Lucasfilm’s next big Star Wars release on the small screen will be The Book of Boba Fett, a direct spinoff from The Mandalorian as we’ll see further adventures of Fett (played by Temuera Morrison) and his newly acquired partner Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen).
We already know that the show has wrapped but details of who worked on the secretive project has been trickling out recently, including some crew and director confirmations.
The Ronin has been able to confirm that Deadwood: The Movie and The Mandalorian (Season 2) cinematographer David Klein (Clerks, Chasing Amy, Mallrats) indeed returned to shoot multiple episodes of Boba Fett, however, the number hasn’t been fully revealed. Klein shot Robert Rodriguez’s Season 2 episode where we see Fett get his armor back and take out a bunch of Storm Troopers.
Previously, it was revealed by American Cinematographer that legendary director of photography Dean Cundey would also be shooting episodes as well. His fantastic list of credits includes Halloween, The Fog, Escape From New York, The Thing, Big Trouble In Little China, Jurassic Park, Back To The Future 1-3, and Death Becomes Her.
Fett’s directing team is expected to include Robert Rodriguez (Alita: Battle Angel, Desperado, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Sin City) alongside other Mando alumni such as Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Extraction director Sam Hargrave.
Lucasfilm confirmed last year that The Book of Boba Fett would be ready to begin airing on Disney+ sometime in December. Other Star Wars shows currently in production include Diego Luna’s Andor, Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Season 3 of The Mandalorian is said to be underway as well.
It’ll be interesting to see how Fett will lead into Season 3 of The Mandalorian and if we’ll indeed see multiple characters cross-pollinate between the two Star Wars projects.
Some rumors would suggest that Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka series could be the next series to go into production alongside Lucasfilm’s next big Star Wars movie Rogue Squadron from filmmaker Patty Jenkins.
Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings is still set to theaters exclusively on September 3, but it looks like we finally know who is hiding under that mysterious mask of the talented martial artist villain seen fighting Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi in that construction site and training him as a boy.
Martial artist Andy Le has confirmed he is playing the silent/faceless villain Death Dealer in Shang-Chi via Instagram posts (See below). While it’s likely we could see another celebrity reveal like with Taskmaster in Black Widow, it’s even more likely that since Florian Munteanu (a Romanian boxer) is playing Razor Fist that Andy Le is actually playing the character throughout the film and not just during stunts.
SHANG-CHI & THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS – Marvel Studios’ “Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings” stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, who must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization.
Joining Simu Liu in the Marvel cast includes Tony Leung as Wenwu, Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s friend Katy, and Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, as well as Fala Chen, Meng’er Zhang, Florian Munteanu, and Ronny Chieng. Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and produced by Kevin Feige and Jonathan Schwartz, with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, and Charles Newirth serving as executive producers. David Callaham & Destin Daniel Cretton & Andrew Lanham wrote the screenplay for the film, and experience it in theaters on September 3, 2021.
Ryan Reynolds has people with Deadpool 3 on the brain as he’s been using the character to help promote his new movie Free Guy. He’s also been giving brief thoughts and updates on the project, as technically, he could be the first high-profile mutant to appear in the MCU (excluding Scarlet Witch).
When asked by Collider to give a percentage of the chance that Deadpool 3 begins shooting next year, the actor replied “70%” after realizing it was August.
It’s not a huge update by any means, but he did give some insight with the working relationship between himself and screenwriters. Saying that Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Loeglin (Bob’s Burgers) are “so smart” and he’s having a lot of “fun” working with them.
Reynolds also gives the impression they’re not finished the script calling it a daily process concerning the writing, this could explain why a director hasn’t been announced.
However, with a shoot in 2022 this likely means it could end up landing a release date in 2023 or 2024.
There is an expectation that Blade could also be ready to begin shooting soon too, but it’s unknown if Fantastic Four or X-Men reboots will be anywhere ready for production in 2022. We’ll have to wait for Marvel Studios to start announcing new release dates and projects before we get a clear picture of the entire lineup for 2023-2025.
Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings will debut in theaters next month and it looks like another casting tidbit has been revealed for another returning MCU actor.
This comes after the trailer confirmed the film will bring back Wong and Abomination.
Stuntman Brett Metter lists on IMDB that he is the stunt double of Ben Kingsley and would seemingly confirm that the actor is reprising his role of Iron Man 3’s Trevor Slattery, the British actor hired by A.I.M. to pretend to be international terrorist and leader of The Ten Rings, The Mandarin.
We last saw Kingsley’s Trevor Slattery in the Marvel One-Shot short film All Hail The King, where it’s revealed that The Mandarin was a real person and not just fictional creation of Killan/Slattery. Various members of The Ten Rings, one played by Scoot McNairy, break into the prison to seemingly get their hands on the pretender.
However, we really never see what happens to Trevor and could see his fate in Shang-Chi.
Kingsley’s return was rumored yesterday and it looks like we now have more concrete evidence to support that.
SHANG-CHI & THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS – Marvel Studios’ “Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings” stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, who must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization.
Joining Simu Liu in the Marvel cast includes Tony Leung as Wenwu, Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s friend Katy, and Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, as well as Fala Chen, Meng’er Zhang, Florian Munteanu, and Ronny Chieng. Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and produced by Kevin Feige and Jonathan Schwartz, with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, and Charles Newirth serving as executive producers. David Callaham & Destin Daniel Cretton & Andrew Lanham wrote the screenplay for the film, and experience it in theaters on September 3, 2021.
We’re still curious why Marvel Studios hasn’t made a grand announcement about Deadpool 3, as Disney acquired the franchise along with the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Silver Surfer when the Fox rights reverted to Marvel.
Actor and producer Ryan Reynolds is promoting his latest film Free Guy (using Deadpool in the marketing campaign) and appeared on Comic Book’s podcast Phase Zero. Reynolds was asked if he prefers that Wade Wilson be first introduced to the MCU in Deadpool 3 or another unnamed project (Ryan has been extremely keen on the idea of interacting with mainstream MCU characters).
“I think both are pretty warranted. I think you’re always gonna zig when everybody’s expecting you to zag when it comes to that character. As long as Disney’s open to doing some pretty wildly divergent or having some wildly divergent uses of Deadpool then I dig it, man. I think it’s all great,” Reynolds said on the Phase Zero podcast.
It was announced in December that Jon Watt’s (Spider-Man: No Way Home) would direct their Fantastic Four reboot, but we’re still in the dark about mutant projects and if Deadpool 3 will release in 2023-2024 (Kevin had indicted that X-Men won’t be ready until 2025).
Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Loeglin (Bob’s Burgers) were previously announced as the film’s screenwriters, but we’re still waiting on a director announcement or an official release date to give us the indication of when it’ll begin shooting. Disney and Marvel have reiterated multiple times that they plan to keep the project R-rated and likely that it could end up distributed by 20th Century Studios (known for handling mature releases).
Disney obviously felt comfortable enough with Deadpool interacting with Thor: Ragnarok/Thor: Love & Thunder character Korg, played by Free Guy co-star Taika Waititi.
Technically, the reaction video could be considered the character’s first MCU appearance.
South Park fans should be excited about news of a brand new deal between ViacomCBS and series creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
Follows the misadventures of four irreverent grade-schoolers in the quiet, dysfunctional town of South Park, Colorado. The curious, adventure-seeking, fourth grade group of 10 year old boys, Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny, and Butters, all join in in buffoonish adventures that sometimes evolve nothing.
The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that during ViacomCBS’ second-quarter earnings report, that South Park is being extended until 2027 and will also see fourteen original films head to Paramount + with the first two set for 2021.
MTV Entertainment Studios has inked South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone to a new deal that will run through 2027, including 14 new movies made exclusively for Paramount+, beginning with two this year. It will also see the flagship South Park series renewed through season 30 (2022 will see the show launch its 25th season).
While this South Park deal is more expansive than Adult Swim’s Rick & Morty extension, it only highlights how popular mature animation is and likely will continue to be.
However, his news might annoy HBO Max subscribers that likely won’t have access to those Paramount+ films and Paramount+ seemingly won’t have access to the seasons that were exclusively acquired by HBO Max.
Another example of how competing streaming services are making it harder for fans to have a single subscription to view their favorite media.
Director Chad Stahelski is currently in production on John Wick: Chapter 4 in Germany, but the action director isn’t slowing down as he’s attached to yet another project. Deadline reports that Warner Bros. and Stahhelski are teaming to develop a feature film adaptation of Trevanian’s 1979 novel Shibumi.
“Nicholai Hel is the world’s most wanted man. Born in Shanghai during the chaos of World War I, he is the son of an aristocratic Russian mother and a mysterious German father and is the protégé of a Japanese Go master. Hel survived the destruction of Hiroshima to emerge as the world’s most artful lover and its most accomplished—and well-paid—assassin. Hel is a genius, a mystic, and a master of language and culture, and his secret is his determination to attain a rare kind of personal excellence, a state of effortless perfection known only as shibumi.”
“Now living in an isolated mountain fortress with his exquisite mistress, Hel is unwillingly drawn back into the life he’d tried to leave behind when a beautiful young stranger arrives at his door, seeking help and refuge. It soon becomes clear that Hel is being tracked by his most sinister enemy—a supermonolith of international espionage known only as the Mother Company. The battle lines are drawn: ruthless power and corruption on one side, and on the other . . . shibumi.”
The book made a brief cameo in the original John Wick as the airport security guard is spotted reading it, the story likely had a direct influence on the world of high-end assassins inhabited by John Wick and could be an excellent follow-up once Stahelski completes John Wick: Chapter 5, said to be the final installment.
A previous incarnation of Shibumi had Keanu Reeves attached, but no actors are currently involved with it. Its period setting could help separate it from the more modern John Wick films.
Interestingly enough, American author Don Winslow penned another Nicholai Hel book called Satori and could give Warner Bros. source material for another film leading to a new franchise.
“It is the fall of 1951, and the Korean War is raging. Twenty-six-year-old Nicholai Hel has spent the last three years in solitary confinement at the hands of the Americans. Hel is a master of hoda korosu, or “naked kill,” is fluent in seven languages, and has honed extraordinary “proximity sense”-an extra-awareness of the presence of danger. He has the skills to be the world’s most fearsome assassin and now the CIA needs him.”
“The Americans offer Hel freedom, money, and a neutral passport in exchange for one small service: to go to Beijing and kill the Soviet Union’s commissioner to China. It’s almost certainly a suicide mission, but Hel accepts. Now he must survive chaos, violence, suspicion, and betrayal while trying to achieve his ultimate goal of satori-the possibility of true understanding and harmony with the world.”
It might be a long time before we ultimately see Shibumi hit the big screen.
John Wick 5 isn’t the only project Stahelski is also involved with as Lionsgate’s Highlander reboot is one of them with Henry Cavill in talks for a lead role, Sony Pictures has assigned him to helm a feature adaptation of their popular samurai video game Ghost of Tsushima, and the New Line Cinema hybrid action movie Classified (called Die Hard meets Indiana Jones).
A while back, Netflix made headlines when they spent an obscene amount of money to secure the global rights to Rian Johnson’s next two Knives Out sequels starring Daniel Craig. Well, it looks like Apple is jumping into the blockbuster game themselves as Deadline reports that they’ve spent $200 million to land Matthew Vaughn’s new spy project Argylle.
Argylle is based on the upcoming novel by Ellie Conway with a script from Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman, Pan).
It will star Henry Cavill (The Witcher, Man of Steel), Sam Rockwell (Iron Man 2, Moon, Seven Psychopaths, Three Billboards), Bryce Dallas Howard (Black Mirror, Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Dominion), Bryan Cranston (Godzilla, Breaking Bad), Catherine O’Hara (Home Alone, SCTV, Schitt’s Creek, John Cena (Bumblebee, F9: The Fast Saga), Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, The Hateful Eight, Django Unchained), and singer Dua Lipa making her acting debut.
While Apple is reportedly only buying the single installment, it’s been said that Vaughn expects the movie to be expanded into a trilogy.
In theory, Argylle could give Apple their own spy franchise as their director competitor Amazon is looking to acquire Bond production partner MGM Studios and will likely attempt to expand that franchise for streaming projects beyond the feature films.
The Ronin first revealed that the title for Matthew Vaughn’s next flick would be titled Argylle (originally we thought it was a working title) along with confirmations that the film’s production team would consist of cinematographer George Richmond (Fantastic Beasts 3, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Rocketman, Eddie The Eagle), production designer Daniel Taylor (Tetris), and costume designer Stephanie Collie (Layer Cake, Silent Night, Hellboy, Peaky Blinders).
Argylle is expected to be released sometime in 2022, but it’s unknown if Apple will pursue a traditional theatrical release or keep it as simply a Apple TV+ exclusive. The latter is assumed though.
Apple is also behind the big Napoleon Bonaparte historical epic Kitbag from director Ridley Scott film with a cast to include Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix and Jodie Comer. They’re working with Martin Scorsese on his upcoming thriller Killers of The Flower Moon, which will likely give Apple a strong awards contender.
We’ve been hearing a lot about extended or director’s cuts being championed recently. And it sounds like Dune has a much longer cut and actor Jason Momoa is getting behind the idea of releasing the four-to-six-hour incarnation allowing people to watch Denis Villeneuve’s longer version like a television.
Momoa’s comments were made during a chat with the New York Times and seemingly echoes how HBO Max released the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League.
“It was a cool movie. You know what they need to do? They need to make the four-to-six hour version of the first half. It’s like, ‘Let’s watch the four-to-five-hour movie like a TV show; I can choose when I want to watch the whole thing.’ I want to see Denis’s whole vision. I don’t want it to be trimmed,” Momoa told the New York Times about his interest of seeing the extended cut of Dune being released.
This idea of Dune being watched as a television show isn’t that far-fetched, as there was a miniseries adaptation by the Sci-Fi Channel and HBO Max/Legendary are developing a new streaming series, Dune: The Sisterhood.
Dune, part one of two installments covering the original novel by Frank Herbert, will be officially released in theaters and HBO Max on October 22.
DUNE – A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive.
Dune’s cast consists of Timothée Chalamet (“Call Me by Your Name,” “Little Women”), Rebecca Ferguson (“Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep,” “Mission: Impossible – Fallout”), Oscar Isaac (the “Star Wars” franchise) Oscar nominee Josh Brolin (“Milk,” “Avengers: Infinity War”), Stellan Skarsgård (HBO’s “Chernobyl,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron”), Dave Bautista (the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, “Avengers: Endgame”), Stephen McKinley Henderson (“Fences,” “Lady Bird”), Zendaya (“Spider-Man: Homecoming,” HBO’s “Euphoria”), David Dastmalchian (“Blade Runner 2049,” “The Dark Knight”), Chang Chen (“Mr. Long,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”), Sharon Duncan-Brewster (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” Netflix’s “Sex Education”), with Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling (“45 Years,” “Assassin’s Creed”), with Jason Momoa (“Aquaman,” HBO’s “Game of Thrones”), and Oscar winner Javier Bardem (“No Country for Old Men,” “Skyfall”).
Universal Pictures once attempted to copy the Marvel Cinematic Universe with their horror franchise Dark Universe, that was expected to give the studio a PG-13 cinematic universe centered around their legacy horror characters, The Universal Monsters. When Tom Cruise’s Mummy reboot flopped they pivoted away from a connective group of films and seem to be instead focusing on movie by movie after The Invisible Man.
Marvel Studios is actually in a perfect position to do what Universal struggled to do, making their own horror universe within the MCU with both films and Disney+ series. We’re apparently going to see a huge push on the live-action side with Doctor Strange In The Multiverse, Mahershala Ali’s Blade reboot, Oscar Isaac’s Moon Knight series, and plenty more things that have yet to officially announced.
There are plenty of characters that are assumed to be part of Marvel’s horror universe such as Doctor Strange (Stephen Strange), Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff), Blade (Eric Brooks), Moon Knight (Marc Spector), Brother Voodoo (Jericho Drumm), Werewolf By Night (Jack Russell), Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze), Elsa Bloodstone, Abraham Whistler, Hannibal King, Frank Drake, Quincy Harker, Rachel van Helsing, Vlad Dracula, Baron Blood (John Falsworth), Deacon Frost, Lilith Drake, Lenore DeCade, Mephisto, Son of Satan (Daimon Hellstrom), The Devil’s Daughter (Satana Hellstrom), Mother of Demons (Lilith), Glyph (Nadeen Hassan), Vampire By Night (Nina Prince), Warwolf (Martin Renya), The Living Mummy (N’Kantu), Frankenstien’s Monster, Manphibian, and Man-Thing (Theodore Sallis).
But there could be even more characters mined for Marvel’s horror corner of the MCU.
The animated series What If…? is bringing Marvel Zombies to the MCU and there is a character that could easily make the jump to live-action to represent the zombie faction.
That is Simon William Garth aka Zombie, who had his own run of comic books with Tales of The Zombie. The character that was brought back from the dead using voodoo magic has a direct connection to Doctor Strange pal Brother Voodoo and could easily partner up with the occult hero.
Zombie is also a member of the Legion of Monsters alongside folks such as The Living Zombie, Frankenstein’s Monster, and others. Given the popularity of the zombie sub-genre with The Walking Dead (alongside spinoffs) and Zack Snyder recently returning to the genre with Army of The Dead (will also direct a sequel), it’s a no-brainier for Marvel to give audiences/fans a zombie character.
There seem to be strong indications that we’ll see Marvel move forward with a new Ghost Rider project, however, we don’t know if they’ll simply focus on a single character like Johnny Blaze or cover the multiple incarnations of the character.
There is a new Native American version, Kushala, an Apache woman from the 1800s that is possessed by the Spirit of Vengeance and became the Sorcerer Supreme of her era in attempt to cure herself. She goes by the name Demon Rider.
Adding Kushala could allow Marvel Studios to bring in a more diverse Ghost Rider to the live-action side of things and give us a solid Native American character that could get her own solo projects alongside someone like western hero William Talltrees aka Red Wolf. We’ve also seen Marvel use plenty of new characters lately as they slowly assemble the Young Avengers roster.
Speaking of Native American characters, there is someone that has a connection to Canadian indigenous lore that could make for a threat in the future and that is Wendigo.
The Wendigo is a stark white beast that is the manifestation of a curse for anyone who commits an act of cannibalism in the Canadian North Woods. A darker origin than normal for Marvel and anyone can be given the curse.
First appearing as a Hulk villain, the character has also clashed with Wolverine, X-Men, and Alpha Flight in the comics. Wendigo is sort of a mirror image of Walter Langkowski aka Sasquatch, a mutant member of Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight.
Taj Nital was an Indian (Muslim but designed as Sikh) vampire hunter part of Quincy Harker’s team Dracula Hunters from The Tomb of Dracula comics, who dedicated his life to hunting vampires after his son Adri was turned and he had to kill him.
A friend of Blade, Taj is turned into a vampire by the monstrous Varnae aka Lord of Vampires that tragically had to be slain by Blade.
The Blade reboot will hopefully bring back The Vampire Nation and having vampires/hunters from Asian countries would help establish that their tentacles are international, something teased with the original Blade movie from 1998 showcasing diverse members of The House of Erebus.
THE RONIN 