Rob London

Published Aug 6, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT

A cinematic obsessive with the filmic palate of a starving raccoon, Rob London will watch pretty much anything once. With a mind like a steel trap, he’s an endless fount of movie and TV trivia, borne from a misspent youth of watching monster movies on TV, perusing the sun-faded goods at the local video rental shop, and staining his fingers with ink from the Video Movie Guide. Areas of interest include science fiction, film noir, horror flicks, ’70s disaster pictures, Bond movies, ’90s action, giant robots, dinosaurs, super heroes, and the exuberantly schlocky output of Cannon Films. He also enjoys both Star Trek and Star Wars when they’re good, and maybe even more when they’re bad. As a Canadian, he also has a vested interest in Canadian movies and TV shows, especially the cheesier ones dubbed “Canuxploitation.”

An expert on Marvel Comics, he has also written for the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, and is a member of the Marvel Research Team. He can frequently be found pontificating on comic-book continuity or bemoaning the misfortunes of the Toronto Maple Leafs on his Twitter account.

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Before there was Batman, Spider-Man, or any other masked hero, there was Zorro. The swashbuckling creation of Johnston McCulley has long been a fixture on the silver screen, with luminaries like Tyrone Power and Douglas Fairbanks donning the mask and wielding the rapier to great effect. The character exploded back on the screen in a big way in 1998 with The Mask of Zorro. Starring Antonio Banderas as small-time criminal Alejandro Murrieta, and follows his path as he trains to become the new Zorro under the tutelage of the original, Don Diego de la Vega (Anthony Hopkins), and wins the love of de la Vega’s long-lost daughter, Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones).

Directed by Martin Campbell, the film was a smash hit and was followed by a belated sequel, The Legend of Zorro, in 2005, that reunited Campbell, Banderas, and Zeta-Jones. Now, the legend of Zorro continues in a new audio drama series by Big Finish Productions, which is noted for its extensive array of Doctor Who productions. The Legacy of Zorro will continue the story of The Mask of Zorro and The Legend of Zorro in an officially licensed sequel. Writer Adam Lance Garcia will pen the six-episode series, with Ken Bentley directing; Martin Marquez (Hotel Babylon) will star as Zorro.

Says Garcia, “While this series is a swashbuckling continuation of Alejandro Murrieta’s story that began in the iconic film The Mask of Zorro, it also serves as a chance for me to speak to our present moment, showing that even in the darkest of times, there are still those who will fight for what is right.” The series will be released in November as a downloadable box set, and can now be pre-ordered from BigFinish.com.

Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.

Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.

Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.

Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.

Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.

Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.

Set twenty years after the events of The Legend of Zorro, The Legacy of Zorro takes place in the 1870s in California. The Civil War is over, but ex-Confederates Catherine Newbold Hill and Sheriff Nathan Longstreet are on the hunt for the lost treasure of Don Rafael Montero; Montero was the villain of The Mask of Zorro and was played by Stuart Wilson. To search for it, they’ve kidnapped hundreds of innocents and forced them into servitude; one such captive, Gabriela, has escaped, and now fights to free the rest. She has one ally in her fight; Alejandro Murrieta has donned the mask of Zorro once more, long after he faded into memory.

The Legacy of Zorro will be released in November 2026 and can be pre-ordered now. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

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Martin Campbell

Anthony Hopkins

Antonio Banderas

Catherine Zeta-Jones