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It’s a big week for Marvel news! First up, Jon Bernthal has joined the cast of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, as his take on The Punisher makes the transition from Marvel Television to the big screen. He joins newcomer Sadie Sink, alongside Zendaya and Jacob Batalon who were also confirmed to be returning as MJ and Ned, respectively. Elsewhere, on Wednesday Disney announced that Marvel Studios is scheduled to release an untitled film slated for December 15, 2028, which if holds true, would be the studio’s fourth theatrical offering for that year. In Variety’s article on said possible fourth 2028 Marvel Studios film, the writer suggested that Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier has gone from being in talks, to officially tapped as the director for the upcoming X-Men film.

Fresh details on the recently cast Clayface film from DC Studios co-head James Gunn said the film would be R-rated during his appearance on the DC Studios Showcase Official Podcast. "It's just a great horror movie that is a great, smart, fun horror movie which is in a genre that I happen to love, which is body horror," he said; continuing with, "It's rated R… It's not anything now because the MPA has to watch it, but it's most likely rated R. It's pretty intense." In other DCU news, box office tracking for Superman via the National Research Group (NRG) has the film projected to open between $125 and $145 million domestically, with more conservative estimates ranging between $90 and $125 million. The fledgling DCU certainly seems to be living up to its Gods and Monsters thematic moniker.

It was a story of highs and lows at the box office this weekend, with the newcomers 28 Years Later and Pixar’s Elio unable to dethrone Dreamworks’ live action How To Train Your Dragon remake, which passed $358 million at the global box office in just two weeks. Although both new films bowed to the reigning champ, the narrative is far more devastating for Pixar and Elio; despite positive critical reviews, the celebrated animation studio’s latest feature struggled to muster even a meager $35 million globally; a record low and troubling sign concerning the performance, or lack thereof, for original films at Pixar. Danny Boyles’ legacy horror sequel 28 Years Later fared far better, debuting to $30 million both domestically and internationally, for a $60 million total haul

Marvel Comics has announced Spider-Man '94, a four issue limited comic run that will close the cliffhanger left by Spider-Man The Animated Series from its final episode in 1998. The series is written by long-time Spidey veteran and a writer on the original animated series, J.M. DeMatteis, with art by Jim Towe.

Russell Crowe is boarding at Amazon MGM Studios and United Artists’ Highlander in the Ramirez mentor role made famous by Sean Connery in the original 1986 movie. He joins Henry Cavill who is playing the lead role.

AMC has released a teaser trailer for season 3 of Walking Dead spin off Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and announced that the series will premiere on September 7.

James Bobin, director of The Muppets, is in talks to helm Netflix’s Dragon’s Lair, based on the classic 1980s arcade game, per The Hollywood Reporter. Ryan Reynolds, originally set to star, but no longer, is producing alongside Roy Lee, Trevor Engelson, and game creators Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, and Jon Pomeroy.

Warner Bros. Pictures has released a new trailer for ‘Weapons’ written and directed by Zach Cregger which offers more eerie footage from the film.

It’s a big week for fans of Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding franchise; Death Stranding 2: On the Beach releases this week on June 26, for the Playstation 5 exclusively. Kojima Productions also announced an animated feature film being written by Raised by Wolves‘ Aaron Guzikowski; this is in addition to the previously announced live action Death Stranding film adaptation in development.

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In a peek behind the curtain, James Gunn shared with Rolling Stone this week that the Milly Alcock-lead film Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow will now just be called Supergirl. This is similar to July’s Superman, which started out with the title Superman: Legacy. Gunn shared that he and his team do what he calls “premortems,” where they attempt to suss out issues with projects prior to release rather than reacting on the back end. The shortening of titles has come out of those discussions. In the same article, Gunn got candid about the state of Batman in the DCU and the complexities of navigating the character with Matt Reeves’ adaptation in consideration or making it his own. Lastly, Gunn announced today that actor Tom Rhys Harries will play Basil Karlo/Clayface in the film set to be released in September 2026.

Live action remakes continue to rule at the box office, with this weekend’s How to Train Your Dragon capturing the top spot opening to a global $197 million. A24’s romantic comedy Materialists starring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal, opened to a modest $11 million domestically, but goes down in studio history as A24’s third highest debut at the box office. Next weekend Sony gives us 28 Years Later and Pixar releases Elio.

Nosferatu director Robert Eggers is tackling the classic Charles Dickens story, A Christmas Carol. Eggers is on record as never wanting to make a film set in a modern age, and the ghost story that is A Christmas Carol seems right up his alley. Though unconfirmed, Willem Dafoe is likely set to play the main character of Ebenezer Scrooge as Dafoe has been in three of Eggers films.

Tommy Wirkola will return to direct Violent Night 2, the sequel to the Christmas-themed action movie released in 2022, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. David Harbour, who starred in the first film, will also return. The sequel is currently dated for December 4, 2026.

Bill Pullman and Rick Moranis are set to reprise their respective roles as Lone Starr and Dark Helmet in the new Spaceballs movie from Amazon MGM Studios, with Keke Palmer and Lewis Pullman also joining the cast. The original film’s director and star, Mel Brooks - who will turn 99 this month - will also feature in the cast once again, reprising his role as Yogurt. The film is currently set to release in 2027.

On the animation side of DC Studios, Warner Bros. announced a new series called Mister Miracle, based on the comic series written by renowned writer Tom King who will also be the showrunner. Mister Miracle is an escape artist character who is a celebrity in the comic book world he lives in.

Paramount+ has renewed Star Trek: Strange New Worlds the series for a fifth and final six-episode season. Production on the upcoming season will begin later this year.

Pixar Animation Studios offered an exclusive first look at its upcoming features — including Hoppers and Toy Story 5 — and announced a brand-new original production, Gatto, during a studio presentation on Friday at the Annecy international animation film festival as part of a broader showcase that also included extensive footage from Pixar’s 2025 release Elio.Gatto will be directed by Luca filmmaker Enrico Casarosa, follows Nero, a water-hating black cat living in the picturesque city of Venice, Italy, who befriends Maya, a lonely street musician.

Glenn Close and Billy Porter have joined the cast of Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. Close will play Drusilla Sickle, the cruel escort to the District 12 Tributes, while Porter snagged the role of Magno Stift, her estranged husband and the Tributes’ uninspired designer. Today, Jhaleil Swaby was also added to the cast as Panache, a career tribute from District 1.

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Welcome to Multiverse News, Your source for Information about all your favorite fictional universes

During a recent appearance on Carmelo Antony’s 7 PM in Brooklyn Podcast, Black Panther director Ryan Coogler reignited speculation that Denzel Washington is set to play a pivotal role in the third film of his socially thoughtful superhero franchise. When questioned about Washington’s prior claims that Coogler was developing the film with a role intended for him specifically, the director confirmed them, saying, “there’s no fiction out there about that”. In unrelated, but still Marvel news, tickets for The Fantastic Four: First Steps went on sale last week, crashing several major theaters online ticketing services and accompanied by a new trailer that appears to show us our first look at Franklin Richards. On the TV side of things, per Deadline sources, Schitt’s Creek actor Emily Hampshire has joined the cast of the upcoming Vision Disney Plus series as E.D.I.T.H., the artificial intelligence that appeared in Spider-Man: Far From Home. And finally, a second trailer for Ironheart was released on Monday.

Late last week, Superman director and DC Studios co-head, James Gunn took to social media, as he is want to do, to announce and celebrate the completion of the film’s final visual effects shot, with which he claimed the film to be 100% done ahead of its July 11 release. In the wake of that announcement Gunn took the opportunity to address fan questions surrounding the film’s runtime, which he confirmed to be 2 hours and 9 minutes including credits and post credit scenes, while also kiboshing any speculation that Warner Bros had forced a shorter, mandated runtime, saying there was zero truth to it and that Warner Bros could not have interfered even if they wanted to, as it's a DC Studios film. All of this is compounded by rumors that DC Studios will not be focusing on any of their films at SDCC and Gunn’s cagey Entertainment Weekly interview from earlier today where he claimed the DCU’s Wonder Woman film is being written as we speak.

Time for another good old fashioned trailer park, featuring the highly anticipated follow-up to last year’s breakout hit, Wicked: For Good, whose first trailer garnered 113 million views in its first 24 hours – and our first full length trailer for Noah Hawley’s upcoming FX series, Alien: Earth, which also announced the series for an August 12 premiere

• Marvel Animation premiered the first episode of the Disney Plus series Eyes of Wakanda during a panel at the Annecy Animation Festival in France, Monday morning. During the panel we learned from director Todd Harris the show will be “anthology-adjacent” and will consist of four episodes.

• Mia Goth has joined Ryan Gosling in Star Wars: Starfighter, the feature from director Shawn Levy. Although casting details are scarce at the moment, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that she will be playing a villain.

• HBO's upcoming Harry Potter series has announced nine actors playing key roles for its first season tackling Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. The added cast includes Katherine Parkinson as Molly Weasley, Lox Pratt as Draco Malfoy, Johnny Flynn as Lucius Malfoy, Leo Earley as Seamus Finnigan, Alessia Leoni as Parvati Patil, Sienna Moosah as Lavender Brown, Bel Powley as Petunia Dursley, Daniel Rigby as Vernon Dursley and Bertie Carvel as Cornelius Fudge.

• Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, will reprise the role on Broadway. Felton will join the cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway starting Nov. 11, for a 19-week engagement through March 22, 2026.

• A VR game based on Marvel’s Deadpool franchise is set to launch later this year from Meta Quest with Neil Patrick Harris voicing the Merc with a Mouth. The game will launch sometime later this year.