• Matt Damon is in talks to star in The Daniels’ untitled follow-up to Everything Everywhere All at Once at Universal Pictures.
• Ryan Gosling was originally in line for the role but exited after asking for script changes that couldn’t be accommodated in time.
• The film involves global warming, time travel, and a possible superhero angle, with dual timelines set in the 1980s and present day.
• The project has a November 19, 2027 release date and is set to begin production in Los Angeles this summer.
• Damon is already set to lead Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey for Universal, opening July 17.

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Three years after Everything Everywhere All at Once swept the Oscars, The Daniels are finally ready to make their next movie — and they want Matt Damon to anchor it.

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Damon is in talks to star in Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s untitled follow-up at Universal Pictures, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which is also breaking the first real plot details on a project that has been shrouded in secrecy since it was set up at the studio in 2024. A deal isn’t finalized yet, but sources say Damon is very much on board.

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The film is described as involving global warming, time travel, and a possible superhero angle. It unfolds across two timelines — one set in the 1980s and one in the present day — with teenagers as the protagonists, at least in the ’80s-set portion. The Daniels have reportedly been casting those teen roles since 2024, pausing production multiple times while they worked through script and budget challenges. One significant factor behind the delays: the story was originally structured around three time periods before being streamlined to two, which required substantial rewrites.

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Now that Damon is close to locking in, the duo can turn their attention to finding the actor who’ll play his son.

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How Damon Got Here — and Why Gosling Didn’t

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The road to Damon was anything but straightforward. Ryan Gosling was the first big name The Daniels pursued, and he initially agreed to come on board. But Gosling’s role — the father of one of the teen protagonists — was supporting in nature, and he felt it should be larger. He asked for script changes, and the filmmakers weren’t necessarily opposed. The problem was time.

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The project had already pushed its schedule more than once, and it had received a California tax credit that required production to begin by the end of summer or early fall. Another round of rewrites simply wasn’t possible within that window. So in the span of a week or two, Gosling was in and then out. Jack Black was briefly considered before The Daniels pivoted to Damon.

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The pivot makes a lot of sense on paper. Damon is already a known quantity at Universal — not just from the Bourne franchise, but as the lead of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, the studio’s massive summer tentpole opening July 17. After a grueling six-month shoot on that film, sources say Damon wasn’t in a hurry to jump back into work. He planned to rest, spend time with his family, and take his time reading scripts. But when The Daniels came calling, and after a meeting with the duo, he gave the thumbs up.

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The plan is for Damon to shoot the film in Los Angeles after he wraps his promotional commitments for The Odyssey.

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The Weight of Following Everything Everywhere

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It’s hard to overstate the pressure on this project. Everything Everywhere All at Once didn’t just win seven Oscars in 2023 — it became a cultural phenomenon, the kind of film that people pressed into friends’ hands and rewatched in tears. Following that up, at a bigger studio with a bigger budget, is a genuinely daunting task.

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The Daniels have been working on this project for three years, navigating challenges of budget, script, and now casting. The film has already been dated for November 19, 2027, which gives some sense of Universal’s confidence in it as an event release. The California Film Commission approved it for $20.8 million in tax credits based on $106 million in qualified spending — the most projects ever approved in a single application window for the state’s program.

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Kwan, Scheinert, and producer Jonathan Wang will produce through their Playgrounds banner, which operates under an overall deal with Universal. The trio previously produced The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist for Focus Features. Universal’s Sara Scott and Jacqueline Garell are overseeing the project for the studio.

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When the California tax credit was announced, The Daniels and Wang spoke about what the program meant to them. “We are L.A. filmmakers, with very dear L.A. friends, who happen to be some of the greatest creative talents we’ve worked with,” they said in a joint statement. “On Everything Everywhere All At Once we received the California tax credit, and had we not, it would have been utterly impossible to make that film.”

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For now, the rest of the cast remains to be built. The ensemble is expected to skew younger, with most roles going to actors who will audition — but Damon at the center gives Universal and The Daniels the star power they need to anchor what they’re clearly positioning as their next big swing.

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“category”: “Movies

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• CoComelon: The Movie arrives in theaters February 19, 2027, from Universal Pictures
• SZA, Nicholas Hoult, Sarah Sherman, Ike Barinholtz and more join as voice cast playing new characters
• Kat Good (Kung Fu Panda) is directing, with Grammy-nominated Justin Tranter as executive music producer
• The film is produced by Moonbug Entertainment, DreamWorks Animation, Flywheel Media and Prime Focus Studios
• CoComelon is heading to Disney+ in 2027 after Netflix declined to renew its license

The most unstoppable force in toddler entertainment is getting the big-screen treatment — and it’s bringing some serious star power with it. Universal Pictures has revealed the voice cast for CoComelon: The Movie, and alongside the familiar faces JJ, Cody, Nina and CeCe, there’s a whole new crew of characters voiced by SZA, Nicholas Hoult, Sarah Sherman, Ike Barinholtz, Ego Nwodim, Josh Johnson, Matt Friend, Rhys Darby and Cristo Fernández. A first-look image from the film was also unveiled Thursday.

The film hits theaters on February 19, 2027 — and yes, parents everywhere are already bracing themselves.

The newly announced cast members are playing brand-new characters created exclusively for the film, “expanding the CoComelon world with fresh faces designed exclusively for this theatrical adventure,” according to the official release. They’ll share the screen with the show’s core kids: Connor Esterson returns as JJ, Camden Brooks as Cody, Olivia London Leyva as Nina and Aerina DeBoer as CeCe.

Plot details are being kept under wraps for now, but the official synopsis teases an “epic adventure” that “invites families to go beyond the world of CoComelon that they know, following JJ, his friends, and an exciting new cast of characters on a cinematic journey filled with original music and rich storytelling.” Given the show’s DNA — teaching life skills through irresistibly catchy songs — expect the music to be a major part of what makes this one a theatrical event rather than just a longer episode.

The Team Behind the Film

Directing is Kat Good, a story artist on Kung Fu Panda, stepping into the feature director’s chair for the first time. Handling the music is Justin Tranter, the Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer whose collaborations include work with Chappell Roan, Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez — so the earworms are in very capable hands.

The film is produced by Moonbug Entertainment (the company that owns the CoComelon brand) alongside Flywheel Media, Prime Focus Studios and DreamWorks Animation. Animation is being handled by the DNEG Group, the studio behind the Oscar-nominated Nimona, The Garfield Movie and Netflix’s That Christmas — so the visual quality should be a step up from what families are used to on their living room screens.

Flywheel Media, launched by Don McGregor, is also in production on The Angry Birds Movie 3 for Paramount Pictures, also due in 2027. Moonbug, for its part, is part of Candle Media, run by co-chairmen and co-CEOs Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, with backing from Blackstone’s private equity business.

From YouTube Channel to Global Phenomenon

It’s hard to overstate how big CoComelon actually is. What started in 2006 as a humble YouTube channel focused on children’s storytelling has grown into one of the most-watched properties on the planet — available in more than 20 languages, reaching over 80 countries, and pulling in more than 4 billion average monthly views on YouTube alone. The show was acquired by Moonbug Entertainment in 2020 and has since expanded into consumer products, streaming music, games and live entertainment, including the live touring production CoComelon LIVE! JJ’s Journey, which partly inspired this film.

On Netflix, it was a consistent draw for young viewers and spawned a string of spinoffs — CoComelon Lane (the streamer’s first original programming venture with Moonbug), CoComelon Classroom, Cody Time, Nina’s Familia and JJ’s Animal Time. But the Netflix chapter is closing: the show is set to move to Disney+ in 2027 after Netflix declined to renew its license, making the theatrical release a well-timed moment to keep the franchise front and center for families everywhere.

February 19, 2027 can’t come soon enough — for the kids, at least.

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• Charlize Theron and Apex director Baltasar Kormákur are reuniting for action thriller Six Clean Kills at Universal Pictures.
• The film is based on an unpublished novel by Stan Parish, who is also adapting the screenplay.
• Plot details are being kept under wraps, but Theron is attached to produce and star.
• Apex debuted at No. 1 on Netflix’s global English film list and reached 40.8 million viewers in its second week.
• Theron is currently shooting Amazon MGM thriller Tyrant; Kormákur is in production on Netflix’s The Big Fix.

Charlize Theron and director Baltasar Kormákur are wasting no time. Less than two weeks after their Netflix survival thriller Apex became a genuine streaming phenomenon, the pair are already locked in for their next collaboration. Deadline broke the news that the two are teaming up on Six Clean Kills, a new action thriller set up at Universal Pictures, with Theron producing and eyeing the lead role and Kormákur directing and producing.

The film is based on an unpublished novel by Stan Parish — yes, unpublished, meaning plot details are being kept tightly under wraps for both the book and the adaptation. Parish is on board to write the screenplay himself, and will also executive produce. What we do know is the title alone sounds like it means business.

How Apex Made This Happen

The chemistry between Theron and Kormákur clearly didn’t end when cameras stopped rolling on Apex. According to sources, the two had been discussing what to do next even during production, and Six Clean Kills emerged as the obvious answer. Theron had actually been loosely attached to the project for some time before the Apex shoot helped seal the deal.

It’s easy to see why they wanted to move fast. Apex, which premiered on Netflix on April 24, debuted at No. 1 on the streamer’s global English film list — and then did something even more impressive: it grew in its second week, pulling in 40.8 million viewers and holding the top spot on the Netflix Top 10 for two straight weeks. For a survival thriller about a rock climber and kayaker being hunted through the wilds of Australia, that’s a serious number.

Taron Egerton co-starred as the menacing local ranger hunting Theron’s character, and the pairing drew strong reviews alongside those viewership figures. When something works that well, you don’t wait around.

Who’s Behind the New Film

Theron will produce through her Secret Menu production company via her first-look deal with Universal Pictures, alongside producers AJ Dix and Beth Kono. Kormákur produces through his Blueeyes Productions banner. Universal’s Senior Vice President of Production Development Ryan Jones and Director of Production Development Christine Sun will oversee the project for the studio.

Theron is no stranger to Universal — she’s appeared in three of the studio’s Fast and Furious films, so the relationship runs deep. For Kormákur, it’s also familiar territory. The Icelandic filmmaker previously worked with Universal on Beast, the survival drama starring Idris Elba, and has built a career out of stories set against punishing landscapes — from Everest to Jar City to 101 Reykjavík. His instinct for physical, high-stakes storytelling is exactly what made Apex click, and it sounds like the right fit for whatever Six Clean Kills turns out to be.

Both leads have full plates in the meantime. Theron is currently in production on Tyrant, an Amazon MGM Studios thriller, while Kormákur is shooting The Big Fix for Netflix, starring Mark Wahlberg and Riz Ahmed. Six Clean Kills remains in development for now — but given what Apex just did for both of their careers, don’t expect this one to sit on the shelf for long.

Theron’s next big release on the horizon is Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which should keep her squarely in the cultural conversation between now and whenever Six Clean Kills gets rolling. But right now, it’s hard to argue with the logic of an action star and a director who just had a massive hit deciding the best move is to do it all over again.

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• The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has grossed over $900 million worldwide since its April 1 release.
• It’s on track to become Hollywood’s first billion-dollar film of 2026 before the end of May.
• Critics panned it with a 42% on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences gave it a Verified Hot 88%.
• The franchise has now crossed $2 billion total, a first for any video game film series.
• Jack Black has hinted a Super Mario 3 could arrive as early as 2029.

Hollywood has its first billion-dollar movie of 2026, and it’s coming from the Mushroom Kingdom. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has already surpassed $900 million at the worldwide box office — just over a month after opening on April 1 — and is firmly on track to cross the $1 billion mark before May is out.

The animated sequel, starring Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Brie Larson, set the record for the biggest global opening weekend of 2026, and it hasn’t really slowed down since. Against a $110 million budget, the film has already earned more than eight times its production cost, making it a massive win for Universal, Illumination, and Nintendo.

Critics weren’t exactly on board — the film sits at just 42% on Rotten Tomatoes, with reviewers calling it everything from “disposable” to “stultifyingly dull.” But audiences? They showed up in force and loved it, pushing the Verified Hot audience score to 88%. That gap tells you everything about who this movie was made for.

A Franchise That Just Keeps Growing

The 2023 original, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, grossed $1.35 billion worldwide against a $100 million budget — more than 13 times its cost — and also earned an additional $29.1 million from physical media sales. It was one of the biggest films of that year, second only to Barbie. The sequel was always going to face enormous expectations, and while it may fall short of the first film’s final tally, it’s still poised to finish comfortably in 10 figures.

Together, the two films have turned the Super Mario franchise into a $2 billion property — the first video game film franchise to ever reach that milestone, and the only franchise in history with two films each opening to more than $350 million worldwide. That’s a genuinely remarkable run.

The Galaxy sequel is based on the beloved 2009 Nintendo game and brings back the key characters in a new story, directed by Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, Pierre Leduc, and Fabien Polack, with Matthew Fogel returning as writer and Chris Meledandri and Shigeru Miyamoto producing.

How the Rest of 2026 Stacks Up

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie didn’t have much competition on its way to this milestone. The year’s other big earner so far is Project Hail Mary — the Ryan Gosling-led adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel — which has pulled in over $636 million but looks likely to fall short of the billion-dollar threshold. The Michael Jackson biopic Michael has already crossed $430 million in just two weekends, driven heavily by viral word-of-mouth despite a polarizing reception. Disney and Pixar’s Hoppers has added $371 million, and The Devil Wears Prada 2 opened to a strong $233 million globally last weekend.

Still, none of them are touching Mario. The Galaxy Movie does have some competition coming — Mortal Kombat II and The Mandalorian and Grogu are both hitting theaters later this month, and those are the kinds of releases that could eat into its weekly earnings. But the family audience that’s been driving this sequel isn’t exactly the same crowd rushing to see Mandalorian opening weekend, so the overlap may be limited.

And the rest of 2026’s release calendar is stacked. Avengers: Doomsday and Spider-Man: Brand New Day are the obvious $1 billion-plus contenders. Shrek 5 and Toy Story 5 could both be major performers. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, and Dune: Part Three round out a year that’s already shaping up to be the strongest at the global box office since 2019, when ticket sales hit $42.5 billion worldwide. Last year closed at an estimated $33.6 billion — 2026 is already looking like a significant rebound.

What’s Next for Mario on the Big Screen

Given how well both films have performed, the question isn’t really whether the franchise will continue — it’s how fast. Nintendo has already confirmed an animated Donkey Kong film is in development, following the character’s appearance in the 2023 original. A Universal Pictures listing has also quietly revealed an untitled Illumination/Nintendo event film slated for April 12, 2028, though the studio hasn’t confirmed whether that’s the Donkey Kong movie or something else entirely.

And then there’s what Jack Black let slip: the franchise is apparently eyeing a Super Mario 3, potentially arriving in 2029 — a similar three-year gap to the one between the first two films. Nothing is officially confirmed yet, but with a $2 billion franchise and another billion-dollar hit almost certainly in the bag, it would be a shock if this story ended here.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is playing in theaters now.

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