It’s the week before the Easter break, and the various pop culture industries don’t seem to be taking a break in terms of announcements. Below you can find all the standout stories of the past few days. Before that, though, there are two celebrity stories worth keeping an eye on.
Creed III star and Marvel’s Kang the Conqueror, Jonathan Majors, has just been charged with assault in a domestic incident that took place in New York City. This story is developing, with the most recent revelation being the release of texts between the actor and his unidentified girlfriend where the latter insists she won’t press charges. Meanwhile, coming up on 6 April is the first interview that Jeremy Renner has done since his near-fatal snowplow accident at the end of 2022. Watch a promotional clip for the interview with Diane Sawyer here.
Film
Before we jump into this week’s batch of movie trailers and other announcements, here’s something exciting for South African film fans. Cinema chain Ster Kinekor is introducing Throwback Thursdays, where every Thursday, classic movies will return to the big screen for one day only at selected, variable cinemas for 2 screenings. These experiences will cost R50 a ticket. See all the April re-releases, which include the likes of The Wizard of Oz, Space Jam and When Harry Met Sally, and book your tickets, here.
The official trailer is out for Pixar’s next animated family adventure. Elemental is set in a bustling city inhabited by anthropomorphic elements of nature, and sees feisty fire element Ember (voiced by Leah Lewis) discover she has plenty in common with easy-going water element Wade (Mamoudou Athie), despite their bond being frowned upon.
Elemental releases in cinemas on 16 June. Notably, it will be screening with animated short, Carl’s Date, which follows the events of Up.
While Elemental is avoiding the all-star cast route followed by many animated films of recent years, Asteroid City is all in terms of featuring a high-profile collective of actors. The latest quirky comedy drama from writer-director Wes Anderson has assembled the likes of Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Maya Hawke and Steve Carell. Asteroid City is set in a fictional American desert town circa 1955, where a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention is spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events. The film’s poster can be found here.
Asteroid City will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival before enjoying a wider international release starting from 16 June.
Now for some other movie-centred stories:
- A casual line in an article about Mike Flanagan’s ambition to make a horror tragedy centred on the Batman villain Clayface, has contributed to rumours that the vengeful shape-shifter will appear in Matt Reeves’ The Batman follow-up. This would be the first live-action depiction of the character.
- Talking Batman, thanks to some on-set snaps, here’s what Lady Gaga will look like as Harley Quinn in Joker sequel Folie à Deux, opposite Joaquin Phoenix’s title character. Joker: Folie à Deux comes to cinemas on 4 October 2024.
- Lovers of premium poster reimaginings, we have some bad news for you. Overarching owners Funko have gutted most of the staff of Mondo, the company famous for their limited edition screenprinted posters, soundtrack LPs and other collectibles. Funko have since released a statement on their Mondo downsizing. They claim the poster and record business will continue, but with larger runs that don’t “limit access to fans unfairly.” While job cuts have not been as extensive as initially claimed, Mondo’s core creative team, including its co-founders and creative director, has been let go.
Series
What a delicious surprise. Last year, South Africans had a three-month wait before they could watch Season 1 of dark survival thriller Yellowjackets. The series was released in its entirely on Showmax in April. Local fans of the surprise Showtime hit were bracing to do the same with Season 2, dodging spoilers for months. However, that’s not the case at all.
The first two episodes of Yellowjackets Season 2 drop tomorrow (1 April) on Showmax, with new episodes on Saturdays.
If you need a reminder what Yellowjackets is about, it centres on a high school girls’ soccer team that survives a plane crash in the 90s, and must do terrible things to survive in the remote wilderness for the 18 months until they’re found. In Season 2, winter begins to bite, with hunger and desperation threatening to turn into full-on psychosis as an apparent sinister force prevents their escape. Meanwhile, 25 years later, each survivor must determine if the darkness is coming for them or from them.
Here’s a pair of suitably moody posters for the new season.
Out of nowhere, a Scott Pilgrim anime! Though there is no release date, or look at the project’s visual style, the new series is coming to Netflix, and will continue the story of Toronto bass player Scott Pilgrim, Ramona Flowers and their quirky band of friends and exes.
The series is being made by anime house Science SARU, and has been created, written and executive produced by Scott Pilgrim comic creator Bryan Lee O’Malley and BenDavid Grabinski. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World film director Edgar Wright is also on board as an executive producer. Adding to the hype is that the entire original cast of live-action Scott Pilgrim Vs The World is returning to voice the characters they originally played. This includes Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Brie Larson, Anna Kendrick and Jason Schwartzman to name a few.
Netflix released the below cast announcement trailer to reveal the project.
A quick but intriguing story: acclaimed Creed and Black Panther filmmaker Ryan Coogler is looking at rebooting 90s cult classic The X-Files with a more diverse cast. Initially released in 1993, The X-Files was a cultural phenomenon, centred on the FBI special agent pairing of Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson), who investigated paranormal incidents, and found themselves roped into a grand conspiracy involving government secrets and hushed-up alien encounters. More here.
One final TV tidbit is that upcoming Marvel series Secret Invasion has an official release date: 21 June. Mixing sci-fi and political conspiracy, in Secret Invasion, Samuel L. Jackson returns as Nick Fury to deal with a shapeshifting Skrull invasion that has infiltrated all aspects of life on Earth.
Speaking Marvel, Disney’s cost-cutting and house-cleaning has just claimed a notorious figure: Ike Perlmutter. 80 year old Perlmutter was instrumental in saving Marvel Comics from bankruptcy in the Nineties, but the ex Marvel CEO, and later chairman of Marvel Entertainment, had his influence over non-comics media reduced from 2015 due to his continual clashes with Kevin Feige and not-exactly-veiled bigotry.
ComicsBeat has a great breakdown of what happened and why; what Perlmutter’s removal means for Marvel Comics as a company; and some of the most infamous things the man did during his tenure. Read a similar piece by Vanity Fair, which looks at MCU ramifications here.
Gaming
Mark your calendar. Ubisoft Forward returns, live and in person out of Los Angeles, on 12 June to deliver all the latest announcements on Ubisoft games and related media.
Just note that Ubisoft Forward and any other showcases happening mid year are individual events, and not part of E3. After trying to bring back the iconic gaming expo this year as a physical event for the first time since 2019, it’s just been announced that E3 has been cancelled in both in-person and digital format. Before this confirmation, multiple big names in the industry, including the big three – Xbox, Nintendo, PlayStation – had announced that they wouldn’t be attending E3 in any capacity, and that number kept growing.
The Xbox Game Pass introductory offer is no more. It used to be that gaming fans could trial Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (encompassing Game Pass for console and PC), or PC Game Pass, for a month, paying just USD 1 (ZAR 15) to access a library of hundreds of games, and various other benefits. Very occasionally there were also “Get 3 months of Game Pass for $1” deals. Those days are apparently over as Microsoft has released a statement they are “evaluating different marketing promotions” to get players to join the service.
For the record, right now, a monthly subscription to PC and console-only Game Pass is USA 9.99 (ZAR 79), while Ultimate is USA 14.99 (ZAR 119). Some regions, like South Africa, have a Family & Friends subscription offer too, where 5 accounts have access to the service for ZAR 199 a month.
Speaking of next-gen gaming, both Xbox and PlayStation are running special Autumn/Easter holiday deals starting from this week. They’re all a case of “While stocks last,” so don’t delay if you’ve been looking for a decent saving.
Starting today, 31 March, Koodoo is selling all its PS5 consoles, and bundles, for ZAR 1,000 less. Meanwhile, from 29 March to 10 April, shoppers can save ZAR 1,000 on all Xbox Series X|S consoles locally. Participating retailers for the Xbox saving are:
- BT Games
- Computer Mania
- Checkers Tech X
- FNB Connect
- Game
- Game4U
- Hi-Fi Corp
- House & Home
- Incredible Connection
- Makro
- Nexus Hub
- Pick `n Pay
- Sportscene
- TFG | Bash
- Totalsport
- Zapa Gaming