According to THR, Paapa Essiedu is currently being eyed to play Harry’s dick of a potions master.

Here’s a look at Essiedu in Melissa McCarthy’s Genie:

Though I did post a trailer for a comedic movie, Essiedu is still pretty great with dramatic roles. He is best known for playing Kwame in HBO’s I May Destroy You.

For context, Severus Snape was originally played by Alan Rickman in the Potter movies. He spends a huge chunk of the franchise just being Harry’s meanest (sometimes downright cruel) teacher, but it’s revealed that he has a very emotional connection to Harry that some fans think is over-romanticized.

Admittedly, there is currently a ton of backlash ever since it was reported that Essiedu was being eyed for the role, and it’s for the exact reason that you would suspect. Though I think Essiedu would be a great pick, having him cast as Snape is no doubt going to result in a PR nightmare for him—just ask any POC who’s worked on Star Wars.

For now, there are people who have been calling out big companies like Disney to have systems in place to defend people of color whenever they get cast in controversial roles. This has got to me the most sensible take:

Hot take: I actually am against casting non-white people to play popular fictional characters until these studios have actionable plans to protect black people cast in these roles. I do not enjoy experiencing the digital lynching that occurs every 3 months as a cast is announced. https://t.co/dhHm2R1zRj

— (@damitsunami) December 4, 2024

Personally, I am all for more diverse casting, and if they’re going to reboot Potter anyway, I would want it to feel as far away from the original adaptation as possible; different music, different casting choices, different everything.

The Potter series is expected to come out sometime in 2027.

Talking to Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live (via Variety), Fiennes was asked to comment on a rumor going around about Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) being considered for the role of Voldemort, to which Fiennes replies, “Cillian is a fantastic actor… That’s a wonderful suggestion. I would be all in favor of Cillian. Yeah.”

So far, the only major casting news that the movie’s received is that of Mark Rylance (The BFG) being eyed to play the new Albus Dumbledore. Besides that, only this rumor about Murphy being eyed for Voldemort.

If anything, Cillian does seem perfect for the role. We already know he can play evil characters, but he can definitely pull off a noseless snake-human and a posh twink like Tom Riddle.

With Voldemort not expected to make a personal appearance until Goblet of Fire, it may be too early to cast the role now. I guess he does make an appearance in Sorcerer’s Stone, but nobody ever talks about Richard Bremmer being the OG He Who Must Not be Named. At best, they would want to see who the busier actors are 2 years before Goblet of Fire, then they can have their pick for Wizard Snake Hitler.

No release date has been set for the Harry Potter reboot, but fans are hoping for a 2026 premiere.

Check out the first look at The Studio starring Seth Rogen:

Here’s the official description for the series:

In The Studio, Rogen stars as the newly appointed head of a movie studio, Continental Studios. Desperate for the approval of celebrities, he and his team of executives at Continental Studios must juggle corporate demands with creative ambitions as they try to keep movies alive and relevant.

The series is executive produced by Rogen’s longtime creative partner Evan Goldberg, and is said to be a 10-episode half-hour comedy.

Besides Rogen, the series has managed to gather a star-studded cast which includes the likes of Catherine O’Hara, Kathryn Hahn, and Bryan Cranston. The trailer also teases some big stars like incoming Captain America Anthony Mackie as well as previous Rogen collaborators Zac Efron and Charlize Theron.

There’s even a small scene there with Mythbusters fan-favorite Adam Savage.

Funnily enough, this series does feel somewhat like HBO’s recent comedy The Franchise which also looked to make fun of the big movie making industry while questioning if cinema is dying. Despite the comparison though, it does look like The Studio is its own unique flavor of storytelling—and it doesn’t hurt that they managed to gather a lot of A-listers to make an appearance.

Martin freakin’ Scorsese is in this series. Imagine the cameos that didn’t make it to the trailer.

The Studio is set to premiere on Apple TV+ on March 26, 2025.

Talking to IGN, Gunn confirms, “The truth is almost all of Peacemaker is canon with the exception of Justice League… which we will kind of deal with in the next season of Peacemaker.” We don’tknow how specifically Gunn is going to deal with that, but I do have a feeling that maybe it’s just going to involve a throw-away gag where someone misremembers the Justice League arriving, and someone brushes it off like the Mandela Effect.

For now, the official canon of the DCU is set to begin with the animated Creature Commandos. While events from The Suicide Squad are still up in the air when it comes to the timeline, Gunn confirms, “…in Creature Commandos, you’ll hear them talk about things that happened in [The] Suicide Squad or Peacemaker… Well then, those things automatically become canon.”

Nobody knows how Gunn is going to approach this new timeline, but I’m starting to get the feeling that he’s just going to loosely pick and choose what he wants to keep from the DCEU and just never mention anything that he doesn’t want to keep.

This should be annoying for anyone who cares about consistency in the entire timeline, but at this point, fans are essentially just worrying about nothing. Until something officially comes out, all fans can really do is speculate.

The second season of Peacemaker is expected to premiere sometime next year.

In a recent Q&A with reporters (via IGN), HBO head Casey Bloys was asked just how involved Rowling would be in the upcoming Potter reboot, to which he says, “She’s been fairly involved… She was very involved in the process of selecting the writer and director, and I imagine she’ll have opinions on casting. It hasn’t affected the casting or hiring of writers and production staff. So we haven’t felt an impact from that.”

With Rowling now being such a controversial figure, Bloys had previously mentioned about the Potter reboot, “Our priority is what’s on the screen. Obviously, the Harry Potter story is incredibly affirmative and positive and about love and self-acceptance. That’s our priority — what’s on screen.”

Though some fans argue that a Potter reboot simply isn’t necessary, this reboot is said to be a more faithful adaptation of the books, and with the more generous television format, there is now more room for scenes that had to be deleted from the films like Norbert the dragon escaping Hogwarts to the actual match at the Quidditch World Cup.

Of course, there are some concerns with the shift to television—like the quality of the VFX from episode to episode; but I’m honestly more concerned about the kids who will have to commit maybe 10 years of their lives making this show. Even Emma Watson almost quit the franchise around the time of Prisoner of Azkaban.

For now, the series is still in development, and production is expected to start sometime next year.

With another season underway, and GRRM being clear with his displeasure with some of showrunner Ryan Condal’s decisions, HBO head Casey Bloys tells Deadline about the current state of the series relationship with Martin. He explains:

“He’s very important to me, to us… But when we put shows together, it’s like putting a marriage together. Marriages can be difficult, especially when Ryan Condal is making creative decisions and adapting work. It can be fraught. Any marriage can get rocky. I would prefer everybody get along, of course. But with the creative process, we are always going to have bumps. That’s to be expected.”

In Martin’s deleted post about House of the Dragon, he had complained about the omission of Maelor Targaryen, who was supposed to be present in the scene where Jaehaerys was beheaded. In Martin’s rant, he said that removing the character would possibly result in several moments in the story to be changed in the context; and there are story moments that he thinks would not make sense if certain events didn’t happen.

GRRM’s blog on HOTD is out, and he is NOT happy. pic.twitter.com/UILFedmIcJ

— hypatia (@actuallyhypatia) September 4, 2024

It’s crazy because this is only a fraction of what Martin was allegedly complaining about when it came to House of the Dragon; and fans can only imagine what else issues he had with the second season.

Personally, I thought there was a lot to enjoy about the series, and it’s nowhere near as bad as the final season of Game of Thrones. The character arcs still feel pretty solid, and the spectacle is definitely still there.

Hopefully the third season manages to mend the divide between Martin and Condal. But even if that was the case, I’m sure there are already several toxic fans and grafters who are ready to tune in every week and make hours of hate content for the show.

No release date has been set for the next season of House of the Dragon, but a 2026 premiere could be realistic.

Probably one of the biggest moments in the series was Oz killing his protégé Vic, who he had been bringing up throughout the entire season. But despite Vic’s loyalty, it seems that Oz had grown attached to him—resulting to him… killing Vic?

It’s definitely one of the worst things that Oz has done in the show, but a lot of fans think that it was all set up from the beginning. Talking to Entertainment Weekly, The Batman director Matt Reeves explained:

“It’s not about how he’s killing Vic because he thinks Vic failed him, or someone manipulated him… He’s killing him because he can’t bear the fact that he actually does have that closeness with this kid, because that makes him weak. He’s basically trying to strangle his vulnerability.” 

Every fans’ jaw had collectively dropped when Oz got rid of Vic in the last few minutes of the show; but it was admittedly impressive how the series was able to make Oz likeable from the beginning only to have it slowly revealed that he was a sad psychopath toward the final episodes.

We don’t know what else is in store for Oz in this timeline, but it does seem he’s going to be having some political aspirations. Some speculate that he could end up being Gotham’s mayor by the third movie, but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

In the meantime, fans can check out the complete season of The Penguin now streaming on Max.

Albus Dumbledore looms over the entire Potter series, and Variety reports that Mark Rylance (BFG, Ready Player One) is being eyed to play the Hogwarts headmaster. No deal has apparently been made, but WB is said to have already reached out to ‘gauge interest and availability’.

So far, the role of Dumbledore has been played by Richard Harris, Michael Gambon in the Potter movies, and most recently Jude Law in the Fantastic Beasts films. Richard Harris’ son Jared Harris (Chernobyl) was asked if he was interested in taking on the role, but he said that he didn’t think a reboot was needed for the series.

Going back to Rylance though, it does seem like he’s perfect for the part. Though Dumbledore is known to be a very wizened character, it’s still essential that he comes off as kind of goofy and aloof—and Rylance has played those kinds of characters before.

Admittedly, the films never really seemed to nail how odd Dumbledore was and he was just kept incredibly serious (but gentle) in the latter films.

If Max is going the reboot route, I guess I would want them to make it as unique from the original films as possible, and a Rylance Dumbledore could be the first key.

Hopefully we get an official update soon. The Potter reboot is yet to have a release date.

According to The Independent, a representative from HBO has confirmed that the series isn’t dead and “Euphoria is going into production in 2025. Nothing has changed.” A third season had been greenlit way back in 2022, but because of the writers’ strike and several issues with show creator Sam Levinson, the third season hasn’t managed to get off the ground.

If anything, it wouldn’t be a total surprise if the third season got cancelled. Besides all the complaints about Levinson’s work ethic and behaviour on set, several main actors in the series have only gotten more famous since the last season. Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, Hunter Schafer, and Jacob Elordi have come out to be rising stars, and everyone is worried that they won’t manage to be free by the time Euphoria Season 3 starts production.

Can they even still play convincing high schoolers?

A rumor has suggested a time skip for whole timeline, and it’s interesting to see what could change. I’ll admit, being in high school is only half the drama of the show, but it feels like something is going to be lost when everyone makes the shift from teen to young adult.

If anything, as long as the vibes are right, I’m sure Euphoria 3 is still going to be a jam. In the meantime, the series still has no set release date on HBO yet.

Check this out:

Though the story of Paul Atreides’ rise to power has already been told on the big screen, Prophecy takes place 10,000 years before the events of Dune, with the main focus being put on the “Sisterhood”—before they became known as the Bene Gesserit.

While the sisterhood does have a lot of its weird practices, here in Prophecy, it’s clear that they are already positioned close to those in power; we don’t know if they already have their plan set in motion for the coming of the Kwisatz Haderach, but it’s likely that the show could be revealing the origins of that idea being brought forth by Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson).

We don’t know how long they plan to keep the series running, but with Mark Strong onboard, I have a feeling he could be dead by the end of the season—such is the case of characters played by big name actors in any HBO series (just look at Westworld’s Anthony Hopkins and Game of Thrones’ Sean Bean).

With Denis Villneuve’s Dune 3 still a few years away, a minseries expanding the world could be the perfect thing for fans. With HBO scrubbing properties like Raised by Wolves and Westworld, there’s definitely room for a new sci-fi drama that could be the next flagship for Max.

Watch out for Dune: Prophecy when it releases on Max this coming Nov. 17.

With so many loose ends left in the finale, The Batman director Matt Reeves has shared that they are currently exploring the possibility of there being a Penguin Season 2. Talking to Entertainment Weekly, Reeves confirms:

“What’s really important is that we earn it. The idea of revisiting means that we have to keep that same bar. I know that none of us wants to go back and just do more. We want to go back and do something great … We do believe that there’s going to be something in there, but it’s just beginning. It’s exciting though.”

So far, no details have been revealed of a follow-up season for The Penguin, but it has been confirmed that Farrell will be reprising the role for The Batman Part II. With the series having him end up on top of the gangs, it’s possible that the second movie could have him pursuing some kind of political career.

With Farrell said to have signed up for three movies, there could be a very significant arc for him to play down the line. While several Batman villains could definitely get the spotlight, it’s possible that Oz could represent the ‘regular’ criminals in Gotham as compared to the more fantastical rogues like Mr. Freeze or even the Joker.

For now, everyone is still just reveling on how The Penguin was pulled off. There’s now a bar for DC spinoffs, and fans are hopeful Reeves and showrunner Lauren LeFranc have more up their sleeves when it comes to this version of Gotham City.

Catch the complete Penguin miniseries now streaming on Max.

Talking to Andy Serkis for InterviewMagazine, Reeves confirms:

“We have been talking, and it’s exciting because people are now embracing the show. My fantasy is coming into being, which is very exciting, and HBO has been incredibly supportive from the beginning. Now to see that the show is being embraced is really, really exciting. We have been talking about doing other shows. I wanted to make sure that we didn’t do the origin tale, which so many of the other series have done. I think the idea of being able to put a lens on these characters is a really exciting idea.”

Admittedly, The Penguin is only one of several spinoff ideas that were planned, but the others weren’t greenlit. One series was supposed to focus on the cops at Gotham City PD, and another one was meant to focus on the inmates at Arkham Asylum. Reeves continues:

“[The Penguin is] about cities and their dysfunction and the world and its dysfunction, which is what Batman stories are all about. They’re all about Gotham being a place that should be better. And you can have the experience of this almost novelistic epic crime saga, but you also just get these separate experiences. They have their own dramatic value. So Oz’s story is Oz’s story, and the idea is to do these other stories in the same way.”

We don’t know which new villains could be showing up to tackle Battinson soon, but Mr. Freeze is one that fans have been clamoring for. For a while there was a rumor that Clayface was being eyed as a villain, but no official update has been made.

At least we know that Barry Keoghan’s Joker exists in this universe somewhere.

Catch The Penguin Sunday nights on Max.

It looks like development is steadily moving forward, and The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire) has officially joined the cast of the series. Macdonald has apparently been cast in the role of Sheriff Kerry, who is described as “no-nonsense woman deeply devoted to her family and close-knit town. Her resilience, shaped by a complex past that’s hardened her resolve, anchors her when the community’s secrets begin to surface.”

It’s kind of fitting that the series would also include a sheriff character on Earth, seeing that the Lanterns themselves function as intergalactic sheriffs. We don’t know exactly what her role in the story is going to be, but some think that she could have some kind of romance with the older Lantern Hal Jordan.

I think it’s also worth noting that Macdonald had played opposite Josh Brolin in No Country for Old Men. Brolin was the original choice to play Hal Jordan before Chandler was cast.

Though the Lanterns mostly deal with intergalactic conflicts, it’s said that this series is going to have a grounded story that will take place mostly on Earth, and that it’s going to be around the same vein as True Detective. We don’t know exactly how that happens, but I think there’s going to be alien shenanigans afoot, and it will be up to the Lanterns to get to the bottom of it.

With The Penguin having such great reception being compared to The Sopranos, I’m admittedly skeptical about a Lanterns series that’s going to be close to True Detective—especially with Gunn’s DC expected to be more ‘lighthearted’ than the DCEU.

Then again, these Elseworld stories are still pushing forward, and I prefer my comic universes to have more variety between each project.

No release date has been set for Lanterns, but maybe a 2026 release is realistic.

This was his post (via @westerosies):

Tom Glynn-Carney shares a message on his Instagram story regarding the harassment his friends and family are facing due to him portraying King Aegon II Targaryen in ‘HOUSE OF THE DRAGON.’

“It has been brought to my attention that there are messages being sent to my friends and… pic.twitter.com/PK5i2P8GCZ

— westerosies (@westerosies) October 23, 2024

We don’t know if this is going to stop anyone from harassing Glynn-Carney’s family, but it at least puts the spotlight on a very real thing that happens in fandoms when actors who play characters that fans don’t like get bullied online. Fans have been doing it since The Phantom Menace, and the act has only gotten more lucrative since then, with multiple Youtube channels dedicated solely to spreading toxicity and promoting bigotry in specific fandoms—like the Star Wars communities.

There has been a recent calling out of the huge companies like Disney for taking responsibility for this harassment, and so far the only solution they’ve come up with was to give actors a ‘social media bootcamp’ as well as offer to completely take over a performers’ social media.

Any act outright condemning the fandom for racism/bullying is usually done personally by the actors. Here’s what Ewan McGregor did when fans were attacking his Obi-Wan Kenobi star Moses Ingram:

The next season of House of the Dragon is expected to come to HBO in 2026.

The series is set to premiere this November, and a new trailer has been dropped. Check this out:

With the Dune films taking place mostly on Arrakis, Prophecy looks to flesh out the world by bringing audiences to the headquarters of the Imperium, where the Emperor resides. While this series has the Bene Gesserit in focus, the Imperium in this show is being led by Mark Strong’s Emperor Javicco Corrino—who will likely be the sisterhood’s target as they plan to take control of the known universe themselves.

For now, it looks like the Harkonnen matriarch Valya (Emily Watson) is going to be the one leading the Bene Gesserit under the guise of it being some kind of specialty school. We don’t know exactly how they gain power, but by the time of the movies, the Bene Gesserit have successfully infiltrated powerful houses, and have even started a religious superstition on Arrakis that would result in the easier takeover of the Kwisatz Haderach—who they plan to successfully breed into existence.

If anything, the sisterhood is considered to be the basis of George Lucas’ Jedi in Star Wars, but instead of noble space knights, you have sneaky witch ladies who can force people to do their bidding literally.

It’s going to be a lot of fun.

Dune: Prophecy is set to release on Max this coming Nov. 17.

According to scooper @MyTimeToShineH (via ComicBookMovie), Gigante (Sofia) may have a large role to play in The Batman Part II. We don’t have any details, but with her killing the Falcones and attempting a team-up with the Maronis, she could very well be the next Kingpin of Gotham—not unless Oz Cobb has anything to say about it.

Admittedly, Sofia’s part has been expanded for this series, which is great since that leaves a lot of room to expand the character without too many comic book nerds getting angry at changes. Either way, Milioti has been stunning ever since the character was first introduced, to the eventual reveal of her backstory and takeover of the family.

At this point, a lot of fans don’t know if they should be even rooting for Oz anymore. Sure Gigante’s Sofia is violent, but she’s kind of the victim to the circumstances men put her in (specifically Oz and her father). Oz, on the other hand, just looks to be clawing his way to the top in some misunderstood belief that it will get his mother’s approval and respect.

Though Oz is admittedly charming and a little scrappy, some believe that he’ll be truly unlikeable by the time the seasons ends. We don’t know what he’ll do, but my fingers are definitely crossed that Sofia makes it out alive.

Catch new episodes of The Penguin Sunday nights on Max.

Speaking at MIPCOM’s C-Suit Conversations (via THR), Dungey talks about the Potter series:

“There’s not a lot to talk about at this moment. We’ve got our fantastic writing staff in place and they are doing what they need to do. And casting calls have opened up in the U.K. and Ireland, so the process is moving along. It’s going quite well.”

So far, the casting call has been announced looking for child actors who would be 11-years-old by the time the production started shooting sometime next year. Besides that, no other pieces of casting of pre-production have been confirmed. Dungey continues:

“It’s an unbelievable dream, honestly, and as somebody who is a huge fan of books, the opportunity to get to explore them in maybe a little bit more in-depth than you can in just a two-hour film, that’s the whole reason we’re on this journey.”

Admittedly, the series has managed to nab some great talent with Francesca Gardiner attached as the showrunner and Mark Mylod directing multiple episodes—both have had significant work done on HBO’s latest hit series Succession. Then again, we don’t know how that would translate into a children’s series that is expected to age up over the next couple of years.

As a huge fans of the films (who has also read the books), I do think that rebooting Potter seems like a huge gamble—and one that doesn’t even need to be made. The original movies feel pretty timeless; but the franchise has unfortunately gone stagnant, and attempts at spinoffs like the Fantastic Beasts films failed to get off the ground.

No release date has been set for the first season of the Potter series, but maybe a 2026 premiere would be a realistic guess.

While this looks like a ‘case closed’ for who the identity of The Hangman is, a theory online posits that The Hangman’s true identity is not of Carmine, but Sofia’s dead brother Alberto Falcone. @RichardOcelot posts his thread:

That episode made it a deliberate point to not show where young Alberto was during the mum's death flashback.
And when he's talking with Sofia about it as an adult he's vague and brushes it off. It didn't show how that affected him.

— Richard (@RichardOcelot) October 14, 2024

Fans had been speculating that Carmine had been the killer for a while, especially since he had tried to choke out Catwoman in The Batman. Some guessed that this was his preferred method of eliminating people and he just pinned the murders on Sofia when the cops started investigating.

The thread, however, claims that Carmine could be a red herring, and it’s revealed that Alberto was actually the one committing the murders. Sure, Carmine may have been the one to kill Sofia’s mother, but the theory suggests that Al saw the whole thing happen as a child, and he started emulating his father in adulthood.

The evidence is actually there in the episode. Alberto is seemingly stressed after Sofia’s interaction with the reporter, suggesting that someone tipped him off about the investigation. It also seems that Carmine only kills people as a means to an end; it wouldn’t have made sense for him to just keep murdering women from the same place like a serial killer.

The theory suggests that Alberto was the one doing the murders, Carmine knew and helped cover it up; and when Sofia put it together that her mother was murdered, it just seemed easier to silence her altogether and send her to Arkham.

It’s also worth noting that Alberto in the comics is an actual serial killer (The Holiday Killer from Batman: The Long Halloween), and the show could be sticking to that backstory; they were just hoping for a different reveal.

While this does seem too convoluted at this point, the thread does suggest that Oz will figure out this information and use it as leverage with Sofia—who is now on a full-on rampage, killing her family and keeping Viti in her pocket.

Of course, this is all just a theory for now, but I did think it was pretty well thought out, and not impossible.

Catch The Penguin every Sunday on Max.

The show just debuted on Max recently, and now we have a behind-the-scenes look giving us a better handle at the main characters of The Franchise and what the series is really about. Check this out:

Series co-creator Sam Mendes was behind a huge franchise himself having directed some of the James Bond movies, and it’s said that some scenarios in the series were lifted straight out of anecdotes from people who had worked on Marvel or DC.

Besides the producers having to wrangle everyone in the production, there’s also cases of actors not getting along with each other and being divas on set. I thought it was hilarious that Daniel Bruhl’s character is an ‘auteur European director’ who finds himself helming a multi-million-dollar franchise film even though he only had one movie under his belt. That’s essentially what happened with Nia DaCosta with The Marvels and several other indie directors who made the big budget jump.

What’s interesting is there’s also the question of whether these big franchise films are either saving or destroying cinema as an art form. The theme isn’t really deeply explored in the first episode, but it looks like it’s going to be a recurring question throughout the season.

I think Himesh Patel’s character put it best in the pilot; he’s suffering through all of this chaos and headache because he’s just happy to be part of ‘show business’. It essentially sums up the central message that the series could be going for.

Catch new episodes of The Franchise on Max every Sunday night.

Now Peacemaker is set to get a second season, and Gunn has shared a first look at someone who could be Cena, but we can’t be entirely sure. Check this out:

Who might this be? #Peacemaker pic.twitter.com/ShhebKi5DW

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) October 9, 2024

The physique could very much be Cena, but he looks to be dressed in some kind of Native American garb—not unlike Captain America/Rojhaz in Neil Gaiman’s Marvel 1602. In that story, Steve Rogers travels back in time and poses as a Native American bodyguard; it’s only deep into the story before he admits that he was once Captain America from the future.

We don’t know what kind of journey Peacemaker/Chris Smith is going to go through with the second season, but seeing as he’s described as a ‘f*cked up’ Captain America, it wouldn’t be surprising that an out-of-touch character like him would put on some Native American garb and try to go on some kind of spirit quest.

With Gunn busy working on Superman, it’s kind of a wonder he was able to squeeze in time for Peacemaker. Either way, I imagine that the Man of Steel movie, while huge, is still an extremely limiting project for Gunn, and it’s properties like Peacemaker that allow him to be in his element of 80s glam rock, irreverent humor, and nasty body horror.

No release date has been set for Peacemaker Season 2.