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Ah, pumpkin pie! It’s the cherry on top of the layer cake that is Thanksgiving dinner. The ultimate finish to an epic night of eating (fight me, pecan fans!), and even though it takes a “walk with the cousins” smoke session after dinner to muster up an appetite to eat a slice of pie after engorging yourself with more stuffing than the Thanksgiving turkey itself, it’s a ritual we’re willing to subject ourselves to. Gladly.

If you’re going to have that additional plate and risk a deep food coma — it’d better be for a pie that’s worth it. Something that pairs perfectly with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

This had us wondering: which grocery store pumpkin pie is the champ? We set out to find out by rounding up as many grocery store pies as we could find and putting them to the blind taste test. Here are the best grocery store pumpkin pies blind taste tested and ranked.

Methodology:

For this blind taste test, I rounded up pumpkin pies from a mix of national market chains and markets local to Southern California. Every pie chosen was from the market’s bakery section. This is my third time ranking pumpkin pie and based on the other taste tests I’ve done, I decided to forgo picking up any frozen pies because… well… they always rank last.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone but I’ll say it anyway: frozen pumpkin pies just don’t compare. They’re always bad. Mediocre at very best.

After sourcing pies from Aldi, Food 4 Less, Gelson’s, Sprouts, Target, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, and Vons, I had my girlfriend bring me a slice of each at random with a tiny dollop of whipped cream. Let’s get to the tasting!

Part 1: The Blind Pumpkin Pie Tasting

Taste 1

The pumpkin filling is very loose and watery, with an off-putting mushy texture. It’s a shame about the texture because the flavor isn’t too bad. It has a spicy ginger bite with lots of cinnamon flavor. The crust is a bit too salty for my liking.

Taste 2

Ooh, I like this one! The flavor is rich with cinnamon notes, a prominent clove flavor, and a hint of ginger, allspice, and nutmeg. The filling is well seasoned, this is what my tastebuds imagine when I think about “pumpkin spice.”

The filling is a bit too soupy, I prefer more firmness but I can overlook it for the flavor. The crust is nice and flakey with a sweet buttery flavor.

Taste 3

The firmness of the filling is perfect here. It’s soft and silky, but not wet, giving you a nice texture to chew through.

The flavor doesn’t wow me, unfortunately. The spices are well-balanced, but I found myself enjoying the crust and whipped cream more than the flavor of the pie itself.

Taste 4

Heavy on the cinnamon, ginger, and clove here. I’m tasting a hint of cardamom and nutmeg. The consistency of the filling is perfect, this is what I’m looking for! My only real knock against this pie is the crust.

It’s a bit too soft and doesn’t serve as a big enough contrast to the silkiness of the filling. While I’d prefer a crumbly texture, the flavor is nice and butter-forward.

Taste 5

This pie is just fine. It doesn’t excel in any one department, the flavor is good, the crust is nice and textural, and the filling is noticeably wet, but not mushy.

Nothing is working against it or for it. Pie should be indulgent and comforting, this tastes like it’s missing something.

Taste 6

Awful. This is easily the worst pie. The filling is airy, with an almost whipped texture, and the flavor is incredibly watered down. You barely get any sense of spice here. The only thing this pie has going for it is the crust, it’s flakey, buttery, a near-perfect texture.

It’s a shame a crust this nice surrounds a pie this off-putting.

Taste 7

I’m a bit torn on this pie — there is a nice ginger and nutmeg prominence here with gentle notes of cinnamon and clove and a decent firmness, but the crust knocks this pie down a few spots for me. It’s too soft and cake-like, it’s almost softer than the filling itself, which doesn’t give enough textural contrast to the mouthfeel.

Taste 8

Most of the crusts we’ve encountered in this taste test have been very neutral in flavor, some have a buttery finish, but for the most part, the crust is more about texture than anything else. The crust in Taste 8 stands in stark contrast to everything that came before it.

It has a noticeable sweetness to it with a perfectly flakey texture and a buttery aroma. It comes across as elevated and well-crafted. The rest of the pie, I’m not totally sold on. The flavor of the filling is decent, I’m tasting more cinnamon than anything else, but there is a bit of a ginger bite on the finish.

All in all it’s a great pie, but the crust suggests it should be better.

Part 2: The Pumpkin Pie Ranking

8. Walmart — Pumpkin Pie (Taste 6)

The Pie:

Not only was Walmart’s pumpkin pie the weakest in this lineup, I think it’s downright bad. The filling was just too whipped and airy and the flavors were too watered down, it’s not worth the calories to eat this stuff.

I think it’s pretty hard to ruin a pumpkin pie, and yet somehow, Walmart has done it!

The Bottom Line:

While we didn’t like this pie, it was by far the cheapest at just $4.99 for a whole pie. So if you’re on pie duty this year, you’re pressed for cash, and you hate your family, this is the pie for you!

Find your nearest Walmart here.

7. Food 4 Less — Pumpkin Pie No Sugar Added (Taste 1)

The Pie:

“Soupy,” “mushy,” “wet,” these are all words you don’t want to hear when it comes to the texture of a pumpkin pie. Unfortunately, all of those words work when describing this pie from Food 4 Less.

This pie is advertised as having a “No Sugar Added” recipe, I wouldn’t say a lack of sweetness was noticeable though. But maybe I was distracted by that awful texture.

The Bottom Line:

Too wet and mushy to be enjoyable.

Find your nearest Food 4 Less here.

6. Target — Rubicon Bakeries (Taste 7)

The Pie:

Last year Target’s pumpkin pie was under its Favorite Day store brand, it looks like Favorite Day has been replaced by Rubicon Bakeries, and in my opinion, this pie is a noticeable step down.

While I think the firmness and flavor were good, the crust was way too soft — almost cake-like — failing to provide a good textural contrast.

The Bottom Line:

Good flavors, good texture, weak soft crust.

Find your nearest Target here.

5. Aldi Bake Shop (Taste 5)

The Pie:

Aldi’s pumpkin pie is good but it’s noticeably not great. It doesn’t excel in any way whatsoever, the flavor is what you expect from pumpkin spice, the texture strikes a nice middle ground between firm and soft, and the crust is flakey but lacks flavor.

So if you want a fairly standard pie that no one is going to complain about, Aldi’s Bake Shop pie is your best choice.

The Bottom Line:

A good fairly standard pumpkin pie.

Find your nearest Aldi here.

4. Von’s — Jessie’s Pumpkin Pie (Taste 3)

The Pie:

This pie has a lot going for it, a nice firm texture, a balanced spicy flavor, and a great crust. But unfortunately, I like the crust more than the pie itself. That’s a problem!

Call me crazy, but the highlight of a pie shouldn’t be the crust.

The Bottom Line:

A good texture, flavor, and a great crust.

Find your nearest Von’s here.

3. Gelson’s — Pumpkin Pie By Renaud’s Patisserie (Taste 8)

The Pie:

Gelson’s is an upscale regional market from Southern California. It’s so fancy that it doesn’t have a traditional bakery section in the market, instead, it just has a straight-up bakery.

When I asked an employee at Gelsons if they had pumpkin pie, they said “No but they might have one at Renaud’s,” and directed me to the bakery in-store. So my expectations for this pie were high, especially when I saw that a single pie was $26. As I carried this pie in the elevator of my apartment building, a neighbor said ‘That looks delicious!’

This is why blind taste tests are so vital. Based on the price, the packaging, and the store I bought it from, I assumed this was going to be the best pie, but under the cover of the blindfold… it just wasn’t.

The Bottom Line:

Proof that beautiful packaging and high prices aren’t everything. This is a good pie, make no mistake, but it’s not more delicious than pies half the price.

Find your nearest Gelson’s here.

2. Sprouts — Pumpkin Pie (Taste 2)

The Pie:

This pie came incredibly close to snagging the number one spot, but ultimately I had to decide against it because of the lack of firmness in the filling. From a flavor standpoint, this pie is excellent, with a very prominent cinnamon and clove flavor that just tastes like autumn to my tastebuds.

But the texture of the filling is just a bit too soft here to be a winner for me. Normally, I’d rank this pie lower based on the texture alone, but the flavor was so damn good that it bumped it up in my ranking considerably.

The Bottom Line:

An amazing flavor but the filling is a bit too soft to be a winner.

Find your nearest Sprouts here.

1. Trader Joe’s — Pumpkin Pie (Taste 4)

The Pie:

We always try to include Trader Joe’s in our blind grocery store tastings, and generally, the brand lands somewhere in the middle of our rankings. That’s not the case with Trader Joe’s pumpkin pie — this is the best pumpkin pie you can pick up from the grocery store in 2023.

The crust isn’t quite as flakey as I want it to be, but it adds enough textural contrast to complement the filling. The real star of the show here is the flavor — the spices are very well-balanced making each forkful a wonderful journey through cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and ginger.

The Bottom Line:

The best grocery store pumpkin pie currently on the market. Take it up another level by giving it a quick zap in the microwave and topping it with a nice cold scoop of vanilla ice cream. Or give it ten minutes in. the oven on a buttered pan to crisp up that crust!

Find your nearest Trader Joe’s here.

Ah, pumpkin pie! It’s the cherry on top of the layer cake that is Thanksgiving dinner. The ultimate finish to an epic night of eating (fight me, pecan fans!), and even though it takes a “walk with the cousins” smoke session after dinner to muster up an appetite to eat a slice of pie after engorging yourself with more stuffing than the Thanksgiving turkey itself, it’s a ritual we’re willing to subject ourselves to. Gladly.

If you’re going to have that additional plate and risk a deep food coma — it’d better be for a pie that’s worth it. Something that pairs perfectly with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

This had us wondering: which grocery store pumpkin pie is the champ? We set out to find out by rounding up as many grocery store pies as we could find and putting them to the blind taste test. Here are the best grocery store pumpkin pies blind taste tested and ranked.

Methodology:

For this blind taste test, I rounded up pumpkin pies from a mix of national market chains and markets local to Southern California. Every pie chosen was from the market’s bakery section. This is my third time ranking pumpkin pie and based on the other taste tests I’ve done, I decided to forgo picking up any frozen pies because… well… they always rank last.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone but I’ll say it anyway: frozen pumpkin pies just don’t compare. They’re always bad. Mediocre at very best.

After sourcing pies from Aldi, Food 4 Less, Gelson’s, Sprouts, Target, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, and Vons, I had my girlfriend bring me a slice of each at random with a tiny dollop of whipped cream. Let’s get to the tasting!

Part 1: The Blind Pumpkin Pie Tasting

Taste 1

The pumpkin filling is very loose and watery, with an off-putting mushy texture. It’s a shame about the texture because the flavor isn’t too bad. It has a spicy ginger bite with lots of cinnamon flavor. The crust is a bit too salty for my liking.

Taste 2

Ooh, I like this one! The flavor is rich with cinnamon notes, a prominent clove flavor, and a hint of ginger, allspice, and nutmeg. The filling is well seasoned, this is what my tastebuds imagine when I think about “pumpkin spice.”

The filling is a bit too soupy, I prefer more firmness but I can overlook it for the flavor. The crust is nice and flakey with a sweet buttery flavor.

Taste 3

The firmness of the filling is perfect here. It’s soft and silky, but not wet, giving you a nice texture to chew through.

The flavor doesn’t wow me, unfortunately. The spices are well-balanced, but I found myself enjoying the crust and whipped cream more than the flavor of the pie itself.

Taste 4

Heavy on the cinnamon, ginger, and clove here. I’m tasting a hint of cardamom and nutmeg. The consistency of the filling is perfect, this is what I’m looking for! My only real knock against this pie is the crust.

It’s a bit too soft and doesn’t serve as a big enough contrast to the silkiness of the filling. While I’d prefer a crumbly texture, the flavor is nice and butter-forward.

Taste 5

This pie is just fine. It doesn’t excel in any one department, the flavor is good, the crust is nice and textural, and the filling is noticeably wet, but not mushy.

Nothing is working against it or for it. Pie should be indulgent and comforting, this tastes like it’s missing something.

Taste 6

Awful. This is easily the worst pie. The filling is airy, with an almost whipped texture, and the flavor is incredibly watered down. You barely get any sense of spice here. The only thing this pie has going for it is the crust, it’s flakey, buttery, a near-perfect texture.

It’s a shame a crust this nice surrounds a pie this off-putting.

Taste 7

I’m a bit torn on this pie — there is a nice ginger and nutmeg prominence here with gentle notes of cinnamon and clove and a decent firmness, but the crust knocks this pie down a few spots for me. It’s too soft and cake-like, it’s almost softer than the filling itself, which doesn’t give enough textural contrast to the mouthfeel.

Taste 8

Most of the crusts we’ve encountered in this taste test have been very neutral in flavor, some have a buttery finish, but for the most part, the crust is more about texture than anything else. The crust in Taste 8 stands in stark contrast to everything that came before it.

It has a noticeable sweetness to it with a perfectly flakey texture and a buttery aroma. It comes across as elevated and well-crafted. The rest of the pie, I’m not totally sold on. The flavor of the filling is decent, I’m tasting more cinnamon than anything else, but there is a bit of a ginger bite on the finish.

All in all it’s a great pie, but the crust suggests it should be better.

Part 2: The Pumpkin Pie Ranking

8. Walmart — Pumpkin Pie (Taste 6)

The Pie:

Not only was Walmart’s pumpkin pie the weakest in this lineup, I think it’s downright bad. The filling was just too whipped and airy and the flavors were too watered down, it’s not worth the calories to eat this stuff.

I think it’s pretty hard to ruin a pumpkin pie, and yet somehow, Walmart has done it!

The Bottom Line:

While we didn’t like this pie, it was by far the cheapest at just $4.99 for a whole pie. So if you’re on pie duty this year, you’re pressed for cash, and you hate your family, this is the pie for you!

Find your nearest Walmart here.

7. Food 4 Less — Pumpkin Pie No Sugar Added (Taste 1)

The Pie:

“Soupy,” “mushy,” “wet,” these are all words you don’t want to hear when it comes to the texture of a pumpkin pie. Unfortunately, all of those words work when describing this pie from Food 4 Less.

This pie is advertised as having a “No Sugar Added” recipe, I wouldn’t say a lack of sweetness was noticeable though. But maybe I was distracted by that awful texture.

The Bottom Line:

Too wet and mushy to be enjoyable.

Find your nearest Food 4 Less here.

6. Target — Rubicon Bakeries (Taste 7)

The Pie:

Last year Target’s pumpkin pie was under its Favorite Day store brand, it looks like Favorite Day has been replaced by Rubicon Bakeries, and in my opinion, this pie is a noticeable step down.

While I think the firmness and flavor were good, the crust was way too soft — almost cake-like — failing to provide a good textural contrast.

The Bottom Line:

Good flavors, good texture, weak soft crust.

Find your nearest Target here.

5. Aldi Bake Shop (Taste 5)

The Pie:

Aldi’s pumpkin pie is good but it’s noticeably not great. It doesn’t excel in any way whatsoever, the flavor is what you expect from pumpkin spice, the texture strikes a nice middle ground between firm and soft, and the crust is flakey but lacks flavor.

So if you want a fairly standard pie that no one is going to complain about, Aldi’s Bake Shop pie is your best choice.

The Bottom Line:

A good fairly standard pumpkin pie.

Find your nearest Aldi here.

4. Von’s — Jessie’s Pumpkin Pie (Taste 3)

The Pie:

This pie has a lot going for it, a nice firm texture, a balanced spicy flavor, and a great crust. But unfortunately, I like the crust more than the pie itself. That’s a problem!

Call me crazy, but the highlight of a pie shouldn’t be the crust.

The Bottom Line:

A good texture, flavor, and a great crust.

Find your nearest Von’s here.

3. Gelson’s — Pumpkin Pie By Renaud’s Patisserie (Taste 8)

The Pie:

Gelson’s is an upscale regional market from Southern California. It’s so fancy that it doesn’t have a traditional bakery section in the market, instead, it just has a straight-up bakery.

When I asked an employee at Gelsons if they had pumpkin pie, they said “No but they might have one at Renaud’s,” and directed me to the bakery in-store. So my expectations for this pie were high, especially when I saw that a single pie was $26. As I carried this pie in the elevator of my apartment building, a neighbor said ‘That looks delicious!’

This is why blind taste tests are so vital. Based on the price, the packaging, and the store I bought it from, I assumed this was going to be the best pie, but under the cover of the blindfold… it just wasn’t.

The Bottom Line:

Proof that beautiful packaging and high prices aren’t everything. This is a good pie, make no mistake, but it’s not more delicious than pies half the price.

Find your nearest Gelson’s here.

2. Sprouts — Pumpkin Pie (Taste 2)

The Pie:

This pie came incredibly close to snagging the number one spot, but ultimately I had to decide against it because of the lack of firmness in the filling. From a flavor standpoint, this pie is excellent, with a very prominent cinnamon and clove flavor that just tastes like autumn to my tastebuds.

But the texture of the filling is just a bit too soft here to be a winner for me. Normally, I’d rank this pie lower based on the texture alone, but the flavor was so damn good that it bumped it up in my ranking considerably.

The Bottom Line:

An amazing flavor but the filling is a bit too soft to be a winner.

Find your nearest Sprouts here.

1. Trader Joe’s — Pumpkin Pie (Taste 4)

The Pie:

We always try to include Trader Joe’s in our blind grocery store tastings, and generally, the brand lands somewhere in the middle of our rankings. That’s not the case with Trader Joe’s pumpkin pie — this is the best pumpkin pie you can pick up from the grocery store in 2023.

The crust isn’t quite as flakey as I want it to be, but it adds enough textural contrast to complement the filling. The real star of the show here is the flavor — the spices are very well-balanced making each forkful a wonderful journey through cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and ginger.

The Bottom Line:

The best grocery store pumpkin pie currently on the market. Take it up another level by giving it a quick zap in the microwave and topping it with a nice cold scoop of vanilla ice cream. Or give it ten minutes in. the oven on a buttered pan to crisp up that crust!

Find your nearest Trader Joe’s here.

The New York Jets offense floundered once again on Monday night in a 27-6 loss to the Chargers that saw their defense once again hold its own against a top quarterback, but not get anything close to the support it needed to win the game.

Ever since Aaron Rodgers went down with an Achilles injury four plays into the season, Zach Wilson has been back under center and looked an awful lot like the same Zach Wilson that struggled his first two years in the league. That the Jets are 4-4 is a minor miracle, but the offense is just a disaster. Wilson bears the brunt of the criticism and understandably so, as he has not been good, but the offensive line has been a mess and the skill position players beyond Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson have offered little in the way of support.

Still, the focus will always be on the quarterback and the Jets’ almost odd commitment to Wilson despite the growing evidence he is not the answer. On Tuesday, Jets head coach Robert Saleh was on The Michael Kay Show and got asked about why other options weren’t considered, both in adding a better backup this offseason and in at least trying Trevor Siemian. Saleh considered his options before pleading the fifth, which is maybe a first for a coach interview.

The full answer can be found at the 7:31 clip of this YouTube video here, and it doesn’t really make a much stronger case for Saleh’s belief in Wilson.

“No, I got you,” Saleh said. “No, it’s a — and again, fair question. And uh, you know, it’s uh, like I said, I dunno, you got me. Something to that. I’m gonna plead the fifth on all this one in terms of just uh, I’ve kind of explained it, respectfully, obviously. But these are valid questions, and I know for fans who are passionate all having the same questions, I respect it greatly. I’ve gotta look at it from a global standpoint, and just see where we are, and just look at the all-22 the best I can and make the decision as best as possible.”

You know things are going well when a coach pleads the fifth and then starts talking in corporate gibberish, saying things like “look at it from a global standpoint.” I don’t blame Saleh here, because he can’t throw Wilson under the bus, Siemian almost assuredly isn’t the answer given what we’ve seen from him in his career, and it certainly seems as if there’s some weird dynamics at play between the staff, players, ownership, and the front office that we don’t really know. He’s also right that these are all good questions, the problem is the Jets don’t have any good answers and for Saleh it’s just better for his job to not offer one of the bad ones.

The New York Jets offense floundered once again on Monday night in a 27-6 loss to the Chargers that saw their defense once again hold its own against a top quarterback, but not get anything close to the support it needed to win the game.

Ever since Aaron Rodgers went down with an Achilles injury four plays into the season, Zach Wilson has been back under center and looked an awful lot like the same Zach Wilson that struggled his first two years in the league. That the Jets are 4-4 is a minor miracle, but the offense is just a disaster. Wilson bears the brunt of the criticism and understandably so, as he has not been good, but the offensive line has been a mess and the skill position players beyond Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson have offered little in the way of support.

Still, the focus will always be on the quarterback and the Jets’ almost odd commitment to Wilson despite the growing evidence he is not the answer. On Tuesday, Jets head coach Robert Saleh was on The Michael Kay Show and got asked about why other options weren’t considered, both in adding a better backup this offseason and in at least trying Trevor Siemian. Saleh considered his options before pleading the fifth, which is maybe a first for a coach interview.

The full answer can be found at the 7:31 clip of this YouTube video here, and it doesn’t really make a much stronger case for Saleh’s belief in Wilson.

“No, I got you,” Saleh said. “No, it’s a — and again, fair question. And uh, you know, it’s uh, like I said, I dunno, you got me. Something to that. I’m gonna plead the fifth on all this one in terms of just uh, I’ve kind of explained it, respectfully, obviously. But these are valid questions, and I know for fans who are passionate all having the same questions, I respect it greatly. I’ve gotta look at it from a global standpoint, and just see where we are, and just look at the all-22 the best I can and make the decision as best as possible.”

You know things are going well when a coach pleads the fifth and then starts talking in corporate gibberish, saying things like “look at it from a global standpoint.” I don’t blame Saleh here, because he can’t throw Wilson under the bus, Siemian almost assuredly isn’t the answer given what we’ve seen from him in his career, and it certainly seems as if there’s some weird dynamics at play between the staff, players, ownership, and the front office that we don’t really know. He’s also right that these are all good questions, the problem is the Jets don’t have any good answers and for Saleh it’s just better for his job to not offer one of the bad ones.

(WARNING: Spoilers for the most recent The Chi episode will be found below.)

It’s been a little over a month since the last episode of The Chi aired. The show is currently in its sixth season and big things are going on amongst its beloved characters. Kevin recently moved to Los Angeles to pursue a video game career. Papa is recovering from the death of his father and Jake is preparing to move into his own apartment. There’s so much more in store for The Chi in its sixth season, but is the season over? Will there be any more episodes of The Chi in season six?

Is The Chi Season 6 Over?

Thankfully, the answer to the above question is no. Before the start of the season, it was announced that the show’s sixth season would be an “expanded season” with 16 episodes split into two halves. The most recent episode in The Chi season six was episode eight which aired on September 24, thus completing the first half of the season. There are still plans to complete the second half, but when it will premiere remains unknown.

Deadline previously reported that the first half of season six was written and filmed before the writer’s and actor’s strike began. There is a chance that the scripts for the second half are complete, but not much if anything has been filmed as production for the season stopped on May 15 in solidarity with the writer’s strike. With that being said, it may be some time before the show returns to complete The Chi.

New episodes of ‘The Chi’ will soon be available through the Paramount Plus With Showtime plan on Fridays at 3am EST/ 12 pm PST. Weekly episodes will also air Sundays on Showtime at 9pm EST/PST.

(WARNING: Spoilers for the most recent The Chi episode will be found below.)

It’s been a little over a month since the last episode of The Chi aired. The show is currently in its sixth season and big things are going on amongst its beloved characters. Kevin recently moved to Los Angeles to pursue a video game career. Papa is recovering from the death of his father and Jake is preparing to move into his own apartment. There’s so much more in store for The Chi in its sixth season, but is the season over? Will there be any more episodes of The Chi in season six?

Is The Chi Season 6 Over?

Thankfully, the answer to the above question is no. Before the start of the season, it was announced that the show’s sixth season would be an “expanded season” with 16 episodes split into two halves. The most recent episode in The Chi season six was episode eight which aired on September 24, thus completing the first half of the season. There are still plans to complete the second half, but when it will premiere remains unknown.

Deadline previously reported that the first half of season six was written and filmed before the writer’s and actor’s strike began. There is a chance that the scripts for the second half are complete, but not much if anything has been filmed as production for the season stopped on May 15 in solidarity with the writer’s strike. With that being said, it may be some time before the show returns to complete The Chi.

New episodes of ‘The Chi’ will soon be available through the Paramount Plus With Showtime plan on Fridays at 3am EST/ 12 pm PST. Weekly episodes will also air Sundays on Showtime at 9pm EST/PST.

In the past two weeks, the marketing for The Marvels made a surprising pivot by teasing the film’s connection to the X-Men.

The hype began with a seemingly random promo spot that noticeably emphasized the letter “X.” However, the fan theories really kicked into overdrive with The Marvels final trailer, which featured the X-Men’s logo in a quick shot. That undeniable moment sparked a flurry of speculation that the mutants could appear in the film as well as Binary, a version of Captain Marvel with a comic book connection to the X-Men.

Now, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige is fielding questions about when the famous mutants will show up in the MCU, and he gave a noticeably coy response in light of The Marvels marketing. But first, Feige made sure to tee up the highly anticipated X-Men ’97, a follow-up to the classic X-Men animated series from the ’90s.

“The X-Men are as solid and as rich and as a great a concept in characters as exist,” Feige told ET via Entertainment Weekly. “There’s the return of the animated series next year, which we’re very excited about. I saw some new final episodes today, which really bring you back to that core of who the X-Men are and that soap opera that those characters represent.”

The MCU maestro then dropped a big tease. “And then in live-action, people will see,” he said. “Perhaps soon.”

Does “soon” mean this weekend when The Marvels blast into theaters? Guess we’ll find out.

You can watch the interview with Feige below:

The Marvels opens in theaters November 10.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

Owen Wilson was in Around the World in 80 Days, but Sonja Morgan will settle for multiple nights with the “Butterscotch Stallion.”

During a panel at BravoCon 2023 over the weekend, Watch What Happens Live “bone-hard” host Andy Cohen played a game of “Showgirl Us Your Cards” with several Real Housewives. The panelists each submitted a card with a fun fact on it, and the other contestants had to guess who it was about. According to Page Six, one card read, “She once had a very flirtatious moment with Owen Wilson.”

The Bravolebrities (which is the “Swiftie”-like term for Bravo stars) quickly agreed that the card was referring to Morgan. The Real Housewives of New York City star, who needs to get on a podcast with Rachel Bilson, clarified, “But it wasn’t flirtatious. He is the Butterscotch Stallion and he loves doggy style.”

The audience broke out into cheers and laughter as her fellow Housewives dropped their jaws at the confession.

“Sonja, was it you that submitted that fact?” Cohen asked, to which she replied, “No, it’s just in the news.”

Cohen dug in, asking if she had flirted with the Zoolander actor, which is when Morgan came in with even more NSFW commentary. “I f*cked him several times. I love him,” she admitted.

[Owen Wilson voice] Wow.

(Via Page Six)

If you want to believe that the original Mean Girls is the story of one outsider’s odyssey through high school and the hard moral lessons that she learns about being an awful person in the name of maintaining a tight grip on popularity, then so be it. But while Regina George (Rachel McAdams) is meant to be the villain of the film due to her cruel barbs and iron rule, I disagree firmly with the idea that she is without value.

Regina may not be perfect, she may even be a (really) mean girl, but let us never forget that it was her delicate eco-system that was thrown out of whack by the incursion of Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) and her pranks, and that some of what Regina said in the film might even make her seem less like a total villain when re-framed slightly.

So, in the name of proving that to you and in celebration of the recent micro reunion and the trailer drop for the remake, we’re asking you to look at some of these Regina moments from the original and tell us that she doesn’t seem a little less evil and a little more relatable. Because, and I don’t want to freak you out, there is a little bit of Regina in us all and the true villain of Mean Girls was high school, itself.

When Regina Taught Cady About Pop Culture

Regina: Cady, do you even know who sings this?
Cady: Um, the Spice Girls?
Regina: I love her. She’s like a Martian!

The internet allows us all to move within our own interest herds, snuggling up with the pop culture creations that please us on the regular. Because of this, our legs give out and our vision tunnels when someone expresses complete obliviousness to those things. With the above moment, Regina was simply vocalizing the thing you say with your eyes to Xander from work when he’s all, “What is Game of Thrones?”

Also, I want to live in a world where I think all pop songs come from the Spice Girls. Or more accurately, I want to live in a world where all pop songs do come from them.

Regina Uplifts A Classmate

Regina: Oh my God, I love your skirt! Where did you get it?
Lea: It was my mom’s in the ’80s.
Regina: Vintage! So adorable.
Lea: Thanks.
Regina: [after girl walks away] That is the ugliest effing skirt I’ve ever seen.

Yes, on the surface, this is bad, but if you switch the perspective, that girl is going to have a dynamite day lost in the breezy summer fantasy that is a fashion compliment from the most popular girl in school. And as for Regina, say what you will, but she knows how to maintain her spot atop the high school food chain. Lea’s an ally in that moment and Regina is a hell of a politician.

Regina’s Doctor Frankenstein Moment

“She thinks she’s gonna have a party and not invite me? Who does she think she is? […] I, like, invented her, you know what I mean?” – Regina

If metaphors are your thing, this is a bit Dr. Frankenstein realizing that his monster has run amok, but it’s actually worse because the monster (Cady) was given life (which in high school, means popularity) by Regina and now she’s trying to replace her in the social hierarchy. Actually, it’s like, if you were on a space ship and you gave someone oxygen and then they bounced up and were like, “Peace!” and then locked you out of your own slumber pod. Yeah, exactly like that. Metaphors are your thing, right?

Regina Doles Out Some Tough Love

“Gretchen, stop trying to make fetch happen!” – Regina

I applauded Regina for sparing Lea from the truth about her Mom’s ugly vintage skirt (so ugly, Lea), but Lea is just another student while Gretchen is Regina’s friend. You don’t spare friends the hard truths. Fetch, which Gretchen keeps trying to turn into a thing, wasn’t birthed to be something that lives among the slang stars, it was meant to die in the gutter, and Regina makes that happen.

Think of how great this world would be if there was a Regina George present at the start of every word-trend. Think of how she would have put the term “totes amazeballs” into a sack and beat it with a rusty hammer, sparing us all.

That Time Regina Let Her Friend Know She Needed More From Her

“I can’t go to Taco Bell. I’m on an all-carb diet. God, Karen. You’re so stupid!” – Regina

If Karen (Amanda Seyfried) wants to lend strategic support to Regina and provide more than timely weather reports, she needs to be aware of her friend’s nutritional needs. Though, in fairness, burritos totally have carbs, so Regina could have gone with for a run toward the border.

Regina George Is A Disruptor

Gretchen: Regina, you’re wearing sweatpants. It’s Monday.
Regina: So…?
Karen: So, that’s against the rules, and you can’t sit with us.
Regina: Whatever. Those rules aren’t real.

We’re a highly social culture at this point and we all live til we’re like 85 or something, so we’re saying and tweeting more words than ever before. Naturally, some of them are going to crash into each other creating conflict and potential embarrassment, but hypocrisy is only a thing if we choose to make it one. Regina’s friends could have let it slide when she had outgrown her clothes, but they chose to give her a taste of her own medicine, even though it was they who were sick with jealousy over her reign of power.

Regina Sets Boundaries And Focuses On Her Recovery

“Stop making this about you. I’m the one that got hit by the bus.” – Regina

Having sympathy for others who are having a down day (or a realization that they went too far, as Cady acknowledges to Regina at the dance) in the midst of one’s own dark moment is admirable, but let’s get real: Sometimes the world needs to recognize that you are going through some serious stuff and everyone else needs to step off. I don’t know how we accomplish that on social media — “I totally get what you’re going through. One time I…” up bup buh! — but in real life, maybe it’s as simple as creating some kind of blinky forcefield that lets people know that your pain is the star. Maybe it could look like a spinal halo collar similar to the kind one would wear after getting thrown (I choose to believe that version of events) in front of a bus. As a for instance.

This article has been lightly updated from the original, which ran in 2015.

Yellowstone Season 5’s final episodes still dejectedly sit far away on the horizon, but Taylor Sheridan fans can currently enjoy the recently launched Lawmen: Bass Reeves, which stars David Oyelowo, Donald Sutherland, Lauren E. Banks, Mo Brings Plenty, and Dennis Quaid. This is only the latest of Sheridan’s seemingly endless fount of TV shows that viewers can currently find on streaming services. As well, Sheridan has several series in development, and that happens to include multiple Yellowstone offshoots, including 2024 and the slightly foreboding-sounding 6666.

Never fear, this is not some kind of Sheridan-Halloween series, although I suspect that would draw some crowds, too. What do we know about 6666 — which follows on the heels 1883 and 1923 — so far?

Plot

6666 takes its title from the real-life 6666 Ranch that Sheridan recently purchased (with the help of investors who must also have the Yellowstone fever) near Guthrie, Texas. Also called the “Four Sixes,” the ranch covers an area the size of two Chicagos, which means a whole lot of filming can and will go down there.

Already, 1883 has filmed scenes at the Four Sixes, and Sheridan also likely hosts some of his lucrative cowboy camps there, too. He’s living and breathing the life there and writing nearly all Yellowstone-related scripts these days, so he will surely be pouring his own on-site inspirations and experiences into what materializes onscreen.

The series is expected to follow the lives of the residing fictional cowboys, and as with the flagship series, viewers can hope for plenty of soap operatics. As well, the 6666 Ranch received a prominent showcase on a Yellowstone Season 5 episode, in which Beth Dutton felt inspired “to start selling Yellowstone-branded beef” because of that 6666 magic.

Does 6666 have a synopsis yet? Oh yes:

Founded when Comanches still ruled West Texas, no ranch in America is more steeped in the history of the West than the 6666. Still operating as it did two centuries before, and encompassing an entire county, the 6666 has inspired a new scripted series where the rule of law and the laws of nature merge in a place where the most dangerous thing one does is the next thing. The 6666 is synonymous with the merciless endeavor to raise the finest horses and livestock in the world, and ultimately where world-class cowboys are born and made.

Cast

Sheridan had no problem recruiting some impressive A-listers for his other Yellowstone spinoffs. That includes 1883 starring Sam Elliott, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, and Billy Bob Thornton, along with 1923, starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren. Ideally, he will bring that kind of casting game to 6666, although word on the frontier is that Matthew McConaughey could be a 2024 guy.

That doesn’t preclude McConaughey appearing on 6666 as well, but as far as official stars go, there’s been no confirmation on rumors that Yellowstone‘s Ryan Bingham and Jefferson White will be picking up their Yellowstone ranch hand roles for this series, too.

Still, White as Jimmy would make a lot of sense, wouldn’t it?

Release Date

Sheridan and Paramount haven’t yet revealed a concrete 6666 release date, although the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes slowed down a lot of productions. Sheridan did acknowledge (via TV Guide) that a pause began this summer as the SAG-AFTRA negotiators continue to hammer a deal out with studios.

6666 will stream on Paramount+ when it arrives.

Trailer

No trailer has surfaced yet, but as a placeholder, here’s Sheridan discussing authenticity and how he parents his ranch. He means business.

Fingers crossed for a 6666 release date soon.