Category Horror

Jan 4 2026

Top Ten Most Anticipated Films & TV Shows Of 2026

2026 looks to be another jam-packed year with all the sci-fi, horror, fantasy and animated projects planned for the year. There are many promising original films and TV shows and returning franchises that will excite any fan. Also, it can be said that 2026 will be do or die for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), since it has struggled lately. Once their films were guaranteed to rake in the money, but that’s not the case anymore and Marvel Studios is betting it all with the films Avengers: Doomsday and Spider-Man: Brand New Day. On the other hand, the DC Universe is off and running with this year thanks to the success of last year’s Superman film. Now let’s look at the most anticipated films and TV shows of 2026.

Films

10. Toy Story 5

It’s incredible that Pixar has been able to come up with a new angle for a Toy Story film that is very relevant to current times. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen return to voice the iconic toy characters Woody and Buzz as they and their toy companions now have to contend with a tablet that threatens their popularity with their child owner.

8. The Dog Stars

Not a lot is known about this post-apocalyptic film about a pilot, his dog and a disgruntled veteran, but master director Ridley Scott is behind this adaptation of Peter Heller’s novel. Given Scott’s track record with genre classics like Alien, Blade Runner and The Martian, this one should be another winning notch in the director’s filmography.

8. The Mandalorian and Grogu

Earlier this decade, a film based on the TV show, The Mandalorian, would have set fandom on fire. But given how Disney loves to milk their IP to the death, interest in the galactic bounty hunter Mandalorian and his adopted Force-sensitive child Grogu has declined and the timing of this film may be unfortunate. Still, it will be the first Star Wars film released since 2019, so that should generate interest.

7. Supergirl

The next DC Universe (DCU) film features Superman’s drunken cousin, Kara-Zor-El (Milly Alcock) aka Supergirl, in an outer space adventure that supposedly adapts Tom King’s acclaimed comic book mini-series, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. The film gets bonus points for featuring the return of Krypto the Superdog and Jason Mamoa making his DCU debut as Lobo, the intergalactic bounty hunter.

6. Project Hail Mary

The directing team of Christopher Miller and Phil Lord return to live-action with this adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel about a lone astronaut (Ryan Gossling) sent on a desperate mission to another star system to find out why the stars in the universe are suddenly being extinguished. Given the credentials of the directors, who were revered for their work on the Spider-Verse films, and the off-kilter look of the trailer, Project Hail Mary should be a unique and off-beat film that could resonate.

5. Dune, Part Three

The third film adapts the Dune sequel novels, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune and completes the epic sci-fi trilogy by director Denis Villeneuve. The first two films received nearly universal praise from critics and fans for its faithful adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel about political intrigue and religion in the distant future, which featured stunning visuals, strong performances and engrossing worldbuilding. Dune, Part Three will conclude the spiritual journey of the messiah-like Paul Atreides as he struggles to set a course for humankind in the universe while retaining his own humanity.

4. The Odyssey

The latest film from director Christopher Nolan which is based on the epic Greek fantasy poem by Homer has generated tremendous word of mouth thanks to the meticulous artistry of Nolan and the reputation his films have garnered. The Odyssey is a suitable project for Nolan because of its grand nature, and he is only one of a handful of directors who can do justice to the film. The six-minute trailer that was recently released which focused on the subterfuge of the Trojan Horse increased the fervor for the film given how impressive and large scale the scenes looked on large screens.

3. Disclosure Day

Steven Spielberg, one of the most acclaimed directors of all time, returns to his genre roots with this UAP/UFO-related film that is largely shrouded in mystery. Unlike his previous UFO films that seemed hopeful, Disclosure Day feels more grounded, mysterious and ominous judging by the teaser trailer alone. The teaser implies the film will tackle government conspiracies and spirituality. After a long period of non-genre dramas and musicals, seeing Spielberg tackling aliens once again is a welcome event.

2. Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Following the aftermath of Spider-Man: No Way Home, the latest MCU Spider-Man picks up after Spider-Man’s (Tom Holland) civilian identity has been erased thanks to a magical spell. Not a lot has been revealed about the next MCU Spider-Man film but it features popular Marvel characters like the Hulk and Punisher, a bunch of new supervillains and a mysterious new character played by Sadie Sink. Aside from speculation about Sink’s role, the film is noted for being directed by Destin Daniel Cretton who directed the well-received MCU film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

1. Avengers: Doomsday

From the chair announcement trailer to the character teasers, no other film coming out in 2026 has generated the amount of buzz as the first Avengers film since Avengers: Endgame. The film begins the conclusion of the MCU’s Multiverse Saga, which will finish with next year’s film Avengers: Secret Wars. Marvel Studios has a lot riding on the success of this film given how MCU films and TV shows have had uneven reception lately. The film is pulling out all stops to bring back fans to guarantee a box office win with its hard pivot to legacy characters and actors, notably those from the Fox X-Men films and Robert Downey, Jr. who returns not as Iron Man but as the premier Marvel villain Doctor Doom. No matter how it ends up, Avengers: Doomsday will be the event film of 2026.

Notable Mentions:

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple; The Bride!; Clayface; Coyote vs. Acme; Evil Dead Burn; Flowervale Street; Forgotten Island; Godzilla: Minus Zero; Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die: Greenland 2: Migration; Hokum, Hoppers; The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender; Masters of the Universe; Primate; Redux Redux, Werwulf, Wildwood

Television

10. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Most likely the latest Star Trek TV show will be garbage given the cringy publicity images and clips that highlight cliche teenage angst. Also going against it is that not many fans were interested in a Star Trek show set in the unpopular Star Trek: Discovery era of the 31st century, but it looks well produced and could surprise us.

9. The Boroughs

Fresh off concluding their popular TV series, Stranger Things, the Duffer Brothers follow up that TV show with The Boroughs. This one focuses on middle-aged residents of a suburban community instead of kids who team up to face an unusual threat. Starring Al Molina, Geena Davis, Bill Pullman and others, The Boroughs should echo the same magic that made Stranger Things so well regarded.

8. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

The second season of the Monsterverse TV show is finally upon us. The first season unexpectedly provided depth and intriguing worldbuilding for the action-oriented Monsterverse films while featuring many appearances by our favorite kaijus like Godzilla. The second season will provide more of this and should develop the Monsterverse storyline further.

7. Neuromancer

Apple TV has turned into the premier streaming service for high-quality sci-fi programs and given recent adaptations of popular sci-fi literary works like Foundation and Silo, it was time for the streaming service to jump into adapting the William Gibson novel that jumpstarted the cyberpunk subgenre. Details are not available but since Neuromancer will stream on Apple TV, it should be a quality adaptation.

6. Spider-Noir

While it is lamentable that this program about an alternate take on Spider-Man set in the 1930s will stream on MGM+ (who actually subscribes to that streaming service?), it offers a unique take on Spider-Man. Filmed in black and white to establish a noir mood, the series will star Nicolas Cage (who voiced the same character in the Spider-Verse animated films) as Ben Reilly, an older and more jaded version of Marvel’s most popular hero.

5. X-Men ’97

After the triumphant first season that redefined the animated X-Men TV shows, this second season takes place right after the events of the first season as the heroic mutants find themselves scattered in different time periods and have to find a way back home. Only this time, the X-Men have to grapple with the mega-villainy of Apocalypse. However, being that Beau DeMayo, the showrunner of the first season, has been fired by Marvel Studios, it has to be seen if the new showrunners can match DeMayo’s work.

4. VisionQuest

This MCU TV show concludes the loose trilogy made up of WandaVision, Agatha All Along, and now VisionQuest. This shows follows the journey of the white android Vision (Paul Bettany) who was imbued with the memories of the original Vision in the final episode of WandaVision and now he has to struggle to find his identity. What makes the concluding part of the trilogy more exciting is that Terry Matalas, who was responsible for the popular third season of Star Trek: Picard, will be the showrunner.

3. Lanterns

The sole DCU TV show coming out in 2026 is a detective show will feature the intergalactic sentinels Green Lanterns Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) investigating a murder in Nebraska that will lead to dark and otherworldly events. Given the success of other DCU TV programs like Peacemaker and Creature Commandos, and the bonafides of the showrunners, including DCU head James Gunn, Lanterns should be another win for the fledgling superhero cinematic universe.

2. The Boys

The final season of the adaptation of Garth Ennis’ comic book series about “superheroes” dominating popular culture and the world itself promises to go all out as a ragtag group of anti-heroes led by Bill Butcher (Karl Urban) have their final confrontation against the twisted and sadistic Homelander (Anthony Starr) who rules the United States in a reign of terror with his lackeys and cohorts. The final season of The Boys promises to be just as brash, graphically violent and sardonic as the previous four seasons and its spinoff TV show Gen V.

1. Daredevil: Born Again

It’s true that the first season of Daredevil: Born Again turned out to be uneven, but the best episodes of that season were produced by Dario Scardapane and directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, who were the showrunners of the original Daredevil TV program on Netflix. The second season will be completely done by them and that is reason alone to look forward to it. Another reason is that it will focus on how the blind superhero Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and his allies (including Kristen Ritter reprising her role of Jessica Jones) operate on the streets of New York City under martial law as the police enforce a ban on vigilantes imposed by Daredevil’s nemesis Mayor Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio).

Notable Mentions

Avatar: The Last Airbender; Blade Runner 2099; The Boroughs; Invincible; A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms; Paradise; Silo; Star City; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Star Wars: Maul-Shadow Lord; The Testaments; Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man; Stranger Things: Tales From ’85; Wonder Man

Dec 28 2025

Top Ten Films & TV Shows of 2025

2025 delivered many exceptional genre films and television shows that surprised us with their quality and pushed boundaries. Many of them will be remembered for quite some time and others set the standards for existing franchises. Here are the ten best films and TV shows of 2025.

Films

10. Good Boy

Indy the dog stole the show in this inventive supernatural horror film told from the point of view of a good dog trying to protect his owner from a supernatural threat. What added to the suspense was the vulnerability of the dog and the fact that only he could sense the danger threatening his owner.

9. The Life of Chuck

2025 was a banner year for good to great Stephen King adaptations, and The Life of Chuck was the best of them as this heartfelt fantasy film explored themes dealing with loss, sadness, endings, and the wondrous joy of simple everyday things and relationships.

8. Jurassic World: Rebirth

Despite many criticisms made about the latest Jurassic World entry, it was unexpectedly thrilling and engaging. Sure, some of the plotlines were rethreads, but they were presented well and the film delivered some great dinosaur action.  

7. How to Train Your Dragon

This live-action remake of the classic DreamWorks animated film about a Viking teen and his pet dragon proved that it is possible to produce a topnotch live-action film based animated classics. This is something Disney sorely needs to study going forward with their endless remakes.

6. The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Finally, a quality film about Marvel Comics’ first family has been done. Great performances, production and special effects are the highlights of this charming film about family and facing cosmic horror. The film gets extra points just for not depicting Galactus as a giant space cloud!

5. Sinners

Michael B. Jordan is at the top of his acting game playing dual roles in Ryan Coogler’s haunting vampire film. What could have been a simple vampire tale was instead of tour de force from Coogler that explored America’s cultural and racial divide with exceptional visual storytelling.

4. Predator: Badlands

Just like last year’s Alien: Romulus reinvigorated that franchise, so too does Predator: Badlands with its own franchise about alien hunters. This time, the eponymous alien hunter is shown in a heroic light in this imaginative sci-fi action/adventure romp that fleshes out the species of the Predator as it skillfully blends with the Alien franchise.

3. Frankenstein

Guillermo Del Toro wowed audiences once again with his vivid imaginative storytelling skills. The latest adaptation of Mary Shelly’s literary masterpiece follows the essence of the book while veering off into unique directions that explore the father and son dynamic between the title character and his monstrous yet sympathetic creation.

2. Superman

Director and head of DC Studios James Gunn successfully launched the new DC Universe (DCU) with a fresh and interpretation of the Man of Steel. Superman and his colorful superhero world is rightfully depicted in a bright, hopeful light that cleverly raises questions about our current events and society. Superman is a very promising start to the DCU and we can’t wait for the latest entry.

1. TIE: Avatar: Fire and Ash/Thunderbolts*

This is a first for this blog, the two best films of 2025 were that great but so close in quality for different reasons that it was too hard to choose one above the other. So the two best films of 2025 are a tie.

Once again James Cameron proves why he is one of our greatest filmmakers with Avatar: Fire and Ash. The visuals and worldbuilding in this sci-fi epic are jaw dropping and must be seen in large screens. Some of the set pieces are too familiar but Avatar: Fire and Ash does develop many characters and kept us engaged with the plight of the moon Pandora as it faced evil human colonists.

Thunderbolts* aka The New Avengers was unexpectedly the best superhero film of 2025 thanks to heartfelt performances and chemistry among its cast and an emotional story of misfit mercenaries who become unlikely superheroes. Unlike the typical superhero romp, Thunderbolts* focused on characters and explored adult themes of mental and emotional health, loneliness, addiction and depression. We’ll be rooting for these underdogs when they return in Avengers: Doomsday.

Honorable Mentions:

28 Years Later, Bring Her Back, Bugonia, Captain America: Brave New World, Companion, The Electric State, The Gorge, The Great Flood, It Ends, The Long Walk, Predator: Killer of Killers, Primitive War, Weapons, Zootopia 2

Television

10. Paradise

This murder mystery that took place in a post-apocalyptic underground town shelter was elevated by great performances by Sterling K. Brown and James Marsden and an engrossing storyline that kept viewers guessing about what happened to the world and who murdered the U.S. president.

9. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

The third season of the only remaining Star Trek show (for now) had its problems such as its uneven tone and showcasing too much of James T. Kirk (the show is supposed to be about Captain Pike). Still, some of the episodes were true standouts that proved there were still great Star Trek episodes to be presented.

8. Marvel Zombies

Put together classic characters from the MCU and zombie horror and what do you get? A terrifically gory and fast-moving series with some outrageous zombie action that demands a second season! Hopefully there will be more than four episodes.

7. Peacemaker

While the season finale dropped the ball as it turned out to be a drawn-out coda with concert footage, the second season of Peacemaker was for the most part a captivating look exploration of the title character’s wounded psyche as he second guessed his place in the DCU.

6. Stranger Things 5

The final season of Netflix’s breakout sci-fi/horror show was a bit all over the place with multiple characters and such, but it was still a solid sendoff to our favorite young residents of Hawkins as they had their final confrontations with the extra-dimensional horrors of the Upside Down realm.

5. Daredevil: Born Again

Marvel’s premier superhero TV show had a solid comeback in this sequel to the original Netflix show. Even though Daredevil and his crime-ridden world are now firmly part of the MCU, the TV show was just as gritty and grounded as the original. Stars Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio turn in some of the best performances of their careers as they reprised their roles as Daredevil and Wilson Fisk, respectively.

4. Severance

The sophomore season of this dark psychological workplace thriller threw audiences for a loop with many unexpected plot twists and character developments. It was very easy to relate to the plight of the office worker drones forced to have their out-of-work identities and memories erased and their efforts to fight the cold company they work for.

3. Pluribus

Vince Gilligan (famous for his TV shows Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul) returned to his sci-fi roots with this quietly disturbing slow-burn TV show about a disgruntled novelist (Rhea Seehorn in one of the year’s best performances) forced to fight isolation, her inner demons, and to save humanity after an extra-terrestrial signal transforms nearly everyone into a global hive mind.

2. It: Welcome to Derry

Part sequel, part prequel to the It films from a few years ago, It: Welcome to Derry was one of the best surprises when it came to TV shows. Each episode was horrifying with macabre set pieces and featured rich character development that fleshed out Stephen King’s fictional town. In addition to the characters, the TV show also had many unexpected twists and fleshed out the expansive King multiverse in an organic manner that made us want to further explore it, no pun intended.

1. Andor

No other TV show came close to matching the artistry of Andor, which is easily the best Star Wars television show of all time and one of the best TV shows of any genre. The second and final season was a tense spy thriller set in the Star Wars universe with many brutal and heart wrenching political storylines that echoed our own civil strife as it chronicled the death of democracy and the bitter origins of the resistance to stand against tyranny. Andor also engaged audiences with thought-out character development which showcased their ambivalent nature in their fight for and against the Galactic Empire.

Honorable Mentions:

Alien: Earth, Black Mirror, Doctor Who, The Eternaut, Eyes of Wakanda, Fallout, Foundation, Gen V, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Institute, Invincible, Ironheart, The Last of Us, Murderbot, Wednesday, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

  

Nov 30 2025

Adapt Stephen King’s Dark Tower Saga!

Given the success of the recent live-action adaptation of author Stephen King’s literary works. It is time to consider bringing his magnum opus, the Dark Tower Saga, to life on screen or TV.

Adapting the Dark Tower Saga has been attempted several times over the years at different film studios with topnotch filmmakers attached to such projects such as J.J. Abrams and Ron Howard. However, those efforts did not succeed until the film The Dark Tower, which came out in 2017. The film was directed by Nikolaj Arcel with Ron Howard co-producing and starred Idris Elba as the lead characer Roland Deschain and Matthew McConaughey as the Man in Black. It was intended to be the first part of a multi-epic saga that would expand into television as well as more films. Well that was the intention, as most King fans know the film was poorly received and did not do well in its release. So plans for any followups quietly faded away.

There are many reasons why The Dark Tower failed to click with audiences and critics but it mostly had to do with the truncated script that loosely adapted elements from the first Dark Tower book, The Gunslinger, and the third book, The Waste Lands. Being that the books are quite expansive with imagery and scenes that can be hard to adapt, it was inevitable that the screenwriters condensed the story and threw out many elements, characters and story beats that in the end displeased everyone. Simply put the film lacked the epic scale of the books, was hard to understand, and was largely unfaithful to the Dark Tower Saga.

Since the failure of the film, Amazon acquired the rights and tried to produce a new adaptation of the books without success. It’s really a shame because the rich storyline about a mythical gunslinger trying to save the multiverse as he travels through many worlds, including ours, is too good of a saga to pass up.

Recently, many dense properties that were thought to be too difficult to adapt like Dune, The Lord of the Rings, Foundation and even King’s mammoth novel It have been successfully adapted. What happened was that the right screenwriters, directors, producers and actors were able to create memorable adaptations of the sci-fi/fantasy epics. So there is precedent for creating great adaptations that are either faithful to the books or can successfully adapt the essence of those books.

As of now, the latest filmmaker attached to a potential film adaptation is Mike Flanagan. He has received praise for his directing of other Stephen King works Gerald’s Game, The Life of Chuck, and Doctor Sleep, and for his original horror TV series Midnight Mass. Flanagan intends to develop a television series based on the Dark Tower Saga and honestly, this is the best way to go given the sprawling nature of the books. One thing to consider about adapting the books is that they are multiuniversal and feature characters and elements from other King books such as The Stand, It, Insomnia and ‘Salem’s Lot. Right now, Flanagan has the television rights to the books but if he wants to include characters from It for instance, then the TV show would have to be produced by Warner Bros. since they own the rights to It and other King works (which are referenced in the TV show It: Welcome to Derry). Flanagan would face similar headaches with other King books whose rights are held by other studios.

It’s only a matter of time before the right person(s) come along and are able to craft a faithful adaptation of the Dark Tower Saga. The question is when will this happen. Perhaps soon if It: Welcome to Derry continues to impress audiences and critics as it wraps up its first season. Then film and TV studios wanting to put out the next Stephen King epic can seriously consider the adventures of Roland Deschain and his epic quest to find the Dark Tower and save creation.

Oct 31 2025

Making The Perfect Stephen King Adaptation

One would think that adapting any of acclaimed author Stephen King’s literary works into a top-tier film or television production would be fairly simple. But it’s not. So, why is it so difficult to successfully adapt a Stephen King work? There are a few that can be considered, but it basically boils down to these two reasons.

Translation to Screen

While King is the master of prose when it comes to horror, fantasy, sci-fi, and non-genre subjects like crime, it is not easy to translate what he writes into a visual medium. Sometimes the dialogue which flows like water on page can come off as stilted and clumsy, especially if a character goes off on a rant. A narrative tool that King uses a lot is internal dialogue and narration to convey the characters’ thoughts. This technique is hard to pull off in visual medium where showing is prefered to telling.

Other times the prose is let’s just say a bit too much for a visual story. IOW, given the amount of screen time available in a film, putting TV aside, there is only so much material that can be adapted. Many of King’s best known works like It, The Stand or the Dark Tower books run over thousands of pages. Turning epic novels like those into two-hour plus films is nearly impossible. It is one of the main reasons why attempts to turn his classic novels like The Stand failed to make it out of the gate as a film despite many attempts because there was so much material to cut out that the result would be a poor adaptation of the source material. Just look at The Dark Tower film that came and went a few years ago. To most, the film was an ill-conceived attempt to adapt the multi-book epic about the Gunslinger Roland and his mythic quest across worlds and realities. What The Dark Tower did was give viewers a truncated sprinkling of Roland’s quest that left many feeling dissatisfied with an unfinished story.

The more successful adaptations like The Shining, Carrie, The Dead Zone, Cujo, Stand By Me (adapted from The Body), The Shawshank Redemption and The Mist were based on more typical novels that were just a few hundred pages. Also, in the case of The Mist, Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption, those were based on novellas which seem to be the perfect amount of story to translate into screen.

One viable option is to adapt mammoth epic novels into two-part films as was done with It. While the film versions of It differed in structure, the adaptations more or less captured the essence of the novel with the first film focusing exclusively on the main characters when they were children while the second film picked up the characters as adults when they confronted the evil entity Pennywise. This approach would work best for The Dark Tower Saga or any of King’s narrative which can be quite long and involving.

The other obvious option, which has been done to some success, is to adapt his works into television mini-series or shows. Some of the best examples include ‘Salem’s Lot, The Stand, 11/22/63, The Outsider and Nightmares & Dreamscapes. Adapting The Dark Tower Saga into this format is honestly the only viable way to present the expansive storyline and do it well.

The Skill of the Translators

One important reason as to why it is so hard to adapt Stephen King works is due to the quality and skill of the filmmakers and showrunners and scriptwriters. While many gifted behind-the-scenes creators successfully adapted King’s works like Stanley Kubrick, John Carpenter, Frank Darabont, Rob Reiner and Andy Muschietti, far too many inferior creators took a hand into mangling and ruining King’s classics. It is lamentable that someone like Steven Spielberg or Christopher Nolan or Scott Derrickson never helmed a Stephen King film (there were reports that years ago, Spielberg was involved in an adaptation of The Talisman, but that never came to be). Just think of how something like Under the Dome, Cell, and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon would have turned out if James Wan or Robert Eggers or Ari Aster were at the director’s chair with the projects.

But sadly as we know all to well, it is very difficult to line up the best writer, director, producer or actor to fit in with a King work of art. Reasons for this are all over the place and tend to be due to timing and budget. These days it is not likely that a studio can afford to hire Spielberg to take on a King book. There is also the possibility of dueling visions. A more high-profile director can and will take liberties with the source material much to King’s detriment. The most famous example was Kubrick’s version of The Shining, which King detested even though it is considered not only one of the best King adaptations but a classic horror film.

The same goes for television productions. All too often King’s works whether they’re long-form epics or short stories wind up becoming inferior TV shows or limited series. During the ’90s, the heyday of King TV adaptations, many of his more famous stories became big event TV mini-series with mixed results, but hardly any of them stood out as masterpieces. The best adaptations were for The Stand, although that limited series had its issues, ‘Salem’s Lot, which came out in the ’70s, It, and original productions like Storm of the Century. Other works like the more faithful adaptation of The Shining and The Langoliers failed to impress viewers. If only someone like Vince Gilligan or Terry Matalas could spearhead a proper TV adaptation of The Stand or The Dark Tower Saga.

Despite many failed attempts, the versatility and durability of Stephen King’s stories guarantee that eventually the right team will come along and created the best version of his works. This happened with the It films which were immediately better than the original TV mini-series and may happen later this fall when the second film version of The Running Man is released (being that is directed by Edgar Wright, there’s a decent chance it will outshine the original film). It has been possible to get cinematic masterpieces based on King’s works and it has happened, so it will continue to happen.

José Soto

Oct 19 2025

Zombies Refuse To Die!

It is all too easy to write off the zombie sub-genre as being dead and buried. After all, zombies have fallen out of favor with the public ever since The Walking Dead TV show was cancelled years ago. Before its cancellation, The Walking Dead and zombies in general were at their zenith in the 2010s. There were zombie TV shows, films, comics, novels, etc. all over the place. But inevitably the popularity of zombies declined as too much product was put out and the quality and uniqueness of the zombies faded. Casual critics were ready to write off the zombie sub-genre and move on to their next target, but somehow, the zombies refused to die.

Yes, The Walking Dead TV show and the comic book series that inspired it are both long gone, but there are many TV spinoffs of The Walking Dead like The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live that are still around and slowly gathering buzz about their quality. These shows wisely chose to focus on popular characters like Daryl Dixon and Rick Grimes and even the villainous Negan, which partly explains why the shows have done well. Of course, these TV shows have not reached the numbers and heights of popularity as The Walking Dead did in its heyday, but they have their devoted followers and are doing well enough.

Other zombie-related TV shows, films, comics and more are still coming out strong and many are very popular. Just take a look at the slate of current and upcoming projects that are related to zombies. The most recent examples were The Last of Us (technically not about zombies but the infected humans behave just like zombies) and the animated TV show Marvel Zombies, which was based on the Marvel Comics mini-series (and currently has a new mini-series Marvel Zombies: Red Band out in stores and digital platforms) and was a spinoff from the animated What If…? TV show.

The Marvel Zombies comics are still going strong with its many limited series and the TV show was well received with talks of a new season underway; hopefully that will happen given how the last episode left us with a cliffhanger. Not to be outdone, DC came out with its own comic books starring undead versions of its DC heroes and villains, DCeased. No word yet if DC Studios will make an animated version of DCeased but they should consider it. Also even though the comic book series ended years ago, The Walking Dead are still in comic form with the color reprints The Walking Dead: Deluxe.

Meanwhile, there are many high-profile zombie films and TV shows on the horizon, such as 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (a direct sequel to this years’ 28 Years Later), We Bury the Dead, Twilight of the Dead, which will conclude the George Romero zombie film saga, Return of the Living Dead, and an American remake of the classic Korean zombie film, Train to Busan. How well received they will be is anyone’s guess, but they demonstrate how popular the zombie genre is.

So, why does the zombie sub-genre refuse to die? There are many reasons. For one, many zombie properties go hand-in-hand with our fascination with post-apocalyptic/survival stories, which fit in well with zombies. These zombie stories also engage us as we face our fear of death and decay and more recently with infection. We like to watch and read these zombie yarns and wonder how we would behave in a zombie apocalypse. Most of us would probably be zombie food minutes into the apocalypse, but its still fun imagining ourselves turning into stoic and heroic warriors like Daryl Dixon, who in his life before the zombie apocalypse was a nobody.

The sub-genre also helps engage with unexpected human dramas that test our notion of family and friendship. Examples of this include the films Maggie, Cargo and Warm Bodies. While the latter film was an offbeat romance with a zombie twist, the first two films dealt with the main characters facing the inevitable. Maggie featured a father coping with the fact that his teenage daughter would soon turn into a zombie and his agony about having to kill her. Cargo was an agonizing film about a doomed father who was desperately trying to find someone to care for his infant before he turned into a zombie.

It can be said that on the surface the zombie sub-genre appears to be limited in story, but can be quite versatile. As long as the zombie story whether on film, video game or on print, is presented well, the quality will stand out and keep us engaged. That is why the zombies refuse to die.