sequel

The opening of Bad Santa 2 feels exactly right The first movie gave its degenerate, safe-cracking mall Santa a glimmer of a happy ending, an absurd outcome for a man who had screwed and robbed and drank and cursed his way across a large swath of the Phoenix metro area. 12 years later, Bad Santa 2 finds its antihero back at rock bottom; alone, drunk, and broke. In a despairing voiceover, Billy Bob Thornton croaks out a treatise on the absence of happy endings in life — or any endings at all. Life, his Willie Soke muses, just goes on and on, consistently sucking forever. Then he writes a suicide note on an old pizza box and sticks his head in an oven.

Have we mentioned that the official Logan Instagram is gorgeous? Have we said that enough? Because it is, and two new photos show off a couple more small details of the film. We’ve seen the trailer, and while it’s in color and not black and white like the Instagram account, I certainly hope that the movie keeps some of the atmospheric-ness of its photos to give us a more contemplative superhero movie that the Instagrams hint is possible.

The first trailer for Kong: Skull Island debuted at Comic-Con back in July, offering a sneak peek that was more visually exciting and intriguing than we could have possibly hoped, clearly evoking classic war films like Apocalypse Now and The Thin Red Line — you know, but with a giant ape. After a week of teasers and images preparing us for Kong’s revival, a new official trailer has arrived online heralding a bigger, badder return for the legendary movie monster.

2017 is already shaping up to be more exciting for new blockbuster films than 2016, and one of the most intriguing titles is Kong: Skull Island, from Kings of Summer director Jordan Vogt-Roberts. We’ve already seen one impressive trailer for the film, which stars Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson and takes the legendary ape back to his titular home. That trailer offered a tantalizing tease of the creature, but today brings our first full look at the all-new Kong — still kind of the same as the old Kong, but maybe a bit grumpier.

J.J. Abrams’ Cloverfield universe is quickly becoming one of the more interesting cinematic universes. Instead of stringing together a series of connected sequels and spinoffs à la the Marvel and DC cinematic universes, the 2008 found footage thriller has spawned something a little more ambiguous. This year saw the surprise release of Bad Robot’s 10 Cloverfield Lane, which was less a sequel to the 2008 movie and more of a blood relative. And now we finally have confirmation of what the third film in the Clover-verse will be.

We’ve gotten tons of information about the vague feel of J.A. Bayona’s Jurassic World 2 — it’ll deal, metaphorically, with the modern-day treatment of animals — but we haven’t heard much about the actual plot. Today, though, it sounds like Universal is finally getting the ball rolling with news of an open casting call for a child actor. Jurassic World attempted to update the franchise for modern audiences, but at least one tradition has stayed the same: it’s not a Jurassic Park movie without kids running form dinosaurs.

2016 has been the year of pop culture surprise releases — some, like Lemonade and 10 Cloverfield Lane, have been pretty great, which makes us even more hopeful for Blair Witch. Originally marketed as The Woods, the sneaky sequel to the found footage horror classic is set to hit theaters next month, taking audiences back to where it all began…but judging by these new TV spots, heading back into the woods of Burkittsville seems like a pretty terrible idea (in a good, spooky way, of course).

Just last month, Sony exec Rory Bruer said he had “no doubt” that the studio would move forward with a sequel to Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters reboot. That was then, this is now: The all-female reimagining of the 1984 classic has made $180 million at the global box office, which isn’t enough to justify Sony’s production and marketing costs…or a sequel, for that matter.

Lionsgate recently announced that the final film in the Divergent series will skip theaters entirely and head straight to television, with additional plans to launch a spinoff series. Although the franchise has suffered diminishing returns at the box office, news of the Ascendant TV movie and (possible) spinoff was still a bit surprising to everyone — including Miles Teller, who seems somewhat hesitant about this whole television business.

We’ve known for quite some time that Thanos won’t be appearing in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which will instead focus on Star-Lord’s dad (Kurt Russell) and a new set of problems — including Ayesha and some very unhappy Ravagers. But it looks like the big angry purple guy isn’t the only one who (literally) won’t be in the picture, as director James Gunn has confirmed that the sequel doesn’t feature any of those pesky Infinity Stones, either.

There have been numerous rumors over the last few years about an eighth installment in the Saw franchise. Last we heard, Lionsgate tapped Piranha 3D scribes Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger to write the screenplay for the sequel, titled Saw: Legacy (gee, what could that title mean), and while the studio has yet to confirm anything, a new report makes the return of the franchise seem much more concrete — and imminent.

Some very cool news about this summer’s Star Trek Beyond, via the Australian newspaper the Herald Sun: They report that Beyond will reveal that John Cho’s Hikaru Sulu is gay. The character is also revealed to be “the loving father of a daughter with a same sex partner. And in typical trailblazing Trek fashion - it’s just not a big deal.” At least the daughter aspect fits with what little the previous Star Trek series revealed of Sulu’s private life; in 1994’s Star Trek Generations, Sulu’s daughter, Ensign Demora Sulu, serves as the helmsman on the Enterprise-B.