade just how crazy being a pro truly is, no matter the preparation, saying:

DWTS has had a variety of celebrities grace the ballroom over its 34-season run, and you never know who could be next, or who they will be paired with. A lot of pros start on the troupe, and while that does get them somewhat prepared, especially when they have to step in for a pro, you can’t really truly prepare for what’s to come until you get assigned your celebrity partner. Then it depends on their skill level, how much they really want the mirrorball, and how much they’re willing to work. A reality show to find the next pro can’t exactly prep you for that.

It’s not surprising that Sosa, who became a pro with Season 33, was pretty disappointed with the hand he was dealt with his first partner. They were one of the first couples eliminated, but he managed to make it all the way to the finals last season with Jordan Chiles. So it really just depends on who your celebrity partner is.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t prepare to be a pro, because all of that rehearsing does help. It does sound like the wide variety of celebrity contestants does not help, though, and unfortunately, the pros usually don’t know who they’re paired with until later in the summer. It’s possible some of them start rehearsing long before then to get into shape and back into the groove of things, and the fact that a lot of that can be undone depending on who they’re paired with is pretty insane.

DWTS: The Next Pro will be entertaining to watch, but whoever wins will definitely be in for an even more intense ride. The new series premieres on July 13 on ABC, with Season 35 premiering this fall. Fans can catch up on DWTS with recent seasons streaming with a Disney+ subscription.

As a cartoon-loving gent who may or may not be on the wrong side of 40, I love when a Disney original can catch both my eye and my full attention. (See: Gravity Falls, The Owl House, Darkwing Duck.) So I had pretty sizeable (though measured) expectations for the studio's first big push into anime-style storytelling with Dragon Striker hitting the 2026 TV schedule. Thankfully, those expectations were met and sated with ease.

Dragon Striker's core story isn't so different from arcs that one might find in other shows like Owl House, in that it takes place within a special academy that advances its students skills with sports and magic, centering on a super-powerful protagonist who doesn't quite have what it takes to utilize his talents. At least until he's befriended by a group of underdogs who discover sinister secrets that go far beyond the playing field.

From top to bottom, Dragon Striker embodies anime's style and substance, though obviously within the scope of what would entertain Disney XD audiences. Animators and series co-creators Sylvain Dos Santos and Charles Lefebvre spoke with CinemaBlend ahead of the series' premiere to discuss how pleased and proud they are to bridge the gap between Disney animation and classic anime.

Dragon Striker truly is bringing worlds together, as both Lefebvre and Dos Santos are French animators bringing this Japanese-influenced series to U.S. audiences, voiced by British and Irish actors. Gotta love it. (To say nothing of the hundreds of people who worked on the show behind the scenes.

It doesn't sound like Disney balked at all at leaning harder into the anime style that Dragon Striker delivers, and instead wanted to make sure that the studio would be releasing the best looking version possible. To that end, Lefebvre told me that Disney execs were very specific about not letting the team get away with shortcuts commonly seen in anime, such as reusing pieces of animation.

Anyone who watches Dragon Striker probably won't readily mistake the action happening in the show to any real-world fútbol (or soccer) games. But I still had to ask, since I'm sure there are some athletes in the audience who will have something to say about how Key plays.

Aside from that, though, it's actually great to hear that the execs from Disney didn't want to take half-measures with anything, and required the animators to deliver original footage with every shot. We've all made fun of cartoons from the '60s and '70s (and later) where repeated backgrounds and character animations are laughably obvious. None of that here.

The project was first announced back in the summer of 2022, so this release is the culmination of not just a four-year professional journey, but full lifetimes of fandoms within the creative team. And it wasn't solely anime series and movies that inspired Dragon Striker's creation, but also the stories and environments from video games.

Here's hoping this show is a big enough hit that we get a video game adaptation where the game is adapting the show, instead of the other way around. I'm picking Milo every time.

So for anyone out there in need of finding more family-friendly anime to compete with all of the adult-geared fare available, you can find all eight episodes of Dragon Striker Season 1 streaming on Disney+ starting on Wednesday, June 10. But if you have Disney XD, the episodes are already airing, so what are you doing still listening to me?

Pixar Animation movies famously go through a lot of changes from the moment they are greenlighted. It's no surprise, as it's a long process to even make the movies, ranging from anywhere from four to seven years. The studio's latest, Hoppers, was a six-year passion project for director Daniel Chong before it became one of the most successful 2026 movie releases. When CinemaBlend sat down with a couple of the movie’s filmmakers, they revealed one memorable scene that (shockingly) wasn’t even in Hoppers until late in its development. And they can thank Pixar fans for the assist.

Hoppers revolves around Mabel, a teenage Japanese-American college student who’s passionate about nature and animals. It’s certainly not the norm for a Pixar film to follow a human near-adult, but that was part of the movie from the jump. As Hoppers’ lead story artist Margaret Spencer told us ahead of the movie's streaming release:

OK, so Mabel pretty much stayed the same age and personality from the inception of Hoppers. That's cool and all, but here's the juicier bit the film’s story supervisor John Cody Kim told us.

I mean, can you believe we almost didn't see little Mabel? The scene we're talking about is at the very top of the movie--but minimal spoilers are in the next couple of sentences. We see Mabel steal all the class pets in her school before getting caught. Her parents then lecture her about her behavior. The scene transitions into a cute moment between Mabel and her grandma where she asks her to listen to the sound of nature. It's the perfect introduction to the character, and it's hard to believe it only came at the last minute.

Even more important for context? The scene was added after screening early versions of the film. The audience had thoughts about Mabel, and the scene was added after the animators took feedback. The screening thing is not unusual. Pixar is known to screen its films while they are in the middle of working on them via a peer review forum called the Braintrust, which is in and of itself, very cool.

There were plenty of other ways Hoppers changed throughout its lengthy production period. Chong first pitched it as more of a “Mission: Impossible spy thriller” and the character of Jerry was more of a “cold cut” antagonist before the filmmakers made some changes to Jon Hamm’s character later on. But this tidbit is the perfect morsel as the movie heads to streaming.

Hoppers just leaped its way onto TV screens for those with a Disney+ subscription, it’s the perfect time for a rewatch. I know I’m definitely going to appreciate the opening scene even more knowing that it was a late addition to the movie.

Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds’ faux feud-slash-bromance remains one of Hollywood’s most reliable bits, and apparently, it is now heading out onto the water. After Deadpool & Wolverine turned their long-running public friendship into a box-office hit, the two stars are re-teaming for a very different kind of project coming to the streaming schedule for folks with a Disney+ subscription.

Jackman shared the update on Instagram (see below), posting photos of himself with the BONDS Flying Roos, the Australian SailGP team that the two actors co-own. The post teases a behind-the-scenes series with Jackman joking that one of them is “sure to end up in the water.” Disney+ has also announced the untitled docuseries, which will follow the Flying Roos through a global SailGP season.

Hugh Jackman’s caption is exactly the kind of fun tease that makes me sit up. Jackman and Reynolds learning high-speed sailing sounds like the spiritual cousin of the hit FX series Welcome to Wrexham, except instead of soccer heartbreak in Wales, we’re getting expensive boats, Australian pride and the very real possibility of Ryan Reynolds bobbing in the water.

According to Deadline, the untitled docuseries will follow the BONDS Flying Roos as Australia’s fastest sailors travel the globe to compete against elite rivals. The team is led on the water by driver and CEO Tom Slingsby, who is an Olympic gold medalist, America’s Cup winner and a three-time SailGP champion.

The series also has a real sports hook. SailGP is a stadium-style championship featuring identical 50-foot catamarans racing close to shore at speeds of up to 100 km/h, which sounds less like a relaxing day on the water and more like Formula 1 on the high seas.

The project will come from Reynolds’ Maximum Effort and Eureka Productions in partnership with SailGP and the BONDS Flying Roos. Brent Hodge is serving as director and showrunner, while Rob Mac, Reynolds’ Welcome to Wrexham partner and executive producer, will also executive produce through More Better Productions. The series will stream on Disney+ internationally and on Disney+ and in the U.S. for viewers with a Hulu subscription.

That Welcome to Wrexham connection, the series is now in its fifth season, is probably the most interesting piece here. Reynolds has already shown he knows how to turn a sports ownership story into something accessible, funny and genuinely emotional. That show works because it is not just about celebrity owners, but focuses on community, pressure, history and people who care deeply about the sport.

This new sailing series has a chance to do something similar, especially with Jackman involved. He brings the Australian connection, Reynolds brings the documentary-sports-business track record, and together they bring the exact level of affectionate nonsense that makes their partnership weirdly durable.

Jackman and Reynolds joked in a joint statement that this is their first collaboration since Deadpool & Wolverine and that they expect “action, comedy, heart” with “a lot more water.” They also said they hope there are pirates in SailGP, because of course they did.

There is no Disney+ premiere date yet, but I’m already in. Give me elite athletes, fast boats, actual stakes and Jackman and Reynolds trying not to look completely out of their depth. And yes, I absolutely want to know which one ends up in the water first.

Oh, let me count the ways The Punisher: One Last Kill was a rough watch. The Marvel special, which you can check out with your Disney+ subscription, was a huge bummer. Not just in the story it told, but how the story was told, too. It picks up with Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) at the end of his rope. Like a lot of Punisher stories, there is no happy ending for Frank, but as this special is clearly meant to set up the character’s entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we know this isn’t the ending. I’m glad that’s the case, because the…show?...movie?...special presentation didn’t really work for me on a few different levels.

If you haven’t seen The Punisher: One Last Kill or Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 and don’t want to be spoiled, you'd better stop here, because I’m going to be spoiling a lot.

First, The Dog

I have to start with the dog at the beginning. Broadway legend John Douglas Thompson plays the homeless vet with a cute dog who is brutally attacked in the street by a gang of thugs. The beating ends with one of the taking the dog and throwing the poor thing into traffic. This was probably the moment that many TVs turned off the show. I get it. No one likes to see dogs get hurt. Me included.

However, what upsets me even more is that this kind of action is completely unnecessary. It would have been enough to have the gang beat the guy up and steal his Marine Corps hat. The added brutality of killing a dog is, in my opinion, a cheap way to garner sympathy for a character and show how bad another can be. It’s a trope that I can’t stand because it’s manipulative when it’s not needed. I didn’t turn it off, but I was immediately wary of what would come.

The Story Is Obviously A Bummer, But So Was The Experience

The story of Frank finding purpose is, as I said, like most Punisher stories, a bummer. Everything with Frank Castle is hard to watch, and Berthal nails this aspect of the character. Every time he relives the death of his family is sad, and once again, we see some of that here. Every time we see Frank break down and find himself reeling (again) from their murders, it is hard. I expected all that, but what I didn’t expect, as I generally really love this portion of the MCU, is how much of a bummer the show would be outside of the plot.

The timeline is confusing, at best. It never really establishes where it fits in with the Daredevil corner of the MCU, much less the bigger MCU timeline. Presumably, this story takes place after the events of Daredevil: Born Again, but it gives no cues or clues that it is for sure. It also probably takes place before the events we’re going to see in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which hits theaters in a couple of months as part of the 2026 movie schedule. Again, though, there is nothing in the show that confirms this.

Finally, the special was just too short. It ends right as it seems like it should be beginning. It’s like a pretty good season premiere, instead of a complete story. It reminds me of a 50-minute version of those shorts they used to do early on in the MCU that helped bridge a gap between movies and superheroes. I guess this is bridging the gap between The Punisher TV show from almost a decade ago and Brand New Day, which makes sense, but it still feels a little hollow.

This doesn’t mean I’m less excited for Bernthal’s Punisher in the MCU. I’m still psyched about that.

After being away for almost a year, the modern back catalog of Doctor Who is headed back to streaming. AMC+ has snagged the rights to 176 episodes of the beloved sci-fi series, and it'll be available as the summer arrives.

AMC+ announced it obtained the back catalog of the Time Lord's adventures from 2005 to 2022. Beginning June 11th, those looking to see the best Doctor Who episodes from those years can subscribe and stream these episodes and specials as much as they like for only $29.99 a year. As a fan, I'm happy to hear I'll be able to watch this in between other shows on the 2026 TV schedule, but I do have more questions.

Will AMC+ Eventually Get Access To Disney+'s Collection Of Episodes?

As impressive as this collection of episodes is, it's still missing some pivotal entries in the Doctor Who library. Notably, there's no mention of the 60th anniversary specials featuring David Tennant and Catherine Tate, or any of Ncuti Gatwa's run as The Doctor. Presumably, AMC+ didn't get the rights to those yet, and they'll remain available with a Disney+ subscription until we hear otherwise.

I'm hoping eventually the rights will expire, and AMC+ can pick it up, but we'll have to wait and enjoy the runs of Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi, and Jodie Whittaker in the meantime.

Where Will People In The United States Watch The Upcoming Christmas Special?

AMC+'s announcement says nothing of the 2026 Christmas special, or other new episodes of Doctor Who to come. We already know that the BBC parted ways with Disney+, so the episodes won't be airing there. Is it possible another announcement is on the way, or is another player in the mix?

That's the million-dollar question I have, and a major factor in whether I'd want to subscribe to AMC+ long-term. I do love old episodes of Doctor Who, but I ultimately am going to sign up for whatever service gives me the new episodes.

I'm optimistic that, maybe, the BBC will ultimately partner with AMC+ to be its first-run partner for Doctor Who, and that an announcement will come closer to the release of the Christmas episode. With so many unanswered questions about what's in store for the future of the franchise, it would be nice to get some confirmation that we'll have an official way to watch the Christmas special.

Doctor Who will return with a new episode around Christmas 2026, but we still don't have any solid details on it just yet. I'm hoping that changes by the time summer arrives, because I'd love at least a trailer to help give us some clarity on what to expect.

MCU fans have been looking forward to seeing Jon Bernthal reunite with Tom Holland on Spider-Man: Brand New Day for the last year, since it was announced that The Punisher was joining the superhero flick. However, fans of Frank Castle don’t have to wait that long to see the iconic antihero’s next moves. The Punisher: One Last Kill is set to hit the 2026 TV schedule, and critics have strong (and not all positive) opinions about the new Marvel offering.

Jon Bernthal, naturally, leads The Punisher standalone special (streaming with a Disney+ subscription), where we’ll see Frank Castle’s attempt to live a life without the need for vigilante justice. After that brutal One Last Kill trailer, though, we can assume that plan doesn't pan out. Zach Pope writes on X (Twitter) that fans of the character are going to love this:

@Klepcx of Critix Media says The Punisher: One Last Kill will leave MCU fans stunned by how brutal this Marvel Special Presentation is, saying there’s “nothing in the superhero genre right now quite like” it. The critic continues:

Leo Rydel also speaks to the violence of it all, saying the lead actor is at his best in the upcoming Marvel show. The critic tweets:

Dalton Burdette agrees the special is great, but rather than comment on the violence and bloody action, this critic seems moved by the “profound” quiet moments as well. Burdette writes on X:

The first reactions to the Disney+ show aren’t all so glowing. While everyone seems to agree that Jon Bernthal is doing his best work here, the material he’s working with is leaving some critics wanting. The Koalition’s @sagesurge posts:

Film Posers’ @gaby_burgos27 takes the criticism a step further, citing a lack of character development. She says:

Cody Leach, movie fan and critic, wonders why we need to be reintroduced to Jon Bernthal’s character in this way, especially if there’s nothing new to learn. He tweets:

If you’re tuning into The Punisher: One Last Kill for some violent fight sequences and to see that version of Jon Bernthal we love to hate, it sounds like you won’t be disappointed. However, nobody’s apparently going to glean any new morsels of information about the antihero.

The Punisher standalone special premieres at 9 p.m. ET Tuesday, May 12, streaming on Disney+.

MCU fans hoping to see a lot of bone-crunching and bullet-whizzing action only have a little while longer to wait until the one-shot special The Punisher: One Last Kill punches a hole through the 2026 TV schedule. The upcoming Marvel TV release brings the skull-shaped spotlight back to Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle for his first (and maybe last) standalone MCU storyline. The actor’s been hyping fans up for his vigilante’s post-Daredevil: Born Again return, and his latest post drew fun comments from former Walking Dead co-star Sarah Wayne Callies and a DCU fave.

Bernthal took to Instagram to share a black-and-white pic of himself that could easily be a visual stand-in for the term “world-weary,” with this as his caption:

Though it wasn't an official still of Frank Cast, and he wasn't actually decked out in any Punisher gear, Bernthal's caption likely resonated with Daredevil fans. It's the way Frank explained to Matt that they're two sides of the same coin, with Punisher's willingness to kill being the line that Daredevil vows not to cross. But just as any given Sunday can give an underdog football team a win, one bad day could be all it takes to shatter Matt's moral compass.

But since the lawyer currently has his hands full with Wilson Fisk, there's no need to bring him further along in this story. Instead, here's a comment shared by Bernthal's former Walking Dead romantic interest, to put it in the least complicated way possible, Sarah Wayne Callies:

• SARAH WAYNE CALLIES: i sure hope not 😂❤️

The Lori Grimes actress likely wasn't playing into the Daredevil reference there, and it seems apaprent she was playfully poking fun at Jon Bernthal's mug. He does kind of look like the exact opposite of TWD's ever-popular quasi-villain Shane, whose head was nearly clean-shaven when he was taken out of the equation.

Another standout comment on the actor's post came from another machismo-centric action star who somewhat recently beat the dogsh-t out of a superhero, only on the DCU side of things. I'm referring to Peacemaker and Creature Commandos star Frank Grillo, who chimed in on Bernthal's post with:

• FRANK GRILLO: you wanted to be a tough guy. 😎🥊🥊🥊

The thought of Frank Grillo and Jon Bernthal facing off on-screen is the kind of thing that 1,000% needs to happen before either of them calls it quits on stunt-heavy action. It's legitimately shocking that there aren't already 12 examples of it across TV and cinema. (Or even a video game.) And you can imagine that the fans reacting to the above went straight to Grillo's MCU history, calling for a Crossbones Vs. Punisher fight. Does it matter that Crossbones is dead? Nope.

Check out the trailer for One Last Kill below, and there's no judgment if anyone wants to imagine a zombified Frank Grillo's Crossbones showing up in the middle of it.

If all it takes is one bad day to turn into Jon Bernthal, then I hope I have 100 of them in a row. But it definitely won't be a bad one on Tuesday, May 12, when The Punisher: One Last Kill is available to stream via Disney+ subscription. (And then don't forget he'll also be reteaming with Tom Holland for Spider-Man: Brand New Day on July 31.

Some spoilers below for the latest episode of Daredevil: Born Again, so be warned if you haven’t yet watched via Disney+ subscription.

Welp, another key Daredevil: Born Again character has bitten the metaphorical dust, with Michael Gandolfini’s Daniel Blake facing the lethal ire of Wilson Fisk’s most unhinged enforcer, Buck Cashman. But we’re not here to mourn would-be villains with last-second moral pangs. We’re here to question the existence of an official D:BA still that seemingly shatters all semblances of reality by having Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock in the same frame as an actual Daredevil comic collection.

It’s a concept that’s too nutty to believe was done on purpose, but also a detail that doesn’t seem like it could possibly make it into episodes or press materials without being clocked and removed by editors. Especially not sitting right in front of the lead actor’s face, blind though his character may be. Check it out below.

The courtroom shot is a still released by Disney that isn't marked as being a behind-the-scenes pic, and each of the actors' faces seem to play into the serious tone of Karen's skewed fight for justice. So why does Matt have the Marvel Premiere Collection for Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's Daredevil: Born Again on the desk in front of him instead of paperwork related to Karen's case?

More to the point, HOW DOES THIS BOOK EXIST IN THE MCU?!? And why hasn't Matt been showing it off to everyone he knows? Presumably, while saying, "Look at how cool and amazing this is that someone made a comic about our lives that is scarily accurate!"

Just in case anyone out there is skeptical about the book in the show being the same as the trade paperback, here's an easy comparison.

There are pens and what appears to be a Post-It note atop the book, but otherwise, it looks exactly the same, and now I'm forced to believe that this is some kind of multiverse nexus point that will inevitably shatter the reality of this Disney+ show in a way where all that's left on Earth is former Daredevil comic scribe Chip Zdarsky.

Admittedly, I didn't clock the Born Again TPB showing up within the episode itself, even when reskimming through, although it's entirely possible I just missed it a quick shot where it could be seen. But if it for sure wasn't in the final cut of the streamed episode, that kind of makes it even weirder if there were other images to go with.

This is probably the wildest thing I've witnessed so far from any 2026 TV shows, and I cannot imagine that we'll be seeing simliar instances in any upcoming Marvel TV Shows. Although I guess it could legitimately happen as an actual plot point in Season 2 of Wonder Man, even if that in-universe character isn't the same as the Marvel hero.

Disney+ is working on a live-action Casper series, and while I was excited to read that Hollywood finally found a way to bring the character back in a big way, I fear they've lost the plot. That's on the heels of the reveal that "the friendliest ghost you know" is getting an "edgy" remake.

The report comes from Deadline, which reads that Rob Letterman and Hilary Winston, who were also responsible for the newest Goosebumps series, are reteaming with Disney+ for this new project. The only detail so far is that it's believed to have a "dark edge" to it, and that it looks to replicate the success of Wednesday. I'm sorry, what?

I'm Not Sure Why We Need An "Edgy" Casper Series

The 1995 Casper is already pretty dark, but it walks the line well enough between humor and scares that it's still accessible to kids. That was the right tone for a franchise like Casper, which was always going to struggle eliciting true scares with its cartoony feel.

The reason Wednesday works so well is that The Addams Family already naturally leaned into darker themes from a comedic perspective, highlighting a family obsessed with violence and the macabre.

Casper is about a ghost who, first and foremost, identifes as "Friendly," and has a track record for being terrible at scaring humans. Making him edgy compromises what the franchise is about, and I'd argue his mysterious uncles, The Ghostly Trio, are already edgelord-y enough. I just don't see the vision for how this works, but fortunately, the EPs and writers have plenty of time to convince me to tune in before it'll be ready for streaming via Disney+ subscription.

Casper Is One Of The Few "Spooky" Franchises Accessible To Young Kids, And I'd Prefer It Stays That Way

I hate to pull the "Think of the children!" card, but I have a daughter who loves spooky stuff. She isn't quite ready for the best horror movies of all time, but she certainly enjoys getting into the Halloween spirit and watching creepy fare, as opposed to anything truly horrifying Casper hits those notes, and is indeed one of her favorites.

The only thing we have to go on regarding this Casper series is that Wednesday is allegedly an inspiration. My kid loves Wednesday Addams, and while she recognizes Jenna Ortega's version, she has only seen Christina Ricci's. Wednesday is just a little too mature for the average eight-year-old, and now I fear Casper is headed in the same direction.

When I think of the easy ways to make this franchise edgy, gory deaths and raunchy sex come to mind, even though I imagine this project wouldn't go quite so far with either subject. Still, skewing closer to those topics could alienate younger audiences from watching, and that's not the only risk.

There's also a generation of people who grew up with the '90s movie who will have expectations for what they think Casper should be. (Sound familiar?) I'm sure there will be some who approach it with an open mind, but obviously, I'm all sorts of skeptical and on high alert just from the implication that it'll be edgy. Here's hoping I'm surprised when I finally see a trailer, and it's not quite as wild as I'm imagining it could be.

We'll see what becomes of this Casper project and who may end up attached to it. I'll remain skeptical, but curious to see what this upcoming series could possibly be like.

Wonder Man is one of the best things Marvel has released in a while, and those who haven't watched it with a Disney+ subscription are missing out. Part of that is thanks to Yahya Abdul Mateen II, who recently revealed he wouldn't take the role as Simon Williams without speaking to Marvel's Kevin Feige first.

The actor spoke about the conversation during an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, and how he insisted on speaking to Kevin Feige before accepting the role as the MCU hero. It may sound silly to think about, given the mass acclaim for the series and excitement for Season 2, but the Watchmen vet wanted assurance from Feige that this was THE MCU role he should be invested in, as opposed to other potential options. As he put it:

Yahya Abdul Mateen II wanted to make sure he was getting a quality role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I don't blame him. Even for as long as the comic book giant'smovie universe has been around, there are still plenty of Marvel heroes that need to make big-screen debuts. I, too, would be skeptical about taking on a character like Wonder Man, especially if the chance was available to possibly play one of the X-Men in the future.

Kevin Feige indeed took time from his busy schedule to meet with the actor and assure him that working on Wonder Man was the right call. Abdul Mateen II just gave an overview of the conversation:

In the end, I'm sure the actor has no regrets, considering how Wonder Man pulled in an audience who may have been suffering from Marvel fatigue. It also created one of the best bromances of the MCU we've seen yet, in Simon teaming up with disgraced actor Trevor Slattery. I'm excited to see how or if these two feature into the greater story being told in the universe.

It does have me wondering if Simon Williams factors into Avengers Doomsday at all, with conflicting information out there about whether he's involved. Simon has some devastating power that he has trouble controlling, and I have to think heroes or villains would love to exploit that to turn the tables in a big super showdown.

We'll just have to wait for more updates, keeping our fingers crossed that we'll see more of Trevor and Simon in upcoming Marvel movies and shows before Wonder Man Season 2 comes out. All this talk about the series has me eager to watch it again, so it's a good thing it's so bingeable.

Dancing With The Stars is returning to the 2026 TV schedule in a big way, with Season 35 bringing a trending reality star to the ballroom. Love Island UK's Maura Higgins debuted in front of an American audience on the latest season of The Traitors, so it's only fitting she'd want former co-star Mark Ballas as her pro for the season.

Ballas was the first DWTS pro to appear on The Traitors, and Higgins' first choice as her pro when Season 35 kicks off in the Fall. Bustle learned as much when talking to her about her casting, as one of the first celebrities announced:

Mark would be perfect, as he was duped along with the rest of The Traitors cast after Rob Rausch successfully won the game as a Traitor from the very start. Maura was right next to him at the end, and successfully managed to guilt him into buying her an expensive Birkin bag after lying to her so many times.

While I can't remember any standout moments between Mark Ballas and Maura Higgins on The Traitors, the latter confirmed they had a close relationship during the game. Maybe not as close as Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski were, but listening to Higgins, they weren't that far off:

Maura was notable on The Traitors for making it all the way to the final, despite never having seen a single episode of the series. Of course, the only people who often do that in the Peacock series are either people who are really good at manipulation, or have no clue what's going on, and I'll just leave the reader to draw their own conclusions as to which category I think she fell in.

When asked if having Mark Ballas as a partner on Dancing With The Stars would give her an advantage over other competitors, Maura Higgins didn't think so. She said she'll still have to figure out how to do the hardest part of the show, learn how to dance:

Higgins shouldn't sweat that part of the competition too much, as Andy Richter proved last season, dancing is secondary to being liked by the audience. Being popular can go a long way on Dancing With The Stars, though there does come a point where even the popular stars have to get some good scores to survive.

As far as partners go, however, Mark Ballas is a great choice. He's won DWTS three times and been in the finals many other times. His last win was in Season 31, in which he and partner Charli D'Amelio practically waltzed home with the trophy all season. We'll see who Maura Higgins ultimately ends up with, but I have a feeling she's going to get Mark.

Catch Higgins and Ciara Miller on Season 35 of Dancing With The Stars when it premieres on ABC and Disney+ in the fall. I can't wait to see what other celebrities are announced, and which pros get paired with them.

It feels like a Jedi mind trick to think about it, but The Mandalorian was actually one of the first new TV shows you could watch with a Disney+ subscription when the platform was launched in 2019. Since then, we’ve seen all sorts of other original shows from a galaxy far, far away, with more being announced all the time. So, why is The Mandalorian moving to the big screen for its next adventure?

Earlier this month, CinemaBlend and a handful of other press outlets had the chance to learn more about The Mandalorian & Grogu movie from director Jon Favreau on what’s left of the Los Angeles sets after seeing the first 18 minutes of the movie. Here’s what the filmmaker said when asked about why he decided to make the next installment of The Mandalorian into a movie rather than going with Season 4, which was well underway before the pivot was announced:

The Mandalorian & Grogu now serves as the first theatrical Star Wars movie since Rise of Skywalker back in 2019. Favreau communicated his interest in recapturing “the feeling” he had when he first saw Star Wars back in 1977. And, there are some things that the team on the TV show just couldn’t achieve at the pace of a TV show, that he was excited about exploring with an IMAX release. As he also shared:

Another inspiration? There’s now a whole new generation of kids who literally weren’t old enough to watch a Star Wars movie in theaters yet! The Mandalorian & Grogu will be their first experience, and Jon Favreau wants to make that special. He also said this:

The Mandalorian & Grogu production designer was also on hand at the Los Angeles sets that day to tell us that making a movie rather than a TV show allowed the team to move into “massive stages” they couldn’t before. Since the series moves at a faster pace, they wouldn’t have time to create the kind of sets they did on this feature, which he said sometimes took two to three months.

So, in short, Jon Favreau wanted to make a large-scale Star Wars movie with his established and beloved characters from The Mandalorian. And, can you blame him? We’re talking about the guy who literally helped start the MCU by helming Iron Man in 2008. We’re so curious how The Mandalorian & Grogu will stack up to the TV show and build on the universe when it comes out on May 22.

Warning: SPOILERS for the Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 episode “Gloves Off” are ahead!

The original Daredevil TV series and Daredevil: Born Again have delivered a lot of shocking twists over the years, but the one at the end of the latter show’s latest episode is among the few that have made me physically uncomfortable. A glass shard impaled Ayelet Zurer’s Vanessa Fisk in the head during the final moments of “Gloves Off,” leaving Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. Kingpin, with nothing to do but hold his wife and wait for medical assistance as she bled out. With Vanessa at death’s door, D’Onofrio shared how this twist will change his “devoted” character or the rest of Born Again Season 2’s run on the 2026 TV schedule.

I should clarify at first that while I was certainly surprised to see Vanessa get a glass shard to the head, it wasn’t the goriness that made me uncomfortable. It was thinking about how Kingpin will surely even become more unhinged if she dies. Sure enough, Vincent D’Onofrio indicated that is indeed what will happen in the latter half of the Disney+ subscription-exclusive Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, telling EW:

Now to be clear, it hasn’t been officially stated that Vanessa will die, but with a wound like that and now reading Vincent D’Onofrio’s comments, it feels like the writing is on the wall. While Wilson Fisk has been a ruthless, cold-blooded man his entire adult life, meeting and falling in love with Vanessa has resulted in some of his darker and more illogical impulses being curbed. Governor Marge McCaffrey straight up tells Vanessa in “Gloves Out” that Wilson Fisk being mayor of New York City concerns her, but if Vanessa remains by his side to keep him level headed, she’ll throw her support behind the couple.

With Vanessa dead (again, not confirmed), it’s no wonder Kingpin would become more of a loose cannon, and that can only mean bad things for the people of New York City. Despite his criminal past and the AVTF making life miserable for many of the Big Apple’s citizens, he’s managed to maintain an overall positive profile. If his grief drives him to become even more ruthless and kill even more people who stand in the way of getting whatever he wants, that’s makes it all the more necessary for Matt Murdock and his allies to remove him from office.

This new information also pairs nicely with the rumor that Kingpin will become an even more powerful crime lord in Daredevil: Born Again Season 3. We won’t learn if that is indeed the case until sometime in 2027, but there are four more episodes left to go in Born Again Season 2 to see how the tragic aftermath of Bullseye’s failed assassination attempt will drive Kingpin’s immediate actions. Now would be a good time for anyone in his inner circle to get their affairs in order.

The second season of Daredevil: Born Again is continuing the excellent story of the battle between Daredevil and Kingpin. A lot of people are watching not for either of the two main characters, but for the eventual return of Jessica Jones to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Krysten Ritter’s involvement has been known for months, and when we do eventually see her, she’ll be looking very familiar.

While Jessica Jones may not have a superhero costume like Daredevil, her outfit is no less iconic. The black leather jacket that the character wears is basically her cape. We’ve seen in the trailers for Daredevil: Born Again that the jacket is back, but it turns out it isn’t quite the same garment. In a video posted to Instagram, Ritter revealed…

It turns out a little petty larceny goes a long way. If Ritter hadn’t “kept” the jacket from the original Jessica Jones, then the costume designer would have had to rely on pictures of the outfit from the series in any attempt to remake it. While that likely would have gone a long way, it’s unlikely it would have resulted in a true recreation. Because the costume designer was able to use the actual original jacket, she could make one that was identical to the original in every way.

Honestly, if Krysten Ritter had to steal the Jessica Jones jacket from the set when the show ended, then somebody wasn’t thinking clearly. She played the role for three seasons of her show plus The Defenders crossover series. Netflix/Marvel should have gifted her the jacket. There was almost certainly more than one anyway, right? Of course, Ritter is in good company. A lot of actors in the MCU have taken parts of their costumes home. Check out the new version of the jacket below.

Krysten Ritter may need to wait a while before she gets a chance to steal this version of the jacket. Images from the production of Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 have confirmed that Jessica Jones will be back, and rumors of an eventual Jessica Jones spinoff persist. The other two Defenders, Mike Colter and Finn Jones who played Luke Cage and Iron Fist respectively, have also been seen on set. Hopefully, they kept some of their costumes too.

Most of the time, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Palpatine don’t have anything in common given… well, anyone who’s watched the Star Wars movies knows why. However, one thing they do share is Maul’s hatred. The former Sith Lord who killed Qui-Gon Jinn has drastically different reasons for holding them with as much contempt as possible. However, when it comes to Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord, which just premiered on the 2026 TV schedule, Sam Witwer, Maul’s voice actor, explained why he’s “obsessing over” Palpatine more than Obi-Wan in the Disney+ subscription-exclusive series.

The critically-acclaimed Shadow Lord takes place one year after the end of the Clone Wars and rise of the Empire, when Maul is attempting to rebuild his criminal syndicate that collapsed in The Clone Wars TV show’s final episodes. During my interview with Sam Witwer and Gideon Adlon, who voices Order 66 survivor Devon Izara, I asked Witwer whether Palpatine or Obi-Wan was his favorite antagonistic dynamic with Maul. The actor explained why the former is more important to him at this stage of his character’s life, saying:

Maul is well within his rights to hate Obi-Wan Kenobi given how he bisected him in The Phantom Menace, and the two would later clash a few times in The Clone Wars, where Obi-Wan was voiced by James Arnold Taylor. But it’s like Sam Witwer said, when Shadow Lord is happening, Maul understandably thinks that this particular enemy is dead, so there’s no reason to dwell on that particular hatred. Of course, we know Maul learns of Obi-Wan’s survival in Star Wars Rebels, though that knowledge leads to his permeant demise at the hands of the Jedi Master, voiced in this appearance by Stephen Stanton.

Meanwhile, with Palpatine now ruling the galaxy far, far away with an iron first, Maul has plenty of hatred to spare for him. First off, the man also known as Darth Sidious abuse and torture Maul for many years while training him to be his apprentice. Then in The Clone Wars Season 5, Sidious learned Maul was still alive and proceeded to easily defeat him and kill his brother, Savage Oppress. So during the events of Shadow Lord, Maul is certainly no fan of the Empire, and you know he’s take another stab at killing Palpatine (figuratively and literally) if the opportunity came along.

Since Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord has already been renewed for another season, perhaps the show will deliver just that. For now though, Maul is focused to resurrecting the Shadow Collective, but he’s also taken an interest in Devon Izara, whom he encounters on Janix in the Shadow Lord premiere. Two episodes will continue being released per week on Disney going to May 4, a.k.a. Star Wars Day.

It has to be said that some weeks not a tons gets released on the various streaming platforms. And then there are weeks where it seems all the streamers conspired to release all their biggest content at once. Some of the best series and movies streaming in April are coming out this week. It’s a good thing Daredevil: Born Again is only coming out weekly, so there’s time for everything else.

Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord - April 6 (Disney+)

Despite relatively short screen time in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul is one of the more popular of Star Wars’ villains. The character has a long and deep history that you won’t be familiar with if you haven’t watched animated Star Wars shows like The Clone Wars, and now your Disney+ subscription will give you an untold chapter in Maul's life in the new animated series Shadow Lord.

The Testaments - April 8 (Hulu)

The Handmaid’s Tale was a critical and fan favorite, but don’t let the fact that it has come to an end lead you to end your Hulu subscription. Margaret Atwood’s 2019 sequel novel, The Testaments, is set to make its debut as a series this week, with One Battle After Another’s breakout star Chase Infiniti leading the cast.

The Boys, Season 5 - April 8 (Prime Video)

Of all the superhero content one can find on TV and in movies, The Boys, available with a Prime Video subscription, is truly unique. No other series is quite so violent or holds the same sort of lens up to the genre. The show has been incredibly successful, and hopefully, with this fifth and final season, it will be going out on top.

Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair - April 10 (Hulu)

Of all the series reboots that we have seen in the last few years, Malcolm in the Middle is one that maybe was not on anybody’s bingo card. And yet this week we get the limited series that, as the subtitle says, promises that Life’s Still Unfair. The show finds an adult Malcolm who has spent his life avoiding his crazy family, forced to deal with them.

Outcome - April 10 (Apple TV)

In Outcome, coming with an Apple TV subscription, the biggest movie star in the world, Keanu Reeves, plays the biggest movie star in the world. Reef Hawk. However, while Keanu is the actor everybody loves, Reef is an actor that seemingly nobody likes. It’s a fact that leads him on a journey of self-discovery after a viral video ruins his reputation. From director Jonah Hill, the new movie looks to be equal parts funny and life-affirming, and it has an incredible all-star cast.

While there’s a lot to love streaming this week, the month is only just getting started. A new season of Netflix’s critically praised Beef comes out next weekend, and reality fans will be able to jump into a new season of Love Island on Peacock. Get ready.

Star Wars has officially arrived on the 2026 TV schedule, though Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord may slide under the radar for a mainstream audience. While there are no doubt tons of fans of the sci-fi franchise worldwide, some may be waiting on The Mandalorian and Grogu rather than the latest animated series. I'll be honest, I felt that way at first, right up until I saw it broke the franchise's record for the highest Rotten Tomatoes score.

With the first two episodes available to stream with a Disney+ subscription, reviews are rolling out about Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord. Its current Rotten Tomatoes score sits at a franchise-high 100% Fresh. While that score may fall a bit while reviews continue to flood in, it's clear enough from Polygon's Aimee Hart that this animated series shouldn't be missed:

Set one year after the gruesome Jedi culling known as Order 66, Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord chronicles the iconic villain from The Phantom Menace and his rise to prominence in the criminal underworld. If all that sounds foreign to the reader, they might need to do a bit of homework on the events of Star Wars: The Clone Wars to get the answers behind why the character is alive.

Making a character as dark as Darth Maul a protagonist was admittedly a challenge according to the show's creators, but it's one that paid off according to IGN's Jesse Schedeen. The writer teased that the fight scenes are top-notch, though fans of the animated shows may expect that already:

I'm not surprised to read this, especially given it's a show about Darth Maul. In Star Wars canon, he's considered to be one of the best lightsaber duelists in the galaxy. The action scenes had to deliver to be true to the character, so I'm happy to hear that for many, they did.

Empire's Amon Warmann had great things to say as well, but not just for the fight scenes or the overall tone of the story. Special praise was given to the voice cast, including longtime voice actor for Darth Maul, Sam Witwer:

Witwer's performance helps move Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord along, and gives the vibe of iconic movies that influenced it, like Heat. It's a good thing Season 2 is already confirmed, because it looks like Lucasfilm may have another major animated Star Wars hit on its hands.

If there is anything negative to say about the latest series, it would be Variety's Alison Herman knocking Maul - Shadow Lord for not being the most accessible series for the casual Star Wars fan. As previously mentioned, fans coming in will need some background knowledge of events that occurred in The Clone Wars, which isn't ideal:

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that a vast majority of Star Wars fans haven't consumed every relevant piece of information needed for Maul - Shadow Lord. That said, I don't think readers need to experience the entire timeline of events to appreciate this show. Reading up on Maul's life after The Clone Wars would be helpful, but don't get into the Rebels stuff unless you want spoilers.

ScreenRant's Lewis Glazebrook also agreed that some bits are uneven, but ultimately loved that Star Wars has further tweaked its iconic animation style. This series is some of the best animation Lucasfilm has ever done, and it seems influenced by another popular animated feature:

The Rotten Tomatoes score may ultimately fall from the 100% mark, though I can't imagine it will by much. Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord looks to be must-watch television, and as someone who watched the first two episodes, I can attest to that. I'm already hooked, and can't wait to see what's next for the villain.

Catch new episodes of Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord on Mondays, leading all the way up to the franchise's holday, May 4th. I can't wait to see what all is planned for that big day, and what else we'll have to look forward to.

Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 is underway on the 2026 TV schedule, giving Disney+ subscription holders the next chapter of Matt Murdock’s continuing conflict with Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. Kingpin. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t go back and rewatch Season 1 at your leisure, be it alone or with friends/family. Just know that if Charlie Cox is part of your viewing party, he doesn’t think highly of Born Again Season 1’s fifth episode, titled “With Interest.”

The Daredevil actor shared his displeasure about how this particular episode, which saw Matt Murdock foiling a bank heist on St. Patrick’s Day without putting on his costume once, turned out while attending C2E2 (via ComicBookMovie). He started off telling the room of fans in Chicago this about why it’s “really dumb”:

This is one of those reminders that something being well received by the majority doesn’t mean everybody likes it. In Charlie Cox’s case, he’s never cared for “With Interest,” which was arguably the most self-contained Daredevil: Born Again Season 1 episode and also featured an appearance from Yusuf Khan, the father of Kamala Khan, a.k.a. Ms. Marvel. So what specifically rubs Cox the wrong way about “With Interest”? He noticed a significant issue with the story early on, explaining:

It’s worth remembering that Daredevil: Born Again Season 1 went through a massive overhaul well into principal photography, and most of the episodes were tweaked in one way or another during reshoots. However, “With Interest” is the one episode that went untouched, which would explain why it felt so out of place with the rest, though that clearly didn’t impact the overall critical reception.

This isn’t the first time that Charlie Cox has criticized “With Interest.” He previously shared that he didn’t think it was a good idea for Daredevil: Born Again to include a bank heist because it felt like a “‘70s game.” Whether share his negative feelings about the episode or not, I think we can all agree that it’s good that everyone was on the same page with Born Again Season 2 from the start, thus removing those issues of disjointedness. New episodes release Tuesday evenings on Disney+, and Born Again Season 3 has already begun filming.

There’s nothing like a good book-to-screen adaptation to recruit readers to new TV shows and movies, and news that an Animorphs series is in the works is sure to pique the interest of millennials everywhere with memories of Scholastic book fairs between 1996-2001. Years after the movie rumors that ultimately went nowhere and decades after the Nickelodeon adaptation is probably left back in 1998 where it belongs, K.A. Applegate’s book saga is in the works for a streaming platform.

The author opened up about some valid concerns to go with at least one reason to be optimistic. As a fan going back to the '90s, I have several hopes for the project if it becomes a full series, but there's only one thing I desperately want from it.

K.A. Applegate's "Concerns" About The Projects

An Animorphs TV series is in the early stages of development at Disney+ as of April in the 2026 TV schedule, according to Variety, which reports that The Testaments writer Bayan Wolcott is on board as writer and executive producer. As part of his production company, Proximity Media, Ryan Coogler is also on board as an EP, extending his reach back into ‘90s IPs beyond just his reboot of The X-Files for Hulu. Other EPs include Sev Ohanion and Zinzi Coogler from Proximity, and Iole Lucchese and Caitlin Friedman from Scholastic.

The outlet reports that the premise is pretty close to the overall arc of the books, with the focus on a group of teens who discover a hidden threat underneath their normal daily lives, as another complication to the usual teen woes of curfews, relationships, and high school. Interestingly, that description doesn’t mention the parasitic aliens that are invading the planet or even the group of teens – comprised of Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, Marco, and eventually Ax – gaining the ability to morph into animals in the source material.

Shortly after the news broke, K.A. Applegate shared her thoughts on the project, along with those of her husband and writing partner MIchael Grant. She posted on Bluesky:

Considering that Ohanian is both an Anirmorphs fan, a collaborator with Ryan Coogler on projects like Sinners and The X-Files reboot, and a producer on other Disney+ shows including Eyes of Wakanda and Ironheart, hopefully Applegate’s faith in him is indeed a good sign about the project. As for being “under-resourced” as an adaptation… well, not to knock the ‘90s version, I’m pretty sure any modern version would be an improvement on what Nickelodeon could do back in the day.

What I Desperately Want After Devouring The Books As A Kid

I won’t lie – as somebody who voraciously read the Animorphs books as soon as I could get my hands on them in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, my wish list started coming together pretty quickly as soon as I saw the news about the Disney+ project. I’d love to see it set in the ‘90s, for example, not least because the whole premise will work much better without the conveniences of smart phones. I want to see castings that are as book-accurate as possible, especially for Cassie, Marco, and Rachel. A grander scale compared to the Nickelodeon show would be great.

But my biggest wish is probably also the one that’s the least likely to come true, considering that the project would be heading to the home of Percy Jackson & the Olympians, a.k.a. a pretty kid-friendly book adaptation. There’s nothing majorly wrong with Percy Jackson, as you can see for yourself with a Disney+ subscription. My ideal adaptation of Animorphs honestly just wouldn’t be 100% aimed at kids.

Bear with me, if you're not familiar with the source material, because I'm not saying that I want a dark and gritty take on a happy tale of animal-themed adventures! The books definitely aren't telling a bright and shiny story with happy endings all around. "Bright and shiny" are adjectives that really only apply to the iconic paperback covers.

On the other hand, if you, like me, are a millennial who checked out the books for the first time just because of those cool covers with kids turning into animals, then you learned from a young age that Animorphs is astonishingly dark as a series targeted – per Scholastic – at the age range of 8-12 and grades 3-7.

Sure, there are shenanigans to go along with the horrors of war, but even the fun book about dumping oatmeal onto the parasitic aliens (a.k.a. the Yeerks) also touched on claustrophobia, suicide, and biological warfare. (Fun fact: that was my gateway book of the saga.) There’s torture and war crimes and bloody battles, all involving kids without any adult supervision.

Could A Version Aimed At Millennials Actually Happen?

There’s not really any getting around some of the darkest elements, even if the show doesn’t adapt some of the later storylines from about Book 20 onward. I’d love if Animorphs was only technically a kids show in the same way that Stranger Things is a kids show: the main characters are youngsters, but they’re not necessarily who the series is made for. The project aging the kids up to high school could be a sign that I’ll get some of what I want.

In all seriousness, do I think that an Animorphs series will be aimed at an older audience than Percy Jackson or some of the other kid-friendly offerings on Disney+? Not really, but I do know that there’s an audience of 30-40-somethings out there who would definitely tune in for a faithful adaptation. If Stranger Things could tell a dark story with kids at the center, why not other shows?

Of course, at the time of writing, this project is only in the early stages of development, so it may be a while until more updates are available, let alone news of a pilot order that may or may not happen. For now… well, maybe I need to revisit the books as an adult and see for myself just how twisted it was that I was reading them before I was even in double digits.

Plus, until I know otherwise, I can at least enjoy the idea of a bunch of teens listening to ‘90s jams on their boom boxes, taping the news off the TV with their VCRs, idolizing (or not idolizing) Xena: Warrior Princess, hanging out at the mall, and then dabbling in sci-fi guerilla warfare against evil parasitic aliens. It could honestly be hard to watch a kid-friendly version, knowing how different the source material is.

But hey, the books were certainly educational! I wouldn’t have learned nearly as much as a kid about red-tailed hawks, grizzly bears, and the implications of violating the Geneva Convention if I wasn't digging into K.A. Applegate's series each month.

There’s a world where Darth Maul’s story ended in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace… you know, which is what usually happens when someone gets cut in half. In our world, though, Maul survived Obi-Wan Kenobi’s bisection and has continued to thrive in many other Star Wars stories. The latest of the bunch is the Disney+ subscription-exclusive series Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord, which premieres on the 2026 TV schedule next week. And yet, despite the popularity he’s enjoyed for nearly 30 years, the Shadow Lord executive producers opened up to CinemaBlend about why it’s difficult to give Maul his own upcoming Star Wars TV show.

During my interview with EPs Athena Yvette Portillo, Brad Rau and Matt Michnovetz, with the latter two serving as Supervising Director and Head Writer, respectively, I asked them if it’s challenging at all crafting a TV show around Maul to paint him a protagonist light without losing his core dark traits. Rau responded with the following:

Star Wars has been jumping back and forth along the franchise timeline with telling Maul’s story ever since he was brought back into play in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Shadow Lord picks up one year after previous show’s series finale, when the Empire is now ruling the galaxy far, far away with an iron fist. Maul is trying to rebuild his criminal syndicate that collapsed when he was overthrown by the Republic, Ahsoka Tano and Bo-Katan Kryze’s forces, so like Brad Rau said, he is very much not in the good guy category, nor does he ever go there.

But this is still a show where Maul is the main character, meaning it becomes a tricky balancing act of continuing to depict him as a ruthless former Sith Lord, yet not make him too unlikable since the audience has to remain invested in his journey. That style infusing influences like Heat and The Dark Knight proved to be just the solution for Athena Yvette Portillo, Brad Rau, Matt Michnovetz and the rest of Shadow Lord’s creative team.

Thanks to Star Wars Rebels, we know how Maul’s story ends, but I’m looking forward to seeing how Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord fills in some of the gaps between then and where The Clone Wars left off with him. I’m especially eager to learn how he becomes the head of Crimson Dawn, which was revealed when he cameoed in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Shadow Lord premieres Monday, April 6, and Disney+ has already renewed the show for another season, so we’ll be seeing a lot more of Maul slicing up anyone who stands in the way of achieving his illicit goals.

Selena Gomez surprised us all a couple of years back when she decided to return as Alex Russo in the Wizards of Waverly Place reboot, Wizards Beyond Waverly Place. Now, we’ve just received word that the revival is already ending this year. However, I think there’s a good reason why three seasons is all we’ll see of the new Disney Channel show. SPOILERS ahead for the show so far!

Disney Channel Is Already Ending Wizards Beyond Waverly Place

It's almost time to say goodbye to Wizard Beyond Waverly Place. It’s just been announced that there will be just four more episodes of the sequel series to Wizards of Waverly Place, and it’s premiering this summer on Disney Channel and Disney+, per a press release from Disney Branded Television. You can check out the video announcement here:

It’s going to be a “four-part event” that will follow Janice LeAnn Brown’s Billie after the shocking Season 2 finale, where we learned two twists for Selena Gomez’s Alex Russo. The show revealed that Alex is actually Billie’s mom, and put a spell on herself to lock away her own memories of the fact in a locket around her neck to protect her from Lord Morsus. In a big cliffhanger ending, Billie and Alex learn the revelation just before Alex jumps into a portal to save her family from the evil wizard.

In Season 3, Billie will be focused on rescuing Alex by banding together with her family (including David Henrie’s Justin and his kids) and reuniting with her long-lost dad. Production is set to start next week!

Why I’m Not Mad At The Show’s Short Run

The most exciting part of the announcement that I haven’t mentioned yet is that Selena Gomez will be making her directorial debut in episode one of Season 3. She'll also reprise her role as Alex Russo in “multiple episodes” this time around.

As an OG fan of Wizards of Waverly Place, don’t get me wrong, I think the show did a really good job of recapturing the magic overall, and I love that a new generation of kids has Billie and the other young characters. But, there’s a sort of electricity that Selena Gomez brings to the show, and it’s just not the same without her always around. (For context: she's only been in four episodes of the 31 that have aired so far).

I like the idea of Season 3 acting as a legacy sequel for Alex Russo and her daughter, with a greater focus on the beloved original character, and the show ending things on a high note. I think across two seasons, it’s felt pretty clear that Alex Russo needs to be central to the franchise, and it just wouldn’t feel right for these ties to go away – especially considering Gomez probably didn't have time to return to the show full-time to begin with.

Disney Branded Television’s announcement came with them citing Wizards Beyond Waverly Place has “emerged as a top streaming series” for new and returning fans, so I hope its success leads to other Disney Channel shows being revived. There’s no official release date for the final Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, but we’ll update the 2026 TV schedule as soon as it’s revealed.

The entire premise of Hannah Montana featured Miley Cyrus playing a normal teenager (also named Miley) who lived a double life as a famous pop singer (named Hannah Montana). Miley was heavily involved in the character creation and music, so, imagine my surprise when former Disney Channel fan Katie Milesky announced her husband did not actually realize Miley Cyrus played Hannah Montana or that Hannah Montana is not actually a real person.

Even Miley Cyrus was surprised by these series of events. But first, let's take a look at this TikTok.

If you can’t watch the video, she says she filmed the story because her husband was getting tired of her teasing him about his utter and complete lack of awareness. Here’s what happened, and why she can't stop roasting him:

The story was so juicy that even Miley Cyrus saw it and commented, sharing her own take:

Honestly, if you weren’t watching Hannah Montana when it came out, I suppose I could see how you’d only have a vague awareness of what the show is or was as a concept. Obviously, it’s been a bit of a Hannah Montana love fest on the 2026 TV schedule in recent weeks, as Miley Cyrus approached the anniversary of the series that helped her break big. Thanks to a little advice from Dolly Parton, it was her idea to bring the show back to the forefront with a special, and she got it done for those with a Disney+ subscription.

So, in some ways, it is easy to see how an awareness of Hannah Montana could come to the forefront only recently. However, the piece I’m having trouble with is the fact that Miley Cyrus is practically synonymous with Hannah Montana. Most people have a general awareness that it was that role that made her famous, and she started making strides away from that Disney persona as soon as she could.

This led us to the infamous VMA foam finger moment, so it feels like most people should at least vaguely be looped in when it comes to Miley’s trajectory. Regardless, this post proves there are a lot of husbands and boyfriends out there who are not in the know. In fact, my favorite part about this post is not the story and probably not even Miley’s take! Instead, it’s the comments from fans about their own husbands’ wild takes:

• "My husband thought Lindsay Lohan actually has a twin!"
• "TRUE STORY. The Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary special commercial just came on and my husband says to, 'Wait, is Miley Cyrus Hannah Montana?'"
• "My husband thought that Hilary Duff was Hannah Montana until a week ago."
• "My bf thought the Jonas brothers were not just brothers but triplets."
• "Reminds me of the time I said, 'Kylie Jenner is pregnant' and my husband goes, 'Did she go to school with us?'"

I’m too old to have ever watched an episode of Hannah Montana, but all the main bullet points leading up to the release of the Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special Event are pretty much embedded in my brain somewhere. So, it’s wild to think someone of a similar age to me just does not have this same awareness. But y'all, try it on your husbands and boyfriends, because I think some of them may be more clueless than you'd guess.

Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 episode "The Northern Star." Stream the episode with a Disney+ subscription and read at your own risk!

Daredevil: Born Again is back on Disney+ for Season 2, and it was a thriller of an opener. I was captivated by Matthew Lillard's performance as Mr. Charles, and I'm eager to see what's ahead when Jessica Jones arrives, but there's something else on my mind after the Season 2 premiere.

"The Northern Star" ended with Matt Murdock looking like his run as Daredevil was at an end, until all of Fisk's task force men in the room were killed by projectiles from outside. While I initially assumed Matt received an assist from Frank Castle, a knife planted in front of the hero revealed it was actually Bullseye who saved him. As much as my head was spinning from the reveal that one of his enemies saved him, @BULLSEYESOLOS on X echoed my thoughts perfectly as I wondered the same as the credits rolled:

While Dex's message was helpful for revealing the twist to the viewers at home, I also wondered if Matt would catch on in between now and the next episode of Daredevil: Born Again. Did Cherry have to read it to him after he was untied? Did he leave the scene and have no idea it was there? Maybe he collected it and Karen told him later?

There are a lot of theories over on X, with some challenging the idea that Matt couldn't see the message Bullseye left on the knife. Others are more hung up with how he had a knife that said that in the first place, as well as other things:

• Yes, he can, it’s carved - @Nuuqpy
• “Did you see what I wrote on the knife? Who am I kidding, of course you didn’t” - @fabio_supesj
• He was carving the words in whilst Cherry was getting the crap beaten out of him 😭 @m1rdock
• He doesn't know DD is blind cause he didn't know Matt is DD - @gene_parkerrr
• So Dex is casually stalking Matt all the time??? #hmmm - @Seelenaire

These are all great questions, and I have to pose another one. If Bullseye had enough time to step in and save the day, why didn't he do it sooner? He could've saved Matt a good deal of pummeling, not to mention poor Cherry who seemed to be suffering some medical event with his spiked heart-rate. Or was it specifically the unmasking itself that made him act?

Jokes aside, there are some big questions I have about Bullseye in Daredevil: Born Again. As the comments mentioned above, he's clearly following Daredevil, but then again, that wouldn't be so weird if he were up to some villainous revenge plot. What makes it weird is that he just acted as Matt's guardian angel, which is a strange way to treat someone who threw you off a building for killing his friend.

I'm not sure why he'd be motivated to work with Daredevil, and if he'd even want his help. If Charlie Cox, the actor, is still emotional about Foggy's death, I think it's fair to say the character he's playing still hasn't forgiven the villain for what he's done. I assume we'll learn more as the season goes on, unless of course, Matt left the scene completely oblivious that he was helped by Bullseye.

Daredevil: Born Again drops new episodes on Disney+ on Tuesdays. Wilson Bethel did tease that Bullseye would be different in Season 2, so I'm eager to see what that means as the season continues.

Even though Dancing With the Stars Season 35 won’t be coming until later this year on the 2026 TV schedule, fans are continuing to speculate as to who will be competing in the ballroom for the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy. Theories are including both celebrity contestants and pros, as viewers wonder who will be returning and who won’t be, especially now that DWTS is developing a new reality show to find the next pro. Rumors are floating around surrounding potential exits, and Emma Slater is responding.

Slater joined the reality dancing competition for Season 14 in 2012 as a troupe dancer before being promoted to pro for Season 17. She’s gone on to be a fan-favorite, winning Season 24 with former NFL player Rashad Jennings. While it’s unknown who will be returning in the fall, and pros usually don’t know until right before rehearsals start, Slater told her Season 34 partner Andy Richter how long she wants to keep doing the show for, while guesting on his podcast The Three Questions with Andy Richter. As she put it:

Considering Slater has 14 years of Dancing With the Stars under her belt, it’s a relief to know that she has no plans to step away. Of course, that’s only if the producers still like her as well, since it’s never a guarantee a pro will be back the next season, which is frustrating.

Slater remains a fan-favorite, and her partnership with Richter last season was arguably one of the best parts of the show. Not to mention the fact that she and fellow pro Alan Bersten have really cemented their romance. But for the time being, Slater is just going to go with the flow for as long as she can:

That’s the thing that sucks about doing a show like Dancing With the Stars. No matter how much you enjoy it, it’s always possible your last season is going to be your last. It sounds like Slater doesn’t seem too worried, at least for now, and doesn’t have any plans to walk away herself. We won’t know for sure which pros are returning until likely the fall, so it’s just a waiting game. At the very least, Slater knows what she’d want to do if producers decide they don’t want her back on the ballroom:

With the new DWTS spinoff about finding the next pro, it’s hard to predict what this means for the current pros, especially if the show sticks around for future seasons. Fans should be at least somewhat relieved knowing that, for now, Emma Slater isn’t going anywhere and that the rumors of her leaving or retiring are not true. Now we just have to wait and see if she’s truly coming back for Season 35.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe consistently releases new content for fans, both in theaters and streaming with a Disney+ subscription. Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again was recently released on the streaming service, and fans who spent years watching the Marvel movies in order are thrilled to be back in Hell's Kitchen. In addition to returning characters, some newcomers have joined the fun such as Matthew Lillard's mysterious Mr. Charles. While I'm loving his presence in the show, Vincent D'Onofrio has another perspective entirely.

What we know about Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 has been limited, but fans were recently treated to its premiere episode on Disney+. Things are heating up with Fisk as Mayor, but he's got a new frienemy with Lillard's Mr. Charles. On the show's official podcast, D'Onofrio got real about working with the Scream icon, saying:

Sounds like there's a touch of method acting happening here. Because Fisk's disdain for Mr. Charles seemingly affected the way that D'Onofrio felt about Lillard while filming Daredevil: Born Again Season 2. And I can't wait to see how this dynamic plays out in future episodes of the Marvel series.

Vincent D'Onofrio keeps coming back to play Kingpin, and clearly the character means a great deal to him. Even if he's playing the show's villain, the actor has found a way to connect with Wilson Fisk. In the same podcast appearance he spoke more about how this colored his interactions with Matthew Lillard, saying:

While there's no actual beef between the two actors, it sounds like Fisk's POV was really sticking in D'Onofrio's brain in the midst of production for Born Again. As such, they needed to wrap before he could really enjoy Matthew Lillard's presence. And it should be fascinating to see how the relationship between Kingpin and Mr. Charles escalates throughout the eight-episode season.

Daredevil: Born Again releases new episodes Tuesdays on Disney+ as part of the 2026 TV schedule. We'll just have to see what drama happens between these two characters as we get deeper into the season.