Last week we had a lot of content to get up on the site, meaning the usual pop culture news round-up was pushed out. Today, then, we have a full fortnight of movie, series, gaming and comic news to cover. Also, sadly, we have three deaths to mention.
This just in, on Monday, 13 July, Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill passed aged 78. Neill’s filmography included the diverse likes of The Dish, The Piano and cult horror classic Event Horizon. Neill’s death was described by his family as “sudden and unexpected,” but unrelated to the aggressive cancer that the New Zealand actor successfully fought off in recent years.
Husky-voiced Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, best known for hits Total Eclipse of the Heart and Holding Out for a Hero, has died aged 75. She was rushed to hospital in Portugal in May, and placed in an induced coma to aid recovery from emergency intestinal surgery. While she later came out of the coma, she never left Intensive Care.
One of the MCU’s most memorable supporting players has passed aged 83. Wai Ching Ho played the formidable Madame Gao in Daredevil and Iron Fist, in addition to voicing Grandma Wu in Pixar’s Turning Red.
Series
It’s that time of year again. The nominees for the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards have been announced, and you can see the contenders on the Television Academy site by category above, or the complete list here. Winners will be announced at a ceremony, hosted by Mariska Hargitay, on 14 September.
For the record, HBO Max’s medical drama The Pitt picked up 25 nominations, making it the biggest contender of any show, closely followed by the final season of Hacks (also a HBO show), with 24 nominations.
Apple TV had a strong year, breaking its 2025 record by scoring 89 nominations across 15 programmes, including 19 nominations for horror comedy Widow’s Bay and 18 nods for dystopian series Pluribus.
Netflix’s star-studded Beef Season 2 rounded out the nomination top five, with 16 category appearances.
Of course, the Emmy Awards go beyond the Primetime ceremony to cover creative achievement as well. You can see which networks earned the most nominations across the board here.
Film
The past two weeks produced a trio of notable new trailers on the movie front. And that’s not including a new official trailer for Denis Villeneuve’s epic trilogy-capping Dune: Part Three, which comes to cinemas on 18 December. But anyway…
First up is Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, a continuation of beloved animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. With show creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino contributing to the story, the film is set thirteen years after the end of the Hundred Year War, and sees Aang embark on a quest to restore the Airbender nation. Instrumental in that plan is the discovery of an Airbender named Tagah (voiced by Dave Bautista).
Initially planned for cinema release, and infamously already leaked online, the film will instead go straight to streaming, releasing on Paramount+ on 25 July.
Still on matters of animation, Illumination, the same studio behind the likes of Despicable Me (and Minions), Sing, The Secret Life of Pets, and Super Mario Bros. has an original new movie on the horizon.
In sci-fi comedy adventure Not Alone, introverted rocket mechanic Joe (voiced by Timothée Chalamet) feels a mutual attraction to Fran (Selena Gomez), a brilliant but similarly shy astro-botanist. However, their budding romance is complicated when three tiny, rambunctious aliens (voiced by British comedians Rob Brydon, Diane Morgan and Jamie Demetriou) take refuge in Joe’s home. They believe that Fran’s pioneering rocket design can get them home.
Not Alone releases in April next year.
Finally, you can’t get further from Not Alone than Werwulf. Robert Eggers follows up the success of his Nosferatu remake with another gothic horror tale releasing on Christmas Day.
Eggers also brings back some of his Nosferatu cast for this tale of a 13th Century farmer (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), whose community is apparently haunted by a ravenous beast. Harrowing, pitch black and featuring entirely Middle English dialogue, the film also stars Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe and Ralph Ineson.
Comics & Books
With San Diego Comic-Con coming up on the weekend of 23 to 26 July, comic publishers are making some big announcements. Just this past week, news dropped that, apart for the release of a Lara Croft figure, Hasbro’s G.I. JOE and Tomb Raider are crossing over in a five-issue limited comic series, which hits stores on 7 October.
G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero/Tomb Raider #1 is written by Kyle Higgins with art by Elena Casagrande, colors by Alex Guimarães, and letters by Pat Brosseau. It sees Lara Croft team up with old acquaintance, Shipwreck, and several squads of Joes, to recover a long-lost treasure from Cobra Island.
Before the book kicks off, look out for a surprise appearance by Lara Croft in just-released G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero #330.
You can see preview pages from G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero/Tomb Raider #1, and variant covers, here.
It’s not a team-up, but Sabrina the Teenage Witch is making her comic book return this October in a new ongoing series from Oni Press and Archie Comic Publications, Inc.
Writer Corinna Bechko (Green Lantern: Earth One, EC’s Blood Type) and artist Kano (Daredevil, EC’s Cruel Universe) are going back to the foundation of the character, with high schooler Sabrina Spellman still reeling from the surprise revelation of her secret birthright, and trying to juggle typical teenage responsibilities with her magical new life. In the lead-up to Halloween, the two parts of her existence collide when her feline familiar Salem drops a mythical trickster on Sabrina’s doorstep. Literally.
Gaming
It would be nice to have some positive gaming news, but the hits (not the good kind) just keep on coming.
PlayStation has announced that it’s ending the production of physical game discs starting January 2028. The official line is that the move is a reflection of “shifting trends in consumer preference.” New games will only be available digitally, through the PlayStation Store and as codes purchasable at retailers. The news triggered global outrage, with the implication that no one will ever actually own their purchases; simply licensing access from Sony, who can remove content according to account terms and conditions with no recourse.
Competing with PlayStation on the villain front right now is Xbox, with new announcements and actions relating to their great business “reset.” With an emphasis on its big IPs (like Halo, Forza, Gears and Fallout) instead of developing new franchises, Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions are returning to independent studio status (not closing at least), while Ninja Theory and Undead Labs have entered terms to join new ownership to continue work on their current games. The new positioning also means an end to Xbox support for an online fantasy RPG being made by Hitman and 007 First Light devs IO Interactive, although the studio is still committed to it, even with layoffs necessary for survival.
In addition to various studio decisions, Xbox immediately implemented 1,600 retrenchments at the organisation, with that number expected to climb to 3,200 by the end of June 2027. Already impacted, DOOM makers id Software lost 136 staff (reportedly around 50% of its workforce), just as DLC was released for last year’s Doom: The Dark Ages.