Entertainment

Tributes are pouring in for Chuck Norris.

The actor and martial artist, known for starring in the TV series Walker, Texas Ranger and films like The Delta Force and The Expendables 2, died Thursday morning. He was 86.

On Friday, many across Hollywood and beyond paid tribute to Norris on social media and shared memories of him, including his Expendables 2 co-stars Sylvester Stallone and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Stallone shared a photo with Norris on the set of the 2012 action film and captioned the post, “I had a great time working with Chuck. He was All American in every way. Great man and my condolences to his wonderful family.”

Van Damme added in his post, in which he included photos of Norris over the years, “Deepest condolences on the passing of my friend, Chuck Norris. We knew each other from my early days, and I always respected the man he was. My heart and prayers are with his family. He will never be forgotten.”

Expendables 2 actor Dolph Lundgren also took to Instagram to post a photo of Norris. He wrote in the caption, “Chuck Norris is the champ. Ever since I was a young martial artist and later getting into movies, I always looked up to him as a role model. Someone who had the respect, humility and strength it takes to be a man. We will miss you, my friend.”

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Kevin Hart is getting his own roast.

The comedian is going to be roasted live on Netflix during the final night of Netflix is a Joke Fest in Los Angeles. Fellow comedian Shane Gillis is set to host the event, which will air live to the streaming platform on May 10.

Hart took to Instagram to announce the roast and share his excitement over it.

“It’s going down MOTHER F******!!!!!!! This is what you want????? Ok FINE!!!!! Let’s get active then…. Just remember that I get the f****** MICROPHONE LAST!!!!!!” Hart captioned his post.

He continued, “There has never been a comedian that has sat in the chair ….. I will be the first …. I can take all of the hard punches…. Bring it B******!!!!!! I’m not even close to scared….. this is what I do m************ ….. let’s f****** gooooooooooooooo…… U better buckle up…. This will be the biggest and the best live event EVER!!!!!!!!!!!”

The Roast of Kevin Hart will be executive produced by Casey Patterson, Jeff Ross, Amy Zvi, Dave Becky and Hart.

A 2024 Netflix live event called The Roast of Tom Brady spent three weeks on the platform’s global top 10 chart, earning 19.2 million views during that time. To date, it has earned 26 million total views.

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Cameras have started rolling on the Assassin’s Creed live-action TV series.

Netflix has announced that the upcoming series adaptation of the popular video game franchises has started filming in Rome, Italy.

The show’s original story will be set in Rome in 64 AD, with production taking place at Cinecittà Studios.

The TV show will be a high-octane thriller about “the secret war between two shadowy factions — one set on determining mankind’s future through control and manipulation, while the other fights to preserve free will,” according to its official logline. “The series follows its characters across pivotal historical events as they battle to shape humanity’s destiny.”

The Assassin’s Creed video game franchise arrived in 2007 from the video game publisher Ubisoft. This upcoming show is nearly five years in the making, becoming the first series developed under Netflix’s agreement with Ubisoft.

Emmy nominees Roberto Patino and David Wiener created the series, and will serve as showrunners and executive producers.

The show’s previously announced cast includes Lola Petticrew, Toby Wallace, Zachary Hart, Laura Marcus, Tanzyn Crawford, Nabhann Rizwan, Claes Bang, Noomi Rapace, Ramzy Bedia, Sean Harris and Corrado Invernizzi.

Four new recurring cast members have joined the show’s ensemble: Sandra Guldberg-Kampp, Youssef Kerkour, Mirren Mack and Louis McCartney.

Assassin’s Creed is one of the bestselling series in video game history with over 230 million units sold, according to Netflix.

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Chuck Norris, the actor and martial artist known for a string of hit action movies and the series Walker, Texas Ranger, has died, according to his family. He was 86.

“It is with heavy hearts that our family shares the sudden passing of our beloved Chuck Norris yesterday morning,” a family statement said. “While we would like to keep the circumstances private, please know that he was surrounded by his family and was at peace.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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The first look at Martin Scorsese’s upcoming film has arrived. Apple Original Films has released the first photo from the movie set of What Happens at Night, announcing that production has started on the project. It features Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence in costume as they walk through a snowy landscape. Both Scorsese and DiCaprio posted the photo on their Instagram pages …

Maya Hawke is set to star in Netflix’s adaptation of the bestselling book The God of the Woods. The actress will play Judy Luptack, the first female investigator in the male-dominated Bureau of Criminal Investigation, in the series. The show follows Judy as she is assigned to unravel the disappearance of a young girl from a summer camp in upstate New York, according to a description from Netflix …

Speaking of Netflix, a new limited series starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson is heading to the platform as another one of the books by Call Me By Your Name writer André Aciman is getting adapted for the screen. Taylor-Johnson will star in Enigma Variations, a limited series that tells the story of a man who is remade by his many lovers over the span of 10 years …

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Hope Valley: 1874, the prequel series to When Calls the Heart, premieres Saturday on Hallmark+, and star Jill Hennessy thinks it provides “a little bit of an escape.”

Hope Valley: 1874 follows Rebecca Clarke and her daughter, who settle in a Western Canadian frontier town where Hennessy’s character, Hattie Quinn, runs the trading post. “She’s sort of the go-between and the hub of all these people,” Hennessy tells ABC Audio of Hattie, who’s a widow and single mother.

“She’s sorta used to living on her own, but deeply afraid of her daughter moving off, trying not to confront how scared she is: ‘Oh my gosh, but what will I do when she leaves me?'”

Hennessy says Hope Valley will please When Calls the Heart fans aka Hearties, while offering some key differences.

“In this show, I think they’re gonna get all of the warmth and the romance aspect, in a structure, though, that goes a little broader, can be a little darker, a little more gritty,” she explains.

She adds that the series has “a lot of focus on women’s relationships, and women and men in a friendship/survival kind of way, where there’s no competition, there’s no bitterness, and people are just trying to make it through the day.”

Hennessy, a veteran of shows like Law & Order, Crossing Jordan and Yellowstone, says there’s a “sweetness” to Hope Valley, which she says is “so nice to go to … with everything that’s happening in the world.”

“Even as an actor … it’s kind of nice to get there, and put on the petticoat and the corset, and work with nice people,” she adds. “This is just one of the nicest casts. It is very appealing. It’s a nice — how can I say? — a little bit of an escape.” 

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Chicken jockey, as they say.

Kirsten Dunst has joined the cast of the currently untitled sequel to A Minecraft Movie, ABC Audio has confirmed.

Dunst will play Alex, one of the primary avatars in the Minecraft video game, in the upcoming sequel. She joins a cast that also includes Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Danielle Brooks, Matt Berry and Jennifer Coolidge.

Warner Bros. Pictures announced its plans to make A Minecraft Movie sequel in October 2025. The film will arrive in theaters on July 23, 2027.

At the time it was announced, Warner Bros. shared a post to its Instagram with two pickaxes and the scheduled release date underneath.

“Building terrain. See you in theaters July 23 2027. #Minecraft,” the post’s caption reads.

Jared Hess directed the first film. He’s set to return to helm the sequel from a screenplay he wrote with Chris Galletta. Its plot is being kept under wraps.

A Minecraft Movie was released on April 4, 2025. The film grossed $424 million in the U.S. and almost $1 billion worldwide.

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Taylor Frankie Paul’s season of The Bachelorette has been pulled three days ahead of its premiere following allegations of domestic violence against her.

In a statement shared with ABC News on Thursday, a Disney Entertainment Television spokesperson said, “In light of the newly released video just surfaced today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of ‘The Bachelorette’ at this time, and our focus is on supporting the family.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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Kristen Stewart is taking on the role of Sally Ride.

The actress will make her TV debut by portraying the famous astronaut in Prime Video’s upcoming limited series The Challenger, ABC Audio has confirmed.

The Challenger is created by Golden Globe winner Maggie Cohn. She also writes, executive produces and showruns the program, which is inspired by Meredith E. Bagby’s 2023 book The New Guys. James Hawes, who has worked on Slow Horses and Black Mirror, will direct and executive produce the show. Kyra Sedgwick, Stewart and Bagby also executive produce.

The series follows “the gripping story of one of the most defining moments in space history, both the unprecedented events leading up to the tragedy, and the shocking investigation that followed,” according to Prime Video.

“As the members of the 1986 Rogers Commission interrogate the complex inner workings of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to find what, or who, was responsible for the Challenger’s doomed fate, the show explores Commission member Sally Ride’s personal journey,” its description continues. “We follow Sally, and the rest of the diverse Astronaut Class of ’78, through the ranks of the shuttle program, through initial recruitment and training, professional and personal highs and lows, until Sally’s historic glass ceiling moment as she becomes the first American woman in space.”

“There is no one better than Maggie Cohn to bring to life the complex story of the Challenger and the new class of astronauts recruited by NASA in the early 1970s, all through the eyes of an American hero, Sally Ride,” Sedgwick said in a press release.

Peter Friedlander, the head of global television at Amazon MGM Studios, said, “Sally Ride’s courage and brilliance changed history, and we couldn’t imagine a more powerful actor to bring her story to life than Kristen Stewart.”

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Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now the most-watched movie trailer of all time.

The trailer for the upcoming Sony Pictures film was released on Wednesday. It obtained a historic 718.6 million views in its first 24 hours, according to WaveMetrix.

The Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer surpassed former record holder Deadpool & Wolverine‘s movie trailer within eight hours of its launch. It reached 373 million views at that time, surpassing Deadpool & Wolverine‘s previous 24-hour record of 365 million.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day also surpassed the record set by the trailer for the video game Grand Theft Auto VI, which previously claimed the title of the biggest video launch of all time in 2025. It received 475 million views over its first 24 hours.

This new film finds Peter Parker in a completely different time in his life. It’s set four years after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

“Peter is now an adult living entirely alone, having voluntarily erased himself from the lives and memories of those he loves,” according to an official description from Sony. “Crime-fighting in a New York that no longer knows his name, he’s devoted himself entirely to protecting his city — a full-time Spider-Man — but as the demands on him intensify, the pressure sparks a surprising physical evolution that threatens his existence, even as a strange new pattern of crimes gives rise to one of the most powerful threats he has ever faced.”

Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando and Mark Ruffalo star in the film, which is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into movie theaters on July 31.

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