
‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’
Sony
UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy was widely expected to change jobs when her good friend Andy Burnham became Prime Minister this week, but she has remained in post and is now comfortably the longest-serving in that role for well over 10 years.
Now, a set of decisions that Nandy is due to make over the coming months could make her one of the most consequential Culture Secretaries in recent memory… in America that is.
This trio of major calls that loom over Nandy could end up upsetting or possibly ingratiating virtually all the major U.S. studios, streamers and tech giants, coming at a time when Burnham will be attempting to keep relations with Donald Trump rosy after the solid work put in by his predecessor Keir Starmer.
First up, it was just before UK Parliament broke for recess and just before Burnham became PM that Nandy left the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) $110B mega-merger unread.
She had initially said she was “minded to intervene” in the deal on media plurality grounds but failed to provide an update in time. David Ellison and co will now have to wait until September 1 at the very earliest to discover if the deal will be either probed or greenlit by British regulators.
This, as a reminder, could be an incredibly costly Nandy intervention, because the agreement has a “ticking fee” commitment to WBD shareholders of 25 cents a share — roughly $650 million — for every quarter its takeover does not finalize beyond Q3.
Ellison attempted to charm Nandy back in Jan during a much-publicized trip to Europe but any charm will dissipate if she causes his beloved deal to run into the “ticking fee” period. In the U.S., of course, he continues to hit stumbling blocks and the merger is currently on pause in response to a lawsuit from a dozen states.
With the Paramount-WBD deal firmly remaining in the spotlight, WBD’s previous suitor Netflix will be fuming if Nandy pushes on with a controversial plan for the BBC licence fee to expand to subscribers to streamers like Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video.
The BBC has floated the plan in a desperate bid to generate more from the £180 ($240) annual fee. It has repeatedly stressed that while 94% of the UK population use its services every month, fewer than 80% pay the £180, leading to a loss of hundreds of millions of pounds per year.
Without a great deal of info about how it would actually work in practice, Nandy recently signaled that she is behind the proposal that would see people who watch non-live content on streamers forced to pay the licence fee, and would even task streamers with helping collect the charge.
The Motion Picture Association, which represents big streamers and studios, had already pushed back, saying the plan will have a “downstream impact on viewers and their viewing experience,” yet this doesn’t appear to have halted Nandy. She says she has had conversations with the streamers over various ideas and continues to point out that the government will never bring in a streamer levy, an idea taken up by several other nations that would force the SVoDs to pay a small amount of their UK subscription revenue to a cultural fund for British content.
Netflix in particular is already on the European regulatory warpath. It has bristled frequently at other nations that force the streamer into local content quotas and funding obligations but has regularly praised the UK for leaving it free to do what it wants in the nation that birthed Adolescence and Baby Reindeer. Forcing its subscribers into effectively funding a rival would surely go against this grain.
And then there is the tech giants. In amongst everything else, the UK is going ahead with a full social media ban for under-16s while also drawing up legislation that would require YouTube and TikTok to carry public service content prominently, which could prove quite the algorithmic headache for these tech behemoths.
This idea was first floated at the RTS Convention by, you guessed it, Lisa Nandy, who said it will be “vital in the fierce battle against mis and disinformation.”
Had Nandy been removed from her post earlier this week, it is impossible to tell if her successor would have changed tack on any of these three crucial upcoming decisions.
But as it stands, she appears keen to follow through, and the American entertainment and tech giants that would be impacted would be numerous. Many of these companies have got closer and closer to Trump during his second presidency, some relying on his or his allies’ say-so to force through various deals.
In their first-ever call during his first few hours as PM, Burnham invited Trump to his home city of Manchester, which also happens to be where Nandy is from. Were Trump to take up this offer, the Culture Sec may fancy making herself scarce.
>
After the MCU expanded on Peter Parker’s Spider-Verse, Kevin Feige hopes to have fan-favorite Miles Morales swing by the franchise.
The Marvel Studios boss recently teased plans for Spider-Man’s Black alter ego make a live-action appearance in a future movie, once he’s done saving the world in Sony Pictures’ animated Spider-Verse franchise, which concludes on June 18, 2027 with Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.
“The good news is, Sony has the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse series, which are very popular and excellent, and Beyond the Spider-Verse is coming out next year,” Feige told China’s Watching Hollywood. “But yes, we definitely have plans [for a live-action Miles], and I think a live-action Spider-Man movie has this destiny: to add Miles sometime after the Spider-Verse series ends.”
Following Miles Morales’ big screen debut in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), Shameik Moore reprises his voice role as the Marvel web-slinger in next year’s Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, which sees Miles trapped in an alternate universe and on the run while trying to save his family.
In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is introduced to predecessors Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire’s versions of the character when they chase down some of their own villains across the multiverse. “Somewhere there’s bound to be a Black Spider-Man,” says Electro (Jamie Foxx) in one scene.

‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’
Sony
“Audiences around the world were thrilled because they knew it might be a hint at Spider-Man Miles,” said Feige.
Feige added, “We’ve been thinking and discussing more Spider-Man adventures, regardless of agreements or contracts. My production partner, Amy Pascal, is already working on it, and we’ve had in-depth discussions about what the next two, three, four, and five Spider-Man movies might be about.”
In 2023, Pascal confirmed that a live-action Miles Morales movie was in the works. “You’ll see all of it. It’s all happening,” she told Variety.
Meanwhile, Holland’s Peter Parker returns for a fourth solo outing in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, premiering July 30 in theaters.
>
With the Big Bang Theory spin-off machine operating in full force after nearly 20 years, series co-creator Chuck Lorre explained the choice behind the franchise’s latest lead.
While discussing Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, premiering Thursday at 9pm ET on HBO Max, Lorre explained that the titular comic book store owner was “the absolute worst choice” for the offshoot as he was a minor character that nobody would expect to step up and save the world.
“He was the absolute worst choice to be the hero of this story, which made him the perfect choice,” Lorre told People. “And Kevin Sussman, as I’m sure you know, is just a brilliant comic actor, someone you can root for despite his inadequacies. You can look for him.”
Lorre noted that “it was always Kevin” he had in mind for the series, adding, “And right from the very beginning it was Kevin, and the comic book story was.”
Sussman previously admitted to Deadline that leading his own spin-off “was not on my bingo card” as a working actor. “I was not expecting this,” he said.

Kevin Sussman and Chuck Lorre attend the premiere of ‘Stuart Fails to Save the Universe’ on July 21, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Presley Ann/Getty Images for HBO)
In Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, Stuart Bloom (Sussman) must stop a “multiverse armageddon” after accidentally damaging a device created by Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter. The adventure leads Stuart and his friends to encounter alternate versions of themselves across other universes.
The spin-off, from co-creators Lorre, Zak Penn and Bill Prady, sees Stuart reunite with his pals Bert (Brian Posehn), Denise (Lauren Lapkus) and Kripke (John Ross Bowie).
>
Travis Scott is opening up about how Christopher Nolan cast him in The Odyssey.
During a Tuesday night appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Scott recalled receiving an unexpected phone call from the Oscar-winning director, who asked if he’d be interested in acting in the Greek epic.
“My phone went off and it just said, ‘Chris.’ And I’m thinking, ‘OK, I don’t know what this is about. Maybe he wants to go to a show?’” Scott said. “So I pick up and he’s like, ‘Would you be interested in acting in a movie?’ And I’m like, ‘I mean, I guess, you know? What’s the [role]?’”
Scott recalled Nolan telling him the film would be “coming out soon” and that he wanted him to be part of it. Surprised by the ask, Scott responded: “I’m like, ‘Whoa, hold on. Wait. You know I make music?’” before Nolan gave him “his whole thesis on why.”
“I really enjoy his time. I’m really inspired by him. He’s a real mentor of mine outside of this,” Scott said of the Oppenheimer filmmaker. “So I’m like, ‘Yo, whatever you’re down with, I’m down. However it goes, I’m with it.’”
Scott played Demodocus, the bard who narrates Odysseus’ journey in the opening scene and is the first voice and face audiences see in the film.
Though he admitted, “I was actually nervous as ‘F,’” Scott said he initially assumed his scenes would be with extras.
“I didn’t know that it was going to be Anne Hathaway, Tom [Holland] and Robert Pattinson — a bunch of amazing people,” he said. “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing. But they were such an amazing cast.”
Scott continued to praise Nolan and the cast for making it a comfortable experience. The pair previously collaborated on the soundtrack for Nolan’s 2020 film Tenet, which starred Pattinson.
“Chris is an amazing director,” Scott said before adding of the cast, “Everybody made me feel comfortable. I was just glad to be there and just watch him. And being in such a world of them. So I’m just glad to be here.”
Nolan recently spoke with Time magazine about why he cast Scott, saying, “I wanted to nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to rap.”
In addition to acting, Scott also recorded the original song “When I’m Home” for The Odyssey‘s closing credits alongside James Blake, with production from the film’s composer Ludwig Göransson. Nolan is credited as a co-writer.
The Odyssey is now playing in theaters.
>
These ’90s fashion trends are making a comeback in 2017
According to Dior Couture, this taboo fashion accessory is back
Model Jocelyn Chew’s Instagram is the best vacation you’ve ever had
Your comprehensive guide to this fall’s biggest trends
9 Celebrities who have spoken out about being photoshopped
Emily Ratajkowski channels back-to-school style
A photo diary of the nightlife scene from LA To Ibiza
OpenAI CEO apologizes to Tumbler Ridge community