‘The Last Of Us’ Season 2 Is All ‘Outlined and Ready to Go as Soon as Strike Ends,’ Says Neil Druckmann

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Howard Stern is “woke” and proud. The radio host confronted his critics this week on his SiriusXM radio show (via Mediaite) when he caught wind of claims that he’s “not good anymore” because he’s “woke.” “By the way, I kind of take that as a compliment, that I’m woke,” Stern fired back. “I’ll tell you how I feel about it.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Leonardo DiCaprio finally weighed in on the massive “Killers of the Flower Moon” rewrite that changed the direction of Martin Scorsese’s latest historical epic. The script originally centered on FBI agent Tom White, who DiCaprio was supposed to play, as he investigates a string of murders among the Osage Nation in the 1920s. That perspective kept the film in line with the majority of David Grann’s 2017 book of the same name, but something about telling “Flower Moon” from the FBI’s point of view did not sit right with DiCaprio or Scorsese.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Chris Evans said in a new GQ profile that he agrees to an extent with Quentin Tarantino’s recent claim that Marvel killed the movie star. The filmmaker said last year that people go to see a Marvel movie because “Captain America is the star or Thor is the star,” and not because they want to see Chris Evans or Chris Hemsworth. Evans somewhat agrees.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Speaking to Entertainment Tonight Canada at the world premiere of his biographical documentary “Sly,” Sylvester Stallone called himself “the last of the dinosaurs” while praising his career longevity. The “Rocky” icon was referring to the fact that he’s one of the few ’80s action stars left continuing to headline movies, which is the case with the upcoming fourth “Expendables” movie. He’s also the lead of the Paramount+ series “Tulsa King,” which has been renewed for a second season.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Percy Jackson” author Rick Riordan explained to Entertainment Weekly that making his franchise more diverse by casting Leah Jeffries as Annabeth Chase in the upcoming Disney+ series was always staying true to the reason he wrote the “Percy Jackson” books in the first place. Jeffries’ casting last year generated backlash from racist fans upset that a Black actor was playing a character that Riordan described in his book as a blonde white girl. Riordan immediately shut down toxic fans, and now he has told EW that Jeffries’ casting is true to the spirit of his franchise, as the only reason he wrote “Percy Jackson” was because his child was having difficulty in school.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director In a new profile published by The New Yorker, comedian, former “Patriot Act” host and “The Daily Show” alum Hasan Minhaj admitted to fabricating details in past stand-up specials, such as 2022’s “The King’s Jester” that streamed on Netflix. “Every story in my style is built around a seed of truth,” Minhaj said. “My comedy Arnold Palmer is 70% emotional truth — this happened — and then 30% hyperbole, exaggeration, fiction.” One story Minhaj told in “The King’s Jester” related to an envelope with white powder that was sent to his home.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Drew Barrymore’s co-head writer Cristina Kinon is sending a message to her boss: It’s not too late to scrap the decision to resume “The Drew Barrymore Show” amid the strikes. Barrymore has generated backlash after announcing her daytime talk show is returning Sept. 18 amid the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director A new oral history on “Mamma Mia!” from Vogue magazine ends with the cast and crew all in support of making a third installment in the Universal Pictures franchise, which kicked off in 2008 with a film adaptation of the musical and continued in 2018 with “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.” Combined, the two musical films grossed over $1 billion at the worldwide box office. “Universal would love to make a third movie, and I’ll leave it at that,” Universal Pictures chairman Donna Langley said point blank when the discussion turned to a potential “Mamma Mia 3.” Amanda Seyfried, who leads the franchise as Sophie, added, “I dare you to show me one person who doesn’t want a third Mamma Mia!” But she also cast a bit of a doubt on a third movie since, according to her, its existence would most likely depend on Universal paying the cast what they are worth, which is far more now than when the franchise started.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Stranger Things 4” pushed television episode lengths to crazy extremes with two episodes that ran around 90 minutes and a season finale that was the length of a Hollywood blockbuster at nearly two-and-a-half hours. Anyone thinking the upcoming fifth and final season of the Netflix series will scale things back is mistaken. Speaking to Total Film magazine, “Stranger Things” executive producer and director Shawn Levy said Season 5 will only expand the scale of the already-humungous Season 4.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Batgirl” directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah told Insider while promoting their new Syrian war drama “Rebel” that watching Warner Bros.’ most recent DC tentpole, “The Flash,” was a sad experience for them. They claim they were told by studio executives that “Batgirl” would release after “The Flash,” thus continuing Michael Keaton’s revived run as Batman/Bruce Wayne. But that never panned out after Warner Bros.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Timothée Chalamet’s “Wonka” director Paul King recently told Total Film magazine that his singing voice in the upcoming Warner Bros. family adventure is “beautiful” and reminiscent of Bing Crosby, whose rendition of “White Christmas” remains the world’s best-selling single of all time with over 100 million sales. Chalamet is playing a younger version of the eponymous chocolatier in the film, which follows Willy Wonka as he attempts to open up his first chocolate shop.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Tim Burton and Micheal Keaton’s “Beetlejuice 2” only had a day and a half left of filming when the SAG-AFTRA strike shut production down indefinitely. The Warner Bros.’-backed production started filming in May in London amid the WGA strike. “I feel grateful we got what we got,” Burton told The Independent in a recent interview.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director According to Jerry Seinfeld, Rolling Stone’s recent exposé on Jimmy Fallon includes an “idiotic twisting of events.” The magazine published a report on Sept. 7 in which several former “Tonight Show” staff members claimed the series had a toxic work environment, which included alleged outbursts from Fallon himself. Two employees said they witnessed Fallon berate a crew member who was holding cue cards during a taping of the show with Seinfeld as a guest.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Pope Francis is apparently a huge Sylvester Stallone fan. The “Rocky” star visited the Vatican on Sept. 8 and met the Pope alongside his wife, Jennifer, and his three daughters, Sophia, Sistine and Scarlet.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Craig Mazin recently told the Los Angeles Times that the script for “Pirates of the Caribbean 6” is so weird he is surprised Disney actually bought it. Variety reported in summer 2020 that Disney was in early development on two “Pirates” movies: A reboot led by Margot Robbie and a sixth film in the original franchise written by Mazin and Ted Elliott, the latter of whom co-wrote the first four “Pirates” movies.

The Last Of Us fans can rest easy. The buzzy Emmy-nominated series’ co-creator Neil Druckmann tells EW in an interview, “We’ve outlined all of season 2 and we’re ready to go as soon as the strike ends.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Elizabeth Olsen told The Times of London in a recently-published interview (conducted pre-strike) that she is aggressively seeking a “variation” of characters after working for four years solely in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Olsen filmed “WandaVision” and “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” back to back, which was perhaps too much time dedicated to only playing Scarlet Witch. That’s a large reason Olsen was drawn to playing alleged axe murderer Candy Montgomery in Max’s “Love and Death.” “I’m trying to figure out… Because, specifically in the last four years, my output has been Marvel,” Olsen said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director The upcoming “Hunger Games” prequel movie “The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” may not feature Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, but it does feature her longtime franchise director Francis Lawrence behind the camera. Francis Lawrences directed every “Hunger Games” sequel and is back for the Lionsgate prequel, which features “West Side Story” breakout Rachel Zegler in the lead role of Lucy Gray Baird, a tribute from District 12 who is mentored by a young Snow (Tom Blyth) for the 10th annual Hunger Games. “Katniss was an introvert and a survivor,” Lawrence told Empire magazine about the big difference between Katniss and Lucy.

The Last of Us is a big hit for HBO.

Jon Burlingame Five of this year’s six nominees for main title design are for shows from the science-fiction, fantasy or horror genres. Only “The White Lotus” is a conventional drama.