I'm a writer/editor who's been at the site since 2015. I cover politics, weird history, video games and... well, anything really. Keep it breezy, keep it light, keep it straightforward.
In what'll be greeted as a good omen by Ryan Coogler and Chadwick Boseman, Black Panther has been crowned the "Most Anticipated Comic Book Character in a Standalone Movie" in Fandango's end of year readership poll. It was a tough field, too, with Jason Momoa's Aquaman in second, Tom Hardy's Venom in third, Sophie Turner's Jean Grey in fourth and Evangeline Lilly's The Wasp in fifth.
There are many ways to gauge a TV show's popularity, though one of the most reliable is also the one the networks most despise. I'm talking, of course, about how many people are pirating the series through torrents. And now, with 2018 fast approaching, prominent Torrent site Torrent Freak has totted up the numbers and worked out a top ten of thievery.
Terrified teenagers and Robert Englund go together like peas and carrots, so it's reassuring to see that this trailer for the upcoming Midnight Man looks like it's going to provide some real old school horror thrills. And, fortunately for the teenagers, Englund isn't the titular midnight man, but rather a Loomis-like veteran providing exposition on the spooky goings-on. He'll also likely die horribly at the beginning of the third act.
In a feeling shared by those of us who sat through X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men: Apocalypse, the characters of The New Mutants simply don't care about the X-Men. Of the three X-Universe films due for release in 2018 - Dark Phoenix, Deadpool 2 and The New Mutants - the latter looks the most interesting, as it's a straight horror story about mentally unstable teenage mutants struggling to control their powers.
It's safe to say that Alien: Covenant wasn't the monster hit Fox were hoping for. Before its release, director Ridley Scott was quoted as saying he could see the Alien franchise becoming "as big as Star Wars." Now, however, after the film's critical mauling, audience indifference and a poor showing at the box office (not to mention the Disney/Fox merger), it's looking doubtful we'll see a sequel to Covenant anytime soon.
Vin Diesel must be smiling tonight, as he's just been crowned the king of the box office for 2017 after his films cumulatively took in $1.6 billion this year. Most of the money comes courtesy of the insanely successful Fate of the Furious, which made an eye-watering $1.23 billion worldwide. His personal total was only increased by XXX: The Return of Xander Cage, which itself grossed $346.1 million. Interestingly, though, the $1.6 billion doesn't take into account Diesel's excellent voice work in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. If it had, that film's $863 million box office haul would have put him light years beyond his competitors.
The Jurassic Park franchise will always have a soft spot in my heart, and despite acknowledging its flaws, I really enjoyed Jurassic World for giving me a (brief) peek into what a working genetic dinosaur park might look like. But I'm considerably less hyped for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, following an iffy trailer and now the news that it's intended to 'merely' be the middle chapter in a Jurassic World trilogy.
We're probably a week (or maybe just days) away from Lucasfilm and Disney's big reveal of Solo: A Star Wars Story. Hyped up by The Last Jedi, fans are craving a first look at Alden Ehrenreich's Han Solo, not to mention a decent look at the direction they're going in with the film. Perhaps because of all that, some joker thought it'd be a great idea to fake some promotional images and 'leak' them online.