In addition to its strong opening weekend performance, The Fantastic Four: First Steps has been met with a lot of positive critical reception, so it’s fair to call it one of Marvel Studios’ successes. However, not everyone’s a fan of the latest adaptation of Marvel’s First Family. Rob Liefeld, who co-created Deadpool with Fabian Nicieza, didn’t mince words while sharing his thoughts about the 2025 movie starring Pedro Pascal’s Mister Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby’s Invisible Woman, Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Thing and Joseph Quinn’s Human Torch.
Following five months after he took aim at Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige over Captain America: Brave New World’s box office drop, Liefeld went on X to share a picture he took of an empty IMAX theater screening First Steps to accompany his negative reaction to the movie. Check it out:
This was the 5pm Fantastic Four screening at my IMAX. I can tell you why there is very little repeat biz on this film. It’s impossibly dull & boring. pic.twitter.com/AdiHfOmbMSJuly 30, 2025
Deadpool & Wolverine not including Josh Brolin’s Cable. Then the following month, Liefeld shared that he’d severed ties with Marvel over issues that began in 2023, but reached a tipping point over alleged slights at the Deadpool & Wolverine New York premiere. Also, in February 2024, he announced that he was retiring from working on Deadpool comics, though he cited his age as the main reason for this.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps may not have Rob Liefeld’s cup of tea, but with its 86% Tomatometer and 92% Popcornmeter scores on Rotten Tomatoes, it certainly was for many others. A Fantastic Four sequel is reportedly already in development, and as theorized by Variety last month, it could fit into one of the four theatrical slot’s Marvel’s blocked off for 2028. Other possibilities include the long-awaited Blade reboot, Black Panther 3 and the X-Men reboot.
But we don’t have to wait until then to reunite with the MCU’s Fantastic Four, as they’ll return for Avengers: Doomsday in December 2026, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars in December 2027. Finger crossed that Rob Liefeld is more entertained by their appearances in those gigantic ensembles.
There’s no question about it, Chuck Lorre is an incredibly successful and well-renowned writer, producer and creator. He’s the mastermind behind megahits like Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory and Mom, and now he has a new show on the 2025 TV schedule. So, when CinemaBlend got the chance to chat with the creative team behind this new Netflix series, Leanne, we asked what they’ve taken away from their time working with the super producer.
Ahead of Leanne’s premiere (you can stream it with a Netflix subscription now), CinemaBlend’s Nick Venable sat down to chat with Lorre as well as his fellow executive producers, Nick Bakay and Susan McMartin. He asked them what they’ve learned from working with The Big Bang Theory’s co–creator that they wouldn’t have learned otherwise, and after some joking around – which you can see above – and Lorre humously saying “careful,” Bakay sincerely said:
I used to despise breaking story. I found my value elsewhere in the forest until I came into Chuck’s influence and started to learn that the more you make it about what would actually happen, and something that’s real and emotional, you can trust the funny will follow. And that changed me as a writer, profoundly.
Two and a Half Men in 2013. After that, he became a frequent collaborator of his as he wrote and produced on Mom, The Kominsky Method, Young Sheldon and more before Leanne, which just premiered on Netflix’s 2025 schedule.
great sitcoms, they all have a fair dose of heart to go along with the humor, and as the EP explained, knowing how to write something real and emotional is vital, because the funny will always follow.
While he took a writing approach, Susan McMartin’s takeaway was significantly more personal. She’s also a long-time collaborator of Lorre’s, as she’s worked on Two and a Half Men and Mom as a writer and consulting producer. Both those were very long-running shows, and that sustained success gave McMartin, who co-created Leanne with Lorre, a security she’s eternally grateful for, as she explained:
I will take away the fact that I was able to put my daughter through college because of Chuck. I often tell Chuck [thank you]. Because I was a single mom, and before I got on Two and a Half Men, the phone had stopped ringing, and I was dragging used clothing to like, Crossroads Trading Company to put gas in the car and food on the table, and it was bleak. Then I got on Two and a Half Men and started saving, and my daughter was little, so when she went to college, I’m like, ‘Thank you. Chuck Lorre.’
The success of Lorre’s shows cannot be underestimated. Just think about the fact that along with 279 episodes of The Big Bang Theory, he created another wickedly successful show by spinning it off with Young Sheldon, which then inspired another successful spinoff, Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, which will continue on CBS’s fall lineup this season. And that’s just one example. Mom also had over 100 episodes. Meanwhile, as those were running, he also worked on series like The Kominsky Method, Bob Hearts Abishola and more.
That kind of success was able to provide job security and opportunities for many people, McMartin included. So, I see why she told us this when we asked about working with Lorre.
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Now, let’s hope that Leanne can see the kind of success these other series have found over the years.
The sitcom stars Leanne Morgan and Kristen Johnston, and it follows Morgan’s titular Leanne after her husband of 33 years left her. Like the other comedies these three have worked on, Leanne seems like it’s hilarious and full of heart, which speaks right to the points both of these producers and writers made.
If you’re somebody who enjoys seeing celebrities in person, there are few places more reliable than Disneyland. Famous people love going to the iconic park as much as anybody, and its proximity to Hollywood means that famous people are there quite often.
And so when Jon Favreau was seen by @DisneyScoopGuy in the Disneyland Resort esplanade yesterday, it wasn’t necessarily a newsworthy occurrence. Except that he had an entire crew with him, which meant he wasn’t just there for fun and to get lunch at Disneyland’s exclusive Club 33 that celebrities always get to visit and I can only dream of. He was working.
future of Disney Parks, and the Iron Man director might have been planning to give fans a peek at the upcoming Mandalorian update to Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run or even the Stark Flight Lab at Avengers Campus, given his connection to both franchises.
Walt Disney’s original hit character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and that’s seemingly what’s shooting at Disneyland right now.
Disney+’s Oswald The Lucky Rabbit Series Is Seemingly Filming At Disneyland, And Kathryn Hahn Is On Board
Earlier this year, it was announced that Jon Favreau would produce a Disney+ series about Oswald the Lucky Rabbit that would blend animation and live-action. Beyond that, we had no real details, but based on other images snapped by guests visiting Disneyland yesterday and today, it seems that at least part of the series is taking place at Disneyland Resort, and also that Agatha All Along’s Kathryn Hahn is co-starring in the series.
Kathryn Hann, Jon Favreau, and Oswald are all filming at Disneyland for something code named Ink and Paint for Disney Plus pic.twitter.com/0ngTB94scWJuly 30, 2025
As a lover of all things Disneyland, a student of Disney history, and a fan of Kathryn Hahn and Jon Favreau, I am absolutely loving this. Considering its popularity and existence for 70 years, surprisingly few movies or TV series have ever actually filmed inside the park, outside of the nearly required “ABC sitcom family visits Disneyland” episode that nearly every show has. It will be quite cool to see it on screen when the series finally debuts.
(Image credit: WDAS)
The fact that the “real” Oswald will seemingly visit Disneyland would seem to indicate the show could be going for some sort of Who Framed Roger Rabbit-style story that sees Oswald as a cartoon actor in the real world. Oswald himself is a character who can often be seen across the esplanade at Disney California Adventure. It will be interesting to see if that’s actually referenced in the show.
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Considering that a previous attempt at a Disney+ Oswald series was cancelled, the fact that filming is seemingly happening is great news, as it means this project will almost certainly see the light of day. The production crew is back at Disneyland today, as production appears to be continuing. I’m now very excited to learn where in the park filming is happening and what other stars might be involved in the new show.
Watson has gone through a surprising number of changes over summer hiatus ahead of Season 2, most notably being moved from a midseason premiere on CBS next year to being paired with FBI for fall of the 2025 TV schedule. Recently, news broke that Watson is bringing in a character who I never expected to be cast for more than a flashback role, and I have big questions about how this version of Sherlock Holmes will fit into a John Watson-led series.
At least one thing is certain – showrunner Craig Sweeny guaranteed that another character from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s works is definitely dead after Season 1!
(Image credit: ABC)
Robert Carlyle Is Recast As Watson’s Sherlock Holmes
Once Upon a Time’s Robert Carlyle to recur in Season 2 as Sherlock Holmes, who was presumed dead throughout all of the first season. According to Variety, Sherlock will resurface and force Morris Chestnut’s character to face a secret from his own past that’s actually hidden in his own body.
What We Do in the Shadows’ Matt Berry voiced Sherlock after the Watson team “dug around in the couch cushions” to get him for Episode 7, according to showrunner Craig Sweeny, but never appeared in the flesh. (That episode is available streaming now with a Paramount+ subscription.)
So, unless a second big twist is on the way with Robert Carlyle taking over the role, Sherlock Holmes is alive despite his death as one of the fundamentals of Watson from the start. I’m therefore pretty glad that Sweeny confirmed in no uncertain terms that Moriarty, playing by Randall Park, is definitely dead. Some characters really just need to stay dead!
(Image credit: Sergei Bachlakov /CBS)
Don’t Worry – Moriarty Is (Probably) Still Dead
While the showrunner only had good things to say about the lovable Randall Park as the despicable James Moriarty, he also firmly said “Yes” when I asked if that was really the death of Sherlock’s and Watson’s nemesis in the Season 1 finale. I noted that it would probably be hard for even somebody as sneaky as Moriarty to fake his death in a hospital, and Sweeny said:
With the world’s most brilliant doctor right in front of you instead of passed out! No, it’s not one where I want to be cagey. I think the character of Moriarty, the things he’s done and things he caused Watson to do will continue to hover over the show, but that is the conclusion of his time as a human on this planet.
Moriarty died in the Season 1 finale when he fatally overestimated how far he could push Watson without the doctor taking drastic action. Instead of saving Moriarty after turning the villain’s own DNA technology against him, Watson treated one symptom and then sat by his bedside to watch him stroke out and die. The doctor who normally would do no harm was pushed past his point of no return, and let his enemy die.
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And according to Craig Sweeny, Moriarty truly is dead. The showrunner went on to tell me that the writers had to find a way to push Watson to the point “where he could see this as nothing but the right choice” to let Moriarty die. Of course, I also thought that Watson would keep Sherlock Holmes dead so that John could unambiguously be the star of his own show, so it’ll be interesting to see how Season 2 incorporates the world’s greatest detective.
Watson Season 2 arrives on CBS on Monday, October 13 at 10 p.m. ET. In the meantime, you can always revisit episodes you might have missed from Season 1 (or just feel like rewatching for fun) streaming with Paramount+.
The Legend of Vox Machina wrapped its third season on Prime Video back in October 2024, delivering emotional moments to the end as well as the minor miracle of changing my mind about how a TV show kills off characters. The show, inspired from the tabletop game originally played by Critical Role’s founders, was renewed for a fourth season last year, but it wasn’t until San Diego Comic-Con 2025 that some big details and a first look were released.
And while Critical Role’s The Mighty Nein will be the only one of their two shows to arrive before the end of the 2025 TV schedule, fans of Vox Machina’s (mis)adventures now have some specifics to look forward to. Plus, even though the first look is brief and lacking context to explain what on Exandria is going on, there are some small details that I’m definitely into. Read on for what we know about the future of TLOVM as well as what I’m predicting based on the first look.
(Image credit: Prime Video)
Legend Of Vox Machina Renewed For Season 4
The Mighty Nein arrives in November 2025 as Critical Role’s second animated series that will be available with a Prime Video subscription.
So, with what I’m taking as good news with the 2026 release window and fifth season, let’s get into the footage we have so far!
The Legend of Vox Machina – S4 Sneak Peek | Prime Video – YouTube
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First Look At Vox Machina Going Full Ocean’s 11
As somebody who has not watched the Vox Machina tabletop campaign and got most of her information about the story from the excellent Vox Machina – Stories Untold book of short stories, I don’t have any insider details about what appears to be a heist involving something called “The Cobalt Soul.”
(Image credit: Prime Video)
Even without context, we can tell at least one thing that I wouldn’t qualify as a minor detail: a new character hanging out with Vox Machina and the long-suffering Gilmore. I did do a little bit of mostly digging on the campaign after Percy names the new character as “Taryon” in the clip, so – light spoiler alert – the character is a human artificer who joins Vox Machina with his construct Doty, voiced by Sam Riegel as a replacement for Scanlan.
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If Taryon sticks around for a while before Scanlan returns, then I would say his inclusion in the first look at Season 4 is a big deal? So, on that note, let’s shift over to some smaller details that are pretty fun to dig into and speculate about.
(Image credit: Prime Video)
Percy Seems Fully Recovered From His Death
Percy was still freshly resurrected at the end of The Legend of Vox Machina Season 3, to the point that he was largely relying on Vex, Trinket, and a cane to walk. There was some question by the final moments of the finale if using the cane would be permanent for Percy. I can’t spot a cane in any of the front or back shots of Percy in the clip, which I’m going to take as a sign that he fully recovered from his death just like Vex did.
Of course, it’s possible that he still uses the cane, but between those shots in the clip and the “Cobalt Soul Affair” card at the very end, I think we should take from the first look that he’s no longer using it.
(Image credit: Prime Video)
New Outfits For Keyleth And Vex
Characters don’t get new outfits every day on animated TV shows, but Vex and Keyleth apparently got to freshen up their wardrobes for Season 4. It looks like Keyleth has a new green and gold cape as well as a blue and green top, which makes me wonder if she completed another trial off-screen between Seasons 3 and 4 after she and Vax branched off from the rest of the group.
As for Vex, she appears to have new armor and fur, which took me by surprise at first until I remembered two things: 1) she went back to Whitestone with Percy with no indication that she’d be leaving, and 2) Percy took interest in dragon scales after Vox Machina killed the ice dragon Vorugal.
I’d wondered at the time why the episode bothered with him noticing those white dragon scales if nothing was going to be done with them; perhaps I’ll have my answer in Season 4. Plus, looking at her silhouette in that title card at the end of the first look (at around the 1:57 mark), it looks like she either added a cape or possibly wearing a dress.
(Image credit: Prime Video)
Gilmore Seemingly Has A New Shop
It looks like Gilmore has been able to set up a new shop, even if the goods aren’t quite as glorious as his pre-dragon shop in Emon. As far as I can tell, there’s no obvious clue as to where this shop is located, but my money would be on Whitestone if I was a betting woman. Other options include Emon if the time jump was long enough for the city to be rebuilt enough for him to get a storefront, or Marquet after their adventure there in Season 3.
Considering the mess they made in Marquet and the hellscape that was Emon at the end of Season 3, however, Whitestone seems like the most obvious choice. That city had admittedly also been recently burned, but not to destruction like Emon.
(Image credit: Prime Video)
Is The Cobalt Soul A Main Arc For Percy?
Percy seems to be the only one of the team enthusiastic about this Cobalt Soul plan, and even that might be because it gives him an excuse to plan an Ocean’s Eleven-esque hype rather than because it’s actually a good idea in the grand scheme of things. He’s the most prominent character in the first look, and that “The Legend of Vox Machina: The Cobalt Soul Affair” card at the end has him centrally located.
That could just be because he was nerding out in the first look and that’s how he imagines the team looking in their heist, but I can’t help but wonder if this arc will be Percy-centric. He did already have a big arc in Season 3 with Whitestone and Ripley, although he was technically already dead for the back half of the Ripley saga.
(Image credit: Prime Video)
My Takeaways From The First Look
Well, I may have made a mountain out of some very small moleholes, but I do have some takeaways from the quick clip. The first is that I think we’re in for a pretty sizable time jump, if I’m right about Percy being fully recovered, Gilmore having a new shop, and/or Keyleth having completed another trial. Plus, Prime Video’s description for Season 4 definitely suggests that there weren’t all just hanging out in Whitestone when the Cobalt Soul and Whispered One situation arise:
Season Four finds our heroes scattered across the globe on separate journeys, but when a cataclysmic threat befalls Exandria – they must reunite to face a foe darker than they could imagine.
Depending on when this heist storyline takes place in Season 4, the next batch of episodes might not bring Scanlan back any time soon. The Season 3 finale didn’t strike me as the end of his tale in TLOVM, but with a Season 5 renewal, perhaps he won’t be around for much of Season 4.
For now, you can always revisit the first three seasons of The Legend of Vox Machina streaming on Prime Video and look forward to Critical Role’s The Mighty Nein joining the streamer on November 19. It’s not clear from the footage of either show’s upcoming season if they will overlap at all, so it remains to be seen if there are any nods to Vox Machina in the Mighty Nein’s series. You could also always read the Tusk Love romance novel, which is a fun venture set in Critical Role’s world.
First Teaser for ‘Megadoc’ on the Making of Coppola’s ‘Megaflopolis’
by Alex Billington July 31, 2025 Source: YouTube
“The magic and making of Francis Ford Coppola’s epic Megalopolis.” Utopia has revealed the first look teaser trailer for a new making of documentary film titled Megadoc, from director Mike Figgis. This mega documentary is trying to be the Hearts of Darkness (which was a look at Coppola’s troubled Apocalypse Now set) for Megalopolis, which opened in theaters last year. The only problem is that Megalopolis not only flopped big time, but it’s just not a good movie by any measure, and Coppola needs to accept this. I get that he spent tons of money on it, and he’s trying to be bold and provocative again, but it’s a complete mess and most people don’t care about it (unlike with Apocalypse Now). This Megadoc features appearances by Francis Ford Coppola (but of course!), Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Nathalie Emmanuel, Dustin Hoffman, Giancarlo Esposito, Chloe Fineman, Shia LaBeouf, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Voight, Talia Shire, Robert De Niro, and more. It’s premiering at the 2025 Venice Film Festival soon before it debuts in September. I think a doc about what went wrong and how it flopped HUGE might be interesting – hopefully it will discuss that.
Here’s the first look teaser trailer for Mike Figgis’ making of doc film Megadoc, direct from YouTube:
This September: A raw, fly-on-the-wall documentary about Francis Ford Coppola’s decades-long journey in creating his self-financed passion project, Megalopolis. The bold and unrelenting epic returns in Mike Figgis’ compelling portrait of Coppola’s creative process – weaving together archival material, unfiltered cast interviews, and a close-up view of how the legendary filmmaker drew from Roman history, political allegory, and his own singular vision to shape the world of Megalopolis. This isn’t a record of a production on the brink, it’s a personal memoir unfolding in real time.Megadoc is directed by British indie filmmaker Mike Figgis, director of many films including Stormy Monday, Internal Affairs, Mr. Jones, The Browning Version, Leaving Las Vegas, One Night Stand, Miss Julie, Timecode, Hotel, Cold Creek Manor, Love Live Long, Suspension of Disbelief, and Somebody Up There Likes Me previously. Produced by Tara Li-An and James Mockoski. This is premiering at the 2025 Venice Film Festival coming up this fall. Utopia will debut Figgis’ Megadoc in select US theaters starting in September 2025 for everyone to watch. Who’s intrigued?
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