Denis Villeneuve is saying goodbye to Dune, and the farewell hit the director hard. Villeneuve directed Dune and Dune: Part Two, which together earned more than $1.1 billion worldwide, and his trilogy concludes on December 18 with Dune: Part Three. The final film adapts Dune Messiah, Frank Herbert’s 1969 follow-up to his original novel, and picks up 17 years after the second movie, with Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides now ruling as Emperor.

Denis Villeneuve's farewell came in the latest issue of SFX Magazine, where he reflected on closing out the story he first brought to the screen in 2021. The director shared why he chose to finish the trilogy now, and Zendaya joined in to reveal where the finale finds her character, Chani. The interview doubles as Villeneuve’s parting word on the Dune franchise before it reaches theaters.

Following its Netflix streaming debut, Sniper: No Nation Part 2's imminent release has been confirmed by star Chad Michael Collins. Sniper: No Nation is the 12th film in the long-running franchise, serving as a direct continuation of 2025's Sniper: The Last Stand. 

Sniper: No Nation delivers a high-stakes, off-the-books rescue mission in which disavowed ace sniper Brandon Beckett (Chad Michael Collins) reunites with his father Thomas Beckett (Tom Berenger) and trusted ally Agent Zero (Ryan Robbins) to lead a ragtag band of Phoenix Rebellion survivors against the ruthless Iron Legion mercenaries in Costa Verde. 

The movie's gripping, incomplete storyline, capped by a deliberate cliffhanger that teases unresolved threats and sets up Sniper: No Nation Part 2, has fueled fresh fan excitement following its digital release and subsequent Netflix streaming debut. 

Incredibles 3 executive producer Brad Bird explained why aging up the franchise's leading superheroes would be a bad idea. Bird served as director and screenwriter on the last two Incredibles movies for Pixar, released in 2004 and 2018. After almost another decade of waiting, Incredibles 3 will finally hit theaters on June 16, 2028, though Bird is stepping back from directing and handing the reins to Elemental filmmaker Peter Sohn. The franchise creator is still on board as writer and executive producer but was too busy with his next project, the sci-fi neo-noir mystery Ray Gunn, which will stream on Netflix on December 18, to direct the long-awaited threequel.

The Direct exclusively spoke with Incredibles 3 writer and Ray Gunn director Brad Bird, who shut down the notion that the Pixar threequel would have a time jump to age up the teenage Violet, preteen Dash, and baby Jack-Jack. 

The filmmaker noted that exploring older versions of the Incredibles' child superheroes would "lose the archetypical aspect" of the franchise that is so crucial:

Splash City, which is scheduled to land in theaters on Monday, July 20, follows Zach Sowers' Elijah and Reed Shannon's Juju, two brothers on diverging paths on the unforgiving corners of San Francisco, living under their relentless single mother in a low-income apartment. Elijah is a basketball prodigy with a big future ahead of him, while Juju finds himself on a bad path, spending too much time on the streets and with criminals as they smash and grab from parked cars throughout the city.

The Direct sat down with Splash City star Reed Shannon, who many will know from his recent role as Ekko in Netflix's incredibly successful animated series Arcane, who spoke about how important role models are to someone's life trajectory and how Juju's lack of one sent him down the wrong path.

Fans of Reed Shannon can also hear more of his voice as Ekko in the recent video game 2XKO.

Descendants: Wicked Wonderland introduced a new hero, Luis Madrigal, and his father's identity remained a mystery, sparking widespread online speculation. The fifth installment of Disney's Descendants franchise introduced Luis, the confident, super-strong son of Luisa Madrigal from Encanto. 

Many would argue that Luis was a standout character in the film, with him carrying the weight of his family's legacy while joining Red, Chloe, Pink, and a new crew of Auradon and Wonderland allies to prevent Maddox Hatter's sinister schemes. While Disney has only confirmed Luisa as his mother, the odd lack of mention of his father in the movie has led to numerous theories, and one of them piqued the interest of Descendants diehards. 

Who Are Luis Madrigal's Parents in Descendants: Wicked Wonderland?

Descendants: Wicked Wonderland featured a twist in its third act, in which co-lead Chloe Charming turned evil thanks to scheming by one of the film's new characters. The latest film in Disney's ongoing Original Movie franchise dealt with the ramifications of 2024's Rise of Red, in which Kylie Cantrall's Red and Malia Baker's Chloe Charming traveled back in time to save both of their mothers. As a result, a new timeline was created in which newcomer Max Hatter (Brendon Tremblay) became a Villain Kid rather than Hero Kid.

Max, grandson of the Mad Hatter and son of Maddox Hatter, eventually finds out about Red and Chloe's time-traveling altercations, specifically that his dad used to be much nicer to him (and to the world in general). In Descendants 5, Max's dad is now bent on finding the Pocket Watch, the device Red and Chloe used in Rise of Red. As a result, Maddox was trapped on the Isle of the Lost for many years before being brought back to Wonderland by Rita Ora's Queen of Hearts.

The final moments of Descendants: Wicked Wonderland teased more in store for one of the movie's brand-new characters. Disney Channel's Original Movie franchise, Descendants, continues to be a juggernaut for the House of Mouse, having started in 2015 and pushing onward with a new series of films centered on a fresh generation of Hero and Villain Kids. Wicked Wonderland, now streaming on Disney+, doesn't seem to be the end of it, either.

The ending of Descendants: Wicked Wonderland sets up yet another new entry, likely a movie, in the franchise. Descendants projects typically end with the line, "You didn't think that was the end of the story, did you?" In Descendants 5, these words are brought up yet again by Chessy, the feline daughter of Alice in Wonderland's Cheshire Cat. 

Chessy's face first appears on a clock overlooking the room where the film's characters gathered for a celebratory finale party, teasing that it's "Time to start some new mischief." Audiences then see Liamani Segura's Pink, the sister of leading character Red, enter the room and notice something glistening under a table in the Queen of Hearts' castle.

The Odyssey's ending introduced a compelling twist involving Zendaya's Athena, completely redefining Odysseus's core journey in the movie. Athena appeared throughout The Odyssey as a guiding presence to Matt Damon's Odysseus, offering guidance, strategy, and quiet judgment amid the storms, monsters, and moral tempests Odysseus faces. 

Athena was portrayed as ethereal, wise, and a haunting presence. It wasn't until the film's ending, during Odysseus's revelation of the sack of Troy, that he fully reinterpreted Athena's role in his perilous journey back to Ithaca. 

The Odyssey's Athena Twist Has a Compelling & Deeper Meaning 

One of Disney's most successful Original Movie franchises, Descendants, is filled with more lore than ever, thanks to its most recent movie addition. Descendants: Wicked Wonderland is a follow-up to 2024's Descendants: Rise of Red, both of which usher in a new era of Villain Kids (VKs) and Hero Kids (HKs). In the aftermath of Rise of Red's timeline shenanigans, Wicked Wonderland introduces characters who exist solely in this brand-new timeline, as well as some connected to the franchise's original films.

Wicked Wonderland, streaming on Disney+, features several family lines that interconnect in various ways. From mothers and daughters to grandfathers and grandsons, there is no shortage of connectivity in a franchise built on these ties.

Descendants: Wicked Wonderland Family Tree With Pictures: How the Heroes & Villains Are Connected

Demand is high to see Christopher Nolan's fantasy epic The Odyssey in IMAX 70mm, but there's a good reason behind why the sessions are so limited. The Odyssey is a blockbuster adaptation of Homer's ancient poem, depicting the Trojan War hero Odysseus on a turbulent journey home to Ithaca. Nolan's new film is the first movie ever captured entirely on IMAX 70mm film stock, and that rare feat has also made it even harder to see in the intended format.

There are only a handful of cinemas worldwide capable of projecting 70mm IMAX, which significantly limits the number of showtimes audiences can see Nolan's film in this format. As it turns out, there are several key reasons why theaters cannot simply add more IMAX 70mm screenings of The Odyssey.

IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond shared with Variety at the premiere of The Odyssey that he and the team recognize that "there's certainly more demand" for audiences to see the film in these theaters. The issue with providing more availability, according to Gelfond, is that "they haven’t made new IMAX film projectors in about 50 years."

Many know Kathryn Newton from the MCU as Cassie Lang, Ant-Man's daughter, who debuted in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. However, Newton is also infamous for her horror movie escapades, such as this year's Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. Now she's adding another terrifying entry to her terror takeover with Amazon Studios' The Devil's Mouth, which releases on Prime Video on July 29.

The Jeff Wadlow-directed film follows Newton's Charlie and her group of college friends on a Thailand adventure, who end up stuck in a flooded cave system when a territorial bull shark starts picking them off one by one. Alongside Newton, the film stars Lana Condor, Gavin Casalegno, Tommi Rose, Nico Hiraga, Tayme Thapthimthong, and Harrison Luna.

The Direct sat down with The Devil's Mouth star Kathryn Newton, who discussed how nothing could have prepared her for the experience of filming the movie and its rigorous production in Thailand. For fans who want to see more of Newton, they will be excited to learn that she is returning in Avengers: Doomsday later this year.

The Body in the Locker revealed the killer's identity in the movie's final 12 minutes, and it was someone fans did not expect at all after various twists and turns. The 2025 Lifetime thriller movie, now streaming on Netflix, follows Amy Robertson, a driven charity CEO reeling from the death of her famous, wealthy father, Reginald Leigh. While sorting through her father's belongings following the invasion of a masked intruder in his home, Amy discovered a mysterious storage key and a password-protected USB drive left behind by the suspect. 

What started as a simple errand to a BoxedIn storage facility spiraled into a nightmare when she opened Locker 126 and found a decomposing body of a woman inside. This discovery plunged Amy into a web of secrets and a deeply seated betrayal that forever changed her life (a reveal quite similar to Netflix's Absentia). 

The Body in the Locker recently started streaming on Netflix U.S. on July 16 and is currently charting at #2 on Netflix's Top 10 Movies in the U.S. chart. 

The Odyssey's cathartic ending gave Tom Holland's Telemachus a much-needed resolution as he became king of Ithaca, while also elevating his story and the film's overall arc with compelling thematic depth. The Odyssey introduced Telemachus as an overlooked prince, the son of a long-absent king, desperate to prove himself worthy of the legacy his father, Odysseus, left behind. 

A good chunk of the Christopher Nolan-directed movie showed Holland's Telemachus fighting his mother's suitors, led by Robert Pattinson's Antinous, who plan to take the throne from him, while also trying to prove that his father is still alive. By the time the finale arrived, his journey had culminated in such a powerful fashion. 

Telemachus' Fate In The Odyssey's Ending Signals a New Generation's Hope

The Odyssey features a race of giants who lay waste of Odysseus' fleet, and they have major connections to Greek mythology and Poseidon. Shortly after encountering the Cyclops in the cave and before facing the sorceress Circe, Matt Damon's Odysseus encounters another of the eight creatures from Greek mythology that appear in The Odyssey: the giant Laestrygonians.

Having finally landed on a beach after a dangerous voyage, cursed by Poseidon, Odysseus and his men venture into the woods and find a lone, laughing child, who just so happens to be armored and the size of a fully grown man. Himesh Patel's Eurylochus ponders, "If that's the child, what about the parents?" as the overgrown boy lets out a scream, summoning his giant elders. These giants brutally attack the men in the woods and pursue them to their ships, two of which they wipe out, leaving Odysseus with just one boat for his voyage.

Obsession has officially grossed over $250 million at the domestic box office, a milestone that 14 Marvel Studios-produced MCU movies failed to reach. Having been produced on a $750,000 production budget, studio expectations were clearly high on Obsession from the get-go. Distributor Focus Features picked up the horror sensation for $15 million at the Toronto International Film Festival (via The Hollywood Reporter), but it's doubtful that, even then, many expected it to compete with the box office big dogs like Marvel, DC, and Star Wars franchises.

Now nine weeks into its box office run, Obsession is still winning big at the box office and recently crossed $250 million domestically. Only four other movies have reached that impressive milestone this year: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Toy Story 5, Michael, and Project Hail Mary, with The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day expected to enter the exclusive club in the coming weeks. 

Obsession stands at $256.78 million domestically and $430.13 million globally, making it the seventh biggest movie of the year worldwide. Perhaps its greatest milestone yet is crossing a quarter of a billion ($250 million) at the domestic box office on such a low budget, something even 14 of Marvel Studios' big-budget MCU tentpoles have failed to do over the years:

LEGO has officially released its first set based on Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU). Alongside its partnership with Marvel Studios for Tom Holland's Spider-Man films, Sony Pictures owns the rights to several characters in Spider-Man lore, leading them to create a series of films based on characters adjacent to the web-slinger. While Venom, Morbius, Madame Web, and Kraven the Hunter failed to live up to expectations for Sony's Spider-Man Universe, one of these films has now been immortalized in LEGO form.

LEGO has released a brand-new Marvel set depicting a bust of the symbiote villain Venom. While LEGO has incorporated Venom into its sets before, this version is specifically based on the 2018 Venom film, making it the first LEGO set tied directly to Sony's Spider-Man Universe.

Christopher Nolan has an epic plan for the release of The Odyssey across multiple theater formats, including IMAX 70mm. Behind a massive cast of A-list stars, Nolan is officially in theaters with a movie he has worked on for the better part of the last two decades. Known for a love of bringing his movies to theaters in different viewing formats, it is no surprise that he is going all out with his latest effort.

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is being presented in theaters in six different viewing formats. The most common format for viewing in theaters is 35MM, which is the industry standard for film reels. 

But 35MM isn't the viewing format everyone is talking about for The Odyssey. That would be IMAX 70MM, and there is a good reason it's getting so much buzz. 

2026's The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is set to highlight an important milestone for the titular games. The upcoming installment of the hit dystopian series based on Suzanne Collins' novels serves as both a sequel to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and a prequel to the Jennifer Lawrence-led main trilogy. 

The story focuses on a young Haymitch Abernathy as he participates in the 50th Hunger Games (aka the Second Quarter Quell) on Panem, a historic edition of the games made unprecedented by a major rule revision that completely changed everything. 

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping stars Joseph Zada, Mckenna Grace, Whitney Peak, Elle Fanning, Ralph Fiennes, and Jennifer Lawrence. The movie will premiere in theaters on November 20.

Christopher Nolan's fantasy-infused epic The Odyssey has arrived, and it adapts many of Greek mythology's most iconic creatures. The film is based on Homer's poem of the same name, which follows Greek war hero Odysseus (Matt Damon) on a perilous journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War. Along the way, Odysseus' path is plagued with dangers, including many of the monsters from Greek myth.

Greek mythology's creatures have been adapted across numerous Hollywood properties, from Disney's Percy Jackson and the Olympians to films like Clash of the Titans and Immortals. However, Christopher Nolan's signature vision and style bring out a different side of these creatures, as The Odyssey eschews blatant fantasy in favor of a more grounded approach (read The Direct's review of Nolan's film here). 

Warning - The rest of this article contains spoilers for The Odyssey (2026).

Lupita Nyong'o's Helen of Troy arrives in The Odyssey with a facial scar that has a tragic meaning. Helen's casting has been a subject of debate leading up to The Odyssey, due to Nolan's choice of Black Panther actor Lupita Nyong'o. Many have declared the Black actress' casting a "woke" race swap in a rather ridiculous notion, given that Helen is a mythological figure and the daughter of the Greek thunder god Zeus, whose ethnicity is never truly clarified in the ancient texts.

Those familiar with Greek mythology and its portrayal of the Trojan War will be aware that it all began with Helen of Troy, aka Helen of Sparta. The ancient mythology paints a picture of Helen's immense, mesmerizing beauty and equally high intelligence, along with her marriage to Menelaus, the King of Sparta and brother of Agamemnon, who commanded the united Greek forces.

What Happened to Helen of Troy's Face in The Odyssey Movie?