Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 66

Elvira Goes Full Glam in New MONSTER HIGH Comic-Con Exclusive Skullector Doll

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, has been giving us her signature “Unpleasant Dreams” for over forty years. And the face of the iconic horror movie hostess has adorned everything from t-shirts to coffee mugs to deluxe action figures. Now, Mattel Creations once again brings Elvira to the toyline she helped inspire in the first place — Monster High. This year, the exclusive all celebrate “Girl Power.” You can check out images of this new San Diego Comic-Con exclusive Monster High Elvira doll down below in our gallery:

Click To View Gallery Mattel Creations Mattel Creations Mattel Creations Mattel Creations Mattel Creations Mattel Creations Mattel Creations

And here’s the official description for the winking right at you Skullector Elvira Doll from Mattel Creations:

Monster High once again teams up with the Mistress of the Dark to conjure an unforgettable Skullector Elvira Doll. Elvira stuns in a black faux leather dress, shimmering batwing cape, and signature spooky sass. Equal parts goth and glam – her look dazzles even the darkest depths of the underworld. So, dim the lights and make yourself uncomfortable, because Elvira is putting on a performance that’ll raise the dead! Available exclusively at San Diego Comic-Con 2025.

The newest Skullector Elvira doll is inspired by the glitzy outfit she wore in her big Las Vegas finale from her cult classic ’80s movie, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. With a Monster High movie currently in development, we hope this means that the woman behind Elvira, Cassandra Peterson, makes a cameo appearance. We think she’d make the perfect school principal for Monster High. Who could run that fabulously creepy school better than her? There will actually be more than one Monster High exclusive this year, as they are also releasing a “Sweet Screams” Twyla doll. In addition, there will be a Hot Wheels Mario Kart Pauline available as an exclusive as well.

Mattel Creations

The Monster High Elvira Mistress of the Dark Skullector Doll Comic-Con exclusive will set you back $80.00.

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Voice Actor Charles Martinet Will Still Perform Mario Voice for Fans, Despite Rumors

For three decades, Charles Martinet was the voice of Mario in a metric ton of Nintendo games. After his retirement as the voice of Mario in 2023, replaced by Kevin Afghani, he became recognized by Nintendo as an official Mario Ambassador. Fans love Martinet, thanks to his often performing his Mario voice when greeting fans in person. However, via IGN, we learned there were some concerns raised recently that Martinet was restricted from going full Mario at conventions by the folks at Nintendo. But apparently, that’s not exactly the case. But Martinet has simply chosen to not go “off script” when doing his Mario voice in public.Nintendo

In a post, Martinet said “I do the voice for every fan I meet. I just don’t improvise non-Mario phrases or dialogue.” He made it a point to say that this was entirely his choice as a performer, and not some kind of mandate forced on him by Nintendo. He just felt it was best to not have the Mario character say things that weren’t in the games. “That’s my choice to be sure. I always maintain the integrity of the character. But come and visit me at any Comic Con or fan expo and you’ll hear Super Mario for sure!”

Oh Ricky. I do the Voice for every Fan I meet. I just don’t improvise non-Mario phrases or dialogue. That’s my choice to be sure. I always maintain the integrity of the character.
But come and visit me at any Comic Con or Fan expo and you’ll hear super Mario for sure! #woohoo

— Charles Martinet (@CharlesMartinet) June 10, 2025

Martinet wasn’t only voice acting for Mario, of course. He also voiced Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, among others. He really is the primary voice talent of that entire Mario universe. But fans shouldn’t fret if they meet Martinet at a convention appearance. Just expect him to only say the things fans are used to Mario saying already. Which is kind of what a Super Mario fan would probably want anyway. But if you were hoping to hear Martinet drop some f-bombs in his Mario voice, we suggest not holding your breath.

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28 YEARS LATER Is Not the Follow-Up You Might Expect (Review)

I recently rewatched 28 Days Later for the first time in years. The movie’s innovative handheld digital cameras, MTV-era cutting, and brutal, fast zombie-like creatures still pack a wallop 23 years later. At the same time, other films, TV shows, and comics have cribbed so much from Danny Boyle and Alex Garland that the concept feels exceptionally rote. That’s why the idea of the pair returning to the story with 28 Years Later intrigued me so. The world has changed, tastes have changed, and the two creatives’ careers have changed. 28 Years Later does a great job of steering into those changes and delivers a scary, exciting adventure that has more to say about 2025 than you might think.

28 Years Later is not what most people will expect. Technically, the very definition of a legacy sequel—especially given that it’s the first of a planned trilogy—the movie explores a world where death is prevalent and horrors lie around every corner, but that people still need to get on with life. It’s a very British movie in ways beyond characters and setting, and the “Keep Calm and Carry On” ethos permeates.

The idea of a “new normal” is not new to apocalypse media. However, what this movie does that sets it apart is that the line between post-apocalypse and not-apocalyptic is so small. We learn in the movie that mainland Europe was able to stop and eradicate the Rage virus, but that the UK could not. NATO placed it under global quarantine. Earth abandoned these people. Everything about our modern world exists outside of the UK; on the islands, it’s back to agrarian, hunter/gatherer societies. Or, as we also see, endless hordes of infected.

Sony

The focal point of 28 Years Later‘s story is a family living in a very small community on an island off the coast of England. The only way on or off the island is a walkable causeway on low tide. As the story begins, father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) prepares to take his 12-year-old son Spike (Alfie Williams) to the mainland for the first time for the all-important rite of passage: the first hunt. Making matters more difficult, the beloved wife and mother of the family, Isla (Jodie Comer), has become bedridden with an ever-worsening condition affecting her body and mind, leaving her memory and personality lapsing. Without access to medicine, all Jamie and Alfie can do is watch. It wears on all of them, leading each to cope in their own way.

The first half of the movie largely depicts Spike and Jamie on the hunt, with their bows and arrows ready to take out infected. We see different strains of infected in 28 Years Later, now with 30 years of time to evolve. Slow-moving, crawling infected, regular running infected, and most terrifying, the roided-up Alphas. All of these are scary, and Boyle keeps up the quick-cutting, flashy visuals to keep the audience on edge. We also get a sense of the rituals and hierarchy that have sprung up within the infected. Again, this isn’t unique for the genre, but what’s here is interesting.

Sony Pictures Releasing

While on their walkabout, Spike spots a fire in the distance, which Jamie refuses to talk about. Spike learns later that this belongs to Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), a physician from the old days. Jamie maintains Kelson has lost his mind and become terrifying and homicidal. But Spike, hoping to save his mother, gathers supplies and his mom and heads back to the mainland to try to find this mysterious doctor.

28 Years Later is very much a film of two halves. While the first half has a The Last of Us meets The Road vibe to it, I found myself much more connected to the second half. Spike and Isla’s journey is as sad as it is scary, with an Apocalypse Now vein running through it. We also get metaphysical treatises on everything from death and aging to birth and renewal. It’s easy to see Garland’s more recent penchant for inward exploration on display in the script. While always staying true to the “reality” of the world he and Boyle established in 2002, this movie does not retread any old ground of its own.

When the movie veers closer to the zombie movie tropes we’ve seen for the past three decades, it’s far less effective. The gore is extreme and the scares plentiful, but I much prefer the more contemplative and somber second part. It takes the time to deal with death with more maturity than one would expect.

Sony Pictures

I’m personally glad this movie chooses to go that direction. The family drama works so well with such solid performances that it goes beyond a survival-horror story and into something oddly universal. Comer, Fiennes, and especially Williams really deliver and I wanted even more of them talking. Yes, people do get their heads torn off. And yes, the set-up for the next film does feel completely out of left field. But when 28 Years Later works—and it does for me more than it doesn’t—I think it’s something close to beautiful.

⭐ (4 of 5)

28 Years Later hits theaters Friday, June 20.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.

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The COMPLETE Jurassic Park Timeline

A timeline 65 million years in the making! Before you head back for more dino action in Jurassic World: Rebirth, Nerdist’s Adam Murray is taking a tour through the entire Jurassic Park timeline to catch you up to speed!

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DEATH STRANDING Is Getting an Animated Feature Film Adaptation

Few video games have ever launched with the hype and anticipation that preceded Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding in 2019. Now six years later the game’s followup, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, is ready to hit stores. It arrives on June 26. But it turns out fans of the franchise have another reason to be excited this month. Not long after the announcement of a live-action adaptation starring the game’s cast comes news of yet another featured film. Raised by Wolves‘ Aaron Guzikowski is writing a screenplay for an animated movie set in the world of Death Stranding.PlayStation

Kojima Productions and animation studio Line Mileage have announced (in news we first heard at Deadline) they’re partnering on an adult animated Death Stranding movie. Rather than directly adapt any storyline from the video games, the feature film will tell an original tale.

No director is attached to the film yet. Guzikowski’s other notable screenwriting credits include 2013’s Prisoners and the 2017 Papillon remake. “I love the world of Death Stranding, it’s so creatively freeing, so beautifully dark and yet hopeful; I’m so excited and honored that Hideo Kojima, whose work I’ve long admired, has invited me to dwell within his creation, to birth new stories into this fertile, mind-bending universe,” said Guzikowski in a statement.

Kojima Productions

For a video game that features multi-layered storytelling and gameplay that some found confusing and/or slow, Death Stranding might not seem like the most obvious choice for a single featured film adaptation let alone two. But Kojima’s open world adventure offers plenty of opportunities to tell original stories. There’s a lot to mine from a supernatural place where a series of mysterious explosions connected the living and dead.

And if these first two films capture what fans love about the video game they won’t be the last two.

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28 YEARS LATER Cast and Crew on Returning to a Rage-Filled World

It hasn’t been a full 28 years since 28 Days Later, but it’s getting very close. We almost can’t fully process just how influential and innovative the original movie was in 2002. Not only did it provide a jumpstart to the zombie (or zombie-like creature) genre, it gave the world fast-running hordes. Technologically, the movie’s use of handheld digital cameras proved equally as cutting edge, even if it looks quite rough by today’s standards. On returning to the story with 28 Years Later, director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland wanted to do more than just rehash. They wanted to explore the premise through a 2025 lens.

Nerdist spoke to Boyle and Garland, as well as actors Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, about 28 Years Later and blending family drama with rage-infected scares.

Sony Pictures

“I think we wanted to do something different,” Boyle told us. “You have to be sensible. You are obviously basing it on the original movie. There is a debt that you hold and that you have to acknowledge, but we wanted to make it as minimal as possible. So much so that although we had Cillian [Murphy]’s agreement to be involved and he’s part of [the later films] and that freed us up to try and make an original film with, like I said, a certain acknowledgement of the debt.”

The movie’s story, while still about people surviving a plague-destroyed landscape, is very different from the first movie. Great Britain has been completely quarantined from the rest of the world. Mainland Europe has managed to eradicate the rage virus, but no British person is allowed to leave. This means the people who live there have had to manage in a new agrarian society and fortify their communities. At the same time, the infected have had almost 30 years to evolve.

“We want to move them on through the 28 years time passage to see how they’ve evolved,” Boyle continued. “To see how the infection, the virus has moved to survive itself. Just like the survivors have established a world that they built from zero about how they can survive without electricity, without technology. So the instinct was to be as original as possible, as much as possible throughout.”

Sony Pictures

“To me it’s just sort of what life is like,” Garland said of the rest of the movie’s world ignoring the plight of Britain. “While we are talking right now, there are some incredibly serious conflicts happening at this exact moment and here we are talking about a movie release. The world does have a really eerie, slightly creepy ability to compartmentalize and does it very naturally.”

“What the film is doing,” he continued, “is just putting Britain in the state of one of those sort of acknowledged but also concurrently forgotten. And yes, the world carries on, has Amazon drivers, has people augmenting their face with collagen or whatever it is they do, and just carrying on as per normal.”

The reality, the normal, is a major part of the lives of the characters in the movie. The relative safety of the small, offshore community allows for the family drama element to come to the forefront. At the center, we find Jamie (Taylor-Johnson) prepared to take son Spike (Williams) on his first “hunt,” while wife/mother Isla (Comer) remains largely bedridden with an unknown illness.

Sony Pictures

“I think the beauty of that is Alex Garland wrote a story where these characters are so rich,” Taylor-Johnson explained. “On the page, it’s a very intimate family drama. So I think you kind of just play into the reality of that and the groundedness. But it’s weird. You don’t almost play into the horror aspect. You’re sort playing into the truth.”

“We also had a two week rehearsal period before we started shooting,” Comer added. “Then our first week, at least, my first week on set, was in the house [together]. We went from the rehearsal room where Danny had set up the bedroom, we had all the props, and then we went straight into that set, which was amazing.”

She continued, “Danny would often play out multiple scenes in order to get momentum and to really create an energy on set. It worked, and I think the rehearsals helped all of us. It was great for us to meet each other, get familiar, and kind of create some history between us.”

The society of the island also feels fully realized and the people have gone back to an older, more traditional existence. Boyle says this, too, reflects our own times. “[It’s been] happening around the world over the last maybe 10 years,” the director continued. “This tendency to look back to the glorious past and to imagine that one might be able to live there again. Faced with the lack of electricity and the lack of technology, they have almost naturally regressed back to us almost 1950s-type existence.”

Part of that, he continued, was reverting to traditional gender roles. “The boys and the girls have been separated and gender become identified again as your key roles are to do with your gender. So the boys are trained to fight and to kill and the girls to prepare the food at home. And it was just that looking backwards was really, I think a key part of the journey of the world building of them.”

Sony Pictures

But Spike, as our lead character, doesn’t fully conform. “The boy has a decision to make by the end of the film,” Boyle explained. “Will he return to his father as his father’s whole role model suggests and steps into the footsteps of his father and life progresses in that way. Or will he try and find something else? He’ll, of course, find out what he’s going to step into is very, very dangerous indeed.”

You can see the danger for yourself when 28 Years Later hits cinemas on Friday, June 20.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.

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Chuck E. Cheese Will Gift Fans an Animated Christmas Special This Year

Everyone knows the “E” in Chuck E. Cheese stands for “entertainment,” and this holiday season the arcade-restaurant chain is making good on its star’s name. The company has announced that it will be celebrating the most wonderful time of the year with its first-ever Chuck E. Cheese animated Christmas special.Chuck E. Cheese/HappyNest Entertainment

Chuck E. Cheese is partnering with HappyNest Entertainment—a joint venture between UTA and Stampede Ventures—for an original holiday special. The Chuck E. Cheese Christmas Special (which we first heard about at Variety) is already in development and will debut ahead of the holiday.

While the Christmas special might be a first for Charles Entertainment Cheese, it will boast a whole lot of animation veterans. It comes from the writing and producing team of Zac Moncrief and Jon Colton Barry (Phineas & Ferb, Be Cool Scooby-Doo!). They penned the script and are serving as executive producers. Bobby Pontillas (Moana, Big Hero 6, and Zootopia) designed the characters. Brisbane’s Pixel Zoo Animation Studios is handling the animation. And Steve Trenbirth (The Croods: Family Tree, The Jungle Book 2) will direct, with Moncrief also serving as co-director.

That iconic mouse also scrounged up a talented cast. The Chuck E. Cheese Christmas Special will star iCarly‘s Nathan Kress as Chuck E. Cheese. Grey Griffin (Avatar: The Last Airbender), Nolan North (Uncharted), Kari Wahlgren (Rick & Morty), and Fred Tatasciore (Kung Fu Panda 2) will join him to spread holiday cheer.

Chuck E. Cheese/HappyNest Entertainment

As the first art for the special indicates, it will also feature original music. Jon Colton Barry, his father Jeff Barry (an inductee in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), Moncrief, and composer Ben Bromfield (Ginny & Georgia) wrote an all-new Chuck E. Cheese Christmas song for the special. No word yet on what this will sound like, but we can’t wait to find out.

“This project brings together all the elements of a soon-to-be holiday classic – a beloved brand that has entertained generations, a world-class creative team, and a timeless story filled with heart and comedy,” said Sadaf Cohen Muncy, SVP of Production and Development at HappyNest, in a statement. “We’re proud to have our characters brought to life by an outstanding cast of voice talent, and an exceptional production team led by acclaimed animation veterans Zac, Jon, and Steve.”

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Cinnamon Toast Crunch Goes Cannibal in New Horror Ads

It seems ambitious to call any Christmas special “a soon-to-be holiday classic.” But maybe when yours stars a character who is literally named for Entertainment, maybe it’s not.

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WEDNESDAY Season 2 Clip Invites You to Attend Nevermore Academy

The supreme Addams family member is coming back to our TV screens in two snaps. Well, not quite that fast. But soon enough, Netflix’s Wednesday will return for season two and we cannot wait to hear Jenna Ortega’s snappy one-liners once again. At the end of season one, Wednesday and her friends defeat Laurel Gates. Meanwhile, Tyler is set to escape his very short time in custody. Nevermore Academy is understandably closed for the remainder of the semester as a result of all the drama. But what will happen when the school opens up once again? We don’t know yet.

But we do know that we really want to attend Nevermore Academy. And this season two clip invites us in thanks to a new promo video with Wednesday, Enid, Bianca, and the school’s new principal, played by Steve Buscemi.

Here’s everything we know about Wednesday season two. 

Wednesday Season Two’s Plot Netflix

It’s pretty clear that Wednesday, Enid, and others will return back to Nevermore. We also know that someone is watching Wednesday and threatening to kill her, based on a text message she received while leaving Nevermore. There are still some secrets in Jericho to uncover, indeed, and we get a taste of the action in this trailer.

Netflix gave us our first footage from Wednesday season two a while back. It is only five seconds but we see Wednesday visiting Tyler Galpin a.k.a. The Hyde at Willow Hill psychiatric hospital.

You're not ready for Wednesday Season 2. #NextOnNetflix pic.twitter.com/ZDx2501wIm

— Netflix (@netflix) January 30, 2025

During the 2024 Emmys, Jenna Ortega revealed that the next season of Wednesday will pack in lots of horror, have more wonderful quotes, and that each episode will feel like its own movie. 

What I can say … [is] we’re definitely leaning into a little bit more horror,” the Scream actress teased. “It’s really, really exciting because all throughout the show, Wednesday does need a bit of an arc, she never really changes, and that’s the wonderful thing about her.”

Ortega previously stated this, saying the show will leave romance in the rearview mirror. As much as we love a good romance triangle, Wednesday is at her best when she’s investigating and verbally skewering people. 

Season two’s first episode is titled “Here We Woe Again,” which we discovered in this cute announcement video.

Here we woe again. pic.twitter.com/FPYrc5Tnaj

— Wednesday Addams (@wednesdayaddams) May 7, 2024

We probably won’t get getting another infamous dance… at least, not as far as Jenna Ortega knows. Ortega talked about Wednesday season two during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and she wasn’t aware of another big dance break; however, the show still has a ways to go for filming. Ortega did open up about her fears of returning and promised big moments this season.

“I was a little terrified just because it had been years since Wednesday, since we shot the first one. We did that like two or three years ago in Romania,” Ortega said. “So, I didn’t really know how I… I just was, I think, overthinking it.  But as soon as you put on the costumes by Colleen Atwood, you get hair and makeup done, and then you take all the expression out of your face, it’s like, ‘Oh, okay. I kind of, I know how to do this. Yeah. Yeah.'”

A recent sneak peek clip from Wednesday season two dives into how this season will build Addams family lore in ways we haven’t seen before. It looks like Morticia will really get to expand her role this season, including a blindfolded fencing scene with Wednesday. She is and will always be Mother.

Behind the Scenes

Jenna Ortega will join Tim Burton and Steve Stark, and others as an executive producer. Alfred Gough and Miles Millar will continue as co-showrunners. It remains to be seen who will direct its episodes. As of May 2024, Wednesday season two filming began in Ireland in May 2024 and wrapped in December.

Wednesday Season 2 is NOW IN PRODUCTION 🖤 Please give a round of double snaps to our cast — now including Christopher Lloyd, Steve Buscemi, Thandiwe Newton, Joanna Lumley, Haley Joel Osment, Heather Matarazzo, and Billie Piper! pic.twitter.com/v6nX6eLPP8

— Netflix (@netflix) May 7, 2024

Jenna Ortega closes the coffin on Wednesday Season 2. Coming 2025 🖤 pic.twitter.com/QJwBh1fEts

— Netflix (@netflix) December 4, 2024

Wednesday Season Two’s Cast Vlad Cioplea/Netflix

Alongside Ortega, Emma Myers (Enid Sinclair), Joy Sunday (Bianca Barclay), Jamie McShane (Sheriff Galpin), Catherine Zeta-Jones (Morticia Addams), Luis Guzmán (Gomez Addams), Isaac Ordonez (Pugsley Addams), and Hunter Doohan (Tyler Galpin), Fred Armisen (Uncle Fester) will return. Uncle Fester is reportedly getting his own spinoff, so an episode this season could serve as a backdoor pilot for that show. Speaking of Addams family members, there are new ones this season. Joanna Lumley is portraying Grandmama Hester Frump, Morticia’s mother. And Joonas Suotamo is the family’s butler Lurch, of course.

It doesn’t seem that Christina Ricci will return as Laurel Gates but anything is possible.

20th century studios

We do know that there will be an Edward Scissorhands reunion this season. Variety reports that Anthony Michael Hall, who played Kim’s jerk boyfriend Jim, will reunite with Tim Burton in Wednesday season two. Details about his role are unknown at this time.

In recent news, Lady Gaga is joining the cast for season two in some capacity that is not fully known at this time. Ortega opened up about working with Gaga on Wednesday and what her personality is like.

“It’s the best. She’s the best, definitely one of the most talented individuals I’ve ever worked with,” Ortega said to IndieWire. “It was just a really, really special environment to be there with her and Tim [Burton], two people that I respect and have been inspired by so much….Then just finding out that she’s such a sweetheart and really kind and reserved, it’s very strange. I love that you never know what to expect from her, but you can always expect kindness and generosity.”

According to Netflix, Billie Piper (who will play a character named Capri), Evie Templeton, Owen Painter, and Noah Taylor are joining the cast in a full-time capacity. Addams Family alum Christopher Lloyd is joining as a guest star alongside Frances O’Connor, Haley Joel Osment, Heather Matarazzo, and Thandiwe Newton (as Dr. Fairburn).

Deadline reports that Steve Buscemi has joined the cast as well, and “will play the new principal of Nevermore Academy.” His character’s name is Barry Dort.

Last year’s TUDUM event revealed that we will meet a new Addams family member. We had a few ideas about which Addams family member could show up in Wednesday. And now we know that Joanna Lumley will portray Grandmama in Wednesday‘s second season.

Wednesday Season Two’s Release Date

Wednesday season two has eight episodes and will release in two equal parts, with Part I coming August 6 and Part II coming September 3.

Originally published on January 16, 2024.

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Tom Rhys Harries Will Star in CLAYFACE Movie

As recent reports have suggested, the first Batman villain to feature in their own solo project in James Gunn’s DCU is none other than Clayface. And now, the Clayface film has a director attached. According to The Hollywood Reporter, director James Watkins (Speak No Evil) has signed on to helm the horror film about the shapeshifting Gotham City villain. And, the Clayface movie has found its star with Tom Rhys Harries as the titular villain. The Welsh actor may not be well known to many US folks but some Doctor Who fans may recognize him from “Dot & Bubble.” BBC/Bad Wolf Studios

The script initially came from horror master Mike Flanagan. For those unaware, that’s the genius behind Midnight Mass, The Haunting of Hill House, and Doctor Sleep, among several others. However, a recent report by The Wrap reveals Hossein Amini will rewrite the Clayface film script for some reason. This is shocking considering Flanagan’s resume but maybe it will be for the best.

Warner Bros. Animation

According to the original report, the film has a relatively modest budget of $40 million. That’s more akin to a studio horror film than a superhero movie. The movie centers on a B-movie actor who injects himself with a strange substance to keep himself relevant in Hollywood. He later discovers that he can reshape his face and body, becoming a walking piece of clay. This is very in line with the character’s appearance in Batman: The Animated Series. With a wee dash of The Substance thrown in for good measure. It’s unknown if they’ll be using the original Clayface, Basil Karlo, or his Matt Hagen persona. Batman has fought multiple villains named Clayface over the years.

In terms of the DCU connections, a version of Clayface has already appeared in canon. He popped up as a villain in the animated Creature Commandos series. That version appeared to die in battle, but James Gunn posted that reports of Clayface’s death had been exaggerated. Does that mean it’s the same Clayface? The one in Creature Commandos did not seem like a former Hollywood actor. Most likely, just like in the pages of DC Comics, there is simply more than one Clayface. The one in the film may simply derive his powers from the other one.

We’ll find out for sure when DC Studios’ Clayface hits theaters, on September 11, 2026.

Originally published on February 21, 2025.

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THE DAILY SHOW Lighting Designer Won a Pedro Pascal Lookalike Contest

I imagine it’s probably not the worst thing to go through life looking like Pedro Pascal. People seem to reeeeally like his face, you know? What I can’t imagine is what is must be like to resemble one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Especially when you also have a job where you constantly meet famous people who know The Fantastic Four star personally. But that’s the exactly what 42-year-old George Gountas’ does every day when he goes to work. The lighting director for The Daily Show just won a Pedro Pascal lookalike contest. CBS/HBO

The Son Del North Mexican restaurant in New York City’s Lower East Side did not exactly agree with some recent Pedro Pascal comments. He said the Big Apple has no good Mexican food. Rather than serve everyone their own offerings, though, they held a lookalike contest. (In fairness, great call. We would NOT be covering the quality of their food no matter how good it might be. But we’re definitely covering this.)

The restaurant offered $50, a year of burritos (1 per week), and “eternal bragging rights” to the person who most resembled Pascal. His colleagues pushed Gountas to enter, and it’s a good thing they did. When the time came to vote there wasn’t much debate. “Pedro #5” was the crowd’s obvious choice from the dozen contestants.

The photos and videos of him at the competition show why Gountas easily won. It wasn’t even really close. From a distance you might actually think you saw Pedro Pascal hanging lights at The Daily Show where he works.

So what’s it like to go around having a face that reminds people of one of the most famous actors in the world? Gountas told The Hollywood Reporter his wife had trouble watching Oberyn Martell get his skull caved in by The Mountain on Game of Thrones because it was like watching her husband get his head crushed.

Geez, and we thought it was hard for us to watch that scene.

As for meeting his famous doppelganger, despite his job Gountas hasn’t encountered Pascal at The Daily Show since he joined the staff in 2018. Obviously that’s likely to change after this contest. Pascal has already reacted to it online. If they do meet they should go out for some Mexican food together. Gountas says Son Del North Mexican’s burritos are “excellent.”

What would it be like to eat a burrito with your celebrity lookalike? I can’t even imagine.

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