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Official It: Welcome to Derry key art, with half of Pennywise's painted face on the left and the show title in white lettering on a red background
Entertainment 31 October 2026

HBO Max dropped a surprise It: Welcome to Derry episode for Halloween, set centuries before Pennywise

"A Story of Derry" landed on HBO Max at midnight on 31 October with no warning. Directed by Tazbah Chavez, the half-hour special follows three young people into the Western Wood. Zahn McClarnon plays the warrior who forges the dagger It fears. Season 2 is set in 1935.

HBO Max quietly released a new episode of It: Welcome to Derry overnight, just in time for Halloween. It is called “A Story of Derry”, it runs about 30 minutes, and it leaves the 1960s of the first season far behind. This one is set hundreds of years before Pennywise.

The setup is simple. Three young people walk into the Western Wood, the forest around what will one day be Derry, and run into an ancient, terrifying spirit. A title card at the start frames it as the story “we do not teach”.

The man who made the dagger

Season one viewers will remember the dagger It is afraid of, and the explanation in episode four for why the creature cannot leave Derry. The special goes back to where that dagger came from. Zahn McClarnon, of Reservation Dogs and Dark Winds, plays the Indigenous warrior who forges it.

The cast also includes Kimberly Guerrero, Kiawentiio, Isabel Deroy-Olson, Michael Podemski-Bedard, Morningstar Angeline and Thosh Collins. Tazbah Chavez, another Reservation Dogs alumna, directs from a script by Cherie DiMaline and Jasmyne Flournoy. Bill Skarsgård sits this one out.

Stephen King readers get a treat as well: the episode mentions, and briefly shows, Maturin, the cosmic force of order that has been fighting It for millennia in the books.

What about season two?

The show has already been renewed. Season two moves to 1935, in the depths of the Great Depression, and centres on the massacre of the Bradley Gang, bank robbers who stop in Derry to buy ammunition. Brad Caleb Kane takes over as sole showrunner, with Andy and Barbara Muschietti still executive producing.

Sarah Aubrey, who runs original programming at HBO Max, has promised a season that deepens “the terror, the mystery” and the Pennywise lore. There is no premiere date yet.

If the weekend calls for more screen time, Netflix released the second season of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners a week ago. The special sits alongside the first season on the show’s HBO Max page.

By Lucy Bennett

Image: HBO Max

Official Grand Theft Auto VI logo, the Roman numeral VI in pink, purple and orange with palm-tree silhouettes, on a black background
Entertainment 3 November 2026

GTA VI unlocks on 19 November (and the boxed copy has no disc inside)

Grand Theft Auto VI reaches PS5 and Xbox Series X|S in 16 days, on 19 November. In Portugal the Standard Edition is €79.99 and the Ultimate €99.99. Physical copies contain only a download code, and pre-loading opens on 12 November.

If you pre-ordered GTA VI in a shop and you're expecting to collect a box with a disc in it, worth knowing now: there isn't one. The physical edition of the decade's most anticipated game contains only a download code. In practice you're buying it digitally, with a case for the shelf. It's 16 days away. Grand Theft Auto VI lands on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on 19 November, and Rockstar has already confirmed that pre-loading starts on 12 November,…

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Official key art for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Nintendo Switch 2: young Link, seen from behind with the fairy Navi, on a sunlit forest path beside the game's logo
Entertainment 2 November 2026

Ocarina of Time is back on Thursday, and you can finally play it in Portuguese

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time lands on 5 November, rebuilt from scratch for Nintendo Switch 2, at €59.99 on the Portuguese eShop. It adds voiced dialogue, free running and jumping, and a clock that keeps ticking. Portuguese appears on the language list for the first time.

Some people will tell you it is the best video game ever made. Plenty of others have never touched it. From Thursday, 5 November, both get the same way in: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time returns, rebuilt from the ground up and exclusive to Nintendo Switch 2. On the Portuguese eShop it costs €59.99, with release set for 5 November. In the US, the digital edition is $59.99.

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Illustration of a giant severed hand with red nails and gold rings under a spotlight on a dark stage, with pumpkins and bats
Entertainment 1 November 2026

Heidi Klum turned up to her 25th Halloween party as her own severed hand

At the New York party she has hosted for a quarter of a century, the model appeared as a giant replica of her left hand, with long red nails, a thumb ring, her engagement ring and her wedding band. Only her eyes and mouth showed. Getting into it took five to six hours.

For weeks Heidi Klum had been dropping hints: a costume that was "very, very bloody" and would go "very well with red wine". On Saturday night, at the 25th edition of the Halloween party she has thrown for a quarter of a century, it made sense. She came as a hand. Her own left hand, blown up to giant size and freshly severed. The detail was obsessive. Long red nails, a ring on the thumb, her engagement ring and her wedding band. Only her eyes and mouth…

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Patrick Stewart, smiling, in a black leather jacket and burgundy top on a panel at San Diego Comic-Con in 2013
Entertainment 30 October 2026

Patrick Stewart, Captain Picard and Professor X, has died at 86

The British actor died on Wednesday 28 October at his home in Los Angeles, his family said in a statement on his official X account. He had Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia. A Royal Shakespeare Company veteran, he played Jean-Luc Picard for nearly four decades.

Sir Patrick Stewart died on Wednesday 28 October at his home in Los Angeles. He was 86. His family announced the death in a statement posted to the actor's official X account, saying he died in the care of his wife, Sunny, after a brief struggle with Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia. To a lot of people he was simply the captain. Jean-Luc Picard ran the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation from 1987 to 1994, then across four films and,…

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Official key art for The Duskbloods: the rust-coloured logo on the left and a caped figure seen from behind, walking towards a gothic iron gate in a misty hall
Entertainment 29 October 2026

FromSoftware pushes The Duskbloods back to 2027

Hidetaka Miyazaki's Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive will no longer launch in 2026. FromSoftware says the game is at the final adjustment stage and needs more time for rules and balancing. No month or date has been given.

The Duskbloods is no longer a 2026 game. FromSoftware said on Thursday, on the game's official X account, that it has moved the launch window to 2027 because development "is at the final adjustment stage". That is the whole schedule for now. A year, with no month attached. The extra time is going on game rules and balancing, according to the statement, which also thanks players for how they responded to the combat and strategic depth in August's network…

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Jack Lowden as Mr Darcy and Emma Corrin as Elizabeth Bennet face to face in a candlelit ballroom
Entertainment 29 October 2026

Olivia Colman yells “Mr Bennet!” in the first trailer for Netflix’s Pride and Prejudice

Dolly Alderton’s six-part adaptation, directed by Euros Lyn, stars Emma Corrin as Lizzie and Jack Lowden as Darcy. It lands on Netflix on 3 December.

Netflix has put out the first proper trailer for its new Pride and Prejudice, and with it a date: all six episodes arrive on 3 December. Emma Corrin, the young Diana in The Crown, plays Lizzie. Jack Lowden, River Cartwright in Slow Horses, takes on Darcy. Corrin is also an executive producer here, a first for them. The supporting cast is stacked. Olivia Colman is Mrs Bennet and Rufus Sewell is Mr Bennet, the father who tunes out the moment his five…

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Cover of Judi Dench's memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, with a portrait of the white-haired actor, set on a blurred background
Entertainment 28 October 2026

Is it too late to make a run for it? Judi Dench answers in 368 pages

Judi Dench's memoir came out on 22 October in the UK (Michael Joseph, £25) and reaches the US on 3 November. It was written in conversation with actor and director Brendan O'Hea, her partner on the 2023 Shakespeare book.

Judi Dench is 91, has been working for seven decades, and has now put the whole of it in one book. "Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?" came out on 22 October from Michael Joseph, a Penguin imprint: 368 pages, £25 in hardback, with an ebook and an audiobook alongside. The American edition, from St. Martin's Press, follows on 3 November. She wrote it the way she wrote her last one, in conversation with her friend Brendan O'Hea, the actor and director who…

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Jay-Z in sunglasses, microphone in hand, performing on a stage lit in orange
Entertainment 27 October 2026

Jay-Z's company has shaped the Super Bowl halftime show since 2019. Now he's the headliner

The NFL, Apple Music and Roc Nation named Jay-Z as headliner of Super Bowl LXI on 14 February 2027 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. His own company, Roc Nation, executive produces the show.

Jay-Z will headline the Super Bowl LXI halftime show. The NFL, Apple Music and Roc Nation made it official on Monday night, ending months of rumours. The game is on Sunday 14 February 2027 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The joint announcement confirms that Roc Nation, Jay-Z's own company, is executive producer of the broadcast, with Hamish Hamilton directing.

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Walter Koenig, in a cap and dark jacket, speaks into a microphone on a stage with a red curtain
Entertainment 26 October 2026

Walter Koenig, Star Trek's Chekov, dies at 90

The actor who played Ensign Pavel Chekov in the original Star Trek series and seven films died on Sunday 25 October at his home in North Hollywood, aged 90. His representative said he died of natural causes. He was also the telepath Alfred Bester in Babylon 5.

Walter Koenig, who spent half a century being stopped in the street as Star Trek's Ensign Pavel Chekov, died on Sunday 25 October at his home in North Hollywood, California. He was 90. His representative confirmed the death and said he died of natural causes. Koenig stepped onto the Enterprise bridge at the start of the original series' second season, in 1967. Chekov was young, Russian and proud of it, in an American show made at the height of the Cold…

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Eric Bauza, in a leather jacket and a Daffy Duck T-shirt, at a WonderCon panel table in 2018
Entertainment 26 October 2026

Eric Bauza, who voiced Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, has died at 46

The Canadian voice actor's family announced his sudden death on Sunday. The Los Angeles County medical examiner gives the cause as hypertensive cardiovascular disease. Bauza took over the Looney Tunes leads in recent years and won three Emmys for the work.

Eric Bauza, the actor who voiced Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck for the past several years, has died at 46. His family announced his sudden death in a post on his Instagram account on Sunday night and said more details would follow. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's report says he died at home of hypertensive cardiovascular disease. Two days earlier he had posted a clip of himself reading New York subway announcements in Bugs Bunny's voice, a bit of…

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Bar chart of the Junior Eurovision 2026 final scores: Armenia 202, Spain 184, France 165, San Marino 148, Georgia 145 and Portugal 64
Entertainment 25 October 2026

Armenia win Junior Eurovision 2026 with Naré's BOO!, and Spain finish second

Thirteen-year-old Naré took Junior Eurovision 2026 in Malta for Armenia with 202 points, ahead of Spain (184) and France (165). Portugal's Salvador Rio finished 13th with Alma on 64 points, 50 of them from the online vote.

Armenia have won Junior Eurovision 2026. Naré, who is 13 and from Yerevan, sang BOO! at the Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre in Ta' Qali on Saturday night and finished on 202 points, ahead of 15 other entries. What made it hard to beat was balance. Points are split down the middle between professional juries and an online vote, and Naré was near the top of both: 103 from the juries, 99 from viewers.

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Gerard Way singing with the drummer behind a bass drum bearing The Black Parade logo, at a My Chemical Romance show in 2007
Entertainment 24 October 2026

My Chemical Romance dressed dancers as Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (the real ones have gone to court)

At the first of five sold-out Hollywood Bowl nights on 21 October, dancers in DCC-style uniforms performed during Teenagers and were 'shot' in a staged gunfight. Pro Silver Star, which owns the brand, wants a restraining order and damages.

The company behind the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders has taken legal action against My Chemical Romance. Not over a song. Over an outfit. On 21 October, the first of five sold-out nights at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, the band played Teenagers with a line of dancers dressed exactly like the cheerleaders, in what the filing calls the DCC Uniform. They danced, picked up rifles, joined a staged firefight and went down, shot for show. Pro Silver Star,…

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Tom Skerritt in a cap and light jacket, smiling at a microphone during a panel in 2014
Entertainment 24 October 2026

Tom Skerritt, Alien's Nostromo captain and Top Gun's Viper, dies at 93

The American actor died on Wednesday of natural causes, his family said. He won an Emmy in 1993 for Picket Fences and worked through M*A*S*H, Steel Magnolias and A River Runs Through It.

Tom Skerritt died on Wednesday, 21 October, at the age of 93. His publicist confirmed the death the following day, and his family said in a statement that he died of natural causes. He was one of those actors people recognise before they can place the name. In Alien, in 1979, he was Dallas, captain of the Nostromo, the man who climbs into the air ducts with a flamethrower. Seven years later, in Top Gun, he was Viper, Tom Cruise's flight instructor at the…

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Official key art for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2, showing the new crew in front of Night City's skyline with the Netflix premiere date, 20 October 2026
Entertainment 24 October 2026

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 is on Netflix with 10 episodes and a whole new crew

The second Edgerunners premiered on Netflix on 20 October. It's a standalone story with new characters, animated again by Japan's Studio TRIGGER in collaboration with CD PROJEKT RED, the studio behind Cyberpunk 2077.

Four years after the first one, the new Cyberpunk: Edgerunners landed on Netflix on 20 October, all 10 episodes at once. If you were hoping to catch up with David Martinez, lower your expectations now: this is a new story with a new cast, set in the same Night City. CD PROJEKT RED announced the date and format in August, alongside the trailer. Animation is once again by Studio TRIGGER, the Japanese studio behind season one, working with the Polish company…

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