Brent Spiner on Data’s Gift to Autistic Fans — plus Star Wars and More

Morning News · Monday 26 October 2026

Brent Spiner has met countless fans who say Data helped them make sense of the world, and he refuses to take the credit. This morning’s edition also has the fired Solo directors leaving the door open to Star Wars, Shudder’s horror line-up all the way to Christmas, and James Gunn explaining why not every DC story has to lead somewhere.

The News That Matters

Brent Spiner won’t take credit for Data helping neurodivergent fans

• New development: In an interview with /Film at New York Comic Con, published on Sunday night, Spiner was asked about the many fans who see Data, the android he played in Star Trek: The Next Generation, as a figure who helped people understand neurodivergence
• What he said: “I wouldn’t be so arrogant as to say I had anything to do with the acceptance of neurodivergence, or anything else for that matter. It was a role. A really sweet, good role, and I’m glad if it did have that effect, but I know it wasn’t intentional.”
• The fans: He said he has met many autistic fans who told him Data helped them when they were young. “I was just an unknowing conduit for people just to feel better about themselves,” he said, adding that it makes him really happy
• UK availability: The Sixty-Year Mission, the 60th-anniversary documentary Spiner appears in, has been in UK cinemas since 21 October. The Next Generation streams on Paramount+ in the UK

Data spent seven seasons and four films studying people from the outside, trying to understand feelings he could see but not share. It is easy to see why so many viewers recognised themselves in him, and why the character still matters to a new generation of fans.

Spiner is famously dry about Data, so this is a rare and touching answer. It sits nicely alongside William Shatner’s thoughts on Star Trek’s optimism, and if you haven’t caught The Sixty-Year Mission in UK cinemas yet, it is the perfect excuse. Our Star Trek watch guide has every Data episode in order.

Fired Solo directors Lord and Miller say “never say never” to Star Wars under Dave Filoni

• New development: On The Town podcast with Matthew Belloni, recorded in front of students at USC and released on 23 October, Phil Lord and Chris Miller were asked whether they would direct a Star Wars film if Lucasfilm’s new president, Dave Filoni, offered them one. Their answer: “Never say never”
• Their view of Star Wars: “Those films are independent films. They started that way and they have that spirit. And the other thing is that they’re spiritual, and not to forget, they should be funny”
• Old wounds: The pair were fired from Solo: A Star Wars Story in 2017 and replaced by Ron Howard. They said they never wanted the film to fail, because it was their cast and crew, and revealed that Kathleen Kennedy sent them a note congratulating them on Project Hail Mary
• UK availability: No Star Wars project with Lord and Miller has been announced. Solo: A Star Wars Story streams on Disney+ in the UK

It is a gracious answer from two filmmakers who had every reason to stay bitter. Their improvised, comic approach clashed with Lucasfilm in 2017, but the success of Project Hail Mary has put them back at the top of every studio’s wish list.

With Filoni now in charge and the film slate in flux, after Taika Waititi put his Star Wars film on ice, a Lord and Miller Star Wars film no longer sounds so unlikely. Catch up with the saga in our Star Wars watch guide, or start tonight with Andor, one of today’s UK picks.

Shudder sets its horror line-up all the way to Christmas

• New development: Shudder’s Season of Screams carries on past Halloween, with originals and exclusives every week through November and December, Bloody Disgusting and iHorror reported
• November: Yûta Shimotsu’s Japanese cult chiller New Group (6 November), Tinsman Road (13 November), Ice Cream Man (20 November) and the Italian horror fable The Holy Boy (27 November)
• December: Unholy Night and the live special Joe Bob Conquers Christmas (4 December), the Finnish Santa-suited vampire film Red Snow (11 December) and the ecological horror Split Rock on Christmas Day. The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula season 7 runs until 29 December
• Library treats: The Company of Wolves, Hush, both versions of Black Christmas and The Shining are among the older films joining the service
• UK availability: These are Shudder’s US dates. UK dates not yet confirmed, and Shudder’s UK schedule sometimes differs

New Group, which we first flagged in our early October horror round-up, turns a high school gymnastics routine into a dance of death, and it opens the run. Red Snow sounds like the oddest festive film of the year: a balding, beer-bellied 49-year-old vampire who slips into a Santa suit to get into people’s homes.

It follows Shudder’s deal to become the streaming home of the whole Hell House LLC saga. For horror fans, the end of October is no longer the end of the season.

James Gunn: DCU stories don’t have to be “building towards” anything

• New development: Replying on Threads over the weekend to fans asking what DC Studios’ recent films and shows are building towards, Gunn wrote: “DCU is just an alternate universe; we can enter at any location or time and tell THAT story. I dislike the idea that individual stories aren’t meaningful unless they lead to something else”
• The Star Wars comparison: He said Star Wars has “essentially been doing this for 50 years across movies, shows, games and books, admittedly without the tonal variety”
• Still connected: His Superman Saga “starts with Superman and travels into Man of Tomorrow and onward, and contains many characters we’ve introduced in other stories”. But he added: “I would love people to be seeing Clayface because it’s a great, fun horror movie unto itself, not because of where else Clayface will show up three movies from now”
• UK availability: Clayface is in UK cinemas now. Man of Tomorrow is due in July 2027; UK date not yet confirmed

Gunn’s timing is no accident. Clayface opened at number one in the US with $24 million and took $43 million worldwide, with the UK its biggest market outside America, as we reported in last night’s edition. That is a strong start for a gruesome horror film about a minor Batman villain.

He has a point. The best DC films have always worked on their own, and our Clayface Super Review found a gruesome, stylish horror film that is refreshingly unbothered by franchise duty.

Did Data help you make sense of the world, or is there another character who did?

Back tonight at 6pm with the Evening News.