After trades had revealed that Joe and Anthony Russo would be making a grand return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios took to the stage of Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con yesterday evening to confirm the sibling directors will be handling both “Avengers: Doomsday,” and “Avengers: Secret Wars.”
This news comes as the studio has now officially pivoted from Jonathan Majors’ Kang The Conqueror as the main villain of the next “Avengers” film, with Doctor Doom filling that role. Something that might have been telegraphed with “Deadpool & Wolverine” marketing featuring a “Secret Wars” comic book with Doom and The Beyonder on the cover in the void sequence.
Although, it’s not entirely clear if Kang won’t appear in the films after this pivot to Doom with a quick recasting. We’ll keep our fingers crossed, longshot aside, that Marvel can land Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington (“Training Day,” “Gladiator II”) to play the Kang Prime variant in a brief or minimized part.
The Russos were behind “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Captain America: Civil War,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” and “Avengers: Endgame.” They are replacing previous “Avengers 5” director Destin Daniel Cretton (“Shang-Chi”), who exited the project to focus on the “Wonder Man” series and his sequel to “Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings.”
Screenwriter Stephen McFeely (“Avengers: Infinity War,” “Avengers: Endgame”) is also being tasked to pen the two movies, seemingly without writing partner Christopher Markus.
We’re still waiting on the final lineup for the film after Kevin Feige has suggested recently that it won’t have “everyone.” Disney has slated “Avengers: Doomsday” for May 1, 2026, and then The Multiverse Saga is expected to conclude with “Avengers: Secret Wars” on May 7, 2027.
Kevin Feige, the co-president of Marvel Studios and chief creative officer, is doing press rounds for “Deadpool & Wolverine.” It’ll be the first R-rated superhero attempt from Marvel Studios on their own (they helped out by advising on Lionsgate’s “Punisher: War Zone”) and many of us had assumed that more would be on the horizon, including something like their gestating “Blade” reboot that has Mahershala Ali attached to play the new Eric Brooks.
Well, while speaking with BlackTree TV (See that interview below), Feige seemingly has confirmed that “Blade” is going to be echoing the previous trilogy of movies by taking a mature angle toward the vampire hunter when asked about an R-rating for their reboot.
“I think that’s right; I mean, for the last few years, we’ve been trying to crack that movie, and the most important thing, for us, is not rushing it and making the right ‘Blade’ movie. Because there were some great ‘Blade’ movies years ago they were all rated R. So, I think that’s inherent, like Deadpool, to the character of Blade.
You might remember that before director Yann Demange (“White Boy Rick”) exited the reboot, he said they planned to make the new film with an R-rating in mind. Feige’s new comments would seemingly support his November statement.
“They gave me the R, which is so important,” Demange said.
Of course, “Blade” has been having some issues as Feige does mention they’re not “rushing” as they’re trying to “crack” the reboot of a successful franchise. The project was first announced back in 2019 with Ali starring without any sort of plan in place, which has been partly the reason for all the delays and hiccups; it’s one of the few feature films at Marvel Studios that started with an actor before they were ready to go ahead.
Since then, we’ve seen Demange replace first director Bassam Tariq and exit with an overload of various drafts, polishes, and rewrites to the script. “Black Widow” screenwriter Eric Pearson is reportedly handling the latest version of the action-horror project.
As far as we know, both actors Mia Goth (“MaXXXine,” “Pearl”) and Delroy Lindo (“Da 5 Bloods”) are still involved with the movie. Also, a more recent trade report revealed Goth is playing the main villain of the film, Lilith (The vampire incarnation of the character, not the Mother of Demons from “Midnight Sons”) who is canonically in the comic books is the daughter of Dracula.
I’m sure we’ll get more updates about “Blade” at San Deigo Comic-Con (fingers crossed for a new director announcement), so stay tuned for those.
In the wake of the massive success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s last two “Avengers” movies, the studio has been trying to assemble an epic one-two-punch for the follow-up, with two more event films focused on the epic Marvel Comics team. Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige look to be finally zeroing in on a replacement for Destin Daniel Cretton (now focused on “Shang-Chi 2”) on “Avengers 5,” as The Hollywood Reporter reveals that The Russo Brothers are in “early talks” to not only take over from Destin but also take on “Avengers: Secret Wars” as well.
UPDATE: Kevin Feige talked to Inverse and poured a little cold water on the report, hinting that the report might be inaccurate or that they jumped the gun a bit. The interviewer and Inverse are framing this response as a “denial.”
“No, I can’t comment on it except to say it was somebody else a couple of weeks ago, and I look forward to seeing who it is going to be next week,” Feige says. “We’ll see.”
I asked Kevin Feige if the Russos are really directing Avengers 5 and 6. He denied it. Article: https://t.co/p5do3CVzsN
Of course, the sibling duo aren’t strangers to the inner workings of the MCU as they directed “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Captain America: Civil War,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” and “Avengers: Endgame.” They’ve had massive success at the global box office, a potential reason for their offer to return, by earning a massive $6.681 billion over their four MCU releases. Specifically, “Avengers: Endgame” stands as the second biggest movie of all time globally with an impressive $2.79 billion.
The latter two films were also shot back-to-back with a hefty amount of characters to juggle, which is also going to be an element of the next two “Avengers” installments. Something the Russo Brothers are really good at is managing a larger-than-normal superhero roster and will be an asset needed for these next two adventures. This development is certainly a bit of shock when you consider that previously, when the both “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” (title subject to change) and “Avengers: Secret Wars” was first announced by Marvel Studios they were extremely quick to add that neither project would have the Russo Brothers directing. The brothers had expressed some interest in tackling “Secret Wars” and the MCU’s “X-Men” reboot while on press tours for “Endgame” and other things.
Despite their thunderous box office and critical achievements with Marvel Studios, the directors have struggled more recently with critics on both the Tom Holland crime thriller “Cherry” and their $200 million-plus budgeted Netflix spy flick “The Gray Man.” They have another Netflix movie on the way, “The Electric State,” starring Millie Bobby Brown (“Stranger Things”) in the sci-fi pic.
While plot details aren’t being revealed at this time, established MCU screenwriter Michael Waldron (“Rick & Morty”), who has been the main screenwriter tackling the Multiverse-focused projects like “Loki” and “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness,” had been brought in to help with the script for “Avengers 5.” Kang The Conqueror was originally going to be the villain of “Avengers 5” before Jonathan Majors was fired by the studio, and it’s unclear if the studio is pursuing a recast for Kang or simply going to jump forward to “Secret Wars” (the big Multiverse war film) by splitting the project into two parts.
Fans will be quick to assume longtime creative partners Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely could be making their return to the MCU (Yet this hasn’t been made official in any way, just speculation).
It’s hard to assume what the outcome of their involvement would mean for the future of the MCU. While cinematic universe reset rumors are persistent, the studio hasn’t telegraphed they have plans to reboot their superhero franchise anytime soon. The idea that the band is getting back to together I’m sure is extremely exciting for fans and the involvement of Feige on these two films might help to ease the worries of folks not completely thrilled with their last couple of directing efforts. One of their more glorious contributions was giving Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark a fitting death scene by sacrificing himself for the universe. Hopefully, Marvel and the creative have their wits among them and don’t attempt to resurrect Stark simply to lean into the Multiverse gimmick.
There have also been some expectations that mutants, and particularly the new MCU version of the X-Men could be part of these new movies (“Deadpool & Wolverine” has been already teasing this) alongside the new cast of “Fantastic Four.” Although nothing has been made official on that front other than the new movie landed screenwriter Michael Lesslie (a director could easily be announced soon).
This big news comes off the heels of various trade rumblings that “Deadpool & Wolverine” (another Multiverse-centric film) filmmaker Shawn Levy was offered the job on “Avengers 5.” But as a subsequent report from Deadline states, Levy will be focusing on his new untitled “Star Wars” movie that will see the Canadian director reunited with screenwriter Jonathan Tropper (“The Adam Project”).
We’ll keep our fingers crossed that someone has the good sense to include Multiverse antagonists, The Squadron Supreme, in these upcoming “Avengers” films. Hard to ignore that Marvel’s take on the Justice League would make for some intense action sequences and could keep the superheroes on their toes, not to mention potentially leading to a few on-screen deaths (Thor and Hulk being strong contenders).
Later in the month, we’ll likely hear directly from Marvel/Feige about this whole ordeal as Marvel is making their grand return to the San Diego Comic-Con with a presentation on Saturday, July 27, which should confirm this announcement alongside other big updates on future feature films like “Fantastic Four,” “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Thunderbolts,” “Blade,” “Spider-Man 4,” and more.
The next phase of the “Predator” franchise was previously announced as they’ll be making a follow-up to director Dan Trachtenberg‘s “Prey” with “Badlands.” However, its been said the new movie is going to be set further into the future and won’t be a direct sequel to “Prey” (But one is also in the works).
A big casting update has been shared by Deadline, as they have announced that Elle Fanning (“The Great”) is in talks to take the lead role in the new sci-fi actioner.
The studio is in negotiations with a popular actress like Fanning could suggest that 20th Century Studios may attempt to release the film in theaters after “Prey” headed to Hulu/Disney+.
20th Century Studios is also about to release Fede Alvarez’s “Alien Romulus” which is said to be a standalone story set between the events of Ridley Scott’s original “Alien” (produces the film) and James Cameron’s “Aliens” as the filmmaker hopes to find a balance where “Romulus” invokes a balanced tone of both those movies. “Romulus” was originally meant to be a Hulu exclusive until the studio changed its mind after how well-received “Prey” was (the studio missing out on box office dollars on that one).
There is the potential that “Alien Romulus” and “Badlands” future settings could eventually lead audiences to a new, more faithful take on “Aliens vs Predator,” where a boring/dull Earthbound setting is avoided to go completely off-world as seen in the video games and comics books which the crossover originally took place. Some of the more common occurrences where humans, androids/synthetics, predators/yautja, and xenomorphs interact with each other happen on off-world colonies/mining operations connected to Weyland-Yutani.
Today, Lionsgate made it official (via Variety) that their next “John Wick” franchise spinoff film will focus on Donnie Yen‘s standout character from “John Wick 4,” Caine. This project’s announcement isn’t exactly a shocking turn of events as it was first teased at the end of the last “John Wick” installment when it looked like Akira was about to get her revenge on the blind assassin after killing her father at the Osaka Continental.
Robert Askins (“The Umbrella Academy”) is writing the developing action pic with plans for filming to begin sometime next year in Yen’s homestead of Hong Kong. Presumably, the idea is to shoot in Hong Kong, not only as a new location in the Wick-a-verse to explore but also would likely be a more comfortable production stay for the film’s star as well, compared to Germany or NYC.
We’ll have to wait for a director to be named, as one isn’t mentioned at this time.
When we’re first introduced to Caine, he’s a bit of a reluctant pursuer of Wick. However, he, like many other characters in the franchise, is beholden to The High Table to keep his daughter safe from harm. It’ll be interesting to see if the Triads will play a role in this spinoff, given the Hong Kong location would be a perfect excuse to explore that criminal syndicate, who are expected to have a seat at The High Table.
Caine is pretty much another shade of John Wick, although being blind adds an extra element to his action sequences. He’s also an obvious homage to the likes of the beloved cinematic Japanese swordsman, Zatoichi, a samurai franchise character who is incredibly skilled and is most often underestimated by strangers he encounters.
The yet-to-be-titled film isn’t the only spinoff movie on the horizon as “Ballerina” starring Ana de Armas and Norman Reedus, is expected to debut next summer after some extended reshoots in Budapest with the franchise’s new overseer, Chad Stahelski, deeply involved.
“Russian Doll” and “Poker Face” star Natasha Lyonne has reportedly joined the growing cast of Marvel Studios’ reboot of the “Fantastic Four” that is expected to begin shooting this summer at Pinewood Studios UK. The comedic actress is one of a handful of recent additions to the latest MCU project alongside Ralph Ineson, Julia Garner, John Malkovich, and Paul Walter Hauser, with the former playing the planet-eating supervillain, Galactus.
While Deadline announced the news first, their report fails to mention who exactly Lyonne is playing in “Fantastic Four” and how large the role actually will be.
Previously confirmed by Marvel back on Valentine’s Day, the main cast consists of Pedro Pascal as Dr. Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing.
“Fantastic Four” is tentatively set for release in theaters on July 25, 2025, and I’m sure we’ll keep getting neato casting updates throughout the next couple of weeks as we get closer to the film’s production start.
After months of rumblings that Edgar Wright (“Last Night In Soho,” “Baby Driver”) is indeed returning to the world of comic book movies after giving us the Toronto-set “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” and developing “Ant-Man” for Marvel Studios (before exiting as director over creative differences), as Deadline and other trades are now backing up claims that he’s attached to helm Sony Pictures‘ remake of the classic 1960s sci-fi movie “Barbarella.”
That’s not only it; veteran genre screenwriter Jane Goldman will co-write with her daughter, Honey Ross.
The original pic from 1968 that starred a young Jane Fonda was an adaptation of the French comics from Jean-Claude Forest and attempted to infuse the sexual liberation movement as Barbarella, a secret agent who had multiple romantic partners on a bizarre alien planet while trying to find an evil scientist named Duran Duran and stop his dastardly plans. Actress Sydney Sweeney (“Euphoria”) had been previously tapped by the studio to play the titular heroine.
The setting is the planet Lythion in the year 40,000, when Barbarella (Fonda) makes a forced landing while travelling through space. She acts like a female James Bond, vanquishing evil in the forms of robots and monsters. She also rewards, in an uninhibited manner, the handsome men who assist her in the adventure.
Goldman is best known for her many collaborations with director Matthew Vaughn and isn’t new to comic book adaptations, having worked on “X-Men: First Class,” “Kick-Ass,” and “Kingsmen: The Secret Service.” She also helped develop the “Game of Thrones” spinoff pilot “Bloodmoon” with the aim to become the showrunner and was expected to explore the origin of the White Walkers, but wasn’t picked-up by HBO.
This isn’t the only remake that Wright is attached to, as the British filmmaker is also behind Paramount’s “The Running Man,” which has Sweeney’s recent “Anyone But You” co-star Glen Powell (“Twisters”) in the lead role for the dystopian sci-fi action flick based on the Stephen King novel. However, it looks like “The Running Man” is expected to happen first, given Wright is said to be already in the prep stages on the film.
Both Nicolas Winding Refn (“Drive”) and Robert Rodriguez (“Alita: Battle Angel”) previously tried to make their own versions of “Barbarella” that clearly never got further than the development stages, as Sony, I’m sure, is hoping this one sticks and actually goes in front of cameras.
Will we ever actually get “Thor 5” from Marvel Studios? That seems like a huge question mark after the lackluster effort from “Thor: Love & Thunder,” and while lead actor Chris Hemsworth seems gung-ho about donning the cape once more, what the studio actually wants to do is another matter entirely. Yet, there is a glimmer of optimism thanks to his “Furiosa” director, George Miller, who recently responded to Comic Book about his interest in working with the fellow Aussie again for a possible fifth “Thor” movie.
“I would work with Chris on anything. I really would. He’s a wonderful actor. He’s got the full range of all the skills,” the director said of the potential of working with Hemsworth again on “Thor 5” at Marvel Studios. “I mean, you’ve got to be athletic, physically. But, you also gotta be athletic emotionally and intellectually to take on these very, ultimately fairly complex, any role really. So, I was very lucky with all my cast, and particularly in the way that Anya and Chris matched each other. Particularly towards the end of the month.”
Hard to imagine that Kevin Feige wouldn’t be completely thrilled if Miller came into the Marvel offices to declare his intentions to direct a film for them. While there are certainly a bunch of hurdles to jump to get to the point of Miller actually getting involved with the MCU and the next “Thor” movie, we can’t completely dismiss the idea.
There was a time when Miller nearly made his own big studio comic book movie with “Justice League Mortal” (long before Zack Snyder’s version), and there have been reports of Warner Bros. at various times pursuing him again to tackle DC characters like Superman and Green Lantern. Perhaps something like a fifth “Thor” movie might be a little more appealing to the filmmaker, given his last three movies have very much had a fantasy/fairytale angle to them, not to mention already working with “Thor” cast members like Hemsworth on “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” and Heimdall (currently kicking it in Valhalla with Jane Foster) actor Idris Elba was his co-lead in his genie pic “Three Thousand Years of Longing.”
It’s not lost on us the handful of references in these last two “Fury Road” connected films that have mentioned Valkyries and Valhalla as part of the Citadel’s wasteland warrior culture, seemingly adding elements of the Norse myths.
However, it’s worth noting despite all the online rumors concerning early “Thor 5” development and Hemsworth’s willingness to make one more movie to get things right alongside a potential death scene, Marvel Studios hasn’t shared any official plans for a fifth movie or that they’re even keen to make it after the mixed reactions to “Thor: Love & Thunder.”
Writer/director Jon Favreau is gearing up to shoot the very first live-action “Star Wars” movie to be released in theaters since “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” back in 2019. His feature film spinoff of the Disney+ series, “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” is assembling a cast that could feature veteran actress Sigourney Weaver in a mysterious role as The Hollywood Reporter is backing up claims she’s in the mix for the project.
Weaver isn’t unfamiliar with sci-fi or franchise roles, having played Lt. Ellen Ripley in the “Alien” franchise (her “Aliens” co-star Michael Biehn already appeared in the TV series incarnation of “The Mandalorian” in that Ahsoka episode) in four feature films (a fifth installment from Neill Blomkamp was scrapped by Ridley Scott/20th Century Fox), is a key figure from the “Ghostbusters” movies, featured as a villain in the Netflix/Marvel Television series “The Defenders,” and is currently part of James Cameron’s “Avatar” franchise including those other three sequels.
You might remember that “The Mandalorian” originally started out in the first season as an original bounty hunter tale focusing on Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin. But quickly pivoted toward becoming a full-blown fan-service cameo factory for Dave Filoni’s animated characters from “Clone Wars” and “Rebels” to make their live-action debuts. This led to Bo-Katan and Ahsoka becoming key figures in the television realm, eventually removing the bounty hunter element altogether from “The Mandalorian” in the process.
Returning cast members from the series are sort of dwindling after the passing of Carl Weathers (“Predator”), the sexual misconduct allegations levied against comedian Horatio Sanz that likely pulled him from the “Star Wars” franchise entirely, and the very public firing of Gina Carano by Disney for some bizarre antisemitic posts connected to her own defense of posts understood to be transphobic in nature.
Meanwhile, we’ll keep our fingers crossed that Paul Sun-Hyung Lee is able to reprise his role as Captain Carson Teva in the film. There is an expectation that folks such as Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan and Giancarlo Esposito’s Moff Gideon will be back though.
Disney’s Bob Iger had previously announced that “The Mandlaorian & Grogu” would be heading into theaters on May 22, 2026.
We have our Galactus! Marvel Studios has reportedly landed on veteran character actor Ralph Ineson to play the iconic planet-eating bad guy in their upcoming “Fantastic Four” reboot that is gearing up to start filming this summer at Pinewood Studios UK in England. Making this the actor’s second MCU role after appearing in James Gunn’s “Guardians of The Galaxy” as a Ravager pilot.
This casting update comes to us from The Hollywood Reporter, as they’ve also added John Malkovich in another undisclosed part. You might remember that Malkovich was once in the mix to play The Vulture in Sam Raimi’s never-made “Spider-Man 4.”
The two new additions to the “Fantastic Four” cast will join Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Julia Garner, and Paul Walter Hauser. Matt Shakman directs after tackling the Disney+ series, “WandaVision,” which also played with period production design.
Ineson is likely known for roles in genre projects like “Game of Thrones,” “The Witch,” “The Creator,” “The Green Knight,” and will be part of Robert Eggers’ remake of “Nosferatu.”
While the reboot is expected to take place in the 1960s, some retro-futuristic skyline in promo artwork might have telegraphed that the movie is set in another universe, outside of Earth-616. “Fantastic Four” has a release date of July 25, 2025, and with casting in full swing, we’ll likely keep hearing new names being added over the coming days/weeks. So, stay tuned for those updates.
THE RONIN 