As fans will be trying to figure-out the upcoming Easter Eggs and cameos in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, showrunner Malcolm Spellman spoke to Entertainment Weekly revealing the show will indeed have connections to at least three unnamed MCU projects.
The answers to these questions will have drastic impacts on the MCU moving forward. Similar to how WandaVision leads directly into the film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Spellman says he can think of three projects off the top of his head that tie into The Falcon and the Winter Soldier that he’s “not allowed to talk about.”
Don Cheadle has confirmed he’ll be appearing as Rhodey aka War Machine, which likely means that Armor Wars will have an obvious connection to the series. There are also expectations that it could tie-into things such as She-Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and maybe even a yet-to-be-announced Thunderbolts project.
I’m also curious if Marvel will make an announcement concerning Captain America 4 starring Anthony Mackie, because the actor had once teased in older interviews that he felt the series was meant to line-up his own wave of Captain America films.
After WandaVision, I think fans would be smart to just pump the breaks with the speculation that characters such as Wolverine or Omega Red will be showing up to keep expectations in a realistic realm (even if Madripoor will be a location). The online fan community stoked WandaVision theories to the point that there was sort of a backlash when characters like Reed Richards and Doctor Strange didn’t show up, despite zero evidence that was actually going to happen.
There seems to be enough real connections in the new series that should make fans happy.
While a Season 2 hasn’t been announced and Kevin Feige has previously prepped fans that some of the Disney+ shows don’t currently have plans for multiple seasons. He mentioned during a press conference via Deadline that there are ideas for Falcon’s Season 2. Although, he stopped short from confirming they would be doing that.
FEIGE: “We get asked [that question] much more in television, because people expect it to be like what they know before: Where’s Season 2? We approached it like the movies: We better make this great, because we won’t be able to do another one. If we’re able to do another one, there’s certainly ideas.”
Directed by Kari Skogland, the Marvel series has a cast that consists of Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Daniel Bruhl, Emily VanCamp, Wyatt Russell, Erin Kellyman, George St. Pierre, Adepero Oduye, Veronica Falcon, Desmond Chiam, Carl Lumbly, Miki Ishikawa, and Amy Aquino.
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier will debut on Disney+ this Friday and will have 6-episodes, three less than WandaVision.
While we’re still waiting on updates concerning Rian Johnson’s sequel to Knives Out and his original Star Wars trilogy, there is a new project that was just announced yesterday. Deadline revealed that Rian and Russian Doll actress Natasha Lyonne are going to be teaming-up for new mystery series, titled Poker Face, at Peacock.
Rian Johnson will write and direct Poker Face as the project has been given a straight-to-series order by Peacock and will get 10-episodes.
However, there are currently no details about the series in the outlet’s report.
Netflix’s most expensive original film has officially started production according to a Twitter post made by The Gray Man’s directors, The Russo Brothers. The film’s budget is said to be well over $200 million dollars and is expected to be a large-scale spy film, given the money involved we’re assuming there should be some over-the-top action sequences.
Production was reportedly taking place in Long Beach, California and it will reunite them with Captain America/Avengers star Chris Evans.
To those who lurk in the shadows, he’s known as the Gray Man. He is a legend in the covert realm, moving silently from job to job, accomplishing the impossible and then fading away. And he always hits his target. Always. But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. Forces like money. And power. And there are men who hold these as the only currency worth fighting for. And in their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness. But Court Gentry is going to prove that, for him, there’s no gray area between killing for a living and killing to stay alive…
It’s cast includes Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans Ana De Armas, Wagner Moura, Jessica Henwick, Dhanush, Rege-Jean Page, Billy Bob Thornton, Alfre Woodard, and Julia Butters.
Their post confirms the cinematographer will be Stephen F. Windon, the director of photography for The Fast & The Furious films going back to Tokyo Drift. Stephen also worked on Star Trek Beyond, Sonic The Hedgehog, and G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
Yesterday, it was confirmed by Deadline that Scott Frank (Get Shorty, The Queen’s Gambit, Out of Sight, Logan, Godless) will indeed be moving forward with his Sam Spade series. The project is featuring Oscar nominee Clive Owen (Children of Men, Closer, The Knick) as the hard-boiled private detective best know from the classic noir film The Maltese Falcon.
The series will be titled Monsieur Spade and primarily be shot in France with Scott directing all the episodes. They’ve also hired Tom Fontana (City On The Hill), who will co-write with Frank. They also mention French will be predominantly spoken which would sense given the show’s setting.
We’ll be seeing Spade (Owen) later in life living in the South of France in 1963.
Co-written by Frank and Fontana and to be directed by Frank, Monsieur Spade centers around writer Dashiell Hammett’s great detective, Sam Spade, played by Owen, who has been quietly living out his golden years in the small town of Bozuls in the South of France. It’s 1963, the Algerian War has just ended, and in a very short time, so, too, will Spade’s tranquility.
The project has landed at French production company Haut et Court (The Young Pope) but they’re still seeking a home for Monsieur Spade, but it’s worth pointing out Frank has had some success at Netflix with his series Godless and The Queen’s Gambit. It wouldn’t be terribly shocking if the streaming giant attempted to swoop-up the crime thriller. However, I wouldn’t rule-out HBO/HBO Max given Haut’s relationship with The Young Pope.
Late last year, Frank dished about the project to The Watch podcast revealing he was keen to get Clive Owen in the role along with mentioning they were going to be targeting six episodes. We now know those episodes will be an hour each.
FRANK: “What if you do Sam Spade later in life and he’s 60’s years old?. He’s now an ex-pat living in the South of France. His past comes to his past and finds him in this small town. It’s going to be a six-episode series with Clive Owen.”
THE MALTESE FALCON: In this noir classic, detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) gets more than he bargained for when he takes a case brought to him by a beautiful but secretive woman (Mary Astor). As soon as Miss Wonderly shows up, trouble follows as Sam’s partner is murdered and Sam is accosted by a man (Peter Lorre) demanding he locate a valuable statuette. Sam, entangled in a dangerous web of crime and intrigue, soon realizes he must find the one thing they all seem to want: the bejeweled Maltese falcon.
Director Jeff Fowler has announced via Twitter that production on the Sonic The Hedgehog 2 has begun today in Vancouver. Jeff posted a logo for the sequel that is teasing the inclusion of Sonic’s sidekick Tails.
The original film was one of the few movies to earn over $300 million last year (due to the pandemic) as it’s global box office cume was $319.7 million on a budget of $85 million.
Ben Schwartz and Jim Carrey are returning to the roles of Sonic and Dr. Robotnik.
Sonic 2 has a release date of April 8th, 2022.
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG – The world needed a hero — it got a hedgehog. Powered with incredible speed, Sonic embraces his new home on Earth — until he accidentally knocks out the power grid, sparking the attention of uncool evil genius Dr. Robotnik. Now, it’s supervillain vs. supersonic in an all-out race across the globe to stop Robotnik from using Sonic’s unique power to achieve world domination.
Last week, Cowboy Bebop actress Daniella Pineda, who plays the live-action version of Faye Valentine confirmed on her Instagram account that production on the Netflix series has wrapped production. The filming was taking place in Auckland, New Zealand.
Based on the worldwide phenomenon from Sunrise Inc., Cowboy Bebop is the jazz-inspired, genre-bending story of Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine and Radical Ed: a rag-tag crew of bounty hunters on the run from their pasts as they hunt down the solar system’s most dangerous criminals. They’ll even save the world…for the right price.
The cast of Cowboy Bebop includes John Cho as Spike Spiegel, Mustafa Shakir as Jet Black, Daniella Pineda as Faye Valentine, Alex Hassell as Vicious, Elena Satine as Julia, Geoff Stults (Little Fires Everywhere, 12 Strong), Tamara Tunie (Black Earth Rising, Dietland), Mason Alexander Park (Hedwig and the Angry Inch National Broadway Tour), Rachel House (Thor Ragnarok, Soul), Ann Truong (Strikeback!, Hard Target 2), and Hoa Xuande (Ronny Chieng: International Student, Top of the Lake).
A new Xbox ad to help promote the upcoming series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier sees he return of D.C. Pierson’s tech-guy character Aaron last seen from Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Aaron revealing at the end of the ad that his gamer-tag is NoobMaster69, a player that was bothering Thor and Korg in scenes from Avengers: Endgame.
You can see the ad below.
It’s certainly interesting to see an ad where you have two actors in-character.
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier debuts this Friday on Disney+.
Deadline is reporting that British actor Kingsley Ben-Adir is taking a role in Marvel’s Secret Invasion series opposite Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn as Skrull Leader Talos. They claim the One Night In Miami actor will be playing an unnamed lead villain, which could mean he might end up playing a member of a villainous sect of Skrulls.
Filming is expected to take place sometime this year in the United Kingdom and will debut on Disney+ in 2022. However, while Kyle Bradstreet is writing the series a director or directors have yet to be announced.
Marvel now has access to many Skrull characters including Kl’rt aka The Super-Skrull after securing The Fantastic Four rights. The Super-Skrull has the ability to mimic the power-set of the Fantastic Four members, a aspect of the Skrulls that haven’t been able to use until now. This could see Skrulls copying the powers and abilities of existing heroes and villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The big power we’ve seen used multiple times is their ability to shape-shift as shown in Captain Marvel, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and WandaVision.
WandaVision ended with Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau meeting up with a Skrull seemingly teasing her addition to Secret Invasion and potentially the S.W.O.R.D. space station The Peak. There is an assumption that Skrull-centric series will lead directly into Captain Marvel 2, which will include Monica Rambeau, Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers, and Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel. It’s possible the three leading ladies could end up appearing in the show along with Zawe Ashton, who is reportedly playing the villain of Captain Marvel 2 and could easily be playing a troublesome Skrull.
The Skrulls and Secret Invasion could be a launching point to see S.W.O.R.D. becoming a much bigger entity in the MCU (even more than S.H.I.E.L.D. was) moving forward, the group comes from the pages of X-Men comics with mutant characters such as Abigail Brand and Dr. Hank McCoy aka Beast are among their ranks. We still don’t know how and when Marvel will introduce mutants outside of Deadpool 3 (possibly shooting next year) being in active development.
Olivia Wilde (Don’t Worry Darling, Booksmart) is said to be co-writing and directing a Marvel film for Sony Pictures, trades claiming that the character she will be adapting for the big screen is going to be Spider-Woman. If the version they are tackling is indeed Jessica Drew, it’s a character Marvel Studios has access to given that Drew debuted outside of the Spider-Man comics and was established as a agent of S.W.O.R.D. making her a good contender to eventually join the cosmic organization introduced in WandaVision. In Secret Invasion, Jessica Drew is revealed to be the Skrull Queen Veranke, the main antagonist of the comic books that the series is going to be influenced by.
Speaking of The Fantastic Four, we still don’t know how Marvel Studios is going to introduce those characters despite fans wishes that Reed Richards would show up on WandaVision. There is a chance that S.W.O.R.D. could end up becoming the connective tissue as they’ve established the group is doing off-world missions and we clearly saw at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home that Nick Fury was getting a space station built by the Skrulls. Some are speculating that Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania (coming in 2022) could be another entry point for Fantastic Four because of Jonathan Majors playing Kang The Conqueror, however, we don’t know if that will be the case. Director Jon Watts more than likely will be aiming to do an origin film or at the very least include a new MCU origin for the team in his reboot.
This morning the Oscar nominations were announced with films such as Nomadland and Minari earning six nominations each. Check out the full list of nominees below thanks to the Oscars website and the live announcement via YouTube.
The ceremony will air April 25th exclusively on ABC.
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
NOMINEES
RIZ AHMED
Sound of Metal
CHADWICK BOSEMAN
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
ANTHONY HOPKINS
The Father
GARY OLDMAN
Mank
STEVEN YEUN
Minari
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
NOMINEES
SACHA BARON COHEN
The Trial of the Chicago 7
DANIEL KALUUYA
Judas and the Black Messiah
LESLIE ODOM, JR.
One Night in Miami…
PAUL RACI
Sound of Metal
LAKEITH STANFIELD
Judas and the Black Messiah
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
NOMINEES
VIOLA DAVIS
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
ANDRA DAY
The United States vs. Billie Holiday
VANESSA KIRBY
Pieces of a Woman
FRANCES MCDORMAND
Nomadland
CAREY MULLIGAN
Promising Young Woman
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
NOMINEES
MARIA BAKALOVA
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
GLENN CLOSE
Hillbilly Elegy
OLIVIA COLMAN
The Father
AMANDA SEYFRIED
Mank
YUH-JUNG YOUN
Minari
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
NOMINEES
ONWARD
Dan Scanlon and Kori Rae
OVER THE MOON
Glen Keane, Gennie Rim and Peilin Chou
A SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE: FARMAGEDDON
Richard Phelan, Will Becher and Paul Kewley
SOUL
Pete Docter and Dana Murray
WOLFWALKERS
Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, Paul Young and Stéphan Roelants
CINEMATOGRAPHY
NOMINEES
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
Sean Bobbitt
MANK
Erik Messerschmidt
NEWS OF THE WORLD
Dariusz Wolski
NOMADLAND
Joshua James Richards
THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
Phedon Papamichael
COSTUME DESIGN
NOMINEES
EMMA
Alexandra Byrne
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
Ann Roth
MANK
Trish Summerville
MULAN
Bina Daigeler
PINOCCHIO
Massimo Cantini Parrini
DIRECTING
NOMINEES
ANOTHER ROUND
Thomas Vinterberg
MANK
David Fincher
MINARI
Lee Isaac Chung
NOMADLAND
Chloé Zhao
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Emerald Fennell
DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)
NOMINEES
COLLECTIVE
Alexander Nanau and Bianca Oana
CRIP CAMP
Nicole Newnham, Jim LeBrecht and Sara Bolder
THE MOLE AGENT
Maite Alberdi and Marcela Santibáñez
MY OCTOPUS TEACHER
Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed and Craig Foster
TIME
Garrett Bradley, Lauren Domino and Kellen Quinn
DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)
NOMINEES
COLETTE
Anthony Giacchino and Alice Doyard
A CONCERTO IS A CONVERSATION
Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers
DO NOT SPLIT
Anders Hammer and Charlotte Cook
HUNGER WARD
Skye Fitzgerald and Michael Scheuerman
A LOVE SONG FOR LATASHA
Sophia Nahli Allison and Janice Duncan
FILM EDITING
NOMINEES
THE FATHER
Yorgos Lamprinos
NOMADLAND
Chloé Zhao
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Frédéric Thoraval
SOUND OF METAL
Mikkel E. G. Nielsen
THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
Alan Baumgarten
INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
NOMINEES
ANOTHER ROUND
Denmark
BETTER DAYS
Hong Kong
COLLECTIVE
Romania
THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN
Tunisia
QUO VADIS, AIDA?
Bosnia and Herzegovina
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
NOMINEES
EMMA
Marese Langan, Laura Allen and Claudia Stolze
HILLBILLY ELEGY
Eryn Krueger Mekash, Matthew Mungle and Patricia Dehaney
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson
MANK
Gigi Williams, Kimberley Spiteri and Colleen LaBaff
PINOCCHIO
Mark Coulier, Dalia Colli and Francesco Pegoretti
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
NOMINEES
DA 5 BLOODS
Terence Blanchard
MANK
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
MINARI
Emile Mosseri
NEWS OF THE WORLD
James Newton Howard
SOUL
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
NOMINEES
FIGHT FOR YOU
from Judas and the Black Messiah; Music by H.E.R. and Dernst Emile II; Lyric by H.E.R. and Tiara Thomas
HEAR MY VOICE
from The Trial of the Chicago 7; Music by Daniel Pemberton; Lyric by Daniel Pemberton and Celeste Waite
HUSAVIK
from Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga; Music and Lyric by Savan Kotecha, Fat Max Gsus and Rickard Göransson
IO SÌ (SEEN)
from The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se); Music by Diane Warren; Lyric by Diane Warren and Laura Pausini
SPEAK NOW
from One Night in Miami…; Music and Lyric by Leslie Odom, Jr. and Sam Ashworth
BEST PICTURE
NOMINEES
THE FATHER
David Parfitt, Jean-Louis Livi and Philippe Carcassonne, Producers
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
Shaka King, Charles D. King and Ryan Coogler, Producers
MANK
Ceán Chaffin, Eric Roth and Douglas Urbanski, Producers
MINARI
Christina Oh, Producer
NOMADLAND
Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey and Chloé Zhao, Producers
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Emerald Fennell and Josey McNamara, Producers
SOUND OF METAL
Bert Hamelinck and Sacha Ben Harroche, Producers
THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
Marc Platt and Stuart Besser, Producers
PRODUCTION DESIGN
NOMINEES
THE FATHER
Production Design: Peter Francis; Set Decoration: Cathy Featherstone
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
Production Design: Mark Ricker; Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara and Diana Stoughton
MANK
Production Design: Donald Graham Burt; Set Decoration: Jan Pascale
NEWS OF THE WORLD
Production Design: David Crank; Set Decoration: Elizabeth Keenan
TENET
Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Kathy Lucas
SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
NOMINEES
BURROW
Madeline Sharafian and Michael Capbarat
GENIUS LOCI
Adrien Mérigeau and Amaury Ovise
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS I LOVE YOU
Will McCormack and Michael Govier
OPERA
Erick Oh
YES-PEOPLE
Gísli Darri Halldórsson and Arnar Gunnarsson
SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
NOMINEES
FEELING THROUGH
Doug Roland and Susan Ruzenski
THE LETTER ROOM
Elvira Lind and Sofia Sondervan
THE PRESENT
Farah Nabulsi
TWO DISTANT STRANGERS
Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe
WHITE EYE
Tomer Shushan and Shira Hochman
SOUND
NOMINEES
GREYHOUND
Warren Shaw, Michael Minkler, Beau Borders and David Wyman
MANK
Ren Klyce, Jeremy Molod, David Parker, Nathan Nance and Drew Kunin
NEWS OF THE WORLD
Oliver Tarney, Mike Prestwood Smith, William Miller and John Pritchett
SOUL
Ren Klyce, Coya Elliott and David Parker
SOUND OF METAL
Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc, Carlos Cortés and Phillip Bladh
VISUAL EFFECTS
NOMINEES
LOVE AND MONSTERS
Matt Sloan, Genevieve Camilleri, Matt Everitt and Brian Cox
THE MIDNIGHT SKY
Matthew Kasmir, Christopher Lawrence, Max Solomon and David Watkins
MULAN
Sean Faden, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury and Steve Ingram
THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN
Nick Davis, Greg Fisher, Ben Jones and Santiago Colomo Martinez
TENET
Andrew Jackson, David Lee, Andrew Lockley and Scott Fisher
WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
NOMINEES
BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM: DELIVERY OF PRODIGIOUS BRIBE TO AMERICAN REGIME FOR MAKE BENEFIT ONCE GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN
Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Dan Swimer & Peter Baynham & Erica Rivinoja & Dan Mazer & Jena Friedman & Lee Kern; Story by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Dan Swimer & Nina Pedrad
THE FATHER
Screenplay by Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller
NOMADLAND
Written for the screen by Chloé Zhao
ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI…
Screenplay by Kemp Powers
THE WHITE TIGER
Written for the screen by Ramin Bahrani
WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
NOMINEES
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
Screenplay by Will Berson & Shaka King; Story by Will Berson & Shaka King and Kenny Lucas & Keith Lucas
MINARI
Written by Lee Isaac Chung
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Written by Emerald Fennell
SOUND OF METAL
Screenplay by Darius Marder & Abraham Marder; Story by Darius Marder & Derek Cianfrance
Director and co-writer Matt Reeves has taken to Twitter to give a big update on the production of The Batman, as he’s declared Saturday is the last day of principal photography. The film is part one of a new Batman trilogy from Reeves with Robert Pattinson in the role of Bruce Wayne and according to DC Films takes place in Earth 2.
Filming on the DC Comics reboot hasn’t been as smooth as the studio would have liked as they originally had to halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then had to pause again after resuming due to Robert Pattinson testing positive.
The Flash is the next big film to shoot on the Warner Bros. stages in Watford, England. Funny enough, that superhero flick is expected to include two Batman actors with both Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck set to appear.
The Batman’s teaser trailer from the summer seemed to make a huge impression given the limited footage they had to work with and has become one of the most anticipated films from the studio after some initial hesitation from fans with the casting news of Robert Pattinson playing Batman for the foreseeable future.
Warner Bros. has given The Batman a release date of March 4th, 2022.
THE BATMAN – From Warner Bros. Pictures comes “The Batman,” with director Matt Reeves (the “Planet of the Apes” films) at the helm and with Robert Pattinson (“Tenet,” “The Lighthouse,” “Good Time”) starring as Gotham City’s vigilante detective, Batman, and billionaire Bruce Wayne.
Also in the star-studded ensemble as Gotham’s famous and infamous cast of characters are Zoë Kravitz (“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” “Mad Max: Fury Road”) as Selina Kyle; Paul Dano (“Love & Mercy,” “12 Years a Slave”) as Edward Nashton; Jeffrey Wright (the “Hunger Games” films) as the GCPD’s James Gordon; John Turturro (the “Transformers” films) as Carmine Falcone; Peter Sarsgaard (“The Magnificent Seven,” “Black Mass”) as Gotham D.A. Gil Colson; Barry Keoghan (“Dunkirk”) as Officer Stanley Merkel; Jayme Lawson (“Farewell Amor”) as mayoral candidate Bella Reál; with Andy Serkis (the “Planet of the Apes” films, “Black Panther”) as Alfred; and Colin Farrell (“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” “Dumbo”) as Oswald Cobblepot.
THE RONIN 