Newstime: The Stories You Might Have Missed This Week

From film to TV, gaming to comics and everything in between, here’s what you might have missed in pop culture news this week.

TV

Disney+’s upcoming She Hulk may see a familiar face return to the MCU. Rumours are that Liv Tyler, who played Bruce Banner’s love interest Betty Ross in Incredible Hulk, is set to reprise her role for the new show.

Also on Disney+, the upcoming streaming platform has just released a three-hour trailer showing everything that will be available when the service gets switched on in the US on November 12. Aussie audiences will get access one week later on November 19.

Also in Amazon news, the streaming platform has acquired the international streaming rights for the USA Network’s Treadstone series based on the world of Jason Bourne. Treadstone will be available for Australian audiences from January 2020 on Amazon Prime.

Just a little over two weeks until Apple TV+ takes the field in the streaming wars, and its plan of attack has largely been focusing on securing big names to helm their original content. The latest to join the Apple TV family is 300 and Sin City’s Clive Owen, who has signed on to star opposite Julianne Moore in an adaptation of Stephen King’s Lisey’s Story. At the moment there is no word on an expected release date for the series.

One Apple TV+ series that we do know will be released on its November 1 launch is Truth Be Told, based on the novel Are You Sleeping by Kathleen Barber. Starring Hidden Figures actress Octavia Spencer, Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul, and Now You See Me’s Lizzy Caplan, the series focuses on the role of true crime podcasts in the criminal justice system.

The Fresh Prince himself, Will Smith is reportedly in the process of working on a brand new spin-off from his cult ’90s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Details are scant at this stage, but it is known the new show is being developed by Westbrook Inc., the company Smith owns with his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith.

Arrow’s David Ramsey has shared a new behind-the-scenes pic from the show’s upcoming final season with one surprise addition – Matt Ryan. When Ryan’s own Constantine series was cancelled after its first season, he found himself pulled back into the role of DC’s John Constantine for an episode in season four of Arrow, before eventually becoming a series regular on Legends of Tomorrow. It is only fitting that he returns for Oliver Queen’s final swan song.

FILM

Matt Reeve’s The Batman has reportedly cast its Catwoman. Zoe Kravitz, the daughter of rock star Lenny Kravitz and actor Liza Bonet, who made her own Hollywood mark in X-Men: First Class, the Divergent series and Fantastic Beasts and the Crimes of Grindelwald, is set to play the role of Selina Kyle opposite Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne. This isn’t Kravitz’s first brush with the role of Catwoman though, having previously voiced the character for the Lego Batman Movie.

Deadpool’s Ryan Reynolds has been meeting with Marvel Studios about integrating his irreverent hero into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In typical tongue-in-cheek fashion, Reynolds offered the below tweet celebrating the meeting. Rumours are that Deadpool will be the only mutant not to be completely recast when finally introduced into the MCU.

Auditioned for the role of “Anthony Stark”. Didn’t come even remotely close, but the nice man with the taser escorted me to the ground. pic.twitter.com/1bwFDGdMOj

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) October 14, 2019

Also on Deadpool’s inclusion into the MCU, screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have confirmed that they have been given the go-ahead to commence work on Deadpool 3, and that it will continue to be R-Rated.

Speaking of Marvel Studios, congratulations are in order for studio boss Kevin Feige who has reportedly just landed himself a new promotion, and is now named Chief Creative Officer of Marvel, meaning that all creative decisions regarding the comic book giant including comics, animation, games, TV and film all report officially through to him now.

Former Marvel frontman Robert Downey Jr. is moving on from playing Iron Man, and is now talking with the animals in the new preview for his film Dolittle. Slated for a January 2020 release, this latest take on the character will see RDJ’s Doctor Dolittle set out on an epic quest in search of a cure for an ailing Queen Victoria.

How I Met Your Mother’s Neil Patrick Harris has reportedly been signed to work alongside Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss in the upcoming fourth Matrix film. No details yet exist about the nature of the role, but it is suggested to play a significant part in the film’s plot.

Not that we need any official definition, but the word ‘Lightsaber’ is now officially part of the English language, having now been included in the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. According to Oxford, the definition is listed as: “In the fictional universe of the Star Wars films: a weapon resembling a sword, but having a destructive beam of light in place of a blade.”

In sad news, actor Robert Forster, known for his roles in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, Breaking Bad and Heroes, passed away following a long battle with brain cancer. Forster is survived by his long-term partner, four children and four grandchildren.

LOCAL SCREEN

Screen Australia has announced its funding for four new local projects, each sharing in a total of $1.4 million. The funding includes three new feature films, titled 6 Festivals, Streamline, and You Won’t Be Alone, as well as an online project of 24 one-minute animations, titled Moments of Clarity.

Film noir/suspense thriller Untitled was recently selected for this year’s Sydney Indie Film Festival and will be screened October 30. The Sydney Indie Film Festival runs for over a week, from October 21 to October 31.

Aussie actor Samara Weaving, niece of Hugo Weaving, has been cast in the latest GI Joe spin-off film, Snake Eyes. Reports are that Weaving is taking over the role of Shana O’Hara, aka Scarlett, previously played by Rachel Nichols in GI Joe: Rise of Cobra.

ANIMATION

A new trailer has been released for Pixar’s Onward, starring Tom Holland and Chris Pratt. Set for release March 6, 2020, the film follows two brothers as they attempt to magically summon their late father for a day.

The Christmas-themed animated films are coming early this year, with the official release date of Klaus being revealed for November 15 on Netflix. The feature film, written and directed by Sergio Pablos, centres on a postman, Jesper, who lends his services to a reclusive carpenter and toymaker by the name of Klaus.

Madman has come through with the goods yet again, bringing One Piece Stampede, the newest film in the series, to Australian cinemas on November 14. The new movie follows the Straw Hat Pirates during the ‘Pirates Fest,’ a celebration for pirates, by pirates, and the treasure hunt for Gold Roger’s legendary treasure.

My Hero Academia’s fourth season is now officially underway, and it’s been revealed on the website that it will run for a cool 25 episodes. And how about a new trailer for the upcoming film Heroes Rising too?

P.A. Works has graced us with a look at its latest project. Appare-Ranman is the story of a broke engineer and samurai pair at the end of the 19th Century, stuck in America with no way to return to Japan, except… if they can win the Trans-America Wild Race to earn the sweet prize money.

GAMING

Season 10 of Fortnite came to a close earlier this week, which left players with a view of a black hole that destroyed the entire world map. The black hole was all that could be seen in the game for around 35 hours as players waited in anticipation for the next instalment of the hit battle-royale title. On October 15, Fortnite servers came back for chapter two, which features a whole new map for players to shoot and build their way through. A new battle pass is naturally available, and heaps more awaits new and old players alike.

The Upside Down has come to Rocket League in a Stranger Things themed Halloween event. Psyonix has teamed up with Netflix to release a heap of Stranger Things themed loot boxes and unlocks in their annual Haunted Hallows event. Players will be able to unlock Candy Corn tokens to spend on stuff like car toppers, decals, boost trails and an awesome Demogorgon player banner. Haunted Hallows will run from October 14 to November 11, so it’s time to start getting that candy corn!

League of Legends celebrates its 10th birthday with developer Riot Games announcing a bunch of gaming news via their Twitter this week. First of all, LoL is coming to both console and mobile devices, a move that is sure to expand their player base. Secondly, a few new titles have been revealed to us, including a card game called Legends of Runeterra, a character-based tactical shooter for PC only known as Project A and fighting game that is very early in development known as Project L. Finally, they also revealed an animated series called Arcane that’s due to release next year.

Google’s upcoming cloud gaming service, Google Stadia, finally has a release date. Announced earlier this year, Google Stadia will allow gamers to stream games, play on PC, laptops, tablets, TVs and mobile devices alike. Developers of titles such as Destiny 2, Tomb Raider and Doom Eternal have announced their support to bring their titles to Stadia in the near future. Stadia is scheduled for release on November 19, 2019 to 14 countries. However, Australia will have to wait a bit longer for the service to roll out Down Under, with no release date for us yet.

Pokémon just showed off a new round of G I G A N T A M A X (that’s how they wrote it in the video, we’re stickin’ to it) forms for the new Sword and Shield games. Among the old Pokémon getting new forms, Charizard and Meowth also got some love from Game Freak.

COMICS

Marvel has announced a brand new Avengers/Defenders series will be released in January. Tarot #1, by writer Alan Davis and artist Paul Renaud, will bring the Avengers and Defenders together, as Namor the Sub Mariner searches for Captain America. The antagonist of the series appears to be Infernal Ichor of Ish’lzog who will be bringing complete destruction to the Marvel Universe. The art nouveau-styled cover features the Avengers and Defenders split down the middle, which may allude to the two teams being pitted against each other, possibly due to the villains meddling.

Also releasing in January is a new Hawkeye miniseries. Hawkeye: Freefall will follow the popular arrow-slinging hero as he investigates a new figure posing as Ronin. The new miniseries will be written Matthew Rosenberg with art by Otto Schmidt, and will focus on Clint Barton working to clear his name as the fake Ronin causes havoc around the city. In addition to the chaos of the unknown Ronin, Hawkeye will be facing off against The Hood, which will test Clint’s resolve.

DC has some incredible news this week, announcing a new series by comic legends Frank Miller and John Romita Jr. The icons will be teaming up to redefine Superman’s backstory in Superman: Year One. The new series will be released under DC’s Black Series label, and will follow Clark Kent from his early days all the way to his first time wearing the iconic blue and red suit. The series will also be exploring the first time Clark meets Lois, when the Man of Steel rescues the intrepid reporter from a crashed helicopter. Comic fans should be super excited for the new series and can get their hands on the first issue this month.

The fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy, the Millenium Falcon has a new captain in the cockpit. In the comic series Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – Allegiance, a prequel to the upcoming Rise of Skywalker film, General Leia herself will be sitting in the pilot’s chair. The series picks up after the events of The Last Jedi, which shows memb0ers of the resistance hiding from the First Order, when Leia takes control of the best ship in the galaxy. The new series is on sale this month. 

Finally, ICYMI, Supanova TV caught up with legendary artist Humberto Ramos, who revealed how he first made the jump from DC to Marvel, teasing at the exciting project he’s working on next. See the full episode below!

COLLECTIBLES

An epic 24.5” Megatron G1 Museum Scale Statue was announced this week. Depicting his original cartoon style in immense detail, the figure has a Cybertronian environmental base, and features the Decepticon insignia emblem on the front.

Funko has introduced an all-new Pop! Vinyl line this week with Pop! Artists, featuring iconic artists Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent van Gogh.