SPOILERS ahead for TheFantastic Four: First Steps!
The latest of the new Marvel movies is here with the release of TheFantastic Four: First Steps, and leading up to its debut in theaters you might have heard that the Silver Surfer would be in the movie after Doug Jones previously played him. However, when Julia Garner was cast in the role, some backlash took shape around a female version of the iconic comic book character being portrayed. However, now that the movie is out, I need to talk about what a lot of people have wrong about the gender-swap conversation.
Julia Garner Is Not Portraying The Original Silver Surfer
Reddit user said last year: “I’m sorry if you are using Silver Surfer, why not just use the actual Surfer??? What’s wrong with Norrin?” or another saying: “Wow, great actress, but this is an L for the movie.”
achieved thanks to mo-cap technology. I thought it worked really well in the context of the story, and its themes about parenting. Now that we’ve seen it, I think it was really smart for her Silver Surfer to show up. Her origin story of giving herself up to save her own child served as a really nice parallel to the Fantastic Four’s difficult decision with Galactus and Franklin, which really gave the movie more heart all around.
Her specifically being a mother who was previously met with the same problem as Sue Storm and Reed Richards, and reaching another conclusion, before later helping the team, really served the storyline of First Steps in a great way. I wasn’t expecting to feel this way, but how Shalla-Bal fit into the team saving the world really stuck with me.
Who Is Shalla-Bal In The Comics?
In the comic books, Shalla-Bal first appeared in The Silver Surfer #1 in 1968 in an issue written by Stan Lee and with art by John Buscema. She’s initially depicted as the love interest of the original Silver Surfer, Norrin Radd. He is known for roaming the cosmos to search for planets for Galactus to consume, as Shalla-Bal does in Fantastic Four, while she’s been often used as a pawn by Mephisto and Doctor Doom to defeat Silver Surfer.
(Image credit: Marvel Comics)
In the comics, Shalla-Ball is the empress of her planet, Zenn-La and Norrin’s love interest. In the source material, however, Norrin is the one who volunteers to become Galactus’s herald.
Considering we’re in the Multiverse Saga, and Fantastic Four does not take place on the main Earth we know, I think it makes a lot of sense for the MCU to shuffle the story a bit while also leaving room for Norrin to appear down the line. I like that Silver Surfer is a woman, not just because that’s what was decided, but because it actually enriches all involved in the story for the better. And, yes, I hope to see Norrin Ladd (and I think there’s room for him to) show up at some point, as well.
Abbott Elementary is one of the funniest shows on TV. It has been partially responsible for keeping the network sitcom alive in the era of streaming, and it has racked up numerous Emmys in the process. One of the funniest things the show has done was one of its most recent endeavors, where the Abbott Elementary cast teamed up with the cast of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia for a crossover. The result was hilarious, and Abbott Elementary’s Sheryl Lee Ralph recently got blunt about what it was like working with the hooligans over at It’s Always Sunny.
Ralph recently made an appearance with the rest of the Abbott actors at San Diego Comic-Con, where they chatted about the iconic crossover episodes. She hilariously admitted that working on the It’s Always Sunny set was a bit of a culture shock, considering how pristine and well-behaved the Abbott environment is. She revealed during the panel that CinemaBlend attended:
I had sort of a visceral reaction to that cast, as Barbara Howard…. It was rough because our set is so clean, it’s so nice, everybody behaves themselves. Their set? Is dirty!
Instagram):
Even if the whole thing was a complete departure from what the Abbott cast was used to, fans are loving the It’s Always Sunny crossover episodes. Both episodes do a great job of juxtaposing the tones of the shows while still emphasizing the Philadelphia setting that they share. The adlibbing may have been jarring, but it created a lot of great moments, even if some had to be cut in the end.
Even if Sheryl Lee Ralph was scandalized by some of the behavior on the much raunchier show they were collaborating with, it doesn’t seem like the entire cast felt that way. They were all laughing while recounting the crossover at the panel, and Brunson totally let loose during her scenes on the R-rated It’s Always Sunny episode that aired a few weeks ago.
Abbott is a very family-friendly show, so I think it’s fun that ABC was open to exploring a more hard-core version of these characters, and I hope both casts, including Sheryl Lee Ralph, will be open to doing something so daring and fresh in the future.
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You can stream both crossover episodes of Abbott Elementary and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia now with a Hulu subscription. For more information on other exciting premiere episodes heading to streaming this year — including the Season 5 premiere of Abbott — make sure to check out our 2025 TV schedule.
The role of James Bond has been vacant ever since Daniel Craig finished his run as the iconic character with No Time to Die back in 2021, and actors ranging from Henry Cavill to Benedict Cumberbatch to Bridgerton vet Regé-Jane Page have been floated as candidates for the next Bond. Recent 007 buzz has surrounded Taron Egerton, known on the big screen for the Kingsman films, but he surprisingly said that he doesn’t think he’d be a good choice for it. This reminded me of what Egerton told CinemaBlend about working on Apple TV+’s Smoke as his latest small screen venture.
While Egerton is likely best known for his film work, teaming up with Dennis Lehane for the excellent Black Bird back in 2022 resulted in a critical hit over six intense episodes. The duo collaborated for the second time on Smoke, which premiered back in June in the 2025 TV schedule. I won’t get deep into spoilers here for any newcomers, but suffice it to say that the drama centered on arson investigations was appealing enough to draw Jurnee Smollett back to TV and wasted no time on dropping a huge reveal about Egerton’s character.
Collider), I couldn’t help but think back on his comments about the appeal of teaming up with Dennis Lehane for television for the second time after Black Bird. When I asked the actor what appealed to him about re-teaming with Lehane, Egerton explained:
Taron Egerton’s two Kingsman films so far equal out to about 4.5 hours total, whereas Smoke will run for nine episodes. Black Bird ran for six. (Both are available streaming with an Apple TV+ subscription.)
Both Smoke and Black Bird also gave Egerton the chance to share a fair amount of screentime with costars like Paul Walter Hauser (Black Bird) and Jurnee Smollett (Smoke). For Black Bird, Hauser in fact won the Critics Choice Award, Emmy, and Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actor for his work, with Egerton earning Golden Globe and Emmy nominations as Lead Actor.
When I asked Taron Egerton about his experiences working heavily with these two costars, he described them as “Amazing,” then went on:
Both of those actors, both Paul Hauser and Jurnee, they have a facility for play and being very alive in the moment, which is the kind of, in my opinion, the prerequisite to a good actor, somebody who can adapt and dance with you. Jurnee’s got this amazing quality of being both formidable and intimidating and very charged. She really carries the weight of all of this trauma from her character’s past, but she also can find tremendous lightness through all of that, and a real facility for play. So working with her was a real pleasure and a really creatively rewarding experience.
Does Taron Egerton’s evident satisfaction in collaborating with Dennis Lehane on TV shows mean that he’s giving up on films? Of course not, and it remains to be seen if Smoke will be his last TV project for a few years. Still, his comments about working on the small screen compared to feeling no desire to play James Bond strike me as unique within the entertainment industry.
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As a fan of both Black Bird and Smoke, I’m certainly not mad about Egerton’s willingness to branch out from film to television when the right project finds him!
Believe it or not, this year marks the 20th anniversary of the premiere of Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender, but the fandom has only grown in the two decades since the very first episode aired. With one spinoff already produced and a second on the way to follow the journeys of new Avatars, there’s still a major treat coming for viewers who will always love the OG Team Avatar. The Legend of Aang is on the way to continue the stories of the original team into young adulthood as a theatrical film. The catch? The OG voice actors aren’t part of the deal, and Jack DeSena opened up about the new voice of Sokka.
Jack DeSena was among the Avatar franchise stars who spoke with CinemaBlend at San Diego Comic-Con, shortly after the 20th anniversary panel that came with nostalgic moments as well as news announcements. No footage was yet available for Avatar: The Legend of Aang, but the new voice cast had largely already been announced for the older version of the TLA gang: Eric Nam as Aang, Dionne Quan as Toph, Jessica Matten as Katara, and Román Zaragoza as Sokka.
Sokka not having bending abilities and why the original show remains relevant, responded:
comics that continued the stories from The Last Airbender on the page.
While there are more questions than answers about The Legend of Aang since it was announced in 2022 other than the voice cast, the October 2026 premiere date, and Lauren Montgomery as director, Jack DeSena raised a fun question that could be answered in a story continuing Sokka’s journey:
Is there a whole brood of junior Hawkies?
I can’t say that I ever considered that a post-The Last Airbender project could include Hawky among characters whose stories are expanded, but I’m all for it! Work is surely never done for a messenger hawk in the hands of Sokka, right?
(Image credit: Nickelodeon)
DeSena mentioning Hawky reminded me of another addition to The Last Airbender‘s third and final season for Sokka: the sword forged by the character out of the ore from a meteorite that had recently fallen from the sky. Or, as Sokka called it: Space Sword. The actor shared a theory for the fate of Space Sword as well, and I’m 100% on board with it even if it isn’t made canon in The Legend of Aang. He said:
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Michaela [Jill Murphy], who voices Toph, shared with me a fan theory that Toph would have found it for him, and I love that idea. She was the one who sensed the meteorite in the first place, and then I think she would. I think she would go back to the site.
As far as I’m concerned, unless canonically contradicted, the official story is that Toph found and recovered Space Sword for Sokka after the events of the Season 3 finale. It would only be fitting after he lost the sword when he threw it at an enemy soldier in a desperate effort to save both of their lives, and now all I want from The Legend of Aang is confirmation.
Unfortunately, Avatar: The Legend of Aang is still more than a year away with a premiere date of October 9, 2026. In the meantime, fans can always revisit the three seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender, currently available streaming with a Netflix subscription and a Paramount+ subscription.
I’m not the biggest gamer in the world, but Assassin’s Creed has long been one of my favorites to see get a video game adaptation. We finally have some news on the television series that will eventually be available with a Netflix subscription, and while we only have a little bit of info at this point, that doesn’t mean I’m not super stoked for this long-awaited adaptation to finally bring the video game to life.
Here’s everything we know about the Assassin’s Creed TV show, as well as a bit of history about the video game franchise.
(Image credit: Ubisoft)
When Will We Get To See The Show?
Deadline has officially announced the show is going forward after years of discussions, when will we actually see the show? Well, the release date is unknown at this point. The maker of the game, Ubisoft, and Netflix first announced a deal to develop an Assassin’s Creed universe in 2020.
Die Hard and created Vikings: Valhalla for Netflix, set to be involved, but nothing seemed to come of that. Since then, and until the announcement early in July 2025, there was very little news on a potential show, with a brief update in 2022 that didn’t yield much info.
There hasn’t been any news thus far about when production will start, nor when the show will air, but it’s not unreasonable to expect it sometime in 2026. It almost certainly won’t be on the Netflix schedule for 2025. For now, all we know is that the show is officially in pre-production.
(Image credit: Ubisoft)
Two Veteran Showrunners Will Be In Charge Of The Show
Roberto Patino and David Wiener are the creators, showrunners, and executive producers of the Assassin’s Creed show for Netflix. Patino was an executive producer for the first two seasons of Westworld (by far the best two seasons of that show) and created DMZ, both for HBO. He also has written for shows like Sons of Anarchy and Prime Suspect.
Wiener brings previous video game adaptation experience, having been the showrunner on Season 2 of Halo, which you can watch now with a Paramount+ subscription. He was also the showrunner on the underrated Brave New World series on Peacock. Before that, he was an executive producer on Fear the Walking Dead.
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I think both Patino and Wiener bring a lot to the table here, and it seems like the show is in capable hands. As they said in their press release,
Beneath the scope, the spectacle, the parkour and the thrills is a baseline for the most essential kind of human story — about people searching for purpose, struggling with questions of identity and destiny, and faith.
Before adding a little tease about the kind of show it might be,
It is about power and violence and sex and greed and vengeance.
It will be exciting to follow the development of the show, especially with who the producers add to the cast in the coming weeks and months. One casting possibility that I think would be really fun is Kristen Bell, who played a voice role in the first three installments of the video game series, but that is just wishful thinking on my part.
(Image credit: Ubisoft)
I Can’t Wait To See Where The Series Takes Us
One of the reasons I got hooked on the Assassin’s Creed video games is the rich history it incorporates into each game. If you’re not familiar with the franchise, the lore is that the Order of Assassins is locked in a centuries-long, secret war with the Knights Templar. Both secret societies are based on real historical groups, but from there, the story is highly fictionalized, though some actual events and figures from history do make appearances.
Each game in the series (there have been 14 games thus far) takes place in a different time and place in history. Those points in history are reached through a time machine of sorts, called an “Animus,” which simulates the past and allows the user to tap into his or her genetic code and physicality of an ancestor, reliving the past. Yeah, it’s a little confusing, so that’s one thing I’m excited to see the show tackle.
From there, the sky is the limit as to when and where the Animus could take us on the show. The first game was set during the Third Crusade in the Holy Land, for example. The franchise has also had games set in Ancient Greece, the American Revolution, and the Viking invasion of 9th-century England, for example.
My favorite game of the series is Assassin’s Creed II, which takes place primarily across two cities in modern-day Italy, Florence and Venice, plus the small town of Monteriggioni, during the Renaissance. This is the game I would love to see the series be based on. Climbing the walls of famous buildings, like The Duomo in Florence and the St. Mark’s Campanile in Venice would be amazing to see on the small screen.
(Image credit: 20th Century Fox)
This Isn’t The First Adaptation Of The Video Game Franchise
In 2016, director Justin Kurzel teamed up with Michael Fassbender to bring Assassin’s Creed to the big screen. The movie took place in a time and place that had never appeared in the game franchise, which I was disappointed in, but I didn’t hate the movie like some critics did.
As a fan of the games, I was intrigued by the new story, and I thought the action was fantastic, but it wasn’t a perfect representation of all the game can be. Even Michael Fassbender was critical of it, saying it wasn’t fun enough. The critical and box office failure of the movie doomed the potential franchise then, but I think a TV show actually makes a lot more sense, because so much more story can be developed.
(Image credit: Netflix)
Netflix Has A Track Record Of Video Game Adaptations
Assassin’s Creed is far from the first video game adaptation Netflix has taken on. Resident Evil and The Witcher have been live-action hits for the stream, and Tomb Raider has had a great animated treatment, for example. One of the more unexpected animated adaptations (for me at least) came from Castlevania, which was a pleasant surprise for old Gen Xers like me.
I’ll be sure to keep my ear out for any updates on the upcoming Assassin’s Creed adaptation, as I really can’t wait to see how it all turns out.
Another San Diego Comic-Con has come and gone, but not without the Her Universe Fashion Show embracing glitz, glam, and geek couture for the eleventh year. Her Universe founder Ashley Eckstein and co-host Michael James Scott embraced all things Universal and Wicked for the event this time. Eckstein’s was of course a familiar name in the SDCC sphere even before the fashion show thanks to her role as the voice of Star Wars’ Ahsoka Tano, but it turns out that even being part of as formidable franchise as Star Wars didn’t mean overcoming all of her fears about performing.
She and her co-host spoke with CinemaBlend about going full Wicked for SDCC this year, including why she pushed herself to play the Glinda to her Broadway best friend’s Elphaba. I was fortunate enough to attend the Her Universe Fashion Show for the first time this year after Eckstein had opened up about leaning into Wicked and defying fashion. The Her Universe founder teased ahead of time that there “will be singing” with Michael James Scott on stage, but she joined him to kick off the fashion show with a medley of Wicked songs, including “Defying Gravity.”
Nessarose actress Marissa Bode in attendance as a fashion show judge. She explained why she ended up singing:
overcame nerves to host the Her Universe Fashion Show in the first place as well as tackle projects like her Star Wars Mindful Matters shorts, but singing Wicked was unlike anything she’d faced as a performer in public before. She went on:
And I was speechless then, like I am now! All eyes turned on me, and they’re like, ‘So you’re gonna sing, right, Ashley?’ And I was like, ‘Uh, okay?’ as I’m texting Jeremy behind the scenes. Like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me! No, no, no, I can’t do this.’ But the whole theme is, as I talked about during the show, not only defying fashion but defying your own expectations and your own fears and your own limits. And so I’m glad I did it. I’m glad they forced me to do it. [laughs]
Michael James Scott came to the Her Universe Fashion Show not only as Ashley Eckstein’s longtime friend, but with a long list of Broadway credits including Aladdin, TheBook of Mormon, and – one of my personal favorite musicals – Something Rotten.
(Image credit: Mark Edwards Photography)
He explained that he “grew up knowing and actually hearing Ashley sing” since they went to high school together, but Wicked does have “really, truly, some of the hardest music in the world.” Eckstein elaborated on his point of being “excited about being alive and singing and being an artist,” saying:
As kids, you naturally, I think, start out fearless. You’re more willing to try things and so in my mind, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m in front of 2500 people,’ and Michael has gone on to become one of Broadway’s brightest stars. But what I tried to just remind myself of, and I feel like I did – going up on that stage, it was just us in high school. I just almost took myself back and said, ‘This is no different than us in high school singing.’ And so I did allow myself to have fun in that moment.
From my place in the audience of the fashion show, I never would have guessed that she hadn’t sung publicly in decades, and Michael James Scott confirmed “that is the reaction from literally, basically everyone,” and reiterated to his friend that she “can sing” and is a singer now. Ashley Eckstein went on to share why she decided to move past her nerves and perform with him:
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Well, it was important for me to say something in that moment, because that was a really big deal for me personally. I’ve learned through doing my Mental Health Monday posts, and now we’re doing Hype Friend [podcast], that I think people look at us on stage and think like, ‘Oh, they don’t get nervous. They have it all together.’ No, we don’t. We have the same fears, we have the same nerves, we have the same feelings and emotions that everyone else does on any given day, just like anyone. Some days you feel like you sparkle and you can take on the world, and some days you don’t. And so I just tried to be real and I thought in that moment, I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna let this entire audience in on the secret of this real fear that I just overcame,’ and hopefully, by sharing the story, I could help someone else out.
Ashley Eckstein and Michael James Scott were quite literally sparkling in pink and green outfits worthy of Wicked when we spoke at San Diego Comic-Con. This was Her Universe’s biggest year yet with the fashion show, and the timing couldn’t have been better for the Wicked theme. After the first movie won over audiences last year, Wicked: For Good arrives in theaters on November 21 in the 2025 movie schedule. As for Her Universe, it remains to be seen what Eckstein will have in store for 2026.
