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The 2024 festive season has come and gone, but it wasn't completely devoid of entertainment-based news. Indeed, the holidays didn't stop the world's biggest studios from releasing trailers for new movies and TV shows, or making other notable announcements ahead of New Year's Day.

We covered a couple of those reveals over the break, with Creature Commandos confirmed to be returning for a second season and Apple TV Plus being free to watch this weekend (January 4 and 5) chief among them. There were plenty more we didn't get to, though, so here are six other big entertainment news stories you may have missed during the so-called most wonderful time of the year.

Marvel comes out swinging with Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man's first trailer

After a largely successful 2024, Marvel will be hoping for another stellar year in 2025. The comic giant endured a torrid time throughout 2023, so the Disney subsidiary will have been delighted with last year's various success stories, such as the multi-billion dollar-making Deadpool and Wolverine.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) will be going all-out to replicate those wins this year, too, starting with Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (YFNSM). An animated Marvel Phase 5 series that'll debut on Disney Plus on January 29, it reimagines the iconic webslinger's origins story, subsequent superhero adventures, and how he marries the latter with his high-school studies. With its modern take on Peter Parker and his wallcrawling alias, plus its comic-like, cel-shaded animation, YFNSM will aim to get 2025 off to a *ahem* spectacular start for Marvel.

The Batman Part 2 has been delayed – again

"What do you mean my next film has been delayed again, Selina!?" (Image credit: Jonathan Olley/Warner Bros.)

The first of two big DC Comics new stories that broke over the festive season, Batman fans were left disappointed by the revelation that The Batman Part 2's launch date had been pushed back once more.

Per Deadline, the highly-anticipated sequel, which was originally delayed from October 2025 to October 2026 just 10 months ago, has seen its release postponed by another year. It'll now land in theaters on October 1, 2027. Defending the delay, DC Studios co-chief James Gunn said (via Threads) that co-writer and director Matt Reeves wasn't happy with the movie's script, hence the decision to move its launch again.

Jason Momoa joins the Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow cast as Lobo

A post shared by Jason Momoa (@prideofgypsies)

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If that Batman news was a source of disappointment, this Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow announcement wasn't. Before 2024 ended, Deadline claimed Jason Momoa had been cast as Lobo in the forthcoming DC Cinematic Universe (DCU) film, with Gunn and Momoa later confirming Deadline's report was true on social media.

An immortal mercenary who's also the sole survivor of an alien race known as the Czarnian, Lobo will be the second DC character that Momoa has played. He previously played Aquaman in the now defunct DC Extended Universe (DCEU), portraying the Atlantean superhero in two solo movies and the DCEU's Justice League flick. He'll star opposite House of the Dragon alumnus Millie Alcock, who'll play the titular Kryptonian in the DCU Chapter One project and Supergirl's first big-screen adventure for over 40 years.

The Night Agent season 2 gets an explosive first trailer ahead of its January 23 premiere

The Night Agent season 2 is not only one of Netflix's first big releases of the year, but also one of our most anticipated TV shows of 2025. The debuting of its thrilling first trailer over the 2024 holiday season, then, has only added to our excitement ahead of its January 23 release.

Released publicly during Netflix's NFL on Christmas event, one of the best Netflix shows' latest teasers puts Gabriel Basso's Peter Sutherland at the heart of another conspiracy-laced plot. With The Night Agent's first season raking in millions of views, we'd be amazed if its sophomore chapter doesn't do likewise.

Netflix confirms Cobra Kai season 6 part 3 will arrive in mid-February

It's almost time for the dojo doors to close for the last time. The third and final part of Cobra Kai season 6, which is the hit series' final installment, will arrive on Netflix on February 13. Part 3 will comprise the last five episodes of not only this season, but also the action comedy-drama as a whole.

Still, while this'll mark the end of The Karate Kid's pseudo-TV sequel, it isn't the end for everyone involved in the show. Ralph Macchio is set to reprise his role as Danny LaRusso in the Karate Kid: Legends film, which arrives in theaters this May. Cobra Kai's showrunners also have ideas for potential spin-offs of the popular show, too. Hey, the saying 'Cobra Kai Never Dies!' isn't just for show, you know.

Zero Day's first trailer puts Robert de Niro's ex-US President at the center of a political conspiracy thriller

Netflix went all-out in the marketing stakes over the Christmas period. Indeed, as evidenced by the first trailer for upcoming TV original Zero Day, its pre-2025 announcements weren't reserved for hugely successful shows that we can't wait to return to our screens.

So, what's Zero Day about? For one, it'll star legendary actor Robert de Niro, who makes the leap to the small screen for the very first time. He'll play an ex-US president who's tasked with unraveling a mass conspiracy in the wake of a devastating cyber attack that threatens the heart of American democracy and sociopolitics. With a behind-the-scenes crew comprising veterans from hit series including Homeland and Narcos among others, Zero Day could be another early 2025 hit for the world's best streaming service when it's released on February 20.

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• US DoJ issues final rule on Executive Order Executive Order 14117
• Large transactions of US citizen data to hostile nations will be banned
• Ban will protect US national security by prevent US citizens from being targeted en mass in cyber espionage and foreign influence

The US Department of Justice has issued a final rule on Executive Order 14117, which President Joe Biden signed in February 2024, preventing the movement of US citizens’ data to a number of “countries of concern”.

The list of countries consists of China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela, all of which the DoJ says have “engaged in a long-term pattern or serious instances of conduct significantly adverse to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of U.S. persons.”

It added these nations could, “access and exploit Americans’ bulk sensitive personal data and certain U.S. Government-related data.”

No US data for hostile nations

The final rule will come into effect in 90 days, with Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department's National Security Division stating, “This powerful new national-security program is designed to ensure that Americans' personal data is no longer permitted to be sold to hostile foreign powers, whether through outright purchase or other means of commercial access.”

The Executive Order is aimed at preventing countries generally hostile to the US from using the data of US citizens in cyber espionage and influence campaigns, as well as building profiles of US citizens to be used in social engineering, phishing, blackmail, and identity theft campaigns.

The final rule sets out the threshold for transactions of data that carry an unacceptable level of risk, alongside the different classes of transactions that are prohibited, restricted or exempt. Companies that violate the order will face civil and criminal penalties. The types of prohibited data are:

1. Certain covered personal identifiers (e.g., names linked to device identifiers, social security numbers, driver’s license, or other government identification numbers)
2. Precise geolocation data (e.g., GPS coordinates)
3. Biometric identifiers (e.g., facial images, voice prints and patterns, and retina scans)
4. Human genomic data and three other types of human ‘omic data (epigenomic, proteomic, or transcriptomic)
5. Personal health data (e.g., height, weight, vital signs, symptoms, test results, diagnosis, digital dental records, and psychological diagnostics)
6. Personal financial data (e.g., information related to an individual’s credit, debit cards, bank accounts, and financial liabilities, including payment history)

The DoJ also outlined the final rule does not apply to “medical, health, or science research or the development and marketing of new drugs” and “also does not broadly prohibit U.S. persons from engaging in commercial transactions, including exchanging financial and other data as part of the sale of commercial goods and services with countries of concern or covered persons, or impose measures aimed at a broader decoupling of the substantial consumer, economic, scientific, and trade relationships that the United States has with other countries.”

Via The Hacker News

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• LG's next generation of OLED panels could reach 3,700 nits
• Coming to G-series TVs but not LG's more affordable models
• Samsung's also working on brighter QD-OLED displays

As much as we love the best OLED TVs, there's one area where there's still room for improvement: brightness. Even the elite models are a little dark compared to mini-LED, and that's something LG in particular has been working on. The LG G4 was significantly brighter than the G3, and that in turn was significantly brighter than its predecessor. And now it seems that the 2025 LG OLED TVs will be brighter still.

A new report says that LG will be bringing a new four-layer OLED TV panel to market this year, and that this will be significantly brighter than the three-layer panel in its current flagship TVs.

What to expect from LG's latest OLEDs

According to display industry analyst Ross Young, as reported by FlatpanelsHD, LG has been developing a four-layer OLED TV panel with an additional light-emitting layer of pixels; that panel tech is expected to reach the market this year "with a peak brightness of 3,700 nits". That's exceptionally bright for an OLED, though bear in mind that LG Display (which makes the panels) claimed last year that its latest-gen panel (as used in the LG G4) could hit 3,000 nits, and the TV was never close to hitting that (nor did it promise to).

LG has already shown off this new OLED tech: it displayed a small prototype at the IMID conference in South Korea back in August, telling reporters that the tech would not only boost brightness by 25%, but would deliver a longer lifespan and better energy efficiency too.

LG Display didn't say when the panels would come to market. But the 2025 LG G5 already leaked with a 165Hz screen, and has been listed in Hong Kong's electronics certification system with reported energy figures that suggest the new panel tech is inside: its consumption is listed as 132W for the 55-inch model and 164W for the 65-inch version, which is around 20% lower than the 161W and 209W for the equivalent G4 models.

That suggests that the new panel is about to launch, although LG Display is not listed as one of the firms appearing at CES 2025 – though LG overall is, and we expect the company to announce its new TVs there.

But when this screen is announced, don't expect it in LG's more affordable 2025 panels: the energy consumption listed in the database for the C5 is barely different to that of the C4, which suggests that this will be high-end only.

LG isn't the only big name working on better panels. Samsung is doing it too. The same industry analyst, Ross Young, says that the 2025/26 QD-OLED panels will boost brightness even further to 3,600 nits or more, and possibly as much as 4,000 nits. The OLED TV arms race continues…

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• RansomHub claims intrusion into what appears to be MetLife’s Latin-American division
• Group leaks MetLife documents to corroborate the claim
• However MetLife says the intrusion pertains to a company owned by a subsidiary

Infamous ransomware group RansomHub claims it breached the Latin-American division of insurance giant MetLife on New Year’s Eve, but the company itself is denying any incident.

RansomHub did provide receipts on its homepage in the form of company documents written in Spanish, but a MetLife spokesperson claimed in a statement to Cybernews that “there is no incident that we’re aware of impacting MetLife’s Latin American division.”

The same representative did acknowledge an incident pertaining to Fondo Genesis, a financial services firm operating only in Ecuador and owned by a MetLife subsidiary.

MetLife and RansomHub

“Fondo Genesis operates separately from MetLife’s enterprise systems. Therefore, the impact of this incident is limited only to Fondo Genesis,” they said.

If you’re curious, the leaked confidential files, per Cybernews, comprise of ‘crisis’ and Treasury committee minutes, lists of company IP addresses, and executive paperwork dated as far back as to last July.

RansomHub is a fairly new name in ransomware, with its first known victim dating back to February 2024, but last year became the top outfit for sheer number of ransomware victims claimed, with a fifth of all known attacks attributed to them.

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• The Samsung Galaxy S25 series could come with crash detection
• Other rumors point to a free year of Gemini Advanced
• Official information about the S25 lineup is expected this month

It’s 2025, and as such the Samsung Galaxy S25 series feels closer than ever – we’re expecting to hear official news of the Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and Galaxy S25 Ultra within the next few weeks.

We’ve already seen and reported on the latest Samsung Galaxy S25 specs rumors, camera rumors, and rumored colors for each of the models, but a new crop of leaks point to Samsung taking some inspiration from the Google Pixel 9 Pro when it comes to software.

One of these rumored new features is crash detection, which both the Google Pixel 9 series and iPhone 16 lineup support already. As Android Authority found when digging through Samsung code, references to crash detection were found in leaked files from the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

However, as Android Headlines notes, a dedicated app for crash detection has existed within OneUI since version 5.1.1, though Samsung has never enabled it.

It’s likely that crash detection on Galaxy would work in a similar manner to the iPhone and Pixel’s implementation of the feature, using sensor readings and potentially AI to detect a car crash and subsequently allowing the user to call emergency services with one tap or swipe.

Speaking of AI, the Samsung Galaxy S25 lineup could come with a free 12-month trial year of Google Gemini Advanced, according to another rumor reported by Android Authority.

Though we wouldn’t expect any AI used in crash detection to be paywalled whatsoever, some AI features in Google’s suite are held behind the Google One AI Premium plan, which normally costs $19.99 / £18.99 / AU$30 per month.

Gemini Advanced gives users access to the Pro model of Gemini, which the company says is better at logical reasoning, as well as the latest experimental model that's better suited to coding and mathematics.

As well as Gemini, Samsung equips its phones with its own Galaxy AI suite of tools – we may see some new additions to our list of the best AI phones once the S25 series is released.

Over in Cupertino, Apple is suspected to be taking inspiration from the Google also, with rumors suggesting the iPhone 17 could come fitted with a Pixel-style camera bar instead of the usual square housing.

For the latest updates on the Galaxy S25 lineup as we hear them, be sure to check out our Samsung Galaxy phones coverage.

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