The Verge’s entertainment section collects the latest news from the worlds of pop culture, music, movies, television, and video games. Whether you want to know what to watch on Netflix or how to make the most of your streaming service budget, the entertainment section acts a reliable source. There’s simply too much to read, watch, hear, and play. Let us be your tour guide.
Supergirl continues to look very Guardians of the Galaxy-inspired in its latest trailer, which makes it clear just how important Krypto the dog will be to the story. The Superman follow-up hits theaters on June 26th.
Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, the upcoming “spy RPG” from the studio behind Disco Elysium, launches on PC on May 21st. I got to play it last month, and it felt very much like a spiritual successor to Disco but with a heavy dose of spy thriller vibes.
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.
Following recent releases Iron Lung and Undertone, next up we have Backrooms, a liminal horror movie directed by YouTuber Kane Parsons. It hits theaters on May 29th.
The ultracheap ad-free streamer, called Howdy, launched last year across Roku devices and on the Howdy.tv website. But now, subscribers can access the “thousands” of titles on the platform from a new app on iOS and Android.
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.
Apple TV has a big lineup of new series this year, and one of the more notable is Cape Fear, inspired by Martin Scorsese’s ‘90s film of the same name (which was itself a remake). If nothing else, the cast looks great, and you can check out the first teaser below.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder just got an expansion, and the Super Mario Galaxy Movie comes out on Wednesday. But before that Mario Kart World’s new update adds the returning favorite “Bob-omb Blast” battle mode. The update also nerfs boomerangs — you can check out the full patch notes here.
The Embracer-owned studio, behind games like Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, says that the cuts are “a result of changing project needs and impacts across production and support teams.” Studio head David Anfossi is also leaving the company.
[LinkedIn]
The cute 3D platforming game starring a frog is getting a “2+ hour photography game” where you’ll help out a “conspiracy theorist” owl. It looks like a fun twist on a video game photo mode.
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.
Project Hail Mary has surpassed $300 million at the box office, making it the highest grossing Amazon MGM film to date — though that doesn’t count MGM movies prior to the acquisition. Still, it’s a great sign for an original sci-fi film, even if it may end up becoming a franchise.
The latest casualty: PUBG spinoff Blindspot, which shuts down today after less than two months in early access. In a previous post, the developer said “we are no longer able to sustainably provide the level of experience we set out to deliver.” The news comes just a few days after the Fortnite team was hit with large-scale layoffs.
Watch Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter join Fred Again for an absolutely amazing helmetless two-hour DJ set, featuring the wildest Usher drop I’ve ever heard. And don’t skip out on the video description, which includes not just the track list, but incredible timestamped notes like:
1:34:00 Oh Jesus Christ. This was maybe the most beautiful thing ive ever seen happen. Thats Thomas’s son singing in a song he made when he was 12, blended with Thomas playing (saying?) i cant do without u
Developer Niels Leenheer decided to see if he could recreate the classic FPS using the language that describes webpage formatting. cssDOOM is a bit messy and definitely pushing the limits of what is possible using cascading style sheets, but it’s undeniably impressive.
J.K. Rowling has made it abundantly clear that she will continue using her fortune to harm transgender people.
Something Jimmy Iovine said in a recent interview caught Artist manager Joel Gouveia’s ear: “The streaming services, to me, are minutes away from being obsolete.” It sounds wild on its surface, but it got Gouveia thinking. He makes a compelling case that Spotify’s days are numbered, and what comes next could be interesting:
We are witnessing the death of the “Mass Audience” and the birth of the “Micro-Community.”
The music industry has spent a decade obsessing over how to get a million people to listen to a song once. The next decade will be defined by artists figuring out how to get 1,000 people to care forever.
There’s a new teaser out for Science Saru’s upcoming The Ghost in the Shell animated series, and it looks like we’re in for an absolute banger when the project premieres this July.
It’s not just the country music scene that’s quietly embraced AI, artists across genres are using it to experiment with arrangements, demo new songs, and create sample material. But, songwriter Michelle Lewis told Rolling Stone, nobody wants to admit it. And producer Young Guru believes it’s more widespread than anyone realizes:
…it’s become common for hip-hop producers to make funk and soul samples out of AI, rather than license original music or hire musicians. Guru guesses that “more than half” of sample-based hip-hop is being made this way now.
[Rolling Stone]
Yesterday brought the surprise news that Fox McCloud would be in the Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Now we know who will voice the Star Fox character: Glen Powell. And he seems pretty excited.
Ludovic ‘Shinobi’ Helme has worked on games ranging from Cyberpunk 2077 to Expedition 33.
The main series feels like it just ended, but Netflix is headed back to Hawkins pretty soon. Here’s the latest trailer for Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85, which starts streaming on April 23rd.
Jeopardy! is a beloved institution. Which is why Sony Pictures TV is trying to drag it into the streaming era with a YouTube Edition. The first episode will debut on March 31st at 9PM ET with contestants Monét X Change, Rebecca Black, and Brennan Lee Mulligan playing for charity. According to Variety:
“…they will compete across a dynamic range of clues that blend the classic format and style of Jeopardy! with the energy of internet culture with categories spanning YouTube-inspired topics—from viral trends to the rich 20+ year history of the platform—along with custom video clues featuring notable YouTube talent.”
Last month Warner Bros. Discovery announced that the streaming service would be coming on March 26th, which happens to be today. Subscriptions start at £4.99 per month in the UK for Basic with Ads. Until now, HBO content had been available in the UK through Sky or Now TV.
Baseball is back this week and we’ve already got the afterglow of a great World Baseball Classic, an upcoming Heated Rivalry-themed game night, and Netflix completely missing the first-ever robot ump challenge because they cut away to a mid-game interview. It’s a long season — can MLB keep the momentum going?
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.
A talented team at Saunders Machine Works in Ohio has spent the last eight years machining and building a functional replica of Johnny 5 from the 1986 film, Short Circuit. They recently shared a video of their impressive robot on Instagram showing off all of its motors and joints finally working. It’s just one lightning strike away from being alive.
It may be called the Super Mario Galaxy Movie, but Nintendo’s next film is giving off some Smash Bros. vibes now that we know Fox McCloud will make an appearance.
20-foot tall Evangelion statue: $326,000. Visitors: ≈51,800 from April to January. Payoff: $6.9 million in economic impact. I’d vote for one in my town!
HBO has released the first trailer for its upcoming Harry Potter series, which will help fund executive producer J.K. Rowling’s ongoing crusade against transgender people. In addition to dropping the trailer, HBO has also bumped the series’ premiere date up to December 25th 2026.
