Let the games begin
Vol. 1 Issue 11 – 8th June 2024
Haven’t you heard
The Hunger Games fandom, we are so back. Suzanne Collins has announced a new novel in the hugely popular and critically acclaimed sci-fi dystopian universe of Hunger Games, titled “Sunrise on the Reaping”, releasing on 18th March 2025. The press release stated that this too is a prequel to the original trilogy, like 2020’s The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and will be set 40 years after the events of Songbirds and Snakes. Fans quickly figured out that this would mean the story would cover one of the most intriguing characters, Haymitch Abernathy’s Games! Soon after the book announcement, Lionsgate revealed that the movie adaptation will follow in late 2026!!
Speaking of novel adaptations, the drama series Big Little Lies is coming back with season 3! Starring Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon, the actors teased that they are “moving fast and furious” with the new script. The first two seasons aired on HBO in 2017 and 2019.
Lady Gaga posted a video on TikTok denying pregnancy rumours writing, "Not pregnant– just down bad crying at the gym”, referencing Taylor Swift’s lyrics from her newest album. Swift came out in support in the comments section, “Can we all agree that it's invasive and irresponsible to comment on a woman's body. Gaga doesn't owe anyone an explanation and neither does any woman.”, echoing these sentiments after she has herself been targeted with fake pregnancy claims and constant unsolicited comments on her appearance while on tour.
Instagram is testing unskippable ads. Yup, you read that right. You wouldn’t be able to scroll or swipe away from these ads, but would have to watch it whole before you are allowed to continue viewing your timeline or stories, much like some of the unskippable ads you get before a YouTube video. While this is a test and there’s no concrete plans around this ad feature, there’s no greater advertisement to uninstall and let go of an app than this.
Apparently, four separate Beatles biopics are in the making, all heralded by Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes. Unconfirmed news suggest that the fab four will be played by Harris Dickinson (John Lennon), Paul Mescal (Paul McCartney), Barry Keoghan (Ringo Starr), and Charlie Rowe (George Harrison).
MrBeast has overtaken Indian music label T-Series as the most subscribed to channel on YouTube. If you remember in 2019, YouTuber PewDiePie was actively competing with T-Series to get the most subscribers on the platform but the Bollywood music giant ultimately won with 266 million subscribers. MrBeast tweeted that he had finally "avenged" PewDiePie.
The British period crime family drama, Peaky Blinders is getting a movie! Cillian Murphy is set to return as Thomas Shelby and is also co-producing the film which will stream on Netflix eventually.
In a similar vein, the police procedural, starring Matt Bomer, White Collar’s reboot is in the works! Series creator Jeff Eastin said that the final scene of Bomer’s character Neal Caffrey walking in Paris was always a set-up and left open-ended deliberately for a possible future continuation.
As the T20 Cricket World Cup has kicked off in the US and West Indies, a big upset occurred as the American team beat the 2022 finalists, Pakistan. Indian-origin fast bowler, Saurabh Netravalkar helped team USA bag the win in the super over. But cricket is only Netravalkar’s side hustle as the Cornell graduate is a full-time software engineer at Oracle in California!
Sound off
The it pop girl of the moment, Sabrina Carpenter has announced her new album “Short n' Sweet”, scheduled to be released on 23rd August! A single titled “Please Please Please” was released on Friday accompanied by a video starring none other than Carpenter’s boyfriend, the Oscar nominee, Barry Keoghan! Another catchy tune (produced by Jack Antonoff this time) following the massive hit Espresso, Please Please Please gave Sabrina her highest iTunes debut. Watch the video below!
Halsey has also announced a new album and released the first single off of it called “The End”. The singer has also disclosed her diagnosis and battle with Lupus and Leukaemia, the song’s lyrics reflecting her battle with the same.
Charlie XCX’s new album BRAT is out now! Some other music released this Friday were Close To You by Gracie Abrams, Burning by Tems, Genesis. by Raye, Coming Home by beabadoobee, and a new album by Peggy Gou, I Hear You.
Ariana Grande released a music video for her song “the boy is mine”. The video sees her stalking the OG stalker, Penn Badgley of You fame.
The myth of overnight success
Living in a day and age where we are driven and fueled by instant gratification and the name of the game is speed, haste, outcomes, outputs and results, its important to remember that overnight success is a myth. Writing about Sabrina Carpenter recently has made me realise this more.
She is topping the charts and taking over the pop culture zeitgeist with the things she says and the shows she puts on, I saw a tweet that said "she is doing everything right", but she has been doing this for a while, her next is going to be her sixth studio album, it is just that she has "clicked" for a majority of the general public now, through her outros for the live performances of her song Nonsense and the earworm that is Espresso.
But she has been this charismatic and charming since I first saw her on the Disney show, Girl Meets World. She has been making good music since "Can’t Blame a Girl for Trying", "Smoke and Fire", "Sue Me" and "Fast Times". Sometimes, it’s just luck and how the stars align for something to click into place after a plethora of hard work, something that was bound to happen all along, but took its sweet time. Sabrina herself said in a speech for her Rising Artist award that her mother had told her that she was "the tortoise" when she was younger and that things will happen, she needs to chill. And now she realises it’s a good thing, "getting to know the mindset of a slow rise".
So I guess what I'm trying to say is, this is my Roman Empire. How some people (esp. creatives) spend YEARS throwing everything at the wall to see if anything sticks, doing small jobs (I mean, technically they broke into the industry but ykwim; always the maid never the bride) and finally something clicks into place, one song, one role, one show, and the next thing you know, it snowballs into you reviving and leading a Marvel franchise.
Pedro Pascal was 18 years into acting before he booked his tiny Game of Thrones part, which led to Narcos, (which he basically had no trust in because even a lead in a Netflix original in those days of network television was comparable to having a YouTube channel now) but that catapulted him to more side roles in movies, which led to The Mandalorian, a Star Wars spinoff yes, but people had negligible faith in a Lucasfilm project at the time. And his face was covered for 98% of it under a helmet. But it clicked, it worked. And then the The Last of Us adaptation happened. And that worked and how.
Suddenly both these shows were airing together and you couldn't escape Pedro Pascal on the interwebs. And now Marvel's banking on him for Fantastic Four. Now I don't know his co-star from Fantastic Four, Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s story this closely but all I know is that I didn't know of him before I saw him as the kooky Cousin in The Bear, which took off, and bam, he's made it too, winning an Emmy for the same. But he’s also been working since 1999.
So there you have it, a lot of what you see in pop culture may seem like the consequence of a quick succession of events, but be mindful of the years of journey that goes into it, for your own sake.
Watch out
Trailers for Bridgerton Season 3: Part 2, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder and the third movie in the Venom franchise, Venom: The Last Dance dropped this week! Watch below!