Ever since we started hosting live Collider Ladies Night panels at San Diego Comic-Con, we’ve been tempted to explore doing group editions of the show, and what better ensemble to start that with than the women of the new Knives Out movie?

Mila Kunis, Cailee Spaeny and Kerry Washington are some of the latest to join Rian Johnson’s growing Knives Out family. In the third installment of the Oscar-nominated franchise, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Spaeny and Washington play two of Monsignor Wicks’ (Josh Brolin) parishioners. Washington’s Vera Draven is a lawyer whose father was a close friend to Wicks before he passed, and Spaeny plays Simone Vivane, a renowned concert cellist struggling with health concerns.

When Monsignor Wicks is suddenly killed in the middle of a service while totally alone in the storage closet, Kunis’ Police Chief Geraldine Scott calls upon Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) to investigate. Could Vera or Simone have killed Wicks? Or perhaps it was another member of his flock? Or, what about the church newcomer, Josh O’Connor’s Father Jud Duplenticy? This time around, Blanc will have to do the impossible — solve a locked-room murder mystery.

The Knives Out movies have become highly regarded for their summer camp-like sets and for their unparalleled rosters of talent, and Wake Up Dead Man is no different. Not only are Kunis, Spaeny and Washington fantastic additions to this cinematic world, but they also rock a wonderful group dynamic in an interview setting, one oozing with enthusiasm for each other as people and artists, feelings that left them eager to reunite for another film.

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Since wrapping her 137-episode run on Riverdale about two years ago, Lili Reinhart’s been determined to craft a filmography with intention. As she noted during our Collider Ladies Night conversation, she’s always been picky about the work she takes on, but in this next stage of her career, her time on Riverdale is giving her the opportunity to say no and only do films and shows “that make sense or speak to me in certain ways,” and she’s going to take it.

Thus far, that mentality is working in Reinhart’s favor big time. This year she celebrated the release of American Sweatshop, a wildly intense and deeply chilling tale of a social media moderator responsible for ridding the internet of the most offensive content, and the toll that job takes on her. That movie, which features a exceptional lead performance from Reinhart is available to buy or rent on digital platforms. Next year the one to keep an eye on is Forbidden Fruits, in which Reinhart plays Apple, the leader of a coven called The Fruits that operates out of a Free People-like store in the mall. With an ensemble that includes Reinhart, Victoria Pedretti, Alexandra Shipp, and Lola Tung, there’s no doubt Forbidden Fruits will make waves when it hits theaters in 2026.

But, a very special something you don’t have to wait for? Hal & Harper, a limited series that’s quietly one of the best new shows of 2026. From the mind of Cha Cha Real Smooth writer, director, and star, Cooper Raiff, Hal & Harper stars Reinhart opposite Raiff as the title brother and sister. Throughout eight episodes, the show explores Hal and Harper’s codependent relationship, digging into the benefits of having an impossibly loving and supportive sibling, while also showing how that dynamic is holding them back. In order to do that to the fullest, the show also cuts back to pivotal points in Hal and Harper’s childhood, scenes during which Raiff makes the bold decision to have him and Reinhart play the seven and nine-year-old versions of their characters — to great effect.

Between American Sweatshop and Hal & Harper, Reinhart doesn’t just go two-for-two in 2025, but she starts to lock in the fact that she’s an undeniable star, an actor with range that Riverdale only scratched the surface of. Plus, it also proves that that pickiness is paying off. “Where you have maybe 25% control of your career, in that industry, I want to feel that I milked that percentage of what I could control.” So far, so good in that respect.

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After scoring a BAFTA nomination and winning Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for The Worst Person in the World, Renate Reinsve is rightfully zeroing in on her first Academy Award nomination for Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value.

Reinsve leads the film, which is one of the year’s best, as stage actress Nora, the estranged daughter of acclaimed filmmaker Gustav Borg played by Stellan Skarsgård. When Gustav attempts to reconnect with Nora by offering her the lead role in his new film, she adamantly refuses, so Gustav turns to a Hollywood star instead, Elle Fanning as Rachel Kemp. Now Nora and her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) must navigate their complex family dynamic while their father focuses on what could be his comeback film after a 15-year hiatus.

Yes, Reinsve delivers yet another staggeringly impressive performance that’s bound to pave the way to a significant awards season run, but as Reinsve explained while at the Collider Ladies Night studio, she didn’t always feel so widely embraced. In fact, much of her earlier years involved getting kicked out of places.

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During Vivienne Medrano's second visit to the Collider Ladies Night studio, she goes all in on Hazbin Hotel Season 2, and also teases what to expect from Hazbin Hotel Season 3. Is this the end of the line for Vox, or will his journey of self-discovery continue next season? What was the inspiration behind that massive Angel Dust reveal? Has the time finally come - will we get Lilith in Season 3? Why does Medrano dub Lute a "sleeper villain?"

Hear about all that and get a sense of when we can expect to see Hazbin Hotel Season 3 and Hazbin Hotel Season 4 during this edition of Collider Ladies Night!

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Most actors are lucky to be part of a single major film franchise over the course of their career. However, in just five years, Katy O’Brian scored roles in three of the biggest franchises of all time — Star Wars, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Mission: Impossible. Yet another jaw-dropping and very well earned acting feat? Just a few months after Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning hit theaters, O’Brian had not one, not two, not three, but four major releases debut — Queens of the Dead, Christy, Maintenance Required, and now Edgar Wright’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Running Man.

O’Brian plays Jenni Laughlin in the film, one of three people selected to participate in The Network’s most popular and most dangerous game show, The Running Man. The risk is high, but so is the reward. If Laughlin, Glen Powell’s Ben Richards, or Martin Herlihy’s Jansky manage to evade McCone (Lee Pace) and The Hunters for 30 days, they win a whopping billion New Dollar reward. The odds of that happening? Mighty slim given no one’s ever won The Running Man, but producer Dan Killian (Josh Brolin) ensures their pursuit of that jackpot has sky-high entertainment value every single step of the way, even if it means putting the contestants’ lives at greater risk or manipulating his audience.

With The Running Man now playing in theaters nationwide, O’Brian returns to Collider Ladies Night after first making an appearance on the “Pre-Party” edition of the show for the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and then being part of the first-ever live Ladies Night at San Diego Comic Con in celebration of Twisters. This time around, not only does O’Brian break down her experience playing “chaos personified” in The Running Man, but she also looks back on the last five years and reveals which projects opened new doors, and which ones didn’t boost her star in this industry as much as you might expect.

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When Asa Germann started working on Gen V, it was only his fourth day on a film set — ever. He had worked on Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story with Evan Peters for three days, but that was it. Germann had theater experience and always felt “very committed to training as an actor,” but he still had to wait for his big break on the screen to come through. It may have taken time — six years, in fact — but Germann finally booked a game changing TV role playing Sam Riordan in The Boys spinoff series. While it took time for Germann to finally book a role, it took nearly none at all for him to prove that he was made for the screen.

Germann absolutely sizzles as Sam. Whether he’s bubbling over with rage, desperate for Cate (Maddie Phillips) to calm his mind, or yearning to be his best self, Germann captures the complexity of the character’s situation to the fullest, showing off immense range via a single role, especially in Season 2. At the end of Season 1, Sam turns to the dark side and plays an especially big part in the massacre at Godolkin University. Can a character ever come back from something like that? Had you asked me that question in November of 2023 when Gen V Season 1 wrapped up, my answer would have been a resounding no. However, thanks to Germann and the Gen V writing team, Sam makes the turn quite successfully in Season 2, not by quickly wiping the slate clean but by challenging the character to face his mistakes, acknowledge that there’s no quick fix and sort through the wealth of emotions that come with such a situation.

With Gen V Season 2 now available to stream in full on Prime Video, Germann swung by the Collider Forces studio for his very first solo longform interview. During the conversation we touched on his parents’ influence as experienced actors themselves, what it was like powering through six years of auditions before he finally scored Gen V, the difference between what he thought was in store for Sam in Season 2 and what wound up happening, what the future could hold for the Sam and Emma (Lizze Broadway) relationship, and so much more.

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In celebration of the release of Hedda on Prime Video, Tessa Thompson joined Perri Nemiroff for a Collider Ladies Night conversation!

During their chat, Thompson revisits working on Veronica Mars with Kristen Bell and discusses how Justin Simien's Dear White People was a personal acting game-changer. She also digs into the reality of joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and celebrates her longstanding collaboration with Hedda director, Nia DaCosta.

Hear about all of that and so much more in this interview!

Here's the official synopsis for HEDDA: "A provocative reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play, Hedda follows enigmatic newlywed Hedda (Tessa Thompson), who is outwardly composed but hiding a simmering discontent that threatens to explode when the brilliant and charismatic Eileen Lovberg (Nina Hoss) reenters her life. Over the course of a raucous party, the high and low of society endure the consequences of this dangerous and unknowable woman yearning for a past love. What ensues is a ruthless game of manipulation, where lust, jealousy, and betrayal collide. Written and directed by Nia DaCosta, Hedda is a daring exploration of power, desire, and a woman’s refusal to be confined."

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Lizze Broadway was an instant high-priority guest for Collider Ladies Night when Gen V wrapped its Season 1 run back in November 2023. Two years later, nothing has changed. Yet again, in Season 2, Broadway is a standout in an ensemble that’s filled with top-tier actors. Not only is Broadway a consistent scene-stealer courtesy of pitch-perfect line delivery and spot-on comedic timing, but her character’s growth as a leader has proven to be one of the most inspiring storylines of the season. It’s an arc that made Emma an especially powerful anchor for the show — the character most responsible for bringing everyone together.

With the Gen V Season 2 finale now available to stream on Prime Video, Broadway returned to the Collider Ladies Night studio to talk all things Emma Meyers. She went into detail on how heavily the late Chance Perdomo and his Gen V character, Andre Anderson, influenced Emma’s Season 2 arc, and also Broadway’s own personal journey as an actor. She also put the spotlight on Emma’s new connections this season, namely her team-up with Sean Patrick Thomas as Andre’s father, Polarity, and her budding friendship Jessica Clement’s Harper.

Enjoy all of that and more in this Gen V edition of Collider Ladies Night!

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D’Arcy Carden is the best kind of busy right now. She just wrapped her run on the Emmy award winning series The Handmaid’s Tale where she managed to swoop in during the show’s sixth and final season and quickly establish herself as a fan favorite character. Right now she’s in production on a highly anticipated and star studded Peacock series based on Elin Hilderbrand’s novel, Five Star Weekend. Carden stars in that one alongside Jennifer Garner, Regina Hall, Chloë Sevigny and Gemma Chan. 

Carden also makes a mark on the indie cinema space this year courtesy of Seth Worley’s phenomenal feature directorial debut, Sketch. The movie utilizes a downright brilliant concept to explore a family’s grief. Jack (Kue Lawrence) and Amber (Bianca Belle) recently lost their mother, and they’re coping with it in two totally different ways, as is their father, Taylor, played by Tony Hale. While Jack and Taylor are bottling it all up, Amber is expressing herself with art — or, more specifically, by drawing violent monsters in her notebook. One day, that notebook falls in a pond. But, it’s not any old pond. This pond has magical powers, and it brings her sketches to life, and those sketches go on to terrorize her town.

Carden enters as Liz, Jack and Amber’s real estate agent aunt. Initially, she’s wholly focused on helping Taylor sell their home but soon comes to realize that the fight against Amber’s drawings is very real, and she’s going to have to fight creatures made of marker, crayon, glitter, and more alongside her brother.

Sketch is a top tier original film. Not only is the story idea genius, but even as a first time feature filmmaker, Worley’s got the skillset necessary to expertly bring the ambitious concept to screen on an independent film budget.

With Sketch now available to rent on digital platforms, Carden visited the Collider Ladies Night studio to discuss her experience making the film, and to look back on unforgettable career milestones like scoring her role in The Good Place, which earned her an Emmy nomination, and her time working on Prime Video’s gone-too-soon A League of Their Own.

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I’ve been saying this for quite some time now; Rosa Salazar is an epic force in this industry. Not only is she brimming with undeniable screen presence, but she’s also amassed a filmography packed with uniquely ambitious projects.

After getting her start with American Horror Story and Parenthood, Salazar jumped into two of the most popular young adult film franchises of the 2010s with supporting roles in The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and Insurgent. Those projects teed her up nicely to headline her very own studio action film, Alita: Battle Angel. In the series realm, Salazar also starred in two especially unforgettable streaming shows, the Prime Video animated series Undone, and Netflix’s Brand New Cherry Flavor. The combination of all of those titles and then some highlights Salazar’s endless range, and having such range came in handy big time on her latest project, Prime Video’s Play Dirty.

The Shane Black-directed action comedy is based on the “Parker” book series by Donald E. Westlake. Mark Wahlberg steps in as Parker, a skilled thief who assembles a team to pull off a seemingly impossible heist. That team includes Salazar’s Zen, an invaluable member of the crew, but also one you’re going to want to keep an eye on.

While on Collider Ladies Night, Salazar deemed the project a no-brainer to take on for two reasons. One, Shane Black. The other? “Everything I've done in my career led me to this.” Hear all about it in this interview!

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