New Trailers! Children of Blood and Bone, Onslaught and The Cycle

🎥 Gina Prince-Bythewood brings Tomi Adeyemi’s African fantasy to life, Adria Arjona battles engineered super soldiers, and Deborah Ann Woll investigates her father’s mysterious death!

🎥 “Children of Blood and Bone” Trailer: ‘The Woman King’ Director Gina Prince-Bythewood Brings Tomi Adeyemi’s Mythic African Supernatural Fantasy to Life with Thuso Mbedu, Damson Idris, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Viola Davis, Regina King and Many More — Hitting Theaters and IMAX January 15th, 2027

Damson Idris had long been rumored to be in the running to take over the Black Panther mantle, but filmmaker Ryan Coogler officially ended that speculation at San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend when he revealed that fellow British actor David Jonsson will play T’Challa’s son and Wakanda’s next protector in the upcoming third installment.

The announcement left many wondering whether the Snowfall and F1 star could still have a future somewhere in the Wakandan corner of the MCU. And while that remains up in the air, and probably won’t happen anytime soon, if ever, Idris is nevertheless stepping into similar territory with his latest film, a sweeping African fantasy carrying some distinctly Wakandan visual cues.

Based on Tomi Adeyemi’s best-selling, genre-bending 2018 debut novel, Children of Blood and Bone, the upcoming epic, much like Coogler’s Black Panther films, falls under the umbrella of Afrofuturism, as both stories imagine vast African cultures breaking free from Western stereotypes and expanding into something richer and more fantastical.

Yet in the case of Children of Blood and Bone, the focus is not on advanced Wakandan technology, but on magic and the supernatural, blended with ancient African mythology and history. It’s a mythological folktale told with the scale and spectacle of a sweeping fantasy adventure, which likely explains why Adeyemi’s book became such a phenomenon.

Thuso Mbedu, one of the breakout stars of The Woman King and who recently starred in the acclaimed HBO miniseries Task, stars as Zélie Adebola, a young, gifted woman from the kingdom of Orïsha who possesses the power to conjure the spirits of the dead. She is fighting to restore magic to her oppressed people in the hope of freeing them from the tyrannical rule of King Saran, played here by Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Damson Idris, meanwhile, plays Prince Inan, the crown prince of Orïsha. He is tasked with hunting down Zélie once it is revealed that she comes from a bloodline nearly eradicated years earlier and is destined to restore magic across the kingdom; something his father is determined to prevent at any cost. His mission, however, becomes a little more complicated as he begins to question his father’s rule and his own role in sustaining his tyrannical reign.

Joining Mbedu, Idris, and Ejiofor is a stacked ensemble that includes:

• Tosin Cole as Tzain, Zélie’s protective older brother;

• Amandla Stenberg as the rebellious Princess Amari;

• Oscar winner Viola Davis as Mama Agba, the elder who helps train Zélie to control her abilities;

• Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo as Admiral Kaea;

• Lashana Lynch as Jumoke;

• Idris Elba as Lekan;

• And Oscar winner Regina King as Queen Nehanda.

The upcoming film hails from writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood, the acclaimed filmmaker behind the historical epic The Woman King, the Netflix comic-book actioner The Old Guard, and the beloved romantic drama Love & Basketball.
Oscar-winning Black Panther production designer Hannah Beachler also helped build the world of Orïsha, which may explain why the two fantasy kingdoms share such a strong visual connection.

Children of Blood and Bone opens in theaters and IMAX on January 15th, 2027.

🎥 “Onslaught” New Trailer: Adria Arjona Faces Genetically Engineered Super Soldiers in Adam Wingard’s Pulpy Action-Horror Thriller — Coming to Theaters September 4th

After spending the last several years making large-scale Godzilla x Kong blockbusters, filmmaker Adam Wingard is returning to his roots this year with a new genre-bending action flick. The thing is, those roots aren’t exactly grounded in your typical action-heavy horror movies. They’re steeped in retro style, lo-fi genre filmmaking, and the kind of VHS-era thrills that first put him on the map. The best way to describe it: a little John Carpenter, a little James Cameron, a little Sam Raimi, and a whole lot of late-night video-store weirdness thrown in for good measure.

Starring Andor breakout Adria Arjona, Onslaught feels very much in the vein of Wingard’s scrappy 2014 horror-tinged action thriller The Guest— and rumor has it the two films might even be connected somehow.

Here, Arjona plays Celeste, a retired Army sniper living in a remote desert trailer park in the middle of nowhere. Trying to get by, she’s doing everything she can to provide for her young daughter. But the proverbial shit hits the fan when her trailer park is suddenly invaded by a unit of heavily armed, masked mercenaries. Armed to the teeth and quick on the trigger, these supposedly genetically engineered super soldiers, who have just escaped from a nearby secret military facility, are closing in fast.

Celeste soon finds herself cornered and forced to fall back on the lethal skills she thought she had left behind. If they wanted a gunfight, they picked the right trailer park, because Celeste isn’t about to lie down without one. This momma bear has claws... and she’s not afraid to use them.

Alex Pereira, Drew Starkey, comedian Eric Wareheim, and genre veteran Michael Biehn round out the cast, along with Family Matters and Die Hard icon Reginald VelJohnson as one of Celeste’s trailer park neighbors who joins the fight. Dan Stevens and Rebecca Hall, both of whom have previously worked with Wingard, also make guest appearances.

With that lineup of talent and one truly out-there premise, Onslaught has all the makings of one of Wingard’s strangest and most unapologetically pulpy movies yet. At least, that’s what we’re hoping for.

The film also reunites Wingard with his longtime screenwriting collaborator Simon Barrett and is set to blast its way into theaters September 4th.

“The Cycle” Teaser Trailer: Daredevil’s Deborah Ann Woll Investigates Her Father’s Mysterious Death in Shudder’s Supernatural Horror Thriller — Premiering October 23rd on Shudder

You might know Deborah Ann Woll from Marvel’s Daredevil series, where she plays Karen Page, Matt Murdock’s most trusted ally and closest confidante. Or perhaps you know her from her star-making turn as the innocent Jessica Hamby, who goes from small-town waitress to newly turned vampire in HBO’s hit series True Blood.

And no matter how long you’ve been following her career, we imagine she gained plenty of new fans after appearing on fellow Daredevil co-star Jon Bernthal’s podcast, where she spoke with remarkable honesty about not only how much she loves Dungeons & Dragons, but how the tabletop role-playing game helped save her life after years of being bullied as a teenager.

Woll, who became a professional Dungeon Master during the pandemic and the actors’ strike, also offered something of a masterclass in how easily someone could join a campaign, guiding a complete novice like Bernthal through the basics of the game with ease. It’s a must-see for anyone who wants to watch, in real time, how a little imagination can turn a few simple choices into a fully realized adventure.

And while Woll may seem more comfortable leaning into the world of Dungeons & Dragons, she’s hardly stepping away from acting. She takes on the lead role in this new supernatural horror thriller, playing a woman pulled into a dark mystery surrounding the recently discovered body of her estranged father.

Directed by cult horror filmmaker Jordan Downey, whose credits include the horror comedy ThanksKilling and the lo-fi Viking chiller The Head Hunter, The Cycle centers on the police investigation into three mangled bodies—one of which belongs to a man who has been missing for 36 years. When the victim’s daughter, a medical examiner played here by Woll, learns of the discovery, she is drawn into a case that grows stranger with every new clue. Soon, her father isn’t just another body on the examination table, but the key to uncovering something far more disturbing... something that might now be hunting her down.

Also co-starring Burn Notice’s Jeffrey Donovan as a local police detective, alongside Will Hochman, Jack Doolan, Carl W. Crudup, Jeb Berrier, Gretchen Corbett, and David Myers Gregory, The Cycle is a Shudder exclusive set to premiere on the horror streaming platform October 23rd.