Bandwagon Nerds News Report (9/1/2026): Dog Stars Crashes, Practical Magic Teases Stevie Nicks & September Games Arrive

The Dog Stars stumbles at the box office, Practical Magic 2 teases Stevie Nicks and Olivia Rodrigo, and September opens with a packed game slate.

August closed with one expensive Hollywood disappointment and a potentially perfect soundtrack pairing.

Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars struggled badly in its opening weekend, Sandra Bullock appears to be teasing Stevie Nicks and Olivia Rodrigo for Practical Magic 2, and the gaming calendar has already moved beyond Gamescom into a packed September release schedule.

It’s the Bandwagon Nerds News Report for September 1, 2026!

The Dog Stars Has a Brutal Opening Weekend

Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic drama The Dog Stars opened with approximately $8 million domestically from 3,330 theaters. The Disney and 20th Century release reportedly cost more than $80 million to produce and received a C+ CinemaScore along with a roughly 40 percent Rotten Tomatoes critics score.

Scott’s name and the cast should have given the movie a stronger floor. Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley, Josh Brolin, Guy Pearce, Allison Janney and Benedict Wong provide plenty of recognizable talent, while the source novel already had an audience that understood the premise.

The problem appears to be that neither the reviews nor the marketing gave broader audiences a compelling reason to prioritize another bleak post-apocalyptic story. An $8 million opening against an $80 million-plus production budget leaves very little room for recovery, especially once September begins adding new theatrical competition.

Practical Magic 2 May Have Stevie Nicks and Olivia Rodrigo

Sandra Bullock appeared to tease musical involvement from Stevie Nicks and Olivia Rodrigo in Practical Magic 2 after sharing footage of the two musicians performing together and writing that their voices were part of an upcoming film. Warner Bros. has not officially confirmed their participation.

Nicks would be a particularly natural return because her music was already part of the original Practical Magic, helping establish the atmosphere that eventually contributed to the movie becoming a cult favorite after its theatrical release.

Rodrigo creates a bridge to the much younger audience Warner Bros. would like the sequel to reach. Pairing her with Nicks would connect the nostalgia surrounding Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman’s return with an artist who has built her own relationship with younger pop-culture audiences. The combination fits the movie far better than a soundtrack assembled solely around recognition.

Johnny Depp’s Scrooge Gets a First Look

Director Ti West has revealed new details about Ebenezer, his upcoming take on A Christmas Carol starring Johnny Depp as Ebenezer Scrooge. The film also features Ian McKellen as Jacob Marley and Tramell Tillman as the Ghost of Christmas Present, with West describing Depp’s version of Scrooge as deeply unpleasant but still capable of humor and charm.

A Christmas Carol has been adapted so many times that another version needs a specific reason to exist beyond recognizable names. West is an interesting choice because his recent work has leaned heavily into horror, while Dickens’ story already contains ghosts, death, regret and visions of a miserable future.

McKellen as Marley also feels almost unfairly appropriate. The larger challenge will be balancing the darker supernatural material with the emotional transformation that makes the story work. A Christmas Carol can handle horror, but it ultimately fails if Scrooge’s redemption feels less convincing than his misery.

Brandon Sanderson Starts Another Science-Fiction Trilogy

Author Brandon Sanderson and longtime collaborator Janci Patterson are launching the Riftwake trilogy with Blightfall, continuing Patterson’s increasing role as a co-author within Sanderson’s expanding catalog. Patterson described herself as being in a “science fiction era” while discussing the project and their collaborative writing process.

Sanderson has built one of fantasy publishing’s most elaborate interconnected worlds, but his recent collaborations also show an interest in expanding beyond the expectation that every major project needs to fit neatly inside the Cosmere.

Patterson’s larger role matters because successful shared universes eventually need more than one creative voice if they are going to keep expanding without becoming mechanically repetitive. A new science-fiction trilogy gives the partnership room to establish its own identity instead of simply filling gaps around characters and settings Sanderson already created.

Young Suns Leaves Early Access

Young Suns reached its 1.0 release on August 31 for Xbox and PC and is available through Game Pass. The one-to-four-player narrative life sim takes place around Jupiter in an optimistic future where players restore damaged ecosystems and communities following a large-scale social collapse.

Gamescom spent much of last week showcasing enormous franchises built around monsters, warfare and apocalyptic threats, which makes Young Suns an interesting counterprogramming choice immediately afterward. Its central fantasy involves repairing a world rather than saving one through combat.

That does not automatically make a quieter management game compelling, but the cooperative structure creates possibilities beyond the typical life-sim loop. Restoring ecosystems with friends can produce the same shared ownership that makes collaborative building games work, particularly when progress remains visible over long sessions.

Crimson Moon Opens September’s Release Calendar

ProbablyMonsters launches Crimson Moon on September 1 for Xbox Series X|S. The action game casts players as a Nephilim fighting demons, undead creatures and vampires after the city of Gildenarch falls to supernatural forces, with both solo and cooperative play available.

September is arriving quickly after a Gamescom filled with long-range announcements, and Crimson Moon is among the games that do not have months left to live entirely on trailers. Players can immediately start determining whether the combat and angelic transformation systems deliver on the presentation that helped the game stand out during showcase season.

That shift from marketing to actual play is useful after a week built around carefully edited demonstrations. Release dates have a way of stripping away speculation very quickly.

The Blood of Dawnwalker Arrives September 2

Rebel Wolves’ The Blood of Dawnwalker launches September 2, placing players in 14th-century Europe during a period when war and the Black Death have allowed vampires and other supernatural creatures to seize power. The player controls Coen, a man trapped between human and vampire identities while trying to save his family.

The former CD Projekt Red developers behind Rebel Wolves have emphasized choice, time management and consequences as much as combat, which gives Dawnwalker a chance to distinguish itself from simply becoming another dark fantasy RPG with vampires.

Its premise naturally invites comparisons to The Witcher, but that comparison will only carry the game through the opening hours. The decisions need to create meaningful differences in how Coen’s story develops, particularly if the limited-time structure is supposed to make choosing one objective genuinely close off another.

September Gets Busy Immediately

Xbox’s first week of September also includes Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game on September 3 and early access for Halloween on September 4. The latter allows players to either become Michael Myers or work together as Haddonfield residents attempting to survive him in an asymmetrical multiplayer horror game.

The post-Gamescom calendar has almost no recovery period. Instead of waiting weeks for the next major releases, September begins with dark fantasy, licensed fighting games and a major horror property within four days.

That is where things get more interesting. Gamescom established which games looked promising under convention conditions. September immediately starts determining which ones remain interesting after people have actually paid for them and played for several hours.

This report includes information from: Variety.com, EntertainmentWeekly.com, Deseret.com, and Xbox.com.