Good news for those of you who didn’t catch Project Hail Mary in theaters — it’ll finally be available to stream on Prime Video on July 3rd. Unless you have something better to be doing this weekend…
Streaming
Established streaming industry leaders like Netflix and Amazon are facing more competition than ever. Now legacy entertainment giants are in the game with their own subscription services, like Peacock, HBO Max, Paramount Plus, and the Disney Plus / Hulu / ESPN Plus bundle, while Apple TV Plus attacks around the edges. Meanwhile, the rise of ad-supported free platforms like Roku Channel and Pluto TV has attracted enough attention that Plex, YouTube, and Amazon’s Freevee are trying to get a chunk of the action too.
Last week I wrote about Unhinged, a fascinating horror experience from Netflix that’s part of the streamer’s push into TV-based games. Well, now you can experience it for yourself, as it launches today.
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering how course-peddling hustlebros manage to convince their followers that they’re selling enough subscriptions to galavant around the world in private jets, you need to check out this excellent 404 piece that highlights one of the trade’s shadiest tricks: fake dashboards.
If you missed the second Super Mario movie in theaters, it’s hitting Peacock on July 30th, which is a good amount of time to jump into the games if you haven’t.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is beautiful but a little too busy
Fresh off the reveal of Persona 6 comes a report that Netflix is working on a live-action adaptation of the series. There aren’t many details yet, and the streamer has yet to confirm, but Christopher Monfette — who has worked on series like Picard and the upcoming VisionQuest — is attached as writer.
As promised, Netflix has released the first trailer for the sequel to its Cyberpunk 2077 anime Edgerunners. The new season will tell a standalone story, and the first look is full of blood, guitars, and some delightfully retro shots. No specific premiere date yet, but it’ll start streaming in the fall.
If you’re trying to cut down the amount of time you spend on YouTube, there’s at least one more video you should watch. Modder Throaty Mumbo has built a custom cartridge that can search and stream YouTube on a Game Boy Color. The quality and experience look awful, but it works.


For this weekend’s Stepback, Emma Roth highlights that ad-free streaming is now priced like a luxury. You were all very quick to jump to the comments section and point out that there is a cheaper option.
4NDREW:
Viewers on a budget absolutely have an alternative: sail the luxurious, ad-free high seas. For many, piracy becomes increasingly enticing as the paid options continue the enshittification.
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Steady price increases are pushing viewers toward cheaper, ad-supported tiers.




Netflix announced an animated Ghostbusters series several years ago, and it’s finally showing signs of life. The streamer just released the first image for Ghostbusters: Night Shift, which is set in 1994, stars a new group of busters, and is set to premiere some time in 2027.
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In addition to the anime series that’s been running for 25 years and its own live-action adaptation, Netflix will premiere its The One Piece anime series in February 2027. While showing off the first trailer (and a trailer for Cyberpunk Edgerunners S2 that will apparently debut on the 29th), Netflix said global anime fandom on the service grew to 1.5 billion views in 2025.
(Update: Added date for Edgerunners S2 trailer.)
The Hill family continue to get into all kinds of modern-day shenanigans in the new trailer for King of the Hill’s 15th season. That includes Bobby and Connie becoming official through a Facebook update, and Hank feeling uncomfortable around an electric truck. Maybe he’d prefer a Slate.


The terms of the settlement are confidential, Courthouse News Service reports. Meta, Snap, and ByteDance are still set to be defendants in the trial, which is being brought by a 15-year old plaintiff known as “R.K.C.” and is scheduled to start on July 27th.
In the first bellwether case, Meta and YouTube were found negligent.
[Courthouse News Service]

The experimental composer has a new album, a new plugin, and strong feelings about mattresses.






With tickets going on sale today ahead of Spider-Man’s premiere on July 31st, Sony Pictures released a new nearly three-minute trailer to follow the March teaser that quickly racked up a billion views.
This new one still features a world that’s forgotten Peter Parker, and also highlights the movie’s villain, an invisible entity that seemingly takes over even Bruce Banner / Hulk.



Disney and Pixar’s latest feature gets at the heart of how we let tech hurt us.
The Roku Netflix Player was originally a streaming box that then-Netflix CEO Reed Hastings decided not to build.
Now Semafor reports Netflix was interested in acquiring the company before Fox closed its $22 billion deal, losing out once again after Paramount swooped in with a deal to buy Warner Bros. while enjoying a cozier relationship with this administration’s regulators.
The R&D team at Walt Disney Imagineering has embraced Adobe’s Firefly Foundry platform to “accelerate the design and pre-production visualization pipeline” for Disney Parks and Experiences. The partnership will use AI models trained on Disney assets to turn sketches into fully rendered concept art, 2D images into 3D prototypes, and more.

Under Lachlan Murdoch’s leadership, Roku will become a doorway to all things Fox.
Like buying Roku, for example.
Dkfkhfkwkdnc:
The masculine urge to fold companies into progressively dumber conglomerates
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The two projects highlight how it takes more than nostalgia to reinvigorate a franchise.






















