There are three constants in life: death, taxes, and one of Stephen King‘s books being adapted for film or television. Firestarter, The Shining…all of these books have leaped from the page to the screen, with varying results. But the one King book series that’s always seemed to have the biggest hurdles in making it to the screen is The Dark Tower. The universe-hopping western has often been described as King’s “magnum opus,” and yet it’s hit wall after wall. Even a 2017 film adaptation starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey fell far, far short of expectations.

However, there may be hope on the horizon. A television series is in the works with Mike Flanagan at the helm, with Prime Video as a potential streamer, though there’s no confirmation on where it might actually land. Unlike other attempts to bring The Dark Tower to screens, this might actually stick. For one thing, Flanagan is no stranger to adapting King’s work — he previously directed adaptations of Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep, and the reception those received was enough for King to give him his stamp of approval for the Tower series. But more importantly, television is the one medium that The Dark Tower is perfectly fit for.

The Scale and Scope of ‘The Dark Tower’ Fits Television

The Dark Tower series centers around the adventures of Roland Deschain, the last living gunslinger. Deschain is seeking vengeance against Walter o’Dim — whom he knows as the “Man in Black” — as Walter had an affair with his mother and attempted to manipulate his life. Walter seeks to reach the titular Dark Tower, a nexus point for all realities, and claim its power so that he can become a god. Along the way, Roland forms a group of companions known as a ka-tet and travels to multiple worlds while grappling with the trauma of his past. If you hadn’t already guessed, this is a sprawling, epic story that spans the course of seven books. You couldn’t possibly hope to capture all of that on film.

That kind of scope and scale has proven to work like gangbusters when applied to the medium of television. From Game of Thrones and His Dark Materials on HBO to Shadowhunters on Freeform, television has allowed for these shows to stay faithful to their source material. It’s also proven to be a second chance of sorts for books that had poorly-received film adaptations. Both His Dark Materials and Shadowhunters were previously adapted for the screen, and fared far better in televised form. A similar approach could work wonders for The Dark Tower.

‘The Dark Tower’ Features Plenty of Connections to King’s Previous Works

Image via Hodder & Stoughton

Another feature that The Dark Tower could take advantage of is the connection to all of King’s previous works. The Man in Black is also the malevolent Randall Flagg, who served as the evil force terrorizing the world in The Stand. Father Callahan, the doomed priest from Salem’s Lot, also encounters Roland and his ka-tet.

“Roland’s story is my Jupiter — a planet that dwarfs all the others… a place of strange atmosphere, crazy landscape, and savage gravitational pull,” King wrote in the afterword for Wizard and Glass. Those words took on a whole new meaning in the final novel, where Roland is implied to meet someone who bears a shocking resemblance to King. Yes, The Dark Tower ends with its protagonist literally meeting his maker. Given the rise of the interconnected universe in storytelling, Flanagan could use these references as a way to enhance the story and also provide a jolt of serotonin for King’s readers.

However, this approach may be blunted by the fact that another show — and one based on King’s work, no less — took a similar approach. The Hulu series Castle Rock attempted to blend together themes and characters from King’s novels into one setting. Some examples include the Shawshank State Penitentiary being a primary location, as well as the characters themselves. Diane “Jackie” Torrance (Jane Levy) is the niece of The Shining protagonist Jack Torrance, and Lizzy Caplan cameos as a young Annie Wilkes, aka the nurse-turned-murderer from Misery. If Flanagan is going to attempt to reference the other books in King’s library, he may have to tread with caution.

Will This Version of ‘The Dark Tower’ Get Off the Ground?

Image via Marvel

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Flanagan’s vision for The Dark Tower is not the first time that the series has been considered for a television adaptation. J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, riding the then-high of Lost, attempted to develop a television version of The Dark Tower that never got off the ground. And Prime Video considered doing an adaptation with The Walking Dead‘s Glen Mazzara at the helm, only to shelve the project in 2020. Flanagan has recently given an update that proves the series is still in early development. He told Entertainment Weekly that the series is one of the “most complicated properties to get started.” He added, “Getting the green light on Dark Tower is a much longer and more involved process than anything else I’ve ever approached in my life.” Flanagan has a long road ahead of him still, but a long journey never stopped Roland, so why should it stop Flanagan?

By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated 1 hour ago

Pop quiz, true believers: who’s the real Big Bad of The X-Files? It’s tempting to say “aliens,” although the show waffled between portraying them as good, evil, and nonexistent. It’s also tempting to say “the government;” after all, Mulder and Scully are stymied at every turn by creepy forces like the Cigarette Smoking Man who don’t have humanity’s best interest at heart. But would you believe that, lurking deep within the show, is the greatest, most hidden evil of them all? That’s right, folks, I’m talking about Satan himself.

For a show about aliens, monsters, and conspiracies, The X-Files had a surprisingly deep religious streak. The show often emphasized Scully’s Christian faith, something she clung to in the face of the greatest adversity. Everyone remembers Scully rocking a cross and turning to faith when she was dealing with cancer. What you might not remember, though, are all the times that our plucky FBI agents grappled with demons. Those demons had the scariest boss of all: Satan, whom Mulder and Scully ran into in three separate episodes!

Could It Be…Satan?

Why do so few fans remember Mulder and Scully tangling with the literal devil? For one thing, they never encountered a really stereotypical Satan (red skin, horns, you know the drill). Instead, they encountered the Devil taking the form of other people. In “Die Hand Die Verletzt,” a town is terrorized by Phyllis Paddock, a substitute teacher with demonic powers that nobody can remember actually hiring. She escapes Mulder and Scully and is implied to be Satan, sent to punish devil-worshiping PTA members for not properly observing worship rites. The episode title is in German; notably, the title of this episode in Germany is simply “Satan.”

The next time Mulder and Scully encounter the Devil is the explicitly religious episode “All Souls.” He comes in the form of a social worker named Aaron Starkey who is assigned to work with Paula Kaklos, who is one of four deformed quadruplets. As it turns out, the girls were Nephilim (half-human, half-angel), and Starkey was an incarnation of Satan trying to kill them. Once the final girl was rescued by an angel (with an assist from Scully, no less), Starkey vanished.

The Devil Tips The Scales

The third and final time Mulder and Scully run into the devil is in the episode appropriately titled “Signs and Wonders.” In this story, a reverend named Samuel Mackey is actually the Devil in disguise, and he is doing his best to destroy the Church of God With Signs & Wonders. As part of his sacrilegious plan, he impregnates a young woman with snakes and even uses a snake to attack Mulder. Because of this and other signs, Mulder openly speculates that Mackey was secretly Satan. Incredibly, the episode seemingly confirms this with a final shot of a snake coming out of the man’s mouth to devour a mouse.

Believe it or not, this is only a rundown of Mulder and Scully’s direct encounters with Satan. On at least one occasion, they run into a lesser demon (Donnie Pfaster) who is likely working on the Devil’s behalf. There are also five other characters who are implied to be demons, including Jack Franklyn, Mauriceand Lyda, Wayne Weinsider, Betsy Monroe, and Ellen Adderly. Throw in the possibility that all of these are minions of Satan (someone that John Doggett also runs into on one occasion), and it’s clear that the ultimate Big Bad of The X-Files is, weirdly enough, also the ultimate Big Bad of Christianity!

Obviously, it’s crazy to think that Mulder and Scully were regularly running into Lucifer when they weren’t tangling with aliens or uncovering freaky conspiracies. But let’s be honest: this isn’t that much sillier than anything else in the 90s’ absolutely strangest show. Considering how generally agnostic the show is, it’s a bit surprising how much Christian theology affected the writing of The X-Files. But this, too, isn’t all that shocking. After all, the show’s most famous quote is something that every religious person says right before they convert: “I want to believe.” 

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 34 seconds ago

Sometimes, Marvel fans get annoyed when critics slam the modern MCU, with said fans claiming the haters simply don’t like fun films. However, for older fans of these colorful characters, the truth is just that we can tell how far Marvel movies fall short because we’ve already witnessed the perfect superhero film. I’m talking, of course, about Spider-Man 2, a Sam Raimi masterpiece that you can now stream on Netflix (just make sure you don’t get any web fluid on the remote).

A Different Type Of Superhero Movie

Before you watch Spider-Man 2, though, you might need a little reminder of what the movie is about … after all, we now almost have more films featuring the webhead than he has clones, copy-cats, and interdimensional doppelgangers. This sequel picks up where Raimi’s first film left off: Peter Parker is trying to balance life as a college student, boyfriend, and costumed crimefighter.

However, when a freak accident turns one of his scientific heroes into a maniacal supervillain and his own powers start mysteriously failing, he must decide whether he’ll hang the tights up for good or step up and become the city’s greatest hero.

The Returning Cast

Spider-Man 2 brings most of our favorite actors back from the first film. Tobey Maguire is once again playing our favorite neighborhood wallcrawler, and Kirsten Dunst plays girl-next-door turned girlfriend Mary Jane Watson. James Franco returns as Peter’s embittered friend, Harry Osborn, and J.K. Simmons reprises his role as J. Jonah Jameson, the entertainingly irritable editor-in-chief of The Daily Bugle.

New Faces

Of course, Spider-Man 2 brings in a few new faces, including Daniel Gillies as Jameson’s son, John. The most impressive newcomer, though, is Alfred Molina, who plays the supervillain Doctor Octopus to creepy perfection.

Molina proves to be a real double threat in this film: he’s great at giving over-the-top line deliveries as a supervillain, but he’s even better as the softspoken Otto Octavius, someone whose quiet brilliance is an obvious beacon for young science geek Peter Parker.

A Blockbuster Release

This movie swung into theaters in 2004, meaning that Spider-Man 2 was released when Netflix was just a DVD mailing company and streaming entire video libraries seemed as improbable as … well … a man terrorizing a city with his killer robot arms.

Both the lack of streaming services and the sheer quality of Sam Raimi’s sequel transformed this movie into a huge payday for Sony. Against a budget of $200 million, Spider-Man 2 earned $795.9 million, ensuring that (for better or for worse, perhaps) there would be a sequel.

Talked About To This Day

That sequel remains highly divisive to this day, but nobody is really divided over Spider-Man 2: on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie currently has a critical rating of 93 percent. Critics generally raved about the movie’s awesome villain (I really can’t oversell how good Molina is as Doc Ock) and the film’s surprisingly in-depth focus on its characters’ emotional arcs. Critics also declared that this film deeply improved on the original, something once thought impossible to do because that first movie was (and still is) completely iconic.

I completely agree: Spider-Man 2 is a movie that I have embarrassingly bought multiple copies of and now stream whenever I need a quick pick-me-up (hey, we can’t all have cute girls next door that bring us chocolate cake).

The movie manages to walk an impossibly thin line between being too silly and too serious. The result is a film that does what most modern Marvel films struggle to do: dive into some serious emotional depths while still providing the free-spirited fun that made comic books so popular in the first place.

Streaming On Netflix

Will you agree that this is the best superhero movie ever made, or will you want to unleash the full fury of your Deadpool & Wolverine popcorn bucket on me for recommending it? You won’t know until you stream Spider-Man 2 on Netflix. Afterward, I hope you find some really dank memes because, like J. Jonah Jameson, I won’t be happy until someone gets me pictures of Spider-Man. 

By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 7 seconds ago

Before 1980’s Flash Gordon, there was 1974’s sex comedy Flesh Gordon, an ambitious parody of the classic 1930s serials that was clearly written and directed by sci-fi fans since it takes shots at most of the tropes that were old even back then. While it sounds like an X-rated adult parody, Flesh Gordon was released with an R-rating after 12 minutes were cut out, leaving the final product a strange mix of sci-fi parody and 70s exploitation skin-flick. 

This Could Only Be Made In The 70s

Flesh Gordon retells the original Flash Gordon serial except instead of rays arriving on Earth that cause environmental catastrophe, they’re sex rays, which have predictable results. There’s still a plane crash, Flash and Dale come across a genius inventor (instead of Zarkov, it’s Jerkoff) with a plan to save the planet, except this time his spaceship inside of only slightly resembling the classic, retro sci-fi phallic design, it’s exactly what you think it would be for a movie called Flesh Gordon.

Once the heroes arrive on the planet of Emperor Wang (instead of Ming, a swap you could see coming a mile away), Flesh is saved by Queen Amora, but here, she’s killed by Wang’s own soldiers when her ship crashes. Instead of the Aura from the original, it’s Prince Precious who goes on to inherit the kingdom once Wang is vanquished. He’s crushed under a giant idol of his Great God, who hilariously in retrospect, is voiced by an uncredited Craig T. Nelson. 

The Production’s Legal Problems Altered The Whole Plan

The original plan for Flesh Gordon was significantly altered after the producer and director Howard Ziehm learned that it was illegal to make that type of movie in Los Angeles. As a result, every adult scene was cut out and surrendered to the LAPD, leaving behind only a few explicit shots. Even the uncensored cut would be considered today to be nothing worse than a regular R-rated movie. It takes place on the other coast, but HBO’s hit series The Deuce goes into the changing laws that would dramatically alter movies of the 70s. That, though, wasn’t even the end of the film’s legal trouble.

Universal, the owners of the Flash Gordon IP, sued over the opening of the movie. Ziehm’s answer was to add an opening scroll explaining it’s a parody, and “not to be confused with Flash Gordon” was added to all of the marketing. 

Flash Gordon Finally Hit Theaters After Its Own Spoof

What made Flesh Gordon an unexpected critical hit was all of the little touches added into the production from all of the nerds working behind the scenes. From the set design to the props, the entire film is lovingly mocking those old sci-fi serials, and even the costume design is lifted straight from the originals. It was so well done, that the movie was nominated for a Hugo Award, losing out to Mel Brook’s Young Frankenstein. Not bad for what was originally intended to be only a cheap skinflick. 

Years later, a real adaptation of Flash Gordon hit theaters after years of different producers, including George Lucas, attempting to get it made. It was a complete flop at the time, but over the years has become a hit thanks to its own retro sci-fi aesthetic and campy, pulpy plot. Flesh Gordon was the only one to get a sequel, Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders, but it replaces the winking sci-fi homages of the original with toilet humor.

Ella Langley is rapidly becoming one of Nashville’s most powerful performers, and her historic chart run is inviting inevitable comparisons to Taylor Swift. Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” has spent 14 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, matching records set by Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” and Mariah Carey’s “We Belong Together.”

The Alabama-born singer also surpassed Swift’s “We Are Never Getting Back Together” for the longest-running No. 1 by a female country artist, prompting one industry insider to speculate that Swift’s recent return to her country roots was more calculated than coincidental. However, there is no evidence of personal animosity between the two singers.

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“Choosin’ Texas” surpassed Swift’s 2012 hit in May, becoming the longest-running chart-topper by a female country artist. Asked what the career-changing achievement meant, Langley offered a characteristically colorful response. “It means that my head’s spinning around like an owl,” she said. “You ever seen that? It’s pretty scary. It’s nuts. I’m just excited.”

The success has extended beyond one song. Three Langley tracks currently occupy positions within the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10. Her new collaboration with Morgan Wallen, “I Can’t Love You Anymore,” climbed to No. 7. The pair also became the first country duo to reach the top 10 since Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers.

Earlier this year, Langley became the first woman to simultaneously lead the Billboard Hot 100, Hot Country Songs, and Country Airplay charts through the success of “Choosin’ Texas.” The accompanying music video has reportedly accumulated nearly 57 million views since arriving in April.

Did Taylor Swift Return To Country To Reclaim Her ‘Throne’?

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The similarities between Swift and Langley are difficult to ignore. Both arrived in Nashville as ambitious teenagers with guitars before using country music to reach audiences far beyond Tennessee.

Swift’s latest single, “I Knew It, I Knew You,” which serves as the “Toy Story 5” theme, marks a return to her country roots. One industry insider speculated that Langley’s extraordinary success may have influenced that decision.

“Taylor could never let someone else have the country throne,” the source told Daily Mail. “She wanted to make it clear that if there’s a woman that’s going to dominate the country charts it won’t be Beyoncé and it won’t be Ella,” the insider added.

There is no evidence that Swift released the song because of Langley or that the two women are feuding. Still, another insider claimed that some country listeners have not forgotten Swift’s transition into pop music. “The radio programmers have to say they’re excited about ‘I Knew It, I Knew You’ and have to immediately play her song, it’s Taylor. But the country fans still remember that she left,” the source alleged.

Ella Langley Reportedly Benefits From Avoiding Politics

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Langley’s approach to country stardom differs from several other prominent women within the genre. Swift has publicly supported Democratic candidates and causes, while Kacey Musgraves and Maren Morris have expressed progressive views. Kelsea Ballerini has also championed LGBTQ rights and women’s issues.

Langley, by contrast, has largely avoided public political declarations. One source speculated that her decision to keep those opinions private has helped her connect with a broader section of the traditional country audience. “Ella is winning because she panders to the country music fan base,” the insider claimed. “She plays it safe. She’s not speaking out on important topics like a Kelsea Ballerini, Kacey Musgraves or Maren Morris.”

However, Langley has spoken openly about her Christian faith. During an April conversation with Theo Von, she said reading the Bible “really centers me and reminds me what’s important in my life.”

The Country Star Always Believed Music Was Her Destiny

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Langley credits her Alabama upbringing with developing both her toughness and musical abilities. “I grew up in the country in Alabama between two rowdy brothers, so I spent a lot of my childhood trying to prove that I was as fearless and tough as they were,” she said.

“My band or anyone who knows me will tell you that sometimes I can seem more like a guy than a girl, but I think women can still be tough, direct and strong, without apologizing for who they are or how they think,” Langley added.

Langley briefly studied forestry at Auburn University before abruptly leaving Alabama for Nashville in July 2019. Music, she insisted, had always been the only future she imagined. “When I was a kid, I was never like, I’m going to be a veterinarian or a police officer,” Langley said. “I was like I’m going to do this. I don’t know when it’s going to happen, but it’s going to happen.”

Ella Langley Ignores The Noise Around Her Personal Life

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As her career has grown, Langley’s image has evolved from hunting photographs and camouflage into a polished, 1970s-inspired aesthetic featuring heavy bangs, cowboy boots, and flowing sleeves. “This job is not something that you can sort of half-a-s,” she said in May. “You have to go full force.”

Her rising profile has also generated romantic speculation involving Riley Green and Megan Moroney. However, all three performers have maintained that they are single, and Langley has never confirmed a public relationship.

Langley may be facing comparisons to Swift, but her record-breaking run suggests she is building a country empire entirely her own.

By Jonathan Klotz
| Updated 3 minutes ago

Once a movie is available on streaming, does it matter if it’s good? Netflix’s recent foray into low-budget Lifetime thrillers is a sign that no, the quality of the movie doesn’t matter one bit. The best example isn’t The Body in the Locker, it’s the movie currently number four on HBO Max. For some reason, Pacific Rim: Uprising has reappeared on the top 10 most popular list, not because it’s a good movie, it isn’t, it’s horrible, but because it has the name “Pacific Rim” and everyone already subscribed to the service can easily take a look at the worst sequel ever made.

Pacific Rim: Uprising Has None Of The Original’s Charm

Pacific Rim is a flawed movie. There’s small issues with the pacing, characters, and dialogue, but what it does right, is the gigantic set piece battles pitting giant mechs against kaiju. Watch Gipsy Danger walk through the city with a container ship as a baseball bat while the deep bass of Bear McCreary’s theme song is pulsing with every giant step and you can tell why it was a hit. Pacific Rim: Uprising decided to leave out both the kaiju and that sense of weight behind the mechs. Instead of heavy, plodding, meaningful movements, we have mechs doing flips.

Pacific Rim: Uprising made the bold choice to leave out the kaiju and instead focus on drone-Jaegers with implanted kaiju brains, which naturally, turns them evil. A new generation of Jaeger pilots have to stop the drones from triggering an extinction-level event that will wipe out all of humanity. The discovery that kaiju blood is highly explosive comes up multiple times, there’s the introduction of the Precursors (or rather, an explanation for what the alien race at the end of the first movie is), and far more backstory than a movie about giant mechs ever needed.

John Boyega, in the middle of his breakout run on the Star Wars sequel trilogy, takes the lead as the son of Idris Elba’s Stacker Pentecost (brief aside, but is that the coolest name ever? It is, isn’t it?), Jake Pentecost, a former Jaegar pilot turned scrapper. Boyega is not the problem with Pacific Rim: Uprising. He was done dirty by the script and VFX while putting on a better performance than Charlie Hunnam’s in the original. Speaking of, Rinko Kikuchi, Burn Gorman, and Charlie Day are the only returning cast from the original as, respectively, Mako, Herman, and Newt.

Fans Are Still Waiting For A Pacific Rim Sequel

Despite all of the problems with Pacific Rim: Uprising, and there’s a lot of them, it wasn’t a complete flop in theaters. It brought in $291 million against a budget of $150 million. That was significantly less than the original’s $411 million, and clearly, everyone who skipped seeing it on the big screen is now responsible for the incredible streaming numbers it’s racking up. It’s the only explanation why the flippy Jaeger film is getting far more views than it deserves.

Pacific Rim fans joke that they are still waiting for a sequel. Bring up Pacific Rim: Uprising and it’s discussed as a fan film. The way it altered everything about how the Jaegers move and fight, which seems small but to mech fans, that’s a huge deal, and then shifting the focus to the humans instead of giant kaiju, makes it inferior to even the anime spinoff, Pacific Rim: The Black. HBO Max viewers are discovering they’d be better off watching the original for the 30th time than watching a film that puts mechs on an ice sheet … and it doesn’t break immediately.

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 6 seconds ago

Strange New Worlds had its fourth-season debut this past week. It was an episode that largely abandoned the smart, scientific writing Star Trek is known for in favor of cool action beats and unexpected character moments that would have been more at home in the Kelvinverse. Fortunately, the episode worked because it had a lot going for it: time travel, ethical dilemmas, and even dinosaurs. One thing it did not have was James T. Kirk, the future Enterprise captain who has become a frequent guest on this fan-favorite Trek spinoff.

Thanks to both William Shatner and Chris Pine, new Kirk actor Paul Wesley had some very big boots to fill. Fortunately, he managed to win fans over through sheer charisma. We can certainly expect to see more of his character, and it sounds like the show is going to use Season 4 to save Kirk’s reputation. How so? By giving us an episode that shows Kirk being a good father to David Marcus, the estranged son we meet in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The writers’ goal is simple: they want the fandom to stop thinking of Captain Kirk as a deadbeat dad!

Showing Kirk As A Good Dad

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan revealed that Kirk had a son, David Marcus, with whom he was estranged. The idea of Kirk having a secret kid was believable enough; considering how many babes (alien and otherwise) he bedded over the years, it’s a small miracle that he only has one child. However, some fans were irked because The Wrath of Khan implied Kirk might have been a deadbeat dad who expected his baby mama to raise his son while Kirk continued gallivanting around the galaxy. Now, the Strange New Worlds writers have decided to save Kirk’s reputation by having him beat the deadbeat allegations, all these years later.

How will they do that? In an interview with SFX Magazine, Strange New Worlds showrunner Henry Alonso Myers revealed that the show’s writers wanted to feature Kirk being an active father to a younger David. “I don’t want to call it a rewrite, but it’s like a rethink,” he said. “The experience of David was not a part of [The Original Series] because they didn’t really figure David out until the movies.” He then summed up the writers’ motivation and their goals: “Kirk is heroic, and none of us wanted to imagine that he is a lousy father, so that offered a lot of opportunities about how to get into his mind, emotionally.” 

Emotional Availability? I’m Sorry, David, I Can’t Do That

Beyond that, Myers didn’t offer up any additional details, so we can only speculate about what the upcoming Strange New Worlds episode will do with Kirk’s character. The Wrath of Khan indicates that Carol Marcus explicitly asked Kirk to stay away because “You had your world and I had mine. I wanted him in mine, not chasing through the universe with his father.” In that same scene, Kirk asks her a question about David: “Why? Why didn’t you tell me?” The line is ambiguous enough that fans long wondered exactly when Kirk found out that he had a son. Was this new information, or something he had known for years?

Even though Carol asked Kirk to stay away, many fans feel like The Wrath of Khan portrays him as a deadbeat dad who was eager to forget about his kid and get back to exploring the final frontier. Previously, Strange New Worlds chipped at this narrative by having Kirk tell La’an (who now has feelings for him) that he’s in a relationship with Carol Marcus and that she’s pregnant. This implied that, early on, Kirk really wanted to make things work and start a family. The upcoming episode will demonstrate his skills as a father, but it may also put the child’s life in danger, justifying Carol’s decision to keep Kirk away from them.

Will we end up seeing a kinder, gentler side of James T. Kirk? Or maybe hints of a dark side that reveals why he isn’t suited to raise a child? We won’t know until this upcoming episode of Strange New Worlds streams on Paramount+. With any luck, it will be the same episode that transforms Captain Pike into a living puppet man. This is the show of gentle retcons, after all, and it would make watching The Wrath of Khan that much weirder if we suddenly learn that a Muppet became David’s godfather right before mommy and daddy warped their separate ways!

Angie Katsanevas exclusively opened up to Us about where she stands with Real Housewives of Salt Lake City costar Mary Cosby ahead of the season 7 premiere.

“I think that it’s just very real and raw challenges that friends deal with,” Angie, 52, shared with Us on Thursday, July 23, while promoting her “GoDaddy School of Hustle” podcast. “She’s going through a lot and I’m going through a lot.”

The production of RHOSLC season 7 has been tumultuous for both Housewives, as Mary’s son, Robert Cosby Jr., died at age 23 of a suspected drug overdose in February. (The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City previously chronicled Robert’s struggles with addiction and Mary’s reaction to her son’s three months behind bars for violating a protective order at his ex-wife’s home.)

Production was temporarily paused in February to allow Mary, 53, time to grieve but she decided to resume filming on the Bravo show in early March. (A source exclusively told Us at the time that “Robert Jr. will be talked about [on the show] and Mary is aware and open.”)

More recently, reports surfaced on Monday, July 20, that Angie and her husband Shawn Trujillo have separated after nearly 30 years of marriage. (Angie and Shawn, 52, share 15-year-old daughter Elektra.)

Speaking generally about her friendship with Mary these days, Angie revealed to Us, “There’s a lot of ups and downs. I think that’s every year. It’s not all fun.”

“The honeymoon phase is over as your bond deepens,” she pointed out. “You’re more honest with each other and you say what you’re really feeling and thinking. We love each other. We love each other deeply.”

Angie hinted that there will be “a lot of focus” on “deep friendships” when RHOSLC season 7 airs.

“Sometimes I ask myself, ‘Why is Salt Lake so popular? What do people love about it? What makes us different?’” she said. “Everyone is so funny in their own way, but the relationships are real. The friendships, there’s a lot of love and mutual respect with all the women, and the dynamics in this group are so interesting. It’s like an NBA team where every player is required and the relationships are getting deeper, the bond is getting deeper, and I think you feel that.”

She continued, “You’re going to see the friendships deepening but with that comes more hurt, and more joy, and more fun, and also I just think that you’re going to see a lot more of everyone’s authentic self. I just really feel like everyone has hit their stride, and we’re seeing everyone in their truest form.”

In the meantime, Angie is keeping very busy as the host of the “GoDaddy School of Hustle,” which features exclusive content on Go Daddy News’ Instagram account. Each episode revolves around Angie and her celebrity guests — including Real Housewives of Miami alum Alexia Nepola and All the Cool Girls Get Fired cowriter Laura Brown — discussing the realities of the modern business landscape.

“I would like to say I was a born hustler but I was [actually] raised by a hustler,” she said. “I was raised by a dad that wore both hats. He was the mom, he was the dad. He worked all day, he came home, he did the laundry, he cooked, he did the yard work, the garden, all of it. And my dad never felt sorry for himself. He had seven children, and he was a single dad after my mom passed.”

Angie remembered that her father “never talked” to his family about work, instead he “showed [them] how to do it.”

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“I really admired my dad, and I just connected with him a lot,” she told Us. “As far as who he was as a person, he had a lot of energy for people, he loved people, and he loved to work. So, when I was little, I started this little dance club in my basement … where you would pay to come to my dance classes.”

She went on, “I knew nothing about teaching dance, but I charged, and I had a chart where, if you could get into the splits, you’d get a banana split sticker … I started this little business in my basement when I was 10. It was 50 cents and then I had my first job at 15, so I was kind of a natural-born ‘love to be busy, love people’ [person]. [I’m a] hustler, so [I] came out feet first, which means you hit the ground running.”

“The GoDaddy School of Hustle with Angie K.” is available now on all major podcast platforms.

Criminal Minds is filming season 20 — but not every cast member is coming back after a shocking exit.

Criminal Minds, which premiered in 2005, follows a group of criminal profilers who work for the FBI as members of its Behavioral Analysis Unit. The crime drama explores different fictional cases and shows how behavioral analysis helps the team locate their unknown subjects.

The original Criminal Minds series was revived by Paramount+ after its initial conclusion in 2020. Criminal Minds: Evolution brought back most of the cast with Joe Mantegna, A.J. Cook, Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Adam Rodriguez and Paget Brewster reprising their roles. Other key characters — such as Matthew Gray Gubler‘s Reid — have made cameos.

The first season of Criminal Minds: Evolution (a.k.a. season 16 of the OG Criminal Minds series) introduced Voit as the main antagonist. The BAU spent the entire season hunting down the prolific killer, who they linked to 62 murders and was the mastermind behind setting up an online network of fellow serial killers.

Related: ‘Criminal Minds’ Cast: Then and Now

Criminal Minds is back with a revival on Paramount+ — but fans have watched the cast change on and off screen since the procedural first debuted. In 2005, viewers were introduced to a group of criminal profilers who work for the FBI as members of its Behavioral Analysis Unit. The crime drama, which was created by […]

Voit’s status as the villain was left up in the air when he had significant memory loss that caused him to no longer be labeled as a psychopath. Gilford and the rest of the Criminal Minds cast have acknowledged that Voit can’t remain on the show for good.

“I was supposed to leave the show a while ago and I’ve been pitching, ‘Well, I have to leave at some point. If you’re not going to kill me, we should have a spinoff,’” Gilford quipped exclusively to Us in May 2025. “It’s called Criminal Mind: Voit and it follows what Voit is doing when he is out in the world. Somehow he either escapes or he gets released and he is this white whale to the BAU. So Criminal Minds can keep going and having their [unsub] of the week — but they’ll always be like, ‘I wonder if Voit had something to do with this.’”

Voit was ultimately written off ahead of season 20.

“We can both hope [my character Voit will return] but all I know is I’m not there filming right now,” he told Us in July 2026 of his potential return for season 20 of Criminal Minds: Evolution. “It was hard to say goodbye. It definitely was one of my favorite characters I’ve ever gotten to play and partially because what a gift.”

He continued: “Every season I got to do a different side of this character. It wasn’t like I was just doing the same thing every year.”

For Gilford, Criminal Minds was the perfect challenge, adding, “To give this guy some redemption and go out on a good guy note — so to speak — was nice. It’s weird. You wrap a show and a lot of times you’re like, ‘I don’t know if I’m coming back next year and if we’re going to have another season in general.’ On this, I did know that it was the end.”

Gilford told Us he struggled to say goodbye to Criminal Minds.

“It was a bummer and I am really like, ‘I’m not good with emotions,’” he shared. “So I literally — before they even officially wrapped — I had a feeling it was the last take. I just left. I didn’t say goodbye to anyone. I just snuck out. They’re like, ‘Zach, where are you? Where’d you go?’ And then a few people saw me driving out of my car. I’m like, ‘Bye, I’ll see you later.’”

Keep scrolling to see who is and isn’t coming back in season 20:

Joe Mantegna

Mantegna is set to return in the role of Rossi, which he has played since taking over for Mandy Patinkin in the original Criminal Minds show.

A. J. Cook

Cook will return to play JJ, who is still mourning the loss of her husband.

Kirsten Vangsness

Vangsness is reprising the role of Garcia.

Aisha Tyler

Another character who is safe is Tara.

Related: Most Shocking TV Exits of 2026: From ‘Grey‘s Anatomy‘ to ‘Virgin River‘

It is never easy to unexpectedly say goodbye to your favorite characters — and 2026 has featured an influx of shocking departures on our TV screens from Grey’s Anatomy to Virgin River. Virgin River fans were surprised when showrunner Patrick Sean Smith confirmed multiple characters were written off the show after season 7. Marco Grazzini addressed […]

Zach Gilford

Gilford’s serial killer character isn’t expected to return — at least during season 20.

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Ryan-James Hatanaka

Hatanaka’s Tyler will remain an important part of the show in season 20.

Adam Rodriguez

Rodriguez is returning as Luke, who has been mourning a loss.

Paget Brewster

Prentiss is alive and well in season 20 of Criminal Minds.

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 36 seconds ago

One surprising blind spot in Star Wars is that we never got anything onscreen that was designed from the ground up as a comedy. Sure, every movie and show (even Andor) squeezes in some moments of humor, but they are designed, first and foremost, as dramas. Have you ever wondered why the galaxy far, far away never went all-in on being funny? As it turns out, Star Wars did develop an animated comedy show many years ago: Star Wars Detours. It was designed as a Robot Chicken-style take on our favorite characters, one that would deliver one non-canonical moment after another.

This series was developed by Star Wars creator George Lucas and Robot Chicken creator Seth Green. They went all out, recruiting writers from fan-favorite series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica, and Family Guy. Unfortunately, Star Wars Detours quietly died after Disney acquired the franchise; despite having already produced 39 episodes (!), the show was canceled and has never seen the light of day outside one clip leaking to Reddit. However, Green revealed something startling at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con: that a curated selection of Detours episodes would be made available to the public via the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

Star Wars Gets The Robot Chicken Treatment

The original idea behind Star Wars Detours was simple: the official premise is that this would be “an animated comedy that explores what daily life is like in a galaxy far, far away. There are no Empires striking back or attacking clones here. Instead, Star Wars Detours focuses on the universe’s regular folks and their everyday problems.” While the official premise noted that the show would still feature “famous bounty hunters, crazed Ewoks, and even a Dark Lord of the Sith,” this was a show designed to focus on humorous, slice-of-life adventures rather than tales involving Jedi or superweapons. Just a chill, funny Star Wars show; what could possibly go wrong?

In a word, Disney. Star Wars Detours began development in 2010, and Lucas and Green managed to produce two seasons’ worth of episodes. But then Disney acquired the Star Wars franchise in 2012. Initially, Green was optimistic that his new show would eventually come out after the Sequel Trilogy had been completed. In 2018, Disney filed a new trademark for Lucasfilm, but the show was never released, and we stopped getting official updates. In a 2019 interview with Collider, Green said he felt like Disney wasn’t interested in “this kind of deconstructive comedy coexisting with these sincere interpretations of the characters.” 

Somehow, Detours Returned

In a 2020 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Green echoed these thoughts and admitted he never thought the series would get released. One reason for this was that even though the episodes were finished, he felt they’d all need to be tweaked to be suitable for Disney+ (presumably because of some juvenile, Robot Chicken-like humor). At the time, that seemed to be the end of the story. After all, where else would Star Wars Detours premiere if not Disney+? Now, we have an answer. Green revealed at San Diego Comic-Con this year that a “curation of episodes” would be displayed at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. “I’m just excited for people to get to see it,” he said.

But will the fans be excited to see it? That’s the real question. While Star Wars Detours is a fascinating part of franchise history (39 completed episodes, hidden from us for nearly a decade and a half!), the leaked episode “Dog Day Afternoon” was almost painfully unfunny. Maybe Disney made the right decision by burying this series. At any rate, fans will soon find out when they view the curated episodes at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Here’s hoping they include one of the many, many episodes that voice actor Weird Al Yankovic recorded original songs for!