This week's Empire Podcast sees the long-awaited return of one of our favourite guests, the wonderful British actor Will Poulter, who talks to Chris Hewitt about his role in the new movie, Death Of A Unicorn, playing a prize A-hole, and impromptu tongue-twisters. [20:38 - 33:28 approx]Another returning guest joins us this week, as the delightful Amber Midthunder sits down on Zoom with Amon Warmann to dive deep into her role in the new action comedy Novocaine. That interview does contain some spoilers, so tread carefully! [1:07:21 - 1:23:34 approx] Either side of those, Chris is joined in the podbooth by James Dyer and, for the first time in forever, Ben Travis as they discuss the videogames they'd like to see adapted into movies, review Death Of A Unicorn, Holland, Last Swim and The Most Precious Of Cargoes, and go deep on tons of movie news, including the casting of The Beatles, the Once Upon A Time In Hollywood sequel, and the sad news of the death of the great Val Kilmer.

We start on a director's chair. We pull back to reveal its back. On it is emblazoned a name. That name? George MacKay, the wonderful star of this week's thought-provoking original movie musical, Joshua Oppenheimer's The End, who pops into the podbooth to have a good old natter [from 30:49 - 48:20 approx] with... We pull back. It's another director's chair. On it, another name: Chris Hewitt. Everyone shrugs their shoulders. But wait! There's another chair, and another name! That name is Irwin Winkler, the legendary producer of Rocky, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Irishman, Creed, and now The Alto Knights, as he talks to Chris about going double De Niro on that movie. [1:00:37 - 1:17:11 approx] And then there are three more chairs, with three more names, as Helen O'Hara, James Dyer, and John Nugent join Chris in the podbooth for a topsy-turvy episode that flips the format of the show upside down. Our intrepid quartet answer a listener question about Double De Niro, review A Working Man, The Woman In The Yard, and Novocaine, and discuss the week's movie news, including the glacially-paced reveal of the cast of Avengers Doomsday, which was unfolding as we recorded this very show. But they don't necessarily do all of those things in that order. If you're not an MCU stan (or Stan), that discussion comes right at the end of the episode, so here's a rough time stamp should you wish to skip. [1:32:24 approx] For MCU fans, though, dive in. Enjoy.

Welcome to The Shameless Plug, a brand new Empire Podcast regular show, folks. As the title suggests, every month Chris Hewitt will sit down with Empire editor, Nick de Semlyen, for a deep dive into the latest issue of Empire, bringing you the stories behind the stories and covering everything including the cover. This month's cover feature is Thunderbolts*, and Chris talks about his trip to Atlanta to visit the movie's set, while Nick shares tales of seeing a major star cram jelly beans into their pockets. And there's much, much more. The issue is on sale now at all good, evil and virtual newsagents, and you can subscribe via empireonline.com Do let us know your thoughts on The Shameless Plug. We'll be back in four weeks!