It’s time for a quick pop culture update! Stories have been developing pretty fast. Trailers are dropping! Franchising are starting! What are the things you need to see and read, if you haven’t already? Don’t worry, here’s a quick recap of the latest news.
Warhammer! It’s been a weird few weeks for the former Man of Steel. Henry Cavill who had announced he would indeed be returning as Superman, actually won’t. This was new news after announcing he was leaving The Witcher. You’d think his year would end on a downer, but low and behold the latest story is that Cavill will star and produce in a new Warhammer franchise with Amazon Studios. Cavill, whose a huge fan of the the world of Warhammer will finally be living out a childhood dream. Congrats to both him and all Warhammer fans!
Barbie! Greta Gerwig’s highly anticipated Barbie film released an epic teaser trailer that parodies Kubrics opening scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey. It’s swaps the monolith and monkeys with a giant Margot Robbie as Barbie herself surrounded by adorable little girls. It’s hilarious and epic and iconic all at the same time. If you haven’t seen it, check it out here!
Avatar: The Way of Water has arrived in theaters. The opening box office reports say its earned $134 million dollars in North America so far. While that sounds like a huge number, in Hollywood speak, they said it actually underperformed expectations. But, no worries. The original Avatar opened to a meager $77 million and went on to earn $2.9 billion world wide. According to a New York Times article, it cost an estimated $600 million to make and market. James Cameron set a personal benchmark of 2 billion in order to achieve financial success. The coming weeks will prove telling on whether this movie has legs to go the distance.
Saying goodbye to Ash and Pikachu. After 25 years Pokemon will be ending Ash and Pikachu’s story with an 11 episode arc airing in Japan on January 13, 2023. It marks then end of an era and the beginning of a new one. This trailer on YouTube announces a new direction for the franchise, but only shows a few characters only and doesn’t divulge the details. Pikachu arguably being one of the most popular breakout Pokemon characters from the show, it’ll be interesting to see how the franchise pivots and where they go from her.
That’s a wrap on the pop culture news from the past couple of days! Did you go see Avatar: The Way of Water this weekend? I did, but didn’t have time for a full on review, so expect it to come later this week. And how do you feel about Ash and Pikachu leaving the franchise? So sad! Better hold your stuffed Pikachu close when those final episodes hit. They could be a real tear jerker.