Latest Marvel News: The MCU’s new Kang-level casting snafu is a win for James Gunn’s DC as ‘Echo’ forces Marvel to admit the truth about Daredevil

After the surprising success of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom over The Marvels, Marvel is likely glad that there won’t be any more competition from DC until July 2025, when the new DCU launches with Superman: Legacy. Unfortunately, the MCU movie that’s going head-to-head with it has just hit a major Jonathan Majors-style setback.

Elsewhere, the incoming Echo might be somewhat sailing under the radar, but at least it’s forced Marvel to admit something we’ve been dying to hear for a full decade now. Basically, Daredevil fans, your day has come.

Superman: Legacy‘s big competition losing its biggest star is bad news for Marvel but great news for the DCU

Image via Marvel Comics

I know 2024 has just begun, but let’s skip ahead to July 2025. On the 11th of that month, DC’s Superman: Legacy arrives, with Marvel’s Thunderbolts releasing on the 25th. For a hot second there, it looked like we’d truly be having the battle of the Supermen, as David Corenswet’s Kal-El would face off at the box office with Steven Yeun’s Sentry, commonly referred to as Marvel’s answer to Supes. Unfortunately, Yeun is now out of the picture, leaving both the Sentry’s MCU future in question and meaning Marvel has suffered its second significant casting loss in as many weeks. Looks like Legacy‘s shot at cinematic supremacy just got a little easier…

Echo producer admits he’s “confident” that Netflix’s Daredevil is part of the Sacred Timeline

Screencap via Marvel Studios/Disney Plus

Is Netflix’s Daredevil truly MCU canon? That’s something Marvel has been going back and forth on for the past nine years, ever since the show premiered in 2015. Sure, that series was made by Marvel Television but then Charlie Cox returned for bonafide Marvel Studios productions like Spider-Man: No Way Home. And yet Marvel’s timeline bible just recently implied that only his post-Phase Four outings were canon. Thankfully, Echo producer Brad Winderbaum has revealed that he is “confident” he can now declare, on behalf of the studio, that Daredevil takes place in the Sacred Timeline. That bodes extremely well for the upcoming, and completely retooled, Born Again reboot.

Did Marvel just drop a major Young Avengers tease or am I clutching at straw swords?

Screencap via Marvel Studios/Disney Plus

A mostly standalone animated anthology show it may be, but there’s so much potential for the MCU’s future hidden in the What If…? season 2 finale. Let’s put aside the Loki crossover of it all for a minute, though, and focus on that glowing green sword Infinity Carter (Captain Carter with the Infinity Stones) wields in the episode. A powerful cosmic blade owned by a Hulk? That couldn’t be Marvel’s adaptation of Excelsior, typically used by Young Avenger member Hulkling, could it? Well, Ms. Marvel is officially in the process of assembling her “Kid Avengers,” and Hulkling’s boyfriend Wiccan is coming in this fall’s Agatha. As Echo has just reminded us, it really is all connected.

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Did an early ‘Star Wars’ projection accurately predict the saga’s future success?

It’s obviously difficult to find any positive reactions from movie critics about any film while it’s still in production, but one critic decided to point out something positive about Star Wars and added a hint that it would be a success. In fact, he refers to one important factor that he believed already made it “exceptional.”

With the success of American Graffiti, George Lucas suddenly found himself with an opportunity to make Star Wars. Previously, motion picture companies such as United Artists and Universal were not interested in Lucas’ space opera, despite Universal signing him to a deal for Graffiti.

That’s when Alan Ladd, Jr. at 20th Century Fox stepped in and recognized Lucas’ genius. He didn’t quite understand the concept for Star Wars, let alone what a wookie was, but he believed in Lucas as a filmmaker.

Even so, fellow executives and board members at Fox grew to dislike the project, since it was taking up so much time and money. They even threatened to shut down the film altogether, though that was late in filming and likely a ploy to pressure Lucas to finish which, for various reasons, he was struggling to do.

While filming was happening, the public was uncertain what to think of such a strange sci-fi feature, though that’s mostly because there was such little information about it. Before all the uncertainty changed to curiosity in late 1976, one movie critic had something positive to say in May of 1976, one year before the film premiered, which is quite unusual considering there was basically nothing to review.

John S. Long of the Arizona Daily Star wrote an article about the upcoming sci-fi films due to hit theaters over the following year and a half. The article was published on May 30, 1976 and although Long doesn’t quite look forward to such features as Godzilla vs Megatron or The Creature From Black Lake, he does point out three films that he believed would provide “exceptional fare.”

Long first notes Superman, especially since it’s written by The Godfather novelist Mario Puzo. This is also ironic since David Prowse, who enacted the physical characterization of Darth Vader, actually trained Christopher Reeve to build up his body for his Superman role. Long’s article then notes that Star Trek is being made into a film, though that would later be cancelled by Paramount. The company must’ve been kicking themselves over that decision after the success of Star Wars, which is the next film that Long mentions.

Keep in mind, science fiction films were not really a big business in the mid-1970s, and Lucas himself couldn’t foresee the massive success his movie would become.

Then, Long explains that he considers these films, and especially Star Wars, as having promise for at least one main reason.

Long writes, “What makes Star Wars with Alec Guinness and Carrie Fisher, and most of the other films extraordinary is that they are fielding big name stars for their productions. In the past, most science fiction films included either has-beens or inexperienced actors.”

Arizona Daily Star clipping from 1976 via Newspapers.com

Landing Alec Guinness and later Peter Cushing were major steps in the right direction, and are often overlooked by Star Wars fans today.

Long further points out another rather important factor as he notes that the films “are also being made with big budgets rather than the meager capital invested in the ’50s science fiction products.”

Such a logical take seems somewhat uncommon for a movie critic, or even from fans anticipating the movie, but Long easily realized that these film companies “rediscovered the box office potential of science fiction thrillers.”

He ultimately concludes by writing, ”They also are aware of the success of the big special effects films.”

Long doesn’t miss at all on his points and perhaps he would make a good Jedi or at least a semi-prophetic Yoda without needing to spout “Difficult to see, the future is.”

Perhaps not following the Jedi path was a wise decision by Long, because he went on to have a lengthy career in journalism and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Local Investigative Specialized Reporting with Clark Hallas and David C. McCumber in 1984.

Now, thanks to Star Wars, sci-fi films are a big business, and hinting at their potential for success is no longer the exception, like it was in 1976; the last year without Star Wars.

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Should Disney continue its live-action adaptation agenda after being trumped by Universal?

Walt Disney Studios came skidding across the finish line of 2023, billowing solid black smoke clouds and dragging its fender, two tires, and a confused member of its pit crew behind it. 

Maybe that’s dramatic. But so was the news that Disney, the company that owns everything you’ve ever loved, was the first loser at the 2023 box office. The winner, against all odds, was Universal, the company that brought you Cocaine Bear and tried kind of hard to bring you the Dark Universe. With the help of releases like Oppenheimer, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and M3GAN, the studio raked in a solid $4.9 billion and change. Meanwhile, the folks at Disney ate found crow meat and drank gutter sludge thanks to their $4.827 billion take. Rookie numbers, really.

For their part, the folks at Disney were quick to point out the extenuating circumstances surrounding the egg on their faces: The studio only released 17 movies compared to Universal’s 24, and that more of their films had cracked the year’s top 10 than any other studio’s. Even so, the shame lingered. The House of Mouse’s top performer of the year was Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, written and directed by a man that they’d loudly fired in his last hurrah before taking over as head of the competition over at DC. Movies that should’ve been surefire hits – MCU entries, an Indiana Jones sequel, an adaptation of a beloved theme park attraction – ate it hard.

And sure, the majority of the crisis prevention over at Disney is probably keyed in on the MCU, what with The Marvels not even breaking $100 million domestic and Jonathan Majors’ personal crusade against making money. But there’s another point of diminishing returns that the studio might need to take into consideration: The gangrenous limb of the company responsible for live-action remakes.

Can Disney shake the live-action remake monkey off its back?

Image via Disney

Looking at the situation with the jittery, glazed-over eyes of a compulsive gambler, it’s not hard to understand why Disney keeps rolling bones on live-action adaptations of its ubiquitous animated properties. Sure, when things go badly – and they do – it’s a disaster. There’s a dank studio basement somewhere in Burbank, and whichever junior executive said “Let’s remake Dumbo” is chained to the floor five years after the fact, writing “I’ve been bad” on the wall until Bob Iger says he can stop. 

But when the dice hit just right, they hit so hard. The last theatrically released Disney remake that didn’t come out mid-pandemic was The Lion King. It made the kind of money that ends wars. If the shady corners of the internet are right and you can buy a real lion for about $1500, then 2019’s The Lion King made enough money to buy every one of the remaining 24,000 lions in the world 40 times, and it did it while being just so boring, cultivating a 52% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It was the third live-action (ish) Disney remake to crack a billion dollars at the box office – fourth, if you count that Alice in Wonderland movie from 2010 as a remake and not just a nightmare that Tim Burton had after he fell asleep reading a Divergent book with cartoons on in the background.

2023 saw three major live-action Disney remakes: A dour Peter Pan remix that you forgot came out, which The Guardian called “passable but unnecessary,” a Pinocchio… thing starring Tom Hanks as a wig on a greenscreen, and the only entry to make it to theaters: The Little Mermaid. The film fell short of expectations, raking in $570 million on a nearly $300 million budget. A target audience of Disney adults had grown wary of dead-eyed photorealistic CGI animals lip syncing to childhood classics. Culture war enthusiasts on either side of played-out arguments made the movie an exhausting proposition for curious potential theatergoers that just wanted to see Javier Bardem with a fish for a butt. All signs point to the studio’s next adaptation, Snow White, being more of the same. 

Even more than their alarmingly hit-and-miss financial performances, what might give Disney’s live-action division pause is the list of films they have left to adapt. The big entries from the studio’s golden age are already accounted for. Hercules, Lilo and Stitch, and, inexplicably, The Aristocats are all slated for the next decade or so. A Robin Hood remake featuring photorealistic anthropomorphic animals might draw exactly the audience you’re imagining, but it’s hard to imagine what the crowd would look like at the premiere of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, starring a true-to-life CGI congenital kyphosis patient. 

Should Disney stop making live-action adaptations? Probably, yeah, from a creative perspective, and for the sake of maintaining their last fistful of audience goodwill. Will they stop? Well, no. Of course they won’t. Public recognition is three quarters of the battle in marketing, and everyone knows a Disney movie when they see its title on a poster. As long as we keep handing them even a little bit of money, they’ll keep betting that we’ll do it again. Gambling doesn’t get easier to quit once it grosses you an estimated $10 billion over 30 years.

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5 of the wildest horror movies releasing in 2024, ranked by how ludicrous they are

Somehow, someway, the common trend within the ever-popular horror genre has geared towards infamous children’s characters and folklore narratives being shifted and recreated as slasher movies. And while the concept is undoubtedly entertaining, there’s absolutely no denying that it’s also absolutely ludicrous.

And yet, genuine intrigue and interest blossoming from die-hard spooky supporters is arguably at an all-time high — especially with the upcoming collection of projects that are set to unveil at separate points in the near future. Most of these horror flicks are attached to 2024, so it definitely seems like this calendar year is going to be insanely massive for the spooky community. Of course, that doesn’t mean we can’t poke a little fun and examine how wacky these movies will likely be.

So, let’s dive in and uncover 5 of the wildest horror movies releasing this year, ranked by how ludicrous they are.

5. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2

Image via Altitude Film Distribution

The first film in question on this list should hardly come as a huge shock, especially since its predecessor already exists. But even despite Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey getting slaughtered by critics after its release last year, the horror community has otherwise found some of its strengths. I can’t personally say that the film was groundbreaking for cinema, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t entertaining. … A sequel, though? We might be pushing the envelope a little too much here.

4. Cinderella’s Curse

Image via Jamie Touche

Look, this concept is insanely wild, but there are definitely projects on this list even more unfathomable than this. Plus, doesn’t the idea of Cinderella becoming a slasher icon sort of fit her own narrative? Considering she had those ugly, wicked stepsisters who caused her nothing but sheer terror, it actually makes perfect sense as to why she’d want to go on a blood-thirsty rampage and enact some revenge. Still, the idea is a bit far-fetched and wild to imagine.

3. Peter Pan: Neverland Nightmare

Image via Disney

Obviously when the chips are down and Wendy doesn’t want to follow Peter Pan to Neverland, it’s not the kind of decision that would make Pan very happy. Instead, he becomes a murderous deviant who, along with the Lost Boys, focus on a twisted world full of chaos, destruction, murder, and blood. The first two movies listed above are wacky, there’s absolutely no denying that, but this project is just downright ridiculous. But you’d better believe the horror community will still give this a watch just to witness its madness.

2. Bambi: The Reckoning

Image via Disney

Sweet little Bambi as a vengeful horror villain?! Now, that just feels downright asinine. But as foolish and pointless as this horror movie sounds on paper, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t completely intrigued to see how these spooky events actually unfold. Although, when you think about how Bambi felt as a young fawn, and watching the death of his mother… so, when you really think about it, it makes sense why he’d become a horror villain, but it’s still ridiculous to see it actually happen. But who knows, maybe it’ll actually surprise us all.

1. Mickey’s Mouse Trap

Image via Into Frame Productions

Without a doubt, this is the most ludicrous of them all. Sorry, not sorry. With the Mickey Mouse character officially entertaining public domain recently, it certainly didn’t take long before the idea of a slasher-inspired Mickey was pushed forward. Now, I’m not at all saying that this horror movie won’t be endlessly entertaining and out-of-this-world, but this truly is as ridiculous as you can get in regards to transforming Disney characters into blood-crazed killers. That being said, I’ll still be seated for the madness.

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Latest Marvel News: The MCU could be casting DC’s new Batman as its next Kang while Marvel’s box office woes continue from beyond the grave

How’s that famous The Dark Knight quote go? “You either a die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain.” Well, that might turn out to be eerily prophetic about the future of Marvel and DC if a rumored Kang casting comes about.

Speaking of Marvel and DC, the never-ending war between the kings of comic books wages on, but the MCU’s Distinguished Competition slipped in a surprising victory as the battle of 2023 drew to a close…

Aquaman 2 earning 120% of The Marvels‘ total earning in just two weeks is the MCU’s 2023 in a nutshell

Images via Warner Bros. Pictures/Marvel Studios

Who’d have thunk it? What with the downfall of the DCEU and all the Amber Heard drama, if you’d asked folks what they thought would be the biggest superhero movie bomb of 2023 last January they probably would’ve said Aquaman 2. And yet, against all the odds, the Jason Momoa stinker of a sequel has managed to swim past the total box office gross of The Marvels with ease. It’s just over two weeks into its theatrical run and it’s already earned $250 million worldwide, as opposed to the Brie Larson’s flick’s paltry $199 million cume. Marvel might suddenly be glad DC won’t be releasing another film until July 2025’s Superman: Legacy.

Rumor has it, Marvel could find Jonathan Majors’ replacement as Kang in DC’s latest Batman actor

Image via Marvel Studios

Take this with a fistful of salt, but the latest rumors on Marvel’s quest to find a new big bad for the Multiverse Saga, in the face of Jonathan Majors’ firing, indicate that they might be sticking with Kang after all and simply recasting the part. And the alleged top choice for the rebooted role is winning over fans in their legions: it’s Fear the Walking Dead‘s Colman Domingo. Funnily enough, the Emmy and Tony Award-winning star was just recently cast in his first ever superhero part — he’s voicing Batman in Spotify’s The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark podcast. At 20 years Majors’ senior, Domingo’s casting would also skirt the pesky canon issues with recasting the character. Basically, if Marvel isn’t taking this route already, it should start.

Does What If…?‘s season 2 ending tell us when and where God Loki will return?

Screencap via Marvel Studios/Disney Plus

There’s a lot to unpack in that final scene of What If…?‘s season 2 finale, which managed to cap Marvel’s 2023 on a higher note than The Marvels. Are the Watcher and Captain Carter going to team up to right wrongs across the multiverse? Is Peggy going to form her own Exiles team? And, most importantly, does that final shot of Yggdrasil from Loki‘s own season 2 finale suggest that God Loki will return after all, specifically in What If…? season 3? As less than ideal as things may be for the MCU right now, don’t forget that Marvel’s multiverse is becoming bigger and more intricate all the time.

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7 disturbing movies that make ‘Saltburn’ look like ‘Sesame Street’

Well, well, well. Look who just watched Saltburn on Prime Video and now they think they’re a big shot.

It’s a fair feeling to have. The 2023 psychological thriller is a real piece of work, and getting all the way through it probably makes you feel, if not unflappable, then super difficult to flap. Well we’ve got news for you, friend: You’ll flap. You’ll flap good and hard once you watch one of these movies that make Saltburn seem like Norman Rockwell’s home movies.

The Poughkeepsie Tapes

There’s something about found footage that peels back an extra layer of separation between the viewer and the film. The Poughkeepsie Tapes, like August Underground, takes the phenomenon even further, putting the audience behind the eyes of a monster. Watching this movie is the most uncomfortable you’ll feel on your couch this year, assuming that you don’t fracture your coccyx over the summer.

Funny Games

If The Poughkeepsie Tapes and August Underground bump up against the fourth wall, Funny Games – either the German-language original from 1997 or the American shot-for-shot remake from 10 years later – draws a little picture of you on it, then writes your name under it, then makes fun of the face that you’re making. If every other horror movie from the last 100 years was right, and man was the real monster all along, then Funny Games gets a little more specific and says that you, Steven, were the real real monster.

Goodnight Mommy

Even people who love kids have to admit that they are, from time to time, creepy and bad. The same goes for moms. For more on the potential creepiness of kids and moms, check out 2022’s Goodnight Mommy, a film that takes Naomi Watts’ capacity for screaming and really makes you question whether she’s using it appropriately. Double down by watching the even better original.

Hereditary

There are nearly 200,000 frames of footage in Hereditary, and most of them serve as their own individual explanations for why it’s considered one of the least adorable viewing experiences ever to get a wide release. Rather than go through each of them, we’ll just say this: You know that nauseous feeling you get when you think about sticking your head out of the car window, knowing that there’ll probably be something at face level that’ll spring up too quickly for you to notice and whip your gourd clean off? Anyway. Enjoy Hereditary.

Antichrist

No list of disturbing movies would be complete without a Lars von Trier entry, and the perennial favorite tends to be Antichrist, the film that he wrote while hospitalized with depression. It’s pretty much as good a way as you’re likely to find to start associating Willem Dafoe’s carnal lovemaking with the defenestration of a toddler.

Follow That Bird

Look, man. Not everything is disturbing to everyone. There’s a whole demographic out there made up of people who are too young to understand why it was weird that Oliver from Saltburn wanted to drink that bathwater so badly, or what a Sotheby’s auction is. 

Maybe that’s you. Maybe you’re between the ages of four and six, you just watched Saltburn with a group of adults who either misunderstood the premise, or thought you were more worldly than you actually are, and you want to watch a movie and feel the way that the grown ups did when they watched Barry Keoghan do stuff. If so, congratulations on finding this article, and on your above-average ability to sound out the name “Keoghan” at your age.

Check out Follow That Bird. It’s about a pair of real knuckleheads kidnapping Big Bird and forcing him to perform songs for them. Big Bird gets so sad from missing his friends, his feathers turn blue. There’s a chance that watching that happen will mess you up permanently, causing flashbacks to pop up in your head at strange times in the future, like when you’re writing a listicle about disturbing movies in your 30s. For a double feature, watch the scene from The Brave Little Toaster where everybody thinks they’re about to die. Sure, you’ll spend most of your teenage years listening to The Smiths, but at least you’ll never have to wonder why.

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The 10 horror movies we’re most excited about seeing in 2024

New year, a new pulse-pounding collection of upcoming horror hits to relish in this year. And while 2023 was undoubtedly a roaring period for the horror genre and completely shifted its entire landscape in a positive way, 2024 surely has the power to uplift the spooky realm to fresh-faced heights.

For starters, the horror genre is set to unfold a monumental red carpet of sequels and prequels that will provide origin stories and further information about particular franchises. So while updated installments in long-standing franchises such as Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street might not happen this calendar year, the future is certainly bright thanks to this eye-popping lineup of intriguing horror projects.

Nevertheless, it’s an exciting time to be alive (and to be a die-hard horror fan). So, let’s dive in and explore the 10 horror movies we’re most excited for in 2024. Oh, and we’ll definitely be looking out for newer Blumhouse projects featuring Matthew Lillard.

Night Swim

Set to release this week, this spine-tingling collaboration between James Wan and Jason Blum will deliver a unique concept that has otherwise been lacking in the genre. With a premise centered around a family who move into a new house and soon discover their backyard swimming pool is haunted by an ominous presence, it’s no surprise that the horror community is genuinely excited to witness this film.

Imaginary

It’s hard to compete with the overall allure of haunted dolls in horror — especially with the possession sub-genre being as sought-after as it always has been since the beginning. However, notable possessed dolls such as M3GAN and Chucky will have to move aside for Chauncey — an unsettling haunted teddy bear who befriends a young girl and quickly shifts into something sinister and more evil than just a simple toy.

MaXXXine

Considering the ever-present success happening in Ti West’s horror movies as of late, it makes perfect sense as to why the third film in his bone-chilling trilogy is set to release at some point this year. All eyes are fully on West’s final chapter — which will focus on the Maxine character that debuted in West’s 2022 slasher, X. Expectations are high, of course, and with the run that West has been on as of late, it’s almost guaranteed that those same expectations will be met.

Return to Silent Hill

Image via Konami

You’d be hard pressed to find a singular horror fanatic who hasn’t at least heard of Silent Hill — especially those passionate gamers out there who have followed the thrilling narrative from the beginning. As influential and impactful as the 2006 horror flick truly is, there’s absolutely no denying that an updated version is so drastically needed to restart interest back into the film series. No formal release date has been given yet, but we’re certainly in for a horrific surprise.

The Strangers: Chapter 1

Without a doubt, 2008’s The Strangers absolutely terrified moviegoers and set the horror community ablaze by furthering the popularity of the home invasion sub-genre. Truth be told, there’s nothing scarier in horror than movies that portray events that could actually take place in real life. Luckily, this 2024 update is going to offer a fresh-faced perspective on the narrative — and likely kickstart a new wave of sequels.

A Quiet Place: Day One

Image via Paramount Pictures

Ever since the first movie released in 2018, A Quiet Place has become a popular film series that focuses on events that take place during a frightening post-apocalyptic world. Featuring John Krasinski and Emily Blount at the center of the series’ success, the upcoming horror chapter will serve as a spinoff sequel that will likely debut a fresh cast of characters and perhaps detail how exactly the world became this devastating in the first place.

Alien: Romulus

Image via 20th Century Studios

It would be a complete understatement to say that one of the most iconic horror franchises of all time was due for a monumental new entry. And when you’ve got the fantastic Fede Álvarez in the director’s chair, it’s damn near a guarantee that the newest installment in the Alien series will be one to remember. We’ll sadly have to wait until August to witness the sci-fi extravaganza on the big screen, but the project will surely be worth the long wait.

Smile 2

Image via Paramount

Without question, Parker Finn’s directorial debut hit a massive stride of success with Smile — a pulse-pounding horror tale centering around a bizarre supernatural curse passed between people after witnessing a horrid death. So after grossing over $200 million worldwide, it hardly comes as a major surprise that the trigger is being pulled on a face-melting sequel. We’ll just have to wait and see if the follow-up is as deeply unsettling as the first.

Terrifier 3

One of the most anticipated horror movies of the year arguably would be Damien Leone’s Terrifier 3. Without a doubt, the franchise’s fear-inducing villain Art the Clown has become a cultural icon and has helped to completely shift the horror landscape. As a result, the demand for more Terrifier films is as high as it’s ever been before. Luckily, Leone is delivering a memorable piece of holiday horror when his third Terrifier chapter releases towards the end of this year. We prefer to sit back and think of it as an early Christmas present, to be honest.

Nosferatu

Image via Prana Film

Forget about just 2024, folks — it might be worth noting that the Nosferatu reboot is one of the most anticipated horror movies in years. Then again, with influential horror auteur Robert Eggers spearheading the project, it makes total sense as to why there’s so much attention and praise surrounding the movie already. Based on the iconic vampire film from the 1920s, the upcoming remake features a star-studded cast and is surely set to deliver a modern-day cauldron of spooks and scares. We’re definitely ready for this one.

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‘Mickey’s Mouse Trap’ release window, trailer, and more

The most famous mouse of all time is coming back, but not for the type of fun we’re used to. So get a bowl of popcorn, turn off the lights, and ready yourself for Mickey’s Mouse Trap.

In this horror comedy film, viewers will see their childhood hero like they never have before. Or, well, more accurately, they’ll see someone impersonating the iconic character and attacking others, which also isn’t a very pleasant experience. Regardless, the film is bound to attract attention, especially from those who love to see twisted versions of beloved cartoon characters.

After The Mean One and Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, one might’ve thought that people would start getting tired of this type of film, but they’d be dead wrong. The theory that a bloody Mickey Mouse movie was coming our way was proven true as soon as the character became public domain, with the release of a teaser trailer announcing the project. Let’s just hope that Mickey’s Mouse Trap doesn’t turn out to be a disaster on the level of Blood and Honey.

What is Mickey’s Mouse Trap about and who is in it?

Directed by Jamie Bailey, Mickey’s Mouse Trap will follow the birthday night of Alex, who is stuck working a late shift at an amusement arcade. Her friends decide to surprise her there, however, their plans go down the drain when a mysterious person in a Mickey Mouse costume starts having a bit too much fun. The kind of fun you don’t want to be involved in, of course.

Giving life to this slasher action we’ll have folks such as Callum Sywyk, Allegra Nocita, Ben Harris, Damir Kovic, Mackenzie Mills, Nick Biskupek, and Simon Phillips, who will be in the Mickey costume. Some of these names may be familiar to you, but if not, you may recognize some actors’ faces from other projects when you see them on the screen. This isn’t their first rodeo, after all.

When is Mickey’s Mouse Trap coming out?

Image via Into Frame Productions

At the time of writing, an exact release date for the film has not been announced, however, its producers have a time frame in mind. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the idea is to have Mickey’s Mouse Trap premiere in March 2024, meaning that horror enthusiasts won’t have to wait too long for it.

Of course, it’s also worth remembering that this release window isn’t set in stone, and may change depending on how postproduction goes. Movies get delayed all the time, so we should always be prepared for that to happen. The people involved in the project better hurry up, though, as we never know when another childhood favorite may hit the mainstream in a horrific new movie.

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The 10 best movies like ‘Fight Club’

The critically acclaimed Fight Club, starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Jared Leto, turns 25 in 2024.

As one of the past thirty years’ most influential, confusing, and intriguing films, David Fincher’s Fight Club has become a cult classic. So, here’s a list of ten movies that will make you feel like you’re watching Fight Club for the very first time all over again. Or, if you want the actual experience, you can watch the actual movie all over again on Hulu.

Inception

If you’re looking for something confusing and intriguing, look no further than Inception. The movie follows a thief who can steal information from other people’s consciousness. The movie plays between dreams in reality in a way that is reminiscent of Fight Club‘s haze. The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Cillian Murphy and is available to watch for free on Sling TV.

Whiplash

Whiplash is a little more based in reality than a lot of these other movies, but what it lacks in delusion it makes up for in toxic masculinity. The Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons movie follows a young drummer pushed to his limits by his strict instructor. The ruthless, and sometimes violent, teaching methods spiral the young musician into obsession as he sacrifices everything to achieve his dreams. The Oscar-winning 2014 film is available to stream on Netflix.

Split

Anya Taylor-Joy, James McAvoy, and Haley Lu Richardson star in this psychological horror film about a group of teenage girls kidnapped by a man with 24 personalities, only 23 of whom he and his psychiatrist are aware of. As the young women attempt to befriend their kidnapper’s more amicable personalities, the final and most terrifying attempts to overtake them all.

Split takes the split-personality components of Fight Club to a new and even more twisted level. The 2016 film is available to rent on YouTube, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime Video.

Memento

Memento is fascinating because, like Fight Club, no one ever really knows what’s going on, not even the main character. Guy Pearce and Carrie-Anne Moss star in the 2000 thriller about a man with severe memory loss who is attempting to track down his wife’s murderer. He must rely on clues that he has left for himself to figure out where he is going and why before his memory resets all over again. The movie is available to watch for free on YouTube and Tubi.

American Psycho

Christian Bale’s American Psycho follows a man who, like the main character in Fight Club, lives two very different lives, although Bale’s character is aware of his own Jekyll and Hyde tendencies. The movie takes place in the late 80s and follows a handsome and successful investment banker who lives a second life as a gruesome murderer. The mystery/slasher film also stars Jared Leto, Reese Witherspoon, and Willem Dafoe and is available to stream on Peacock.

Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver‘s main character is also a struggling insomniac who has a less-than-firm grasp on reality. Robert DeNiro plays a New York City taxi driver who dreams of saving the world by murdering a presidential candidate and rescuing a young prostitute. His inability to differentiate between delusion and reality sets him on a violent mission to make the city better. The movie also stars Cybill Shepard and Jodie Foster and is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, and Apple TV.

Joker

This Oscar-winning thriller follows DC Comics’s Joker as he descends into madness and becomes the iconic comic-book villain. Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck plays a failed comedian with mental health issues pushed over the edge into violence. The movie also features Robert De Niro, Frances Conroy, and Zazie Beetz. The critically acclaimed movie is available to stream on Max, YouTube, and Hulu.

Black Swan

For some reason, a lot of the movies portraying some sort of descent into madness are all male-lead films, but fear not women can lose their grip on reality too. In Black Swan Natalie Portman plays a dedicated ballerina whose goal to become the prima ballerina in her company’s production of Swan Lake leads to a fierce rivalry with a newcomer and a descent into a twisted friendship.

The Oscar-winning movie experiments with hallucination, delusion, and paranoia in the same way as Fight Club. It also stars Mila Kunis, Winona Ryder, and Vincent Cassel and is available to stream on Netflix.

The Machinist

Insomnia, paranoia, and mistaken identity, what more could you want? Like Fight Club, The Machinist follows a struggling insomniac whose mental health issues and guilt lead him to confuse reality with delusion.

Christian Bale plays a factory worker who develops a second persona on which to blame all of his mistakes and guilt. Jennifer Jason Leigh and John Sharian star alongside Bale in the 2004 thriller. It is available to stream on MGM Plus and Paramount Plus.

Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho originates all of the elements viewers love about Fight Club. The 1960 movie tells the story of a creepy taxidermist with an alternative murderous personality. The gruesome but fascinating film stars Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh and is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, and Apple TV.

These are some pretty intense films, so maybe watch them during daylight surrounded by friends if you are scared easily. If not, then feel free to watch psychological thriller after psychological thriller to your little heart’s content. You probably won’t descend into madness alongside the characters but just in case, when it gets to be too intense, maybe check out the most calming movies of all time.

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The best Milana Vayntrub movies and TV shows, ranked

Like many aspiring performers living in LA, Milana Vayntrub made the hard choice and got a job at AT&T to cover the bills. Also like most aspiring performers living in LA, it would become the job that would define the majority of her career.

The key difference being that while most folks in that position spend the rest of their lives getting reprimanded by a guy named Kenny for not pushing accessories hard enough, Vayntrub became the face of the company, playing the puckishly adorable Lily in AT&T’s ads from 2013 to 2016, and again from 2020 onward.

Her killer comedic timing and Pixar character eye-to-face ratio weren’t lost on Hollywood either. Here are a few of her best performances that didn’t include a polo shirt with a communications company’s logo stitched to the front.

This is Us

Eight episodes. One season. In her brief but memorable role as playwright Sloane Sandburg on This is Us, Milana Vayntrub proved that she was superior to other, more permanent characters on the show, if not through staying power, then thanks to her implied ability to work a slow cooker without burning to death.

Key & Peele

If you know, you know. Key & Peele’s “Sexy Vampire” sketch took every trope from 50 years of overly grindy, leather-clad vampire movies and deconstructed them in four and a half minutes. Vayntrub’s small but significant role in this classic moment in sketch comedy history doesn’t get enough credit.

Other Space

There’s a good chance that you don’t remember this, and that you’re young enough that you only remember Yahoo! as the site that aggregates other sites’ articles and used to crowdsource the worst advice imaginable. But for a minute there, Yahoo! was giving Google a run for its money as the world’s favorite search engine. Ask Jeeves was also still in the mix. It was a different time. 

When beating Google stopped looking like a solid bet, Yahoo! went through an identity crisis, trying to be all sorts of things. For a brief, glorious moment, it tried to be a television studio. The most famous thing to come out of this was a prophesied sixth season of Community. The second most famous thing, by a wide stretch, was Other Space.

And it’s too bad. Other Space was a lot of fun. Created by Paul Feig, it was an episodic sci-fi comedy that cast Milana Vayntrub as Tina, a deeply unqualified and frequently violent navigator on an ill-fated starship. It’s a fun, bleak sitcom, stacked with spectacular talent. Like so many largely-forgotten stories canceled before their time, you can watch the whole thing on YouTube now.

The MCU, sort of, then not really, then sort of some more

It’s not self love so much as character casting appreciation. If I weren’t professionally playing Doreen, it’d still be dressing as her, wishing I could be her best friend. https://t.co/FQ8mO0k649

— Milana Vayntrub (@MintMilana) July 22, 2018

Not that long ago, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was fractured – not by cosmic and unknowable powers, but by interdepartmental temper tantrums between the company’s film and television divisions. The TV side of the business pounded out property after property, generally without bothering to work their stories into the larger universe. It’s how you got stuff like Inhumans and that Runaways series that you forgot about coming out the same year as Spider-Man: Homecoming and Thor: Ragnarok. Hulu, FX, FXX, Netflix, and ABC all got their own slices of the MCU. 

And so did Freeform. Freeform got its own pretty forgettable Marvel series, cementing its place in television history as the network that basically only did that. Which is a shame, because for a hot minute, they almost made a show that seemed kind of rad. 

In 2017, Milana Vayntrub joined a powerhouse cast that included Keith David and Calum Worthy in New Warriors, an MCU comedy series that honestly? Looked kind of rad. It would have seen Vayntrub playing Squirrel Girl, the fan-favorite character who does exactly what you’re imagining, but well enough to beat Galactus. Behind-the-scenes photos that have come out since the show was unceremoniously shelved in a pre-Batgirl Batgirling make it look like a goofy, faithful adaptation of one of Marvel’s most colorful teams. While we’ll likely never see an episode of the show proper, Vayntrub stuck the landing, hanging onto the Squirrel Girl role as a voice actor across the Marvel Rising series of animated shorts.

Werewolves Within

Live-action video game adaptations spent decades as Hollywood’s third rail. Today, they’re, you know. Still that, mostly. Like, no matter how much you liked Five Nights at Freddy’s, it’s still an inescapable fact that Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City came out less than two years before it. 

But then there was Werewolves Within, the feature-length take on the Red Storm Entertainment game of the same name. Written by UCB’s Mishna Wolff and directed by Dropout’s own Josh Ruben, Werewolves Within sees Vayntrub as a friendly mail carrier in a town suffering from a severe lycanthrope crisis. Part The Monsters are Due on Maple Street, part gore fest comedy, it became the best-rated video game movie of all time. Yes, even including Angry Birds.

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