Syfy Insider Exclusive

Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, sweepstakes, and more!

Sign Up For Free to View
SYFY WIRE WIRE Buzz

WIRE Buzz: Beyoncé drops Lion King track; Absolute Carnage trailer bonds with internet; more

By Josh Weiss
Beyonce Nala The Lion King

In this latest edition of WIRE Buzz, we've got Beyonce's new song for The Lion King; a trailer for Marvel's Absolute Carnage; and a Momo Challenge movie being pursued by Orion Pictures. Let's dive in!

We're just a week away from the release of Jon Favreau's The Lion King remake, and the tension is certainly palpable. Perhaps to help ease the mounting anticipation, today Beyoncé dropped her original song for the film, "Spirit."

As you might guess, it's an awesome song and perfectly ties into the movie's moment where Simba (Donald Glover) communes with his dead father, Mufasa (James Earl Jones), who appears as a mystical vision in the clouds. There's also the theme of rising up and fighting back, an element that plays a big part in the story's climax.

Take a listen below and be ready to have it playing on repeat all day long:

Beyoncé also plays Nala, the childhood friend and love interest of Simba, who tracks him down years after he went into self-imposed exile. With Scar (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and the hyenas corrupting the Pride Lands, she implores Simba to return and take back the throne that is rightfully his.

The Lion King roars into theaters everywhere next Friday, July 19. The full soundtrack goes live tomorrow, July 11.

Check out the first reactions to the film after its world premiere in Los Angeles last night.


To hype the start of Absolute Carnage next month, Marvel Comics unveiled a trailer for the epic event with testimonials from the publisher's editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski, editor Devin Lewis, and writer Donny Cates. Ryan Stegman, who is drawing the series, is not present in the video, but his praises can't be sung enough by Cates.

"If you look at us on Twitter, there's not a team in comics that is not on the same page as much as Stegman and I are," he says in the trailer. "I think the fans get so excited when they see a creative team that is just both all in and are both such huge fans of the series and fans of where it's going."

Now in possession of a "nuclear bomb" of sorts, Cletus Kasady (aka Carnage) is on a mission to kill every single person who ever bonded with a symbiote. That's pretty much everybody, so no one is safe, and Cates hints that there will probably be a few deaths along the way. Moreover, Cebulski assures readers that: 1) This event will affect the entire Marvel Universe and all those who inhabit it, and 2) Stegman's design of Carnage will "redefine" the character's look for a new generation.

Issue #1 of Absolute Carnage goes on sale Wednesday, Aug. 7.


Fresh off its Child's Play remake, Orion is now developing a horror film adaptation of the now-forgotten internet hoax known as "Momo," Deadline confirms.

The hoax gained major traction last summer and was claimed to be a viral internet "challenge," in which young people were somehow talked into inflicting harm upon or even killing themselves. It was said that a mysterious internet individual by the name of Momo (whose name became associated with that of a woman with frighteningly exaggerated features) was behind all the self-harm.

The image above, which has become associated with Momo, was actually a piece titled "Mother Bird" by Japanese artist Keisuke Aisawa, who showcased it at a Tokyo gallery exhibit in 2016. Given the challenge's urban legend status, Deadline aptly points out that the movie version is similar to that of Sony Screen Gems' Slenderman, which made use of a similar horror myth. Granted, that project didn't find much of an audience, so this new one will test yet again if it's possible to turn viral hoaxes into lucrative cinematic franchises, or if they should be left online where they belong.

Momo will be a joint production between Orion and Roy Lee's Vertigo Entertainment.

The challenge also inspired the movie Getaway, which already has a cast and director.