Evidently news from the worlds of film, series, gaming and comics is taking its cue from the general end of year push, because there’s been a lot of it this week. Below you’ll find all the pop culture stories that stood out for us over the past few days.

Film

The weirdness inherent to Sony’s extended Spider-Man Universe (which includes Venom, Morbius and Kraven) continues.

Out next year, reportedly on 14 February, Madame Web stars Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb, a paramedic who develops clairvoyant abilities. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she forges a relationship with three future Spider Women – Sydney Sweeney as Julia Carpenter, Celeste O’Connor as Mattie Franklin, and Isabela Merced as Anya Corazon – and together they face a deadly enemy. Think of this one as a Charlie’s Angels origin story, but with a psychic Charlie and a trio of heroines who have spider-based super powers.

If you ever wondered what Garfield would sound like if he were voiced by Chris Pratt, here you go. CGI-animated The Garfield Movie hits cinemas in the Northern Hemisphere summer next year. In the film, Jim Davis’s Monday-hating, lasagna-loving cat reunites with his long-lost father – scruffy street cat Vic (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) – and is hauled out of his pampered life, along with canine companion Odie. For the record, Nicholas Hoult voices Jon Arbuckle, Garfield’s harried human.

Still on matters of animated movies, The Witcher fans will want to keep an eye out for The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep, which is coming to Netflix in late 2024. Doug Cockle, who voiced Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt returns here as everyone’s favourite gruff monster hunter.

The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep is based on A Little Sacrifice, a short story by The Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski. In it, Geralt investigates a series of attacks in a seaside village as tensions escalate between human villagers and the local merpeople.

Sirens of the Deep is made by Studio Mir, the same animation studio behind Netflix’s previous The Witcher animated film The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf.

Another Netflix film out next year is fantasy survival actioner Damsel. Millie Bobby Brown plays a young woman who dutifully agrees to marry a prince, only to find it’s a trap. The royal family, headed by Robin Wright and Ray Winstone’s queen and king, is treating her as a sacrifice to repay an ancient debt. Our heroine is thrown into a cave with a fire-breathing dragon, and must rely on her wits and will to survive.

Two final tidbits to round off this section:

Nothing has been officially confirmed yet, but Fantastic Four casting rumours are swirling. Reportedly lined up to play Marvel’s first family – for the first time inside the Marvel Cinematic Universe – are Pedro Pascal as Mr Fantastic/Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as The Invisible Woman/Sue Storm, Stranger Things’ Joseph Quinn as The Human Torch/Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing/Ben Grimm. Watch this space.

Meanwhile, despite the strike disruptions, Superman movie reboot Superman: Legacy is still on track for a 11 July 2025 release. Writer-director James Gunn made the announcement via his Instagram account, which you can see below. Also announced this week is that Venezuelan actress María Gabriela de Faría will be joining the film’s cast as possible villain The Engineer, a member of The Authority in comics lore – a doctor merged with shape-shifting nano technology.

Series

African streamer Showmax has confirmed the date window for its big relaunch: February 2024. Now in partnership with Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Sky, the streamer will offer three plans when it kicks off:
sport-centric Showmax Premier League for mobile, Showmax Entertainment, and Showmax Entertainment Mobile.

The new Comcast partnership guarantees Showmax an ongoing supply of content, as the media giant owns the likes of Universal Pictures, NBC, Peacock, Sky, DreamWorks Animation and Telemundo. However, Showmax’s entertainment offering won’t be limited to just those content producers. It will continue to draw content from the likes of BBC, eOne Fremantle, HBO, ITV, Lionsgate, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros.

A lot happened during the tail-end of Netflix Geeked Week. Simply click on the link for a handy summary of everything covered on a day-by-day basis, which will notably lead you to fresh looks at upcoming sci-fi series 3 Body Problem, and Season 2 of Greek mythology anime Blood of Zeus, as well as the announcement of an upcoming Terminator anime series. Then there were the loads of game announcements, including Death’s Door, Hades, Braid and various spin-off titles based on the likes of Shadow & Bone and Chicken Run, all of which are coming to Netflix’s supremely underrated mobile gaming service.

Anyway, as for a few other standouts from Netflix’s upcoming attractions, let’s start with The Archies. Streaming from 7 December, this coming-of-age drama transplants the characters of the long-running Archie comic series to 1960s post-colonial India for a fresh reimagining. In this take, teenage Archie and the gang must navigate romance, friendship and the future of Riverdale as developers threaten to destroy a beloved park.

Looking absolutely adorable is stop-motion animated series Pokemon Concierge, which comes to Netflix on 28 December. In this first collaboration between Netflix and Japan’s The Pokémon Company, this is the story of young woman, Haru, who gradually discovers herself after she accepts a job at an island resort for Pokémon just needing a break.

It was late September when we finally got a first look at Netflix’s upcoming Tomb Raider anime, titled Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Geeked Week included a short “making of” snippet which delved specifically into how the animated series is going to bridge the Lara Croft of the recent Survivor trilogy of video games with her classic iteration from 1996 through the first decade of the Noughties. Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft comes to Netflix at some point next year.

Away from Geeked Week, Netflix made headlines this week for more disappointing reasons. Its high-profile young adult fantasy adaptation Shadow & Bone has been cancelled after two seasons – no doubt leaving its fandom devastated. Other shows getting the chop are Glamorous and adult animated comedies Agent Elvis, Farzar and Captain Fall.

Finally in this section, here’s the trailer for the second season of Marvel Studios’ award-winning What If…? animated anthology series. Starting 22 December, the nine new episodes will release one per day on Disney+ for nine days, providing looks at the MCU through the filter of “What if X happened?” and journeying along alternate timelines in the multiverse.

Gaming

It’s game awards season, and arguably the most well-known of the lot is the The Game Awards. The 2023 show is coming up on 7 December, streaming live on all social platforms at 4:30pm PT (02:30am Friday in South Africa).

This week the 2023 nominees were announced, with high fantasy role-playing game Baldur’s Gate 3 and brain-twisting survival thriller Alan Wake II racking up the most nominations, with eight each. They’re followed by Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, with seven nominations, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which each received five nods. There’s a handy all-on-one-page list of the various categories and nominees here, but we’ve listed two of the biggies below: Game of the Year, and (because we love indie titles) Best Independent Game.

Winners of The Game Awards are determined through a combination of industry panel and public voting.

Out of interest, this week all the 2023 Golden Joystick Award winners were announced, and again Baldur’s Gate 3 dominated, taking home a record-breaking seven awards, including Game of the Year, Studio of the Year (for Larian), Best Storytelling, Best Visual Design, and PC Game of the Year.

Black Friday is on the horizon, which means notable deals on games and gaming hardware. Check out Xbox’s South African deals here, which include savings on consoles, bundles and Elite controllers up to 29%. These offers are available from 20 to 27 November at various retailers.

With PlayStation, meanwhile, their Black Friday digital game and subscription savings are already live. Here are PS’s local console and accessories deals, available 17 to 30 November while stocks last.

Indie games publishing powerhouse Annapurna Interactive has bought its first ever company… and it’s a South African business. After partnering with 24 Bit Games (founded in 2012) to bring Annapurna Interactive titles like A Memoir Blue and COCOON to more gaming platforms, Annapurna is taking the technical game development studio in-house.

24 Bit Games has in recent years expanded its portfolio to also work on tool production for both independent and AAA studios, covering console, mobile, PC, and VR platforms. It’s reportedly going to continue to operate as autonomously as before, while Annapurna Interactive helps the company in its mission to grow the South African game development industry.

Comics and Books

It was inevitable. After it was announced back in September 2021 that digital comics website Comixology was folding its storefront into parent company Amazon’s site, it seemed likely the writing was on the wall for the Comixology name. The Comixology app was re-launched with a complete overhaul in February 2022, but users were vocal about the changes.

Fast-forward a year and a bit, and now you’ll only be able to read your comics purchases via Kindle app. This week, readers were emailed about upcoming changes to the way they will access and read Comixology digital comics, graphic novels, and manga titles. On 4 December 2023, the Comixology and Kindle applications on iOS, Android, and Fire OS will be merged. Already, any books previously purchased on Comixology will automatically be visible in a person’s Kindle app. People can continue to use the Comixology app until 4 December, after which it truly is the end of an era.