The next ‘James Bond’ director is Villeneuve. Denis Villeneuve.

Hey, Popculturology friends. Welcome to the Friday edition of the newsletter.

There was a tidal wave of new TV this week, with Ironheart debuting its first three episodes on Disney+ and The Bear dropping its entire 10-episode fourth season on Hulu ... and it’s honestly too much.

Maybe it’s just that I’m old now, but that many hours of new shows all at once is a daunting task. Yes, I know I can watch it at my own speed and I don’t have to run through all the episodes at once. But that’s what this kind of release schedule expects of us, isn’t it?

I’ll watch Ironheart and The Bear at some point. I promise. I’m just tired right now.

Book nook

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

• The Magicians (Lev Grossman)
• Ultimate Spider-Man, Vol. 2: The Paper (Jonathan Hickman, Macro Checchetto, David Messina)
• The Magician King (Lev Grossman)

NEWS, NOTES & TRAILERS

Denis Villeneuve and Amazon MGM Studios Bond together

Amazon MGM Studios paid a ton of money to secure creative control of the James Bond franchise, and they’re ready to hand the reins of the franchise to one of the biggest directors in the business. The studio announced on Wednesday that Denis Villeneuve will helm the next Bond film.

“Denis Villeneuve has been in love with James Bond movies since he was a little boy,” Bond producers Amy Pascal and David Heyman said in a statement. “It was always his dream to make this movie, and now it’s ours, too. We are lucky to be in the hands of this extraordinary filmmaker.”

I’d argue that Villeneuve is the biggest splash we’ve seen with a Bond director choice. While recent picks like Martin Campbell, Marc Forster and Cary Joji Fukunaga were known names and Sam Mendes was an Oscar winner, Villeneuve takes the wheel of the Bond franchise with a resumé that boasts the two Dune movies, Arrival and Blade Runner 2049.