Category: Features

Posted on in Features

The History of Getting Namor The Sub-Mariner On The Big Screen & Who Marvel Should Considering Casting

Namor McKenzie aka The Sub-Mariner has become one of the few high-profile Marvel Comics characters that is still on the table to finally make his jump from the comics to the big screen. The aquatic superhero debuted back in 1939 and was created by Bill Everett, who also famously created Matt Murdock aka Daredevil with Stan Lee.

In the early days of Marvel Studios, a feature film version of Namor The Sub-Mariner was being developed back to 1997 when Variety reported that The Right Stuff’s Philip Kaufman was trying to make a solo movie with Batman screenwriter Sam Hamm. This took place around the same time 20th Century Fox was working on a Silver Surfer movie with director Geoffrey Wright (Romper Stomper) and a version of Fantastic Four from director Pete Segal (Tommy Boy, Get Smart, 50 First Dates).

Universal Pictures got their hands on the rights then attempted their own version of The Sub-Mariner in late 2004 with director Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Harry Potter & The Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets, Adventures In Babysitting) working from a script penned by screenwriter David Self (Road To Perdition, The Wolfman). Two years later, Universal and Marvel Studios hired Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines) to direct and rewrite the Self script, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Here is the logline for the Jonathan Mostow version.

The movie’s take will see a young man discovering he actually is a prince from Atlantis, with him turning out to be the key man in a brewing war between the underwater world and the modern surface world.

In 2008, British actor and former professional diver Jason Statham revealed to IESB that he met with the studio for The Sub-Mariner, but couldn’t picture himself in the part.

STATHAM: “I took a meeting for Sub-Mariner. I don’t know if I’d look right running around in a tight speedo with wings on my ankles but there’s so many cool fucking characters.”

From there the project dissolved and after the massive success of Iron Man/Phase One there was hope from fans that Marvel could wrangle the character back from Universal Pictures and do their own thing. While there had talk that Namor was completely back at Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige suggested to IGN back in 2018 things were complicated with the rights. At the time, it seemed like there were still issues giving the anti-hero his own solo project.

IGN: With the Disney/Fox deal, if that pans out, with the Sony rights sharing deal with Spidey, the one big loose end, then, is Namor and Universal. Can you tell us what the status of that is? Is there any chance for him to just pop up in an MCU film? It just sounds like an incredibly complicated situation, for one character.

FEIGE: “It is. I think there’s a way to probably figure it out but it does have — it’s not as a clean or clear as the majority of the other characters.”

He obviously could become one of the more crossover-friendly characters as he has connections to Fantastic Four, Black Panther, Illuminati, the original Defenders lineup alongside Doctor Strange and Hulk, The Avengers, X-Men, the WWII era team The Invaders, and ties to Agents of Atlas via his cousin Namora.

There has been years of speculation and rumors concerning when and where Namor McKenzie aka The Sub-Mariner will show up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, however, none of that chatter has been confirmed or announced by the studio officially. Despite the ideas he could be appearing in things like Eternals, Black Panther 2 or Fantastic Four. So, there is a possibility that they still haven’t hired an actor to play Marvel’s “first mutant.”

I’d personally like to see Marvel Studios continue their recent trend of looking at actors with a mix of commercial and awards success. You’d have to imagine given that Namor is potentially going to jump around to different franchises they’re going to need an actor with some decent range and wide-range of genre credits.

Here’s a trio of Oscar caliber actors I’d like to see in the Namor role.

RIZ AHMED (AGE 38): Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The Night Of, Sound of Metal, Nightcrawler, Four Lions, Venom, and Jason Bourne.

STEVEN YEUN (AGE 37): The Walking Dead, Minari, Invincible, Burning, and Okja.

DEV PATEL (AGE 30): The Green Knight, Skins, Slumdog Millionaire, Chappie, Lion, Hotel Mumbai, The Newsroom, and The Last Airbender.

Posted on in Features

Netflix Should Offer Zack Snyder Their ‘Conan The Barbarian’ Reboot

It was recently suggested by WarnerMedia Studios CEO Ann Sarnoff in an interview with Variety that they don’t have plans to continue or restore the Snyderverse. Which means that Zack Snyder is finally free to make all the wacky film ideas he’s been cooking up over the last decade. He’s talked about making action film about George Washington and taking a crack at the Arthurian legend.

What’s interesting is that he’s now established a working relationship with streaming giant Netflix with his upcoming action-horror flick Army of The Dead, that is coming out on May 21, 2021.

This could mean that Snyder and Netflix will continue working on stuff in the future potentially leading to an over-all development deal at some point.

There is a newly acquired IP at the streamer that feels tailor-made for the filmmaker. As Netflix got their hands on the film and television rights to Robert E. Howard’s sword and sorcery hero Conan The Barbarian last year. The character has multiple stories written by Howard and other writers that continued Conan’s adventures over the decades including folks like Wheel of Time’s Robert Jordan.

In my opinion, there is really only one solid live-action adaptation and that is the fantastic John Milius movie from 1982 that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Earl Jones. The film got made thanks in part to the books popularity in the 1970’s and the string of comic books that were published by Marvel Comics.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982) – Orphaned boy Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is enslaved after his village is destroyed by the forces of vicious necromancer Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones), and is compelled to push “The Wheel of Pain” for many years. Once he reaches adulthood, Conan sets off across the prehistoric landscape of the Hyborian Age in search of the man who killed his family and stole his father’s sword. With beautiful warrior Valeria (Sandahl Bergman) and archer Subotai (Gerry Lopez), he faces a supernatural evil.

I have to assume given Zack’s obsession with John Boorman’s Excalibur that something like Conan The Barbarian might also be a fantasy film that resonates with him and could be an established IP that Netflix could offer Snyder.

We’ve seen with 300 that Zack could bring something visually interesting to a mature fantasy adventure epic like Conan The Barbarian. At it’s core, the 300 comic from Frank Miller and the Zack Snyder film owes a lot to things like Conan.

The world of Conan can be a blank canvas for someone like Snyder to develop something into his own and Netflix isn’t likely going to micromanage because box office isn’t even a factor with their originals as streaming is a complete different. You can tell with his DC stuff that he’s itching to tackle something like this.

The less said about Jason Momoa’s 2011 Conan reboot the better. Since then, the actor has developed a more charismatic on-screen persona with stuff like Game of Thrones and taking on the Aquaman role. I wouldn’t be opposed to giving Jason another shot at playing Conan given that he’s grown as an actor and has an existing relationship with Snyder.

Anyways, I’m hopefully that Netflix’s interest with expanding Snyder’s Army of The Dead into their own franchise means that they’ll at least consider him for other stuff like Conan The Barbarian as it feels like it could be a good fit for him.

Posted on in Features

SPOILERS: A New Captain America & Legacy of The Super-Soldier Program Explored In Episode 2 of ‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD FOR EPISODES 1-2

Episode 1 ended with the U.S. government selecting Wyatt Russell’s John Walker as the new Captain America and in Episode 2 we see a little background on the character giving him a little bit of personality. Walker also has his own sidekick with Battlestar being confirmed. However, his existence seems to irk both Sam and Bucky as the latter is frustrated that Wilson turned down the shield letting an outsider take over Steve’s mantle which went against his wishes.

We see most of The Flash Smashers have been enhanced with the super-soldier serum and are on the run from The Power Broker, a Marvel villain that has been teased in the end credits. This might suggest the masked group might not be as villainous as they’ve been made out to be and are trying to keep themselves one step ahead of the real villain. The Power Broker threatening to kill them.

Bucky reveals to Sam that there was another secret super-soldier, Isaiah Bradley, played by Carl Lumbly and there is an assumption that Elijah Richardson was playing Isaiah’s grandson Eli Bradley aka Patriot. It’s mentioned that Bucky and Bradley came to blows during the Korean War along with the horrible revelation that he was thrown into prison to rot for 30 years. Sam is horrified that nobody knew that Bradley existed and there are overtones that Isaiah being a black man played a role to the government keeping that a secret.

Walker and Battlestar are keen to work with Bucky and Sam but the two established characters seem to be reluctant to do so. At the end of the episode our two protagonists attempt to get more answers from Zemo, who is still locked-up. Something is going to happen because we’ve seen multiple set photos and footage Zemo out in the world.

I’ll be curious to see if Walker, Zemo, and The Power Broker are connected.

I also wouldn’t be shocked to see the Bradley family has a link to Erin Kellyman’s Karli.

Posted on in Features

SPOILERS: A Rundown of The ‘WandaVision’ Finale & What It Means

THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS WANDAVISION FINALE SPOILERS

Wanda finally becomes the Scarlet Witch leading to giving Agatha Harkness a spell while making her the noisy neighbor in Westview until she needs her help in the future. This is after it’s revealed that Harkness wants to steal her powers and has the Darkhold, an extremely dangerous book of spells. Maximoff also gives up her false reality which included the twins and Vision, as she finally admits what she is doing is wrong. The second button looked like a scene directly from Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In Multiverse of Madness, as Wanda might end up using the Darkhold (potentially doubles-down that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. isn’t MCU canon) to bring back her children into reality from the Multiverse and potentially leading to terrible consequences.

Evan Peters’ “Pietro Maximoff” wasn’t Quicksilver as he was some random Westview citizen named Ralph Bohner, which means that Marvel is indeed moving forward with a reboot of X-Men instead of adding the Singerverse to the MCU. Plenty of fans assumed that Peters would become the new Quicksilver and that the series would somewhat introduce Mutants, that didn’t happen.Ultimately, the Multiverse wasn’t explored which many believed would explain Peters taking over the Quicksilver role.

While Monica Rambeau is approached by a Skrull to seemingly join off-world S.W.O.R.D. in the first button scene that most likely going to be connected to Secret Invasion, but we’ll have to see if her powers are active outside of the Hex and if she’ll be in that series alongside Captain Marvel 2.

The White Vision brainwashed by S.W.O.R.D. director Hayward didn’t end up killing the other version of Vision, but just left the Hex and it wasn’t revealed where he went. I think Vision just leaving annoyed a bunch of people because we didn’t see what his fate was and he was the big “cameo” Paul Bettany was teasing then really didn’t do much in the end.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see how Wanda will be interacting with Doctor Strange in the sequel along with how the Multiverse comes together. Most of us are likely a little confused by all this stuff didn’t catch the attention of people like Strange and Baron Mordo, given all the magic and use of the Darkhold. Strange and the Ancient One previously being established as omnipresent characters that are seemingly aware of everything going on.

Posted on in Features

SPOILERS: Episode 8 of ‘WandaVision’ Pulls The Curtain Revealing Multiple Motivations

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR WANDAVISION AHEAD

Last week, it was finally revealed that everything bad that was happening withing the Hex bubble was Agnes, who was rumored during production is actually Agatha Harkness. Not exactly a villain in the comic books, but seeming is a villain in the MCU. Episode 8 starts off showing her in the 1600s killing her own coven of witches including her own mother and potentially stealing their powers after they accuse her of using dark magic.

Agatha, a witch who uses spells, has been trying to figure out how Wanda was able to change reality and resurrect Vision. She uses the twins as a way to force Wanda show her how she was able to change things on such a large scale and I assume steal the power for herself. Yet again, it’s confirmed that Evan Peters version of Pietro isn’t Wanda’s brother and was used to manipulate her. Sorry folks, no Singerverse era of X-Men for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

While Agatha has been meddling, it’s really was Wanda behind the Hex and bringing an entirely new version of Vision out of thin air. Something that completely puzzles/frustrates Agatha as Wanda is able to do such “magic” effortlessly and without spells.

Watching old sitcoms being Wanda’s way of dealing with grief and explaining the homages, as her father Oleg Maximoff used to bring them home as a way for the kids to practice their English. This further illustrates that Magneto won’t be showing up in some secret cameo.

During the flashbacks it’s revealed that Hayward lied in earlier episodes when he said Wanda broke into the S.W.O.R.D. facility and stole Vision’s body parts, as we see see a flashback to her being let in and calmly leaving without him.

We also see the real motivations of S.W.O.R.D. and Director Hayward as they were trying to nudge Wanda to resurrect the dead body of Vision so they could use him as a weapon. Wanda conjures a new version of Vision which is likely why Hayward had been attempting to track him within the Hex bubble. Hayward and S.W.O.R.D. have been trying to figure out how to power-up Vision and in the end credit scene use the Hex charged drone to bring their version of zombie Vision back online. He’s is now ghostly white (a nod to the comic books) and will likely be used as a weapon against Wanda in the next episode.

The episode ends with Harkness holding the twins and calling Wanda the Scarlet Witch as she uses chaos magic, the first time Wanda has ever been referred to her X-Men name.

Episode 9 feels like it’s going to be some sort of standoff and possible establish the events of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness. It’s a smart move on the part of Marvel Studios as people following WandaVision will likely be more inclined to go see the Doctor Strange sequel. The original while a fine installment, but wasn’t the most memorable or anticipated Marvel film to date and didn’t set the box office on fire.

It’ll be interesting to see if further trauma (possibly in Episode 9) pushes Wanda to become a villain herself or if Agatha/someone else is revealed as the main antagonist for the Doctor Strange sequel.

Posted on in Features

SPOILERS: ‘WandaVision’ Episode 7 Busted More Fan Theories This Week & Opened Up New Ones

WARNING HEAVY SPOILERS FOR WANDAVISION IN THIS ARTICLE

Despite multiple calls for fans ease back on the huge character cameos, fans still believed this episode was going to be an entry point for folks like Reed Richards, Hank McCoy, or even Magneto. That has been dashed as those cameos didn’t happen and Wanda doubled-down on Evan Peters version of Pietro not being real. Sorry, Fox era X-Men fans the show won’t be carrying over the Singerverse to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

One of the earlier character rumors has turned out to be spot-on.

We’ve known for a while that Agnes was possibly going to be revealed as Agatha Harkness, however, we don’t know what the character’s intentions are. Which I have to assume will be touched-upon in the next episode given that she’s outed herself to Wanda. The twins also vanish as they were used by Agatha to lure Wanda into her basement.

They panned over to a book that may or may not be the MCU version of The Darkhold, which could cause a lot of trouble if used incorrectly or for the wrong reasons. As it has deep connections to the horror side of the Marvel Comics universe but with anything shown to us in this show looks can be deceiving. It’s a McGuffin that could be the next Infinity Gauntlet, equally as dangerous too.

Monica Rambeau also seemingly got her powers from entering the Hex, but we’ll see if those hold as things keep changing moment-to-moment in the Westview bubble. The mid-credit scene she discovers the basement and bumps into whoever Peters is actually playing.

Posted on in Features

SPOILERS: ‘WandaVision’ Episode 6 Challenged Some Developing Theories This Week

WARNING! ARTICLE CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR WANDAVISION EPISODES 1-6

Last week’s episode revealing that Evan Peters is playing Wanda’s dead brother Pietro Maximoff got people thinking that Marvel Studios was about to bring the mutants into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and potentially the Fox era franchise actors as well.

However, this week might have nixed that right off-the-bat.

We get a glimpse of Pietro as a corpse suggesting that like Vision he’s dead too.

There is a point where “Pietro” explains he was “shot in the street like a chump” before showing up at their door and this was revisited when dead Pietro appeared later on in the episode with three bullet wounds in his chest. It doesn’t seem like Peters is going to be sticking around as fans imagined or usher-in Fox version of X-Men to the MCU and possibly is just a reanimated corpse that will eventually disappear.

An excellent red herring if that was their aim.

There is also the potential reveal that Agnes is really just another person being controlled by Wanda as her interactions with Vision gives the impression she’s just another hostage and not the mastermind. This was sort of amplified when Wanda herself started increasing the volume of the Westview bubble which turned the S.W.O.R.D. base into a circus.

While the intentions of S.W.O.R.D. towards Vision is wonky at best as they are revealed to be tracking his movements (is he some weapon of mass destruction?). It is starting to look like Wanda is the one controlling the bubble here, unless someone is manipulating her either by the townspeople or without her knowledge.

One thing that Pietro points out is the children that came out of nowhere in Westview seemingly just for the Halloween episode as we’ve mostly only have been shown adults in the town. I’m slightly curious if they are constructs like the twins or something else.

I guess we’ll have to wait for more shoes to drop in the next couple of episodes.

Posted on in Features

SPOILERS: Reasons Why That Cameo In ‘WandaVision’ Episode 5 Might Not Be As It Seems

WARNING SPOILERS FOR WANDAVISION AHEAD FROM EPISODES 1-5

There seems to be an assumption from those watching this week’s episode of WandaVision that Marvel Studios has ushered-in the Fox era of the X-Men franchise, despite the fact the studio has multiple times used the word reboot when talking about their plans for the X-Men moving forward. It’s worth noting among a bunch of iffy things about the cameo, Wanda and Darcy don’t seem to recognize the Evan Peters version of Pietro standing in the doorway.

Here are some things to think about as most viewers have taken the cameo as a literal introduction/recast and now believe that Evan Peters is taking over the Pietro/Quicksilver role from now on which seems a little shortsighted given how the show has previously manipulated the audience from the start. Taking the surprise at face value instead of stopping to think of the multitude of reasons why Peters playing Pietro from now on is extremely unlikely and potentially more of distraction or red herring if anything else. 

  1. Dr. Darcy Lewis makes it clear that whoever Evan Peters is playing in the show, that this person at the door is not her brother (previously played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Lewis shockingly states “they recast Pietro?.” This is somewhat reinforced by Wanda seemingly not recognizing the person at the door, something you can tell by the puzzled look on her face as it finally sinks in this is supposed to be her brother. We’ve seen actors recast in the MCU before but Darcy makes a point that isn’t Pietro,
  2. Wanda’s father is reaffirmed to be the very dead Oleg Maximoff by Agent Jimmy Woo and not Magneto also using footage from Avengers: Age of Ulron. This could crush speculation that the Fox version of Magneto will either have a family connection or even appear on the show at all. If they wanted to establish the previous X-Men universe within the MCU that ship has long sailed after the merger as they originally announced Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool was the only character they were keeping.
  3. Agnes is shocked to learn Wanda can bring things back to life using her abilities as she mentions her brother to the twins (in front of Agnes) and conveniently later in the episode Wanda’s “brother” is brought back to life. We never see how that happened exactly or where he even came from. 
  4. When Vision and Wanda get into a scuffle about what is going on in the bubble the doorbell rings, something she says she didn’t do and if she didn’t bring that version of Pietro back, who did?
  5. Despite Wanda having “control” of everything in the bubble, she could stop their dog Sparky from dying or use her powers on the twins when they wouldn’t stop crying or aging. If she is 100% in control of everything and everyone you’d think she could have done something there. 
  6. Nothing can be trusted in the Westview bubble. Many things are distorted and they’re not all as they seem, making it less likely that Pietro is really Pietro. Mostly everyone within Westview is given a new name and persona. There is a good chance that Evan Peters is simply playing someone that was trapped in the town and given the role of Pietro as a way to torture or distract Wanda. 
  7. There have been teases via concept art that Wonder Man aka Simon Williams will be part of the show, an actor/superhero. There is a chance that Evan Peters was selected by whoever within the bubble to be recast in the Pietro role because he is Simon and picked because of acting experience as a way to be more convincing to Wanda and Vision as others have dropped character in various scenes. Agnes mentions doing another take in the episode and Wanda materializes a dog collar without her noticing.
  8. Peters’ Pietro could be just a figment of her imagination and will disappear alongside the bubble. 
  9. Pietro might be Mephisto or another villain simply manipulating Wanda while pretending to be her dead brother. 
  10. Could both the twins and Pietro be manifested by someone else in Westview such as Anges or another mystery character?
  11. Hiring Evan Peters, the former Quicksilver, is a great way to confuse audiences and help keep everyone guessing about what is really going on. If they had hired someone else for this part it likely wouldn’t have had the same impact. It seems like the entire point of the show is to keep fans on their toes and create their own theories. It certainly feels like the concept of the Disney+ series is to mimic water-cooler television.

I think we’ll know more in the next couple of episodes and I would not be shocked if ultimately we don’t see Peters in this role for very long revealing himself to be something else entirely.

Posted on in Features

Marvel Should Tackle ‘The Invaders’ In A Project Set During WWII or The Cold War

Yesterday, it was revealed by Deadline that Chris Evans was nearing a deal to reprise Steve Rogers aka Captain America in a small supporting role (similar to Robert Downey Jr. in Spider-Man: Homecoming) for an undisclosed MCU project. They also mention Evans might be returning for second thing, possibly a film but didn’t reveal what that could be either.

There are a couple of obvious options such as old Steve Rogers becoming a mentor to Sam Wilson in Captain America 4 as he takes over the mantle. Also, seeing what Steve was up to while hiding between Captain America: Civil War to Avengers: Infinity War, not unlike where Black Widow takes place in the MCU timeline. There is the multiple years between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, I’m sure there would still be threats in the wake of Thanos’ snap.

There is another option to add. Thanks to Avengers: Endgame, that Steve was able to go back in time to be with Peggy Carter and stayed there starting in 1948 just when The Cold War begins. Steve as an old man ends up handing Sam Wilson the shield at the end of the film and launching the events that will be covered in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.

The Multiverse also opens the door to other timelines allowing to them return to WWII.

I think it’s hard to imagine with all the threats surrounding him during that timeline and Peggy Carter’s work at S.H.I.E.L.D. that he doesn’t eventually jump back into the fray between his return and Avengers: Endgame. What would make a lot of sense would be Rogers leading his own team which has previously happened with The Invaders, a group mostly made up of WWII era heroes such as Namor McKenzie aka The Sub-Mariner, Union Jack, Spitfire, the original android version of The Human Torch aka Jim Hammond, Blazing Skull, and multiple other wartime heroes that could get some live-action love.

It’s worth noting that Wyatt Russell’s John Walker aka U.S. Agent, Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson, and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes have been established members on the roster.

There is another superhero that was kicking around during WWII and The Cold War that has teamed-up with Captain America the comics that could make for another excellent addition to those ranks, that being the Canadian super-soldier Wolverine.

Luckily, since Logan doesn’t really age he can be able to time-hop to various eras of the MCU including something like WWII or even futuristic setting like with Old Man Logan.

Rebooting Wolverine is clearly a huge priority to the studio alongside the X-Men and having the anti-hero connect to various MCU characters beforehand wouldn’t be shocking since he’s, like Steve Rogers, he is part of a super-soldier program via Weapon. When his origin takes places in the MCU doesn’t seem to be set in stone and Marvel can certainly tinker with it to fit their needs but I’d personally like to see him running around WWII without his indestructible skeleton and then get it during The Cold War.

It might be a good idea to introduce Wolverine as a supporting character elsewhere so that he doesn’t dominate the main X-Men films as much. The fictional X-Men locale of Madripoor is going to be introduced in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, which had many fans jump to conclusions that Wolverine is connected to the Disney+ series, although, there hasn’t been credible information backing up these fan desires. However, it becoming a stomping ground for the mutant eventually wouldn’t a surprise.

If they’re genuinely going to bring Chris Evans back I think it is worth considering giving him another period project since while Captain America: The First Avenger canonically takes place during WWII, it felt like they copped-out by limiting how much fighting he did against the actual Axis. The Cold War era could be another fine option as Steve combating the new threat of The Soviet Union during the height of the nuclear arms race feels just as a plausible of a setting for another adventure.

X-Men villain Omega Red could be a good baddie to use as well given his connections to Soviet Union super-soldier experiments.

It’s worth mentioning we’ve previously seen Easter Eggs to canonical members of The Invaders lineup in previous Marvel Studios films.

Union Jack was teased via Iron Man 2 as Joey Chapman was listed as one of the racers going head-to-head with Tony Stark. The Human Torch is seen encased in glass and Namor’s Atlantis was briefly teased in Captain America: The First Avenger at the Stark Expo (blink and you’ll miss the underwater city nod). The S.H.I.E.L.D. boat called The Lemurian Star in Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a direct nod to Namor villains The Lemurians, a sign that something nefarious was happening onboard.

I’m sure we’ll start to get confirmation what Evans is actually going to show up in but I think fans are also quite comfortable leaving old Rogers alone as well given his satisfying ending.

Posted on in Features

What Can We Expect Next From Live-Action ‘Star Wars’?

With the second season of The Mandalorian winding-down, we won’t likely have any new live-action Star Wars until possibly next fall. So, I figured I would give a rundown of what other live-action projects are in the works from Disney+ shows to feature films in various stages of development.

BOBA FETT SERIES: Deadline reported last month that a secret Boba Fett project for Disney+ had begun shooting without mentioning who exactly was starring, writing or directing the thing. We can only assume with Temuera Morrison now firmly in the role for The Mandalorian that this might be the incarnation that this new project tackles.

I have my own speculation that this might actually end up being Season 3 of The Mandalorian given the lack of information on who is working on it and the proximity of when Jon Favreau wanted to start shooting Season 3. While Lucasfilm can be sneaky, this would be the first time they’ve started filming a Star Wars project without us knowing who was at least writing and directing it.

At one time, Josh Trank and Simon Kinberg were developing a Boba Fett movie but the project ultimate didn’t come together after hiccups between the two making Fox’s Fantastic Four reboot. There had even been rumors that James Mangold was in talks to resurrect the series but quickly shot that down along with his involvement with Season 2 of The Mandlorian.

CASSIAN ANDOR PREQUEL SERIES: Diego Luna recently confirmed to Jimmy Kimmel that his Rogue One prequel series focusing on Cassian Andor and K-2SO has already started shooting in London with director Toby Haynes (Black Mirror). Haynes stepped in for Tony Gilroy, who may still end up directing an episode.

The cast for the Star Wars series includes Luna, Alan Tudyk, Adria Arjona, Denise Gough, Genevieve O’Reilly, Stellan Skarsgard, and Kyle Soller. Andor will skew more in the spy genre and might continue the tone established in Rogue One.

DEBORAH CHOW’S KENOBI SERIES: Ewan McGregor is officially reprising the Obi-Wan Kenobi role but as we all know uses the name Ben Kenobi while hiding out on Tatooine and overseeing the protection of Darth Vader’s son Luke Skywalker from the Empire. Lucasfilm revealed via a franchise timeline that Kenobi will take place around the time of the Corellia scenes in Solo: A Star Wars Story. The series will be directed by Deborah Chow (The Mandalorian) and there are assumptions that Joel Edgerton will return to the role of Uncle Owen along with a new actor playing a young Luke Skywalker. It’s unconfirmed if we’ll be seeing flashbacks to the Clone Wars or if Kenobi will ever go off-world at any point.

Casting announcements should be incoming shortly.

Filming according to Ewan McGregor is expected to take place this March. The locations are said to be Pinewood Studios UK and Boston, England as the Pinewood facility will have their own Volume/StageCraft which has been used frequently on The Mandalorian.

THE MANDALORIAN: A third season of The Mandalorian is expected to begin shooting at some point after there was word from showrunner and producer Jon Favreau they hoped to get filming started before the end of 2020. We had heard that Jon is expected to direct at least one episode in Season 3.

It’s also possible we could see spinoff series focusing on Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan and Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano. Those have yet to be announced despite the fan assumptions.

LESLYE HEADLAND’S MYSTERY STAR WARS SERIES: Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) is officially working on a new female-centric Star Wars series that according to Deadline would include martial arts elements and take place at a different point in the Star Wars timeline.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that Disney+ is developing a female-centered Star Wars series, written and showrun by Leslye Headland, believed to be a female-driven action thriller with martial arts elements and set in an alternate timeline from the usual Star Wars universe. The rumored spinoff is said to be separate from this Star Wars project but the situation is fluid.

There has been plenty of speculation of what the show could be or who it could focus on but no details have been confirmed by Lucasfilm or Disney.

I’m sure we’ll learn more about the series soon.

RIAN JOHNSON’S BRAND-NEW STAR WARS TRILOGY: Star Wars: The Last Jedi writer/director Rian Johnson has been developing his own original trilogy for the studio but looks to be more focused on his Knives Out sequel at the moment. There haven’t been much in the way of details concerning Johnson’s project but is expected to take place in another era of Star Wars with new characters. Also, there had been some talk that while Rian would oversee all three films he likely wouldn’t end up directing all them.

Here is how the official press release described the trilogy.

Lucasfilm is excited to announce that Johnson will create a brand-new Star Wars trilogy, the first of which he is also set to write and direct, with longtime collaborator Ram Bergman onboard to produce…In shepherding this new trilogy, which is separate from the episodic Skywalker saga, Johnson will introduce new characters from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored.

Johnson has also dismissed multiple claims he’s exited.

TAIKA WAITITI’S STAR WARS MOVIE: After dismissing reports of his involvement, Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi was officially announced for an upcoming theatrical Star Wars film with Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917, Last Night in Soho) co-writing the script. This news wasn’t terribly shocking after Kathleen Kennedy suggested wanting to work with him. Taika later getting his feet wet working on Season 1 of The Mandalorian as both director and voicing the bounty hunter droid IG-11.

The Kiwi director is going to be a little busy as he’ll start shooting Marvel’s Thor: Love & Thunder soon in Sydney, Australia.

JEDI ORIGIN TRILOGY: According to Variety back in October 2019, the Game of Thrones showrunners, D.B Weiss and David Benioff, had been developing a trilogy of films that would have explored the origins of the Jedi.

Benioff and Weiss had ambitious plans to take the “Star Wars” universe in a new direction, one that would exist apart from the Skywalker family saga that comprised the franchise’s centerpiece nine-film series. The Star Wars period the pair was interested in exploring was how the Jedi came to exist. However, Lucasfilm executives and the creators begin to see their visions for the films diverge during meetings last summer.

This would have likely taken place way before eras like the Skywalker Saga, The High Republic or even The Old Republic.

However, the pair left Lucasfilm for a rather pricey deal with Netflix which seemingly squashed the project for the foreseeable future. There are new rumblings online that this project might get resurrected but it’s unofficial for the moment.

THE OLD REPUBLIC TRILOGY: BuzzFeed had once reported that Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar, Ghost In The Shell, Altered Carbon, Shutter Island) was developing a Knights of The Old Republic film that could eventually become it’s own trilogy.

A movie based on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic — the beloved video game first released in 2003 — is currently being written by Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar, Shutter Island) for Lucasfilm, three sources close to the project told BuzzFeed News.

Kalogridis is close to finishing the first script of a potential KOTOR trilogy, according to the three sources. 

While this was never confirmed, Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy teased they’ve had internal discussions about projects in that era during a chat with MTV back in April 2019.

MTV: Knights of The Old Republic, a lot of fans wanna see that, is there any development of that?

KENNEDY: “You know, we talk about that all the time. Yes, we are developing something to look at. Right now, I have no idea where things might fall..”

There is also a film project that would see Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige get involved as a producer but there next zero official information about what and when that would be. I have to assume it’s either something already mentioned like Taika’s film or something that hasn’t been made public.

I’m sure with Disney keen to get more originals for Disney+ that we’ll likely hear about more live-action Star Wars shows in the near future.