‘Stranger Things’ readies for one final battle in new trailer

Happy Halloween, Popculturology readers! Welcome to a spooky edition of the Friday newsletter, anchored by a new trailer for the final season of Stranger Things.

I’m celebrating the third anniversary of the relaunch of Popculturology this weekend. On Nov. 1, 2022, I resurrected the publication in newsletter form after the brand had fallen dormant back in 2015. Over the past three years, The Omnicosm has come to life, housing not only Popculturology but also Deep SNL Thoughts and Snackology.

Three years of Popculturology

Celebrate the anniversary of the beginning of The Omnicosm by subscribing or supporting the site.

The OmnicosmBill Kuchman

Today is also my annual reminder to all of you that once you’re done with your trick-or-treating, tonight is the perfect time to watch ParaNorman.

BOOK NOOK

Here’s what I’ve been reading this week …

• Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton)
• Falling: A Novel (T. J. Newman)
• Saga Vol. 10 (Brian K. Vaughn, Fiona Staples)
• Simultaneous: A Novel (Eric Heisserer)

Simultaneous is the debut novel from Arrival screenwriter Eric Heisserer. The book published this past Tuesday, and Sony has already optioned it for a movie. If you’re like me and 50 percent of your reading is time travel-related, Simultaneous is absolutely in your wheelhouse. (Heisserer is also adapting Nicholas Binge’s Dissolution — my favorite book of the year — into a film.)

NEWS, NOTES & TRAILERS

🍿 “William, you are going to help me ... one last time”

Am I excited for the final season of Stranger Things? Sure.

Do I expect the show to end with Eleven and Vecna waving their hands at each other just like we’ve seen these characters do the past four seasons? Absolutely.

And I am going to laugh as the show tries to convince us that these full-grown adults are actually high school students? Yup.

Lucasfilm gave Adam Driver’s Ben Solo movie the green light before Disney killed it

The drama around Adam Driver’s pitch for a Ben Solo Star Wars movie grew deeper in the week since the news broke. While we already knew that Driver had enlisted Steven Soderbergh to direct the film and Scott Z. Burns to write the screenplay, The Playlist reported that the film had actually received the green light from Lucasfilm.