It's nearly time to sit down and enjoy The Bear's last course. Indeed, with its fifth season set to bring down the curtain on the multi-award-winning FX TV Original, you'll want to savor every mouthful before its final end credits roll.

More importantly, though, you'll need to know when and where The Bear season 5 will be released. So, make a reservation, take your seat, and peruse the below menu — no, I'm not this analogy too far, why do you ask? — for more on its official launch date and times.

What time can I watch The Bear season 5?

In North and South America, The Bear's final season will make its bow on Thursday, June 25 at 6pm PT / 9pm ET.

Armed with that information, we can work out when Carmy, Sydney, Richie, and the rest of the gang will be back on our screens in other nations, too.

• US — Thursday, June 25 at 6pm PT / 9pm ET
• Canada — Thursday, June 25 at 6pm PT / 9pm ET
• UK — Friday, June 26 at 2am BST
• India — Friday, June 26 at 6:30am BST
• Singapore — Friday, June 26 at 9am SGT
• Australia — Friday, June 26 at 11am AEST
• New Zealand — Friday, June 26 at 1pm NZST

Where can I watch The Bear season 5?

The comedy-drama TV series will be available to watch on Hulu in the US and Disney+ everywhere else. No matter where you live, then, you'll soon have access to the show's final hurrah on one of the world's best streaming services.

Not signed up to the above platforms, but want to stream The Bear 5 once it arrives? Read our Hulu price and Disney+ price guides to see how much it currently costs to create an account. Or just refer to the price widget below for a quick rundown of each service's various tiers and price points.

How many episodes does The Bear season 5 have?

Unlike the last three seasons, The Bear season 5 won't comprise 10 episodes. Instead, it follows in its debut season's footsteps with just eight chapters.

As for each entry's runtime: at the time of this article's initial publication on Tuesday, June 23, I've seen the first seven episodes, and I can confirm that they last anywhere between 22 minutes and 52 minutes. That's including each installment's end-credits crawl, too.

Lastly, here are the confirmed titles for the episodes I've watched:

• Episode 1 — Soda
• Episode 2 — Lamb
• Episode 3 — Mint
• Episode 4 — Ribs
• Episode 5 — Raspberries
• Episode 6 — Focaccia
• Episode 7 — Caramel

• Taika Waititi's new movie Klara and the Sun has a first-look trailer
• It teases Jenna Ortega as the titular AI companion, playing what's called an Artificial Friend
• Klara and the Sun arrives in theaters on October 23, 2026

Klara and The Sun got its first trailer recently, and the new movie quickly grabbed my attention. Even though stories of AI companions are everywhere, this one has done a lot to stand out from the crowd.

Before we get into that, here's a quick synopsis. Taika Waititi's Klara and The Sun is an adaptation of the novel of the same name, centering around an Artificial Friend (Jenna Ortega) and the human she was bought for, Josie (Mia Tharia).

Take a look at the trailer below ahead of the movie's release on October 23, 2026.

Why I'm excited for Klara and The Sun

Stories about AI companions are hardly new, and you'd be forgiven for growing a little tired of them. Whether it's sci-fi classics like A.I. Artificial Intelligence or horrors like Companion, lifelike androids are nothing new.

But I quickly found myself interested in Klara and the Sun after seeing the trailer and reading up on it. The original novel by Kazuo Ishiguro explores a dystopian world where children are genetically engineered for enhanced academic ability.

There's plenty of downsides to this, including social isolation. Children learn at home through on-screen tutors so they spend a lot of time stuck indoors. Enter the Artificial Friends, companions that can be purchased for the home where they'll keep children company without needing to be cared for like a pet would.

It's a bleak existence, but there's also something hopeful about Klara and the Sun. The trailer teases an unlikely bond between the titular AI companion and Josie, her human friend.

Outside of the interesting premise I'm also impressed by the cast. Supporting roles are played by Amy Adams, Natasha Lyonne, and Steve Buscemi, so we have some great talent attached to this.

I'm really excited to dive deeper into this world, especially since I have enjoyed Waititi's previous work such as Jojo Rabbit. I'm hoping that Klara and the Sun is just as good.

In case you missed it during its West End run earlier in 2026, there's good news for international theatre fans: Les Liaisons Dangereuses will be in select cinemas worldwide from June 25, before heading to the National Theatre at Home streaming service later in the year.

This is all thanks to National Theatre Live, whose productions have been seen by more than 13 million people across the globe. I'm one of these, having seen everything from Hansard to All My Sons in theaters and local community centers.

The goal is to make British theater more accessible, which is fantastic news if you're international or just (rightfully) can't afford paying up to £120 for a ticket. Out of all of the productions I've seen, Les Liaisons Dangereuses is one that you absolutely cannot afford to miss.

For us peasants, this translates to Dangerous Liaisons, which you've likely seen in the 1988 movie of the same name starring Glenn Close and John Malkovich. This time, Lesley Manville and Aiden Turner take on the respective roles of the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont.

During its three-hour (I know) runtime, viewers experience a whirlwind of drama, deceit, unrequited love, and outright chaos. The staging is exquisitely minimal yet dramatic thanks to its use of moving mirrors, with our cast included in mass choreographed dance numbers interspersed throughout.

Frankly, it's like nothing I've ever seen. So when the National Theatre invited me on an exclusive tour behind-the-scenes during one of its two filming days for NT Live, I was as giddy as a five-year-old.

National Theatre Live: Les Liaisons Dangereuses was shot with the same cameras used to film your favorite Netflix movies

Here's how it works. For productions that aren't beamed into cinemas live, filming happens across two performances in the same week.

This way, editors can splice together the best cuts of scenes, meaning that if there's a mark on the floor or a prop out of place, you won't notice. The idea is to replicate the

When I walk into the theater on the second day of shooting, a total of seven cameras are rehearsing their placements for later in the evening. They're all a part of ARRI camera systems, which are the same kind that film all the latest Netflix movies. Small world, huh?

Most of them have a stationary position, with the camera closest to the stage operating on a dolly (which is essentially a small piece of track it can move up and down). Instead of being operated hands-on like on a movie set, the dolly camera is operated remotely from a portable control room.

So where is this mysterious crew? Instead of being packed into the auditorium, they're (literally) parked outside in two mobile van units. The first acts like a screen studio you'd see on an actual TV set, monitoring each camera through numbered live feeds. Next door is the audio mixing unit — meaning if someone coughs in the audience, it will be removed.

Basically, it's all the pleasure of being at the theater without any of the annoyances. I'm almost jealous of whoever gets to see it on screen, zooming into painful and poised movements in a way that I just couldn't see, even with my best glasses on two rows from the front.

You might be wondering what happens when a production is beamed totally live into cinemas without editing or delay, such as Inter Alia with Rosamund Pike in 2025. The process is almost the same, except that the NT team has to book a satellite to use in order to do so. According to my tour guide, that means a lot of bartering with international TV channels.

Regardless of how it is recorded, you can guarantee getting the best theatre experience possible. And if that hasn't sold you... Lesley Manville and Rivals' own Aiden Turner?! Come on.

• Netflix's Gears of War movie has a confirmed plot
• According to Entertainment Weekly, the movie will be an origin story for Delta Squad
• This does mean that the game's protagonist, Marcus Fenix, may not appear in the Netflix adaptation

Gears of War is headed to Netflix, and we finally have some confirmed plot details about the new movie adaptation.

According to reports from Entertainment Weekly, the Netflix Gears of War movie will be an origin story for Delta Squad, the main infantry team in the original video game series.

Entertainment Weekly revealed that the official logline for the movie is simply: "The origin story of Delta Squad, a ragtag crew of soldiers who wage a desperate war for survival against the Locust, a race of subterranean creatures set on destroying humanity."

Speaking about the movie, Matt Booty, Xbox's executive vice president and chief content officer, told the site: “The game really is about the bonds between teams. It's about brotherhood at its core.

"When you go visit the studio, their tagline is ‘Never Fight Alone.’ So when you think about that for a dramatic narrative, it's a pretty good starting point.”

Will Gears of War feature Marcus Fenix?

Considering Marcus Fenix is the protagonist of the first three games in the Gears of War video game series, many of us are wondering if he will show up in Netflix's Gears of War movie.

It's too early to say for now, as we don't have casting confirmation for the project, so we can't confirm which characters will appear. But if Marcus is absent and the plot focuses wholly on life before him, this may come as a disappointment for fans.

We can't accurately pinpoint how Netflix's Gears of War will fit into the franchise's timeline until more information is released. If it focuses more on the first game, then we might see Marcus after all.

If it doesn't, then this is certainly not the first time a video game adaptation has moved away from the original protagonists. Recently, Prime Video's Fallout chose not to focus on the Lone Wanderer or The Courier, and Zach Cregger's Resident Evil has a brand-new leading character too.

We will just have to wait patiently to see how Gears of War plays out on Netflix.

Sugar season 2 has returned to Apple TV, with the pilot episode available to watch now.

Sugar is considered to be one of the best Apple TV shows and we've had a two year wait to dive back in to the sleek and sophisticated neo-noir drama series.

In the season premiere, our protagonist John Sugar (Colin Farrell) was feeling dejected because his investigation into his sister's disappearance has hit a dead end. So he picks up a new case, and this is where episode 2 will continue.

Here's what you need to know about Sugar season 2, episode 2.

What time can I watch Sugar season 2 on Apple TV?

The US can expect the second episode of Sugar season 2 to be available on Apple TV on June 26 at 12am PT / 3am ET. Episodes will then drop weekly until the finale on August 7.

Internationally, look out for the below times:

• US – 12am PT / 3am ET
• Canada – 12am PT / 3am ET
• UK – 8am BST
• India – 12:30pm IST
• Singapore – 3pm SGT
• Australia – 6pm AEST
• New Zealand – 8pm NZDT

When do new episodes of Sugar season 2 come out on Apple TV?

Episode 1: Out now

Episode 2: June 26

Episode 3: July 3

Episode 4: July 10

Episode 5: July 17

Episode 6: July 24

Episode 7: July 31

Episode 8: August 7

• Amazon and Jeremy Clarkson have announced that Clarkson's Farm season 6 is filming for the first time
• The show's Facebook page previously hinted at various production 'challenges'
• On Instagram, Clarkson also shared he is 'perfectly fine' following shock cancer diagnosis

Prime Video and Jeremy Clarkson have released a social media video confirming that Clarkson's Farm season 6 is currently in production (which you can watch in full below).

The news comes after the show's bombshell season 5 finale, which revealed Clarkson had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. "If all goes well, I'll see you for season 6. If not, I won't," the star had signed off on at the end of last season.

"So... bit of a year," Jeremy said via the aforementioned TikTok. "But, I'm delighted to tell you that season 6 of Clarkson's Farm is currently in production. And, that's particularly good news for me because... well, if you know, you know."

Not only is this good news for fans — despite the show's Facebook page confirming production earlier in the year — but Jeremy has also given a positive update on his health in a separate Instagram reel.

'The doctors caught the prostate cancer early'

"The observant among you will have noticed that... well, I'm not dead," Jeremy said on his Instagram page. "And, I'm not just not dead, I'm perfectly fine... and the reason why I'm fine is because the doctors caught the prostate cancer early."

The Amazon star goes onto share the importance of getting tested, going on to tell The Times in an interview that he feels like "the world's luckiest man."

Speaking about being admitted to hospital in the season 5 finale, he added, "That was horrific and it was all my own fault. I’d been on drugs for heart issues and I had to come off them during the cancer treatment.

“Big mistake, huge. It [resulted in] a very big emergency in the middle of the night. I’m not even going to go into the treatment that was required as a result of that, because it was horrible. I didn’t ask a doctor, I just thought, ‘I’m sure it will be all right to go back on blood thinners’.”

Jeremy also confirmed that a Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) test in April 2026 showed no evidence of cancer.

In the same month, the Clarkson's Farm official Facebook page posted: "It’s now official — Clarkson’s Farm WILL RETURN for a sixth season, arriving a little later than usual in summer 2027.

"Filming has already faced a few hurdles along the way, including a break from production, positive TB [tuberculosis] testing, and relentless rain earlier this year."

House of the Dragon season 3 has premiered on HBO Max — and the high fantasy show's latest entry has already highlighted that nobody will be safe from this point on.

Titled 'Salt and Sea, Fire and Blood', this season's opener winds up being a blood-soaked and deadly chapter by virtue of one of the show's most brutal conflicts to date. That being the naval clash famously known as The Battle of the Gullet.

So, who perishes during House of the Dragon season 3's first major bout? And are any major characters counted among the dead? I'll answer those questions below — so, even though it goes without saying, be advised: full spoilers immediately follow for House of the Dragon season 3 episode 1.

Does Jace die in House of the Dragon's season 3 premiere?

Yes. Jace — or, to give him his full name, Jacaerys Targaryen — is the most notable casualty of this season's first installment.

Save for a couple of substantial changes from how his death plays out in Fire and Blood, aka the George R.R. Martin-penned book that House of the Dragon is based on, Jace's demise is a direct adaptation of events that occur in said novel, too.

Indeed, in the aforementioned book and TV reimagining, Jace is killed after he's shot multiple times by crossbowmen aboard one of the Triarchy's ships. That happens after his dragon Vermax crashes into the sea and drowns, and Jace — who frees himself from Vermax before it sinks beneath the waves — finds some driftwood to cling to.

The changes made to Martin's texts come in how the build-up to Jace's death is portrayed.

For starters, Fire and Blood doesn't explicitly state how or why Vermax tumbles into the sea. It states that Vermax is seen flying too close to the waves, and that it might have careened into the waters below after being injured by a ballista bolt or pulled down by a grapnel. In the HBO Max version of The Battle of the Gullet, a combination of the two — a giant crossbow bolt with a heavy stone weight attached to it by a chain — is ultimately what drags Vermax into the sea.

Events leading up to that moment are the root cause of Jace and Vermax's deaths, too, because the arrival of Rhaena Targaryen and Sheepstealer, aka the wide dragon she's been trying to tame.

In Fire and Blood, Sheepstealer is part of The Battle of the Gullet, but it's ridden by a mysterious individual known as Nettles. Incidentally, it seems showrunner Ryan Condal has combined Rhaena and Nettles into a single person for the purpose of House of the Dragon's narrative.

But I digress. After Rhaena appears to finally tame Sheepstealer earlier in the HBO Max series' season 3 premiere, the pair stumble upon The Battle of the Gullet. Seeing this as a chance to prove herself, Rhaena instructs Sheepstealer to join the fray. Unfortunately, the actually still-untamed Sheepstealer takes a bilateral approach to proceedings, and starts raining fire on the Triarchy — aka the enemy — and Velaryon ships, which is who they're supposed to protect.

Mistaking Rhaena and Sheepstealer as foes, Jace/Vermax, along with Baela Targaryen and her dragon Moondancer, move to intercept and take them out. Long story short: Jace/Vermax get so caught up in the sky-based skirmish that follows, they're oblivious to the forthcoming weighted bolt attack that'll soon take their lives.

Is the Triarchy commander Sharako Lohar dead in House of the Dragon?

Yes — and this represents another departure from Fire and Blood's depiction of The Battle of the Gullet.

'Sea and Salt, Fire and Blood' sees Lohar lose her life following a duel with Alyn of Hull, who seeks her out after what Lohar does to his estranged father and commander of the Velaryon fleet, Corlys Velaryon (more on him later). After a frantic scuffle aboard a sinking ship, Alyn eventually wins the day by fatally stabbing Lohar, and letting her body sink into the depths.

However, in Fire and Blood, Lohar not only survives The Battle of the Gullet, but is said to have won it. In the literature, Lohar is eventually murdered by a rival some years later following The Daughters' War, aka a civil war between the Triarchy's factions. With House of the Dragon not expected to cover this event as part of its overarching story, though, it makes sense for the Game of Thrones prequel to kill off Lohar during The Battle of the Gullet.

Is Corlys Velaryon, aka the Sea Snake, dead in House of the Dragon?

We don't know yet, because Corlys' fate is left unknown by the time that season 3 episode 1 ends. Indeed, after he's thrown overboard during his own clash with Lohar, we never see him again.

So, is Corlys alive or dead? I'd prefer not to ruin that surprise, dear reader. All I'll refer you to is the age-old entertainment business phrase "no body, no death" — that being, if we don't physically see someone's corpse on the screen, the chances are their time has not come yet...

What happens to Tyland Lannister and Jason Lannister in House of the Dragon season 3 episode 1?

The same principle applies to one of the Lannister twins in Tyland.

Indeed, after Lohar's flagship — aka the Bitchfist — pursues Corlys' vessel through a perilous, extremely narrow rocky passage during low tide, the former comes close to being dashed on the rocks. In a bid to reduce the Bitchfist's weight and help it float better to avoid the jagged rocks below, Lohar pushes a heavily-armored Tyland overboard. Like Corlys, then, Tyland's fate is unclear.

We can't say the same about his brother Jason, though. At the end of a Riverlands-based battle that sees Daemon Targaryen's forces triumph over Jason's, we learn the latter has been slain and beheaded by Roderick Dustin. He's the leader of the Winter Wolves, who swear their allegiance to Team Black, aka those who have sided with Rhaenyra Targaryen amid the Targaryen Civil War, otherwise known as the Dance of the Dragons.

Did you enjoy House of the Dragon season 3's opening episode? And do you think Corlys and/or Tyland are still alive or not? Let me know in the comments.

Spoilers for Dutton Ranch episode 7 ahead.

As far as fictional parties go, 10 Petal ranch's 190-year anniversary bash in Dutton Ranch episode 7 was pretty tame.

Most of it went without a hitch, with even Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Rip (Cole Hauser) blending into the background. Rob-Will (Jai Courtney) returned home to bully mom Beulah (Annette Bening) into changing her plans for the ranch's successor... and it works.

Shortly after Beulah announces that Rob-Will will be taking her place — and almost everybody else around them has objected — Beulah falls to the floor, potentially on the brink of death.

All has yet to be revealed in the Yellowstone spinoff, but Dutton Ranch fans have been distracted by something (and someone) much more unfulfilling. Does the new Paramount+ show need a drastic shakeup already?

Dutton Ranch fans want to see less of Carter — and his painful on-off romance with Oreana

Yep, that's right — Dutton Ranch fans are practically begging for Beth and Rip's adopted "son" Carter (Finn Little) to have less screentime.

"I know I should care about Carter as I used to on Yellowstone. But in my opinion, there are too many scenes with him and not enough of the other characters. Honestly, he bores me," one fan posted on Reddit.

A second agreed, "His character is poorly written this time and that combined with Oreana (Natalie Alyn Lind) makes it a hard watch. I hope it develops a bit but I don't expect too much."

"Yeah, teenage angst is not why I watch," a third chipped in.

Up until episode 5, Carter's healthy screentime made sense. He needed to get settled into Rio Paloma, and he's the only character who actively protests against the family's move from Montana.

He was also embroiled in the death of Dwight (Ray McKinnon), which has emphasized his internal battle between being a boy and a man. But for many, it's this that is Dutton Ranch's "toughest watch."

"Love the show but I hope the high school subplot ends soon," one fan writes, as another adds, "I get the whole teenage angst thing. But he's still an annoying little sh*t."

A third weighs in, "I was hoping the Dwight situation would be a subplot like Joe Exotic or something interesting. The older gf looks 30 and it’s not as interesting unless Beth goes after her soon and takes care of it."

With Oreana now seemingly gravitating towards another love interest, Carter's teen angst could actually be kicked up a notch. But with two episodes of Dutton Ranch left to go, anything is possible.

Cape Fear continues to fascinate and freak out Apple TV subscribers, with the adaptation of the iconic story getting more tense by the day as the Bowdens continue to be terrorized by Max Cady.

We've also been introduced to some intriguing new characters like prison owner Ed Coburn and the mysterious Amber, who comforts Natalie Bowden after a humiliating social media incident. So there's a lot going on and plenty to unravel.

Here's when Cape Fear episode 5 will drop on one of the best streaming services.

What time can I watch Cape Fear episode 5 on Apple TV?

We're expecting Cape Fear episode 5 to be available on Apple TV on June 26 at 12am PT / 3am ET. Episodes will then drop weekly until the finale on July 31.

Internationally, look out for the below times:

US – 12am PT / 3am ET

Canada – 12am PT / 3am ET

UK – 8am BST

India – 12:30pm IST

Singapore – 3pm SGT

Australia – 6pm AEST

New Zealand – 8pm NZDT

When do new episodes of Cape Fear come out on Apple TV?

Episode 1: Out now

Episode 2: Out now

Episode 3: Out now

Episode 4: Out now

Episode 5: June 26

Episode 6: July 3

Episode 7: July 10

Episode 8: July 17

Episode 9: July 24

Episode 10: July 31

Has Beulah (Annette Bening) actually been left for dead after falling to the floor at the end of Dutton Ranch episode 7? My gut says no... but when it comes to Rio Paloma, nothing can be second guessed.

Last week's 10 Petal anniversary party saw Rob-Will (Jai Courtney) officially announced as Beulah's successor, upsetting not just Joaquin (Juan Pablo Raba), but almost everybody that Beulah is directly in business with.

Obviously, it's all going to end in tears. But when does Dutton Ranch episode 8 land on Paramount+?

What time can I watch Dutton Ranch episode 8 on Paramount+?

Dutton Ranch episode 8 will drop on one of the world's best streaming services on Friday, June 26.

Like The Madison and Landman, we can expect the episode to arrive at 12am PT. Here's when it will be released in other nations globally:

• US – 12am PT / 3am ET
• Canada – 12am PT / 3am ET
• UK – 8am BST
• India – 1:30pm IST
• Singapore – 4pm SGT
• Australia – 7pm AEDT
• New Zealand – 9pm NZDT

When do new episodes of Dutton Ranch come out?

Dutton Ranch will have a total of nine episodes, airing weekly after its two-episode premiere. That gives us the following schedule:

• Episode 1: out now
• Episode 2: out now
• Episode 3: out now
• Episode 4: out now
• Episode 5: out now
• Episode 6: out now
• Episode 7: out now
• Episode 8: June 26
• Episode 9: July 3

If you're looking for the very best Dolby Atmos movies to show off what your that home system you've lovingly researched and chosen can do, then there's a smart list of the 'top 100' options available on a site called Hello Atmos.

This top 100 was curated by the creator of Hello Atmos in order to find the 'consensus' list of the movies that get recommended the most often. It's based on published reviews and lists of great Atmos movies (including ours), plus community recommendations from platforms like Reddit, in the many many threads where people ask for recommendations.

It's all pulled into an algorithm designed by the app's creator, Adrian Wrona, to rank the movies based on how strongly they're recommended, and resulting in the top 100 list.

You can read the full list just below, or see it on the Hello Atmos site, which also includes where you can stream the movies in your country (though it's TechRadar's stance that uncompressed audio from the best 4K Blu-ray players is the only way to really show off your system).

While like any best-of lists there's plenty of opportunity for an argument — is Blade Runner 2049 still a better showcase than Dune? Why isn't Dredd higher up the rankings? — it's a great and eclectic guide to some of the best sounding spatial audio soundtracks, with details of who did the mixing, which is a nice touch.

We've written about Adrian before; another tool on Hello Atmos scans your Apple Music or Spotify playlists to identify which ones are available in Atmos, which is great if you want to really explore spatial audio for music.

The 100 best Dolby Atmos movies, as rated by Hello Atmos

1. Blade Runner 2049
2. Dune
3. Mad Max: Fury Road
4. Ready Player One
5. The Batman
6. Top Gun: Maverick
7. Dune: Part Two
8. Gravity
9. Ford v Ferrari
10. A Quiet Place
11. The Matrix
12. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
13. Pacific Rim
14. 1917
15. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
16. Edge of Tomorrow
17. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
18. Fury
19. Midway
20. Saving Private Ryan
21. Deepwater Horizon
22. Bohemian Rhapsody
23. John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum
24. A Quiet Place Part II
25. Civil War
26. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
27. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
28. Twister
29. Godzilla vs. Kong
30. Roma
31. No Time to Die
32. Transformers
33. Hacksaw Ridge
34. Oblivion
35. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
36. Prey
37. Alita: Battle Angel
38. TRON: Legacy
39. Baby Driver
40. Warfare
41. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
42. Godzilla Minus One
43. Gran Turismo
44. John Wick: Chapter 4
45. Hans Zimmer: Live in Prague
46. Kong: Skull Island
47. Ambulance
48. Twisters
49. Unbroken
50. John Wick

51. Avengers: Endgame
52. Jurassic Park
53. Apocalypse Now
54. Blade Runner
55. First Man
56. Man of Steel
57. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
58. The Fifth Element
59. Soul
60. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
61. Black Hawk Down
62. 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
63. John Wick: Chapter 2
64. Dredd
65. Star Trek Into Darkness
66. Deadpool
67. Nope
68. Sinners
69. Brave
70. Doctor Sleep
71. WALL·E
72. F1
73. War of the Worlds
74. Mission: Impossible - Fallout
75. Us
76. Alien: Romulus
77. Everest
78. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
79. Avatar: The Way of Water
80. Ghostbusters: Afterlife
81. 6 Underground
82. Avengers: Infinity War
83. Ballerina
84. Aquaman
85. Titanic
86. Godzilla: King of the Monsters
87. The Guns of Navarone
88. Aliens
89. Nosferatu
90. Uncut Gems
91. Transformers: Dark of the Moon
92. Back to the Future
93. Suspiria
94. Overlord
95. Top Gun
96. Sicario
97. 300
98. Evil Dead Rise
99. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
100. A Quiet Place: Day One

• Infoblox Threat Intel finds 65%+ of its cloud customers made DNS queries to residential-proxy domains in 2026
• Residential proxies could result in legal exposure or reputational damage if threat actors abuse them
• While not all residential proxies are illegal, abusers take advantage of anonymity coupled with cheap, unauthorized residential proxies to perform tasks that may be unethical, if not outright illegal at times

Users installing free VPNs, streaming apps, and even productivity apps might be unaware that they are often unintentionally the product themselves.

The old adage about there being no free lunch rings true here with many of these 'free' services essentially renting out the identity of an unsuspecting victim's network to strangers, many of which use it for malicious reasons.

The practice, which is considered fair game by many such applications has security and privacy implications in addition to users being flagged for fraud or extra verification as IP reputation systems at datacenters account for requests seemingly originating from a victim's network.

Blending in for a reason

The service being used here is called a 'residential proxy,' and while legitimate providers may exist, many of the sources are dubious to say the least. This is because demand for 'clean' residential proxies is both tremendous and consistent.

Research from Infoblox Threat Intel indicates that the situation is more dire than previously assumed, as nearly two thirds (65%) of its Threat Defense Cloud customers made DNS queries to domains used to access or orchestrate residential proxy networks in 2026, totaling over 500 billion such queries per month.

This is different from anonymizers like Tor or commercial VPNs, which produce anonymized traffic via voluntary nodes for the former and datacenter IPs for the latter. It leverages existing hardware on one's residential network, such as home routers, phones, IoT gadgets, or anything else that can essentially run a proxy service.

The kicker is that most of these services never obtain permission from a 'host' or bury such clauses deep in their End-User License Agreement (EULA), often leading unsuspecting victims to 'help' with malicious activities such as fraud, unpermitted data scraping, and even streaming services that bypass regional limitations.

Victims suffer because not only do such services essentially freeload on their existing connections, slowing down their internet, but it could also result in their IP addresses or networks being marked as untrustworthy or even fraudulent if the occurrences remain regular. This could open them up to legal trouble: It is hard, time-consuming, and sometimes downright impossible to prove that you were the conduit rather than the perpetrator for said activities.

Avoiding this is easier said than done, but there are ways to reduce susceptibility to this kind of abuse. A software audit should be your first line of defense. Knowing what runs on all your devices and whether it is trustworthy or not is key to preventing exposure.

One should pay particular attention to free VPNs, cheap IoT devices from dubious manufacturers, streaming software, and even browser extensions, all of which can expose one to threat actors. Investing in a router or software service that blocks such requests would also go a long way, as would leveraging Protective DNS to monitor your network.

To start, users can also use services to monitor and check their IP's risk profile, allowing them to determine whether they are already a victim of abuse.

Who is ready to finally see Toph in the flesh? It's the main reason I'll be tuning into Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 after a lengthy two-year wait.

This time around, Aang (Gordon Cormier) and the gang will journey deep into the treacherous Earth Kingdom to find an earthbending teacher and convince the elusive Earth King to join the fight against Fire Lord Ozai.

Translated, that means that a lot is going to go down before the already confirmed season 3 even arrives.

But when does Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 land on Netflix?

What time can I watch Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 on Netflix?

Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 drops on Netflix on June 25, 2026.

As for exact time, it should be the standard 12am PT release that previous hit shows such as Emily in Paris have also enjoyed.

For global regions, here's when you need to be prepared:

• US – 12am PT / 3am ET
• Canada – 12am PT / 3am ET
• UK – 8am BST
• India – 12:30pm IST
• Singapore – 3pm SGT
• Australia – 6pm AEST
• New Zealand – 8pm NZDT

When do new episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 come out?

All 7 episodes of season 2 will be released at the same time, much like the release schedule for season 1.

There's currently no word on when season 3 will be released... but rest assured that it's coming.

Sugar season 2 has arrived on Apple TV after a two-year break. The first episode is streaming now, but you'll have to wait a week for the next one to drop.

Fortunately, there's a lot of great crime shows to tide you over until then. If you can't get enough of the genre, I've picked out three of my favorites that are widely available to stream on Apple TV, and you can even binge-watch if that's your thing.

Make the most of your Apple TV subscription and check out these three detective shows now.

Presumed Innocent

Creator: David E. Kelley
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Ruth Negga, Bill Camp, O-T Fagbenle, Chase Infiniti, Nana Mensah, Renate Reinsve
Seasons: 2
Age Rating: TV-MA

David E. Kelley is on a roll with Apple TV shows, as he's the genius behind recent comedy hit Margo's Got Money Troubles. If you haven't seen Presumed Innocent yet, this is also well worth your time.

Presumed Innocent follows prosecutor Rusty (Jake Gyllenhaal), who becomes the prime suspect in the gruesome murder of his colleague and secret mistress, Carolyn (Backrooms' Renate Reinsve). This legal drama is deliciously addictive, and it's very easy to get sucked in as you uncover the truth about what really happened.

Criminal Record

Creator: Paul Rutman
Cast: Peter Capaldi, Cush Jumbo, Zoë Wanamaker, Charlie Creed-Miles, Cathy Tyson
Seasons: 2
Age Rating: TV-MA

Criminal Record returned for season 2 just a few months ago, so now is the perfect time to catch up. This British crime drama features a brilliant cast, especially when it comes to the dynamic between the two main characters.

Clashing detectives Daniel Hegarty (Peter Capaldi) and June Lenker (Cush Jumbo) are forced to work together when an anonymous phone call draws them to an old murder case, and they must put aside their differences to see if they can solve it. Along the way, they encounter issues within their own force, including race, institutional corruption, and systemic failures, making it a thought-provoking watch.

Lady in the Lake

Creator: Alma Har'el
Cast: Natalie Portman, Moses Ingram, Y'lan Noel, Brett Gelman, Byron Bowers
Seasons: 1
Age Rating: TV-MA

Finally, Lady in the Lake is set against a 1960s Baltimore backdrop, following Maddie Schwartz (Natalie Portman), an investigative journalist working on an unsolved murder case. She is so invested in this that she leaves her husband and her home, hoping to become a full-time newspaper reporter.

Over the course of the series, Maddie becomes obsessed with unraveling the mystery of two separate killings: eleven-year-old Tessie Durst and a bartender named Cleo Johnson (Moses Ingram). The series is based on the novel of the same name by Laura Lippman, which is also worth reading.

Full spoilers follow for Toy Story 5. You have been warned.

Thomas Jordan has seen a lot in his Hollywood career. The Pixar veteran, who began his career at the acclaimed animation studio in 1997 as a production intern on A Bug's Life, has had a front-row seat to the company's many highs and occasional lows, and the rapidly changing face of the entertainment business itself.

Hoppers, the first of two new movies from Pixar this year, launched to critical acclaim, grossing almost $400 million globally, and the Disney subsidiary is aiming for another box office success with its next feature.

Step forward Toy Story 5, the latest installment in Pixar's long-running, incredibly popular, and money-spinning film franchise. Despite a mixed critical reception — read my Toy Story 5 review to see what I thought — it's anticipated that the movie series' fifth entry will be a huge hit, financially, with some analysts predicting a $150 million windfall during its opening weekend in North America alone.

As the film's visual effects (VFX) supervisor — a role he filled for the very first time on Toy Story's fifth chapter — and with almost 30 years of experience under his belt, Jordan knew how big an undertaking this movie would be. After all, as he tells me, on a sunny Friday afternoon in London ahead of the family-friendly flick's June 19 worldwide release: "Toy Story is very precious. It started it all. It's our crown jewel. It's why Pixar is still here."

That's just one of many measured and insightful remarks Jordan gave in our exclusive interview. From developing innovative new technologies and crafting Bonnie's imagination-based art style to the challenges of animating the film's antagonistic tablet device Lilypad and Pixar's experiment with artificial intelligence (AI), here's everything we discussed in our chat.

(NB: this interview has been condensed and edited for clarity).

Bridging the animation tech divide

TechRadar: Each new Toy Story film — and Pixar project for the matter — gives you the opportunity to improve upon the last. What technologies, programs, and tools did you invent or refine to craft specific parts of this film?

Thomas Jordan: Well, to animate the realistic-looking horse — she's called Daffodil — we have in this movie, we needed to figure out a new rigging system. Without it, we couldn't have her in as many shots, because it would have been too laborious to animate her. This new system is more realistic in terms of horse motion and easier for the animators [to use], so we can have her in as many shots as we want.

The other example that comes to mind is the long, black, curly hair on the [human] character Blaze. We strive to create movies that represent the audience, and if we can't represent a certain part of the population, we feel like we're not doing our jobs properly. We put extra effort into solving the problem instead of changing the hairstyle because we wanted to finally solve this problem once and for all, and we knew it would not just benefit our film but any Pixar production.

TR: When you implement new tools, what are some of the challenges of making them work in tandem with established Pixar programs?

TJ: There's an expectation with every Pixar movie to push the envelope and innovate, so sequels are particularly appealing as testing grounds. But, early on, I did think about the danger of adopting too many new tools at once, so we were very careful about which current programs we combined them with.

There were instances where our new tools didn't overlap with pre-existing ones. For example, for Daffodil, the new rigging technology we used to animate her doesn't use our recent lighting tool Luna, nor our new rendering tool Renderman XPU.

We took a similar approach with Blaze's curly hair tool. We only used it alongside Renderman XPU for one sequence and with Luna in two to minimize the risk because, you know, the movie has a release date. No matter what we do, we can't jeopardize that.

What makes a toy?

TR: Let's talk about the new toys you introduce in this film, starting with Smarty Pants, Atlas, and Snappy. What was most challenging about bringing them to life and ensuring they moved in visually unique ways?

TJ: The first thing is they're all solid objects. None of them have hands or legs, and they either have screens or a sticker for eyes, so initially we had to work out how they'd move.

The next challenge was they all needed to feel like they were from different eras. We wanted Smarty Pants to be the oldest one, so his technology looks older because he's from when Blaze was a little girl, and his screen doesn't refresh as quick as the others. The next one she got was Atlas, and so we did a lot of research on what technology and screens looked like in the '80s, '90s and 2000s. After that came Snappy, who's the most advanced with her eyeball camera lens, and so things needed to feel unrefined.

On top of that, they all have screens, which have to be animated separately from the characters themselves. The problem was that when the animation team worked on Snappy, Smarty Pants, and Atlas, their screens were blank, which isn't very useful or inspiring for the animator who's trying to make them emote. So, we gave them a tool — it's like a virtual pencil they can animate with — that allowed them to mock up what shows up on the toys' screens.

Once their animation was approved by the director with these temporary sketches, we have an art team that creates what we call "motion graphics", which are these graphic design images but animated. So that's what we added to the screens, in the form of these chunky and old-fashioned pixels, after the rest of the characters were animated.

TR: I imagine you applied a similar process to Lilypad. As a modern toy with a touchscreen that Bonnie and other characters can swipe on, though, how did animating Lilypad differ from the others?

TJ: There was an extra complicated step. Like the other toys' screens, if the animator was, say, animating Bonnie's finger swiping on Lilypad's screen, we hadn't actually figured out what Bonnie would be swiping, so the animator was essentially swiping at nothing.

When the eventual screen images are designed, not only do they need to support the rest of Bonnie's animation, they also need to be synchronized with her swiping motion. So, while it was another use case for the virtual pencil sketch tool, it became a timing guide for the artists who were making the graphics for Lilypad's screen, and ensuring they lined up with when Bonnie is touching it and moving it.

As for Lilypad's screen, it has the highest resolution [of the new toy devices], but you'll notice that her eyes are still pixelated. The reason for that is our director, Andrew Stanton, really wanted to make sure the audience always remembered she wasn't just a toy, but a tech device. Because her screen is so high-tech, if we did that for her eyes, she might just feel like an actual frog toy as opposed to a device. So it was a deliberate decision we made, even though it makes her feel a little bit more retro.

Building Bonnie's imagination scene — and Toy Story 5's most intricate sequence

TR: A lot of positive things have been said about the art form used to represent Bonnie's imagination since Toy Story 5's official trailer came out. How many styles did you explore before settling on those visuals?

TJ: I'd say all of them! *laughs* That was a very long process where we were challenged to create something that the audience has never seen before, but we don't know what it is or what they want.

And so, on a weekly basis, we'd bring in our own toys, drawings from our kids, and examples of different painting styles, and get together in a meeting room to look at all of these little bits and pieces. As we started honing in on what the directors liked, it became clear they liked things that were reminiscent of Bonnie's crafts-oriented personality, so we extended that into what her imagination looks like.

We were also inspired by the early pastel lighting studies done by Toy Story 1's original production designer Ralph Eggleston. That was his style for showing what the lighting would look like for the entire film, so he would do sketches — we'd call it a color script — using pastel chalk to demonstrate it.

TR: Later in the movie, when Blaze is seen playing with Jessie and Bullseye, her imagination is stylized in the same way as Bonnie's. Was that used to telegraph to audiences how compatible she and Bonnie were as individuals and, as the film's final sequence reveals, friends?

TJ: Yes, it was a very deliberate choice to show Bonnie and Blaze had similar imagination styles — and Jessie sees it, too, because Jessie is part of that imaginary sequence, which helps her realize these kids are very similar, and they would make great friends someday.

That said, Blaze's imagination has a different color palette and some fun, different themes to it, as well. So, at the end of playtime, where Bonnie and Blaze are playing together, we purposefully combined the two art styles to show how compatible their personalities are. It was one of the most rewarding things to work on and see come together at the end.

TR: What was the hardest or most intricate sequence to realize, from initial concept to the final product?

TJ: When I read an early draft of the script, there was an "oh no" moment when I reached the scene where Jessie and Bullseye, along with Woody, the 51 Buzzes, and all the toy horses, are trying to rescue Lilypad from a moving truck on the highway. That meant we needed to figure out how to animate well over 100 characters individually, because they all have their own personalities and unique animation, and it all had to be coordinated so they arrived at the truck at the same time.

I thought, 'How the heck are we going to do that in this exterior environment? We're outside, racing through the countryside on a dirt road, and then all of a sudden we're on the highway, and there are other cars, we see shops and stores, and there are clouds in the sky!'.

It was by far the most complicated scene and required months of planning, so we decided to start working on it very early, because we didn't want to leave it to the last minute.

One eye on Easter eggs, the other on AI

TR: It's an understatement to say AI is a hot topic right now. What are your feelings on its use in the entertainment industry? And is it something you've tentatively or actively researched to improve any aspects of your work?

TJ: We've experimented with it at Pixar, but only to see how AI could be used, and very quickly we learned that it wasn't ready for our level of filmmaking. So, we've started to approach it more from the angle of wanting to improve the artist's experience, not replace it.

My personal philosophy is if there are steps to, say, helping set up a scene so you can actually get to animating it faster, that sounds extremely useful.

More importantly, it still puts the artist first, because I think the secret sauce of Pixar animation is the way that we animate. It's not meant to be based on the real world — it's artistic license and caricatured. We're trying to support the story and emotion, but in a way that allows us to put our creativity into the characters you see on screen, and I think that's something we would never want to change.

TR: No Pixar movie is complete without its Easter eggs. Do you have a favorite that you snuck in? And should viewers keep an eye out for the Pizza Planet truck?

TJ: Yes, the Pizza Planet truck is there. It's in all but one of our movies, so it's tradition to include it. As for another specific reference, I challenge the audience — and this is another of my favorite Pixar traditions — to find the Easter egg related to our next film.

Every Pixar movie has an Easter egg for the one that comes after, and the fun thing is that you don't know what to look for until you've seen the most recent film. So, there was a Toy Story 5 secret in Hoppers, which was Atlas the GPS hippo device.

And so, for Gatto, the film we're releasing in 2027, there's an Easter egg for that in Toy Story 5. I'll give you a hint: it's not the titular black cat himself. Let me know if you find it!

Toy Story 5 is out now in theaters worldwide.

After that shocker of an ending in Rivals season 2 episode 6, we could probably all do with a bit of a break from the hit Hulu and Disney+ series.

Annoyingly, we have to wait even longer than first thought for the remaining six episodes to be released. Rivals season 2 has a release window of November 2026, which could potentially take us into early 2027 depending on the schedule structure.

"Twelve episodes is a lot for people to enjoy," writer Laura Wade told me earlier in the season. "I think that we partly wanted to drag out that enjoyment a little bit. But also from a practical point of view, it takes a long time to deliver twelve very complicated period pieces of drama.

"Do we just release the first six and crack on with finishing the second six, which is what we're doing right now? Or do we wait, an extra six months of release for 12? We didn't want to wait. Also, we've got the FIFA World Cup coming up, so we're releasing the first half before the football. Get that out of the way, and then release the second half."

But now we know (and in my case, begrudgingly accept) the season 2 release schedule, what can we expect from what's to come next? According to one star, episodes 7-12 can best be summed up in one word: "madness."

'You definitely won't be disappointed'

"There is a lot of stuff going on in these second six episodes... I was involved in some pretty fun, full-on scenes towards the end," Rich Keeble, who plays Brian Hetherington in the hit series, tells me.

"In episodes 10, 11 and 12, there's some high drama. I won't say anything, but we were filming in one location all week. Monday to Friday, had Saturday off, then back in there on Sunday. Every day, I remember thinking, 'Oh, my God, what are we doing today?'

It's likely that the above trailer has only referenced scenes in the earlier episodes in the next batch of six (e.g. episodes 7 and 8), so anything Keeble is referencing here is a complete surprise.

"There'll be something else in these scenes. We had like 50 cast in, 50 set assistants on top... and it was just madness for a week for a few scenes in one episode.

"If you've enjoyed these first six, then you definitely won't be disappointed. I think that the second half has a lot more going on. We've really hit the stride... everyone's on their A-game."

All I hope is that Monica's (Claire Rushbrook) legacy is handled appropriately — and perhaps if the rest of season 2 is dazzling, I can forgive the creators for killing her off.

It's one of the biggest pop culture franchises on the planet, but how well do you really know Star Wars? Let's find out.

Since the 1970s, Star Wars has been a media titan; movies, TV shows, video games, theme park attractions, novels, card and board games, action figures and so, so much more. It's hard not to think of places you've seen iconic characters like Darth Vader, R2-D2 and Yoda.

Just as prevalent as Star Wars icons are Star Wars fans, with many knowing the characters, events and planets of the franchise with intimate knowledge. And that's just as well, because the massive franchise has many facets to get your head around — make sure to read our how to watch the Star Wars movies in order guide if you're not sure where to start.

To see how much of a Star Wars fan you are, this quiz has been designed to test your knowledge on the franchise. The questions will be about the movies, TV shows, games and more in the franchise — so you may find our new Star Wars movies and Disney+ show explained guide useful — not about the world building itself, so you don't need to know Luke Skywalker's favorite holiday planet, or who delivers Yoda's mail.

We'll start with 10 easy questions, and then move into 10 medium ones, and finish with 10 difficult ones for the experts. So let's find out just how much you know:

If you need to brush up on your Star Wars, let's get you some revision material:

With Dutton Ranch episode 7 arriving on Paramount+ this week, our attention is starting to turn to the Yellowstone spinoff's future.

We've got two episodes left in the current batch, and at this stage, anything could happen. Beulah (Annette Bening) has just announced 10 Petal's successor, Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Rip (Cole Hauser) are outright working for her, and Carter (Finn Little) is learning what it's like to get your heart broken.

With Rob-Will (Jai Courtney) also returning to Rio Paloma, the tension is like a boiling pot ready to spit hot water at whatever is nearby.

But is this enough to pull off Dutton Ranch season 2? I think it's the easiest yes in the world... and according to one star, the viewership should speak for itself.

'The numbers speak for themselves'

"I hope so," Berto Colón, who plays Miguel on the hit series, says when I ask him about Dutton Ranch season 2 being renewed.

"I mean, the writing is on the wall, right? I think that the success of the show speaks for itself. There needs to be a continuation to this.

"Obviously, I don't have any actual carnal knowledge of that. I just know that the numbers speak for themselves. What I've gathered in my experience of this business is that if any show deserves a few, a few more seasons is this one."

From an IP perspective alone, he's not wrong. Yellowstone has already been able to churn out four separate spinoffs: 1883, 1923, Marshals and Dutton Ranch.

Out of all of them, Dutton Ranch is the most likely to rival Yellowstone's own legacy, and certainly has the most mileage. Given that there's also fan interest in a Marshals crossover, reuniting Beth with brother Kayce (Luke Grimes), the Duttons are a gift that keeps on giving.

With no renewal in sight yet, I don't think it will take long for Paramount+ to commit. My advice? Keep your eyes peeled around the same time that the season finale drops on July 3.

Contains spoilers for all of Sugar season 1.

Sugar season 2 is here after a two-year wait, and the Apple TV series is one of the eight huge new movies and shows streaming this weekend (June 19).

If, like me, you have been eagerly awaiting John Sugar's return, you may have mixed emotions. Although it's great to be back in the sunny LA backdrop with those stunning film noir vibes, it doesn't explore the huge twist we saw in season 1.

Sugar's season 1 twist was so huge, in fact, that if you tell it to someone who has never seen the series, they'll probably laugh at you. It's quite the reveal and does not suit what we see at face value, changing the tone of the series entirely.

In season 1, episode 6, we learned that the sophisticated private detective (played brilliantly by Colin Farrell) is actually an alien disguising himself as a human. It is a plot twist that can make or break a series, as this goes from a film noir mystery to full-blown sci-fi in seconds. Mind blown.

Believe it or not, the alien reveal does work, and it made me more interested in the series as a result. So I was disappointed that Sugar season 2 does not focus on the sci-fi elements as much as it should've, disguising itself once again behind the glitz and glamor of Old Hollywood and the totally normal humans who reside there.

Had they gone harder on the sci-fi, I would have definitely rated this season higher because there is plenty to enjoy here. John Sugar continues to blend in as a human, while most of his alien race have already left Earth. There's a key reason for this, as he's looking for his missing sister Djen (Maeve Djen) and does not want to leave Earth without her.

Sugar's investigation seems legitimate enough; humans go missing all the time, so he's been able to hide his real identity... for now. But when the trail runs cold, he takes on a new case to occupy himself involving Danny Moon (Jin Ha), an up-and-coming boxer whose brother and trainer, Ji (Raymond Lee), has gone missing. Nothing like a new missing person to distract you from your own personal demons.

Sugar season 2 also features less from Kirby Howell-Baptiste, who plays Sugar's handler and confidante. As an alien herself, she has since left Earth, leaving John behind to do what he needs to. Those hoping to see more from Howell-Baptiste will be disappointed, as Ruby has much more of a backseat role this time.

I am hopeful that, if Sugar season 3 is confirmed, we will see more from Ruby and the other aliens, especially since their mission was compromised and some humans are aware of the alien existence. Sugar simply being on Earth is dangerous, which does present opportunities and threats for future episodes.

The sci-fi elements are not completely forgotten, thankfully, and we do see Sugar using his extraterrestrial powers throughout. But it's like he is trying to hide much of his true self from the audience as well as the in-universe characters. It makes sense given the slow burn of the series, but I really would have liked to see more alien stuff going on, personally.

Sugar season 2 is not quite as good as its predecessor, but I did enjoy returning to its universe after a long break. There's some escapism in the vintage aesthetic; every scene is styled and acted beautifully, but much like the fashion, it won't be to everyone's tastes.

If you liked the noir aspects more than the sci-fi ones, I certainly think you will like Sugar season 2, as it picks up with new cases and characters to learn about. The universe is crafted with care, creating a world full of secrets, no matter what planet you come from.

But you would be forgiven for wanting more, especially since season 1 has dangled that reveal in front of us only to leave us wondering. If they had balanced the Old Hollywood vibes with the sci-fi ones better, I honestly think season 2 could have been perfect.

Sugar season 2 ultimately feels like a sequence of slow, filler episodes teasing what's to come later, which isn't all bad. But it means if season 3 does not happen we will be left with more questions than answers, much like John Sugar left behind on a planet that is not his own.

The latest edition of TechRadar's streaming recommendations round-up has arrived — and it's another of those rare weeks where we've opted for eight new movies and shows instead of the usual seven.

Indeed, with so many great-looking films and TV series recently arriving (or shortly set to land) on the world's best streaming services , we really struggled to whittle down this list. Rather than us dropping a project that deserves your attention, then, we thought 'why don't we just include them all?'. In short: we did, so read on to see what's worth watching at home this weekend. — Tom Power, senior entertainment reporter

Project Hail Mary (MGM+)

Project Hail Mary, aka Amazon's hit sci-fi movie starring Ryan Gosling, has finally made its streaming debut. Curiously, though, it's not come to the company's primary streamer in Prime Video, but to its lesser cousin MGM+. No, I'm not sure why, either.

Regardless, if you missed the epic flick when it was in theaters, now's your chance to see what all of the fuss is about. Before you catch it, read my Project Hail Mary review to get the lowdown on its plot and see what I thought of it. Then, once you've streamed it, check out my Project Hail Mary ending explained piece to get answers to your biggest burning questions. — TP

• Watch Project Hail Mary on MGM+

House of the Dragon season 3 (HBO Max)

Just four months after our last visit to the Game of Thrones universe with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, it's time to return to Westeros once more for House of the Dragon's third season.

There's a lot (dragon)riding on House of the Dragon season 3, too. With some fans suggesting its forebear wasn't as good as it could've been, and behind-the-scenes drama between showrunner Ryan Condal and Thrones overlord George R.R. Martin that wouldn't look out of place in the latter's high fantasy book franchise, the HBO Max TV Original's latest chapter really needs to deliver.

So, does it? Read my House of the Dragon season 3 review to find out for yourself. Once you're done, see when and where House of the Dragon season 3 episode 1 will be released where you live. — TP

• Watch House of the Dragon season 3 on HBO Max

Voicemails for Isabelle (Netflix)

Another helping of Netflix rom-coms this year? Yes please. Amazingly, this one isn't based on an existing novel, meaning Voicemails for Isabelle has already set itself apart from others already released this year.

Here's the premise: when Jill (Zoey Deutch) leaves voice messages to her deceased sister telling her about her chaotic life in San Francisco, an Austin-based real estate agent Wes (Nick Robinson) begins to receive their confessions. Lo, an unexpected romance is born.

In additional amazing news for fans of Parks and Recreation, Nick Offerman is also here randomly playing a chef. — Jasmine Valentine, entertainment reporter

• Watch Voicemails for Isabelle on Netflix

How to Make a Killing (HBO Max)

Black comedy movie How to Make a Killing is streaming on HBO Max this weekend. It was ultimately a flop and received a lot of criticism upon its initial theatrical release, including in my How to Make a Killing review, which is where I described it as a "rare misfire" for A24.

If you plan on watching it, though, How to Make a Killing centers around Becket Redfellow (Glen Powell), a man disowned by his wealthy family. Here, we watch as he fights back to claim his inheritance by picking them off one by one. — Lucy Buglass, senior entertainment writer

• Watch How to Make a Killing on HBO Max

The Agency season 2 (Paramount+)

Paramount+'s addictive spy thriller is back and reportedly better than ever. For the uninitiated: Michael Fassbender play Brandon Colby, a spy going by the pseudonym 'Martian'.

There are plenty of tense interrogations and nail-biting scenes this time around. Season 2 picks up soon after the first's dramatic finale, and sees 'Martian' feeling the pressure after becoming a double agent for MI6. Amid all that, he's trying to manage his volatile relationship with Samia (Jodie Turner-Smith), who has been imprisoned in Sudan.

So, Martian has a lot on his plate, which is good news for us at home, because it means we're all guaranteed to be on the edge of our seats. — LB

• Watch The Agency season 2 on Paramount+

I Will Find You (Netflix)

Another Harlan Coben series landing on Netflix means that we'll be sat and locked in for the foreseeable. After Run Away melted our minds in January, I Will Find You takes the chaos and raises it with a mind-boggling child murder case.

We follow David Burroughs (Sam Worthington), who is serving a life sentence for the murder of his son, Matthew. When his ex-sister-in-law and disgraced journalist Rachel (Britt Lower) finds evidence that Matthew might still be alive, the race is on to prove David's innocence and find his son.

Expect crazy confessions and twists and turns that will leave you with whiplash... and that's just in the first episode. — JV

• Watch I Will Find You on Netflix

Your Fault: London (Prime Video)

As the latest in Prime Video's hit Your Fault movie series, the London contingent has a lot to live up to. In fact, we're picking up after the events of the previous film, with Noah (Asha Banks) and Nick (Matthew Broome) now in a full-blown relationship.

This doesn't sound too out of the ordinary... until you learn that the pair are step-siblings. Now they pursue different paths, with Nick in business and Noah at Oxford. As always, they are dealing with new relationships and secrets. Let's just hope that they're ones we can cope with. — JV

• Watch Your Fault: London on Prime Video

Sugar season 2 (Apple TV)

The effortlessly cool Sugar returns for season 2 of this Apple Original and I've certainly enjoyed my latest trip to this sunny LA location. It's stunning as ever with its signature retro vibe and our protagonist John Sugar (Colin Farrell) has brought more of his own personal demons along for the ride, too.

The life of a private investigator comes with a lot of stress, and Sugar is feeling it when the trail to track down his missing sister goes cold. So, he takes on another case to keep himself occupied, agreeing to help a boxer whose brother and trainer has also gone missing.

There are a lot more film noir references here and enough mystery to keep you interested. It's another win for Apple TV and an enjoyable love letter to Old Hollywood. If you've already seen Sugar season 1, check out my Sugar season 2 review for my full thoughts. — LB

• Watch Sugar season 2 on Apple TV

House of the Dragon is almost back for its third season. Widely expected to be the show's penultimate chapter, it'll aim to rectify the mistakes of its forebear on the action spectacle front and continue to deliver high-stakes drama aplenty as the Targaryen Civil War enters its next phase.

So, when will the Game of Thrones prequel return to our screens? Below, I've outlined when this season's premiere will air and reveal where you'll be able to catch it. Without further ado, then, here's when episode 1 of House of the Dragon season 3 will be released.

What time can I watch House of the Dragon season 3 episode 1?

House of the Dragon's season 3 will make its debut in North America at 6pm PT / 9pm ET on Sunday, June 21.

Armed with the above launch times, we can also work out when this season's first episode will come out in other countries. So, read on to learn when it'll be available where you live:

• US — Sunday, June 21 at 6pm PT / 9pm ET
• Canada — Sunday, June 21 at 6pm PT / 9pm ET
• UK — Monday, June 22 at 2am BST
• India — Monday, June 22 at 6:30am IST
• Singapore — Monday, June 22 at 9am SGT
• Australia — Monday, June 22 at 11am AEST
• New Zealand — Monday, June 22 at 1pm NZST

Where can I watch House of the Dragon season 3?

The high-fantasy series' next season will drop on HBO Max, aka one of the world's best streaming services, where the platform is available. That includes the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand, which HBO Max recently launched in.

Don't fret if you live somewhere that this streamer isn't available, because House of the Dragon 3 is set to make its bow on numerous other services, too. Read the list below to see which platforms you'll need to tune into to watch it:

• US — HBO and HBO Max
• Canada — Crave
• UK — HBO Max, Sky Atlantic, and Now TV
• India — JioHotstar
• Singapore — HBO Max
• Australia — HBO Max
• New Zealand — HBO Max

House of the Dragon season 3 full release schedule

After its one-episode premiere, new chapters of House of the Dragon season 3 will come out every Sunday in the Americas and every Monday in other territories. That'll be the case until this season's finale launches on August 9/10, too.

For a full rundown of the all-important release dates you need to know about, read on:

• House of the Dragon season 3 episode 1 — June 21/22
• House of the Dragon season 3 episode 2 — June 28/29
• House of the Dragon season 3 episode 3 — July 5/6
• House of the Dragon season 3 episode 4— July 12/13
• House of the Dragon season 3 episode 5 — July 19/20
• House of the Dragon season 3 episode 6 — July 26/27
• House of the Dragon season 3 episode 7 — August 2/3
• House of the Dragon season 3 episode 8 — August 9/10

For more coverage on the show, check out my House of the Dragon season 3 review for my thoughts on its first four episodes. Then, get the full lowdown on the show's return by reading up on everything we know so far about House of the Dragon season 3.

Spoilers for Dutton Ranch episode 7 ahead.

After last week's episode was brave enough to kill off one of its most problematic characters on the hoof, I expected big things from this week's installment of Dutton Ranch.

In episode 6, disgruntled ex-foreman Chet (Hart Denton) was killed in cold blood after trying to take down eldest Jackson brother Joaquin (Juan Pablo Raba) by shooting him in the hand. Rip (Cole Hauser) saw the whole thing play out and asked no questions... for now.

Meanwhile, Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Beulah (Annette Bening) have formed a business partnership and have successfully won their first client. But how long can peace be between them — especially after Beulah alluded to knowing the truth about Jamie Dutton's death?

Teeing this week up for big things, I'm not sure Dutton Ranch episode 7 actually pulled off a satisfying follow-up. Now that the episode is on Paramount+, let's dissect what did (and didn't) happen.

Dutton Ranch episode 7 starts with a teenage Beulah flashback

Unexpectedly — and in one of the more intriguing creative choices in this episode — we kick episode 7 off with a flashback to Beulah's youth. We see a rancher drop her and two friends off at a Texan bar, which is revealed to be Mariano, Joaquin's father.

Beulah soon hits the dance floor with a young man called Luke, who seemingly makes all the most charming moves possible. Whenever he tries to dominate her in conversation, Beulah gives as good as she gets.

Mariano drinks coffee and talks to a waitress at the bar, who seems incredibly interested in his life. It's then revealed that Luke had paid her $20 to try and ply him with beer and keep him occupied while he took Beulah to a nearby motel and sexually assaulted her.

By the time Mariano finds her, she's standing outside with her dress half torn off, a bloody nose, and only one boot on. "Did you see me fall off that mechanical bull?" Beulah asks him. "Well, that's exactly what you're gonna tell my Daddy."

We also end the episode with another flashback, this time Mariano coming to get Beulah before her father gives a speech at a ranch party (the parallels will make sense the more you read on).

Beulah doesn't want to be there, asking Mariano to instead drive her somewhere. She arrives at Luke's house, shoots him dead, and emerges with her previously lost boot from the night of the assault.

The 10 Petal party gets underway — and is mostly a drama-free affair

In the present day, Beulah is busy organizing the ranch for its 190-year celebrations. She reveals to Joaquin that she will use the party to announce her successor during a speech, with Joaquin being convinced that the responsibility will fall to him.

Rip, Beth and Carter (Finn Little) all get ready for the party, deciding to arrive on horseback rather than having to drive. Beth and Rip soon talk business, while Beulah is left to play the hostess with the mostess... and sneak some quality time in with date Everett (Ed Harris).

Oreana reveals that she's got a new love interest

After the family arrives at the party, Carter makes a beeline for Oreana (Natalie Alyn Lind). However, he soon finds her with another guy, who's well-dressed and seemingly comes from money.

When Carter tries to say hello, she completely blanks him and continues her previous conversation. Everett tries to console Carter when he's left standing alone later on, but Oreana soon comes up to him at the bar to ask if he's enjoying the event.

Carter takes his frustrations out on her, claiming that this is someone else she's been dating the entire time behind his back. "Well, if it was, it'd be none of your goddamn business," Oreana replies before leaving.

10 Petal rancher Austin starts to doubt the Jackson family

Across town, Beulah has set up an open tab at the local bar for 10 Petal wranglers, rather than having them cause a scene at her party.

It's a smart decision, with the gang soon starting a fight with other local ranchers who accuse 10 Petal of cheating at a card game... and hiding more secrets than anyone will let on. Azul (J.R. Villarreal) and Zachariah (Marc Menchaca) are also there, and get stuck into the action.

Later on, cleaning up after the mess, 10 Petal rancher Austin admits that he thinks that the naysayers from earlier in the evening are right — with both Wes and Chet now missing, it's clear that the Jacksons are waist-deep in secrets.

The others tell him to forget it and look the other way, which Austin argues is all they've been doing for years. Let's just say it creates a tense atmosphere.

Rob-Will arrives and bullies Beulah into handing 10 Petal over to him — and it works

Oreana calls Beulah inside, who finds Rob-Will (Jai Courtney) sitting at her desk. Oreana was keeping his return to 10 Petal a surprise, having returned to Rio Paloma itself at the end of episode 5.

Rob-Will claims that he's clean (despite swigging vodka from a bottle every 10 seconds) and that if Beulah is announcing her successor tonight, it has to be him. He claims that he's everything she wanted a son to be — clear-eyed, ruthless and "a killer," alluding to the fact that he knows Beulah killed Luke in her youth.

This then becomes a blackmail situation, with Beulah standing firm on not giving in to what Rob-Will is asking. We find out his full name with the next line: "My name is Robert William Jackson III, and this ranch was always going to belong to me," he says in reference to Beulah's grandad who founded it.

When Beulah makes her speech, Joaquin gets ready to hear his name as successor, only for his mother to confirm that Rob-Will will eventually take over the ranch within the next five years.

The crowd is clearly unsettled by the news, with the ranch's latest investor threatening to pull out because Rob-Will is a known drug addict. Beth and Rip look on, concerned.

Joaquin leaves the party almost immediately, claiming that Rob-Will has "f**ked it" for almost everyone involved.

Spoilers for Rivals season 2 episode 6 ahead.

I don't know about you, but I'm still furious with the events of Rivals season 2 episode 6... especially the unexpected death of Monica Baddingham (Claire Rushbrook).

Considering that this never happens in the original book — and that Monica was just about to come to terms with her unacknowledged feelings for Enid (Selina Griffiths) — it came as something of a nasty shock.

I've already gone into detail about why the move wasn't only disappointing, but also proves that Hulu and Disney+ are doing so badly by their LGBTQIA+ characters... and during Pride month, no less.

Perhaps not everybody is as outraged as I am, but it still feels like a gut-punch to the overall Rutshire dynamics that we've come to know and love.

But according to one star, there's a good reason why Monica's death had to happen — and it's all to do with what will happen in the second half of season 2.

'It was a very emotional thing, and very shocking'

"The events of episode 6 are quite a shock, aren't they? Monica's death is a real curveball," Rich Keeble, who plays Brian Hetherington on the hit series, tells me.

"I do know what happens in the rest of the series, and it does feed into some quite dramatic and exciting stuff that's happening in the second half."

So far, we can only get a glimpse of what's to come in new episodes that will be released in November from the above teaser trailer. Monica's funeral will be one of the first things addressed, but it's as yet unclear how this will affect our characters, including widower Tony (David Tennant).

"It was a real shock and the way we found out... most of us found out at the table read," Keeble continues. "We had two table reads for this series of Rivals. We already had episodes 1-5. So when we got to episode six, they said it was going to be a redacted version that only a few people would be given.

"When we were leading up to when Monica's in the car during the storm, I could see like a few people who were crowding around a script and starting to get upset. It was this very emotional thing. Claire was tearful, and everyone was hugging her... There was a big round of applause afterwards to congratulate her on her work, and people said a few words.

Keeble continues, "I think the only people that maybe knew before the read-through were maybe David and Claire. But of course, we then had another read-through with the second half of it and then obviously filmed it. It was something that hung over, the whole second half of the series."

If Monica had to die, then I'm glad she didn't die in vain — I just hope that the creators have done a good enough job of keeping her memory alive.

Physical home media has gone through a turbulent time the last few years. With the rise of streaming services, demand for physical media over the past few years has steadily declined, with people choosing the convenience of streaming over physical discs.

There's still a dedicated fanbase of physical media collectors, though, and more recently streaming price rises and splintering means people have more interest just owning the stuff they want to watch. I’ve been writing about my hope for the resurgence of 4K Blu-ray, and physical media in general, since 2023. Now in 2026, I’m actually more hopeful than ever. It couldn’t come at a better time either, with the 20th anniversary of Blu-ray’s debut on June 20th, 2026.

I recently spoke to Kath Summersgill, Joint Group Head of Sales at Key Production Group, an agency specializing primarily in physical music and packaging manufacturing with vinyl, cassette and CD. However, the group also works with Blu-ray, both video and audio varieties, and DVD. We discussed the state of Blu-ray production, and physical media in general, and she had some encouraging things to say.

Promising numbers

“We’ve seen an increase in Blu-ray sales of over 10,000%, particularly in Blu-ray Audio” Kath tells me. “That’s over the span of the past eight to 10 years.” For a format that’s been on the decline, that’s an incredibly encouraging number.

Kath then mentions the ERA (Entertainment Retailer’s Association) report from December 2025, which reveals sales revenue for Music, Video and Gaming sales. “Although there was an overall decrease in the physical video format, Blu-ray actually increased by 3%”. While that may not sound like a lot, it’s a positive after some particularly bad numbers.

If you read more into the 2025 ERA report, 4K Blu-ray sales increased 19.5%, which is an extremely encouraging number. The strongest selling disc of the year was Wicked, a disc I regularly use for testing AV equipment and one of the main highlights of our Blu-ray Bounty feature (more on that later).

So, why have 4K Blu-ray sales turned around? For that answer, we’ll have to look to streaming services.

You can't rely on streaming

One of the most frustrating things people have with streaming services is the availability of movies. At one time or another, most people will have experienced a movie leaving a streaming service, only for it to either go to a rival service (that typically you won’t subscribe to) or for it just to disappear.

I’ve even seen horror stories of people buying movies on a streaming service that then also disappear. A Reddit thread in the r/AmazonPrime subreddit is a great example of this, where user u/Electrical_Paper6286 has had it happen “4 times between 2 movies”. Although the movies eventually returned, it’s a sign of how tentative the ‘ownership’ of movies on streaming platforms can be.

It’s one of the key issues affecting people’s trust in streaming services and something that’s driving people to physical media. Kath relates it to vinyl. “We know that vinyl is never ever going to replace streaming, but it exists very happily alongside it. I think that Blu-ray is the same, it offers different things that streaming doesn't. It's very much something that you can have and hold and you can keep and you can play over and over again.”

Kath also points out another issue with online-based movie and music streaming. “[With physical] you're not at the whim of your internet connection speed, or whether or not certain libraries drop certain titles, licence changes”.

This is another frustration. Numerous times I’ve gone to watch a movie on streaming and due to connection issues , it’s either streamed in reduced quality, buffered or just not streamed at all. This isn’t a problem with physical media.

A passionate fanbase

As I mentioned above, I’m a budding collector of 4K Blu-ray. While I don’t have fully stacked shelves (yet), I do have a collector’s edition or two and more than a few steelbooks.

In FilmStories’ article about the ERA 2025 report, they mention that steelbooks and special editions helped the growth in 4K Blu-ray in the UK, with every one in 10 4K Blu-rays released having some sort of steelbook or special edition, and due to their higher prices, they made up £2 of every £10 spent on 4K Blu-ray in 2025.

I tell Kath I’m a sucker for nice packaging and she agrees and she relates it to a recent vinyl release that Key Production Group handled. “We find people are doing this. We did a vinyl release recently with 72 variants and even though the packaging was the same, the color of the vinyl was different.”

(I’m also a sucker for colored vinyl, with a rust-effect Jack White/Dead Weather release from a Third Man Records Vault collection being a particular highlight in my stack.)

While special editions are great, it’s also the work of independent distributors and manufacturers, delivering more excellent 4K restorations than ever, that gets more people to invest in 4K Blu-ray.

The Criterion Collection and Arrow Video are two of the big names, but other organizations such as Kino Lorber, Shout Factory, Boutique Home Video and the BFI are crucial. These companies are producing more sought-after titles and giving them excellent restorations that mean people want to own them in the best possible quality.

In November 2024, I started the Blu-ray Bounty. This is an ongoing monthly column where I test the latest 4K Blu-rays from each month — and since its debut, the column has been growing.

We’re covering more discs than ever, covering a wider range of genres, and I have a feeling it’s only going to get bigger. I’ve produced tons of lists of excellent 4K titles that are perfect for showing off home theater systems, such as this 6 action movies list and 6 classic movies that show what 4K can do. and a good chunk of my reference discs for AV testing came from the Blu-ray Bounty.

I’m also an active user of the r/4kbluray subreddit and this is again one of the most passionate subreddits I’ve come across. Users update each other on releases, give their thoughts and reviews on the latest titles and always showing off their collections in the best possible way.

While it may well have been doom-and-gloom for 4K and Blu-ray in the last couple of years, I for one am hopeful for its future. What better way to celebrate Blu-ray’s 20th anniversary than with some good news.

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• The Boroughs has been canceled after one season at Netflix
• According to reports, the decision was made due to the high costs of producing sci-fi shows
• Despite this outcome, The Boroughs was well received by critics and fans

Another day, another Netflix cancellation. The best streaming service has unfortunately gained a reputation for canceling our favorite shows, and a new sci-fi thriller, The Boroughs, is the latest to be axed.

If you're surprised by this decision, you're not alone. The Boroughs has performed well, receiving a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 97% after a month on the streamer.

I had assumed it would come back based on this, but it appears it has not been successful enough to warrant a second outing. That, combined with the great cast, fun premise, and the fact that Stranger Things creators The Duffer Brothers were attached, made it seemingly a no-brainer to come back for round two.

So let's dive into why this happened.

Why we're saying goodbye to The Boroughs

According to The Hollywood Reporter: "Part of the problem here, a source tells THR, is that sci-fi is expensive. Another piece surely is that the Duffers are taking their talents to Paramount. (The Boroughs wouldn’t have followed, but sometimes breakups are hard.)"

Cost is clearly a factor, but so is rival streaming service Paramount+. Still, this feels like a disappointing decision, especially since Netflix recently canceled The Lincoln Lawyer, and they axed three great shows in 2025 as well.

The good news is that The Boroughs is still worth watching. You may be put off trying it out, considering the cancellation news, but the eight episodes of season 1 deserve your love anyway. With a great cast including Bill Pullman and Geena Davis, and an intriguing supernatural threat, it's definitely one of the best Netflix shows in recent months.

I shouldn't pre-empt my sadness for fictional TV characters, but I'll be devastated when Yellowstone spinoff Dutton Ranch comes to an end on July 3.

My expectations weren't low, but the new Paramount+ series has hugely exceeded them. Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Rip's (Cole Hauser) dogged loyalty to each other and their shared life gets more satisfying to watch by the minute, and their move to Rio Paloma feels like the clean break from Montana that they sorely needed.

The 10 Petal ranch is also growing on me, too. Clearly Rob-Will (Jai Courtney) is an absolutely psychopath, but matriarch Beulah (Annette Bening) definitely isn't the villain that she was originally made out to be. With Dutton Ranch episode 7 now on the horizon, it's implied that there are still more secrets in the Jackson family than meet the eye.

Luckily for us, star Berto Colón, who plays Miguel on the hit series, has confirmed that I'm correct... so strap in for exactly what we should expect across Dutton Ranch episodes 7-9.

'I'm excited for people's reactions to seeing what's really going on'

"Rip and Beth are on a collision course with Beulah, and there are things that are going to be revealed in the coming weeks," Colón begins. "The Jackson family has some secrets. That final scene with Beth and Beulah in episode 6 is a teaser to what's coming next.

"The power move that the couple make to unite with the Jacksons means there will be some revelations about the things that have kept the ranch going. I'm excited for people's reactions to what's really going on. It's explosive."

If what's to come is explosive, then what does that mean for what we've already seen? From Beth and Rip losing their entire herd of cattle to foot and mouth disease to Carter (Finn Little) being caught up in a police raid with an illegally bought leopard, the series so far hasn't exactly been relaxing.

"Rob-Will is another big one," Colón continues. "There's more to be revealed as far as how the family came to be. "Hold on to your seats... it's gonna be quite a wild ride with everyone involved."

If Dutton Ranch is on the trajectory that I think it is, we could be looking at peak Yellowstone levels of chaos and cliffhangers. I've been missing Taylor Sheridan as a showrunner for the most part, but maybe this is when my mind will be changed for good.

Light spoilers follow for House of the Dragon season 3 episodes 1 to 4.

House of the Dragon has a reputation to rebuild after its somewhat divisive second season. At watching its first four episodes, I suggested that House of the Dragon season 2 was the popular show at its "volatile, merciless, and masterful best". However, its latter chapters drew fierce fan criticism for spinning the show's narrative wheels, and a distinct lack of high-stakes, fiery action.

The high-fantasy series' latest installment, then, has the chance to set things right; and, after sitting through House of the Dragon season 3's first four entries, it goes a long way to making amends for its sluggish forebear, even if this season itself isn't beyond reproach.

Fire and ash

Just as its predecessor did after season 1's bombshell ending, House of the Dragon 3 seamlessly transitions from House of the Dragon's season 2 finale by immediately picking up where that episode left off.

Amid multiple plot threads left dangling by season 2 episode 8, this season opens with the one that saw Queen Dowager Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) and Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) secretly make a deal that would allow Rhaenyra to fly to King's Landing, and finally claim the Iron Throne with little to no resistance. In return, Rhaenyra would grant Alicent and her daughter Halaena (Phia Saban) safe passage out of Westeros' capital city.

As the saying goes, though, the best-laid plans often go awry — and this one certainly does, in dramatic, action-packed, and ultimately fatal fashion.

Indeed, with season 2 seeing Rhaenyra instruct Ser Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) to form a blockade of King's Landing's ports to starve out the Hightowers, one of the latter's allies in House Lannister convinces the Triarchy — an Essosi naval military alliance — to align themselves with Team Green to destroy said blockade. Thus, the much-anticipated Battle of the Gullet begins.

Considering how much this sea-based conflict has been hyped up by the cast and crew pre-release, I was expecting a devastating, multi-stage set-piece to rival those of Game of Thrones' best action-heavy standalone episodes, such as 'The Watchers on the Wall' or 'The Battle of the Bastards'.

Color me disappointed, then, that this titanic clash only flaunted across the final 25 minutes of House of the Dragon 3's premiere.

That's not to say it's terrible. The Battle of the Gullet is a brutal and nerve-fraying showdown between Corlys and Triarchy commander Sharako Lohar's (Abigail Thorn) forces, and the ruinous events that occur create irreversible shockwaves that ripple out and impact every subplot and major story strand.

Nevertheless, it's not as hard-hitting as conflicts that occur in the aforementioned Thrones episodes, nor does it fully capture the unrelenting pace or futile struggle of the White Walkers' attack section of the main show's fan-favorite 'Hardhome' installment. That's partly down to this season's first major action sequence being intercut with other scenes, which disrupt its flow and dampen its explosive impact.

The Battle of the Gullet was supposed to bookend last season, but was withheld for this season's opener due to budget and time constraints. However, despite having a longer runway, and more money to do justice to this hugely significant conflict, it's not worthy of a spot in Thrones' best battles pantheon.

It's not the only action-based criticism that season 3 arguably deserves. Like the HBO Max TV series' sophomore outing, this season's first half disappointingly opts to only show us the final moments of Daemon Targaryen's (Matt Smith) ongoing crusade in the Riverlands, rather than a full battle. If House of the Dragon wants to overcome accusations of being an action-light show, it seriously needs to step things up in season 3's latter half.

Seize the throne

Thankfully, House of the Dragon 3 succeeds in other areas, including its depiction of Rhaenyra's emotional and psychological unraveling.

Given the sheer number of traumatic events she's tolerated, few viewers will be surprised by this development. Unfortunately for Rhaenyra, more heartache awaits, and one such moment early in season 3 episode 2 left me in little doubt, if any remained, that few other actors could deliver the kind of powerhouse performance and emotional gravitas that D'Arcy does in this show.

That opinion has only been further strengthened by how D'Arcy handles a grief-stricken and rage-filled Rhaenyra's not-so-subtle evolution into something of a mad queen, too. This season's third episode, an action-free, one-woman character study that might be my favorite House of the Dragon episode in a long time (which, given my earlier-outlined criticism, is something of an irony), tangibly cranks up the pressure on Rhaenyra in ways I won't spoil here, and lays the foundations for what I expect will be a full-blown breakdown in the near future.

In that regard, Rhaenyra's descent into madness will be less abrupt and abrasive than of Daenarys' similar heel-turn in the final season of House of the Dragon's parent show. Nonetheless, as much as I like her as a character, I can't wait to see how her volatile decision-making and handling of those loyal to her will come back to haunt Westeros' would-be monarch.

Enemy at the gates

This isn't simply the Rhaenyra show, though. Many other individuals — new and old alike — help to season House of the Dragon 3 with the prerequisite amount of melodramatic spice, and ensure there's plenty more delicious political scheming, and familial backstabbing and betrayals, to gorge yourself on. Suffice to say, then, there are more than enough twists and turns to keep you engaged amid the perpetual cycle of one-upmanship, and inter- and intra-familial machinations.

Of the myriad character arcs and storylines that comprise season 3, many fans may be most satisfied to hear that more tasty scenes between leading ladies Alicent and Rhaenyra await. Elsewhere, the screen-commanding Smith continues to deliver a devilishly delightful display as the unpredictable and power-hunger Daemon, whose cruelty, arrogance, and self-serving actions are, like Rhaenyra, sure to come back to bite him.

It's events surrounding Aegon Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) and Larys Strong (Matthew Needham), though, that — Rhaenyra's impending crash out notwithstanding — I've found to be this season's most intriguing subplot.

With last season's finale seeing the latter convince Westeros' physically and emotionally scarred monarch to abdicate the throne and flee King's Landing, the pair's meandering and dangerous journey isn't novel in its approach and execution. After all, we've seen similar storylines involving characters like Tyrion and Arya in the main show.

Nonetheless, by virtue of the deeply humbling quest it forces the egocentric Aegon to go on, it's yet another example of the Thrones-Verse doing what it does best; that being, making you feel sorry for characters you've actively or subconsciously detested.

Speaking of unlikeable individuals, the debut of the nefarious Ormond Hightower (James Norton) is the most noteworthy of this season's new additions.

A calculating, cunning, and smarmy tactician, Norton, who commands the most screentime of this season's newcomers, imbues Alicent's cousin with an striking obnoxiousness that'll immediately — and continue to — bother you throughout this season, especially once he lays out his daring masterplan in full. I for one can't wait to see if he spectacularly fails or somehow succeeds.

With so many characters vying for time in front of the camera, it's inevitable that some will be relegated to the sidelines.

As of season 3's midpoint, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) are the biggest casualties of the show's ever-expanding ensemble. Sure, the pair are handed moments to shine, but viewers hoping to see plenty of them in this season's first half should temper their expectations accordingly. Here's hoping they have more to do in the chapters ahead, especially if House of the Dragon 3 belatedly dials things up on the action front.

My verdict

After the fan outcry to last season's anticlimactic ending, plus the critical and commercial success that fellow Thrones offshoot A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms enjoyed earlier this year, House of the Dragon season 3 needed to step up big time — and, in some ways, it does.

As an overall package, it's certainly improved across the board but, maddeningly, still has its limitations. If this season's second half addresses its biggest issues — for starters, giving us plenty more tentpole action — then I foresee many viewers re-evaluating their overall opinion of this show. Season 2 promised plenty but largely failed to deliver on the destructive Targaryen civil war, otherwise known as the Dance of the Dragons, and I really hope that we're not sat here in a few months' time saying the same things about its follow-up.

House of the Dragon season 3 launches on Sunday, June 20 (North and South America) and Monday, June 21 (UK and everywhere else).

If you watched the season finale of Clarkson's Farm season 5 and have been left wondering whether season 6 will actually happen, I'm not surprised.

This is all because of the shock reveal in episodes 7 and 8 that Jeremy has cancer. He took time away from the 2025 harvest to have surgery, which suddenly ended with worrying complications in the final scene of episode 8.

"If all goes well, I'll see you for season 6," he signs off with. "If not, I won't. Take care, everyone."

With this logic alone, we can guess that Clarkson's Farm season 6 actually happening is as much good news as we could ask for.

But what else do we know about the upcoming Prime Video series?

Clarkson's Farm season 6 release window

Thanks to the Clarkson's Farm Facebook page, we know that season 6 episodes will be hitting our screens in Summer 2027.

However, this doesn't necessarily mean that we'll pick Diddly Squat back up again this time next year. A summer release window could be as late as August, but we should know more closer to the time.

Clarkson's Farm season 6 trailer: is there one?

Not yet... expect the first full trailer to arrive around four weeks before the sixth season does.

Clarkson's Farm season 6 cast

We're expecting the following core team to return for Clarkson's Farm season 6:

• Jeremy Clarkson
• Kaleb Cooper
• Charlie "Cheerful" Ireland
• Lisa Hogan
• Gerald Cooper
• Alan Townsend
• Dilwyn Evans
• Ellen Helliwell
• Annie Gray
• Dr. Tim Coles

Because of Jeremy's aforementioned health issues, it remains to be seen just how much he'll be featured in new episodes.

Clarkson's Farm season 6 plot predictions

As you might expect, the immediate detail for Clarkson's Farm season 6 to address is Jeremy's health status. As of writing, Jeremy hasn't issued a public update as to where he is with his treatment, with season 5 scenes having been filmed from May to June 2025.

According to the show's Facebook page, though, this isn't the only issue that production has been facing. Its social team said: "Filming has already faced a few hurdles along the way, including a break from production, positive TB [tuberculosis] testing, and relentless rain earlier this year."

Before his diagnosis was made public and season 6 was confirmed, Jeremy said to The Times: “I’d do a sixth if there was a reason for doing it, like a bloody good story… Whatever happens we’ll definitely take a short break as the crews are all worn out.

"We’ve been filming here two or three days a week, every week, for five years. Everybody could do with a rest.”

It's likely that we'll find out further plot details closer to release, but chaos is basically a given.

Will there be more seasons of Clarkson's Farm?

In short, we don't know. There are currently two conflicting rumors flying around social media: that season 6 will be the show's final-ever season, and that season 7 is already being teed up.

At this stage, neither of these rumors has any truth to it. The renewal of season 6 is as far as we've got, with any subsequent updates likely to be made public much closer to release.

• No Dolby Vision on Disney+ in the EU (again)
• UK and US viewers aren't affected
• It's due to patent issues, and other streamers have settled out of court

Back in February we reported that Disney+ had dropped Dolby Vision HDR from its service in parts of Europe; Disney said at the time that was due to "technical challenges" but later conceded that "as a result of a lawsuit at a German patent court, we were forced to make changes to the availability of certain advanced video formats" once the format returned to the platform.

And now it looks like Disney+ has had to drop Dolby Vision again, in 11 countries this time.

The culprit once again appears to be a court case, this time in the Unified Patent Court (UPC). And the claimant is once again InterDigital, who claimed that Disney infringes one of its video patents. Because the UPC has a wider jurisdiction than the German court, it affects Disney+ in more countries.

InterDigital published a press release about the latest verdict earlier this week. The court "ruled that InterDigital is entitled to an injunction over Disney’s infringement of an InterDigital patent covering certain video encoding techniques related to HEVC and confirmed the validity of this patent," InterDigital says.

"The UPC is a pan-European patent court which issues decisions that apply across multiple countries in the European Union (EU); here, the injunction against Disney spans 11 EU countries. Disney can appeal the decision."

The affected countries are all in the EU, so the UK isn't affected, and nor is the US, naturally: if you go to the support page for Disney+ in the UK, it'll happily sing the praises of its Dolby Vision content. That's been removed from the support pages in Europe, however.

Why Disney's not doing Dolby in Europe

The court verdict isn't the only challenge for Disney. InterDigital has sued over other patents covering HDR technology, "the dynamic overlaying of multiple video streams", and compression technologies connected to the HEVC and AVC codecs.

Although the verdict was about Dolby Vision, it also affects 3D movies on Disney+ available on Vision Pro, because those all use Dolby Vision too.

Disney isn't the only company that InterDigital says is infringing its patents, but other firms, such as Amazon, have apparently come to a settlement in order to continue offering Dolby Vision.

Disney isn't blaming technical challenges this time. In a statement to FlatpanelsHD, Disney Nordic said:

"As a result of litigation before a European patent court, we have been required to make changes to the availability of Dolby Vision and 3D in Denmark and several neighboring countries. We are disappointed that we have had to do this, and we share our customers' frustration. Disney+ continues to support the highest-quality formats, including up to 4K UHD and HDR, and we are actively exploring options to address the recent changes to ensure that we deliver the best possible viewing experience tailored to customers' devices and subscription plans."

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Even though Clarkson's Farm season 5 episodes 7 and 8 dropped on Prime Video yesterday (June 17), I still can't get my head around what happened.

In true Jezza style, one thing after another went wrong, from struggling with the harvest to a TB (tuberculosis) outbreak among the cattle.

However, none of this trumped the shock announcement that Jeremy has been diagnosed with cancer, which he revealed to farm staff Kaleb and Charlie in the middle of episode 7.

Revealing that he will be away for a significant portion of the year's harvest, Jeremy describes the cancer as "aggressive" but "very early stages." He hopes to be "in and out" for an operation in July 2025, but has known about his health status since that May.

Nothing further is mentioned until the very last scene of episode 8, when an ambulance arrives at Diddly Squat. We cut to Jeremy in a hospital bed, who explains that his cancer treatment has gone "awry."

"If all goes well, I'll see you for season 6," he signs off with. "If not, I won't. Take care, everyone."

We know that season 6 has been in the process of filming throughout 2026, which I'd like to think means good news for Jeremy's health.

Even so, fans think they've spotted signs that this might not be the case, revealing they "sobbed multiple times" thanks to so many bad things happening at once.

'Absolutely brutal... gut punch after gut punch'

"That was a rough last two episodes," one fan posted on Reddit. "Goodness me, it was just bad news after bad news. Then to end off the episode with Jeremy back in the hospital right after he goes, 'well at least it can’t get any worse.' This was quite the season."

"I sobbed multiple times," another fan weighed in, with a third adding, "Absolutely brutal. Gut punch after gut punch."

It wasn't just the cancer diagnosis that got this reaction from fans, either. As one explained, "Really just a throat punch when they revealed that the pregnant cow they had to kill didn’t even have TB.

"That’s just really terrible, and I genuinely feel awful not just for Jeremy, but all other farmers who have to experience this. I’ve seriously never seen Jeremy so rightly p**sed off and confused."

Another said, "I think this season has been the most depressing and upsetting season, saying goodbye to the pigs, the s**t harvest, cancer, TB and the cows. What a horrible year it was for them all."

When Clarkson's Farm was first commissioned, Jeremy promised to show "warts and all" farming — and season 5 has easily gone above and beyond that. But all things considered, the show's staple sense of humor hasn't completely faded.

As one fan summed up, "I went from crying over both cows to dying laughing about Gerald's phone ringing in the middle of it all. The joy of watching Clarkson's Farm!"

Six months ago, the question "how far away are we from AI movies?" felt reasonable to ask. Today it feels outdated, because they're already here.

Last week I attended a screening of Hell Grind, a 90-minute AI-generated movie that was made in just two weeks. On the same day, Dreams of Violets, a poignant docudrama inspired by real events from 47 years of Iranian civilian resistance, and which is 100% AI-generated, appeared at the Tribeca film festival. Then today I found myself watching something a bit lighter in tone — DEADLINES — on YouTube, a comedy-horror trailer made with AI that was funny enough to make me laugh out loud.

DEADLINES feels like it’s leaning strongly into the vibe of the new Apple TV horror/comedy series Widows Bay, where creepy things happen on a cursed island. But even though it clearly borrows from Apple's hit series, what surprised me was how funny the trailer actually was.

Ultimately, all three releases made me realize we've crossed an important threshold. The question is no longer whether AI can make movies. It can. The question now is whether anyone actually wants to watch them.

The difference between an AI movie and AI slop

For years, AI video demos have been judged on whether they could they fool us. Could they generate convincing actors, realistic camera movements, believable explosions and dramatic lighting? Every improvement felt like another step toward the goal of Hollywood-quality filmmaking.

Getting everything correct is important, because it only takes one obvious problem with an AI-generated scene to destroy the credibility of the whole movie. Now, though, the technical challenges are rapidly becoming the easy part — which makes what's going to come next so much more interesting.

What struck me most about DEADLINES was the quality of the writing. The trailer had actual jokes. It had timing. It had a clear sense of tone. It felt like somebody had a great idea and they wanted to share it.

But even though DEADLINES is a lot better than most AI videos, it’s still not perfect — the accent of the main character veers between several different regions of the UK, for instance. However, it’s good enough to make little things like this not really matter too much. That's the difference between a good movie and AI slop.

Nobody cares about the fingers anymore

While there's no need to count the fingers on people's hands these days, those questions about AI’s ability to realistically generate human beings haven’t gone away entirely; but they’re not the point anymore. When I watched DEADLINES I wasn’t paying attention to the visuals. Instead I was paying attention to the jokes, the pacing and the story, and deciding if I wanted to keep watching.

While DEADLINES knows it's using Windows Bay as its starting point, the trailer understands what it's parodying. It knows the language of prestige horror. It knows how to build a joke. It has an actual comedic premise.

That’s why I think things are about to change. The traditional gatekeepers of filmmaking are looking less secure than ever. The bottleneck isn’t really the production process, funding or access to filmmaking tools. Now, it's imagination and storytelling.

The bigger question now is whether AI filmmakers can create stories people genuinely care about. I don't know whether DEADLINES will ever become a full-length feature- film. What I do know is that it made me laugh, and that's a much more important milestone than generating another realistic explosion or perfectly rendered human face.

AI movies are already here. The race now is to make them worth watching.

If you're a fan of Pokémon, you've probably played your fair share of the many games out there, watched some of the anime, and maybe even checked out one or two of the movies. But if you'll want to do well in the following quiz, you'll need to prove your worth as a fan.

Ever since the original games were released in 1996, Pokémon has been an unstoppable cultural phenomenon — even grandparents would recognize a Pikachu or Pokéball. There are countless video games (who could forget Pokémon Go) as well as thousands of episodes of TV show, loads of movies and other media appearances; songs, manga, trading cards, the list goes on.

So there's a lot for fans of Pokémon to get their head around, and I hope you've made a good effort, because I'm about to test you on the franchise. We'll be asking questions about the various media that's been produced over the years, as well as names and numbers.

If you can't tell your Natu from your Eternatus, don't worry: this won't all be about specific Pokémon, but the entries in the media empire. But if you know what Pikachu looks like, that'll help.

We'll start with 10 easy questions, and then move into 10 medium ones, and finish with 10 difficult ones for the experts. So let's find out just how much you know:

Do you know your Graveler from your Grovyle? If you need to brush up on your Pokémon, let's get you some revision material:

Spoilers for Harlan Coben's I Will Find You ahead.

Harlan Coben's Netflix reign is back in business, baby. Half a year after Run Away dropped on the streamer in January, he's back with a new hit, I Will Find You.

This time around, we follow David Burroughs (Sam Worthington), who is serving a life sentence for the murder of his son, Matthew.

When his ex-sister-in-law, disgraced journalist Rachel (Britt Lower), finds evidence that Matthew might still be alive, the race is on to prove David's innocence and find his son.

The result is a chaotic cat-and-mouse chase between David, Rachel and the FBI that gets more disturbing by the minute.

If you've been watching along with a completely scrambled mind, I'm on hand to help. Let's debunk everything that happened in the final episode of I Will Find You, including its unexpected ending.

Who kidnapped Matthew?

Hayden Payne (Milo Ventimiglia) is behind the kidnapping. Why? In a nutshell, he believed that Matthew was his biological son.

At the same time David and Cheryl (Erin Richards) were together, Hayden and Rachel were also in a relationship. Before becoming pregnant with Matthew, Cheryl went behind David's back to explore getting pregnant using donor sperm, using a fertility center called BERG.

Not wanting David to find out, Cheryl signed up using Rachel's name. The catch? BERG is owned by the Payne family. With Rachel's name on the client list, Hayden was using his own sperm to secretly try to get her pregnant.

Cheryl gets pregnant with Matthew, and Hayden finds out that Rachel is really Cheryl on the BERG books around the same time, so he incorrectly puts two and two together. When Hayden later sees Matthew at a family Fourth of July party, he's immediately convinced that Matthew is his son.

Hayden kills a child at a Swiss orphanage that the Payne family also knows and plants his body at David and Cheryl's house, kidnapping Matthew at the same time. Payne family lawyers and doctors covered things up, planting enough evidence — including fake blood samples from Matthew — so that David would be framed for Matthew's murder.

Are David and Matthew reunited?

Yes, but with some difficulty. While David has been in prison for the last five years, Matthew has been raised by the Paynes as Theo, and has completely forgotten who his real family is.

After breaking into the BERG clinic, David, Rachel and Cheryl find out that Hayden is responsible for the kidnapping. However, FBI agent Sarah (Logan Browning) is hot on their heels, but can't officially be seen to be investigating David's case, which she has already been removed from.

In order to capture Hayden, the quartet hatches a plan. Earlier on in the series, Hayden asked Rachel to run away with him, and Rachel thinks that if David is reported as being re-arrested, Rachel could convince him to wait for her before he flees with Matthew and Gertrude (Madeleine Stowe).

Pulling a few strings with her contacts at the Globe newspaper, word about David's "arrest" gets out. Meanwhile, Rachel calls Hayden in tears, asking to be taken along on their getaway. Hayden agrees, with Rachel heading to the Payne mansion.

Meanwhile, David and Sarah reluctantly team up to try and bring Hayden in. Sarah can't call for official backup, so David is her only hope (who is wearing handcuffs in case the two are caught).

Gertrude is furious that Hayden has given in to Rachel's request, and immediately guesses that she's trying to get Hayden arrested from the inside. A news report of David's capture plays on a local news channel, with Hayden convinced he's now in the clear.

As Rachel texts Sarah her whereabouts, Gertrude's lackey uncovers that the FBI has no idea where David is, meaning the arrest story is false. Rachel is uncovered as the Globe's anonymous source, but she immediately turns the tables back on them.

Rachel asks Hayden if he ever saw the paternity test confirming that he is Matthew's father, discovering that Hayden has just taken Gertrude's word for it. Gertrude admits that she made the results up, meaning that Matthew is biologically David's child.

Cheryl has told Max (Chi McBride) that she had the blood from the crime scene independently tested, confirming that it wasn't Matthew's body uncovered at the crime scene. This confirms David's innocence, meaning that the FBI can pursue Hayden with legitimate evidence.

Who dies in the season finale?

Gertrude is our first victim. After discovering that Matthew isn't really his son, Hayden shoots her in a blind rage.

This results in Sarah and David, who are on the property, catching up with Hayden, who holds Rachel at gunpoint as a hostage. A shootout ensues, with Hayden pushing Rachel to the ground and escaping with Matthew in a car.

They don't get very far, though, as Sarah successfully shoots out their back tire. Matthew makes a break for it on foot into the woods, with Hayden trying to follow. Matthew's chat with David has confused what he knows to be true, planting seeds of doubt about Hayden.

When the group tracks each other down, Hayden shoots David in the leg when he approaches Matthew. Just as Hayden is about to shoot Rachel dead, Sarah gets there first, making Hayden the second victim to die.

Is Hayden jailed?

As you can probably guess from what I've just written, no... but the good news is that David isn't sent back to prison either. A few weeks after finding Matthew, we learn that David's sentence has been overturned, making him a legitimate free man once again.

As the Payne family, ahem, no longer exists, there is no outright public justice in that sense. However, the first scene after Hayden's death confirms that Rachel writes a Globe magazine spread and a book about David's journey.

How does I Will Find You end?

I Will Find You ends with Lenny's death, with Cheryl, David, Rachel and Matthew all in attendance.

We learn that Cheryl has given birth to her baby girl, and has reconciled with her husband after Matthew was found alive. Adam (Jonathan Tucker), who was suspended from the police force for his part in David's escape from prison, is now working as a PI with another former colleague.

Matthew struggles to remember a life before being Theo, and is frustrated with the fact he cannot remember the events of the Fourth of July picnic, with Lenny talked about before his death. "The good thing about memories is that you get to make more of them," David reminds him.

It's implied that David and Rachel begin a romantic relationship, but this isn't explicitly confirmed.

Is there a link to other Harlan Coben books?

As you might have gathered from reading through the above, there have been subtle changes to the Netflix adaptation from Coben's original novel. However, in keeping with the growing Coben-verse, there could be a direct link to come.

Gertrude is the cousin of Windsor Horne Lockwood III, who appears in the Myron Bolitar Series as well as the 2021 book Win. If any of these are adapted for the streamer, could we see Stowe return?

I'm turning into something of a Harlan Coben fangirl. Much like a stalker in one of his compelling crime stories, wherever I go is somewhere he already seems to be.

Looking at his TV track record since 2020 alone, this is hardly a surprise. Coben has had 10 of his stories adapted for Netflix in this time alone, with a further two — including one completely original script — on Prime Video. He's truly the King of Crime both on page and screen, and frankly, I bow to his majesty.

I Will Find You is our tenth Netflix adaptation in this list, and the moment I saw it would be joining the streamer this month, I was locked in with a laser focus. However, now that I've streamed all eight episodes, the lasting effect is more lukewarm than boiling hot.

Perhaps I'm spoiled for choice. I'm used to crime dramas that truly melt the mind, and both Lazarus and Run Away (two Coben shows that have been released in the last year) have done exactly that. I've been left with my head spinning, my eyes rolling and my jaw on the floor, even when they weren't absolutely perfect.

This time around, I've metaphorically shrugged my shoulders. I Will Find You is largely solid, and everything there is to critique isn't exactly world-destroying. But when we've been solving crime at such lofty heights, the comedown effect feels ridiculously devastating.

Harlan Coben's I Will Find You is the plain bread equivalent of Netflix crime drama

So, what's the story? Without giving too much away, we follow David Burroughs (Sam Worthington), who is serving a life sentence for the murder of his son, Matthew. When his ex-sister-in-law, disgraced journalist Rachel (Britt Lower), finds evidence that Matthew might still be alive, the race is on to prove David's innocence and find his son.

Whipped into a tight paragraph, that all sounds incredibly exciting... and for the most part, I Will Find You hits the brief. Worthington plays it Kiefer Sutherland-in-24-style as David, hotfooting it out of prison like his life depends on it (and it does).

There's a beautiful cat-and-mouse chase between David and the FBI from episode 2 onwards, both trying to outfox the other by almost nailing what the other is thinking — except one key detail is always catastrophically wrong. This type of rollercoaster storytelling is where the series is at its strongest, and that's all thanks to Mr. Coben himself.

Obviously, this is why we're tuning in. We've watched and read enough to know that Coben is a master of his craft, turning even the most mundane of moments into something truly thrilling. The problem, however, is just how much mundanity he's working with... even though that's basically his own fault.

Unless bodies are being hacked into pieces, a curveball the size of the Empire State Building is dropped into the storyline, or our characters betray each other on an epic scale, we've all consumed so many crime dramas that most of the nuts and bolts would be considered boring.

With such a linear storyline, I Will Find You wholeheartedly falls into this trap. We can guess what will happen to David, Matthew, and, frankly, who did it, which isn't as impressive as Coben's biggest mind-melters.

I Will Find You is the first American Harlan Coben adaptation on Netflix — and I hate that

I Will Find You hasn't helped its predictability problem by making a Columbo-shaped error with its casting announcement. Back in the days of 1980s crime-solving shows like it and Murder, She Wrote, the guest with the most star power would always be booked as the killer.

Fans eventually caught on, and it became so obvious that shows had to completely change their casting strategy. I'm not going to tell you which cast member this is aimed at, but one of I Will Find You's biggest-billed and most-promoted stars is also suspiciously absent from most of the drama. I wonder why that could be?

Then there's the final kicker, which will be an absolute gut-punch to anybody watching across the pond in the UK who has also co-opted Coben as an honorary Brit. I Will Find You marks the first adaptation for Netflix that is based in the US rather than the UK, with accents to match. This has happened once before in Prime Video's Shelter, but Netflix has been committed to using stalwart British actors since Cobenmania caught on.

After spending the first 10 minutes in disbelief, shouting "Wait, this is American?!" at my TV, I realized that I Will Find You had lots of bits of its grittiness and bite by being set on the East Coast. Apologies if this offends our American friends — I've just seen too many iterations of Law & Order, 9-1-1 and Blue Bloods for me to think that fictional crime in the Big Apple is anything other than cheesy.

Maybe I'm just being pedantic, but that's what happens when a streaming service gives you a never-ending wealth of content to gorge on. I Will Find You isn't the Harlan Coben I will return to or even remember after this week, but it did the job it needed to while I was watching.

• Researcher “BobDaHacker” found FIFA API flaw letting anyone hijack live TV streams and commentator feeds
• Bug stemmed from lack of authorization checks; FIFA patched quickly but did not credit the finder
• Experts warn it highlights CWE‑602 and the danger of confusing authentication with authorization

A bug in an internal FIFA system allowed anyone to modify what gets streamed to TV broadcasters, and what goes to TV commentators narrating the FIFA 2026 World Cup matches. Luckily for everyone, the bug was discovered by a white hat hacker and remedied before any malicious actors could leverage it.

Asecurity researcher with the alias BobDaHacker recently reported being able to take full control over the TV stream. They did it by registering as a player agent of FIFA’s official agent registration platform and then abusing a vulnerability in FIFA’s back-end API to access multiple internal platforms.

The vulnerability was that the API did not check the accounts for proper authorization - and as a result, they could control what people would see on their TVs during the matches, as well as what the commentators would see on their monitors.

Authentication is not authorization

“A single attacker could hijack every camera simultaneously. An attacker could have rickrolled the entire FIFA World Cup,” BobDaHacker said. We could have witnessed a “Dark Knight Rises” moment, too.

For Brett Winterford, Vice President at Okta Threat Intelligence, FIFA dodged a major bullet today: “The average global live audience of a FIFA WorldCup match is 175 million viewers. Imagine a person with the worst motivations discovers a bug that enables them to modify that livestream.”

“That bug happened. Thankfully a security researcher found it first.” Not everyone seems to be that thankful, though. According to TechCrunch, FIFA issued a fix mere hours after BobDaHacker reported it, but did not acknowledge them for their work.

Winterford believes the bug is yet another example of CWE-602: Client-Side Enforcement of Server-Side Security.

“It’s also another good reminder for developers: don’t treat authentication as authorization. Authentication deals with verifying a user is who they say they are, authorization deals with what the user is allowed to access.”

• Rivals has been renewed for season 3 by Hulu and Disney+
• 12 new episodes are confirmed some time after the second half of season 2 airs in November 2026
• Will be the first series without author Dame Jilly Cooper's involvement following her death in 2025

We'll pretend to be surprised, but it's official that Rivals season 3 is happening following renewal confirmation from Hulu and Disney+.

While no release date or window has been confirmed, we know that 12 new episodes have been commissioned to air at some point after the second half of season 2 drops in November 2026.

Lee Mason, Vice-President, Scripted, Disney+ EMEA, said in a statement: “The phenomenal response to Rivals is a credit to the bold, irreverent and endlessly entertaining world created by Dame Jilly Cooper, our cast, creative team and production partners at Happy Prince.

"We’re delighted to be bringing audiences a third season on Disney+ and Hulu. Expect more ambition, more romance, more rivalries and, of course, more scandal as we return to Rutshire for another irresistible chapter.”

No further details have been announced, but we can expect the core cast to return (unless season 2 plans to kill anyone else off).

However, there's something we haven't considered — even though Mason has directly mentioned it in the above remark.

Opinion: Rivals season 3 will be the first without Jilly Cooper's input — and that's worrying

It's possibly stating the obvious, but Rivals season 3 will mark the first installment of the hit TV show after the passing of its creator, Dame Jilly Cooper. Prior to her death in November 2025, the author had signed off on all 12 episode scripts in season 2, and continued to give notes until just a few days beforehand.

"Jilly signed off every script of the 12 and was on set for quite a lot of production as well," executive producer Alexander Lamb told TechRadar prior to season 2's launch. "So it feels that this series totally has Jilly's seal of approval. She's an exec producer, which she's credited for, and was giving me notes on the Thursday before she died on episode 12.

"Her fingerprints are all over this series, and we'd also sat with her and talked about season 3 and the future, about how to mould the other books around Rivals. We've got her blessing on things. We've got her notes written down. She's always with us."

Even so, it could be argued that Rivals as a TV series has already strayed too far away from Cooper's core concept, with the death of Monica Baddingham (Claire Rushbrook) in season 2 episode 6 dividing fan opinion.

Until we know what season 2 part 2 will hold, there's no telling exactly what Rivals season 3 will adapt.

However, it's likely that any new episodes will include even more references to Cooper's wider work, with characters from Polo and The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous already being featured.

• New movie Heartstopper Forever is the final installment in the Netflix series
• The trailer has now arrived, and confirms the film will air on July 17
• Netflix has made it easier for people to make fan edits thanks to a new feature

It's never easy saying goodbye to our favorite Netflix shows. But all good things must come to end — and Heartstopper Forever concludes the beloved coming-of-age series on July 17.

Heartstopper Forever is a feature film that takes up the story after Heartstopper season 3, giving fans a proper conclusion to Charlie (Joe Locke) and Nick's (Kit Connor) love story. Beyond this, the movie will bid farewell to supporting fan favorites such as Tao (William Gao) and Elle (Yasmin Finney) too.

Take a look at the new trailer below, which features a new song from Olivia Rodrigo.

Netflix is making fan edits even easier

Fan edits are a huge part of how we watch movies and TV now, with plenty of fans flocking to platforms like TikTok and Instagram to make them. A lot of work goes into these, and Netflix has made it even easier.

Via Tudum, the best streaming service shared a download link where fans can get the video files from the trailer so they can "cut, zoom, and play around with the clip to [their] heart’s content". No more low-quality video files for you, Netflix has done the hard work already.

This isn't the first time Netflix has catered to social media. In 2024 it introduced Netflix Moments, which lets you clip scenes from its library so they're easier for you to access.

Expect to see plenty of Heartstopper fan edits in the build-up to the new movie, which hits the streaming service in a month's time. I'm already emotional.

Any episode of Rick and Morty that involves the entire Smith family travelling through space and annoying Rick are some of the best, in my humble opinion — and this week, Rick and Morty season 9 has us covered.

According to Adult Swim, Rick, Space Beth, and normal Beth are set to team up to cure Jerry of a bizarre parasitic worm infection. We're also set to be introduced to new entity Sweet Marie, described as a "mob boss" launching the attack on the Smiths for an undisclosed reason.

If (or perhaps, when) Beth and Space Beth start arguing, this episode could be perfect in my eyes. But when does Rick and Morty season 9 episode 5 arrive on Adult Swim, Hulu, and HBO Max?

What time can I watch Rick and Morty season 9 episode 5 on Adult Swim, Hulu, and HBO Max?

In the US, Rick and Morty season 9 episode 5 will debut on Adult Swim on Sunday, June 21 at 8pm PT / 11pm ET.

Viewers elsewhere, as well as in the US, have two streaming options: Hulu and HBO Max. Episodes should appear on these platforms 24 hours after they've aired on Adult Swim, meaning you can expect episode 4 on Monday, June 22.

These are the timings you need to take note of:

• US – 12am PT / 3am ET
• Canada – 12am PT / 3am ET
• UK – 8am BST
• India – 12:30pm IST
• Singapore – 3pm SGT
• Australia – 6pm AEST
• New Zealand – 8pm NZDT

When do new episodes of Rick and Morty season 9 come out?

Rick and Morty season 9 is set to have 10 episodes. As long as there are no unexpected delays, we can expect it to have the following release schedule:

• Episode 1: out now
• Episode 2: out now
• Episode 3: out now
• Episode 4: out now
• Episode 5: June 21
• Episode 6: June 28
• Episode 7: July 5
• Episode 8: July 12
• Episode 9: July 19
• Episode 10: July 26

At long last, the official trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day has been released — and you can watch it right now via the YouTube embed below.

There's a lot to unpack from Spider-Man's next big-screen adventure, too — so much so that TechRadar's entertainment team will need time to view it numerous times to analyze every single frame of footage that the new Marvel movie's latest teaser contains.

So, stick with us today (June 17) and tomorrow (June 18) as we dissect Spider-Man 4's newest round of footage, and bring you more details about the highly anticipated Marvel Phase 6 film over the next 12 to 24 hours.

A brand new day for a brand new trailer

Hello! And welcome to our live blog for the launch of Spider-Man: Brand New Day's official trailer.

I'm Tom Power, TechRadar's senior entertainment reporter and your friendly neighborhood host for today's event. I'll be here throughout the day to bring you all of the pre-release information we have on the exciting Marvel film's next teaser before breaking down the most important parts of the trailer post-launch.

So, load up the Spidey Tracker website — more on that in just a second — and stick with me as we prepare for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movie's latest footage to arrive.

Where is Spider-Man?

Don't worry, despite what this post's title suggests, the iconic wallcrawler hasn't gone missing. Nonetheless, you'll be able to keep track of where and when he'll appear in a city near you on the Spider-Man 4 world tour.

Indeed, once trailer #2 has been released, you'll be able to visit spideytracker.net to find out what date(s) the Brand New Day press and fan tour will come to your neck of the woods. In fact, a post on the Spidey Tracker X/Twitter account has confirmed some of the places that Tom Holland, Zendaya, and company will visit as part of their globetrotting promo campaign, so we already have an idea of where they'll show up.

Anyway, if you head over to the Spidey Tracker website now, you can watch a brief video from the site's CEO and founder — a certain Ned Leeds — to learn more about the tour and get an insight into what other information will be available once the page is fully live. Hmm, I wonder who that secret villain is...

What time will Spider-Man: Brand New Day's official trailer come out?

There's no official word on what time Spider-Man 4's new trailer will be released — but, thanks to a fan event taking place later today, we have an idea of when it might drop.

Indeed, a listing on the Pathé Netherlands Cinemas website has revealed that a Spider-Man: Brand New Day Global Fan Event is set to take place in its capital city Amsterdam later today. Doors open at 6pm local time, which mean it'll kick off at 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm BST on June 17, and 2am AEST on June 18.

Admittedly, that doesn't tell us the exact time for the trailer's arrival — and, even though the listing indicates there'll be a surprise finale at 10:15pm local time, I'd be amazed if the new teaser's release is held back until then. After all, 1:15pm PT would be a strange time for a trailer launch...

But wait, there's more. Per the film's holding page on the website of UK cinema chain Odeon, tickets officially go on sale at 2pm BST, which means they'll also be available to buy at 6am PT / 9am ET / 11pm AEST.

My best guess, then, is that the trailer will launch at the same time that ticket sales go live. To sum up, then, make sure you're locked in to watch it on Wednesday, June 17 at 6am PT / 9am ET / 2pm BST / 11pm AEST.

Plug the leaks!

While it's widely expected that the movie's new teaser will drop today, some fans have already seen it.

"How?", you might ask. Well, because Brand New Day's latest round of footage has reportedly done the rounds on social media over the last few days. Hey, Sony and Spider-Man leaks go hand in hand, so this isn't that much of a surprise!

Now, I haven't seen it — I don't want to watch a teaser that looks like it's been recorded on a toaster... — and I won't be sharing any links to the leaked trailer because I'd rather not incur the wrath of Sony and Marvel. And, honestly, with the trailer likely landing in the next few hours, I think we can all agree to just wait a bit longer to see it in all of its HD or 4K glory.

New plot teases

Alright, while we continue to count down to the trailer's expected launch, let's take a look at some of the latest comments made by director Destin Daniel Cretton and lead star Tom Holland.

As part of a recent profile piece for Esquire, the latter dropped this new tease about Brand New Day's plot: "This movie is a real mystery and for a large portion of the film, even Spider-Man is a little bit at odds and lost and is like ‘What is going on?’. We’re just trying to find ways to make this movie feel like a detective movie."

Meanwhile, on the latest edition of Deadline's Crew Call podcast, Cretton joked that "everyone should go to this (movie) as if it’s the last Spider-Man". We know that won't be the case — the character makes too much money for live-action rights holder Sony. Nevertheless, does this seemingly innocuous comment indicate that Parker might give up the Spider-Man mantle by the end of the film? Or — and whisper it quietly — maybe even die? I guess we'll find out when the film is released in late July!

Trailer time (no, not the new one)!

Sorry if I got your hopes up there with this post's title! Hopefully the bit in brackets will have done their job...

Anyway, while we wait for Spider-Man 4's next trailer to arrive, why don't you rewatch its first teaser, which arrived in mid-March? Once you have, read my Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer breakdown piece to get my thoughts and opinions on what was shown.

Who's who in Spider-Man: Brand New Day?

As for who's set to join Holland as part of this superhero movie's starry ensemble, I'd suggest reading my Spider-Man: Brand new Day cast and character guide.

You won't get confirmation of every character who'll appear in the forthcoming flick — for one, the identity of Sadie Sink's individual remains a mystery — but there are plenty more details about the reset of its cast roster. So, hop to it!

Swinging out for lunch

And now it's time for a quick pitstop to refuel ahead of the trailer's possible release this afternoon in the UK, which is where I'm based. So, I'm hoping — nay, praying — that the trailer doesn't arrive while I'm out!

In the meantime let me know in the comments what you want to see as part of the new teaser. See you all shortly!

And I'm back!

Okay, I'm ready to attack the rest of the day now — and, more importantly, we shouldn't be too far away from the trailer's release.

While we wait, why not get the full lowdown on everything we know so far about Spider-Man: Brand New Day? I'll be updating that guide soon with all of the latest information on the film, but there are lots of interesting details within that are definitely worth reading in the meantime.

Another release date reminder

Even though we're not far away from the film's arrival in theaters, it would be remiss of me not to remind you of Spider-Man: Brand New Day's release date.

Originally, Spider-Man 4 was due to launch worldwide on Friday, July 31 but, depending on where you live, some of you will actually be able to see it early.

Indeed, UK audiences can catch Spidey's latest big-screen adventure at their local cinema on Wednesday, July 29. Those of you in India can check it out on Thursday, July 30, too.

Elsewhere, while most US fans won't be able to watch it until July 31, Amazon is giving Prime subscribers the chance to see Spider-Man 4 via early access screenings on July 29. For more details on how to grab your ticket, head over to the Amazon store's official Brand New Day page.

Not long now...

Hopefully, it won't be much longer until we get a brand-new look at one of the most exciting new movies of 2026. Deep breaths, everyone...

So, what will the latest trailer show us? Will we finally learn the identity of Sadie Sink's mysterious character? How about an actual shot of Marvin Jones III's Tombstone? Is there going to be a clip or two that, as the rumors suggest, Spidey will be forced to fight The Hulk? And will the movie's real villain please stand up!?

No trailer yet, but...

Well, this is awkward. It's gone 2pm here in the UK (that's 6am PT / 9am ET / 11pm AEST) and Spider-Man 4's latest trailer is yet to show its face. Hmmph.

But, hey, as some of the film's primary cast — Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Jacab Batalon — have revealed in the above Instagram post, tickets are on sale now, so go and grab your seat ASAP!

As for when the teaser could now come out: I honestly don't know. Even so, stick with me and I'll bring it to you as soon as it drops online.

I'm your villain

Rather than sit here twiddling our thumbs, let's pass the time by digging into a recent new fan theory that, after the release of yesterday's Spidey Tracker website teaser video, appears to have some legs.

Per the above screenshot, Brand New Day might feature a villain whose identity hasn't been revealed yet. We know they'll be some form of Big Bad, too, because the other characters we see as part of this list (Scorpion, Tarantula, Boomerang, and The Hand to name four) are said to have terrorized New York in recent years. And, yes, that includes Frank Castle/The Punisher, who's actually more of an anti-hero than a traditional villain.

But, I digress. Who is this mystery individual? It could be Sink's character but, while I think she'll initially be positioned as an antagonist, Brand New Day will perform a bait and switch move that reveals Sink's individual isn't who's pulling everyone else's strings.

Spidey has more than his fair share of enemies in the comics but, unless we get a more substantial description of this character, we'll be clutching at straws as to who it could be. Even so, let me know in the comments who you think it'll be.

And still the wait goes on...

Another hour has passed without incident. Anybody else starting to get a bit worried that we might not see a trailer today? No, stop with the defeatist talk, Tom — a new teaser is coming! It has to.

For what it's worth, industry leakers who have good track records when it comes to insider knowledge trailer launches, such as DanielRPK and Cryptic4KQual, are just as confused as the rest of us are that it hasn't dropped yet. Fingers crossed it does so soon, then...

Posters galore — but no IMAX one?

Official Posters for ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ from r/marvelstudios

Well, the trailer might not be here yet, but at least we've got four new official posters to look at. Yay.

After flicking through the above gallery, you might have noticed that there isn't an IMAX one. That's because Spider-Man: Brand New Day won't be available to watch in this format.

The reason? Christopher Nolan's next movie The Odyssey — another film that Tom Holland will appear in this year — has snapped up every available IMAX screen for at least a three-week window. It's out on July 17, too, meaning it'll only have been in theaters for two weeks by the time Spider-Man 4 arrives. If you were hoping to see Peter Parker's next MCU outing in IMAX, then, you'll be sorely disappointed.

Fandango's Big Ticket interview

Other promotional materials have hit the *ahem* web since ticket sales went live, too — one of which is the latest installment of Fandango's Big Ticket interview series.

The 16-minute chat, which you can watch above, sees the ticket e-site sit down and talk about spoiler-free things alongside Holland, Zendaya, Batalon, and Sink. If you can't watch it right now, though, here's a quick rundown of its most notable highlights:

• After reading and listening to what fans wanted from a Spider-Man film, Holland says Brand New Day doesn't "necessarily feel like saving the world, but maybe saving himself"
• Sink says "I didn't realize there'd be so much speculation" about her mystery character, but understandably can't confirm who she's playing
• Holland says Hulk's actual role in the film is "definitely a secret", and that Spidey and The Punisher have a "bickering, big brother-little brother" dynamic
• Holland also jokes that it was a "nightmare" to recreate some of the most iconic Spider-Man comic book covers in this live-action flick, and admits it took 65 takes to "perfect" the shot of Spider-Man and The Hand launching themselves at each other

Get me footage of Spider-Man!

Another hour, another trailer no-show.

Is Sony Pictures going to put us out of our misery at some point today? I'm still confident that the studio will, but it's looking more and more likely that the teaser will officially debut at that Amsterdam fan event I mentioned hours ago.

Of course, if it arrives between now and then, you can be darn sure that it'll appear on this live blog. For now, though, our watch continues...

Which MCU project are you most looking forward to in 2026?

As we continue to pass the time, I need to ask: have you voted in our 'most anticipated Marvel movie or TV show of 2026' poll yet?

If you haven't, might I divert your attention to the top of the page — no worries if you skipped over it — to have your say on which MCU production is top of your must-see list before the year ends. At the time of writing, over 1,300 people have cast their vote, so why don't you join them?

It's quiet, too quiet...

We've officially reached the three hour mark of when I expected Spider-Man 4's official trailer to be released — and, surprise surprise, there's still nothing to report.

The longer this goes on, the more likely it is that the film's forthcoming Amsterdam fan event will be where the latest teaser is first unveiled. By my estimate, that means we could be waiting until 1:15pm PT / 4:15pm ET / 9:15pm BST. In short: we could be in for a looooooooong wait...

No rest for the wicked

Well, I was hoping to call it a day and enjoy the World Cup matches that are on tonight, but I guess I'm here for the long haul.

Right now, though, I'm going to get some food, so I don't pass out waiting for this trailer to land. See you shortly!

Did I miss anything?

I'm back — again — and it looks like I didn't miss a thing re: a trailer drop.

Still, as the above Instagram post confirms, Tom Holland and Zendaya have arrived for today's Amsterdam-based global fan event. I'm keeping everything crossed, then, that the teaser will finally be released at some point in the next few hours. So, stay with me to see it as soon as it airs.

About this Amsterdam fan event...

Okay, let's take another look at what we know about this fan event.

Attendees were allowed to start taking their seats from 6pm local time, which translates to 5pm here in the UK. In the US, that's 9am PT and 12pm ET.

Next, nobody is allowed to enter the venue after 7:15pm local time. If I know anything about similar events that have happened on British shores, the event should then begin at 7:30pm or 8pm.

If it starts at one of those times, we might — and I cannot stress enough that it's 'might' — see the trailer sooner rather than later. That's if Sony doesn't want to leave attendees (and, by proxy, us) hanging around for much longer, anyway.

Of course, there is a so-called surprise finale that'll take place at 10:15pm, which could be the official unveiling of Brand New Day's official trailer, before the Amsterdam-based event ends at 11pm local time. Let's hope, then, that this final surprise is a completely different reveal to the actual teaser.

We have movement!

Battle stations, everyone! The official Spider-Man Instagram account has just started broadcasting live from the Amsterdam fan event.

Does this mean the trailer's release is imminent? Stay with me for more!

Edit: As of 19:53 BST, the fan event's host just confirmed the new teaser is set to be shown very, very, very soon!

IT'S LIVE!

This is not a drill! The trailer is here! Go and watch it, now!

That's a wrap... for now

My race is run, dear reader. I've been helming this live blog for almost 12 hours — minus a couple of food breaks — so it's time for me to retire for the day.

But, fret not, because I'll be back tomorrow (June 18) to dissect every frame of the trailer, offer my theories on what they tell us about Spider-Man: Brand New Day, highlight any major theories that fans have come up with post-release, and bring you more information what the Amsterdam event's big surprise finale is. For now, though, it's goodbye from me!

Hello again!

Good morning/afternoon/evening (delete as applicable), everyone — and welcome back to our Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer #2 live blog.

We had to be incredibly patient for said teaser's unveiling, but the wait was certainly worth it. Indeed, the Marvel film's latest round of footage teased a fair deal more about its plot without spoiling anything significant, which is always a tricky tightrope to walk.

But, enough waffling. After a restful night's sleep, I'm going to the next few hours breaking down Spider-Man 4's latest trailer, offering my thoughts on where its story could go, and highlighting any big new fan theories I come across online. Grab a drink and some snacks, then, and join me for more Spider-Man chatter then, won't you?

Who is Sadie Sink playing in Spider-Man: Brand New Day?

Okay, let's start with the two biggest questions that fans have after this trailer's release, one of which we've been asking since Sink's casting in Spider-Man 4 was first reported last March. That being, who is Sink playing in Brand New Day?

Unfortunately, the movie's latest teaser doesn't provide further clues as to the identity of her character. In fact, we only catch another vague glimpse of what appears to be Sink's mysterious individual at the 0:56 mark. Per the screenshot above, which is a continuation of a scene shown in both trailers (see the image below for confirmation), she'll sneak into Peter Parker's apartment at some point in the film, too.

"Great, but who is she playing???", I hear you ask again. The prevailing rumor is that Sink will portray iconic X-Men member Jean Grey. Unsurprisingly, Sony and Marvel are staying tight-lipped on this to generate fan discussion and withhold the big reveal until Spider-Man 4 is released. We'll have to wait for the film to launch, then, to get an official confirmation.

Based on other frames in the trailer that show large groups of people getting paralyzed by an unseen force, it's more likely than not that Sink is playing Grey. After all, the Omega-level mutant's telepathic powers do allow her to physically and/or mentally freeze anyone in place. Furthermore, if Sink's Grey's latent powers have only just started to manifest, she might not have full control over them and be accidentally paralyzing people.

Of course, this could be a major misdirect on Sony and Marvel's part, because it might not be Jean Grey who's doing this. If not her, then who?

Who is the main villain in Spider-Man: Brand New Day?

This is the second major question I was referring to in my previous post.

It's no secret that Brand New Day will have its fair share of villains. Scorpion, Tarantula, Boomerang, and The Hand are all confirmed to appear. Meanwhile, despite not showing up in either trailer, Marvin Jones III is still expected to portray Tombstone in Spider-Man 4. Oh, and let's not forget that the return of Bruce Banner's feral Hulk form (more on him later) will be something of an antagonistic force that, as evidenced in this trailer, the webslinger will duel with at some stage.

Worthy foes of Spidey as these individuals and/or criminal gangs are, though, none have the capacity to freeze people in place. If Sink is playing Grey, then, does this mean she'll be a misunderstood antagonist, rather than a traditional villain, in this flick?

My theory is this is the initial direction that the story will go before it employs a bait-and-switch move that'll reveal its actual Big Bad. Will that be a villainous telepath who's framing Sink for their crimes? Or will Brand New Day walk a different path and reveal that Spider-Man's dark side (again, more on this later) was the thematic villain all along?

Again, I guess we'll have to wait for the movie's full release to find out, but I wouldn't be shocked if Spider-Man 4 positions Sink's character as its initial antagonist before it turns inward and puts Peter's rumored evolution into a version of Man-Spider front and center.

Organic panic

Okay, let's go back to events that we're shown earlier in the teaser, starting with the official confirmation that Peter's metamorphosis into... well, whatever he's becoming, means that, like Tobey Maguire's version of the titular hero, his body will start producing organic webbing.

Fans have theorized that Holland's Parker would self-make webs in Brand New Day ever since its first trailer was released in mid-March. We've had to wait until now, though, to have that confirmed.

It looks like, after initially struggling to control how his body produces organic webs, Spidey will learn to utilize it in creative ways. Indeed, the penultimate shot of this trailer shows him making a web tornado that strings up numerous members of The Hand during the prison fight sequence we've seen previously.

• Clarkson's Farm season 5 episodes 7 and 8 reveal that Jeremy Clarkson has been diagnosed with cancer
• Final scene shows treatment going 'awry' with Jeremy rushed to hospital
• Season 6 started filming earlier in 2026

Clarkson's Farm season 5 episodes 7 and 8 are now streaming on Prime Video — but they come with the shocking conclusion that Jeremy Clarkson has been diagnosed with cancer.

The diagnosis is revealed halfway through episode 7, when Jeremy tells Kaleb and Charlie that he will be away for a significant portion of the year's harvest.

He describes the cancer as "aggressive" but "very early stages," hoping to be "in and out" for an operation in July 2025 but having known about his health status since that May.

This ties in with the comments Jeremy made about the crew being "worn out" and needing a "filming break" that he made during the same month.

Nothing further is mentioned until the very last scene of episode 8, when an ambulance arrives at Diddly Squat. We cut to Jeremy in a hospital bed, who explains that his cancer treatment has gone "awry."

"If all goes well, I'll see you for season 6," he signs off with. "If not, I won't. Take care, everyone."

The scenes make for distressing viewing, with even Jeremy himself weighing in on Instagram that the final season 5 episodes are a "difficult watch."

Despite this, there's a very good reason why fans should be hopeful.

Clarkson's Farm season 6 being in production should be a positive sign for Jeremy's health

Clarkson's Farm season 6 has been widely reported to be in production during the first half of 2026 — so if we combine this with Jeremy's season 5 sign-off above, we can assume that all is well (enough) when it comes to his health.

However, that doesn't mean that the new series has been without its troubles. In a post on the show's official Facebook page, its social team said: "Filming has already faced a few hurdles along the way, including a break from production, positive TB [tuberculosis] testing, and relentless rain earlier this year."

While we can assume that the production break was related to Jeremy's treatment, this hasn't been confirmed.

In May 2025, which would have been around the same time Jeremy found out about his diagnosis, he told The Times: “I’d do a sixth if there was a reason for doing it, like a bloody good story… Whatever happens we’ll definitely take a short break as the crews are all worn out.

"We’ve been filming here two or three days a week, every week, for five years. Everybody could do with a rest.”

The season 6 release window has been pushed until summer 2027, meaning that new episodes could be seen as late as August. Amazon has yet to make an official statement about the renewal.

Sugar season 2 is arriving on Apple TV soon, and I am very ready for more neo-noir goodness — and thankfully, we don't have to wait long.

This moreish detective series is considered one of the best Apple TV shows thanks to its performances, stunning vintage set design, and gripping plot.

When we pick up with John Sugar (Colin Farrell) in season 2, he's staying in LA to tackle a new missing persons case, while continuing his secret search for his missing sister.

With plenty of intrigue ahead, here's everything you need to know about Sugar season 2's release schedule.

What time can I watch Sugar season 2 on Apple TV?

In the US we're expecting the first episode of Sugar season 2 to be available on Apple TV on June 19 at 12am PT / 3am ET. Episodes will then drop weekly until the finale on August 7.

Internationally, look out for the below times:

• US – 12am PT / 3am ET
• Canada – 12am PT / 3am ET
• UK – 8am BST
• India – 12:30pm IST
• Singapore – 3pm SGT
• Australia – 6pm AEST
• New Zealand – 8pm NZDT

When do new episodes of Sugar season 2 come out on Apple TV?

Episode 1: June 19

Episode 2: June 26

Episode 3: July 3

Episode 4: July 10

Episode 5: July 17

Episode 6: July 24

Episode 7: July 31

Episode 8: August 7

Light spoilers follow for Toy Story 5.

Toy Story is the franchise that Disney refuses to let go of. That's no surprise, given that the immensely popular movie series has raked in billions of dollars globally since late 1995. However, Toy Story 3 delivered a perfect end to Woody and company's individual and collective stories, so the entertainment giant's commitment to churning out money-spinning but superfluous sequels, such as Toy Story 4, suggests the proverbial cow is being milked for all it's worth.

Toy Story 5 does little to move the needle in that regard. Sure, it's a fun, thematically timely, and ultimately feel-good family-friendly flick that bears all the classic hallmarks of a Pixar movie. But it's also a far-too-familiar re-tread of its predecessors, and will leave some questioning whether it needed to be made.

Toys meet tech

Set a few years after its forebear, Toy Story 5 reunites us with Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), Jessie (Joan Cusack), and the gang as they face another existential threat: technology.

When their owner Bonnie is given a state-of-the-art electronic tablet named Lilypad (Greta Lee) by her parents, the now-eight-year-old becomes obsessed with her frog-like handheld computer, leaving Jessie — who succeeded Woody as the leader of Bonnie's room after his departure at the end of Toy Story 4 — and Bonnie's myriad other toys fearing for their futures.

Jessie is arguably the most worried of the group, too. Bonnie's unflinching fixation with her new high-tech toy causes Jessie's deep-seated abandonment issues to resurface, forcing her to take drastic measures that set this film's entire narrative in motion.

If that sounds familiar, it's because it's an eerily similar storytelling approach to Toy Story 1, which sees Woody fearing he's about to be replaced by Buzz. This is one of numerous narrative rehashes in Toy Story 5 that'll evoke a sense of déjà vu and, initially at least, worryingly signals that the film is simply going to hang its cowboy hat on replaying the franchise's greatest hits.

Thankfully, the long-overdue but welcome sight of Jessie taking the reins and being its toy-based protagonist, even if it's just for this film, re-energizes the movie series' traditional formula.

Director Andrew Stanton told me he never planned to make JessieToy Story 5's lead star, but I'm glad he ultimately decided to do so.

Whether it's Jessie's unrelenting and understandably self-preserving quest to reclaim Bonnie's affection in the present, or Toy Story 5's flashback sequences that elaborate on her past — a subject that was only touched upon in Toy Story 2 — putting Jessie front and center of this movie adds a narrative zip to proceedings that sets it apart from the series' other installments.

Inevitably, further examining the emotionally tormented Jessie's backstory, and how it impacts her present-day actions, shifts the focus away from Woody and Buzz.

Sure, the pair are as involved as ever, but their roles are of the main supporting variety, rather than traditional co-starring ones. In fact, save for Buzz's increasingly important role from Toy Story 5's midpoint onwards, I'd say he and Woody are nothing more than this flick's comic relief, especially where the latter's elder-statesman position is concerned. I'd wager that some fans, then, might be disappointed by the lesser roles the iconic duo inhabit this time around.

Band of Buzzers

Original Buzz isn't the only Lightyear that audiences will see in Toy Story 5. In yet another recycled plot thread — this time, from Toy Story 2 — a squad of Buzzes (ones installed with cutting-edge technology) take center stage in a subplot that, for large parts of Toy Story 5, is wholly unnecessary.

Okay, like O.G. Buzz, their importance to the story grows as it progresses, and I'll admit that this side story's examination of modern tech navigating an unpredictable world, rather than the modern world grappling with new and unpredictable tech, is somewhat novel in its approach. Even so, I didn't appreciate the constant check-ins with this squad when the film's runtime would have been better served elsewhere.

One example of where that time could have been better spent is with Lilypad.

Positioned as an antagonistic figure rather than an archetypal villain, she's not underutilized by any means. However, major spoilers notwithstanding, the progression and eventual resolution of her arc happens too quickly for my liking, which makes her role and character development feel slightly undercooked.

The same can be said of the three other tech-based toys — Smarty Pants (Conan O'Brien), a potty-training device, Atlas (Craig Robinson), a hippo GPS handset, and Snappy (Shelby Rabara), a toy camera — that we meet.

All three have vital albeit by-design parts to play following their introductions midway through the plot, which is also around the time that Toy Story 5 starts to telegraph its semblance of a story twist and narrative endgame.

As with Lilypad, though, Pixar's latest feature breezes through these meet-and-greets to maintain its narrative momentum, albeit at the cost of fully examining their pasts with the franchise's newest human character Blaze (Mykal-Michelle Harris), and how their experiences fundamentally shift Jessie's perspective on her relationship with Bonnie.

Speaking of Bonnie, I wish we'd seen more of the beautiful and dreamy pastel chalk-art style used to depict her imagination.

First glimpsed in Toy Story 5's official trailer, it adds some much-needed visual flair to the movie — and the franchise, for that matter — that helps it stand out from its four siblings. It's an art-form I'd like to see carried into future Toy Story offerings, too; but I suppose that will depend on how old Bonnie will be when Toy Story 6 is inevitably released, and/or if Woody, Buzz, and Jessie are the leads of the next Toy Story adventure.

My verdict

Toy Story 5 is a fairly enjoyable and typically tear-jerking Pixar flick that, from storytelling, visual, and topical viewpoints, does what it needs to in order to entertain the masses, and reminds us of the true value of human connection, especially among kids, in the digital age.

However, like Toy Story 4 and another recently-released Disney movie in The Mandalorian and Grogu, aka the latest Star Wars film to land in theaters, it left me wanting more.

That's not to say it's a bad movie — as the 3-star rating at the top of this review indicates, I thought it was pretty good. Five movies into this franchise, though, I think Toy Story films — and, really, all future Pixar projects — need to do more than simply relying on high-quality visuals and checking the 'emotional resonance' box. Sure, that's fine for a movie that's aimed squarely at kids and families; but for those of us who've grown up on and continue to watch Toy Story films, something more is needed. Otherwise, just like the tidied-away toys that inhabit the films, it might be best to leave the Toy Story franchise in storage.

Dutton Ranch episode 7 drops on Paramount+ on June 19, and boy, are we in for a doozy.

Last week, we saw the outcome of Rob-Will (Jai Courtney) arriving back on the scene, leaving Chet (Hart Denton) for dead after a shootout with Joaquin (Juan Pablo Raba) outside the 10 Petal ranch. Rob-Will claims that a man can only get rejected if he lets himself be pushed over, and starts his plans to wage war on the family who kicked him out.

At the same time, Beulah (Annette Bening) and Beth (Kelly Reilly) score their first business deal together after Beulah agrees to hire Beth as 10 Petal's brand manager. The pair bonded over their shared trauma of families sacrificing everything to uphold a legacy, and that's clearly left an impression on Beulah.

After Beulah hinted that 10 Petal would be throwing a party for its upcoming 190-year anniversary, the Dutton Ranch episode 7 trailer (which you can catch up with below) shows that she's actually going to use the event to announce her successor.

With Rob-Will back in the picture, his reign of brutality might make him seem like the obvious choice. But fans of the Yellowstone spinoff have other ideas.

Dutton Ranch fans think Beulah will hand over 10 Petal to Beth and Rip in episode 7

Yep, you read that correctly: fans are convinced that Beulah is about to hand 10 Petal over to her neighbors-turned-rivals, Beth and Rip (Cole Hauser).

"Beth is the son everyone, including Beulah, wants but never had. Rip storming off with Beth trailing behind indicates trouble at 10P, which wouldn’t be the case if Beulah handed over control to Beth and Rip," one fan wrote on Reddit.

Another argues, "I don't disagree. But, looking at it on the flipside, Rip could also be angry because he doesn't want to own a ranch that is essentially Yellowstone 2.0 with its problems."

And problems there are. Rob-Will's fury in episode 1 stemmed from accusations that he was fixing the ranch's cattle books while in his role as foreman. On top of that, Beulah and Joaquin are trying to hide the fact that Rob-Will has also killed a rancher who allegedly let this slip.

"Zero chance Beulah is actually going to resign; she’s playing her son; she’s not dumb; they are fooling us here or hand it over," a third argues.

Beth and Rip as the new owners isn't too far-fetched, though. Both are currently working for Beulah after losing their own cattle to foot and mouth disease, and they've integrated well into the Jackson way of working.

Beulah clearly has a fondness for them both, alongside the reputation of John Dutton (Kevin Costner). On top of this, it's clear that she's hiding something about her personal life, putting emphasis on the fragility of the future during her conversations with Everett (Ed Harris).

For the Dutton Ranch story to progress, a huge move like this works to further things along. But who knows... truly, anybody could be Beulah's first choice.

• Netflix has shared a new trailer for sci-fi movie The Last House
• It arrives on the streaming service on August 7
• The movie follows a family who become trapped inside their home

The word "home" is often associated with comfort and safety, but Netflix's new movie The Last House explores what happens when it becomes your prison instead.

Indeed, the best streaming service just dropped a tense new trailer for the upcoming sci-fi movie which is set to hit our screens on August 7. Here, we see an ordinary family learn they have been sealed within their homes and there's no obvious way to get out.

I really like this trailer because it immediately answers the obvious question of "well, why don't they just break the windows and escape?". Take a look below and see just how trapped they really are...

What else do we know about The Last House?

The intriguing new movie is directed by Louis Leterrier, who's best known for his work on The Transporter and Now You See Me. Here, he's swapping fast paced action scenes for a more tense, claustrophobic story.

Speaking to Tudum, Leterrier said "you won’t be able to look at your house or family the same way again" and honestly, even the trailer has got me feeling on edge about my house so I can believe it.

Greta Lee and Wagner Moura play a couple trying to keep their children calm during their sudden entrapment, but it becomes harder when days turn into weeks and then years. Yep, something really weird is going on here.

As seen in the trailer, the family learn that they aren't the only ones affected by this and it is more widespread than they thought. With an unnamed threat looming outside, I'll be tuning in to see whether they make it out of this situation alive.

While you wait for The Last House, don't forget to check out our new movies guide for the biggest new releases in June and beyond.

As the Senior AI Editor at TechRadar, it's not often I get invited to movie premieres. Yet there I was in a private cinema room in a London hotel, about to watch Hell Grind — a 90-minute AI-generated horror movie that took just two weeks to make.

I was there as a guest of Higgsfield, a platform that brings together all the tools needed to make a complete AI movie; and I was about to watch its poster child for the very thing that's got Hollywood running scared: a purely AI-generated film.

As you'd imagine from the title, Hell Grind isn't a romantic comedy — as one of the other guests remarked, it sounds more like the name of a WWE event. I don't want to give the plot away, but it involves ancient artifacts that bestow supernatural abilities on humans when activated, and a Japanese-speaking bad guy covered in spikes, who portals into whichever location he detects the artifacts in and attempts to kill whoever possesses them.

Everything on screen is AI-generated. The human contribution comes in the story, editing, and deciding which AI-generated scenes make the final cut.

If you want a good marker for the speed of AI development in movies, when I attended the AI Film Festival in Venice last year the films were typically around five minutes long. Just a year later, movies like Hell Grind can maintain consistent characters and a coherent story for 90 minutes — and it only took two weeks to make the whole thing.

Who's that guy?

Talking to Higgsfield CEO Alex Mashrabov, I learned that the main character in Hell Grind is actually modeled on a real-life Higgsfield employee, who will presumably be going back to analyzing spreadsheets after his 15 minutes of fame are over.

The rest of the cast all looked like combinations of famous actors and actresses you've seen before, but whose identities you can never quite pin down. I found trying to work out who they resembled surprisingly distracting, and I swear that one of the main actors looked a little too much like Naomi Watts at times.

Leaving aside the ethical questions raised by AI models that appear capable of producing characters who resemble real actors, it's worth evaluating the movie on its own merits.

Surprisingly, the action scenes were often the strongest part of the film. Watching various super-powered heroes and villains duke it out was genuinely entertaining. But at no point did any of it look real.

Hell Grind is a horror fantasy, so it could be argued that realism wasn't the look it was aiming for. Even so, I got the impression that we're still a long way from AI-generated dialogue scenes that hold up on a big screen, and make us genuinely unsure whether we're looking at a real person or not.

Take a deep breath, Hollywood — we're not there yet.

There were some obvious problems with the dialogue. At points it sounded like an AI chatbot trying to write movie dialogue, and the characters would occasionally blurt out something unintentionally hilarious given their current predicament.

Most memorably, when one character was facing his imminent demise, he let out a baffling "Cool!" Moments like that threw you out of the film and back into the theater, breaking the spell.

The AI boogeyman

AI in movies is a contentious topic. There are obviously people who would rather drink a pint of toxic runoff water from a Mid-west data center than sit down and watch an AI-generated movie of their own free will.

Many people see AI as something that's going to take their jobs, ruin the planet, and eventually eliminate humanity itself. So Hell Grind simply existing in such a creativity-led industry is a provocative act in itself.

But parts of Hell Grind were fun, and the whole film almost hung together. It felt more like a proof of concept than a piece of art; but if Higgsfield's goal was to prove that AI can produce long-form content with consistent characters, it largely succeeded.

Hell Grind might not quite be there yet, but it won't be long before a real filmmaker, frustrated by the endless bureaucracy and gatekeeping of traditional filmmaking, starts using these tools to create something people genuinely want to watch.

The strange thing about Hell Grind is that it left me both impressed and reassured. Impressed because a small team created a feature-length movie in just two weeks. Reassured because, despite all the progress, AI still struggles with the thing that makes films memorable: believable people.

The action scenes worked. The visual effects worked. The story mostly held together. But the moments that should have felt human still felt synthetic.

Hollywood should absolutely pay attention. But after watching Hell Grind, it doesn't need to panic just yet.

• Clarkson's Farm has been renewed for a sixth season, according to multiple news outlets
• Amazon hasn't confirmed this is the case yet
• Myriad issues on the farm could affect when season 6 is released

Clarkson's Farm season 5 episodes 7 and 8 are set to drop on Prime Video this week, marking the end of the latest installment of Jeremy Clarkson's hit reality TV series.

In April, The Independent suggested that Clarkson's Farm season 6 was on the way, despite an official statement never coming from Amazon directly.

On the surface, this seems like a no-brainer. This season's four-episode premiere was estimated to have drawn in between 4 million and 4.5 million viewers, while season 4 was also reportedly the second most-watched TV series in the UK across streaming and linear channels in 2025.

However, in all of the excitement, we might have forgotten something important — and it might mean season 6's release window of summer 2027 is woolly, to say the least.

'The crew are all worn out'

Last May amid season 5's production, Clarkson confirmed that a filming break was scheduled to take place prior to any season 6 announcement.

Speaking to The Times, he said: “I’d do a sixth if there was a reason for doing it, like a bloody good story… Whatever happens we’ll definitely take a short break as the crews are all worn out. We’ve been filming here two or three days a week, every week, for five years. Everybody could do with a rest.”

This was made worse by the fact that Jeremy later confirmed in his Sunday Times column that filming for season 6 had been suspended due to various issues. In a post on the show's official Facebook page, its social team said: "Filming has already faced a few hurdles along the way, including a break from production, positive TB [tuberculosis] testing, and relentless rain earlier this year."

Clearly, a "bloody good story" has been found, which is fantastic news for fans. However, given the aforementioned delays, season 6's summer 2027 release window is likely to be months later than previous expected.

I'd put money on season 6 coming out next August, but the issues don't stop there. Season 6 could also be the final installment of the show, though season 7 rumors are already across social media.

"I think it’s coming to the end of its natural shelf life," one fan posted on Reddit, with a second weighing in to say: "Didn't they just file for their parking extension to be extended through 2030 because of on going filming with the show? I know only season 6 has officially been green lit, but it kind of looks like they are prepping in case 7, 8, [and] 9 also come through."

No decision has been decided on Diddly Squat's parking extension as of writing. The current deadline would mean Jeremy had to return the farm shop's "temporary" car park to its natural state by the end of the month. Whether this is indicative of future seasons being filmed, though, is unclear.

If you like your movies — or TV shows, animations, theme parks, video games (the list goes on!) — then you're no doubt at least partially aware of the massive company that is Disney.

One of the biggest media conglomerates in the world, Disney has fingers in many pies, including on screens and in the real world. And it's beloved by fans, who queue up to visit its parks and watch new Disney+ movies at midnight on the day they release.

If you're one of those fans, you'll no doubt want to test just how much you really know about Disney. And luckily, you're about to get that opportunity, with this 30-question quiz.

We'll start with 10 easy questions, and then move into 10 medium ones, and finish with 10 difficult ones for the Disney experts. So let's find out just how much you know:

If you need to brush up on your Disney, perhaps a Disney+ subscription could help:

• Fox is acquiring Roku for $22 billion
• The agreement will combine Fox's networks with the Roku TV platform
• The deal will close in 2027, but Roku users are already seeking alternative streaming devices

Fox Corp has announced a new agreement that will see the television giant acquire streaming company Roku for a staggering $22 billion — a deal that will no doubt shake up the entertainment sphere.

The companies announced the deal today (June 15, 2026), and it will mark the next step in Fox’s plan to become more competitive in the streaming world, reports CNBC. The deal will combine Fox’s plethora of news, sports, and entertainment networks with the Roku TV platform, The Roku Channel, and first-party data to reach the 100 million households that use Roku.

Additionally, this will also combine one of the best free streaming services, Tubi, which Fox acquired for $440 million back in 2020.

As per the agreement, Fox will acquire Roku for $160 per share in a cash-and-stock transaction, and the company says it has already secured $12 billion in loans to finance it. The deal has already been approved by the boards of directors from both companies and is projected to close in the first half of 2027, pending regulatory approvals.

During an analyst call, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch described the deal as a “defining moment” for Fox and “a natural extension of the deliberate and focused strategy we have been executing for nearly a decade."

He added, “Today, we take the next step: bringing together the most valuable live content portfolio in video consumption with the preeminent streaming platform through which America watches it,” as Variety reports.

As for Roku CEO and founder, Anthony Wood, he will join Fox’s board of directors and will assume an “ongoing role” as a result of the acquisition. “I’m incredibly proud of what our team has built, and the combination with Fox is an extraordinary opportunity to accelerate our vision, scale faster and innovate more aggressively for viewers, partners and advertisers,” Wood shared in a statement, which Variety also reported.

Fox’s merger with Roku is the company’s first major deal since Disney acquired Fox’s entertainment business, which saw recognizable franchises including The Simpsons and X-Men, as well as programming from Fox-owned channels National Geographic and FX Networks, make their way to Disney+.

For years, Fox hasn’t quite been able to compete with streaming giants such as Netflix and YouTube. Combining its networks with Roku opens another gateway for Fox to expand into streaming and subscriptions, but Roku users are already considering alternatives.

For some Roku users, it's all downhill from here

Entertainment companies seem to be joining forces quite a bit recently. The deal between Paramount+ and Warner Bros. Discovery has now been approved by the US Department of Justice, but Fox’s acquisition of Roku has particularly shaken things up for Roku users. They've already been quite vocal on their concerns for what this agreement could mean — especially regarding the controversial Fox News.

According to one user on Reddit, their Roku device has apparently been pushing ads for Fox News, suggesting this deal has been in development for quite some time. “Time for a new streaming stick,” they added. But it’s not just the ads that users are worried about.

Other users flocked to the Reddit thread to share their concerns, and many believe that the ubiquity of Fox News will only escalate from here. One user says that, gradually, Fox could “show their propaganda and misinformation more and more by defaulting users to Fox News”.

Another user highlighted that Roku is a popular, budget-friendly streaming option, which is also built into a lot of cheaper smart TVs, giving Fox another easy gateway into this particular market.