Author: Empire

It may have been 15 years now since Laika Studios first acquired the rights to adapt Colin Meloy’s YA fantasy epic Wildwood, but as the saying goes, all good things come to those who wait — and Travis Knight’s stop-motion epic does look very good. With the first teaser for Knight’s movie having racked up a staggering 90 million views and counting on YouTube alone, today Laika has unveiled a new trailer for its long-gestating latest — this one bringing Carey Mulligan’s complex human antagonist Alexandra into the spotlight as Wildwood’s tale of love, loss, and war comes into sharper…

This morning, we are incredibly saddened to share the news that Hayden Panettiere, star of Heroes, Nashville and the Scream franchise, has sadly passed away at 36 years old. Beginning her acting career at just 11 months old in a toy commercial, Panettiere graced our screens for more than 30 years. She died on Sunday, August 16. No cause of death has been announced.  First reported by ABC News on Sunday night, a statement from her father, Skip Panettiere, read as follows: “It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden. She was an…

Avengers: Doomsday isn’t far off, and fresh off D23, we’ve now had a closer look at Victor von Doom raising Sentinels and giving the Avengers, X-Men and co. what looks to be a pretty hard time. Needless to say, the MCU has expanded somewhat in the last few years. Now juggling TV shows, films and a whole host of new characters, it can sometimes be a struggle to know what’s actually a must-watch before a new entry hits cinemas. Thankfully, with Avengers: Doomsday, Disney+ has put together a must-watch list to make sure your Marvel knowledge is up to scratch…

Be honest: you’re still crying about Coco now, nearly 10 years on. Pixar’s musical fantasy film, set in the Mexican Land Of The Dead, might stake a claim as the studio’s most tear-jerking movie – a certified 10 on the sob-scale thanks to its emotional gut-punches. It is, of course, a colourful and joyous adventure too, sending guitar-playing kiddo Miguel into the great beyond on a family adventure. And following the announcement in 2025 that Coco 2 was coming, the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California saw fresh details – and the first concept art – emerge from the sequel. First…

If you were paying attention to Zootopia 2, it should come as no surprise that threequel hopes have been bubbling away. And we’re not just talking about the fact that the 2025 sequel made a whopping $1.86 billion worldwide. No, the final moment of the film saw a feather falling from the sky: the first indication that, yes, birds exists in the expanse of Zootopia (or, Zootropolis, depending on your territory). As confirmed at Disney’s D23 Expo, Zootopia 3 is officially in the works – and it’ll bring feathered friends into the animal kingdom, just as Zootopia 2 brought in…

If you have any interest in the film festival circuit, you’ve probably heard about Na Hong-jin’s bonkers Korean monster-action epic Hope. The film had a huge response following its premiere, and marks a departure from the director’s previous films, the thrilling The Chaser and certified horror banger The Wailing. This time around, Hong-jin has gone all-out with a relentless action spectacle. The film has already had one South Korea’s biggest film openings of 2026 following its July 15 release. The good news is that you won’t have to wait long to see Hope, because it now has a UK release…

It’s not long until we return to the Wizarding World this Christmas, with HBO’s new take on Harry Potter heading to TV screens. However, those in the gaming world have been eagerly awaiting news of a follow-up to 2023’s open-world role-playing game Hogwarts Legacy — a game that allowed everyone to live out the childhood fantasy of attending the famous school of witchcraft and wizardry, but, most importantly, let you fly around on a broomstick to your heart’s content. Although rumblings of a sequel have been around since the original launch, it seems Warner Bros. has officially confirmed that a…

Every Toy Story movie has its tear-jerking moment. Maybe several of them. And Toy Story 5 is no different, using its Jessie-centric focus to revisit one of the most gut-wrenching sequences in the series’ history. Andrew Stanton’s latest sequel continues the growth of kid Bonnie, who looks set to abandon her toys when everyone around her is consumed by tablets and tech – even though her new Lilypad doesn’t bring her the same joy and fulfilment as Jessie, Buzz, and the rest of the gang. In the course of the plot, through a series of misadventures, Jessie and Bullseye end…

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, the multiverse came calling. Because, the ultimate geek crossover is on the way. When Avengers: Infinity War dropped in 2018, it was dubbed the “most ambitious crossover event of all time” – and the same could perhaps be said for Star Wars | Marvel: Hope Assembles, a comic book series in which the worlds of, you guessed it, Marvel and Star Wars collides. The five-issue season, which will launch to mark the 50th anniversary of Star Wars in 2027, is being written by somebody who knows both of those worlds…

To me, my X-Men casting news — and this one’s a bit of a Heartstopper, folks. As Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the growing Avengers: Doomsday hype, and some recent mutant-based developments in the MCU have left us asking “Is Marvel back?”, it looks like Marvel Studios is busying itself assembling an exciting (X-citing?) team for Jake Schreier’s upcoming X-Men movie. Following last week’s news that Samara Weaving is reportedly set to play Emma Frost in the Thunderbolts* director’s latest, Deadline is now reporting that Heartstopper breakout Kit Connor is Marvel’s pick to play Scott Summers — aka Cyclops — in…