There are tons of romances in the MCU; Wanda and Vision, Steve Roger and Peggy Carter, Tony Stark and Pepper Potts—the list goes on and on. With VisionQuest, Marvel Studios has started building the foundation for something brand new, this time between Ruaridh Mollica's Tommy and Lauren Morais' Lisa Molinari.

Tommy is Vision and Wanda's long-lost son with super-speed powers, someone audiences have been waiting years to meet. Lisa is a sly pickpocket who first met Tommy when he sat next to her on a prison bus. That small moment sparked the fire of a long-lasting friendship, one that is clearly building towards something far more romantic.

The situation for Tommy and Lisa got pretty intense in VisionQuest's latest episode, as Lisa became the victim of T'Nia Miller's Jocasta and the evil robot's new nanites, setting off a chain of events that could bring her closer to her villainous comic counterpart.

Apple TV's Shrinking is set to bring back Harrison Ford's Paul and Cobie Smulders' Sofi for a fourth season, and Jason Segel has some thoughts about the show's possible ending and future. Season 3 concluded with a rather hopeful outlook for Segel's Jimmy, wrapping up many of its plotlines to the point that many fans could have taken the finale as an end to the entire series.

Shrinking is not stopping anytime soon, though, with the show getting a Season 4 renewal a day before Season 3 premiered all the way back in January 2026. With more episodes on the way, it seems the possibilities are endless for the hit drama-comedy series.

In an exclusive interview with Jason Segel while promoting Over Your Dead Body, The Direct asked the star how many seasons he envisions Shrinking will need to complete its story. Segel, who is closely involved in the series' development as a credited writer and executive producer on all of its three seasons, said that they'll keep going "as long as [they're] having a good time:"

Avatar: Seven Havens is the latest series in the smash hit Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise, putting the focus on a brand new time period, with two twin Avatars for the first time. Premiering on Paramount+ on October 9, Avatar: Seven Havens takes place roughly 225 years after The Legend of Korra and explores a society that despises the Avatar after she brought about a catastrophe that destroyed the world. Stepping into Korra's shoes are young twins Pavi and Nisha, who have the odds stacked against them as they attempt to rebuild faith in the Avatar name with a new team of friends at their side.

Avatar: Seven Havens took to the stage at New York Comic-Con 2026, where the cast and producers unpacked the new animated series and also came in swinging with a slew of new Avatar announcements, including confirmation of Seasons 3 and 4 for Seven Havens. 

At NYCC, The Direct participated in roundtables with cast members Saheli Khan (Pavi), Major Curda (Jae), and Aishu Devan (Nisha), as well as producers Sehaj Sethi, Ethan Spaulding, Michael Dante DiMartino, and Bryan Konietzko, where they spoke about the new Team Avatar's dynamic and how Pavi and Nisha's personalities compare to Aang and Korra.

The MCU loves a good AI, as Disney+'s VisionQuest is actively proving. Back in Spider-Man: Far From Home, Marvel Studios introduced E.D.I.T.H., an AI in Tony Stark's sunglasses that was handed off to Peter Parker, and briefly to Mysterio, shortly after Iron Man's death. Serving as a fleeting plot point for the film, the AI never made an appearance again after her initial adventure with Spider-Man.

Now, seven years later, not only is E.D.I.T.H. back, but she's getting infinitely more depth and character work than fans would have ever expected to see thanks to VisionQuest and Emily Hampshire's performance. Living alongside Vision in his mind palace with other AIs like F.R.I.D.A.Y. and D.U.M.E., and the villainous Ultron, played by James Spader, E.D.I.T.H. is one of Vision's closest confidants.

The Direct spoke with VisionQuest's Emily Hampshire to talk all about her portrayal of E.D.I.T.H. and how the AI has evolved far past the programming that audiences first witnessed in Spider-Man: Far From Home.

There's a new Voorhees family on the block as Linda Cardellini and Callum Vinson bring Jason and Pamela Voorhees to life in Crystal Lake, the latest in the famed Friday the 13th franchise. Crystal Lake is the first installment in the franchise in over 15 years, and the television prequel sheds new light on the Voorhees before they became the infamous killers they're known as in pop culture.

Crystal Lake also expands the lore of the slasher franchise by introducing a host of new characters, some familiar from the movies and others brand-new to the story. While at New York Comic-Con 2026, The Direct participated in roundtable interviews with executive producer Brad Caleb Kane and cast members Linda Cardellini (Pamela), Callum Vinson (Jason), William Catlett (Levon), Gwendolyn Sundstrom (Grace), Cameron Scoggins (Dorf), and Devin Kessler (Briana) about injecting new life into the franchise. 

For more of The Direct's Crystal Lake coverage, check out our interviews with the cast at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.

Love can be a crazy experience, and give people some wild stories to tell—which is exactly how NBC's new sitcom Newlyweds, starring and produced by Freakier Friday's Jamie Lee Curtis, came about. Newlyweds follows Jeanie (Téa Leoni) and James (Tim Daly), two divorced, very different people who marry on a whim. The events of this later-in-life romance that unfold next are wild, zany, and unexpected.

The Direct spoke with Newlyweds star and producer Jamie Lee Curtis (who recently starred in The Bear) about her new series, in which she revealed the genesis of her new show and why producing is so important and fulfilling for her.

Jamie Lee Curtis' Crazy Love Story Is the Genesis for 'Newlyweds'

Season 3 of The Last of Us is preparing for a shake-up as another character steps up to fill Joel Miller's (Pedro Pascal) shoes. After serving as the main protagonist in Season 1 of HBO's The Last of Us, Season 2 turned things upside down for Joel after having him killed off by Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) in the second episode. This sparked a whole new story for The Last of Us, as Ellie (Bella Ramsey) became the series' new lead and set out to avenge Joel's death.

While Pascal's Joel still had something of a presence throughout Season 2 of The Last of Us, that will change in Season 3 as the show accepts the character's death and moves on to share Abby's side of the story. Joel's absence has allowed one character to step into his archetype as the older male mentor figure for Ellie in Season 2 and into Season 3: Gabriel Luna's Tommy Miller.

The next Harry Potter release has officially been announced for November, ahead of the HBO show. Recent years have brought about the biggest resurgence yet for J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World, with the Hogwarts Legacy game, seven new full-cast audio dramas featuring A-list talent, and the upcoming HBO reboot. 

Food Network confirmed that Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking will return for Season 3 on Wednesday, November 4, continuing the reality competition series' annual premiere schedule that began in 2024. This marks the final major Wizarding World release before HBO's Harry Potter reboot begins in December to thrust J.K. Rowling's fantasy world into a new era on the small screen.

The competition divides bakers into teams representing the four Hogwarts houses in Harry Potter for a tournament-style bake-off with some familiar hosts: the actors who played the movies' twin Weasley brothers, James and Oliver Phelps. A report from Deadline revealed that Wizards of Baking has received a "sizeable budget cut" for Season 3 as production relocates from the U.K. to Canada.

When the first season of Avatar: Seven Havens was announced as Book One: Survival, many astute fans quickly realized this was connected to the seven chakras introduced in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Fans also linked these last seven bastions of humanity to these chakras and how these havens could thematically reflect them.

For those unfamiliar with the original series or have forgotten, the seven chakras, in order, are as follows:

The new opening for Seven Havens showed fans how the world had changed after the Cataclysm, including the locations of the seven havens, all helpfully color-coded by their respective chakras. While it hasn't been explicitly stated within the show, Ellora is no doubt linked to the Earth Chakra for several reasons. 

Mayor of Kingstown Season 5 still has no confirmed release date, and Paramount+'s stacked Taylor Sheridan schedule may keep audiences waiting a little longer. Hawkeye star Jeremy Renner's Paramount+ crime thriller, Mayor of Kingstown, created by the legendary writer behind Yellowstone, Taylor Sheridan, is officially returning for a fifth and final season on the streaming service. Season 4 debuted on Paramount+ from October to December 2025 before production on Season 5 took place earlier this year, from March to July, closing the door on Kingstown, Michigan, and Renner's Michael McLusky for the last time.

Fans are eagerly waiting for news on when Mayor of Kingstown Season 5 will officially premiere, but Paramount+ has some other key events to get through first. Another Taylor Sheridan crime drama, Tulsa King, will be back for Season 4 on Friday, October 16, Dexter: Resurrection Season 2 will follow on Friday, October 30, and Marshals and MobLand Season 2 are already underway. Paramount+ will almost certainly wait until some of its other biggest original shows finish their current seasons before bringing Mayor of Kingstown back into the mix.

Fans have been given an avalanche of mysteries in the premiere of Avatar: Seven Havens, but by far the biggest is how there are two Avatars. Something that shouldn't be possible, but the most common theory so far has to do with Vaatu receding into Raava in the finale of The Legend of Korra's Book Two: Spirits. 

When Korra died sometime before the events of Seven Havens, she died with Vaatu still inside Raava, something that had never happened before. When Raava moved on to her next human host, it's possible that Vaatu became separated from her early and inhabited his own host, which happened to be one of a pair of twins: Pavi and Nashi.

Fans haven't seen the last of House of the Dragon's most underrated villain, according to series star Gayle Rankin. The HBO fantasy series is a prequel to Game of Thrones, exploring the Targaryen dynasty during a period of civil war, where the family is divided into the Greens and the Blacks fighting for the Iron Throne. Everyone in the world of Westeros is scheming for their own gain, and that includes one of House of the Dragon's underlying villains, Alys Rivers. 

Played by Gayle Rankin, Alys was introduced in Season 2 of House of the Dragon as a mysterious healer residing at Harrenhal. She went on to have influential relationships with two Targaryen men: Daemon (Matt Smith) in Season 2 and, more recently, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) in Season 3. But this isn't the last the audience has seen of Alys, as Rankin confirmed to The Direct while promoting her upcoming film The Incomer that she will be back in Season 4 of House of the Dragon. 

Ranking said that she "will be [involved]" in production for Season 4, which is now scheduled to begin "early next year." The star kept quiet about what might be next for Alys and Aemond after their relationship hit a sticking point with the arrival of Aegon at Harrenhal, who called his brother out of his self-imposed exile to fight at his side and defeat Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy). Rankin teased only that both Alys and Aemond are "still alive," as of the end of Season 3, meaning there's still more story for them to tell.

Off Campus Season 2 finally received the news fans have been waiting for, providing major details that narrow its release window ahead of its return on Prime Video. Off Campus had a successful first season despite its binge-release strategy, which was released on the streamer on May 13. The college hockey romance series became one of Prime Video's biggest launches, reaching 36 million viewers worldwide in its first 12 days and ranking as the service's third-most-watched debut season behind Rings of Power and Fallout. Prime Video saw the success coming a mile away after they renewed Off Campus for a Season 2 on February 12, 2026, months before Season 1's streaming premiere. 

Off Campus Season 2 received a major announcement ahead of its return on Prime Video. MTV UK shared in a social media post that filming for the show's sophomore run has officially wrapped, effectively narrowing its release window. 

Season 2 began shooting in Vancouver in early June 2026, with production originally targeting a mid-September finish (via Vogue), aligning with the latest update shared by MTV UK. It's also worth noting that this Google x Vogue collaboration promo featuring Season 2 lead star Mika Abdalla confirmed that she has wrapped filming for the sophomore run, further indicating that production is complete.

HBO's Harry Potter Season 1 officially has an exciting slogan ahead of its release that perfectly celebrates the young wizard's story and honors J.K. Rowling's original story. Warner Bros. is taking its second stab at adapting Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, this time in an eight-episode season, premiering Christmas Day (December 25). The Daniel Radcliffe-led first movie arrived in November 2001 with taglines like "let the magic begin" and "journey beyond your imagination," teasing the magical world to come.

Amazon officially unveiled a new range of merch for HBO's Harry Potter, including one T-shirt design that reveals the first slogan for Season 1: "The Boy Who Lived." The slogan will be familiar to fans of J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World, as Harry was given that nickname after he survived Voldemort's killing curse, leaving only a lightning-bolt scar (the redesigned version of which appears behind the slogan).

The fact that this legendary title has endured to the new Harry Potter series demonstrates just how essential it is to the story, which should please Rowling for capturing such an iconic moniker when writing The Philosopher's Stone.

Netflix's Stranger Things: Tales From '85 Season 2 just dropped, bringing with it a first look at a character never before seen in the popular sci-fi franchise. Set between Seasons 2 and 3 of the original live-action series, Tales From '85 follows the core group of kids, now known as the Hawkins Investigators Club, as they take on threats that are slightly less world-ending in scale. Backed by a cast of newcomer voice actors, the animated series offers a glimpse into the lives of Hawkins residents that the original show may not have had time to explore, including the somber backstory of one fan-favorite character.

In Season 2, Episode 1 of Stranger Things: Tales From '85 ("Chapter One: A Haunting in Hawkins"), a first look at Max Mayfield's biological dad is revealed, nine years after Max was introduced. Voiced in the series by Jolie Hoang-Rappaport (following the live-action portrayal of X-Men's Sadie Sink), Max is talking to her biological dad, Sam Mayfield, on the phone. Notably, her dad is not heard on this phone call, as viewers only hear Max's side of the conversation.

While he had been planning to visit her in Hawkins, Max's dad ends up giving her "bad news" about canceling the trip, citing a lack of funds. This fuels Max's conflicted emotions about her absent father for the rest of the season, as she halfheartedly asks him, "Maybe I'll see you at Christmas?"

IT: Welcome to Derry is poised to break one of Stephen King's biggest television rules with its Season 2 casting shake-up. The second season of the hit HBO Max IT spinoff will continue the story of Pennywise as it shifts to the 1935 setting, focusing on the Bradley Gang massacre in Derry, Maine. Beyond Pennywise, part of what makes the IT franchise great is its 27-year time jump, driven by the lore surrounding the sinister entity dressed as the killer clown. Season 1 took place in 1962 and unveiled a game-changing twist: some of the core ensemble are related to the main characters of the IT films, the Losers Club. 

The 27-year time jump means that most of the original 1962 cast will not return for the show's sophomore run on HBO Max. The continuity remains in the town, the cycle, and Pennywise, but sadly not in the ensemble. This confirmation is crucial because it means that IT: Welcome to Derry will officially break one of Stephen King's biggest TV rules. The spinoff marks the first non-anthology series to adapt a Stephen King story and release a second season featuring an entirely new main cast, distinct from its debut season. 

Carrie Season 2 is heading into an entirely different direction after the expansion of Stephen King's franchise, and this decision is clearly divisive among fans. Prime Video's modern-day retelling of Carrie introduced many changes from the book, such as exploring social media cruelty, a more loving (but still cruel) version of Margaret White, and the inclusion of a mysterious female group with telekinetic powers. Carrie Season 1 ended with Carrie surviving the destructive events at Ewen High School and in Chamberlain, Maine, setting the stage for a vastly different second season.

Carrie was pulled from the rubble of her mother's house by Emaline and driven out of town toward other people with powers. Margaret White, who also possessed a weaker form of telekinesis, managed to save herself from the collapse only to be killed later by Kate Siegel's Adelaide, who managed to stop her heart after an interview. Adelaide's line to Margaret about "a lot of people have a little bit of Shine, and they don't even know it," effectively folds Carrie's telekinesis into the psychic framework of Stephen King's The Shining and Doctor Sleep. 

We're in a fantastic era, possibly the best yet, for Stephen King adaptations. The Outsider, the Mr. Mercedes series, The Long Walk, and both recent IT adaptations and IT - Welcome to Derry alone are exemplary adaptations of incredible quality. It's only fitting that Carrie, his first novel and arguably the best film adaptation he's yet received, is part of this tremendous wave. With Mike Flanagan behind it, Amazon Prime Video's Carrie series stands up to that high mark.

Mike Flanagan is perhaps our best current interpreter of King's oeuvre between the excellent Gerald's Game, the life-affirming The Life of Chuck, and the positively stellar Doctor Sleep, based on the sequel novel to The Shining. Flanagan has shown a knack for finding the human core inside these horror worlds without losing true terror, a recipe for brilliance that fueled The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass to all-time-great status.

The series is an excellent adaptation that expands the world of King's first novel in ways that are consistent with his other works. It's tense, beautifully shot, and Summer H. Howell has excellent range, playing Carrie with likable innocence and menacing power with equal skill. It's a stellar adaptation, finding new layers in a time-honored work.

Strong Character Work Adds New Layers To A Well-Known Tale

Coven Academy lead star Malina Weissman and showrunner Tim Federle shared their positive response to a possible Season 2 renewal following the show's Disney+ premiere. Created by Tim Federle, Coven Academy is a teen supernatural drama that follows Briar Roberts, a stubborn New Yorker played by Malina Weissman, who arrives at an elite magic boarding school in New Orleans and discovers she is a witch. She has to navigate the world of coven politics, vampires, grief, and forbidden attraction while also trying to solve what happened to the murder of the woman who raised her. The series premiered on Freeform on October 1, 2026, as part of 31 Nights of Halloween, with the full season landing the next day on Disney+ and Hulu. 

As of writing, Disney has yet to announce a potential Season 2 for Coven Academy. Despite that, Coven Academy's debut season (via FlixPatrol) ranked the series No. 1 on Disney+'s U.S. chart, with the show being ahead of established titles including American Horror Story and The Drop: A Snowfall Saga. On the overall Disney+ chart, it placed third on the October 5 chart, only behind movies Toy Story 5 and Hocus Pocus. 

It's worth noting that those rankings are estimates drawn from public charts, not official Disney viewing hours or Nielsen figures. Still, leading the U.S. series charts in the days after a full-season drop indicates a stronger opening than most new live-action young adult shows get. 

Prime Video's Carrie introduced several characters with "the shine" in Season 1, and one of them is an unexpected addition that retconned Stephen King's novel. King's fiction universe introduced "the shine" as a broad, inherited psychic gift. The term was name-dropped in 1977's The Shining, three years after the events of Carrie. Stephen King's world established that people who have the shine are unusually sensitive to thoughts, emotions, places, and sometimes, the future. It's worth noting that the ability is not a single fixed power, meaning it can range from telepathy, telekinesis, precognition, psychometry, and astral projection. 

A few notable examples who have exhibited the shine in King's stories include Danny Torrance in The Shining and Dick Hallorann from IT: Welcome to Derry. Given that Carrie was Stephen King's first novel, the book never used the word, but many strongly believed that Carrie's telekinesis had long been read as an early version of the same phenomenon. 

Every Major Character With the Shine in 2026's Carrie Show