Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld says the live-action X-Force movie was going to feature none other than Josh Brolin as Stryfe, the supervillain counterpart to X-Men hero Cable.

"The X-Force movie that was going to be coming to screen that Fox had planned before Disney bought the Fox catalog; he was absolutely in that movie," Liefeld told The Direct. "Spoiler alert! It would have been great… There were, at one point, discussions about him being in an after-credits scene in Deadpool 2, but they struck that."

Liefeld's X-Force comic hit shelves in 1991, with Cable, the son of Jean Grey and Scott Summers aka Cyclops, leading his own Black Ops team consisting of Boom-Boom, Cable, Cannonball, Domino, Feral, Shatterstar, and Warpath. In X-Men 1997 season 2, the team consists of Cable, Psylocke, Archangel, Jubilee, and Sunspot. A live-action movie was announced in 2013, with Deadpool 2 writer Drew Goddard officially set to write and direct in 2017. Sadly, the movie was one of the many casualties of Disney's acquisition of Marvel, and was cancelled as a result.

Continued Liefeld: "I think it's safe to say, Josh [Brolin] was really excited, because he signed a multi-picture deal, and he was excited about the prospect of not only playing Cable, but longtime fans of X-Force know that he would have been portraying Stryfe as well."

Before going on to become Thanos in the Avengers movies, Brolin starred as Cable in Deadpool 2. It would've been cool to see him reprise the role... and even cooler to see him play Stryfe, as we haven't seen him since his non-speaking appearance in X-Men: The Animated Series circa 1995.

X-Men is eyeing a tentative 2028 release date. You can keep up to date with everything the MCU has in store with our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows.

The End of Oak Street is a dino delight – according to glowing first reactions from critics.

Revolving around the Platt family as their slice of suburban bliss is upended and transported into a dinosaur-filled disaster zone, The End of Oak Street stars Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway as parents who have to navigate their way through treacherous prehistoric territory – very carefully. As barmy as the premise sounds, it appears to have worked with critics.

"THE END OF OAK STREET is a delight," New Rockstars' Erik Voss said on Twitter. "It’s the perfect blend of sci-fi awe and family survival horror from the Amblin age. It tortures its heroes while remaining endearingly sweet."

Another critic, describing the movie as "an absolute home run" remarked, "Once the dino stuff gets going it’s pure fucking adrenaline, pushes the PG-13 rating to the absolute limit, tight as a knot while still leaving room for legit pathos and humor. My favorite blockbuster of the year."

Critic Zach Pope had high praise indeed for the David Robert Mitchell-directed adventure, saying, "#TheEndOfOakStreet isn’t just the best DINOSAUR movie since Jurassic park it’s a a near perfect love letter to the 80s blockbusters! It’s Jaws meets The Goonies meets Jurassic Park but with a deeply personal story at its center that I didn’t expect to resonate with me as much as it did."

David Ehrlich joined the chorus of those knocked sideways by The End of Oak Street. He wrote, "The End of Oak Street absolutely rocks. hilarious, perfectly paced, Ambliny but mean as hell, Anne Hathaway blasts a T-Rex with a shotgun… it delivers more fun in any 5-minute stretch than the entire Jurassic franchise has in total since the 90s. biggest surprise of the summer."

The Jurassic Park comparisons keep on coming as critic Jesse Hassenger wrote, "It pretty much plays like a feature-length version of the JURASSIC PARK kitchen sequence."

Not everyone was caught in the Amblin-infused trap, however. Courtney Howard was one of the dissenting voices. They said, "The Amblin play for nostalgia curdles quickly. With exception of 2 moments, it’s completely derivative of JURASSIC PARK dinosaur-driven tension & spectacle."

The (mostly) positive first reactions arrive after a wave of controversy surrounding The End of Oak Street's AI use in international marketing. There, a bizarre video clip of AI-generated dogs discussing the movie did the rounds.

The End of Oak Street is released in cinemas on August 14.

For more, check out 2026's other big movie release dates, plus a look ahead to the new horror movies just over the horizon.

Daredevil star Charlie Cox has said he's not in Avengers: Secret Wars – and he really wants us to believe him.

"No, I'm not going to be in – no," he said at MCM Birmingham in the UK, when asked if Daredevil would appear in Secret Wars after Avengers: Doomsday. "Yes, sorry. And you can believe me now!"

Daredevil is not on the cast list for Doomsday, but, so far, the Secret Wars cast is a complete mystery. So, while Cox might want us to believe him, we're reserving judgement for now.

We will see Cox in Daredevil: Born Again season 3, however, which is set to debut in March 2027. Along with Cox, Elodie Yung's Elektra will also be making a comeback.

The cast of Doomsday, meanwhile, includes the likes of Chris Evans's Steve Rogers, Anthony Mackie's Captain America, Chris Hemsworth's Thor, and Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom.

Marvel went to great lengths to keep Evans's return secret, too, with the actor revealing his codename on the project was Luke Cage.

"Within the script, my character was called Luke Cage just in case things leaked," Evans shared at Fan Expo Boston, adding: "On the call sheets, I was called Luke Cage. Even on set, if I was going to set, they'd be like, 'Luke Cage is travelling.' It was such a locked-down thing."

Avengers: Doomsday arrives this December 18, while Secret Wars follows on December 17, 2027.

In the meantime, fill out your watchlist with our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and TV shows.

A time of apparent magic. The Odyssey's opening text is just five words long, yet instantly evocative – conjuring up images of the type of mythmaking and unexplainable acts we would witness for the next three hours as Odysseus made his long journey home to Ithaca.

Now, director Christopher Nolan has revealed what influenced the decision to place text at the beginning of his movie, as he also did with Oppenheimer.

"One of my earliest movie experiences – a very profound one – was seeing George Lucas' first Star Wars," Nolan said during a conversation with fellow director Park Chan-wook (via Cine21).

"He began that film with a title: 'A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.' That immediately told me how to watch the film."

That training of the audience is something Nolan was keen to mirror in The Odyssey. He stated, "It put me in the right frame of mind to receive the imagery. In [The Odyssey], I was chasing that kind of experience where you want to create a world where the audience loses themselves and takes it on its own terms. I was looking for that as an example as a way of giving a phrase that would help the audience understand the terms of the story."

Delving deeper into the meaning behind the 'apparent' magic, Nolan pointed out it not only worked as a primer for the audience, but also as a way to avoid getting into the weeds of whether magic actually existed in the world of The Odyssey or not.

Nolan explained, "The word 'apparent' in particular, to me, was about acknowledging [that] if we tell the story realistically, we have to explain why there's magic. I was very interested in the idea of a person living in the Bronze Age, there's magic all around you that you cannot explain. There are fanciful explanations for the things you're experiencing… I wanted to put that in people's heads as they start to watch the film."

The Odyssey, starring Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, and Tom Holland, is now officially Nolan's highest-grossing movie, eclipsing The Dark Knight Rises' $1.085 billion.

For more, join us as we break down The Odyssey ending. And, in an act of apparent hubris, we rank the best Christopher Nolan movies – including The Odyssey.

The Odyssey star Himesh Patel thinks that Christopher Nolan's movie could help change moviemaking after its success with practical filmmaking techniques. The director is known for eschewing CGI where possible, using tricks like forced perspective and real sets for his movies.

"I know that Chris Nolan has been known for this for a long time, is his practically driven philosophy, doing as little as possible with CGI," Patel, who plays Eurylochus, told The Romesh Ranganathan Show. "He does use it in various ways but as little as he can, he tries to create as much as he can in camera and then use CGI to composite things in."

Several of the shots in the movie were made without CGI, including the Circe scene where Odysseus' men are turned into pigs. "We're using techniques that have been around for 30, 40 years but we just lost them as we got used to CGI," Patel added.

"What I really hope is the success of this movie and how much on screen is tangible there and then you know in tandem you've got Spider-Man that just came out and I went to see that the other day and there's so much in that movie that is tangible, real, just Tom [Holland] in his costume rather than a CGI version," he continued. "I really hope that's something that the powers that be take notice of and use more often."

Patel's approach is more optimistic than his co-star Matt Damon, who previously spoke about his fears about the future of this kind of filmmaking. "It was a really weird movie for me personally in the sense that I had almost a nostalgic feeling the entire time I was making it, because it felt like the movies when I started working. And I know that that’s going away," Damon told GQ. "I knew that this was the last chance I was going to have to do something like this."

The Odyssey is in theaters now. For more, read our The Odyssey review and our breakdown of all the upcoming movies you need to know about.

Chris Evans has revealed his Marvel codename used to keep secret his Steve Rogers return in Avengers: Doomsday, and it explains a confusing leak.

Evans's return as Steve Rogers was kept tightly under wraps, until it was finally revealed in the first teaser for the Marvel Phase 6 movie.

"Within the script, my character was called Luke Cage just in case things leaked," Evans shared at Fan Expo Boston, adding: "On the call sheets, I was called Luke Cage. Even on set, if I was going to set, they'd be like, 'Luke Cage is travelling.' It was such a locked-down thing."

This explains why a set leak included a "Luke Cage house" in a 1960s style – rather than referring to Cage himself, it appears to have been Steve's home, instead.

Evans has also teased he has a "brutal" storyline coming up. "The Russos love beating up Steve Rogers. Their favourite thing to do is to just beat the crap out of him," he shared. "To them, that's what makes a hero, and that's someone who gets punched so many times but still gets up."

Along with Evans, the rest of the supersized cast includes Anthony Mackie's Captain America, Chris Hemsworth's Thor, Letitia Wright's Shuri, the Fantastic Four, the Fox-era X-Men, and Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom.

Avengers: Doomsday arrives this December 18. While you wait, check out our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows for everything else the MCU has in store.

Rosario Dawson has addressed her cut Spider-Man: Brand New Day cameo, revealing she had a post ready to go on Instagram before she heard the news. The actor, who plays Claire Temple in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was due to appear in the new film before her part was ultimately left on the editing room floor.

"When I tell you my post was already ready with my BTS, with my grandson wearing all his Spider-Man stuff because he loves Spider-Man, then I got the email," she told the crowd at Galaxy Con recently. "So yeah… No. So I'm a reject of Spider-Man and I'm a reject of the devil's rejects. Like I still love it because everybody's in it. It still means that, you know, my character is somewhere in that same universe. And I really love that. So, I hope I get to be Claire again."

She also revealed that "Spider-Man is really huge" for her because her uncle is a comic book artist who drew the character at one point.

The movie's writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers recently revealed that Claire's cameo took place early in the movie, post Spider-Man's fight with Scorpion. They told The Wrap that Peter Parker ended up in hospital and had a scene with Dawson's Night Nurse.

"The scene they did was a good scene I think the only reason it’s not in the final cut was just it was probably cut for time because it was very good," they explained.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out now. For more on the Marvel movie, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review and our Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending explained.

New Sinister Six movie concept art has surfaced, revealing a look at an alternate reality where we got Spider-Man facing down half-a-dozen of his most iconic villains instead of battling Jean Grey in the MCU.

Artist Victor Martinez posted the images on Instagram, which showcase Spider-Man (though it's admittedly not clear which iteration) battling Doctor Octopus upside down on the ceiling of a library.

"Sharing some more concept art I did for an unmade/untitled Spider-Man film from years ago," Martinez wrote. "Which project do you think it’s from?… and what sort of mess has Spidey gotten into this time?"

Martinez added, "This would’ve been a fun one with lots of villains... 6 to be exact!... iykyk."

Whispers of a Sinister Six movie go back years. Daredevil's Drew Goddard was once attached to write and direct the project as far back as 2016, prior to Spider-Man's official entry into the MCU.

The supervillain group typically consists of Doctor Octopus leading a group of assorted members of Spider-Man's rogues' gallery (including the likes of Scorpion, Electro, Vulture, and Shocker).

They made a prominent appearance during Insomniac's first Spider-Man game, where Mister Negative also joined their ranks in a bid to take down the wallcrawler.

As of now, Doc Ock's last film appearance was Alfred Molina reprising the role – through some multiverse trickery – in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

No word yet on Spider-Man's immediate cinematic future, but we can't imagine the Sinister Six skulking into sight anytime soon, especially given how low-key (and refreshing) Brand New Day felt in comparison to previous Spidey movies.

For more on what's next in the MCU, check out our guide to upcoming Marvel movies.

Jean Grey actor Sadie Sink thinks it's a "smart choice" to have a "younger generation of mutants" for Marvel's upcoming X-Men movie.

Upon being asked by Entertainment Weekly how it feels to have a universe starting with Jean Grey as a building block, Sink replied, "It's really cool. Also, I think it was such a smart choice, too, to start young and have this younger generation of mutants. It’s a cool take on it, but as it starts to assemble and everything, I’m really excited about having a group of people to feel like you’re on a team with."

Sink added that she is currently being pulled in to screen test with various actors for auditions because it is "important" to establish chemistry within certain dynamics.

In a separate interview with Vanity Fair, Sink – who made her debut as Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day – said she would start filming X-Men next year.

Right now, a handful of actors have been confirmed to appear in Jake Schreier's undated X-Men movie.

They include Sink, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, and Kit Connor as Cyclops/Scott Summers. Other rumored names include Charles Melton as Beast and Cailee Spaeny as Rogue.

D23 appears to be the most likely destination for a full-throated reveal of the main cast. A Disney panel, featuring Marvel Studios, takes place on August 14.

Marvel will be hoping X-Men can mirror the success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which is currently on course to gross over $2 billion at the box office.

For more, check out the upcoming Marvel movies on the way, plus a look back at the full Marvel timeline throughout the decades.

It sounds as though Steve Rogers will be put through the wringer in Avengers: Doomsday as Chris Evans reveals how directors Joe and Anthony Russo love to see the Marvel hero at rock bottom.

"The Russos love beating up Steve Rogers. Their favourite thing to do is to just beat the crap out of him," said Evans at Fan Expo Boston (Via ComicBook). "To them, that’s what makes a hero, and that’s someone who gets punched so many times but still gets up."

We last saw the hero in Avengers: Endgame when he went back in time to return the Infinity Stones to their separate timelines. However, rather than returning to the present, Rogers remained in the past with his love, Peggy Carter. Endgame concluded with old man Rogers passing on the shield to Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson.

The star went on to say that Rogers' arc in Doomsday is "brutal" but necessary, as it showcases his true nature and values. Could Rogers' return to the present cost him the person he holds dear?

During the Marvel panel at SDCC 2026, it was confirmed that Peggy Carter star Hayley Atwell would return in Doomsday. Could the Russos be bringing her back just to kill her off? We don't doubt it, as that seems to be the plan with the original Fox-era X-Men too.

When Evans' Doomsday casting was first revealed, fans were pretty shocked to hear that Rogers was returning. Marvel heads wondered how the hero made his way back to Earth 616, and how the movie would handle old man Rogers. Then, as the first Avengers: Doomsday trailer hit the internet, theories on Rogers' identity started to swirl, with many questioning if the Rogers we see in the clip is really Hydra Cap.

However, it is important to note that until the Avengers: Endgame rerelease hits the big screen, we don't have the full picture yet. The upcoming rerelease will contain new footage, deleted scenes, and a special ending which is set to bridge the gap between Endgame and Doomsday. With that, the rerelease may change the Marvel timeline as we know it.

Doomsday arrives this December 18. For more, check out our Avengers: Doomsday trailer breakdown, and keep up with other upcoming Marvel movies and shows.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day actor Eman Esfandi has, in no uncertain terms, debunked a popular theory about the identity of MJ's boyfriend.

"I am not, never have been, and never will be 'Paul'," Esfandi wrote on Twitter.

Confused? The Paul in question was recently introduced in the comics as MJ's boyfriend, later marrying her and adopting children together.

Fans, however, reacted negatively. Paul was soon seen as shorthand for intrusive original characters only brought in to not-so-subtly shake up the status quo.

When coupled with what some felt was a mischaracterization of Peter Parker and an interminable Venom storyline that saw MJ become attached to the symbiote, Paul largely became one of the most notable failed experiments in modern-day Marvel comics.

Esfandi, who also plays Ezra Bridger in the live-action Ahsoka series, played into that sense of feeling and joked, "To those of you I saw in the comments defending my honor and saying I’d never accept that role… thank you."

So, the jury is still out on who exactly Esfandi is playing. In the credits, he's listed merely as The Boyfriend, which only raises suspicions further. After all, do you give an actor familiar to Star Wars fans only a 30-second cameo in the biggest movie of the year with no follow-up? It's unlikely. There's a reason, after all, that I've put my neck on the line and declared it a tease for an Oscorp and Harry Osborn-shaped future for Tom Holland's wallcrawler.

The whispers over Paul have done little to dent Spider-Man: Brand New Day's monstrous charge at the box office. It's currently cleared $1.5 billion and is well on track for a $2 billion finish before the end of August, ensuring it will become the highest-grossing Spider-Man movie (and non-Avengers MCU movie) of all time.

Whether Esfandi turns up again, there's plenty in Brand New Day's final act worth talking about. Here, we break down the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending and Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene – including how it might set up Avengers: Secret Wars and Spider-Man 5.

For more, here's how to watch the Marvel movies in order.

After months of silence on press tours, premieres, and red carpets, Spider-Man: Brand New Day star Sadie Sink has finally spoken about playing Jean Grey in the MCU.

In an interview with Variety, Sink not only confirmed the obvious (she is appearing in Jake Schreier's X-Men movie), but also her early conversations surrounding the psychic mutant's future.

"The more I've gotten into it and researched, what makes them special is that they are all incredibly flawed and maybe have done bad things. That makes them more compelling, complex characters and a more complex hero if they don't start out that way. And they have to find their relationship to their powers," Sink said.

"So, knowing Jean's struggle will be important in the future of her character and where she goes, just makes her really well-rounded, which I'm excited for."

Despite those talks with her upcoming director, Sink – a self-confessed X-Men newbie – is still none the wiser about where Jean is heading next after audiences witnessed her on a bus during the course of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending.

"I don't really know yet, to be honest," Sink said. "And when I say 'I don't know,' I mean I really don’t know."

Sink will soon be joined in the MCU by fellow X-Men castmates Samara Weaving as Emma Frost and Kit Connor as Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops.

The X-Men movie is currently undated, though Avengers: Doomsday is out on December 18, with Secret Wars to follow in 2027.

For more, check out the upcoming Marvel movies heading your way very soon.

The video game industry's finest film critic has seen Christopher Nolan's latest epic, and he is a fan. I'm talking about the one and only Metal Gear mastermind himself, Hideo Kojima, who's provided his thoughts on The Odyssey on Twitter.

"Rather than simply watching the screen, I felt as though I was there the entire time," he says of his viewing experience. "It was more than watching it, I witnessed it."

Like any good Letterboxd devotee, he caught the blockbuster in 70mm IMAX. I, sadly, had to settle for regular projection due to the dearth of IMAX options in Scotland. Forgive me, Kojima. Anyway, he mentions that it reminded him of the Cinerama screenings when he was a child, and how that contrast to his CRT television at home blew his mind.

"I already knew the story well, having grown up watching the 1954 Kirk Douglas version and several black-and-white adaptations, but this was an entirely different experience," he writes. "For me, it was an Odyssey unlike anything I had ever experienced."

He gives a shout out to the cinematography of Nolan and his longtime collaborator, Hoyte van Hoytema, in how it makes the production feel remarkably intimate – along with the use Nolan's "meticulous interwoven timelines," a staple of the director's films like Inception and Oppenheimer, too.

"Together, these elements elevate one of the world's best-known classical epics into an intimate, deep human drama," Kojima says. "It was magnificent."

I think he liked it. The Odyssey has proven to be another hit for Nolan, scoring him his biggest opening weekend ever. Kojima saw it at the David Keighley theatre at IMAX's base in Los Angeles, an invite-only cinema. Alas, Japanese fans will have to settle for public viewings when it opens there in September.

The Odyssey IMAX 70mm screenings are being extended until the release of Resident Evil in September due to constant sell-outs.

James Gunn has moved fast to quash rumors that The Batman 3 will be filming back to back with The Batman 2.

After a fan asked on Threads whether the DC Studios co-CEO could "confirm or deny" the reports, Gunn plainly responded, "I can deny."

The excitement around back-to-back sequels entering production under Matt Reeves appeared to stem from Batman on Film founder Bill Ramey posting a Batman logo with 'three' written in Roman numerals on Twitter. Some even went on to report the post as more than a rumor.

Ramey later clarified, "My intention behind posting the picture was true: Bangin’ the drum for a THE BATMAN PART III. However, if you’re a fellow Batman fan and a fan of Matt Reeves’ SAGA, I apologize if you felt misled. Honestly, not my intention."

So, we're only getting The Batman 2 – for now. The DC sequel (part of the 'Elseworlds' umbrella, so not part of the DCU) is currently filming.

Robert Pattinson once again returns as the Caped Crusader, flanked by familiar allies in the shape of Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) and trusty butler Alfred (Andy Serkis).

Newcomers include Sebastian Stan, Scarlett Johansson, and Charles Dance, although speculation has run rife about who exactly each actor will be playing. For Stan alone, the rumor mill has mentioned everything from Harvey Dent to Victor Zsasz.

The DCU, meanwhile, is gearing up to launch Lanterns – a HBO murder mystery starring Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler – later this month. A Clayface movie follows in October, with Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow hitting cinemas next July.

For more, check out the upcoming DC movies currently in the works.

Tom Holland's younger brother helped contribute to one of Spider-Man: Brand New Day's most memorable and low-key scenes.

The moment in question saw Peter Parker – in full Spider-Man costume – hanging out with MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon). Peter and Ned even spend the day building a LEGO Star Wars X-Wing set, with MJ sketching them.

But that wasn't a member of the art crew or even Zendaya putting pencil to paper. Instead, as revealed on an Instagram reply chain (H/T Pop Culture News), Paddy Holland was the one who drew the piece.

Away from Spider-Man's crimefighting and swinging around New York, the quieter moment amid the hunt for Sadie Sink's Jean Grey stood out as one of Spider-Man: Brand New Day's emotional highs – especially as it deals with the fallout from Spider-Man: No Way Home's memory-erasing spell.

As mentioned on Amy Poehler's Good Hang podcast, Tom Holland revealed that scene was rewritten and reworked on the day of filming.

This isn't the only time one of Tom Holland's brothers have left their mark on a Spider-Man movie, meanwhile.

In No Way Home, younger brother Harry Holland made a cameo as a bicycle thief. Tom Holland later revealed the stunt-laden sequence was 'revenge' for Harry mocking his complaints over hanging upside down for a day of filming. That'll teach him.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now in cinemas – and breaking box office records.

For more, check out our breakdown of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending and our collection of Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs.

Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav doesn't seem too concerned with Supergirl's box office failure, as he has full confidence in what DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran are cooking up next.

"We have Clayface coming up soon, which looks terrific," Zaslav told TheWrap, when asked directly about the critical and box office failure of Supergirl. "We got Lanterns launching in the next few weeks on HBO, which Casey [Bloys] and Sarah [Aubrey] are super excited about. So DC feels very good, and we have a robust pipeline, and Peter and James are hard at work."

Supergirl had a pretty rough go this year, and only made $125 million at the global box office against its budget of $170 million. The film currently sits at a 54% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, though the audience score is at a much higher 76%. There's also some speculation that the film's screenwriter misinterpreted the ending of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, the comic on which the movie is based, not to mention all the kerfuffle about the deeply strange needle drop during the final epic battle scene. Despite all the chaos, leading lady Milly Alcock will appear again as Kara Zor-El in the Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow, which is set to hit theaters in 2027 (and I'm stoked to see her return).

Next up for the DCU is Lanterns, a True Detective-style take on the adventures of Lantern Hal Jordan and his trainee John Stewart, and the horror movie Clayface, which tells a Cronenberg-esque origin story about the goopy Batman villain.

Supergirl is out in theaters now. For more, check out our Supergirl review and our guide to all the upcoming DC movies and shows.

Kit Connor is reportedly set to star as Scott Summers aka Cyclops in the MCU's upcoming standalone X-Men movie.

According to Deadline, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and director Jake Schreier met with "a number of candidates" and "ultimately landed on Connor last week."

In addition to being one of the founding members of the X-Men, Scott Summers is the romantic partner of Jean Grey, who will officially be played by Sadie Sink (after making her debut as the ultra-powerful mutant in Spider-Man: Brand New Day). This marks three X-Men members that have been cast, including scream queen Samara Weaving as Emma Frost.

Because the X-Men haven't even been formed yet in the MCU, we can infer that the standalone movie will focus on the creation of the team as the young mutants enroll at the Charles Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. The only seemingly odd thing here is that Weaving is 34, while Sink and Connor are 23 and 22, respectively. This may very well be because Emma Frost is already the headmistress of her own mutant academy when Scott, Jean, and co. are enrolled at the Xavier School. We love comic-book accurate writing and casting.

Connor is best known for starring in the hit Netflix queer coming-of-age series Heartstopper, as well as Alex Garland's action thriller Warfare. He's also set to star in the upcoming Elden Ring movie.

X-Men is eyeing a tentative 2028 release date. You can keep up to date with everything the MCU has in store with our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows.

PATCH NOTES: V08.06.2026 – Rockstar Games just confirmed that an extended look at Grand Theft Auto 6 will be unveiled on August 27, 2026. In an unprecedented move, the gameplay reveal will premiere on Netflix – a bold partnership which underscores the belief that GTA 6 will be an unstoppable entertainment juggernaut.

What's the latest on GTA 6?

• Rockstar just announced that an extended look at GTA 6 is coming August 27
• The extended look will premiere on Netflix before hitting the internet

Why you should care

• GTA 6 trailer 2 landed over a year ago
• The game is set to release in 104 days

Who said what?

Meta Shift

• Netflix has six hours of exclusivity over the GTA 6 gameplay reveal

There's been this feeling that Marvel is finally starting to regain some momentum. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is shattering records, becoming the highest-grossing movie of 2026 after generating $1.15 billion from the box office in just seven days. It's the second-fastest movie to hit a one billion revenue threshold of all-time; that crown still belongs to Avengers: Endgame.

The success of Brand New Day does lend some credence to the idea that superhero fatigue isn't quite as pronounced as is frequently claimed, and that its success could even point towards Avengers: Doomsday being on-track to do the impossible come December 18 – surpassing 2013's Grand Theft Auto 5 as the biggest entertainment release of all-time.

Today's announcement that Grand Theft Auto 6 will launch an extended look at its action on August 27, premiering exclusively on Netflix, is a stark reminder of just how much of an entertainment juggernaut this thing is going to be. And that it's more than a video game – it's a monocultural moment that should be treated similar to the biggest entertainment IP in the world.

Netflix calls the reveal a "first-of-its-kind partnership," one which acts as a "reflection of what we hope Netflix is becoming: a place where the most ambitious storytelling, from any medium, can find the biggest possible audience."

In reality, I suspect that this partnership only helps ensure that Netflix obtains the biggest possible subscriber base. While the footage will land on YouTube and other platforms six hours late, there's little doubt in my mind that this reveal will spike month-on-month subscriptions as players (both core and casual) grapple with the FOMO of not being on the frontlines of this conversation.

It's been over a year since GTA 6 Trailer 2 landed, which Rockstar claims reached over 475 million viewers cross-platforms within 24 hours. It's impossible to know what heights this third trailer will reach, but with Netflix adding an air of prestige to the entire event, get ready for Rockstar to shatter records once again.

Known Issue

• There are just 104 days left on the Countdown to GTA 6 and Rockstar is still yet to show very little of the upcoming open-world experience.

Starring Jason and Lucia, GTA 6 will take us back to Vice City and push us out into the wider state of Leonida. After an easy score goes wrong, the two protagonists find themselves enveloped in a criminal conspiracy, forcing the pair to rely on each other more than they ever have before to make it out alive.

That's the basic premise of GTA 6 and, after years of teasers and speculation, we really don't know all that much else. Rockstar has always worked in mysterious ways, although the way it is presenting and marketing this long-awaited sequel is particularly condensed.

With little over 100 days until GTA 6 is due to release, the public hasn't seen any true gameplay – nor has the press had an opportunity to cut through the marketing lines and bring you any sort of first impressions. What are the biggest changes, evolutions, and boundary breaking ideas that will make putting a GTA 6 pre-order down worth it? I honestly couldn't tell you.

Given the anticipation, and how little of this project has been shown, it's a little disappointing that the publisher has effectively locked the first look at GTA 6 behind a paywall. It's not the sort of thing anybody else could get away with in this industry, but that only demonstrates the power that GTA 6 wields over the collective consciousness.

Ultimately, when we're all settling in for what will likely be a 30 minute gameplay showcase on August 27 – detailing the interplay between the two protagonists, how new heist systems intersect with a more socially-connected cohort of NPCs, and the most ambitious open-world in Rockstar's history – we probably won't care all that much.

Patch Notes summary

Rockstar Games works on its own schedule, and the decision to partner with Netflix for an extended look at GTA 6 gameplay speaks volumes for how the developer wants this release to be consumed by the world at large. It's more than a video game – it's a force of nature that's going to draw the sort of attention and discussion that Marvel's 2026 Avengers and Spider-Man movies could only dream of.

The battle for the entertainment throne is fully underway now. Spider-Man: Brand New Day will continue to break records, and I expect there to be a hell of a lot of eyes on Avengers: Doomsday come December. But whether either of these monstrously massive franchises really have the staying power to compete with Grand Theft Auto remains to be seen. I suspect that, come end of year, GTA 6 will reign supreme as the biggest entertainment release of all time.

Up Next:

One of the biggest questions following Spider-Man: Brand New Day is how does Ned remember Peter at the end of the movie. Well, one Marvel fan may have cracked the case.

Brand New Day picks up four years after Doctor Strange erased the world's memory of Spider-Man's real identity in Spider-Man: No Way Home. However, the spell worked a little too well, as when Parker is finally ready to reunite with his girlfriend MJ and best bud Ned Leeds, he soon realises that nothing he does can jog their memory.

However, right at the end of the movie, Peter visits his local store and sees Ned sitting alone. But just as Peter is about to exit the store, he walks up to Ned and introduces himself. Then, as they go to shake hands, they automatically do their signature best friends handshake, and Ned remembers that Peter is, well, Peter. Read our Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending explained for the full breakdown.

But how does Ned, who is supposedly under Strange's spell, remember Peter? Well, one Marvel fan thinks that Ned's short stint as a wizard has something to do with it. "What if Ned and Peter accidentally created a spell during that handshake, and that's why he remembered because of it," said the fan on Twitter.

In No Way Home, Peter and Ned did their special handshake whilst Ned was wearing the Sling Ring, but right when the pair clicked their fingers, a spark shot out of the ring. Although he is not a fully trained wizard, it was revealed that Ned has natural magic abilities and was able to open portal gateways in the last Spidey movie. So, what if Ned accidentally put some kind of spell on the handshake, which in turn was triggered when the two shook hands at the end of Brand New Day?

With that in mind, Ned's underlying powers may have broken the spell. However, with MJ it's a completely different story. Zendaya's character told Tom Holland's Peter Parker that she simply doesn't remember him, and because of that, she doesn't love him anymore. Ouch. Let's hope Ned can work more magic in the next Spidey movie.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out now. For more on Spidey, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review and our list of Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs and cameos.

It sounds as though DC's next movie will lean more into the horror genre in more ways than we first thought, as director James Watkins says Evil Dead helmer Sam Raimi was a huge influence on the upcoming DCU Chapter One film Clayface.

"There were definitely some Sam Raimi influences," said Watkins to Empire. "The way that Sam Raimi can push horror almost to ridiculousness, and humor. I mean ridiculousness in a good way. But pushing it where we're all walking that line of 'Oh man this is extreme, and we know it's extreme and we're in it together.' The boldness of what he does."

Raimi is best known for his gory and wacky Evil Dead franchise, which pushes the boundaries of horror and heavily impacted the comedy-horror subgenre we know today. However, much like Watkins, Raimi did move from horror to the superhero genre, directing the beloved '00s Spider-Man trilogy.

Batman villain Clayface is the perfect subject for this kind of "extreme" body horror. So far in the trailers, we haven't yet seen Clayface go full on gloop, but it sounds as though it's coming. However, Watkins has previously confirmed that the full transformation won't be shown in any promotional material, so we will have to wait until release day for that. The most recent Clayface trailer does give us a glimpse of the titular character experiencing terrifying bodily changes, though, including his eyelids sticking together.

We already knew that Clayface would be an all-out horror movie. Aside from being directed by the See No Evil and The Woman in Black helmer, it is penned by horror legend Mike Flanagan. The film, which focuses on the Hollywood actor iteration of Clayface known as Matt Hagen, has been described as "violent" and "highly disturbing" by members of the press who were able to view footage early.

However, Watkins went on to say that another "massive inspiration" is Brian De Palma. "When you see the movie, you'll see," said Watkins. De Palma is best known for his crime movies such as Scarface and The Untouchables, but he also helmed the original 1976 Carrie adaptation.

Clayface is set to hit theaters on October 23. For more, check out our guides to upcoming DC movies and shows as well as our breakdown of how to watch the DC movies in order.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is on a generational run at the box office. Not only did the Marvel movie beat Avengers: Endgame's all-time opening weekend record in the US, it's already become the highest-grossing movie of 2026 in less than a week. And now it could be on track to top Star Wars: The Force Awakens' all-time record haul at the US box office.

Per the number-crunchers over at the box office subreddit, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is heading towards a $150+ million second weekend at the US box office. That would put the Marvel Phase 6 movie at over $600 million in the US in less than two weeks, and on track to finally topple Star Wars: The Force Awakens' record gross of $936 million at the domestic box office.

The 2015 Star Wars movie's domestic record has proven unbeatable in over a decade. Even the likes of Avengers: Endgame and Avatar: The Way of Water haven't come close, with Endgame falling short by almost $80 million. Brand New Day, however, has taken off like a rocket ship and blown past even the most optimistic box office projections, all despite having no IMAX screens on opening weekend thanks to The Odyssey. Though if you want to see Spider-Man: Brand New Day on the biggest screen possible, you'll finally be able to this weekend.

Audiences, evidently, can't get enough of Spider-Man as Brand New Day became the highest-grossing movie of the year this week, sailing past Toy Story 5 after just six days on release. That's good news for Marvel, as Kevin Feige recently revealed that Sadie Sink's [redacted character] has "immense significance" and will play a "key role in the future of the MCU." Another person hoping to return is Scorpion actor Michael Mando, who says we've only seen "level one" of Scorpion's potential, with the final level being "the ultimate form of Venom."

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out now. For more, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review or our list of Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs and cameos.

After taking a decade-long break from Spider-Man movies, Scorpion star Michael Mando is back as the pointy-tailed villain Mac Gargan in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. But it sounds as though the baddie may just stick around this time, and maybe even reach his full "potential" as one of Venom's hosts.

"The potential growth of [Mac Gargan] is enormous," said Mando to The Hollywood Reporter. "Brand New Day is level one of this character’s potential, and he has at least two or three levels up from here, one of them being the ultimate form of Venom."

First introduced to the Spider-Man comics in 1964, Scorpion is a private investigator turned professional criminal who uses his full-body battle suit fitted with a stinger to take down his enemies, mostly Spider-Man. However, down the line, Mac became the third host of the alien symbiote known as Venom. We have already seen Tom Hardy take shape as reporter Eddie Brock, who becomes physically attached to the alien entity in Sony's Venom film franchise. However, Brock has yet to join the MCU.

Mando made his MCU debut in Tom Holland's first Spidey movie, Spider-Man: Homecoming. The 2016 film saw Scorpion, real name Mac Gargan, engage in dodgy dealings with Michael Keaton’s Vulture, which eventually landed him in prison. But, despite the Homecoming post-credits scene teasing Vulture and Scorpion's plan for revenge, Scorpion was absent from Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home. All the while, Mando was working on Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul.

However, now he is back, it sounds as though Mando is keen to stick around. But the star doesn't want to jinx anything. "That’s exciting to think about for a moment, but I’ve got to let it go because it’s in the hands of Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal," added Mando. "They know what they’re doing, and I have to trust that… I don’t try to predict my destiny in any way."

Marvel may want to utilise all it can from the new Spidey movie. Brand New Day has so far smashed all expectations, kicking off its theatrical run with an unbelievable opening weekend, marking the biggest domestic opening ever in the US.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out now. For more on Spidey, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review, Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending explained, and our list of Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs and cameos.

Destin Daniel Cretton doesn't want the Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings post-credits scene to be an open cliffhanger forever.

In one scene, Xialing takes over the Ten Rings organization, and in another, the Rings themselves are discovered to be sending a signal into space – though what exactly it means has never been explained, and Shang-Chi hasn't been seen again in live-action since the film's 2021 release date.

Cretton's latest film, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, has a similarly open-ended post-credits scene, which features the Spidey tracker loacting the webslinger in outer space.

Speaking to TheWrap, Cretton promised that we "will find out" what that Spidey scene means.

"I do think it's frustrating when these things are like left out in the open, and you never see them. And Shang-Chi is one of those. It's still hanging out there," he explained. "I have every intention of answering the question."

We'll next see Shang-Chi in Avengers: Doomsday. The Marvel crossover movie has a supersized cast list that also includes the likes of Anthony Mackie's Captain America and Chris Hemsworth's Thor – though, interestingly, no Spider-Man.

Instead, the Brand New Day post-credits could be setting up Doomsday's sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars.

Cretton is also the co-creator of MCU show Wonder Man, and Wonder Man season 2 was recently cancelled despite the show previously getting an official renewal.

"I love that show to death. If it were up to me, we would be making that show," Cretton shared. "And I do believe that if – and I know this sounds weird – but if it were up to Kevin, we would be doing that show."

Doomsday arrives this December 18. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows for everything else that's on the way.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day actor Niyi Akin may not be a household name, but he stole the show in his brief time on screen.

So much so, in fact, that audiences worldwide have given an outpouring of love and admiration to Akin, who played David – the man psychically 'hijacked' by Sadie Sink's Jean Grey to taunt Tom Holland's Spider-Man during one particularly tense moment in the super-powered cat-and-mouse chase.

In response, Akin posted a series of behind-the-scenes images from Brand New Day on Instagram showcasing the actor in wire training and meeting Tom Holland.

Akin wrote, "Thank you so much for the love and support guys. I was just happy to be a part of it! I remember saying to my family 'I hope I get to be in [Spider-Man] one day" WE THANK GOD, CAUSE IT HAPPENED. This a dream come true [your] friendly neighbourhood superfan."

One image posted, though, may get the Spidey-Senses working and the tear ducts flowing: that of Akin, as a child, holding a Spider-Man figure. In the background, an image from Spider-Man: The Animated Series can be seen.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day isn't just making childhood dreams come true, however. It's also breaking records at the box office – with the highest opening weekend in history in the US and already swinging past $1 billion worldwide.

No word on Spider-Man 5 yet, with Tom Holland saying the path ahead is "unclear".

"Whatever happens with Spider-Man, it'll be very bright and lovely," the Spider-Man actor told Serieously. In the same interview, he also hinted that he knew Miles Morales would join the MCU.

For more, check out our guides on upcoming Marvel movies and the Marvel timeline.

New DCU movie Supergirl has officially finished its worldwide theatrical run, and its total gross is the lowest for any DC movie in decades.

Supergirl has ended its global theatrical run at $125.8 million worldwide, as per Box Office Mojo. That's over $45 million lower than 2022 DC flop Morbius, which earned $167 million, and $83 million less than Joker 2.

In fact, Supergirl marks the lowest box office return for any DC movie since Catwoman in 2004, which earned $82 million. But that was over 20 years ago, so considering inflation, Supergirl fared far worse.

This isn't a huge surprise, as Supergirl has struggled on screen from the very start. The movie opened to $37.1 million in the US and just over $62 million globally. But the Woman of Tomorrow adaptation failed to grow from that point on, seeing massive dips week by week. In the end, Supergirl only managed to scrape in total what last year's Superman made on opening weekend alone last year.

The movie marks a financial loss for DC Studios, as it cost around $170 million to make and perhaps tens of millions more to market. Worse yet, Supergirl is only the second movie in James Gunn's new DCU, following last year's Superman, which made more during its first weekend on screen than Supergirl did in its entire run. Superman went on to gross over $618 million worldwide.

It is not clear why the movie flopped so hard. Starring Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El, Supergirl follows the titular hero as she puts her partying days behind her to help a new friend seek revenge on the same villain responsible for harming her dog, Krypto. The movie opened to mixed reviews and a 56% score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is not so bad when compared to Morbius' 15% score.

However, in June, DC Studios co-head Peter Safran told The New York Times that although Supergirl's opening was disappointing, the team remains "confident" in their overall strategy. DCU Chapter One: Gods and Monsters continues this year both on the small screen with Lanterns this August, and on the big screen with Clayface this October.

For more, check out our Supergirl review and keep up with upcoming DC movies and shows.

Eli Roth, director of the much-reviled Borderlands adaptation, has spoken out on exactly what went wrong with the film.

The movie holds a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 10%, and it grossed only $33 million worldwide.

"As things grow bigger, studios just naturally become more risk averse," Roth told Variety. "My nature as a filmmaker is to do the thing that's left of center, because that's what has worked for me."

The film was rated PG-13, and studio executives pushed for changes to ensure the classification – a somewhat eyebrow-raising move, considering the games' level of violence and irreverent sense of humor.

"You got something that belonged to nobody," Roth added. "It's not a kids' movie, but it's trying to appeal to everybody. It's for gamers, but it doesn't have the violence the gamers want because it can't be that extreme because it costs too much. You just wind up with a movie that's neither fish nor fowl."

Despite a starry cast – Cate Blanchett, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Ariana Greenblatt all had leading roles – the film was a critical and commercial flop.

"The Gearbox title gamers loved has spawned a frenetic and disorderly shambles they're likelier to loathe. Claptrap? You said it," reads our 2-star Borderlands review.

Still, the future looks bright with video game adaptations like The Legend of Zelda movie and God of War TV show on the way.

You can keep up to date with everything that's on the way with our guide to all the upcoming video game adaptations.

A Spider-Man fan has compared Brand New Day to the Insomniac games, and the similarities are undeniable.

The video, which you can see below, showcases the many, many moves pulled off by Tom Holland's wallcrawler that has its origins in Insomniac's trio of Spider-Man PlayStation titles.

They include Spidey flinging himself from a New York rooftop during the opening act of the fourth Spider-Man MCU movie, propelling himself into an acrobatic flip before swinging through the skyline, a handful of web-based finishers on grunts, and even an eerily similar set-piece as the webhead hurtles towards the ground on a crumbling building.

Director Destin Daniel Cretton has also been vocal about just how much of Insomniac's titles made their way into the finished product of the billion-dollar-grossing megahit.

Cretton told Polygon, "I surrounded myself with people who were obsessive gamers. So a lot of the people in our stunt department loved playing those video games. So they would do screen grabs of their play and bring it in and say like, 'Can we pull this move off?' So that was a great inspiration for things."

That synergy of game design and big-screen spectacle has certainly factored into why Spider-Man: Brand New Day has been such a success.

Already, it holds the record for the biggest US domestic opening at the box office, and is well on its way to a staggering $2 billion total gross worldwide.

The Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending also set up Sadie Sink's Jean Grey for an exciting MCU future, though some are still a little baffled by Ned's 'revelation' in the final scene. Don't be. We have an explainer about that handshake to clear up any confusion.

For more, check out our breakdown of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene. Then, away from Insomniac's undoubted influence, we have more references, winks, and nods listed here in our essential guide to Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs.

Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton has doubled down on his previous comments about the state of the industry regarding Shang-Chi 2's very delayed status.

“When you really look at what happened to the industry, at least from my perspective, it was just like everything went to shit after that," Cretton told TheWrap. "I feel like if Marvel was where it was before, we would have had maybe two sequels already. Who knows?"

Cretton previously told Deadline's Crew Call Podcast that a sequel to the beloved 2021 film was still on the way, but that it's the post-pandemic nature of the industry that has put something of a blocker on it. Cretton himself has also been a bit busy directing Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which is already breaking some box office records.

The film stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, a martial arts master who is forced to confront the past he thought he left behind when he becomes involved with the mysterious Ten Rings organization. It's also worth noting that Shang-Chi hasn't appeared in any other movies or in a Disney Plus series, which made fans pretty worried about the sequel's fate until it was announced that Shang-Chi would star in Avengers: Doomsday. He can also be seen facing off with Alan Cumming's Nightcrawler in the trailer.

Shang-Chi 2 does not yet have a release date. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in theaters now. Avengers: Doomsday hit theaters on December 18. For more, check out our guide on how to watch the Spider-Man movies in order, and keep up with upcoming Marvel movies.

As Marvel superheroes go, Spider-Man has suffered a lot more than most. Aside from losing Tony Stark and Aunt May in the MCU, the death of Uncle Ben is often the catalyst that's used to kickstart Peter Parker's entire hero's journey. But through it all, Spider-Man has always remained true to himself, unwaveringly optimistic in the face of loss.

That's his whole schtick really, this resilience that helps carry Spidey through his darkest moments. But Spider-Man: Brand New Day pushes the limits of that more than ever before, not through the death of another loved one but because of an even crueller twist that our hero might never recover from.

At the end of the previous film, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange made everyone forget who Peter Parker is. This spell was needed to help save the day, but that hasn't made it any easier for Peter, who's been forced to live the last four years in solitude.

By the time Brand New Day begins, MJ has moved on with a new boyfriend, still unable to remember that Peter was once the love of her life. Peter remembers, though, haunted by the knowledge that they can never be together again. Or can they?

When Jean Grey discovers Spider-Man's true identity, she threatens to take control of MJ's mind and use her against him, as she has so many other people already. Terrified for MJ's safety, Peter races across town and whisks her away somewhere safe.

Once it seems like the coast is clear, the pair discuss what's going on. Spider-Man tries to explain why MJ is being targeted without giving away who he really is, but talk inevitably turns to their history together. It's as if MJ is on the cusp of remembering, something Peter and we feel when she pulls up the bottom of his mask to take a closer look at him.

In a scene reminiscent of that iconic upside-down snog from 2002's Spider-Man, the pair smooch and embrace. True love's kiss seems to have broken the spell at last and Peter couldn't be happier. That is, until MJ starts describing herself in the third person as they embrace…

Web of deceit

Yep, it turns out Jean has been controlling MJ this entire time just to mess with him, even going so far as to kiss him knowing how much it will hurt.

It's one thing to possess the woman Peter loves, but it's another thing entirely to trick him in such a way. Realising that MJ doesn't remember him after all, that he's no better off than he was four years ago when the spell was first cast, is devastating for Peter in ways Marvel rarely attempts. And to top it all off, Jean then rubs salt in the wound by revealing Peter is never in MJ's thoughts at all.

The scene ends with Jean forcing MJ to jump off the roof, but it's the deceit that hurts most. Spider-Man was always going to catch her in time, but the impact of this cruel twist can't be undone in quite the same way.

During a brief moment of respite, MJ later finds a letter that Peter wrote but never gave to her, one which explains the spell's impact in full and his undying love for her. She quickly confronts him, upset that he didn't give the letter to her himself years earlier.

Peter explains that he was only trying to protect MJ before going on to admit that he still loves her, that she's still everything to him and always will be. But MJ is unable to say any of this back to Peter. She understands why the girl in the letter loved him so much, but she is no longer that girl.

"I don’t love you," says MJ, adding, "I don't even know you."

What Jean did earlier was incredibly sadistic, but the words that come out of MJ's mouth now are even more gut-wrenching – and that's because they're actually true. She really doesn't love him anymore. Sure, the spell's to blame, but the impact is very much the same. Peter is heartbroken beyond measure, experiencing a new kind of loss that tears him apart at the seams.

Poetry in emotion

Both of these scenes hit incredibly hard for us too. After watching this pair fall for each other these past nine years, seeing MJ reject Peter like this is really tough to see. Any breakup would be bad enough, but this is even worse because of how unfair it feels. They should be together, yet they can't be, all because Peter had to make a sacrifice for the greater good.

Such emotional storytelling is still a rarity in the MCU. Some moments have hit hard, of course, but most of them usually revolve around the concept of death. Yondu's funeral, Vision's love persevering, Spidey's own "death" at the end of Avengers: Infinity War… Death is par for the course when it comes to superheroes who risk their lives every day, so these recurring themes are to be expected. What isn't expected is just how gut-wrenching this film's emotional beats are with nary a death in sight.

The circumstances might be fantastical, but the feelings involved are rooted in feelings of loss and rejection that anyone watching can relate to. It helps that Tom Holland has never been better as Spider-Man than he is in these moments, and Zendaya continues to be pitch-perfect too in her delivery, firm in her feeling with a hint of melancholy that comes with knowing the pain her words will cause.

Loss and how Peter keeps fighting despite it remains the driving force, but in unexpected ways that avoid recycling past stories in favour of something new. More than Aunt May's death, more even than Peter saying goodbye to MJ at the end of No Way Home, it's in the pain of these evolving relationship dynamics where Brand New Day sets itself apart as Spidey's most mature MCU outing yet.

What remains to be seen is whether Peter can weather the storm long enough for MJ to return to him. The end of the film hints that this might be possible, especially when we see her holding the same necklace Peter gifted her in Spider-Man: Far From Home. Still, true love might not be enough to break the spell, especially with Doomsday and Secret Wars looming on the horizon.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out now. For more, check out the breakdown of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending and our ranking of the best Spider-Man movies.

Christmas has come early this year, as after being shown behind closed doors at CinemaCon in April, the first trailer for the upcoming action sequel Violent Night 2 is here.

David Harbour is back as the potty-mouthed, all-fighting Santa Claus we met four years ago when he saved a family from a deadly home invasion in the 2022 original. However, as you can see in the new clip below, ol Nick's actions have come back to bite him as he finds himself on the naughty list. Now living as a regular human without powers, Santa begins working at a local mall. But when a criminal organization led by Jared Harris targets the building, he must use the power of Christmas, aka his fighting fists, to protect his new community.

Lucky for Santa, he has new friends by his side, including Anaconda's Daniela Melchior, King Bach and Sopranos star Joe Pantoliano. But the big reveal comes right at the end of the trailer, where we get our first look at Kristen Bell as Mrs. Claus.

We sat down with director Tommy Wirkola and producer Kelly McCormick to break down the trailer and discuss their approach to the sequel, including how the team kicked the action up a notch and why Bell is the perfect person to play Harbour's better half.

Bigger sets and a badder Santa

Right away we can see that Violent Night 2 is on a much bigger scale than the first movie. "It feels like a bigger world, more of a bigger character canvas, and I would say also kind of a bigger story," explains Wirkola. However, the director says with that comes the challenge of wanting to "give people what they want and liked about the first one without overdoing it, and also at the same time giving them new stuff and expanding on the myth." However, the director says he "knew pretty early on we wanted the setting of the mall."

The sequel was shot on location in and around a real mall in Winnipeg, Canada. McCormick reveals that the mall was being renovated at the time, but was still half open with some stores still functioning. "We filled a lot of the empty places with product placement, and we were able to use the two-story mall to kind of create this Christmas-like world." McCormick says this worked in their favour, as they were able to turn the top level into Santa's Village, but still managed to keep on budget.

Wirkola was able to include scenes about Santa's "backstory and Viking history" that were cut the first time around. Wirkola also says that after the 2022 film hit screens, he and Harbour checked in with fans online and saw that viewers wanted to know more about Santa's origins, so they implemented just that.

The team also managed to slip in a few Easter eggs, some of which you can spot in the trailer. During the fight in the kitchen, the two assailants look rather like the burglars from Home Alone, and Santa's new position at the mall reminds us a lot of Elf and Bad Santa. The oven scene also harkens back to Hansel and Gretel, a fairytale which Wirkola has adapted in the past. However, the director says that one was not his idea: "I blame the writers for that."

Meet the new Mrs Claus

One way in which the sequel expands on Santa's backstory is by introducing his wife. We are used to seeing Mrs. Claus presented as an older, homely woman who is often waiting at home in the North Pole, baking cookies and looking after the elves. However, from the first trailer we can see that Kristen Bell's Mrs. Claus flips that stereotype on its head. Santa's long-lost wife steps into frame looking strong and capable, with a hammer in hand, ready to help her husband kick some ass.

After voicing our favourite Norwegian Disney princess in the Frozen franchise, it makes sense that the Violent Night team would want Bell to play their Viking queen. But McCormick reveals that the casting kind of came out of nowhere.

"I don't even know how it happened," says McCormick. "She's a huge fan of the franchise, which we didn't know at the time. And she and David Harbour are really old, dear friends, so I think that had something to do with it." This is the first live-action movie Bell has appeared in in some years, which McCormick says is due to family commitments. So the team had just a few days to shoot Bell's scenes. But even though Bell only appears in part of the movie, McCormick says "she has such an impact on the movie," adding, "She's just so perfect as our Mrs. Claus. I feel really lucky to have her."

"She is so perfect in the role, and she's a great partner for David's Santa. In the little time we have with them on screen, we really get a sense of their relationship, their history, and they really played well off each other," adds Wirkola. "She brought so much humanity and humor, and the moment she shows up, you just love that character… She's a great fighter."

Santa goes full John Wick

It's not just Mrs. Claus who is bringing the heat, though, as without his powers, Harbour's Santa has no choice but to put 'em up and fight the bad guys rather than using his magical nose twinkle. This gave Wirkola and McCormick, best known for producing action hits like Nobody, Bullet Train, and Atomic Blonde, the chance to extend the franchise's fighting scenes.

"Instead, he uses his brawn and more Christmas decorations, which is really what the whole movie has always been about. Like, how can you weaponize Christmas decorations?" says McCormick. Wirkola adds, "We had a lot of fun coming up with set pieces and kind of giving him big challenges without him having the reliance on his Santa magic."

However, powerless Santa gives the audience a chance to get to know Harbour's antihero on a human level. "It also was an opportunity to explore the emotional side," adds McCormick. "Who are you when your powers are taken away? If you're Santa Claus, who are you if there's no more Christmas? I think a lot of us feel like our identity is so wrapped into what we do, that I think it'll be really relatable."

Wirkola echoes that the sequel will really get down to what Christmas really means for Santa. "Christmas can mean so many different things for so many people, but he has to figure out what it means for him or what it meant for him when all this began."

However, don't expect Violent Night's Santa to turn into a jolly, ho, ho, ho-ing bundle of joy by the end of the sequel, as Wirkola isn't finished with the franchise yet. Although the director doesn't want to "jinx" himself, the filmmaker can see space for a potential third movie. "There's still a lot of mystery around his character, and especially around him and Santa Claus and the workshop and how that works and all that stuff," says the Dead Snow helmer. "So yeah, I mean, if we're lucky enough to make another one, it feels like we, at one point, need to address the North Pole."

Violent Night 2 hits screens on December 4, 2026. For more, check out our guide to movie release dates and keep up with new movies on the way in 2026 and beyond.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day has arrived, and maybe you're being completely and totally normal about it. Or, maybe you're like me, and the potential storylines that could come next for Spider-Man 5 and beyond are keeping you up at night à la the Charlie Day red-string meme from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Because Spider-Man: Brand New Day picks up the pieces from No Way Home quite nicely and also leaves several open paths for what could happen next to Tom Holland's Spider-Man, I've dusted off my comic book collection and put together a list of potential plot theories for Spidey's future in the MCU. Some are a little far-fetched, and others make a whole lot of sense (to me, anyway). From Peter teaming up with another Spider-Man, who isn't Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield, to what could happen in Jake Schrier's upcoming X-Men movie... I've speculated about it all below.

But be warned: there are major spoilers below. When you're done, check out our list of 43 Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs.

Ned Leeds becomes the Hobgoblin

Hear me out: this is set up in Spider-Man: No Way Home as a potential future storyline, and then made all the more valid following Ned's graduation from MIT in Brand New Day.

In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Tobey Maguire's Peter 2 tells Ned that his best friend died in his arms after trying to kill him. This is in reference to the events of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3, which saw Peter's best friend Harry Osborn decide to avenge his father's death and become the second iteration of the Green Goblin (to which Andrew Garfield's Peter 3 nods, as a similar storyline followed in The Amazing Spider-Man 2). Ned then looks at Tom Holland's Peter and promises that he will never, ever, turn into a villain and try to kill his best friend.

Two things to note here: 1) After Doctor Strange's spell, Peter isn't Ned's best friend anymore, and 2) in the comics, Ned Leeds is revealed to be the Hobgoblin, a wannabe Green Goblin who manages to get his hands on Norman Osborn's Goblin Formula and tech with the intention of killing Spider-Man.

Would there need to be a Norman Osborn or Oscorp on Earth-616 to make this work? Well, the big evil tech corporation job that MJ turned down in Brand New Day sure did sound a bit like Oscorp... so there is that possibility. But no, we wouldn't necessarily need existing Goblin tech for Ned to become the Hobgoblin, because he's smart enough to develop the tech himself. The Spidey Tracker that Ned invents is next-level surveillance tech that is even able to track Spidey on another planet. That alone tells me that ol' Ned could whip up some seriously scary technology with the right (or wrong) resources.

Miles Morales is the Spider-Man tracked "off-planet"

In that brief post-credits scene, we see a close-up of Ned's Spidey Tracker. The tracker shows Spidey on a planet that goes far beyond the moon of Earth-616, and registers his status as "off-planet." There are two reasons why I think this could very well be Miles Morales, and, once again, the first occurs in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Towards the end of No Way Home, Electro (Jamie Foxx) finally sees the Spidey from his universe, Andrew Garfield, unmasked. In a sweet and funny moment, Electro says, "You're from Queens, you got that suit, you help poor people... I just thought you was gonna be black." Garfield's Spidey immediately apologizes, to which Electro says, "There's gotta be a black Spider-Man out there somewhere." Because this is the movie that cracked open the multiverse, this scene alone meant a live-action Miles movie was absolutely possible.

The second reason is the simple fact that Kevin Feige recently confirmed that they were working on a live-action Miles Morales movie.

It's also possible that this interplanetary Spider-Man could be Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield (though Garfield laughed and said he had absolutely no idea when asked about this by ScreenRant). It could also, perhaps, be the planet Battleworld... which is where all the heroes of Earth-616 are sent to fight to the death by the Beyonder, and is the central location of the Avengers: Secret Wars comics... which serve as the basis for the upcoming movie of the same name... but the planet is supposed to be much further out than what we see on the Spidey Tracker, so anything is possible, really.

Peter Parker encounters the alien symbiote in Avengers: Secret Wars

Whether Tom Holland wants to admit it on a podcast or not, Avengers: Secret Wars is the comic book arc that introduces the alien symbiote that gives Spidey his iconic black suit and eventually attaches itself to Eddie Brock, who indeed becomes Venom. In Secret Wars #8, Peter Parker encounters the alien symbiote, which drops into his hand and spreads over his entire body, turning his costume black and white. It isn't until The Amazing Spider-Man #300 that the symbiote returns and attaches itself to scorned journalist Eddie Brock while he's sitting in a church asking God to forgive him for being awful to Spider-Man (much like that popularly memed scene from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3 that sees Topher Grace sitting in the pews asking God to kill Spider-Man, though not as funny).

While the black suit and the introduction of Venom are an important part of Secret Wars, the overall arc sees the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and more trapped on a planet known as Battleworld, where they're forced to fight the villains of that planet essentially to the death. It'll be the most ambitious MCU adaptation for sure (but I do really want to see Holland's Spidey in that suit).

Spider-Man is indirectly responsible for the creation of anti-mutant technology

Peter is sort of directly responsible... though the inhibitor wasn't made with ill intentions. In the comics, an anti-mutant device known as an inhibitor collar pops up in X-Men #141. The collar, created by mutant-killing military scientist Bolivar Trask, was placed around the neck of any mutant who was wrongfully thrown into the South Bronx Mutant Containment Center as part of the passing of an unjust law known as the Mutant Registration Act. The inhibitor collar prevents mutants and any super-powered beings from using their powers.

In Brand New Day, Peter develops the technology with the intention to control his own rapidly changing powers, while also knowing that it can be used on just about any being with powers. He attempts to attach it to the Hulk, but no dice. He successfully attaches it to Jean Grey, whom he turns over to Bill Metzger under the guise of 'doing the right thing.' We see Bill and his cronies use it as a way to subdue Jean in order to experiment on her, and we never see it again after Spidey is shot and Jean is rescued. We also never see Bill again, either.

It's important to note that the Department of Damage Control was using tech from captured/defeated villains, such as Shocker, to develop weaponry that can take down super-powered beings. You might recall that they used Shocker's arm console to develop guns that have the power to dissolve Peter's artificial webbing. It's likely that Bill and his cronies took the inhibitor technology and are hiding out somewhere... and that this will all be revisited in the upcoming standalone X-Men movie.

Spider-Man teams up with the X-Men

Think of it this way: if Peter was able to invent the inhibitor, the X-Men might need his help in order to destroy or reverse it. There's also the fact that Spider-Man and the X-Men have teamed up several times throughout comic book history, including one specific arc where Spider-Man and Jean Grey work together at the X-Mansion to mentor young mutants.

But there's also a chance (hear me out) that Spider-Man could be teaming up with the X-Men to take down Dark Phoenix... which is the supervillain Jean Grey turns into after being overwhelmed by her own powers and manipulated by Mastermind. The ending of Brand New Day does imply that Jean is on a bus headed upstate to the X-Men mansion (which also implies that the X-Men haven't even been formed as a team yet) and is therefore about to learn how to use her powers correctly and for good. But because we've already seen just how powerful she is and what evil she's capable of right off the bat, it wouldn't surprise me if the MCU decided to go ahead and adapt the Dark Phoenix Saga.

Dark Phoenix aside, Jean has always been morally gray in the comics (from killing Rogue to making Cyclops kill Professor X), but introducing a founding member of the X-Men into the MCU as a supervillain was a choice... and one they might decide to go a bit deeper with.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in theaters now. For more on the MCU, here's our guide to how to watch all the Marvel movies in order.

Kevin Feige has acknowledged that last summer's Fantastic Four: First Steps underperformed.

The film was released in July 2025 and grossed $521.9 million worldwide, despite being billed as a major Marvel blockbuster and including a post-credits scene that directly set up Avengers: Doomsday.

"Many things can be true at once," Feige told Variety, when asked if Marvel's recent misfires were a sign audiences are tiring of the same story. "I think last year's Fantastic Four looked and sounded like nothing that had been done in a superhero movie before, and it only [grossed] $521 million."

Spider-Man: Brand New Day, in comparison, has beaten Avengers: Endgame's record for the biggest domestic opening of all time and currently sits at $932 million worldwide – after just one weekend.

"Brand New Day is very directly a part four. It picks up right after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home and yet it tells a story that resonates. It's ultimately about loneliness and the dangers of staying in our apartments by ourselves, looking at our phones. That resonates across cultures and across the globe right now," Feige explained.

The Fantastic Four box office was made even more disappointing by the fact that it grossed less than Superman, which also released in July 2025 and ultimately made $618.7 million. However, this year's Supergirl flopped at the box office and currently sits at a global total of just under $126 million.

But we'll soon see Marvel's First Family again in Doomsday. Pedro Pascal's Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby's Sue Storm, Ebon Moss-Bachrach's Ben Grimm, and Joseph Quinn's Johnny Storm are all returning, though plot details are thin on the ground at the moment.

Brand New Day is in theaters now, while Doomsday arrives this December 18. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows for everything else that's on the way.

The team behind Spider-Man: Brand New Day have been taking a well-earned victory lap in the press over the last 24 hours, after it was confirmed that the new Marvel Phase 6 movie topped Avengers: Endgame at the box office in the US on its opening weekend. But amidst the congratulatory back-slapping, director Destin Daniel Cretton revealed a key tidbit from production that goes a long way to explaining why Tom Holland is the perfect Spider-Man.

Warning: spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day follow.

During a conversation with Deadline, Cretton revealed that the very first dramatic scene shot captured for the movie was the moment where Peter Parker brings flowers to Aunt May's grave. At the end of a long day (if you'll recall, Peter visits the grave multiple times across the film), as they were about to wrap, Cretton decided to shoot an unplanned version, in case it was needed for the end of the movie. Holland was mic'd up, and improvised the line "You'd be happy to know that I've decided I'm not going to do this alone anymore" on the spot, according to Cretton.

"That statement became the north star of the entire movie," Cretton said. "Now it feels obvious that's where the movie was always headed, but at the time we shot it, we didn't really have that simple core idea yet. We worked backward from that point and realized, 'That's where we're going.' To me, that's the entire movie right there." It's proof, were it needed, that Holland knows his Peter Parker better than anyone (and that maybe he'll make a great screenwriter one day).

Spider-Man: Brand New Day got off to a record-breaking start at the box office this weekend, pulling in some $932 million worldwide, making it the second highest-grossing opening weekend of all time globally, behind Avengers: Endgame's untouchable $1.2 billion. And that was without an IMAX bump, as Spider-Man: Brand New Day is only set to share the biggest screens going with The Odyssey from August 7.

Now that the various cats are out of the bag when it comes to the fourth, secret-shrouded Holland Spidey movie, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige and co have been speaking more freely about the movie's many surprises. Feige even revealed that the film's misunderstood villain, Jean Grey, was instead originally "a very obscure character nobody has ever heard of." A prop modeller on the film also explained where those Mister Negative rumors came from.

Next up for Marvel Studios are VisionQuest on the small screen, and make-or-break team-up movie Avengers: Doomsday on the big screen. Though, as far as we're aware, Tom Holland's Spider-Man won't show up in either. The Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene may offer a few clues about when he'll next swing onto screens.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now in theaters. For more on-screen secrets, zip on over to our essential guide on Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs, or dive into our full Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending explained guide.

The Amazing Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield would return as his webslinging hero – on one condition.

"I don't know. I really don't know," Garfield told The Playlist's The Discourse podcast, when asked what another Spidey project would need to offer for him to return.

"I would need it to be very, very odd. I would need it to be very strange, and I would need it to be completely unconventional and almost – I wouldn't say boring – but I would want it to be just completely unexpected, like a genre of Spider-Man that you've never seen before, that feels very left field," he continued.

Garfield returned for Spider-Man: No Way Home thanks to some multiversal shenanigans (alongside Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker), but he hasn't been seen in the MCU since.

"And I don’t even know what that would be," Garfield added. "Maybe like a road trip movie."

While Garfield might not be making his return as Peter Parker anytime soon, though, you can currently see Tom Holland's Spidey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which is in theaters now.

"Taking Spidey back to web-slinging basics, Tom Holland's fourth solo outing as Spider-Man is a blast, with personal stakes to match its evolved spectacle. It's the Multiverse Saga's best movie… at least until Doomsday," reads our 4-star Spider-Man: Brand New Day review.

Next up for Marvel on the big screen is Avengers: Doomsday, which arrives this December 18. In the meantime, check out our guide on how to watch the Marvel movies in order to get up to date.

The hunt for the next James Bond continues, and new series co-producer Amy Pascal has said we could know who Daniel Craig's successor as 007 is by the end of this year.

Speaking to Deadline about the box office success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which just beat Avengers: Endgame's opening weekend record, Pascal offered an update on the long-awaited, Denis Villeneuve-directed Bond movie, including when we can expect a new 007 to be cast. "I would say the end of the year is a good bet," Pascal said. Back in May, we learned that Game of Thrones casting director Nina Gold was leading the search for the next British super spy, with auditions set to take place over the summer.

It's been almost six years since Daniel Craig's final outing as Bond in No Time to Die, and it seems that Villeneuve, Pascal, fellow producer David Heyman and studio Amazon MGM aren't going to rush into a decision. "We are being really, really methodical," Pascal continued. "Having worked with Barbara Broccoli at the studio, I mean, Daniel Craig is a hard act to follow. And it's got to be something really different that is stirring and exciting and different."

At Amazon's CinemaCon presentation back in April, the studio's head of film, Courtenay Valenti, addressed the Bond question, claiming that the search is taking so long because of the "care and deep respect" for the process of casting a new 007. Plenty of actors are rumored to be in contention, from Callum Turner to Jacob Elordi. One person who definitely won't be playing Bond, however, is Henry Cavill, who famously auditioned to play Bond 20 years ago, but now thinks he'd be better suited to play a Bond villain.

All we know for sure is that Dune's Denis Villeneuve will direct the first Amazon MGM Bond movie, with Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight currently penning the script. But even if the new Bond is announced this side of Christmas, it could still be several years until we see the next installment, as Villeneuve is still busy with Dune: Part 3.

While we wait for the next Bond to be announced, check out our list of the best James Bond movies to watch now.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day hit the big screen last week, and with it, finally revealed who Sadie Sink is playing. But now that the cat is out of the bag, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige says Sink's mutant is set to play a major role in the MCU going forward.

"Sadie’s character is one that our fans know has immense significance within the Marvel Universe, and she plays a key role in the future of the MCU," said Feige to Variety. "I’m just happy that the secret is finally out and that Sadie can stop dodging the question."

As many fans predicted, Sink plays Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The X-Man is one of the most powerful heroes in Marvel comics, with telepathic and telekinetic powers that allow her to control others and manipulate objects from buildings right down to molecular levels. The hero has shown up a number of times in live-action, played by Famke Janssen in the original X-Men trilogy, and then by Sophie Turner in the X-Men prequel films.

It sounds as though Sink's Grey is here to stay, but it is not clear when we will see her again. However, we can probably guess that Grey will be part of the upcoming X-Men movie from Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier. The project has reportedly already cast Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, but Marvel has yet to reveal any official casting details.

It doesn't look like Sink will appear in Avengers: Doomsday, nor will Tom Holland's Spidey. But Feige revealed that Brand New Day "leads into another very well-known Marvel franchise created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby." Could that be the new X-Men movie? Well, among many other Marvel franchises, X-Men was created by Lee and Kirby.

When asked why Marvel decided to keep Sink's role a secret, Feige said, "It’s purely about creating the best possible opening weekend experience for the audience." Well, it looks like it paid off. Brand New Day had an unbelievable opening weekend, earning a staggering $932 million worldwide, marking the biggest domestic opening ever in the US. Brand New Day has a long way to go before beating Avengers: Endgame's massive $2.79 billion total gross, but it is getting there.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out now. For more on Spidey, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review, Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending explained, and our list of Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs and cameos.

Rumors were rife that Spider-Man: Brand New Day would finally bridge a divide that fans have been waiting decades to heal between the MCU and the former Fox X-Men, as speculation swirled around Sadie Sink playing a familiar red-headed hero.

Yet, even as the Sadie Sink reveal played out in the cinema, I stifled a small squeal as Peter's facial recognition from his AI-sidekick EV revealed her to be none other than Jean Grey. Sure, we'd had a brief post-credit scene after The Marvels when Monica Rambeau wakes up in an alternative universe with Beast looking after her, and the mayhem of cameos in Doctor Strange: The Multiverse of Madness (which the less said about the better), but nothing longer-lasting than a brief dopamine fix of seeing a surprise character cameo.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day collides two universes with such ease that you wonder if they always co-existed together. Director Destin Daniel Cretton has ensured that first and foremost this feels like a quintessential Spider-Man film, reminiscent more of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's maturer take on the web-headed hero than the vigorous, quippy teenage version that Tom Holland has become known for. As much as the slow-motion swings, on-the-fly jokes, and identity crisis about who he is behind the mask feel inherently Spider-Man, Brand New Day also doubles as a great X-Men film.

No inhibitions

After an immense period of isolation following the trauma of losing Aunt May and having his identity wiped from the memory of everyone he's ever loved, Peter's spidey-senses become more unreliable. Blackouts, headaches, and destructive behaviour follow as his mutation develops and interrupts his friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man routine. His body's physical reaction to the burnout that comes from never switching off causes his DNA to mutate to become more spider than human, as his arachnid hormones spike. Similar to the plot of many of the X-Men films, Peter now has to decide whether to embrace this darker, less inhibited version of his powers, or to suppress them, control them in an effort to go back to 'normal.' Or as normal as a man who can crawl around the ceiling in a lycra onesie can be.

To begin with, Peter attempts to fix the problem in a Tony Stark-like way by building an inhibitor that will decrease his spider hormones and control his DNA from mutating any further. Despite warnings from Bruce Banner about the dangers of this technology – which could be used to control any enhanced individual (and may be setting up a future X-Men movie) – Peter builds his own means of genetic silencing to cure the parts of his abilities that he doesn't like, namely its self-destructive, primal animalistic side.

The inhibitor is reminiscent of Agents of Shield, where a device was used to control Daisy, aka Quake's, powers to prevent her from imploding the Earth. As opposed to simply copying the plot of X-Men with a serum that cures enhanced individuals, this scientific approach feels far more suited to the former aspiring MIT student.

Back in the Fox days, Magneto's biggest concern was humans creating cures for mutants to not only muzzle their powers but get rid of them entirely, out of fear and prejudice. It comes up time and time again in the X-Men prequels, too, that the biggest threat to mutants (apart from the in-fighting about whether to trust or fear humans) is experimentation on them to create a cure or inhibitor that would stop them from simply existing as themselves.

Mutant mayhem

In the Avengers universe, Peter wouldn't be called a mutant, just superhuman, as he wasn't born with a genetic mutation. But, of course, just like Jean, he is a mutant. Half spider, half human, an individual who is special with powers that other people don’t understand and can fear and want to control. Part of the reason that Jean seamlessly slots into this world is that she’s almost a mirror to Peter.

Peter has to go on his own journey to realise that Jean, as powerful and dangerous as she is, is being exploited simply because she's different. To begin with, this ignorance of the suffering that mutants can face (Mysterio incident aside, he's always been celebrated as one of Earth's Mightiest Heroes) leads Peter to trust the suave director of Damage Control and use his universal inhibitor as a means to stop the supposed baddie, Jean.

Instead, in true X-Men style, the department experiments on Jean in the hopes of manipulating her powers to replicate them and turn regular individuals into telepathic weapons of destruction. In the MCU, we've briefly seen experimentation on Bucky, but this weaponising of superpowers, whatever the cost, is a trope predominantly seen in the X-Men universe.

In the end, Peter learns to embrace what makes him special, as it's a gift, not a curse – a relatable message that comes through time and time again in the X-Men comics and films. Jean feels fully integrated into this universe, an equal and mirror to Peter's own suffering, as they both have to learn to live after immense trauma. And come to terms with the darker, more unyielding depths of their powers that trigger after the devastating loss of people they love.

Alone together

Brand New Day pulls off a rare feat to be able to merge two existing franchises in a way that feels seamless and reminiscent of the crossovers in earlier Avengers movies. Jean also fits in with Peter, as she's a young mutant who is trying to come to terms with who she is outside of her powers and how she navigates this profound responsibility alone. All of which Peter can instinctively relate to, in a way other heroes might not.

The gradual introduction to characters from the wider Marvel canon also helps establish the dynamics and structures of this world ahead of Avengers: Doomsday. A major part of Marvel's shortcomings in the Multiverse Saga has been how disconnected the universe has become. So, it was a welcome change to see echoes of The Infinity Saga's approach to universe-building in Brand New Day. Naturally, Yelena would be concerned with 'big potato stuff' as part of the New Avengers, but is on hand to offer advice to the 'sad' Spider-Man when he stumbles across a potato that's slightly bigger than the 'small, baby' problems he's meant to be solving.

The film also naturally sets up the next film in the MCU slate, Avengers: Doomsday, as it starts to bring different heroes together – Yelena, Peter, Jean and Frank, aka The Punisher – as well as introducing a new technology that most likely will appear again in the future. If we learnt anything from Ultron, it's that even the smartest heroes, when desperate, will utilise questionable inventions to try and protect the Earth from alien invaders, such as the incoming storm with Doctor Doom.

Ultimately, Brand New Day should be used as the blueprint for future MCU crossovers as it merges multiple existing worlds, familiar storylines and characters to show how they co-exist together in one universe. In fact, they may be the only people who can truly understand the isolation, burden, and trauma that comes with being an enhanced individual in a society that fears anyone who is different.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out now. For more, check out the breakdown of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending and our ranking of the best Spider-Man movies.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out, and we still don't know who Eman Esfandi is playing (aside from being MJ's new boyfriend, of course). Some fans believe they've figured it out, but given the new influx of wild fan theories... I'm not so sure.

Warning: Mild spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day below!

The common belief seems to be that Esfandi is playing Paul Rabin, who made his first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 6 #1. One fan says that the open captions screenings of Spider-Man: Brand New Day list the actor's character name as Paul, though Esfandi is only listed as "The Boyfriend" in the movie's credits. Until we have public proof of this, however, all we can do is speculate.

In the comics, Peter and Mary Jane encounter Paul after entering his universe while fighting a villain known as the Emissary. Long story short, Mary Jane ends up accidentally sending Peter back to Earth-616 and ends up stuck with Paul for four whole years... and they end up adopting two children. Could Esfandi's new character be Paul?

Well, some other fans think MJ's new boyfriend is either Tarantula, or Boomerang. There's really no basis for either theory other than the characters have similar facial features to Esfandi, but one fan pointed out that there'd be some funny irony in MJ dating a "knock-off" version of Peter, seeing as Tarantula is more or less just that (though much scarier looking in appearance). Another theory, though not as popular, is that Esfandi is playing Harry Osborn (and that the job MJ turns down was indeed a position at OsCorp).

We're not sure if Marvel will go to Sadie Sink-levels of secrecy to keep the identity of Esfandi's character on the low... but a Paul confirmation could be coming our way sooner or later.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in theaters now. For more, check out our breakdowns of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending and Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene.

Good news to those still on a high after watching The Odyssey: Spider-Man: Brand New Day is swinging on to IMAX screens this week.

As revealed by the IMAX Twitter account, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is available in the cinematic format in the US from August 7. Tickets are set to go on sale tomorrow, August 4.

There's even a brand-new poster to mark the occasion, with Spidey swinging away from Jon Bernthal's Punisher during one of the movie's big action sequences.

As per the company, IMAX screenings in Japan, South Korea, and China have already grossed an impressive $23 million.

In a statement, IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond said, "We believe more Spidey fans around the world will want to experience his latest adventure in IMAX – and we hope to be a major driver of both new and repeat viewing for the latest hit in this incredible year for moviegoing."

As Gelfond attested to, it's been an exceptional year already for movies in cinemas – bolstered by both Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, which became the first movie shot entirely in IMAX. The corporation has also confirmed Spider-Man and The Odyssey will share IMAX screens "across select digital IMAX locations in America."

If you ask us, Brand New Day in IMAX is certainly worth another go. The Hulk fight is an obvious highlight, though you can't discount the other action scenes, nor the shots of Spider-Man swinging through the New York skyline.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man: Brand New Day has broken the record for the biggest US domestic opening at the box office, ahead of Avengers: Endgame's $357 million. A billion dollars is also a lock in the next few days, too. But could the IMAX boost take it even further in the coming weeks?

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now in cinemas. For more, check out our breakdowns of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending and Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene.

Mahershala Ali has finally spoken out about Marvel's failed Blade reboot, and he's over it.

"Not with me," Ali said when asked by GQ if Blade was still in the works. "No offense to them. I’ve been doing this professionally for pushing 30 years now, and one thing I’ve learned is that what is for you is for you and what is not is not. For whatever reason, that project is not for me. If they wanted to do it, we would’ve done it. So I have to move on, and I have moved on."

The statement comes just days after Marvel boss Kevin Feige said he felt like a "gigantic loser and failure" for not getting the movie off the ground with Ali.

Continued Ali: "Again, you had me under contract, they have billions of dollars, if they wanted to do the movie, we would’ve done the movie. So we’re not doing the movie. I feel creatively redeemed on some level, just in my own journey between me, myself, and I. But I feel ready to move on from the Blade questions. Those questions are for them. They didn’t want to do it, so they should answer that question."

To sum up the long and tumultuous saga: a new Blade movie, one that would introduce the half-vampire hero into the MCU, was announced at San Diego Comic Con in 2021 with two-time Academy Award winner Ali as the titular hero. Bassam Tariq was initially announced as director, but exited the film a month before production was set to begin in 2022 due to creative differences. Some of these creative differences were reportedly due to early scripts that had Blade filming an early 1900s period piece of sorts, rather than set in modern day or on Earth-616 (which is Marvel's main universe).

French filmmaker Yann Demange took over later that year, but production was halted once again due to the WGA strikes, which pushed its 2024 release date to 2025. In 2023, the film was given an (exciting) R rating. In 2024, it was officially removed from the Marvel release calendar.

Ali can be seen next in Tariq's Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, which he said made good use of the swordsman skills he learned while shooting Blade.

For more, check out our guides to upcoming Marvel movies and how to watch the Marvel movies in order.

The Batman 2 production designer Luke Hull has posted what appears to be a prop photo from the production of the DC sequel – and it may confirm the appearance of villains we've been dying to see on the big screen.

As you can see below, a complicated labyrinth structure has got tongues wagging among The Batman fandom.

The smart money, if this is indeed related to The Batman 2, is about the Court of Owls, the shadowy protectors of Gotham who have pulled strings from the sidelines for centuries.

The first major appearance of the masked villains in Scott Snyder's Batman comics run culminated in Batman having to fight the group in a maze that looks eerily similar to the one presented here.

A coincidence? A tease? Whatever it is, it's proved the catalyst for speculation that the Court of Owls – perhaps the most-requested villains in a crowded field – are making their bow in The Batman 2.

Elsewhere, the layer of mystery surrounding the project's main players shows no signs of dissipating.

The Batman 2, recently delayed until 2028, includes Scarlett Johansson and Sebastian Stan among its newcomers, though there has been no concrete information about who they are playing just yet. Stan's new bald look, however, has led to talk he could be playing shaven-headed serial killer Victor Zsasz.

What is more certain is that The Batman 2 will look amazing – if Matt Reeves' snow-covered screentest is anything to go by.

The Batman 2, starring Robert Pattinson, Jeffrey Wright, and Andy Serkis, opens in cinemas on February 18, 2028.

For more, check out the upcoming DC movies currently in the works.

New Marvel movie Spider-Man: Brand New Day swung into cinemas last weekend to rave reviews from audiences and critics alike, including game developer slash Twitter film reviewer Hideo Kojima, who seems to heavily relate to Peter Parker's struggles.

"A lonely hero, a lonely Spidey, a lonely Peter Parker," begins Kojima's review on Twitter. "It was fresh and entertaining. Spider-Man has, up until now, generally wrapped up in trilogies as complete sets… This film continues both the cast and the story, but it's reset, depicting the loneliness and anguish of Peter, who's been left all alone. It can be seen as the start of a new series or as a continuation of the previous one. It's a pretty clever structure."

Kojima feels as though the fourquel's title Brand New Day attributes to the movie taking a risk at a time when "sincere filmmaking is starting to feel more and more precarious." But for Kojima, the new Spidey movie "puts the 'brand' of a major franchise series – which can't afford to fail – to the test with its 'new day'." Check out the full post below.

It seems as though many others share Kojima's sentiment. The new movie currently stands at an impressive 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and an even better 98% audience score. In our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review, we call the Spidey installment "a blast, with personal stakes to match its evolved spectacle. It's the Multiverse Saga's best movie (yet)."

Brand New Day is predicted to gross just shy of $1 billion. It looks like it may achieve just that, as the movie has grossed $927 million so far worldwide after hitting US theaters on Friday, July 31, and international cinemas from July 29. In fact, Brand New Day has already beaten Avengers: Endgame in terms of Thursday night previews, and opened to the second-highest weekend ever in movie history. Endgame still holds that title, earning a whopping $1.2 billion during its first weekend on screen in 2019.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in theaters now. For more, check out our guide on how to watch the Marvel movies in order or all the Brand New Day Easter eggs and cameos.

A Spider-Man: Brand New Day designer has debunked one of its biggest villain rumors

Twitter user @WilliamD1123 – who appears to be assistant prop modeller William Osborne – responded to a fan enquiring about the devil symbols seen on tanks during filming of one action sequence.

At the time, it sparked intense debate over whether villain Mister Negative, perhaps best known to fans of Insomniac's Spider-Man Games, would rock up to face the webhead in New York.

Unfortunately for those hoping for at least a slight tease of what's to come down the line, its origins were surprisingly low-key and circumstantial.

"I can explain! The production designer requested some symbols to go on the tank, including a ‘devil’," the designer wrote on Twitter. "My colleague added the devil symbol to the tank, as well as a panther (I think)."

They cryptically added: "But that’s not the only time you see that devil symbol in the film…"

That's the only nod to Spider-Man's rogues' gallery hiding off-screen in a prop or two. As @WilliamD1123 pointed out elsewhere on Twitter, there are Easter eggs in the Empire State University lecture room, with one student plastering cartoonish stickers of Vulture, Green Goblin, and Mysterio on their laptop. The Spot – who has recently caused carnage in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – is also represented.

We did end up getting Jean Grey, so that's a fair trade. That's despite Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige being transparent about the fact that another, more obscure villain was considered before settling on Sadie Sink's mutant.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now in cinemas. For more on-screen secrets, zip on over to our essential guide on Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day originally had "a very obscure character" as its villain.

Spoilers for the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending follow.

During a talk at USC, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige revealed that a "big development change" during pre-production involved the identity of the villain.

Of course, we now know that both Tramell Tillman's William Metzger and Sadie Sink's Jean Grey were antagonists to Tom Holland's Spider-Man, but that wasn't always the case.

"There was one version of the bad guy, then another version of the bad guy," Feige said. "Then a version, essentially, of this bad guy that was revealed to be a very obscure character nobody had ever heard of. It just wasn't satisfying."

Feige revealed that Tom Holland had some input – including one character Feige said couldn't be used in Brand New Day. Then, they finally landed on a specific mutant, around Peter Parker's age, that would be perfect for the story they were trying to tell.

"That's when Jean comes up," Feige said. "That is when it really came together. Then our producer, Emily Fawn, sitting around the table said: 'What about Sadie Sink?'"

We're not psychic – and may need Jean Grey's help here, ironically – so the exact details of who Spidey was meant to face in Brand New Day is currently unknown. One theory suggests telepathic villain Mindworm, while other speculation has revolved around the underutilized, anti-mutant activist Leper Queen.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now in cinemas. For more, check out our breakdown of the, admittedly, pretty confusing Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene.

See what else is on the way in the MCU with our guide to upcoming Marvel movies.

Update: It's official – Spider-Man: Brand New Day had the biggest opening weekend of all time in the US, with final totals coming in at $360 million, just ahead of Avengers: Endgame's $357 million (not adjusted for inflation). That puts the final total for the weekend at a staggering $932 million worldwide. Thwip!

Spider-Man: Brand New Day has already swung into the record books. Not only has the fourth outing for Tom Holland's Peter Parker had one of the biggest box office opening weekends of all time globally, it may yet top Avengers: Endgame as the biggest opening weekend of all time domestically, once final numbers are in.

Per Box Office Mojo, the Marvel Phase 6 movie opened to a staggering $927 million globally. To put that into perspective, box office sensation The Odyssey is sitting on $911 million globally after three weekends. That total is still some way behind Avengers: Endgame's unfathomable $1.2 billion global opening weekend haul – a record that may never be beaten – but is almost $300 million ahead of the previous number two, Avengers: Infinity War, which opened to $640 million in 2018.

Even more impressive, arguably, is that Brand New Day is on the cusp of topping Avengers: Endgame's all-time opening weekend record at the US box office. Current reports have Brand New Day at $355 million for the (long) weekend, some $2.1 million short of Avengers: Endgame's $357.1 million. Brand New Day's final total is almost certain to go up once final figures are accounted for, with some already suggesting it could come in at a record-setting $359 million.

Whichever way you swing it, Brand New Day has been a roaring success, and a much-needed win for both the beleaguered Marvel Studios and distributor Sony, whose Spider-Man extended universe was quietly shelved ahead of a planned reboot earlier this year. Perhaps they should have accelerated those plans to merge the two universes.

Brand New Day has also been a big hit with audiences and critics. Our own Spider-Man: Brand New Day review calls it: "Marvel Studios' strongest standalone outing since Avengers: Endgame." The movie is currently sitting on a very respectable 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. The question now is: where does Spider-Man go from here? The Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene may offer a few clues on that front.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out now. For a full deep dive, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending explained, and our list of 43 Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs and cameos.

Sweary, ultra-violent, and with a deeply traumatic backstory, Frank Castle has always been an R-rated Marvel character. And every time we've seen Jon Bernthal's version of the vigilante on screen, this has been reinforced as he punches his way through Hell's Kitchen in a blood-soaked rampage.

I've got to admit then that when I heard he was making the big screen jump to a Spider-Man movie, I was pretty confused. How was Punisher going to work alongside our friendly neighborhood superhero? And how much was Disney going to have to dilute the brutal character to squeeze him into a PG-13?

It seemed to be a strange mesh, and the cynic in me wondered why they were even bothering if the result would be an unrecognizable version of Frank. Of course, the Punisher and Spider-Man have shared plenty of comic book pages together, and they both call New York City home, but it was still a big surprise how well Bernthal's character works in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Familiar but different

The way that Destin Daniel Cretton uses the Punisher in Brand New Day is extremely clever. We first see Benthal's antihero zooming through New York in pursuit of a target. Peter Parker swings in and tries to reason with him. "You can't just shoot yourself out of every situation; innocent people get hurt," he shouts at him, before knocking him out of his van. Frank yells, "Mother…" before Peter webs his mouth shut.

It's a really fun introduction and one that proves that Spider-Man has no interest in curbing who the Punisher is. His speech is just as swear-filled as always – in fact, I stopped counting the number of variations of "shit" he uses by about halfway through the movie. He's still going to use firepower to react to every situation and worry about the casualties later.

Cretton keeps Frank acting this way throughout the whole movie. He's constantly negotiating with Peter on his strategy, and his impulsive approach to crimefighting actually becomes a huge plot point during the film's conclusion. Acting before thinking, he shoots towards Roosevelt Island, hitting Peter rather than Jean Grey, putting Spidey in hospital.

Another of the Punisher's key attributes in all of his on-screen appearances so far has been his tendency to head off alone. We see this throughout Brand New Day, even when Peter tries to force himself back into his orbit, sending MJ to his hideout to try and keep her safe. But just as it stays true to who Frank is, Peter brings out a side to him that we've not seen so far – and that is so enjoyable to watch.

Every scene that Spidey star Tom Holland and Bernthal share together as their superhero counterparts is filled with bickering. A long-running gag about Peter saving Frank's life on Staten Island (surely the MCU's new Budapest) finds its way into each squabble. The pair are like fractious siblings, hitting each other where it hurts as they fail to see eye-to-eye on just about anything.

The chemistry between them clearly comes from a long working relationship. Not only are Bernthal and Holland in another of the summer's big blockbusters together in The Odyssey, but they've actually known each other since 2017. They shared the screen in an Irish movie called Pilgrimage during a period where they were both auditioning for their respective Marvel characters, and even recorded each other's Marvel audition tapes. It feels like fate then that the pair are back together on screen in these roles a decade later.

A new side

Aside from the fun that Bernthal brings to the screen in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, it also feels like this is the most interesting version of the character we've seen yet. At the very least, it's his best MCU appearance to date. So far, Frank has felt like a bit of an afterthought in Daredevil: Born Again, brought in to deliver some punches before he flits off into the night once again.

Even more frustrating was his standalone Disney Plus special, The Punisher: One Last Kill, which rehashed past trauma for Frank as he walked around New York City having hallucinations. No new ground was trodden, and he didn't end up anywhere new at the end of that standalone special.

By taking the character away from his usual storytelling surroundings, Brand New Day doesn't fall into these same traps. Bernthal is able to bring a lot of emotion back to Frank because he meets Peter in a similar state of trauma. Peter is alone by choice, but Frank isn't. The ghosts of his family continue to haunt him. As he tells the webslinger with tears in his eyes that if his loved ones were still breathing, he wouldn't abandon them, it changes something in Peter's mentality towards MJ and Ned. It's a beautiful scene and one that probably only Frank could have brought out in Peter.

Such emotional heft continues into the film's final act. As Frank sits on Peter's bedside, it feels like we've finally found a character that he can care deeply about – and show it. Filled with regret, it feels like part of Frank really has changed.

The Punisher isn't exactly the character we've come to know over the past decade on screen in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but he isn't far off. Fewer swear words and a bit less blood don't take away the core of who Frank Castle is. In fact, over the course of two and a half hours, Cretton brings the character to a place that's more interesting than we've seen in years and one filled with infinite possibilities of where he could go next.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out in theaters now. For more on the Marvel movie, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review and our guide to how to watch the Marvel movies in order.

Obsession star Inde Navarrette may or may not have had another meeting with X-Men director Jake Schreier, and she wants to play Mystique.

"I thought what Jake brought to Thunderbolts was what I used to love about Marvel," Navarrette told Variety. "It was character-driven, and the whole time I just couldn’t stop yapping about how much I appreciated what he did with Marvel."

When asked what character she'd like to play, Navarrette replied: "I mean, Mystique has always been super cool."

Navarrette continues to be in high demand after Obsession earned over $400 million at the global box office against a budget of just $750,000. Directed by YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Curry Barker, the indie horror follows a dude who, instead of just being normal and chill, decides to magically enchant a woman into being in love with him, and it goes just about as well as you might think.

The film's viral marketing campaign showcased some of Navarrette's acting chops as Nikki, said woman who gets unfortunately magically enchanted... though you'll just have to watch the entire film (if you haven't already) to get the full experience.

"I really want to prove that Obsession wasn't just lightning in a bottle," Navarrette previously told Nylon. "This is something that I really love and want to continue doing, but of course that’s going to take time. I want people to take that time to trust that I have that capability."

Schreier's X-Men movie just found its second mutant in Samara Weaving, casting her as the villainous Emma Frost. You'll just have to guess who the first one is...

Obsession is streaming now on Peacock. Marvel's untitled X-Men movie is set to arrive sometime in 2028. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows on the way, as well as everything you need to know about Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Peter Parker is not having a good time. Five years ago, the No Way Home ending erased him from the memories of his loved ones, leaving him completely isolated. Fast forward to Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and Spidey is still all on his lonesome, burned out, and operating from a run-down apartment.

It's so bad, in fact, that Peter's own body betrays him: his arachnid DNA begins to overwhelm him, transforming his powers in ways he can't control. His helpful AI assistant EV warns him that his illness is a consequence of unresolved trauma, but still Peter doesn't stop. Instead, he decides to build a device that will restrict his powers.

Through it all, though, he makes attempts to reconnect to his best pal Ned and his once-girlfriend MJ, though they have no idea who he is. It's obvious that having his support system around again would be a huge help, but Doctor Strange's spell still holds – and that's actually a very good thing for the MCU. Spoilers follow for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Memory lane

Going into Brand New Day, I expected the spell to be reversed at some point in the film. Surely Peter wouldn't have to keep going on alone? Except, even after MJ finds the letter Peter wrote about their shared past, she doesn't get her memories of her onetime love back. She even tells Peter that she doesn't know him or love him, in an especially brutal moment for the webslinger. It's not until the very final moments of the film that Ned possibly seems to remember Peter, though there's a tiny bit of doubt: muscle memory might have carried him through the handshake, and MJ already told him Spider-Man's real name is Peter.

But the film is so much stronger for allowing Peter to remain forgotten. For one thing, it hugely strengthens Peter's character arc. Instead of a quick fix to his isolation, he has to make the choice to reach out to others. If the spell were reversed and his friends magically remembered him, Peter wouldn't have to learn how important it is to have someone to lean on.

Plus, it allows for the film to have a lot of fun with Peter's secret identity. Now that the world has forgotten him, Peter Parker can go back to being anonymous, which means he keeps his mask on in the bathhouse with Yelena Belova, and he refuses to take it off in front of MJ and the Punisher. It's good old-fashioned superhero hijinks, and something I'd been missing after Mysterio exposed Peter's identity back in Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Most importantly, though, it introduces something the MCU has been sorely lacking: real consequences.

Nothing lasts forever

It's difficult to get emotionally invested in the MCU when nothing seems to last. Loki died heroically in Avengers: Infinity War, then (an alternate version of him) returned in his own solo show. Vision also died tragically in Infinity War and reappeared as a figment of Wanda's fake reality in WandaVision – and is now returning again in VisionQuest, since White Vision escaped with the synthezoid's memories. Steve Rogers laid down his shield and went back in time to live out the life he'd missed out on, but is coming back for Avengers: Doomsday. And, most egregiously of all, Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man made a huge sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame… and now Downey Jr. is returning to the MCU as Doctor Doom. Does nothing matter anymore? When anything can be reversed, the stakes are non-existent.

In contrast, Peter struggles for the entire movie with the reality of Doctor Strange's spell. Sacrifice finally means something, and the stakes are finally real. It makes the ending of No Way Home even stronger, too: Peter really was willing to give up everything to save everyone, as any good superhero should be.

It would be a shame if Ned apparently remembering his old best friend also stretches to MJ – her and Peter's situation echoes Peter Quill and Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy 3, another rare example of consequences actually sticking. Gamora doesn't magically remember Quill or decide to rekindle their relationship (even though, again, Gamora was killed off in Infinity War and returns anyway), and the same goes for MJ and Peter Parker.

Gamora admitting "I bet we were fun" to Quill was one of that film's most moving moments, just as MJ telling Peter she doesn't love him was one of Brand New Day's most crushing. Having the courage to leave these unhappy plot twists without an easy solution only deepens both films' emotional weight and reinforces that the choices these heroes make actually matter. And, it opens the door for Peter and MJ to rediscover their love organically, as we see them connecting and growing closer when Spidey hides MJ on Punisher's boat.

Future projects may yet reverse Doctor Strange's spell, but, for now, it's seriously refreshing to see an MCU project that is unafraid to explore lasting consequences – even if it does make Peter Parker's life harder.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out in theaters now. For more, read our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review and check out our guide on how to watch the Marvel movies in order.

Samara Weaving has officially been cast as Emma Frost in the first standalone MCU X-Men movie... and this is perfect, if I do say so myself.

According to Deadline, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and director Jake Schreier met with "a number of candidates" and "landed on Weaving earlier this week." Neither Marvel nor Weaving has commented just yet.

Emma Frost has similar powers to those of Jean Grey by way of telepathy and mind control in addition to superhuman strength. Frost was initially introduced as a mutant supervillain before eventually joining and teaming up with the X-Men. Because the X-Men haven't even been formed yet in the MCU (and we can infer that the standalone X-Men movie will focus on the formation of the team as the mutants enroll at the Charles Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters), it's likely that Emma will be introduced as a villain rather than jumping ahead and skipping over a few comic book arcs.

Weaving is perhaps best known for starring in Ready or Not as the most badass final girl in a blood-soaked wedding dress, and recently kicked butt in Over Your Dead Body and Carolina Caroline. A horror-action star being cast as Emma Frost is a boss move on Marvel's part. She's also the second X-Men member to be cast in the MCU... but we'll let you figure out who that might be.

X-Men is eyeing a tentative 2028 release date. You can keep up to date with everything the MCU has in store with our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows.

Christopher Nolan was right when he said Gen Z was definitely going to see The Odyssey, as IMAX 70mm screenings of the movie have been given a nearly 30-day extension due to "historic" demand.

According to Forbes, the epic fantasy film has been extended through September 16. It would likely be longer if it weren't for Zach Cregger's Resident Evil, which is set to begin screening in IMAX on September 18. The reason for the extension? There are only 25 theaters in the United States that support IMAX 70mm, which is why every single showing in every single city keeps rapidly selling out (and I personally haven't been able to find one in the greater New York area that isn't at 7:00 AM).

It's worth noting that The Odyssey was also filmed specifically for IMAX. Star Tom Holland reportedly thought Nolan was unhappy with his acting as he kept yelling cut every three minutes, but that's because IMAX can only be filmed in three-minute increments.

The movie, based on Homer's epic poem, stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, king of Ithaca, who's just trying to get home after the Trojan War. The cast includes Anne Hathaway as his wife Penelope, Tom Holland as his son Telemachus, Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy, Jon Bernthal as Helen's husband Menelaus, Charlize Theron as Calypso, and Zendaya as the Greek goddess Athena.

The Odyssey is out in theaters now. Read our The Odyssey review as well as our breakdown of The Odyssey ending explained for more.