ParamountWe’re more than halfway through the 2020s, so we can say with some certainty which films were flashes in the pan and which have already cemented their place in the cinematic hall of fame. Some have even established franchises in a short time: take Smile, the 2022 film that became a horror classic almost overnight. It established a perfect foundation for an anthology, following the victims of a parasitic curse that causes insanity and, most memorably, a compulsion to grin. Smile sired an even better sequel just two years later, and another is reportedly on the way, but the world has been expanding in other forums, too. Earlier this year, IDW Comics published a four-issue prequel to Parker Finn’s original Smile. Set during Fashion Month in 2005, Smile: For the Camera sees the grin-inducing Entity descending on the world of professional modeling. It quietly proved that the franchise has legs beyond the screen, so much so that a new chapter is on the way.Entertainment Weekly reveals the covers for the new Smile spinoff, Any Given Smile. | IDW Comics/Entertainment WeeklyAfter Smile: For the Camera comes Any Given Smile, a five-part spinoff written by Stephanie Williams (Wonder Woman) with art by Pablo Collar (Avengers Academy). It’s set 10 years before Smile: For the Camera, and unleashes the Entity on the American Arena League football championship game. Rising-star quarterback Dupree is its latest target, and for good reason: per the synopsis provided by Entertainment Weekly, Dupree is “feeling the pressure from his teammates, the fans, and also the city's gambling underworld, to whom he owes a considerable debt.”Despite its affinity for smiles, the Entity feeds on misery and discord; that’s why it latches onto people at particularly fraught crossroads. Dupree is just the latest athlete on a collision course with the Entity — while he gears up for the big game, a wily sports journalist is investigating a string of suicides and their connection to the championships — but can he escape its clutches before it’s too late?It wouldn’t be the first psychological thriller set within professional football, but let’s hope that Any Given Smile tackles the sport’s dark side with more dexterity than last year’s Him. The 2025 film, produced by Jordan Peele, touched on every possible anxiety for a rising athlete, but ultimately felt too scattershot (and far too reliant on its glossy aesthetic) to make its allegory meaningful. Any Given Smile will have a similar scope, according to Williams, but the Eisner-nominated writer can likely tackle this story with the care it deserves.Smile is streaming on Paramount+.