Plus, a new White Tiger will rise on 'Daredevil: Born Again' season 2.

In early 2004, after defeating Krona, the Justice League and the Avengers said their goodbyes as each team returned to their proper universe. It was the last time that Marvel and DC would cross paths in any official capacity for decades. Well, unless you count the roundabout way of having them duke it out with Fortnite skins. In terms of comics, the two industry giants would keep separate, especially once Marvel was scooped up by Disney. After 21 years, the two worlds will collide once again. In September, Marvel is releasing Deadpool/Batman, written by Zeb Wells with art by Greg Capullo (including backup stories featuring talent like Kevin Smith, Chip Zdarsky, Adam Kubert, and more). Then in November, DC is doing Batman/Deadpool, written by Grant Morrison with art by Dan Mora. On top of that, this is apparently only the beginning, as there will be Marvel/DC crossovers happening on an annual basis. That does bring into question some choice narration from Doctor Manhattan in 2017’s Doomsday Clock. In the DC Universe/Watchmen event, the omnipotent, blue-donged god noted that in 2030 there would be an event known as “The Secret Crisis,” which would involve Superman fighting Thor across the universe and the heroic sacrifice of one unnamed green behemoth. A hopeful joke or something more? Regardless of what the future brings, starting things off with dual meetings between the Dark Knight and the Merc with a Mouth is a brilliant choice. They could have had Superman team up with Spider-Man all over again or something just as on the nose, but this is fresh and has tons of potential. Here are some reasons why. Deadpool Missed Out The first crossover between the companies was 1976’s Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man. While there had been a few other attempts in the ‘70s and ‘80s, it wasn’t until the mid-’90s that they went absolutely ham with it. Over a six-year stretch starting in 1994, there were fifteen different team-ups and cross-company battles. This includes the memorable and oh-so-dated Marvel vs. DC event and its dip into Amalgam, the merged reality where Dark Claw (Wolverine/Batman) and his sidekick Sparrow (Jubilee/Robin) fight Hyena (Sabretooth/Joker). Meanwhile, though Deadpool was introduced in 1990, he wasn’t really cared about among comic fans until the 1997 solo run by Joe Kelly and Ed McGuinness. By the time Deadpool really picked up steam in popularity (Deadpool actually won a fight based on reader votes against Daredevil in 1999’s Contest of Champions II), the DC alliance was on its way out. The poor guy didn’t even get to be in Amalgam. They merged Deathstroke the Terminator with Daredevil instead. Centering this Batman story on a mainstream hero who wasn’t mainstream enough back in the ‘90s only adds a new coat of paint onto this novelty. The Previous Batman and Deadpool Crossover Then again, this wouldn’t exactly be the first time Batman and Deadpool have crossed paths. In an unofficial way, they have met. Sort of. As mentioned, the Kelly/McGuinness run of Deadpool was iconic and character-defining. That same creative team worked on Superman/Batman Annual #1 back in 2006. In a modern retelling of the pre-Crisis storyline where Bruce and Clark discovered each other’s secret identities on a cruise, the two had to deal with both Deathstroke and Deathstroke’s heroic Earth-3 doppelganger. Outside of the blue and orange color scheme, Earth-3 Deathstroke was Deadpool in as many ways as they could legally get away with. This included constantly getting interrupted with extreme violence whenever he was about to say his actual name. Still, even being in a separate company never stopped Deadpool from razzing on Batman. In his movies alone, he’s made fun of how dark the DC Universe is, crapped on the ending of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and joked about how Wolverine’s mask is like Batman’s with actual neck mobility. Speaking of… The Writers Understand the Assignment Zeb Wells might not be the most popular comic writer right now due to reasons involving Ms. Marvel’s death and… Paul. Still, he was one of the writers of Deadpool & Wolverine. People seemed to like that one. The guy knows a thing or two about putting Deadpool with a gruff, brooding superhero with reluctant father issues. This one will probably have less mutual bludgeoning… er, at least I hope it will. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! On the other side of things, we have Grant Morrison. Morrison is no stranger to the X-Men corner of Marvel, but he’s strangely never touched Deadpool before. Considering how much Morrison loves playing with the fourth wall and the boundaries between reality and fiction (Animal Man, Flex Mentallo, Seven Soldiers: Zatanna), it’s a real surprise that they never got to write for Marvel’s most self-aware antihero. Letting Deadpool Loose in Gotham On paper, the idea of having Deadpool specifically mixing things up with Harley Quinn might have made for a more fitting crossover. Unfortunately, DC kind of beat that into the ground with their “we can rip off your guy more blatantly than you can rip off ours” creation Red Tool, a regular in Harley’s comics. Regardless, having Deadpool mix it up with the worst of Gotham has legs. If anything, the very idea of Deadpool antagonizing the Joker is enough to sell issues. We could see him make Bane look nearly useless by recovering from a broken spine in seconds. We could find out what happens when Wade huffs fear gas. He could brutalize a confused Penguin for what happened to Victor in the HBO Max season finale. An official Deadpool vs. Deathstroke showdown is on the table. The possibilities are endless! As for Batman, he could… um… He… could fight… huh. Is T-Ray still a thing? Deadpool/Batman #1 will be released on September 17, 2025. Batman/Deadpool #1 is set to arrive in November.

Peter David, the highly regarded novelist and writer of comics like The Incredible Hulk, Young Justice, and X-Factor, has died at 68. The news was confirmed by David's friend and colleague Keith R.A. DeCandido via Facebook.David enjoyed a long and prolific career at Marvel and DC over several decades. He may be best remembered for his 12-year run on Marvel's The Incredible Hulk series, a sprawling saga that redefined the relationship between Bruce Banner and his alter ego and earned David and artist Dale Keown an Eisner Award in 1992. As much as Frank Miller is viewed as the definitive Daredevil writer/artist and Chris Claremont the definitive X-Men writer, David is widely regarded as the most important and influential Hulk writer of all time. Art by George Perez. (Image Credit: Marvel)David is also well known for co-creating Spider-Man 2099 and for his two runs on X-Factor. David's original X-Factor run saw the team, which was originally a reunion of the original five X-Men, remade into a government-sanctioned mutant strike force. His second X-Factor run again reinvented the team, this time as a detective agency led by Madrox the Multiple Man. At DC, David enjoyed successful and influential stints on books like Aquaman, Supergirl, and Young Justice. David also regularly worked on the Star Trek franchise in both comic book and prose form, with his best-known Trek work being the 1994 novel Q-Squared. Outside of books and comics, David worked on television shows like Babylon 5, Young Justice, and Ben 10: Alien Force and wrote video games like Shadow Complex and Spider-Man: Edge of Time.A Visual History of HulkDavid suffered from poor health in recent years, beginning with a stroke in 2012. His health issues prompted family friend Graham Murphy to organize a GoFundMe campaign in 2022 and again in 2025. David is survived by his wife, Kathleen O'Shea David, and his four children.Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket byfollowing @jschedeen on BlueSky.

Earlier this year, we got Frank Castle back on our TVs, and now it’s time for the Punisher to make a return to comics, too. Marvel’s gun-toting antihero is coming back to the page in Punisher: Red Band, a five-issue miniseries from Ben Percy (Wolverine) and Julius Ohta (Iron Man). The last time we saw Frank was back in 2023 when he took control of the Hand ninja cult, learned his wife was alive and wanted a divorce, and was later sent to Weirdworld. This new comic sees Frank back in New York without any memories of his past life, but still good at taking lives, so that’s what he’s gonna do. Much like his TV counterpart, this Frank is gonna get up to some bloody stuff, and his miniseries comes with a “Red Band” label to signify it’s got more explicit content than usual. © Marco Checchetto/Marvel © Julius Ohta/Marvel © Julius Ohta/Marvel © Julius Ohta/Marvel © E.M. Gist/Marvel © Mike Zeck/Marvel “Frank Castle is one of my all-time favorite characters, and Punisher is a series I’ve been gunning to write for a long, long time,” wrote Percy. “I’m going to lean in fully and push the very limits of my favorite genre: hairy psychopaths. This is going to be as gritty and bloody as it gets. Street-level mayhem awaits you.” Marvel has often seemed uncertain about what to do with Frank. Some of that was owed to his Netflix series and the timing of a heavily armed vigilante in a show airing weeks or months after mass shootings; other times, it was because of how police had co-opted his symbol and used it to decorate their vehicles. Daredevil: Born Again confronted that latter point during its first season by having Frank kill a bunch of Punisher cops and telling them they suck. We’ll see what comics Frank does when Punisher: Red Band begins September 10. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

Each week on Polygon, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home. This week, Mickey 17, the science fiction comedy from Oscar-winning Parasite writer-director Bong Joon Ho, starring Robert Pattinson as an expendable clone, gets copied onto HBO Max following its March theatrical debut. Netflix has a full slate of releases, with the Academy Award-winning Brazilian drama I’m Still Here and Fear Street: Prom Queen, the fourth horror flick in the franchise based on the R.L. Stein books. Guy Ritchie fans can check out his adventure film Fountain of Youth on Apple TV Plus, and you can rent Wolfs to watch George Clooney and Brad Pitt team up again. Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend. New on Netflix Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds Genre: DocumentaryRun time: 1h 31mDirector: Matt Wilcox The documentary takes viewers inside the cockpit of the U.S. Air Force’s demonstration squadron, which has been touring the country since 1953 to perform feats of aerial acrobatics and family-friendly military propaganda. The Netflix original, produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, features interviews with the daredevil pilots, explaining how they train to show off the capabilities of the F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets with complex synchronized maneuvers. Fear Street: Prom Queen Genre: HorrorRun time: 1h 30mDirector: Matt PalmerCast: India Fowler, Suzanna Son, Fina Strazza There’s just two days to go until senior prom 1988, and the most popular girls at Shadyside High are fighting over the title of prom queen. But the race gets shaken up as candidates start disappearing. Expect a lot of gory kills. Matt Palmer (Calibre) co-writes and directs the slasher film, which is the fourth in a series based on R.L. Stein’s Fear Street books. I’m Still Here Genre: Political dramaRun time: 2h 15m Director: Walter SallesCast: Fernanda Torres, Selton Mello, Fernanda Montenegro As a military dictatorship takes over Brazil, congressman and father of five Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello) is arrested and disappears. His wife, Eunice (Fernanda Torres) spends decades searching for answers and justice. I’m Still Here won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film, and Torres won a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for her performance. New on Apple TV Plus Fountain of Youth Genre: Action adventureRun time: 2h 5mDirector: Guy RitchieCast: John Krasinski, Natalie Portman, Stanley Tucci Guy Ritchie puts his spin on Indiana Jones in this Apple original, where estranged siblings Luke (John Krasinski) and Charlotte Purdue (Natalie Portman) go on a globe-trotting adventure to chase the legendary source of eternal life. The film was shot on location in London, Cairo, Vienna, and Bangkok, and is packed with chase scenes, gunfights, and puzzles. From our review: If Fountain of Youth kept up the simple fun of its first few scenes, it could have been a solid tribute to the adventure genre. But James Vanderbilt and Guy Ritchie’s attempt to find some profound meaning in the search for lost treasure never really works, because their characters are too thin to make their emotional catharsis meaningful. New on Hulu The Last Showgirl Genre: DramaRun time: 1h 25mDirector: Gia CoppolaCast: Pamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista After three decades of donning a sparkly costume and feathered crown to perform in Le Razzle Dazzle on the Las Vegas strip, Shelly Gardner (Pamela Anderson) learns the show will be closing in two weeks, pushing her to reassess her life and try to figure out her future. Anderson was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in the melancholy film. New on HBO Max Mickey 17 Genre: Science fictionRun time: 2h 17mDirector: Bong Joon HoCast: Robert Pattinson, Naomie Ackie, Mark Ruffalo Desperate to get off Earth, Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) volunteers to become an expendable, a crew member who is cloned over and over again to assist with space exploration in the latest science fiction film/vicious critique of capitalism from Oscar-winner Bong Joon Ho. Mark Ruffalo plays the buffoonish leader of a planned colony, whose ambitions come into conflict with the creatures living on the frozen planet. New on Shudder The Surrender Genre: HorrorRun time: 1h 35mDirector: Julia MaxCast: Colby Minifie, Kate Burton, Chelsea Alden The Surrender starts as a family drama with Megan (Colby Minifie of The Boys) returning home to help her mother Barbara (Kate Burton) care for her terminally ill father and deal with the issues that drove them apart. But when Robert (Vaughn Armstrong) finally dies, Barbara plans a resurrection ritual instead of a funeral, and the horror really begins. New to digital The Legend of Ochi Genre: Fantasy adventureRun time: 1h 36mDirector: Isaiah SaxonCast: Helena Zengel, Finn Wolfhard, Emily Watson, Willem Dafoe A24’s family-friendly movie used complex puppetry to bring its titular adorable monkey-like creature to life. Set in a remote area of the Carpathian mountains, the film follows lonely 12-year-old Dasha (Emily Watson), who goes on a quest to return a baby ochi to its family, defying her father Maxim (Willem Dafoe), who thinks the mythological creatures are vicious beasts that should be hunted down. The Trouble with Jessica Genre: Dark comedyRun time: 1h 29mDirector: Matt WinnCast: Shirley Henderson, Alan Tudyk, Rufus Sewell Cash-strapped Sarah (Shirley Henderson) and Tom (Alan Tudyk) are having one last dinner party for their old friends before selling their London home, but one of those friends, Jessica (Indira Varma) almost ruins everything when she hangs herself in the garden. Two couples band together to try to cover up the death and avoid spooking the buyer as things get increasingly out of hand. Until Dawn Genre: HorrorRun time: 1h 43mDirector: David F. SandbergCast: Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Odessa A’zion A teen investigating her sister’s disappearance leads a group of her friends to a mysterious mansion in an abandoned mining town, and they get stuck in a time loop where they’re brutally murdered in a different way each night. Reminiscent of The Cabin in the Woods, David F. Sandberg’s love letter to the horror genre (and only very lose adaptation of the 2015 video game Until Dawn) builds tension as the group puzzles together how to survive the night. The film is only available for digital purchase as of May 23, with no date set yet for digital rental. From our review: There’s way too much going on in Until Dawn. Director David F. Sandberg tried to make a faithful-ish adaptation of the popular 2015 video game, a Groundhog Day-style repeating-day movie, a comedy, a drama with something to say about trauma, and a love letter to every horror subgenre ever, all at the same time. But the byproduct of all this ambition is a movie that never quite finds an identity, and winds up feeling more generic than inspired. Wolfs Genre: Action comedyRun time: 1h 48mDirector: Jon WattsCast: Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Amy Ryan Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts reunites George Clooney and Brad Pitt as a pair of lone-wolf fixers who both get called in to dispose of the same body. But when the job gets messier than expected, they’re forced to grudgingly work together to survive the night.

This article contains some Mission: Impossible – The Final reckoning spoilers. In the most recent and supposedly final Mission: Impossible film, Ethan Hunt receives his briefing on a VHS cassette tape. That is a marvelous wink to the era in whichMission: Impossible, but these films have remained consistently at the zenith of quality blockbuster cinema. And through it all remains Tom Cruise, running, gunning, and smoldering with his various, luxuriant haircuts. Indeed, the first M:I picture was also Cruise’s first as a producer, made under the banner of Cruise/Wagner productions. Perhaps for that reason, he has stayed committed to what was once viewed as simply a “television adaptation.” It might have begun as TV IP, but in Cruise’s hands it has become a cinematic magnum opus that sequel after sequel, and decade after decade, has blossomed into one of the most inventive and satisfying spectacles ever produced in the Hollywood system. The final decade of the series’ run in particular has been groundbreaking. After five movies with five very different directors, aesthetics, and sensibilities, Christopher McQuarrie stuck around—alongside stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood. Together with Cruise, they turned the series into an old-fashioned, in-camera spectacle that harkens back to the earliest days of cinema. In the process, Cruise has added another chapter to his career, that of an onscreen daredevil like Harold Lloyd or Douglas Fairbanks. It’s been an amazing run, and honestly it’s a bit arbitrary to quantify it with any sort of ranking. But if we were going to do such a thing, here is how it should go… 8. Mission: Impossible II (2000) It’s hardly controversial to put John Woo’s Mission: Impossible II dead last. From its overabundance of slow-mo action—complete with Woo’s signature flying doves—to its use of Limp Bizkit, and even that nonsensical plot about manmade viruses that still doesn’t feel timely on the other side of 2020, MI:-2 is a relic of late ‘90s Hollywood excess. On the one hand, it’s kind of marvelous that Cruise let Woo completely tear down and rebuild a successful franchise-starter in the Hong Kong filmmaker’s own image. On the other, it’s perhaps telling of where Cruise’s ego was at that time since Woo used this opportunity to transform the original all-American Ethan Hunt into a god of celluloid marble. And make no mistake, there is something godlike to how Woo’s camera fetishizes Cruise’s sunglasses and new, luxuriant mane of jet black hair during Hunt’s big introduction where he is seen free-climbing across a rock face without rope. It would come to work as metaphor for the rest of the movie where, despite ostensibly being the leader of a team, Ethan is mostly going it alone as he does ridiculous things like have a medieval duel against his evil doppelgänger (Dougray Scott), only both men now ride motorcycles instead of horses. The onscreen team, meanwhile, stares slack-jawed as Ethan finds his inner-Arnold Schwarzenegger and massacres entire scores of faceless mercenaries in multiple shootouts. While gunplay has always been an element of modern spy thrillers, the Mission: Impossible movies work best when the characters use their wits (and the stunt team’s ingenuity) to escape elaborate, tricky situations. So there’s something banal about the way M:I-2 resembles any other late ‘90s and early ‘00s actioner that might’ve starred Nicolas Cage or Bruce Willis. Technically the plot, which involves Ethan’s reluctance to send new flame Nyah Hall (Thandiwe Newton) into the lion’s den as an informant, has classical pedigree. The movie remakes Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946) in all but name. However, the movie is so in love with its movie star deity that even the supposedly central romance is cast in ambivalent shadow. 7. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025) Yes, we admit to also being surprised that what is allegedly intended to be the last Mission: Impossible movie is finishing near the very bottom of this list. Which is not to say that The Final Reckoning is a bad movie. It’s just a messy one—and disappointing too. Perhaps the expectations were too high for a film with “final” in the title. Also its reportedly eye-popping $400 million only fueled the hype. But whereas the three previous Mission films directed by Christopher McQuarrie, including Dead Reckoning, had a light playfulness about them, The Final Reckoning gets lost in its own self-importance and grandiosity. Once again we have a Mission flick determined to deify Ethan Hunt with McQuarrie’s “gambler” from the last couple movies taking on the imagery of the messiah. Now the AI fate of the world lies in his literal hands. This approach leads to many long expository sequences where characters blather endlessly about the motivations of an abstract artificial intelligence. Meanwhile far too little time is spent on the sweet spot for this series: Cruise’s chemistry with co-stars when he isn’t hanging from some death-defying height. In fact, Ethan goes it pretty much alone in this one, staring down generals, submarine captains, and American presidents—fools all to think for one instance Ethan isn’t the guy sent to redeem them for their sins. The action sequences are still jaw-dropping when they finally come, and it is always good to see co-stars Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, and an all too briefly used Ving Rhames again, but this feels less like a finale than a breaking point. If Mission does come back, it will have to be as something wildly different (and presumably less expensive). 6. Mission: Impossible III (2006) Before he transformed Star Trek and Star Wars into remarkably similar franchises, writer-director J.J. Abrams made his big screen debut by doing much the same to the Mission: Impossible franchise. With his emphasis on extreme close-ups, heavy expository dialogue dumps, and intentionally vague motivations for his villains that seem to always have something to do with the War on Terror, Abrams remade the M:I franchise in the image of his TV shows, particularly Alias. This included turning Woo’s Übermensch from the last movie into the kind of suburban everyman who scores well with the Nielsen ratings and who has a sweet girl-next-door fiancée (Michelle Monaghan). Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Your mileage may vary with this approach, but personally we found M:I-3 to be too much of a piece with mid-2000s television and lacking in a certain degree of movie magic. With that said, the movie has two fantastic aces up its sleeve. The first and most significant is a deliciously boorish performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman as the franchise’s scariest villain. Abrams’ signature monologues have never been more chilling as when Hoffman cuts through Cruise’s matinee heroics like a knife and unsettles the protagonist and the audience with an unblinking declaration of ill-intent. Perhaps more impressively, during one of the franchise’s famed “mask” sequences where Ethan disguises himself as Hoffman’s baddie, the character actor subtly and convincingly mimics Cruise’s leading man charisma. That, plus introducing fan favorite Simon Pegg as Benji to the series (if in little more than a cameo), makes the movie worth a watch if not a regular revisit. According to more than a few critics in 2023, the then-newest installment in the series was also the best one. I respectfully disagree. The first half of writer-director Christopher McQuarrie and Cruise’s Dead Reckoning In terms of old school spectacle and breakneck pacing, Dead Reckoning is easily the most entertaining action movie of summer 2023’s offerings. However, when compared to the best entries in the M:I franchise, Dead Reckoning leaves something be desired. While McQuarrie’s counterintuitive instinct to script the scenes after designing the set pieces, and essentially make it up as they went along, paid off in dividends in Fallout, the narrative of Dead Reckoning’s first half is shaggy and muddled. The second act is especially disjointed when the film arrives in Venice, and the actors seem as uncertain as the script is over what exactly the film’s nefarious A.I. villain, codename: “The Entity,” wants. That this is the portion of the film which also thanklessly kills off fan favorite Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) does the movie no favors. Elsewhere in the film, Hayley Atwell proves a fantastic addition in her own right as Grace—essentially a civilian and audience surrogate who gets wrapped up in the M:I series’ craziness long enough to stare at Cruise in incredulity—but the inference that she is here to simply interchangeably replace Ilsa gives the film a sour subtext. Still, Atwell’s Grace is great, Cruise’s Ethan is as mad as ever with his stunts, and even as the rest of the ensemble feels underutilized, seeing the team back together makes this a good time—while the unexpected return of Henry Czerny as Eugene Kittridge is downright great. 4. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) There are many fans who will tell you that the Mission: Impossible franchise as we know it really started with this Brad Bird entry at the beginning of the 2010s, and it’s easy to see why. As the first installment made with a newly chastened Cruise—who Paramount Pictures had just spent years trying to fire from the series—it’s also the installment where the movie star remade his persona as a modern day Douglas Fairbanks. Here he becomes the guy you could count on to commit the most absurdly dangerous and ridiculous stunts for our entertainment. What a mensch. And in terms of set pieces, nothing in the series may top this movie’s second act where Cruise is asked to become a real-life Spider-Man and wall-crawl—as well as swing and skip—along the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It’s a genuine showstopper that looms over the rest of the movie. Not that there isn’t a lot to enjoy elsewhere as Bird brings a slightly more sci-fi and cartoonish cheek to the proceedings with amusing gadgets like those aforementioned “blue means glue” Spidey gloves. Even more amusingly, the damn things never seem to work properly. This is also the first Mission: Impossible movie where the whole team feels vital to the success of the adventure, including a now proper sidekick in the returning Pegg and some solid support from Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner. For a certain breed of fan that makes this the best, but we would argue the team dynamics were fleshed out a little better down the road, and in movies that have more than one stunning set piece to their name. 3. Mission: Impossible (1996) The last four entries of the series have been so good that it’s become common for folks to overlook the movie that started it all, Brian De Palma’s endlessly stylish Mission: Impossible. That’s a shame since there’s something admirably blasphemous to this day about a movie that would take an ancient pop culture property and throw the fundamentals out the window. In this case, that meant turning the original show’s hero, Jim Phelps (played by Jon Voight here), into the villain while completely rewriting the rulebook about what the concept of “Mission: Impossible” is. It’s the bold kind of creative move studios would never dare make now, but that’s what opened up the space to transform a novelty of ‘60s spymania TV into a ‘90s action classic, complete with heavy emphasis on techno espionage babble and post-Cold War politics. The movie can at times appear dated given the emphasis on floppy disks and AOL email accounts, but it’s also got a brisk energy that never goes out of style thanks to De Palma’s ability to frame a knotty script by David Koepp and Robert Towne (the latter of whom penned Chinatown) into a breathlessly paced thriller filled with paranoia, double crosses, femme fatales, and horrifying dream sequences. In other words, it’s a De Palma special! The filmmaker and Cruise also craft a series of set pieces that would become the series’ defining trademark. The finale with a fistfight atop a speeding train beneath the English Channel is great, but the quiet as a church mouse midpoint where Cruise’s hero dangles over the pressure-sensitive floor of a CIA vault—and with a drop of sweat dripping just out of reach!—is the stuff of popcorn myth. It’s how M:I also became as much a great heist series as shoot ‘em up. Plus, this movie gave us Ving Rhames’ stealth MVP hacker, Luther Stickell. 2. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) In retrospect there is something faintly low-key about Rogue Nation, as ludicrous as that might be to say about a movie that begins with its star literally clinging for dear life to the outside of a plane at take off. Yet given how grand newcomer director Christopher McQuarrie would take things in the following three Mission films, his more restrained first iteration seems charmingly small scale in comparison. Even so, it remains an action marvel in its own right, as well as the most balanced and well-structured adventure in the series. It’s the one where the project of making Ethan Hunt a tangible character began. Rightly assessing Ethan to be a “gambler” based on his inconsistent yet continuously deranged earlier appearances, McQuarrie spins a web where Hunt’s dicey lifestyle comes back to haunt him when facing a villain who turns those showboat instincts in on themselves, and which pairs Ethan for the first time against the best supporting character in the series, Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust. There’s a reason Ferguson’s MI6 double (triple, quadruple?) agent was the first leading lady in the series to become a recurring character. She gives a star-making turn as a woman who is in every way Ethan’s equal while keeping him and the audience on their toes. She, alongside a returning Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames, solidify the definitive Mission team, all while McQuarrie crafts elegant set pieces with classical flair, including a night at the opera that homages and one-ups Alfred Hitchcock’s influential sequence from The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), as well as a Casablanca chase between Ethan and Ilsa that’s the best motorcycle sequence in the series (if only they stopped by Rick’s). Also McQuarrie’s script ultimately figures out who Ethan Hunt truly is by letting all those around him realize he’s a madman. And Alec Baldwin’s Alan Hunley gets this gem of a line to sums the series up in total: “Hunt is uniquely trained and highly motivated, a specialist without equal, immune to any countermeasures. There is no secret he cannot extract, no security he cannot breach, no person he cannot become. He has most likely anticipated this very conversation and is waiting to strike in whatever direction we move. Sir, Hunt is the living manifestation of destiny—and he has made you his mission.” 1. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) If one were to rank these movies simply by virtue of set pieces and stunts, pound for pound it’s impossible to top Mission: Impossible – Fallout (forgive the pun). A virtuoso showcase in action movie bliss, there are too many giddy mic drop moments to list, but among our favorites are: Tom Cruise doing a real HALO jump out of a plane at 25,000 feet and which was captured by camera operator Craig O’Brien, who had an IMAX camera strapped to his head; the extended fight sequence between Cruise, Henry Cavill, and Liam Yang in a bathroom where the music completely drops out so we can hear every punch, kick, and that surreal moment where Cavill needs to reload his biceps like they’re shotguns; and did you see Cruise’s ankle bend the wrong way in that building to building jump?! For action junkies, there was no better adrenaline kick out of Hollywood in the 2010s than this flick, and that is in large part a credit to writer-director Christopher McQuarrie. As the first filmmaker to helm more than one M:I movie, McQuarrie had the seemingly counterintuitive innovation to meticulously hammer out all of the above action sequences as well as others—such as a motorcycle chase across the cobblestones of Paris and a helicopter climax where Cruise is really flying his chopper at low altitudes—with stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood and Cruise, and then retroactively pen a surprisingly tight and satisfying screenplay that continues to deconstruct the Ethan Hunt archetype into a man of flesh and blood. McQuarrie also reunites all the best supporting players in the series—Rhames, Pegg, and his own additions of Rebecca Ferguson as the ambiguous Ilsa Faust and Sean Harris as the dastardly Solomon Lane—into a yarn that is as zippy and sharp as you might expect from the screenwriter of The Usual Suspects, but which lets each action sequence unfurl with all the pageantry of an old school Gene Kelly musical number. Many will call this the best Mission: Impossible movie, and we won’t quibble the point.

Two months ago, Marvel announced the cast for the highly-anticipate Avengers: Doomsday in a, let’s call it “unique,” manner. On social media, the studio streamed video of cast chairs with a particular actor’s name on it. The camera would hold for twelve minutes or so, and then Alan Silvestri’s Avengers theme would play and the camera would pan to the right for the next reveal. Odd as it was, the gamble mostly worked, as we nerds spend all day talking about the names on the internet. Turns out, the methodical pace of the reveal had something else to tell us about Doomsday: that we were going to have to wait a bit. Yesterday, Hollywood Reporter announced that Marvel has pushed Doomsday‘s release date from May 1, 2026 to Dec. 18, 2026 and the release date to the sequel Avengers: Secret Wars from Dec. 17, 2027 to May 7, 2027. At this point, the release date change shouldn’t be much of a surprise. After all, the fourth Avengers movie was supposed to have released a few weeks ago, on May 1, 2025. Of course, that announcement came back in 2022 and it was for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, staring Jonathan Majors as the time-traveling baddie Kang the Conquerer. Since then, Majors’s off-screen behavior got him booted from the universe and Kang was defeated, first by Ant-Man and a giant bug in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and then his variants were dealt with in the second season of Loki. Since then, the Avengers movie has been in creative overhaul, first by moving Kang Dynasty director Destin Daniel Cretton over to Spider-Man: Brand New Day and replacing him with Joe and Anthony Russo, who helmed Infinity War and Endgame. Further, Marvel brought back Robert Downey Jr., now as Fantastic Four arch-villain Doctor Doom, in a move that still doesn’t make sense, but hopefully will on screen. In short, Marvel’s had a lot of work to do and the pauses make sense, even if Doomsday is now currently in production. However, the decision to push back the release date is a good thing on creative level. It’s no secret that Marvel has been struggling since Endgame. It’s not just that superhero fatuige has set in and it’s not just that Endgame and it’s exit of many beloved characters gave fans a good jumping-off point. It’s that the company has spread itself too thin, drawing MCU chief Kevin Feige‘s attention away from quality and pushing out substandard entries that most people don’t want. For a while, audiences kept showing up for the good stuff, as demonstrated by the success of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and X-Men ’97, and for stuff that resonates with them, like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine. But too many bland entries, such as Thor: Love and Thunder and Secret Invasion have burned the general viewer too many times, and even solid releases like Loki‘s second season went underwatched. We are starting to see that turn around. Thunderbolts* proved a hit among critics and audiences, even if it didn’t do the box office numbers of movies from the MCU’s heyday. Likewise, Daredevil: Born Again didn’t dominate the discussion, but it generated decent buzz. Marvel knows all this. They’ve been quite open about the need to slow production. They already made the bold move of revamping Daredevil: Born Again midway through production, which resulted in a first season that sometimes showed the seams of being two radically different shows stitched together, but overall gave people what they want from Marvel: likable characters, good drama, and cool superhero action. In fact, Daredevil: Born Again should be the project that fans keep in mind when they consider the Doomsday news. There’s no question that Feige et al. made the right decision when bringing on new showrunner Dario Scardapane and directing duo Aaron Benson and Justin Moorehead, who changed the series from a superhero-adjacent courtroom drama to more of a character piece about Daredevil struggling with the ethics of vigilantism. But they needed to hit their new launch date and so retained a great deal of the original footage shot by the previous creative team. So as good as the final product was, the first season of Daredevil: Born Again didn’t always feel like a coherent vision and often shifted tones wildly. Scardapane, Benson, and Morehead have been promising that season two of the series will be more coherent, and that’s a good thing. But that’s also something they can do because they’re working on a television series. The Russo brothers can’t do the same thing with a movie, even a serialized one like the Avengers films. The story that hits the screen is going to be the story. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! And so, we wait a bit more and we’re glad to do it. We want Marvel to get this right, to tell a high adventure story that does right by the characters we love, that makes us feel like we did when we left the theater after Infinity War. In the meantime, we can keep looking at the back of casting chairs and speculating. Avengers: Doomsday comes to theaters on May 1, 2026 Dec. 18, 2026

Disney's dramatic delay to Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, announced last night, means fans will wait longer to see Earth's mightiest heroes assemble again on screen. Avengers: Doomsday will now arrive seven months' later, on December 18, 2026. Secret Wars, meanwhile, will arrive a year after that, on December 17, 2027. But in among all this, fans are also talking about Spider-Man.Tom Holland's Peter Parker is also set to return next year, in the highly-anticipated Spider-Man: Brand New Day on 31 July, 2026 . This movie will pick up Peter's story following the events of No Way Home, where his identity was erased from the world's memory.PlayBefore Disney's delay, Spider-Man: Brand New Day would have arrived after Avengers: Doomsday, as a Tom Holland-flavoured MCU sandwich filling between Doomsday and Secret Wars. There had been reports that Disney and Sony had been exploring another story filled with multiversal shenanigans befitting of the MCU's current era. Now, Spider-Man: Brand New Day — which is still yet to begin filming — will arrive ahead of either Avengers movie, something fans hope gives the next Spidey story some breathing room, and potentially a more grounded narrative set at the Marvel universe's street level.Picture the previous situation for a moment. Avengers: Doomsday likely leaves audiences on a big cliffhanger, akin to Avengers: Infinity War, ensuring audiences turns up to see the resolution in the next film. Spider-Man, as a key member of the Avengers, is likely involved — or if not, his absence has to be explained. In this context, Brand New Day either has to pick up from this, somehow, be set beforehand, or ignore the stakes going on elsewhere."That completely changes things for Spider-Man 4," one fan wrote on reddit regarding the delay, and Brand New Day now coming first. "At least in the framing of how we thought it NEEDED to be in between both films timeline-wise. Now it sounds like it won't be.""If Spider-Man: Brand New Day isn't [also] delayed I think that basically would confirm it isn't a multiverse battle world movie," a third wrote, referencing the holding location Marvel's heroes are left at within the comics during the original Secret Wars storyline. How to Watch Sony's Spider-Man Universe in Chronological OrderIn general, Spider-Man fans keen to see more of the character in his own story, back swinging through the streets of New York rather than being dragged into space with the Avengers. For many, Disney's delay is a positive."This is the best Spider-Man 4 news we've gotten," wrote one fan."With [Brand New Day] coming before Doomsday this fully allows a grounded story, which lines up with the rumours and casting lately," wrote another, referencing whispers online about villains being cast to fit a regular, New York-set episode.Earlier this month, Liza Colón-Zayas, best known for playing Tina Marrero on FX’s The Bear, was reportedly cast in Brand New Day. Fans suspect she's playing the mother of Miles Morales — the alternative version of Spider-Man who is hotly-tipped to appear in live-action after the character's popularity in Sony's Spider-Verse animated films.As part of the changes to its release schedule announced last night, Disney also removed an untitled Marvel project from its schedule set to launch on February 13, 2026. Fans suspect this had been a placeholder for the long-delayed Blade reboot set to star Mahershala Ali, which now looks set to skip this saga of the MCU altogether, if it ever materialises.Other Marvel film dates, for November 6, 2026 and November 5, 2027, have also been altered to now refer to "Untitled Disney" films. If these remain projects are not linked to the Marvel universe, the MCU will have a relatively light movie schedule over the coming years. The remainder of 2025 includes The Fantastic Four: First Steps on the big screen in July, while TV series Ironheart and Wonder-Man are set to debut on Disney+.Next year's Disney+ shows will include Daredevil Born Again's second season (expected in the spring), a Punisher one-off special presentation, and Vision Quest, the Paul Bettany-fronted series that has now quietly begun filming.Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Perhaps the most defining aspect of the Mission: Impossible movies during their Christopher McQuarrie era has been their spontaneity. Outside of a renewed emphasis on Buster Keaton-like daredevil stunt work, each Mission film since 2015’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation has been informed by the IMF characters onscreen, led by the indefatigable Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), knowing the loose framework of what the job is and then figuring out all the hair-raising details as they run along. Behind the scenes, it’s been much the same for the cast and crew, who likewise discover the plot specifics and their characterizations in an environment that’s equal parts improvisation and manifest destiny. Hayley Atwell even reveals to us that it wasn’t until late into the process of making 2023’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning that she was told her character name. And it proved to be a profoundly moving moment for the actress. Cast as the biggest addition to the franchise canon over what might be the final two Mission flicks, Dead Reckoning and this week’s hotly anticipated Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Atwell was no stranger to blockbuster work after her time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She also knows what it means to be part of an organic ensemble with a long history of working in the British theater. Nonetheless, it was a touching surprise when, well into production on this two-part finale, Atwell was informed her aloof and thieving foil to Cruise’s Hunt is called… Grace. “It was a beautiful moment because towards the end of the last movie, McQ and Tom came to christen me and christen the character, and they did it as a reveal,” Atwell remembers. “They just said, ‘We want to tell you we’ve come up with the name and the name is partly based on how we’ve seen you work and how you’ve been consistently over time, and over this filming and training period.’ And they said her name is Grace.” It is an intriguing revelation that dispels the fan theory that she was named after Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief (after all, Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa was introduced in the one with Casablanca as a location). It also meant much to Atwell who right up until seeing the finished film at a premiere was unsure what version(s) of the character she played would be selected by writer-director McQuarrie in the editing bay. “I felt incredibly flattered and moved by that, because they felt that’s how I approached anything that was asked of me,” she says. “So I feel very proud that I showed up every day, not knowing what was going to happen. And also when I even watched the movie, I had no idea the version of Grace that they were going to choose and that they were going to edit through, because there’s no set script. So to what extent would she be an all-knowing calculated femme fatale, an ingenue, a wide-eyed idiot savant, a mysterious, enigmatic vulnerable, complex person?  What version of any little thing that I did would be put together to paint the portrait of who Grace ultimately was and how she fits into the world of it? So to be given that name was particularly meaningful for me.” It’s an illuminating story and says much about what Atwell brought to Dead Reckoning, as well as the now imminent Final Reckoning. Indeed, the new movie finds Grace in a very different place than the last film, with the master pickpocket agreeing to join the IMF and Ethan at the end of Dead Reckoning. When audiences catch up with her in Final Reckoning, like everything else in the movie, she is in a state of constant flux and movement—but now as Ethan’s teammate. “She’s like ‘oh no, you’ve made me care about you!’” Atwell laughs. “The cost of that is so great! Life was a lot easier when I didn’t care and I was just out for myself.” Yet having worked on and off in the world of Mission: Impossible for nearly five years now, Atwell feels like she truly understands what it’s like being part of the team. For instance, there was a day high above the snow line in Svalbard (Norwegian territory deep in the Arctic Circle) where the British actress looked around her to see a sun high in the sky and dogs pulling a sled beneath her feet. Something clicked. “It’s a beast, this kind of unquantifiable, unparalleled traveling circus of an adventure where anything could happen because anything can change at the last minute,” Atwell considers. “And so [because of] the maintenance and the training and the preparation and the drilling, I was able to do anything that happened to be asked of me on that day—whether it’s a sudden scene change or a sudden added action sequence that tried out different things that we ended up not putting in the movie, I know now what it takes and I think when we got to the Arctic, there was a sense of surrender, total surrender to the process of that, rather than figuring it out, trying to prove myself, or force anything.” There was also acceptance that when you’re on Mission, nothing ever truly ends. By her own estimate, Atwell must have wrapped The Final Reckoning 14 times over the last few years. The first couple instances were highly emotional moments, but she now smirks at how soon she’d be back in the thick of things, one way or another.  “It reminded me of when you meet up with someone and then you’re walking down the street and you say goodbye and you go your separate ways, but then you realize you’re going in the same direction so you have this awkward sense of a false goodbye,” says Atwell. Thus during her recent stint on the West End where Atwell played Shakespeare’s Beatrice opposite Tom Hiddleston’s Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Atwell even found herself spending her one day off in a London studio in a 10-meter tank doing Final Reckoning scenes. “Every time I wrapped on Mission… they’d say ‘and that’s a wrap!’ and I’d be like, ‘I’ll see you next week! Bye guys.’” Not that she is complaining, by her own admission Atwell has trouble saying farewell and savored every moment she was back in the team. Like Grace, they’ve made made her care. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning opens in theaters this Friday, May 23.

10 incredible new tabletop games for you to play in summer 2025 Lucy Orr Published May 16, 2025 2:00pm Pokémon TCG is in for a hot summer (The Pokémon Company) GameCentral looks at the most exciting new summer tabletop releases, including adaptations of Final Fantasy, Assassin’s Creed, and Citizen Sleeper The tabletop games industry has become an unlikely victim of Trump’s tariff trade war. Just after it was recovering from Covid supply chain issues it now sees itself hit with manufacturing issues and an uncertain future. It’s so bad that board game developer CMON has already shut up shop and Stonemaier, famous for the hugely successful Wingspan, is suing the Trump administration. Meanwhile Cephalofair, developer of fan favourite Gloomhaven, can’t even get their product on to the shelves, as it’s stuck in China. While I don’t expect any empty shelves at the UK Games Expo this month, there’s definitely panic in the air. Although one company that doesn’t seem to be too concerned is Games Workshop, who have always manufactured most of their products in the UK – although accessories and terrain for your favourite Warhammer army might become harder to find in the future. After everyone got into it during lockdown, the tabletop industry was riding a huge boom, with recent industry projections of the market doubling to around £20 billion by 2030. But US tariffs have left the industry reeling and could see the price for tabletop games around the world rise significantly. Despite the doom and gloom there’s plenty of exciting new products already out this year and many more on the way from massive brands such as Pokémon and Disney, as well as new Kickstarters that you can print yourself, thereby completely bypassing any manufacturing issues. There’s also never been a better time to support your local board game shop or Dungeons & Dragons club, as their overheads rise, so here’s a selection of games you might find on their shelves right now and those coming soon, that I’m excited to play during the summer break. Magic: The Gathering – Final Fantasy Square Enix’s iconic Final Fantasy franchise is stepping onto the cardboard battlefield with Magic: The Gathering, and the result is as gloriously nostalgic as it is mechanically exciting. The Universes Beyond initiative brings beloved characters, summons, and settings into Magic’s gameplay, with Cloud Strife leading the charge. The Final Fantasy Starter Kit offers two pre-constructed 60 card decks, packed with flavour and function and perfect for newcomers attracted by the sight of a Chocobo or Moogle. Each deck includes five rares, a foil mythic legendary, deck boxes, and digital codes for Magic: The Gathering Arena. But the real draw? The cards themselves. They are stunning. Cloud channels Final Fantasy 7’s environmental and emotional themes, with equipment-focused synergies that feel spot-on. Stiltzkin the Moogle is a flavourful support piece for donation strategies and the terrifying Tonberry arrives with Deathtouch and First Strike, which is fitting for a creature that’s haunted players for decades. With gorgeous full art treatments by amazing artists such as Takahashi Kazuya and Yoshitaka Amano, underpinned by clever mechanical call backs, this crossover is more than fan service, it’s a lovingly crafted bridge between two gaming giants that’s bound to fly of the shelves. £15.99 on Amazon – releases June 13 Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team: Typhon There’s a possible future where Games Workshop is the final tabletop company left standing, as they dodge tariffs and take down licence infringers like a particularly vicious swarm of tyrranids. You too can act out this future in Kill Team: Typhon, which delivers the chaos of Warhammer 40,000 in a claustrophobic, subterranean brawl between flesh-rending Tyranid Raveners and a desperate Adeptus Mechanicus Battleclade. The latest Kill Team box looks stunning and turns up the tension with asymmetric forces: a lean, elite brood of Raveners – deadly melee predators that can tunnel through terrain – versus a jury-rigged Mechanicus strike team, built from repurposed servitors and guided by a technoarchaeologist scouring ancient relics. But this isn’t Helldivers 2. The Raveners can be customised into deadly variants like the Tremorscythe and Felltalon, each armed with bio-engineered weapons designed for close-quarters carnage. On the other side, the Mechanicus bring massed, lobotomised firepower: breachers, gunners, medics, and overseers to allow for some tactical coordination. Also included are Hormagaunts, the swarming Tyrranids shock troops and new Tyranid-infested terrain – always the standout feature of these kill team boxes, in my opinion, and perfect for narrative or larger 40K battles. Typhon embraces Kill Team’s strength: cinematic asymmetry and high stakes. Price TBA – releases June Scalpers are going to love this (The Pokémon Company) Pokémon Trading Card Game Scarlet & Violet – Destined Rivals Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box This red and black box is going for gangbusters on eBay, before it’s even supposed to be out. The Scarlet & Violet Destined Rivals set reintroduces the beloved Trainer’s Pokémon mechanic, but now with a twist where players can align with iconic duos like Arven’s Mabosstiff and Ho-Oh ex or Cynthia and Garchomp ex. Or fall in with Team Rocket under Giovanni’s command, fielding heavy hitters like Mewtwo ex. It’s a rich throwback to the Gym Heroes era, with cards that spotlight specific trainer and pokémon bonds, each emblazoned with the trainer’s name. The expansion includes 83 cards branded under Team Rocket, 17 new Pokémon ex cards (10 of which are Trainer’s Pokémon ex), and a trove of high rarity collectibles: 23 illustration rares, 11 special illustration rares, and six hyper rare gold-etched cards. But the pre-launch hasn’t been all Sunflora and Jigglypuffs. Since its full reveal on March 24, pre-orders have sparked a frenzy amongst scalpers, with sellouts and early store hiccups are already marring the rollout. Still, between the nostalgia bait and villainous charm, Destined Rivals is shaping up to be one of 2025’s hottest trading card releases. RRP £54.99 – releases May 30 Finspan One game I just can’t put back on the shelf at the moment is Finspan; who’d of thought fish could be so much fun? Since Wingspan took flight in 2019, it’s become a modern classic: part art piece, part engine builder, and a benchmark for gateway games. Finspan, the third entry in the series, swaps feathers for fins, inviting players to explore marine ecosystems across oceanic zones in a beautifully illustrated, medium-lightweight game that last about 45 minutes. Mechanically, Finspan is more accessible than Wingspan, thanks to forgiving resource generation and a gentler deck structure. Strategic depth is still there, whether you chase high value fish, go wide with schools, or balance both. It’s more of a solo puzzle, and less about blocking opponents, which might suit more casual groups. Replayability is strong, and with one to five player support it scales well. The art is stunning, and the fish facts make you feel like a would-be marine biologist. But I missed the funny components (no birdhouse dice tower), so this is missing some of that Wingspan magic. Finspan is a fantastic entry point to the series and an accessible and fun addition to the franchise. It’s not as perfect as Wingspan, but it swims confidently in its own current. Could we see whale and crustacean expansions? I hope so. RRP £41.99 – available now Star Wars Unlimited – Jump To Lightspeed While you might have missed the Star Wars Celebration in Japan last month, and be bereft over the end of Andor Season 2, don’t worry – there are plenty of alternatives for Star Wars fandom. Fantasy Flight Games is revving its hyperdrive with Jump To Lightspeed, the fourth set for trading card game Star Wars Unlimited. A dramatic shift from previous ground-focused releases, this set propels players into orbit, with an emphasis on space combat and a host of gameplay refinements. Headlining the release are two new Spotlight Decks, each featuring a classic rivalry, such as Han Solo vs. Boba Fett. These 50-card preconstructed decks introduce Pilots, a brand-new card type that changes how space units operate. Pilots can be deployed to enhance ships with improved health and damage dealing abilities, offering fresh tactical depth. The set also debuts the Piloting keyword, a hyperspace mechanic, and five special rarity cards per deck, including one new Leader per Spotlight release. It’s a sleek continuation of Unlimited’s mission, with deep strategy wrapped in Star Wars flair. Fantasy Flight isn’t just releasing a new set; they’re effectively entering year two of the game with a soft reboot, that smartly rebalances and refreshes. For new and returning players, the standalone Spotlight Decks offer a refined on-ramp into the meta, while the stellar art and fan favourite make this one of the best sci-fi trading card games around. RRP: £34.99 – available now An indie tabletop game adapting an indie video game (Jump Over the Age) Citizen Sleeper: Spindlejack I was gutted I didn’t manage to nab some physical Cycles of the Eye Data-Cloud dice from Lost in Cult, before they sold out, so I was ecstatic to see the shadow drop of Citizen Sleeper: Spindlejack, especially as it’s completely free. It’s a lean, solo tabletop role-player set in the neon-drenched corridors of the Far Spindle, part of the Citizen Sleeper universe. Released on May 5th (aka Citizen Sleeper Day), it’s a print-and-play experience that trades dense narrative for kinetic delivery runs and tactical movement through a crumbling space station. Inspired by Kadet, the courier from Citizen Sleeper 2, Spindlejack casts you as one of the eponymous daredevils: airbike mounted messengers who dodge cargo haulers and urban decay to deliver sensitive payloads in a haunted, half-dead network. The draw? Not just the cryo or reputation, but the thrill, the competition, and the culture. Using your 10 six-sided dice, a pencil, and some printed sheets you’ll chart courses across randomly generated intersections, upgrade your bike, and edge toward Spindlejack legend status. Designed by Gareth Damian Martin, with stylish, gritty art from Guillaume Singelin, this is a tight, systems-focused dive into a beloved sci-fi setting. No campaign scheduling. No group required. Just you, your dice, and the Spindle’s rusted arteries. For fans of Citizen Sleeper or those craving a focused, atmospheric solo experience, Spindlejack is a no-brainer. DIY or DIE. Available now Disney Lorcana has become a certified hit (Ravensburger) Disney Lorcana – Reign Of Jafar Set 8 and Illumineer’s Quest: Palace Heist The internet has been on fire with the announcement that forthcoming Lorcana sets are to include Darkwing Duck and The Goofy Movie cast, emphasising that Disney Lorcana has become something of a juggernaut since its 2023 debut, captivating collectors and competitive players with a blend of nostalgic charm and evolving mechanics – judging scandals aside. During the Next Chapter of Lorcana livestream earlier this month, Ravensburger dropped major news. The autumn 2025 set, Fabled, will introduce Lorcana’s first ever set rotation, a sign the game is maturing into a competitive force. To support this shift, Fabled will include reprints from earlier sets, while also debuting two new rarity levels: epic and the ultra-rare Iconic. Reign Of Jafar, the game’s eighth set, sees Jafar rise as the new central villain, corrupting Archazia’s Island and bringing a darker twist to the narrative. Familiar faces like Mulan, Stitch, Rapunzel, and Bruno return, alongside new cards and accessories, including updated sleeves and deck boxes featuring classic Enchanted artwork. The new Illumineer’s Quest: Palace Heist PvE box expands on the beloved Deep Trouble, letting players face Jafar co-op style. Expect pre-built decks (Amethyst Amber and Ruby Steel), booster boxes, and enough lore-packed cardboard to fuel your summer break. £16.99 starter pack – releases May 30 The Lord Of The Rings: Fate Of The Fellowship While Finspan might be missing a dice tower, Fate Of The Fellowship more than makes up for that with a dice tower Barad-dûr. This is a one to five player co-op strategy game that builds on the Pandemic System but adds enough fresh features to feel distinct, deeper, and more precious than ever. Players take on the roles of Fellowship members and allies, racing to protect havens from surging shadow troops and helping Frodo sneak past the Nazgûl en route to Mount Doom. Unlike previous Pandemic adaptations, Fate Of The Fellowship leans hard into narrative mechanics. You’ll juggle four resources – stealth, valour, resistance, and friendship – across a sprawling map as you battle despair and shifting objectives. Each player commands two characters, with asymmetric abilities and layered decisions every turn. With 24 rotating objectives, a constant threat from the Eye of Sauron, and a cleverly tuned solo mode, designer Matt Leacock has crafted his richest Pandemic variant yet. I’ve seen plenty of tabletop gamers saying this will be their must-play at UK Games Expo. RRP £69.99 – releases June 27 Assassin’s Creed Animus Animus brings the Assassin’s Creed universe to the tabletop in a wholly fresh, narrative-driven experience. Up to four players select historical eras, each tied to a legendary assassin like Ezio or Eivor, resulting in distinct, asymmetric playstyles, unique objectives, and specialised mechanics. Rather than a miniatures skirmish, this is a competitive, timeline-jumping adventure where players dive into ancestral memories via the titular Animus. Strategic stealth and precision matter: while one player might rush to the end, victory favours those who stay synchronised with their ancestor’s memory by completing tasks efficiently and, of course, stealthily. While there’s still not much information about this game at the moment, Animus looks to employ modular and evolving dynamics driven by interactive card play. Players can impact each other’s timelines, which will hopefully keep the experience reactive and organic. With deep lore integration, and Ubisoft’s full support, this could the most ambitious Assassin’s Creed tabletop title yet. Crowdfunding starts summer 2025 Some like it Hoth (Days of Wonder) Star Wars: Battle Of Hoth Days of Wonder, the studio behind tabletop classic Ticket To Ride, has unveiled its next major release, with Star Wars: Battle Of Hoth. Designed for two to four players, aged 8 and up, this fast-paced board game runs around 30 minutes per session and leans on the accessible, card-driven Commands & Colors system. More Trending Players will face off as Imperial or Rebel forces across 17 scenario-driven missions, with options to escalate into campaign mode. Leader cards introduce familiar names like Vader, Luke, Leia, and Han to influence the tide of battle. Although it should be easy to learn, concerns linger about the scope of the battlefield. A cramped board could reduce tactical play to simple dice duels, something fans of strategic depth may find frustrating. Questions also remain about unit range and movement dynamics. Still, Battle Of Hoth promises cinematic nostalgia and the potential for layered tactics, and all for a very reasonable price. RRP: £49.99 – crowdfunding starts summer 2025 Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy