Netflix confirmed today that Beef season 2 is officially moving forward. The new season of the critically acclaimed anthology series will star Oscar Isaac (Scenes From a Marriage), Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman), Charles Melton (May December), and Cailee Spaeny (Alien: Romulus).

Here’s the logline for Beef season 2: “A young couple witnesses an alarming fight between their boss and his wife, triggering chess moves of favors and coercion in the elitist world of a country club and its Korean billionaire owner.” The season will consist of eight 30-minute episodes. Lee Sung Jin returns to serve as creator, showrunner, and executive producer. Steven Yeun, Ali Wong, and Jake Schreier also executive produce.

The first season of Beef followed “the aftermath of a road rage incident between two strangers. Danny Cho (Steven Yeun), a failing contractor with a chip on his shoulder, goes head-to-head with Amy Lau (Ali Wong), a self-made entrepreneur with a picturesque life. The increasing stakes of their feud unravel their lives and relationships in this darkly comedic and deeply moving series.” The series has been picking up plenty of awards over the last few months, including eight wins at the Emmy Awards last month, including Outstand Limited or Anthology Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Yeun, and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Wong.

Our own Alex Maidy was one of those who loved the first season of Beef. “I can think of a few series that can compare with the amount of funny and tragedy in Beef while presenting two equally stellar performances from the lead actors,” Maidy wrote. “Steven Yeun and Ali Wong had already proven themselves talented, but Lee Sung Jin’s Beef elevates them to a new level. Beef is an incredibly engrossing series from the very first scene and is sure to have everyone talking when it premieres on Netflix. Beef is not the series I was expecting it to be based on the trailer, but it is so much better than I was hoping for.” You can check out the rest of Maidy’s review right here.

What do you think of the new cast for Beef season 2?

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An adaptation of the classic Mary Shelley novel Frankenstein has long been a dream project for director Guillermo del Toro, the filmmaker with such credits as Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, Hellboy, and Blade II. He’s been talking about it for at least 17 years – and now he’s actually making it! After previous attempts to get the project going fell through, Netflix stepped up to let del Toro make the Frankenstein movie he’s been dreaming of. They haven’t announced a release date for the film yet, but while we wait for that news to come along, here’s Everything We Know About Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein:

LONG ROAD TO PRODUCTION

Del Toro has named Frankenstein as his favorite novel, and in 2007, he told us that the project he “would kill to make” is a faithful “Miltonian tragedy” version of Frankenstein. He said that he had read the script Frank Darabont wrote for the 1994 film Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and it was “pretty much perfect,” but that Darabont’s perfection didn’t make it to the screen in the Kenneth Branagh-directed movie. Given that del Toro was feeling so passionate about the material in ’07, it’s surprising that that was also the year when he turned down Universal’s offer to take over their classic Monster properties for an early iteration of what became the failed attempt to create a Dark Universe with 2017’s The Mummy. Speaking with TimesTalks in 2017, del Toro revealed, “I’ve said no to things that are enormous and I’ve never looked back. The only time I repent I didn’t do something was in 2007 when Universal, in an incredibly gentle and beautiful manner said, ‘Do you want to take over the Monster Universe?’ And they gave me the reins of several properties, and I didn’t do it. That I repent. So this is a confessional moment, I repent. That’s the only thing.” His longtime producing partner J. Miles Dale later confirmed, “At one time, (del Toro) was going to do the Monster Universe with Universal — Frankenstein’s Bride, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Invisible Man, The Wolf Man — and he didn’t. We feel like Shape of Water was kind of a version of a creature. So now, here he is doing his own Monster Universe.“

Del Toro didn’t want to run the Dark Universe, but in 2008 he started putting together script notes and concept art for his Frankenstein adaptation. He told Empire, “What I’m trying to do is take the myth and do something with it, but combining elements of Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein without making it just a classical myth of the monster. The best moments in my mind of Frankenstein, of the novel, are yet to be filmed … The only guy that has ever nailed for me the emptiness, not the tragic, not the Miltonian dimension of the monster, but the emptiness is Christopher Lee in the Hammer films, where he really looks like something obscenely alive. Boris Karloff has the tragedy element nailed down but there are so many versions, including that great screenplay by Frank Darabont that was ultimately not really filmed.” There were times when del Toro said the adaptation might need to cover two or three films, due to the complexity of the book and its shifting perspectives.

His first choice to play Frankenstein’s Monster was frequent collaborator Doug Jones, who has delivered creature performances in most of the director’s films. At one point, the project made it deep enough into pre-production that Jones was able to see a bust of the monster design, which was inspired by Bernie Wrightson’s artwork in an illustrated adaptation of Shelley’s novel that Wrightson spent seven years working on. Jones told Collider, “My first thought is that I’m not the big, broad, big-boned lumbering Frankenstein that you have in mind. But it was told to me, Guillermo is a big fan of Bernie Wrightson, and a friend of Bernie Wrightson, and Bernie had illustrated a version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and all of the images of Frankenstein’s Monster in that, that’s what he was going to pattern my look after. Which was more emaciated, little skinnier, little more pathetic looking. And yet, had an unnatural physical prowess, an unnatural athleticness to him. He was sewn together with spare parts of a couple different bodies. Very bony face, long, stringy, drawn hair. I never went through a makeup test myself for it. But I did go to the creature shop, Spectral Motion, who was developing the look for him at the time… I was there for something else, and Mike Elizalde, the owner of the shop, said ‘I gotta show you something’. Then he unveiled a head and shoulders bust of me with this monster makeup built on it. It was like, honestly, my eyes welled up. It was so hauntingly beautiful, and it did pay reverence to Bernie Wrightson’s artwork and gave you a different-looking Frankenstein’s monster than what you’re used to.“

By 2013, del Toro was considering casting Benedict Cumberbatch (who was nearly in the director’s film Crimson Peak, but had to drop out and was replaced by Tom Hiddleston) as the monster. Cumberbatch had already played both the monster and Dr. Victor Frankenstein in Danny Boyle’s stage version of Frankenstein – but his casting in the del Toro version wasn’t to be. In 2014, del Toro admitted that Universal had talked to him about making Frankenstein (plus Bride of Frankenstein) for them “several times,” but he was hesitant because making his dream project was such a daunting task.

Then, in 2023, Netflix offered del Toro the chance to make Frankenstein for them. Having previously worked with the streaming service on his 2022 stop-motion adaptation of Pinocchio and the horror anthology Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, he decided to go ahead and team with Netflix to make his Frankenstein dream come true. Del Toro said, “It’s a movie I have been wanting to do for 50 years since I saw the first Frankenstein. I had an epiphany, and it’s basically a movie that required a lot of growth and a lot of tools that I couldn’t have done 10-20 years ago. Now I’m brave or crazy enough or something, and we’re gonna tackle it.“

J. Miles Dale said, “Nothing’s easy, and that one’s not going to be easy — it’s a big movie with a ship stuck in the ice and a ton of other things — but we’ve got a little bit of lead time on it, and we’re excited to get going.” Dale also said that del Toro and Frankenstein are a perfect match of filmmaker and subject matter, and suggested the film could be as deeply emotional as the book is. “In the last couple of films, certainly with Nightmare Alley and then with Pinocchio, we’ve dealt with the whole father-son relationship. And Guillermo and I both lost our fathers in the last few years. When you have a strong father figure, it’s a big part of our lives. This version of Frankenstein very much goes down that thematic road. So, I feel like this is the third film in Guillermo’s father trilogy. That’s exciting, and when you read the script, it’s very emotional and, of course, very iconic.” The film is even said to be going by the codename Prodigal Father.

STORY

We know that Mary Shelley’s novel told the story of the young student of science Victor Frankenstein, who creates a grotesque but sentient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. As mentioned, del Toro has described his approach to the material as a “Miltonian tragedy,” and he has said that he would like to deal with the complexities of the novel and its shifting viewpoints while blending elements of Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein. He has also said that his movie wouldn’t be a direct adaptation of the novel, but rather “an adventure story that involves the creature.” At another point in the development process, he was quoted as saying, “The only quality you can claim is faithfulness… It’s a very difficult, tricky slope. Because then anytime that you deviate from that, you’re betraying the very goal you submitted. I’m being very faithful to trying to encompass the whole narrative of the novel. I’m being very faithful in that I’m trying to capture the spirit of the novel, when I read it as a kid, and how it impacted me. I recognize that it’s both biography and prophecy about my life. It’s a very personal film. In many ways it’s the most personal film I’ll ever make, because my connection with the creature is very profound and deep and I don’t think there’s any other monster that has affected me as much.” So it sounds like he has considered different options over the years.

The version that made it into production might have the following logline: Set in Eastern Europe in the 19th Century, the story of Dr. Pretorius, who needs to track down Frankenstein’s monster- who is believed to have died in a fire forty years before–in order to continue the experiments of Dr. Frankenstein.

CAST

The cast del Toro has assembled for the film includes Oscar Isaac (Moon Knight), Mia Goth (Pearl), Jacob Elordi (Saltburn), Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), Felix Kammerer (All Quiet on the Western Front), David Bradley (Hot Fuzz), and Charles Dance (Game of Thrones), with Ralph Ineson (The Witch) showing up for a pivotal cameo. At one point, Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man) was in the cast, but he had to drop out and was replaced by Elordi… and it has been said that the role Garfield had passed over to Elordi was the Monster. The cast and character matchings haven’t been confirmed, but it’s believed that Isaac is playing Dr. Frankenstein, with Goth as his love interest, and Waltz most likely playing Dr. Pretorius.

Whatever Goth’s role is, she had to get a digital body scan done for it. Goth has had to get plaster life casts / head molds done multiple times in her career, but a digital body scan was a first for her. In a video breakdown of the life cast scene she did for the movie MaXXXine, Goth said, “I just had to do another (life cast) for Frankenstein, but rather than the mold, it was a scan! It’s changing, isn’t it? And it’s a little bittersweet. I think I prefer (the mold).” Goth told Total Film that the experience of working on the film has “been amazing. It’s everything I wanted it to be and more. I love Guillermo. I love working with him, he’s an incredible director, everyone knows that, but he’s also just like such a wonderful person and, yeah, I’m very excited.” Goth has also revealed that she has taken to shadowing the director on her off days to watch him work.

Jacob Elordi has simply teased that Frankenstein will be “one hell of a movie.”

PRODUCTION

Frankenstein is a massive production. Once believed to have a filming schedule of five months, production has turned out to have a schedule of more than seven months; the five month stretch was just the first block of filming, which took place in Ontario, Canada. Filming began on February 12th – but before cameras started rolling, del Toro took cast members Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, and Charles Dance to eat at a Toronto restaurant, where they posed for a picture with the staff. You can take a look at the picture right here:

A good portion of the Canada shoot appeared to involve snowbound locations and, as Dale mentioned, a ship stuck in the ice. An image of the ship can be seen below, and more can be found at THIS LINK.

From Canada, the production moved on to Scotland, where del Toro took the chance to stay in a haunted hotel room. For the shooting of exterior scenes, parts of Edinburgh, Scotland, were made to look like Victorian England. Images of the city’s transformation can be seen HERE. Oscar Isaac was spotted on the Edinburgh set, and images of him in his character’s wardrobe made their way online:

On September 30th, Guillermo del Toro tweeted, “Shooting has been completed on “F” — Joy!!!” So his dream project has finally been filmed in its entirety.

And that’s everything we know about Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. For now.

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Director Guillermo del Toro has been spending this year working on one of his dream projects, an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic tale Frankenstein that is set up at the Netflix streaming service. Frankenstein is believed to have started filming on February 12th – and even though the production was only expected to last about five months, wrapping up on July 5th, somehow it’s still going! We had heard that filming would take place in Ontario, Canada, and possibly in London, England, but cameras are currently rolling in Edinburgh, Scotland, parts of which have been made to look like Victorian England. Images of that transformation, as well as Oscar Isaac in character can be seen here:

Del Toro’s Frankenstein, which is a long-awaited passion project for the filmmaker, might have the following logline: Set in Eastern Europe in the 19th Century, the story of Dr. Pretorius, who needs to track down Frankenstein’s monster- who is believed to have died in a fire forty years before–in order to continue the experiments of Dr. Frankenstein.

Isaac’s co-stars include Mia Goth (Pearl), Jacob Elordi (Saltburn), Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), and Charles Dance (Game of Thrones), with Ralph Ineson (The Witch) showing up for a pivotal cameo. At one point, Andrew Garfield was in the cast, but he had to drop out and was replaced by Elordi… and it has been said that the role Garfield had passed over to Elordi was the Monster.

Del Toro has been talking about making a new version of Frankenstein for more than a decade. Years ago, he had the project set up at Universal, with Doug Jones (The Shape of Water) on board to play Frankenstein’s Monster. The movie got far enough into pre-production that Jones even saw a bust of the Monster that was inspired by Bernie Wrightson’s artwork in an illustrated adaptation of Shelley’s novel that Wrightson spent seven years working on. But then the project fell apart. Now it’s finally happening at the Netflix streaming service, which previously teamed with del Toro on Pinocchio and the anthology series Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.

Are you looking forward to Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein? What do you think of the images of Oscar Isaac on set? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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The Fox era of X-Men movies came to an end when Disney acquired Fox – but that acquisition opened the door to the X-Men characters being able to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That merging of worlds has already begun, with cameos from Professor X and Beast in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and The Marvels, respectively, building up to the multiversal insanity of Deadpool & Wolverine. So now that Deadpool and Wolverine have had a brush with the MCU’s “Sacred Timeline,” we felt this was a good time to rank all of the X-Men universe films from worst to best. Across this mighty canon of films are triumphs of the genre and ones that stand apart from it, and all the way down to some that do the genre and the characters some serious disservice. Which are the best of the best, and which are best left sliced and diced into a million pieces? Pop out your claws and dive on in. 

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE (2009)

After The Last Stand, Fox couldn’t just pick up with the X-Men for another random adventure, what with Professor X and Cyclops being obliterated, Jean Grey being killed, and Magneto left alone in the park with nothing but some pigeons to keep him company. So, they did what any studio does when they’ve reached the end: they went back to the beginning, moving forward with a planned slate of movies that would explore the origins of their famous characters, starting with their most popular character – Wolverine. This meant going back in time to the 1800s to explain his origins, and while it would’ve been fun to see Logan having adventures in history, getting to meet Teddy Roosevelt and being at the birth of Stan Lee, the movie squanders any attempts to explore the character, provide superhero thrills, or be mentioned in the same breath as some of the other X-Men movies. Barreling through one section of his origin where Sabretooth/Victor Creed is his brother only to get to another section of his origin as if two movies were mushed together, director Gavin Hood’s Origins cycles through a series of random mutants to flesh out the movie and distract from the title character, like Gambit (played by Taylor Kitsch, before the character became synonymous with “development hell”), one of the Black-Eyed Peas (Will.i.am as John Wraith), and one of the hobbits from Lord of the Rings (Dominic Monaghan as Chris Bradley). And look what they did to Deadpool! He looks like Keanu Reeves would have if he had been given red slacks after he woke up from the goo in The Matrix. Between a rushed, cobbled together story, overly-CGIed action, and an ensemble of useless characters that aren’t Wolverine, Origins feels far removed from the movies that came before and after in the worst ways. If there was anything good that came from it, it formed the basis of failure that everyone involved with the movies would crawl back out of and look back on as a cursed fever dream.

DARK PHOENIX (2019)

The last X-Men team movie we got from the Fox era, and the last we’ll be getting for a while, this one had a lot more pressure to live up to than just adapting one of the most famous comic book arcs in history (again), the Dark Phoenix Saga. It’s shameful that they wasted this story twice. Costly reshoots and release delays meant talks of trouble on the internet before the first trailer even dropped, so the movie was basically having to push a boulder uphill from moment one. Directed by Simon Kingberg, the end result is hardly as bad as people expected it to be, but make no mistake, this is indeed a bad movie. Fox went 0-2 with the Dark Phoenix storyline. The plot is muddled by trying to fit in so many characters but having nothing to use them for other than fodder (and because of those pesky contract obligations), with nothing on either the emotional or action stage that gives the movie any sense of scope or momentum. In trying to be both dramatically weighty and epic in scale, the movie mostly fails to be either, with rushed character development and unimpressive action. The only saving grace is that we get some solid performances from James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, and Sophie Turner, with one or two effective moments between them. It’s a shame this era of the X-Men movies went out with such a fizzle while wasting some of the best performances of the series on a bleak, sometimes unintentionally funny final outing that’s less of an epic series conclusion akin to Avengers: Endgame, and more of a listless example of “Let’s get this over with.”

X-MEN: THE LAST STAND (2006)

The first two X-Men movies (along with Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man) deserve to be credited for rejuvenating the superhero movie genre and setting it all down the path we’re at now, with costumed heroes dominating the box office. After those first thrilling outings that balanced comic book action with compelling characters, Fox decided to let director Brett Ratner get his hands on the series after Bryan Singer left to fail at Superman Returns. Everyone should’ve known Ratner is not one for nuanced character development, so what The Last Stand ended up being was nothing more than big, bloated action flick that featured characters we had grown to love over the years, but did nothing with them. You’ve got Jean Grey coming back as Dark Phoenix and causing panic, the cure for mutants also causing panic, and Magneto trying to take advantage of both and throwing around bridges in the process. Everything about the movie is trying to live up to the title of The Last Stand with doom-laden conflicts that make the stakes high but give the heroes nothing to do but get out of the way and make room for Wolverine. The action may be cool in spots, which at least makes it entertaining as a mindless summer action flick, but compared to the previous two movies it’s a prime example of what happens when you spend years developing characters only to, well, hand it all over to Brett Ratner. At least Ben Foster (who plays Angel in the film) landed on his feet.

X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016)

X-Men: Days of Future Past was a once-in-a-lifetime event that brought together two separate series of characters for an adventure the leaps between the turbulent 70s and the bleak future, all while juggling compelling character arcs. How the hell do you live up to something like that? Turns out, the answer is to try and double down on the action and cataclysm by turning one of the X-Men’s most dangerous foes into a one-off villain who looks like a pile of Play-Doh left out in the sun for too long and having him spend most of the time slogging around and lecturing with the self-satisfaction of a graduate student. Apocalypse once again found director Bryan Singer and Fox worked into a story development hole where they didn’t quite know how what to do with the characters they had been working with, so they tried to mask it with epic action. Sadly, not only did it lack the forward character development for characters like Professor X, Magneto, and Mystique, but it’s a bloated slog that tried to juggle said development with new ones for young heroes like Cyclops, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, and Storm. There’s so much in this movie that tries to get fans excited about the formation of the X-Men they know and love that it just comes off as disingenuous, muddled, and just an absolute swamp of a summer blockbuster – featuring one of the blandest villains in the entire series. It’s okay, Oscar Isaac; we know it’s not your fault.

THE NEW MUTANTS (2020)

The last X-Men universe film to be made during the Fox era, The New Mutants had a rough ride. It was filmed in 2017, aiming for a 2018 release, but Fox wanted reshoots, which were delayed when Disney acquired the company. The New Mutants sat on a shelf for years while the Disney merger was worked out. Then it was tossed out into the world in August of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic lockdown, where it was poorly received and, to the surprise of no one, was a box office bomb. Its existence is largely ignored… but it’s actually not such a bad movie. It plays on a much smaller scale than any other X-Men movie, taking place in one location and focusing on a handful of characters: Blu Hunt, Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, and Henry Zaga as teen mutants being kept in an otherwise empty hospital and Alice Braga as the doctor who claims to be helping them, but is hiding some sinister secrets. Director Josh Boone always hyped this as “a horror movie set in the X-Men universe,” and the influence on A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is incredibly clear. The movie doesn’t have much in the way of comic book action (until the climactic sequence), but when taken as a teen horror movie, it’s a decent watch.

DEADPOOL 2 (2018)

Who could have predicted that the first Deadpool would be as big as it ended up being? Fox, Ryan Reynolds, and everyone else involved may or may not have, but either way, they weren’t going to let that filthy train stop soon, and a sequel was rushed into development. Sequels to movies as uniquely entertaining as the first Deadpool don’t always turn out so well, but luckily, much of the heart, vulgarity, gleeful violence, and charms of its star made their way over to the bigger and bolder sequel. Bigger is the opportune word, with the violence ramped up, more money for additional X-Men, and more visual flair with David Leitch at the helm. The addition of Josh Brolin’s Cable gave the Merc With a Mouth a worthy foil, his stoic demeanor undercut by bursts of flagrant profanity and put-downs. The abundance of new characters like Cable, Domino (Zazie Beetz), and more took away a slight amount of the narrative power from the main character in the sequel, but this is a fine sequel to a movie that sliced its way through the superhero genre to carve out its own place.

THE WOLVERINE (2013)

After the tragedy of Origins there was really nowhere to go but up for the character and the series as a whole, and after rousing back with X-Men: First Class, Fox continued on with another adventure for their most popular X-Man, this time ignoring everything from his last adventure and taking him to Japan and putting a sword in his hand. The first smart move was getting Walk the Line director James Mangold in the mix, and the second was putting the focus back on Logan’s arc and lessening the number of other mutants on screen, ultimately ignoring Origins and acting as a sequel to The Last Stand (lesser of two evils and all that). The result is a mixed bag that gets points for being a step in the right direction more than anything else. The final act is a bit of a mess of action and the plot points don’t get much mileage, but the end does ultimately find Wolverine learning to move on from Jean Grey. If the aim was to smooth things over after Origins and make sure people remembered Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine fondly enough to be excited for what Days of Future Past had in store, then The Wolverine is a success in brand maintenance. After all, it doesn’t get much cooler than the sight of Wolverine battling samurais and ninjas.

X-MEN (2000)

For years, the only superhero movies that found huge success on the big screen were Superman and Batman. While the former ended the 80s on a note that would freeze him until 2006 and the latter literally failed among a series of frozen set pieces, the X-Men were tasked with earning that same success by drawing viewers in to watch a whole new team of heroes. By all accounts, the first X-Men, directed by Bryan Singer, could’ve been terrible, but care and attention were put into it where it counted the most, the characters, and thanks to a game ensemble and an explosive entrance onto the scene from Hugh Jackman, the movie was a strong debut for Marvel’s ultimate fighting team. The action is a bit humdrum in spots, the desire for Matrix-esque costumes robbed it of some of the colorful magic from the comics, and not everything about it has aged as well as it could’ve, but the core mechanics are sound, and fans still get some chills when Rogue asks Logan if it hurts whenever his claws come out and Jackman responds with a pitch-perfect, “Every time.”

DEADPOOL (2016)

Poor Wade Wilson. After being neutered in every sense of the word in Origins, the character appeared to be down and out for good, and that would’ve stayed true had actor Ryan Reynolds not fought so hard to get his own, faithful solo story told. After years of being in development hell, test footage dropped online (leaked by who, no one knows — *coyly winks towards Reynolds*) and the rousing reception made the studio think twice. A year later, the movie, directed by Tim Miller, was ready for theaters. Thanks to a genius viral marketing campaign that was validated by a product that lived up to the profane hilarity and unapologetic violence it promised, it was clear the superhero world had found its new, modern voice. Reynolds owns the character like Hugh Jackman with Wolverine and Robert Downey Jr. with Iron Man, adding to his raunchy personality a beating heart and soul that drives the whole movie. Everything about this first Deadpool works perfectly in establishing the character and the tone of his movies.

X2: X-MEN UNITED (2003)

Sequels usually take the “bigger is better” approach, and Bryan Singer’s follow-up to the first X-Men has that in all of the ways that usually apply: bigger visuals, more cast, and bolder action. Those elements are all an upgrade from the first movie, but the largest improvements in X2 can be found in the character department, where they’re most needed. We get to see more from characters like Wolverine, who confronts his origins (oh, what little we knew was in store), Jean Grey, who starts unlocking her true powers, and Charles Xavier, who gets put into a darker scenario as he confronts his past mistakes with a former student. The curtain is drawn back more on beloved characters and the world is expanded in small, meaningful ways, making for what still stands as one of the best outings of the main X-Men series, and still one of the best films in the mutant franchise as a whole.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS (2011)

As mentioned earlier, the one good thing that came out of Origins was the studio trying to dig itself out of that pit of despair. That endeavor started with them scrapping the proposed X-Men Origins: Magneto movie and pivoting to the series reboot, X-Men: First Class (which does contain some elements left over from that unmade Magneto movie). With a director who brought a fresh perspective – Matthew Vaughn – at the helm and a cast of game actors like Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, and Jennifer Lawrence front and center, this new outing rejuvenated the series by showing a whole new side of beloved characters. Perhaps no one thought anyone could bring these characters to life the same way actors like Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen did, but the movie is entirely buoyed by fantastic performances from the whole cast, not to mention their characters’ engaging storylines. The movie recalls the best of the first two movies while giving it all a modern, exciting new spin that brought the mutant team into the new decade with style and gravitas.

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (2014)

We’ve seen X-Men movies deliver on the character work and on the action front before, but never have they nailed the exact level of both laced in with a massive scope like we got in Days of Future Past, which marked director Bryan Singer’s return to the franchise after missing out on a few entries. Taking the characters across time and generations in more ways than one, this is the one time both the new school and old school era of the X-Men would ever be able to merge in a single, cohesive storyline, and the result is an affecting, rousing blockbuster that gets more mileage out of the team than any movie before it. James McAvoy turns in his best work as Xavier here as a broken down and emotionally depleted Charles, as Hugh Jackman shows a more honest and wiser version of Wolverine than past outings offered him. Even in a movie landscape filled with Avengers movies, Days of Future Past has a thrilling narrative scope that stands out from the pack, and that could’ve easily been buried under exposition and time travel confusion. But no, it all worked seamlessly and provided a once-in-a-lifetime X-Men movie. We’re never going to get another one like this. Not even when the franchise is rebooted for the MCU.

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE (2024)

We knew Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool would be making his way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Disney acquired Fox – but we never would have guessed that he would bring Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine out of retirement and take him along for the ride, or that their team-up film would be a heartfelt tribute to the Marvel Comics adaptations that happened outside of the MCU. Not just the X-Men films, but also the likes of Fantastic Four, Daredevil / Elektra, and Blade. Channing Tatum even gets his chance to shine as Gambit after struggling to bring his take on the character to the screen for years. Directed by Shawn Levy, Deadpool & Wolverine borrows elements from the Loki TV series to take viewers on a wild multiversal adventure that delivers a lot of laughs, a ton of great fan service, and also has some touching emotional content.

LOGAN (2017)

Days of Future Past may have gotten some great mileage out of Hugh Jackman and Wolverine, but the character still hadn’t received a really great solo movie. Enter a more committed-than-ever leading man and returning director James Mangold, who after his last experience knew exactly where to take the character and how uncompromising his outing needed to be. The result is not only the best X-Men movie across the whole canon but one of the greatest comic book movies of all time. Effective in its rough and tumble minimalism, palpable in its drama and engaging in its story centered on Logan and Charles trying to exist in a world where mutants are all but gone and aiding a young mutant girl – Logan is a comic book movie that doubles as a subtle and engrossing western drama. Jackman is the best he’s ever been here, bringing out a jaded, haunted version of the character who is done giving any fucks, and Patrick Stewart also turns in some career-defining work as Charles, reflective and weary after seeing all his students lost behind him. Violent, mature, challenging and sometimes sweet, Logan ranks as one of the best examples of what can happen when studios take a chance on filmmakers and their actors with a massive IP property, and it will forever remain a landmark achievement in the field.

So, there you have it. Almost 25 years, and a lot of highs and lows. While the Marvel Cinematic Universe may get a lot of credit today for its breadth of superhero storytelling over the last couple of decades, let it never be said the X-Men movies didn’t pave the way for it to come barrelling down with its sacks of cash. You’ll find these entries are an incredibly diverse selection of movies that prove just how bad comic book movies can get when hearts are in the wrong place, as well as how magnificent they can be when passion, boldness and ingenuity are the driving forces. What the future has in store for these characters we do not know, but they’ve already had one helluva run, so here’s to more mutant excitement and, hopefully, their boldest adventures yet. 

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Some cliche somewhere said that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ This has proven to be the case for me and especially when it comes to fan art. I have always sought out great fan art and have wanted to share it with as many people as possible. “Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net” is the outlet for that passion. In this column, I will showcase the kick-ass artwork of some great artists, with the hopes that these artists get the attention they deserve. That’s the aim. If you have any questions or comments, or even suggestions of art or other great artists, feel free to contact me at any time at theodorebond@joblo.com.

Blade by Sahin Düzgün

Dune Part One by Waxbones

Fantastic Four by Nick Low

Final Fantasy IX by Drake (Winson) Tsui

Godzilla by Matt Frank

Highlander by Adrien Noterdaem

The Lion King by Traci Easterday

A Quiet Place: Day One by Samer Alkaabi

Rambo: First Blood Part II by – Yvan Quinet

Terminator 2: Judgement Day by Dan Hipp

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Do Oscar Isaac (Dune: Part One, Moon Knight, Ex Machina) and Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman, The Great Gatsby, Saltburn) have beef with one another? No, not exactly. According to Deadline, the duo is negotiating to star in Beef Season 2. While Netflix refused to comment about its status with the Emmy darling, it’s an excellent time to remind everyone that Netflix has not officially announced Beef Season 2. Deadline says the roles that Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan would play for Beef Season 2 were originally for Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, but momentum on them joining the series stalled. Meanwhile, the move to add Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny to the series remains a mystery.

Lee Sung Jin created Beef, which Ali Wong and Steven Yeun led. The show revolves around two people (Wong and Yeun) who let a road rage incident burrow into their minds and slowly consume their thoughts and actions. Their toxic relationship evolves into an all-out war with disastrous consequences. Beef received 14 Emmy nominations, winning 8, including the awards for Outstanding Casting for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, Outstanding Directing for a Limited Anthology Series, Outstanding Picture Editing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Ali Wong, and more.

Oscar Isaac is involved in several projects, including The King of Kings and In the Hand of Dante, which are each in post-production. Isaac voices Jesus Christ in The King of Kings, an animated story about Jesus Christ as told by Charles Dickens through the eyes of a child. In the Hands of Dante follows the dark and violent path of a man who plunges into a metaphorical hell until he reaches paradise in search of his forbidden and impossible love. The cast for In the Hands of Dante is madness, with Gerard Butler, Jason Momoa, Al Pacino, Gal Gadot, Martin Scorsese, and John Malkovich making the trek through the layers of Hell.

Elsewhere, Carey Mulligan is teaming up with Laika Studios for the upcoming stop-motion animated feature Wildwood. She voices Alexandra in the Travis Knight-directed film. The story is told from multiple points of view, and the book features more than eighty illustrations, including six full-color plates. In Wildwood, Prue and her friend Curtis uncover a secret world amid violent upheaval—a world full of warring creatures, peaceable mystics, and powerful figures with the darkest intentions. What begins as a rescue mission becomes something much greater as the two friends find themselves entwined in a struggle for the very freedom of this wilderness. A wilderness the locals call Wildwood.

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Six years have already gone by since the release of Mandy, which instantly became a cult favorite, and it looks like director Panos Cosmatos might finally be almost ready to go into production on another film. While it was announced in 2022 that he would be making a science fiction fantasy film called Nekrokosm for A24 and XYZ Films, that project remains in development. Moving ahead of it is the “hedonistic ’80s vampire thriller” Flesh of the Gods, which has Kristen Stewart (Love Lies Bleeding) and Oscar Isaac (Dune) attached to star.

Variety reports that WME Independent, CAA Media Finance, and XYZ Films will be presenting Flesh of the Gods to potential buyers at the Cannes Film Festival. Adam McKay and Betsy Koch of Hyperobject Industries are producing the film alongside Isaac, who is producing with Gena Konstantinakos through his company Mad Gene Media, which he set up with his wife Elvira Lind. Filming is expected to begin later this year.

Scripted by Se7en writer Andrew Kevin Walker from a story he crafted with Cosmatos, Flesh of the Gods is set in glittering ’80s L.A., where married couple Raoul (Isaac) and Alex (Stewart) each evening descend from their luxury skyscraper condo and head into the city’s electric nighttime realm. When they cross paths with a mysterious and enigmatic figure known as Nameless and her hard-partying cabal, the pair are seduced into a glamorous, surrealistic world of hedonism, thrills and violence.

Cosmatos had this to say about the project: “Like Los Angeles itself, Flesh of the Gods inhabits the liminal realm between fantasy and nightmare. Both propulsive and hypnotic, Flesh will take you on a hot rod joy ride deep into the glittering heart of hell.“

McKay added: “This director, this writer, these incredible actors, vampires, choice ’80s punk, style and attitude for miles… that’s the film we’re bringing you today. We think it’s wildly commercial and wildly artful. Our ambitions are to make a movie that ripples through popular culture, fashion, music and film. Can you tell how excited I am?“

How does Flesh of the Gods sound to you? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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A couple months ago, we heard a rumor that a team of supernatural characters known as the Midnight Sons might be coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe… and now Oscar Isaac has let it be known that if a Midnight Sons project were to happen, he wants his MCU character Moon Knight to be part of it!

As I’ve said before, one of my favorite comic book story arcs is the “Rise of the Midnight Sons”, where Doctor Strange oversaw the formation of a team of supernatural heroes – Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, Morbius, the Nightstalkers (Blade, Hannibal King, and Frank Drake), and Darkhold characters Vicki Montesi, Louise Hastings, and Sam Buchanan – who were brought together to battle Lilith, the Mother of All Demons, and her evil offspring, the Lilin. There have been different variations of the Midnight Sons over the years, with other team members like Daimon Hellstrom, Jennifer Kale, Werewolf by Night, Man-Thing, The Hood, Doctor Voodoo, Elsa Bloodstone, Iron Fist, Scarlet Spider, Kushala, Magik, Wolverine, Nico Minoru, and yes, Moon Knight coming and going. The latest version of the team was even called the Midnight Suns rather than Sons. The rumor of such a team came from Cosmic Circus, who said, “One corner of the MCU that Marvel is keen on exploring for these next few phases is the supernatural corner of their universe. Projects like Moon Knight, Werewolf by Night, and WandaVision have already introduced some critical components for this corner of the MCU. Projects that will continue to explore this corner of the MCU include Blade, Ironheart, Marvel Zombies, Moon Knight season 2, the continuation of Werewolf by Night, and other unannounced projects. This arc aims to unite the heroes of this supernatural corner against a significant threat to humanity, giving rise to the Midnight Sons. Some sources have mentioned that Lilith or Mephisto villains have been considered the big bad of this arc. One source has mentioned that the potential lineup for the Midnight Sons features the current Sorcerer Supreme, Wong, as one of the leaders of the team, alongside Mahershala Ali’s Blade.”

We keep hearing that Mia Goth’s character in the upcoming Blade movie might be Lilith, so that’s a big step into the Midnight Sons world.

During an appearance at the Middle East Film and Comic Con event in Abu Dhabi, Isaac was asked what his hopes are for Moon Knight’s MCU future, and he answered (with thanks to The Direct for the transcript), “I thought there was an interesting opportunity with Midnight Sons. There’s such interesting characters in there, and now that we’ve set the groundwork with learning who (Moon Knight’s multiple personalities) Marc, Steven, Jake are, it could be an interesting opportunity to see him as part of a team and what that dynamic would be. So I think that would be exciting, I think for me, I definitely hope there’s some room to explore that possibility.” You can see Isaac say this himself in the X embed at the bottom of this article.

Would you like to see Moon Knight become part of an MCU Midnight Sons team? If so, which other characters would you like to see on that team? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Director Guillermo del Toro is moving ahead with one of his dream projects, an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic tale Frankenstein that is set up at the Netflix streaming service. We’ve heard that Frankenstein is expected to start filming (possibly under the working title Prodigal Father) on February 12th. The production will last nearly five months, wrapping up on July 5th. Filming will take place in Ontario, Canada, and possibly in London, England as well. It looks like Canada will be the first filming location, as del Toro recently took cast members Oscar Isaac (Moon Knight), Mia Goth (Pearl), Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), and Charles Dance (Game of Thrones) to eat at a Toronto restaurant, where they posed for a picture with the staff. You can take a look at the picture at the bottom of this article.

Del Toro’s Frankenstein might have the following logline: Set in Eastern Europe in the 19th Century, the story of Dr. Pretorius, who needs to track down Frankenstein’s monster- who is believed to have died in a fire forty years before–in order to continue the experiments of Dr. Frankenstein.

Whats on Netflix previously reported that Isaac would play the Monster and Goth will be the Bride, with Andrew Garfield (who has since had to drop out of the cast) as Dr. Frankenstein. Their intel seems to have been slightly off, though, because when Garfield left and was replaced by Jacob Elordi (Saltburn), it was said that the role Garfield had passed over to Elordi was the Monster.

Del Toro has been talking about making a new version of Frankenstein for more than a decade. At one point, he did have the project set up at Universal, with Doug Jones (The Shape of Water) on board to play Frankenstein’s Monster. The movie got far enough into pre-production that Jones even saw a bust of the Monster that was inspired by Bernie Wrightson’s artwork in an illustrated adaptation of Shelley’s novel that Wrightson spent seven years working on. But then the project fell apart. Now it’s finally happening at the Netflix streaming service, which previously teamed with del Toro on Pinocchio and the anthology series Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.

Are you looking forward to Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein? What do you think of the cast del Toro has assembled? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Here’s the picture:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jeff Regular (@paitoronto)

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Charlie Hunnam could be heading back into enemy territory for Triple Frontier 2, a sequel to the J.C. Chandor-directed action thriller. In 2019’s Triple Frontier, loyalties are tested when five friends and former special forces operatives reunite to take down a South American drug lord, unleashing unintended consequences. According to Hunnam, he’s producing another Triple Frontier movie, though the project is in its early stage of development.

Speaking with The Mary Sue at a Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire press event, Hunnam revealed his intentions for a potential sequel, saying the project is in its “absolute infancy.” Hunnam added, “Nothing guaranteed, but I just set up recently as the main producer on a potential sequel to Triple Frontier at Netflix.”

Hunnam plays William ‘Ironhead’ Miller in Triple Frontier, opposite Garrett Hedlund as his brother, Ben Miller. Meanwhile, Ben Affleck stars as Tom ‘Redfly’ Davis, with Oscar Isaac playing Santiago ‘Pope’ Garcia and Pedro Pascal as Francisco ‘Catfish’ Morales.

During Hunnam’s interview with The Mary Sue, the Sons of Anarchy and Pacific Rim actor reinforced that nothing is written in stone regarding Triple Frontier 2. “So we’re working on that. It’s in its absolute infancy, but I feel like I’ve got a lot more to say about the sort of after life of military personnel. I’m really hopeful.”

JoBlo’s Managing Editor, Chris Bumbray, was also at the Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire premiere and says he spotted Hunnam and Hedlund working up the crowd. Check out our Rebel Moon review for what we thought of Zack Snyder’s love letter to Star Wars.

Would you be game for Triple Frontier 2? Could Hunnam get the band back together for another mission? Do the original stars have room in their schedules for a project like this? Let us know what you think in the comments below, and sound off if you’re looking forward to seeing Hunnam play Kai in the first chapter of Zack Snyder’s latest sci-fi epic, starring Sofia Boutella, Ed Skrein, Jena Malone, Cary Elwes, Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou, and more.

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