Trailers

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Paramount drops trailer for The Naked Gun reboot

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Liam Neeson stars as Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. in The Naked Gun.

Thirty years after the last film in The Naked Gun crime-spoof comedy franchise, we’re finally getting a new installment, The Naked Gun, described as a “legacy sequel.” And it’s Liam Neeson stepping into Leslie Nielsen’s fumbling shoes, playing that character’s son. Judging by the official trailer, Neeson is up to the task, showcasing his screwball comedy chops.

(Some spoilers for the first three films in the franchise below.)

The original Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! debuted in 1988, with Leslie Nielsen starring as Detective Frank Drebin, trying to foil an assassination attempt on Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to the US. It proved successful enough to launch two sequels. Naked Gun 2-1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991) found Drebin battling an evil plan to kidnap a prominent nuclear scientist. Naked Gun 33-1/3: The Final Insult (1994) found Drebin coming out of retirement and going undercover to take down a crime syndicate planning to blow up the Academy Awards.

The franchise rather lost steam after that, but by 2013, Paramount was planning a reboot starring Ed Helms as “Frank Drebin, no relation.” David Zucker, who produced the prior Naked Gun films and directed the first two, declined to be involved, feeling it could only be “inferior” to his originals. He was briefly involved in the 2017 rewrites, featuring Frank’s son as a secret agent rather than a policeman. That film never transpired either.  The project was revived again in 2021 by Seth MacFarlane (without Zucker’s involvement), and Neeson was cast as Frank Drebin Jr.—a police lieutenant in this incarnation.

In addition to Neeson, the film stars Paul Walter Hauser as Captain Ed Hocken, Jr.—Hauser will also appear as Mole Man in the forthcoming Fantastic Four: First Steps—and Pamela Anderson as a sultry femme fatale named Beth. The cast also includes Kevin Durand, Danny Huston, Liza Koshy, Cody Rhodes, CCH Pounder, Busta Rhymes, and Eddy Yu.

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Xenomorphs are back and bad as ever in Alien: Earth trailer

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Alien: Earth is set two years before the events of 1979’s Alien.

It’s been a long wait for diehard fans of Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise, but we finally have a fittingly sinister official trailer for the spinoff prequel series, Alien: Earth, coming this summer to FX/Hulu.

As previously reported, the official premise is short and sweet: “When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat.”

The series is set in 2120, two years before the events of the first film, Alien (1979), in a world where corporate interests are competing to be the first to unlock the key to human longevity—maybe even immortality. Showrunner Noah Hawley has said that the style and mythology will be closer to that film than Prometheus (2012) or Alien: Covenant, both of which were also prequels.

Chandler’s character is named Wendy; she’s a human/synth hybrid described as having “the body of an adult and the consciousness of a child.” Timothy Olyphant plays her synth mentor and trainer, Kirsh. The cast also includes Alex Lawther as a soldier named CJ, Samuel Blenkin as a CEO named Boy Kavalier, Essie Davis as Dame Silvia, Adarsh Gourav as Slightly, Kit Young as Tootles, David Rysdahl as Arthur, Babou Ceesay as Morrow, Jonathan Ajayi as Smee, Erana James as Curly, Lily Newmark as Nibs, Diem Camille as Siberian, and Adrian Edmondson as Atom Eins.

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Squid Game trailer anchors Netflix Tudum event

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Also: Wednesday S2 sneak peek, Stranger Things S5 premiere date, Frankenstein teaser, more Benoit Blanc.

Squid Game returns this month for its third and final season. Credit: Netflix

Netflix held its Tudum Global Fan Event in Los Angeles this weekend to showcase its upcoming slate of programming. Among the highlights: the official trailer for the third and final season of Squid Game, the first six minutes of Wednesday S2, a teaser for Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, and date announcements for the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, as well as Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.

(Some spoilers below.)

Squid Game S3

As previously reported, Squid Game‘s first season followed Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-Jae), a down-on-his-luck gambler who has little left to lose when he agrees to play children’s playground games against 455 other players for money. The twist? If you lose a game, you die. If you cheat, you die. And if you win, you might also die. In the S1 finale, Gi-hun faced off against fellow finalist and childhood friend Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo) in the titular “squid game.” He won their fight but refused to kill his friend. Sang-woo instead stabbed himself in the neck, leaving Gi-hun the guilt-ridden winner.

S2 was set three years later. Gi-hun successfully finagled his way back into the game, intent on revenge against the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun). Meanwhile, Front Man’s police officer brother, Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), hired mercenaries to track down the island where the game is staged. Alliances formed and shifted as the games proceeded, with betrayals galore, culminating in the loss of Gi-hun’s friend and ally Player 390 and a cliffhanger ending.

Series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk conceived of S2 and S3 as a single season, but there were too many episodes, so he split them over two seasons. Back in January we got our first glimpse of S3 when Netflix released a 15-second teaser on X, introducing a brand-new killer doll dubbed Chul-su—similar to the giant “Red Light, Green Light” doll Young-hee. Per the official premise:

A failed rebellion, the death of a friend, and a secret betrayal. Picking up in the aftermath of Season 2’s bloody cliffhanger, the third and final season of Netflix’s most popular series finds Gi-hun, a.k.a. Player 456, at his lowest point yet. But the Squid Game stops for no one, so Gi-hun will be forced to make some important choices in the face of overwhelming despair as he and the surviving players are thrust into deadlier games that test everyone’s resolve. With each round, their choices lead to increasingly grave consequences. Meanwhile, In-ho resumes his role as Front Man to welcome the mysterious VIPs, and his brother Jun-ho continues his search for the elusive island, unaware there’s a traitor in their midst. Will Gi-hun make the right decisions, or will Front Man finally break his spirit?

The third season of Squid Game drops on Netflix on June 27, 2025.

Wednesday S2

Star Jenna Ortega put her own stamp on the iconic title character in the first season of Wednesday. At Tudum, Netflix introduced footage of S2’s first six minutes with a performance by Lady Gaga, who emerged from a coffin to perform a couple of spooky numbers—including “Bloody Mary” from Born This Way. (We can thank a viral video featuring the tune set to Wednesday’s fantastic S1 dancing sequence for that.)

As previously reported, along with Ortega, most of the main cast is returning for S2, including Emma Myers as Enid, and Joy Sunday as Bianca. Reprising their roles: Luis Guzman and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Gomez and Morticia Addams; Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley Addams; Victor Dorobantu as Thing; Fred Armisen as Uncle Fester; Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo as Deputy Ritchie Santiago; Hunter Doohan as Tyler Galpin, revealed as a murderous Hyde in the S1 finale; and Jamie McShane as Donovan Galpin, the Jericho sheriff and Tyler’s father (McShane is a guest this season).

We’ll miss Gwendoline Christie’s Principal Larissa Weems and Christina Ricci’s diabolical botany teacher, Marilyn Thornhill (RIP to both), but at least we’re getting the fabulous Joanna Lumley as Hester Frump, Morticia’s mother. Other new cast members include Billie Piper as Capri, Steve Buscemi as new Nevermore principle Barry Dort, and Evie Templeton, Owen Painter, and Noah Tyler in as-yet-undisclosed roles. Bonus: Lady Gaga will make a guest appearance in the show, and, as we see in the new footage, Haley Joel Osment makes a cameo.

Wednesday S2 will air in two installments. Part 1 debuts August 6, 2025. Part 2 is coming on September 3, 2025.

Stranger Things S5

It’s been a long, wild ride with the plucky residents of Hawkins, but we’re finally approaching the ultimate showdown against the dark force that has plagued the town since S1. The fifth season will have eight episodes and each one will be looong—akin to eight feature-length films.

In addition to the returning main cast, Amybeth McNulty and Gabriella Pizzolo are back as Vicki and Dustin’s girlfriend, Suzie, respectively, with Jamie Campbell Bower reprising his role as the ultimate Big Bad, now known as Vecna. Linda Hamilton joins the cast as Dr. Kay, along with Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler, Jake Connelly as Derek Turnbow, and Alex Breaux as Lt. Akers

S4 ended with Vecna opening the gate that allowed the Upside Down to leak into Hawkins. We’re getting a time jump for S5, but in a way we’re coming full circle, since the events coincide with the third anniversary of Will’s original disappearance in S1. Per the official premise:

The fall of 1987. Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna. But he has vanished—his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding. As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming—and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone—the full party—standing together, one last time.

The fifth and final season of Stranger Things will drop in not one, not two, but three installments, because apparently Netflix wants to be as annoying as possible. Volume 1 premieres on November 26, 2025; Volume 2 drops on Christmas Day, December 25, 2025; and the series finale will air on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2025.

Frankenstein

Oscar-wining director Guillermo del Toro has been dreaming of adapting Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for the big screen for more than a decade. There have been so many adaptations of Shelley’s novel, of varying quality, and even more reinventions and homages (cf. Poor Things). We finally have the first teaser for del Toro’s take, and it’s as sumptuously horrifying and visually rich as one would expect from the man who made such films as Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water.

Per the official premise: “A brilliant but egotistical scientist brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.” The events take place in 19th century Eastern Europe. Oscar Isaac stars as Victor Frankenstein, with Jacob Elordi playing the monster. Christopher Waltz plays Dr. Pretorious, who hopes to continue in Victor’s footsteps by tracking his monster—who, it turns out, did not die in a fire 40 years before.

The cast also includes Mia Goth as Victor’s fiancee, Elizabeth; Felix Kammerer as Williams; Lars Mikkelsen as Captain Anderson; David Bradley as a blind man; and Ralph Inseon as Professor Kempre. Charles Dance will also appear in an as-yet-undisclosed role.

Frankenstein premieres on Netflix in November 2025.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

Rian Johnson’s Knives Out series of films is still going strong, with the third installment featuring Daniel Craig’s languorously brilliant detective, Benoit Blanc, slated to premiere a couple of weeks before Christmas. It’s called Wake Up Dead Man, a title that pays homage to the 1997 U2 song of the same name.

Johnson is playing his cards close to the chest about the plot details. But we do know he’s assembled another all-star cast of murderous suspects: Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner—whose “Renning Hot” chili pepper sauce featured prominently in Glass Onion—Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery drops on Netflix on December 12, 2025—or if you want to be all Benoit Blanc about it, XII.XII.MMXXV.

Photo of Jennifer Ouellette

Jennifer is a senior writer at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban.

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Universal releases one last Jurassic World Rebirth trailer

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The first trailer dropped in February, serving primarily as a means of introducing the basic premise and the main characters—and playing up the return to where it all started: the original Jurassic Park. It’s been fairly isolated because, as one character says, “No one’s dumb enough to go where we’re going.” But anything for science and the benefit of humanity, right? Even if it means trying to steal DNA from a pterosaur egg (possibly Quetzalcoatlus northropi) before the angry mother—aka “a flying carnivore the size of an F-16″—returns. In fact, the island is home to “the worst of the worst,” i.e., the most dangerous of the cloned dinosaurs, including the infamous raptors and a new aquatic dinosaur species, the mosasaur.

Some of the same footage and expository dialogue appear in this latest trailer, which honestly gives away much of the movie—although how many fresh twists could there be after so many decades? You know by now what you’re getting with this franchise. The trailer opens with a laboratory emergency in which a worker in a hazmat suit is fatally trapped inside an isolation chamber with what looks like a hungry T-rex. The poor dude pleads with his colleague to open the door before being eaten.

The rest of the trailer consists of our intrepid team—and the unfortunate shipwrecked family—dealing with various species of very dangerous dinosaurs, with ScarJo leading the way on the action. (But pro tip: maybe don’t put a baby dinosaur in your backpack, m’kay?) One assumes there will be several casualties and many narrow escapes before the survivors emerge with the much-needed DNA samples. And of course, there are plenty of stunning panoramic shots of this amazing world and the fantastic creatures in it.

Jurassic World Rebirth hits theaters on July 2, 2025.

poster art showing a woman scaling a cliff via rope while a hungry flying dinosaur opens its huge jaws just below her

Credit: Universal Pictures

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Ana de Armas is caught in Wick’s crosshairs in final Ballerina trailer

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One last trailer for From the World of John Wick: Ballerina.

We’re about three weeks out from the theatrical release of From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, starring Ana de Armas. So naturally Lionsgate has released one final trailer to whet audience appetites for what promises to be a fiery, action-packed addition to the hugely successful franchise.

(Some spoilers for 2019’s John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum.)

Chronologically, Ballerina takes place during the events of John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum. As previously reported, Parabellum found Wick declared excommunicado from the High Table for killing crime lord Santino D’Antonio on the grounds of the Continental. On the run with a bounty on his head, he makes his way to the headquarters of the Ruska Roma crime syndicate, led by the Director (Anjelica Huston). The Director also trains young girls to be ballerina-assassins, and one young ballerina (played by Unity Phelan) is shown rehearsing in the scene. That dancer, Eve Macarro, is the main character in Ballerina, now played by de Armas.

Huston returns as the Director, Ian McShane is back as Winston, and Lance Reddick makes one final (posthumous) appearance as the Continental concierge, Charon. New cast members include Gabriel Byrne as the main villain, the Chancellor, who turns an entire town against Eve; Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Nogi, Eve’s mentor; Norman Reedus as Daniel Pine; and Catalina Sandino Moreno and David Castaneda in as-yet-undisclosed roles.

The first trailer was released last September and focused heavily on Eve’s backstory: Having been orphaned, she chose to train with the Ruska Roma in hopes of avenging her father’s brutal death. Wick only made a brief appearance, but he had more screen time in the second trailer, released in March, in which the pair face off in an atmospheric wintry landscape.

This final trailer opens with Eve looking up while directly in Wick’s crosshairs. Much of the ensuing footage isn’t new, but it does show de Armas to her best deadly advantage as she takes on combatant after combatant in true John Wick style. Her vow: “This isn’t done until they’re dead.”

From the World of John Wick: Ballerina hits theaters on June 6, 2025.

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The Justice League is not impressed in Peacemaker S2 teaser

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Cena, Brooks, Holland, Agee, and Stroma are all back for S2, along with Nhut Lee as Judomaster and Eagly, of course. Robert Patrick is also listed in the S2 cast, reprising his role as Chris’ father, Auggie; since Chris killed him in S1, one assumes Auggie will appear in flashbacks, hallucinations, or perhaps an alternate universe. (This is a soft reboot, after all.) New cast members include Frank Grillo as Rick Flagg Sr. (Grillo voiced the role in the animated Creature Commandos), now head of A.R.G.U.S. and out to avenge his son’s death; Tim Meadows as A.R.G.U.S. agent Langston Fleury; and Sol Rodriguez as Sasha Bordeaux.

Set to “Oh Lord” by Foxy Shazam, the teaser opens with Leota driving Chris to a job interview, assuring him, “They’re gonna be doing backflips to get you to join.” It turns out to be an interview with Justice League members Green Lantern/Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl/Kendra Saunders (Isabel Merced), and Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn), but they are not really into the interviewing process or taking note of Chris’ marksmanship and combat skills. They even diss poor Chris while accidentally keeping the microphone turned on: “This guy sucks.” (All three reprise their roles from Superman and are listed as S2 cast members, but it’s unclear how frequently they will appear.)

The other team members aren’t faring much better. They saved the world from the butterflies; you’d think people would treat them with a bit more respect, if not as outright heroes. Leota is “living in the worst level of Grand Theft Auto,” per John Economos; Emilia Harcourt has anger management issues and is diagnosed with “a particularly severe form of toxic masculinity”; and Vigilante is working in the food service industry. There’s not much detail as to the plot, apart from Chris going on the run from A.R.G.U.S., but the final scene shows Chris walking through a door and encountering another version of himself. So things are definitely about to get interesting.

The second season of Peacemaker will premiere on Max on August 21, 2025.

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The Third Crisis dawns in Foundation S3 teaser

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We have our first teaser for the upcoming third season of Foundation.

It’s been nearly two years, but the third season of Foundation, Apple TV+’s epic adaptation (or remix) of the Isaac Asimov series, is almost here. The streaming platform released an action-packed teaser of what we can expect from the new ten-episode season: the onset of the Third Crisis, a galactic war, and a shirtless Lee Pace.

(Some spoilers for first two seasons below.)

Showrunner David S. Goyer took great pains in S1 to carefully set up his expansive fictional world, and the scope only broadened in the second season. As previously reported, Asimov’s fundamental narrative arc remains intact, with the series taking place across multiple planets over 1,000 years and featuring a huge cast of characters.

Mathematician Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) developed a controversial theory of “psychohistory,” and his calculations predict the fall of the Empire, ushering in a Dark Age period that will last 30,000 years, after which a second Empire will emerge. The collapse of the Empire is inevitable, but Seldon has a plan to reduce the Dark Ages to a mere 1,000 years through the establishment of a Foundation to preserve all human knowledge so that civilization need not rebuild itself entirely from scratch. He is aided in this endeavor by his math prodigy protegé Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell).

The biggest change from the books is the replacement of the Empire’s ruling committee with a trio of Eternal Emperor clones called the Cleons—a genetic triune dynasty comprised of Brother Day (Pace), Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann), and Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton). Technically, they are all perfect incarnations of the same man at different ages, and this is both the source of their strength as a team and of their conflicts. Their guardian is an android, Eto Demerzel (Laura Birn), one of the last surviving androids from the ancient Robot Wars, who is programmed to protect the dynasty at all costs.

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Sony releases new trailer for 28 Years Later

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Danny Boyle directs the third film in the post-apocalyptic franchise, 28 Years Later.

The critically acclaimed 2002 film 28 Days Later is often credited with sparking the 21st-century revival of the zombie genre. Director Danny Boyle is back with more zombie-virus dystopian horror in his new film set in the same fictional world, 28 Years Later—not so much a direct sequel but the start of a new planned trilogy.

(Some spoilers for 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later below.)

In 28 Days Later, a highly contagious “Rage Virus” is accidentally released from a lab in Cambridge, England. Those infected turn into violent, mindless monsters who brutally attack the uninfected—so-called “fast zombies.” Transmitted by bites, scratches, or even just by getting a drop of infected blood in one’s mouth, the virus spreads rapidly, effectively collapsing society. A bicycle courier named Jim (Cillian Murphy) awakens from a coma 28 days later to find London mostly deserted, apart from a handful of survivors fleeing the infected hordes, and joins them in the pursuit of safety. Jim (barely) survives, and we see zombies dying of starvation in the streets during the denouement.

The sequel, 28 Weeks Later, featured a new cast of characters living on the outskirts of London. With the help of NATO soldiers, Britain has begun rebuilding, taking in refugees and moving them to safe-zone districts. But all it takes is one careless person getting infected and raging out for the virus to spread uncontrollably yet again. So naturally, that’s what happens. The survivors eventually flee to France, only for the rage virus to spread there, too.

As early as 2007, Boyle had plans for a third film, set 28 months after the original outbreak, but it ended up in development hell. When the film finally got the green light in January 2024, the title had changed to 28 Years Later, given how much time had passed. Alex Garland returns as screenwriter and also wrote the two sequels for this new trilogy.

How much time do we have left?

Per the official synopsis:

It’s been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily defended causeway. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.

Jodie Comer plays Isla, who lives with her husband, Jamie, (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and 12-year-old son, Spike (Alfie Williams), on the aforementioned island. Isla is pregnant, and Jamie scrounges out a living as a scavenger. The cast also includes Ralph Fiennes as Dr. Kelson, one of the survivors of the original outbreak; Jack O’Connell as cult leader Sir Jimmy Crystal; Edvin Ryding as Swedish NATO soldier Erik Sundqvist; Erin Kellyman as Jimmy Ink; and Emma Laird in an as-yet-undisclosed role.

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Go back to the Grid in TRON: Ares trailer

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An AI program enters the real world in TRON: Ares.

It’s difficult to underestimate the massive influence that Disney’s 1982 cult science fiction film, TRON, had on both the film industry—thanks to combining live action with what were then groundbreaking visual effects, rife with computer-generated imagery—and on nerd culture at large.  Over the ensuing decades there has been one sequel, an animated TV series, a comic book miniseries, video games, and theme park attractions, all modeled on director Steve Lisberg’s original fictional world.

Now we’re getting a third installment in the film franchise: TRON: Ares, directed by Joachim Rønning (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil), that serves as a standalone sequel to 2010’s TRON: Legacy. Disney just released the first trailer and poster art, and while the footage is short on plot, it’s got the show-stopping visuals we’ve come to expect from all things TRON.

(Spoilers for ending of TRON: Legacy below.)

TRON: Legacy ended with Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) from the original film, preventing the digital world from bleeding into the real world, as planned by the Grid’s malevolent ruling program, Clu. He brought with him Quorra (Olivia Wilde), a naturally occurring isomorphic algorithm targeted for extinction by Clu.

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John Wick has a new target in latest Ballerina trailer

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Ana de Armas stars as an assassin in training in From the World of John Wick: Ballerina.

Lionsgate dropped a new trailer for Ballerina—or, as the studio is now calling it, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, because what every film needs is a needlessly clunky title. There’s nothing clunky about this new trailer, however: It’s the stylized, action-packed dose of pure adrenaline one would expect from the franchise, and it ends with Ana de Armas’ titular ballerina facing off against none other than John Wick himself (Keanu Reeves).

(Spoilers for 2019’s John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum.)

Chronologically, Ballerina takes place during the events of John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum. As previously reported, Parabellum found Wick declared excommunicado from the High Table for killing crime lord Santino D’Antonio on the grounds of the Continental. On the run with a bounty on his head, he makes his way to the headquarters of the Ruska Roma crime syndicate, led by the Director (Anjelica Huston). That’s where we learned Wick was originally named Jardani Jovonovich and trained as an assassin with the syndicate. The Director also trains young girls to be ballerina-assassins, and one young ballerina (played by Unity Phelan) is shown rehearsing in the scene. That dancer, Eve Macarro, is the main character in Ballerina, now played by de Armas.

Huston returns as the Director, Ian McShane is back as Winston, and Lance Reddick makes one final (posthumous) appearance as the Continental concierge, Charon. New cast members include Gabriel Byrne as main villain the Chancellor, who turns an entire town against Eve; Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Nogi, Eve’s mentor; Norman Reedus as Daniel Pine; and Catalina Sandino Moreno and David Castaneda in as-yet-undisclosed roles.

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HBO drops The Last of Us S2 trailer

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Pedro Pascal returns as Joel in The Last of Us S2.

HBO released a one-minute teaser of the hotly anticipated second season of The Last of Us—based on Naughty Dog’s hugely popular video game franchise—during CES in January. We now have a full trailer, unveiled at SXSW after the footage leaked over the weekend, chock-full of Easter eggs for gaming fans of The Last of Us Part II.

(Spoilers for S1 below.)

The series takes place in the 20-year aftermath of a deadly outbreak of mutant fungus (Cordyceps) that turns humans into monstrous zombie-like creatures (the Infected, or Clickers). The world has become a series of separate totalitarian quarantine zones and independent settlements, with a thriving black market and a rebel militia known as the Fireflies making life complicated for the survivors. Joel (Pedro Pascal) is a hardened smuggler tasked with escorting the teenage Ellie (Bella Ramsay) across the devastated US, battling hostile forces and hordes of zombies, to a Fireflies unit outside the quarantine zone. Ellie is special: She is immune to the deadly fungus, and the hope is that her immunity holds the key to beating the disease.

S2 is set five years after the events of the first season and finds the bond beginning to fray between plucky survivors Joel and Ellie. That’s the inevitable outcome of S1’s shocking finale, when they finally arrived at their destination, only to discover the secret to her immunity to the Cordyceps fungus meant Ellie would have to die to find a cure. Ellie was willing to sacrifice herself, but once she was under anesthesia, Joel went berserk and killed all the hospital staff to save her life—and lied to Ellie about it, claiming the staff were killed by raiders.

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Netflix drops trailer for the Russo brothers’ The Electric State

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Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt star in the Netflix original film The Electric State.

Anthony and Joe Russo have their hands full these days with the Marvel films Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret War, slated for 2026 and 2027 releases, respectively. But we’ll get a chance to see another, smaller film from the directors this month on Netflix: The Electric State, adapted from the graphic novel by Swedish artist/designer Simon Stålenhag.

Stålenhag’s stunningly surreal neofuturistic art—featured in his narrative art books, 2014’s Tales from the Loop and 2016’s Things From the Flood—inspired the 2020 eight-episode series Tales From the Loop, in which residents of a rural town find themselves grappling with strange occurrences thanks to the presence of an underground particle accelerator. That adaptation captured the mood and tone of the art that inspired it and received Emmy nominations for cinematography and special visual effects.

The Electric State was Stålenhag’s third such book, published in 2018 and set in a similar dystopian, ravaged landscape. Paragraphs of text, accompanied by larger artworks, tell the story of a teen girl named Michelle who must travel across the country with her robot companion to find her long-lost brother, while being pursued by a federal agent. The Russo brothers acquired the rights early on and initially intended to make the film with Universal, but when the studio decided it would not be giving the film a theatrical release, Netflix bought the distribution rights.

It’s worth noting that the Russo brothers have made several major plot changes from the source material, a decision that did not please Stålenhag’s many fans, particularly since the first-look images revealed that the directors were also adopting more of a colorful 1990s aesthetic than the haunting art that originally inspired their film. Per the official premise:

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