Show Notes
The CinemaConvergence Press, influencers, and theater owners flocked to Las Vegas to be wined and dined by Hollywood Studios at this year’s CinemaCon, where the event is beginning to feel more and more like a rival to San Diego Comic-Con in its golden years with the deluge of exciting announcements. With the sheer volume of news to cover, let’s break down the biggest headlines by studio panel: Disney Kevin Feige confirmed that Avengers Endgame will rerelease in theaters ahead of Avengers Doomsday with added scenes. A first trailer for Avengers Doomsday was also shown to the crowd who finally got to see Downey’s Doom in action. According to ComicBook.com, the trailer heavily featured Thor and included Shang-Chi, Gambit, and Steve Rogers.
At the Disney Cinema Con presentation, new footage was shown for Toy Story 5 and the live action Moana. Hailee Steinfeld and Rashida Jones were confirmed to voice the main characters of the upcoming animated feature Hexed. A trailer for The Dog Stars was also shown, a Ridley Scott sci fi epic that stars Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley, and Josh Brolin.
A final trailer for the Mandalorian and Grogu was released and the first 17 minutes of the film was shown to the crowd.
Sony Sony kicked off the convention Monday night and, as expected, Spider-Man was front and center. Attendees got a first look at a scene from Spider-Man: Brand New Day along with two new promotional posters, but the bigger buzz came from footage of Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse — the concluding chapter of Miles Morales’ trilogy — which hits theaters in June of next year.
Sony announced an R-rated animated Bloodborne feature based on the FromSoftware video game at its CinemaCon panel.
Sony has inked a first-look deal with Final Destination: Bloodlines duo Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, who will direct a feature adaptation of Metal Gear Solid.
Sony debuted the first trailer for Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil reboot at CinemaCon; the film arrives this September.
Sony revealed the first trailer for Insidious: Out of the Further, the next entry in the horror franchise, landing in theaters August 21.
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. brought the heat on Tuesday with a seven-minute opening scene from Dune: Part Three, featuring a massive battle and a confrontation between Paul and Chani that reportedly floored the room.
Game of Thrones: Aegon’s Conquest was revealed as the working title for the upcoming Game of Thrones feature film during the Warner Bros. panel.
Peter Safran debuted the first teaser for DC’s Clayface at CinemaCon, showing Tom Rhys Harries in various stages of mutilation pre- and post-transformation before an unsettling bathtub reveal; the film hits theaters October 23.
Safran also interviewed Supergirl’s Craig Gillespie, Milly Alcock and Jason Momoa, while showcasing extended footage from the film.
Concurrent with the DCU section of the panel, Man of Tomorrow news broke with Adria Arjona officially cast as Maxima and shooting to begin next week.
The cast for Andy Serkis’s The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum was officially unveiled at the Warner Bros. panel. Ian McKellen returns as Gandalf, Elijah Wood returns as Frodo, and Lee Pace reprises Thranduil, with Kate Winslet joining as Marigol, Leo Woodall as Halvard, and — most notably — Jamie Dornan stepping into the role of Aragorn.
Universal Christopher Nolan took the Universal stage Wednesday to premiere extended footage from The Odyssey, including a new shot of Matt Damon’s Odysseus washing up on Calypso’s beach — played by Charlize Theron — plus expanded Trojan Horse battle carnage; the IMAX-shot epic lands July 17.
Steven Spielberg made his first-ever CinemaCon appearance to present Disclosure Day, receiving the MPA America 250 Award before confirming the Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor thriller is an alien film, with the pair playing adults who were abducted as children.
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Welcome to Multiverse News, your source for information about all your favorite fictional universes. Due to Matt Reeves departure from the set of The Batman II for personal reasons, Steven Soderbergh is being brought in to help complete principal photography, working with Reeves from a distance for the final months of production as the film heads toward its February 18, 2028 release date. Soderbergh, the director behind Ocean’s 11, Magic Mike, and Traffic, approached Reeves with the offer to help. In a post on social media, Reeves made it clear that he is still involved with the project and not stepping away from his Batman sequel. In an interview with IGN, DC Studios heads Peter Safran and James Gunn broke the news that the upcoming animated Mister Miracle series, based on Tom King’s award-winning comic of the same name, will star Josh Hutcherson and Mackenzie Davis. Hutcherson will play Mister Miracle, aka Scott Free, while Mackenzie Davis will star as his fellow New God, Big Barda. In other news, The Penguin showrunner Lauren LeFranc is currently in talks to develop a Poison Ivy series. In the world of literary fiction, two beloved franchises got major updates last week. Pierce Brown’s popular Red Rising series will be developed by Paramount Pictures. Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence is set to helm this dystopian sci-fi creation for the screen. Romantasy favorite Fourth Wing, being developed by Amazon, cast its two main characters - with Esther McGregor set to play Violet Sorrengail, and Emilio Sakraya landing the role of wingleader Xaden Riorson. Zendaya has joined the cast of a new untitled sci-fi film to be written and directed byAlex Garland for A24. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but the feature is set to shoot in 2027. The fifth season of True Detective has cast its leads. Nicolas Cage and Antonio Banderas will star in the HBO anthology’s next season, which is set to begin filming in 2027. Both stars have been rumored to be attached to the show for some time: Cage was first reported to be in talks for a lead role in the summer of 2025, and speculation about Banderas joining True Detective first surfaced late last year. This weekend at the box office, Paramount's live action Street Fighter opened to a less than forecasted 51.1 million dollars worldwide. Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's You Can See Everything opened to $15M on a limited screen release, easily the second best opening ever for a documentary at the box office after 2004’s Fahrenheit 9/11. Prime Video has released the first trailer for season 3 of The Rings of Power which will premiere on November 11th. Disney+ and Hulu have greenlit a reboot of Ryan Murphy’s 2009 musical dramedy series Glee. Variety also reports that original series star Lea Michelle will return to reprise her role from the original series which ran for six seasons and originally concluded in 2015.
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Avengers: Endgame has once again reclaimed the global box office crown from Avatar, narrowly passing it with $2.9255 billion worldwide after its return to theaters. Avatar sits second with $2.9237 billion. Meanwhile, Nicolas Cage is taking aim at the franchise’s current direction. During a recent Q&A at Fan Expo Dallas, Cage said he misses when Marvel movies focused more on story, character development, and weaving together different backstories. Cage said watching talented actors put on “ridiculous outfits” only to prepare for the inevitable big fight makes it difficult not to see the MCU as “a well-funded and glorified WWE.” Despite the shake-up at Skydance amid the Warner Bros. and Paramount merger, insiders say that James Gunn and Peter Safran are reportedly expected to remain in charge of DC Studios. Meanwhile, production on The Batman Part II has been temporarily paused as director Matt Reeves stepped away to focus on a family matter. Warner Bros. and DC Studios said Reeves has their “full support” and that they look forward to continuing the film’s journey soon. On Tuesday it was announced that David Ellison’s Paramount completed its $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, officially combining two legendary film studios, an enormous conglomeration of TV networks, two large streaming services, and multiple news organizations into one player that the mogul hopes will let him compete with the likes of Disney and Netflix, to say nothing of Amazon, Apple and Google. The new mega company will be called Skydance, dropping both of the historical names that are well-known. Focus Features and Blumhouse-Atomic Monster have given Curry Barker‘s upcoming horror-comedy Anything But Ghosts a release date of May 7, 2027. Warner Bros. announced last week that Game of Thrones: Aegon’s Conquest is set for theatrical release on June 1, 2029. Owen Harris directs the film that has a script from Beau Willimon, marking the first feature film for the franchise that adapts author George R.R. Martin‘s A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy book series. Bradley Cooper has signed on to star as field commander Duke in Paramount‘s G.I. Joe movie from Danny McBride. Paramount also confirmed that G.I. Joe has been “uncoupled” from the Transformers franchise. That crossover was teased at the end of 2023’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Sources tell Deadline that Walton Goggins is set to join Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler in Universal’s Miami Vice ’85 in a villain role. Warner Brother's Tom Cruise led Digger opened to a disastrous $20 million dollars worldwide box office this weekend, the lowest opening for Tom Cruise in nearly 20 years. Amazon MGM's Colleen Hoover adaptation Verity took the number one spot with a $62.5 million dollar worldwide opening. Both films received C+ Cinema Scores, indicating steep drop offs coming next weekend. Sources tell Deadline that Paramount and Hasbro Entertainment have appointed Steven Spielberg to focus on all creative aspects of the next live-action Transformers film alongside Michael Bay, who is in early talks to return as director. Michael Bay directed 5 live action Transformers films from 2007 to 2017.
Welcome to Multiverse News, your source for information about all your favorite fictional universes. Avengers: Endgame took back the number one spot at the box office this weekend, with the Endgame: Encore re-release opening to $86 million worldwide. It lands as Joe and Anthony Russo keep a tight lid on Avengers: Doomsday, telling Empire Online that Bruce Banner is certainly involved in the story revolving around Doom while declining to confirm or deny whether the Hulk appears, and adding that there are characters and actors in the film who have not been announced. That is on top of the 31 Marvel characters already confirmed for the December release. Deadline also reports that Sony has a theatrical re-release of Spider-Man: Brand New Day in the works featuring new and unseen footage, including a cut scene with Rosario Dawson, though no date has been set. Lucasfilm has enlisted Jon Watts to direct the first installment of a new Skywalker saga trilogy, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Watts directed the first three Tom Holland Spider-Man films and has been in this galaxy before, co-creating the Disney+ series Skeleton Crew with Christopher Ford in 2024. Simon Kinberg was previously attached as a writer on the trilogy, which would feature Daisy Ridley’s Rey in a supporting role. Nothing has been dated yet, and Star Wars: Starfighter, the Shawn Levy film starring Ryan Gosling, is still the next theatrical entry on the calendar for May 28, 2027. DC Studios has released what it is calling the final trailer for Clayface, the last big marketing push for a film that arrives October 23. James Watkins directs the horror thriller from a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, with Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen, a Gotham actor left disfigured by a crime boss who takes an experimental treatment that restores his looks but costs him his grip on reality. It lands at a pivotal stretch for the DCU, coming after Supergirl finished its summer run at roughly $126 million worldwide against a reported production budget north of $170 million, and with Lanterns closing out its first season on HBO Max next Sunday. Warner Bros has made release date changes to a pair of upcoming films. DC Studios animated film Dynamic Duo is moving from June 30, 2028 to September 22, 2028, and the Chris Columbus directed untitled Gremlins film is shifting from November 19, 2027 to October 6, 2028. Elsewhere at the box office, Resident Evil stayed strong in its second weekend and is about to cross $200 million. Lance Oppenheim’s Primetime, starring Robert Pattinson, opened to $20.3 million worldwide, though its release was limited outside the United States. A24 has dropped a full trailer for You Can See Everything, the Elizabeth Holmes documentary from Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder, and confirmed an October 16 release date. Blumhouse, Atomic Monster and James Wan have enlisted Mike P. Nelson to direct a new Saw movie. Nelson previously directed 2021’s Wrong Turn and the 2025 remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night. John Goodman, Ian Alexander and Laura Bailey have joined the season three cast of HBO’s The Last of Us. Alexander and Bailey have both voiced characters in the video games, though they are not reprising those roles in live action. Prey director Dan Trachtenberg is in talks to direct an original film inspired by Sleeping Beauty at Disney, according to Deadline. The untitled project is in early development and is said to take the story in an entirely new direction. Prime Video has renewed Reacher for a sixth season just 12 days after the season four finale, marking the first time the show has received two renewals in the same year. Season four drew 66 million viewers globally in its first 28 days, topping season three. Jennifer Lawrence will star in Zach Cregger’s next film titled The Flood. Nothing is known about the plot of the film, but Warner Bros. executives call it “bold and wholly original.” The Flood is set to release August 11, 2028.
According to sources for The Hollywood Reporter, the forthcoming third season of Daredevil: Born Again will be the show’s final season. The decision comes about two months after the show’s third season wrapped filming. The move also comes as Marvel has quietly parted ways with showrunner Dario Scardapane, whose contract was up and was not renewed. The parting of ways is eyebrow-raising as it means that Scardapane is exiting the show in the middle of post-production. It has not been reported as to who will oversee the final stages of the show. The same article confirmed that Marvel has three to five live-action shows in development, and sources say it just greenlit a spy thriller referred to as the codename Zodiac. The most notable Marvel comics reference of Zodiac is tied to a criminal organization headed by a villain named Scorpio that featured villains themed to the constellations. In the comics, it was known for going head-to-head against SHIELD. According to industry insider Jeff Sneider, Mason Thames has been cast as Dick Grayson and Logan Kim has been cast as Jason Todd in the upcoming DC Studios animated film Dynamic Duo. Chris Pine has been offered the role of Batman. The animated film is yet another Batman Elseworlds project even though it will live under the DCU banner. Thames’ name will be familiar as Hiccup in the live-action How to Train Your Dragon, and Kim played the character of Podcast in both Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Empire magazine has published several first look images at Greta Gerwig's upcoming adaptation of The Magician's Nephew from The Chronicles of Narnia. In the article, it is confirmed that Meryl Streep will voice Aslan, as well as that the film is inspired by rock operas of the 70s and 80s. The film comes to cinemas February 12, 2027, and will be streaming on Netflix beginning April 2, 2027. Paramount has reached a settlement with California and 11 other states, clearing a major legal hurdle for its roughly $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. As part of the deal, Paramount has agreed to produce at least 30 movies a year, invest another $1.5 billion in U.S. film production, and create a $47.5 million fund for workers affected by the merger. The deal still needs final court approval, but it essentially clears the path for Paramount and Warner Bros. to become one massive Hollywood company. After more than a decade of false starts, Paramount is finally closing in on making a sequel to its 2013 hit World War Z. Brad Pitt is set to return to star in the feature that also has Edward Berger, the filmmaker behind All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave, on board to direct. Zach Cregger's Resident Evil opened strong at the box office this weekend with a $108 million worldwide opening, $60 million of which was made domestically. This opening is not only a best for Cregger, but it is also a best for the Resident Evil franchise. Netflix has released a trailer for David Fincher's The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, in which Brad Pitt reprises his Oscar-winning role as the stuntman first introduced in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The film is set to premiere in Imax theaters on November 25, before hitting the streamer December 23. Alan Ritchson is in talks to star in Sony’s adaptation of its PlayStation video game property, Helldivers. The move comes after Jason Momoa exited the project in early June and would be the first time the Reacher star headlines a theatrical studio feature. Actor John Leguizamo has been cast as a villain in Joseph Kosinski's upcoming Miami Vice '85, a film reboot of the 1980s TV show. The cast already includes Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler in starring roles.