Time to catch up on the past week’s pop culture news highs and lows.
The latter has to include the passing of South African actor, comedian, presenter and activist Soli Philander at aged 65 from cancer. The dreadlocked performer was an especial champion of Afrikaans-language storytelling and representation of Cape Coloured culture.
On a similar note, much loved Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell has just revealed his cancer diagnosis, which he describes as “‘treatable’ not ‘curable’”. Campbell is 67.
Series
In a not entirely surprising move – but certainly terrible news for an already struggling South African entertainment industry – new MultiChoice owners Canal+ have decided to scupper African streamer Showmax as part of their cost-cutting drive. Having invested heavily in fresh local content, in addition to distributing HBO, Peacock, Sky and Paramount shows, Showmax was never able to achieve profitability, and its losses have been labelled “unsustainable.”
No timeline has been given for the phasing out of Showmax, or what it means for the many Showmax Originals that live on the streamer. Subscribers can likely expect to see Showmax replaced by the Canal+ in-house streaming platform (probably bundled with DStv) at some point. Meanwhile, the French company is promising that there will be no retrenchments, with Showmax employees being offered “various transition options.” That said, all purchase decisions are now being made in Paris, versus Johannesburg, and that likely means substantially less local productions getting the greenlight.
Look, it’s hard to get excited for things you can no longer watch legally. So count us as having mixed feelings over upcoming HBO Max series Lanterns, which has long promised to put a gritty, grounded True Detective spin on DC’s Green Lantern corps (AKA the universe’s super-powered space cops).
In this eight-part series, human ring-wielders Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) work together to solve a murder in Nebraska, which ties into a darker mystery with far reaching consequences.
Lanterns debuts in August.
Keeping things in R-rated superhero turf, but going a more conventional capes-and-costumes aesthetic route is The Boys, on Prime Video. The fifth and final season of this comic book deconstruction, based on the series by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, lands less than one month from now, on 8 April.
In the show finale, vigilante band The Boys, headed by Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher, must stop Antony Starr’s Homelander, as the megalomaniac apex super seeks to tighten his fascist control on the world forever… by achieving immortality.
Okay, no more superheroes, but still playing in the dystopian ballpark is The Testaments. Technically, the first three episodes of this The Handmaid’s Tale spinoff are available now on Disney+ (or Hulu), but as this new series only crossed our radar now, we thought it deserved some spotlight time.
The Testaments is based on the 2019 Booker Prize-winning novel by Margaret Atwood, and takes the form of a coming of age tale in Gilead. Set years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, the series follows dutiful Agnes (One Battle After Another’s Chase Infiniti) and new arrival Daisy (Lucy Halliday), from outside Gilead’s borders, as they navigate Aunt Lydia’s elite preparatory school for future wives.
Lifestyle
Another comic creator has been announced for Comic Con Cape Town 2026, and it’s a homegrown hero. Artist Sean Izaakse, who has had notable runs on the likes of Green Arrow, The Fantastic Four and Thunderbolts, to name a few Big Two titles, will be present on all four days of the convention. This year’s CCCT runs from 30 April to 3 May at the CTICC 2.
Finally, KFC may have bowed out of its partnership with Comic Con Africa after 2024, but the Joburg pop culture celebration, and its Cape Town sibling, have a new fast food collab on the cards for 2026. Enter Burger King! Exact details are still hush-hush, but fans are promised “immersive experiences, limited-edition merchandise, exclusive collectibles, and a festival atmosphere fit for royalty.” Oh, and the all-important “special menu innovations.”