Britt Hayes

News broke Friday evening that production has shut down on Bohemian Rhapsody, the long-developing and oft-troubled Freddie Mercury biopic that finally took off this year under the direction of Bryan Singer. Twentieth Century Fox has “temporarily halted” production on the film, which stars Rami Malek as the late Queen frontman, due to what the studio is calling “the unexpected unavailability of Bryan Singer.”

The latest adaptation of IT hits theaters this weekend, bringing Stephen King’s horror epic back to frightening (and weirdly fun) life. But director Andy Muschietti and screenwriter Gary Dauberman have only given audiences half of the story, which takes place in the ’80s and follows a group of misfit tweens — self-described as the Losers Club — as they confront the evil entity that’s been killing kids in their town. The second half follows the Losers almost 30 years later, when they return home to destroy that evil once and for all. Before casting begins for the sequel, which won’t arrive until 2019, we came up with some ideas of our own.

Deadpool might need to watch his back. IT, the latest adaptation of Stephen King’s horror epic, just broke one of the R-rated box office champ’s records — and is primed to break a couple more before the end of the weekend. It’s doubtful that Pennywise will come close to overtaking the Merc With a Mouth’s massive box office haul, but it’s quite a win for the new horror film from Andy Muschietti, which already has a sequel in the works for 2019.

Stephen King adaptations are a dime a dozen these days (almost literally; rights to his books are famously cheap), but a good Stephen King adaptation, like a properly cooked steak or a movie where Harrison Ford is actually awake, is exceedingly rare. Of the two adaptations of beloved King novels released this year, the idea that IT might be the superior of the pair seemed laughable a few months ago. IT is better than The Dark Tower in every conceivable way, but beyond the inevitable comparison, it’s just really good. Scary good, even.

Just about every major studio in Hollywood has a new Robin Hood movie in the works, which means we’ll all be pretty sick of the famously charitable thief in the next few years or so. But it looks like the Robin Hood deluge has been slightly delayed, as the first of those films — an origin story starring Taron Egerton — was just pushed back six months. Feel free to use this extra time as you see fit; read a Stephen King novel, learn a new skill, have an existential crisis, or make some flash cards and memorize all the different Robin Hood movies that are coming out. You’ll be the envy of all your needlessly confused friends!

As previously teased by director James Gunn, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will not only be the final chapter featuring the intergalactic crew of misfits we know and love, it will also pave the way for the next several years of the MCU — something Gunn reiterated during a recent Q&A, where he dropped a couple of juicy new details about the third Guardians movie, including what we can expect from the next Awesome Mix.

Your young Han Solo name is the street where you grew up plus your favorite character from The Wire — in this case, that’d be Omar, aka Michael K. Williams. Just yesterday it was revealed that the Emmy-nominated actor was cut from the upcoming Star Wars spinoff, but he made sure to leave us a nice little parting gift on his way out: The name of the mysterious character Emilia Clarke is playing in the untitled Han Solo movie.

Historically speaking, Stephen King adaptations tend to be better when the master of literary horror isn’t involved — which may bode well for Andy Muschetti’s new adaptation of IT, as the author recently revealed that he did not participate in the development of his iconic tale of terror. For his part, Muschietti apparently had his reasons, and the way he tells it, they seem like pretty good ones.

As it turns out, asking Ewan McGregor about reprising the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in a Star Wars spinoff is basically like a publicity version of Bloody Mary — say it enough times and it’ll appear. Despite the actor’s numerous expressions of interest in revisiting one of the only good things to come of the Star Wars prequels (aside from Watto, of course), the decision ultimately rests with Lucasfilm. And it looks like Lucasfilm is most definitely down.

Atomic Blonde is an easy sell: It’s Charlize Theron in a stylish spy thriller from one-half of the directing duo behind John Wick. But the first solo directorial effort from David Leitch is a little more James Bond than Blonde Wick — James Blonde, maybe, and that’s not a bad thing. It’s certainly more plot-driven (and at times, slightly convoluted) than John Wick, but no less enjoyable, and though the action scenes are every bit as awesome as you’d hope, it’s not quite the film you might be expecting.