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Korean hitmaker Yeon Sang-ho’s Parasyte universe is getting an all-new host body to infect. On Thursday morning from Seoul, Netflix unveiled Parasyte: Tamiya, an upcoming Japanese season of the hit sci-fi horror series that has delighted fans with its inspired K-drama reimagining of artist Hitoshi Iwaaki’s best-selling manga.

Yeon, fresh off the release of Netflix thriller series Human Vapor and zombie blockbuster Colony, returns as the lead creative force behind the show, having developed its story and co-written all episodes with his regular collaborator Ryu Yong-jae. Netflix says the new season is already in post-production and will premiere on the service sometime in 2027.

The original Parasyte: The Grey spent four weeks on Netflix’s Global Top 10 Non-English TV list in 2024 and topped the rankings in 34 countries upon its release.

Whereas the original season’s novelty came from transplanting Iwaaki’s classic manga to a South Korean setting, the new chapter is said to burrow more deeply into the original source material. Japanese actress Shioli Kutsuna, best known to global viewers for her recurring part in the Deadpool franchise, stars as Ryoko Tamiya, a parasite who seizes the body of a high school teacher and — initially as ruthless as the rest of her kind — gradually comes to suspect that coexistence with humans, rather than predation, may offer her species its best chance of survival. The series tells that story from her side of the divide, with Kutsuna playing the character in three registers: the original human, the violent creature that takes her over and the evolving being caught between the two.

“Ryoko Tamiya is a truly captivating villain in the original manga,” Yeon says. “Her struggles over the nature of her own existence are what elevate the original Parasyte from a simple hero-based manga aimed at kids to something deeper.”

“I wanted to convey her perpetual struggle over the need for parasites to coexist with humans and the issue of their survival, and how she suffers setbacks and learns over time,” the filmmaker adds. “I think the anguish she experiences is the essence of Parasyte.”

Kutsuna, who previously worked with Netflix on the sumo drama Sanctuary and will appear in the streamer’s upcoming live-action Gundam film, calls Tamiya “the most challenging role I have ever played in my acting career.”

She adds: “During the six months I spent living as Tamiya, I experienced many emotions I had never encountered before.”

Yeon adds: “She did a wonderful job of portraying the process of a non-human creature coming to understand both humanity and its own existence.”

Yeon has become one of Netflix’s most consistent and prolific collaborators in East Asia. His projects at the streamer as a creator, director or writer include Hellbound (two seasons), sci-fi feature Jung_E, occult chiller The Bequeathed, Parasyte: The Grey, last year’s Revelations and the just-launched The Human Vapor, his big-budget Japanese series collaboration with Toho. He’s kept just as busy as a theatrical filmmaker. Colony, the Cannes Midnight-premiered zombie thriller starring Jun Ji-hyun that returned him to Train to Busan territory, has grossed $42.4 million in South Korea since late May, making it one of the year’s biggest Korean hits. He’s simultaneously been experimenting with ultra-low-budget filmmaking, having released mystery thriller The Ugly last year, and with the AI-themed thriller Paradise Lost set to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival this fall.

For Parasyte: Tamiya, Yeon reunites with Grey co-writer Ryu Yong-jae, while Japanese filmmakers Kensaku Kakimoto (Glass Heart) and Kazuhiro Nakagawa (Double, Bullet Train Explosion) direct the episodes. WOWPOINT, the production house behind The Grey, The Human Vapor and Colony, produces.

Iwaaki’s manga, published by Kodansha from 1988 to 1995, has previously spawned an anime series and a two-part Japanese film franchise directed by Godzilla Minus One‘s Takashi Yamazaki.

Says Yoshihiro Sato, manager of live-action creative at Netflix Japan: “‘What makes a human?’ ‘Can we coexist with beings that are different from us?’ — These questions posed by Parasyte more than 30 years ago feel much more pressing for our modern society that has placed non-sentient AI at all of our fingertips.”

He adds: “Our purpose in making this series was to take the universal questions posed by the original manga 30 years ago and bring them into the modern spotlight.”

For years, Lego has been one of big booths at San Diego Comic-Con, a massive footprint in the center of the San Diego Convention Center. This year, however, the company is taking its convention experience to a whole new level of brick.

Doubling down on its Lego Smart Play, which blends physical play with responsive technology, Lego is creating an interactive and immersive destination themed to two of the biggest brands in pop culture, Pokémon and Star Wars.  

The company is also showing off publicly, for the first time, its upcoming sets for Star Trek, Donkey Kong and Shrek.

The booth will welcome convention-goers with a retro-futuristic gateway before welcoming them into two fully activations.

For the Star Wars installation, Lego has created “Destination: Mos Eisley,” which will take fans to the famous Creature Cantina, recreated by oversized Lego brick environments designed for photo taking (and social media sharing). Attendees will be able to get on stage for a remix of the Cantina Song and even slide into the famous corner booth for a face-to-face encounter with Greedo. There is also a Dewback Petting Zoo for a photo op with a purring, snoozing Dewback.

The Pokémon installation, meanwhile, recreates the Pokémon Lab with scaled up Lego brings and will be populated by life-sized Lego Pokémon builds powered by Smart Play. That experience involves Poké Balls and a game of “Hide and Pikachu.”

One of the big sets being unveiled is the Lego Icons Star Trek: U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 Bridge, coinciding with the show’s 60^th anniversary. The set will available at Lego stores and LEGO.com exclusively beginning Sept. 1.

(And speaking of Lego Trek, there will be a panel on the subject, titled Star Trek: The Collector Frontier, Thursday at 11 a.m. in Room 5AB with Lego set designers Henrik Andersen and Crystal Marie Fontan. And, for good measure, Lego is also showing off a brick-built Captain’s Chair — made out of 83,568 bricks — at the neighboring Marriott Marquis.)

Lego previously produced sets replicating a Nintendo console and a Game Boy and it’s keeping the video game silo going with a Donkey Kong Arcade, which will be on display at its booth. The 1,367-piece collectible set features Donkey Kong and Lady, plus well-known sights such as the scaffold, ladder and hammer details from the original Nintendo game. And yes, you will be able to release barrels and press the button to make Jumpman leap over the barrels. That set will be available Aug. 1.

Lego is also showcasing 12 minifigures from the Shrek franchise as it gears up for new Shrek sets in 2027. The minifigures will hit shelves Sept. 1.

Travis Scott is opening up about how Christopher Nolan cast him in The Odyssey for his acting debut.

During a Tuesday night appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Scott recalled receiving an unexpected phone call from the Oscar-winning director, who asked if he’d be interested in acting in the Greek epic.

“My phone went off and it just said, ‘Chris.’ And I’m thinking, ‘OK, I don’t know what this is about. Maybe he wants to go to a show?’” Scott said. “So I pick up and he’s like, ‘Would you be interested in acting in a movie?’ And I’m like, ‘I mean, I guess, you know? What’s the [role]?’”

Scott recalled Nolan telling him the film would be “coming out soon” and that he wanted him to be part of it. Surprised by the ask, Scott responded: “I’m like, ‘Whoa, hold on. Wait. You know I make music?’” before Nolan gave him “his whole thesis on why.”

“I really enjoy his time. I’m really inspired by him. He’s a real mentor of mine outside of this,” Scott said of the Oppenheimer filmmaker. “So I’m like, ‘Yo, whatever you’re down with, I’m down. However it goes, I’m with it.’”

Scott played Demodocus, the bard who narrates Odysseus’ journey in the opening scene and is the first voice and face audiences see in the film.

Though he admitted, “I was actually nervous as ‘F,’” Scott said he initially assumed his scenes would be with extras.

“I didn’t know that it was going to be Anne Hathaway, Tom [Holland] and Robert Pattinson — a bunch of amazing people,” he said. “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing. But they were such an amazing cast.”

Scott continued to praise Nolan and the cast for making his acting debut a comfortable experience. The pair previously collaborated on the soundtrack for Nolan’s 2020 film Tenet, which starred Pattinson.

“Chris is an amazing director,” Scott said before adding of the cast, “Everybody made me feel comfortable. I was just glad to be there and just watch him. And being in such a world of them. So I’m just glad to be here.”

Nolan recently spoke with Time magazine about why he cast Scott, saying, “I wanted to nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to rap.”

In addition to his acting debut, Scott also recorded the original song “When I’m Home” for The Odyssey‘s closing credits alongside James Blake, with production from the film’s composer Ludwig Göransson. Nolan is credited as a co-writer.

The Odyssey is now playing in theaters.