With Dark Phoenix edging towards its release date on June 7th, buzz has been tempered by the multiple behind-the-scenes problems and tepid reactions to the latest installment in the X-Men franchise. To make matters worse, the film comes at the end of the series as it's existed at 20th Century Fox since the early 2000s. The similarly-troubled New Mutants will be the thirteenth and final film in the Fox-owned take on the Marvel comics.
In a moment more than a little reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings, Arya Stark sailed away from Westeros to discover new lands. We thought it was a fitting end to the character's run on Game of Thrones, and one of the less controversial moments in a finale that had plenty. Arya has never stopped adapting and finding new ways to define herself, and her journey from Westeros was very much in keeping with her rebellious spirit and loner identity. However, where could she end up next?
In one of the more emotional moments of the Game of Thrones series finale, Jon Snow finally got to give Ghost the cuddles the direwolf deserved. After causing some uproar over his relatively cold goodbye to the animal earlier this season, Jon's greeting to his loyal pet was a sign that the battle-scarred character was finding some peace.
With all the rumors flying around at the moment about casting for The Batman, Sebastian Stan has thrown his hat into the ring to play the Riddler. The Avengers: Endgame star, speaking at a Jus In Bello Q&A in Rome this week, was quizzed about future roles he'd like to take on and Stan admitted that he'd like to make the move from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the DC equivalent.
We didn't get to see much of Loki in Avengers: Endgame, but his brief appearances showed that the character remains one of the most charismatic in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Loki disappearing from The Avengers-era New York with the Tesseract has led to some fevered speculation over what this means for him and the wider Marvel timeline, and now, we finally have some answers, with Joe and Anthony Russo explaining how the Space Stone will affect Tom Hiddleston's trickster god.
The penultimate Game of Thrones episode has had some (slightly) extreme reactions, including a petition to redo Season 8. One of the main criticisms of Dany going full Mad Queen is that it didn't serve her character development over the last eight seasons, while her reaction to Jon Snow's revelations about being her nephew have helped tip her over the edge. But is Dany's apparent madness actually consistent with how she's acted all along on the show?
While Joe Pesci isn't to everyone's taste, the actor has earned his place in cinema history with roles in everything from Raging Bull to Goodfellas and Home Alone. Pesci has emerged from virtual retirement for Martin Scorsese's The Irishman, and now may reprise one of his iconic roles for Lethal Weapon 5. The action franchise, which has recently spun-out a troubled television series, hasn't had a new entry since 1998, but sources suggest that shooting may start later this year.
Swamp Thing, the latest addition to the DC Universe service, has already been confirmed to include graphic violence. The latest buzz from the cast of the series, which launches May 31st, is that the episodes could go to even more extreme lengths in referencing Swamp Thing's horror roots (so to speak), making the most of the premium platform's adult content freedoms.
