As we close the book on 2025, a year that gave us everything from the long-awaited team-up of Deadpool and Wolverine that kicked major a** in the box office and broke all previous records because of it, to the long-overdue triumph of Robert Englund’s legacy, I find myself looking toward 2026 with a mixture of guarded optimism and a direct demand for better. Pop culture in 2025 was a whirlwind of nostalgia, originality, and “reinvention,” but if 2026 is to truly matter, it needs to be about more than just rehashing the past; there has to be real, resonating, and substantial […]... Keep on reading: A pop culture manifesto for 2026: authenticity over saturation