It's Just a Pilot
and Spider-Man swings into action—by Stephen Schleicher
March is half over. Good thing pop culture keeps handing us distractions like a conveyor belt.
SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY TRAILER
Sony dropped the trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and I’m honestly over-the-top excited.
Street-level stakes. The Hand. The Punisher getting webbed. Banner is back (because Universal has the right of first refusal to a standalone movie). More villains than we’ve seen in previous installments. A couple of “wait…WHAT?” moments, and more comic-cover homages than you can shake a webslinger at. This looks like the kind of Spider-Man story that remembers the best version of the character is the one who has to solve problems with grit, not an Avengers hotline.
Sony needs a redemption arc after a few recent stumbles, and Brand New Day might be the first step.
The only question is: where is Daredevil?
Also… is that Matthew Lillard?
BUFFY DEAD AT HULU
The big headline last week was that the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot at Hulu got a stake through the heart.
But here’s the part a lot of the internet skipped: it was never a series order. It was a pilot.
A pilot is a proof-of-concept—a demo of tone, cast chemistry, and execution. Back in the heyday of Pilot Season, this was the norm: write a pitch, shoot a pilot, then the network decides if it’s worth a full season order.
Die-hard Buffy fans have probably seen the original Buffy pilot. Familiar faces, wildly different vibe. And that’s the point: pilots get tested, notes happen, things get retooled.
So yes—we’re not getting Buffy right now. But there’s no need to treat this like a betrayal. The pilot did what pilots do. The next move is whether the team retools and shops it again—or lets it die.
PARAMOUNT/ SKYDANCE AND THE G.I. JOE RUMOR MILL
To say there’s uncertainty swirling around Paramount/Skydance right now is an understatement.
A few weeks ago, we heard chatter about multiple G.I. Joe projects in the mix—one reportedly tied to Danny McBride, and another reportedly tied to Max Landis. Whether that was real momentum, internal testing, or just the usual “float a headline and see what happens” maneuvering, the optics were… not great.
Then came the shift: reports now suggest the Landis take on the toy franchise is no longer moving forward.
Could be backlash. Could be business. Could be the script. Could be “we don’t need this headache right now.” Pick your poison. What matters is this: studios are discovering that “just hire the name” is not a strategy anymore—especially when audiences are already primed to distrust the decision.
If McBride ends up being the path forward, Paramount desperately needs it to land. Toy IP only stays valuable when the audience still wants to play. Which is probably why we are getting a fifth Toy Story movie…
ELSEWORLDS IS BACK
Marvel has What If…? and DC has Elseworlds—the best playground in superhero comics, because it lets creators break the toys on purpose.
DC is bringing Elseworlds back this summer, and I couldn’t be happier.
Here’s what we know so far:
Supergirl: Survive (June 3) — Kara and baby Kal-El on the run as Krypton burns. Unfortunately, it seems wherever they go, no one wants them.
Superman: Father of Tomorrow (May 27) — “What if the Man of Tomorrow was Jor-El?” (And yes, that depends entirely on which Jor-El you’re getting.)
Dark Knights of Steel II (July) — because it wouldn’t be Elseworlds without Batman showing up to turn the volume knob to eleven. Since this is set during medieval times, I don’t think anyone is going to save the Rec Center…
If DC is confident enough to expand the line, that’s a good sign: it means they think readers want more than just “main continuity homework.”
QUICK HITS
Grendel returns for a four-issue mini at Dark Horse. With Concrete also coming back, it feels like a real throwback moment—even if Mike Richardson won’t be along for the ride.
That Texas Blood is back with a new story arc starting with issue #21 in June. If you like neo-noir with a western backbone (No Country for Old Men, Hell or High Water vibes), you should be reading this.
Clara and the Below, Matt Braly’s modern animated Nutcracker project, hit Kickstarter and blew past its $25K goal in 15 minutes. Turns out Sony canceling his Thai-inspired movie may have unlocked the most dangerous thing in entertainment: a creator with an audience and a plan.
FAN FEEDBACK
Last week, we were gaga over the upcoming LEGO Explorers on the Moon Tintin set. Reader Phil wrote in with the kind of note that makes me irrationally happy:
Last year I visited Brussels, stopped at the comics museum there, and bought the TinTin comic I had been missing since childhood— the second of the moon shot series. I recall reading the first one as a child and wondering what happened when they got to the moon. Finally got it, and it didn’t disappoint.
So I understand why you’d want this set.
Earlier this week, I wrote about the “back catalog trap”—how missing Volume 2 can kill momentum. Phil’s note is the long-form version of that problem: sometimes the gap isn’t weeks. It’s decades.
Have a great weekend!
Cheers,
Stephen Schleicher