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‘Air Bud Returns’ gets teaser trailer, new release date

Buddy attends the ‘Air Bud Returns’ photo call at Caesars Palace during CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, on April 14, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (David Becker/Getty Images for CinemaCon)

The teaser trailer for Air Bud Returns has arrived.

Cineverse and Air Bud Entertainment have released the first trailer for the latest film in the family-friendly franchise.

Air Bud Entertainment founder Robert Vince wrote and directed the film. He previously produced all 14 other films in the franchise, and wrote and directed 10 of them.

“After the passing of his father, 14-year-old Jacob and his mom move into his dad’s childhood home in Fernfield, where anything is possible. Jacob dreams of becoming a basketball star, which seems further away than ever, until he discovers a VHS marked Air Bud,” according to an official description of the film. “Jacob has a miraculous chance meeting with a basketball-playing golden retriever, Buddy. The duo embarks on a journey of healing, unites a basketball team of misfits, and chases a championship as the new Timberwolves.”

This new movie was announced in July 2025. At the time, Vince said that “Air Bud Returns isn’t just another sequel or remake—it’s a unique story.”

“This movie will engage nostalgic Air Bud fans while introducing a new generation to the beloved basketball-playing golden retriever, Buddy. It builds upon the legacy of the OG Air Bud with all the fun, the magic, heartwarming scenes, and Buddy playing basketball. More than anything, it’s a deeply human story about a dog and boy, centered on themes of adaptation, redemption, and teamwork,” Vince said.

More than 1 billion people in over 30 languages worldwide have watched the original Air Bud film, according to a press release. It was released in 1997 and starred Kevin Zegers.

Air Bud Returns will be released exclusively in theaters on Jan. 22, 2027.

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School shootings in the US: Fast facts

By CNN
(CNN) — There have been at least 34 school shootings in the United States so far this year, as of August 11. Eleven were on a college campus, and 23 were on K-12 school grounds. The incidents left at least 23 people dead and 26 other victims injured, according to CNN’s analysis of events reported by the Gun Violence Archive, Education Week and Everytown for Gun Safety.CNN cross checks these reports of school shootings against school and police accounts and media reports. All incidents of gun violence are included if they occurred on school property, from kindergartens through colleges/universities, and at least one person was shot, not including the shooter. School property includes but is not limited to, buildings, fields, parking lots, stadiums and buses. Accidental discharges of firearms are included, as long as at least one person is shot, but not if the sole shooter is law enforcement or school security.In the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, when schools were closed, there was a major decline in gun violence incidents on school grounds. Since then, recent years saw a stark increase in school shootings, with 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 all setting records since at least 2008. There were at least 83 incidents in 2023 and 2024, but 2022 was one of the deadliest years, with 48 fatalities, according to CNN’s analysis. That year saw the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two educators were killed and more than a dozen others were injured. In 2025, there were at least 79 shootings with 32 killed and 124 injured.Students and educators have engaged in activism around the issue of gun violence, and some educators have quit the profession.Some states in the South have seen the highest rate of school shootings relative to their populations since 2008, according to CNN’s analysis. Washington, DC had the highest rate — 7 total shootings, more than 1 per 100,000 people — while Texas had the most overall with at least 70 school shootings. Meanwhile, just four states — Montana, Wyoming, New Hampshire and Vermont — had no school shootings in that period, according to CNN’s analysis.The December 13, 2025, mass shooting at Brown University marked Rhode Island’s first school shooting since at least 2008, when CNN first started tracking school shootings.This story has been updated with additional information.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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