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John Goodman Joins The Last of Us, Mary Poppins Goes Dark, Ari Aster's Scapegoat Adds Three — Pop Culture Digest — September 28, 2026
John Goodman joins HBO's The Last of Us for its likely final season alongside two actors from the games; a live-action Mary Poppins TV series is in the works that goes back to P. L. Travers' darker original books; Ari Aster's Scapegoat adds Ella Purnell, Caleb Landry Jones and Samba Schutte; a Harry Potter producer is making an AI-generated adaptation of The Call of the Wild; and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo becomes a present-day Sky series with David Oyelowo and Viola Prettejohn.
John Goodman Is Joining The Last of Us — With Two Actors From the Games
HBO's The Last of Us has kept its Season 3 casting quiet, and the latest batch is a genuinely odd, genuinely great mix. John Goodman is joining as Joey, one half of a self-nicknamed duo called the "Heroes of the Highway." The other half, Paco, is played by Ian Alexander — who played Lev in The Last of Us Part II game. And Laura Bailey, the performer behind Abby in the game, is playing Elizabeth, one of the leaders of the Seraphites.
They join a previously announced group that includes Clea Duvall, Patrick Wilson, Jason Ritter, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Michelle Mao and Kyriana Kratter. Kaitlyn Dever, Bella Ramsey, Isabella Merced, Gabriel Luna and Jeffrey Wright all return, with Ariela Barer, Tati Gabrielle and Spencer Lord promoted to series regulars.
One structural change fans will feel: Neil Druckmann, who co-created the show with Craig Mazin, is stepping away, leaving Mazin as sole showrunner for what may be the series' final season. It is expected back on HBO next year.
Sources: Variety · Hollywood Reporter · Deadline
Mary Poppins Is Getting a TV Series — and It's Going Back to the Dark Books
A live-action Mary Poppins television series is in the works, and it is not a remake of the Julie Andrews film. The plan is to adapt P. L. Travers' original eight books and open up the larger, stranger world she actually wrote — where Poppins is more mercurial, more mysterious and sometimes more frightening than her 1964 Disney incarnation.
The project is being developed and produced by Tom Winchester for Pure Fiction Television, the indie backed by Slow Horses and Heartstopper outfit See-Saw Films and talent agency Hamilton Hodell. Winchester has optioned the rights directly from the trustees of the P. L. Travers estate, so the show does not technically need Disney's blessing — though very early conversations with the studio are reportedly underway, and Winchester is approaching top-level showrunners. It is still at pitch stage.
The context makes it funnier: Travers openly disliked Disney's take on her work, and their fallout became the film Saving Mr. Banks.
Sources: Deadline
Ari Aster's Scapegoat Adds Ella Purnell, Caleb Landry Jones and Samba Schutte
Ari Aster's next film keeps getting stranger and better cast. Scapegoat, set up at A24 with Square Peg, has added Ella Purnell (Fallout), Caleb Landry Jones (Get Out) and Pluribus breakout Samba Schutte, joining the previously announced Scarlett Johansson, Jacob Elordi and Jude Law.
Aster is directing from his own script, with his partner Lars Knudsen producing. As usual, the logline is locked down, which has left the internet to speculate: theories range from a doctor who operates on an internet-famous person to a sci-fi romance to a straightforward drama. No release date yet.
A Harry Potter Producer Is Making an AI Version of The Call of the Wild
David Barron, the British producer with credits on six Harry Potter films, is getting into generative AI. He has signed on to produce an AI-made adaptation of Jack London's 1903 novel The Call of the Wild, written and directed by Simon Rumley (Red White & Blue).
The film will be generated at nmatic, with CGI and traditional VFX used for the more complex scenes. The team is billing it as the first faithful adaptation of the book — because it will be told entirely from the subjective point of view of Buck, the dog. "London's canvass is so epic, the Alaskan geography so gruelling, the dog and wolf fights so visceral that a faithful cinematic adaptation has hitherto been logistically and financially impossible," Barron said. "But technology has finally caught up with London's vision."
Sources: Deadline
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Is Becoming a Present-Day Sky Series
Sky has cast its Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. David Oyelowo (Silo) and Viola Prettejohn (The Crown) will lead a long-gestating TV adaptation of Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, from Sony Pictures Television and Left Bank Pictures — roughly 15 years after the Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara films.
This version brings the story into the present day and, per Deadline, will dig into the wider Vanger family in more depth than the movies did. Amanda Coe, Steve Lightfoot and Angela LaManna are writing, and filming begins in Lithuania next month.
Sources: Deadline
Nuggets
- Robert Eggers wants to do Romeo & Juliet next. After Werwulf went "so dark," the Nosferatu director is joking about pivoting to the opposite: "So, I'll do something about two teenagers killing themselves." Focus Features is reportedly closing in on the project. Deadline
- A24 and Film4 have set the cast for No One Is Coming. Ronan Corrigan's Anglo-Irish horror will star Louis McCartney (Stranger Things: The First Shadow), Jessica Reynolds, Sky Yang and Gabriel Nagy, co-written with Hope Elliott Kemp and produced by Plan B. Plot under wraps. Deadline
- Margaret Qualley and Sabrina Carpenter join Tom Holland's Fred Astaire biopic. The pair board the untitled film about the dancer's Hollywood years, which Deadline first reported on in the summer. Deadline
- Evil Dead Burn has a Halloween streaming date. The next entry in the franchise lands on HBO Max in time for the holiday. Variety
Sources: Deadline · Variety · Hollywood Reporter
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