Time to wrap up your week with the biggest stories from the worlds of pop culture, starting with a death and a prison conviction.

The former lead singer of 90s rock band Smash Mouth, Steve Harwell, has died aged 56. Harwell, who retired from the group in 2021, died from liver failure, and had a history of health problems. Also this week, That 70s Show and The Ranch star Danny Masterson has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for the drugging and rape of two women in his Hollywood home in the early 2000s. This follows a lengthy judicial process including two trials, and reported intimidation and discouragement of the victims by the Church of Scientology, of which Masterson is a member, and the women previously were.

Lifestyle

This week Comic Con Africa announced arguably the biggest name of its 2023 international guest line-up. John Barrowman, of Doctor Who, Torchwood and Arrow fame, is coming to the pop culture event for three days, from the Saturday, 23 September, to Monday, 25 September. Bolstering representation of local acting talent, meanwhile, is Steven John Ward, who is winning fans left, right, and centre, with his role in Netflix’s One Piece live-action adaptation as pirate warlord Dracule Mihawk. Ward will be around for one day of the con, the Saturday.

Check out our full rundown of every guest announced for CCA 2023 here, which we will be updating as necessary.

As a further heads up, tickets for the Saturday are now sold out, and none will be available at the door if you pitch up expecting access. Also, for collectibles enthusiasts, these are the con exclusive Funko Pops you’ll be able to buy at the event through Gammatek. First come, first serve as usual.

Film

At its time of cinema release, Pixar’s Elemental was considered a disappointment. However, the animated romantic comedy has held steady at the box office for weeks, instead of dropping off. The result is that it’s now more financially successful worldwide than the studio’s Cars and Toy Story. If you missed it on the big screen, Disney has just announced that Elemental is coming to Disney+ next week, on 13 September.

Also coming to Disney+ (and Hulu) this September is straight-to-streaming sci-fi thriller No One Will Save You, which is likely to appeal to the same audience who loved Predator prequel Prey. No One Will Save You is a home invasion tale with a difference. Booksmart’s Kaitlyn Dever plays Brynn, a lonely and socially isolated young woman who has to use her wits and limited resources to defend her home from a sinister invading alien force. Watch No One Will Save You from 22 September. Along with its official trailer, a poster was revealed for the film as well.

Still on matters of thrillers, one to keep an eye on is The Royal Hotel. Currently touring the film festival circuit, and set for release in the US on 6 October, The Royal Hotel comes from award-winning documentarian turned feature film maker Kitty Green.

In the film, two Americans, Hanna (Julia Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick), are backpacking through Australia when they run out of money. To make ends meet, they accept a temporary live-in job behind the bar of a pub in a remote Outback mining town. Bar owner Billy (Hugo Weaving) and various locals give the girls a riotous introduction to the area’s drinking culture but soon the women find themselves trapped in an unnerving, escalating situation with power dynamics that put them at a dangerous disadvantage.

Finally, in this week’s movie news, there’s also the teaser trailer for stop-motion animated sequel Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, from Aardman Animations. There’s a 23 year gap between this follow-up and the original, and in that time the film has gained new vocal leads in the form of Thandiwe Newton and Zachary Levi (replacing Julia Sawalha and Mel Gibson). Less The Great Escape and more Mission: Impossible this time around, Ginger, Rocky and co. must break into a chicken farm to save their kind. Miranda Richardson’s Mrs Tweedy is back as their sinister foe.

Some territories, like a UK, are getting a cinema run for Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, but the film is also coming to Netflix on 15 December.

Series

Coming across like a blend of Hercule Poirot and The Girls With the Dragon Tattoo is murder mystery A Murder at the End of the World. Created by The OA’s Brit Marling (who also co-stars) and Zal Batmanglij, this limited series stars Emma Corrin as tech-savvy hacker and amateur sleuth Darby Hart. Darby and eight other guests are invited by a reclusive billionaire (Clive Owen) to participate in a retreat at a remote location. That’s all good and well until one of the other guests is found dead, and other lives are at stake.

Audiences will be able to watch this FX limited series on Disney+, in South Africa at least, from 14 November. It premieres with two episodes before switching to weekly episode drops.

Goosebumps is back, baby. R.L. Stine’s spooky Scholastic book series, which already spawned an anthology TV show and a couple of movies, has been revisited for this new adolescent-orientated series, which debuts on Disney+ on Friday the 13th, in October.

In the new Goosebumps, five high schoolers embark on a chilling and mystery-filled journey to investigate the tragic passing three decades earlier of another teen, while also unearthing dark secrets from their parents’ past. Justin Long is one of the familiar adult faces in the cast, playing teacher Mr Bratt.

The 10-part Goosebumps will launch with a five-episode drop as part of Disney+’s Hallowstream celebrations, with subsequent new episodes streaming weekly. Check out 10 images from the upcoming series here.

Now for some release date news: Apple TV+’s Monsterverse series, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which we spoke about here, has set a launch date. Well, kind of. Thanks to a feature in TV Guide Magazine, it looks like the series – which delves into the mysterious Monarch organisation mentioned in the most recent Godzilla-King Kong face off – will start streaming from November.

It’s up in the air, though, as the Hollywood acting and writing strikes start to delay series premieres across the board. Jodie Foster’s True Detective: Night Country has just been pushed back from this year to January 2024 on HBO, while Disney+ has completely shuffled its MCU series debuts. That’s not all because of the strike, though. The House of Mouse wants to spread out its Marvel content to reignite fan excitement.

As a result, Hawkeye spin-off Echo, which was originally announced for 29 November, now moves to January 2024. Animated series X-Men ’97 is also moving to early next year. Agatha: Coven of Chaos, which is now known as Agatha: Darkhold Diaries, has been pushed back all the way to US Fall 2024. And Ironheart, Daredevil: Born Again and Wonder Man have all been removed from the release calendar entirely.

Gaming

This week it’s a case of success in one medium leading to spin-offs elsewhere.

Recent big screen hit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is getting a game. From Outright Games, the Mutant Mayhem adaptation will be set in the same universe as the film, and is looking at a 2024 release on consoles and PC. Here’s an early piece of concept art.

In a complete inversion, Annapurna Interactive’s cat-themed adventure Stray is getting a movie adaptation. Rather unsurprisingly, sister division Annapurna Animation (riding high off their success with Nimona) will be running the project, which centres on a lost cat and an amnesiac little drone as they pair up to navigate a strange underground robot city. Find out more about Annapurna’s plans, for Stray and other future animated films, here.

If you were looking forward to playing high-profile series reboot Alone in the Dark as your Halloween game this year, we have some bad news for you. The horror game’s release, which was initially 26 October, has been shifted out to 16 January 2024, citing an overstuffed October release period as the reason. Don’t worry, though; you’ll still be able to play fellow survival horror title Alan Wake II to celebrate the holiday. Remedy’s sequel is out on 27 October, having seen its launch move back 10 days from its original 17 October date for the same reason as Alone’s delay.

Video game actors may soon be joining their performer brethren on the picket line (alongside already-striking film and TV writers). This week, the National Board of SAG-AFTRA announced a strike authorization vote, where its members can indicate their willingness to walk out the workplace should ongoing wage and rights negotiations with game companies break down.