At the 76th Berlin International Film Festival (running from Feb. 12-22, 2026), while acclaimed German filmmaker Wim Wenders holds the fort as the Jury President, South Korean cinema is sneaking into the Berlinale’s halls with both the confidence of a seasoned auteur and the grit of a rising star. Beyond the mainstream buzz, South Korean directors are spread across the slate, with everything from haunting historical dramas to quirky meta-narratives. Whether it’s filmmaker Hong Sang-soo once again feeling right at home in Berlin or emerging indie voices making waves, here are the Korean films worth checking out at the 2026 Berlinale.

My Name (Chung Ji-young)

Director Chung Ji-young enters the festival’s Forum section, famous for experimental and brave filmmaking, with a movie that’s already being heaped with praises. The winner of the Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation Scenario Grand Prize, it stars the incredible Yeom Hye-ran as a mother caught in a tug-of-war over her 18-year-old son’s identity while trying to protect his name — and his future. It unfolds against the backdrop of the immensely violent history of the Jeju 4.3 incident in 1948, a communist-led uprising on Jeju Island that was met with extreme government repression and led to mass civilian killings. My Name isn’t your light popcorn flick, but a deeply emotional journey that talks about long-held silences, generational trauma, and finding healing in the wreckage of history.

The Day She Returns (Hong Sangsoo)

It wouldn’t be a Berlinale without the festival’s favorite “prolific auteur,” Hong Sangsoo. Returning to the Panorama section after a string of Silver Bear wins in previous years, Hong brings The Day She Returns. It follows an actress (played by Song Sun-mi) who takes a break from her career after getting married, only to fall right back into the madness of an acting class. The film is part comedy, part existential crisis about the profession itself. It’s meta, funny, and likely going to leave you analyzing your own life choices.

En Route To (Yoo Jae-in)

Marking a bold international debut in the Generation 14plus section, this film doesn’t shy away from the messy parts of life. Yun-ji, a pregnant student, finds herself totally alone after her teacher vanishes. Desperate to pay for an abortion, she makes the heartbreaking decision to steal her roommate’s savings. It’s an unfiltered look at bodily autonomy, social isolation, and the brutal choices young people are forced to make, promising to bring a fresh, slightly uncomfortable, but necessary voice to the Berlinale.

Speedy! (Oh Ji-in)

This Korean short film has secured a spot in the Generation Kplus competition. As the title and section suggest, it’s a quick, punchy, and likely very visual story designed to resonate with younger audiences. Speedy! revolves around a young girl who wants to be the fastest reader, just like the local cool kid in 1989 Seoul, but in trying to be so, she realizes the whole “prodigy” thing is tougher than she thought. The movie’s inclusion in the international premiere lineup suggests it’s got that signature creativity that Korean shorts are famous for.

For the complete 2026 schedule and screening times, visit the Official Berlinale Program here.

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The first teaser trailer for Avengers: Doomsday is finally here. Instead of featuring the absolutely massive cast for the, the clip confirms one more notable addition: Chris Evans will return as Steve Rogers, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s original Captain America.

The short clip zooms in on a rural house, where Steve hops off his motorcycle. Inside, he cradles an infant in his arms and smiles. “Steve Rogers Will Return in Avengers: Doomsday,” the title card notes before the film’s release date of Dec. 18, 2026 flashes on the screen.

Avengers: Doomsday is directed by Joe and Anthony Russo and will feature Robert Downey Jr. in a new role as villain Doctor Doom. Earlier this year, Marvel unveiled an almost-implausible cast list featuring many of the stars of the studio’s latest films. Among them: Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Anthony Mackie as Captain America, Sebastian Stan as The Winter Soldier, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Paul Rudd as Ant Man, Simu Liu  as Shang-Chi, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Ian McKellen as Magneto, Channing Tatum as Gambit, and Pedro Pascal as Mister Fantastic (just to name a few).

Evans was last seen at the end of 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. His character passed the Captain America torch to Mackie’s Sam Wilson, who led this year’s Captain America: Brave New World. Steve, meanwhile, traveled back in time to create a life with Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter. She is presumably the mother of the child in the new teaser.

The actor previously asserted that he had concluded his Marvel run. After several outlets reported he was planning to return as Steve Rogers, Evans told Esquire in January that the rumors were false. “This always happens,” he said. “I mean, it happens every couple years — ever since Endgame. I’ve just stopped responding to it. Yeah, no — happily retired.”

While Evans has yet to comment on the end of this supposed retirement, the Russo Brothers — whose first entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe was 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier — shared a short note on Instagram about bringing Steve Rogers back: “The character that changed our lives. The story that brought us all here together. It was always going to come back to this…”

Marvel released several films in 2025, including Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Doctor Doom notably appeared in a post-credits scene in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

From Rolling Stone US.

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Matt Damon‘s Odysseus sets out on a tumultuous journey home in the first trailer for Christopher Nolan‘s highly-anticipated next film, The Odyssey.

The clip opens in the aftermath of the Trojan War. “After years of war, no one could stand before my men and home,” Damon intones over shots of soldiers. There are brief glimpses of Anne Hathaway‘s Penelope, Odysseus’ wife, and Tom Holland, who plays their son Telemachus. The trailer hints at the difficulties that await Odysseus as he travels across the sea, including the cyclops Polyphemus and terrifyingly rough weather.

The Odyssey, an adaptation of Homer’s famed Greek epic, was directed by Nolan, and stars Damon, Holland, Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya, and Charlize Theron. It is set to arrive in theaters on July 17, 2026.

“There’s a bit of everything in it,” Nolan recently told Empire of his desire to adapt the lengthy tale. “I mean, it truly contains all stories. As a filmmaker, you’re looking for gaps in cinematic culture, things that haven’t been done before. And what I saw is that all of this great mythological cinematic work that I had grown up with – Ray Harryhausen movies and other things – I’d never seen that done with the sort of weight and credibility that an A-budget and a big Hollywood, IMAX production could do.”

Nolan also revealed that he and his crew shot over two million feet of film over 91 days, with much of the production done on the open ocean. “It’s vast and terrifying and wonderful and benevolent, as the conditions shift,” he noted. “We really wanted to capture how hard those journeys would have been for people. And the leap of faith that was being made in an unmapped, uncharted world.”

Recently, Nolan released the six-minute prologue for The Odyssey in select IMAX theaters ahead of screenings of Sinners, One Battle After Another, and James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash. According to Variety, the prologue includes footages of the famous Trojan Horse landing in Troy and Odysseus’ leading his army to victory.

From Rolling Stone US.

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There are two dates that are considered sacred to movie lovers, film historians, and those who diligently chart the evolution of the seventh art. The first is October 6th, 1927, when Al Jolson told the audience “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!” and The Jazz Singer officially ushered in the sound era. The second is December 9th, 2009, a.k.a. the premiere of Avatar, when the general pubic could finally bask in what James Cameron had conjured up in the name of turning the fantastic into the eerily photorealistic, and hear characters breezily throw around the word “unobtainium.”

We’re kidding (or are we?!), yet you can’t underestimate how seismic this blockbuster was in terms of technological breakthroughs any more than you could blow off its box-office bona fides — it remains the highest grossing movie to date. Nor could you deny that all that hyperpixelized 3D sound and fury was being utilized to tell a story that felt as elemental and simplistic as a cave painting. It was part of Avatar‘s global appeal as much as the overwhelming visuals; love, war, and the colonial ransacking of resources in the name of corporate bottom lines tend to play universally. For some, it also had the feeling of several philharmonic orchestras being assembled to play an extravagantly Wagnerian rendition of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) made up for that aspect by quadrupling the in-franchise mythology and pioneering underwater performance-capture filmmaking, thus combining three of Cameron’s passions: deep-sea exploration, developing state-of-the-art tech, and putting actors through hell. Everyone now expects the writer, director, and King of the World to reinvent the wheel every time out, yet three films into what he’s said is a five-film series, Avatar: Fire and Ash suggests that he’s happy to simply settle into a groove for a bit. There are more stand-offs between the natives of Pandora and the “sky people” who want to ransack the planet, more family drama and ecological strife, more firefights in the heavens and on the All-Mother’s earth, more blue-skinned teens calling each other “bro.” Familiarity doesn’t breed outright contempt here, but it certainly doesn’t inspire shock or awe, either. The story continues, while Cameron goes to great pains to give the people what he believes they want: the most expensive three-hour video-game cut scene ever made. Mission accomplished.

Abandon hope, all ye who do not remember every single detail of the previous two films or possess a Ph.D in Avatar Narrative History 101. Part Three throws viewers right into the fire, with the Sullys collectively mourning the loss of their eldest child at the end of The Way of Water. Their collective grief is interrupted by the fact that the resident human among them, Spider — played by Jack Champion, whose name sounds like a James Cameron character — is in need of help ASAP. The batteries on his oxygen mask have a habit of cutting out at inconvenient moments, so Jake (Sam Worthington) makes an executive decision: The kid needs to return to his kind. His wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), his son and Spider’s best bro Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), their adopted daughter Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), and the Sullys’ youngest, Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), don’t want him to leave. Spider’s whole vibe is very “Whoa, think I took too many ‘shrooms during Phish’s second set,” and his survival may be at risk, but this “pinkskin?” He’s still family.

The idea is that they’ll transport Spider back to the base where the Na’vi-friendly humans live via caravan, with members of the reef tribe known as the Metkayina accompanying them for safety. It will be an adventure, Jake says. It will also be an ambush. Because there’s this other tribe, see, called the Mangkwan, and because their home terrain was in the path of a raging volcano, they’ve essentially become warring godless heathen. Led by Varang (Oona Chaplin, Charlie’s granddaughter), they swoop down on the group’s blimp-like skyships and give Cameron & co. the chance to break up the handwringing by staging a massive attack sequence. The Sullys are split up. Spider nearly asphyxiates to death, until Kiri connects him to the spirit that connects all living things on Pandora and voila, the kid with the dreads can survive without a mask now.

Meanwhile, Spider’s biological dad, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) — tough-as-shit marine, former dead person resurrected as a human-Na’vi “recombinant,” big blue bad guy — still wants to capture Jake for being a “traitor to humanity.” If he has to form an alliance with Varang and Mangkwan to make that happen, and if said alliance means he’s going to get horizontal with this unhinged kindred warrior, so be it. Plus: Evil scientists, venture capitalists, and shorts-wearing former corporate bigwig Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) all want to study Spider to see if they can replicate his ability to breath Pandora’s air, which would be gamechanging in terms of strip mining resources en masse. Also: The tulkun, those whale-like creatures with their own tribal culture, are still being hunted for their brain juice, and still stick to their pacifist ways; their exile of a member that fought back has Lo’ak in a tizzy. And: the Metkayina remain skeptical that Jake is the one meant to unite all tribes, and fear his presence will once again bring enemies to their home.

Lots going on here subplots-wise, in other words. Lot of eye candy being served up, in great big scoopfuls. A whole lotta lead-up to a huge, epic battle that takes up the bulk of Fire and Ash‘s final quarter, cross-cut between skirmishes in the sky and aquamarine melees, punctuated by huge beasties going full kaiju on ships and mecha-suited troops. There are births and deaths and the reminder that, for all of the digital blitzkrieg on display, the performance-capture technology that Cameron helped both upgrade and refine remains the secret weapon of this whole endeavor. Some actors utilize this in a way that feels both thrilling (Lang and Chaplin create the best villainous double act since Boris and Natasha) and extremely impressive (God bless Weaver, who does such an incredible job channeling an emotional 16-year-old that you forget the character isn’t being played by an adolescent). Others are merely forced to say lines like “The fire of hate leaves only the ashes of grief,” or “When you ride the beast, you become the beast,” or “We do not suck on the breast of weakness,” and pray the digi-touch-up team ensures their characters keep straight faces while delivering such howlers.

Cameron has said that the fate of Chapters Four and Five will depend on the financial success of Fire and Ash, and that if necessary, this could function as the final movie of a trilogy. But who the fuck are we kidding here? This is not the huge leap forward that the previous Avatars were — there’s a distinct middle-child feel to all of this, and the filmmaker’s insistence that the next two movies are gonna be out of this world only heightens the feel that this one’s here to get you from one point to the next. But it’s still an Avatar movie, which means it will still likely make a gajillion dollars no matter what, and we’ll still be left wondering, either reluctantly or breathlessly, what happens next. You can crow about the fact that it’s merely a going-native narrative dressed up in fancy 1’s and 0’s, or that this I.P. leaves little to no cultural footprint, or that its hodgepodge of Joseph Campbell and Alan Watts and mix-and-match Indigenous cultural myths is somehow way too much yet not nearly enough. More are coming. It’s just a question of when.

The irony is that the Avatar films are the products of a true visionary who’s figured out a new way of storytelling without having a new story to tell, and has simply made a bigger, bolder, more bleeding-edge campfire around which to sit while the old warhorse origin tales are trotted out. These movies have also bled a lot of viewers’ love of spectacle dry in the process, to the point where even a mammoth production like this feel like business as usual. You may feel, with its immersive 3D set pieces and screensaver imagery blown up to IMAX proportions, that you’re entering a bold new world. But transportive is not the same as transcendent. The piles of ash here looks and sounds phenomenal. What you would not give to feel some actual fire burning behind all of this.

From Rolling Stone US.

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Lisa of Blackpink will make her movie debut in Netflix’s new spin‑off of its hit American action‑thriller Extraction franchise (Extraction, 2020 and Extraction 2, 2023) — a gritty Korean thriller titled Tygo. The streaming service dropped the news earlier this week, confirming that the K-pop superstar and hitmaker will share the screen with Korean action heavyweight Ma Dong-seok, aka Don Lee, and popular Korean actor Lee Jin-wook.

Set in the underbelly of South Korea, Tygo follows a mercenary — Ma Dong-seok’s eponymous character— who is thrust into a chaotic and deadly rescue mission after his close friend and teammate Ria (played by Lisa) is kidnapped by Arman Choi’s (played by Lee Jin-wook) ruthless syndicate. The story — based on an original graphic novel, Ciudad, co-created by the Russo brothers (Anthony and Joe) and writer Ande Parks — promises the bone-crushing choreography that director Lee Sang-yong (of The Roundup series) is famous for. Tygo’s production kicked off in late 2025, with AGBO, Big Punch Pictures, and several other partners behind the camera.

According to Netflix, Lisa said that the role is a lifelong dream come true for her. She told reporters that stepping into an action movie feels incredibly special and that she’s grateful for the chance to work with such talented actors. Ma Dong-seok echoed the sentiment, noting that Tygo injects a fresh Korean identity into the global Extraction universe and that the team can’t wait to unleash its explosive energy on viewers. Lee Jin‑wook added that he’s honored to join a franchise he’s long admired. Producer Angela  Russo‑Otstot of AGBO summed up the project as an opportunity to explore the Extraction world through a South Korean lens, highlighting the collaboration with Lee Sang-yong and the cast as a perfect blend of adrenaline, showmanship and creative vision.

For Lisa, the move caps off a year that already saw her acting debut in HBO’s The White Lotus Season 3, where she appeared as Thidapon Mook Sornsin, a health and wellness coach. With Tygo, the pop idol will trade mic drops for showdowns when the film lands on Netflix. The film’s release date is still under wraps, but is expected to air in 2026.

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KPop Demon Hunters is on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ list of 35 animated films eligible for the 98th Oscars.

The Korean-American urban-fantasy musical, released on Netflix on June 20, 2025, didn’t just ride the wave of its huge viewership. It also passed the Academy’s exhibition hurdle with a limited run in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco that June, meeting the qualifying theatrical exhibition rule that lets a streaming-first picture onto the ballot.

Directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans and produced by Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix, the film follows the K-pop girl group Huntr/x as they moonlight as demon hunters, battling the demonic boy‑band Saja Boys. The cast includes Korean‑American talent Arden Cho, Ahn Hyo‑seop, May Hong, Ji‑young Yoo, Yunjin Kim, Daniel Dae Kim, Ken Jeong, and veteran Korean actor Lee Byung‑hun, who lend their voices, while the score by Marcelo Zarvos backs a soundtrack that’s become a cultural juggernaut. “Golden,” one of the film’s original songs, is not only a chart‑topper but also a contender in the Best Original Song race, and the album broke the record for the most simultaneous top‑ten entries on the Billboard Hot 100 for any film soundtrack.

The buzz isn’t just musical. Critics have called the movie “a cultural phenomenon,” praising its stunning animation—a blend of concert‑lighting flair, editorial‑photography aesthetics, anime vibes, and Korean‑drama storytelling—all rendered by Sony Pictures Animation. With 325 million global views, it became Netflix’s most-watched original animated title, and its sing-along theatrical version even topped the U.S. box office.

Now that the Academy has selected KPop Demon Hunters among the 35 eligible titles—alongside the likes of Arco, The Bad Guys 2, Elio, Zootopia 2, and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle—the competition is heating up. The Animation Branch will vote from this pool to pick the final five nominees, with other Academy members able to vote if they meet the viewing requirement. Shortlists for other categories drop on Dec. 16, 2025, but the animated feature shortlist is this very list. Nominees will be announced on Jan. 22, 2026, and the 98th Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled for Mar. 15, 2026. If the film’s global frenzy, Grammy-nominated soundtrack, and gorgeous visuals are any indication, the Huntr/x might just be the next animated heroes to take home the Oscar.

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Jeon Jong-seo has come on board the remake of Highlander, the 1986 classic starring Christopher Lambert as the immortal Connor MacLeod. The critically acclaimed Korean actress will share screen time with some of Hollywood’s finest, as the new film breathes new life into the classic’s epic battles and immortal legends.

The original Highlander follows Connor MacLeod’s life, an odyssey of battles and bloodshed. In 1985, in New York, he faces off against an old nemesis, setting the stage for what’s been brewing for centuries.

Born in the Scottish Highlands in 1518, Connor’s story takes an intense turn in 1536, when he mysteriously survives a brutal wound that should have been his last. He subsequently learns that he’s an immortal, one of the rare few blessed with a sixth sense that makes them supremely powerful. Now, as the last of his kind, Connor must confront the ruthless immortal who’s been seeking dominance for years and claim his own mortality and future in the process.

The remake — helmed by Chad Stahelski, known for the John Wick (2014) franchise — stars Henry Cavill playing Connor MacLeod, with the likes of Russell Crowe, Dave Bautista, and Jeremy Irons in significant roles.

Jeon Jong-seo is part of “The Watchers,” a secret body of humans dedicated to recording the lives of the Immortals while remaining neutral and unseen. Originating in Highlander: The Series (1992), these characters take you deeper into the Immortals’ hidden world, expanding the scope of this fantasy action-adventure.

Highlander reunites Jeon Jong-seo with Hollywood, following her role as the titular Mona Lisa, a patient with mysterious powers, in Ana Lily Amirpour’s 2021 fantasy thriller film Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, with Kate Hudson, Ed Skrein, Evan Whitten, and Craig Robinson.

The Burning (2018) star has been on a roll, giving standout performances in The Call (2020) and Ballerina (2023), with the latter being one of our best Korean films of 2023. Her latest movie project, Project Y, is a gripping crime drama co-starring Han So-hee, where two friends turn to crime in a desperate bid to change their fate. The film had its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival and also screened at the 30th Busan International Film Festival. And with Highlander, Jeon Jong-seo’s filmography continues to grow stronger.

The film goes into production on Nov. 28, according to Collider. The article also shares that actor Dave Bautista, who plays the villain, the evil Kurgan, shared that Chad Stahelski’s Highlander is very different from its predecessor and is very stylized, calling it a “real game changer.”

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He’s part of a race of extraterrestrial hunters who take pride in their stalking prowess and being the “killer of killers.” She’s an android programmed to collect alien specimens and, apparently, offer a cheerful running commentary whenever disaster looms. Along with an adorable creature blessed with the agility of a Rhesus monkey and the scrunchy face of a pug, they’ve got to navigate dangerous environment rife with deadly obstacles. We don’t want to say that hilarity necessarily ensues when, you know, one of the characters splits a massive beast in half with a laser sword and holds its bloodied, severed spine up as a spoil of victory. But it’s pretty obvious you’re watching a buddy comedy. One in which the co-lead is a Predator. [Cue theme to The Odd Couple]

Once upon a time, this stone-cold killer from a galaxy far, far away was merely another threat that stood between Arnold Schwarzenegger and survival in the jungles of Central America. Thanks to Stan Winston’s extraordinary design and the need for endlessly franchised creature features, the interstellar intruder with the mandibles and dreadlocks kept coming back to Earth, hunting everyone from 18th century Native American tribes to future-shocked L.A. cops. Sequels, comic books, video games, action figures, and an animated feature followed. It even got to go toe-to-toe with Xenomorphs. A star was born.

The sixth film in the series — eighth if you count the Alien vs. Predator offshoots — Predator: Badlands retains the mix of B-movie action and pulpy horror, with a lot of hard sci-fi elements thrown in. Most of the dialogue is in the title character’s native language, which we believe is called “Predatorese,” and everything takes place on two planets that answer the question, “What if Frank Frazetta and Roger Dean had a baby?” But it’s really a comedic road movie at heart, with as much yuks over a mismatched pair trying to get along as yucks involving the goopy innards of cosmic mastodons. Finally, the Predator cinematic-universe remake of Midnight Run that no one knew they, er, needed?

Things kick off with a bit of inter-family strife, involving a young predator named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi). He’s attempting to go through the traditional Yautja rituals of manhood, which will earn him his invisibility cloak. Those involve besting a fellow warrior in battle. The one testing his mettle happens to be his brother, Kwei (Mike Homik). Dek is soon marked for extinction by his dad, the tribal leader, because “weaklings” must be culled from the herd. Long story short, our hero escapes and vows to bring back the ultimate trophy: the head of a Kalisk, an indestructible monstrosity with regenerative healing powers that lives deep within the harsh terrain of Genna. If you’re already confused or bewildered, leave now — it’s only going to get wonkier from here.

Once he lands on Genna, Dek fights off a number of indigenous flora, fauna, and the odd hungry behemoth. He also discovers Thia (Elle Fanning), a synthetic made by the Weyland-Yutani corporation — yes, that Weyland-Yutani corporation — who was also sent to capture and retrieve the Kalisk. Congratulations, AvP fans, the franchise crossover is now officially canon! Their meet-cute involves a pterodactyl, a number of plants that shoot paralyzing needles, and a nest in which Thia has been imprisoned. Once she is freed, Dek discover the robot is missing her bottom half. Help her retrieve her legs, Twia says, and she may be able to aid him in finding a Kalisk. He straps her to his back and, along with that aformentioned monkey-dog hybrid who Twia names Bud, they set off to meet their destiny. [Cue “Movin’ Right Along” from The Muppet Movie]

There are thrills and chills and spills and a lot of cross-lingual back and forth; you’d be surprised how much banter you can get out of English-to-Predatorese bickering. Fanning knows exactly to add a slightly Pollyanna-ish aura to her opportunistic yet optimistic synthetic, as well as a cold, menacing vibe when playing her evil synth twin. Director Dan Trachtenberg has given us both the franchise’s undisputed masterpiece Prey (2022) and this year’s animated anthology Predator: Killer of Killers, and his third time up now makes him the series’ resident go-to ringmaster. He knows how present paperback-cover vistas, yowling monster attacks, and a set piece involving Twia and her still-disembodied gams respectively fighting off Weyland-Yutani thugs. Everything bops breezily along, stopping occasionally to have Dek growl maxims about strength through domination, and observe a decapitation or two.

Badlands does have something close to a message that makes itself apparent before the triumphant final-boss fight (there’s one more Alien-related bit of business in store), the Greek-tragedy climax, and a post-credits stinger, in which you’re reminded there’s a difference between the cosmic killer clan you’re born into and the cosmic killer clan you choose, yadda yadda yadda. Or maybe its that the real apex-predator hunt is the friends we made along the way. Regardless, this detour into a genre not previously associated with clacking mandibles and righteous kills suggests the brand’s braintrust wants to diversify its portfolio a bit. To which we can only reply: Bring on the raunchy teen-musical Predator rom-com!

From Rolling Stone US.

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The Hawkins kids have their lives on the line in the foreboding trailer for the final season of Stranger Things. The show will wrap up this fall with a two-part season, the first half premiering on Netflix November 26th and the second half dropping on Christmas.

Season Four left Hawkins under military quarantine as Vecna wreaks havoc and El (Millie Bobby Brown) is in hiding. The kids must unite to find the monster and save the town for good. The trailer previews an action-packed season, one where the crew of old friends and their siblings must go into battle. But people like Will (Noah Schnapp), who was vanished to the Upside Down in the first season, have up close encounters with Vecna, who wants to use him “one last time,” as the monster threatens.

“I think what’s unique about this season is that it starts a little bit in chaos because our heroes ultimately lost at the end of Season 4,” co-creator Ross Duffer told Netflix’s blog Tudum. “We usually set up their normal life and how they’re going about school, and then we introduce the supernatural element. But in this case, this season is sprinting from the start.”

Per an official synopsis, the fifth and final season takes place in 1987, four years after the events of the first season and nearing the anniversary of Will’s disappearance. The first four episodes of the season will be part of the November Volume 1 drop while three more will premiere on Christmas. However, there will still be a two-hour final event left to be released on New Year’s Eve. Timed with the Netflix drop will be a theatrical release of the final episode for fans to watch in real life with other fans.

From Rolling Stone US.

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Sydney Sweeney and Mike White made magic on the first season of The White Lotus, so why not join forces on The Amazing Race? Sweeney recently acknowledged that she’d love to go on the reality show with White as her teammate, telling Variety, “Honestly, Mike and I would be a killer team.”

In the same interview, White concurred. “I would definitely win with her,” he said. “She’s the master at getting what she wants. And I mean that in an absolutely good way.”

White previously competed on The Amazing Race twice. He lost Seasons 14 and 18 of the long-running reality series with his father Mel White as his teammate, and has also appeared on Survivor: David vs. Goliath.

“Part of my job and my way of life is studying people and analyzing motivation and character. I still feel like, even on the most contrived reality show, the people are human and they’re more interesting than some of the most well-scripted drama,” White told The New Yorker in 2021 about his love of participating on reality TV shows. “And for me, as a writer of drama, I aspire to do what reality television already does. To create characters that are surprising and dimensional and do weird shit and capture your attention.”

Sweeney starred in the first season of The White Lotus as teenager Olivia Mossbacher, the daughter of Connie Britton’s Nicole and Steve Zahn’s Mark. Elsewhere in the Variety interview, White acknowledged that he would love for Sweeney to reprise her character on a future season of The White Lotus, but isn’t optimistic about the prospect. “I don’t know if we could afford her now,” he said. “As of now, it doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen.”

White has also floated the idea of an all-star edition of The White Lotus, which could bring back multiple fan favorites. “It would be easy to just be full-on anthology, but I think it’s more fun to have little threads through the show,” he said in 2023. “If the show goes on for a couple of seasons, it would be fun to have an all-star season.”

Season 3 of The White Lotus, set in Thailand, aired on HBO earlier this year. In April, White said he wanted the next edition of the drama series to “get a little bit out of the ‘crashing waves against rocks’ vernacular.” It has since been reported that the production will move to France, although the exact location has not been officially announced.

From Rolling Stone US.

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