This article contains spoilers for X-Men ’97 season 2, episode 6. The latest episode of X-Men ’97, “Danger.exe” opens with a satisfying action scene, in which the government-sponsored X-Factor takes on the Purifiers, an anti-mutant religious cult led by Reverend William Stryker. Satisfying as it is to see Polaris unleash on the hate-mongers, the real fight occurs shortly afterward, when team leader Havok accosts her for going too far. Havok defends himself by insisting that the team does good, finding mutants before other, more hostile forces can and getting them to safety—even if that safety is a prison cell. Havok’s…

Decades of animation have given us some truly great and memorable villains. Some of them unsettle viewers for personal reasons, others become iconic to audiences everywhere, while still more achieve real cult status, and we’re here to celebrate some of the greatest of all time. The very best animated villains linger in the mind long after the TV or movie credits have rolled. Disney alone has produced more than its fair share of legendary antagonists, but we’ve deliberately kept their presence to a minimum here. Those villains deserve a spotlight all their own, and they have one right here. Instead,…

Looking scary is only part of being a memorable horror villain. The hard part is actually living up to that first impression. Plenty of creepy characters make a dramatic entrance, only to spend the rest of the movie watching their plans fall apart or getting outsmarted much more easily than anyone expected. Some become more famous because of their design than their actions, while others are simply too distracted, overconfident, or bizarre to feel like a real threat. They may still be entertaining, but they’re hardly the unstoppable nightmares they first appear to be. Here are 15 horror villains who…

Like most Marvel fans, we’ve spent the day here at Den of Geek poring over the first trailer for Avengers: Doomsday, looking for clues, cameos, and just enjoying seeing our favorites on the screen again. So exciting has the trailer been that it’s easy to overlook the other thing that Marvel dropped today, a new poster for the movie. The Avengers: Doomsday poster lacks any actual Avengers. None of the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Wakandans, or most of the other characters highlighted in the trailer appear. Instead, we just see Doom from behind as he ascends stairs to look…

With Christopher Nolan‘s latest dominating the box office, cinema lovers aren’t just excited to learn what the director has planned next. They’re also excited about the second epic we have this year, another massive movie helmed by a filmmaker whose name evokes big ticket sales: Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune: Part Three. It’s not hard to see the similarities, as both films feature mythic heroes on strange adventures, and they even share cast members in Zendaya and Robert Pattinson. However, fans of the books know that the connections between Dune and The Odyssey go deeper than one might expect. The secret is…

This post contains potential spoilers for Avengers: Doomsday. As Kang the Conquerer knows well, one overlooks Ant-Man at their own peril. Still, viewers would be forgiven for not paying much attention to Scott Lang in the first trailer for Avengers: Doomsday. The first full look at the upcoming event film is jam-packed with heroes across the multiverse, including two sets of Avengers, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four, to say nothing of Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Victor Von Doom in all his power. Yet, anyone who slows down and spends time with the trailer will notice a quick shot…

This article appears in the new issue of DEN OF GEEK magazine. Find out how you can subscribe to get the full physical copy right here! Almost five full years ago, Spider-Man: No Way Home ended on a triumphant note when Peter Parker swung over Rockefeller Center in a homemade suit. Certainly No Way Home gave Spidey lots to savor in that moment. He’d just defeated the Sinister Six in all but name, cured his arch-nemesis the Green Goblin and got to rub shoulders with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield on their own meta victory laps. Oh, plus, it was also the…

The first full trailer for Avengers: Doomsday has been released this week, and it has plenty to show us. Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom easily thwarts an attack from Thor, Gambit battles Shang-Chi, Yelena Belova is unmasked as Mystique at one point before Yelena fights “Yelena,” Steve Rogers is back (with his beard!), Loki does some pondering, and there’s more besides. But in all the excitement, one quiet, key moment has the Fantastic Four, Thor, Ant-Man, and Sam Wilson standing around in the new Avengers watchtower with the Thunderbolts, all looking very serious. At the end of the reformed gang’s…

This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon season 3 episode 5. Near the beginning of House of the Dragon season 3 episode 5, Queen Rhaenyra finally gets some glad news. “Your Grace, glad news! [Ed Note: See, I wasn’t lying about the ‘glad news’ part]” a nameless servant informs the dragonqueen. “Young Prince Joffrey has returned this hour from The Vale. I’m told he’s asked for you.” Rhaenyra’s reaction to this statement is inscrutable. It seems as though both one million and precisely zero emotions cross her face all at once. Ultimately she responds with a curt “I…

This review for House of the Dragon season 3 episode 5 contains spoilers. What does Criston Cole want? That’s the question that Westerosi nobles and House of the Dragon viewers alike have pondered ever since the Dornish marcher knight arrived on the scene by unhorsing the great Daemon Targaryen at a King’s Landing tourney. At first it seemed as though Ser Criston (Fabien Frankel) wanted the usual things that one would expect a member of a lowly vassal house to want: fame, respect, glory – you know, the full Ser Duncan the Tall package. Then, immediately upon achieving some semblance…

This article contains spoilers for The Odyssey. This weekend’s The Odyssey is remarkably faithful to a story that likely dates back more than three millennia. Writer-director Christopher Nolan makes plenty of nips and tucks to the material due to the necessity of modern filmmaking—not to mention the built-in three-hour time limit imposed by 70mm IMAX projection platters—but most of what Homer eventually wrote down from an oral tradition in the 8th century BCE is here. The cyclops, the Sirens, old blind Tiresias, and more. What’s changed is how Nolan, ever the rationalist, interprets the material and reflects it back in…

This article contains major The Odyssey spoilers. One of the most chilling antagonists and nightmares offered in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is neither sirens nor the cyclops, the hospitality of Circe or the dreaded gates Hades. Instead it’s a whisper, a rumor spread across the wind, from Odysseus’ dear and distant Ithaca to the great halls of Sparta. It is vague and ominous tales of “the Sea People.” These apparent strangers emerging from parts unknown along the Aegean and Ionian Seas are spoken about in the movie as an existential threat greater than old King Priam of Troy could ever…

It’s been over two years since Dark Matter fans were left in superposition, that quantum state of Schrödinger’s cat who is both alive and dead inside the box, except the limbo state for viewers was the fate of Jason Dessen and his family. Were they safe at the end of season one, or were they in more danger than ever before? Although Dark Matter’s return is still a month away, answers will be forthcoming for attendees of San Diego Comic-Con 2026 this year. Apple TV and Den of Geek will be hosting an exclusive fan screening of the first episode…

This article contains spoilers for The Odyssey. The Odyssey just opened on Thursday night, but that’s already enough time to completely disregard the dumbest criticism heading into the film. Some observers had complained about director Christopher Nolan’s decision to cast Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, the woman whose coupling with the prince Paris “launched a thousand ships,” in Christopher Marlowe’s words, and started the Trojan War. Obviously, these were always bad faith takes, more about the fact that Christopher Nolan would cast a Black woman as a character they assumed was white (despite the fact that actual scholars show…

There comes a point when most actors begin choosing smaller roles or slowing down altogether. Others go in the opposite direction. Some return to major franchises, some take on physically demanding action movies, and others deliver career-best dramatic performances well into their 70s, 80s, or even 90s. These performances proved that talent, experience, and screen presence don’t disappear with age. Here are 15 actors who showed that age really is just a number. ©IMDb Ian McKellen – Mr. Holmes Playing Sherlock Holmes at 93 required McKellen to carry nearly every scene, shifting between different stages of the detective’s life while…

This article contains Silo season 3 spoilers. Silo season 2 ended with a major shift in narrative. No longer would we be entirely focused on the trials taking place inside the show’s dingy, post-apocalyptic underground silos; we were also granted the chance to go back in time and finally find out how and why pockets of survivors got stuck in them. It was a twist not only faithful to Hugh Howey’s Silo book series, but also a much-needed jolt of energy for the Apple TV show, which had slowed its pace considerably in its second season to focus on character…

This article contains major The Odyssey spoilers. In more than a few ways, The Odyssey feels like a film Christopher Nolan has been working up to his entire career. At least three of his most popular movies are the story of a husband or father trying to reclaim their idea of home after leaving for long stretches in order to do great, terrible things. And what is Batman but a guy unable to find a domestic peace, whether in Gotham or far from it, after his family was stolen? So Homer’s epic poem Odyssey (or Odýsseia in the original Ancient…

Like the people of Gotham City, superhero movie fans look up to the skies searching for some sign that Batman is coming, some sign that the Dark Knight hasn’t forgotten us. It’s been four years since The Batman hit screens, bringing Matt Reeves‘ emo noir take on the Caped Crusader, starring Robert Pattinson as a brooding young Bruce Wayne in his second year in the costume. Despite getting updates and occasional production shots, and even announced release dates of October 2, 2026, and October 1, 2027, the movie seemed far away. Now, things seem even worse. Warner Bros. has announced…

In the early days of Hollywood, movie studios controlled almost every part of an actor’s career. They decided which roles performers accepted, how they looked in public, and sometimes even what they could say in interviews. That level of control was only one chapter in an industry shaped by censorship battles, political investigations, labor disputes, and legal fights that changed filmmaking forever. Here are 15 facts from the troubled history of Hollywood. ©Wikimedia Commons The Hollywood Blacklist During the late 1940s and 1950s, hundreds of writers, directors, and actors found themselves unable to work after being accused of communist sympathies.…

Not every movie that reaches production ends up on the big screen. Some get canceled after cameras start rolling, while others make it surprisingly far before running out of money, losing key cast members, or falling apart behind the scenes. In a few cases, entire films were completed only to be locked away in studio vaults, where audiences never had the chance to see them. Over the years, these unfinished and unreleased projects have become almost as fascinating as the movies that actually made it to theaters. Here are 15 films that, for one reason or another, never got the…