At the end of Avengers: Endgame, we saw Thor join the ranks of The Guardians of The Galaxy and that seemingly will be carrying over to Thor: Love & Thunder.
The Hollywood Reporter says that after Chris Pratt does some additional photography for The Tomorrow War he’ll join the production of Thor: Love & Thunder (working title The Big Salad) sometime next year in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Reprising the Peter Quill/Star-Lord role for the Thor sequel.
Love and Thunder is due to shoot in Australia in January, and Pratt will do a short round of additional photography for his sci-fi movie The Tomorrow War before heading to the land Down Under.
I have to assume the rest of the Guardians cast will being showing up as well.
Sorry folks, Marvel Studios is not going to use a digital-double of Chadwick Boseman for their Black Panther sequel. As terrible as that sounded it wasn’t even something they’ve been considering according to Marvel Studios brass.
In a new interview with Marvel Studios executive vice president Victoria Alonso, she reveals to Clarin (via Comic Book Movie) they are not in anyway considering CGI effects to resurrect recently departed actor Chadwick Boseman for Black Panther 2 as they haven’t even started to think about what they want to do as they’re still mourning the late actor.
ALONSO: “No. There’s only one Chadwick, and he’s not with us. Our king, unfortunately, has died in real life, not just in fiction, and we are taking a little time to see how we return to the story and what we do to honor this chapter of what has happened to us that was so unexpected, so painful, so terrible, really.”
“[We] have to think carefully about what we are going to do, and how, and think about how we are going to honor the franchise.”
Chadwick Boseman, you might remember suddenly passed over the summer from colon cancer. Something he kept private and even shot multiple Marvel films during his treatment. People close to the production of Black Panther 2 (including Marvel and Disney) are stilling mourning the loss of Chadwick and the studio rightfully isn’t rushing the production giving people time to grieve. It’s still unclear what they’ll do with the film which fans should have an extra notch of patience for the cast, creatives, and crew at this time.
The ghoulish rumor originally came from YouTuber Grace Randolph, who isn’t a reliable source of news.
Despite multiple fan-petitions to remove actress Amber Heard from the role of Mera in Aquaman 2, she has now confirmed her return to Entertainment Weekly with production expected to begin sometime in 2021.
HEARD: “I’m super excited about the amount of fan love and the amount of fan appreciation that Aquaman has acquired and that it has garnered so much excitement for Aquaman and Mera that it means we’ll be coming back. I’m so excited to film that.”
There had been an assumption that filming could return to Australia at Village Roadshow Studios with director James Wan attached.
It’s worth noting that studios normally ignore most online petitions with either positive or negative demands and there had been plenty of calls to remove other actors in Warner Bros. franchises that never went anywhere.
Aquaman 2 has a release date of December 16th, 2022.
Deadline reports that Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen (Doctor Strange, Casino Royale) in talks with Warner Bros. to take the role of Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts 3, replacing Johnny Depp. Mads being director David Yate’s choice to take the role.
Put Mads Mikkelsen atop the list of actors being considered to replace Johnny Depp in the David Yates-directed Fantastic Beast 3, the third installment of the Harry Potter spinoff based on the JK Rowling fantasy franchise. Sources said he is Yates’ choice to play Grindelwald and he is in early talks.
Mikkelsen is no stranger to playing villains including the iconic Hannibal Lecter in the series Hannibal and feels like an organic casting choice for The Potterverse. It’ll be interesting to see if this version of the villain would be taking visual cues from Depp’s incarnation or if they’ll try something a bit different.
Johnny Depp announced his forced exit from the franchise via Instagram likely connected to the ruling against him in his libel case against The Sun. However, despite only shooting a single scene will be reportedly payed $10 million by the studio as part of his pay or play deal.
Fantastic Beasts 3 is currently filming in London and is expected to be released on July 15th, 2022.
An excerpt from a new interview from George Lucas has been making the rounds online (via Reddit) that comes from a new book titled The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005 has the franchise creator talking-up ideas he had for the sequel trilogy that ultimately weren’t used by Lucasfilm/Disney. Lucas first mentioned that Disney wasn’t interested in his ideas during his infamous interview where he called them “white slavers”.
He alludes that he wanted Luke Skywalker to restart the Jedi with what seems to be 50-100 Jedi that survived the events of Order 66 from Revenge of The Sith, it sounds like a much larger amount than we would have expected.
LUCAS: “It starts out a few years after Return of The Jedi and we establish pretty quickly that there’s this underworld, there are offshoot stormtroopers who started their own planets, and that Luke is trying to restart the Jedi. He puts the word out, so out of 100,000 Jedi, maybe 50 or 100 are left. The Jedi have to grow again from scratch, so Luke has to find two and three-year-olds, and train them. It’ll be 20 years before you have a new generation of Jedi”
“By the end of the trilogy Luke would have rebuilt much of the Jedi, and we would have the renewal of the New Republic, with Leia, Senator Organa, becoming the Supreme Chancellor in charge of everything. So she ended up being the Chosen One.”
I’m slightly curious if this germ of an idea is why Disney wanted to explore a Jedi characters like Cal Kestis in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Kanan Jarrus in Rebels both survivors of Order 66. I’m also curious if they try to reuse it in the Disney+ shows.
Ultimately, the version of Luke Skywalker we saw wasn’t this version as Lucas alludes wanting to have a new Jedi Order established, which never happened in the films we got.
Leia’s final journey was more than likely hindered because of her sudden death while Colin Trevorrow was still working on Duel of The Fates and they had to make creative choices to work around that tragedy.
One of the biggest issues a lot of fans of myself with the prequel trilogy is that it never really had a menacing villain and once they killed off Darth Maul, who at the time felt like was going to become the next Darth Vader was dispensed so quickly it felt like a horrible mistake on the part of George Lucas. Neither Darth Sidous and Count Dooku really measured up “great villains” feeling like Maul was wasted potential.
Well, it sounds like Lucas had plans on bringing him back for his version of the sequel trilogy that was never used by Lucasfilm/Disney.
During a interview for a new retrospective book on the prequels titled The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005, George states that he wanted to use both Darth Maul and Darth Talon (Legends/Expanded Universe character) as the villains in the new trilogy with the latter becoming the new Vader of those films.
What looks like a page from the book with these details leaked on Reddit.
LUCAS: “Darth Maul trained a girl, Darth Talon, who was in the comic books, as his apprentice. She was the new Darth Vader, and most of the action was with her. So these were the two main villains of the trilogy.Maul eventually becomes the godfather of crime in the universe because, as the Empire falls, he takes over.”
Darth Maul got a bit of redemption from his wasted use in The Phantom Menace in The Clone Wars and Rebels becoming more of a developed character. Then reappearing in a brief cameo at the end of Solo: A Star Wars Story as a crimelord in Crimson Dawn, which seemed to mirror what Lucas had in mind for the new trilogy. Despite unverified rumors it doesn’t seem likely we’ll see the character return in the live-action realm anytime soon given that Darth Maul actor Ray Park may have posted revenge porn on his Instagram account.
The inclusion of Darth Talon is interesting since we’ve seen her pop-up in a lot of places in the Star Wars mythology and development.
Darth Talon from Star Wars: Legacy published by Dark Horse Comics
Darth Talon originally came from the Dark Horse Comics run but under Disney wouldn’t be part of canon anymore allowing Lucasfilm to use the character however they’d like. There had been development on a Darth Maul game titled Battle of The Sith Lords that included Talon in concept artwork but the project was ultimately killed after Disney acquired the company.
Darth Maul & Darth Talon concept artwork from Battle of The Sith Lords
Her journey didn’t seem to end with Disney there as unused concept artwork from Star Wars: The Force Awakens confirms that someone at Lucasfilm considered using Darth Talon in the new films but for whatever reason J.J. Abrams or Kathleen Kennedy decided against it.
Darth Talon concept art from Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Asajj Ventress, a key figure in The Clone Wars happened to be based on a rejected Sith design from the prequels but got second life in the animation side of things. It sounds like Lucas wanted the same thing for Talon on the live-action side, but it was never fully realized.
I’d personally love to see Talon get her own series which could be in the cards as Disney+ seems to be keen to develop various Star Wars shows.
While we didn’t any new details about Jordan Peele’s third directorial effort for Universal Pictures, the studio announced via Deadline that the untitled film’s release date has been set for July 22nd, 2022 a week after Fantastic Beasts 3 and in the third week of release of Captain Marvel 2. This would suggest Peele’s project will have some stiff competition opening weekend.
Details on Jordan’s next feature film haven’t been made public but his last two films Get Out and Us skewed into the societal horror sub-genre. Peele won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for his work on Get Out.
I’ll keep my hopes up for him to tackle something more in the realm of science fiction.
As a producer he’s a busy bee as Jordan is behind HBO’s Lovecraft Country, Amazon’s Hunters, The Twilight Zone reboot, the upcoming soft-reboot of horror flick Candyman directed by Captain Marvel 2’s Nia DaCosta, and is reportedly developing a remake of The People Under The Stairs.
While I was slightly let down with Us, I’m beyond excited to see what he’s planning on doing next.
Today, Warner Bros. announced that their Potterverse film Fantastic Beasts 3 would be getting a new summer release date of July 15th, 2022. The sequel will be competing directly with Marvel Studios’ Captain Marvel 2 in it’s second weekend of release.
It remains to be seen if Captain Marvel 2 keeps it’s July 8th, 2022 spot or if Warner Bros. moves Fantastic Beasts 3 again. The film’s previous release date was November 12th, 2021.
This comes after filming has already begun in England despite the announcement that Johnny Depp has officially exited the franchise as the main villain. The actor released a statement on his Instagram account last week that he was being forced to give up the role upon request of the studio.
There is an expectation that Warner Bros. will recast the Grindelwald role but has yet to make any formal announcements on Depp’s replacement.
Deadline reports that filmmaker Jeff Nichols (Mud, Midnight Special) has been hired by Paramount Pictures to write and direct a third film in the A Quiet Place franchise, which had it’s first two installments directed by John Krasinski.
They aren’t saying if the project is a direct sequel featuring the Abbott family or simply set in the world of the other two films.
Jeff had been developing a remake of Alien Nation for 20th Century Fox before the merger with Disney. The original was a sci-fi take on the Lethal Weapon and Beverly Hills Cop model of the buddy cop genre.
A Quiet Place II was delayed by Paramount Pictures to April 23rd, 2021 due to COVID-19.
A QUIET PLACE II – The Abbott family must now face the terrors of the outside world as they fight for survival in silence. Forced to venture into the unknown, they realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path.
The Ronin has been able to confirm that The Mighty Ducks franchise actor Emilio Estevez will be taking the role of director on the upcoming Disney+ series currently filming in Vancouver. The actor is reprising the role of Gordon Bombay as well.
Estevez might be best known for directing the comedy Men At Work that co-starred his brother Charlie Sheen but has tackled TV with CSI: NY and Cold Case.
Disney+ is looking to bring multiple nostalgia projects from 80-90s to the streaming platform including a soft-reboot film of Honey, I Shrunk The Kids titled Shrunk with director Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park 3, Captain America: The First Avenger) returning and Turner & Hooch reboot series.
This new incarnation of The Mighty Ducks will star Lauren Graham (Bad Santa, Gilmore Girls) and Brady Noon (Good Boys).
The series is set in present-day Minnesota, where the Mighty Ducks have evolved from scrappy underdogs to an ultra-competitive, powerhouse youth hockey team. After 12-year-old Evan (Noon) is unceremoniously cut from the Ducks, he and his mom, Alex (Graham), set out to build their own ragtag team of misfits to challenge the cutthroat, win-at-all-costs culture of competitive youth sports.
The Mighty Ducks is expected to drop on Disney+ sometime in 2021.
THE RONIN 