Author: Randy Meeks

It has been, without a doubt, the biggest failure in Marvel’s history: after five years preparing Blade, their film starring Mahershala Ali, they ultimately couldn’t finish it. Kevin Feige says he’s ashamed, and the actor stresses that he should be. Even so, he isn’t angry, because he got to train while getting paid for years and the experience led him to make Your mother your mother your mother, which he is indeed especially proud of. It’s something.

Bye Blade

The director of this new film, Bassam Tariq, was the same one they put in charge of Blade, and if Ali has “nice” words for Marvel, Tariq doesn’t hold back either. “It’s so funny, in the Marvel world… they tell you very lovingly, like, ‘Look, this is a Marvel movie directed by a person. They come onto shoots, do a whole lot of things and that’s fine, right?’”. Ali then cuts him off to say “Your name may not matter at all”.

Ouch. I get the impression that Ali and Tariq are going to keep criticizing Marvel for years, and rightly so… though he does acknowledge the talent of some of the filmmakers who’ve done well at Marvel, like Destin Daniel Cretton and Ryan Coogler, of whom he has said that “what he’s done is truly incredible in his universe”.

In fact, softening the blow of his movie not getting made, Tariq points out that Feige got him to “think big and be ambitious**. It’s what we did with what they gave us. We tried to do our best and respect the audience because I think that’s something Marvel thinks about a lot”. We may never get Blade, but at least there’s no resentment left. Well, more or less.

Does the name Tilly Norwood ring a bell? Most likely not, but… what if I told you she wants to become one of the most famous actresses in the world? No, she isn’t a teenager who’s signed up for an Actor’s Studio class or a YouTuber who’s made her way through sheer hard work: she’s an AI-created actress by Eline van der Velden who has signed a few contracts and who claims she’s proof that AI-generated cinema is already here. Whether anyone cares is another matter.

From Here to Tilly

In an interview as full of hot air as only interviews with AI bigwigs and creators can be, Van der Velden said “I programmed her to be the most famous AI actress, so I don’t know how she did it, but she did, which is a little scary“. I do know how she did it: by buying press coverage to make us believe this whole thing actually matters to anyone.

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In fact, she says her whole intention was to warn us about what was coming: “A lot of people realized AI was coming, and that was the reason for Tilly’s existence. I built her as a physical actress; I felt I had to bridge the gap between technology and the entertainment industry“. Yes, there are already people hiring her, and it gives off the same vibes as the companies that carved out a place for themselves in the Metaverse so they wouldn’t be left out.

For now, anyone can see her “success” on YouTube: her two videos have more than half a million views but barely 1,500 “likes” amid a pile of sarcastic comments to which her creator seems immune: “What saddens me is that the traditional industry can’t adapt to this new technology and that means it’s being left behind”. Looking at this year’s box office and the character’s “likes,” I’d be more worried about the future of “Tilly Norwood” than about the traditional industry, honestly.

I admit that I’m fascinated by the fact that Trap, M. Night Shyamalan’s film, is becoming a cult movie. After all, even though it didn’t do badly at the box office (it grossed $83 million against a $30 million budget), no one seemed to come out especially happy to have seen it. No one, except, of course, the director himself, who to this day still believes it deserved more and knows exactly what its problem was.

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It’s a trap!!

The film, which gave us a Taylor Swift-style mega-concert from the point of view of a serial killer, was as curious as it was absurd, and, although the first reviews didn’t help it, neither did the fact of being sandwiched between Deadpool & Wolverine and It Ends with Us. Opening right between the two made it easier to overlook, and to this day he hasn’t stopped lamenting it.

“If I had to release the movie again, I’d have moved it away from all that noise. It’s a delicate conversation we’re having about original movies. Eh, this is a new story with new colors and new sensations, so I need you to sit with it for a second before the Avengers show up”. Although it was somewhat better than Knock at the Cabin, the truth is that the disappointment makes sense.

For now, Shyamalan keeps moving forward, and his next project will be a supernatural romantic thriller titled Remain that will hit theaters on February 5, 2027, competing with the new Ice Age and a week before the remake of The Chronicles of Narnia. Which is basically not learning from your own mistakes.

If the Gallagher brothers stand out for anything, apart from their music, it’s their constant fights. Liam and Noel have fallen out so many times they’re impossible to count, leading the band to split up abruptly in 2009… until in 2024 they decided to give each other a second chance. And apparently, for now, they’re getting along so well that they’ve decided it’s time to make a documentary about Oasis. Let’s hope that, with any luck, it doesn’t turn into an ironic prediction of the final breakup.

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An oasis of good music

Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger has already taken in 12 million dollars during its brief run in theaters, and now we know when it will finally arrive on Disney+, bringing a bit of happiness to the band’s fans. They don’t get much of that normally. It’ll arrive on October 9 when everyone can enjoy the two brothers’ reunion tour. Enjoy it while you can.

The documentary is scripted by Steven Knight, whom you’ll know from Peaky Blinders and who has already announced that he’ll be the next James Bond screenwriter, and it hits streaming just one month after opening in theaters, after an overwhelmingly positive reaction from audiences and critics. Just what the Gallaghers needed: a little more ego.

Although it seemed like a little marketing trick, Oasis have now announced that they’ll tour 38 cities in 2027, including Barcelona, Rome, Amsterdam, Munich and, of course, Manchester. Whether another documentary gets made or not, it all depends on whether they can avoid killing each other live on stage.

Although most people know it as Snoopy or Charlie Brown and Snoopy, the truth is that the strip Charles Schulz began publishing in 1950 was much more than the adventures of a young pooch and his owner. In fact, the most interesting thing was all the characters alongside him, from Lucy to Schroeder and Peppermint Patty. But of course, the public started asking for more and more Snoopy, until his creator had no choice but to give him a whole canine family that would bring more attention and more merchandise sales. That’s how Woodstock was born, the yellow bird who accompanied the pooch, but also a whole family that little by little kept getting bigger and bigger… against its creator’s wishes.

A family dog

Snoopy made his debut in the third Peanuts strip, as a dog wearing a flower on his head. At first, he wasn’t so complex: he was Charlie Brown’s dog and, simply, dog things happened to him. A year and a half after his birth, the dog began to think and to share his thoughts with readers, something that stayed with him until the end (when he shared a letter with the readers that served as a farewell) and gave him the definitive boost in popularity he needed.

The curious thing is that, as that popularity kept growing, Schulz started making up siblings who could fill gaps (and keep building more enthusiasm for the strip). But on June 6, 1959, Snoopy himself stated “I’ve never had brothers or sisters. I was a one-of-a-kind dog!”. Obviously, the author forgot, because six years later he went to a family reunion where he met several unnamed siblings who spoke different languages. Finally, in 1970 we saw him writing his autobiography, stating that he was “one of seven puppies”. Well then, which is it? The joke ended when Schulz decided to start introducing other canines… putting his foot in it all the way.

First came Spike, his older brother, who debuted in 1975. The following year came Belle, who was created basically because the company that made the plush toys was fed up with seeing children always ask for Snoopy to have a sister. Finally, three others showed up in the strip sooner or later: Andy, Marbles, and Olaf. Was that it? Five siblings? Nope: the number was finally revealed in the 1991 TV special Snoopy’s Reunion, where two more were introduced who never did anything but make an appearance, Rover and Molly. Eight dogs in all. Going from “one-of-a-kind dog” to one of eight is quite a jump, but the way the fans got jerked around was hard to believe.

Neither Schulz nor the readers were happy with so many siblings. The author himself stated that “I realized that when I put in Belle and Marbles, I destroyed Snoopy’s relationship with the children, which is a very strange one. And those things are so subtle when you’re doing them that you can make mistakes and not realize it”. That’s exactly what happened. So he annihilated them all… except Spike, whom he kept dropping into the strips every so often, alone, wandering in the desert. In the end, Snoopy ended the same way he started: alone, with no siblings in sight and his human friends nearby. That’s how it should always have been… And that’s how, for some reason, they kept it from us. Ah, merchandising. Damn it.

During the 1950s and ’60s, American comics were, for the most part, a royal bore. The fault wasn’t a lack of quality on the part of their creators or that the characters weren’t interesting, but that, if they wanted to make it to stores, they absolutely had to comply with the Comics Code. And what is the Comics Code, you may ask? Well, an association that censored thousands of comics, banning everything from any horror scene to criminals portrayed in a glamorous light. What they wanted was to give simple messages for complex times, without letting anyone step out of line. Until, inevitably, Spider-Man arrived.

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Spidey against censorship

In 1971, the Comics Code had already started to show signs of weakness thanks to the arrival of underground comics, which didn’t need to be in traditional distribution systems to get noticed, and where genuine stars were born. Marvel and DC comics were for teenagers, but at last there was an alternative for adults. Around that time, the Comics Code had loosened its grip just a tiny bit, allowing some sympathetic portrayal of criminal behavior and even corruption among public officials, as long as the villain was caught at the end and it was shown as something exceptional. What’s more: they even allowed horror characters to appear, as long as they were “the old familiar kind,” like Frankenstein or Dracula (which led Marvel to slip them into its universe almost immediately).

At that point, Stan Lee received a request from the United States Department of Health: to make a story about drug abuse. He was delighted, but the problem was that the code, without specifically forbidding the depiction of drugs in comics, did state that “all elements and techniques not specifically mentioned here, but contrary to the spirit and intent of the code, shall be considered violations of good taste or decency”. And few things were more indecent than showing people doing drugs, even if it was to point out that it was dangerous. Lee had already written the saga for issues 96 to 98 of The Amazing Spider-Man, and he wasn’t willing to throw it in the trash, so a direct confrontation began that changed the world of comics forever.

In this story arc, Norman Osborn became the Green Goblin again, but what really mattered was that drug addiction was shown on three different occasions, and it even ended with Harry Osborn taking so much that he overdosed. Obviously, the Comics Code didn’t like that at all. Yes, it had already approved a comic that showed drugs before, issue #1 of Deadman, but in that case it was a simple transaction and here it was shown clearly. What were the children going to think? The authority threatened Marvel with not giving the comic its seal of approval, and the publisher thought, logically… that they had far more to lose than The Amazing Spider-Man, the best-selling comic at the time. Spoiler: that was the case.

Sure enough, Marvel published issues 96 to 98 of the Spider-Man series without any major problems, they sold well and opened the door for other publishers to treat the Comics Code like a joke. Yes, it was possible to bypass its control and censorship. Yes, adult stories could be told. Yes, it was doomed to fail. At that moment, Carmine Infantino, head of DC, went for Marvel’s throat, saying that they were the decent ones and wouldn’t publish drug stories until the code loosened up. Luckily for them, they didn’t have to break their word, because it did so immediately, approving the use of narcotics if it was presented as something harmful. Ipso facto, DC introduced it shortly afterward, in a Green Lantern/Green Arrow comic. And the world kept turning.

In 2001, when the Comics Code tried to stop an X-Force comic, Marvel decided it had had enough of this obsolete, absurd thing and decided to leave the program, publishing all its comics on its own. DC did it in 2011, and today it has no real power, apart from being a joke. And it all started with Harry Osborn deciding to throw his life away.

Don’t even stop to think about how much money Disney has. Between series, films, licenses, theme parks, cruises, and merchandising, they’ve got a ton (a real ton) of cash. In 2025 it made around 12.4 billion dollars in profit, and 2026, with a whole bunch of hits, isn’t going to lag behind. But of course: money always attracts more money and over at Disney they’ve decided it’s time for yet another round of cuts.

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More cuts at Disney

This past April, Disney laid off more than 1,000 people, and it’s threatening to do the same again before long. Its chief legal officer, Horacio Gutiérrez, has basically made it clear today that AI is going to replace quite a few roles, and it seems like nobody’s going to do anything about it. If you can save yourself a few thousand dollars in your gigantic corporation, I guess that’s what you’re supposed to do, right?

That’s right: the legal department is going to be much smaller now because “it’s going through its own reinvention as technology reshapes how the work gets done. We will take an objective look at every aspect of how we do our work so that it’s more efficient and costs less”. And, of course, he’s already talking about “tough decisions” and “a smaller organization”. All of this while the price of Disney+ keeps going up and they’ve already announced that they’re going to slip ads in on us all the time. Just great.

How many people is Disney going to push out of their jobs before it feels satisfied? In April and July there were several rounds of layoffs, and now it’s another department’s turn. And honestly, it’s starting to be painful even for those of us who work in completely different places. Of course, Disney is the first of many companies about to lay people off, and the legal department isn’t going to be the only one to face the axe. The future stopped being bright a long time ago, except for those who are already millionaires.

Do you know how many Godzilla movies there are? 38. Of those, most aren’t exactly good, but there are one or two forgotten little gems. And, of course, in the wake of the monster’s success hundreds more followed, creating a genre of their own: kaiju cinema. For more than 70 years, Japan (and to a lesser extent the United States) have built a franchise that, at last, has just broken a record that seemed impossible.

Atomic breath for everyone!

Every fan of the monster is eagerly awaiting Godzilla Minus Zero after how tremendously good Godzilla Minus One was, but not everyone will be able to see it. Because, for the first time in history, a Godzilla movie has been rated R (that is, no one under 18 unless accompanied) in the United States. The reason: violent, bloody images, which is, let’s not kid ourselves, exactly what we expect from Godzilla.

The previous one was rated PG-13 (that is, for viewers 13 and up) and it seems this version really will wipe everything out, with an overwhelming number of victims. That said, if all this seems too much to you, the MonsterVerse will release the new crossover between Godzilla and Kong next year, which we already know will be for ages 13 and up, as is usually the case.

Godzilla Minus Zero is the first fully shot-for-IMAX Japanese production, and it will be released on November 6 to a world watching closely to see what Japan is capable of. If the previous movie even managed to get an Oscar nomination, what will happen with this new adult version? Honestly, I’m dying to see it.

Few things Hollywood likes more than hitting hard and then showing mercy. Beyond extreme cases like Harvey Weinstein or Kevin Spacey, the film industry has forgiven the very artists it once shunned, like Tom Cruise or, for example, Johnny Depp, who after his legal battle with Amber Heard was shut out everywhere and is now, little by little, making his way back and, sooner or later, he once again returns to the role of Jack Sparrow that the fans are waiting for so eagerly.

Depp, more mysterious than ever

If this Christmas we’ll already see him as Ebenezer Scrooge in a new version of A Christmas Carol, next year we’ll get his promising film alongside Penélope Cruz and Madelyn Cline: Day Drinker. Directed by Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer, The Amazing Spider-man), the film follows a yacht waitress who has to serve a mysterious guest and they’ll end up caught up in a thriller after crossing paths with a mysterious criminal. Personally, I’m sold, honestly.

What’s more, its first trailer shows a spectacular Depp, who wonders whether this is a story of revenge, of ghosts, something worse… or whether he’s simply a drunk. After five years away from the big screen, the actor is choosing his films with care, so they play to his strengths, and from the looks of it, he’s more than pulled it off.

Although for now Depp doesn’t have any other film on the horizon, it’s no secret that he’s talking with the bigwigs of the industry to stage a high-profile return to the top, thus proving that he was always a star… and stars get second chances.

Years ago there was talk that Bo Burnham, the legendary comedian and singer behind masterpieces like Make Happy, What or Inside, was going to do the songs for a new Sesame Street movie. However, time passed, Donald Trump tried to ban the show and it ended up drifting from HBO Max to Netflix, making us forget about another movie with Elmo, Ernie, Bert and company. Until now, luckily. Though without Bo, it seems.

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Mannah mannah!

It’s been 27 years since we last had a Sesame Street movie, and honestly, now in the middle of season 56 and after more than 4,700 episodes, it’s about time to put the brand back where it belongs, above CoComelon, Bluey and the rest of the preschool series. The producers will be Rideback, who have already made things like The LEGO Movie or the live-action Lilo & Stitch, so at the very least, we can be sure they’ve been very successful.

Back in the day, Sesame Street already did incredible parodies of Knives Out, 24, 30 Rock, High School Musical or even Star Trek, so, if nothing else, they do have the ability to make something tremendously big. For now we don’t know anything else, but given that Sesame Workshop is a gigantic machine, they should, instead of trying to fly under the radar like the Paw Patrol movies do, be something more than a cheap cash grab aimed at parents of young kids.

Maybe it’s the millennial in me talking, since I grew up with Sesame Street and would hate to see a show like this disappear, but if they do release the movie in theaters (we still don’t know) I’ll be first in line. Even if they teach me the number 1 and the number 2 all over again.