Set in 1930s New York City, Spider-Noir stars Nicolas Cage as Ben Reilly, a hardened private investigator who once protected the city as the masked superhero known as the Spider. Having since left that life behind, Ben has become a burnt-out detective trying to make his way through a city filled with corruption and organized crime. However, a new investigation soon draws him into a much larger and stranger conspiracy, forcing him to revisit the choices and events of his past and decide whether he can truly leave the Spider behind.

SciFi Vision recently spoke with Emmy-Nominee Hnedel Maximore about the visual effects of the series, including how he came onto the project, why the mix of hard-boiled noir and Spider-Verse elements interested him, and what the Emmy nomination meant after the challenge of delivering both color and black-and-white versions. He also discusses the technical and creative process behind the nightmare sequence, the lab mutations, the super power effects, why he personally prefers watching the black-and-white version, and more.

When contenders for the Primetime Emmy Awards were announced in early July, Apple TV scored a huge haul with 89 nominations! Fifteen of the streamer’s series were honored, including the sci-fi epic Foundation.

Based on Isaac Asimov’s landmark fiction series, Foundation was nominated for Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Season or Movie. Among Apple TV’s many excellent sci-fi and genre offerings, Foundation stands out for its expansive world-building, gorgeous visuals, and top-notch special effects.

In honor of Foundation’s nomination, SciFi Vision spoke with Chris MacLean, Foundation’s  Overall Visual Effects Supervisor for seasons one through three. MacLean talked about some of the highlights and challenges involved in creating season three, and how it compares to the show’s early days.

“We definitely keyed on some different themes and different tones this year compared to the last year,” MacLean told the site. “The first season was very hard sci-fi; the second season was a lot more action, and then this season was a little bit more introspective. Even though we had a lot of action set pieces, it was a little more character driven in terms of everything that was happening.”

Fightland follows Maduka ‘Duke’ Kilroy (Howard Charles), a disgraced formerly incarcerated boxing champion who returns to London to seek revenge against the family he thinks betrayed him, driven by non-stop action and questionable characters in a world centered on money and power.

Richard Pepple plays Duke Kilroy’s father, Gary ‘Gazzer’ Kilroy, in Starz’s new series, Fightland. Pepple’s became a part of the project through the audition process and getting a script and reading it and thinking that it was really good just from the sides. He read and recorded with a good friend of his and had so much fun recording the two scenes. He received the first episode and his reaction was, “Wow, this is even bigger than what I had thought it was. Based off what I read, this is quite epic.” Pepple said there was excitement and buzz from a very early stage. As an actor, Pepple hears many nos in the audition process but had constantly asked his agent if he had heard anything about this role, because he wanted to be involved, and then he got the call that he got the role. Pepple had worked with the Fightland writers about fifteen years ago on their first job and it felt like it had come full circle. The show has been a treat and a special job that will stay with him for a long time.

Fightland is a new series by the same Executive Producers, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson through his G-Unit Film & Television, as the Power Universe that has had four series and two more on the way. It’s possible that Fightland could also have its own universe and Pepple’s wishes for that. He went on to say that Fightland tells such a rich story about something that people don’t know much about with sort of an undercurrent in the boxing world. Pepple also shared that there was a lot of dedication and commitment to the project very early on to really bring this world to a wider audience and tell this story about these characters, which was very exciting.

***The following interview contains major spoilers for the season 4 finale***

On the season finale of FROM, which premiered this past weekend on MGM+, when the group uprooted the bottle tree after Tabitha (Catalina Sandino Moreno) and Jade (David Alpay) found the children’s bones, it unleashed a sequence of events, starting with darkness falling and the nightmare creatures coming out on the attack. Although Fatima (Pegah Ghafoori) was eventually able to somewhat control Smiley (Jamie McGuire), it was too late as he slashed and killed Marielle (Kaelen Ohm) before she could stop him. As the chaos continued, the stakes were raised as Sophia (Julia Doyle) moved forward with her plans to destroy the balance of the town. A threat to her plans, Elgin (Nathan D. Simmons), having discovered that she was not who she appeared to be, was offered a deal to go home in exchange for helping her, but he instead resisted, not willing to betray his friends or bend his morals this time. In return, she killed him on the spot.

In an interview with SciFi Vision last week, both Simmons and Ohm spoke about the intense death scenes for Elgin and Marielle, playing dead on camera, set keepsakes, how working on the series has impacted their lives, whether they like to watch their performances back, why they leave the theory crafting to the fans, and more.

Taking place in the 1930s New York, the series Spider-Noir tells the story of Ben Reilly (Nicholas Cage), an aging private investigator, who is hired to investigate nightclub singer Cat Hardy (Li Jun Li). When the investigation leads him into a world of mob corruption and super-powered villains, he must come to terms with his past and embrace his own powers once again as the city’s only hero.

In the series, Lukas Haas plays the role of Winston, mob boss Silvermane (Brendan Gleeson)’s loyal chief enforcer. Recently the actor spoke with SciFi Vision about how he became involved with the series, the choices he used to build his character, the way classic noir movies, gangster performances, accent work, costume, and physicality all fed into his approach, working with Cage and Gleeson, and much more.

Spider-Noir is now streaming on Prime Video. Watch the interview below.

***The following interview contains spoilers for the season 4 finale***

On the season finale of FROM on Sunday, everything changed for Fatima (Pegah Ghafoori), literally. After giving birth to the nightmare creature, Smiley (Jamie McGuire), she has shared a connection for awhile, being able to see through his eyes. When he entered the clinic during the eclipse, she was once again able to somewhat control his actions through their connection, but it was too late as he had already slashed Marielle (Kaelen Ohm), who died later in Kristi (Chloe Van Landschoot)’s arms. However, later, Fatima used that connection when accompanying her husband, Ellis (Corteon Moore), and father-in-law, Boyd (Harold Perrineau), into the caves to try to rescue Jade (David Alpay) and Tabitha (Catalina Sandino Moreno), able to alert them when the creatures were close. When the monsters were closing in, she realized she was able to hold them off by transforming completely into a creature herself. Whether she still retains her humanity is yet to be seen.

Recently, in an interview with SciFi Vision, the actress teased that she felt Fatima would “always be human at heart,” but couldn’t say how that would affect her going forward, but she did speak to striking that balance when playing the transformed version of her character. “[T]he thing that sets our show apart is that our monsters are eerily human,”she told SciFi Vision. “So, I would say that more than anything, I had to worry about coming across as too much of a monster, because then it takes away the scariness of them.”

As of the end of season four, the actress didn’t work with practical effects when it came to the transformation itself, only CGI. “It was just CGI dots on my face,” she explained. “Our post production team, the amazing team we have, they took care of all of that.” Ghafoori, however, did say she got to work with practical makeup effects for the veining on her stomach.

***The following contains spoilers for 4x10, the season finale***

Jade and Tabitha put the bones of the children in their bags, the creatures watching them through the plastic, as up above they wait for a signal.

Boyd tells the others to get the rope ladder ready, that the chamber becomes vulnerable as soon as the tree starts to give. Kristi asks what plan B is if they can’t pull the tree out, but he tells her there is no plan B.

Tabitha says they should signal them to pull the tree, but Jade says no. She needs to be ready to go the moment the rope ladder drops with the bones. She questions this and says the bones have to go up last, because they are the only thing protecting the chamber. He admits that he lied and there is nothing protecting the chamber once the tree is out; the bones won’t stop them. If Boyd realized it wasn’t safe, he would have scrubbed the whole thing, and he couldn’t let that happen; she needs to break the cycle. He promises her to slow them down long enough for her to get up; her children deserve to go home. Upset, she tells him not to do it, and he just says that if he had to spend all those lifetimes with anyone, he’s glad it was her.

Up above they hear the signal on the radio and Boyd says to start the truck. The tree is shown pulled up from both perspectives. When they start to pull it, the nightmare creatures come through the plastic, it no longer protecting them. Tabitha picks up the bag of bones, but they don’t go for the talisman. Cowboy says it’s nice all of them being together again. As the tree comes out, sunlight comes down into the chamber, and the monsters, though still human, back up, and Jade and Tabitha realize they can’t come into the middle of the chamber into the light.

The British conspiracy-thriller, The Capture, which returned recently to Peacock for season three, picks up a year after Correction, the UK intelligence service’s clandestine video manipulation program, was exposed to the public, and Rachel Carey (Holliday Grainger) was appointed the acting head of the SO15. When Carey is in the middle of demoing the new Operation Veritas camera system, a shooter commits an act of terror, leaving her as the solo witness. She, however, is pulled into a conspiracy when their own cameras show a different shooter than who she witnessed commit the crime.

This season, needing to break the man she witnessed commit the crime, Commander Noah Pierson (Killian Scott), Carey brings in Frank Napier (Ron Perlman) to help.

Perlman recently spoke with SciFi Vision about returning for season three, including his fight scene with Pierson, staring death in the face and the difficulties in playing dead, his relationship with Carey this season, and more.

The full season of The Capture is currently available to stream on Peacock. Watch the interview below.

***The following contains spoilers for 4x09***

On the penultimate episode of season four of FROM this weekend, it was revealed that Clara (Katerina Bakolias), who began as a background character, was, in fact, a mole. Sophia (Julia Doyle) came to Clara with black eyes, reminding her what she really is and of the deal they made, and now, she’s calling in the favor. Clara, both because she is scared, and in the hope of going home, helps Sophia by adding the entity’s blood to a drink she gives Fatima (Pegah Ghafoori) in hopes of speeding up whatever is currently happening to her.

SciFi Vision spoke to creator and executive producer John Griffin, showrunner and executive producer Jeff Pinkner, and executive producer and director Jack Bender about how long that storyline had been in the works. According to them, it came organically. “I will say that that evolved, and it evolved out of the best version of our three-legged stool creative process,” explained Bender.

“[O]ne of the wonderful things about the process and this show…is that sometimes people emerge in ways that were unexpected,” Griffin added. Bakolias really impressed them and over time evolved to be a bigger part of the series, and it led to using her when they needed a character to perform a specific function. “[A]s Clara became a more important part of the show, and as we realized, oh, you know what, we want the Man in Yellow to have an inside track in the town… and as we were discussing who this should be, one day I got a text from Jeff Pinkner saying, ‘Clara should be the mole!’”

***The following is a detailed recap of episode 409 of FROM, “The Calm Before,” and it contains spoilers for the episode.***

Tabitha, upset, is telling Boyd that the Man in Yellow was in her house, even with the talisman, in the middle of the day. She knows, because he took Ethan’s drawings. She says he told her he killed Jim. Jade comes in saying that he knows Boyd wants to protect everyone and keep them safe, and he does too, which is why he’s decided that he is going to be the one going down into the tunnels. There is no perfect version of a plan, but it’s the best chance they have. Jade is surprised when Boyd agrees and says to walk him through it again. He tells him the man in the yellow suit is back. When the sun comes up he wants to be able to put shovels in the ground; they are getting the bones.

The Man in Yellow removes his suit and transforms back into Sophia then heads into town. She comes upon Elgin and Clara taking the flag down off the flagpole and questions what they are doing. Elgin tells her that Boyd told them to grab as much rope and chain as they could find. He tells her that people are going into the tunnels to dig up the bones, Jade, Kenny, and a couple of others he thinks. She says she hopes it works. He says they will be up all night making a rope ladder if she wants to come by. She says it sounds like fun. Clara says she is going to go check the shed, and Sophia asks if she can help and follows her. When out of earshot, she asks Clara if she knows who she really is and tells her to look closer. Sophia pulls down her glasses and her eyes turn black. Clara is scared. She asks if she remembers the bargain they made, because she needs her to do something for her.