The 4K steelbook for Hoppers is officially back in stock at Amazon, which is exciting news for those who adored Pixar's latest. It's currently available to preorder from the retailer for $44.99 ahead of its June 2 release date (see it here), but be quick. There's every chance it could sell out again, so now is the time to make a move on it before it does.

It's not the only copy available right now, though. If you'd prefer to have it on Blu-ray instead, that's also in stock right now at both Amazon and Walmart for $29.99. Follow the links below to preorder your preferred copy, and further down you can learn more about its bonus features.

Preorder Hoppers 4K Steelbook

• See at Amazon - $44.99
• See at Walmart - OUT OF STOCK

Blu-ray

• See at Amazon - $29.99
• See at Walmart - $29.99

This steelbook comes with the film on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and digital, and features an absolutely delightful bright yellow cover. You can get a closer look at it in the image below.

If you opt for the Blu-ray instead, this will get you the film on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital.

Hoppers 4K and Blu-Ray Bonus Features

If you're a big fan of bonus features, the physical release for Hoppers is full of plenty to watch. Here's everything included alongside the movie, from deleted scenes to bloopers and more:

• The Critter Diaries: Wander behind the scenes with director Daniel Chong and the Pixar team as they explore Yellowstone, study wildlife, and find real-life inspiration for our favorite new animated characters from Hoppers.
• Hopping In: The Making of Hoppers: Hop into the making of the movie as filmmakers, cast, and crew share how their ideas, collaboration, and creative process brought the story, animation, and lovable characters to life in Pixar's Hoppers.
• "Meet King George" Scene Breakdown: Dive deep with director Daniel Chong and his filmmaking team as they reveal the craft of making King George's Superlodge. Get insight into the directing process, editing, VFX, animation, and production design.
• Beaverton Revealed: Explore Hoppers to find surprising Pixar film cameos, hidden references, and plenty of fun, behind-the-scenes facts.
• Dam Good Bloopers: Laugh along with your favorite voice actors from Hoppers as they have fun bringing their characters to life in the recording booth.
• Deleted Scenes: Check out these scenes that didn't make the final cut, as introduced by director Daniel Chong and editor Axel Geddes.
  • Cold Open
  • The Glade
  • The Mission
  • Kings Arrive
  • George's Bachelor Pad
  • Helicopter Ride
• Optional English subtitles for the main feature

If you're curious where we landed with the film, writer Carlos Morales reviewed it and said that it, "may not be Pixar’s next masterpiece, but director Daniel Chong delivers a solid outing that will surely provide a good time for families at the cinema. Even with the film’s narrative stumbles, likable characters and strong direction keep Hoppers in the studio’s win column."

Hoppers is one of many exciting new physical releases coming out soon, though. If you're a physical media fan itching to add more to your library, it's always worth having a look at our rundown of upcoming 4Ks and Blu-rays. These next few months are full of some exciting new drops, so reading through this is a great way to plan ahead on what you want.

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.

Screenwriter Damon Lindelof has revealed new details on his canceled Star Wars movie, saying it would have been about the fight between nostalgia and reinvention.

Lindelof, best known for creating Lost, was hired by Lucasfilm to write a New Jedi Order movie that would see Daisy Ridley reprise her role as Rey Skywalker in a post-The Rise of Skywalker setting. However, he left the project in 2023, and we haven’t heard much about the movie since.

In an interview with The Ringer-Verse, Lindelof opened up about what he was trying to do with his Star Wars movie and why it fell by the wayside, saying it would have been about the opposing “Force of nostalgia” and “Force of revision,” in what would have amounted to “the Protestant Reformation inside Star Wars.”

“Just to talk about the Bantha in the room, I was fired off of a Star Wars movie,” Lindelof began. “They asked me, ‘What do you think a Star Wars movie should be?’ And I said, ‘Here's what it should be.’ And they said, ‘Great, you're hired.’ And then two years later, I was fired. And so I was wrong. At least through that prism. But what we were attempting to do — my partners Justin Britt-Gibson and Rayna McClendon and I — what we were attempting to do was to have this conversation in the movie, which is to say, there is a Force of nostalgia and there is a Force of revision, and they are at odds with one another. And let's do the Protestant Reformation inside Star Wars. And it didn't work.

“You have your cake and eat it too.. but the conversation that the fandom is having, without winking and looking at the audience, and that didn't feel necessarily that risky.”

Lindelof, creator, writer, and executive producer of upcoming DC Studios TV show Lanterns, admitted there was more to his exit from Lucasfilm, pointing to writing struggles that couldn’t be worked through.

“And I may have been fired not just — because they seemed to like the premise — it was just, the writing was really hard,” he said. “It was slow. The tone, getting it right, where it was inside of the canon, what its relationship was to Episode 9... Is it starting a new trilogy? All of those things, they're so massive. They're so big.

“It’s the old tanker equation, which is you turn the wheel and it takes five minutes before it turns a little bit like this. That idea of like, we're looking for the center of Star Wars. And when Episode 7 came out, we all knew what it was. It was Rey and it was Finn and it was Poe, and then we were migrating back in Luke and Leia and Han and Chewy and all those guys. But we got the sense that when this new trilogy was over we were going to be launching with these new characters and that was the center of Star Wars.

“The new question is, are Mando and Grogu the center of Star Wars now?”

That’s a nod to The Mandalorian and Grogu, the first new Star Wars movie since 2019’s divisive Rise of Skywalker. As IGN has reported, The Mandalorian and Grogu enters theaters under intense box office scrutiny, but Lucasfilm reportedly believes next year’s Star Wars: Starfighter has a better chance of reviving the franchise.

IGN’s The Mandalorian and Grogu review returned a 5/10. We said: “If you’re looking for a Star Wars movie that thrills, surprises, challenges, or demonstrates a vested interest in seeing its characters grow and change… The Mandalorian and Grogu is not the way.”

There are a number of big picture questions about the future of Star Wars. While Ahsoka Season 2 is confirmed to be in the works for Disney+, there remains a great deal of uncertainty about other movies and shows Lucasfilm announced before Kathleen Kennedy stepped down as boss of the company. Kennedy made no mention of the previously-announced standalone movie set to feature Rey Skywalker during interviews earlier this year.

The project, revealed by Kennedy with fanfare three years ago at Star Wars Celebration 2023, is planned to feature the return of Daisy Ridley as Rey Skywalker, and reveal how the character founds a new era of the Jedi Order.

Kennedy announced the project on-stage alongside Ridley and director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who was confirmed to be helming the project. But in the years since — as with so many other Star Wars movies — little more has been said.

Discussing the standalone Rey movie's plot in more detail, Kennedy described it as set 15 years after Rise of Skywalker. "We're post-war, post-First Order, and the Jedi are in disarray, and there's a lot of discussion around who are the Jedi, what are they doing, what's the state of the galaxy?" Kennedy teased. "[Rey is] attempting to rebuild the Jedi Order based on the books, based on what she promised Luke."

Of course, this isn't the only project expected to feature Rey in the future. Lucasfilm is also incubating a new trilogy of movies from Simon Kinberg, the director behind the widely-panned X-Men movie Dark Phoenix and 2022 spy action flop The 355.

Perhaps notably, The Hollywood Reporter suggested in late 2024 that Rey's future had subsequently become a matter of debate within Lucasfilm, as multiple projects from different directors sought to make use of the character. And while Kinberg's trilogy was then earlier in development, it was noted that Obaid-Chinoy's standalone movie had suffered setbacks, including the departure of writer Steven Knight.

But with Dave Filoni now in charge of Lucasfilm, everything we thought we knew about future Star Wars projects may now be wrong.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The Mandalorian and Grogu enters theaters under intense box office scrutiny as the first new Star Wars movie since 2019. But Lucasfilm reportedly believes next year’s Star Wars: Starfighter has a better chance of reviving the franchise.

Variety reported that The Mandalorian and Grogu, which sees Pedro Pascal reprise his role as Din Djarin from the popular Disney+ series, is estimated to earn $80-100 million domestically over the four-day Memorial Day weekend. That would put it in-line with the disastrous 2018 spinoff Solo: A Star Wars Story’s box office opening, although as Variety points out, The Mandalorian and Grogu has a production budget of $165 million, nearly half that of Solo.

Eric Handler, senior media analyst at Roth Capital Partners, said Lucasfilm is struggling to get young people into Star Wars to the same extent it so effortlessly managed with previous generations — despite the emergence of Grogu, aka Baby Yoda, as a merchandise monster. “There’s clearly interest in the brand,” Handler told Variety. “But revenues for each film have gotten progressively lower. Star Wars isn’t resonating with younger moviegoers like it did for [older] generations.”

Variety said that “insiders” at Lucasfilm as well as box office analysts have more faith in 2027’s Star Wars: Starfighter, which stars Ryan Gosling and is set after the events of The Rise of Skywalker. Deadpool & Wolverine’s Shawn Levy is directing.

IGN’s The Mandalorian and Grogu review returned a 5/10. We said: “If you’re looking for a Star Wars movie that thrills, surprises, challenges, or demonstrates a vested interest in seeing its characters grow and change… The Mandalorian and Grogu is not the way.”

The Mandalorian and Grogu comes out six-and-a-half years after the divisive The Rise of Skywalker, which means there’s a whole generation of young kids who will get to experience a brand new Star Wars movie in theaters for the first time. Director Jon Favreau has indicated he is well aware of the opportunity here, telling The Associated Press recently: “I want to make the next generation feel the way about Star Wars that I did when I saw it for the first time.” Favreau’s comments echoed those Lucasfilm co-CEO Dave Filoni issued in March, when he said The Mandalorian and Grogu benefits from launching without the weight of expectation that comes with introducing a new Star Wars trilogy.

As for Star Wars: Starfighter, Levy has described it as a standalone movie that is neither a prequel nor a sequel. "It’s a new adventure," he insisted at Star Wars Celebration 2025. "It’s set in a period of time that we haven’t seen explored yet." As part of that, it will not feature any "legacy characters," so don't expect to see Rey Skywalker pop up.

There are of course bigger picture questions about the future of Star Wars. While Ahsoka Season 2 is confirmed to be in the works for Disney+, there remains a great deal of uncertainty about other movies and shows Lucasfilm announced before Kathleen Kennedy stepped down.

The Mandalorian and Grogu hits theaters on May 22. Star Wars: Starfighter is currently due to launch on May 28, 2027.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Broken Sword is coming to the big screen, courtesy of Story Kitchen.

Variety reported that an adaptation of the beloved adventure game series is actively in the works, with writer Evan Spiliotopoulos penning the script. Spiliotopoulos is best known for writing the live-action Beauty and the Beast film and the GI Joe spin-off, Snake Eyes. As of right now, there's no director attached to the project, but franchise creator Charles Cecil is onboard to produce the film.

Details are scarce on what elements and specific games are being adapted for the film, but it is an exciting prospect nonetheless. Broken Sword is a staple in the adventure game genre, following an American lawyer and a French journalist uncovering mysteries and conspiracies. A Broken Sword 6 was announced back in 2023, but things have been relatively quiet on it since then. More recently, a Kickstarer for Broken Sword Smoking Mirror: Reforged - Collector's Edition raised an impressive £743,138 from 4,833 backers, having set a goal of just £50,000 goal.

Story Kitchen co-founders Dmitri M. Johnson and Michael Lawrence Goldberg issued a joint statement expressing their vision for the Broken Sword movie, promising to work closely with the creators of the games to bring it to life.

“Very few franchises of this era have stayed relevant, premium, and loyal to the intelligence of their audience. Broken Sword has done all three,” they said. “Our work here isn’t to adapt a game into a film. It’s to move a world that has been building for three decades into the next medium it deserves, working hand-in-hand with the people who built it.”

“Story Kitchen came to this project with a deep passion for the IP,” Revolution Software founder and CEO Charles Cecil added. “That’s rare. The creative conversations have been about translating what Broken Sword is, rather than what it can be made to look like. I am hugely excited to be working with Story Kitchen and Evan.”

This isn't the first time Cecil has tried to get a Broken Sword movie off the ground, either. In the late 2000s, the game designer was actively working with studios to bring Broken Sword to the big screen, but it never came to fruition. Video game adaptations are in higher demand now, with production company Story Kitchen being a big player in the space. Right now, Story Kitchen is developing adaptations of Split Fiction, Sleeping Dogs, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Gaming adaptations are the company's bread and butter, with some released projects including the Sonic the Hedgehog films and Netflix's Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

Sacha Baron Cohen appears to be putting one of his most famous characters, Borat, to bed while preparing for a future in Marvel. While speaking with ScreenRant, the actor was asked which character fans will see return first: Borat or his Marvel character, Mephisto. Cohen gave a very direct answer, noting that Borat may not have a place in the world anymore: "I think Mephisto. I don't know if Borat will ever return."

Cohen made a name for himself by playing a bunch of surreal, shocking characters in real-life settings. Ali-G, for instance, was perceived as a real interviewer and was allowed to get into the room with some of the most famous people on the planet, such as Donald Trump, to ask absurd questions. Borat was another level of famous, though. The character's first film was a global phenomenon that swept the box office and was nominated for major awards, including an Oscar.

Given the character became a global icon, it meant that Borat was no longer a feasible character, as many would be acutely aware that he wasn't a real person and it was all an act. Cohen put the character on ice for roughly 15 years but brought him back for an acclaimed sequel, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, set during the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 presidential election. However, the sequel may be the last time we see Borat.

It's possible Borat is so recognizable now, and also creates consistently controversial situations, that Cohen realizes it's no longer feasible to wear the mustache and suit any longer. In the 2020 sequel, Cohen was rushed by a crowd of angry protestors while performing on stage. He also created headlines after staging an incident that saw Rudy Giuliani attempting to sleep with Borat's daughter. Maybe one day Borat will return as a surprise, but it seems more likely that Cohen would embrace a different, less familiar character first.

Cohen has also been pursuing roles outside of shock comedy, such as one with Marvel. He appeared in the Disney+ series, Ironheart, last year as Mephisto, a devil-like character who often tempts others with lucrative offers at a high cost. Famously, Mephisto allowed Peter Parker the opportunity to bring Aunt May back from the dead at the cost of radically changing Peter's entire life.

It's unclear where Mephisto may appear next. Perhaps he will appear in a future Spider-Man film, especially since Brand New Day appears to be loosely adapting the aforementioned storyline. He could pop up in more magical stories like the next Doctor Strange movie as well. Either way, it doesn't seem like Mephisto's time is up quite yet.

Photo by Jason Merritt/FilmMagic.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is now available to rent or purchase digitally from PVOD platforms like Prime Video.

The digital release was initially scheduled for May 5 but, much like fellow box office hit Project Hail Mary, was delayed to take advantage of the film's success in theaters. It's not hard to understand why — the Mario Bros sequel currently stands as the highest-grossing movie of 2026.

If you didn't get the chance to check out the film in theaters, or have just been itching for a rewatch to catch all of those Easter eggs, here's everything we know about its digital, streaming, and DVD releases.

Super Mario Galaxy Movie Now Available Online

Sam Raimi’s horror classic, The Evil Dead, is officially getting a 4K steelbook this year to celebrate its 45th anniversary. For fans who can't wait to add it to their physical media library, preorders are now live for $39.99 (see it here at Amazon) and it's set to be released on July 7.

That timing couldn't be better, as the franchise's next entry, Evil Dead Burn, is set to be released just days after on July 10. So what better time to rewatch it once you get your hands on it? Head to the links below to preorder a copy before it sells out, and further down you can learn more about what bonus features come with it.

Preorder The Evil Dead 4K Steelbook

• See at Amazon - $39.99

This steelbook comes with The Evil Dead on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and as a digital copy. Below, you can get a closer look at the artwork and imagery on the front cover, inside, and back cover, and further down we've detailed what bonus features are included with this stacked new release.

The Evil Dead 4K Steelbook Bonus Features

• Feature presented in HD, at a 1.33:1 aspect ratio sourced from the 4K master
• English 5.1 + English 2-Channel Surround
• Commentary with Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Bruce Campbell
• Picture-in-Picture: Join Us! The Undying Legacy of The Evil Dead
• One by One We Will Take You: The Untold Saga of The Evil Dead
• Treasures from the Cutting Room Floor
• At the Drive-In
• Discovering Evil Dead
• Make-Up Test
• 4 TV Spots
• Theatrical Trailer
• Optional English and Spanish subtitles for the main feature

If you're a horror fan looking for more spooky features to watch at home, I have good news: There are quite a few releasing soon that are worth adding to your library. Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, Lee Cronin's The Mummy, and a 4K steelbook for 28 Days Later are all releasing over the next few months, but that's certainly not all. Have a look at our breakdown of upcoming 4Ks and Blu-rays to see what else is dropping in a physical format soon to start filling up your library.

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.

The Mandalorian and Grogu opens in theaters on May 22.

When The Mandalorian premiered on Disney+, one of the things that made Star Wars’ live-action episodic TV debut so special was how ably it evoked the wonder of the Original Trilogy while also forging its own unique path through the galaxy after the fall of the Galactic Empire. The Mandalorian and Grogu, the big-screen debut of Din Djarin and his adoptive son and first new Star Wars movie in seven years, gets caught almost immediately in a feedback loop of self-satisfied nostalgia which it seldom pulls out of.

The Mandalorian and Grogu’s plot is dead simple: the bounty hunter and his little Baby Yoda are contracted by the New Republic’s Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver) to bring in the late Jabba the Hutt’s adult son Rotta (Jeremy Allen White) at the behest of Jabba’s twin siblings, who are eager to continue consolidating power after their failed attempts to do so on Tatooine during the events of The Book of Boba Fett. While technically a follow-up to the third season of The Mandalorian, which concludes with Din Djarin and Grogu settling on Nevarro and agreeing to work for the New Republic, The Mandalorian and Grogu draws from effectively zero of that groundwork, to a degree that’s completely perplexing. They spent three seasons on Disney+ building out characters and cultures specific to this corner of the Star Wars galaxy and, by design, this film seems like it’s laser-focused on catering to people who have only heard about the show.

Maybe that provides a cleaner jumping-on point for general audiences, and those who are brand new to this way of experiencing the galaxy will likely find some satisfaction in watching The Mandalorian go through the same motions of trying to get a job done while both babysitting and training Grogu. But for any Star Wars fans who haven’t been frozen in carbonite for the last few years, it leaves most of the developments here feeling duplicative of turns we’ve already taken in the series. And so the film adds woefully little to character-critical moments like Mando’s helmet being removed, or Grogu’s use of the Force.

It’s like poetry, it rhymes… with things the majority of the audience will have experienced more recently than the last Star Wars movie we all went to see in theaters. No, George, I already said… oh never mind.

By virtue of having his name added to the title, you’d imagine Grogu would have a lot more agency here. But as such an outsized presence in the film, his weaknesses as a character come into stark relief. We do see Grogu take a more active role in action scenes - like when he takes off after Rotta in a stroller that seemingly has the top speed of a podracer - but the movie almost never hands out any negative consequences to Grogu for his impulsivity, so there’s very little novelty to watching him make the “little stinker” move every time and face no consequences. The Mandalorian TV series largely avoids having to interrogate that dynamic by utilizing Grogu as a pivot point for Din Djarin’s journey, forcing the bounty hunter to make choices and change based on his relationship with the little green guy. That means that The Mandalorian and Grogu needed to be all the more creative to spin a worthwhile story out of watching Grogu interact with the world through what means he does have available to him, and precious little of it rises above baiting the audience with his cooing or his hungry tummy.

Din Djarin, for his part, never has real cause to underestimate Grogu’s innate ability or tentative understanding of Mandalorian ideals, and so his occasional need to change his plan of attack based on his wild card companion doesn’t usually amount to more than a quick and easy shift to plan B. This leaves Pedro Pascal, the voice of Din Djarin, feeling a little wooden, as so little of what happens gives him call to modulate his performance away from the Mandalorian’s staple calm. Both characters are incredibly capable, and already understand each other very well by the time the movie starts, and the script from director Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and Noah Kloor seems totally disinterested in rocking the boat. This is Star Wars at its most conflict-averse, and I can’t help but notice that correlates to it also feeling like the most boring Star Wars movie yet.

The Mandalorian and Grogu’s drama being largely inert, we’d look to the space fantasy spectacle to make up that lost ground, but the movie’s action is scattershot at best. The movie’s at its most exciting when Mando and Rotta have to team up at one point during what’s essentially a life-size game of dejarik (“that’s space wizard’s chess,” Ron Weasley said with a smug grin), featuring the real monsters represented on the Millenium Falcon’s holochess board. It’s a chaotic battle that calls to mind the gladiatorial fight on Geonosis, but it’s also here that The Mandalorian and Grogu’s biggest flaw with its action comes into view.

Mando is primarily a close-quarters fighter, but his fights here end up being a little tough to read. The movie heavily favors pitting Mando against CG creatures and droids in smaller rooms, and that often leaves Favreau’s coverage looking for good angles to emphasize the work Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder - Mando’s physical performers - are doing to communicate Din Djarin’s creativity and ruthlessness when the Sabacc cards are down. Ludwig Göransson, the series’ composer, has some chances to shine - the synth-heavy version of Mando’s theme that hits when he arrives on Shakari rocks - but little of Göransson’s work goes far enough towards injecting life into the movie when it needs it most in the third act, which really drags itself over the finish line with a series of noncommittal fakeouts.

It feels inevitable that, in the years to come, the popular criticism of The Mandalorian and Grogu will be that it just feels like either a truncated season of the TV show or a too-long episode. It feels important to put that idea into some context here, and why taking all the highlights of what maybe could have been The Mandalorian Season 4 and making a movie out of them is such a dramatic non-starter. The Mandalorian’s eight-episode seasons have the luxury of drawing stories out for seven or eight hours, with each individual episode more free to tweak the rhythm with which each chapter plays out, the genre conventions it leans into, and how much to let the circumstances of the plot affect change in the characters on a long-term basis. You get around two hours to do that in a movie (two hours and 12 minutes, in this case), and that demands a lot more focus and discipline in how the stakes and the momentum of your story are managed.

Structurally speaking, The Mandalorian and Grogu is constantly pulled between those modes of storytelling, full of fits and starts from the jump and with no demonstrated interest in letting anything that happens be permanent. The film’s opening scene features Mando and Grogu hunting a remnant Imperial warlord on a snowy planet, but outside of giving Mando a chance to stalk hallways and take out stormtroopers for a few minutes, this sequence winds up being completely disconnected from what’s to follow and more of a warning shot than a starting gun being fired off. Each scene’s utility seems only to get us to the next phase of the mission, and to jeopardize as little as possible for Favreau and Filoni, should they decide to keep this sub-franchise going in the future. The Mandalorian and Grogu, to put it into X-Files terms, is a “monster of the week” and not a “mytharc” episode, and, for a marquee cinematic event for the duo, that feels like a huge miscalculation in practice.

Baffling as it is to have basically the entire cast of the show sidelined for the movie (a couple of brief and unsatisfying cameos notwithstanding), there are a few supporting characters who breathe some life into the film. Sigourney Weaver’s Colonel Ward is just there to hand Mando his missions, and to tell him how good or bad he did on that mission, but if you need a steely commander who you’ll believe would jump into an X-wing along with the young bucks when it comes time to throw down, you could do a lot worse than Weaver and the effortless cool she brings to the table.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Allen White’s Rotta the Hutt winds up being the only character in the movie with any dimension. We meet Rotta while he’s being held captive on Shakari as a gladiator for a powerful gangster, Lord Janu (Jonny Coyne), but he’s fairly comfortable with the arrangement. Rotta seems glad to be regarded by the bloodthirsty crowds on his own merits rather than being judged by the sins of his father, Jabba… so glad that he repeats that character motivation nearly word-for-word the second time we encounter him. White’s natural, even-handed performance, Rotta’s sensitive way with Grogu, and the good ideas Favreau does have for showing how a ripped Hutt would fight (like the gator-like death roll he does on occasion) make him a welcome presence whenever he’s onscreen. The movie hints towards an intention to mine the interesting juxtaposition between Jabba and Rotta and Mando and Grogu’s father/son relationships early on, but it loses this thread by the time Rotta becomes less of an active part in the story.

Star Wars Rebels’ Zeb Orrelios (Steve Blum) is also on hand as Mando’s occasional pilot and New Republic liaison, and the two have some fun banter, but Zeb feels a little stuck between being a full-blown part of the story and an animated Star Wars cameo appearance that I can’t imagine will get the general audiences the film seems to be focused on catering to all that excited.

The Mandalorian and Grogu’s one soaring achievement, the one reliably thrilling part of the movie, and so perhaps the clearest example of how ineffectively the rest of the movie mines the Star Wars universe for texture… is the crew of diminutive Anzellans that arrive halfway through to modify Mando’s new Razor Crest ship. These little Babus Frik wind up joining most of the action that follows and let me say this unequivocally: they will be the only thing about this movie that I remember with any real fondness next week. That’s not just because of their hilarious mutterings and wonderful puppeteering that bring them to life, though. Through the Anzellans, we get the occasional chance to step out of the non-descript, sanded-down perspective of Mando and to see what life is like for these capable hard workers from nary a foot off the ground. They have a tiny spaceship that Grogu looks like a giant in, and the abject hilarity of that imagery aside, it’s one of the only effective ways the movie deploys the idea that Grogu is (slowly) growing up and coming into his own.

But… If you’ve got a bad feeling about salvaged creatures with silly voices from The Rise of Skywalker having room to be the best part of a movie called The Mandalorian and Grogu, there’s not much here to make that feeling go away.

This review is based on a screening at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.

One of the most confounding films to compete for the Palme d’Or, Cannes Film Festival debut Hope is a rip-roaring Korean creature feature made with gonzo skill. Idiosyncratic in structure, spring-loaded with momentum, and doused in additional rocket fuel, it’s the kind of movie sure to divide viewers given how obviously it’s been cut down from something longer and more labyrinthine in scope. However, its flaws are all part and parcel of its dazzling, “How the hell does this even exist?” spectacle. It’s the kind of reaction reserved for bangers like Mad Max: Fury Road, especially given just how much of Hope unfolds on roads and highways at a hundred miles an hour, with characters leaning out of cop cars and practically kissing the pavement; the comparison isn’t unwarranted.

Set along the DMZ in the South Korean border town of Hope Harbor, Hope departs from other great films of its ilk, like Bong Joon Ho’s The Host, by picking a rural setting. Police chief Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min) and various gun-toting locals are called to investigate a bull carcass in the middle of an open road, with claw marks far too big for the local bears, but before they have a chance to dig into the mystery, carnage begins engulfing their nearby township. This thrusts them into utter chaos for nearly the film’s first full hour as they chase down an unseen monster while navigating bodies, debris, and cars sent tumbling from off-screen in scenes that alternate between the dizzying terrors of director Na Hong-jin’s last film, The Wailing, and something out of William Friedkin’s The French Connection, with cameras low to the ground as they zip around tight turns.

While we do eventually see the aforementioned creature – one of several that appear across the movie’s 160 minutes, played via performance capture by Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender, Cameron Britton, and Taylor Russell — this initial, extended set piece provides enough heart-in-mouth thrills that you might even wish the monsters remained unseen. Granted, this might also be the case if you’re averse to malformed CGI, but the standards once set by Hollywood aren’t the same everywhere else. The way Na Hong-jin uses his digital tools, as though bringing impossible stop-motion critters to life, makes for a marvelous romp. The characters are largely paper-thin cutouts, but they provide enough levity and allure to keep things moving. For instance, there’s Squid Game mainstay Jung Ho-yeon, who plays rookie cop Sung-ae and gets a heroic, grenade launcher-wielding entrance akin to a South Indian action star.

To say that Hope is an alien film isn’t exactly a spoiler, but discovering the nature of its designs is a delight unto itself. Usually, one look at a movie’s extraterrestrials tells you just how close or far removed its designs are meant to be from humanity, but Hope also features a variety of creatures that make this calculus more complicated. Some of these aliens are elegant, even regal; others are puzzling creations of flesh, bone, and even wood, where you’re never quite sure what you’re looking at (anatomically speaking). Still others feel plucked from the sketchbooks of H.R. Giger, but for the most part, they have just enough human features to place them in the uncanny valley, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing given how they’re used dramatically.

The movie’s most heroic characters – like Zo In-sung’s headstrong, horse-riding tracker, Sung-ki – aren’t those that land the most accurate shots, but rather those that occasionally pause to consider the lives and emotions of these rampaging creatures, catching glimmers of something deeper in their distinctly human eyes. On paper, Hope is entirely a game of figuring out what the f*** the townspeople are even up against, and responding accordingly. But nestled within its action, comedy, and mystery are fleeting moments of empathy that verge on heartbreak for the situation at large, as the movie threatens to become something more sentimental and Amblin-esque.

That it never does is tragic all on its own. You see, Na Hong-jin’s country setting doesn’t just provide wide open spaces for mayhem and detailed production design; rather, it sets the stage for subtle social and political commentary akin to The Twilight Zone and other American Cold War science fiction, drawn from an era when the Red Scare had people seeing communists in their soup. Setting Hope along the border with North Korea has a similar function, between signs that warn not only of animals, spies, and grenades – the alien creatures are, in essence, a combination of the three – but of infiltration at large.

These fears of invasion take shape in kooky ways, like Bum-seok being continually surprised by just how armed-to-the-teeth the people of his town turn out to be. This is funny in the moment, but it speaks to the exact kind of cultural paranoia that breeds the movie’s high-octane violence in the first place. It also seems to breed rot – everything that dies in the movie decays faster than usual, which is never commented upon but ensures that most scenes are drenched in squelching practical effects and buzzing insects. Death is always just around the corner, so every time ammunition tears through the air, it also threatens to make the movie more sickly.

Not since Starship Troopers has large-scale sci-fi action been laced with such wrenching internal conflict, wherein heroes are instantly demythologized and frequent moments offering mutual understanding are dismissed by rattling machine guns. That Hope revels in its violent displays is certainly an attempt to have its cake and eat it too, but Na Hong-jin is more than capable of toeing this tonal line given how unapologetically he drenches each scene in physical and emotional adrenaline. It’s hard not to be swept up by the movie’s deluge of sounds and images.

That the film ends on a note teasing a potential sequel is just as strange as anything you see on screen. However, that Hope also works as an isolated sliver of something larger which we may never see – and which the trigger-happy characters choose not to recognize – feels thematically whole as well. Perhaps the movie’s alleged heroes are too far gone in the direction of selfish survivalism to have ever stood a real chance at building something better and exploring new possibilities, which is nothing if not a warning sign of where we are and what’s to come.

The Hunt For Ben Solo fan campaign is still going, and its latest stunt saw a truck circle the Mandalorian and Grogu premiere in Hollywood.

The Star Wars superfans behind the campaign have spent a year now trying to convince Disney to make canceled movie The Hunt For Ben Solo a reality, putting money into various initiatives designed to keep Adam Driver’s character front of mind.

Late last year, Driver dropped a bombshell to the Associated Press that he’d spent the last few years developing The Hunt for Ben Solo. The Lucasfilm-approved but Bob Iger-nixed direct follow-up to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was confirmed by attached director Steven Soderbergh, and on multiple occasions the fanbase has hired planes to do fly-overs of the Walt Disney Studio lot in Burbank to rally support — something Rey Skywalker actress Daisy Ridley has responded positively to.

The movie would have taken place following The Rise of Skywalker and centered on Adam Driver’s character Kylo Ren and his quest for redemption. Driver told the Associated Press that The Hunt For Ben Solo was “one of the coolest f—king scripts I had ever been a part of.”

Driver played Ben Solo / Kylo Ren in each of the three films in Lucasfilm’s Sequel Trilogy, with his final appearance in 2019’s divisive The Rise of Skywalker. “I always was interested in doing another Star Wars,” Driver said. He revealed he had been in talks about another Star Wars movie since 2021, and that then Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy had “reached out.”

“I always said: with a great director and a great story, I’d be there in a second,” Driver commented. “I loved that character and loved playing him."

Driver said Lucasfilm “loved the idea” and “totally understood our angle and why we were doing it.” However, Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney co-chairman Alan Bergman said no. "They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that,” he said. Soderbergh told AP: “I really enjoyed making the movie in my head. I’m just sorry the fans won’t get to see it.”

Driver was described as feeling mystified by the decision, insisting the plan was to “be judicial about how to spend money and be economical with it, and do it for less than most but in the same spirit of what those movies are, which is handmade and character-driven.” He pointed to the much-loved Empire Strikes Back as being “the standard of what those movies were.”

The Hunt For Ben Solo sounds dead, but Brianna Johns, writer, voice actor, and self-confessed “avid” Star Wars fan, has not given up hope. Johns, alongside other members of the campaign, arranged for a mobile billboard truck to circle the world premiere of The Mandalorian and Grogu in Hollywood, CA. The truck featured large black text on both sides that said "WHERE'S BEN SOLO?" while showcasing the campaign's calling card, Ben's Missing Poster, on the back.

“This truck is our way of showing Disney we’re still here,” Johns told IGN. “We saw someone from Industrial Light & Magic posted our truck to their Instagram story and are taking that as a good sign, trusting that word of mouth spread within the event.”

The aim, Johns said, is for the fan campaign to hold one major event at least every other month “to inspire fans and engage the C-Suite.” In January, it was billboards, in March there was a presence at Toronto Comicon. They even had a professional skydiver jump out of a plane, and held a ticketed special screening of The Last Jedi in April. Now, it’s the premiere truck.

“Count on more meetups, more efforts and ways to help online and off,” Johns continued. “We’ll keep showing up and making noise however we can. Our overall goal is the same as it ever was: We want Ben Solo’s return on the big screen.”

Last year, Daisy Ridley told IGN she’d heard “rumblings” of Adam Driver’s revelations about the movie. “I have lots of friends who are crew, so things always travel like that. But, whoa! When the story came out, no, I was like, 'Oh, my God!' And it was him that said it, right?” Ridley added that she found the fan campaign that sprung up following the news heart-warming.

“I do love when there is a collective of positivity,” she said. “The way the internet seems to have rallied to try and get it to happen. I think one), it's fantastic for us all. It's good for us to all be united about something in a really positive way. Obviously, everyone knows he was a very popular character, but it was also lovely to think, 'Wow, people really, really care and want this.' I just... I like it. I like when people join forces — excuse the pun — from all around the world, all different sorts of people. I just love that the Star Wars fandom is such a huge and gorgeous array of different points of view and different people, and the fact that everyone is really behind this thing, I think, is just sort of lovely, in a time that is so f***ing nuts for probably every single person on this Earth. I think it's wonderful. So I was surprised, and honestly, I felt joyful about how it went down.”

In the short term, Jon Favreau's The Mandalorian & Grogu movie is out imminently, then Shawn Levy's Star Wars: Starfighter releases May 2027. TV wise, Ahsoka Season 2 is in development. Ridley's Rey film, assuming it actually gets made, takes place roughly 15 years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker as she looks to rebuild the Jedi Order.

Image credit: Brianna Johns | @bananajohns.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Iron Lung, the debut feature film from successful YouTuber Mark Fischbach, will be available to watch on YouTube from May 31, reports Deadline. Fischbach, who is known to his YouTube viewers as Markiplier, revealed the film’s home viewing premiere date during a panel discussion at Cannes.

It was confirmed the release will be exclusive to YouTube, with Fischbach referring to the service as his home.

“I’m pretty loyal to it,” he said.

Iron Lung, which was written, directed, and edited by Fischbach (who also self-financed and starred in the film), was released in cinemas in January this year. Based on the 2022 video game by developer David Szymanski (Dusk, Gloomwood), Iron Lung is the story of a convict who is sealed inside a submarine and forced to navigate his way through an ocean of blood on a desolate moon. The mission comes in the wake of an unexplained phenomenon that has seen all stars and planets in the universe disappear, leaving the only humans remaining those who were aboard space stations or spacecraft at the time.

While the critical response to Iron Lung was mixed, the film was a commercial success, grossing more than $50 million on a budget of $3 million. IGN’s review noted that while it was clear Fischbach “really loves Iron Lung… his sluggish movie adaption of the game feels interminable rather than serving as a compelling interpretation of this world.”

Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.

The story of the Corleone family is turning to the next page, as The Godfather is now set to continue with a new book called Connie that is set to release in 2027.

Publishing company Random House told the Associated Press earlier this week that it had officially acquired a Godfather novel written by best-selling author Adriana Trigiani. The novel has been authorized by the estate of original book series author Mario Puzo and will follow a story from the perspective of Don Vito Corleone's only daughter.

"Connie is a novel about how a woman works to forge her own way in a world that's already decided who she is, what she's about, and how she should be treated," Trigiani said in a statement. "People underestimated Don Vito Corleone and Michael Corleone at their peril. The same will be true for Connie Corleone."

The Godfather is no doubt most widely known as the film trilogy that director Francis Ford Coppola started in the '70s. Although the movies still stand as some of the most quotable films in the history of cinema decades after their release, the Corleone family's roots actually date back to Puzo's 1969 crime novel, also called The Godfather.

He went on to continue the tale with a sequel titled The Sicilian in 1984, and although a series of additional books – including The Godfather Returns, The Godfather's Revenge, and The Family Corleone – were published all the way up to 2012, Connie will be only the third to receive approval from Puzo's estate.

Trigiani will pick up the reins as the first estate-approved installment written by a woman. It's unclear how it will expand on the story of Connie Corleone, who was played by Coppola's sister, Talia Shire, in the movies.

"We had been looking for someone to retell the story from a new perspective," Puzo's son, Anthony Puzo said in a statement. "Adriana was knocked out when I told her that the character of Vito Corleone (played in the films by Brando and De Niro) was actually based on my grandmother. We talked about how the women ran both of our families, but behind the scenes. Adriana's vision for Connie's life blew us all away. I'm very pleased and excited to have her on board."

Connie is expected to be released in fall 2027. For more, you can read what IGN thought about EA's The Godfather video game from 2006.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

Keanu Reeves is set to play the lead role in Hidari, a Japanese stop-motion "wood sculpture" samurai film whose proof of concept video blew up on YouTube three years ago.

Hidari began life as a proof-of-concept film released on YouTube back in 2023. It features eye-catching stop-motion action, with characters made from wood, an arsenal of secret prosthetic weaponry, and even a towering wooden mech. The video has amassed over 4.9 million views, with plenty of enthusiasm in the comments for it to be fleshed out.

Creator, writer, and director Masashi Kawamura had said he had a much longer story to tell, and that he had been searching for production partners and investors to help turn the concept into a full length film. Now, it looks like that dream may come true.

Cannes’ Annecy Animation Showcase: The hyped Japanese stop-motion project 'Hidari' leads this year's slate. A stylized and incredibly-shot revenge tale set in Edo-era reconstruction that raised over $100,000 with its 2023 Kickstarter. Full lineup details: https://t.co/kKzBUgtG3c pic.twitter.com/SqLa1IExBP

— Cartoon Brew (@cartoonbrew) April 20, 2026

Reeves, star of The Matrix, John Wick, and the odd samurai movie himself, voices protagonist Hidari Jingoro, who is described as “a man consumed by revenge yet unable to abandon his instinct to create.”

Here’s the official blurb:

Hidari is a stop-motion period film inspired by the legendary sculptor Hidari Jingoro, a mysterious figure whose existence remains uncertain yet who left behind countless works and tales. Brought to life through intricately carved wooden puppets that mirror his craft, the film is being co-developed by three companies: Whatever, the creative studio co-founded by director Masashi Kawamura, together with two internationally acclaimed stop-motion studios, dwarf studios and Tecarat.

Set in Edo-period Japan, Hidari weaves together real historical events and figures with original characters to tell a story of revenge.

Jingoro, a master craftsman of his time, is caught in a conspiracy during the reconstruction of Edo Castle, losing his mentor, the woman he loves, and even his right arm. Barely surviving, Jingoro is transformed into an agent of vengeance. Replacing his lost arm with a weaponized prosthetic, the tools he once used to carve wood are reborn as instruments of destruction. Accompanied by his partner, the “Sleeping Cat,” he sets out on a journey of revenge — only to find himself drawn into an even greater conspiracy.

Power struggles within the shogunate, advancing mechanical soldiers, and a transforming Edo Castle all threaten to consume him. As everything closes in, something within him begins to change. Hidari is a story of revenge and rebirth — of a man who once lived to create, only to lose himself in destruction, and ultimately rediscover both himself and the meaning of his life.

Hidari is Reeves' first role in a Japanese original production, although he is no stranger to voice work, having played Shadow in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Duke Caboom in Toy Story 4, and Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077. He's also familiar with playing samurai, having starred in 2013 movie 47 Ronin in the lead role.

“I’m thrilled by the vision behind Hidari,” Reeves said. “From the proof of concept to the developed script, the team has created something truly extraordinary. It has all the makings of an exceptional film — one I’m excited to see and eager to be part of. I believe this project has the potential to bring something very special to audiences worldwide.”

Kawamura sounds equally thrilled that he's managed to snag Reeves for the role, saying: "One of the films we referenced while creating the Hidari pilot film and developing the screenplay was John Wick. And when I made my own personal dream list of actors I hoped could someday be part of the feature adaptation, the very first name I wrote down was Keanu Reeves. I never imagined that he would actually join the project. Even now, it still feels surreal to me. But with such an incredible actor becoming part of Hidari, our entire team is more motivated than ever to create something truly special together with him."

Keanu Reeves already has plenty on his plate, including a film adaptation of BRZRKR, the comic book series he co-created, Sonic the Hedgehog 4, which will see him reprise his role as Shadow, and John Wick 5.

Image credit: Hidari / YouTube.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Man of Tomorrow actor Lars Eidinger has described his live-action take on Superman villain Brainiac as something that is like "an incarnation of Satan."

The man behind the DC's next big movie villain gave audiences their first tease for what he's bringing to the DCU during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Although the James Gunn-directed and David Corenswet-starring Superman sequel is still more than a year out from its theatrical premiere, Eidinger is propping up his world-conquering bad guy as a threat of biblical proportions.

"Yes, the theatrical quality has actually helped me enormously in the context of Superman, too, because it involves a different register of performance, one that isn’t primarily realistic and allows for a far more expressive style of playing," he said when asked how his work in theater has helped in onscreen. "When I watch a film like James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, I find it has a great theatrical quality — in the handling of good and evil, and in a certain tendency toward allegory. Brainiac is described as the incarnation of Satan. I find that almost Shakespearean. The king, the fool — there are so many parallels for me."

Brainiac is not only a recognizable Superman villain; he's one of the most infamous comic book characters in history. Readers and movie watchers have done their best to pick up on every little detail Gunn has dropped when it comes to teases for a DCU version of the mean, green antagonist, but the truth is, most information is probably being saved for closer to the release of Man of Tomorrow.

Eidinger says his Brainiac will give Corenswet's Clark Kent a run for his money, even if we don't know exactly how quite yet. Elsewhere in the interview, the actor opened up about how he was pulled into the budding DCU in the first place. He clarified that doing a comic book movie is "not as different" from his previous work on projects like Clouds of Sils Maria or Home for the Weekend as one might think. He even goes on to praise similar films for having "a serious philosophical ambition," adding that "they carry great allegorical weight" for him.

"Take just the word 'super' — it's used as a superlative, for something excellent, wonderful," Eidinger continued. "But 'super' really only means 'over' or 'above.' So Superman is the Übermensch. You have the Super Ego. There’s already a deep psychological dimension built in."

"Last week I was on set during rehearsals and asked if I could watch some of the filming, which had already started. And I saw an actor in the Superman costume, suspended on wires in front of a bluescreen. I looked at that image and thought: This is the essence of fiction. It’s as significant an image as Hamlet holding the skull: Superman, in that Superman pose, hanging from wires in front of a bluescreen.

"Being in the Superman universe wasn’t a dream or burning desire for me. But now that it’s happening, I can see a certain inevitability in it, something almost fated."

Superman Man of Tomorrow will continue Gunn's vision for a new DCU when it brings Corenswet back to the big screen July 9, 2027. Filming began in April, and its cast also includes Matthew Lillard, Andre Royo, Adria Arjona, and more. While we wait for updates, you can catch up on all of the latest from Supergirl ahead of its premiere in June.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

Titanic and Terminator director James Cameron said he's "looking at some new technologies" to try and get Avatar 4 and 5 made "in half the time for two-thirds of the cost," but it's going to take a year just to figure it out.

The legendary filmmaker spoke about how he plans to continue his long-in-the-works sci-fi saga during an interview with The Empire Film Podcast. When asked what's next for Cameron following the premiere of Avatar: Fire and Ash and his Billie Eilish concert movie, he told The Empire Film Podcast he's hoping to alter his process to, hopefully "more efficiently," dive back into Pandora.

"You know, I'll be doing some writing. I've got a number of projects that I'm cooking," he said. "And Avatar 4 and 5 are still floating out there. We’re going to be looking at some new technologies to try to do them more efficiently. Because they're hideously expensive and take a long time. I want to do them in half the time for two-thirds of the cost. That’s my metric."

Cameron added that it's going to "take us a year or so" to even come up with a plan on how to more efficiently create Avatar movies going forward. In the meantime, he promised that he'll be "writing and doing a couple of other things."

Avatar first took audiences to Pandora with the launch of the original film in 2009, but its sequel, The Way of Water, wouldn't arrive until an incredible 13 years later in 2022. The three-year wait between Avatar 2 and its Fire and Ash follow-up was comparatively far less painful, but even that timeframe feels a bit on the long side for the 71-year-old director.

While it's true that all three Avatar movies have managed to cross the $1 billion mark at the box office, Fire and Ash only made $1.48 billion compared to The Way of Water's $2.4 billion, suggesting potentially declining interest amongst moviegoers. Adding to the sting is the last film's reported $400 million budget, which doesn't account for the hundreds of millions Disney would have spent on its marketing campaign.

Despite Cameron's hope to eventually bring the Sully family back to theaters, how exactly Avatar 4 and 5 will take shape is unclear, for now. We have yet to see what "new technologies" the Avatar director and writer plans to explore, but he's made it clear that he's hoping to produce the films for cheaper in the past. A report from last month suggested as much, too, though it appeared much was still moving behind the scenes at Disney.

Disney has currently scheduled tentative release dates of December 21, 2029, for Avatar 4 and December 19, 2031, for Avatar 5. A recent update from producer Rae Sanchini promised that scripts are in hand as the team continues to move "full speed ahead."

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

Upcoming action movie prequel John Rambo has reportedly added James Franco to its cast.

Details on what is set up to be the controversial actor's first notable big-studio part in years came from Variety, which said that he has joined the film for a "small role." Production on the film in Thailand is said to have wrapped.

Franco was well-known for parts in movies like the Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man trilogy, The Disaster Artist, 127 Hours, and Pineapple Express before being cast out of Hollywood after five women accused him of sexual misconduct in 2018. Of those women, four were students at his now-defunct Studio 4 acting school, while another described him as a mentor. Franco denied the allegations at the time.

A lawsuit regarding the allegations then emerged in 2019 before being settled for more than $2.2 million in 2021. Franco admitted to sleeping with students and said his actions were "wrong" later that same year. Outside of a few somewhat smaller films, the events were enough to keep him out of the public eye and even damage his working relationship with longtime collaborator Seth Rogen. Franco went on to tease his plans to do a "big studio movie" and respond to rumors that he had been hiding away during an interview with Deadline at Cannes Film Festival last week.

"It’s not true I’ve been hiding out," he said. "I've been here the last three or four years running, selling things and they treat me well and I get to go and see great movies."

Franco joins Noah Centineo (To All the Boys I've Loved Before), who has been picked to play a younger version of Sylvester Stallone's First Blood character, John Rambo, and David Harbour (Stranger Things), who recently boarded to take over the role of Commanding Officer Major Trautman. Yao (Sinners), Jason Tobin (Warrior), Quincy Isaiah (Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty), Jefferson White (Civil War), and Tayme Thapthimthong (The White Lotus) are all also attached to the movie. Sisu filmmaker Jalmari Helander is directing the project.

John Rambo has no release date, and no plot details outside of the promise to tell an origin story for the action icon have been released. For more, you can read about how Marvel Studios veterans Joe and Anthony Russo are involved.

Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

In the Grey is now playing in theaters.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Henry Cavill met in Guy Ritchie’s trailer on the first day of filming their new thriller In the Grey, and cheered each other on throughout the improv-heavy production. Ritchie, who wrote and directed the movie, is known for his constant script changes and focus on discovery while filming. In an exclusive interview with IGN, Gyllenhaal says that process allowed him and Cavill to hone their characters in real time.

“With Guy, there's a lot of improvisation, a lot of discovery,” Gyllenhaal says. “Lines change in the moment, scenes shift on the day. We had a scene where we got the lines maybe a few minutes beforehand. All I did was root for Henry to remember his next line, and when he got through it, I was terrified I had to remember mine. That kind of thing keeps you incredibly present.”

In The Grey, which also stars Eiza González (The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare), Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl), Carlos Bardem (Assassin’s Creed), and Fisher Stevens (Succession), follows “a covert team of elite operatives who live in the global shadows. When a ruthless despot steals a billion-dollar fortune, the team is sent to steal it back on what would be for anyone else a suicide mission. What begins as an impossible heist gets much worse, spiraling into an all-out war of strategy, deception and survival.”

Although both Gyllenhaal and Cavill had previously worked with Ritchie, In the Grey marks their first joint on-screen appearance. According to Gyllenhaal, the two actors didn’t have much time together before being dropped right into the action.

“What's funny is that Henry and I hadn't met before day one,” Gyllenhaal says. “We encountered each other in Guy's trailer on the first morning of filming. So, there wasn't much time to workshop a shared reference point. Guy had a very clear sense of who these two (characters) were in relation to each other from the start, and that gave us a strong foundation to build from.”

After previously appearing in Ritchie’s 2023 film The Covenant, Gyllenhaal says teaming up with the director on another film was an easy decision.

“It feels like one big film in a way, because you're really in his world,” Gyllenhaal says. “He comes back and says, ‘You want to come dive in again?’ And you go, ‘Yeah, sure. I love it in there. The water's warm.’ What's also unique is that he's constantly editing as he goes. He's shaping the story, showing you cut scenes and then you're shaping the next scene together. It doesn't work the way normal movies do, which is why it's very hard to communicate what it's really like. Everyone's on their toes. And if you enjoy that, which I do, it's a hell of a time.’

In the film, Gyllenhaal plays Bronco, an ex-special forces agent who joins Gonzalez’s character on a mission after she previously broke him out of prison. From far-flung locales, to the intense action, Gyllenhaal says that the spectacle of In the Grey is what makes it special.

“You've got to go see this one in the cinema because it's meant for the cinema,” Gyllenhaal says. “It's a huge spectacle full of fun, the way we've loved movies for decades. Guy is making it for that. And what's remarkable is that it's also completely original. It's very hard to do something truly original now; to find a new way in, to do it differently, with a unique voice. That's pretty much an impossibility. And yet you know when you're going to see a Guy Ritchie movie that you're going to see something original.”

Michael Peyton is the Senior Editorial Director of Events & Entertainment at IGN, leading entertainment content and coverage of tentpole events including IGN Live, San Diego Comic Con, gamescom, and IGN Fan Fest. He's spent 20 years working in the games and entertainment industry, and his adventures have taken him everywhere from the Oscars to Japan to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Follow him on Bluesky @MichaelPeyton

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 director Jeff Fowler has published a first look at Metal Sonic as filming on the latest movie comes to an end.

The filmmaker took to social media to share a behind-the-scenes picture of a life-sized version of the iconic Sega villain today. It comes with the news that filming for the next chapter in Paramount Pictures and Sega's series of game-to-movie adaptations wrapped with a little less than one year to go before its March 19, 2027, theatrical release date.

This sneak peek at Metal Sonic mostly serves to further entice Sonic fans rather than offer any sort of big reveal. If the sleek antagonist's presence in the last film's mid-credits scene wasn't enough of a tease, fans already figured he'd play some sort of role in Sonic the Hedgehog 4 after bringing his menacing aura to the teaser trailer published in March.

"And that's a wrap on #SonicMovie4!!!" Fowler said. "On behalf of this amazing cast/crew, we have filmed the BEST Sonic Movie yet and can't wait to share."

Still, this first look at Metal Sonic in Sonic the Hedgehog 4 shows that Fowler is on track to continue the Blue Blur's story next spring. Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which premiered in 2024, last saw Sonic (Ben Schwartz), Tails (Colleen O'Shaughnessey), and Knuckles (Idris Elba) team up to fight off Doctor Eggman (Jim Carrey) and live-action newcomer Shadow the Hedgehog (Keanu Reeves).

While that movie's mid-credits scene helped bring Metal Sonic into the mix, it also helped warm up viewers to the idea that pink hedgehog Amy Rose would soon join the Sonic team, too. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter in February, she'll be played by The Good Place and Frozen alum, Kristen Bell.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is scheduled to spin into theaters in March 2027. While we wait for an official trailer and more news about how Metal Sonic fits into the big picture, you can check out the image featuring Amy's Piko Piko hammer that Fowler posted earlier this year. You can also read about who fans think the upcoming spinoff movie will focus on.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

Lionsgate has tapped Sam Raimi to direct a new adaptation of the 1978 puppet horror movie, Magic, and some of the crew behind Send Help is coming with him.

Deadline reports that the Evil Dead and Spider-Man filmmaker has signed on to reanimate a twisted cult classic for modern audiences after previously being attached only as a producer. Magic, a modern adaptation of William Goldman’s novel of the same name, will reunite Raimi with writers Mark Swift and Damian Shannon, the scribes behind January's popular horror comedy, Send Help.

"Sam is the dream director for this project—in fact, his coming aboard represents one of the truly great matches of director and material," Adam Fogelson, chair of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, said in a statement. "The script is fantastic, and we could not be more excited to see Sam’s direction and creative vision take it to another level. We are absolutely thrilled he has chosen to direct the film."

The original Magic premiered in 1978 and starred Anthony Hopkins as both a ventriloquist named Corky and his lively puppet, Fats. Directed by Richard Attenborough and written by William Goldman, 20th Century Fox sold the original tale as a "terrifying love story" about a doll that becomes eager to flip the script and gain control of its master.

Weapons and It producer Roy Lee is on board Magic as a producer, too, as are Chris Hammond and Tim Sullivan. Raimi Productions' Zainab Azizi, who also previously produced Send Help, is back, as well.

Vertigo's Andrew Childs, Nathan Kahane, and Paul Fishkin are attached as executive producers. Lionsgate's Meredith Wieck and Pavan Kalidindi will oversee the movie. Magic's plot, cast, and release date remain a mystery for now.

"That's right... we are running the Send Help gang back for more," Shannon and Swift said in a joint statement posted to their X account. "MAGIC is happening and Sam is directing. Rejoice horror fans, this is gonna be insane."

While we wait for updates on Magic, you can read about what we thought of Send Help in our 9/10 review.

"Who wants to go to a deserted island and watch Sam Raimi put Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien through hell? Everybody? Great! Send Help is for you," we said upon the film's release earlier this year.

Photo by Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

In the Grey is in theaters now.

The old adage “the worst thing you can be is boring” is very much underlined with In the Grey, a deathly dull would-be action thriller that feels three times the length of its 97-minute run time.

Though Henry Cavill and Jake Gyllenhaal get top billing, the film’s true lead is Eiza González. She plays Rachel Wild, a lawyer whose opening voiceover explains the film’s title in explicit detail, as she talks about how she operates within both legal and illegal and moral and amoral parameters and, yep, outright says she works “in the grey” because that’s just the kind of movie it is.

The film’s paper- thin plot finds Rachel using her skills and the elite team - and bottomless resources and finances - at her disposal to target Salazar (Carlos Bardem), the crime lord who’s stolen a fortune Rachel is tasked with getting back by any means necessary. Her two best agents are Sid (Cavill) and Bronco (Gyllenhaal), who head up the aforementioned illegal side of her operation, using all sorts of tactics to trick, track and hunt those Rachel needs dealt with.

The opening scenes of In the Grey feel very cliche but also don’t stand out as notably bad or unwatchable, as they set the stage for the story, though it does stand out how much González’s voiceover is used to explain how both her job and her larger team works. But as the film continues, it becomes egregious how much the film stays in the same mode it opens in, as it tells, not shows, over and over and over again.

A classic part of a heist or espionage movie is a “this is how our plan will play out” sequence, where we hear how everything is supposed to go for the team’s big operation – often using VO alongside shots of the locations targeted – and get the lay of the land before, inevitably, something goes awry. And those sequences can be super fun and are an appreciated part of the genre. But writer-director Guy Ritchie seems to have the mistaken belief that it would be really fun if a movie was nearly entirely made up of those sorts of sequences, hammering home the technique into monotony.

It is truly maddening how much of this movie is composed of voiceovers from either González or Gyllenhaal explaining what’s going on right now and/or what’s supposed to happen next. It’s not just hand-holding to an extreme degree, it feels lazy and as though Ritchie just didn’t want to figure out any other way to include exposition and simply wasn’t interested in any sort of characterization or personal dynamics, so he skipped as much normal dialogue and character interaction as possible.

Rachel is fierce and shrewd and she’s a shark and… that’s it. There are no other nuances to what we learn about her after what is made quite clear the first few minutes. But that’s better than Sid and Bronco, who are simply there to be generically smart and badass, with zero other layers or reasons to care about them. There is almost nothing in these roles for Cavill and Gyllenhaal to do but glower and yell stock lines about sticking to the plan and getting to the rendezvous point. Given their dueling dullness, it’s curious why these two characters weren’t simply made into one, since there’s so little to make them feel different from one another except that one is British and one is American.

The same goes for their larger team, which includes dudes with names like Baker (Kojo Attah) and Gucci (Jason Wong). Everyone is stoic and super capable, but lacks anything that makes them distinct in personality or skillset. There’s no wit, no charm, and no cool touches for any of these guys.

A film like this usually gets mileage out of how a team of this sort has to improvise and pivot when things go wrong, but this group seem too good and too prepared to ever make things interesting because they really just seem prepared for literally anything. Most of the time, they don’t seem two steps ahead of their enemies, they seem 20 steps ahead, and coupled with them being blank slates, personality-wise, it makes watching them operate boring, no matter how many nameless thugs they shoot or get in car chases with.

Ritchie has had some big highs and lows in his career, and in recent years has been making a lot of movies very quickly that are mostly forgettable. But he’s never made one as dull as In the Grey. It especially stands out that he’s re-teaming with frequent collaborator Cavill here, given these guys have much much livelier – if uneven – films together, like The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

As mentioned, Cavill and Gyllenhaal truly have nothing to work with here, performance-wise, while the naturally likeable González is fine but feels miscast. Though in her mid-30s, she still reads fairly young onscreen in both looks and demeanor, and doesn’t feel like she quite embodies someone meant to be the experienced and dominant leader – her team uses the codename “Mom” for her – as Rachel is intended to be. This is underlined by the presence of Rosamund Pike in a few scenes as a rival of Rachel, given Pike effortlessly exudes the energy Rachel is meant to and feels like she’d be the better casting choice for the role.