Zach Hickerson, the brother of Hayden Panettiere’s on-off boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, has spoken out after the actress’ death.

“There are a lot of assumptions, speculations and accusations currently swirling,” Zach told TMZ on Friday, August 21. “The truth will come out as the authorities complete and release additional details from the investigation. And that is important because the people who loved and adored Hayden deserve the truth.”

He continued, “At this time, I want to clarify my involvement in effort to keep the focus on the fact that we lost one of the most precious individuals on this earth and to allow those that cared about her to mourn without additional noise, chaos and misinformation being created and propagated by the media as well as the public.”

Laying out the timeline of events, Zach told the outlet that he woke up at his Airbnb in Greenville, South Carolina, on Sunday, August 16, and got dressed to attend church.

Related: Hayden Panettiere Once Dated Brian Hickerson’s Brother Zach

Hayden Panettiere was once romantically involved with on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson’s brother before her death. Us understands that Panettiere dated Zach Hickerson in 2019. She and Brian, meanwhile, were together on and off from 2018 to 2020. The Daily Mail was first to report the news alongside photos of Panettiere and Zach holding hands […]

“I exchanged messages that morning with Brian on my way. We planned on us all getting lunch and playing indoor golf after the service,” he added. “When I left church, I called and texted both of them. When I didn’t reach Brian or Hayden, I just assumed maybe they fell back asleep, so I drove over and went to the Airbnb. When I got there, I knew the code to the building but not the door code to the Airbnb.”

Zach recalled knocking loudly on the door, which woke up Brian, 37, from the nap he had been taking with Hayden.

“When we went in and tried to wake Hayden up for lunch, we realized she was unconscious,” he continued. “I immediately called 911, and Brian gave her Narcan. We then jointly performed CPR while 911 was on speaker until Fire and EMS arrived. At that point, we watched as they tried every measure possible to save her life.”

Zach told the outlet that he is “beyond heartbroken and devastated” by Hayden’s death.

“Hayden was one of my dearest and closest friends that I loved and cared about for the last eight years,” he concluded. “Out of respect for her loved ones, the speculation and sensationalism of her death needs to end until the facts can be released from the investigation.”

Hayden’s father, Skip Panettiere, confirmed her death to Us on Sunday. She was 36.

Related: DEA Joins Hayden Panettiere Death Investigation: What to Know

Actress Hayden Panettiere was found unresponsive at a residence in Greenville, South Carolina, on August 16, 2026, and pronounced dead at the scene. She was 36. According to a statement from the Greenville Police Department, officers, “accompanied by EMS personnel, responded to a report of an unresponsive female” at approximately 1:50 p.m. “Upon arrival, medical […]

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“It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden. She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her — and to the millions who watched her onscreen,” Skip said in a statement at the time. “We ask for privacy as our family takes time to process this unimaginable loss.”

The Greenville Police Department and Greenville County Coroner’s Office confirmed that officers responded to reports of an “unresponsive female” at a South Carolina residence, later identified as Hayden, and a possible “drug overdose.” First responders and EMS performed “advanced cardiac life support measures,” but Hayden was pronounced dead on Sunday afternoon.

An autopsy found “no signs of trauma that would have contributed” to Hayden’s death, the coroner’s office confirmed to Us. The cause and manner of her death “remain pending further investigation and the completion of additional studies.”

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The New York Times reported on Thursday, August 20, that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was looking into the circumstances surrounding Panettiere’s death.

Brian broke his silence on Hayden’s death via a statement from his attorney Sloan Ellis.

“Hayden’s death remains under investigation and it is important to allow that investigation to proceed,” Ellis told Us on Thursday. “As has been publicly reported, police confirmed there were no signs of foul play. Out of respect for Hayden’s loved ones and the ongoing investigation, there will be no further comment at this time.”

Marshals fans, look out, because the upcoming season plans to change things up. Those hoping that the show will further explore the personal lives of Kayce Dutton’s (Luke Grimes) new teammates are in luck, as the CBS series is making strides in that direction. While the first season no doubt rode off the success of Yellowstone, Marshals continues due to the efforts of fans who have flocked to this new corner of Taylor Sheridan‘s complex neo-Western world — and Season 2 looks to be even better now that Morgan Lindholm‘s Maddie will have an expanded role.

‘Marshals’ Season 2 Plans To Bridge Cal’s Personal and Professional Lives

We already know that Marshals has committed to developing Pete “Cal” Calvin’s (Logan Marshall-Green) cancer story further going forward. This was good news for those of us who felt like that particular plotline was a bit half-baked last season. That said, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Maddie will have an expanded role in Season 2. Cal spent much of the first season trying to make amends with his estranged daughter, but now that he has received his diagnosis, it will assuredly complicate their dynamic further — especially since it’s already become more complex after Maddie began dating Cal’s subordinate Miles (Tatanka Means). That already makes this quite a sticky situation, as conflict has arisen between Cal and Miles in the workplace. Mixed with all the physical pain the former SEAL operator is going through, it seems like this is a recipe for disaster.

Still, bridging Cal’s personal and professional lives is long overdue. While Belle (Arielle Kebbel) — who has her own feelings toward Cal — needs to keep her family life separate from her work for a plethora of reasons, Cal has long been merging the two. Whenever the team aimed to unwind after a hard day’s work, they found themselves at the Bullet N’ Barrel Saloon, the same establishment where Maddie serves as a bartender. Although her identity was a mystery for the first few episodes (we mistakenly thought that Cal was hitting on the younger woman), their relationship was soon revealed — just not in time for Miles to avoid asking her out. Now that those lines between work and play are a bit more blurred, Marshals aims to push Cal’s newfound challenges into the forefront of the second season.

While many of us are still wondering how Kayce is going to get his son back from not-so-surprising big bad Tom Weaver (Chris Mulkey), others are itching for their soapy fix by wondering how everything is going to play out between Cal and Maddie, Cal and Belle, and Cal and Miles. Even if the show takes its sweet time to unpack these relationships in light of the U.S. Marshal’s health complications, we’re happy to hear that Maddie will be a bigger part of the show. As far as underdeveloped dynamics go, everything between Cal and his daughter deserves some time to find its legs.

‘Marshals’ Season 2 Has a Lot To Live Up To After ‘Yellowstone’

While Marshals Season 2 sounds like it will improve upon the first, it has a lot to live up to now after the first season of Yellowstone sequel Dutton Ranch. The Paramount+ drama picks up after the events of Sheridan’s original series (and seemingly some of Marshals as well) as Kacey’s sister Beth (Kelly Reilly) and her husband Rip (Cole Hauser) find themselves migrating from Montana to Texas. Dutton Ranch succeeded where Marshals did not in its ability to maintain the same tone and feel as Yellowstone even outside Big Sky Country. Where Marshals leaned into the network television style of police procedurals, Dutton Ranch is just as much a prestige neo-Western drama as its predecessor — if not more so. In short, Marshals has a lot to live up to. Network television has certainly surprised us before, so there’s no telling how the Dutton drama could find its footing in Season 2.

Marshals returns to CBS on Sunday, October 4, 2026.

A father in Florida was arrested after he allegedly let his 4-year-old son wander onto a busy road for roughly an hour, claiming that he lost track of the young boy because he had “too much energy.”

Semyon Levin was charged with child neglect without great bodily harm following the incident, which took place on Wednesday, August 19, around 3 p.m. when Levin, 63, was at a Starbucks in Sunny Isles, Florida. He was eating and watching his son until the boy wandered off.

Levin was arrested and placed in jail, while he made his first appearance in court on Thursday, August 20. He has since pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Levin denied wrongdoing, telling officers that “he lost sight” of his son, according to an arrest affidavit filed by the Sunny Isles Beach Police Department and viewed by Law & Crime. While he admitted to not knowing where his son was, Levin did not take “immediate action such as contacting police to request help in locating him.”

He said he believed his son was walking home from Starbucks with “an adult” and his two daughters, who are 9 years old and 7 years old. He went on to say “that he constantly loses sight” of the young boy and that his son “has too much energy.” Because of his energy level, Levin said it’s “hard for him to keep him in sight.”

Levin was asked why he didn’t call the police when he realized his son was missing, and he “stated that he did not think [the boy] being lost constituted an emergency.”

Police found the boy when a motorist stopped to tell an officer during a traffic stop that there was “a wandering small child on the sidewalk.” The motorist said that the boy was heading North and “had visible redness on his face.” Additionally, the motorist said the boy was carrying a half-eaten slice of pizza.

The officer found the child and placed him in his vehicle before he tried to locate his guardians.

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The officer eventually noticed a woman “walking rapidly” outside a nearby apartment complex. The woman, who was accompanied by a girl, then confirmed to the officer “that she was looking for her son.”

The woman was revealed to be Levin’s wife, and she contacted him to tell him to come to the scene. He “responded to the scene and admitted” that the boy had been under his supervision when he went missing, and he said that he last saw their son about an hour earlier.

The investigation into the case remains ongoing.

The video game medium has several incredible fantasy titles, from modern gems like Elden Ring and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to certified classics like Final Fantasy VII and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. One of the genre’s greatest franchises is Dragon Age, BioWare’s crowning jewel, which dominated the fantasy space in the late 2000s and early 2010s. The series arguably peaked with its third entry, 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition, which won the first-ever Game of the Year at the Game Awards and remains one of the best open-world experiences of the 2010s.

A huge reason behind Inquisition‘s success is the brilliant writing, which does a truly outstanding job with the complex worldbuilding, compelling narrative, and characterization. Perhaps the greatest aspect of the writing, however, is the dialogue, which can be equal parts informative, clever, and witty. More than once, Inquisition delivers some genuinely iconic quotes, including what might just be the best line in fantasy gaming during the 2010s. Spoken by the villainous Corypheus, this line is not only striking and incredibly impactful within the game’s context but also undeniably badass and outright unforgettable, a perfect encapsulation of the Dragon Age saga as a whole.

What Is ‘Dragon Age: Inquisition’ About?

Image via BioWare

Dragon Age: Inquisition takes place in the continent of Thedas, a medieval-inspired place living under a state of constant conflict. The biggest threat to it is the Blight, a catastrophic event that happens when demonic underground creatures known as darkspawn find one of the slumbering Old Gods and taint them, thus creating an Archdemon. The Archdemon then leads a horde of darkspawn to the surface, launching a Blight that can last decades. The physical world also lives in proximity to the Fade, the realm of spirits and demons, separated by a metaphysical barrier known as the Veil. Before the game’s events, a civil war has broken out between the Templars and the Mages, devastating most of the Kingdom of Ferelden and the Empire of Orlais.

The game’s main plot sees an unnamed protagonist attending a conclave summoned by Divine Justinia V to settle the Mage-Templar conflict. However, an explosion destroys the Temple of Sacred Ashes, killing everyone at the Conclave except for the protagonist, who emerges with no memory of the attack and a mysterious mark on their hand. The explosion also causes a hole in the Veil known as the Breach, as well as several minor rifts which the Inquisitor can close with their mark. As Thedas descends into chaos, the protagonist and their allies reestablish the Inquisition, acting separate from Ferelden and Orlais and hoping to close the rifts and seal the Breach for good.

As the story progresses, the Inquisitor learns of the existence of Corypheus, an ancient Tevinter Magister who is behind the attack at the Conclave. By using a powerful, ancient elven orb, Corypheus meant to destroy the Veil, enter the Fade, and declare himself a god, hoping to reshape the world in his image. Because the Inquisitor interrupted the ritual, Corypheus is left to find other ways to achieve godhood.

What Does Corypheus Say to the Player in ‘Dragon Age: Inquisition’?

Image via BioWare

Corypheus’ introduction happens in the main quest known as “In Your Heart Shall Burn,” in which his dragon attacks the town of Haven, the protagonist’s base of operations. Like any good villain, Corypheus loves to monologue; unlike many mediocre villains, however, the magister actually has something interesting to say. As he approaches the protagonist, Corypheus confronts them for interrupting the ritual at the conclave, speaking in a threatening and assured yet vague tone.

Many things make this cutscene incredibly badass. Corypheus’ design is striking and off-putting, coming out of the flames like a spectre from a long-forgotten past. His lyrium dragon is rad as hell, and Trevor Morris‘ incredible score amplifies the tension as the magister slowly creeps towards the player. However, it’s the dialogue that’s the cutscene’s centerpiece, further elevated by David Sterne‘s booming, assured, terrifying voice performance. Of all the lines he speaks, one stands out as the greatest, a concise, perfectly constructed sentence that not only summarizes his motives but captures the series’ main thematic concerns: “Beg that I succeed, for I have seen the throne of the gods, and it was empty.”

Why Is Corypheus’ Line So Brilliant?

Image via BioWare

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With this one line, Corypheus dismantles the entire belief system of the Chantry (Dragon Age‘s main religious organization) and puts into question everything the player knows about Thedas as a whole. Previous games, not to mention the in-world Chant of Light, claim that the Blight was punishment by the Maker, Thedas’ version of God, after ancient Tevinter Magisters breached the Veil and entered the Golden City in the Fade. Their presence corrupted it, turning it into the Black City, and causing the Maker to expel them, sending them back to the physical world as distorted, corrupted versions of themselves.

Corypheus challenges this notion by claiming he indeed entered the Black City, but there was no god; no Maker to punish or banish him, no gold to make the city shine. In fact, the city was already blackened when he entered, and whatever tainted it happened long before the magister’s arrival. Religious concerns are a major theme in Dragon Age. Conflicting views between different institutions are the root of many of the continent’s conflicts, whether it’s the polytheistic Tevinter Empire trying to expand or the intolerant Chantry attempting to spread its influence. With this one line, Corypheus shatters Chantry teachings and even Tevinter’s beliefs, revealing that the very foundations of modern Thedas are not only wrong, but they’re as tainted as the Blight itself.

Beyond the in-world impact, Corypheus’ line strikes at the heart of real-life religious concerns. We’ve all wondered if there is indeed a god, if religion has any validity at all. Faith is one of the most powerful forces in this world, yet it can be so easily shattered with just a few well-chosen words. Corypheus’ quote does just that: it speaks into our greatest fears concerning faith and captures the hopelessness and dread of realizing everything you know is a lie. Of course, it’s meant to be a badass line spoken by a video game villain, but it’s also so much deeper and more discomforting than just that. It’s perhaps the single most memorable and profound quote in any 2010s video game, and further proof that Inquisition is the best Dragon Age game by far.

The NCIS franchise has never exactly struggled to find a new corner of the map. After more than two decades, CBS has sent its investigators from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, Hawaii, and beyond, building one of television’s most durable procedural universes in the process. But NCIS: New York has something its predecessors can’t quite manufacture: a city that can do some of the storytelling for it.

That starts with CBS making the unusually important decision to actually film the new series in New York City. NCIS: New York isn’t simply going to slap a few recognizable skyline shots between scenes filmed somewhere else and call it a day. Production has been underway across the city, with LL Cool J, Scott Caan, Jacqueline Byers, and Shane Harper photographed filming in places including Brooklyn and Central Park.

‘NCIS: New York’ Is Actually Filming Where It’s Set

Image via Sonja Flemming / ©CBS / courtesy Everett Collection

That distinction matters more than it might sound. Television has a long history of asking viewers to accept one city as another, and the NCIS franchise is hardly an exception. NCIS: Los Angeles, for instance, was built largely around production in Los Angeles and the Paramount lot, while NCIS: Origins has likewise used Paramount’s Los Angeles facilities and Southern California locations.

NCIS: New York is taking a different route. The series is being produced in the city it calls home, and recent set photos have already shown the cast working in real New York locations, which gives the spinoff an immediate visual identity before viewers even know whether its new characters will become as beloved as the franchise’s veterans.

New York is not exactly a city that needs help making an impression, and a case unfolding in Brooklyn can feel different from one unfolding in Manhattan, and a chase through Central Park doesn’t need a line of dialogue explaining why the location matters. The danger with any spinoff is that familiarity can become sameness, but NCIS: New York has the opportunity to make it feel different because its surroundings are different.

CBS Is Spending More to Give Its New ‘NCIS’ Spinoff a Real Identity

Image via CBS

Filming in New York also represents a meaningful commitment from CBS. Location production is not the easy, interchangeable option for a network procedural, particularly when a series could theoretically recreate plenty of streets, offices, and city exteriors somewhere cheaper or more production-friendly.

CBS is nevertheless putting NCIS: New York on the ground. The series began filming in the city in July, with production moving through locations such as Brooklyn and Central Park. New York’s production infrastructure and tax incentives can help offset some of the expense — the state offers a production tax credit for eligible television projects — but choosing to build a series around the city still requires a commitment to location work that a studio-based production doesn’t.

CBS has placed this show directly in the middle of an all-NCIS Tuesday, with the original NCIS at 8 p.m., New York at 9 p.m., and NCIS: Origins at 10 p.m. The strategy makes obvious business sense because viewers who already know the franchise are being given an entirely new hour without leaving the universe. But that also puts pressure on the spinoff to justify its existence. If NCIS: New York were simply another version of the same show with a different sign on the office door, viewers could reasonably wonder why they needed it. The New York production gives CBS a much better answer.

LL Cool J’s Return Makes the New Setting Even More Important

Image via CBS

The other major piece is Sam Hanna. LL Cool J isn’t playing a brand-new character who needs to establish himself from scratch. He spent 14 seasons as one of the defining faces of NCIS: Los Angeles, and Hanna has also appeared elsewhere in the franchise. Now he’s returning to his hometown to lead a new team alongside Caan’s Nick Schaeffer.

Hanna already has history with viewers, but putting him back in New York gives that history somewhere meaningful to go. This isn’t just another assignment in another city. He’s returning home, and the series is following him there. Jennifer Beals, Byers, Harper, and Devin Druid round out the new field team, giving the show plenty of fresh personalities around its returning lead.

The result could be exactly what the franchise needs from its newest branch. NCIS doesn’t need another city in name only as each new series needs a reason to exist, and New York provides one. The city gives the series a visual language that can’t be copied simply by changing the establishing shot. CBS’s willingness to film there gives that choice some weight, while Hanna’s return provides the franchise connection longtime viewers need. When NCIS: New York premieres on October 6, 2026, there may be a question of whether New York can make this one feel like its own thing.

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NCIS: New York

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Release Date

October 6, 2026

Directors

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Eagle Egilsson, Adam Davidson

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While Prime Video’s original series often draw from novels to tell their stories, they rarely do as much justice to the book as 2026’s The House of the Spirits, with some exceptions like Barry Jenkins’ take on Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad. Drawing from Chilean author Isabel Allende’s 1982 debut novel of the same name, the show does a beautiful job transposing the book’s blend of multigenerational family saga, magical realism, and poetic tale of the ravages of time and the longstanding effects of violence to a new medium. The series is not afraid to be melodramatic, colorful, and rich, studying the Trueba family from their humble beginnings in an unnamed Latin American country that slowly descends into a horrific political situation. Narrating the saga is Alba (Rochi Hernandez), who thrusts us into the world of the family with as much speed as The Royal Tenenbaums.

Every episode of The House of the Spirits feels like a short film in itself, with the show as a whole mimicking the book’s decades-spanning structure. Much like the first season of House of the Dragon, years can pass between episodes, but familial relationships stay the same, lingering on old wounds and traumas hidden behind. Allende’s novel was unafraid to deal with heavy subject matter, like animal violence, a country’s descent into fascism, and sexual violence, and the show’s faithfulness to those aspects of the book is its greatest feature. Part of the passage of time is conveyed by a color palette. Like in Greta Gerwig’s 2019 take on Little Women, the nostalgic early years are often offset by a steely grey-blue take on the present day, as Alba pores over her family history, digging into a journal left behind by her clairvoyant grandmother Clara (Dolores Fonzi as an older woman; Nicole Wallace in younger years). Clara’s journal is a Rosetta Stone for the family history, a document of 50 years from the mid-1920s onward.

‘House of the Spirits’ Has A Compelling Villain in Esteban Trueba

While The House of the Spirits moves quickly through its eras, running with a montage-like pace through Esteban Trueba’s (Alfonso Herrera) courtship of Clara’s older sister Rosa (Chiara Parravicini), it’s hard to imagine it in a more condensed timeframe. But the book was first adapted as a Hollywood drama in 1993, with a number of subplots shelved and a cast full of English-speaking actors like Jeremy Irons, whose cold villainy was appropriate enough for Esteban, but not quite on the level of Herrera’s three-dimensional performance. After Rosa’s tragic early passing, the show version of Esteban grows into a darkly tyrannical patriarch whose class resentment and casual cruelty becomes a stand-in for the terrors the country will soon face. Herrera’s performance as Esteban shows his descent and development into the wicked master of Las Tres Marías, the Trueba family estate, and the eventual husband of Clara.

Esteban is a tricky character, in large part because he lasts so long. The series is brutal and rewarding because it deals so much with the subjugation, abuse, and resilience of women. Esteban is an immediate foil. In his younger years, his cruel treatment of women and campaign of sexual misconduct have aftereffects you can only see by the series’ end, with the full picture in mind. Rising from the back-breaking toils of mine work to being a property owner, he has nothing but contempt for the political shift heralded by the arrival of the Communist party to the country. Because of the show’s structure, with Alba looking backwards at events, viewers get a sense of dramatic irony not quite present in Allende’s novel, with a sense of where all these lives go. That framing device casts a unique glow on the show’s rich melodrama. Births and deaths collide as Clara, whose clairvoyant gifts become more prominent as the show progresses, gives birth to Esteban’s daughter Blanca (Fernanda Urrejola, who co-wrote the series, in middle age; Sara Becker in younger years).

‘House of the Spirits’ Is A Magical Realist Latin Melodrama

By emphasizing the actual Latin American qualities of the original decades-spanning book, the show gets the chance to breathe, with its operatic elements playing directly against its larger saga of political change. It’s neither a dry retelling of history nor total soap opera, but a mix that is true to the spirit of Isabel Allende’s novel. Its acknowledgment of the passage of time means one episode might have a character being born and the next might cast them as a young adult. Alba grows from childhood to participating in revolutionary politics and discovering horrific truths about her family. The novel emphasized heartache, trauma, and magical realism, and the show works in the same big, melodramatic beats, slowly replacing the charming nostalgia of its early episodes with the devastation of a country falling into ruin. If the first half of the show is Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the second is more Steven Soderbergh.

Ghosts are real in the story of House of the Spirits. They are almost incidental, complex characters in their own right that can guide or complicate the journeys of the living. Uncle Marcos (Juan Pablo Raba) serves as a ghostly confidant to young Clara, and in the 1970s, Alba is often visited by her grandmother Clara in times of great despair. But more pertinently, the ghosts reflect Esteban’s actions and the privilege the family was able to experience by ignoring who had to pay most, particularly in the form of Esteban Garcia, Jr. (Pedro De Tavira). The show is a richly compelling meditation throughout, and a novel adaptation that allows the characters the tragic complexity they deserve.

By the time Let’s Marry Harry landed in Las Vegas, the trip had already peaked once.

In Episode 6 of Netflix’s summer breakout, Harry Jowsey and his five remaining fiancées swapped the Los Angeles house for a weekend in Sin City. But the flight there wasn’t a hard cut between scenes. It was the scene — champagne open, charcuterie out, music up, and five women dancing in the aisle somewhere over the Mojave.

The jet in question: a Bombardier Challenger 850 operated by Cirrus Aviation Services, the aviation group behind Theos, a new members-only club curating by-the-seat routes and exclusive experiences for travelers who’d rather skip the terminal entirely.

A 15-Seat Cabin, and Nobody Sat Still

The Challenger 850 is a specific kind of flex. It carries up to 15 passengers in one of the widest cabins in private aviation — a genuine stand-up, walk-around interior rather than the crouch-and-shuffle tube most people picture when they hear “private jet.” Which is precisely why it works on camera, and precisely why nobody stayed in their seat.

“As viewers will see in Episode 6, the fun started long before Harry and the women arrived in Las Vegas,” says Travis Turner, VP of Guest Experience at Cirrus Aviation Services. “With champagne flowing, fresh fruit and charcuterie being enjoyed, music playing, and the girls dancing throughout the flight, the journey became part of the experience — not just the transportation.”

So What Would It Cost You?

Here’s the number everyone actually wants: roughly $37,000.

That’s the ballpark for recreating the Let’s Marry Harry Vegas run end to end — round-trip Challenger 850 service between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, premium onboard catering, champagne service, and stretch limousine transportation on the ground.

Split fifteen ways, that’s a little under $2,500 a head for a weekend that starts the second the door closes. Split six ways, it’s a very different conversation. Either way, it’s a considerably shorter list of logistics than most bachelorette weekends require.

“Watching Harry and the women laugh, dance, and enjoy every moment from takeoff to touchdown proved that some of the best moments happen long before you reach Las Vegas,” Turner says. “It was the perfect way to kick off one of the most memorable trips on Let’s Marry Harry.”

The Part the Cameras Didn’t Catch

Reality TV runs on edit-room alchemy, so the more interesting question is always what the crew saw when the cameras weren’t rolling. On this one, the answer is a little wholesome.

“Harry and the women were all incredibly respectful, engaging, and genuinely fun to host,” says Alexandria Hurley, Head of PR at Cirrus Aviation Services. “From the moment they landed in Las Vegas, you could tell everyone was excited to make the most of the experience.”

And Harry himself? For a guy whose dating résumé has been picked over online for the better part of a decade, the behind-the-scenes review is a notably good one.

“Behind the scenes, Harry was very attentive and made a genuine effort to spend quality time with each of the women,” Hurley says. “He wasn’t focused on just one person in the group. He was constantly checking in, making conversation, and ensuring everyone felt included. There was a really natural chemistry among the group, and you could tell the women were genuinely invested in getting to know him.”

Why Production Picked Up the Phone

Flying a principal cast, a camera crew, and a functioning party from Los Angeles to Las Vegas is a genuinely hard production ask. It requires an aircraft big enough to shoot inside of, a cabin that photographs well, catering that holds up at altitude, ground transportation waiting on the tarmac, and a schedule that bends to a call sheet instead of the other way around.

Cirrus Aviation Services is Las Vegas–based, which makes it something close to a home-field operator for a show built around a Vegas weekend. The Theos model — members-only access, curated by-the-seat routes, experiences designed as the destination rather than the commute — is aimed at exactly the kind of traveler who watched Episode 6 and immediately started doing math with their group chat.

That’s the pitch, and Episode 6 is the proof of concept: eight minutes of television in which the most fun anyone has is at 35,000 feet.

Watch It Back

All eight episodes of Let’s Marry Harry are streaming now on Netflix, with the reunion special — hosted by Haley Baylee — arriving Wednesday, August 26.

Episode 6 is the Vegas one. 

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Season 1 of Apple TV’s sleeper hit Murderbot is a tiny show with a giant heart — no matter how much the misanthropic titular character (Alexander Skarsgård) tries to deny its growing affection for the annoying humans it’s contracted to protect. For all intents and purposes, the events of Season 1 closely follow the first installment in Martha Wells‘ The Murderbot Diaries book series, which begins with a contained setting and a cast to match: one soap opera-obsessed Security Unit, one primary planet, a team of six humans, and a handful of enemies. Artificial Condition, Wells’ sequel novella, introduces a different location and multiple new characters.

In that light, it’s not necessarily surprising that Murderbot has significantly expanded the size of Season 2’s ensemble cast. The scale and the celebrity star power behind the adjusted ensemble is the somewhat mind-boggling part. Earlier this week, Apple TV confirmed the return of Season 1’s 11 primary actors and welcomed a slew of fresh faces to the Murderbot universe. The video listed 25 additional cast members in undisclosed roles, including the (frankly, genius) likes of Steve Buscemi, Patton Oswalt, Michael Sheen, Tramell Tillman, Wanda Sykes, Katy O’Brian, Kali Reis, and Martha Plimpton. But what might shifting Murderbot‘s initial formula mean for everyone’s favorite introverted android?

Who Could ‘Murderbot’s New Cast Members Be Playing in Season 2?

Without going into deep spoiler territory, Artificial Condition resumes where Murderbot Season 1 leaves off. Rather than stay with the kindly humans who essentially adopted it, Murderbot ventures into the wider galaxy on a journey of independence and self-discovery. Specifically, it returns to RaviHyral, the mining site where it had lived up to its self-given name by unintentionally killing its clients. Murderbot seeks answers about its inexplicable violence and the erased memories accompanying that haunting incident. After becoming frenemies with a cargo ship’s hilariously abrasive AI, Murderbot once again finds itself dragged into defending another batch of scientists from a deadly conspiracy.

Aside from those three new humans and the snarky pilot bot, Artificial Condition features the augmented human leader of the Tlacey Excavations company, other SecUnits (most of them obedient to their clients’ whims), and multiple ComfortUnits (one, in particular, undergoes a prominent arc). By that metric, Murderbot Season 2 contains more actors than the novella has existing roles. There are several potential areas where showrunners Chris and Paul Weitz could organically incorporate an increased cast: more SecUnits, executives, and employees tied to Tlacey, longer flashbacks with the 57 individuals Murderbot killed, and snippets from Murderbot’s favorite television show, The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon.

Although we can only speculate as to whom the 25 performers are playing, it’s worth noting that Season 2‘s announcement video groups Reis, Underwood, and Griffin Newman in roughly the same area as Season 1’s Sanctuary Moon players (John Cho, DeWanda Wise, Clark Gregg, and Jack McBrayer). Since Murderbot‘s delightfully campy show-within-a-show is already filled with prominent film and TV names, it’s easy to imagine their industry peers feeling just as game to wear extravagant costumes and recite melodramatic dialogue.

‘Murderbot’ Season 2 Has Legitimate Reasons to Increase Its Cast

As for Skarsgård’s fellow main cast members, Artificial Condition‘s first-person point of view leaves Murderbot’s newfound pals off-page for the book’s entirety (fear not: they return to the series sooner than later). It would be a waste for the upcoming second season not to utilize Mensah (Noma Dumezweni), Gurathin (David Dastmalchian), Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu), Arada (Tattiawna Jones), Bharadwaj (Tamara Podemski), and Ratthi (Akshay Khanna). After all, the only humans who deserve Murderbot’s affection are quite the endearing, quirky, sincere, wise, and broken bunch. Dumezweni and Dastmalchian, in particular, each contribute gut-wrenching emotional arcs.

Inventing original content for a television adaptation is a tricky needle to thread. That said, not only would it be abrupt to temporarily abandon the Preservation Alliance crew, it’s worthwhile — even necessary – to explore their next steps from a story standpoint. The aftermath of their SecUnit friend slinking away in the night offers a range of potential responses: acceptance, compassion, grief, confusion, hurt, indifference, etc.

Juggling a wider ensemble might easily become too unruly on the heels of a more reserved focus. Likewise, pacing and focus problems can compromise the strengths a simpler story offers. Since Murderbot Season 1 is a home run, however, the likely case is that more than doubling the cast’s size is a thoughtful move. Suffice to say, Murderbot‘s sophomore season, now officially in production, is doing something its protagonist despises — stepping out of its comfort zone. Unfortunately for said protagonist (and all the neurodivergent audience members who understand its distress), that’s a potential risk worth taking.

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Murderbot

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Release Date

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May 15, 2025

Network

Apple TV+

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Directors

Aurora Guerrero, Roseanne Liang

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The sequel to Michael Jackson‘s biographical drama may finally confront his controversial past. 

The first installment, which arrived in theaters in April, became a global box-office sensation but also drew criticism for sidestepping the controversies that shadowed the pop icon.

Now, Jaafar Jackson, who portrays his late uncle in “Michael,” has hinted that the follow-up could revisit some of the most contentious chapters of the singer’s life, this time from his perspective.

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Amid the development of the second installment, Jaafar acknowledged that he has little control over the script’s direction. However, he said he hopes the project would highlight his uncle’s truth. 

“I think the second film will give even more insight from his point of view, because at the end of the day, [the allegations] are always from someone else’s,” Jaafar explained. 

According to the 30-year-old, the story has long been told by people “driven by an agenda,” rather than the late singer’s, something he believes should not be so. 

 “And that’s really the issue we’ve been having as a family – not having Michael’s voice being heard. I think that’s very, very important, especially in the late years,” he told GQ Magazine. 

The first installment of “Michael” focused largely on the legend’s early career and concluded in 1988, leaving out much of the period when he became the subject of serious child-abuse claims.

Jaafar added that dividing the film into two pieces allows for a detailed portrayal of the singer, helping viewers understand he was a “human being first” before an icon.

He went on to describe the “Smooth Criminal” hitmaker as someone who remained kind-hearted despite facing intense scrutiny throughout his life. According to the young actor, audiences should see more of that side of Michael in the continuation of his story.

Producers Reportedly Removed Controversial Scenes From The Original Script

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Jaafar’s comments come months after reports surfaced that the movie parts dealing with the singer’s troubled past were originally included in the screenplay but later removed.

As The Blast previously reported, the scenes about the child abuse claims were cut out due to a legal clause tied to a prior settlement between Jackson and Jordan Chandler’s family.

The changes reportedly also resulted in substantial additional payments for the production’s key figures. Director Antoine Fuqua was initially expected to receive $10 million, while producer Graham King was set to earn $6 million.

Those amounts allegedly increased after the required revisions and reshoots, with Fuqua receiving $15 million more and King another $10 million.

How One Of Michael Jackson’s Accusers Reacted To The Film

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When the movie hit cinemas, it stirred a strong reaction from one of his accusers, James Safechuck, who insisted that it should never have been released.

 As The Blast reported, Safechuck declared he would never watch it because he does not support people he considers child abusers.

Safechuck and Wade Robson previously alleged in the now-removed HBO documentary “Leaving Neverland” that Jackson sexually abused them as children.

Although Safechuck and Robson sought $400 million in damages from his estate, Jackson was never convicted of a crime, and his estate continues to deny the allegations.

Dan Reed Compared Michael Jackson To Epstein As He Questions Biopic 

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As Jackson’s accuser reacted, Dan Reed, who directed Safechuck and Robson’s documentary, slammed the authenticity of “Michael.” 

Per The Blast, Reed argued that it cannot present a truthful account of the “Thriller” singer’s life while omitting the child abuse allegations that have followed him for decades. 

Reed doubled down on his claims, adding that he thinks the deceased vocalist “hurt a lot of children” and was “worse than Jeffrey Epstein.”

“And he may have been a great entertainer, but those two things don’t cancel each other out,” Reed added. “The fact is that pedophiles exist, and he was one of them.”

Jaafar Jackson Scores A Major Box-Office Milestone

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Despite the criticism that has followed the portrayal of the late Grammy Winner, the project has performed exceptionally well commercially.

According to The Blast, the production has crossed the $1 billion mark worldwide, reaching approximately $1.001 billion in global ticket sales. 

The milestone reportedly makes Jaafar the first lead actor to star in a debut feature that surpasses $1 billion at the worldwide box office. The achievement also places the project among the highest-grossing music-centered biographical productions, surpassing “Bohemian Rhapsody” at the global box office.