Meeting the X. ’90s kids, The X-Files reboot is on the way. Black Panther director Ryan Coogler is making it (*Wakanda Forever salute*). Himesh Patel and Danielle Deadwyler are… not Mulder and Scully — some ships are sacred! They’ll play brand new agents. The icing on the cake? Gillian Anderson says the pilot script is f***ing cool. Trust no one. Except her.
Turned on. Experiencing a post-Heated-Rivalry slump? Or post-Wuthering-Heights rage? Wait. Roxane Gay and Channing Tatum are co-writing a romance novel. It’s got everything — marriage pact, arranged marriage, and… bakery-based sex. Gay has been crushing on Tatum since his Magic Mike days, so the tension’s already built. This collab is unhinged in the best way.
Already seated. We manifested. It worked. Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun is getting the movie treatment, with Jenna Ortega as Klara, the curious empathetic bot companion to a sick teen. Taika Waititi (Thor, What We Do in the Shadows) directs. He’s slyly funny. So, this tender meditation on what makes us human will be a new challenge. We’re organising our memories in advance.
Unknotting this. Wait, is that Alyson Hannigan on our feeds, talking about wool, knitting and other wholesome craft things? This woman played Buffy’s BFF Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer; she was band geek Michelle in American Pie 2 (“This one time, at band camp…”); and Marshall’s wife Lily in HIMYM. Now she’s a yarn lady. Bless these #NormCore goals.
Stocking up. Here’s what we want from the Japan Stationery awards that were held this month: The alien-abduction-themed pouch, featuring cows being zapped up by a spaceship; washi tape you can write on; clear glitter markers that actually shimmer. What we actually need, though, is Sonic Digitox’s smartphone desktop safe, which puts phones on lockdown so you can work or study.
Eating this up. Glossy magazines used to call handbags (and boyfriends) arm candy. In this economy, we’d rather have a hamburger bracelet stack on our arm. Anna Leigh (@MissAnnaLeighArt), the first person to sell puke jewellery, collected seven unrelated pieces and stacked them to make it look like a cheeseburger. Don’t miss the little lettuce twirl!
Getting mail privilege. Lee Sang-hyeok, aka Faker, is the first gamer to win South Korea’s top athletic honour, the Cheongnyong (Blue Dragon) Medal. But we’re more excited that he’s going to be on the country’s postage stamps. That’s how a government keeps young citizens happy. Here, only the dead get the same honour.
Calling security. Stand up and applaud 17-year-old Walker Scobell. The actor who plays Percy Jackson in the TV series is skipping his own high-school prom so that jealous fans don’t direct their hate to any girl who goes as his date. It’s a big-boy move for one so young. That he has to do it at all shows how ghastly fandom can be.
From HT Brunch, April 18, 2026
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