Written Mark Beresford
As we tick over into 2018 and have a fresh twelve months sitting ahead, you may still be in a bit of a comedown from the recent Star Wars or Marvel hype, but let us assure you, there’s a lot to look forward to.
FILM
The silver screen will light up with Black Panther (finally), where we’ll get to see Ryan Reynolds jump back in as the merc with a mouth for Deadpool 2, and Jason Momoa expand on his role as Aquaman, and that’s just the start!
We’ll also get some new takes on Venom with Sony branching into its Spider-Man properties, and X-Men: The New Mutants shaking a horror-driven core with a fresh approach to mutant kind. It would be hard to see any of the above toppling the mammoth ensemble of Avengers: Infinity War however, and expect to see box office records shatter once again.
Animation fans will be salivating as Disney and Pixar release some much-anticipated sequels in Wreck-it Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks The Internet and The Incredibles 2 respectively. Nick Park shows off his latest stop-motion masterpiece Early Man, while Wes Anderson also touches on the same cinematic style with the stellar cast of Isle Of Dogs.
For the action junkies among you, there will be untamed excitement for the new Tomb Raider reboot, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and a fresh take on The Predator by Shane Black, not to mention the intensity of some potentially breakthrough creativity with Annihilation, God Particle or The Happytime Murders.
TV
A few fresh shows will be feeding us each week with AMC adapting Dan Simmons’ Antarctic horror The Terror and SyFy showcasing its prelude Superman drama based on the planet of the same name in Krypton.
Locally, Stan has finally shown off their explosive undertaking of Romper Stomper, Foxtel have a gothic period drama with Picnic At Hanging Rock, and SBS have full emotional intensity prepared for a dramatic look at the effects of asylum seekers on a group of friends with Safe Harbour.
Netflix is bringing in Ellen DeGeneres and Jared Stern to work on their animated series of the Dr. Seuss storybook Green Eggs And Ham as well as debuting their reboot of the Lost In Space classic as Amazon Prime takes on the ambitious AD 43 drama of Britannia. If none of those work for you, we’ve always got the faithful returns of The Walking Dead, The X-Files, Doctor Who or Westworld.
GAMING
2018 is going to be a very big year for gaming too, though we may not have the potential for much hardware changes with most major players keeping their cards close to their chests on that front, but we sure have some blockbuster titles being prepared. Ubisoft have lined up the latest addition to the Far Cry franchise with Far Cry 5, Capcom has held nothing back in the footage we’ve seen of their stunning open plain adaptation of Monster Hunter World, and Sony are aiming for a benchmark status for the lush textures being mapped to God Of War.
If you’re talking likely contenders to take over the year though, it’s hard to go past the arcade swashbuckling action of Sea Of Thieves, the teasing of what looks to be a fantastic reinterpretation in Marvel’s Spider-Man, or the ‘guaranteed to make a football stadium full of cash’ with Rockstars much anticipated Red Dead Redemption 2.
Of course, and as always, 2018 will bring us another amazing year of Supa-Star guests at Supanova events right around the country, kicking off in Melbourne on April 20. See you there!
Pic via YouTube
