After being in the mix to play Bruce Wayne/Batman in Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” and losing the more recent role of James Gunn‘s new Superman, British actor Nicholas Hoult has landed the key villainous part of DC Comics supervillain, Lex Luthor. Deadline first reported the casting update. This comes after both Alexander and Bill Skarsgard were linked for being in the running alongside Hoult to play Luthor in “Superman: Legacy.”
The rest of the cast consists of David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Venezuelan actress María Gabriela de Faría playing a villain called The Engineer, Nathan Fillion features as Guy Gardner/Green Lantern, Isabela Merced set to play Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi will play Mister Terrific, and Anthony Carrigan takes on the role of Rex Mason/Metamorpho.
Hoult is no stranger to comic book roles after playing Dr. Hank McCoy/Beast in the “X-Men” prequel films that launched with Matthew Vaughn’s “X-Men: First Class” and ended with “Dark Phoenix.” Previously, the cinematic version of the Lex Luthor role had been played by Gene Hackman, Kevin Spacey in “Superman Returns,” and more recently Jesse Eisenberg played the DC Comics baddie in the lackluster “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.”
The last version of Luthor was slowly putting together his own team, The Legion of Doom, with Joe Manganiello’s Slade Wilson, aka, Deathstroke being his first major acquisition in a post-credit scene. It remains to be seen if Lex’s Legion will be part of Gunn’s future plans for the DCU alongside “Creature Commandos” and “The Authority.”
“Superman: Legacy,” the first big live-action feature film from DC Studios’ new reset DCU, will be released on July 11, 2025.
It’s been a good chunk of time since we’ve seen a “Jason Bourne” installment and a report from Deadline mentions that Universal Pictures is gearing up to develop a new installment with a fifth untitled movie. Not just that, but they’re currently in negotiations with filmmaker Edward Berger, who recently got on everyone’s radar after his acclaimed Oscar-winning film “All Quiet On The Western Front” made quite the splash and earned a statue for Best International Feature Film earlier this year at the Academy Awards. If a deal is reached, Berger would be tasked to both develop and direct the action film.
The main covet about the next installment is that Universal hasn’t secured franchise star Matt Damon and his participation would hinge on a “great script and story.” Worth remembering the Jeremy Renner-led spinoff film “Bourne Legacy” didn’t reignite the property and the studio would eventually pivot back to Damon for the 2016 installment. I would assume the studio has already learned its lesson trying to replace Damon/Bourne and will likely wait until the star accepts the creative vision before agreeing to a return.
Bourne is a CIA assassin who is dealing with amnesia alongside a cat-and-mouse game with his former handlers looking to terminate him before disastrous secret government programs used to eliminate American enemies can be made public. The films were adapted from the popular Robert Ludlum books and the first installment was helmed by Doug Liman.
Oscar-winning actress Alicia Vikander (“Tomb Raider”) was a new addition to the franchise in the 2016 film and likely would be offered the chance to return as Heather Lee. The character was the head of the CIA Cyber Ops Division.
Given that this is so early in the development process, we shouldn’t expect that filming on this sixth installment will happen anytime soon.
There has been a long-gestating remake of “The Saint” in the works at Paramount Pictures that previous had a popular TV series from the 1960s and a lesser-known feature film remake starring Val Kilmer (“Heat”) and helmed by Phillip Noyce (“Clear & Present Danger”) that released back in 1997. A new report from Deadline has revealed things are up and running again with Doug Liman (“Bourne Identity”) set to direct and actor Regé-Jean Page enlisted for the role of Simon Templar. A master of disguise, not that dissimilar to Ethan Hunt, who uses the names of Roman Catholic saints as his aliases while on various impossible missions.
The British actor will be replacing his “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” co-star Chris Pine (“Star Trek”), who had originally been attached to the remake back when Dexter Fletcher (“Eddie The Eagle”) was set to direct. Pine had previously attempted to restart the Jack Ryan film franchise for Paramount before his installment was unsuccessful and eventually the studio selected John Krasinski to lead the Amazon Prime series. So, Pine’s hiring was always a bit bizarre after their experience on “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.”
Page has recently dabbled in the spy genre playing a heel in The Russo Brothers’ Netflix action pic “The Gray Man,” but didn’t really get a chance to do much action in that one in comparison to the other actors in it.
It’s maybe worth mentioning that Roger Moore, the original actor from the ’60s TV series would eventually take over the James Bond role in the early 1970s after Richard Lazenby decided not to return for more installments. Page (35) has been long considered by UK tabloids as a strong contender to become the next 007, although, EON/MGM have yet to announce who they’ll actually cast other than a desire to hire an actor in their 30s.
Here is the official synopsis for the 1997 incarnation:
Based on the popular spy series, this film follows suave international thief Simon Templar (Val Kilmer), who is contracted by Russian oil magnate Ivan Tretiak (Rade Serbedzija) to steal a formula for cold fusion. So Templar, nicknamed “The Saint” because of his use of Roman Catholic saints as aliases, finds scientist Dr. Emma Russell (Elisabeth Shue), seduces her, and steals the information. However, because the formula was incomplete, Tretiak now wants to kill Templar and kidnap Russell.
Like “Mission: Impossible,” “The Saint” has an earworm of a theme song that got reworked by Orbital for the 1997 film.
After the success and audience reaction to “Thor: Ragnarok,” it felt like a no-brainer for Marvel Studios to bring back writer/director Taika Waititi to tackle a follow-up with “Thor: Love & Thunder.” However, with that sequel in the rearview mirror, it does seem like people weren’t entirely thrilled with that installment, and has landed alongside “Thor: The Dark World” as one of the lesser entries in the franchise. What exactly went wrong isn’t terribly clear. Still, it sounds like whatever comes next in the “Thor” universe won’t have Waititi behind the camera as the filmmaker has decidedly moved on and is now reiterating previous public statements made to Business Insider along with giving fans some hope that a fifth movie is potentially in early development.
While they don’t have a direct quote in the piece, Inverse says while speaking with the director that Waititi has told them he has “heard” that Marvel and Chris Hemsworth are talking about what to do next with the franchise. The main takeaway is that Waititi is moving on for the time being, which isn’t that crazy to imagine given the poor reception of “Thor: Love & Thunder” and how busy the filmmaker has become with a growing list of projects in his queue.
Waititi confirmed he’s not currently working on “Thor 5,” which would be a hypothetical follow-up to his divisive “Thor: Love & Thunder.” Waititi said that while he heard star Chris Hemsworth and Marvel are in talks about making a fifth Thor movie, Waititi “needed a break from that.” “It’s a very draining process working on these films for two and a half years and nonstop,” Waititi tells Inverse.
Some of the other projects on Taika’s plate include a new live-action “Flash Gordon” remake at 20th Century Studios (had been animated previously), a mystery “Star Wars” film at Lucasfilm (we’ll be shocked if that actually comes together), a feature film adaptation of French sci-fi graphic novel “The Incal” from Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius, and adds in the interview the main thing he’ll be focusing on is “Klara & The Sun.” Oddly enough, while we had assumed that Waititi had exited the long-gestating “Akira” movie (development goes back to the 2000s) at Warner Bros., the director gives the impression he is still actively involved alongside screenwriter Charles Yu and trying his best to get an authentic version based on the original manga.
“Obviously, I think people who loved the film, I want to make sure that they’ve also read the books because there’s a lot more in the books than there are in the film,” Waititi says. “And some people are very protective over the film, which is not quite the same as the books. So we’re drawing a lot from the books.”
To Taika’s credit, it’s been extremely difficult to get the “Thor” movies right and he was able to spin magic with “Thor: Ragnarok.”
Unused concept artwork of Valhalla from artist Emmanuel Shiu and Marvel Studios.
When it comes to a fifth “Thor” installment there are plenty of things that Marvel could use if they were finally willing to make an epic-level movie that harkens back to the Norse mythology that the studio has been mostly avoiding over the last four films. “Thor 5” could quickly become Marvel’s version of “Lord of The Rings: Return of The King” considering the world of Tolkien is directly inspired by the Norse myths.
Those tidbits include James Bond actor Daniel Craig nearly playing Thor’s dead brother Balder The Brave in “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness” (cameo was cut) who had been a casualty of Loki’s Asgard pranks in the original myth and was briefly referenced in “Loki” Season 2. Balder’s comic book love interest Karnilla The Norn Queen, might attempt to resurrect her lost love and make dangerous alliances to make that happen. The Light Elves were teased in “She-Hulk” with the impish trickster Runa and their Kingdom within the realm of Alfheim, a fresh location they could easily use for new battle sequences. The realm of Valhalla was established in “Thor: Love & Thunder” which happens to be the home of brave dead/fallen heroes (That could include Balder, Angela, and Thor’s uncle Cul Borson) known as The Einherjar and are led by former foe, Harokin. With Ragnarok over and Odin long dead, their purpose hasn’t been fulfilled, and could become restless waiting for some big battle that is never coming. The Rock Trolls, led by iconic Thor villain Ulik, almost appeared in the original film and would make for a neat surrogate for Orcs. Speaking of Cul Borson, he could become the MCU version of The Midgard Serpent, aka, Jörmungandr, who ultimately kills Thor. Having Thor sacrifice himself to save the Light Elves or the living world entirely could be another honorable way for another original Avenger to bow out.
With that all said, Marvel has yet to announce a screenwriter or new director and we shouldn’t expect any immediate movement outside of this attempt to secure Hemsworth. Hopefully, the next time Kevin Feige is ready to announce new projects “Thor 5” will be among them and we could get early vague plot details.
As Marvel Studios is already seeing its fair share of headaches after the weak domestic box office opening for their latest pic “The Marvels,” another big one has sprung up. The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that director Destin Daniel Cretton has exited the next “Avengers” installment titled “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” and there doesn’t sound like an immediate replacement waiting in the wings for the MCU event film.
Jeff Loveness (“Rick & Morty“) had been tapped to pen the sequel’s script after working on bringing a cinematic version of the Kang The Conqueror (played by actor Jonathan Majors) variant to the big screen with “Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania.” There had been some rumblings this week from journalist/author Joanna Robinson (via ThePlaylist) on The House of R podcast that the writer was off the project and the studio had considered pivoting from Kang as the team-up’s next big villain.
Marvel has yet to officially comment on any changes to the film or its narrative direction.
This comes after “Ant-Man 3” had a bit of a disastrous response from audiences and the reason season of “Loki” attempted to distance itself from that film as well alongside Kang as the overseer of the Multiverse entirely. Potentially, allowing either Tom Hiddleston’s Loki to fill his spot as the villain (“Avengers: The Loki Dynasty”?) or Marvel looking to recast the role (Given Majors’ legal issues pertaining to domestic violence) with a big-name actor that could reenergize audiences. Thankfully, Kang being a Multiverse baddie with an unlimited amount of variant counterparts, a recast of the role wouldn’t be all that strange for audiences to accept.
This wouldn’t be the first director to exit a Marvel film in the development stage. Some of the others in the past include Edgar Wright, Patty Jenkins, and Scott Derrickson. There is an expectation his working relationship with Marvel won’t end as his Disney+ series “Wonder Man” is expected to resume filming as the strikes have been resolved and would likely continue to be a creative force on the previously announced sequel to “Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings.” As reports say Cretton will now focus on “Shang-Chi 2” which would see actor Simu Liu reprise the role of the Asian-American superhero.
“Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” was expected to be ready for release in May of 2026. However, if the film has lost both the director and screenwriter you could easily expect that date to be pushed back even further or end up replaced with “Avengers: Secret Wars.”
Today, it was revealed in a report from Deadline that “Star Wars” franchise actor Pedro Pascal is now in talks with Marvel Studios to play Dr. Reed Richards, aka, Mister Fantastic in their upcoming reboot of “The Fantastic Four,” which is being directed by Matt Shakman (“Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” “WandaVision”).
However, they’re quick to mention Pascal hasn’t closed a deal for the part. That’s not hard to believe with a shoot at Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom looming and a very busy Pascal has a multitude of projects to complete including his role in Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator 2,” the second season of “The Last of Us,” a lead role in Zach Cregger’s next film “Weapons,” and not to mention a potential return for the fourth season of “The Mandalorian.”
Daniel Richtman, who is known for getting a leg-up on casting intel, was the first to post about the potential casting selection.
Although, SlashFilm has chimed in with a claim that Pascal has signed on. It’s maybe worth mentioning we haven’t had much in the way of scoops from the outlet in a very long time, yet, then again, they tend to only make claims they can back up.
Richards is considered the “smartest man in the world” and when the group is exposed to cosmic energy while in outer space end up developing super-human abilities with the good doctor becoming rubbery and able to stretch his body/limbs to extreme levels without injury.
The next big step ahead is finding the other actors to fill out the roles of Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm. “Fantastic Four” has a tentative release date of May 2, 2025, but that date could easily move up or get pushed back considering how often Marvel changes their release dates.
The “Alien” franchise is undergoing a bit of a stress test since the reigns have moved over to Disney post-merger and with a new feature film heading to theaters next summer it does certainly feel like the brass running 20th Century Studios actually is trying its best to reinvest into the sci-fi horror genre. We’re not only getting a new movie but FX/Hulu and Scott Free are behind an Earthbound prequel series as well that had been filming in Thailand earlier in the year. With the strikes resolved, it was recently revealed to The Wrap by the show’s creator/director Noah Hawley (“Legion,” “Fargo”) that the show is aiming for release sometime in 2025 with the production expected to ramp back up in February.
The Ronin can share a small update on the untitled “Alien” series. Executive producer Dana Gonzales had been previously linked as one of the show’s cinematographers (latest credit being “The Toxic Avenger”) and will direct an unknown amount of episodes alongside Hawley. His directing credits include “Legion,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Changeling,” and two upcoming episodes from Season 5 of “Fargo.”
We’re still waiting for more concrete plot details about the sci-fi horror series but it is expected to take place before the events of the original 1979 film and out-of-character for the franchise will mostly be set on Earth with the potential of Weyland Industries/Weyland-Yutani (the secondary villain of the franchise) being at the core of it. The cast of the “Alien” series includes Sydney Chandler (“Don’t Worry Darling”), Alex Lawther (“Andor,” “Black Mirror”), Samuel Blenkin (“Black Mirror,” “The Sandman”), Essie Davis, and Adarsh Gourav.
This is how Hawley described the show to Esquire back in 2022:
“It’s set on Earth of the future. At this moment, I describe that as Edison versus Westinghouse versus Tesla. Someone’s going to monopolize electricity. We just don’t know which one it is … In the movies, we have this Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which is clearly also developing artificial intelligence but what if there are other companies trying to look at immortality in a different way, with cyborg enhancements or transhuman downloads? Which of those technologies is going to win?”
On the film front, director Fede Álvarez‘s “Alien: Romulus” has a tentative release date of August 16, 2024, and according to the filmmaker, his director’s cut of the pic got the seal of approval from producer Ridley Scott. There is an expectation that the movie will focus on an off-world colony inhabited by a group of young human colonists. Given that a director’s cut is already being put together we shouldn’t be that shocked if some teaser images or footage is released by 20th Century between now and CinemaCon 2024.
When exactly the new “Alien” series will drop in 2025 remains to be seen as we’ll likely get a release window closer to when the show actually completes filming.
Yesterday, it was announced by Marvel/Disney that they would be shifting around their release dates for upcoming films. The main tidbits from these updates see “Deadpool 3” (only completed 50% of filming and resuming later this month) moving to July 26 taking a spot originally meant for “Captain America: Brave New World” (wrapped before the strike). Both “Captain America 4” and “Thunderbolts” would be moving out of 2024 entirely with new dates in 2025. This would make “Deadpool 3” the only feature film coming in 2024 and would overload audiences in 2025 with four releases.
These are the new dates for the upcoming slate of Marvel Studios feature film releases:
DEADPOOL 3 – July 26, 2024
CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD – February 14, 2025
FANTASTIC FOUR – May 2, 2025
THUNDERBOLTS – July 25, 2025
BLADE – November 7, 2025
AVENGERS: THE KANG DYNASTY – May 1, 2026
AVENGERS: SECRET WARS – May 7, 2027
ARMOR WARS – TBA
SHANG-CH 2 – TBA
X-MEN REBOOT – TBA
“Thunderbolts,” “Fantastic Four,” and “Blade” have yet to start filming and we should be expecting some big casting news coming soon as the actors’ strike is resolved (pending membership ratification) and the casting process can now resume.
However, even with that July date for “Deadpool 3” now officially etched-in they have two fallback dates just in case the film needs more time to be completed given that normally films of this scale tend to take longer to be completed. Those include the film’s original date of September 6, 2024, and the former “Thunderbolts” date of December 20, 2024. The hope here is that Marvel Studios and director Shawn Levy won’t be rushing things as the film has only finished 50% of production (also would likely need reshoots/pickups after a round of editing).
This won’t be the last time Marvel shifts around these upcoming dates and we should be prepared for more shuffles in the future.
There can be only one! Lionsgate has spent over a decade trying to put together a modern reboot of the beloved 1986 film “Highlander,” which focused on a collective of immortals battling it out across time and the world to gain “the prize.” That prize is the final living immortal and being granted a natural death from old age. This latest incarnation of “Highlander” hails from “John Wick” franchise director Chad Stahelski and stars British actor Henry Cavill (“The Witcher”) in a leading role. We now have a release window for the reboot thanks to an update from the studio.
Lionsgate chairman Joe Drake on a recent earnings call (via IGN) has stated they hope that the pic will be part of the studios’ tentpole slate in 2026. There were some indications that filming on “Highlander” could begin early next year and given that the strikes are over, there could be some more casting announcements in the very near future.
Previous reporting suggested that the budget could be north of $100 million, which would be closer to what “John Wick 4” cost the studio and a potential indication of how large the action-packed film might end up. Screenwriter Mike Finch (“Predators,” “John Wick 4”) is said to have penned the latest draft of the script.
Cavill is an excellent casting choice for the swordplay franchise after cutting his teeth as it were on “The Witcher.” His extensive sword/stunt training on that Netflix fantasy series should help when the team at 87 Eleven Action Design put the actor through his paces in the action prep process which can be grueling.
This isn’t the only project on the horizon for Stahelski as he is attached to direct the feature film adaptation of the PlayStation samurai video game, “Ghost of Tsushima,” which recently got a development update with the filmmaker revealing they “have a script.” That project over at Sony Pictures is assumed to be the next thing Stahelski makes once he wraps on “Highlander.”
We’re hopeful that Lionsgate will be able to release the film released around the spring/summer of 2026, but we’ll have to wait for a concrete date.
At midnight, it was announced by the official Twitter account of SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union, that they’ve finally reached a tentative deal worth “over one billion dollars” with the AMPTP (the major Hollywood studios/streamers). Ending the actors’ strike that had been ongoing for 118 days. This deal comes when further negotiations occurred after the AMPTP gave their “last and final offer,” although, it wasn’t.
Here is the union’s official statement that was posted on a thread on Twitter:
We are thrilled and proud to tell you that today your TV/Theatrical Negotiating Committee voted unanimously to approve a tentative agreement with the AMPTP. As of 12:01 a.m. PT on Nov. 9, our strike is officially suspended, and all picket locations are closed.
In a contract valued at over one billion dollars, we have achieved a deal of extraordinary scope that includes “above-pattern” minimum compensation increases, unprecedented provisions for consent and compensation that will protect members from the threat of AI, and for the first time establishes a streaming participation bonus. Our Pension and Health caps have been substantially raised, which will bring much-needed value to our plans. In addition, the deal includes numerous improvements for multiple categories including outsize compensation increases for background performers, and critical contract provisions protecting diverse communities.
We have arrived at a contract that will enable SAG-AFTRA members from every category to build sustainable careers. Many thousands of performers now and into the future will benefit from this work.
The new tentative deal means that pre-production for movies/shows shooting in 2024 can resume alongside productions that had paused earlier in the year. Membership will still have a chance to vote to ratify the deal like what previously happened with the WGA (writers’ union) deal with the studios.
However, how quickly things get back to filming isn’t entirely known as it could be weeks or months depending on the project. Yet, this is great news for the industry and both unions should be proud that they’ve got historical deals for their membership by sticking to their guns.
THE RONIN 