Welcome to Multiverse News, your source for information about all your favorite fictional universes.

Marvel dropped the first full trailer for X-Men ’97 Season 2 this week, confirming a July 1 premiere on Disney+ and Apocalypse as the season’s central threat. The nine-episode season picks up from the Season 1 finale with the X-Men scattered across time from ancient Egypt to the far future, while those left behind in the ’90s work to bring them back, with the trailer also sneaking in a Morph-as-Deadpool shapeshifting moment for good measure. A third season is already in production. On the Doomsday front, Joe and Anthony Russo posted a series of cryptic images to Instagram with various hints and teases towards an Avengers: Doomsday reveal connected to this week’s SXSW Film Festival in London; as of Tuesday morning, the hype seems to have all been for a Doctor Doom themed coffee shop pop-up for attendees of the festival.

James Gunn took to Instagram this week with a fit check from the set of Superman: Man of Tomorrow, revealing a first look at Nicholas Hoult in Lex Luthor’s iconic mech-suit, which in the comics gives Luthor superhuman strength, flight, and force fields. The image also appears to show a sandy, otherworldly backdrop, leaving plenty to speculate about heading into the film’s 2027 release.

A24’s Backrooms had one of the biggest opening weekends of the year, pulling in 81 million dollars domestically and 118 million worldwide in its debut, the largest opening in A24 history and more than triple what Civil War earned in 2024. The film was adapted from the viral YouTube web series by its creator Kane Parsons, who at 20 years old is now the youngest filmmaker ever to open a number one film, and was produced for roughly 10 million dollars. Meanwhile The Mandalorian and Grogu fell to third place after its second week in theaters with a 69% drop.

Prime Video has renewed The Rings of Power for a fourth season ahead of its Season 3 debut later this year, with early preproduction beginning this fall and filming targeted for early 2027.

A24 has released the first trailer for Primetime, starring Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen of Dateline NBC’s To Catch a Predator fame, from acclaimed documentarian Lance Oppenheim, with the film set to premiere this fall.

ElevenLabs has struck a deal with the estate of Stan Lee, licensing the Marvel legend’s voice and likeness for AI-generated content available both to app users and commercial partners.

The Minecraft Movie sequel now has a title: A Minecraft Movie Squared, due in theaters next July.

HBO has dropped the full trailer for House of the Dragon Season 3, offering the first look at the season’s major battle sequences, with the show returning June 21st.

Anna Kendrick has been tapped to direct Netflix’s adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

During Playstation’s annual State of Play showcase, God of War: Laufey was announced to be the next entry in the franchise and an extended gameplay trailer for Insomaniac’s Wolverine was released online.

Over this past Memorial Day weekend, The Mandalorian and Grogu opened to $163 million dollars worldwide, exceeding its projected expectations. In a big second weekend, horror film Obsession pulled in $30 million dollars, bringing the worldwide total for the film over $60 million dollars. Obsession was shot on a budget of less than $1 million dollars.

Prime Video has released the first trailer for The Boys spinoff and prequel Vought Rising, which stars Jensen Ackles and Aya Cash. The series is expected to start streaming sometime next year. Set in the 1950s, the teaser trailer follows a younger Soldier Boy and Clara Vought (later Stormfront) as a noir-style conspiracy and murder mystery unfolds amid secret experiments, corporate corruption, and the creation of America’s first superheroes.

More details have begun to emerge about The Daniel's upcoming sci fi film project. Matt Damon is currently in talks to star, replacing Ryan Gosling who dropped out of the project. The Hollywood Reporter also reports that the plot of the film involves global warming, time travel, as well as a possible superhero angle. There are two timelines, one set in the 1980s and one set in the present day and protagonists of the story are teens in the 1980s timeline.

"Abbott Elementary” creator and Emmy winner Quinta Brunson will develop and star as Betty Boop in a feature film adaptation of the nearly century-old animated icon, Variety has learned exclusively. Brunson’s company, Fifth Chance Productions, is bringing the character back to life with Mark Fleischer who is the grandson of original Betty Boop creator Max Fleischer. Notably, the film’s plot will trace the character’s evolution through the perspective of Max and how the name that became an icon emerged.

The review embargo lifted today for The Mandalorian and Grogu, and the bag is more than a little mixed. Critics are either praising the film for its fun action adventure nature of the bounty hunter and his foundling or others are saying the film does not live up to the iconography that Lucasfilm and Star Wars is known for as well as having too small of a story for the big screen. With this being the first Star Wars film in seven years, a lot is likely riding on the performance of Din Djarin and Din Grogu.

Ebon Moss-Bachrach has been quietly dishing details on not only Avengers: Doomsday but Secret Wars across his various media appearances in recent days. On Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast, the Thing actor admitted the Doomsday script he read didn't have a finished third act saying, "I don't think it had an ending,” and described the production as so compartmentalized and "interstellar" that he'd repeatedly go back to Joe Russo to have the multiverse threading re-explained. Then in a separate chat with the Dog Day Afternoon Broadway team, a play based on the 1975 film the actor is performing in, he casually dropped that Secret Wars filming kicks off in August 2026, right after his stage run wraps in mid-July.

HBO set August 16 as the premiere date for Lanterns and dropped a new trailer that complicates the show's dark, earth-based mystery pitch with shots of Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan in the classic Green Lantern uniform and what appears to be an off-world setting. The trailer also confirms Nathan Fillion is reprising his role as Guy Gardner and reveals Laura Linney in an undisclosed part opposite Aaron Pierre's John Stewart. Matt Reeves used a series of X posts last week to officially welcome Brian Tyree Henry and Sebastian Koch to Gotham for The Batman: Part II. They join the previously confirmed additions of Scarlett Johansson as Gilda Dent, Sebastian Stan as Harvey Dent, and Charles Dance as Harvey's father Christopher. Henry, a Marvel alum from Eternals who also memorably appeared in 2019's Joker, marks his second trip into the DC sandbox, while Koch is known for his prestige work appearing in films like Bridge of Spies.

Michael continued another strong run at the box office this weekend and has now crossed $700 million dollars worldwide while the Devil Wears Prada 2 also continued its solid streak, crossing the $500 million dollar mark internationally. Mortal Kombat 2 crossed the $100 million dollar mark in its second weekend. Horror film Obsession opened very well with $23 million dollars worldwide, a big opening for a film from a first time director acquired out of a film festival.

Marvel is making some changes to leadership in its comics division. The company has promoted Brad Winderbaum, already its chief of television and animation, to head of Marvel television, animation, comics and franchise. At the same time, David Abdo, former manager of Disney's music division, will transition to serve as Marvel’s general manager, comics and franchise, reporting to Winderbaum. With the new top leadership coming in, that means that Dan Buckley, the longtime Marvel Comics head, is departing. Buckley will remain at Marvel through mid-2027 to support the leadership transition.

HBO's Harry Potter series will already be recasting a role as production begins on season 2. Actress Gracie Cochrane, who portrays Ginny Weasley in the upcoming season 1 will not return for Season 2 of the series due to 'unforeseen circumstances,' Cochrane and her family revealed in a statement.

Disney+ has begun development on Ella Enchanted, a TV series based on the 2004 Miramax fairytale film of the same name that starred Anne Hathaway, who will return to produce the series. Anyone But You writer Ilana Wolpert will serve as showrunner.

A final look trailer for Prime’s Spider-Noir, starring Nicholas Cage, was dropped today.