Akira is coming back for more John Wick ass-kicking.Rina Sawayama, who became a fan-favorite as the fearless daughter of Hiroyuki Sanada’s Shimazu Koji in “John Wick: Chapter 4,” will reprise her role opposite Donnie Yen in the franchise’s upcoming spinoff “Caine” for Lionsgate.

First officially unveiled at CinemaCon, “Caine” is also being directed by Yen, and produced by franchise producers Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee (“John Wick” chapters 1 through 4, “Ballerina,” “Monkey Man”) through their Thunder Road shingle and by Chad Stahelski (“John Wick: Chapter 3—Parabellum,” “Day Shift,” “John Wick: Chapter 4”), who produces through his 87Eleven Entertainment production banner. Yen will also serve as an executive producer on the project.

Lionsgate is set to launch sales on the project — which goes into production later this year — in Cannes. While the logline is being kept under wraps, the new film will continue the story arcs following the events of “John Wick: Chapter 4,” as Caine has been freed from his obligations to the High Table. (via Variety)

A secret hero that fans have speculated about in Marvel’s Thunderbolts* may have been finally confirmed.

Thunderbolts*, which made its way to theaters last week, stars a ragtag team of heroes from across the MCU, but fans believe the movie features another hero that Marvel has kept hidden — Geraldine Viswanathan’s Mel, an assistant to Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).

In the comics, Mel is the Thunderbolt named Songbird. While Viswanathan never displays powers in Thunderbolts*, one of the movie’s executive producers teases that it could happen at some point in the MCU future.

Thunderbolts* executive producer Brian Chapek spoke to IMDb, where he elaborated on a character, possibly Mel, and how a necklace she wears foreshadows her becoming Songbird. “There is a character that fans are trying to figure out whether — is she or is she not — I would say, what emblem does she wear that may or may not hint at this character’s larger identity moving forward? Potentially. That’s what I would say,” Chapek said. (via ComicBook.com)

Thunderbolts* is in theaters now.

Spike Lee has released the first trailer for his A24 and Apple-backed crime thriller “Highest 2 Lowest” starring Denzel Washington, A$AP Rocky and more. The movie will be released in theaters August 22 and stream on Apple TV+ starting Sept. 5 after world premiering later this month at the Cannes Film Festival.

Written by William Alan Fox, “Highest 2 Lowest” is loosely based on Akira Kurosawa’s “High and Low,” which follows a businessman deciding whether or not to use his wealth to further his career or save a child’s life. Both “Highest 2 Lowest” and “High and Low” are reinterpretations of Ed McBain’s mystery novel “The King’s Ransom.”

The film marks the fifth collaboration between Lee and Washington. “I’m just glad we got five in,” Lee said of working with Washington. “Highest 2 Lowest” also stars Ilfenesh Hadera, Jeffrey Wright, Dean Winters, John Douglas Thompson and rapper Ice Spice. (via Variety)

Trailer: https://youtu.be/MZ2V8znYMSk

This article has spoilers for the Thunderbolts* movie, so be warned… When the original cast of the Thunderbolts were announced, fans were surprised to see the main characters were Bucky Barnes, US Agent, Yelena Belova, Ghost, Red Guardian and Taskmaster. Most of these characters we in supporting roles in other people’s movies and now they were getting the spotlight. The one that stood out to a lot of people was Taskmaster played by Olga Kurylenko, who had been introduced in the Black Widow movie and was the payoff to something Loki had said all the way back to the first Avengers film. Fans had a mixed reaction to the gender-swapped villain, taking it very far away from the popular comic version. When teasers and trailers started coming out for the film, people noticed that Taskmaster didn’t seem to appear that much in the footage, giving the idea that maybe she was long for the film. Then Marvel spoiled the twist when they announced the cast of Avengers: Doomsday and it included every member of the Thunderbolts except for Kurylenko. And while director Jack Schreier has said the idea of killing off a character early on was to make the audience believe anything might happen… the majority of them went in waiting for it to happen and knowing the rest of the cast will survive. This doesn’t seem to have hurt ticket sales or fan reaction to the film, and now Marvel could take the technology that created the first Taskmaster and use it to create a new one that is closer to what the fans of the comics wanted.

With the recent passing of Pope Francis, the Vatican will begin the election of a new pope starting on May 7th. This is process is a little more known now by the general public because of films like the Oscar-nominated film Conclave that starred Ralph Fiennes. The actual conclave is a process where 135 Cardinals from around the globe are all locked into Sistine Chapel to deliberate and vote on who will become the next head of the Catholic Church. Writer Robert Harris who penned the novel that the recent film was based on talked about the process that will take place behind doors, liking it to the popular TV series The Traitors. On the series hosted by Alan Cummings, a group is secretly split into ‘faithfuls’ and ‘traitors’ with the everyone voting during a round table to eliminate a player who they hope is a traitor. Harris explained to the BBC: “[It’s] the nearest analogy I can come to. Suddenly everyone swings to one person – you can’t see why, particularly, but it happens. And in a funny way, a similar dynamic does operate in a conclave, which is why often it produces a surprise.” The idea of conclave started after it took the College of Cardinals nearly three years (1268-1271) to elect Pope Gregory X. He decreed the “locked in” policy for choosing a new pope. Harris said of his research into the process, “To lock the door and say you’re not going to come out until you’ve come up with a result concentrates the mind – and if you look back, the popes have been pretty good. I didn’t come away from researching the novel thinking this is a terrible idea [and that] I must write a novel to expose how awful it is. In a way, the novel shows a conclave working.” 

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that head of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige, believes that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has become too overwhelming for audiences. All of the interconnected movies and TV shows have made it difficult for casual viewers to keep up. He reportedly told colleagues that watching all the new content was starting to feel more like “homework” than entertainment. Part of this is from a previous push for more content to boost streaming subscriptions back when Bob Chapek was in charge of Disney. Feige is now leading an overhaul to simplify the MCU, focusing on fewer TV shows and more stand-alone stories that don’t require extensive knowledge of past films. Starting in 2026, Marvel plans to release only about three movies and two TV shows per year, scaling back its output to improve quality and accessibility. 

Warner Bros appears to be taking a very big risk on rebooting a beloved franchise that now has some other issues attached to it as well. The Harry Potter franchise was a major hit for the film studio with eleven major motion pictures and becoming one of the top earning I.P.s in the world. Fans watched as the Wizarding World expanded and stars like Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint grew into iconic roles. Now the studio wants fans to come back for the same story, but this time told as a longer form television series with a new cast… and you never know how fans of a cherished series might respond. And then there is the other issue, the once hailed author of the series, J.K. Rowlings, has become extremely polarizing with her outspoken, anti-trans public statements. She has quickly alienated a large portion of her fanbase which could also affect the potential audience for the reboot. This was addressed by HBO CEO Casey Bloys while a guest on The Town with Matthew Belloi podcast. Bloys spoke about doing business with Rowlings, “The decision to be in business with J.K. Rowling is not new for us. We’ve been in business for 25 years. We already have a show on HBO from her called C.B. Strike that we do with the BBC. It’s pretty clear that those are her personal, political views. She’s entitled to them. Harry Potter is not secretly being infused with anything. If you want to debate her, you can go on Twitter.” Bloys appears to be trying to distance the studio from the author’s political views while continuing to work with her as an executive producer on the new series. 

CBS has canceled The Equalizer after five seasons. The final episode of Season 5, airing on May 4, will now serve as the series finale. The decision comes as CBS reshuffles its programming lineup, canceling several shows, including FBI: International, FBI: Most Wanted, and S.W.A.T.. The Equalizer franchise is a long-running vigilante action thriller series that spans television and film. It all started with the original Equalizer TV show, which aired from 1985 to 1989 and starred Edward Woodward as Robert McCall, a former intelligence agent who helps people in danger. The franchise was later rebooted into a trilogy of films starring Denzel Washington, beginning with The Equalizer (2014), followed by The Equalizer 2 (2018), and The Equalizer 3 (2023). These movies reimagined McCall as a retired Marine and DIA officer who takes justice into his own hands. In 2021, CBS launched a new TV reboot starring Queen Latifah as Robyn McCall, a former CIA operative who aids people in need. Latifah responded to the news by thanking fans and teasing that she’ll be “back kicking ass in something new real soon”. 

While filming for Avengers: Doomsday has begun, the cast assembled recently in order to see another group of heroes make their debut… the Thunderbolts*. Robert Downey Jr. took to social media to post pictures of himself along with fellow Doomsday cast members Chris Hemsworth, Channing Tatum, Simu Liu, Paul Rudd, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Vanessa Kirby, Winston Duke and Anthony Mackie as they took break from filming to watch the latest MCU opus that hit theaters this weekend. There were no surprises in the photo as all of the actors had been announced for the upcoming Avengers film, but it is a pretty unique group that we haven’t seen share the screen together before. Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled to be released in May 2026.   

Tanner Buchanan, Garrett Wareing and Quvenzhané Wallis have been tapped to star in a supernatural horror thriller “Hide and Don’t Speak,” with “The Beast Within” helmer Alexander J. Farrell directing.

Range Media, which produced “Longlegs” and “The Monkey,” is shepherding the feature with Mister Smith introducing to buyers in Cannes.

In “Hide and Don’t Speak,” six teenagers “play a terrifying viral Japanese game in which the players summon a vengeful spirit for a deadly round of hide-and-seek,” the synopsis reads.

Currently in pre-production with production planned for later this year, “Hide and Don’t Speak” has a script from Farrell and Greer Ellison, and is loosely based on the real-life viral internet game hitori kakurenbo. (via Variety)