Popverse's top stories

• Critical Role star Sam Riegel didn't know FCG's fate before the moment happened - but he did know it was "a good way to go"
• X-Men actress Famke Janssen doesn’t own an action figure of herself as Jean Grey, because they don’t look like her
• DC's Batman #1 has already outsold 2024's best-selling comic of the year

And everything happening this week for Future Fest!

Life is beautifully unpredictable, and pop culture is no different. As much as we consider ourselves experts in our various spheres of entertainment here at Popverse, we’re continually caught off guard by what suddenly becomes the new sensation. The nature of taste and fandoms and the big, wonderful communities that spring up around our favorite shows, movies, comics, and games means that we’re always guessing. It is what makes this job difficult and hectic, but it is also what makes it so much fun.

The future is unknowable with any real certainty. Until a few months ago, we knew that Grand Theft Auto VI would be out by the end of 2025, but now it will be the megaton bomb of hype that lands next year. Superman has defied expectations and soared at the box office… except in international markets, where it has struggled enough that director James Gunn blamed anti-American sentiment for the poor showing.

Who could have guessed that romantasy, the mash-up of romance and fantasy genres, would become one of the biggest movements in publishing in 2024 and into 2025? It has launched hugely successful series like A Court of Thorns and Roses and Fourth Wing – though I would personally recommend the Villains and Virtues series by A.K. Caggiano for a slightly better take on the genre. Romantasy has gotten so big that even Hasbro is eyeing it for a potential crossover with Magic: The Gathering, the true hallmark that a movement has broken into the mainstream. Will it last into 2026, or will the spark of this relationship fizzle?

2025 has had games that we knew were going to be massive. Monster Hunter Wilds broke records and reminded us all why Capcom is perfectly happy to ride the series to the bank. Yet, one of the most talked-about games of the past year was Balatro, a rogue-lite game based on a deck of playing cards. It came out in late 2024 and sold millions of copies with a simple premise. Then, The Blue Prince emerged in 2025 and was a huge hit as a rogue-lite about exploring an abandoned mansion. 

If you had told me at the start of the year that one of the most popular JRPGs of 2025 wouldn’t be Japanese, I would have laughed at you. And yet, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 managed to shake off the poor fortune of releasing the same day that Bethesda shadow-dropped their long-awaited remake of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and became a hit, selling over 3 million copies in its first month. In fact, I had an article ready to pitch to this very site, bemoaning the fact that people had missed out on this game when everyone proved me wrong.

Let’s talk about KPop Demon Hunters, shall we? The premise is weird, and the movie seemed to drop with little fanfare on Netflix. This is the kind of movie that screams merchandise tie-ins, with bright, memorable characters singing some of the catchiest songs you’ll ever hear in a movie. The fact that I can’t buy clothes and posters with the members of Huntrix splayed over them is a sign that Netflix didn’t expect it to take off and become one of their biggest films of the year.

Pixar could have used some of that magic as it followed up one of its biggest hits ever in Inside Out 2 with one of its biggest flops ever in Elio. That kind of box office whiplash is wild and only proves just how unpredictable life is in the world of entertainment. What worked one minute might result in a flop the next. Just ask Marvel Studios what that feels like.

As we celebrate Future Fest here at Popverse, we try to gaze into our crystal ball and, as always, it is clouded in uncertainty. The world is unpredictable, and the public’s taste is as unknowable as the space between the stars in the sky. We try to navigate by them as journalists, only to find ourselves somewhere unexpected every time. This is not a bad thing. In fact, it is one of the great joys of life; being surprised by your new favorite thing that you didn’t see coming.

Embrace that chaos of the future. Try the unexpected, and your life will be richer for it.

Want to know what's coming up next in pop culture? Check out Popverse's guides to:

• Upcoming movies
• Upcoming TV shows
• Upcoming comics
• Upcoming games
• Upcoming fiction books
• Upcoming comic conventions