News Red Sonja Red Sonja Actress Matilda Lutz Defends the Character’s Chainmail Bikini Matilda Lutz finds a deeper meaning in Red Sonja’s iconic and divisive look. By Matthew Byrd | Published on August 11, 2025 Screenshot: Samuel Goldwyn Films Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Samuel Goldwyn Films While the official trailer for the upcoming Red Sonja movie didn’t inspire much hope that the oft-delayed project will live up to the years that have gone into its development, it did at least confirm the film will feature some key aspects of the character. It looks goofy, it’s certainly violent, and Sonja remarkably retains the chainmail bikini that has both defined her look and become the focus of several debates regarding the character’s reputation for embodying the concept of the male gaze. That trailer even features a joke about the outfit being more of a device for the audience’s amusement than a practical piece of gear. But Red Sonja actress Matilda Lutz doesn’t quite see it like that. While she acknowledges that the character’s iconic look comes from a wildly different era, she recently explained to The Hollywood Reporter that she and the upcoming film treat the garment a bit differently.  “In the comics, Sonja uses the chainmail bikini as a distraction, but we’re using it in a different way,” says Lutz of the wardrobe’s function. “It’s still such an iconic costume that it was important to have it, and her enemy Draygan uses it as a form of possession and power. But when Sonja has to wear the bikini, she owns it, and she’s able to defeat soldiers with full armor. So the fact that she’s in a bikini is kind of empowering in a way since she’s still super badass.” Interestingly, Lutz compares and contrasts the Red Sonja character to her breakout role in director Coralie Fargeat’s (The Substance) Revenge: a movie that dissects and subverts the tropes of the infamous rape-revenge subgenre in ways that required Lutz to perform in nude scenes that Vulture’s Jordan Crucchiola rightfully described as “harrowing.” Lutz notes that Revenge was meant to “push the male gaze and the objectification” of her character whereas Red Sonja uses the male gaze concept in a “different way” that she believes means the character is “never objectified” in quite the same manner.  Still, Lutz admits that playing Red Sonja was generally challenging and uncomfortable from a physical perspective, especially on the days when she had to work in the bikini costume. The actress says she eventually became “more comfortable as we went along” regarding both the physicality of the role and the outfit. She’s also previously stated that she had quite a bit of input on the design of the costume and that Red Sonja director M.J. Bassett was constantly checking in with her to make sure she was comfortable with both the attire and the ways it was used in the movie. She does, however, describe a harrowing encounter with a horse that occurred when the horse just “wanted to go back to his stable to chill and eat.” Same, horse. Same. Red Sonja is scheduled to (finally) receive a limited theatrical release on August 13 before being released digitally on August 29. Make of that what you will. [end-mark] The post <i>Red Sonja</i> Actress Matilda Lutz Defends the Character’s Chainmail Bikini appeared first on Reactor.

News Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle Keizo and Koyuki Voice Actors Cast for Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle English Dub The anime feature premieres in the United States this September. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on August 11, 2025 Screenshot: Crunchyroll Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Crunchyroll The anime movie Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle premiered in Japan this July, and is set to head to theaters in the United States and Canada in about a month. The film is getting a lot of hype, and has gotten some big names to join the English dub cast. According to Variety, Channing Tatum (Roofman, Deadpool v. Wolverine) and Rebecca Wang (Blue Eye Samurai) will join the original English dub voice cast from the series the movie stems from. “We are thrilled to welcome back the beloved English voice cast reprising their roles for Infinity Castle,” said Mitchel Berger, executive VP of global commerce for Crunchyroll, who is distributing the movie in the US along with Sony Pictures. “Their iconic voices have greatly contributed to the admiration of the characters and popularity of the franchise. And, we are excited to welcome Channing Tatum, who discovered his love of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and anime through watching the series with his daughter, along with Rebecca Wang as the English voices of Keizo and Koyuki.” Here’s the official synopsis for the anime feature: Tanjiro Kamado—a boy who joined an organization dedicated to hunting down demons called the Demon Slayer Corps after his younger sister Nezuko was turned into a demon.While growing stronger and deepening his friendships and bonds with fellow corps members, Tanjiro has battled many demons with his comrades, Zenitsu Agatsuma and Inosuke Hashibira. Along the way, his journey has led him to fight alongside the Demon Slayer Corps’ highest-ranking swordsmen, the Hashira, including Flame Hashira Kyojuro Rengoku aboard the Mugen Train, Sound Hashira Tengen Uzui within the Entertainment District, as well as Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito and Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji at the Swordsmith Village.As the Demon Slayer Corps members and Hashira engaged in a group strength training program, the Hashira Training, in preparation for the forthcoming battle against the demons, Muzan Kibutsuji appears at the Ubuyashiki Mansion. With the head of the Demon Corps in danger, Tanjiro and the Hashira rush to the headquarters but are plunged into a deep descent to a mysterious space by the hands of Muzan Kibutsuji.The destination of where Tanjiro and Demon Slayer Corps have fallen is the demons’ stronghold—the Infinity Castle. And so, the battleground is set as the final battle between the Demon Slayer Corps and the demons ignites. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle is directed by Haruo Sotozaki. It will head to theaters in the US and Canada on September 12, 2025. Check out the trailer below. [end-mark] The post Keizo and Koyuki Voice Actors Cast for <i>Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle</i> English Dub appeared first on Reactor.

News Resident Evil Zach Cregger Says His Resident Evil Movie Will Be More Evil Dead 2 Than Weapons Weapons director Zach Cregger hasn’t seen any Resident Evil movies but is drawing inspiration from the games and a horror classic. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on August 11, 2025 Screenshot: Sony Pictures Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Sony Pictures The commercial and critical success of Zach Cregger’s Weapons has some looking ahead to what project he’ll be working on next. That project is a movie set in the universe of Resident Evil and is, according to Cregger, inspired by the video games and not the movies based on the franchise. In a recent interview on the Ringer podcast, Cregger shared that his movie is “a love letter to the games” and said that he’s never seen a Resident Evil movie though he’s “played the games obsessively.” He added, “This is a story that comes from a healthy, creative place. This is a story that I would have to write whether I got Residential Evil IP or not. I just happen to have these Resident Evil people be down. And so I get to play in their sandbox, and I’m honored to, and I’m stoked that I get to tell a story that I actually love.” Cregger also confirmed that Weapons actor Austin Abrams will also star in his Resident Evil film, but that the upcoming movie is “not going to be at all like Barbarian and Weapons. It’s going to be a rock ‘em, sock ‘em. It’s for me to play and for me to turn off my brain and just make, like an Evil Dead 2, like to get crazy with the camera.” When pressed for more information, Cregger said that it will be “a weird, fun, like just wild story. And it’s not doing any of this like, shifting and reinventing itself… this movie follows someone from point A to point B, and so it’s weird in that way—that it’s just a real time foot journey, where you just go deeper and deeper into the depths of Hell.” We’ll get to follow Cregger to Hell when his Resident Evil film hits theaters on September 18, 2026. [end-mark] The post Zach Cregger Says His <i>Resident Evil</i> Movie Will Be More <i>Evil Dead 2</i> Than <i>Weapons</i> appeared first on Reactor.

Movies & TV Outlander: Blood of My Blood The Outlander: Blood of My Blood Series Premiere Justifies Its Existence Jamie and Claire’s parents are cleverly connected across space and time in Starz’s new historical fantasy romance. By Natalie Zutter | Published on August 11, 2025 Credit: Starz Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Starz An entire Outlander spinoff focusing on the respective parents of Jamie Fraser and Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser does beg the question, will there be enough interest? There’s no How I Met Your Mother mystery hook, though our information about the two couples is limited to stories told by their star-crossed children. Which is to say, we only know as much as Jamie and Claire do about how they each ultimately came to be—until now, where we get to learn far more about every heart-stopping moment of those love affairs. So far, Blood of My Blood winningly woos viewers. The first two episodes reintroduce us to the sweeping romance and political intricacies of 18th-century Scotland, while building in real obstacles separating two couples in drastically different yet narratively complementary fashions. The push-and-pull of why each duo can’t be together are equally believable—with the added twist that one couple’s union will be key to reuniting the other. Spoilers for Outlander: Blood of My Blood 1×01 “Providence” and 1×02 “S.W.A.K. (Sealed With a Kiss)” The credits say that this series is based on characters created by Gabaldon, so it’s functionally more pulled from the TV series canon than the books, though Gabaldon likely advised on plotlines and character arcs. To wit, the look and feel of both time periods conjure up Jamie and Claire’s respective homes in season 1, albeit thirty years earlier in both cases. The Succession-esque jockeying for leadership of Clan MacKenzie casts the Highlands in a different light than the Jacobite rebellion, while the horrors of World War I contrast with Claire and Frank’s story starting during post-World War II peacetime. There’s interesting narrative friction to these two love stories proceeding at different paces, various milestones—first declaration of love, first kiss, sex, marriage, the universe pulling them apart—occurring out of order from one another. But they have the same love song. Outlander: Blood of My Blood Theme Song While it’s a nigh-impossible task to top “The Skye Boat Song,” composer Bear McCreary has offered up another sweeping theme song that only gets better on every listen. It’s telling that the showrunners felt that the initial cut was too Scotland-heavy—more “like a travelogue,” they told Variety—and that it didn’t click until the folks in post-production merged a shot of Highland warriors into World War I. That is definitely the shot of the credits, reminiscent of how the drums pick up on all that was me is gone in the Outlander season 1 credits. Interesting that both are action shots with characters running, although instead of Claire racing through the woods in Scotland, it’s two groups separated across two hundred years. And of course, the fact that we end back at the familiar shot of the women dancing at Craigh na Dun teases how the stones will continue to be significant even a generation before Claire goes back in time. Ellen MacKenzie & Brian Fraser Credit: Starz After all of the Ellen setup in prior seasons, and especially with Brian Fraser and Brianna Randall’s conversation in the Outlander season 7 finale, the flesh-and-blood character definitely lives up to the legend of Jamie’s long-gone mother. Harriet Slater excellently plays Ellen’s deep well of grief for her father, mingled with some resentment that he could not (or would not) honor her as his heir outside of their private conversations. Her shifting alliances with her brothers are fascinating to watch, as Dougal (Sam Retford) barrels his way through opponents and women alike in his zeal to become laird, while Colum (Séamus McLean Ross) has the head for ruling but not, according to anyone of the time, the feet. Ellen is the clear choice, but her sex prevents her from taking control of the clan, even as Red Jacob gifts her her own male MacKenzie tartan in sepia-toned flashback. This of course beautifully sets up her forbidden romance with Brian (Jamie Roy, eerily great casting for Sam Heughan’s dad). He’s a bastard of his clan, she’s the unofficial heir of hers. Yet their first meeting is electric in a way that makes you believe in fate; the scene at the bridge is achingly lovely. Credit: Starz But their love story will proceed slowly, and around them everything else is moving much faster as the clans itch to see who will be the new laird of Clan MacKenzie. That means Gatherings and other opportunities to meet familiar characters in younger guises, like the MacKenzies’ lawyer Ned Gowan (Conor MacNeill). And Rory Alexander as Murtagh Fitzgibbons Fraser! It’s fun to see Murtagh, who we spent so much time with as Jamie’s rapscallion godfather in the primary series, as a twinkly-eyed lad with his own yearnings—specifically, for Ellen. I’ll be curious to see how much Brian and Murtagh actually become rivals for her, or how long it will take the latter to realize his feelings for Jocasta, with whom he has an insightful first conversation. Clan Warfare Credit: Starz As I remember Outlander season 1, it was mostly centered on the inner workings of Clan MacKenzie and Black Jack Randall’s interference, as opposed to getting into the minutiae of other clans. By contrast, the premiere introducing us to several households at once brings to mind Game of Thrones and Shogun, broadening an already-familiar world by contrasting the petty ruin of the Frasers in Castle Leathers versus the opulence of the Grants’ abode. Obviously if you’ve read the books and/or watched Outlander you know how things turn out, but Ellen’s brothers dangling her as bait for the Grants (and potentially other suitors) is an interesting wrinkle in how it will likely lead to even more discord among the clans. And guess which time-traveling interlopers are gonna get caught up in the middle? Initially I thought that “Providence” would be the sole premiere episode, which made its subtle introductions of Claire’s parents all the more exciting: she a maid at Castle Leathers, he the bladier (or spokesperson) for the Grants. “S.W.A.K. (Sealed With a Kiss)” gives us the entire backstory for how they wind up in the past and the obstacles ahead, in a whirlwind romance delivered via love letters and mortar fire, motor accidents and crossing through the stones. Julia Moriston Beauchamp & Henry Beauchamp Credit: Starz Meeting the Beauchamps mid-fuck on the picnic blanket was an almost laughable contrast to Brian and Ellen’s forbidden cheek touches, but it immediately establishes what entirely different points these relationships inhabit. One couple is trying to figure out how to meet for a second time, the other are young parents desperate for a babymoon before number two arrives. Then we get the car crash, then the stones, and it cuts to the credits. Whew! “S.W.A.K.” rewinding in time to show us how Julia (Hermione Corfield) and Henry (Jeremy Irvine) fall in love was a bit dizzying, but in a good way. The montage lingered just enough on the important moments to show us what drew them together on a foundational level (both questioning war and calling for change, like his open letter and her suffragette work) as well as what they still have yet to learn about one another (his PTSD).  The war forces both to take on alternate roles for the greater good—he a barrister-turned-soldier, she putting aside university studies to censor letters from the front. That adaptability will serve them well in Scotland, both for donning masks in various clan households but also to bear the shocking everyday violence of Highlander life. (Brian taking the lashes for Julia’s escape attempt!) Though no doubt it will prompt them to once again challenge the why of it all. Some of their motivations are signaled pretty clearly, but in a big romance like this it works; Henry being introduced as telling his superior on the warfront that “I promised I wouldn’t leave anyone behind this time,” with us knowing he’ll be separated from Julia, is a gut punch. In short, we can see where Claire gets it from. But what a cruel twist of fate that she was cheated out of the chance to grow up with them. And her sibling! I don’t have high hopes for the viability of Julia’s pregnancy, though a surprise relation displaced in time might tie to Claire’s theory (from the season 7 finale) that Faith lived…! The Standing Stones of It All Credit: Starz Found an interesting Reddit post from a few years back citing Gabaldon claiming that Claire’s parents died in a car crash and that’s all there was to it. Obviously the author could have been playing that card close to her chest; or she may not have known or decided at that point, and that kind of fate leaves many narrative possibilities open. I’ve already seen mixed opinions on Claire’s parents also being travelers and whether that takes away from her experience going through the stones; but since she didn’t know they were, I think we can reserve judgment until we see more of how they’ll survive in the past. Sure, there’s a bit of The Force Awakens vibes, where we’re experiencing familiar story beats—a Sassenach in the Highlands, a couple who barely knows each other torn apart—with winking nods to the iconic original moments. But the remixing here is strong enough, and the story groundwork intriguing enough, to tune in for the rest of the season. There’s not necessarily a will-they-won’t-they to the series, unless the showrunners wanted to make Julia and Henry’s ultimate fates exceptionally tragic. And yes, we know that Brian will far outlive Ellen, but we will, quite literally, cross that bridge when we get to it. It’s clear that the foundation of both love stories is, enjoy the time you have with someone, no matter how short. It’s what’s kept Jamie and Claire going all these years—and generations, and centuries—after all. Scattered Gemstones Credit: Starz Julia’s wedding band sapphire gets sacrificed to the stones, but did we see which gemstone allowed Henry passage through? What do you want to bet that Julia’s aptitude for watch repair may come in handy in the past? Certainly her photographic memory will, though hopefully she won’t repeat her daughter’s footsteps (or, should we say, set the precedent) of getting accused of witchcraft. The casting really is top-notch with both couples. I can’t wait to see how they continue to channel their respective children slash which classic Outlander moments we might see reinterpreted or seeded more in the past. Speaking of, that’s “I Do Like to Be By the Seaside” playing during the letter-writing montage at the start of “S.W.A.K.”…! What did you think of the Outlander: Blood of My Blood series premiere? Are you more invested in one couple over the other?[end-mark] The post The <i>Outlander: Blood of My Blood</i> Series Premiere Justifies Its Existence appeared first on Reactor.

Books Jo Walton’s Reading List: July 2025 Fairy tales, history, a very sexy romance, and excellent fantasy. By Jo Walton | Published on August 11, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share July began in the Åland Islands between Finland and Sweden, at the end of Archipelacon 2. We took a boat from there to Stockholm, and from Stockholm to Gdańsk in Poland. After a few days in Gdańsk, we took a train to Warsaw where I had a great time at Basyliszek/Polcon, a really fun convention with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. Then we took a train to Prague for two days, and from Prague to Venice on a wonderful train through the Alps. After a day in Venice we got back to Florence, where I still am. I’ve had friends staying here the whole time, which has been tons of fun.  I did a (hopefully final) revision of Everybody’s Perfect and started working on what (fingers crossed) may be a new novel. I read just eight books, some of them on boats and trains, and lots of them were great. Black Thorn, White Rose — edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (1994) I continue to read my way through these fairytale retellings that pretty much began the modern genre of retelling fairytales. There were some absolutely terrific ones in this volume especially from Nancy Kress, Patricia Wrede, and Howard Waldrop, a disappointing story (“Godson”) from Roger Zelazny, who, surprisingly, didn’t bring much new to the original, and a bunch of very good stories from other people. This is an interesting series with very high quality overall, and the standouts are really as good as it gets. See You in the Piazza — Frances Mayes (2019) Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun, was recently given honorary Italian citizenship. This book is about a large number of places in Italy that she visited on trips, starting in the north and working south—mostly places a little off the beaten track. She describes what she saw and what she ate, and it’s not a guide book so much as an account of holidays. It’s very readable but not compelling. I’ll definitely be checking where she ate if I go to any of these places, and there’s something endearing about her talking about buying a jug or a plate to remember a place when far away. There are recipes in it too. I read a lot of books at once, and this was a very good book for that, for reading in little pieces in between other things, always happy to read a bit, never sorry to move on. Passenger to Frankfurt — Agatha Christie (1970) A strange and bad book. It started off disappointing me in that the “passenger” was on a plane not a train, and then went on with way too many meetings of civil servants. There is one good character, a great-aunt. The romance, and indeed the thriller plot, get short shrift. This is, however, a very good example of a mainstream writer utterly failing to understand how science fiction worldbuilding works. This is supposedly a near-future (of the late Sixties) where a mysterious enemy is manipulating “the youth” and stirring them up to drugs, discontent, and trouble, where entire countries are being taken over by “the youth,” manipulated by this mysterious enemy. Now Christie does not at all think through that if France and the US have been taken over by these mysteriously manipulated people, nice great-aunts might have trouble vacationing in the Alps. But the weirdest thing is the ease with which everyone agrees to use an untested, permanent, mind-altering drug or wonder what the consequences might be in the long term. It’s sad to see this view of the Sixties, and the idea that the youth movements of the time were led by fascists is ludicrous, but that’s not even what’s bad about the book. I barely cared about the characters, the mystery (who is the enemy?) is barely concealed from the reader, and oddest of all, the book feels as if it’s missing a climactic chapter. Christie wrote this in a rush, and with a deadline, her eightieth book, coming out on her eightieth birthday, and maybe she just didn’t have time to write the climax, and maybe she just thought it was sufficiently predictable that she could skip straight to the “rewards and weddings” chapter. Very odd book. Not recommended, unless recommended as bad example. The Writer’s Lot: Culture and Revolution in Eighteenth-Century France — Robert Darnton (2025) Darnton calls this his last book, but I hope it isn’t. It is, however, tying together all his work on the history of books and writers and the French Revolution. It isn’t quite as good as The Revolutionary Temper, but it’s very good. He gives us examples of the lives of hack writers in the years before the French Revolution and shows us how they lived and made a living, and how they made it through the climactic events—or in some cases, didn’t. This is a kind of history we don’t often see, specific and close up and on the ground, but always related and connected to the bigger picture of what’s going on. Darnton’s work has been on writers, booksellers, censors, printers, poets, and one of the reasons I love him is the way his microhistories allow zooming out to better understand the big events of history. Terrific, readable, recommended. The Pairing —  Casey McQuiston (2024) Romance novel partly set in Italy, recommended to me by all my friends who read romance. They were right, this is actually great. It’s about an American couple who booked a food tour of Europe and then broke up, and got a voucher, and eventually had to take the tour and rediscover each other while going through Europe eating and drinking and sightseeing. It’s much better than that makes it sound, and both the Europe and the romance are well done. It also does a thing I haven’t seen before where, rather than alternating POVs of the romance protagonists, it splits at halfway through the book, so the first half is all Theo and the second half all Kit. It really works. I even forgive it people having sex somewhere in Florence that is always either locked or has a guard in it. The book starts in the UK and ends in Sicily, and I started reading it in Prague, not thinking that this would mean I’d be reading the Pisa and Florence bits actually in Pisa and Florence, which was weird but fine. Warning: this book has way more sex than most of the genre romance I read. Tons of sex. So be aware. It also has great descriptions of food, and lots of excellent minor characters—the tour guide, the other people on the tour, old friends, strangers—all very well done. The Thirteenth House — Sharon Shinn (2006) Second in the series that begins with Mystic and Rider, definitely read the first one first. The actual plot develops through both books, and there are spoilers for the first book. This is a good continuation, which deepens the world and the complexity of what’s going on, and has a strong story with volume completion. Shinn is very good at characters and worldbuilding, and really, what was I thinking not to read these as they came out? Oh well, I can catch up now. If you like low-stakes, non-epic, kingdom-level fantasy, this is terrific. She’s also doing character romance. Which reminds me, mild spoilers: so, the first book introduced the world and a small party of people travelling through it, and gave us a romance between two of the party. This gives us the POV of one of the others, and is a romance for another two of the party. There are two people left in that small party, and they’re both men and while their sexuality hasn’t been discussed they’d make an odd couple. But maybe… Shinn often has minor character same-sex couples, but her main romances have been male-female as far as I can remember. But also, there’s more than one more book, so… well, there are a lot of mysteries on the table here and this is one of them. Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen — Laurie Colwin (1988) This was recommended to me and I enjoyed it in a quiet way—a series of slight, mildly amusing pieces on cooking and eating and having a relaxed attitude to life and life’s ups and downs. I liked Colwin as a person, and she’s absolutely right about cream, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to read anything else of hers. The Year’s at the Spring: An Anthology of Recent Poetry — edited by Lettice D’Oyly Walters (1920) Don’t ever put words like “recent” or “contemporary” or “modern” in your title, it will look silly when people read the book in a hundred years. This anthology of early Twentieth-century poetry, free on Gutenburg, is actually great—there are some duds, of course, but there are also some really good poems, both ones I’d seen before and ones I hadn’t. There are also charming 1920 illustrations. The overall impression is a little twee and pastoral—“recent” doesn’t really cover the Great War poets I’d have expected; there are some war poems but no Owen and no Sassoon. But it’s good to be reminded of Walter de la Mare, and to see a snapshot of a moment of poetry, this is what people were reading in 1920, what they thought worth collecting in their time, and very different from what we’d see looking back. [end-mark] The post Jo Walton’s Reading List: July 2025 appeared first on Reactor.