While the world of The Big Bang Theory is looking to the future with some new spinoffs, the cast members of the iconic sitcom are keeping plenty busy with other projects. Melissa Rauch, who played Bernadette on over 200 episodes of The Big Bang Theory, has spent the last couple of years as the star of NBC’s Night Court reboot. When the third season of that series premieres next month, Rauch will be reunited with Mayim Bialik, one of her longtime Big Bang co-stars.

Night Court doesn’t return to NBC for its third season until November 19th, but the series has already revealed that its next big guest star is a beloved Big Bang alum. Bialik is set to guest star early in Season 3 as a fictional version of herself.

Bialik will appear in the Night Court episode as a defendant in a case being handled by Rauch’s Judge Abby Stone. At first, Abby starts to get close to Bialik because she’s such a big fan of the actress’ classic TV series Blossom. It doesn’t take long, however, for Abby to learn that Bialik is actually her stalker.

This episode of Night Court will mark the first time Bialik and Rauch have appeared on screen together since the conclusion of The Big Bang Theory in 2019. Rauch joined the series in 2009 and went on to become a series regular, appearing in 209 total episodes. Bialik joined a year later, in 2010, and appeared in a total of 203 episodes. While each of them began their tenure as supporting characters, they both became integral parts of The Big Bang Theory.

While Rauch hasn’t returned to the world of The Big Bang Theory since the show concluded, Bialik actually reprised her role as Amy Farrah Fowler a couple of times over the last few years. She appeared alongside Jim Parsons in a couple episodes of Young Sheldon, showing new glimpses into the the titular character’s future.

With Young Sheldon now over, the Big Bang Theory franchise is turning to a couple of different shows in different eras of the story. There’s a Young Sheldon spinoff now airing on CBS in the form of Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage. Over on Max, there’s a Big Bang spinoff in the works that will likely follow the characters often found in the local comic book shop. Big Bang alum Brian Posehn, Lauren Lapkus, and Kevin Sussman have all had contracts picked up for the show, potentially making them the trio of series leads.

The post Two Big Bang Theory Stars Set to Reunite on Another Hit Sitcom appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Rick and Morty: The Anime has wrapped up its debut season with Adult Swim, and the spinoff anime’s launch has been such an unfortunate story with fans that this could end up being the one and only season of the series. Rick and Morty: The Anime made its debut earlier this Summer following Rick and Morty‘s greater experiments with the world of anime. Starting out as a series of anime shorts developed by Tower of God director Takashi Sano, Adult Swim had approached the creator about taking on Rick and Morty in a more full way with a full spinoff anime series.

Featuring a brand new story of its own not connected with the original Rick and Morty animated series, Rick and Morty: The Anime started out with a mixed reception among fans. It was admittedly always going to be an uphill battle as anime fans aren’t exactly Rick and Morty fans, and Rick and Morty fans were actually just hoping for Season 8 instead. But this new series bridging the worlds together had the best chance at successfully appeasing both audiences. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it has hit that mark as the first season has come to an end without anyone really talking about it. And ultimately, that’s what’s going to make it a failure.

What Happened to Rick and Morty: The Anime?

Rick and Morty: The Anime got off to an impressive start with its first two episodes. It introduced a new anime take on the titular duo along with a brand new angle for the multiverse. Dealing with space and time in constant flux, the first two episodes were telling the story out of order as it teased that fans would get the blanks filled in the coming weeks. It was an intriguing start to this new era of the series, and offered a new vision of the titular duo from a different creator. But that storytelling twist continued through the weeks ahead.

Rick and Morty: The Anime told its story out of order as Rick’s new entropy device was revealed to be messing with the flow of time. But as it tried to lay out this mystery, it also started to further add even more questions before answering what it needed to. On top of introducing brand new characters like Elle and Frank (both of who play a significant role in one of the Morty’s lives across the multiverse’s timelines), and the anime always kind of felt like it was continuing to spin its wheels while trying to tell a story with a grand scope. It’s just that those pieces never quite connected properly in the way the anime seemed to have hoped.

This nonlinear style of storytelling is ultimately the fatal flaw for Rick and Morty: The Anime. With the anime having to tell its story out of order, conversations between characters could never really allude to anything happening because it was unclear as to when a particular scene was taking place. It wasn’t clear as to what the actual timeline of the series looks like, and that was an issue that was carried all the way to the end. Making matters even tougher to figure out was the fact that it all started with Morty getting sucked into a virtual reality game, so it was a whole other virtual experience on top of everything else happening.

Rick and Morty: The Anime Lost Its Fans

Due to the combination of its nonlinear storytelling and the fact it was an uphill battle anyway, Rick and Morty: The Anime had a high barrier to entry that only got higher with each new week. Though the final episode of the season (and likely series) was able to find a heartwarming conclusion for it all, it was still mired by the weight of its timeline. Rick and Morty is no stranger to these kind of science fiction shenanigans, but it’s usually solved within the span of a single episodic adventure. It’s a completely different case for a season long serialized narrative.

While Rick and Morty: The Anime still had a few standout episodes that had some fun ideas such as the Jerry focused adventure in Episode 5, each episode still had to deal with the fact that nothing felt tangibly connected with the others. This made it hard for fans to not only stick around, but hard for new fans to catch an episode and get hooked that way. Unlike the episodic main series that allows lapsed viewers to happen to catch an episode and seek out more, the serialized story (told out of order) in the anime doesn’t have that same welcoming nature.

Where Does Rick and Morty: The Anime Succeed?

Even with that fatal flaw that meant Rick and Morty fans are no longer around to see it, Rick and Morty: The Anime did tell a notable love story for Morty. He has a history of tragic romance in the main animated series, so creator Takashi Sano opted to start a love story here to make it stand out on its own. It’s a successful romance for Morty that allows him to actually have a full life with someone he loves. He goes on to marry Elle, have a child named Maria together with her, and dies within the virtual world as Rick brings him back to his own universe.

It’s tragic in how it hits, but the focus on the love story between Morty and Elle was ultimately the anime’s strongest quality. It’s a type of story that Rick and Morty hasn’t really explored in any kind of meaningful way, and made the anime significant. It was an interesting experiment to see play out that proves Rick and Morty can indeed work in other mediums with other creators. But if there’s another shot at taking Rick and Morty in an anime direction, maybe make it easier for fans to keep up with each episode. It might have gone for too big of an idea for its first outing.

The post Rick and Morty: The Anime Failed Fans and Here’s Why appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Penguin Episode 5 “Homecoming” has truly taken things up a notch, by featuring some of the most gruesome death scenes we’ve seen in this show – or any comic book TV show, for that matter. The latest chapter of The Penguin picked up from the big twist of Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) killing off her mob family and seizing control as the new don. Sofia’s power grab is just one element of Oz Cobb/Penguin’s (Colin Farrell) master plan that goes wrong: his triple-cross play against the Maronis also blows up in his face. By the time the dust settles, some bodies get dropped, in ways viewers are never going to forget!

WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW!

Getting Rid of the Competition

A big turn in Penguin Episode 5’s story happens when Oz kidnaps Taj Maroni (Aria Shahghasemi), the spoiled influencer son of mob boss Sal Maroni (Clancy Brown). Oz uses Taj as a hostage to negotiate for the return of the psychotropic mushrooms that create the hit new party drug Bliss – product that Sal’s wife Nadia (Shohreh Aghdashloo) stole from him.

The Maronis concede to an exchange of the mushrooms for their son but plan their own double-cross, ambushing Oz and his man with some additional gunmen hidden in the rafters. However, Oz has his own betrayal planned: giving Taj a kerosine shower before the exchange and then lighting the trail of liquid behind him on fire.

Nadia can’t stop the trail of fire from catching up with her son but refuses to let him go, leaving mother and son to burn alive, screaming. The most chilling part about the scene is how director Helen Shaver keeps the camera on Oz’s face the entire time, as we see a gleeful smile spread over his face, watching the horrific event. If we didn’t know who “The Penguin” was before… we do now.

New Don, New Day

Sofia spends most of the episode trying to both get out from under the murders she committed and secure her new place as the queenpin of her own crime family. Early on in the episode, it’s revealed that Sofia is keeping Falcone underboss Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly) prisoner, to locate and secure the nest egg of money she knows her father Carmine Falcone amassed. Instead, Johnny appeals to Sofia on the strength of their family bond, and offers to help her grab the respect of the underworld, so they can lead the Falcone mob into a new era.

Johnny indeed gets the various Gotham mobs and syndicates to come to the table with Sofia. However, he’s blindsided by her sudden announcement that she’s ending the Falcone line and starting a new mob, under her mother’s maiden name, “Gigante.” Johnny dismisses Sofia in the middle of her speech, trying to wrestle control of the meeting – only to catch a bullet to the skull. Sofia dumps a bag of money into the blood pool as the entry fee to her new family. The table of gangsters all snatch up the literal blood money, while Vitis lies slumped on the table with a bullet hole in his head.

The Penguin is now, officially, the most violent and disturbing vision of Gotham City we’ve seen onscreen. It’s actually getting hard to see how fans of The Batman can go back to the almost-certain PG-13 rating of The Batman: Part II when Penguin is giving us R-rated greatness – that also haunts our dreams.

The Penguin is now airing on HBO and streaming on Max.

The post The Penguin Episode 5 Horrifies With The Batman Universe’s Most Gruesome Death Scenes Yet appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Winx Club is going to be coming back in a whole new way with a fully CG animated reboot series, and now fans have gotten the first real look at how it’s going to be in motion with its first full trailer. The Winx franchise has been steadily releasing new projects over the course of the last couple of decades, but it’s really going all out as it celebrates 20 years since its first broadcast debut in 2004. Winx Club is getting a full reboot animated series, and the central Winx are getting new redesigns for the occasion as they make the jump to a new dimension.

Winx Club’s new reboot series is currently scheduled for a release some time next year with Netflix, and it teases a back to basics approach for the franchise. Because while the original run of the animated series went on for eight full seasons, both fans of the classic series and new animation fans will be able to jump into this new version of the series without much problem. To check out the first look at how it’s all going to look in motion when it releases, you can check out the trailer for the Winx Club reboot series in the video above.

What Is Winx Club?

Originally making its debut in Italy in 2004 before becoming an international success, Winx Club was created and directed by Iginio Straffi. Set in a magical world full of mythical creatures, the series stars Bloom, a young girl who has the ability to transform into a Fairy warrior. Enrolling in a school to better use her abilities, Bloom makes friends with other Fairy warriors as they take on all sorts of dangerous foes over the course of its run. It was such a success that it went on for much longer than Straffi had initially envisioned.

While the creator had reportedly only initially written out Winx Club to only last for a few seasons, it soon grabbed the attention of an international audience and became a full co-production with Nickelodeon. This is likely the version that many fans in the United States are more familiar with, and went on for several seasons in its own right before Paramount eventually sold their stake in Rainbow SpA, which ultimately then led to creator Straffi being able to pursue new Winx Club projects such as this full CG animated reboot coming our way next year.

How to Watch Winx Club

Although this new rebooted take on Winx Club will be the best way or new fans to enjoy the franchise, there is actually still a way to check out the original animated series if you wanted to catch up with it all. You can find all eight seasons of the series available for streaming legally through Winx Club‘s official YouTube channel, and there are two seasons of the now cancelled live-action adaptation, Fate: The Winx Saga, now streaming with Netflix if you wanted to see the series in that way.

While the cancellation of that live-action series (which continued in comic form) was a bummer to fans, it ultimately led to this new rebooted Winx Club series moving forward too. Rainbow teases this new but familiar feeling take on Winx Club as such, “We will rediscover the journey of Bloom, a teenage girl from Earth who finds out she is a fairy with extraordinary powers. As she enrolls in the Alfea College for Fairies, Bloom will form the Winx Club with her new friends, embarking on fairy adventures across magical dimensions. Let’s get ready to fly.”

The post Winx Club Reboot Brings Its Fairies to Life in First Trailer: Watch appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Earlier this fall, the anime fandom turned its eye to Junji Ito as the master of horror returned to television. His hit story Uzumaki was brought to life with an anime ordered by Adult Swim and Production I.G. After a long production period, Uzumaki went live to great fanfare as many horror buffs heralded the anime as Ito’s latest hit. That tune, however, changed as Uzumaki‘s animation took a major hit in subsequent weeks. And with its final episode now live, we are sad to say Uzumaki failed to reclaim the high peaks that its first episode reached.

If you did not realize, the final episode of Uzumaki recently, and it was there fans watched as Ito’s iconic tale whimpered to a close. Not only did Uzumaki set a fast pace with the finale that left netizens dumbfounded, but its animation was hard to take in. As you can see below, the last episode of Uzumaki was loaded with stilted animation, and some it could have been done using PowerPoint.

THE RISE AND FALL OF UZUMAKI

The brief rise and heavy fall of Uzumaki is one that anime fans never wanted to see. Junji Ito is a master of his craft, and for decades, he has been releasing some of the best horror stories in the world. When people relate Ito to Stephen King, well – the comparison is warranted. The two men are incredible storytellers with an eye for unsettling tales. For Ito, it is not just his writing but his art that imbues his work with such unease. So when Uzumaki was announced, fans were incredibly hopeful the anime would succeed.

Sadly, that dream was not realize. The first episode of Uzumaki was nothing short of perfection save for some tiny pacing issues; However, that all turned around within a week. The second episode of Uzumaki was dubbed a hot mess by fans given its laughable decline in animation. This continued with Uzumaki episode three, and finally, the anime wrapped with a disappointing finale.

As for why Uzumaki ran into so much trouble, the answer is not simple. For one, Adult Swim executive Jason DeMarco stressed COVID-19 impacted the production of the anime. The show was hit with a long delay due to the pandemic, and in that time, the anime industry’s staffing crisis only got worse. By the time Studio Drive and Studio Akatsuki began work on Uzumaki, things had reached critical mass behind the scenes. The situation was held together long enough for episode one to be finished as intended, but the same could not be said for the other episodes.

“The options were A) not finish it, air nothing & call it a loss, B) Just finish Ep. 1 & leave it incomplete or C) run all 4, warts & all,” DeMarco shared on social media after Uzumaki’s maligned animation went public. As you can see, the team chose the third option and let Uzumaki set forward all four episodes. But of course, fans are now questioning that logic. A longer delay could have given the anime staff more time to perfect Uzumaki, but such a choice requires time and money. There is no telling how much of those Adult Swim had for the anime, so in the end, it was best to cut losses and bring Uzumaki to life as is.

IS JUNJI ITO UNDER AN ANIME CURSE?

In the wake of Uzumaki‘s downfall, fans are desperate for answers that address how the situation came to light. Henry Thurlow, an animator on One Piece, tried to share their own understanding of the problem. His message put the blame on the anime industry’s crunch culture and the lack of understanding Western execs have about anime production.

“I’m truly not sure who’s to blame. Of course artists need time & resources to do great things. If that was taken from IG it’s terrible. It does seem though that IG recently (unlike its glory days) endlessly delays their projects. They go year after year completing very little. TO BE CLEAR. I love IG. I’m nostalgic for the days where IG, Madhouse, & 4C were at the top & always outdoing each other. All 3 though seem to have lost their ability to consistently & on-time turn out powerhouse work. It takes them forever to do just a little now,” Thurlow shared.

“As for the Uzumaki production, at the end of the day it’s almost certainly some western producer’s fault. “This is taking too long so force some other studio to finish it I don’t care what it looks like.” I’d bet everything I have that’s how it went down. Again & again these western-produced anime have problems because the western producers are fucking trash. Kawajiri’s last few anime, the unreleased AvP anime, now Uzumaki. Again & again I see western producers screw over the artists & anime studios here & it’s infuriating.”

Uzumaki had high expectations from fans, but in the end, a series of behind-the-scenes stumbles put the anime on the wrong track. For now, Ito fans will have to wait for the horror master to get an anime of the same caliber of his art. They watch the first episode of Uzumaki on repeat to see what that kind of project might look like. And someday if we are lucky, Ito will get the full-blown anime adaptation that he deserves.

What do you make of Uzumaki‘s rise and fall? Give me a shout at @meganwpeters with your take! You can also let us know what you think over on X (Twitter) and Instagram.

The post Uzumaki Finale Drums Up Scares With Its Truly Terrible Animation appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Family Guy has kicked off its 25th anniversary celebration with Peter Griffin making a surprise appearance on the hot wing eating talk show Hot Ones, and he actually made history with the messy end to the promo. First We Feast and Complex Media’s Hot Ones has grown into a massive show over the years as multiple stars and celebrities take on eating increasingly hotter hot wings while answering hard hitting questions about their respective work. It’s gotten so big that the last year has seen a few animated characters getting in on the action, and Family Guy is the latest to join in.

With Family Guy having a lot to celebrate this year despite the fact that its next season won’t be hitting until 2025, Peter Griffin was the latest animated character to join Hot Ones and take on the hot wings. This version of the interview makes history, however, as not only does Peter get his own Family Guy inspired hot sauces, but he’s also the first one to have full intestinal distress in the history of the show. While many guests have quit eating their wings before the end, it’s never really ended in just as messy of a way as Peter’s did. Check it out in the video above.

What’s New for Family Guy in 2024?

As Family Guy is now in the midst of celebrating 25 years since its initial debut with Fox, there’s quite a lot in the works for the franchise. There are still some new episodes of the animated series to enjoy as Peter mentions in the Hot Ones interview. There’s an exclusive Halloween special now streaming with Hulu that features Twisters and Hit Man star Glen Powell in a guest role (who serves as a rival to Joe Swanson in the annual pumpkin growing contest), and Peter also confirms that a second special is coming to Hulu later this year as well.

Family Guy previously announced that there would be two exclusive streaming specials released with Hulu this year, and they would be focusing on the Halloween and Christmas holidays. Peter further confirms this in the video as he notes that the second of these specials is the Christmas one coming later this year, but Hulu has yet to announce a release date for the new special as of the time of this publication. And the series in full will be returning to Fox some time next year.

Family Guy Season 23 Finally Airs in 2025

Family Guy Season 23 is currently scheduled to air with Fox some time in 2025. It has yet to confirm a concrete release date as of the time of this publication, and was recently hit with a major shake up from Fox as they changed their Animation Domination block’s schedule for the first time in many years. Family Guy was moved out of its Sunday time slot, and didn’t return for the Fall as expected along with the other animated mainstays The Simpsons and Bob’s Burgers.

But while this is a big shake up for the series, it’s currently stronger than ever as it celebrates 25 years. It’s a funny anniversary too considering that it was cancelled on Fox for a few of those years before it was brought back, and has been releasing new episodes ever since. With a guest spot on a show like Hot Ones, it also goes to show how big Peter Griffin is as a character even with younger audiences. Proving it’s got a bigger reach online than some of its other counterparts, Family Guy really isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

The post Family Guy Makes History With Peter Griffin’s Hot Ones Debut: Watch appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Warning: This article contains spoilers from The Penguin episode 5. The Falcone crime Family is dead. Long live the Gigante-Maroni Family. Sunday’s “Homecoming” episode of The Penguin ended with Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) shooting and killing made man Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly) after gassing Don Luca (Scott Cohen) and the Falcones, then embracing her late mother’s maiden name: Gigante. “As of today, my father’s legacy is dead, and we will never speak his name again,” Sofia said of the late Carmine Falcone. “From this point on, I am a Gigante — and this is a new Family now.”

Having learned that Oz (Colin Farrell) killed her brother Alberto (Michael Zegen) and has been pitting the Falcones and the Maronis against each other to get his new mushroom-based Bliss drug operation going and seize power, Sofia — rechristened as Sofia Gigante, head of the Gigantes — makes Salvatore Maroni (Clancy Brown) an offer he can’t refuse: end the war between the Families that claimed the lives of his son Taj (Aria Shahghasemi) and wife Nadia (Shohreh Aghdashloo).

“The Falcones don’t exist anymore. I am offering you an alliance. We join our Families, the Maronis and Gigantes, as a show of strength. We kill Oz. And then we take over the city,” Sofia says. “Together.”

“Notoriously, the Falcones and the Maronis are always at odds in the comics,” series creator and showrunner Lauren LeFranc explains in this week’s Episode 5 Insider. “I thought it was interesting, and seems right, to have Sofia — knowing that the Falcones have wronged her just as much as the Falcones have wronged the Maronis — to try to team up with Sal Maroni, to align the powers that they have to get Oz.”

It’s a change from Sofia’s comic counterpart, who is introduced in 1997’s Batman: The Long Halloween #6 as Sofia Falcone-Gigante. The issue sees Carmine Falcone’s daughter released from Gotham Penitentiary (rather than Arkham Asylum) as Batman unravels the mystery of the Holiday killer during a war between two rival gangs: the Falcones and the Maronis.

“She wants to own this part of her past that rejects this sort of dark patriarchy of her father,” says series executive producer and The Batman filmmaker Matt Reeves. LeFranc notes that “in the comics, it’s Sofia Falcone-Gigante because she marries into a Gigante family. But I thought it was more appropriate to have her take her mother’s maiden name. That’s Sofia’s moment of taking back power and declaring herself to the world.”

“That’s such an excellent last twist of the knife into her father’s legacy,” Milioti adds. “To be like, ‘Your legacy ends with you, and I’m going to honor my mother, and this is going to be a matriarchal mob family.'”

A flashback to ten years earlier revealed Sofia was poised to inherit her father’s crime empire as head of the Family. But when Oz betrayed Sofia to her father (Mark Strong), Carmine framed her for his Hangman murders, faked her mental illness, and had his daughter remanded to Arkham for a decade.

New episodes of The Penguin premiere Sundays on HBO and Max.

The post The Penguin Boss Explains the Major Change to Sofia Falcone appeared first on ComicBook.com.

It’s wild looking at the fall 2024 television season and seeing both Marvel and DC shows getting acclaim as they enter their respective back halves. HBO’s The Penguin is getting phrases like “best of the year,” and “Emmy contender” thrown around; meanwhile, Agatha All Along is the dark horse breakout that many Marvel Cinematic Universe fans are pleasantly surprised to be enjoying so much. As the discourse about both series flows, there is one thing that is true about both of them, collectively: they are performance-driven shows, built on two very talented lead actors.

And with their respective levels of success and/or acclaim, Agatha All Along and The Penguin are proving that some new-age theories about entertainment are dead wrong, and the old ways are still true: franchises are built primarily on star power, not necessarily just the power of IP.

Let’s just step back and look at this: The Penguin and Agatha All Along were initially met with overwhelming skepticism. The question of why either show needs to exist was asked often and repeatedly, with the only real answer being the strength of the performances of Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb/Penguin in The Batman, and Kathryn Hahn as Agatha Harkness in WandaVision. That didn’t seem like enough to justify spinoff series for two minor characters – but both Penguin and Agatha have been wise to take those central performances as foundations, and build on them with entire ensembles of acting talent.

Penguin is giving Sofia Falcone actress Cristin Milioti the breakout she’s long deserved, and all but locking her for the Emmys next year; it’s also earning praise for Rhenzy Feliz, a young actor who has been trying to break through in projects like Marvel’s Runaways. Agatha All Along is both reminding fans that Aubrey Plaza is a top-tier talent while breaking in new Marvel franchise talent like actor Joe Locke – who is just now breaking out with the reveal that he’s Scarlet Witch’s son Billy Maximoff, the magical Young Avenger known as Wiccan. Those standout supporting actors are also bolstered by many talented veteran actors, with a list that includes the likes of Clancy Brown, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Mark Strong, and Michael Kelly for Penguin, and Debra Jo Rupp, Patti LuPone, Sasheer Zamata and Ali Ahn for Agatha All Along.

The buzz on both shows makes it undeniable that the individual performances and character interactions are taking precedence over any in-universe ties, crossovers, or cameos. Now granted: by the time Penguin and Agatha both come to an end, one or both shows may get the biggest signal boost from some kind of late-game crossover or game-changing reveal for the franchise. Yet it feels like Penguin showrunner Lauren LeFranc and Agtha All Along showrunner Jac Schaeffer (no dots to connect there…) are much more interested in focusing on complex and layered characters, created by actors who have the talent to deliver on them.

Marvel Studios and DC Studios are hopefully taking note that the old star-driven franchise model isn’t yet as dead as many declared it to be. Loyalty to an actor and their performance as a character will get audiences to engage with even the most unlikely IP concepts. Farrell and Hahn’s now-proven ability to go from supporting roles to carrying shows also proves that no casting should be taken frivolously, as any breakout performance is potentially a new spinoff project of some kind. For the actors, it should be well-earned validation (and future leverage) that the craft is still a valuable commodity.

The Penguin airs Sunday nights on HBO and streams on Max. Agatha All Along streams on Disney+.

The post The Penguin & All Along Prove Superhero Franchises Are Driven By Actors, Not IP appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Face front, true believers: Stan Lee’s The Excelsiors, one of the visionary Marvel creator’s largest initial superhero ensembles, is being developed as a graphic novel with plans for TV and film adaptations from Kartoon Studios. The studio, which is the controlling partner of Stan Lee Universe, also announced Monday that Batman franchise executive producer Michael Uslan — who collaborated with Lee on the DC Comics series Just Imagine… — is co-developing and will produce the projects.

The Excelsiors, about a team of 10 original superheroes inspired by Lee’s signature “Excelsior” catchphrase, will launch as a graphic novel through online book streaming platform Legible Comics, with concurrent development for television and film adaptations.

Kartoon announced its partnership with Legible in 2023 when the company formed Stan Lee Comics, a line of digital and print comic books based on never-before-released stories and characters created by Lee, who died at age 95 in 2018.

“Stan was incredibly proud of The Excelsiors, and he was proud to have his eponymous ‘namesake’ signature, developed by his friend and collaborator, Michael Uslan,” said Andy Heyward, Kartoon Studios CEO. “Stan took all his storytelling and character development skills, which he developed over the years at Marvel Comics, and incorporated them into The Excelsiors.”

Added Uslan, “Stan always told me that the most exciting superheroes could only meet their potential if matched by equally worthy and interesting supervillains. We expect to do Stan justice by not only having extraordinary superheroes but extraordinarily interesting supervillains. This was Stan’s baby, and I fully understand the gravity of overseeing this team to carry forth his vision. My son David, who also worked closely with Stan and myself, will help create this universe. Our north star is to write these books like Stan is looking over our shoulders.”

The Excelsiors features a team of ten original superheroes working for Amaz-Ing Tech LLC, a giant multi-national corporation in the near future, where global corporations, not governments, rule the world. They range from X-Otic, a doctor who extracted super powers from roots and plants she cultivated as a naturalist, to X-T: The only member of The Excelsiors, who is an actual extraterrestrial. (He is the great-grandson of the aliens who crash-landed near Roswell’s Area 57 in the 1960’s. He is an alien by birth, raised in utter secrecy by America’s scientists and psychologists who have tried to bring a human element to his nurturing and upbringing.)

Among the others are X-Change, a shapeshifter, X-Hale, X-Tricate, X-Isle, and X-Ecutioner, an almost uncontrollable force of human nature gone amok, controlling wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, only unleashed in last resort emergencies, and otherwise, kept in a titanium self-containment unit.

Lee co-created many of Marvel’s most famous characters, including Spider-Man, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and the superhero teams the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and the X-Men. Kartoon Studios’ portfolio includes original animated content like the Arnold Schwarzenegger-voiced Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten on Kartoon Channel!, the Shaq’s Garage animated series starring Shaquille O’Neal, Rainbow Rangers, and the Netflix original animated series Llama Llama, featuring the voice of Jennifer Garner.

The post Stan Lee’s The Excelsiors Film and TV Adaptations Being Developed by Batman Producer appeared first on ComicBook.com.

One Piece has been around for decades, and in that time, the anime has done a lot. We have seen Monkey D. Luffy overcome the most intense obstacles on his journey to become the pirate king. From movies to specials, One Piece has done it all, and now it has a new project in the works. This fall, One Piece will begin its remaster of the Fish-Man Island arc, but the new anime was just hit by a delay.

Yes, that is right. Even series as big as One Piece can be delayed. The team at Toei Animation confirmed the delay earlier today, so One Piece fans can expect to revisit Fish-Man Island in early November.

ONE PIECE WAYLAYS ITS NEW PROJECT FOR THE MLB

“The first episode of One Piece: Special Edit – Fish-Man Island arc scheduled for October 27th has been delayed due to the live broadcasting of the MLB World Series,” the One Piece crew shared. “We apologize to everyone who was looking forward to the event. The episode is now scheduled for November 3rd. Please make sure to tune in.”

As you can see, we have Major League Baseball to thank for the delay. The Yankees and the Dodgers may be the only powers alive that can cause One Piece to push back a release date. After all, the MLB World Series has six games scheduled, and the first will go live on October 25th. However, the big problem comes with Game 2 on October 26th. When you account for the time difference with Japan, the game is airing during One Piece’s slot overseas. So rather than air the game on a delay, One Piece is moving.

And if you are wondering why the MLB World Series is so powerful, well – Japan really loves baseball. The game is considered a staple in Japan, and to make things more pressing, we have Shohei Ohtani to consider. The breakout athlete hails from Japan, and Ohtani is a designated hitter for the Dodgers. His fanbase in Japan is massive, so interest in the MLB World Series is higher than ever. So when push comes to shove, Ohtani vs Luffy has a clear winner when the World Series is involved.

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM THE FISH-MAN ISLAND REMASTER?

Thankfully, the new anime will not have fans waiting long. One Piece will bring the remaster to life on November 3rd, and we have already been shown a sneak peek at the project. The Fish-Man Island remake will begin at the arc’s start, so fans will get to visit Sabaody soon. The island is where the Straw Hat crew reunited after their time away training. The gang will have new abilities to show off when its members reunite, and of course, Luffy’s team runs into trouble along the way.

The Fish-Man Island arc marks a turning point for the anime, so fans are very eager to see how its facelift looks. From new Dolby sound to updates visuals and color filters, One Piece is pulling out all the stops for this remaster. The Fish-Man Island arc is ready to channel the aesthetic of the Wano Country saga, so fans better brace themselves for the stylish makeover. Of course, the original version of the Fish-Man Island arc is still available to watch. The One Piece arc, which first hit television in 2011, can be streamed over on Hulu and Crunchyroll.

What do you make of this latest One Piece project? Are you excited to check out the remaster? Give me a shout at @meganwpeters with your take! You can also let us know what you think over on X (Twitter) and Instagram.

The post One Piece Makes Last-Minute Delay to Its New Anime (and Here’s Why) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol episode 4. “Who came back?” That was the question that Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) asked Carol (Melissa McBride) when his best friend connected with him over the radio to tell him that someone or something “came back” just before Daryl went missing in Freeport, Maine. But then the connection was lost, and Daryl didn’t get an answer to his question before he was transported halfway around the world to France on a cargo ship.

After Carol tracked down Daryl, following his trail from Maine to France, Sunday’s “La Paradis Pour Toi” episode finally reunited the duo for the first time since The Walking Dead series finale in 2022. The pair physically reconnected during an attack on the Nest, then emotionally reconnected during a trek through the French countryside.

“You said on the radio that time someone came back. Who was it?” Daryl asked. Carol then revealed “it wasn’t a person, it was a feeling.”

After settling at the Commonwealth community in Ohio, and then watching Daryl ride off on his bike, “Everything at Commonwealth got so quiet,” she said. “All that old stuff came back like ghosts. So I got out of there, and I was worried about you.” Carol also name-dropped Connie (Lauren Ridloff) and Judith Grimes (Cailey Fleming), telling Daryl, “She didn’t want me to go. Part of her knew I had to if there was a chance I could find you.”

It’s not unlike Daryl’s reason for leaving the Commonwealth: He told Judith that he would keep an eye out for her parents, Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira), while out on the road. Rick and Michonne eventually found their way back to each other and returned home in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, placing the events of Daryl Dixon and The Book of Carol before that series.

“I always sort of took it as maybe that Rick had come back, and that it was Rick’s return that sort of triggered or reignited some of that trauma,” series executive producer Greg Nicotero told ComicBook about Carol’s visions of her dead daughter, Sophia. “And it’s interesting, because you would have thought that she had sort of dealt with that trauma already after so many years. So it definitely had to have been something that kind of reignited it.”

“That’s one thing that I had talked to Melissa about: Maybe it’s actually the fact that she’s searching for Daryl, just like Daryl was searching for Sophia,” Nicotero added. “And that could have sort of brought a lot of that back to the surface because of the sense of loss that she was feeling and the desperation to find him. She had the desperation to find Sophia.”

New episodes of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 air Sundays on AMC and AMC+. Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and ComicBook TWD on Facebook for more Walking Dead Universe coverage.

The post The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Reveals “Who Came Back,” Answering a Burning Carol Question appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has cast actor Rhys Darby as another legacy character from the Star Trek Universe – but who is it? The creators of Strange New Worlds got Star Trek fans wondering during the franchise’s panel at New York Comic-Con, where it was announced that Darby will have a guest-starring role in Season 3. Darby is best known for his role as Stede Bonnet in the pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death, as well as playing Nigel in the Jumanji reboot films. He also has a long list of voice-acting roles in some popular gaming and animated series (The Venture Bros., We Bare Bears, The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers, SpongeBob, etc).

One early theory is that Darby (50) could guest star as George Samuel Kirk Sr., the father of James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) and “Sam” Kirk (Dan Jeannotte). The Kirk brothers have already appeared in Strange New Worlds, with Sam appearing first in Season 1, before James (future captain of the USS Enterprise) appeared at the end of the first season, becoming a regular cast member in Season 2.

The only onscreen appearance of George Kirk Sr. was in J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek (2009), which used the character as the catalyst for a major timeline change, creating Star Trek’s “Kelvin Timeline” in which Abrams’ films take place. The “Prime Timeline” of the Star Trek franchise has yet to explore George Kirk’s character. We know that his total devotion to Starfleet and its mission took him away from his wife and sons quite often – leading to James, in particular, having conflicted feelings about his father choosing exploration and aiding strangers over his own family. Darby has demonstrated that he can nail the kind of comedy-drama line that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds revels in; an episode of Kirk family drama would also be the kind of Star Trek canon expansion that the series has excelled at.

As always, however, fans should hold on to any casting theories loosely, as there are literally a dozen characters from classic Star Trek: TOS episodes and lore that Strange New Worlds could be refitting for the modern era.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds stars Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, Ethan Peck, Jess Bush, Christina Chong, Celia Rose Gooding, Melissa Navia, Babs Olusanmokun and Martin Quinn, along with special guest stars Paul Wesley and Carol Kane. The series is produced by CBS Studios, Secret Hideout, and Roddenberry Entertainment. Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, Jenny Lumet, Henry Alonso Myers, Aaron Baiers, Dana Horgan, Davy Perez, Frank Siracusa, John Weber, Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth serve as executive producers.

You can stream Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on Paramount+.

The post Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Cast Rhys Darby in Legacy Role (But Who?) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Batman and Robin won’t make their debut in the new DC Universe until The Brave and the Bold, but the dynamic duo are already filling out their rogues’ gallery. DC Studios dropped the new Creature Commandos trailer during its New York Comic Con panel on Saturday, and in it, fans got their first look at the shape-shifting mud-monster Clayface in the DCU. The footage also revealed a glimpse of a second Batman villain: Gotham City crime boss Rupert Thorne, who is tied to the origin of another member of Batman’s rogue’s gallery, the radioactive Dr. Phosphorus (voiced by Alan Tudyk).

DC Studios co-chief James Gunn announced that Benjamin Byron Davis will be voicing Rupert Thorne in Creature Commandos, the seven-episode Max Original adult animated series written and executive produced by Gunn. The actor, who is best known for his role as the gang leader Dutch van der Linde in the Red Dead Redemption video games, also appeared in Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and the Gunn-produced The Miracle of Phil and The Belko Experiment.

Davis joins just-announced cast members Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy), Michael Rooker (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2), and Linda Cardellini (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3) in undisclosed roles. Creature Commandos is the first series set in the new DCU that will continue with Gunn’s live-action Superman movie in 2025.

Thorne first appeared alongside the atomic-powered supervillain in 1977’s Detective Comics #469, which introduced the character as corrupt city council chairman Boss Rupert Thorne — one of the most powerful men in Gotham City. Dr. Phosphorus’ origin story revealed he was once Dr. Alex Sartorius, who was convinced to sink his life savings into Thorne’s power plant and was turned into living phosphorus when he was exposed to the reactor core’s radioactive sand.

Blaming the council for his transformation, he irradiated the Gotham reservoir, and Batman felt Dr. Phosphorus’ burning touch for the first time when the Dark Knight tracked down the combustible culprit who poisoned the city’s water supply. After a run for Mayor of Gotham City, Thorne is imprisoned in Blackgate Penitentiary when Batman saves him from a vengeful Dr. Phosphorus.

Andy Muschietti (The Flash) is attached to direct The Brave and the Bold, described as an “unusual father-son story inspired by Grant Morrison’s comic series” that introduced the Damian Wayne Robin as the son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul. The movie, which is separate from The Batman film saga starring Robert Pattinson as the Dark Knight, is also set to include other members of the extended Bat-family.

DC Studios’ Creature Commandos — featuring the voices of Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr., Zoe Chao as Nina Mazursky, Indira Varma as The Bride, David Harbour as Frankenstein, Tudyk as Dr. Phosphorus, and Sean Gunn as Weasel and GI Robot — is streaming December 5 on Max.

The post The New DCU Casts Another Batman Villain appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Stephen King and Mike Flanagan are continuing their successful collaboration with a new rendition of Carrie. King’s popular 1974 novel has been adapted several times for the big screen, most notably in 1976 by director Brian De Palma. The horror story follows teenager Carrie White as she has to put up with abuse from her classmates as well as her mother, and starts to exhibit telekinetic powers. As you can imagine with a property as old as Carrie, there have been numerous attempts to reboot the franchise. However, Flanagan isn’t going to let that stop him from turning Carrie into a streaming series.

Deadline reports director Mike Flanagan and author Stephen King are working on a Carrie series for Prime Video. The report also states the Amazon streaming series would be eight-episodes long. This follows the news that Stephen King’s Fairy Tale, which was once planned as a feature film from Jason Bourne director Paul Greengrass, will now be developed as a 10-episode TV series instead. Greengrass will co-write the scripts with J.H. Wyman, who will serve as showrunner. The Fairy Tale movie was originally going to be from Universal, but A24 will now be developing it as a series.

Salem’s Lot, a film adaptation of Stephen King’s 1975 bestselling novel of the same name, also made its Max debut this month, just in time for Halloween.

Another recent collaboration between Mike Flanagan and Stephen King is The Life of Chuck, an adaptation of King’s novella starring Tom Hiddleston, Nick Offerman, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mark Hamill, and Karen Gillan. Flanagan has also put his spin on Doctor Sleep, and adaptation of King’s The Shining, and is working to develop The Dark Tower for a movie and TV show.

“That thing’s launching an oil tanker. But we’re working on,” Flanagan told The Hollywood Reporter in September. “It was stalled first by me moving from Netflix to Amazon and stalled again by the strikes. It’s progressing, and we’re further along than we’ve ever been on it. I do see feature components to some of the other stories, but the main storyline is ongoing series.”

If anyone can do Carrie justice as its own show, it would be Mike Flanagan. He’s one of the most prolific horror filmmakers of his generation and has already proved he has the skill make it happen, while also appeasing loyal fans.

The post Stephen King’s Carrie Getting TV Adaptation From Fan-Favorite Collaborator appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Everything is exactly what it seems. The Wizards Beyond Waverly Place reboot is finally hitting Disney+ and Disney Channel on October 29th, reuniting Disney vets Selena Gomez and David Henrie who are reprising their roles as the beloved sibling duo Alex and Justin Russo, respectively.

In the series, meant to be a continuation of Wizards of Waverly Place which ran for five seasons from 2007-2012 on Disney Channel, Justin now has a family of his own. He lives a “normal” life with his wife Giada (Mimi Gianopulos) and two sons Roman (Alkaio Thiele) and Milo (Max Matenko). However, once something goes mysteriously awry at WizTech, a young, powerful wizard named Billie (Janice LeAnn Brown) shows up at his door in need of training. Justin must embrace his past in order to save all of Wizard World.

David Henrie & Selena Gomez Want New Series To Be a “Big, Warm Hug”

During the Covid pandemic, Henrie and Gomez began teasing that they were working on a project together. Naturally, fans began speculating that it had to do with Wizards of Waverly Place, but that wasn’t the case.

Henrie told ComicBook during the Wizards Beyond Waverly Place press junket that their reminiscing conversations about the past eventually began to snowball into ideas for a show. From there, it was pitched and went into development with Disney where Henrie admits it stayed “for years.” The revival was officially announced in January.

“Yeah, I mean, honestly, we’ve been talking about our characters and what they were up to since the show ended. Like, whenever Selena would come over to hang out with me and my wife, we would be talking about the characters, just because we loved it. It was a great experience for us, and we had fun with that.

And as the years went on, it kind of just snowballed into a place where we went, ‘I think we got something here.’ I think we should do this in front of Disney. And we did. And then it went into years of development with Disney and that took time as well. But there was never like a, ‘I have an idea, let’s make a show!’ It really came from such an organic place and I hope people feel that love when they when they watch the show. Selena and I really wanted to make a show that would be a big, warm hug.”

The post David Henrie Reveals Wizards Beyond Waverly Place Took “Years” of Development (Exclusive) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Dragon Ball is back with a brand-new series, and all eyes are on its heroes. After a long wait, Dragon Ball Daima made its debut this October, and the show has put Goku center stage. The denizens of the Demon Realm are causing problems on Earth, and their first move transformed Goku into a kid alongside his close friends. This shift meant a new cast was needed for Dragon Ball Daima as our heroes are all younger. For Vegeta, actor Yudai Mino stepped in to voice the Saiyan, and now the actor is breaking their silence on the gig.

After all, it is not every day that a character as big as Vegeta gets a new voice actor. Mino is stepping into the role with royalty, after all. Veteran voice actor Ryo Horikawa has been voicing Vegeta for decades, so Yudai knows the pressure is on.

VEGETA HAS A BRAND-NEW VOICE ACTOR

“The reality and joy of being able to be involved as a voice actor in Dragon Ball, a wonderful show that I’ve watched for so long, has gradually sunk in, and made me want to give my best performance,” the actor shared on social media after Dragon Ball Daima shared its official cast. The actor is just one of dozens joining the anime, believe it or not. Masako Nozawa will still be voicing Goku Mini, but as for the rest of the cast, Dragon Ball Daima switched things up.

Want to know what this new cast looks like? No sweat. You can check out the list of newcomers below:

• Bulma Mini – Mai Nakahara
• Vegeta Mini – Yudai Mino
• Piccolo Mini – Tomohiro Yamaguchi
• Krillin Mini – Aki Kanada
• Chichi Mini – Ai Kakuma
• Kamesennin Mini – Nobuaki Kanemitsu
• Trunks Mini – Tsubasa Yonaga
• Dende Mini – Erina Goto
• Mr. Popo Mini – Kimiko Saito
• Kibito Mini – Yusuke Handa
• Mr. Satana Mini – Toru Sakurai
• Majin Buu Mini – Shiho Amuro

As you can see, Dragon Ball Daima is going all-in with a new cast, but Goku was given an exception. When it comes to Goku, no Japanese star asides from Nozawa has touched the Saiyan. From Gohan to Goten, Nozawa has kept a tight lid on Goku’s family so far as the anime is concerned. For the sake of consistency, Dragon Ball Daima chose to keep Nozawa for the voice of Goku even in his mini form. But as for his allies, well – Toei Animation went out on a limb with its new stars.

WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL WITH DRAGON BALL DAIMA?

Of course, Vegeta Mini was given a very talented actor. Yudai has been in dozens of anime projects ranging from Love All Play to World Trigger and Edens Zero. Vegeta marks one of Yudai’s biggest roles to date, so you can imagine how big this opportunity is for Yudai. All eyes will be on the voice actor to see how their work goes, so we are wishing Yudai the best.

And when we say all eyes are on Dragon Ball Daima, we mean it. The anime marks the franchise’s return to TV following the finale of Dragon Ball Super in early 2018. In the years since, we have seen Goku do his own thing in the manga while a few Dragon Ball Super movies have kept the anime alive. More than a year ago, Toei Animation confirmed the TV anime would return in 2024, and series creator Akira Toriyama worked heavily on Dragon Ball Daima. Sadly, the artist passed away before the anime could launch, but his spirit has been keenly felt throughout the series. So if you have not checked out Dragon Ball Daima, you can find the anime over on Crunchyroll and Hulu right now!

What do you think about Dragon Ball Daima recasting main characters like Vegeta? Are you keeping up with the anime? Give me a shout at @meganwpeters with your take! You can also let us know what you think over on X (Twitter) and Instagram.

The post Dragon Ball Daima: Vegeta’s New Voice Actor Breaks Silence on the Role appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Hulu and Disney+ released the first look at Goosebumps: The Vanishing during their New York Comic Con panel on Sunday. Adapted from R.L. Stine’s iconic middle-grade series that generations of readers have come to love, Former Friends star David Schwimmer is set to helm the season as Anthony, a divorced father of two kids who spend the summer with him in his mysterious home.

“I want you to have a really fun and also safe summer out here. I only have one rule: stay out of the basement,” Schwimmer’s Anthony says in the trailer. As the children begin to innocently question why, a clip of Anthony and what appears to be a vine-like plant wrapping around his arms is shown.

Set to release in January 2025, Goosebumps: The Vanishing follows Anthony’s twin children Cece (Jayden Bartels) and Devin (Sam McCarthy) Brewer who visit him in Gravesend, Brooklyn. Per the synopsis, “a threat is stirring, and they quickly realize that dark secrets are among them, triggering a chain of events that unravel a profound mystery.

As they delve into the unknown, Cece, Devin and their friends — Alex (Francesca Noel), CJ (Elijah M. Cooper) and Frankie (Galilea La Salvia) — find themselves entangled in the chilling tale of four teenagers who mysteriously vanished in 1994.” Ana Ortiz and and Stony Blyden also star as Jen and Trey, respectively.

Season 1 of the anthology received relatively mixed reviews online when it was released last year but despite that, a second season was greenlit earlier this year during the Television Critics Association winter press tour which hosted a Disney Branded Television presentation. According to Disney, the premiere received 4.2 million total views globally in its first three days across Disney+ and Hulu.

It follows Justin Long who plays an English teacher at Port Lawrence High School who inherits the Biddle House as well as the possessed spirit of Harold Biddle, a teenager who tragically passed several decades prior. As a group of five local students find that things are shrouded in mystery in their town, they unearth dark secrets of their parents’ past.

Goosebumps: The Vanishing is produced by Sony Pictures Television, the Disney Branded Television series was developed by Nicholas Stoller and Rob Letterman, with Hilary Winston and Letterman showrunning. All three serve as executive producers alongside Neal H. Moritz, Iole Lucchese, Pavun Shetty, Conor Welch, Caitlin Friedman, Erin O’Malley, James Eagan, and Karl Frankenfield. Goosebumps: The Vanishing helms from Sony Pictures Television, Disney Branded Television, Original Film, Stoller Global Solutions, and Scholastic Entertainment.

Goosebumps: The Vanishing premieres all eight episodes on Friday, January 10th, 2025, across Disney+ and Hulu.

The post Goosebumps: The Vanishing First Look Teases the Terror of the New Season appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Warning: This article contains spoilers from The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol episode 4. Sunday’s “La Paradis Pour Toi” episode of Daryl Dixon was, as the French would say, doux-amer: Bittersweet. At long last, best friends Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride) reunited at the Nest after she hitched a ride with Genet (Anne Charrier), who injected her army of Guerrier with a serum that turned the soldiers into amped-up zombies she then let loose onto the abbey. That was the good part.

While Genet’s Pouvoir sought to crush Union de l’Espoir‘s “tyranny of false hope” by killing their savior, Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi), Union leader Losang (Joel de la Fuente) attempted to restore his flock’s wavering faith by having the boy bitten by a walker as proof of his immunity. But Fallou (Eriq Ebouaney) helped Laurent escape the Nest, so when Losang failed to get Isabelle (Clémence Poésy) to give up her nephew’s location, he stabbed her in the stomach and left her to die as the hungry ones invaded Mont-Saint-Michel.

Carol saved Isabelle from being bitten before finding Daryl and bringing him to the woman who said Je t’aime — “I love you” — after sealing their blossoming relationship with a kiss just last episode. But it was too late. Isabelle succumbed to her injuries and, with her dying breath, told Daryl to take care of Laurent. “I can see them. The fireflies,” she said of the lightning bugs that Daryl told her she’d find when she went home with him to America. “They’re so beautiful.”

It was a gut-wrenching end for Isabelle, who died protecting Laurent — keeping her promise to her sister.

“For the moment when Isabelle dies, I think what we wanted was great dignity, intelligence, strength, and a really moving ending to the character,” showrunner and episode co-writer David Zabel explained on AMC+’s The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol Episode Insider. “Isabelle’s death hits hard because she’s touched something within [Daryl] that we haven’t seen before, and it’s because she’s so different from him. And it’s also because she’s tied into this boy that he loves, and now he has to make sure, after that, not to let the same thing happen with Laurent.”

Added Poésy, “It’s a world where I guess you’re very used to saying goodbye. I think there’s an acceptance. I don’t think she’s fighting it. I think she knows she can’t.”

“It’s been so nice, season two,” she continued. “It’s been such a treat to take Isabelle a bit further, and knowing that we were taking these two characters on a journey and exploring their relationship a bit more was just the greatest luxury.”

Isabelle wasn’t the only one to met their end this episode. After Daryl and Carol escaped to the French countryside, kind strangers Didi (Marie-Christine Adam) and Theo (François-Éric Gendron) gave them shelter. But when Genet tracked Daryl and Carol to the village, it was Carol who shot Genet with a tranquilizer gun and a dose of the amper serum. Genet went into violent convulsions as her eyes turned black and burst out of her head — dying a gory and gruesome death.

“The trick with Genet is she has been a tremendous villain, so her death has to live up to the glory of her evil-doings,” said series executive producer and special makeup effects artist Greg Nicotero. “We really wanted her death to be just completely horrific, painful, gut-wrenching.”

“She really did believe she was doing the right thing for the community. Finding order, and that’s it, it’s gone,” added Charrier. “It’s a great death. It was the only way she could die: from the monsters she created. She’s going to be one of them. It’s a complete character. Her journey is complete. I’m proud of it.”

New episodes of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 air Sundays on AMC and AMC+. Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and ComicBook TWD on Facebook for more Walking Dead Universe coverage.

The post The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Showrunner Explains Shocking Death appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Warning: This story contains spoilers from The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol episode 4. “It’s not like we’re never going to see each other again,” Daryl (Norman Reedus) told best friend Carol (Melissa McBride) in their last scene together on The Walking Dead series finale. Nearly two years and two continents later, Daryl and Carol reunited during Marion Genet’s (Anne Charrier) attack on the Nest at Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, France, where Daryl delivered Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) and his aunt Isabelle (Clémence Poésy) to safety last season. Meanwhile, Carol completed her own mission: tracking down Daryl halfway around the world.

Sunday’s episode, titled “La Paradis Pour Toi,” began with Daryl and Carol on opposing sides: Daryl a prisoner of Losang’s (Joel de la Fuente) religious resistance group Union de L’Espoir (Union of Hope), and Carol trapped behind enemy lines with the Pouvoir du Vivant (Power of the Living) as Genet turned her Guerriers into an army of Ampers: the amped-up zombies that are stronger and faster than your average walker.

With help from the excommunicated Guerrier Codron (Romain Levi), Carol infiltrated the abbey as it was besieged by Genet’s zombified soldiers. Carol then rescued Isabelle after Losang stabbed the former nun and left her to die when she refused to give up Laurent so that he could restore his flock’s waning faith by proving the boy is immune to bites.

As Daryl fought his way through the Nest to find Isabelle, he instead found Carol. Like their emotional reunion outside Terminus so long ago, Daryl was in disbelief as he raced over and embraced Carol in a tearful hug. Carol then took Daryl to Isabelle and comforted him as the woman he’d fallen in love with succumbed to her wounds and died in his arms.

Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride explain the Caryl reunion in Daryl Dixon Episode 4

“I felt like the anticipation of those two characters meeting up again is something that’s been talked about for so long, and so much, that the buildup to that happening was really natural,” Reedus tells ComicBook. “We worked really hard on making that as climactic as possible in the throes of all these things happening in all these different directions.”

“We worked really hard to get that right on the page,” Reedus added about crafting the Daryl and Carol reunion. “From Darryl’s perspective, his whole mission is failing outside the walls. He’s trapped and he’s just listening to the screams and the explosions and the fight going on and the kid [Laurent] and all these things. And he’s at the loneliest place he could possibly be in his head.”

The episode, directed by Daniel Percival and co-written by showrunner David Zabel and Jason Richman, underwent rewrites to make the Caryl reunion happen at the moment it was most unexpected: mid-battle.

“We rewrote that. We all got together and we talked about it and we changed that a little bit to make it so that it’s an elevated reunion, that it happens out of nowhere,” Reedus adds. “His focus is get out there, find the kid, save him, run from the screams, but run into the screaming. And it happens out of nowhere. And he’s like, ‘Is this real?’ It’s the person that he needed the most at the exact right time he needed her.”

By the end of the attack on the Nest, Reedus notes, Daryl is “completely isolated and failing, and it’s the last fight. And then to see her, I think it meant the most to him, rather than some other way of reuniting. It was at the right moment. It’s like the whole world just stops, and it’s about those two people.”

How Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol compares to The Walking Dead Season 5

The moment recalls Daryl and Carol’s big reunion in the Walking Dead season 5 episode “No Sanctuary,” where Carol returned to save the group from Terminus after being exiled from the prison by Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln). “It does mirror that Terminus reunion in that they stop in their tracks, and they’re just looking at each other,” McBride notes. “I like that it mirrors that, because it is such a trippy moment that’s on the other side of the world. It had to be a moment where he does think, ‘Is this even real?’ For both of them.”

Though there are similarities, Reedus points out that the scenes occur under “different circumstances.”

“That Terminus reunion, [Carol’s] in the back of his head. ‘Where is she? Where is she? Oh my God, there she is.’ And then like a little kid, he runs at her,” Reedus says. On Daryl Dixon, “It comes out of nowhere. And Daryl’s not with anybody. He’s not with any of that group. There’s nothing like that. He’s all by himself, and we really wanted that scene to be: The one person he needs is right in front of him at the right time when he’s at his lowest. And it had to be a different mindset.” I thought it was very different than Terminus.”

“It was very different, but at the same time, it’s similar in that they’re standing apart from each other and then go to one another,” McBride adds. “That, for me as a viewer, and as we were playing it out, had to be, ‘Is this a callback to that moment in his mind? Is this even real?'”

What was it like filming Daryl and Carol’s first scene together on Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol?

“That day was really chaotic,” Reedus recalls. “There were so many people and in a short amount of time, and a space that we had to extend. Every moment had to have something
happening in it. What happens is you do these long choreographed, long fight scenes, and sometimes they’re a little different every take. I kept thinking in my mind, ‘I wonder how close we’re going to get before I actually realize [it’s Carol].’ Is it gonna be mid-swing? I kept hoping that the timing gave us space to see each other and be together. It
worked out great.”

New episodes of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 air Sundays on AMC and AMC+. Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and ComicBook TWD on Facebook for more Walking Dead Universe coverage.

The post Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’s Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride Break Down Daryl and Carol Reunion (Exclusive) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Agatha All Along brought back a familiar face from WandaVision this week and should probably spawn a popular piece of Marvel merch. Episode 6 decided to give us Billy Maximoff’s extended backstory for everything that happened in WandaVision until now. In doing so, Joe Locke’s character enlisted the help of Evan Peters’ Ralph Bohner. Now, MCU fans of the Disney+ shows haven’t heard that name in a while. But, the Quicksilver actor cameoed again and relayed a lot of the Westview details to Billy and his boyfriend. He also told the kids that Agatha Harkness basically lured him in, took his house and ruined his life. The witch seems to have laid claim to all his stuff and that includes his wardrobe. Agatha’s shirt choice near the end of this episode stems from this otherwise innocuous comment. 

When Billy tries to break into Agatha’s house, he runs afoul of the WandaVision antagonist. She catches him trying to escape with her family amulet and then interrogates him. But, rather than the sleek TV procedural we saw these events through in Episode 1, it’s just in her living room. She’s got a toy water gun and Kathryn Hahn is wearing a Bohner Family Reunion t-shirt. (The shirt reads “pitch a tent” for good measure.) So, once that image made its way to social media, Marvel fans had a field day. They’re calling for the shirt to get tossed into production so they can own such a goofy suggestive statement on their chests. It makes sense, that AvengersCon gear moved after Ms. Marvel. Something similar could happen here too. The viewership numbers on Agatha All Along have been fantastic so far.

Agatha All Along: Marvel’s Wandavision Cameo Merch Is Something That Every MCU Fan Should Want

The man responsible for this iconic shirt decided to bless us with the rationale behind this delightful costume choice. Daniel Selon Hopped on Instagram to share his thoughts about making this wild t-shirt. It turns out, the costume designer talked to Kathryn Hahn about the backstory for Bohner and that’s where the design of this delightful top came from. , throughout the run of Agatha All Along, we’ve seen the titular witch squatting in Westview at that familiar abode. This episode even mentions the fact that Bohner’s physical media collection got stolen by Agatha. ( if you pay attention to the scene where she tapes Billy up and throws him in the closet, those Blu-rays are hanging out in the background.) This is just another layer of laying it on thick that she took over this man’s house and wouldn’t let it go.

“Here’s an origin story for you: Kathryn brilliantly asked me, ‘where did Agatha’s clothes come from? If I’ve taken over Ralph Bohner‘s house, whose clothes am I wearing?’ So we decided that for the lucid version of the interrogation scene, we should see her wearing something that existed in Ralph’s closet,” Selon revealed. “I thought, he’s definitely a graphic t-shirt kind of dude and I bet there’s an old family reunion t-shirt in his dresser drawer. How about a camping theme? Jac and the writers brainstormed some jokes, my team sketched this graphic and here we are! Privately I wondered, are we really going to squeeze a boner joke into this dark and mysterious show about witches? Is this the best job ever? The answer to both questions was YES!”

Ralph Bohner Fits Into The Grand Marvel Tradition Of Tying Things Back In

Of course there’s no such thing as an MCU title not tying back into the main story lines that have helped establish all of these different shows and movies. But, Agatha All Along is special in that regard because it decides to revisit an element from an older MCU show that was a bit divisive in its time. (Mostly because the audience worked themselves into thinking that major reveals were coming for the future of the MCU from WandaVision instead of it being a story about Scarlet Witch and Vision alone.) Moments like Avengers: Endgame having to revisit Thor: The Dark World come to mind. Fans might want to prepare themselves now for that moment in Avengers: Secret Wars when for some reason Secret Invasion plays a role in the wildness. Just like those moments, there’s always a measure of lemonade to be made from the varying fan opinions.
How did you feel about Agatha All Along Episode 6? Check out all the pop culture discussion over at @ComicBook!

The post Agatha All Along: Marvel’s WandaVision Cameo Merch Is Something That Every MCU Fan Should Want appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Penguin Episode 5 features a cameo appearance from a pivotal character we met in The Batman (2022), and a lot of fans may have missed it! Episode 5 of The Penguin “Homecoming” had to deal with the game-changing twist of Episode 4 (SPOILERS!) that saw Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) murder nearly all of her crime family in a bid to seize power. Well, The Penguin treats the death of the Falcone family with the gravitas it deserves – meaning the Gotham City Police Department shows up in force to deal with it.

The Penguin Episode 5 Brings Back The Batman’s Chief Bock

Matt Reeves’ movie made it clear that Batman (Robert Pattinson) has a pretty uneasy relationship with the GCPD. While Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) treated Batman as an ally and fellow detective, his superior Chief Mackenzie Bock (Con O’Neill) was vehemently opposed to the masked vigilante being involved with a police investigation.

Bock only got the spotlight for a couple of scenes in The Batman; he’s primarily featured in the sequence after The Riddler blows up D.A. Gil Colson during Mayor Don Mitchell Jr.’s funeral. Batman is knocked unconscious by the explosion and taken to police headquarters; he wakes up to Bock, Gordon, and a gang of cops surrounding him, and immediately gets into it with Bock, who accuses Batman of having Colson’s blood on his hands. Bock and Gordon get into it a bit when Gordon steps up to defend Batman, but the chief ultimately lets Gordon talk to Batman one-on-one – which sets up Bruce to make a wild escape off the roof with this flight suit. By the end of The Riddler’s attack, Chief Mackenzie is one of the noble city officials left holding together a city that’s literally drowning.

The Penguin Episode 5 conveys a lot of history (and some great onscreen chemistry) with Chief Bock’s cameo. The policeman comes to the Falcone estate to personally supervise the crime scene and investigation – interest that Sofia Falcone weaponized against him. Bock goes fishing for a lead, questioning the “luck” that Sofia wasn’t in the house when the “accident” happened, because she was having a sleepover with her niece Gia in the greenhouse. Sofia easily dodges that hook and throws out her line of inquiry about what Bock is doing there – prying into his motivation to come and survey the demise of her family and the fall of their criminal organization. Sofia gets even darker, suggesting that Bock is secretly so pleased with the deaths that he and his officers will share photos of the crime scene and celebrate at their cop bar – before selling the gruesome images to the press. Bock doesn’t bite the bait either, leaving Sofia with sarcastic condolences before departing.

The Penguin continues to do a precise job of peppering in tie-in elements and unexpected character cameos that remind us the show is set in The Batman Universe and is reacting to events and mythology established in the first film. It manages to achieve that immersive effect without shoehorning heavy-handed name-drops or callback exposition, and (so far) the show has managed to feel relevant and interesting without having an appearance from Batman himself. If the back half of the season keeps that trend intact, Penguin will stand as a shining example of how to do these franchise universe spinoffs right in a TV format.

The Penguin airs Sunday nights on HBO and streams on Max.

The post The Penguin Episode 5 Brings Back A Pivotal Character From The Batman appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Just a few months after his widely loved Tracker debut at the end of Season 1, Jensen Ackles is already back on the hit CBS series for another adventure. Ackles joined close friend Justin Hartley in the penultimate episode of Tracker‘s first season, playing the pivotal role of Colter Shaw’s older brother, Russell. It didn’t take long for TV fans watching Tracker to notice some major similarities between Ackles’ Russell and Dean Winchester, the Supernatural character he played for 15 years.

Russell, like Dean, is the older and more arrogant of the two brothers in the story. He drives a black Chevrolet Impala and he is consistently trying to flirt (though he’s not always good at it). There are a lot of deep connections between Russell Shaw and Dean Winchester, and Tracker doubled down on the similarities in Ackles’ second appearance on Sunday night.

“Ontological Shock,” the second episode of Tracker Season 2, sees Russell return to the fold after Colter goes missing on a case. The brothers spend about half of the episode together, and their time with one another is absolutely littered with Supernatural references, nods, and Easter eggs that are almost impossible to miss.

Dean’s Impala

Okay, so Russell Shaw doesn’t drive the exact same Chevy Impala as Dean Winchester, but the fact that he drives a classic black Impala at all is the most obvious Supernatural Easter egg featured in Ackles’ Tracker episodes.

Sunday’s episode takes things a bit further, though, by including a couple of jokes specifically about Dean’s car. The first comes when Colter hints at wanting a chance to drive his brother’s car, which Russell shuts down immediately. While Sam Winchester drove Dean’s Impala sometimes early on in Supernatural‘s run, Dean eventually became very protective and stopped letting anyone else behind the wheel.

Just a couple minutes later, Russell drops Colter off at a dirt road and refuses to drive his car further off the pavement. When asked why he won’t drive down the road, Russell says, “This baby wasn’t build for off-road.”

As all Supernatural fans know, “Baby” was the name of Dean’s beloved Impala.

Always Hungry

Snacking was a staple of Dean Winchester throughout Supernatural. It seemed like he was always eating something, especially in situations where you wouldn’t expect someone to be chowing down.

Russell Shaw has continued that trend on Tracker, stuffing his face at very random times. In Sunday’s episode, Russell and Colter are waiting in a science professor’s house, hoping to get some information when she gets home. Despite never meeting the woman before, Russell casually raids her fridge and makes himself a sandwich. He enters an important conversation with a mouthful of turkey and cheese, just like Dean would have.

Supernatural History

This episode of Tracker is much different than others in that it deals with aliens and conspiracy theories. Throughout the case, Colter and Russell debate about the existence of extraterrestrials and what kinds of things they actually believe in. Of the two, Russell is the one who actually believes in the existence of aliens, while Colter is much more down-to-Earth and logical.

At one point, Colter asks his brother if he’s actually seen these types of things, to which Russell responds, “Oh, brother. The stuff I’ve seen? It would blow your hair back.”

This is less an Easter egg and more a joke, but it’s clearly referencing Ackles’ years on Supernatural. That show put the Winchester brothers up against demons, monsters, vampires, and everything in between. There’s nothing Dean Winchester hasn’t seen, and Russell Shaw just seems to be picking up where he left off.

The post Jensen Ackles’ Tracker Return Filled With Supernatural Easter Eggs appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Tracker didn’t waste any time bringing back its most popular guest star for an encore performance. In the penultimate episode of Season 1, Justin Hartley’s Colter Shaw finally came face-to-face with his estranged brother, Russell, who he thought might have killed their father. Longtime Supernatural star Jensen Ackles (who is also a close friend of Hartley’s in real life) was brought on to play Colter’s older brother, and the two had an instant chemistry on-screen that viewers loved.

While some fans thought it might take a while to get Ackles and Russell back on Tracker, that didn’t turn out to be the case. The second episode of Season 2, which aired on CBS Sunday night, saw Russell and Colter reunite once again, this time in one of the strangest cases we’ve seen on the series so far.

For those wondering how Tracker brought Russell back into the fold so quickly, it was actually a move from Reenie (Fiona Rene) that roped the elder Shaw brother into the case. While investigating a missing conspiracy theorist at a secret government site — where many believed alien evidence was being kept — Colter himself disappeared.

When Reenie and the rest of the gang couldn’t get a hold of him, she reached out to the one person she knew she could trust to find Colter: his older brother. Russell showed up at the research site to help rescue Colter (though Colter believes the folks at the facility let them escape). For the rest of the episode, Colter and Russell work together, and the latter makes it clear that he is very much a believer in aliens.

What’s most interesting about Russell’s return — and what sets up future stories for the fan-favorite character — is that Reenie was the one to bring him back. He spent a lot of time hitting on Reenie in his first episode back in Season 1, and she wasn’t the least bit interested. In fact, there were several scenes in the latter half of Season 1 that suggested Colter and Reenie might be working towards some kind of relationship. But that never happened, and now it appears Russell has a dinner lined up with Reenie as a “thank you” for helping out with Colter.

The thing is, Russell is a charmer, and Reenie knows it. Whatever might’ve been going on with Colter at the end of Season 1 hasn’t really been addressed in the first couple episodes of Season 2. Perhaps that dinner that isn’t meant to mean anything somehow turns into something?

Regardless of what happens, Reenie spending time with Russell makes for an easy story excuse to bring Ackles back into the fold at any point in Season 2. Given that there are still 20ish episodes left in the season, the odds of him coming back around again feel pretty high.

The post Tracker: Here’s How Jensen Ackles’ Russell Shaw Returns in Season 2 appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Back in January 2020, FX renewed American Horror Story through Season 13 but the horror anthology series’ future may go much further. Speaking with The Wrap, series-co-creator Ryan Murphy revealed that he would like to “keep doing it for a long time” and that FX is on board as well. American Horror Story just completed its 12th season, Delicate, in April with Delicate being the first season of the popular series that Murphy did not showrun himself — Halley Feiffer took over duties for the season, which was based on Danielle Valentine’s novel Delicate Condition.

“John Landgraf is so cool about that,” Murphy said about continuing American Horror Story. “He always says, ‘Well, it’s really up to you. I’ll keep putting him on the air and making them.’ I have the luxury of my deal, and also it just aired. So, it’s not like it’s been gone forever.”

He continued, “I would keep doing it for a long time. Sarah Paulson and I talk about that too, like, shoot the finale at her funeral, so to speak. A lot of people who made that have stayed with us through the years … When we first started it, we were really like a troupe, and I didn’t have children then, so I was a completely different person. I was able to go, at Jessica Lange’s command, to New Orleans. I couldn’t do that now. Now I’m excited that Sarah is interested in it again. I’m excited that Evan — in the right part — would be interested. There’s a large group of people that I would like to return to that show, including Angela Bassett and on and on and on. It’s fun. But I have to have something to say, or somebody else, another showrunner, has to have something to say.”

While we don’t currently have any details about Season 13 of American Horror Story — as was noted, Delicate just aired earlier this year — the idea that some fan favorites could be returning for the future season (or seasons) is pretty exciting. Paulson herself recently said during an appearance on Good Morning America that there was a “big chance” she’d come back to the anthology and that it is something she’d like to do “more than anything.”

“I think there is a big chance that I will return to American Horror Story,” Paulson said. “I’ve got everything crossed. I would like to do it more than anything. It’s my home. It’s where I started.”

Murphy himself has also recently indicated that he’s spoken with both Paulson and Peters about returning, suggesting that it is something that could happen sooner than fans expect.

“You know, that’s an interesting question,” Murphy said. “I was talking to Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters about that the other day, so maybe sooner than you think.”

While the idea that FX is all in for more American Horror Story and that Murphy isn’t opposed to it is good news for fans, future seasons could see some changes — not unlike what we’ve already seen with Delicate. Murphy also said that whether he would showrun future seasons of the series would depend on the idea (and the cast, as he indicated that if Paulson and Evans returned, he would as well). But Murphy also noted that his workload in general has changed a great deal with his company and all of the shows he works on. While he did say that he was heavily involved with Delicate’s look and design, the series was a departure from the rest of American Horror Story. It didn’t necessarily work as well for some fans and critics — the series received mixed reviews overall — but opening up the long-running anthology series to new approaches (in this case, adaptations) and new perspectives (such as showrunners) could be the ticket to seeing American Horror Story go well beyond Season 13.

All 12 current seasons of American Horror Story are available to stream on Hulu.

The post American Horror Story Just Got a Very Promising Update appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The spooky Halloween season is the perfect opportunity to go through The Simpsons‘ vast library of Halloween specials, but the best one actually isn’t one of the Treehouse of Horror specials at all. In fact, the best Halloween episode of The Simpsons was the actual first episode of the series set on Halloween that happened much later than fans might have ever expected. The Simpsons is now airing its milestone Season 36 of the long running animated series, and it’s getting ready for its next Treehouse of Horror special in a long line of specials taking the series in wildly different directions.

The Simpsons‘ Treehouse of Horror has become a Halloween mainstay as fans have come to expect three little horror inspired stories every year, and a fun way for The Simpsons to either kick off the Halloween holiday or commemorate it after when they air in November instead. But if you want the best Halloween episode of The Simpsons that’s ever been made, the spookiest and best character study comes in Season 27, Episode 4 with “Halloween of Horror.” It’s the first and so far only episode of The Simpsons to actually be set on Halloween outside of the Treehouse of Horror specials.

What Is Halloween of Horror?

“Halloween of Horror” is unlike the other The Simpsons Halloween specials as it’s set within the universe of the actual series, and actually features the Halloween holiday for the first time in the series’ history. It’s revealed that the entire family is really into the holiday, and even go the extra mile to make sure their house is fully decorated for the occasion. When Homer heads to the local Halloween pop up store for decorations, he ends up ticking off three of the temporary workers there as they lose their jobs when he inadvertently gets them in trouble. The family then heads to Halloween night at Krustyland, and Lisa’s scared out of her mind.

Lisa’s terror is so bad that Homer is forced to take down the house’s Halloween decorations, and on the night of Halloween itself, Homer and Lisa are home alone when the temporary workers show up and try to get their revenge. The episode then turns into a home invasion Horror story as Homer and Lisa not only try and escape from masked assailants, but also bond with one another in a father and daughter story that mirrors some of the best Homer and Lisa bonding stories in episodes past. And on the other side of things, Marge tries her best to make it up to Bart as he’s kind of stuck in the middle of wanting to celebrate the holiday but also wants to be kind to his sister for the moment.

It’s a relatively small story when looking at the scope of The Simpsons‘ horror specials, but it’s the first one that’s allowed to actually use the Halloween holiday to tell a new character story. It shows a new side of Lisa’s past as her panic gets her to revert to a time where she relied on a stuffed tail she named “Tailee,” and Homer is once again on the outside trying to figure out what’s really bothering Lisa. It’s made for a perfect dynamic for the duo that we’ve seen play out in past episodes like Season 9’s “Lost Our Lisa,” Season 10’s “Make Room for Lisa,” or classics like Season 3’s “Lisa the Greek.”

Why Is Halloween of Horror Special?

“Halloween of Horror” was a huge episode when it first premiered back in 2015. The later era seasons of The Simpsons are often ignored by fans who haven’t watched since its “golden era” of the early seasons, and that’s even truer for the mid-twenties seasons as it was before The Simpsons started to experiment in the fun ways that fans are seeing bear fruit now. So “Halloween of Horror,” in retrospect, is the first sign of the kind of changes that would be coming to the long running animated sitcom in the years that followed.

Funny enough, this was actually the same season that started to garner a lot of headlines for its plots like where Homer supposedly cheats on Marge (only for it to be part of an extended fantasy sequence in “Every Man’s Dream”), an episode where Sideshow Bob finally kills Bart in “Treehouse of Horror XXVI,” or the Boyhood experiment episode showing a new future for Bart in “Barthood.” So this was the first real sign that things were beginning to change behind the scenes in The Simpsons, and now we’re finally at the point where big changes are being taken notice of like Homer stopping his choking of Bart for a while.

The Simpsons “Halloween of Horror” might not be a special, but it’s truly special within the scope of the entire animated series. The Simpsons started to make some big changes after this episode came out as it started to reallyform a new era of its humor and voice. It was starting to tease that it wouldn’t be sticking to the old ways of the previous seasons, and it sparked a new evolution. It all started with one of the best episodes of the series in years, and still the best Halloween episode of the series even after all this time. Which might be why The Simpsons has yet to try something like it again.

The post The Simpsons’ Best Halloween Episode Isn’t a Treehouse of Horror Special appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Blue Lock is back, but in all honesty, fans are not sure it should have returned. That harsh take has been shared time and again since the sports anime returned. Following its first debut, Blue Lock wowed fans with season one, and they expected big things from season two. Now, all eyes are on Blue Lock as its ‘painful’ animation has cast a shadow over its stars. It seems season two is in a rut, and this week marked a new low for Blue Lock as its animation slid further into the ditch.

As you can see above (and here), netizens have a lot to say about Blue Lock and its current animation. All eyes are trained on Isagi, and it is not for the best reason. From static animation to slideshow transitions, Blue Lock season two is not doing it for fans, and many are wondering how this sharp decline came to be.

Sadly, the answer is easy to figure out. Animators are incredibly overworked and underpaid. The anime industry is rough under the best circumstances, and Blue Lock is the latest series to be hit by this industry-wide crunch. So rather than blaming the artists themselves, let’s look at the industry and its sins as a whole.

THE DOWNFALL OF BLUE LOCK’S ANIMATION

After all, the animation in Blue Lock season one was rather impressive. Eight Bit, the studio behind the anime, made an impressive showing with the 2022 premiere. From its pacing to its character designs, Blue Lock was a hit when it debuted a couple years ago. This aura carried on through Blue Lock: Episode Nagi which premiered in April 2024. Eight Bit looked solid from the outside, but that facade went away once Blue Lock season two went live.

A number of scenes from the anime have gone viral this season and not for the right reasons. A certain level of animation is needed to make sports anime look good, but Blue Lock season two has yet to hit that balance. While its voice acting has been top notch, Blue Lock‘s soccer sequences have been nothing more than painful. I mean, scenes have shown up mid-match of an athlete kicking the ball without their foot moving. Usually, that kind of movement is key when playing soccer, but that is not the case in Blue Lock season two. Huh.

The disappointment fans feel about Blue Lock season two is valid, but it is important to contextualize the problem. Eight Bit had a long lead with season one, so the production schedule had room to breathe. That, however, changed for Blue Lock season two. Eight Bit, which is smaller studio, was tasked with animating a Blue Lock movie and second season for a 2024 launch. The company was overloaded with work thanks to these projects, so there is little doubt the production schedule was rough. And when you account for the stress and low wages facing animators, well – it is easy to see why Blue Lock season two has fallen into a rut.

IS BLUE LOCK DOOMED NOW?

Blue Lock season two is having a hard time, but the comeback is only getting started. We are just a few episodes into season two, so netizens are crossing their fingers for a miracle. Eight Bit could always turn this animation around as Blue Lock carries on with season two. But of course, there are also fans who are worried the sports anime is destined to pull a Tokyo Ghoul.

Given the popularity of Blue Lock‘s manga, the production committee backing the anime has reason to fix this issue. The series has a fanbase large enough to weather a few poor episodes, but that good grace will not last. The Promised Neverland experienced this upset, and other projects like Tower of God have been hit similarly. We can only hope Isagi is able to rally the troops for a comeback this season. And if Blue Lock is not able to retcon season two’s rough start, well – the anime could be in big trouble.

What do you make of Blue Lock season two so far? Give me a shout at @meganwpeters with your take! You can also let us know what you think over on X (Twitter) and Instagram.

The post Blue Lock Season 2 Is Getting Worse By the Week With Its Painful Animation appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Rick and Morty is now in the works on Season 8 of the Adult Swim animated series, and new updates about the upcoming season shared with fans prove that the longer wait for its new episodes is going to be worth it. While Rick and Morty has been releasing at a steady clip with a near yearly release schedule for each season through to Season 7, Season 8 of the series is not coming our way until some time next year. But while it’s been a longer wait for the next batch of episodes, it’s been made clear that fans will have quite a lot to look forward to when it arrives.

Rick and Morty took the stage as part of Adult Swim’s offerings over the New York Comic Con 2024 weekend, and revealed the first look at Season 8. It was a classic episode kind of offering as Morty objects to something Rick is doing, only for the duo to dig their heels in further when it inevitably goes wrong. It’s showcasing a return to a semblance of normalcy after everything that happened behind the scenes ahead of Season 7, and that’s coupled with some new tidbits about the coming episodes from the cast and crew.

When Is Rick and Morty Season 8 Coming Out?

With the first animatic from Rick and Morty Season 8 being revealed to those in attendance and released online, it’s clear that the new season is in the early animation stages. Showrunner Scott Marder teased during the panel that the new season would be coming “before too long,” and the current first look teases that the season’s progress behind the scenes is far enough along that we’ll likely get the new episodes somewhere in the late Summer or Fall 2025 pocket depending on what other new shows or seasons Adult Swim is offering at the time.

It’s a steady production schedule as with Adult Swim renewing Rick and Morty through Seasons 11 and 12, Marder also revealed that Season 9 is also in its earliest animation stages while they are also in the final writing phase of Season 10. If it all continues smoothly, then Rick and Morty could potentially return to its yearly schedule. New Rick and Morty voice stars Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden will also finally be able to fully explore their roles through their own varied performances in the coming season and beyond, so we’re about to get a fresh take on the titular duo during all of this as well.

What’s New in Rick and Morty Season 8?

As for specifics, Rick and Morty stars Spencer Grammer and Chris Parnell teased that there would be both a Summer specific and Jerry specific episode in the coming season. Grammer teased that the Summer episode will also feature Beth challenging Summer in a way, and Parnell teases that Jerry would be challenging Jerry. The idea of potentially new alternate versions of the rest of the Smith Family seem to be coming in the new season as well according to the cast. Sarah Chalke teased that not only was she excited to perform new angles of Beth and Space Beth, but potentially alluded to a third alternate Beth in the second episode of the new season and the rest of the cast was excited about that too.

As for its take on episodic versus serialized storytelling, Marder teased that Rick and Morty Season 8 would fall in line with the previous seasons. Teasing that it would have a similar flow of silly episodic stories with the occasional canonical entry, and noted how it was the “perfect blend” of what he was looking for in the series as a fan. So it’s not like the series is going to dramatically change its style, but fans can still expect to see a few episodes working through that “ten season saga” that Marder teased ahead of Season 7’s debut.

The post New Rick and Morty Update Proves Season 8 Will Be Worth the Wait appeared first on ComicBook.com.

One Piece is gearing up for a big new project, and anime fans are keeping an eye on the treat. Last week, the fandom was sent for a loop when One Piece announced its anime was taking a hiatus through April 2025. In the meantime, the show will keep fans fed with a remaster of the Fish-Man Island arc, and now, we have been given our very first look at the project.

As you can see above, the very first promo for the Fish-Man Island remaster is live, and the footage has us feelilng emotional. It has been over a decade since the arc was on the air, but One Piece fans look back upon the story with fondness. After all, the Fish-Man Island arc marks several major moments for the Straw Hat crew, and that includes their reunion after the Marineford War.

ONE PIECE REVISITS FISH-MAN ISLAND WITH A REMASTER

Graced with updated visuals and Dolby sound, this One Piece remaster is already looking strong. Toei Animation has announced this ‘special edit’ is meant to bring the Fish-Man Island arc in line with the anime’s latest arcs. This means some of the filters and visual additions from the Wano saga and the Egghead Island arc will appear in this remaster. And thanks to this new promo, we can see those filters are looking great on the Straw Hat crew.

On October 27th, the first episode of the Fish-Man Island remaster will go live, and it will follow the original One Piece arc as expected. The debut will follow the Straw Hat crew as the gang reunites on Sabaody after spending a couple years apart to train. While Luffy worked with Rayleigh to up his power, the rest of the Straw Hat crew trained hard to prepare for the Grand Line. The Fish-Man Island arc begins with our heroes reuniting at last, and they find themselves facing a rather strange threat.

I mean, it isn’t every day Luffy’s friends run into people impersonating them. A group of thugs are going around Sabaody pretending to be the Straw Hat crew, and the actual gang will teach the criminals a lesson when they reunite at the Thousand Sunny.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE FISH-MAN ISLAND ARC

As you can imagine, One Piece fans are eager to see the anime bring back the Fish-Man Island arc. Not only does the storyline mark the end of One Piece‘s time skip after Marineford, but it kickstarts a new era for the Straw Hat crew. After training their bodies, the pirates are ready to navigate the Grand Line, and this arc puts them on the map. After all, Luffy makes a name for his crew with the Fish-Man Island royals and issues a challenge to Big Mom along the way. From secret weapons to Jinbe’s comeback, the arc is filled with important revelations, so One Piece could not have picked a better arc to remaster.

Now if you are not familiar with the original arc, we recommend you give the story a look. The Fish-Man Island arc hit televisions back in 2011, and it ran through 2012 before the Punk Hazard arc arrived. One Piece began the big arc with episode 523, and you can find the arc streaming on Hulu as well as Crunchyroll. And for manga readers, they can revisit the game-changing arc with ease as it began with chapter 603.

One Piece will spend the next few months working through its Fish-Man Island remaster, and then the mainline series will return. One Piece is set to resume its release of the Egghead Island arc in April 2025. This extended hiatus was ordered by Toei Animation to give the anime team time to prepare for One Piece‘s epic (and painstaking) visuals. The Egghead Island arc has put these visuals on display week after week, so you can imagine that work is exhausting. So when One Piece returns, it will do so with a well-rested staff on hand.

Are you excited for One Piece to kickstart its Fish-Man Island remaster? Give me a shout at @meganwpeters with your take! You can also let us know what you think over on X (Twitter) and Instagram.

The post One Piece Promo Shares First Look at Fish-Man Island Remake: Watch appeared first on ComicBook.com.

When it comes to anime, few series escape oversight from censorship. Whether from Japan itself or the global market, censorship has a long history with anime. We have seen every series from Sailor Moon to Attack on Titan get raked over by censors. Now, the hottest anime of 2024 is contending with censorship, and Dandadan is drawing ire after episode three was hit hard by censors.

The ordeal came to light this past week as Netflix brought Dandadan episode three to life. It was there fans watched as Seiko Ayase made her long-awaited debut. The spirit medium is perhaps known best as Sexy Granny and for good reason. Despite being Momo’s grandma, the older woman defies any stereotype tied to her age. Not only does the woman know how to kick butt, but Seiko does not limit her wardrobe. She wears all sorts of revealing clothes, but fans in China did not get to see that firsthand.

DANDADAN DEBUTS AS ONE OF ANIME’S HOTTEST NEW SHOWS

As you can see below, the censors in China painted over several scenes of Dandadan. In episode three, the streaming service BiliBili surprised fans by covering up Seiko. From her chest-baring tops to her short shorts, Seiko’s outfits were being a modest makeover. The edit might not be a critical one, but it has left Dandadan fans scratching their heads. Seiko is defined in part by her sexy appearance, but the look was washed out by censors.

Here in the United States, the anime wasn’t touched by any sort of makeover. Seiko’s outfits appear as intended by Science Saru, but that did not happen for BiliBili users. Censorship struck once again, and that trend will continue as Dandadan goes on. Seiko’s wardrobe is not modest in any way, so future episodes will have to account for her style.

With this censored episode in mind, fans watching Dandadan on BiliBili are using social media to share their anger. Dandadan is an edgy show, and that truth is made clear in episode one. From Momo’s alien abduction to Turbo Granny’s introduction, the supernatural anime is meant for a more mature audience. There is no telling how else Dandadan will be throttled by censorship overseas. And of course, such a fate is not unique for anime.

THE TROUBLED TIE BETWEEN ANIME AND CENSORSHIP

When it comes to global censorship, anime has a troubled history. America was forced to dictate guidelines for anime censorship when 4Kids Entertainment and Cartoon Network began airing more anime titles. A slew of content was flagged for censorship including alcohol consumption, smoking, graphic violence, bloodshed, sexual content, offensive language, and more. Places like 4Kids Entertainment took editing even further with various localization efforts. The licensor wanted to make anime titles more palatable for young fans, so series like Pokemon transformed rice balls into… donuts. You know, because that definitely makes sense.

These days, streaming services stateside and globally have their own censorship guidelines to abide by. Some content can be put behind age restrictions, but that is not always the case. And in some countries like China and Thailand, these edits are taken to the extreme. Thanks to differing cultural customs and religious values, every nation is a bit different when it comes to censorship. For instance, some nations in Asia censored ,’s nudity by putting shirts on all of the titans. So really, Dandadan‘s recent run-in with censors was tame.

What do you make of this latest censorship incident? Are you keeping up with Dandadan now that it is live? Give me a shout at @meganwpeters with your take! You can also let us know what you think over on X (Twitter) and Instagram.

The post Dandadan Anime Draws Ire Over Censorship in Episode 3 appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Marvel fans are now blaming a new character for the carnage of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Agatha All Along Episode 6 revealed that Lilia Calderu was the one to put the sigil on Billy Maximoff and that opens up quite the can of worms for Scarlet Witch fans. On one hand, the older witch was clearly trying to protect Joe Locke’s character from witches like Agatha Harkness. But, at the same time, she indirectly set all of that wildness after Wanda Maximoff got the Darkhold into motion with her little spell. Calderu couldn’t have dreamed that all of this would tumble down this way. And still, here we are with a dead Scarlet Witch and a young boy on a quest to reunite with his brother. (Oh yeah, and multiple casualties over in Earth-838!)

Billy Maximoff just wanted to have his palm read, and this all led to him receiving that bad news from the divination witch. From there, she discovered his identity and placed a sigil on him so that no one could locate him and use his latent power for nefarious purposes. One problem, that means his mother wasn’t able to find him at the tail end of WandaVision. She took the Darkhold because of the loss of her family and desire to reunite with the boys. Who knows what happens if she discovers that a boy a few towns over somehow magically acquired Billy’s soul. (There’s also the lingering question of what happened to Tommy in all of this…) Still, maybe the Scarlet Witch doesn’t decimate that parallel Earth if she had been aware of her son.

Marvel Fans Blame New Character for Doctor Strange 2 After Agatha All Along

Wanda Maximoff’s characterization is a topic that still ignites an immediate firestorm online anytime it’s brought up. The Darkhold is corrupting influence and she simply wasn’t in the mental state to stave off its evil allure. But, after WandaVision, any attempt to make the Scarlet Witch a villain was going to ruffle some feathers. This reveal of Lilia Calderu as partially responsible for the domino effect fits right into these moments of characterization. Poor Wanda is just a passenger on this wild ride we’ve all gone on. For director Jac Schaeffer, it’s more complicated than all that. It’s both the reality of wielding such power and making the decision to employ special abilities. She told Deadline about that dance this week.

“Yeah. I mean, I think that these moments like Agatha siphoning Alice’s power, Wanda creating the hex, these moments of big power … I don’t like being like, ‘They have no control, and the power is controlling them,’ but I do think it’s always a discussion, and I think that’s what big feelings are, to me,” Schaeffer clarified. “The big power expressions are just metaphors for big feelings, so to answer your specific question about him blasting them off the Road, there will be more unpacking of that in later episodes.” 

“But what I do hope is clear from Episode 6, is that he does not have a handle on his power. From both the blasting to the telepathy, that is not something that he can actively control,” she adds of Billy. “He can’t, at this point, seem to actively control any part of it, which makes him the perfect person to be with Agatha. And also, it’s the scariest situation.”

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Still Falls On Wanda, But Fate Is At Play Too

Interestingly, Schaeffer’s read seems to indicate that this whole situation is caused by Wanda. She had a choice about the Darkhold and got seduced by its power. Our girl isn’t completely spotless here. However, the strings of fate are moving all the while. It feels like a previous iteration of Agatha All Along probably had someone pulling the strings, but those plans have probably changed! Mephisto fans should be excited by the prospect. But, it’s hard to tell for sure. However, none of that really undoes Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness or the damage Wanda has caused in recent years. Maybe she’ll come back and we can see how Marvel addresses all this new information by the end of the show?

Do you feel like it’s really Lilia’s fault? Check out all the pop culture discussion over at @ComicBook!

The post Marvel Fans Blame New Character for Doctor Strange 2 After Agatha All Along appeared first on ComicBook.com.

There are few things the anime fandom loves more than a good adaptation, and the webtoon industry is keeping track of that interest. Over the past few years, a number of high-profile webtoons have made their way to TV with anime series on hand. Now, a new report confirms yet another webtoon is ready to hit television, and fans of The Beginning After the End are pumped.

Yes, that is right. The Beginning After the End is getting its own anime. During New York Comic Con, Crunchyroll took to the stage to announced the big anime adaptation, and The Beginning After the End will be here before long. The show is slated for a 2025 launch, and Studio A-Cat will be handling the ambitious adaptation.

THE BEGINNING AFTER THE END IS A WEBTOON HIT

If you are not familiar with The Beginning After the End, the series got its start in January 2017. Created by TurtleMe and Fuyuki23, the fantasy webtoon has become a breakout hit in the United States. Published by Tapas, the webtoon was created with an American audience in mind. With 11 volumes to its name, The Beginning After the End is one of the top-read webtoons by Western readers, and its success in the United States has sparked a global push.

If you are not familiar with the webtoon, the series is an isekai title with ties to fantasy. It begins with an introduction to King Grey, a powerful king who is known for his strength, honor, and power. However, his life is far from ideal. Plagued by loneliness, King Grey is a hollow man, but his future is changed when his sudden death bring him into a new world filled with magic. Reincarnated as Arthur Leywin, our hero navigates a new life while avoiding the mistakes of his past. But as Arthur grows older, he learns a secret plot in this world is threatening the peace he has worked for.

Adorned with lovely colors and character designs, The Beginning After the End is a top-tier isekai series. Its plot has been begging for an anime for ages, so fans are eager to see what the show has in store. Keitaro Motonaga will direct the series while Takamitsu Kono heads up the scripts. And of course, Crunchyroll has licensed the anime for its millions of users.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WEBTOON AND ANIME MEET?

With this new project in the works, the webtoon industry is eating well overseas. A number of anime titles have risen up from webtoons, and a number of them have gone on to become hits. Years ago, titles like Noblesse and The God of High School led the charge at Crunchyroll to mixed reviews. Now, the lane is becoming more popular than ever, and we have series like Solo Leveling to thank.

From Tower of God to True Beauty and Lookism, a number of top-notch webtoons have been adapted for the screen The anime industry appears to be doubling down on the investment, and of course, webtoon titles are familiar with the adaptation process. For years, South Korea has looked to webtoons when drafting drama pitches. The Uncanny Encounter, Hellbound, Vigilante, and A Good Day to Be a Dog mark just a few of these adaptations. So just like manga before it, webtoons and web novels are becoming a go-to place for TV pitches.

What do you think about this latest anime order? Will you be watching The Beginning After the End? Give me a shout at @meganwpeters with your take! You can also let us know what you think over on X (Twitter) and Instagram.

The post One of Webtoon’s Top Titles Just Locked In an Anime Order appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The One Piece fandom is reeling right now, and we have a new anime special to thank. It was not long ago that Toei Animation confirmed One Piece: Fan Letter was in the works, after all. The ambitious special promised to embody the best parts of One Piece in a bid to honor the anime’s 25th anniversary. And now that the episode is live, well – we can say confidently that One Piece just dropped its best episode of all time.

Marineford? No. The awakening of Gear Five? Close but not quite. One Piece: Fan Letter is in a class of its own, and netizens are calling the anime special a masterclass in animation.

WHAT IS ONE PIECE: FAN LETTER?

This weekend, One Piece: Fan Letter stood tall with its debut, and the special came to life under director Megumi Ishitani and Nanami Michibata. The two directors came together with artist Nagisa Nishida to create something unforgettable. From the episode’s pacing to its sakuga and screenplay, every piece of One Piece: Fan Letter was honed to perfection. The special is now streaming everywhere from Netflix to Crunchyroll, so fans better not miss out on the treat.

After all, One Piece: Fan Letter is a love note to the franchise. The special adapts the contents of One Piece Novel: Straw Hat Stories, but it elevates the book with some key changes. From its narrative structure to its emotional stakes, this new One Piece special takes the anime’s story to new heights as it shows us how the world around the Straw Hat crew sees them.

For decades, we have followed the Straw Hat pirates, and the crew has been led by Monkey D. Luffy. The pirate has proven himself a hero in every sense, and that truth is felt by everybody on the Grand Line. In One Piece: Fan Letter, we follow every day people as they stumble across the Straw Hat crew. From young admirers to Marine skeptics, the special touches upon them all, and One Piece: Fan Letter proves Luffy’s adventure brings a powerful ripple. His actions impact the whole Grand Line, and more often than not, that motion is for the best.

THE FUTURE OF ONE PIECE IS BRIGHT

As you can see below, One Piece: Fan Letter is a clear winner with fans, and many are calling it the anime’s best release to date. The special features innovative animation, and its stylized design is a breath of fresh air. Filled with heartwarming asides, One Piece: Fan Letter is nothing less than hopeful, so you can see why it fits the Straw Hat crew perfectly.

With this new special out of the way, One Piece fans are looking to the future. The mainline anime is on hiatus until next spring, but One Piece will not leave us hanging. A remaster of the Fishman Island arc is on the horizon, and it will premiere next weekend. As for the manga, creator Eiichiro Oda is still working on the hit series. It will hit a short hiatus at the end of October, but One Piece will return to print well before November closes. So if you want to catch up on One Piece, now is the best time to get familiar.

If you are eager to brush up on the Grand Line, it is easier than ever to find One Piece. The hit anime is now streaming on Netflix, Hulu, and Crunchyroll; Some of the anime’s older content can even been found through Tubi and Freevee. As for the manga, One Piece can be read through Viz Media’s Shonen Jump app as well as the Manga Plus website which Shueisha operates.

One Piece Fans React in Their Own Words

The post One Piece: Fan Letter May Be the Anime’s Best Episode Ever appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Buried in the trailer for Creature Commandos is a very brief moment where we get to see Frank Grillo’s Rick Flag Sr. in the midst of a fight, one where he appears to be on the losing side of things. Though it appears on screen for just a few seconds, the other combatant in the moment is clearly none other than Clayface, sporting his signature muddy appearance while also transforming his appendages into simple weapons that he can use to attack. Check out a screenshot of the moment below

Clayface, like many comic book villains, has actually been a moniker used by many characters. The original version of Clayface was actually created back in 1940 by Batman co-creators Bill Finger and Bob Kane who unleashed Basil Karlo on the world back in Detective Comics #40. In recent years the character has taken on more of an anti-hero persona in the pages of DC Comics rather than his traditional villain roots, and considering the direction of the Creature Commandos show it’s possible that his appearance in the show will be one where he turns down a spot on the team since he’s technically a human.

The introduction of Clayface in the Creature Commandos trailer does confirm that the character has a place in the DCU since James Gunn has already confirmed that actors will play their roles not only in animation but in live-action. It’s unclear where in the DCU Clayface might get the chance to pop up again, though naturally the announced Batman movie in the DCU, The Brave and the Bold, seems like a potential spot for him, it seems almost more likely that Clayface is getting used in Creature Commandos because there are no other plans for him in the DCU.

Creature Commandos tracks a secret team of incarcerated monsters recruited for missions deemed too dangerous for humans. When all else fails… they’re your last, worst option. The cast of Creature Commandos includes Steve Agee as Economos, Maria Bakalova as Princess Ilana, Anya Chalotra as Circe, Zoe Chao as Nina Mazursky, Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr., Sean Gunn as GI Robot & Weasel, David Harbour as Frankenstein, Alan Tudyk as Dr. Phosphorus, Indira Varma as The Bride, and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller. Based on DC characters and produced by DC Studios and Warner Bros. Animation; additional executive producers include Peter Safran, Dean Lorey, and Sam Register; Rick Morales serves as a supervising producer.

Creature Commandos will premiere exclusively on Max on Thursday, December 5th.

The post Creature Commandos Reveals First Look at Batman Villain Clayface in the DCU appeared first on ComicBook.com.

WWE’s Tony D’Angelo succeeded where so many faltered when he defeated Oba Femi and became the new NXT North American Champion, and it was a huge moment for D’Angelo, for The Family, and for the NXT crowd cheering on The Don. When you then add the fact that all of it took place during the launch of NXT on The CW and the number of main roster superstars in the mix on the same night, it becomes something pretty incredible, and that’s not at all lost on D’Angelo. D’Angelo will face Femi in a TLS match (Tables, Ladders, and Scares) at Halloween Havoc in what is sure to be an epic rematch, but ComicBook had the chance to speak to D’Angelo after his first landmark win, where we discussed finally overcoming Femi in the ring, the current state of the locker room in the move to The CW, and the growth and evolution of The Family.

It all starts with D’Angelo’s feud with Femi though, which has been quite challenging for The Don at several points along the way. When your nickname is The Don of NXT, it obviously takes a lot to get under your skin, and yet Femi was able to do what many never could and make D’Angelo doubt himself and even his abilities in the ring. D’Angelo was able to overcome that though, and it just shows that even The Don is pretty human at the end of the day.

“Well, you know, everybody’s human, The Don’s a human. I got emotions just like everybody else, and just so happened that Oba was, you know, this big Nigerian guy that…he just smacked me around a little bit. Like I’d never been smacked around before. I had to mentally go somewhere to get prepared, and I had all the training. I had the family, they had my back, and you know it was a mental barrier that I had to jump over, and alongside the family, they got me right. I got my mind right, and we took home the gold, which is always the goal. So it was a good, it was a good time,” D’Angelo said.

A New Era, A Great Start

D’Angelo and Femi were front and center during NXT’s premiere on The CW thanks to their back and forth on Miz TV, and then the very next week they delivered an epic battle in the ring during a stop in St. Louis. D’Angelo’s win is a big moment even without all of those elements, but throwing all those in adds a lot. When asked if the move to The CW has changed the vibe at all, D’Angelo said morale continues to be high.

“I think the overall morale is high, not that it wasn’t before, but, you know, new network, new opportunities, and it’s just more eyes, you know, larger audience,” D’Angelo said. “So people’s names are going to get out there quicker and we’re also traveling more, it seems like. So I’m all for it. You know, the locker room is all for it. They love traveling.”

“You know, we love the PC. We love the fans at the PC, but it’s nice for a change every once in a while. So I think for this to happen on CW, the second week of CW and then the first week going back to my hometown and being on Miz TV and everything, it was, it was a great two weeks and I’m ready to keep the train going,” D’Angelo said.

Holding Their Own

Part of the fun has also been the big names from Raw and SmackDown who have been in the mix over the past few weeks, including CM Punk, Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill, Randy Orton, The Miz, and more. D’Angelo couldn’t be more thrilled to have them in NXT and helping out, and he’s glad they want to be there. That said, he’s also happy that the NXT Superstars are there to show what they can do and hold their own.

“I mean, who’s going to say no to Randy Orton, CM Punk, Miz, you know, all these, these guys wanting to come down and help? I’ll never say no, but I think it’s great that everybody wants to help out and, you know, we’re still new to the game, so of course, any help that we can get we appreciate. But you know, we’re also here to show what we can do. I think the NXT locker room is very special,” D’Angelo said. “I think that everybody is ready to show the entire wrestling community, the entire world, why we got this new network deal and why we’re not so much developmental, in my opinion. But, you know, we’re just here to ball out and I think collectively we’re going to do that. We’re going to take care of business, as The Don would say.”

WWE NXT Halloween Havoc

• WWE NXT Championship – Devil’s Playground Match: Trick Williams (C) vs Ethan Page
• WWE NXT North American Championship – Tables, Ladders, and Scares Match: Tony D’Angelo (C) vs Oba Femi
• NXT Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez and Cora Jade vs Giulia and Stephanie Vaquer

NXT Halloween Havoc streams live on Peacock on Sunday, October 27th at 7 PM ET.

Are you excited for the rematch at Halloween Havoc? You can talk all things wrestling with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!

The post WWE’s Tony D’Angelo On Epic Title Win, NXT Morale in CW Era, and More appeared first on ComicBook.com.

YOLO is gearing up to return for its third season, and the first look at the new episodes go to show that it’s going to be perfect for the fans missing out on Smiling Friends right now. Michael Cusack has been working with Adult Swim for quite a while, but made a major name for himself with the breakout success of Smiling Friends, which he co-created with Zach Hadel. But even with all of the success seen from that series, Cusack’s own project YOLO has yet to reach that same level of popularity among animation fans online. That’s going to change soon, however.

Following the release of YOLO: Silver Destiny last year, it was quickly confirmed that Adult Swim would be bringing Cusack’s animated series back for another round of episodes. This third season, YOLO: Rainbow Destiny, is now in the works for a release in the near future, and Adult Swim has released the first look at the new episodes. This new season is already looking wacky for Sarah and Rachel, and it’s even combining a few of the special animated techniques seen in Cusack’s work on Smiling Friends too. Check it out below:

What Is YOLO: Rainbow Destiny?

YOLO: Rainbow Destiny is the third season of Michael Cusack’s YOLO animated series that first began with YOLO: Crystal Fantasy back in 2022. Renewed for Season 3 last Fall, the new season currently does not have a release window or date for its new episodes as of the time of this publication. But it’s going to be scratching that itch that Smiling Friends fans might have while that series is currently in the works on returning for its own third season as well. Because much of the humor, tone, and cadence fans loved in that series can be seen in this one as well.

YOLO carries much of Cusack’s humor that could be seen in other smaller projects before its debut. Starring a duo of young women named Rachel and Sarah, the two of them go on increasingly wild adventures in Australia as they both grow as friends and potentially apart as they navigate their changing lives. There’s a lot going on under the hood of any given episode, but watching is still a fantastic experience as the series’ absurd comedy makes each of their adventures wilder than the last. Fast jokes, wacky animated characters, and just a hint of cynicism makes it a great show.

What’s Next for YOLO?

With Smiling Friends Season 3 now in the works, YOLO: Rainbow Trinity is going to be a great show to tide you over in the meantime. If you wanted to get the jump on the new season by catching up with everything that’s happened already, you can now find the first two seasons of YOLO streaming exclusively with Max. These two seasons aren’t held down by serialized stories so you can just jump right into the new episodes, but they’re the perfect way to see the kind of humor and fun the show has.

YOLO is sneaky in the way it serializes its episodes, however. Because while there is now overt story tying each episode into the next, Sarah and Rachel themselves go through their own respective growth as their friendship changes. Sarah starts to think more for himself, and Rachel starts being less aggressive and uncaring of Sarah’s feelings. They ended the second season tighter than ever before, so now it’s only a matter of time before we get to see what’s next for them in the upcoming third season of Adult Swim animated original. It’s likely hitting sometime next year.

The post Miss Smiling Friends? YOLO: Rainbow Trinity Is Going to Be Perfect for You appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Over the two most recent episodes, Agatha All Along answered a bunch of major questions about the mysterious Teen played by Joe Locke, first by revealing in Episode 5 that Teen is actually Wanda and Vision’s son, Billy Maximoff and then in Episode 6 revealing exactly how Billy exists at all when Billy and his twin, Tommy were supposedly erased when the Hex fell. We also found out that Billy doesn’t want power from The Witches’ Road at all — he just wants to find his brother.  With Billy back, fans naturally are eager to see Tommy return as well but now we have the same question that Billy has in the series: where is Tommy Maximoff?

Functionally, the “how” of Tommy Maximoff’s survival is likely to be similar to Billy’s. We now know that Billy survived the fall of the Hex because, as his existence was being erased, just outside the Hex young William Kaplan was headed home from his Bar Mitzvah when his family was involved in a car crash. William Kaplan unfortunately died, but Billy’s soul was able to move into William’s body, causing him to be reborn. Given that Agatha All Along followed Billy’s Marvel Comics backstory, it’s pretty likely that the how of Tommy’s existence post-Hex will be similar — the comics aren’t very specific about the mechanics of Tommy’s reincarnation so Agatha All Along probably won’t linger too long on the details. It’s the where of it all that actually matters and this is where things could get interesting.

Tommy’s Story in Comics is Connected to the Young Avengers

In the comics, Billy finds Tommy as part of recruitment for the Young Avengers. While Billy isn’t specifically looking for Tommy as part of the Young Avengers, the team does locate Tommy being held in essentially juvenile detention for people with powers after an incident in which Tommy vaporized his high school using his powers. At the facility, he was texted and experimented on, something that the Young Avengers freed him from. It was later that Billy and Tommy realize they’re twin and, thus, their identities. If we had to guess — and that’s kind of the point here so we’re going to — Tommy may be enduring something similar in the MCU. If that is the case, what The Witches’ Road might give Billy at the end (provided he survives) is not Tommy’s exact location, but the path by which to find him.

That idea, of course, leads us to an even bigger bit of speculation: Agatha All Along could lead to the creation of the Young Avengers. While the MCU has already introduced numerous characters traditionally associated with the Young Avengers and even went as far as to, in The Marvels, show Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) reach out to Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) to seek out other young heroes and start a new group, a proper “Young Avengers” hasn’t yet happened. If Agatha All Along doesn’t end with The Witches’ Road leading Billy directly to Tommy, it could instead see him connected with Kamala and Kate, leading to the creation of the Young Avengers and sending them out to find others. It’s something that would leave the door open for Tommy to have his own comics-accurate backstory as well as set the stage for a future MCU project (and one that fans have been clamoring for for years.)

It’s also worth noting that Billy’s boyfriend’s name is Eddie. That’s a name that’s really quite close to Teddy and, in comics, Billy’s boyfriend is Teddy Altman, aka the Young Avenger Hulkling.

Could the Quest to Find Tommy Be Part of The Multiverse Saga?

If Agatha All Along doesn’t directly lead to the Young Avengers, however, the show has already provided a path for Agatha All Along to connect to the larger “Multiverse Saga” beyond merely being a WandaVision spinoff. One of the things that was established at the end of WandaVision was that Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) heard her boys crying out for her somewhere in the multiverse. This, of course, led to the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. While it might be a little weird to have one of the twins exist in the main universe and the other have ended up in another reality, Episode 6 of Agatha All Along saw Billy admit that he can feel Tommy, but he can’t find him. That could be a clue that the other Maximoff brother is in a different reality — essentially a so close yet so far away sort of situation. Maybe the end of Agatha All Along will lead to Billy and Agatha (Kathryn Hahn) on a multiverse adventure. You know, if they somehow manage to trust one another.

Wherever Tommy is, now that we’ve established Billy’s existence and centered Billy’s reason seeking out Agatha and for walking The Witches’ Road around finding his missing twin, it’s almost guaranteed that the story begun in WandaVision won’t be over with this latest Disney+ series. It’s just a question as to where the road will lead us next.

Agatha All Along is now streaming on Disney+. New episodes arrive Wednesdays at 9pm ET.

The post Agatha All Along: Where Is Tommy (And Could He Lead to the Young Avengers)? appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The new Secret Level anthology series coming to Prime Video won’t be releasing until December, but today during New York Comic-Con, Prime Video revealed the cast of the games-to-TV series. And as one might expect from a series like Secret Level that’s going to include some of the biggest names in gaming such as God of War, Warhammer 40,000, Dungeons & Dragons, and many more, the cast is absolutely stacked with talent as well. Keanu Reeves has been confirmed for a role just as many speculated when the first Secret Level trailer dropped, and he’ll be joined by many more household names.

Secret Level will consist of 15 episodes airing on Prime Video starting on December 10th, and when those start releasing, you’ll hear the following stars lend their voices to different characters: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kevin Hart, Keanu Reeves, Temuera Morrison, Ariana Greenblatt, Heaven Hart, Emily Swallow, Gabriel Luna, Ricky Whittle, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Merle Dandridge, Claudia Doumit, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Clive Standen, Laura Bailey, and Michael Beach. Some of those names need little introduction, but others who you may not be as familiar with by name alone have credits in shows like The Last of Us, The Boys, and even some games themselves. Laura Bailey, for example, is well known in the Dungeons & Dragons community as member of Critical Role as well as her role of Abby in The Last of Us Part 2.

We don’t yet know which episodes these actors and actresses will be in, however, with the exception of one: Keanu Reeves. When the first trailer for Secret Level dropped and people were busy trying to pick up on all the different IPs that’d be featured in the 15 episodes, some noticed that it sure did look like Reeves‘ likeness was being used in the Armored Core episode. Prime Video didn’t attach names to episodes today, but it seems pretty safe to say that we’ll hear (and see) Reeves in at least the Armored Core adaptation. It’s unknown if other stars’ likenesses are being used as well.

Aside from Armored Core, other gaming IPs set to be featured in Secret Level include Sifu, The Outer Worlds, Pac-Man, Mega Man, and various PlayStation properties. One of those PlayStation games featured in Secret Level is Concord, the hero shooter which failed spectacularly and was shut down within no time after it released. Rumors have circulated to suggest that Concord may make a comeback as a free-to-play game or some other kind of revitalization, but as far as anyone can tell, the Concord episode in Secret Level is still happening.

Secret Level is helmed by Tim Miller, the director known for Deadpool and Terminator: Dark Fate. Miller is also the mind behind Love, Death & Robots which, surprise, is very much like Secret Level except the latter focuses on adapting different games.

Secret Level is scheduled to release on Prime Video on December 10th with the episodes split into two weekly drops.

The post Prime Video Reveals Secret Level Cast Stacked with Keanu Reeves, Kevin Hart, and Many More appeared first on ComicBook.com.

SpongeBob SquarePants probably has one of the most memorable Christmas episodes of all time, and now it’s getting ready to surpass this with a new stop-motion animated Christmas special coming for the holidays this year! SpongeBob SquarePants is now in the midst of celebrating the 25th anniversary since its very first episode aired with Nickelodeon, and thus SpongeBob has been hitting the world with all sorts of fun new projects and collaborations like its Wendy’s takeover. The animated series has had some of the biggest moments over the years, and has since launched all sorts of spinoffs, feature films, video games, specials, and much more. Now it’s entering a whole new dimension.

Paramount and Nickelodeon have announced that SpongeBob SquarePants is getting a new Christmas special that’s going to be much different than any of the other specials it’s done for the 25th anniversary thus far. Titled SpongeBob & Sandy’s Country Christmas, this new special will be entirely stop-motion animated and is currently scheduled for a release with Nickelodeon and Paramount+ some time this December. To showcase how this will actually look, Nickelodeon has released the first look clip from the upcoming SpongeBob stop-motion holiday special below.

What to Know for SpongeBob’s Christmas Special

SpongeBob & Sandy’s Country Christmas is currently scheduled for a release in December later this year with Nickelodeon and Paramount+. This will be a half hour long special, and will be bringing back Sandy’s extended family from their debut in the recently released Netflix distributed film, Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie. Each of the members of the family will be reprising their respective roles with Craig Robinson as Pa Cheeks, Johnny Knoxville as Randy Cheeks, and Grey Delisle as Ma Cheeks, Granny Cheeks, Rosie and Rowdy Cheeks all confirmed to return for the new holiday special.

Nickelodeon had quite a lot more to celebrate for SpongeBob SquarePants‘ 25th anniversary beyond this new Christmas special too. During the special panel for the franchise as part of New York Comic Con 2024, it was also announced that The Patrick Star Show spinoff series has been such a success in its own right that it has also been picked up for Seasons 4 and 5. With Season 3 of the animated series only recently making its premiere with Nickelodeon with a new holiday special to help kick off its own run, this renewal comes at a great time for the franchise overall.

What’s Next for SpongeBob?

SpongeBob SquarePants, “Snow Yellow and the Seven Jellies,” is a new special currently scheduled for a premiere with Nickelodeon later this November. This is also another special crafted in celebration of the animated series’ 25th anniversary and seems to be mirroring the Snow White and the Seven Dwarves classic fairy tale for its new take on SpongeBob and his friends. That’s not all either as there is currently another feature film now in the works on a theatrical release some time in late 2025.

The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants is currently scheduled for a release on December 19, 2025 and will be released in theaters. The story for the upcoming film has shared very few details as to what to expect, but it’s been confirmed that SpongeBob will be dealing with the Flying Dutchman’s ghost and he’ll be voiced by Star Wars and Regular Show star Mark Hamill (who is also set to return for the now in the works Regular Show sequel series, reportedly titled Regular Show: Lost Tapes). But as the 25th anniversary celebration continues, there’s clearly going to be even more SpongeBob SquarePants in the works in the future.

The post SpongeBob Is Getting Its Very Own Christmas Special This Year: Watch the First Look appeared first on ComicBook.com.

While November may still be a couple of weeks away, Hulu is already getting subscribers prepared for the month ahead. This week, the streaming service revealed the full list of movies, TV shows, and specials that will be added to the lineup throughout the month of November.

That lineup includes some iconic Christmas movies that will help movie lovers prepare for the holiday season. Elf, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, The Polar Express, and several other holiday titles are joining Hulu’s roster in November.

Next month will also see some wildly popular shows make their way to Hulu. The service will be adding all five seasons of Ally McBeal, as well as the first 11 seasons of NCIS.

You can check out the full list of Hulu’s November additions below!

November 1st

Are You The One?: Complete Seasons 2 and 6
Naruto Shippuden: Complete Sesaon 9 (DUBBED)
A Christmas Carol (1984)
Ad Astra
Aliens
Billy Madison
Carpool
Christmas on the Ranch
Christmas With The Kranks
Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe
The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Crazy Heart
Deck the Halls
Desierto
Downhill
Eddie Murphy: Raw
Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance
Goodbye Lover
Grown Ups
Grown Ups 2
Hanging Up
Happy Gilmore
Hellboy (2019)
Higher Learning
Hitman
Holiday in Handcuffs
Hollow Man
Hotel Transylvania
Hotel Transylvania 2
I’ll Be Home For Christmas
Inherit the Viper
Jingle All The Way
Just Friends
La La Land
The Last Duel
Lazareth
Madea Goes To Jail
The Mistle-Tones
National Treasure
National Treasure: Book Of Secrets
New Year’s Eve
The Nutcracker (1993)
Operation Mistletoe
The Personal History Of David Copperfield
Predators
Renovation Romance
Same Time, Next Christmas
Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe
Santa’s Little Helper
Second Best
Sonic the Hedgehog
Teddy Kollek
Tigerland
Waitress
The Wedding Planner
Whip It
White Men Can’t Jump (1992)
Why Him?
Wild

November 2nd

Endurance: Special Premiere

November 6th

Gangnam B-Side: Two-Episode Series Premiere (SUBBED & DUBBED) 
A Man Called Otto

November 7th

Adoption Diaries: Complete Season 1 
Amazing Wedding Cakes: Complete Season 4
America’s Cuteset Puppies: Complete Season 1
Beyond the Pole: Complete Season 2
Beyond the Pole: Living Under Lockdown: Complete Season 11
Bid, Build, Design: Complete Season 1
Braxton Family Values: Complete Seasons 5B and 6A
Bridezillas: Complete Season 13
Cutting it in the ATL: Complete Season 1 
First Lady of Jamaica: Complete Season 1
Ghost Moms: Complete Season 1
Her Deadly Night in Paris: Complete Season 1
Hoarders: Complete Seasons 8-9 and 15 
Holiday Home Invasion: Complete Season 1
Hustle & Soul: Complete Seasons 1 and 3
John Edward Cross Country: Complete Seasons 2-3 
Katrina Weddings: A Second Chance: Complete Season 1
L.A. Hair: Complete Seasons 3-5
Marriage Boot Camp: Hip-Hop Edition: Complete Season 14
Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars: Complete Season 11
Mary Mary: Complete Season 5
My Life is a Telenovela: Complete Season 1
Obsessed with the Dress: Complete Season 1
Platinum Babies: Complete Season 1
Prison Brides: Complete Season 1
Raising Sextuplets: Complete Season 2
Road Wars: Complete Season 3
Secret Lives of Women: Complete Season 4
Surrogate Stories: Complete Season 1
Tamar & Vince: Complete Seasons 3-5
Wedding Gown Secrets: Complete Season 1
Madagascar
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
Penguins Of Madagascar

November 8th

The Fiery Priest: Two-Episode Season 2 Premiere  
NCIS: Complete Seasons 1-11
Poolman
The Present
Tooth Fairy
Wild Hogs

November 11th

Ally McBeal: Complete Seasons 1-5

November 12th

Selling Super Houses: Complete Season 1

November 14th

FX’s Say Nothing: Complete Limited Series
Flipping Down South: Complete Season 1
I Wasn’t Expecting a Baby!: Complete Season 1
Legends of the Fork: Complete Season 1
Seatbelt Psychic: Complete Season 1
The Stanford Prison Experiment: Unlocking the Truth: Series Premiere
13 Sons & Pregnant: Complete Season 1

November 15th

It’s All Country: Complete Season 1
Art Gallery: Andy Haynes, Maddie Wiener, Jackie Fabulous
The Backyard: Ralph Barbosa, Kiry Shabazz, Brittany Schmitt
The Cabin: Alec Flynn, Caitlin Peluffo, Garrick Bernard
Parking Lot: Mark Smalls, Robby Hoffman, Darius Bennett
The Taste of Things
Thelma

November 16th

Harriet

November 17th

Christmas at the Golden Dragon
Christmas in Evergreen: Bells Are Ringing
Christmas Sail
A Holiday in Harlem
A Kismet Christmas
A Royal Corgi Christmas
The Santa Stakeout

November 18th

Cake Toppers: Complete Season 1
“Cookie, Cupcake, Cake”: Complete Season 1
The Honorable Shyne: Documentary Premiere

November 19th

Interior Chinatown: Complete Season 1
Drugstore June

November 20th

Missing (2023)
The Son

November 21st

The 58th Annual CMA Awards: Special Premiere
American Pickers: Best Of: Complete Season 7
The Boarding School Murders: Complete Season 1
Celebrity Renovation: Complete Season 1
Christmas at the Chalet
Christmas Wars: Complete Season 2
Donnie Loves Jenny: Complete Season 1
Downtown Shabby: Complete Season 1
History’s Greatest Escapes with Morgan Freeman: Complete Season 1
Lost Gold of World War II: Complete Season 2
Roanoke: A Mystery Carved in Stone: Complete Season 1
Secret Restoration: Complete Season 1
Ultimate Holiday Feast: Complete Season 1
A Cowboy Christmas Romance
Merry Magic Christmas
Mistletoe Match
Mom’s Christmas Boyfriend

November 22nd

Bia and Victor: Complete Season 1 
Jim Gaffigan: The Skinny: Special Premiere
Firebrand
The Good Half

November 23rd

Sausage Party

November 24th

Southpaw (2015)

November 25th

Family Guy: Exclusive Holiday Special
Tsunami: Series Premiere

November 26th

Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae: Complete Docuseries
Robot Dreams

November 27th

Elf
Four Christmases
Fred Claus
Jack Frost
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
The Polar Express

November 29th

Olympus Has Fallen
Plant Shop: Fahim Anwar, Susan Rice, Derrick Stroup
Speakeasy: Torio Van Grol, Shapel Lacey, Ahamed Weinberg
Thrift Store: Malik Elassal, Emma Willmann, TJ
Tiki Series: Ali Macofsky, Matt Braunger, Sydney Castillo

The post Everything Coming to Hulu in November 2024 appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Daredevil: Born Again finally confirmed that one of the Marvel hero’s creepiest villains will be debuting in the Disney+ series. It’s been a busy New York Comic-Con for Marvel Studios. They revealed that the MCU show will hit the platform on March 4, 2025. Now, fans can look forward to Muse springing onto the scene to make Matt Murdock’s life a series of terrible trials. Don’t get it twisted, like more Daredevil stories on TV, Kingpin will still loom large as an antagonist. But, Muse will add some shades of gray with spray paint cans in Daredevil: Born Again. There’s a battle for the soul of New York City brewing and this struggle gets a new combattant. One that sees some serious flaws with the way that both Charlie Cox’s hero and Vincent D’Onofrio’s villain go about their rivalry. 

Producer Sana Amanat told the crowd this news at New York Comic-Con. But, fans who have been paying attention absolutely gleaned this already. For starters, the D23 footage shown in the summer clearly showed Muse wreaking havoc in New York City. Secondly, the installation at D23 had the villain’s name clearly scrawled in the time portal with the new Daredevil suit and some other spicy details. So, it’s not really a surprise. But, it is interesting to have Marvel Studios say the word Muse out loud so far from the show’s release next year. Expect the marketing for Daredevil: Born Again to lean into some brutality that Deadpool & Wolverine and Echo employed in their promotional tours.

Early returns on Muse have been good. Back at D23, the character’s design in live-action got a thumbs up from Charles Soule, aka the man that invented Muse. After seeing the footage unveiled during the Disney Expo, he had to tweet his reaction. “So, as revealed at #D23 yesterday Muse is in Daredevil: Born Again! [Ron Garney] and I created this serial killer/ misunderstood artist in 2016 for our Daredevil run,” the creator wrote. “From what I’ve seen, they stuck to the brief; very glad they nailed Ron’s amazing design!Incredibly cool.” The other attendees seemed to be in agreement with this assessment from Soule. All of the signs point to something amazing coming down from Marvel Studios when the show gets underway.

Daredevil: Born Again has inspired a lot of conversation on social media, as you would expect. The series is a follow-up to a Netflix classic that garnered a massive following on the Internet. Being a show in that bucket, there was a lot to live up to and it seems like Marvel Studios got the memo that this show really had to feel like the previous one. Both Vincent D’onofrio and Charlie Cox have been overly effusive in their praise of the show and its retooling. Whatever was going on before wasn’t exactly like the Netflix series, and the changes have been well-received. With Muse aboard, we’re headed for something that feels a lot more like a new addition to this saga rather than just simply picking up the banner for Season 3. After all, the Marvel fanbase is constantly clamoring for fresh ideas, maybe this show can manage to do both!

Are you surprised thart Muse is a part of the show? Check out all the pop culture discussion at @ComicBook!

The post Daredevil: Born Again Confirmed To Include One of the Hero’s Creepiest Villains appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The DC Universe is about to get a lot more monstrous. On Saturday, as part of the Creature Commandos panel at New York Comic Con 2024, DC Studios unveiled the second full trailer for the series, ahead of its premiere on December 5th. The series, which is written and executive produced by James Gunn, will be the inaugural project within Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DCU of movies and television shows, which will also include Superman, Lanterns, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and more. Check it out in the player below

Creature Commandos tracks a secret team of incarcerated monsters recruited for missions deemed too dangerous for humans. When all else fails… they’re your last, worst option. The cast of Creature Commandos includes Steve Agee as Economos, Maria Bakalova as Princess Ilana, Anya Chalotra as Circe, Zoe Chao as Nina Mazursky, Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr., Sean Gunn as GI Robot & Weasel, David Harbour as Frankenstein, Alan Tudyk as Dr. Phosphorus, Indira Varma as The Bride, and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller. Based on DC characters and produced by DC Studios and Warner Bros. Animation; additional executive producers include Peter Safran, Dean Lorey, and Sam Register; Rick Morales serves as a supervising producer.

“It was great, and it was really different in the sense that James Gunn had written all of the scripts before we started shooting,” Lorey explained to ComicBook in a recent exclusive interview. “Usually, I’m one of the writers on a show, even if I’m running it. But James had fully written the scripts. They were great scripts. Everybody was really, really excited about them. So the process went into production quicker than normal, because there were scripts that were ready to go. And we were really lucky to get voice cast that [we have]. I think the Harley voice cast is great, and Kite Man, and I think the Creature Commandos voice cast is easily the equal of those. It just was a pure pleasure to be working with James, who had such a very clear vision of what he wanted the show to be. He really knows that world. He knows it backwards and forwards. So just in terms of making the show, it’s been a pleasure, and everybody has been great to work with. I think it’s going to be a significant release. I don’t know if people really know what they’re in for yet, but it’s fantastic. We’re so proud of it.” 

Creature Commandos will premiere exclusively on Max on Thursday, December 5th.

The post Creature Commandos NYCC Trailer Gives New Look at First DCU Series appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Rick and Morty first kicked off with a joke that it would be running for 100 years, and a new renewal for the series makes that even more possible as it’s going to become one of the longest running original animated series with Adult Swim. Rick and Morty has become a juggernaut of a franchise for Adult Swim, and has clearly become one of the pillars of the block since its first debut as it has been one of the most successful Warner Bros. animated projects of the last decade. While the first few years were met with lots of trouble behind the scenes, production on the series has reached a workable schedule.

As Rick and Morty is now on a steady production track for its new episodes, Adult Swim has announced that they have already renewed Rick and Morty for Seasons 11 and 12. Season 10 of the animated series will mark the end of the historic initial 70 episode renewal following Rick and Morty Season 3. This will bring the series to over 120 half-hour episodes when it’s all said and done, and thus will make it the longest Adult Swim animated original beating out other animated long running classics like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and Squidbillies.

Rick and Morty Makes Adult Swim History

Although it won’t be the longest original in terms of number of seasons with this renewal with Squidbillies and Off the Air currently holding the longest at 13 seasons, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force currently at 12 also, Rick and Morty’s runtime will be long overshadowing its compatriots in terms of minutes watched by the time Season 12 comes to an end. This is a pretty notable renewal for Adult Swim as it not only showcases their further commitment to the franchise even following everything that happened with co-creator Justin Roiland, but also showcases how big of a pillar Rick and Morty has become for Adult Swim overall.

It’s hard not to think of Adult Swim these days without Rick and Morty. Although series have popped in the meantime with more buzz online with releases like Smiling Friends, Rick and Morty has broken through the mainstream and has really cemented its place within the wider pop culture world through the last decade of its run. And as it prepares to return for Season 8 next year, it’s preparing to enter a whole new era for the series with new stars at the center of it all.

When Will Rick and Morty Season 8 Release?

This two season renewal from Adult Swim also reveals how healthier Rick and Morty’s production behind the scenes has become. Keeping set to a steady, productive schedule, Rick and Morty’s team during New York Comic Con revealed that Season 8 is now in its animation stages with its first look revealed, and so it’s not hard to imagine Season 9 is likely in early animation stages as well. The team revealed Season 10 is in its final writing phase too, so this means that Season 11 will likely begin work as soon as 2025, and Season 12 not long after.

If Rick and Morty‘s creative team is willing to keep up this pace and desire to keep it going, Rick and Morty likely won’t be going anywhere any time soon. When this renewal wraps up its run of episodes, there’s a good chance it will be renewed for more episodes to at least get to the Season 15 mark. This would also make it one of the longest running animated sitcoms ever, but everything’s got to continue strongly over the next few years.

The post Rick and Morty’s Renewal Will Make It One of Adult Swim’s Longest-Running Shows appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The final few minutes of Marvel’s WandaVision are among the most heartbreaking in the entire MCU. In order to free the people of Westview that she’d trapped, Wanda Maximoff made the choice to give up the family she’d created, moving on without her sons Tommy and Billy. Not only were the two boys real to Wanda, but the post-credits scene for WandaVision teased that they actually existed somewhere else. As Wanda hid out in a log cabin in the mountains, searching for answers in the Darkhold, she heard the boys calling out to her.

That moment seemed to hint at Billy and Tommy living in another reality somewhere across the multiverse. That was addressed in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, as Wanda tried to take over her life in another universe and get her boys back. After the most recent episode of Agatha All Along, however, that WandaVision post-credits scene feels a little different, and seems like it could be hinting at the Billy and Tommy we now know exist in Earth-616. WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Agatha All Along! Continue reading at your own risk…

The fifth episode of Agatha All Along confirmed what many fans assumed — that Teen was actually Billy Maximoff. A week later, the sixth episode filled us all in on how Billy ended up in Agatha’s company. It was revealed on Wednesday that the spirits of Billy and Tommy managed to escape Westview when the hex collapsed. These souls that Wanda created out of her love managed to make it out into the real world, but neither of them had bodies to possess.

A young man named William Kaplan was in a terrible car accident just as the hex was collapsing, and Billy’s soul found a way into his body, bringing it back to life and inhabiting it as his own. We still don’t know where exactly Tommy ended up, but Billy is 100% certain his twin brother is also alive somewhere in the world.

So what does all that have to do with Wanda? This new revelation about Billy and Tommy actually makes Wanda’s story — and that post-credits scene — even more tragic.

Wanda traveled the multiverse looking for her sons. She killed people in order to accomplish her mission. She lost herself for most of that journey. Ultimately, she came back around and left the alternate-reality Billy and Tommy with their family, shortly before losing her own life.

That story is already a heart-breaking one, but it gets even sadder knowing what we now know. Billy and Tommy were right here, the whole time, not very far from Westview. Sure, they look different than they did when they were Wanda’s boys, but they’re very much alive. She could’ve found them and connected with them without ever leaving the country, let alone the universe. She lost everything when she didn’t have to.

You could probably use this new information to read that WandaVision post-credits scene a little differently as well. With Billy and Tommy’s souls still on the same plane of existence as Wanda, they could’ve been subconsciously calling out to her, looking to reunite their family.

When she says goodbye to her sons at the end of WandaVision, just before the hex collapses, Wanda tells them, “We could never leave each other, even if we tried.” That turned out to be more true than Wanda realized.

The post Agatha All Along Just Made the MCU’s Most Emotional Post-Credit Scene All the More Heartbreaking appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Daredevil: Born Again has a confirmed release date on Disney+. During New York Comic-Con’s Marvel panel, Vincent D’Onofrio and Charlie Cox revealed that their MCU series kicks off on March 4, 2025. Before now, Marvel fans only knew that the title would be up around the first half of the year. With this confirmation, there’s something else for MCU die-hards to obsess over once Captain America: Brave New World flies into theaters. As the holiday season approaches, there was some feeling we would get some sort of announcement about Charlie Cox’s return as Daredevil. It’s been a while since we saw his prospective Avenger back in She-Hulk. In addition, D’Onofrio’s emotional turn in Echo represented his last Marvel cameo too. It’s full-steam ahead towards 2025 on Disney.

A lot of hype has circled Daredevil: Born Again since the moment it was announced. The vocal fanbase for the Netflix series has talked so much about how much this show meant to them. When Marvel Studios got the first drafts of the show back, they opted to retool a lot of it and go with new directors because of how anticipated this all was. Marvel Television head of streaming Brad Winderbaum is confident in the series. The Official Marvel Podcast asked him about Daredevil: Born Again and he thinks it shares a lot of DNA with a current Marvel Studios favorite. “Daredevil is incredible. It’s similar in some ways to X-Men ’97 because it’s reviving something that the fans love,” Winderbaum said earlier this year. “But it’s taking it in a new direction.”

“These characters have matured. The universe is different than it was. Things have changed. Society’s changed. Matt and Wilson have changed, and their characters are going to collide in ways we’ve never seen before,” Winderbaum shared. “It’s no longer enough to try to murder each other. There’s a whole game of politics at play.”

With all of this news today, the positive press for the show continues unabated. It seems like a firm release date will only ignite calls for more details about the show. New York Comic-Con should render some more tidbits about the series and tease fans with even more hints about what Matt Murdock is going to be up to in 2025. This year of Marvel Studios releases really puts the unnecessary fervor about the last year and change into perspective. 2023 was weird for a number of reasons. (Actors/writers strike, inflation paranoia, global conflict, etc.) This year, a mix of fan favorites has gotten sentiment on social media right back up to where it was around the end of 2022 or so. Now, Marvel is hoping to carry that momentum into 2025.

Do you think we get a trailer before the year is over? Check out all the pop culture discussion at @ComicBook!

The post Daredevil: Born Again Release Date Revealed, Marvel Favorite Returns Sooner Than You Think appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir has become a fan-favorite, recently celebrating its tenth anniversary and looking to expand quite far outside of its regular television seasons. Already giving animation fans five seasons, the future is looking bright for the crime fighters as not only is the franchise looking to create a live-action series and future movies that will arrive in theaters. On top of these upcoming releases, Miraculous is looking to release a new movie that will definitively bring both Cat Noir and Ladybug into the anime realm. Pack your suitcases Miraculous fans because the heroes are going to Tokyo, Japan.

In a new interview with Variety, Miraculous Corp CEO, Andy Yeatman, confirmed that the franchise is looking to expand into different areas to capitalize on its popularity. Surprising no one, anime appears to be a new medium that Ladybug and Cat Noir will dive into next year, “We think there’s a lot of room to expand further in different areas that we haven’t tapped in yet. We’ll be introducing brand new characters that the creative team has developed and in some cases have created and playing around with internally for many years.” In another surprising twist, the two heroes won’t be alone as new characters are set to hit the scene in the franchise’s future.

Miraculous World: Tokyo

Set to arrive by the end of 2025, Miraculous World: Tokyo is the fourth television special to be released following the superheroes. In describing the upcoming anime adventure, Yeatman also hinted at what is to come for the future television specials past Japan, “So Tokyo being the first one, we have one planned for Rio, Brazil, and then several other locations that will be like characters in the show.” From this quote, it seems that Ladybug and Cat Noir’s journey is one that isn’t ending any time soon.

As mentioned earlier, the costumed heroes are set to be joined by new crime fighters that might be building their way to a spin-off of their own. Lady Dragon and Stellar Force are the aforementioned figures and as described by Yeatman himself, the characters will already be well established in the villain fighting game, “They will probably meet each other. You might imagine Ladybug helping to introduce (Lady Dragon and Stellar Force), but there’ll be new characters with their own team, their own friends, their own crushes, set in their own cities, with their own superpowers, set in different iconic locations.”

On further breaking down Stellar Force and Lady Dragon, the Miraculous Corp CEO also talked about the similarities between all the superheroes of the Miraculous franchise, “They’re all relatable teenagers, they’re kind of goofy, they’re funny, they’re vulnerable. But then they all discover they have certain different superpowers, and then they use those superpowers to help their friends and the world.”

Miraculous’ Success

Yeatman has been a part of making Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir the juggernaut that it is today. During the Variety interview, the Chief Executive Officer explained why he believes the franchise has garnered such success, “It’s the only show that was a hit on Disney and Netflix and YouTube and Roblox, and it’s popular with different demo. Our core demo is like a 5-11 boys and girls. But we’ve seen that the show can be popular for teens, for young adults.”

Want to stay tuned on all things Miraculous, whether it be the main series, television specials, and live-action projects? Follow along with Team Anime for all the latest updates on Cat Noir and Ladybug and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things anime and comics.

The post Yes, A Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir Anime is Coming appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Agatha All Along finally revealed who put that sigil on Billy and Marvel fans are shocked about the identity of that witch. Episode 6 of the MCU show explained that Lillia Calderu was the one to “put a sigil on that boy.” Yes, Patti Lupone’s character said those words earlier in Agatha All Along and now they’ve taken on a new meaning. During those earlier trials on The Witches’ Road, Joe Locke’s character was shrouded in secrecy as the other coven members couldn’t quite decipher his identity. However, Episode 6 makes it clear that Agatha really knew all along. Billy Maximoff is the product of the hex breaking down and the boy’s soul being bonded to poor William Kaplan’s body after a tragic car crash. Viewers can see that Calderu’s divination magic allowed her to see the catastrophe.

Confronted by that morbid future, Calderu decided to scrawl down a quick spell on a tile and slipped it into the boy’s coat pocket. Someone grabs his jacket and gets it back to Billy as they’re evacuating his bar mitzvah. As it would happen, the Westview Incident (i.e. The Hex from WandaVision) is happening nearby and the illusion is becoming unstable. Billy and his parents flee in their car and a general panic ensues among the people leaving the young man’s party. As they’re navigating the way home, the Kaplan family unsuspectingly drifts into oncoming traffic and Billy’s mother has to swerve to avoid a truck that is barrelling down on the family sedan. Unfortunately, that quick jerk of the steering wheel sends the car careening off the road and hits a tree. Which jumpstarts our narrative for Agatha All Along.

Agatha All Along Reveals Who Put the Sigil on Billy

As the car sits with massive damage, both Kaplan’s parents are okay. But, their adolescent son is in rough shape. He was in the exact place to take the brunt of that crash into a tree. After his heart stopped beating, young Billy Maximoff’s soul swept into his body. Now bonded, William woke up yelling for his brother Tommy and was disoriented from not being in the Maximoff house in Westview. From there, he lives three years under a new identity with strange powers. Upon digging into the Westview anomaly, he figures out that Agatha Harkness is the person he should be looking for. Ralph Bohner cameos and mentions meeting Billy before and tells the kid about Tommy. Now, with that information, the young witch sets off to find his brother down The Witches’ Road.

Billy meets up with all the other witches as Agatha Harkness is assembling this coven and now viewers know that he’s met most of them before in random ways. He followed Jennifer Kale as an influencer, Alice was one of the emergency workers that saved him after the accident, Sharon called him a hooligan after breaking and entering, and Lillia Calderu worked at his bar mitzvah. It’s an interesting game to go back and think how this knowledge colors his interactions with each witch. (It also raises the possibility that he’s met Rio Vidal before too… Something to ponder as we continue!) There is also some wiggle room when it comes to interpretation here as we don’t see who returned Billy’s coat during the evacuation.

Is Billy’s Sigil Just A Misdirect For A Larger Mystery 

Could Rio really be responsible for the sigil? It’s a little unlikely at the moment. It really feels like Calderu’s scrawling is your ultimate culprit. But, it also feels like Aubrey Plaza’s absence is there for a reason here. Her visage is obscured when we see the events from earlier in Agatha All Along from Billy’s perspective. Sure, we know he’s the long-lost Maximoff boy now. But, it sure does seem like director Jac Schaeffer and the creative team are hiding an even bigger reveal when it comes to Rio Vidal. This entire exercise is now feeling more like a red herring than ever. A sidequest devised to keep the fanbase focused on the red ball in one hand while the other picks your pocket. We’ll know more as Agatha All Along screeches towards that Devil’s Night finale. 

Were you shocked by Agatha All Along Episode 6? Check out all the pop culture discussion over at @ComicBook!

The post Agatha All Along Reveals Who Put the Sigil on Billy (And You’ll Never Guess Who It Really Is) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Fans of Virgin River are going to get more episodes of their favorite show a little sooner than they might’ve thought. One of the longest-running and most popular dramas on Netflix, Virgin River released its fifth season late last year, followed by a couple of holiday-themed special episodes. Some thought the show would return for Season 6 in early 2025, but Netflix confirmed that the wait would actually be shorter.

This week saw Netflix release the first teaser trailer for Virgin River Season 6, which you can watch in the video above. In addition to revealing the first footage from the show’s highly anticipated return, the new Virgin River teaser also revealed that the show will be coming back in 2024. The sixth season of Virgin River will officially premiere on December 19th.

Virgin River‘s sixth season is going to be a big deal for a number of reasons. For starters, this is set to be the season that will finally feature the wedding of Mel and Jack. As wedding preparations commence, Virgin River will also be telling a second story in another timeline, setting up a whole new prequel series in the process.

Last year’s holiday episodes addressed the history that Mel’s parents had in and around Virgin River. There will be several flashbacks throughout Season 6 that tell the story of Mel’s father in the 1970s. That will likely lead to a spinoff series that Netflix has been developing for some time.

“Against the backdrop of Mel and Jack’s romantic spring wedding season, this sixth installment promises fresh twists and turns, escalating love triangles, delightful wedding drama, as well as uncovered secrets from Mel’s father’s past which will transport us to the magic and mystique of Virgin River in the 1970s,” reads the official logline for Virgin River Season 6.

“What we’re exploring more in Season 6 is who Everett Reid is, what his backstory is, what his connection to Virgin River was when he met her mom, and then also what it is today,” Virgin River showrunner Patrick Sean Smith said during a Q&A with Deadline last year. He went on to add that the show will explore the “relationship of Everett with the town as well as Everett and Mel.”

The series regulars for Virgin River Season 6 include Alexandra Breckinridge, Martin Henderson, Tim Matheson, Annette O’Toole, Colin Lawrence, Benjamin Hollingsworth, Zibby Allen, Sarah Dugdale, Marco Grazzini, Kai Bradbury, Kandyse McClure, and Mark Ghanime.

The post Netflix Reveals Virgin River Season 6 Premiere Date, Teaser Trailer appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Agatha All Along dropped a ton of lore this week and upended one of the most popular pieces of evidence about Rio Vidal’s true identity. Episode 6 is all about Billy Maximoff and how he ended up on The Witches’ Road. One of the big reveals was who placed the sigil on the boy, and it ended up being Lillia Calderu! The divination witch read Billy’s future and tried to protect him. In her haste, she decided to place the sigil on the boy so that he wouldn’t be in danger of some other witch finding him and using his tremendous power for their own gain. However, the power of the sigil makes it so that she wouldn’t remember his identity either. This revelation means one of the earliest clues about Rio Vidal’s true nature was not what it seemed on first blush. The fan base is absolutely shocked by these developments.

When Agatha Harkness was putting together her coven, she took the teen around to all the different witches within the miles radius around Westview. Their early trip to Lilia Calderu left them with a list of names to pursue on this journey. A bunch of Marvel fans’ eyebrows went straight up when she drew a black heart instead of a name for one of the entries. Of course, their imaginations jumped right to Rio Vidal. But, it seems as though the black heart might be from Lilia remembering Billy and not being able to write down his name. It really fits when you think about it and feels so crushing as she was trying to prevent this exact scenario from taking place. Yet and still, destiny came for Billy and she could only protect him for a little while longer.

Agatha All Along Just Debunked a Popular Rio Vidal Fan Theory

Rio Vidal might really never have been meant to travel down The Witches’ Road with the coven at all. Mrs. Hart looks like she was the plan at Green Witch and the other women just panicked when Sharon bit the dust in the first trial. As Rio Vidal crawled into frame, it became clear that the witches did summon her, but this wasn’t a part of Lilia’s roster earlier in the series. The small detail had some Marvel fans believing she could even be Blackheart or some other comics deep cut. (That one theory was massively aided by the idea of Mephisto finally making some sort of appearance in Agatha All Along after being teased multiple times in WandaVision. Now, that theory has taken a bit of a hit as well.

Aubrey Plaza has been very mum on what’s going on with her Marvel character. Despite the relative silence out of Marvel Studios, the fans think they’ve already got this one figured out. A couple of observant viewers noticed that some of Rio Vidal’s costume design slots in nicely with the Death tarot card that debuted earlier in the series. As an existing Marvel Comics character, that does make a measure of sense. Other moments with the Green Witch lock into place too. Her approaching Billy tentatively after his close call in Episode 4, Rio’s disappearance after Alice’s demise, her absence from Billy’s flashbacks during this episode? It’s all very suspicious when you stack it all up. There’s also the matter of her longstanding unspoken relationship with Agatha, and fans think that links back to the death of the Harkness witch’s son.

Rio Vidal Isn’t Blackheart, and That Means The Death Fan Theory Still Has Legs

The bottom line here is that Rio Vidal isn’t going to be some sort of wild pull like Blackheart. Death is much more reasonable guess in this scenario. In addition, a Mephisto appearance seems a bit unlikely, so adjust your expectations accordingly. (Challenge level: impossible.) Plaza’s palpable chemistry with Kathryn Hahn will prove enough of a reward without some massive third act swerve. But, the latest episode helps set Marvel fans on the right track of expectations as the finale looms larger and larger. There are other surprises lurking in Agatha All Along. However, they might not be exactly what people were expecting in those first few chapters.

What was your favorite detail from Agatha All Along Episode 6? Check out all the pop culture discussion over at @ComicBook!

The post Agatha All Along Just Debunked a Popular Rio Vidal Fan Theory appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Motor City Machine Guns made their anticipated debut during tonight’s WWE SmackDown, and the only thing that could make that debut better is getting a win at the same time. That would be a tall order, as earlier in the night it was revealed that MCMG would be facing A-Town Down and Los Garza in a Triple Threat match. There were added stakes as well, as a second Tripel Threat was also in the mix, and the winners would face each other for a shot at the Tag Team Championships. Every team had their moments, but MCMG showcased their talents throughout and survived a big wave from A-Town Down to get the win, setting them up for a match against DIY and moving them one huge step closer to becoming WWE Tag Team Championships. To do that, however, they’ll need to take down The Bloodline, and that’s a confrontation everyone wants to see. At this rate, it seems we are getting that sooner rather than later.

Off To A Great Start

Garza and Waller teamed up to attack Sabin to start off the match, with the superstars looking to take the newest WWE additions down a peg. Sabin got up top and hit a crossbody to knock both down and then hit the slick slam on Garza. They then hit sliding kicks and then threw the other two opponents out of the ring before Sabin went between Shelley’s legs with a big dive.

Waller dropped Shelley but MCMG quickly recovered, with Shelley taking control of the match-up against Waller in the ring. Shelley brought down Waller’s elbow painfully but then got rocked with a punch to the face. He got knocked to the mat again when Waller and Theory both punched him, but Garza broke up a pin attempt and then tagged in Carrillo.

Carrillo was in command of the match for a while, with Shelley unable to get to Sabin. Theory and Waller would come racing in to keep Shelley from tagging his partner in, but Shelley was able to stay afloat, even after Carrillo hit double stomps from the top rope and went to pin Waller. Theory broke it up and went to war with Carrillo, and a vicious knee to the back of Carrillo shifted the match his way.

That all changed when Shelley finally got the tag to Sabin, who teamed up and knocked out Theory and then set up Carrillo for the big splash into the neckbreaker, and that was it for Los Garza and A-Town Down. MCMG gets the win in their WWE debut, and they will face DIY in a match next week to decide who will get the shot at the WWE Tag Team Championships.

A Bloodline Battle

Now, that’s where things become interesting. First off, MCMG vs DIY has the potential to bring down the house as a match, but add in the stakes of a Title shot and you have a recipe for a thrilling battle. Secondly, this sets MCMG up for a confrontation with The Bloodline, as Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa are the current WWE Tag Team Champions. It will be interesting to see how MCMG fits into the current Bloodline saga, as right now everything is locked in with Roman Reigns at the moment.

Do Roman and Jimmy find a way to help MCMG get the gold off of The Bloodline? Does MCMG end up developing a feud with Tama and Tonga that in a way helps Reigns and Jimmy? We’ll have to wait and see, but MCMG finds themselves right in the spotlight of SmackDown, and that’s a stellar place to be right at the start of their WWE careers.

What did you think of the Motor City Machine Guns’ WWE debut on SmackDown? You can talk all things wrestling with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!

The post WWE’s Motor City Machine Guns Take Big Step Towards The Bloodline in SmackDown Debut appeared first on ComicBook.com.

It was all about The Bloodline saga during tonight’s WWE SmackDown, starting with a confrontation between Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu, and Jey Uso. That all took place before Roman Reigns and Jimmy Uso were even in the building, and once they arrived, things got even more intriguing, as we finally got to see Roman and Jey reunite and come face to face. It didn’t go like anyone expected though, as Reigns stunned everyone when he told Jey “I’m proud of you”, though it wasn’t enough to draw Jey to his side, who said “No Yeet” and walked away. You can watch the clip right here.

That said, there were cracks in the stoic reaction we saw from Jey during his meeting with Jimmy Uso on this week’s Monday Night Raw. When that happened, Jey was surprised to see Jimmy, and he didn’t even stay to say anything, walking out of the room and leaving Jimmy backstage. Jimmy would find Jey later in the episode and the reaction was mostly the same, but things have chilled a bit from tonight’s encounter.

Main Event and OTC

After Roman and Jey arrive and start to walk into the arena, Jey is walking out and they cross paths. His initial reaction is a smile when he sees Jimmy, and Jimmy is all smiles at seeing Jey back on SmackDown. Then Jey looks at Roman and the expression turns sour, and after a moment he starts to walk away.

Reigns grabs his arm though and Jey walks back a bit, and that’s when Reigns surprises everyone by telling Jey, “I’m proud of you. We all are.” Jimmy is surprised and looks at Jey, and Jey at first seems to be a bit stunned. He looks away and seems confused for just a moment before shaking his head and telling Reigns, “Man, no Yeet.” After he leaves, Reigns says, “I told you. C’mon.”

Later in the episode, Reigns and Jimmy are backstage and joking around a bit, and then Jimmy brings up Jey, saying that Reigns should talk to him again. Reigns says they tried it that way and it didn’t work, adding, “It’s time to do it my way. I’m going to fix this, tonight.” Jimmy says, “How the hell are you going to do that?” Reigns delivers another shocking reply, saying “I’m gonna acknowledge Solo.”

Whether that happens remains to be seen, but Sikoa did tell Jey that there was a spot for him and Roman if they would just acknowledge their Tribal Chief. Jey wasn’t doing it, and neither was Roman, but perhaps he’s changed his mind. This could be part of a bigger plan though to lure Sikoa and his team in so they can take the Ula Fala, though that could go wrong quite easily. Perhaps we’ll see Jey make another appearance before SmackDown is done, but either way, we shouldn’t have to wait too much longer to find out.

What do you want to see for Roman, Jey, and The Bloodline from here? You can talk all things wrestling with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!

The post WWE’s Roman Reigns and Jey Uso’s Reunion on SmackDown Isn’t What Anyone Expected appeared first on ComicBook.com.