Get another look at the cocaine bear in, well, Cocaine Bear. Jenna Ortega promises more for her character in Scream 6. Plus, get a gory new look at The Last of Us, and a sneak preview of Fantasy Island’s return. Spoilers now!
They Listen
Deadline has word John Cho and Katherine Waterston are attached to star in They Listen, a new horror film from Chris Weitz. Details on the plot are not available at this time.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
In conversation with Entertainment Weekly, director Peyton Reed revealed Bill Murray plays an important “character from Janet van Dyne’s past” in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Bill Murray plays a character from Janet van Dyne [Michelle Pfeiffer]’s past [in Quantumania]. It’s a crucial role. A big theme in this movie is the things that parents and kids don’t say to each other, the secrets that they keep in families. In the last movie, when Hank and Hope rescue Janet, Evangeline Lilly’s character had this idea of: Oh, I’m going to be reunited with my mom, this is going to be great, we’re going to talk about everything.’ But what happens if the other person, in this case Janet, puts up a wall and maybe is not comfortable talking about certain things and doesn’t reveal certain things about her past? As we know from great stories, you can put the past behind you, but the past will always find a way to show up again. Bill’s character represents that in this movie.
Scream VI
Meanwhile, Jenna Ortega promised Deadline her character, Tara, will have more personality in Scream VI than she did in 2022's Scream.
In the fifth installment, I only ever shot with Ghostface, and I was only ever screaming and crying on the floor. So on this second one, I had to interact with my other cast mates and give her some sort of a personality, and that was really fun for me.
Cocaine Bear
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Elizabeth Banks revealed the message of Cocaine Bear is that “we should not fuck with nature, nature will win.”
I felt a lot of sympathy for the bear. Like, wow, this bear — which, in real life, ended up dead after eating all this coke — ended up being sort of collateral damage in this War on Drugs. And I just thought, Well, then this movie can be a revenge story for the bear. And it just gave me a point of view and a purpose for making it. Like, there’s a real message here: We should not f—- with nature, nature will win.
The outlet also has shared two new behind-the-scenes stills from the film.
Infinity Pool
Mia Goth and Alexander Skarsgård take a dip in Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool on a new poster.
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey
We also have a creepy new poster for the Winnie the Pooh slasher, Blood and Honey.
Santastein
Plagued with guilt, the mad scientist who accidentally burned Santa Claus alive as a child tries to bring him back to life years later in the trailer for Santastein.
The Franchise
Deadline reports Billy Magnussen, Jessica Hynes, Darren Goldstein, Lolly Adefope, and Isaac Powell have joined the cast of The Franchise, a new series from Armando Iannucci and Sam Mendes following “a hopeful crew trapped inside the dysfunctional, nonsensical, joyous hellscape of franchise superhero moviemaking. If and when they finally make the day, there’s a question they must face: Is this Hollywood’s new dawn or cinema’s last stand? Is this a dream factory or a chemical plant?”
Stinger
According to Bloody-Disgusting, Peacock has given a straight-to-series order for an adaptation of Robert McCammon’s sci-fi novel, Stinger, from James Wan and Yellowstone’s Ian McCulloch. In the book, two spacecraft— one harboring a fugitive, the other an alien bounty hunter—crash land in a small Texas town “driven to the brink by racial tension, gang violence, and a collapsing economy.”
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Taken to task for the series’ “hawkish” attitude toward the Gorn, Anson Mount stated the second season of Strange New Worlds will tackle questions “down that exact road” in a recent interview with the German website, TrekZone.de (via TrekMovie).
Well, you’ll have to see where we take that. Because some of those themes go on in the second season and really asking those exact questions that you were just asking. Is it possible that intelligence can be so completely ripped apart from any sense of communication or idealism? That, is there such a thing as a monster? Is that really possible? So yeah, we go down that exact road.
Fantasy Island
TV Line has a new photo of Teri Hatcher and James Denton in the January 16 episode of Fantasy Island.
The Last of Us
Finally, The Last of Us enjoys its ickiest TV spot yet.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.