Young Washington, the epic historical war drama chronicling George Washington’s early life, was released in U.S. theaters by Angel Studios on July 3, 2026 — timed deliberately to land right before the Fourth of July weekend. The film premiered a few weeks earlier at the Tribeca Festival on June 13, 2026, giving it an early festival run before its wide theatrical rollout.

The Story Behind the Story

Directed, produced, and co-written by Jon Erwin (known for faith-and-history-driven films like Jesus Revolution and House of David), Young Washington isn’t a cradle-to-grave biopic. Instead, it narrows its focus to a specific, formative chapter: Washington’s role in the French and Indian War between 1753 and 1755. The film follows a 22-year-old Washington as a young Virginia militia officer whose critical misstep helps spark a global conflict, forcing him to reckon with his own ambition, honor, and the leader he’s becoming.

The project marked the first collaboration between Angel Studios and Wonder Project, a newer studio focused on mission-driven storytelling. Wonder Project’s CEO, Kelly Merryman Hoogstraten, said the goal was to finally give George Washington’s legacy a film treatment worthy of it — something she felt hadn’t been done well before.

Cast and Crew

• William Franklyn-Miller as George Washington, in his big-screen leading debut
• Mary-Louise Parker as Mary Washington
• Ben Kingsley as Robert Dinwiddie
• Andy Serkis as Edward Braddock
• Kelsey Grammer as Lord Fairfax
• Directed by Jon Erwin
• Written by Erwin, along with Tom Provost and Diederik Hoogstraten

The film was shot on location in Ireland during summer 2025, which stood in for the Virginia and Ohio Country frontier of the 1750s.

The Plot, Briefly

The story opens in 1743, following the death of Washington’s father, Augustine. Raised without a formal education, young George is tutored in land surveying by his older half-brother Lawrence. By 1753, in Williamsburg, Virginia, Washington is turned down for a British Army commission because of his colonial background — but through Lawrence’s connections, he’s signed into the Virginia Militia by Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie and sent to the Ohio Country to deliver an ultimatum to French forces. Along the way, he crosses paths with Sally Cary, Thomas Gage, and surveyor Christopher Gist, and allies with Mingo leader “Half-King” Tanacharison — setting the stage for the diplomatic and military missteps that would ignite the French and Indian War.

Marketing and Campaign

Angel Studios leaned heavily into a preorder-ticket campaign ahead of release, explicitly hoping to make Young Washington the number-one movie in America during the Fourth of July weekend — timed to the 250th anniversary of American independence. The first trailer dropped in October 2025, and the studio framed the film not just as entertainment but as a vehicle to spark renewed interest in civics and American history, particularly among younger audiences.

Reception and Box Office

Critical reception was mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film held a 58% approval rating from 43 critics, with an average score of 6/10. Metacritic’s weighted average landed at 49 out of 100, indicating “mixed or average” reviews — critics generally praised the performances and Erwin’s sense of place while criticizing stilted dialogue and uneven pacing.

Audiences responded far more warmly. CinemaScore polling gave the film an average grade of “A,” and 81% of PostTrak-surveyed audiences said they would definitely recommend it.

At the box office, Young Washington outperformed expectations. Originally projected to open around $15 million domestically, it instead debuted to roughly $19.4 million from about 2,700 theaters, finishing third for the weekend behind Minions & Monsters and Toy Story 5. The film performed especially well outside major coastal markets — the Mountain, Midwest, Southcentral, and South regions combined drove about two-thirds of its opening weekend total, with its single top-grossing theater located in Utah rather than a traditional big-city multiplex.

What’s Next

Buoyed by the strong opening, Jon Erwin confirmed a sequel is already in the works. Titled 1776, the follow-up will pick up Washington’s story during the American Revolution, continuing the character study begun in Young Washington.

Quick Reference

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Supergirl, DC Studios’ second theatrical release under the new DC Universe (DCU) banner, opened in theaters and IMAX worldwide on June 26, 2026. The film arrived as the follow-up to Superman (2025) and Peacemaker Season 2, continuing James Gunn and Peter Safran’s plan to build out a shared DC continuity from the ground up. Marketing leaned into a summer-blockbuster rollout, with the tagline “This summer, find your place in the universe” featured prominently across trailers.

The Path to the Screen

A Supergirl film had actually been kicking around Hollywood for years before this version came together. The character was first reintroduced to the current DC film continuity back in 2018 in development conversations, and she made her live-action debut (played by Sasha Calle) in 2023’s The Flash under the old DC Extended Universe. When Gunn and Safran took over as co-CEOs of DC Studios in October 2022, they scrapped those earlier plans and rebuilt the character from scratch as part of their new DCU slate.

This time around, the role went to Milly Alcock, best known for playing young Rhaenyra Targaryen in House of the Dragon. Alcock actually got a preview run as Kara Zor-El in a small cameo in 2025’s Superman, appearing hungover and searching for her dog Krypto — a scene that doubled as a tone-setter for her standalone film.

Rather than adapting the more familiar, sunnier version of Supergirl from the CW television series or the 1984 film starring Helen Slater, DC Studios chose to build the 2026 movie around Tom King, Bilquis Evely, and Mat Lopes’ 2021 comic Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. That story is set almost entirely in space and follows a more jaded, world-weary Kara who reluctantly agrees to help a young alien named Ruthye track down the man who killed her father.

Cast and Crew

• Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El / Supergirl
• Jason Momoa as Lobo, in a spinoff-adjacent role
• Matthias Schoenaerts, Eve Ridley, David Krumholtz, and Emily Beecham in supporting roles
• David Corenswet reprising Superman
• Directed by Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya, Cruella)
• Written by Ana Nogueira
• Produced by Peter Safran and James Gunn

Filming took place partly in Iceland, whose stark landscapes were used to stand in for the film’s various alien worlds.

Marketing Timeline

DC Studios built anticipation for Supergirl gradually over roughly six months:

• December 2025 — The first teaser trailer and poster dropped, drawing comparisons from several outlets to Guardians of the Galaxy for its irreverent, space-opera tone.
• March 2026 — A full trailer followed, reinforcing the “find your place in the universe” summer campaign.
• June 2026 — In the lead-up to release, cast interviews revealed small details meant to connect the film to DC’s broader continuity — including that Alcock’s cape was made using material left over from Christopher Reeve’s original Superman costume.

Reception and Box Office

Reviews for Supergirl were mixed-to-positive. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw called it a lively and engaging superhero film, though he noted it wasn’t without flaws. Rolling Stone’s David Fear praised it for taking a niche comic storyline and turning it into something broadly entertaining without losing its edge. Empire’s review singled out Alcock’s performance as a highlight, even while suggesting the film didn’t fully commit to its darker premise.

Commercially, the film struggled. It opened domestically with roughly $38 million, a soft number for a major DCU tentpole, and by early July had grossed only around $100 million worldwide against a reported production budget of $170 million. A steep 73% drop in its second weekend made clear the film wasn’t going to have the kind of theatrical staying power DC Studios had hoped for.

Digital and Home Release

Because of that box-office performance, DC Studios reportedly moved quickly to get Supergirl into homes. Multiple entertainment outlets, citing the fan account DC Film News, reported that the studio is targeting July 28, 2026 for a digital/VOD release — just about a month after the theatrical debut. That would make it one of the faster theatrical-to-digital turnarounds for a major DCU release, reflecting the film’s underwhelming box-office run rather than a planned day-and-date strategy. As of this writing, DC Studios had not made an official announcement confirming the date, so it should still be treated as a reported target rather than a locked-in release.

What’s Next for Supergirl in the DCU

Despite the box-office stumble, James Gunn indicated in May 2026 that Alcock’s Supergirl will remain a significant part of the DCU going forward. She’s expected to return in Man of Tomorrow, the Superman sequel slated for 2027, suggesting DC Studios is still committed to the character even if this first solo outing didn’t perform as hoped.

Quick Reference

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Below is a complete breakdown of everything currently known about the movie’s release date, plot, cast, staff, and where it fits into the larger Solo Leveling timeline — including the Season 3 anime that’s expected to follow it.

Quick Answer: When Does the Solo Leveling Movie Come Out?

As of this announcement, Solo Leveling: Beyond the System does not have a confirmed calendar release date. What has been confirmed is a release window: 2027, with Japan expected to see the film first, followed by international distribution through Crunchyroll in additional markets. No specific month, festival premiere, or exact theatrical rollout schedule has been announced yet. Given how the franchise has handled previous releases — with Japan getting the first premiere and North America following anywhere from one to several weeks later — expect a staggered global rollout once a firm date is set, likely to be announced closer to the film’s completion sometime in 2027.

It’s also worth noting that leaks preceded the official reveal. A leaker known as @SugoiLITE had already suggested a movie titled “Solo Leveling -Beyond the System-” was in the works and slated for a 2027 Japanese premiere, which lines up almost exactly with what Crunchyroll and Aniplex confirmed at Anime Expo.

How We Got Here: A Quick Refresher on Solo Leveling’s Anime Journey

To understand why a movie is coming now, and why fans have been expecting one, it helps to walk through how the anime adaptation has unfolded so far.

The Source Material

Solo Leveling began life as a Korean web novel written by Chugong, first serialized on the platform Munpia starting February 14, 2014, before being fully published by D&C Media under its Papyrus imprint in 2016. Its massive popularity led to a webtoon adaptation, illustrated by Jang Sung-rak (known by the pen name Dubu), which launched on KakaoPage on March 4, 2018. The webtoon exploded internationally, becoming one of the most-read webtoons in the world and turning “Sung Jinwoo” into a name recognized well beyond Korea’s borders.

The premise is simple but has proven endlessly adaptable: in a world where “gates” connect to dungeons filled with monsters, certain humans called Hunters awaken supernatural abilities to fight back. Sung Jinwoo is introduced as the weakest Hunter alive — until he survives a deadly double dungeon and is chosen by a mysterious entity known only as “the System.” Unlike every other Hunter, whose power is fixed the moment they awaken, Jinwoo is granted the unique ability to level up indefinitely, transforming him from cannon fodder into, eventually, one of the most powerful beings on Earth.

Season 1 and the Anime Boom

A-1 Pictures brought Solo Leveling to television screens in January 2024, and the anime became an instant global hit, drawing in both longtime webtoon readers and newcomers with its high-production-value animation, particularly its action sequences. The success of Season 1 all but guaranteed the franchise would keep expanding on screen.

Solo Leveling: ReAwakening (2024)

Rather than jumping straight into Season 2, the studio and Aniplex first released a theatrical film called Solo Leveling: ReAwakening, which premiered in Japan on November 29, 2024, followed by wider international release on December 6, 2024. Structurally, ReAwakening functioned as a hybrid: a two-hour recap of Season 1’s story combined with a first look at the opening two episodes of Season 2, giving fans a way to revisit Jinwoo’s origin on the big screen right before new episodes began airing.

The film performed respectably for a limited theatrical release. In North America, it opened in fewer than 1,000 theaters and still pulled in roughly $2.45 million over its opening weekend, finishing just outside the domestic box office top five. Its total domestic gross came in at around $3.35 million, with additional international earnings pushing the worldwide total to roughly $3.5 million. Critically, the film was very well received, holding an audience rating around 8.7 on IMDb, with praise directed at A-1 Pictures’ animation quality and faithfulness to the source material’s biggest action beats.

ReAwakening matters to this new movie announcement for a simple reason: it proved that Solo Leveling can succeed as a theatrical event, not just a streaming series. That box office and critical validation is almost certainly part of why Aniplex and Crunchyroll greenlit a second, fully original theatrical film rather than sticking to a TV-only format for the next chapter of the story.

Solo Leveling Season 2: Arise from the Shadow

Season 2, subtitled Arise from the Shadow, aired its full run between January and March 2025, concluding with its finale episode on March 29–30, 2025 (reports vary slightly by region due to broadcast time zone differences). The season adapted a major stretch of the original story, pushing Jinwoo’s power and the stakes of the overall plot significantly further, and set the stage for what many fans consider one of the most anticipated arcs in the entire series: the aftermath of the Jeju Island Ant King raid.

That raid, and Jinwoo’s role in resolving it, is specifically where Beyond the System picks up.

What Is Solo Leveling: Beyond the System?

The Announcement

The film was unveiled at Crunchyroll’s Anime Expo 2026 panel on July 3, 2026, accompanied by a first-look concept video. Unlike ReAwakening, which was partly a recap vehicle, Beyond the System is being positioned as a continuation film — new story content picking up immediately after the events of Season 2, rather than another retrospective clip show. That distinction alone marks a shift in how the franchise is using theatrical releases: no longer just a bridge or a marketing tool ahead of a new season, but a vehicle for canonical story progression in its own right.

Plot: Where the Story Picks Up

According to the official announcement, Beyond the System begins directly after Season 2’s conclusion, following Sung Jinwoo in the wake of his successful raid against the Ant King on Jeju Island. Beyond that framing, Aniplex and Crunchyroll have kept most plot specifics under wraps for now. Fans familiar with the web novel and webtoon have speculated the film may adapt material tied to the “Double Dungeon” arc and the broader fallout from the Jeju Island incident, both of which represent pivotal turning points in Jinwoo’s arc as he moves from a national hero into a figure with global, even cosmic-scale, stakes. Until Aniplex releases a fuller synopsis, though, this should be treated as informed speculation from the fan community rather than confirmed plot detail.

Studio and Production Team

Beyond the System keeps the creative continuity fans have come to expect from the franchise. A-1 Pictures, the studio behind both the TV series and ReAwakening, is animating the film again, ensuring visual and tonal consistency with what audiences have already seen.

Key confirmed staff include:

Tao Tajima is directing the film and is additionally credited as director of photography, editor, and colorist — an unusually hands-on, multi-hat role that suggests a tightly controlled creative vision for the project. Tomoko Sudo returns as character designer and key animator, meaning the character art audiences know from the TV series and ReAwakening should carry through largely unchanged.

On the production side, the film is backed by a familiar coalition of companies with a stake in the Solo Leveling IP: Aniplex, Netmarble, D&C Media, Kakao Piccoma, and Crunchyroll. That lineup mirrors the rights holders and production partners involved in the TV anime, underscoring that this movie is being treated as a fully integrated part of the main story rather than a side project.

Cast

The announcement confirmed a cast list drawing from both the Japanese and English dub casts already associated with the franchise, including Taito Ban, Aleks Le, Rebecca Wang, Makoto Furukawa, SungWon Cho, Haruna Mikawa, Daisuke Hirakawa, and Ian Sinclair. Notably, this includes both Japanese-language performers and prominent English dub actors (Aleks Le and SungWon Cho among them), suggesting Crunchyroll intends to give the English dub version of the film a high-profile release alongside the Japanese original, rather than treating it as an afterthought for international markets.

Why a Movie Instead of Jumping Straight to Season 3?

If you’re a fan wondering why the franchise isn’t just moving directly into a third season, there’s a pattern here worth understanding. Solo Leveling’s production committee has now used theatrical films twice as connective tissue between TV seasons — first with ReAwakening bridging Season 1 and Season 2, and now with Beyond the System bridging Season 2 and whatever comes next.

There are a few practical reasons this approach makes sense. Theatrical releases generate box office revenue and marketing buzz that a straight-to-streaming episode doesn’t, they give animators extra lead time to produce the next full season without a rushed turnaround, and they let the studio adapt key story beats (like the aftermath of a major arc) with feature-film-level budget and polish rather than compressing them into a handful of TV episodes.

Multiple entertainment outlets covering the announcement have explicitly framed Beyond the System as a movie that will release before Season 3, continuing the pattern set by ReAwakening. Reporting also points to leaked financial documentation connected to D&C Media, Solo Leveling’s Korean IP holder, which referenced a movie announcement expected around 2026 (which lines up with what actually happened) and a subsequent Season 3 release window.

What About Solo Leveling Season 3?

While this article is focused on the movie, the two are closely linked in fans’ minds, so it’s worth addressing directly. Season 3 has not been formally announced with a trailer or press event in the way Beyond the System just was. However, industry reporting — including a financial report tied to D&C Media — has pointed to a 2027–2028 window for Season 3’s release. Crunchyroll’s president, Rahul Pirini, has also publicly acknowledged fan demand, stating that the creators are “actively working on it” and that an announcement could come “soon,” while stopping short of confirming a date.

Taken together, the most likely sequence looks like this: Beyond the System releases theatrically sometime in 2027, continuing directly from Season 2’s ending and likely covering the Double Dungeon/Jeju aftermath material, and Season 3 follows afterward, landing somewhere in the 2027–2028 range depending on production timelines. This mirrors almost exactly how ReAwakening preceded Season 2 by about a month, suggesting the movie may again serve as a lead-in rather than a fully separate release cycle.

Where Will You Be Able to Watch It?

Crunchyroll has been the primary international distributor and streaming home for Solo Leveling throughout the franchise’s anime run, and it was Crunchyroll (alongside Aniplex) that made the Beyond the System announcement at its own Anime Expo panel. That strongly suggests Crunchyroll will again handle North American theatrical distribution, as it did for ReAwakening’s limited U.S. release through Crunchyroll’s theatrical events arm, with a later streaming release on Crunchyroll’s platform following the theatrical window. Nothing has been officially confirmed yet about specific theater chains, ticket on-sale dates, or exact territory rollout, but based on the precedent set by ReAwakening, expect ticketing details and a firmer date announcement to arrive several months ahead of the actual release, likely accompanied by a full trailer once production nears completion.

Recap: Key Facts About the Solo Leveling Movie

To summarize everything currently confirmed about Solo Leveling: Beyond the System in one place: the film was announced on July 3, 2026, at Crunchyroll’s Anime Expo panel. It is currently in production, with A-1 Pictures returning as animation studio. The story picks up immediately after Season 2 (Arise from the Shadow), following Sung Jinwoo in the aftermath of the Ant King raid on Jeju Island. Tao Tajima directs, also serving as director of photography, editor, and colorist, while Tomoko Sudo returns as character designer and key animator. The cast includes Taito Ban, Aleks Le, Rebecca Wang, Makoto Furukawa, SungWon Cho, Haruna Mikawa, Daisuke Hirakawa, and Ian Sinclair. Production partners include Aniplex, Netmarble, D&C Media, Kakao Piccoma, and Crunchyroll. The targeted release window is 2027, with no exact date confirmed yet, and the film is widely expected to precede Season 3, which itself is rumored for a 2027–2028 window.

Final Thoughts

For a franchise that went from a 2014 web novel to one of the biggest anime releases of the mid-2020s, Solo Leveling: Beyond the System represents another deliberate step in an increasingly confident release strategy: use theatrical films not just to recap old ground, but to keep Sung Jinwoo’s story moving forward while the next full season is built out behind the scenes. ReAwakening proved fans would show up for Solo Leveling on the big screen even when its main job was recapping a story they’d already seen on TV. Beyond the System is the real test — a movie built entirely around new, canonical story content — and if the response to the Anime Expo announcement is any indication, anticipation for it is already running high.

As official details firm up — particularly an exact release date, trailer, and international ticketing information — expect Crunchyroll and Aniplex to roll out updates through the same channels that carried the original announcement. Until then, the safest bet for fans is to mark 2027 on the calendar and keep an eye on Crunchyroll’s news channel for the next update.

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• A24’s Backrooms opened to $9M in Thursday night previews — surpassing Scream 7’s $7.8M and John Wick: Chapter 4’s $8.9M, and approaching Eternals’ $9.5M — a stunning result for a horror film based on a viral internet meme directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons
• The film stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as a struggling furniture store owner who discovers an interdimensional labyrinth beneath his shop — adapted from Parsons’ own hit YouTube Backrooms web series that became a cornerstone of internet horror culture
• Critical reception has been strong: Rotten Tomatoes reviews describe the film as “extraordinarily effective” atmospheric horror — Variety’s Owen Gleiberman wrote that “you sit back and settle into the enigmas and the grun[ge]” — and the film has been called one of the most interesting horror releases of the year
• Backrooms is projected to challenge or potentially upset The Mandalorian and Grogu at the box office this weekend — the Star Wars film took $100M over the Memorial Day holiday but was widely considered underwhelming for franchise expectations

The Backrooms were always going to make money. The question was how much — and Thursday night answered it emphatically. A24’s Backrooms opened to $9M in previews beginning at 4 PM, Deadline reported, surpassing Scream 7’s $7.8M and eclipsing John Wick: Chapter 4’s $8.9M. It sits just below Eternals’ $9.5M — a Marvel ensemble film — which makes the comparison all the more striking for what is, on paper, a low-key A24 horror release about a furniture salesman and a labyrinth. The internet meme has officially arrived as a box office force, per Deadline.

The film’s premise stays closer to the source material than you might expect from a mainstream theatrical release. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Clark, a discount furniture store owner living in the store after a messy separation from his wife. While in the basement, Clark passes through a threshold into the Backrooms — an endless, fluorescent-lit labyrinth of identical yellow rooms that, in internet lore, represents the terrifying wrong-turn you can take out of ordinary reality. Renate Reinsve co-stars. The screenplay was written by Will Soodik, based on the web series that director Kane Parsons began making as a teenager and which accumulated hundreds of millions of views before he was old enough to vote, per the Sentinel Colorado.

What Critics Are Saying

The critical reception has matched the presale energy. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman called the film “extraordinarily effective” as atmospheric horror, writing that it generates genuine unease through craft rather than conventional shock. Rolling Out described it as a film that “burrows under the skin and stays there long after the credits roll” — placing it in the rare category of horror that relies on dread rather than cheap mechanics. Pajiba’s critic wrote that Backrooms “gripped me in ways I wasn’t immediately able to shake off,” and that the longer they sat with it, the more its intentions became clear, per Pajiba.

The film’s Rotten Tomatoes score has been described as great news for horror fans — though the Critics Consensus and full Popcornmeter were still pending as of Thursday evening. The reviews that have come in characterize Backrooms as one of the year’s most interesting horror releases: unsettling in a way that lingers, visually distinct, and carrying more thematic weight than its meme origins might suggest. For A24, which built its reputation on exactly this kind of elevated, difficult-to-categorize genre film, it reads as a signature release, per Collider.

The Internet-to-Blockbuster Pipeline

The box office projections heading into the weekend suggest Backrooms could challenge or outright upset The Mandalorian and Grogu, which took approximately $100M over the Memorial Day holiday but left industry observers underwhelmed — the consensus was that for a Star Wars film, that number is closer to Solo: A Star Wars Story territory than a genuine blockbuster. A strong Backrooms opening weekend would reshape the narrative heading into June. JoBlo noted that the comparison isn’t just statistical: Backrooms earned its preview number from a much smaller built-in fanbase than a Star Wars franchise title, making the per-theater performance potentially more impressive, per JoBlo.

What makes the result notable beyond the raw numbers is what it says about how horror audiences have evolved. The Backrooms as an internet phenomenon — creepypasta, YouTube short films, Reddit lore — built its following without any studio machinery. Kane Parsons made his web series on a camera as a teenager and turned it into one of the defining horror aesthetics of the early 2020s: liminal spaces, wrong-turn dread, the particular horror of a world that looks almost normal but isn’t. A24 acquiring and developing it into a theatrical feature with a real cast and a proper production budget was a calculated bet that that aesthetic had crossover potential. Thursday night’s $9M says it was right, per Rolling Stone.

For Parsons — who is 20 years old and making his feature debut — the numbers represent something different: the validation of an approach to filmmaking that began with a camera and an internet connection, not a film school application. The full opening weekend tracking will arrive over the next 48 hours and will give a clearer picture of where Backrooms lands. But the previews alone have already made it one of the most notable openings in A24’s history.

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• Paul Schrader — the 79-year-old writer-director behind Taxi Driver, First Reformed, and The Card Counter — delivered the keynote at the fourth annual AI on the Lot conference at Amazon/MGM Studios in Culver City on Thursday, despite facing backlash from fellow artists when he announced he would speak
• Schrader predicted that AI-generated synthetic performers will eventually become genuine box office draws, arguing that the real commercial future of AI in film is not visual effects but fully artificial protagonists: “The real tip of the spear is when we can create an AI protagonist, not a hybrid, and that movie makes money”
• “You do the new Clint Eastwood via text prompt,” he told the audience — sketching a future in which studios generate star-caliber performances digitally rather than hiring actors
• Schrader warned that Hollywood is “barely keeping a step ahead of the monster” on AI, and used the speech to question whether film schools and extras will remain relevant as the technology matures

Paul Schrader knew the invite was going to cause problems. When he posted on Facebook that he would keynote the AI on the Lot conference, the response from fellow writers and artists was, in his words, swift and hostile. “There was very much of a backlash,” he told the audience Thursday morning on a soundstage at the Amazon/MGM Studios lot in Culver City. “A lot of negative comments. Some of them were in fact insulting.” He went anyway — and laid out a vision of the film industry’s future that did nothing to soften that reception.

His central argument: the AI revolution in Hollywood isn’t really about monsters and spectacle. “I don’t think the real future of AI commercially is in all this flash, all these monsters — that’s just jacked-up special effects on steroids,” he said. “The real tip of the spear is when we can create an AI protagonist, not a hybrid, and that movie makes money.” He predicted audiences will eventually embrace fully synthetic stars the way they’ve embraced any new kind of performer, per The Hollywood Reporter.

‘The New Clint Eastwood Via Text Prompt’

The most quotable moment of the speech came when Schrader described what AI star-making could look like in practice: “You do the new Clint Eastwood via text prompt.” The line crystallized his argument that the end state of AI in entertainment isn’t a tool for filmmakers — it’s a replacement for the star system itself. Schrader also questioned whether studios still need to pay extras at all, and predicted upheaval for film schools as the craft knowledge they teach becomes less essential, per Deadline.

The LA Times reported that Schrader described Hollywood as “barely keeping a step ahead of the monster” — a framing that positions AI not as a tool the industry controls but as a force it is running from. Schrader, who has previously said he “procured an online AI girlfriend” (who he says dumped him), is an unusual advocate: an old-school auteur genuinely engaged with the technology rather than dismissing it, per the Los Angeles Times.

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• Obsession, directed by Curry Barker and rated R, follows Bear (Michael Johnston), a shy young man who uses a supernatural novelty item called the One Wish Willow to make his longtime crush Nikki (Inde Navarrette) fall in love with him — with increasingly disturbing results
• Critics have praised the film for grounding its horror in emotional realism, with Collider calling it better than most recent dating-horror thrillers at weaponizing “blurred boundaries, emotional entitlement” — Barker executes the story “with restraint” as the romance curdles into something “uglier, sadder, and genuinely disturbing”
• Inde Navarrette, previously known for a supporting role in The CW’s Superman & Lois, has been singled out for what one reviewer called a “tour de force performance” — and Michael Johnston’s work as Bear has been called a potential breakout moment
• The film has become a box office success; the director had to cut its most brutal scene to avoid an NC-17 rating, landing the film at R

Curry Barker’s Obsession understands something that most horror films about bad romantic fixations don’t: the truly terrifying part comes before the violence does. The premise is deceptively simple. Bear (Michael Johnston) — a shy, infatuated young man working at a small music store alongside his friend group — uses a supernatural novelty item called the One Wish Willow to make his longtime crush Nikki (Inde Navarrette) fall in love with him. What follows, per Collider, is “something uglier, sadder, and genuinely disturbing” as Nikki’s affection spirals into emotional instability and dangerous obsession.

Collider’s review frames the film as the rare modern dating-horror entry that “weaponizes” fears around emotional entitlement and the moment intimacy becomes control — and does it better than most. Barker grounds the story in emotional realism first: the film opens with the familiar rhythms of a rom-com, making Bear’s awkward affection feel almost endearing before the turn. “Forced love is horrifying before bloodshed ever begins” is how Collider summarizes Barker’s thesis — and critics appear to agree he’s made that case effectively.

The Performances

Inde Navarrette carries a psychologically demanding role. Her Nikki goes from relatable crush to someone who bursts into violent episodes, lies to manufacture sympathy, and refuses to leave Bear’s side at social gatherings — her laugh, in one scene described by reviewers, is “too forced and too unnatural” in exactly the right way. Falls Church News-Press called it a “tour de force performance” and noted that Navarrette, of Mexican and Australian descent, handles the complexity “with dazzling believability.”

Michael Johnston’s Bear works as the moral center of a story in which neither the wish-granter nor the wish-giver comes out clean. The role has been described as a potential breakout for Johnston, who has spent years in television and voice work. Cooper Tomlinson co-stars as Ian, with Megan Lawless as Sarah, per Falls Church News-Press. The film is rated R — the director cut its most brutal scene to avoid an NC-17. That the film lands as hard as it does while staying within those parameters is part of what critics are responding to, per Tooele Online.

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• Lionsgate announced Thursday that John Rambo — the origin story prequel to the Sylvester Stallone franchise — will open in theaters on June 4, 2027
• Noah Centineo stars in the title role, taking over the character Stallone originated in 1982’s First Blood; James Franco co-stars, and the film is directed by Jalmari Helander, who broke out internationally with the Finnish action film Sisu
• The film will open the weekend after Disney/Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Starfighter, the Ryan Gosling-led Star Wars film directed by Shawn Levy, making for a high-stakes early summer frame
• The story is set before the events of First Blood, exploring the formative backstory of the iconic soldier character

The new John Rambo has a date. Lionsgate announced Thursday that John Rambo — the prequel origin story starring Noah Centineo in the title role — will hit theaters on June 4, 2027, per Deadline.

The film is directed by Jalmari Helander, the Finnish filmmaker who generated serious action-movie buzz with Sisu, his 2022 WWII revenge thriller. His sensibility — brutalist, kinetic, unsparing — makes him an interesting choice for a franchise that has historically traded in the same qualities. Centineo, best known for his rom-com work in the To All the Boys franchise, takes on the physically and tonally demanding task of playing a young John Rambo before the events of Stallone’s First Blood. James Franco co-stars.

The June 4 date positions the film in the week after Star Wars: Starfighter — the Ryan Gosling-led Lucasfilm project directed by Shawn Levy — which is tracking as one of the biggest releases of 2027. Opening in its wake is a calculated play: let the Star Wars audience clear the multiplexes, then capture the action crowd looking for something next, per Collider.

The Franchise Math

The Rambo series has spanned five films since 1982, with Stallone appearing in all of them through 2019’s Rambo: Last Blood. A prequel with a new lead is a different kind of bet — Lionsgate is essentially asking audiences to accept a recast of one of action cinema’s most recognizable faces. Centineo’s casting has drawn varying reactions since it was announced, per Just Jared. The June 2027 date gives the film roughly a year of runway to build its case.

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• Disney and Pixar have released the final trailer for Toy Story 5 alongside the launch of ticket sales; the film opens exclusively in theaters June 19, directed by Andrew Stanton (who helmed Finding Nemo and WALL-E) and co-directed by Kenna Harris
• Two new cast members have been officially confirmed: Bad Bunny (Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) and Alan Cumming join a returning ensemble that includes Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and Joan Cusack as Woody, Buzz, and Jessie
• Andrew Stanton has confirmed that the story changed completely during development — the film went through a major reimagining from an earlier concept tied to an idea called “Lilypad” before landing on what’s now in theaters
• Stanton also officially confirmed an 84-year-old Disney Easter egg woven into the film: a reference to Bambi (1942), the studio’s earliest touchstone for emotional animated storytelling
• Promotional activity is in full swing: a Buzz Lightyear popcorn bucket is on sale at theaters, and concept art, sketches, and character maquettes from the film are on display at The Art of Pixar Gallery inside Disneyland’s Pixar Place Hotel

The toy box is almost open. With Toy Story 5 less than a month from its June 19 premiere, Disney and Pixar have released the final trailer, put tickets on sale, and confirmed two cast additions that should generate their own conversation: Bad Bunny and Alan Cumming are both joining the franchise.

Per 411Mania, the studio confirmed Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — professionally known as Bad Bunny — and Alan Cumming as new voices in the film alongside the returning core: Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear, and Joan Cusack as Jessie. Greta Lee is also in the cast. Neither character’s role has been detailed yet.

The final trailer itself, per Hypebeast, is being read as a deliberate signal about the film’s emotional register — one that leans into the passage of time rather than away from it. “Pixar isn’t afraid to let Woody get old,” was how Hypebeast framed it, noting that the trailer doesn’t shy away from themes of aging and change that have run through the franchise since Toy Story 3 first sent Andy to college.

A Story That Changed Completely

Director Andrew Stanton — whose Pixar credits include Finding Nemo, WALL-E, and the first two Toy Story sequels — has revealed that the film’s story was significantly reimagined during development, per MovieWeb. An earlier iteration tied to an internal concept called “Lilypad” was abandoned in favor of what is now the film, a process Stanton has described as a complete overhaul rather than a course correction.

Stanton has also confirmed a piece of Pixar trivia that fans have been speculating about: the film contains a deliberate reference to Bambi (1942), confirming an 84-year-old Disney Easter egg embedded in the movie. It’s a nod that fits the franchise’s history — the original Toy Story, released in 1995, turned 30 last year, and the series has long traded in callbacks to Disney’s foundational work.

On the promotional side, a Buzz Lightyear popcorn bucket is now available at theater concessions, and Disneyland’s Pixar Place Hotel has opened The Art of Pixar Gallery, featuring concept art, character sketches, and maquettes created during production. Toy Story 5 is in theaters June 19.

The post Bad Bunny and Alan Cumming Are Joining ‘Toy Story 5’ — Plus: What the Final Trailer, Easter Eggs, and Story Changes Tell Us About June’s Biggest Pixar Film appeared first on Cream.

• Bandai SH Figuarts action figure listings have leaked plot details for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, describing Peter Parker as living “alone, erased from everyone’s memory” and undergoing “uncontrollable transformations” — language widely interpreted as pointing toward a Man-Spider arc
• A separate figure listing confirms Savage Hulk (not Smart Hulk) will appear in the film; Mark Ruffalo’s presence as Bruce Banner was shown in the first trailer, but Marvel had not officially confirmed his green alter ego would appear
• The film is also bringing back organic web-shooting — a power Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man had in Sam Raimi’s trilogy but that never carried over to Tom Holland’s MCU version, which uses mechanical web-shooters
• Kevin Feige told press the film is “focused on the classic elements of Spider-Man” — a significant reset from the cosmic and multiversal stakes of Holland’s previous three films
• Brand New Day, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, is releasing this summer; the cast includes the Hulk, the Punisher, Tombstone, and Scorpion, alongside new images spotlighting Daredevil villain connections

Two months out from release, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is keeping most of its plot under wraps. That changed this week — not through an official Marvel announcement, but through toy listings.

Bandai’s SH Figuarts line of action figures, sourced via French retailer France-Figures, included product descriptions that are doing a lot of narrative heavy lifting. Per ComingSoon, the Peter Parker figure’s description reads: “Peter Parker lives alone, erased from everyone’s memory. In Brand New Day, he faces new threats in New York while undergoing uncontrollable transformations.” A separate listing for a Hulk figure confirms he appears in Savage form — the out-of-control green version, not the calm, articulate Smart Hulk seen in recent MCU entries.

The “uncontrollable transformations” language, combined with the teaser footage that showed Parker with black eyes and what appeared to be organic webbing growing from his wrists, has fed months of speculation that the film will feature a Man-Spider arc — a storyline from the comics in which Peter Parker’s spider-half begins to take over his human biology. Nothing has been officially confirmed, but the toy copy isn’t exactly subtle.

Back to Basics — With a Twist

Kevin Feige, speaking to press ahead of the film, framed Brand New Day as a deliberate course correction after three films that sent Spider-Man to space, into the multiverse, and up against Thanos. “Brand New Day is focused on the classic elements of Spider-Man,” Feige told Comic Book Movie. Peter Parker is back in New York, broke and anonymous, fighting street-level crime after the events of No Way Home wiped him from everyone’s memory.

Part of that classicism includes a notable callback: organic web-shooting is returning. In Sam Raimi’s trilogy, Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man generated webs biologically, a controversial departure from the comics that many fans actually came to love. Holland’s MCU Spider-Man has always used mechanical web-shooters built by Tony Stark. The return of organic webbing — apparently tied to Peter’s physical changes in the film — reconnects the character to both the Raimi era and his comic origins simultaneously.

The full cast picture is still coming into focus. Images released this week spotlight connections to Daredevil’s villain world. Confirmed appearances include the Hulk (in Savage form, per the toy leak), the Punisher, Tombstone, and Scorpion. Destin Daniel Cretton, who directed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, is at the helm. Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrives in theaters this summer.

The post Toy Leaks Just Revealed Major ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Plot Details — Savage Hulk, Organic Webs, and a Man-Spider Transformation appeared first on Cream.

• The Breadwinner, Nate Bargatze’s feature film debut, opens in theaters Friday via Sony; he plays Nate Wilcox, a Nashville Toyota salesman forced to manage his three daughters while his wife (Mandy Moore) travels to South Korea for a business opportunity she pitched on Shark Tank
• The supporting cast includes Kumail Nanjiani, Colin Jost, Will Forte, Zach Cherry, Martin Herlihy, and Kate Berlant; the real Shark Tank investors appear as themselves in a cameo sequence
• Critical reception has been mixed-to-lukewarm: Hollywood Reporter calls it “inoffensive to the point of total boredom,” while ComingSoon gives it a 6/10 and calls it “surprisingly watchable” with the Shark Tank scene as a standout
• Bargatze co-wrote the script with Dan Lagana; it is adapted from material in his own stand-up, and he confirmed the film’s end credits include clips of the actual stand-up routines the movie scenes are based on
• Bargatze personally suggested to theater owners that they offer discounted tickets under what he’s calling the “Nate Rate” — and says they were immediately on board; he also gave an update on his planned Nashville theme park Nateland, saying it is “far along” with land secured

Nate Bargatze has spent years selling out arenas with stand-up. Starting Friday, he’s trying to sell tickets to a movie. The Breadwinner, his first feature film, opens in theaters via Sony with a premise that’s very much in his wheelhouse: a good-natured dad, out of his depth, trying to hold things together while his wife gets a shot at something bigger.

Bargatze plays Nate Wilcox — the character shares his first name, which is either charmingly self-aware or exactly what you’d expect — a Toyota salesman in Nashville whose wife Katie (Mandy Moore) gets the chance to take her organizational business system overseas after a Shark Tank appearance. Nate agrees to stay home and care for their three daughters (Stella Grace Fitzgerald, Birdie Borria, Charlotte Ann Tucker) for two weeks. Chaos, in the PG-rated sense, ensues.

The director is Eric Appel, who co-wrote the script with Bargatze and Dan Lagana. The supporting cast includes Kumail Nanjiani as a preening rival colleague, Colin Jost as a fellow stay-at-home dad, Will Forte as a useless roofer who basically moves in, and Kate Berlant in what critics describe as a criminally underused role.

What the Critics Are Saying

The reviews are in, and they’re mostly polite about their reservations. Hollywood Reporter called it “inoffensive to the point of total boredom” and “thoroughly bland,” noting that Bargatze’s deadpan stand-up persona works on stage but “onscreen he seems mostly on the verge of a coma.” The review acknowledged the film wastes a talented supporting cast on one-note roles.

ComingSoon was warmer, giving it a 6/10 and calling it “surprisingly watchable” for a film with low expectations. The review praised a Shark Tank sequence where Nate is summoned from backstage mid-doughnut bite and single-handedly tanks the pitch — “sharp, well-timed” — as the kind of joke the movie needed more of. The film’s heavy product placement for Toyota, Walmart, and KFC also got called out as one of its stranger quirks: ComingSoon described it as “Product Placement: The Movie.”

UPI’s review filed via Yahoo News landed somewhere in the middle: nostalgic for the kind of inoffensive mid-budget comedy that used to come out every week but noted the film bends over backwards to avoid any real conflict. “The Breadwinner would never go there,” the review noted of a missed opportunity for sharper domestic comedy, “lest it broach a method with which an audience member might disagree.”

Bargatze on the Film — and What Comes Next

Bargatze, speaking to Hollywood Reporter ahead of the release, described the project as closely tied to his real-life material. His actual daughter’s personality is spread across all three fictional daughters in the film. “Charlotte — the youngest [in the movie] that’s very outgoing and can start dancing and was very funny — we see a lot of that in my daughter when she’s at home with us,” he said. A horse that walks through the front door in one sequence — and really did have to be brought into a real family’s house — also made an impression. “The horse could act better than I could,” he said.

On the ticket pricing front, Bargatze said he came up with what he’s calling the “Nate Rate” — a suggestion that theaters offer discounted tickets for families — and that the response was immediate. “I want The Breadwinner to be a movie everybody can come see. Families, grandparents, kids — everybody,” he told Hollywood Reporter. “Theaters were very supportive right away. They’ve been just as excited about it as I have.”

He also gave an update on Nateland, his planned Nashville theme park, which he’s been teasing for a while. “We’re narrowing down on a site, and we’ve got some land,” he said. “I’m hoping we can announce a lot more stuff later in the year. We’re even now creating what the park is going to be looking like and the rides and just the experience.” As for what kind of movies he wants to make next: “I want to really live in that PG, PG-13 range and just really continue to build that trust with the audience.”

The Breadwinner is in theaters now.

The post Nate Bargatze’s Feature Debut ‘The Breadwinner’ Opens in Theaters — Here’s What the Reviews Say appeared first on Cream.