It’s pop culture news recap time, and this past week was one for surprises (yay) and shocks (boo).
Starting with the death of actor Eric Dane, AKA McSteamy from Grey’s Anatomy. Dane was 53, and had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), AKA Lou Gehrig’s disease, just last year. Some of his other notable acting credits include post-apocalyptic thriller The Last Ship, X-Men: The Last Stand and Bad Boys: Ride or Die.
Less shocking – he was 95 – but just as sad, acting legend Robert Duvall passed peacefully this week. With his first movie role in 1962’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Duvall racked up memorable appearances in such iconic films as The Godfather and Apocalypse Now. He received seven Academy Award nominations in his lifetime, and one Best Actor win, for 1983’s Tender Mercies. On the TV front, Duvall’s signature work will likely be remembered as smash hit Western miniseries Lonesome Dove .
Lifestyle
It was a busy week for Comic Con Cape Town 2026 guest announcements. Look out for celebrated Zimbabwean comic artist Bill Masuku, another anime voice acting icon in the form of Jason Liebrecht (My Hero Academia, One Piece, Attack on Titan, Solo Leveling), and a 30-minute dial-in from key figures behind stylish multiplayer shooter Warframe, namely Rebecca Ford and Steve Sinclair.
Note that Masuku is around on all four days of the con (which kicks off on 30 April), Liebrecht appears 1 – 3 May, and the duo of Ford and Sinclair have a virtual panel on 1 May from 16:30 to 17:00.
Film
Time for a better look at three upcoming movies only teased before. We now have official trailers for Toy Story 5, series-to-film-leaping The Mandalorian and Grogu, and Lee Cronin’s The Mummy.
“Toy meets tech” in the tagline of the next entry in Pixar and Disney’s beloved Toy Story film series. In Toy Story 5, Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) is recalled by Jessie (Joan Cusack) when eight-year-old Bonnie starts neglecting her toys in favour of a frog-like tablet named Lilypad (Greta Lee). Of course, Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and the rest of the gang join the mission.
Toy Story 5 releases on 19 June.
In Star Wars spin-off The Mandalorian and Grogu, Pedro Pascal’s bounty hunter Din Djarin, with apprentice Grogu, is hired by Sigourney Weaver’s Adelphi Ranger to tackle the threat of Imperial warlords following the fall of the Galactic Empire. Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, who both helped turn the Mandalorian series into one of the most popular pieces of Star Wars media ever, are directing and writing.
The Mandalorian and Grogu hits cinemas on 22 May.
We love the pulp action adventure of the Fraser-Weisz Mummy movies – right now number 4 has a release date lined up of 19 May 2028 – but mummies have a long horror tradition on the big screen. Returning to those very roots is Lee Cronin’s The Mummy. The filmmaker responsible for Evil Dead Rise writes and directs this tale of a family reunited with their missing daughter after she disappeared in the desert eight years previously. A big clue that all is not well is that she was found in a centuries’ old sarcophagus, with 57 other bodies around her.
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy comes to cinemas on 16 April 2026.
Series
The biggest series news of the past few days was the first trailer for House of the Dragon Season 3 – the penultimate instalment of the Game of Thrones prequel. In S3, the various armies are on the move, heading to King’s Landing to decide by force, and dragon fire, who should sit the Iron Throne.
How South Africans will be able to watch House of the Dragon Season 3 legally is a mystery. While new MultiChoice owners Canal+ were able to negotiate a new deal to distribute Warner Bros. content on DStv satellite TV channels at the end of last year, that arrangement didn’t include new HBO and HBO Max content. So we probably will be in the dark when Season 3 returns in June.
Side note: Want more pics of Sophie Turner on the Tomb Raider set? New snaps show off a familiar dagger, fold-up climbing axe, and co-star Martin Bobb-Semple, who plays Lara Croft’s close friend and tech support Zip. Here you go.
Gaming
More changes hit the big console makers and game publishers this week.
Sony announced the closure of Bluepoint Games, a studio well-regarded for its decades of polished PlayStation game remakes, like Shadow of the Colossus. The development house was culled after it was forced onto a God of War live-service game that Sony has since binned. Reportedly, 70 people are now out of work.
Meanwhile, over at Xbox, late on Friday it was announced that Xbox head Phil Spencer was retiring with immediate effect. Spencer had worked at Microsoft for close on 40 years, and was most recently operating under the title of Microsoft Gaming CEO. Known as an avid gamer, he was at Xbox since the brand launched in 2001. Adding to the shock of his departure, his second-in-command, Xbox President Sarah Bond, also resigned, with rumours being that A) she disagreed with Spencer’s perhaps not entirely voluntary departure, and B) she chose to leave after being denied a promotion that seemed certain.
Into the Xbox leadership vacuum steps Asha Sharma, replacing Spencer as the new CEO of Microsoft Gaming. Until now, Sharma had been the President of Microsoft’s CoreAI product. She will be working closely with Matt Booty, who has swapped his role as Xbox Game Studios head for Chief Content Officer.
