Entertainment

Jamie and Claire face unrelenting changes together when Outlander returns to Starz for its seventh season on Friday, June 16.

The cast dished to ABC Audio about the penultimate season of the popular show, which, Sophie Skelton says, they all assumed would be their last.

“I think the general consensus was that (season) 7 was going to be the last one,” Skelton said. “It’s just a bonus really, that we’re getting eight. And yeah, hopefully it just means that we get one last chance to sort of do these characters justice and tie up the beautiful stories.”

Sam Heughan says he has mixed emotions about the show’s story coming to its eventual end.

“We’re definitely really excited for the season. It’s a huge one. There’s a lot going on and there’s a lot more for the fans to look forward to,” Heughan said. “So, definitely mixed emotions. But yeah, plenty to look forward to before the end.”

And although they’re still promoting season 7, Caitriona Balfe is ready to get to work on that final season, where she will direct an episode.

“It’s something that I wanted to do for a while,” Balfe said. “To get the opportunity to work on this show with people that I love and respect and admire, it’s a real, real treat. So yeah, excited. Slightly nervous, but excited.”

With that excitement also comes some sadness. Balfe, like Heughan, says she has complicated feelings about the series coming to a close.

“The magnitude of what we’ve done and what’s going to be finishing, I think weighs heavily,” Balfe said. “It’s been such an amazing journey and it’s going to be really hard to just sort of let go of it.”

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Pete Davidson was charged Friday, June 16, with a misdemeanor count of reckless driving after a March car crash into a Beverly Hills home, ABC News has learned.

The former SNL star was behind the wheel of his black Mercedes with his girlfriend and Bupkis co-star Chase Sui Wonders on the evening of March 4 when he lost control of the reportedly speeding vehicle, struck a fire hydrant and jumped a curb before the car impacted the side of the home.

In a statement, the Los Angeles County DA’s Office tells ABC News, “We believe that Mr. Davidson engaged in reckless driving, which ultimately resulted in his involvement in a serious collision into a home. Luckily, no one was seriously injured as a result of this collision.”

The statement continued, “We know that reckless driving can have devastating consequences. In 2022, traffic fatalities in Los Angeles have reached the highest levels seen in 20 years. This is an alarming trend that we cannot ignore. As a result, it’s crucial that we take all allegations of reckless driving seriously and hold those responsible accountable.”

Pete’s arraignment is set for July 27.

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Although The Flash just ran into theaters officially Friday, June 16, its director has been tapped to helm another hot property in the DC Films library.

Variety says Andy Muschietti, who previously called the shots on the hit It movies, will be directing Batman: The Brave and the Bold. It’s the first official reboot of the character under co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran‘s superhero unit of Warner Bros. Discovery.

In January, Gunn and Safran laid out their vision for the next decade of the studio’s DC Comics-based slate, with Gunn specifying that projects like Todd Philips‘ Oscar-winning Joker film and its sequel, as well as Robert Pattinson‘s continuing adventures as the Caped Crusader, will still exist as an “Elseworlds” specification: That is, outside of DC Films’ official timeline.

Gunn explained at the time that Brave and the Bold will be based on Grant Morrison‘s “exceptionally influential” comics run of the same name, which posited Bruce Wayne’s estranged assassin son Damian becomes Robin to his Batman.

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Wonderwell, the long-delayed fantasy film that was the last movie Carrie Fisher worked on before her death at age 60 in 2016, now has a trailer.

The modern-day fairy tale film shows Kiera Milward‘s inquisitive Violet finding a secret portal in a forest to a new dimension. There, she meets Fisher’s Hazel. “Are you the witch?” the little girl asks. “The witch or a witch,” the Star Wars icon corrects her, before showing her a magical new realm.

Also seen in the trailer is Rita Ora as the antagonist, a world-renowned fashion designer named Yana, who is a counter to Fisher’s character. Rita is seen in a variety of dramatic outfits and hairdos that are likely to get cosplayers’ gears going.

“We need to talk,” she tells Fisher’s character. “You know the rules. The forest is yours, the town is mine.”

There’s also a power play at hand over the new visitor. “My girl isn’t usual,” Fisher explains. “She’s not yours,” Rita replies. “It’s only a matter of time. See what happens,” she warns.

Hazel tells the little girl she has to make it back to her own world, lest she get stuck there forever. “Life can be just as magical as this garden,” she says of returning home. “Only it’s a lot more fun.”

The film will bow in AMC theaters on June 23 and will be available on streaming, as well.

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On Sunday, June 18, AMC unveils The Walking Dead: Dead City. The spinoff stars, and is executive produced by, TWD veterans Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan reprising, respectively, as Negan and Maggie.

The series has the pair teaming up to try to rescue Maggie’s son, Hershel from a post-apocalyptic New York City — a mission complicated by Negan and Maggie’s past: He bludgeoned Hershel’s dad, Glenn, to death with his barbed-wire baseball bat years ago, after all.

“It’s already a great new stimulus to be in a real way with Jeff because we do … avoid each other so much of The Walking Dead, understandably,” Cohan says. 

She calls the six-episode show “wonderful because we get this new blood … by being in New York and being with new characters and by seeing each other in different ways.”

Morgan agrees, “We both are pretty comfortable in [these] shoes, but those shoes stepping on the pavement, and for the first time, is pretty amazing.”

Negan’s character has softened somewhat in recent years. But with Hershel’s life on the line, the old Negan comes back, to the delight of fans who saw him in action at a recent screening using a bad guy’s head as the punchline in a knock-knock joke.

“I loved it,” JDM enthuses. “Look, there’s parts of Negan that I obviously love because it’s why I wanted to do the role in the first place … . And I think to be able to bring him out again was a lot of fun for me as an actor.”

He adds, “But then to hear the reaction of the crowd when he does his knock-knock joke was awesome. It was, like, so cool. I was really glad to see that people kind of wanted to see him back a little bit, as well, so it was fun.” 

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Universal’s 2008 film, The Incredible Hulk, will finally air on Disney+ now that the rights, held by Universal for 15 years, have reverted to Marvel Studios.

“Smashing news. Marvel Studios’ The Incredible #Hulk arrives tomorrow on #DisneyPlus,” the streamer tweeted on Thursday. The film — starring Edward Norton in the titular role, who was replaced by Mark Ruffalo starting with 2012’s The Avengers — followed the origin story of Bruce Banner’s exposure to gamma radiation that transformed him into the raging green monster.

The movie also stars Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky, a soldier who was turned into the monstrous Abomination to go toe to toe with Hulk. The Pulp Fiction star reprised the dual role briefly on the big screen in 2021’s Shang-Chi, and more extensively in Disney+’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.

Also starring in Hulk are Liv Tyler and Tim Blake Nelson, who will reprise their respective roles as Betty Ross and Samuel Sterns in Captain America: Brave New World, hitting theaters July 26, 2024.

In that film, Harrison Ford will take over the role of Thunderbolt Ross, previously played by the late William Hurt who appeared as the character in Hulk, and throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ending with 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. 

The Incredible Hulk launches Friday, June 16 on Disney+. Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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Billions will officially end with season 7, Showtime announced on Thursday. The 12 episode season is set to launch on Paramount+ August 11, before making its cable TV debut on Showtime August 13. In season 7, “alliances are turned on their heads. Old wounds are weaponized. Loyalties are tested. Betrayal takes on epic proportions. Enemies become wary friends,” per the cable network. And Damian Lewis‘ Bobby Axelrod returns, “as the stakes grow from Wall Street to the world.” Billions also stars Paul Giamatti, Maggie Siff, David Costabile, Asia Kate Dillon, Dola Rashad, Jeffrey DeMunn, Sakina Jaffrey, Daniel Breaker and Toney Goins…

NBC is bringing back Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, according to Deadline. Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild, hosted by Peter Gross, premieres Saturday, October 7. The original series premiered on NBC in 1963, co-hosted by Marlon Perkins and Jim Fowler. It moved to syndication in 1971 and aired until 1988. It was revived in 2002 on Animal Planet, running through 2011. Gross succeeded Perkins, who retired in 1985. Perkins died in 1986, followed by Fowler in 2019…

Glenda Jackson, the two-time Oscar winner who took a break from acting to spend 23 years in the British Parliament before returning to acting, died peacefully after a brief illness at her home in Blackheath, London, her agent Lionel Larner announced in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. She was 87. Her many accolades included the best actress Oscar for 1969’s Women in Love and A Touch of Class in 1973; a pair of Emmys for her performance as Elizabeth I in the BBC miniseries Elizabeth R; and a Tony for the 2018 Broadway revival of Edward Albee‘s Three Tall Women. She recently completed filming The Great Escaper opposite Michael Caine, according to Larner…

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Dylan Sprouse and model Barbara Palvin took to their respective Instagrams on Thursday, June 15 to confirm their engagement after five years of dating.

“With the power invested in V I am a Sprouse to be,” Palvin wrote, alongside a photo from her and Sprouse’s joint V Magazine cover shoot, showing the two dressed as a bride and groom in front of a wedding cake.

“Sprouses to be,” The Suite Life of Zack & Cody star captioned a different picture from the shoot.

Zach revealed in the V Magazine article — conducted by his twin brother and Suite Life co-star Cole Sprouse — that the engagement actually took place back in September of 2022.

“We didn’t necessarily feel the need to be fully transparent with the public about that aspect of our engagement,” the 30-year-old actor explained, “What we wanted to do…is make something that was kind of tongue-in-cheek about the nature of private versus public. We’re playing with the idea of perception.”

“I knew we were building this story up. So, I’m very happy that we ended up doing it our way,” Barbara, 29, added.

The couple, sparked engagement rumors back in March, when Palvin was spotted with a diamond ring on that finger and had been referring to Sprouse as her fiancé, according to Us Weekly.

Sprouse and Palvin have been mum on their wedding plans, except to reveal that it will take place in Palvin’s native Hungary.

“I know there was no way we would have not had a wedding in Hungary because my parents would have killed me,” she joked.

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On Thursday, June 15, AMC dropped the second season trailer to its acclaimed Indigenous-centered drama series, Dark Winds.

Once again, Zahn McClarnon stars as Lt. Joe Leaphorn, who in season 2 teams up with deputy-turned-private eye Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) “when their separate cases bring them together in pursuit of the same suspect,” according to AMC.

The network teases, “They find themselves in the high desert of Navajo Country chasing a killer who’s turned his sights on them to protect a secret that rips open old wounds and challenges Leaphorn’s moral and professional code.”

The show is based on the iconic Leaphorn & Chee book series by Tony Hillerman and co-produced by McClarnon, Robert Redford and Game of Thrones universe creator George R.R. Martin.

This season also features Star Trek: Picard‘s Jeri Ryan as Rosemary Vines, “a femme fatale whose physical frailties hide her naked ambition as she plays Jim Chee, leaving a trail of bodies in her wake.”

Dopesick‘s Nicholas Logan also stars this season as Colton Wolf, “a twisted assassin with a secret that puts him on a collision course with Lt. Joe Leaphorn.”

The six-episode second season will debut on AMC and AMC+ in July.

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Al Pacino has become a father for the fourth time, ABC Audio has confirmed. 

The 83-year-old’s 29-year-old producer girlfriend, Noor Alfallah, gave birth to a son named Roman Pacino, according to a rep for the Godfather icon, who said, “No other statements or comments will be provided.” 

Pacino made headlines in May when it was confirmed he and Alfallah were expecting, with the mom-to-be reportedly around eight months along when the news broke. 

Pacino also has a 33-year-old daughter, named Julie Pacino, from his relationship with acting coach Jan Tarrant, as well as 22-year-old twins Anton and Olivia Pacino from his time with Vacation actress Beverly D’Angelo.

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