Netflix released the first trailer for Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew on October 13, and a day later Jeff Sneider’s newsletter The InSneider claimed that test screenings of the film went badly. The trailer sets Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” over a story that opens in 1900, Meryl Streep voices Aslan, and the budget has been put at $280 million. Viewers who have only seen two minutes of footage are already saying it is not Narnia.

What the InSneider Says Is Wrong Behind the Scenes

Sneider’s October 14 post describes tension around the film at Netflix, where film executive Doug Belgrad, formerly of Sony’s movie studio, is out. According to the newsletter, some people at Netflix consider Narnia awful and a real problem for the company. A source who attended a summer test screening compared the film to Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time from 2018, which reportedly lost close to $100 million. Gerwig is said to have clashed with Netflix film chief Dan Lin, and she is said to have outside help in the editing room. Lin and chief content officer Bela Bajaria are rumored to be on thin ice as the streamer’s engagement numbers fall, and the post landed on a day Netflix had layoffs.

The budget in that post is $280 million, with some sources saying the true number is higher. That matches what cinematographer Seamus McGarvey said on the About Oscar podcast in August, when he put the cost at $280 million.

The test screening story is not new. In early August Sneider reported that screenings of an unfinished two-hour cut had underwhelmed Netflix executives and that reshoots had been set up. Netflix, not Gerwig, was said to be the one asking for the extra work. A source close to the production told NarniaWeb it was additional photography, not reshoots, and that the principal cast was not involved. None of the claims has been confirmed by Netflix.

“A Movie That Isn’t Narnia”

Reacher actor Matthew Marsden said: “Looks like a great trailer for a movie that isn’t Narnia.”

Pop culture commentator Jacob Airy said: “The trailer for Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew looks like it was made by people who have never read the book.”

YouTuber Matt Jarbo, who said he did not want to dog on the film before seeing it, put it this way: “Look, I don’t wanna dog on it before seeing the movie. It just feels so tonally weird. Having a Led Zeppelin song playing over visuals that were meant to take place during the early 1900’s is a choice, but I don’t think it was a good one. This doesn’t feel like the previous NARNIA films at all, and I get that this is Gerwig doing her BARBIE thing here. BUT I can’t help but feeling “whelmed” by it all.”

Other viewers sounded the same note. One wrote, “I am extremely unimpressed. This is not Narnia.” Another wrote, “Visually stunning trailer but nothing really jumped out to me indicating that this is a Narnia movie.” Some compared the look to Thor: Love and Thunder and Guardians of the Galaxy.

The trailer has its defenders. One viewer called it “hands down, the best trailer I’ve seen in years,” and another saw “a very faithful adaptation with a sort of rock opera twist.” Puck’s Matthew Belloni, on The Town podcast, said he liked it and trusts Gerwig, but warned Netflix about the marketing: “You cannot tell the audience that this is a franchise. The audience has to tell you that this is a franchise.”

The trailer had passed 10 million YouTube views at last count, with about 54,000 likes against 25,000 dislikes.

A Woman as Aslan and a Rock Opera in 1900

Streep was announced as the voice of Aslan in September. Gerwig told Empire she wanted someone with “a wisdom of experience” and “the capacity of fresh wonder.” Neither she nor Netflix has said whether Aslan will be female on screen, but the lion is Lewis’s figure for Christ, and critics took the casting as a sex swap of that figure. Political commentator Isabel Brown wrote on X: “CS Lewis literally intended Aslan to be the incarnation of Christ.” Movieguide founder Ted Baehr said: “Theologically this is a tremendous heresy and it’s a tremendous problem.” A Change.org petition with thousands of signatures asks that Gerwig be removed from future Narnia films.

The families of Lewis’s stepsons David and Douglas Gresham, who hold his estate rights, issued a statement through Netflix backing her: “we have personally witnessed her sincere passion for the Narnia series.”

The music is just as deliberate. Gerwig told Empire she wanted a rock opera, built from the origin story Lewis wrote, and said that she wondered how David Jones became David Bowie unless he went to Narnia. The film is not a musical, but British rock of the 1960s and 70s is its backbone, with Bowie, McCartney, Gilmour, Townshend, Page and Plant named as influences. The anachronism is intentional, in the manner of Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. In the trailer, Aslan appears as an image that evokes a cosmic nebula, and Page and Plant had reportedly never licensed “Stairway to Heaven” for a film before.

What Is Riding on It

Netflix bought the Narnia rights from the Lewis estate in 2018 and signed Gerwig to write and direct, with the plan of building a franchise. The last big-screen run was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in 2005, followed by Prince Caspian in 2008 and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 2010. The Magician’s Nephew is the prequel, and it was first slated for November 2026. Netflix moved it to February 12, 2027 in theaters and IMAX, with streaming following on April 2, and told the trades only that it “just wasn’t ready to hit that date.”

The cast includes Daniel Craig, Carey Mulligan, Emma Mackey and Ciarán Hinds, with Streep as Aslan and newcomers David McKenna and Beatrice Campbell as the children. At $280 million, it would be among the most expensive films Netflix has made, and it has to satisfy two audiences at once: viewers who grew up on Lewis and a streamer whose engagement numbers are falling.

With viewers saying “not Narnia” after two minutes of footage and sources saying the same after the whole film, will Netflix move the February 12 date again, or send a $280 million prequel into theaters as it stands?

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Six books. One unforgettable world. The Adventures of Baron Von Monocle is steampunk adventure with the kind of worldbuilding and heart that made you fall in love with fantasy in the first place. Start the series on Amazon.

Coy Jandreau, co-host of DC Studios Showcase: The Official Podcast, said critics of HBO’s Lanterns “can choke on their own tongues dude, they’re not worth living,” in a clip that has circulated on X since Oct. 12.

He made the remarks on The Reel Rejects, an independent YouTube show, not on the official podcast. DC Studios and HBO had not commented at publication. The clip lands as Grant Morrison and Ethan Van Sciver publicly pan the finale and as James Gunn’s “Sorry if you don’t like it” is still circulating among fans.

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What Jandreau Said

The video is titled “Lanterns Be Really Exposing How Stupid Some People Are.” Jandreau appeared with host Greg Alba, who had received hostile comments about his coverage, and the two discussed the Lanterns finale and its critics.

Jandreau said: “I don’t miss the feeling of doubting whether or not I’d save someone’s life if they were drowning.” He asked whether he would “let someone die because they’re probably an idiot?” and answered, “Maybe.”

Then: “They can choke on their own tongues, dude; they’re not worth living.” He added, “we’re overpopulated,” and, “these people are cannon fodder, and that’s what they want to be.”

He went on: “They choke when they drink water. Stupid people. These are embarrassments to carbon, man.”

The Hal Jordan Death Set the Tone

The backlash began with the premiere, which ended with the death of Hal Jordan, played by Kyle Chandler. Damon Lindelof told Entertainment Weekly his first reaction to the idea was, “They’re never gonna let us do that.” He said the writers considered saving the death for the finale and rejected that as too “clickbaity.” Lindelof also said, “We were immediately signaling to the audience this is where the show is willing to go.”

Gunn answered fans in September posts on Threads. Hal’s screen time, he wrote, is “more live action screen time than all the live action screen time he’s had combined throughout history.” Knowing when Hal dies “is absolutely not the same thing as killing him off right away.” He closed with: “Sorry if you don’t like it.”

The finale revealed that Sheriff Kerry Kane, played by Kelly Macdonald, was the killer, and John Stewart lets her avoid prison.

Morrison and Van Sciver on the Finale

Grant Morrison, writer of The Green Lantern, wrote in an Oct. 10 Substack post: “The Guardians are now fine with their operatives being murdered.” He called the finale “a morally and legally incoherent conclusion.”

Ethan Van Sciver, who drew Green Lantern: Rebirth with Geoff Johns, reviewed the finale on X on Oct. 7: “You failed.” He added, “In trying to demote Hal, you killed John’s decency, loyalty and his soul.”

Breitbart’s Warner Todd Huston wrote that Kane’s shooting of Hal “does not seem to make any logical sense,” and that Hal was “not acting belligerently or threatening her or Noah in any way.”

Jandreau is not the first voice tied to the official podcast to draw fire. Co-host Frankey Smith drew criticism last month for calling Hal a racist and telling a fan to watch Paw Patrol.

What the Numbers Show

The finale drew 10.5 million viewers globally and 7.2 million in the U.S. over three days of crossplatform viewing. The premiere drew 9.3 million globally and 6.6 million in the U.S. The season averaged about 19.3 million viewers globally.

The show holds 92% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 139 reviews. The audience score opened the season at 89% and sat at 70% after the finale, the lowest of the released DCU titles. Supergirl holds 72%, Creature Commandos 79%, Peacemaker Season 2 79% and Superman 90%.

HBO has not ordered a second season. Showrunner Chris Mundy is writing it anyway. DC Studios has no other TV series in production besides The People vs. Gorilla Grodd.

After Gunn’s “Sorry if you don’t like it” and Jandreau’s “they’re not worth living,” will DC Studios say whether a co-host of its official podcast speaks for the studio?

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The BBC has commissioned a two-part documentary on J.K. Rowling, and its second episode will examine her views on gender identity, “which place her at the heart of increasingly bitter online exchanges.” Rowling will not be interviewed.

The film, working title J.K. Rowling, is made by Rogan Scotland and was greenlit by BBC Two, BBC Scotland and iPlayer. It is being shopped at MIPCOM and is due on the BBC next year, after HBO’s Harry Potter series premieres in December.

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Two Parts, Two Very Different Subjects

The first episode “will spotlight the creation of Harry Potter and the stratospheric success of the wizarding universe created by Rowling.” The second “will examine her interventions on Scottish independence, feminism, free speech, and gender identity, which place her at the heart of increasingly bitter online exchanges.”

The series draws on archive material, Rowling’s words and interviews with people who worked with her. The National reports two 60-minute episodes. Deadline describes the film as exploring “the author’s dramatic rise, cultural influence, and contested legacy.”

Simon Young, the BBC’s head of history commissioning, is the only person Deadline quotes: “Thirty years after the publication of the first Harry Potter book, there feels like no better time for the BBC to explore one of the towering figures of British literature.” He continued: “No cultural history of Britain in the 21st century would be complete without the story of the boy wizard that J.K. Rowling created, the publishing and film-making phenomenon that she spawned, or the polarising public figure she has become.”

Who Is Making It, and Who Is Not Talking

The BBC commissioned Rogan Productions, the company behind Grenfell: Uncovered, and the film is made by Rogan Scotland. Commissioners named by Deadline are Jack Bootle, head of specialist factual commissioning, and Louise Thornton, head of multi-platform commissioning at BBC Scotland. The executive producers are James Rogan and Mark Hedgecoe.

Deadline reports that “Rowling will not be interviewed for the documentary, but is aware that it is being produced.” Film Stories reports she is not believed to have been involved. No presenter, director or list of contributors has been announced.

Rogan told Mediashotz the film looks at “how her unflinching personal beliefs have sparked a fraught and divisive dialogue that continues to this day.” David Harron of BBC Scotland called Rowling “arguably one of the most influential figures in the literary and wider media worlds.”

Licence-Fee Money for a Film the Subject Won’t Join

The BBC is funded mainly by the licence fee that British households pay, and BBC Two, BBC Scotland and iPlayer are all BBC services. Deadline’s report does not give a budget or say how the production is financed. It also does not say who the interviewees are.

That leaves the questions the BBC has not answered. Who speaks in episode two, and do any of them share Rowling’s position on sex and gender? Will the film put her April 2025 post, “I love it when a plan comes together. #SupremeCourt #WomensRights,” in front of viewers as a victory lap or as a provocation? And does a BBC that has not yet seen its own film’s final cut get to call the result impartial?

Six Years of Being Cancelled

The pressure on Rowling goes back to June 2020, when she mocked a headline that used the phrase “people who menstruate” and drew a firestorm of criticism. Daniel Radcliffe responded with an essay on The Trevor Project’s website that included the line “Transgender women are women.” Emma Watson posted on Twitter, without naming Rowling, that “Trans people are who they say they are.”

Rowling did not back down. In April 2024 she answered a supporter who expected Radcliffe and Watson to apologize, writing “Not safe, I’m afraid,” and said celebrities who backed “a movement intent on eroding women’s hard-won rights” should save their apologies for others.

The pile-on has reached the franchise’s own fans. Wil Wheaton, the subject of an earlier Fandom Pulse report, replied on Threads to a user asking whether people were watching the new Harry Potter series: “As so many have said, f*** no we aren’t, we are standing with trans people.” The post is the latest example of a celebrity telling fans to boycott a series Rowling is attached to.

A Mixed Relationship With the Corporation

Deadline notes that “Rowling has a mixed relationship with the BBC. She has collaborated successfully with the BBC on adapting her Strike novels, but she has been critical of the corporation’s reporting on trans rights.”

The timing is deliberate. The BBC film is being shopped at MIPCOM now and will premiere next year, after HBO’s Harry Potter series arrives in December. The first episode rides the franchise’s return, and the second puts the author’s gender-identity views in front of the same audience.

With Rowling declining to take part, the BBC calling her “polarising” in its own commissioning language and the film arriving beside HBO’s Harry Potter launch, will the BBC give viewers a documentary about her work or a trial of her views?

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Six books. One unforgettable world. The Adventures of Baron Von Monocle is steampunk adventure with the kind of worldbuilding and heart that made you fall in love with fantasy in the first place. Start the series on Amazon.

Polygon ran an opinion column on Oct. 12 headlined “Doctor Who’s showrunner is right: Hate is ruining Star Wars,” built on one line from Russell T. Davies’s new memoir: “Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars, they’re all being brought down by contempt.” Writer Aimee Hart uses it to blame an “industrialized online hate economy” and cites fans attacking cast members as the proof.

The column never asks who started the fight. Over the last two years the stars and creators of Doctor Who, The Acolyte and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy have answered critics in public, and Davies himself has offered several different explanations for why his show struggled.

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Broken Country, a 113-minute documentary from 2811 Films, is playing theaters across Canada and the United States through the end of October. Viewers anywhere can also watch it at home for $14.99. Mira Metter wrote and directed.

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The film’s premise: Canada is one of the largest countries in the world with some of the richest natural resources, and it holds a founding seat in the G7. The filmmakers want to know what went wrong. They frame the question this way: “How did this happen, and can it be put right?”

The documentary takes on healthcare, housing, drug addiction and opioids, and immigration. The filmmakers describe their method on the film’s website: “In every subject it asks three things: what is happening now, when did it last work, and which policies threw it off course.” They add: “It promotes no party and no agenda.”

The filmmakers interviewed thousands of Canadians and more than 70 policy experts, 32 of whom are featured. The roster includes Dr. Alika Lafontaine, a former president of the Canadian Medical Association, and Dr. Andrew Furey, an orthopaedic surgeon and former premier of Newfoundland and Labrador. Lisa Raitt, a former federal minister now at CIBC, appears, as does Tyler Meredith, a former economic advisor to Justin Trudeau. Nadeem Esmail of the Fraser Institute and William B.P. Robson of the C.D. Howe Institute speak on economics. Michel Juneau-Katsuya, a former senior CSIS officer, covers national security. Steve Doherty of Youth Without Shelter and Neil Hetherington of Daily Bread Food Bank are also featured.

They set out to examine the reality behind Canada’s reputation in the United States as a model for universal healthcare and an expansive government.

One of the filmmakers addressed who is behind the project in a post on X. The film was funded entirely by Canadians, he wrote, and everyone who worked on it is Canadian. He described himself and his wife as the people behind it, and said they made it for their kids. “We decided to fight,” he wrote. “This is a project of passion to change our country for the better and answer in a rigorously fact-based and fact-checked approach the answer to the question: ‘What Happened?’”

Upcoming Screenings

Canada:

• Oct. 13: Park Theatre, Vancouver, 6:00 p.m.

• Oct. 13: Roxy Theatre, Saskatoon, 7:00 p.m.

• Oct. 14: Landmark Country Hills (Calgary), Landmark City Centre (Edmonton), Center Cinema (Dawson Creek), and Tower Theatre (Yorkton), all at 7:00 p.m.

• Oct. 15 through 19: Peace River, North Battleford, Fort Saskatchewan, St. Paul, and Strathmore

United States:

• Oct. 21: Harkins Scottsdale 101, Phoenix, 7:00 p.m., Q&A with the director

• Oct. 22: Santa Barbara IFF Film Center, 6:00 p.m., Q&A with the director

• Oct. 26: Landmark Ritz V, Philadelphia, 7:00 p.m.

• Oct. 28: PAM CUT, Portland, 7:00 p.m., Q&A with the director

• Oct. 31: Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 11:00 a.m.

Tickets and the home-viewing option are at brokencountry.com/screenings.

Canada gets cited in American debates over healthcare and government programs. Will a Canadian film that puts a former Trudeau advisor alongside think-tank economists change how Americans use Canada as an example?

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Tom Cruise’s Digger lost 60% of its audience in its second weekend, Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning opened below the lowest forecast on the board, and Angel and the Badman left the same weekend with a B+ CinemaScore, the highest grade among the three new wide releases.

Digger, the Warner Bros. climate satire, has taken in $14.4 million domestically against a reported budget between $125 million and $180 million. The Social Reckoning, Sony’s follow-up to The Social Network, opened to $5.5 million. Angel and the Badman, the remake of the John Wayne western, landed in ninth place with $2.06 million.

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Digger Falls 60% to $3.2 Million and Sits at $14.4 Million Domestic

Digger took in $3.2 million from 3,321 theaters over Oct. 9-11, a 60% decline from its $8 million opening. Variety puts the domestic total at $14 million and the global total at $35.3 million. Box Office Pro called the opening Cruise’s lowest since Lions for Lambs made $6.7 million in 2007, and audiences gave it a C+ CinemaScore.

Alejandro G. Iñárritu directed the film, which stars Cruise as an oil magnate and features Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg and Jesse Plemons. Its poster tagline read “A comedy of catastrophic proportions.” Cruise told the On Film With Kevin McCarthy podcast, “I feel very much like we’re going to make something that is a lasting piece of cinema.”

Celebrity friends tried to help. Variety reports that Anne Hathaway, Jane Fonda, Guillermo del Toro and Mandy Patinkin praised the film and urged people to go, then adds: “(Spoiler alert: It hasn’t worked.)”

The cost is where the numbers get large. Reported budgets run from $125 million to about $180 million, Variety says Warner Bros. spent above $160 million, and AP reports around $100 million more on marketing. Loss estimates run from $150 million to $250 million, with Variety projecting $245 million in theatrical losses. The film opened days before Paramount Skydance closed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

The Social Reckoning Opens to $5.5 Million, Under the Lowest Forecast

The Social Reckoning opened to $5.5 million from 2,606 screens, below the lowest-end forecast from Box Office Pro’s prediction panel. Variety had projected $7 million to $8 million. The film earned a B- CinemaScore and a 54% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, and its global total is $9 million against a reported cost of about $30 million. The Social Network opened to $22 million in 2010 and finished with $224 million worldwide, per Variety.

Sorkin wrote and directed this one. Jeremy Strong replaces Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, David Fincher is not involved, and the cast includes Mikey Madison and Jeremy Allen White. Sony has called it a companion piece to the 2010 film, not a sequel. Sorkin told TheWrap before release, “It’ll be graded on a curve with ‘The Social Network.’”

The reviews did not help. TheWrap’s William Bibbiani wrote, “we’re forced to wonder if Aaron Sorkin knows what the word ‘reckoning’ means.” The New Yorker’s Richard Brody wrote, “Sorkin doesn’t look beyond the words on the page, and the film itself appears made with heads down.”

David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research told Variety, “Stories about corporate intrigue, money and power have found a home on TV. They lack the cinematic qualities that excite big-screen audiences.”

Angel and the Badman Earns a B+ From the People Who Bought Tickets

Fandom Pulse is a fan of Angel and the Badman. Moviegoers gave it a B+ CinemaScore, higher than the C+ for Digger, the B- for The Social Reckoning and the D+ for Other Mommy, the weekend’s winner at $27.5 million. The western grossed $2.06 million from 2,263 screens and took ninth place.

Julio Quintana directed this remake of the 1947 John Wayne film, which was Wayne’s first self-financed production. Zachary Levi plays the wounded outlaw Quirt Evans, who is taken in by a rancher’s daughter and offered a life without violence while a marshal closes in. Neal McDonough and Tommy Lee Jones co-star. It is rated PG-13, runs 105 minutes and was shot in New Mexico.

Levi told the Christian Post what drew him to the story: “The whole concept of redemption, I love it.”

A PG-13 western with a redemption story took a B+ from a paying audience in a weekend when much bigger bets did not.

Studio Bets Keep Missing While the Overall Box Office Runs Ahead of 2025

The market itself is up. Variety reports that October revenue is 23% ahead of the same point in 2025, which ended up as the lowest-grossing October in three decades, and Box Office Pro has this weekend’s $85.2 million total up 19.2% on the same weekend a year ago. The misses belong to specific films.

Warner Bros. opened Practical Magic 2 to $30 million in September, at the low end of expectations on a $75 million budget. The Dog Stars opened to $8 million in early September on a reported cost of more than $100 million, per JoBlo. Then came Digger and The Social Reckoning in consecutive weeks, both pitched at adult audiences, both built around topical subjects.

Paul Dergarabedian of Rentrak told AP, “These movies that are topical in nature, sometimes they resonate with the culture, sometimes they don’t.” Variety’s Rebecca Rubin wrote that October “has been sluggish after a stronger-than-expected September at the box office.”

After Digger and The Social Reckoning, will the studios keep spending big on topical adult satire and drama, or take a closer look at the audience that gave Angel and the Badman a B+?

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Grant Morrison, the writer of DC’s Green Lantern comics, has criticized the ending of HBO’s Lanterns, saying the finale abandoned the basic premise of the franchise. The season one finale, “Dirt and Stars,” aired October 4. In it, Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald) shoots Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) between the eyes at the Rushville football field after Hal confronts her over her son Noah’s secret. Hal stays dead, John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) takes up the ring with a new oath, and Kerry is told not to turn herself in.

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Morrison laid out his objections in a reply to a reader named Brigitte:

Brigitte – happy Mabon and his Mum! I know what you mean about watching TV. It takes a lot to keep me engaged these days and I too fell asleep during the last two Lanterns episodes before the finale. Not because they were boring but because watching telly feels like a much-appreciated moment of relaxation and drift. Severance was the one that used to put Kristan and I out most effectively. Lanterns worked as a show and it’s mostly down to the two leads, particularly Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan. They have a great supporting cast which helps, but it’s the two principals and their chemistry and charisma that sells the whole thing – so maybe those True Detective comparisons had some basis after all!

Having said that, I didn’t really like the ending, although it was all neatly put together. I found it hard to accept that the Kerry Kane character played by Kelly McDonald shot Hal Jordan in the head, and everyone seemed fine with that psychotic break. There should probably have been some response to that, because otherwise it makes it really hard for the audience to work out what makes the Green Lantern Corps an intergalactic law enforcement agency at all. The Guardians are now fine with their operatives being murdered while other officers simply ignore the fact and let the perps walk free?

I read writer Tom King’s explanation for why this choice was made – she killed the man she loved and was suffering enough – and wondered how that defence would fly in a court of law after some ghastly crime of passion.

‘The horror of murdering his wife in cold blood is punishment enough for this man, your honour. Let him walk free with a gun in his hand, and we’ll just hope it never happens again, okay?’

I watched the show; Kerry lost her shit in a way that made her seem unhinged and she shot a superhero in the head out of pique. John Stewart also let the Manhunter go free, knowing that he could one day destroy the world. For a show that’s not about masked vigilantes with their own personal code but deals with weird space policemen working for an interplanetary judiciary, it was a morally and legally incoherent conclusion that backed out of its own implications and the basic premise of the franchise.

There are rumours of a potential second season but even with the compelling Aaron Pierre, it’s hard to imagine the formula working as well without Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan, and they’d have to find a way to recreate the partnership (Sinestro did say he could bring Hal back to life, so maybe Hal as Parallax would be good, with John having to save him). We’ll see.

Morrison’s complaint goes to the structure of the show. Lanterns is about officers of an interplanetary police force, and the finale has one of those officers murdered with no response from the Corps, the Guardians or John Stewart. Tom King and Damon Lindelof have defended the choice. Lindelof has said the writers did not want Hal’s death to be a fake-out, so that the emotional progression would feel real and earned.

Green Lantern artist Ethan Van Sciver, who drew Green Lantern: Rebirth and Sinestro Corps War, was harsher:

The ending wasn’t just “bullshit.” It didn’t make any sense. It was irresponsible. It ruined and invalidated everything that came before and made it all a waste of time.

When you submit to being told a story, you have an implicit trust in the storyteller that they know where they’re leading you. If they don’t, it’s a betrayal. Like a nature hike that walks you off a cliff at the end.

Fans have been just as upset, and the anger centers on how Hal Jordan was treated. Viewers have gone through the finale point by point. Hal spends a decade in federal prison for the destruction of Rushville, builds a life with Kerry after his release, and is shot dead by her in a panic. Kerry asks to finish watching her son’s game before turning herself in, and John tells her not to. A Manhunter walks free. Fans agree that none of it holds together, and they have been specific about where the writers lost the audience.

HBO has not renewed Lanterns for a second season. Morrison’s own suggestion is that a second season would have to rebuild the Hal and John partnership, and Hal is gone.

If a Green Lantern can be killed by a sheriff and nobody in the Corps answers for it, what is the Corps for, and does a second season have any reason to bring viewers back?

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Angel and the Badman, Angel Studios’ remake of the 1947 John Wayne Western, reached theaters October 9 with Zachary Levi stepping into the role of gunman Quirt Evans. Julio Quintana directs. Neal McDonough plays the villain Laredo Stevens, Tommy Lee Jones plays the lawman on Quirt’s trail, and Meg Fraser plays Penny, the young woman whose family takes in the wounded outlaw. The film runs 105 minutes and is rated PG-13.

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The original came from Republic Pictures. James Edward Grant wrote and directed it, and it was the first picture Wayne produced himself. Gail Russell played Penelope Worth, Harry Carey played the marshal, and Bruce Cabot played Laredo. Audiences have seen the story once since then, in a 2009 Hallmark Channel remake with Lou Diamond Phillips, Luke Perry and Deborah Kara Unger. That version followed the Wayne film very closely, and this new one does too.

Viewers who know the 1947 picture should expect a familiar ride. The remake is very, very similar to the original, and several scenes play almost beat for beat. A wounded Quirt lands in the care of a decent family, and the household slowly domesticates him. He learns that the Christian values around him are worth having. His old nature then pulls him back into trouble, Laredo’s people come for the family because of it, and the lawman shoots the villain dead at the finish so everyone can live in peace. Anyone who has seen the Wayne film will recognize that skeleton. The changes sit on top of it.

The first change comes at the start. Quirt takes a bad wound in a gunfight that runs tighter and more intense than the opening of the 1947 version, then wanders until he collapses at the door of Penny’s farm. The film gets the audience into the danger faster than the original did.

The second change is the plot that drives the villains. In the Wayne film, Quirt’s feud with Laredo grew out of cattle and a land claim, and the details were hard to follow. The remake swaps that for gold. Quirt has robbed Laredo’s gang, buried the loot and made himself the most wanted man in the territory. A mix-up then sends the gang after the family. The lawman has taken the gold, Laredo’s men decide Quirt is lying about where it is, and they start harassing the people who sheltered him. The motives are clear from the first act, and the story is easier to follow for it.

The film also makes Quirt a worse man at the start. The 1947 version hinted at a criminal past without dwelling on it. This one commits, presenting Quirt as a dangerous man with plenty to answer for. That gives the redemption arc more distance to cover, and the arc covers it. Redemption stories work when the sinner has real sins, and the remake gives its lead a bigger load to put down.

Penny is the best character upgrade. The character is now a horse woman trying to break a stallion into a plow horse. The film is working the same problem on Quirt, a wild thing being taught to pull a load, and the parallel keeps the theme in front of the audience without a speech. The stallion returns later when Quirt is stuck in jail while the marshals are away, and the horse helps him break out. The escape is contrived, but it fits the film’s idea and it works.

The performances carry the picture. Levi does a great job as Quirt. Jones is a pleasure, and McDonough makes Laredo a threat the family has reason to fear. The film turns the gang member Hondo into a Hispanic character, with Spanish dialogue and accents played broadly, and that choice is a bit much. It is a small stumble in an otherwise well-cast film.

The film also lets its men be masculine and its women be feminine. It makes no attempt to subvert either, which is hard to find in a modern release. The Christian content is overt. The characters pray, endure trials in faith and treat “do unto others” as the rule of the house. That is heavy-handed at times, and it fits a story about a sinner changing his life. Penny’s patience and goodness are what convince Quirt to leave his violent ways behind, and the message comes through clearly.

Parents should know the film pushes into adult territory while trying to stay a family picture. A saloon scene includes prostitutes, and the villain calls them whores outright. Laredo’s gang makes rape threats against Penny. Both are less subtle than anything in the 1947 version.

Spoilers for the ending follow. The finale is where the film stumbles because of its trying to ride the line on tone. Laredo, who is dying of an illness the film never explains and whose face shows it, demands that Penny put on her wedding dress and takes her upstairs. The scene hints that he means to rape her. Because the film is careful not to push a family picture too far, it never makes his intent clear. Laredo turns his back, and Penny drives a heavy metal object into him. The moment is confusing, and it does not make the point the filmmakers seem to want. The Wayne version took a different route at this stage. A gunfight broke out in town, Quirt refused to fight because he was trying to become like the people who took him in, and the lawman shot Laredo. The remake keeps the lawman’s final shot but gives up the moral clarity of Quirt’s refusal.

The remake is a good Western. It tells a clear redemption story, gives the villains a plot that is easier to follow than the original’s, and has a lead who does the work. The muddled ending is the film’s one real problem. It is worth seeing in a theater and worth supporting for what it is trying to do.

In the 1947 film, Quirt put down his gun because he wanted to be like the family that saved him. Did the remake’s new climax make that choice clearer, or did it cost the story something?

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Amazon MGM Studios has handed its Stargate revival to Jac Schaeffer, the creator of WandaVision and Agatha All Along. The decision comes four months after Amazon scrapped a series built by veterans of SG-1 and Atlantis, and it lands in the middle of a fan campaign that put a banner over Culver City and nearly 124,000 names on a petition.

Amazon said last November that it wanted to honor the franchise’s legacy. Here is what happened between that announcement and this one.

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Amazon Gives Stargate to Schaeffer Under Her Overall Deal

Variety reports that Schaeffer is developing a new Stargate series for Amazon MGM Studios under the overall deal she signed with the studio earlier this year. A writers’ room is expected to open in the near future. Joby Harold and Tory Tunnell of Safehouse Pictures, who were attached to the earlier series, will executive produce alongside her. Reps for Amazon and Schaeffer declined to comment.

Variety calls this Amazon’s second attempt at a new Stargate series. The first came from Martin Gero, and Variety says that project “ultimately did not move forward.”

The Franchise Team Amazon Built, Then Scrapped

Amazon ordered Gero’s Stargate straight to series in November 2025 for Prime Video. Gero started in the franchise as a story editor on Stargate: Atlantis, and he announced the order this way:

“Twenty years ago, my first real job in television was as a Story Editor on ‘Stargate: Atlantis.’” … “I’m beyond thrilled that Amazon MGM Studios has entrusted me with guiding this incredible franchise into its next phase.”

Stargate co-creator Brad Wright and longtime producer Joe Mallozzi were consulting producers, and Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, who made the original film, were executive producers. Nick Pepper, Amazon’s head of US SVOD TV development, described the goal:

“In partnership with our extraordinary creative team of Martin, Tory, and Joby, we’re honored to open this next gate to bring a visionary new chapter of this beloved franchise to our global Prime Video audience, one that honors the series’ rich legacy while propelling it into an ambitious and emotionally resonant future.”

The writers’ room for season one was assembled in January. In March, Gero announced production designer Nathan Crowley and VFX supervisor Mohen Leo, and a London shoot was planned for this fall. CBR reports the project was 20 weeks into preproduction when Amazon cancelled it on June 2.

Variety’s source gave Amazon’s reason: executives were concerned that Gero’s take “would not have broad appeal beyond the franchise’s already dedicated fanbase.” Deadline tied the decision to executive turnover. Pepper and Matt King, who ran the revival, had left, and the genre portfolio now sits with Blair Fetter, who started in February. Deadline also reported that the studio may bring Stargate back with another showrunner, “possibly someone who does not have history with it and would give it a fresh new perspective.”

Amazon had passed over a revival script from Wright in 2022 and solicited pitches from newcomers instead.

A Résumé Built on Witches and Sitcom Hexes

Variety lists Schaeffer’s credits: WandaVision, the first Marvel series on Disney+; Agatha All Along, where she was showrunner, writer, executive producer and director; the screenplay for Disney’s animated featurette Olaf’s Frozen Adventure; and the 2019 comedy The Hustle, a remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. None of them is military science fiction.

WandaVision took Wanda Maximoff and Vision, two characters with decades of comics history, and rebuilt them inside a run of sitcom pastiche. Agatha All Along took the witch who turned out to be the villain of that series and made her the lead of a story about a coven. The Evening Standard called it “the queerest MCU outing by far.”

Stargate SG-1 followed a United States Air Force team through the gate for ten seasons, and Atlantis added five more. SG-1 starred Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping and Christopher Judge. Nothing in the report connects Schaeffer to either series.

The Fans Fought, and Amazon Moved On

After the cancellation, fans organized #SaveStargate. By late September, GateWorld reported, the campaign had run several tweet storms, raised almost $20,000, flown a banner over Culver City and gathered a petition nearing 124,000 signatures. The banner read “#SaveStargate. Fans Want Martin Gero.” Organizer James Kerfoot explained the push:

“There is a global fanbase that is still going strong nearly thirty years after Stargate SG1 first premiered.”

He also described what the campaign was asking of Amazon:

“We hope Amazon MGM hears us and realizes that current fans are the best free advertising they could ever ask for. Times Square is just the next stop, not the last one. We’re not going away anytime soon.”

Amazon’s stated reason for cancelling was that Gero’s series would not reach past the franchise’s dedicated fanbase. Its next move was to look for a writer, and Deadline reported that the studio might pick one without history in the franchise. Variety’s report on Schaeffer is the first named result of that search.

Amazon scrapped Martin Gero’s Stargate over concerns it would not reach beyond the franchise’s dedicated fanbase. If the new series is built to win people who never watched SG-1, what does Amazon expect the people who did to do?

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First contact with the Oridians was supposed to be humanity’s proudest moment. Instead, their chief engineer is dead, their ship is sabotaged, and an ancient alien technology is stealing souls. Book one of the Valiant Frontiers series delivers exploration, mystery, and the kind of crew you’ll want to follow across the galaxy. Read The Soul Catcher on Amazon and start the adventure.

The Kickstarter for The Battle for Axanar closes today. The feature-length documentary covers the most litigated fan film in Star Trek history, and it needs backers to finish.

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Shark Week executive producer Seth Sherman made the film through Warp 9 Productions, LLC. It follows Star Trek: Axanar, the fan production that Paramount and CBS took to court in 2015.

Alec Peters started Axanar in 2013. He wanted to put the Battle of Axanar on screen, the Four Years War clash that the original series mentioned in “Whom Gods Destroy” but never showed. His first step was Prelude to Axanar, a 20-minute in-universe documentary funded by a $101,000 Kickstarter in 2014. The cast included Richard Hatch of Battlestar Galactica, Gary Graham of Star Trek: Enterprise, Kate Vernon, and Tony Todd. The feature campaign that followed passed $400,000, a record for independent Trek crowdfunding at the time.

Then the studios sued. The case settled in 2017. Paramount and CBS had already published fan film guidelines that capped productions at 15 minutes. Feature-length fan films with professional casts and six-figure crowdfunding ended there, and the fan film scene has not looked the same since.

The Battle for Axanar tells that history with a television documentarian behind the camera. For anyone who wants independent creators to have room to work in the franchises they love, it is the only project covering this story.

Fandom Pulse backs independent creators and crowdfunded projects. If you want this film finished, the campaign page is here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/axanardoc/the-battle-for-axanar

If a studio can sue the most ambitious fan film of its era out of existence, who decides whether fans get to tell stories in a franchise at all?

James Gunn runs DC Studios, and for sixteen months he has traded blows with Zack Snyder’s supporters and with Fox News hosts. His newest fight is with Green Lantern fans, and it started with a dead Hal Jordan. The Lanterns finale aired October 4, the show’s audience score fell from 89% to 70%, and HBO has not ordered a second season. Gunn’s answer to the people angry at him has stayed the same the whole time.

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Avengers: Doomsday opens December 18, and Disney is treating it as a film that cannot miss. Presales have passed $100 million worldwide two months before release, analysts are asking whether $3 billion is possible, and the studio has spent the past several weeks rearranging everything around the picture.

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A re-release of Avengers: Endgame now carries new scenes written to point toward it. Marvel’s heroes are being marketed under their birth names. A costume has been revealed after months of fan complaints. Streaming shows are being canceled, a comics service is being shut down and executives are describing layoffs as painful. Each decision has its own explanation. Together they describe a company that needs one result more than any other this holiday season, and the last few days added the most revealing pieces yet.

The Number Disney Has to Beat

Doomsday is the fastest film to reach $1 million in presales in both the United Kingdom and Brazil, and its early sales ran ahead of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which finished above $2 billion worldwide.

That comparison is the source of the pressure. A $2 billion gross is a figure most films never approach, and a film tracking toward $3 billion has made anything less look like a retreat. Analysts are already asking whether the higher number is within reach. Marvel has set its own bar, and Disney has to clear it in front of a crowd that has been told to expect a record.

Disney’s year makes the stakes sharper. The studio passed $3 billion worldwide in June, the first in Hollywood to do so in 2026, on films including Toy Story 5 at $367 million, The Devil Wears Prada 2 at $677.6 million and Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu at more than $323 million. Every Disney release this year has opened at the top of the box office. Doomsday is the year’s closing tentpole, and whatever it earns will decide how the year is remembered.

Then there is the calendar. Denis Villeneuve held his date, and Dune: Part Three opens December 18, the same day as Doomsday. The shared opening is already being called “Dunesday.” A film that has promised a record does not want a rival at the same multiplex on its first weekend.

A Streaming Slate Being Cut Back

The shows that were meant to fill the time between films are being cut. Disney+ rescinded the second-season renewal it announced for Wonder Man in March, after a first week of 618 million minutes viewed and an Emmy nomination for lead Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Daredevil: Born Again will end with its third season in 2027, and showrunner Dario Scardapane is reportedly no longer on board. Amazon canceled Spider-Noir, another Marvel-character series, on September 4 after a single season.

The corporate side has moved in the same direction. Disney laid off more than 300 people last week, mostly in human resources and information technology, after cutting roughly 1,000 marketing positions in April. Disney president Dana Walden, speaking at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles, called the cuts “extremely painful” and said, “we must survive and thrive and grow.”

The competition grew on Tuesday. The merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery closed, creating a rival with about 200 million combined subscribers.

Marvel’s publishing arm is being rebuilt as well. Marvel Unlimited shuts down December 7, replaced on November 16 by a Marvel Comics app made with Webtoon that delivers new issues a month after release, where Unlimited waited three months. Marvel is also ending its $3.99 price point. New editor-in-chief Stephen Wacker told the Save the Chat podcast, “We have to really restock the idea factory, the House of Ideas.” Only three Marvel books shipped on October 7, all from a new horror line.

When the television side shrinks and the comics side is rebuilt, the theatrical release has to carry more of the brand.

Rewriting Endgame and Renaming the Heroes

The Avengers: Endgame re-release adds four new scenes. One of them reframes audio of Tony Stark forging an Iron Man mask as Doctor Doom forging his own, in a moment written as a tribute to Tony’s sacrifice. The re-release opened to $26 million and put Endgame back ahead of Avatar on the worldwide all-time chart.

Critic Kenneth Shepard argues that the new footage rewrites history. His case is that Marvel’s plans collapsed in 2023, when Jonathan Majors faced domestic violence charges and years of Kang setup had to be scrapped for a pivot to Doctor Doom. Feige has said of the old villain that “the Thanos buildup has built up in people’s heads over the years.”

The studio has also changed how it names its heroes. Marketing for Doomsday calls Florence Pugh’s character Yelena Belova instead of Black Widow, Sebastian Stan’s character Bucky Barnes instead of Winter Soldier or White Wolf, and Wyatt Russell’s character John Walker instead of U.S. Agent. The pattern began with the March 2025 cast announcement livestream and has carried through promotional artwork and action figures. Yelena officially took the Black Widow name in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and Feige has told fans that “Yelena plays a big part” in Doomsday. The likely reason for the birth names is that casual moviegoers do not know the titles.

Rebecca Romijn’s Mystique has been redesigned for the same audience. The new costume is a white uniform with long sleeves and a high collar, a skull-style tiara, shorter red hair and an X buckle in place of the classic skull belt. Her body is fully covered, where the Fox films used blue body paint. Fans scrutinized the red wig in the trailer, and official merchandise has now confirmed the costume.

VisionQuest, premiering October 14, brings a different question. Ruaridh Mollica, who plays Tommy Maximoff and identifies as bisexual, told SFX magazine, “I don’t know if it’s explicitly referenced.” Tommy is bisexual in the comics, and the MCU introduced his brother Billy Kaplan’s LGBTQIA+ identity in Agatha All Along.

Each of these choices trades something comic readers have known for decades for something the studio hopes will play to people who have never opened a comic.

Nicolas Cage Calls the Franchise a Wrestling Show

One of the loudest recent criticisms of the Marvel approach came from an actor who just lost a Marvel-character series. At Fan Expo Dallas, Nicolas Cage said that when he sees “50-plus” gifted actors in ridiculous outfits preparing for the fight, it is hard not to be reminded that the MCU is becoming “a well-funded and glorified WWE.” His series, Spider-Noir, was canceled on September 4 after one season. It then won five Emmys.

Cage’s line lands on the exact point Doomsday is built to test. The film’s pitch is scale. A star saying the formula has turned into spectacle is the argument the studio most wants the opening weekend to answer.

The marketing around the film has the same quality. Marvel Rivals, the NetEase hero shooter, launches a “Path to Doomsday” season on October 9 with an Infinity War duo mode and an Endgame 50-player mode following on October 22. Marvel’s television and animation preview takes the stage at New York Comic Con on Thursday. The re-release, the game modes, the panel and the merchandise all point toward a single date.

Why Disney Needs This One

The pieces point the same way. Disney’s streaming division is canceling shows and cutting staff. A merged rival with 200 million subscribers began operating Tuesday. A Marvel-character series at Amazon ended after a season, and the actor who led it has called the franchise a wrestling show. The comics service Marvel built over years is being replaced by one that requires a Webtoon account. The film’s heroes are being sold under birth names, an old villain’s story was reframed in a re-release, and Dune: Part Three shares the opening date.

Nothing on that list stops Doomsday from succeeding. It does mean the film has no cushion. The presale numbers are real, and they are also the reason the margin for error is gone. A $2 billion gross after a $3 billion conversation reads as a miss. A $3 billion gross would vindicate a run of choices that fans have been arguing about since before the presales began.

Disney’s choices this quarter show what it wants most: the biggest number it can get on December 18. It is willing to change how its heroes are named and how its older films are presented to get there.

If Avengers: Doomsday needs a re-release, a game mode, a rewritten scene and three renamed heroes to reach $3 billion, how much does Disney trust the film to get there on its own?

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Lanterns co-creator Tom King says the HBO series’ writers debated whether Sheriff Kerry Kane should face justice for murdering Hal Jordan, and that the answer they reached was no. King made the case on the official Lanterns podcast for the finale. A clip of it began circulating on X on Tuesday morning and was closing in on 370,000 views, with more replies than likes. The same finale has John Stewart reciting a rewritten Green Lantern oath that drops the vow about evil. The writers knew what they were handling. Damon Lindelof used the word heresy to describe the change.

Together the two decisions form a pattern. The murderer leaves Rushville free, the oath loses its enemy, and a series about the Green Lantern Corps ends its season with neither justice nor a vow to pursue it.

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Kerry Kane Murders Hal Jordan and Walks

The finale reveals that Sheriff Kerry Kane, played by Kelly Macdonald, shot and killed Hal after he confronted her about her son Noah being a Manhunter. Hal had come to get both of them out of Rushville and keep them safe. Kerry shot him in the head. John Stewart eventually learns the truth and lets her go. There is no arrest and there are no charges.

John had already let Noah walk. Noah had assaulted John, stolen Hal’s ring, helped free Sinestro and had Sinestro forge an unauthorized power battery for him. In one episode John learns who is responsible for Hal’s death and for the trouble around it, and he sends both of them home.

King’s account of the decision begins with a writers room argument. On the podcast he says the writers asked themselves, “Does Kerry get punished?” His answer is that living with the act is punishment enough: “jail isn’t worse than that.”

King also reached for film history. He points to the film noir code of the 1950s, under which “If you committed a murder, you had to go to jail by the end.” In his telling, audiences still carry that expectation in the way they watch, and the writers chose to defy it.

He admits the story gave the writers trouble. A conventional drama, King says, draws a straight line from the killing to a plan to hide it, the way Columbo does. Kerry’s plan does not follow that line. “Her plan doesn’t make sense,” King says. He recalls the writers room being bothered that she called John in at all and then hid the truth from him. After seeing the finished episode, King says it reads as more human to him, with Kerry making mistakes and regretting them in real time.

Showrunner Chris Mundy defended the reveal on the same podcast: “She loved Hal, and this is a tragedy for her as well.”

Viewers have not accepted the reasoning. One fan calling for a Clayface boycott pointed out that Kerry gets a happy life while Hal spent ten years in prison. A Reddit commenter called the killing “completely nonsensical and out of character,” and another poster wrote that Kerry “deserves jail time at least.”

The Oath Loses Its Enemy

The traditional Green Lantern oath makes two promises about evil. The first is that “no evil shall escape my sight.” The second is a warning to those who worship evil’s might. John Stewart’s new oath keeps the rhyme and the light but turns the subject inward: “I’ll embrace my fear, I’ll do what’s right.” It says nothing about evil at all.

On Lanterns: The Official Podcast, Lindelof was frank about the stakes. Describing the moment as holding a hand close to the flame of the canon, he said, “it is heresy to f**k with the oath.” He compared the significance to changing the Pledge of Allegiance. His reason for doing it was that John needed to accept the ring on his own terms.

Mundy took a lighter line on the same podcast. “We approached it like a remix,” he said, adding that the writers were not changing the oath, only remixing the original. Asked separately by the Los Angeles Times, he said, “We wanted John to take [the role] on his terms.”

King supplied the in-story rationale. John’s unsanctioned battery carries green willpower and yellow fear, and so, King said, “John is not a hundred percent a Green Lantern anymore.” He called John an utterly unique creation.

The remix defense runs into the text. A remix keeps the song. This version deletes the line that gave the oath its purpose, the promise that evil will not escape a Lantern’s sight, and replaces it with a promise about the Lantern’s own feelings. The original tells the universe what a Green Lantern promises. John’s tells John what John promises himself.

The timing sharpens the point. The oath changes in the same episode in which John lets a Manhunter hybrid and a murderer go free.

Blackest Night Becomes Darkest Night

One change in the oath has nothing to do with evil or fear. “In blackest night” became “in darkest night.” The phrase is among the best known in Green Lantern lore, and it gave DC one of its largest Green Lantern events its title. The line would rhyme just as well with the old word. The writers could have kept it.

No writer has said why they did not. Without a direct statement from Lindelof, Mundy, King or another writer, the motive remains a matter of inference. The record around the change points in one direction.

On the finale podcast, host Juju Green told the creators, “The Hood’s gonna love John Stewart’s new oath.” He compared the reaction he expected to the way Black audiences embraced Sam Wilson as Captain America and added, “That’s ours, you know?” Mundy answered, “That would be cool.” Racial and cultural identification with this version of John Stewart was part of the conversation about his oath while the writers were discussing it.

The week before, clips from The Ringer’s Midnight Boys podcast circulated showing Lanterns writer Vanessa Baden Kelly saying Hal Jordan has “racist tendencies.” In the same clips she says John Stewart’s backstory was changed over Aaron Pierre’s skin tone and credits the 2024 election with shaping the story of Hal and John.

In the Green Lantern oath, black and light are used in their oldest senses: the dark against the illumination the oath ends by naming, “Green Lantern’s light.” The original phrase carries no racial meaning. A writers room that treats a single murder subplot as a “big debate,” in King’s words, did not swap the most recognized line in the mythology by accident. When a show’s own writers discuss race this openly and then rewrite a famous phrase around the word black, viewers are right to ask whether the change was the point.

What a Green Lantern Is Supposed to Be

The Green Lantern Corps has always been a police force. Its members take an oath, carry a ring powered by willpower and answer for a sector of space. The ring runs on the wearer’s ability to master fear, and the yellow power of fear belongs to the villains, Sinestro among them. The oath is where the job is stated: find evil, stand against it, and answer to the Corps.

The writers of Lanterns reversed each part of that. Their hero pledges to embrace fear, and King confirms his battery carries the yellow side of the spectrum alongside the green. Their hero’s oath is private, written on his own terms, and the writers say he is no longer entirely a Green Lantern. Their hero then closes the season by deciding that neither the Manhunter hybrid nor the sheriff who shot Hal should answer for anything.

King’s defense makes the problem plainer. He says the punishment for murder is that the killer has to live with it. That is a view about conscience, and it can work in a story about conscience. It fits poorly with a character whose premise is that someone must act when wrong is done. A Green Lantern who identifies a killer and sees only a person to be pitied has set the Corps’ purpose aside. Mercy that costs the killer nothing, and gives the victim no justice, is impunity.

Hal Jordan takes the worst of it. In the finale’s telling he confronts Kerry, offers to get her and her son out of town, and she shoots him. His killer then walks, and the character the oath was built around receives no justice in a series that bears his corps’ name. King’s own words show how far the ending departs from the genre. He says the old noir code demanded a jail cell for a killer, and that the writers chose a different ending knowing audiences still expect one.

The finale also arrives at an uncertain moment. Mundy said Monday that there is “nothing official” on a second season, and DC’s Clayface opens October 23 under a boycott campaign built around this finale.

If a Green Lantern no longer vows that evil will not escape his sight, and lets the woman who killed Hal Jordan go free, what is the ring for?

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Sign up for the Ayla Rin: Gateway to Doom Crowdfund, coming soon for great cosmic comic books with a cover by legendary Green Lantern artist, Ethan Van Sciver:

Paramount Skydance closed its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, handing David Ellison control of the Warner Bros. film and TV studios, HBO, DC and CNN. The combined company now goes by Skydance, and its shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange the same day. It starts life carrying net debt of nearly $80 billion.

The $110 billion figure includes debt. The Associated Press puts the equity purchase at $81 billion. Warner shareholders receive $31 per share in cash, plus a daily amount that accrued after Sept. 30 until closing.

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How Ellison Got Here

Skydance finished its $8 billion purchase of Paramount in August 2025. Soon afterward, Paramount made an unsolicited offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, according to Deadline. Warner instead signed with Netflix. On Dec. 8, 2025, Paramount answered with a hostile bid for the entire company, CNN and the cable networks included. The Warner board rejected it more than once and urged shareholders to do the same. Paramount sued Warner and CEO David Zaslav.

Netflix eventually walked away. It told investors, “The deal is no longer financially attractive.” The Hill reports that pushback from federal lawmakers and President Trump preceded the exit.

Paramount sealed a $110 billion all-cash agreement on Feb. 27. Warner shareholders approved it April 23. The Justice Department closed its investigation June 12 and imposed no conditions or divestitures.

Opposition came from elsewhere. Democratic attorneys general from 12 states, led by California’s Rob Bonta, sued in July. The Writers Guild of America filed its own suit July 14. A federal judge froze the closing July 20. Paramount settled in late September, and Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín approved the consent decree Sept. 30, clearing the Oct. 6 date.

The Debt and the Stock

Debt drove the stock lower in the week before closing. On Oct. 1, Paramount priced $41.4 billion in senior secured notes and an $8.5 billion term loan to pay for the deal, with coupons running as high as 9.125%, according to Yahoo Finance. Shares fell nearly 10% that day and closed around $9. S&P Global had already cut the company’s rating to BB from BB+ on Sept. 24, citing higher leverage at close. Fitch dropped Paramount Skydance to junk status back in March.

According to 24/7 Wall St., the new debt dwarfs a market capitalization of about $10.8 billion, and the stock was down roughly 25% for the year as of Oct. 1. The same outlet reports that Larry Ellison pledged 36% of his Oracle shares as collateral for the deal financing.

Ellison told Warner staff the merger should produce more than $6 billion in cost savings, according to Variety. He said most of it would not come from layoffs, though he declined to give a job-cut number. Paramount cut about 2,000 jobs, roughly 10% of its workforce, within months of the Skydance merger last year.

What the Settlement Locks In

The five-year consent decree sets terms that limit how Skydance can cut. The company must release at least 30 films in U.S. theaters in each of the first two years and at least 32 a year for the next three. Qualifying films must stay in theaters 45 days and stay off subscription streaming for 90 days. A shortfall can cost $30 million per missing film, and a material violation left uncured could force the sale of Miramax.

Paramount and Warner cable networks must negotiate carriage deals separately for five years. Annual U.S. film and TV production spending must rise at least $300 million above the two companies’ combined 2025 level, and both studio lots must stay open. CBS News and CNN fall under a five-member editorial independence board. The Writers Guild settled for $17.5 million to its health fund plus up to $6 million in legal fees.

Ynon Kreiz, the former Mattel chief, becomes co-CEO and runs day-to-day operations and integration. Ellison stays chairman and CEO. At CBS News, Ellison already installed Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief.

What It Means for Fans

DC Studios, run by James Gunn and Peter Safran, and the Harry Potter films now sit under the same roof as Star Trek and Top Gun. HBO Max, Paramount+, Pluto TV and Discovery+ share one owner. Ellison told Warner staff he wanted to talk with both streaming teams before deciding what a merged service looks like, so no combination has been announced.

The decree blocks the cheapest route to paying down debt, which is shrinking theatrical output and pushing everything to streaming. That leaves cost cuts as the main lever, and Ellison has promised more than $6 billion of them. Netflix and Disney now face a larger rival that cannot easily cut its way out of its own balance sheet.

With a 30-film annual floor, a $30 million penalty for each miss and interest due on $41.4 billion in new notes, which side of the house gives first: the DC and Harry Potter slate from Warner, or the Star Trek and Mission: Impossible slate from Paramount?

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Tom Cruise’s Digger opened to $8 million in the United States and $20 million worldwide, with roughly $100 million more spent on marketing. Reported production budgets run from $125 million to $180 million, depending on the outlet. Tracking before the reviews landed had the film at $18 million to $20 million domestically. IndieWire’s headline calls it the biggest bomb of Cruise’s career, and the studio that released it closes its merger with Paramount on Tuesday.

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Trek Shorts creator Samuel Cockings has opened a GoFundMe campaign, part of his team’s #SaveStargate efforts. The campaign aims to finish a viral Stargate fan film and build toward a full fan-made 10-episode web series. The campaign is a direct response to Amazon’s decision to scrap its in-development Stargate revival.

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Amazon MGM Studios gave the new Stargate series a straight-to-series order in November 2025, with Martin Gero attached as showrunner. Gero had worked on Stargate SG-1, Atlantis, and Universe earlier in his career, and brought back original film writers Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin as executive producers alongside consulting producers Brad Wright and Joseph Mallozzi. The show spent nearly 20 weeks in the writers’ room and was preparing to shoot in the UK. Then, in June, Amazon canceled it before a single frame was filmed, reportedly over concerns that Gero’s approach leaned too heavily into existing continuity to pull in viewers beyond the franchise’s built-in fanbase.

Fans did not take the news quietly. A Change.org petition demanding Amazon reverse the decision climbed past 60,000 signatures, and the hashtag #SaveStargate has been running across social media for months with no response from Amazon.

Cockings is now trying to turn that frustration into something fans can watch, and he is not new to the franchise. He directs what he describes as the most-watched Stargate fan film on YouTube, a film he released in 2012 that has held the top spot for 14 years (at 156,000 views), and he followed it a decade later with a mini-episode built to show how far his effects work had come. In between, he built a reputation across the wider fan film community through his Star Trek web series Trekyards and through Trek Shorts, the anthology project behind releases like Temporal Anomaly, A Long Way From Home, and a run of Star Trek/Stargate crossover shorts. He told Fandom Pulse he has spent the last four years self-funding and building out the CGI assets for new Stargate projects on his own, without outside backing, slowly accumulating the pieces he needed to attempt something new: a set of films that tied together each Stargate TV show in a brand-new story. This new viral fan film is something new and a direct reaction to the cancellation, it is the biggest Stargate film he has made, with more space shots and interior sets than any release he has put out before, Star Trek included, and he is treating it as a return to where he started in fan films, now with over a decade of added skill behind it.

The GoFundMe is structured in funding tiers against a £10,000 goal for this first phase. £2,000 finishes the viral short already in production, getting it past the finish line at the speed the team wants. £4,000 covers hero-quality, screen-accurate SG-1 and Atlantis uniforms in multiple sizes so guest actors outside the regular cast can appear in future episodes. £6,000 funds custom hero-quality props, some built from original molds used on the shows. £8,000 adds episode-specific uniforms, including flight suits, patches, and SGU jackets. Hitting the full £10,000 funds the first batch of shoots for the wider viral series, with anything raised beyond that going toward filming more of it. As of this week, the campaign has raised just over £1,000 from nine donors.

Part of what separates this project from past fan efforts is access to real production history. Cockings’ father, Steven, has spent nearly 20 years collecting original screen-used Stargate props and costumes, including pieces from Atlantis, SG-1, the Tok’ra, the Jaffa, the Tollan, and the Lucian Alliance. If the series gets funded, those pieces go in front of the camera. Actress Emma Thorne has already signed on for a potential Ancient character and filmed a test short wearing a screen-used costume from the Atlantis episode “Aurora.”

Cockings has called this the first project he would actually walk away from without funding, given the scale of the work involved, and said Stargate has been part of his life since childhood, which is why he felt he had to attempt it. He is aiming for 50,000 to 100,000 views on the viral short if fans turn out for it, numbers he says would double as a message to Amazon that the appetite for original-timeline Stargate did not go away when the show did.

Fans can back the campaign directly at GoFundMe: SaveStargate fan film Fan Web Series.

With Amazon sitting on the IP and showing no sign of moving, is fan-funded production like this the fastest way back through the gate, or does it only give the studio more reason to let the franchise sit?

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The $110 billion merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery has closed, and David Ellison announced the combined company will operate under a new name: Skydance.

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He posted the announcement to X:

“What once was the peak, is now just the beginning.

Paramount and Warner Bros. shaped over a century of culture. By combining them, we aren’t rewriting history — we’re equipping these iconic studios with a more powerful engine. Together, we are Skydance: a creative-first home for bold, quality storytelling.

We chose this name for a few important reasons. First and foremost, as we bring Paramount and Warner Bros. together, we wanted to preserve what has made each of these studios iconic. Both have distinct identities, extraordinary legacies and brands that have resonated with audiences for generations. We never wanted a new corporate identity to diminish, alter or overshadow either one. Instead, we wanted a name that would give the combined company an identity of its own while allowing Paramount and Warner Bros. — and all our extraordinary brands — to remain in the spotlight.

We have big goals for Skydance, and we intend to pursue them with passion, imagination and a willingness to take smart risks. At the same time, we will honor what makes Paramount and Warner Bros. special — giving both studios the opportunity to grow, tell more great stories and bring those stories to even broader audiences around the world, powered by the scale and capabilities of Skydance.

I couldn’t be more excited about what we’re going to build together.”

Ellison’s path to running both studios started in July 2024, when Skydance Media first agreed to acquire Paramount, ending the Redstone family’s decades of control over the company. That deal closed in 2025, with Ellison, son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, taking the top job at the newly formed Paramount Skydance.

Paramount Skydance moved on Warner Bros. Discovery shortly after, and Warner shareholders approved the $110 billion merger in a vote this spring. That same vote saw shareholders reject a non-binding pay package that would have given outgoing Warner CEO David Zaslav a roughly $887 million exit payout. More than 4,000 industry figures signed an open letter opposing the merger outright, citing job losses, consolidation, and reduced creative diversity as risks of combining two of Hollywood’s largest studios under one roof.

The deal still had to clear antitrust litigation from California’s attorney general and eleven other state attorneys general before it could close, on top of domestic and international regulatory review. Ellison had set an October 1 deadline threatening to relocate Paramount out of California entirely if the state didn’t settle, a threat tied to an estimated $500 million in annual tax savings. The settlement came through before that deadline hit, clearing the final obstacle to closing.

Skydance becomes the parent company name, with the stock ticker switching from PSKY to SKYD. Paramount and Warner Bros. keep their own studio identities, along with DC, HBO Max, Nickelodeon, CBS, Paramount+, and CNN continuing to operate under those names rather than being folded into a single brand.

The leadership shuffle is already underway. Casey Bloys, formerly CEO of HBO, takes over Paramount+ and HBO Max together, replacing Paramount Streaming head Cindy Holland. Ynon Kreiz, who exited his role as Mattel’s CEO, joins as co-CEO of the combined company. Warner Bros. film chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy are departing as part of the transition.

Ellison has pledged the combined studios will produce 30 films annually, a number pitched as an answer to industry-wide concerns about shrinking theatrical output. Whether that pledge holds once two studio bureaucracies are forced to share a single corporate structure is the first real test of what “Skydance” means in practice.

Does folding Paramount and Warner Bros. under one parent company with a new name actually preserve what made each studio distinct, or is a rebrand just the first step toward merging them for real?

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South Park spent a full episode convincing skeptical viewers the show had found its footing again. “Billionaire Weenietown” undoes that work in under twenty minutes and lands as one of the weaker outings the series has produced in years.

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The hook is Butters, who discovers a colony of billionaires living in his backyard, rendered as literal anthropomorphic penises obsessed with podcasts and public feuds. His parents use AI to remodel the house around him and warn him not to turn into a “libtard” over his objections, before his father pivots to wondering whether the measles vaccine Butters got as a kid is what turned him soft on billionaires in the first place. It is the same anti-vaxxer sneer the show ran during the COVID years, dragged back out five years after the debate it was mocking actually mattered. The mandates the show spent 2020 and 2021 cheering on did not deliver what they promised. A lot of the people who pushed back turned out to have a point. Recycling the joke now, as if none of that happened and the people who asked questions are still the crazy ones, plays less like satire and more like a writers’ room still running on 2021 talking points because nobody told them the news moved on.

The visual design does the episode no favors. Weenietown is exactly what it sounds like: a settlement of tiny, genital-shaped billionaires running their own data centers, and the camera parks on it for most of the runtime. It apparently used real ones as cut outs which made it completely unwatchable. A parallel bit has Butters glued to pimple-popping videos on YouTube, shot in the same unflinching close-up as the main gag. Neither one is funny. Both are simply hard to sit through, and the episode leans on the gross-out so heavily it starts to feel like a substitute for a joke the writers never actually found.

The closer brings back the AI deepfake Trump bit we saw in the last season: footage of him on a toilet while real audio from one of his speeches plays underneath, followed by the same small-penis payoff the show has used before. It is generic at this point, and lame for being generic. When “mock Trump’s body” is the one beat a show can be counted on to reach for every time the rest of the script runs dry, that is not edge. That is a crutch, and a tired one.

The frustrating part is that the premise underneath all of it had somewhere real to go. Data centers eating up power and land in ordinary neighborhoods is a grievance a lot of people actually have right now, on both sides of the aisle, and a sharper episode could have mined that for a full twenty minutes without needing to reach for a single Trump joke. Instead the show buried its one timely idea under a recycled culture-war punchline and shock imagery that stopped shocking anyone a decade ago. It is the difference between an episode that says something and an episode that just performs being edgy for an audience that already agrees with it.

Last week’s premiere worked specifically because it let the politics sit in the background and trusted the actual joke, the e-bike gangs, to carry the episode. “Billionaire Weenietown” reverses that completely: the politics are the whole point, the joke is an afterthought, and the result is an episode that feels less like comedy and more like a lecture with a penis costume on.

One of the weaker episodes the show has put out in years, and proof that one good premiere does not mean South Park has actually changed direction.

Did the show ever need to drag the anti-vax material back out, or was that just an easy button to push when the data center plot ran out of steam?

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Six books. One unforgettable world. The Adventures of Baron Von Monocle is steampunk adventure with the kind of worldbuilding and heart that made you fall in love with fantasy in the first place. Start the series on Amazon.