Molly Templeton
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I read, I write, & I pet cats. Columnist & more @reactormag; publicity & more for the estate of @ursulakleguin. Not here; come find me at the blue place.
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Articles by Molly Templeton
The Fourth Wing Series Has Found Its Violet and Xaden - Reactor
Prime Video’s adaptation of Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros’ bestselling novel, has found its stars. Variety reports that Esther McGregor will play Violet Sorrengail, the scribe-in-training who becomes a dragon rider. Emilio Sakraya will play Xaden Riorson, another dragon rider whose family has a history with Violet’s mother, a general who leads Basgiath War College, where dragon riders train.
What to Watch and Read This Weekend: I Don’t Know What to Do With the Netflix Volcano Sacrifice Movie - Reactor
Welcome to another week of All the Books! The fall continues to be the fall, which is to say, the season in which publishing believes it needs to release all the “big” books. I won’t bore you with a tirade on this topic; I will just say that we all only have so much time to read, and may have to be quite selective, perhaps tactical, about how to balance our reading time with the rest of the million things tugging at our attention at any given moment.
You Might Not Want to Go Home Again in the Trailer for the Final Season of Yellowjackets - Reactor
Those kids who got lost in the wilderness, they had a super normal time, right? Difficult, but straightforward. Or so they’re going to say. At the start of the latest look at the final season of Yellowjackets, the survivors collectively tell their tale of woe: “The plane crashed. Our friends died. And the rest of us starved. And scavenged. And we prayed until they finally found us.” That definitely, totally, does not even begin to cover it.
WandaVision Creator Jac Schaeffer Is Developing a Stargate Series - Reactor
When Amazon bought MGM Studios in 2021, it acquired a pile of movie and television properties. Slowly, it’s been building on those; the Legally Blonde prequel series Elle is one of the projects that arose from that deal. But another property has proved somewhat elusive. In 2023, Deadline‘s reporting on possible Amazon MGM Studios projects included Stargate.
We're Getting a New Princess Leia Novel From Claudia Gray - Reactor
Yes, next year there’s a new Star Wars movie, but next year there is also a particularly exciting new Star Wars book—and it’s gorgeous. The YA novel Star Wars: Princess of the Rebellion comes from regular Star Wars author Claudia Gray, who isn’t new to writing Leia Organa: She also wrote the exceptionally good adult novel Bloodline and the extremely charming YA novel Leia, Princess of Alderaan. She’s written young Leia and adult Leia, and now she’s writing Leia at a very specific moment.
Humanity's Not Doing So Well in the Blade Runner 2099 Trailer - Reactor
The war is over, and the humans lost. In Prime Video’s Blade Runner 2099, which—shockingly, I know—takes place 50 years after Blade Runner 2049, the makers have become the subjugated. The replicant revolution happened, and … well, to be honest, I’m not sure what role humans have in this future. Given that the whole point is that it’s hard to tell human from replicant, you don’t necessarily know who’s who in the trailers.
What to Watch and Read This Weekend: There’s Always Time for More Hobbits - Reactor
For those in and around New York City, this week is New York Comic Con. I wish all con-goers very comfortable footwear, and I offer one piece of unasked-for advice: Don’t touch anything you’re going to put in your mouth.
Do You Need to Be Surprised? - Reactor
Last week, The Guardian ran an excerpt from former Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies’ memoir that was largely about the end of his time on the show. It’s all a bit breathless, and very much an excerpt—there’s not a ton of context—but at one point, Davies takes a little pause to talk about leaks.
Here Are the Winners of the 2026 Ignyte Awards - Reactor
The winners of the 2026 Ignyte Awards were announced this weekend. The Ignyte Awards “seek to celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of the current and future landscapes of science fiction, fantasy, and horror by recognizing incredible feats in storytelling and outstanding efforts toward inclusivity of the genre.” Shortlists are chosen by a jury, and the winners are selected by public vote.
The Redemption Center Is Closed on Sundays by Andrea Hairston Is Wondrous and Expansive - Reactor
What I most want you to know about Andrea Hairston’s The Redemption Center Is Closed on Sunday is that it is both wondrous and intimidating. I don’t think intimidating is a bad thing, to be clear. I like to be a little bit intimidated by a book. The manner in which Redemption Center is intimidating is especially beautiful: It is a work of massive abundance, a novel interested in every detail of the lives of its primary characters and all the people whose lives intersect theirs, even briefly.
What to Watch and Read This Weekend: How Do We Feel About the New Carrie? - Reactor
The honest truth of what I will be watching this weekend is, most likely, Link running across Hyrule in search of electric lizalfos tails. Anyone who has played Tears of the Kingdom—well, anyone who plays TotK like I do, and wants to upgrade all their armor—knows the struggle of which I speak. But sometimes going to Hyrule is how I relax. Even when it’s infuriating.
Curry Barker's Obsession Followup, Anything But Ghosts, Comes Out Next Year - Reactor
If you are tired of waiting three or more years between seasons of your favorite TV shows, or movies in your favorite series, perhaps you might consider just becoming a fan of Curry Barker. The writer-director had a hit with this year’s Obsession, and his follow-up now has a release date: Anything But Ghosts is due out May 7, 2027. Barker has been a multi-hyphenate for years, and he starred in his breakout found-footage horror film Milk & Serial.
What to Watch and Read This Weekend: Avengers: Endgame? Again? - Reactor
Technically, it is now really fall. We got a nice solid rain in Portland to celebrate. This will, I am certain, be the regular fall fakeout; summery weather will return like it always does. But right now it’s damp and crisp and every time I look outside, I notice more trees changing color. (There’s a hike I’ve been trying to go on at just the right time for years, so I have to pay attention to these things. But I’d do that anyway.) If you can’t tell, I am one of those Fall People.
Doctor Who: The Satan Pit Comes to Theaters in November - Reactor
We may presently be waiting for the BBC to reinvent Doctor Who again, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing Who to watch. On this year’s Doctor Who Day—the anniversary of the airing of the first episode—you can watch Doctor Who: The Satan Pit in movie theaters! The Satan Pit is what they’re calling a newly edited version of an excellent two-parter from David Tennant’s first season on the show.
The Trailer for Brad Bird's Sci-Fi Noir Ray Gunn Blends Past and Future - Reactor
Iron Giant director Brad Bird returns to animation this year with a new film that looks longingly to the past—a past full of troubled dames, scrappy PIs, and, uh, mile-high buildings that look like the Star Wars planet of Coruscant.
A Series Adaptation of Keith Rosson's Coffin Moon Is in Development at Paramount - Reactor
Vampires are coming to Portland—at least on the small screen. Well, they’re already here in Keith Rosson’s novel Coffin Moon, in which a veteran and his niece stalk the fiend that murdered someone they love. Now, according to Deadline, the novel is in development as a live-action series for Paramount. In an odd pairing, Jessica Biel’s production company is behind the adaptation. The synopsis for Coffin Moon says: It’s the winter of 1975, and Portland, Oregon, is all sleet and neon.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma Comes to Streaming Next Week - Reactor
That’s right: You can have all the bloody queer camp chaos at home soon. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Jane Schoenbrun’s meta slasher film about a young director seeking out the reclusive star of the horror franchise she’s been hired to reboot, makes its streaming debut on MUBI on October 2nd. This month is all Schoenbrun, all the time: the director’s first novel, Public Access Afterworld, comes out October 27th.
BBC's The Ministry of Time Adaptation Casts Aoife Hinds’ Real-Life Parents as Her Onscreen Family - Reactor
Two years after the publication of Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time, a BBC adaptation is creeping closer to release. The series was picked up for adaptation in 2024, before the book had even hit shelves, such was the buzz about Bradley’s near-future time-travel romance drama.
Can we talk for just two seconds about the Emmys? Okay, so, I didn’t watch the Emmys, but I did feel a great burst of joy when Kate Flynn won for the role of Patricia on Widow’s Bay, and then when Matthew Rhys won TWO awards (one for Widow’s Bay) and then AGAIN when Rhea Seehorn won for Pluribus. It wasn’t just that those were great performances—though of course they all were—but that it felt like a win for original, idiosyncratic, peculiar, specific stories.
Doctor Who Won't Return Until 2028 at Earliest - Reactor
Earlier this year, the BBC changed direction on Doctor Who. Previously, it was announced that the Doctor would return in late 2026 in a Christmas special written by Russell T. Davies. In June, the BBC pulled the plug on that, announcing that the Christmas special was canceled and that Davies was leaving the series. The network said that it would put the show up for “competitive tender,” which essentially means that production companies would be able to make pitches for the rights.
Lanterns’ Midseason Trailer Offers More Guy Gardner, More Sinestro, and More Questions - Reactor
Some appearances to the contrary, we are still in the first season of Lanterns. Yeah, last week’s episode played like a season finale, but only one of the major mysteries set up at the start of the season has been answered. We know who the Manhunter was in the 2016 timeline. We don’t know who puts a bullet in Hal Jordan’s (Kyle Chandler) head in the present-day timeline. That question is one of the things driving John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) as the season continues.
Meryl Streep Is Officially the Voice of Aslan in Greta Gerwig's Narnia: The Magician's Nephew - Reactor
After what feels like years of speculation, a key detail about Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew is at last confirmed. The legendary Meryl Streep will voice the lion Aslan—who, in Gerwig’s telling, has different-colored eyes. According to an Empire cover story, “Aslan’s heterochromic eyes and bold red-striped visage nods to one of her key creative inspirations: David Bowie.” Casting Aslan, Gerwig told Empire, was a challenge.
The Final Trailer for Wildwood Is a Marvel of Animation - Reactor
I’m running out of things to say about how stunning the trailers for Laika’s Wildwood adaptation are. Based on the novel written by Colin Meloy (and illustrated by Carson Ellis), Wildwood is the story of a girl who follows her baby brother into the Impassable Wilderness after he’s abducted by a murder of crows. But it’s also the story of a woman whose grief leads her to make terrible choices, and of a forest full of magical creatures that do not all get along.
On the one hand, it’s hard to look at a trailer for a movie in the Hunger Games cycle and not think, Yup, that looks like a Hunger Game. But on the other, the spectacle remains compelling. For Sunrise on the Reaping, author Suzanne Collins once again returned to the past, this time to tell the story of the 50th Hunger Games—the year that Haymitch Abernathy (Joseph Zada) won.
Lanterns’ Poorna Jagannathan Has an Interesting Take On This Week's Final Scenes - Reactor
Spoilers ahoy! Do not keep reading if you haven’t seen the Lanterns episode “Lights Out.” Well, that plotline ended a little earlier than expected. At the end of last week’s Lanterns, the identity of the Manhunter was revealed: Zoe Macon (Poorna Jagannathan), wife of William Macon (Garret Dillahunt), seducer of John Stewart (Aaron Pierre). This week opened with a flashback set in 2007, as Kerry (Kelly Macdonald) arrived in town and found that her past was close on her heels.
Crystal Lake Trailer Raises a Question: Is This a Friday the 13th Prequel or a Reboot? - Reactor
Like mother, like son: The full trailer for the Friday the 13th prequel series is finally here, and it’s much more horror-coded than the earlier teaser. Sure, there are still some (temporarily) happy campers running around Camp Crystal Lake, but it’s not long before all the smiles are gone—including from the face of lunch lady Pamela Voorhees (Linda Cardellini), who sees her son Jason drown in the lake. Understandably, she finds this difficult to get over.
It’s September?!? It’s September. It’s dark in the morning when I get up for work. (Let’s not talk about what time I get up for work.) But while that is displeasing, it’s also sweater weather. It’s almost time to kick leaves and carve pumpkins.
Avatar: Seven Havens Trailer Takes Us Far Into a Troubled Future - Reactor
It’s a rich year for Avatar fans. Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, the first project from Avatar Studios, just came out in July—and their next project arrives next month. Avatar: Seven Havens follows a young Earthbender named Pavi (voiced by Saheli Khan) who discovers she’s the new Avatar. But there hasn’t been an Avatar since Korra, and something went very, very wrong in Korra’s time.
Over years of movie and television watching, I’ve seen plenty of things get sucked below the water. People. Boats. Animals. But in the trailer for the Netflix series Below, something swallows a whole-ass house. Below stars Josh Hartnett as a Newfoundland fisherman who witnessed said house-swallowing as a child—and so is perhaps best (or worst) prepared to deal when something weird comes from the water.
Ryan Murphy Assembles His A-Team in the Trailer for American Horror Story: 13 - Reactor
If you’re an American Horror Story fan, 13 might be your lucky number. For the ominously numbered 13th season of his anthology horror series, Ryan Murphy has put together his typical all-star cast—but this time, many of his performers are revisiting characters from previous AHS seasons. And yes, that’s characters, plural. Murphy told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year, “Sarah Paulson is playing six or seven roles. Jessica Lange is playing all four of her iconic characters.
Finding Your Recipe for Literary Comfort Food - Reactor
I was in a terrible reading slump this summer, and I didn’t even realize it. Total obliviousness. I thought my bad moods and strange inability to make good use of time were, you know, a product of the state of the world. (Easy mistake to make, right?) And to some degree they were. I am still in a sour mood quite often, and time is moving entirely too quickly.
Mike Flanagan’s Carrie Trailer Takes The Horror Beyond the Prom - Reactor
Carrie is always going to be Carrie: bullied, mocked, unpopular, and eventually, willing to do something about it. Mike Flanagan’s Carrie series looks to hit many of the same notes as Brian De Palma’s 1976 film, both of which are adaptations of Stephen King’s 1974 novel. But a new trailer suggests this series might have a slightly larger scope—one more in keeping with the novel, in which Carrie’s climactic destruction has a much larger effect on the town of Chamberlain. But first, the mean girls.
“We didn’t finish the job like we thought.” As ominous as the first line of the new Godzilla Minus Zero trailer is, it’s also kind of a given: If they’d “finished the job” in Godzilla Minus One, we wouldn’t be here, waiting for the sequel. But it’s two years later, and while the various characters seem somewhat shocked that blowing Godzilla to pieces was not fully effective, they are also willing to kick things up a notch with an even bigger weapon.
Netflix's New Dungeons & Dragons Project is Ravenloft - Reactor
If you’ve been waiting for more news on The Forgotten Realms, the Netflix D&D series announced last year, I’m sorry to say the news isn’t good: According to Deadline, that series is no longer in development. But wait! Come back! That doesn’t mean Netflix has gotten out of the D&D game.
We’re not even halfway through Percy Jackson, and Disney+ is already certain it wants more Rick Riordan. Deadline brings the news that the streaming platform is now developing a live-action adaptation of Riordan’s Kane Chronicles—and, as with Percy, Riordan himself is co-creating the show. He’s working with Angela Robinson, an experienced writer and producer whose resume includes time on True Blood and The L Word, and who wrote and directed the film Professor Marston and the Wonder Women.
Meryl Streep, Colman Domingo, and Bill Hader Are Among the Latest Cast for the Animated Lincoln in the Bardo - Reactor
Is it possible for a movie to have altogether too much star power? The first casting announcement for Lincoln in the Bardo, the movie adapted by George Saunders from his own novel, was a single person: Tom Hanks, who will voice Abraham Lincoln in the animated film. Then, all of a sudden, we have a whole list of incredible actors. Last week, Deadline broke the news that Willem Dafoe (The Lighthouse), Jonathan Bailey (Wicked), and Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) had signed on.
Obsession’s Inde Navarrette Will Star in The Waffle House Index - Reactor
After a breakout role in Obsession, Inde Navarrette has begun to line up an intriguing late of new projects.
Clíodhna O’Sullivan’s Her Hidden Fire Is Headed for a Series Adaptation - Reactor
The latest romantasy novel to get picked up for an adaptation is Clíodhna O’Sullivan’s Her Hidden Fire, the story of an unlikely magic-wielder and the magicless boy she loves. Deadline has the news that the Irish production company Great Island has optioned the book and its upcoming sequels for an eight-part series aimed at a young adult audience.
The Japanese Horror Film Pulse Is Getting Remade (Again) - Reactor
Even in the 2000s, when we all spent a little less time online, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 2001 film Pulse led a Washington Post critic to write, “You may go home and throw out your computer and lock the doors.” Techno-alarm is a theme in the film’s reviews—so you can see how it, you know, might be relevant these days. So relevant, in fact, that it’s being remade again. Or rather “reimagined,” according to Deadline, which has the news that filmmaker Dave Boyle will direct the new version.
Netflix's Next Roald Dahl Project Is a Series Based on Dahl's Short Work for Adults - Reactor
Moderately hot on the heels of the announcement of Netflix’s peculiar Roald Dahl reality series, The Golden Ticket, comes news of the streamer’s next Dahl project. Danny Brocklehurst (Fool Me Once) has been hired to write a six-part series that, according to Deadline, “will chart a course through some of Dahl’s vignettes.” The logline says only, “Brocklehurst weaves a deliciously twisted tale through Roald Dahl’s iconic short stories.
What to Watch and Read This Weekend: Sex and Death, Fast and Furious - Reactor
I am, apparently, old enough to remember when August was a dull month for movies. No longer! Movies cannot be controlled by anything so basic as a calendar! And thus we have a whole lot of releases this weekend—and, naturally, rereleases. As one of my wise colleagues said earlier, nostalgia is how you make money now. Not everything here is nostalgic, though. Promise.
Yellowjackets’ Final Season Arrives Just in Time for Thanksgiving Feasting - Reactor
Last fall, Yellowjackets co-creators and showrunners Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson announced that their show would end a little earlier than planned. The creators had said they had a five-season plan for their story about teen soccer players surviving a plane crash and its years-later aftermath.
Murderbot Season 2 Has an Incredible New Cast - Reactor
Apple TV’s charming Murderbot series, based on the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, was renewed for a second season all the way back in 2025, and there’s been barely any news about it since then. But now we have a cast announcement—and what a cast it is. Apple revealed the lineup on social media with a little video of actors’ headshots, taped to a wall in the shape of a two. There was no other information whatsoever. And yet this news is very intriguing.
Laika's Wildwood Adaptation Looks Incredible In a New Trailer - Reactor
Neither murders of crows nor inconvenient highway closures will keep me from seeing Wildwood, the extremely Portland, extremely beautiful next film from Laika (the animation studio that also brought you Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings).
The third season of Disney’s charming Percy Jackson and the Olympians has some truly inspired casting—this trailer needs more Ming-Na Wen as Hera!—but top of that list may just be Kate McKinnon as an unlikely Aphrodite. “The power of love” has, well, kind of lost its power as a cinematic plot device, but somehow, when McKinnon says, “If we’re going to survive a war with the Titans, it will be because of love”… I kind of believe her.
Ahsoka Season 2 Trailer Teases Epic Space Battles and More Anakin Skywalker Ahead of January Return - Reactor
It’s been three years since Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) was stranded on a distant planet with her friend (and one-time apprentice) Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo).
Ex-Girls Men Join X-Men Movie's Growing Cast - Reactor
The gang’s almost all here—though a few notable characters are missing from Marvel’s new X-Men team. In the wake of Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s Jean Grey reveal (apologies to those who’ve not yet seen the movie, including me), Marvel has been announcing new X-Men left and right. The latest new mutants were announced at Disney’s D23 exposition this past weekend, and it’s a funny bunch. Christopher Abbott—whom Girls fans may remember as Marnie’s other boyfriend—is your new Professor Charles Xavier.
Solo Writer Jon Kasdan's New Project Is a Supernatural YA Rom-Com for Netflix - Reactor
What happens when you borrow one name from Sid & Nancy and another name from Franny & Zooey? Really, you just have two names—but you also have Sid & Zoey, a new show coming to Netflix from creator Jon Kasdan. According to Netflix: Over eight episodes, the series will follow Sid, a seductive, sophisticated, and amoral teenager from New York, as he’s sent to live with a police chief and his family in the idyllic Mississippi town where his mother grew up.
What to Watch and Read This Weekend: The Intergalactic Adventures of Coach Taylor in Lanterns - Reactor
I was not in the right place (or time zone) to see the eclipse or the Perseids this week, and I’m sad about it. I hope you got to experience something cool in the sky. August continues to August about, hot and confusing, muggy and occasionally smoky, as we either look forward to or dread the return of fall. (Both? It can be both.) Somehow, August brings both interesting TV series and interesting books, and is no longer the media doldrums it once was.
Pluto TV Adds (Almost) All the Star Trek You Could Ever Ask For - Reactor
In case the news has somehow missed you, 2026 is a big year for all things Star Trek: September 8th marks the 60th anniversary of the premiere of the original series. Many of the festivities planned by Paramount have already passed, even though the big day is not yet here. But if you’d like to get your Trek on in the leadup to September 8th, Pluto TV would like to help.
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