It was the case of the good, the better and the ugly in terms of pop culture news this past week.

Film & Series

The seven-day period was dominated by announcements out of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, which took place from 21 to 27 June in France.

Before that, though, let’s squeeze in two trailers.

First up is the second preview for Practical Magic 2, which offers a bit more insight into the sequel’s plot. It’s up to you if you want to click, but know that Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman are back on screens as the witchy Owens sisters from 9 September.

Secondly, there’s upcoming sci-fi comedy drama Klara and the Sun. Taika Waititi directs this adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s bestselling novel, about outdated robot, and artificial friend, Klara (Jenna Ortega), whose quest to find the perfect home causes her to cross paths with Josie (Mia Tharia), a fragile young woman in a fraught relationship with her mother (Amy Adams) following a loss.

Klara and the Sun comes to cinemas from 23 October.

Alright, back to Annecy, and all the promising animation-related news to emerge during the event – which also doubles as a business showcase. There’s a pocket-sized summary here, but here are some of the cherry-picked highlights.

Smash-hit character reimagining Absolute Batman is making the leap from the comic page to the screen in the form of a new animated series. Also planned are an anime centred on the Joker, called Laugh Riot, and a new series starring superdog Krypto.

Still on matters of DC Comics, a second season of Prime Video’s Batman: Caped Crusader – the spiritual successor to Batman: The Animated Series – arrives on the streamer with a full 10-part drop on 31 July. Check out some images from the upcoming season here, which will see the Joker join Batman’s Rogues’ Gallery.

One more bit of Batman news is that Warner Bros. Animation is delivering a three-part movie event based on one of the most shocking, and game-changing, comic arcs in Caped Crusader history. Batman: Knightfall sees the Gotham City vigilante pushed to his limit when there’s a mass prisoner escape from Arkham Asylum. It’s all part of a scheme by the hulking but brilliant criminal mastermind Bane to break the Bat.

Batman: Knightfall – Part 1: Knightfall is “coming soon,” with estimates that the film will only release in 2027.

Anyway, the animation festival included a new behind-closed-doors look at Season 2 of Netflix’s Blue Eye Samurai, and introduced some other projects on the horizon. Like animated series orders for Conan the Barbarian (showrun by Samurai Jack and Primal’s Genndy Tartakovsky for Prime Video); an adult cartoon take on cult vampire soapie Dark Shadows; and animated movie reboots for both ThunderCats and the Powerpuff Girls – both under the stewardship of Warner Bros.

While it sounds at this point like Warner Bros. dominated the business side of the festival, multiple other projects got some stage time. Like Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d & Pichu, a highly anticipated collaboration between The Pokémon Company and Wallace and Gromit makers Aardman. The stop-motion series, due for release in 2027, will follow the adorable mismatched pair as they adventure around the Galar region. Here’s the just-revealed key art.

Netflix got in on the action with The One Piece, their new anime series adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s manga. This whole project seems kind of unnecessary, specially since the original anime only kicked off in 1999, but the official line is that with Attack on Titan’s WIT Studio producing, the series “gives viewers an opportunity to experience the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirates by fully tapping into the expressive potential of modern technology to tell the story in a way that feels familiar yet fresh.”

The One Piece starts streaming in February next year.

Finally, are bodies are ready for Forgotten Island, which just dropped a new trailer.

From DreamWorks Animation, this animated comedy adventure tells the story of childhood best friends Jo and Raissa, who, on their last night together before going their separate ways post high school, find themselves transsported to the fantastical island of Nakali, packed with magical and mythological creatures from Filipino culture. With the authentic Asian immersion and animation quirkiness, this one seems destined to scratch that KPop Demon Hunters-esque itch.

Forgotten Island hits cinemas on 25 September.

Lifestyle

From the “good” to the “even better”! Two more international guests have been announced for Comic Con Africa 2026, taking place 24 – 27 September at the JHB Expo Centre.

Having tabled at Comic Con Cape Town 2025, comic artist Jim Cheung will be at this year’s CCA on all four days. A Marvel and DC veteran, Cheung is probably most notable for co-creating the Young Avengers, and its members: Kate Bishop, Hulkling, Iron Lad, Patriot, Speed, and Wiccan.

On the iconic voice acting front, look out for Barbadian-Canadian performer Alison Sealy-Smith. Acting on both stage and screen, Sealy-Smith is responsible for the powerful vocals of Omega Level Mutant Storm from X-Men: The Animated Series and X-Men ’97. She will also be around on all four days of the con for signings, photos and on-stage panels.

Gaming

That “ugly” part of the week’s pop culture news? Well, it’s courtesy of the gaming industry. In summary:

Xbox is hiking its Series X|S console prices by USD 100 (for 512GB models) and $150 (for 1TB), while dumping its 2TB Series X, citing the global memory and components shortage (Thanks AI). The increases kick in as of 1 August globally. They’re also shuttering and/or attempting to sell off some of Xbox’s less profitable, but often highly prestigious, studios – like Hellblade’s Ninja Theory, Psychonauts makers Double Fine and Compulsion Games, who most recently delivered South of Midnight. No official announcement has been made there, but expect mass layoffs as the Microsoft financial year-end ticks over.

Over at PlayStation, with the ending of Destiny 2, and weak performance of Marathon, Bungie is being shed of almost 300 staff.

Now that preorders are open, gamers are angry that the $80 (R1,500) physical edition of Grand Theft Auto 6 comes with… a once-off digital download game code; no disc in the box. Put another way, you never actually own the game. You simply have a licence to access the game, which Rockstar may cancel at any time.

In slightly (slightly!) more positive news, Valve has opened purchase reservations for its console, the Steam Machine. Yet again, though, record-breaking memory costs have been brutal on the pricing. When announce last year, estimates were $800 for the default model with 512GB storage, scaling up to $1,000 for a 2TB model. The reality now? The Steam Machine will start at $1,049 (R17,275) for a base model, and cost $1,349 (over R22,000) for the 2TB model with additional face plates.

 Like the Steam Deck, the Steam Machine is not officially available in South Africa.