This week's episode of the Empire Podcast will haunt your nightmares, but in a good way, as Chris Hewitt returns to the host chair, just in time to tackle, with Beth Webb and Amon Warmann, a Mount Rushmore question about the best Final Girls in horror movies. Their final choices may shock you, but that's nothing compared to the bit where Chris explains Freddy Krueger to Amon, who has never seen a Nightmare On Elm Street movie. Terrifying stuff. Elsewhere in the show, our intrepid trio also discuss the week's movie news (hello, Marty Supreme trailer!), and review Celine Song's Materialists, Nobody 2, and Together, the horror film in which Dave Franco and Alison Brie literally fuse together. Which wasn't weird at all for the real-life married couple, who also guest on this week's episode, talking to Mike Muncer about that very singular experience. [1:03:58 - 1:15:10 approx] And, finally on the guest front, Harry Stainer sits down with Celine Song to talk about her wonderful new movie, and the nature of love. Heavy, man. [29:02 - 44:40 approx] Enjoy, and sorry about the spooky child-like singing.

Or 42 minutes with Chris Hewitt and Nick de Semlyen. Which would you prefer? Don't answer that. Anyway, that's what you've got with the latest episode of The Shameless Plug, as Chris and Nick sit down to talk about Nick's extraordinary adventures in New Zealand, shadowing James Cameron for two days as he put the finishing touches to this month's cover movie, Avatar: Fire & Ash. Elsewhere, our friends and neighbours talk about some of the other highlights from the September 2025 issue, including Chris' interview with Jeremy Renner, and Alex Godfrey's epic Zoom sit-down with Spinal Tap. Yes, actual Spinal Tap. It's all happening. For those tales, and more from behind the scenes of the world's biggest movie magazine, press play. And if you haven't picked up your copy yet, there's still time in good, evil and virtual newsagents wherever you are. Enjoy.

In space, no-one can hear you pod. Thankfully, we're not on space, we're on Earth, so you will be able to hear this wonderful Empire Podcast special dedicated to Noah Hawley's excellent Alien prequel, Alien Earth, which dropped its first two episodes today on Disney+. Here, you will hear Chris Hewitt sit down with Hawley, the show's creator and showrunner, about his vision for the show, the monsters old and new that he's bringing into this universe, and the lengths his cast members went to get his attention. And you'll also hear from two of those cast members, Timothy Olyphant, who plays the inscrutable synth, Kirsh, and Sydney Chandler, who plays the show's wide-eyed but extremely formidable lead, a hybrid called Wendy. Neither interviews are spoilerific, but you might want to wait until you've seen the first two episodes before giving them a whirl. It's your call. We're not your MU-TH-UR.