The Paternoster Gang Head to the Silurian Age With Paul McGann

Morning News · Sunday 8 November 2026

Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax are going back tens of millions of years to the age of the Silurians in a new feature-length Big Finish audio drama, with Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor setting them on their way. Also this morning: Adam Driver explains why he finally said yes to Marvel as X-Men’s Mister Sinister, Prime Video dates Charlie Hunnam’s Criminal for January, Paramount sets an October 2028 date for Bradley Cooper’s G.I. Joe, the punk-horror Spirit Tasting pours out a trailer, and Kansas Bowling joins the found-footage Witchcraft: The Lanterne of Light.

The News That Matters

Doctor Who: the Paternoster Gang head to the Silurian age in The Misplaced World

• What happened: Big Finish has announced The Paternoster Gang: The Misplaced World, a two-hour, feature-length audio drama starring Neve McIntosh as Madame Vastra, Catrin Stewart as Jenny and Dan Starkey as Strax
• The story: While chasing a ruthless animal smuggler, the trio are thrown back tens of millions of years to a pivotal point in Silurian history, when Vastra’s people rule the Earth but are preparing for what they believe is the end of their society. Vastra must decide how much to change her own race’s past, and Jenny meets her wife’s former lover
• The Doctor’s part: Paul McGann appears as the Eighth Doctor, who sets the Gang off on their dangerous mission
• Who’s making it: McIntosh and Starkey wrote it themselves. Script editor Matt Fitton describes it as a mash-up of Conan Doyle’s The Lost World and the stop-motion monster movies of the 1970s
• UK availability: Released by Big Finish in December 2026; available to pre-order now as a download (£13.99) or download plus a limited 1,000-copy collector’s CD (£21.99)

Turning the usual set-up on its head, with Jenny and Strax as the fish out of water in Vastra’s world, is a smart way to freshen a much-loved double act. Big Finish’s run of Christmas-season releases continues after the Seventh Doctor’s Soviet Cybermen box set in our 4 November Doctor Who news, and the Eleventh Doctor’s Into the Shadows in our 5 November Evening News.

Adam Driver explains why he finally said yes to Marvel as X-Men’s Mister Sinister

• What happened: Adam Driver told Jimmy Kimmel Live! that joining Marvel Studios’ X-Men as the villain Mister Sinister “felt like the right time”, after years of turning down roles in the MCU, Variety reported
• Why now: Driver said he was a big fan of the X-Men and was won over by director Jake Schreier’s idea for the film, by Kevin Feige and by the script, which he called “really cool”. He admitted he had been wary of Marvel because if a film that big is bad, “a lot of people will see you being bad”
• Feige’s side: Kevin Feige recently said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that offering Driver a part over Zoom, and Driver then passing, had become “a long-lived tradition”
• Who else is in it: Sadie Sink plays Jean Grey, with Inde Navarrette as Rogue, Kit Connor as Cyclops, Christopher Abbott as Charles Xavier, Maya Boyd as Storm and Asa Germann as Angel
• UK availability: Due in US cinemas on 5 May 2028; UK date not yet confirmed

It has been a busy week of Driver headlines: he closed the door on Kylo Ren in our 5 November Morning News and confirmed his Heat 2 role in our 6 November Evening News.

Prime Video dates Charlie Hunnam’s crime saga Criminal for January

• What happened: Prime Video has released the first teaser and first-look images for Criminal, an eight-episode series based on Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Eisner Award-winning comics, starring Charlie Hunnam, Adria Arjona, Emilia Clarke and Luke Evans, Prime Video and Deadline reported
• The story: It runs as two linked four-episode stories. In Part One – Coward, Hunnam’s careful thief Leo Patterson and his childhood friend Ricky Lawless (Gus Halper) see a botched heist drag a decades-old murder back into the open. Part Two – Lawless follows Ricky’s older brother Tracy (Evans), pulled back into crime after returning from the Army. Arjona plays car thief Greta and Clarke plays Ricky’s girlfriend Mallory
• Who’s making it: Brubaker co-created the series and is co-showrunner with crime novelist Jordan Harper. Phillips is an executive producer, and Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck and Dee Rees are among the directors. Richard Jenkins and John Hawkes co-star
• UK availability: Prime Video: Part One – Coward on 13 January 2027 and Part Two – Lawless on 27 January 2027, all four episodes of each part at once

Watch the trailer

Brubaker says some scenes match the comics one for one, which should please readers who have waited years to see this adapted.

Paramount sets an October 2028 date for Bradley Cooper’s G.I. Joe

• What happened: Paramount Pictures has set a cinema release date of 20 October 2028 for its G.I. Joe reboot, with Bradley Cooper starring as Duke and Danny McBride directing, Screen Rant reported
• Who’s making it: McBride co-wrote the script with his Righteous Gemstones collaborators Jeff Fradley and John Carcieri. Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Mark Vahradian and Zev Foreman produce for Hasbro Entertainment
• What we don’t know: Paramount has not revealed the plot or any other cast. Channing Tatum played Duke in the two earlier films, The Rise of Cobra (2009) and Retaliation (2013)
• UK availability: US release 20 October 2028; UK date not yet confirmed

A McBride-directed G.I. Joe could be one of the stranger blockbusters of 2028, and a firm date shows Paramount means it.

Punk-horror Spirit Tasting pours out a New Year’s Eve nightmare trailer

• What happened: Bloody Disgusting has debuted the trailer for Chris LaMartina’s Spirit Tasting, a post-punk twist on “The Monkey’s Paw”
• The story: Three former punks toast their late bandmate at a distillery on New Year’s Eve. A strange sommelier invites them to a top-shelf tasting with one catch: every bottle needs a wish, and each wish turns deadly
• Who’s making it: LaMartina (WNUF Halloween Special) directs from a script he wrote with Michael Varrati. Sean Doherty, Melissa LaMartina, Trevor Wilhelms and Matt Lake star, with cameos from horror authors Grady Hendrix and Clay McLeod Chapman. Ted Geoghegan is among the producers
• Release: World premiere in Baltimore on 12 November, then a US roadshow into January, with a Terror Vision Blu-ray to follow
• UK availability: UK date not yet confirmed

A small, scrappy horror built around one great hook. For another indie horror that takes its time, read our Trauma or, Monsters All review.

Kansas Bowling joins found-footage horror Witchcraft: The Lanterne of Light

• What happened: Actor and filmmaker Kansas Bowling, who played Manson Family member Blue in Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood, has joined the cast of Witchcraft: The Lanterne of Light, HorrorFuel reported
• The story: The new entry in the long-running Witchcraft horror series switches to found footage. Investigators study recovered tapes about a cult called the Children of the Hollow and a manuscript dated 1409, and a routine paranormal investigation turns into a fight for survival
• Who’s making it: Carissa Pierson directs from a script by Andrew Pierson for Deathstalker Productions. Eric Roberts, A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Lisa Wilcox, original Halloween actor Sandy Johnson and Vernon Wells also star
• UK availability: UK date not yet confirmed

Bowling directed the 16mm cult film B.C. Butcher, so she brings real genre credentials to a cast packed with horror veterans.

Should Vastra change her people’s history, or let it play out? Tell us below.

Back tonight at 6pm with the Evening News.