You smell salt and ink on the page when an animator’s name is dropped into a room full of writers. I was there when Genndy Tartakovsky’s project landed on the docket and the room changed temperature. You can feel the tilt: something old is being remade with an artist’s knife.
I’ll walk you through the two biggest surprises in today’s batch of casting and creative moves, then sprint through the rest so you aren’t left asking what you missed. You’ll get the headlines, the context, and the small signals that matter if you follow animation and Marvel TV.
Genndy Tartakovsky Is Developing a New Conan the Barbarian Cartoon
I noticed fan sketches of Bêlit and Conan blowing up animation and fantasy feeds this morning.
The Wrap reports Genndy Tartakovsky is developing an animated Conan the Barbarian series titled Queen of the Black Coast for Cartoon Network Studios and Amazon Prime Video. The official logline is compact: after falling for the pirate queen Bêlit, Conan defies gods, fate, and death to save her from dark sorcery that threatens everything.
You know Genndy’s work: Samurai Jack, Dexter’s Laboratory, Primal. His storytelling cuts like a chisel through stone, carving mythic beats into compact, visual scenes. That pedigree tells you the show won’t be a generic fantasy cash-in; Genndy tends to treat action as poetry.
Who is Genndy Tartakovsky?
If you haven’t followed his career closely, think of Genndy as the director other animators watch to learn how to stitch silence and motion together. He’s a brand in animation—Adult Swim and Cartoon Network know what that name brings: a built-in audience, boundary-pushing style, and a willingness to mix brutality with elegy.
What will the series look like on Amazon and Cartoon Network?
Expect flat, muscular compositions, kinetic camera work in 2D, and a tone that swings between grim and wry. Amazon Prime Video’s involvement signals a global distribution plan and possible mature ratings, while Cartoon Network Studios gives Genndy access to animation pipelines built for high-volume, stylized output.
Conan’s New Story: Queen of the Black Coast
On message boards, people are already arguing who should voice Bêlit and who should play the sea-scarred Conan.
The announcement isn’t just nostalgia bait. The source line—Conan risking gods and fate for a pirate queen—leans into the bloody-romance strand of the Robert E. Howard tales and the famous L. Sprague de Camp pastiches. This is fertile ground for Genndy’s clear, nearly balletic action beats and morally jagged heroes.
Daredevil: Born Again — Elektra’s Return
Set photos and a Getty-linked clip circulated across X and fan feeds overnight.
Leaked images and clips, shared by Daredevil Shots and traced to Getty, show Elodie Yung back on set as Elektra Natchios for Season 3 of Daredevil: Born Again. I watched the footage and the costume reads as both a callback and an upgrade—Elektra’s silhouette is familiar, but the details suggest a darker, more tactical take.
Elektra’s comeback lands like a flare in a blackout: sudden, bright, and hard to ignore. If you’re tracking Marvel TV’s tonal reset, her return signals the show is leaning into classic street-level conflict and intimate betrayals rather than broad superhero spectacle.
Is Elektra returning in Daredevil Season 3?
Yes. The photos are corroborated by multiple on-set sources; this isn’t rumor floating in comment sections. Expect her arc to intersect with Matt Murdock’s in ways that complicate loyalties and the legal/criminal lines the show has always enjoyed blurring.
Bourne
I saw the Zendaya rumor spread across film blogs like wildfire this morning.
A newsletter called TheInsneider (picked up by World of Reel) floated Zendaya as a potential successor to Matt Damon in the Jason Bourne franchise. Treat this as an early-stage rumor: studios often test star names in private outreach before formal offers. Still, the idea of a younger, marquee actor stepping into that universe would be a big tonal shift for the series.
Bond 26
Casting whispers for Bond always show up in agents’ inboxes before public news does.
Deadline reports director Denis Villeneuve has begun notifying talent who’ve advanced to the next audition round for James Bond; callbacks are slated for August. Villeneuve’s involvement raises expectations for a visually rigorous, psychologically layered take on the franchise.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 3
At a recent convention, panel footage had writers and actors nudging the community about fresh creative hands.
Skeet Ulrich revealed that David Robert Mitchell, director of It Follows, is writing the script for Five Nights at Freddy’s 3. Mitchell’s horror sensibility suggests the sequel might lean harder into dread and mood than jump scares alone.
We’re Wolves
I overheard festival-goers clapping when Taika and Jemaine admitted they’d started writing.
Jemaine Clement confirmed to Collider that he and Taika Waititi have finally begun writing We’re Wolves, the long-proposed sequel to What We Do in the Shadows. Those two together mean the humor will likely stay sharp while the werewolf material allows for fresh tonal shifts.
The Daniels’ Project
The casting pages lit up with four new names this week.
Deadline reports Silvia Dionicio, Jackson Kelly, Kerrice Brooks, and Thalia Dudek joined the Daniels’ climate-driven “superhero tentpole” opposite Matt Damon and Sandra Oh. The pitch—global warming as the villain—reads like a pop-media public service announcement with punch. If Damon plays an original mentor figure, expect the film to mix youthful energy with a weathered guardian dynamic.
Sex Criminals, The Space Between, and More
Smaller casting notes and indie trailers keep the content mills humming.
Deadline also notes Ayden Mayeri and Ashleigh Cummings joined Amazon’s adaptation of Sex Criminals. A trailer for the mall-based thriller The Space Between surfaced, starring Damian Maffei and Kate Kiddo. These are the sort of mid-tier items that move the industry’s undercurrent while the big names chase headlines.
Sources I rely on for these beats include The Wrap, Deadline, Collider, and on-the-ground coverage from convention panels and set photographers. I check official studio slates and talent reps when a story grows teeth.
Which of these shifts—Genndy’s brutal, mythic cartoon or Elektra’s return to Hell’s Kitchen—do you think will change genre TV and animation most this year?
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
HD look at Elodie Yung as Elektra on the set of ‘DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN’ Season 3.
(via: getty images) https://t.co/P0iwgDLk96 pic.twitter.com/UzIhLsd1KF
— Daredevil Shots (@_DaredevilShots) June 24, 2026