It’s always a bit tough doing an extended pop culture news catch-up. So in our bid to cover three weeks of news and trailers, we’re sticking to the big stuff only.

Film

The past few weeks have been weirdly horror centric in terms of movie previews, with fresh takes revealed for multiple franchises.

Continuing its standalone anthology format, with new filmmakers and cast in every big screen project, Evil Dead gets an in intense new entry in Evil Dead Burn. Following the lead of Fede Álvarez and Lee Cronin, French director Sébastien Vaniček oversees this tale of a grieving family in a remote house who gradully transform into Deadites. Familiar faces in the cast include Dune: Part II’s Souheila Yacoub, Pearl’s Tandi Wright and Wednesday’s Hunter Doohan

 Evil Dead Burn comes to cinemas on 10 July.

Resident Evil fans have been craving a good, faithful movie set in the universe of the beloved Capcom video game series. This year’s Resident Evil may tick one of those boxes at least. Barbarian and Weapons filmmaker Zach Cregger presents an all-new story about a medical courier (Austin Abrams), who finds himself in a race for survival as his evening descends into chaos and horror.

Resident Evil debuts on 18 September.

Many were sceptical about the decision to make spinoffs from the main Batman movie series, focused on the Dark Knight’s villains. However, TV series The Penguin, which took the form of a mob drama, was massively acclaimed, and, now, Clayface looks to be offering peak body horror goodness. Written by genre master Mike Flanagan, and directed by Speak No Evil’s James Watkins, the film centres on dashing actor Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) who is disfigured by a gangster, and turns to an unstable medical treatment to get revenge. Also with Naomi Ackie.

Clayface arrives in cinemas in time for Halloween, on 23 October.

Keeping things on the kinda supernatural, horror-touched side is Practical Magic 2, the almost 30 years later sequel to the hit romantic fantasy. If Hocus Pocus and The Devil Wears Prada can tap into nostalgia, then so can Practical Magic evidently. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are back playing the Owens sisters: witches who thought they had overcome a family curse that dooms them to heartbreak. But then Sally’s elder daughter Kylie (Joey King) discovers dark secrets that plunge the clan back into crisis. Maisie Williams plays Sally’s other daughter, while Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest are both back as the eccentric Owens aunts.

Practical Magic 2 hits cinemas this September.

Finally, for a break from all the spooky and kooky, there’s Coyote vs Acme, a movie that almost stayed locked in the Warner Bros. vaults unseen forever due to it being used as a tax write-off. To the rescue comes distributor Ketchup Entertainment, who previously released Looney Tunes adventure The Day the Earth Blew Up.

Combining live-action and animation, Coyote vs Acme sees Wile E. Coyote sues the Acme Corporation for repeatedly selling him alleged faulty products. In the process, he and his allies discover a corporate cover-up. The film’s cast includes Will Forte, Lana Condor, Tone Bell, and John Cena.

Coyote vs. Acme lands on the big screen from 28 August.

A few more movie related tidbits:

Series

Look, it could easily have been three seasons and done, happily. But after watching the short teaser below, we have to say we’re cautiously optimistic for Season 4 of feel-good Ted Lasso. As hinted at the end of S3, football-turned-soccer coach Ted (Jason Sudeikis) returns to Richmond, to head up a second division women’s football team. Cast members Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt and Jeremy Swift are all back as well.

Ted Lasso Season 4 premieres on 5 August.

It’s hard to get excited for something you won’t be able to watch legally in South Africa (thanks to Canal+ ditching its Warner Bros. content deal, and Showmax), but HBO Max has dropped the first teaser for Season 3 of House of the Dragon – the Game of Thrones prequel centred on the tumultuous civil war waged by the dragon-riding House Targaryen family, their armies and allies.

House of the Dragon S3 swoops onto home screens from 21 June, and will consist of eight weekly episodes.

Speaking of things South Africans won’t be able to watch without heading to the high seas, one final series news tidbit is that Season 2 of IT: Welcome to Derry, one of our absolute TV highlights of last year, will be set in the Great Depression. Viewers are to be treated to a story around bank robbers, the Bradley Gang, who had the misfortune of arriving in Derry in 1935, just as malicious otherwordly entity Pennywise reached the apex of his feeding cycle.

Gaming

Some good gaming news finally. After enraging players with its Game Pass price hikes last year, Xbox is rolling back most of the increases. With the trade-off being that upcoming Call of Duty games will not come to the gaming subscription service for a full year from release. You can read all about the changes here.

As a little local context, in South Africa, the highest tier of Xbox Game, Ultimate, went from R199 per month to R350 pm. It’s now R110 less, coming in at R239 per month.

Finally, one of the most beloved Assassin’s Creed games is getting a remake. Out 9 July is Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, which retools 2013’s pirate action adventure Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag. Black Flag is considered the game that opened the door to the new generation of AC games, starting with Origins.

Set during the Golden Age of Piracy, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced invites players to sail the Caribbean as Edward Kenway, acaptain drawn into the centuries-old conflict between Assassins and Templars. As Edward pursues glory and fortune, he crosses paths with legendary figures such as Blackbeard, Anne Bonny, and Calico Jack.

Black Flag Resynced is rebuilt with the latest Anvil engine. It features updated visuals and gameplay, including parry‑driven combat, improved stealth and parkour, deeper naval mechanics, and new narrative content.

Releasing on 9 July, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced comes to Ubisoft+, PlayStation5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows PC through the Ubisoft Store, Steam and the Epic Games Store.