Wonder Man is one of Marvel Studios’ most low-key and peculiar television experiments to date. Created by Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest, the Disney+ miniseries follows Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), an up-and-coming actor in Los Angeles whose biggest dream is not to save the world, but to book the lead role in a remake of his favorite childhood movie, Wonder Man. It’s a concept that immediately separates the show from the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and yet, by the end of its run, it also feels emblematic of Marvel’s current creative malaise.
The opening episode sets the tone well. Simon lands a small role on American Horror Story, but loses the part after overanalyzing his character to the point that production is delayed. It’s a painfully relatable moment for anyone who has spent time in the entertainment industry, and the show smartly leans into that specificity. Dejected, Simon attends a screening of Midnight Cowboy, where he runs into Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), the once-infamous actor behind the fake Mandarin persona in Iron Man 3. Trevor reveals that he’s auditioning for the Wonder Man remake — a revelation that sends Simon into a spiral, as Wonder Man is a film he watched with his father growing up. The role represents not just career success, but emotional closure and validation.
The central hook of the series is genuinely interesting: Simon is secretly superpowered, but enhanced individuals are banned from acting due to skyrocketing insurance costs. His goal, therefore, is to land the role of a lifetime without anyone discovering what he can do. It’s a clever inversion of the traditional superhero premise. Simon has no interest in vigilantism, crime-fighting, or public heroics. He simply wants to act. In a genre oversaturated with masked crusaders and multiversal stakes, Wonder Man earns points for attempting something smaller, quieter, and more human.
That relatability is clearly intentional. The series is designed to resonate with struggling actors — the constant self-tapes, the anxiety of distractions during auditions, the feeling that one missed opportunity could change everything. In that sense, Wonder Man often feels more like an industry satire or a backstage comedy-drama than a superhero show. It’s also notably light on action, which will either feel refreshing or disappointing depending on your expectations.
One of the undeniable highlights is Ben Kingsley’s return as Trevor Slattery. While Iron Man 3 was initially divisive, particularly due to its Mandarin twist, time has been kind to the film (I watch it every Christmas), and Kingsley’s performance has only grown in stature. Marvel clearly knows it struck gold with the character, bringing him back in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and now positioning him as the emotional counterweight to Simon. Trevor is once again chasing relevance, still clinging to his love of acting while carrying the baggage of his past mistakes. The dynamic between Kingsley and Abdul-Mateen is the heart of the show, and their evolving friendship gives Wonder Man its most effective moments.
There is some added tension courtesy of the Department of Damage Control, which pressures Trevor to spy on Simon without Simon’s knowledge. While this subplot adds a layer of intrigue, it never quite escalates into anything particularly gripping. That’s emblematic of the show as a whole: the ideas are solid, but rarely pushed far enough.
Tonally, Wonder Man aims for a low-stakes, ground-level superhero comedy, though it never commits fully to being laugh-out-loud funny. It isn’t trying as aggressively to be comedic as She-Hulk, and that restraint ultimately works in its favor. While the humor doesn’t always land, the show avoids the tonal whiplash and overindulgence that plagued some of Marvel’s recent TV efforts. There are flashes of screwball comedy and moments of genuine absurdity, but overall, the series elicits more mild smiles than big laughs.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II carries the show with ease. He brings warmth, insecurity, and quiet desperation to Simon Williams, making him an instantly sympathetic protagonist. You believe in his dream, even when the show itself struggles to elevate that dream into something dramatically compelling. Supporting characters, particularly Simon’s skeptical older brother, hint at deeper emotional conflict, but those threads are never explored with enough depth to truly resonate. The drama is present, but always feels slightly undercooked.
That sense of incompleteness defines Wonder Man. It’s not bad — far from it — but it’s also not exceptional. Everything is “fine.” The writing is competent. The performances are solid. The themes are clear. And yet, there’s always the feeling that the show is missing that one defining element that would justify its existence.
Compared to Marvel Television’s earlier highs like Daredevil and Jessica Jones, Wonder Man feels slight. It also suffers from arriving at a time when Marvel’s output no longer feels essential. Once, every MCU project was framed as a must-see chapter in a larger narrative. Now, as the franchise slowly builds toward Avengers: Doomsday — with teases of Steve Rogers, Thor, the X-Men, Black Panther, and the Fantastic Four — Wonder Man feels almost completely disconnected. It has no meaningful ties to the looming threat of Doctor Doom, and no impact on the broader MCU story. The main hook isn’t, “Will Simon Williams become the superhero he was meant to be?” It’s “Will Simon Williams become the Hollywood star he’s dreamed of?”
As a result, the series comes across as disposable streaming content designed to pass the time rather than move the franchise forward. Diehard Marvel fans will watch it out of obligation. Casual viewers can easily skip it without missing anything important. Ultimately, Wonder Man is a show that actors might deeply relate to, but one that general audiences will likely forget. In a crowded landscape of superhero content and prestige television, “decent” simply isn’t enough anymore, but it’s undeniably easy to watch, and occasionally charming.
SCORE: 6/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 6 equates to “Decent.” It fails to reach its full potential and is a run-of-the-mill experience.
Disclosure: ComingSoon received screeners for our Wonder Man review.
The peak time for deals on streaming services — the holiday shopping season — has come and gone, but Disney is back with a fresh offer for the new year. New and eligible returning subscribers can get one month of the ad-supported Disney+ Hulu bundle for just $10. That’s $3 off the usual monthly rate for the bundle, and more than 58 percent off if you consider the prices for each service individually (Disney+ at $12 per month and, separately, Hulu also at $12 per month).
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that this isn’t quite as good as the Black Friday deal we saw last year, which offered the same bundle for $5 per month for one year. However, if you missed that offer or just want to try out Disney+ and Hulu for a brief period of time, this is a good way to do so.
Disney / Hulu / Engadget
Try out the ad-supported plan of Disney+ and Hulu for only $10 for one month.
Disney+ and Hulu make one of the most balanced streaming pairs available, blending family-friendly favorites with acclaimed originals and network TV staples. Disney+ brings a vast library of animated classics, blockbuster franchises and exclusive content from Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars and National Geographic. It’s the place to stream nearly every Star Wars film and series, plus the full Marvel Cinematic Universe lineup and Disney’s most recent theatrical releases.
Hulu balances things out with a more adult-oriented lineup of current TV shows, next-day network episodes and a growing roster of award-winning originals. The platform hosts series like The Bear,The Handmaid’s Tale and Only Murders in the Building, alongside comedies, thrillers and documentaries that regularly feature in awards conversations. It’s also the home for next-day streaming of ABC and FX shows, making it especially useful if you’ve already cut the cable cord but still want to keep up with primetime TV.
The Duo Basic bundle ties these two services together under a single subscription, offering a simple way to expand your library without juggling multiple accounts. This tier includes ads on both platforms, but the trade-off is significant savings compared with paying for each service separately. For many households, that’s an acceptable compromise when it means access to such a wide range of content.
SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from the season finale of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” now streaming on Disney+.
Fresh off his breakout role in “The Adam Project,” Walker Scobell was just 12 years old when he took on one of YA literature’s most beloved heroes, Percy Jackson. Five years later, he’s growing up as he plays the demigod son of Poseidon, who weathered epic battles and emotional twists in Season 2 of Disney+’s hit adaptation, which is based on Rick Riordan’s second “Percy Jackson” book, “The Sea of Monsters.” Along the way, Scobell has had to balance life as a teenager with the pressures of bringing Riordan’s beloved character to life.
The Season 2 finale opens with Percy, Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries), Grover (Aryan Simhadri), Tyson (Daniel Diemer) and Clarisse (Dior Goodjohn) racing back to Camp Half-Blood after successfully stealing the magical Golden Fleece back from Luke (Charlie Bushnell). But getting there isn’t easy. They’re ambushed by Laestrygonian giants, and to make matters worse, some of the campers they trusted have turned out to be traitors. While they fight their way home, Luke and his forces launch a full-scale assault on the camp, trying to break through its weakened defenses.
Charlie Bushnell as Luke
Disney/David Bukach
Against heavy odds, Percy and the group make it to Thalia’s tree and place the Fleece on its branches. The Fleece’s powers are so strong that not only is the tree healed from Luke’s poison, but Thalia (Tamara Smart) emerges in human form, brought back to life without having aged since the day six years ago when Zeus (Courtney B. Vance) erected the tree to hold her spirit. Percy is no longer the only child of the “big three” gods who could fulfill the Great Prophecy.
In a dramatic departure from the book, the finale delivers a shocking twist. It’s revealed in a flashback that the Furies didn’t attack Thalia. Instead, they told her about the Great Prophecy and Zeus’ hopes that she will grow up to save Olympus on his behalf. Angry that he would expect this of her despite his absence in her life, Thalia tells Zeus when he appears that she refuses to serve as his weapon. He decides she cannot remain alive, transforming her into the magical tree that will protect Camp Half-Blood. He then orders Chiron (Glynn Turman) to tell everyone he did it to save Thalia’s life after the Furies almost killed her. The new ending changes everything the campers thought they knew about Thalia’s “sacrifice,” and sets the stage for conflicts in Season 3.
“It just solidifies everything we know in mythology about Zeus,” Scobell told Variety. “And it makes it a lot easier for a lot of demigods to join Luke’s side.”
Scobell is now heading into uncharted waters with Season 3, as Riordan’s book “The Titan’s Curse” has never been adapted. “I almost feel like there’s less pressure, because I don’t think there’s anything to really compare it to,” he said. “I thought Logan Lerman had a wonderful performance as Percy Jackson, but now I’m on my own.”
Variety spoke with Scobell about his experience closing out Season 2, and what lies ahead for Percy Jackson.
Throughout the season, Percy is the one person who’s not particularly eager for Thalia’s return. How did it feel to build up that tension in Season 2 when you didn’t have scenes with Thalia until the very end? And how does it feel now that you’re acting with her as you shoot Season 3?
When we were doing these scenes, building up that tension, I was kind of nervous. I was like, “What are we gonna do next year?” I didn’t know if they were going to add something else or if they were going to change something, and they did it. I just had no idea what they were gonna do with it, especially after that big plot twist on Thalia’s backstory — that Zeus did it. So I was really excited to see what was gonna happen when Annabeth and then Thalia and I are just left almost alone.
Left to right: Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth, Tamara Smart as Thalia
Disney/David Bukach
The Season 2 finale takes a pretty dramatic pivot from the book. How do you think the difference in Thalia’s sacrifice is going to change things now that the gang knows it wasn’t what they thought it was?
It’s just gonna be even more of a reason to join Luke’s side. We explore that a little bit more in Season 3. And it’s difficult, because Percy can’t argue with that at all really. From Percy’s point of view, she’s not really wrong. Percy agrees with her. It just solidifies everything we know in mythology about Zeus, in my opinion. It makes it a lot easier for Thalia to join Luke’s side.
Percy gives a very motivating and inspired speech to dozens of campers before the final battle. How was that to do?
Nerve-racking for sure. I was definitely freaking out a little bit. A lot of people in that room were really familiar faces, so it made it very easy. We’ve all been acting together forever. So I think it made it a lot easier.
We got a glimpse at what happens to Percy when he thinks Annabeth is in danger, and in “The Titan’s Curse,” they’re separated for a long time. How does it feel for you to not have Leah around as you’re shooting Season 3? And how is Percy dealing with the absence of Annabeth?
It was definitely different on set without Leah, for sure. But it was also different without Aryan. Things are different every season. But yeah, he’s just on a mission, and he’s not really going to stop until he gets her back.
Percy and Annabeth have had a slow burn, but you also have lines like, “If I had to choose between you and Olympus, I’d burn it all down.” Rick Riordan told Varietyafter the Season 2 premiere that they were both still in denial about their feelings for each other. At this point in the story, do you think Percy has realized what his feelings towards Annabeth are?
I don’t think at this part of the story he necessarily has romantic feelings. I think yes to slow burn, and I think yes, if there wasn’t these books, people would also ship them together. But at the same time, I can imagine him saying these lines to Grover; I can imagine saying these lines to Tyson — it just happens to be that it is Annabeth. I guess they have been trying to lean into that.
And I guess in Season 3, we pull back a little bit. We don’t lean into it as much. It’s more like he’s trying to get to her over anything. But that’s just like Percy; it’s like getting to Grover. He really cares about her, and I don’t think it’s like a romantic thing yet. I mean, he still has two love interests to go, so that’s what also makes it difficult. Sometimes I read those lines and I’m like, “I gotta not lean into this with what I’m doing” — but then, I get the notes to lean into it. It’s gonna be interesting when Rachel and Calypso show up.
How do you think Annabeth feels about Percy right now?
I think they like each other — not like a crush or anything. I think they’re just really good friends. I would say Grover is like his brother, and I would say Tyson’s like his brother. I think Annabeth is basically one of his best friends at this point. I also don’t think they’re thinking about that at all, because there’s a lot more going on.
Left to right: Aryan Simhadri as Grover, Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth
Disney
Is there a scene from the book that you wish was in the show but didn’t make it?
Some things just don’t work out because of pace, or they don’t work out because we wanted to lean into something else that’s a bigger deal. I was missing the Hydra a little bit, but then it’s like, we made the Scylla sequence really massive. And that makes a lot of sense to me. Sometimes you have to pick and choose what you really make a big deal. And it’s also expensive. Hydra is a lot of money, and you’ve got to be careful. It would be cool to have the Hydra and Scylla, but at the same time, I’d rather have one of those things that looks really good, rather than both of them not looking that great and not being able to lean into them completely.
I also missed the dodgeball sequence at school. But then, we made enough room for the Manticore and Dr. Thorn chase in Episode 2 [of Season 3], focusing on that and then also that fight sequence.
You’re in the middle of filming Season 3. The third book has never been adapted. How does it feel now that you’re moving into uncharted territory? Do you feel any pressure, or is it more exciting?
I almost feel like there’s less pressure, because I don’t think there’s anything to really compare it to. I thought Logan Lerman had a wonderful performance as Percy Jackson, but now I’m on my own.
Walker Scobell as Percy
Disney/David Bukach
Between seasons, do you go back home? Do you live with your parents? Do you go to school? Do you live a relatively normal life?
Yeah, it’s actually a lot like Percy in a weird way, and I always found that pretty funny. I go home from this, and I just go right back to school — I just pick up where I left off. I’ve known all these teachers at the school I go to for a long time. I definitely get cut some slack. But at the end of the day, I do the same work that every other kid does, and I like going back to that.
Roger Allers, a famous director who worked on several Disney classics, has died. He was 76.Allers was known for working on several Disney animated films, such as “The Lion King,” where he was the co-director.He also worked on “Aladdin,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Tron.” CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, posted a statement on Instagram saying, “Roger Allers was a creative visionary whose many contributions to Disney will live on for generations to come. He understood the power of great storytelling — how unforgettable characters, emotion, and music can come together to create something timeless. His work helped define an era of animation that continues to inspire audiences around the world, and we are deeply grateful for everything he gave to Disney. Our hearts are with his family, friends, and collaborators.”
Roger Allers, a famous director who worked on several Disney classics, has died. He was 76.
Allers was known for working on several Disney animated films, such as “The Lion King,” where he was the co-director.
He also worked on “Aladdin,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Tron.”
CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, posted a statement on Instagram saying, “Roger Allers was a creative visionary whose many contributions to Disney will live on for generations to come. He understood the power of great storytelling — how unforgettable characters, emotion, and music can come together to create something timeless. His work helped define an era of animation that continues to inspire audiences around the world, and we are deeply grateful for everything he gave to Disney. Our hearts are with his family, friends, and collaborators.”
A California man has been arrested on a federal criminal complaint alleging that he made online death threats against Vice President JD Vance during his visit to Disneyland Resort in Anaheim in July.
Marco Antonio Aguayo, 22, of Anaheim, was taken into custody Friday after he allegedly made multiple threatening comments on Disney’s official Instagram account referencing pipe bombs, imminent bloodshed and violent action against “corrupt politicians” on July 12, the same day Vance and his family were visiting and staying at the resort.
Aguayo is charged with threatening the president and successors to the presidency, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
He is expected to make his initial appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana.
Vice President JD Vance was visiting Disneyland in California when the alleged threats were posted on social media.(Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“This case is a horrific reminder of the dangers public officials face from deranged criminals who would do them harm,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a Department of Justice news release announcing Aguayo’s arrest. “I am grateful that my friend Vice President Vance and his family are safe, applaud the police work that led to the arrest, and will ensure my prosecutors deliver swift justice.”
Just before 6:15 p.m. on July 12, an Instagram account posted a public comment on the Disney page saying, “Pipe bombs have been placed in preparation for J.D. Vance’s arrival,” according to an affidavit by a U.S. Secret Service Special Agent.
A subsequent comment said, “It’s time for us to rise up and you will be a witness to it,” and a third comment added, “Good luck finding all of them on time there will be bloodshed tonight and we will bathe in the blood of corrupt politicians,” according to the affidavit.
General views of the Disneyland Hotel at the Disneyland Resort on November 25, 2023 in Anaheim, California.(Photo by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
Investigators traced the Instagram account allegedly used to post the threats to Aguayo’s email address, phone numbers, IP addresses and home in Anaheim, using records from Meta, Google and other sources.
While questioning Aguayo at his home, investigators said he initially claimed his account had been hacked, but later admitted to making the posts as a “joke,” with the intention of deleting them.
Guests at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., where Vice President JD Vance visited with this family in July.(Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
Aguayo consented to searches of his phone, bedroom and laptop, where investigators confirmed he was logged into the account that made the posts, according to the affidavit.
“We will not tolerate criminal threats against public officials,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in the release. “We are grateful the Vice President and his family remained safe during their visit. Let this case be a warning to anyone who thinks they can make anonymous online threats. We will find you and bring you to justice.”
Alexandra Koch is a Fox News Digital journalist who covers breaking news, with a focus on high-impact events that shape national conversation.
She has covered major national crises, including the L.A. wildfires, Potomac and Hudson River aviation disasters, Boulder terror attack, and Texas Hill Country floods.
The movie’s footage was released online Tuesday and features voiceover from Shuri (Letitia Wright), who took up the mantle of Black Panther in 2022’s Wakanda Forever following the death of brother T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman).
“I’ve lost everyone that matters to me,” Wright says in the new trailer. “A king has his duties to prepare our people for the afterlife. I have mine.”
The teaser also shows M’Baku (Winston Duke) introducing himself as the King of Wakanda, after Shuri opted not to challenge him for the throne in Wakanda Forever. That film also included the MCU debut of Namor (Tenoch Huerta), who appears in the trailer for Avengers: Doomsday.
“King M’Baku of Wakanda,” Duke tells Ben Grimm, aka The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). The Fantastic Four member responds, “Ben, Yancy Street between Broome and Grand.”
The rest of the MCU’s Fantastic Four — Mr. Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), the Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby) and the Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) — will also appear in Doomsday after debuting in last summer’s 1960s-set The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
This is the fourth teaser that Marvel has shared online for the forthcoming film. The previous clips focused on scenes with Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the X-Men’s Cyclops (James Marsden).
Marvel Studios revealed an extensive list of castmembers from the film in March during a lengthy livestream. The centerpiece of the project is Downey, who previously starred as the MCU’s Iron Man before the character died in the most recent Avengers movie, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame.
Before the end of 2025, Disney surprised everyone (derogatory) by entering into a $1 billion deal with OpenAI. With it, over 200 Disney characters have been licensed for the Sora video platform and image generator ChatGPT. From the general public and Hollywood alike, reactions weren’t exactly thrilled, but SAG-AFTRA is keeping an open mind. Sort of.
Talking to Deadline at CES, union presidents Sean Astin and Duncan Crabtree-Ireland were asked what the deal could mean for the acting industry. In 2023 and 2024, SAG-AFTRA went on strike to secure better protections against synthetic performers and actors being made to sign their voice rights away. Crabtree-Ireland admitted he doesn’t know the full details of the agreement made between the two companies but revealed they contacted SAG-AFTRA before the public reveal.
In the call announcing the deal, “top execs” from Disney and OpenAI said the deal has “certain assurances,” such as “explicitly excluding any licensing of any performer images or voices,” explained Crabtree-Ireland. “One concern I have, and I expect Sean shares, is precisely why Disney would want to do it. Making a deal like that before the IP litigation, copyright litigation is resolved, could be smart.”
While Disney can’t be stopped from partnering with OpenAI, SAG-AFTRA knows it’s made progress where it can. Crabtree-Ireland noted the union’s contract from 2023 requires companies to proactively disclose if they’ve created and used a synthetic performance, of which there’ve been “zero notices” about so far. But they’re not stopping there: every future negotiation SAG-AFTRA takes part in will involve “looking at how AI is rolling out and developing.” Machine learning technology has greatly evolved in recent years, and the hope is to “continue creating separation between AI, as an algorithmic tool, and humanity.”
With attention spans only getting shorter, Disney is looking to lock in more eyeballs on Disney+ by borrowing from TikTok’s playbook.
The studio announced Wednesday that it plans to roll out short-form, vertical video content to the Disney+ app in the U.S. later this year.
“The experience will evolve as it expands across news and entertainment and delivers a more personalized, dynamic experience that reinforces Disney+ as a must-visit daily destination,” the House of Mouse said in a post rounding up announcements from the company’s Tech + Data Showcase at CES in Las Vegas.
The move follows Disney’s launch of “Verts,” short, sports highlights and analysis clips, on the ESPN app last year.
Disney says the initiative is about boosting daily engagement on the platform. While streaming services still care about subscriber growth, more of their profit growth now depends on advertising, which requires users to show up more often and stick around longer. Short-form video is one way to do that.
TikTok, which first launched in China in 2016 before expanding globally in 2017, has perfected this type of habit-forming, daily engagement. And it didn’t take long for rivals to copy the formula. Meta rolled out Instagram Reels in 2020, and YouTube followed with Shorts in 2021.
Now, it looks like streamers are next.
Erin Teague, executive vice president of product management for Disney Entertainment and ESPN, said during remarks at CES that mobile is a major opportunity for Disney+.
“Over the next year, we’re introducing vertical video experiences on Disney+. Think all the short-form Disney content you’d want in one unified app,” said Teague. ”Over time, we’ll evolve the experience as we explore applications for a variety of formats, categories, and content types for a dynamic feed of just what you’re interested in — from Sports, News, and Entertainment — refreshed in real time based on your last visit.”
In an interview with Deadline, Teague added that the initiative is also about meeting younger audiences where they are.
“This is what Gen Z and Gen Alpha are expecting. They are not necessarily thinking about sitting down, watching a long-form, two-and-a-half-hour piece of content on their phones,” Teague told Deadline.
Disney isn’t the first streamer to experiment with vertical video. Netflix began testing a similar short-form video feed feature last year, using it largely to highlight and promote its long-form content.
Teague, however, told Deadline that Disney isn’t treating its short-form video content as previews for longer shows or movies, but as enhancements to the overall Disney+ experience.
Disney+ will add vertical videos to its service in the US sometime this year, in hopes that they can entice viewers to engage with its app every day. The company has made the announcement at its Tech + Data Showcase event at CES 2026. Disney first dabbled in vertical content with Verts, which launched for the ESPN app in August 2025, giving it the insight it needed on how its users respond to the video format.
Erin Teague, Disney Entertainment’s EVP of Product Management, told Deadline that the company will use the format for all kinds of content. The service isn’t just planning to use it as a vehicle for movie and series teasers, but also for original short-form programming. She didn’t say what kinds of original programming Disney+ will be adding as vertical videos to its app, but vertical micro-dramas have become incredibly popular over the past year.
“We’re obviously thinking about integrating vertical video in ways that are native to core user behaviors,” Teague said. “So, it won’t be a kind of a disjointed, random experience.” The company is targeting Gen Z and Gen Alpha users, in particular, since they’re not inclined to sit and watch long-form content on their phones for hours. Disney said in a statement that the experience will “evolve as it expands across news and entertainment” and will be personalized for users, with making the service “a must-visit daily destination” as its goal. After all, if a user is already in the app, they’re more likely to explore and watch the service’s programming.
Both tickets can be upgraded with the Park Hopper, Park Hopper Plus or Water Parks & Sports options, according to park officials.
Disney also shared that special room offers are available for Florida residents, which include saving up to 30% at select Disney Resorts Collection hotels this spring and up to 35% on rooms at select Disney Resort hotels this summer. View additional details about the Disney hotel offers.
The cherry on top is a sarcastic call to action on his fake article: “Read my new interview with @thecut.” It doesn’t exactly scream “this essay isn’t about my wife and her custom ‘mother’ sweatpants.”
Tisdale French explained in her essay that she began feeling left out and uncool, echoes of her high school (not the musical kind, the learning kind) insecurities coming back to haunt her. “But I’m not in high school anymore,” she wrote. “I’m a mom.” She rationalized that she was setting an example for her kids by standing up for herself and letting her not-friends know that there would be no more mommy-n-me hangs for her, thank you very much. “Surely, it would have been easier to disappear without explanation—and that would have allowed all of us to convince ourselves that we simply ‘drifted apart’,” she wrote.
Easier, yes, and arguably better.
If you can afford to shell out for a $10.99 monthly HBO Max basic plan subscription—maybe even less if you take the time to track down a promo code, and even more affordable if you share a login—the indelible lessons of Big Little Lies are priceless. Not all friend groups share what Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Zoe Kravitz, and Laura Dern do (murder secrets, very nice views of Monterey Bay). Every friendship looks different, and has a unique ingredient list for its glue. People come and go. In her original post, Tisdale French called the group “exactly what I needed at the time.” Now, not so much. And that’s fine. Seasons pass, needs change.
Psych studies have found that having friends helps us live—friendships literally decrease risk of death—and live better, happier lives. Young women in particular tend to rely on their friends for intimacy and support, more than men of the same age, according to one survey. Friends are important, there’s no doubt about that, but so is self-awareness.
High school sucks. Mean girl stuff sucks. Unfortunately, neither high school stuff nor mean girl stuff is exclusive to the adolescent stage of life. But here’s the beautiful lesson that comes with age and experience: You can’t control what anyone else does, but you can control how you react to it. This is something that’s as true for Disney Channel alumnus Hollywood moms as it is for us regular degular ones: Not all friendships last forever, no matter how fire the group chat once was.
Duff, so far, appears to be holding true to the ol’ “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all” rule, not commenting publicly as of publication.
Tisdale French doesn’t seem to be in possession of that particular throw pillow either. “It didn’t exactly go over well,” she shared of the chat’s reaction to her departure announcement to the group via text: “This is too high school for me and I don’t want to take part in it anymore.” Shocking. No wonder we haven’t seen any of the alleged subjects sharing celebratory retweets of her essay, dredging up old drama.
If it was childish behavior Tisdale French was hoping to cut out of her life, we have some bad news: This is all high school, and there isn’t even a musical to hum along to this time.
Representatives for Ashley Tisdale French and Hilary Duff did not immediately respond to Vanity Fair’s request for comment.
New Year’s Day commemorates the passing of time and the start of a new chapter, so it is fitting that the same day also presents an opportunity to breathe new life into thousands of creative works nearly a century old. As of Jan. 1, 2026, characters like early Betty Boop and Nancy Drew, and a variety of popular movies, books and songs, have entered the the public domain.
List of popular intellectual property entering the public domain in 2026
The year 2026 marks the first time that copyrighted books, films, songs and art published in the ’30s enter the U.S. public domain. As of Jan. 1, protections have expired for published works from 1930 and sound recordings from 1925.
Here are some of the most notable works that are now available for free use by anyone:
“The Murder at the Vicarage” by Agatha Christie, the first novel featuring elderly amateur detective Miss Marple.
“The Secret of the Old Clock” by Carolyn Keene, the first appearance of teen detective Nancy Drew, and three follow-ups.
“The Little Engine That Could” by Watty Piper.
Fleischer Studios’ “Dizzy Dishes,” the first cartoon in which Betty Boop appears.
Disney’s “The Chain Gang” and “The Picnic,” both depicting the earliest versions of Mickey’s dog Pluto.
The initial four months of “Blondie” comic strips by Chic Young, featuring the earliest iterations of the titular character and her then-boyfriend, Dagwood.
The film “All Quiet on the Western Front,” directed by Lewis Milestone, Best Picture winner at the 3rd Academy Awards.
“King of Jazz,” directed by John Murray Anderson, Bing Crosby’s first appearance in a feature film.
“Animal Crackers,” directed by Victor Heerman and starring the Marx Brothers.
“The Big Trail,” directed by Raoul Walsh, John Wayne’s first turn as leading man.
“But Not For Me,” music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin.
“Georgia on My Mind,” music by Hoagy Carmichael, lyrics by Stuart Gorrell.
“Dream a Little Dream of Me,” music by Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandt, lyrics by Gus Kahn.
“Livin’ in the Sunlight, Lovin’ in the Moonlight,” music by Al Sherman, lyrics by Al Lewis.
Piet Mondrian’s painting, “Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow.”
The original Betty Boop, early Nancy Drew mysteries, and Mickey Mouse’s dog Pluto are among the creative works entering the public domain on Jan. 1, 2026.
How the public domain works
When a work’s copyright protections lapse, it lands in the public domain, allowing anyone to use and build upon it as they see fit for free and without needing permission.
The U.S. Constitution’s intellectual property clause establishes that works be protected for a limited amount of time, “to promote the progress of science and useful arts.” The Founding Fathers left it to Congress to sort out the specifics.
Generally, in the U.S., works published or registered before 1978 retain copyright protections for 95 years. For later works, protection usually spans the creator’s lifetime and 70 years after.
“If copyright lasted forever, it would be very difficult for a lot of creators to make the works they want to make without worrying about being in the crosshairs of a copyright lawsuit,” Jenkins said.
Just because a work’s copyright has expired does not mean that members of the public cannot be held legally liable in some instances. For example, while the original Betty Boop from 1930 is in the public domain, the modern version is not. So to avoid infringement, any reuse would need to steer clear of her newer characteristics. Additionally, the character is subject to multiple trademarks, which further complicates its use.
What’s entering the public domain in 2027?
Copyrighted works from 1931 will see their protections expire in 2027. This includes Universal Pictures’ “Frankenstein” and “Dracula” films, Charlie Chaplin’s “City Lights,” Fritz Lang’s “M,” Herman Hupfeld’s jazz standard “As Time Goes By” and more.
A cast member at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando was injured after he was hit by the massive rubber ball used in the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular attraction. It happened when the man was attempting to stop the rubber “boulder” used in the show after it went off course and rolled toward the audience. Video shows the cast member putting his arms up to stop the ball, but he was slammed to the ground instead. Videos of the incident were shared widely on social media. “We’re focused on supporting our cast member, who is recovering,” a Disney spokesperson told WESH 2. “Safety is at the heart of what we do, and that element of the show will be modified as our safety team completes a review of what happened.”The boulder weighs 400 pounds and is made of rubber, the ride’s website says. >> This story will be updated as more information is released.
ORLANDO, Fla. —
A cast member at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando was injured after he was hit by the massive rubber ball used in the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular attraction.
It happened when the man was attempting to stop the rubber “boulder” used in the show after it went off course and rolled toward the audience.
Video shows the cast member putting his arms up to stop the ball, but he was slammed to the ground instead. Videos of the incident were shared widely on social media.
“We’re focused on supporting our cast member, who is recovering,” a Disney spokesperson told WESH 2. “Safety is at the heart of what we do, and that element of the show will be modified as our safety team completes a review of what happened.”
The boulder weighs 400 pounds and is made of rubber, the ride’s website says.
>> This story will be updated as more information is released.
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NEW: During Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! at Disney’s Hollywood Studios today, a 400-pound boulder prop dislodged from its track. A Cast Member was injured stopping it before it reached the audience. Disney says the Cast Member received immediate care and is recovering. pic.twitter.com/TxbWYV25OX
A staffer at Walt Disney World is recovering, a Disney spokesperson said, after videos showed a fake boulder rolling off its track during a live show at the Florida theme park and striking an employee.
“We’re focused on supporting our cast member, who is recovering,” a Disney spokesperson told CBS News in a statement on Wednesday. “Safety is at the heart of what we do, and that element of the show will be modified as our safety team completes a review of what happened.”
Disney refers to its park staffers as cast members.
In the live show, called Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, the “Indiana Jones” franchise’s title character and another performer carry out “incredible stunts with explosive special effects,” according to a description of the event. One involves an enormous prop boulder.
While Disney didn’t specifically mention the boulder in its statement, videos shared on social media Tuesday showed the prop rolling off the raised stage in the middle of a performance. It then proceeded to hurdle toward a packed audience at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Video of the accident was initially shared on TikTok and then on Reddit. The viral clip showed a Disney cast member stepping out in front of the “Indiana Jones” audience in what appeared to be an attempt to prevent the boulder from reaching the crowd after it fell from the stage. The giant rolling prop hit the staffer, who fell backward onto the ground as a result of the collision.
The Disney spokesperson confirmed “a prop moved off its track” and said a performer was injured.
In the footage, another cast member was seen successfully stopping the boulder in its tracks before running to check on their colleague. The stunt show was scheduled to take place again on Wednesday, according to Disney’s website.
Disney has agreed to pay $10 million in civil penalties to settle allegations that it violated federal data-collection laws designed to protect children.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Tuesday that a federal court has entered a stipulated order resolving a case against Disney Worldwide Services and Disney Entertainment Operations.
In a complaint filed in a California district court, the DOJ alleged that Disney failed to properly label some of its videos on YouTube as being targeted toward children. By not doing so, Disney and its partners were allegedly able to target ads toward children on YouTube and unlawfully collect children’s personal information without notifying parents or obtaining their consent.
The lawsuit claims this mislabeling violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The law, first passed in 1998, prohibits website operators from knowingly collecting personal information from children under the age of 13 unless they first obtain consent from a parent.
“The Justice Department is firmly devoted to ensuring parents have a say in how their children’s information is collected and used,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate in a press release. “The Department will take swift action to root out any unlawful infringement on parents’ rights to protect their children’s privacy.”
Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Gizmodo. However, a Disney spokesperson told Axios when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) first disclosed details of the settlement: “Supporting the well-being and safety of kids and families is at the heart of what we do. This settlement does not involve Disney-owned and -operated digital platforms but rather is limited to the distribution of some of our content on YouTube’s platform.”
According to the DOJ, Disney’s YouTube content has racked up billions of views in the United States alone. The complaint alleges that improperly labeled videos were spread across several Disney-owned YouTube channels, including the Pixar channel, the Disney+ channel, and the Disney Animation Studios channel. The videos featured popular cartoon characters from films like The Incredibles, Coco, Frozen, and Tangled.
After a $170 million settlement with the FTC in 2019 over similar COPPA violations, YouTube began requiring creators to designate whether videos they upload are “made for kids” or “not made for kids.” Videos labeled as made for kids have certain features disabled to comply with COPPA, including personalized advertising, the collection of personal information, and comments.
The case is among the first in which a content creator has settled with the DOJ since YouTube’s own COPPA settlement.
Beyond the financial penalty, the court order prohibits Disney from violating COPPA on YouTube and requires the company to set up an ongoing content review program to ensure its videos on the site comply with the law.
Disney announced Tuesday that director Joachim Rønning’s sci-fi feature is set to begin streaming Jan. 7 on Disney+. The latest installment in the Tron franchise hit theaters Oct. 10 and stars Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith, Hasan Minhaj, Arturo Castro, Gillian Anderson and Jeff Bridges.
Tron: Ares centers on an advanced program known as Ares (Leto) getting sent from the digital Grid into the real world, marking mankind’s first interaction with AI.
The film is the latest offering on the streaming service to be available in IMAX Enhanced, featuring the expanded aspect ratio associated with IMAX programming.
Bridges originated his role as software engineer Kevin Flynn in filmmaker Steven Lisberger’s original 1982 movie Tron and reprised it in director Joseph Kosinski’s 2010 sequel Tron: Legacy that also starred Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde. Both previous movies are currently streaming on Disney+.
In his review of Tron: Ares for The Hollywood Reporter, chief film critic David Rooney wrote that the core story elements were “familiar from countless movies.”
He added, “But a refreshingly subdued performance from Jared Leto as the eponymous program, Ares, supplies an emotional hook and even an occasional touch of humor, something missing from the earlier films. Leto is also well-paired with Greta Lee as Eve Kim, CEO of ENCOM, the tech corporation at the center of the series since the start.”
(CNN) — Moviegoers flocked to theaters for Disney’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” on the last weekend of the year, solidifying the sci-fi adventure film’s place as one of the biggest blockbusters of 2025.
The third installment of director James Cameron’s “Avatar” films raked in another $64 million domestically Friday through Sunday, and roughly $181.2 million internationally, bringing its worldwide total to $760.4 million.
“Fire and Ash” is the No. 6 highest-grossing film worldwide this year, having overtaken popular releases like Warner Bros. Discovery’s “Superman” and Sony Pictures’ “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” in just 10 days.
Warner Bros. Discovery is the parent company of CNN.
The big-budget “Avatar” franchise, which includes films from 2009 and 2022, has proved it can still draw large audiences to theaters with its spectacular visual effects.“Fire and Ash” has earned $96 million globally on IMAX and is expected to become IMAX’s biggest Hollywood release of the year, according to Disney.
“Premium formats (are) a huge factor for ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash,’ despite the fact that consumers are price-sensitive,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore.
Audiences were also drawn to a diverse slate of movies this weekend. Disney’s “Zootopia 2,” which opened on Thanksgiving, finished No. 2 at the box office with $20 million, a 35% jump from last weekend, according to Comscore. “Zootopia 2” has grossed $1.4 billion worldwide — the second-highest-grossing movie of the year.
“(‘Zootopia 2’) gets the Most Valuable Player award for the holiday season,” said Dergarabedian, who noted that PG-rated movies earned $2.87 billion this year, while outperformingPG-13 movies.
At No. 3 was A24’s “Marty Supreme” — the sports comedy-drama starring Timothée Chalamet — which grossed $17.5 million amid a surge of attention on social media. It was driven by a male-dominated “Marty Army,” according to A24, with one-third of the movie’s audience being under 25 years old.
A24’s “Marty Supreme,” a ping-pong sports drama, attracted young audiences to theaters. Credit: A24 via CNN Newsource
After opening in six theaters last weekend in New York City and Los Angeles, “Marty Supreme” rode a wave of Oscar and online buzz to propel it to box office success in over 2,600 theaters, according to Shawn Robbins, director of movie analytics at Fandango and owner of Box Office Theory.
“(A24) catered to the old and new mindsets of marketing a movie like this around the holidays, knowing that it would be an award season player,” he said.
Lionsgate Films’ “The Housemaid,” which opened last weekend, was No. 4 this weekend at $15.4 million. It was followed by Sony Pictures’ “Anaconda” ($14.5 million), a reboot of the 1997 movie.
Angel Studios’ “David” ($12.69 million) finished sixth, ahead of Paramount’s “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants” ($11 million). Focus Features’ “Song Sung Blue” opened this weekend at No. 8 with $7.6 million.
This was the best Christmas week for the box office since 2020, according to Robbins.
“To have most of these seven major releases opening around Christmas do relatively well, and you either meet or exceed expectations — that has not happened very much in the post-Covid era,” Robbins said.
Sony’s “Anaconda,” a comedic remake of the 1997 horror flick, finished fifth overall. Credit: Matt Grace / Sony Pictures Entertainment via CNN Newsource
The overall domestic box office has grossed $8.76 billion in earnings in 2025, according to Comscore data. That’s up 1.56% from last year but still behind 2023, the only post-pandemic year to boast $9 billion in earnings.
Box office numbers are still well behind 2019, when domestic earnings totaled more than $11 billion.
But successful December films could carry over into a strong start for 2026, according to Dergarabedian, who estimates another $100 million can be added by the end of the year.
Dergarabedian said a strong release slate for movies next year could give theaters their best year since the pandemic.
Some of next year’s biggest movies include Universal Pictures’ “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” (April 3) and “Disclosure Day” (June 12), as well as Disney’s “Toy Story 5” (June 19). “Avengers: Doomsday” and Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Dune: Part Three” are both slated for December 18.
Imani Smith, who once played a young Nala in Disney’s “The Lion King” on Broadway, died on Sunday after she was found with stab wounds at a home, according to the Middlesex County, New Jersey, Prosecutor’s Office.Video above: Remembering those we lost in 2025She “had her whole life ahead of her,” a GoFundMe account set up by Smith’s aunt, Kira Helper, said. “She was a vivacious, loving and fiercely talented person.”On December 21, just after 9:15 a.m., authorities in Edison, New Jersey, received a 911 call about a stabbing, according to a release.”Upon their arrival to a residence on Grove Avenue, they discovered Imani Smith, 26, of Edison with stab wounds,” the release said. Smith was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, where she was declared dead.Officials have arrested Jordan D. Jackson-Small, 35, of Edison, in connection with Smith’s death. Authorities said the two knew each other before the incident and described it as “not a random act of violence.”Smith’s father, Rawni Helper, said in a phone call with CNN Saturday that Jackson-Small is the father of Smith’s 3-year-old son.Jackson-Small is facing several charges, authorities said, including first-degree murder and third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. He is currently being held at the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center according to jail records.CNN has reached out to his attorney at the Middlesex County public defenders office for commentSmith worked from 2011 to 2012 for Disney’s “The Lion King,” Broadway’s third-longest running show, according to Playbill.The former child actress is survived by her son, “her parents, her two younger siblings, and an extended family, friends, and community who loved her so very much,” the GoFundMe said.”A true triple-threat performer, she most notably played the role of Young Nala on Broadway in Disney’s Lion King — an experience that reflected the joy, creativity, and light she put into the world,” the post, which has raised more than $70,000, said.CNN’s Sarah Dewberry contributed to this report.
CNN —
Imani Smith, who once played a young Nala in Disney’s “The Lion King” on Broadway, died on Sunday after she was found with stab wounds at a home, according to the Middlesex County, New Jersey, Prosecutor’s Office.
Video above: Remembering those we lost in 2025
She “had her whole life ahead of her,” a GoFundMe account set up by Smith’s aunt, Kira Helper, said. “She was a vivacious, loving and fiercely talented person.”
On December 21, just after 9:15 a.m., authorities in Edison, New Jersey, received a 911 call about a stabbing, according to a release.
“Upon their arrival to a residence on Grove Avenue, they discovered Imani Smith, 26, of Edison with stab wounds,” the release said. Smith was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, where she was declared dead.
Officials have arrested Jordan D. Jackson-Small, 35, of Edison, in connection with Smith’s death. Authorities said the two knew each other before the incident and described it as “not a random act of violence.”
Smith’s father, Rawni Helper, said in a phone call with CNN Saturday that Jackson-Small is the father of Smith’s 3-year-old son.
Jackson-Small is facing several charges, authorities said, including first-degree murder and third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. He is currently being held at the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center according to jail records.
CNN has reached out to his attorney at the Middlesex County public defenders office for comment
The former child actress is survived by her son, “her parents, her two younger siblings, and an extended family, friends, and community who loved her so very much,” the GoFundMe said.
“A true triple-threat performer, she most notably played the role of Young Nala on Broadway in Disney’s Lion King — an experience that reflected the joy, creativity, and light she put into the world,” the post, which has raised more than $70,000, said.
The year 2025 was jam-packed with must-see genre entertainment. io9 covered an extensive range of pop culture across film and television, including major releases from Marvel Studios, DC Studios’ big Superman arrival, Netflix heavy hitters like Stranger Things, and awesome anime.
Beyond the screen, io9 kept you updated on the latest in theme parks and immersive experiences, as well as the latest in collectibles, toys, books, games, and comics.
To close out 2025, we’ve compiled our staff picks, highlighting our most treasured stories and sharp coverage that defined the world of genre entertainment this year.
The Director of Good Boy on Creating Horror From a Dog’s Point of View
By Cheryl Eddy
Most dog owners can recall at least one instance where their pup has reacted to a seemingly invisible presence. Are they picking up a sound pitched higher than our hearing? Sniffing out the memory of a dropped piece of food? Or perhaps… using their canine super-senses to detect something supernatural?
Good Boy, the feature debut of director and co-writer Ben Leonberg, takes that idea and runs with it, following Indy (played by Leonberg’s own dog) and his owner, Todd (Shane Jensen), as they move into the former home of Todd’s late grandfather. It’s a gloomy, dark, isolated place, and—as Indy soon realizes—it appears to be teeming with unquiet spirits. [Read more]
The Superman We Need Right Now: A Report From the Set of James Gunn’s New DC Film
By Germain Lussier
When Superman started kissing the football on a stick, it all clicked together. The day was June 24, 2024, and io9 was in Cleveland to watch the filming of James Gunn’s Superman. At the end of a giant battle over the streets of Metropolis, the Man of Steel knelt down to kiss and profess his love to an inanimate object that special effects would later transform into his dog, Krypto. That little dash of heartfelt weirdness, in the middle of a massive action scene, did a near-perfect job of showing what the film’s cast and crew had been trying to articulate all day: this is not just a unique, new Superman, it’s James Gunn’s Superman. [Read more]
In Sinners, Honesty Leads to Freedom
By Justin Carter
Sinners is the type of movie where nearly every scene could be considered a standout moment on a technical, writing, or performance level. For me, there’s two moments—one utterly sincere and raunchy, the other delightfully meta—that speak to one of the film’s core themes.
In the first, burgeoning blues guitarist Sammie (Miles Caton) is getting intimate with singer Pealine (Jayme Lawson) and proceeds to get on his knees. He’s about to employ the advice his older cousin Stack (Michael B. Jordan) gave to him about pleasuring a woman earlier in the film, and just as Pearline’s about to politely decline, Sammie looks up at her and says: “You’re beautiful, and I want to taste it.” He’s clearly taken with her, and says this with the earnestness of someone who believes in what he’s saying. [Read more]
What’s the Story Behind Tron: Ares? Our Report From the Set
By Germain Lussier
“I have to ride a lightcycle.” That was my first thought last year when the invite arrived to visit the set of Disney’s new sequel, Tron: Ares. It seemed like a logical request. When you think of Tron, you think of lightcycles. They’re a huge part of both 2010’s Tron: Legacy and 1982’s Tron. And yet, I had to wonder, were there even lightcycles in this movie? What exactly WAS this movie? Coming out 15 years after the last one, with basically a whole new cast, it seemed any concept of what the film could or would be was entirely up in the air. I had questions. I wanted answers. And, perhaps, a ride on that lightcycle. [Read more]
I Love the Moment That Everything Changes in Gundam GQuuuuuuX
By James Whitbrook
The latest entry in the Gundam franchise, GQuuuuuuX, is built around one of the most fascinating premises a mainline Gundam show has had in years. To get there, we’re asked to cast our minds back over 45 years to the original 1979 anime—and in doing so, we’re also asked to consider a pretty hilarious idea.
The vast majority of Gundam GQuuuuuuX—as covered in its prequel/compilation movie GQuuuuuuX Beginning, out in American theaters today for a limited run—is predicated around the fact that the show is in fact set in an alternate version of Gundam‘s “Universal Century” timeline. The primary timeline of the original Gundam and its direct successor series, among others in the franchise, GQuuuuuuX‘s version of events asks us to consider another outcome. What if the antagonistic forces of the original series, the secessionist space colony Zeon, actually managed to win the war against Earth? [Read more]
7 Reasons Why The Nightmare Before Christmas Is Not a Halloween Movie, 4 Reasons Why It Is
By Sabina Graves
Every year, it seems that Halloween creeps in earlier than before, and with it, its Pumpkin King, Jack Skellington.
Take the Haunted Mansion Holiday at Disneyland; it’s a haunted house with ghosts that, as soon as Halloweentime arrives at the Disneyland resort at the end of summer, becomes inhabited by Jack and the people of Halloweentown. However, they’re not there for Halloween; they’re there to make Christmas. There’s the rub, because the once cult and now very mainstream holiday staple from the mind of Tim Burton and director Henry Selick is about one holiday taking over another. [Read more]
Bryan Fuller Reveals the Inspirations for His Dark Fairytale Feature Debut
By Sabina Graves
He’s best known for his acclaimed genre TV shows, but Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies) is making his feature film directorial debut with Dust Bunny, a coming-of-age storybook fantasy with his signature twist.
The film reunites the Hannibal series creator with star Mads Mikkelsen. He plays a hitman hired by a young girl named Aurora (Sophie Sloan), who wants his help to hunt the mysterious and monstrous Dust Bunny tormenting her apartment.
In a recent conversation with io9, Fuller talked about how the feature got the big screen treatment after previously being pitched as an episode of the Steven Spielberg-produced Amazing Stories series for Apple TV, and what it was like working on it with genre great Sigourney Weaver. The cult-fave creative mind also opened up about how he feels in regards to some of the projects he’s been attached to that have fallen through—as well as his excitement for a project yet to be announced. And yes, we even got a few details about his potential Silence of the Lambs limited series. [Read more]
Birds of Prey Deserved Its Full, Chaotic 15 Minutes of Fame
By Justin Carter
It always sucks when something that’s pretty good and was clearly well made just doesn’t hit the way it seems like it should’ve. This is particularly true when it comes to movies; think of a film you saw that was surprisingly enjoyable and how it didn’t really get a fair shake for whatever reason.
Plenty of examples come to mind for me, but one of the first is Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey. Originally released on February 7, 2020, under its initial (and funnier) title, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), the film’s a bit of a tangled knot. You may remember it first seemed like a solo vehicle for Margot Robbie’s Harley post-Suicide Squad 2016, then somewhere along the line, it also may have become something for the popular, usually women-starring B-list superhero team, and then ended up being… kind of both? [Read more]
Castlevania: Nocturne Writers Talk Religion, Revolution, and Black Representation
By Isaiah Colbert
Castlevania: Nocturne returns with its second season on Netflix, sparking online discussions about video game references, animation enthusiasts sharing their favorite action clips, and Alucard babygirl posts in its wake. However, a new season also brings the resurgence of pearl-clutching and Gamergate-adjacent rhetoric concerning Black representation, which should be celebrated in the Powerhouse Animation series instead.
To address and preempt criticisms from those who deride the inclusion of Black characters in the video game series as “woke,” we talked to Black Castlevania: Nocturne writers Testament and Zodwa Nyoni, and executive producer Clive Bradley, about how they enriched Konami’s fantastical source material setting with real-world events and the Black experience. [Read more]
How Fionna and Cake Reflects the Legacy of Adventure Time
By Sabina Graves
Season two of Fionna and Cake has arrived on HBO Max, taking Adventure Time fans into a new world—and it’s one that’s finally established as its own universe, thanks to Prismo breaking the rules and making the Ice King’s fan fiction real.
The first season’s ending metatextually had Fionna and friends fight to make their world canon, and there’s now more to explore in its earned existence and how it might cross over into Adventure Time‘s Land of Ooo.
But don’t get the premise twisted, Fionna and Cake isn’t just fan service to sneak back into Adventure Time territory completely. In a conversation io9 had with producer Adam Muto, we discussed how the creative teams aim to make their beloved character variants stand on their own and, yes, sometimes stand with the legacy faces to take on new interdimensional threats. [Read more]
A Love Letter to Cobra Kai, One of the Greatest Sequels Ever
By Germain Lussier
When I first watched Cobra Kai, I stopped it five minutes in. This is a true story. I started the first episode and was so absolutely blown away by what I was seeing, I almost didn’t believe it was real. Since I was about five years old, I’d been a massive fan of The Karate Kid franchise, and here I was in my 30s watching the same actors from those movies tell this dynamic, awesome, follow-up story. There was no way this show was this good. It was impossible. [Read more]
Tony Gilroy Looks Back on Taking Shit Seriously in Andor
By James Whitbrook
Tony Gilroy is a man with a vision. That vision guided him from the extensive reshoots of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story all the way to a Disney+ series about one of that film’s heroes, Cassian Andor—and finding in it a critical acclaim unlike anything the galaxy far, far away had seen in a generation.
He’s also a very frank man who knows when that vision can potentially turn on a dime—as it did one day while filming the series in Scotland, when the writer, director, and showrunner realized that his grand plan for Andor wasn’t going to work. [Read more]
Andor‘s Tony Gilroy and Genevieve O’Reilly Break Down Mon Mothma’s Pivotal Dance
By Sabina Graves
During io9’s interview with showrunner Tony Gilroy and star Genevieve O’Reilly, who plays Mon Mothma, the duo broke down the last moments of the third episode of this week’s drop. Gilroy also discussed how framing these pivotal years as three-episode mini-movies came about. [Read more]
Andor‘s Finest Hours Just Delivered a Huge Gut Punch
By Sabina Graves
What it takes to sustain a rebellion is brought into question in this week’s episode arc of Andor, which covers what happens two years before the main events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and the original Star Wars saga. Thematically it’s time for the rebels to figure out if they want to just fight or actually win, as tensions come to a head on Ghorman in what’s probably the most gut-wrenching watch of the series, and perhaps even Star Wars as a whole. [Read more]
Who Was Syril Karn?
By James Whitbrook
“Who are you?” is the question that haunts Syril Karn for his entire life. From the moment we met him, prim and proper security uniform modified to be just so, a sense of purpose in a vast and uncaring universe has been at the core of understanding what makes Syril tick. The journey that took him across the galaxy reached a climactic moment in Andor‘s penultimate arc this week, and raised that haunting question once more. But the answer is more complicated than mere villain in Andor‘s narrative, doubting or otherwise. Because even as the hero of his own story, the man we know Syril to be, until the very end, is shaped less by himself and more by the systems and structures that made a tool of him. [Read more]
They Just Gave Kleya a Goddamn Gun
By James Whitbrook
There’s a scene in the ninth episode of Andor‘s second season where Vel Sartha, inspecting a table full of requisitioned weaponry at the Rebellion’s Yavin base, picks up a blaster and asks whose it is. Except, that’s not what she asks, raising the pistol into the air in front of a crowd of new recruits. What she actually says is “Who belongs to this?”
I was thinking a lot about that line an episode later, when, as she infiltrates a hospital in a desperate attempt to end the life of the man who saved hers as a child, Kleya Marki, one of Andor‘s standout characters, slips a tiny blaster with one hell of a kick out of her purloined nurse’s scrubs and calmly executes an ISB tactical officer. And then does it again. And again. It’s the climactic, tense moment of an episode that builds up to this singular moment of emotional and dramatic release as she tearfully turns off Luthen’s life support. In many ways, Kleya’s whole life, one torn apart by the Empire, and rebuilt out of her hatred of it, is leading to this moment, and this moment of infiltration and execution is just the final flourish. [Read more]
Vinland Saga Creator Makoto Yukimura Looks Back on Writing His Pacifist Viking Epic
By Isaiah Colbert
Anime and, by proxy, manga are typically viewed through a lens where violence begets violence, and the only hero is one with attention-grabbing hairdos, the ability to power up, and the capacity to punch things even more brilliantly. Very rarely is the traditional hero’s journey, whether in shonen or its older brother genre, seinen, predicated on having its hero question the nature of violence as a catch-all solution, rather than a spoke that keeps the cycle spinning. Then again, not every manga series challenges that notion so brilliantly as Vinland Saga. [Read more]
Revolutionary Girl Utena Is as Lynchian as Shojo Anime Has Ever Been
By Isaiah Colbert
Over the years, critics and everyday people have come to identify media as “Lynchian,” in reverence for how video games, movies, and TV shows evoke the dream-like quality of the late auteur David Lynch. Although most media described as Lynchian takes its inspiration from seminal works like Twin Peaks through referential nods, no show completely embodies the ephemeral vibe of Lynch’s opaque-yet-piercing style of storytelling quite like the similarly influential shojo anime series Revolutionary Girl Utena. [Read more]
Deep Space Nine Understood the Fantasy of Spies—and Their Reality
By James Whitbrook
In just under a week, the next Star Trek project arrives in the form of Section 31, a streaming movie starring Michelle Yeoh diving into the titular black ops organization—one that, at least in all the footage we’ve seen so far, puts an emphasis on the glitz and glam of secret agent work. There’s action, there’s dazzling costumes, there’s even, perhaps most surprisingly in the context of it all, direct Federation oversight, like a co-worker with a stick up their ass who’s here to stop you from having fun. [Read more]
The Leftovers Is Still One of TV’s Great Miracles
By Cheryl Eddy
Losing a loved one brings pain no matter the circumstances. Not knowing what happened to them only adds more agony. That grief and confusion is what propels The Leftovers, but on a global scale—leading to three fascinating, thought-provoking, audacious, cigarette-filled, and often miraculous seasons of TV.
At the start of the first episode, it happens: two percent of the world’s population vanishes into thin air. The amount of missing isn’t huge, but it’s significant. The people who lost someone dear are personally wounded, but nobody escapes being touched in some way by the event, which leaves humanity with an infuriating array of mystical questions. Why did those who left get “chosen”—and why were those who didn’t go get left behind? Was God or some other cosmic being involved? Where did they go? Will they ever come back? And will it happen again? [Read more]
The 6 Biggest Moments in the Shocking Foundation Season 3 Finale
By Cheryl Eddy
Foundation season three has come to an end, but it still feels like there’s so much story left to tell. Thank goodness Apple TV+ confirmed just yesterday that season four is on the way! But before we ponder what’s next, we must discuss the season finale.
“The Darkness” was… well, a lot sure did happen, didn’t it? [Read more]
Stranger Things Lets It Rip to Kick Off Its Final Season
By Sabina Graves
The conclusion to Netflix and the Duffer Brothers’ pop culture phenomenon Stranger Things begins with an epic first volume that’s now streaming for your binging pleasure.
Action and horror propel the return to Hawkins in volume one as our heroes race to find Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), hoping to vanquish him once and for all. In the time since the Upside Down ripped open in season four, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) has been training with Hopper (David Harbour) to strengthen her powers. Seeing Eleven’s growth into a strong as hell young woman from her early days throwing bullies off her friends is such a joy. Clearly, that’s thanks to Eggo waffles. [Read more]
Why Gainax’s Gunbuster Pose Is More Than Anime Rule of Cool Reference Fodder
By Isaiah Colbert
Anime of the late ’80s has an undeniable impact that extends beyond the medium into movies, TV shows, and video games. Many of the homages are to 1988’s Akira, which existed before Western culture had a grasp of what anime really was or could be. The “Akira slide”—an iconic shot of Kaneda sliding sideways on his bike in the 1988 movie adaptation of Akira—has become an icon of anime culture, referenced over and over in numerous cartoons and films, western and Japanese, ever since, including Jordan Peele’s Nope, Tron: Ares, and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, amid an ocean of other Akira nods.
While Akira references are rife in new media like Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic, letting fans know that the creators are aware of its rule of cool, it’s hard not to feel a bit like the buck stopped at aping aesthetics for easy internet referential brownie points over carrying over its core narrative themes. Although most pop culture nods (Scavengers Reign aside) borrow Akira‘s surface style without echoing its thematic depth, every homage to fellow 1988 anime film Gunbuster‘s iconic arm-cross pose endures as a timeless gesture of steeled resolve wrapped in a badass stance. [Read more]
Meet Freddy Fazbear and Friends at Halloween Horror Nights’ Five Nights at Freddy’s House
By Sabina Graves
Take a look inside the Five Nights at Freddy’s house at Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights. It looks like a real Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza location right out of the mind of game creator Scott Cawthon and Emma Tammi’s cinematic adaptation.
io9 was invited to a behind-the-scenes walkthrough of the Hollywood attraction based on the video game and Blumhouse film franchise, opening at HHN ahead of December’s Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. Creative director John Murdy took us through to highlight the incredible work done between Horror Nights, Cawthon, and Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. [Read more]
How Science Fiction Became the Key to This Year’s Most Buzzed About Concert
By Germain Lussier
2001: A Space Odyssey. Star Wars. Star Trek. Tron. Blade Runner. Akira. The Fifth Element. Interstellar. Superman. Flash Gordon. The Matrix. That sounds like a list of the greatest sci-fi films of all time, but actually, it’s a list of the films mentioned during a discussion about the inspirations behind the Backstreet Boys’ popular new residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This past July, one of the biggest boy bands of all time celebrated 20 years of their iconic album, Millennium, at the technologically advanced venue, with two months of sold-out shows that generated a ton of buzz and interest. As a result, two more months of shows were recently added, and io9 spoke to Baz Halpin, CEO and founder of Silent House, about it. [Read more]
KPop Demon Hunters and Expedition 33 Are Having a Moment
By Justin Carter
Have you watched KPop Demon Hunters on Netflix or played Clair Obscur: Expedition 33?
Chances are the answer is “yes,” and if not, you’ve certainly heard of them: both were released earlier this year to fairly glowing reviews (if not outright critical acclaim) and performed very well commercially. The latter, a turn-based RPG from newcomer Sandfall Interactive, will likely pick up some awards at year’s end, while Netflix is planning to go all in on KPop. Along with talks of sequels and an ever-growing wave of merchandise, the streamer submitted the mid-movie song “Golden” for Academy Award consideration. Both may also wind up jumping to live-action; Expedition had a movie announced months before the game’s release, while Netflix is reportedly mulling over a remake with human actors. [Read more]
Epic Universe’s Monster Lore Gives Us the Best Possible Dark Universe
By Sabina Graves
When you visit Epic Universe’s Dark Universe, you get hints of a story that’s so mysterious you’ll want to keep coming back to learn more. In Darkmoor Village, where monsters and humans co-exist—barely—the relationship between the villagers, the mad scientist in her castle with her monsters, and the vampires below is a very fragile menagerie of the macabre.
When io9 visited Darkmoor during Epic Universe’s opening week, we couldn’t help but wonder if the dense canon introduced would offer some insight into Universal’s abandoned Dark Universe film franchise. It turns out that some elements in the attractions, details in the land offerings, and immersive interactions echo what was once supposed to herald an Avengers-like assembly of the Universal Monsters on the big screen. [Read more]
Death Stranding 2 Is Hideo Kojima’s Most Refined and Relentless Vision Yet
By Isaiah Colbert
When Hideo Kojima—the man fashioned into a video game auteur out of his work on Metal Gear Solid—launched his debut title under the newly formed Kojima Productions in 2019, Death Stranding arrived shrouded in mystery and hype. Every Death Stranding trailer was full of cryptic imagery and spectral apparitions, and its stacked cast featuring Norman Reedus, Léa Seydoux, and Mads Mikkelsen set expectations sky-high. It was also the first title to come from the creator following a messy and public exodus from Konami. Would Kojima once again rewrite the rules of game design?
Upon release, Death Stranding didn’t disappoint so much as it defied prediction. At its core, it was an immersive, slow-burning post-apocalyptic courier simulator. Players took control of Sam Porter Bridges, a pulp comics-esque naming convention of a protagonist suffering from aphenphosmphobia, an extreme fear of being touched, tasked with completing a herculean cross country trek across haunted landscapes by plagued eldritch horrors with the help of a baby in a container on his chest—avoiding environmental hazards and balancing parcels on every available piece of real estate on his body to “reconnect America.” Reductively, Death Stranding is regarded in gaming circles as a “triple-A” indie game, with a weird (but not overly confusingly dense) world-building serving as the connective tissue propelling every careful footstep on Sam’s odyssey. What Death Stranding lacks in conventional thrills, it made up for with sheer conceptual weight. [Read more]
Walt Disney Returns as a Surreal Animatronic for Disneyland’s 70th Anniversary
By Sabina Graves
As of this week, Walt Disney returns to his original Magic Kingdom, with a little help from the magic-makers at Imagineering.
Through the audio-animatronics technology Walt Disney introduced when he opened Disneyland 70 years ago, the evolution of the show robots has gone from static positioning with some movements, as first seen on the singing birds in the Enchanted Tiki Room, to a roaming animatronic of Uncle Walt. Stationed in the Main Street Opera House, the (m)animatronic is the crown jewel of the Walt Disney – A Magical Life show, where he, along with the help of Disney CEO Bob Iger as the program’s narrator, gets to sit and stand front and center to share his story in his words. [Read more]
Ghost of Yotei Is a Stronger, Self-Assured Sequel
By Justin Carter
There was a moment early on in Ghost of Yotei where I knew it’d won me over. As Atsu, I wasn’t hunting down the Yotei Six who killed my family and left me for dead back in my youth; I was taking on a simple bounty who’d managed to get the better of me. I was all set to watch him plunge his katana in my back and restart the swordfight. Instead, a wolf jumped in out of nowhere, biting him and granting me full health so I could get back up and resume the fight and get my bounty. [Read more]
The Best Disney Park Ride Overlays, and Where to Find Them
By Sabina Graves
Seasonal and promotional ride overlays are now ways to draw in more people to revisit beloved attractions at Disney’s parks or give passholders a reason to come back over and over. Over time some have had more longevity than others, as the most popular overlay continues to be Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion Holiday, which has Jack Skellington and friends take over the West Coast haunt with his spooky Christmas shenanigans. Meanwhile, the haunted version of Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy seems to have exorcised its spirit—it just might have been a tad too scary, while Star Wars: Hyperspace Mountain stays beating out the rest. [Read more]
Mass Effect 2 Helped Change What Being an RPG Meant
By Justin Carter
The Mass Effect series has always held a special, and often divisive spot in fans’ hearts. BioWare’s sci-fi RPG saga blew up with its first game back in 2007, and its sequel took the franchise to bigger, more mainstream heights. In the years since that game’s release, it’s cast a long shadow—not just over its own franchise and creator, but the larger RPG space, particularly those from western developers. [Read more]
Back to the Future Returns to Universal Studios Hollywood With an Incredible Immersive Experience
By Sabina Graves
With Back to the Future: Destination Hill Valley, Universal delivers on the promise of bringing you into the movies in a new, impactful way. The immersive experience is a triumph and you won’t want to leave.
You get on the studio tour and it becomes a time traveling tram that drops you into the moment that Marty McFly arrives and through the events of Back to the Future on the courthouse square where the Robert Zemeckis film was shot. Through roaming actors portraying George, Lorraine, Biff, and Doc, we get to see iconic moments recreated and be a part of them. I got to chat with my childhood crush George McFly and turned into a total shy mess as he asked if I was going to the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance. The storytelling propels forward as you are able to encourage him to ask Lorraine to go with him and help with his writing before we see the hilarious hijinks of Lorraine hitting on Marty, her future son who she wants to go to the dance with. Biff shows up and causes mayhem while fans spectate and quote along. [Read more]
Deus Ex Did Good Work, and I Wish It Could Do More
By Justin Carter
For as many long-running franchises were born during the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 era—your Assassin’s Creeds and Borderlands, to name a few—some old series tried making a return. Among those was Deus Ex, a series of cyberpunk role-playing games which just turned 20 years old and had an unfortunately short-lived return with a duology that under better circumstances, would’ve been a trilogy. [Read more]
Books, Art, and Toys
The full package – Regal Reobot
The Story Behind the Funniest Indiana Jones Prop Replica You’ve Ever Seen
By Germain Lussier
Indiana Jones is always on the hunt for rare antiquities. He’s found the Golden Idol, Ark of the Covenant, Holy Grail, and so much more. All of which makes prop replicas of those things rather obvious. But, for the Indiana Jones fan who wants to be like their favorite adventuring archaeologist and get something more rare and specific, how about a clothes hanger? [Read more]
For Sale: One Book of the Dead, Slightly Used
By Cheryl Eddy
That little getaway in the woods sure would have been much less eventful if Ash Williams and his pals hadn’t decided to read passages out of that creepy old book someone left behind. But we’re so glad they did—thereby awakening the forces of darkness, sparking the events of The Evil Dead and its sequels, launching Bruce Campbell into the goofy action hero pantheon, and giving horror fans endless delights over the past 40-plus years. And now, you can own the actual prop that started it all! [Read more]
You Have to Check Out These Insanely Detailed Pop Culture Sculptures
By Germain Lussier
Play-Doh is not generally considered a pathway to a career in art, but it was exactly that for Brad Hill. Years ago, the aspiring artist was gifted the popular children’s toy and, as a thank you, molded some of it into a head. “I was like, ‘Oh wait. That’s kind of fun,’” Hill said. “Every day, I’d just wake up and sculpt a head out of Play-Doh. And I thought, ‘Well, this isn’t sustainable.’” He was wrong. Fifteen years later, Hill’s work has gone all over the internet, and this week he’s having a retrospective art show featuring not just brand new work, but pieces from throughout his still blossoming career. [Read more]
Being a Manga Letterer Is More Than Having a Fun Job
By Isaiah Colbert
When people read manga, they often focus on the Instagram caption-worthy one-liners and larger-than-life illustrations that fill their pages. What usually goes unnoticed in picking up a manga is the work that goes into its lettering and graphic design, done by the folks who pour their craftsmanship into typesetting popular Japanese manga for Western audiences.
We spoke with professional letterers Brandon Bovia (The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy at All, Dragon Ball Super, Kaiju No. 8), Evan Hayden (Battle Angel Alita, Land of Lustrous, Akira), Sara Linsley (Kamudo), Aidan Clarke (Otaku Elf, Neo Faust, Les Miserable), Barri Shrager (Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?), Kyla Aiko (Dandadan, Gokurakugai, RuriDragon), and Finn K. (Shinobi Undercover, Dear Anemone) about the challenges of typesetting the best manga in the world. [Read more]
How the Grinch Stole Modern Christmas
By Sabina Graves
He’s a meme one, Mr. Grinch, or at least that’s the current pop culture identity of the iconic Dr. Seuss creation.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the beloved illustrated Seuss book that many of us first experienced as a story read to us as children, initially became a cultural phenomenon thanks to its timeless themes about how Christmas can be found not only in gifts but also in the hearts of all—even the grumpiest of green meanies. [Read more]
When we took a look at the opening episodes of the new Doctor Who spinoffThe War Between the Land and the Sea a few weeks ago, there were a few nuggets of potential swimming beneath its otherwise largely murky surface. But now that the show has come to an end, we know for a fact: that potential is dead and buried and has only sunk further into the depths the longer the show went on.
The remaining three episodes of War Between, after its premiere spent a great deal of time playing up the political relationship between the revived Sea Devils—reborn as “Homo Aqua”—and humanity, spending their time squandering the distinctly unsubtle, yet still intriguing, climate change messaging that sat at that plot’s core in order to focus on establishing a rapidly burgeoning romantic relationship between Salt (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Barclay (Russell Tovey).
Sparked by the former saving the latter after a diplomatic mission to Homo Aqua’s territory beneath the waves was disrupted by a double agent unleashing a bomb to kill the human and aquakind attendees alike, in spite of Mbatha-Raw and Tovey’s chemistry, the romance that suddenly becomes the primary driving subject of War Between comes off as a Great Value Shape of Water. Barclay’s infatuation with Salt above anything else is not really given any time to develop, putting him on an instantaneous 0-100 escalation, but it’s Salt who suffers the most ignominies in the process, no longer presented as Barclay’s political equal and the advocate of War Between‘s most radicalized notions of the climate crisis, and instead flattened into a walking embodiment of the “born sexy yesterday” trope, thematically and narratively taken out of the picture for much of the show’s middle act once Barclay rescues her from UNIT detention.
This jarring pivot in focus is broadly emblematic of War Between‘s most damning of issues: the series simply cannot commit, from moment to moment, on every level, to an idea of what it wants to be or say, rendering it completely inconsequential from both a thematic point of view and a narratively logistical one in its broader place in the Doctor Who universe. In some ways, this was a poison pill baked into the show’s very premise—more often than not, a Doctor Who story about the Doctor’s absence ultimately has to result in very little impact outside of that particular story, both because it calls into question what it takes for the Doctor to involve themself in a given crisis and because it calls into question just how much a spinoff series can feel supposedly “mandatory” to Doctor Who‘s status quo going forward.
The War Between could never deliver on the idea of aqua and humankind negotiating an amicable, symbiotic approach to their shared existence on earth, because it would shunt Doctor Who‘s depiction of the “real” Earth a step even further beyond our own reality. But instead of playing within that tight constraint to tell a contained but still interesting story, War Between tried to go big, only to be unable to deliver on that scale in a satisfactory way, abandoning anything that gave it weight as it hobbled towards a muddled end.
Multiple times in the series, both sides declare to each other that the titular war is coming, that it’s here, that it’s over, but we never really get to see that conflict, because Homo Aqua, after raising uncomfortably true concerns about humanity’s role in climate change, has to be first rendered unforgivably villainous—which is done in the bizarre opening sequence of the final episode that depicts a retaliatory act by Homo Aqua summoning, capturing, and eating every dog on the planet, a scenario that is raised within a matter of minutes and then never touched again—and then effectively eliminated as an ongoing concern, done so via an ill-explained engineered virus, dubbed “Severance,” that ultimately kills all but 10% of aquakind as quickly as it’s introduced in the back half of the show’s final episode.
Humanity’s explicit genocide of Homo Aqua would be a fascinatingly dark point to end the show on, but War Between doesn’t actually care. The extermination and capitulation of Homo Aqua are executed and resolved in the back half of the show’s final episode, giving War Between very little time to have its human players wrestle with the moral cost of what it’s done (a few brief, awkwardly inserted flashforwards imply that what remains of Homo Aqua will get its comeuppance on the direct individuals responsible for Severance’s deployment, but that’s about it). Instead, it continues to focus on Barclay and Salt, the former rewarded for his allyship with what is now a minority species by being slowly transformed into an aquakind/human hybrid, the sole person allowed to live among the remnants of Homo Aqua at the expense of leaving his human life behind.
This lack of care extends across all of War Between‘s narrative threads. The impact of Homo Aqua’s radical attempts to shift humanity into action are dropped as quickly as they’re introduced. Episode two climaxes with Salt dumping every piece of water-bound waste onto land, effectively burying the planet in rubbish and severely disrupting the logistical bedrocks of society, but by episode five, that issue has been cleaned up in the background, never to be touched again. The series’ continued failure to interrogate UNIT’s role as an organization that is seemingly gleefully obsessed with weaponizing a surveillance state only compounds the issues raised by series co-creator Pete McTighe in his 2025 Doctor Who episode “Lucky Day,” climaxing not with a self-reckoning, but with Kate Lethbridge-Stewart threatening her private therapist with the exposure of her husband’s infidelity (why does UNIT have access to that kind of individual surveillance? The show doesn’t care; it’s just cool hero spy stuff) if she doesn’t let her keep having a role in the ongoing negotiations, a win for our hero, and by the show’s end, it’s consistent enough that Kate just starts threatening gross invasions of privacy as a jokey aside.
It’s Kate that War Between actually ends on, in a truly bizarre scene that is emblematic of War Between‘s incomprehensible idea of tone or message. Having seen off Barclay and Salt to live their new underwater life together, she comes across a runner on the beach who casually tosses his water bottle as litter beside her. The final shots of War Between—the final shots of Doctor Who‘s Disney era, the final shots of the franchise until this time next year—have an increasingly angry and manic Kate pull her gun on the runner, repeatedly screaming that he pick up the bottle as her finger inches closer to the trigger.
Tonally it immediately follows up an extended, dialogueless sequence of Barclay and Salt’s reunion set to a Goldfrapp cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes,” so it’d be almost funny if the show wasn’t suddenly trying to treat it as a serious, dark moment. It’s a bizarre end note on Kate’s character (for now, at least), introduced 13 years ago as the level-headed, “science leads” future stepping away from UNIT’s militarized past. But it’s also the literal last minutes of the show suddenly lurching back to an idea it had broadly abandoned for most of its runtime, as if it finally remembered that it once yearned to be a show that actually had a point to make, and that by addressing it in its dying gasps, the journey to get there meant something.
It’s a symbolic note for Doctor Who‘s awful year to go out on, reflecting the end of an era that had so much promise and potential when it began just two years ago only to get bogged down in an aimless malaise that muddled the series’ ability to really commit to commentary and reflection of the world we live in through its sci-fi lens. It’s fitting, perhaps then, that the less-than-amicable breakup between Disney and the BBC has resulted in much of the world not legally being able to see War Between until some nebulous point next year, when it’ll likely be dropped in its entirety with little in the way of fanfare: a show with nothing to say, buried in the deep to never be thought of again.
The War Between the Land and the Sea is now streaming in its entirety in the UK on BBC iPlayer. The series will stream on Disney+ internationally some time in 2026.
