You will be redirected back to your article in seconds
Let’s Try To Be, Uh, Savant About This
Tuesday’s decision to postpone Jessica Chastain’s upcoming thriller — about an investigator who impersonates online extremists in order to prevent domestic terror attacks — has sparked backlash, even from the star herself. But there are more reasons to believe it’s a fair call than a foul one.
ad
Bhutan has chosen “I, The Song,” directed by Dechen Roder, as its submission for the international feature film category at the 98th Academy Awards, marking another significant step for the small Himalayan nation’s emerging cinema.
The selection follows the film’s dominant performance at Bhutan’s National Film Awards, where it achieved a near clean sweep, winning most major categories including best film, director, screenplay and acting honors.
In “I, The Song,” a school teacher travels to the south of Bhutan in search of her doppelganger to save her job and reputation. As she becomes entangled in her lookalike’s life, she realizes she might be the only one to solve her doppelganger’s disappearance as well as recover a stolen sacred song.
The film had its world premiere at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, where Roder won best director, and its Asia premiere at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa. The cast includes Tandin Bidha, Jimmie Wangyal Tshering, Tshering Dorji, Sonam Lhamo and Dorji Wangdi.
This selection represents Bhutan’s fourth official submission to the Academy Awards since the kingdom began participating in 1999. Previous entries include “The Cup” (1999), “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” (2020), and “The Monk and The Gun” (2023). “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” became Bhutan’s first film to receive an Oscar nomination.
The selection was made by a committee organized through BICMA (Bhutan Information and Communications Media Authority), the country’s main film supporting agency. The Oscar submission committee itself was established relatively recently in Bhutan, as the country previously lacked formal procedures for Academy Award submissions.
“We’re super thrilled to be given this show of support from the committee,” said Roder. “Of course our Oscars journey likely peaks here, since we have zero budget for campaigns or anything now. Still we are honored and thrilled with the seal of recognition from our own country.”
“I, The Song” received several international grants, including funding from Visions sud est, MPA APSA Film Fund, Sorfond, WCF Europe, CNC ACM, Ciclic, and Mibac. The film is produced by Roder for Dakinny Productions (Bhutan) and Johann Chapelan for Girelle Production (France), with multiple international co-producers including companies from Norway, Taiwan, Italy, and France, alongside local co-producer Samuh, Bhutan’s first streaming platform. The production had no executive producers or equity investors.
Award-winning filmmaker and Academy member Arun Bhattarai, who served on Bhutan’s selection committee, praised the choice: “‘I, The Song’ touched me in a personal way. Dechen has a gift for blending the real and the mysterious, and through that she tells a story that feels deeply Bhutanese.”
Fellow committee member Thaye Lam Tshering added: “This film touches on a very current state of our world – the going viral economy/reality, how the digital affects reality. The film also showcases plenty of Bhutan’s unique culture and tradition.”
Producer Johann Chapelan said: “Today, as women’s rights and fundamental human freedoms are eroded by the rising tide of conservatism and bellicism across the world, this film stands as a reminder of cinema’s power to affirm human dignity.”
Roder expressed hope that the recognition would inspire the broader Bhutanese film community: “I hope this recognition gives our own filmmakers a small push of encouragement and inspiration and also creates a small visibility in the global landscape for Bhutanese art/independent films.”
Diversion is handling international sales for “I, The Song.”
The Oscar international feature shortlist will be announced on Dec. 16 and the final five nominees will be announced on Jan. 22.
As Jimmy Kimmel gets back into the swing of things, his regularly scheduled jokes about President Donald Trump have resumed.
On Wednesday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, following a major viewership boost for ABC, the comedian predicted Trump will “try to sue” the network after he posted about the episode “moments after we taped our show.”
“You know, a lot of people watched our show last night. I had so many texts from so many people,” he said in his opening monologue. “It made me realize how many of my friends are never watching the show at any other time. Tomorrow, I’ll hear from no one.”
Kimmel noted, “I did hear from one very special friend,” quoting “the mad red hatter” after Trump previously lashed out at ABC once again in response to Kimmel’s return. “I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back,” Kimmel quoted the Truth Social post.
“You can’t believe they gave me my job back? I can’t believe they gave you your job back! We’re even,” he declared to applause.
As an audience member called out in support, Kimmel quipped, “Shut the fuck up. The freedom of speech is only for me. You do not interrupt the president.”
Kimmel went on to pick apart the post, particularly where Trump teased legal action. “Only Donald Trump would try to prove he wasn’t threatening ABC by threatening ABC. And you almost have to feel sorry for the people who work for him, who try to clean up the messes. They’ve been bending over backwards,” he said.
Calling out Trump’s claim that his ratings got him fired, Kimmel said, “Has anyone ever been fired for bad ratings on a Wednesday?”
“He does know bad ratings. He has some of the worst ratings any president has ever had. So, on behalf of all of us, welcome to the ‘Crappy Ratings Club’, Mr. President,” Kimmel continued. “Next, he’ll try to sue us. And I wanna say, good luck with that. Because we thought about it, we packed the courts. And we have a surprise ace up our sleeve, Mr. Judge Steve Harvey. Survey says, you lose.”
“Sadly, the truth is, no one wants to face Donald Trump in court. That’s where he’s his most flatulent,” added Kimmel.
Kimmel called Trump “an old-fashioned 80s movie style bully” as he made another point, “For those who think I go too hard Donald Trump, to the point where there are still a lot of people who think I should be pulled off the air for making Donald Trump. So, I want to explain, I talk about Trump more than anything because he’s a bully.”
Trump added in his latest Truth Social rant about Kimmel, “The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there. Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE. He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution. I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative,” added Trump. “A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings.”
Despite more ramblings about bad ratings, Jimmy Kimmel Live! returned to air Tuesday after his brief suspension, driving 6.26 million viewers. That’s without the 23% of U.S. households where affiliates Nexstar and Sinclair are still preempting the late-night talk show.
Kimmel’s return comes after ABC announced the show was “preempted indefinitely,” which many criticized as an attack on free speech, following the FCC’s warning about the late-night host’s Charlie Kirk comments.
Known for his ‘Prove Me Wrong’ debates and MAGA POV, Kirk was shot dead at Utah Valley University on September 10 in a tragedy that has sent shockwaves through the political and media worlds.
Having previously mocked Trump over POTUS’ take on the NFL and TikTok, Kimmel offered his blunt assessment of the aftermath of Kirk’s death in his opening monologue on his September 15 show: “”We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” he said.
First, Netflix received rave reviews and an impressive haul of Emmys for Adolescence, an eerie and unsettling four-part limited series that posited that kids today, young men in particular, are not alright. It offered no particular solution to this crisis, which made it even more unsettling.
Get ready for the discomfort to continue with Netflix’s Wayward, an eerie and unsettling eight-part limited series that posits that the industrial complex built around “fixing” troubled kids, of all genders, might be even more broken than the kids themselves. It veers off into genre-bending oddness so immediately and, ultimately, so completely that it offers no particular solution to this crisis, which I suppose makes it even more unsettling.
Wayward
The Bottom Line
Unsettling and unsettled, for better and worse.
Airdate: Thursday, September 25 (Netflix)
Cast: Mae Martin, Toni Collette, Sarah Gadon, Sydney Topliffe, Alyvia Alyn Lind, Brandon Jay McLaren, Tattiawna Jones, Isolde Ardies
Creator: Mae Martin
Wayward marks an unexpected storytelling swerve for series creator and star Mae Martin, who previously co-created and starred in Netflix’s bittersweet two-season rom-com Feel Good, as well as a 2023 stand-up special.
While there are small traces of overlap with their previous semi-autobiographical semi-comedies and Martin’s dryly comic tone is employed periodically, Wayward is not, exactly, a comedy. You can laugh at things in it, but that laughter will rarely make you, pun intended, feel good.
It is, by design, odd and off-putting, a portrait of unfulfilled alienation more than a straightforward thriller or social-issue drama. It’s easy to watch Wayward while working your way through a checklist of slightly similar shows, but what it ends up being isn’t entirely like any of them. It’s hard to exactly say, in fact, what Wayward ends up becoming, which is probably both my favorite and least favorite thing about it. Wayward is a pupal show, a show about transition and in transition, and if you demand a butterfly or even a moth to fully emerge, you’ll be disappointed.
Wayward begins with a pair of parallel narratives that, thankfully, don’t wait long to intersect.
Abbie (Sydney Topliffe) and Leila (Alyvia Alyn Lind) are a pair of troublemaking teens in 2003 Toronto. Leila, emotionally wounded by her older sister’s death, enjoys recreational drugs and skipping class with Abbie, who is chafing against her controlling parents. When the girls’ latest low-key misadventure lands them in trouble, Mr. Turner (Patrick J. Adams, fine but barely in the show so don’t watch for him), a school authority figure of some sort, warns Leila that she’s failing high school and recommends his own alma mater, Tall Pines Academy, which uses “groundbreaking therapeutic techniques, rigorous academics and a transcendent connection with nature to solve the problem of adolescence.”
Ah, the problem of adolescence.
Anyway, at the same time we meet Alex (Martin) and Laura (Sarah Gadon), moving to the Vermont town of Tall Pines after Alex loses his job as a Detroit cop, but before Laura can give birth to their first child. Laura attended Tall Pines Academy and credits the school and Evelyn Wade (Toni Collette), its odd founder, with turning her life around.
Everything in Tall Pines seems perfect, from its quintessential New England-y Main Street to the expansive farmhouse that Evelyn is giving them rent-free to the police department’s total chill about Alex’s excessive force scandal or the fact that he’s a trans man receiving hormone therapy.
It is, of course, too good to be true.
(It’s also kinda confusing if you’re a TV obsessive and you remember a little Fox series called Wayward Pines in which a former law enforcement figure finds himself in what seems like a quintessential rural town, only to discover that it’s very much too good to be true.)
Soon, all of our characters begin to learn that something strange is happening in Tall Pines and that the methodology at Tall Pines Academy is far from orthodox.
The question — which is planted in the pre-credits opening scene with a terrified teen (Gage Munroe’s Riley) fleeing the school and running into freaky things in the dead of night — is what, exactly, the strange things happening at Tall Pines Academy and in Tall Pines itself actually are. (I’ll only spoil that the source of the strangeness in Wayward is not the same as the source of the strangeness in Wayward Pines.)
What’s so enticing (or infuriating, I suppose) about Wayward is how it always feels on the brink of shifting into a different genre. It’s a mystery, but if you told me after two or three episodes that what it was evolving into was a horror series or science fiction, I wouldn’t have been shocked. Or, actually, maybe it isn’t really a “mystery” per se, just a show in which things are mysterious. Though I guess Alex is investigating and trying to get to the bottom of something, so that sounds like a mystery, but without a singular answer/resolution. Is it a cult show? Is it a demonic possession show? Is it whatever the hell The OA was?
With a small narrative pivot, the show gives indications that it could become a dark satire of the Troubled Teen Industrial Complex or an exposé of the sort of “Scared Straight” programs Dr. Phil used to get off on sending juvenile guests to.
Primarily directed by Euros Lyn, Wayward has an almost languid pace meant to simultaneously lull you into a false sense of wooded, bucolic serenity and put you very slightly on edge, only branching into genuine discomfort at certain moments. The heightened sound design, making natural noises seem intrusive and alien, builds a mood of uncertainty and a sensation that almost every scene could be a hallucination or a dream.
Maybe an easier way to express all of that is that Wayward is very, very Canadian.
Anyway, it’s all the tantalizing set-up for a half-dozen genres, without the satisfying payoffs associated with any of those genres.
The series hovers in a similarly liminal space when it comes to depicting and critiquing the curriculum and goals at Tall Pines Academy, which I keep initially typing as “Twin Pines Academy,” which is a bit like “Twin Peaks Academy”; there’s little question that David Lynch is another of the show’s myriad influences.
If I had to boil the series’ agenda down to one line, it would be something like, “There are no bad kids, only kids, and kids shouldn’t get locked up in weird academies.” Evelyn’s agenda, articulated in a book that is unconvincingly treated as a bestseller, has something to do with epigenetic trauma and kids being the victims of psychoses patterned through their parents.
Or as Evelyn puts it, “You must understand that the darkness in you is not your fault. You’re just a ripple of all that came before. You never stood a chance. Birth is nonconsensual.”
There’s a lot of blather in both the diagnosed problems and detailed stages of the treatment, and yet it’s never clear whether the critique is directed at the specifics of the Tall Pines program — many of which are mighty reminiscent of Stephen King’s The Institute — or its overall absurdity.
Martin’s naturally dry affect makes them an interesting still point at the center of the odd Wayward universe, like so many things in the series reaching a simmering point, but never a full boil, even when the character is exhibiting what is suggested to be anger issues. Alex is, at once, a proactive gumshoe and a reactive Mia-Farrow-in-Rosemary’s-Baby-type figure. The sweetness of Alex and Laura’s relationship is, like everything else here, meant to set you so totally at ease that you wonder what’s going to be wrong, with Gadon radiating an almost overlit luminosity.
Collette plays Evelyn as an uber-guru, with shades of Charles Manson, a dash of Nicole Kidman in Nine Perfect Strangers, perhaps just a bit of Ruth Gordon from Rosemary’s Baby. For a limited series, having a character whose primary attribute is “cheery suspiciousness” works well enough, but I still never felt for a second like Collette was playing a real human.
The two best and most natural performances in the series come from Topliffe and Alyn Lind (sister to prolific, visually similar young actresses Emily and Natalie), both likable and believably uncomfortable with everything around them. Their lack of artifice allows some of the cast’s other teen/20-something performers to go broad and big, especially Isolde Ardies, whose terrifying intensity as a sad-eyed rule-follower named Stacey is a real highlight.
As befits a show that’s enticingly a lot of things, but conclusively none, Wayward reaches more of an “end” than an end. I was never bored and, despite the evasiveness, never exactly frustrated. I think Martin is incredibly talented and this series shows the expansive potential of their voice, albeit not the fully realized potential. Viewers craving something more concrete are less likely to remain tolerant for the full journey.
Soon she’s drawn into a case involving a missing person, murders, and a fortune in bitcoin. And of course she has to bring the gang along for some help, being forced to rely on them a lot more than usual.
The real strength of the series has always been Osman’s character work. The Last Devil to Die remains the series’ emotional peak, but this entry carries that thread forward, which proves a wise decision. Elizabeth, still mourning Stephen, isn’t as sharp as usual, and for the first time the investigation doesn’t belong solely to her. Instead, the others – Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron – step into the spotlight.
Joyce shoulders much of the responsibility, rallying the group and making decisions herself, even when it puts her in danger. Ibrahim continues his curious connection with Connie the drug lord, a relationship that’s proving unexpectedly rewarding for them both.
Meanwhile, Ron takes centre stage in the B-plot, wrestling with the reveal of his daughter’s abusive marriage and his own ageing body. His struggle with fading strength and identity delivers some of the novel’s most poignant passages, though admittedly leaving the reader wishing for even more.
As ever, Osman uses the cosy crime frame to explore themes often overlooked in the genre: loneliness, loss and diminishing independence. Here, Ron’s journey of letting go of his old self and embracing a new one is especially affecting and the novel would be even stronger if readers were able to linger on these themes just a little longer.
The mystery itself is more high-tech than usual, with missing bitcoin sparking a chase that draws in ruthless players. The wealth-obsessed leave chaos and death in their wake, and the investigation has real bite. As mysteries go in The Thursday Murder Club series, it’s a fairly exciting one with an element of the cat and mouse chase.
The Impossible Fortune isn’t quite as accomplished as The Last Devil to Die, which married a gripping plot with rich character exploration. But it serves as a necessary reset: easing Elizabeth into her new life, allowing her space to grieve, and giving Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron the chance to prove they’ve learned from her.
If the first four novels were largely centred on Elizabeth’s incredible talents, this one suggests a small reset to allow the rest of the crew to show just what they’re capable of too. The future’s looking very bright for this talented bunch.
For all the latest RT Book Club news, interviews, Q&As with the authors, reviews of previous books and more, visit The Radio Times Book Club sponsored by Dr. Oetker Ristorante.
You can purchase The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman here.
Mindy Kaling‘s TV empire continues to expand with the upcoming title, Not Suitable for Work, which is set to stream on Hulu, and the new show is recruiting a star from her other series, Running Point.
While the show’s cast comes together behind the scenes, more details about the buzzy comedy continue to emerge. As the series takes shape, we’re breaking down everything you need to know about the upcoming title so far, including what storyline viewers should anticipate as well as who else is working with Kaling to make it all happen. Scroll down for a closer look.
No premiere date has been unveiled for the upcoming series, but stay tuned for any pertinent updates as Not Suitable for Work takes shape.
Not Suitable for Work will stream exclusively on Hulu when it arrives. Subscribers will be able to stream anytime on the platform.
Monica Schipper / Mindy Kaling
Not Suitable Work has unveiled the stars for the upcoming comedy, as Deadline shared Ella Hunt, Avantika, Will Angus, Jack Martin, and Nicholas Duvernay will lead the show. In the series, Hunt will play AJ Pascarelli, a first-year analyst at New York’s most prestigious investment bank, and Avantika has been tapped to play Abhinaya “Abby” Chilukuri, an assistant to a celebrity stylist. Meanwhile, Angus is playing Davis Beau Bradley Barrett III, a finance bro who just wants to be loved, Martin is portraying Josh Teitelbaum, an idealistic New Yorker, and Durvernay will step into the role of Kel Washington, a charming and anxious medical student with dreams of becoming an actor.
It has since been announced by Deadline that Running Point star Jay Ellis would also join the ensemble as Bill Gibson, a charismatic investment banker who is admired in his role as the company’s highest-earning managing director.
As previously reported, Not Suitable for Work (previously known as Murray Hill) was given a script-to-series commitment and will follow “five work-obsessed twentysomethings striving for professional success and, if they have time, personal happiness in Manhattan’s most glamorous neighborhood, Murray Hill.”
Mindy Kaling created the show and will write it for Hulu in addition to executive producing. Joining Kaling as executive producers on the show are showrunner Charlie Grandy (above) and Howard Klein, who have both collaborated with her on shows like The Sex Lives of College Girls, Velma, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Champions, The Mindy Project, and The Office.
No, there is no trailer or teaser available for the series yet, but stay tuned as we gear up for the show’s arrival. And keep an eye out for any additional updates in the months ahead.
Not Suitable for Work, Premiere, TBA, Hulu
Sterlin Harjo’s first series, “Reservation Dogs,” does a lot of playing around with genre. It opens with an elevated (gas station) heist (for flamin’ flamers chips), after all. There are ghosts and spirits, horror episodes, trips back into the ‘70s, the odd touch of a Western. In his second show, FX’s “The Lowdown,” Harjo and his team are still delightfully elastic when it comes to moving from comedy to thriller to character drama and back again — sometimes within the same scene.
But “The Lowdown” unambiguously owes much more to film noir than any other genre. You need look no further than the fact that, like all great noir protagonists, Ethan Hawke’s Lee Raybon keeps getting the shit beat out of him.
Raybon is the owner of a Tulsa secondhand book store by day, self-appointed “truthstorian” by night, who investigates the hypocrisies and hidden secrets of Oklahoma’s elite and exposes them in local media. That means a lot of driving around in his beat-up van and sticking his nose in the business of people who would really just like to do their Late Stage Capitalism in private. The pilot episode kicks off with a closeted member of the Washberg family, Dale (Tim Blake Nelson), appearing to commit suicide after Lee’s latest exposé (excuse me, long-form magazine article). It ends with a couple of skinheads kidnapping Lee and stuffing him in the back of their sedan.
“You gotta get beat up, and Ethan’s really good at it,” Harjo told IndieWire on an upcoming episode of the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast. “He’s somehow managed to balance having this superstar career, basically, with also an independent career and perspective as well. He’s never really lost himself, you know? It doesn’t feel like you can’t reach out and touch Ethan Hawke, and that’s what you need in a noir. You know? They have to represent us.”
There’s a specific flavor of everyman representation that asserts itself in a noir story. The characters are up against it. There’s something rotten in the state of the world, and the environment is a bewildering maze of violence and corruption — the “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown,” effect, if you will. But damn it, a noir hero still cares. In a deeply sardonic and gallows-humor way, a lot of the time, sure, but they care. Hawke’s not-so-silver-tongued independent journalist fits squarely into that tradition, and into Harjo’s interests as a storyteller.
“A great noir protagonist is sort of a good underdog,” Harjo told IndieWire on an upcoming episode of the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast. “The world is against him, and I love that. The story’s kind of about discovering who they are when faced with insurmountable danger and pressure, and there’s something about that that I like. It’s just such a dramatic way to place a character, and the stakes are high, but it also just feels driven by truth and grit and reality.”
“The Lowdown” earns grit points simply by having Lee be someone who, when he gets another shiner, is still recovering from his first. Episode 2, “The Devil’s Mama”, which aired alongside the pilot, opens with Lee trying to cover the blood and bruises left by the skinheads via a $1,000 bribe and a YouTube makeup tutorial. As opposed to a genius or gentleman detective, the more mundane and everyday the struggle Harjo and his writers could put Lee through, the better.
“[Noir protagonists] are very human, but we also have to believe that, given the opportunity, that we could go into the fire as well. And I think there’s something about it that just touches the human experience,” Harjo said. “It’s like, why do zombie movies work? There’s something about it, some fear there that it represents for all of us.”
Not so unlike a horde of zombies, once a noir character uncovers a conspiracy and stumbles upon danger, it just keeps spreading, infecting everything they touch. “One character opens something up and then the noir, the world, sort of spreads, right? That’s essentially what happens to Lee in the show, I think,” Harjo said.
If any burgeoning FX truthstorians are looking for noir keys to the Washberg mystery Lee is chasing within “The Lowdown,” alas, there aren’t any smoking guns or Maltese Falcons. However, one noir that Harjo was inspired by was the 1949 Robert Wise boxing noir, “The Set-Up.” In it, Robert Ryan plays an aging fighter who is asked to take a dive against an up-and-comer backed by the mob.
“I showed ‘The Set-Up’ to the writers before we started writing the show, because the character [in the film] basically can’t get out of his own way,” Harjo said. “Boxing is his life, and it’s who he is. He’s got this girlfriend that he could run off and get married and whatever, but he just won’t. The whole time, you’re like, ‘What are you doing?!’”
“What are you doing?!” is a question that can be continually asked of Lee throughout “The Lowdown,” too. The answer is, ultimately, being true to himself. The shit-kickings and the setbacks (and set-ups) are the heightened, heroic proof of that. In using the language of film noir, Harjo and Hawke get to do a kind of character work that other kinds of stories simply don’t allow.
“I found that I just loved the parameters of genre, how much you could say within those parameters, you know? You can actually say more than just having the characters talk about how they feel,” he added.
The first two episodes of “The Lowdown” are available to stream on Hulu.
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for “Marvel Zombies,” now streaming on Disney+.
The MCU is embracing blood and gore once again — this time in the animated universe.
“Marvel Zombies,” an undead spinoff from “What If…?,” is Marvel’s first M-rated animated series, following live-action, R-rated hits like “Deadpool & Wolverine” (in theaters) and “Daredevil: Born Again” (on Disney+). Bryan Andrews directed the Season 1 episode of “What If…?” that introduced a horrifying Quantum Realm virus that turns nearly everyone in the world into shambling zombies, including many beloved superheroes. With “Marvel Zombies,” which continues the story, Andrews ratchets up the viscera and dismemberment as the rating goes from TV-14 to TV-MA.
Several heroes and villains return from the “What If…?” episode, like Spider-Man (voiced by Hudson Thames), the disembodied head of Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and zombie versions of Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Thanos and more. Recent MCU additions, like Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) and Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), also get some major screen time. One character even gets his MCU introduction before his live-action debut: the day-walking vampire Blade. He comes with a slight caveat, though; the “Marvel Zombies” hero is actually an amalgamation of Blade and Moon Knight, with no relation to Mahershala Ali’s version of the character that’s still waiting to make his big-screen debut. (The character is voiced instead by Todd Williams.) For eagle-eyed viewers, Blade Knight made a brief appearance in the “What If…?” series finale last year.
With Variety, Andrews discusses creating Blade Knight, why the Fantastic Four and X-Men are absent from the show, why “Marvel Zombies” was almost a movie, and what his plans are for a possible Season 2.
It was early on, once it was decided that we’re gonna be doing “What If…?” Kevin Feige was a fan of the comics and the zombie genre in general. Way early on, Kevin had said something to [Marvel animation executive] Brad Winderbaum, who then said to us, “We’re totally doing a zombie thing!” It was almost one of the reasons to even do “What If…?” — so that we could do an episode that was zombies. We found a place in time, right around [the events of] “Infinity War,” because it provided a number of heroes that were out and about. Kevin loved it, so it was like we should be doing a bigger thing and explore this world a little bit more.
We made the blood darker zombie goo so we could get away with that type of stuff to make [the “What It…?” episode] TV-14. When the decision was to do it straight-up and make it a bigger story, well, it’s gotta be TV-MA. Brad, Kevin and the rest were like, “Oh, hells yeah.” They were thinking the same thing. You don’t want to have to keep pulling punches. You want to be able to go for it, really create something within that genre and do it justice. Everyone was down for that, thankfully.
We self-police ourselves pretty well. I’m down for the insanity, but I also don’t want it to be gratuitous in a tasteless sense. There’s a right way and a wrong way. It’s not like you look at all the guts and linger on the shot for 12 minutes. There’s no reason for that. If we were going to get a chance to do another one, which would be awesome, there are certain things I would push further at times. For this one, we wanted to make sure the story was there and all the action and violence you can enjoy, but it doesn’t become only about that.
It came from trying to do something a little different than “What If…?,” where there are a lot of these powerful, big characters that we know. We wanted to be able to start with some young blood and new peeps who, because of that timeframe in MCU history that we chose, have not elevated themselves yet. They don’t know how to do this and they’re learning as they go during a zombie apocalypse. It gives them something to learn. We get to point out their naïveté and their hopeful, youthful, wide-eyed, bushy-tailed-ness. Can they stand against the onslaught of horribleness? Can they come out unscathed, or what would the scars be? They seemed primely placed to do that and then allow other individuals to come in and have our ensemble grow and change.
We wanted it to be pretty epic, and there was so much story we couldn’t put it all in. So there’s stuff going on with other characters that aren’t even in this that we know what’s going on with them, and we would love to tell those stories. It started feeling like “Lord of the Rings” in that we wanted it to be this history that was bigger than the audience was aware of, with events happening off camera. As a result, we started thinking of Kamala like Frodo, where this fellowship can gather around her on this crazy journey since she was ill-prepared at the time. To do the zombie movie, we started thinking about it like a fantasy or like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign.
It was pretty open. It was early on when we started developing this. Some of those shows hadn’t even come out yet. “Ironheart” was a ways away when we started, but we knew it was coming and they seemed like exciting, fun, young characters to play with. Because this is its own little pocket side universe, and it’s early in their superhero careers, there wasn’t that much worry. All we needed to know was who they were early on, even before those shows started, so there’s that thread of cohesiveness. We never got them in the booth to record together, but when they got the material, they’re like, “Wait, so we’re all, like, a thing?” They, separately on their own, were super-excited that their animated avatar was hanging out with the other gals. It was so fun to watch them nerd out about that.
I would have loved to have them in, but at the time, “Fantastic Four” was so far off. They’re also in a different multiverse. Same with the X-Men. How would they get here? So there are all those questions and rigmarole. But, I mean, never say never. That’s why I’m hoping, if there’s a second season around, there are already a few ideas of, like, can we get extra crazy? So who knows, but it would be amazing, and it gives us just more opportunities for more zombies and crazy heroes to go down swinging.
We did Season 3 of “What If…?” and “Zombies” basically concurrently. Because “Agatha” came out on a particular Halloween, “Zombies” was actually ready to come out then. But they were like, “Oh shit, we don’t want to have one eat the other attention-level-wise, and it’s a big deal to do ‘Agatha’ so let’s hold ‘Zombies.’” Everyone’s seeing it now, but it’s actually been waiting in the wings to come out. When it came time to do all those images at the end of Season 3, we were like “fuck yeah!” It’s a little bit of a tease that something was coming.
Pretty early, it wasn’t going to be Blade. We already knew immediately it was going to be Blade Knight. We also didn’t know that we were going to come out before a Blade movie. When we’re doing the animated stuff and they’ve got a live-action property at the same time, it’s really difficult because you have to be beholden to what they’re doing with that character in live-action. Sometimes they’re figuring it out, and we’re like, “We gotta go with this thing. We need the decision now.” It’s really hard, so we didn’t want to deal with Blade because there was this script, that script, whatever. Like, what are they even doing? We don’t even know. If we did Blade Knight, that completely separates it from whatever they’re doing in the movie and makes it our own and it’s rad. Blade, the Fist of Khonshu, was early on and so natural. It was perfect to have him pair up with our young protagonist that has no idea what the heck they’re doing. It really created this great way for to work him in.
I have no idea when they’re planning Marvel-wise. I know Kevin digs this and Blade Knight. I like the response that the fans are giving off the trailer, even that one little fight people are nerding out over. I love it when they say, “Hey, if the live-action isn’t as good as this, then what’s the point?” That makes me really happy. People are responding exactly how I wanted them to respond. It would be great if that could influence the movie in some way, because I feel the same way. If the live-action movie doesn’t feel as badass that one little moment, then what’s the hell is the point?
Time and money, man. It’s “Hey, this is all you got.” We’re like, “Oh shit! All right.” We were creating a thing and didn’t know what the limit was going to be. Then they’re like, “Oh no, no, guys.” Then we thought, “Well, let’s make it a movie.” We were going to make it a movie and have it released. It should be an epic, it’s gonna be two, two and a half hours long. It’s gonna be amazing. But, there were contractual issues because of Spider-Man in it. So, there are Sony rules that come into play. We were like, “Oh shit, that’s a thing? Oh no, okay, I guess we can’t do that.” So we broke it up. Now, it plays like four chapters in a book. Even with the four chapters, it would have been awesome if we had more time to make each installment a little bit longer, just so we could milk those quiet moments a bit longer. We tried to put it in as much as possible, and it moves at a breakneck pace. We put in those moments of stillness and reflection as best we could. Maybe next time around, if everyone loves it enough and yells online enough to demand more, maybe they’ll give us more time and more money.
So much material. It’s crazy. There are other characters that people are like, “So-and-so is not even in it.” Yeah, we know. We know what’s going on. We know how people got from A to B. You guys have no idea the insanity that’s just waiting around the corner if we get a chance. Brad and I already know how the next one would start already. Our original idea was more medieval fantasy. It was set so far after the different kingdoms, fiefdoms and ruling factions have grown. Some of our old guard would be old. We were doing crazy shit. Brad wisely said people want to see their favorites and not see them so crazy. We rolled it back and didn’t time-jump so far forward.
We love the Shang-Chi Western in Season 3. My original idea for that was far crazier and bigger and incorporated Captain America and Falcon and Nick Fury. That world could be ripe, where you take all the Marvel stuff and put it through a Western lens. It could be one. There are a number of “What If…?” episodes that were A+ ideas that Kevin loved, but there are just too many great episodes to put in a season, so some of those get left to the side for other future seasons. There was one that was going to be D&D. It’s basically Marvel superhero D&D. It was going to follow a group of C-level characters, maybe some of them not even superheroes, as if they’re first-level characters, and they’re trying to go on this big adventure that’s a 20th-level module. You see your A-level heroes going off to do the thing, but these idiots want to do it anyway and they Forrest Gump their way into the ending before the other heroes get the ending. So they get all the cool, powerful weapons and level up and then save the other team who’s fighting the big boss and losing. It could have been so great and nerd out over all that RPG lore and mix in all the Marvel stuff with it.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Just as Jimmy Kimmel jokingly predicted, his late-night show saw quite an audience boost upon his return to ABC Tuesday night after the network “indefinitely” preempted him last week.
Jimmy Kimmel Live drew 6.26M viewers on Tuesday night, per early live + same-day Nielsen data.
Consider that JKL averaged about 1.77M viewers in live + seven-day data in the second quarter of 2025, illustrating just how much the week-long debacle over Kimmel’s comments last week about Charlie Kirk’s shooter drew national interest. The early data also doesn’t include streaming, so the total audience for Tuesday’s episode will likely increase once all is said and done.
It’s also worth noting that, given Nexstar and Sinclair are still preempting Kimmel, the episode was not even available in many major markets representing about 23% of U.S. households.
Among adults 18-49, the episode earned a 0.87 rating, which is the highest for a regularly scheduled episode in more than 10 years.
Disney adds that, in addition to linear viewership, the opening monologue alone has garnered more than 26M views across YouTube and social platforms. Even this morning, just 12 hours after it aired, the monologue had already amassed more than 11M views, well on its way to becoming one of Kimmel’s most-watched monologues of all time.
On Wednesday, ABC indefinitely preempted Jimmy Kimmel Live! following a furor around Kimmel’s comments about Charlie Kirk’s killer. The move came after FCC chairman Brendan Carr threatened ABC to “find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead” and said that the comedian’s comments were “some of the sickest conduct possible.” He also called on the local affiliates to take action as well.
On Monday Carr tried to deny that it was a threat to pull licenses of ABC stations, insisting that “did not happen in any way, shape or form.”
Hours after Carr’s initial comments, local station group Nexstar revealed that it would “preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the foreseeable future” as it “strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk.” It soon was followed by similar comments from rival station group Sinclair. Moments later, Disney made its own decision to pause the show.
Kimmel’s return Tuesday followed days of discussions between Disney and Kimmel as the noise around the suspension grew louder on both sides of the political aisle. Not only did Kimmel receive the support of his late-night peers, but celebrities from across the industry including Mark Ruffalo, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks spoke out against Disney’s decision.
Even some right-wing politicians such as Ted Cruz — the current Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, the body that has oversight over the FCC — warned against the government curtailing free speech in response to the Kimmel situation.
Eve Myles (Hijack, Cold Water, Keeping Faith) will return for season 2 of the original drama series The Crow Girl, based on the bestselling novels by Erik Axl Sund, the pen name of Swedish author duo Jerker Eriksson and Håkan Axlander Sundquist, Paramount+ U.K. & Ireland said on Wednesday.
Produced by Buccaneer Media (In Flight, The Burning Girls, Marcella), the second season will begin filming in Bristol this year.
Picking up the morning after the events of season 1, “Bristol Police Detective Jeanette Kilburn has ended her marriage and found herself in bed with enigmatic psychologist Dr. Sophia Craven,” reads a plot description for season 2. “Jeanette’s hunt for the killers of young male asylum seekers takes a shocking new turn when a mummified body, discovered in a church wall, and a body in a freezer reveal a chilling connection. As Jeanette digs deeper, Sophia begins to suspect Victoria Burkeman, her mysterious and unstable former patient who has previously been convicted of multiple murders, could be responsible. With the case growing darker, Sophia suspects Victoria is more familiar than she thought, and Jeanette must face the terrifying truth: the killer may be closer than she ever imagined.”
Returning to their roles along with Myles are Katherine Kelly (Mr Bates vs The Post Office, The Long Shadow), Clara Rugaard (Black Mirror, The Rising), Victoria Hamilton (The Crown, COBRA) and more, with new cast members set to be announced at a later stage.
Executive producers include Buccaneer CEO Tony Wood, screenwriter Milly Thomas, alongside music legend Slash, Myles, Federico Ambrosini, Niclas Salomonsson and Sund. Charles Martin will direct, with Debs Pisani producing. The second season will be produced in association with and distributed by ITV Studios.
The new season was commissioned by Sebastian Cardwell, deputy chief content officer, U.K., and Paul Testar, commissioning editor, for Paramount+ U.K. & Ireland.
“The first season captivated audiences with its bold storytelling and standout performances, and we can’t wait to see where the team takes the story next,” said Cardwell.
Added Wood: “The opportunity to return to the world of DCI Jeanette, Sophia and Victoria is a real thrill; it’s a drama that stretches character and bends time. I’m absolutely delighted to be back.”