Some amazing news from HBO, George R.R. Martin, and Nigerian-American novelist Nnedi Okorafor.

Who Fears Death, Okorafor's 2010 fantasy novel about a young woman Onyesonwu with magical powers who goes on a quest to defeat her sorcerous father, is being developed as an HBO TV series by Martin. Here's Okorafor's Facebook announcement...

According to Variety, the deal is not yet officially closed, but Okorafor seems to think it is going to happen, which is exciting news. The novel was initially optioned for feature film development back in 2010.

Sure, some may lament the time this will take Martin away from finishing his A Song of Ice and Fire book series, but it's hard not to celebrate the deal as an example of a white male author and producer with extreme privilege using his pull to bring the kind of story to the popular screen that hardly ever gets seen.

Thankfully, it sounds like Okorafor will be involved in the development of her novel into TV series form. Further down on the Facebook post's thread, she said:

i am very involved. i also know george well (we met in 2014 and stayed in touch); he’s been a sort of mentor to me through all this. and all those involved know what this story is; onyesonwu is in good good hands.

Who Fears Death not only has a black woman as a protagonist, but it is set in post-apocalyptic Sudan sometime in the future. It engages with issues of race, sexual violence, and female genital mutilation. And it does that all while in general being a wonderfully-crafted fantasy tale. The novel won the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, as well as the 2010 Carl Brandon Kindred Award. It was also nominated for the Nebula for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Novel.

More news as we hear it.

This article was written by someone who had not seen a single Game of Thrones season 7 spoiler, either via paparazzi photos or online rumors... nor even trailers. So there are no spoilers here, just educated guesses based on the first six seasons.

Winter is here. The cool breeze that was first promised by Sean Bean during a cryptic teaser trailer oh, so many moons ago has finally blown across Westeros, and while Game of Thrones season 6 certainly brought an explosive conclusion to its fast-moving and exciting year, it is the quiet unknown that lingers in the mind after those closing credits. Varys promises Lady Olenna Tyrell that in the wars to come, there will be fire and blood to quench her thirst, and with that closing shot of dragons flying in a westward direction toward King’s Landing, it’s clear he’s not whistling “The Rains of Castamere.”

Game of Thrones season 7 is still a painful four months away, but even with that long gap, the pieces are finally falling into place, and showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have a pretty clear table set for their series’ endgame. Also if their initial statements hold true, there are only 13 hours left to revel in this world before that final curtain, and certainly only seven installments in 2017.

Yet, be that as it may, the question remains of what will occur in those seven chapters. We have some ideas. Below is how we think the few remaining storylines that were not streamlined in a glorious emerald blaze above the Steps of Baelor will play out in a year’s time.

Cersei, Queen of the Three Kingdoms, Not Long May She Reign

The obvious place to start is with the new occupant of the Iron Throne. Cersei now has the rather uncomfortable looking chair that they all covet, yet none ever seem to reach with any seeming remnants of grace or humanity. Joffrey came into power through the duplicitous murder of his “father” and the contested challenges offered by Renly, Stannis, and even Ned Stark who intended to fight on Stannis’ behalf. Likewise, Joffrey’s predecessor took the Iron Throne through blood when he slaughtered Rhaegar Targaryen on the Trident, and his successor proved to be a feckless little monarch that got Joff’s hand-me-downs following one hell of a wedding party.

But now that Tommen has elected to end his life and rest for all time by his wife’s side instead of spending one more day as his demonic mother’s pawn, a rather unique power vacuum has opened up in King’s Landing. And Cersei is not-so-convincingly filling it. More than love for her children, Cersei has always worshipped at the altar of political domination, and with no clear successor in place following the complete annihilation of the Baratheon line—and her own children—Cersei sits awkwardly in a chair that hasn’t looked so bleak since the days of the Mad King.

And it will be almost exactly like the Mad King that Cersei departs the Game of Thrones that she nicknamed.

At this precise moment in the series, Cersei is not Queen of the Seven Kingdoms despite what Qyburn said at her muted coronation about being “Protector of the Realm.” She couldn’t even protect her son from her own scheming when she left him alone to watch the smoking embers of his legacy drift from the ruins of Baelor all the way to the far side of Blackwater Bay. Cersei is a fool that created this threat of the High Sparrow to destroy Margaery, and in the process destroyed her own sanity, the mental well-being of her son, and finally the capital itself.

Now, Cersei is actually only the queen of three kingdoms: the Crownlands in which King’s Landing rests, the Westerlands where her family hails from, and the Stormlands which have lost the rule of both her late husband and his two now equally dead younger brothers. But Dorne has already murdered one of Cersei’s children, and now the queen has sent what’s left of House Tyrell into the arms of Ellaria Sand, whose combined fighting force likely already surpasses House Lannister’s 8,000 men.

Further, the Iron Islands have been in perpetual rebellion for years, and still nobody has put them down. The Riverlands are a chaotic mess since House Tully has been more or less shamed from existence, and the Freys (the one still super-loyal family to House Lannister) have lost their patriarch, as well as his two potential heirs that he’d groomed.

Oh, and Winterfell has a new King in the North. Again. Whose sister is one of Cersei’s most hated enemies.

The point is that the union of the Seven Kingdoms has collapsed, and Cersei’s ability to offer it a new center of gravity appears doomed. It is not even clear if she will have the fearful obedience of the King’s Landing smallfolk since she slaughtered their very popular equivalent to the Pope, as well as the much more beloved younger queen, in an attack that undoubtedly left thousands dead. Another way to put this is that the French rebelled for less than blowing up the Vatican.

No, Cersei remains unloved by all now, including her incestuous brother. And with Daenerys set to make landfall early next season, the Stranger’s embrace beckons for this queen. The tragedy for all is that she knows this deep down and will do everything to thwart it, including perhaps use the remaining wildfire to burn the capital to ash, just like the Mad King previously dreamed of doing.

Hence why I personally suspect that the end of season 7 (if not earlier) will feature Daenerys’ dragons and armies making short work of King’s Landing’s defenses, and the people rebelling in the street against their “Lord Protector.” Seven Hells, they might be doing that before then once Highgarden cuts off the food supply in retribution for slaughtering most of the Tyrells. In that moment, Cersei will attempt to repeat history and choose to burn the capital down. This will occur after five or more hours of Jaime Lannister witnessing his sister becoming the same murderous despot that Aerys II had been when he stabbed him in the back.

So too will he probably plunge his sword through Cersei’s heart. However, when Tyrion and Dany finally step foot in the throne room, excited to confront their conquered enemies, they will not find a leering Kingslayer mockingly sitting in the Iron Throne, but rather a dead one who killed himself by his own hand after reluctantly slaughtering the love of his life for the greater good. No one will remember why this happened, but maybe Tyrion will feel something resembling pity for his brother?

Daenerys Brings the Fire and Blood

Of course for this to occur, Dany will have her work cut out for her as she cuts a bloody path across the continent. Before “The Winds of Winter,” I wondered if she might land in the Iron Islands and set Yara up for life while just bypassing the whole Southron madness. But now that she has a firm pact signed with Dorne, and King’s Landing has gone to the pits, she will almost certainly be landing in either Dorne or the Reach. Granted, she could just land right on top of King’s Landing, and let her dragons and Iron Fleet do the fighting. But Daenerys is a conqueror and needs to form a battle strategy of her own.

Again, Dany now has the armies of Dorne and Highgarden at her disposal, plus her Dothraki horde who prefers fighting on horseback over a ship’s deck. Ergo, it makes the best sense to land in Oldtown (the Reach) or Sunspear (Dorne). From there, she can consolidate forces and lead a land-based siege against King’s Landing, which could play out satisfyingly over a handful of episodes. And with that kind of military might, it is a foregone conclusion that Cersei is doomed. It’s just a matter of whether Jaime’s merciful blade or Daenerys’ ravenous dragons reach her first.

Some Old Faces in Oldtown

Yet while on the subject of Oldtown, “The Winds of Winter” left Sam and Gilly in an awkward spot while waiting for the maesters’ bureaucracy to get sorted. Indeed, their final scene in season 6 felt like Terry Gilliam’s vision of paper pushing purgatory transposed into a whole new genre. Sam also got a nice signoff when he was allowed to play Belle to the Citadel’s Beast in that towering library.

Presumably, there is much knowledge, both ancient and new, tucked away in all those books. It even makes me wonder how Westeros is overall so uneducated with this kind of intellectual hub. I am starting to theorize that the maesters hoard knowledge instead of sharing it to enlighten the world. Whatever the case might be, I am fairly confident that there is a cure for greyscale located somewhere in that ivory tower. After all, Shireen was cured by somebody before it consumed her whole body as a baby.

For that reason, on top of finding out new ways to fight White Walkers, Sam could prove instrumental in offering a cure to Ser Jorah Mormont. His queen commanded him to find a cure somewhere in this world to his disease, and the Citadel of Oldtown is probably the most learned spot in all the land. They could even chat about Jorah’s long departed father.

The King in the North, and the Watchers in the Wings

Still, I imagine more than Jorah or Sam, it is the latter’s brother in black that many viewers are most anxious to return to in season 7. Aye, Jon Snow is now King in the North, which begs the question of why do they still call him Jon Snow? Jon Stark should suffice at this point if there is a crown on his head, methinks.

In any event, it was ever so satisfying to see Lady Mormont put all the grown men in Winterfell’s great hall to shame: she and her fighting 62 stood by Jon and Sansa’s side at the Battle of Winterfell while so many other northern houses stuck their heads in the snow. Now, she looks pleased as peach to crown Jon as King in the North, which will give him all the forces he needs to start building a truly massive army for fighting the White Walkers in the great war.

But showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss would like to sow the seeds of doubt with the stolen glances between Littlefinger and Sansa. This was doubly confirmed in the press with ominous words hinted at by Sophie Turner and Liam Cunningham in interviews following season 6’s closure.

This is a smoke screen of misdirection. I say this partially because I would be so thoroughly disappointed if the first two Starks to reunite betrayed each other. However, I also believe “The Winds of Winter” pretty resoundingly gave answers to both Starks’ allegiances. Sansa has become quite the paranoid young woman following a childhood ruined in King’s Landing and a family either murdered or scattered to the wind. I hesitate to use the word “betrayal,” but she has certainly done a great disservice to Jon by not telling him of either Littlefinger’s initial offer or of the Vale’s last minute assistance. Then again, it was her craftiness that allowed her and Petyr Baelish to take advantage of a trap that Jon Snow walked into (and he still would have even if he had a larger army behind him).

Both characters acknowledge this with Sansa being the first to insist that Jon Snow is a Stark. He tries to refuse their parents’ master bedroom and then tries to forsake ownership of Winterfell; he wants Sansa to take credit and become Wardeness of the North. She refuses that and looks genuinely happy for Jon as he is declared King in the North. Before that moment, Littlefinger tries to plant a dangerous idea into the She-Wolf’s head, stating that she is Ned and Cat’s trueborn heir; Jon is a motherless bastard.

This is because Littlefinger wants Sansa for himself, and he wants them to rule on high from King’s Landing. Ignoring the fact that Baelish is oblivious that Daenerys is about to turn the order of the Southron Kingdoms upside down—which along with the White Walkers will make Littlefinger’s schemes obsolete by the end of season 7—Sansa herself has no interest in returning to King’s Landing. The capital ruined her life.

Much service will be paid to Littlefinger trying to turn Sansa against Jon Snow in season 7, which was hinted at in the finale. Baelish needs Jon out of the way so that Sansa can be declared Queen in the North. When that happens, Littlefinger could marry her and call himself king, which would then lead to another war for the Iron Throne. And if there were no dragons or White Walkers on the horizon, he’d have a pretty good shot at dethroning Cersei. Unfortunately for the Master of Treachery, there are those things.

Plus Sansa will never marry him.

Thus when push comes to shove, and the parentage of Jon Snow is revealed (which will give him a claim in both the North and South for any manner of thrones), Littlefinger will test Sansa’s allegiance against her brother. And hopefully, he’ll lose his head in the process.

Arya Finds Her Pack

Yet, if I am optimistically predicting that two Starks will stand united in their ancestral home (especially with an Army of the Dead approaching), I doubt another will even see Winterfell in season 7. More than any other family member, Arya might have suffered the most of the living Stark children. And she has definitely hardened the most as a result.

When we met the youngest Stark sister, she yearned to learn “water dancing” and fence with the boys. It’s a far cry from the rather deadened young woman whose eyes only come alive with something approximating ecstasy when she is murdering her foes. Admittedly, I was also delighted at the sight of Walder Frey’s life draining from his face. However, these kind of actions will continue to take a toll on a girl that for two seasons almost became “No One.”

Arya claimed to Jaqen that she is going home, but I imagine that she already knows she never can. Not really. She will eventually wind up in Winterfell but not until the last possible moment when the hour is late and the living’s dominion over the dead will be in check. Or in other words, season 8.

In the meantime, I find it highly plausible that Arya does become reunited with her last father of sorts, Sandor Clegane. As previously seen, the Hound and the Brotherhood Without Banners are headed to the North in order to fight in the wars to come, and Arya is looking for a wolf pack in the same Riverlands.

Despite growing disillusioned with the Brotherhood’s cause, she and the Hound might actually be elated to see one another again. If so, just please throw in a chance encounter with a long abandoned direwolf named Nymeria, and Arya should be on the rebound in season 7 as she and her band of outlaws merrily kill their way to Winterfell.

Bran Stark Breaks Down Barriers

One Stark that I do think will return home next year, however, is the one who can reveal Jon Snow’s parentage much to Littlefinger’s chagrin. Bran Stark’s ability to command history, prophecy, and animals will be crucial in the war against the Night King, and for that to happen he’ll need to get back to Winterfell. Once Jon Snow knows that he is the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark—for which Meera’s father should also be on hand at Winterfell to confirm—the entire power dynamics in both the North and South will shift.

But first, Bran Stark will have to get to Winterfell, and in doing so, he will likely precipitate the great war in the process. This was the horrible, world-ending event foreshadowed by Benjen Stark when he said he was not allowed to cross the Wall. It is built not just of ice but also by old magic that keeps the White Walkers at bay. Alas that Bran and Meera did not feel the need to tell Benjen that just as he was cursed by White Walker magic, so too has Bran been similarly touched.

The scar on Bran’s arm is what undid the ancient magic that protected the Three-Eyed Raven at the great heart tree, and that cursed arm will be what allows the Night’s King to finally cross the Wall that has kept him out of the vast majority of Westeros for millennia.

When Bran crosses the Wall, this apocalypse may not happen overnight but it will allow the Army of the Dead to pay a visit to Castle Black in a future season 7 episode. Thus their collective Watch will end forevermore.

Dany, Jon, and the Dead

All of this leads to the obvious question: When and how will “A Song of Ice and Fire” be played? The literary title of the entire George R.R. Martin saga obviously pertains to the stories of Jon Snow (ice) and Daenerys Targaryen (fire). Also, her dragons versus the White Walkers is as inevitable as the falling sheets of frost descending upon Winterfell.

I suspect that this question will be primarily left to season 8. While a crowned Jon Stark might have his first battle with the White Walkers in season 7, Daenerys will likely stay in the South, saving their fateful meeting for the very final season.

As for whenever that introduction should occur, we are still left to also wonder if it shall be as friend or foe. The most obviously fan-pleasing outcome would be for Daenerys and Jon Snow to marry. Technically, she is his aunt but that would have been cool in actual medieval times, and it certainly would be acceptable in a land where Targaryen siblings frequently wedded. Together, theirs is the song of Ice and Fire that will save the world from the Long Night.

The breadcrumbs were present in “The Winds of Winter” since Daenerys said that she plans to conquer Westeros partially through marriage, and Tyrion Lannister would probably be keen to suggest a marriage to Jon Stark even before knowing of the Targaryen angle since Tyrion was a friend to Jon and has a soft spot for the First Family of the North.

And that is exactly why I don’t think it’ll happen. Or at least that will not be the ending if wedding bells do indeed ring. Conceivably, season 7 could end with Jon and Dany in a dire situation with the spreading of zombies, thereby choosing to align their Houses and even their beds. But the friction between them is inevitable. If the series actually ended with the two most popular living characters, at least excluding Tyrion and Arya, marrying in a big happy ceremony, it would ring false. Too J.R.R. Tolkien and not enough George R.R. Martin.

Personally, I expect, for one reason or another, Daenerys and Jon Stark to go to war by the middle of season 8. Perhaps they’ll clash before joining forces against the White Walkers—thus leaving an uneasy alliance impossible to end in marriage—or maybe it will be after the messiest political divorce in television history. It just seems inauthentic for this show to give viewers the equivalent of a happily ever after. I do not see Jon Snow ever being content in King’s Landing. He’s got too much of Ned in him. Nor do I think Daenerys even necessarily wants to be married.

Besides, what use was building up Bran’s warging abilities for seven years if he doesn’t use them to fly as a dragon? And why would he have to commandeer a dragon if Dany and Jon are always on the same side?

A more likely scenario for season 8 would be Jon and Daenerys forming a shaky alliance against the White Walkers, and after it is over a détente between North and South being reached because Bran disarms Dany’s dragons. Daenerys will rule the Five Kingdoms to the South, lest she decides to welch on Yara and keep the Iron Islands, and the North will be allowed to self-govern. Jon Stark will be remembered as the King Who Didn’t Kneel.

If he marries someone, I wouldn’t put it past this show for it to be his technical cousin, Sansa Stark. Albeit, that theory is mostly based on the fact that in the original outline for “A Song of Ice and Fire,” George R.R. Martin envisioned Jon Snow marrying Arya Stark (whose age was undetermined in the pitch, so she might have been closer to Sansa in years). And it would certainly leave viewers feeling conflicted and probably a little queasy.

Now that is a George R.R. Martin kind of ending.

But words are wind. We’ll find out for sure how all the pieces on the board fall over the next year and a half. Until then, valar morghulis.

This article was originally published on June 27, 2016.

Phrases like “world-building” are a dime a dozen in Hollywood nowadays, and the words “cinematic universe” seem to accompany the press release for each and every summer blockbuster. And yet, almost none of these multiplying onscreen wonderlands has displayed a fraction of the imagination and creativity that is bursting at the seams of Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, a sci-fi fantasia that often exceeds our greatest flights of fancy. For a purely psychedelic space opera, Valerian is indeed hard to beat for genre fans desiring a new take on the future. Like the Devil, Valerian’s quality is in the details.

It’s thus a bit of a shame then that for all the demented randomness that Besson paints into the margins of this French yé-yé pop concoction, the picture is fairly bland at its center, with two barely serviceable leads in a storyline that merely holds up the tent of Besson’s visual ambitions, as opposed to filling it with anything resembling actual sincerity or a driving narrative. Even so, this is such a refreshingly daring space odyssey that it’s hard to begrudge the international production’s wish to boldly go where few franchises would ever dream about trekking toward: something weird. At times, gloriously so.

Based on the French Valerian and Laureline comic book series of the 1960s and ‘70s from Besson’s youth, this 2017 film offers a vision of space that is both out-there and decidedly retro. Besson stands firm that the European comic by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières was a major influence on George Lucas’ Star Wars, and that element is certainly at play in Valerian, which presents a galaxy 500 years from now that moves and grooves as if the Mos Eisley cantina has set the pace for the whole of time and space.

In this context, Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are two top secret-ish agents for Alpha, the titular “city of a thousand planets.” Alpha began as an Earth-orbiting space station that eventually grew so vast and utopian after more and more aliens joined its expanding structure that it had to leave our solar system and track its own path. Four hundred years onward, nearly every peaceful species (and a few not-so-nice ones) live in this land, from its Blade Runner-esque cityscapes to its giant underwater regions for the more amphibious inclined.

Valerian, who is something of a cocky horn dog even though he looks more like a Brooklyn-bound hipster, is a soldier who professes a love for Alpha almost as often as he does his adored Laureline. But his female partner is decidedly traditional, only wishing to be with the man she’ll one day marry… and for now, that does not mean Valerian. Yet as Valerian begins having psychic visions of an idyllic alien race that appears to have been wiped out by an asteroid, they both find themselves in an investigation that involves murder, political dissonance, the cutest and cuddliest MacGuffin this side of a Tribble, and a conspiracy that takes them to the heart of Alpha and beyond.

One of the most enjoyably eccentric auteur voices of the 1990s, there was a time when Luc Besson could do no wrong. The original La Femme Nikita, Leon, and The Fifth Element all linger as peculiar cult classics. And Valerian is very much attempting to revisit that continental mania, particularly of the Element variety since that was Besson’s last space opera with tonal shifts that really were out of this world. It’s easy to say that Valerian is his best movie since that triumvirate, if for no other reason than nothing he has directed in the last 20 years has been particularly good. Nevertheless, Valerian conjures up a sense of forgotten mischief that’s always steering the ship toward the direction of left field.

So it is that Valerian bounces between visuals and aesthetics like a tie-dye themed pinball machine. In a movie where almost everything is computer-generated, it matters not a fig how “realistic” any of it appears, because it is all so invitingly intoxicating. Force fields can be the color of rainbows, and beatific aliens with chromed domes and legs longer than Cyd Charisse can live on a planet consisting entirely of Caribbean beaches, glittering pearls, and cute beasties that are a cross between lapdogs and cuddly porcupines. That these are also the bigger spieces' source of space travel power just makes it more appealingly nutty.

Indeed, the film opens with a series of dynamite sequences, including a hypnotically optimistic prologue where—scored to David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”—NASA, Chinese, and European astronauts over generations befriend one weird alien after another. There is also an action sequence with tech so curious that it has a self-evident internal logic… but it’s one the film doesn’t feel compelled to explain. Bodily possession of foreign species and astral projections of one’s digital self to the other side of the universe are all technologically showcased, but the movie sheepishly cares not if you just chalk it up to magic.

Unfortunately, as the plot eventually overtakes these stoner daydreams, the movie forgoes its pie in the sky thrills for feet of clay. DeHaan is a very good character actor who is not-so-convincingly cast as a Han Solo type here. In an American movie industry crawling with Chrises more than capable of attempting such a gig, it’s a bit of a mystery why Besson went so drastically against type other than perhaps he wanted to represent the real face of the toking audience for these kind of mind-bending adventures. Delevingne meanwhile carries herself with plenty of beguiling mystery and poise, but when her character is supposed to be somewhat old-fashioned, lighthearted, and smitten, she doesn’t come off much more real than the digital vistas. Intriguingly, both actors play better against the many CG-creations than with each other, but neither has the charisma necessary to really make this will-they-or-won’t-they story payoff.

For more than any sci-fi elements, the most retro aspect about the story is a romance that would not have been out of place in a ‘60s rom-com starring Jane Fonda and Cliff Robertson, where leads grapple with the idea of intimacy out of wedlock (the horror!). But it lands with a thud here as do all of the telegraphed plot developments which drives much of the movie’s second half.

Still even in those later acts, there is still delight to be had, especially when the picture detours into the bizarre. For instance, Rihanna’s cameo as a stripper named Bubble is best experienced unto itself, and Ethan Hawke enjoys a small role just as gleefully mad as her manager, “Jolly the Pimp.”

As a whole, the movie keeps these flourishes coming and builds a universe with more detail in one movie than some shared universes have in dozens of them. For those who want to get lost in a sci-fi Never Land brimming with oddities, the plot can be damned. But for those who are beholden to straightforward storytelling, this could travel just a little too far from home. Which is a shame, because that journey is the picture’s greatest asset.

While fans continue to clash in Marvel vs. DC or X-Men vs. Avengers rhetoric, the actors who front these characters’ big screen images are much less dramatic about success in a healthy superhero movie marketplace. Indeed, this summer has seen Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman become the highest grossing film ever directed by a woman, and the DCEU’s biggest domestic earner to boot, and Ryan Reynolds (aka Deadpool) is paying tribute.

While Reynolds is in the midst of shooting Deadpool 2 right now with Atomic Blonde director David Leitch, he took time to participate in what is both his and the Merc with a Mouth’s favorite pastime: social media baiting. On Instagram, Reynolds posted an image of Deadpool expressing his love for Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince, and commemorating that Wonder Woman has outgrossed Deadpool. Whereas Wade Wilson tapped out of the U.S. box office at $363 million, Wonder Woman is currently at $368 million and still climbing.

It’s nice to see such a level of (publicity-friendly) courtesy between the actors who play these superheroes. But considering they’ve worked together before in last year’s Criminal, this does at least appear to be a sweet digital high-five between two former co-stars.

Deadpool 2 is currently filming in Vancouver, and Gal Gadot can be next seen as Wonder Woman in November’s Justice League.

Lost may have been the TV show that made filming in Hawaii cool, but the island state has become a popular filming location in the years since. Hawaii Five-0 films there. The upcoming Jumanji reboot movie used the exotic exteriors as the backdrop for the video game its young characters get pulled into. And now The Inhumans calls the beautiful locale home, the show's main characters forced there after a miltary coup has them thrown out of their Moon-based city of Attilan.

That set-up alone might seem to make Inhumans a hard narrative sell. It's hard to muster up too much sympathy for the Moon's one-percenters forced to live on an island paradise. But the Royal Family's chief struggle comes in another, more relatable form: the challenge of keeping their family together amidst betrayal, exodus, and the responsibility that comes with wielding extreme power.

An exploration of the responsibilities of power.

Black Bolt (played in the TV show by Hell on Wheel's Anson Mount) is one of the most powerful superhumans in the comic book world, but his power comes at great personal cost. The sound of his voice can destroy entire cities. An escaped whisper could kill the people around him, including the people he loves. His power is a blunt, indiscriminate instrument.

"[Black Bolt] can't lose control or bad shit happens," Mount says. "So, I think that the character's immediately endearing to us because he's a leader who is aware of the power of his own voice, and that's what makes the role work."

Read our full interview with Anson Mount

If The Inhumans leans into it, this theme of the responsibility of power could be a defining and compelling characteristic for the show. In a time when some of the world’s most powerful people seem to have so little appreciation for the potentially destructive consequences of their decisions, Black Bolt is a leader who would rather stay silent than risk hurting the innocent. He does not revel in his power, and that makes him something of an anomaly within the fictional superhero worlds and in the real world alike.

Will we ever hear Black Bolt speak? It seems inevitable (and we have some clues in the trailer), but Mount would not give anything away, instead saying: "I think it would be a boring show if suddenly my character started talking regularly. They can't. I mean, he sneezes, he blows half the world away, it's that powerful.”

For Mount, he doesn't mind keeping quiet as Black Bolt. The challenge of playing a show’s lead who doesn’t speak is one of the elements that drew him to the role. “When else am I going to get that opportunity?” Mount said.

A family drama first and foremost.

While much of the reaction to the first Inhumans trailer centered around how the individual characters of the show measure up against their comic book counterparts, it quickly became apparent during our set visit that this show is as interested in the complicated relationships between the members of this family as it is in the struggle of individual superheroes.

Serinda Swan's Medusa — a woman with the psychokinetic ability to animate and control her hair — stands poised to be one of the breakout characters of this show. We were lucky enough to see an early rendering of Medusa's hair in action during our set visit, as well as to hear Swan speak about what draws her to the character.

I love her because she's very powerful. She’s very independent. She doesn't get lost. Even though she's speaking for the king [Black Bolt], she doesn't get lost within his thoughts.

Married to Black Bolt, Medusa is as much a leader as her husband. He relies on her voice, judgment, and perspective to help lead their people.

"There's a duality between her and Black Bolt that I don't think has necessarily been seen before,” Swan says, who notes that the story of their "super-marriage" is relatively unique within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. "There's an immense codependence between the two between two very independent people."

This "codependence" is developed at an early age. The Inhumans aren't born with their powers. They go through a process called Terrigenesis at the age of 14. When they are exposed to the Terrigen Mist, their innate powers are revealed. (A similar plot was undertaken on Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, but, unlike that show, Terrigenesis is a normal part of the Royal Family's culture.)

Read our full interview with Serinda Swan

"When Black Bolt goes through his Terrigenesis at 14 and loses the use of his voice, there's that acceptance that he's never gonna be able to speak again," explains Swan. "There's massive loss with his parents, there's everything. And so there's this isolation and one of the reasons I love Medusa is that she doesn't care that he can kill her with a whisper and she walks right into his chamber and starts a friendship."

Black Bolt must create his own sign language to communicate what he is thinking and feeling. He does this with Medusa by his side. Swan elaborates:

They have this symbiosis that keeps them intertwined, which I love. And so, obviously, through childhood, they create this language together. Then, they get married. She becomes the queen and he becomes the king and, through her, he can rule. Because, without her, he can’t. There’s nobody to talk to. I mean, he could, but then it gets really lonely after he talks.

Another day, another game of thrones.

The main trifecta of the Royal Family is rounded out by Black Bolt's power-hungry brother Maximus (played here by an actor who has experience playing power-hungry — Game of Thrones' Iwan Rheon).

Maximus is an antagonist in the Inhumans comics, often betraying his brother and the rest of the Royal Family in attempts to rule Attilan. From the mention of a "military coup" dropped in the official Inhumans TV show synopsis and the story beats teased in the trailer, it seems that Inhumans is poised to follow this common comic story beat.

Read our full interview with Iwan Rheon

Past that, Rheon teased that Maximus will be the "runt" of the Inhumans Royal Family, his relative lack of power resulting in a chip on his shoulder he's had since he was young.

Everyone kind of looks down on Maximus because he's a human so he's not really got any power, he's kind of looks on as a bit of a runt of the family which is kind of hard for him.

Without his brother he'd be working down the mines, it's just that his brother, because he's the King's brother, he got pity, basically. His function in society has come to him through pity and what his family name is rather his own self-worth and what his Terrigenesis made him. It's a very difficult thing for him to deal with and he's had to live with his own life

In the comic, Maximus hides his superhuman psychic powers. It's unclear, as of yet, if this will be the case in the TV show. If Maximus is hiding his powers, he's playing it very close to the vest.

Maximus' potential villainy is further influenced by his unrequited love for Medusa, another story beat seen in the comics.

I think the relationship between [Maximus] and Medusa is very interesting as well because, in this story, they were very good friends when they were younger and I think Maximus always had a bit of a thing for her, thinking that, you know, one day maybe they'd be together and maybe even be on the throne together.

Then for her to go off with Black Bolt is kind of always kind of been a bit of an issue for him as it's obviously hurt so that's going to be a very interesting relationship to develop, but they're amicable. 

Rheon, too, played up the family dynamics of this cast of characters, saying: "There's plenty of action in this but what's wonderful about it is very much a family drama as well, it's about the family and their relationships and how they all respond to each other and there are wonderful moments of humor as well as drama and action so it's kind of go to everything."

Meet the rest of the Inhumans family.

While Black Bolt, Medusa, and Maximus lead the Royal Family in various ways, the Attilan gang extends beyond the three leaders.

Australian actress Isabelle Cornish plays Crystal, Medusa's sister and an Inhuman with the ability to control the weather. (Maybe that's why Hawaii is always so pleasant.) Cornish said of her character:

Being the youngest member, [Crystal]'s really coming of age and the journey of really coming into her adulthood and discovering more of her powers and things like that. And she has a 2,000-pound, teleporting, transporting dog.

That would be Lockjaw, a giant dog with the ability to teleport himself and others across vast distances. In making our way through the Inhumans TV show set, it was interesting to note the ways in which the already large sets needed to be made larger to accomodate a 2,000-pound dog. (The show has a scale model of the dog. Giant and blue, it stands in for Lockjaw on set so the director can know how the CGI dog will affect the shot.)

Lost alum Ken Leung plays Karnak, one of the cousins of the Royal Family. Leung explained his character's power to us as it manifests in the TV show:

Karnak has the ability to see the flaw in everything and everyone. Whether it be a person that he’s fighting, he can analyze the situation and figure out the most effective way to take him down. Whether it be a wall, what is the flaw in a physical structure, if I wanted to do something with that.

It could be in an argument, if we're debating, you can see the flaw in your defense. So, it makes him the perfect strategist and advisor to the king, so that's his position in addition to being part of the family in the kingdom.

Apparently, Karnak's power does not prevent the Royal Family from becoming refugees in Hawaii follwing a military coup. (Sorrynotsorry, Karnak.)

On the other end of the cautious-decisive spectrum is Gorgon, another one of Black Bolt's cousins (how many cousins does this guy have?) and the leader of the Attilan miltary. With super strong legs and hooves, Gorgon can generate seismic waves with a single stomp.

Eme Ikwuakor (Extant) described the character past his superhuman strength:

I’m actually the head of the Attilan military. Basically, I’m the guy who kind of acts before he thinks. Lot of fun. He gets to push the boundaries, which is amazing.

Triton (Mike Moh), pictured above, is one of the Inhumans characters who is probably going to have the most trouble keeping a low profile on Earth. Another cousin of Black Bolt, Triton has a "fish-like ability to live underwater." He also keeps his cool under pressure and is very athletic. 

Sonya Balmores plays Auran. She described her character like this:

I’m the head of the Royal Guard. I work really closely with the Royal Family and I’m fiercely loyal to the King of Attilan. Yeah, I’m one of the soldiers. I’m tough. I’m no nonsense. I get the job done, whatever the job might be.

In the comics, Auran has parabolic hearing, which means she can listen in for specific words on Earth, zero-ing in on their location if they are spoken. On one occasion, this is how she finds a missing Black Bolt, by searching of the word "Maximus." (I guess there weren't a lot of people watching Ridley Scott's Gladiator when she was listening.)

There's been no mention of Auran having any superpower in the TV show, and Balmores made no mention of it, but I am desperately pulling for this to make an appearance on-screen. I'll be sure to keep my ear to the ground.

To be continued...

Stay tuned to Den of Geek for more details from our Inhumans set visit — including information about the mysterious character Ellen Woglom will be playing and insight into the IMAX-led filming of the first two episodes.

A version of the first two episodes of The Inhumans premieres exclusively in IMAX theaters for a two-week engagement starting September 1st. After that, the show will have its official ABC two-hour premiere on September 29th starting at 8 p.m. ET.

The Tick pilot arrived last year on Amazon as a long-gestating television reboot of Ben Edlund’s classic indie comic book series, popular 1990’s Fox animated series and gone-too-soon 2001-2002 Fox live-action series. While the casting of English comedian and Guardians of the Galaxy actor Peter Serafinowicz as the mighty blue buffoon was initially met with questions, he embodied the role quite well, yielding fan feedback and numbers successful enough to warrant a subsequent series order.

The Tick Season 1 Trailer

"Murder – it’s just not cool.”  -Dostoyevsky  -The Tick

The Tick trailer has finally arrived and it is chock-full of the one-liners and stupendously absurd superheroics that you've come to expect from the franchise. Moreover, the classic dynamic between Tick and Arthur is on display in raucous repertory form, as the duo battle a gaggle of villains, such as Jackie Earle Haley’s The Terror and Yara Martinez’s Ms. Lint.

However, if you saw Amazon’s The Tick pilot last year, then you know that the series injected a unique plot twist regarding the Tick/Arthur dynamic, implying that Tick is a kind of physical manifestation of Arthur’s subconscious. – Essentially, Tick serves as Arthur’s corporeal, near-invincible and extremely goofy Tyler Durden. Thus, the full and proper Season 1 experience for The Tick should be an interesting and hilarious experience.

Here is the official The Tick Season 1 teaser.

The Tick Season 1 official synopsis:

“In a world where superheroes have been real for decades, an underdog accountant with zero powers comes to realize his city is owned by a global super villain long-thought dead. As he struggles to uncover this conspiracy, he falls in league with a strange blue superhero. The Tick stars Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy), Griffin Newman (Vinyl), Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen), Valorie Curry (House of Lies), Yara Martinez (Jane the Virgin) and Brendan Hines (Scorpion).

The Tick Season 1 Poster

The Tick marks its proper Season 1 premiere on Amazon Prime with this promo poster featuring crime-busting buddies Tick and Arthur.

The Tick Season 1 Cast

The Tick stars Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy), Griffin Newman (Vinyl), Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen), Valorie Curry (House of Lies) and Brendan Hines (Scorpion) will return for the series.

Yara Martinez, who played the sinister Ms. Lint in the pilot, has been promoted to a regular.

Scott Speiser has booked a regular role on the series, presumably playing The Punishment. Speiser has fielded an array of television guest roles across his career, notably with appearances on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., NCIS, Mike & Molly, Intelligence and Criminal Minds. He also recently had a daytime soap run on The Young and the Restless.

Kahil Ashanti (Akeelah and the Bee) plays Goat.

Ryan Woodle (Boardwalk Empire) plays VLM.

Paul Moon (Tainted Dreams) plays Dennis.

John Pirkis (Daredevil) plays Dr. Karamazov.

Joshu Schubart (Stoners Review Movies) plays Frank.

Patrick Warburton, who played The Tick in the 2001-2002 Fox series and executive produces the Amazon iteration, will reportedly return to the franchise onscreen for a secret role of some kind.

While storylines for The Tick's full series debut are unknown, here are some details dropped about show in the aftermath of the pilot's premiere.

“This has been a labor of love for Amazon, Sony, and all of us,” said creator and executive producer Ben Edlund, in a statement. “The only way for this to have value was if we found a wholly new expression of The Tick and Arthur's story in live-action, and I think we're on to something.

“Visually and thematically this new Tick lives in the textures and rhetoric of today's superhero saturation tsunami -- and for it to be something you want to watch for hours, it needed to find its way to a story with heart and stakes, as well as absurdism. Is it a radically new hybrid of humor and super heroic action with characters you will care desperately about? YES! Yes it is.”

The Tick Season 1 Release Date

The Tick will make evil eat his justice when it premieres on Amazon Prime on August 25th.

A Wrinkle in Time, the much-anticipated feature film adaptaion of the beloved Madeline L'Engle novel, is in the post-production process, which means we're starting to get some serious looks at what this movie will look like.

The latest sneak peek? These images, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, of Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, and Oprah as Mrs. Which, Mrs. Whatsit, and Mrs. Who.

Director Ava Duvernay said of the casting of the three women:

My whole process with this film was, what if? With these women, I wondered, could we make them women of different ages, body types, races? Could we bring in culture, bring in history in their costumes? And in the women themselves, could we just reflect a fuller breadth of femininity?

Entertainment Weekly also has a photo of the young lead, Storm Reid, along with Duvernay on set. "She’s got the sweetest, warmest heart, and all that I saw every day was just a further blossoming of the good that is Storm Reid," Duvernay said of the young soon-to-be star. "She’s appropriately named. She’s a force."

When the movie wrapped principle photography in March, DuVernay shared a bunch of photos to commemorate the occasion. 

Are you excited yet? Here's everything else we know about the A Wrinkle in Time film so far...

A Wrinkle in Time Cast

A Wrinkle in Time has found its Meg Murry! According to The Hollywood Reporter, Storm Reid, who made her feature film debut in 12 Years a Slave, will play the lead role in the film adapation of the beloved Madeline L'Engle book.

Reid is a relative newcomer to Hollywood, but has already built an impressive resume.  In addition to 12 Years a Slave, Reid has also booked some television roles and the lead role in American Girl: Lea to the Rescue. She also appeared in Sleight, a sci-fi drama that made waves at Sundance.

Reid is the latest addition to a majority non-white cast, with the production also reportedly looking for a non-white actor to play the major role of Calvin O'Keefe, Meg's classmate and fellow adventurer. 

A Wrinkle in Time has cast three talented actresses in major roles...

Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling have been cast as Mrs. Whatsit and Mrs. Who, respectively. They will join Oprah Winfrey, who has been cast as Mrs. Which in the feature film. In the book, Which, Whatsit, and Who help Meg and Charles travel across the galaxy to find their missing father. The central roles of Meg and Charles have yet to be cast.

Deadline reports that Chris Pine has joined the cast as Mr. Murry. The Star Trek alum (who we'll see as Steve Trevor in next summer's Wonder Woman) plays the husband of Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Meg Murry and Charles Wallace's mother, Dr. Murry, in the adaptation of the beloved Madeline L'Engle novel. Dr. Murry is a scientist who, along with her husband, comes with the notion of the wrinkle in time. When the book begins, she is anxious over the disappearance of her husband.

Mbatha, who most recently appeared in Free State of Jones, but previously held the recurring role of Martha's sister on Doctor Who and gained critical praise in the lead role in Belle, will also voice Plumette in the much-anticipated live-action Beauty and the Beast movie coming out next year.

A Wrinkle in Time Movie Story

For those unfamiliar with the 1963 children's book (if those people do, in fact, exist), A Wrinkle in Time tells the story of Meg Murry and her little brother Charles Wallace as they travel through space and cross dimensions to find their missing scientist father with the help of a mysterious Tesseract. Oh yeah, and there's a kid named Calvin there, too. The book is the first in a larger series.

A Wrinkle in Time Movie Director

Disney secured Selma director Ava DuVernay to direct its upcoming movie adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, according to Deadline, back in February.

DuVernay is best known for her direction of Selma, the Oscar-winning film depicting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic civil rights march. The film drew both critical and viewer praise, and all on a relatively small budget of $20 million. 

A Wrinkle in Time isn't the only exciting project DuVernay has on the table. She's also being courted by Amblin to direct Intelligent Life, a science fiction story about a U.N. worker trained to represent mankind in the event of an encounter with alien life. The script is from Jurassic World director/writer Colin Trevorrow. DuVernay is also currently working on original drama series Queen Sugar for the OWN network.

DuVernay's involvement with the project is not only a win for A Wrinkle in Time fans waiting for a worthwhile adaptation, but a boon for behind-the-camera diversity in Hollywood — especially when it comes to relatively big bidget projects. A Wrinkle in Time will mark the first time in history a black female director will direct a film with a budget of $100 million. It's about time.

A Wrinkle in Time Movie Writer

If DuVernay's involvement weren't enough to get you excited about this adaptation, there's also the fact that A Wrinkle in Time's screenplay was penned by Jennifer Lee, aka the writer and co-director of Frozen. Could this be the A Wrinkle in Time adaptation we've all been waiting for?

A Wrinkle in Time Movie Release Date

A Wrinkle in Time is scheduled for an April 6th, 2018 release date, so mark your calendars!

More information as we get it.

A huge part of Archie Comics' success in recent years can be directly traced to the release of Afterlife with Archie. On a surface the book seems just like a a zombie story set in the Archieverse, but it is really a smart deconstruction of the comic's long-running characters that also doubles an exploration of the possibilities of the horror genre in general. A companion book, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, soon followed, furthering Archie's commitment to taking creative liberties with their stable of players that showed a willingness to push the boundaries of their brand -- gaining new fans in the process.

Then Riverdale happened. But because show-runner/Archie Chief Creative Officer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa was now involved with work on that series, he didn't have as much time to spend on the Archie Horror comic line that he created. The past year have seen both of the aforementioned books published sporadically. This move has left readers wanting more but also keenly aware that arrival is most definitely better late is never, and that another creative team on either of the titles would lower the excellent quality that has come to define these titles.

So what is Archie Comics to do? Why, start another horror comic whose creator's time isn't as divided. Thus, we have Jughead: The Hunger. Released in March as one of several try-out comics from Archie this past March, the book features Jughead Jones as a werewolf chased by huntress Betty Cooper -- a woman sworn to ending his hunger-fueled lycanthropy. Written by Frank Tieri (whose work on Dark Circle's The Hangman was an underrated treasure), the release fantastically complimented Afterlife and Sabrina while treading its own ground. The ending of the one-shit promised more, and Archie has just announced that the story will continue as an ongoing comic beginning October 25th.

Here's the official synopsis:

During the full moon, Riverdale falls under siege. After discovering his dark lineage in March's Jughead: The Hungerby Frank Tieri and Michael Walsh, Jughead Jones struggles to put his past behind him with Betty Cooper: Werewolf Hunter and Archie Andrews hot on his trail!

"We purposely left the door open with the one shot, we told you if you made Jughead: The Hunger a hit we'd make more-- and since you more than held up your end of the bargain-- here we are," said writer Frank Tieri in a statement. "Fans can expect more of everything they loved about the one shot now as we expand our universe-- more werewolf Juggie, more bad ass Betty, more conflicted Archie and more twists and turns than you can shake a severed arm at.”

The main cover will be done by Afterlife with Archie's Francesco Francavilla, with variants from Robert Hack (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) and Michael Walsh. Take a look:

And here are some sample art pages:

Now what is somewhat curious is that this is being released as a "Archie's Madhouse Presents" title. (Madhouse being an Archie comic in which Sabrina the Teenage Witch first appeared that had several iterations over the course of its 23-year existence). Whether or not this is just a simple rebranding of the Archie Horror line or something else entirely will likely become clear next week at San Diego Comic Con. Madhouse also gave us the following cover, showing a proto-werewolf Jughead, so maybe that is the reasoning for what is going on here.

One thing that is evident is that Archie is committed to these scarier, more adult type of books. That is something that makes us as joyously frenzied as a werewolf Jughead after too many burgers at Pop Tate's.The 32-page debut of the ongoing Jughead: The Horror retails for $3.99 and hits stores on October 25th.

Chris Cummins is a writer/Archie Comics historian. Follow him on Twitter @bionicbigfoot and @scifiexplosion.

Vampire fans may remember the public battles that erupted after Tom Cruise was cast as Lestat in the film adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire. The author envisioned Blade Runner replicant Rutger Hauer as the charismatic bloodsucker, and was very vocal about it. She complained about it in interviews, in ads, and probably to passing strangers on the streetcars of New Orleans. Rice changed her tune after she saw the movie, taking out ads all over again blessing the union. For the upcoming series The Vampire Chronicles, she is not going to let that happen again. Rice’s fans have a stake in this coveted vampire casting call.

“Guys, we talk a lot about who can play Lestat,” Rice wrote on The Vampire Chronicles official Facebook page on July 10.

“And we all know that if we don't get that right, nothing else may matter. This is one series in which the star plays a super hero role. I am thinking an unknown will come to us for the part. But who are the up and coming young actors you all see and want to suggest? Include pix if you can. And any data. I love reading your responses. And yes, we've done this before with less focus perhaps on "up and coming." But let's do it again.”

The Facebook page is already brimming with helpful hints from fans.

Lestat, Louis and Claudia will sink their teeth into prime time. Eleven of the books from Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles series will be adapted into a TV series from Paramount Television.

“It is undeniable that Anne Rice has created the paradigm against which all vampire stories are measured. The rich and vast world she has created with The Vampire Chronicles is unmatched and sophisticated with 90’s gothic undertones that will be perfectly suited to captivate audiences,” Paramount TV president Amy Powell said in a statement. “The series is full of compelling characters led by Lestat, arguably one of the greatest original characters, literary or otherwise. We are thrilled to collaborate with Anne, Christopher and the team at Anonymous Content on this epic series.”

The series will be written by the author’s son Christopher Rice, himself a writer of four New York Times Bestsellers and a winter of the Lambda Literary Award. Mother and son will executive produce alongside Anonymous Content’s David Kanter and Steve Golin.

“Together with our partners at Paramount Television, we are embarking on a fantastic journey with Anne and Christopher Rice to bring Anne’s unparalleled imagination to television at the moment when the medium is experiencing a global apex in the demand for the most outstanding, exciting and heightened premium dramatic programming,” Kanter said in a statement.

“The Vampire Chronicles, in its entirety, is not only a phenomenally complex universe of story-telling, it is also a world-wide readership whose connections to the books and their author are deep and abiding. It is a tremendous responsibility to help bring the books to television, and we are thrilled to have this opportunity.”

"I'm thrilled beyond words to be working with Paramount TV and Anonymous Content --known for extraordinary cutting edge series such as True Detective, Quarry, and The Knick,” Rice said in a statement.

“In this unique  golden age of television,  I couldn't ask for a finer or more passionate team to help bring my beloved vampire hero, Lestat, alive in a series of the highest quality. This is a dream come true, both for me and for Christopher and for the fans who have been asking to see the Brat Prince in this medium for years."

“The first great day for me on this project was when my mother asked me to partner with her on it,” Christopher Rice added,

“The second, is the announcement of this thrilling partnership with Paramount Television and Anonymous Content. For decades now fans of The Vampire Chronicles have been clamoring for a long-form television adaptation of this galaxy of content. Just a glance at the libraries of these two innovative, groundbreaking companies makes clear why they’re perfectly suited to granting this wish. Add to that their passion and enthusiasm for the long term vision Mom and I share for this series, and we’re confident this exciting deal will result in many excellent things for Lestat in the universe of television."

Anne Rice first hinted that she may be adapting her Vampire Chroniclesbook series into an open-ended TV series “of the highest quality” at end of last year.

“The theatrical rights to the Vampire Chronicles are once again in my hands, free and clear!,” Rice wrote to Faebook on Nov. 26, 2016.

“I could not be more excited about this! --- A television series of the highest quality is now my dream for Lestat, Louis, Armand, Marius and the entire tribe. In this the new Golden Age of television, such a series is THE way to let the entire story of the vampires unfold. --- My son Christopher Rice and I will be developing a pilot script and a detailed outline for an open ended series, faithfully presenting Lestat’s story as it is told in the books, complete with the many situations that readers expect to see. We will likely begin with The Vampire Lestat and move on from there. ----- When we sit down finally to talk to producers, we will have a fully realized vision of this project with Christopher as the executive producer at the helm. I will also be an executive producer all the way. ---- Again, I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to be able to announce this. ---- As many of you know, Universal Studios and Imagine Entertainment had optioned the series to develop motion pictures from it, and though we had the pleasure of working with many fine people in connection with this plan, it did not work out. It is, more than ever, abundantly clear that television is where the vampires belong. ---- Over the years you all have told me how much you want to see a Game of Thrones style faithful rendering of this material, and how much you want for the series to remain in my control. Well, I have heard you. I have always heard you. What you want is what I want. --- You, the readers, made these books a success before any movie was ever made based on them, and I will never forget that fact. ---- Christopher and I will be posting many questions on the page for your input in the days to come. ----- I am filled with optimism this morning about the future for my beloved Brat Prince. What better way to start a tour for the new book!"

Rice’s vampire book series told the tale of bloodsuckers Lestat de Lioncourt, Louis, the ever-young Claudia, Armand, Marius and the cast of the Theatres des Vampires. The series currently consists of 11 books, which started with Interview with the Vampire. The 12th book, Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis, will be published on Nov. 29.

Two of the books have been adapted for film. Tom Cruise played Lestat, Brad Pitt played Louis and Kirsten Dunst played Claudia in the 1994 Warner Bros. film Interview with the Vampire. Queen of the Damned from 2002 starred Stuart Townsend as Lestat and Aaliyah as Queen Akasha.

Anne Rice has written over 30 novels. Besides the The Vampire Chronicles series, she also authored a Witch series and the sexy escapist Exit to Eden. She also wrote Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, and The Young Messiah, which was released in early 2016.

I will admit to being wary at the full integration of the Vertigo magic characters into the main DCU, both back at the dawn of the New 52 and more recently when Rebirth brought Lucifer and the Sandman world in as well (to be fair, the realm of the Endless was mapped to the new multiverse by Grant Morrison's Multiversity map, and I guess I was wary there, too... END DIGRESSION).

But DC picked their creative teams with care, and Simon Oliver has really nailed Constantine's voice. He hits that solid balance of redeemable scumminess with some ease, which lets him play around with the magical world in ways that are entertaining to read. Fabbri's art is clean and tells the story well, so this is a book worth picking up. 

DC Comics sent over an exclusive first look at The Hellblazer #12 just for you Denizens. Here's what they have to say about the issue.

THE HELLBLAZER #12 Written by SIMON OLIVERArt by DAVIDE FABBRI and JOSE MARZAN, JR.Cover by TULA LOTAYVariant cover by YASMINE PUTRI“THE SMOKELESS FIRE” part six! Constantine finally gets what he wants—just in time to discover he’s a better man than he used to be. Maybe. But will that matter in the confrontation he and Marid have been building to?

Check out the preview pages!

Image 2 of 6

Goosebumps was haunting. It made you want to keep the nightlight on into the wee hours of the night. R.L. Stine’s other book series, Fear Street, was pure evil. Teenagers devoured it. The Prom Queen, The Cheater, The Best Friend. Fear Street could be any Main Street U.S.A, and that's what helped the book series become a best-selling sensation. With the popularity of the 2015 Goosebumps movie, it was only a matter of time before the Hollywood Machine, the big bad thing that goes bump in the night, scooped it up Stine's other popular series for a big screen adaptation.

According to an exclusive report from The Tracking Board, 20th Century Fox and Chernin Entertainment have hired filmmaker Leigh Janiak (Honeymoon) to direct and oversee what could be a Fear Street film franchise. Tracking Board notes that Fox is “reportedly considering making Fear Street a trilogy that would be shot and released back-to-back-to-back. Janiak will be overseeing the three films’ scripts, with Kyle Killen writing the first film, Zak Olkewicz the second and Silka Luisa the third.”

Janiak other credits include directing an episode of Cinemax’s Outcast and two episodes of MTV’s Scream: The TV Series. She hails from northeast Ohio. Fear Street is set in the fictional town of Shadyside, Ohio.

Stine wrote the Fear Street series from 1989 until 1999, including several spinoffs. In 2005, he revived Fear Street for a three-part miniseries.

Fear Street’s murder mysteries were often darker than Goosebumps and played to an older audience. We'll keep you posted on the status of this one. Don't wait up... 

The Wild Storm has been slow-burn '90s deconstructionism at its finest, and now, a handful of issues in, we are seeing the first expansion of that line.

DC Comics announced today that October will see the debut of Michael Cray, the character better known from the old Wildstorm Universe as Deathblow. Written from Warren Ellis' story bible by Bryan Hill, with art from N. Steven Harris and Dexter Vines, the book picks up where the latest issue of The Wild Storm left off: with Cray out in the wind after failing to kill Jacob Marlowe, fired by International Operations and with a pretty solid brain tumor to boot. He found himself recruited by Christine Trelane, and his story continues in this book.

The book was initially hinted at back in March in Warren Ellis's email newsletter, where he also talked about setting up a revamped version of WildC.A.T.S. Presumably this is where Trelane (a member of Stormwatch in the old stories) fits in.

The universe Ellis and Jon Davis Hunt (the artist on The Wild Storm) have been building is very distinct from the main DCU. It's bleaker and more paranoid, and much quieter on the surface. That's why a lot of people froze up when reading the advance solicit text for Michael Cray:

Warren Ellis’ critically acclaimed relaunch of WildStorm gets its first solo spinoff series! Michael Cray, professional assassin, has been betrayed by International Operations and has an alien life-form in his head that’s either killing him, transforming him, or both. The only thing that can bring sense to his life is for him to do what he does best: kill the wrong people for the right reasons. But Michael needs support and resources to hit back against I.O., and he gets them in exchange for working with Trelane, taking out her targets, his way. First up? A sociopathic silicon-valley billionaire by the name of Oliver Queen!

LIGHTLY SPOILERY SPECULATION AHEAD:

While the new Wildstorm Universe clearly didn't contain any super heroes from the start, one can certainly be forgiven a double take at the namecheck of Green Arrow and Cray's son's Superman t-shirt on the cover. However, I think the comics the kid is reading are a dead giveaway: people reading comics inside a DC comic is always a giveaway for the multiverse, so I'm betting Deathblow meets up with a non-GA Ollie from this parallel earth in this issue. 

NO MORE SPOILERS.

Hill, Harris and Vines' first issue of Michael Cray hits stores on October 11, 2017. Stay tuned to Den of Geek for more patently irresponsible and probably incorrect speculation about the geography of the DC Multiverse.

Ahead of this year's San Diego Comic Con, Mike Mignola and Dark Horse announced his return to the Hellboy universe with three looks at classic Hellboy villains, and one big new addition to the team.

Mignola will be joined by long time Hellboy teammates Dave Stewart, Chris Roberson, Christopher Mitten and Ben Stenbeck, and on a one shot in December, by new collaborator Adam Hughes, for stories looking at Rasputin, the Krampus, and Koshchei the Deathless.

Rasputin: Voice of the Dragon kicks things off at the end of November. It's a five issue miniseries looking back at Rasputin's time in Hitler's inner circle, before the Earthly appearance of Hellboy himself. Rasputin is co-written by Mignola and Roberson, with art from Mitten and Stewart

That's followed in December by Hellboy: Krampusnacht. There aren't any details on the story yet, but it's Mignola and Hughes, so don't pretend you're not already buying it.

Then in January, Koshchei the Deathless begins a six-issue run. Mignola, Stenbeck and Stewart bring us the tale of Koshchei in hell, reliving everything terrible he did under the watchful eye of Hellboy himself.

“We didn’t set out to publish three stories about bad guys for the holidays, it just worked out that way—and, really, at least one of these guys isn’t ALL bad,” said Mignola.

Rasputin: Voice of the Dragon #1 goes on sale on November 29, 2017. Hellboy: Krampusnacht goes on sale on December 20, 2017. And Koshchei the Deathless launches on January 10, 2018. Stick with Den of Geek for more information on these and all of Hellboy's villains.

James Bobin — the man behind the camera for Alice Through the Looking Glassand Disney's The Muppets— has a new film on his docket.

The Hollywood Reporter just announced that Bobin (who also, it should be noted, is one of the creators of the excellent Flight of the Concords) will be directing Lionsgate's movie adaptation of Tal M. Klein's upcoming debut science fiction novel The Punch Escrow. The film rights to The Punch Escrow, which is set to be released on July 25th, were heated, with multiple studios bidding. Lionsgate eventually won.

What is The Punch Escrow about? Set in the year 2147, the book follows Joel Byram, a man who spends his days training artifical intelligence engines how to act more human. Joel's life is forever changed one day when he is accidentally duplicated while teleporting. (Which, coincidentally, is one of my favorite Star Trek episode concepts.) #FutureProblems

Following the duplication, Joel must work to outsmart the shadowy organization the controls teleportation and get back to the woman he loves. And, you know, there's two of him.

The Punch Escrow is being published by Inkshares, a tech company and reader-driven publisher that has an interesting business model: Authors post samples and/or pitches of their books on Inkshares. If the work gets 250 pre-orders, it gets a "light" publishing. If it gets 750 pre-orders, it gets a "fully-funded" publishing, which includes editing, design, printing, distribution, and marketing.

The Punch Escrow is currently available for pre-order through Inkshares and Amazon.

Steven Spielberg's first science fiction adventure since the last Indiana Jones picture is taking shape. Previously intended to come out in time for this Christmas, Ready Player One is now slated fo March 30, 2018, and as it adapts Ernest Cline's popular novel of the same name, it is definitely one we're watching with interest like a gamer waiting for his turn at the arcade.

Here's what we know about the casting decisions that have come to light over the past few months and the film's amusing, retro gaming premise.

Latest Ready Player One News

Just in time for San Diego Comic-Con, WB has graced us with its first image of Tye Sheridan in Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One. And he looks prepared for the game in the image released via Entertainment Weekly. In it, we're offered a close-up of the would-be boy hero. EW also helpfully called out real pop culture items from that set drenched in '80s nostalgia, including a He-Man lunchbox and Garbage Pale Kids and Garfield stickers.

Ready Player One Cast

The cast of Ready Player One is of course being spearheaded by Tye Sheridan. Sheridan hails from the indie scene where he made a splash in Jeff Nichols'Mud as a child actor. He also appeared as Cyclops in 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse and will reprise the role in 2018's X-Men: Dark Phoenix. In Ready Player One, he portrays Wade Owen Watts (alias Parzival), an orphan living in the stacks with a deep passion for '80s culture and video games... which will aid him in his virtual reality quest throughout the film. He enters this world due to the contest of the long-dead James Donovan Halliday, here played by frequent Spielberg collaborator Mark Rylance.

Somewhat of a VR Steve Jobs crossed with Willy Wonka, Rylance's character leaves a trail of digital breadcrumbs for a potential gamer to one day inherit his VR kingdom. He will appear in the film through digital projections he has created in his OASIS program.

Joining them are Olivia Cooke as Art3mis, a fellow game competitor, and Ben Mendelsohn as Nolan Sorrento. The film will likewise feature Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Star Trek) as Ogden Morrow, the co-founder of OASIS. Also in the cast is T.J. Miller of Silicon Valley fame as a forum troll who irritates Parzival and others by being very much like today's trolls.

Also boarded on the project is Japanese boy band pop star, Win Morisaki, one of the gunters that Wade will eventually compete against.

Ready Player One Story

Adapted from the popular 2011 sci-fi novel by Ernest Cline, Ready Player One is set about 50 years in the future where the world is a dystopian wreck. The only refuge is the virtual reality distraction of OASIS, a futuristic melding of augmented reality and VR with retro '80s gamer love. Its creator is long dead, but he will bequeath his company to anyone who can find a treasure he has hidden within the depths of OASIS. Many years later, no one has achieved this, including the corporations who are playing simply to takeover OASIS and turn it into a luxury for the rich. In this context, orphaned Wade Watts is a kid with plenty of nostalgia himself for the 20th Century, even his online handle of "Parzival" is a play on Percival the Arthurian knight who found the Holy Grail... as well as the preferred name (as opposed to Galahad) used by the '80s cult classic, Excalibur.

He will enter OASIS... but will he win? Here is the official synopsis.

When the creator of an MMO called the OASIS dies, he releases a video in which he challenges all Oasis users to find his Easter Egg, which will give the finder his fortune. Wade Watts finds the first clue and starts a race for the Egg.

Ready Player One Development

Warner Bros. has been very interested in getting a top-tier talent to direct Ready Player One. Just last December, word came out that they offered adapting the Ernest Cline cult classic to Christopher Nolan. As first reported by Deadline, they eventually found their blockbuster auteur to bring their vision to the screen… Steven Spielberg.

In this story of virtual reality, a game creator offers his entire company to the man that can discover an Easter Egg he has paced in a virtual reality wonderland called “OASIS.” Thus in 2044, teen gamer Wade Watts will attempt to succeed at this virtual sword in the stone quest after many have failed over several decades—by immersing himself into video game and pop culture trivia of the 1980s and ‘90s.

Spielberg appears to be working more closely with Warner Bros. these days after a near-15 year absence from the studio following 2001’s A.I. Spielberg also landed the chance to adapt Lynsey Addario’s war journalist memoir, A Photographer’s Life of Love and War, at the studio with Jennifer Lawrence set to star as Addario. Ready Player One is being fast tracked ahead of the Addario film, though Spielberg’s line-up is already very crowded. He is still scheduled to adapt Roald Dahl’s The BFG as his next film. Ready Player One is slotted to be adapted directly after that production.

The most recent script for Ready Player One was written by Zak Penn (X-Men: The Last Stand, The Avengers) with earlier drafts turned in by Eric Eason and the Ready Player One author himself, Ernest Cline.

Assuming all the rights can be acquired from the book’s gamer paradise of references, this should be quite the nostalgia trip. Perhaps Spielberg can even find space to give a nod to the buried landfill of E.T. Atari cartridges, which by 2044 might have great archeological worth all on their own.

We also recently learned exclusively that Ernest Cline is working a sequel to Ready Player One.

The Locke & Key TV series has a home! According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hulu has given the show a pilot order, with Carlton Cuse (Lost) set to serve as showrunner.

While Doctor Strange's Scott Derrickson was attached to direct the pilot, there has been a change. Because of his commitment to the Snowpiercer TV series, Derrickson will no longer be able to do the Locke & Key pilot. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Andy Muschietti (It, Mama) will be taking over the gig from Derrickson.

Third time's the charm? After two previous attempts to bring fan-favorite comic Locke & Key to the screen (once for TV, and once for film), IDW Comics finally seems committed to make a Locke & Key TV show happen. With Hulu on board now and Cuse involved in the project, odds seem better than ever that we'll finally get an adaptation of this beloved comic.

Last year, IDW Entertainment released news that Locke & Key writer Joe Hill (he wrote the story for the comics, with art by Gabriel Rodriguez) was on board to write the pilot and executive produce the TV show adaptation as a straight-to-series project. It's unclear how Hulu and Cuse's involvement might change that plan, but Hill had previously said in a statement:

I love this story. The seven years I spent working on Locke & Key was the happiest creative experience of my life, and there still isn’t a day when I don’t think about those characters and miss visiting with them. The six books of the series are very like six seasons of a cable TV series, and so it feels only natural to bring that world to the little screen and to see if we can’t scare the pants off viewers everywhere.

Locke & Key begins with the story of three siblings returning to their family's ancestral home following the brutal and mysterious murder of their father. As they explore the house and its surroundings, it becomes clear that there are wonderful and terrible things lurking on the grounds. It is a comic book horror classic.

Previously, a TV show adaptation made it all the way to the pilot stage, but never garnered a pick-up. The episode was screened at Comic Con in 2011 and, as someone who was there for said screening, I can vouch for its awesomeness — a character-driven exercise in horror that deserved to continue its story.

The TV adaptation had Josh Friedman as a showrunner (The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Avatar 2) and an all-star cast that included Miranda Otto, Sarah Bolger, and Ksenia Solo. Check out the trailer...

Sadly, this version of Locke & Key never made it past a pilot, but the pop culture world seems better poised to embrace an on-screen version of this horror comic now. Not only are there way more comic book adaptations on TV and film, but Joe Hill has become more of a household name, especially with the recent film adaptaion of Horns. Hopefully, this adaptation is good and garners enough of an audience to ensure its continuation. Universe, you owe us this.

The BOOM! Studios Power Rangers comics have played with the continuity of the series extensivly since they debuted but this might be the most insane thing they've done yet. In Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #20 by Kyle Higgins and artist Daniele Di Nicuolo takes the story back 1969 to meet "the original squad" accroding to IGN.

The names and character descriptions for each member are as follows.

• Igor – 21, male, Soviet KGB agent
• Jamie – 24, female, British singer/songwriter
• Terona – 21, male, war veteran
• Daniel – 18, male, student/protestor
• Grace – 21, female, head secretary at NASA and wannabe astronaut

That is... amazing. Long time fans will note that at least in terms of the show continuity this isn't the first MMPR team, that honor going to the Wild West Rangers. However, since that change in time didn't happen until season two of the original series it's safe to assume this is BOOM! once again changing things up in the comics verse. Plus, if Kimberly didn't travel back in time would the Wild West Rangers have ever happened?

We've got the cover for the issue here which gives us some clues.

Writer Kyle Higgins, speaking to IGN says the issue, "is going to take us back in time to explore a very different—yet familiar—team of Rangers: the ones that stopped a secret Moon attack during the 1960s. Who were the Power Rangers of 1969? What happened to them? And how do they fit into our current story? We're jumping into the Wayback Machine to the Summer of Love to meet a new cast of Rangers, some of whom will have a huge impact on the future of the Mighty Morphin team!"

Seeing how this ties into the main story will be fascinating. Cold War Power Rangers? Sign us up! The synopsis also teases a possible HUGE return.

Synopsis: An eye-opening new piece of Power Rangers history is revealed! Well before Jason, Zack, Kimberly, Billy, and Trini became Power Rangers, Zordon was forced to recruit Rangers to battle a foe who’s downright...psycho.

Psycho? Could these foes be the Psycho Rangers, the evil team of Rangers from Power Rangers in Space? That would be one hell of a twist to the mythos, that's for sure. We'll have to wait and see before we speculate furthur.

Issue #20 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers goes on sale October, 2017.

In Russia, Megazord forms Shamus Kelley! Follow him on Twitter!  

Ant-Man, released in 2015, represented the culmination of nearly a decade of delays, directorial shake-ups and numerous script revisions. Showcasing a most unlikely of cinematic centerpieces with a version of Marvel’s proportionally protean Avenger team member, the payoff would be substantial, yielding a $519.3 million global gross.

Now, director Peyton Reed returns behind the camera for sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp with star Paul Rudd as the insect-size-shrinking hero, joined atop the marquee by Evangeline Lilly, who – as revealed in the first film’s mid-credits scene – will assume the role of the sequel’s co-titular Wasp in a scale-shattering team-up blockbuster.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe's smallest (and biggest) superhero(es) will be back in front of cameras in July and there are no surprises when it comes to the shoot location for the sequel - Atlanta's Pinewood facility, which has been the home of many-a-Marvel production to date.

Ant-Man and the Wasp Release Date

Ant-Man and the Wasp opens on July 6th, 2018.

Ant-Man and the Wasp Cast

Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly and Michael Peña will all reprise their Ant-Man roles, as will their characters' sagely overseer Michael Douglas, who revealed the state of his goatee on Facebook in his confirmation for the production's July 2017 kickoff

Additionally, the nigh-ubiquitous David Dastmalchian returns, as will rapper/actor T.I.

Randall Park (Fresh Off the Boat) will play Jimmy Woo, a SHIELD agent familiar to fans of Marvel's Agents of Atlas series (via The Tracking Board). The character of Woo has actually been around since the pre-SHIELD days of the 1950s, although he became a SHIELD agent when characters from the earlier comics were absorbed into the Marvel Universe in the 1960s.

Hannah John-Kamen will join the cast of Ant-Man and the Wasp for what will apparently be a “key role” in the film, reports Variety. For now, that is the extent of what is known about John-Kamen’s casting in the Marvel cinematic sequel.

Ant-Man and the Wasp is one of the increasingly prestigious projects booked for the U.K.-born Hannah John-Kamen, known for her role on the space-set Syfy ensemble series Killjoys. John-Kamen has been notably seen in two separate episodes of the popular horror anthology series Black Mirror, fielded a recurring role on Game of Thrones in 2016’s Season 6 and played a nameless First Order officer in 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

However, bigger prospects lie ahead for John-Kamen with a role in director Steven Spielberg’s 2018 video game-centric sci-fi thriller Ready Player One and a supporting role in director Roar Uthaug’s 2018 Tomb Raider reboot film, which stars Alicia Vikander as the new Lara Croft.  

Ant-Man and the Wasp Villain

Mr. Reed confirmed at a press event for the Ant-Man Blu-ray last year (with Den of Geek's Don Kaye in attendance) that they already have a "definite take" on who the villain will be this time around. That's all they said.

Beware, something wicked is coming to DC Comics just in time for Halloween. The Justice League is about to enter the House of Horrors! In the spirit of DC's classic horror anthologies, House of Secrets and House of Mystery, House of Horrors is a one-shot 80-page anthology coming October 25. 

Here's a synopsis for the book:

Martha Kent fights for her life against a creature from a spacecraft that lands in front of her farmhouse! A young woman is possessed by the spirit of a murderous Amazon warrior! The last surviving member of the Justice League faces down a horror beyond imagining!

The stories will be written by established horror writers, such as Brian Keene, Weston Ochse, Edward Lee, Mary SanGiovanni, Wrath James White, Nick Cutter, Ronald Malfi, and Bryan Smith.

Artists include Rags Morales, Bilquis Evely, Howard Porter, Scott Kolins, and Dale Eaglesham. Kieth Giffen will also participate in the anthology, although it's unclear whether he'll be writing or drawing this time around. Perhaps both?

Check out this really cool cover:

Werewolf Flash looks so awesome! We want a spinoff book ASAP.

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This San Diego Comic-Con, Den of Geek is bringing street-level heroes to fans around the Gaslamp District. Today, the company announced thecast of Marvel’s The Defenders as the cover story for their fourth print edition.

Den of Geek’s glossy, 68-page collector’s edition will be distributed by the magazine’s street team at San Diego Comic-Con and at select retailers in San Diego’s Gaslamp District. A digital version of the magazine will be available to read for free on DenofGeek.com beginning on Wednesday, July 19th.

Den of Geek Magazine Highlights:

• Interviews with The Defenders stars Krysten Ritter, Charlie Cox, Finn Jones, Jessica Henwick, and showrunner Marco Ramirez

• Craig Robinson of Fox’s Ghosted

• Stan Against Evil creator Dana Gould talks monster movies

• Director Nikolaj Arcel on adapting Stephen King’s The Dark Tower

• And much more!

The fifth edition of Den of Geek Magazine will be released in October 2017 at New York Comic Con. Click here to view previous digital issues. The full digital edition will be released online on Wednesday, July 19th, the same time the magazine hits the streets and stands.