Since the launch of "All-New, All-Different Marvel," X-Men fans have eagerly awaited the reveal of what exactly went down between Cyclops and the Inhumans during the eight-month gap following "Secret Wars." Now, all stands ready to be revealed. As part of the upcoming Marvel NOW! initiative, the publisher will launch "Death of X" -- a series designed to specifically address all the questions X-fans have been asking about the conflict between mutants and Inhumans.To set up the series as well as run through what's in store for the X-Men and Inhuman lines, Marvel held a "Death of X" panel at San Diego's Comic-Con International. Moderated by Marvel talent scout Rickey Purdin, editor-in-chief Axel Alonso, writers Cullen Bunn ("Uncanny X-Men"),Tom Taylor ("All-New Wolverine"), and artist Scott Koblish ("X-Men '92") took the stage to discuss all things X and Inhuman.

"Death of X" #1 variant by Aaron Kuder

"This is a huge story that’s going to fill in the gap between 'Secret Wars' and where we are now in current continuity," said Alonso. "You’re going to find out where Cyclops and Emma have been and that involves the X-Men and the Inhumans." Purdin then showed off some of Kuder's interior art, which featured Cyclops and a group of X-Men on a Blackbird jet, as well as a look at the Inhuman Royal Family.The presentation turned to "Uncanny X-Men," and Bunn spoke about his book's new arc. "From the first issue we've been hinting at the Hellfire Club and what they've been up to. With issue #11, we're going to reveal a new version of the Hellfire Club and the way it's connected and opposed to Magneto's team of X-Men is real interesting and will change how you look at the team. Information about issue #13 was revealed, stating that the X-Men and Hellfire Club will have a begrudging team-up. "They're not pals or buddy buddy, but they are working together against a new threat," said Bunn. "It's a new threat but also has some deep connections to Magneto."Bunn's other series, "Civil War II: X-Men," came up next. "The arrival of Ulysses in the Marvel Universe has set a lot of different factions at odds," said Bunn. "Magneto's interested in Ulysses and thinks it's the key to the ongoing survival of mutants. He's decided the only way to make sure Ulysses benefits mutantkind is to take him off the board and put him in Magneto's camp. Magneto's making moves to secure Ulysses." In issue #3, Magneto's team will go through changes with some "fan favorite" characters showing up in the series.Tom Taylor spoke about "All-New Wolverine's" "Civil War II' arc and the positive responses to the book -- and Laura Kinney's pet wolverine Jonathan. "Basically we've had Laura meet Old Man Logan, her estranged non-father from another dimension," said Taylor. "The tension caused by that is interesting. Essentially because of 'Civil War,' there's a prediction about Logan that might put him at odds with the all-new Wolverine."

"All-New Wolverine" #13 cover by David Lopez

"All-New Wolverine" #13 variant by Ron Lim

The next arc after "All-New Wolverine's" "Civil War II' tie-in is "Enemy of the State II." "I don't want to give too much away," said Taylor. "If you've read 'Enemy of the State,' I was pitching something early on and we realized it was the spiritual successor to 'Enemy of the State.' It's not going to be pretty. This is one of those instances. Laura's going to murder a bunch of people and that's going to put her at odds with the world and she will be unhappy, out to find whoever controlled her and forced her to do this thing. And people like Nick Fury will be coming after her."Koblish, who is illustrating the upcoming "Deadpool Annual," talked about the special issue which is done in the style of "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends." "It's 'Deadpool and his Insufferable Pals,'" said Koblish. "All the expectations you'd have about watching a 1983 cartoon, the villains have expectations about how they'd be treated but they aren't treated that way by Deadpool." The issue will be done as if it's a pilot of a failed '80s Deadpool Saturday morning cartoon. Koblish changed his art style to mimic accurately the animation style of early '80s cartoons. The Sinister Six will be the villains in the annual. "I thought I could draw it kind of straight, or I could draw it like a 1980's cartoon," said Koblish, noting that he didn't differentiate line weight when illustrating the issue and also drew things "wrong" and "clumsily."

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"Death of X" #2 cover by Aaron Kuder

"Deadpool" #19 will continue the running "Deadpool 2099" arc, which is also illustrated by Koblish. "It ties in heavily with the storyline going on now [in the modern-set 'Deadpool' issues]," said Koblish. "The great thing about Warda is that she's as unbalanced as Deadpool... When I did the design for the facemask, I did it like a broken heart and I wanted to show that not everything is great in [Deadpool's] family. I think about these things, I swear.""Extraordinary X-Men" came up next, with Purdin catching up the audience on recent events in the Jeff Lemire-written series. Issue #14 will focus on the fall out from Colossus' involvement in "Apocalypse Wars," as he's still tainted with the villain's essence. Victor Ibanez will draw the arc following "Apocalypse Wars."Wolverine and Angel will headline "All-New X-Men" #12. Issue #13 will follow Idie, Evan and Iceman as they encounter the terrigen mist for the first time in the series' run. And issue #14 will focus on Cyclops, especially following his fight with Toad that left him badly injured. Purdin said the issue will have a "Rear Window" feel to it.The focus shifted to the Inhumans, with "Uncanny Inhumans" #12 appearing on the screen. That issue will show the Inhumans getting revenge on Iron Man following events in "Civil War II." The cover for "Uncanny Inhumans" #15 was shown, which is the first issue after "Civil War II" and shows Medusa shaving her head.Alonso talked about "Mosaic" #1, saying that he's a character without a body that jumps from host to host. "He not only brings his own powers, but also the powers and memories of all the hosts," said Alonso. "He's able to see what it's like to walk in other people's shoes. He's a flawed character. He has more of a curse than a gift. He's a character to watch and he has a huge role in an upcoming storyline."

"Death of X" teaser by Aaron Kuder

The floor opened up for questions, with the first one being about the key word in the title of the upcoming series "Death of X" -- "Death." Alonso said that Marvel has been dealing with rumors of the X-Men's demise for years, and maybe Marvel likes teasing with fans just a little bit. But joking aside, he urged the fan to check out "Death of X" and wait to see what it really is -- and also thanked the fan for his question. Alonso answered the next question about Cyclops, saying that the character is his favorite X-Man. Purdin pointed out that "Death of X" will reveal what happened with Cyclops in the eight month gap, as well.Another fan asked about the other Summers brother, Havok, who's been missing for a while. Bunn answered, saying "his absence is purposeful. There's a reason you haven't seen him. But you will definitely be seeing some Alex Summers soon."After prompting from a fan, Bunn revealed that he has written more than a few letters to his editors asking when Magneto will fight the Inhumans' leader Black Bolt. Alonso said he "wouldn't be surprised" if we saw that throw down at some point.The panelists then talked about planning out their stories, with Alonso saying that they're usually planned out with the big picture for a year. "We've been building to 'Death of X' for some time," said Alonso. "It's an explanation point. When we were planning 'Secret Wars,' we knew there'd be an eight month gap and what it meant. We've known for at least 18 months to two years where Cyclops and Emma have been -- at least in the broad strokes. At least 16 to 18 months before, we know what the story is about."Purdin then surprised Koblish with a question about the grossest thing he's drawn in "Deadpool"; Koblish said it was a guy he drew that had been cut in half, which he treated like "an anatomy lesson."Alonso said he wants to see more of Iceman -- both of them -- especially in light of his recent coming out. "It's not something we did lightly," he said, reiterating that there are more stories they want to tell with both the young and adult Iceman. "We do have plans for both of them, obviously they're in different books right now. I wouldn't be surprised if you see him doing bigger and better things in the future."

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A fan asked about Gambit's future, and Alonso said that there are more plans for the Ragin' Cajun. Bunn mentioned that Gambit's in "Civil War II: X-Men," but he doesn't know if there are any plans to have him on a team book right now.Bunn brought up an idea he's tried to get greenlit for a while, which spins out of "Siege" when the Avengers Sentry ripped Ares in half. "I've long pitched a story where Deadpool teamed up with the left half of Ares."A passionate X-Men fan then asked the panelists what they need fans to do to really support the book. "If you adapt the mentality that you're going to wait for trade, what you're doing is contributing to the cancellation of the series. Comics count on people being there once a month to pick them up," said Alonso. "It's important to support that small book. If we were to launch an 'Iceman' solo, support that book. Don't go, 'That first issue was great, I'll wait for the trade.'" Alonso continued, pointing out the criticism and hate that some creators and storylines get online. "The discourse on social media is also very shrill. If we only followed social media, people want us to tell them how the story ends. To the degree that you can help make that discourse more reasonable, please do. It's the people that type in caps that get heard the most."

Tom Taylor chimed in and said that he would like to hear people talk more about what they love. "We get on Twitter and we love seeing what fans love. We understand what you want to see less of because it's loud and all in caps, but tell us what you love." Bunn said that he wants people to talk about the books they love in their comic shops. (Via CBR)

While most of the focus over at Marvel Studios is currently on the pair of upcoming Avengers films, Ryan Coogler is ready to return to Wakanda for a third Black Panther film. We’d heard of the possibility of the film originally from Denzel Washington who, while speaking of his potential retirement, mentioned the film as one of his future projects and then when Nate Moore left Marvel last year, he said he would be back producing the third Black Panther film. Now, Coogler himself said while on stage talking about his film Sinners, that Black Panther 3 would be his next movie. The series kicked off with Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa, king of the African Nation of Wakanda and while he reprised the role in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, he sadly passed away shortly after. The sequel dealt with the characters death and passed the mantle on to his sister Shuri played by Letitia Wright who is expected to reprise the role in the upcoming Avenger films, but with talks of a potential soft reboot of the MCU, it’s unclear who will be wearing the mask for the third film.   

The most recent news on the DCU has to do with Jimmy Olsen. Variety is reporting that Skyler Gisondo will reprise his role from Superman in a true-crime docuseries style show that focuses on villains in the universe starting with the Flash rogue, Gorilla Grodd. Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault are set to write and showrun with James Gunn and Peter Safran joining them as executive producers. The show is planned for HBO Max and will be a mockumentary style similar to Yacenda and Perrault’s previous series like American Vandal and Players. In the original report, Variety claimed the series would be called DC Crime, something Gunn took to social media to debunk, saying there had never been any project in production called DC Crime, he then added that his saying that doesn’t mean that the rest of the report is false. This sounds like a pretty good confirmation to me. 

A new Star Trek film is in the works and Paramount is tapping the team of Jonathan Goldstein and John Frances Daley to write, produce and direct. This news comes shortly after David Ellison, founder of Skydance who recently purchased the studio, told investors that the next Star Trek film would not be a sequel to the Chris Pine/Zachary Quinto lead series of films. While this hasn’t been 100% confirmed, word is that the new film will be focused on new characters and not directly tied to any previous film or television series. Goldstein and Daley have a good track record when it comes to revitalizing franchises having written Spider-Man: Homecoming for Marvel Studios and wrote and directed Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves which was very well received by fans and critics.   

With The Fantastic Four: First Steps having moved to Disney+, the Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby lead team is now first in fans minds. But one person still thinks about the First Family of Marvel presented a decade ago and what went wrong. Miles Teller, who played Reed Richards in Josh Trank’s 2015 version of the property, still thinks about the project and how he believes the problems all came down to one person. Teller was on Sirius XM’s Radio Andy show said, “You saw the movie, right? Your eyes were working during that time? I think it’s unfortunate because so many people worked so hard on that movie. And, honestly, maybe there was one really important person who kind of f***ed it all up.” While Teller didn’t say who that was, he was referring to the person who made the final cut on the film, which was not director Trank. Teller said that he wanted a superhero film on his resume to help show him as a serious leading man, but after seeing the final cut recalled, “I remember talking to one of the studio heads, and I was like, ‘I think we’re in trouble.'” The 2015 version made $167 million worldwide compared to this year’s version which made $521 million. He stopped short of calling for a director’s cut of the film. 

The Creeper is a unique character from DC Comics, first introduced in "Showcase #73" in 1968. Created by Steve Ditko, The Creeper’s real name is Jack Ryder, a former television talk show host and investigative journalist in Gotham City. After being attacked during an undercover operation at a costume party, Ryder is injected with a serum by Dr. Yatz and gains superhuman abilities, including enhanced strength, agility, rapid healing, and a pain tolerance bordering on the supernatural. The serum, combined with a bizarre costume, transforms him into The Creeper, a vigilante known for his wild laughter, erratic behavior, and flamboyant appearance—a shock of green hair, yellow skin, and a red mane-like cape. The Creeper remains largely untouched by mainstream media, providing an opportunity to introduce audiences to a fresh face and break away from more established archetypes. His blend of horror, humor, and psychological complexity could create a film that stands out from traditional superhero fare. The Creeper’s unsettling persona and visual style lend themselves well to a film that could blend genres—horror, black comedy, and superhero action. His maniacal laugh and unpredictable methods could inject dark humor and psychological thrills, appealing to fans of films like "Joker" and "Deadpool" while carving out a distinctive identity in the DCU. Jack Ryder’s journey from cynical journalist to bizarre vigilante offers rich storytelling potential. Exploring themes of identity, sanity, and the nature of heroism, a Creeper film could delve into Ryder’s internal struggles and the impact of his dual life, making for a character-driven narrative that resonates with audiences seeking depth and complexity. And with being set in Gotham City, The Creeper’s adventures naturally intersect with the city’s gritty underworld, providing opportunities for noir-style detective storytelling. His background in journalism and investigation can be leveraged to create suspenseful plots involving corruption, criminal conspiracies, and moral ambiguity—making him an ideal protagonist for a film that explores the darker aspects of the DC Universe. The Creeper stands as one of DC Comics’ most unconventional and intriguing characters. His untapped potential, distinctive personality, and ability to straddle multiple genres make him a perfect candidate to lead a film in the new DCU. 

Predator: Badlands is doing very well, thanks for asking. The latest film in the long-running franchise set a few high franchise marks including domestic opening with $40M, best worldwide opening with $80M and best Cinemascore with an A-. The film also sits a the top of this week’s box office beating out the 2nd place film, Regretting You, by $32.9M… though that film is in its 3rd week. Other new films opening this week, Sarah’s Oil and Nuremberg, opened in 4th and 5th with just over $4M each. Badlands is the third Predator project for director Dan Trachtenberg, the first Prey showed how he could handle the franchise but then he wanted to follow it up with an animated film, Killer of Killers and then for the first time Badlands make the Predator the protagonist. 

Recent reports about problems on the set of Stranger Things may not have been what they seemed. There were stories being published that Millie Bobby Brown had filed a report against co-star David Habour, accusing the older actor of bullying. But the validity of those reports are now in question as both Brown and Harbour joined their Stranger Things cast members at the red=carpet premiere of the show’s fifth and final season. Brown and Harbour were seen joking together and even hugging. Brown has also spoke of Habour to Extra, saying: “It’s been amazing. We’re so lucky to have each other. The show means so much to the both of us, and to everyone here. This has been the last 10 years of our lives.” Brown stars as the psych-powered Eleven and Harbour plays Sherriff Jim Hopper who ends up adopting her. The fifth and final season will release on Netflix in three sets with Volume 1 on November 26 (four episodes), Volume 2 on Christmas (three episodes), and The Finale on New Year’s Eve. 

There is a major movie franchise out there that is not going by its original name and it’s thanks to the star. When screenwriter Derek Kolstad finished what would become is most popular film, he was inspired by revenge-thrillers with one-word titles like Payback and Shooter. He dubbed his film, Scorn. The problem came when the star of the film went out and talked about it, he always referred to it by the lead character’s name rather than the title. After a while, the studio realized that their star, Keanu Reeves, had done millions of dollars worth of brand recognition for the name John Wick… they decided to go with it and renamed the film. Why Reeves did this is unknown, but Kolstad has since admitted that John Wick is a better franchise name, saying, “I can’t imagine it being Scorn now.” Was this an intentional thing on Reeves’ part or just a happy coincidence? We may never know. 

If you check the major Hollywood sites like Deadline and Variety, they’ll tell you that October 2025 has been the lowest box office take in almost 30 years. It sits currently at $440 million with a few days left to add. In 1998 the box office did $455 million, which this month should just creep past. By comparison October 2018 did $832 million with just three films: Venom, A Star is Born and Halloween, taking in $481 million. But last year, October only took in $478 million showing the decreasing trend. Adding to the decline is the fact that no major releases were scheduled for this weekend because of the Halloween holiday. And what was put into theaters the whole month really didn’t get people’s attention. Tron: Ares was the highest profile film and that hasn’t even broken $70 million in its four weeks in theaters.   When you look at numbers like that, it’s hard not to think about what might have been. There was a big budget film slated for release this month, a film that got delayed and delayed and hasn’t even started filming. A film that finally has a finished script and is set to release in October of 2027… that of course is Matt Reeves’ The Batman Part 2. One of the most anticipated films currently in production, the sequel to the 2022 hit, bolstered also by the fan favorite HBO series The Penguin, would easily match and likely succeed the success of the first film. The Batman opened on March 4, 2022 and ended that month with $338 million domestically.  It was originally scheduled to be released October 3rd, looking at that release date, this year there really wasn’t any big film put in its place. The film would’ve done better than the first and that amount would’ve driven 2025 towards the top of the list, maybe even surpassing 2018. Ah, what could’ve been. 

DC Studios has potentially taken a significant step by filing for a trademark for a film titled "Salvation Run." A move that isn’t too surprising since the Salvation planet and the idea of using it as a prison for meta humans was introduced in the season finale of Peacemaker season 2. But the filing does indicate just how big this idea could be for the DCU. "Salvation Run" is a storyline from DC Comics that originally ran in the late 2000s. The story centers on the mass exile of some of DC's most notorious villains to a hostile alien world, forcing them to band together for survival. It was a concept originally pitched to DC by Game of Thrones writer George R.R. Martin. The trademark filing by DC Studios suggests that the company is considering developing "Salvation Run" into a feature film. While trademark filings do not guarantee that a film will be produced, they often indicate serious intent or early-stage development. The filing protects the title and concept, ensuring that DC Studios retains exclusive rights as plans evolve. Should "Salvation Run" move forward, it could introduce a fresh dynamic to DC's film slate. Instead of focusing on heroes, this story would shine a spotlight on villains, possibly expanding character development and offering audiences new perspectives on well-known antagonists. It also opens opportunities for ensemble casting, complex storytelling, and connections to other DC properties.