Sandra Oh hasn’t appeared on Grey’s Anatomy in over a decade, so why is there speculation she could reprise the role of Cristina Yang in season 23?

ABC caused fans to question a potential return when the official account for the network shared a photo of Oh, 55, on Wednesday, August 12, writing, “Heavy on the Yang.” Social media users took to the comments section to share their theories on what the cryptic post meant.

Many suggested that resurfacing a photo with Oh meant she was filming scenes in the upcoming season. Others were quick to point out that with Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and Nick (Scott Speedman) engaged, it would make sense for some OG stars to return for an episode or two as the couple celebrates their nuptials — though Meredith stated she didn’t want a traditional wedding.

Oh originally starred on Grey’s Anatomy from its debut in 2005 until 2014. The actress received many nominations for her portrayal of Cristina and even won a Golden Globe for the role in 2005.

Since her exit, Oh has previously made it clear she has no plans to reprise the role.

“No,” she said about a possible return during The LA Times’ “Asian Enough” podcast in 2021. “I love it, though, and this is also why I really appreciate the show … that I still get asked this.”

Oh continued: “It’s very rare, I would say, to be able to see in such a way the impact of a character. In some ways, you do your work as a bubble and you let it go. I left that show, my God, seven years ago, almost. So in my mind, it’s gone. But for a lot of people, it’s still very much alive. And while I understand and I love it, I have moved on.”

More recently, Oh made a rare comment about her decision to exit Grey’s Anatomy amid salary renegotiations.

“At the end of season 8, [creator Shonda Rhimes] took me aside because we were all renegotiating and she goes, ‘What do you want to do?’” Oh said on a July episode of the “Dinner’s on Me” podcast. “I said, ‘Let me think about it.’”

Oh, who played Cristina Yang since season 1, took the time to consider her future.

Related: Grey’s Anatomy’s Biggest Exits Over the Years

Katherine Heigl, Patrick Dempsey, Justin Chambers and more stars have left Grey’s Anatomy — for various reasons. Created by Shonda Rhimes and starring Ellen Pompeo, Grey’s Anatomy debuted on ABC in 2005. Pompeo (Meredith Grey) left the show as a series regular following season 19 but continued to provide voiceover narration and make special guest […]

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“The creative being will dictate and you have to follow it,” she noted. “You’ve gotta ask, ‘What do you want to do? What should I do?”

The actress ultimately returned for one more season, adding, “I felt very much like I did my job. I feel like I created a whole character. I grew the character in 10 years time — where it’s a believable growth. People do grow in 10 years and I think she really did grow.”

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Oh concluded: “The privilege was to actually plan an exit and for all the writers to be able to support that. It’s extremely rare to have that. So that was a real, real gift.”

Grey’s Anatomy has weathered a multitude of cast departures over the years including lead Ellen Pompeo. After hinting at a departure, Pompeo, 56, confirmed in September 2022 that she would have a reduced role for season 19.

Pompeo starred in eight episodes that season before exiting the show as a series regular in 2023. Kim Raver and Kevin McKidd later departed the show, but it remains unclear whether there will be more characters who won’t return in season 23.

Anne Hathaway didn’t mince words as she expressed strong reactions to movies that kill dogs during the press tour for her new movie, “The End of Oak Street.”

The renowned actress said films in which dogs are killed “should automatically be rated R,” which stands for “restricted” and means that the movie contains adult material.

Over the years, Hathaway has spoken up on causes close to her heart, including when she promised to “fight” for LGBTQ+ equality despite the “divided” politics.

Anne Hathaway is advocating for animal safety even in fiction. During the press tour for her new film, The End of Oak Street, she told Complex Pop that movies that feature dogs being killed should be rated R, name-dropping “John Wick,” which stars Keanu Reeves.

“I feel like movies that kill dogs should automatically be rated R,” Hathaway said. “Doesn’t matter if anybody curses, doesn’t matter if there’s violence, if a dog dies, R-rated.”

She continued, “I think everybody’s so traumatized by ‘John Wick,’ because I’ve been seeing those [comments for our movie] like, ‘They better not kill the dog.’ I’m like, ‘Which movies are out there killing dogs that everybody’s scared that we’re just casually doing it in movies now?’”

Anne Hathaway Reassures Fans About Her Movie’s Dog

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In “The End of Oak Street,” Hathaway stars as Denise, an aspiring novelist and matriarch of the central family, as Ewan McGregor plays her husband, Greg, alongside Maisy Stella and Christian Convery as their children.

Set in the early ’80s, the story follows the Platt family, who live in a suburban neighborhood that is suddenly transported millions of years back into prehistoric times by a temporal anomaly, forcing them to survive against lethal dinosaurs.

They also have a trusted canine friend named Starbuck, which has left fans worried about his survival.

“Somebody was like, ‘Can you just let the audiences know that, like, it’s all gonna be OK?’” Hathaway said about Starbuck’s fate. “We break rules in this movie; that might not be one of them. Don’t worry.”

Hathaway’s Growing Family Includes Her Dogs

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Hathaway and her husband Adam Shulman, who share two children and are expecting a third, have brought dogs into their growing family, per Entertainment Weekly.

The Oscar winner has a chocolate Labrador named Esmeralda, whom she said was with her when she learned of her first Oscar nomination in 2008 for Rachel Getting Married.

“I was with my parents and my dog when I got the news, and we were all overjoyed — although I’m not sure my dog knew what was going on,” she jokingly told PEOPLE in 2009.

They also adopted a mixed spaniel-terrier in 2014 and renamed him Kenobi.

Hathaway might not be wrong, as reports suggest many fans check whether a dog dies before watching the movie.

Anne Hathaway Continues Her Fight For Equality

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The Interstellar actress often speaks up about causes close to her heart, such as women’s and children’s rights, animal safety, LGBTQ+ advocacy, gender equality, and abortion rights.

Chosen in 2016 to be a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador, she shed light on the tension between celebrating progress and pressing on in the face of ongoing inequality during an address at the commemoration of the 2026 International Women’s Day at the UN General Assembly in New York earlier this year.

“It’s hard to bear the knowledge that the distance between the promise of equality and the experience of it is still so far apart, for so many,” she said.

However, she insisted that celebrating the occasion itself is an act of defiance and must go on.

“Yes, we absolutely do,” she added. “Our celebration today affirms our determination to outlast it.”

Hathaway Promises To Fight For LGBTQ+ Rights

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In the buildup to the release of “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” which she starred in alongside Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci, Hathaway touched on the movie’s resonance with people worldwide, including the LGBTQ+ community.

In a conversation with Out, she revealed that she had the community in her heart the whole time she was filming the movie, in which she plays the legendary role of Andy Sachs, a role she first starred in 22 years ago.

She promised to continue the “fight” for LGBTQ+ equality even though the politics surrounding it have become “divisive.”

“I had [the queer community] in my heart the entire time we were filming! I knew who I was doing it for. It’s so obvious to me, the whole concept of equality. It doesn’t make any sense to me that the laws governing human freedom aren’t even applied consistently across the spectrum. I’ll fight until it’s that way, but in my head and in my heart, I know that’s true,” Hathaway told the news outlet.

She added, “This is a film for everyone. I love that there’s a film and there’s a space where we can be thinking about suburban dads and urban gays. We know that they will both love it and find something in it! I feel like, frankly, there’s a lot of money to be made by keeping us divided. It’s really wonderful to offer something for everyone.”

Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) has been one of TV’s most fascinating characters for two decades, so much so that fans refuse to let go of him. After the failed ending of the popular original series, Dexter, there was a spinoff sequel, Dexter: New Blood, which tried to fix things, followed by a better-than-expected prequel, Dexter: Original Sin. Finally, the franchise got it right with Dexter: Resurrection. After a great first season, the show is set to come back for a second. That wait is far off, though. If you’re craving more Dexter Morgan, check out the lost series you may have never even knew existed, an animated one that you can still find on YouTube today.

‘Dexter Early Cuts’ Was a Series of Short Animated Films on YouTube

Dexter Early Cuts premiered in 2009 during the run of the original Showtime series. Long before Dexter: Original Sin, which starred Patrick Gibson as the serial killer in his early days, audiences wanted to know more about who he was before we first met him. Dexter Early Cuts fills in some of those blanks in a unique way. From 2009 to 2012, three seasons of Dexter Early Cuts were released as a clever way to promote the upcoming new episodes. By putting the content on YouTube, free for all to see, it increased interest in what you had to pay to see later on Showtime.

The first season of Dexter Early Cuts consisted of 12 easy-to-digest mini-episodes, with runtimes that clocked in at only a few minutes. The familiar music of the intro is there, complete with a quick shot of darkened images of bodies, a syringe, and a spot of blood. Released weekly, the first season takes a burgeoning Dexter Morgan on his journey of tracking down and taking out three serial killers. Season 2 of Dexter Early Cuts, subtitled Dark Echo, did things a bit differently, with only six episodes, and all coming out the same day in October 2010. Two years later, in late summer 2012, came a third and final season, subtitled All in the Family, this time going back to the better format of one mini episode per week.

‘Dexter Early Cuts’ Is a Richly Drawn Exploration of Dexter Morgan’s Origins

Dexter Early Cuts is not as good as the original show it promoted. It’s not as good as what’s come after either. But it’s not supposed to be. With such limited time to work with, there is only so much the series can do. Still, it’s much more than filler or a lazy commercial for Dexter. It’s a compelling series, with Michael C. Hall back as the narrator, and a journey that takes Dexter from multiple victims at the start of the journey to a season-long big bad, and in the last season, a father-and-son duo who will challenge our anti-hero in new ways.

Dexter Early Cuts isn’t perfect. We know Dexter is in no danger, and the short runtime makes it difficult to get invested in the evolution of his mind or who the antagonists are. They are simple fodder. The animation style is also an effect you’ll either love or be frustrated with. In our opinion, it works. Rather than being a simple, twisted cartoon of sorts, Dexter Early Cuts is more akin to a graphic novel. It mostly stays still, with zoom-ins and zoom-outs, the camera moving across the page from one frame to the next. The little movement there is, with mouths moving on still characters, feels disjointed and off-kilter, just like the rich, exaggerated colors that are often hurried, scratched, and frayed. It’s purposely imperfect and not lifelike, which serves to make it unsettling. The simplicity also forces the viewer to use their imagination rather than being shown everything.

It’s truly art, and a style taken seriously because of who is involved. Season 1 is illustrated by Kyle Baker, a former illustrator for Marvel Comics who has been around since the 1980s. The second is a joint production by Bill Sienkiewicz (a surrealist who influenced The New Mutants movie) and David Mack (a writer and artist for Daredevil Marvel Comics), before Mack handles the duties on his own in Season 3.

If you’re a fan of graphic novels and comics, Dexter Early Cuts is fascinating. The iconic character and the actor who voices him are the way in. The animation is the reason to stay. The style hides the flaws that would exist if the short episodes were the usual live-action sameness. The attention-getting animation is as much of a reason to watch as the stories told. 15 years ago, it was a stylistic way to keep Dexter alive in the imagination of viewers between seasons. It worked well enough two decades ago. Today, Dexter Early Cuts is an even better watch because we’ve since gone back to the origins of Dexter Morgan, and with renewed interest due to Dexter: Resurrection, the mini-episodes are more effective, whether it’s for a rewatch or the very first time you’ve seen it.

You cannot properly summarize David Robert Mitchell’s filmography to date, since each one tackles a different genre or two, and then all of them have their own ideas about how to do weird things with those genres. His directorial debut was in 2010, and was kind of a weird dramedy a bit like Dazed and Confused, but not quite as strong or coherent. Then, 2014 is the movie for which he made a name for himself, mainly as a horror filmmaker, yet then he didn’t stick with horror for long, and made something that got very messy and head-spinning in 2018. Eight years passed, and he’s now returned with a fairly large-scale (almost blockbuster) sort of movie that J.J. Abrams seems to be getting a lot of attention for, even if Abrams is only there, officially, in a co-producing role. It’s a bit Abrams-esque, which is to say it’s also a bit Spielberg-esque, but more on that specific film shortly.

There are only four movies here, sure, but they’re all strange and there are a fair few things to talk about when it comes to each. Three are probably good, or maybe it’s more the case that two are good, and one’s a bit misunderstood. As for the fourth… it’s baffling and maybe kind of amateurish, but somehow in a weirdly compelling way, too. If you want movies you don’t usually see, David Robert Mitchell might be your guy, even if he is always, admittedly, mixing and matching individual elements that do sometimes feel familiar. His four feature films to date are ranked below, starting with the one that’s a bit of an interesting mess, and ending with the one that still feels like the closest he’s come to making a full-on classic.

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‘The Myth of the American Sleepover’ (2010)

Image via IFC Films

Dazed and Confused was mentioned before as something that feels a little in line with David Robert Mitchell’s first movie: The Myth of the American Sleepover. The word “Myth” being in the title here feels like it does some heavy-lifting, supporting the argument that this is more than just a coming-of-age dramedy, and something that’s instead dreamlike or even a bit fantastical. It’s an avant-garde kind of coming-of-age movie, or it’s a fairly sloppily put-together attempt at making another coming-of-age dramedy that might have a chance at scratching the same itch as something like Dazed and Confused, or the other hang-out movies Richard Linklater’s directed.

In The Myth of the American Sleepover, the teenagers feel like they’re hanging out in purgatory. The drama’s rarely dramatic, the crushes and romances scarcely passionate, and the comedy simply not there at all, to the point where one starts to wonder whether there’s been some massive era in this being labeled as a dramedy. It’s Mitchell’s smallest movie, and it looks like the simplest on the surface, so you return to it after having seen any combination of the other three, expecting something gentler and more basic, and nope. Well, it might be more basic. It’s hard to know whether it’s just basic, or whether there’s some extra layer to the basic and amateurish qualities, and so what you’re actually seeing is a more arthouse take on (or even an underhanded parody of) “the summer’s winding down” style coming-of-age movies. What a trip, and what a snooze, all at the same time.

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‘The End of Oak Street’ (2026)

The cinematic world is not dominated by dinosaurs in the way it arguably should be, because you’ve got Jurassic Park, which towers over everything critically and commercially, and then you’ve got the Jurassic Park sequels, which tower over things not so much critically, but usually commercially. It felt as though there was something of a monopoly on big-budget dinosaur movies, so it’s nice when something like The End of Oak Street comes along and shows that dinosaurs don’t need direct attachment to Steven Spielberg’s original film/series to work. Of course, The End of Oak Street owes debts to Spielberg’s filmography in other ways. It doesn’t take place in that world, and the setting of 1982 appears to be a way to get out of any need for characters to mention “This is like that movie, Jurassic Park,” but some scenes do pay serious homage to the first two Jurassic Park movies. The premise also takes what the premise of Jurassic World Dominion should’ve been, and has more fun with it.

That film promised dinosaurs freed at last, and rampaging all over the world. Actual exciting scenes with dinosaurs in real-world locations proved minimal. With The End of Oak Street, you only get a small chunk of humanity thrown back in time, but many of the set pieces do resonate the way the set pieces in a hypothetically better Jurassic World Dominion might’ve. Beyond Jurassic Park, you’ve got some homages to Poltergeist (which Spielberg produced, and maybe ghost-directed, according to some), Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial, Jaws, and even some Raiders of the Lost Ark (though Indy never had to deal with a snake quite this big). Parts of The End of Oak Street also feel bloodier and a little more intense than you might expect, and the end of The End of Oak Street… it’s interesting. Certain things about it set in long after the movie’s over, so it’s hard to feel sure about where it all ends up. But the ride there’s a fun one, and Anne Hathaway continues to battle Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, and Tom Holland in the competition of “Who Does 2026 at the Movies Belong to?”

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‘Under the Silver Lake’ (2018)

Image via A24

While there aren’t really ways to break down just what happens in Under the Silver Lake, there are things to compare it to. It’s less being like, “Hey, the movie is about this happening, and if you like movies where that happens, maybe check it out.” It’s more like, “Uh, this mess of a film takes messy inspiration from the best of the messes, since it’s got the fingerprints of someone who wants to be Thomas Pynchon all over it, and then you throw in a bit of David Lynch fanaticism, and also, remember Southland Tales? This movie kind of feels like Southland Tales.” You say all that, and potential watchers are either clutching a bottle of pepper spray, or starting to back away very slowly, or maybe they’re just flat out running elsewhere. Look, Under the Silver Lake is not their kind of movie. It’s probably not your kind of movie. Whose kind of movie even is this?

Uh, Under the Silver Lake looks pretty good. Visually, David Robert Mitchell seemed to know what he was doing, and the color and style of it all being reminiscent of some works by David Lynch… like, that’s pretty high praise. As for Pynchon, it’s about a guy stumbling around, trying to uncover something, and learning less about all sorts of conspiracies, shady figures, and underground societies the more he tries to interact with them. It’s a bit Inherent Vice, but with the comedy stripped away, making it arguably more like The Crying of Lot 49, but a bit longer and more complex, so throw in a bit of V into the mix, too. Maybe there are other postmodern authors Mitchell’s pulling from, too. Anyway, very little of this movie makes any kind of sense in the way sense is usually defined/understood, but it’s worth a watch for the things it does right stylistically, and for the undeniably daring places it’s also very confident to barge into throughout.

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‘It Follows’ (2014)

Image via Image via RADiUS-TWC

The high-concept premise is the first thing that It Follows really has going for it, and then the second thing is the fact that said premise is executed incredibly well. Whatever David Robert Mitchell was trying to do in The Myth of the American Sleepover (it remains a mythtery), he’d really worked out his whole style and what to do with It Follows. This is his most intense stab at the horror genre, with the outlandish premise made to work here involving a sexually transmitted disease that is a lot more deadly (in the literal sense) than the more “normal” ones. If you get infected, you’re stalked by some kind of very slow but also very deadly creature, and the only way – at least it seems, initially – to get the target off you is by having sexual intercourse with someone else, and then the creature will pursue them.

But the paranoia remains, because once the person they want is dead, the creature will go back to the next person in the chain. The whole movie has some young people frantically trying to work all this out, all the while worrying about how long they can keep fleeing – and keep track of – the monster that’s after them. Metaphorically… well, it’s obvious what it’s about. The subtext becomes the text here, or maybe the subtext/text becomes the literal villain. It Follows makes all this work, boasts a handful of genuinely terrifying sequences, looks unique on an atmospheric front, and feels clever as regards the mythology and unique central monster it builds up. It’s one of the best psychological thriller/horror/mystery films of the century so far, and certainly feels like David Robert Mitchell’s single strongest filmmaking effort to date.

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It Follows

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Release Date

March 27, 2015

Runtime

101 minutes

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Director

David Robert Mitchell

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Writers

David Robert Mitchell

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Season 7 of the Netflix phenomenon Black Mirror arrived in 2025 with another batch of episodes to fill its audiences’ brains with existential dread, and creator Charlie Brooker has since confirmed that the series will return again. The series was made famous for using technology as a vessel to showcase the lowest points of humanity. While some of the technology is far beyond what is possible for the masses in our reality, the writing of Black Mirror delivers a grounded approach that is relatable to audiences because the actions of its characters feel possible. It’s what makes the series so devastating and what keeps the audience coming back for more every time a new season drops. Black Mirror fans who have already devoured Season 7 should check out Prime Video’s sci-fi series, Upload.

What Is ‘Upload’ About?

Upload takes place in 2033 and presents a world where death is not the end, and your consciousness can be uploaded to digital heaven, where loved ones can still communicate with you and even visit you through a virtual reality setup, transferring you seamlessly from the real world to the digital world. The “dead” can also still view the goings-on of the outside world through giant screens in this digital utopia. The series follows programmer Nathan Brown (Robbie Amell), who dies at the young age of twenty-seven from a self-driving car accident and is then uploaded to the luxurious Lakeview, where he is at the whim of his obsessive and materialistic, still-alive girlfriend, Ingrid Kannerman (Allegra Edwards), who is personally funding Nathan’s new digital home. As Nathan navigates his new existence, he grows close with his living customer service representative, a.k.a. his “angel,” Nora Antony (Andy Allo).

Nora works for the company to secure a spot in Lakeview for her ailing father. He is reluctant to join this digital purgatory and would rather take his chances in the unknown reality of death, in hopes he will be able to rejoin his late wife on another plane. What Nora didn’t expect to come with the job was a budding romance between her and Nathan, which is the beating heart of the series. Before Nathan died, he was looking to end it with Ingrid, but the financial stranglehold Ingrid had on Nathan put him in a very precarious position. He is almost forced to try to make this relationship work while simultaneously falling for Nora. Nora brings out a new side of Nathan, one that is the polar opposite of the superficial life he became accustomed to with Ingrid. There’s also another wrinkle in both of these relationships — both Ingrid and Nora are alive while Nathan is very much dead. The technology presented is far more advanced than what the audience sees in everyday life, but there is still no method to transfer a dead person’s consciousness back into another body to bring them back to life in the real world.

There’s also an issue with Nathan’s memories, as some major gaps in his life are missing. Before the accident that took his life, Nathan and his business partner were working on a free version of the digital afterlife program to give everyone a fair shot at continued existence, if that’s what they wanted. This mystery lends to the overarching fact that Nathan’s car accident might not exactly have been an accident. Not only does Nora become the primary love interest of Upload, but she also becomes determined to find out what actually happened to Nathan to grant him a trip to Lakeview. The way Ingrid seemingly forces Nathan to be uploaded is a clear dead ringer for what might be going on in this supposed conspiracy against Nathan and his intentions to help others.

This afterlife is available for everyone, but the wealthier you are, the better afterlife you are afforded. The wealthy get to enjoy a luxurious paradise, while everyone else is subjected to “2 Gigs,” where they have limited bandwidth and freeze when they run out of data, similar to the subscription tiers in Black Mirror‘s “Common People” episode from Season 7. The benefits of these technological advances seem too good to be true, and that’s by design. It’s a mirror to the real-life fact of megacorporations looking to monetize every aspect of human life. The real kicker is that both shows seem to be intentionally mocking both of the streaming services that float the bill for them to get made, sticking it to the man while still folding into the throes of capitalistic society.

‘Upload’ Is if ‘Black Mirror’ Ditched the Anthology Format and Followed One Storyline

Both Upload and Black Mirror are metaphors for real-life class disparity, with Upload delivering a more humorous approach. Even though it is more of a comedy, Upload delivers thought-provoking concepts about the morality of continuing your consciousness after death, almost predicting what the future could hold with inventions like Meta and the future advancement of virtual reality. The real setback to Upload is that it accomplishes a great deal with a very short runtime. It incorporates sci-fi elements, is a comedy, features a romantic throughline, and maintains a satirical outlook on modern-day society through a futuristic lens. Juggling all these plates at once can cause one, or a few of them, to fall at points in the series, but the Greg Daniels creation is still well worth the watch.

If fans of Black Mirror ever wondered what would happen if they ditched the anthology format and went with one storyline, Upload would be a great guess about how it would come out. So many amazing Black Mirror episodes start with so much hope and happiness, only to rip the carpet from beneath the viewer and give them a heaping dose of depressing reality. Upload does have more comedic elements, as stated before, but its pure concept is inherently bleak, and there are moments within the series that exemplify that feeling substantially. All four parts of Upload have now aired, with the fourth and final part bringing the series to a conclusion in 2025. That means the entire story is now available to watch from beginning to end, making it an ideal time to dive into this digital world.

Upload is available to stream on Prime Video.

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Release Date

2020 – 2025-00-00

Network

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Prime Video

Directors

Jeffrey Blitz, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Daina Reid, David Rogers, Sarah Boyd, Jonathan van Tulleken, Tom Marshall

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Writers

Megan Neuringer, Maxwell Theodore Vivian, Farhan Arshad, Alison Brown, Shepard Boucher, Yael Green, mike lawrence, Lauren Houseman, Aasia LaShay Bullock, Alex J. Sherman, Alyssa Lane

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It’s Anne Hathaway‘s world, and we’re just living in it. After a few years of relative dormancy, Hathaway has returned to the center stage of movie culture to remind everyone why she’s not only a major icon but also one of the best actors living today, and her filmography from this calendar year showcases her range across all genres and scales. The Oscar-winning actor has five credits to her name in 2026, including hits like The Devil Wears Prada 2 and The Odyssey, as well as the brand-new sci-fi thriller The End of Oak Street, with Verity, a drama based on the bestselling book by Colleen Hoover, still on the way. The film that kicked off the Year of Hathaway, Mother Mary, was her smallest and most niche release, but it arguably features the actor’s finest on-screen performance to date. David Lowery‘s psychological drama, available on HBO Max on August 21, is a beguiling and heart-wrenching portrait of fame and friendship.

Anne Hathaway is at Her Most Powerful in ‘Mother Mary’

Image via A24

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A24 has developed such a pedigree of prestige and acclaim that they are far from the little-engine-that-could indie studio that they started out as. In 2026, they have the cachet to attract a global brand name in Anne Hathaway, whose star power can be used to help a challenging arthouse film like Mother Mary get off the ground. Released in April 2026, the film stars Hathaway as the titular fictional pop star preparing for her comeback performance. Long-buried wounds resurface when Mary’s estranged best friend and former costume designer, Sam Anselm, played by an equally brilliant Michaela Coel, reunites with her, forcing the musician to reckon with her life and regrets.

It was reported that, during the production of Mother Mary, Hathaway broke down in tears while filming an intense scene, and the raw human emotion is registered throughout the film’s runtime. This headline suggested that audiences would be getting a sweeping, operatic epic, and not the quiet and methodical chamber drama that David Lowery ended up delivering to mixed results from critics and audiences. Either way, there’s no denying the sheer magnitude of Hathaway’s earth-shattering performance in Mother Mary, where she evokes a lifetime’s worth of pain and yearning through subtle gestures and histrionic expressions.

While there is no clear one-to-one analog to Mother Mary, her lavish wardrobe and stage decor feel akin to Lady Gaga, a star whose bold conviction and uncompromising image have been her calling card for 20 years. The parallels are open to interpretation, as Hathaway’s take on an uber-famous, emotionally burnt-out, and addled pop star taps into our ongoing discussions about celebrity culture and parasocial relationships between stars and fans. Even when she keeps her composure, Mary is on the brink of an emotional breakdown, and Hathaway seamlessly straddles this line. She makes Lowery’s more ostentatious flourishes, such as Mary’s interpretive dances and the stilted dialogue, feel wholly human. The character’s coldness is not a turnoff, but rather, an invitation to explore her mindset.

‘Mother Mary’ is a Daring Study of Fame and Broken Friendships

David Lowery, best known for A Ghost Story and The Green Knight, directed his most audacious and unorthodox film to date with Mother Mary, a vision that unsurprisingly left some viewers perplexed. From its dialogue and pacing to its visual language, the film defies cinematic conventions. The narrative blurs the line between reality and fantasy, and its marketing suggested that the titular character’s concert performances would be more of a focal point. Instead, Mother Mary is primarily concerned with the thorny relationship between Hathaway and Coel’s characters. A story of love and hate, Mary and Sam share toxic traits of spite and envy, but they have a symbiotic partnership in their professional lives that’s apparent. The bond taps into the unique dynamics between above-the-line and below-the-line artists, as Sam carries herself with a sense of alienation over feeling constantly overshadowed by Mary.

The film can feel like a slog in its middle stretch, perhaps intentionally so, but it springs to life in its sparse fantasy sequences, notably a spellbinding scene that depicts Mary’s silhouette behind the concert stage. Lowery’s formalist bravado comes alive even in the most stripped-down conversation scenes between Mary and Sam, and his sense of control is impressive in its own right. In terms of entertainment value, Mother Mary doesn’t provide the charm and thrills of The Devil Wears Prada 2 and The Odyssey, but its thematic depth leaves you in a cloud of intrigue. At the very least, the film is a must-watch thanks to Hathaway, who is at the peak of her powers as a pop star you can’t avert your eyes from.

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Mother Mary

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Release Date

April 17, 2026

Runtime

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112 minutes

Director

David Lowery

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Writers

David Lowery

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Japan is one of the leading countries in terms of video games, providing some of the greatest franchises of all time, such as The Legend of Zelda and Metal Gear Solid. They continue to innovate the genre with their creativity and dedication, which can be seen across multiple genres. RPGs are an immersive experience that grounds the player in their role, and Japan spawned its own subgenre from this called JRPGs.

Simply standing for Japanese role-playing games, these titles have a vastly different feel to them, such as a linear story, direction, art style, and less agency, which is why this list will rank the ten best JRPGs of all time. Based on aspects such as gameplay, design, narrative, visuals, originality, fan opinion, critical acclaim, and overall quality, these are the ten best role-playing games that have come out of Japan.

10

‘EarthBound’ (1994)

Image via Nintendo

Nintendo is one of the most famous Japanese gaming companies, and they love their RPGs, so fans can expect a handful of their games on this list, including EarthBound. A cosmic entity known as Giygas threatens to destroy the world, but of the many unlikely saviors, a child named Ness and his friends step up to the challenge.

A lot of fans say Mother 3 is the best, but it sadly was never localized in the West; plus, the first game is much more influential, which is why it is placed here instead. EarthBound has such a unique vibe that blends lighthearted fun with existential dread and bizarre oddities set in a satirical version of the 1990s. As such a redefining game so early on, it stuck out as a timeless masterpiece that deserves another entry in the franchise.

9

‘Xenoblade Chronicles 2’ (2017)

Image via Monolith Soft

Nintendo doesn’t just rely on old JRPG franchises; they can also deliver new ones, as seen with Xenoblade Chronicles, which started on the Wii. However, it is more dominant than ever on the Nintendo Switch with Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Rex is just a scavenger, and Pyra is a living weapon, but this unlikely duo teams up in order to find Elysium, a supposed paradise for humanity to live in peace.

It was difficult to choose which Xenoblade Chronicles game was the best, considering they are all perfect, but fans seem to prefer the second game the most. Story-wise, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a standout in its franchise, delivering a thematic masterclass that explores existential questions, but that doesn’t get in the way of a deep gameplay system and world with lots to do, highlighting why it is one of the best modern adventure video games.

Image via Sega

JRPGs were wildly successful in the 1990s, but they have made a modern resurgence in the 2020s, with this decade sporting one of the best of all time, Metaphor: ReFantazio. After the king’s assassination, a worldwide tournament for the throne is now underway, and as the protagonist, players must fight against all of those unworthy and break the curse on the one true heir.

Earning a nomination for Game of the Year, it instantly proved to spice up the genre that so many casual gamers look down upon. Metaphor: ReFantazio brings in the studio’s defining mechanics and refines them, creating a polished gameplay system that is the best of the social-link and calendar-management mechanics. Plus, with its poignant narrative, this game earns the title of best JRPG of the 2020s.

7

‘Fire Emblem: Three Houses’ (2019)

Image via Nintendo

Every popular game series has a dedicated fanbase, but JRPG fans are more faithful than most, with Fire Emblem having some of the most diehard supporters. This franchise has always been popular, but it reached new heights when Fire Emblem: Three Houses came out. With the nation split into three distinct parts, players control Byleth, a mercenary who is enlisted to become a professor, but when they start having prophetic visions, their nightmare slowly becomes true.

The Nintendo Switch introduced a lot of fans to new franchises, and Fire Emblem: Three Houses was one of the biggest successes, leaving its mark as one of the best Nintendo Switch games. With refined mechanics and investment in character dynamics and development, the party felt authentic, plus the classic grid-style combat and social management continue to be a staple and the reason why Fire Emblem is so beloved.

6

‘Pokémon Black 2 and White 2’ (2012)

Image via The Pokémon Company

Funnily enough, all of Nintendo’s games are placed on the bottom half of this list, but that still proves they are a juggernaut of this genre, with their best franchise being Pokémon, and the greatest game in that lineup is arguably Pokémon Black 2 and White 2. Following the events of the first game, the remnants of Team Plasma are still haunting Unova, and it is up to the player to stop this.

Sure, there are more influential and popular Pokémon games than Black 2 and White 2, but in terms of sheer quality, these games are the best. They perfected the timeless formula with gorgeous pixel art and animation, the best story in the franchise, polished combat, engaging exploration, and refined mechanics. Black 2 and White 2 expanded the Pokédex, included a hard difficulty mode, and added lots of post-game content, proving why it is the complete Pokémon package and definitive version of the franchise that perfected the 2D format.

5

‘Final Fantasy VII’ (1997)

Image via Square

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Of all the acclaimed JRPG franchises, two stick out the most: Pokémon, which this list already covered, and Final Fantasy. Of the latter, there isn’t a better game than Final Fantasy VII. The evil mega-corporation known as Shinra is draining the life energy out of the planet, but luckily, Cloud Strife and his band of eco-terrorists are the only ones who can stop Sephiroth from achieving godhood.

In terms of how iconic it is, Final Fantasy VII is the biggest on this list, with Cloud and Sephiroth alone being instantly recognizable legends of the gaming scene. This game is a cinematic masterclass that brought the weight of storytelling to video games. More than that, Final Fantasy VII is a fantasy game masterpiece and a landmark in the industry that broke the JRPG genre into the mainstream.

4

‘Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King’ (2004)

Image via Square Enix

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Akira Toriyama is the most influential manga artist, best known for Dragon Ball, but he also dabbled in the JRPG genre, with two games on this list, starting with the Dragon Quest franchise. There are many remarkable games, like the fifth and eleventh, but the best goes to Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, which follows an adventurer and his party as they reverse the curse of the king and the prince by defeating an evil jester.

Dragon Quest has a habit of redefining itself with new games, but Dragon Quest VIII decided to perfect what is already incredible, creating the definitive experience in the franchise. It has a classic fantasy vibe with stunning cel-shaded graphics that make up this ambitious world. Dragon Quest VIII is intricately balanced and boasts a party of compelling characters that make the journey even more memorable.

3

‘Chrono Trigger’ (1995)

Image via Square Enix

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JRPG’s have been around for a while, but they gained prominence in the 1990s, and a big reason for that was Chrono Trigger. When an alien parasite named Lavos threatens to consume the entire world, a group of adventurers must travel through the past, present, and future in order to stop it, taking them from a prehistoric era of dinosaurs to a highly advanced future of robots.

A lot of RPGs are bloated with content or rush their story, but Chrono Trigger avoids that with meticulously crafted pacing from start to finish. Everything done in the past directly affects the future, meaning players need to understand the weight of their choices and how it changes the narrative. This creates multiple endings, a new feature for the time, that makes each playthrough something new and special in this flawless 1990s fantasy game.

2

‘Persona 5’ (2016)

Image via Atlus, Sega

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RPGs don’t just fit into one category; they can be all sorts of things, including JRPGs and turn-based RPGs. In fact, a lot of the games on this list are turn-based, including one of the best modern iterations, Persona 5. A group of high school students forms a group of phantom thieves, aiming to steal artifacts and other valuables from evil adults, stopping their villainous desires from harming the rest of the world.

In terms of engaging characters, Persona 5 excels, delivering a handful of endearing personalities that interact with the world differently, letting players embody multiple distinct characters. However, the gameplay is just as perfect, combining life-simulator elements with dungeon-crawling to create a unique style of combat. From its dazzling and bold aesthetic to striking mechanical prowess, Persona 5 is a modern miracle of the JRPG genre.

1

‘Xenogears’ (1998)

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From grand franchises that release new innovative masterpieces in the 2020s to small-scope classics from the 1990s, JRPGs are a vast and deep ocean of content. The best isn’t so easily decided, but this list has selected Xenogears as the greatest of all time. Fei Fong Wong is exiled from his village, which gives him the chance to explore his past and clear his amnesia, but this adventure leads him into a world of the unknown.

If fans want a good story out of a JRPG, then Xenogears is the game for them, because it features the greatest story in the genre. The scale of narrative ambition is unmatched, delving into psychology, philosophy, and gnosticism, which shape the lore of the world. This incredibly intriguing narrative can be text-heavy at times, but Xenogears remains a staple of the genre, cementing itself as the best JRPG of all time.