News that the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, Buffy: New Sunnydale, has been cancelled before it had the chance to air has left excited fans devastated. 

The announcement that the show was coming back and being directed by Oscar-winning Chloé Zhao, with the Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy, almost broke the internet. With the pilot in the can, Gellar and Zhao were constantly teasing what fans could expect from the new show, but then came the disappointing announcement that Hulu had decided not to push forward with the project anymore. 

Sarah Michelle Gellar herself broke the news on her Instagram page. Clearly a shock to her as well, Gellar held it together long enough to express her own sadness at the cancellation. Since then, more details have slowly started to surface, with the Buffy actress sharing that one executive appeared to be against New Sunnydale from the start, making the journey to get it on our screens an uphill battle. Then a draft of the script was leaked online, which barely featured her character, Buffy Summers, focusing on the latest Slayer instead. The reaction to this script has not been too positive, but with the lead character still called Nova, rather than the more recently announced Rowan, this is likely a very early draft. Other reasons cited include the pilot being in need of reshoots, but they being too expensive to justify. 

Considering how loyal the fanbase is to the show that began almost 30 years ago, it seems slightly mad to cancel the series without giving it a chance at all. With the hopes and hearts of Buffy fans shattered, there also comes a hole in their future viewing schedule. So what programmes should Buffy fans seek out to mend their broken hearts? We think we might have found a collection of worthy antidotes. 

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997 - 2003)

The most obvious show to dive into in the wake of the New Sunnydale cancellation news is, of course, Buffy the Vampire Slayer itself. With the 30th anniversary in 2027, now is the perfect time to reconnect with Buffy and the Scooby Gang. Watching it now will potentially be a little too raw for some, and I guarantee that Season 5 episode, ‘The Body’, will generate more tears than ever before. If you can make it past the sadness, Buffy the Vampire Slayer holds up on a rewatch and is definitely a show to check out if you’ve yet to visit Sunnydale. 

The show uses the monsters that Buffy and her friends face down as a metaphor for the nightmare that is growing up, and it is this that makes the show both universal and evergreen. Yes, Buffy: New Sunnydale would have updated the fashion and technology for a new generation, but otherwise, the original show holds up. Its message of strong young women fighting for what they believe in is an especially vital one in the modern sociopolitical climate.  

2. Angel (1999 - 2004)

Once you’ve cried your way through Buffy the Vampire Slayer, dreaming of what the new show could have been, it’s time to tackle its spin-off, Angel. The character of Angel was central to the first three seasons of Buffy, but after he graduated, the vampire with a soul left Sunnydale behind for a life in Los Angeles. There, he began a detective agency helping the helpless. 

He was joined by fellow Buffy characters Cordelia, Wesley, and, eventually, frenemy Spike, making it a great continuation of its parent show. Although it retained some of the trademark Buffy humour, Angel was a far darker show, a switch-up that fans happily embraced. 

3. Roswell, New Mexico (2019 - 2022)

Whereas Buffy’s reboot has sadly fallen by the wayside, the resurrection of one of the show's peers, Roswell, did come to pass. Roswell, New Mexico ran for four seasons and told the story of Liz, a human who discovers that three of her classmates are not of this Earth. The original version was set in high school, but for the reboot, the characters were all aged up to adults. 

In places, a reworking of the original series, but mainly its own exploration of the idea, Roswell, New Mexico is a great example of how to do a respectful reboot. There is enough for fans of the original show - including appearances of original cast members (as new characters) - to appreciate, whilst not gatekeeping those just discovering it for the first time. Roswell, New Mexico also features a pre-Prey turn from Amber Midthunder. 

4. Veronica Mars (2004 - 2007)

Teen sleuth show, Veronica Mars, might not have vampires, covert military experiments, or vengeful demons, but it definitely has its fair share of real monsters. Whereas Buffy used literal monsters as a metaphor for the teen experience, Veronica Mars didn’t sugarcoat anything. 

The overarching plot of Season 1 of the show sees teen detective Veronica investigating the potential murder of her best friend. Along the way, she encounters a series of shady characters and uncovers all kinds of terrible secrets, all whilst juggling her grades. Subsequent seasons get even darker, and fans of actor Kyle Gallner should be warned that his character here might just taint your opinion of him. 

5. The Vampire Diaries (2009 - 2017)

Based on a series of books by L. J. Smith, The Vampire Diaries is often viewed as a Twilight clone. This is primarily due to the inclusion of vampires and a love triangle between high schooler Elena and vampiric brothers, Stefan and Damon Salvatore. On closer inspection, however, The Vampire Diaries has a lot more in common with Buffy. Firstly, there is the high-school setting, but also the town, Mystic Falls, has a Sunnydale vibe to it. Whilst not the actual Hellmouth as in Buffy, the town is the epicentre of supernatural beings, and as such, just as with Buffy, the show is populated by witches, werewolves, hybrids, and more. Then there is the character of Stefan, who was 100% inspired by Angel, right down to his going feral whenever he turns his humanity off. 

In many ways, The Vampire Diaries became Buffy’s successor, and should you enjoy the show, it has not one, but two spin-offs - The Originals and Legacies - which both feature appearances from fan favourite characters. 

6. Heartbreak High (2022 - 2026)

Netflix’s Heartbreak High is the resurrection of the ‘90s Australian teen drama of the same name. Vastly different to its ‘90s counterpart, this new iteration of Heartbreak High is a breath of fresh air. Featuring bold and brash characters and exceptional representation of every facet of sexuality and gender identity, Heartbreak High, like Buffy, is packed full of humour. There’s also plenty of teen angst and mystery, with each season opening with an inciting incident that is slowly unpicked as the episodes progress. 

There aren’t any monsters, but Heartbreak Heart nails modern teenagers in a way that so few others do. Just try not to get too attached, as the newly released third series is set to be its last. 

7. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018 - 2020)

Presenting a blonde teenage girl with the weight of the world on her shoulders, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a perfect show to fill the void of New Sunnydale. A far cry from the magical sitcom of the ‘90s, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a dark coming-of-age show that chronicles Sabrina Spellman’s journey as she tries to reconcile her half-mortal / half-witch lineage, whilst fighting ever-growing forces of evil. 

Featuring a stand-out performance by Kiernan Shipka, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is for those who really enjoyed the Dark Willow story during Buffy’s sixth season. 

What is this, a crossover episode? There are plenty of reasons to be hyped for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, but one of the most exciting facets is the appearance of Fox McCloud, who you might know better as Star Fox. 

As well as being a genuinely cool character in his own right, Nintendo fans are buzzing over the idea of these two popular gaming IPs crossing over on the big screen.

But this isn’t the first time Nintendo has done a crossover. In fact, it based a whole TV show around the idea of video game crossovers with Captain N: The Game Master.

Originally a comic, the cartoon series ran between 1989 and 1992. It is centred around a thrilling war between the good guys and the bad guys in the Videoland, a universe which is made up of multiple well-known worlds based on video games like The Legend of Zelda, Tetris, and Final Fantasy, to name a few.

What Is Captain N: The Game Master About?                       

At the centre of the show is the titular Captain N, who is your typical teenager, Kevin Keene.

One day, he is playing Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!! only for the Ultimate Warp Zone to drag him into Videoland. This, in turn, fulfilled an ancient prophecy known as The Legend of Videoland, which foretold a “young warrior from another world” warping into Videoland to help lead the people to victory.

He joins the N Team in their war against the Forces of Chaos led by villain Mother Brain.

What Characters Are There In Captain N?

The N Team itself consists of numerous characters from various games, including Simon Belmont from Castlevania, Kid Icarus from Kid Icarus, Megaman from Megaman and Game Boy — who, as the name suggests, is literally a Nintendo Game Boy. Princess Lana, an original character, is also part of the N Team.

As for the Forces of Chaos, the group is led by Mother Brain, an adversary from Metroid. Other members include King Hippo from Punch-Out!!, Eggplant Wizard from Kid Icarus, and Dr Wily from Megaman. 

As well as this, many well-known video characters made appearances throughout the show’s three seasons, including Princess Peach from the Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong from Donkey Kong, Link and Zelda from The Legend of Zelda, Pero from Puss 'n Boots: Pero's Great Adventure, Robin Hood from Robin Hood, Count from Castlevania, Dragon Lord from Dragon Warrior, and Kraid from Metroid, among others.

In total, there are three Seasons and 31 episodes of the show — the first two had 13 episodes each, while the final Season only had seven episodes.

In a retrospective review, which only encompassed the first two seasons and the movie, IGN gave it three out of five stars, describing it as an “interesting and fun cartoon.”

“Although mainly for old-school Nintendo fans, anyone with a little background knowledge and a lot of nostalgia will find a lot to love in Captain N,” the reviewer added. 

If you want to check out Captain N for yourself, your best option is Apple TV, which has all three seasons available for your perusal. 

Moana is the latest Disney animation to get the live-action treatment and is set to release later in 2026. Although fans were happy at the announcement that Dwayne Johnson would be returning as Maui, the reaction to his appearance in the adaptation has not been as well-received. 

The wrestler-turned-actor certainly has the physique to portray the demigod, but while Maui’s locks are long and following, Johnson himself has little on top. In order to match the look of live-action Maui to the animation, the film has had to employ the use of a wig, and the newly released images and trailer prove it to be something of an atrocity. 

One would assume that with the Disney purse strings at their disposal, the Moana team would have been able to create something that looked a tad more realistic. Instead, the hairpiece glimpsed in the trailer is distractingly bad. Although the younger audience members will likely be oblivious to the hate crime against fake hair, the accompanying adults will have a harder time ignoring it. With such an imposing wig, Dwayne Johnson is facing the biggest acting challenge of his career as he attempts to draw audience attention away from it. Johnson is not the first actor to be left stuck with a ropey wig; film history is littered with examples.

From weird hairlines to cheap materials and the perpetual problem of dreadlocks, movies are full of awful hairpieces. Here are just a few films that Moana will find itself situated alongside. 

1. Everyone in Return to Silent Hill (2026)

When it comes to bad wigs of 2026, Moana faces stiff competition from Return to Silent Hill. Not only did the video game adaptation hit the headlines for the mangling of its source material, but the hair of the entire cast also came under scrutiny. 

Directed by Christophe Gans, Return to Silent Hill had, by his own admission, a very limited budget. One place where some more money would have been very beneficial is within the hair and make-up team. Throughout the story, protagonist James encounters a series of near-identical women, the only difference being their hair. The issue is that, although not a feature of the plot, the hair of each of these women is clearly a low-grade wig. 

Each wig on screen is worse than the last, and it is obvious that they were scooped up from a fancy dress shop for peanuts. But that is not where the nightmare ends, as James is also seen, not just sporting a cringeworthy wig, but also a fake beard that looks as if it is held on by sheer force of will. 

2. Nicholas Cage in Ghost Rider (2007)

No other actor in film history has loved a bad hairpiece more than Nicolas Cage, to the point where this list could have exclusively featured films from his back catalogue. Whether it is the washed-up wrestler locks of Con Air, the slick monstrosity seen in Bangkok Dangerous, or the biblically comical wig of The Carpenter’s Son, Cage cares not for how terrible a wig a production has, but just that his character gets hair. 

One of his biggest sins against hair can be found in Ghost Rider. The ill-fitting hairpiece looks as though it has been lifted off of Tom Cruise circa the first Mission: Impossible film. The wig is a clear attempt to make Cage appear younger as the motorcycle-riding antihero. The hair is so bad that it is a relief whenever the equally dreadful CGI skull takes over. 

3. Amber Heard in Aquaman (2018)

Due to their source material, comic book movies often pose problems for the hair and make-up team due to the oftentimes outlandish appearance of their characters. Although zany can be hard to pull off, there is no excuse when the styles are more everyday in appearance. Take Aquaman, for example, although there is nothing wrong with Jason Momoa’s hair, mainly as it was his own, almost every other actor sports a terrible headpiece. Nicole Kidman’s blonde plaited look is garish, the decision to make platinum blonde Dolph Lundgren a redhead is barbaric, but the worst crime committed is against Amber Heard.

The typically blonde actress plays Aquaman’s love interest, Mera, and dons the most vibrant red wig seen on screen since Uma Thurman’s in Batman & Robin. Not only does the colour not suit her skin tone, it also seems to have been made for peanuts - likely due to almost everyone else in the cast also clad in a wig - and is exceptionally hard to ignore. 

4. Jack Black in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)

Horror sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer features a pre-fame appearance from Jack Black. Thankfully for him, most people forget about the credit, primarily because he looks nothing like the image of him that audiences have come to know, as he is buried under a wig of fake dreadlocks. His character is a hippie stoner, and whilst Black does fun work with the comedy relief character, those dreadlocks are absolutely repugnant. 

Even still, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer’s biggest crime is against geography, with anyone who has even a passing knowledge of Brazil likely to be left screaming at the television. 

5. Taylor Lautner, Nikki Reed & Ashley Greene in Twilight: New Moon (2009)

Despite being one of the biggest money-making franchises of the ‘00s, the Twilight films appeared to get their wigs from the cheapest possible places. As such, the quality of the hair of pretty much every character was questionable. One of the internet’s favourites is the near knee-length wig that poor Taylor Lautner had to wear in Twilight: New Moon to play a pre-werewolf, Jacob Black. Luckily for him, once the curse took hold, the character was allowed a haircut, instantly giving Jacob one of the best glow-ups in cinema. 

Nikki Reed, who played vampire Rosalie, was less fortunate. The blonde wig she dons from the second film onwards looks like something you might find as part of a cheap Halloween costume. Still, it did save the natural brunette from having to maintain the blonde do, as she did for the original Twilight. Yet another terrible hairpiece can be found atop Ashley Greene, who played Alice. The list honestly could go on and on. 

6. Halle Berry in The Call (2013)

When it comes to character wigs, Halle Berry is basically the female equivalent of Nicolas Cage. Her career is littered with characters brought to life with terrible wigs, with her roles as Storm in X-Men and Catwoman in Catwoman two perfect examples. While both of these examples are bad and have their own fair share of online comments, the absolute worst is the one Berry sports in The Call. The short, overly permed monster almost derails Berry’s entire performance in the taut thriller. Upon The Call’s release, fans raced to the internet to voice their outrage at the unholy creation, but rather than be offended, Berry took it in her stride. 

Never one to take herself too seriously, she famously attended the Razzies to collect her Catwoman awards during the promotion of horror Never Let Go. Berry brought her The Call wig out of retirement and ironically wore it to a screening of her new movie. As fun as the moment is, it begs the question, why on Earth did she hold onto that wig when it should have been sent to the fires of Mordor?

7. Neil and Adrian Rayment in The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

The Matrix is one of the greatest action science fiction films in cinema history. Released in 1999, the film completely rewrote the action cinema guidebook and also merged sci-fi with philosophy in a way that the masses could relate to. It spawned a legion of copycats, as well as some sequels. The first two - The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions - were filmed back to back, and despite everyone’s hope, fell short of capturing the original’s spark. One massive black cross against The Matrix Reloaded is the look of the Merovingian’s henchmen twins. 

The brothers sport identical platinum blonde dreadlocks, which on paper could be cool. The reality, however, is very disappointing, as not only does the hairstyle not match the actors playing them, but somehow the dreadlocks start almost halfway across their skull, giving the appearance of receding dreads, which just make the pair look silly rather than menacing. 

8. Jessica Alba in Fantastic Four (2005)

The only woman in the team, Sue Storm of the Fantastic Four, has historically been a hard look to get right. Or to be more specific, a tricky character to get the hair working for. This issue appears to have been saved in the most recent The Fantastic Four: The First Steps, with the hair looking at least in the right place on Vanessa Kirby. The same cannot be said of her predecessors, Kate Mara and Jessica Alba. 

Of the pair, it is Jessica Alba’s Fantastic Four outings as Sue Storm that draw the most criticism. The blonde wig, coupled with blue contacts, looks out of place on Alba, and although her performance is strong, the oddness of her appearance inspires a very different opinion. It is so jarring that even the most expensive wig in the world could likely not save the character, but would at least stop Alba from looking quite so much like an extra from Barbie. 

9. Robin Tunney in The Craft (1996)

In The Craft, Robin Tunney plays Sarah, a teenager new to LA who gets scooped up by a trio of wannabe witches. With Sarah, an unknowing nature witch, the newly formed coven gains magical abilities, but what starts as fun turns toxic. The Craft is a millennial institution, and if you didn’t attempt to play ‘light as a feather’ during a ‘90s sleepover, you were doing something wrong. As iconic as The Craft is, it has one major fault: Sarah's hair. 

Before starring in The Craft, Robin Tunney had just starred in Empire Records, a project which involved her character shaving her head. This meant that Tunney had no option but to wear a wig to play Sarah, but surely they could have prepared one that looked slightly closer to the star's original hair? 

Megan Fox isn’t on our screens all that often anymore, but 20 years ago, she was absolutely everywhere. That exposure came with a varying degree of success for her films, with one project in particular going on a fascinating journey from commercial failure to cult status.

Yes, we’re talking about Jennifer’s Body. The horror movie had two great actresses leading the line, splashes of dark comedy, and some truly gnarly kills and yet, at the time, audiences really did not vibe with the Karyn Kusama flick.

Now, perception has changed wildly. So much so, in fact, that we’re even getting a sequel to Jennifer’s Body, with writer Diablo Cody confirming she is working on a script as we speak. So, what sparked this incredible turnaround over the years? And why did it all go so wrong back in 2009? Here, we take a look at the rollercoaster ride this monster movie has been on so far.

Jennifer’s Body Was a Critical And Commercial Failure

Jennifer’s Body was released in September 2009, which was arguably the first mistake. Releasing the film a month later would have perfectly coincided with Halloween and allowed audiences to celebrate spooky season with this sharp satire.

The film was also massively mis-marketed. Far too much emphasis was put on its generic slasher vibes rather than leaning into the more intriguing thematic elements at play. Meanwhile, Megan Fox was thrust to the forefront of the promotional push not as a complex and tragic anti-hero, but as a hypersexualised Final Girl.

All in all, the movie did not strike a chord among the masses and flopped at the box office as a result. Jennifer’s Body earned $6.8 million in its opening weekend and would only go on to accumulate $31.6 million worldwide against a reported budget of around $16 million (according to Box Office Mojo).

Things didn’t go much better critically, either. The initial reception was mixed, at best, and the film has a paltry 47% score on Rotten Tomatoes from 213 reviews. Brian Eggert complained Jennifer’s Body was “unfunny and unscary”, while Grant Brissey claimed the movie tried too hard to “prove how clever it is.”

Despite a strong feminist agenda, there were plenty of negative reviews from female critics, too. Anne Bilson lamented the fact that Kusama “fumbles” all the horror set-pieces, which had sounded very cool in concept. Wendy Ide at The Times agreed that a “promising” premise is let down by insufficient scares and laughs.

The same applies to the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, with a shocking 36% on the review aggregate’s platform. But, if you ask people today how they feel about Jennifer’s Body, you’re very likely to get a completely different verdict.

Years Later, Jennifer’s Body Has Become a True Cult Classic

Now, Jennifer’s Body is rightly regarded as an enthralling and incisive study of toxic romantic relationships and the nuances of female friendship. A lot of people have rewatched, or watched for the first time, helped by the fact that the film is now on Disney+, and have reassessed everything that Kusama and Cody had to say.

Particularly in light of the #MeToo movement, Jennifer’s Body is a blistering and highly satisfying revenge tale in which abusive and violent men get their comeuppance at the hands of the titular teen-turned-demon. It’s a cathartic experience for women and a sobering, very necessary watch for male viewers. It’s a film that also flips the male gaze around as a weapon, with Jennifer taking great agency over her own body and using that to feast on her deserving victims.

The harrowing scene at the start of this film, where Fox’s character is slaughtered as a demonic sacrifice, was initially interpreted as little more than leaning into horror tropes by most viewers in 2009. Now, it’s seen as a pivotal moment that explores sexual trauma and female pain through a boldly visceral lens. Most would now agree that the messages Kusama and Cody were trying to get across were simply ahead of their time – audiences were not ready for that conversation 17 years ago, but they are now.

Aside from the deep-rooted symbolism, Jennifer’s Body has now gained a fresh appreciation for its more conspicuous elements, too. The one-liners that were ineffective in 2009 are now regarded as not only funny but very smart examples of Cody’s knack for writing great dialogue. The performances of Fox and her co-star, Amanda Seyfried, are also now praised for the way they embraced the campy, tongue-in-cheek tone of the film. 

Indeed, any criticisms of Jennifer’s Body not being fun are rather unfounded today – what’s not to enjoy about a terrifying teenager devouring mean high school boys? This is truly a misunderstood masterpiece and fully deserving of its newfound cult status. It’s a film that has been crying out for a sequel for years, and it’s exciting that we’ll seemingly get our wish soon enough.

After the monster success of A Minecraft Movie, it’s no wonder the video game adaptation is getting a sequel. That first film cost roughly $150m to make and returned a whopping $961m at the box office, becoming one of the most profitable films of 2025.

With a built-in fanbase already, thanks to the game, a big-name cast including Jack Black and Jason Momoa, and the perfect blend of slapstick comedy and meme-worthy references, A Minecraft Movie really did have audiences going crazy.

Now, the challenge is to take the second film in a fresh direction, while maintaining the magic of the first instalment. But with the first bit of casting news coming out, it looks like Jared Hess and Co. are off to a great start.

Kirsten Dunst Joins the Cast of A Minecraft Movie 2

It was revealed by Deadline that none other than Kirsten Dunst will be joining the cast for A Minecraft Movie 2. The esteemed actress will play Alex, one of the game’s most popular characters.

We don’t know a lot about this sequel yet, apart from the fact that it’s set for release in 2027, and some very basic plot details. The story will involve Steve (Jack Black) and Alex (Dunst) diving deeper into the Overworld to explore new territories and encounter new challenges along the way.

Obviously, Black is back, then. He’ll be joined by Jason Momoa, who will reprise his role as Garrett. Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers, Sebastian Hansen, Jennifer Coolidge, and Matt Berry are all expected to return, too.

Dunst Will Finally Make Some Money With This Project

Dunst’s casting announcement is not only surprising, but she has a hilarious reason for it, too. The actress previously joked that she would happily be a part of a second Minecraft movie, simply because her kids loved the first one.

Speaking to Town and Country in 2025, Dunst played up the influence of her children, and also added, “Maybe I can just make a movie where I don’t lose money?”

It would seem she wasn’t actually joking at all. And good for her! She’s done more than enough dramatic work to earn the chance for a commercial hit now, that’s for sure.

If we look at Dunst’s past projects, it’s safe to say box office success is not something that has necessarily followed her around recently. For example, Roofman, the brilliant dramedy starring Channing Tatum, made just $34m off a $19m budget last year. 

The Power of the Dog, for which Dunst earned an Oscar nomination, had a limited release as a Netflix movie. Meanwhile, Midnight Special actually made a serious loss, earning just $7m from an $18m production budget. They’re all excellent films, but quality doesn’t always equate to bums in seats and cinema tickets.

The one anomaly here is Alex Garland’s Civil War. The gripping, dystopian tale amassed $127m at the box office in 2024 against a $50m budget, and ended up being A24’s second highest-grossing movie of all time.

We Can’t Wait To See Kirsten Dunst Do Something Light Again

Putting the financial element aside, it will be interesting to see Dunst dip her toe into something more fun and light once more. In recent years, she’s established herself as a fine dramatic actress, but she’s proven she’s not afraid to perform in more comedic, commercial environments in the past.

In the 2000s, Dunst starred in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, which was a true cultural behemoth. Those films may have had their darker moments, but there’s no denying they were big, bombastic action movies at their core.

Likewise, Dunst played a part in flicks like Bring It On, Get Over It, and Wimbledon, which were all delightfully cheesy, playful rom-coms. She’s a force to be reckoned with when she’s flexing her dramatic chops, but that doesn’t change the fact that she’s an absolute joy to watch when she’s cutting loose with something less serious. 

Say it quietly, but seeing Dunst in the world of Minecraft should be a blast!

In the power rankings of Hollywood IP, video game adaptations have been giving superhero movies a run for their money lately—think Minecraft, Sonic, The Last of Us—but toys and games might not be too far behind. 

If production slates at Hasbro and Mattel are to be believed, either one has the potential to dominate cinema screens in the next few years, which is good news for fans of some of the world’s most popular tabletop and card-based games.

In the aftermath of Barbie’s world-conquering success, plans were quickly put in place to bring Polly Pocket, Rock-em, Sock-em Robots, View-Master, and, god help us, Furby, to the big screen. Tabletop and card-based board games—with their intricate rules and their reliance on a player’s imagination—have always been a trickier prospect, but that hasn’t stopped studios from trying over the years. 

Below is a list of seven movies that have, in their own ways, attempted to visualise the unique joys of tabletop and card-based games, as well as five that are looking to do the same in the not-so-distant future. Read on to discover more and use the guide below to find them on Apple TV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere. 

1. Clue (1985)

We’ll start things off with a movie that is, to the best of my knowledge, the first to be directly based on and named after a classic board game. Jonathan Lynn’s Clue (or Cluedo, to UK viewers), from 1985, included everything from the game’s characters—Professor Plum, Ms Scarlet and Colonel Mustard all feature—to its classic murder weapons to make a film that worked as both an enjoyable murder mystery and a campy homage to the game. 

If you’ve been enjoying Rian Johnson’s Knives Out trilogy and are partial to some Tim Curry (think The Rocky Horror Picture Show), you’ll probably have a blast with it.

2. Jumanji (1995)

Now more than 30 years since its release, we can probably state with some confidence that Jumanji was the most influential board game movie of the 20th century—although, given the lack of competition, I suppose that doesn’t say a lot. The movie was actually based on a popular picture book by Chris Van Allsburg, but the movie was so convincing that it made a whole generation of kids believe that the game really existed.

From the closeups of rolling dice to the eerie way that the pieces moved, no movie had dramatised the board game experience with so much dramatic flair before. The recent Dwayne Johnson-led reboots have been perfectly fun, but thanks to its mix of practical effects, CGI, and Robin Williams, Joe Johnston’s 1995 original still works a charm.

3. Battleship (2012)

No, you didn’t dream it: Rihanna and Liam Neeson really costarred in 2012’s Battleship—a movie unironically based on the board game of the same name. This is the one where a group of Naval officers off the coast of Hawaii are forced to use a decommissioned WWII ship (the actual USS Missouri) to fend off an alien invasion. 

The origins of the iconic plastic board game can be traced back to pencil-and-paper versions that began to circulate during WWI, which makes director Peter Berg’s decision to include an alien invasion in his adaptation all the funnier. Imagine a mix of the uber-glossy and uber-silly blockbusters of the early 2010s (think Transformers: Dark of the Moon) and Berg’s later films (like Deepwater Horizon), and you’ll know what to expect.

4. Ouija (2014)

2014’s Ouija (and its sequel, Origin of Evil) might seem closer to the world of tarot cards than commercial board games, but Hasbro genuinely holds the right to that name and has been producing these allegedly satanic objects since the early 1990s.

Nevertheless, this 2014 horror movie, directed by Stiles White, naturally leans into the board’s potential for channelling and conversing with spirits. The movie is far from a classic, but it was Olivia Cooke’s last role before breaking out in Me, Earl and the Dying Girl in 2015—so if you’re a fan of the actress’s work in that movie, or in the more recent House of the Dragon, you might be interested in checking it out. 

5. Chihayafuru (2016)

Norihiro Koizumi’s Chihayafuru is a live-action adaptation of a popular Japanese manga and anime of the same name. The story follows a girl named Chihaya as she enters the world of competitive Karuta, a traditional card game that is said to test a player’s wits and memory as well as their knowledge of Japanese poetry—and as you may have guessed, there is no obvious Western comparison to it.

The anime and movie do their best to visualise the game’s dramatic stakes, but it’s best viewed as a coming-of-age tale for Chihayafuru—imagine Haikyu!! meets A Silent Voice, and you’ll have a vague idea.

6. The Queen’s Gambit (2020)

Cast your mind back to the early days of COVID-19, and you, like everyone else, were probably living on a strict diet of Tiger King, Normal People and The Queen’s Gambit. In case you haven’t seen it, this is a show about an American chess prodigy who overcomes institutional sexism and fears of nuclear annihilation to rise up through the ranks and become an international star. 

The show was an absolute sensation at the time and cemented Anya Taylor-Joy as a rising star in Hollywood—so if you liked her performances in movies like Furiosa and The Menu, you’ll wanna see it. 

7. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

After a few failed attempts from other directors, John Francis Daley and Johnathan Goldstein did Dungeons & Dragons justice with Honor Among Thieves—a hugely entertaining movie that captured the game’s playful charms. 

This is a movie that manages to earnestly communicate the game’s inventive joys while not taking itself too seriously in the process. If you’re a D&D head or simply enjoy all things Chris Pine (Star Trek and Wonder Woman especially), you’re gonna dig it. 

8. Monopoly (expected 2027)

Not long after Barbie attained cultural phenomenon and box office juggernaut status, Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap production company announced its involvement in a couple of other notable IP projects—to go alongside their usual output of promising indies. One that definitely appears to be going ahead is The Sims, an adaptation of the iconic PC game; the other is Monopoly, which will be based, as you may have guessed, on the most famous (and famously capitalist) board game in history. 

No director is attached at this point, but if I were a betting man, I would guess that both of these movies will approach their subjects with the same satirical eye that helped elevate Greta Gerwig’s Barbie in 2023. 

9. Warhammer 40,000 (expected 2027)

Given its popularity (and the success of video game adaptations over the years), it’s amazing that Warhammer 40,000 hasn’t been successfully adapted into a movie or series by now. That might be about to change in the not-so-distant future thanks to Henry “former Man of Steel” Cavill.

The actor—allegedly a lifelong Warhammer fanboy—is currently spearheading an adaptation for Amazon, in which he will act as both producer and potential star. The project is still very much in-development, but with the backing of Bezos’ studio and the wealth of material to work with, this one has the potential to be huge. 

10. Catan (TBA)

A more playful property that’s currently being fast-tracked from tabletop to screen is the iconic board game Catan—or Settlers of Catan, for any OGs out there. The adaptation is being produced by Netflix with the help of the game’s original creators’ sons, Guido and Benjamin Teuber.

What form the resulting movie or TV show will take is hard to imagine at this point, but given the family involvement, I’d imagine something a little more serious than A Minecraft Movie and a little less serious than Last of Us.

11. Magic: The Gathering (TBA)

Similar to Warhammer 40K, it’s amazing that no one has managed to adapt Magic: The Gathering yet. In fairness, the universe of the iconic card game is so potentially vast that it’s difficult to know where a story might begin and end—for a similarly daunting project, think Alex Garland’s upcoming take on Elden Ring.

Whatever the case, a script by Noah Gardner & Aidan Fitzgerald is currently in the works, and indie filmmaker Matt Johnson (Blackberry, Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie) has been eyed up to direct. If Johnson lands the job, expect something nerdy and playful, perhaps closer in tone to The Lego Movie than Duncan Jones’ misjudged Warcraft movie.

12. Uno (TBA)

One of the strangest things I discovered while researching this piece was a proposed movie based on the popular (if admittedly not narrative-heavy) card game UNO, a project that allegedly had landed the rapper Lil’ Yachty for the lead role. In 2021, Variety reported that an “action heist movie”, based on the game and set in the Atlanta hip hop scene, was in the works, but it seems to have been put on ice—at least for now.The movie is still listed as “under development”, so if you’re a fan of UNO and Yachty (how’s that for a Venn diagram?), make sure to keep an ear to the ground. 

Between Spider-Man 3’s ‘Bully Maguire’ and the Venom movies, we’ve had our fair share of Venom content on the big screen.

However, during the Spider-Man: No Way Home post-credits scene, Eddie Brock and Venom briefly ended up on Earth-616, leaving a part of the symbiote behind as a kind of unintentional parting gift. So, it’s not really a case of if Venom will face our fave web shooter in the MCU, but when. 

And, based on the Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer, this could be happening a lot quicker than you might think.

Peter Parker’s Black Era: What’s Up with the Dark Fit?

The only thing gloomier than Peter in the Brand New Day trailer is his outfits. Throughout the teaser, he seems to be a pretty big fan of the colour black, for which there are two plausible explanations. One, he’s having his emo phase a little later in life. Or two, Venom is already influencing him. 

As we know, the symbiote has not only the ability to shapeshift and mimic the clothing of its host, but also the ability to affect its host’s mood. The general rule is that the stronger the host’s emotions are, the more Venom has to feed upon, and, in turn, the more amplified these emotions become. 

Following the events of No Way Home, it would be weird if Peter didn’t have a lot of emotional turmoil going on, making him an even more vulnerable target. But equally, it’s plausible that he just feels that terrible without Venom’s intervention at all. And, I mean, you can’t blame him.

What’s Up With Spider-Man’s Black Hand in Brand New Day?

Given that shadowy hands are never a good sign, perhaps we should take the shot of Peter’s dark hand in the Brand New Day trailer beyond face (or hand) value. 

For the most part, you can’t actually see Peter’s hands at all, apart from a split second where he’s falling from his web cocoon. Admittedly, during that shot, his hands looked normal — but the most notable part is that he is balling his fists.

Why does this matter? Well, if you’re a Spider-Man comic nerd, you’ll know that organic webbing actually originated from Venom. To shoot Venom-y webs, one typically balls their fists. So, in conjunction with the shadowy hand, could this be indicative of Venom taking hold of Peter? It’s probably a bit of a stretch, but it’s definitely fun to speculate. 

Venom Is in the Eye of the Beholder: Peter Parker’s Dark Eyes, Explained(?)

At one point during the trailer, Peter’s eyes go black. While it should be noted that the teaser established that Peter’s DNA is likely changing, it can be argued that this is just the next stage of his spider-y life cycle (or, perhaps, part of his transformation into Man-Spider).

We might be completely barking up the wrong tree here, but in Venom, you may recall that one of the first signs that Eddie Brock had bonded with the symbiote was his eyes blackening. And since the same symbiote is now in the MCU, we can assume that it has the same effects.  

Peter Parker’s Brand New Day X-Ray May Reveal Venom’s Infection

Another particularly sus moment in the trailer involves Peter getting an X-ray, which shows dark webbing effectively taking over his body. Over the years, we’ve learned that dark equals Venom,  but it might be possible that it is merely a red — or, rather, a black herring.

Spider-Man’s Sensitivity to Sound Could Be a Venom Tease

A further blink-and-you-miss-it moment in the trailer is the droplet of water and Peter being overcome by a loud, piercing sound. One could argue that this is just part of his powers evolving, like an advancement of his ‘Peter tingle,’ but again, symbiotes are known to be vulnerable to sonics. So, it’s entirely feasible that this is a further sign of Venom.

Ultimately, while we might just be wearing our tin foil hats for this one, these signs at least point to the possibility of a Venom link — even if it’s just a tiny one. 

The first episode of Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 threw us back into the chaos of Hell’s Kitchen, and it was a truly blistering opening to the Disney+ reboot series.

There may be another eight instalments to come, but there was so much going on in Episode 1 that you’ll probably need a moment to catch your breath and take stock of where it leaves us for the rest of the season.

So, here are the five biggest surprises and most important moments from that first episode ahead of the next dose of Daredevil: Born Again this week.

1. Daredevil’s Black Suit Is Already Here

We saw Daredevil wearing his black suit with the embossed ‘DD’ logo in promotional images before the show returned, but we never expected it to arrive on-screen so soon. Right from the get-go in Episode 1, the Man Without Fear was kicking ass wearing one of the most comic book-accurate costumes you could imagine.

Fans of the Daredevil graphic novels will be familiar with this slick, black suit from the ‘Shadowland’ arc, but it’s more than just a stylistic choice – there’s a real purpose and symbolism behind this aesthetic. With Wilson Fisk outlawing vigilantism, it makes sense that Matt would adopt a more incognito approach for lurking in the shadows when needed, while embracing the DD logo feels like a statement that the hero wants everyone to know who is standing up to the ruthless Kingpin.

2. Valentina Allegra de Fontaine Gets A Shout Out

Speaking of Fisk, during a brief moment in his Mayoral office, sharp-eared viewers will have heard a very familiar name. When the District Attorney tries to keep Fisk in check, he’s stopped in his tracks by the arrival of Mr Charles (who we will discuss next). A phone call then comes in, and the DA decides getting in Fisk’s way is not worth the hassle.

The person on the other end of that call was none other than Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. As the Director of the CIA, Val has her fingers in all kinds of pies, but her motives are never pure, so it’s not surprising she is helping Kingpin. You’ll have seen Val in Thunderbolts* most recently, where she recruited the titular team of anti-heroes.

3. Matthew Lillard Makes Wilson Fisk Sweat

Matthew Lillard is a new addition to the Daredevil: Born Again cast, and he makes quite the impact in the opening episode of Season 2. The major plot point from Episode 1 was that Daredevil ruined Fisk’s plan to import a boatload of illegal weapons into the city, an interference that left Lillard’s Mr Charles very unhappy indeed.

Throughout Marvel’s Daredevil on Netflix and this new Disney+ story, we’ve never really seen Fisk bow to anyone or feel like he’s anything less than in control. That all changed when he was in the presence of Mr Charles, though. He’s a powerful man with powerful friends who could make life very difficult for Fisk if he doesn’t put things right, and it speaks volumes for Mr Charles that he didn’t appear to be afraid of the Kingpin one little bit.

4. Matt's Ex Heather Has Gone Rogue

One of the key things to remember from Daredevil: Born Again Season 1 is that Matt’s former girlfriend, Heather Glenn, went through a highly traumatic experience when the serial killer known as Muse attacked her. She killed Muse and was subsequently hired by Fisk as part of his Mayoral staff.

At the start of Season 2, we see Heather carrying out her duties by evaluating captured vigilante Jack Duquesne’s mental state. However, it seems her ethics have gone out of the window, as she essentially tells Jack that she can get the guards to do whatever she wants to him. She even alters his assessment answers to make him sound more unstable than he actually is. Clearly, Heather has been completely lost to the dark side now.

5. An Unlikely Ally Saves Matt Murdock

The first episode of Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 ends in scintillating fashion, with Matt Murdock’s colleague, Cherry, being apprehended and threatened in his home by the Anti-Vigilante Task Force. Matt swoops in and plays the hero, but he’s distracted by the sound of Cherry’s heartbeat as he suffers a cardiac arrest. That not only leaves Cherry’s life in the balance, but also allows the Task Force agents to take Daredevil down and unmask him.

However, just as they’re about to pull the trigger and shoot Matt in the head, they’re all taken out by an unseen shooter with impeccable aim. Yes, that’s right, Bullseye is back again, and while he may be a crazed killer, Matt would have had his brains blown out were it not for this unexpected act of salvation. Don’t get it twisted, though, Bullseye is not doing this out of love for Matt, but more out of utter hatred for the Fisks. He needs Daredevil if he is to get revenge on the Mayor and his nefarious wife, so keeping the hero in the game was crucial.

Taylor Sheridan is a man on a mission in 2026. He’s already given us Yellowstone spin-off Marshals, as well as a new series starring Kurt Russell and Michelle Pfeiffer, called The Madison. But he’s not done yet.

If you’re still pining for more from the cowboy king, you’ll be delighted to know that Dutton Ranch is on the way very soon and it’ll be the closest connection yet to the iconic Kevin Costner-led series.

Here’s everything we know about Dutton Ranch, including who’s in the cast, what the show will be about, and how and where you can watch it.

Dutton Ranch Cast: All Major Returning & New Characters

The headliners of the Dutton Ranch cast are Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser, who captured our hearts with their chaotic relationship in Yellowstone as Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler. The pair are madly in love and truly inseparable, for better or worse, and their chemistry has always been fantastic, so it’ll be a real treat to see them together again.

Some big names joining them include Ed Harris, who will play Everett McKinney, a Navy veteran and friend to the Duttons who cares for animals, which will certainly come in handy on the ranch.

Meanwhile, Jai Courtney is on board as a ranch foreman named Rob-Will, who we expect to be a bit of a wild card. The main antagonist of the show will be Beulah Jackson, played by Oscar-nominated actress Annette Bening. Beulah is a powerful and manipulative woman who runs a rival ranch.

Other actors who are set to appear in all nine episodes include Finn Little as Beth and Rip’s adopted son, Carter, as well as Marc Menchaca, Natalie Alyn Lind, J.R. Villarreal, and Juan Pablo Raba.

Rounding out the cast are James Eddie, Josh Stewart, Sterlin English, Jessica Belkin, Berto Colon, Kai Caster, Haley Gosserand, Iman Crosson, Hart Denton, and Brittany Hoffner.

Chad Feehan is serving as showrunner, having written all nine episodes. Jacob Forman and J. Todd Scott also wrote an episode each. Taylor Sheridan is involved as executive producer only.

Dutton Ranch Plot: What Is The Yellowstone Spinoff About?

The show is set after the events of Yellowstone, and will follow Beth and Rip as they start a new life in South Texas. They have a new 7,000-acre ranch to look after, but as any Yellowstone fan will know, there is always an enemy waiting to take everything from the Duttons.

The official synopsis, as per Paramount, states that Beth and Rip will “fight to build a future together,” but their dreams will “collide with brutal new realities and a ruthless rival ranch that will stop at nothing to protect its empire.” If that wasn’t tantalising enough, Paramount adds that “the cost of survival” in this new landscape may well see Beth and Rip sell their soul.

That sounds like exactly the kind of drama we’ve come to expect from the Sheridan franchise. Judging by the first teaser trailer for Dutton Ranch, we’ll get plenty of gunfire, explosions, and high-stakes conflict, while the demons of the past threaten to rear their ugly heads for the happy couple, too.

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Yellowstone producer David Glasser said the series is "a way to explore the characters, but also mature the characters. I think that's the nice thing. We all want to be with them on the ride, but we also want to see them grow.”

He added: “These shows always, for us, are a lot of dead bodies, a lot of people getting shot, a lot of crazy stuff happening, and just when you think we can't turn it up a notch, we do."

When Does Dutton Ranch Release?

The first two episodes of Dutton Ranch drop on Paramount+ on May 15. New episodes will be released weekly every Friday until the finale on July 3.

That means, if you’re a devoted Taylor Sheridan follower, you’ll have to juggle the final two episodes of Marshals while beginning your Dutton Ranch journey.

Given it takes place in literal outer space, The Super Mario Bros Galaxy Movie really raises the stakes. In this film, we’re getting acquainted with some classic Nintendo characters, including Princess Rosalina and Yoshi — but the biggest surprise is the recent news that Star Fox is barrel-rolling his way into the movie.

Glen Powell announced that he would be voicing the character through an Instagram video where he Mario-jumps through an empty cinema before showing off his Star Fox-emblazoned jacket. The caption read: “Born to Barrel Roll.”

Sure, Fox McCloud’s inclusion may well be a fun bit of fan service, but what if we’re at the precipice of something bigger? Namely, an epic Nintendo multiverse Smash Bros. movie? Let’s break it down…

Who Is Star Fox, and Why Is He in Super Mario Galaxy?

Fox is the leader of Star Fox, a group of mercenaries who just so happen to be humanoid animals. Essentially, they fly around the Lylat System in their trusty Arwing, often finding themselves going head-to-head with Andross, who is a mad scientist and Fox’s archenemy.

The Star Fox franchise began in 1993 with an SNES game, and with a new game rumoured to be coming soon, we can expect something of a Star Fox renaissance.

Given that The Super Mario Bros Galaxy Movie takes place in space, the inclusion of Fox and the gang makes sense. It could be that Mario and Luigi find themselves in the Lylat System, or perhaps Star Fox ventures further out into the galaxy. Either way, it is a pretty monumental moment.

How Likely Is a Super Smash Bros. ‘Event’ or Movie?

One of Nintendo’s most ambitious games is the Super Smash Bros. series. The games bring characters from various Nintendo projects and other franchises together with one goal: to fight to the death (ish). Along with Mario, Fox has appeared in every single edition of this platform fighting game. 

The MCU has shown the industry just how enriching and lucrative cinematic universes and multiversal sagas are again. So, it wouldn’t be surprising if Fox’s appearance is just the beginning of the expansion of the Mario Bros movie universe. 

Because of how loved the games are, I think that something like this would likely be very successful. Or, at the very least, we could get a spin-off movie that helps elevate iconic characters like Fox to a new generation.

The Crossover Potential For Mario With Pokémon & Sonic the Hedgehog

Along with Star Fox, other notable characters that have appeared in Super Smash Bros. games are Pikachu and Sonic. Given how iconic these characters are, a Smash Bros. film simply wouldn’t work without them. Because of the Pokémon IP’s connection to Nintendo, a crossover event with characters like Pikachu would definitely be feasible — but including Sonic might be a little difficult.

Since Sega owns Sonic, Nintendo would have to get its arch-rival to agree. However, Sonic has already appeared in games with the Mario brothers, most notably in the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games series. Therefore, a crossover wouldn’t exactly be new territory. Moreover, Sonic has had a highly successful transfer to the big screen already, with three movies and a fourth on the way. 

I still remember the hype around Sonic’s inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, so if Nintendo were to pull this off with a cheeky post-credit scene or the like, nostalgic gamers would absolutely go wild.

Other Video Game Movie & TV Show Crossovers

If a Smash Bros. movie is indeed coming, it wouldn’t be the first time that video game franchises have crossed over on the big screen. The most obvious example is Wreck-It Ralph, which has character cameos from various video game series like Super Mario Bros, Sonic, Pac-Man, Street Fighter, and Paper Boy, among others.

Similarly, Pixels crossed over with Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Galaga, Tetris and Centipede. As for the TV show Captain N: The Game Master, characters from various games appeared, including Kid Icarus, Mega Man, Donkey Kong, Punch-Out, Super Mario Bros, and Dragon Quest.

Ultimately, if there’s something the audience loves, it's a crossover  — so while it might be logistically difficult, a Smash Bros. movie would be worth the work. 

Popular historical fantasy romance series, Outlander, will end with its eighth season. The show, which began in 2014, has a very loyal fanbase who have made Outlander one of Prime’s most popular properties. With the end in sight for the series, lead actors Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe have been on the farewell press tour, and during a conversation with JustWatch, they discussed their somewhat shameful viewing habits. 

WATCH: Outlander's Sam Heughan & Caitriona Balfe Reveal Their Secret OBSESSION With Reality Shows! 

When asked what their Sorry, Not Sorry picks would be, Caitriona Balfe was quick to explain that she doesn’t believe in the concept of a guilty pleasure: “I think I’ve gotten over the idea of guilty pleasure. I think if you enjoy it, you enjoy it.” In the next breath, she shared, “First Dates I like,” a choice that co-star Sam Heughan was quick to jump on as he exclaimed, “Oh, I LOVE First Dates!” 

Why is First Dates the Perfect Reality Show for the Outlander Duo?

In Outlander, Caitriona Balfe’s Claire is transported from the 1940s to 1743, where she encounters Sam Heughan’s Jamie. The pair are thrown together under strange circumstances, not too unlike that of a meal in the First Dates restaurant. 

The reality show began in 2013, and the format is simple - couples meet in a restaurant for a blind date. At the end of the date, the couples are interviewed together and asked whether they want to see one another again. This either leads to a resounding yes and the pair going off into the sunset together, or, as is more often the case, the awkward no. Most outcomes are compelling to watch, but it is the interactions on the dates that really hook the viewer. 

From opposites attract, to weird food habits, and that big conversation about whether or not to split the bill, First Dates offers some great insight into human social behaviour. 

Sam Heughan is so bewitched by First Dates that he further admitted, “First Dates Hotel is really good as well”. A fan of the original format, Balfe replied, “I haven’t watched that,” only to almost trigger a Ted talk-style sermon from Heughan as he began explaining the set-up wherein the action moves to Italy. The format of First Dates Hotel is similar to that of First Dates, only the meal happens in an Italian hotel, and the dates are stuck around one another for several days rather than just a couple of hours. This makes for great television when the couple aren’t a match, as they try their best to save any ill feelings and avoid one another in whatever ways they can. 

Other Reality Show Recommendations According to Super Fan Sam Heughan 

Although much of the conversation focused on First Dates and its spin-off, Sam Heughan outed himself as a massive fan of reality shows, even going on record saying, “I really, really love reality shows”. 

He then backed up the claim by listing the shows on his current viewing rotation: “I love The Great Pottery Throw Down, I love The Repair Shop; The Irish Traitors is wonderful.” The list left Balfe somewhat speechless, but Heughan’s line-up provides solid recommendations for those who have an appetite for easy reality TV show viewing. The Great Pottery Throw Down is essentially The Great British Bake-Off, but with potters competing for the title of Top Potter. Another show in a similar vein, only with amateur sewers vying for the title of Best British Home Sewer, is The Great British Sewing Bee.

The Repair Shop proves that not everything that is broken should be thrown away, as a team of experts is tasked with restoring precious family heirlooms. The show is a perfect evening ‘collapse on the sofa’ viewing, its gentleness helping de-stress after a busy work day. In contrast, The Traitors is a little more high-stakes. 

After the success of the original British series, Traitors has been adapted for countries across the globe, with Heughan highlighting the Irish version as being well worth your investment. The premise of Traitors is that a group of people are blindly separated into two groups, Traitors and Faithfuls. The mission for the Faithfuls is to uncover the identity of the Traitors before they can ‘kill’ them. Basically, a big televised game of Wink Murder or Werewolf, Traitors and its celebrity counterpart is a regular ratings winner.  

Sam Heughan concluded the chat with JustWatch by revealing that his love of reality shows is actually fairly new, but why now? He explained, “I’ve now got all this spare time that I never had before.” It looks like the actor is filling the Outlander-shaped void in his life with a plethora of reality TV viewing, confirming - with just a hint of sarcasm - “I’m catching up on all the really good television.” 

With Outlander now having completed filming of its final season, exactly what the duo will do next is still to be determined, but for Heughan at least, it appears that a starring role in a celebrity version of one of his favourite reality shows could be something that would appeal to him greatly. Let’s get him on the next season of The Celebrity Traitors.

After winning legions of fans with his appearances on SNL at the beginning of the ‘90s, Adam Sandler’s ascendance to Hollywood star was incredibly smooth. 

The actor’s early string of hits, a run that started with Billy Madison in 1995, quickly turned him into one of the most bankable comedy talents in the world. A few years later, after conquering that corner of the moviesphere, he started to take the occasional side quest into more dramatic roles and soon found critical acclaim while working with some of the best American filmmakers of his generation.

In more recent years, bolstered by a big-money deal with Netflix, the actor’s output has been streamlined into those two distinct categories: comfort food comedy (increasingly and touchingly featuring members of his own family) that lots of people see, and the occasional dramatic flourish to remind everyone what he’s capable of. His recent turn in Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly once again put him in the awards conversation, so it feels as good a time as any to round up the Sandman’s 10 best movies, which I’ve listed below in ascending order. Read on to discover more and use the guide below to find them on Apple TV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere.  

10. Grown Ups (2010)

Grown Ups is the kind of Sandler movie that will either seem like a baffling mess or a nostalgic gem, depending on how old you were (or your kids were) when it came out. This old-dudes buddy-comedy saw Sandler reteam with his Happy Gilmore director Dennis Dugan and some of his oldest comedy pals—Kevin James (Paul Blart), David Spade (The Benchwarmers) and Chris Rock (The Longest Yard)—meaning the vibe could hardly be more relaxed and genial.

Released in 2010, this was Sandler’s first mega-hit comedy in a good few years, and even if the critics panned it at the time, it didn’t fail to deliver—earning four times its budget at the box office and prompting an equally successful sequel in 2013. 

9. Big Daddy (1999)

If you enjoy Sandler’s chaotic outbursts but appreciate his softer side, too, Big Daddy offers the best of both worlds. The story sees Sandler play Sonny Koufax, a thirty-something-year-old man who adopts a five-year-old boy in order to show his ex-girlfriend that he can be a responsible adult. Naturally, it doesn’t go to plan. 

The movie came a year after The Waterboy, which was and still is the actor’s most successful movie by some metrics. Big Daddy didn’t quite hit those numbers (it wasn’t far off), but it’s significant in the actor’s career as, similar to The Wedding Singer, it showed he had the potential to play more sensitive roles.

8. Billy Madison (1995)

Sandler had appeared in Coneheads in 1993, but his first big-screen success came a couple of years later. This is a movie that was so important to him that he literally named his production company after it—albeit combined with another movie on this list.

Billy Madison—in which Sandler plays a rich kid forced to re-sit every grade in school over the course of a month—is exactly the kind of fish-out-of-water comedy that would define the next decade of Sandler’s movie career. If you like his vibe on SNL or appreciate other back-to-school comedies like 21 Jump Street, you’ll probably dig it. 

7. Jay Kelly (2025)

Given all his wealth and success, it’s remarkable how humble Sandler appears in interviews. That said, you wouldn’t hold it against him for wondering what he needs to do to get an Oscar nomination at this stage—something that’s been eluding him for the last 20 years now, despite a few more than worthy attempts.

Sandler’s latest swing for awards season recognition was a supporting role in Noah Baumbach’s slightly bumbling but mostly sweet Jay Kelly, in which the actor plays the long-suffering handler and manager of George Clooney’s titular star, who is (similar to movies like Somewhere and Birdman) presented as a heightened and slightly surreal version of Clooney himself. The film put Sandler in the running for a 2026 Best Supporting Oscar nod, which turned out to be a fiercely competitive category.

6. Hustle (2022)

If you appreciate a good sports drama, Sandler’s 2022 movie Hustle ticks all the right boxes for the genre. The story follows an NBA scout (Sandler) who discovers a rough diamond in Spain (played by Juancho Hernangómez) and decides to bet his career on trying to nurture him for the big leagues—think recent B-ball movies like High Flying Bird or The Way Back, and you’ll get the idea.

Like a lot of Sandler’s dramatic work, Hustle is a labour of love, but it’s also backed by some of the most influential names in the sport—Lebron James is one of the producers, and the cast is littered with big-name cameos like Luka Dončić and Shaquille O’Neal. 

5. Happy Gilmore (1996)

The other movie that Sandler used to name his production company, Happy Madison, is the 1996 sports comedy classic Happy Gilmore. This is the one where Sandler plays a wannabe hockey pro who takes up golf in order to help his grandmother keep her home, becoming an unlikely fan favourite as a result. If you’re a fan of movies like DodgeBall or Blades of Glory, this one will be right up your street.

I’ve chosen this one as the best Sandler movie from that era because it’s still hilarious, but also because of its incredible legacy—just check out the number of famous people who agreed to cameo in the recently released (and actually half-decent) Netflix sequel, and you’ll see what I mean.

4. Funny People (2009)

It’s fair to say that not everyone knew what to make of Funny People when it was released in 2009. The movie had promised the dream team pairing of the most influential comedy person of that decade, Judd Apatow (Anchorman, 40 Year Old Virgin, Superbad) and Sandler, the most influential comedian of the previous one. Instead, we got an almost surreal exploration of fame and a story about a man’s midlife crisis. 

Since then, the movie’s reputation has only gone from strength to strength and is now rightly considered to be one of the best movies in both Sandler's and Apatow’s careers. If you want to see two artists so on top of their game that they almost seem to be on autopilot, this might be right up your street.  

3. The Meyerovitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017)

Like Jay Kelly, The Meyerovitz Stories (New and Selected) is not among Noah Baumbach’s best works. Also, like Jay Kelly, Sandler is the best thing about it. The actor plays one of three siblings (alongside Ben Stiller and Elizabeth Marvel) who reunite for a ceremony to celebrate their artist father’s work. The acting is top tier across the board, but it’s Sandler’s easy chemistry with Grace Van Patten—who plays his daughter Eliza—that gives the movie its beating heart. 

The actor is now more known for his dramatic work, but at the time of Meyerovitz’s release, these kinds of roles were few and far between—which is why it felt so precious. If you liked Marriage Story or The Squid and the Whale, you’ll probably be just as into this one.

2. Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

The last two titles on this list are both so different and both so good that it feels vaguely sacrilegious to choose between them. On another day, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love could easily top the chart—especially given how Anderson was the first to spot Sandler’s untapped dramatic potential. It’s also not a stretch to suggest that the next movie on this list might not exist without it.

Regardless of all that, Anderson’s first movie post Magnolia remains a strange outlier in the director’s back catalogue—a genuinely sweet and unnerving romantic comedy that’s unlike any other movie in the genre. If you appreciate Anderson’s work pre-There Will Be Blood (think Hard Eight, Boogie Nights) and are also a fan of Philip Seymour Hoffman in full scumbag mode, you will absolutely love it. 

1. Uncut Gems (2019)

You could hardly swing a cat at the cinema in the last few years without hitting a Safdie brother—Benny acted in both Oppenheimer and Happy Gilmore 2 before directing his first solo effort (the underappreciated The Smashing Machine) last year. Josh, meanwhile, is currently getting hyped to the heavens for his Chalamet-led Oscar hopeful, Marty Supreme. 2019’s Uncut Gems, however, remains the siblings’ greatest achievement—proof, perhaps, that they’re at their best when working together. 

Uncut Gems wears its influences on its sleeve, but it is nothing but unique: an experience that’s nerve-shredding and cosmic in equal measure, and one that offers a thrilling mishmash of heist movie style and sports movie excitement. At its heart, however, it’s a character study about Sandler’s gambling addicted diamond trader, Howard Ratner—a role that would be hard to imagine without his explosive charisma. It’s still the best thing he’s ever done.

With both 2025’s The Brutalist being a mighty 215 minutes long, and Avatar: Fire and Ash having a mammoth run time of 197 minutes, it seems that Hollywood is embracing the epic. Even award-nominated and winning movies, Marty Supreme, Sinners, and Sentimental Value, are all well past the two-hour mark, and whilst sometimes a story needs time to build the world, most films that run beyond 100 minutes could easily trim away ten or so minutes. 

And so, the 90-minute or under movies are the unsung heroes of cinema. Not only are the stories more punchily paced, but they also don’t cause the numb bum scenario of their meatier counterparts. Plus, for the cinephiles in the world determined to watch as many movies as humanly possible, why watch one three-hour epic when you could see two 90-minute films and push that view count higher?

Of course, not all shorter movies are worthy of praise. The vast majority of horror movies easily clock in under 90 minutes, for example, but the quality is not always there. Sometimes, though, a director and writer know exactly how to craft a perfect story and parcel it up into a runtime of no more than 90 minutes. As counter programming to all the well over two-hour movies flooding the market, we’ve rounded up some of the best recent examples that prove you don’t always need more than an hour and a half to tell a great story. 

1. Host (2020)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone was sitting on their computers on Zoom calls. Whether for business or pleasure, Zoom became a lifeline for people, that was until Rob Savage dreamt up Host. Running at just 57 minutes, Savage’s Host played out in real-time as a group of friends performed a seance on Zoom and quickly found themselves haunted by a malevolent presence. There are episodes of TV shows longer than Host, but its micro runtime was entirely intentional and meant to more closely align with Zoom’s 40-minute free meeting session threshold. 

Host also perfectly modernises the found-footage formula, changing tack to the screen-life genre, and has gone down in history as one of the most important films within the subgenre, sitting right alongside The Blair Witch Project. 

2. Shiva Baby (2021)

Written and directed by Emma Seligman, Shiva Baby stars Rachel Sennott as Daniella, an aimless young woman made to attend a local Shiva by her parents. There she is met with a never-ending barrage of questions about what she is going to do with her life, as well as having to dance around both her ex-girlfriend and sugar daddy. 

A masterclass in anxiety, Shiva Baby is most certainly a movie for fans of the Safdie brothers’ brand of stress-fuelled viewing. Seligman doesn’t go quite as hard as the Safdies, who are known for their long-length movies, keeping Shiva Baby to only 77 minutes. Don’t let that fool you, though, as Shiva Baby is still extremely potent. 

3. Hallow Road (2025)

Although 2025 appears to have been the year when Hollywood decided to fully embrace the super-long movie, independent filmmakers have still been flying the flag for shorter films. One of the best films that frankly hasn’t had enough attention is Babak Anvari’s Hallow Road. Set over the course of one night, primarily in real-time, the thriller joins parents Maddie and Frank as they jump in the car to assist their daughter, Alice, whose car has broken down in a secluded spot of rural countryside. As they converse, Alice also reveals her involvement in a potential crime, causing her parents to panic even more. 

Although set almost exclusively within the setting of a car, Hallow Road is incredibly tense and has the audience on the edge of their seat throughout. Thankfully, it is only 80 minutes long, as anything longer would be far too stressful a viewing experience. 

4. Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024)

Aardman’s Wallace and Gromit movies are a staple of festive family viewing, and their 2024 return in Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl was an instant hit. Not only does the film rejoin eccentric inventor Wallace and his loyal pup, Gromit, but it also brings back the iconic villain, Feathers McGraw. Having spent years in incarceration after his arrest in The Wrong Trousers, McGraw escapes prison by hacking into the mainframe for Wallace’s new invention - handy, helpful robot Norbot. 

Full of all the humour that fans have come to expect, plus some exceptional stop-motion animation, Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is the perfect movie to watch with the family. At just 82 minutes, the Aardman film is also just the right length to keep the kids entranced. 

5. Tigers are not Afraid (2017)

Before she directed True Detective: Night Country, director Issa López made the exceptional Tigers are not Afraid. A film endorsed by both Guillermo del Toro and Stephen King, the 83-minute Mexican movie mixes the gritty reality of Mexico’s street children with fairytale elements to craft a story that is utterly mesmerising. After Estrella’s mother goes missing, likely at the hands of the local cartel, Estrella sets out to find her, stumbling across a group of young boys led by El Shine. The boys agree to help Estrella in her mission, and their journey into darkness is harrowing to watch. 

Tigers are not Afraid channel’s Pan’s Labyrinth, Peter Pan, and City of God, creating a movie unlike many others, and one that deserves to be more widely known than it is. 

6. Chronicle (2012)

Way before he was an Oscar winner, Michael B. Jordan was one of the three lead stars in Josh Trank’s Chronicle. The feature debut of Trank, Chronicle is a teen, sci-fi, found-footage movie that follows three friends as they develop superpowers after encountering a strange object. Whilst Chronicle has its fun moments with the boys using their new abilities to play pranks on the townsfolk, it is also a fascinating study of both the male psyche and how power can corrupt, with Dane DeHaan’s character taking his powers to the dark side. 

The 84-minute movie gave the careers of everyone involved a massive jolt, and given Jordan’s newfound Academy status, it is well worth seeing this earlier movie to see how his craft has progressed. 

7. What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

Directed by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, who also star, What We Do in the Shadows is a feature-length variation of what audiences now know as the comedy show What We Do in the Shadows. Although the core characters from the comedy series are missing, the film formed the genesis for its mockumentary storytelling format and had a crew filming a different set of modern vampires. 

If you have somehow watched all six seasons of the television series without having watched the film, you are missing out. Featuring the same silly and witty comedy and an even more useless clan of vampires, it is very easy to see why this idea was too good to be limited to just 86 minutes. 

8. The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)

Potentially better remembered for his breakthrough movie, Troll Hunter, it is André Øvredal’s The Autopsy of Jane Doe that proves to be his greatest work. Toll Hunter is a fantastic found-footage movie, but at 103 minutes, it is one of the examples of a film that could chop away some time and be even better. In contrast, the svelte 86 minutes of The Autopsy of Joe Doe don’t have an ounce of fat on them. Father and son morticians are called to perform an emergency autopsy of a newly admitted Jane Doe. As a storm whirls outside, the duo begin work, but it doesn’t take long for them to realise that this body is unlike any they have encountered before. 

Filled with a persistent sense of creeping dread, painfully intense silences, and a heart-stopping bell that forever rings exactly when you don’t expect or want it to, The Autopsy of Jane Doe is an excellent example of a well-executed horror movie that doesn’t outstay its welcome. 

9. Lady Macbeth (2016)

Despite its title, William Oldroyd’s Lady Macbeth has little to do with its Shakespearean namesake. Instead, the story focuses on Katherine Lester, a young bride sold into marriage, who embarks on a dangerous affair with one of her workers. An early film in Florence Pugh’s career, Lady Macbeth proved early on that the actress was a formidable force in front of the camera. In turn, it also demonstrated that you can tell a sweeping period epic within just 89 minutes. 

Period drama and thrillers of this ilk typically tip well over the two-hour point, and so Lady Macbeth is the film for those who want to scratch an itch for something historical looking and dramatic, but are under time constraints. 

10. Brian and Charles (2022)

Jim Archer’s Brian and Charles was a darling of 2022’s Sundance Film Festival. In many ways, a more grown-up and live-action version of Wallace and Gromit, Brian and Charles tells the story of eccentric and lonely inventor Brian, who makes a robot, Charles Petrescu, to be his companion. However, when the town bully lays eyes on him, Brian must take a stand to save his cabbage-loving, washing machine-chested bestie. 

Told in the mockumentary format, Brain and Charles is a charming comedy that beautifully champions the underdog. It’s also a wonderful story of accidental fatherhood, friendship, and courage, and at just 90 minutes is an easy way to while away an afternoon. 

If your algorithm behaves anything like mine (and if you’re reading this, it probably does), I’m guessing you spent the last week inundated with memes comparing Robert Pattinson and Anya Taylor Joy’s Dune: Part Three characters to people like Sting, Clairo and a kink-curious techbro on a Raya date to Berghain. 

Indeed, the Dune: Part Three trailer’s reveal of Taylor-Joy’s septum-piercing-looking stillsuit tube and shaggy, Neukolln-ready mop of hair certainly caught the eye, but it was the sight of a bleached out Pattinson in full-on freak mode (he appears to be playing Scytale — a shapeshifter who will likely be the movie’s baddie) that really captured the imagination of Pattinson’s most ardent fans.

Indeed, since breaking out as a teen heartthrob with early franchise roles in Harry Potter and Twilight, Pattinson has often leveraged his stardom to work with some of the weirdest and most provocative directors around — a career choice that has seen him cast in several freaky roles over the years — ten of which you’ll find listed below, ranked by how much we were into it. Read on to learn a bit more about them and use the guide below to find them on services like Apple TV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere. 

10. Good Time (2017)

Good Time is the kind of freak-mode R Patz movie that’s certainly high on freak but not exactly always in the most attractive ways — though admittedly, Pattinson looks great with that bleached-out mop top and bright red hoodie. 

Indeed, as freaky as he undoubtedly gets in the Safdie Brothers’ dayglo crime flick (a must-watch movie for fans of Uncut Gems and Marty Supreme), the character gets involved in a little too many questionable situations for us to fully engage with said freakiness. 

9. Childhood of a Leader (2015)

Similar things could be said for The Childhood of a Leader — the debut feature of director Brady Corbet (The Brutalist) and, coming in 2015, one of the actor’s first certified freaky roles. 

For this one, Pattinson played the cruel and brooding father of a boy who the film suggests will grow up to be a terrible European dictator. As ‘freak mode’ films go, it’s one of Pattinson’s more subdued performances, but he does get to wear a rather fetching tuxedo — so credit where credit is due. 

8. High Life (2018)

Again, in a similar way to Good Time, Pattinson’s role as Monte in Claire Denis’ High Life is high on the freaky scale while also not entirely appealing — which is, of course, by design. 

The movie is a fascinating and nihilistic space movie (imagine a horny, dystopian, and very French version of movies like Sunshine or Interstellar) that follows a group of convicts on a mission to extract energy from a black hole. For much of the journey, Pattinson’s Monte remains celibate, at least until a scientist (played by Juliette Binoche) extracts his semen and artificially inseminates his friend (played by Mia Goth). It’s a freaky film with sex on the brain, but I wouldn’t exactly call it sexy — hence its lower placement on our list. 

7. The King (2019)

When Robert and Timmy presumably face off against one another in Villeneuve’s trilogy-closing opus, it won’t be the first time that they’ve played opposing forces in a movie. Indeed, in 2019, David Michôd cast Chalamet (a French-American) as the decidedly English Henry V opposite the London-born Pattinson as the decidedly French Dauphin in his pseudo-Shakespearean experiment, The King.

Could they have switched parts? Perhaps, but the actor still had an absolute blast in the role, proving once again that he is often at his very best when playing oddball supporting roles (and if you’re into this one, make sure to follow it up with his similarly freaky turn in Michôd’s previous effort, The Rover). The Dauphin might have been a creepy, cowardly slimeball, but whatever Pattinson was doing, it wasn’t not working for us. 

6. The Boy and the Heron (2023)

Of all the interesting choices in the anglophone voice cast of Hayao Miyazaki’s most recent masterpiece, The Boy and the Heron, Pattinson’s unrecognisable work as the titular bird was an obvious standout — it was also, not for the first time with an unlikely Miyazaki character, oddly alluring.

The movie focuses on a 12-year-old boy whose struggles to process his mother’s death lead him on an adventure to a magical and dangerous world. While there, he’s accompanied and guided by a mysterious grey heron — who Pattinson voices with a remarkable range of vocal flourishes. 

5. Cosmopolis (2012)

Either one of Pattinson’s two collaborations with body horror god David Cronenberg so far could have easily made this list, but in terms of pure freak-mode Patz, it had to be Cosmopolis — for all of the actor’s charms in Maps to the Stars, that movie is a Mia Wasikowska joint through and through.

Released in the very same year that Pattinson broke free of the Twilight universe, this adaptation of Don DeLillo’s late capitalist satire deserves extra credit for being the first to really allow the actor to let his freak flag fly — and also for making such wonderful use of those razor-sharp cheekbones.

4. The Batman (2022)

A decade on from Cronenberg’s movie, Pattinson was once again called upon to play an impossibly wealthy man with a taste for vigilantism who moves around a violent city in a slick, black car.

We are talking, of course, about Matt Reeves’ The Batman, in which Pattinson became the seventh actor to play the caped crusader in a live-action feature — and, at the time of shooting, the third in 10 years. Given all that, Pattinson understandably took a different approach to the role, giving his Bruce Wayne a brooding, fringe-flicking, MCR/emo vibe that I, for one, was very much into.

3. Mickey 17 (2025)

Whatever you thought of Bong Joon-ho’s quite-all-over-the-place Mickey 17, there was no doubting Pattinson’s admirable and dedicated freakiness in the role — not to mention his delightful chemistry with co-star Naomie Ackie. 

Bong’s eighth feature as writer and director easily had more in common with his just okay 2013 dystopian movie Snowpiercer than his all-conquering Parasite, but thanks to Pattinson’s squeaky-voiced and forever-expiring performance (as various Mickey clones), the film managed to tick along nicely. The story builds to an inevitable showdown between two of those clones, which itself led to a far less likely, and far more spicy, potential menage a trois between them and Ackie’s Nasha, which is exactly the kind of freak mode we’re here for. 

2. The Lighthouse (2019)

For all that, Pattinson’s freakiest role to date surely has to be his deranged turn in Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse — a movie in which two keepers of the lamp (played by him and Willem Dafoe) quickly lose their marbles on a jagged piece of rock off the coast of New England.

This is the one where Pattinson’s lighthouse keeper masturbates to a small wooden model of a mermaid and, when not getting into drunken fights and frivolity with his only human companion, is met with alluring, Lovecraftian visions of slimy tentacles. If you’ve yet to see it and are a fan of Eggers’ more recent Nosferatu, you will likely appreciate it just as much.

1. The Twilight Saga (2008-2012)

Okay, so in terms of freakiness, Pattinson’s adventures as Edward Cullen might not exactly weigh up to some of the things that the other characters in his freaky canon have gotten up to over the years, but oomph, if his fans weren’t here for it…

From watching Bella sleep in the original movie to constantly telling her how irresistible her blood smells to being literally old enough to be her great great great grandfather, Pattinson’s Cullen is the ‘romantasy’ ideal of an irresistibly toxic boyfriend — which is exactly why an entire generation of movie fans still hold a mile high torch for him.

A healthy dose of British scepticism has surrounded Saturday Night Live UK since the intent to bring the American comedy institution across the pond was announced. Few efforts to Americanise a British property or Anglicise an American one have really worked (The Office is one of the most notable exceptions), and there were concerns over how much creative control non-Brits would have over the production.

Luckily, the first episode of SNL UK, which aired on Saturday, 21 March, has been mostly well-received by both critics and the general public – you know you’ve crossed into the zeitgeist when you’re deemed TikTok-clippable.

While we wait for the first historic season to unfold over the coming weeks in Graham Norton’s London studio (more on him later), 50 years after the original version first aired live from New York, here are the standout moments from the premiere that may convince you to tune in on Saturday nights.

1. Jack Shep’s Instantly-Iconic Princess Diana  

The first episode of SNL UK wasted no time pulling out some big impressions of big British names: Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer starred in the cold opening, which was, unfortunately, one of the weaker sketches of the night for me, while Sir David Attenborough played host to a ‘Last Supper’ of deceased British icons from history.

While David (played unevenly by George Fouracres) tried to wrangle his constellation of starry dinner guests into settling on a starter to order, to his left, Jack Shep’s Princess Diana stole every frame with his constant doe-eyed fawning. It was an impression worthy of a Snatch Game win on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, the high watermark for high camp. Runner-up kudos should go to Larry Dean’s Freddie Mercury, who communicated entirely through Queen musical snippets like a human soundboard.

2. Surprise Cameos: Graham Norton, Nicola Coughlan, Michael Cera, Regé-Jean Page

SNL relies on a revolving door of weekly celebrity guest hosts. Fittingly, SNL UK has taken the same approach, with Tina Fey, an SNL all-time great, stewarding the premiere to a safe harbour. SNL also frequently includes surprise cameos from other famous faces, even for only a few seconds of screentime, and SNL UK made sure to follow suit a few times over.

Fey’s opening monologue featured ‘crowd interruptions’ from Derry Girls and Bridgerton breakout Nicola Coughlan, Graham Norton, and, delightfully randomly, Michael Cera. Later, Coughlan’s Bridgerton co-star, Regé-Jean Page, popped out of a changing room in a bra-measuring sketch to fulfil his signature heartthrob duties.

3. Tina Fey Quoting ‘What a Sad Little Life, Jane’

If you’re fluent in British meme culture and/or the most quotable moments of the long-running Channel 4 staple, Come Dine With Me, you’ll have been as tickled as I was to hear Tina Fey say an infamous line from one of the reality show’s bitterest losers while staring woefully at herself in a changing room mirror.

The quote, part of what I think should be considered up there next to the most memorable Shakespeare monologues, is delivered with deadpan seriousness by contestant Peter in a 2016 episode in Oxfordshire. In the episode, his fellow diners can barely contain their giggles at the absurdity of his amateur dramatics, and neither has the rest of the country for a decade now.

4. That Very Risque Beckham Family Joke

British humour runs the gamut from sweet sincerity to acerbic pathos, and on an iteration of SNL that allows for swearing, the skewers needed to be sharp for this first episode to deliver its statement of intent.

Following a pre-filmed gag advertising an anti-ageing cream for women that claimed to make you look so young, your male partner would be accused of being “a nonce”, and plenty of jabs about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the other most envelope-pushing joke of the night came in the first ‘Weekend Update’ – another SNL hallmark present since its inception. Based on the ongoing feud between David and Victoria Beckham with their son, Brooklyn and his wife, Nicola, the line, which I can’t repeat here, used Victoria’s alleged “inappropriate” dancing at her son’s wedding to claim the mother and son had a far more intimate relationship than is allowed.

5. Shakespeare Goes Full London in Hamnet Spoof

There’s a particular kind of impressive pleasure in things that you think can’t possibly be mocked being done so, and done so well. Chloe Zhao’s intense tearjerker Hamnet, which recently won Jessie Buckley a Leading Actress Oscar playing Shakespeare’s wife, has its lighter moments, but is otherwise wholly weighty in its subject matter. 

That didn’t stop SNL UK. With Tina Fey in Buckley’s role and George Fouracres as her playwright husband, who is frequently called away to London to produce his work, the gag becomes the contemporary ‘London-ification’ of Shakespeare, who returns home more and more changed by living in the nation’s capital each time – including a “c****y little earring”, a ‘Team Anne Boelyn’ tote bag, a Lime bike, tiny running shorts, a Ketamine addiction, and eventually, a gaggle of drag queens and a Charli XCX lookalike. As a former Londoner, I heartily approve.    

6. Wet Leg Absolutely Crushing It as the First Live Band

Another ‘must’ of the SNL format is a (Don Pardo voice) musical guest! Christening the London stage were weirdo indie heroes Wet Leg, best-known for their breakout song ‘Chaise Longue’, and supporting Harry Styles during the UK and Australian legs of his 2023 world tour.

The female-fronted group performed ‘Mougetout’ and ‘Catch These Fists’ from their 2025 album Moisturiser, with lead singer Rhian Teasdale venturing into the audience for the second number. The band’s spiky, tongue-in-cheek energy added nicely to the rough-and-ready feel of the episode as a whole. 

7. The Surreal ‘What Kind of Irish Is Your Grandad?’ Sketch

The final sketch of the night was led once again by George Fouracres, who, alongside Jack Shep, established himself as early breakout star material. SNL has always been topical in its humour, but it’s usually the characters and sketches that aren’t tethered to a fleeting moment or reference point that get the recurring treatment, becoming fan favourites.

Fouracres’ closing bit relied on the cultural specificity of Irish stereotypes, universalised by a non-narrative surrealness: standing in grannified living room in a dressing gown, Fouracres repeated a chant of ‘What kind of Irish is your Grandad?’, direct-to-camera, followed by various impressions of strong-accented grandads, each more impossible to understand than the last. Nicola Coughlan jumped in for the closing moments, only to be strongly chastised. More of this sort of unhinged chaos, please.

Twenty-five years ago this week, Robert Rodriguez took an unexpected career turn and released the first in what would eventually become a beloved tetralogy of Spy Kids movies. 

After announcing himself at the Sundance Film Festival a decade earlier with his micro-budgeted El Mariachi, the filmmaker had quickly cemented his place as a master of genre with movies about hot guitar players (Desperado), hot vampires (From Dusk till Dawn) and — also kinda hot? — parasitic aliens (The Faculty). All of which is to say: in 2001, nobody saw Spy Kids coming. 

By that time, however, the director’s children were approaching movie-watching age, and so Rodriguez harnessed his gifts behind the camera to make one of the best family franchises of the era. The first movie in the series, simply titled Spy Kids, saw the filmmaker round up a group of his favourite collaborators (as well as a few newbies) for an adventure about two children who must use their spy parents’ tech (as well as their inherited know-how) to save their elders from the evil Alex Minion and his robot army. 

It was a wild move from Rodriguez — who was one of the coolest and most sought-after filmmakers in the business at the time — but 25 years later, we can probably agree that it paid off. In the list below, we’ll look back over the various glittering names that appeared in the original Spy Kids and see what they’ve been up to in the intervening years. Read on to learn a bit more and use the guide below to find their best work on services like Apple TV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere. 

Alexa Vega (Carmen Cortez)

There are plenty of more celebrated actors in Spy Kids, but it just feels right to start with the kids themselves. Alexa Vega was 12-years-old when she played Carmen Cortez for the first time, but the actress had already been working for several years by then, notably playing the young Jo Harding (Holly Hunter) in the opening sequence of Twister.

In the years that followed, along with reprising her role as Carmen in a further three Spy Kids movies, Rodriguez would also cast her in small parts in Machete Kills and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. Outside of those collaborations and a recent run of Hallmark movies, Vega’s most prominent role was a recurring part as Kiley Brenner in the Nashville TV series.

One to watch: If you like her in Spy Kids, see if you can spot her as Killjoy in Machete Kills.

Daryl Sabara (Juni Cortez)

Unlike Vega, playing Juni Cortez in Spy Kids really was Daryl Sabara’s debut role. After the original movie, the young actor started popping up in everything from Friends to House and went on to pick up roles with some of Rodriguez’s genre buddies — like Eli Roth (The Green Inferno) and Rob Zombie (Halloween).

Outside of those parts, Sabara has enjoyed a steady career as a voice actor, aurally appearing in classics like The Polar Express and My Neighbours the Yamadas and more recently in animated TV shows like Ben 10.

One to watch: If you like the idea of seeing Juni in a gross-out horror, try The Green Inferno.

Antonio Banderas (Gregorio Cortez)

Rodriguez and Banderas may have done various other things in their careers, but the movies they made together have always had the feel of one of those great director-actor relationships. Indeed, Banderas helped bring Rodriguez into the mainstream with Desperado in 1995 — a time when he was fast becoming one of the era’s great Hollywood heartthrobs— and has continued to work with him across various projects.

Banderas’ most significant movies outside of that partnership come either from his other great collaboration (with the Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar — with whom he has now made eight incredible films, including The Skin I Live In and Pain and Glory) or his six vocal performances as Puss in Boots in the Shrek universe, including a trilogy of spin-offs. Keep an eye out for him in Matt Johnson’s upcoming Anthony Bourdain biopic, Tony. 

One to watch: If you want top-tier classy, go Pain and Glory. If you want top-tier fun, try Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. 

Carla Gugino (Ingrid Cortez)

Before landing the role as Ingrid Cortez in Spy Kids, Carla Gugino had been working steadily in Hollywood for most of the ‘90s, but Rodriguez’s movie bumped her up to another level of stardom.

In the decade that followed, she played the love interests in Night at the Museum and American Gangster, had a recurring role in Entourage, and appeared as Silk Spectre in Zack Snyder’s Watchmen. Look out for her this year in David Fincher’s The Adventures of Cliff Booth and Mike Flanagan’s upcoming remake of The Exorcist. 

One to watch: For her cosiest Ingrid vibes, her performance in Night at the Museum is delightful. 

Alan Cumming (Fegan Floop)

On top of his great turns as Fegan Floop in the first three Spy Kids movies, Alan Cumming has had one of those careers that I think a lot of actors are probably quietly envious of. The Scot's body of work boasts that rare combination of widely adored entertainments (like Spice World, X2, and GoldenEye) and a genuine modern classic in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut.

All of which is to say, Cumming is kind of an actor who still seems cool no matter what kind of movie or show he’s a part of. You catch him these days presenting shows like the BAFTAs and The US Traitors — or, later this year, when he reprises his role as Nightcrawler in Avengers: Doomsday. 

One to watch: Take your pick, but his Russian accent in GoldenEye is a real hoot.

Danny Trejo (Machete)

With 464 credits and counting on IMDb, a better question for Danny Trejo might be: What hasn’t he been in since Spy Kids? 

I jest — outside of reprising his role as Machete across various Spy Kids movies, a fake trailer, and two relatively mature spinoffs, the ever-popular and ever-prolific acting credits have mostly come on straight-to-VOD releases — the kind of movies that have titles like Vampfather and Pistolera. 

In recent years, you will probably have heard his voice in movies like Minions: The Rise of Gru and Zootopia 2 — in which he played a basilisk named Jesús.

One to watch: It’s gotta be Machete. 

Teri Hatcher (Ms Gradenko)

If you grew up in the ‘90s, Teri Hatcher probably either came into your life thanks to her many performances as Lois Lane in The New Adventures of Superman or as the Bond girl Paris Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies. If neither of those rings a bell, however, you’ll probably know her for the show that began just one year after she played Ms Gradenko in Spy Kids.

It’s true, Rodriguez’s film was released just a few months before Hatcher began her 180-episode run as Susan Mayer on Desperate Housewives, which is now undoubtedly the defining role of her career. 

One to watch: If you’re in the mood for Bond, Tomorrow Never Dies is, I think, a little underrated. 

Cheech Marin (Felix Gumm)

As one half of Cheech and Chong, Cheech Marin will always be most associated with those great stoner comedies, but the 79-year-old actor and cultural personality has actually had an interesting career outside of all that. 

In the Spy Kids franchise, he plays Juni and Carmen’s uncle Felix, but you can also spot him in Rodriguez’s Dusk till Dawn as well as movies like Ghostbusters II and Martin Scorsese’s After Hours. Alongside that, he’s lent his iconic voice to everything from Pixar’s Cars franchise to Disney’s The Lion King. 

One to watch: Marin may only have a small part in After Hours — but hey, it’s Marty!

Robert Patrick (Mr Lisp)

After scaring the life out of cinemagoers with his dead-eyed portrayal of the T1000 in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Robert Patrick understandably decided to lean into villainous roles for pretty much the rest of his career.

He first collaborated with Robert Rodriguez on The Faculty before landing the role of Mr Lisp in the first Spy Kids movie. Since then, Patrick continued to play scary or no-nonsense authority figures in everything from Balls of Fury to Gangster Squad to Steven Soderbergh’s The Laundromat, with plenty of movies I’ve never heard of in between. 

One to watch: It has to be T2. 

Tony Shalhoub (Alexander Minion)

Since donning that incredible headgear to play Alex Minion in Spy Kids, Tony Shalhoub has gone on to have one of the most impressive careers of anyone in the movie industry in the years that have followed. 

Movie-wise, Shalhoub has popped up in stuff like the Men in Black franchise (as the many-headed weapons dealer Jack Jeebs) and in Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain, but it’s on the small screen where his career has really flourished. He actually made his name playing Antonio Scarpacci on Wings in the ‘90s, but his seven years as the title character in Monk and (more recently) his six-year run on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel have collectively seen the actor earn four Emmys and a Golden Globe. 

One to watch: Definitely The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Mike Judge, George Clooney and Richard Linklater (Cameos)

We’ll round out our list with a few of the frankly awesome Spy Kids cameos. Mike Judge, who plays Donnagon Giggles, is better known as the genius Gen-X writer behind shows like Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill, Silicon Valley and the movie Idiocracy. 

Richard Linklater, who appears as Cool Spy, is the Texan filmmaker responsible for such indie classics as the Before trilogy and Boyhood. 

And last but not least, there’s George Clooney, who plays Devlin in Spy Kids, but who you might also recognise from movies like Ocean’s Eleven, Out of Sight, or the more recent Jay Kelly — you know, that guy.

From the very beginning, you know what you’re getting yourself into with Splitsville. It’s billed as an “unromantic comedy,” so you can already expect it to defy a certain amount of convention. And with its slapstick comedy, full-frontal nudity, and focus on non-monogamy, it certainly does. However, no matter what movie you watch, there are certain conventions that almost always ring true.

Take, for example, the protagonist — usually, they’ll be the hero of the story, like your run-of-the-mill rom-com hero in every rom-com ever. Or maybe they’ll be an anti-hero, Marty Supreme-style, where you know they aren’t particularly nice or heroic, but you find yourself somehow rooting for them anyway. 

But in Splitsville, neither of these principles applies. The characters are near-impossible to root for. But strangely, that ends up working in the movie’s favour. (Spoilers ahead!)

Why Everyone in Splitsville Is Terrible

In my opinion, everyone in Splitsville is either a covert narcissist or an out-and-out narcissist. Even the child.

Let’s start with the men. So-called “best friends” Carey (Kyle Marvin) and Paul (Michael Angelo Covino) are two sides of the same self-absorbed coin. While Carey puts on this ‘down-on-his-luck but endearing loser’ act that is so convincing in most rom-coms, it’s impossible to buy it. He spends most of the movie feeling sorry for himself because his wife, Ashley (Adria Arjona), wants to divorce him, and uses that to justify a string of terrible decisions — the main one being not just sleeping with his best friend’s wife, but eventually moving in and stealing his entire life.

But Paul himself is hardly an angel. In fact, he is probably the worst person in the movie. He commits several unforgivable sins, including the identity fraud of his young son, and even when his actions land him in prison, he refuses to be humbled. He just can’t stop himself from scheming, cheating, and wheedling his way through life, with his schemes becoming more outlandish and more unjustifiable as the film progresses. 

However, if you were going to pity the women in this film instead, I’m going to stop you right there. They are also, literally, the worst. Like Carey, Julie (Dakota Johnson) tries to paint herself as the victim who is somehow morally superior, yet spends the whole movie arguably using Carey as a stand-in for her husband without actually being invested in him. While, as I said, I don’t feel bad for Carey, that doesn’t make her using him as a crutch to avoid confronting her mess of a life okay.

Moreover, right from the outset, we are told we should dislike Ashley for the callous way she admits to repeatedly cheating on Carey, dumping him, and trying to oust him from his own home while she brings in a revolving door of lovers. But this isn’t a “she’s not so bad, you go girl” kind of situation. She really is that bad. We’re right to hate her. Ironically, she is probably the most pathetic character in the film, even though she is the only one who doesn’t actively try to act that way to elicit sympathy. She really just operates with that little self-awareness. 

And the child? Well, he just can’t stop stealing people’s jet skis. 

Why Splitsville’s Terrible Characters Work So Well

While the four adults in this film have their own individual brand of awfulness, all of them believe themselves to be the heroes of their own stories. They all believe they are the protagonists in their own imagined narratives, making them all incredibly arrogant and, to a degree, deluded. 

Their reliance on non-monogamy as a concept throughout the film is just one example of how the characters effectively try to reason themselves out of consequences, even though non-monogamy is something that relies on boundaries and mutual respect. 

But the best thing about Splitsville is that the consequences come thick and fast for these characters, whether that be through slapstick beatdowns or literal prison. By making them such bad people, the writers have removed the need to feel sorry for these characters. This means that seeing them experience misfortune is especially delicious. It’s like getting a front-row seat to a humiliation ritual, or throwing rotten fruit at people in wooden stocks in the Middle Ages. 

That being said, things end a little too neatly for this dysfunctional quadrant. They end up more or less in the same position as they were at the start, and as much as it pains me to say it, they even seem a little happy. It makes me wish that the writers stuck to the landing a little more, but I’m confident in the knowledge that, given none of these characters have experienced any kind of growth, this equilibrium probably won’t last. Roll on Splitsville 2. 

If box office and award nominations are anything to go by—and for many, they are the only things to go by—the musical biopic genre has recently become one of the most reliable in cinema. 

If, ten years ago, Sam Mendes had announced a four-movie plan to tell the story of the Beatles, he would’ve been laughed off the internet. In the current climate, those movies are not only going ahead (with release dates all scheduled for April 2027), they’ve attracted four of the trendiest and most talented young actors in the business. 

All of which leads us to our poll of the best musical biopics of the last ten years. A few notes before we start: aside from one honourable mention, I’ve limited this list to straight-up biopics of actual people, so don’t expect to see the excellent Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping or Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. I’m also writing this in early 2026, so no film from 2015 or earlier will make the cut (which unfortunately means no Straight Outta Compton or Love and Mercy, to name just two). 

Luckily, there’s been a gold rush of these kinds of movies in that time—some of which lived up to their billing, some which were far, far better than anyone dreamed—so there’s no shortage of contenders to choose from. Read on to discover more and use the guide below to find out where to stream them on services like Apple TV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere.  

Honourable Mention: TÁR (2022)

When future generations look back on the 2022 Oscars, heads will be scratched over why Todd Field’s TÁR, a rich, darkly fun, and often challenging portrayal of Lydia Tár, the fictional conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, managed to lose five separate Oscar categories to Everything Everywhere All at Once. It deserves a mention on this list for creating a character so fully realised (and so phenomenally portrayed by Cate Blanchett) that a good portion of its audience at the time were surprised to learn it wasn’t based on someone real. This phenomenon carried over into the memesphere and even inspired an eerily convincing Twitter (X) account. The movie ended, but Lydia Tár lives. 

9. Bob Marley: One Love (2024)

With a commanding central performance by Kingsley Ben-Adir and strong supporting parts for Lashana Lynch (The Day of the Jackal) and James Norton (Eternity), it’s surprising that Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Bob Marley: One Love didn’t make that much of an impact upon release in 2024.

The film was a modest hit, but the critics were sceptical about Green’s cliched approach to Marley’s life, which, it’s fair to say, was anything but straightforward. Whatever the case, the performances are as good a reason as any to see it; and if you were a fan of Green’s previous outing, King Richard, there’s a good chance you’ll be into this one, too. 

8. Back to Black (2024)

Having been introduced to Marisa Abela via her role as Yasmin Kara-Hanani in HBO’s Industry, I wasn’t sure if the actress was the right choice to play Amy Winehouse, the proud daughter of an Essex taxi driver who rose like a rocket in the early ‘00s before tragically crashing back down to earth.

As it turns out, those concerns were unfounded: Abela was the best thing about Back to Black, Sam-Taylor Johnson’s 2024 biopic—even if the film itself never quite rises to the occasion (a better look at the singer’s life can be found in Asif Kapadia’s documentary, Amy). Come to this one for Abela’s performance, but stick around for Jack O’Connell (Sinners) as Blake, her toxic long-term squeeze, and Eddie Marsden (Sherlock Holmes) as her father, Mitch. 

7. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

No film in the 21st century did more for the musical biopic than Bohemian Rhapsody, a film that won Remi Malek (who wore a dazzling set of fake teeth and mimed the songs) an Oscar after taking in the best part of $1 billion at the box office on a $50 million budget—two facts that left more sceptical viewers wondering if this was indeed the real life or just fantasy.

We kid. Dexter Fletcher’s movie zipped through Freddy Mercury’s life at a pleasing clip and ended things with a stirring reenactment of Queen’s performance at Live Aid—a choice that left audience members leaving the cinema in a state of foot-tapping euphoria. If you like a sugar-rush biopic that doesn’t dwell on the sad or complicated parts, this one does the job with plenty of energy. 

6. Maria (2024)

Pablo Larraín’s Maria, starring Angelina Jolie as the Soprano Maria Callas, was the third film in the director’s trilogy of biopics on larger-than-life—and also somewhat doomed—women. That it was the least satisfying of those movies, after the good Spencer and the very good Jackie, shouldn’t take away from it being a far-above average musical biopic.

This was meant to be Jolie’s big comeback, but the movie didn’t connect with audiences in quite the way that awards prognosticators imagined at the beginning of 2024. Not to worry, as it’s still a touching portrait of a diva in her advancing years and boasts excellent supporting turns across the board—not least from the great Italian actors Alba Rohrwacher and Pierfrancesco Favino. (There is also plenty of typically sumptuous cinematography from the great Ed Lachman.) If you liked the previous films in Larraín’s trilogy, it’s more than worth seeking out. 

5. Rocketman (2019)

We move into the top five, where it’s basically banger after banger. Coming hot on the heels of Bohemian Rhapsody, it was a little surprising that Dexter Fletcher’s next movie, Rocketman, a biopic on Elton John with a sparkling central performance by Taron Egerton, didn’t reach quite the same heights as that previous film.

This was doubly unlucky for Egerton, who convincingly danced and sang his way through the role. Come for that performance, but keep an eye out for the wonderful supporting cast, which includes the great Stephen Graham (Adolescence) and Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot), as well as a young Kit Conner (Heartstopper). 

4. Kneecap (2024)

The second most unorthodox biopic on this list (more on the other one later) is Kneecap—a movie that manages to tell the story of how the Irish language rap group (who play themselves) came to be while also giving audiences a hilarious crash course in Northern Irish history and a snapshot of the current movement to revitalise the Irish language. What’s extra unusual about this one is that many people watching it (at least outside the UK and Ireland) had never heard of them before. 

That an up-and-coming group with a decent amount of clout and credibility could go through something like this and come out the other side with their reputations enhanced says all you need to know about the Belfast natives’ inherent charisma. Imagine Trainspotting meets Derry Girls and you’ll have some idea of what to expect.

3. A Complete Unknown (2024)

Timothée Chalamet might have tipped over the verge of internet oversaturation with the promotional blitz for Marty Supreme. Still, it was only a little over a year ago that the young star attempted something similar for his remarkable portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown—up to and including rolling his way into a Nardwuar interview, thrashing about on Instagram live in front of a giant screen, and appearing as both host and musical guest on Saturday Night Live.

Unlike the current tour, those appearances mostly felt in sync with James Mangold’s thoughtful account of the elusive singer’s rise through the New York folk scene—all the way up to going electric in 1965, a moment that Mangold can be forgiven for relocating from the UK to the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island. Pernickity Dylanites might baulk at seeing the film take those kinds of liberties, but no one was arguing about Chalamet’s remarkable mastery of the songs—he really did let us know how it feeeeels.

2. Elvis (2022)

Big, loud, colourful, and occasionally hammy, Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis is a movie that he and only he could have made—which is why, after 159 minutes, it eventually beats you into trancelike submission. Upon release, Luhrmann’s dazzling ode took a lot of flak for Tom Hanks’ cartoonish performance as the Colonel and for the fact that Austin Butler—by all accounts a very nice fella—hadn’t quite managed to shake the King’s accent in subsequent interviews. By now, I’m confident in saying that the movie came out on top.

Some of the in-between bits can be jarring, but the recreations of the rock-n-roll legend’s most famous shows (especially the ‘68 comeback and his immortal final performance of ‘Unchained Melody’) are almost uncanny in their accuracy while still somehow feeling lived-in. If you liked Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet or The Great Gatsby, this is the one for you.

1. Better Man (2024)

If, at the beginning of 2024, someone told me that one of the most moving films of the year was going to be a biopic of the singer Robbie Williams in which the former Take That member was played by a motion-capped monkey, I would have offered to get you to bed, grandpa.

And yet, all of that turned out to be true. Michael “The Greatest Showman” Gracey’s audacious Better Man not only pulled off those tricks, but it also did so with some of the most kinetic dance sequences this side of Spielberg’s West Side Story. Sadly, the movie tanked at the box office, but much like its subject, it will live to tell the tale. 

Fans of Louis Theroux, the legendary British-American documentary-maker and podcast host, were treated to an unfamiliar sight this week as the long-serving BBC filmmaker went to number one on the Netflix charts with Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere — his first effort in what could turn out to be a new series of collaborations with the streaming giant.

 Newcomers to Theroux’s delightful charm and compelling approach will be happy to hear that Manosphere is just the latest instalment in a career-long project to meet, speak with, and attempt to understand some of the most extreme people on planet earth — whether that be in terms of religion, politics, hobbies, or ideology. 

In the list below, I’ve rounded up eight of the most extreme subcultures and groups that Theroux has encountered and documented in that time. Some of these are naturally heavier than others, and some are more comedic. All are delivered in Theroux’s non-judgemental, entertaining, and uniquely humane style.

Read on to discover more about each documentary or show and, wherever possible, use the guide below to find them on services like BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere. 

Survivalists (1998)

For me, the first truly great episode of Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends was when Louis went to Idaho to meet with communities of survivalists — aka, people prepping for a global catastrophe that only they seemed to know about. Like many of the subjects of his earliest work, this is a subculture that has slipped into the mainstream in a big way in the last 10 years or so — albeit now with far less connection to ecological concerns. At the time, however, this funny, touching, and only occasionally worrying episode felt like it had been beamed in from another planet. 

Weird Weekends was Theroux’s first program for the BBC (he was still in his 20s when he made it), and it’s gone on to become one of his most influential. If you’re a fan of shows like Nathan for You or How To with John Wilson, you’ll certainly see where they’ve come from. 

Afrikaner Separatists (2000)

Each of the six-episode seasons of Weird Weekends offers a mix of humour, surrealism and darkness in their respective collection of subjects. In the third and final series, released in late 2000, Theroux had his first encounter with the deep south rap scene (including a moment that was recently re-immortalised as a viral TikTok song); dove headfirst into the extreme body building circuit in California; and, in perhaps the most challenging of Weird Weekend episode of all, traveled to South Africa to meet with extreme communities of white Afrikaners.

This remarkable episode saw Theroux journey to the gated communities that had started to pop up since the end of Apartheid — places where that racist rule of law was essentially still being upheld. For the episode, Theroux met with Eugène Terre'Blanche, the community's white supremacist leader, on numerous occasions, offering a taste of the courageous work that has since defined him.

Neo Nazis (2003)

After the success of Weird Weekends and his When Louis Met interview series for the BBC, Theroux had built up enough respect within the industry that he was essentially given creative freedom to work on whatever he chose. This resulted in an ongoing series of one-off specials for BBC 2 that are currently numbered at 35 documentaries and counting. 

The first batch of these came out in late 2003, the last of which was his most daring documentary to date at that time, Louis and the Nazis. The film followed Theroux as he travelled to California to meet some of the leaders of the Neo Nazi movement there, while also taking time to get to know their families and children — showing how the younger generation were being unknowingly swept up by it. It’s a phenomenal piece of work that further showcases his singular humility as a documentarian. 

The Westboro Baptist Church (2007)

If I’m remembering correctly, I think my own first experience with Louis Theroux came in 2007 when the BBC released The Most Hated Family in America, a first-hand study of The Westboro Baptist Church — an extreme religious group that became infamous in the late ‘00s for their anti-homosexual rhetoric. 

This one, more than most, still feels like a remarkable coup — the filmmaker essentially immersed himself within the family and the church for several days, getting to know and following them to the infamous protests (which usually took place outside the funerals of soldiers who had died in Iraq) for which they had earned the documentary’s title. 

Prisoners in San Quentin (2008)

A year after his study of the Westboro Church, Theroux received some of the best reviews of his career for Louis Theroux: Behind Bars, a documentary that saw him gain unprecedented access to the guards and inmates of San Quentin Prison, even allowing the filmmaker to get up close and personal with serial murderers and gang members. 

The film was an enormous success at the time and was watched by millions on the newly-launched BBC iPlayer — with Theroux once again receiving praise for his humane approach to the subject matter. 

Ultra Zionists (2011)

In 2011, Louis travelled to the West Bank in Palestine for the first time to attempt to understand the mindset of the Ultra Zionist settlers and their decades-long attempts to bully (with the unofficial but obvious assistance of the Israeli military) local Palestinians off their land and out of their homes — actions that are, as the documentary explains, essentially considered war crimes under international law. 

Released in 2011, long before the escalations of the last few years, the film was a bold attempt by Theroux to talk to the people committing what few at the time were quite prepared to call ethnic cleansing. Last year, he returned to talk to similar people in the region in The Settlers, finding that their ideology and beliefs had become even more brazen after the events of October 7, 2023 and the subsequent devastation of Gaza. Both films are harrowing but essential viewing. 

Sex Offenders in LA (2014)

Throughout his career, and long before anyone else was doing it in a meaningful way, Theroux has always shown himself to be a keen observer of the strange and sometimes horrifying extremes of sexual desire.  

Perhaps the toughest watch of any of these — indeed, perhaps of any of his films — is Among the Sex Offenders — a doc that saw him meet with paroled offenders living on the fringes of society. It’s a fascinating watch but a deeply upsetting one.

Scientology (2015)

Theroux’s My Scientology Movie, a feature-length documentary that was briefly released theatrically, is one of the most inventive films in the director’s back catalogue. The subject, of course, is the Church of Scientology — a topic that documentary makers couldn’t seem to get enough of in the 2010s.

Coming a year after Alex Gibney’s similarly great Going Clear, Louis can’t claim to have gotten there first, but his approach to the subject matter allows his film to stand out. This involved Theroux (who was denied official access to film within the institution itself) hiring actors to reenact first-hand accounts of alleged abuse within the church. Naturally, he was sued many times over, which usually means you’re doing something right.

After just one week in cinemas, Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s Project Hail Mary is already tracking to be an enormous hit for Universal Studios and the first great blockbuster of the year. Some writers (myself included) are even wondering if it might have the legs to make it all the way to next year’s awards season.

 But like intergalactic travel itself, that all seems way, way in the future. For now, the Spider-Verse co-creator’s space epic — in which a science teacher (played by Ryan Gosling) wakes up in a distant solar system and soon figures out he’s not alone and that he’s there to save the world — can sit pretty with its 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes and wait to count up the box office receipts. 

While we wait to hear more on all that, it all kind of got us wondering what other space films have had that kind of impact since the turn of the millennium. In the list below, I’ve rounded up 11 of the best — some of which you’ll likely know, some maybe not. Read on to learn more about all of them and use the guide below to find out where to stream them on services like Apple TV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere. 

1. The Martian (2015)

For anyone who marvelled at Project Hail Mary’s whole “let’s do Cast Away, but in space!” vibe, the next obvious film to watch has to be The Martian. This was the last Hollywood movie based on a Weir novel, and while there’s nothing as unusual as a talking, joking, rock-shaped alien in this one, there are certainly lots of A-list stars playing characters who enjoy solving problems using science.

The Martian was also directed by the great Ridley Scott — a filmmaker who, for all his talents, does not exactly boast Lord and Miller’s goofball energy. But hey, if you grated against some of that humour in PHM, Ridley is definitely going to be your guy.

2. First Man (2018)

Similar things could be said for Whiplash director Damien Chazelle’s First Man — a biopic of sorts on the famously humourless Neil Armstrong that digs in deep with the practicalities and challenges of the early years of space travel.

This one, of course, was also the first space yarn in which Ryan Gosling played the lead — and even if Armstrong hasn’t got the hunky, Hollywood charms and colourful wardrobe of Gosling’s PHM character, Ryan Gosling’s hunky, Hollywood charms still manage to shine through. 

3. Gravity (2013)

Alfonso Cuaron won Best Director at the Oscars for this immersive rollercoaster of a movie — a film that basically promised audiences the most realistic space experience ever in a major motion picture.

With groundbreaking sound and imagery and a dazzling use of 3D, the Roma director largely delivered on that promise. The love story between Bullock and Clooney’s astronauts is a little on the gooey side, but there’s no doubting Gravity’s technical wonders. 

4. Interstellar (2014)

No need to put it off any longer — from its overwhelmingly evocative teaser trailer to the moment that Cooper pulls off that spinning docking situation, Interstellar captured and excited the moviegoing public’s imagination regarding space travel like no other film had in a very long time. 

This, of course, was Cristopher Nolan’s whole plan. The director has spoken on many occasions about how Kubrick's 2001 changed his life, and Interstellar was his attempt to pass that experience on to a new generation. Mission accomplished. 

5. Ad Astra (2019)

If you like a space epic with a little more psychological and metaphysical meandering, James Grey’s 2019 film, Ad Astra, might just be the one for you.

Starring Brad Pitt as an astronaut who journeys deep into space, essentially on a mission to find his dad, Gray’s film can feel a bit like Apocalypse Now mixed with Solaris — with all the thoughtfulness and the self-seriousness that goes with those kinds of references — but it was also shot by Hoyte Von Hoytema (the man who filmed Instellar) and is a consistent marvel to look at. 

6. Prometheus (2012)

Alien fans didn’t quite know what to make of Prometheus when it was first released — why explain the mystery, you had to wonder, if the mystery gave fans of the franchise so much wonder and entertainment?

Now 14 years on, I think it’s safe to say that Ridley Scott’s prequel to his 1979 classic has endured and is now seen as a bit of a flawed classic. A lot of this is down to Michael Fassbender’s fascinating performance as the android David — a role he reprised in Alien: Covenant in 2017 — and, like any great Ridley space epic, the incredible production design. 

7. Mickey 17 (2025)

Bong Joon-ho’s hotly anticipated follow-up to his all-conquering 2018 classic, Parasite, might have fizzled with audiences when it finally came to cinemas last year, but in terms of the last decade of space movies, few, if any, have been as technically inventive and tonally surprising as Bong’s Mickey 17.

The story (which is adapted from Edward Ashton’s novel) follows a down-on-his-luck guy (played by Robert Pattinson) who agrees to become an ever-dispensable (and ever-cloning) version of himself to go into deep space and pay off some loan sharks. A lot of it is about as much of a stretch as it sounds and, like Mickey’s deep space ship, not everything works as well as it should — but when this thing gets going, it really does fly.

8. Elysium (2013)

It’s not so easy to recall, but there was a time in the years that followed the release of District 9 when Neil Blomkamp looked like he was going to be the saviour of blockbuster sci-fi cinema.

As we all know, that never quite came to pass — but we will always have District 9 and, to a lesser extent, Elysium (hell, even Chappie has its moments). This is both an action-packed and a socially and politically-conscious film in which Matt Damon must get from the polluted and overpopulated surface of our planet and onto the orbiting, 1%-r world of Elysium in order to save his life and bring balance to the world… etc., etc. 

9. Spaceman (2024)

If you liked Project Hail Mary for the touching, central bond between Gosling’s Grace and his alien pal Rocky, this Adam Sandler Netflix production did something quite similar — albeit with more melancholy results.

That, of course, was by design — if less a feature than a bug. But while we’re on the topic of bugs, Spaceman is, however, still worth seeing for the creature that Sandler’s Czech cosmonaut befriends – an intergalactic spider of some sort who is voiced with a great deal of charm by Paul Dano.

10. Sunshine (2007)

As we all know, Danny Boyle’s Sunshine goes to pot in the last half hour — but don’t let that get in the way of the images and ideas it puts forward in its opening acts. 

The film boasts all the components of a great space epic: trippy visuals, existential despair, and the kind of crew you’d want to get a beer with. I’m talking Benedict Wong, Rose Byrne and Michelle Yeoh. I’m also, of course, talking Cillian Murphy — it was, in some ways, the role that confirmed him as a star.

11. High Life (2018)

We’ll end this list of 21st-century space movies with High Life, a film by one of the great European auteurs of the era. Claire Denis might be best known for her early classics — movies like Beau Travail and 35 Shots of Rum —, but this 2018 Robert Pattinson film deserves similar consideration. 

This was a movie that gave the idea of unglamorous space travel a whole new meaning. It also features Mia Goth, Juliet Binoche and something called a “sex box”.

Some folk like to just jump into a TV show without doing any homework, and that’s totally fine. If you’re anything like me, though, you’d rather watch every spin-off, prequel, and adjacent series to get a view of the bigger picture. That kind of preparation is usually handy when it comes to the MCU, in particular. 

This 18-year-long saga has already given us 37 movies and numerous TV shows, with Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 the latest instalment. If you’re up to date with Matt Murdock’s exploits, good for you! But if you’re starting from scratch, here’s a look at everything you should watch before hitting play on the Disney+ show.

Marvel’s Daredevil (2015-2018)

Funnily enough, your first stop on the path to enlightenment will actually be a series that was originally on Netflix, but has since migrated to Disney+. Marvel’s Daredevil is where it all began for Charlie Cox’s iteration of the Man Without Fear, and it’s bloody brilliant. From the epic opening credits to the no-holds-barred approach to violence, this is a must-watch for anyone who’s a fan of the character.

There are three seasons consisting of 13 episodes each here, and they not only give us a delightfully dark depiction of the man himself, but also introduce us to his allies, Karen Page and Foggy Nelson, plus antagonists like Wilson Fisk, The Punisher, and Bullseye, who are all key players in the new show.

Daredevil: Born Again (2025-)

This one is pretty obvious, but I’ll reiterate it just in case you weren’t sure: yes, watching Season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again would be useful if you want to watch Season 2. The first nine episodes set us up perfectly with a cliffhanger ending and the promise of all-out war on the streets of Hell’s Kitchen.

Important plot points from Daredevil: Born Again Season 1 include Fisk becoming Mayor of New York, Matt feeling very conflicted about his vigilantism, and two truly shocking gunshots that send shockwaves through the story. What’s great about this show is that it doesn’t lose any of the grit and brutality of its predecessor, staying true to what makes this character so special.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022)

I will preface this by saying you really don’t have to watch She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, but Daredevil does show up in Episode 8, while Matt Murdock is briefly in Episode 9, too. There’s not a lot to sink your teeth into if you’re a Daredevil fan, but we do see the hero in a cool new suit that will be especially meaningful to comic book readers.

The show itself is a very silly, lighthearted procedural drama with sprinklings of comedy and lots of meta moments as Jennifer Walters and her big, green alter-ego attempt to establish some semblance of Superhuman Law on Earth-616. 

Jessica Jones (2015-2019)

I know I’m not alone in being super stoked about Krysten Ritter reprising her role as Daredevil’s ally, Jessica Jones, for the new season. After the success of Netflix’s Daredevil show, Marvel’s Jessica Jones followed, and it remains one of the most underrated superhero series to date. It’s a gripping detective story, so if you’re into films like Se7en and The Silence of the Lambs, you’ll dig this.

Ritter is fantastic in the lead role, and it’ll be great to see her bring that formidable energy to Daredevil: Born Again. It’s just a shame we don’t get to see David Tennant back in action as the mind-controlling maniac, Kilgrave, as well. He knocked it out of the park with his menacing performance across the first two seasons of Jessica Jones, and he should be regarded as one of Marvel’s best villains.

Hawkeye (2021)

Wilson Fisk is a massive part of Daredevil: Born Again, but he actually joined the MCU before this show began. You’ll find him strutting his stuff as Kingpin in the Hawkeye miniseries, masterminding the nefarious exploits of the Tracksuit Mafia from the shadows. He’s keen to see Hawkeye eliminated after the Avenger interferes with his criminal exploits, and he goes to extreme lengths to get what he wants.

To better understand Vincent D’Onofrio’s version of this iconic villain and where he’s at in terms of the MCU, you really should watch Hawkeye as a precursor to Daredevil: Born Again. It’s also just a very fun and action-packed show that’s well worth your time anyway. It introduces Kate Bishop (played brilliantly by Hailee Steinfeld), and her chemistry with Clint Barton is a real source of joy among the chaos.

The Punisher (2017-2019)

Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle is one of the most perfect casting decisions Marvel has ever made. He first popped up in the second season of Marvel’s Daredevil on Netflix, but he was so good that he got his own show. You can dive deeper into his tragic origins and ruthless ways with two seasons of Marvel’s The Punisher, and I highly recommend you do.

For a start, The Punisher was back in the first season of Daredevil: Born Again, and he should have a key role to play in the second season, too. Aside from that, it’s simply a fascinating show in its own right. To see such an angry, violent, bloodthirsty vigilante slowly but surely reveal his more tender, emotional side is pretty rare in mainstream entertainment. If you’re into films like Man on Fire or even the Marvel movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, this will be right up your street.

The first episode of Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 drops on Disney+ on March 25, and new episodes will be released weekly until the finale on May 5.

With an almost universally perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes from both critics and audiences, the second season of Netflix’s One Piece, which dropped earlier this month, retains its crown as Hollywood’s most successful live-action anime adaptation. This comes despite some inevitable changes from the source material, including one that’s proven to be the show’s most divisive so far.

Admittedly, the title of ‘most successful live-action anime adaptation’ is an exceptionally low bar to clear. If you still wake up in a cold sweat at night remembering that time Goku was a YA-d high schooler in Dragon Ball Evolution, you’ll know what I mean. And yet, Netflix’s One Piece continues to be a minor miracle in terms of mostly getting things right, from its charming casting to its admirable adherence to creator Eiichiro Oda’s zany character designs and worldbuilding.

Where the adaptation differed in Season 1 – most notably, the early reveal of Vice Admiral Monkey D. Garp as Luffy's grandfather (something kept from manga readers until much later into the story), and the grizzled Scotsman’s expanded role throughout the season – it sometimes felt a little shaky. But Season 2’s alterations are mostly to the story’s strength. Luffy’s taming of the wounded whale Laboon, for instance, is achieved musically rather than by fighting him – a sweet moment of character growth as the goofball, punch-happy Captain uses his head rather than his stretchy fists to solve a problem. Other additions, like showing Vice Admiral Smoker and his right-hand swordswoman, Tashigi’s journey to Alabasta, work both as a necessary ‘B-plot’ for an hour-long episode of television and a fleshing-out of existing events that are only told rather than shown in the manga.

However, when the season reaches its climactic finale on Drum Island, this need for extra material culminates in a non-canonical battle that, unfortunately, sticks out like a sore thumb.

Zoro & Usopp’s Drum Island Battle Is a Big Change to the Manga

The last episode adds an entire battle that never took place in Oda’s original story. The snowy kingdom of Drum Island was abandoned by its ruler, King Wapol, who fled with all of the Island’s doctors and left his people to fend for themselves with no medical aid or leadership. Now, in Season 2, after receiving a Devil Fruit from the mysterious assassin organisation, Baroque Works, as a gesture of goodwill for his financial contributions, Wapol returns to reclaim his turf. The only thing standing in his way is the Straw Hats, who came to the Island in search of a doctor to cure Nami of a strange illness. 

King Wapol uses his new ability to unleash a group of reconstituted soldiers on the nearby townspeople, whom Zoro and Usopp have to lead the charge against. Meanwhile, Luffy, Sanji, a cured Nami, and new crewmembers Vivi and Chopper take on Wapol and his two main henchmen at the ruler’s former palace.

In the manga, while this showdown against Wapol takes place, Zoro and Usopp stay on The Going Merry, effectively cutting them out of this arc.

Why This Change Is Controversial

Any change to such a beloved property is going to come under intense scrutiny, and the Drum Island battle is no different. For me, there are two legitimate reasons to criticise the subplot beyond it merely being a deviation from the manga. 

Firstly, Wapol’s powers are inconsistently depicted, something that is actually an issue throughout the live-action One Piece series. We see it in the application of Mister Three’s Wax Wax Fruit ability, which is described as “stronger than steel” but appears to be vulnerable to varying amounts of bludgeoning damage. Luffy’s vulnerabilities, meanwhile, as a rubberised man thanks to the Gum Gum Fruit, are also inconsistent: sometimes he tanks direct blows and other times, he cries out in pain. In the manga, he’s exceptionally resistant to most forms of damage and pain. While the show obviously needs to put Luffy in peril for the sake of stakes, it’s hard to figure out his physiology and limitations because of this, something that usually irks people who are nerdy about this sort of thing.

Thanks to the Munch Munch Fruit, Wapol can consume objects, and even people, merge them with other things he’s eaten, and spew them back out. To wipe out a village, he gobbles up and spits out his own ‘army’ (it’s really about five or six people), who descend on the townspeople like a zombified horde. Their brain-dead nature implies that they didn’t survive the reconstitution process, as you’d expect, which seems to be confirmed when Zoro ‘kills’ one of them, only for the body to get back up and resume fighting. However, when Wapol is defeated by Luffy and the others, the effects of his power fade, and magically, his army is restored to normal and is presumably alive after all. It’s not a show-ruiner, but it does feel like it wasn’t totally thought out.

The second reason is the design of the army. They don’t look bad, but there’s a dark, ‘80s fantasy vibe to them that doesn’t integrate into the very distinctive One Piece aesthetic. If you know Oda’s world and art style fairly well, they instantly look out of place.

Why the Drum Island Battle Works In the Live-Action Show

The main problem one could levy at the Drum Island battle is that it’s purely filler with no story purpose. But I’d argue against this.

For one thing, filler isn’t automatically bad just because it’s filler; in fact, it’s a significant part of One Piece anime history that can sometimes be just as entertaining and rewarding as the canon plot. The live-action version even honours this with the inclusion of certain anime-original background details and characters in Season 2.

More importantly, and as previously mentioned, in the manga, Zoro and Usopp are given nothing to do. While this is fine for short comic chapters and 20-minute episodes of the corresponding anime series, it would be weird to do in the miniseries format of hour-long episodes without some explanation. Perhaps Zoro and Usopp could have contracted the same illness as Nami, and therefore been ‘benched’ in a similar manner. But even so, to have them absent from this big, last battle (which Nami recovers in time for) would have felt unsatisfying for an ensemble show predicated on teamwork and friendship.

I’d also argue that the battle does serve the story in a meaningful way. Giving the townsfolk something to rally against contributes to the recovery of their hope against fear, which is the whole message of the Drum Island mini-arc. In terms of character development, it cements Usopp’s arc in the season of becoming more courageous. He even saves Zoro’s life at one point, who is overwhelmed by the army, even after taking out 100 Baroque Work assassins in a previous episode, while barely breaking a sweat. This shows us the swordsman is becoming stronger but is far from invincible yet – something we know that he’s internally struggling with through Mihawk’s manifestation snarking over his shoulder.

With a lot to accomplish in a short space of time, the Season 2 finale is the messiest of the season, but it sticks the landing. Giving Zoro and Usopp, the most fearless and fearful Straw Hats, something to achieve together was a risky decision in the face of fan backlash, but it’s commendable that Netflix’s One Piece is willing to take those risks to ensure the adaptation stands on its own merits.

The Man Without Fear is back on our screens once more as Daredevil: Born Again returns for Season 2. It’s been a long journey getting Matt Murdock into the MCU, but after a brief cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home, he made quite the impact with a hard-hitting first season of his revival series.

If you’re gearing up to see what’s next for Matt and the gang, first and foremost, you’ll need access to Disney+. Beyond that, you’ll need a sharp memory to keep track of everything that happened last time around.

To save you the hassle, we’ve got five of the key talking points from Daredevil: Born Again Season 1 to help you catch up.

1. Foggy Nelson Is Dead… Or Is He?

In the very first episode of Season 1, we witnessed a harrowing moment for Matt as his best friend, Foggy Nelson, was shot dead on the street. He was murdered by Daredevil’s nemesis, Bullseye, and much of the story from there has Matt dealing with his grief and retiring from his crimefighting work.

However, as the show goes on, Matt uncovers more details about the murder – namely, that Vanessa Fisk was the one to order the hit. He also discovers clues that suggest Foggy may not actually be dead, riffing on the comic book storyline from Ed Brubaker’s Daredevil arc in 2006, in which Foggy’s murder is staged, and he is put in witness protection. Will Foggy return in Season 2? Or is he genuinely six feet under?

2. Wilson Fisk Establishes an Anti-Vigilante Task Force

One of the more disconcerting storylines from Season 1 saw the new mayor, Wilson Fisk, establish an aggressive Anti-Vigilante Task Force (AVTF). It’s an eerily relevant concept, given what is happening in America with ICE right now, and it really underpins just how powerful and brutal Fisk has become.

Fisk murders Police Commissioner Gallo in front of his AVTF loyalists, enacts a state of martial law in the city, and imprisons any vigilantes he can get his hands on. He also wants to turn Red Hook pier into a lawless zone exempt from US jurisdiction, which would allow all kinds of money laundering and criminal operations to go on unhindered in his city.

3. The Punisher is Back

One of the vigilantes captured by Fisk and the AVTF is Frank Castle, AKA The Punisher. If you watched Marvel’s Daredevil on Netflix and the spin-off, The Punisher, you’ll have been aware of Jon Bernthal’s brilliant portrayal of the no-nonsense anti-hero before Born Again. He’s perfect for the role and has great chemistry with Charlie Cox’s Daredevil, so it’s exciting to see Frank back in the mix.

He may be locked up by the final episode of Season 1, but in the dying moments of that finale, Frank cleverly breaks out of his cage in Fisk’s dungeons. With The Punisher set to take to the streets once more, we’ll likely see him team up with Daredevil again to stand against Fisk’s totalitarian regime in Season 2. Knowing Frank’s methods, though, it’s probably going to lead to all-out war on the streets.

4. Matt’s Love Life Collides With Crimefighting (Again)

If there’s one thing we know about superheroes, it’s that their romantic relationships rarely go well. That is certainly true of Matt Murdock. His dalliances with Claire Temple and Karen Page have been fractured, to say the least, while I think it would be safe to describe his love for Elektra Natchios as a dangerous liaison.

Matt’s latest squeeze is Heather Glenn, a psychiatrist. As Matt feels the pull of his Daredevil alter-ego more and more, his relationship with Heather becomes strained. Those two worlds collided with devastating consequences when the serial killer known as Muse tried to murder Heather. Daredevil swooped in to help, but it was Heather who pulled the trigger to kill the villain.

5. Fisk Would Be Dead If Not For Daredevil

One of the most surprising moments in the whole first season is when Matt gatecrashes the Fisks’ mayoral gala to confront his foes about the death of Foggy. But when Bullseye sneaks in to take out the mayor, Matt does something no one expects: he jumps in front of the bullet and saves Fisk’s life.

Over the course of the Netflix series and this new Disney+ show, one thing audiences feel more than anything is Matt’s deep hatred for the Kingpin. To sacrifice himself for this detestable villain speaks volumes for his character and just how virtuous he really is. Matt knows that being a hero means you have to save everyone, regardless of how evil they are. It may also have been his way of making amends for not being able to save Foggy. 

Either way, it’s a moment that will have huge repercussions for Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, as Fisk technically now owes Matt Murdock his life.

Taylor Frankie Paul, who you may know from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, was supposed to be the star of Season 22 of The Bachelorette. However, just three days before the series was meant to begin airing, ABC dropped it from its schedule. 

This followed mounting allegations of domestic abuse by Paul’s ex-boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen, which reached its peak when a video filmed in 2023 surfaced online, seemingly depicting Paul attacking Mortensen in the presence of her daughter. 

Following this, as reported by the BBC, the former couple both released statements, and Mortensen was also granted protective custody of the son they share. Paul has had her fair share of scandals throughout her reality TV career, but when it comes to the world of reality TV, it is barely a drop in the ocean. 

So, we’ve rounded up some of the biggest reality TV scandals of all time from across the UK and the US. Unfortunately, and perhaps unsurprisingly, this will include discussion of sensitive and offensive topics, so please proceed with care.

1. When a Bachelor Contestant Romanced a Crew Member

While Jake Pavelka was the focus of The Bachelor Season 14, Rozlyn Papa, one of the contestants, had a wandering eye. Explosively, it was revealed that she was having an affair with one of the crew members, and while she denied it, presenter Chris Harrison seemed pretty sure that the pair had a “physical relationship.”

He also claimed that the pair were apparently seen by other contestants, too. She was subsequently booted off the show. 

2. Cheryl Getting Fired From The X Factor US Three Weeks In

At one point in time, The X Factor was a pop culture behemoth — so much so that Simon Cowell launched a US version of the talent show and placed widely popular UK judge Cheryl on the US judging panel. However, three weeks after the judging panel was announced, the former pop singer was dropped. 

According to TMZ, this was because of concerns that viewers wouldn’t understand her Geordie accent and that she didn’t have enough “chemistry” with the other judges. Pretty embarrassing for everyone involved, really.

3. The Great British Bake Off’s Mexico Episode

Back in 2022, The Great British Bake Off garnered controversy for its ‘Mexico Week’ — a themed challenge where bakers were tasked with making Mexican cuisine. However, many found the episode offensive. It opened with hosts Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas wearing sombreros and serapes, and from there, it went further downhill. 

From mispronouncing food names to the presenters asking if Mexico was a “real place,” the whole episode was widely viewed as cultural appropriation. It was so out of touch and stereotype-based that one of the dishes was literally tacos. The presenters also spoke with accents. Unsurprisingly, national-themed weeks were later scrapped. 

4. Strictly Come Dancing Professionals ‘Bullying’ Contestants

Ballroom dancing competition show Strictly Come Dancing is known for its glitz and glamour, but beneath all of that was a worrying dark side. Bullying allegations were levied against multiple professional dancers, who are usually paired with celebrity contestants. One contestant, Amanda Abbington, withdrew from the show and branded Giovanni Pernice "unnecessary, abusive, cruel and mean.” 

Fellow pro Graziano Di Prima, who was paired with Zara McDermott that same year in 2023, was sacked for gross misconduct after rehearsal footage allegedly showed him “kicking” McDermott.

5. Matt Hancock’s Inclusion on I’m A Celeb

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Matt Hancock was the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. This made him largely responsible for guiding the nation during an instrumental and unprecedented time. Needless to say, he did a pretty poor job of it. Delayed lockdowns, PPE shortages, giving ‘Test and Trace’ contracts to friends, and placing those with COVID in care homes made the pandemic a lot worse than it needed to be. 

So, much of the UK was shocked when Hancock showed up on the 2022 series of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! His inclusion caused such a backlash that nearly 2,000 people complained to Ofcom.

6. Rachel Frederickson’s Extreme Weight Loss on The Biggest Loser

As the name implies, The Biggest Loser was a reality show in which people who might be considered overweight competed to lose the most weight for a cash prize (yikes). Based on the premise alone, it’s clear why the show was controversial, but one of its most shocking moments was when 2014 winner Rachel Frederickson won by losing 60% of her body weight in just seven months. 

While she made show history for the amount of weight she dropped, her BMI was just 18, which was considered underweight. As TODAY reported, viewers and fellow contestants expressed concern over this extreme change, with one contestant calling her "shockingly skinny." At the time, executive producer David Broome released a statement saying, “Rachel passed all the required medical tests ensuring she was healthy."

7. Phil Robertson Getting Suspended From Duck Dynasty

Duck Dynasty was a reality show about the Robertson family, who run a successful duck hunting product business. No, we didn’t realise that was a niche either. Phil Robertson, the family patriarch, amassed controversy when, in a GQ interview, he classified “homosexual behaviour” as sinful and compared it to bestiality. 

A&E, the TV network behind Duck Dynasty, suspended him and said it was “extremely disappointed” by the comments — but after the level of backlash the network received, it completely rolled back on this decision.

8. Gregg Wallace’s MasterChef Allegations and Firing

For years, along with John Torode, Gregg Wallace was the face of the cooking competition show MasterChef. However, in November 2024, it was announced that Wallace was stepping away from the show while the BBC investigated complaints made against him. A total of 83 complaints were levied, with many of them being sexual in nature. 

Allegations included sexual comments, groping, and Wallace purportedly taking his trousers down in front of people. In the end, 45 of 83 complaints were upheld, and Wallace was permanently fired from MasterChef. Co-host Torode soon followed after facing an allegation of racism.

9. Roxanne Pallett’s False Allegations On Celebrity Big Brother

In 2018, Celebrity Big Brother contestant Ryan Thomas playfully pretended to punch fellow contestant Roxanne Pallett. However, things took a turn when she accused him of actually punching her. She told the other housemates and Big Brother that he did this, despite footage of the incident suggesting otherwise. It was a bizarre situation where people on the outside knew the truth, but the other housemates didn’t. 

Soon after, Pallett exited and had an excruciating interview with presenter Emma Willis, who probed her on the lie. Her career has never recovered.

10. Love Island’s Zara Holland Losing Her Miss Great Britain Title

In the second series of Love Island, a dating reality show set in a sunny villa, Zara Holland, who held the title of Miss Great Britain, was a contestant. Like all of them, she was looking for love and found a spark with contestant Alex Bowen. 

The pair later had sex in The Hideaway, which was broadcast on TV. This led to Holland being stripped of her Miss Great Britain title, with the organisation saying in an X post that it “can’t condone what happened on national TV.”

11. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Swingers Revelation

In 2020, #MomTok really blew up. In particular, three Mormon women — Taylor Frankie Paul, Camille Munday and Miranda McWhorter — were the “sister wives” at the forefront of this. They were also the stars of the reality show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. However, this illusion began to shatter when Paul announced that she was getting a divorce. Later, in a live stream, she made a startling admission: she and her husband engaged in “soft swinging” with their friendship group. This is when couples swap partners but don’t have sex unless the spouse is in the room. 

However, Paul and another person in the group broke this agreement, with the TikToker claiming that while she and this person had feelings for each other, it only happened once. Still, Paul said that it caused the breakdown of her marriage. 

12. The Tristan Thompson & Jordyn Woods Scandal

While this wasn’t the first time that philandering Tristan Thompson had cheated on Khloe Kardashian, the family empire was left shellshocked by the revelation that he had been caught with someone a little too close to home: namely, Jordyn Woods, Kylie’s best friend. 

The fallout of this revelation, including the moment when Kim found out, was documented on the 16th season of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Since then, Kylie and Jordyn seem to have squashed their beef.

13. Here Comes Honey Boo Boo’s Cancellation

After wowing audiences in Toddlers & Tiaras, Alanna ‘Honey Boo Boo’ Thompson and her family became the face of TLC reality show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. 

In 2014, the show was cancelled after Mama June publicly spent time with registered sex offender Mark McDaniel, who had recently been released from prison after a 10-year sentence for child molestation. To make matters worse, Mama June’s eldest daughter, Anna ‘Chickadee’ Cardwell, claimed that McDaniel molested her when she was aged eight. 

14. 19 Kids and Counting’s Josh Duggar’s String of Misdeeds

Back in 2015, 19 Kids and Counting, which focused on the Duggar family, was cancelled after it had emerged that Josh Duggar, the eldest son, had molested two teenage girls in 2002 and 2003. His sisters, Jessa and Jill, later came forward and confirmed that they were the victims in question. 

After that, a Duggar family spin-off show, Counting On, started airing. However, in 2021, this series was also cancelled after Josh was arrested for receiving and possessing CSAM. 

With HBO’s planned seven-season (and supposedly decade-long) Harry Potter TV show scheduled to arrive on our screens sometime around the beginning of next year, fans of the Wizarding World will, for pretty much the first time, have to process the idea of seeing different actors play their most beloved characters. 

This will not be easy: one of the most incredible feats of the Harry Potter films was managing to scoop up and perfectly cast so many of the best British and Irish actors of their time. But while we’re here, and seeing as the last of those movies, Deathly Hallows: Part 2, will turn 15-years-old this summer—meaning the younger cast members are now inching towards middle age—it feels like a good time to check back in. 

I’ve decided to focus some of this list on the core characters, as well as lesser-known cast members; otherwise, we would be here all day. I’ve also left out the bona fide legends—like Alan Rickman (Snape), Maggie Smith (McGonagall), Michael Gambon (Dumbledore), Richard Harris (also Dumbledore), John Hurt (Ollivander) and Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid)—who have passed away in recent years. Read on to discover more about the rest and use the guide below to find their more recent movies on services like Apple TV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere.  

Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter)

It’s strange to think now, but there wasn’t a huge amount of love for Daniel Radcliffe as the films were being released. Granted, he hasn’t got the charisma of even his younger co-stars, but his awkward charms now feel as much an indelible part of that series as Hogwarts or Quidditch.

Since finishing up, Radcliffe has tried his hand at a few different career paths: firstly, famously, showing his dedication to the craft by going nude on the West End in Equus; next came the indie years in movies like Horns and Kill Your Darlings; but he’s more recently found a pleasingly absurdist groove, playing a farting corpse opposite Paul Dano in Swiss Army Man and embodying Weird Al Yankovic for the fictional biopic, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. Good for him.

Emma Watson (Hermione Granger)

If you had to bet on which of the younger cast members would go on to top the A-list, the smart money would have been on Emma Watson. After eight movies as Hermione Granger, however, the Paris-born actor has mostly avoided the Hollywood spotlight in the years since, focusing more on her work as an advocate for gender equality.

Indeed, when it comes to movies, Watson’s post-Potter career has been as interesting as it has been selective. She took on early supporting roles in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring and Darren Aronofsky's Noah, but since starring as Belle in the 2017 live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast, she’s only appeared in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women. If she has indeed retired, there are worse films to finish on.

Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley)

Given how quickly Rupert Grint became a fan-favorite in the Harry Potter franchise, it’s surprising that he never quite found his niche in the industry in the years that followed. Naturally, Grint started to appear in British indie comedies quite early, notably 2006’s Driving Lessons, but after a string of middling movies he seems to have taken a step back from cinema.

His only credit in the last 10 years was a smallish role in M Night Shyamalan's Knock at the Cabin. The actor has been far more active on television, notably appearing in every episode of Shyamalan's Servant—for which he’s even picked up a few Critics’ Choice awards.

Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort)

After taking the best part of four movies to appear fully formed, a huge amount was riding on Ralph Fiennes’ performance as Voldemort in The Goblet of Fire, and the actor did not disappoint—bringing a sinuous theatricality to the role that made the Dark Lord endlessly watchable while taking away none of his inherent malevolence.

Fiennes was already a well-established actor of screen and stage by that point, having been nominated for Oscars for both The English Patient and Schindler’s List, and he’s only gone from strength to strength in the years since then. My favourite Fiennes work post-Potter is probably the charm and edge he brought to Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, but don’t sleep on his work in Conclave, which brought a third Oscar nomination last year.

Gary Oldman (Sirius Black)

Given how good Gary Oldman is at playing scumbags, it’s remarkable how well he slotted into playing Sirius Black—a man with an edge, no doubt, but a charming rogue at the best of times. Like Fiennes, Oldman was well-established in the industry by that point, having come up through British films by the likes of Mike Leigh and Stephen Frears before becoming one of the most reliable villains in Hollywood—think Léon: The Professional, The Fifth Element and Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Post-Potter, Oldman toyed with respectability—even winning an Oscar for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour—before rediscovering the joys of playing nasty characters. His performance as Jackson Lamb in four seasons and counting of Slow Horses is already iconic.

Brendan Gleeson (Mad Eye Moody)

Despite having a few substantial credits under his belt (Gangs of New York, A.I. Artificial Intelligence) before landing the role of Mad Eye Moody in Goblet of Fire, Brendan Gleeson’s performances in the Wizarding World movies fast-tracked the actor to national treasure status in Ireland and elevated his career to leading man status.

He’s thankfully continued to mix it up over the years, notably with a beloved performance in Paddington 2, but his work with John Michael McDonagh (The Guard, Calvary) and his brother Martin (In Bruges, his Oscar-nominated turn in The Banshees of Inisherin) are the ones he’ll be remembered for.

Fiona Shaw (Petunia Dursley)

Fiona Shaw only appeared in five Harry Potter movies as Petunia Dursley, but she left her mark on the series, even getting a moving and wonderfully acted final moment with Harry in Deathly Hallows: Part 1.

Like Gleeson, Shaw has long since achieved national treasure status in Ireland, but she’s also continued to pick up interesting roles in both the UK (Killing Eve, Hot Milk) and across the pond (Andor, True Detective: Night Country).

Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory)

Spoiler alert: as Cedric Diggory, Robert Pattinson sadly didn’t get to stick around very long in the Harry Potter universe, but he left a mighty impression on everyone watching and has probably had the best career out of any of the younger actors in the years since.

Post-Potter, the early years were of course dominated by the Twilight movies, but Pattinson has since leveraged his star power to work with some of the most challenging and revered filmmakers of our time—including David Cronenberg (Cosmopolis), Claire Denis (High Life), Bong Joon-ho (Mickey 17) and Lynne Ramsay (Die My Love). Mad respect.

Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley)

Given the popularity of the movies, it’s interesting to see which of the young actors went on to have substantial careers in the industry. When Deathly Hallows finished, you would have been forgiven for singling out Matthew Lewis (who heroically played Neville Longbottom) and Bonnie Wright (always a calming presence as Ginnie Weasley), but neither has pulled up many trees since then.

The same cannot be said for Harry Melling, who went from playing Dudley Dursley to becoming a regular fixture on the theatre scene. From there, he landed roles in the Coen Brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and The Queen’s Gambit, but his latest movie, the queer biker romance Pillion, might be the one that takes his career to another level. We shall see.

Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy)

We’ll end our list with an actor who has recently returned to the stage to reprise his role from the Harry Potter universe. Last November, Tom Felton made his Broadway debut as Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child—delighting the legions of fans who have, since the series ended, embraced Draco (and Felton’s performance) as one of the most beloved parts of the entire franchise.

In the years since Deathly Hallows, Felton has continued to work regularly in movies and TV shows with roles in The Flash and Rise of the Planet of the Apes—in which, of course, he played a villain.

Back in 2015, ‘Baby Shark’ broke the internet. Not only was it a total earworm — it was also accompanied by a viral dance, which was enjoyed by children and adults alike. Now, over a decade later, ‘Baby Shark’ is back. But not in the way we expected…

Thrash Turns ‘Baby Shark’ Into A Nightmare

‘Baby Shark’ has made a surprising appearance in the trailer for Tommy Wirkola’s Netflix film Thrash.

Following in the footsteps of Jaws, The Meg, and the Sharknado franchise, sharks take centre stage in Thrash. After a level five hurricane causes a flood in a town, sharks somehow weave their way into the flood, leaving its residents fighting for survival in more ways than one. 

Towards the end of the trailer, an ominous, slowed-down version of ‘Baby Shark’ plays, which really ramps up how ridiculous we can expect this movie to be. Sure, creepy nursery rhymes are commonplace in horror movies, but taking into account the viral history of ‘Baby Shark,’ it’s clear that this movie isn’t designed to be taken seriously. Instead, it is proving to be funny in a way that only the most chronically online will appreciate. 

We can see this in the trailer’s comment section on YouTube. “Shout out to the person who decided to put a haunting version of Baby Shark in the trailer,” one wrote. “Truly, they are doing the Lord's work.”

“How do you make Baby Shark theme scary?” another asked, while a third echoed: “I can’t with the Baby Shark song at the end.”

Ultimately, it made viewers excited for more, with a fourth adding: “We need a full version of that Baby Shark cover.”

Is Thrash Just Crawl With Sharks?

In a statement for Netflix, Wirkola said: "I became obsessed with sharks after Jaws—and Jaws 2, which is an underrated movie. I spent a lot of my childhood obsessing over sharks and whatever movie was made about that subject. Fast forward to a world going off its rails when it comes to global warming and flash floods happening everywhere, and it dawned on me that this could be a great setting-off point for a movie, combining the idea of a disaster movie with a shark thriller."

So, for the most part, yes. Thrash isn’t too different from Crawl. Both are disaster-horror movie hybrids that focus on dangerous aquatic creatures going on the rampage after a category five hurricane leaves areas flooded and people trapped. It’s not exactly new ground they’re covering here.

Still, it should be noted that multiple reviewers praised Crawl for being a “fun” watch, with one describing it as “crunchy Friday-night nonsense that knows what it's doing.” And based on the trailer, it looks like Thrash is also angling (pun intended) for that same fun factor. 

Why To Watch Thrash (And When Does It Release On Netflix?)

Beyond the ‘Baby Shark’ song and another hilariously timed moment in the trailer, it should be noted that director Tommy Wirkola is renowned for mixing horror with humour. One great example is Dead Snow, where the main threat was Nazi zombies. He’s also known for films like Violent Night and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. 

If his back catalogue is anything to go by, we can probably expect Thrash to really lean into the absurdity of its premise and, ultimately, give audiences a good time in a similar way Crawl clearly does. 

The good news is, you don’t have to wait too long for Thrash. It is being released globally on Netflix on April 10.

If TikToks and Instagram reels have taught me anything these past few days, it’s this — the Spider-Man fandom love it when Peter Parker is miserable. It’s something they really relish. 

I’ll admit it — there is something quite endearing about Peter when he is a broke and lonely loser. And it’s fair to say that the Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer really delivers on that front. 

It seems like, whatever happens, the worst-case scenario always happens to Peter. Repeatedly. Some might call it depressing, but I prefer to call it character building. But there is an order to the chaos that encompasses Peter’s life, and that’s ‘Parker Luck.’

What is ‘Parker Luck’?

Coined by Marvel, Parker Luck is the canonical explanation for why things suck so hard for Peter. It’s essentially a kind of bad luck curse bestowed upon our favourite web-slinger. The presence of Parker Luck ensures that, no matter how difficult things get for Peter, he can always go lower — whether that be in his romantic life, job, or a particularly gnarly injury from his crime-fighting. 

It has become a recurring theme in the comics. There’s a lighthearted reference in ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ issue #50, Volume 2, when Peter and Mary-Jane describe travelling to L.A. and New York, respectively, but end up missing one another. “Typical Parker Luck!” they say in unison.

But Parker Luck is more than just a gag — for Peter, it’s a way of life. There’s a heavier depiction of Parker Luck in ‘The Spectacular Spider-Men’ issue #4. Peter can be seen sitting with his family as he says, “I’m the luckiest man in the world.” He then comes to the grim realisation that “the Parker Luck was never that good.” The rest of the page features a large illustration depicting all of Peter’s losses alongside text that reads: “The Parker luck is always like this…”

How Does Parker Luck Work in the Spider-Man Movies?

Though it might seem less obvious, Parker Luck is also present in all the Spider-Man movies.

Remember when Tobey Maguire’s Peter struggled to pay his rent? Parker Luck. Andrew Garfield’s Peter losing Gwen Stacy? Parker Luck. In fact, if you think about it, all the canon events established in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, like the death of important family members/father figures like Uncle Ben, are, in essence, various instances of Parker Luck in action. If we follow this logic, one could argue that Parker Luck is, like canon events, a fundamental part of the Marvel multiverse. 

When we met Tom Holland’s Peter, he was a cheerful and optimistic high school student. Since then, he has been put through the wringer. He’s been snapped by Thanos, witnessed his mentor, Tony Stark, and Aunt May die, been accused of killing Mysterio, had to make his girlfriend and best friend forget who he is, and has been without a single friend in the whole world. 

The broken man we see in the Brand New Day trailer has definitely had his fair share of Parker Luck, and if masochistic fans have it their way, Peter’s suffering is only just beginning.

The Boys has been a wild ride over its last four seasons, and spin-off Gen V has been just as crazy. But all good things must come to an end, and the fifth and final season of this hilarious, hard-hitting superhero satire is on the way.

The trailer for the new season dropped ahead of the show’s return to Prime Video at the start of April, offering us some huge clues as to where the show is heading. Of course, the more devoted fans will already have a good idea thanks to the comic book series the show is based on.

However, as with any adaptation, it’s important to keep things fresh and throw in a few surprises. While it does appear one major plotline from Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s source material will be upheld, we suspect it might not go down how you think.

The Boys Must End With Homelander’s Death

In The Boys Season 5 trailer, as expected, Homelander has used his incredible (and very concerning) popularity to carve out a path to the White House. He was power-mad before, but becoming the President while possessing the terrifying abilities and bloodthirsty instincts he does is a recipe for disaster.

Indeed, in the comic books (issue #65, to be precise), Homelander meets his demise in the Oval Office, and it’s Black Noir who delivers the killing blow. But that’s all part of a plan that has been a long time in the making.

See, in the original story, Black Noir was actually a clone of Homelander created by Vought. His mission was to frame the real Homelander for some horrible atrocities – he was even the one who assaulted Billy Butcher’s wife, starting this whole war between the Supes and the Boys. The intention was to send Homelander insane, and it worked.

Black Noir’s main purpose, though, was to be a Vought contingency plan in case Homelander ever needed to be taken out. After the superhero stages a coup at the White House and kills the President, Vought feels that the moment has come, and Black Noir is sent in to complete his mission.

Interestingly, the more violent elements of Black Noir and Homelander’s final battle occur off-panel in the comics, but it results in the latter being dismembered and defeated once and for all. Black Noir carries the remains of his rival out of the White House before he is brutally murdered by Billy Butcher and his handy crowbar.

Based on the trailer, Homelander is seemingly set to achieve ultimate political power in The Boys Season 5. His downfall would make for the perfect ending to this brilliant show; it feels inevitable that his death is on the horizon. But we think there’ll be a twist in the tale.

Homelander Created A Monster That Will Come Back To Bite Him

That showdown between Homelander and Black Noir in the comics is compelling, and you can bet the TV show wouldn’t hide all the bloody, gory details. However, it just doesn’t feel fitting for Black Noir to be the one to eliminate Homelander based on this adaptation. So who could take his place as Homelander’s slayer?

Another brief moment in the trailer that caught our eye is Ryan, Homelander’s son, looking more powerful than ever. With Homelander pulling him to the dark side and Billy Butcher trying to recruit him to kill his father, that kid has been pushed to the limits already.

This is a young man who was the product of sexual assault, who accidentally killed his own mother, and who has witnessed first-hand just how evil, yet incomparably powerful, Homelander is. To say Ryan is troubled is putting it lightly, so it’s safe to say he has more than enough motivation to be the one to step up and end Homelander’s reign of terror. Whether it be in a fit of vengeful rage or another deadly loss of control, or simply just a young boy doing what he feels is right for the good of the world… You could pick any number of reasons for Ryan to kill Homelander, and any of them would make sense.

While there is a clone of Black Noir on the scene – and one that is displaying increasingly violent tendencies, I should add – it would feel far more impactful, like a full circle moment, if Homelander were killed by his own creation; a delightfully diabolical serving of justice from a delightfully diabolical series.

If you happened to catch Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s Project Hail Mary this past week and were wondering who that actor was running rings around (and quietly flirting with) Ryan Gosling’s hunky, bespectacled, science teacher/alien befriender/world saviour — well, you’ve come to the right place.

The actress in question is Sandra Hüller, and if Lord and Miller’s critically acclaimed, heart-string-pulling, space epic — an adaptation of The Martian author Andy Weir’s 2021 novel of the same name — goes on to be the massive hit that everyone expects it to be, Hüller can take enormous credit. 

In truth, the German star was being talked about as having the potential to be the best European actress of her generation since breaking out in Requiem 20 years ago — a case that gained significant momentum after her irresistible turn in Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann in 2016 and became something of a given after her remarkable 2023 double punch of Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest, which were both nominated for Best Picture.

Now, the actress looks set to have a year that might even end up dwarfing that one, with Project Hail Mary — her first ever blockbuster — just the first of four (yes, FOUR) high-profile films that she’s involved in in 2026. Read on to discover a little more about the actor’s most significant movies to date, as well as a bit on what we know about those upcoming projects — and of course, use the guide below to find out where and when you can see them, whether in cinemas or on services like Apple TV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere. 

1. Toni Erdmann (2016)

I’m yet to hear Lord or Miller confirm this, but watching Hüller pick up the microphone to sing Harry Styles’ The Sign of the Times in Project Hail Mary certainly looked like a direct homage to another musical number that the actress famously belted out in Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann, a pitch-perfect German comedy — and yes, such things do exist.

The offbeat story follows Hüller’s career-focused Ines on a work trip to Romania, where her father, an endearingly goofy practical joker, decides to take on an alter ego to get her out of a rut that she doesn’t even know she’s in. The star-is-born moment comes when he eggs her on to sing Whitney Houston’s The Greatest Love to a room of unsuspecting colleagues — a scene that famously brought the house down, and got a standing ovation all its own, at the film’s press screening in Cannes. 

2. Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

In terms of announcing the actress to a wider audience, no film before Project Hail Mary has done more for Hüller’s reputation than Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall — the 2023 Palme d’Or winner in Cannes and a film that went on to receive five nominations at the Academy Awards, including a win for Triet in Original Screenplay alongside nods in Best Picture, Best Director, and, for Hüller herself, Best Actress.

The film is a phenomenally written and relentlessly gripping courtroom drama in which Hüller plays a successful writer who is accused of murdering her less successful husband. The best thing about it is that, IMO, Triet and Hüller never fully confirm whether she did it or not. 

3. The Zone of Interest (2023)

The toughest watch of any film in the Hüller canon is also one of the very best — Birth and Under the Skin director Jonathan Glazer’s phenomenal fourth feature, The Zone of Interest.

Based on Martin Amis’s acidic 2014 novel about the Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hess, Glazer’s film takes you inside the Hess family household, which was situated just outside the Nazi death camp, to show — less through images than sound — how normal lives are sometimes lived in proximity to the most terrible atrocities imaginable. In Hüller’s hauntingly distant portrayal of Hess’s wife, Hedwig, we also witness the toll that such things can take on a human soul. 

4. Requiem (2006)

Three years after graduating from Berlin’s School of Dramatic Arts, Hüller got her first big break in Hans-Christian Schmid’s Requiem — in which she gave an otherworldly performance as a character based on Anneliese Michel: a young woman whose epileptic fits were believed by many in her 1970s era Catholic community to be signs of demonic possession.

The film was selected to compete for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, where Hüller went on to win her first Best Actress award (more on the other one shortly). If you want to see where it all began for her, it’s well worth going back and seeking this one out. 

5. In The Aisles (2018)

If you happened to catch Franz Regowski in Andrea Arnold’s Bird or Ira Sachs’ Passages recently, you owe it to yourself to see the actor’s weird chemistry with Hüller in this offbeat 2018 film from German director Thomas Stuber.

Titled In the Aisles, it’s the type of film that attempts to channel the whimsy of filmmakers like Michel Gondry and Miranda July, which leaves it feeling a little twee at times — but for the chance to see these modern greats of German cinema together on screen, it is well worth the time! 

6. Rose (2026)

Earlier this year, almost 20 years to the day since winning the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for Best Actress for Requiem, Hüller repeated the trick thanks to her incredible performance in  Markus Schleinzer’s Rose, in which she plays a woman and a war veteran who disguises herself as a man 17th-century Germany in order to claim a piece of land. The film is a darkly comic folk tale that lands somewhere between the macabre humour of Radu Jude’s Aferim! and the transcendence of Dreyer’s 1920 classic, The Passion of Joan of Arc. 

Every image looks like it's been painted in charcoal, and even though the actress barely speaks for the opening half, her warmth and humanity eventually, inevitably, shine through. There will be bigger Hüller movies in 2026, but don’t let this one pass you by when it gets a likely release later in the year. 

7. 1949 (2026)

The next Hüller joint that we expect to premiere in the next few months is 1949 (also known as Fatherland) — a film that, if reports are to be believed, has a good chance of popping up at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Based on Colm Tóibín’s The Magician, a fictional biography of the German writer Thomas Mann, this is Paweł Pawlikowski’s long-awaited follow-up to his Oscar-nominated romantic period film, Cold War — and by the sounds of it, Pawlikowski might be returning to similar thematic waters with his latest. Hanns Zischler stars as Mann with Hüller alongside him as the writer’s wife, Erika. 

8. Digger (2026)

Last but certainly not least, we have Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu’s Digger, a movie that looks primed to do for lead actor Tom Cruise what The Whale did for Brendan Fraser and The Wrestler did for Mickey Rourke. 

Little is known about Innaritu’s original story to this point, aside from the fact that Cruise is apparently playing Digger Rockwell — a character who is described on the film’s IMDb page as “the most powerful man in the world” and also, potentially, its only “saviour”. 

Like most Iñárritu films, the cast of this one is absolutely stacked, but Hüller appears to be amongst the top supporting stars — alongside Jesse Plemons, Riz Ahmed and John Goodman. Does a second Oscar nomination beckon? We will have to wait and see.

After a seven-year gap, directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin - better known as Radio Silence - have returned to the world of Ready or Not with sequel Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. The inclusion of David Cronenberg, Kathryn Newton, Shawn Hatosy and Elijah Wood will have genre fans, new and old, excited, but it is the involvement of Sarah Michelle Gellar, of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame, that has audiences most excited to see the sequel.

Picking up exactly where Ready or Not ended, the premise of Ready or Not 2 is very similar to that of the original film. The first Ready or Not movie saw Grace MacCuallay marry into the super-rich Le Domas family. Her wedding night was far from expected, though, as her new in-laws insisted on playing a game with Grace. The game in question was hide-and-seek, but it was unlike the version everyone else is used to. In a bid to appease the devil and ensure their family fortune remained intact, the Le Domas family had to kill her before dawn. Grace, however, proved herself to be tenacious, and after an explosive showdown, she emerged victorious. 

In Ready or Not 2, Grace is abducted from the hospital alongside her emergency contact, Faith (played by Kathryn Newton), and challenged to replay the game - double or nothing. Now accompanied by Faith, Grace is once more pitted against a legion of depraved rich people. This time around, they are not being hunted by members of just one family, but by the senior members of several of society's most elite. More hunters means a bigger cast, and the team have really outdone themselves with the casting on Ready or Not 2.

As with most of this new cast, Sarah Michelle Gellar is no stranger to the horror genre, having starred in movies such as I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream 2, and the US remake of The Grudge. However, whilst these prove her horror movie pedigree, Gellar is a screen icon due to her time playing Buffy Summers on ‘90s and ‘00s TV institution, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 

In Ready or Not 2, Gellar plays against type as the villainous Ursula Danforth. One half of twin siblings, Ursula is one of the more adept of those hunting Grace and Faith, Gellar’s time as a TV vampire slayer preparing her for the role perfectly. The Buffy DNA within Ready or Not 2 runs far deeper than just Gellar’s involvement, and a viewing of the movie proves Radio Silence are big fanboys of the show, as this sequel is full of nods to the hit series. 

Names & Costuming Provide Early Buffy The Vampire Slayer Nods

The first and most obvious of Ready or Not 2’s references to Buffy can be found in Kathryn Newton’s character. Firstly, the character is called Faith, and fans of Buffy know that Faith is the name of another vampire slayer that Buffy had a terse relationship with. During Ready or Not 2, there are several altercations between Newton and Gellar, which means Radio Silence are sneakily giving the audience a few more rounds of Buffy vs. Faith – only this time with the audience firmly on Team Faith. 

Newton’s character also has a more obvious homage to Buffy Summers, specifically that of her wardrobe. For most of Ready or Not 2, Faith is clad in a pair of trousers, a blue shirt, and a white tank top combo, sporting an updo with bangs. Dedicated Buffy fans will recognise this as one of Buffy’s outfits from the pilot episode ‘Welcome to the Hellmouth.’ 

A far deeper cut is the name of Gellar’s character, Ursula. To pick up on the relevance of this, you need to be familiar with not only Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but also Friends. On the hit sitcom, Phoebe Buffay has an estranged twin sister called Ursula Buffa, who is revealed to have starred in several adult movies, including ‘Buffay the Vampire Layer.’ Given Radio Silence’s love of pop culture references, naming Gellar’s character Ursula is almost certainly a nod to this. 

Ready or Not 2 Has Sarah Michelle Gellar Staking People Again

With the Buffy reboot, Buffy: New Sunnydale, now sadly cancelled, fans have been lamenting that they will never see Buffy stake another vampire. Whilst this might be true, in Ready or Not 2, Gellar does get to ‘stake’ Samara Weaving’s Grace. Slight spoilers ahead for this one…

During an early encounter, Ursula hammers a long bolt into Grace’s shoulder as she lies powerless on the floor. The grassy ground has echoes of the graveyards that Buffy used to frequent, and the staking is dispatched in a way that only Gellar and her muscle memory could convey. Although a cheeky wink to fans of Gellar’s most famous role, within the context of Ready or Not 2, this is not a moment to cheer for, but fans will definitely have a sneaky grin during the sequence. 

Radio Silence Homage One Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Silliest Moments

Ready or Not 2’s final obvious callback to Buffy involves one of the show's silliest moments. During Season 2’s devastating double, ‘Surprise’ and ‘Innocence’, Buffy sleeps with Angel and unknowingly undoes a hex, causing him to lose his soul and turn into the monstrous Angelus. At the same time, baddies Drusilla and Spike have assembled a legendary being called The Judge. Invulnerable to the weaponry of the time of his reign, The Judge was hacked to pieces, which were then scattered across the globe. In no mood to play, Buffy arrives at the shopping mall, where he is terrorising, armed with a rocket launcher. She then shoots the creature with it, vaporising him and leaving her free to once more contend with her broken heart. 

Buffy was notoriously anti-gun, and the rocket launcher scene felt very out of place and has become infamous among fans. As fans themselves, Radio Silence are aware of this, and so they decided to include a similar scene during Ready or Not 2. Once again, mild spoilers coming up…

As Grace scrambles for a place to hide, one of her hunters decides that they have had enough of stalking and slashing and so arrives armed with a rocket launcher. Unfortunately for them, its use doesn’t have the same heroic effect that it did for Buffy. It does, however, provide a perfect gag sequence that works whether you understand the nod to Buffy or not. 

Diehard Buffy fans will undoubtedly uncover even more connections between the TV show and Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, but suffice to say that if you’ve been missing Sunnydale, this comedy horror sequel might be just the ticket. 

The Hannah Montana: 20th Anniversary Special is almost here, and based on the recent trailer, it’s going to be bursting with nostalgia. 

Miley Cyrus is reuniting not just with her father, Billy Ray, but also with her iconic blonde wig. Led by ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcaster Alex Cooper, this special, which will be available on Disney+, is really going to bring a lot of us back to the simpler days of childhood.

In the spirit of this, we’ve collated a few shows and movies that we think could be a fun watch ahead of the special.

1. Hannah Montana (2006-2011)

This one is kind of a no-brainer. To fully celebrate the show, it’s a good idea to refresh your memory and remind yourself what makes Hannah Montana such a special watch. With its banging tunes, quirky humour, and plenty of heart, it has actually aged pretty well. 

Of course, it might be a bit tricky to watch all four seasons in this timeframe. Some of the best episodes to watch include: 

• Season 1, Episode 1 

• Season 1, Episode 14 

• Season 1, Episode 16 

• Season 2, Episode 13 

• Season 2, Episodes 9-10 

• Season 2, Episode 16 

• Season 3, Episodes 18-19 

• Season 4, Episode 9 

• Season 4, Episode 13 

This selection encompasses key Hannah Montana moments like the pilot, the infamous ‘He Could Be The One’ storyline, Miley telling the world her secret and the appearance of special guest stars like Dolly Parton and the Jonas Brothers. 

2. Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009)

Hannah Montana: The Movie is another pretty obvious choice. It’s Hannah’s journey to the big screen, after all. The premise of this film is less about Hannah and more about Miley, as her father tries to put her back in touch with herself by visiting her hometown. It’s also the origin of the song ‘The Climb,’ which, I am happy to report, actually still holds up pretty well all these years later.

3. Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert (2008)

At the very core of Hannah Montana is the music. So, if you feel a little rusty about the biggest songs, the Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert movie is an essential watch. The film also serves as a reminder of just how Hannah-mad the world really was.

4. ‘That’s So Suite Life of Hannah Montana’ (2006)

‘That’s So Suite Life of Hannah Montana,’ which technically counts as a Suite Life of Zack and Cody episode, was essentially Avengers: Endgame for teenage girls. It involved a major crossover event between three of the Disney Channel’s biggest shows at the time, and naturally, Hannah Montana was one of the shows at the forefront of it all. 

It’s available on Disney+ if you want to see if it still holds up, along with the subsequent Wizards of Waverly Place crossover episode ‘Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana,’ which came out three years later.

5. The Last Song (2010)

Released at the height of her Hannah Montana fame, The Last Song is a schmaltzy romance featuring a rebellious Miley (who we know is rebellious because she has a nose ring) and Liam Hemsworth. 

It was here that the pair’s on-off relationship began, so while it isn’t directly related to Hannah Montana, it is pretty essential Miley Cyrus lore. It also spawned the equally schmaltzy ballad ‘When I Look At You.’

6. ‘Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too’ (2019)

In this episode of Black Mirror, Miley really channels her inner Hannah Montana as Ashley O — a pop star who lives under the thumb of her controlling aunt. But this episode is more than just what some consider to be a thinly-veiled jibe at Disney. As one would expect from a Black Mirror episode, things get pretty dark. Ashley’s own consciousness is cloned in robot toys known as Ashley Toos, and without spoiling anything, finds herself in grave danger because of her aunt. 

In some ways, with its overlapping themes, one might consider this a more mature version of Hannah Montana, and as Miley comes full circle, this episode is worth checking out because it shows the darker side of fame. 

The only thing more fun than watching a favourite fictional character in a film is when they pop up in another film unexpectedly. Events such as Flynn and Rapuznel turning up in Frozen, or Ray Stanz fleeing the haunted house in Casper, help bolster and enrich the enjoyment of certain movies. 

At the same time, they grant the audience a fix of their favourites, and sometimes lead to bigger things such as further instalments of the character’s original movie.

With so many cameos to choose from, it has been nearly impossible to compile a list of the most unexpected, but the following guide highlights some of the best. Read on to find out why Dominic Toretto was in Japan, how a diner patron blew genre fans’ minds, and what the return of an iconic character could mean for the future of a certain zombie franchise. Given the nature of the unexpected, read on at your own risk, as there are spoilers within. 

1. Xenomorph - Predator 2 (1990)

When discussing characters returning for an unexpected cameo, the Xenomorph in Predator 2 is often forgotten. This is very bad form from everyone, as this brief, blink-and-you ’ll-miss-it appearance sparked a whole non-comic-book-reading generation's imagination. 

During Predator 2’s climax, Lieutenant Mike Harrigan finds himself aboard the spaceship of the alien species that has been murdering its way through the residents of Los Angeles. Whilst aboard, he stumbles across the creature's trophy cabinet, which features skulls of all of its big kills. Amongst those on display is a Xenomorph skull. The cameo was more than a fun little Easter egg, as it also helped prove just how formidable a foe this predator really was. 

2. T-1000 - Wayne’s World (1992)

Terminator 2: Judgement Day is one of the greatest movie sequels in history. James Cameron pulled the ultimate switcheroo by making the killing machine of The Terminator into the protector of humanity against the newer tech of the liquid metal T-1000. The role is played superbly by actor Robert Patrick as he gives a near-silent, chilling terminating machine, whose mission is to find and destroy a young John Connor. Assuming the disguise of a police officer, the T-1000 acquires a photograph of John from his far too trusting foster parents. It then begins driving around Los Angeles, showing the photograph to everyone it sees before ultimately arriving at the galleria, where the machine first finds its prey. 

The sequences of the T-1000 are so iconic that the 1992 comedy, Wayne’s World, couldn’t resist making a nod to the film. And so, as Wayne is sitting in his car, he is approached by a cop brandishing a photograph of a boy he is looking for. That cop is once again played by Patrick, and his arrival causes Wayne to scream and race off. It’s a super fun sequence, and Patrick clearly had so much fun cameoing as the character that he did it again a year later in Last Action Hero, where he can be seen stalking out of the police station. 

3. Dominic Toretto - The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

In 2001, secret Point Break remake The Fast and the Furious took audiences by storm and made instant stars out of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. Diesel immediately leapt into other projects, seemingly turning his back on the franchise, leaving Walker alone to shoulder the first sequel, 2 Fast 2 Furious. But then he also seemed to leave the world of racing cars behind him. This meant that for the third movie, there was a whole new cast and a change in country, with events moving to Japan for The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. 

The story sees a wayward American packed off to live with his estranged father in Japan. There, the car-loving teen, Sean, learns of the art of drifting and, under the guidance of Fast family staple Han, becomes the Drift King. It isn’t all fun and games, however, as Han tragically dies. In the wake of Han’s death, during a post-credit sequence, Sean is challenged to a race by someone who knew Han, but who? Vin Diesel surprised everyone by returning as Dominic Toretto for this fun little cameo that, ultimately, within the framework of the wider franchise, now has greater significance. 

4. Doc Brown - A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)

Directed by Family Guy and American Dad creator Seth MacFarlane, A Million Ways to Die in the West is a comedy western. MacFarlane also stars in the film as the lead character, Albert, a cowardly farmer who finds himself doing battle with Liam Neeson’s imposing gunslinger, all in the name of love for Charlize Theron’s Anna. The cast of A Million Ways to Die in the West is stacked with Amanda Seyfried, Neil Patrick Harris, and Giovanni Ribisi, also on the role call. The movie itself is not so great, with MacFarlane’s cartoonish humour not quite translating from animation to live-action. It does, however, feature a totally unexpected cameo that saves the film from being a complete waste of investment. 

As cameos go, it is a very brief one, and yet the few seconds in which Back to the Future’s Doc Brown is seen are potentially the best in the entire film. Doc is discovered by Albert, hiding alongside a DeLorean. Upon being discovered, the character is heard uttering his famous catchphrase ‘Great Scott’. Given that Back to the Future Part III is set in the Wild West, the inclusion of Doc Brown was a perfect hat tip. 

5. David Dunn - Split (2016)

M. Night Shyamalan has a reputation for being a tricksy director, with his films often having wildly unexpected twists in them. For many, the reveal in The Sixth Sense is one of the greatest in film, but Shyamalan has plenty more tricks up his sleeve. In 2016, after a run of lacklustre movies, the director returned to the horror genre with Split. The film features James McAvoy’s Kevin and his various personas kidnapping Anya Taylor-Joy’s Casey. After a lot of battling, Casey finally manages to outfox Kevin and his horde, and her ordeal makes the local news. 

As this news story plays in a diner during Split’s final moments, a cluster of patrons discuss the case. One of the diners remarks that it reminds her of a story from some years ago about a man in a wheelchair. As she struggles to recall his name, she is aided by the man beside her, who states, ‘Mr Glass.’ That speaker is none other than Unbreakable’s David Dunn, who went toe to toe with Mr Glass. Shyamalan fans were floored by the reveal and Split’s connection to the previous film. The ties didn’t stop there, and were later explored further in Glass, making Split an unexpected second part in a secret Shyamalan trilogy. 

6.  Helen Shivers - I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)

Helen Shivers is a horror icon. Appearing in the first I Know What You Did Last Summer, she may have been the best friend to final girl Julie James, but is beloved by audiences. Her death is one of the most tragic in slasher history, as she was so close to making it. When news of a Scream-style requel was announced, fans knew that surviving original stars, Jennifer Love-Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr., would return. Given Helen’s death, the chances of Sarah Michelle Gellar also returning were zero. However, as any good horror fan knows, no one is ever really dead.

Throughout 2025’s I Know What You Did Last Summer, there are several tributes to the late Helen Shivers, and as the current crop of tormented college kids try to unravel the identity of the hook-wielding fisherman, beauty queen Danica forms a kinship with Shivers. Both were Croaker Queen, and this shared lineage gets under Danica’s skin, manifesting during a dream sequence in which Helen Shivers herself warns and taunts Danica about the very real danger that she is in. Despite being several years older now, Helen still looks immaculate, thanks in part to Gellar’s stellar genetics, but also a little bit of de-ageing movie magic. Fans were elated to have Helen back on screen, even if the scene is all too brief. 

7. Danny Rich - Anaconda (2025)

After several terrible sequels, it was a surprise to the movie world that a new Anaconda film was in the works. Not only that, but it would star both Jack Black and Paul Rudd. The duo are far more renowned for their work in comedy (despite both having early roles within horror), and it became apparent that this new film would play for laughs rather than scares. The plot sees a quartet of best friends reunite in adulthood to fulfil their lifelong dream of remaking the 1997 film, Anaconda. Along the way, they find themselves under attack from an actual anaconda, and just before the final act, the crew stumble upon the set of the official Anaconda sequel, and with it Ice Cube himself who played Danny Rich in the original film. 

Technically, it is Ice Cube rather than Danny Rich who returns for Anaconda, but in reality, who really ever knew the character names in the original movie? Rather than being Danny, Terri, Paul, and Gary, for most audience members, they are simply Ice Cube, J-Lo, Jon Voight, and Owen Wilson. Ice Cube’s appearance was entirely unexpected and was followed during the closing moments by J-Lo herself knocking on the door of Jack Black’s Doug.  

8. Jim - 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)

Although the return of Cillian Murphy has been rumoured since Danny Boyle returned to the 28 Days franchise with 28 Years Later, audiences assumed that his return would come in the third film in the new trilogy. This was not the case, though, and in the ending coda of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, he returned as Jim. Audiences last saw Jim at the end of 28 Days Later, where Hannah and Selena were hard at work on creating an SOS sign for overpassing planes to see. 

Whilst the full details of Jim’s life in the interim have yet to be revealed, during The Bone Temple’s conclusion, he is living the life of a home-school tutor for his daughter in the isolation of the British countryside. As Spike and Jimmy Ink bring trouble to his door, Jim steps out of the house to once more take on a horde of infected. A cameo that is clearly going to build to Jim taking centre stage once more, we cannot wait to find out what is in store for the character next. 

It looks like poor Peter Parker is being put through the wringer in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. But based on the trailer, there’s something else going on, too. 

He’s blacking out, waking up in web cocoons, producing organic webs, and all in all, seems to have evolving powers. While organic webbing isn’t a new thing in the Spider-Verse (notably, Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker had that ability), it’s definitely not normal for Tom Holland’s Peter. Nor is the whole waking up in a giant cocoon thing. 

So, in the trailer, he goes to a famillar face for help: Dr Bruce Banner — who, as the Incredible Hulk, definitely knows a thing or two about unusual powers. He talks about the possibility of Peter’s DNA “mutating.” Another voice in the background starts banging on about spiders having three life cycles and going through a “rebirth” — and it’s this idea of “rebirth” that’s key to us, the audience, also figuring out what may be happening.

Could ‘The Other’ Storyline Be Coming To The MCU?

It can be argued that the changes Peter is experiencing in Brand New Day are inspired by a comic book storyline known as ‘The Other.’

Peter starts this arc with unusual symptoms, like blackouts and dizzy spells (just like in the trailer). He is later told that he has a radiation-based disease and is effectively dying. Some time later, Peter is brutally attacked by villain Morlun and is left on the brink of death. He is taken to the hospital, where Morlun returns to finish him off. Mary Jane, his wife in this comic, attempts to defend Peter, but Morlun tosses her across the room and breaks her arm. Peter, who was unconscious, then suddenly awakens as a more primal version of himself with stingers on his wrists and sharp teeth. He brutally kills Morlun, then appears to die.

Iron Man transports his body somewhere safe, but his body later breaks free, leaving just his skin behind. Later, a large web cocoon can be seen on the Brooklyn Bridge. After a trippy dream where Peter communicates with a mysterious voice, he agrees to embrace both parts of himself — the man and the spider — and emerges from the cocoon, reborn. 

In what is a kind of gross development, spiders take over Peter’s shed skin and basically form their own body. This being is speculated to be Peter’s titular ‘Other.’ Peter chases the Other down, and it tells him about ‘The Great Weaver,’ a spider-god who decided it was too soon for him to die and resurrected him. However, other spider-gods apparently disagreed with this. Later, when rescuing people trapped under an exploded building, he discovers that he has other new powers, like night vision, feeling vibrations through his webbing, and sticking things on his back. 

Could Tom Holland’s Peter encounter the same changes? Given that we see the giant cocoon, mysterious symptoms, and hints of new powers, there’s a pretty decent chance. 

Brand New Day Could Be Setting Up Man-Spider

It’s also possible that what we’re seeing is an adaptation of a storyline from the 1990s animated series Spider-Man.

In the series, Dr Connors tests Peter’s DNA and discovers that his mutation didn’t stop at him gaining his powers — he had actually continued to slowly mutate the whole time. But now, that mutation was accelerating. When Peter sought out Dr Maria Crawford for help, she ended up making things worse and sped the mutation up further: Peter grew four new arms and two new legs. 

He then mutated even more, becoming a creature called ‘Man-Spider.’ Along with Peter’s existing powers, Man-Spider could shoot webs out of every limb and acid out of his mouth. Obviously, he was a lot stronger, too.

Dr Crawford’s boyfriend, who is none other than Kraven the Hunter, ended up administering a cure for Peter. After that, Dr Conners had to keep administering cures, but they weren’t always successful. The problem was eventually solved when Peter used the Neogenic Recombinator. 

The biggest clues pointing to Man-Spider making an appearance in Brand New Day include Bruce specifically talking about DNA mutating, and the mysterious voice talking about the three life cycles of a spider.

The most likely scenario, in my opinion, is that elements of both storylines will show up in this film. After all the trauma he’s been through, a rebirth could be exactly what this Peter Parker needs — but it was never going to be easy.

It’s been quite the month for Timothée Chalamet. His brilliant performance in Marty Supreme, twinned with a very passionate press tour for the film, had him as the clear frontrunner for the Best Actor award at the Oscars. Then, it all went wrong.

After making an ill-advised, throwaway comment about theatre and ballet not being popular anymore, everyone turned on Chalamet. Some even speculated it may have cost him his shot at glory; in the end, Michael B. Jordan won the prize on the night.

To make matters worse, Chalamet was the butt of the joke all night, with sly digs about his comments being a recurring theme at the Oscars 2026. But less than 48 hours after the ceremony, Chalamet was back on top once more, and it’s all thanks to Dune 3, releasing this summer.

Timothée Chalamet Has A Point To Prove with Dune 3

On Tuesday afternoon, the first trailer for the much-anticipated trilogy-closer dropped online, and it’s safe to say everyone lost their minds – in a good way.

Clearly, the hustle never ends for Chalamet. This was perfect timing from the previous year’s top studio to wash away the sour taste of that Oscars defeat for the actor, showing everyone that he’s cooked up something special with Denis Villeneuve. Granted, the trailer for Dune 3 was always expected to arrive this week – or at least this month – but to unleash it on the world just when everyone thought Chalamet had lost his touch is a genius move. 

While Dune aficionados are naturally hyped by the trailer, filmgoers, in general, have been finding it pretty funny that Chalamet is back with a vengeance, with a menacing shaved head, and all.

One comment on the YouTube clip said: “Bro got so p***ed off yesterday he became the next Anakin Skywalker.” Sticking with the chaotic energy, another added: “[He] lost an Oscar and decided to bomb everyone's box office with a trailer.”

Meanwhile, other viewers believe Chalamet’s temporary blip is over. One wrote, “Timothée is about to prove why he's Himothee.” Another said, “Timothée Chalamet is about to have the biggest aura recovery in human history.”

To be fair, Chalamet never lost his aura. He took his defeat with grace on Sunday night, and only fools would ever have doubted that he would be out for the count. This is a generational talent we’re talking about here.

Jokes Aside, Dune 3 Looks Incredible Already

Speaking of generational… Can we talk for a moment about how epic Dune 3 looks?

Villeneuve has not missed so far in his career, and it looks like he’s ready to outdo himself with this one. The visuals are just as stunning as always, while the score in the trailer is a stirring combination of ethereal harmonies and spine-tingling war chants.

From monumental battle sequences to intimate moments between Paul and Chani, sand-laden landscapes to the vastness of space, Dune 3 is going to have it all. If you’ve read Dune Messiah, you’ll know this is set to be a wild ride. If you haven’t read the book, well… all I’ll say is buckle up!

The trailer also teases new characters, including Scytale, a creepy Face Dancer played by Robert Pattinson, and a more substantial role for Anya-Taylor Joy as Paul’s sister, Alia, who is sure to be a force to be reckoned with in the impending war. 

Isaach De Bankolé has also joined the cast as Farok, while Jason Momoa is back as Duncan Idaho (sort of), Florence Pugh’s Princess Irulan, who is about to be severely traumatised, and a very brief return for Rebecca Ferguson’s Lady Jessica.

Between this, The Odyssey, and Avengers: Doomsday, we are being treated to a great array of event cinema this year.

On Netflix’s hit show One Piece, the Straw Hats are always distracted by their quest for treasure, but what are they watching in their downtime? This is a question that JustWatch has revisited time and time again. Now, thanks to the publicity tour for Season 2 of One Piece, we finally have the answers. 

WATCH: One Piece Cast KNOWS Which Movies Their Characters Would LOVE!

Speaking with Iñaki Godoy, Taz Skylar, Emily Rudd, Jacob Romero, Mackenyu, and Charithra Chandran, we got the scoop of what each actor thought their on-screen counterpart’s favourite movie was, and the answers did not disappoint.

How Heist, Sports and Comedy Movies Align with Nami, Sanji and Zoro

Emily Rudd, who plays Nami, kicked things off for team One Piece by keeping her options general: “I think for Nami, any heist film.” Given Nami’s proclivity for thievery, this decision makes a lot of sense; Nami would most definitely be a fan of watching all the great heist movies, such as Ocean’s 11, Heat, and The Italian Job, to get pointers. The rest of the cast agreed with Rudd’s pick, with Sanji actor Taz Skylar throwing out the film Tower Heist, to which Rudd immediately replied, “iconic, love it.”  

For Skylar’s own pick for his character of the ship chef, rather than go with something culinary-based, such as Ratatouille, Chef, or Burnt, he opted for the Sean Astin movie, Rudy. Co-star Jacob Romero instantly chimed in his agreement, proclaiming, “Ah, that’s a good one!” The plot of Rudy follows Astin's Daniel ‘Rudy’ Ruettiger, a student determined to play college football for Notre Dame, whatever the odds. Based on true events, Rudy is a feel-good sports movie in which the underdog gets his day, something that will hopefully be replicated for Luffy and his crew in One Piece. 

Mackenyu’s choice for the fiercely loyal and stoic swordsman, Zoro, got the biggest laugh from his castmates. When it came his turn to answer the question, he simply looked at the group and uttered, “The Hangover.” Mackenyu then joined the laughter with everyone else, offering no further insight into why the Bradley Cooper-starring comedy about the morning after the night before would be so influential on Zoro. We can only assume that even deadly warriors need to let off some steam sometimes. 

It’s Cartoons All-Round For Luffy, Usopp, and Miss Wednesday

In typical lead fashion, Iñaki Godoy, who plays Captain Monkey D. Luffy, took his time in answering the question. After mulling over his options, he was still uncertain, but just as on the show, his team were on hand to help, with Skylar suggesting “cartoons?” Godoy agreed before inspiration struck, “Maybe Space Jam, I think he would be into Space Jam.” Given Luffy’s keen interest in ancient treasure, we expected something like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, or Tomb Raider, but because of Luffy’s more innocent side, Space Jam is a solid choice. The movie blends live-action actors and athletes with Looney Tunes’ iconic cartoon characters as they work together to win an intergalactic basketball tournament. 

The final two cast members to choose their characters’ favourite films were Jacob Romero, AKA Usopp, and Miss Wednesday herself, Charithra Chandran. Although their characters are technically on opposing sides, according to the actors playing them, they do have some common ground - a respect for Disney classics. For Romero, it is Hercules that he thinks best fits with Usopp. With the actor having previously teased that Usopp will find his bravery in Season 2 of One Piece, it sounds as though all that repeated viewing of Hercules has rubbed off on him. As for Charithra Chandron on Miss Wednesday’s selection, “I can imagine her favourite film being Snow White.” She failed to divulge whether Miss Wednesday would be team Snow or team Evil Queen. If her on-screen allegiance to Mr. 0 is to be believed, it seems as though it would be the latter, but you’ll have to watch the series to find out for yourself.

Hearing an actor’s thoughts on what films their characters would be fans of offers an intriguing insight into their own thoughts on them. Whilst some of the choices here sound like off-the-cuff curveballs, that these titles were picked says a great deal about both cast and character. As you settle in with One Piece, just try to imagine that on occasion during the interim of scenes, Zoro has been off watching The Hangover, Usopp’s been getting pumped with Hercules, and Nami has been heist plotting with something like Tower Heist. You’ll definitely think of things slightly differently if you do. 

March 26 cannot come soon enough, because HBO Max is finally coming to the UK—and along with it, the acclaimed medical TV series The Pitt. The series takes place in the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Centre (affectionately known by employees as “the Pitt”), where emergency staff—overseen by Noah Wyle’s wise Dr Robby and Katherine LaNasa’s head nurse Dana—and student doctors work gruelling 15-hour shifts treating any number of urgent cases coming through their doors.

While The Pitt is no doubt a hospital drama—and even shares some key cast members with previous genre staples like ER—it is unique for one very specific reason: It does away with melodrama and opts instead for a realistic approach to work in a hospital emergency department. Gone are the secret steamy makeout sessions in the break room, banished are the drawn-out get-to-know-you chats between doctors, patients, and nurse staff, and instead, something even more exciting emerges: A series that is both entertaining and educational, while largely staying true to the reality of what life is like within the walls of an American A&E. 

Sure, a few trending news-of-the-day topics conveniently crop up, but the creators’ careful handling of difficult subjects serves to elevate this series from what could have been another run-of-the-mill hospital drama to critically acclaimed television.

The Pitt Doesn’t Rely on Melodrama, And It’s All the Better For It

There have been plenty of popular hospital series over the years. From ER to Grey’s Anatomy to House, these television classics have tended to heavily rely on romantic subplots and rare diseases to keep viewers coming back. While The Pitt isn’t devoid of melodrama, I’d argue it’s exactly the choice to ditch the soap opera style and hammer home the realism that has made it such a hit. As it turns out, there’s plenty to keep you at the edge of your seat in a realistic scenario—with or without two doctors’ tangled love lives hanging in the balance.

Another reason to love The Pitt is that the stakes are genuinely high. Whether it’s a degloved foot (ouch!) or a lovable repeat patient whose alcoholism is slowly deteriorating his health, the careful writing illustrates how important each story is, regardless of how flashy. The series also doesn’t simply rely on a genius doctor solving the rarest of cases to keep you engaged. In fact, the series succeeds at conveying just how important and skilled everyday medical professionals are, without unnecessary fanfare.

While there are some rarer cases represented in The Pitt, the majority are common but deadly, and it really shows that the creators teamed up with practising emergency physicians to understand what they see every day. Whether it’s a heart attack or the rapid onset of sepsis, as viewers, we are even more invested in these more common conditions precisely because they can and do often happen.

The Pitt’s Hour-By-Hour Format Keeps Us Strictly on The Job

Since each episode takes place hour-by-hour during a 15-hour shift, The Pitt features several cases per episode, with some spilling over into subsequent episodes, and some patients even resurfacing at later points across seasons. This makes the whole series feel more realistic, and does away with the “case of the day” format used in so many other medical dramas. While there is a thrill to the genius doctor solving the case just in time—much like a detective figuring out who the murderer is in a crime drama—the melodrama can easily feel overdone, and winds up taking over as the main hook.

Some plots in The Pitt are less interesting than others, and some characters are genuinely frustrating (looking at you, Santos!). However, each case and subplot reveals something real and interesting about both the condition itself and the characters we have come to love. We want to watch the next episode because we care about how these multiple storylines play out, and enjoy spending time with the characters, rather than simply having to know how the big cliffhanger panned out.

Is The Pitt Still Entertaining?

While some rarely seen cases come through the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Centre, the doctors are largely shown doing their due diligence on a whole host of common cases, including quickly creating comprehensive and smart treatment plans, avoiding unnecessary procedures, and following up on what seem like small inconsistencies that turn out to be life-saving factors. The result is a wildly interesting watch that is on its own enough to keep us on the edge of our seats. Who knew that real life—sped up and with a few choice embellishments—could be entertaining enough?

Irreversible is one of those films that, due to its extreme content, most people only watch once, if at all. Directed by Gaspar Noé, the 2002 movie, which stars both Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel, is a viewing endurance nightmare, full of brutal gore and strong sexual violence. 

Set over the course of a day, Irreversible caught the attention of the cinephile crowd thanks to its unusual narrative structure that sees events play in reverse. Now there is a new ‘Straight Cut’ of Irreversible, one that rearranges the story into a linear format. What effect does this have on the overall viewing experience of Irreversible? Is this a richer version, or has the very thing that made Irreversible interesting been stripped from it?

As the plot of both versions of Irreversible will be discussed here, expect spoilers.

Why Is Irreversible So Controversial?

Gaspar Noé has always been a director who has provoked his audience, but none of his films do this more than Irreversible. The main hot button points in the film are the opening act of violence, in which a man has his head smashed in with a fire extinguisher, followed later by the nine-minute-long sexual assault scene. Both sequences are hard to stomach for different reasons, and their inclusion is a key factor in Irreversible being widely considered one of the pioneering films in the New French Extremity movement. 

Other examples of New French Extremity that sit alongside Irreversible include Martyrs, High Tension, Inside, Revenge, and Titane. Movies within the sub-genre of New French Extremity are typified by their graphic depiction of violence, often include an element of sexual violence, and push the boundaries of acceptability with confrontational, visceral, and transgressive content. Irreversible definitely fits within this remit, its reversed timeline causing the narrative to be even more impactful. 

Opening with the bloody attack in a gay BDSM club, Rectum, the viewer is immediately confronted with a horrific attack that paints perpetrators Marcus and Pierre as the villains. It is only by hopping backwards in the story that the audience realise that these men are, in fact, the film’s heroes - the pair avenging the woman that they both love. As Irreversible moves back in time, it arrives at its most controversial scene, the assault on Alex. 

Shot, like many of the scenes in the movie, as one long continuous take, this attack is unflinching with its camerawork, keeping the camera locked onto the harrowing actions unfolding onscreen. It requires a very strong resolve to endure the entire nine minutes. From this point on, with all the bad elements unveiled, Irreversible changes tone, but there are many people who never make it past the controversial subway scene.

How Does The ‘Straight Cut’ Change Irreversible?

The Straight Cut of Irreversible is far more than just a novelty reassembly of the film. Although Irreversible contains some truly horrific sequences, the story ends on a somewhat positive note. Having rewound to far earlier in the day than Alex’s assault, Irreversible is full of love and hope, with Alex discovering that she is pregnant. The film then jumps back to the day before for its final moment as Alex sits serenely in a sunny park. It is a beautiful final image, far removed from the brutality of the opening act and one that can trick the audience into thinking of it as a happy ending. 

The truth, of course, is that the viewer is watching Alex, unaware of the terrible fate that awaits her. This adds a bittersweet sheen, with the closing text ‘time destroys everything’ hammering that message home. 

When played in story chronological order, as seen in the Straight Cut, the viewer goes on the journey with Alex, Marcus, and Pierre. Rather than travelling from darkness to light, this new version finds them starting on a happy note before descending into a gruesome and agonising nightmare. Once Alex enters the subway, where she encounters her attacker, all brightness is lost, and the conclusion in this version is bleak and bloody. Interestingly, the film’s final closing text has been altered for this cut, stating instead that ‘time reveals everything.’ 

By playing Irreversible in chronological order, Gaspar Noé’s film becomes stripped of its uniqueness. Without the backwards storytelling component, Irreversible just becomes another rape-revenge film, of which there are plenty in existence. Playing the story straight through also paints Alex as more of a victim than in the original cut. This is due to her final scene now being her on the stretcher, post-attack. In the backwards formation of the story, Alex transitions from the victim that she is introduced as, into a strong, independent woman. 

Because of these changes to the overall narrative, both variations of Irreversible are worth watching. The two movies are clearly having a conversation with one another, but both still include those incendiary incidents and viewer discretion is advised. Those who are resilient enough, though, will find films that are far more than their controversial reputation, with the cast, especially Monica Bellucci, giving exceptional performances. As to which one to watch over the other, personally, you can’t beat the original, especially given its slightly ‘happier’ resolution. 

Should anyone be really curious, there is a third way to watch Irreversible - side by side. This endeavour is the perfect exercise for lovers of second screening, and it would be interesting to see at what point the story briefly syncs up. 

More Films To Get To Know Gaspar Noé 

If Irreversible has got you curious about Gaspar Noé, he has an entire catalogue of films of varying degrees of controversy to dig through. A simple, and somewhat connected to Irreversible, place to start with Gaspar Noé is with his debut feature, I Stand Alone. Depending on which version of Irreversible you watch, the film either begins or ends with a character called Butcher explaining the reason why he was in prison. This character is the protagonist of I Stand Alone; its story sees Butcher in the midst of a breakdown attempts to reconnect with his estranged daughter. The synopsis is not as cheery as it might sound, and those who have paid attention to the character’s words in Irreversible know just how grotesque Butcher’s actions become.  

Another film to get to know Gasper Noé is Love, which made the headlines due to its explicit unsimulated sex scenes, with audiences of the opinion that it was no better than pornography. Initially, Love was the film that Noé was working on when he thought up Irreversible. The original idea involved using a real married couple, which is why he was brainstorming it around Irreversible as Bellucci and Cassel were husband and wife at the time. They were still together when Noé came to work on Love, but the pair were not comfortable with the director’s idea to feature unsimulated sex. The story sees Murphy, an American man living in Paris, embark on a sexually charged relationship with Electra. All is fine until they invite a third person into their bed… 

After Irreversible, Noé’s best-known title is Climax. The film, which finds a troupe of dancers accidentally consuming spiked drinks during a rehearsal break, is a psychedelic assault on the senses. Noé puts painstaking work into making the audience feel as disoriented and as high as the characters through the use of music, strobe lights, and some sickening camerawork. Some of the actions of the spiked dancers are truly heinous, and parents especially will find the fate of one character a little too much to handle. Yet further proof that Noé knows how to get a rise out of his audience, Climax is not for the faint of heart, but for those who brave it, it is one wild ride that isn’t easy to forget.

Thanks to his duo, Oscar-worthy performance in Sinners, Michael B. Jordan is now synonymous with award-winning movies. He has not, however, forgotten the films that helped shape him, whether they be good, bad, or, in the case of one, guilty. 

WATCH: Michael B. Jordan DEFENDS His Love for This '90s Classic! - YouTube

Speaking to JustWatch alongside Sinners director Ryan Coogler, the pair were asked to share their ‘Sorry, Not Sorry’ movie pick: a film that holds a special place in their hearts despite being viewed as a questionable choice by most. Coogler went first and recounted his love for a Mandy Moore tearjerker, and then it was Jordan’s turn to confess his truth, eventually revealing A Low Down Dirty Shame.  

Michael B. Jordan & Ryan Coogler Reminisce Over A Low Down Dirty Shame

Initially unsure of his selection, Jordan looked up something on his phone before checking, “Does this count?” to Coogler. His Sinners director showed his approval for the choice with a “hell yeah” before coaxing Jordan to share his decision with JustWatch. Finally, Jordan uttered the title “A Low Down Dirty Shame” before getting lost remembering the film, throwing out the single name of “Peaches”, which had both actor and director descending into giggles. 

After composing himself, Coogler demanded that Jordan “speak the gospel of A Low Down Dirty Shame.” The actor, however, was still struggling to pull himself back together and could only share fleeting comments. His attempts ended with “a detective cop”, to which Coogler jumped in with “noir”. This then sparked more memories for Jordan as he jokingly remarked, “We got ‘Rock’ in it, you know what I’m saying?” 

The ‘Rock’ to which he refers is not Dwayne Johnson, but rather Charles S. Dutton, who does, in certain angles of A Low Down Dirty Shame, have an air of The Rock to him. Ryan Coogler agreed with the comparison, “Rock, yeah, Charles S. Dutton”. Then both were lost to the movie replaying in their heads, with only affirmations of the film's quality heard from them after. 

Why A Low Down Dirty Shame is a True Guilty Pleasure

With Michael B. Jordan having done such a terrible job of selling A Low Down Dirty Shame, it is left to us to explain why this one should be on your watchlists. 

Written, directed by, and starring Keenan Ivory Wayans, A Low Down Dirty Shame is, as Ryan Coogler stated, a noir, but one that fully embraces comedy. The plot is very familiar and follows an ex-cop, now a private detective, as he begins searching for the millions stolen by a drug lord. Also starring Charles S. Dutton and Jada Pinkett Smith (who plays the aforementioned Peaches), A Low Down Dirty Shame is one of those films that has its heart in the right place, even if nothing else is. 

Sitting on Rotten Tomatoes with just 4% from a tidal of 23 critics, it is safe to say that A Low Down Dirty Shame has struggled to please the press. In contrast, A Low Down Dirty Shame has an audience score of 70%, which proves that the film has plenty of appeal. Amidst the 250,000+ audience rankings sit both Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler, and if you have people of their calibre willing to go to bat for you, then it cannot be all that bad. 

Only the second film in Wayan’s directing career, A Low Down Dirty Shame struggles with several budget and plot restrictions, but these are the expected teething pains of an early director. Wayan’s next project was Scary Movie, a horror comedy parody that spawned its own - soon to be six - film series, which proved that if nothing else, A Low Down Dirty Shame was a learning experience for the filmmaker. Not strictly a movie to seek out if you want a quality night’s entertainment; for that experience, you should definitely grab Sinners. 

However, if you want to have some fun with friends, A Low Down Dirty Shame is exactly the guilty pleasure to do this with. Plus, should you ever run into Michael B. Jordan, knowledge of the film would put you on the fast track to winning his heart. 

With a trailer finally out for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, releasing this July, there’s never been a better time to catch up with our favourite web-slinger. Played by Tom Holland, this will be the MCU Spider-Man’s fourth movie. 

Zendaya and Jacob Batalon will be reprising their roles as MJ and Ned, respectively, while Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Frank Castle/The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) will serve as supporting characters. We’ve even got the likes of Sadie Sink and Tramall Tillman in undisclosed roles.

Brand New Day catches up with Peter four years after he made a heart-wrenching, but necessary decision. While living incognito as New York’s friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, he ends up facing new enemies, a new mystery, and, according to the official synopsis, the “repercussions of his past.” Needless to say, to get the best experience from this movie, you’ll need to do your homework. So, here are the essential movies you need to catch before heading for your next adventure with Spidey.

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Captain America: Civil War isn’t just an example of the MCU at its absolute best — it also marks the first appearance of Tom Holland as Peter Parker. With Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) acting as his mentor, Peter arrives in the thick of the action, fighting against Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) and his faction of Avengers as part of a disagreement with Stark over the Sokovia Accords. 

While Peter isn’t necessarily the focus of this film, he’s a scene-stealer from the outset thanks to his impressive fighting skills, endearing awkwardness, and, frankly, his inability to stop talking. The high-schooler we meet is a far cry from the Peter we’ll be seeing in Brand New Day, so this movie just goes to show how far he’s come.

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Mercifully, we don’t have to watch Uncle Ben die for a third time in Spider-Man: Homecoming. While this is the first Spider-Man-led story in the MCU, we don’t rehash the origin story. Instead, we catch up with Peter after the events of Civil War. He’s keen to become part of the Avengers, but Stark isn’t sure that his ward is ready just yet. However, he ends up having his hands full with the shady Adrian Toomes/Vulture (Michael Keaton) and his crush on classmate Liz (Laura Harrier) — with the two things ending up having a surprising connection to one another. Speaking of shadiness, we also come across Mac Gargan/Scorpion (Michael Mando) in this film, who is set to play a pretty crucial role in Brand New Day.

While it’s comedic and rooted in high school life, there’s no shortage of action in Spider-Man: Homecoming, making it a cracking choice for both the casual viewer and more hardcore comic book fans. It also goes a long way in establishing who exactly Peter Parker is, and why we should care. The good news is, Holland makes it very easy to do just that about the character. 

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

So, Spidey got his wish — he’s officially part of the Avengers in this film. Sadly, the circumstances couldn’t be more dire. As Thanos (Josh Brolin) races to complete the Infinity Gauntlet and enact his grand plan to erase half of Earth’s population, the Avengers team up to stop him. 

Avengers: Infinity War successfully interweaves 10 years’ worth of movie lore into one, richly-layered narrative. It’s essential context not just for the MCU as a whole, but also for understanding Peter’s story ahead of Brand New Day. After all, the consequences of this film are so massive that characters are still feeling the aftershocks in Phase 6. 

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Physically, Peter isn’t in Avengers: Endgame very much. But like Infinity War, this movie has such wide-reaching implications that it’s an essential part of this list. That scene where all the ‘snapped’ superheroes return and join Cap on the battlefield against Thanos is nothing short of absolute cinema, but while there’s a lot of highs in this film, there’s some lows, too.

While I don’t want to spoil anything, let’s just say that there’s a pretty crucial scene involving Iron Man. It ends up causing a ripple effect that impacts Peter especially deeply, given his own relationship with Stark. As a result, he loses some of his innocence and is never quite the same again. So, this film marks an absolutely crucial moment in Peter’s character development. 

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Remember when I said certain events in Endgame have far-reaching consequences? Well, Peter is still feeling the aftershock in Spider-Man: Far From Home. So, the arrival of the dashing Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) couldn’t come at a more perfect time. Once again, Peter is split between the normal trials of high school and the pressure of being a hero, as he tries to balance the threat of the Elementals with a school trip and his growing relationship with MJ. 

With plenty of action scenes and some jaw-dropping plot twists, Far From Home will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout. Similar to Infinity War and Endgame, the events of this movie fundamentally shift the Spider-Man saga. It paves the way for the epic finale of the mainline Spider-Man trilogy, so it goes without saying that watching this should be a priority. 

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Spider-Man: No Way Home picks up immediately after the events of Far From Home. As Peter desperately scrambles to get some control back, he convinces Stephen/Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to cast a spell to make the world forget that he’s Spider-Man. However, proving that he’s still that same teenager inside, he simply can’t keep his mouth shut and ends up botching the spell, causing a catastrophic tear in the multiverse. 

While this is bad news for Peter and Earth-616 in general, it’s great news if you’re a Spider-Man fan. It paves the way for the inclusion of ‘Peter 2’ (Tobey Maguire) and ‘Peter 3’ (Andrew Garfield), along with many of their films’ classic foes like Dr Otto Octavius/Doc Ock (Alfred Molina) and Norman Osborn/Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe). 

I’ll always remember the gasps and cheers in the cinema when the two other Spider-Men arrived through those portals, but fan service aside, this movie packs an epic punch both in terms of action and emotional damage. No Way Home’s final act, especially, is devastating and electrifying in equal parts, and is absolutely instrumental in setting the scene for Brand New Day. Plus, like many of the other films on this list, it’s an absolute banger.

The Hannah Montana 20th anniversary special is almost upon us, and I couldn’t be more excited. It is set to drop on Disney+ on March 24, which, ironically, is the exact date the first episode of Hannah Montana aired 20 years ago. 

The special is set to be led by Alex Cooper, the media personality best known for her widely-popular podcast, Call Her Daddy. Filmed with a live audience, the special is set to include an interview with Miley Cyrus herself, a tour around some of the most iconic sets, and never-before-seen footage. Disney has also hinted that songs may be performed, with the press release teasing that “some familiar notes will find their way back into the spotlight.”

Before we embark on the nostalgia train, I want to speak for all the millennials and geriatric Gen Z-ers who are looking forward to this special and break down exactly what it is I, and they, want to see.

1. Musical Performances

I really do hope that Disney isn’t bluffing — why make a reunion show about a fictional pop star if said pop star doesn’t perform some of her greatest hits? 

Nothing would make my inner child happier than a performance of ‘The Best of Both Worlds,’ ‘Nobody’s Perfect,’ ‘He Could Be The One’ plus the obvious tearjerker — ‘I’ll Always Remember You.’ Music is an integral part of Hannah Montana’s DNA, so it makes sense for the show to champion that. 

2. A Cast Reunion

Of course, Miley’s return is what really makes it special, but reuniting with the cast to celebrate this milestone seems only right. People I’d love to see include: 

• Emily Osment (Lily Truscott), 

• Billy Ray Cyrus (Robby Ray Stewart), 

• Jason Earles (Jackson Stewart), 

• and, of course, Miley’s two love interests: Cody Linley (Jake Ryan) and Drew Roy (Jesse). 

3. Special Celebrity Guests

Along with the main cast, Hannah Montana has had countless celebrity appearances during its run, the most notable being fellow Disney alum Selena Gomez and the Dolly Parton. 

Given Hannah Montana’s influence on pop culture, it feels only right that some of the leaders of modern culture come together to celebrate this milestone. Also, I’ll take any excuse to see Dolly Parton because she’s simply iconic. 

4. A Reunion Episode

Okay, this one is probably a little too far-fetched, but wouldn’t it be cool to know how Miley and Co. are navigating life 20 years later? 

A full reboot may be a little too far, but a special, one-off episode catching up with some of our favourite characters would really resonate with audiences and make the special as a whole all the more, well, special. 

5. Behind the Scenes Stories and Secrets

With four seasons and a movie, there must be some hilarious behind-the-scenes stories out there. And if the rest of the cast is there with Miley, it would be the perfect chance to share them. 

Moreover, general behind-the-scenes secrets and Easter eggs would perfectly complement the archival footage that is meant to be shown. It would give us insight into the Disney Channel glory days that we’ve never had before. 

6. A Fan Tribute

Sure, Hannah Montana is a pop culture behemoth, but it wouldn’t be where it is today if it weren’t for us — the passionate fanbase. Many of us grew up watching the show, making it a real nostalgic gem. So, given the part we played in the Hannah Montana craze, it feels only right that our longstanding passion for the show is recognised and celebrated. 

7. Montages of the Best Moments

What would a reunion show be without a montage, or three? I, for one, would love to chart the journey of some of Hannah Montana’s best moments over the years, and a montage would be the perfect way to execute this. After all, who doesn’t love a highlights reel?

8. That Wig

Sorry, but ‘Best of Both Worlds’ just won’t hit the same unless it’s paired with the iconic Hannah wig. Her secret identity is what makes the show so addictive, so, before she hangs up the wig forever, it would really be something special if Miley took it out for a spin just one last time. 

Since its release on Netflix in 2025, K-Pop Demon Hunters has become a global phenomenon. Children and grown-ups alike have become smitten with the animated story of a famous girl group named HUNTR/X who juggle stadium shows with battling the forces of darkness. 

Despite some stiff competition, K-Pop Demon Hunters scooped the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, as well as Best Song for ‘Golden’. The film is sure to become a future classic, but what films inspired those who made K-Pop Demon Hunters?

WATCH - KPop Demon Hunters' Audrey Nuna Reveals Her Favourite Guilty Pleasure Watches! - YouTube

Speaking with Audrey Nuna, who provides the singing voice for Mira in K-Pop Demon Hunters, she shared the animated movie that makes her cry every single time she watches it. Her choice, A Bug’s Life, might seem a little odd for a now global singing sensation to have imprinted on, and yet she has no issue proclaiming her adoration for the Pixar movie. 

What Is A Bug’s Life And Why Does It Make Audrey Nuna Cry?

After the success of Toy Story, all eyes were on Pixar for their second feature film, A Bug’s Life. Although not as beloved by the masses as Toy Story, for Nuna, the film is perfect. During her conversation with JustWatch, Nuna explained, “I think that A Bug’s Life is one of the most emotional films of all time. I cry every time I watch A Bug’s Life.” 

The plot of A Bug’s Life follows inventive but accident-prone ant, Flik, who, with the help of a circus of outcast insects, saves his colony from its menacing grasshopper overlord. It is Flik’s desperation to help that really speaks to Nuna, “when he keeps messing up, and his whole colony thinks he’s useless, and he just wants to help. I think just that whole concept gets me.”

As with all Pixar movies, A Bug’s Life comes with a deep message for younger audience members to latch onto. Here it is: don’t be afraid to be different, never give up, and never let the bad guys win. This mirrors elements of K-Pop Demon Hunters, with the trio of Mira, Rumi and Zoey unafraid to stand up for themselves and those around them. 

Are A Bug’s Life And Antz The Same Movie?

A Bug’s Life was released in 1998, the same year as the fellow animated ant-centric movie, Antz. Both films are animated and follow the plight of an ant colony; despite plenty of confusion to the contrary, they are two completely different films. In contrast to A Bug’s Life, which is a valid choice for a favourite movie, Antz would be far better suited to a guilty pleasure selection. 

Reasons for this include the terrible quality of its 3D animation. The technology was still in its infancy in 1998, and when compared to A Bug’s Life, Antz is visually inferior. The plot is also more basic, following neurotic ant Z as he tries to break from his totalitarian society run by General Mandible, and also win the heart of the colony princess. Still entertaining enough to entrance younger minds, Antz is missing the magic that its creator, Dreamworks, would go on to manifest. As such, it’s far less likely to make you cry. 

Another Hot Take From Audrey Nuna Stars Jack Black

After opening her heart and sharing her love for A Bug’s Life, Audrey Nuna went on to disclose another of her guilty loves. For this selection, she left the world of animation behind to profess her love for an underseen Jack Black movie, Nacho Libre. Not only did Nuna admit her admiration for Nacho Libre, but she also went so far as to describe the film as “one of the greatest films of our generation.” That is high praise indeed for a movie that many have forgotten existed. 

Directed by Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess, Nacho Libre sees Jack Black play a friar whose obsession with wrestling results in him becoming a luchador to help raise money for the orphanage he works at. If you haven’t seen Nacho Libre yet, the pre-megastardom Jack Black is utterly charming as the hapless Nacho. Black and Hess reunited in 2025 for A Minecraft Movie, making Nacho Libre merely the start of a beautiful friendship. A sports comedy that champions the underdog, some clear parallels to A Bug’s Life explain Nuna’s affinity for the movie. 

If your algorithm is anything like mine, your social media feed on the morning after this year’s BAFTAs was likely wall-to-wall with images of Robert Aramayo beaming from the stage of London’s Royal Festival Hall.

It was a face of genuine disbelief, the kind you don’t often see so late in awards season, having nudged past the likes of Timothée Chalamet, Michael B Jordan and Leonardo DiCaprio to become the shock winner of the Best Actor award. 

The historic moment was, I imagine, especially puzzling for American audiences, not to mention his fellow nominees, not least when you consider that Aramayo won for Kirk Jones’ I Swear, a movie that had still to be released anywhere in the United States and, as a result, had not been in contention at any other precursor ceremony. Needless to say, the Hull-born grandson of a Spanish fisherman quickly became the hero of the British Academy’s big night.

In truth, even though that prize was a little ahead of schedule, there has recently been a sense with the actor that such things can not be too far away. Indeed, as anyone who's been following Aramayo’s career in the last few years will tell you, the idea that the BAFTAs would eventually garland him has felt less like an “if” than an “when”. And so, with that all still fresh in the memory and I Swear now available to stream on Netflix and JustWatch TV, what better time to look back over the young actor’s career so far and round up his most important roles, which I’ve listed below, naturally, in some kind of ascending order. 

Read on to learn a bit more about each one and use the guide below to find out where to stream them on services like AppleTV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere. 

8. Nocturnal Animals (2016)

For Aramayo, 2016 turned out to be a very significant year. The actor, who was around 23-years-old at the time, had been making a splash on the UK theatre scene since leaving high school but then, all at once, he landed a small but significant part in Game of Thrones (more on that shortly) and another in Tom Ford’s sophomore feature, Nocturnal Animals — a must watch for any fan of the legendary fashion designer’s heartbreaking debut, A Single Man.

The movie, for which Michael Shannon was nominated for an Oscar, is a neo-noir that follows an art gallery owner (played by Amy Adams) on a journey down some of her darker memory lanes. Though appearing in only a handful of moments as Turk, Aramayo gave a small but memorable performance.

7. Mindhunter (2019)

David Fincher’s Mindhunter, I think it’s fair to say, is one of the best achievements in the history of Netflix’s original shows. So high are the crime series’ production values that the show, at its best, can feel like a companion piece to Zodiac and Se7en — the director’s two great masterpieces thus far in the crime genre.

Everything about the show feels delicately chosen, and not least of all the cast of actors — many of whom, like Damon Herriman, Oliver Cooper and Aramayo himself, only appear for an episode or two in their roles as infamous serial killers. For his part as Elmer Wayne Henley, Aramayo gives a performance that mixes intensity with worrying restraint.

6. The King’s Man (2021)

 Looking back on it now, Matthew Vaughn’s 2021 prequel to his wildly successful Kingsman movies — which was inventively titled The King’s Man — boasts a remarkable mix of up-and-coming British actors and all-time greats. Ralph Fiennes, of course, stars as Orlando Oxford, the founder of the spy brotherhood, but the cast also finds room for Rhys Ifans, Tom Hollander, Daniel Brühl, Djimon Hounsou, Charles Dance and Harris Dickenson.

Coming just before his big break in Behind Her Eyes, The King’s Man was not exactly a big break for the actor, but he still managed to shine, if only in a peripheral role.

5. Game of Thrones (2016-2017)

Aramayo might have only appeared in a couple of scenes as the young Lord Eddard Stark in the later seasons of Game of Thrones, but his performance was enough to leave some sections of the fanbase pining for him to return in a full Ned prequel show.

Looking great in a patchy beard and a strawberry blond wig, the handful of scenes allowed Aramayo to play the hero in what was likely one of the most re-watched and pored-over sequences in the show's history: a flashback that nodded towards the greatest mystery in George R.R. Martin’s seven book saga —  yet the question it really left us with was, “who is this guy and where else can we see him?”

4. Palestine 36 (2025)

Last year, the London Film Critics circle awarded Aramayo the award for breakout performer for his work on both I Swear and the timely historical film Palestine 36. Directed by Annemarie Jacir, the film covers the 1936 Arab revolt against British colonial rule in a way to suggest that the echoes of those events are still reverberating in the region today.

Aramayo stars as Captain Orde Wingate, a British officer, in a cast that also features Jeremy Irons, Haim Abbas (Succession) and fellow Thrones alum Liam Cunningham.

3. Behind Her Eyes (2021)

For me, the Aramayo performance that really made me sit up and take note was his supporting turn in the Netflix limited series Behind Her Eyes — a psychological thriller that just so happens to boast one of the best TV twists of the last decade.

The cast is led by a similarly impressive Eve Hewson (who may be about to have her own breakout year in 2026 thanks to her upcoming part in Disclosure Day) but it’s Aramayo’s Rob — the friend Hewson’s single mother makes while in rehab — that ends being the show’s secret weapon.  

2. Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022-)

If, like me, you’re refusing to let go of your Rings of Power stock just yet, you’ve likely already spent the last few years telling people to stop worrying too much about the show's coherence and just enjoy the production values and the cast.

A lot about Rings of Power has been admittedly unsatisfying so far, but when it comes together there’s kind of nothing on TV right now that looks or feels like it. Yet even when it’s bad, Morfydd Clark’s performance as Galadrial, Owain Arthur’s as Durin, and Aramayo’s endearing turn as Elrond, amongst others, have always kept me watching. I’ll continue to do so. 

1. I Swear (2025)

Even without the strange things that happened on BAFTA night, I Swear would have easily ended up at the top of this list. The film is a UK indie crowd pleaser of the old school: the kind of funny, heartwarming, lightly provocative, but fundamentally political movie (think The Full Monty, Billy Elliot, Pride) that British filmmakers have always seemed to excel at.

The film is a biopic of John Davidson, a man who was diagnosed with Tourette's as a young man but went on to become a campaigner for public awareness later in life, the movie is an unsentimental slice of life that offers viewers a front row seat to the challenges and the moments of joyful solidarity that Davidson experienced growing up in 1980s Scotland. It probably goes without saying, but Aramayo is phenomenal.

For too long, the ‘manosphere’ has been this murky, dark underbelly of the Internet that we’ve tried really hard to ignore. All a lot of people knew was that it was a highly misogynistic online space that spawned the likes of accused human trafficker Andrew Tate. 

Then, Adolescence came out, and everything changed. For the first time, the devastating consequences the manosphere was having on young, developing minds felt all too pertinent. 

With recent statistics showing that almost a third of Gen Z men believe a woman should obey her husband, it is becoming increasingly clear that the manosphere may well be poisoning the next generation of men, so Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere couldn’t have come at a more perfect time.

I’ll admit, it’s an uncomfortable watch at times, but, in my opinion, it’s highly necessary. Here are the most shocking parts, and fair warning: discussions of extreme misogyny (and other forms of bigotry) are naturally, and unfortunately, ahead.

1. The Double Standards of ‘One-Sided Monogamy’

Manosphere influencers Justin Waller and Myron Gaines were proponents of the idea of ‘one-sided monogamy,’ which, in short, involves the men sleeping with whoever they want while the women remain faithful. Adding to this discomfort is the moment when Waller’s partner, Lisa, describes their relationship in terms of “lanes” — she does the cleaning and diapers, he is the provider. Waller refers to Lisa as his “wife,” but they are unmarried. 

What makes these statements especially ironic is when, later in the documentary, fellow influencer Harrison ‘Hstikkytokky’ Sullivan said that he would want to marry a virgin. Meanwhile, he spent his evenings flirting with women in Marbella and distributed a video of a woman giving him oral sex. 

2. The Treatment of Sex Workers

Both Gaines and Sullivan profit off sex workers. Gaines invited OnlyFans models onto his podcast, seemingly with the intention of insulting them with tools like the ‘Female Delusion Calculator,’ while Smith actively works with sex workers by promoting their content on his Telegram channel and even setting up his own sex worker content house. 

However, he also only disparages women who do OnlyFans, demonstrating how, while they don’t mind using sex workers for financial gain, they clearly don’t respect them. More double standards.

3. ‘Predator’ Stings

Another recurring theme throughout the documentary is the ‘predator stings’ these influencers pull off. Creator Ed Matthews bragged about how he once made a ‘predator’ eat dog food on camera, but the most shocking part came when Sullivan and his entourage arranged to meet a middle-aged man for a ‘date’ before violently attacking him as they streamed it live. 

While Sullivan claimed that he deleted the video shortly after the broadcast, Theroux claimed that Sullivan’s team had clipped several moments from the stream and posted them online.

4. The Scary Misinformation About DNA

During Gaines’ podcast, Theroux was stunned when they peddled the claim that a woman keeps the DNA of every partner she has slept with in her body, which can lead to children being born looking like an ex-partner rather than the actual father. 

5. Conspiracy Theories About… Satanism?

Towards the end of the documentary, Theroux interviewed another infamous manosphere content creator known as Sneako. Things soon took a bizarre turn when Sneako showed Theroux a magazine cover with a woman covering one eye, and went on a rant about how this was a symbol of Satanism. He then went on to claim that Satanists run the world, and claimed Sam Smith also worshipped the devil.

6. The Rampant Antisemitism, Racism, Homophobia, and Misogyny

Pretty much every kind of hate speech you can think of was repeatedly spouted on that show. Sullivan called his female friend a “dishwasher” and said that he would disown his son if he turned out gay. Matthews claimed that “the Jews” run the world and referred to a Black woman as “dark chocolate.” 

7. The Manosphere Fandom

One of the most disturbing aspects of the documentary was the level of fans these influencers had. Several times, these creators were stopped by admirers who asked for photos in between fervently complimenting them. 

When Theroux spoke to two Waller fans in depth, it became apparent just how much manosphere content had influenced them. They both imitate the same hand gesture Tate does in interviews. Fan Mattie then went on to describe events like previously being homeless and his brother taking his own life before declaring that men are “meant to suffer.”

8. The Manosphere’s Proximity to Trump

A couple of these influencers also emphasised their connection to Donald Trump. Waller bragged about having dinner with Barron Trump, while Sneako revealed that he had been a supporter of Trump since 2015.  The creator also said that he should get credit for the US executive order, which declares that there are only two genders. This leaves us with the terrifying implication that these kinds of creators have a direct influence on politics.

9. The Silencing of Women

One downside of the documentary is that it didn’t feature a female perspective very much. But it soon became apparent why. When interviewing Gaines’ girlfriend, Angie, Theroux brought up Gaines’ ambition to have more than one wife. Angie looked visibly uncomfortable at the mention of this, and later in the show, Gaines made it clear that she wouldn’t be doing interviews anymore, claiming it was a joint decision. 

This pattern continued later in the documentary when, after speaking to Theroux, podcast booker Icy got a text from Gaines telling her not to answer any more questions. Clearly, in the manosphere world, a woman’s perspective isn’t just devalued — it's actively censored. 

10. Dubious Money-Making Schemes

Part of Sullivan’s fortune comes from him encouraging people to put money into an investment scheme, with the promise that the money will quickly multiply. However, when Theroux invested £500 in one of these schemes, he ended up losing money rather than earning it. This is especially troubling when one considers how young his audience base is.

After her gut-wrenching performance as Agnes in Hamnet, nobody was surprised when Jessie Buckley snagged her first Academy Award on March 15. However, her initial claim to fame might surprise you.

By the time she wowed audiences in the Maggie O’Farrell novel adaptation, Buckley had already crafted an exceptional career for herself. Among other things, she has played unhinged nurse Oraetta Mayflower in Season 4 of Fargo, an aspiring country singer in Wild Rose, and an unhappy mother in The Lost Daughter — for which she was nominated for her first Academy Award.

So, she’s done her fair share of ‘serious’ acting — but she’s also a talented singer. So much so that, back in 2008, she competed in the reality competition show I’d Do Anything. 

What Is I’d Do Anything?

For the uninitiated, I’d Do Anything was an exceptionally camp singing contest for which hopefuls sang it out for the chance to snag the roles of Nancy and Oliver Twist in the West End revival of Oliver! 

Presented by Graham Norton, the series — which focused on a different musical each season — was overseen by musical theatre legend Andrew Lloyd Webber, who also acted as a judge. Think of it as The X Factor, but for the viewing pleasure of insufferable wannabe theatre kids like myself. 

How Did the Show Work?

Like The X Factor, there was an audition stage, a bootcamp-styled ‘Nancy School,’ and live shows, where the contestants would sing their hearts out before putting their fates in the hands of public voters. They even held a masterclass with Liza Minelli for the final three. 

The best thing about the show, however, was its incredibly unhinged elimination process. After the bottom two contestants performed a sing-off, one would be chosen while the other would be sent home. Then, the eliminated singer would stand in the middle of the stage as the other Nancys menacingly circled her singing ‘Be Back Soon’ — which, as this TikToker points out, was pretty ironic given that this Nancy would not, in fact, be back soon. Or at all. Brutal, right? 

The only consolation is that the eliminations for other versions of this show were even worse. For example, for the Wizard of Oz-focussed series, the rejected Dorothys were literally lifted off the stage by a giant moon as they sang ‘Over the Rainbow.’

How Did Jessie Buckley Do on I’d Do Anything?

During her audition, where she sang ‘As Long as He Needs Me,’ she was overseen by acclaimed casting director David Grimrod. She progressed to the callbacks, but he called her “passive” and repeatedly shouted at her to “keep it real” as she was singing. Still, despite being in her teens, Buckley managed to go the distance. Over the next few weeks, she performed a variety of songs live, including ‘River Deep, Mountain High’, ‘Why Do Fools Fall in Love’ and ‘How Do I Live’.

However, her arguably most memorable performance was ‘The Man That Got Away’ in Week Six. Following this performance, she was showered with praise. Judge Denise Van Outen called it the “performance of the series,” while Lloyd Webber told her, “That is the greatest performance I’ve ever heard a young girl of your age give.” Given that she was never in the bottom two throughout her time in the competition, it’s clear the public loved her even then. So much so, she finished the series in second place. 

In terms of her fellow finalists, she was in good company, too. The winner, Jodie Prenger, now stars in Corrie, while Samantha Barks, who came in third place, has become one of the most recognisable faces in musical theatre after playing Eponine in the Les Misérables movie and Elsa in the West End adaptation of Frozen.

Needless to say, even then, it was clear that Buckley had something special — but this particular origin story is hilarious to me because, as well as being exceedingly random, it’s a perfect example of the butterfly effect.

If Buckley had never gone on the show and participated in those insane elimination rituals week after week, we may not have the big screen, Academy Award-winning powerhouse we see today. So, I, for one, am grateful.

Whatever incarnation of Sean Penn comes to mind when you think of his name — the recent, grizzled version who travelled to Mexico to interview El Chapo and played Steven J. Lockjaw in One Battle After Another; the mid-career icon who won Oscars for Milk and Mystic River; or the long haired stoner Jeff Spicoli who ordered pizza to the classroom in Fast Times at Ridgemont High — I think it’s fair to say that the actor has enjoyed one of the most colourful careers in the last 40 years of American movies. 

Preternaturally gifted, consistently intense, and — as his movies as director (Flag Day, The Last Face) have shown — occasionally earnest to a fault, Penn’s work both in front of and behind the camera has always seemed to mirror his personality off it. At its best, this all-encompassing dedication has led to some of the finest performances of the last half-century, ten of which I’ve listed below in ascending order — based both on the movies themselves and Penn’s significance to them. 

Read on to learn a little more and use the guide below to find out where to stream them on services like Apple TV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere. 

10. 21 Grams (2003)

Having earned an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film for his influential debut, Amores Perros, Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu immediately made the jump to Hollywood with 21 Grams and immediately cast Sean Penn in the lead role.

This grittiest of films follows three interweaving stories, one of which concerns a man who kills a father and his two children in a hit and run, only to be given the man’s heart in a subsequent operation. It’s one of the toughest watches from Penn’s back catalogue — a prime example of Iñárritu’s approach before he remembered to put a little humour and pep into his movies (think more Babel than Birdman), but there’s no doubting Penn’s excellence in it. 

9. Liquorice Pizza (2021)

To be honest, I love Liquorice Pizza so much that it was kind of tough to leave it languishing in ninth place here. The reason for its placement is that, while Penn certainly kicked off a comeback with his role as the leathery Hollywood star Jack Holden here, he doesn’t have the kind of screen time to warrant it overtaking the other movies on this list.

Pizza is, I think, Paul Thomas Anderson’s most nostalgic and joyful film to date — a coming-of-age tale that lets you feel what it might have actually been like to be young and in love in the San Fernando Valley in the 1970s. 

8. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

It’s probably true that Penn has roughly the same amount of screen time in Fast Times at Ridgemont High as he does in PTA’s Pizza, but of his early roles, it was just too iconic to leave out. Amongst his earlier roles, we could have mentioned the juvie-set drama Bad Boys or James Foley’s At Close Range, but Fast Times basically lodged that image of Penn as the affable, long-haired stoner into the minds of every single person who saw it.

Fast Times was also Cameron Crowe’s breakout hit, so if you’re an appreciator of all things Almost Famous, it’s well worth going back to check this one out. 

7. Sweet and Lowdown (1999)

Okay, so fair warning: Sweet and Lowdown is a Woody Allen movie. It’s also one of the most interesting lead roles that Penn — an actor who also excels in supporting parts — has ever taken on.

Essentially a retelling of Fellini’s classic La Strada, Sweet and Lowdown sees Penn play a Django Reinhardt-obsessed jazz guitarist who falls in love with a mute woman — played by Samantha Morton — in 1930s Chicago. It’s the kind of thing that makes you wish he did more straight-up comedy. 

6. The Thin Red Line (1998)

You certainly won’t find a lot of laughs in either of Penn’s collaborations with Terrence Malick. If I had to choose the one I prefer, I’d certainly go for the director’s peerless 2010 Palme d’Or winner, The Tree of Life — but seeing as Penn spends most of his time in that movie wandering through a metaphysical desert, I felt inclined, for the sake of this list, to go for The Thin Red Line.

This phenomenal Second World War movie was Malick’s long-awaited comeback after a 17-year hiatus following the release of Days of Heaven. As a result, pretty much every male actor in Hollywood wanted to be in it — and by the look of the cast list, most of them got their wish. For that reason, you couldn’t exactly call this one a Penn movie, per se, but it’s a masterpiece and the actor gets top billing, so credit where credit’s due. 

5. Carlito’s Way (1993)

I always like films that work as a kind of passing of the baton between generations of great actors — think Redford and Pitt in Spy Game, or Brando, De Niro and Norton in The Score — Hollywood’s best example of a changing of the guard.

With Al Pacino in the lead and Penn supporting, 1993’s Carlito’s Way — a story about a rehabilitated criminal (Pacino) who gets dragged back into his previous life, partially by his lawyer and friend (Penn)  — is another prime example of the genre. 

4. One Battle After Another (2025)

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve already seen Paul Thomas Anderson’s Best Picture-winning One Battle After Another — perhaps even multiple times. So rewatchable is Anderson’s Best Picture winner that, even at close to three hours long, fans just seem to keep going back for more. 

The story stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a washed up revolutionary alongside Chase Infiniti as his loving and long-suffering daughter, but it’s Penn’s demented turn as the antagonist, Steven J Lockjaw, that really sticks in the memory long after the credits roll — enough for the Academy to award him with a record-equalling third Oscar, which, of course, he didn’t show up for.

3. Dead Man Walking (1995)

Outside of Mystic River (more on that, shortly), Tim Robbins’ only Oscar recognition in his career, surprisingly enough, was the director nod he received for his 1995 crime drama Dead Man Walking. This was also the first nomination that Penn received, and it remains one of his very best performances — and one of his greatest films.

Penn is said to have gone into intensive research mode to prepare for the job of playing Matthew Poncelat, the death row inmate who forms an unlikely bond with Susan Sarandon's conscientious nun. If you’re a fan of ‘90s movies like Primal Fear and The Shawshank Redemption, make sure to seek this one out.

2. Mystic River (2003)

Eight years after his first nomination, Penn finally won the coveted Best Actor prize for Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River — a deadly serious, Boston-set crime drama that centres on the killing of a 19-year-old girl. Playing the bereaved father, this was a role — along with 21 Grams, released the very same year — that cemented Penn’s reputation as Hollywood’s go-to actor for characters beyond the verge of a nervous breakdown. 

Eastwood’s film also won Best Picture that night, but its reputation hasn’t exactly grown over the years. This is likely to do with it being such a tough watch — but if you’re a fan of Penn, it’s naturally worth the effort. 

1. Milk (2008)

Five years after River, Penn confirmed his reputation as one of the best of his generation when he starred as the queer activist Harvey Milk — the first openly gay person to be elected to major public office in the United States — in Gus Van Sant’s eponymously titled biopic. This was the role that saw him win his second Best Actor award over his old friend Mickey Rourke, who was heavily favoured that year for his comeback turn in The Wrestler. 

This was Van Sant’s follow-up to his otherworldly, Columbine-inspired film Elephant — a work that actually beat Mystic River to the Palme d’Or in Cannes in 2003. As topical films go, Milk is far less austere and experimental, but it’s still a must-see. It remains Sean Penn’s finest hour.

Ryan Coogler’s Sinners broke the Academy Award record for most nominated film, with his prohibition vampire movie raking in an eye-watering 16 nominations. On the night itself, it picked up four wins, including the coveted Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan and Best Original Screenplay for Coogler. It is a testament to both the film and the talents of its director, but given Coogler’s favourite guilty pleasure - A Walk to Remember - Sinners could have been a very different film. 

WATCH: Michael B. Jordan Can't Stop Laughing At Ryan Coogler's Guilty Pleasure Movie

Speaking to JustWatch alongside Sinners’ Oscar-winning leading man, Coogler revealed his love of A Walk to Remember to a sea of laughter. After fighting back his laughter, Jordan told Coogler to “just put your soul out there.” Undeterred, Coogler explained, “I was in high school”, and he refused to let the ridicule from those around him shame him, simply stating, “I don’t give a f*** no more.”

Quite how the mind behind Sinners is so entranced by A Walk to Remember is more than a little hard to understand, with the two movies being very different from one another. Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember charts the relationship between Shane West’s teenage rebel without a cause and Mandy Moore’s minister's daughter. 

A Walk to Remember follows the typical Nicholas Sparks formula and is a sweeping romantic drama, but one with a sting in its tale. An unexpected schmaltzy weepy selection, it could not be further from the sensual and seductive Sinners that oozes charm, charisma, and killer music. Despite their differences, though, it is Coogler who connects the two. 

A Walk To Remember Rightly Remains A Feel-Sad Favourite 

So exactly why does Ryan Coogler have such a soft spot for A Walk to Remember? He shared during the chat that it “was very useful on a home day.” We all had those movies we’d veg in front of as teenagers, particularly when feeling under the weather, and the nostalgic bonds that are forged with these films can be fierce. So fierce in fact, that much like Coogler, you can remain cool and impassioned as those around you collapse into giggles. But what catharsis can A Walk to Remember bring?

Well, in typical Nicholas Sparks tradition, A Walk to Remember is a film that requires at least one box of tissues to watch. Rather than being a happy coming-of-age romance that leaves the viewer with a big grin on their face, this one comes with a side of devastation as one of the pairings is hiding a cancer diagnosis. 

Watching two people meant for one another fall in love is beautiful to see and provides comfort to us all, but then to have them wrenched apart is utterly heartbreaking. Despite these sad feelings, the works of Nicholas Sparks remain a popular source of inspiration for filmmakers. Everyone needs a good cry sometimes, and films such as A Walk to Remember facilitate an opportunity to do just that.

Why To Watch A Walk To Remember (And What To Watch After)

Given how vastly different A Walk to Remember is from all of Ryan Coogler’s movies, it has to be watched to try to unpick the director’s fascinating mind. Is it simply that he imprinted on the film as a teenager? Or has something deeper within the text subconsciously inspired his work? 

One could argue that A Walk to Remember’s proclivity for tragedy has had an impact on Coogler’s work, or at least some of the relationship dynamics within Sinners, as not everyone gets the happy ending they deserve. 

If you make it through A Walk to Remember with liquid left inside you, then you can always take your chances with some other Nicholas Sparks adaptations. One of his lesser remembered works is Safe Haven. The story follows Julianne Hough’s Katie as she moves to the North Carolina coast to escape her former life. Shrouded in mystery, Katie garners the attention of widower Alex (played by Josh Duhamel), but her violent past rears its head, threatening to break them up. The kicker in Safe Haven comes via the reveal of one of Katie’s new friends… 

Having survived Safe Haven and A Walk to Remember, the next Sparks adaptation to tackle is the iconic The Notebook, whose potency for emotional distress is infamous; settle in and watch as Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling fall in love, only for a terrible illness to rip them apart. In terms of the feel-sad movie, The Notebook takes the crown, and having an IV drip of fluids to hand when watching is advisable. You have been warned.