News Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Will Return With More Monsters, More Legacy—and Spinoffs

You can never have too many Titans

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 12, 2024

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One of last year’s best new SFF series is not over yet. Apple TV+ has renewed Monarch: Legacy of Monsters for a second season—and what’s more, it’s adding an unspecified number of spinoff series to the Monsterverse’s small-screen lineup.

That’s very vague, right? But the press release literally says “multiple spinoffs,” with no further details. Vagueness aside, the return of Monarch is very good news. Even if you have not been keeping up with the various Godzilla-related films of the last decade (I certainly have not), the series is a fascinating, character-driven drama with an appealing cast of both established actors and new faces.

The Russells elder and younger—Kurt and Wyatt—play the same character, Lee Shaw, in two time periods. In the 1950s, Shaw is part of a team that discovers titans. (Said team includes Mari Yamamoto as brilliant scientist Keiko Miura and Anders Holm as Bill Randa). Decades later, in the wake of the Titans’ battle in San Francisco, an older Shaw joins up with a younger generation of characters who have their own reasons to be invested in the secrets of the Titans and Monarch, the mysterious agency that has a connection to the giant creatures.

Monarch was co-created by Chris Black (Severance) and comics writer Matt Fraction, who also serve as co-showrunners. It is—and I cannot stress this enough—very good. It also stars Anna Sawai, Kiersey Clemons, Ren Watabe, Joe Tippett, and Takehiro Hira, all of whom I hope to keep watching for many seasons to come.

No production schedule has been announced for season two of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters or any of its mysterious spinoffs, but in the meantime, you can catch up on the first season on Apple TV+. [end-mark]

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News Dark Matter

Would You Like an Alternate Reality? The Dark Matter Trailer Has Plenty to Go Around

Where in the worlds is Jason Dessen’s real life?

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 11, 2024

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First, clarification: This is not Syfy’s Dark Matter. This is Apple TV’s Dark Matter, which is not about a spaceship’s amnesiac crew, but about a guy who kidnaps himself from another reality. If you did not watch the other Dark Matter, this won’t be confusing at all. The rest of us will just suffer, mildly.

The new Dark Matter is based on the novel by Blake Crouch. It stars Joel Edgerton as Jason Dessen, who has a nice life with his wife (Jennifer Connelly) and son (Oakes Fegley). He does mysterious science work and seems happy enough, until one night he is abducted and wakes up in a world that’s very, very different.

The summary spells it all out:

The series also stars Westworld’s Jimmi Simpson and A Murder at the End of the World’s Alice Braga. Crouch himself is the series’ writer and showrunner—his third time working on an adaptation of his own work (he co-created Good Behavior with Chad Hodge, and was a writer for Hodge’s adaptation of Wayward Pines).

Get into the alternate-reality box on May 8th on Apple TV+. [end-mark]

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News Heroes: Eclipsed

Heroes May Be Reborn Again

We don’t need another Heroes

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 11, 2024

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Surely they can find another cheerleader to save. Deadline reports that—years and years after the fact—Heroes may get a third chance at life. The original Heroes, created by Tim Kring, ran from 2006-2010, and is infamous in my house for its very awkward product placement (“Nissan Versa!”). A limited sequel series, Heroes Reborn, was set years after the original, and ran for a single season.

The original run of Heroes was charming, for a time, but went off the rails fairly quickly. An entry into the “ordinary people get superpowers” category, it tried not to be the X-Men, but did not always distinguish itself. It did have a generally quite appealing cast, including Hayden Panettiere (as the superpowered cheerleader), Milo Ventimiglia, Masi Oka, Zachary Quinto, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Ali Larter, Adrian Pasdar, Jack Coleman, and Greg Grunberg. Some of these people went on to greater fame (hello, Spock!) and some did not. The show’s writing staff also includes a few familiar names: Bryan Fuller (Hannibal), Jesse Alexander (also Hannibal), Aron Eli Coleite (The Spiderwick Chronicles), comics writer Jeph Loeb, Michael Green (Blue Eye Samurai), and Misha Green (Lovecraft Country).

The new series will be called Heroes: Eclipsed, and Deadline says it “is set years after the events of the original series as new evos are being awakened and discovering powers that will change their lives. Featuring familiar villains and new enemies who once again will be attempting to suppress this next step in human evolution, it will be up to this new group of heroes to save the world.”

No casting has been announced. Kring is writing the series, and executive producing it. Deadline says that it has been pitched to NBC, the original show’s network, as well as streamers—but no one has bitten. Yet. [end-mark]

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News Speak No Evil

James McAvoy Is a Very Bad Host in the Trailer for Speak No Evil

Beware doctors offering vacation homes

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 11, 2024

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It’s all fun and games, kids, until you make James McAvoy mad. In Speak No Evil, James Watkins’s remake of the 2022 Danish film, McAvoy plays Paddy, a doctor (maybe?) who, along with his much younger wife (Aisling Franciosi), invites another family to his sprawling country home for a weekend getaway. Louise (Mackenzie Davis), Ben (Scoot McNairy), and their daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) are delighted to accept. (ed note: hello, unexpected partial Halt and Catch Fire reunion?)

And then everything goes wrong, starting with an unsatisfactory dance performance by the children. Also, what’s with Paddy’s son, who doesn’t talk? This is explained as the boy having trouble communicating, but that trouble might have come from, uh, outside. (The trailer is really not subtle at suggesting what might have been done to this poor child.) The horror takes a while to fully appear, in this trailer, but it appears in McAvoy’s eyes: He is alarmingly good at going dead-eyed and murdery at the bat of an eyelash. He’s so charming! Just kidding, he wants to kill you. Or do something very bad to you, at least.

Speak No Evil is written by director Watkins (The Woman in Black), based on the original screenplay by Christian Tafdrup and Mads Tafdrup. It’s in theaters September 13th. Which, yes, is a Friday. [end-mark]

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Column Mark as Read

Can a Book Really Be For Everyone?

What makes a book for everyone? Is it the presence of universal themes? Approachable prose?

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 11, 2024

“Children Reading” by Pekka Halonen (1916)

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“Children Reading” by Pekka Halonen (1916)

Last week, I went to see Gabrielle Zevin speak in a very, very large and very, very fancy theater. It was the first time in decades that I went to a book event that was in the kind of room that plays host to symphonies and dance troupes and Bianca Del Rio. I kind of gaped, to tell you the truth. Most book events that I’ve been to have been in cramped bookstore basements, sweaty bars, or, on occasion, a spacious store with chairs for everyone. This was the kind of place where you want to take pictures of all the lighting. It was a reminder, and a much needed one, of how much bigger a book can make the world—something you read alone, weeping gently on the sofa, transformed into something hundreds, maybe thousands of your neighbors have also experienced.

Zevin was speaking because Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow was Portland’s “Everybody Reads” pick, and this was the culminating event. It was my first such event, and everything, including the cheering high school students, was new. Zevin was a delight (how could I not immediately warm to someone who admits they had been mispronouncing Oregon Trail for two years straight?) and gave a talk that seemed half polished and half off the cuff in the best possible way.

And she spoke in a way that was clearly meant for everyone. She talked about video games, as is inevitable with that book, but she talked about grief and disability and time and failure and love and the importance of stories where love between friends is powerful. She talked about her life and she talked, tartly and rightly, about elder statesmen of literature who turn up their noses at contemporary writing. Her book was an inspired pick for a community read; there are so many ways into that story, and so much to take out of it. Most of all it is a book about two people who communicate most clearly in the unexpected medium of video games. “Only connect,” Zevin said, quoting E.M. Forster.

Lately, I have been reading a lot of books that are probably not for everyone. Generation ship novels in verse, novels about pacifism and war, novels about novels that change their stories every time someone new picks them up. None of these things are inherently not for everyone; I think any book can be for any reader under the right circumstances. But we so rarely know, really, if we’re finding a book under the best or worst circumstances. They turn up, we read the back, and we keep reading or move on. I might not have finished Oliver K. Landmead’s Calypso on a different day, but I started reading it in a dim hotel room on a chilly evening, and it transported me. I wanted to keep being transported. Sometimes I put off reading a book for years. I’m always in search of that right moment.

Listening to Zevin, I thought about what makes a book for everyone. I don’t mean everyone in a bestseller list way—who knows how many of those celebrity-book-club, nonfiction-trend, famous-person memoir books ever get read? I mean the kind of book that can draw packs of teens, writers, parents, readers, and everyone else in a community into a theater on one rainy Thursday afternoon. Is it the presence of universal themes? Approachable prose? Intergenerational narratives? A certain sense of transparency, like you can see what the author is doing even as you appreciate it? 

Portland’s Everybody Reads picks are all over the map: fiction, nonfiction, young adult novels. A Tale for the Time Being; Evicted; There, There; The Book of Delights; Good Talk. It’s a really wonderful list. And if I were being forced—or forcing myself—to figure out what connects them, I might say that they are, generally, wise books that offer so much to talk about. 

But it’s more than that, isn’t it? Helen Oyeyemi, for example, writes wise books with so much to talk about, but they are tricky and open to interpretation (her latest is, essentially, about that very subjectivity). Some readers (me) can’t get enough, while others bounce off, hard. I like—I love—a lot of books that I would never try to convince any group of everybodies to read, sometimes for plot or theme reasons, and sometimes precisely because I don’t want to talk about the book with a stranger. There are books that feel like they’re meant to be shared, and books that you hold close to your heart. Sometimes the reading experience is meant to be shared, to be shouted about. Sometimes it’s just for you. 

Most good books probably fit the bill of being wise and discussable. But the everyone books—there’s something else, something ineffable, something I genuinely don’t know if I ever want to put my finger on.

I suspect, though, that a lot of SFF readers have thought about this, or about a topic in this general vicinity. Who hasn’t found themselves trying to explain—with a mild to severe level of exhaustion and/or frustration—that not all SFF is like the one disagreeable book a friend read and did not like, causing them to back away from the genre forever? Who hasn’t heard a genre skeptic say, “I don’t usually like fantasy, but I liked this book?” Haven’t we all tried to find just the right book, the one that would demonstrate to a doubter exactly why the genres we love are so big, so brilliant, so compelling? And what a task that is. Do they want happy stories or stories that spring from a deep well of trauma? Ensemble casts or chosen ones? Secondary worlds or magic at home? Hot villains or trustworthy paladins? Should we make a survey, try to figure out what the best book to convert someone to SFF is? Is there one true SFF novel for everyone? (I kid. Mostly.)

I have already spent a lot of time thinking about Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, a book that feels like it has one foot in the SFF section even though it’s entirely about real life. (Perhaps it’s the games that Sadie and Sam create, which are sometimes magical.) Is that part of its broad appeal? That it doesn’t transcend so much as bring in genres, drawing them into one big, wise embrace? It’s not for us, but it’s also for us. It’s for so many kinds of “us” that there were all those people in that big, fancy theater, all one big “us,” an everybody I never expected. I read that book like it was for me, personally, and then I experienced it like it was for everyone else, too. What a dream for a book. What a dream for a reader.[end-mark]

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News Joker: Folie à Deux

Love Is in the Air, Maybe, in the First Trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux

Nobody sings, though

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 10, 2024

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Welcome to Arkham Asylum, folks. Here you will find Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) living a drab, incarcerated life—until he sees a girl who appears to be singing in the prison choir. When they meet, everything changes. Freedom! Performances! Dancing on the rooftops! So much love is in the air!

But how much of this is real? The first trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux is full of flashes of color (those umbrellas!) and razzle-dazzle, but there is a distinct suggestion that little of their fancy lives is actually happening—at least not exactly the way we’re seeing it. Probably Arthur and Harley (Lady Gaga) do break out of prison, but all the shiny-outfit glowing-lights parts seem… well, these two aren’t generally known for being the best-adjusted of folks, you know?

Joker: Folie à Deux is, of course, Todd Phillips’s sequel to 2019’s Joker, which was a massive hit: a billion bucks at the box office and 11 Oscar nominations. It was supposed to be a one-off. Surprise! The sequel has been described as a jukebox musical, though Variety points out that director Phillips has said that’s not entirely accurate: “I like to say it’s a movie where music is an essential element,” Phillips said at CinemaCon, where footage debuted. “It doesn’t veer too far from the first film. Arthur has music in him. He has a grace to him.”

The Joker and Harley dance into theaters on October 4th. [end-mark]

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News Under Paris

It’s the French’s Turn to Face a Large Shark in Under Paris

Ne va pas dans l’eau

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 9, 2024

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Perhaps we have been hoarding the large shark movies. Is it fair to other countries, really? The French have decided it is their time for a large shark film, and have created Under Paris, in which the arrival of a “giant” (she’s no MEG) shark in the Seine coincides with a very important triathlon.

Yes, you read that right. The poorly punctuated and extremely brief summary offered on YouTube says only, “Sophia, a brilliant scientist comes to know that a large shark is swimming deep in the river.” But there’s a triathlon! Many people in the water! It will be a massacre! (A word the subtitles helpfully translate to “carnage,” in case its meaning was unclear.)

“Comes to know” is sort of hilarious here, given that the trailer makes it clear Sophia (Bérénice Bejo) is tracking the movements of said shark. But this is definitely a movie for which it’s better to not ask many questions.

Under Paris is directed and co-written by Xavier Gens, who has directed episodes of Gangs of London and Lupin. It stars Nassim Lyes (Julia) alongside the aforementioned Bérénice Bejo, who was an Oscar nominee for The Artist. (There are actually a surprising number of Oscar-nominated and winning actors in shark movies, especially if you count Shark Tale, which maybe you shouldn’t.)

Under Paris swims onto Netflix on June 5th. [end-mark]

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News Star Wars Outlaws

If Star Wars Outlaws Hurts Nix We Will Riot

Who wants to rob a space millionaire?

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 9, 2024

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The story trailer for Star Wars Outlaws, the first open-world Star Wars game, is here, and I have only one thought: DO NOT HURT NIX. The floppy little alien is the best bud of the main character, Kay Vess, and he is a precious ball of sunshine who must not be harmed.

But there’s a lot more going on in this trailer, which looks, in a word, incredible. Outlaws is a heist game, following Kay as she tries to outwit a whole lot of shady underworld characters and pull off a major job. All she wants, she says, is to live free. But we all know how easy that is in the galaxy. You’d think there’d be enough planets to go around, but somehow, there’s always some greedy Imperial and/or crime lord looking to take over a place.

Here’s the very short synopsis:

I like “emerging scoundrel.” It implies something like “emerging artist”—a suggestion of fresh-faced, creative scoundreling that hasn’t been seen before.

Naturally, Kay encounters some familiar faces (including a carbonite-frozen Han and a sarlacc) and locations (who doesn’t love visiting the Outer Rim?). And since this is a heist, she has to put together a crew. But this trailer does a great job of balancing familiar Star Wars elements with new characters, strange vistas, and attitude. StarWars.com has a lengthy interview with creative director Julian Gerighty, which digs into the criminal syndicates, the design—so much about the design, from identity of every cantina to the personality of the ships. (Kay’s is “cross between a turtle and a pickup truck.”) In combination with the trailer, it makes the game even more enticing.

Star Wars Outlaws will be available August 30th for Xbox, PlayStation 5, and PC. [end-mark]

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News MaXXXine

Mia Goth Takes Hollywood in the Trailer for Ti West’s Maxxxine

Stardom—or something—awaits

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 8, 2024

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This girl can’t catch a break. First she survives X, writer-director Ti West’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre homage. Then Maxine (Mia Goth) heads to Hollywood, ready to make a shift from adult film to super-classy horror flicks. But there’s a hitch in her plan: Hollywood has its own bloody threat looming in the form of a serial killer called the Night Stalker.

Can’t she just follow in the footsteps of Jamie Lee Curtis, becoming a famous actress via horror films? Probably not. Maxxine is the third film in the Ti West/Mia Goth powerhouse partnership, following X and Pearl (the origin story of one of the characters from X). It’s set in 1985 (six years after X), which you don’t need me to tell you if you watch the trailer: All the style and musical cues are right there. (Laura Branigan’s “Self Control” is a nice touch.)

Kevin Bacon lurks around as a private dick hired to find Maxine; Bobby Cannavale and Michelle Monaghan are detectives who—reasonably, I think—get interested in Maxine when it turns out she knows three of the Night Stalker’s victims. Being that Maxine does get some work as an actress, she winds up on the studio lot with the Bates Motel set. Totally normal. Nothing weird about that.

Maxxxine also stars Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Halsey, Lily Collins, and Giancarlo Esposito. It’s in theaters July 5th. [end-mark]

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News Quantum Leap

Quantum Leap Will Leap No More

The past will just have to take care of itself

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 8, 2024

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That’s it for Dr. Ben Song and his adventure with the Quantum Leap program. Deadline reports that NBC has cancelled their Quantum Leap reboot after two seasons.

In an interview in February, not long before the second season finale, star Raymond Lee seemed to hint that the end of the line might be approaching, saying, “Everything that we’ve worked towards in the past thirty-some-odd episodes, it’s all building toward something that’s going to be a very, I think, healing end. Or a beginning.”

The rebooted series premiered on NBC in September 2022, and stars Lee as Dr. Ben Song, a physicist in charge of restarting the Quantum Leap project from the original series—who then takes himself off on a totally unauthorized Leap. Caitlin Bassett plays as Addison, Ben’s love interest (and the hologram who helps him navigate the past), and Ernie Hudson is Herbert “Magic” Williams, the head of the whole operation.

Lee posted about the cancellation on Instagram, saying, “If and when another group gets a hold of the accelerator and its capabilities, may they find us floating in time, still striving to put right what once went wrong.”

Meanwhile, Law & Order: SVU was renewed for its twenty-sixth season. [end-mark]

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News Star Wars

Andor Writer Beau Willimon Will Co-Write James Mangold’s Star Wars Movie

When you write “One Way Out,” Star Wars wants you back

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 8, 2024

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Beau Willimon is going back to that galaxy far, far away. Willimon (who also created the series House of Cards) shares writing credit with Andor creator Tony Gilroy on three episodes of that excellent series, including the unforgettable prison break episode “One Way Out.” Now he’s headed to a very, very different Star Wars era: The Hollywood Reporter has the news that he’s working with writer-director James Mangold on Mangold’s Star Wars film, which has the working title Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi.

The Mangold film was announced, like several other tantalizingly vague future Star Wars, at Star Wars Celebration last April. As THR explains, it will “will trace the origins of the Force and be set 25,000 years before any of the timelines and stories told by the movies and shows so far.”

Little else is known about the project, which has no release date. But one Star War is definitely coming to a theater near you on a specific date: Last week, Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian & Grogu got the premiere date of May 22, 2026. Two other upcoming Star Wars films are still mysterious and undated: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s film about Rey, which takes place some years after the sequel trilogy, and Dave Filoni’s film, which is intended to bring together all the post-Return of the Jedi plot threads from various Disney+ series.

Disney has two more dates on their calendar saved for Star Wars films: December 18, 2026, and December 17, 2027. These dates are so far in the future that they sound fake, but there are series to tide us over: The shorts collection Tales of the Empire arrives May 4th, and The Acolyte on June 4th. [end-mark]

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News Avengelyne

Margot Robbie, Olivia Wilde, and Simon Kinberg Are Teaming Up to Adapt Rob Liefeld’s Avengelyne

But who will wear this outfit?!?

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 5, 2024

Credit: Image Comics

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Credit: Image Comics

Just take a second to wrap your head around this odd stack of people: Margot Robbie (Barbie herself), Olivia Wilde (the director of Booksmart), and Simon Kinberg (co-creator of Star Wars Rebels and the writer of not one but two messy X-Men/Dark Phoenix films) are at work on an adaptation of the comic book Avengelyne, created by Rob Liefeld.

If you are familiar with Liefeld’s work, you either already know Avengelyne or you have a pretty good idea what she looks like. Liefeld, of course, is responsible for (among other things) that infamous image of Captain America where it looks like someone inflated his pecs.

The character is a fallen angel—one with impossible proportions and very small outfits, naturally—who, having been cast out of Heaven, fights demons here on Earth. This is at least the third time someone has tried to get an adaptation off the ground. (Get it? Angels have wings? I’ll see myself out.) Gina Carano was once attached to star, and in 2016 Paramount was planning a movie version directed by Akiva Goldsman.

This new crack at an Avengelyne movie will have Wilde as director, with Kinberg and Robbie (with her company LuckyChap) producing. Variety doesn’t say anything who might be writing the film, and it does not have a studio or streamer behind it—yet.

As for a star, that too is unknown. I just hope for her sake that her outfits get a… let’s just call it a modern update. [end-mark]

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News Avatar: The Last Airbender

Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender Has Another Change in Leadership

Showrunner Albert Kim is leaving the series

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 5, 2024

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The long-awaited Avatar: The Last Airbender debuted in February to generally mixed reviews; there were things to like, but it wasn’t quite what fans were hoping for. Emmet Asher-Perrin wrote, “It’s imperfect, but it’s enough for hope’s sake.” It was also popular enough that Netflix immediately renewed it for two more seasons.

Behind the scenes, though, there’s been a bit of a shuffle—again. Once upon a time, the original creators of the animated Avatar were on board the live-action adaptation. In 2020, they parted ways with the project, with Michael Dante DiMartino saying, “whatever version ends up on-screen, it will not be what Bryan [Konietzko] and I had envisioned or intended to make.”

Enter Albert Kim, an executive producer and writer on Sleepy Hollow, who joined the project as showrunner for the first season. Now, though, he’s stepping down. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Sources say Kim’s intention was to lay the foundation for season one of Avatar: The Last Airbender after stepping in for the beloved franchise’s creators.”

Variety notes that Kim also has many more opportunities on his plate: “According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, Kim wanted to explore new opportunities following the multi-year development process on Last Airbender and has signed a deal with Disney to work as an executive producer on the Percy Jackson series while also developing new projects for that company.”

The two people stepping up to the showrunner role were both hired by Kim. Christine Boylan was a co-executive producer (and writer) on the first season, while Jabbar Raisani already wore three hats: executive producer, director, and VFX supervisor.

Boylan has a lot of SFF on her resume, working as a producer and writer on Once Upon a Time, The Punisher, Cloak and Dagger, and the Constantine series. Raisani’s background is largely in visual effects (for shows including The Flash, Game of Thrones, and Stranger Things), but he was also an executive producer for Netflix’s Lost in Space.

Netflix hasn’t said anything about when Avatar will return for its second season, but it’ll certainly be interesting to see how the changes behind the camera ultimately influence the show. [end-mark]

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News Dune Messiah

Denis Villeneuve Is Doing Dune Messiah

Please ready your best “dune it again” jokes

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 5, 2024

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There could’ve been an infallible prophecy about this. That’s how inevitable it was. Last year, Denis Villeneuve said he only wanted to do one more Dune movie, making Dune Messiah to close out a trilogy. A wise man, he told Empire, “After that, the books become more… esoteric.”

A third Dune movie wasn’t official until now, in the wake of Dune 2 doing exceedingly well at the box office. And yet the announcement that he and Legendary are developing Dune Messiah was still so much of a foregone conclusion that it is tucked into a Deadline piece about an entirely different movie.

But it’s nice to have a level of certainty!

Dune Messiah takes place some years into Paul Atreides’ rule. As the book synopsis says:

There are political machinations, clones, children, deaths, and more politics. And philosophical musings, too.

It takes a while to make a sandworm saga, so Dune Messiah won’t be on screens any time soon. [end-mark]

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News Supergirl

Cruella’s Craig Gillespie May Direct Supergirl

DC Studios makes an odd choice

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 4, 2024

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It makes a certain kind of sense, maybe, if you look at it sideways. Deadline reports that Craig Gillespie is in talks to direct DC Studios’ Supergirl, which recently found its star in House of the Dragon’s Milly Alcock (pictured above).

Gillespie’s resume is all over the place, ranging from episodes of The United States of Tara to the 2011 Fright Night to I, Tonya to Cruella, which presumably proved that he can handle a franchise brand name. Between the Tonya Harding movie, the Cruella origin story, and the misguided Pam and Tommy series he directed three episodes of for Hulu, he has a track record with female leads.

But—sorry, this is a wild idea—why not have a woman direct Supergirl? Is that so much to ask? Gina Prince-Bythewood more than proved her superhero bonafides with The Old Guard. I am still waiting for another action movie from Mimi Leder, who mostly directs TV episodes now. Greta Gerwig is in theory quite busy with Narnia but perhaps she could find some time in her schedule. Chloe Zhao? Michelle MacLaren? Melina Matsoukas? There are so many options. [ed note: KELLY REICHARDT FIRST COW/DC CROSSOVER YOU COWARDS. Just call it THE First Cow, it’ll be fine.]

At least the project has a female writer in Ana Nogueira. Supergirl is based on Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. It does not currently have a release date, but Deadline notes that it is expected to begin filming late this year, once James Gunn is done filming Superman (formerly known as Superman: Legacy, but now reduced to a one-word title that will not be confusing at all). [end-mark]

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News The Fantastic Four

Julia Garner Joins The Fantastic Four as Shalla-Bal

She probably won’t get to swear as much as she did on Ozark

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 4, 2024

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There’s a new Silver Surfer in town. Deadline reports that one more cast member has signed on to Marvel’s latest Fantastic Four movie: Julia Garner, who won multiple Emmys for her incredible work on Ozark, will play Shalla-Bal—who Deadline describes as “a version of Silver Surfer from the comics.”

If you are not a Fantastic Four completist, you might be wondering Who? and/or What? Shalla-Bal is technically a very old character, appearing first in Silver Surfer #1 in 1968. She had a whole tragic love story thing wherein a nice gentleman named Norrin Radd offered himself to Galactus in order to save their planet (and her). Radd becomes the Silver Surfer, and their planet—of which Shalla-Bal is the empress, naturally—is saved, at least for the moment.

So when does she become the Silver Surfer? ComicBook.com explains, “Although Shalla-Bal has largely been portrayed as a humanoid alien ruler in the main Marvel canon, she did become the Silver Surfer in the separate continuity of the Earth X miniseries.”

More happens after this, but it feels potentially very spoilery to elaborate! At any rate, this wouldn’t be the first time the MCU introduced an element from Earth X—the concept of the Celestials seeding planets to reproduce, with superpowers and mutations being a side effect of that action, was an Earth X idea introduced in Eternals.

Garner joins a stacked Fantastic cast, with Pedro Pascal playing Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm. WandaVision’s Matt Shakman is directing, and the script is by script by Josh Friedman, Jeff Kaplan, Eric Pearson, and Ian Springer. Rumors abound that the film might be set in the 1960s; other theories suggest that it’s an alternate universe.

Galactus, notes Deadline writer Justin Kroll, is still expected to be the big bad. The Fantastic Four is scheduled to premiere on July 25, 2025. [end-mark]

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News The Matrix

The Matrix Series Will Continue With a New Film from Writer-Director Drew Goddard

Whoa.

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 3, 2024

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We’re going back to The Matrix—but there’s a new captain at the helm. Drew Goddard is set to write and direct a new movie in the Matrix franchise, with original co-writer and co-director Lana Wachowski as executive producer.

This is, to put it mildly, unexpected news, and Goddard is an unexpected choice. A writer on both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff Angel, Goddard made his film debut as the director and co-writer of the meta-horror Cabin in the Woods. He wrote the screenplay for Cloverfield, then moved into adaptation territory, co-writing World War Z and flying solo for The Martian (for which he was nominated for an Oscar). He also directed Bad Times at the El Royale, and created a little show called Daredevil.

That’s a lot of generally interesting stuff, but none of it gets anywhere near Matrix territory, especially after the fourth film, of which Emmet Asher-Perrin wrote, “Like the first Matrix film, Resurrections is perfectly encapsulated: a leaping off point, or a finished thought depending on the angle you’re viewing it from. What’s incredible is that, regardless of your vantage point, it delves so much deeper than the story that proceeded it.”

In a statement quoted by Deadline, Warner Bros.’ President of Production, Jesse Ehrman, said, “Drew came to Warner Bros. with a new idea that we all believe would be an incredible way to continue the Matrix world, by both honoring what Lana and Lilly began over 25-years ago and offering a unique perspective based on his own love of the series and characters.”

Which characters? Where in the timeline will we be? What is happening? [end-mark]

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News Cuckoo

Hunter Schafer Is Appropriately Skeptical of Her Situation in the Trailer for Cuckoo

Dan Stevens is delightfully creepy in this new horror film

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 3, 2024

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If your dad made you move to a weird resort in Germany with your notably young new stepmother and a bunch of weird people hanging around, wouldn’t you find it a bit strange? So it is for Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) in the new horror film Cuckoo. As if the family dynamic wasn’t enough to deal with, her dad has an intense boss, Mr. König (Dan Stevens), who is prone to saying things that are just this side of absolutely terrifying. Like, for example, “I want you to lock the doors and wait for me.”

Yikes.

And that’s not even getting into the creepy lady Gretchen keeps seeing. Here’s the synopsis:

Cuckoo also stars Marton Csokas (Into the Badlands) as Gretchen’s father, and Jessica Henwick (Iron Fist) as her stepmother. Director Tilman Singer’s last film, Luz, was about a cab driver and a demonic entity.

Early reviews of Cuckoo have been mixed, but Robert Daniels, writing at RogerEbert.com, offered an observation that might be enough to tip the scales in the movie’s favor: “Schafer is exceptional as this corroded wound, a girl barely holding herself together as she balances telling moments of silence and loud instances of hostility. But it’s Stevens, who’s often strongest when he turns weird, who is unforgettable, one-upping Andre 3000 as cinema’s premiere flute player.”

That last phrase is something I certainly didn’t expect. Cuckoo is in theaters August 9th. [end-mark]

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News The Witcher

The Witcher Casts Leo Bonhart and More for Season Four

Sharlto Copley is really settling in to his villain era

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 3, 2024

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A certain bounty hunter is soon(ish) to arrive on a screen near you. It’s been a minute since we had any news about The Witcher—now sans Henry Cavill, and with Liam Hemsworth in the lead role—but Netflix has just announced three new cast members, and one of them plays a pretty major (and ugly) role in Ciri’s future.

As was rumored last summer, Sharlto Copley (District 9; Boy Kills World, pictured above) has been cast as Leo Bonhart, whom Variety describes as simply an “infamous bounty hunter.” It’s a bit mild as a description, given all the things he does to Ciri, but in the interest of spoilers I’ll just leave it at that.

Two other actors have also joined the show: James Purefoy as Skellen, and Danny Woodburn as Zoltan. Skellen is a member of the Nilfgardian Secret Services who is connected to Bonhart; Zoltan is a dwarf and pal of Geralt’s. You might recognize Purefoy from Pennyworth and Altered Carbon, while Woodburn has been in everything from Lois & Clark to Seinfeld to Legacies.

The third season of The Witcher appeared on Netflix last summer; the fourth season is expected to begin filming in the next few months. According to Variety, the (rather vague) description for the new season says:

You can watch The Witcher and its assorted spinoffs on Netflix. [end-mark]

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News Dead Boy Detectives

The Trailer for Dead Boy Detectives Shows How It’s Connected to The Sandman

Like Holmes and Watson, except dead

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 3, 2024

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Ah, the unpredictable life of a ghost detective. This particular pair, the Dead Boy Detectives, were created by Neil Gaiman in The Sandman, then branched out into their own tales. The adaptation of their story was originally a Max series, but moved over to Netflix. The afterlife is nothing if not uncertain!

But it’s just as well that Edwin Payne (George Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri) will be practicing their trade on the same streamer as The Sandman, because now, the show gets to make it explicit that the two series are connected. And this trailer does so via a little visit from Death (Kirby, who used to go by Kirby Howell-Baptiste). Apparently they’re hiding from her. They don’t want to go back to hell. Who would? (Funny how this is a frequent problem for characters in this universe.)

Here’s the synopsis:

I genuinely do not know what to make of the way they’ve chopped up My Chemical Romance’s “Welcome to the Black Parade” in this trailer. It feels a bit too epic for what we’re seeing on screen. The tonal result is all over the place. Which, to be fair, might be the point.

Dead Boy Detectives was developed by Steve Yockey (The Flight Attendant), who is co-showrunner with Beth Schwartz (the Arrowverse). The boys solve supernatural crime starting April 25th on Netflix. [end-mark]

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News The Big Door Prize

The Big Door Prize Will Take Things to the Next Stage in Season Two

What mysterious pronouncements will the Morpho make next?

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 3, 2024

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Apple’s underrated, extremely endearing The Big Door Prize asks one big, not at all simple question: What would happen if you knew the potential of your life? In order to learn this info, you have to put all your personal details into a weird machine (the minute it asks for Social Security Numbers, I’d be done). The answer comes in the form of a little blue card with a single word on it. Maybe two or three words, max.

Then what?

That’s basically the premise of the show, which follows an excellent ensemble cast as their lives are upended by the Morpho machine and its little blue cards of destiny. Some people chase their Morpho-assigned destiny hard; some sort of sit back and go, “Huh.” As one does.

Here’s the synopsis for season two:

The Morpho itself is a pretty sci-fi premise, but things got even further from ordinary reality at the end of the first season, when it turned out that Dusty is not the only person with a mysterious little blue mole. This teaser hints at maybe more surreal, or supernatural, or plain old inexplicable happenings—and whatever is coming in “the next stage.”

The Big Door Prize returns to Apple TV+ on April 24th. [end-mark]

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News criminal

Prime’s Adaptation of Ed Brubaker’s Criminal Adds Captain Marvel’s Directors

Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have joined the series

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 2, 2024

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More crimes are coming to Prime Video. In January, the streamer ordered up a series based on the Eisner Award-winning comic series Criminal, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Brubaker is co-showrunning the series alongside author Jordan Harper (Everybody Knows).

And now the series has a pair of directors with their own comic-book adaptation history. Deadline reports that Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, the co-directors (and co-writers) of Captain Marvel (pictured above), will direct the first four episodes of the show. The pair are among that interesting list of directors who made their name with a lauded indie (in this case, Half Nelson) and went on to direct a mega-franchise film. Since Captain Marvel, they’ve directed films and TV, including episodes of Mrs. America and Masters of the Air.

In 2019, Brubaker told Deadline, “Criminal tells the interweaving saga of several generations of families tied together by the crimes and murders of the past.” The series began in 2006; the first ten issues told one story about a pickpocket and a heist (collected as Criminal Vol. 1: Coward) and one about a soldier investigating his brother’s murder (Criminal Vol. 2: Lawless).

Almost ten years ago, Jake Hinkson argued that Criminal is “the crime epic we really need,” writing:

Looks like he’s going to get his wish—though it remains to be seen how gritty the adaptation is. Criminal is apparently in preproduction in Portland. The cast has yet to be announced. [end-mark]

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News freaky friday

Freaky Friday 2 Has a Director, Is Really Happening

Who’s the crypt keeper now?

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 1, 2024

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It has been 21 years since Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan starred in the hugely popular Freaky Friday. The film was Disney’s third adaptation of Mary Rodgers’s 1972 children’s book—and they’re definitely not done with it yet. Curtis and Lohan are “in negotiations” to reunite for Freaky Friday 2, which now has a director and is expected to begin filming this summer.

The Hollywood Reporter says “in negotiations,” but Curtis’s Instagram seems pretty certain; she posted a positively adorable picture of herself and Lohan with the caption “DUH! FFDEUX!”

Director Nisha Ganatra seems like an excellent choice; she directed a very different (but generally quite charming) pair of women, Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling, in the comedy Late Night, and has directed TV episodes ranging from Mr. Robot to Dear White People to Dollface.

It’s not entirely clear who’s writing the film: THR says both that there’s “an early draft from Elyse Hollander” and that there’s a “new script, by Jordan Weiss.” According to Entertainment Weekly, there may be a new teen in the mix—or two. Lohan’s character reportedly has a 14-year-old daughter, Harper, who doesn’t care for her mom’s new love interest. Said love interest also has a teenage daughter, Lily. The girls don’t get along, and when they swap bodies with Curtis and Lohan, things get doubly complicated.

No release date has been announced, but you can expect to get Freaky again in a year or two. [end-mark]

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News The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon

AMC Offers a Quick Peek at The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon—The Book of Carol

Everyone is always trying to find everyone else on these shows

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 1, 2024

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Everybody gets a “Book of” these days. (Yes, I’m looking at you, Boba Fett.) This summer, Carol (Melissa McBride) returns to the world of The Walking Dead in—take a deep breath—The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon—The Book of Carol.

It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it? But even a person who gave up on the original TWD many, many seasons back might feel a small twinge of excitement at the little teaser that AMC released for this series. Carol was always one of the best parts of the original series, and now she’s back, having turned up in the very end of Daryl Dixon‘s first-season finale. And she seems very determined to find her friend.

AMC released a short clip that follows up on that last scene—one that begins with Daryl (Norman Reedus), who is, per usual, in a nasty spot of trouble. (Good thing all the guys on his side have really good aim.) The focus then switches to Carol, who tries to play nice with a bunch of strangers, asking about a bike that once belonged to Daryl. The strangers are not forthcoming, and Carol switches tactics—with the help of a conveniently placed crossbow.

The logline for the season doesn’t say much that isn’t implied by these scenes: “The new season picks up where The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon left off, with both confronting old demons while Carol struggles to find her friend and he struggles with his decision to stay in France, causing tension at the Nest.”

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon—The Book of Carol premieres this summer (they haven’t gotten more specific yet) on AMC and AMC+. [end-mark]

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News Orphan Black: Echoes

Orphan Black: Echoes Arrives in June

Krysten Ritter stars in the sequel series

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 1, 2024

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Clone Club: we’re back! Or at least we will be in June, which is when the Krysten Ritter-starring Orphan Black sequel Orphan Black: Echoes premieres. The series has a new teaser, sort of; this is pretty much the previous teaser, just shorter, and with the date added at the end. But AMC has bestowed upon us a short synopsis:

This is extremely in keeping with the plot of the original series, which starred the incredible Tatiana Maslany as a whole bunch of clones who discovered a whole bunch of secrets about their origins. But how far in the near future are we? Could anyone from the previous series turn up? Is that too much to wish for? What is Helena up to these days, anyway?

Echoes also stars Keeley Hawes, Amanda Fix, Avan Jogia, Rya Kihlstedt, and James Hiroyuki Liao, with Reed Diamond in a recurring role. Anna Fishko (Fear the Walking Dead) is creator, writer, and executive producer on the series, and original Orphan Black co-creator John Fawcett is on board as director. The opening titles feature Julien Baker:

Orphan Black: Echoes premieres June 23rd on AMC, AMC+, and BBC America. [end-mark]

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News Philip K. Dick Award

Bethany Jacobs’s These Burning Stars Wins the 2024 Philip K. Dick Award

Congratulations to the winner!

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 1, 2024

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This past weekend, Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Philip K. Dick Trust announced the winner of the 2024 Philip K. Dick Award: These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs. The award recognizes “distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States during the previous calendar year.”

These Burning Stars was published by Orbit in October. The first book of the Kindom trilogy, it received a starred review from Kirkus, who wrote: “An intricate plot for revenge drives this far-future SF political thriller. An exciting start from a fresh talent, offering emotional and political complexity plus plenty of interplanetary action.”

The judges gave a special citation to Rebekah Bergman’s The Museum of Human History (Tin House). This year’s other nominees were:

• Danged Black Thing by Eugen Bacon (Apex Book Company)
• Infinity Gate by M. R. Carey (Orbit)
• Wild Spaces by S. L. Coney (Tordotcom)
• Where Rivers Go to Die by Dilman Dila (Rosarium Publishing)

The judges for this year’s award were Kali Wallace (chair), Nicky Drayden, Gordon Eklund, Christopher V. Rowe, and Lisa Yaszek.

The Philip K. Dick Award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Philip K. Dick Trust, with the annual award ceremony sponsored by the Northwest Science Fiction Society. You can watch the recording of the ceremony, which was held at Norwescon, here. [end-mark]

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News Doctor Who

The Next Season of Doctor Who Is Going to Introduce Us to Space Babies (and Much More)

Space babies! Dinosaurs! The Beatles!

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 1, 2024

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There’s a new trailer for the upcoming season of Doctor Who, and it’s full of hints, excitement, dinosaurs, Ncuti Gatwa in some incredible outfits, talking space babies, and, yes, Jinkx Monsoon. But the BBC has also released the intriguing list of episode titles, along with the writers and directors of each episode. This basically amounts to a list of hints that we’re all going to read into, for better or worse!

• “Space Babies,” written by Russell T Davies, directed by Julie Anne Robinson
• “The Devil’s Chord,” written by Russell T Davies, directed by Ben Chessell
• “Boom,” written by Steven Moffat, directed by Julie Anne Robinson
• “73 Yards,” written by Russell T Davies, directed by Dylan Holmes Williams
• “Dot and Bubble,” written by Russell T Davies, directed by Dylan Holmes Williams
• “Rogue,” written by Kate Herron and Briony Redman, directed by Ben Chessell
• “The Legend of Ruby Sunday,” written by Russell T Davies, directed by Jamie Donoughue
• “Empire of Death,” written by Russell T Davies, directed by Jamie Donoughue

It is pretty much impossible to see a Steven Moffat-penned episode with a single-word title and not think of “Blink” (even though he already wrote at least two more one-word-named episodes). The other non-Davies writers, Kate Herron and Briony Redman, are an interesting pair: Herron was the director of the first season of Loki, and Redman has so far only written short films—but she and Herron are listed on IMDb as the co-writers of the Sims movie.

As for the directors: Julie Anne Robinson has directed episodes of Bridgerton and The Good Place; Ben Chessell was director for four episodes of the excellent Aussie series Deadloch; Dylan Holmes Williams directed four episodes of Servant; and Jamie Donoughue has directed A Discovery of Witches and The Last Kingdom. All are newcomers to Who.

A sparse few details have been announced about the first two episodes: Golda Rosheuvel (Bridgerton) guest stars in “Space Babies,” and Jinkx Monsoon appears in “The Devil’s Chord” as “the Doctor’s most powerful enemy yet”—who the Doctor and Ruby encounter while visiting the ’60s and meeting The Beatles.

Along with Gatwa as the Doctor and Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday, a very long list of actors will appear on this season of Doctor Who: Michelle Greenidge, Angela Wynter, Anita Dobson, Aneurin Barnard, Yasmin Finney, Jonathan Groff, Gwïon Morris Jones, Bonnie Langford, Genesis Lynea, Jemma Redgrave, Lenny Rush, Indira Varma, Callie Cooke, Dame Siân Phillips, Alexander Devrient, Bhav Joshi, Majid Mehdizadeh-Valoujerdy, Tachia Newall and Caoilinn Springall.

It’s going to get crowded in the TARDIS. (Just kidding! Just kidding.) Doctor Who premieres May 10th on Disney+. [end-mark]

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News Hugo Awards

Here Are the Finalists for the 2024 Hugo Awards

Congratulations to all this year’s finalists!

By Molly Templeton

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Published on March 29, 2024

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Today, the hosts of the 82nd World Science Fiction Convention announced the finalists for the 2024 Hugo Awards, Lodestar Award, and Astounding Award, all of which are voted on by members of the 2023 and 2024 World Science Fiction Convention.

This year’s awards will be presented on August 11th in Glasgow, Scotland.

Congratulations to all the finalists!

Best Novel

• The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty (Harper Voyager, Harper Voyager UK)
• The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)
• Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (Tordotcom, Orbit UK)
• Starter Villain by John Scalzi (Tor Books, Tor UK)
• Translation State by Ann Leckie (Orbit US, Orbit UK)
• Witch King by Martha Wells (Tordotcom)

1420 ballots cast for 576 nominees. Finalists range 91-172.

Best Novella

• “Life Does Not Allow Us to Meet,” He Xi / 人生不相见, 何夕, translated by Alex Woodend (Adventures in Space: New Short Stories by Chinese & English Science Fiction Writers)
• Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)
• The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older (Tordotcom) 
• Rose/House by Arkady Martine (Subterranean) 
• “Seeds of Mercury,” Wang Jinkang / 水星播种, 王晋康, translated by Alex Woodend (Adventures in Space: New Short Stories by Chinese & English Science Fiction Writers)
• Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher (Tor Books, Titan UK) 

962 ballots cast for 187 nominees. Finalists range 106-186.

Best Novelette

• I AM AI by Ai Jiang (Shortwave) 
• “Introduction to 2181 Overture, Second Edition,” Gu Shi /〈2181序曲〉再版导言, 顾适 translated by Emily Jen (Clarkesworld, February 2023)
• “Ivy, Angelica, Bay” by C.L. Polk (Tor.com 8 December 2023) 
• “On the Fox Roads” by Nghi Vo (Tor.com 31 October 2023) 
• “One Man’s Treasure” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, January-February 2023) 
• “The Year Without Sunshine” by Naomi Kritzer (Uncanny Magazine, November-December 2023) 

755 ballots cast for 212 nominees. Finalists range 40-117.

Best Short Story

• “Answerless Journey,” Han Song / 没有答案的航程, 韩松, translated by Alex Woodend (Adventures in Space: New Short Stories by Chinese & English Science Fiction Writers)
• “Better Living Through Algorithms” by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld May 2023) 
• “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” by P. Djèlí Clark (Uncanny Magazine, January-February 2023) 
• “The Mausoleum’s Children” by Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny Magazine, May-June 2023)
• “The Sound of Children Screaming” by Rachael K. Jones (Nightmare Magazine, October 2023) 
• 美食三品 (“Tasting the Future Delicacy Three Times”), 宝树 / Baoshu (银河边缘013：黑域密室 / Galaxy’s Edge Vol. 13: Secret Room in the Black Domain) 

720 ballots cast for 612 nominees. Finalists range 27-69.

Best Series

• The Final Architecture by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tordotcom, Orbit UK)
• Imperial Radch by Ann Leckie (Orbit US, Orbit UK)
• The Last Binding by Freya Marske (Tordotcom, Tor UK)
• The Laundry Files by Charles Stross (Tordotcom, Orbit UK)
• October Daye by Seanan McGuire (DAW)
• The Universe of Xuya by Aliette de Bodard (Gollancz; JABberwocky Literary Agency; Subterranean Press; Uncanny Magazine; et al.)

677 ballots cast for 228 nominees. Finalists range 79-117.

Best Graphic Story or Comic

• Bea Wolf, written by Zach Weinersmith, art by Boulet (First Second)
• Saga, Vol. 11 written by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
• Shubeik Lubeik, Deena Mohamed (Pantheon); as Your Wish Is My Command (Granta)
• 三体漫画：第一部 / The Three Body Problem, Part One, adapted from the novels by 刘慈欣 (Liu Cixin), written by 蔡劲 (Cai Jin),戈闻頔 (Ge Wendi), and 薄暮 (Bo Mu), art by 草祭九日东 (Caojijiuridong) (Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House) 
• The Witches of World War II written by Paul Cornell, art by Valeria Burzo (TKO Studios LLC)
• Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons written by Kelly Sue DeConnick, art by Phil Jimenez, Gene Ha and Nicola Scott (DC Comics)

457 ballots cast for 256 nominees. Finalists range 25-151.

Best Related Work

• All These Worlds: Reviews & Essays by Niall Harrison (Briardene Books)
• 中国科幻口述史, 第二卷, 第三卷，(Chinese Science Fiction: An Oral History, Vols 2 and 3) ed. 杨枫 / Yang Feng (8-Light Minutes Culture & Chengdu Time Press)
• A City on Mars by Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith (Penguin Press; Particular Books)
• The Culture: The Drawings, by Iain M. Banks (Orbit)
• 雨果X访谈 (Discover X), presented by 王雅婷 (Tina Wong)
• A Traveller in Time: The Critical Practice of Maureen Kincaid Speller, by Maureen Kincaid Speller, edited by Nina Allan (Luna Press Publishing)

775 ballots cast for 246 nominees. Finalists range 36-343.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

• Barbie, screenplay by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, directed by Greta Gerwig (Warner Bros. Studios)
• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, screenplay by John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein and Michael Gilio, directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (Paramount Pictures)
• Nimona, screenplay by Robert L. Baird and Lloyd Taylor, directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane (Annapurna Animations) 
• Poor Things, screenplay by Tony McNamara, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (Element Pictures)
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, screenplay by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Dave Callaham, directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson (Columbia Pictures / Marvel Entertainment / Avi Arad Productions / Lord Miller / Pascal Pictures / Sony Pictures Animation)
• 流浪地球2 / The Wandering Earth II, based on the novel by 刘慈欣 Liu Cixin, screenplay by 杨治学 Yang Zhixue, 郭帆 / Frant Gwo, 龚格尔 Gong Geer, and 叶濡畅 Ye Ruchang, script consultant 王红卫 Wang Hongwei, directed by 郭帆 / Frant Gwo (中影创意（北京）电影有限公司 / CFC Pictures Ltd, 郭帆（北京）影业有限公司 / G!Film (Beijing) Studio Co. Ltd, 北京登峰国际文化传播有限公司 / Beijing Dengfeng International Culture Communication Co, Ltd, 中国电影股份有限公司 / China Film Co. Ltd)

763 ballots cast for 189 nominees. Finalists range 69-212.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

• Doctor Who: “The Giggle,” written by Russell T. Davies, directed by Chanya Button (Bad Wolf with BBC Studios for The BBC and Disney Branded Television)
• Loki: “Glorious Purpose,” screenplay by Eric Martin, Michael Waldron and Katharyn Blair, directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Marvel / Disney+)
• The Last of Us: “Long, Long Time,” written by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, directed by Peter Hoar (Naughty Dog / Sony Pictures)
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: “Those Old Scientists,” written by Kathryn Lyn and Bill Wolkoff, directed by Jonathan Frakes (CBS / Paramount+)
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: “Subspace Rhapsody,” written by Dana Horgan and Bill Wolkoff, directed by Dermott Downs (CBS / Paramount+)
• Doctor Who: “Wild Blue Yonder,” written by Russell T. Davies, directed by Tom Kingsley (Bad Wolf with BBC Studios for The BBC and Disney Branded Television)

490 ballots cast for 318 nominees. Finalists range 46-115.

Best Game or Interactive Work

• Alan Wake 2, developed by Remedy Entertainment, published by Epic Games 
• Baldur’s Gate 3, produced by Larian Studios
• Chants of Sennaar, developed by Rundisc, published by Focus Entertainment
• DREDGE, developed by Black Salt Games, published by Team17
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, produced by Nintendo
• Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, developed by Respawn Entertainment, published by Electronic Arts

334 ballots cast for 165 nominees. Finalists range 26-157.

Best Editor Short Form

• Scott H. Andrews
• Neil Clarke
• 刘维佳 (Liu Weijia)
• Jonathan Strahan 
• Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas
• 杨枫 (Yang Feng)

530 ballots cast for 179 nominees. Finalists range 40-146.

Best Editor Long Form

• Ruoxi Chen
• Lindsey Hall
• Lee Harris
• Kelly Lonesome
• David Thomas Moore
• 姚海军 (Yao Haijun)

254 ballots cast for 103 nominees. Finalists range 16-81.

Best Professional Artist

• Micaela Alcaino
• Rovina Cai
• Galen Dara
• Dan Dos Santos
• Tristan Elwell
• Alyssa Winans

270 ballots cast for 219 nominees. Finalists range 17-66.

Best Semiprozine

• Escape Pod, editors Mur Lafferty and Valerie Valdes; assistant editors Benjamin C. Kinney, Premee Mohamed and Kevin Wabaunsee; hosts Tina Connolly and Alasdair Stuart; producers Summer Brooks and Adam Pracht; and the entire Escape Pod team 
• FIYAH Literary Magazine, publisher and executive editor DaVaun Sanders, poetry editor B. Sharise Moore, special projects manager L. D. Lewis, art director Christian Ivey, acquiring editors Rebecca McGee, Kerine Wint, Joshua Morley, Emmalia Harrington, Genine Tyson, Tonya R. Moore, sponsor coordinator Nelson Rolon
• GigaNotoSaurus, editor LaShawn M. Wanak, associate editors Mia Tsai and Edgard Wentz, along with the GNS Slushreaders Team
• khōréō, produced by Aleksandra Hill, Zhui Ning Chang, Kanika Agrawal, Isabella Kestermann, Rowan Morrison, Sachiko Ragosta, Lian Xia Rose, Jenelle DeCosta, Melissa Ren, Elaine Ho, Lilivette Domínguez, Jei D. Marcade, Jeané Ridges, Isaree Thatchaichawalit, Danai Christopoulou, M. L. Krishnan, Ysabella Maglanque, Aaron Voigt, Adil Mian, Alexandra Millatmal, E. Broderick, K. S. Walker, Katarzyna Nowacka, Katie McIvor, Kelsea Yu, Marie Croke, Osahon Ize-Iyamu, Phoebe Low, S. R. Westvik, Sara S. Messenger
• Strange Horizons, by the Strange Horizons Editorial Collective 
• Uncanny Magazine, publishers and editors-in-chief: Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas; managing editor Monte Lin; nonfiction editor Meg Elison; podcast producers Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky

338 ballots cast for 82 nominees. Finalists range 32-159.

Best Fanzine

• Black Nerd Problems, editors Omar Holmon and William Evans 
• The Full Lid, written by Alasdair Stuart and edited by Marguerite Kenner
• Idea, editor Geri Sullivan
• Journey Planet, edited by Michael Carroll, Vincent Docherty, Sara Felix, Ann Gry, Sarah Gulde, Allison Hartman Adams, Arthur Liu, Jean Martin, Helena Nash, Pádraig Ó Méalóid, Yen Ooi, Chuck Serface, Alan Stewart, Regina Kanyu Wang, James Bacon and Christopher J. Garcia 
• Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together, editors Roseanna Pendlebury, Arturo Serrano, Paul Weimer; senior editors Joe Sherry, Adri Joy, G. Brown, Vance Kotrla
• Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog, editors Olav Rokne and Amanda Wakaruk

286 ballots cast for 80 nominees. Finalists range 20-70.

Best Fancast

• The Coode Street Podcast, presented by Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe
• Hugos There, presented by Seth Heasley
• Octothorpe, by John Coxon, Alison Scott, and Liz Batty 
• Publishing Rodeo, presented by Sunyi Dean and Scott Drakeford
• 科幻Fans布玛 (Science Fiction Fans Buma), production team 布玛（Buma)，刘路（Liu Lu)，刘倡（Liu Chang)
• Worldbuilding for Masochists, presented by Marshall Ryan Maresca, Rowenna Miller, Cass Morris and Natania Barron

693 ballots cast for 230 nominees. Finalists range 28-104.

Best Fan Writer

• Bitter Karella
• James Davis Nicoll
• Jason Sanford
• Alasdair Stuart
• Paul Weimer
• Örjan Westin

363 ballots cast for 134 nominees. Finalists range 27-134.

Best Fan Artist

• ​​Iain J. Clark
• Sara Felix
• Dante Luiz
• Laya Rose
• Alison Scott
• España Sheriff

180 ballots cast for 96 nominees. Finalists range 16-43.

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book

• Abeni’s Song by P. Djèlí Clark (Starscape)
• Liberty’s Daughter by Naomi Kritzer (Fairwood Press)
• Promises Stronger than Darkness by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor Teen)
• The Sinister Booksellers of Bath by Garth Nix (Katherine Tegen Books, Gollancz and Allen & Unwin)
• To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose (Del Rey)
• Unraveller by Frances Hardinge (Macmillan Children’s Books; eligible due to 2023 U.S. publication by Amulet)

345 ballots cast for 178 nominees. Finalists range 33-56.

Astounding Award for Best New Writer (sponsored by Dell Magazines)

• Moniquill Blackgoose (1st year of eligibility)
• Sunyi Dean (2nd year of eligibility)
• Ai Jiang (2nd year of eligibility)
• Hannah Kaner (1st year of eligibility)
• Em X. Liu (1st year of eligibility)
• Xiran Jay Zhao (eligibility extended at request of Dell Magazines)

349 ballots cast for 167 nominees. Finalists range 35-50.

*

The following nominees received enough votes to qualify for the final ballot, but declined nomination:

• Best Novel – System Collapse, by Martha Wells
• Best Novelette – 极北之地 (“The Far North”) by 海漄 (Hai Ya)
• Best Related Work: Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood’s promotional tweets for This Is How You Lose the Time War
• Best Editor, Long Form: Natasha Bardon
• Best Fan Writer: Camestros Felapton

The following nominees received enough votes to qualify for the final ballot, but were not eligible for specific reasons:

• Best Novel – 天帆 (Cosmo Wings) by 江波 (Jiang Bo) – publication in 2024
• Best Fancast (1) – 雨果X访谈 （Discover X）interviews by 王雅婷 Tina Wong – professional production; also qualified in the Best Related Work category
• Best Fancast (2) – 铥铥科幻电波 (Diu Diu Sci Fi Radio) – also a professional production

The post Here Are the Finalists for the 2024 Hugo Awards appeared first on Reactor.

News Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person Presents a Rather Different Kind of Teen Angst

If being a teenager sucks, being a vampire teen sucks worse

By Molly Templeton

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Published on March 28, 2024

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Once upon a time on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angelus the vampire was cursed with a soul. As a result, he ate more than a few rats, as he could no longer bear to kill humans. Most vampires don’t seem to have any such qualms—but Sasha, the young vamp at the center of Humanist Vampire Seeks Consenting Suicidal Person, is an odd one. She doesn’t want to kill anybody. But a girl’s gotta eat.

Ariane Louis-Seize directs what looks like an odd couple vampire tragic rom-com … maybe? Here’s the synopsis:

Her parents! Cut off her blood supply! These are some truly terrible vamparents.

Humanist Vampire Seeks Consenting Suicidal Person is written by Christine Doyon and director Louis-Seize; it stars Sara Montpetit as Sasha and Félix-Antoine Bénard as Paul. Writing for RogerEbert.com, Marya E. Gates said the film is, “What We Do In The Shadows for people who grew up loving the soft goth girl vibes of Emily The Strange and Lydia Deetz.”

I’m sold. The film is still making the festival rounds and doesn’t yet have a U.S. release date—but we will be keeping an eye out for that announcement! [end-mark]

The post <i>Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person</i> Presents a Rather Different Kind of Teen Angst appeared first on Reactor.

News Rebecca Yarros

Rebecca Yarros’ Third Empyrean Novel Has a Title and Release Date

The dragons return in 2025

By Molly Templeton

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Published on March 28, 2024

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The wait isn’t over—not quite yet. But the many, many fans of Rebecca Yarros’ bestselling, beloved-by-TikTok Empyrean series can at least mark their calendars (or get their preorders on), because the third book in the series now has a title and a release date. Onyx Storm will be in readers’ hands on January 21, 2025.

Yarros made the announcement in a video aired on Good Morning America, in which she said that while she can’t tell fans much about the book yet, “There will be politics, new adventures, old enemies and of course, dragons.”

The hugely popular series began last year with Fourth Wing, which follows the story of Violet Sorrengail as her life takes an unexpected path to the Basgiath War College, where she has to survive vicious competition—and romantic entanglements. Iron Flame came out only months later and immediately joined Fourth Wing on bestseller lists. The series is expected to ultimately include five volumes. Yarros is also returning to her romance (as opposed to romantasy)-novel roots; it was announced in the fall that she’s writing two romance novels for Amazon’s Montlake imprint.

Fourth Wing was picked up for series adaptation by Amazon MGM Studios last year; Yarros is an executive producer on the adaptation, which doesn’t yet have a showrunner or cast. [end-mark]

The post Rebecca Yarros’ Third Empyrean Novel Has a Title and Release Date appeared first on Reactor.