Star Wars used to be the end-all, be-all in space sci-fi, but in the years since the original trilogy, others have rushed in to fill the void left by its waning popularity. Whether you love new Star Wars or hate it, you’d probably still love more of that old-school Star Wars vibe. Luckily, there’s a way to get it.
We set out to determine which non-Star Wars movies and TV shows most capture the feel of Star Wars, while at the same time delivering the best possible spectacle and story. It’s not just a ranking of which entry is best. If it were, then Babylon 5 would be a lot closer to the top.
Watch the video version of this article.
These are the 18 best sci-fis that are most like Star Wars, without actually being Star Wars.
Advertisement
18. Jupiter Ascending
Jupiter Ascending is the only entry on this list that includes Channing Tatum playing a half-man/half-dog. There’s no hiding the fact that Jupiter Ascending is a strange movie. It was supposed to be the Wachowskis grand return to sci-fi cinema, but instead, it’s a glorious mess.
Mila Kunis plays Jupiter, a housekeeper and secretly the Queen of Earth. The forces of House Abrasax, led by Balem, want to stop her from claiming her legacy. Eddie Redmayne’s performance as the villain may make you think he wandered in off a different, far more serious movie, but no, that’s just how uneven the tone is.
For all of its faults, Jupiter Ascending was a throwback in 2015 to the 90s-style of sci-fi that tossed you into a strange, wonderful world, and dared you to try and keep up with it. The film doesn’t work; it’s barely coherent, visually confusing, and the acting is… questionable. And yet, Jupiter Ascending dared to be weird, it tried to do something different, and a decade of sanitized, by-the-numbers sci-fi later, it’s worth checking out for anyone sick and tired of movies developed by committee.
17. Rebel Moon
Zack Snyder wanted to make a Star Wars film, but Disney said no, so he went to Netflix and made Rebel Moon. Sometimes it really is that simple. George Lucas used Akira Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress as inspiration for A New Hope, and Snyder used Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai as inspiration for Rebel Moon.
Adapting Seven Samurai is always a recipe for success. It’s a great story. A few holding out against all odds against the many? Rebel Moon is a handful against a battalion.
It’s one of Netflix’s most expensive original movies. The streaming giant gave Snyder a blank check, and it looks like it. Rebel Moon is near the bottom of this list for a reason, but it’s worth checking out once, if for no other reason than to see Zach Snyder’s vision for Star Wars, but it’s a bit of a drag with uneven pacing and the patron saint of bad movies, Charlie Hunnam.
You can also experience the sequel, The Scargiver, which was so bad that Netflix yanked the black check out of Snyder’s hands before he could utter the words, “Trilogy.”
Advertisement
16. Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets
Few people in Hollywood can match the visual style of French director Luc Besson. He brought to life The Fifth Element and Scarlett Johansson’s Lucy, but his most beautiful film is Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets. Based on a French comic series, the film is packed full of stunning visuals; each world on its own would be the highlight of any other movie, but here, it’s just scene 5.
Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne lead the cast as Federation Soldiers sucked into a decades-old conspiracy around a missing planet. The massive space station Alpha is home to over 3,000 alien species, and maintaining peace among them is a dangerous balancing act. In Valerian, the focus isn’t on Babylon 5-style politics, but on exploring different worlds and coming across a new alien species every 10 minutes, making the film a visual masterpiece.
If your favorite part of Star Wars is the constant parade of unique and strange background aliens, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is the perfect movie for you.
15. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
The success of Star Wars in 1977 took Hollywood by surprise and started a scramble for the next big sci-fi hit. Universal Pictures pulled the old Buck Rogers license out of mothballs and turned it into a television series, but then, six months after the series had debuted, the television pilot hit theaters as a standalone movie.
That sounds convoluted, but then again, so does everything when it comes to Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, a film that put trade negotiations front and center decades before The Phantom Menace. NASA astronaut Buck Rogers emerges from suspended animation in the 25th century and immediately finds himself in the middle of trouble between the remaining humans on Earth, living in New Chicago, and the Draconians, an alien species secretly plotting to conquer the planet.
The movie is again a pilot for the two-season television series, which started with Buck as a defender of New Chicago and, in season two, had him roaming the galaxy with his crew to find the lost tribes of humanity. If you were to mash the Star Wars prequels against Flash Gordon, you’d get Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
Advertisement
14. Babylon 5
If your favorite part of Star Wars was the Galactic Senate from the prequels, then there’s a 90s sci-fi series for you. Babylon 5 puts the focus on intergalactic politics in a way no show has before, or since. Set on a space station that houses countless alien species, all with their own goals, motivations, and ancient grudges, it’s sci-fi for the most hardcore of sci-fi fans.
The show starts off with an attempted assassination on the Vorlon ambassador, Kosh, and Babylon 5’s commander, Jeffrey Sinclair, is the prime suspect. It’s a quaint beginning for a show that would eventually culminate in one of the best sci-fi wars ever shown on a television budget. Unlike every other show on this list, Babylon 5 was plotted from the very beginning to tell a single, cohesive story over 5 seasons.
That right there puts it above The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker, two feature films that couldn’t agree on what story the sequel trilogy was trying to tell.
13. Krull
It was one of the largest box office bombs in history. For decades, it was the butt of jokes. But Krull had the last laugh. Combining science fiction with fantasy, a simple rescue-the-princess plot alongside one of the coolest weapons in movie history, Krull became a cult classic.
After The Beast interrupts Prince Colwyn’s wedding to Princess Lyssa, he sets off on a quest to win her back. The only thing in his way is the Beast’s mountainous Black Fortress and an army of Slayers. All Colwyn has is a band of magicians, thieves, including a young Liam Neeson, and a cyclops.
The special effects don’t hold up today, the plot is as basic as it gets, but there’s no denying that Krull is a fun movie. Sometimes you don’t need 30 minutes of worldbuilding and exposition; all you need is a quest to slay an evil warlord and rescue a princess.
Advertisement
12. Killjoys
Say “sci-fi western” and most people think of The Mandalorian, or Firefly, but there has to be someone, at least one person out there, who thinks of Killjoys. The Canadian Sci-Fi original series aired for 5 seasons, from 2014 to 2019, and you didn’t watch a single one.
Dutch, Johnny, and Da’vin work as bounty hunters, and these three are professionals, so they don’t disintegrate any of their targets. Looking at you, Boba Fett. Over the course of 50 episodes, the trio unravels the mysteries of the universe, upends the delicate political structure, and end up saving the universe. A few times.
When Star Wars fans were excited over the video game Star Wars: Outlaws, or the canceled 1313, what they wanted was a game that plays like Killjoys. It’s a sci-fi western about characters who aren’t exactly heroes, but unlike that other show, this one was able to tell a complete story. That and you have to love a show that uses the name, Team Awesome Force.
11. Stargate
It’s hard to remember now, but for most of the 80s and 90s, Star Wars wasn’t a pop culture juggernaut; it was something nerds loved. During that dark period, studios tried to create their own Star Wars-style sci-fi franchises, and of all of them, Stargate found the most success. It all began with the 1995 Roland Emmerich film that sent the U.S. military through a portal to battle an Egyptian God. Surprise. It’s an alien.
Unlike other movies on this list that throw an endless string of nonsense names and deep, unfathomable lore at viewers within the first 30 seconds, Stargate takes its time to explain what’s going on (there’s a strange portal, they go through it), why it’s important (can Ra invade Earth from his side?), and teases at why the aliens all look like they came out of Ancient Egypt.
Stargate introduced moviegoers to a universe of infinite possibilities, and for once, it paid off with the launch of the television franchise (does this sound familiar?). Between Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate Universe, there are 17 seasons of amazing sci-fi adventure television waiting to be discovered. Best of all, there’s a new series coming to Amazon Prime. The Stargate is opening again and now’s the time to step through.
Advertisement
10. The Last Starfighter
It’s every kid’s dream. After countless hours playing a video game, it becomes real, and you get to save the universe. 1984’s The Last Starfighter is pure wish fulfillment, and it’s awesome.
Like Star Wars: A New Hope, it follows the classic hero’s journey format. Only, instead of growing up in the desert, our future hero fighter pilot grows up in a trailer park.
Teenager Alex Rogan earns the high score in the arcade game Starfighter, not realizing it was developed by an undercover alien to locate warriors to save his planet. Alex goes from living in a trailer park to flying a real spaceship against real aliens in the span of 48 hours.
The greatest tragedy about The Last Starfighter is that we never received a legacy sequel. 40 years later, video games are more popular than ever before. A modern-day remake would be a license to print money. Sci-fi can be wish fulfillment that exists for no other reason than to be fun and make you happy. To this day, nothing hits that mark quite like The Last Starfighter.
9. The Fifth Element
One of Bruce Willis’s best movies, The Fifth Element launched the career of Milla Jovovich, helped turn Chris Tucker into a star, and proved that well-written, visually-stunning sci-fi could become a blockbuster even in the jaded culture of the 90s. By 1997, caring about things and earnestness was considered uncool, which became a plot point in Luc Besson’s sci-fi magnum opus. How The Fifth Element earned over $290 million at the box office, and millions more through DVD sales, should be studied by upcoming filmmakers.
The Fifth Element turned a futuristic cabbie into an unlikely savior when the reincarnation of a forgotten alien species lands on the hood of his cab. Together, the two have to stop The Great Evil from consuming Earth by overcoming Zorg, a greedy billionaire who might be the creepiest sci-fi villain of the 90s thanks to Gary Oldman’s scenery-chewing performance.
Advertisement
Few films to this day are as manic as The Fifth Element, which deserves to be right up there on every sci-fi fan’s Mt. Rushmore and, in the process, delivers some of the same kinds of space thrills as Star Wars.
8. Flash Gordon
Besides the amazing soundtrack provided by Queen, Flash Gordon is the most American sci-fi movie you’ll ever come across. A quarterback saves the universe using his football skills to take down a unit of elite guards? How awesome is that?
Star Wars was inspired by the serials of the 1930s, and Flash Gordon was one of those serials. But it started out as a comic strip, and you can tell. The villain’s name is Ming the Merciless, all the visual designs are old-school pre-Star Wars sci-fi, and again, the hero’s name is Flash Gordon. This is pure camp, and that’s before you get to the legendary overacting of Brian Blessed as Vultan!
The tropes, designs, and plot beats of Flash Gordon make it required viewing for all sci-fi fans, and it has the same DNA as Star Wars. You can’t appreciate how far science fiction has come if you don’t know where it started. Flash Gordon is a love letter to the genre’s pulp roots, and honestly, you wish more films were made today in the retro-futuristic style. Ming the Merciless may be corny, but the man’s rizz is unmatched.
7. John Carter
In a just world, John Carter would have been the start of a retro-futuristic sci-fi franchise to rival Star Wars in scale and scope. Taylor Kitsch should have become a superstar. John Carter is a fantastic movie that bombed hard because Disney had no idea how to market it.
Adapting the classic sci-fi pulp novel, A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the same man who created Tarzan, John Carter looks fantastic, and the story of a Civil War soldier sent to Mars is a straight-up crowd-pleaser. Unfortunately, the limited crowds that went to see it weren’t enough to make it a success.
Advertisement
John Carter’s Mars vistas stretch on forever, but that beauty came with a hefty price tag. The film needed to earn $600 million to break even. It earned $300 million. Disney lost hundreds of millions of dollars and decided instead of turning John Carter into a sci-fi franchise, they’d go out and buy one.
Three years later, Disney bought Star Wars.
Now do you wish you had seen Taylor Kitsch’s cult hit in theaters when you had the chance?
6. Farscape
Star Wars has shifted gears in the last few years, becoming a streaming franchise. It’s playing catch-up behind the 90s and early 2000’s series Farscape, which perfected the serialized formula of ragtag heroes going up against an oppressive government. Farscape is clearly influenced by the original trilogy, right down to having Jim Henson’s Creatureworks provide puppets, but that’s not a bad thing.
Farscape starts off with human astronaut John Crichton surviving a trip through a wormhole and winding up on the far side of the galaxy. He quickly learns to get along with the escaped convicts Ka D’Argo, Zhaan, and Rygel on board a living spaceship, the Moya, as they try to stay one step ahead of the corrupt Peacekeepers. Later on, the leather-clad villain Scorpius comes after Crichton for his hidden knowledge of wormholes, and this all leads to Crichton being split into two separate versions: an imaginary Scorpius living in his head, the organic spaceship giving birth, and a constant struggle to survive when it feels the entire universe is out to get them.
Advertisement
If you liked the original trilogy, and even if you liked Guardians of the Galaxy, you need to fire up Farscape and start binging it right now. This is everything fans wanted out of a Star Wars streaming series.
Welcome To The Top 5
Congratulations, you’ve reached the top five, and things are about to get really fun. Keep in mind that this list is ranked by two criteria: how much something is like Star Wars and how good it is.
It’s an average of the two factors, which can result in all kinds of ranking weirdness, especially in the lower levels of this list. These are the 5 best Star Wars sci-fis that aren’t Star Wars at all.
5. Predator: Badlands
Remember when Chewbacca carried C3-PO on his back? How the mismatched characters played off of each other? Turn that into a survival story on an alien planet where everything is trying to kill them, and you get Predator: Badlands, the latest in the long-running franchise.
Dek is a Predator who heads off to a planet in order to hunt down the apex predator. A Weyland-Yutani android is the only survivor of an encounter with the beast. Only the top half of her body survived. Dek straps her to his back, and together, they navigate a world where everything is trying to kill them.
Advertisement
It has the feel of a Star Wars novel in the best way possible. It’s easy to imagine a Wookie and a droid having to navigate a planet similar to Genna. Predator: Badlands lacks the size and scope of a Star Wars film, but it’s an absolute blast from start to finish. All it takes is one setting, two characters, and a horde of bizarre alien lifeforms that make the Rancor look like a puppy.
4. Firefly
The Mandalorian was praised for taking Star Wars in a bold new direction: Space Western. Well, why not take some time and enjoy the series that put space westerns on the map? Firefly is still the greatest one-season sci-fi series of all time, and the sequel film, Serenity, is the perfect ending to the crew’s story.
Out on the edge of the known galaxy, Captain Malcolm Reynolds and his crew pick up odd jobs, carrying cows, protecting a brothel, whatever they have to do to get enough gas to keep flying. Imagine the adventures of smuggler Han Solo under the watchful eye of the Empire, and that’s Firefly, only with no aliens, more cowboy hats, and more jokes.
A new animated series is on the way, set between the end of Season 1 and Serenity, making this the best time to get caught up on the space western that paved the way for The Mandalorian.
3. Dune
David Lynch’s Dune is an underrated masterpiece, but Denis Villeneuve’s modern adaptation turned the classic sci-fi novel into a blockbuster. 12 years before Star Wars, author Frank Herbert took sci-fi fans to the planet of Arakkis, the center of intergalactic politics and trade, thanks to the miracle mineral: Spice. Imagine if Tattooine was important for any reason other than its abundance of Skywalkers, and that’s Arakkis.
It even has a chosen one, destined to reshape the galaxy. Paul Atreides is the hero that Anakin Skywalker wishes he could be. Paul liberates his planet, unites a people, has twins destined to be even greater than him, and doesn’t become a villain. In the first two movies.
Advertisement
Star Wars is more of a space fantasy than hard sci-fi, but Dune isn’t afraid to get weird. Later books include human/sandworm hybrid that lives for thousands of years and rules over the galaxy. Oddly, that’s not as strange as it gets.
2. The Expanse
A grounded, hard sci-fi series might not seem like it would have much in common with Star Wars, but The Expansecenters around a ragtag group of misfits on a medium size ship flying around saving the Galaxy.
It’s based on a series of books set in a not-too-distant future where humanity has colonized the solar system. Earth, Mars, and the asteroid belt are locked in political tension, and a crew of unlikely allies gets pulled into events that reshape civilization.
Despite being a totally different type of space sci-fi from Star Wars, The Expanse pulls off the crew of the Millennium Falcon against the universe vibe better than anything has since The Empire Strikes Back. Ride shotgun with the crew of the Rocinante as they battle to save the solar system from threats not inside and out, on one of the best sci-fi shows ever produced.
1. Guardians of the Galaxy
Guardians of the Galaxy is so much fun, it turned a dancing tree into the hottest Christmas toy. Comic fans knew how strange and bizarre the cosmic side of Marvel was, but in 2014, the general public took a trip to Knowhere and had their minds blown for the first time since they stepped foot inside a hive of scum and villainy.
The colorful cast even brings to mind the original trilogy, except both Star-Lord and Rocket are Han Solo, Gamora is Leia’s intrusive thoughts given physical form, Drax is C-3PO, Groot is R2-D2, and Mantis is… there.
Advertisement
The Guardians trilogy is among the very best of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and any one of them could be someone’s favorite movie, and you know what, sure. It’s fun, and it’s awesome. Each one of them reveals another strange corner of the galaxy, and while yes, Adam Warlock was wasted, the thrill of what comes next is only comparable to the original trilogy.
HBO’s Band of Brothers remains one of television’s most powerful war dramas, but one episode has only become harder to watch with time. Coming off Saving Private Ryan, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg reunited for a deeper, more intentional look at the men who fought across the Western Front during World War II. But out of all 10 episodes, the toughest to stomach isn’t an hour built around high-stakes battle sequences or personal turmoil. It’s the penultimate chapter, “Why We Fight,” a harrowing episode that confronts the ugliness of war, the horrors of the Holocaust, and the danger of looking away.
‘Band of Brothers’ “Why We Fight” Confronts a Horrible Truth
While every episode of Band of Brothers has its tough moments, the ninth episode arguably takes the cake as the most sobering chapter in the entire drama. Much of the episode follows the burnt-out Captain Lewis Nixon (Ron Livingston) as he wanders around occupied Nazi Germany looking for his favorite whiskey and reeling from the news that his wife is divorcing him. As the men struggle with the silence, they force themselves to keep up morale with a powerful rendition of “Blood on the Risers,” but that all changes when “Why We Fight” takes a dark turn over halfway through as the Allied soldiers discover the darkest truth of the war. When an Easy Company patrol stumbles upon the Kaufering concentration camp, the response is a melancholy mixture of shock, anger, and a brokenheartedness that had been building up since many of these men watched their buddies die in battle. It’s a brutal, senseless, and historically accurate display that reveals the true nature of the Nazis’ attempts to rule the world, showcasing the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust.
Advertisement
Watching Easy Company tackle the war machine that was the Third Reich in the eight episodes leading up to this offered a bloody, violent, and seemingly senseless picture of 20th-century warfare that is quite difficult to watch on its own. And throughout the ninth chapter, many of the men have grown disillusioned with the war itself, with those who had been on the Western Front for years silencing the younger newcomers who are itching to see some action. In many respects, men like Nixon are wondering what this was all for, and we see this clearly when Private David Webster (Eion Bailey) yells at the surrendered (yet still proud) German forces as they march on by. “Dragging our asses halfway around the world, interrupting our lives. For what?!” he laments. The men of Easy Company are given more downtime to think than they had been offered throughout the entire war, and the weight of what they’ve done, what they’ve seen, begins to crush them in the process. But before they can fully despair, Webster’s question of why they had to fight is answered — and no one would be the same.
Upon arriving at the Kaufering concentration camp, Easy Company is met by walking human shells. Men who have been beaten, abused, tortured, and starved and are in dire need of medical attention have been left behind the locked gates of Kaufering IV, one of the many camps in the larger complex. WriterJohn Orloff and director David Frankel did their homework here, having reportedly recreated the vile conditions of the camp through historical photos and personal testimony of the men who liberated Nazi Germany in the first place. It’s inthe last 20 minutes of the episode that Band of Brothers reminds the audience why everything Easy Company and the Allies did had to take place, shedding a powerful light on not just the actions of the Nazis themselves, but on the German people who deliberately chose to ignore what was going on just outside their own town. The citizens, who continually profess not to be Nazis, are forced to aid in the cleaning up of the camp, burying the bodies of the men they pretended didn’t exist. The episode ends with a title card that notes that, between 1942 and 1945, the Nazis killed over 6 million Jews and 5 million ethnic minorities — and that’s not including those put in the camps because they dissented by aiding those in dire need.
‘Band of Brothers’ Episode 9 Is Difficult To Get Through
Major Dick Winters (Damian Lewis) and Burton Christenson (Michael Fassbender) in the ‘Band of Brothers’ episode “Why We Fight”Image via HBO
Advertisement
With an incredible eye for detail and historical accuracy that only adds to the disturbing nature of Easy Company’s discovery, “Why We Fight” is an aptly titled hour that speaks to the very soul of the viewer. It’s certainly an episode that’s difficult to forget and even harder to make it through once the patrol makes it to the Kaufering camp. Later, Major Dick Winters (Damian Lewis) reveals that other Allied forces discovered other camps throughout Nazi Germany, many of which were far worse than what Easy Company (and the audience) experience here, complete with execution chambers and ovens meant to burn the bodies. “You’ve never seen anything like this, it’s complete shock that just stumps every feeling of emotion that you have,” the real-life Winters once explained in an interview decades later. “The horror of it, you could never imagine something like this before.”
But it’s not just the visuals of “Why We Fight” that make it such a profound and pivotal chapter in not just Band of Brothers, but the war as a whole. It’s the way that the men respond to what they’ve encountered that truly breaks our hearts. Private Roy Cobb (Craig Heaney) is abruptly embraced by an elderly prisoner who just weeps in the soldier’s arms, and Winters is clearly at a loss for words the moment he walks in. But it’s Private Joseph Liebgott (Ross McCall) who is especially of note here, as he is called in to translate the moment Easy Company breaks into the death camp. McCall proves himself an expert at his craft here, forcing Liebgott to bury his own feelings about what he is hearing from the survivors in order to relay the truth to his superiors. As he does so, we can feel the aching in his voice as he stumbles through the explanation, hardly able to come to terms with what he’s seeing, let alone hearing.
In an interview with HBO Max’s official Band of Brothers podcast, McCall reveals that there was actually more footage cut out of the final episode. “In fact, there was a longer cut of this episode with about five more minutes in it, and it was all concentration camp stuff where they saw even more horrible things,” the actor recalled. “This was one of the very few times when [HBO] said, ‘You know, we love this episode, but it’s just one step too heavy.’”
Advertisement
The HBO Miniseries ‘Band of Brothers’ Remains at the Top of World War II Storytelling
There are few television productions that are as masterful as Band of Brothers. Although “Why We Fight” meditates on the very worst of humanity in the Nazi war machine and the German people who refused to stand against it, the miniseries also offers a challenging (if not at times conflicted) picture of the very best. “The Greatest Generation” overcame some of the most egregious horrors of their day, in all of modern history, and fought back against the forces that would have enslaved the whole world. Mixing in actual interviews with the very Easy Company men who served during World War II with dramatic interpretations of their exploits across war-torn Europe, Band of Brothers is a triumph of filmmaking that goes the extra mile far beyond what Saving Private Ryan could ever do — and that’s even including the D-Day sequence. It’s no wonder that Spielberg and Hanks were not finished with this period in not just American, but world history.
Armed with a powerful cast that shines masterfully in each episode, Band of Brothers is the war drama to end all war dramas. It’s a historical epic worth regularly revisiting so that we are reminded of what these brave men fought and died for. “Why We Fight” is a harrowing reminder that pure evil does exist in our world, and that standing against it may cost us everything. But it is far more honorable (and right) than standing idly by, remaining purposefully ignorant of the truth. It’s been two decades since Band of Brothers — still one of the greatest miniseries ever made — hit HBO viewers like a truck on the front lines of battle, and it still leaves a powerful dent.
Band of Brothers is available for streaming on HBO Max.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Release Date
2001 – 2001
Advertisement
Network
HBO
Advertisement
Directors
David Frankel, David Nutter, Mikael Salomon, Phil Alden Robinson, Richard Loncraine, Tom Hanks
Rebel ships better watch out because, apparently, we’re closer to making tractor beams a reality than ever. Once confined to science fiction, tractor beams are edging closer to reality, though not in the way most people imagine from Star Wars or Star Trek.
A team led by University of Colorado Boulder aerospace engineer Hanspeter Schaub has spent years developing what’s known as an electrostatic tractor beam, a system designed to move space debris without physically touching it. Recent testing and modeling suggest the concept has advanced far enough that researchers now see it as a serious candidate for future orbital cleanup missions.
Earth Orbit Needs A Cleanup Team
The technology is aimed at solving a growing problem in low Earth orbit. Thousands of dead satellites, spent rocket stages, and shattered fragments already circle the planet at speeds exceeding 17,000 miles per hour. Every collision creates even more debris, increasing the risk of a runaway chain reaction known as Kessler Syndrome. First proposed by NASA scientist Donald Kessler in 1978, the theory predicts that Earth’s orbit could eventually become so crowded with high-speed junk that launching new satellites or crewed spacecraft would become dangerously difficult.
Advertisement
Unlike science fiction tractor beams that instantly yank ships through space, Schaub’s concept relies on electrostatic attraction. A servicing spacecraft approaches a derelict satellite or chunk of debris and fires a beam of electrons at it, giving the target a negative electrical charge. The servicing craft maintains a positive charge, creating an attractive force between the two objects. The result is a slow but continuous pull that can nudge debris into a safer orbit or guide it toward atmospheric reentry.
One of the biggest advantages of the system is that it never needs to physically dock with unstable debris. Traditional capture methods using robotic arms, nets, or harpoons become extremely risky when dealing with objects tumbling uncontrollably through space. Electrostatic tractor beams could potentially maneuver those objects from a distance, reducing the chance of catastrophic collisions during cleanup operations.
Refining The Tractor Tech
Schaub’s team has continued refining the technology inside the Electrostatic Charging Laboratory for Interactions between Plasma and Spacecraft, a specialized vacuum chamber that simulates the plasma conditions of orbit. Researchers use metal targets to imitate dead satellites and debris while studying how charged particles interact in microgravity-like conditions.
One major breakthrough involved controlling rotation. Space debris often spins chaotically, making it difficult to stabilize. The team discovered that pulsing electron beams rhythmically can gradually slow that motion, effectively acting like an invisible braking system before towing begins. That capability could prove just as important as the tractor beam itself.
The project still faces major engineering hurdles. Earth’s upper atmosphere contains constantly shifting plasma environments that can interfere with electrostatic forces. Ion wakes trailing behind spacecraft may also distort the beam’s effectiveness depending on altitude and solar activity. Power generation is another issue, since maintaining large electrical charges in orbit requires substantial onboard energy.
Advertisement
These Tractor Beams Are Not Just A Theory
Even so, the idea has moved well beyond theory. Schaub’s more recent estimates suggest that a full-scale electrostatic debris-removal mission could move multi-ton objects over hundreds of miles over the course of several months. The technology is also attracting renewed interest because the orbital debris crisis has worsened dramatically in recent years, driven by megaconstellations like SpaceX’s Starlink network and repeated anti-satellite weapon tests conducted by governments worldwide.
Several other companies and agencies are pursuing competing debris-removal systems, including magnetic docking craft, drag sails, robotic grapplers, and laser-based nudging systems. But electrostatic tractor beams remain one of the few concepts capable of moving non-cooperative debris without direct contact.
If funding and testing continue at the current pace, Schaub believes the first operational electrostatic tractor spacecraft could launch sometime in the 2030s. That still sounds like science fiction. But so did reusable rockets twenty years ago.
It’s Huda Mustafa’s world and we’re just living in it! The ‘Love Island USA’ star just dropped her debut single, ‘Bad Girls,’ along with the music video, and the record is already taking over timelines. The song has sparked a flood of reactions online, leaving some fans divided while others say they have already added it to their playlist.
Huda Mustafa Shakes Up Timelines With First Single ‘Bad Girls’
Fans got a glimpse of what it’s like being at Huda Headquarters in her new music video for the single, ‘Bad Girls.’ The reality star released her first song, along with visuals set in an office. It shows baddies at work serving looks and showing up as their best selves. Huda also stuns and stunts as the company’s boss. The record has fans sharing their thoughts online, and they’re not holding back when it comes to giving her their honest opinions.
The Roomies Can’t Decide If Huda’s Single Is A Bop Or Not
Over in The Shade Room Teens comment section, folks are divided — some are saying Huda did her BIG one, while others are saying it’s not bad but not amazing either. Peep some of the reactions below.
Instagram user @therealkilahslay wrote, “The girls that get it get it 💅🏽”
Advertisement
Instagram user @alexia.myers wrote, “We could do without.”
While Instagram user @thatgirlsaam__ wrote, “Definitely a good H&M song.”
Then Instagram user @noelletorious wrote, “Actually not bad but sounds like every other pop song.”
Another Instagram user @officialjaycee wrote, “Y’all keep saying this elevator music but this type of music charts the highest n most ! Keep going Hudaaa.”
Advertisement
Instagram user @nanyy.97 wrote, “her vocals are so smooth omg 😍”
Then another Instagram user @tkppfinstaaa._ wrote, “But if it was Ariana grande y’all would be all over it I mean when I heard the song I thought it was fire and it made me think of Ariana Grande 🙌”
Instagram user @sundus_abde wrote, “She ate this 🔥❤️”
While another Instagram user @thatsjust_bluee wrote, “I just can’t take it serious nor will!”
Advertisement
Finally, Instagram user @alwaysssteph_ wrote, “It’s not bad. It’s not AMAZING either.”
X Users Weigh In On Huda’s Debut Track
Reactions also popped OFF on X (formerly Twitter). Some fans were surprised at how good the track sounds, while others said they will definitely play it while getting ready.
might get cancelled for saying this but this sounds like it’s been copied from somewhere? it all sounds so familiar. i just can’t pinpoint exactly where i’ve heard it? oh wait… it sounds like song of the year! pic.twitter.com/iZDnG6tygK
Waitttt?? Yes Huda!!! She’s out here living her main character arc while y’all watch from the sidelines.. Bad Girls summer incoming pic.twitter.com/pJiULsSpvs
Self-proclaimed as “the greatest detective in the world,” this iconic fictional character is getting yet another reboot from none other than the BBC. The project is reportedly a major television series based on Agatha Christie’s beloved novels and could run for up to three seasons in the coming years. This is because the BBC is said to have made a significant commitment to the adaptation after securing it in a highly competitive bidding war involving several networks and streaming platforms.
While an official premiere date has yet to be announced for the upcoming adaptation, reports confirm that the project focuses on Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie’s most famous and longest-running character, who has become one of the most recognizable figures in detective fiction. The BBC project will see Benji Walters (Obsession) pen the script, as sources say he has breathed new life into the fictional Belgian detective. However, script details are currently being kept under wraps.
The adaptation will be produced with Agatha Christie Limited and is expected to be filmed in Liverpool and the north-west of England over the summer. Also, Season 1 is expected to premiere in the second half of 2027. As for who will lead the reboot series as the larger-than-life Poirot, the search is currently underway, with many fans already providing suggestions and making comparisons to the high-profile actors who have portrayed the detective over the years.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn’t work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
Advertisement
🔧John McClane
🎭Ethan Hunt
Advertisement
01
You’re dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
Advertisement
02
You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
Advertisement
03
You’re pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
Advertisement
04
The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
Advertisement
05
How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
Advertisement
06
Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
Advertisement
07
Things go badly wrong and you’re captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
Advertisement
08
What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn’t replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn’t know you had.
Advertisement
09
Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
Advertisement
10
It’s the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
Advertisement
Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Advertisement
Rambo
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
James Bond
Advertisement
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
Advertisement
John McClane
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Advertisement
Ethan Hunt
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
Advertisement
Hercule Poirot Is the Greatest Detective in the World
As the most renowned Agatha Christie character, the intellectual Poirot has appeared in 33 novels starting with The Mysterious Affair at Styles, two plays, and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975. He has also been portrayed in dozens of movies and television shows over the past century. David Suchet famously played the sleuth in Agatha Christie’s Poirot, which debuted in 1989 on British broadcaster ITV and aired through 2013 on PBS and A&E in the U.S. John Malkovich played Poirot in the 2018 limited series, The ABC Murders, and Kenneth Branagh more recently took on the role of the detective in a series of star-studded movies, beginning with Murder on the Orient Express in 2017 and followed by Death on the Nile and A Haunting in Venice.
Advertisement
Stay tuned to Collider for future updates about the exciting BBC reboot.
A few years ago, I stumbled upon a now-banned Instagram feed that focused on one thing: cleaning up crime scenes. Before you start judging me, just know that this was a natural escalation, and the same thing could happen to you if you’re not careful. I’m really into those ASMR videos of people powerwashing houses and driveways. This obsession led me to lawn care videos because I rent and don’t have a lawn, and I dream of one day coming up with a sophisticated mowing pattern of my own. It was a wholesome, vicarious arrangement. One thing eventually led to another, and the next thing you know, I’m wondering if this crime scene guy’s proprietary blend of cleaning agents would pass a luminol test after he scraped all sorts of miscellaneous chunks and fluids off the carpeting in question.
After all is said and done, it’s probably a good thing that account got shut down because if I dug myself any deeper, who knows how much further things could have escalated? Fortunately, I stumbled upon a movie about this exact thing, 2007’s Cleaner, starring Samuel L. Jackson just before he started his tenure as Nick Fury in the MCU. It has a 17 percent critical score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Cleaner is not 17 percent bad (Steven Seagal’s Attack Force on the other hand…). Across more than 10,000 ratings on the Popcornmeter, the film has a 40 percent approval rating, and I’m honestly wondering what’s wrong with everybody because this movie, to me, is in the 65 to 70 percent range. It’s a tight thriller about a crime scene cleaner whose most recent job sends him on an investigation that could threaten everything he cares about, and there are enough twists to keep things interesting.
The only real fault I can place on the movie is that it plays like a film that held back because it wanted to appeal to a broader audience. My thought is that since it has an R rating anyway, they should have gone full-on gritty here, but they didn’t.
ASMR For Sick Freaks
Like I said at the top, I fell in love with Cleaner quickly because I like watching people clean things. I also think Samuel L. Jackson can do no wrong. His character, Tom Cutler, is a retired police officer who runs a crime scene cleaning business called Steri-Clean. His job is simple: he shows up at a house when his law enforcement cohorts contact him, gets in his hazmat suit, mixes up his chemicals, and gets to work. The man is exceptionally good at what he does. He can turn your red couch back to white in no time at all, and you can be serving hors d’oeuvres off the same coffee table a dead, bloated body was draped over just hours before, and nobody would be the wiser. He’s that good.
Tom is also a widowed father raising his daughter Rose (Keke Palmer) all by himself. Their relationship is solid, but it gets strained due to the nature of his work and the long hours he has to pull to support her.
Advertisement
Tom becomes suspicious of one of his clients after cleaning Ann Norcut’s (Eva Mendes) house while she was out of town. The job was billed as a homicide cleanup. He enters using the key under the terracotta pot, does his thing, locks up, and goes home. The following day, he realizes he never put the key back, returns to the residence, and is questioned by Ann, who had no idea Steri-Clean did a job at her house. She also points out that her husband, John, is missing. Confiding in his former partner and the godfather of his daughter, Eddie (Ed Harris), Tom learns that John was days away from testifying against the former police commissioner and was probably taken out to prevent him from doing so.
Now, everywhere Tom goes, Eddie seems to be snooping around, as well as Detective Jim Vargas (Luis Guzmán), who’s so straight-faced and serious that he’s either hiding some horrible secret or he’s just as confused about this whole ordeal as Tom is. Tom also knows that he has to tread lightly because of his questionable past involving the man who killed his wife years earlier during a home invasion, and the fate he suffered behind bars while Tom turned a blind eye. Nobody is innocent in the traditional sense in Cleaner, but there’s a clear moral compass to follow once you get to know everybody.
Should Have Gone Harder
My only real beef with Cleaner is that it could have landed so much better as a gritty neo-noir thriller. All the beats and character archetypes are there, but everything feels too surface-level to fully let its hooks sink in. Samuel L. Jackson does an excellent job showcasing his skill set as a tradesman working in a hyperspecific niche industry, and his dynamic with Rose is always believable. He’s a man torn apart by his past traumas, but he shows up for his kid no matter what, even if the day has destroyed any sense of normalcy for him.
Ed Harris and Luis Guzmán do a ton of heavy lifting as morally dubious characters who are either just hard men with resting jerk faces on the right side of the law, or two guys hiding something from Tom as they manipulate their way through the premise. If there’s one thing this movie has going for it, it doesn’t lay all of its cards on the table, and an admirable amount of restraint is used, allowing the mystery to play out in a way that’s ultimately satisfying.
I just wish this one went a little harder, a la True Detective Season 1, instead of playing out like your typical bargain-basement, primed-for-mass-appeal early aughts thriller like The Glass House (2001) or Domestic Disturbance (2001). Fortunately, despite boasting similar production qualities to both of those films, the story itself is worth checking out.
If you’re like me and enjoy watching messes get cleaned up as a form of wish fulfillment (I have kids, sue me), you can stream Cleaner, which is currently streaming on Netflix.
Passenger, the latest fright flick from Norwegian horror maestro André Øvredal, hits theaters this upcoming long weekend. And while he has a full slate of upcoming projects, there’s one horror movie he doesn’t think he’ll ever get to make — even though the script was brilliant. He recently discussed the never-realized project with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff.
Øvredal is next slated to direct Bendy and the Ink Machine, an adaptation of the popular survival horror game of the same name. It’s “a very cool video game that I’m very excited about,” he told Collider. However, when it comes to dream projects, there’s one that Øvredal still thinks about. It’s a script he wrote based on an iconic horror classic: “Years ago, I wrote a script called The Overlook Hotel, and that was brilliant.” He clarifies that it was a prequel to one of Stephen King‘s most famous creations, but he doesn’t think it’ll ever make it to the screen:
“It’s a prequel to The Shining. That would be amazing. But that’s not really a movie that’s probably ever going to go.”
King’s 1978 novel The Shining centered around struggling novelist Jack Torrance and his struggle against madness and evil as he works as the isolated Overlook Hotel’s winter caretaker; the hotel’s horrific past is expanded in flashbacks as its ghosts drive Torrance to turn against everything he once held dear. Director Stanley Kubrick adapted the novel into a 1980 film with Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall; although the movie is now considered a horror classic, King himself disliked the deviations it made from the novel. King later spearheaded a 1997 miniseries adaptation that hewed more closely to the book, and wrote a sequel, Doctor Sleep, that was later adapted for film by Mike Flanagan.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you’re not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.
🏕️Jason
🔪Michael
💤Freddy
Advertisement
🎈Pennywise
🪆Chucky
Advertisement
01
Something feels wrong. You can’t explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.
Advertisement
02
Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.
Advertisement
03
What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn’t account for. What’s yours?
Advertisement
04
What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.
Advertisement
05
You’re with a group when things start going wrong. What’s your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn’t.
Advertisement
06
What’s the horror movie mistake you’re most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
Advertisement
07
What’s your best weapon against something that can’t be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.
Advertisement
08
It’s the final scene. You’re the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What’s yours?
Advertisement
Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Advertisement
Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th
Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
Advertisement
He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn’t strategise, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t outsmart. He simply pursues.
Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.
Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween
Michael Myers
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too late for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.
Advertisement
But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
Michael’s power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.
Elm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
Advertisement
You are harder to destabilise than most. You’ve faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven’t looked away.
The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
Freddy’s greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.
Derry, Maine · It
Pennywise
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
Advertisement
The Losers Club didn’t survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.
Chicago · Child’s Play
Chucky
Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
Advertisement
You don’t have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.
Advertisement
What Is ‘Passenger’ About?
Passenger stars Jacob Scipio (Pieces of Her) and Lou Llobell (Foundation) as Tyler and Maddie, a young couple who are hitting the road for a van life adventure. A few weeks into their trip, however, they witness a horrific car accident that leaves a driver dead. And while that sight haunts them, so does the Passenger, a gruesome specter that follows them relentlessly. The film also stars Oscar-winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter) and was penned by Zachary Donohue (The Unknowable) and T.W. Burgess. It will be released on May 22.
The Boy Meets World cast apparently didn’t always get along behind-the-scenes of the beloved sitcom.
“They had some problems working together as … they grew up,” William Daniels’ wife, Bonnie Bartlett told Page Six in an interview published on Friday, May 22, adding that it is “very unusual” for child stars to “continue in the business” after acting onscreen at a young age.
“They have grown up together. They’ve been very smart,” Bartlett, 96, stated. “They’ve done well — all of them. That’s very unusual in a cast with children. They’ve done a good job of that. They’re good people. They’re all good people.”
Boy Meets World aired from 1993 to 2000, following preteen Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) and his adventures throughout middle school and beyond. The show also starred Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong, Will Friedle and Daniels, 99.
William Daniels wasn’t just an onscreen mentor to the young cast of Boy Meets World in the 1990s as Mr. George Feeny — he became a real-life confidant throughout 30 years of friendship. The legendary actor already had a 50-year career in Hollywood — including playing Dustin Hoffman’s father in 1967’s The Graduate and voicing […]
Daniels notably portrayed Cory’s neighbor and teacher, Mr. Feeny, who followed the friend group through high school and college. Feeny ultimately married Dean Lila Bolander (played by his real-life wife Bartlett) in the final season.
Advertisement
According to Bartlett, Daniels was a “positive influence” to the young actors.
“He never told them what to do, but they learned a lot just from watching him … how to behave, what is serious,” Bartlett told Page Six. “You know, with kids, it’s all a joke, it’s all funny. I think [Bill] introduced them to the seriousness of responsibility.”
In the years since BMW ended, Daniels remained close to his former costars even though Savage, 45, seemingly distanced himself from the rest of the TV family.
“He disappeared — I wish I knew why, to this day,” Friedle, 49, claimed to Variety in 2023 of Savage, who played his TV brother. “We didn’t have a fight. There’s no falling out. There was no animosity. He just woke up one day, and decided ‘I don’t want this person in my life anymore.’”
According to Friedle, he tried to initiate contact with Savage for months before giving up.
Advertisement
Thank You!
You have successfully subscribed.
“I’ve known him since he was 11 years old, and we have a shared history. And we were doing these conventions together, and we were getting to know each other as adults, and then he just kind of went, ‘I’m done with you,’” Friedle alleged. “I tried and tried and tried for months, until finally my wife was like, ‘Why are you doing this to yourself? He obviously doesn’t want you in his life.’”
Friedle now hosts a “Pod Meets World” recap podcast with former costars Fishel, 45, and Strong, 46. Friedle and Strong also supported Fishel during her stint on Dancing With the Stars last year, in which Daniels even made a cameo.
Advertisement
Savage, for his part, has not publicly discussed his rumored BMW estrangement.
Roommates, the streets are talking after a young woman tied to one of the most shocking rapper murders in recent memory — just learned her fate in court. What started as a birthday trip quickly turned deadly, and now both Alicia Andrews’ and Julio Foolio‘s names are back in headlines as new details continue to unfold from the case that rocked Florida and the rap community alike.
A judge has officially sentenced Alicia Andrews, 23, to 15 years behind bars for her role in the 2024 killing of rapper Julio Foolio, born Charles Jones II. According to reports, Andrews helped track Foolio’s movements during his birthday weekend in Tampa before he was ambushed and fatally shot outside a hotel. Prosecutors said Andrews and her boyfriend, Isaiah Chance, followed Foolio from location to location while relaying updates back to the gunmen who later opened fire.
Authorities revealed the attack stemmed from a long-running Jacksonville gang feud involving Foolio and rival groups allegedly connected to ATK and 1200. Trial testimony claimed Foolio’s social media activity and music, including diss-heavy drill tracks, intensified tensions over the years. Investigators said rivals spotted online posts about his Tampa birthday plans and allegedly used that information to coordinate the deadly retaliation mission.
Foolio’s Mother Speaks After Sentencing In Killing
During sentencing, Foolio’s mother, Sandrikas Mays, delivered an emotional statement directly addressing Andrews’ involvement. She told the court her son would still be alive had Andrews not participated in the plan, regardless of whether she pulled the trigger herself. Mays also pointed out that Andrews still has the opportunity to see her family and child, while she can no longer see her son. Her statement reportedly left the courtroom emotional as the judge prepared to hand down the maximum sentence possible for the manslaughter conviction.
Advertisement
“They hunted my son down like a deer in the woods. This was loyalty to v*olence over humanity. My son was treated like his life didn’t matter,” Mays can be heard saying.
Four Co-Defendants Face Life Without Parole
Prosecutors originally charged Andrews with second-degree murder, but jurors ultimately convicted her of manslaughter. Her attorney argued she played only a “minor” role in the crime and announced plans to appeal the conviction. Meanwhile, four additional defendants — Isaiah Chance, Sean Gathright, Davion Murphy, and Rashad Murphy on first-degree murder charges. Although prosecutors pushed for the death penalty, the jury rejected it. The four men now face mandatory life sentences without parole at next month’s hearing.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/elon-musk-Antony-Starr-the-boys-052226-2d6975a999a04bc1b9c25879a69520e6.jpg)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/netflix-murder-mysteries-031326-eb02617304fd433185f5e03b443a5d8a.jpg)
You must be logged in to post a comment Login