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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.

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During Disney’s annual upfront presentation on Tuesday, Marvel Television revealed that the long awaited VisionQuest series will hit Disney Plus later this fall, with the debut streaming October 14. A trailer for the Paul Bettany led spinoff was also shown to media buyers and advertisers and reportedly featured a look at James Spader’s return as Ultron. This exciting update comes on the heels of Daredevil: Born Again’s Season 2 finale and the release of the Punisher special presentation; with all eyes on the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day and, of course, Avengers: Doomsday,

Disney’s Tuesday presentation also shed some light on Lucasfilm’s streaming future with Ahsoka Season 2 promised for an early 2027 release window on Disney Plus, more than 3 years after Season 1 streamed in 2023. Rosario Dawson took the stage where she teased, “This season, the battles are bigger and the stakes are higher.” Ahsoka creator and Lucasfilm co-head Dave Filoni backed Dawson’s comments while featured in a sneak peek of the upcoming season.

It’s been a while since we discussed DC’s Deathstroke & Bane team up feature with details remaining sparse since it was first announced in September; now Deadline is reporting that according to its sources not only is the film still in development, but multiple directors including Greg Mottola as a frontrunner are in talks to helm it. Mottola is no stranger to the DCU or James Gunn, having directed episodes of Peacemaker. While DC has yet to comment, Moon Knight writer Matthew Orton reportedly wrote the initial screenplay for the villain duo team-up and is set to do a rewrite if Mottola does end up being the choice. In other DCU news, Friday Night Lights actor Sinqua Walls has joined the cast of Man of Tomorrow in an undisclosed role.

Deadpool and Wolverine director Shawn Levy is now attached to direct an original sci fi film written by Max Taxe titled Somewhere Out There for Netflix.

New release Mortal Kombat 2 came in third place at the box office this weekend, behind The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Michael. Globally, The Devil Wears Prada 2 has crossed $400 million dollars and Michael has crossed $500 million dollars. Mortal Kombat 2 earned a worldwide box office total of $63 million dollars with only $23 million of that total made overseas.

NBCUniversal has confirmed that a live-action Fast and the Furious series is in development. Vin Diesel, who will serve as a producer, announced the project, which is set up at Peacock, on stage at the NBCUniversal upfront presentation Monday morning.

Florence Pugh is set to star in and produce fantasy drama The Midnight Library, which will be directed by Garth Davis. The Midnight Library is based on a novel of the same name by Matt Haig.

Conan O'Brien will return to host the Oscars in 2027 which will make his third consecutive year as the host of the ceremony.

Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul has joined the cast of season 3 of Prime Video's Fallout.

After bringing Michael Crichton‘s theme park vision to the screen scripting 1993’s Jurassic Park and two sequels, screenwriter David Koepp is looking to tackle another one. Deadline hears Koepp will revisit Westworld, the 1973 film written and directed by Crichton. A major unnamed director is also circling the project for Warner Brothers.

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Kenneth Branagh, who directed 2011's Thor for the MCU, recently spoke about his willingness to return to direct the character again if asked, saying, "Part of me would love to finish my relationship with that character. I’d always wanted to do more and indeed had a couple of ideas, more in the territory of James Mangold’s brilliant Logan. I would love to see Chris Hemsworth and the others have their own individual final story that takes Thor into a glorious twilight.”

A full-length trailer for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey debuted on Tuesday, providing a more in-depth look at the film. Starring a cast of A-List talent, Matt Damon plays the main role of Odysseus who is trying to get home after the Trojan War as he wades through myths and legends to do so. Nolan has of course filmed the entire movie specifically for IMAX and was recently quoted saying it was “an absolute nightmare” to film due to its physically demanding nature.

At the box office this weekend, The Devil Wears Prada 2 got off to a solid global start, raking in $233.6 million. The fashion-forward sequel was projected to hit $73 million domestically and achieved $77 million. Elsewhere, Michael has crossed the $400 million mark worldwide and Super Mario Galaxy is coming up on $900 million dollars.

The first trailer for Zach Cregger's Resident Evil has been released. The film currently has a release date of September 18.

Andor star Diego Luna has joined the cast of Disney's live action adaptation of Tangled in a role specifically made for the feature.

Matt Shakman, who directed Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps, has been tapped to helm a new installment of The Planet of the Apes franchise for 20th Century Studios. Josh Friedman, who co-wrote Fantastic Four: First Steps as well as Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, will write the new script.

Sources tell Deadline that Matthew Lillard has joined the cast of DC Studio’s Man of Tomorrow in an undisclosed role.

Lionsgate has closed a deal with horror director Dylan Clark to direct the upcoming reboot of The Blair Witch Project. Additionally, Joshua Leonard and Michael C. Williams, who starred in the original 1999 found-footage hit, are set to serve as executive producers, as are the first movie’s directing team of Eduardo Sánchez, Daniel Myrick and Gregg Hale.

On Tuesday, Hulu dropped a surprise prequel episode of The Bear titled 'Gary' ahead of its season 5 debut this summer. The hour long episode follows Richie played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Mikey played by Jon Bernthal on a trip to Gary, Indiana, before the events of the main series.

Ari Aster has set his next film titled Scapegoat which will be produced by A24. Although plot details are currently under wraps, Scarlett Johansson has closed a deal to star in the film.

New Line has unveiled the first trailer for Evil Dead Burn, the latest installment in its classic horror franchise Evil Dead, which is slated for release in theaters on July 10.

Spider Noir’s New Trailer, DCU Changes, and a trailer for House of the Dragon Season 3

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The official trailer for Prime Video’s Spider-Noir was released on Saturday during Mexico City’s CCXP pop culture festival. In addition to showcasing our most significant looks at Nicolas Cage in the role, gumshoe Ben Reilly, alongside glimpses of villains Sandman, Electro, Tombstone and Brendan Gleeson’s yet-to-be-named mob boss character, the trailer also emphasized the series availability to stream in true noir black and white, or color which they have dubbed “True-Hue Full Color”.

Saturday’s CCXP Mexico was also the site for HBO Max’s unveiling of a new official teaser trailer for House of the Dragon’s third season. In typical Game of Thrones fashion, the one minute 55 second teaser hints at power struggles and with high production value on display seemed to deliver on the cast members and showrunners promises of more battles, blood and, of course, dragons.

It’s been a little quiet on the DCU front outside of last week’s Clayface trailer, but we now have multiple updates on multiple projects in the cooker, or perhaps not. First, James Gunn revealed that the DCU movie The Authority is no longer in active development. First announced in he and Peter Safrans’ 2023 DCU announcements, Gunn said the film’s script “wasn’t there” and that it didn’t fit into the larger DCU. And regarding the franchise’s streaming output, HBO and DC temporarily removed the Lanterns trailer from all official platforms without explanation, possibly due to a music licensing issue with a Bruce Springsteen track used in the teaser; but the trailer is now live again with the song in question removed and added text indicating an August release for the series.

Lionsgate's Michael set the record for biggest opening weekend for a musical biopic with $97M domestically and $217M globally, dethroning The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and surpassing the previous record held by Straight Outta Compton at $60.2M.

Paramount has released the first teaser trailer for season 4 of Star Trek Strange New Worlds and announced a release date. The upcoming season premiere will debut globally on July 23. The 10-episode season rolls out weekly on Thursdays through Sept. 24

Studios and streamers are currently bidding on a feature adaptation of the Battlefield video games which has Mission Impossible filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie attached to write and direct and Sinners star Michael B. Jordan attached to produce and possibly star.

As the final season of Prime Video's The Boys comes to a close, the streamer has confirmed that spin off series Gen V will end with the previously aired season 2 and will not continue for a third season and that series prequel Vought Rising will debut sometime in 2027.

AppleTV has announced that season 4 of Ted Lasso will debut on August 5th and have released a first look teaser trailer for the upcoming season.

Laura Dern has joined the cast of season 4 of HBO's The White Lotus.

In an interview with CinemaHub, Andy Serkis seemingly accidentally revealed that Iman Vellani is in Avengers: Doomsday. He told her “I can’t wait to see you in Doomsday” to which she responded immediately “no you can’t say that”

Marvel Studios plans to return to Hall H this year, the Clayface trailer delivers a sculpted first look at that film, and there’s steady heat at the box office. All of that and more coming up right after this.

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

Five Star Review from Simon Poelzer on Overcast: Currently the service Overcast I use doesn’t have a review system but I still wanted to show my appreciation with a direct email 5 star review.

Personally I think the new Harry Potter series is unnecessary like seeing new people in your old house, but it looks good and well made so I will probably watch by pirating because I refuse to give a cent towards JK Rowling

Go Jays go

Haha I just got an American to cheer for the Blue Jays

Marvel Studios Will Return

Perhaps hope will spring eternal after all with the announcement that Marvel Studios will be back in Hall H this year at San Diego Comic-Con. There’s a lot on the line this year with Avengers: Doomsday, so the franchise giant must see the sense in returning to their iconic presentation time and space. Post-COVID, Comic-Con has seen success wax and wane in these presentations, but is it do or die time for the MCU?

Skin-Deep Villainy

DC Studios delivered a teaser trailer for Clayface, premiering this fall on October 23. The haunting trailer shows the titular character and flashes of violence happening to and around him. We’re also getting the whole Harvey Dent family in The Batman II with legendary actor Charles Dance in talks to play Harvey’s father. Dance is known for his role as Tywin Lannister on Game of Thrones and joins a powerful family with Sebastian Stan and Scarlett Johansson already slated to play Harvey and Gilda Dent, respectively. Things are feeling spooky in the best way, right?

Space-Crazy Box Office

Space is dominating the space at the box office, with The Super Mario Galaxy Movie crossing the $740 million mark recently and Project Hail Mary bringing in more than half a billion dollars. Though perhaps not well-known in the states, Super Mario just blew by China’s race car film Pegasus 3, which has garnered more than $600 million. Lee Cronin’s The Mummy opened last weekend to a $34 million global start as well with a different trajectory than space and keeping the horror box office strong. It appears that the movie theater is back…?

Coming up in the Lightning Round: David Harbour joins Rambo prequel, The Elden Ring movie is a go, another, yes ANOTHER, Texas Chainsaw Massacre property, and Rings of Power Season 3 coming soon. Don’t go anywhere!

Patreon Plug - Patron of the Week: Mt.KillaManjaro

Spotify Poll

Who won CinemaCon this year?

Disney - 71.4%

Warner Bros. - 21.4%

Sony - 4.8%

Paramount - 0%

Universal - 2.4%

Amazon MGM - 0%

Lightning Round

• David Harbour has joined the cast of Rambo prequel John Rambo, Lionsgate and Millennium Media’s action feature being directed by Jalmari Helander.

• A24 has entered production on Alex Garland's film adaptation of the video game Elden Ring, which now has a release date of March 3, 2028. Several cast members have also been announced including Cailee Spaeny, Jonathan Pryce, Nick Offerman, and Peter Serafinowicz, among others.

• Kathryn Newton is returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Avengers: Doomsday after starring in 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. She announced her return to the franchise on Instagram last week.

• A24 is in talks with Obsession filmmaker Curry Baker to write and direct a Texas Chainsaw Massacre film, which will exist separately from the planned TV series from Glen Powell.

• AppleTV has released the first teaser trailer for season 3 of Silo and set a release date. The 10-episode season will premiere with the first episode on July 3, followed by one new episode every Friday through September 4.

• The Multiverse News lore runs deep today: Ketchup Entertainment has released the first trailer for Dave Green's Coyote vs. Acme.

The CinemaConvergence

Press, influencers, and theater owners flocked to Las Vegas to be wined and dined by Hollywood Studios at this year’s CinemaCon, where the event is beginning to feel more and more like a rival to San Diego Comic-Con in its golden years with the deluge of exciting announcements. With the sheer volume of news to cover, let’s break down the biggest headlines by studio panel:

Disney

• Kevin Feige confirmed that Avengers Endgame will rerelease in theaters ahead of Avengers Doomsday with added scenes. A first trailer for Avengers Doomsday was also shown to the crowd who finally got to see Downey’s Doom in action. According to ComicBook.com, the trailer heavily featured Thor and included Shang-Chi, Gambit, and Steve Rogers.

• At the Disney Cinema Con presentation, new footage was shown for Toy Story 5 and the live action Moana. Hailee Steinfeld and Rashida Jones were confirmed to voice the main characters of the upcoming animated feature Hexed. A trailer for The Dog Stars was also shown, a Ridley Scott sci fi epic that stars Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley, and Josh Brolin.

• A final trailer for the Mandalorian and Grogu was released and the first 17 minutes of the film was shown to the crowd.

Sony

• Sony kicked off the convention Monday night and, as expected, Spider-Man was front and center. Attendees got a first look at a scene from Spider-Man: Brand New Day along with two new promotional posters, but the bigger buzz came from footage of Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse — the concluding chapter of Miles Morales’ trilogy — which hits theaters in June of next year.

• Sony announced an R-rated animated Bloodborne feature based on the FromSoftware video game at its CinemaCon panel.

• Sony has inked a first-look deal with Final Destination: Bloodlines duo Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, who will direct a feature adaptation of Metal Gear Solid.

• Sony debuted the first trailer for Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil reboot at CinemaCon; the film arrives this September.

• Sony revealed the first trailer for Insidious: Out of the Further, the next entry in the horror franchise, landing in theaters August 21.

Warner Bros.

• Warner Bros. brought the heat on Tuesday with a seven-minute opening scene from Dune: Part Three, featuring a massive battle and a confrontation between Paul and Chani that reportedly floored the room.

• Game of Thrones: Aegon’s Conquest was revealed as the working title for the upcoming Game of Thrones feature film during the Warner Bros. panel.

• Peter Safran debuted the first teaser for DC’s Clayface at CinemaCon, showing Tom Rhys Harries in various stages of mutilation pre- and post-transformation before an unsettling bathtub reveal; the film hits theaters October 23.

• Safran also interviewed Supergirl’s Craig Gillespie, Milly Alcock and Jason Momoa, while showcasing extended footage from the film.

• Concurrent with the DCU section of the panel, Man of Tomorrow news broke with Adria Arjona officially cast as Maxima and shooting to begin next week.

• The cast for Andy Serkis’s The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum was officially unveiled at the Warner Bros. panel. Ian McKellen returns as Gandalf, Elijah Wood returns as Frodo, and Lee Pace reprises Thranduil, with Kate Winslet joining as Marigol, Leo Woodall as Halvard, and — most notably — Jamie Dornan stepping into the role of Aragorn.

Universal

• Christopher Nolan took the Universal stage Wednesday to premiere extended footage from The Odyssey, including a new shot of Matt Damon’s Odysseus washing up on Calypso’s beach — played by Charlize Theron — plus expanded Trojan Horse battle carnage; the IMAX-shot epic lands July 17.

• Steven Spielberg made his first-ever CinemaCon appearance to present Disclosure Day, receiving the MPA America 250 Award before confirming the Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor thriller is an alien film, with the pair playing adults who were abducted as children.