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

CIA is officially back in business. Although it took a while — and a few showrunners — to get it off the ground, the latest FBI spin-off has been a rousing success for CBS so far, with 8.4 million viewers tuning into the premiere during its first week across television and streaming, according to Nielsen. Now, the network has rewarded it with a Season 2 renewal. FBI Special Agent Bill Goodman (Nick Gehlfuss) and CIA Agent Colin Glass (Tom Ellis) will be back and working together again for the 2026-27 television season in what marks CBS’s second quick renewal of one of its freshman series following the Yellowstone spin-off Marshals.

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Release Date

February 23, 2026

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Showrunner

Mike Weiss, Warren Leight, David Hudgins

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  Nick Gehlfuss

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  Bill Goodman

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  Michael Michele

  Joe Abanpour

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

Nathan Fillion‘s most iconic role is that of Captain Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds on the short-lived series Firefly. Canceled after just one season, the show has become a cult classic, and fan dedication has led to the announcement of a new animated series for the franchise. The new series is set to bring back Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Gina Torres, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Summer Glau, and Sean Maher to their roles on the Serenity. But one character will have to be recast.

In a new interview, Fillion confirmed that Shepherd “Shep” Book will be a part of the new animated series. But that does mean that they will have to find a new actor to embody Shep, as original series actor Ron Glass passed away in 2016. “We’re bringing back Shepherd Book for certain,” Fillion said. “Ron Glass, unfortunately, is not available. Ron once joked that he didn’t get a part when they were looking for a Ron Glass-type, and here we are again. We’re looking for a Ron Glass-type, and it’s not going to be Ron Glass.” Shep was the kind of character who brought reason and understanding to the crew of the Serenity, so he is a vital part of the crew!

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Russell Up the Knowledge That You Keri — The Collider TV Quiz!

Rustle up the knowledge that you carry about Keri Russell, and see what you can recall about her shows and roles.

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This Isn’t the First Time We’ve Returned to the World of ‘Firefly’

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When the show was canceled prior to its release in 2002, fans were only given access to 11 of the 14 episodes. Now, fans can see all 14 of the first season. But if that isn’t enough for fans, there is a Firefly movie as well. Released in 2005, the film Serenity continues the story of Captain Mal and his friends. It isn’t exactly a Season 2 of the series, but it was a way for fans to engage with Firefly after it was wrongly taken from them before the series even had a chance to find an audience. Then, in 2018, a Firefly comic series from Boom! Studios debuted. It ran multiple series set within the Firefly universe until 2024, and the studio did not renew its contract as of 2025.

So for fans of Captain Mal, River, and the team of the Serenity, this new animated series is what we’ve been waiting for! You can watch the original series and film now while we wait for further updates.

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Release Date

2002 – 2003-00-00

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FOX

Showrunner

Joss Whedon

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Directors

Allan Kroeker, David Solomon, James A. Contner, Marita Grabiak, Michael Grossman, Tim Minear, Vern Gillum

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Writers

Cheryl Cain, Drew Z. Greenberg, Jane Espenson

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Spring always seems to arrive with a full calendar of events — Easter brunch, bridal showers, weddings, garden parties and more. With so many invitations popping up, having pretty spring dresses in your closet makes getting ready far easier (and far more fun). The good news? You don’t have to spend a fortune to find a style that feels polished, feminine and suited for the season.

Belk currently has plenty of beautiful options that check all the boxes. Think floaty floral maxis, breezy minis and waist-defining silhouettes that instantly feel spring-ready. Even better, our picks start at just $39, making them stylish picks for spring weddings, Easter brunch, Mother’s Day gatherings and every celebration in between. Below, shop the best floral dresses for spring with tips on how to style them!

Pretty Spring Dresses for Easter, Weddings and More

1. Our Favorite: This off-the-shoulder midi dress feels instantly elegant with its floral chiffon fabric and romantic neckline. The breezy skirt adds movement while the belted bodice keeps the silhouette polished and flattering.

2. Waist-Defining: This bright yellow maxi dress balances comfort and polish with its easy silhouette and cinched waist. The flowy skirt gives it that effortless, put-together look that works just as well with heels as it does with flats.

3. Smocked Shirtdress: This short-sleeve shirtdress stands out thanks to its smocked sleeves and softly structured shape. The pretty pink hue and floral detailing make for a fun, feminine feel.

4. Halter Hero: A halter neckline instantly elevates this sweeping floral maxi dress. The bold print and easy-to-layer design feel perfect for spring.

5. Must-Have Mini: Playful florals meet a flattering mini silhouette in this three-quarter-sleeve dress. It’s a cute pick for Easter brunch, spring parties or any invite that calls for something a little extra pretty.

6. Floaty Florals: This chiffon mini dress features a dreamy floral print and a breezy swing silhouette that moves beautifully with every step. The mock neckline adds just enough polish to make it feel event-ready.

7. Garden Party Perfection: Covered in delicate floral motifs, this tiered midi dress feels perfect for warm-weather events. The belted waist adds structure while the flowy skirt brings easy movement.

8. Snakeskin Statement: This pink snakeskin-print midi dress brings a bold twist to cocktail dressing. The tie waist and draped skirt create elegant movement that feels perfect for parties and evening events.

9. Resort-Ready: Lilly Pulitzer’s Evita shift dress shines with its vibrant print and classic shift silhouette. The easy fit makes it perfect for warm-weather events, like garden parties, bridal or baby showers and sunny brunches.

10. Breezy Sundress: A relaxed silhouette and lightweight feel make this floral midi dress an effortless warm-weather staple. The simple design pairs easily with everything from sandals to wedges.

11. Tropical-Inspired: A lively tropical print and soft puff sleeves give this playful mini dress a spring feel. The relaxed silhouette keeps it comfortable while still looking polished enough for brunches and garden parties.

12. Blooming Beauty: Covered in vibrant florals, this ruffled maxi dress feels instantly romantic. The V-neckline and tiered skirt create a soft, flowy silhouette that’s made for spring celebrations.

13. Statement Ruffles: A dramatic off-the-shoulder design instantly makes this ruffle maxi dress feel party-ready. The clip-dot texture adds a subtle dimension to the breezy silhouette.

14. Amalfi Moment: An Amalfi Coast-inspired print gives this colorful shirtdress a fresh, eye-catching feel. The breezy silhouette makes it perfect for coastal getaways, resort dinners and vacation brunches.

15. Blooming Beauty: Oversized florals and ruffled trim give Steve Madden’s Adalina dress a romantic, eye-catching feel. The silky silhouette makes it a gorgeous choice for weddings and evening celebrations.

[Editor’s note: The following contains major spoilers for Paradise Season 2, Episode 7.]

Following an early screening of Paradise Season 2, Episode 7, creator, executive producer, and showrunner Dan Fogelman and stars Sterling K. Brown and Enuka Okuma joined Collider’s Steve Weintraub for a Q&A discussing the series’ biggest reveals, the long-term plan for the story, and what audiences can expect as the show moves toward its already-planned third and final season.

The Hulu drama, which begins as a political thriller before evolving into something much larger in scale, continues to expand its mythology in Season 2 while deepening its characters. As the story moves toward its conclusion, the creative team is focused on delivering a carefully constructed ending rather than attempting to extend the series beyond its intended arc. Paradise Season 2 also stars Julianne Nicholson, Krys Marshall, Percy Daggs IV, and introduces Shailene Woodley and Thomas Doherty.

During the interview, Fogelman breaks down how the show’s mysteries are mapped out seasons in advance, Brown discusses why the series resonates emotionally despite its dystopian premise, and Okuma shares insight into the collaborative process behind the scenes. The trio also touches on everything from fan theories and production decisions to how actors prepare for complex serialized storytelling. Read the full transcript below, or watch the video above for the full conversation.

Get to Know the ‘Paradise’ Crew

The trio answer a series of questions to warm up.

Image via Trent Barboza

COLLIDER: I want to start with how much thank you for making such a kick ass show. Seriously. Thank you.

STERLING K. BROWN: Thank you. Big Dan. Dan Fogerman ladies and gentlemen, look at him. Look at him. Ah, he’s so cute.

Before we get started I like doing something at the beginning called get to know your paradise creator and stars. And we’re not gonna do all these questions I promise but I have 49 questions you guys are gonna pick some numbers.

BROWN: 49. It’s specific.

And you’re gonna pick some numbers but the problem is some of the questions are geared towards actors. Some are geared like anyway so if the question if you pull a question for an actor you know what I mean. Got it. So please pick a number.

BROWN: Me? Let’s see if it’s 49 the square root of 49 is 7.

I love seeing movies and movie theaters. Yes. Do you have a favorite movie theater?

BROWN: Oh man. So I live in Culver City for a really long time so that theater in downtown Culver City which is now back in there. It closed and it was arc light and then it closed and then I was back again. So that’s probably the one that I go to the most although I do really miss the landmark. Always off of Pico and whatnot so may it rest in peace. Please pick a number.

ENUKA OKUMA: Number 5.

What is the last movie or TV show you watched that you want to recommend?

OKUMA: Ooh. Oh that’s good. That is a good one. I’ll tell you something. I am in the middle of a Better Call Saul marathon. Oh no. Started a little late, a little late, but I’m really enjoying it and if you haven’t seen it I recommend it.

BROWN: Yeah. That’s a good one. That’s a good one. I like that.

Please pick a number.

DAN FOGELMAN: 28.

What’s the best fan interaction you’ve had and the weirdest?

FOGELMAN: On this show or in life? No no. We had some crazy ones sterling an eye during This Is Us because people would really tell you. I’ve had multiple people come up and tell us that either adopted a child because of the show or they named their child Randall or Jack or something like that. Those experiences are always wild. So that’s a collective group, just cool experience when that would happen.

BROWN: It is cool. I had somebody tell me they quit their job because of me because Randall quit his job in season one. I was like, bro I didn’t tell you quit your job. He was like I was already leaning in that direction. I was like fair enough. Fair enough.

FOGELMAN: I remember the weird, I’m trying to think of a weird one because nobody ever recognizes me, so it’s a better question for Sterling.

BROWN: I recognize you.

FOGELMAN: Thank you, Sterling. I remember I was once on an international flight right when This Is Us started and I kept noticing there was like a handsome man that kept looking at me and I was like oh this is cool am I getting hit on? And then he came over, and he started complimenting This Is Us. He recognized me and I was like whoa that’s weird. And then I could tell he was awkward. And when he walked away my phone started lighting up because it was in the early days of Twitter and I didn’t know when you were getting notified. And it had been Rob Thomas, the lead singer of Matchbox 20. But I hadn’t recognized him.

And he had written, I just had a funny interaction with Dan and I finally had more followers than my aunt. So that was a weird, fun one. That’s a good one.

Please pick another number.

BROWN: Alright I’m going to go with 21.

Brown Explains What Audiences Misunderstand About Acting

“And you’re really just trying to tell the truth as authentically as you can.”

Image via Trent Barboza

What do audiences misunderstand most about your job?

BROWN: That’s a really good one. Alright so I had this thing happen to me one time at church when I was doing a play. I was living in Brooklyn, I was living in Fort Green Brooklyn. I was going to a manual Baptist church and I was doing a play for the church. And this deacon came over and prayed with us as the cast. And he goes, he goes Lord even though they’re deceiving people please give them the opportunity to perform well and everything.

And I think that’s the interesting thing is that I think a lot of people have this idea that we’re very good liars. And I see it very differently. Like you try to inhabit the truth of the given circumstances of that character. And you’re really just trying to tell the truth as authentically as you can. So I’m actually not a great liar. And I think my favorite actors are ones who aren’t great at lying either.

Please pick a number.

OKUMA: Number 49. You said there’s 50?

BROWN: There’s only 49.

You’re about to say number 50, weren’t you? What’s a creative choice in this show that most audiences probably won’t notice but you’re really proud of?

OKUMA: Starting with the easy ones here. Oh yeah.

BROWN: You picked 49.

OKUMA: I did it to myself. A creative choice.

What does success mean to you now versus when you first started acting?

OKUMA: That’s a great question. That’s a great question. That’s a great question. I love that. No. I mean it actually is a good question because I’ve been doing this since 1990. And I was just so desperately always trying to get to a certain place and I finally in the last 10 years or so I was just like, you know what? It doesn’t matter. I have to stop striving, striving, striving and just as they say, enjoy the ride. Enjoy the ride. And as soon as I did, I booked paradise.

BROWN: Boom. Bada bing, bada boom.

OKUMA: So it is about surrender in many ways. So success is, I think it’s relative but I’m feeling very happy these days.

And the last one, please pick a number.

FOGELMAN: I’ll do 23.

Fogelman Breaks Down the Planning Behind ‘Paradise’s Twists

“It’s cool when that works because it means you’ve taken people on the ride the right way.”

Image via Hulu

Actually we can make this for a creative sort of choice but what’s the smallest detail you obsessed over for someone’s character? That’s interesting. That’s good.

DAN FOGELMAN: Well, since we’re talking about, we just screened this episode. I mean, trying to pull off the Dylan reveal here the way we did was a writer of the episode Melissa is here along with I think a few. And our editor. Melissa Glenn who wrote this episode and Julia and Romina who edited it are here. I saw them when I walked in.

BROWN: Right on. Right on.

FOGELMAN: Right on. There’s been a lot of math in years. I’ve been really proud of the, like even talking about our actor Thomas and his age in the first episode of this season and putting it will all make sense when it kind of comes back to play. So I cannot tell you the amount of time we spent in our writer’s room figuring that all out and then all that comes next is so complicated it hurts my brain.

But what was the question again? That was a detail that you obsessed over. I think those details, how to pull off. I mean, we, Sterling and I, have done two shows in a row now with big twists at the end. But there’s also the ways that you pull off a little twist or twists in the middle of things. And I think making that feel fulfilling and rewarding and kind of built-in even though you don’t see it coming. You guys weren’t sitting in the screening just now, but it was cool. He said his name was Dylan, and he said what his birthday was. It’s cool when that works because it means you’ve taken people on the ride the right way. And so that’s something we all work really hard at.

Fogelman Reveals the Long-Term Plan for ‘Paradise’

“And now it will kind of, again, transform as we head out of the second season and into the third.”

Image via Hulu

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Now I’m jumping into Paradise questions. Dan, when did you decide you were going to be George RR Martin this season?

FOGELMAN: Well, I’ve actually become friendly with George RR Martin. Text friendly. And you know, it was, it was, we’ve always had this kind of three season plan for the show. And when I first told Sterling about it, I said what the demarcation points would be in the show. How we would end the first season with him hitting the road and learning the world is out there. And the second season would essentially end with him being reunited with and finding his wife and returning to the bunker.

And what happens in the next episode, which I won’t spoil. And that the show would get progressively, would kind of shift in genre. I mean, in the first episode, you think you’re watching a political thriller. And at the end of the first episode, there’s like, oh, there’s something a bit more apocalyptic and sci-fi here. And then as we get deeper into the show, I hope the hope is…

BROWN: We got picked up for the third season. Yeah, yeah, I know, I heard. I don’t know if you know.

FOGELMAN: Just FYI. It’s a good thing because we start shooting in like two weeks.

BROWN: I know, you would have been really fucked. I would have been crazy. But… So I think, and then, you know, progressively the show enters a different space and genre. But we’ve been taking us there slowly. And now it will kind of, again, transform as we head out of the second season and into the third. I’m very excited about the third season. And I think what’s exciting to me is you can hypothesize and you could guess.

And you may occasionally hit on some things, but like, there’s no possible way to guess where this thing is going. And we’ve been really digging in hard and taking it very seriously. I’m very excited about what comes next. So, yeah.

Oh, I have so many follow-ups. Should audiences be more afraid of what they know or what they don’t know right now?

FOGELMAN: Definitely what they don’t know. I mean… My plan is… I mean, I always say with Sterling, it’s, you know… I got… I’m lucky enough to have had a couple of years in the sun with our best actor. And we’re going to put him through it next year. I mean, I’m going to wring him out like a sponge by the time… By the time we are done with this show, he’s going to need a real vacation. That’s my plan. I look forward to it. Thank you, sir.

Why ‘Paradise’ Is Ultimately an Optimistic Show

“And I always think sometimes people are just having bad days or bad years or bad decades or bad half-centuries.”

What’s something viewers think they understand about Paradise that they absolutely don’t?

BROWN: That’s interesting. Have you been following the fan theories as weeks come out and people have been positing their own…

FOGELMAN: My writers show me wild stuff. And once in a while, I’m like, holy shit, that’s the smartest person I’ve had. They should be president. And you all say, wow, people have a lot of time on their hands, you know?

BROWN: I sent you one and I was like, that’s not bad. That’s where we are.

FOGELMAN: Gosh. That’s spoilers, obviously. I’ve always thought that the thing people don’t see… I think people are starting to notice it now, because it’s ultimately a very optimistic show, even though it’s about the apocalypse. It’s optimistic in the way it thinks about people and who people are and what drives people. And I think in its log line, you would think it’s a very pessimistic show. But even as you watch the ending with Gary, the Cameron who played the male man, who I think is just such a terrific actor, there’s kind of a sadness and a humanity to him at the end.

And you see Sinatra has a whole different story, obviously, that we’re getting towards. And I love that moment when Julianne at the end of the episode is so light with her husband and she looks like a different person. She’s such a terrific actress. It’s like, oh, that’s a different person. And that’s a person who’s just had profound grief removed from them.

And I always think sometimes people are just having bad days or bad years or bad decades or bad half-centuries. And so I think the show is… I think people will find by the end that there’s a really optimistic heart at the center of the show in a really weird way.

What do you think people will say after they have seen the Season 2 finale and how many of them will be screaming at the TV?

BROWN: There’ll be a few screams. I think it’s good. I think it’s a solid ending to a season and it’s a good launch into a third season. And it does. The way he pitched it to me in the very beginning, each season it felt almost like the wire, how the wire sort of reinvented itself. You start with the corner boys, then you go to the shores, then you go to the politics of it all. But it’s all part of the same world, but from a different angle each time. And our show is like that, but it also just keeps getting bigger. It keeps getting bigger. And I don’t want to say too much because it’s really good, guys. Listen, let me tell you. You have an opportunity to do something of value. I remember when I did OJ and I was like, oh man, I got nominated for awards and it’s FX.

And I was like, I’m going to go do a network show and it’s going to be great. I don’t care about awards and stuff. This guy can write and I like the show, but we still got recognized in that sort of way. And I was like, all right, now we’re going to do eight episodes. Probably ain’t going to get a whole bunch of attention. That’s quite all right. It’s no big deal. But I don’t know, man. Dan is this wonderful mixture of intelligence and humor and humanity. And I think he can’t help but have it come across when he writes. You don’t think he’s as sweet of a person as he is when you just see him. When you just look at him, you’re like, ah, this guy is fine. But you look at the cheeks and how he turns red instantaneously. And you’re like, oh, there’s a sweetness to this guy. And he can’t help but put that into everything that he writes. And so it’s easy to collaborate with him because the message that you’re putting out into the world is ultimately an affirming one. And sometimes, like I think with our art, you can show the world as it is.

And you can in your own way sort of like tilt the world in a very gentle and easy direction in the way that you think it should go. And in terms of the options of being selfish and keeping things to yourself. Or actually being a part of society that loves and cherishes community and recognizes that we are stronger together. In our own little simple way, like it’s a dystopian, you know, but not in that sort of way. It’s like, you know, we still have choice to do good, to be good. So I think that’s why people have always resonated with it. He’s also a master storyteller on a character level and on a plot level. He gives you that engine that’s like, this mother, what is he going to do next? His M Night Fogelman, baby, you know what I’m saying? I’m hoping that Stark doesn’t go nowhere, but you never know what happens, you know what I’m saying? So I’m here for the ride.

Fogelman Teases Upcoming Mysteries and Character Reveals

“You want to stick the landing.”

Image via Trent Barboza

What do you want to tease about Alex?

FOGELMAN: I mean, you’re going to learn a lot in the next episode. Yeah, and then one of the goals of the show has always been, I like to end the episode with forcing the audience to get some answers and ask the next set of questions, and then I don’t want to end the season and have so many questions hanging over that it feels unrewarding. So you’re going to get a lot of answers by the end of the season and then kind of a new kind of set of questions or things that you’re ready to go see. I’m talking about it very carefully.

I’m going to ask the two of you, what was your reaction when Dan finally told you about Alex and where this was all going? Spoiler-free.

OKUMA: I mean, I just read the script and found out in that way, and just like you said, what I felt was great was similar to season one, you are satisfied, you know, things wrap up, but the whole world expands even more. But that’s all I’m going to say on that.

BROWN: What can I say about Alex?

FOGELMAN: Alexander. Sterling came into the writers room a couple of weeks ago, and we pitched him the third season. Tell him about when we pitched you the third season.

BROWN: Just stay alive. Alexander Hamilton, ladies and gentlemen, thank you. I cried. I cried in the pitch. He pitched out the whole third season to me, and I think it’s so beautiful. And I’ll say this on the record, because he gets mad when I do it, right? Because you made the George RR Martin thing.

It’s important. Because this crowd will understand it. You want to stick the landing. Yes. You understand. I ain’t trying to cast dispersions. You want to stick the landing. And they pitched out the third season to me or whatnot, and I was like, okay, I feel like our audience from beginning to end. We only had 24 of these joints to get to one place to another, but because we only had 24, it’s very little fat, and you get a chance to push the plot forward in a very muscular way. He was pitching out the season to me, and I was like, all right, is that the end of the season? He goes, no, that’s 301. And I was like, what the fuck? I was like, oh, that happened in the first episode! It’s really, really good. And I normally, and I think Dan and I are similar, we try to under promise over deliver, but my enthusiasm is hard to contain because I think his imagination is so brilliant. And it’s something that I don’t think a lot of folks would have anticipated or whatnot. It’s a wild ride, man. It’s fantastic.

What do you want to say about some of the character’s nosebleeds?

BROWN: Oh, look at you, you’re getting granular now, Steve. Okay.

FOGELMAN: Yeah, I mean, we’ve put a lot of, it’s not me. I have eight writers in my writer’s room that have dug in so deep into areas of, and genres that I haven’t tread in before. And really, I think that, about the nosebleeds, I mean, they’ll make sense. I mean, they will make sense. I think that by the time, if we do what I hope we’ll do, I think the final episode of the series will move you, and it will feel right, and you will also go, how the fuck did they get here from where it started? And if we do that, then it will be a three years worth well spent. For sure. And that’s what we’re trying to do.

Image via Trent Barboza

OKUMA: They don’t even, so they don’t tell us either. We’re reading this, you know things. If you want to know. No, no, no. I’ll tell you. I’m good with this. I’m good with not knowing.

FOGELMAN: It was in his contract after his seventh Emmy nomination. He gets to hear it early.

OKUMA: He gets to hear it early. Yeah. But they don’t tell us. And so, you know, we get sort of an overview of what’s going to happen in the season in a Bible, and I remember reading the season two when talking about the nosebleeds, and they theorized for us all the different possible reasons. Maybe it’s this, maybe it’s that, maybe it’s this, and my favorite was the last one was, and sometimes people get nosebleeds. That could be a reason.

Is Jane dead?

FOGELMAN: I mean, it sure seemed dead, didn’t it? I mean, you’ll learn more in the last episode. But yeah, I mean, it seems pretty mortal, the wound.

Nothing is…

FOGELMAN: I mean, a dead kid just maybe came back, so nobody’s really dead.

Again, there’s a reason I was asking that question.

FOGELMAN: They all cheered in here, by the way, guys, when she got stabbed. I’m like, this actress is… She’s an incredible actress, and she might be the nicest human being on the planet. And the fact that everybody hates her in this show, shows what a terrific actress she is.

OKUMA: She’s wonderful. And Gary hates you. The Karen is so lovely.

When ‘Paradise’ Season 3 Begins Filming and What Comes Next

“We’re about to get going.”

Image via Hulu

You touched on it a little bit, but when do you actually start filming season three, and how long are you shooting for?

FOGELMAN: We start in like three weeks, April 7th, I think. April 7th, yep. So we have basically all the scripts are written now. We’re finishing up, and our final touches. So yeah, we’re about to get going.

BROWN: What goes to about…

FOGELMAN: August. Should be mid-August, yeah.

So something that I really want to commend you guys on, and I speak for so many people in California, you shoot in California. Thank you. And one of the things that I think we all know is shooting in California is expensive. I’m sure someone along the way said, if you guys shoot this in Vancouver, or Atlanta, or some other place, you can get X number of dollars more towards your schedule, towards your budget. So what ultimately said, you know, we’re in California, and we need to be here.

FOGELMAN: Well, initially, I mean I said it, and then Sterling said it, and that carried a lot of weight. And it’s like, listen, Sterling and I, we have young families, and we said if we’d like to do this, but we’ll do it if it’s here. And particularly once, I’m one thing, but when Sterling says it, that’s another thing, and that makes it happen. I’ve been talking about it a lot, because my hope is that if we keep talking about it more people in my position and Sterling’s position will put their foot down and say, if you want me, we stay here.

But it’s a very complicated question. When you are scratching and clawing for every piece of a budget to try and make the show you want to make, you can make it for a couple of million dollars more, or a million dollars more, in a different city, because the tax credits are different, because the rules are different, a lot of stuff is shooting in Ireland, in Australia. I mean, I’m shooting a movie out in Australia that I wrote, and I mean, you can barely get a crew out there right now. I know Pete Cameron’s men are telling me they’re considering moving to Australia. And so, it’s complicated, it’s very easy to blame the exodus out of Los Angeles on one factor, when it’s really a combination of factors. There’s studios and networks not wanting to spend the money, the tax credits not being quite where they need to be, although there’s been improvements now. People in lead positions get so much money that it kind of drains the budget from all the other people working on the show, the unions. It’s a really complex problem.

At the end of the day, I’ve chosen to shoot most of my stuff here. When it can be shot in Los Angeles, sometimes things demand to be shot elsewhere. And I will take whatever budget they get, and if that means that, you know, I love the use of the final countdown in this last episode. That’s not cheap. You know what I mean? Those things aren’t cheap. But I would, if we hit the place where that wasn’t doable, I would have used my unbelievable score to end the episode, and that’s how we would have gotten by in that particular situation. And we have an extraordinarily healthy budget, so we’re not just your typical show. In order to get it made, you really can’t get it made in Los Angeles. So it’s like a lot of smart people need to hold hands and figure out how to get more stuff done here. It’s not just one group of people. It’s not the studios. It’s not Gavin Newsom. It’s not the showrunners or the movie stars. It’s everybody. It needs to kind of figure this out.

Will the series finale be an extended episode?

FOGELMAN: Yeah, still is. I don’t know. If it needs to be, I mean, if it needs to be, I don’t… What’s that?

BROWN: No, go ahead. I’m just thinking about it out loud. What would it feel like? You know what I’m saying?

FOGELMAN: Yeah, I mean, the great part about Hulu and these streaming shows is like, on This Is Us, man, every episode has to be exactly 42 seconds.

BROWN: 42.30? 42.30, yeah. I mean, I cannot tell you how much time in my life… He’d be giving me 51-page scripts. I’m like, this ain’t gonna make it on air, man.

FOGELMAN: What you doing? So, yeah, so… We have episodes that are 50 minutes, 60 minutes, 48 minutes. Typically, our scripts are in a range where it’s not going to be too much of a problem, so I don’t think we’ll need to, but if the story dictates it, I’d fight for that.

Fogelman Explains Why ‘Paradise’ Is Designed as a Three-Season Story

“That would be really great, but I don’t think artistically it will make sense.”

Image via Trent Barboza

I know this is a three-season show, but this is critically popular. Audiences love it. Has there been any discussion of some sort of like, spin-off, or is it really just three seasons? We’re in and out.

BROWN: We got this question before, too. You go. Yeah, you go, and then I’ll back up.

FOGELMAN: I mean, I think this show as it exists is meant to be three seasons, and it would be very hard to figure out a quote-unquote spin-off of it after. I doubt you’d ask me the question a year from now when the finale ends. That said, it’s definitely been brought up and mused about, we love all the people working on it, but I haven’t seen anything resembling a path for that. It’s definitely a three-season show, the core show, and I haven’t seen the path for a spin-off yet. But I have wonderful young writers, and I give it all to them if they come up with something amazing, but no one has yet.

BROWN: It’s a double-edged sword working for you in that you have a beginning, middle, and end in your mind from the beginning, and so it means that we get a chance to build toward something, so artistically, it’s incredibly fulfilling. I just really want my crew to work as much as possible, and with these eight-episode seasons, things get truncated in a while, and going back to the LA question, it’s too expensive a city to live and not work. So if we can have our cake and eat it too, you would mention your next show is whatever, you can do two seasons at once, so you’re shooting 16 episodes or whatever that case is. That would be really great, but I don’t think artistically it will make sense. Same with This Is Us. When we came to the end of that, it was the right time to end, I think three seasons because it’s been conceived as such from the beginning, I feel like if you go to four, it could be like a shark jump because it feels complete.

I think I speak for a lot of people, I love the idea of three seasons and being just a perfect three seasons, and that’s it.

FOGELMAN: I think the big thing is trying to figure out these shows, how to get them back on the air quickly enough. I had Sterling do a little recap online of the first season because I was like, I don’t remember what happened in the first season of the show. And we were back on quick, we were back on within a year, that we were determined, our studio and network were great about picking us up early, but man, it’s hard to get back into these serialized shows when you’re off the air for so long. So like Sterling was saying, that’s another way that more work can stay in Los Angeles, is if in these big shows when you have people you believe in, yes, maybe it’s an eight or ten episode show, but let’s bang out two seasons at once so then there can be a five month break in between the two seasons and you’re shooting season three, and that starts requiring a commitment before a show is a success or a failure. And that’s hard too, you’re talking about astronomical amounts of money. It’s a complicated equation.

The thing that I’m most excited about why I asked you when you were filming is, if you wrap in August, I know it’s coming back early next year in terms of season table.

BROWN: His goal is to give back at the same time each year. You know, we don’t like the two year wait and anything like that. Give the people what they want.

FOGELMAN: We actually would be shooting already, but like we had two pregnant women and the killies tending.

BROWN: Yeah, all of that together. We need to give it a little more time.

I love talking to actors about how they prepare for their scenes and their work. So you guys are filming, you know, hypothetically Episode 4, and you’ve been going, what does a typical weekend look like for you guys? Are you breaking down the script? Are you practicing like what it is actually like getting ready for the next episode? If you take me through your process.

OKUMA: You know, we’re lucky enough on this show to get the scripts early enough and have time with them. I’ve been on a lot of shows where you’re getting revisions the night before and it’s hard to keep all the stuff in your head. But with this show, they’re timely and we appreciate it. But I’m for me, I am. I learn lines pretty quickly, but I have to. I like to sort of keep it in my head, keep it in my body over a couple of days, weeks if I can. And then it’s the second set. It’s easy after that. Yeah. Yeah. So that’s kind of on the weekend. I’m running lines for sure. My husband’s here somewhere. He’s always running them with me. So yeah, that’s what I am.

BROWN: I always appreciate trying to learn my lines at least 48 hours in advance because it does like it’s like Thanksgiving leftovers. It tastes better the next day. So you’re not trying to like cram the night before or whatnot, but you give yourself at least 48 hours because sometimes I don’t have weeks. I’m a new girl.

OKUMA: Well, with your number one, it’s a little more.

BROWN: They got a brother out here tap dancing. That’s doing a bunch of stuff, boy. I got a fire like, please, can I memorize these lines? But it’s also, I mean, in a sense… I find tricks like this on the treadmill or walking around my neighborhood. Physical activity along with memorization sort of allows things to soak in in a way. And then like, I’ll play with different intonations and try not to come with one fixed sort of way of saying it because you don’t want to get locked into a line reading. So I’ll sing it sometimes. I’ll rap it sometimes. I’ll do it with an accent sometimes just being stupid in a very playful way because it keeps it sort of like it’s in there, but it’s not like that. You know what I’m saying? And there’s like different people in our cast do different things. Say Shahi, if you ever see her script, she writes down her lines over and over again in different colored pencils because she has to have like eight different colors of the thing in order for her to memorize the thing. I was like, that’s a choice.

The late great Ron Seafish Jones when we were working on This Is Us, like it was like a jazz score. He had like different underlines and circles and asterisks and all this kind of stuff, right? It was beautiful. My script is fairly bare. I do like, I will ask production for a hard copy sometimes. I’m trying to save trees, but sometimes I need to… I gotta mark my shit up a little bit. You know what I’m saying? And it does… having something tactile helps in a real way. And some people who are great with just the pad, God bless you. And I know there’s things I can probably use on the pad to get the… What’s the pencil on the pad called? I pencil. You wanted him. Hey guys, it’s a pencil. Brother looked at me like it’s just a pencil, bro. What are you talking about?

But there is a certain tactile thing that I enjoy with the hard copy as well. It’s also a matter of depending on where we are. This one’s not as bad because we do two episodes at a time, but you’re shooting out of sequence. So you always have to have, for me, remembering where I was before and where I was after. Because sometimes it can get sort of jumbled up in your head. So you’re like, alright, I’m coming from here and the next thing that I’m doing is that. Okay, and that helps too.

Give me just one more second. Dan, this is for you. Was there a performance that forced you to rewrite or expand a role?

FOGELMAN: Beavers? No, but I will say actually one of the most exciting parts is kind of an extension to that question. Anuka auditioned for, had one and a half, two scenes in the first season. Two? And I kept saying to her, it’s going to be a really big part. You just bear with me. If you bear with me. And that has been, it’s not a surprise and it’s not like we wrote more. But one of my favorite parts of this season is her carrying that whole two previous episodes. Being like, here’s an actor I wasn’t super aware of who read one scene and Sterling and I were like, yeah, we like her. We like that. And then just going, holy shit, we’re giving her half the TV show right now and she’s just been absolutely murdering it. And so that’s like a really exciting thing. It’s not like the coolest part of my job, it’s not necessarily expanding the part for someone. It’s when you go, oh shit, I’ve got it and I can give it everything that we hoped we could do in it. I can give her her own episode. She’s so winning, she’s so good. People are going to be so excited to see her with Sterling and she holds her own right next to this guy who’s a force of nature. And it’s really, really exciting. So that’s a good part.

Brown’s Meryl Streep Story Steals the Show

“And she kissed me right there.”

Image via 20th Century Studios

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This is going to probably be my last question. I’ve been asking this of everyone recently. Have you ever asked for someone’s autograph?

FOGELMAN: I mean, as a kid for sure, baseball, I mean, athletes are still my thing. Athletes are still my thing. Not in a long time. I’m trying to think if I’ve asked for a selfie, which I guess is the modern day autograph of anybody of late. And I don’t think, I mean, if I met like Obama or something, I’d ask for a lie.

BROWN: You haven’t met Obama? Nice guy.

FOGELMAN: What about you?

OKUMA: So my parents are huge Young and the Restless fans. So for them, I ended up meeting a crew member and for them, I got them a signed photograph of the actor who plays Victor Newman. They were really into it. So I asked for someone else.

BROWN: That’s amazing. I have a big crush on Meryl Streep. And I remember the first time I met her, she didn’t know who I was. I was like, I’m just a really big fan. And Dan had told me that there’s a possibility of me coming on to Only Murders in the building as a love interest for her. And I came up to her, I was at the Academy Gala and I was like, Dan Folgman says there’s an opportunity for us to work together. And she goes, wouldn’t that be fun? I said, woman, you have no idea. Then this is the best part, right? Because I done American Fiction and then I saw her at the AFI thing. You were there and she comes up and lovingly holds me around the waist. And she said, when I first met you, I hadn’t seen your work, but you were absolutely glorious in American fiction. And she kissed me right there.

FOGELMAN: I’m good, I’m good. By the way, that story had nothing to do with an autograph.

BROWN: That’s my autograph.

FOGELMAN: He just wanted to tell that story.

BROWN: Can I tell the third part of the story? This is the best part. We were at the SAG Awards, now the Actor Awards. And I was backstage with my wife. And now my wife doesn’t walk fast on red carpet days because she looks like a wounded deer just newly born. And the shoes are very, very high. So I’m always coming like, come on woman, let’s keep up. And so we’re backstage and I saw Meryl. And I said, Meryl. And she turned around and she goes, sterling. And she reaches her arm out and then I just walked up with Meryl because Meryl walks fast. She wears flats. And me and Meryl just walked and talked and had a little lovely time. And my wife was behind trying to keep up. And she said, did you just leave me for Meryl Streep? I said, yes. And yes, I did.

There’s nothing I could say right now that’s going to be better than that story.

Paradise Seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream on Hulu now.

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Release Date

January 26, 2025

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Network

Hulu

Showrunner

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Dan Fogelman

Directors

Gandja Monteiro

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Writers

Jason Wilborn

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

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

Virgin River has gone through a surprising amount of cast exits through the years.

Based on Robyn Carr’s book series, Virgin River follows the lives of residents living in a small town in Northern California, including Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) and Jack (Martin Henderson). The hit series, which premiered in 2019, also stars Colin Lawrence, Annette O’Toole, Tim Matheson, Benjamin Hollingsworth, Sarah Dugdale, Zibby Allen and Kai Bradbury.

After seven seasons, there have been some major departures from the Netflix show. Grayson Gurnsey left as Ricky after season 4, and Mark Ghanimé, who played Cameron, had a surprising exit once season 6 was released.

“I think this season saw a little bit of a sendoff for Cameron,” showrunner Patrick Sean Smith exclusively told Us Weekly in December 2024. “In terms of Mark, the actor who I adore, he unfortunately won’t be coming back for season 7.”

Smith didn’t rule out a potential return for the character in the future. “But that’s not to say that Cameron’s not a part of our world forever,” he added. “I would love to bring him back, and bring his character back when the story presents itself.”

In March 2026, Virgin River returned for season 7, and it was later confirmed that Marco Grazzini will not reprise his role as Mike. In another twist, Lauren Hammersley, who has played Charmaine since the show premiered, is also not expected to come back for season 8.

“For me, I’m just trying to look [at] the longevity of the show and making sure that the characters that we’re keeping have enough story engine in them to keep going,” Smith told Deadline at the time. “So I can’t say there are any specific cast shakeups planned, but I think we will have to start to — as characters run their course — make some decisions and bring in some new blood.”

Keep scrolling for the biggest Virgin River cast exits through the years:

Lexa Doig

Paige played a central role in the first season, but Lexa Doig’s role decreased and the character was ultimately written off by season 4.

Lynda Boyd

Lynda Boyd left the show in season 3 when Lilly was killed.

Grayson Gurnsey

After playing Ricky since Virgin River debuted in 2019, Grayson Gurnsey exited in season 4 as his character joined the Marines. He briefly returned, but Ricky hasn’t been mentioned since season 6.

Related: How Much Time Has Passed on ‘Virgin River‘ Since Season 1? Timeline Explained

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While Virgin River is Netflix’s longest-running scripted series, viewers have been left confused about how much time has actually passed on the show. Based on Robyn Carr’s book series, Virgin River follows the lives of residents living in a small town in Northern California, including Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) and Jack (Martin Henderson). The hit series, […]

Mark Ghanimé

Cameron was introduced in season 4 and appeared in two seasons before being written off the show.

Lauren Hammersley

Season 7 solved the mystery of Charmaine’s kidnapping. It was later confirmed that Lauren Hammersley wouldn’t be reprising her role going forward.

Marco Grazzini

Marco Grazzini played Mike for several seasons before the character’s story was wrapped up in season 7.

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 19 seconds ago

For this ‘80s kid, RoboCop (1987) is one of the best films ever made. As a young movie nerd, I watched the movie for its spectacle, including conniving bad guys, kooky sci-fi, and some of the best action scenes in Hollywood history. Growing older, though, I realized the real strength of the movie was its trenchant satire and social commentary. Director Paul Verhoeven held an unflinching mirror up to America, and he willingly interrupts his sci-fi opus with fake ads meant to highlight the inevitable dangers of where society was headed.

Now, RoboCop is streaming for free on Tubi, and this is arguably the best way to watch this ‘80s epic. You see, Tubi is a free streaming platform with ads embedded into every film, which is fine: a few ads are a small price to pay for this streamer’s sprawling platform of titles. However, the ads on Tubi have arguably gotten weirder than ever, including AI slop being used to sell everything from pay-to-win apps to gambling services. Now, in a truly meta moment, you can stream Verhoeven’s vision of future America and compare how strange our modern advertisements have become to the hilarious fake ads he created nearly four decades ago.  

Cops And Robots

The premise of RoboCop is that in a dystopian Detroit, law enforcement is now handled by a creepy megacorporation. They want to be tough on crime, so they take a recently slain police officer and revive him inside a cybernetic body. Now, as RoboCop, this mechanical lawman is the bane of criminals throughout the city. However, there is still a glimmer of humanity beneath his dark visor, and that spark of who he was may help the city’s top cop save the day. Assuming, of course, it doesn’t get him killed before that can happen.

The cast of RoboCop includes some very fun surprises, including Ray Wise (best known for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me) and Ronny Cox (best known for Total Recall). The movie also stars Kurtwood Smith (best known for That ‘70s Show) as one of the most memorable villains to ever grace an action movie. But the real star of the show is Peter Weller (otherwise best known for The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension), who is amazing as both hero cop Alex Murphy and RoboCop, a technological powerhouse who may very well be the future of law enforcement.

As an ‘80s kid myself, I had a simpler view of RoboCop. When I was younger, I loved the fact that the title character looked like an action figure, and that he fought bad guys as two-dimensional as the ones in my beloved Saturday morning cartoons. It helped, of course, that the very concept of this hero felt like something out of the fevered imagination of a sugar-addled child. After all, what’s cooler than a cop in the eyes of a kid? A robot cop, naturally!

Ironically, as I grew older, I appreciated how RoboCop functioned as a hilariously on-the-nose criticism of America’s police force. The individual cops are mostly decent people trying to make their city a better place, but they are caught up in a corporatized system that prioritizes profits over people. That system will do more than chew you up and kill you: it will then transform you into a robot zombie whose only function is to reduce human jobs and increase shareholder values. Regardless of your personal politics, that message is more resonant today than it ever was back in the waning twilight of Reagan’s America.

Tomorrow’s Future Shock, Today

Like many great franchises, no future films or shows were able to capture the magic of the first RoboCop film. Without Paul Verhoeven’s deft touch, later installments focused only on the surface-level coolness of having a nearly unkillable cop fighting everything from high-tech gangbangers to rival robots.

But it’s the satire that makes this first film an enduring classic, and the satire manages to be as hilarious as it is incisive. The most blatant satire comes from the bevy of fake ads that remind you that this is a world in which sex, violence, drugs, and even robotic cops are all just ways that a soulless corporation will try to sell you something.

Watching the film on Tubi now truly does make RoboCop that much more surreal, as your film about a corporate dystopia obsessed with money is periodically broken up by AI ads created by companies that didn’t want to pay real actors. In retrospect, Verhoeven gave us the most potent kind of satire: the one that accurately portrayed our own bleak future with unflinching accuracy and undeniable style.

RoboCop himself poses existential nightmare questions for audiences: like, how can anybody rage against the machine when the system makes us part of its gears? Today’s corpse is tomorrow’s cop, proving that even death cannot free you from the endless reach of our corporate overlords.

If you want to experience this eerily prescient movie in the best possible way, you don’t have to spend so much as a dollar. All you have to do is stream RoboCop for free on Tubi. Afterward, you might just spend the rest of your life quoting it. Because of that, make sure everyone in the room is cool before you start trying out your best impersonation of Kurtwood Smith’s hilariously iconic line: “b*tches leave!” 

Everyone gets bloating, headaches and fatigue from time to time. But if yours coincide with meal times, you may have food sensitivities hiding in your diet. Everlywell’s at-home test gives you a crystal-clear picture, measuring your body’s response to 96 different foods. You’ll wish you had found it years ago!

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Get the At-Home Food Sensitivity Test for $199 at Everlywell! 

Different from true food allergies, food sensitivities are fairly common. This test measures your body’s current IgG antibody levels for certain foods, categorizing them from high to low (to normal) reactivity. Your results can be organized by reactivity level or food group, depending on your preference.

In addition to clear, personalized results, Everlywell guides you through an elimination diet and provides lifestyle advice to support your journey. From collecting samples to getting results, the entire process is fast, so you’ll be up to speed with your health in no time.

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Everlywell’s test is the perfect place to start if you suspect food sensitivities or have unexplained symptoms like tummy troubles, headaches or any post-meal discomfort. Your results might surprise you.

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Get the At-Home Food Sensitivity Test for $199 at Everlywell! 

The Saviors, by director Kevin Hamedani and written by Hamedani and Travis Betz, is a satire that feels like it’s been sitting on the shelf for a few decades. Playing off post-9/11 fears, The Saviors tries to teach a lesson that any sane person already understands, in that judging people by the way they look isn’t right. Islamophobia is still rampant in our world, without a doubt, but The Saviors doesn’t have the nuance or the depth to explore its well-intentioned concept in any way other than in the most obvious, direct ways. The Saviors is a film that wants to be a broad comedy at times, while exploring intricate, difficult topics the next, and in this film, the two don’t meld together nearly as well as they need to do this idea justice.

Adam Scott and Danielle Deadwyler Are Nervous About Their New Renters in ‘The Saviors’

Sean (Adam Scott) and Kimberley Harrison (Danielle Deadwyler) are a married couple who rent their guest house for a few days to brother and sister Jahn (Nazanin Boniadi) and Amir (Theo Rossi). Sean and Kimberley are getting ready to sell their house and divorce, but they need the extra money to make repairs on their home. After a pleasant meeting and a lovely dinner together, Sean starts to suspect something is off about their new renters. Despite Amir stating Jahn is deaf, Sean believes she hears more than she lets on, and Sean seems to think of Amir’s slightly intense demeanor as something suspicious. Early on, when Kimberley tries to calm down his worries, Sean states that he’s “uneasy” around the brown people that have moved in, and it’s as though The Saviors wants us to agree that something strange is going on.

It doesn’t take long before Kimberley is all aboard the suspicion train, as the pair stay up to try and catch anything unusual coming from their guest house. Little things completely alter their perception of Jahn and Amir — they look through the guest house and notice mechanical devices, while Kimberley notices that her journal has gone missing. Not helping matters are Sean’s parents (Ron Perlman and Colleen Camp), who are supporters of a neo-Nazi publication that they’ve also signed Sean and Kimberley up for, and Sean’s sister, Cleo (Kate Berlant), who is constantly joking about these Middle Eastern people and saying that it’s the conservatives’ time in America.

But Sean and Kimberley start to get very concerned upon the realization that the President is coming to visit the area soon. While there have been reports of higher security in the area and demonstrations due to the President’s arrival, Sean and Kimberley have convinced themselves that Jahn and Amir are going to set off a bomb that will take out the President. Amongst all of this, Sean also keeps having strange dreams where he and Kimberley are back together, but also of a bomb going off near their house, which only exacerbates his racist fears.

‘The Saviors’ Doesn’t Have the Nuance or Depth To Make This Satire Work

Image via SXSW

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Hamedani and Betz’s screenplay is awkward at best. As we see this story from Sean and Kimberley’s perspective, it wants us to see this story from their perspective — which is inherently critical based on race — and seems to want us to agree that something strange is going on. We know that there’s probably going to be something deeper than what this married couple is seeing, but it also apparently wants us to go, “See, they have a point for being suspicious! You can’t blame them for this!,” while also criticizing them at the same time. It’s a fine needle to thread, and it doesn’t even come close to pulling it off.

Related

Netflix’s 2-Part True Crime Satire Is Still the Streamer’s Greatest Comedy Ever

This show should’ve had at least 10 seasons.

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The Saviors also wants us to laugh at this scenario and these characters, but it’s often hard to find anything funny in this situation. The fact that Sean and Cleo were raised by racist parents is seen as a joke that has seemingly trickled down. The paranoia towards Amir and Jahn is also played for laughs, as Sean and Kimberley stay up all night keeping an eye on their neighbors. At one point, Sean and Kimberley rekindle their romance, and as they hook up, they switch positions solely so they can continue their spying and not miss anything. The Saviors wants its humor to hit with an uncomfortable undertone, which is very clear, but considering the world we live in today, it’s hard to see the comedy in the situations that the film presents here.

Hamedani and Betz have good intentions in this story, trying to present an idea that the world will fall apart if we don’t trust our very neighbors, and are attempting a plea for unity with this film. The problem is that this doesn’t have nearly the depth or focus to sell that theme effectively. We don’t really know anything about Sean or Kimberley, other than that Sean is unemployed and has a very questionable family. The film even throws in an over-the-top private investigator, Jim Clemente (Greg Kinnear), to help spy on Amir and Jahn, and it just feels like yet another unneeded layer of humor that falls flat. The Saviors wants us to walk away feeling like we should love and trust our neighbors, when really, it’s presenting the idea that maybe it’s better to stay the hell away from them.

‘The Saviors’ Cast Is Good, Even If the Movie Is Not

Image via SXSW

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Scott and Deadwyler are both decent in The Saviors, despite the script not doing them any favors. Scott could absolutely play the depth of a character torn between his liberal beliefs and his conservative upbringing, but The Saviors doesn’t ask him to go that far. Instead, The Saviors asks him to be a suspicious and borderline racist character, and he manages to do this while also still being likable, despite his flaws. It’s also just great to see Deadwyler in a role that allows her to be a bit more humorous, especially after great but often depressing performances in films like Till and The Piano Lesson. Comedy looks good on Deadwyler, and hopefully, she’ll get more work in the genre in the future. Rossi and Boniadi are also very strong here, and by the end, you’ll wish that the film focused on them and their story instead of Sean and Kimberley.

Right when The Saviors is getting somewhere legitimately interesting, the film grinds to a halt. It’s an ending that could’ve completely shifted the tone and quality of the movie had it happened halfway through the film. But instead, The Saviors shows its promise in the closing moments and makes one wonder what that much better, more intriguing story could’ve been. Hamedani and Betz have created a concept with some fascinating places for it to go, and instead, have handled this story sloppily and with questionable focus. Yes, The Saviors feels like a satire from another era altogether, but had Hamedani and Betz handled this story better, it could’ve felt incredibly essential to our current times.

The Saviors premiered at the 2026 SXSW Festival.

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Release Date

March 13, 2026

Director

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Kevin Hamedani

Writers

Travis Betz, Kevin Hamedani

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Producers

Adam Scott, Bradley Gallo, Matt Smith, Nicholas Weinstock, Naomi Scott, Michael Helfant, Dan Gedman

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Cast

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  Danielle Deadwyler

  Kimberley Harrison

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Pros & Cons

• The cast of The Saviors is solid, even if the characters aren’t there.
• The Saviors has good intentions and a solid concept that ends in an intriguing place.

• The Saviors doesn’t have the depth a satire like this absolutely needs.
• The film ends right when it’s starting to get truly interesting.

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