Entertainment

Netflix Tudum 2023: Best trailers you might’ve missed

Avatar, One Piece, 3 Body Problem, and more

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Netflix’s recent Tudum event was as star-studded as it was hyped up to be. Besides featuring a wealth of celebrities and personalities, the event saw sneak peeks at what’s coming next for Netflix. If you missed the annual fan event, here’s a quick rundown of announcements:

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Consider it a do-over. After an extremely controversial live-action adaptation by M. Night Shyamalan, Avatar: The Last Airbender is getting another crack at breaking into the live-action scene with a series from Netflix. Though announced earlier, Netflix Tudum 2023 saw the confirmation that the series will start streaming in 2024. The event also released a really short teaser video to hype the series.

One Piece

Avatar isn’t the only slated live-action adaptation for Netflix. The platform is also working on a series based on One Piece. After teasing the series for a while now, Netflix has finally released a trailer for the swashbuckling series. The 90-second trailer shows off Iñaki Godoy as the main character.

The eight-episode series will debut on August 31.

3 Body Problem

Call this the dark horse of the event. Though the event previewed highly anticipated titles, sci-fi literature fans have been drooling over Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of Cixin Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past series featuring the critically acclaimed The Three-Body Problem.

Produced by Game of Thrones showrunners — David Benioff and D.B. Weiss — and acclaimed director Rian Johnson, the series will see feature notable stars like Benedict Wong, Eiza González, and Jonathan Pryce. Without spoiling too much of the plot, the series asks how humanity will react to an extraterrestrial threat gunning straight for the entire world.

Rebel Moon

You’re forgiven for thinking of Star Wars when you hear Rebel Moon. The film sounds like it belongs in that universe, but it’s not. Zack Snyder’s upcoming sci-fi film has gotten a sneak peek — particularly some official images and a behind-the-scenes featurette.

Streaming on December 22, Rebel Moon sees a small colony fight against a tyrannical leader, Imperium. The cast features Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, and Charlie Hunnam.

Heart of Stone

Netflix is back with another upcoming action film featuring a superhero veteran. After Chris Evans’s The Gray Man and Chris Hemsworth’s Extraction, Gal Gadot is joining the fray with Heart of Stone. The action film will start streaming on August 11. (Oh, and speaking of Extraction, the Hemsworth-led series is getting a third one soon.)

The Archies

Move over, Riverdale. The Archies is a more period-accurate look at the series — but there’s still a twist. Though set in the 60s, the upcoming series will take place in India, creating a Bollywood-inspired take on the franchise. The short trailer doesn’t reveal much about the show’s plot, but it’s interesting, to say the least.

SEE ALSO: Netflix: 6 new K-Romance titles to put on your list

Entertainment

1st teaser trailer, details for Death Stranding Isolations series unveiled

Animated series to debut on Hulu on Disney Plus

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A new teaser trailer for the upcoming Death Stranding Isolations series on Hulu on Disney+ has been revealed.

The upcoming animated series is set to debut in 2027. It is set in the world of Death Stranding immediately after the game’s protagonist Sam reconnects the continent of North America via the Chiral Network.

The series will tell a completely new story separate from that of the video games. The narrative will focus on a young man and woman as they set off on an adventure.

As America is reborn from the ashes, the renewed connections that bind it together bring about new and unforeseen consequences.

In this tumultuous new landscape, there are some who walk a different path to the one chosen by Sam and his Bridges comrades.

One is a wise old man who connects people through a method that defies all reckoning. There is also a female soldier ensnared in a cycle of war and destruction.

Moreover, there is a boy who seethes with rage at the absurdity of his life, and a girl who chose to sever all ties with the outside world. Fate has other plans for her, however, and chance encounters see her launched headfirst into a world she does not recognize.

Death Stranding Isolations is written by Tow Ubukata (Activator, Bone Ash, Project Darkness) and directed by Takayuki Sano (Jujutsu Kaisen 0 – The Movie, Attack on Titan The Final Season).

The series is animated by E&H production (NINJA KAMUI, BULLET/BULLET, the Magic Knight Rayearth Television series 2026) with original character design by Ilya Kuvshinov (Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, The Wonderland).

The series is executive produced by Hideo Kojima and produced by KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS.

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Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 now streaming, Cyberpunk 2077 update coming

Edgerunners returns to Night City

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Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 is now streaming on Netflix, with all 10 episodes available to watch. CD PROJEKT RED and animation studio TRIGGER have also announced a new update for Cyberpunk 2077, bringing content inspired by the anime to the game.

The Edgerunners 2 Update (Update 2.5) launches on October 22, 2026, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. A Nintendo Switch 2 release will follow shortly.

Edgerunners returns with a new cast

Set in the world of Cyberpunk 2077, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 tells a standalone story through an entirely new cast of characters. The series follows a veteran edgerunner, a young cinephile, a chrome-obsessed delinquent, and a Snake Nation netrunner as their stories explore vengeance and redemption in Night City.

Director Kai Ikarashi leads the new installment, with Kanno Ichigo serving as lead character designer. Masahiko Otsuka returns as a collaborator, while Bartosz Sztybor serves as showrunner, story writer, and producer.

Both Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 are available exclusively on Netflix.

Cyberpunk 2077 gets a new update

CD PROJEKT RED announced the Edgerunners 2 Update alongside the anime’s premiere on October 20. The free update will introduce new items and features to Cyberpunk 2077, including content inspired by the new series.

The update launches on October 22 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. CD PROJEKT RED has yet to announce the Nintendo Switch 2 release date beyond confirming that it will follow shortly.

The studio will reveal more details during a special episode of REDstreams on October 21. The broadcast will air on Twitch, YouTube, and Steam, with official patch notes scheduled for release on the same day.

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Entertainment

Now Playing: Clayface

Finally, a supervillain story worth watching.

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The thing about supervillain movies is that they rarely let their villain be a villain. From Venom to Kraven the Hunter, they’re contrarian dreck that reframe a mass murderer as a “misunderstood anti-hero” who’s overshadowed by a corny do-gooder. Boo hoo. Thankfully, Clayface got the memo to not do that, even if it came pretty close.

Clayface reimagines how rising actor Matt Hagen becomes one of Batman’s most (literally) monstrous enemies. Here, Matt is horribly disfigured by gangsters then abandoned by his friends. He finds hope in Dr. Caitlyn Corr’s genetic experiments, but loses his body, mind and soul as her miracle cure enables his worst impulses.

Basically, Clayface is everything Joker failed to be. It’s a sympathetic origin story for a twisted Batman villain, but it doesn’t make excuses for them. If Joker scapegoats Arthur Fleck’s madness and anarchy on the nebulous enemy that is Society the way an aimlessly rebellious teenager would, Clayface throws all the blame and consequences on Matt — and Matt alone.

I like how Matt’s story is a tragedy of his own making. He wasn’t always evil, and he really was wronged by scum. Worse, his identity is cracking, which is a bit of psychological torment that I wish the movie dwelled on more. And yet, he always had a way out. He just keeps choosing the cruelest and greediest options instead.

This is the kind of agency most supervillain movies — or any movie about a juvenile anti-hero fighting The System, really — lack, but Clayface has an abundance of. There was a moment I thought that the movie would still side with Matt despite everything he’s done, only for him to cross a line. In the end, he can only blame himself when he loses everything and everyone.

However, I was let down by Clayface’s violence. There’s blood and guts, alright, but they’re too inconsistent. For every morbidly satisfying disemboweling or close-up of a nasty scarring, there’s a moment where the movie cuts away from these too early. I lost count of how many times Clayface jumped to the next scene before really letting blades sink into flesh, or how many of Matt’s kills were done offscreen. 

Minus the pivotal deaths, the kills are also not as diverse as I’d hope from a killer powered by Play-Doh and imagination. It’s just variations of stabbing and bludgeoning. My issue isn’t a lack of brutality, but that this reluctance to push it further or just show it gives the well-built tension a lackluster payoff. A movie about superpowered revenge in one of fiction’s vilest hellholes should be more depraved and creative.

To be fair, this is more the fault of the movie’s constraints, not a lack of skill or thought. Effects cost time and money that Clayface clearly didn’t have a lot of. This would also explain why Matt is limited to identity theft not by molding himself, but via clever camera work. For what it’s worth, I see and respect the smart workarounds the movie found to deliver the dread. 

Still, I like Clayface. It’s the rare supervillain movie that’s self-aware and honest about its darkness. It humanizes its villain, but commits to their monstrosity while rejecting forced redemption. It’s also a grisly thriller that works on its own merits, yet complements DC Comics’ latest growing cinematic world. That said, Batman can’t arrive sooner to beat Matt’s melted face in.

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