Sule Thelwell, Soy Kim, and Christine Heesun Hwang join ‘XO, Kitty’ (Photo Credits: Jan Dreyer, Netflix, Sam Prickart / Provides Provided by Netflix)
Netflix’s third season of XO, Kitty has wrapped up production, with the streamer announcing details on three new cast members. Sule Thelwell (Saint X) joined as a series regular, playing Marius. Soy Kim (Sorry, Not Sorry) and Christine Hwang (Law and Order: SVU) are recurring guest stars, playing Yisoo and Gigi.
Netflix’s production news did not include a target premiere date for the new season. The streamer also hasn’t released an official season three synopsis.
Anna Cathcart leads the cast as Kitty Song Covey. Returning stars include Minyeong Choi as Dae, Gia Kim as Yuri, Sang Heon Lee as Min Ho, Anthony Keyvan as Q, Regan Aliyah as Juliana, and Hojo Shin (upped to a series regular) as Jiwon. Peter Thurnwald is back as Alex, Philippe Lee is Mr. Moon, Jocelyn Shelfo is Madison, Michael K. Lee is Professor Lee, Sasha Bhasin is Praveena, Joshua Lee is Jin, JHan Bi Ryu is Eunice, and Sunny Oh is Mihee.
XO, Kitty is a spinoff of the popular To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before films, based on Jenny Han’s bestselling books. Han created the spinoff and serves as an executive producer. Valentina Garza is the writer, executive producer, and showrunner. Additional executive producers include Matt Kaplan and Bradley Gardner.
Netflix’s season two synopsis: “Teen matchmaker Kitty Song Covey is back in Seoul for a new semester at KISS. She’s single for the first time in a long time, and ready for a fresh start: no more meddling, no more drama. Maybe just some casual dating. Emphasis on casual. But she has more to worry about than her love life, as a letter from her mother’s past sets her on a wild journey, and new faces at KISS bring change. As secrets unravel and bonds are tested, Kitty will learn that life, family, and love are more complicated than she ever imagined.”
Sylvester Stallone and Samuel L. Jackson in ‘Tulsa King’ (Photo Credit: Brian Douglas/Paramount+)
Samuel L. Jackson will star in the first Tulsa King spinoff, NOLA King*. Jackson’s character, Russell Lee Washington Jr., will be introduced in the upcoming third season of Paramount+’s Tulsa King starring Sylvester Stallone.
NOLA King is executive produced by Samuel L. Jackson, Taylor Sheridan, and Sylvester Stallone. Additional executive producers include David C. Glasser, Ron Burkle, David Hutkin, Bob Yari, Michael Friedman, and Keith Cox.
“Samuel L. Jackson brings unparalleled presence and global appeal, making him the perfect choice to maximize the momentum of one of our biggest hits and transform it into a hit franchise,” said Chris McCarthy, Co-CEO of Paramount Global and President of SHOWTIME/MTV Entertainment. “Building on the breakout success of Sylvester Stallone’s Tulsa King, audiences will now experience the full force of Jackson’s dynamic, layered performance, supercharging one of Paramount+’s flagship series.”
Tulsa King premiered in November 2022, followed by season two in September 2024. Season three will arrive in September 2025.
“NOLA King follows Russell Lee Washington Jr. (Jackson) who, after befriending Dwight Manfredi (Stallone) during a ten-year stint in federal prison, is sent to Tulsa by New York’s Renzetti crime family to take Dwight out once and for all. Inspired by what Dwight created in Tulsa and impressed with the possibilities of second chances, Washington returns to New Orleans, the home he abandoned forty years ago, to rekindle his relationship with his family and friends, and to take control of the city he left behind,” reads Paramount+’s synopsis. “In so doing, he incurs the wrath of his former employers in New York, and makes himself vulnerable to old NOLA foes, both criminal and cop.”
The spinoff is produced by MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios.
“Chris McCarthy came to me with a game-changing idea: to elevate my show beyond a mob boss series, creating a dynamic, family-driven franchise,” said Sylvester Stallone. “I was immediately on board. Sam Jackson is the only choice to anchor this new adventure in NOLA and David Glasser and 101 are the perfect partner to bring it to life.”
(*Update: The series has been renamed Frisco King and the action has been moved to Texas.)
Daniel Sunjata and Kaitlin Olson in ‘High Potential’ episode 13 (Disney/Mitch Hasseth)
ABC’s fall 2025 primetime lineup includes Monday Night Football, the return of America’s Funniest Home Videos and High Potential, and the series premiere of the new 9-1-1 spinoff, 9-1-1: Nashville. The networks’s fall schedule also includes Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and the reality competitions The Golden Bachelor, Dancing with the Stars, and Shark Tank.
Returning ABC dramas and comedies include 9-1-1, Grey’s Anatomy, Shifting Gears, and Abbott Elementary. Will Trent, The Rookie, American Idol, The Bachelor, and Celebrity Jeopardy! will return in 2026, along with the just-announced reboot of Scrubs.
ABC Fall 2025 Premiere Dates:
SATURDAY, AUG. 23
7:30 p.m. – “College Football” (North Carolina Central Eagles at Southern University Jaguars)
MONDAY, SEPT. 8
8:00 p.m. – Monday Night Football (Minnesota Vikings at Chicago Bears)
TUESDAY, SEPT. 16
8:00 p.m. – Dancing with the Stars (simulcast on Disney+)
10:00 p.m. – High Potential
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 24
8:00 p.m. – The Golden Bachelor (two-hour premiere)
10:01 p.m. – Shark Tank
Details on 9-1-1: Nashville: The newest entry into the franchise, 9-1-1: Nashville, is a high-octane procedural about heroic first responders, as well as their family saga of power and glamour set in one of America’s most diverse and dynamic cities. The all-new series stars Chris O’Donnell, Jessica Capshaw, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, LeAnn Rimes, Hailey Kilgore, Michael Provost, Juani Feliz, and Hunter McVey.
Ryan Murphy, Tim Minear, and Rashad Raisani are executive producers and writers, with Raisani serving as showrunner. Additional executive producers include Chris O’Donnell, Brad Buecker, Brad Falchuk, and Angela Bassett.
‘Assassin’s Creed’ showrunners David Wiener and Roberto Patino (Photo Credits: Neilson Barnard Getty Images / Courtesy of Netflix)
Netflix has finally officially announced movement on an Assassin’s Creed live-action series. The streamer and Ubisoft made a deal in 2020, and development of a series has been in the works since then.
The series was created by Emmy nominees Roberto Patino (Westworld, Sons of Anarchy) and David Wiener (Halo, Homecoming) who will serve as showrunners and executive producers.
“We’ve been fans of Assassin’s Creed since its release in 2007. Every day we work on this show, we come away excited and humbled by the possibilities that Assassin’s Creed opens to us,” stated Wiener and Patino. “Beneath the scope, the spectacle, the parkour, and the thrills is a baseline for the most essential kind of human story—about people searching for purpose, struggling with questions of identity and destiny and faith. It is about power and violence and sex and greed and vengeance.
Wiener and Patino continued, “But more than anything, this is a show about the value of human connection, across cultures, across time. And it’s about what we stand to lose as a species, when those connections break. We’ve got an amazing team behind us with the folks at Ubisoft and our champions at Netflix, and we’re committed to creating something undeniable for fans all over the planet.”
Additional executive producers include Gerard Guillemot, Margaret Boykin, Austin Dill for Ubisoft Film & Television, and Matt O’Toole.
Netflix offered this description of the upcoming series: “Assassin’s Creed is a high-octane thriller centered on the secret war between two shadowy factions—one set on determining mankind’s future through control and manipulation, while the other fights to preserve free will. The series follows its characters across pivotal historical events as they battle to shape humanity’s destiny.”
Netflix’s official announcement didn’t indicate when production is expected to begin, or when the series might premiere.
“When we first announced our partnership with Ubisoft in 2020, we set out with an ambitious goal to bring the rich, expansive world of Assassin’s Creed to life in bold new ways,” said Peter Friedlander, Netflix’s Vice President, Scripted Series. “Now, after years of dedicated collaboration, it’s inspiring to see just how far that vision has come. Guided by the deft hands of Roberto Patino and David Wiener, the team has carefully crafted an epic adventure that both honors the legacy of the Assassin’s Creed franchise and invites longtime fans and newcomers alike to experience the thrill of the Brotherhood as never before.”
Poster for ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ (Photo Credit: Columbia Pictures)
Almost 30 years ago, Scream brought back the near-dead slasher genre by infusing it with a hip, teen vibe to it. Shortly thereafter, the original I Know What You Did Last Summer entered the teen slasher chat. Well, recently Scream has been enjoying a nice little renaissance with a couple of new movies, so it only figures that there’d be a new I Know What You Did Last Summer, too, right? Yes, unfortunately, that is right.
I Know What You Did Last Summer is about five friends who, on the Fourth of July, inadvertently cause an accident in which an innocent person is killed. In order to preserve their futures (see: save their skins), the group makes a pact amongst themselves to never speak of their involvement again. But, the next year, one of them gets a suspicious note saying only (yep, you guessed it) “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” And then, one by one, the friends get killed in brutal and violent ways.
From there, it just becomes your run-of-the-mill slasher movie.
If that sounds familiar, that’s because it is. This I Know What You Did Last Summer is pretty much the same exact story as the original I Know What You Did Last Summer. Except, in this one’s universe, the original series of murders did take place, so these murders seem like a copycat version. And this gives the later group of victims a chance to enlist the help of the last spree’s survivors, Julie James and Ray Bronson (Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze, Jr. reprising their roles from the nineties).
The problem here is that where Scream is smart and witty enough to lean into the self-referential side of the narrative in order to force things to make sense, I Know What You Did Last Summer just seems kind of silly, like the whole town buried the past so, in turn, they’re doomed to repeat it. And that sins-of-the-father concept doesn’t quite land.
It seems that director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge) is trying to tap into the nostalgic nineties aspect of the franchise, but in doing so, I Know What You Did Last Summer just becomes a parody of itself. It doesn’t help that the script, written by Robinson along with Leah McKendrick (M.F.A.) and Sam Lansky (his first produced screenplay), is pretty much a carbon copy of the original film, only with more archetypical characters and hefty doses of brainless dialogue (one character actually says “what the f*ck, Bro?” to the killer right before he’s done in). The few surprises that are in the movie all depend, again, on the nostalgia felt towards the original film. It doesn’t really stand on its own. It all feels more like a comic parody than an actual horror movie.
Now, when I Know What You Did Last Summer is just being a plain old slasher movie, it’s not bad. Slasher movies are generally derivative by nature anyway, and the kills in this one are fairly effective. They’re not really scary, but they’re suspenseful and tense enough, and definitely bloody as all heck. So, as a slasher, I Know What You Did Last Summer doesn’t completely fail. Unfortunately, to get to the gory kill scenes, the viewer has to sit through the corny stuff.
The big question with I Know What You Did Last Summer is whether or not it’s supposed to be a comedy. It doesn’t seem like it is. Most of the humor feels unintentional, but it’s still humorous. And the viewer is not laughing with it, they’re laughing at it. Which isn’t always a bad thing for a horror movie, but in this case, it is. It’s too ridiculous to be scary, but it takes itself too seriously to be an all-out comedy. So, there it sits, somewhere in the middle, just waiting for someone to put it out of its misery.
GRADE: D+
Rating: R for language throughout, brief drug use, bloody horror violence, and some sexual content
Release Date: July 18, 2025
Running Time: 1 hour 51 minutes
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal in ‘Eddington’ (Photo Credit: A24)
When it comes to writer/director Ari Aster, the only thing that it seems movie fans can expect is to expect the unexpected. From Hereditary through Midsommar right up to Beau is Afraid, it’s hard to tell what the auteur is going to do. And that trend continues with his newest movie, Eddington.
Set in May of the year 2020 in the town of Eddington, New Mexico, Eddington finds the small community in the midst of a political struggle between the progressive mayor Ted Garcia (The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal) and the town’s conservative sheriff, Joe Cross (Beau himself from Beau is Afraid, Joaquin Phoenix). Since it’s an election year, and since Joe opposes every idea Ted has, Joe decides to run against him. The political discourse splits the town in half, and everyone’s secrets are about to be revealed.
Now, there is one more thing that viewers can expect from an Ari Aster movie, and that’s that it will not be brief. The running time of Eddington is about two and a half hours, so there’s way more to the story than simple political campaigning. And since it’s set in the volatile social climate of May of 2020, the big issues being dealt with are COVID and Black Lives Matter, and you can guess which side of the fence both Ted and Joe fall on in regards to masking and protesting.
It’s less clear what side of the fence Ari Aster falls on, though. Eddington is probably the most serious satire ever committed to film, and both political sides come off as looking cartoonish and stereotypical. Joe’s anti-masking rants and the conspiracy theories of his mother-in-law, Dawn (Deirdre O’Connell from The Penguin) sound just as ridiculous as Ted’s COVID precautions and the civics-class verbal regurgitation of the teenage BLM protesters. Whichever side the viewer leans to politically, Eddington is bound to trigger, because Aster makes both sides look a bit ignorant.
Politics aside, Eddington does get messy. Not narratively messy, but guts and gore messy. There’s plenty of murder and mayhem, and plenty of blood and betrayal. As the movie goes on, it gets more and more outlandish and far-fetched. By the end, it’s absolutely clear that Aster is poking fun at these topics, just in case anyone had been taking the inherent messaging of the characters a bit too seriously. And at that point, everything turns into a grindhouse revisionist spaghetti western.
Ari Aster is at the period in his career where he’s hip and happening enough to be able to command a top-notch cast, and so, Eddington has one. In addition to Phoenix and Pascal, the ensemble includes Emma Stone (Poor Things) as Sheriff’s Joe’s wife, Austin Butler (Elvis) as a weird self-help guru/cult leader, Michael Ward (The Book of Clarence), and Luke Grimes (the Fifty Shades of Grey movies) as Joe’s deputies, Matt Gomez Hidaka (Silo) as Mayor Ted’s son, and Amélie Hoeferle (Night Swim) as one of the socially conscious BLM protestors. All of these feel like bit parts in a world that belongs to Ted and Joe, but there are no small parts in Eddington. These characters all have limited screen time, but they’re pivotal and important to the dense, well-crafted story.
It’s unclear if Eddington actually has an opinion, and that may be Aster’s point. It functions as a nice little time capsule of mid-2020, when the country as a whole was in turmoil, and it concentrates its focus on the microcosm of one tiny little town that, even in the middle of the New Mexico desert, is still affected heavily by the world around it. People are going to see what they want to see in Eddington. Some will see it as right-wing propaganda, some will see it as leftist rhetoric, and still others will just see it as simply a compelling revisionist western. And the true beauty of Eddington is that everyone will be right.
GRADE: B+
Rating: R
Release Date: July 18, 2025
Running Time: 2 hours 28 minutes
Studio: A24
Oscar nominee Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting), Jeffery Donovan (Fargo), and Natacha Karam (9-1-1: Lone Star) will star in Fox’s The Faithful. Described as a biblical event series, The Faithful will premiere on Sunday, March 22, 2026 at 8pm ET/PT. Fox plans on airing two-hour installments over three consecutive weeks, with the finale airing on Easter Sunday.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation‘s Danny Cannon is on board to direct and executive produce the premiere. Rene Echevarria, Carol Mendelsohn, and Julie Weitz will also serve as executive producers. Echevarria wrote the pilot and guides the series as showrunner.
Filming will take place this summer in Rome and Matera, Italy.
“This landmark drama series is based on the best-selling book of all time, the Bible, and showcases a faithful dramatization of the Book of Genesis as told through the eyes of the courageous and passionate, yet flawed, women whose descendants would shape the future of faith as we know it today. Dimensional, dramatic, intimate, even surprising, The Faithful is about discovering and losing love, the challenges of marriage, the joys and heartbreak of children, confronting temptation, and finding faith,” reads Fox’s synopsis. “Episodes of The Faithful will be told through the lens of five of The Old Testament’s most legendary women: Sarah and her servant Hagar, Sarah’s great-niece Rebekah, and Rebekah’s nieces, sisters Leah and Rachel.”
The description continues, “In the premiere installment, Sarah (Driver) feels incomplete without the child that has been promised to her and her husband, Abraham (Donovan), by God. After braving isolation, famine, the ire of Pharaoh, and several more years of barrenness, she resorts to her own plan to bring a child into the world involving her maidservant Hagar (Karam) and Abraham. However, jealousy soon sets in after Hagar gives birth to Ishmael (from whose lineage the Islamic religion traces its roots). Then a miracle happens… And personal freedoms are at odds with long-held grievances and shattered love.”
Lauren Cohan as Maggie Rhee and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan in ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ (Photo Credit: Peter Kramer/AMC)
The Walking Dead: Dead City starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan has been renewed for season three. AMC Networks confirmed the renewal and announced Seth Hoffman (The Walking Dead co-executive producer and writer) will be taking over as showrunner for the upcoming season.
“I’m excited to have the chance to dive back into The Walking Dead Universe and work to deliver another dynamic season’s worth of stories to this epic franchise. It’s a true honor to chart out the next chapter for Maggie and Negan’s iconic adventures in Dead City,” stated Hoffman. “Lauren, Jeffrey, and Scott [M. Gimple] are incredible creative partners, and I’m thrilled to collaborate with them to bring this story to life.”
Filming is expected to get underway in Boston this fall.
“We’re thankful to Eli Jorné for two seasons of Dead City that took the story of these iconic characters in exciting new directions and broadened this thriving Universe by introducing a new corner of the walker apocalypse,” said Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks. “As we continue to create new stories for a passionate TWD fanbase, we’re delighted to have a seasoned Walking Dead veteran like Seth Hoffman at the helm of a new season, alongside the remarkable Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, that will bring new adversaries and alliances and push the boundaries of Maggie and Negan’s conflicted relationship.”
Season two, which finished up on June 22, found Maggie and Negan trapped on opposite sides of a growing war for control of New York City. As their paths intertwined, they came to see that the way out for both was more complicated and harrowing than they ever imagined. Per AMC: “In season three, Maggie and Negan finally put aside their differences to build the first thriving community in Manhattan since the apocalypse, but when chaos in the city begins to arise, they are forced to question: have they learned from their old wounds, or will their dark past spell doom for the entire city?”
Executive producers for season three include Hoffman, Cohan, Morgan, Scott M. Gimple, Brian Bockrath, and Colin Walsh.
The CW has officially renewed Sullivan’s Crossing for season four ahead of its season three finale, airing July 16, 2025. The 10-episode fourth season is expected to premiere on The CW in 2026.
Morgan Kohan (When Hope Calls), Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill) and Scott Patterson (Gilmore Girls) star in the drama, which has seen its season three ratings rise over season two. The series has also been a hit on Netflix, taking over the streamer’s #3 spot on its Top 10 list. And Bell Media’s CTV and Crave, and Fremantle had already announced the renewal, but due to different budgeting cycles, The CW’s official announcement didn’t arrive until today.
Sullivan’s Crossing is based on Robyn Carr’s bestselling book series and was created by Roma Roth (Virgin River). Roth, Christopher E. Perry, Michela Di Mondo, and Hilary Martin are executive producers, with Marc Tetreault, Mark Gingras, and Jason Levangie serving as producers.
“Having finally confessed her love to Cal Jones (Chad Michael Murray) and still reeling from the aftermath of Rob’s diner fire, Maggie Sullivan (Morgan Kohan) makes the decision to leave her career as a neurosurgeon behind to help run her father, Sully Sullivan’s (Scott Patterson) campground,” reads The CW’s season three synopsis. “But trading the adrenaline of the OR for a slower-paced life at the Crossing won’t be easy, and Maggie will be faced with many challenges as she continues her journey from the Head to the Heart.”
The CW offers this description of the season 3 finale: “While everyone prepares for the grand opening of Rob’s (Reid Price) new restaurant, Frank watches over Edna (Andrea Menard) as she recovers at home. Cal finally makes the decision to confront Maggie with his concerns as Rafe (Dakota Taylor) tries to get Sydney (Lindura) to listen to how he feels. Jacob (Joel Oulette) rushes things with Lola (Amalia Williamson) making her uncomfortable, and Sully gets a surprise visitor who helps him realize he needs to take a new direction. And Maggie finally reconciles her head with her heart, just as someone from her past arrives with a shocking revelation.”
Those cute little blue creatures, the Smurfs, are back for another big-screen adventure in Smurfs, the 2025 film that serves as a reboot of the franchise.
Smurfs opens with a big musical production number set to the new song “Everything Goes with Blue,” with all the Smurfs dancing while paying close attention to Smurfette (voiced by Rihanna), who always steals the show. The Smurfs are happy and enjoying themselves, all except for a newbie called No Name (voiced by James Corden), who still doesn’t have his thing—the way Grouchy Smurf is grouchy and Clumsy Smurf is…well…clumsy. Papa Smurf (voiced by John Goodman) assures No Name he just needs more time to find his thing.
Noticing No Name is still feeling down, Smurfette tries to cheer him up by taking him on a little adventure through Smurf Village. But he still desperately wishes to find his thing, which, after Smurfette leaves, he soon discovers might be magic.
Excited to show Papa Smurf, Smurfette, and all the other Smurfs what he’s learned, No Name returns to Smurf Village and tries out his magic. Unfortunately, it backfires terribly and causes the evil wizard Razamel (voiced by JP Karliak) to find Smurf Village and kidnap Papa Smurf.
Determined to save Papa Smurf, Smurfette, No Name, Clumsy Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, Brainy Smurf (Xolo Mariduena), and Turtle leave Smurf Village and enter the real world (including Paris) to save him. Along the way they meet new friends, including Ken (voiced by Nick Offerman), Papa Smurf’s brother, who will be pivotal in planning the rescue.
Bright, colorful, and goofy, Smurfs is a fun and zany adventure for fans of the characters first introduced on the small screen in 1981. The classic characters return, and the introduction of a few new ones brings even more humor and silliness to the adventure. The Smurfs have never looked better visually. The CG flawlessly captures the style originally created by Peyo in the comics.
Rihanna adds some sass and toughness as the voice of Smurfette but still keeps her cheerful and sweet, which is the core of the character. Nick Offerman is perfect as the voice of Ken, Papa Smurf’s brother, who, unlike most Smurfs, is not happy-go-lucky but is more of a tough, world-wise, no-nonsense character who doubts Smurfette and her friends have it in them to save Papa.
James Corden is effective as the voice of No Name as he tries to help save Papa Smurf while still attempting to figure out who he really is and how he fits in with all the other Smurfs. Unfortunately, No Name gets way too much screen time, and that takes away time from other favorite Smurf characters, including Grouchy and Clumsy, and Hefty Smurf (Alex Winter) who is barely in the film.
The voice cast and impeccable animation battle the film’s biggest stumbling block: its plot. The story is all over the place, introducing too many subplots that are difficult for adults to follow, let alone children. It’s way too convoluted for its own good.
Still, there is enough silly humor, slapstick, and pop culture references that will keep children and the adults in the audience entertained.
GRADE: B-
Rating: PG for some rude humor, language, and action
Running Time: 1 hour 32 minutes
Release Date: July 18, 2025
Directed By: Chris Miller
Studio: Paramount Pictures
