Bam! Just like that, New York Comic Con 2025 is underway, taking over the Javits Center from October 9 through 12. So far, the convention has debuted trailers for the more lighthearted Game of Thrones spinoff A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and a Chris Pratt movie called Mercy, with more previews to come. Below, all the trailers released at NYCC so far.
We knew The Vampire Lestatwould have some slight mockumentary energy to it, with a camera crew trailing Lestat on his rock & roll exploits. But thanks to the new extended first look from AMC+, we now know that none other than Daniel Molloy will be directing it. The NYCC panel also unveiled the show’s Akasha, All Dirt Roads Taste of Saltand Woman King star Sheila Atim.
The Game of Thrones spinoff A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is based on a series of novellas by GoT scribe George R.R. Martin. From the trailer, it looks to be the first time a GoT property could be called a comedy. Starring Peter Claffey as Sir Duncan the Tall and Dexter Sol Ansell as his squire, Egg, Seven Kingdoms is set 100 years before the original series but well after House of the Dragon. “Rob me and I’ll hunt you down with dogs,” Sir Duncan tells his squire in the teaser. Egg counters, “You don’t have dogs!” The HBO series will return to Westeros beginning January 18, 2026.
Chris Pratt is begging for mercy and they won’t release him in the trailer for his new science-fiction film. Pratt plays Detective Chris Raven, a man who programmed an artificial intelligence called Mercy, which Los Angeles courts are using to determine guilt. When accused of murdering his wife, he gets only 90 minutes to prove his innocence. Inevitably, the AI goes haywire. “This was never about my wife,” Pratt tells Mercy, played by Dune star Rebecca Ferguson. “This was about me and you.” The film comes out January 23, 2026 — if AI hasn’t taken over by then.
Marvel is going meta with the teaser trailer for its upcoming series Wonder Man. Yahya Abdul-Mateen stars in the series as an actor who auditions to play Wonder Man, and the teaser is largely based around an interview with the “Wonder Man” movie’s fake director, Von Kovak (Zlatko Burić). “I know your question is ‘Why one more superhero film?’” Kovak says in the trailer. “Everyone is tired of superheroes. Why go see them in the cinema?” After the lackadaisical box-office performance from Thunderbolts*,Fantastic Four: First Steps, and Captain America: Brave New World, Kovak promises that “there is an opportunity to shock audiences.” Well, maybe Wonder Man can do the same as a limited series when it debuts on Disney+ in January.
Prime Video, leader of all dad-TV shows, released a trailer for Cross season two. Based on the Alex Cross books by James Patterson, the series follows the D.C. homicide detective, played by Aldis Hodge, hunting down a serial killer going after corrupt billionaires. “This begins and ends with me,” he says, so you know it’s serious. Season two premieres on February 11.
There’s trailers for everything nowadays! NYCC was the venue for Wizards of the Coast’s big Magic: the Gathering and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collab. The set is part of their Universes Beyond collection, which also includes cards from The Walking Dead, Doctor Who, Fallout, and more.
Friday’s BlumFest 2025 panel at New York Comic Con teased celebrating the studio’s 15th anniversary with appearances by the Black Phone 2 and Five Nights at Freddy’s sequel teams, exclusive footage and the announcement of Megan Fox as part of FNAF 2’s voice cast.
Producer and Blumhouse studio founder Jason Blum opened the panel, speaking to where he’d want to go in another decade and a half. “One of the things I’m proudest of is discovering and empowering new talent. People who haven’t done horror, or maybe have done a little bit of horror. People like Jordan Peele,” he told the crowd. “What I’m really looking forward to is meeting and hopefully producing the next generation of horror. Probably the most exciting part about my job, especially as I get older, is working with young people who have vision and energy.”
He also shouted out several upcoming film and TV titles, such as Lee Cronin’s The Mummy. “I just saw it two weeks ago, but you’re gonna be very happy about it, but I’m not supposed to talk it up too much. It’s really cool,” he shared. He then shouted out the Jessica Chastain-led and Rob Savage directed The Other Mommy and the series Scarpetta, with Nicole Kidman.
At one point during the panel, the audience received a message from The Further, with Blum noting that Insidious: The Red Door will arrive next fall. During another portion of the panel, Nine inch Nails’ and Eyes Out Studio’s Robin Finck arrived on stage to tease Sleep Awake, the upcoming Blumhouse game that uses full motion video within the 3D game space.
“It’s set in a stunning world, truly of environmental storytelling, and it leverages unique story-driven puzzles with intense stealth and chase sequences,” he said. “We’re playing in a world where everyone is in a panic to remain awake because those who succumb to sleep inexplicably vanish. People are disappearing, leaving only void shadows behind.” The soundtrack will be released on Milan Records.
Read on for more on Black Phone 2 and Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 reveals at BlumFest 2025.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2
Blum, director Emma Tammi, actor Elizabeth Lail and Matthew Lillard all made appearances during the last portion of Friday’s panel, where the director teased that fans can expect “a bunch more animatronics.” That includes Toy Freddie and Toy Bonnie, who made character appearances in the crowd. She also noted that there were more humans, with Lael and Lillard both making appearances. In terms of what the cast and creative team were excited about with the sequel, Lillard teased more lore, more jump scares.
Tammi also revealed several sequel voice actors, including Kellen Goff (Toy Freddy), MatPat (Toy Bonnie) and Megan Fox (Toy Chica). “Her kids happen to be huge Five Nights at Freddy‘s fans as well. So she has heard about this world for a long time from her kids, and she was really pumped to do the voice of Toy Chica. She did the most amazing job. She wanted to pay homage to the games, but also make it her own. And I’m so stoked for you guys to hear her. She’s amazing,” said Tammi of Fox’s casting.
Black Phone 2
Blum was joined by cast members Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Miguel Mora, Demián Bichir and author Joe Hill appeared to tease the sequel and shared exclusive footage in the room. Beyond the clip, the group discussed the first movie’s impact, coming back for another film and what tonally makes the sequel different from the original.
“I wrote the story over 20 years ago, and I got paid like 35 bucks for it, so I was pretty psyched about the film, because Jason Blum actually pays a little bit better,” Hill said about the initial reaction to the films. “I knew it was in good hands because Scott Erickson and Robert Cargill were tackling it, and everything they’ve done has come from the heart. They care intensely about the characters and put the characters first in their stories. I felt safe with them.”
Hawke spoke to Scott’s pitch on a sequel, noting that he got it while in an airport. “Scott said, ‘I really have an idea for a sequel,’ and I paced the airport for about an hour as he kind of described what this movie is. It was breathtaking. Just the dream of the movie, everything that it was,” he said. “In the years that the movie has come out, the fans have really grown and really cared. Knowing the script I’ve read, we were going to make a lot of people really happy.”
Added Thames, “When the movie came out, and how the fans received it, and how special it was to so many people, was insane. It was such a whirlwind. So getting the chance to bring it back, and bring these characters back in this world, expanding on that in a way that I never could have imagined, it’s really special.”
McGraw teased what fans can expect coming back, while noting how it was challenging for her. “Gwen is honestly completely different from where we left off in the first movie. Obviously, years have gone by, and you get to see the trauma and how it has shaped them, and how they’ve tried to grow from it,” she said. “She definitely feels like an outcast now. She’s much more reserved than she was in the first one, and I am definitely the opposite of that. I’m a very social and extroverted person, so I feel like, in a lot of ways, especially with all the emotional scenes, it definitely tested my abilities as an actor.”
Added Mora, “Black Phone 2 revolves so deeply around the trauma that these characters go through, and that they experience was the terrifying grabber,” he said. “Grief is one of those very heavy things with these characters. Ernesto lost his brother in the first one, and stepping into this new perspective was definitely quite the challenge, but something I really enjoyed.”
Halloween seems like the perfect opportunity to give the lovely and talented, Jody Steel her flowers. The makeup artist and cosplay icon has partnered with CBS and has also been featured on Freeform’s ’25 Days of Christmas.’
Her shadowing techniques are next-level, and it’s as if she thinks of her face as a blank canvas for any given character.
Steel’s skill and beauty have us geeking out. Give her a follow HERE.
Chris PrattPhoto by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic via Getty Images)
Chris Pratt said that when it comes to Hollywood actors, he has little patience for stars who have a “bad attitude” while on set.
On Thursday, October 17, the 45-year-old actor participated in a panel for his newest film, Netflix’s The Electric State, during New York Comic Con 2024. Alongside his costar and Stranger Things actress Millie Bobby Brown, Pratt explained that the moviemaking business requires a good attitude.
“Look, these guys can attest to this, because they’re the same way, like, there’s no room for s—ty attitudes there,” he said, per People. “You can’t have a bad attitude in moviemaking, it ruins everything for everyone, and then you don’t last long.”
“It sucks when people have a crappy attitude,” he said. “So when you show up on set, there’s no reason why you should… Like, ‘Oh, are you having a hard time living your dream? Is that tough for you today?’ Like, come on and pull your head out,” said Pratt. “Have fun.”
As for his current film, Pratt had nothing but positive things to say about his 20-year-old Electric State costar.
“She’s just incredible,” the Jurassic World star said of Brown. “She was surrounded by all these animals. She’s like, they would yell cut and she’d go to her home and she’s finding a home for, like some pygmy goat to be adopted and organizing a U-Haul full of pit bull puppies to be taken to Indiana. Like she has such a huge heart, such a love for animals.”
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Pratt added that he and Brown had fun and grew close during filming. “And so we had a great time. We became fast friends,” Pratt said, before saying to Brown, “and you can’t get rid of me. Sorry.”
Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi have become one of Hollywood’s cutest couples with their sweet social media exchanges to red carpet moments. Three years after Brown called it quits with singer Jacob Sartorius, Bongiovi sparked dating speculation by sharing a snap of himself and the Stranger Things actress in June 2021. “Bff <3,” he […]
Pratt and Brown’s Electric State is based on a graphic novel of the same name by Simon Stålenhag. Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, collectively known as the Russo Brothers, the movie follows Brown as a teenage orphan searching for her brother after an uprising of robots fails. The film boasts a star-studded cast including Ke Huy Quanand Stanley Tucci, as well as voice acting work from Jason Alexander, Jenny Slate, Anthony Mackie and more.
The Russo Brothers are known for their work on many films and TV shows, including Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, Community and Arrested Development, among others. After Electric State, the duo plans to return to their Marvel roots directing upcoming films Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
New York Comic Con is officially underway, and with it comes the promise of big, big trailers for big, big nerds everywhere. And since “fans of nerd content” came to mean “everyone” over the last decade, it’s hard to overstate how big these trailers can get. Netflix fired the first shot, teasing the Russo brothers–helmed Electric State adaptation, and HBO increased the buzz for The Penguin with a mid-season trailer. Below, the latest trailers, updating all throughout the weekend.
Peyton List returns as Maddie for the second season of School Spirits— she’s still stuck in the after life and trying to figure out the reason for her disappearance on the other side.
The Russo brothers’ upcoming Netflix movie The Electric State, starring populist favorites Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, just released its first trailer. Based on a graphic novel of the same name, the film debuts March 14 on Netflix.
No, for those of you confused, The Penguin is not currently off the air, nor is the season randomly done after only four episodes. Max decided to drop a mid-season trailer for a little intrigue. New episodes will continue to air on Sundays.
Dune: Prophecy’s first official trailer debuted during a panel with star Emily Watson, and, boy, is it filled with ominous statements. “The Imperium is fragile,” they say. “This endangers everything,” they also say. “The Imperium is a circus of fear and rumor.” Enter a sisterhood with a plan. The prequel premieres November 17 on Max.
Two of our best actors with the curliest heads of hair star in Wolf Man, out January 17. Julia Garner and Christopher Abbott play a married couple with a daughter, and the film follows as Abbott gets infected with werewolf-ism. Rawr. The film is out January 17.
Starz shared the Outlander mid-season trailer, and they are going home to Scotland! The second half of the season will include another eight episodes, same as the first half, and, as always, will star Caitríona Balfe and Sam Heughan. The first half of the season ended on August 11, and the second half begins again on November 22.
Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby.Amy Sussman/WireImage
Group hug!
Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn made their San Diego Comic-Con debut as the new Fantastic Four on Saturday, July 27, during Marvel Studios’ presentation, but, before that, the cast shared a sweet embrace backstage.
Pascal, 49, shared behind-the-scenes footage via Instagram Stories on Sunday, July 28, which shows him, Kirby, Moss-Bachrach and Quinn sharing a group hug just moments before surprising a roaring crowd in Hall H.
During Saturday’s panel, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige revealed that the upcoming reboot will be titled The Fantastic Four: First Steps and feature villains Galactus and the Silver Surfer.
Courtesy Pedro Pascal/Instagram
“We’re all collectively going to bring an essence that is a family rather than thinking about what we individually are going to bring,” Quinn said at the event, per Entertainment Weekly.
Marvel’s first family returns to the big screen with Pascal playing Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Kirby, 36, as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Quinn, 30, as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch and Moss-Bachrach, 47, as Ben Grimm/The Thing.
Marvel movies aren’t exactly known for sweeping romantic moments, but there are a handful of iconic couples who manage to keep love alive while saving the world: Pepper Potts and Tony Stark, for example, or Vision and Wanda Maximoff. The film and TV empire also boasts a few off-screen love matches too, though many of […]
“I don’t think I’ve laughed so much in a rehearsal period before,” said Kirby during Saturday’s Marvel presentation. “We laughed so much. We want to do it justice. It’s amazing reading comics from the ’60s all the way up. When you read the comics it’s got so much joy in it so I hope we can bring that to the movie.”
Moss-Bachrach, who will use motion-capture technology to play the Thing, said he received support from fellow Marvel star Mark Ruffalo, whose performance as the Hulk requires similar technology.
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“I got a really nice text message from Mark Ruffalo just to demystify the process of motion capture because I’ve never done it before,” the Bear star said. “He sent a long, generous text message taking away a bit of how I was scared of the technology.”
To the rescue! Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars have donned tights and capes to save the day as beloved superheroes — see celebs including Ben Affleck, Chris Evans, and Gwyneth Paltrow as superheroes!
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is due to begin shooting in London this week, but the cast united for the first time on set on Thursday, July 25, as documented by Pascal via Instagram. The Last of Us star shared a selfie with his costars and captioned it, “Our first mission 💙.” The movie hits theaters on July 25, 2025.
Also during Saturday’s presentation, Marvel Studios shocked the audience — and the world — by announcing Robert Downey Jr.will return to the MCU as Doctor Doom in Marvel’s next two Avengers movies set for release in 2026 and 2027, respectively.
The one surprise at Marvel‘s Comic-Con Hall H presentation Saturday it saved for last: Robert Downey Jr is returning to the Marvel Universe as Victor Von Doom in the Russo Brothers’ Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Along with the Russos returning to helm a two-part Avengers movies, they mentioned they’d need to tee up before Avengers: Secret Wars, a dream project of theirs, with another movie: Avengers: Doomsday. This clearly replaces Avengers: Kang Dynasty.
Essentially Kang Dynasty was deflated in the wake of the actor who played him, Jonathan Majors, getting fired from the MCU after being found guilty of reckless assault and harassment.
Since the start of the MCU with 2008’s Iron Man, Oscar winner Downey Jr. played that title character who finally died in Avengers: Endgame.
At that point an actor stepped onstage as Dr. Doom, with a steel mask and green cape and hood. Unmasking, it was none other than Downey, who many know as Tony Stark/Iron Man in the MCU.
San Diego Comic-Con is counter-Olympic programming for nerds everywhere. Running the same weekend as the 2024 Games opened, SDCC features panels from the stars and creators of our favorite IP-driven projects — including Transformers, the Marvel cinematic universe, Lord of the Rings, The Walking Dead, and more — all for the sake of giving fans what they want: a few crumbs or even a whole new detail about releases in postproduction, newly green-lit shows, and maybe a spicy spoiler a panelist spilled, to the horror of press people the world over. Aside from all the trailers, what are we getting? Let’s dive into the Olympic swimming-pool-size highlights out of San Diego Comic-Con 2024, including a surprise virtual appearance from Kamala Harris, plus major news from Dexter, Doctor Who, Star Trek, The Boys, and more.
A July 27 Star Trek panel doubled as an info dump about several differentprojects. The two-episode premiere of the upcoming final season of Star Trek: Lower Decks got a date: October 24. But if the show ending makes you sad, you can rest assured that the franchise still other content in the works. For example, Alex Kurtzman is co-writing a live-action, half-hour comedy with Justin Simien (Dear White People) and Star Trek: Lower Decks star Tawny Newsome. Currently in development at Paramount+, the show will follow Federation outsiders who are serving on a gleaming resort planet — and having their day-to-day “exploits” broadcast to the entire quadrant.
It also seems like some sort of Star Trek musical, in the vein of the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds musical episode “Substance Rhapsody,” might be on the way. Per Deadline, EP Akiva Goldsman told a fan who asked if there would be any similar episodes in the future, “We’re in the very early stages of figuring out whether we can bring a version of that to the stage.” Meanwhile, Cillian O’Sullivan has joined the cast of the upcoming season of Strange New Worlds and will recur as the legacy character Dr. Roger Korby.
Show creator Matt Groening surprised the audience by playing a clip of Kamala Harris during a July 27 panel, introducing her as a Simpsons “super fan.” Quoting the 1996 episode ‘Treehouse of Horror VII,” Harris said, “We must move forward, not backward; upward, not forward; and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom.” Per The Hollywood Reporter, this is a resurfaced video message that was taken years ago, so it wasn’t recorded specifically for Comic-Con. Still, after a presidential campaign that has included Brat summer memes and an appearance on Drag Race, it doesn’t seem like Harris would mind an opportunity to keep courting the stan vote.
IFC Films and Shudder had Johnny make a surprise appearance in a July 26 panel to help announce that we’re getting In a Violent Nature 2. Chris Nash will return as screenwriter for the slasher sequel.
Michael C. Hall made a surprise appearance in a July 26 panel where Showtime announced that he would return as Dexter in the new series Dexter: Resurrection, a present-day follow-up to 2021’s Dexter: New Blood. It is set to premiere in summer 2025. Hall will also narrate the inner voice of young Dexter in the previously-announced origin story Dexter: Original Sin, which is expected to launch in Decemeber 2024.
The Who-niverse is expanding. Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw will lead the cast of The War Between the Land and the Sea, a five-part spinoff from Russell T Davies ordered by the BBC and Disney+. The news was announced in Hall H on July 26. Per an official description, the show will see a “fearsome and ancient species” emerging from the ocean to trigger an international crisis. It sounds like UNIT — including Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) and Colonel Ibrahim (Alexander Devrient) — will have to do their best to save humanity without the Doctor.
We also got some casting news for the main show. A preview of the Christmas special showed Nicola Coughlan’s character, Joy, coming face to face with a Silurian and the Fifteenth Doctor. Meanwhile The Little Mermaid star Jonah Hauer-King was confirmed to star in Doctor Who’s next season as part of Ruby Sunday’s story.
Haven’t had enough of The Boys? Don’t fret; there’s more coming even after the series concludes with season five. Prime Video has green-litVought Rising, a prequel following the rise of the franchise’s New York–based evil media empire in the 1950s. Aya Cash and Jensen Ackles reprise their roles from the original series, while Boys writer and executive producer Paul Grellong will serve as showrunner, Prime Video confirmed. The news was announced at a July 26 panel featuring Boys creator Eric Kripke and cast members Anthony Starr, Jessie T. Usher, Jack Quaid, Erin Moriarty, Karen Fukuhara, Claudia Doumit, Susan Heyward, Valorie Curry, Laz Alonso, Tomer Capone, Nathan Mitchell, and Chace Crawford. It’s the series’ second spinoff after the college drama, Gen V.
The cast of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” admit their characters are at varying crossroads at the start of Season 2 — some yearning for redemption, some grieving loss, and others seeking success, be it through a manner of good or evil.
Ismaël Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Sophia Nomvete, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Charlie Vickers and Morfydd Clark shared what’s possibly going through the minds of their Middle-earth characters ahead of the second season at the VarietyComic-Con Studio, Presented by Google TV.
Clark says for Galadriel, things are not the greatest, seeing as she’s just learned Halbrand (Vickers) is actually Sauron. “We find Galadriel having been proven right in the worst possible way. She’s been deceived by the great deceiver, which he must be pretty good at that, so we can’t be too cruel to her,” she said, turning to her cast for reassurance. “So, she’s got to redeem herself.”
Addai-Robinson shared that Queen Regent Míriel is also recovering from bleak events of the first season. “She’s really starting from a place of loss. She has lost her vision at the end of Season 1, lost her father, the king, and she has lost in a battle,” Addai-Robinson told Variety. “So really Season 2 for Míriel is going to be navigating and overcoming these losses but also trying to convince the people of Númenor that she is the one to lead them in the right direction.”
Vickers’ character spends most of Season 1 as a human named Halbrand, only for Galadriel to discover that he is Sauron. So hen asked what name the character should be called at the start of Season 2, Vickers slyly noted “depends who you ask.”
“At the start of Season 2, for all intents, he is Halbrand,” Vickers added. “We leave him at the end of Season 1 walking down a cliff into Mordor. He starts Season 2 with nothing. He’s lost his only friend!”
To that, Clark reminded Vickers that the Dark Lord “deserved that.”
“The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power” debuts August 29 with its first three episodes; the following five episodes are set to be released weekly through October 3.
Who’s ready for San Diego Comic-Con? Sure, last year was a little weird for the convention — there were a lot of Hall H cancellations amid the Hollywood strikes, and some panelists who did show up had to avoid talking about struck projects. One thing that didn’t change, though? A bunch of trailers dropped during the convention. We can look forward to that tradition continuing this July. The SDCC panel schedule for 2024 includes The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Transformers One, Everybody Still Hates Chris, and more. There are also the usual suspects: Marvel is set to update its plans for the next phase(s) of its cinematic universe, and there are several Star Wars panels scheduled. So far, it’s already been confirmed that HBO’s The Penguin and AMC/AMC+’s The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carolwill debut trailers at SDCC. Other panel descriptions are more coy, only vaguely mentioning a first look or preview, but we know they’re coming. Keep checking back for updates below on all the new trailer debuts out of SDCC, including for Transformers One, season two of Rings of Power, and more.
There’s more where that’s coming From. The teaser for season three of the MGM+ show suggests that the horrors are nowhere near over in this creepy town. Looks like it won’t be so easy for sheriff and de-facto mayor Boyd Stevens to save everyone.
In the trailer for the spinoff’s second season, Negan has reunited with Lucille, the baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire and named after his wife. That’s one way to get back into the … swing of things.
Let’s check in on the newlyweds. Korvo and Terry seem to be enjoying married life in this preview of the fifth season of the adult animation series. Will their alien team finally decide how they feel about Earth? Who knows, we’re too busy looking at the shirts!
Set three billion years before the events of the live-action Transformers, the upcoming animated flick reveals the untold origin story of Megatron and Optimus Prime, old pals who transform into enemies. They should work it out on the remix.
Season two of Amazon Prime’s expensive-looking fantasy series teases the fall of many rings (nine) and a gruesome battle against Sauron in his quest for power. As he descends on Middle Earth, war is imminent, and gifts are not what they seem.
Before he embarks on headlining The Boys prequel series Vought Rising alongside Aya Cash, Jensen Ackles will be a major part in the mothership’s upcoming fifth and final season.
During The Boys‘ Comic-Con panel, on which Ackles made a surprise appearance to announce Vought Rising, The Boys developer, executive producer and showrunner Eric Kripke revealed that Ackles will be returning as a series regular for Season 5 of the mothership series, reprising his Soldier Boy character.
“We can announce that Soldier Boy will be a regular in Season 5,” Kripke said Friday. “The motherf*cker’s back.” (You can watch the video below.)
Kripke had previously said in a 2022 interview, “We’ll all have to wait and see, but I can’t imagine the series ending without Soldier Boy making another appearance.”
Ackles’ return was teased in the recent Season 4 finale. Soldier Boy, who was a series regular character when it was introduced in Season 3, was MIA in Season 4 before making a return in a finale post-credits scene. In it, after Senator Calhoun is sworn in as the new President, he takes Homelander to a chamber where Soldier Boy — Homelander’s biological father– is lying in a drug-induced slumber he was put into by Grace Mallory in the Season 3 finale.
During the panel, Ackles was asked what Soldier Boy was doing in that chamber, to which he had a succinct, NSFW reply. You can watch that and Kripke’s Soldier Boy return announcement below:
EXCLUSIVE: “I’m not so good at this part, you know,” Indian megastar Prabhas tells Deadline on the set of upcoming mythological sci-fi movie Kalki 2898 AD.
He is referring to his inability to push his work “into the international level,” but this might all be about to change. For Deadline is speaking to Prabhas in the late evening about a movie which, at a reported budget topping 600 crore rupees ($72M), is estimated to be one of the most expensive Indian movies ever made, potentially the most. Vyjayanthi Movies is behind the production.
Releasing on June 27 after multiple delays, director Nag Ashwin’s Kalki 2898 AD is a sci-fi infused retelling of the Hindu myth of Kalki and the Kali Yuga, the end of the current world age. The film launched its first teaser at the San Diego Comic-Con last year under previous title Project K, becoming the first Indian film to do so. “The whole film is made for international [audiences],” says Prabhas. “That’s why it’s the highest budget and we’ve got the best actors in the country.”
Along with Prabhas, the film brings together some of India’s most renowned actors – veteran Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, actor, entrepreneur and mental health advocate Deepika Padukone, who was India’s top-paid actress last year, and multiple National Award-winner and Tamil actor Kamal Haasan. “I never thought I would work with people like Amitabh Sir and Kamal Sir [at all], let alone in one film,” Prabhas adds. “When I heard, I called the producer and said, ‘What are you giving me? This is an achievement beyond anything’.”
While India’s international film footprint is primarily associated with Hindi-speaking Bollywood, Kalki 2898 AD is shot primarily in Telugu and will release simultaneously in five languages. It is the latest example in a string of recent films that have been dubbed “pan-Indian” by critics, featuring stars from Bollywood in the same productions as those from regional Indian film industries such as Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. Since starring in S.S. Rajamouli’s Baahubali: The Beginning and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion – which were the top-grossing Indian movies ever at the time of release – Prabhas has been widely regarded as the first ever “pan-Indian” actor.
“We were hearing for the first time people calling me ‘pan-Indian’,” he says. “That doesn’t really affect me but it’s a good feeling to think that people around the country like me now.”
Throngs of fans
Prabhas is being modest, as evidenced by the throngs of fans in his home state of Andhra Pradesh that gather for a promotional event two days before our chat.
The event in Andhra Pradesh. Image: Treeshul Media Solutions
An estimated 15,000 fans congregate to see the launch of Bujji, a custom-made sentient car that acts as a comic sidekick to Prabhas’ lead character Bhairava in the film. Police patrol the area to prevent a stampede, and a meshed grill separates the crowds from Prabhas, who pulls up two hours late in a working model of the Bujji car accompanied by a blaze of pyrotechnics, dramatic music and squad of black-costumed stormtroopers.
Although Bollywood is undeniably huge, the level of devotion bestowed on South Indian film stars (specifically in the Tamil and Telugu film industries) is reminiscent of frenzied parasocial behaviour more commonly seen among obsessive fandoms of musical artists. Of the 10 minutes he takes to address the masses, several are spent apologizing for a promotional Instagram story teasing “a very special person,” which prompted fans to speculate wildly about his relationship status. “I’m not getting married any time soon, I don’t want to hurt the feelings of my female fans,” assured Prabhas, the crowd roaring its approval.
“In the South especially, [the fans] feel like you are their family,” he explains to Deadline later. “They feel everything. Sometimes they feel like you are their son, the kids feel like you are their brother. Sometimes they feel like you are God.”
“So whatever is said and done, I will be very careful that I will not cheat them,” he adds.
The pressure to not let people down is perhaps felt even more keenly by 38-year-old Ashwin, who is directing the movie. “We have four of the biggest stars in the country, some of the biggest VFX studios and there are a huge amount of action sequences as well,” he explains.
A self-professed nerd as a child, Ashwin’s vision for Kalki 2898 AD resembled “a character from [Indian mythological comic book] Amar Chithra Katha fighting someone from X-Men”. “I hope people will feel really strange when they leave the theater after watching Kalki 2898 AD, and will say, ‘Where am I? Can I go back into this world?’,” says Ashwin, who recalls feeling similarly disoriented after watching James Cameron’s Avatar. He says he made the movie for his 10-year-old self.
The scale of promotion is intended to be global – as seen from last year’s Comic-Con launch – but Ashwin is clear he will not modify any of the names to be more palatable to non-Indian audiences. “It’s Ashwatthama,” he says, spelling out the full name of Bachchan’s cursed warrior character. “Ashwatthama with two T’s.”
Bollywood dancers perform before the ‘Kalki 2898-AD a.k.a. Project K’ panel and screening at the 2023 Comic-Con International: San Diego
Michael Buckner/Getty Images
World cinema has seen countless adaptations of Norse, Greek and Roman mythologies, but Hindu is trickier to adapt because it still boasts more than 1 billion adherents worldwide. An increasingly polarized India has seen multiple film adaptations of Hindu mythology announced in recent years, includingNamit Malhotra’s upcoming version of Hindu epic Ramayana. Hailed as a global collaboration and featuring Hans Zimmer on the score, this movie will become another of India’s most expensive film productions in 2025.
Ashwin is not concerned, stating that Kalki 2898 AD does not involve any characters actively worshipped by large numbers of Hindus. “We can take it as extremely religious or we can take it as the story of somebody who was born with a lot of power, didn’t know what to do with it, and found his mentor in the process,” he says as Prabhas nods agreement. “Of course, if you tell it in the Indian context there will be a bit of devotion and emotion, but I feel any story can be dealt with subjectively without bringing a religious connotation.”
Kalki 2898 AD is the first instalment in this universe, and, if the first performs well, Ashwin, who says Marvel movies “open massively” in India, plans to direct sequels. Aside from ensuring the financial satisfaction of the film’s stakeholders (including his wife, sister-in-law and father-in-law, who are producers on the film), Ashwin’s definition for success involves “reaching people and demographics that we didn’t sit in a room and try to target.” He shares the example of going on a family holiday to the northeast Indian state of Sikkim, where a small theater was still showing Baahubali a month or two after its release. “I thought that was really cool because I don’t think the makers planned that to happen.”
“If that happens for this movie, that would be something special.”
Father and son Chris (right) and Fin as Star Wars universe Mandalorians. Denver Comic Con 2017. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)
Confession. While I consider myself a slight nerd (I enjoy Funko Pops, some anime and X-Men ‘97), I’ve only watched the Star Wars movies once and… I’ve never seen any of the shows.
But on Star Wars Day, better known as May 4th, I’m always down to get nerdy! And fun fact: The first article I ever published had a Star Wars reference in it. If you’ve got a piece of random Star Wars lore, enlighten me.
To chill with other Star Wars fans, here’s a list of May 4th events from flash tattoos to roller derby fun. It’s also Free Comic Book Day! Shop local and may the force be with you.
An All Terrain Armored Transport walks the dunes. The Colorado Space Grant Consortium’s Robotics Challenge at Great Sand Dunes National Park, April 13, 2019. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)
Happy Star Wars Day!
Rocky Mountain Roller Derby May 4; Doors open at: 4:30 p.m.; The Rollerdome, 2375 S Delaware St. The Sapphire Sirens and Amethyst Assassins are hitting the rink for a Star Wars-themed match. Local vendors will also be at the Dome selling goods. Tickets are $15 online and $18 at the door.
Star Wars Trivia May 4; Starts at 7 p.m.; Odell Brewing Sloan’s Lake Brewhouse & Pizzeria, 1625 Perry Street Which episode number is the first Star Wars film? If you know that, you may know some of the answers at this Star Wars Trivia event and win a $75 gift card. Come in costume and be entered into a $50 gift card giveaway. Oh, and there’s Jawa Juice.
More Trivia! May 4; Starts at 7 p.m.; Fiction Beer Company, 7101 East Colfax Ave. Fiction Beer is also hosting a trivia night. If your team gets first or second place, the tab is on the house.
“May the Farce Be With You” May 3 and 4; Starting at 8 p.m.; Fiction Beer Company, 7101 East Colfax Ave. Fiction Beer is clearly a Star Wars stan. Audacious Theatre Company will be showing Space Conflicts! May the Farce Be With You, an original comedy and parody of the whole Star Wars series. Tickets are $20. If you miss the show this weekend, Audacious will be back again on May 10 at Fiction’s location in Parker.
May Mackenzie stares up at a Princess Leia costume on exhibit at the Denver Art Museum. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)
ART WAR! Denver May 4; 7 p.m. to 12 a.m.; BRDG Project Gallery and Event Space, 3300 Tejon Street Put your cosplay outfits on and head to Tejon for over 40 different artists, a DJ and drinks for their “May the 4th Be With You” party.
May the 4th Popup Market From 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Mile High Spirits, 2201 Lawrence St. Mile High will be hosting a free market and costume contest. Earn a free drink or gift card.
Flash Tattoos A few artists around the city are hosting a flash day either for the weekend or solely on May 4.
K. Jones, Nicole Kendrick and Little Goblin are hosting a flash day on May 4th at their private studio. Some artists at Phoenix Tattoo Company will also be hosting a flash day on the 4th. Artists at Creature Arcade in Lakewood will be starting on May 3rd. They are also hosting a market throughout the weekend and you’ll get 15% of on Friday and Saturday if you come in costume.
Star Wars X DIA May 4; 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.; Jeppesen Terminal, Level 5.
Denver International Airport is also getting in on the Star Wars action. Grab photos with some characters, even if you aren’t traveling.
People in Star Wars cosumes walk in Denver’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in LoDo. March 11, 2023.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
X-Wing at Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum 7711 East Academy Blvd Head to the museum anytime to see a ¾-scale replica of the fighter Luke Skywalker uses. R2 is behind the wheel and will react to visitors. Tickets are $19.95.
Free Comic Book Day at Denver Public Library May 4; 10 a.m. through 5 p.m.; Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library, 2401 Welton St. Blair-Caldwell is hosting an all day comic event with activities, presentations, and exhibits on comic book history and culture. They’ll be highlighting African American and Colorado connections.
All in a Dream Comics; 3115 E. Colfax Avenue. All C’s Collectibles; 1250 S. Abilene Street Mile High Comics; 4600 Jason Street Monkey Paw Toys; 1555 S Havana Street, Unit G
