Dadnology Week 23: Wolverine, GOAT & a Week Built for Dads
Dadnology Week 23: State of Play and Summer Game Fest exploded gaming, GOAT earned a 10/10, Vox Machina S4 arrived on Prime, and Spider-Noir impressed. Full cross-vertical breakdown.
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🏆 The Week Gaming and Streaming Competed for the Same Evenings
Week 23 of 2026 refused to pace itself. Two major gaming showcases ran back to back — Sony’s State of Play and Summer Game Fest — delivering more announcements than any sane week deserves. On the movies and TV side, GOAT finally got the full Dadnology review treatment and landed a 10/10, Vox Machina Season 4 dropped on Amazon Prime, and Spider-Noir arrived with a visual identity no other show on streaming is currently attempting.
As a dad trying to figure out where to spend the limited evening hours, the problem this week was not scarcity. It was decision fatigue. This newsletter is the filter.
The shape of the week in four lines: Wolverine is the PS5 announcement of the year. Black Flag Resynced is the nostalgia pre-order of the year. GOAT is the animated film of the year. And Spider-Noir might be the most visually interesting new show of the year. Week 23 had range.
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#1Gaming Week 23: State of Play, Summer Game Fest & Wolverine
“Gaming Week 23 of 2026 brought two major showcase events back to back — Sony's State of Play and Summer Game Fest — delivering more announcements than any single week deserves. Marvel's Wolverine finally got its spotlight, Tomb Raider confirmed its return, Star Wars got two very different games at once, and Capcom already promised a giant expansion for Monster Hunter Wilds before the sequel even ships. Plus: three new Dadnology story-game guides launched as part of the Living Novel Hub expansion. Here is everything that matters, filtered through the dad lens.”
#2Movies Week 23: GOAT, Vox Machina S4 & Spider-Noir Begins
“Movies Week 23 of 2026 delivers on multiple fronts: Sony's animated roarball epic GOAT earns a 10/10 and looks extraordinary on Apple Vision Pro; Vox Machina Season 4 premieres on Amazon Prime for everyone who spent the past weeks catching up on the first three; Spider-Noir arrives with the kind of visual commitment — alternating colour and monochrome — that immediately sets it apart from everything else on streaming. Plus: summer is in full swing at US multiplexes.”
Disclaimer: This review and its visuals were created with the help of AI. Some links may be affiliate links – we may earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you.
🎮 Gaming This Week
State of Play and Summer Game Fest collided in Week 23, and the result was an announcement week that will take months to actually play through. The headline is Marvel’s Wolverine from Insomniac Games — as a Marvel fan, this is the PS5 announcement of the year. The studio behind Spider-Man and Miles Morales is building a full-scale cinematic action game around Logan, and the showcase footage had the weight and grit the character demands.
Beyond Wolverine: Tomb Raider confirmed its return with a first proper showing — one of the most awaited action-adventure games on the horizon. A new God of War chapter is in development. Rayman is coming back. Dune: Awakening and Control 2 rounded out a strong State of Play undercard.
Summer Game Fest then delivered Star Wars twice — tactical squad shooter Zero Company in August and arcade podracing in Galactic Racer on October 6 — plus AC Black Flag Resynced (the best AC entry, rebuilt from scratch for current gen), the bold concept of Stranger Than Heaven featuring Tupac’s music, a major expansion for Monster Hunter Wilds already announced for 2027, and a Mafia: The Old Country story DLC in August.
Three new Dadnology story-game guides also launched this week as part of the expanded Living Novel Hub — covering cinematic action, open-world epics, and action-RPGs separately.
Read the full Gaming Week 23 roundup →
🎬 Movies & TV This Week
Movies Week 23 delivered on all three of its main fronts. GOAT earned a 10/10 in the full Dadnology review — the animated roarball epic from Sony Pictures Animation is the year’s best-looking and most warmly structured animated film, and on the Apple Vision Pro it is reference-grade cinema. The “smalls can ball” underdog message hits exactly as hard as you want a film to hit with kids in the room.
Vox Machina Season 4 dropped on Amazon Prime for everyone who followed the show through the first three seasons. We’re in the thick of it — the full season review is incoming — but the early episodes confirm the animation quality and voice work are entirely intact. The 30-minute format remains a gift for tired weeknights. If you haven’t started the show: start from Season 1, it earns your commitment completely.
Spider-Noir arrived with the visual commitment the concept demanded — alternating colour and black-and-white cinematography that earns the comparison to classic noir cinema rather than just referencing it. Too early for a rating, but the first impression is strong. This is a show made by people who understood why Spider-Man Noir worked in the Spider-Verse and trusted the aesthetic enough to build a whole live-action series around it.
At the multiplexes: Scary Movie 6 is the summer surprise hit, The Mandalorian & Grogu is doing exactly what Mandalorian & Grogu does, and two horror wildcards — Backrooms and Obsession — are holding strong. Next week: Disclosure Day (high expectations). Week after: Toy Story 5 (Pixar’s most pressure-loaded sequel in years).
Read the full Movies Week 23 roundup →
Dadnology Take
Week 23 is the rare week where both halves of the entertainment calendar delivered simultaneously, and they delivered for different audiences without stepping on each other. Gaming gave us announcements worth actually caring about — not vague teases, but real showcases with real footage. Movies and TV gave us a perfect 10/10 in GOAT, a Season 4 we have been building toward for months in Vox Machina, and a stylistically bold newcomer in Spider-Noir that looks like nothing else currently airing. The recommended Week 23 schedule: GOAT with the family on Friday, Vox Machina solo on Saturday, and tracker alerts set for Wolverine and Black Flag Resynced. That’s it.