News Silo Silo Season 3 Sees Ashley Zuckerman and Jessica Henwick Join Cast The new additions might be from a time before the silo was put in place… By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on January 17, 2025 Photo by Gage Skidmore licensed uder CC BY-SA 2.0 Comment 0 Share New Share Photo by Gage Skidmore licensed uder CC BY-SA 2.0 The season two finale for Silo dropped today, and Apple TV+ is already giving us tidbits about what we’ll see in the already-greenlight third season of the show. According to Deadline, Jessica Henwick (pictured above at Comic-Con, whose previous credits include Iron Fist, The Matrix Resurrections, and Glass Onion) and Ashley Zukerman (Succession, Fear Street) have joined the cast. Henwick will be playing a character named Helen, who is described as “a smart-whip reporter,” while Zukerman will be a “young and hungry congressman” named Daniel. The two join the existing cast of the show based on the book series by Hugh Howey, where ten thousand people, presumably the last of humanity, live in an underground silo after the surface of Earth became uninhabitable some hundreds of years ago. Based on the job descriptions of Henwick’s and Zukerman’s characters, odds are good that they play people from the time before the Earth’s surface suffered that fate. The series stars Rebecca Ferguson as Juliette, and season two’s ensemble cast includes Tim Robbins, Steve Zahn, Common, Iain Glen, Harriet Walker, Chinaza Uche, Remmie Milner, and Tanya Moodie. Graham Yost has helmed the television adaptation as showrunner for the first two seasons and is on board for the already-approved third and fourth seasons, which will wrap up the story. The first two seasons of Silo are now streaming on Apple TV+. M[end-note] The post <i>Silo</i> Season 3 Sees Ashley Zuckerman and Jessica Henwick Join Cast appeared first on Reactor.

Books short fiction Five Hopeful SFF Stories About Believing in Humanity Short speculative fiction to help bolster optimism, even in dark times. By Ratika Deshpande | Published on January 17, 2025 Photo: Inga Shcheglova [via Unsplash] Comment 0 Share New Share Photo: Inga Shcheglova [via Unsplash] Though I’ve spent a large part of my early adulthood overthinking and despairing about the state of the world, a part of me continues to remain stubbornly hopeful. Over and over, I’ve looked for evidence that people are inherently good, that we have solved problems in the past and that we will keep doing so (just as we keep creating those problems in the first place). And I believe this because I believe in people; to not do so would be to give in to helplessness, to surrender my life to the whims of the universe, which I simply refuse to do. Part of this capacity for optimism and hope comes from reading the kind of SFF stories that are essentially thought experiments in how things could turn out well. Consider the following examples… “Legend Has It” by Azisa Noor Noor’s story begins with trouble, upending plans for a local ceremony that our protagonist, Lintang, was in charge of organizing. She’s tired, but the ceremony’s success is essential if her community wants to keep its freedom. So she gets to work, but problems keep cropping up. In other stories, Lintang would end up solving these problems single-handedly through her ingenuity or god-given inspiration or some other miracle that Chosen Ones are so often blessed with. But this is a solarpunk story, which means that the whole community works together. If you’re tired, you can rest, and there is no guilt and shame in relying on others. Solutions are always possible when we come together, or even when circumstances draw us apart.  As some familiar tropes—of people going to the big city and growing estranged from their villages—arose in the story, I expected familiar outcomes that the characters would have to accept as Hard Truths. Yet Noor surprised me at each turn, as if saying to me, “Don’t be too quick in judging, and don’t be harsh. This can have a different, better outcome too.” And in each case, it does.  “Bruised-Eye Dusk” by Jonathan Louis Duckworth Rugg the spellbreaker only stopped at Ganvill to stock up on some supplies before continuing on his journey. But now he has to stay in order to help catch and kill the sour conja who has cursed the swamp village, leading to a sickness in kids and animals that no healer has been able to cure. The villagers agree to pay him with the supplies he needs in exchange for his work. But when he gets to the place the conjawitch is believed to be, he finds that its full of spells stronger than he’d encountered. Sweet conjawitches help and heal, while sour conja can do the opposite. Rugg has dealt with their kind before, but something’s up at this place—and soon encounters someone he didn’t expect to find there, though he should have. I am always a fan of happy endings and choosing kindness and believing in people. This is one of those stories, told with a distinctive, enjoyable voice. “For All Those Who Sheltered Here” by Del Sandeen If our trees could speak, what stories would they tell us? Del Sandeen offers one perspective, a tree narrating the story of its life, moments of witnessing birth and death, love and horror, violence and peace. A beautiful story that ends on a hopeful note.  “Downstairs, Upstairs” by Melissa Mead When we say we believe in humanity, we mean, among other things, that we believe that people can change their circumstances. But some people don’t believe that—or can’t, stuck because of their own guilt, by their own cruelty towards themselves—and helping them can often be difficult. That’s the case with the Flimsies—bits of soul who believe they deserve eternal punishment—but our protagonist thinks there’s hope. Can belief and persistence triumph over despair and stubbornness? “Eve’s Prayer” by Victor Forna Eve is an ape who’s been part of numerous studies, her body modified over and over so that she can travel across the cosmos to find a new planet for humans to settle now that Earth has been destroyed. She finds such a place, but she also finds her heart torn, so she prays to God, asking for guidance—should she press the button to let the humans know she’s found a new home for them, or should she leave the place alone, untouched by human greed? [end-mark] The post Five Hopeful SFF Stories About Believing in Humanity appeared first on Reactor.

News Scream 7 Joel McHale Joins Scream 7 as Sidney Prescott’s (Soon to be Dead, Probably) Husband By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on January 16, 2025 Courtesy of Yahoo! Screen Comment 0 Share New Share Courtesy of Yahoo! Screen Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott is married in the upcoming Scream 7, and her husband, a guy named Mark who will very likely get murdered at some point in the film, will be played by Joel McHale (pictured above as Jeff-Winger [dressed as David Beckham], holding a drink for Gillian Jacobs’ Britta Perry [dressed as a T-Rex], on Community.) Deadline broke the news that McHale is with the rest of the cast, including Courteney Cox, Mason Gooding, Isabel May, Celeste O’Connor, Asa Germann, Mckenna Grace, Sam Rechner, and Anna Camp, who are now shooting the film in Atlanta. Details on the plot for Scream 7 remain largely unknown, though we do know that May plays the daughter of Sidney and, presumably, Mark. The script comes from Guy Busick (Abigail, 2022’s Scream, Scream VI), and the movie is directed by Kevin Williamson, who penned the script for 1996’s Scream, the movie that started the franchise. McHale is currently starring in the Fox series Animal Control and has a guest appearance coming up in season three of Yellowjackets. He’s also due to play Jeff Winger once again (pictured above) when the Community movie finally (finally!) gets off the ground. We don’t what kind of husband his character, Mark, will be in Scream 7, but I wouldn’t get too attached to him as he’ll very probably/almost definitely get killed. Scream 7 is currently set to scare its way into theaters on February 27, 2026. That’s right, 2026, a whole year and change from now. [end-mark] The post Joel McHale Joins <i>Scream 7</i> as Sidney Prescott’s (Soon to be Dead, Probably) Husband appeared first on Reactor.

News Outlander: Blood of My Blood Outlander: Blood of My Blood Teaser Gives Us Hope… Sexy, Passionate, Hope By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on January 16, 2025 Screenshot: Starz Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Starz In the lead-up to the season seven finale of Outlander coming this week, Starz has shared a teaser trailer and release window for the upcoming prequel series, Outlander: Blood of My Blood. The teaser is very much that—fleeting glimpses of the burgeoning romances between the parents of Jamie and Claire, played in the original series by Sam Heughan and Caitríona Balfe. In it, we see Claire’s parents exchange letters and one longing look as her future dad fights in World War I, while Jamie’s parents look passionately at each other on the hills of Scotland. The teaser also reveals that the series will premiere in “Summer 2025,” so at least we now know that we have mere months to wait. Outlander: Blood of My Blood stars Hermione Corfield as Julia Moriston (aka Claire’s mom) and Jeremy Irvine as Henry Beauchamp (aka Claire’s dad). Harriet Slater plays Ellen MacKenzie (Jamie’s mom) and Jamie Roy plays Brian Fraser (Jamie’s dad). We will also see younger versions of familiar Outlander characters in the series, including Rory Alexander as Murtagh Fitzgibbons Fraser, Sally Messham as Mrs. Fitz, Séamus McLean Ross as Colum MacKenzie, Sam Retford as Dougal MacKenzie, and Sadhbh Malin as Jocasta Cameron. Its showrunner is Matthew B. Roberts, who also leads the original Outlander series with Ronald B. Moore. Check out the Blood of My Blood teaser below. [end-mark] The post <i>Outlander: Blood of My Blood</i> Teaser Gives Us Hope… Sexy, Passionate, Hope appeared first on Reactor.

News The Monkey The Monkey Trailer Is Violently Bananas By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on January 16, 2025 Courtesy of NEON Comment 0 Share New Share Courtesy of NEON Osgood Perkins’ isn’t fucking around with The Monkey, his adaptation of Stephen King’s short story of the same name. (Sorry for the profanity in the sentence above, but after watching the recently released trailer for the movie, my bet is you’ll agree with me using it.) The redband trailer released today confirms that the film from the Longlegs director will be not only a gory one, but also a darkly twisted, dare I say humorous movie. It’s gonna be dark, folks. And weird. And I have a feeling a lot of horror fans are going to be here for it. Here’s the official synopsis for the film: Twin brothers Hal and Bill (both played by Theo James) discover their father’s old monkey toy in the attic, a series of gruesome deaths starts occurring all around them. The brothers decide to throw the monkey away and move on with their lives, growing apart over the years. But when the mysterious deaths begin again, the brothers must reunite to find a way to destroy the monkey for good before it takes the lives of everyone close to them. In addition to James (who also does some great voice-over work in the trailer), The Monkey stars Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black), Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth), and Elijah Wood. James Wan is the film’s producer. [ed note: So what I’m hearing is… The Monkey might also be part of the Malignant-verse.] The Monkey premieres in theaters on February 21, 2025. Check out the trailer below. [end-mark] The post <i>The Monkey</i> Trailer Is Violently Bananas appeared first on Reactor.