“There’s a lot of things that he’d want to do in his career that he didn’t get a chance to, and that was the point of doing this film,” Schoenke tells Nerd Reactor. “And seeing him realize those in this process was just such a joy. As his friend, watching him getting to act with his Michael Madsen, his favorite actor, getting to see him put his own ideas, have his own input, something that he really wanted to have throughout his career, and then just getting to to fight him and have on screen time with him and stuff like that, which is very different for our relationship, was really just a joy to see all that all that happen.”

For Ramsey, he shares a story about how kind Jason was.

“To get to see the times that I got to work with Aaron on set was so dialed in and it was really important for him to express his authenticity, right?” Ramsey said. “He talked about that even when we first met about the script, and so to get to see that as an artist, as another artist, was was fulfilling. But even beyond that, when I first met first met Jason, it’s the first time I told this story.

“My son was about four years old, and he said, ‘Is your son a Power Ranger fan?'”

“‘No, like Jason, I don’t think he’s even ever heard of the Power Rangers. I mean he’s four.'”

“‘What’s your address?’ I gave I gave him my dress. He sent literally a five foot box of Power Rangers toys for my son. And that’s the kind of guy he was, right? When I first met him, it was just love and light came off of him. Because of that, I said, ‘Yes, I’ll work with you.’ I didn’t see a script, it was just like, ‘Yes, I want to work with you, Jason.’ So to get to work with him on set, get to read the script and see actually how good it is, and then get to work with him on set was just every single moment with Jason in my experience, it just got better and better and better and better. So my experience with him was was always incredible.”

Legend of the White Dragon is now in theaters.

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That’s the question we asked Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly, the stars of Dark Matter. The second season has debuted on Apple TV+, and it continues the adventures of the Dessen family as they try to survive alternate worlds and alternate versions of Jason Desson, portrayed by Edgerton.

“Personally I think there’s an inclination when life doesn’t feel like it’s working out to look back and diagnose the problem being further into your past, go, ‘It’s because of this that I’m in this bad place,'” Edgerton tells Nerd Reactor. “But, you know, the Chinese philosophy that bad things can lead to good and good things may actually lead to the next thing that’s bad. The accumulation of all things is why you’re at the place you’re at right now.

“I’m in a happy place, so I’m not diagnosing there being any problem and all the bad things that have come in my past, I’m happy for them because I am where I am. But there is a fascination with looking back and wondering how did that affect where I am or why I have what I have.”

People’s backgrounds are different, and Connelly acknowledges that it’s a difficult question to answer.

“I think that’s really hard to answer because we’re all in such different circumstances,” Connelly said. “I mean, some people are in situations that are oppressive, and they don’t have the freedom to make choices in their own lives. Some of us are in places where it’s easier to make ourselves believe that we’re not able to make choices in our own lives, but it’s difficult since we’re all in such different places. It’s so difficult to answer such a big question, I think.”

After the events of the first season, the Dessen family have to leave their home in order to survive. What does home mean when all they really have is each other?

“To me, that’s home,” Edgerton replied. “To me, home is my family. You could be anywhere. What the challenge becomes, and this is sort of partly with having a growing teenage boy, is that we have to be complicit in a choice to stay or to go together or to be in a place together. But also we want to make sure that the three of us together are finding a way that we’re okay with those choices, and it becomes very complex.”

“And the way that if home is each other, they get to a place that’s pretty dysfunctional,” Connelly added. “So they have to sort that out together.”

Dark Matter Season 2 premieres on Apple TV+, with new episodes releasing weekly until October 30, 2026.

The post Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly on Changing One’s Past – Dark Matter Season 2 Interview appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

Check out the full video interview below:

“I was inspired by the current, very highly rapid information exchange through social networking, and the highest form, the most extreme form of rapid information, the result is AI programs,” Yeon tells Nerd Reactor. “And then we think that we’re having a consensus… people think alike is beneficial to the society. However, actually, if that happens without thinking, our individuality threatened and it is rendered powerless.”

Starring in the lead role as Kwon Se-jeong is Jun Ji-hyun, aka Gianna Jun. As a biotechnology professor, she must help the survivors during a zombie infestation.

“It was my first time to work with Gianna Jun,” the director said. “And she’s, needless to say, she’s a superstar.”

About Colony

Synopsis: Horror master Yeon Sang-ho (Train to Busan) directs a new Korean zombie thriller starring Gianna Jun and Koo Kyo-hwan. Professor Se-jeong (Ji-hyun) is thrust into a bloody nightmare when a rapidly mutating virus is released during a biotech conference causing authorities to seal the facility. Trapped inside with no escape, Se-jeong along with a small group of survivors must fight to stay alive while the infected undergo horrific transformations.

The film is directed by Yeon Sang-ho and written by Yeon and Choi Gyu-seok. It stars CAST: Gianna Jun, Koo Kyo-hwan, Ji Chang-wook, Shin Hyun-been, Kim Shin-rock, and GO Soo.

The film releases in theaters on August 28, 2026.

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We had the chance to chat with Harry Francis, who portrays LeFou, about his character’s dedication to Gaston, preparations for each night’s performance, and what would happen if Gaston was gone from his life.

Check out the full video interview below:

“For me, LeFou only has a place in society in that town if he’s connected to Gaston,” Francis tells Nerd Reactor. “If people are buying drinks and they’re at the tavern, LeFou has people talking to him. He has a social life because of him being next to Gaston, being tied to Gaston. Gaston just loves the fact that he’s got someone for free who will just do whatever he wants for him, and there’s a bit when he sends me off into the woods to do his hunting for him, basically, he knows that no matter what, I will do whatever he says.”

Beauty and the Beast is a story known by many, and that includes the fate of Gaston. However, what happens to LeFou after the end of the tale?

“For me, if I’m attached to him, then people talk to me, then I’ve got some kind of personality because of him, which makes me sad, wondering what LeFou’s life is like after Gaston dies, because I think he would be a very, very lonely. I don’t think anyone would talk to him anymore. I think I think everyone would be done with him.”

About Disney’s Beauty and the Beast: The Musical

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast returns to the stage and brings back members of the original creative team to bring the fairy tale to life.

In the national tour, Belle is played by Kyra Belle Johnson, Fergie L. Philippe as Beast, Stephen Mark Lukas as Gaston, Danny Gardner as Lumiere, Christina Rose Hall as Mrs. Potts, Javier Ignacio as Cogsworth, and Harry Francis as LeFou.

Beauty and the Beast: The Musical is now playing at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles until September 6. It is headed to Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, CA, from September 22 to October 11, 2026. Tickets are available at beautyandthebeastthemusical.com/tickets.

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Nicola Coughlan on Finding Courage in The Magic Faraway Tree

Although Silky and Penelope come from different worlds, both characters go on journeys where they discover their courage and become more assertive.

“I quite like being scared of starting a new job,” Coughlan tells Nerd Reactor. “It’s always like I want to do it, and then I have the moment before where I’m like, ‘I can’t do this.’ I feel like I need to go to like the director and go, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing. You shouldn’t have hired me. This is a mistake.’ But also being able to push through that. Because you don’t really ever properly experience something if you don’t challenge yourself a little bit. So I think bravery has to come in there.”

Nicola Coughlan on Embracing Who You Are

One of the film’s messages is about accepting yourself for who you are, and it’s something that Coughlan has explored in her career.

“You’re always going to bring something of yourself, even if you completely transform in a role,” she said. “We love Meryl Streep because the essence of Meryl Streep… she can still transform and be other characters, but something in the middle. So it’s about maybe just accepting that there’s always a base level, but you can add color and you can add an accent and you can add a different type of movement or stuff. But just going, ‘That’s always there, and that’s okay.'”

Nicola Coughlan on Finding Your Inner Child

Fantasy films can help adults find their inner child. We see this in the film as well as in other classics such as Peter Pan.

“I think there’s a lot to it about embracing your inner child because I don’t think we ever really change that much fundamentally at our core of who we are,” Coughlan said. “I think you’ve got to sort of learn to listen to what they want.”

About The Magic Faraway Tree

Synopsis: Adapted from Enid Blyton’s beloved classic novel The Magic Faraway Tree, the film centers on Polly (Foy), Tim (Garfield), and their three children – a modern family forced to relocate to the remote English countryside. As they adapt to their new lives, the children discover a magical tree and its extraordinary and eccentric residents, including treasured characters Moonface (Anozie), Silky (Coughlan), Dame Washalot (Gunning), and Saucepan Man (Dustin Demri-Burns). At the top of the tree, they are transported to spectacular, fantastical lands, and through the joys and challenges of their adventures, the family learns to reconnect and value each other for the first time in years.

The film is directed by Ben Gregor and written by Simon Farnaby. It stars Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy, Nonso Anozie, Nicola Coughlan, Jessica Gunning, Jennifer Saunders, and Rebecca Ferguson.

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Check out the full video interview below, where we chat with the “actual” Cricket Green.

“There is a giant chocolate fountain, which I immediately jump into and just swim around like it’s a big old edible swimming pool, because that is what it is,” Cricket tells Nerd Reactor.

For the Marvel fans out there, audiences will get to see Cricket get powers thanks to a super soldier program.

“The gamma ray, it shot me right in the leg and made my leg really super, but not the rest of my body,” the boy explained. “So I had a super leg for like a day, and it was great, man.”

One of the episodes features the kids playing a giant meatball video game, and when asked if Cricket would prefer to be a video game streamer or an animator, he would choose being a streamer.

“I do think like me and IShowSpeed do have a lot in common,” Cricket said. “I see that. You know, we are both very charismatic and equally popular.”

Although he wouldn’t want to be an animator, he later changed his mind.

“Animators lead very sad lives,” he explained. “Okay, very sad lives. Lonely, lonely, dark room, working on one little – [impersonates tedious animation process] – that’s what they did in a day. Then they go home and they go, ‘What did I do?'”

However, after impersonating what it’s like to be an animator, he gets engaged with the arc of the motion sand says, “I take that all back, man. Animators are cool.”

About Big City Greens

Synopsis: Big City Greens follows the offbeat adventures of 10-year-old Cricket Green, a mischievous and optimistic country boy who moves to the big city with his wildly out-of-place family — older sister Tilly, father Bill and Gramma Alice. Cricket’s natural curiosity and enthusiasm lead him and his family on epic journeys and into the hearts of his new neighbors. The new season follows the family and their friends as they navigate some of their biggest adventures yet!

The series stars Chris Houghton as Cricket Green, Marieve Herington as Tilly Green, Bob Joles as Bill Green, Artemis Pebdani as Gramma Alice, Wendi McLendon-Covey as Nancy Green, Zeno Robinson as Remy, and Anna Akana as Gloria.

Season Five Guest Cast: Stephen King, Luke Combs, Dylan Sprouse, Megan Stalter, Chad Michael Murray, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Cobie Smulders, Clark Gregg, Matt Gourley, Sona Movsesian, Aaron Bleyaert, Martha Kelly, Steve Schirripa and Mike Colter.

The series is produced by Disney Television Animation, part of Disney Kids & Family, Chris and Shane Houghton are creators and executive producers. Anna O’Brian,director of “Big City Greens the Movie: Spacecation,” has been elevated to executive producer for Season 5. Stephen Sandoval (“The Owl House”) is co-executive producer, and Michael Coughlin (“The Muppets”) is producer.

The first five episodes of Season 5 premieres on August 21 on Disney Channel (8:00 p.m. EDT/PDT) and next day on Disney+. Additional episodes will be released throughout 2026 and 2027.

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Voicing Asta is Japanese voice actor Gakuto Kajiwara, whose credits include Komi Can’t Communicate, Honkai: Star Rail, and Ensemble Stars!.

“When we’re talking about season one, I think he was more of a straight shooter,” Kajiwara tells Nerd Reactor. “He didn’t really think too deeply, and he was just more go-with-the-flow kind of character.”

Audiences will see Asta dealing with his own struggles in the second season.

“But season 2, what I think you can see, you’ll see a more human side to him and lots more of a internal battle, within himself,” Kajiwara explained. “And so for me, as the voice actor, I really want to be able to show those emotions and for the fans to see this side of Asta.”

Asta is a character with a lot of energy, and Kajiwara admits that it was challenging.

“As a voice actor, I think it was a challenge to maintain Asta’s energy,” he said. “And as you mentioned, he has lots of energy and always shows lots of emotion.”

Returning to direct episodes of Black Clover Season 2 is Ayataka Tanemura, who helmed Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King and the latter half of the series.

“The second season… you’re going to definitely see more battles in this,” the director said. “But also, it is more of a challenge to make those scenes. And I did have lots of pressure to make sure all the scenes would be solid and mentally had to prepare.”

Black Clover Synopsis: In a world where magic is everything, Asta and Yuno are both found abandoned at a church on the same day. While Yuno is gifted with exceptional magical powers, Asta is the only one in this world without any. At the age of fifteen, both receive grimoires, magic books that amplify their holder’s magic. Asta’s is a rare Grimoire of Anti-Magic that negates and repels his opponent’s spells. Being opposite but good rivals, Yuno and Asta are ready for the hardest of challenges to achieve their common dream: to be the Wizard King. Giving up is never an option!

Studio Pierrot is behind the animation for Black Clover Season 2, and it will be released in October 2026.

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“Every single day I did it, because I’ve never done a show where the past and the present and the future were all in one place,” Davidson said about how the show felt refreshing. “So we’re going into a show that’s a show about a show. So it’s a workplace show.”

In Martin, Varnell Hill was the foil to the titular character. In The Varnell Hill Show, it’s vice versa.

“Now he comes to haunt me,” the actor said jokingly. “You know what I mean? He comes back to haunt me, but he comes back as multiple characters. If you looked at Martin’s show, Martin Payne wasn’t just one Martin.”

Davidson has been in the business for decades, and he wants to make the show the best it could be.

“And the common denominator for me that makes it the best is that I get to bring my gift to it, which is making people laugh, entertaining people, and making people feel good,” the actor said. “So for me, doing that every day, shooting that show was really the fruits of a lot of work and a lot of uncertainty, and a lot of just frustrations.”

About The Varnell Hill Show

Synopsis: Nearly three decades after audiences first met him, Varnell Hill is stepping back into the spotlight — and he’s determined to prove he’s still the star of the show. Set behind the scenes of a long-running late-night talk show, The Varnell Hill Show follows Varnell (Davidson) as he fights to stay relevant in a rapidly changing entertainment landscape. Between network executives eager to modernize the show, a chaotic writers’ room, celebrity guests, family drama, and his own outsized ego, Varnell quickly discovers that keeping a television empire together may be harder than building one in the first place.

The Varnell Hill Show eight-episode first season will make its worldwide debut on Paramount+ with two episodes on Tuesday, September 1, followed by one new episode every Tuesday through October 13.

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The new season of Lioness is inspired by current events, and the premiere episode featured trench and drone warfare, with Saldana’s Joe and her team shocked by what they saw.

“What you see on the field with the drones is really never been put on film before,” Bohen tells Nerd Reactor. “When you add the complexity of the dogs within everything, it’s remarkable that we were able to capture it just from a practical perspective, with no CGI. We produced one of the coolest modern-day battle sequences I think we’ve seen in this decade.”

One of the saddest moments in the series was in the third season premiere episode, when Grady returned from a mission, angry at the loss of his dog.

“I was devastated when I read that page that said, ‘Titan’s lifeless body,'” he said. “I’m like, ‘God damn it, you’re joking. No, why do you have to do this?’ I was like, ‘They’re gonna be so pissed at you, Taylor.'”

Rip (Cole Hauser) and Beth (Kelly Reilly) have moved on from their life in Yellowstone with their own spinoff show, Dutton Ranch. With the first season now finished, will we get to see the return of Ryan and Abby?

“I would love to see those two people in that world again because you just don’t want to think it’s over,” Bohen explained. “So fingers crossed that Lainey and I will be on Dutton Ranch together, having some fun with Kelly and Cole. I would be mystified if you didn’t start to see some of the bunkhouse populate a little bit.”

Lioness Season 3 premiered on August 2, 2026, on Paramount+, with new episodes released on Sundays.

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Delusion: Den of the Mosquito opens on select nights from September 17th to November 8th.

“This is a homecoming,” Braver tells Nerd Reactor. “This is cool because we’ve gone through this fun evolution of trying out different stories and different formats and different things, and then now we’re like, ‘Okay, it’s time!’ After last year, which was a big spectacle with fun stuff, we’re bringing it back to its roots and the stuff that really made it what it is today. So, coming back to the original Delusion mansion from 2011 and 2012.”

The Beckett Mansion, built in 1905, is the perfect location for a horrifying show thanks to its Neoclassical style. It was designed by John C. Austin, known for Los Angeles landmarks like the Griffith Observatory and the Shrine Auditorium. The 12,000-square-foot interior will take attendees on a wild adventure. The property has been maintained and renovated thanks to the owner, IDEG Construction, and the company’s CEO, Marisela Nuno, a Mexican-born entrepreneur raised in South Central Los Angeles.

Braver is even more excited than the previous year.

“I am the number one Delusion fan,” the creator said. “I know what works and what doesn’t most of the time. I know some of the strengths from last year, some of the weaknesses from last year, and that will help dictate the story that I’m writing this year.”

Because of the nature of these immersive, interactive plays, they are indeed rare. For example, Sleep No More’s show in New York closed after 14 years.

“These are very special projects,” he explained. “They’re very unique. It doesn’t really exist in that many places around the world, if any. These tickets aren’t cheap. They’re not that expensive either for what you’re getting. You’re getting every dollar’s worth because of the intimacy of it and all the craft that goes into it. I mean, it’s like nothing you will ever experience. So to me, there’s no question these kinds of things are worth it, not just financially, but just for your soul, just to go on adventures.”

This year’s show will be more intimate, with the most limited ticket availability in Delusion history. The full 50-minute experience will feature more interactivity and split paths.

Tickets for Delusion: Den of the Mosquito are available via https://enterdelusion.com/.

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