As evidenced by Paramount's live-action "Transformers" movies and the recent "Masters of the Universe" film released by Amazon MGM Studios, nostalgic toy lines can serve as fertile grounds for a variety of engaging Hollywood projects leaning into vintage intellectual properties.

With Mattel ramping up their own film production efforts and toy-to-screen endeavors after enormous success with "The Barbie Movie" and hi-octane plans for Hot Wheels movies rolling into theaters, the toys-to-silver screen craze shows no sign of slowing down. What could be next? We think there's a perfect choice hiding in the Mattel goldmine that might just become the next big thing.

We're of course talking about Major Matt Mason, that Plastisol astronaut action figure and kids' playset product line from the 1960s, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.

Born in the 1960s, during the heat of America's space race with NASA's Apollo program aiming for the lunar landing by the end of the decade, Mattel's design mastermind's found inspiration in visionary space concept artists' wild dreams of futuristic moon bases, lunar buggies, and space vehicles.

Major Matt Mason was one of the first serious space toys to exist in the marketplace, first hitting the shelves of toy shops and department stores across the country in 1966.

Capitalizing on the daily news stories of Gemini missions and Apollo moon-walking dreams, this spacefaring fellow and his astronaut pals let kids everywhere imagine colorful cosmic adventures.

Back in 2019, Variety reported that Tom Hanks was attached to star in a Major Matt Mason live-action film being set up at Paramount Pictures with Akiva Goldsman ("A Beautiful Mind," "The Da Vinci Code") hired to write the screenplay.

Hanks is an enthusiastic advocate of NASA history after starring in Apollo 13 and co-executive producing the Emmy Award-winning HBO docuseries "From The Earth To The Moon" alongside "Band of Brothers" super producer Graham Yost. Despite the heavy hitters attached, momentum has since stalled on the sci-fi project and it's sadly been shelved for the immediate future.

Matt Mason's line-up of bendy 6-inch astronaut action figures was developed as a competitor to Hasbro's 12-inch G.I. Joe toys that ruled the marketplace in the mid-60s.

Along with Matt's fellow rubberized space buddies — available in a variety of color-accented spacesuits — Mattel also offered a complete universe to create your own space outpost and ramped lunar headquarters, alongside accessory vehicles, moon gear, expansive playsets, and Matt's "allies from the stars": A purple-and-pink creature called Scorpio, and a green-skinned friendly Jovian alien called Callisto.

With the Vietnam War raging in Southeast Asia and televised on the nightly news, Major Matt Mason blasted into Sears and JCPenney catalogs when soldier action figures were losing their appeal.

He wasn't a gun-toting commando but a heroic explorer "ready and able to cope with any space task or fierce danger." In addition to the action figures and peripheral playsets, Matt Mason became a pop culture phenomenon with his own board game, coloring books, lunch boxes, and puzzles.

Named after Mattel's co-founder Harold "Matt" Matson, the Matt Mason line carried a certain air of authenticity as many of its designers happened to be former aerospace engineers. Some of the toys' far-out designs were taken straight out of NASA conceptual art and prototypes seen in the pages of Popular Mechanics, Life, and National Geographic magazines.

But, the general public is difficult to please for any extended period of time and following the Apollo 11 moon landing in July of 1969, space toys faded in interest. Just one year later, Major Matt Mason was no more, destined only to be coveted decades later as collectors items .

As NASA ramps up their Artemis program with 2027's Artemis 3 mission, before an Artemis 4 moon landing set for 2028, and the space agency doubling down on plans for a recently announced permanent lunar base, can there be any better time for Hollywood moguls to resurrect this cool project for a fantastic, retro-styled Major Matt Mason movie or TV series?

It's certainly a better idea than a Matchbox movie.

The summer is slowly waning as we soon turn the calendar page to August and back to school supplies are already cluttering store shelves, but Hollywood still has a pocketful of of possible surprises hitting the silver screen. My prediction for "Masters of the Universe" as a summertime sleeper hit did not come to pass, though it was a totally enjoyable nostalgic romp, if not about 20 minutes or so too long.

Recent teasers and trailers starring Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway and their suburban family have them sprinting for their lives after a strange cosmic event whisks their placid American neighborhood seemingly back to prehistoric times when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Think "The Twilight Zone" meets "Jurassic Park" with a dash of "A Quiet Place" and you’ll be pretty close to the wild narrative that will unfold when the "running and screaming" begins.

This all seems like the perfect recipe for a fun cocktail of primeval creatures rampaging across driveways and lawns while residents fight back with guns and garden tools. "I think our house, our neighborhood, our whole street, has moved," Hathaway's Denise Platt explains to her children in the first teaser that dropped in March and racked up a hefty 30 million views.

While "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" is surely destined to become a global sensation, we’d like you to redirect your cinematic radar to "The End of Oak Street," a cool little sci-fi fantasy film brought to life by executive producer J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot ("Lost," "Cloverfield," "Star Trek," "Star Wars: The Force Awakens").

Stomping into theaters on Aug. 14, 2026, it's written, produced, and directed by David Robert Mitchell ("It Follows") who brings his twisted sensibilities to the surreal survival material.

Fans of "The Outer Limits" might recall a similar theme, minus the feathered dinos of course, playing out in the 1964 episode, "A Feasibility Study," where aliens abduct a 6-block suburban neighborhood to their planet Luminos to study them as candidates for enslavement. Whether or not aliens are involved in this plot is unclear and Warner Bros. is now keeping that tightly under wraps.

Also starring Maisy Stella and Christian Convery and produced by Hannah Minghella, Jon Cohen, Matt Jackson and Tommy Harper, "The End of Oak Street" thunders into multiplexes on Aug. 14, 2026 and is our best bet for a late summer smash before the kiddies return to school!

We've seen things you people wouldn't believe!

The script is flipped in Prime Video's upcoming "Blade Runner 2099" series where replicants have rebelled and seized power from human beings in a massive uprising. An arresting new trailer was unleashed during the annual San Diego Comic-Con pop culture pageant and it's an atmospheric return to the futuristic realm of Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" universe 80 years later.

"The old world forever fights to come back," Olwen tells Cora in this interesting first peek at the limited series that arrives Nov. 25, 2026. "Humans want what was taken from them. But it's our time now."

"Blade Runner 2099" stars Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh ("Everything Everywhere All At Once") as an aging replicant Blade Runner named Olwen and Hunter Schafer ("Euphoria") playing Cora, a fugitive human trying to escape pursuing Blade Runners. It's more or less a tangential sequel to director Denis Villeneuve’s "Blade Runner 2049" set in the same neon-drenched dystopian world with a team-up element between natural and artificial beings, we're also going into outer space!

We first heard word of series executive producer Ridley Scott developing a "Blade Runner" TV show back in early 2022 and we're finally on the threshold of its 8-episode release this fall, which is helmed by showrunner and executive producer Silka Louisa ("Shining Girls").

"Fifty years after the events of 'Blade Runner 2049,' Los Angeles has been reborn, just not by humanity," states the official synopsis. "Cora, a fugitive in a final bid to stop running, takes on one last identity: a Blade Runner. Forced to partner with Olwen, a Replicant days from dying, she hunts down a runaway hiding a truth that could collapse their fragile city."

Yeoh and Schafer share cyberpunk cityscapes with Dimitri Abold ("The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes") and Lewis Gribben ("Somewhere Boy"). Guest stars include Katelyn Rose Downey ("The Nun II"), Daniel Rigby ('Renegade Nell"), Johnny Harris ("A Gentleman In Moscow"), Amy Lennox ("Only Child"), Sheila Atim ("The Woman King") and Matthew Needham ("House of the Dragon").

"I am so excited for people to see it," Louisa told EW last week. "There is so much legacy with 'Blade Runner.' Every person who touched the show in any way is a huge fan. Everyone was very well aware of the weight of what we were doing, and we did it with great care. And when you're taking on something like this, you're very thoughtful and deliberate about each step. That is why it has taken so long, because we wanted to make sure we got it right.

"We stayed very true to the noir principles of 'Blade Runner.' And there's a mystery at the heart of the show that looks both forwards and backwards in terms of mythology that fans are gonna be very excited about."

Also executive produced in collaboration with David W. Zucker and Clayton Krueger of Scott Free Productions. "Blade Runner 2099" will appear on Prime Video Nov. 25, 2026.

Trailers and teasers for HBO’s upcoming "Lanterns" series have been suspiciously devoid of much outer space footage for the intergalactic cops known as the Green Lanterns, but that's all history now with this exhilarating new preview.

Beware the power of this illuminating peek that not only delivers generous doses of Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) mentoring his young apprentice, John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), but also tosses in cool shots above an alien planet, a prison world, and what could be barren Mars.

And there's green galore via electrifying emerald constructs (including a beer opener) emanating from the cosmic peacekeepers' trusty power rings. Plus we're treated to a severe warning by the normally-wisecracking Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) as a serious but satisfying bonus.

"Lanterns" is an 8-episode limited series arriving Aug. 16, 2026 courtesy of DC Studios and heralding from executive producers Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King.

From this latest trailer it's apparent that weird shape-shifting Manhunters will be primary antagonists alongside the crimson-skinned criminal Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) and that has piqued our interest. It delivers a well-rounded depiction of the series' story arc and motivational beats that follow an older generation of Lanterns giving way to a younger law enforcement recruit.

"Manhunters are the most dangerous beings to ever exist in the galaxy," Paul Ben-Victor's extraterrestrial truth-seeker, Antaan, explains. "And it can take the form of any species."

This grounded, mystery-driven miniseries showcases one of DC Comics' most honored creations, the Green Lantern Corps, and their oath-reciting, ring-bearing brethren across the cosmos, here investigating odd murders in rural Nebraska.

Landing from DC Studios, Warner Bros. Television, and HBO, "Lanterns" debuts Sunday, Aug. 16 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and later streaming on HBO Max.

Nostalgia is a powerful elixir as demonstrated by Paramount's moving "Star Trek" tribute video created for the franchise's big 60th anniversary this year and revealed last weekend at San Diego Comic-Con during a Star Trek Universe presentation at Hall H.

It's a sentimental journey into the final frontier that chronicles the popular space opera property from its infancy as "Star Trek: The Original Series" in 1966, through 14 Hollywood feature films and numerous small screen iterations like "The Next Generation," "Deep Space Nine," "Voyager," "Enterprise," "Discovery," "Picard," "Strange New Worlds," "Below Decks," "Prodigy," and even "Starfleet Academy."

"We are all explorers, driven to know what's over the horizon," declares Scott Bakula's Captain Archer from Enterprise in this misty celebratory mission down memory lane.

San Diego Comic-Con fans attending the annual pop culture extravaganza were also treated to a packed panel featuring "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" Season 4 stars Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, Ethan Peck, Christina Chong, Celia Rose Gooding, Melissa Navia, and Paul Wesley, in addition to executive producers Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers, and Alex Kurtzman. The cast and creators offered up an extended peek at the new season and teased the fifth and final season being released in 2027.

An impressive roster of "Star Trek" luminaries made appearances to discuss Gene Roddenberry's hopeful vision of the future and the franchise's enduring legacy, including Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry, Michael Dorn, Robert Picardo, Connor Trinneer, Cirroc Lofton, Doug Jones, Michelle Hurd, Jerry O'Connell, Christina Chong, Karim Diané, and George Takei.

"For 60 years, 'Star Trek' has carried us beyond galaxies out of reach, to the very core of what it means to be human," "Discovery's" Sonequa Martin-Green states in the tribute's narration. "It began with a bold idea that the future could be united."

Stay tuned for more "Star Trek" 60th anniversary news and events this September!

SYFY’s optimistic space opera series, "The Ark," embarks upon its third thrilling season today, occupying a unique entertainment spot as the only weekly scripted sci-fi series currently on regular broadcast television.

With an impressive creative resume featuring executive producers Dean Devlin ("Stargate," "Independence Day") and Jonathan Glassner ("Stargate SG-1") and a hopeful premise about humanity’s search for a new home amid the stars, it’s a refreshing show perfect for a laidback, summertime watch.

Season 3 delivers more dangerous exoplanets inhabited by ravenous toothy monsters, the mystery of an alien stone tablet, and Captain Sharon Garnet’s Ark One searching for long-lost colonists. We caught up with Devlin to find out more about this third outing.

"We got so lucky with this cast," Devlin tells Space. "Some were cast from Canada, some from Spain, from England, and a lot of them were from Serbia. You never know if they’re going to gel, if they’re going to get along, if there's going to be any egos. It's truly an amazing group of individuals."

Talking more on the unique shooting location, Devlin notes, "I do also believe that because we shoot this show in Serbia, it kind of forces them to live together in a way. They work together, they go out to dinners together. They really spend all their time together, and I think it's created a bond off-screen that you can really see on screen."

Season 3 accelerates all the careful plot mechanisms set up in the previous outings, and the result is a colorful blend of space fantasy action and interpersonal melodrama that makes for good old-fashioned fun.

"Season one had been this crazy hit, and it did so much better than anyone thought," he explains. "While we were making season two, we had discussions about maybe splitting the show into two shows. And that one show takes place on the new colony, and the other show takes place rescuing people. When the season was over, we thought maybe we’d just stick with one show. Then suddenly I had two shows I had to cram into one show. It became twice as big with more locations, more cast, and more adventures.

"We went nuts. We went wildly over budget and just made the biggest, craziest season we could possibly imagine. Our industry has moved so far into streaming, which is great in so many ways. But the weekly viewing on cable is still something that I really treasure and really am grateful that I have a chance to do that. We have two shows doing that this summer [with TNT's "The Librarians: The Next Chapter"] and in both situations we're the only scripted show on each network."

Devlin hints that viewers are going to be shocked at some of the unexpected surprises this season and where it goes on a character level.

"That's always been the strength of this show," he adds. "These characters and bringing out new information about them and seeing how that causes conflicts amongst our group and how they overcome those conflicts. 'The Ark' always has had a mystery element, but this year the mystery box is enormous.”

One thing that’s immediately noticeable is the impressive range of visual effects on 'The Ark' this year, and Devlin admits that this is where a good chunk of the budget-busting occurred.

"The main VFX team is in Serbia, a company called Fried, and they’ve been with us this whole time. I put another team together in Los Angeles that used to be part of our Electric Entertainment effects company. So we basically had two houses because we wanted to step it up; we had a lot more shots to do, and we split the work between us. I’m really proud of the collaboration. In season one, I promised everybody that there were no aliens on 'The Ark,' but maybe down the line. Well, I guess we’re down the line.

"This is a season where if you've never seen the show before, you can jump right in. But if you have been with us for the whole journey, you're going to get some extra love by the time we get to the end of the season. This may be the most emotional ending of a season we've ever done, and I'm anxious to watch people go on that ride with us.”

Starring Christie Burke, Reece Ritchie, Richard Fleeshman, Pavle Jerinic, Stacey Read, Samantha Glassner and Ryan Adams, SYFY's "The Ark" Season 3 launches weekly starting Wednesday, July 29, 2026.

In Apple TV’s "Silo" season 3, we lunge back 352 years to the Before Times to see how the greatest engineering project in the history of the world began… and would end.

Center stage in this dark sci-fi drama are ambitious Congressman Daniel Keene (Ashley Zukerman) and journalist Helen Drew (Jessica Henwick), the pre-apocalypse duo we were first introduced to in Season 2's final episode.

In that scene, the handsome couple met on a first date in a Washington, D.C. restaurant in the aftermath of a dirty bomb that had irradiated the city.

Daniel and Helen play pivotal roles in "Silo's" elaborate conspiracy to save humanity, helping to orchestrate a colossal project in Georgia to build a controlled network of survival bunkers that will last centuries until the Earth somehow becomes habitable again after a mysterious calamity. Wait, that sounds familiar...

Zukerman and Henwick create a completely believable relationship as they’re reluctantly drawn into this mind-boggling plot to save the human race. We connected with them to learn details about cultivating their chemistry and intimacy on the show.

"It's nothing we worked to generate; it was really just there from the beginning," Zukerman tells Space. "We hung out, and we certainly didn’t hang out for the purpose of building that chemistry. I think we got very lucky to find a teammate to be able to do that with."

"We share the same taste and work ethic," elaborates Zuckerman. "When you go on a journey that’s this big with someone, and we shot every day for four months together, we just always had each other’s backs, and there was an immense amount of unconditional respect and excitement. I’m not the kind of actor that could fake it."

Henwick discussed the complexities of her resourceful character and her expanded role in season 3 by exploring what she drew from to compose a layered Helen.

"It was my memory of working on the school newspaper when I was 14," she explains. "And also my natural inclination to ‘Spanish Inquisition’ everyone. I do feel quite an affinity to journalists. I always love to ask questions, and I want to know why and want to understand things. I’m really curious about the world. I didn’t feel like I had to generate much for Helen. I actually felt like she was very close to me."

"Silo"'s impressive set design certainly helped the cast immerse themselves in the doomsday world of author Hugh Howey's dystopian novels and in this lavish Apple TV adaptation.

"I'm sort of a terrible guest to sets, especially if I'm a part of the production," Zukerman adds. "I have to remember to sit in wonder for a second at the scale of the operation. Usually I just try to live as the characters live. Then I'm so thankful that you actually get to live in a real space, especially in a sci-fi, which is not our real world.

"Where the drawers open and when you're looking at something, you're not looking at a blue screen or a green screen, you're actually able to experience life as close as you can within this alternate reality."

Likewise, Henwick absorbed "Silo's" immense scope and scale right from the start.

"I've done a lot of fantasy and sci-fi where I’m stuck in front of a green screen, or there's a tennis ball on a stick, and you have to follow it, and that's the spaceship," she shares. "It was nice to be on a show where so much of it was done practically. I remember the first day going to visit the stairs, and that blew my mind. It is a massive set, one of the biggest sets I've been on."

Executive produced by Graham Yost, “Silo” Season 3 is now streaming on Apple TV.

All systems are go! PBS just launched the second episode of its "Once Upon a Time in Space" miniseries on Tuesday, titled "The Russian Thing," and we’ve got an exclusive clip from the harrowing chapter that focuses on near disasters aboard the Space Station Mir in 1997.

In addition to the video, we’re also proud to share an exclusive interview with NASA's celebrated British-American astronaut Michael Foale, who is featured prominently in the new segment regarding the infamous cargo pod collision on Mir, which caused a decompression incident that became a life-threatening crisis.

Hailing from British filmmaker James Bluemel and his crew that delivered the award-winning "Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland," "Once Upon a Time in Space" is a 4-part exploration of human spaceflight. Its weekly episodes trace pivotal events in spacefaring history via the personal experiences of astronauts, cosmonauts, and loved ones left on Earth from the birth of the Space Shuttle program to the blossoming of today’s commercial spaceflight industry.

"James Bluemel is a very perceptive director, and he was different from others that have interviewed me," Foale tells Space.

"What I loved about his method was he would dig up clips from our training or at different points when I was a brand new astronaut, looking really young and had a surfer boy haircut. I love windsurfing. He would dig up clips I don't know where from. And then he'd show it to you, and then he'd say, 'What do you think?'"

Foale — a distinguished veteran of six space missions who retired in 2013 — takes us back to that day of May 25, 1997, when a manual docking maneuver caused an unmanned Progress cargo ship to collide with Mir, ripping a large hole in the Russian space station’s Spektr module.

The crew’s valiant attempt to halt the pressure leak and save the station is like something straight out of a Hollywood thriller. With only 23 minutes of oxygen left, Foale and cosmonauts Vasily Tsibliev and Alexander ‘Sasha’ Lazutkin were able to repair the damage and stop the tumbling spacecraft from spinning wildly out of control.

"The root cause of the accident was trying to save money," he explains. "And the root cause was an attempt to do a manual docking from a large distance longer than any cosmonaut or astronaut does a manual docking from and doing it without the radar. The radar was built in Ukraine and cost $2 million in that timeframe. And the Russian managers did not want to pay Ukraine $2 million.

"So someone in the Energia corporation — they're the guilty company — decided they would try and get this crew at the last minute to try and do a manual rendezvous and docking without the radar from about a six-kilometer starting point. And that test was with a Progress we'd already filled up with trash and was meant to be de-orbited into the Pacific Ocean. Before it was going to be de-orbited finally, it was going to do this test."

Unfortunately, that test went horribly wrong due to Vasily Tsibliev not being able, based on measurements he could make in real time, to determine the exact closing velocity of the Progress.

"He couldn't ascertain distance very well, but you need the distance first, and then you need to divide by time to get the velocity,” notes Foale. “That was not possible in that situation and never attempted again. It caused a much higher velocity than Vasily could extinguish using the one thruster set that were turned on the Progress.

"So it bounced off, literally bounced off after crumpling part of the Spektr module and bending one of the solar arrays. The joint cracked at the base of the solar array into the module, and that's where the unseen hole is or was. And that's where the air was leaving from. It was a multiple hit that caused it to float away. And we were told as a crew about three days later, because we asked what had happened to it. They said, 'Well, engine was capable of being fired. It was capable of reorienting itself, and it de-orbited into the Pacific.'"

In the aftermath of the collision, an adapter was sent up to try and connect power back from the Spektr module into the Mir system.

"Vasily and Sasha were planned to do an internal spacewalk into the Spektr module to get to those cables that Sasha and I had had to disconnect to save the station," Foale adds. "They were going to go back in during an internal EVA. Vasily, because of the stress of the event, didn't pass the medical test done before the spacewalk, and they wire you up for a heart monitor.

"So then a day later, a call came up from the head of the program, Valery Ryumin, saying, 'Oh, Michael, you're on the radio. I'm going to ask you, would you be willing to go in and do the spacewalk inside the Spektr module instead of Vasily?'", remembers Foale. "I just knew that that was going to create a huge issue with me and Vasily because it was so humiliating for him. And he took all the blame of the collision on his shoulders, which was unfair."

Foale retired from NASA and space travel after a brilliant 30-year career with the agency and six space shuttle missions, but the lifestyle adjustment was a bit troubling at first.

“That was a depressing moment when I was being told, 'Oh, you're done,'" he shares. "I knew I couldn't survive the envy of my astronaut colleagues who are younger than me and haven't flown but once or twice. So I knew I was kind of done in space, at least with NASA. I was dreaming of being an astronaut guide like Peggy Whitson or Michael Lopez-Alegria on an Axiom mission. Those were my daydreams initially. I miss space, but I’ve found other things to replace that fun.

“I've always been turned on emotionally and romantically by soaring and flying. So living in Texas amongst the mountains with fantastic stars every night and soaring here, it's not space. It's not in a spacesuit outside the Mir looking at it, but it's pretty cool. I do go back to a much more comfortable situation in the evening, and I do ride my bike.

"As a 69-year-old now, I have a pretty good late-life pastime. But you have to make do. And hey, you have to keep telling yourself you're one of the luckiest guys around. I would say I was naively optimistic about the international collaboration in space. The show that James Bluemel has put together, "Once Upon a Time in Space," in some ways it looks like a fairytale to me when I look back on it."

"Once Upon a Time in Space's" "The Russian Thing" episode aired on July 21, 2026, at 9:00 p.m. ET on PBS, PBS.org, and the PBS app, with the final two chapters coming on July 28 and Aug. 4.

Henry Alonso Myers and Akiva Goldsman are the primary ringleaders behind "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds", and they're about to unleash the next cluster of 10 Season 4 episodes for their spirited space show.

With an abundance of genre-crossing indulgences that are scary, surreal, and sometimes silly, the Paramount+ hit is operating at full warp speed in this penultimate outing, the debut episode of which just premiered on July 23, 2026.

We hitched a ride with the acclaimed executive producers to learn all about their vision for "Strange New Worlds'" fourth season and why they believe it will prove to be the finest one yet, taking cues from ‘90s-style time-travel odysseys, haunted starships, noir crime thrillers, puppet mishaps, and utopian fantasies.

"It’s hard to come up through the ‘90s and not feel affected by a lot of the films that came out in that era, some of which my partner is directly responsible for," Myers tells Space regarding the solid one-two punch of the first two episodes.

"I think part of the goal is to come out swinging when you do a premiere. It needs its own premise that stands on its own, and then you need to figure out how to set up everything else for the season through that.

"How do you tell an emotional story that expresses where the season is going to go? And also, we want something that we think is cool. The minute we started talking about doing dinosaurs [In "Valles Marineris"], we were like, 'Yeah, let’s figure out a way to do that.' Then it became a question of how do we fit all of this into the same box."

For the unsettling (and pretty gruesome) horror episode titled "The Griffin Incident," Myers admits that Goldsman is his true north for all the horror elements because the Oscar-winning screenwriter loves it so deeply.

"I always look to see his reaction if whether or not we feel like we've hit it. And every season we’ve tried to do one, and we’ve done some decent ones. But we haven’t quite done something like a ghost story. His reaction to that made it all worth doing."

Goldsman finds it interesting that he understands the rules of the horror genre, yet he actually doesn't watch that much horror anymore, short of the horror projects that he's somehow been involved with creatively.

"The older I get, the harder it is for me to watch," he reveals. "This particular convergence of the open-hearted optimism of 'Star Trek' and the kind of haunted nature of the world behind the world. There's a cadence to this, an almost Lovecraftian sense of there’s something out there that’s more than we know and maybe not so pleasant. I just think that is really interesting in 'Star Trek.' So we built it and shot it like a horror movie, and for me it worked. It’s nice and scary.”

In choosing some of their favorite moments of Season 4, Myers and Goldsman share observations on a few key crew members as they embark on their own inner voyages.

"There is stuff that Uhura goes through this season that really gets me," notes Myers. "She was the new recruit at the beginning of the show, and this is the part where she's suddenly a bit more in charge. She also manages to risk her life and save people in ways we haven't seen on screen. And it builds to something I love, which is she looks at who she's going to be, and looks back at who she was, and has some really great emotional stories around that. I love seeing her on that journey."

Picking his pair of intrepid Starfleet officers, Goldsman looks toward Sickbay.

"I think there's a set of relationship beats between M’Benga and Chapel in the back half of the season that really deepens both those characters and helps us understand where everybody's going that I think Jess and Babs did beautifully," he adds. "So I’m really looking forward to that."

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" Season 4 is now streaming on Paramount+.

2026 is the 60th anniversary of "Star Trek". To help celebrate the show that creator Gene Roddenberry described as "Wagon Train to the Stars,""Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" returns to Paramount+ for its penultimate season.

From teasers and trailers that first dropped last summer and fall, we’re anticipating a rollicking batch of dynamic episodes that draw on diverse subgenres, with everything from classic film noir crime stories and time travel to spooky ghost stories and sword-clashing swashbucklers.

But the end is nigh for this colorful modern interpretation of "Trek". Next year's truncated fifth season will be the crew's final mission, so let's revel in the time we have left and beam onto the Enterprise bridge for a promising round of missions. Here's our guide to everything you need to know about "Strange New Worlds" Season 4. Hit it!

When is the "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" Season 4 release date?

"Strange New Worlds" season 4 premieres Thursday, July 23, 2026, exclusively on Paramount+ in the US, Canada, and the UK with the first of 10 weekly episodes.

Fans can catch up and binge on all three previous seasons on the streaming platform. There are 30 previous sci-fi excursions into the known and unknown corners of the vast universe.

Forthcoming episodes of "Strange New Worlds" will land each Thursday after that, with the season finale warping into your living rooms on Sept. 24, 2026. Not signed up yet? We’ve got you covered with links to help get you up and running!

How to watch "Strange New Worlds" Season 4

"Strange New Worlds" season 4 streams on Paramount+ in the US, UK, Canada, Latin America, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Japan.

The engaging sci-fi series will also be available on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Central and Eastern Europe, starting July 24, 2026.

If you want to check out "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" or any of the other great shows on Paramount+ while you're abroad, you can also use a VPN to access your subscription from anywhere in the world. It doesn’t work so well in neighboring solar systems or in the proximity of supermassive black holes!

What is the plot of "Strange New Worlds" Season 4?

After the bittersweet season 3 goodbye to Captain Marie Batel, Captain Pike’s longstanding love interest, it's back to bold business seeking out new life and new civilizations in the galaxy.

"The crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, led by Captain Christopher Pike, embarks on a series of thrilling and emotional adventures across the stars," states the official synopsis. "On their journey, they will battle inner demons and external threats, encounter colorful new characters, reunite with familiar faces, and confront terrifying aliens. Through it all, they strive to embrace a bright, hopeful future."

Check out the individual episode titles and their scheduled air dates:

• Episode 401: "Valles Marineris" — Jul. 23
• Episode 402: "The Griffin Incident" — Jul. 30
• Episode 403: "Human Best Friend" — Aug. 6
• Episode 404: "A Case of Chiaroscuro" — Aug. 13
• Episode 405: "Level Five Transporter Accident" — Aug. 20
• Episode 406: "Off-Hour" — Aug. 27
• Episode 407: "Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass" — Sept. 3
• Episode 408: "Orders of Magnitude" — Sept. 10
• Episode 409: "Once La'An a Time" — Sept. 17
• Episode 410: "Tomorrow's Enterprise" — Sept. 24

Are There Teasers and Trailers for "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" season 4?

You bet your coveted dilithium crystals there are!

Paramount+ delivered the main full trailer for season 4 on June 15, 2026, and it’s packed with dinosaurs, cowboys, horses, space storms, dreams, nightmares, fire-breathing dragons, haunted spaceships, and hallucinatory pleasure planets. Strap in for another genre-hopping season that could be the series’ best yet as we honor the franchise's big 60th birthday!

On July 18, Paramount+ also offered up a fun 20-minute video presenting some of the most memorable moments of Season 3 and it’s definitely worth a watch… or two!

But the funniest surprise came last summer on July 25, 2025 during San Diego Comic-Con, with the hilarious teaser that featured Captain Pike in the center seat as a Muppet! Yep, a Muppet! And we guarantee that episode is destined for immortality.

Who Are The "Strange New Worlds" Season 4 Cast And Creators?

It’s going to be all hands on deck for this fourth and penultimate season of "Strange New Worlds," with the U.S.S. Enterprise exploring the final frontier with a full cast complement and its tireless executive producers and co-showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers at the creative helm.

Returning to Paramount+'s adventurous space fantasy show are Anson Mount (Capt. Christopher Pike), Rebecca Romijn (Number One), Ethan Peck (Spock), Jess Bush (Christine Chapel), Christina Chong (La’An Noonien-Singh), Celia Rose Gooding (Nyota Uhura), Melissa Navia (Erica Ortegas), Babs Olusanmokun (Dr. Joseph M’Benga), and Martin Quinn (Montgomery Scott), and Adrian Holmes (Admiral April).

Recurring guest stars for "Strange New Worlds" season 4 include Carol Kane as the quirky long-lived Lanthanite engineer Commander Pelia and a charismatic Paul Wesley as a younger James T. Kirk.

Will there be a "Strange New Worlds" season 5?

Yes indeed, we will be getting one final season next year, shortened to just six episodes.

The series' swan song will introduce Thomas Jane portraying Leonard "Bones" McCoy and Kai Murakami playing Hikaru Sulu. The original gang's almost all here. Will we get an Original Series reboot/reimagining after this? Our money's on yes.

The latest "Dune: Part 3" trailer arrived back on July 8, and it was a sumptuous banquet of startling set pieces, intergalactic political unrest, close-quarter combat, and a whole lot of sand and ash. A fine follow-up to the initial March teaser, to be sure.

After letting it marinate in our minds for a while, let’s break down five items of particular interest in this newest preview of the Denis Villeneuve-directed conclusion to his trilogy of far-future sci-fi epics adapted from author Frank Herbert’s novels, "Dune" and "Dune: Messiah."

Set 17 years after Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) has ascended to the Emperor’s throne, "Dune: Part 3" explores the corrupting side of political power as his holy war against the Imperium’s Great Houses advances towards a destructive destiny.

Right out of the gate, Chani (Zendaya) is certainly not shy about displaying her displeasure with his ultimate betrayal, which was first fleshed out at the end of 2024’s Dune: Part 2. It’s also pretty cool to see Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa) back as a cloned “ghola” and Paul’s powerful sister, Alia, portrayed by Anya Taylor-Joy.

So behold, our five takeaways from this brand new look at Villeneuve’s "Dune: Part 3".

1. The chilling gaze of Scytale

We already knew that a platinum-haired Robert Pattinson plays Scytale, one of the film’s main villains.

Some might have scoffed at the concept of Pattinson as an intimidating foe, but from these extra snippets in the new trailer, his shapeshifting Tleilaxu Face Dancer seems up to the task of carrying out a careful plan to remove the ruthless Paul Atreides from the throne.

Pattinson has the acting chops to pull off an intimidated foe, so he might just steal the show. And come on, folks, Pattinson was The Dark Knight!! Have a little faith.

2. Alia’s bloody scream

Alia Atreides, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, is Paul’s sister. The Bene Gesserit Revered Mother Mohiam called her an "abomination" due to the Water of Life that Lady Jessica drank while she was in the womb.

A blood-covered Alia is perhaps unleashing her god-like power on a captive Mohiam in response to a conversation we’re not privy to here, which could be not exactly a scream of peril, but a stern command.

She’s definitely not someone to cross thanks to her otherworldly paranormal skills.

3. Where did Paul’s eyes go?

Towards the end of the 3-minute trailer, we catch a shot of Paul in the aftermath of a nasty Stone Burner radiation bomb detonated by conspirators in the Arrakis capital, Arrakeen, as Paul and his personal Fedaykin guard accompany him outside the palace.

We can see his eyes are severely damaged after the intense detonation flash strikes him square in the face, causing blindness and eventual exile into the deep desert per the Fremen way.

This will open up his prescient sight abilities in new and extraordinary ways as we’ll soon see for ourselves in this third "Dune" installment.

4. Attack of the Clone

Jason Momoa’s master swordsman Duncan Idaho returns here with more sneak peek screen time.

He's shown resplendent in his crisp white uniform, heavily criticizing Paul for the thousands of worlds he’s destroyed during the terror campaign inflicted by his brutal Jihad.

But, as fans of the books will know, this is not technically the same person as his former mentor. He has been resurrected as a Ghola clone named Hayt as a ‘gift’ from the Bene Tleilaxu, and unbeknownst to Paul, he plans to assassinate the crazed ruler who is deemed beyond redemption.

5. Flight of the Navigator

One of the major grumbles coming from fans, myself included, is the lack of the Spacing Guild and its bizarre Guild Navigators in Villeneuve’s "Dune" films, but all that’s seemingly about to change.

In this trailer, we see a hovering coffin tank that no doubt contains one of the mutated human creatures warped by the spice Melange, enabling them to fold space. This former Spacing Guild member is named Edric and is a pivotal player in the plot to overthrow Paul and House Atreides.

Also seen is Edric’s sinister pod sliding silently into one of the gigantic Guild Heighliner starships.

Warner Bros.' "Dune: Part 3" lands on Dec. 18, 2026.

We’re not going to bombard you with a bunch of "Hasta La Vista, Baby" jokes, but you might want to mark your calendars for Aug. 28, 2026, because James Cameron's Oscar-winning "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" is heading back into U.S. and global theaters later this summer in honor of its 35th anniversary.

While the actual anniversary of the movie's release was back on July 3rd, StudioCanal has a great reason for delaying the re-release until August.

Judgment Day in the sci-fi franchise’s mythology occurs on August 29, 1997. It's when Skynet becomes self-aware and launches a doomsday nuclear attack on the world, so that weekend chosen for the re-release is particularly appropriate and pretty cool. In honor of these big birthday party plans, a special new anniversary trailer and nostalgia poster have been composed to heighten the excitement and anticipation.

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, and Robert Patrick, "Terminator 2" was unleashed into theaters on July 3, 1991, and was ultimately awarded four Oscars, instantly cementing its legacy as one of the most influential sci-fi flicks ever.

This anniversary re-release presentation utilizes StudioCanal’s 2017 restoration and 3D conversion. For residents in Australia, the seminal classic arrives back on Sept. 3, with a United Kingdom release due to strike beginning Sept. 4. Tickets in the United States for "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" 35th Anniversary have been available online since July 17.

"T2 was made for theatres, and our lovingly-prepared 3D version, coming back to the big screen, is the absolute best way to see the film," director James Cameron added in an official announcement.

"I believe it’s safe to do spoilers after 35 years, so SPOILER ALERT: the good guys win against the AI superintelligence! And maybe that’s a message of hope we all could use this summer."

If you don't want to wait until next month, you can watch "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" on Paramount+

One thing is for certain: there will absolutely be no shortage of superheroes in Marvel Studios' "Avengers: Doomsday", as evidenced by this first full trailer that showcases everyone from the Wakandans and the X-Men to the Fantastic Four and Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers.

Plus, we get slivers of a metal-masked Victor Von Doom looming over the mayhem to further whet the appetites of MCU acolytes before the Russo Brothers’ epic lands Dec. 18.

"Something's coming," Downey's Doom declares as the trailer rolls out before later stopping Thor's Stormbreaker axe with two fingers. "Something we may not be able to deter. Before this day is done, we shall be faced with an unthinkable decision."

Opening with a blinding explosion witnessed by Professor X, fans are treated to a cavalcade of nearly everyone in the Marvel Cinematic Universe teaming up to stop a series of multiverse incursions and intentional destructions seemingly orchestrated by the mad monarch of Latveria.

"Beloved heroes from three distinct universes will be set on a deadly collision course and face an existential threat unlike anything they've ever encountered," states the official synopsis for the highly-anticipated $400 million tentpole project.

"Put aside your petty squabbles," Chris Hemsworth's Thor demands as we glimpse Patrick Stewart’s Professor X and Ian McKellen's Magneto together.

Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man arrives to join the party as a welcome addition, as does Channing Tatum reprising his "Deadpool and Wolverine" role as Gambit, who's having a showdown with Simu Liu's Shang-Chi, and a beaded, long-haired Chris Evans as Steve Rogers is surprisingly seen after an encounter with Tom Hiddleston's Loki and his Time Variance Authority character. It's also fun seeing Rogers display his worthiness by snagging Thor's silver hammer! We're just relieved the tone on display is respectful and serious and not choked with jokes and gags as in the most recent MCU outings.

"You are far stronger than all of us put together," the Asgardian warns his brethren in the extended sneak peek. "And they died facing enemies and threats; that's going to be far less than this one. Everything that they sacrificed will be for nothing if we do not stand together."

With its countless superhero cameos and callbacks building to a chaotic crescendo, "Avengers: Doomsday" storms into theaters on Dec. 18, 2026.

It's almost inconceivable that 40 years have passed since what's been called the greatest sci-fi action film of all time (and not just by us) assaulted theaters with the juiced-up sequel to Ridley Scott's 1979 classic, "Alien."

Director James Cameron's propulsive vision for a gung-ho military-style movie would call upon Stan Winston Studio's elite creature effects crew from 1984's "The Terminator" — a team that would later work on "Predator," "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," "Jurassic Park," and "Predator 2."

Cameron's "Aliens" greatly expands upon the xenomorph life cycle with the inclusion of a matriarchal beast that his screenplay described as "a massive silhouette in the mist, the ALIEN QUEEN glowers over her eggs like a great, glistening black insect-Buddha. Her fanged head is an unimaginable horror. Her six limbs, the four arms and two powerful legs, are folded grotesquely over her distended abdomen."

The brilliant filmmaker and Winston's energetic gang would craft and operate this 14-foot-tall articulated hydraulic puppet fabricated from fiberglass, foam rubber, and plastic. It contained two stunt performers in the torso and puppeteers on the ground manipulating legs and limbs.

Production was led by Stan Winston, Shane Mahan, Alec Gillis, John Rosengrant, Tom Woodruff Jr., and Lindsay MacGowan, the core wizards who’d later found the acclaimed Legacy Effects firm with J. Alan Scott following Stan Winston’s unfortunate death in 2008. Gillis and Woodruff would eventually split off to form Amalgamated Dynamics in 1988.

We caught up with Mahan and MacGowan to have them offer memories of working on "Aliens" at Pinewood Studios and specifically constructing this magnificent drooling, hissing monster that's spawned countless nightmares since the blockbuster landed on July 18, 1986.

"It was 1983 when I started at Stan's on the first 'Terminator,'” Mahan tells Space. "I’d worked with Jim on a Roger Corman movie that Makeup Effects Lab was doing, 'Battle Beyond the Stars.' [...] During 'Terminator,' Jim had drawings of Sigourney and the Power Loader he'd brought into the shop. I'd see them out of the corner of my eye and knew exactly what it was supposed to be. It was clearly an alien of that world with Sigourney Weaver.

"I was intrigued by it all because four years before, when 'Alien' had come out, it was so amazing cinematically. The lifecycle of the creature, and the organic nature of it. I had no idea that seven years later we'd be in England doing a sequel."

Mahan and posse began working on the Queen's preliminary designs in Southern California at Stan Winston's shop, where they conducted the infamous 'garbage bag test' out in the back parking lot, so named due to the flailing puppet being wrapped in black plastic trash bags.

"It was a proof of concept of how that was going to work," he explains. "Moving to Windsor, England, and setting up shop at Pinewood Studios was extraordinarily exciting. We then started making the full-size process of making the Queen and all the other effects, and we met the English crew, and Lindsay was one of them."

MacGowan fondly remembers his experience on the ambitious project and being recruited to join Stan Winston and the rest of the guys.

"They were legends at that point for us. We were also young and goofy, and it's amazing they actually let us do what we did when we were that young," MacGowan notes. "I was at college at the time, and I’d skip off college and make my way to Pinewood. It was like here’s the rock ‘n' roll Americans, and then we have our more reserved English team that got influenced by the American team. It was a lot of fun and some of my favorite memories of starting in the business.

"I remember it being incredibly cold at Pinewood at the time. There was no insulation in the warehouse, and we had these giant propane jet heaters, and they kept going out. We’d be nice and warm, then suddenly the flame would be out. It was a great time to get to know Shane, John, Alec, and Tom. I look at them as my American brothers."

Having everything under one roof, being created pre-shooting, was a great asset as it allowed Cameron to constantly oversee the process and monitor the progress being made.

"We were life-casting all the actors, various teams were doing the xenomorph warriors and the eggs and the facehuggers," Mahan adds. "It was a pretty big build list, and we had four or five months to get everything done. John Richardson was a great special effects man from the Bond films, and we all thought that was cool to work with guys that had done James Bond movies.

"That was my first time in England, so the setting was very new and exciting. Of course, we blew off a lot of steam occasionally, but we were very serious about just getting it all done. We knew we had a lot to live up to because of the first film. Very few people, if any, had come back from working on that first film. You don’t know how it's going to turn out. We all thought the 'Aliens' script was great. Jim had a lot of turmoil there and didn’t have a good time on his own for various reasons, but we weren't really privy to that."

Before hopping across the pond to the UK, Mahan and his ace crew did molds and castings using a quarter-scale maquette of the Alien Queen sculpted at Stan Winston's shop for their design master.

"Back then, everything had to be done by measurements, by plotting out, and by eye. Today, it's so simple to have a computer generate and mill out a perfectly formed section. You had to use a really focused artistic eye to get exactly where we were supposed to be.

"We also had to make action suits, and there were a lot of them. I think there were 13 or 14, and then there were like eight eight-foot-tall puppets that were more spindly and long that were going to be used on wires and get hit and blow up and get shot. Then there was one articulated half-animatronic that would play in various scenes. You have to imagine an era that was pre-CGI. There was no reliance on rod removal or performer puppeteer removal. You had to hide everything and everybody in the frame. So in the dropship fight, it’s an enormous amount of people making the Queen operate, and you don’t see them.

"That all comes down to Jim Cameron and his magnificent eye for framing this action scene without seeing the crane or any of the support devices. Directors today, most of them don't even have any idea how to do that. And that was the magic of Jim Cameron and still is. He had the designing thought of shot composition and action that played off the best attributes of that hydraulic/actor-driven Queen. Because there were two guys inside and nine of us on her tail, her head, the cable, her hands, the feet. We were everywhere."

MacGowan took his role very seriously to get the fit and finishing perfect for this elegant egg-laying beast that would end up being the seething, android-ripping superstar of the popular 1986 sequel. -

"It was really just to honor what Giger had done in the past, but also to give Jim what he was looking for in his vision for the Queen," he recalls. "The Queen is really Jim's design and entire look. Our focus was making sure that we got what Jim wanted, but still make sure that fans of the original movie, which was all of us, could really appreciate."

As a mentor to his dedicated young crew of VFX creators, Winston schooled them in the subtle art of injecting personality and emotion into their creature performances.

"It's something they always reinforced, but if you’re a student of horror and science fiction films, you know all the great creatures and monsters have got some sympathetic or some interesting personality," adds Mahan. "Even the xenomorph in the first film, the personality is that it does not care. It's just going to kill you. But that’s still a personality trait.

"We were always taught by Stan that these are not effects; these are characters that we’re making; these are actors in the film. It just happens to be a creature from space, or a robot from the future, or a dinosaur. Whatever it is, it has to be believed, and we’ve always carried that philosophy through."

As to the mystery of exactly where the original Alien Queen screen-used puppet ended up, Mahan has a few clues, but sadly admits that most of it has unfortunately been lost to time.

"Jim has one in his museum, and I think collector Bob Burns did have a head," Mahan shares. "The rest of it might be that it's fallen into disrepair. I know when we left, a lot of it was put into containers at Pinewood, and it sat and rotted for years. We always wanted to get that back, but I’ve not seen a real Queen in a while.

While the classic design hasn't changed much over the years, Mahan notes that the materials used to make creatures like the Alien Queen have.

"The head was fiberglass and had other foam rubber parts. The materials back then were not very sophisticated," explains Mahan. "The materials we have today, like what we did on 'Alien: Romulus', are like from outer space. They're translucent silicones, and they stretch well, and there’s lightweight plastic 3D-grown parts."

"Back then, the only thing we had was clear urethane that I got the cowl of her head to kind of move around. The original idea was that the skin on her face was supposed to be translucent. It ended up being foam rubber painted to look translucent. A lot of those materials have just fallen apart. On screen, it's pretty impressive.

"When we did 'Alien: Romulus,' Lindsay and I had not done an 'Alien' film since 'Aliens.' When that opportunity came up to revisit that world, the sensory memories came flooding back. It's one of those movies where I think I remember every day that I was on set for that film.”

"Aliens" is available to stream on Disney+ in the UK, and to rent and buy on various platforms in the US.

After cracking into the animation world with family-friendly animated features from the "Despicable Me " and "Minions" franchise, "The Lorax," and the musical menagerie of "Sing," Illumination is finally setting their sights on outer space with next year's "Not Alone."

"Not Alone" isn’t due to arrive in theaters until Apr. 16, 2027 but this sneak peek — accompanied by David Bowie's somber 1969 anthem "Space Oddity" — sets a sweet tone telling the lively tale of an introverted rocket mechanic name Joe, and Fran, his astro-botanist colleague who has engineered the planet's first plant-based rocket, when alien fugitives toss their lives into chaos.

Xenomorph monstrosities and spaceship laser battles can often dominate sci-fi, so it's great to see something different on the horizon, and while a space rom-com starring Timothée Chalamet and Selena Gomez wasn't on our bingo card, the trailer has us really hyped for this one.

It's a wholly original story that's a definite departure for Illumination, but one that could strongly connect with audiences via the project’s colorful Euro style and humor. Vocal duties include the talents of Timothée Chalamet, Selena Gomez, Brett Goldstein, Rob Brydon, Jamie Demetriou, Diane Morgan, Allison Janney, and Lamorne Morris.

"When Joe and Fran are brought together to prepare for the inaugural launch of this revolutionary rocket, there are immediate sparks, but neither is particularly adept at romance," states the official synopsis.

"Life becomes more complicated when three aliens—tiny, unruly, and adorable—take refuge in Joe's home. Dunk, Welly, and Shirm are on the interplanetary run from a zealous-yet-inept officer of the law named Zandro. The aliens determine that Fran’s rocket could provide their means of getting back home to safety."

The French animation factory recently launched an early trailer for this charming romantic comedy directed by Eric Guillon, Claire Dodgson, and Jonathan Del Val.

Guillon is an Illumination veteran whose career includes serving as lead designer for "Despicable Me" and "Minions," as well as co-directing "Despicable Me 3." Here he's joined by seasoned editor Claire Dodgson ("The Lorax," "Minions," Despicable Me 3," "Minions: The Rise of Gru") and Jonathan Del Val (co-director of "Minions: The Rise of Gru" and "The Secret Life of Pets 2").

This fun animated rom-com is produced by Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri and executive produced by Joy Poirel, Richard Curtis, and David Distenfeld.

"Not Alone" rockets into theaters Apr. 16, 2027.

As our planet revels in the recent achievements of this spring’s Artemis 2 mission and its four astronaut crew members, a new four-part PBS documentary series takes a scrutinizing look at space exploration and its inherent perils and promises. "Once Upon a Time in Space" will be available to watch on PBS (and the PBS app) starting on July 14, 2026 (9pm ET).

Directed by James Bluemel and his filmmaking team — the crew behind the award-winning "Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland" and "Once Upon a Time in Iraq" — "Once Upon a Time in Space" explores the connections between those venturing beyond Earth's gravity and the support staff remaining behind while pioneering souls venture into hostile outer space territory.

"'Once Upon a Time in Space' tells the human stories behind one of our most extraordinary endeavors: the exploration of space," states the official synopsis. "Moving beyond scientific achievement, the series examines the personal experiences of astronauts, cosmonauts, ground-based participants, and the loved ones left on Earth. Across four episodes, it traces significant landmarks in spacefaring history, from the birth of the Shuttle and the pioneering Space Station Mir to the rise of commercial spaceflight."

"Through powerful firsthand testimony and intimate, unseen archival footage, a complex portrait of humanity emerges: one that lays bare both our fragility and boundless curiosity. Accounts of bravery, friendship, and tragedy are told against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world, connecting technical and geopolitical developments to those who experienced them."

Here’s a schedule of the docuseries’ chapters and their slated air dates:

• Episode 1 "America First" – Tuesday, July 14 – 9:00 p.m. ET
• Episode 2 "The Russian Thing" – Tuesday, July 21
• Episode 3 "Politics Always Wins" – Tuesday, July 28
• Episode 4 "Friends Forever" – Tuesday, August 4

This remarkable show features NASA astronauts Charlie Bolden, Anna Lee Fisher, Bill Fisher, Michael Foale, Jerry Linenger, Mike Mullane, Dan Tani, and Terry Virts. They’re joined by cosmonauts Sergei Zalyotin and Alexander ‘Sasha’ Lazutkin, NASA officials, aerospace engineers, and numerous family members.

Produced in collaboration with the BBC, "Once Upon a Time in Space" was first broadcast last fall in the UK, but now makes its U.S. premiere at 9:00 p.m. ET on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS app.

Disney+’s imaginative anime anthology series, "Star Wars: Visions", is getting a standalone expansion next month with "Star Wars: Visions Presents –The Ninth Jedi".

This 8-episode limited series is a continuation of the saga of Lah Kara, Margrave Juro, and their ragtag crew in the search for her kidnapped father. "Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi" debuts on Disney+ on Aug. 5, 2026.

Fans were first introduced to the intriguing story in "Star Wars: Visions" Volume 1’s chapter titled "The Ninth Jedi", and now writer/director Kenji Kamiyama and his animation studio Production IG will revisit Kara’s world to elaborate more on the mythology behind lightsabers of different hues.

In the original 2021 episode, viewers met a bright Force-sensitive girl named Kara and her sabersmith father, Zhima, as they harvest Kyber Crystals to forge new lightsabers for Margrave Juro, the leader of an outer rim planet called Hy Izlan.

Juro is collecting worthy Jedi to help repopulate the Jedi Order, but evil Sith mercenaries are hiding within his candidates’ ranks. Kamiyama’s short initially presented the cool notion of lightsabers changing colors to reflect their users’ true links to the Force.

A direct sequel to Kamiyama's episode, "The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope," was delivered by anime master Naoyoshi Shiotani and premiered on Oct. 29, 2025, for "Star Wars: Visions" Volume 3. Lucasfilm's new show takes place shortly after the events seen in the two "Star Wars: Visions" shorts as Kara advances her training and searches for her father.

"Every time we finished one of the anthologies, the first conversation would be, 'God, I’d love to expand that story,'" James Waugh, Lucasfilm Senior V.P. and "Star Wars: Visions" executive producer, told TechRadar last year after the project was announced at Star Wars Celebration Japan.

"We love the shorts, but Kathy [Kennedy] heard that, and there was a moment to say, 'Let’s see what could happen if we expanded this.' That’s really where 'Visions Presents' comes from. If we could give a bigger canvas to paint on, what would we get? We’ve been so impressed with what Kamiyama and his Production IG team has delivered so far."

Directed by Shunsuke Tada and with Kenji Kamiyama acting as supervising director, "Star Wars: Visions Presents - The Ninth Jedi" arrives Aug. 5 on Disney+ and Hulu.

Adult Swim's smash animated series "Rick and Morty" recently unleashed its ninth season, and it's already shaping up to be one of the best seasons so far, with plenty of interdimensional shenanigans, existential excursions, evolutionary entanglements, hostile living room furniture, a potential trip to Boob World, and Pool Time!

We chatted to the creators Dan Harmon and Scott Marder earlier this month, but now we're catching up with the main cast to hear from Ian Cardoni (Rick), Sarah Chalke (Beth), Harry Belden (Morty), and Spencer Grammer (Summer) on the rigors of voice acting, playing in the multiverse, and watching all your plosives.

"We've got what we would consider classic adventures, balanced by a lot of fresh and new directions for these characters and for these stories," Cardoni tells Space.

"I can honestly say that some of my favorite moments of episodes of the whole series run are coming in season 9, and I'm excited for fans to see that. Sci-fi in its best form is human stories. It may be our future, and I think we get glimpses of that by tapping into the human elements. With all the wacky hijinks that take place, we're in for a really amazing season and some real good science fiction."

Those hijinks call for some suitably animated vocal performances from the vast though. "These are voices that take a toll, even when it’s not a session, when it requires the intense gravel or yelling of Rick," explains Cardoni.

"It requires your full instrument. I like to prep with a full cardio workout because oxygen support is what you need. Then I go on vocal rest before and after sessions. I have all kinds of warm, hot, viscous liquids to soothe. I use a vocal steamer. Harry [Belden] is really religious about his regimen, but I’ve got my own way to get myself into the voice, but not burn out. Voice acting is acting. And the show doesn’t pull any punches emotionally."

Chalke relishes her time playing Beth and Space Beth and adamantly declares season 9 as her favorite season they’ve ever done.

"There's a couple of specific episodes, 'Salute Your Morts' and 'Jer Bud' where you really get to go deeper into the relationships," she notes. "The fun part of 'Rick and Morty' as an actor is all the unique challenges because there's no limits and because it's a multiverse and because the show can go anywhere, you’re always doing things with your voice you've never done before.

"None of us have to do the voice intensity Ian does with Rick. You're working those vocal chords so hard with the burping and all of that," Chalke remarks to Cardoni. "For me, Space Beth is more in that direction than Beth. So I always record all of that first and Space Beth second because she has more of a gravelly, raspy quality to it. It's whatever you need to do to make it grounded and as real as you can."

For Belden, it was gratifying for Morty to experience a great deal of personal growth this season.

"There are a lot of intense situations that he finds himself in, and I’m excited for fans to see him go through that and come out the other side," he adds. "For me, my favorite episode is going to be the finale ["Field of Dreams"] for sure, and the journey that Morty goes on. There's so much good stuff in there."

Regarding his own regimen of keeping his vocal health tip-top, Belden explains:

"I like to run a couple of miles before I start, stretch out the entire body, do the actual vocal warmups. Morty being such a particular voice, I need a lot of breath support, so I have a wide stance and create a powerful base. I’m expanding my ribcage to support myself. And that’s not without even getting into tongue placement, spreading your lips wide to get the sound out, watching your plosives on the letter 'p.' It's all this stuff you would never ever think about."

Grammer is thrilled to see some fan favorite characters make return cameos in season 9, as we get to watch Summer and Morty just being terrible teenagers, and loves the fact that the Smith family gets a swimming pool.

"I kind of learned on the job about 14 years ago," she reveals. "I was trained as an actor though, so I have a pretty good vocal ability. But it's very demanding, especially as you get older. There’s these tiny muscles and tiny folds. The last few years, I’ve really devoted to vocal health and got to a place where I can comfortably do the Summer role really well."

Grammer has really embraced the role of Summer, but it's also led to some major lifestyle changes for her. "You have to choose where you want to live. I don’t see a lot of people now. I just work a lot", explains Grammer.

"I can’t go to a party that’s going to be loud and talk to people. And that's fine. Alcohol is really bad for hydration, so I don’t really drink anymore. I’m constantly drinking water or something really slimy all the time. I have a whole kit of just things for your voice that I always take with me."

Executive produced by Dan Harmon and showrunner Scott Marder, "Rick and Morty season 9" airs Sundays at 11 p.m. on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, and will also begin streaming weekly on Hulu and HBO Max starting June 15, 2026.

'Project Hail Mary' has finally landed on a streaming service, though maybe not the one you were expecting.

Amazon MGM Studios' "Project Hail Mary" recently launched (June 18) first on the MGM+ streaming platform, which is a sister site to Prime Video, after its 90-day theatrical window was up. As a bonus, there is a summer deal that lets you snag the Amazon Prime Video MGM+ channel for $0.99/month for 2 months. Be quick, though; this offer ends June 26.

"Project Hail Mary" sees reluctant astronaut Ryland Grace embarking on a cosmic rescue mission to save Earth, aided by a stone-skinned alien named Rocky. Fans looking for the Ryan Gosling space epic to show up on Prime Video out of the gate might be a little surprised, but as they say, That’s Hollywood, Baby.

Why MGM+ and not Amazon Prime Video?

Since Amazon MGM Studios is both a theatrical and streaming studio, deals are often shifted depending on the different monetization models involved.

In "Project Hail Mary's" case, MGM+ becomes the initial outlet for streaming and PVOD, with Prime Video as the secondary streaming destination. Movies making their first streaming stop on Prime Video, like "Red One," are handled differently within the corporation, especially if their costs were paid by Prime Video.

Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, "Project Hail Mary" was a certified crowd-pleaser after a juggernaut marketing campaign that saw waves of teasers, trailers, clips, and interview videos anywhere and everywhere, which helped to catapult the popular sci-fi film adapted from Andy Weir's bestselling novel to a decent $678 million global haul.

Amazon, the behemoth parent company of both Prime Video and MGM+, possibly also made a decision to deliver the spring blockbuster initially to MGM+ as an enticement to lure prospective customers to the much smaller platform as a way to drive up subscription numbers. Prime Video's sweet MGM+ deal is further evidence of this plan's logic.

For now, "Project Hail Mary"'s interstellar odyssey is available exclusively on MGM+, but we’ll keep you updated when its official Prime Video date arrives.

Apple TV’s "For All Mankind" spinoff series, "Star City," places viewers directly behind the scenes of the hush-hush Soviet space program community in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s to witness all the harrowing missions, love triangles, espionage, sabotage, interrogation, and torture of those turbulent times. And believe us, there’s more than a little truth behind this alternative-history re-enactment.

Priya Kansara (who also voiced Ryan Gosling's AI spaceship in "Project Hail Mary") portrays Lakshmi Chadha in the absorbing new series. A gifted Indian aerospace scientist, Chadma, is recruited to Star City for a special, under-the-radar project by Rhys Ifans’ Chief Designer for the risky Venera-7 mission to Venus.

Josef Davies plays a younger version of Sergei Nikulov, a rocket engineer working at Soviet Ground Control, a character previously portrayed by Piotr Adamczyk in "For All Mankind." In that series, Nikulov becomes the director of Roscosmos and develops a relationship with Margo Madison (Wrenn Schmidt) during the Apollo-Soyuz program that leads to costly secrets shared and a very bad outcome.

Both Kansara and Davies both play pivotal roles in the show’s experimental Venera-7 deep space expedition and we spoke to them about crafting their roles. "I was very excited to play a much-loved character which people already know," Davies tells Space.

"But also to dive into it because this show has its own completely different identity. To be able to play that character that feels familiar but tells a lot more of the story to people who are interested in him and the world he came from.

"The whole experience has been incredible and something I hope continues for a very long time. I loved it deeply. Finding every moment of that character and really being able to have the reins to take control of it and play with it is my favorite part of the whole thing."

Kansara considered it a supreme privilege to play Lakshmi and to conjure up the character’s confident demeanor and innate determinism.

"She never questions her own ability even if the situation is not what was expected or somebody else doesn't believe in her," she reveals. "She really believes in herself. And when presented with a challenge she takes it head on even if it's terrifying."

"I really respect that strength that she has," continues Kansara. "It was so much fun to play and to explore that journey with her. The circumstances are so intense. Just some of the scenarios that are thrown at you, you’re like, 'I don’t have a relatable thing. This is not like life that we’ve experienced.' But it was fun to play with that as well."

Both Davies and Kansara had specific costumes touches that allowed them to create layered performances in their "Star City" episodes.

"The watch was a big one for me because it felt like it was mechanical," Davies mentions. "Everything was about precision and timing and all that. So that helped and it felt like an anchoring. Also my tie. I always liked for it to be a little bit too tight so I could feel it. That helped me get into that space. Honestly the whole thing was an amazing six months."

To stand out amid the drab colorless environment of Star City, costumers thankfully brightened things up for Lakshmi’s wardrobe.

"Lakshmi naturally had a little bit more color in her clothing because we wanted her to feel and look like an outsider," Kansara adds. "That was really important in terms of me walking into these bleak spaces. That physical reminder of me being someone who’s from the outside. The other thing was the Sindoor that I wear on my head, which is the red powder that symbolizes a married woman for Hindu and South Asian women. I wanted a piece of her that she can’t let go of. That’s hugely important. To put that on every day was a real grounding for me.

"We laughed a lot on set, we had so much fun filming together. It was amazing."

"Star City" season 1 is streaming now exclusively on Apple TV.