Katharine Trendacosta

We Now Know the Backstory of Greg Grunberg’s Star Wars Character

In grand Star Wars tradition, Greg Grunberg’s X-Wing pilot has a rich background that can only be found in the tie-in materials. Minor spoilers ahead. In The Force Awakens, Greg Grunberg—good friend of J.J. Abrams and constant presence in his works—shows up as a fairly prominent member of the Resistance’s Starfighter Corps. His name, according…

The Librarians Weaponizes “Happily Ever After”

In “And the Happily Ever Afters,” The Librarians ramped up to the final confrontation with Prospero (which I still don’t care about) and delivered us a look at everyone’s greatest wishes. Spoilers. We pick up right where last week left off: with something major happening and Jenkins just sort of walking it off. When Flynn…

The First Twin Peaks Teaser Invites You to Visit Its Picturesque Town

As if to prove that this is really happening, Showtime released the first teaser for the Twin Peaks revival. It’s got Deputy Hawk (Michael Hoarse) extolling the virtues of the area, the theme song, and a requisite creepy moment. Contact the author at [email protected].

The 10 Greatest Personifications of Death in Pop Culture 

When tackling something as big as death, it’s sometimes easiest to make it into a single personality. Genre fiction is replete with capital-“D”-Deaths. Some are serious, some are funny, and some are just annoying. Here are ten great representatives from the great beyond. 1. Death, Discworld The Discworld version of Death looks like the stereotype:…

It’s Friday and It’s GIF Party O’Clock!

Hello friends and GIFs, this is your party. Close out the week with style. Contact the author at [email protected].

The Best and Worst Television Moments of 2015

This year’s genre television gave us high highs and low lows—sometimes on the same show! In no particular order, we’ve rounded up the year’s best moments, along with some of the absolute worst. SPOILERS AHEAD. The Best of the Best Doctor Who: Clara and Ashildr in the diner TARDIS Clara Oswald’s final season as a…

The Batman v Superman Marketing Needs to Stop Pretending Lex Luthor Is a Real Person

“Viral” marketing has always straddled the line between “it’s kind of cute that they made a website for The Daily Bugle” and “that seems kind of desperate.” But with Batman v Superman, “viral” marketing has reached its absolute nadir. I cannot emphasize the scare quotes around “viral” enough. Even when it actually is the case…

A Crashed Interstellar Probe Inspires an Alien Mind

In “Sputnik,” a football-shaped space probe is picked up by an alien. The resulting journey results in a whole new state of mind. This short from Maxim Zhestkov is truly beautiful and well worth five minutes of your day. [via Everything Animated] Contact the author at [email protected].

Tom Hardy’s Really Upset About Losing All That Sweet Suicide Squad Money 

You know when you say something in a joking manner, but it’s really a mask for dropping a semi-stealthy truth bomb? Yeah, that’s what Tom Hardy did when he was asked about having to drop out of Suicide Squad. In an interview with Variety, the fact that delays on Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s The Revenant forced…

The Expanse‘s Second Episode Delivers on the Promise of the First

In “The Big Empty,” The Expanse is mainly concerned with introducing characters that got the short shrift in the premiere and making strong connections between our three plots. They also make a huge change from the books. Spoilers for both the show and Leviathan Wakes follow. One of the best details in “The Big Empty”…

Ancient Egyptian Divinity Geoffrey Rush Explains the New Gods of Egypt Trailer

It’s not often that a trailer actually makes me snort. But once Geoffrey Rush’s Ra (yes, that is an Australian playing Ra in this thing) exhorts the “god of the air” to “protect the mortals,” that was it for me. If you did a shot at every cliché featured in this trailer—which clocks in at…

Even though only the first two episodes have aired on TV, Syfy has put the first four episodes of The Expanse upon its website.

Uh, What the Hell Is Knight Rider Heroes?

This mysterious trailer, which popped up online with virtually no fanfare, is the only real information on the mysterious Knight Rider Heroes we have. It seems to be some kind of project based on the idea that the Foundation for Law and Government (F.L.A.G.) went underground and then brought Michael and KITT back to duty.…

The Expanse Delivers the Sci-Fi Political Thriller We’ve All Been Waiting For

If you’ve read the series of novels by James S.A. Corey, then the most surprising thing about The Expanse is that it manages to translate the dense, interwoven stories of the books into a near-perfect TV show. If you haven’t read the books, the most surprising thing is that anything this good exists at all.…

NBC’s Xena Reboot Picks Up Steam By Hiring Javier Grillo-Marxuach

Look, I know Javier Grillo-Marxuach has done many things in his career—both Deadline and Variety have him as a “Lost alum.” But I will always leap to The Middleman first. And then follow him wherever he goes. The fact that it happens to be Xena is just the icing on the cake. NBC has him…

Here’s What We Can Piece Together About the Plot of Star Trek Beyond From the Trailer

The Star Trek Beyond trailer is full of beam-outs, fight scenes and explosions. But what does it mean? We went through it frame by frame, trying to figure out just what kind of mess Kirk and the rest of the Enterprise crew have gotten themselves into. Here’s our detailed gif-and-screencap breakdown! Warning: Spoilers in the…

Welcome Back to Earth: Everything We Spotted in the Independence Day 2 Trailer

There was a surprising amount packed into the first Independence Day: Resurgence trailer. There were dogfights, moon attacks, secret bases… pretty much everything you’d expect from a Roland Emmerich-directed alien invasion movie. Here’s everything we saw. One of the things about this trailer that marks a departure from the first movie is that there are…

Utopia Has a Dark Side in the First Trailer for High-Rise

Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s book certainly has the opulence of the upper levels down. In the first trailer for High-Rise, Tom Hiddleston’s Robert Laing narrates all the creature comforts of the building. But there’s a revolution coming. We know from the book (as well as seeing the film itself) that High-Rise is a…

In the Future, Even the Monoliths Bleed

And when they bleed, the resulting blood pool becomes a portal to the underworld. Full art below. This work is by Matt Relkin, and more of his art can be seen at his website. Contact the author at [email protected].

Dead Ant Sounds Like It’s Going to Be the Platonic Ideal of a B-Movie

Technically, the real news is that Sean Astin and Tom Arnold (of, “He’s still working?” fame) are starring in Dead Ant. But the fun news is literally everything else about this movie. Dead Ant is the story of a down on their luck hair metal band who has to fight a pack of giant ants…