News Elden Ring Elden Ring Movie Cast Revealed as Dark Fantasy Epic Gets 2028 Theatrical Release Date Alex Garland’s adaptation of the acclaimed game is shaping up nicely By Matthew Byrd | Published on April 20, 2026 Image: Bandai Namco Comment 0 Share New Share Image: Bandai Namco Writer and director Alex Garland’s Elden Ring adaptation got a major update today as A24 revealed the dark fantasy film’s release date, format, and full cast list. At present, A24 says the Elden Ring movie is set to be released in theaters on March 3, 2028. The studio also said that the movie is being filmed for IMAX, which perhaps speaks to both the scope of the project and the success of A24’s previous IMAX new releases and re-releases. It’s also worth noting that Alex Garland’s Civil War was previously one of A24’s most expensive productions (before Marty Supreme surpassed it in 2025), and early rumors suggest that Elden Ring is expected to become the studio’s most expensive film by some distance. If nothing else, its IMAX release supports the idea that the studio sees this as an epic. More impressive than the film’s rumored scope may is its cast. Here is the full confirmed cast for the Elden Ring movie as revealed by A24 and publisher Bandai Namco: Kit Connor Ben Whishaw Cailee Spaeny Tom Burke Havana Rose Liu Sonoya Mizuno Jonathan Pryce Ruby Cruz Nick Offerman John Hodgkinson Jefferson Hall Emma Laird Peter Serafinowicz The cast order above is the same that was shared on the Bandai Namco website and is presented here in the same format due to its potential implications. Specifically, Kit Connor is presented as the film’s lead, with Tom Burke, Ben Whishaw, and Cailee Spaeny all seemingly positioned as co-leads. Jonathan Pryce, Nick Offerman, John Hodgkinson, and Emma Laird all certainly stand out from the rest of the cast list, though it’s very much worth noting that none of these actors’ roles have been confirmed at this time. Given the desolate nature of the game’s world and the relatively minimal nature of its leading and supporting character list, it will be interesting to see how many of those actors will be playing existing characters and how many will be portraying new faces. For those who aren’t familiar with Elden Ring… well, we’ll just have to do something about that sometime down the line. For now, it’s enough to know that Elden Ring was a 2022 open-world action-adventure RPG developed by FromSoftware Inc. (the developers behind the Dark Souls franchise and Bloodborne). Like many of the studio’s other recent games, Elden Ring is a notoriously difficult experience that pushes you to your limits as you try to find possible solutions to seemingly impossible scenarios. It may also be the studio’s masterpiece. One of the most widely acclaimed games ever made, Elden Ring also went on to become one of the best-selling video games ever. Expectations are understandably high for this adaptation, as are hopes for what Alex Garland will do with this world, that is perhaps best compared to movies like The Green Knight and novels such as Between Two Fires. At least we now know when we’ll be able to see if this adaptation will live up to some considerable hype.[end-mark] The post <i>Elden Ring</i> Movie Cast Revealed as Dark Fantasy Epic Gets 2028 Theatrical Release Date appeared first on Reactor.

Books SFF Bestiary Playing Dr. Watson to a Cat: Lilian Jackson Braun’s Cat Who… Series Come for the whodunit, stay for the mystery-solving cat… By Judith Tarr | Published on April 20, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share And now for something a little bit different. We’re still on fantastical cats, and we’re still in genre, but we’ve stepped sideways into mystery. There’s a fair bit of cross-fertilization, and cat mysteries are one place where it happens. Mystery series are like potato chips. You start one, you end up scarfing down the whole bag. You come for the whodunit, but you stay for the characters and the setting and the author’s voice. Voice is big in mystery. The books are short, which makes it easier to crunch one down and grab another right after it. You get your closure, you find out who did it, but there will be connections with the previous volume and the next one, usually having to do with the lives of the characters. You get invested in them, and you want to follow them as far as they’ll go. When one of those characters is a cat, there’s added fun, with a taste (large or small) of fantasy. Lilian Jackson Braun is one of the grande dames of the cat-sleuth subgenre; her main cat-character, Kao K’o Kung, or Koko for short, is a poet-prince of cats, a regal Siamese who dines on filet mignon and who solves crimes with inimitable panache. After the first couple of volumes of 29, he gains a companion, a lady Siamese named Yum Yum, but she is a much more normal feline who mostly sleeps and eats and does cat things. We first meet Koko in The Cat Who Could Read Backwards, which was published in 1966. Koko’s human sidekick is a newspaper reporter named Jim Qwilleran, Qwill to his friends. Qwill has circled the drain of the job market, probably because of an alcohol problem that he has managed to get under control—throughout the series, he takes care to stick to tomato juice, fruit juice, and what he calls poor man’s champagne: ginger ale. He’s been reduced to writing feature articles on the arts scene in an unnamed Midwestern city. His first assignment for his new job leads him to the infamous art critic for the paper, who becomes his landlord, and who shares the apartment upstairs with Koko. Qwill is not exactly a cat person, but he gets along with Koko, and he pays attention—eventually—when the cat points him toward the solutions to various mysteries and murders. Koko is considerably smarter than the average cat. He has acute senses and extreme athleticism like all cats, but he goes well above and beyond. For one thing, he can read. Not only that, he reads backwards. When presented with the daily paper, he scans the headlines from right to left, and he lets it be known if there’s something significant in a particular article. The humans may take a while, sometimes a long while, to figure it out, but that’s not Koko’s fault. Koko knows things. He finds clues, picks up signals that the humans miss, and leads them toward the murderer or the thief or the stolen object. He does it with body language and expression, and often with the operatic voice that Siamese are notorious for. Koko’s yowl can be heard several hundred feet away, through walls and doors. Qwill is his Watson. Like many film-Watsons, notably Nigel Bruce, Qwill is most easily identified by his moustache, though his is more luxuriant than Bruce’s. It is, in fact, sentient, and it alerts him to clues and directs him toward mysteries and their solutions. In that he’s like Koko. Koko, we learn as the series evolves, has an unusual number of whiskers. The average cat, according to Braun, has 48, but Koko has 60. The extra dozen seem to contain, or at least indicate, extrasensory powers. According to a police detective whom the pair encounter later on in the series, Koko is psychic. Qwill however clings to skepticism. He doesn’t know how Koko does what he does, but he refuses to believe that there’s anything paranormal about it. In that he’s a man of the modern world. He’s a news reporter by inclination, despite his persistent sidetracking into feature articles. He wants facts and just facts. He knows that Koko finds clues that humans miss; he has ongoing proof that the cat’s extraordinary senses (whether natural or supernatural) allow him to make connections beyond the ordinary or the obvious. He accepts the reality of Koko’s talents, whatever their origins. Like Dr. Watson before him, he looks after the great detective, indulges his quirks and foibles, and does legwork when and as needed. He never truly understands the detective’s mind or his thought process, but he doesn’t need to. It’s the results that matter. And results he gets. Twenty-nine novels’ worth, and a thirtieth that was written but not published before Braun’s death in 2011. It’s always sad to come to the end of a detective series, and to have to say farewell to the characters and the setting. Especially when the main character is a superintelligent Siamese cat with an entourage of quirky and comical humans.[end-mark] The post Playing Dr. Watson to a Cat: Lilian Jackson Braun’s <i>Cat Who…</i> Series appeared first on Reactor.

News What to Watch What to Watch and Read This Weekend: Details, Details, Details (and an Intriguing Hamlet) Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t. By Molly Templeton | Published on April 17, 2026 Screenshot: Vertical Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Vertical Tax day has come and gone, and I am the poorer (and grumpier) for it. It will be a weekend of not doing things—but perhaps, instead, reading things, or watching things on streaming platforms for which I have already paid, wisely or unwisely. Thankfully, there are piles and piles of things with which to keep myself more than occupied. New books! New movies! Little pieces of books! Little tidbits about video games! What does that mean? You’ll see. As ever, hug your friends, call your reps, and for those of you enduring allergy season, always buy the good tissues. It’s worth it.  This Is What the Internet Is For: The Fountain Pens of Video Games Even now, when the internet is full of fakery and nonsense, violence, monetized spam, and horrors, sometimes it’s still good. Case in point: This brief and perfect Aftermath piece, “The Fountain Pens of Video Games.” It does exactly what it says on the tin: There is a drawing of some of said pens, and a brief write-up explaining how writer/illustrator Nicole Carpenter began to notice the pens everywhere from Red Dead Redemption to Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It’s lovely. It’s perfect. Everyone should write little pieces about the things they notice and appreciate. That’s the good stuff. In This House, It Is James S.A. Corey Week It’s not like James S.A. Corey is a small-time newbie writer who needs a ton of attention in order to get eyes on his—their—new book. But all the same, I need to yell for two minutes about The Faith of Beasts, the second book in Corey’s Captive’s War series, which came out on Tuesday, and which I genuinely did not want to put down. It delivers on the promise of the first book, The Mercy of Gods, and then some. If you liked The Expanse; if you like to think about how people survive in impossible situations; if you like pragmatic characters who sometimes make terrible choices because there are no good ones; if you like characters, period, and also some really, really alien aliens: This series might be for you. Now I just have to wait, ever so patiently, for the third one. (And for Daniel Abraham’s third Kithamar book. It’s honestly a toss-up which of those I’m more excited about. Both? It can be both.) To See or Not To See: Hamlet A while ago, I groused about celebrity Hamlets. There have been so many. So very, very many. I saw Oscar Isaac do Hamlet in his tighty-whities; I saw the incredible Ruth Negga as Hamlet at the very beginning of March in 2020 (eep) and I felt like I was done. But I was wrong. I had not counted on Riz Ahmed doing Hamlet. This, I will watch. This version, directed by Oscar winner Aneil Karia and written by Michael Lesslie (Now You See Me: Now You Don’t), is set in modern-day London and co-stars Morfydd Clark (TV’s Galadriel) as Ophelia. According to IndieWire, the reason to see it is Ahmed, who “pours everything he has into his shot at the foundational role of Western drama, and both Shakespeare and Ahmed acolytes will want to experience his stellar delivery of the play’s most iconic monologue while speeding down a highway with his hands removed from the steering wheel.” That’s reason enough for me. Hamlet is now in theaters. Reading All of the Book Has Its Perks I am one of those folks who reads everything in the book: prologue, endnotes, foreword, acknowledgements, author’s note, dedication. I love a good dedication! I wish I could remember which book it was where the author dedicated her work to spite. That’s beautiful. If you also enjoy dedications, the critic Molly Young has rounded up quite a collection of them, in two parts, at her newsletter. There are a few SFF folks in the mix, including Julia Armfield, Gene Wolfe, and Joe Abercrombie, but to be honest it kind of doesn’t matter whether you know the composers of the dedications or not. Reading them is like peering in the windows of the houses of strangers: a quick glimpse of something personal, rendered oddly public. And sometimes funny. My favorite in the latest group might be Diane Wakoski’s dedication in her book The Motorcycle Betrayal Poems: “This book is dedicated to all those men who betrayed me at one time or another, in hopes they will fall off their motorcycles and break their necks.” Clear! Biting! Unyielding! On theme! But really they’re all so good. [end-mark] The post What to Watch and Read This Weekend: Details, Details, Details (and an Intriguing Hamlet) appeared first on Reactor.

News Outlander Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2 Teaser Is Full of Angst and Little Plot The vibes are strong in this one By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on April 16, 2026 Photo: Starz Comment 0 Share New Share Photo: Starz The eighth and final season of Outlander is currently happening with only a few episodes left. However, that doesn’t meant there won’t be additional episodes in the Outlander universe to look forward to. The spinoff prequel series, Outlander: Blood of My Blood, followed the love stories of Jamie and Claire’s parents and enjoyed a successful first season. Today, we found out the series will return for season two and, we even got a teaser trailer to boot. The series, which stars Hermione Corfield as Julie Beauchamp, Jeremy Irvine as Henry Beauchamp (aka Claire’s parents), and Harriet Slater as Ellen MacKenzie and Jamie Roy as Brian Fraser (aka Jamie’s parents), saw the two couples interact with each other in surprising ways in early 18th-century Scotland. Without getting into spoilers, the end of the first season saw them both on a precipice, and season two promises that “the two young couples will be tested and separated by forces beyond their control, as every clan chooses a side in the rebellion.” The teaser released today doesn’t give us much more details than that, though it’s strong on the angsty vibes, which I’m not complaining about! I love angsty vibes, and since this is a teaser, I’m good with that… for now! We also found out that the upcoming episodes will begin airing sometime this fall on Starz, though the exact date remains elusive. In addition to Corfield, Irvine, Slater, and Roy, the show stars Tony Curran as Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, Séamus McLean Ross as Colum MacKenzie, Sam Retford as Dougal MacKenzie, Rory Alexander as Murtagh Fitzgibbons Fraser, and Conor MacNeill as Ned Gowan. Matthew B. Roberts serves as the showrunner for both Outlander and Outlander: Blood of My Blood, and he must be tired. Check out the teaser video for Blood of My Blood below. [end-mark] The post <i>Outlander: Blood of My Blood</i> Season 2 Teaser Is Full of Angst and Little Plot appeared first on Reactor.

News Street Fighter The Street Fighter Trailer Looks Amazing, and We’re as Surprised as You Are The adaptation of the Capcom game looks fun, silly By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on April 16, 2026 Image: Paramount Pictures Comment 0 Share New Share Image: Paramount Pictures The feature film adaptation of Capcom’s Street Fighter is coming at us! And it looks… good?! This might be my undying love for Andrew Koji talking, but the trailer released today looks fun, silly, and entertaining, all wrapped up in a 1990s aesthetic. What more could one ask for from a Street Fighter film? Here’s the official synopsis: Set in 1993, estranged Street Fighters Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) are thrown back into combat when the mysterious Chun-Li (Callina Liang) recruits them for the next World Warrior Tournament: a brutal clash of fists, fate, and fury. But behind this battle royale lies a deadly conspiracy that forces them to face off against each other and the demons of their past. And if they don’t, it’s GAME OVER! Game over, indeed! Sign me up. Street Fighter is directed by Kitao Sakurai, whose previous credits include Beef, Twisted Metal and The Eric André Show. The story idea came from Dalan Musson and Gary Dauberman, with the script written by Sakurai and T.J. Fixman. In addition to Koji, Centineo, and Liang, the film stars Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoaʻi as Akuma, David Dastmalchian as M. Bison, Cody Rhodes as Guile, Andrew Schulz as Dan Hibiki, Eric André as Don Sauvage, Vidyut Jammwal as Dhalsim, Orville Peck as Vega, Olivier Richters as Zangief, Hirooki Goto as E. Honda, Rayna Vallandingham as Juli, Alexander Volkanovski as Joe, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson as Balrog, and Jason Momoa as Blanka. The movie is set to premiere in theaters on October 16, 2026. Check out the kickass trailer below. [end-mark] The post The <i>Street Fighter</i> Trailer Looks Amazing, and We’re as Surprised as You Are appeared first on Reactor.