Mickey 17 review – two Robert Pattinsons for the price of one in Bong Joon-ho’s acidly funny sci-fi satire

Pattinson plays a hapless space explorer replicated for further hazardous duties every time he dies in the South Korean director’s timely follow-up to Parasite

We can only speculate about the reasons behind Warner Bros’ decision to delay the release of Mickey 17 for a full year (it was originally scheduled to hit cinemas in March 2024). A science-fiction satire with the tantalising prospect of Robert Pattinson in a dual role, South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s follow-up to his 2020 best picture Oscar winner, Parasite, has been at the top of most film fans’ need-to-see list since it was announced. The date shift sparked alarm and speculation that the director’s consistently high standards might have slipped. In fact, while Mickey 17 isn’t in the same elevated league as Parasite, it’s a lot of fun. What’s more, the delay has made the picture, with its themes of genetic “purity” and an on-the-nose Donald Trump parody courtesy of Mark Ruffalo’s performance as politician turned space coloniser Kenneth Marshall, feel rather more uncomfortably timely. Whether this was the intention is uncertain: given Hollywood’s current reluctance to incur the wrath of the White House, it seems unlikely.

The English-language picture, adapted from Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel Mickey7, represents Bong in brute-force Okja mode rather than the elegant, refined savagery of Parasite. This is not subtle film-making, but then again these are not especially subtle times. The story of a vain, populist leader obsessed with making great television; his followers with their slogan-daubed red hats and the zealot-like fervour of fully signed-up members of a personality cult – it all feels like a bit of a blunt weapon. But a blunt weapon can still do a lot of damage: a pivotal scene in which Naomi Ackie delivers a profanity-laden onslaught of truth to power is as galvanising as anything I’ve seen in the cinema so far this year.

Central to the action is what’s described as the “colony project”. The year is 2054, and huge space vessels full of eager volunteers are leaving a blighted Earth and venturing into the outer reaches of the galaxy to set up new human colonies. “A pure, white planet full of superior people,” is Marshall’s unambiguously fascist ambition for his mission, which is funded and supported by a supremely dodgy religious organisation.

Marshall’s vision categorically doesn’t include Mickey (Pattinson), who, as an “Expendable”, belongs to an underclass of disposable humans. His biometric data and memories have been uploaded; each time he dies, Mickey is reprinted and dispatched to carry out the kind of jobs other crew members wouldn’t risk doing. He gets to be a human sponge to test the effects of cosmic radiation (“How long until your skin starts to burn? … how long until you go blind?”); he’s requisitioned as a sentient petri dish used to develop a vaccine that can combat the airborne virus in the atmosphere of the new host planet, Niflheim. Mickey’s mumbled, barely articulate narration (Pattinson’s line readings are enjoyably off-kilter), together with the fact that he didn’t bother to read the small print of his job description, establish him as a likable doofus who, unlike many of the highly skilled crew members on the mission, is clearly no rocket scientist.

But even a dunce such as Mickey realises the seriousness of the situation when his 17th iteration, Mickey 17, is believed to have died after falling into an ice ravine on Niflheim and a new version, Mickey 18, is printed. The problem is that Mickey 17 survived, thanks to the intervention of the native species on the planet – a kind of giant woodlouse/guinea pig with face tentacles. Now there are two Mickeys out there, and Mickey 18 seems intent on murdering his predecessor. They look identical, but Pattinson’s expressive physicality is smartly used: 17 is gauche, with a cowed, kicked-puppy vulnerability; 18 is all hard edges and glinting grudges. To further complicate matters, the two Mickeys find themselves in competition over their girlfriend, Nasha (Ackie). The setup is superficially reminiscent of the premise of Duncan Jones’s Moon, but with the melancholy and angst replaced by violence, high-strength synthetic pharmaceuticals, sex and caustic comedy.

For the most part it works well. I’m not convinced that a running joke about the quest for the perfect sauce by Marshall’s wife, Ylfa (Toni Collette), is strong enough to warrant the weight it’s given in the story. Elsewhere, though, there’s much to admire. The production design is superb. A scene in the colony project recruitment building on Earth looks like something from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis; the crystalline sapphire blues of the Niflheim ice caves practically sing from the screen. And Bong’s peerless storytelling instincts are on display, deftly navigating a tangled nonlinear structure and making light work of the picture’s hefty two-and-a-quarter-hour running time.

The Future of World-Building at Disney Panel From SXSW: Everything Announced

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SXSW’s The Future of World-building at Disney Panel was filled with exciting details and teases of the future of Disney Parks, including how The Mandalorian and Grogu will be joining a new mission aboard Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run, that Imagineers will need to create a new type of ride vehicle with emotion for Magic Kingdom’s Cars ride, and a tease of what the load area and lift off will look like for the new Monsters, Inc. attraction.

Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro and Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman led the festivities and discussed what their teams are working on and how beneficial it is when they collaborate for exciting new experiences at Disney Parks.

There was a ton discussed, and we’ve gathered all the biggest announcements and reveals below!

The Mandalorian and Grogu Will Join Smuggler’s Run in a New Mission at the Launch of The Mandalorian & Grogu Film

While we knew The Mandalorian and Grogu would be part of a new story on Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run at Walt Disney World and Disneyland, Disney confirmed the new experience would debut alongside The Mandalorian & Grogu movie on May 22, 2026.

The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau and Imagineers Leslie Evans and Asa Kalama shared a bit more about the upcoming new story and revealed some concept art of locations that should excite fans of that galaxy far, far away. The images, which you can see below, include a Jawa’s Sandcrawler on Tatooine, the Millennium Falcon and Mando’s Razor Crest flying toward Cloud City on Bespin, and even a tease of visit to the wreckage of the second Death Star above Endor.

“This isn’t going to retell what happens in the movie – it’s more like participating in something that’s happening just off-camera from what you see in the film,” Favreau explained.

Imagineers captured scenes for this new story from the set of The Mandalorian & Grogu, meaning it should feel very authentic when it goes live.

In addition, it was also revealed that the wonderful BDX droids that have been seen at Disneyland will soon be making their way to Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris. There will even be a new variant as an Anzellan (like Babu Frik!) named Otto will sometimes appear on a BDX that needs a little tune up.

Oh, and if that wasn’t enough BDX goodness for you, the team shared these droids will be making an appearance in The Mandalorian & Grogu.

Here’s a Sneak Peak at the Load Area and Lift Off of the New Monsters, Inc. Attraction at Disney World

Monsters, Inc. Land is coming soon to Disney World’s Hollywood Studios and it will include an exciting new themed roller coaster that will be Disney Park’s first-ever suspended coaster and its first with a vertical lift.

This new attraction aims to give guests the dream-come-true moment of soaring through Monsters, Inc.’s door vault and Disney shared a first look at the load area and how it should set the tone very well of what’s to come.

We still have much to learn about this new attraction and the land it will live in, but this is an exciting tease nonetheless.

Pixar and Imagineering Reveal a New Type of Ride Vehicle Had to Be Made for Magic Kingdom’s Upcoming Cars Attraction

Pixar Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter and Imagineer Michael Hundgen shared new details about the upcoming Cars attraction that will be part of the new Cars-themed land that is currently in development at Magic Kingdom.

“Our primary goal is creating an emotional experience for our guests,” Hundgen said. “For this Cars attraction, we need to invent a new type of ride vehicle. No one builds these in a factory because it has to do so much more than just carrying you from one place to another. We have to create a car that conveys a feeling when you ride in it.”

The team needed some real-world data to help in their research so they went to the Arizona desert to ride in an off-road vehicle and take off over rocky terrain. This new ride doesn’t take place in Radiator Springs, but instead it will be a thrilling rally race through the mountains, so they want it to feel just right.

From there, they worked with a motocross company to build a dirt track of their own to race around and used that to develop what will eventually be the ride vehicle.

“We’re using a customized production vehicle,” Hundgen continued. “It has sensors all over it, and we’re taking it for test drives on our dirt track to gather data on how the vehicle responds to different terrain. This is where we turn that feeling we want into real-world engineering.”

These vehicles will also get some Disney and Pixar magic thrown in as each car will have its own personality, name, and number.

Robert Downey Jr. Stops by Disney’s SXSW Panel to Help Share More About the New Avengers Campus Attractions

Disneyland’s Avengers Campus is getting two new attractions, including one called Avengers Infinity Defense where guests will team up with members of the Avengers to take on King Thanos across multiple worlds. However, the second one was the star of Disney’s SXSW panel as Robert Downey Jr. himself stopped by to share new details about it.

It’s been previously revealed that Downey Jr. would be returning as Tony Stark for Avengers Campus’ Stark Flight Lab, an attraction that will take guests into Tony’s workshop and allow them to experience some of the new tech he’s been working on.

Downey Jr. said these new experiences are “the living embodiment of the Stark Enterprises mission statement.”

“The curiosity, the passion, the inventiveness, the occasional flair for the dramatic, most of all a drive to put something good out into the world to make life better, at the minimum more fun by a mile, ” Downey continued. “It’s the privilege of a lifetime to be invited to participate.”

As for the ride itself, guests will sit in “gyro-kinetic pods” and will eventually be grabbed by a giant robot arm who will help them make “several high-speed maneuvers inspired by Iron Man and some other Avengers.”

“Transferring from a track to a robot arm and then back again – nothing like this has ever been done before in a theme park, and we’re so excited about it,” Chief Creative Officer for Walt Disney Imagineering Bruce Vaughn explained. “Usually, we hide all the tech behind the scenes so you can focus on the story. Here, the tech IS the story, so we’re putting it front and center.”

One of they ways Imagineering is making the tech the star of this attraction is the focus on that robotic arm, which actually takes heavy inspiration from Tony Stark’s little robotic friend, DUM-E. The team enlisted the help of dancers and motion capture to help make these robots feel as real as possible.

For more from the world of Disney, check out our 75th Anniversary Retrospective for Cinderella, how Disneyland will be celebrating its 70th anniversary, and everything else announced at D23’s big Disney Experiences Showcase.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.

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Unpacking All the Juicy Details of ‘Mickey 17’

Mickey 17 is the eighth feature film by director Bong Joon-Ho, following his Best Picture and Palme d’Or-winning thriller Parasite in 2019. Needless to say, expectations for Mickey 17 have been high, only exacerbated by the film’s star-studded cast, which includes the likes of Robert Pattinson, Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, and more. If the movie’s affiliates were not enough to generate invariable curiosity and hype, fans felt like they were seeing quadruple when the release date of Mickey 17 was changed four times before finally landing on March 7, 2025. While it was revealed in early promos that the sci-fi plot involved “human reprints” and roly-poly-type aliens, most of the details were kept under wraps.

Well, Mickey 17 has finally arrived after premiering to considerable praise at the International Berlin Film Festival last month. In typical Joon-Ho style, it is jam-packed with exciting twists and salient social commentary. There’s a lot to unpack about Mickey 17, but to start, here’s how to make sense of the ending and tie it back to the film’s larger messaging (as long as you promise not to copy us).

Mickey 17 Not Yet Rated Sci-Fi Release Date March 25, 2025 Director Bong Joon-ho Writers Bong Joon-ho Cast See All Robert Pattinson Naomi Ackie Steven Yeun Toni Collette

Powered by Expand Collapse Oh Mickey, You’re So Not Fine?

The year is 2054. Mickey Barnes (Pattinson) decides to become an “Expendable” after he and his best friend, Timo (Yeun), get into life-threatening trouble with a loan shark. Expendables are essentially human lab rats. Equipped with the technology to regenerate those who have died with a sort of biological-printer, divisive and eccentric politician Kenneth Marshall (Ruffalo) funds a space colony where scientists run tests on these Expendables. Having become a human rights issue, it is now illegal to create or run tests on Expendables on earth. Many people and avid supporters of Marshall live on this spaceship, which is ultimately setting out to colonize a planet called Nilfheim and establish a “pure” society.

Thus, in pursuit of that society and “science,” Mickey is killed time and time again on the spaceship and on different planets in gruesome ways: he is exposed to lethal viruses and radiation, dropped into pits of fire, and more. The only thing that makes his (literally) painful existence worthwhile is the connection he feels with Nasha (Ackie) , a security agent who also lives on the ship. The two fall deeply in love despite the regimented nature of the ship, including the attempted rationing of their food intake and sexual activity.

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Now, Mickey is on his 17th life (hence, Mickey 17). When they landed on Nilfheim, an alien species of giant bugs on the planet prevented full colonization and were indirectly responsible for the death of an agent. Mickey 17 is consequently assigned to collect data on those space bugs, deemed “creepers” by Marshall. They are super cute, mind you. Mickey 17 fully expects his next death to come when he is face to face with the mother creeper. However, when Mickey wakes up disoriented, the creepers are actually lifting him to safety.

However, when Mickey 17 returns to the ship, he finds Mickey 18 in his room. Turns out that the crew had already regenerated him, assuming Mickey 17 had died. This is a big problem, because “multiples”, as the film calls them, are strictly against protocol following a past murderous incident. Mickey 17 and Mickey 18, thus, immediately turn on each other, knowing that if they are both found, they will be killed.

The two Mickeys have disparate personalities. While 17 is gentle-mannered and tries to negotiate, 18 is aggressive and only wants to fight to the death. When their brawl is interrupted, 18 accompanies Nasha back to her quarters, much to 17’s chagrin. 17, meanwhile, is forced to attend a special dinner with Marshall and his sauce-obsessed wife, Ylfa (Collette), where he is given steak that contains poisonous bacteria for yet another trial, causing him to grow incredibly ill and beg for his life. Mickey 17 returns to his room, and when 18 finds out what happened at the dinner, he sets out to kill Marshall.

Clones, Creepers, Corruption, Oh My!

Nasha and Mickey 17 race to stop 18, who intends to shoot Marshall while he gives a speech to adoring fans. Marshall is unveiling his new shiny Nilfheim rock, which he plans to use for some greedy evil purpose. Unexpectedly, creepers emerge from the rock, and pandemonium erupts. A Marshall supporter tackles Mickey 18 and his gun to the ground, and Nasha and Mickey 17 end up entangled in the mess. The scientists manage to bag one baby creeper for research and the crowd opens fire on another baby creeper, killing it.

The Mickeys are discovered as multiples, and they and Nasha are arrested. Soon, a swarm of creepers starts to surround the ship as the kidnapped baby creeper calls out to them. Marshall intends to extinguish the creepers with the same toxic gas that was tested on Mickey. From their cells, crucially, Mickey 17 and Nasha realize that the creepers must be non-violent creatures.

Marshall and Ylfa decide to allow Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 to venture out into a raging snowstorm to compete for their lives. Whoever gets the most creeper tails wins. Instead, Mickey 17 takes the opportunity to warn the mother creeper (who is hovering near the ship) using a new translation device. She tells Mickey 17 that she and the creepers are there because they are upset about the death of her son, and if her other baby dies (the one they have for research), they will emit a high-pitched sound that will make the entire human race’s brains and eyeballs explode.

Mickey 17 sends a message to Nasha, and she manages to save the baby creeper and deliver it to the mother. Marshall, angered by the apparent conversation Mickey 17 seems to be having with an alien, decides to go out into the storm himself. Mickey 18 seizes the opportunity to attack Marshall, detonating a bomb on his chest that kills them both.

Ending Explained: Mickey’s Dream

Six months later, Nasha has become a councilperson for the colony. Ylfa was reported to have died the day after Marshall. Nasha and Mickey 17 have made progress toward the termination of the Expendables program. Everyone gathers for a ceremony in which they will officially destroy the printer they used to create Expendables. As Mickey 17 listens to Nasha give a speech, he dozes off and dreams that Ylfa has been regenerated and is using the printing machine to regenerate Marshall. As she does, she spills indeterminate red “sauce” all over the place, and begs Mickey 17 to taste it. She refuses to divulge what is in the sauce. Then, just before he wakes up, it is revealed that Ylfa has slit her wrists and heavily implied the sauce was blood. When Mickey 17 wakes up, all of his loved ones encourage him to press the button that will blow up the machine . It bursts into flames.

Mickey 17 is overwhelmingly topical and rich with subtext. Of course, that does not prevent it from being darkly hilarious or a ton of fun, a balance that Joon-Ho has always mastered with grace. When it comes to explaining Mickey 17’s ending, however, and scenes like Mickey’s dream, there is a lot to say. Let us start with the “sauciest” element. It is no secret that Mickey 17 is a blatant satire of the current political landscape, particularly of American politics and colonialism. Marshall is a very obvious caricature of a certain political figure, and much of the space technology aspect of the film echoes current goings-on. There is a smorgasbord of titillating themes within Mickey 17 to explore and discover, but on just a first watch, it reads as a take-down of the disposability of human capital. Mickey 17 is also equal parts about the environment, capitalism, white supremacy, and more. On top of all of that, it’s deeply silly. Film fanatics may have caught the Wilhelm scream , for example. All this goes to say, you could spend hours unpacking just this short but dense dream sequence between Ylfa and Mickey, which contains hints of all of these themes.

It is important to remember that Mickey, as a character, harbors a lot of guilt over the death of his mother, which he believes to be his fault because he pressed a red button during a car ride. At the end, the detonation that will destroy the printer is on the other side of a red button. In the moments before he is faced with the daunting task of pressing this button, he has this dream. Why does he dream about Ylfa and Marshall? Perhaps it is because they were the source of so much unimaginable pain for him for so many years. Possibly, a part of him is scared that such a powerful monolith of political power ( one that is backed by crazed followers in red hats ) could ever really be gone, even if they do destroy the one thing that could give them another life. Likely, he is most scared someone just like him will come along. There is even a chance that the mild-mannered Mickey, after everything, feels a degree of regret.

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Whatever the reason may be, the sauce that Ylfa offers Mickey clearly serves as a symbol of class and the disregard for her own pain. Throughout Mickey 17, Ylfa is constantly referencing her sauces as if they are the utmost delicacy. At one point, she makes a sauce out of a baby creeper’s tail. She states that it would be an honor for Mickey to try her blood sauce. Ylfa and her husband care much more about their enjoyment, wealth, and consumption than they do other living things. With no regard for another creature’s pain, the sauces tie very closely to Mickey 17’s points about the exploitation of life in medical trials, greed, and colonialization. Mickey has to confront this inner demon first, but then, reminded, he is free to push that red button.

“Mickey Barnes”

The last visual on screen before the credits roll is the changing of a title card that reads “Mickey 17” to one that reads “Mickey Barnes”. By demolishing the human printer, Mickey reclaims his autonomy not as “expendable”, but as a mortal, singular human being. He is not the 17th version of himself anymore , but simply Mickey with all of his trauma, insight, and memories. This is one last little bit of commentary on just how non-expendable human life and human workers are, by removing the dehumanizing digits and replacing them with his last name. Needless to say, Joon-Ho has done it again. And again. And again.

Mickey 17 is now playing in theaters everywhere.

Novocaine’s Debut Rotten Tomatoes Score Continues a Trend for The Boys Star Jack Quaid

This article covers a developing story. Continue to check back with us as we will be adding more information as it becomes available.

The debut score for Novocaine on Rotten Tomatoes has been revealed. It continues a positive trend for Jack Quaid (The Boys), who stars in the lead role.

With its early reviews from critics ahead of its wide release on March 14, Novocaine has been given an approval rating of 91% on Rotten Tomatoes. The strong score is in line with other recent film releases featuring the actor. Earlier this year, Quaid co-starred alongside Sophie Thatcher in the horror thriller Companion, a movie that holds a Certified Fresh score of 94%. Quaid was last seen on the big screen in 2023 with his role in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, the Oscar-winning blockbuster that has an approval rating of 93%. That year, he also had a voice role in the animated hit Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which is Certified Fresh at 95%.

I Saw Mickey 17 In 4DX, And There Are Three Scenes I Really Need To Talk About

Greetings, Premium Format Enthusiasts! Yes, things look a little different around here, as I’m now experimenting a bit with CinemaBlend’s To 3D/4DX content lab. And what better movie to use as a guinea pig than writer/director Bong Joon-ho’s 2025 movie schedule release Mickey 17!

Rather than give you the full rundown of what makes this 4DX-perience tick, I’ll be talking about a couple scenes that I thought utilized the format in an impressive way. The usual rules apply though, as if you want to know about this flick as a purely cinematic experience, you’ll need to check out the Mickey 17 review. What we’ll do here is examine whether this trip to Niflheim is worth the extra cash or if the 4DX version is expendable. I won’t spoil too much about the movie, but I must somewhat describe the scenes I’m about to highlight with some detail. So, without further ado, let’s blast off!

Mickey 17’s Unfortunate Dinner Party Makes Great Use Of The Motion Feature

Oh, poor Mickey 17 (Robert Pattinson). Cloned from Mickey Barnes, a man who feels like a cross between Eeyore and Fry from Futurama, his thankless taks is to do the jobs that could get a person killed. Which leads to the first highlighted scene from the aforementioned film’s 4DX release, in which the titular character is invited to dinner with corrupt politician/mission commander Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and his wife, Ylfa (Toni Collette).

After being fed a synthetic steak juiced up by growth hormones, Mickey starts to have a fatal allergic reaction. While the character is stumbling through Marshall’s dining room in the throes of death, the motion enhanced seating in 4DX lets audiences feel the poor guy’s supposedly final moments. Of course, he doesn’t quite bite it, thanks to an experimental painkiller.

However, if you were wondering if Mark Ruffalo’s remarks on his villainous role were hyperbole, they were not – as this scene also includes the crazed man putting a gun to poor 17’s head. That may or may not have triggered the vibrations on the seats but, to be totally honest, I can’t remember. Seeing as poor Mickey 17 had a gun to his head, that’s the sort of thing an audience member worries about when they like a character.

A Chaotic Scene With A Creeper Baby Gets Wild

Fun fact: those interesting looking creatures you saw in Mickey 17’s first trailer are known as “Creepers.” Don’t let the name or the colonists’ attitudes towards them fool you, they’re actually really cute and less threatening than you’d think. Though, if you watch those marketing materials carefully enough, you can spot this truth from a mile away.

Our next scene of note involves a baby Creeper, which scampers around causing chaos in what’s supposed to be a grand presentation by Kenneth Marshall to his colonists. With people running around as erratically as the baby, the motion features are naturally top tier.

But what really makes this scene sing is the fact that the air cannons mounted in your seat also get a workout, as decontamination jets and gunfire are present throughout. I won’t spoil the scene entirely, but let’s just say if you’re an animal lover that had their heart broken during Okja, you’re probably going to need tissues for how this scene wraps up.

The Entire Third Act Climax Of Mickey 17 Is A 4DX Joyride

Rounding out the entire package that is Mickey 17 in 4DX is the third act climax, which sees both 17 and 18 racing against time to prevent a potential war between humans and Creepers. The team that converted Bong Joon-ho’s sci-fi satire into 4DX deserves a lot of credit, as they not only aced the motion effects, but I think this is the most snow I’ve seen in this format. (I missed out on Red One, so I’m open to being corrected.)

Just as this last section of the picture goes all out on its plot, we’re given quite a bit to chew on with 4DX’s capabilities. Which also includes Naomi Ackie’s Nasha Barridge kicking ass and pulling off a sick action hero move that results in her securing Toni Collette’s head in a potentially fatal thigh lock.

I’m so pleased with how this premium enhancement was pulled off, and it makes me even sadder that Captain America: Brave New World’s 3D/4DX variant wasn’t anywhere near this fun. Going into Mickey, I was expecting a totally different movie than the one I experienced; and I think that was by design.

I’ll dig more into that subject another time, as that’s a whole other pitch to field. For now if you’re looking for my verdict on whether or not you should see Mickey 17 in 4DX, my answer is an emphatic yes.

Using the format’s bells and whistles to amplify everything from personal stakes to large scale thrills, this package really does run the gamut. You only need to observe the low vibration in your seat during some of the more subtle scenes in the furnace room to realize that there’s a lot of care and love in this conversion – even if the scent feature is still sadly limited.

With that, we can bring this experiment to a non-fatal close, as Mickey 17’s 4DX-perience has been pretty well captured. Whether you like this new format or not, let us know through the Comments! That’s right, Comments are back, and in… Comment form! And, while you’re there, perhaps you can show us how interested you’d be in learning more about Novocaine’s upcoming 4DX presentation, which is coming down the line soon.

Raquel Welch ‘was encouraged to hide her Hispanic roots’

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Raquel Welch was encouraged by people in Hollywood to downplay her Hispanic roots.

The actress – who passed away in February 2023, aged 82 – is the focus of a new CW documentary, titled ‘I am Raquel Welch’, which reveals how she was urged to hide her Bolivian ancestry.

Gregory Nava, a director who worked with the actress on ‘American Family: Journey of Dreams’, the TV drama series, said: “She was saying they wanted to change her hair, her look, her name.

“Her manager at the time was saying, ‘No, you don’t want to come off as being Hispanic.’ They wanted to change her first name from Raquel to, I think, Debbie Welch. Very much in the Sandra Dee, Doris Day tradition, you know. But she refused.”

The movie star’s birth name was Jo Raquel Welch Tejada, but she ultimately adopted the surname of her first husband, James Welch.

Brian Eugenio, a cultural historian at Princeton University, says in the documentary: “Her father was a structural engineer who was a Bolivian immigrant to the United States who married an Anglo woman [Josephine Sarah Hall], and so, she was raised as fully aware that she was Bolivian.

“As she tells the story, her father refused to speak Spanish in the house ’cause he didn’t want his kids to have an accent.”

In a throwback clip in the documentary, Raquel admitted to feeling that “part of [her] that was missing” because of her dad’s approach to life.

The actress – who became a global icon in the 60s – explained: “The part of me that was missing was the part of me that my father chose to just amputate out of our lives.”

John Goodman Got Injured Filming Tom Cruise’s New Movie, And A Spokesperson Explained How It Will Impact Production

Here’s how this will impact Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new film.

John Goodman sadly sustained a hip injury while working on Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new film in the UK. Now, as the actor heals, production on the movie starring him and Tom Cruise has been put on pause. However, both the actor and the project will be back up and running soon.

It was revealed on Saturday, March 8, that Goodman had hurt his hip while filming this movie that co-stars the Mission: Impossible star. A spokesperson from Warner Bros. released a statement to Variety about how this will impact production, explaining:

Overall, it sounds like this won’t impact production that much. It seems like Goodman is well on his way to a full recovery, and filming will resume next week, which is great news.

At the moment, we don’t know much about the movie he’s working on. It is Iñárritu’s first English-language film since The Revenant – which Leonardo DiCaprio won his Oscar for- and alongside Goodman and Cruise, it will star Jesse Plemons, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg and Sophie Wilde.

That alone makes it a must-watch.

Thankfully, Goodman is on the mend, and it sounds like he’ll be back in action alongside Tom Cruise soon.

As we learn more about the actor’s injury and this film in general, we’ll keep you posted.

Another Simple Favor Review – IGN

Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick spark up the chemistry again, this time against the stunning backdrop of coastal Italy.

Another Simple Favor streams on Prime Video beginning May 1. This review is based on a screening at the 2025 SXSW Film and Television Festival.

A sequel doesn’t have to be bigger, although many of them, including Another Simple Favor, choose to go this route. It doesn’t even have to be better, really, given the low expectations audiences historically have for follow-ups. What it has to be is more – specifically, more of whatever made the first film work well enough to justify a second one.

In the case of A Simple Favor, the thing that charmed audiences enough to bring in five times the budget was the effervescent chemistry between stars Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick (with some delicious bon mots and fabulous costume design as a bonus). The sequel delivers more of all these things: Kendrick is still tiny and spunky, the queen of the skeptical head tilt and sassy comeback. And Lively is still tall and unflappable, intriguing and intimidating at the same time.

The script gives them plenty of witty lines to volley back and forth, with enough left over for supporting players like Andrew Rannells, who tells his young daughter early in the film, “If you can’t be smart, be funny. If you can’t be funny, be pretty.” That’s typical of the script’s pithy, bitchy dialogue, written by returning screenwriter Jessica Sharzer along with Altered Carbon creator Laeta Kalogridis.

Another Simple Favor takes the action to Italy, where Emily (Lively) and Stephanie (Kendrick) reunite at the former’s wedding on the stunning island of Capri. At risk of spoilers, the natural question here is, “Didn’t Emily go to jail at the end of the last movie?” Yes, and true to the movie’s tongue-in-cheek tone, that’s explained away with a single line after Emily stomps back into Stephanie’s life in a pair of rhinestone-studded stiletto boots. Stephanie owes Emily – you guessed it – another favor, given the whole “sending her to prison after having sex with her husband, and then writing a book about it” thing.

Henry Golding is back as Emily’s errant now-ex-spouse, and his (unfortunately brief, for reasons best not explained here) appearance in the film is a comedic highlight. Weddings also bring family members back into the fold, and Allison Janney joins the cast as Emily’s estranged aunt Linda, who’s more conniving and dangerous than she appears. And of course there must be a husband, and Michele Morrone does his duty being hunky and a little scary as Emily’s betrothed Dante, who’s the heir to a massive fortune no one wants to talk about. (The Mafia. It’s the Mafia.)

Dante is using Emily, Emily is using Stephanie, Aunt Linda is obviously up to something, and bodies keep appearing in inconvenient places as this cutthroat crew prepares for the big day. One innovation Another Simple Favor brings to its Agatha Christie-esque plot is arranging events in a way that wrests them out of Emily’s control, and observing the shifts in her character and motivation that follow that change. This means that Stephanie is also out of control, which she hates, although her intelligence means that she’s never behind the curve for long.

There are a few too many plot threads for all of them to pay off – a subplot involving single mom Stephanie’s son Miles (Joshua Satine), conveniently away at a no-phones-allowed summer camp, goes nowhere, for example. And the film’s attempts to outdo its predecessor in intrigue are absurd in a way that’s sometimes fun, and sometimes off-puttingly bizarre. But this is Italy, birthplace of the giallo film. And intentionally or not, Another Simple Favor’s more lurid psychosexual twists are true to that particular genre.

If the plot escalations are variable, one area where bigger is unilaterally worse for Another Simple Favor is in the camerawork. Director Paul Feig is known for long takes designed not to interfere with his actors’ performances, and his lack of finesse with more complicated sequences is obvious in haphazardly assembled drone shots that sweep over the dramatic cliffs of Capri. This wouldn’t be that big of a deal, except that there are a lot of them, and they’re all nauseating.

Better to concentrate on what works: The performances, the script, and the costumes. Oh, the costumes. The contrast between Lively and Kendrick’s wardrobes tells you everything you need to know about their characters, with Lively’s breathtakingly luxe menswear-inspired ensembles contrasting with Kendrick’s momcore jean shorts and worn-out hoodies. She does get to wear some pretty dresses at the wedding festivities, in scenes that are smorgasbords of moneyed excess and natural splendor. Throw some slick Italo-pop on top, and you’ve got a piece of escapist entertainment that’s more clever than most. So what if it doesn’t always make sense?

The Last of Us season 2 trailer brings the heart and the horror back to Joel and Ellie

Clickers on the rampage and plenty of tears are teased in the brand new preview for season 2

A new trailer for The Last of Us season 2 is here, and it’s as horrifying and emotionally harrowing as we’ve come to expect from both the groundbreaking video game franchise and the award-gobbling first season that adapted the first title.

The Last of Us season 2 sees the return of Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie, while Kaitlyn Dever joins the cast as Abby, along with Isabela Merced as Dina and Jeffrey Wright as Isaac.

Ensuring to keep its infected cards close to its chest, the new trailer gives us a glimpse at the relationship between Joel and Ellie after the cross-country trip they took, which ended in a rescue mission and a lie that Joel could never go back on.

Now, some time later, and as revealed in the closing moments of the preview, the secret is out (“You swore,” a tearful Ellie says to Joel), and the bond that had been built through danger and despair is at risk of being broken. If that’s not bad enough, there’s the added danger of infected and outsiders closing in to make tougher than they’ve ever been.

Don’t expect season 2 to be the exact same as the game, though. “I love the changes that we’ve made,” co-creator Neil Druckmann said recently. “It’s a different version of that story, but its DNA is in there. Maybe more than excited, I’m really curious what their reaction will be.”

We know this won’t be the last season, either – though it’s unclear at the moment how many more installments could remain. “We don’t have a complete or final plan, but I think it’s looking like four seasons,” Francesca Orsi, EVP and head of drama at HBO, said earlier this year. That means another two series could potentially be on the way after season 2 wraps up.

The Last of Us season 2 arrives on HBO this April 13. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the most exciting upcoming shows to fill out your watchlist.

Harry Potter series ‘lines up cast for Severus Snape and Professor McGonagall’

According to a Deadline exclusive, Oscar nominated actress Janet McTeer is in negotiations to play Professor Minerva McGonagall while Emmy nominee Paapa Essiedu is reportedly closing a deal to star as Professor Severus Snape.

Essiedu’s casting has been rumoured since December 2024 with no news actually being confirmed on whether the I May Destroy You alum will be officially joining the cast or not. As of 8th March, it’s looking likely but HBO have declined to comment on the matter.

HBO did say in a statement: “We appreciate that such a high-profile series will draw a lot of rumour and speculation. As we make our way through pre-production, we will only confirm details as we finalise deals.”

What we do know is that the roles themselves are major for the Potter universe, with both Severus Snape and Professor McGonagall being previously played in the movies by late acting legends Alan Rickman and Dame Maggie Smith, respectively.

The series itself will be based on all seven books in the series and will “become a decade-long series produced with the same epic craft, love and care this global franchise is known for,” according to a statement from Max.

Designed to run over the course of a decade, the series comes from writer and showrunner Francesca Gardiner and director Mark Mylod. When speaking at an event for Max back in December, Gardiner confirmed that the new series will stick to the “canonical” age of Snape, who will only be 31 in the show and much younger than he was in the films. Therefore, the casting selection of Essiedu is more than fitting.

While things are yet to be confirmed, both actors bring a wealth of experience to the table but tackling the world of Potter will undoubtedly be a major feat. Of course, McTeer is known for her roles in Ozark, Tumbleweeds, The Menu and more recently, KAOS.

Essiedu has also been at the helm of numerous TV shows including The Capture, Gangs of London, The Lazarus Project and has more recently been seen in Black Mirror’s Demon 79.

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For both, it will also mark a return to HBO, with McTeer having starred in film Into The Storm as Winston Churchill’s wife Clementine, while Essiedu starred in Michaela Coel’s hit series I May Destroy You for the network.

As previously mentioned, Lithgow has now been confirmed as Hogwarts headmaster Dumbledore, with the actor telling Screen Rant: “It came as a total surprise to me.

“I just got the phone call up at the Sundance Film Festival for yet another film, and it was not an easy decision because it’s going to define me for the last chapter of my life, I’m afraid. But I’m very excited.”

Lithgow also confirmed that he will be adopting an English accent for the role, saying: “[He’s] certainly an Englishman. In fact, there’s a good deal of controversy that an American has been hired to play him. He’s such an icon. I’m half-English.”