SONIC PRIME Animated Series Headed to Netflix in 2022

sonic

A week after Netflix announced it had ordered a new Tomb Raider animated series, the streaming service has bagged another video game property, this time in the form of the famed “blue blur” Sonic the Hedgehog.

According to Netflix, the iconic Sega mascot will star in a new 3D animated series from Sega, WildBrain Studios and Man of Action Entertainment titled Sonic Prime and is scheduled to premiere some time in 2022. Announced just in time for Sonic’s 30th anniversary, the series has been secured for a 24-episode run and is said to be aimed at “kids, families, and long-time fans.”

In the launch blurb, Netflix promises a “high-octane adventure” in which the “fate of a strange new multiverse” rests in Sonic’s hands. The story is said to be “more than a race to save the universe,” but also “a journey of self-discovery and redemption.”

Over on the big screen, filming of Sonic’s second major movie will begin in March according to Tika Sumpter who’s set to reprise her role in the Sonic The Hedgehog sequel.

Despite a rocky start to Sonic’s feature film debut, which resulted in a complete rework of the movie’s now infamous Sonic character design, the film went on to become the highest-grossing video game film adaptation of all time in North America. In our review, James “Magic” Perkins called it a “smile-inducing 90-minute nostalgia trip that is equally entertaining for kids and adults alike.”

THE MIGHTY DUCKS Are Back in First Trailer for Sequel Series

mighty ducks

Forget The Book of Boba Fett. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier? No thanks. The new Disney+ show that we’re really looking forward to this year is The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers! Okay, we’re being facetious, but we do know that since the original film debuted in 1992 the property has gone on to amass a huge cult following. The trilogy finished with D3: The Mighty Ducks in 1996, and loosely continued with a short-lived animated series that same year, so fans haven’t had new Ducks content for 25 years now!

Game Changers will see Emilio Estevez return as former-coach Gordon Bombay, who is sought out Luke Skywalker-style to train a new generation of youngsters. Let’s hope he doesn’t just toss that hockey stick over his shoulder and incur the wrath of millions of die-hard Ducks fans.

The show will begin March 26th on Disney+, with Estevez being joined by Gilmore Girls legend Lauren Graham. Check out the first trailer below…

Joss Whedon’s THE NEVERS Reveals First Trailer

nevers

Excitement for The Nevers was recently dampened somewhat when creator Joss Whedon stepped down as showrunner late last year, with the award-winning writer/director citing exhaustion (read our previous story for more details) as the reason for the shock exit. In his place is British filmmaker Philippa Goslett (How to Talk to Girls at Parties), but it’s natural given how long the series has been in production that Whedon’s work will be felt throughout much of, if not all of, Season 1. Each of the 10 episodes will also have input from Whedon regulars Jane Espenson and Douglas Petrie, so we fully expect that familial style in the writing to carry through.

The first trailer certainly lives up to the promise, showcasing many tried and tested elements from the Whedon stable, and not just in its premise which sees a continuation of Buffy the Vampire’s core theme – the empowerment of a subjugated group of women through supernatural means, except this time it’s not high school cheerleaders and math nerds, it’s Victorian-era women from the streets of London.

Check out the footage below and hop on over to @STARBURST_Mag to let us know your thoughts.

The Nevers will launch Stateside on HBO Max in April.

CLOVERFIELD Is Finally Getting a Canonical Sequel

cloverfield movie

Cloverfield, the Matt Reeves science fiction movie which saw a giant creature rampage through Manhattan, is finally getting a canonical sequel. The 2008 movie has received two spin-offs already, the very solid 10 Cloverfield Lane and the mistake we wish we could forget, a.k.a. The Cloverfield Paradox. These were made as their own movies before being retconned into a shared universe, a fate that almost befell A Quiet Place before the writers (thankfully!) came to their senses.

As such, this new film will be the first direct, canonical sequel to Cloverfield. No director has yet been tapped nor are any plot details known, but it has been confirmed that Giri/Haji creator Joe Barton is on to write the script. Barton also wrote the upcoming sci-fi movie Invasion, starring Riz Ahmed and Octavia Spencer, and has recently been confirmed as the new showrunner for HBO Max’s Batman series. Also on board is JJ Abrams, who produced the original and its two spin-offs.

Though Cloverfield is renowned for popularising found-footage filmmaking and was among the first movies to capitalise on ambiguous teaser campaigns and viral tie-ins, this sequel will reportedly not employ the found-footage style.

Jennifer Lopez To Star in Action Thriller THE MOTHER

jennifer lopez shades of blue

Jennifer Lopez will be heading up Netflix’s newest action thriller, The Mother (not to be confused with the other Netflix original, I Am Mother, or the other-other Netflix original, Mother).

Niki Caro is in talks to direct after helming Disney’s live-action Mulan remake, from a screenplay written by Lovecraft Country’s Misha Green and revised by Straight Outta Compton’s Andrea Berloff. Lopez, who is also set to produce, will play an assassin who comes out of hiding to save a daughter she gave up years ago.

Lopez was already confirmed to be teaming up with Netflix for a movie adapted from Isabella Maldonado’s novel “The Cipher”, which will see Lopez as an FBI agent entangled in a serial killer’s web. The actress has numerous other films currently in the works, including the romantic comedy Marry Me co-starring Owen Wilson, the upcoming crime drama The Godmother, and of course Lionsgate’s Shotgun Wedding, from which Armie Hammer recently departed amidst abuse allegations.

Little more is known of The Mother’s plot, though Deadline has reported that it will be in the spirit of Luc Besson’s cult classic The Professional.

Has THE MATRIX 4 Received a Title?

the matrix 4

Do we finally have a title for the long-awaited The Matrix 4, or have we fallen prey to the simulation? It’s unfortunately a bit of a purple pill.

Twitter swirled with rumours and speculation that the latest instalment in the Wachowski sisters’ franchise was to be titled Matrix Resurrections. The supposed leak originated from a post shared to Instagram by Shunika Terry, a makeup artist on the film. The photo showed off a gift package she had received, and which included a note from writer-director Lana Wachowski and producer James McTeigue, presumably thanking Terry for her work “in the making of Matrix Resurrections”.

However, the post was quickly taken down and Warner Bros. soon responded to rumours by asserting that the film remains untitled. This suggests that Resurrections was just the title being used during production; if you’ll recall, Project Ice Cream was the working title being used at the time of a casting call for extras in the San Francisco area. Resurrections certainly rolls off the tongue more smoothly, with the added benefit of sounding less like the codename for a CIA-sponsored foreign coup. It also matches the previous sequel titles, Reloaded and Revolutions (is Kris Jenner pitching these?).

Resurrections also makes sense as a potential reference to Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss returning in starring roles as Neo and Trinity, despite both characters dying at the end of the original trilogy. In addition, even if Matrix 4 is officially untitled, Matrix Resurrections may well end up a top candidate for the final title. Either way, fans shouldn’t have to wait much longer for a confirmed title, with the fourth instalment’s planned release date landing it in theatres and HBO Max on December 22nd, 2021.

New Trailer for PACIFIC RIM: THE BLACK Reveals Release Date

pacific rim

We may not be getting a Pacific Rim 3 anytime soon, with Guillermo del Toro recently revealing on Twitter there are sadly “NO plans to return” (the caps were his), but for those of you who can’t get enough Jaeger (the giant robots, not the alcohol, you’ll probably need another website if the latter applies) a new trailer brings great news: Netflix are about to debut their animated spin-off series!

Check out the first promo below, bask in the gorgeous anime aesthetic, and start getting psyched for a March 4th return to del Toro’s own monster-verse.

Hungry for more Kaiju content? Check out our great feature KNOWING ME, KNOWING… KAIJU, ARRRGH! [aka 20 ESSENTIAL KAIJU THAT AREN’T GODZILLA OR KING KONG]

Joss Whedon Replaced as Showrunner on THE NEVERS

joss whedon

Screenwriter Philippa Goslett takes over as showrunner on the HBO superhero drama, slated for release later this year.

Goslett will serve as both showrunner and executive producer.  She replaces series creator Joss Whedon, who departed the show in November last year.  Whedon previously released a statement citing exhaustion and the challenges of delivering a large production during a global pandemic as his primary reasons for stepping down.  He remains credited as an executive producer, alongside fellow Buffy alums and long-term collaborators Jane Espenson and Douglas Petrie, as well as former Sopranos producer Ilene S. Landress, and Game of Thrones producer Bernadette Caulfield.

Philippa Goslett

This will be Goslett’s first role as showrunner. Her previous screenwriting credits include the Robert Pattison-starring Little Ashes, which won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film in 2010, and How to Talk to Girls at Parties, which starred Elle Fanning and Nicole Kidman, and premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.  Goslett is no stranger to television, having previously worked with the BBC and Channel 4 in developing projects for the smaller screen.

The Nevers was subject to a network bidding war when it was first pitched back in 2018, in which HBO emerged victorious against rival Netflix. The cable giant made a straight-to-series commitment despite The Nevers being the first solo-Whedon project since Fox’s ill-fated Dollhouse. Whedon previously co-created Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Principle photography began in London across the summer of 2019. The series is set in Victorian times, and is described as a science fiction drama about a group of young women, known as the Touched who find themselves developing special powers and abilities. Laura Donnelly (Tolkien), Olivia Williams (Counterpart), and James Norton (Happy Valley) are set to star in the series, which HBO confirmed was still on track to be released this summer as planned.

GAME OF THRONES Franchise Set to Expand with Animated Series

Could an animated return to Westeros be on the horizon?

Sources report that an animated addition to the Game of Thrones franchise is in very early development at HBO Max, the on-demand service for GOT’s original parent network Warner Media.

Preliminary meetings with writers are already underway, per the Hollywood Reporter, although no deals have been finalised and it’s possible that the series may not make it out of developmental stages.  The series isn’t yet confirmed to have any talent attached, either behind the scenes or for voice roles.  Reps for HBO haven’t issued any comment on the rumours, which were widely reported over the weekend.

If the series were to go ahead, it would join HBO’s House of the Dragon as the only official successor to the wildly popular original, after HBO raised eyebrows by passing on the Naomi Watts-starring untitled prequel last year.

HBO Max is already set to have a big year following Warner Bros startling announcement in December that it intends to release all of their original films in theatres and on the HBO Max platform simultaneously.  HBO Max has struggled to find its place amongst a plethora of popular streaming services, and given the marketability of the Thrones franchise, any new series would be a welcome boost in bringing more viewers to their product.

Game of Thrones, based on George RR Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice series of novels, premiered in 2011 and quickly became a commercial and critical favourite, setting a record for 59 Emmy wins, and making household names out of stars Emilia Clarke, Richard Madden and Kit Harington. The finale was watched by a record-setting 13.6 million viewers in the US alone, rising to 19.3m once streaming figures were taken into account.  Original creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have declined involvement in any of the many planned spin-off series.

Lara Croft’s Adventures to Continue in Animated TOMB RAIDER Series

Lara Croft is getting her own animated Tomb Raider series on Netflix.

The video game icon is set to continue her adventures from the recent Tomb Raider reboot, developed by Crystal Dynamics and Eidos-Montréal, in a new anime series that’s said to take place after the trilogy’s final instalment in 2018.

The series is being produced by Legendary, which just dropped the trailer for the upcoming Godzilla Vs. Kong, and will join a throng of video game IP being snapped up by streaming services such as Netflix’s popular Castlevania and The Witcher series and upcoming projects like HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us.

The news comes just days after it was announced that Lovecraft Country creator Misha Green will be taking the reins on the upcoming Tomb Raider movie sequel, starring Alicia Vikander, following the departure of director Ben Wheatly.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Tomb Raider franchise, and according to a video over on the official Tomb Raider Twitter page, fans can apparently expect a yearlong celebration of the archaeologist’s globetrotting career, including “lots of surprises”. While some may be disappointed to learn that there are no new games in the works just yet – will our Tomb Raider Ultimate Experience dreams ever come true? – Tomb Raider franchise Game Director Will Kerslake teased “big ambitions for the future of Tomb Raider” which will unify the timelines from both the classic Core Design series and reboot games. Who knows what that may look like but we’re excited to see where Crystal Dynamics takes Lara next.