Steven Yeun’s Pagans Sets Its Netflix Cast — plus Star-Lord and More

Morning News · Thursday 22 October 2026

Steven Yeun’s supernatural Netflix drama Pagans has found the family at its dark heart, with a casting twist for Walking Dead fans. This edition also has a new name for Ari Aster’s secretive Scapegoat, a folk horror deal between Netflix and Bengali streamer Hoichoi, Chris Pratt promising Star-Lord’s return, a Poison Ivy series in the works at HBO, a first look at Minnie Driver’s British heist thriller and a major honour for Tom Cruise.

The News That Matters

Steven Yeun’s Netflix horror Pagans casts his on-screen family, with a Walking Dead twist

• New development: Netflix has cast Sabine Grace, Logan Kim, Marin Ireland and Intae Kim opposite Yeun, Deadline reported on Wednesday 21 October
• The story: Widower Gus (Yeun) becomes the sole carer for his two children after his wife’s death. His son Nate is easy-going, but his daughter Alice is anything but, and their strained relationship turns into something far more sinister
• Behind it: Created by Joshua Zetumer, of Say Nothing, with Drew Goddard among the executive producers
• UK availability: Coming to Netflix, which streams in the UK. UK date not yet confirmed

Grace makes her television debut as Alice, the family’s black sheep, who keeps the world at arm’s length. Logan Kim, from Ghostbusters: Afterlife, plays her brother Nate, and it is the second time he has played Yeun’s son. He took over the role of Hershel Rhee, son of Yeun’s Glenn, in The Walking Dead: Dead City.

Marin Ireland plays Janelle, a single mum struggling to connect with her 14-year-old daughter, and Intae Kim, from Succession, plays Gus’s younger brother Casey. Dead City’s Maggie, Lauren Cohan, has also just landed a new horror series, Prime Video’s Stillwater.

Cory Michael Smith joins Ari Aster’s secretive Scapegoat, with Scarlett Johansson

• New development: Smith has joined the ensemble, Deadline reported on Wednesday 21 October
• Cast: Scarlett Johansson leads, with Jacob Elordi, Jude Law, Ella Purnell, Caleb Landry Jones and Samba Schutte
• Behind it: Aster writes and directs, and produces with Lars Knudsen through their Square Peg banner. A24, which released all four of Aster’s earlier films, is distributing
• UK availability: No release date yet. UK date not yet confirmed

The plot is being kept firmly under wraps. Deadline hears theories ranging from a doctor operating on an internet-famous patient to a sci-fi romance or a more traditional drama for the director of Hereditary and Midsommar. It is his follow-up to Eddington.

Smith, from HBO’s Mountainhead, has a busy few months ahead. He plays the scare actor “Metal Mike” in Jeremy Saulnier’s haunted-house horror Slayground, which A24 releases in the US on 29 January.

Netflix and Hoichoi team up to take Bengali folk horror to new audiences

• New development: The two streamers announced a two-year partnership in Mumbai on Thursday 22 October, Variety reported
• The deal: Every new Hoichoi series for the next two years will stream on Netflix in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu on the day it launches in Bengali on Hoichoi. Netflix also gets 14 existing Hoichoi series, and the pair will make new shows together
• First up: The Cursed Temple of Kauriburi, a horror series rooted in folklore, starring Jeetu Kamal, Solanki Roy and Paoli Dam, from Friday 6 November
• UK availability: The deal covers Hindi, Tamil and Telugu versions on Netflix. UK availability not yet confirmed

The library titles include the folklore horror The Curse of Parnashavari, crime thrillers and detective mysteries such as Eken Sirji. Hoichoi launched in 2017 and says it reaches more than 250 million Bengalis around the world.

For Netflix, it is part of a wider push to add more licensed shows to its own originals in India, and it gives regional horror a far bigger stage.

Chris Pratt confirms Star-Lord will return to the MCU

• New development: Pratt said on The Playlist’s Bingeworthy podcast that Marvel has taken “hard action” to bring Peter Quill back, Variety reported on Thursday 22 October
• What he said: “You’ll see Star-Lord again, which is very exciting, but I’m not at liberty to say when that’s going to be, but he’s not going anywhere”
• Background: The end credits of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 promised that “the legendary Star-Lord will return”
• UK availability: No date for Star-Lord’s return yet. All three Guardians of the Galaxy films stream on Disney+ in the UK

Pratt says he has a great relationship with Kevin Feige and Lou D’Esposito, and that there have been ongoing talks about how Marvel “make good on that promise”. Earlier this year he admitted he had pitched his own idea for Quill’s comeback, saying he had “a really strong vision” for the character.

Pratt has played Star-Lord in six films, most recently Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2023. Marvel’s next film is Avengers: Doomsday, due in cinemas on Friday 18 December, and Hayley Atwell recently revealed that it shot storylines that were later dropped.

The Penguin boss Lauren LeFranc in talks to produce a Poison Ivy series for HBO

• New development: LeFranc is in talks to produce a live-action Poison Ivy series for DC and HBO, Deadline and Variety reported on Wednesday 21 October
• Where it stands: Early development, with no writer or cast attached
• Which universe: It is separate from Matt Reeves’ Batman films, which continue with The Batman Part II in 2028
• UK availability: In early development. UK date not yet confirmed

It would be the first film or series with Poison Ivy as its lead. The plant-controlling villain was played by Uma Thurman in 1997’s Batman & Robin, appeared in Gotham and Batwoman, and was voiced by Lake Bell in the animated Harley Quinn.

LeFranc’s The Penguin won nine Emmys, including best actress in a limited series for Cristin Milioti, so expect a gritty crime story rather than a cartoonish one. It is another sign that Batman’s villains are in demand: Clayface has strong reviews ahead of its UK release tomorrow.

First look at Minnie Driver as a hostage negotiator in Paramount+ heist thriller The Day

• New development: Paramount+ released the first images on Thursday 22 October, Deadline reported
• The story: Police stumble on a bank robbery mid-heist, and the robbers barricade themselves inside. Driver plays negotiator Sylvia “Vox” Voxley, and each episode flips between the police and the people inside the bank
• Cast: Luca Pasqualino, of Skins and Rivals, and Louisa Harland, of Derry Girls
• UK availability: Eight episodes on Paramount+ in the UK and Ireland. UK date not yet confirmed

The British drama is based on the 2018 Belgian series De Dag and takes place over a single day. Every time the story resets to a new point of view, it changes what viewers think they know, building to a finale where the full picture comes together.

It is written by Ben Harris and Jesse O’Mahoney. Driver was last seen in Netflix’s Harlan Coben series Run Away.

Tom Cruise will receive the 52nd AFI Life Achievement Award

• New development: The American Film Institute announced the honour on Wednesday 21 October
• When: A gala tribute at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday 24 April 2027
• Previous winners: Cruise joins a list that includes Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, George Lucas and, this year, Eddie Murphy
• UK availability: No UK broadcast confirmed yet. Eddie Murphy’s tribute this year premiered worldwide on Netflix

“Tom Cruise is a global icon,” said Kathleen Kennedy, who chairs the AFI board. “What I especially admire is his deep belief in movies and their ability to bring people together.” It is the highest honour the AFI gives for a career in film.

Cruise received an honorary Oscar in 2025, and his films have taken nearly $13bn worldwide. He is currently starring in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Digger and is set to return as Cole Trickle in Days of Thunder 2.

Where would you most like to see Star-Lord turn up next?