SPOILERS for Batman: Caped Crusader lie ahead so, if you haven't streamed the episodes with an Amazon Prime Video subscription, read on at your own risk.

As fans wait for The Batman - Part II, Matt Reeves, J.J. Abrams and Bruce Timm have collaborated on the new animated series, Batman: Caped Crusader. Going into Season 1, I wasn’t sure what to expect from series about a superhero who has been adapted countless times, but I was pleasantly surprised by the new show. The 2024 TV schedule entry particularly stands out, thanks to its heroes and villains’ 40s aesthetics, but one character that I need to talk about right now is Jamie Chung’s Harley Quinn. That's especially true after CinemaBlend had a chance to speak to the voice actress at San Diego Comic-Con, and she shared some great comments about her hopes for Season 2.

Caped Crusader’s Harley Quinn Was A Welcome Take On The Popular Character

In recent years, we've had Harley Quinn-centric content coming out of our ears, between Margot Robbie’s amazing live-action version, Kacey Cuoco’s hilarious version on the Max series and Lady Gaga’s upcoming take in Joker: Folie á Deux. Despite the influx of Harleys, Jamie Chung carved her own place within the character's history, with a take on the villain I’d never seen before.

In the 1940s-set Gotham, Dr. Harleen Quinzel is not working at Arkham Asylum but is a run-of-the-mill therapist, who treats various people in the city. She even has a chance to unpack Bruce Wayne’s childhood traumas, much to his chagrin. As Episode 5 reveals, she takes some intense methods to capture her well-off clients in her Harley Quinn persona and tortures them out of their cash. And rather than Harley being created by falling under the Joker's sway, she seems to be the villain by her own accord. When CinemaBlend spoke to Jamie Chung about the role at SDCC, she explained just why she loves this iteration of the DC character so much:

While Harley Quinn is typically seen by the Joker's side, that's definitely not the case on Caped Crusader. As Jamie Chung shared, she was definitely here for the change in narrative, just like I was.

Jamie Chung Shared Season 2 Hopes, And Joker Is Involved

With all of that said, the Caped Crusader finale teases the terrifying Joker. Yes, the Clown Prince of Crime will get his own unique origin set in this new continuity, and I cannot wait! So, far we've only briefly seen the villain go on a murder spree as he seeks to perfect his recipe for Joker venom. When Jamie Chung was asked about whether she’d like Harley Quinn to interact with Joker in this iteration, she add the following sentiments:

It'd be hard to imagine Bruce Timm and co. not finding a way to have the two character cross paths at some point. Though, if they do, their dynamic will certainly be different, given that this version of Harley isn't motivated by true villainy like Mr. J. Who knows, maybe we might even see the two come to blows at some point.

On that note, Season 2 has already been greenlit, so we’ll have to wait and see how Jamie Chung’s version of Harley Quinn interacts with this Joker. The wait for further developments on Chung's Quinn may be long but, considering what we've seen so far, I'm sure her return will be well worth the wait. If you haven't already, be sure to stream all 10 episodes of Batman: Caped Crusader now. Also, be sure that you remain updated on the upcoming Batman movies and TV shows that are heading your way.

It was not until Dev Patel tried his hand at writing and directing a feature film, Monkey Man, when he finally became the star of his own action movie. His turn as a man on a vengeful mission against corruption in the thriller, which is being likened to John Wick, is really a long time coming, since plenty of the Academy Award nominee’s credits have incorporated elements of the genre. Yet, the 2024 movie release marks the first time he has been the lead of this particular kind of film.

The former Skins cast member is not the only one who has the talent and the experience that warrants action movie stardom, but has yet to receive top billing for one. Hopefully, the following actors I have compiled below do not need to write or direct their own high-paced, thrill-a-minute blockbuster to cross that off their bucket list one day.

Alan Ritchson

At 6’2” and 230 pounds, Alan Ritchson was the perfect choice to lead the Amazon Prime original TV show, Reacher, and would be the perfect choice to lead any action franchise you throw at him. He may have nabbed a supporting role in Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, but I am still waiting to see his face on the majority of a poster. Maybe another Jack Reacher movie, starring him this time?

Zoë Kravitz

Having appeared in multiple comic book movies (including X-Men first class), leading an intriguing, paranoia-fueled Neo-Noir (2022’s Kimi), and showing up in one of the greatest action movies of all time (2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road), it is only a matter of time when Zoë Kravitz plays the central hero of her own contribution to the genre. I actually would not mind if the action film she receives top-billing for saw her reprise her great Catwoman portrayal from The Batman in a spin-off. 

Zac Efron

It is actually hard to believe that, despite being one of Hollywood's most versatile leading men, Zac Efron has yet to headline an action movie. He has done pretty much everything else you could imagine — including musicals (his breakout role in Disney Channel’s High School Musical, of course), sports biopics (the acclaimed 2023 A24 movie, The Iron Claw), and even a “brutal” post-apocalyptic thriller (2022’s Gold) — so what is stopping him from kicking some ass?

Maika Monroe

Having starred in creepy modern classics like It Follows and Watcher, Maika Monroe is easily one of our most talented horror movie Scream Queens — a title she will continue to honor by leading the new, disturbing detective thriller, Longlegs. Could playing an FBI agent in that upcoming 2024 movie bring her one-step closer to fulfilling her action star destiny? Because, as far as I am concerned, she already proved she was worthy by developing a, sort of, “gruff badass” persona for her role in the 2015 alien invasion movie, The 5th Wave.

Austin Butler

Austin Butler proved he was a movie star with his Academy Award-nominated performance in Elvis, but that could not prepare audiences for his surprisingly intimidating turn as the ruthless Feyd-Rautha in Dune: Part Two. It makes me wanna see how intimidating he could be as a hero, or even anti-hero similar to his role in the upcoming The Bikeriders, which looks pretty intense. Perhaps all these recent performances will get some action filmmaker’s attention soon. 

Zendaya

Speaking of Dune: Part Two cast members, the one who really steals the show in the second half of Denis Villeneuve’s Frank Herbert adaptation is Zendaya as Chani, who should be considered the true hero of the story if you understand the author’s true intentions with Paul Atreides’ arc. Of course, the Emmy-winning Euphoria cast member still, understandably, got second billing under Timothée Chalamet, but the powerful acting and stellar fight choreography she demonstrates in the sci-fi blockbuster absolutely warrants a grand-scale epic of her own.

LaKeith Stanfield

Here is another example of an actor who has shown astonishing versatility in his eclectic filmography so far — including some acclaimed comedies (such as Sorry to Bother You), some great horror movies (his scene-stealing Get Out role), and a mix of both (Disney’s Haunted Mansion). However, whenever Academy Award nominee LaKeith Stanfield has been cast in an action flick (namely The Girl in the Spider’s Web and Netflix’s original Western movie, The Harder They Fall), it has never been in the lead role.

Jamie Chung

Here is another example of an actor whose action-oriented roles have either been supporting parts in movies (such as The Man with the Iron Fists or The Misfits), stints on TV shows (such as 2008’s Samurai Girl or Fox’s Gifted), or even voice acting roles (like in Big Hero 6). Come to think of it, I think that Jamie Chung’s career as a whole thus far has been pretty underrated, so hopefully the chance to be the next great female action hero comes her way soon.

Aldis Hodge

Aldis Hodge actually has an interesting connection to the action genre, having starred in two Die Hard movies: Die Hard with a Vengeance and A Good Day to Die Hard — the latter of which marked his acting debut as a child. After putting that experience to good use with a portrayal of Hawkman that is the best thing about Black Adam, in my opinion, I am certainly hoping to see him soar higher in this realm, whether that means leading a superhero movie of his own or something more grounded.

Katy O'Brian

Am I the only one who takes one look at Katy O’Brian and sees an action movie star waiting to be born? Following her breakout film role in Love Lives Bleeding, the bodybuilder and Mandalorian actor is more than ready to lead something with a speedier pace on the big screen.

Bill Hader

I bet you did not expect a former SNL cast member to appear on this list, but I think Bill Hader might even be the most deserving one here. His role as a hitman seeking an acting career on Barry proved that he has some astonishing range, and his participation in the HBO series' more action-oriented sequences also shows he could do well in something like a grizzled detective role, a la John McClane.

Could any of these stars become the next Bruce Willis or Charlize Theron? Trigger fingers crossed.

Starting out as a reality show star before becoming a serious, respected actor does not come very easily for most people who attempt to make that transition. However, Jamie Chung has beaten the odds, having gotten her big break on The Real World: San Diego (the MTV hit’s 14th season) and, 17 years later, eventually landing a major role in the Dexter: New Blood cast as an ambitious true crime podcast host.

The Showtime original miniseries - a continuation of the killer Emmy-winning drama Dexter - is not even the biggest title on the Korean-American actor’s resume so far. Let’s take a look at some of the best Jamie Chung movies and TV shows fans should be checking out if they have not already, starting with another one of her most esteemed television roles.

Lovecraft Country (HBO Max)

After returning from his service in the Korean War, a young Black man (Jonathan Majors) goes on a quest through Jim Crow Era America to find his missing father (Michael K. Williams), during which he learns that there is more truth to the fantasy stories he enjoys reading than he could have ever imagined.

Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: After a brief appearance in the pilot as one of Lovecraft Country’s more overt and familiar sci-fi/horror references, Jamie Chung reappeared as the main focus of the riveting sixth episode of the fantastic and harrowing Emmy-winning HBO series as a military nurse with a strange secret rooted in Korean folklore, which is all I will reveal about that.

Stream Lovecraft Country on HBO Max. 
Buy Lovecraft Country on Amazon.

Big Hero 6 (Disney+)

A teenage mechanics prodigy (Ryan Potter) joins forces with a friendly, large, inflatable robot (Scott Adsit) and others to form a crew of powerful, technologically advanced vigilantes.

Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: After lending her voice to the role of the resilient, mechanically inclined superhero Go Go Tomago in 2014’s Big Hero 6, Jamie Chung would also reprise the role on the animated series spin-off of this fun and inventive adaptation of the comic book of the same name, that easily earns a place among the best animated Marvel movies yet.

Stream Big Hero 6 on Disney+. 
Rent/Buy Big Hero 6 on Amazon.

Also try streaming Big Hero 6: The Series on Disney+.

Star Wars: Visions (Disney+)

An ambitious musical group hounded by a legendary bounty hunter, a boyish android discovering a heartbreaking secret about his creator, and a warrior who chooses to defend the town of the woman he loves are just some of the stories found in this collection of tales from a galaxy far, far away.   

Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: Jamie Chung would later lend her voice to an episode of another animated series from Disney - Star Wars: Visions, an exciting and unique anthology which borrows themes and story elements from the Star Wars movies and incorporates them into beautiful Japanese anime aesthetics.

Stream Star Wars: Visions, Episode 9 on Disney+. 

Once Upon A Time (Disney+)

After a troubled woman (Jennifer Morrison) is reunited with the son she gave up for adoption a decade earlier, the boy enlists her help to free a town full of amnesiac story book characters from their earthly, human bodies.

Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: Jamie Chung has also lent her talents to 12 episodes of Once Upon a Time - an ABC original series inspired by many literary tales that Disney has turned into animated movie classics - on which she became the first actress to play the Chinese warrrior princess, Mulan, in a live-action setting, before the release of the 2020 remake of the animated favorite from 1998.

Stream Once Upon A Time on Disney+. 
Rent/Buy Once Upon A Time on Amazon.

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For (Starz)

The lives of several residents of a grim, crime-ridden town intersect in the midst of various, bloody conflicts.

Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: The same year that Jamie Chung became a Marvel movies star with Big Hero 6, she starred in an entirely different kind of comic book adaptation - Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, the prequel/sequel to the 2005 masterpiece based on co-director Frank Miller’s series of noir-inspired graphic novels, in which she took over the role of deadly, little Miho (previously played by Sin City cast member Devon Aoki).

Stream Sin City: A Dame to Kill For on Starz. 
Rent/Buy Sin City: A Dame to Kill For on Amazon.

Premium Rush (Amazon Rental)

A New York bike messenger (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has his skills put to the ultimate test when he is tasked with delivering an envelope that, for whatever reason, makes him the target of a crooked cop (Michael Shannon), who chases him all over the city.

Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: Before sharing the screen with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Jamie Chung starred alongside the actor as a woman involved with the shady business JGL’s character is taunted by in 2012’s Premium Rush - a fast-packed, high-stakes thriller set in the unlikely world of bike messaging, from co-writer and director David Kopek.

Rent/Buy Premium Rush on Amazon.

Gotham (Netflix)

A good-natured cop (Ben McKenzie) struggles to avoid succumbing to corruption as a young, orphaned boy (David Mazouz) aspires to avenge his wealthy parents’ murder, in an infamously crime-ridden metropolis.

Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: Jamie Chung also became a DC TV shows star when she joined the Gotham cast in Season 3 for six episodes as Valerie Vale, a Gotham Gazette reporter, one-time lover of Jim Gordon, and aunt of journalist and eventual Bruce Wayne love interest, Vicki Vale.

Stream Gotham on Netflix. 
Rent/Buy Gotham on Amazon.

Sucker Punch (Netflix)

A young woman (Emily Browning), sent into a mental institution by her abusive stepfather, imagines a bizarre, surreal reality in which she and four other resilient girls plan their action-packed escape.

Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: In 2011, before appearing in any of the various comic book adaptations listed above, Jamie Chung starred in a film that feels very much like it could have been based on a comic book called Sucker Punch - a star-studded, visually stunning, feminist fantasy tale from co-writer and director Zack Snyder.

Stream Sucker Punch on Netflix. 
Rent/Buy Sucker Punch on Amazon.

The Hangover Part II (HBO Max)

Two years after their disastrous Las Vegas bachelor party, history appears to be repeating itself for Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), and Alan (Zach Galifianakis), when they gather for Stu’s wedding in Thailand and, inexplicably, wake up in Bangkok one morning.

Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: Also in 2011, Jamie Chung joined the cast of one of the most successful comedy movie franchises of all time when she starred as Stu’s bride-to-be, Lauren, in The Hangover Part II - which I believe, despite many glaring similarities to the plot of its 2009 predecessor, is actually funnier and more entertaining than some give it credit for, especially with Chung involved.

Stream The Hangover Part II on HBO Max. 
Rent/Buy The Hangover Part II on Amazon.

Eden (Amazon Prime)

After she is kidnapped and forced against her will into becoming a sex worker, a young, Korean-American woman (Jamie Chung) desperately tries to do whatever she can to survive the cruel, inhumane treatment of her captors.

Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: Jamie Chung gives an astonishing performance in her first leading role as the title character of 2012’s Eden - a startling, thoroughly arresting inside look at the business of human trafficking.

Stream Eden on Amazon Prime. 
Rent/Buy Eden on Amazon.

Knife Fight (Showtime)

A gifted, success-driven political strategist (Rob Lowe) begins to see the darker nature of his profession while trying to help three different troubled clients at one time. 

Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: In the same year that she led the cast of Eden, Jamie Chung got to show off her comedic chops as Rob Lowe’s bright assistant in Oscar-winning director Bill Guttentag’s Knife Fight - a satirical, politically driven ensemble dramedy far more relevant today than it was at the time it came out.

Stream Knife Fight on Showtime. 
Rent/Buy Knife Fight on Amazon.

Resident Advisors (Pluto TV)

Things get increasingly out of hand for a young woman (Jamie Chung) who accepts the responsibility of overseeing a rowdy college dorm along with her not-so responsible co-workers.

Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: Jamie Chung’s comedic chops were front and center when she led the cast of Resident Advisors - a short-lived comedy series as charming and relatable as it is bizarre and crass, that was originally created for Hulu by Alex J. Reid, Taylor Jenkins Reid, and Natalia Anderson in 2015.

Stream Resident Advisors on Pluto TV. 
Rent/Buy Resident Advisors on Amazon.

There are plenty of other great titles starring Jamie Chung that are available now, and some to look forward to as well. For instance, she will appear amongst an all-star cast in the dark comedy Reunion, which is now in post-production, and will voice Hel in Netflix’s upcoming animated adventure series, Twilight of the Gods.

This article contains spoilers from the original Dexter series on Showtime. (If you're not caught up on the series ahead of Dexter: New Blood, be warned!) 

In 2013, fans of the hit Showtime original crime drama Dexter voiced their dissatisfaction over the series finale which sees Michael C. Hall’s titular, heroic sociopath abandon his double life in Miami in an unspecified - and much colder - location. Well, it appears that these grievances were heard because a new limited series follow-up is coming to the 2021 fall TV schedule to, hopefully, offer a more proper conclusion to the story of America’s favorite serial killer. Unfortunately, very few of the surviving members of the original Dexter cast are making a return for the new season, but you are certainly bound to see a few familiar faces on the Dexter: New Blood cast, including (and unsurprisingly) the Golden Globe-winning lead.

Michael C. Hall (Dexter Morgan)

Reprising his best known role as Dexter Morgan - who now goes by Jim Lindsay on Dexter: New Blood - is Michael C. Hall, who first broke out to Emmy-nominated acclaim as David Fisher on HBO’s Six Feet Under cast before taking center stage on Dexter, which led to big screen roles like the 2009 sci-fi thriller Gamer or the 2013 drama Kill Your Darlings to name a few. He has also voiced a vampiric version of Batman in the DC animated movie Justice League: Gods and Monsters, played a suburban dad looking for his missing daughter in the Netflix miniseries Safe in 2018, and the 2019 Netflix movie In the Shadow of the Moon as a man of the law. Earlier in 2021, Hall starred in the thriller John and the Hole and voices Leonard Swett in an upcoming documentary about the Gettysburg Address.

Clancy Brown (Kurt Caldwell) 

Dexter now resides in the small town of Iron Lake, which is unofficially led by truck stop owner Kurt Caldwell - played by Clancy Brown, who is known for being many things throughout his extensive career from an iconic horror movie actor (most recently in Shudder’s The Mortuary Collection), a leading star of HBO’s Carnivále cast, and even a superhero movies star as the voice Surtur in Thor: Ragnarok, among other comic book roles. In fact, he may be even better known for voice acting, such as in several DC TV shows and Marvel TV shows, but most famously as Mr. Krabs on SpongeBob SquarePants. After Dexter: New Blood, you will see the actor in person in upcoming movies Last Looks and John Wick: Chapter Four, which is now in post-production.

Julia Jones (Angela Bishop) 

As Iron Lake’s first Native American police chief Angela Bishop we have Julia Jones, whose earliest career highlights include the 2010 DC Comics-inspired western Jonah Hex, playing shapeshifter Leah Clearwater in the Twilight movies, and a recurring role on the ER cast in 2008. She more recently had a recurring role on the Westworld cast, played a grieving mother in Wind River in 2017, starred in the 2019 action thriller Cold Pursuit opposite Liam Neeson, and appeared on Episode 4 of The Mandalorian as Omera. Outside of Dexter: New Blood, 2021 saw Jones join Peacock’s Rutherford Falls cast and lend her voice to a series of Disney Channel original shorts called The Ghost and Molly McGee. 

Alano Miller (Logan) 

As Iron Lake police sergeant and assistant high school wrestling coach Logan, we have Alano Miller, who started out making guest appearances on several hit series (including FX’s Damages) before landing a recurring role on the Jane the Virgin cast that led to bigger things, such as an spot on one of the best Atlanta episodes ever as a devious talk show host in 2016. That same year, he landed a role in the historical biopic Loving, played Cato Powell on WGN’s historical series Underground, and a few more period pieces such as AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire and the Amazon Prime original movie Sylvie’s Love in 2020. Season 2 of his romantic OWN original series Cherish the Day (from creator Ava DuVernay) is expected to premiered in 2022.

Johnny Sequoyah (Audrey) 

As Angela Bishop’s arrogant teenage daughter Audrey, we have Johnny Sequoyah, who made her uncredited acting debut at age 11 in the 2013 comedy Ass Backwards before becoming the central focus of the short-lived supernatural NBC drama Believe, which was co-created by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón, in 2014. That same year, she starred in the dramedy film Among Ravens and a drama called Black Eyed Dog before appearing in the 2015 horror film Wind Walkers, the 2016 fantasy movie Albion: The Enchanted Stallion, and the pilot episode of American Housewife on CBS.

Jack Alcott (Harrison Morgan)

Jack Alcott is the fifth actor to play Dexter’s son, Harrison Morgan (who goes by Randall on Dexter: New Blood), which is easily the young actor’s biggest role to date in a career dominated by appearances in short films for years. However, the year 2020 began to bring new changes with his guest spot as a younger version of The Blacklist cast member Diego Klattenhoff and a starring role on the Showtime original western miniseries The Good Lord Bird as creator and star Ethan Hawke’s onscreen son. 

Jennifer Carpenter (Debra Morgan) 

Of course, no one else could play Dexter’s adoptive sister, who appears on Dexter: New Blood from beyond the grave, than Jennifer Carpenter, whose other best known roles come mostly from horror movies such as The Exorcism of Emily Rose (in which she plays the titular possessed teen) and Quarantine (the 2009 English-language remake of [REC]). Debra Morgan is also one of a few characters she has played with a badge, including an FBI agent on CBS’ Limitless series spin-off and on NBC’s short-lived The Enemy Within as a traitorous former CIA operative. In 2021, the Brawl in Cell Block 99 star also appeared alongside Amanda Seyfried in the drama A Mouthful of Air and Carpenter has a new horror movie in the works called She’s Still Here. 

Jamie Chung (Molly) 

Also a bit of a Scream Queen (especially for her role on the Lovecraft Country cast) is Jamie Chung, who plays a recurring character on Dexter: New Blood named Molly, but “Blockbuster Queen” might be more accurate for all the huge Hollywood movies in her 16-year career, such as 2014’s Sin City: A Dame To Kill For and the last two Hangover movies, to name a few. She also played Mulan on the Once Upon a Time cast, appeared on many superhero TV shows like Big Hero 6: The Series (on which she reprises her role from the original film), and recently lent her voice to the animated series Star Wars: Visions on Disney+. Chung also appears on the Apple TV+'s Mr. Corman and is currently working on the mythological animated series Twilight of the Gods and the mystery comedy movie Reunion.

David Magidoff (Teddy Reed) 

In what might be his comparatively darkest role yet (Teddy Reed on Dexter: New Blood) is comedian David Magidoff, who debuted on NBC’s 1950s-set drama American Dreams and made his feature film debut with Sex and Death 101 a year after landing a recurring role among the Veronica Mars cast in 2006. Guest spots in other hit TV shows - such as Fox’s Lethal Weapon reboot and even a few Disney Channel originals like Austin & Ally - followed before 2019 when he landed major roles on Apple TV+’s The Morning Show cast and Top Elf on Nickelodeon. More recently, Magidoff acted opposite the Impeachment: American Crime Story cast in its premiere and you might have also spotted him hosting HQ Trivia.

Michael Cyril Creighton (Fred Jr.) 

A Dexter: New Blood cast member who previously worked with Michael C. Hall in the 2018 comedic caper Game Night is Michael Cyril Creighton - a theatre-trained actor whose theatre-inspired web series Jack in a Box (which he also created and won a Writer’s Guild of America Award for) eventually earned him guest spots on FX’s Louie  and Netflix's Orange is the New Black. He has also appeared in a few Oscar darlings, including the 2016 Best Picture winner Spotlight and the Best Picture nominee The Post in 2017. Creighton also appeared in a much lighter crime series in 2021, namely Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, and is now working on a series remake of A League of Their Own for Amazon Prime.

John Lithgow (Arthur Mitchell)

Perhaps the most exciting familiar face appearing on Dexter: New Blood is two-Oscar-nominee John Lithgow, who channeled his villainous side (as seen in Cliffhanger or as Lord Farquaad from the Shrek cast) into Emmy-winning performance as the Trinity Killer in Dexter’s fourth (and arguably best) season. The Third Rock from the Sun cast member (who won his sixth Emmy playing Winston Churchill on The Crown) recently revisited his more innocent side when joining HBO’s Perry Mason cast, but has not abandoned the darkness when playing Judd in 2019’s Pet Sematary remake and Roger Ailes in Bombshell that same year. Lithgow has another limited crime series in the works called The Old Man, stars in Martin Scorsese’s upcoming Killers of the Flower Moon, and is filming the drama Sharper and an untitled Mother Cabrini biopic as we speak.

The new blood on the Dexter: New Blood cast looks promising enough to suggest this new season will make a killing. See for yourself when the special limited series event premieres Sunday, November 7, 2021, on Showtime.

CinemaBlend participates in affiliate programs with various companies. We may earn a commission when you click on or make purchases via links.

Most would probably agree that as a filmmaker, Zack Snyder has a signature style. He loves big, bold visuals and playing with religious iconography. But off camera, he also doesn’t mind churning out alternate versions of his work. Over the years, Snyder has released a number of director’s cuts to his movies. We’ve seen director’s cuts of Dawn of the Dead, Watchmen and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, with the most recent being Zack Snyder’s Justice League. More recently, he confirmed that there’s a Snyder Cut of 2011’s Sucker Punch lying around, which is starting to draw interest, and one of his stars has thoughts on why it should see the light of day.

Jamie Chung played the role of Amber in Sucker Punch, and her work in the film arguably helped to boost her star status, which was already rising at that time. The actress has since starred in other notable productions but, based on her recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she certainly hasn’t forgotten about her work on the Zack Snyder-directed film. When speaking about why she wants to see the alternate cut, Chung explained that it has a great deal to do with the theatrical film’s original rating:

It seems that through a director’s cut, Jamie Chung is hoping for a grittier version of Sucker Punch. It’s true that the movie had its fair share of intense moments but, all in all, the theatrical cut fits firmly into that PG-13 mold. Zack Snyder is known to have a few brutal moments in his movies, so it’s certainly possible that a number of Sucker Punch’s were left on the cutting room floor.

Sucker Punch, which Zack Snyder co-wrote with Steve Shibuya, centers on the character of Babydoll, who accidentally kills her sister while protecting her from her abusive stepfather. Framed as mentally unstable and set for a lobotomy, Babydoll is institutionalized but slips into a fantasy world where she imagines she’s the new arrival at a brothel. She and several of the other girls (patients) soon strike up a bond and team up to escape before the scheduled lobotomy.

Jamie Chung isn’t the only Sucker Punch alum who’s campaigning to see the director’s cut, either. Jena Malone, who played Rocket in the film, responded to the news on social media, calling for fans to campaign for this new Snyder Cut following Justice League. You can check out Snyder’s vision for the DC superhero team-up film on HBO Max, which you can sign up for using this link.

There’s not telling whether the fans and stars of the movie will actually get to see an extended cut of Sucker Punch. Things are even more complicated when you consider that the film is a Warner Bros. production and that Zack Snyder and the studio seem to have a somewhat bumpy relationship right now. Still, after what we’ve seen over the past few years with Justice League, anything appears to be possible.

Most TV comebacks attempt to capitalize on everything that made shows memorable to begin with, from the setting to the tone to the characters. Going against that small-screen grain is the Dexter revival, whose return to fans' lives on Showtime will be radically different from the series' initial run. Though Michael C. Hall's killer-of-killers Dexter Morgan will obviously be fronting things, former co-star James Remar threw doubt on the idea of other returning cast members, saying Showtime opted not to bring anyone else back for the New York-set season. But it sounds like new star Jamie Chung has now indirectly refuted that claim.

After serving as an excellent and extremely disturbing standout in HBO's Lovecraft Country, Jamie Chung is keeping things dark and dirty with the Dexter revival, where she will play a famous true-crime podcaster and L.A. resident named Molly. Speaking with People, Chung said the new episodes are definitely a departure from the sun-soaked thrills of the first eight seasons, but then seemingly teased that not everything around Michael C. Hall will be a brand new element. In her words:

It's clearly Jamie Chung's last sentiment that has us scratching our collective heads. At this point, the only people that are confirmed to be returning from Dexter's initial run for the revival season are its aforementioned star Michael C. Hall and its original showrunner Clyde Phillips, while all of the announced cast members other than Hall are new to the series. And considering Phillips isn't enough of a household name for his face to be instantly familiar to fans, I am extremely curious to learn what whose faces Chung was talking about.

Because by all means, as disappointing as it was to hear James Remar's claim that the majority of the original cast was left by the wayside for Dexter's new episodes, it still made a certain amount of sense. If Dexter is living his life in hiding more than 1,200 miles north of Miami, without having alerted any of his family or colleagues about his current whereabouts, then it wouldn't exactly make perfect sense for every single former co-star to suddenly be in and around that same New York area. So while the creative team could certainly find ways to explain and justify the reappearances of Julia Stiles Lumen, Jennifer Carpenter's Deb, David Zayas' Batista and others, it might be a stretch if it happened even once.

Honestly, while I usually like diving into unfounded and bordering-on-ridiculous speculation in cases like this, I'm a bit unsure how to take Jamie Chung's claims. Maybe Dexter keeps a big cork board in his apartment/cabin/renovated school bus and has pictures of all the show's main characters tacked to it, with those being the "familiar" faces. Or maybe he went back and killed everyone and is keeping all their heads in jars. I'm not gonna die on that particular hill, but I'll certainly roll around it for a bit while waiting to hear more info about the new season.

Jamie Chung and Michael C. Hall will be joined in Dexter's revival by Clancy Brown as the charming new big bad, as well as Michael Cyril Creighton, Oscar Wahlberg, Julia Jones, Jack Alcott and Johnny Sequoyah. As the episodes are currently filming in secret, Showtime has not yet revealed a release window for the new season, but there are more than enough big 2021 Summer TV shows coming soon that will make the wait more tolerable.

After 17 seasons on the air (so far?), it really should come as no surprise that Grey’s Anatomy can boast a countless number of impressive guest stars, including many stars who can call the sexy medical drama one of their first gigs before becoming a household name. We decided to take on the challenge of identifying as many notable celebrities who appeared on the Shonda Rhimes hit before their big break or in a role small enough to have since fallen into obscurity. We came up with a staggering tally of 23 actors, starting with one beloved Emmy winner who knows a thing or two about playing a medical professional.

Sarah Paulson (Dr. Ellis Grey)

One year before American Horror Story’s 2011 premiere, Sarah Paulson appeared on Grey’s Anatomy as Dr. Ellis Grey (Meredith’s mother) in an ‘80s flashback episode that sees her treat an AIDS patient at Seattle Grace when the disease was still new to the public. More recently the actress has played a psychiatrist from hell in Glass, a nurse from hell in Ratched, and also a mom from hell in the hit Hulu original Run.

John Cho (Dr. Marshall Stone)

To lead his acclaimed feature-length debut, Searching, Run director Aneesh Chaganty cast John Cho - also known as Sulu in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies. However, when he appeared on Grey’s Anatomy as a surgical intern in need of surgery after falling asleep at the wheel, the Korean-born actor’s defining role was Harold Lee in the 2004 cult comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, whom he would reprise in two sequels.

Keke Palmer (Sheryll Jeffries)

Also known primarily for comedies (especially for children) was Keke Palmer, when she played a pregnant teen on Grey’s Anatomy’s tenth season. The 27-year-old actress and singer has since gone on to find darker work on horror series like MTV’s Scream and Ryan Murphy’s Scream Queens and played a con artist stripper in Hustlers opposite Jennifer Lopez.

Alanna Masterson (Hillary Boyd)

Another “scream queen” to appear on Grey’s Anatomy in her early days is Alanna Masterson, who is best known for playing Tara Chambler for five seasons of The Walking Dead. Her young, seemingly mature, one-off role on the medical drama put her through a different kind of horror when she took psychedelic mushrooms, tried to fly off her roof, and broke 52 bones.

Tessa Thompson (Camille Travis)

Like Alanna Masterson, Tessa Thompson is best known for a comic book role (Valkyrie in the MCU), as well as the Creed franchise, absurdist satire Sorry to Bother You, and high-concept sci-fi thriller Annihilation, to name just a few. Much earlier, in 2006, she played Richard Webber’s niece Camille Travis (later recast in Season 4 by Camille Winbush) before showing up in a different role on the Grey’s Anatomy spin-off, Private Practice, in 2009.

Dylan Minnette (Ryan)

Actor and musician Dylan Minnette also appeared on a second Shonda Rhimes hit (Scandal) years after he played a 9-year-old born without external ears on Grey’s Anatomy’s fourth season. The now 24-year-old star would go on to appear in horror movies of a light variety (Goosebumps) and a bleak variety (Don’t Breathe), as well as lead the cast of the teen drama 13 Reasons Why for Netflix.

Sydney Sweeney (Erin Weaver)

Speaking of dark teen dramas, the Emmy-winning HBO series Euphoria is 23-year-old Sydney Sweeney's biggest claim to fame yet, following her role opposite Amy Adams on Sharp Objects and a recurring spot on The Handmaid's Tale for Hulu. Earlier, in a heartbreaking Season 11 episode of Grey's Anatomy, she played the daughter of a man who discovers what he thought was heartburn is actually much worse.

Elisabeth Moss (Nina Rogerson)

Speaking of The Handmaid's Tale, Elisabeth Moss won an Emmy for her lead role on the dystopian drama after receiving several nominations for playing Peggy Olson on Mad Men. The star of acclaimed 2020 horror flick, The Invisible Man, previously appeared on Season 3 of Grey's Anatomy as a woman whose mother suffers from a strange condition that causes her bones to grow when experiencing trauma.

Justina Machado (Anna Nyles)

Also appearing on Grey's Anatomy's third season was actress Justina Machado as a new mother who initially assumes her breast cancer tumor was a clogged milk duct. The 48-year-old former Six Feet Under star later became better known as a nurse and mother on the cancelled Netflix sitcom One Day at a Time and more recently competed as a finalist on Dancing with the Stars.

Jesse Plemons (Jake Burton)

Netflix is also the home of several recent films starring Jesse Plemons, such as the Oscar-nominated The Irishman, Charlie Kaufman's I'm Thinking of Ending Things, and El Camino, in which he reprised his sociopathic Breaking Bad character, Todd. Right before landing his first starring role on Friday Night Lights, Plemons was almost completely unrecognizable in his Grey's Anatomy guest spot as a teen with a deadly brain tumor caused by a rare bone disorder.

Dean Norris (Vince)

Fellow Breaking Bad alum Dean Norris also made an early appearance on two episodes of Grey's Anatomy as a mechanic whose friend and colleague is injured in a ferry crash during Season 3. The 57-year-old acting veteran was later cast in the series adaptation of Stephen King's Under the Dome, landed a recurring spot on Shonda Rhimes' Scandal, and is currently preparing to reprise his role from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark for the upcoming sequel.

Abigail Breslin (Megan Clover)

Dean Norris also briefly appears in acclaimed indie comedy Little Miss Sunshine, which earned then 10-year-old Abigail Breslin an Oscar nomination in 2007. Between her 2002 film debut in Signs and that later star-making moment, the future star of the Zombieland movies played a girl whose repeat visits to Seattle Grace brought up suspicions of her foster parents' treatment of her, before it was discovered that her insensitivity to pain was to blame for her frequent accidents.

Leslie Odom Jr. (P.J. Walling)

2020 Was a big year for Leslie Odom Jr. with Hamilton coming to Disney+, the animated musical series Central Park premiering on Apple TV+, and One Night in Miami hitting theaters in December. The actor and singer was still on his way to stardom when he appeared in a Grey's Anatomy episode with an intriguing DC connection as an, initially reluctant, donor in a domino kidney transplant, which Justice League Unlimited voice actors George Newbern (Superman) and Carl Lumbly (Martian Manhunter) are the recipients of.

Maggie Siff (Ruthie Sales)

Like most actors your can think of, Leslie Odom Jr. also appeared on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, much just like Maggie Siff did after playing a woman suffering from osteoporosis on Season 4 of Grey's Anatomy. It would be one of the last of her many early TV guest spots before becoming a notable presence on series like FX's Sons of Anarchy, AMC's Mad Men, and most recently, Showtime's Billions.

Theo Rossi (Stan Giamatti)

Maggie Siff's Sons of Anarchy co-star Theo Rossi, who would go on to play Marvel villain Shades on Netflix's Luke Cage series, has also been a guest on Grey's Anatomy. In a tearjerker two-part episode from Season 4, he played a paramedic, and husband of a Seattle Grace radiologist, who becomes trapped with his partner and best friend after their ambulance collides with another once they've dropped off a patient.

Danielle Panabaker (Kelsey Simmons)

Speaking of TV comic book adaptations, The Flash star Danielle Panabaker was relatively well-known for movies like Disney's teen superhero comedy Sky High, and the 2009 remake of Friday the 13th before she starred in one Grey's Anatomy episode. In Season 6, her character is forced to spend Thanksgiving at Seattle Grace, where she becomes engaged to her boyfriend after successfully receiving a heart transplant.

Jurnee Smollett (Beth Monroe)

Speaking of DC adaptations, Birds of Prey star Jurnee Smollett was probably best known as Michelle Tanner's friend Denise Frazer on Full House years before she played the first survivor of a clinical tumor trial run by Meredith Grey and Derek Shepherd, unlike her ill-fated boyfriend, in a two-part Grey's Anatomy episode. Today, the 34-year-old actress has numerous notable credits to her name, most recently the supernatural period drama, Lovecraft Country, on HBO.

Jamie Chung (Trina Paiz)

Jurnee Smollett's Lovecraft Country co-star Jamie Chung has also starred in several comic book adaptations, including Batman prequel series Gotham, the animated Big Hero 6, and its sequel series on Netlflix, the 2014 sequel to Sin City, and the infamous Dragonball Evolution, from 2009. The following year, the Korean actress (also a veteran of MTV's The Real World) played a newlywed forced to spend her honeymoon at Seattle Grace after she and her husband fall 100 feet into a ravine while mountain climbing.

Rachel Brosnahan (Brian Weston)

Her impressive recurring spot on House of Cards, and Emmy win for playing a female comedian in the 1960s in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, has made Rachel Brosnahan one of the most sought after actresses of her generation. Much earlier in her career, the star of the new Amazon Prime original film I'm Your Woman played a young transgender man seeking to complete his sex reassignment surgery at Seattle Grace in Grey's Anatomy's ninth season.

David Denman (Rick Jacobs)

When David Denman appeared on Grey's Anatomy in 2007 as the victim of a faulty parachute, most audiences probably recognized him best from The Office, where he played former Dunder Mifflin employee and the ex-fiancé of Pam Beesly, Roy Anderson. He would later reunite with his old onscreen romantic rival John Krasinski in Michael Bay's 13 Hours, play the father of a Power Ranger, star in Steven Soderbergh's country-fried heist comedy Logan Lucky, and will next appear opposite Kate Winslet in the upcoming HBO mini-series Mare of Easttown.

Millie Bobby Brown (Ruby)

One of the most successful child stars in Hollywood today is British teenager Mille Bobby Brown, who most recently played the title role of Enola Holmes, and will soon reprise her Godzilla: King of the Monsters character in a film that pits the atomic reptile against King Kong. Just one year before first playing young psychokinetic, Eleven, on the hit Netflix series Stranger Things, Brown guest starred on Grey's Anatomy as a young girl receiving medical advice from Seattle Grace over the phone after an earthquake leaves her mother incapacitated at their remote cabin.

How many of these Grey's Anatomy appearances do you remember? Let us know in the comments below!

Spoilers below for those who haven't yet watched Lovecraft Country's wild season finale. You have been warned!

After giving audiences nine episodes of the most mind-expanding storytelling on TV, Misha Green's Lovecraft Country came to a howling stop with its Season 1 finale. "Full Circle" reflected on all the magical madness that played out previously, while also setting up a potential future for this ever-changing ensemble of characters and cast members. Assuming, of course, that HBO deems the show worthy of a Season 2 order. But before we get into that kind of speculation, there are an abundance of WTF moments to talk about from this thrilling and tragic conclusion.

It's a shame that we're already at the end of Season 1, but at least Lovecraft Country left viewers with more than enough big moments to ponder once the credits were finished rolling – without a post-credits scene, for the record. For anyone who missed our previous looks back on WTF moments, here's everything we noted from Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, and Episode 8. Now before this "stalling the inevitable" incantation truly takes hold, let's take a musical road trip through the finale's weirdest and wildest moments.

No Visual Clue In The Title Screen

Perhaps calling this a WTF moment is a bit extreme, but each of the previous nine episodes featured a small and simple visual clue on the title screen, beneath each episode's name, for something important that shows up later in the respective eps. However, this one didn't utilize such an image, although it did showcase a zoom-out on a striking background that incorporated imagery from the entire season. So it wasn't a total loss, but I guess I didn't realize how much I looked forward to that particular element until it was gone. Knowing this show, that's probably a metaphor for something.

Hanna's Flaming House Is Actually A Safe Haven

Despite Jonathan Majors' Tic and Jurnee Smollett's Leti having dreams making it look like Hanna's burning house was a hellscape, it was revealed to actually be a safe spot fueled by Hanna's rage and populated by the spirits of Tic's magic-protected relatives. Such as Tic's mother, Dora (Erica Tazel)! Weirdly enough, that burning abode is where Tic accepted his eventual fate, understanding that it needed to happen in order to truly keep the future bloodline safe and protected. It's also where Leti studied up on her magical skills with Regina Taylor's Hattie. Essentially, this house would be the best place to level up if Lovecraft Country were a video game.

Diana's New-Old Arm

Thanks to everyone's successful efforts to stop Diana from turning into a Topsy and/or Bopsy clone, she returned from her nightmarish slumber to her natural state. Well, except for her arm, which became a gnarled and withered souvenir from her cursed experience. I'm pretty sure I gasped with too much concern as Diana screamed during that reveal, which taps into the worst repercussion that a curse could have on a promising artist like Diana.

Rest In Anti-Peace, Titus Braithwhite

Because this show hadn't already brought enough justice to quasi-resurrected racists, Tic and Leti returned to the tunnels they discovered in Episode 4 in order to bring back the grand wizard poobah himself, Titus Braithwhite. And not to gather 'round for his undoubtedly splendid family anecdotes (sarcasm), but to remove his magical protection and truly send him off this mortal coil – with a piece of his chest missing – thanks to some assistance from Leti and Tic's trio of bewitching ancestors. Unfortunately, that happened after he transported himself elsewhere and tipped Abbey Lee's Christina off to his presence as she totaled her car and flew through its windshield like an evil blonde javelin. That accident was a WTF moment unto itself, really.

"Would You Be Willing To Die To Fuck Me?"

Jamie Chung's Ji-Ah offered up a top contender for Best Line of Lovecraft Country Season 1, as well as Best TV Line of 2020, with this English-translated response to an unwanted suitor who appeared uncomfortably interested in her "exotic" nature. Note that she gets all the points here, while the WTF actually goes to that dorky hornball for stepping way out of his lane.

Hippolyta's Machine: The Home Version

While it wasn't so explicitly laid out, Lovecraft Country appeared to show that Hippolyta found a far easier way to tap into her extra-dimensional identities without driving out to that abandoned-ish observatory. She seemingly built one of those machines inside her house, and then showed it to Diana – though not to viewers directly – when trying to make her daughter feel better about her arm situation. If anybody could craft such a science-enhancing construction, it's definitely Hippolyta, who also proved herself to now be an accomplished comic book writer/artist, as it should be.

Tic Eating Some Yucky Raw Yuck-Ass Chest Meat

Remember when Tic and George were smart enough not to eat any of Samuel Braithwhite's liver meat earlier in the season, and how nicely set up it was with the plates and the utensils and the cloches? In hindsight, that would have been a utopia situation compared to Tic trying to gnaw down on the so-very-thick flesh that he'd carved out of Titus' chest, followed by a blood chaser. Combating the absolute grossness of Tic's disgust with his own situation was Montrose's surprisingly sage advice to "pinch and swallow" as a way of making it easier on himself. Granted, spooky flesh isn't the same as rotgut moonshine, but the suggestion was still extremely fatherly of Montrose.

Lovecraft Country Got Me Again With A Body-Switch Twist

Within the narrative context, it makes all the sense in the world that Christina utilized a Ruby potion in order to pull a mega-reversal on Leti & Co. ahead of the big ritual. What doesn't make sense, though, is that after the variety of twists that already went down with Christina's identity-swapping potions, that I somehow still didn't see this coming until five seconds before the reveal played itself out. Misha Green and her creative team set up the perfect distraction with Leti and Ruby's sibling rivalry, which then makes Ruby's unfortunate fate all the more depressing.

Fight Night

Before the shock of Ruby's potential death could truly set in, Lovecraft Country unleashed its biggest fight scene of the season, with Leti facing off against Christina-as-Ruby, which was a nice and important layer to that dispute, which ended in Leti being thrown out of a window and to her "death" below. (That moment was legitimately shocking as it happened.) Meanwhile, the other heroes were caught up in a brawl with a c(k)lan of Braithwhite followers, and it was nearly as shocking to see that Montrose, Ji-Ah and the pitchfork-swinging Hippolyta survived and took out all those old-timey white folks without suffering any serious injuries. Big thumbs up for the back-and-forth edits that made the scene feel so frantic and badass, too.

Ji-Ah Saved The Day

As if shutting that dude down so fucking hard earlier in the episode wasn't enough, Ji-Ah brought the previously introduced shaman's words to reality by taking on the darkness that was expelled during Christina's ritual, which basically did what Christina's blood would have done had Ruby's mini-heist been successful. While tapping into their minds, she also tipped viewers off to some of Tic's final machinations setting up his letter to Montrose and Diana's shoggoth power, as well as Christina catching Ruby and hooking her up to IVs like William and Hillary.

Tic Still Died, Though

Yeah, both the writers and Jonathan Majors himself absolutely set the table for Tic to die by the end of this episode, but did I still expect to hear about some kind of spell reversal that would allow him to survive while still granting his future bloodline exclusive access to magical powers? I most definitely did. But it didn't happen, and even though it's hard to tell whether Tic was truly a hero or not throughout all of Lovecraft Country's first season, his death was definitely a major blow that is a truly difficult one to mourn in traditional ways, considering what it means overall for Leti and their son-in-the-making. That said, it's very interesting to consider how Montrose will do with his role as a reformed grandfather.

So Did Christina

On the flip side, it was quite quick and easy to get over Christina's death once it finally happened in full (we think). Despite having some redeemable qualities – such as her partially progressive views about Black people that specifically provide her with certain advantages – and showing signs of remorse over possibly killing Tic for a failed spell, the character's true colors were always as white as her pale skin, so she doesn't deserve lavish memorials. For as much as I did predict that Christina would die, though, I most definitely did not foresee HOW it would happen. Namely, having Diana show up with a new bionic arm to squeeze Christina's throat until it literally burst, which was fucking awesome. Because seriously, don't you just sometimes think certain people need to have their throats exploded, with or without bionic arms involved?

Diana, Queen Of The Black Shoggoth

Similar to how Hippolyta completely transformed herself throughout the season, Diana also ended the finale as a different character from who she was early on, both mentally and physically. As revealed in Christina's death scene, Diana's curse-mangled arm was amputated and replaced by a rocking bionic arm, giving her a sense of power and pride that wasn't there before her encounter with Topsy and Bopsy. I'm assuming that replacement happened during a wormhole trip with Hippolyta. As well, those final moments fully confirmed that Diana now controls the protective power of the Black Shoggoth, which Tic was seen passing over to her in Ji-Ah's visions. That shot of the monster running up and howling at the moon is definitely one of the sweetest visuals of the season, and I hope it becomes a poster I can hang on my wall.

Without any more episodes left to go in Season 1, Lovecraft Country fans now have to patiently wait to hear what HBO will decide for the show's future. In the meantime, it's currently available to stream in full on HBO Max, but be sure to stay tuned to CinemaBlend for updates as they become available, and stay up to date with our Fall TV 2020 premiere schedule to see what new and returning shows are coming soon.

Major spoilers below for anyone who hasn't yet watched the latest episode of HBO's Lovecraft Country.

In Lovecraft Country's previous installment, Aunjanue Ellis' Hippolyta took an unprecedented trip across time and space to recognize and celebrate her true self, and she was sadly still missing in action during the events of Episode 8, titled "Jig-a-Bobo." Fortunately, creator Misha Green & Co. gave viewers lots of weird and wild moments to mull over in her absence, though it's rather un-fortunate that Hippolyta and George's daughter Diana became the central target of this episode's most evil forces.

Let's hop on our bicycles and pedal straight into the belly of the beast to go through all the WTF moments that went down in Episode 8. For those who may have missed our earlier Lovecraft Country features, you can check out the most baffling scenes from Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, and Episode 7.

Diana Getting Cursed

Having discovered Diana's Orithyia Blue comic book beneath that cop's corpse from last week's episode, Mac Brandt's über-heinous Captain Seamus Lancaster accosted the young girl in an alleyway as the public mourned Emmett "Bobo" Till's murder, itself a real-world tragedy. Using dark magic that caused Jada Harris' Diana to hallucinate maggots and flies, Lancaster smeared his sticky saliva on Diana's face, which was surely part of the curse, but was still grosser than grossy gross. More real-life discomfort set in when Diana exclaimed "I can't breath!" while being held back by the other cop. Thankfully, the encounter ended without more physical torture, though even that might have been more preferable to the mental mindfuck spawned by those roaming eyes on the Cream of Wheat sign as Diana ran away. I think I got goosebumps on the inside of my body from that one.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

After that creepy Cream of Wheat dude, the next sign of Diana's personal haunting came inside Montrose's bathroom, where his edition of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin came alive in the most frightful way. At first, the already questionable cover image featured the seemingly happy characters Topsy and Eva in front of a mirror. But as Diana grew more stressed, the book's cover showcased a far more ghoulish and murderous version of Topsy sporting a purely wicked grin and long, sharp fingernails, and then it mysteriously fell off of its shelf, and all to a stress-inducing version of A.F. Winnemore's "Stop Dat Knocking at de Door." If only that was the last time Topsy would appear...

Ruby's Body-Morphing Orgasm

Ruby and Christina's relationship, as it were, managed to produce yet another completely bonkers and gory AF moment. With character motivations being debatable, Ruby's sponge bath turned more lustful after she downed some of the potion and had sex with "William" as her white counterpart "Hillary." It was already interesting enough to consider the scene's race/gender elements just in that context, but then Lovecraft Country took things up a notch by having Ruby break through her caucasian exterior during what I have to assume is one of the bloodiest climaxes ever put to film. I hope Christina has an endless supply of mattress covers, or at least some truly magical laundry detergent.

A Nightmare On Topsy And Bopsy Street

To say it right away, absolutely everything about Kaelynn Gobert-Harris' Topsy and Bianca Brewton's Bopsy gets A+ accolades for unbridled WTF freakiness. Starting with their sanity-breaking backwards-skipping appearance at the train station, Topsy and Bopsy rather immediately became Lovecraft Country's most nightmarish entities. To that end, I can't imagine it was completely coincidental that the episode featured a trio of sing-song jump-ropers while also giving the two creatures long, sharp fingernails, since those two visual references easily brought to mind Freddy Krueger and the Nightmare on Elm Street films. Diana's final scene, which we'll get to in a bit, was also reminiscent of that dream-centric franchise. Maybe I was just looking for any reason possible to not focus on Topsy and Bopsy when they were on screen.

The Lovecraft Country Book

When Tic emerged from the time-traveling portal in "I Am," I thought his Lovecraft Country book was meant to have been penned by Courtney B. Vance's George Freeman. However, the real story is enjoyably weirder. Tic revealed that he'd actually traveled to the future, where the novel was to be written by Tic's son, who would be named after the late uncle. Wildly enough, Tic reveals the book's story about their family history, with certain changes that match up with Matt Ruff's real-world novel that the TV show is based on, such as Christina being a male (named Caleb), George having survived the trip to Ardham, and Diana being a boy named Horace. I love this kind of meta shit.

Christina's Assisted Suicide Attempt

After having a testy conversation with Ruby about their respective feelings on Emmett Till's murder and its aftermath, Christina attempted the ultimate form of vicariousness by paying two white dudes to basically echo Till's murder with her body. In this truly uncomfortable scene, the men brutally beat Christina to a bloody pulp before wrapping barb wire around her neck, shooting her in the head, and sending her body to the bottom of the river. (Seeing her slide backwards off of the dock offered an added chill, too.) Of course, Christina didn't actually die like Till did, since she is protected by magic. Instead, she emerged from the water with a hysterical mix of sobbing and laughter, making it totally unclear what her next move is going to be.

Diana's Big Showdown

After being chased throughout the episode, Diana went on the offensive by luring Topsy and Bopsy into a closed store for a showdown. It's not entirely clear how well Diana was doing by her lonesome, as it appeared she was just clobbering the two glow-eyed ghouls with a pipe without causing any lasting damage. But Montrose tipped the scales away from Diana with his well-intentioned embrace to calm her down, allowing Topsy and Bopsy to sink their claws in, causing visible wounds to appear on Diane's arms that Montrose couldn't possibly understand. This felt like another quasi-nod to the Elm Street films, where Freddy's dream attacks would simultaneously appear on victims' sleeping bodies in the outside world. Here's hoping Montrose quickly figures out a way to reverse the situation by the time Episode 9 starts up.

The Return Of The Shoggoth

After settling some of their personal issues, Tic and Montrose attempted a magical team up in placing a protection spell on Tic. Though neither man thought it was successful, the spell's true effect became clear at the end of the episode during the cops' most unlawful shootout at Leti's house. The very same scene where viewers also witnessed Leti's newfound invincibility. Just when it looked like Tic would become another dead Black man at the hands of law enforcement, a Shoggoth suddenly burst from the ground and saved him. It was the monster breed's first appearance since Episode 2, and the situation mirrored the beasts' arrival in the series premiere, in that the Shoggoth totally mauled all of the cops in the area to stop them from harming Tic. It even threw one over the house, which was hilariously over-the-top in the face of all the heightened suspense.

Since we apparently don't have to worry too much about Tic and Leti's survival anymore – yeah, right – now all of our hopeful attention can pivot to Hippolyta, even though she clearly seemed happier on her adventures than she did while in mourning. With only two episodes left to go in Season 1, Lovecraft Country airs Sunday nights on HBO at 9:00 p.m. ET.

While waiting to find out what happens next, stay tuned to CinemaBlend and stay current with our Fall TV 2020 premiere schedule to see what new and returning shows are on the way in the near future.

Major spoilers below for anyone who hasn't yet seen Lovecraft Country's latest episode.

So far, each episode of HBO's Lovecraft Country has been an adventure unto itself, from the literary monsters of the premiere to the haunted house horrors of "Holy Ghost" to the race-swapping insanity of "Strange Case." That streak continued with "Meet Me in Daegu," a war-torn flashback that finally introduced Jamie Chung's Ji-Ah, whose previous appearances fell outside the bounds of reality and proper context. Suffice to say it's obvious why Lovecraft Country held back: Ji-Ah is a completely different kind of fucked-up monster than what we've seen before.

This episode also gave viewers a more clear notion of what sent Jonathan Majors' Tic over the edge during his Korean War stint. But instead of rehashing the main plot points, let's just dive straight into the jaw-dropping lunacy that makes Lovecraft Country the most unpredictable show on TV. (For anyone who missed my earlier features, check out the biggest WTF moments from Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4 and Episode 5.)

The Trolley Song

Given a million chances to guess how Jamie Chung's mysterious character would be introduced in full, I would never have landed on "short musical dream sequence inside a movie theater set to Judy Garland's 'The Trolley Song' from Meet Me in St. Louis." In hindsight, it was a pretty brilliant way to suggest the joyful humanity still embedded in Ji-Ah, despite the otherworldly creature also lurking within. But in the moment, it was yet another way Lovecraft Country used music to subvert expectations in meaningful and head-scratching ways.

Hairy Tentacle-Tail Sex Blood Explosion

Had something more benign followed Ji-Ah's speed-dating experience, that scene might have made it into this list. However, it led directly into what will no doubt remain one of Lovecraft Country's Top 3 WTF moments, with Ji-Ah going from sexy seductress to pure nightmare fuel as a bunch of snakelike tendrils exited her body and violently inserted themselves into her post-coital victim, played by Heroes vet James Kyson. The whole thing was fascinatingly gross, and I can't quite tell why, but the most disturbing element to me was how Ji-Ah mimicked the memory of the dude's celebratory yell right as she turned him into a blood bomb. I didn't even think that was a thing that COULD bother me, so thank you, Lovecraft Country.

Ji-Ah's Mythology

With Ji-Ah, Lovecraft Country delivered its signature take on the mythical creature known as the kumiho, which in this scenario seems to be a shapeshifter who can supposedly achieve true humanity after seducing and sacrificing 100 men. The mystical entity originated as a 1,000-year-old fox with nine tails, with the latter concept surfacing in live-action as Ji-Ah's toothy appendages. Not only is Ji-Ah killing all these men, but she's also ingesting all of their memories (and then some), which becomes especially important once it's revealed that she killed her father, who molested her when she was young, Then that reveal is made all the more unnerving by her mom's twisted investment in Ji-Ah's gore-soaked mission. Could this storyline possibly exist in any other show beyond Lovecraft Country?

Tic Losing His Virginity To Ji-Ah

Note that the WTF-ness here is not at all tied to Tic being a virgin in the first place, since that's perfectly natural. Rather, it's tied to that moment happening at all, considering Ji-Ah's ostensible hatred for Tic in the beginning over her best friend's death. It did seem obvious that they would end up becoming an item, no matter how temporary the relationship, but it's still a weird-as-all-the-fucks coupling to say the least. (Good on Uncle George for setting up that movie screening, though.) Looking back, it certainly adds a new layer to Leti losing her virginity to Tic a few episodes back, as well as Tic's unease regarding certain sexual references earlier in the season.

The Tails Seeing Tic's Future

Of course this moment was going to happen eventually. You can't just set all these WTF dominoes up not to have them come crashing down accordingly. But while it was obvious Tic would survive his introduction to Ji-Ah's tails, I didn't foresee their prophetic abilities, which revealed to Ji-Ah the mysterious way that Tic will die. Ji-Ah did try to thwart the omen by telling him not to go home, but Tic wasn't exactly in the most willing state to take advice from anyone who just had tails sticking out of their eye sockets. (Good on both of them for those instincts, I suppose.) Still, that moment provided context for the unsettling way Episode 5 ended, with Tic calling Ji-Ah and asking how she knew about the "D-I-E" message he'd found. As well, now we know why the all-red Ji-Ah appeared in Tic's series-opening dream sequence.

That Ending

For one, it was shocking to see Ji-Ah's mother lovingly embrace her after Tic's befuddled exit, and it was even more surprising that she took Ji-Ah back to the mudang (shaman) who could actually provide answers for this supernatural situation. Not that they were particularly encouraging answers. After locking eyes with a brilliantly red-hued fox, Ji-Ah was told once again that her mortal desires don't mean anything, and then the mudang offered this ominous warning:

I'm not sure why I expected this episode to be a one-and-done installment for Jamie Chung's Ji-Ah, but it seems obvious now that my assumption was extremely wrong. So what will Ji-Ah's life be like between the end of Episode 6 and the point when Tic calls her? Hopefully we'll find out even more in Episode 7 and beyond. And if it all happens without seeing any more fuzzy tails squeezing out of anyone's ear canals and nostrils, that would be pretty cool.

Lovecraft Country airs every Sunday night on HBO. While waiting to see what new WTF moments await us next week, head to our Fall TV 2020 premiere schedule to see what other new and returning shows are popping up soon.

Superheroes currently reign supreme on the silver screen, but some of the most innovative work in the genre has taken place in the realm of television. In fact, one of the coolest recent developments to come out of the world of superheroes was the announcement that Bryan Singer would soon adapt Marvel's misunderstood mutants in an X-Men TV show for FOX. Slowly but surely the project has started to come together, and it now seems that it has officially tapped Jamie Chung to portray Clarice "Blink" Fong.

We've just learned that Jamie Chung has officially been cast to portray Blink in the upcoming X-Men project. The actress is arguably best known for her work portraying Mulan in the ABC series Once Upon A Time, which seems like a perfect fit when we consider the overall description of Blink in the upcoming small screen project. The teleporting mutant is described as a bit of a tomboy who finds herself forced to go on the run when her ability to create portals begins to manifest itself.

Chung joins Blair Redford, who recently made headlines as the first major mutant cast in the currently untitled X-Men pilot, but she appears to be the first major X-Men character in the project to be specially adapted from the comics.

This already seems like a stellar casting decision, as Jamie Chung has established a very respectable filmography for herself in recent years. In addition to her role as Mulan on Once Upon A Time, she has also starred as Valerie Vale on Gotham, as well as Amber in Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch, and she replaced Devon Aoki as Miho in Sin City: A Dame To Kill For. She has a very apparent knack for portraying tough characters in genre films and shows, so all eyes are on her to make the most of Blink within the project.

That said, we would be remiss for not pointing out the fact that Jamie Chung has some big shoes to fill when it comes to portraying Blink. The character previously appeared in Bryan Singer's X-Men: Days of Future Past (portrayed by Fan Bingbing) and her teleportation combat sequences were easily some of the coolest action scenes committed to film in the last few years.

If the upcoming X-Men show can match the overall inventiveness of Days of Future Past's teleportation sequences, then that should bode very well for the quality and style of the entire affair. Let's keep our fingers crossed that Blink will continue to wow us.

CinemaBlend will keep you up to date with all of the latest and greatest updates about the potential upcoming X-Men series as more information becomes available to us. For now, check out our midseason premiere guide for more information related to all of the remaining spring TV debuts in 2017.

A new season of Gotham naturally means that a new batch of characters will be making their debuts in Gotham City, though this latest addition to the lineup isn't on the wrong side of the law. (At least, not yet.) Once Upon a Time star Jamie Chung has joined the cast of Gotham for Season 3, and she'll be playing a character that we weren't expecting at all: Valerie Vale, the aunt to famed Batman mythos character Vicki Vale.

Now, you might have heard some months back that there was casting being done for the role of Valerie Vale, with a description that sounded much like the Vicki we've known for years. And then it was announced very recently that "Valerie" was indeed going to be Gotham's version of Vicki, but it looks like that confirmation was put out there a little too haphazardly and without much confirmation.

Since we're all caught up with who is playing who, we can get into just who Valerie Vale is, since she did not originate within the comic books as her niece did. As the Gotham Gazette's newest reporter, she will put to use all of her journalistic prowess to figure out what the hell is happening at Indian Hill. Her nose for scoops cannot be deterred, and she soon becomes convinced that Jim Gordon is the key to unlocking all of the secrets to Dr. Hugo Strange's bizarre experiments. I can't imagine that this will go well for anyone, since discovering information in Gotham City only leads to darkness. And also resurrected monstrosities and Bruce Wayne doppelgängers, naturally.

Valerie's presence here over Vicki's is a great decision as far as I'm concerned, considering Vicki and Bruce unlock different kinds of secrets together as adults. Having yet another Batman character come into the story so much older than Bruce Wayne would have been mildly frustrating. Now it looks like we might actually get to meet young Vicki at some point in the future. Perhaps a weird asexual love triangle between her, Bruce and Selina? Perhaps not.

Jamie Chung has been all over the place in recent years, and her recent TV gigs include the acclaimed but short-lived sci-fi drama Believe, the Hulu comedy Resident Advisors and Once Upon a Time, in which she recurred as the princess Mulan, as seen above. On the big screen, she could be heard in Big Hero 6 as Go-Go and could be seen in movies like The Hangover Part III, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and Premium Rush.

Gotham Season 3 will kick off as Season 2 left off, with bonkers experiments running around the city and making life hell. We'll get to meet a batch of new villains and we might even see some similarities between the show's storyline and our own current political landscape. Keep your eyes open for more news as it's unveiled - or unVALEd, as it were - and you can plan on getting Season 3 into your eyeballs on Fox starting Monday, September 19. For everything else premiering before then, check out our summer TV schedule.

J.J. Abrams is plenty busy with his feature film career, the writer-director is releasing Star Trek Into Darkness this summer before beginning work on Episode VII of the Star Wars saga, but that hasn't stopped him from continuing his work in television. The co-creator of LOST, not to mention the creative mind behind Felicity and Alias, got two more pilot orders early this year and one has started to put together a pretty great ensemble.

NBC's Believe, from Abrams and the multi-talented Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men), already brought in Delroy Lindo and Jake McLaughlin and now, according to THR, Jamie Chung, Sienna Guillory and Johnny Sequoyah have also been cast. The drama, written and directed by Cuaron (that right there should be enough to get the pilot put to series), sounds similar to I Am Number Four as it follows a youth with great powers and a guardian assigned to protect her from some evil pursuers.

Newcomer Sequoyah (Ass Backwards) has signed on to play Bo, the powerful young girl, with McLaughlin in the role of Tate (the protector) who, for some reason, must be sprung from prison before he can play bodyguard. Helping him escape, and therefore obviously also on Bo's team, is Jamie Chung (Sucker Punch, Once Upon a Time) as Channing, "a strong, practical and smart woman" who works for Lindo's character named Winter. How ominous. Finally, Guillory (from three Resident Evils) plays a "cool hit-woman" with mommy issues named Moore but the post doesn't describe in detail how she fits into the rest of the world. I'm hoping we get the chance to find out.

They may spell their names differently, but one thing that Jaime King and Jamie Chung have in common is that both will be playing parts in the upcoming Robert Rodriguz-directed sequel Sin City: A Dame To Kill For. The role will be the first that Chung plays in the franchise, but it will be a homecoming for King, who played twins Goldie and Wendy in Rodriguez's 2005 original.

THR has the casting news and adds that production on the movie began today in Austin, Texas (where's Rodriguez's Troublemaker Studios is headquartered). Chung will be taking over in the role of Miho, the Old Town prostitute/assassin who was played by Devon Aoki in the first film. The trade doesn't say why Aoki will not be returning. The two actresses join a cast that already includes Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson and Mickey Rourke, who will be reprising their parts as Nancy, Gail and Marv.

There is one big piece of weirdness in this story: while the cameras are rolling, the film still hasn't cast two of its major leads. The title suggests that the movie's main story will follow Frank Miller's graphic novel about Dwight (first played by Clive Owen) as he becomes entangled with a femme fatale named Ava. There hasn't been any official news about whether or not Owen will return (though sources say that he will) and while Ava was originally written for Angelina Jolie, the Oscar-winning actress isn't attached to the project. It's worth noting that Dwight underwent major facial reconstruction in the time between "A Dame To Kill For" and "The Big, Fat Kill," the story featured in Sin City (the new movie is partially a prequel, which explains why Marv is still alive). They are also still looking to cast a new character created for the film named Johnny, who THR says is, "a smooth gambler."

Once Upon a Time has a tough new woman coming on board Season 2. Jamie Chung has been cast in a recurring role as the legendary Chinese warrior Mulan – yes, the very same one made famous by Disney’s animated feature. I think it’s safe to say that this version won’t be anything resembling a Disney princess.

According to EWChung, who appeared in The Hangover 2 and Sucker Punch, has been cast in the role, which comes from an ancient Chinese poem. Mulan is a young woman who steps up to take her father’s place as a fighter in the Chinese army. The ballad follows her twelve years there as a warrior who earns a place among the best but remains humble.

There are no details on how the role will fit into the series, but it’s said to be recurring so it looks like Mulan will be around for a while. Jamie Chung is a busy woman these days, with several movies including Premium Rush and The Man With the Iron Fists both due out this year and a TV movie called The Asset just going into production. Chung is actually Korean, but Hollywood doesn’t tend to worry about such differences when it comes to casting.

Once Upon a Time is one of those series than could have been a total bomb given the difficulty of the concept, which could easily have gone down the path of the cheesy. Good casting was a big part of avoiding that making the show a hit; I am willing to bet we will see more interesting casting news for Season 2 coming up soon.

Sure it’s all about The Avengers right now, but come next year, Superman will be back in the spotlight when Man of Steel hits theaters. I’m not going to pretend to know all the nitty gritty details of the Superman realm, but I can deduce that General Zod’s (Michael Shannon) involvement does mean there’s a military component to the film and, while discussing his Tribeca Film Festival release, Knife Fight, Man of Steel’s Dr. Emil Hamilton, Richard Schiff, took the time to talk about shooting at Edwards Air Force Base.

While on location, Schiff was in impressive company. “The real Navy SEALs and a bunch of guys played the extras.” He added, “They're this impressive bunch of men and women.” Of director Zack Snyder, Schiff reminisced, “He can throw a good football. We had a nice little catch at Edwards Air Force Base in a big hangar.”

And apparently Snyder is the kind of guy who likes to bring the fun and games home with him, too. Schiff explained, “It's like going over to a kid's house who's got all the toys.” Schiff’s Knife Fight co-star and the star of Snyder’s Sucker Punch, Jamie Chung, agreed as Schiff continued, “He's got all the toys and he's happy to share it with you and he's happy to have fun.’

Now the big question is, while it might have been fun making the movie and hanging out with Snyder, what’ll we think come June 14, 2013? Schiff joked, “I expect it to make a lot of money for those people that created it.” He added, “I expect that to be a pretty fun run at Superman.”

Catch the clip of Schiff discussing Man of Steel below and be sure to keep an eye out for the full interview with Schiff and Chung on Knife Fight coming soon.

Activision is enlisting top television and film actors for the upcoming comic book games Spider-Man: Edge of Time and X-Men Destiny. Today they announced who will be playing key roles in each game.

Spider-Man: Edge of Time's voice cast is headlined by Val Kilmer. He'll be playing the role of Walker Sloan. Smallville and V star Laura Vandervoort will voice Spidey's main squeeze Mary Jane. Katee Sackhoff, better known as Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica, will play the Black Cat.

Sucker Punch's Jamie Chung, Heroes star, Milo Ventimiglia, and Friday Night Lights regular Scott Porter (Jason Street!) will voice playable characters in X-Men Destiny. Each character is a young mutant learning to come to grips with their powers. They've been created specifically for this game.

Some or all of these actors will appear at the Activision Marvel Video Games Panel at San Diego Comic Con. During the panel they'll discuss their roles in these upcoming games. The event, which will also be attended by Stan Lee and Peter David among others, will take place on July 23rd at 10 am.

In Spider-Man: Edge of Time, players control Amazing Spider-Man as well as Spider-Man 2099. The two must work together to prevent the death of Amazing Spider-Man. The actions of Spider-Man in the present are said to affect what happens to his futuristic counterpart. Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions studio Beenox is developing Edge for the PS3, Xbox 360, 3DS and Wii.

X-Men Destiny puts players in the shoes of a young mutant. Will they use their powers for good or evil? In addition to making moral decisions, players must also choose how to upgrade and customize their character. Silicon Knights is preparing the game for a PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii release. Other Ocean is developing a DS version of this game as well as Edge.

Both Destiny and Edge of Time will be playable at Comic Con this week. Stop by the Activision booth (#5445) to get some hands-on time with each.

Jamie Chung can't seem to catch a break. So far this year she has appeared in two films that seemed to have a lot of potential - Sucker Punch and The Hangover Part II - but have been bashed by critics (the former ended up with a 22% rating on Rotten Tomatoes while the latter, which is due out on Thursday, is currently sitting with a 33%). So what do you do in that kind of situation? You go the indie route.

Variety reports that Chung has signed on to star alongside Rob Lowe, Julie Bowen, Connie Britton, Jennifer Morrison, Rebecca Mader and Titus Welliver in Knife Fight. Described as a political drama and directed by Bill Guttentag - who is also co-writing the script with Chris Lehane - the film is about a crisis manager (Lowe) who helps politicians dealing with scandal. Chung will play Lowe's assistant who is quickly learning her bosses' skill and becoming a spinmaster in her own right. The film will begin production next month and is targeting an October 2012 release date, just in time for the presidential election.

The film actually sounds a lot like Jason Reitman's Thank You For Smoking, which Rob Lowe coincidentally also starred in. Chung seems to be taking a part similar to the one played by Cameron Bright, playing the young-person trying to learn about the art of spin. Here's the catch: I have no problem with that. Thank You For Smoking is a fun, high-energy film and I can easily see Lowe stepping into Aaron Eckhart's boots. Let's hope the word "drama" hanging up in the second paragraph isn't taken too seriously.

Unless you are a completely diluted, self-centered individual, you understand that you need others to help you survive in this world, whether it’s just getting by in your day-to-day life or trying to escape a mental hospital. So when Babydoll (Emily Browning) plans the latter, she doesn’t try to go it herself, and enlists the help of Amber (Jamie Chung), Rocket (Jena Malone) and Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) to help her.

Just as I’ve been posting all week, below you will find another roundtable with the actresses of Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch, due out this Friday. The topics vary from their roles in the cut musical number (that will be featured on the director’s cut home release), the unwillingness to use stunt doubles, and the stories behind their characters. Check it out!

So I guess the first thing, what’s your most vivid memory of making this movie?

Jena: Probably day one of physical training, just because it was the hardest, I was the most unprepared, I had no idea what to expect, I had never stepped in a gym before in my entire life so I was super nervous, I didn’t even know what to wear really, and I was just completely debilitated. I walked out of there and I started crying. I was like, oh my God I don’t think I can do this at all. Three weeks in, I gained ten pounds of muscle and became completely addicted.

Have you been in a gym since?

Jena: No, not really, off and on. I’m not really that kind of person but I definitely have more of a physical-minded outlook and a healthier approach on how to maintain fit, and emotionally, too. It’s a really important release.

Jamie: I would have to say spending time with the girls and bonding on and off set. But we kind of made the set our home, our little trailer village. Jena would play her music on the loudspeaker so we would all share, during Christmas we had Christmas trees and we set up Christmas lights, we just really made a family in Vancouver.

Vanessa: Both of those things were extremely memorable, in my top three. And I think the second morning I woke up in Vancouver after working out, almost unable to walk. I was so sore, I’ve never experienced that kind of pain physically before in my life, but I showed up and the girls were there and they just kind of kept me going.

It was explained to us before that you did physical training for the stunts for three months, and you guys did it for one month, is that correct?

Jena: Abbie and Emily and I did a month in LA, a month in Vancouver, and then the girls came in to join us for the third month. And so they did six months total and we did 8 months total.

And how rigorous was the stunt work?

Jena: Rigorous. Completely fighting. I mean we had the most incredible stunt choreographer known to mankind. Damon Caro is like, you can’t ask for someone kinder, sweeter, more prepared, interested in your safety, interested in bringing out the best in you. I remember I learned how to do some sort of, I could do like a really good triple roundhouse double kick, you know, that I was like, “I got really good at this!” And he’s like, “Well good we’re incorporating it into your piece.” I was like, “Yes!” He was really good about teaching us, pushing us, rewarding us in a way that it really felt educational, kind of school, and very much fun even though you’re sweating, you’re like blind from sweating so much. It was really incredible.

Abbie told us how she thinks that Sweet Pea’s ended up in the hospital, that she took half the blame basically for something that you might have done.

Jena: Not might, did!

In your character breakdown, how did you both end up in that lovely Vermont establishment?

Jena: Well what I think is the most interesting is that it’s not about…These characters, they’ve ended up in a situation that is quite detrimental and it sort of compromised all of their freedoms. And I think what’s interesting about Zack is that he’s not really interested in about how they got there, they’re interested in what they do once they’re actually there. And I think that’s a lot about why, because instead of sort of being held up in the past of, “What did I do?” or “What didn’t I do?” and regrets, it’s like, no, “How can I be the fullest person that I am, in the moment?” And so I think all of us did a lot of preparation for our own selves, but I don’t think it’s as interesting to know as the audience, necessarily.

While we know a big production number got cut, there were little bits of production numbers in the credits. So going in, how much of that was part of the deal, part of the training, there’s choreography, there’s vocals, and then along the way, sadly, we don’t get to see that.

Jena: Well with the director’s cut I think you’ll be awfully satisfied, and so shall we. But we all worked really hard on these dances that we got to do and they’re very fulfilling and a kind of beautiful to step out of the male-driven gym, and strong fight stances, and then getting to go and remember the graceful dance of your body.

That would be partly the room and partly your characters. So what did each of you do for your dance numbers?

Jena: I did like a sci-fi zombie nurse pole-dance. I started up inside of a giant syringe and sort of pole-danced my way down the needle and then did a little jig and came back and did a little jig.

Jamie: My character was this bedazzled lunch maid. It’s pretty interesting, it started with a keyhole, and that theme plays well throughout the film

Jena: Each kind of represented an element of what the thing that we were fighting for and that mine was like the map of the mind.

Vanessa: And I do a belly-dance. Yeah, it represents getting a tool that we needed, which was a knife. So I got to dance with a knife and it was very a spectacular Moroccan set with amazing veils and all this bedazzlement. It was amazing.

It must have been disappointing that they were taken out, considering. They sound awesome.

Jena: Yeah, well not really, I think just more for us personally, to be like “Oh I wanna see!” But we did get to see them.

Jamie: In terms of the story itself, it flows, it doesn’t really need it. But selfishly I wanted it in there. And it will be for the director’s cut.

What about the idea of stunt doubles. I mean, we’re talking about killing yourselves for all of this activity and everything, what happened to the idea that you could just come on the set and act, and somebody else could put on those things.

Jamie: No way. After all that hard work and training, and by then it’s like you want to do everything yourself. And these girls, it was to a point where it was like, “Enough it enough. Let’s move on.” Because they’re like, “Well let’s do it one more time!” They just got so into it.

Jena: Yeah, I think what’s a really interesting misconception, and it’s kind of strange that a lot of actors are like, “Oh, well I do all my own stunts,” that sort of thing. It’s like, well, it takes years and years and years to train your body to understand the ability to be able to do some of the stunt work, and for me to be able to walk in with some sort of presumption that in three months I’ll be able to learn what someone has taken a lifetime to master is just completely ridiculous. But what they give you is not only a physical strength, to be able to endure shooting these fight sequences for sixteen hour days, but it also gives you a physical embodiment of the confidence, a physical embodiment of the character, a physical embodiment of what it is to actually wield these weapons and do these things. Because it is not just generic action.

Your pieces were very specific to what your character was going through, and the aggression. And mine was very specific to the feistiness, and how fast, and sort of adventurous she was, and the excitability. But I was honored to have my stunt double come in and do my pieces. And we used to call them stunt shadows because, by the way, these women, as we were having to do all our things, our treks, they were behind us learning every single move, learning our every little bit. I have a little bit of a knee wobble when I do this one thing and I remember turning around and Sam had copied my knee wobble, and I said, “Well maybe I should be copying your knee wobble because I don’t know if this is the best thing!”

Jamie: And I don’t know if you remember that mirror scene. There’s a mirror scene in the dressing room of the brothel and it’s actually the stunt doubles backs that are mimicking the girls and all their movements. That was really fun to watch.

Jena: We had gotten so far and we had been working together so closely that it was really easy to replicate each other’s movements. When I had my stunt double go up and do these pieces, after we would get a couple chances to do them and they would do them and just sort of see what worked and what didn’t and it was an honor. I really felt like it was a beautiful teamwork. I never felt frustrated, like, “Well why can’t I do that.” I could really see why certain things, they absolutely had to do. Like they were not going to throw me into a wall at a high speed fifteen different times, that’s just not appropriate. But then the fact that they allow us to do a lot of things and actually we showed them and proved to them that we could handle these things, it sort of became a bigger achievement than just saying, “Well I do all my own stunts.” It’s a little presumptuous, I think.

The stunt stuff with the big weapons and everything, was that all shot on blank sound stages and everything was added behind you then?

Jena: No, it was 80% actual sets. We had such an incredible production designer Rick Carter. All of the worlds were actually there for us, we had men in prosthetics to actually be the orcs, to be the knights, to be the all these different elements that we were fighting. There was actually, like, a castle that we were storming, and they actually built a World War I trench, and they actually built a bullet train. Though that sequence was the one that was a little bit heavier in green screen. So I’d say probably 80/20 was the percentage of green screen usage.

Every generation has its sort of, kick-butt She-ro that they cheer on, you know, Sigourney Weaver, Angelina Jolie, whatever. Who did you grow up wanting to be, a kick-butt kind of person. Was there somebody that you liked that you maybe saw likened this character to, and your character to?

Vanessa: I mean, some of the people who you mention, Angelina Jolie, Sigourney Weaver, Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. Just really strong women that you get to see kick but and it’s very rare.

Jamie: La Femme Nikita.

Jena: I mean I hate to say it but Sarah Polley’s character in Dawn of the Dead was pretty fucking awesome. I remember seeing that and being like, “That is someone I’ve never seen, that is awesome, I love that action star.” Like this nurse that’s kind of like tired, but she totally kicks ass, makes the right decisions in the moment.

We know a little bit about Rocket’s back-story but we don’t really know so much about where you guys are coming from. Did you, in your minds, bother to invent your own back-stories, and in the case of Amber I thought it was interesting because she mans the gigantic RoboCop-esque structure and then she rides the helicopter, for some reason, you seem to be the mechanical wiz in the group. But I didn’t know why because I didn’t know much about your character.

Jamie: I felt like, you know, of course there’s the back-story that’s the actor’s work that we had to do, but let me break it down for you. So Amber, she’s fiercely loyal, she’s very timid in the beginning and it’s only until Babydoll comes with this amazing plan and brings all these girls together that she finds the strength within herself to go along with these missions.

Jena: I mean you’re the first one in when she presents the plan. And the Mecha and the B-25 bomber, they’re the ones that kind of come to the rescue a bit, they’re the ones sort of like flying over, they’re like, “Okay, in that final moment that you need the ultimate loyalty to come in, okay, where’s ­­­­­­­­­­the Mecha?,” and comes and smashes it down, like, comes and saves us. And that translates in the brothel sub-reality when, it’s like, you’re the first one in, you’re the first one to steal an item, it literally is fiercely loyal.

Jamie: Yeah, and she came through and put the knife under the desk for Babydoll to save herself from Blue. I feel like I’m every character.

And how about your character? I mean despite the fact that she makes a choice that kind of…

Vanessa: She does a lot of things out of fear; she’s kind of a follower. She doesn’t really stand up for her own rights, I believe, which it probably, eventually, inevitably put her in the institute. When you’re doing things out of fear they’re usually not the smartest of things and it does come back and catches up with her.

What do you think the five women here, through this journey and sacrifice, represent? When people walk out of this, what do you think they’re supposed to be getting?

Jena: That women can basically do anything that they put their minds to.

Jamie: That we’re multi-layered. That as a female hero, you can show various layers of different emotions and different sides.

Vanessa: Yeah, the freedom and strength of the mind. You know we don’t get enough credit and it’s just amazing that when you are put in dire, compromising situations, you really can find your own positives, find your own freedom, and make your destiny. Bam!

Have you guys been angling for Superman, or no?

All Three: No…

Working again with Zack, is that something you’d like to do?

Jamie: We don’t have to be in his movies to support him, you know? I would bring him his coffee everyday.

And what are you guys doing next?

Jena: Breaking it up!

Jamie: I have Hangover and Premium Rush

Vanessa: I have a movie coming out called Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. It’s like a fun, big, family 3D adventure film. And that’s with Michael Caine, so I can check it off my bucket list.

Are there more High School Musicals?

Vanessa: No.

You’d think that after releasing maybe the largest promotional poster ever the other day that Warner Bros. would cool it with the marketing of Sucker Punch at least on the poster side of things for a little while. Well, apparently there’s a reason we’re not paid to market films because they’ve gone ahead and released yet another visually stimulating poster for Zack Snyder’s next romp.

With heavy shades of greens and browns, video game fans will likely confuse this for a poster for the long talked about Bioshock film until their double take confirms that that’s not a big daddy in the background. The poster still reminds us of what we’re going to get once the movie drop in March: high flying action, dragons, and five hot girls ready to make the burliest of dudes feel like little girly men.

Thanks to Yahoo! Movies for getting this out.

Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Uprising isn't just some simple Red Alert 3 mission pack. It'll have its own storyline and a new lovable-but-bizarre cast of live actors. They've even got a classic pro wrestler this time:

• Jamie Chung - Dragonball Evolution
• Ric Flair - 16-time world heavyweight wrestling champion
• Malcolm McDowell - Heroes, Clockwork Orange, Wing Commander
• Jodi Lyn O'Keefe - Prison Break, She's All That
• Holly Valance - Neighbours, DOA: Dead or Alive

The five new actors will be joined by returning RA3 cast members Gemma Atkinson and Ivana Milicevic. The press release notes that some of the stars, including Flair, will be opponents in Uprising's new Commander's Challenge mode. The Commander's Challenge features fifty scenarios that players must battle through in order to unlock powerful new units added in Uprising.

Uprising will be released for the PC this March for $20. It's a standalone game so you won't need to have Red Alert 3 installed to play.