It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these, so let’s get back on track with a comprehensive catch-up of recent pop culture news.

Film

Some bad news for South African movie lovers this May. Well, if you are in Durban anyway.

With no forewarning, Ster Kinekor’s flagship cinema complex in KwaZulu-Natal, at Gateway Theatre of Shopping, ceased operation on 8 May. With the Ster Kinekor Musgrave cinemas shutting in early 2023, there is no longer a Ster Kinekor serving the city, marking the end of an era. That said, cinema chains Nu Metro and Cinecentre (at Suncoast) are still in operation.

It must be noted that the Gateway closure was not a decision on Ster Kinekor’s part and seems more like a rental issue with the shopping centre (despite there reportedly being no animosity between the two parties). Ster Kinekor claims it’s looking for a new home, while Gateway insists a different company is taking over its cinemas, which has just been revealed as Nu Metro.

Neither set-up is a quick process, however, which means that for now coastal cinephiles are short on big screen options, and completely deprived of IMAX (with Nu Metro’s Xtreme being the closest large format equivalent).

So many trailers have dropped the past few weeks, including a fresh look at James Gunn’s highly anticipated Superman. We’re simply linking to it here in case you want to go into the film at this point with nothing more spoiled. The character and star-packed Superman lands in cinemas from 11 July.

Our top trailer from this period, though, is for The Long Walk… which quickly reveals itself to be something far different from its establishing scenes. In fact, we’re not going to spoil the surprise. Just know that this harrowing survival thriller, or dystopian horror film – it seems safe to call it that – is based on one of Stephen King’s first novels (written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman), and is directed by The Hunger Games franchise veteran Francis Lawrence.

The Long Walk strides into cinemas from 12 September. You can see more images from the upcoming film here.

For something far more audience-friendly, actioner The Old Guard 2 has finally locked down a 2 July release date on Netflix, and treated us to both a trailer and promotional image set.

Based on the comic series by Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernandez, the band of immortal mercenaries, headed by Andy (Charlize Theron), is back with a renewed sense of purpose. The problem is the emergence of a spiteful ancient threat in the form of Uma Thurman’s character. If you ever wanted to see Theron and Thurman throw down, The Old Guard promises to deliver.

All good things must come to an end. Or maybe they should have wrapped already? Both feelings apply to The Conjuring: Last Rites, the fourth and (maybe?) final entry in the main Conjuring film series, based on the real-life case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are back playing the paranormal investigators and exorcists, who come out of retirement to tackle their final case: centred on a 15-year haunting of a Pennsylvania family across the 70s and 80s.

The Conjuring: Last Rites is only in cinemas from 5 September.

While The Conjuring has a fan following which makes it a headline maker by default, there’s another horror film on the horizon with cult appeal. Check out the trailer for body horror and toxic relationship tale Together, starring Dave Franco and Alison Brie. It’s in cinemas from 30 July.

On the casting news front, two stories stand out, and they’re both related to novel adaptations.

Jadis the White Witch in Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Narnia Chronicles reboot has been cast. Previously portrayed on the big screen by Tilda Swinton, the power-hungry sorceress will be played by Sex Education star Emma Mackey. Gerwig’s take on C.S. Lewis’s Christian allegory-soaked fantasy universe will reportedly start with an adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe prequel which has never been adapted for the screen before, despite serving at the series’ creation story. The film is already courting controversy, with reported plans to have Christ-stand-in Aslan the Lion voiced by Meryl Streep.

Meanwhile, both Ralph Fiennes and Jesse Plemons have boarded the next Hunger Games movie adaptation to replace deceased actors. Based on Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, which released in March this year, the film centres on the 50th Hunger Games, where District 12’s Haymitch Abernathy (Katniss Everdeen’s cynical, drunken mentor in the original trilogy) competed as a young man with surprise results. Fiennes will play the villainous President Snow (replacing Donald Sutherland) while Plemons is Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee, a role previously filled by Philip Seymour Hoffman. You can also find a full cast breakdown here.

Finally, some cancellation news: An adaptation of DC Comics WWII-set Sgt. Rock is dead (actor Daniel Craig and filmmaker Luca Guadagnino were both attached to the project at one point), and the same goes for a revival of 1940s pulp adventure The Rocketeer – apparently because it was to have a black lead in today’s anti-DEI America.

So we don’t end this section on a disappointing note, here’s the first promotional image released for Avatar: Fire and Ash, the next film in James Cameron’s dazzling mo-cap-driven sci-fi adventure series. And the movie is arriving sooner than we thought. Avatar: Fire and Ash is set for cinema release this Holiday season, on 19 December 2025. (Just watch out for spoilers in the post copy below if you haven’t seen Avatar: The Way of Water).

Series

The next big Marvel Cinematic Universe series to debut on Disney+ is Ironheart. This follow-up to the events in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever sees genius MIT student Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) deadset on making her own hi-tech suit of armour to rival Iron Man’s. But to gather the resources, that means aligning with the morally dubious Parker Robbins / The Hood (Anthony Ramos).

With Black Panther, Creed and Sinners filmmaker Ryan Coogler executive producing, six-part Ironheart launches on 24 June with a 3-episode premiere.

It didn’t pop up on an official channel at all but there’s now an apparent teaser circulating for upcoming hyper-style Prime Video series Spider-Noir, with Nicolas Cage reprising his role, now in live-action, from the Spider-Verse animated film series. Set in an alternate universe, this Spider-Man is a down-on-his-luck, ageing detective in 1930s New York City. He just so happens to have super powers.

Spider-Noir is out at some point in 2026, and will consist of eight episodes.

You’ll float too. Nine-part prequel series IT: Welcome to Derry returns viewers to the town that is home to Stephen King’s malevolent child-killing entity. Except it bumps the action back to the 1960s and the last time that Pennywise the Clown (played once more by Bill Skarsgård) surfaced. Welcome to Derry has been developed by Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs, who were behind the previous two It films.

IT: Welcome to Derry is coming this Northern Hemisphere autumn to HBO Max.

It’s always exciting to be exposed to historical settings and stories that haven’t received much screen time before now. So we’ll be keeping an eye on Chief of War, a nine-part passion project of star Jason Momoa, who also directs and executive produces.

Coming to Apple TV+ on 1 August, with two episodes, the Shogun-esque series presents the epic true story of Hawai‘i’s unification and colonisation in the late 18th Century… from the perspective of the indigenous people. The series is notable for featuring a predominantly Polynesian cast.

Now for some series news tidbits:

Comics and Books

If you’ve attended Comic Con Cape Town or Comic Con Africa the past two years, you would have seen a stand for local comic series Yasuke – Way Of The Butterfly, from creators Fidel Namasi and Loyiso Mkize. The book is unique in that it tells the tale of black samurai Yasuke, who journeyed from Mozambique to Japan in the 16th Century, from the perspective of black Southern Africans – like Yasuke. And it deals with his life at home, with intertribal conflict and burgeoning trade routes, before commencing his great odyssey across the Indian Ocean and seas of Asia.

Well, the news broke this past period that Japanese studio Toei Co has signed a co-production development deal to make a live-action film based on the story, in conjunction with Mandla Dube’s  Pambili Media. Watch this space.

Sad news as another influential comic creator has passed. Writer Peter David has died aged 68 after years of struggling with kidney disease and general poor health following a back operation and stroke. David is perhaps best known for his character-defining and Eisner Award-winning run on The Incredible Hulk, starting in the early 1990s, but this prominent , and vocal, creator, was also responsible for inventing characters like Miguel O’Hara, Venom 2099, Maestro, and more.

Gaming

June is gaming showcase season, and among their ranks is the annual Wholesome Direct, a one-hour celebration of cosy indie games on the horizon. You can also expect DLC announcements and shadow drops.

Catch the stream online on Saturday, 7 June at 9am PT / 12pm ET / 6pm CET and South African time.

With over 115 million views of the second trailer below, you could say that people are excited for Grand Theft Auto VI, Rockstar Games’ eighth main entry in the GTA action-adventure series. Hell, it’s been teased since 2014, a year after the last GTA game came out. Still, fans have a bit longer to wait, as the open-world crime tale has just seen its release date bumped from late 2025 to Q1 2026. For the record, the plot centres on reunited couple Jason and Lucia, low-level criminals who find themselves embroiled in a dangerous conspiracy after an easy score goes wrong. The game returns players to modern day Vice City, GTA’s Miami stand-in.

Grand Theft Auto VI releases on 26 May 2026 for PS and Xbox Series consoles.

It sounded like a nonsense rumour when the story broke, but it’s true after all. A24 is making a film adaptation of FromSoftware’s 2022 Game of the Year winner Elden Ring. And Annihilation and Civil War’s Alex Garland is the filmmaker in charge of taking cinema audiences to the dark and twisted fantasy universe that George R.R. Martin helped shape.