News Animorphs ’90s Book Fair Kids Rejoice: Disney+ Is Adapting Animorphs Into a TV Series The noted lack of television shows involving teens transforming into horses will finally be addressed By Matthew Byrd | Published on April 3, 2026 Image: Scholastic Comment 0 Share New Share Image: Scholastic Variety reports that Disney+ is developing a TV series based on the Animorphs books in conjunction with Ryan Coogler’s production company, Proximity Media. The project’s official description states that it will follow “a group of teenagers who uncover a hidden threat lurking beneath their everyday lives, all while juggling relationships, curfews, and the chaos of High School.” While that snippet curiously lacks one of the more notable aspects of the Animorphs books (teenagers morphing into various animals), it does follow the other basic beats of that series and positions the show as more than meets the eye (in this case, high school drama to go along with said morphing). Ryan Coogler, Sev Ohanian, and Zinzi Coogler will serve as executive producers on the series via their production company Proximity Media. Iole Lucchese and Caitlin Friedman will also serve as executive producers on behalf of Scholastic, and 20th Television will be the series’ studio. Beyond that, little is known about the show at this time. For some, though, the mere existence of a modern TV series based on K. A. Applegate and Michael Grant’s sci-fi stories is reason enough to get excited. A staple of the legendary Scholastic book fair scene of the 1990s, Animorphs likely attracted your attention with its magnificently dated covers that showcased the various stages of kids like you and I transforming into animals. Those who dared to delve beyond those frequently bizarre covers found the continuing adventure of teenagers who use their newfound morphing abilities to battle the secret invasion of a group of parasitic aliens with help from a friendly extraterrestrial being known as Ax. Though an Animorphs TV series that ran on Nickelodeon from 1998 to 2000 did an admirable job of capturing the basics of the series (you can check out its notably ’90s trailer below), it never quite matched the spectacle that many likely imagined as they read the 50+ books that made up the original Animorphs run. You can blame some of the translation shortcomings on the woeful inadequacies of ’90s television special effects and their inability to capture the magic of those book covers, but it’s about more than that. Wonderful weirdness aside, the Animorphs books often benefited from a surprisingly dense and dark mythos that elevated all the shapeshifting shenanigans. One imagines that a modern version of that series will pay more attention to the serialized storytelling potential. Failing that, it will probably offer the opportunity to watch a kid morph into a starfish. No word regarding Animorphs’ possible release date or any other major production details, but we will of course, keep you informed as the situation evolves.[end-mark] The post ’90s Book Fair Kids Rejoice: Disney+ Is Adapting Animorphs Into a TV Series appeared first on Reactor.

News The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum Aragorn’s Hunt for Gollum Recasting Raises Questions About the Movie’s Timeline When does this movie take place, exactly? By Molly Templeton | Published on April 3, 2026 Screenshot: New Line Cinema Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: New Line Cinema It was probably inevitable, but that doesn’t make it any more welcome news. The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum director Andy Serkis has confirmed that the role of Aragorn, son of Arathorn, also called Elessar, the Elfstone, Dúnadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil’s son of Gondor, will be recast. In an interview with Screen Rant, Serkis said, “I don’t know what’s out there at the moment, but I know there’s a lot of speculation, but let’s just say we are recasting the role and we are on the way to finding someone.” This is a grave disappointment to many. Viggo Mortensen was an unexpected choice when he was cast for The Fellowship of the Ring all those years ago—in real life, the man is blond—but he owned the role so thoroughly that it’s difficult to imagine anyone else in Strider’s dirty boots. It adds another layer of disappointment that other actors from the earlier trilogy, including Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, and Serkis himself, are returning. (They’ll be joined by Kate Winslet in a mysterious role.) Rumors have been swirling about who might take over the role. On a recent podcast appearance, Wood didn’t disagree when the host mentioned actor Leo Woodall (Netflix’s One Day), but nothing has been confirmed. Woodall looks more like a boy band member than a ranger of the north, but people can surprise you. Confusingly, Serkis also recently said that The Hunt for Gollum “takes place between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.” We had assumed that it took place during The Fellowship of the Ring, which begins with the preparations for Bilbo’s eleventy-first birthday. This assumption is backed up by the source material. In Tolkien’s Appendix B, which is largely a timeline, the entry for the year 3001 reads, “Bilbo’s farewell feast. Gandalf suspects his ring to be the One Ring. The guard on the Shire is doubled. Gandalf seeks for news of Gollum and calls on the help of Aragorn.” Not a lot happens for the next several years, until 3009, the entry for which begins, “Gandalf and Aragorn renew their hunt for Gollum at intervals during the next eight years, searching in the vales of Anduin, Mirkwood, and Rhovanion to the confines of Mordor.” In 3017, “Gollum is released from Mordor. He is taken by Aragorn in the Dead Marshes and brought to Thranduil in Mirkwood.” The next year, the Fellowship sets out. In the text, the entirety of said hunt takes place off-screen, so to speak, during the early chapters of Fellowship. So either Serkis misspoke, or the writers are playing with Tolkien’s timeline and moving things about. We’ll find out next year; The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is set to be released December on 17, 2027.[end-mark] The post Aragorn’s <i>Hunt for Gollum</i> Recasting Raises Questions About the Movie’s Timeline appeared first on Reactor.

News Ursula K. Le Guin In Your Spare Time: Ursula K. Le Guin Podcast Brings Her Entire Blog to Your Ears Yes, even the blog posts that are primarily cat photos By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on April 2, 2026 Image by Wes Guderian, 1970 | Courtesy Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation Comment 0 Share New Share Image by Wes Guderian, 1970 | Courtesy Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation In addition to writing seminal novels, Ursula K. Le Guin also maintained a blog from 2010 to 2017. About a third of her posts there were made into the book, No Time to Spare, and starting this year, each post will also get its own episode on the podcast, In Your Spare Time: From the Blog of Ursula K. Le Guin. Almost every episode/post is read by a different person, and readers include authors, librarians, artists, critics, editors, and friends of Le Guin’s. After reading her post, the reader then shares their relationship to her work and how the specific post speaks to our time and/or their imagination. Some of the readers are David Mitchell, adrienne maree brown, Omar El Akkad, Emily Wilson, Rick Riordan, Luis Alberto Urrea, Robin Hobb, John Darnielle, Darcie Little Badger, Molly Gloss, Vajra Chandrasekera, Becky Chambers, and Karen Joy Fowler. “Over the years, many readers have told me they wish they could hear Ursula’s blog posts read by her. I do too, but for me, this is the next best thing—to hear so many fascinating people, connected to my mother in many different ways, bringing the blog into current conversation,” Theo Downes-Le Guin, Le Guin’s son, literary executor, and podcast co-producer, said in a statement. The first episode of In Your Spare Time will come out on April 8, 2026, with new episodes releasing weekly on Wednesdays well into 2028 (an audio trailer is already up, if you want to listen). The podcast was co-produced by Downes-Le Guin, Molly Templeton, and Richard Stuart Perkins. Check it out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Libsyn. [end-mark] The post <i>In Your Spare Time</i>: Ursula K. Le Guin Podcast Brings Her Entire Blog to Your Ears appeared first on Reactor.

News Dungeon Crawler Carl Seth MacFarlane to Adapt Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl for Peacock No news yet on who will play Princess Donut By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on April 2, 2026 Seth MacFarlane image from vagueonthehow from Tadcaster, York, England, CC BY-SA 4.0 Comment 0 Share New Share Seth MacFarlane image from vagueonthehow from Tadcaster, York, England, CC BY-SA 4.0 It’s been over a year since we first heard that Fuzzy Door, Seth MacFarlane’s production company, had picked up the rights to adapt Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl books. Today, we found out via Variety that the project is moving into development as a live-action television series at Peacock. That’s right, we’re getting closer to seeing Carl and Prince Donut’s televised apocalyptic journey… on television. Here’s the official logline for the project, which hews closely to the first book: An alien invasion has wiped out most of humanity and any survivors are forced to fight for their lives on a sadistic intergalactic game show. Sounds bad, right? Now try doing it with bare feet and a stuck-up, self-centered, tiara-wearing talking cat as your partner. Welcome to Dungeon Crawler World: Earth, where the apocalypse will be televised… and Coast Guard vet Carl finds himself stuck with his ex-girlfriend’s award-winning show cat, Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk, as they try to survive the end of the world, fighting monsters, aliens, an insane A.I. and even other survivors… all for the sake of good TV. Survival is optional. Entertainment is not. Dinniman and MacFarlane will serve as executive producers on the project, with Chris Yost (Thor: Ragnarok, The Mandalorian, Cowboy Bebop) also on board as writer and executive producer. The project is still in its early days, so there’s no news on casting for Carl and/or Princess Donut. Dinniman did say in a previous interview with Variety, however, that he was confident in how the show’s fantastical elements would look in live action. “We’re not going to do it if it’s gonna look like absolute shit,” he said. “And they will do CGI testing on Princess Donut and stuff like that. And that’s all I can say, I think. It’s all gonna hinge on what it looks like. But Fuzzy Door, specifically, if you watch Ted or The Orville, you’ll see that they know what they’re doing when it comes to this. So I would say, don’t knock it till you try it.” [end-mark] The post Seth MacFarlane to Adapt Matt Dinniman’s <i>Dungeon Crawler Carl</i> for Peacock appeared first on Reactor.

Excerpts fantasy Read an Excerpt From The Killing Spell by Shay Kauwe In a future where language magic reigns, a young Hawaiian woman must solve a murder to clear her name. By Shay Kauwe | Published on April 2, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from The Killing Spell by Shay Kauwe, a new fantasy novel publishing with Saga Press on April 14th. Kea Petrova is dealing with more than her fair share of trouble.At just twenty-five years old, she’s the youngest of five Hawaiian clan leaders living on the Homestead in outer Los Angeles. Nearly 200 years ago, when a catastrophic flood submerged the Hawaiian islands and unleashed magic into the world, these clans forged a treaty with the city, establishing a new Hawaiian homeland. But that treaty is about to expire.Kea struggles to keep her small clan afloat, scraping together rent each month through odd jobs and selling her own crafted Hawaiian language spells. While her talent for language magic is her saving grace, she feels like a shadow of those who came before her. Just when she thinks things can’t get any more complicated, the murder of Angelo Reyes—LA’s most prominent Filipino activist—turns her world upside-down.Angelo was killed by a death spell—something that, due to the properties of each school of language magic, can only exist in Hawaiian. With independent spellsmithing being technically illegal, Kea quickly becomes the prime suspect, known for her spellwork on the Homestead. To clear her name, she must unravel the mystery behind Angelo’s murder and confront LA’s most powerful (and dangerous) players, each wielding their own type of magic. The clock is ticking—can Kea save herself, her clan, and the Homestead before it’s too late? LA CITY ORDINANCE #11358 As decreed by the Los Angeles Board, all prospective Guild members of any vocation, including Caster and Smith, must pass a licensing examination in order to practice magic within city territory. The examination shall be administered in the chosen regulated language: Latin, French, Italian, or Spanish. Regulation shall be decided upon by the Board and reviewed every three years to include any language with a history of proven merit to be considered for advancement. A language may be considered three times for regulation before being permanently disqualified. * * * AMENDMENT 1: Arabic has passed its second attempt at regulation and been graded exceptional due to its profound influence on global literature. The language’s proclivity toward storytelling, narration, and documentation is deemed invaluable to the study of magic. One seat has been opened on the Board for a licensed Arabic speaker of a recognized clan. * * * AMENDMENT 2: Cantonese, Mandarin, and Japanese have passed their first attempt at regulation and been graded noteworthy due to their contributions to culture and art. Cantonese and Mandarin’s effects on good fortune and Japanese’s manipulation of the human body are deemed worthy of further study. Two seats have been opened on the Board for licensed Cantonese, Mandarin, or Japanese speakers of recognized clans. * * * Tagalog has failed its first attempt at regulation. No amendment will be made. Chapter 1 Kea, I need you. I flinched at the sound of the voice in my head. Makani’s sympathetic talent of telepathy, though benign, was always unsettling, like a pinch right at the temple. Closing my eyes, I focused on sending him a response. Your chores better be done if you’re goofing off. Something followed me into the coop. In a heartbeat, my irritation turned to ice-cold fear. I dropped the plastic basket of wet sheets I was holding and ran to the backyard, which overlooked the ocean. Our usually small house felt like a gigantic barrier as I sprinted across the dry grass toward the garden. The coop came into view, a ramshackle construction made of weathered wood, and one of our hens, Fiona, flopped out. She clucked disapprovingly at me; her leg twisted at a funny angle as she hobbled away. The chalk of the ward around the entrance had been wiped off by the door, leaving a smudge of grayish residue on the wooden planks. Clearly Makani’s handiwork. I swore under my breath. I’d told him a thousand times to stop pestering the birds. I’m scared. There was no time to be mad. I hadn’t been expecting a fight, so I was stuck only with a leiomano in my back pocket. While relatively strong for a woman of my height, I wasn’t that strong. If something big had gotten into the shed, I had little hope of success in beating it to death. I gently tapped the door with my left shoulder while pulling out the flattened oval club, holding it at an angle in front of me. The sheen of polished wood and sharp shark’s teeth looked intimidating, but it wasn’t a hunting weapon. In the shed, I wouldn’t have the space to move freely or build power into a good swing. I’d need to get it, whatever it was, out. The door cracked open a hair’s width, and I peered inside. A pair of hazel eyes stared back at me from my cousin jammed under the birds’ perch. Feathers, blood, and dead chickens lay everywhere. A low, guttural hiss emerged from the darkness, irritated by the thin stream of light I had let in. The air, speckled with dust and fluttering pieces of stray hay, was heavy and hot. Makani’s chest rose and fell with quiet, strangled breaths. He squeezed his eyes shut and shot me a message. It’s behind the door. Buy the Book The Killing Spell Shay Kauwe Buy Book The Killing Spell Shay Kauwe Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget Not daring to startle the thing, I twisted my head to look at the spaces between the bolts and spied a patch of scales hidden in the shadows. Stretching from the frame of the door to the wall, the creature was too large to be any normal animal. It had to be a magi. The hissing stopped as the beast shuffled. I lost sight of it and became acutely aware of the blood rushing through my veins. Tensing my muscles, I leaned closer to the door, desperate to figure out what kind of magi it was. A black iris flashed in the empty space, narrowing in on me, and the hissing turned to a growl. I sent Makani back a single command. Move! He crawled from his hiding place just as the magi lunged for him. I slammed my shoulder into the door as hard as I could, sending the beast squealing as it was knocked against the back shelves. Makani screamed. He squirmed forward on his stomach to the side of the perch that was protected by a metal grate. The magi’s head swiveled to focus on his retreating figure. “Hey, ugly!” I shouted, stomping my feet to attract its attention. The beast snarled, stepping into the light from the open door. A mo‘o. About five feet long, the lizard creature had sharp teeth made for rending meat, and smooth scales covered its entire body in a sickly Granny-Smith green that faded to pale white around its lower belly. Just a baby one. I could take care of it. Figuring my forearm would hurt less, I dragged the sharpest tooth of the leiomano down the front of my arm, wincing as I pressed in deeper to scratch up the skin. A trickle of blood welled to the surface and dripped down in a thin line. The mo‘o raised its head so that its bulging, white neck flared like a balloon. It sniffed the air. Once its beady black eyes found the source of blood, it stilled and turned its undivided attention onto me. Good boy. Magi might be born from magic, but ultimately, they were just animals. They couldn’t reason or use logic the way a person could. No talking dragons, or singing unicorns, or any of those other stupid stories you read about in fantasy books from before the Flood. Magi were dangerous but dumb. I turned my back to it and ran. Feral instinct took over as the magi smelled blood on my retreating figure. Prey. Hunt. Food. It rushed after me. Running down the hill toward the beach wouldn’t work as my blood would likely attract more creepy-crawlies from the water, so the front of our property was the best bet. My bare feet slammed against the dry grass as I lured it to the front lawn, but I wasn’t fast enough. The mo‘o was on my heels. My palms got sweaty around the wooden handle of the leiomano, and I swore to arm myself better next time I did the laundry. Waving my arms wildly to keep the mo‘o from ascending the back stairs onto the porch, I ran parallel to the rickety frame of our house. As I rounded the corner, I banged on the walls to make noise, releasing a shower of chipped dry paint in my wake. Sun-bleached flakes rained down around me, filling the air with the dissipating scent of sour milk. It worked. The mo‘o slithered in my direction with its mouth wide open, ready to chomp down as we made it to the front lawn. If it sunk its teeth into me, I’d get a nasty cut. But we didn’t have any money lying around for stitches, so I wasn’t looking to take chances. I’d have to cast something. My jaw locked as I planted my feet and pivoted to face the mo‘o. Breathing deeply, I ran through a list of words I could use that could make this damn thing stop moving. Russian could work. It was simple and effective when there was an obvious target and I didn’t need to bother with definite articles, but I needed a word that rhymed with begat. Maybe run was the wrong idea though. Did lizards really run? At eight feet away, it certainly felt like it. Scratch Russian. I didn’t have time to figure out a rhyme to make the spell work. My other trusty language, English, was always a no-go on the fly. Any attempt on my end to be poetical fell flat no matter how many Shakespearean arts, thous, or foes I threw in, even though it was an established fact that a good sonnet would work wonders. Emphasis there on good. Hawaiian it had to be. Six feet away now, the mo‘o crawled closer, a furious pace infecting its approach. Five feet. Hawaiian was so vague though. A simple stop might work, but it also might stop all the internal organs in both my body and the mo‘o’s from functioning. Only four feet left. Three. There was no time. Keeping eye contact with the beast, I crouched low and dug my fingers into the lawn, entwining brittle blades of grass in my grip. With my other hand I dropped the leiomano flat to the ground and pressed hard on top of it for balance. The mo‘o was nearly right in front of me, its breath warming the air so close that I could feel the heat on my nose. Reaching for the mana from my core, I said the first word that came to mind. “E ho‘opa‘a.” Stick. Magic surged out of my hands and into the ground around us, rising up like a sudden breeze from the dirt. The lizard stopped moving. It writhed, tossing itself back and forth, but its efforts to escape were futile. My spell kept its legs glued firmly to the earth around it. I breathed out a sigh of relief. One-word spells weren’t supposed to work, but they always had for me. Sort of. They had an effect, that was enough. Call it a quirk of my mana, an unexpected benefit to being absolute crap at all other kinds of magic. I tried to lift my left hand off the leiomano so that I could finish the job and found that my spell had worked a little too well. I was also firmly stuck to the ground. Dammit. I really should have stopped using one-word castings years ago, but when in a pinch, I had a bad habit of saying whatever popped into my head. The joke was on me, though, since they rarely worked how I wanted them to. The mo‘o spat at me, struggling against my magic’s hold as I strained my neck toward the house. “Sisi!” I could hear the TV blaring inside. Giving it a minute, I baked in the afternoon heat, three feet away from a floundering giant lizard. “Sicilia!” I yelled again, louder. The screen door on our porch swung open and Sisi, my teenage sister, appeared. Her hands were on her hips, and there was an irritated crease carved through the sun-freckled skin of her forehead. With Sicilia’s light-brown waves and emerald-green eyes, people usually did a double take when I explained that we were related, though I never really understood why. She and I looked a lot alike. We both had deep-set, almond eyes that turned down slightly at the ends, wide, flat noses, and full lips. Our features were nearly identical, but we were different in our coloring. While Sisi was fair, I had brown everything. Brown skin, brown hair, and dark-brown eyes that could only be described as penetrating. Sicilia was chewing a piece of bubble gum, apparently oblivious to the spitting mo‘o on our lawn. “A little help?” I asked. The gum snapped in her mouth, and she shot a disdainful glance at the magi. “What am I supposed to do about that?” “Kill it,” I explained through gritted teeth, trying not to let my irritation bubble out. Sisi’s gaze fell on the weapon below my left hand. “You do it.” “I can’t,” I stressed. Sicilia’s hair was wound into a lazy topknot that spilled precariously to the side. The tita bun was a nice complement to her attitude. “Doesn’t look like that to me.” I didn’t have the patience for this. “I’d love to take care of this myself, but I cast something and if I release the smithing, I’ll end up unsticking the mo‘o too. I’d be right back where I started.” To emphasize how bad that would be, the mo‘o made a snarling noise and gnashed its teeth together, trying to lunge forward. Its feet didn’t budge, but the beast did spit some of its saliva onto my cheek, making me recoil. Unfortunately, my spell held tight, and the only thing I could manage to do was jerk my head back a few inches. Gross. My magic had a track record of fighting against every good intention I threw at it. At ten, I’d tried a common Latin spell to find my grandmother’s lost keys and ended up with every pin, screw, and nail in the house flying at my face. I quickly learned that the only way to tame my magic into doing what I wanted was by using spells I’d smithed myself, but that took time, patience, and talent. Sadly, I was in short supply of all three. Sicilia gave an exaggerated sigh. “Let me get my crossbow. I’m not getting lizard guts all over my favorite shorts.” The screen door slammed shut and I was left alone. Excerpted from The Killing Spell by Shay Kauwe. Copyright © 2026. Reprinted by permission of Saga Press at Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved. The post Read an Excerpt From <i>The Killing Spell</i> by Shay Kauwe appeared first on Reactor.