There are still several months before Avengers: Doomsday arrives in theaters, but that didn’t stop Chris Evans from giving fans a little teaser.

During a recent Q&A at Fan Expo Boston over the weekend, the actor, who reprises his role as Steve Rogers/Captain America in the upcoming Marvel blockbuster, said that his character’s storyline is “brutal.”

“The Russos love beating up Steve Rogers,” Evans said of the Russo Brothers, who are helming Doomsday. “Their favorite thing to do is to just beat the crap out of him. To them, that’s what makes a hero, and that’s someone who gets punched so many times but still gets up. So they keep finding new ways to kick his butt. And this one was brutal.”

In addition to Evans, the upcoming film’s stacked cast includes many Marvel superheroes from the legacy Avengers and X-Men to the Thunderbolts and The Fantastic Four. They’re all expected to team up to face off against villain Doctor Doom, played by Robert Downey Jr.

While chatting with People at Comic-Con 2026 last month, directors Anthony and Joe Russo said they knew Downey Jr. was perfect for the villain role once they heard the voice the Oscar winner had crafted for the character.

“That was something that Robert surprised us with one day,” Anthony recalled. “You know, we were talking about all the details of the character — the voice, of course, is a key part of it, especially in the mask.”

“So one day I think it was in the trailer, we were just sort of talking about some ideas and he broke out into the voice. And we knew at that moment, that was it,” he added.

Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters Dec. 18.

Reggie Bannister, who became a horror icon for his role as the action hero fighting the evil Tall Man in the Phantasm franchise, died Sunday morning. He was 80.

Bannister died at his home in Crestline, his wife, Gigi Bannister, told TMZ. She said the actor was exposed to Agent Orange while serving in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War and later battled Lewy body dementia and Parkinson’s disease.

Born on Sept. 9, 1945, in Long Beach, California, Bannister went on to pursue a career in entertainment that spanned more than 40 years.

While he appeared in dozens of films and movies, he was most known for playing a fictionalized version of himself named Reggie in the Phantasm cult classic horror franchise, created by filmmaker Don Coscarelli. He played easygoing ice cream vendor turned shotgun-wielding action hero that took on Tall Man, the film’s main villain.

After starring in the franchise’s five movies, including Phantasm (1979), Phantasm II (1988), Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994), Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998) and Phantasm: Ravager (2016), Bannister was eventually dubbed “the hardest working man in horror.”

Bannister’s other acting credits included Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation (1990), Wishmaster (1997), Bubba Ho-Tep (2002), Journeyman (2005), Cemetery Gates (2006), Fallen Angels (2006), The Rage (2007), Sigma Die! (2007), The Quiet Ones (2010), Sawblade (2010), Primitive (2011), Bloody Bloody Bible Camp (2012), Disaster Wars: Earthquake vs. Tsunami (2013) and The Obsidian Curse (2016), among others. He also served as a producer on several projects.

In addition to acting, Bannister was also a prolific musician and singer-songwriter. Throughout his career, he released six albums spanning the rock, folk and country genres.

While the internet has been filled with fan theories around the new sci-fi adventure The End of Oak Street, producer J.J. Abrams is quick to cut some of them down.

The film, directed by David Robert Mitchell, follows a family (led by Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor) whose suburban street is suddenly uprooted and lands among the dinosaurs in prehistoric times. In the lead-up to its release, some online have speculated that the movie is secretly connected to Abrams’ Cloverfield franchise. However, the filmmaker told The Hollywood Reporter at the L.A. premiere that this was not the case.

“The only connection to our Cloverfield movies is that Ewan’s partner is Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who was the star of 10 Cloverfield Lane, who we were very lucky to get to work with and who I adore,” Abrams said. “So there was that, but other than that, people are just making connections that they happen to see.”

The producer also explained the decision to take on a dinosaur genre that has long been dominated by the Jurassic Park franchise, saying, “This was a movie set in suburban America — our neighborhoods, our backyards, our living rooms — so to have dinosaurs in that world, in our world, there was a juxtaposition that was so immediately exciting. It wasn’t just cool dinosaurs; it was dinosaurs interacting with things and people and our front lawn, and suddenly it was a very different experience even reading it.”

Aside from his day job, Abrams is also dad to pop star Gracie Abrams, who will soon be making her acting debut in an A24 movie from Babygirl director Halina Reijn. Of his daughter crossing over to join his side of the industry, the filmmaker said, “I know how hard she’s working to do all she’s doing so I’m thrilled for her. As a parent, all you can do is hope that the work that your kids do fulfills them, so as long as that’s what’s happening, and I know how hard she’s working, I’m thrilled for her.”

The End of Oak Street hits theaters on Friday.