Shock news from Svartalfheim: actor Ryan Hurst will no longer play Kratos in Prime Video's God of War TV show after suffering a significant injury during production on the live-action video game adaptation.

Hurst, who can currently be seen on-screen as Mentor in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, reportedly tore a bicep in late June. Due to the lengthy recovery time involved with such an injury (typically 6 months), the physicality required to play a god-killer like Kratos, and the show's production schedule, the decision has been made to recast the lead role and reshoot the four episodes filmed so far.

It's another blow for the God of War show, which was faced with widespread scepticism following the release of a first-look still in February, now likely to be our only glimpse of Hurst in full Kratos garb, alongside Callum Vinson as his bow-wielding son, Atreus.

Vinson is just 12 years old, and in order to avoid the kind of on-screen growth spurts that have plagued the likes of Stranger Things and Avatar: The Last Airbender, the God of War show was set to film seasons one and two back-to-back. Reshooting the four episodes banked so far is considered a necessity to avoid a visible difference between footage of Vinson captured earlier this year and new material.

There's currently no news on who will step into the hulking boots of Kratos, but filming is on track to resume in mid-October, making it likely that the show won't release till 2028 or late 2027 at the earliest.

An adaptation of the acclaimed Santa Monica Studio's duology – God of War (2018) and God of War: Ragnarok – the show will seemingly mix up the timeline somewhat as it's set to feature the likes of Odin (Mandy Patinkin), Thor (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), Heimdall (Max Parker) and Sif (Teresa Palmer), who don't fully feature until Ragnarok, alongside first-game figures including Baldur (Ed Skrein), Mimir (Alastair Duncan), and Freya (Sonya Walger). No word yet if Daredevil's Deborah Ann Woll will reprise her Faye from the games alongside her starring role in God of War: Laufey.

God of War on Prime Video is currently undated. For more, check out the new PS5 games on the horizon, plus all the new TV shows coming your way in 2026 and beyond.

The Fallout TV show may have a fair few fans as one of Prime Video's most popular shows, but one game writer wishes the scripts were a little tighter. Fallout 2 and Fallout: New Vegas writer and Obsidian co-founder Chris Avellone recently shared his take on the video game adaptation, admitting that he feels "embarrassed" by some of the dialogue.

"I kind of wish the game writing for TV shows like that where they're mimicking a game, would kind of elevate a bit," he told Insider Gaming. "[Cyberpunk] Edgerunners was really cool, no problems there but sometimes I just wish the script quality on the Fallout TV show was a little higher. I guess I feel embarrassed when I see some of the lines being done but it's a fun show."

Avellone, who has also worked on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, was pushed on why he thinks the script isn't quite there. "I don't mean to put all Hollywood writers in this category but I think some of them still struggle with, 'Okay, well I'm writing a game franchise and obviously those game writers didn't really know what they were doing because I'm a respected Hollywood writer and I know how these things are supposed to look,'" he added.

"So I think for some of them it's really easy to dismiss that work and go in their own direction which they think is more solid but the problem is when they do that they don't have any real sense of, they probably haven't played Fallout 3 or Fallout 4 or New Vegas, so a lot of the context has gone and so have opportunities."

The video game writer and designer does love the cast of the series though, saying seeing Walton Goggins as The Ghoul was "amazing" as "he added a lot of legitimacy to the show". Equally, he feels that Lucy star Ella Purnell "has the right features and cast and delivery for being a naive Vault dweller with a little bit of steel in there".

Filming recently kicked off on Fallout season 3. Goggins confirmed the news with a picture of him back in the make-up chair, and some fans have spotted the crew filming in Colorado. There's no confirmed release date yet, but we'll keep you updated on the show's return.

In the meantime, check out our guides to the best Prime Video shows and the best Prime Video movies to watch right now.

It seems as though fantasy fans are just not feeling the second season of Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender, as ratings reveal that less than half the number of viewers who tuned into season 1 have returned for season 2.

According to Tudum, Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2, which hit Netflix on June 25, was viewed 8.7 million times over its first four days on the platform. That's a huge drop from season 1, which hit the streamer in 2024 with 21.2 million views, meaning the new installment is down by 59%.

The season sits in second place on Netflix's top 10 list of most popular English-language shows right now, and in third place is the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which amassed 3 million views in the same week season 2 hit the streamer. Both seasons of Avatar sit behind the new Harlan Coben series I Will Find You, which earned 34.1 million views in its first full week on the site before hitting 24 million views in four days the same week as Avatar season 2.

It is not clear why the live-action Avatar show has seen a dip in viewership, as even though the sophomore season debuted to divisive reviews, that isn't really much of a change from season 1. In fact, Avatar season 2 sits at a 67% score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is actually a slight improvement from season 1, which stands at 62%.

In our Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 review, we call the new installment "better in basically every way to its first season," however, "it struggles under the weight of adapting the events of its animated counterpart" and "fumbles in ways that make its future concerning." That being said, Avatar: The Last Airbender season 3 is on the way and has already been filmed. Season 3 will mark the end of the live-action adaptation.

Following their bittersweet victory in saving the Northern Water Tribe from the Fire Nation, season 2 follows Avatar Aang, Katara, and Sokka as they set off to convince the Earth King to help them fight the Fire Lord Ozai. However, their journey leads them to series newcomer Toph (Miyako), whose skill in earthbending aids their quest.

Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 is available to watch on Netflix now. For more, check out our guide ot the best shows on Netflix, and keep up with new TV shows on the way.

Netflix's One Piece season 3 has finished filming, and with a brand new cast photo in tow.

In the photo, which can be viewed below, Luffy (Inaki Godoy), Nami (Emily Rudd), Sanji (Taz Skylar), Zoro, Usopp (Jacob Romero), and new series regular Vivi (Charithra Chandran) are standing in front of a wall that has a Sir Crocodile mural painted across. The villain, revealed to be Mr. 0 at the end of season 2, is set to play a major part in season 3 as the show rounds out the anime's Alabasta arc.

One Piece season 3 was greenlit in August 2025, and began filming in South Africa in November 2025. Given that One Piece season 2 premiered in March 2026, a premiere date of 2027 feels like a pretty quick turnaround (especially given the fact that so many shows nowadays have a three-year wait).

One Piece season 3 will see Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat crew, with Tony Tony Chopper (Mikaela Hoover) in tow, head to Vivi's homeland of Alabasta in hopes of freeing it from tyrannical reign. New cast members include Cobra Kai's Xolo Maridueña as Portgas D. Ace and Cole Escola as Bon Clay, with Joe Manganiello (Mr. 0), Lera Abova (Miss All Sunday), and Sendhil Ramamurthy (Nefertari Cobra), all promoted to series regulars.

One Piece season 3 doesn't have an exact release date yet, though we can expect it around Spring 2027. For more, check out how to watch One Piece in order or our One Piece filler list to help you navigate the 1,000-plus episodes of the anime.

Mark Hamill might have a role in Twisted Metal season 3, but he's still not entirely sure what the show actually is.

Hamill will play the Pope of New York, AKA Charlie Kane, in the video game adaptation, a previously unseen figure who is the father of Sweet Tooth.

"They sent me this script, and I started reading this thing. I go, 'What IS this?' Yeah, it's twisted, but I just didn't get it. So they sent me a link to watch the episodes, and I watched the episodes, and I went, 'I still don't get it,'" said Hamill at FAN EXPO Anaheim, via Screen Rant.

"And now I'm in it, and what's so wonderful is, even though I don't get it, my character benefits from not being tethered to reality," he continued. "I play an ex-cabbie, also an ex-crook, who now is the Pope of New York. You heard me right, P-O-P-E, Pope. I get the hat and everything. And I'm telling you, you put that hat on, it sort of changes you. And he's nuts, totally nuts. So I'm having a great time."

While Hamill is, of course, best known for playing Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars universe, he also recently played the villainous Major in The Long Walk, while he also continued voicing Art Rosebaum in Invincible season 4.

Along with Hamill, Twisted Metal also stars Anthony Mackie, Stephanie Beatriz, Will Arnett, and Joe Seanoa.

"Anthony Mackie and Stephanie Beatriz are so good; they're so good together," Hamill also said. "Their chemistry is great, and I'm always delighted to work with actors I've never worked with before. It's great fun. We're going back there next week; I'll be gone for two months. I won't be here for the Fourth of July."

Twisted Metal season 3 does not yet have a release date. While you wait, fill out your watchlist with our guide to all the upcoming TV shows and upcoming video game adaptations.

Persona is the latest video game making the leap to live-action, with Netflix on board to adapt the beloved RPG series. And fans already have the perfect Joker in mind.

According to a report from Variety, Star Trek: Picard's Christopher Monfette is attached to write. Monfette has worked on a variety of genre shows and is a credited writer and co-producer on Marvel's upcoming VisionQuest. Stranger Things' Shawn Levy is also on board as a producer as part of his production company, 21 Laps. On the Sega side, Sonic the Hedgehog's Toru Nakahara is reportedly attached to produce.

Details beyond that are thin on the ground as, per Variety, Netflix declined to comment or confirm the veracity of the news. We don't even have a sense of which entry in the long-running series this show is likely to adapt. But it's further evidence of how much Netflix values video game adaptations in the wake of The Witcher, Castlevania, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners season 2, Arcane, Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, Devil May Cry, and many more.

While each mainline Persona entry deals with a new set of characters, there are some throughlines across the series – most notably, each stars a set of Japanese high school students who navigate the minutiae of school life by day, and fight their way through deadly dungeons by night, adopting a range of colorful personas to do battle.

The next game in the series, Persona 6, was announced only last month at Summer Game Fest, but with little more than a teaser to go off, it's unlikely Netflix's adaptation will be drawing from that. Far more likely is that Netflix's live-action Persona will take its cues from Persona 5 – as it features a number of the most beloved characters across any Shin Megami Tensei game. It's also the most successful entry in the series to date, with almost 14 million copies sold when Persona 5 Royal and the 2022 remaster are taken into account.

Naturally, Persona fans have plenty of thoughts about the news, not all of them positive. While some point to Netflix's track record of live-action adaptations as an ill omen for Persona, plenty are excited about the proposition of Joker and co. making the transition to live action. One common bit of fan-casting: Tom Holland as Joker. Though given the Spider-Man star has recently graduated to working with the likes of Christopher Nolan on The Odyssey, and that he has a long-gestating Fred Astaire biopic coming up, the chances of him starring in a Netflix video game adaptation seem relatively slim.

Whoever eventually signs up, it's certainly an exciting time to be a Persona fan, as Persona 6 seems to have some unexpected horror vibes. A Sega leaker has also hinted that the highly anticipated game could be released as early as next year.

Netflix's live-action Persona series does not currently have a release date. For more, dive into our list of upcoming video game movies and shows, or fill out your watchlist with our ranking of the best shows on Netflix.

Aang must master all four elements if he's to restore harmony to a world out of balance. The problem is, the Avatar's got off to a rocky start when it comes to earthbending. That's where Netflix's live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 kicks off, with Aang in search of someone who can help him master the third element he needs to take down the Fire Nation.

Enter Toph Beifong, an earthbending master who secretly kicks ass in tournaments by night while keeping up appearances as a posh girl by day. A lot rides on Toph's introduction, not just in a world-saving capacity, but also when it comes to Avatar itself as a show.

Aside from Appa and Momo, it's no exaggeration to suggest that Toph might just be the most beloved character in the entire Avatar franchise. How could she not be? Looking back at the original series this show is based on, it's easy to forget Toph wasn't even in the first season. That's how integral she quickly became upon her introduction in season two, instantly establishing herself as a key pillar of the group.

As such, season two of this new adaptation really needed to get Toph right. It's the least Netflix could do for the self-proclaimed "greatest earthbender in the world." And thankfully, they did. In fact, Toph's introduction in live-action is easily the best thing about season two, so any fears you might have should immediately be put to rest.

Earth shattering

Winning out over 6000 hopefuls, it's clear that Miyako simply is Toph in almost every way possible. And not just because she looks like Toph, either. It's as if she stepped barefoot out of the cartoon into live-action, exuding the exact same sass that made us fall in love with Toph in the first place, 20 years prior.

While some fans naturally hoped that the show would cast a blind actress to bring more authenticity to the role, Miyako worked extensively with a blindness consultant on set who helped ensure this version of Toph remained true to the character. It wasn't just about wearing contact lenses that would limit Miyako's sight, either.

Together, she and Joe Strechay worked hard to make the earthbending prodigy as confident as she is in the original, navigating the world in her own unique way. Because Toph is blind, of course, but she senses the world around her through a connection to the earth itself, much like how Daredevil interprets his surroundings using a radar sense.

Speaking to IGN, Strechay compared it to "doing a no-look pass in basketball," making sure Toph looked effortless in her bending without needing to physically see her opponents or the earth itself that she manipulates in order to fight them. Whether she's battling a grunt named The Boulder or just flipping soup in Aang's face, every mannerism calls back to the Toph we first met in animated form.

"Learning how to portray a fully blind character was one of the biggest insecurities I had about this role," Miyako said. But it's clear she was determined to put herself in Toph's shoes (or lack thereof, like when she kept her shoes off between takes, no matter how cold it got shooting in Vancouver).

Chip off the old block

Beyond the physicality of the role, this version of Toph even sounds like the Toph that so many of us grew up watching. Michaela Jill Murphy's voice work in the cartoon is legendary, imbuing the earthbender with grit but also vulnerability when the story called for it.

Miyako told Screen Rant that she "wanted to be as close to the character as possible," explaining that "there are parts in the season where you can hear a little tinge of her voice mixed with my register. I really felt that was something I needed to do. I'm glad it played well, because I remember just slaving over vowels."

By channeling Murphy's original performance, Miyako's own take really nails how Toph uses sass as a kind of emotional armor, much like the actual walls she builds around herself in battle. The young Beifong is as sturdy as the metal she eventually learns to bend, proving herself to be quite the taskmaster for Aang.

"No wonder it took you years to learn how to waterbend," goads Toph at one point. "You’re nothing but a 'half-atar!'"

When Katara suggests trying positive reinforcement, Toph says she'll "bear that in mind if [Aang] ever does anything positive."

Jokes that Toph used to make about her own blindness in the original cartoon return here too – all sensitively developed with help from Strechay – because Toph isn't Toph if she's not teasing the others and occasionally making them squirm.

"It's an honor to help the Avatar, see?" says Katara early on, to which Toph bluntly replies, "No, I don't see."

Strong foundations

Toph brings some much-needed laughs to season two, which even goes out of its way to update the original cartoon at points, like a new scene where Toph discovers she can access the mystical books in the library using Braille. That series was already ahead when it came to depicting blindness like this in family fare, but it's heartening still to see the new show strive to improve this even further, two decades on.

Such depth is also threaded into Toph's struggle with her rich lineage and the problematic behaviour of her parents, who it turns out are selling weapons to the Fire Nation for profit. A major betrayal later on in the season hits especially hard because we can see just how sensitive Toph actually is under that rock-hard exterior.

The brashness of her persona quite literally grounds the group with a big shift in energy upon joining, much like it did in the original series. Toph's "neutral jing," as the show describes it, counters the signature calm that Aang and Katara embody, balancing out their personalities with grit and steely resolve.

In doing so, Toph's introduction brings harmony to the gang and season two alike, not to mention a fandom that might disagree on a lot, but can hopefully all agree on just how perfect this new version of the beloved character has turned out to be.

Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 is streaming now on Netflix. For more, check out our spoiler-free Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 review, or dive into our spoiler-packed Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 ending explained if you're all caught up.

Netflix's live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender will always be directly compared to the animated Nickelodeon series it so closely adapts; such is the fate of all adaptations. Does it hew too closely to the original or go too far afield? That's the constant question, and a fair one, for any media directly recreating another. The second season of Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender chooses to play it safe, by and large, making for an experience best described as "fine."

I'm somewhat repeating myself from my Avatar: The Last Airbender season one review, but it is as true here as it ever was. The previously described "harmonious middle ground" that's being attempted here continues, and with slightly better results overall. It never quite reaches the highs of the material it's adapting, but this second season also avoids the lowest dips of the first.

If you're not already familiar, the second season follows Aang (Gordon Cormier) and his pals as they traverse the Earth Kingdom in search of someone to teach the Avatar-in-training earthbending now that he's mastered waterbending from Katara (Kiawentiio). They encounter the blind earthbender Toph (Miyako) and convince her to teach him. Eventually, the Gaang end up in Ba Sing Se, home of the Earth King, in order to convince him to join the war against the Fire Nation. Meanwhile, Zuko (Dallas Liu) and Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) pose as refugees themselves in the Earth Kingdom while being hunted by Zuko's sister, Azula (Elizabeth Yu).

Again, this is basically the exact plot description for Book Two of the animated Avatar: The Last Airbender series. The biggest difference between the two isn't even the medium; it's the fact that the live-action version is actually shorter. The animated series had a luxurious 20 episodes to cover the same material, while Netflix only grants 7, making for a remixed and much-trimmed Earth Kingdom experience.

Minor tales of Ba Sing Se

The effect this concentration produces is stifling. While individual performances from the actors are more easy and affable than the first season, it's hard to avoid the feeling that Ba Sing Se – billed as an absolutely massive city with impenetrable walls – is composed of roughly five separate rooms shot from different angles and a single outdoor market.

It doesn't help that many of the visual effects, be it fights, critters, major structures, or so on, often also look a bit off. There's regularly an overwhelming sense that it's all happening on a stage and nothing is real, which might be true but is kind of the opposite of what you want to imply. I would not go so far as to say my disbelief was ever really suspended.

That's not to say it's all bad. Despite the pressure of the condensed narrative and any issues with the visual effects or sets, plenty of character moments manage to shine regardless. Avatar, as a franchise, might be known for its spectacular elemental martial arts, but it's also known for being just as good at emotional throughlines. Dallas Liu, in particular, makes an absolute meal out of Zuko's torment between right and wrong, love and acceptance, throughout the season. Ian Ousley's Sokka also lands his beats more often than not, from silly goofs to direct lifts from the animated series, to meaningful moments exploring trauma.

Down to earth

Going into this season, my biggest concern was Toph, Aang's acerbic and tough earthbending teacher. In animation, it's easy enough to have a blind character who can see through vibrations, but it's another boulder of a problem to try and accomplish the same in a live-action adaptation, while also covering all the sociological elements involving her background and family. But from the moment Miyako steps into a scene, she owns it, which is honestly very Toph-like behavior.

Unfortunately, and perhaps most concerningly, the chemistry between Aang and Katara just doesn't work. It's the clearest example of the effect that squeezing the season's material down has had; without more time to explore what the two of them mean to each other, the major beats in season two come across as hollow or saccharine. And yet the relationship between those two massively underpins a lot of this season without ever being explicit, but it goes on to become even more of an element in the parts of Avatar that the live-action Avatar has yet to adapt.

There are a couple of aspects I won't spoil here that do work quite well thanks to this remixing, but it's few and far between. More than anything else, Netflix's live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 makes me a bit worried about Season 3's attempt to bend and shape the source material into some kind of conclusion, but it's an inoffensive experience.

Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 is streaming now on Netflix. For more, dive into our spoiler-filled Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 ending explained, or here's everything we know about Avatar: The Last Airbender season 3.

Avatar: The Last Airbender season 3 is on the way. In fact, it's already been shot! Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 has just hit Netflix, but seasons 2 and 3 of the live-action adaptation were filmed back-to-back, meaning season 3 is sitting on a hard drive somewhere right now. The fact we're not already watching it is a painful thought.

Set to cover the events of Book 3: Fire, Avatar: The Last Airbender season 3 will relocate the action to the Fire Nation, with the Gaang taking the fight to Fire Lord Ozai. Of course, it's never that simple, especially with Zuko now back fighting for his fiery home team. You can catch up on everything that went down at the climax of the latest season with our Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 ending explained.

So head below for everything you need to know about the live-action adaptation of one of the best Netflix shows of all time. We've got all the details on the Avatar: The Last Airbender season 3 release date, casting, plot, and more. We've also kept this piece as spoiler-free as possible, so if you've yet to see the animated show, you won't have the big surprises spoiled. Yip yip!

Avatar: The Last Airbender season 3 release date speculation

Avatar: The Last Airbender season 3 is currently undated with no suggestion of when it could release. But we might not have as long to wait for the third and final season as you might think.

That's because seasons 2 and 3 of Avatar: The Last Airbender were shot back-to-back, and filming on season 3 was completed back in November 2025. Season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender released on February 22, 2024, and season 2 released on June 25, 2026, a little over two years later. Therefore, it's reasonable to expect that we could see Avatar: The Last Airbender season 3 in early 2028, or possibly even 2027.

Avatar: The Last Airbender season 3 plot

Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender is a relatively faithful retelling of the classic Nickelodeon cartoon's overarching story. So we have a pretty good sense of what season 3 will cover.

Book 3: Fire is about Aang learning the last of his abilities as Avatar – firebending – in order to defeat Ozai and the Fire Nation before the arrival of Sozin's Comet renders the Fire Lord unstoppable. In parallel, it covers Zuko's conflicted feelings about returning to the Fire Nation after siding with Azula over Aang, Katara and Iroh at the climax of Book 2: Earth.

We won't go into too much detail beyond that; the twists and turns of Book 3 are best discovered in the moment if you've never seen the animated series before. If you have, you might be wondering how the Netflix show will squeeze all the events covered across the animated show's 21-episode final season into its respective season 3. The answer is: they won't.

"We made a lot of conscious choices about what things work better in animation that we wouldn't want to touch, and what things maybe couldn't be explored in enough depth in animation that we could [then] explore with live action, live bodies on live sets and locations," Executive Producer Christine Boylan told GamesRadar+ of the approach to adapting season 2. It's reasonable to assume that the creative team behind the Netflix show is taking the same approach to season 3, given both seasons were written simultaneously.

While there have been some controversial omissions from the Netflix show (Appa's Lost Days being a major Book 2 casualty), for the most part, all the key events across Books 1 and 2 of the animated show were incorporated into the live-action show. In adapting Book 3, we wouldn't be surprised to see episodes that don't directly fuel the main thrust of the story dropped, such as 'The Beach' or 'The Runaway'. One episode we know will be making the leap to live action in some form, however, is Sokka's Master, as Jon Jon Briones is set to play Fire Nation sword master Piandao in the new season.

One important fact that should help in adapting Book 3 is that there are several multi-episode arcs this season, including The Day of the Black Sun, The Boiling Rock and Sozin's Comet, which more naturally lend themselves to depicting in a single episode, though don't be surprised if the epic finale stretches across two.

Avatar: The Last Airbender season 3 cast

All your favorite members of the Gaang will return for Avatar: The Last Airbender season 3. And, rather helpfully, Netflix announced the new cast members joining seasons 2 and 3 at the same time back in May 2025, so now that we've seen season 2, we can definitively say who will be appearing for the first time in season 3.

Of the confirmed newbies, Jon Jon Briones Pianadao does not appear in season 2 and is being held for season 3. Piandao has an important connection to Sokka, and a significant role to play in the war against the Fire Nation. Tantoo Cardinal's Hama will also debut in season 3, and has a similarly important role to play in Kitara's story, but we won't say any more than that.

The full, confirmed cast so far then (note: while there are several cast members who have appeared in previous seasons that we expect to appear in season 3 if it sticks to the letter of the animated show, we've left some names out that could be considered spoilers):

• Gordon Cormier as Aang
• Kiawentiio as Kitara
• Ian Ousley as Sokka
• Miyako as Toph Beifong
• Dallas Liu as Zuko
• Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Uncle Iroh
• Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai
• Elizabeth Yu as Azula
• Momona Tamada as Ty Lee
• Thalia Tran as Mai
• Danny Pudi as Sai
• Terry Chen as Jeong Jeong
• Jon Jon Briones as Pianadao
• Tantoo Cardinal as Hama

When can we expect the One Piece season 3 trailer?

In terms of when we're likely to see an Avatar: The Last Airbender season 3 trailer, the answer is a little complicated and will depend on when Netflix announces a season 3 release date.

The first teaser for Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 dropped on December 10, 2025, over 6 months before season 2 went on to release. That's pretty early for a modern streaming series, particularly given that the year-long production on seasons 2 and 3 was only completed a month prior, on November 11.

Season 3 filming is long complete then. And while VFX and post production work is ongoing, it's possible that – if Netflix wanted – we could see an Avatar: The Last Airbender season 3 trailer sooner than later. If the show sticks to its curretn 2-year release cycle, expect a trailer to drop late 2027.

Is Avatar: The Last Airbender season 3 the final season?

Yes, Avatar: The Last Airbender season 3 is the final season of the Netflix adaptation. This mirrors the original animated show, which unfolded across three seasons (or 'Books').

While there is a sequel show, The Legend of Korra, set some 70 years after the events of The Last Airbender, which ran for four seasons of its own, and multiple canon sequel comics, which continue the story of the Gaang, there has been no suggestion so far that Netflix plans to adapt those (though we'd love to see a live-action Korra series). Either way, the story of The Last Airbender will be completed in season 3.

For more on the shows that inspired Avatar: The Last Airbender season 3, check out our picks for the best anime and fill out your watchlist

Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender has a change of leadership in the second season, with Christine Boylan and Jabbar Raisani stepping up as showrunners for the live-action adaptation of the beloved Book 2 of the animated series.

To that end, the pair have revealed their approach to season 2 – and why some moments will be left alone if they felt they were better suited to the Nickelodeon show, which ran from 2005 to 2008.

"We made a lot of conscious choices about what things work better in animation that we wouldn't want to touch, and what things maybe couldn't be explored in enough depth in animation that we could [then] explore with live action, live bodies on live sets and locations," Boylan told GamesRadar+.

Boylan added, "We think of it as a myth, as a legend that can be told and retold again and again and again. So, this is the retelling."

Raisani, meanwhile, was keen to point out that a key creative struggle was "finding that balance" of what could make the leap to live action while still keeping the spirit of the original.

"We're both huge fans of the animated series, and we know what the fanbase is like," Raisani said. "We want fans to love our show, and continue to love the animated show. So it's finding that balance of including the things that can fit into a live action adaptation, because we can't do everything, and ensuring that it felt like an honest connection to the source material. It'll never be one-to-one, you know, that's not the intention."

Raisani continued, "When you watch it, you should get the feels that you had when you watch the original, like you should feel that connection to the original, while feeling like you're getting a new experience in a new journey, and I find that's the thing that I go back to the most, and just make check in with, like, are we getting the vibes right?"

At first blush, the showrunners can be confident in a job well done. Early reactions to Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 – thanks to the premiere episode streaming via Tudum – have been overwhelmingly positive.

With Book 2 being held aloft as the original series' storytelling peak, it appears the writers and creatives behind the Netflix show have understood the assignment as the Gaang converge on Ba Sing Se in their bid to stop the Fire Nation. Yip yip!

Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 is streaming on Netflix from June 25.

For more, check out the Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 release schedule. Then, dive into our picks for the best anime on Netflix.

Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 is about to hit Netflix but some fans were treated to a special early screening of episode 1. The new show live-streamed on Tudum to some fans who have been sharing their early reactions on social media.

The second season reunites viewers with Aang (Gordon Cormier) as he and his friends head deeper to the Earth Kingdom to face their enemy, Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim). Promising to be an epic new journey, it sees the gang discover new locations and new foes on their adventure.

The first season, released in 2024, had some pretty mixed reactions, sitting at a pretty average 62% from critics and 70% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. However, early reactions to the first episode of season 2 are already saying it's an improvement.

Posting on Twitter, one fan wrote: "I just watched the first episode of the second season of #Netflix's #AvatarTheLastAirbender live-action via Tudum and it's such a BIG IMPROVEMENT!!! Love the changes so far while being still faithful to the og show!"

"WOW that first episode of Season 2 was so fire. Just finished watching the premiere of it live on Netflix Tudum and it's fantastic," added a second, while a third tweeted: "Dude, I just watched episode 1 of Avatar season 2 and it's literally infinitely better than the entire first season, Katara improved a ton in her acting and her bending is so perfect, the moves the show gave her are crazy creative, she's full of insane combos."

Another viewer commented: "I regret to inform you that, it’s so freakin good. I’m very impressed with the improvements and changes. Time to use neutral jing until the rest of the episodes drop."

You can check out some more early reactions below.

Avatar: The Last Airbender airs on Netflix on June 25. Check out our Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 release schedule so you don't miss an episode.

For more, check out our guide to the best Netflix shows to stream right now.

Desmond hive, your moment is now. Assassin's Creed Origins actor Abubakar Salim has given some guidance to the creators of Netflix's upcoming live-action adaptation – and it involves the divisive modern-day sections from the franchise's lore.

Especially with something like Assassin's Creed, where it's had so many years in the game space, you have to listen to the fans there in regards to really paying service and homage to it, because it's one of those where it's so easy to try and innovate on it when it doesn't really need innovation," Salim, who played Bayek in the Egyptian-set outing, told Screen Rant.

Salim continued, "It just needs its core, which is the creed itself, the historical elements of it, and the core modern-day stuff as well."

If you're a Templar-come-lately to the Assassin's Creed franchise, you may not remember the passionate debate and furore surrounding the modern-day setting.

Frequently used as a narrative wrapper to introduce players to each fresh historical setting via the Animus device and the shadowy Abstergo corporation, the modern-day exploits of Nolan North's Desmond soon intruded on Assassin's Creed's unique selling point of leaping around virtual ancient landscapes.

Reactions were divided – but the storyline's sudden end in Assassin's Creed 3 curtailed hopes of a present-day spin-off.

The Assassin's Creed Netflix show re-emerged last year, with Toby Wallace and Lola Petticrew among the leads. Filming is currently underway, and we've even been clued in on the date and setting of the live-action show: 64 AD in Rome, the year of the city's Great Fire. Toasty. No word yet, though, on how the present-day moments will be incorporated, if at all.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, a remake of the seafaring fourth entry in the series, is setting sail on July 9.

For more, check out the best movies on Netflix and our complete list of the many, many upcoming video game movies in the works.

How's this for magical news? Kiki's Delivery Service is being turned into a live-action TV show from the BBC.

BBC Studios Kids & Family, fellow UK production company Wheels in Motion, and Japan's Kadakowa will join forces for a live-action adaptation of Eiko Kadono's novel, which Studio Ghibli also drew from for its 1989 anime classic (via Variety).

While Kadono went on to write several more acclaimed books in the Kiki's series, the live-action show is planned to consist of 10 episodes based on the first novel – which largely covers the same narrative ground as Studio Ghibli's movie.

However, the form of a TV show will, inevitably, differ from a feature film – and could even bring in material from later novels.

In both the movie and novel, Kiki is a 13-year-old witch who moves to a coastal town as part of her training. While there, she struggles with juggling a new delivery service, her own independence, and her fluctuating powers.

The project even comes with Kadono's seal of approval. In a statement, she said, "Kiki is about to set off on another adventure into a new world. I'm confident this will be a great show. I can't wait to see the series come to life."

Takeo Kodera, Kadokawa's director of international co-productions added, "We cannot imagine a more exciting tribute to the landmark 40th anniversary of this classic book series than this partnership. The U.K. creative team has absorbed the spirit of Kiki through their close collaboration with Ms. Kadono and the results will enchant family audiences everywhere."

Kiki's Delivery Service is currently undated. For more, check out our rankings of the best anime movies ever made.

Baldur's Gate 3 Karlach actor Samantha Béart has teased more about whether the "key cast" will return for the HBO sequel TV show – with some suitably on-brand NSFW humor.

"[Show creator] Craig Mazin has personally expressed to me his belief that the key cast of Baldur's Gate 3 should be meaningfully on-screen on the show as someone familiar or someone new," Béart said when asked about the upcoming series by our colleagues at the Future Games Show.

But in the video itself, which you can see below, Béart is in a typically cheeky mood about Mazin, who has previous in the video game adaptation space with HBO's The Last of Us.

Yes, you read that right: 'Karlach Cliffgate pegged Craig Mazin and he loved it.' Those are words that appeared on-screen, those are words I'm writing, and those are words you're reading right now.

After you got that mental image out of your head – or saved for later, we're not judging – it appears Béart is inviting speculation on whether Baldur's Gate 3's motley crew of larger-than-life characters will be returning for the show – which is set after the events of Larian's RPG masterpiece. Further still, it leaves the matter of whether the game actors will reprise their role open-ended. For us, some actors are their character, and we would have some trouble seeing new faces pop up in certain roles.

It also begs the question on which choices and Act 3 consequences will become crystalized in canon. Just who will be around in the party by the events of the HBO show, anyway?

"After putting nearly 1000 hours into the incredible world of Baldur's Gate 3, it is a dream come true to be able to continue the story that Larian and Wizards of The Coast created," Mazin said in a statement upon the project's announcement. "I am a devoted fan of D&D and the brilliant way that [Larian CEO] Swen Vincke and his gifted team adapted it. I can't wait to help bring Baldur's Gate and all of its incredible characters to life with as much respect and love as we can, and I'm deeply grateful to Gabe Marano and his team at Hasbro for entrusting me with this incredibly important property."

Little else is known about the Baldur's Gate 3 TV show, though we anticipate Mazin will have his hands full with The Last of Us season 3 before then.

For more, check out the full list of upcoming video game movies in the works, plus all the new PS5 games and new Xbox Series X games on the horizon.

As the God of War TV show gets closer to hitting our screens, we've now had a behind the scenes look at what Baldur might look like in the show.

Deadpool and Rebel Moon actor Ed Skrein is taking on the role in the Prime Video adaptation, and, in a picture shared by Freya actor Sonya Walger, we get a sneak peek at his style.

It looks pretty game accurate, with a busy beard that's maybe a tad smaller than his game counterpart. Skrein is wearing a shirt, so it's impossible to tell if he'll have matching tattoos, though we'd wager a guess that he will. Check out the picture below.

The rest of the cast in the picture include Louis Cunningham (Modi), Alastair Duncan (Mimir), Max Parker (Heimdall), and Ben Chapple (Magni).

The first look at the God of War TV show revealed Ryan Hurst as Kratos and Callum Vinson as Atreus. While Kratos's look is extremely game accurate, it also suffers a bit from an uncanny valley effect.

"I’m sure everybody's trying real hard, it's so dumb,” said God of War creator David Jaffe of the first look. "Kratos in this pose with this expression, not the guy's face, but this expression, he just looks stupid. If you're going to reveal, to most people, a brand new character that you hope is going to carry your series, for the first time, and they've never really seen this before, and this is the way you introduce them?"

The God of War TV show doesn't yet have a release date. While you wait, check out our guide to all the most exciting upcoming TV shows and upcoming video game adaptations to fill out your watchlist.

Cricket bats at the ready: a TV adaptation of Rebellion's postapocalyptic survival-action video game Atomfall is in development from the duo behind Jamie Dornan thriller The Tourist.

The latest video game to get the live-action adaptation treatment (news of a Battlefield movie landed only last week), 2025's Atomfall hailed from British studio Rebellion, and put a distinctly British spin on the post-apocalypse. Inspired by 1957's Windscale disaster, Atomfall is set in a Lake District Quarantine Zone, where a nuclear incident has caused society to deteriorate and hostile factions to form, among other strange occurrences.

The player assumes the role of an amnesiac with no memory of how they arrived in the Quarantine Zone, as they navigate a world that blends classic British sci-fi, folk horror, nuclear paranoia, and ancient mythology. The TV adaptation will "expand on the game’s mythology" but remain "faithful to its tone, themes and British roots."

Developed by Harry and Jack Williams' Two Brothers Pictures, the pair are seemingly big fans of the game, with Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley noting: "Harry and Jack demonstrated a clear love for Atomfall and talked about their own particular endings when they were playing the game. It is always exciting to work with people who share the same passion for creating and telling great stories, and we are sure that this partnership will help to deliver a television series that will delight fans of the game and beyond.”

Atomfall recently won Best British Game at the 2026 BAFTAs, and is one of several movie and TV projects currently in development at Rebellion, alongside Duncan Jones' adaptation of Rogue Trooper, and a Judge Dredd TV show called Mega-City One, though news on the latter has been suspiciously quiet in recent years.

Atomfall, of course, is just the latest in a long line of video game projects heading to the screen, following the critical and box office success of titles like The Last of Us and A Minecraft Movie. Up next is Mortal Kombat 2, which hits screens on May 8, followed by Zach Cregger's Resident Evil and Street Fighter.

Atomfall does not yet have a release date. For more, check out our list of upcoming video game movies.

Netflix has unveiled the first look at Scooby-Doo: Origins, which marks the first live-action Scooby-Doo project since 2004's Monsters Unleashed.

The series takes us all the way back to the teenage days of Mystery Inc. (though the modern animated adaptations tend to just call them the 'Scooby Gang') when Scoob was just a puppy. Per Deadline, childhood friends Shaggy (Tanner Hagen) and Daphne (Mckenna Grace) get "embroiled in a haunting mystery surrounding a lonely, lost Great Dane puppy that may have been a witness to a supernatural murder." And this is extremely exciting for fans of The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show and The 13th Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, which saw Shaggy, Daphne, and Scooby solving mysteries as a trio.

Shaggy and Daphne ultimately team up with "the pragmatic and scientific townie, Velma (Abby Ryder Fortson), and the strange, but ever so handsome new kid, Freddy (Maxwell Jenkins)" as they set out to solve the case that "is pulling each of them into a creepy nightmare that threatens to expose all of their secrets." You can check out the behind-the-scenes photo below.

Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg, the latter of whom wrote both '90s thriller Disturbing Behavior and Kangaroo Jack, are set to serve as showrunners.

OG live-action Shaggy star Matthew Lillard shared support for the new Scooby Doo cast back in February, saying, "I think that it's a great way for kids to understand storytelling. It's the first introduction to ghost stories for a lot of kids, right? It's about friendship and sticking together as a gang and working together to solve mysteries, and that normally it's a dangerous white man behind a mask. These are the things that kids have to learn."

Scooby-Doo: Origins does not yet have a release date. In the meantime, check out the best shows to watch on Netflix right now.

Netflix's One Piece isn't sinking any time soon, despite reports on the contrary, as season 2 topples season 1's streaming record.

According to Nielsen's latest streaming numbers (per The Hollywood Reporter), One Piece season 2 drew in 1.62 billion minutes on streaming during its opening week in the March 9-15 period, with only sequel sensation Zootopia 2 bettering those figures on Disney Plus (1.72 billion).

That exceptional debut actually stands out as the live-action adaptation's highest audience number yet, beating season 1's 1.39 billion in 2023.

Previously, there had been concern over the Netflix show's future as Forbes reported that season 2 debuted to lower numbers than season 1. With a 12-season plan mooted, it appeared One Piece was entering choppy waters for the first time.

Happily, audiences are clearly still resonating with the adventures of the Straw Hats and newcomers, such as Vivi and Tony Tony Chopper.

All told, there's bountiful treasures for One Piece fans on the horizon. Not only is One Piece season 3 now filming, with new episodes coming in 2027, but a One Piece remake from WIT Studio is headed to Netflix.

On the anime side of things, the Elbaph Arc has kicked off in earnest, though Toei Animation has revealed it will be slowing down the cadence of releases to only 26 episodes in 2026.

With all that spare time on your hands, it might be a good idea to get searching for the real-life One Piece. Series creator Eiichiro Oda sparked a wild goose chase earlier this year by dropping the meaning of the One Piece into the bottom of the ocean in an undisclosed location. Some fans think they've pinpointed where that could be, however.

For more, check out our guide on how to watch One Piece in order, plus our One Piece filler list.

One Piece is embarking on a new adventure in 2027 with season 3's Battle of Alabasta.

As revealed by Netflix in a sand-covered teaser, the live-action remake of One Piece has a quick turnaround and will hit our screens next year.

Given the One Piece season 2 ending set up Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hat crew heading to Vivi's homeland of Alabasta, it should come as little surprise that the Going Merry is setting sail to these uncharted waters in particular.

Netflix revealed filming for the next season in South Africa began back in November, and while little else is known about One Piece season 3 right now, save for production being well underway, we do have a brief synopsis:

"War is coming for Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat crew in the desert kingdom of Alabasta, Princess Vivi’s homeland. A rebellion threatens to tear the nation apart, fueled in secret by one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the ruthless Sir Crocodile, and his underground syndicate Baroque Works, who seek to conquer Alabasta for themselves. In a season defined by unbreakable bonds and impossible choices, the Straw Hats must face a brewing civil war and a powerful warlord to save Vivi’s kingdom before it crumbles into the sand.”

Confirmed One Piece season 3 newcomers include Cobra Kai's Xolo Maridueña as Portgas D. Ace and Cole Escola as Bon Clay.

Manga readers and anime viewers will be acutely aware that the third season will round out the epic Alabasta Arc from Eiichiro Oda's source material.

On the decision to split the adaptation across two seasons, co-showrunner Joe Tracz told The Wrap, "We knew that arc is so beloved, it’s so important, it’s so complicated, that to try to compress it into one eight-episode season was always going to leave out some of the heart of it...It was always a two-season plan. We’re lucky enough that we’re getting to wrap up that story."

For more, check out how to watch One Piece in order, including a useful One Piece filler list to help you navigate the 1000-plus episodes of the anime.

Then, dive into the One Piece Elbaph Arc release schedule for the latest on the anime's plans.

The God of War TV show has found its Freya.

Sonya Walger will play Freya in the Prime Video show. Walger is probably best known for appearances in For All Mankind and Lost.

Freya is Odin's ex-wife, one-time Queen of the Valkyries, and a Vanir goddess capable of great magic. Exiled at the end of her marriage to Odin, she lives a lonely, reclusive life on Midgard, where humans call her the Witch of the Woods.

Walger joins Ryan Hurst as Kratos, Mandy Patinkin as Odin, Teresa Palmer as Sif, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Thor, Callum Vinson as Atreus, and Ed Skrein as Baldur.

The casting comes after a controversial first look at the show, which showed Hurst's Kratos and Vinson's Atreus in full costume. The image was so game-accurate that it ended up looking a little uncanny, and it didn't go down all that well.

"I'm sure everybody's trying real hard, it's so dumb," God of War creator David Jaffe said of the first look. "Kratos in this pose with this expression, not the guy's face, but this expression, he just looks stupid. If you're going to reveal, to most people, a brand new character that you hope is going to carry your series, for the first time, and they've never really seen this before, and this is the way you introduce them?"

Strangely, despite the first look being official, Hurst later shared a message on social media suggesting it wasn't representative of the show: "Don't believe everything you see on the internet, kids."

The God of War TV show doesn't yet have a release date. While you wait, check out our guide to all the most exciting upcoming TV shows for everything else that's in store.

The team behind Netflix's One Piece may have a 12-season plan for the anime adaptation – but now that it's been confirmed season 2 pulled in less viewers than season 1, it's seeming less and less likely it'll ever come to fruition.

According to Forbes, the show's second chapter earned 16.8 million views in its first four days of streaming: 1.7 million down from its predecessor during the same window. In the grand scheme of things, sure, that's not a huge drop. But waning interest from built-in fans isn't a good sign when it comes to longevity potential, especially when it bagged a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score and you consider that each episode reportedly sets the streamer back $18 million.

"There's so much material," producer Marty Adelstein explained to Deadline earlier this week, in reference to the original manga's 1,080 chapters. He went on to say that they could plot out six seasons "easy", but that's the least they imagine when it comes to the adventure drama's future.

As it stands, Virgin River is tied with Orange is the New Black and Grace and Frankie as Netflix's longest-running series. It will soon surpass the latter two titles, though, with its upcoming eighth installment. Given all of their steadily-grown popularity, it'll take some doing for One Piece to match up.

With One Piece season 3 already in the works, season 2 sees Monkey D. Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) and the rest of the Straw Hat Crew head out onto the Grand Line, where they encounter prehistoric jungles, beloved fan fave Tony Tony Chopper, and the notorious Baroque Works assassins.

All episodes are streaming now on Netflix. For more, check out our One Piece season 2 review, or if you've already completed your voyage on the Grand Line, dive into our One Piece season 2 ending explained.

The Last of Us has cast two important characters for season 3.

Deadline reports that Michelle Mao will play Yara and Kyriana Kratter will play Lev. The pair are Seraphites, members of the religious cult in Seattle that Ellie and Dina get a glimpse of in season 2. Lev is Yara's younger brother, and the character is trans in the game. The publication reports that this will be the case in the show, too, although Kratter is not trans.

15-year-old Kratter is best known for starring as KB in the 2024 Star Wars show Skeleton Crew, while Mao played Rosamund, the antagonist in the latest season of Bridgerton.

Lev and Yara are both important to Abby's story after the pair cross paths with her in Seattle, with Lev in particular being something of a moral compass for her. In a narrative switch-up, Abby will be the focus of The Last of Us season 3, and (if it follows the course of the game) we'll see the events of the second season from her point of view. That means diving deeper into what's going on in Seattle with the WLF and the Seraphites.

Other recent additions to the show's cast include Patrick Wilson as Abby's father Jerry, Jason Ritter as WLF soldier Hanley, and Clea DuVall as another member of the Seraphites. They join an existing cast list that includes Kaitlyn Dever as Abby and Bella Ramsey as Ellie.

In Abby's story, Jeffrey Wright returns as Isaac, with Tati Gabrielle as Nora, Spencer Lord as Owen, Ariela Barer as Mel, and Jorge Lendeborg Jr. as Manny (who takes over from Danny Ramirez). In Ellie's corner, there's Isabela Merced as Dina and Gabriel Luna as Tommy.

Filming is currently underway on season 3.

The Last of Us season 3 is expected to premiere on HBO in 2027. For more on what to watch, check out our guide to the other best new TV shows on the way.

Filming is now underway on Netflix's adaptation of Assassin's Creed, and the streamer has finally confirmed the show's setting and time period. And it's a mix of the familiar and the new for long-serving Assassin's Creed fans.

We've known for some time now that the show is set to film in Rome, Italy – primarily at the famous Cinecittà Studios, where there is an existing Rome backlot – and, sure enough, the show itself is set to unfold on the streets of the Italian capital. News of a return to Rome will undoubtedly set the hearts of Assassin's Creed fans aflutter, as it's the primary setting of Ezio Auditore da Firenze's second game, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.

But, the show will be set almost 1,500 years before the events of Brotherhood – 64 AD, to be precise – and will tell a totally original story not previously covered in any of the games. If you know your history, Rome, 64 AD will be significant because that's the very year the Great Fire of Rome broke out, so expect sparks to fly in the show.

Netflix's Assassin's Creed show has been a long time coming. Initially announced way back in 2020, it was, er, re-announced in July last year (maybe chalk it up to a glitch in the Animus), with Westworld and Halo creatives signing up. Since then, there's been a deluge of casting news, but not much else. Toby Wallace and Lola Petticrew are set to lead the cast, while Noomi Rapace, Sean Harris and Claes Bang are among the supporting cast.

Assassin's Creed previously received an ill-fated live-action adaptation back in 2016. Starring Michael Fassbender, that film jumped back to 15th-century Spain. It's currently sitting on a dismal 18% Rotten Tomatoes score, though our reviewer showed a little more mercy, awarding it 3*.

Plot details for Netflix's Assassin's Creed are under wraps, but expect the usual shadow war between Assassins and Templars to figure prominently. Alas, the confirmed time period rules out any chance of an Ezio cameo, but the return to Rome is certainly welcome.

Assassin's Creed does not currently have a release date. While we wait for more news, check out our list of upcoming video game movies, or dive into our list of the best video game movies ever.

Mikaela Hoover, who voices the oddly cute but surly Tony Tony Chopper in Netflix's One Piece season 2, says she didn't watch the anime before filming the show. Instead, she chose to put her own spin on the character, with One Piece's showrunner and producers reassuring her that One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda would fully approve of her performance.

"I remember after a few sessions saying to [showrunner Joe Tracz] and one of the producers, Steve Welke, 'Should I watch?' And they said, 'Honestly, we love so much what you're doing, you should just keep on this journey. Oda-san picked you for a reason'," Hoover tells THR. Indeed, Oda helped guide Tony Tony Chopper into the live action show, offering up is own advice on how to portray him.

"Now, after filming season two, I have seen some of the anime in Japanese, and the actress is absolutely brilliant, but we're very different, and I think that to copy the anime would have been a disservice," Hoover continues. "I'm sure fans are going to feel a certain way, but I had to let all of that go and just trust my interpretation and trust the work - trust that this is how Oda wanted him portrayed."

Despite not having seen the anime, Hoover says she connected deeply with Tony Tony Chopper, who is essentially a cute little reindeer guy with a kinda tortured soul, who sometimes turns into a huge monster.

"At the end of the day, he just really wants to be accepted," she explains. "I've also experienced not feeling seen, somebody loving you, and then turning their back on you. I feel so connected to him in those ways that it was easy to pull from my own experiences when I embody him. I feel like I'm healing some childhood wounds in myself."

All episodes of One Piece season 2 are streaming now on Netflix. For more, check out our One Piece season 2 review, or, check out our list of the best new anime shows you need to know about.

A new live-action Yakuza series has suddenly been released – and fans immediately prefer it over 2024's divisive Amazon adaptation.

Yakuza Powered by Nihon Toitsu is a three-hour adaptation of the events of Yakuza 1 and Yakuza 2, released as a tie-in to the release of Yakuza Kiwami 3 and its Dark Ties add-on.

Previously, the version – without English subtitles – had been trapped on Japan's Prime Video but is now available on IGN's YouTube channel.

In the series, Kiryu (Yasufumi Motomiya) butts heads with the likes of Majima (Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi) and one-time BFF Nishikiyama (Kazuhiro Nakaya, reprising his game role) upon his release from prison. When returning to Kamurocho, he soon finds himself embroiled in a criminal conspiracy that will soon cut longstanding relationships and forge iron-clad bonds elsewhere.

While the series is, admittedly, low budget, it keeps Yakuza's traditional tongue-in-cheek humor intact. That even extends to one scene featuring several jokes at the expense of the long-running series' text box dialog scenes.

The first episode (more are forthcoming this week) has immediately gone down well, with commenters declaring it "10x better than the Amazon version." In fact, there is a swell of positive energy surrounding this adaptation that is in stark contrast to Amazon's effort.

For reference, Amazon's live-action adaptation – a series that played fast and loose with the source material, even if it did follow much of the first Yakuza's major story beats – was met with a lukewarm response by the audience, including those who felt it strayed too far from what made Yakuza so iconic.

Having said that, I certainly wasn't down on it as most were. In my Like a Dragon: Yakuza review, I praised its decision to forge ahead with its own fresh take, writing, "It's not the game Kiryu – and why should it be? Yakuza: Like a Dragon, if nothing else, is always confident in being its own thing."

Still, if you want an authentic Yakuza experience, this miniseries has got your back.

New episodes of Yakuza Powered by Nihon Toitsu are released on March 18 and March 19.

For more, check out the upcoming video game movies in the works, and our ranking of the best Yakuza games.

One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda reveals the suggestions Netflix took on-board for the live-action Chopper – including thinking of the fan favorite reindeer as a "cute plushie."

"I was worried, because I was shared material from the early stages," Oda admitted on the first episode of One Piece: Into the Grand Line: Official Podcast. "They did tend to see Chopper as this living creature at first, concerned about being true to animal bone structure, for instance, and bringing some realism to his look."

To help the creative team nail the look and feel of Chopper, who plays a crucial role in One Piece season 2 as the Straw Hats' doctor, Oda gave some much-needed pointers.

"So I suggested they think of him as a stuffed toy. If you make him too realistic, it'll go into uncanny valley [territory]. So think of him as a cute plushie."

That advice even extended to Chopper's voice, performed in the Netflix series by Mikaela Hoover. For Oda, there had to be a sincerity to its cuteness, so as not to mimic the "tongue-in-cheek" nature of Hollywood's take on cuddly characters that make their way into the live-action space.

"When I think of 'cute' characters in live-action Hollywood films, their cuteness feels a bit tongue-in-cheek to make them more palatable to adults," Oda lamented. "But Chopper needs to look and sound cute. I think it's a cuteness that's unique to Japan. I feel like Chopper needs that more than Hollywood's cuteness, so that's something I strongly emphasized."

Even with Oda's guidance, the character of Chopper could have ended up very differently. Mikaela Hoover, who also embodied the character through performance capture on set, recently revealed that she initially turned down an audition due to believing it was a voice-only role.

For more, check out our guide to the One Piece season 2 ending. Then, treasure this look ahead at One Piece season 3.

One Piece star Emily Rudd's Nami costume differs slightly in the Netflix show from the manga (and anime), but the actor wanted to make sure it was as accurate as possible "for the fans."

For the show's Reverse Mountain arc, Nami's blue patterned tank top from the manga and anime becomes a long-sleeved shirt because of the weather conditions during filming, but her miniskirt stayed the same at Rudd's insistence.

"In the manga, it is a vest, but because she has a lot of action and we were shooting in the dead of winter and we wanted to keep our dear Emily warm, we were able to add long sleeves to this look," the show's costume designer Kerry Anne Barnard told InStyle.

"She was really having to do all that action in a teeny tiny little skirt," Barnard continued. "She knew it was going to be cold, but as she said to me, 'This is for the fans. I want to get this as correct as possible,' and she was really, really badass about it because it really was cold."

The Netflix adaptation of the beloved series has been a massive hit with critics in its sophomore outing – the second season currently has a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 100%, with our own One Piece season 2 review calling it "the live-action adaptation that longtime fans deserve."

Meanwhile, One Piece fans are trying to work out the logistics of deep-sea diving after the manga's creator Eiichiro Oda revealed he'd dropped the answer to the mysterious One Piece treasure 600 metres underwater (and, now, even iShowSpeed is getting involved).

All episodes of One Piece season 2 are now streaming on Netflix. For more, check out our guide to the best new anime still to come in 2026, or look ahead to everything we know so far about One Piece season 3.

Netflix's One Piece stars hear your concerns about bringing new seasons to the streamer – and they're in the same boat when it comes to wanting a quick turnaround.

Speaking to Collider on the pressure of attempting to catch up to the source material (at this rate, the live-action adaptation might catch up to the anime and manga in a decade or more), Nami actor Emily Rudd gave a level-headed response: "There's a certain amount of time that we have to put into post-production. We have so much that we have to add to the show, even though a lot of what we do is practical. But I think we're all keen to move at a pace that is as quick as humanly possible, so that's what we're doing."

Sanji actor Taz Skylar added that there is an "incredible pressure to put them out as quickly as humanely possible," with Usopp actor Jacob Romero noting, "The mix of CGI and practicality is definitely a formula that, I think, as a production, we're honing in on and getting more efficient and fantastic."

Right now, there's no official word on the release window for One Piece season 3, save for production having begun in South Africa in November 2025. Chopper actor Mikaela Hoover, Miss All Sunday actor Lera Abova, Cobra actor Sendhil Ramamurthy and Crocodile actor Joe Manganiello have all been upgraded to series regulars for the next season.

One Piece season 2 has only just sailed into sight on Netflix, but is currently sitting pretty as the streamer's #1 show this week. The critical response is mirroring viewer energy, too, as the adaptation of Eiichiro Oda's manga is currently on a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Away from the live-action series, Oda has finally written down the meaning of the One Piece as the manga creeps towards its conclusion. Remarkably, dedicated fans think they've already found the spot where it was buried at sea, and plans are underway to recover the container.

The One Piece anime, meanwhile, returns this April. For more, check out the new anime coming your way this Spring season, plus our complete guide on how to watch One Piece in order – including the One Piece filler episodes list.

Disney is finally making moves on its live-action Tinker Bell TV show after over a decade in development hell.

The series, titled Tink, is now a "high priority" for Disney Plus, according to Deadline, with Friday Night Lights' Liz Heldens and Bridget Carpenter on board as screenwriters and executive producers. Disney hasn't released a logline or synopsis for the show yet and there's no casting information, either.

A live-action project about Peter Pan's fairy friend has been in the works since 2010, when a rom-com starring Elizabeth Banks was announced. That movie ended up going nowhere, until another film with Reese Witherspoon in the titular role was reported to be in development in 2015. Since then, Tinker Bell has appeared in live-action in 2023's Peter Pan & Wendy, played by Yara Shahidi.

Based on J.M. Barrie's character from his novel Peter & Wendy, Tinker Bell first appeared in animated form in Disney's Peter Pan, which was released back in 1953, and its 2002 sequel Return to Neverland. Her character design, with blonde hair, bright green dress, and trail of pixie dust, has become one of the House of Mouse's most recognizable figures.

A series of animated Tinker Bell movies followed between 2008 and 2015, featuring the voices of Mae Whitman, Lucy Liu, America Ferrera, and Kristin Chenoweth, following her adventures in Neverland before she met Peter Pan.

Tink doesn't have a release date yet. For more from the House of Mouse, check out our guide to all the new Disney movies on the way in 2026 and beyond.

One Piece's Chopper actor Mikaela Hoover has revealed she originally rejected the role of the iconic reindeer.

“I initially thought it was just a voice audition, so I turned it down," Hoover, who also appeared as Cat Grant in last year's Superman, told The Seattle Times.

After being prompted to re-read the script, Hoover discovered she would be physically embodying the cutesy Straw Hats doctor, who can also transform into a more fearsome, towering figure thanks to eating a Devil Fruit.

"It was similar to what I’ve seen Andy Serkis do," Hoover said of the legendary actor who pioneered performance capture with the likes of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes trilogy. "It was great because I didn't have to worry about makeup or looking pretty, I could just embody the character."

Upon hearing she had landed the part, Hoover recalled, "That was quite the shock when I found out. I was crying. I was so excited. I couldn't believe it."

While anime and manga One Piece fans will be acutely aware of Tony Tony Chopper's popularity, One Piece season 2 marks his first voyage into live-action. There, the Straw Hats learn of his tragic backstory, while he also makes a significant impact on one of the crew's wellbeing after they fall sick midway through the season.

If you've already made it through the journey, be sure to sail over to our spoiler-filled breakdown of the One Piece season 2 ending. Then, take a glimpse at what's next with our guide to One Piece season 3.

Was Sabo in Loguetown when Luffy was almost executed by Buggy in One Piece? It's a question that has plagued anime fans for almost 30 years.

Sparked by a teasing panel in Chapter 98 of Eiichiro Oda's beloved manga, which was published in July 1999 and depicts the silhouette of a mystery figure wearing a tall hat and fair hair in the city's square, readers have long believed that Luffy's blond-haired "brother" Sabo was there. It's never been confirmed, though... until now that is, thanks to a surprise cameo from the character in One Piece season 2.

The silent introduction comes in episode 1, titled 'The Beginning and the End', as Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) indulges in a bit of fisticuffs with menacing marine Smoker (Callum Kerr). The plucky pirate is saved, however, by Dragon (Rigo Sanchez). Right after the rescue, Dragon turns to look at Sabo, who's just emerged from a shadowy doorway – and well, that's that.

Sabo doesn't pop up again across the following seven episodes, but it's interesting that it draws a (grand) line under the speculation once and for all. Sometimes referred to as Flame Emperor, Sabo is the Revolutionary Army's chief of staff, recognized as the No. 2 of the entire organization under its Supreme Commander, Dragon.

With One Piece season 3 already in the works, we're sure he'll make a proper entrance – and actually speak on screen – at a later date.

Until that day arrives, there's plenty to enjoy in One Piece season 2. From the Baroque Works villains and Chopper to Little Garden, fans have been treated to a first-time live-action look at a ton of things from the source material.

One Piece season 2 is streaming now on Netflix. For more, check out our One Piece season 2 review, or if you've already completed your voyage on the Grand Line, dive into our One Piece season 2 ending explained.

One Piece season 2 has debuted to glowing reviews and a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score.

As of writing, it's smooth sailing for One Piece's sophomore season, garnering 100% with critics on the reviews aggregator, plus an impressive 99% score on the viewer-led 'Popcornmeter'.

Our own One Piece season 2 review says the new batch of episodes – which covers the Loguetown, Reverse Mountain, Whisky Peak, Little Garden, and Drum Island arcs from Eiichiro Oda's manga – are "stronger and confident in almost every aspect", noting that "it's hard to imagine a better version of One Piece in live action."

That sentiment is echoed elsewhere, with Perri Nemiroff heaping praise on the practicality of the sets and the project reflective of the passion put in behind the scenes. She said, "The quality of the craftsmanship in this series is absolutely off the charts. I thought season one looked great, but season two is on another level."

The AV Club's Elijah Gonzalez felt similarly in a B+ review, but commented that the Netflix series' fight scenes "can’t match the escalating intensity of the source material’s battle shonen brawls."

Elsewhere, ComicBook went for the full 5/5, with its reviewer saying One Piece season 2 is a "much bigger and more expansive season that fans saw before, and it feels like everyone is much more confident in how they’re bringing it all to life."

Collider went a step further, indicating that One Piece could soon join the pantheon of Netflix greats if it continues on its upward trajectory. Its reviewer, David Caballero, wrote that the live-action series has "everything going for it to become one of Netflix's all-time best originals." High praise indeed.

One Piece season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.

If you've already experienced what the Grand Line has to offer, then dive into our spoiler-filled breakdown of the One Piece season 2 ending. There's also a look ahead to One Piece season 3 and where to read in the manga after One Piece season 2 if you're feeling particularly curious about where the Straw Hats are headed next.

One Piece season 2 is finally here, and it's brought with it a 15-minute fight sequence.

The battle, which features in episode 3 of the new season, sees Roronoa Zoro go up against 100 Baroque Works agents, and, as it turns out, actor Mackenyu had only one day to learn the choreography.

"I got 6 hours to perfect that whole thing," Mackenyu revealed in an interview with blackfilmandtv. "We had 15 minutes of killing, and they gave me 6 hours. 'Mackenyu, you got six hours. Drill it in, memorize it, we're shooting tomorrow!' What would [you have] done, if it wasn't me?

"It was a challenge. I've never been so challenged in my life, given little time for a huge sequence," he continued. "But thankfully, with my skills, I was able to accomplish. It is super fun to watch. I'm so happy how it turned out. Koji Kawamoto, the stunt coordinator, did a great job. We actually watched it together and we gave each other high fives."

This isn't the only thing Mackenyu has recently revealed, either. In another interview, the actor shared that One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda has a "specific arc" he wants the live-action show to reach.

"He has a vision to where he wants to end,” Mackenyu shared. "Not end, but where he wants us to take the live-action to. And we all know about it. We all know where he wants to go up to. That hyped me up a lot. There's a specific arc he wants us to go up to."

One Piece season 2 is streaming on Netflix now. For more, check out our One Piece season 2 review, or see our guide to One Piece season 3.

One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda knows how he wants the live-action One Piece to go, according to one of the stars of the Netflix show.

The One Piece manga has been running since 1997, while the anime has been going since 1999. While Oda has written down what the One Piece is (and dropped it in the ocean), there doesn't seem to be an ending on the way any time soon – but Oda has plans for the live-action show regardless.

"He has a vision to where he wants to end,” Mackenyu, who plays Roronoa Zoro in the Netflix adaptation, said on The Movie Podcast (H/T ComicBook.com). "Not end, but where he wants us to take the live-action to. And we all know about it. We all know where he wants to go up to. That hyped me up a lot. There's a specific arc he wants us to go up to."

Without an ending in the source material – and with the truth of the One Piece at the bottom of the ocean – it might be pretty difficult to bring the Netflix show to a satisfying conclusion. Luckily, it seems Oda has accounted for that, so here's hoping the show can stick the landing… whenever that may be.

One Piece season 2 arrives on Netflix this March 10. In the meantime, check out our One Piece season 2 release schedule to keep track of when and how you can watch the show.

You can also check out our guide to all the new TV shows on the way, as well as how to watch One Piece in order.

Prime Video's upcoming Life is Strange TV series has cast its Chloe and Max.

Per Variety, My Old Ass star Maisy Stella will play Chloe with newcomer Tatum Grace Hopkins set to play Max.

The series was first announced back in September 2025, with The End of the F***ing World creator Charlie Covell on board as head writer, executive producer, and showrunner. Square Enix, Amazon MGM Studios, and Story Kitchen are all producing alongside Margot Robbie's LuckyChap production banner.

Per the official logline, the show will follow Max, "a photography student, who discovers she can rewind time while saving the life of her childhood best friend, Chloe. As she struggles to understand this new skill, the pair investigate the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student, uncovering a dark side to their town that will ultimately force them to make an impossible life or death choice that will impact them forever.”

Life is Strange is a series of adventure games first released back in 2015. The first game was released as five separate episodes for several different consoles including the PS3, PS4, and Xbox One, and follows an 18-year-old named Max Caulfield (voiced by Hannah Telle) who has the ability to rewind time and ends up saving the life of a woman who turns out to be Chloe Price, her childhood best friend. The critically acclaimed game spawned five more installments with the latest, Life is Strange: Double Exposure, releasing in 2024. A sequel to Double Exposure, titled Reunion, is scheduled for release in March.

Maisy Stella, who is one half of the country music duo Lennon and Maisy, had a starring role on the hit TV drama Nashville from 2012-2018 and is perhaps best known for playing Aubrey Plaza's younger self in the coming-of-age comedy My Old Ass. She can be seen next starring alongside Anne Hathaway in Flowervale Street. Life is Strange marks the first ever on screen appearance for Hopkins, though her previous theatre credits include Broadway productions The Queen of Versailles and For the Girls.

Life is Strange does not yet have a release date. For more, check out the ever-growing list of upcoming video game movies.

One of the creators and the designer behind the God of War video games has spoken out about the first look at Prime Video's upcoming TV adaptation, and it's fair to say he isn't too impressed.

"I’m sure everybody’s trying real hard, it’s so dumb,” said outspoken God of War creator David Jaffe over on his YouTube channel. "Kratos in this pose with this expression, not the guy’s face, but this expression, he just looks stupid. If you’re going to reveal, to most people, a brand new character that you hope is going to carry your series, for the first time, and they’ve never really seen this before, and this is the way you introduce them?"

Prime Video posted the image on February 27 to announce that the God of War TV show had entered production. The picture shows Ryan Hurst and Callum Vinson as God of War characters Kratos and Atreus hunting in the woods. However, the first look at the father-son duo in action did not go down too well with fans, with many pointing out inconsistencies with the characters and the fact that we can see Kratos' bald cap.

It sounds as though Jaffe has mainly taken issue with how the demi-god and fearsome warrior Kratos is presented. "Could you find a picture that doesn’t look like he’s shitting in the woods? Cause that’s what the picture looks like," said Jaffe, adding that he has no issue with Hurst playing the character, but it's a "dumb fucking picture."

However, Jaffe made it clear that although he doesn't approve of the first look, he is by no means bashing the team. "Let’s be incredibly clear, okay? Two things can be true. This can be a terrible image, and it is. It’s so bad in so many ways," explained Jaffe. "And Ron Moore is awesome, who is the showrunner… This guy is a juggernaut of a talented fellow. I have absolutely no doubt it is going to be a good show."

Soon after the image dropped, Hurst came forward to warn fans not to believe everything they see online, which suggests that the first look might not be the finished product. Either way, let's hope that Prime Video learns from this.

God of War does not yet have a release date. For more, see our list of the best Prime Video shows, and keep up with upcoming video game movies heading your way.

The first look at Prime Video's God of War series is here, and we already anticipate a mixed response from diehards.

The image, which you can see below, shows Ryan Hurst's Kratos crouching near Atreus (Callum Vinson) as he coaches him through the basics of firing a bow and arrow.

At first glance, there are no issues here. In fact, everything appears incredibly game-accurate, right down to Kratos' ashen markings and armor. But look at it for too long and it shows the danger of game-accurate adaptations and how uncanny they can look in a real-world setting.

The God of War series, as the shot from production suggests, follows Kratos' Norse saga, an adaptation of events from both 2018's God of War and its Ragnarok sequel.

Several exciting cast members have been announced in recent weeks, including Mandy Patinkin as Odin, Ed Skrein as Baldur, Max Parker as Heimdall, and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Thor.

Speaking to IGN at last year's San Diego Comic-Con, showrunner Ronald D. Moore was laser-focused on bringing the relationship between Kratos and his son, Atreus, to life.

"I responded to the story of Kratos and his son and then they set out on this epic journey in this world that was finely detailed and really interesting, and there's a lot of combat and interesting monsters along the way. But I kept coming back to this story of father and son, and it was just emotional and it was different, and I hadn't seen anything like that before," Moore said.

Over on the games side, Sons of Sparta, a Metroidvania charting Kratos' younger days in Ancient Greece, was surprisingly shadowdropped earlier in February. That also came bundled with the news that the first three God of War games were being remade, with OG Kratos actor T.C. Carson reprising his role.

God of War on Prime Video is currently undated. For more, check out the new PS5 games on the horizon, plus all the new TV shows coming your way in 2026 and beyond.

Listen up One Piece fans, it's time to see how many snacks you can stuff into your straw hat as One Piece season 2 is heading to theaters.

Netflix is set to show the first two episodes of One Piece season 2 in select cinemas on March 10, across the US, Canada, and Japan. Tickets will be available from February 26 from participating theaters, and screenings in North America will start at 6pm.

The screenings will take place almost three months after Netflix showed the final ever episode of Stranger Things in theatres, pulling in $25 million in just one day. However, if you can't make it to a cinema near you, or if you happen to be in a country not listed above, then there's no need to worry, as the episodes will drop on Netflix the same day.

One Piece season 2's big screen release does give us some hope for the future of the streamer. In December 2025, it was announced that Netflix was set to acquire Warner Bros. and all the conglomerate owns. This worried film fans everywhere with the prospect that the streamer may not value big theatrical releases. However, continuing to show original content, including TV shows, on the big screen seems like a positive step forward.

Welcoming back Iñaki Godoy as Luffy, Mackenyu as Zoro, Emily Rudd as Nami, Jacob Romero as Usopp, and Taz Skylar as Sanki, One Piece's sophomore season follows the Straw Hat Crew as they travel along the legendary yet highly dangerous stretch of sea known as the Grand Line. There, the crew will visit bizarre islands, recruit more allies, and battle new enemies for treasure.

We already know that the season will adapt the Drum Island Arcs from the hit manga, and see the Crew visit Baroque Works, Loguetown, Reverse Mountain, Whiskey Peak, Little Garden, and Drum Island. However, some new faces are set to join the adventure this time around, including Sons of Anarchy star Katey Sagal as Dr. Kureha, Superman's Mikaela Hoover as Tony Tony Chopper, The Devil All The Time star David Dastmalchian as Mr. 3, and many more.

One Piece season 2 premieres on Netflix on March 10. For now, check out our guide on how to watch all of One Piece in order, and keep up with new shows coming soon.

McKenna Grace has been cast as Daphne Blake for Netflix's live-action Scooby Doo prequel show, reprising her voice role from 2020's Scoob! animated reboot movie, though the two projects are not connected.

Grace is the first actor to be cast for the Netflix show (via Variety), taking on one of the five lead characters. Grace also confirmed the news on Instagram, noting 'Oh my jeepers.' Along with Daphne, the vivacious heart of the gang, the other members of Mystery Inc include loveable dirtbag Shaggy, nerdy genius Velma, kind-hearted jock Fred, and of course talking dog Scooby Doo.

Grace is known for playing young Carol Danvers in the Captain Marvel MCU movie, as well as young Sabrina Spellman in Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which was produced by Greg Berlanti, who will also produce the new Scooby Doo show.

More recently, she starred in Five Nights and Freddy's 2 alongside Matthew Lillard, who played Shaggy in the original 2002 live action Scooby Doo movie and its 2004 sequel Scooby Doo: Monsters Unleashed.

Lillard offered up his support for the new Scooby Doo cast in early February, saying "I think that it's a great way for kids to understand storytelling. It's the first introduction to ghost stories for a lot of kids, right? It's about friendship and sticking together as a gang and working together to solve mysteries - and that normally it's a dangerous white man behind a mask. These are the things that kids have to learn."

The Netflix prequel series will focus on the early days of the Mystery Inc gang, showing how they first met at summer camp. Daphne and Shaggy will anchor the group in a mystery that centers around Scooby Doo, who is still a puppy in the series. It's scheduled to run for 8 episodes.

No release date for the Scooby Doo prequel show has been announced. In the meantime, check out the best shows to watch on Netflix right now.

If you were at all disappointed by Ron Perlman's fleeting appearance as an unnamed Supermutant in Fallout season 2, fear not, as showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet says that she has "always seen that as a big role."

Speaking to The Direct following last week's season 2 finale, Robertson-Dworet teased that we haven't seen the last of Perlman's Supermutant after a cameo in episode 6. "Just because he appears in one scene this season, I hope people know that he is a larger character in this world, in our minds," the Fallout co-creator said. Perlman also famously delivers the iconic line "War never changes" in Fallout 3's opening cutscene.

"We're hoping to have the opportunity to continue this story," Robertson-Dworet added. "And we like the idea of hinting at larger wars, larger fights in this world that are taking place that maybe aren't in the region of the wasteland where our characters currently are, and to get to those things."

The unnamed character's debut during season 2 was notable for being the first hulking, green-skinned Supermutant to appear in the Fallout TV show. In the episode, the Supermutant rescues The Ghoul, who has found himself impaled on a pole after being knocked out of a window by Lucy. This isn't an act of pure altruism, though, as the Supermutant later tells The Ghoul: "There's a war coming. And we need you healthy." Could a future Ghoul/Supermutant team-up be on the cards?

Fallout recently wrapped its second season on Prime Video. Speaking exclusively to GamesRadar+, Robertson-Dworet and executive producer Todd Howard discussed how those major season 2 twists may have just changed video game canon. Fallout season 3 is already confirmed, with season 2 teasing a new setting: Colorado.

For more, check out our Fallout season 2 review. Or if you still have any unanswered questions, we've got you covered with our Fallout season 2 ending guide.

Alicia Vikander, the star of the 2018 Tomb Raider reboot, has weighed in on Amazon's upcoming Tomb Raider TV show – and she's a fan of the retro '90s vibes.

"I loved it when I saw the first picture," Vikander told Swedish publication MovieZine at Göteborg Film Festival, referring to the first look at star Sophie Turner in costume as Lara Croft. "And Phoebe [Waller-Bridge, writer and co-showrunner] is so strong. It’s kind of come full circle now. Now you get to go back and celebrate the 90s, which I think is so fun. I think it’s a really smart choice."

Vikander was the second actor to play the adventuring archaeologist in live-action on the big screen after Angelina Jolie led two movies in the early '00s. The cast of 2018's Tomb Raider also included Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu, and Kristin Scott Thomas. A sequel was on the cards at one point, but the movie was canceled in 2022 when the studio's rights to the franchise expired.

"I had a lot of fun making my film," Vikander added. "Then there were a lot of twists and turns where I don't really know what happened. But it's crazy. It's been almost ten years since I filmed it now. So I hope in the same way that I hoped then, that I could bring in a new young generation. I absolutely believe that they will do the same now. It's a fantastic character."

Production is currently underway on Turner's Tomb Raider TV show, which also stars Paterson Joseph, Celia Imrie, and Sigourney Weaver.

Prime Video's Tomb Raider TV show doesn't have a release date yet. While we wait for more updates, fill out your watchlist with our guide to the other best new TV shows on the way in 2026 and beyond.

We know that The Walking Dead and Sons of Anarchy actor Ryan Hurst is the next person in line to wield the Leviathan Axe as Kratos in Prime Video's upcoming God of War adaptation and, now, his game counterpart has given his seal of approval.

Taking to Twitter, Christopher Judge (who portrayed Kratos in 2018's God of War and its 2022 sequel God of War Ragnarok), wrote in response to the casting news, "Congrats Ryan!!!! You’re gonna be great… BOI !!!"

Fittingly, both Judge and Hurst have faced off in the Norse arena before, with Judge's Kratos battling Hurst's Thor in God of War Ragnarok.

The future, then, is looking bright for Amazon's take on Santa Monica Studio's god-killing journey. Prime Video has already greenlit two seasons – which will adapt the Norse saga of Kratos' tale, instead of his Greek origins – and it's being brought to life by Outlander and Battlestar Galactica creator Ronald D. Moore.

Thankfully, Moore's ability to make great television far outweighs his gaming skills. When speaking about the project on The Sackhoff Show with Katee Sackhoff, Moore joked, "The controllers now… Press R1, which one's R1? Oh, I'm dead! I can't quite get a hold of that."

Speaking later to IGN, Moore confirmed that the series' heart, the initially icy relationship between Kratos and his son Atreus, would remain.

"I responded to the story of Kratos and his son. Then they set out on this epic journey in this world that was finely detailed and really interesting, and there's a lot of combat and interesting monsters along the way. But I kept coming back to this story of father and son, and it was just emotional, and it was different, and I hadn't seen anything like that before."

Amazon's God of War TV show is still undated. For more, check out our list of exciting new TV shows, plus all the upcoming video game movies currently in the works.

After a first season that absolutely exceeded the expectations of every video game purist and skeptic alike, Fallout has returned to our screens with a brand new batch of episodes that take us straight to New Vegas.

We pick up right where we left off. After wandering the Wasteland looking for her kidnapped father (Kyle MacLachlan), Lucy (Ella Purnell) finds him, and it turns out he wasn't kidnapped so much as he was taken to the surface in order to answer for his despicable war crimes (and the Ghoulification of her mother). Rather than face the music, he hijacks a suit of armor from the Brotherhood of Steel and heads towards New Vegas. Lucy and the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) follow suit, though we know our favorite skeletal bounty hunter has other plans.

Of course, their journey isn't exactly a smooth one. As they make their way through what's left of the luckiest city in the world, they encounter everything from Deathclaw and Mirelurks to a strange conflict between two rogue republics and, uh, Macaulay Culkin. Hank, realizing he's most likely being hunted down by Lucy and the Ghoul, decides to set up shop in an unlikely part of Vegas – solidifying his descent into gleeful villainy.

Elsewhere, Maximus (Aaron Moten) has finally earned the respect of the Brotherhood - but he's not sure if it was worth it. After being disrespected by and in front of the high council, he decides to blow off some steam with a member of a different faction of the Brotherhood of Steel. But it's all fun and games until he realizes he may or may not have started a civil war.

Down in Vault 33, water is becoming scarce, and things are getting pretty weird. But no worries, Norm (as evidenced in the trailer) manages to break free from his predicament and gaslight a slew of recently cryogenically frozen Vault dwellers into heading for the surface (for reasons I still don't understand).

Oh, and did I mention there's some evil mustached man named Mr. House (Justin Theroux) running around and making people's heads explode?

Viva New Vegas

If you were to strip away all of the plot lines from Fallout season 2, all you'd have left is a bunch of characters wandering aimlessly around what used to be Las Vegas, Nevada – and it's so visually stunning that I'd probably give it five stars based on recreation of the Strip alone.

After season 1 used a sunken city off the coast of Africa as the backdrop for the Wasteland, the bar was set pretty high in terms of how they plan to recreate the video game franchise's various locations going forward. New Vegas is not only a fan-favorite entry in the series because of the fun storyline, memorable characters and diabolical creatures, but because of its evocative backdrop. Fallout season 2 is well aware of this, and doesn't waver in its dedication to bringing the game to life.

The once dazzling, now dystopian city of lights has been recreated street by street, sign by sign. Despite being a sucker for fan service, I'm not usually one for Easter eggs. However, seeing everything from the Lucky 38 casino in all its glory, to the Sunset Sasparilla factory (I've never been so excited to see bottle caps in my life), and even just a rogue box of Sugar Bomb cereal, made me weirdly emotional. Honestly, seeing New Vegas recreated with such care and precision is on par with the Jim Henson Creature Shop constructing the animatronics from Five Nights at Freddy's – it speaks to the childlike part of us that wishes video games were real, and it's as close to the real thing as it can possibly get.

A new Lucy

"If you touch that gun, I'm gonna have to maim you." This isn't exactly something season 1 Lucy, who actor Ella Purnell likened to a newborn baby, would say – we're all the better for it. Lucy is not only our protagonist, but the lightest, brightest spot in the dark, nasty Wasteland that takes no prisoners and has no mercy. As season 1 goes on, Lucy, who spent her entire life down in the Vault, sees the true horrors of the post-apocalyptic world firsthand, but still manages to remain pure of heart.

I was a little worried that Lucy would stay maybe too pure of heart, and that season 2 would be filled with more "Okey dokey!" and bewildering reactions to even the smallest bits of violence. The first episode of season 2 opens with the Ghoul in peril, and him waiting on Lucy to bust him out. Instead of cheerfully complying like she usually does... she gives it a minute. In fact, she gives it several minutes and watches as the Ghoul is tortured by some group of rogue criminals before eventually deciding to step in and help. This sets the tone for the next five episodes: Goodness is exhausting, and what the hell are we still doing here? It's not that there's less heart in this season, but it's that our main crop of characters are tired of playing nice. Except for a certain half-dead Cowboy-styled bounty hunter, that is.

Well howdy, partner

As it turns out, being angry and alive for 200 years starts to make you soft. The Ghoul joins Lucy on her quest to bring Hank to justice, not because he cares about the cause, but because he believes his wife and daughter are somewhere in a vault in New Vegas. The strength of this season therein lies within his backstory as once-beloved Hollywood actor Cooper Howard, as told to the viewer via various flashbacks.

It could be the whole end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it of it all, but there's something deeply melancholic about each and every scene where Cooper steps into the room. And this isn't a bad thing. If anything, it's indicative of Goggins' commitment to the character and his incredibly strong acting chops. And that stark contrast between Cooper Howard and the Ghoul... isn't so stark anymore. As Cooper learns more and more about his wife Barb (Frances Turner) and her involvement with the end of the world (and that mysterious mustachioed Mr. House), he begins to unravel. When we cut to a handsome, well-dressed Cooper Howard standing in the Lucky 38 casino, or outside against a backdrop of dazzling lights... there's a clear sense of misery. So much so that it makes the Ghoul seem like an optimist in comparison. He knows that Barb and Janey are still alive in a vault somewhere, and he won't rest until he finds them – even if it means mercilessly killing a few dozen more people along the way.

The only issue with the Ghoul/Cooper Howard storyline being the most compelling part of the season, right next to Lucy's journey, of course, is that it makes the other plotlines seem... boring. Even Hank's villain arc seems to fall a little flat, not that it isn't fun watching Kyle MacLachlan putter around in a nice suit while plotting his new life post-Vault. Hank even appears in the Cooper Howard flashbacks, younger and more eager, but he's simply running around in the background while Cooper continues to uncover the mystery behind Vault-Tec's corruption... which truly fascinates me at every turn. Not that we even know the full scope of what's going on, but the idea of the literal mother of your child being at the center of the end of the world is the kind of plot point you just kind of can't forget.

One vault too many

It's the same problem I had with season 1: things are getting weird down there in the vaults... and I just can't seem to care. It's not for a lack of interesting characters - though Eye Patch Lady aka Steph Harper (Annabel O'Hagan) is getting increasingly scary by the day, and it's a joy to watch. When it comes down to it, the story just isn't as exciting as what's happening on the surface.

In season 1, spending time in the vault was crucial to the plot overall as we had to meet Lucy, understand her sheltered (pun intended) upbringing, and see her father Hank get kidnapped and taken up to the Wasteland. In season 2, however, the cuts back to the Vault feel like more of an interruption from the main storyline. While Lucy and the Ghoul are trying to find Hank, and Maximus is desperately trying not to start a civil war, the people of Vault 33 are starting an "Inbreeding Support Group" and end up spending all of the "snack budget," – and that's the biggest conflict down there, besides the whole running out of clean water thing. Things aren't much more exciting over on Norm's end, either. I understand that Norm's impromptu leadership over a group of previously frozen Vault dwellers is meant to play out in a way that connects back to the main storyline... but I also can't really find it in me to care.

All in all, it's good to be back. It's even better to watch Lucy and the Ghoul run from a Deathclaw, all while flashbacks to some 200 years earlier show us that Cooper Howard's life wasn't all sunshine and rainbows either. As someone who genuinely fears a real-life apocalypse (and doesn't think our society would do particularly well in handling it), I'm fascinated by the factors that lead to man-made disasters... and there's something about the tangled web of Vault-Tec and Mr. House (and those head-explode-y devices) that has me hooked. But that might just be because that tangled web also involves Cooper Howard, whose spiraling past begins to pave the way for his tenure as the Ghoul... allowing the two to finally meet in the middle.

Despite being a little overcrowded and at times convoluted, Fallout season 2 is a hell of a lot of fun, and I'm excited to watch Ella Purnell's Lucy MacLean sweetly apologize while killing more people. But if nothing else: come for the scenery, stay for the Ghoul.

Fallout season 2 is airing weekly on Prime Video. Stay up to date with our Fallout season 2 release schedule.

Following the news that Netflix is now in the process of buying Warner Bros., The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann found the funny side of the situation at the 2025 Game Awards, and it sounds like he is just as confused as we are.

After winning the award for best game adaptation for HBO series The Last of Us, Druckmann took to the stage to make his speech. In the clip, now posted on Twitter, the Naughty Dog Studio Head thanked the relevant studios before adding, "Do we need to thank Netflix or Paramount, or whoever our streaming overlord is now?"

Of course, Druckmann is making a little joke about the recent kerfuffle around the selling of Warner Bros. and all it owns. The media conglomerate announced it was up for sale earlier in 2025, with many prospective buyers interested, including Paramount Pictures. However, Netflix then swooped in, and on December 5, the streamer announced it would be acquiring Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion. Paramount then put in a higher bid but was rejected.

So how does that affect Druckmann and The Last of Us? Well, The Last of Us TV series, in which Druckmann acts as screenwriter, director, and executive producer, falls under HBO, which is in turn owned by Warner Bros. So whoever buys Warner Bros will essentially own HBO. Warner Bros.' massive portfolio also includes DC Studios as well as huge franchises such as Harry Potter and Looney Tunes.

Despite Druckmann finding the funny side of the situation, many other film buffs are worried for the future of the industry, especially when it comes to theatrical releases. However, Netflix boss Ted Sarandos said at a recent conference that the streamer "didn’t buy this company to destroy that value," adding that the reason Netflix has not talked about "the theatrical business" in the past is "because we’ve never been in that business. When this deal closes, we are in that business, and we’re going to do it."

That may put to bed the whole theatrical release debate, but the future of networks that fall under Warner Bros, such as HBO and CNN, and the treatment of their respective content, remains to be seen.

Time will tell if Netflix's deal with Warner Bros. does indeed go through. In the meantime, you can fill out your watchlist with our guide to the upcoming movies left of 2025 and beyond.

We've entered a golden age of video game adaptations – and Prime Video's Fallout TV series just might be the best of the best. Instead of adapting a linear narrative from the popular video game franchise, the TV show takes just a bit of everything you love from the games and uses it to craft a brand new storyline.

After the first season took us out of Vault 33 and into the Wasteland, Fallout season 2 takes us all the way to New Vegas – introducing us to everything from Deathclaws and Radroaches, to strange factions like Caesar's Legion and the impossibly evil Robert House.

"We sort of approach it like we do a new game, right?" says Todd Howard, executive producer of Fallout season 2 (and creative director of Bethesda Game Studios, where we oversaw development of two of the best Fallout games). "Like, hey, we're starting fresh, and okay, we're going back to Vegas. Number one, we've got to honor the journey that every player had there, and maneuvering that is tricky."

"[Showrunners] Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet have some great ways to maneuver this fog of war, and 'What are the factions up to now?' But it's going back to authenticity. We're fans, so [it's] what would we want to see as a fan, make it as authentic as possible, and just come at it with a lot of thought, a lot of love, [take] what was already there, but also take some swings."

Return to the Wasteland

Fallout season 1, which followed all new characters but loosely stuck the overall structure of the games (i.e. Vault dweller is sent to the surface), focuses on the personal journeys of three main characters: the impossibly innocent Lucy (Ella Purnell), a Vault dweller who elects to head out into the Wasteland in search of her kidnapped father, Hank (Kyle MacLachlan); Maximus (Aaron Moten), an aspiring member of an organization of soldiers known as the Brotherhood of Steel who sets out to prove his worth; and the Ghoul (Walton Goggins), a ruthless, irradiated bounty hunter styled as a cowboy who was a beloved Hollywood actor before the nuclear disaster that destroyed life on Earth as they knew it.

Fallout season 2 follows Lucy and the Ghoul, a rather unlikely duo (who still don't like each other very much), as they head out in search of Hank together… but this time in the hopes of bringing this villain to justice. It's also flashback heavy: giving us glimpses of a dazzling pre-war Vegas, as well as the Ghoul's former life as movie star Cooper Howard, just before the bombs went off.

"We get to spend more time with Cooper this season, and, and this is a man that has had the rug pulled out from underneath him," Walton Goggins explains. "He realizes just how little control he's had over anything in his life, and, and it broke my heart."

Of course, the Ghoul isn't the only one who gets a little more backstory. Hank has been rotten to the core prior to his time in Vault 33, much to Lucy's dismay. At the end of season 1, we watched him, in a stolen Brotherhood of Steel suit of armor, walk away from his daughter and towards New Vegas instead.

Why Hank would head for Vegas, however, is still a mystery to Lucy. Not to mention his son, Norm (Moises Arias), who is still having his own troubles underground. While the chaos and calamity continues in the Wasteland, the Vault dwellers still have their own problems – and it won't be long before more of them head for the surface.

"The first season, [the characters] were really well-established, and then the second season, they got better," MacLachlan says. "They got deeper and they got richer, and I think that's a mark of a series that is growing, that is really finding its voice and its forward movement, and I'm so excited to be part of it. It's really been fun."

As a franchise fan who is currently playing her way through Fallout: New Vegas for the first time in over a decade, it's almost impossible not to watch Fallout season 2 without stopping to pause every few minutes.

Much like the attention to detail that was put into designing the set of season 1, with filming even taking place in a sunken city off the coast of Africa, New Vegas has been recreated almost street for street, sign for sign. Easter egg hunters will have a field day spotting the instantly recognisable likes of the Atomic Wrangler Casino, or the heavily fortified entrance to the New Vegas strip. There's even an old poster for Maxis, a pre-war magician who never made it to his headlining gig, and successful pre-war singer Joey Baxter.

When it comes to notable set pieces, Howard lists Mick and Ralph's as his standout, commending the prop and set design team for creating all of the realistic "little doodads, ammo, and stimpaks," adding that it was "like browsing the store for real." For Moten, it's "the warehouse that the Brotherhood gets into" (aka the Sunset Sarsaparilla factory), and "the alien in the fridge." Aliens are indeed characters in Fallout: New Vegas, and they're the classic green-skinned, bug-eyed little freaks we've seen time and time again in pop culture. Whether we'll see a live one in the new season, however, remains to be seen.

This is the end

If you've played New Vegas, you'll be aware that the game has four possible endings – none of which have been technically confirmed as canon to the franchise. Some fans wondered if season 2 pick up from one of the four possible outcomes from the game… and if that ending would then, in turn, become canon.

Here are the options: Robert House (played quite evilly by Justin Theroux in season 2) turns New Vegas into the dominant power of the Mojave (known simply as the Wasteland in the TV series), effectively turning him into the overlord of what's left of post-nuclear America; The Legion (whose imagery and branding we've seen in various season 2 trailers) defeats what's left of the New California Republic and effectively rules over the Wasteland; The NCR more or less takes over and annexes the Wasteland; or the Courier, controlled by you, the player, takes control of New Vegas for themselves. Given that there's a little bit of everything in season 2…anything is possible. According to Dworet, however, the show might go with a completely different ending entirely.

"This season of Fallout takes place about 15 years after the events of Fallout: New Vegas," Dworet confirms. "And we tried as much as possible to avoid saying, again, [that] any canonical ending is real. Instead, 15 years have gone by, and Vegas is not exactly as you remember it, because naturally, in the Wasteland, there's constantly shifts, right? There's warring factions trying to kill each other, take over each other's territory every day. So, things would not remain the same over 15 years. [There are] some things fans will recognize as very, very much the same. But other things have changed."

The success of the Fallout TV show has also put the spotlight back on the games themselves, something that Howard acknowledges while remaining tight-lipped about the possibility of a new installment on the horizon. Instead he explains how there was also something of a reverse effect, with Fallout season 2 having an impact on the likes of Fallout '76.

"I will say the popularity show is way more than even we expected. So it really was making sure that games are ready for all the players who are coming into them," Howard explains.

"Particularly Fallout '76 has had this resurgence of popularity, and one of the things that's influenced it is bringing [in] a character like the Ghoul, this character who lived before the bombs. And it's interesting to think that every Fallout game that you've played, he was alive somewhere in the wasteland, like you think about that. So having him come into '76 and play a role there has been really great and so much of the stuff in '76 with this update, is really inspired by season two."

Fallout season 2 hits Prime Video on December 17. For more, check out our list of the best Prime Video shows to stream right now.

Peacock's hit video game adaptation Twisted Metal has been renewed for season 3 (per Variety). However, the new season won't be without some big changes, as showrunner and co-creator Michael Jonathan Smith is reportedly departing, with David Reed taking his place at the head of the table.

Reed makes total sense as a showrunner for Twisted Metal, as his pedigree as a writer includes stints on both The Boys and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The Boys in particular is a good comparison to the style of Twisted Metal, which is both tensely action-packed, and also more than a little wacky.

Season 2 of Twisted Metal finally brought the deadly tournament to the screen, in which souped-up, weaponized cars are piloted by eccentric drivers as they battle in a kind of cross between a gun fight and a demolition derby.

Twisted Metal season 2 has landed big numbers on Peacock, marking the streaming service's second highest watched sophomore season of any of its original programming, so it's no surprise that it'll be back for another lap around the track.

I grew up playing the Twisted Metal games in heated matches against my siblings and my friends, so it's got a special place in my heart. The addition of the actual tournament to the series is exactly what I've been wanting to see for years, and now I'm also excited to see what season 3 will have in store.

No projected release date for Twisted Metal season 3 has been announced. While we wait to learn more, check out our picks for the best video game movies of all time.

One of the most stressful but addictive games on the market is getting the on-screen adaptation treatment, well, kind of.

Netflix and A24 are teaming up to make a reality show based on cooking simulator Overcooked, as per Deadline. Rather than turning the game into a movie or TV show, the streamer is making an unscripted competition series, much like Squid Game: The Challenge.

The upcoming series, which is currently in the early stages of development, is said to be in the same vein as Netflix shows Nailed It! and Floor Is Lava. The show "aims to serve up high-stakes kitchen challenges and the signature chaos that made the video game a hit with fans."

The Overcooked game sees players either work alone or in teams to prepare, cook, and serve meals against the clock. The games include all different kinds of cuisines from Japanese to Mexican, with restaurants set in many locations, from building sites to hot air balloons. To make the game even harder, players have to avoid obstacles and hazards and successfully serve up dishes before customers get angry and walk out.

Fans of Overcooked will know just how difficult the game can get, so we can only imagine the type of tasks the contestants will have to face. Can a real person handroll sushi, prepare a pasta dish, and wash plates all while their restaurant is falling from the sky? We are not so sure.

Developed by British company Ghost Town Games, the Overcooked game was released in 2016 on PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, and later on Nintendo Switch. In 2018, a second game was released, titled Overcooked 2, followed by Overcooked: All You Can Eat in 2020. Games Designer Phil Duncan from Ghost Town Games will serve as a producer on the show.

The Overcooked show does not yet have a release date. For more, check out our guide to the best video game movies, and keep up with new shows heading your way.

Blue Beetle star Xolo Maridueña has been cast in a crucial role in One Piece season 3 (per Deadline). In addition to starring as Jaime Reyes in the 2023 DC movie, Maridueña is also known for his role as Miguel Diaz in Karate Kid spin-off show Cobra Kai.

Maridueña will portray Portgas D. Ace, the beloved blood brother of One Piece's main character Monkey D. Luffy. Their relationship is at the center of one of the most formative - and gut-wrenching - stories in the entire run of One Piece.

Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) is a pirate captain who assembles an eccentric crew in his quest to find the fabled One Piece, a treasure that will crown its bearer as the pirate king.

Xolo Maridueña's turn as Jaime Reyes in Blue Beetle is one of my personal favorite DC performances in a highly underrated movie. He's got the perfect energy to make audiences fall in love with him as Ace and Luffy come together to find their shared destiny.

Without spoiling where things end up, it's perhaps the One Piece story most deserving of a faithful adaptation in live action, as Luffy's relationship with Ace proves to be a transformative event in Luffy's life.

One Piece season 2 is scheduled to premiere on Netflix on March 10, 2026. No release date for season 3 has been set. While we wait, fill out your watchlist with our picks of the other best Netflix shows streaming now.

Season 2 of Netflix's live action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda's global smash hit manga and anime One Piece is still a few months from release, but planning has already begun on season 3, with Tony Award winning Broadway star Cole Escola cast as fan favorite character Mister 2 (per Deadline).

Escola is best known for their award winning play Oh, Mary!, which they wrote and starred in as Mary Todd Lincoln. Escola's turn as Mister 2 seems incredibly appropriate, given that the villain is known for being theatrical - something a renowned Broadway star is likely to nail. In the show, Mister 2 will be portrayed as non-binary to reflect Escola's own identity.

One Piece follows Monkey D. Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) as he travels the world building an eccentric crew in search of a mythical treasure, known as the One Piece, which will crown him as the Pirate King. The main cast is rounded out by Mackenyu as Roronoa Zoro, Emily Rudd as Nami, Jacob Romero as Usopp and Taz Skylar as Sanji.

The Netflix series has proved to be a hit among fans and critics alike, with the live-action One Piece garnering praise for its overall faithful adaptation of its source material, unlike some attempts to bring popular anime into live action.

One Piece season 2 is scheduled to premiere on Netflix on March 10, 2026. No release date for season 3 has been set. While we wait, fill out your watchlist with our picks of the other best Netflix shows streaming now.

The start of Stranger Things season 5 is just around the corner, and though it's taken nearly 10 years to get here, the show's creators Ross and Matt Duffer say they've known how the series would end for nearly as long.

Speaking in a panel at Italy's Lucca Comics and Games Festival (via Variety) alongside Stranger Things cast members Gaten Matarazzo (who plays Dustin Henderson), Noah Schnapp (the actor behind Will Byers), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), and Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), the Duffers reminisced about planning the ending of the show, which they came up with years ago.

"Obviously, it's stressful trying to figure out how you want to end the show," Ross Duffer explains. "Luckily, it was about six or seven years ago that we knew at least what the final scene is. We always knew what the last 40 minutes were going to be."

The Duffers previously explained how they've drawn on some of the best TV finales of all time to craft their big ending, aiming for a big emotional impact that will leave audiences feeling satisfied.

"You are having to let go in a way and say goodbye," co-creator Matt Duffer tells the panel. "So we weren't thinking about that too much when we were writing that final episode. But once we read it through with [the actors], we realized how much it reflected our own experience. And hopefully that emotion that we felt writing it – and our actors felt performing it – is going to come through to the audience."

Stranger Things season 5, Volume 1, arrives this November 26, with volumes 2 and 3 following soon after on December 25 and December 31. Until then, check out our guide to the best shows on Netflix.