Kayce Dutton is back. His son is missing. And he will use every ounce of what a Navy SEAL and Montana rancher knows to bring Tate home. Season 2 premiered October 4, 2026, and the Vending Lot has the gear for it.
Kayce Dutton is back. His son is missing. And he will use every ounce of what a Navy SEAL and Montana rancher knows to bring Tate home. Season 2 premiered October 4, 2026, and the Vending Lot has the gear for it.
Now Airing
Sundays at 8:00 PM ET/PT on CBS. New episodes weekly through April 2027. Stream live or on-demand on Paramount+. 20 episodes this season.
🤠 Season 2 — The Story
Premiered October 4, 2026 · CBS & Paramount+
Kayce Dutton Goes Rogue. His Son Is Gone. Montana Has Never Been More Dangerous.
Season 2 of Marshals picks up immediately after the violent, chaotic cliffhanger that closed Season 1, and it doesn’t waste a single episode getting to the point. Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) is now operating at the intersection of two identities that most people couldn’t hold together simultaneously: an elite Navy SEAL whose training prepared him for exactly this kind of high-stakes extraction scenario, and a Montana rancher who knows the land, the people, and the moral codes of the frontier better than any federal agency ever could. His son Tate (Brecken Merrill) has been taken, and Kayce is going to use all of it to bring him home. The season runs 20 episodes and expands the Marshals unit’s reach across contemporary Montana while forcing every member of the team to confront the psychological cost of what frontier justice actually looks like up close. Taylor Sheridan’s fingerprints are all over the expanded scope, and for viewers who followed the Yellowstone franchise through its finale, the world-building here feels like a genuine continuation rather than a spinoff trying to establish its own identity from scratch.
🎬 Cast & Characters
Lead · Returning
Luke Grimes
Kayce Dutton — U.S. Marshal & Navy SEAL
🌟 New This Season
Jefferson White
Jimmy Hurdstrom — reprising his Yellowstone role
🌟 New This Season
Marque Richardson
Patrick Burns — Asst. U.S. Attorney
Returning
Brecken Merrill
Tate Dutton — at the center of the Season 2 arc
Returning
Logan Marshall-Green
Marshals Unit
Returning
Arielle Kebbel & Ash Santos
Marshals Unit · Core Ensemble
Where & When to Watch
📺
CBS — Broadcast
Sundays at 8:00 PM ET/PT. New episodes weekly from October 4, 2026 through April 2027. 20 episodes total this season.
▶️
Paramount+ — Streaming
Premium subscribers can watch live alongside the broadcast. Essential tier subscribers access new episodes on-demand the following Monday.
🗓
Season Run
October 4, 2026 through April 2027. Traditional week-to-week schedule — no binge drops, no waiting months between batches.
🧥 Featured Product
Official Licensed Merchandise · The Vending Lot
Marshals Elements Insulated Parka
$224.98 – $239.98
This is not a costume piece. It is a fully functional insulated parka built to perform in the same harsh conditions the Marshals unit operates in on screen. Constructed from 100% polyester woven oxford shell with a durable water-repellent finish, a 5000MM waterproof rating, and a 5000G/M2 breathability rating — specs that matter when the Montana winter is actually involved. The 5.2-ounce polyfill insulation and diamond-quilted body, hood, and sleeves deliver serious warmth without bulk, while the fully seam-sealed construction keeps every drop of weather out. Triple-needle stitching, rivet and snap details, a snap-removable hood, and four front bellowed pockets with hook-and-loop closures make this the kind of outerwear that earns its place in a working wardrobe.
Jimmy Hurdstrom Is Back — and That Changes Everything
The single casting decision that has generated the most conversation heading into Season 2 is the return of Jefferson White as Jimmy Hurdstrom, the beloved Yellowstone fan favorite whose arc across the flagship series became one of its most emotionally satisfying character journeys. Bringing Jimmy into the Montana Marshals world is not a stunt. It is a signal that Marshals is operating as a genuine branch of the Yellowstone universe rather than a standalone spinoff trying to establish its own mythology from the ground up. For viewers who watched Jimmy’s entire journey on Yellowstone, seeing him here lands differently than any new character introduction could. Marque Richardson (Dear White People) also joins as Patrick Burns, a sharp assistant U.S. attorney who gives the Marshals unit legal infrastructure and a new dynamic inside the team’s chain of command.
Rubber Soul gets its definitive special edition on October 2. The four-film biopic series is coming in 2028. And The Vending Lot has the most complete Beatles collection available right now — 34 products spanning diecast collectibles, apparel, and the iconic vehicles of the Fab Four’s story.
Rubber Soul gets its definitive special edition on October 2. The four-film biopic series is coming in 2028. And The Vending Lot has the most complete Beatles collection available right now — 34 products spanning diecast collectibles, apparel, and the iconic vehicles of the Fab Four’s story.
Out October 2
Rubber Soul Special Edition — Newly mixed by Giles Martin and Sam Okell. New stereo, Dolby Atmos, original mono, Capitol US version. 24 session recordings including 20 previously unreleased. Available on LP, CD, and Blu-ray.
🎵 Rubber Soul — Special Edition
60 Years On · October 2, 2026 Release
The Album That Changed Everything Gets the Edition It Deserves
First released on December 3, 1965, Rubber Soul arrived at the end of a year in which The Beatles had already performed to more than 55,000 fans at Shea Stadium and were being consumed by a level of commercial and cultural frenzy that left almost no space for the kind of artistic reflection the record required. Recorded across four weeks in October and November 1965, it is the album where John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr stopped trying to make pop records and started making something more considered and more deliberate. Norwegian Wood. In My Life. Michelle. Nowhere Man. Drive My Car. These are not simply hit songs. They are the moment the long-form pop album became a serious artistic form, and the influence they had on every major album that followed — from Pet Sounds to Revolver to Sgt. Pepper’s to virtually everything that came after — is impossible to overstate.
The new special edition, newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell directly from the original four-track master tapes using cutting-edge de-mixing technology developed at Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films Productions Ltd., presents the album with a clarity that the original recordings never had the technology to fully capture. The expanded editions add 24 early session recordings including 20 previously unreleased takes, three previously unreleased home demos, and Little Girl, a previously unheard John Lennon song outline never before released or even rumored to exist. The 4CD and 5LP Super Deluxe editions include an 88-page hardbound book with a new written introduction by Paul McCartney and a foreword compiled from John Lennon’s own words gathered across his life, including the years after The Beatles’ breakup.
💿
1CD / 1LP
Standard Edition New stereo mix
📀
2CD / 2LP
Special Edition Session highlights + single
🎁
4CD / 5LP
Super Deluxe 88-page book · All sessions
🎧 Listen Now — Out Today
“Michelle (Take 1)” — Previously Unreleased
The first preview from the expanded sessions is available to stream now. Michelle (Take 1) offers a window into the recording process behind one of the most celebrated songs on the album — the kind of previously unreleased material that reframes how you hear the finished version. The Super Deluxe editions include 20 recordings like this one across the full Rubber Soul sessions, plus three home demos and the previously unheard Lennon song outline Little Girl.
What’s in the Expanded Editions
→
24 session recordings — 20 previously unreleased takes from the Rubber Soul sessions
→
3 previously unreleased home demos, including early versions of Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out
→
Little Girl — a previously unheard John Lennon song outline. Never before released or even rumored.
→
Original mono mix, original Capitol US album version, and the 1965 Day Tripper / We Can Work It Out double A-side single
→
Dolby Atmos mix on Blu-ray with promotional films for Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out
→
Super Deluxe: 88-page hardbound book with new McCartney introduction and Lennon foreword compiled from his own words
🚌 The Diecast Collection
Corgi · Hot Wheels · Official Licensed Diecast
The Vehicles of The Beatles’ Story — in Precise Miniature
The red London double-decker. The black London taxi. The Magical Mystery Tour bus. The Yellow Submarine. These vehicles are as inseparable from The Beatles’ visual identity as the Abbey Road crossing photo or the Sgt. Pepper’s cover art, and Corgi’s officially licensed diecast models render each one with the precision and detail that serious collectors have come to expect from the manufacturer. The Vending Lot carries the full range — buses, taxis, the Yellow Submarine, and the Hot Wheels Hiway Hauler — making it the most complete Beatles diecast collection available through a single destination.
The full diecast lineup also includes London Taxis in Hello Goodbye, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Can’t Buy Me Love, Eleanor Rigby / Yellow Submarine, Christmas Taxi, and Can’t Buy Me Love colorways — each at $39.25 — plus the Hot Wheels Hiway Hauler in Beatles Concert Ticket graphics at $15.85. View all diecast →
👕 The Apparel Collection
The Vending Lot’s Beatles apparel collection covers every format serious fan merchandise should offer, built from Champion, ComfortWash garment-dyed cotton, and standard Staple constructions at quality levels that reflect what this band’s legacy deserves.
3 Savile Row, the location of the iconic 1969 rooftop concert, is being transformed into the first official Beatles fan experience, set to open in 2027.
A four-film Beatles cinematic event is scheduled for release in April 2028 through Sony Pictures Entertainment and Neal Street Productions — the first time Apple Corps Ltd. has granted full life story and music rights for a scripted film. Directed by Sam Mendes.
Cast: Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison.
Rubber Soul Special Edition is available to pre-order now on multiple LP, CD, and Blu-ray formats. Official release date: October 2, 2026.
The Complete Beatles Collection
34 products. Diecast vehicles, apparel, headwear. All officially licensed. All in stock.
NCIS returns for Season 24 with Tony DiNozzo back. Tracker is television’s number-one drama. The Big Brother 28 finale crowns a winner on October 1. The Amazing Race is already racing. And SNL Season 52 is underway. Here is everything you need to know, day by day.
NCIS returns for Season 24 with Tony DiNozzo back. Tracker is television’s number-one drama. The Big Brother 28 finale crowns a winner on October 1. The Amazing Race is already racing. And SNL Season 52 is underway. Here is everything you need to know, day by day.
CBS drops the most stacked premiere week in years starting Sunday, October 4, 2026, with returning hits and brand-new spinoffs across every night of the week. NCIS, FBI, Tracker, Fire Country, and the Yellowstone universe’s Marshals all return, while NCIS: New York makes its series debut on Tuesday night. The Vending Lot TV Studio Store has the official merchandise for the shows defining this fall season.
🏆 Before It All Starts
🎬 Live Finale · Thursday, October 1 · 8:00 PM ET/PT
Big Brother 28 Crowns Its Winner Tonight
The 90-minute live finale brings Season 28 to a close with the final three houseguests: Rick Devens, Taylor Brown, and Drew Campbell. One of them takes the half-million. America’s Favorite Houseguest is also revealed tonight. Right after the finale at 9:30 PM, The Amazing Race Season 39 begins Part 1 of its two-night premiere in Vancouver.
Amazing Race Season 39 — All 13 Teams Start With an Express Pass
Part 1 launches Wednesday, September 30 in Vancouver where every team receives a history-making twist: everyone starts with an Express Pass. Part 2 follows Thursday, October 1 right after the Big Brother finale, as the teams race to Madrid, Spain. After premiere week, Amazing Race settles into its regular Wednesday night slot at 9:30 PM behind Survivor 51.
Colter Shaw is back tracking missing persons rewards, opening the season by unraveling a massive cargo cartel operation at an LA port. Television’s number-one broadcast drama picks up exactly where it left off: relentless, high-stakes, and built around one of the most compelling lead characters on network television.
The massive Yellowstone universe spinoff returns with Kayce Dutton 15 months after the events of the original franchise finale, now navigating life as a single father while going rogue. If the Dutton family name still means something to you, this is the show continuing that story.
The flagship Dick Wolf procedural opens Season 9 with a special crossover premiere built around a complex state park murder investigation. Nine seasons in and the procedural machine keeps running at full capacity.
Returning for its sophomore season following a highly rated freshman run. The premiere follows an intense hunt for a cartel fixer connected to a dead DEA agent.
10:00 PM ET/PT
Harlan Coben’s Final Twist Season 2
The mystery-thriller returns to late Mondays with a dark new conspiracy centered on the high-profile Betsy Faria murder case.
The iconic mothership enters Season 24 with one of the most anticipated returns in network television this year. Michael Weatherly reprises his role as Tony DiNozzo in a major story arc that runs through the season. For longtime fans, this is the nostalgia moment they have been waiting for since Weatherly’s departure in Season 13.
The franchise’s most anticipated new entry stars LL COOL J reprising his role as Sam Hanna from NCIS: Los Angeles alongside Scott Caan as they build an elite task force taking on major threats in New York City. This is the new blood the NCIS universe needed, and the casting is sharp.
The prequel following young Leroy Jethro Gibbs shifts its 1992-era timeline to a brutal investigation set in the Alaskan wilderness for Season 3. The show continues to fill in the mythology of one of television’s most beloved characters.
Broadcast TV’s top-rated comedy series returns to lead Thursday nights. The Big Bang Theory universe spinoff keeps expanding its audience every season.
8:30 PM ET/PT
Eternally Yours Series Premiere
A new vampire comedy lands Thursday nights. One of the more unusual additions to CBS’s fall lineup and one of the riskier bets of the night.
9:00 PM ET/PT
Elsbeth Season 4
The quirky legal procedural and its devoted fan base return. Elsbeth Tascioni tracks down eccentric criminals across New York City with the kind of off-kilter energy that keeps viewers locked in season after season.
10:00 PM ET/PT
Cupertino Series Premiere
A Silicon Valley corporate law thriller starring Mike Colter. Late Thursday is a difficult slot and Cupertino will need to find its audience fast.
The Morena Baccarin-led spinoff returns to chronicle small-town community politics and local crime syndicates. Season 1 built a loyal audience and Season 2 has the runway to do something meaningful with it.
Bode Donovan and the Northern California firefighting crews return to face down devastating new blazes in Season 5. Fire Country has built one of network television’s most reliable Friday audiences over four seasons.
The gridiron-to-pavement police drama returns to anchor Friday’s action-heavy lineup. The show anchors the back end of CBS’s most action-dense night of the week.
One Chicago Block · Following Med (8PM) and Fire (9PM)
Dick Wolf’s Chicago powerhouse returns on Wednesday, October 7 as part of the NBC One Chicago block, keeping its 10:00 PM slot behind Chicago Med and Chicago Fire. Season 14 brings a major cast change: LaRoyce Hawkins departs after 14 seasons as Kevin Atwater, appearing in the first two or three episodes before his character exits. A new series regular described as a Black officer who acts as “an agent of chaos” in the Intelligence Unit joins to fill the void. Jason Beghe, Marina Squerciati, and Patrick John Flueger all return as the anchors of the unit.
Season 52 kicked off September 26 with NBA Finals MVP Jalen Brunson hosting and KATSEYE as musical guest. The new season brought significant cast changes: Saidah Belo-Osagie and Grace Reiter joined as featured players. Reiter, born in 2001, makes history as the first SNL cast member born in the 2000s. Ashley Padilla and Jane Wickline were promoted to full repertory status. Chloe Fineman departed after seven seasons, and Martin Herlihy also exited. In the UK, SNL U.K. Season 2 on Sky and Peacock has announced its October lineup with Danny Dyer, James Norton, and Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo as hosts.
The Lights Are On. The Stakes Have Never Been Higher.
Hamilton is celebrating a decade. Cats closed early. Andrew Lloyd Webber is sounding the alarm. And three of Broadway’s biggest shows are still selling out every night. Here’s everything happening on the Great White Way right now.
Broadway in September 2026 is a study in contrasts. Hamilton is celebrating its tenth anniversary with a returning original cast member and a landmark box set. The Lion King and Wicked are as dominant as ever. But the early closure of Cats: The Jellicle Ball has sent shockwaves through the industry, and Andrew Lloyd Webber is warning that Broadway’s economics are putting the future of ambitious new productions at serious risk. The Vending Lot’s On Broadway collection covers all of it — shop the shows that are defining this era of the stage.
The blockbuster that permanently changed what Broadway could mean for popular culture is marking its tenth anniversary in a way that feels genuinely earned rather than simply ceremonial. Christopher Jackson, the original Broadway cast member and Tony Award nominee who originated the role of George Washington, returned to the Richard Rodgers Theatre on September 8, 2026, reprising the role for a strictly limited engagement running through January 3, 2027. For audiences who saw the original production, this is a chance to experience something that felt closed. For everyone who discovered the show through the filmed Disney+ production, it is a chance to see one of its defining performances live and in person. Beyond the stage, Lin-Manuel Miranda has announced the release of Rise Up! Hamilton: The Anthology, a massive 10th-anniversary definitive box set collection arriving on September 25, 2026. It is the most comprehensive documentation of the show’s musical legacy yet assembled, and it lands at exactly the right moment.
Julie Taymor’s production at the Minskoff Theatre remains one of the most profitable and consistently attended shows in Broadway history. There is no news to break here because nothing has gone wrong. The Lion King simply runs, filling the house night after night the way it has for over two decades, drawing first-time theatergoers and devoted returnees in equal numbers. It is the standard against which the durability of other Broadway productions gets measured.
Industry analysts noted a minor dip in Wicked’s box office grosses heading into mid-September, and the chatter briefly got louder than the data warranted. The show is running at 96% theater capacity at the Gershwin Theatre. That is not a show in trouble. That is a show that has been one of the most financially successful productions in Broadway history for over twenty years, having one unremarkable fortnight. Wicked is not closing. It is not struggling. It is the Gershwin’s permanent resident for the foreseeable future.
The Jellicle Ball revival transferred to Broadway’s Broadhurst Theatre in April 2026 carrying enormous critical momentum and nine Tony Award nominations, making it one of the most decorated new Broadway arrivals in recent memory. Its early closure on August 8, 2026 was a genuine shock. The production was widely celebrated and the Tony recognition was real. Broadway’s cost structure made continued operation unviable despite the acclaim, and it is that gap between critical achievement and commercial survival that has made this closure one of the most discussed stories of the season.
The Cats closure triggered a significant public response from Andrew Lloyd Webber, who called Broadway’s economics “crippling” and warned that the financial risks facing the industry are putting ambitious new productions in genuine danger. His comments landed with particular weight given that his own Sunset Boulevard extended run at the St. James Theatre concluded in July 2025. Lloyd Webber’s off-Broadway immersive production, Masquerade, a reimagining of The Phantom of the Opera, is currently nearing its one-year anniversary and remains the place to experience his music live in New York.
Following the early closure of Cats: The Jellicle Ball, Andrew Lloyd Webber issued a sharp warning about Broadway’s financial structure, arguing that the crippling economics of producing on Broadway are discouraging the kinds of bold, daring new productions that the industry needs to remain vital. His off-Broadway immersive production Masquerade, a reinvention of The Phantom of the Opera, is currently the only place to experience his work live in New York, and it is approaching its one-year anniversary. The debate his comments sparked is now the central industry conversation of the fall season.
Cirque du Soleil does not have a permanent dedicated theater presence on Broadway, and their model has never required one. Their theatrical distribution continues through touring tent shows that visit cities across the world and through their long-standing residency hubs, most notably in Las Vegas, where multiple productions run simultaneously year-round. The touring model allows Cirque to reach audiences that a fixed Broadway address never could, and the quality of their productions has remained the standard-setting benchmark for large-scale theatrical spectacle across every format they inhabit.
Hamilton is celebrating ten years with an original cast return and a landmark box set. The Lion King and Wicked are as dominant as they have ever been. Cats: The Jellicle Ball earned enormous critical recognition and closed anyway, which is exactly the kind of outcome Andrew Lloyd Webber was warning about. The industry is thriving at the top and fragile in the middle, and that tension is what makes Broadway in 2026 one of the most genuinely interesting moments the theater world has seen in years.
The Vintage Series: Wearing the History of American Live Music
From the Spectrum in Philly to the Grateful Dead’s most legendary runs, this is the corner of The Vending Lot built for people who miss the good old days on purpose.
The Vending Lot · September 18, 2026
Not every collection needs a new tour or a new release to earn a spot in the shop. The Vintage Series leans the other way entirely, digging into the venues, labels, and eras that built American live music culture in the first place. Think legendary arenas, iconic festival runs, and the kind of concertwear silhouettes that only get better with age.
A few names anchor the collection: Philadelphia’s own Spectrum, the venue that defined a generation of Northeast concertgoing; the Valley Forge Music Fair, a touring institution in its own right; and a deep run of Grateful Dead pieces built around specific, storied moments, including the Stanford “Dead 1988” shows and the Watkins Glen Raceway run, one of the biggest gatherings in live music history.
A Few Places to Start
Spectrum Unisex 3/4 Sleeve Baseball Tee
Valley Forge Music Fair Unisex 3/4 Sleeve Baseball Tee
The Grateful Dead Stanford Dead 1988 Baseball Tee & Heavy Cotton Tee
The Grateful Dead Watkins Glen Raceway ComfortWash® Long Sleeve Tee
These aren’t costume-y reprints. The cuts and construction lean into the actual concertwear look of the era, so they read as lived-in rather than manufactured nostalgia. If any of these names mean something to you, or you’re just partial to the raglan-sleeve, road-worn look of vintage touring merch, this is the collection to dig through.
Animated spinoffs, new Netflix thrillers, theme park haunted houses, and a live-action spinoff on the way. The Stranger Things machine is running faster than ever.
The Stranger Things universe is expanding in every direction at once. The animated spinoff Tales From ’85 Season 2 premieres September 17, Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour are producing a brand-new Netflix thriller together, and the Duffer Brothers have a live-action spinoff in development focused on the deeper lore of the Mind Flayer. Plus: Rocky, MobLand, Knight Rider, and Walking Dead all have major news this week. Shop the full Stranger Things collection →
🎬 Stranger Things
Premieres September 17, 2026
Tales From ’85 Season 2 Is Here — and the Spinoff Universe Is Just Getting Started
Netflix’s animated spinoff Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 returns for its second season this Thursday, September 17, 2026, just five months after the show’s debut in April. That kind of turnaround bypasses the multi-year production gaps that defined the original live-action series, and it signals something important about how Netflix intends to keep Hawkins alive between major releases. The new 10-episode arc is set during the winter of 1985, landing between the events of live-action Seasons 2 and 3, and follows the Hawkins Investigators Club dealing with Valentine’s Day chaos, ghostly apparitions, and a swarm of creatures the show is calling hate sprites. It’s a weirder, more playful chapter than the season premiere suggested the show would attempt, and that’s a good thing. Meanwhile, Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour are executive producing and starring in a brand-new untitled Netflix thriller about a disgraced FBI agent searching for his missing daughter. Harbour has confirmed the first two scripts are in hand. The Duffer Brothers remain attached to a separate live-action spinoff featuring an entirely new cast and time period, focused on the deeper mythology of the Mind Flayer. And Universal Studios Hollywood just opened a dedicated Stranger Things 5 haunted house at Halloween Horror Nights, modeled on the Upside Down. On the personal side, Maya Hawke, who plays Robin Buckley, married singer Christian Lee Hutson earlier this year in a Valentine’s Day ceremony attended by several of her Stranger Things co-stars.
Director Peter Farrelly told Entertainment Weekly he was nervous when Stallone screened the biopic solo at his house. “He called right after,” Farrelly said. “He loved it.” Farrelly had made Stallone’s blessing a condition of making the film at all. Anthony Ippolito plays Stallone, Stephan James plays Carl Weathers as Apollo Creed, and Kiki Seto plays Adrian. The film follows Stallone’s early acting career through the creation of Rocky itself. Farrelly called the script “so darn good” that he knew the reaction would be positive.
Amid reports that Tom Hardy might not return for a potential MobLand Season 3, Pierce Brosnan made his position clear at the Season 2 premiere on September 10. “I love Tom Hardy,” he told the press. “I’m a massive fan of the man’s work.” He called the rumored tension “a storm in a teacup” and described the cast, which includes Dame Helen Mirren, as “rock solid as a company, as a family.” Video from the premiere showed Mirren and Hardy sharing a warm embrace on the red carpet.
It has been 40 years since the finale of Knight Rider, the beloved NBC action series starring David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight and the AI-powered Pontiac Firebird known as KITT, voiced by William Daniels. The show ran four seasons and spawned spinoffs, TV movies, and revival attempts, but the original remains the one people actually remember. Hasselhoff went from the show straight to Baywatch, appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, released 15 albums across four decades, and most recently starred in the travel docuseries Hoff Roading with Rhys Darby. The show belongs in the same conversation as The A-Team and Magnum P.I. as a defining piece of 1980s American television. And the franchise isn’t finished: Cobra Kai creators Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald are developing a Knight Rider feature film. A talking car, a leather jacket, and a movie. It’s happening.
The Season 3 finale of The Walking Dead: Dead City ended with Negan stabbing Maggie as part of a tense gambit to fool antagonist Dillard, played by Jimmi Simpson, before Dillard was ultimately killed in a brutal confrontation. But it almost went differently. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who serves as an executive producer on the series, pitched filming two versions of the finale, one where Dillard lives and one where he dies, specifically because he didn’t want to lose Simpson from the cast. “I didn’t wanna lose Jimmi,” Morgan told Entertainment Weekly. He brought the idea to Simpson, then to co-star Lauren Cohan, and then to showrunner Seth Hoffman. The dual-ending pitch didn’t go forward, and Dillard died with Negan at his side saying, “I hope you find what you’re looking for.” Morgan was also clear that Negan stabbing Maggie was not payback for their long, brutal history. It was survival strategy. The question now is what comes next for Negan in Season 4.
From a Linkin Park documentary to VMA record chases, a Beetlejuice threequel finally getting off the ground, and Middle-earth gearing back up — here’s what’s actually happening right now.
Music · Film & TV · The Buzz
This Week in Music, Movies, and Everything Else Worth Talking About
From a Linkin Park documentary to VMA record chases, a Beetlejuice threequel finally getting off the ground, and Middle-earth gearing back up — here’s what’s actually happening right now.
The Vending Lot · September 7, 2026
Music
Linkin Park’s Comeback Story Is Headed to Theaters
Linkin Park is closing out the summer with a new documentary rather than a new tour leg. “Unshatter,” directed by the band’s Joe Hahn, opens in theaters worldwide on September 30, tracing the group’s path from their return in 2022 through the making of “From Zero” and a pair of packed live shows in São Paulo. A companion live album, “Unshatter (Live From São Paulo),” lands five days earlier on September 25, giving longtime fans a full-catalog set with co-vocalist Emily Armstrong and drummer Colin Brittain, both now well into their second year with the band.
The 2026 MTV Video Music Award nominations are out, and Taylor Swift landed nine nods, including Video of the Year and Artist of the Year for “The Fate of Ophelia.” She’s currently tied with Beyoncé for the most VMA wins in history at 30, which means a single win at the September 27 ceremony would make her the outright record holder. Madonna actually leads the field this year with 11 nominations of her own, so it’s shaping up to be a real showdown between two generations of pop royalty.
Nothing’s confirmed, but Noel Gallagher isn’t exactly putting the rumors to rest either. In a radio chat this week, he pointed out there’s no major football tournament next summer, so the band has “got to do something.” Speculation has centered on a possible return to Knebworth and an extended homecoming stand at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium, following up on last year’s sold-out “Live ’25” reunion run that wrapped in São Paulo this past November. Take it as early smoke rather than a confirmed fire for now.
Warner Bros. has confirmed a third Beetlejuice film is in active development, building on “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’s” massive $451 million worldwide haul back in 2024. Details are still thin, and Tim Burton has been cagey in interviews about whether he’s even attached, while star Jenna Ortega has said flatly she won’t sign on without him behind the camera. No script, cast, or release date locked in yet, so consider this one still simmering in the Netherworld.
Middle-earth fans got a fresh trailer at Comic-Con, and now the wait is almost over. “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” Season 3 premieres on Prime Video November 11 with an unusual rollout: four episodes drop together, two more follow a week later, and a two-episode finale closes it out on November 25. The story picks up five years after the fall of Eregion, with Sauron’s armies overrunning most of Middle-earth and only a handful of strongholds, including Khazad-dûm and Rivendell, still holding the line.
AC/DC Is Cruising Through American Stadiums, and Tonight It’s South Bend’s Turn to Get Thunderstruck
The Power Up World Tour rolls into Notre Dame Stadium tonight with The Pretty Reckless in tow, one more stop on a stadium run that wraps up at the end of September with back-to-back finales at MetLife and Lincoln Financial Field.
The Vending Lot · September 4, 2026
AC/DC’s Power Up World Tour has been filling stadiums across three continents since 2024.
Tonight, roughly 60,000 fans will pack into Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana, for a band that first plugged in more than fifty years ago and still shows no sign of unplugging. AC/DC brings its Power Up World Tour to “The House That Rockne Built” this evening, September 4, with The Pretty Reckless opening, and doors set to open around 6 p.m. ahead of a 7:30 p.m. kickoff. It is one more stop on a run that has already crossed Europe, Australia, the UK, and South America since launching in Germany back in May 2024, and it is nowhere near finished.
The current North American leg picked back up on July 11 in Charlotte and has been steadily working its way through NFL and MLB stadiums ever since, hitting cities like San Antonio, Denver, Vancouver, Santa Clara, Edmonton, and Atlanta along the way. After tonight’s stop in South Bend, the tour heads to St. Louis on September 8, then Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg before crossing back into the U.S. for a pair of marquee closing shows: MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on September 25, and Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on September 29, which is set to close out the tour’s North American run entirely.
The band’s lineup for this run pairs the two names most fans associate with AC/DC’s classic era, guitarist Angus Young and vocalist Brian Johnson, alongside rhythm guitarist Stevie Young, with bassist Chris Chaney and drummer Matt Laug rounding out the touring band. Together they’ve been delivering a set that leans heavily on the catalog everyone shows up for, while still making room for cuts from 2020’s “Power Up,” the album that gave this whole tour its name.
What South Bend Can Expect Tonight
Fans who’ve caught the tour earlier this summer describe a show built for a stadium: full pyrotechnics, a giant inflatable set piece for one of the encore numbers, and a setlist that has stayed remarkably consistent from city to city all summer long. Openers The Pretty Reckless have been on the bill for every North American date, giving early arrivals a strong warmup act before the headliners take over.
What AC/DC has been playing most nights on this leg
If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)
Back in Black
Demon Fire
Shot Down in Flames
Thunderstruck
Have a Drink on Me
Hells Bells
Shot in the Dark
Stiff Upper Lip
Highway to Hell
Shoot to Thrill
Sin City
Jailbreak
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
High Voltage
Riff Raff
You Shook Me All Night Long
Whole Lotta Rosie
Let There Be Rock
T.N.T. (encore)
For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) (encore)
Fifty years in and they’re still filling stadiums with the same handful of chords that started it all.
A Tour That Just Keeps Rolling
What makes this run notable isn’t just the size of the crowds, it’s the stamina behind it. The Power Up World Tour has now stretched across six legs and roughly ninety shows since 2024, working its way through Europe, Australia, the UK, and a South American run earlier this year before three Mexico City dates in April set up the current U.S. and Canada leg. Very few bands from AC/DC’s era are still capable of headlining stadiums at this pace, and the ticket demand this summer suggests the appetite for it hasn’t slowed down one bit.
With just a handful of dates left before the Philadelphia finale on September 29, this stretch of shows has the feel of a victory lap for a band that’s been doing this since 1973. Whether you’re catching the show in South Bend tonight or just watching the tour roll through your city’s stadium on the schedule, it’s a rare chance to see a genuine rock institution still operating at full volume.
Gearing up for tonight’s show or just riding the wave of Power Up Tour excitement from home? The AC/DC gear in our merch stand is a good place to start.
Power Up Your Collection
A few ways to bring the tour home before the encore ends.
Ted Lasso Is Finally Coming Home, and This Time He’s Coaching the Team Nobody Expected
Season four hands Richmond’s biggest optimist a second division women’s club instead of the familiar men’s dressing room, and after three years of waiting, that gamble is the best decision this show has made since the pilot.
Sunset Daily Staff · August 1, 2026
Three years is a long time to miss a fictional football club, longer still when nobody at Apple gave a real reason for the wait beyond vague talk of a new creative direction. Ted Lasso went quiet in 2023 carrying a shelf of Emmys and a reputation as the one comfort watch nobody felt embarrassed to recommend at a dinner party, and it returns worldwide on August 5 with a twist the marketing team clearly wanted kept under wraps for as long as humanly possible. Ted is not coaching AFC Richmond’s men anymore. He is coaching a second division women’s club that barely existed in the show’s universe a year ago, and the entire fourth season is betting on that pivot landing.
The rollout started for real on July 27, when Apple staged the season’s official premiere at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, a venue choice that tells you the studio still believes in this show’s cultural weight even after a long, unexplained gap. From there, the release follows the format longtime viewers already know. One episode arrives on launch day, and nine more follow it weekly every Wednesday, wrapping up on October 7. Apple has a habit of quietly dropping episodes the evening before at nine Eastern, so anyone who picked up on that pattern during earlier seasons already knows to check the app around dinnertime on Tuesdays rather than waiting for an official Wednesday morning.
Here is my honestly biased take before we go any further: moving Ted away from the men’s team is the right call, and not because women’s football needs a fictional American mascot to legitimize it, but because the original premise had nowhere left to go. Ted had already won over Roy Kent. He had already helped mend Rebecca’s heartbreak. He had already turned a mediocre men’s squad into promotion contenders. Repeating that exact arc with a few new faces in the same locker room would have felt like a victory lap dressed up as a fourth season. Handing him a second division women’s team, underfunded and overlooked in almost the same way the men’s side once was, gives the show an actual reason to exist again instead of just a contractual reason to air.
The Reunion, and the Absence That Still Stings
The returning names read like a reunion nobody had to fight for. Hannah Waddingham comes back as Rebecca Welton, Juno Temple returns as Keeley Jones, Brett Goldstein is still Roy Kent, Brendan Hunt keeps his post as Coach Beard, and Jeremy Swift remains the club’s endlessly put-upon Director of Football Operations, Leslie Higgins. None of that was ever really in doubt, and it shouldn’t have been. What was less certain, and what still stings a little for longtime fans, is who did not make the trip back to Richmond this time.
Phil Dunster is not on the call sheet this season. His character, Jamie Tartt, carried one of the show’s better redemption arcs across the first three seasons, and his absence traces back to a scheduling conflict tied to a new HBO comedy rather than any creative falling out, though the door has reportedly been left open for a limited cameo somewhere down the line. Dani Rojas and Sam Obisanya step back into supporting roles at best, since the men’s side of AFC Richmond is no longer where the cameras are pointed. That is a real loss, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. But it also tells you how serious the show is about the reset. You cannot claim a genuine fresh start while keeping every familiar face crowded into the frame.
Filling that space is a roster built specifically for this version of the story. Tanya Reynolds joins as Alice Chilton, the co-coach who will presumably spend the season teaching Ted things about the women’s game he doesn’t already know, while Jude Mack, Faye Marsay, Abbie Hern, and twin performers Aisling Sharkey and Rex Hayes round out the new squad, known within the show as the Lady Greyhounds. None of these names arrive with the built-in goodwill of a Roy Kent or a Rebecca Welton, which means the first two or three episodes are doing real work introducing a locker room from scratch. That is a much harder sell than a returning-favorites victory lap, and it is exactly why this season interests me more than a fourth run at the same men’s team story ever could have.
A show that already made audiences cry over a dart game does not need the same locker room to pull that off a second time.
There is also talk, not yet fully confirmed by Apple itself but circulating with enough consistency to take seriously, that Jason Sudeikis has mapped out a full three-season arc for this new era of the show, with a writers’ room for season five reportedly set to open before the end of August. If that timeline holds, it suggests Apple isn’t treating the Lady Greyhounds as a one-off experiment to gauge audience appetite. It’s treating them as the show’s actual future, which reads as either a bold vote of confidence or a genuinely expensive bet, depending entirely on how the ratings settle over the next ten weeks.
Why I Think This Version Wins
What ultimately makes me optimistic, and I’ll admit this is closer to hope than hard analysis at this point, is that Ted Lasso earned its reputation by refusing to be cynical about people trying their best inside a system stacked against them. That description fits an underfunded second division women’s club far better than it ever fit a Premier League men’s side with money and history behind it. If the writers trust that instinct instead of chasing the exact emotional beats that worked the first time around, this season has a real shot at becoming the version of the show that finally lives up to everything people claimed it was back in 2020, rather than a nostalgic rerun with a new sponsor stitched onto the kit.
Ten weeks from now we’ll know whether the bet paid off. Until then, Richmond’s most devoted supporters have plenty of ways to show up for the Lady Greyhounds before episode one even airs, and the kind of gear that’s followed this fandom since the beginning is a good place to start.
Christopher Nolan just crossed $700 million globally in 12 days. Tom Holland is hinting he’ll play Spider-Man forever. The Willy Wonka anniversary is bringing Gene Wilder back to theaters in 4K, including in New Jersey. This is one of those weeks in Hollywood where everything seems to be happening simultaneously, and if you follow film culture with any seriousness, you already know the feeling. The Vending Lot’s Film Studio Lot is the place where that passion translates into something physical, something you can own, display, and keep long after any given opening weekend becomes a memory.
The box office numbers, the trailer drops, the industry controversies, and what all of it means for the people who love movies not just as content but as culture. Tune in. It’s going to be a full hour.
But right now, let’s talk about what’s happening in Hollywood this week and why the Film Studio Lot is the right place to be paying attention.
The Odyssey Is Rewriting the Rules
$700 million globally in 12 days. Let that sit for a moment. Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic pulled $87 million this past weekend alone against a $304 million domestic cumulative total, which puts it on a trajectory that very few films in the history of cinema have matched at this pace. It’s doing this while simultaneously drawing pointed criticism from classical scholars and translator Emily Wilson, whose celebrated 2017 English translation of The Odyssey brought the poem to a new generation of readers and who has been publicly vocal about her concerns regarding the screenplay’s handling of the source material. That tension between commercial success and scholarly objection is exactly the kind of cultural friction that makes a film interesting beyond its opening weekend, and it’s the kind of conversation that will be happening for years.
The Film Studio Lot doesn’t carry an Odyssey collection yet, but it does carry the properties that define what serious film collecting looks like across multiple genres and eras. And right now, with the biggest cinematic story of the summer unfolding in real time, there’s no better moment to think about what you actually want on your shelf.
Spider-Man Is Back and Tom Holland Isn’t Going Anywhere
Early screening reactions for Spider-Man: Brand New Day are coming in warm, and Holland’s public comments about the role signal something that Marvel fans have quietly been hoping for: he’s not done, he’s not burned out, and he appears to be genuinely excited about where this fourth film takes Peter Parker. The film opens July 31, and the tracking numbers suggest a massive global opening weekend is likely. It’s directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, and features Jon Bernthal as the Punisher, Michael Mando as the Scorpion, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, and Sadie Sink in her MCU debut.
The Film Studio Lot’s Spider-Man section has the collector’s pieces for this moment: Jada’s 1/24 scale Western Star 57X truck tractor in Spider-Man’s blue and red metallic at $51.99, the 1/32 Porsche 911 GT3 RS at $17.86, the Wave 3 Metalfigs four-figure set at $37.10, and two poker card variants at $19.98 each. These are the pieces that connect a fan’s physical collection to the cultural moment happening right now at theaters worldwide. You don’t buy a Spider-Man collectible because you saw a movie. You buy it because the character means something to you, and these pieces are built to reflect that.
Jumanji, Thomas Crown, and the Trailers Everybody Is Talking About
Sony dropped the first official trailer for Jumanji: Open World this week, reuniting Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black for the franchise’s third installment. The original 2017 reboot was one of the more surprising commercial successes of that year, and the 2019 sequel held its own. A third film is a genuine risk in a franchise environment where the audience’s appetite for sequels is increasingly unpredictable, but Johnson, Hart, and Black are a combination that has a documented chemistry on screen, and the trailer’s reception has been strongly positive across social media.
Amazon MGM released the first official look at a reimagined Thomas Crown Affair starring Michael B. Jordan in a role that positions him as a leading man in the heist thriller genre rather than in the action-drama space where most of his biggest recent work has landed. The original 1999 Thomas Crown Affair with Pierce Brosnan is the kind of stylish, character-driven studio film that doesn’t get made as often anymore, and Jordan’s version appears to be attempting to revive that specific mode of filmmaking. It’s one of the more interesting studio bets of the fall season.
The Film Studio Lot covers properties across the full spectrum of what cinema produces, from blockbuster franchise entries to prestige independent releases to the classic era films that defined the language of American moviemaking. The Mission Impossible section, the James Bond 007 collection spanning individual films across the entire franchise, the Back to the Future lineup, the Marvel Studios section with individual character collections for Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Doctor Strange, and dozens more: the breadth of what’s available reflects a genuine commitment to film culture rather than simply stocking whatever happens to be trending.
Willy Wonka in 4K, in Theaters, in New Jersey
This one genuinely matters. Warner Bros. and Fathom Events are bringing the 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory back to theaters in a digitally remastered 4K presentation to mark its 55th anniversary, with a special retrospective introduction included in the limited engagement screenings at major national chains. Several of those screenings are happening at locations across New Jersey, which makes this a local opportunity that deserves a specific mention.
The 1971 film, directed by Mel Stuart and starring Gene Wilder in the defining performance of his career, is one of those properties where the gap between what the film actually is and how it’s typically discussed has always been interesting. Most people remember it as a children’s movie. Watch it again as an adult and it reads as something considerably stranger and more specifically unsettling, a film that seems to be operating in a register that sits just slightly outside normal children’s entertainment, which is exactly why it has sustained its cultural presence across five decades and two remake attempts. Wilder’s performance is the reason. It’s not a performance designed to be reassuring to children. It’s a performance designed to be genuinely unpredictable to everyone, and that unpredictability is what gives the film its staying power.
The Vending Lot’s Film Studio Lot carries Willy Wonka merchandise within the broader Warner Bros. and classic film catalog sections, and the 55th anniversary theatrical run is the right moment to own something that connects you to the property in a physical way. The 4K remaster in a theater environment, on an actual screen with actual sound, is a genuinely different experience from a streaming watch, and if you’re in New Jersey and can make it to one of the screenings, it’s worth the trip.
What’s Streaming This Week
Ted Lasso is coming back. Jason Sudeikis revealed the official trailer for a confirmed fourth season, and the creative decision to reposition the series around women’s soccer signals that the show isn’t simply recycling its original premise. The first three seasons built one of the most genuinely warm and emotionally intelligent series in recent streaming history, and a fourth season that extends the premise into new territory while keeping the character’s essential optimism intact is a promising direction. It lands on Apple TV+ later this year.
Netflix dropped the Outer Banks Season 5 trailer, which the show is positioning as the final treasure hunt for the Pogues. The series has run longer than most of its genre peers and maintains a devoted fan base that has followed the cast through multiple increasingly elaborate adventure storylines. A fifth and final season that delivers a satisfying conclusion to the treasure narrative is what the audience is hoping for, and the trailer suggests the production is taking that responsibility seriously.
Hulu shared a fall release date and first look footage for Chad Powers Season 2, the Glen Powell-led football comedy that found a strong audience in its first season largely on the strength of Powell’s considerable comic charisma and the show’s willingness to lean into the absurdity of its premise rather than trying to make it respectable. Season 2 expands the supporting cast and appears to push the central character further into situations where the disguise that drives the show’s premise becomes increasingly difficult to sustain.
The Box Office, Ranked
The Odyssey led the weekend with $87 million, bringing its domestic total to $304 million and its global number past $700 million. Moana held well in its fourth weekend with $10.5 million for a $104 million cumulative domestic run, which positions it comfortably within the range of a successful Disney live-action theatrical release. Toy Story 5 added $10 million to reach $450 million domestically, a number that confirms the franchise’s continued commercial vitality despite the longer gap between installments. The real surprise of the weekend was Hadestown: The Musical, which opened to $9.7 million against a $12 million cumulative total, suggesting that the theatrical adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway musical is finding an audience beyond the existing fan base of the stage production. Minions and Monsters added $9.6 million for a $157 million total.
The Film Studio Lot carries official licensed merchandise for several of these properties. The Moana collection is live and stocked with 13 products timed to the theatrical run. The Disney section covers the broader Walt Disney Pictures catalog across multiple eras. For the properties currently in theaters and driving this weekend’s numbers, the Film Studio Lot is where the fan merchandise lives for the collectors who want to connect their physical collection to the cultural moment.
Industry News You Need to Know
Jared Leto issued a public statement this week calling allegations made in a BBC documentary “categorically false.” The documentary raised accusations of sexual misconduct, and Leto’s denial was immediate and emphatic. The situation is ongoing and will likely generate continued coverage as responses from the network and documentary filmmakers emerge.
BTS has confirmed they won’t be submitting music for consideration at the 2027 Grammy Awards. The decision is significant given the group’s enormous global following and the ongoing conversation within the K-pop community about how American music industry institutions engage with international artists. The Grammy organization has not publicly responded to the announcement.
The entertainment world lost two genuinely significant figures this week. Glen Hansard, who won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for Falling Slowly from the 2007 film Once, died at 56. Hansard was not just an Oscar winner but a deeply respected live performer and songwriter whose work with The Frames and his ongoing solo career built a following that went well beyond the film that made him internationally known. Kavinsky, the French electronic music producer and artist whose 2013 track Nightcall, featured prominently in the film Drive, became one of the defining sounds of a specific moment in electronic music production, died at 50. Both losses are genuinely felt across communities that cared about the specific kind of artistry each represented.
The Film Studio Lot: Built for Serious Collectors
Here’s the honest pitch for why the Vending Lot’s Film Studio Lot is worth your time as a collector: it’s not trying to be everything to everyone. It’s curated around the films and franchises that have genuinely mattered to the people who care about cinema, across multiple generations and multiple genres, and it carries merchandise that reflects that care in the quality of the products themselves.
The James Bond 007 collection spans individual films from Dr. No through the Daniel Craig era, with 46 products covering more than 60 years of the franchise’s history. The Fast and Furious section carries 105 products, the largest individual franchise collection in the store, reflecting both the franchise’s enormous commercial reach and the genuine collector enthusiasm it generates. The Batman section carries 35 products across the TV and film iterations of the character. The Happy Gilmore and Happy Madison sections carry 35 and 36 products respectively, a reflection of the store’s commitment to comedy properties alongside its superhero and action-adventure offerings. The Fantastic Four section carries 54 products timed to the current theatrical release. The Despicable Me section has 35 products. The Wicked section carries 54 products in recognition of the musical’s theatrical and streaming success.
The Film Studio Lot also carries some of the more unexpected and specifically beloved properties in the licensed merchandise space. The This is Spinal Tap section has 46 products, the Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere section has 36, the Running Man section has 37, and Kingsman: The Golden Circle carries 25. These aren’t the obvious franchise choices. They’re the properties that a genuine film culture audience actually wants merchandise for, not just the properties that dominate global box office charts.
[Your story here about the film that made you want to own something connected to it, whether that was a poster, a diecast vehicle, or a piece of clothing.]
The TV Studio Store mirrors that philosophy across television, with more than 1,250 products covering scripted series from the classic network era through contemporary streaming. The Merch Stand covers music across more than 250 artists. On Broadway serves the stage production audience. Funko Town brings collectible vinyl figures together from across the entertainment world. The Vending Lot newsletter on Substack is where the deeper conversations about new arrivals, collection features, and cultural context happen between broadcasts.
The box office, the trailers, the industry news, and what it means for the people who love film culture seriously enough to collect it. Tune in, and shop the Film Studio Lot while the week’s biggest stories are still unfolding.
Cart is empty 
