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During a recent round of interviews with various comic-centric YouTube channels last week, James Gunn seemingly revealed that despite rampant speculation, his DCU is not building toward the character of Darkseid as a “big bad”. As to why he’s not pursuing what many fans might argue is the obvious direction for the studio, he cited the efforts of the comic book cinematic universes that paved the way for his own, saying, "Using Darkseid as the big bad now is not necessarily the thing... because Zack did it so cool in his way and because of Thanos and Marvel." Gunn expanded his thoughts on both, acknowledging some of the shortcomings of the DCEU and detailing how similar Thanos and Darkseid are that it wouldn’t feel fresh for audiences.

While Marvel has yet to confirm the much-discussed Scarlet Witch’s return to the MCU, in a new interview with beauty, fashion and pop culture outlet InStyle, Elizabeth Olsen reiterated that she's ready to step back into the role. "It's ridiculous," she said of making MCU movies. "We're grown people behaving like children on a playground. We're flying. We're shooting things out of our hands. And it's a character that I've gotten to return to so many times over 10 years. It's good to put her down and then I miss her, and I want her back. I'd jump at the opportunity to be in her shoes again."
Last week, Netflix revealed its plans to release the feature-length finale of Stranger Things' final season in theaters, reversing course after the streamer had previously rejected the Duffer Brothers' theatrical release pitch. Theaters will screen the finale starting Dec. 31 at 5 p.m. PT — coinciding with its global Netflix debut — and continuing through Jan. 1, 2026.

• Disney+ will begin streaming The Fantastic Four: First Steps on Nov. 5, following the film's $521 million worldwide box office haul over the summer.

• Over the weekend, Sony's Crunchyroll released Chainsaw Man – The Movie, which topped the domestic box office with $17.2 million and reached $108 million globally. Black Phone 2 continued its solid run, surpassing $80 million worldwide. Regretting You debuted in third place with a better-than-expected $22.9 million, while the Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere disappointed with $16.1 million in its opening weekend.

• Paramount Pictures is finalizing a deal to acquire Ti West's adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, with Johnny Depp set to play Ebenezer Scrooge. The film will release on November 13, 2026.

• Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler are in talks to star in Joseph Kosinski‘s big-screen reboot of Miami Vice.

• Sony Pictures Animation will produce a sequel to its 2021 Oscar-nominated feature The Mitchells vs. the Machines. Production is expected to begin early next year.

• IMAX has unveiled its planned releases for 2026 at an Investor Presentation and at this moment, Spider-Man Brand New Day is not included in the lineup. The film will be released on July 31, which means it's debuting right in the middle of a pretty crowded IMAX season: the live-action Moana and The Odyssey are arriving on July 10 and July 17, respectively.

• Disney has officially exited its partnership with the BBC on Doctor Who after two years. For now, the BBC does plan to air an upcoming Christmas special next year and then continue the series on the network.

• Captain America star Chris Evans and his wife Alba Baptista have welcomed their first child, a girl named Alma Grace Baptista Evans

Mia Goth is the latest actor shedding a bit of light on the long-shelved Blade movie from Marvel Studios. In an interview with Elle, promoting her upcoming appearance in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, Goth shared only that she is still attached to the film and commented that “It’s for the best that it’s taken the time it has. They want to do it right.” This is in line with Kevin Feige’s comments this summer that the film is still moving forward.

In an interview with the AP this week, Adam Driver dropped some major information about the Ben Solo movie in Star Wars that never was. Driver explained that Lucasfilm was interested in continuing his character’s story in a film that had a script written by Steven Soderbergh. Driver was supportive of the script and the creative team took it to Bob Iger and Alan Bergman at Disney who turned the project down as they “didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive.”

Fan favorites Amber Midthunder and Walton Goggins will star in a new action movie from the creator of the John Wick franchise. The film, called Painter, has a major executive producer credit - with Avatar and Titanic director James Cameron serving in that role. Stunt coordinator Garrett Warren, who worked with Cameron on the last two Avatars as well as Logan and the Road House reboot, is directing the movie; a debut effort. The movie’s plot will focus on Midthunder’s character, trained as a child who must save her father after he is kidnapped.

Lightning Round

• Kate McKinnon has joined the cast of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” Season 3 and will play Aphrodite.

• Jim Carrey is in talks to star in a live action film adaptation of The Jetsons from Warner Bros. Pictures that has Colin Trevorrow attached to direct and write the script. There have been attempts to reboot the animated series from the 1960s in some form at various times over the years, but this is the first project that seems to have some traction.

• Blumhouse's The Black Phone 2 took the number one spot at the box office this weekend with a worldwide box office opening of $42 million, with $26.5 million from North America and $15.5 million from international markets. Disney’s Tron: Ares is at $103M global for ten-days and is currently bound to lose more than $132M off a $220 million net production cost.

• Colman Domingo has been cast as the voice of the Cowardly Lion in “Wicked: For Good.” The announcement was made on the “Wicked” Instagram account on Monday, with Domingo hiding behind a lion stuffed animal before revealing himself and saying: “See you in Oz!”

• Netflix has won the rights to adapt the popular Asmodee board game Settlers of Catan and is planning an array of projects — scripted and unscripted, live-action and animated based on the franchise.

• AppleTV has released some first look photos for Shrinking season 3 and has confirmed a release date. The series starring Jason Segel and Harrison Ford returns with a one-hour episode on Jan. 28, 2026 on Apple TV. The 11-episode season will then release new episodes weekly on Wednesdays, until the April 8 finale.

• Netflix has entered development on a series about the Kennedy family, described as the American version of ‘The Crown’ and Michael Fassbender has been cast as Joseph Kennedy Sr.

• Andor actress Denise Gough has joined the cast of Greta Gerwig’s Narnia adaptation.

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While Marvel Studios allegiance to San Diego and Hall H seems to have waned in recent years, not so for last weekend’s New York City Comic Con where our favorite cinematic universe teased the latest and greatest for their small screen offerings. Let’s rundown the biggest headlines from Marvel Television:

• Wonder Man released its official teaser trailer alongside the announcement that the 8-episode series had been delayed from December 2025 to January 27, 2026

• Fans in attendance were treated to an exclusive trailer for Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, presented by Daredevil actor Charlie Cox who was reunited with Jessica Jones actor Krysten Ritter. The series was confirmed for a March 2026 release on Disney Plus and we also learned Wilson Bethel’s Bullseye will return and Matthew Lillard will be an antagonist to Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin.

• Separate from NYCC, but still worth mentioning on the subject of Daredevil: Born Again, speaking with Entertainment Tonight Marvel TV Head Brad Winderbaum shared the season’s connection to Spider-Man: Brand New Day, saying "We are communicating a lot with the team on Spider-Man: Brand New Day to make sure that there's coherence there. We don't want to spoil anything, but it very much exists in the same world and it is important."

• VisionQuest and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Season 2 were confirmed for Fall 2026 release windows, while X-Men ’97 Season 2 was announced for Summer 2026. All three shows debuted exclusive trailers not yet released to the public and both animated series confirmed their third seasons to be in development.
  

On the DCU TV side of things, Peacemaker Season 2 aired its final episode last week, and while we’ll avoid getting specific with spoilers given the recency, when asked about a third season James Gunn did provide comments on the series’ future and its impact on the DCU at large, saying, “This is about the other stories in which this [cliffhanger] will play out,” he said. “Never say never. But right now, this is about the future of the DCU.” Gunn also shared that he spoke with Ryan Reynolds about a Deadpool cameo in Peacemaker and that while the actor was interested, the logistics required to pull off the crossover were ultimately deemed too daunting.

Despite Tron: Ares’ number one spot debut at the box office last weekend with a $60.5 million global haul, the numbers are disappointingly muted when weighed against projections of $85-95 million and a reported $180 million budget. The film currently holds a 56% on Rotten Tomatoes and B+ Cinemascore.

HBO revealed the debut trailer for Game of Thrones spin off A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms at New York Comic Con last week and has announced a premiere date of Jan. 18.

Bradley Cooper is in talks to star opposite Margot Robbie in the Ocean’s Eleven prequel at Warner Bros. Twisters director Lee Isaac Chung is attached to direct with Robbie's Lucky Chap producing.

Warner Brothers has announced that an untitled follow up to A Minecraft Movie will hit theaters on July 23rd, 2027. Jared Hess returns to direct and will write the script with Chris Galletta, one of the writers of the original.

Disney has officially resumed development on a live action adaptation of Tangled. The project has The Greatest Showman's Michael Gracey attached to direct a script from Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. Scarlett Johansson is being eyed to star as Mother Gothel.

Christopher Briney, one of the leads of Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty, has joined HBO Max’s Emmy-winning comedy Hacks for its upcoming fifth season, which is currently in production.

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Moviegoers were in their showgirl era this weekend as Taylor Swift’s album release party for her 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl, took the top spot at the box office with an estimated $34 million. The one-weekend show is over, though, and Tron: Ares is coming through to open this weekend with estimates hoping it rakes in more than $40 million. Meanwhile the Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt headlined movie The Smashing Machine from A24 barely even slapped anyone across the face, opening to just $5.9 million. Paul Thomas Anderon’s One Battle After Another continues to bring in dollars as well,43 million so far Domestic, though it had a 50% drop weekend-over-weekend.

If you thought that film and tv universes were becoming passe, Peaky Blinders is here to prove you wrong. Star Cillian Murphy already had fans excited about returning to the Shelby family with the news of a feature film that is wrapped and will release next year. Now, the BBC and Netflix are sharing an expansion of the universe with a new six episode sequel series that will focus on a new generation of Shelbys. Murphy and original creator/writer Steven Knight are executive producers for the series, which will take place post-World War II.

In lieu of much else to report on for features this week, we thought we’d look ahead to the films and television series we can look forward to for the rest of the year that we maybe have or haven’t discussed yet.

New Line's follow up to Final Destination: Bloodlines has found its director - Belgian filmmaker Michiel Blanchart, who will be making his English-language debut with the feature.

DC and Marvel Comics will continue their crossover series with a Superman and Spider-Man crossover that will debut early next year.

Severance breakout Zach Cherry, True Detective co-star Kali Reis, and Johnno Wilson, from I Love That for You, have joined the cast of Resident Evil, Sony Pictures and Zach Cregger’s reboot of the horror franchise, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Netflix has released the first official trailer for season four of The Witcher, which sees Liam Hemsworth taking over the role of Geralt from former star Henry Cavill. Netflix has previously announced the show will end with season five.

In a deal worth a substantial seven figures, Walt Disney Studios won an auction to acquire rights to Impossible Creatures, the fantasy series by acclaimed British author Katherine Rundell. She will adapt the first two books in the series into screenplays.

Michael Mann’s “Heat 2,” the long-awaited sequel to his 1995 crime drama starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, is finally gaining traction. Amazon MGM and producers Scott Stuber and Jerry Bruckheimer are in final negotiations to secure the rights. Although no deals are official, The Hollywood Reporter has connected Leonardo Dicaprio to the project, and other names have also surfaced including Austin Butler, Adam Driver and Bradley Cooper.

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It appears as though Marvel Studios much speculated film that was slated to release between Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars in July 2027, won’t be happening after all; or at least not that July, as Disney has replaced the untitled project with a sequel to The Simpsons Movie dated for July 23, 2027. The move comes as a surprise to many Marvel fans who anticipated a possible Doctor Strange or Shang-Chi sequel to take place between the Avengers tentpoles but is in keeping with what Bob Iger and Kevin Feige have promised about a slowdown in production. Elsewhere, with Marvel Zombies premiering on Disney Plus last week, Marvel TV head Brad Winderbaum teased a possible season 2, but emphasized that would be contingent on viewership and new Disney Plus subscriptions. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Olsen took the opportunity to share that although she recorded lines for the series, she doesn’t remember anything about the show or plot.

It was a huge week for trailers from a bevy of our favorite franchises, so lets run them down with another good old fashioned Trailer Park:

• Insomniac and Sony released the first gameplay trailer for Marvel’s Wolverine on the PS5, which will release in fall of 2026.

• Lucasfilm unveiled a new trailer for Star Wars; Visions Volume 3 which also announced the cast that includes Anna Sawai, Freddie Highmore, George Takei, Harvey Guillén, Jodie Turner-Smith, Judith Light, Simu Liu, Stephanie Hsu, and Steve Buscemi.

• The final trailer for Jon M. Chu’s Wicked: For Good released last Wednesday morning to much acclaim.

• And finally, a new trailer for 20th Century’s Avatar: Fire and Ash teased more of the villainous faction and stakes.

Director Denis Villeneuve shed new light on his upcoming version of 007 for Amazon/MGM; sharing that the casting process will begin next year after he’s completed production on Dune: Part Three for Warner Bros and that he is looking to cast a “relatively unknown” “fresh face” actor in their 20s or 30s. Additional criteria the filmmaker included is that the performer must hail from the British Isles and be male, as well as his desire to capture what Fleming called “a blunt instrument” — the lethal but “extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened.” If Villeneuve and team stay true to these parameters, it potentially rules out many fan-casted favorites and seems to be in more alignment with the Broccoli family’s traditions with the character than expected with new creatives in control.

Mark Ronson is slated to reunite with Greta Gerwig to score her Chronicles of Narnia adaptation at Netflix. Ronson previously served as executive music producer for Gerwig’s Barbie.

Amazon MGM Studios‘ adaptation of Rebecca Yarros’ bestselling novel Fourth Wing is closing in on a new showrunner. Wednesday Season 2 executive producer Meredith Averill is in final negotiations to board the project as writer and executive producer.

Sony revealed that Spider-Man: Beyond the SpiderVerse will arrive a week earlier than expected, and land on June 18, 2027. Notably, that new date will cover the Juneteenth holiday as well as Father’s Day. It previously was dated for June 25, 2027.

Comedian Bill Burr is in talks to join the cast of Aaron Sorkin and Sony Pictures’ sequel to The Social Network, after Jeremy Strong, Mikey Madison and Jeremy Allen White were officially cast. The film also has been retitled The Social Reckoning and will officially hit theaters on Oct. 9, 2026.

A newly created AI “actress” named Tilly Norwood, designed by the studio Xicoia under Particle6, has reportedly drawn interest from Hollywood talent agencies. The announcement sparked major backlash from real actors, with critiques about replacing human talent, the ethics of compositing real faces, and calls to boycott agencies that represent AI personas.

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It’s been a busy week for the MCU starting with a potentially big leak where costumes from Avengers: Doomsday were revealed. With filming now wrapped, an image from the wrap party gifts showed those who want to look what our characters may look like in the upcoming blockbuster. In other “oops” news, Spider-Man actor Tom Holland suffered a mild concussion while filming a stunt for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, halting filming for several days. Here’s hoping Spidey’s bump on the noggin heals fast! Daredevil: Born Again has already been renewed for a third season. The return to Charlie Cox’s outing as the Man Without Fear was well received this year on Disney+ and season two will premiere next May. Lastly, Marvin Jones, III will appear as Tombstone in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

On Monday, Lucasfilm dropped the long-awaited teaser trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu - Star Wars’ newest feature film coming out in May 2026. As we’ve discussed before, this will be Lucasfilm’s first feature film for the franchise since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker and it seems like a lot is riding on Grogu’s tiny green shoulders.

James Gunn didn’t leave us hanging this week as the writer/director/co-chair of DC Studios shared an Instagram post of his second draft of the script for Man of Tomorrow. An image taking up most of the cover shows an anatomical cutout of a human head and brain leading to speculation that Brainiac will be the villain Superman and perhaps Lex Luthor have to team up against. Matt Reeves also chimed in on the same topic, though separately, and shared that the villain for The Batman: Part II will be a character that has “never really been done” in a film before. Reeves also confirmed his films are Elseworlds projects not part of the DCU.

The first trailer has been released for Sony's comedic reimagining of the 1997 film Anaconda which stars Jack Black and Paul Rudd. The film will hit theaters on December 25.

Director Shawn Levy posted a photo to Instagram last week of Ryan Gosling in costume on the set of Star Wars: Starfighter, offering the first look from the film’s shoot. Gosling and co-star Flynn Gray are seen posing with the Mediterranean Sea behind them.

Paul Walter Hauser is joining the cast of director Zach Cregger‘s new Resident Evil movie.

DC announced last week that its Batman No. 1, a relaunch of the Caped Crusader by writer Matt Fraction and artist Jorge Jiménez, has sold over 500,000 copies, making it the top selling comic of the year by far.

Stan Lee will posthumously return to L.A. Comic con, this time as a hologram that will use AI to have conversations with fans. Fans will be able to speak with the hologram at the Stan Lee Experience section of the con, a 1,500 ft. enclosed booth which costs between $15-$20 to enter, depending on whether you buy tickets ahead of time. And like meeting a celebrity or getting autographs, there will be paid opportunities to take photos with the hologram or have a three-minute, one-on-one conversation with it.

Taylor Swift is returning to theaters from Oct. 3-Oct. 5 for her album release. Swift is partnering with AMC theaters for the event film which will feature behind the scenes making of her new album Life of a Showgirl, as well as a music video premiere. The Eras Tour film was a phenomenon two years ago, becoming the top grossing concert film of all time with $261.6 million globally.

After rumors last week that Paramount was looking into making a bid for Warner Brothers, Puck News is now reporting that a well placed inside source has verified that Netflix is preparing to make a bid for the studio as well.

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Images and video featuring promotional artwork, including a laser light show, of Marvel’s Doctor Doom surfaced last week during Walt Disney Studios’ Marketing Expo in Shanghai. While many fans and outlets of varying reputation and credibility were quick to assume and label the imagery as officially tied to Avengers: Doomsday and our first look of Robert Downey Jr in the role, there is nothing in the aforementioned marketing materials that brands the content as Marvel Studios’. Still, the concept art and accompanying light show are exciting as potential teases of what this highly anticipated version of the villain may look and feel like when he finally hits the big screen next December.

In a completely unexpected turn of events during a recent appearance on The Howard Stern Show, James Gunn dished out more details surrounding his recently announced sequel to Superman, titled Man of Tomorrow, including an intended April 2026 slate to begin filming. The filmmaker shared, “It is a story about Lex Luthor and Superman having to work together to a certain degree against a much, much bigger threat,” he said. “And it’s more complicated than that. It’s as much a Lex movie as it is a Superman movie. I relate to the character of Lex, sadly.” On the other end of the DCU, during a red carpet appearance at the Emmys, Matt Reeves shared star Robert Pattinson’s reaction to reading the long awaited script, saying “He’s Batman, and if he doesn’t like it, not good. I was super excited. I thought that he really would [like it] because the things that it does for his character, for Batman and for Bruce, have never been done before in this way. I had a feeling that he would respond in this way, but the fact that he did was incredibly encouraging.”

It was a night of celebration for newcomer series at Sunday’s 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, as HBO Max's rookie series The Pitt dominated the drama categories while Apple TV+'s The Studio swept comedy honors. Netflix's limited series Adolescence led the field with six trophies, including wins for writer-producer-star Stephen Graham, and HBO/HBO Max topped all networks with nine total Emmys, followed by Apple TV+ with seven. Notable firsts included Tramell Tillman becoming the first Black man to win Supporting Actor in a Drama for Severance, Seth Rogen claiming his first Emmy ever for The Studio, and The Penguin’s Cristin Milioti bringing home the only award for the series for her portrayal of Sofia Falcone.

The freshly merged Paramount/Skydance is exploring a potential bid to acquire all of Warner Brothers Discovery, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Universal and Illumination have officially titled the Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, taking its name from Nintendo's 2007 Wii game and setting an April 3, 2026 release date. The entire voice cast including Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, and Jack Black will return for the follow-up to the record-breaking original that earned $1.36 billion worldwide.

Amazon MGM/s Highlander reboot, which was set to go into principal photography this month, will now be pushed into 2026 after Henry Cavill sustained an injury during pre-production.

A24 has reportedly won the bidding war for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre film and TV rights, beating out competitors including Jordan Peele and Taylor Sheridan. The horror studio plans to first develop a series from Strange Darling director JT Mollner, producer Roy Lee, and Glen Powell, though Powell will not star in the project.

Oscar nominated actress Mary McDonnell has joined the cast of Marvel's upcoming Vision series, the Hollywood Reporter has learned. At this time, her role has not been disclosed.

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Right after our episode last week, our pal James Gunn dropped big news on Wednesday - the next Superman film written by him will be called Man of Tomorrow. Gunn, David Corneswet, and others involved shared particular artwork by DC Comics President Jim Lee that showed Lex Luthor in a mech suit to make the announcement. In typical Gunn fashion, the DC Studios co-chair has teased this film isn’t a direct sequel, but is the next installment in what he calls the “Superman saga.” The film’s title is reminiscent of the Milly Alcock led Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which releases next year. In other DC movie news, Weapons director Zach Cregger addressed rumors that have been circulating about his involvement with a Joker and Harley Quinn movie. Cregger called stories about him having written a treatment for the two iconic DC villains “blown out of proportion,” but did indicate that he has a couple of films he’s interested in working on, though he hasn’t spoken with James Gunn yet.

At the Toronto International Film Festival last Friday, Ryan Reynolds finally admitted the internet’s worst kept secret - that he was the one who leaked the original Deadpool test footage in 2014 to the world wide web. Reynolds went on to say that Fox simply didn’t seem interested in releasing an R-rated superhero movie and his passion for the character led him to the extreme action, which he doesn’t regret. Fans of Deadpool are likely forever grateful that Reynolds did what he did, which led to pressure on the studio to make the film a reality. In other questionable swings from stars both in front of and behind the camera, The Russos released a blurry image with the caption #Doomsday Is Coming via Instagram earlier today.

No last rites are being read for horror at the box office this year, as the supposed final installment in the Conjuring universe, The Conjuring: Last Rites, raked in $84 million domestically this weekend for its opening. This massive box office marks the best for this franchise ever, and the third biggest opening for a horror film of all-time. Warner Brothers and New Line are laughing all the way to the bank, having projected a $35 million opening box office and the movie cost about $55 million to make. The film’s global take as of today is $194 million. In other Conjuring news, a series in development at HBO Max set in the universe took a big step forward today, hiring Nancy Won as writer, executive producer, and showrunner, who will write the series alongside Peter Cameron and Cameron Squires.

The Office spin off The Paper, which debuted its first season last week has been renewed for a second season on Peacock.

Sony Pictures has released the first trailer for Nia DaCosta’s “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple," the follow up to this year's 28 Years Later. The film is set to release on January 16.

Prime Video has confirmed rumors that Game of Thrones alum Sophie Turner will play Lara Croft in its Tomb Raider series from creator, writer and co-showrunner Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Production on the series will begin in January.

John C. McGinley has joined the cast of ABC's Scrubs reboot and will reprise his role as Dr. Perry Cox from the original series. He joins fellow returnees Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke, Donald Faison and Judy Reyes in the cast.

The White Lotus creator Mike White and HBO have zeroed in on France as the location for the upcoming fourth season of the hit murder mystery comedy-drama series, sources tell Deadline.

Two time Academy Award nominee Djimon Hounsou has joined the cast of Amazon MGM's reboot of Highlander, the Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively.

The first trailer for Rian Johnson's upcoming Knives Out film Knives Out: Wake Up Dead Man has been released. The film is set for release in select theaters Nov. 26 before its streaming debut December 12.