Let’s jump straight into the biggest pop culture stories of the past week.

Lifestyle

One more score for Comic Con Cape Town 2026. If you don’t know, the pop culture celebration partners with FanCon Comic Con when it comes to its comic book content and guests for Artists Alley – and the latter has just announced their final international guest.

Much like Adam Kubert last year, this year, we are being treated to another member of comic book royalty, one who has established his own legacy. Appearing on all four days of the con is John Romita Jr. (AKA JRJR), the son of key Marvel creator John Romita Sr. JRJR has had his own signature runs on The Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man, Daredevil and The X-Men, in addition to being the co-creator and artist on Kick-Ass, with Mark Millar.

Comic Con Cape Town is at the CTICC 2 from 30 April to 3 May.

Series

J.K. Rowling is being a horrible human being again, attacking trans women and, well, any women who aren’t the picture of femininity, so, hey, we won’t be prioritising coverage of the upcoming Harry Potter series, which debuts this year on Christmas Day, 25 December. You can watch the record-breaking teaser trailer here for the upcoming eight-episode first season, which will tell the story from Book 1 in the saga, The Philosopher’s Stone. An image set of all the main players, including Paapa Essiedu’s Snape below, can be found here.

Side note: As an HBO show, South Africans now have no legal way to watch Harry Potter, unless Canal+ delivers on a vague promise that HBO+ will be bundled with their streaming app when it debuts locally. Maybe.

Everyone loves Ryan Coogler, and his work (Creed, Black Panther, Sinners), right? So hopefully that means there won’t be any racist backlash over his upcoming revival of The X-Files. While Jennifer Yale is showrunner of the Hulu series (that means look out for it on Disney+), Coogler is writing and directing the pilot for the new show. Danielle Deadwyler and Himesh Patel play very different FBI agents assigned to a long-shuttered division that delves into unexplained phenomena.

Given that the much hyped Buffy the Vampire Slayer revival recently had the plug pulled by Hulu before debuting, fingers crossed this one makes it.

Finally for this section, upcoming British miniseries Unchosen caught our eye this week. Set in a repressive cult, a woman finds herself trapped between her suffocating marriage and a newcomer fleeing his criminal past. The cast is headed by Molly Windsor, Asa Butterfield (playing VERY against type), Fra Fee, and Christopher Eccleston.

Unchosen debuts on Netflix with all six episodes on 21 April.

Film

Animation has been, and will always be, a medium for emotionally powerful and inventive storytelling, which brings us to the next new original movie (not a sequel) from DreamWorks Animation.

Driven by the same creative team behind Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Forgotten Island sees long-time best friends Jo (voiced by H.E.R.) and Raissa (Liza Soberano) about to go their different ways as they graduate high school. On their last night together, though, the pair stumble upon a mysterious portal that transports them to the fantastical island of Nakali, packed with the magical and mythological creatures of their Filipino heritage. The bigger problem is that the trade-off for returning home is losing all memory of their friendship.

Forgotten Island debuts in cinemas on 25 September.

Still on matters of animation, out 10 July is Disney’s live-action adaptation of Moana.

Below isn’t the first trailer for the film, but it does provide the first clear look at Dwayne Johnson as demigod Maui – a role he voiced in the original 2016 movie. Fan reaction has… not been kind. For the record, Catherine Lagaʻaia plays the title character in this ocean adventure seeped in Polynesian culture.

Stepping away from animation, but keeping things in the blockbuster realm is The End of Oak Street. In what can probably best be described as a science fiction survival tale, ala A Quiet Place – for the record, JJ Abrams produces – a suburban family (played by Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella and Christian Convery) discovers that their whole neighbourhood has been ripped from our reality and dropped somewhere mysterious and dangerous. Writing and directing is It Follows’ David Robert Mitchell, so expect unnerving chills.

The End of Oak Street debuts in cinemas on 14 August.

Gaming

Let’s get some bad news out the way first.

Epic, the makers of Fortnite, has just fired 1,000 employees to “keep the company funded” and “stable.” Meanwhile, PlayStation is increasing the price of all its hardware as of 2 April. This is the first generation of consoles where pricing has consistently climbed instead of dropping with product lifespan.

Gamers have also been told to expect next-gen consoles, the PS6 and Xbox Project Helix, to likely start at $1000 as a result of the AI-driven RAM shortage and US tariffs. Translation: South African players will be forking out around R20,000 for these new systems, shutting out the vast majority of the population. The situation will be similar elsewhere, making gaming an elite luxury.

While we can still play games, at least, the latest edition of Xbox Partner Preview revealed multiple third party games coming to the console over the next two years. You can watch the 30-minute presentation here, or click the link above for a full announcement recap, which included news of hits Hades II and Dispatch both coming to Xbox. If we had to single out three games that caught our eye from the showcase, though, they would be:

Epic crime saga Stranger than Heaven is the next title from Like A Dragon developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. What’s particularly interesting is that the punchy actioner takes place across five different time periods, and five unique cities in Japan, starting in 1915 and ending in 1951.

Stranger Than Heaven is coming to Xbox Series X|S and PC, and will be playable with Xbox Game Pass. It’s also releasing on PS5. The game currently has no release date.

For a different kind of hit, this time in the feels, there’s Forever Ago, from indie developers Third Shift and publisher Annapurna Interactive. Taking the form of an introspective road trip adventure, players assume the role of elderly Alfred, who treks north in his camper van, interacting with people and environments, taking photos of the sights, and thinking back on his relationship with sweetheart Audrey.

Forever Ago launches in Quarter 3 of 2026 for Xbox Series X|S, PS5 and PC. It will also be available with Xbox Game Pass.

Finally, there’s another elderly protagonist in The Eternal Life of Goldman. From Weappy Studio and THQ Nordic, the game is a colourful 2D platformer, set in an Archipelago inspired by fairytales, myth and fables. You play as the title character, whose choice of weapon is a modifiable cane, as he seeks out a mysterious enemy known as The Deity. This one has real Hollow Knight energy but promises to be less grueling with its challenges.

The Eternal Life of Goldman is coming to Xbox Series X|S, PS5 and PC at some point in 2026. It’s also going to be playable with Xbox Game Pass.