The first trailer for Ocean’s 8 sees Sandra Bullock’s “Debbie Ocean” assemble her all-star crew

Ever since Ocean’s 8 was first announced well over a year ago, it was hard to believe it wasn’t a collective Tumblr fever dream. But lo, the first full trailer is finally here, proving that the all-female heir to the Ocean’s 11 franchise isn’t just real but might be spectacular.

The trailer gives us the best look yet at the eight women — played by Cate Blanchett, Sandra Bullock, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Helena Bonham Carter, Awkwafina, and Rihanna her very self — who are banding together to pull off a daring heist. This time, the target isn’t a Vegas casino but the famously sumptuous Met Gala, where a single haughty woman (Anne Hathaway) will be sporting a $150 million necklace in front of all the crowds and cameras.

While it was initially unclear when the project was announced whether Ocean’s 8 would, in fact, be taking place in the Ocean’s 11 cinematic universe (a phrase I am equally confused and thrilled to be writing), this first trailer confirms that it does, as Danny Ocean’s estranged sister Debbie Ocean (Bullock) sips a martini in front of a grave marked “Danny Ocean,” and informs a gaping man (James Corden) that, yes, “the whole family” is pretty much like this, thanks. (Whether that grave means Ocean’s 8 really has killed off George Clooney’s character for good remains to be seen; I, for one, will put down money right this second on him turning up at the end credits with a sly wink.)

But Ocean’s 8 is already doing its very best to be distinctive in its own right, from its stellar casting to the final heist itself, which really was filmed at the 2017 Met Gala. Sure, the movie could be terrible, but as long as it has the likes of Blanchett and Rihanna hatching schemes while sporting sharp-as-hell wardrobes, it’ll still be well worth the wait.

Late Night With Seth Meyers explains how to “apologize” like a man accused of sexual harassment

Last night, comedian and Late Night With Seth Meyers writer Amber Ruffin demonstrated to Late Night viewers how to apologize like a man who’s been accused of sexual harassment or assault. After joining Meyers onstage to give him a (fake) punch in the face, she set off on a stream of weaselly not-quite-apologies that echo the words of famous men over the past few months. Here are the takeaways, and the lame apologies they are echoing:

Always deny any kind of wrongdoing

“You just punched me in the face!” Meyers protests at the top of the segment.

“I categorically deny those allegations,” Ruffin responds, echoing former Rep. John Conyers. Conyers responded to the accusation that he had sexually harassed a staffer by declaring, “I expressly and vehemently denied the allegations made against me, and continue to do so."

Explain that you couldn’t have harassed anyone, because you’re a good guy

“Amber, you just punched me,” Meyers says.

“Did I? That doesn’t sound like me,” Ruffin muses. “Anyone who knows me would say that’s very out of character.”

Dustin Hoffman said the same thing after he was accused of sexually harassing an intern, protesting that this behavior was “not reflective of who I am.”

Low-key suggest that your accuser is lying and/or maybe hysterical

“You came in here, you sat down, and you punched me in the face,” Meyers says, to which Ruffin responds, “I remember those events differently.”

Here, she’s channeling Sen. Al Franken, who responded to the first allegation of sexual harassment against him by saying, “I certainly don't remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way.”

Place all the responsibility on the victim

Ruffin then says, “I’m sorry,” adding after a meaningful pause, “that your face feels punched.” This particular line is a favorite of many of the men who have been apologizing lately: It allows them to sound like they’re saying sorry while refusing to take any responsibility for what happened.

“I have the utmost respect for women and feel terrible that anything I might have done could have put her in an uncomfortable situation. I am sorry,” said Hoffman.

“The women with whom I worked are smart and good people,” said former New Republic editor Leon Wieseltier. “I am ashamed to know that I made any of them feel demeaned and disrespected.”

“It's been brought to my attention that I have made some of you feel disrespected or uncomfortable,” said Pixar’s John Lasseter. “That was never my intent.”

“To anyone he has offended,” said a spokesperson for former President George H.W. Bush, “President Bush apologizes most sincerely."

Suggest that there was a time when people didn’t know it was bad to harass other people

“It was a different time back then!” Ruffin remarks cheerfully.

This line was most famously used by Harvey Weinstein, who explained his multiple decades of allegedly harassing and assaulting employees and colleagues by saying, “I came of age in the 60’s and 70’s, when all the rules about behavior and workplaces were different. That was the culture then.”

Explain that you can’t have hurt women, because you’re pro-woman

“I’ve always been a supporter of faces,” Ruffin tells Meyers. “Some of my best friends have faces.”

Many of the powerful men currently accused of hurting women are fond of whipping out their pro-woman bona fides.

“One year ago, I began organizing a $5 million foundation to give scholarships to women directors at USC,” said Weinstein. “While this might seem coincidental, it has been in the works for a year. It will be named after my mom and I won't disappoint her.”

Hoffman cited his movie Tootsie as evidence that he is a great friend to women. “I would not have made that movie if I didn’t have an incredible respect for women,” he said. “The theme of the movie is he became a better man by having been a woman.”

But as Ruffin concludes at the end of the sketch, making a bad apology like the ones she mocks only bars you from certain jobs. It might (perhaps temporarily) tank a career as a movie producer or an actor or even as a senator — but apparently it doesn’t disqualify you from running for senator in Alabama, or from being president of the United States.

Avengers: Infinity War’s first trailer sees Marvel’s mightiest heroes face off against Thanos

The Avengers — and by that, I mean every single Avenger we’ve encountered throughout the past 10 years’ worth of Marvel movies — have assembled. And the first trailer for Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War has finally arrived.

Infinity War’s trailer begins by outlining the plan for the Avengers — assembling Earth’s mightiest heroes — and then showing how Thanos is going to tear it apart.

“In time, you will know what it will be like to lose” Thanos (Josh Brolin) says, before the trailer cuts to shots of his invasion on Earth and him pummeling Iron Man.

Then we get a shot of Wakanda, with Black Panther commanding his forces to halt the invasion. Bucky Barnes a.k.a. the Winter Soldier, Black Widow, and Captain America are all there too (pointing to a post-credits scene from Captain America: Civil War where Cap drops Bucky off in Wakanda under Black Panther’s protection).

It ends referencing an Easter egg we saw in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which hinted that Asgard and the Guardians inhabit the same cosmic universe, and Thor’s first meeting with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Directed by the Russo brothers, Infinity War represents the culmination of a decade of Marvel moviemaking and the final piece in Marvel Studios’ cinematic plan to create a universe of interlocking, connected superhero movies. Various Marvel superheroes have already teamed up in crossover epics like The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Infinity War looks to be the biggest and baddest of those crossovers yet.

The Deadpool sequel’s new teaser is here — with lots of Bob Ross jokes

The Merc with the Mouth is back — sort of. Fox has released a jokey new teaser for the (untitled) sequel to Deadpool, the studio’s antihero superhero hit of 2016, and it even includes some actual footage.

In true Deadpool fashion, the teaser isn’t a typical superhero teaser-trailer. It revolves around Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) spoofing the painter Bob Ross and his TV show The Joy of Painting, complete with Ross’s trademark hair and a naughty spin on the colors he used in his work (e.g., “Yellow Snow” yellow). Instead of showing us high-octane shots from the upcoming film, as most superhero movie trailers do, this one instead lets Reynolds crack some jokes and paint some trees while talking about cocaine.

But at around one minute and 30 seconds in, there’s actually a 10-second, blink-and-you’ll miss it glimpse of the movie — it’s a rapid-fire series of jump cuts involving destruction, spitting, guns, a chainsaw, a toaster, a signature Deadpool butt shot, and Domino (Zazie Beetz).

This is the second promo for the Deadpool sequel that Fox has released so far. Earlier this year, in March, the first promo played in theaters before showings of the studio’s Wolverine movie Logan. That first glimpse of the sequel was light on details and heavy on butts, murder, and humor — it was just Deadpool clumsily changing in a phone booth, à la Superman, while the person he wanted to help was murdered.

What made Deadpool such a surprise hit last year was not just how irreverent and vulgar it was, but also a decade-long struggle to get Fox to make the film in the first place. Fans of the character were more than excited for the film’s release, and it ended up making $783 million worldwide.

Hulu’s Runaways has its first full trailer, featuring a magic staff and a skittish velociraptor

With mere weeks to go until the release of Marvel’s Runaways, we finally have our first good look at the new series.

The first three episodes of Hulu’s long-awaited TV adaptation of the popular comic will drop on November 21. (The comic, created and originally written by Brian K. Vaughn, debuted in 2003.) But until then, this trailer gives a sense of how the TV show, helmed by Gossip Girl masterminds Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz, will look and feel.

Predictably enough, the vibe is very in line with what Savage and Schwartz have done over at The CW, with an assortment of good-looking teens getting in over their heads as wicked adults enact their schemes. But Runaways kicks all that up a notch, because these teens have powers (and/or gadgets that give them powers), and those wicked adults are their supervillain parents.

In the trailer, we get to see not only these plot basics — as a brief teaser earlier this month showed — but more of the teens discovering who they really are. We get to see Nico (Lyrica Okano) discover the staff she’ll eventually wield as something like a magic wand as her powers grow. We get to see younger Runaway Molly (Allegra Acosta), wearing a pink pussy hat instead of the pink beanie of the comics, realize she’s much stronger than her tiny frame suggests. We get to see Karolina (Virginia Gardner) glow phosphorescent. We even get to see Chase (Gregg Sulkin) and Gert (Ariela Barer) in wide-eyed awe as they get their first glimpses of the velociraptor (Old Lace!) that will become so important to them as the series continues.

Inevitably, this adaptation won’t satisfy all fans of The Runaways, especially since the wait for someone, anyone, to adapt the story to the screen has been so long. But for now, let’s hold out hope that Hulu’s Runaways will stay faithful to the spirit of the source material while taking advantage of getting to unfold this story onscreen.

Marvel’s new Black Panther trailer: the fight for Wakanda is on

Marvel has released a new trailer for Black Panther, showing off the newest look for Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa, the titular superhero, and Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger, the film’s fiery villain.

While the first trailer, which premiered in June, gave us a frenetic sampling of the cool details the film has to offer — the female bodyguards known as the Dora Milaje, Boseman in that signature Black Panther super suit, and Lupita Nyong'o giving fierce looks — this second trailer gives us more depth.

It hints that there’s a void left after Marvel’s Civil War, which saw T’Challa’s father assassinated. T’Challa, heir to the throne in his home country of Wakanda, has to assert how the nation, which is arguably the most technologically advanced on earth in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will be ruled, and must grasp that power. But Killmonger seizes the opportunity to stage a coup.

Add in fight scenes, hi-tech gadgetry, not one but multiple vibranium-enhanced Black Panther super suits, and you’ve got a jaw-dropping trailer.

Directed by Ryan Coogler, Black Panther will be the first solo black superhero movie in Marvel’s current cinematic universe. And it’s an opportunity to tell a story from a different point of view — not just based on race. (The majority of characters in Marvel’s superhero stories so far have been white or European.) Black Panther is also a story about what the world of superpowers looks like to a country that isn’t the US, doesn’t share the US’s views, has a ruling king, and has its own unique circumstances to deal with.

From what we’ve seen so far, it sure looks impressive.

Millions of Americans caught a glimpse of the total solar eclipse that hurtled across America at about 2,000 miles per hour. It was a tremendously visual spectacle that everyone from kids on iPhones to NASA’s top scientists documented.

“My parents always said this was such a racist country and I never saw it. And I think I was looking at it through a completely different filter. In my mind, I thought everyone was great and there is not a bad person here. So I gave people the benefit of the doubt.

Kerrick Whisenant, 41, construction executive

On Friday night, a group of about 100 white supremacists, white nationalists, and neo-Nazis marched on the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Virginia, carrying tiki torches, giving the Nazi salute, and chanting slogans including “you will not replace us” and “white lives matter.”

At one point, the torch-wielding group of mostly white men surrounded a smaller of group of counterprotesters standing at the base of a statue of Thomas Jefferson, and a brawl broke out. Counterprotesters reported being hit with pepper spray by marchers; according to the Washington Post, one counterprotester also used a “chemical spray” against marchers. 

Organizers affiliated with the white nationalist alt-right called the march in advance of a larger protest scheduled for Saturday to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in a park in Charlottesville.

Even before the Trump administration announced its support for a House Republican plan to halve the number of legal immigrants allowed in the US, many immigrants were wondering if they had a future here.

Immigrants from different countries, with different immigration statuses, spoke with Vox’s Alexia Fernández Campbell about what it's like to be foreign-born right now in Trump's America.

This is Maria.

Photo: Vox / Javier Zarracina

In honor of National Book Lovers Day, seven independent bookstores from across the country gave Vox’s Constance Grady their pick for the best summer read.

With their recommendations in hand, go forth and read.

- The Changeling, by Victor LaValle

- Kingdom Cons, by Yuri Herrera

- Since I Laid My Burden Down, by Brontez Purnell

- The Sarah Book, by Scott McClanahan

- Like a Fading Shadow, by Antonio Muñoz Molina

- In a Lonely Place, by Dorothy B. Hughes

“We’re here to do our job — so let us”: a trans Army captain on Trump’s ban

On Wednesday, in the span of a few tweets, President Donald Trump declared that he would ban trans military service.

There has been plenty of coverage and commentary about the tweets and what they actually mean in terms of policy (it turns out not much). But I wanted to talk with a trans soldier, someone who is serving right now and who understands this at the ground level.

Jacob Eleazer is a captain in the Kentucky Army National Guard. He has served for more than 11 years, beginning as an enlisted soldier and later earning his commission as an officer. He is currently a member of the 198th Military Police Battalion, where he serves as a senior human resources officer.

He agreed to be interviewed, but made it clear his remarks are his opinions as a private citizen and that he is not speaking for or on behalf of the United States Army or the Army National Guard.

I asked Eleazer, among other things, to tell me what he would say to the president or to the people making policy if he could sit down with them tomorrow.

“I'd say that we are your soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines,” he told me. “We are not a special interest. We have been serving you and this country for decades. We have contributed to this military and this nation as much as anyone else. We're here to do our job — so let us.”