Prequels often suffer from a lack of suspense, since the audience knows where the story is headed in the end. Back in its first season, House of the Dragon had an explosive solution for this issue — it confirmed for the first time that House Targaryen had prophesized the Long Night and the return of the White Walkers, and that prophecy had guided their actions for generations leading up to Game of Thrones. It was a long-time fan theory, but by confirming it, House of the Dragon showed that Westeros has many mysteries left to uncover, and they could come from any spinoff media. Now, with the series hurtling towards its end, fan theorists have many ideas about what other revelations might be coming before the Dance of the Dragons is over. One tantalizing possibility concerns Aegon’s prophecy, House Stark, and the future king of Westeros.
It’s been nearly four years since House of the Dragon revealed that Aegon the Conqueror dreamed of the White Walkers in a prophecy he called the “Song of Ice and Fire.” In that time, fans have teased out many of the implications this might have on the story — characters who passed it down, characters who were influenced by it, and characters who failed to get the message. In all that digging, many fans feel that House Stark must have known about the prophecy, and likely cooperated with House Targaryen because of it in some cases. Evidence for that theory is mounting, but the real question is if or when it might be confirmed. It would make sense to put another monumental lore dump at the end of House of the Dragon, and the show itself is giving us some hints about what’s coming.
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‘House of the Dragon’ Says ‘Winter is Coming,’ Though It’s Still Summer
Harry Collett and Tom Taylor at the Wall in House of the Dragon Season 2Image via HBO
There are plenty of clues to support the theory that House Stark knew about Aegon’s prophecy and passed that knowledge down in secret — too many to include in this article. What’s important is how House of the Dragon is drawing attention to those clues, and perhaps setting up a grand revelation towards the end of the series. Northmen have only appeared in a few scenes scattered throughout the series so far, but that’s about to change, as we’ve already seen with Roderick Dustin’s (Tommy Flanagan) dramatic entrance into the Riverlands this season.
“We have come to die for the dragon queen,” he said bluntly in the season premiere. This stellar line is taken straight from George R.R. Martin‘s book Fire & Blood, and it’s not just melodramatic wording. Lord Dustin leads a force known as the “Winter Wolves,” who are all old, gray-bearded warriors from throughout the North. They do not expect to survive the war whether they win or lose — it’s part of a brutal custom in the North where old men risk their lives in battle or hunting expeditions around the time the seasons change, knowing they’ll likely die. This way, they leave their community with one less mouth to feed through the winter.
House of the Dragon is not shying away from this fatalistic aspect of Northern culture — if anything, the show is calling attention to it. In Season 2 Episode 1, the show depicted Jacaerys Targaryen (Harry Collett) meeting with Lord Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor) on the Wall, rather than at Winterfell. Lord Stark claimed that he could not send all his forces south to war because he would need them in the winter to guard the Wall. He asked Jace, “Do you think my ancestors built a 700-foot wall of ice to keep out snow and savages?” According to Cregan, the Wall is really there to keep out “death.” However, the Lord of Winterfell rarely visits the Wall, allowing the Night’s Watch to operate independently. Cregan’s personal interest in the Wall might be a hint that he knows something we don’t.
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Cregan’s focus on the Wall and the Winter Wolves’ willingness to die are both surprising, since House of the Dragon has given us no real indications that winter is coming to Westeros. This fantasy world is defined by its irregular seasons, but there is usually quite a bit of warning of the onset of winter. Characters in the south have not complained about unusual cold or storms, and the maesters of the Citadel have not sent out their albino ravens to herald the changing seasons. It’s possible that Cregan, Roderick, and other Northmen can sense a different kind of winter coming on. Cregan might even have knowledge of Aegon’s prophecy passed down to him, and he may believe there are signs that the White Walkers’ attack is imminent.
Prophecies Could Completely Recontextualize ‘Game of Thrones’
In general, Game of Thrones did not examine the magical elements of Westeros very closely — especially toward the end, when it mattered most. For years, fans and critics have speculated that spinoffs like House of the Dragon will try to vindicate the main series, and in some ways, it looks like they’ve been right. House of the Dragon has magic centered in its story, from the haunting mysteries of Harrenhal to Helaena’s (Phia Saban) clear psychic abilities. Prophecies and telepathy are arguably more important to this franchise than dragons and ice monsters, and we should expect to see more of them in the back half of House of the Dragon.
So far, dreams and visions in this show have already shown us glimpses of important things coming in the main series. In Season 2, Episode 8 Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) leads Daemon (Matt Smith) to the Weirwood tree, where he sees the White Walkers, and Daenerys hatching dragons in the desert. He even sees Brynden Rivers, a.k.a. Bloodraven, the future Targaryen who will become a Greenseer and eventually teach Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) to do the same. Bloodraven is an important character in the books, though his presence was downplayed in the TV adaptation. The younger version of him on House of the Dragon is played by Joshua Ben-Tovim, while on Game of Thrones he was played by Struan Rodger, then recast as Max von Sydow.
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Readers know we should never take a vision of Bloodraven lightly. It’s possible that we’ll see him again in House of the Dragon as more characters interact with the Weirwoods and the bloodshed of the war awakens the trees. However, it’s possible this show will go one step farther by showing us Bloodraven’s successor, Bran Stark. We know that Bran can use his powers to reach backward in time to influence people and events — he did so when he commanded Hodor (Kristian Nairn) to “hold the door,” and in the books, it’s implied that he can reach other characters as well.
If Bran appears in a vision, it would be a fitting magical climax for House of the Dragon, and it would mirror some of the other tie-ins we’ve seen in the show so far. Some fans and critics would inevitably call it cheap, but it’s a move that would definitely appeal to HBO executives and creators who want to keep this franchise alive. In the long run, Easter eggs like that could become a central feature of Game of Thrones spinoffs, further complicating the web of causes and effects around the wars in Westeros.
‘House of the Dragon’ Has Just as Much Ice as Fire
House of the Dragon is ostensibly about a civil war among House Targaryen’s dragon-riders, yet the show has dedicated a surprising amount of time to the other end of Westeros’ magical spectrum — the old gods and the Weirwood trees, which are strongest in the North. The show has given us two glimpses of the mythical “Green Men,” and shown an immense amount of Greenseer magic at play around Harrenhal and the God’s Eye lake. According to Game of Thrones, this same branch of magic was responsible for the creation of the White Walkers in the first place, so it makes sense that the prequel is still highlighting this connection.
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In some ways, Fire & Blood tells us where these Weirwood-heavy plots are headed, but because of the book’s unique nature, there’s a lot of ambiguity in the upcoming parts of the story. We’ve already seen connections that fans didn’t expect, such as Helaena’s intrusion on Daemon’s Weirwood vision, implying that dragon-dreamers and Greenseers have access to the same astral plane. We should expect a carefully-planned show like this to save some of its best spectacles for the end, so it’s not unreasonable to imagine a fully-realized King Bran appearing by the series finale. Alternatively, revealing that House Stark was also acting on Aegon’s prophecy could serve as one final revelation without the need for magical dreams.
Of course, the creative team will want to be careful not to overdo it with Easter eggs and lore drops. They could also be wary of delving into the lore without the involvement of Martin. The author is not pleased with this prequel, and doesn’t seem to be as closely involved as he was in Season 1. It’s possible that he already agreed to another big revelation when the show first started, but it’s also possible that the creators won’t want to rock the boat now that he’s not closely involved anymore.
At the time of this writing, there are only 14 episodes left of House of the Dragon — assuming showrunner Ryan Condal fulfills his plan of finishing the series with four seasons. That doesn’t leave much time for new information to sink in, so we should have our eyes peeled for any more big clues coming our way. Season 3 continues on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max. Martin’s books are available now in print, digital, and audiobook formats.
Henry Cavill as Superman in Man of Steel.Image via Warner Bros. Pictures
The DC Universe was launched with the promise of quality by James Gunn, the co-CEO of DC Studios. No film, he assured fans, would enter production without a script that everyone was satisfied with. The implication was the broader superhero cinema, and the preceding DC Extended Universe, had stopped prioritizing good storytelling. However, the critical and commercial failure of Supergirl, the second installment of Gunn and Peter Safran‘s franchise, has blown the lid off the issues that continue to plague studio-mandated franchise movies. It was reported last week that Gunn and director Craig Gillespie didn’t see eye to eye on Supergirl‘s final cut, resulting in a movie that left most audiences shrugging their shoulders. A common complaint about Supergirl is that it is too generic to stand out, and almost as a collective response, fans are now revisiting one of the most unconventional products of the superhero era.
According to FlixPatrol, Zack Snyder‘s Man of Steel emerged as one of the most popular titles on the domestic iTunes chart in the week of Supergirl’s release. Snyder’s movie served as the first installment of the DCEU, which was created in response to the record-breaking Marvel Cinematic Universe. The early mission statement was to produce director-driven movies that could stand on their own, without having to rely foundationally on each other. However, Snyder’s grounded take on Superman divided critics, and each subsequent installment of the franchise became a reaction to the previous movie.
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Collider Exclusive · Marvel Personality Quiz Which MCU Hero Are You? Spider-Man · Daredevil · Iron Man · Punisher · Thor · Cap
Six heroes. One destiny. Answer 10 questions to discover which Marvel Cinematic Universe hero shares your personality, values, and fighting spirit. Will you swing, fly, or thunder your way to glory?
🕷️Spider-Man
😈Daredevil
🤖Iron Man
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💀Punisher
⚡Thor
🛡️Cap
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01
What drives you to do what’s right? Choose the answer that feels most like you.
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02
It’s 2 AM. Where are you? Your answer says more about you than you’d think.
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03
How do you handle a villain who keeps escaping justice? Every hero has a method. What’s yours?
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04
How do you feel about keeping a secret identity? The mask — or the lack of one — says everything.
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05
You’ve lost someone important because of your heroism. How do you carry that? Every hero pays a price. The question is how they pay it.
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06
What’s your role when working with a team? Who you are under pressure is who you actually are.
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07
Where do you draw the line between justice and revenge? The answer defines what kind of hero you really are.
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08
When you’re not saving the world, what does life look like? The person behind the mask is always the more interesting story.
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09
What keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
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10
The battle is lost. You’re outnumbered, outgunned, and exhausted. What do you do? This is your tiebreaker — choose carefully.
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Your Hero Has Been Identified Your MCU Hero Is…
Based on your answers, the Marvel hero who matches your spirit, values, and instincts has been revealed.
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Queens, New York
🕷️ Spider-Man
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You carry the weight of the world on shoulders that are younger than they should have to be — funny, loyal, and endlessly self-sacrificing.
You do the right thing not because it’s easy, but because no one else will.
You understand that responsibility isn’t a burden you choose — it’s one that finds you.
Whether it’s a neighbourhood mugging or a multiverse crisis, you show up.
Peter Parker’s lesson — that great power demands great responsibility — isn’t a slogan to you. It’s the code you live by, even when it costs you everything.
Hell’s Kitchen, New York
😈 Daredevil
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You fight in the shadows between law and chaos, guided by a fierce moral compass that refuses to let the guilty walk free.
You use every tool available — your mind, your body, your faith — to protect those the system overlooks.
You’ve looked into the darkness and chosen not to become it, though the line has never been easy.
Matt Murdock’s duality — champion in the courtroom, devil in the alley — mirrors your own.
Relentless, conflicted, and unwilling to stop. That is exactly you.
Stark Industries, Malibu
🤖 Iron Man
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Brilliant, driven, and occasionally insufferable — but always the person who solves the unsolvable problem.
You lead with your mind and back it up with resources, innovation, and a stubbornness that borders on heroic.
You started out looking out for yourself, but somewhere along the way the world became your responsibility.
Tony Stark’s arc — from ego to sacrifice — is your arc too.
You build, you plan, and when the moment comes, you’re willing to give everything. Because in the end, you’re Iron Man.
New York City
💀 The Punisher
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You’ve been through fire that would break most people — and it did change you, completely. What’s left is unyielding, relentless, and operating by a code forged in grief.
You don’t ask for forgiveness, and you don’t expect gratitude.
You see a corrupt, broken world and you’ve decided to do something about it, consequences be damned.
Frank Castle’s war is born from love twisted by loss — and so is yours.
Uncompromising and unflinching — the world may not agree with your methods, but your conviction is absolute.
Asgard · Protector of the Nine Realms
⚡ Thor
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Powerful, proud, and on a lifelong journey to become worthy of the legend you carry.
You lead with strength but have learned — sometimes painfully — that true greatness comes from humility and growth.
You’re larger than life, yet more vulnerable than you let on.
Thor’s story is one of transformation: from arrogant prince to worthy king, from isolated warrior to beloved protector.
You bring the storm when it’s needed — and the warmth when it matters just as much.
Brooklyn, New York · The Avengers
🛡️ Captain America
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You believe in something bigger than yourself — and you fight for it even when the world has moved on and nobody else will.
You don’t bully the small guy, and you never stop when it gets hard.
Steve Rogers didn’t become a hero when he got the serum — he was always one. So were you.
Your strength isn’t in your fists; it’s in your refusal to compromise what’s right, no matter the cost.
In a world full of people taking the easy road, you’re the one who picks up the shield and stands up — every single time.
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Here’s How Much ‘Supergirl’ Has Grossed So Far
Starring Henry Cavill, Man of Steel grossed $670 million worldwide against a reported budget of $225 million. When Gunn took over and orchestrated a new franchise to replace the DCEU, he decided that the first installment would be a rebooted Superman movie directed by himself. He thanked Cavill for his services and cast David Corenswetas a more hopeful Clark Kent. While his movie was better-received by critics, it grossed under $620 million worldwide. Man of Steel now holds a 56% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, but it certainly seems to have more fans than Supergirl. The new movie holds a similar 54% score, but has virtually no chance of hitting the $100 million mark in its domestic box-office run. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Lil Wayne is facing backlash after fans claimed he arrived nearly two hours late to his recent concert at BankNH Pavilion in Gilford, New Hampshire. While the rapper later suggested on social media that the show went off without a hitch, frustrated concertgoers flooded online platforms with complaints about the delayed start. The criticism comes just days after Lil Wayne—born Dwayne Michael Carter Jr.—also faced backlash for failing to appear at a scheduled performance in Maine.
Lil Wayne was supposed to take the stage in Gilford around 9 PM ET, according to TMZ. However, the “Lollipop” rapper didn’t start performing until 11 PM. To make matters worse, concertgoers claimed the 43-year-old only performed an hour’s worth of songs before bailing.
Lil Wayne posted about the concert to his personal social media page after the show, implying everything went according to plan. “New Hampshire! It’s your man-ster. I told you man, that sh-t was awesome. You can see I don’t even have no voice. You all took my voice. You all took everything, man. It was f—in awesome,” he said.
He ended his message by letting his fans know he was headed to Iowa for his next show. Despite his claims, it’s unclear whether he’ll actually make the concert, which is currently scheduled for July 16 at Casey’s Center.
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The drama surrounding Lil Wayne’s most recent concert was shared on Reddit, and passionate pop culture fans weighed in, blasting the rapper for allegedly failing to consider his fans.
“Insanely disrespectful when performers do this. So gross and why I have so much more appreciation for Broadway actors who are so much more professional,” someone wrote.
“He’s been doing this for years, homie and I were supposed to see him like 2015 prob. He was supposed to take the stage at 10, openers finished at like 9:30. He didn’t come out till close to midnight, mad people had left,” another claimed.
A third said, “At this point, expecting punctuality from these legacy rappers is like setting yourself up for disappointment. 2 hours is just disrespectful, period. like, do you not value the people who literally pay your bills?”
Someone else wrote, “I don’t understand why artists do this. You knew the date and time at least a freaking YEAR in advance. This is your job as well. Be a professional, respect your fans. You should be thanking them for making you rich and famous ffs.”
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Lil Wayne Under Fire After Leaving Fans High And Dry In Maine
The backlash Lil Wayne is receiving for his latest stunt comes only days after the “A Milli” rapper failed to appear at his scheduled concert in Maine. The rapper was supposed to hit the stage at the Bangor waterfront with 2 Chainz at 10:45 PM. Minutes before the start time, though, a staffer told the crowd that Lil Wayne had bailed on the event.
Like the most recent concert, social media users slammed Lil Wayne for the last-minute cancellation, and in a recent post, they warned his followers not to purchase tickets to any of his future shows. “Wayne doesn’t show up for his shows,” someone posted. “Maine wasn’t the first time. He goes on hours late or no shows. Lil Wayne is a lil boy.”
Lil Wayne made headlines in August 2025 when he canceled a performance in Canada moments before the show was set to begin. In 2024, he dropped out of a California music festival at the last minute, and in 2023, he walked off a stage moments after it began.
Wayne Will Reportedly Make It Right For His Fans
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According to The Blast, Lil Wayne broke his silence days after missing his scheduled performance in Maine and apologized to fans for the no-show. He also confirmed the concert had been rescheduled for July 28 and assured ticketholders that all previously purchased tickets would be honored. Lil Wayne thanked fans for their continued support, saying he wouldn’t be where he is today without them. He closed by promising to deliver the “show you deserve” when he returns in a few weeks.
Wayne Was Upset With The NFL For Choosing Another Rapper For The Super Bowl Halftime Show In 2025
Lil Wayne garnered much attention in early 2025 when he slammed the NFL for choosing rapper Kendrick Lamar to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show in New Orleans (his hometown) over him. In a previous interview with Rolling Stone, Lil Wayne said he wouldn’t consider doing it today, even if they asked him.
“They stole that feeling. I don’t want to do it. It was perfect,” he said. “To perform, it’s a bunch of things [the NFL] going to tell you to do and not do, asses to kiss and not kiss.”
Lil Wayne went on to mention that he started hanging out with people like Tom Brady and Michael Rubin in hopes of securing the coveted gig. “You ain’t never seen me in them types of venues. I ain’t Drake. I ain’t out there smiling like that everywhere. I’m in the stu’, smokin’ and recording,” he said.
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When the NFL announced Lamar as the performer in late 2024, Lil Wayne admitted that the decision “hurt” him.
“I blame myself for not being mentally prepared for a letdown and for automatically mentally putting myself in that position like somebody told me that was my position,” he said. “But I thought there was nothing better than that spot and that stage and that platform in my city, so it hurt.”
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Summer is in full swing, but our penchant for sundresses never goes out of season. Especially for women over 55, loose, figure-flattering sundresses offer that sophisticated, warm-weather polish that’s always cool and chic. Right now, there’s no better place to shop sundresses for women over 55 than Amazon, which is packed with options in every style, fabric and length you could want.
Whether you’re on the hunt for a youthful-but-modest mini dress, a rich-mom-inspired maxi, a midsection-slimming sundress or something that will earn endless compliments, you can’t go wrong with these 17 loose sundresses — starting at just $15! — that’ll have you soaking up the season in style.
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17 Comfortable Loose Sundresses For Women Over 55
1. Our Favorite: Sophisticated and summer-ready, this smocked maxi dress earns rave reviews for its flattering fit. It’s a budget-friendly find that rivals a $220 Hill House Home style — and we’re officially obsessed.
2. Work Ready: For an outfit that moves effortlessly from weekends to workdays, reach for this breezy shirt dress. The gathered waist adds definition, while the flowy skirt keeps things light and easy.
3. Fan Favorite: Over 800 shoppers have snagged this cap-sleeve maxi dress this past month, and we don’t blame them. With a figure-forgiving fit that’s loose but not too loose, it’s an easy go-to for everything from errands to evenings out.
4. Luxe and Loose: Getting out the door never looked so chic as this ruffle-sleeve summer dress. It has the ease and feel of a favorite tee, with the sophistication of a refined and reliable frock.
I love summer dresses in theory, but the second something starts clinging to my waist, hips or stomach, I’m out. When temperatures climb, I want pieces that feel airy, comfortable and easy to move around in. The good news is that some of the most flattering sundresses happen to be the loosest ones, too. Relaxed […]
5. Midsection Friendly: Disguising the midsection is easy with this empire-waist sundress, which breaks things up elegantly and efficiently. One 62-year-old shopper said the flattering pick “completely hides” her “menopause belly.”
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6. Flirty and Fun: Sure, it’s technically a T-shirt dress, but this maxi is anything but basic. The petite-friendly piece hugs in all the right places, and even features a flirty side slit that’s not too daring.
7. Buy Every Color: Weary of showing off your arms but don’t want to be too covered? This cap-sleeve option disguises extra arm softness without feeling heavy or restrictive, giving you that coverage and confidence you deserve.
8. Country-Club Chic: Quiet luxury comes alive in Dokotoo’s striped empire-waist dress, which looks like it came from a pricey boutique. Ruffle sleeves, a chic V-neck and elongating stripes work in tandem to flatter from every angle.
9. Event Ready: From a well-deserved ladies’ lunch to a humid outdoor wedding, this flowy maxi dress understands the assignment. It has the flattering fit and fashion-forwardness of a pricey Anthropologie design for a fraction of the price.
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10. Modest Mini: Who says mini dresses are just for the twenty-somethings? This loose puff-sleeve find has that just-right length that won’t have you second-guessing your outfit. It’s fashionable, fun and totally wearable at any age.
11. Easy-Breezy: This loose V-neck sundress is completely customizable. Dress it up with an oversized tote, a slimming belt, statement sunnies and cozy sandals for the ultimate summer look. Or keep it casual and let it shine on its own.
12. Breathe Easy: Not too tight, not too loose, this elegant summer sundress meets your body where it’s at. One reviewer said she “loved this dress for traveling,” and honestly, that’s the only endorsement we need.
13. Versatile Pick: Not one for billowy silhouettes? This button-up sundress is the perfect compromise: cute, chic and just as at home on the beach as it is dressed up for a work meeting.
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14. All-Around Flattering: This arm-flattering and midsection-flattering puff-sleeve sundress is an all-ages favorite. Shoppers say the breezy, beautiful dress is especially great for Southern heat.
15. Statement Piece: Far from forgettable, this easy-to-style black and white sundress proves you don’t have to go overboard on colors. The fan-favorite maxi features a striking graphic print that gives the dress a boutique-worthy quality.
16. Anything But Basic: It’s the thoughtful design details — like the chic V-neck, youthful ruffle sleeves and figure-flattering tiers — that take this soft sundress to the next level.
17. Vacation Fit: Adorned with a flattering tie-waist and subtle slit, this slimming and soft sundress is a must-pack for your next summer getaway. It’s a power piece that’s just as right at 25 as it is at 55.
Welcome to summer with our biggest sale of the year. This summer’s chicest dresses, tops and swimsuits are all over 30% + free shipping. Inventory is limited so hurry before they’re gone.
Anya Taylor-Joy‘s first two attempts at big-screen stardom didn’t pan out like she probably planned. While most viewers would be aware of the box-office underperformance of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the epic prequel wasn’t Taylor-Joy’s first time headlining a franchise property. She starred alongside Maisie Williams and Charlie Heaton in the X-Men spin-off film The New Mutants, which was dumped in theaters during a transitional phase for 20th Century Studios in 2020. Miraculously, it grossed around $50 million at the box office even though movie theaters around the world were mostly shuttered. Furiosa was released in far more stable times, but the movie ended up grossing just $175 million globally against a reported budget of $168 million. Mere months later, however, Taylor-Joy rebounded with the blockbuster Apple TV movie The Gorge.
It marked a return to form for the young actor, who broke out with a lead role in M. Night Shyamalan‘s Split, but became a household name thanks to Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit. In The Gorge, she starred alongside Miles Teller. The genre-bending movie remains one of the biggest original hits on Apple TV’s roster. Taylor-Joy will continue her creative partnership with the streamer with an upcoming crime-drama limited series that’s due out in a matter of weeks.
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Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
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⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
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01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
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02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
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03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.
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04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
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05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
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06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.
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07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
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08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
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09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
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When it’s over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
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Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
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🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
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You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
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You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
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Here’s When Anya Taylor-Joy’s New Show Debuts
We’re talking, of course, about Lucky. The show has been created byJonathan Tropper, who, like Taylor-Joy, already has a hit Apple TV title under his belt: the black comedy Your Friends and Neighbors, starring Jon Hamm. Tropper also wrote the script for this year’s buddy cop action movie The Wrecking Crew, starring Jason Momoaand Dave Bautista, and is the sole credited writer for next year’s Star Wars: Starfighter. Lucky also features Annette Bening, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Timothy Olyphant, and Drew Starkey. Based on a novel by Marissa Stapley and executive-produced by Reese Witherspoon, the series’ logline might remind viewers of the final season of HBO’s Euphoria. It features Taylor-Joy as a reformed criminal who is forced to perform one last job to secure her freedom. Lucky will premiere on Apple TV on July 15, and will conclude after seven episodes on August 19. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
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Release Date
July 15, 2026
Network
Apple TV
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Showrunner
Jonathan Tropper, Cassie Pappas, Jonathan van Tulleken
Cillian Murphy is undoubtedly one of the greatest actors of our generation. The role he’s arguably most iconic for is Thomas Shelby from Peaky Blinders. Murphy was insanely charming as the troubled gang leader with a moral code, and it’s hard to imagine the character becoming such a cultural phenomenon if anyone else had played him.
But long before he was walking the streets of Birmingham in a flat cap, Murphy had already built one of the most impressive filmographies in modern cinema. For more than two decades, he has been one of the most compelling screen presences on the big screen, and his body of work is the kind that film students will likely be studying for years to come. In this list, we’re taking a look at the Cillian Murphy movies that stand as true masterpieces and showcase exactly why he’s considered one of the finest actors working today.
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‘Inception’ (2010)
Cililan Murphy’s Robert Fischer lost in thought during the finale of ‘Inception’.Image via Warner Bros.
Ask someone what their favorite movies are, and there is a very good chance the list includes Inception. Christopher Nolan‘s 2010 sci-fi thriller became a genuine cultural phenomenon and one of those rare films that an entire generation of moviegoers claims as their own. The film follows a team of specialists who use experimental technology to enter their targets’ subconscious minds and steal or plant information directly in their dreams. Murphy plays Robert Fischer, the heir to a corporate empire whose mind becomes the team’s most ambitious target.
Nolan takes a concept that should be impossible to follow and makes it not only comprehensible but thrilling at every turn. The rules of dream architecture, the ticking clock of the sedative, the way each dream level runs on a different time dilation. Most filmmakers struggle to make audiences care about exposition scenes, but Nolan somehow turns those scenes into the most fascinating parts of the movie. It’s a cerebral masterpiece that consistently blows minds on first, fifth, and even tenth viewing.
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’28 Days Later’ (2002)
Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson, and Naomie Harris as Jim, Frank, and Selena in 28 Days Later.Image via Searchlight Pictures
Before 28 Days Later, zombies were usually slow, undead creatures that shuffled around waiting to be avoided. They were creepy and grotesque to look at, sure, but they rarely felt like a real threat. Danny Boylecompletely changed that in 2002. The infected in 28 Days Later sprint at terrifying speeds with manic agility, and just one drop of their blood entering the body is enough to turn someone. That simple creative choice made zombies infinitely more threatening and set a whole new standard for the zombie genre going forward.
The entire film was also shot on consumer-grade Canon DV cameras on a shoestring budget, which gave the film this dirty, murky feel that polished studio horror simply couldn’t replicate. And at the centre of it all is Murphy’s Jim, a bicycle courier who wakes up in an abandoned London hospital 28 days into the outbreak. The character became such a fan favorite that audiences would repeatedly call for Murphy to return whenever a new sequel was discussed. More than two decades later, the franchise finally gave audiences what they had been asking for by bringing Murphy back in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.
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‘Dunkirk’ (2017)
Cillian Murphy and Tom Glynn-Carney in DunkirkImage via Warner Bros. Pictures
Nolan is no stranger to playing with film structure, and he does something similar in Dunkirk. Set during World War II, the movie takes place across three timelines running simultaneously at different speeds. The Land storyline follows soldiers stranded on the beach over the course of a week. The Sea storyline follows a civilian boat crossing the Channel over a single day. And the Air storyline follows Spitfire pilots locked in aerial combat over the course of a single hour. And in the end, all three converge in one breathtaking sequence.
Murphy plays a shell-shocked soldier rescued from the Channel by the civilian vessel, and his performance is a masterpiece of restraint. There is almost no dialogue for his character, but you understand everything about his state of mind from the way he sits and stares and flinches. The film is a war movie that almost completely refuses to show you combat in the conventional sense. The enemy is an unseen, faceless force represented by constant aerial bombings, sniper fire, and torpedo attacks, and yet it is one of the most anxiety-inducing films ever made.
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‘Oppenheimer’ (2023)
Cillian Murphy looking pensive at the end of ‘Oppenheimer’Image via Universal Pictures
Many consider Oppenheimer to be the magnum opus of Nolan’s career so far, and it is very hard to argue against that. The film stars Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist who headed the Manhattan Project and oversaw the creation of the first atomic bomb. When Oppenheimer came out, it was a global cultural event in a way that rarely happens with serious, character-driven historical films. People who normally wouldn’t even go for this kind of dense, dialogue-heavy cinema lined up on opening weekend, and it went on to become the highest-grossing biopic of all time.
And the entire film is almost single-handedly carried by Murphy. His portrayal of Oppenheimer was a masterclass in internalized agony; in every scene, you could see the guilt clawing at him just from his eyes. The Academy recognized it accordingly, and Murphy took home his long-overdue Oscar for Best Actor.
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Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz Which Oscar Best Picture Is Your Perfect Movie? Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
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Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
🐦Birdman
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🪙No Country for Old Men
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01
What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don’t just entertain — they leave something behind.
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02
Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What’s yours?
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03
How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
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04
What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
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05
What do you want from a film’s ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
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06
Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what’s even possible.
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07
What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
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08
What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
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09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
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10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
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The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
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Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it’s ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
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Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn’t want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it’s about.
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Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
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Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it’s about. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor’s ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn’t be possible. Michael Keaton’s performance and Emmanuel Lubezki’s restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
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No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
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‘Steve’ (2025)
Cillian Murphy in thought against a blackboard in SteveImage via Netflix
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Steve is a heavy, slow-burn character study that follows Murphy as Steve, a head teacher at a reform school who is trying to hold his students together while quietly falling apart himself. The students are difficult to deal with. The institution is underfunded. And the movie does not offer tidy resolutions or redemption arcs tied up with a bow. It just lies down with the messiness of being human and lets you feel it alongside its characters.
Murphy is especially extraordinary in it. He has always been good at playing men who keep everything locked inside, but here he takes that quality further than he ever has because there are moments in Steve that feel genuinely private, like you are watching someone at their most unguarded. If you’re a fan of artsy, heavy movies like The Banshees of Inisherin or The Holdovers, Steve should be at the top of your watchlist.
After a generational run as a jazz-loving modern-day gumshoe in the blockbuster Prime Video series Bosch, Titus Welliver will soon return to the small screen in a new series with massive potential. He is joined as the new show’s lead by the Oscar-winning J.K. Simmons. They play two childhood friends who drifted in different directions: one became a police officer and the other a gangster. Their paths collide in 1980s New York. It’s like Mystic River meets The Sopranos, and it’ll be released soon on MGM+ — the same streaming service that delivered the only well-liked Robin Hood adaptation of the last two decades earlier this year.
Welliver’s new series was created by Chris Brancato and Michael Panes. Brancato is best-known as the co-creator of the hit Netflix series Narcos and its spin-off, Narcos: Mexico. Panes transitioned, like the very successful Taylor Sheridan, from an acting career to writing, and worked on Brancato’s writing team for the Epix-turned-MGM+ series Godfather of Harlem. Their new show with Welliver also features Tom Brittney, a relative newcomer who made headlines recently for reportedly being in the running to play Batman in the DC Universe.
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Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
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⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
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01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
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02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
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03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.
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04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
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05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
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06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.
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07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
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08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
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09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
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10
When it’s over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
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Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
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🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
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You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
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You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
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Here’s When Titus Welliver’s New Show Premieres
We’re talking about The Westies. The crime drama series will debut on MGM+ on July 12. The show’s official logline reveals that the narrative unfolds in Daredevil’s backyard, Hell’s Kitchen, amid rising tensions between the Irish and the Italian gangs. Welliver is coming off the third season of Bosch: Legacy, a spin-off to the wildly successful Prime Video original, based on the novels of Michael Connelly. The original series ran for seven seasons, from 2014 to 2021, with the spin-off debuting on Amazon Freevee in 2023, airing a sophomore season in 2024, and concluding with a third season in 2025. Welliver also reprised his role as Bosch in another spin-off, Ballard, which has aired two seasons so far and has been renewed for a third. A prequel series featuring Cameron Monaghan in the lead role, titled Bosch: Start of Watch, will be released on MGM+. Simmons has a considerable body of work on television as well, having recently starred in shows such as Die Hart and Defending Jacob. In August, he will star as George Schultz in the Cold War drama film The Brink of War. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Supernatural horror gets weaker the moment the ghost becomes the whole point. The perfect supernatural horror, however, knows that. It knows the haunting is usually tied to something people were already carrying: grief, guilt, family damage, buried crime, childhood fear, national trauma, or the terrible need to know what really happened.
The six films on this list stay frightening because their ghosts do not feel random. They have history. They have emotional logic. They turn houses, videotapes, children’s rooms, abandoned buildings, family stories, and old photographs into places where the past refuses to stay polite. Each one is controlled from the first uneasy sign to the last emotional consequence. And that’s how these films remain perfect from start to finish.
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6
‘The Changeling’ (1980)
Image via Pan-Canadian Film Distributors
Grief gives The Changelingits first chill before the house does anything. John Russell (George C. Scott) loses his wife and daughter in a car accident, then moves into a large old mansion in Seattle to continue his work as a composer. He carries a quiet heaviness that makes the silence around him feel personal. He is not a thrill-seeker. He is not chasing a mystery for fun. He is a broken man trying to live in rooms that keep answering him back.
The genius of the film is its patience. A bouncing ball, a locked attic, a child’s wheelchair, a séance, a hidden room, and a decades-old crime slowly turn the mansion into a place where grief and injustice speak the same language. The horror never feels cheap because John’s loneliness gives every sound weight. The film also understands that a ghost story becomes more powerful when the dead are not the only guilty ones. Political respectability, family secrets, and stolen identity make the haunting feel earned rather than decorative.
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5
‘The Devil’s Backbone’ (2001)
Image via Sony Pictures Classics
Guillermo del Toro’s orphanage is frightening before Santi (Junio Valverde) ever appears in The Devil’s Backbone. The film follows the Spanish Civil War and sits around the boys like an adult disaster they inherited without permission, and the unexploded bomb in the courtyard tells you exactly what kind of world they are living in. Carlos (Fernando Tielve), a new boy at the orphanage, has to learn its rules, its cruelties, its rivalries, and its hidden grief while the ghost of a murdered child keeps pulling him toward the truth.
The supernatural material hurts because the living are already dangerous. Jacinto (Eduardo Noriega)’s resentment, Carmen (Marisa Paredes)’s compromised authority, Dr. Casares (Federico Luppi)’ tenderness, Jaime (Íñigo Garcés)’s fear, and the boys’ fragile alliances give the story a human tension that would work even without the ghost. Santi’s presence is tragic rather than flashy. He is not there to perform scares on schedule. He is a child who was betrayed, abandoned, and left to become part of a building full of other abandoned children. The film is perfect because the ghost story, war story, and coming-of-age story all wound each other in the same place.
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4
‘Noroi: The Curse’ (2005)
Image via Cathay-Keris Films.
Noroi: The Curse is a found-footage horror and while most found-footage horror films want you to believe the camera caught something scary. Noroi makes you feel like the footage itself should never have been organized in the first place. The film follows paranormal researcher Masafumi Kobayashi (Jin Muraki) through interviews, TV clips, home videos, missing-person material, strange rituals, dead pigeons, psychic disturbances, and the name Kagutaba, which keeps gaining force the more the pieces connect.
The terror comes from accumulation. A woman hears impossible baby sounds. A child behaves as if something has already touched her life. A foil-hat psychic seems ridiculous until the movie makes his panic feel horribly rational. The editing style looks dry and investigative, which only makes the supernatural pattern more disturbing. Nothing in Noroi rushes to comfort the viewer with clean answers. It lets dread build through repetition, distance, and the awful sense that every clue has been waiting for the others. The ending is terrifying because the movie has trained you to fear context itself. Once enough information is gathered, ignorance starts looking safer.
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3
‘The Orphanage’ (2007)
Belen Rueda and Fernando Cayo as Laura and Carlos sitting next to each other on a loveseat in “The Orphanage” (2007)Image via Warner Bros. Pictures
This is one of the rare ghost stories where the emotional devastation is as strong as the scares. The Orphanage circles Laura (Belén Rueda) returning to the orphanage where she grew up, hoping to reopen it as a home for children with disabilities. Her son Simón (Roger Príncep) begins talking about invisible friends, and what first seems like childhood imagination slowly becomes tied to the building’s past, Laura’s memories, and a mystery that punishes every delay.
The film is terrifying because Laura’s love keeps pushing her further into fear. She gives the performance a desperation that never feels exaggerated. She is a mother trying to solve something no one else can fully believe with her. The game of knocking on walls, the sack-masked child, the seaside cave, the old woman, the medium’s visit, and the reopening of childhood wounds all carry a sadness that makes the horror sharper. The film never treats motherhood as a simple virtue shield. Laura’s love is powerful, but it is also frantic, mistaken, stubborn, and late to understand the truth. That complexity is why the film stays lodged in the chest.
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Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
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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
🎈Pennywise
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🪆Chucky
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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.
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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.
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03
What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn’t account for. What’s yours?
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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.
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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.
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06
What’s the horror movie mistake you’re most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th
Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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2
‘A Tale of Two Sisters’ (2003)
Image via Cineclick Asia Big Blue Film
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A Tale of Two Sisters feels delicate until you realize how much pain is hiding inside every room. Su-mi (Im Soo-jung) comes home from a psychiatric hospital with her younger sister Su-yeon (Moon Geun-young), and the house immediately feels hostile: their stepmother Eun-joo (Yum Jung-ah) is cold and theatrical, their father is withdrawn, and the domestic space seems organized around something nobody wants to say clearly. The supernatural signs are disturbing, but the family tension is worse because it has already shaped how everyone breathes around each other.
Kim Jee-woon turns the house into a place of memory, denial, and punishment without losing the emotional thread. Su-mi’s protectiveness, Su-yeon’s vulnerability, Eun-joo’s cruelty, and the father’s silence keep shifting meaning as the truth becomes harder to avoid. The wardrobe, the dinner scene, the bedroom terror, the stepmother’s behavior, and the sisters’ bond all gain new pain once the film reveals what the family has been circling. The scares are beautifully staged, yet the real damage is psychological and familial. It is a ghost story where grief has rearranged the entire home.
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1
‘Lake Mungo’ (2008)
Image via Arclight Films
No film on this list understands the loneliness of a family after death more precisely than Lake Mungo. Sixteen-year-old Alice Palmer (Talia Zucker) drowns, and the documentary-style structure follows her parents and brother as they try to understand what remains of her. Photographs, home videos, interviews, alleged sightings, and family secrets build a portrait of a girl who becomes more unknowable after death, not less.
That is what makes the film so upsetting. The Palmers are not simply asking whether Alice’s ghost is real. They are confronting how little they may have known her while she was alive. The supernatural evidence feels eerie, but the emotional fear is worse: a dead child can leave behind mysteries no parent gets to solve cleanly. The phone footage at Lake Mungo is one of modern horror’s most devastating moments because it combines dread with an unbearable sense of recognition. The film never uses the afterlife as a cheap answer. It turns haunting into grief, grief into investigation, and investigation into the awful knowledge that love does not guarantee understanding.
The first Star Wars movie in seven years, The Mandalorian and Grogu, was effectively wiped out at the box office by the massively successful horror hits Obsession and Backrooms. The two horror movies cost less than $1 million and $10 million, respectively, and have grossed more than $300 million worldwide each. In fact, The Mandalorian and Grogu is poised to ultimately finish its theatrical run as the lowest-grossing film of the three, even though it cost a reported $165 million to produce and millions more to market. The new Star Wars movie also happens to be the lowest-grossing installment of the legendary franchise, and has virtually no chance of outgrossing Solo: A Star Wars Story, which made around $390 million worldwide in 2018. However, an even bigger sci-fi Western bomb was released back in 1999, and is now streaming for free.
The movie in question cost a reported $170 million and grossed around $220 million worldwide. It was headlined by Will Smith, who infamously passed on The Matrix to star in it. Smith had recently been crowned the biggest star of the 1990s, thanks to hits such as Bad Boys, Men in Black, and Independence Day. The 1999 movie reunited him with his Men in Black director Barry Sonnenfeld, and also featuresKevin Kline, Salma Hayek, and Kenneth Branagh.
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Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky
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Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🏜️Paul Atreides
🖖Capt. Kirk
✊Princess Leia
🔦Ellen Ripley
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🔥Max Rockatansky
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01
How do you lead when the stakes couldn’t be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.
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02
What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.
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03
What is the thing you’d sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.
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04
How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.
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05
You’re facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you’re the only one who sees it defines everything.
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06
What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they’d pay it again.
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07
How do you feel about the rules of the world you’re in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What’s yours?
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08
When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.
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Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…
Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.
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Arrakis · Dune
Paul Atreides
You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you’re capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.
You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn’t ask for but can’t escape.
Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won’t, is exactly you.
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USS Enterprise · Star Trek
Captain Kirk
You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you’ve always believed there’s a third option nobody else has thought of yet.
You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you’ve earned it.
Kirk’s genius isn’t tactical — it’s human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.
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The Rebellion · Star Wars
Princess Leia
You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you’re fearless, but because giving up simply isn’t something you’re capable of.
You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you’ve never looked back.
Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.
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The Nostromo · Alien
Ellen Ripley
You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.
You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
Ripley’s heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn’t have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn’t there.
When it counts, you don’t flinch. That’s everything.
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The Wasteland · Mad Max
Max Rockatansky
You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.
You don’t ask for help, don’t need validation, and don’t wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it’s earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.
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Here’s Where You Can Watch Will Smith’s Sci-Fi Western
We’re talking, of course, about Wild Wild West. The movie was inspired by a television series from the 1960s, and written by three pairs of writers. Wild Wild West was heavily marketed by Warner Bros., but it opened to extremely poor reviews. The movie now holds a 16% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “Bombastic, manic, and largely laugh-free, Wild Wild West is a bizarre misfire in which greater care was lavished upon the special effects than on the script.” Smith later expressed regret about choosing the movie over The Matrix, which was critically acclaimed and massively successful at the box office. In a YouTube video, Smith admitted that he isn’t proud of underestimating the Wachowskis and said, “If I had done it — because I’m Black — then Morpheus wouldn’t have been Black because they were looking at Val Kilmer. I was going to be Neo and Val Kilmer was going to be Morpheus. I probably would’ve messed The Matrix up, I would’ve ruined it. So I did y’all a favor.” You can watch Wild Wild West on Tubi, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
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Release Date
June 30, 1999
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Runtime
106 minutes
Writers
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Brent Maddock, Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman, S.S. Wilson, Jim Thomas, John Thomas
A perfectly written trilogy has to do something brutal: make three separate films feel satisfying on their own while also making the whole thing richer when viewed as one long design. The first film cannot feel like a pilot. The second cannot exist only to delay resolution. The third cannot just tidy the room and call it closure.
The best trilogy writing creates pressure across years. A line gains new meaning later. A character’s early flaw becomes their punishment. And more. These eight trilogies understand long-form cinema at the deepest level, and the writing in each one has a different kind of perfection. Lock in and I’ll explain why.
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8
‘The Koker Trilogy’ (1987–1994)
Image via Janus
A boy returning a notebook should not be enough to carry an entire film, yet Where Is the Friend’s House? turns that tiny act into one of cinema’s purest moral adventures. Ahmad (Babak Ahmed Poor) knows his classmate may be punished if the notebook stays with him, and that single responsibility sends him through adult indifference, village routines, repeated refusals, and the frightening loneliness of being a child who understands urgency better than the grown-ups around him.
Then Abbas Kiarostami expands the idea of responsibility in ways that feel almost impossible on paper. And Life Goes On follows a filmmaker searching for the children from the first film after the 1990 earthquake, turning the earlier fiction into a doorway toward real devastation and survival. Through the Olive Trees then folds cinema back into life again through Hossein (Hossein Rezai)’s quiet pursuit of Tahereh (Tahereh Ladanian) during a film shoot. The trilogy’s writing keeps asking how stories continue after the camera leaves. It finds drama in duty, curiosity, persistence, and unanswered feeling.
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7
‘The Cornetto Trilogy’ (2004–2013)
Nick Frost eats a Cornetto while sitting on the couch with Simon Pegg in ‘Shaun of the Dead’.Image via Rogue Pictures
The joke with this trilogy is that people remember the jokes first, which is fair, because the jokes are absurdly precise. The greater writing achievement is how Edgar Wright and Simon Peggbuild three comedies where the punchlines, genre mechanics, character immaturity, and emotional payoff all keep feeding each other. Shaun of the Dead uses Shaun (Simon Pegg)’s zombie rules to expose his refusal to grow up. Hot Fuzzturns Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg)’s action-movie obsession into a story about friendship, community rot, and one man learning to loosen his grip. The World’s End weaponizes nostalgia against Gary King (Simon Pegg) and the exact people who keep pretending the past was their best self.
Every film has comic architecture that rewards rewatching. Throwaway lines become plot devices. Pub names, background details, repeated phrases, and awkward social habits all return with purpose. Gary’s tragedy in The World’s End cuts so sharply because the trilogy has already trained viewers to laugh at arrested development before showing the damage underneath it. Shaun, Nicholas, and Gary are very different men, yet all three are trapped by a version of themselves they mistake for identity. That is brilliant comic writing: the laugh gets there first, then the ache follows.
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6
‘Back to the Future Trilogy’ (1985–1990)
Image of Michael J. Fox in ‘Back to the Future’Image via Universal Pictures
Time-travel stories usually collapse under their own rules once sequels start stacking complications. Back to the Future somehow turns complication into pleasure. Robert Zemeckisand Bob Gale write the first film with near-perfect cause and effect: Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) changes one night in 1955, endangers his own existence, forces his parents toward each other, and learns enough about courage to change the family he returns to. The plot is tight, funny, emotional, and ridiculously efficient.
The sequels take that original design and keep remixing it without losing the audience. Part II makes the first movie’s timeline feel like a playground and a trap at once, using alternate 1985, future Hill Valley, and the 1955 overlap with almost comic mathematical confidence. Part III shifts to the Old West and gives Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) the romantic test Marty already had in another form: the temptation to break time for love. The trilogy is so satisfying because the writing understands repetition as variation. Clocks, cars, photographs, bullies, dances, accidents, family shame, and personal courage keep returning in new shapes until Marty’s final growth feels cleanly earned.
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5
‘The Dark Knight Trilogy’ (2005–2012)
Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight.Image via Warner Bros.
Batman has been rewritten so many times that another origin story could have felt pointless. Batman Begins solves that by treating Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale)’s mission as a set of ideas under construction: fear, justice, theatricality, discipline, symbol-making, and the danger of becoming too useful to one’s own pain. The script gives Bruce a reason for every piece of Batman, then surrounds him with people who challenge different parts of the myth: Alfred (Michael Caine)’s love, Gordon (Gary Oldman)’s decency, Rachel (Katie Holmes)’ moral line, and Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson)’s extremism.
The Dark Knight is the trilogy’s writing peak because it turns Batman’s symbol into a public crisis. The Joker (Heath Ledger) attacks rules, stories, institutions, and self-image. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) becomes the clean hope Bruce wanted the city to choose instead of Batman, which makes his fall more than a villain turn. The Dark Knight Rises has rougher plotting, but its core idea still completes the written arc: a man who built his life around sacrifice has to learn the difference between dying for a symbol and living beyond it. The trilogy earns its place because its best writing treats superhero mythology as an argument with consequences.
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4
‘The Apu Trilogy’ (1955–1959)
Image via Aurora Film Corporation
The writing in The Apu Trilogy has an almost dangerous amount of trust in ordinary life. It’s like the Indian version of Boyhood but spread over three films and much better and fleshed out. Pather Panchali does not hurry childhood into a clean lesson. Apu (Subir Banerjee) watches Durga (Uma Dasgupta), his mother Sarbajaya (Karuna Banerjee), his father Harihar (Kanu Banerjee), their aging relative Indir (Chunibala Devi), the village, the rain, the trains, the hunger, and the small pleasures that make poverty even more painful because beauty still keeps appearing. The film’s story grows through observation, which is harder than plot mechanics and far rarer.
Aparajito understands the cruelty of becoming yourself. Apu’s education gives him a future, but that future costs his mother the nearness she needs. The writing never turns either side into a villain. That emotional fairness continues in Apur Sansar, where Apu (Soumitra Chatterjee)’s unexpected marriage to Aparna (Sharmila Tagore) becomes tender through small adjustments, shared embarrassment, and domestic discovery. When loss breaks him, the trilogy refuses easy nobility. Apu fails as a father before he can return as one. Satyajit Ray and his collaborators write a life, not a résumé of events. Childhood, ambition, love, grief, guilt, and reconciliation all unfold with devastating simplicity.
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3
‘The Lord of the Rings Trilogy’ (2001–2003)
Image via New Line/courtesy Everett Collection
Adapting J.R.R. Tolkien could have gone wrong in a thousand directions. The writing team of Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson had to condense an enormous literary world without reducing it to lore delivery. Their greatest decision was emotional prioritization. Every kingdom, object, battle, creature, and prophecy is filtered through a character need: Frodo (Elijah Wood)’s burden, Sam (Sean Astin)’s loyalty, Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen)’s fear of inheritance, Boromir (Sean Bean)’s weakness, Gollum (Andy Serkis)’s divided self, Éowyn (Miranda Otto)’s hunger for dignity, Faramir (David Wenham)’s need for his father’s love, Théoden (Bernard Hill)’s return to courage.
The trilogy keeps giving each storyline its own moral test. Frodo’s mercy toward Gollum later becomes the only reason the quest can succeed. Sam’s plainspoken devotion grows from comic warmth into the trilogy’s strongest expression of grace. Aragorn’s reluctance has to become responsibility rather than pose. Even smaller choices carry weight because the scripts keep linking private character decisions to the fate of the world. The writing also knows when to let language feel old and when to keep it direct. For a trilogy this huge, the emotional logic stays shockingly clear. Middle-earth survives on structure, sacrifice, and character payoff more than scale.
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Collider Exclusive · Middle-earth Quiz Which Lord of the Rings Character Are You? One Quiz · Ten Questions · Your Fate Revealed
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The road goes ever on. From the green hills of the Shire to the fires of Mount Doom, every soul in Middle-earth carries a destiny. Ten questions stand between you and the truth of who you are. Answer honestly — the One Ring has a way of revealing what we most want to hide.
💍Frodo
🌿Samwise
👑Aragorn
🔥Gandalf
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🏹Legolas
⚒️Gimli
👁️Sauron
🪨Gollum
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01
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You are handed a responsibility that could destroy you. What do you do? The weight of the world falls on unlikely shoulders.
02
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Your closest companion is heading into terrible danger. You: True loyalty is revealed not in comfort, but in crisis.
03
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Enormous power is within your reach. Your instinct is: Power corrupts — but only those who reach for it.
04
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What does “home” mean to you? Where we long to return reveals who we truly are.
05
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When a battle is upon you, your approach is: War reveals what we are made of — whether we like it or not.
06
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Someone comes to you for advice in their darkest hour. You: Wisdom is not knowing all the answers — it’s knowing which questions to ask.
07
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How do you see yourself, honestly? Self-knowledge is the most dangerous kind.
08
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Which of these best describes your relationship with the natural world? Middle-earth speaks to those who know how to listen.
09
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You encounter a wretched, pitiable creature who has done terrible things. You: How we treat the fallen reveals the height of our character.
10
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When the quest is over and the songs are sung, what do you hope they say about you? In the end, we are all just stories.
The Fellowship Has Spoken Your Place in Middle-earth
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The scores below reveal your true character. Your highest number is your match. Even a tie tells a story — the Fellowship was never made of simple people.
💍 Frodo
🌿 Samwise
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👑 Aragorn
🔥 Gandalf
🏹 Legolas
⚒️ Gimli
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👁️ Sauron
🪨 Gollum
You carry something heavy — and you carry it alone, even when you don’t have to. You were not born for greatness, and that is precisely why greatness chose you. Your courage is not the roaring, sword-swinging kind; it is quiet, stubborn, and terrifying in its refusal to quit. The Ring weighs on you more than anyone can see, and still you walk toward the fire. That is not weakness. That is the rarest kind of strength there is.
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You are, without question, the best of them. Not the most powerful, not the most celebrated — but the most essential. Your loyalty is not a trait; it is a force of nature. You would carry the person you love up the slopes of Mount Doom if it came to that, and we both know you’d do it without being asked. The world needs more people like you, and the world is lucky it has even one.
You were born to lead, and you have spent years running from it. The crown is yours by right, but you know better than anyone that right means nothing without the will and the worthiness to back it up. You are tempered by loss, shaped by long roads, and defined by a code of honour you hold to even when no one is watching. When you finally step forward, the world shifts. Because it was always waiting for you.
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You have seen more than you let on, and you say less than you know — which is exactly as it should be. You are a catalyst: you do not fight the battles yourself, you ignite the people who can. Your wisdom comes not from books but from an age of watching what happens when it is ignored. You arrive precisely when you mean to, and your presence alone changes what is possible. A wizard is never late.
Graceful, perceptive, and almost preternaturally calm under pressure — you see things others miss and act before others react. You do not need to make a scene to be remarkable; your presence speaks for itself. You are loyal to those you choose to stand beside, and that choice is not made lightly. You have lived long enough to know that the most beautiful things in this world are also the most fragile, and that is why you fight to protect them.
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You are loud, proud, and absolutely formidable — and beneath all of that is one of the most fiercely loyal hearts in Middle-earth. You don’t do anything by half measures. Your friendships are forged like iron, your grudges run as deep as mines, and your courage in battle is the kind that makes legends. You came into this fellowship suspicious of everyone and ended it willing to die for an elf. That is not a small thing. That is everything.
You think in centuries and act in absolutes. Order, dominion, control — not because you are cruel by nature, but because you have decided that the world left to itself always falls apart, and you are the only one with the vision and the will to hold it together. You were not always this. Something was lost, or taken, or betrayed, and the version of you that stands now is the answer to that wound. The tragedy is that you’re not entirely wrong — just entirely too far gone to course-correct.
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You are a study in contradiction — pitiable and dangerous, cunning and broken, capable of both cruelty and something that once resembled love. You are defined by loss: of innocence, of self, of the one thing that gave your existence meaning. Two voices war inside you constantly, and the tragedy is that the better one sometimes wins, just not often enough, and never at the right moment. You are a warning, yes — but also a mirror. We are all a little Gollum, given the right ring and enough time.
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2
‘The Before Trilogy’ (1995–2013)
Image via Columbia Pictures
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The terrifying thing about writing The Before Trilogy is that there is almost nowhere to hide. No mystery plot rescues a weak exchange. No spectacle interrupts a false line. Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) have to talk, and the writing has to make every digression feel like attraction, defense, curiosity, flirtation, philosophy, fear, memory, or resentment. Before Sunrisecaptures the way young people perform intelligence while accidentally revealing themselves. They are sincere and ridiculous at once, which is exactly why the romance feels real.
Before Sunset is even more precise because every sentence carries the ghost of the conversation they failed to continue for nine years. Jesse and Céline talk about marriage, work, politics, sex, memory, and disappointment while slowly admitting that Vienna never ended for either of them. Before Midnight is the bravest writing of the three. It lets the same verbal chemistry curdle into marital combat, then keeps enough tenderness alive to make the damage frightening. Richard Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy write love as conversation across time. The trilogy is nearly perfect because the words change age with the people speaking them.
1
‘The Three Colours Trilogy’ (1993–1994)
Juliette Binoche in ‘Three Colours: Blue’Image via mk2 Diffusion
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No trilogy on this list has a more elegant writing challenge than Three Colours: three films inspired by liberty, equality, and fraternity, each separate, each emotionally complete, each quietly connected. Krzysztof Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz never treat those ideals like slogans. They test them inside grief, humiliation, loneliness, sex, pride, chance, music, law, and human connection until each concept becomes painfully personal.
Blue gives Julie (Juliette Binoche) the freedom she thinks she wants after losing her husband and child, then shows how impossible total detachment becomes when memory, music, and unfinished love keep returning. White treats equality through Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski)’s wounded masculinity after divorce, turning humiliation into a bitter, funny, morally complicated revenge story. Red is the trilogy’s miracle because Valentine (Irène Jacob) and the retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) create a bond built from attention rather than romance, and the film’s coincidences feel emotional instead of mechanical. The ferry ending ties the trilogy together without reducing its mysteries. This one, therefore, is a top-notch, perfectly written trilogy filmmaking because the design is visible only after the feelings have already reached you.
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