After watching an episode of Severance, the real fun begins when you scour the Apple TV+ Reddit community. It’s rare for a series to invoke such fervour from its audience, of course, but seriously: Kier could fill a Fifth Appendix with Reddit's abundant fan theories. But that’s the joy of Severance. It’s not just good TV—it’s a damn good mystery.
In my time reading Severance theories this past season, I’ve seen some phenomenal predictions. The r/SeveranceAppleTVPlus users called out that Helly R was Helena Eagan as early as the season 2 premiere. They also correctly guessed that a severed human could become severed multiple times. No colour palette or elevator ding goes unnoticed on Reddit. So, if there’s anywhere to look for potential outcomes in Severance’s season 2 finale, it’s these folks.
Below, we’ve assembled our six favourite theories heading into the finale.
After revealing that Gemma is still alive, the next most-pressing question for Severance fans is what Lumon wants as a company? What is the work, and why is it so mysterious and importance?
Well, Reddit user Freelove_Freeway has some thoughts to share. “I have been thinking about a theory that what they are doing is creating life,” they wrote in the season 2 discussion hub. “The only roadblock they have is being able to separate” the Innies from their outies. “Maybe the Kier god-complex sees the innie consciousness as the better versions,” they theorised. As Kier has said in the past, he seeks to cleanse them of any pain and suffering. The largest hole in the Eagan plot so far has been that the Innies are clearly not beyond pain and suffering.
What did Jame Eagan mean when he said that Helena would one day sit at his revolving? Is that just a fancy metaphor for his death... or his rebirth?
“My thinking is they have chosen Mark to fornicate with Helly to continue the bloodline, which, obviously, has already occurred,” one Reddit user commented. Jame even previously stated that he saw Kier in Mark S, but that may be something that he tells a lot of people!
“iIf you pay attention to her memories on episode 7 it gives the impression that she began to actually enjoy and agree with what Lumon does,” one Reddit user suggests. “In the testing rooms, she obediently responds to all the tests she goes through. I don't know if she’s a Lumon soldier, but I do agree that she somehow left Mark to let go of all the pain she couldn't move on from by herself.”
This theory is probably partially true. While Gemma was potentially kidnapped by Lumon, she did seem interested in their work prior to her “death.” She was also clearly told that she would one day reunite with Mark. I’m sure—just like many who go through the severance procedure to work for Lumon—that they have no idea what evils they'll face before they sign up.
Okay, hear me out on this one. Goat imagery may be everywhere on Severance, but the show has gone to significant lengths to tie the little animals to Ricken. One eagle-eyed Redditor has pieced together the following clues that Ricken is a goat’s Outie. I can’t speak to Severance wilding out this much in the finale, but the theoriser assembled a very convincing set of bullet points:
Is it weird that I hope this is true more than any other theory?
Mr Milchick’s finest moment in episode 9 is when he finally stands up for himself. He eloquently tells his superior, Mr Drummond, to “devour feculence” for reprimanding him about his grandiose vocabulary. Is it the start of Mr Milchick’s rebellion against Lumon?
“It just felt weird that Milchick is called out for using big words, when all of the higher-ranking Lumon folk do exactly the same thing,” one Reddit user pointed out. ”They're telling Milchick that he isn't one of them.” I’m certain every Severance fan wants the best for Mr Milchick. It’s your time, floor supervisor!
In episode 7, Gemma asks why she hasn’t visited the room labeled "Cold Harbor" yet. This is likely because Mark S has yet to finish the file, but it may also point to a new test entirely.
“The underlying theme of the entire show is that love breaks severance,” Reddit user cobainiac3d wrote on the "Season 2 Discussion" hub. “Having Innie Mark choose between his Outie’s love and his Innie’s love would be a true test of efficacy… I think Cold Harbor is Mark's test, not Gemma's."
Whatever craziness Lumon is up to on the testing floor, Severance fans are surely in for a treat this week when the season 2 finale airs on Apple TV+. If you want to have some fun, check back here after the episode to see just how right (or horribly wrong) we all are.
Originally published on Esquire US
Believe it: Ted Lasso is returning for season 4. Following two years of speculation, Apple TV+ just officially confirmed that Jason Sudeikis and the happy-go-lucky AFC Richmond team will return for another season.
“As we all continue to live in a world where so many factors have conditioned us to ‘look before we leap,' " Sudeikis said in the press release. "In season four, the folks at AFC Richmond learn to LEAP BEFORE THEY LOOK, discovering that wherever they land, it’s exactly where they’re meant to be."
Since the highly popular comedy decided to close its doors at the end of season 3, fans have refused to believe that the feel-good magic was officially over. Now, they're finally right. Season 4 will also add more creatives behind the scenes including executive producer Jack Burditt, who created the ABC sitcom Last Man Standing with Tim Allen.
Though no official cast members have been announced outside of Sudeikis, the press release states that Brett Goldstein will return as a writer and an executive producer. Most likely, the official renewal also signals a return to the show as Roy Kent. Plus, Deadline reported last August that the streamer officially picked up the options for three returning UK cast members, including Golstein, Hannah Waddingham (Rebecca Walton), and Jeremy Swift (Leslie Higgins). Folks, this is all amazing news for Ted Lasso fans.
Since its premiere in 2020, Ted Lasso tracked the life of an American football coach who was sent to lead a soccer team in England despite his (clear) lack of experience. Over three seasons, the show won a handful of awards and garnered a loyal fanbase. But despite its success, even the cast themselves never believed that it was officially over.
"It'll be quite emotional actually, because who knows whether it's the very, very end or not or whether there'll be more after a break," Nick Mohammed, who plays Nathan Shelley, told Esquire at the end of season 3. "I don't know whether it comes back as a film. I've heard rumours of spinoffs... Who knows?"
A Coach Nate spinoff? Mohammed felt it may not be "quite right" to solely focus on Nate, however, "just because that character, I feel, has been on such a journey over these three seasons already." But after rumours swirled of a potential fourth season, Mohammed joined in the fun by posting, "told ya!" with a laughing emoji on X (formerly Twitter).
Maybe we could even get Jamie Tartt back in the fold. Actor Phil Dunster revealed in an Esquire interview that while playing Jamie was "a real gift," he does have some ideas from his own fan-fiction. "It's fairly X-rated, but that was more just to try to make Brett [Goldstein] giggle." Goldstein also joked about a future as Roy Kent, telling the Sunday Times, "Spoiler alert... Everyone dies."
Jokes aside, it seems that a spin-off isn't necessary. Ted Lasso will return for season 4. Until then, we can rewatch Ted Lasso and preach the "Believe" gospel until we're all smiling silly. That's the Ted Lasso way.
Originally published on Esquire US
Jessica Lee Gagné was on a flight when she realised she was playing it safe. The 37-year-old Severance cinematographer wasn't going to return for season 2—executive producer Ben Stiller (whom she previously worked with on Escape at Dannemora) and Co. even asked if she would direct an episode this time around. Gagné said no; she loved working on the show but was ready for something new. Still, there it was in front of her: the synopses of all 10 episodes in Severance season 2.
Her eyes landed on episode 7. In it, we truly meet Dichen Lachman's Gemma for the first time. Her shadow hung over the entire series to that point: Audiences were led to believe she died in a car crash, which led her husband, Mark (Adam Scott) to sever himself. Then, we met her inside Lumon as Ms Casey—a robotic wellness counsellor who didn't have any of Gemma's memories. Episode 7 tells us that she's been in captivity the entire time, going through bizarre, inhumane tests day after day. Plus, in an increasingly gutting series of flashbacks throughout the episode, we finally bear witness to Mark and Gemma's love story.
With its debut on Apple TV+ today, we know that the episode, titled "Chikhai Bardo," is a television masterpiece. But on that plane, Gagné simply knew that she needed to direct it.
"I had gone through a very crazy personal experience that was the beginning of me realising many things in my life," Gagné told me. "One of them was that I had been playing safe for many things in my life. I read episode 7 and it really aligned with themes and things that I was very much in. I was like, Okay, I think I'm meant to do that episode.... Directing is all about being vulnerable. It's all about putting yourself out there. I needed to learn to be vulnerable and to accept that I might fail."
Now, I've dropped an ungodly amount of thoughts in my recap this week, but I'll just say this here: The amount of time I spent between watching episode 7 and asking if Gagné would speak with me was embarrassingly short. And this: It's the best episode of TV I've seen in a long, long time.
We caught up this Monday before the episode's premiere. And before you flood me with hate mail asking why I didn't ask about the doctor or the intricacies of each and every room, just know that Gagné wants you to do some of that work on your own. "It's important to leave space for everyone's personal interpretation," she said. "Because I think people will see different parts of themselves within it."
Below, Gagné takes us inside the making of "Chikhai Bardo." This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
"That was a big fear that we all had. Dichen was very conscious of it. Also Mark Friedman, who wrote the episode. She's up against Helly—and we need people to love this person.... She could have just been a prisoner. There was a lot of looking at each scene, speaking with Dichen, and saying, 'Okay, what's really going on here?' Because everything is manipulated in her environment—and she's actually who she really is most of the time—so she has to play a game and not abandon hope.
"Why would she be hopeful? That was one of Ben's big concerns. We leaned into what prisoners go through and this grieving process. It has different stages and it's a circular thing. If you're a lifer in prison, you're going to go through phases of hope, anger, and depression. You move through them in stages and repeat the cycle. We were trying to get in a moment for her where she would have been hopeful—or had a spark that she could have been on the edge of Am I going to try something?"
"Severance is told through Mark's perspective. That's my interpretation of it, anyway. That's the feeling you get when you watch Severance—it's like Mark's world, but it's Mark's world post-severance. This human has decided not to feel a certain part of the range of his emotions. He's locked them into a box. By doing that, he limits the spectrum of colors and things that he wants to experience. But in this episode, we're diving into Gemma's perspective and experience, which we were missing. And then we're diving into their lives before Lumon took over them.
"How do you get people to understand why Mark decided to sever? It's really nuanced. It's not simple in the sense that we leave them in a perfect relationship. It would've been easier for him to grieve something that was perfect. The fact that they leave each other on a note where things are unresolved gives more guilt and more weight in his journey."
"At some point, you have to start getting into it. Having the control room—which is that green room where the watchers are basically looking at [MDR]—was a huge challenge, because that was a commitment. Okay, we're going to start talking about what's happening here and how this all works. You can't deliver all of that at the end, because it's so complex and involves more than one character now. You need to give yourself the time and space to get there."
"[Someone close to me] went through a similar journey as Gemma. Even one of the scenes with her closing the door in the bathroom is something I lived—that I saw her do when she was breaking down, because she went through IVF multiple times. I wanted to make sure a woman was going to tell this story, because it's the first time in Severance where we're fully in a female [perspective]—the episode is Gemma's episode. I wanted to accompany her through that story, and I felt like I was suited to tell it.
"Also, the themes of being a woman who has thrived in her career and gotten to a certain place, and then she's in a relationship with [someone who hasn't].... Even though the men will want to feel proud and be happy for their partner, that's just a reality that a lot of women face. That manifests in different ways for different partners.
"And now, [Gemma's] next focus is wanting this child. There's a moment where it's unclear at first. Yeah, they're excited about this—and this is not really said, but it did come through my mind at one point. Well, in that kitchen scene and in that scene in the office at the end, they accepted [that they won't have kids], maybe. Have they, in that office, fully accepted it? And Mark is actually in a lighter place because maybe he never wanted that child?"
"I'm the cinematographer of the show, so I was like, how am I gonna shoot these flashbacks without it looking cheesy or cheap? Oh my God. We have to shoot on film. Okay. I'm not someone who pushes [to shoot on film] usually, but it made so much sense because it evokes nostalgia. It's the most beautiful way to show skin. And everyone almost feels a little bit fake in Severance. But then it's like: Let's make this feel like the most home-video-esque thing. It's transitioning with crazy things, but at the same time, when we land in this world, it's so simple and it's an album of life. It's a kaleidoscope of images of beauty and love and seasons."
"There's the shot that goes from MDR to the control room downstairs [via electrical cables]. There's no CGI in it. It's all real. We actually shot through cables. It was the most laborious thing I have ever done as a [director of photography]. It was the biggest side project of this show, and so many people participated on it. You should see the rig for it: The camera goes through the internal part of the desk. There's a pulley moving in it.
"In that scene from season 1, Irving puts down his divider. So if you keep going through the scene, that's what happens as the camera goes down. We actually have the pulley moving to match the action of what happens in time in that episode. But we had to build this huge rig with spinning cables and a camera with a special lens that was going through them."
Originally published on Esquire US
In Severance season 2, every winding hallway has a new mystery around the corner. There’s a room full of goats, a scary corridor that Irving (John Turturro) can’t stop painting, and even the dreaded break room. But even when Lumon Industries attempts to distract us with cutesy animated training videos in episode one, we can’t help but remain on the lookout for hidden messages.
Here's an example. Listen closely to the claymation Lumon building's voice. I mean reeeeeaaally listen. Who do you hear? Because we’re damn certain that the voice of the building is Keanu Reeves. Right?!
The video starts around the twenty-six-minute mark in the episode. Do us a favour. Pause here and listen to the building’s voice again. There are two lines that really stand out. The first is when he yells at an employee and says, “Hey! No running in my halls!” with a John Wick-esque growl.
The second line is when the building asks, “But what makes a building truly happy?” I don’t know anyone else who would make the same Keanu-esqe inflections when the building pauses for “truly happy.” The similarities go on and on throughout the video—and I just can’t hear anything else. To us, the voice unmistakably belongs to Reeves.
He’s never appeared on the Apple TV+ series—and there’s zero news out there that indicates he ever will. Severance does list Sarah Sherman (Saturday Night Live!) as the voice of the water tower—which was an even easier spot, if you're an SNL fan—but the voice of the building is curiously uncredited at the end of the episode.
I have no proof that Reeves is the voice of the building. Esquire reached out to Apple for confirmation, but we have yet to hear a response. Still, I wouldn’t have even mentioned it if the series didn’t avoid listing the voice actor’s name in the credits. Severance, what are you trying to hide?
[Editor's note: Severance creator's Dan Erickson confirmed that it was Keanu Reeves who voiced the Lumon building.]
Originally published on Esquire US
By Joy L
Just under half hour to midnight, I gain consciousness. I am seated in a study room (indicated by the bookshelf, reading nook and table before me), facing an open laptop. My gaze falls on the screen amidst the dimly lit arrangement; a Zoom waiting room. Right, the Overtime Contingency Protocol.
The domestic setup was not entirely foreign. The activation is common for interviews with international talents residing a different time zone. In other words, outside business hours. I often either find myself in what I assume is the living room (indicated by the couch and obvious television), or this study. Before I could turn to get a glimpse at the rest of the house, Britt Lower appears in the virtual window.
Her auburn cropped bangs revealing distinct brows are consistent with Helena/Helly’s defining look on Apple TV+'s Severance, making the perceptible divide between actress and character(s) less pronounced. More so, as she speaks, I observe that not only accent but cadence barely contradict.
“We’re so delighted by how the audience has received the show,” Lower addresses the recent instalment, “It gave us the confidence that this strange little office created has wheels. The whole team is excited to keep expanding this world and dig into each element of this giant puzzle. So many people put thought and sweat into every prop, line of dialogue; each so well-considered.”
The new season comes a good two years after the first. We were just beginning to comprehend the workings of the uncannily familiar employment that is Lumon Industries; acquainting with its odd rules and jargon that parallel the eccentricities of corporate culture. Along with its employees on the cusp of uncovering who they are on the outside, we were all brusquely strung high on a cliffhanger.
The keen hunger for answers reflects in their latest foray. Though not immediately, without revealing too much. There are eventful changes and baby goat included side quests, so the path there isn’t straightforward.
“For me these are really humans on a really human journey of self-discovery and search for meaning,” the actress explains, “The plot point and [fan] theories are super fascinating, but what I'm drawn to is that human experience of what do they want, and what are they doing to get what they want.”
Screenwriter Dan Erickson has previously mentioned his favourite conspiracy being that Lumon was slowly turning its staff into baby goats. Lower, on the other hand, is not privy to any reddit threads, nor relents to guesses of her own. It was a crucial choice to keep herself in the dark within capacity; to be on the same page and investigative state of mind in the journey that the audience was following.
Like the last, shooting season two was not chronological. “It’s a 5D chess problem when we're shooting out of order. All departments cooperate to figure out continuity; it’s an extremely collaborative team where everybody's ideas matter,” she attests. And like last season, the self-described visual learner keeps a self-drawn graphic novel to track her characters’ emotional arc in the non-linear production.
The sequel further pushes the tension at play between Helly R and Helena Eagan. “I’m hesitant to name specific scenes,” Lower chuckles nervously, “but in season two you’ll come to understand why Helena is the way she is. We didn't have as much context of what's going on for her on the outside before. They are both trapped in the same company but in different ways.”
“All characters—innies and outies—are grappling with parts of themselves. The competing forces continue to evolve, and there's a real reckoning with identity on both sides. It’s nature vs nurture. Helena has a lot of conditioning of how to be in the world, while Helly has this raw, unmediated, almost teenage angst that couldn’t care less what people think about her.”
“But these are the same person with a shared subconscious. The body stores their trauma and joy, so they inevitably start to have an effect on each other,” she says after deliberating, “They have a lot to learn from each other.”
By Joy Ling
Just minutes past midnight, I realise I’m looking at my desktop wallpaper. All apps are closed and the recording on my phone has stopped. The duration reads 29:21. Great, well within limit. I hit the transcribe button and glance outside the room. The house remains dark and still.
See, the study is where I situate myself for the Overtime Contingency Protocol if the interview occurs past evening. It’s the furthest room in the house, preventing the work call from disturbing my family. And to save everyone the awkwardness; vice versa. Daytime however, oversaturates with sunlight and I shift to the wider den since no one else is at home.
There is a peculiar line to toe when profession bleeds out of office parameter. Anyone else reminiscing the glorious time we were merging two things that shouldn’t coexist that way? Just me? It’s probably why the show resonated with viewers when it premiered during the pandemic. It was when we were reckoning with our relationships to our occupations. Reevaluating the meaning we attach to it, and the sense of identity we acquire from it.
In the playback, Britt Lower points out the added meta layer being an actor on Severance. “There’s almost like a Droste effect where Britt goes to work: I go into my trailer and I put on Helena's outfit and assume a new name and identity, as she goes to work under a new name and identity,” she muses before a quick laugh, “The difference being that I enjoy my job for sure.”
Another tangible effect of the process is déjà vu, courtesy of those darn hallways. “We filmed so many scenes in them, there are corners where I’m like, ‘Oh yeah. I remember filming a scene here …like three years ago’,” she recalls wryly.
Fun fact you’re probably dying to know like I was: The set is a stage comprising tons of modular partitions that rearrange for the day according to the scene. Doesn’t help that to get to said set, actors have to navigate somewhat similar-looking hallways. “There’s a kind of recursive quality being in our studio because you’re walking down these hallways to more hallways,” she smirks at the memory. “The maze changes so we do get lost on our way often.”
Other design elements are effectively immersive; the fluorescent lights, golf-green carpets and those stifling, soul-killing windowless rooms. Time is amorphous within the space, but the work-family dynamic between cast and crew is something Lower appreciates.
“You lean on your coworkers to find levity, and we’re fairly easy to entertain. We make up childish games that help us stay awake. Adam [Scott] is often flicking a paper clip at me. We have a healthy balance of seriousness and silliness, and all genuinely enjoy each other’s company between takes.”
The physicality her role encompasses is also what the former high school basketball point guard relishes. Whether it’s sprinting through hallways or smashing glass with a fire extinguisher, playing Helly lets her actively maneuver the strait-laced walls of Lumon.
Yes, Lower has never held a corporate job. Her closest comparison? High school speech team where office attire is default. “There's something about pantyhose and pumps that is super inspiring to Helly’s urge to escape,” she divulges as the thought occurs.
“She wakes up and she's been dressed by someone else. It’s this thing that’s been put on her; this stereotype of feminine office wear. She has no cultural understanding of why she’s wearing it, and couldn’t care less. She goes about as if she’s on a basketball court, not in heels and pantyhose.”
While most innies are generally reticent versions of their outies in the real world, I notice that Lower’s characters interestingly embody the opposite. To her, each of the series’ four horsemen, if you will, represent typical kindergarten classroom archetypes: Teacher’s pet, rule follower, class clown, and rebel.
It may surprise some which archetype she actually relates to most. “I come from a long line of farmers and teachers. I think I've always loved teachers—they’re kind of our first authority figures outside of our parents, right?” she raises with a smile, “Naturally, I didn't necessarily question authority growing up because I like teachers. What Helly has taught me is that there is a time and place to question authority, especially when that authority is infringing upon your humanity and free will.”
“I would say on the whole I like to be a good citizen, but playing Helly over the past four years has given me more strength to advocate for myself where in moments prior, I would never have.”
Severance Season 2 airs 17 January on Apple TV+.
Happy New Year, readers, and welcome to another year of television. In my list of 2024's ten best shows, I wrote about how every outlet's rankings differed wildly from each other in a way I hadn't seen before. (Though I will say, a surprising amount of you met our top ten with a resounding "Not bad!" Never underestimate the What We Do in the Shadows fandom.)
Now, if you'll remember, 2023's actors and writers strikes led to a relative shortage of powerhouse series in 2024. Guess where they all went? 2025. The next 12 months will see a truly stacked amount of blockbuster shows, including the long-awaited returns of The Last of Us, Andor, Severance, Stranger Things, and The White Lotus. Damn! It feels like we'll hardly have time to check out this year's promising group of newcomers—skip ahead to The Studio if you want to know which one I'm most excited for—but rest assured, we'll watch as much as humanly possible.
These are Esquire's 25 most anticipated shows of 2025.* I'm sure I'll see most of you again when Severance drops next week.
*Undated series are either confirmed for or expected to land in 2025.
We have to wait only nine days in 2025 for some beef in the streaming wars! If you're unfamiliar, a few ER heavyweights—Noah Wyle, John Wells, and R Scott Gemmill—created a new medical procedural for Max called The Pitt, in which Wyle stars.
The widow of ER creator Michael Crichton, Sherri, filed a lawsuit that essentially alleges that The Pitt is a rip-off of ER. (There's more to the story, which you can read about here.) The legal battle between Crichton and Warner Bros Television is still very much ongoing, but in the meantime? The Pitt sounds like ER crossed with 24—its 15-episode season will cover a single shift in the emergency room of a Pittsburgh hospital. And I would not miss a Wyle-starring medical drama under any circumstance.
Don't even get me started. Fans have waited so long for Severance season 2 that Esquire has a nearly 2,000-word explainer about the next batch of episodes. Following one of the best season finales in recent memory, Apple TV+ has been characteristically quiet about what's next for Lumon's heroic innies. But that's the way we like it. Just tell us what's up with the goats, okay?
Yellowjackets season 2 landed Showtime's breakout series in the doghouse I like to call When Are You Giving Us Some Damn Answers?! (Previously inhabited by Lost, Heroes, and Outer Range.) With Hilary Swank joining the cast, I hope that season 3 will bring the series back to the heights of its first season.
Saturday Night Live's 50th-anniversary season has been a hair disappointing so far, even if it gifted us not one but two great Marcello Hernandez characters (Domingo and Don Francisco). My guess is that Lorne Michaels is holding his punches for his three-hour (!) anniversary special, which I bet will bring together every living SNL great not named Chevy Chase.
The White Lotus is back! In Thailand! Season 3 will introduce a new batch of one-percenters, played by Carrie Coon, Walton Goggins, Michelle Monaghan, Parker Posey, and more. Series creator Mike White previously told HBO that the new season will be "a kind of satirical and funny look at death in Eastern religion and spirituality—it feels like it could be a rich tapestry to do another round at White Lotus." Sounds perfect, but I'll still miss Tanya.
If you're reading this list and playing "Guess Esquire's Guilty Pleasure," you're at the right place. It's Reacher. Season 3 of the Prime Video series will presumably see the hulking Jack Reacher (a stellar and also-hulking Alan Ritchson) fuck up many, many more people. And I am very excited to see how that plays out.
There's zero chance that I would leave Robert De Niro's debut as a television regular from this list. He'll front Netflix's Zero Day, which, per the streamer, "asks the question on everyone’s mind— how do we find truth in a world in crisis, one seemingly being torn apart by forces outside our control?" Okay!
Esquire covered the heck out of the Taylor Sheridan–verse in 2024, so I'll keep this list relatively light on the cowboy hats, the sound of an angry Zoe Saldaña's screaming, and ominous oil rigs. But I do have to shout out 1923, which will not only continue to track the Dutton family's explosive history but also deliver more Harrison Ford. More Harrison Ford is always a good thing.
Over the holidays, I saw the great Claressa Shields biopic, The Fire Inside, so I'm very much on a Brian Tyree Henry kick. (He plays the boxing trainer.) Add to that Esquire's deep appreciation of Wagner Moura and Apple TV+'s Dope Thief officially makes my 2025 watch list. The series will star the two actors as, per the streamer, "Philly friends and delinquents who pose as DEA agents to rob an unknown house in the countryside, only to have their small-time grift become a life-and-death enterprise, as they unwittingly reveal and unravel the biggest hidden narcotics corridor on the Eastern Seaboard." Sign me up.
I'm one of the many critics who was disappointed by HBO's The Franchise, which satirised the superhero-ification of modern cinema by following the making of a fictional Marvel-esque film. It didn't quite work, but I couldn't put my finger on why. Then I saw the trailer for the The Studio, a satire of modern Hollywood through the lens of a studio head (Seth Rogen)—and I knew it right away. Real people! The Studio tracks a fictional studio, but the stars and references are very real. Created by a host of great comedy minds (including Rogen and Evan Goldberg), just watch the way Martin Scorsese mutters, "Spineless!" in the preview and you'll know what I mean.
Every time I write this most-anticipated list, there's a moment when I simply have to drop the logline and tell you I'm watching it without a single hesitation. This year, it's the Jon Hamm-starring Your Friends and Neighbors on Apple TV+:
After being fired in disgrace, a hedge fund manager still grappling with his recent divorce resorts to stealing from his neighbors' homes in the exceedingly affluent Westmont Village, only to discover that the secrets and affairs hidden behind those wealthy facades might be more dangerous than he ever imagined.
When Andor season 1 ended in the ancient times of November 2022, it felt like a fork in the road: Will this show everyone how to foster great franchise storytelling in the streaming era, or is it just a blip? I genuinely believed the former, but in the following years, I've seen some things. (*Cough* Agatha All Along, *sneeze* The Acolyte, *hack* the trailer for the monstrous-looking Inside Out spin-off series.) Where was I? You know, I'm just happy that I have the chance to see my boy Cassian Andor stick it to some Stormtroopers one last time in season 2.
Squid Game season 2 was a very solid effort, given that its creator admitted to losing teeth from the stress induced by the making of it. Star Lee Jung-jae was great, as always, and the series managed to conjure up a few more thrilling games without making anything feel overwrought. My only complaint is that the final episode felt like more of a mid-season ending than a season finale. Let's just hope that season 3—which will end the series, supposedly for real this time—will deliver on the promise of that mid-credits cliff-hanger.
If you haven't played the Last of Us video games, I hate to say that nearly anything I write about season 2 will ruin the story for you. Here's what I can relay: Bella Ramsey, Pedro Pascal, and Pedro Pascal's killer jacket will return, along with new additions Kaitlyn Dever and Catherine O'Hara. Let's leave it at that.
I love Glen Powell, but I really need to see the man in something where he's simply maxing out his big doofus energy. Chad Powers is exactly that project. The Hulu series will follow the same general premise of Eli Manning's 2022 "Chad Powers" prank, during which he went undercover as a walk-on at Penn State and proceeded to look like his Super Bowl–winning self. Chad Powers will track a burnout quarterback as he dons prosthetics to join a new team under a different name. Thank you for hearing my plea, Glen.
It feels like I've read about the production of Noah Hawley's Alien series for as long as I've authored this list, which is a not-insignificant amount of time. We'll finally see it this year—and it sounds pretty damn awesome. Read the logline for yourself:
When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet's greatest threat in FX's highly anticipated TV series Alien: Earth from creator Noah Hawley.
Between this series and Alien: Romulus, life is good right now if you're an Alien fan.
Say it ain't so! The Stranger Things kids are full-blown adults, and it's time to end the series and let this IP die a slow death of a thousand spin-offs. I'm (mostly) kidding. I love Stranger Things, fully believe that Gaten Matarazzo is a national treasure, and am very excited to see how the story ends in season 5.
How many more Game of Thrones–verse series will HBO deliver before George R.R. Martin even mumbles a release date for The Winds of Winter? Too many. The next show will adapt Martin's Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, which follow a knight and his squire's adventures in Westeros. Spoiler alert: Martin hasn't finished writing this series either! And the author says that he won't continue Dunk and Egg until he wraps The Winds of Winter. Help.
To everyone who said I ranked Hacks too highly in my year-end television list, I say: Are you watching Hacks? HBO's comedy about the comedy world is the best comedy on television right now. Season 4 will see Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) feud on a much bigger stage—as the former's late-night career truly begins.
While we're quibbling about my 2024 rankings, here's another comment I received: The Bear didn't deserve the second spot. Season 3 disappointed a lot of fans, sure. But between the admirably experimental premiere, the Ayo Edeberi–directed episode, and the continuing peak-career performances from the main ensemble, The Bear remains the best show on TV in my book. Bring on season 4, which might just go down as the final referendum on Carmy's soul.
What if I told you that Kate Hudson will play a Jeanie Buss analog in a Netflix series created by Mindy Kaling and executive-produced by Jeanie Buss? What if that show also starred Jay Ellis, Scott Evans, and... I shit you not... Chet Hanks? Would you respond and say that it's the best show of 2025 sight unseen? Yes. Yes, you would.
The Esquire entertainment team has zero idea how The Rehearsal will deliver a second season, given that its first devolved into a enticingly bizarre meditation on the artifice of reality television and the trials of (meta) fatherhood. But it's happening! And we welcome it. Nathan Fielder will always find a way to out-weird himself.
Bill Skarsgård is currently terrifying you as Count Orlok in Nosferatu, but fear not! He hasn't forgotten his humble beginnings as Pennywise. He'll return as the killer clown in HBO's It: Welcome to Derry, a prequel that HBO says "expands the vision established by filmmaker Andy Muschietti in the feature films IT and IT Chapter Two."
We'll see another six episodes of Black Mirror later this year, starring a new assortment of actors: Issa Rae, Paul Giamatti, Awkwafina, Rashida Jones, and more. Oh, are you wondering why I included a still from season 4's Star Trek–inspired "USS Callister" episode? Season 7 will give it a sequel, with the great Cristin Milioti set to return.
No one—except for Kelly Reilly, apparently—knows what the hell will happen in the future of Yellowstone. Following the season 5 (or series?!) finale in December, my money's on Taylor Sheridan starting clean(ish) with The Madison. The series will introduce the Clyburns, who move from New York City to the Madison River Valley of Montana after the death of their patriarch. The Madison is set in the same universe as Yellowstone, and Matthew Fox and Michelle Pfeiffer will star. Send a yeehaw in Sheridan's direction and maybe we'll see it by the end of the year.
Originally published on Esquire US
Listen, we’ve waited for 983 days. The first trailer for Severance season 2 is here (yes, I counted the exact number of days since the season 1 finale)—so scroll down right now, watch it, and let’s dive right in.
Okay! So Apple TV+’s stingy teaser from a few months ago showed us Mark S’s inevitable RTO after Mr Milchick tackled him in the season finale. The trailer seemingly picks up right after that; Mark S wakes up in the Lumon elevator still in a panic. He rushes through his office space, only to find out that… he has new coworkers! (Is there anything more horrifying?)
Milchick, brandishing a brand-new blue turtleneck, walks into the room and says, “Mark S… Been a minute.” I’m interpreting this as a classic stroke of Milichickian humour because Mark probably perceives the time between his confrontation with Milchick and this moment as a literal minute. God, I missed this show.
Elsewhere in the teaser, a photocopier is making MISSING signs of Mark’s wife. Did his sister understand the message after all? And there’s another melon party! The centrepiece is Irving’s melon-y likeness, so you have to wonder if Lumon is celebrating his return or his retirement. Don’t forget that Harmony Cobel is sniffing around as usual.
The new season will premiere on 17 January, 2025 but in the meantime? Watch the trailer a hundred more times because I’m still noticing new odds and ends. (Is that a Kier Eagan trinket on New Dylan’s desk?)
Now, team Severance has been tight-lipped on potential season 2 plot reveals but honestly? It feels like a small miracle that a trailer even exists. At one point, as a result of the WGA strike and rumours of drama behind the scenes, production on the show was halted indefinitely, according to Deadline—forcing audiences to sit with the first season’s amazing cliff-hanger.
Plus, in April 2023, director Ben Stiller shut down rumours of drama between series creator Dan Erickson and co-executive producer Mark Friedman. The two partners “ended up hating each other on the first season, per multiple sources,” according to The Town’s Matthew Belloni, with Apple TV+ going through several rewrites for season 2. “No one’s going to the break room,” Stiller responded on Twitter. “Love our fans and each other, and we all are just working to make the show as good as possible.” Lumon Industries, I’m sure, is furious about the lack of efficiency. Those numbers aren’t going to sort themselves!
Now that talk around the Lumon watercooler is officially heating up, here’s a quick rundown of everything we know about season 2 so far.
Who Will Star on Severance Season 2?
Considering that just about every major character was left in the lurch in the season finale, it’s safe to assume that all your favourite stars will return, including Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, John Turturro, Christopher Walken, Britt Lower, Tramell Tillman, Zach Cherry, and Dichen Lachman. As for new faces, the series has added a stacked cast of players, among them Bob Balaban, Robby Benson, Stefano Carannante, Gwendoline Christie, John Noble, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Alia Shawkat, and Merritt Wever.
For season 3 and beyond? Severance’s creative team is shooting for the moon, with Erickson saying that he hoped to pitch Barack Obama about a guest role at the Emmys (where the former president was nominated for outstanding narration for the Netflix docuseries Our Great National Parks). “If he is [there] I’m going to see if he wants a role on this show,” Erickson said. “I think he’d be really good; he’d bring some gravitas.” Jen Tullock, who plays Mark’s sister, Devin, joked, “If we could get Barbra Streisand to come around, I’d pretty much give you every American dollar I’ve got in my bank account.”
Stiller, for his part, has more realistic expectations. “For me, there are a lot of people like Christopher Guest; I kind of imagine, ‘Wow, that would be amazing if someday he might be a part of the show,’ ” he said. “It’s fun when you have a show like this where it allows for people to maybe come in for an episode or two but also fit into the world of Severance.”
What Will Happen in Severance Season 2?
We don’t know much about season 2 beyond the new trailer but Erickson offered tantalising hints in our conversation with him following the season 1 finale. “There’s definitely going to be some expansion of the world,” he teased. “Within Lumon, we’re going to see more of the building and we’ll see more of the outside world, too.” He went on to comment on the storytelling architecture of the entire narrative:
There’s an overall plan for the show. I have an end point in mind, and I intentionally didn’t plan it season by season, because I wanted it to be flexible enough that we could get there in two seasons or six seasons. I want to allow us to be surprised by where the show goes. There’s a sense of what Lumon is trying to do and the role that our main characters are going to play in that, and where it all will culminate. It’s really exciting to think about taking the next step on that trip.
The first season ends with a spectacular cliff-hanger: Mark, Irving, and Helly manage, with great difficulty, to bring their innies into the outside world. The consequences of their subterfuge are enormous: Mark finds out his supposedly dead wife is in fact his coworker, Irving discovers that his Lumon lover is married, and Helly learns of her Eagan heritage, then announces to a gala of industry bigwigs that the severance procedure is torture. Dylan is apprehended by Mr Milchick but as Stiller pointed out to Deadline, Dylan has already seen the Matrix, back when his innie discovered that he has a child.
“Obviously, that’s a huge question and something that really is important to be dealt with, because their whole perception of the world has been altered by having this glimpse,” Stiller said. “That’s going to be a lot of what the second season has to deal with—a big part of the engine of the second season’s beginning.” Similar conflict abounds for Mark, whose revelations will cause strife in his love life. “With Innie Mark, we’re starting to root for him and Helly, but now we also want to root for Outie Mark to find his wife,” Stiller said. “That’s an interesting juxtaposition and conflict we’ll explore in the second season.”
Though season 1 centred on Mark and his perspective, meaning that we got scant few glimpses of his colleagues’ outies, Erickson promises that everything is about to change. “In season 2, we’re going to be showing all of these people on the outside,” he told EW. “Similar to Mark, they each had their own reason for getting this procedure, and they’re all at some stage of a healing process for one thing or another.... Being able to take what Adam did in the first season—with the differentiation between his innie and outie, and how they feel like the same person but with this vastly different lived experience—seeing the other three characters’ version of that dichotomy is, I think, the most exciting part.”
Mark’s outie is under near-constant surveillance by his boss, Harmony Cobel, who moonlights as his kindly neighbour Mrs Selvig. Mark now knows the truth about Cobel’s double life, but Erickson teases that we haven’t seen the last of her schemes. “I think that she does have some special attachment to Mark,” he told Polygon. “And I don’t think it’s entirely Lumon-based. That’s what I’ll say. I think that she’s—without giving away too much of what we’ll see—there’s a professional interest for sure. And obviously, we’ve seen that there’s some sort of experiment or something happening with him and his wife, and sort of observing them. But I think that you can see it in her eyes that it’s become about more than the job."
If you really can’t wait for season 2, mosey on over to the Severance subreddit, where fans have already posted thousands of compelling theories. Many latched onto a comment made by Helly’s father (“One day, you will sit with me at my revolving”), postulating that the Eagan family members upload their consciousnesses to a computer and become part of the board that so tormented Harmony. Could Kier Eagan still be alive in the ether, by that logic? Another fan suggests that Irving, an ex-military man, may be an undercover operative who underwent the severance procedure to investigate Lumon, judging by his obsessive research and documentation about its employees.
“What if the severance procedure was initially developed for use in war?” one Redditor wonders. “You have enlisted soldiers that are easily indoctrinated to do your will and they have no recollection or PTSD after their tour is complete. Irving would have been involved with this severance program as a soldier and it explains why he’s so interested in secretly tracking down other people.” In a recent Reddit AMA, Erickson nodded at this theory, saying, “One of the nice things about opening up the world a bit is that we’ll get to see other applications of the technology. Other ways society willingly ‘segments’ itself from unpleasant truths.”
And what about those damn goats seen wandering around Lumon? Theories abound, with explanations ranging from cloning to brain experimentation. Erickson isn’t saying much, but he assures viewers, “I don’t think we have seen our last goat on the show.” In an interview with Variety, Stiller confirmed that we’ll learn more about the goats in season 2, saying, “There’s no way the goats are there for no reason.”
Erickson’s AMA confirmed some season 1 mysteries and teased what’s to come in season 2. One thing’s for sure: “The office is real. It exists physically, and everything we see there is actually happening (except the black goo, which is Irv’s dream).” If your money was on the good old “it’s all a simulation” theory, you’ve lost your bet. Erickson also hinted at another season 2 mystery: Just why did Helena Eagan conceal her innie’s suicide attempt from the board? “Good question. I think more of that will reveal itself in season 2!” he replied.
Alas, until season 2 makes its debut, there’s not much we know for sure. As Erickson told IndieWire, “It turns out it’s easier to ask interesting questions than answer them.” We may not have many answers, but here’s one thing we can do: trust Ben Stiller. In an Esquire profile of Stiller, Severance star Patricia Arquette said, “He’s merciless. He never stops. He never stops rewriting, he never stops thinking. Weekends, holidays—you’d get phone calls late at night, you’d get phone calls early in the morning. Ideas. New things. He has incredibly intense focus on everything—every little set piece, every little wardrobe thing. I’ve never seen anybody so focused on everything.”
While we wait, there’s still a lot to chew on. Fans who want to delve even deeper can check out the Lexington Letter, a free supposed “tell-all” book from former Lumon employee Peggy Kincaid, which Erickson confirms is, in fact, canon. We may soon have another book to enjoy, if his tease from the AMA is anything to go on: Replying to a fan who asked if Ricken’s The You You Are would ever make it into print, Erickson said, “I think the chances are pretty good it will happen...” Praise Kier!
Originally published on Esquire US
I mean zero shade to little-known character actors Brad Pitt and George Clooney, but I have to say: Austin Abrams has the best scene in their new film, Wolfs. The action-comedy, which debuts on Apple TV+ 27 September, stars Pitt and Clooney as duelling fixers who are hired to clean up the same mess. Of course, shit goes sideways, thanks to Abrams’s drug-slinging college kid with a heart of gold.
Anyway, back to the scene: Pitt’s and Clooney’s characters interrogate the poor kid in a shitty, jungle-themed motel room—and it seems like he won’t break!—until he does. Abrams promptly delivers a frantic, breathless, can’t-look-away monologue that tells the entire storey of his character, right in the face of two Mount Rushmore–level thespians. I’m still thinking about it.
When I Zoom with Abrams—who also stars on Euphoria as the kindhearted, surely Broadway-bound Ethan—I inform him of this fact. He’s clearly uncomfortable with stealing any sort of praise from Mr. Pitt and Mr. Clooney, so I ask what it was like to spend his 28th birthday at the Venice Film Festival’s Wolfs screening.
“So the movie played late—we got done after midnight, which was my birthday,” he says. “We were up on a roof, and Brad started singing ‘Happy Birthday.’ And then everyone’s singing ‘Happy Birthday.’ Then we went to this after-party, where they brought out a cake and did it again. It was a super-sweet, really surreal experience.”
For the Florida native, it’s one of those birthdays that give you plenty to think about, like where he’s been and where he’s going. In his twenties, he has played everything from a charming Netflix rom-com hero (Dash & Lily) to an abusive boyfriend (This Is Us) to, yes, one of the only sane humans in a school full of batshit California kids (Euphoria).
Now his roles are coming nearly tailor-made for his talents. If you watched Abrams crush “Holding Out for a Hero”—a jaw-dropping but damn funny physical performance—on Euphoria and wanted more, Wolfs is for you. The film sees him darting around Manhattan in his tighty-whities while somehow holding his ground against Clooney and Pitt. At times, his performance is hilarious, tragic, and hilariously tragic.
Today, though, we’re still thinking about birthdays. Mine is a couple weeks after Abrams’, so he wants to know if I’m the kind of guy who dies a little inside when anyone sings “Happy Birthday” to me. The answer is yes—who doesn’t?!—so he gives me some guidance. “Really try to not hide,” he says. “Focus on your chest and try to just feel what’s happening. It’s just a great opportunity where people are giving you a lot of love. They’re here celebrating you. They love you. They want to celebrate you.”
Below, Abrams offers more sage advice and talks about acting alongside Clooney and Pitt, what he knows about Euphoria season 3, and his involvement in director Zach Cregger’s secretive Barbarian follow-up, Weapons. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
AUSTIN ABRAMS: What’s behind you?
ESQUIRE: I’m in Esquire’s archives room.
AA: Does anyone ever go in there and look at anything?
ESQ: Yeah, people love sifting through the old magazines. There’s a lot of funny stuff—I’m looking at a very old book called Things a Man Should Know About Work and Sex.
AA: Oh, hell yeah! Let’s bust that open! Figure it all out.
ESQ: I know everyone’s asking you different versions of What was it like to work with Pitt and Clooney? But I’m curious what you learned specifically from them that you’ll take to your next project.
AA: They’re geniuses at constructing a scene. I went into Wolfs being like, Okay, I really want to learn from these guys. And you do learn a lot—and you learn a lot from osmosis. But also something that I learned is: He’s just Brad Pitt and he’s amazing. And so it’s like, if you want to be like Brad Pitt, you just have to be Brad Pitt.
I wouldn’t say I was surprised, but I was very grateful when it turned out that they were so sweet and welcoming to me. It’s really impressive, because people in their positions, they don’t have to do that. They don’t have to be welcoming. I feel like I’ve heard so many [horror] stories. With these guys, it’s not the case at all.
ESQ: Wolfs is an action-comedy, but if you really peel back the curtain, your character is a pretty complicated guy. He’s this young, lonely, confused kid who’s idolizing these two traditional versions of masculinity. It feels very of the times.
AA: Totally. If you just go off of what he says, he talks about taking some classes at Pace. He’s still living with his dad. You don’t know if there’s a mom in the picture. Yeah, I feel like there is something about the character where he’s looking toward some sort of male role-model figure. You see it with Richard Kind, who plays my dad. There’s Sinatra [memorabilia] in his apartment—even my dad is looking toward other kinds of male figures. It seems like what you see is a lost son and a lost father when it comes to their identity or their masculinity. It seems like what a lot of young men seem to be struggling with.
ESQ: I have to admit: Dash & Lily was probably my favorite pandemic comfort watch. How do we get ten seasons of Emily in Paris and no more Dash?
AA: I’m not really sure what happened, but it’s lovely to hear something like that. It happens more around Christmastime or something. But if someone says something to me like, “I’ve seen that a bunch,” it’s lovely to hear that it brings someone comfort. We all have our things that we watch every year—and to think that something that I’m in is something that people watch every year, it’s a cool thought to be a part of that ritual.
ESQ: Is that what’s fulfilling about this work for you?
AA: It’s different every time—and you don’t know really what you’re going to get. I’m just thinking about the last thing I did. [I appreciate] getting to know a different part of life, or a way people live, more deeply. Doing the work, you get to know this aspect of life that you never would have known before....There are a lot of different things that can be really fulfilling about it. It’s always a nice thought to think about someone watching [my work] and questioning something in their life. That’s why I dig a lot of Shakespeare, because his work asks a lot of questions. He never tells you the answer.
ESQ: Was Weapons the last project you worked on?
AA: Yeah. Zach Cregger is amazing. I mean, the way that he works and writes—his stuff is so deep. All of this stuff feels like there’s a deeper element to it, and it’s why I really love this work. Also, his humor is just amazing, which also sets him apart.
ESQ: What else drew you to Weapons?
AA: It’s one of those scripts that I couldn’t stop reading—I was up way later than I should have been, finishing it. It’s just very exciting. A lot of really, really great actors. Inspired story. Inspired director. And a great, great character. That’s probably the most I can say, but I’m really excited for it.
ESQ: Okay, I have to move to “Holding Out for a Hero” then. I rewatched the scene this morning.
AA: Oh, you did?
ESQ: How many weeks of choreography did it take to pull it off?
AA: I don’t know where [Euphoria creator Sam Levinson] got the idea that I could do that. Maybe he saw something that I didn’t see. But I never really had any particular sort of dancing skills, so it took a while to even get to a place where I was able to do that.
ESQ: I get it. I don’t naturally have rhythm.
AA: Okay, so imagine being you. And being like, Oh, fuck, I have to do this in a couple months. You could do it. You would just have to figure it out how to do that....It was definitely a challenge. It was nerve-racking. When I first read that, I was like, Oh my God. Also, I didn’t know if I was going to have to sing—I just remember in the script it not being completely clear that it was lip-synced. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case, because that would have been insane. But yeah, it was super daunting at first. But I love dance now.
ESQ: It feels like there’s a new report about Euphoria season 3 every month. What has your experience been? Have you been asked to return?
AA: I really have no idea. I mean, because it was being geared up to go—I mean, years ago, I think.
ESQ: There was one story that said the cast was locked in to start production in January.
AA: I think it was supposed to happen, and then the strike happened. Something like that. So I couldn’t tell you. I have absolutely no idea when they’ll do it, if I would be in it or not. I hope they make it, though. I mean, I love Sam. He always feels really inspirational to work with. The show is a very inspiring thing to work on.
ESQ: Do you have any hopes, dreams, or aspirations for Ethan?
AA: I couldn’t tell you. No idea. I wish him well. [Laughs.]
ESQ: What’s next for you?
AA: A dream is just to keep working with great people and great writing. It’s almost like you have to be careful of what you want or what you desire, because it’s just a desire. It’s just a dream. It’s not real yet, you know? As I’ve gotten older, there’s also an understanding of how you actually don’t know what [a dream will feel] like when it happens. It’s not true that you’ll feel the way you think you’re gonna feel in your head, you know?
ESQ: It’s sobering, yeah.
AA: You’ve gotta be careful of fantasies and what you want in life. I mean, life can be an adventure, hopefully....You have to really go moment by moment. You have to know that if that happens, it may not give you the feeling you thought it would.
ESQ: That’s the hard thing about this age—it’s when your childhood dreams collide with whatever’s happened to your older self.
AA: Yeah, all of those thoughts you had when you were younger—then you’re hit with, like, Oh, shit. It’s not like we’re old, necessarily. It’s just that that age that once seemed far off in the distance is now here. People reading this either get it or maybe they’re freaking out by what we’re saying.
ESQ: Anything you wish I had asked you?
AA: Why didn’t you ask me what I eat for breakfast? I’m a little bit pissed off about that. [Laughs.]
Originally published on Esquire US
We've barely recovered from the Marvel-branded bromance that is Deadpool & Wolverine (or rather, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman). Now, we're thrown this curveball of a team-up. A wordplay on two lone-wolves and not a grammatical error, Wolfs looks like it might just live up to expectations. Mainly because who doesn't want to watch Brad Pitt and George Clooney giving each other shit in matching leather jackets?
We've seen the co-stars share the spotlight before. First through Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean's franchise, and last in Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading (that was 2008! 16 years ago!). Yet this match up will see the A-listers go head to head, complete with indispensable zingers.
Filmmaker Jon Watts, who was on the director's chair for all three Tom Holland-fronted Spider-Man movies, also wrote the screenplay with the two leading men in mind, according to a chat with Empire. The film follows Jack (George Clooney) and Nick (Brad Pitt), two unacquainted professional fixers who are simultaneously called to cover up a high-profile crime.
Showing up in almost identical outfits and demeanours, the reluctant partners then set off on typical summer blockbuster action. While originally slated for a full theatrical release, Wolfs goes straight to streaming after a limited run. A strategic measure considering how poorly the star-studded Argylle fared. Still, with a sequel reportedly already approved, we're hopeful.
Hopeful not just because we're getting two big names and buddy banter in-between. More so that it would be interesting to observe how such genre and billing once a foolproof template for success pre-streaming, would perform in the current ever-evolving entertainment landscape.
This will be Pitt's pitstop (couldn't resist) ahead of his other Apple TV+ film that's unambiguously titled F1, premiering in 2025. Clooney's upcoming Netflix flick alongside Adam Sandler is likewise set to release next year.
Wolfs streams globally 27 September on Apple TV+.
Killers of the Flower Moon took a while to be adapted. The rights to adapt David Grann's book started in 2016 but like any other project, the development of the film was halted due to the global pandemic. Still, the film was finally finished. It made its premiere at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2023 and received a nine-minute standing ovation.
While we have to wait a few months to watch it, Apple TV+ unveils the trailer of Killers of the Flower Moon today.
With stirring Native American pow wow chants spliced with dubstep ("Stadium Pow Wow" by The Halluci Nation née A Tribe Called Red), the trailer brings across the palpable tension of a community gripped with terror.
The American Western crime drama (that's a mouthful) is based on the real-life murders that plagued the Osage Nation. Set in the 1920s, the epic is directed and co-produced by Martin Scorsese and stars an ensemble cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone and Jesse Plemons.
Given the subject matter, Scorsese involved the Osage Nation during the film's development. In a press release, Scorsese said, "We are thrilled to finally start production on Killers of the Flower Moon in Oklahoma. To be able to tell this story on the land where these events took place is incredibly important and critical to allowing us to portray an accurate depiction of the time and people. We're grateful to Apple, the Oklahoma Film and Music Office and The Osage Nation, especially all our Osage consultants and cultural advisors, as we prepare for this shoot."
In light of the current book bans and revisionisms in America, we are glad that someone made use of the medium to spotlight America's "hidden histories". (Another example was HBO's Watchmen which featured the Tulsa Race Massacre.)
America's history may not strike a chord with Singapore audiences but the cast and the dramatisation of a real-life event should be enough to get butts in seats.
Killers of the Flower Moon is tentatively slated to be in theatres on 6 October and later for online streaming on Apple TV+.
The Crowded Room will mark the actor's last project for the foreseeable future.
Tom Holland is taking a break from acting. Don’t worry, though—it’s only for a year. In a recent interview with Extra, the 27-year-old actor explained that filming his latest project, Apple TV+’s upcoming miniseries The Crowded Room, prompted the decision.
“I’m no stranger to hard work,” he explained. “I’ve lived by the idea that hard work is good work. Then again, the show did break me. There did come a time [when] I needed a break and disappeared and went to Mexico for a week and had time on a beach and laid low. I’m now taking a year off, and that is a result of how difficult this show was.”
Holland both produced and stars in The Crowded Room. The upcoming crime thriller follows Danny Sullivan, a man who is arrested in 1979 following a fatal shooting at Rockefeller Center. The series is inspired by Billy Milligan, a man convicted of many brutal crimes, who was eventually deemed innocent after he was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder. His case sparked a debate about whether or not people with multiple personalities should be held accountable for their actions. In the first trailer for The Crowded Room, we see Holland's character grappling with similar circumstances. Check it out above.
Though the filming process was difficult, Holland said he’s excited to see the final product. “I feel like our hard work wasn’t in vain,” he said. This role is radically different from the blockbusters Holland is known for, like Marvel’s Spider-Man films, or the video game adaptation, Uncharted. According to the actor, he had to tap into a new psyche to pull it off, while also working on the business end of the production. “We were exploring certain emotions that I have definitely never experienced before,” he said. “And on top of that, being a producer, dealing with the day-to-day problems that come with any film set, just added that extra level of pressure.”
According to Variety, at one point during the filming, Holland nearly changed his appearance to shed the character. "I remember having a bit of a meltdown at home and thinking like, ‘I’m going to shave my head. I need to shave my head because I need to get rid of this character,’" he said. "And, obviously, we were mid-shooting, so I decided not to...It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.”
Now, with the production behind him, Holland says he’s learned to better manage his mental health. That is, in part, thanks to the research he did while filming the series. “Learning about mental health and the power of it, and speaking to psychiatrists about Danny and Billy's struggles, has been something that has been so informative to my own life,” Holland said.
Though Holland won’t be working on any more projects this year, you can see him in The Crowded Room, alongside Amanda Seyfried, Emmy Rossum, Sasha Lane, and Emma Laird, out now only on Apple TV+.
From: Esquire US
