The Monthly April 2025

Wow, how are we already at the end of April? I was out of town last weekend, which has made the final full week of the month feel especially busy as I played catch up on pretty much everything going into this edition of The Monthly.

Before we get into what you need to know from April, I wanted to talk about Brain Slop. Yes, there’s a new newsletter at The Omnicosm, joining Popculturology and Snackology. Brain Slop is a weekly newsletter, hitting your inbox on Sunday, that’s full of stories about tech, space, dinosaurs, sports and more. If you were wondering whether dire wolves have really been brought back from extinction, this is the newsletter for you.

Brain Slop: It turns out dire wolves were real. And a company now claims to have de-extincted them.

When it comes to bringing animals back from extinction, is close enough good enough?

The OmnicosmBill Kuchman

OK, let’s get to the three stories you need to know, two trailers you need to watch and one article you need to read.

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

Disney’s live-action remake scheme is in trouble

The end is hopefully near for Disney’s live-action remakes of its classic animated films. Gone are the days of cash grabs like the Will Smith Aladdin, the Emma Watson Beauty and the Beast and the bizarre Lion King where the animals don’t show any emotions. The bottom has finally fallen out of this scheme, with Disney’s remake of Snow White struggling to even reach the $100 million mark in North America.

The studio has reportedly paused development of a live-action Tangled remake, never getting farther than hiring The Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey to lead the ill-fated project. While this isn’t the official end of Disney’s live-action remake scheme — there’s still Lilo & Stitch this summer and Dwayne Johnson’s Moana remake in the future — we’re hopefully witnessing the last gasps of a creatively bankrupt movie strategy. (The Hollywood Reporter)

And the Oscar for Best Stunt goes to ...

As Andy Samberg’s Rod Kimble once said in Hot Rod, “Life is short. Stunt it.” The Academy has finally taken that advice, announcing this month that it’ll begin awarding an Oscar for Stunt Design with the 100th Academy Awards in 2028.

The addition of an Oscar for stuntwork is a long time coming, with directors like David Leitch — who wrote a love letter to the industry with 2024’s The Fall Guy — spending years pushing the Academy to finally recognize the work that the field does.

“Stunts are essential to every genre of film and rooted deep in our industry’s history — from the groundbreaking work of early pioneers like Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin, to the inspiring artistry of today’s stunt designers, coordinators, performers, and choreographers,” Leitch said in a statement to Variety. “This has been a long journey for so many of us. Chris O’Hara and I have spent years working to bring this moment to life, standing on the shoulders of the stunt professionals who’ve fought tirelessly for recognition over the decades. We are incredibly grateful. Thank you, Academy.”

The Oscar for Stunt Design will be the second new Oscar category added during the 2020s, with a category for Achievement in Casting kicking in with the 2026 ceremony. (Oscars)

Lucasfilm makes Shawn Levy and Ryan Gosling’s Star Wars movie official

Star Wars Celebration was held in Japan over Easter weekend, unleashing a steady stream of Star Wars news. The biggest story out of the convention had to be that Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy’s movie has a title (Star Wars: Starfighter) and a release date (May 28, 2027). The reports that Ryan Gosling would star in the film were also confirmed.

Look, I’m gonna be honest with you — I’ll believe this one when I see it. When I’m sitting in a movie theater and the end credits roll on Star Wars: Starfighter, I’ll believe that this movie is real.

There have been way too many false announcements from Lucasfilm over the past decade to trust that this movie is the one that’ll finally break the studio’s unlucky streak when it comes to putting a Star Wars movie into theaters. (And, no, I'm not counting The Mandalorian & Grogu since that’s obviously just Season 4 of The Mandalorian but stitched together to be a movie instead.) I absolutely want to see Gosling in a Star Wars movie ... but I’ve been tricked too many times. (Star Wars)

2 TRAILERS YOU NEED TO WATCH

Tron: Ares

When Tron: Legacy was released in 2010, it was a very different era for Disney. The studio had only recently acquired Marvel, and The Avengers was still a project that Disney hoped would be a success. George Lucas still owned Lucasfilm and Star Wars. Fifteen years ago, Disney partially put its hopes for a live-action franchise in a legacy sequel to Tron.

For some fans, Tron: Legacy was a success. For some of us, we’ve hoped to see a sequel to that film that would pick up the threads left behind by Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde.

The good news for Tron: Legacy fans like myself is that we’re getting a sequel ... it just seems to be doing something very different than what we expected, casting Jared Leto as its star.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

With Robert Downey Jr. looming as Doctor Doom in next year’s Avengers: Doomsday, The Fantastic Four: First Steps has its work cut out for it. The movie not only has to establish Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as these iconic characters, it needs to find a way to tie them into the mainstream MCU universe while also tossing in a female version of Silver Surfer played by Ozark’s Julia Garner in addition to Galactus. (As long as Marvel Studios doesn’t make Galactus a big cloud again, they’re already winning on that one.)

1 ARTICLE YOU NEED TO READ

Will Forte Remembers MacGruber Co-star Val Kilmer

I actually missed this piece by Will Forte (as told to Vulture’s Rebecca Alter) published after Val Kilmer’s death, but it thankfully was discussed on an episode of The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast reflecting on the passing of Forte’s MacGruber co-star.

I didn’t actually know much about Kilmer’s personal life (including that he was Forte’s roommate for awhile), but between this Vulture piece and the podcast, Forte, John Solomon and the rest of the gang painted a pretty vibrant picture of a beloved — and kind of bizarre — friend. (Vulture)

CATCHING UP

Here’s what you might have missed from The Omnicosm this month ...

Friday Newsletter

• I missed you, Andor
• Jared Leto brings The Grid to us in first Tron: Ares trailer
• Spider-Verse! Superman! Thunderbolts*! CinemaCon teases a ton of upcoming movies

Deep SNL Thoughts

• ‘I don’t even want pizza anymore!’: Jon Hamm returns to SNL for long-awaited 4th time
• ‘I’M BACK!’: After 20 years, Jack Black is unleashed on SNL
• Whoops, Pete Hegseth added Mikey Madison to his group chat too

The Box Office Report

• A Minecraft Movie builds on its box office haul with $80.6M second weekend
• A Minecraft Movie digs up box office gold
• Jason Statham and A Working Man take a sledgehammer to Disney’s live-action remakes

Snackology

• Does the Pop-Tarts/Girl Scouts Cookies combo earn a Best Teamwork Merit Badge?
• Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish get a Glow Up
• ‘You have to test all of them, Mom’: I bought all six new Frosty Swirls flavors
• Capri Sun shoots for the Moon … Punch
• Ranking jelly beans to determine the perfect choice for your Easter basket
• Oreo S’mOreo cookies are back for some more
• ‘It tastes like a cleaning product’
• McDonald’s Minecraft Movie Meal brings the heat with Nether Flame Sauce

Brain Slop

• It turns out dire wolves were real. And a company now claims to have de-extincted them.
• How much would you pay for a Nintendo Switch 2?
• There’s two orcas going around killing great white sharks to eat their livers