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Mads Mikkelsen’s Fantasy Movie Becomes No. 1 Streaming Hit on HBO Max

By Sofia Martinez · Culture & Entertainment Editor

April 21, 2026· 9 min read

Rohan Naahar

Published Apr 20, 2026, 10:01 PM EDT

Rohan Naahar is a Weekend News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once. He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

The "Lone Wolf & Cub" template, where a complex older man seeks redemption by dedicating his life to protecting a child, has inspired perhaps the most resilient of sub-genres. The template has been used in films as diverse as Logan_, the Oscar-nominated superhero blockbuster starring Hugh Jackman, to Children of Men, the dystopian sci-fi classic directed by Alfonso Cuarón. More recently, it was explored in the HBO video game adaptation The Last of Us, starring **Pedro Pascal **and Bella Ramsey. However, there's another movie in this group that is currently enjoying massive streaming success.

The movie was released in 2025 to mostly positive reviews but negligible box-office success. It was directed by Bryan Fuller, best known for the television shows Pushing Daisies and Hannibal. He reunited with his _Hannibal _star, Mads Mikkelsen, on the film, a fantasy in which a young girl approaches a hit-man to kill the "monster" under her bed. The movie premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2025, before debuting theatrically in December.

COLLIDER Collider · Quiz

Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World_ Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars

Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive.

💊The Matrix 🔥Mad Max 🌧️Blade Runner 🏜️Dune 🚀Star Wars

TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →

QUESTION 1 / 8INSTINCT

01 You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.

APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone.

NEXT QUESTION →

QUESTION 2 / 8RESOURCE

02 In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.

AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely.

NEXT QUESTION →

QUESTION 3 / 8THREAT

03 What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of.

AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run.

NEXT QUESTION →

QUESTION 4 / 8AUTHORITY

04 How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.

ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen.

NEXT QUESTION →

QUESTION 5 / 8ENVIRONMENT

05 Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.

AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches.

NEXT QUESTION →

QUESTION 6 / 8ALLIANCE

06 Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.

AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts.

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QUESTION 7 / 8MORALITY

07 Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of.

AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are.

NEXT QUESTION →

QUESTION 8 / 8PURPOSE

08 What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.

AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot.

REVEAL MY WORLD →

Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In… Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.

The Resistance, Zion

The Matrix You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things.

You're drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines' worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door.

The Wasteland

Mad Max The wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you.

You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you're good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.

Los Angeles, 2049

Blade Runner You'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.

You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either.
In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything.

Arrakis

Dune Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.

Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they're survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn't just survive Arrakis — you'd begin to reshape it.

A Galaxy Far, Far Away

Star Wars The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way.

You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn't something you're capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

Here's Your New Favorite Fantasy Movie

We're talking about Dust Bunny, which features Sophie Sloan as Mikkelsen's young co-star, along with Sigourney Weaver and David Dastmalchian. Dust Bunny holds a "Certified Fresh" 86% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics' consensus reads, "Elevated by Mads Mikkelsen and Sophie Sloan's magnetic chemistry, Dust Bunny is a dazzlingly imaginative and stylish feature debut from director Bryan Fuller."

In his review, Collider's Ross Bonaime compared the movie to the dark fantasies of Tim Burton and the surreal dramas of Jean-Pierre Jeunet. He described Dust Bunny as "a film that’s both an assassin story and a movie that feels tame enough for kids, which is a perfect fit for Fuller’s aesthetic." The positive reception appears to be working in the film's favor. According to FlixPatrol, Dust Bunny was the number one movie on HBO Max domestically this weekend, beating out The Mummy, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, and The Devil Wears Prada.

Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

7 10

Dust Bunny

Followed

Action

Fantasy

Thriller

Horror

Release Date**

December 11, 2025

Runtime

106 minutes

Director

Bryan Fuller

Cast

See All_

Mads Mikkelsen

Intriguing Neighbor

Sophie Sloan

Aurora

Where to watch _

Close __

WHERE TO WATCH

RENT**

BUY

Dust Bunny is a film centered on an eight-year-old girl who enlists her neighbor's help to confront a mysterious creature she believes consumed her family. The narrative unfolds as the two characters embark on a quest to uncover the truth behind the enigmatic entity lurking beneath her bed.