A full room of concept art in a new WandaVision featurette might have revealed a special cameo. A piece of artwork featuring fellow Avenger Wonder Man has been spotted which could mean the character may end up in the Marvel Studios series that has already started airing on Disney+. You can see the Marvel superhero with the “W” on his chest in the top left corner in the image below.
You might not remember but Simon Williams aka Wonder Man had once been set to appear in Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.2 and played by Nathan Fillion, there were multiple faux movie posters made up with him as Williams. The cameo was ultimately cut from the film and it remains to be seen if the actor would be asked to reprise the role again if he’s truly in WandaVision.
There is a new update concerning HBO’s upcoming Last of Us series based on the popular post-apocalypse video game franchise from Naughty Dog and PlayStation.
Last of Us is set 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed and centers on the relationship between Joel, a smuggler in this new world, and Ellie, a teenager who may be key to a cure for a deadly pandemic. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle the 14-year-old girl out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey as they traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.
The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Kantemir Balagov will direct the series pilot.
Russian filmmaker Kantemir Balagov, the Cannes darling behind drama Beanpole, has been tapped to direct the pilot for the adaptation of the hit video game.
He replaces Chernobyl’s Johan Renck, who left due to scheduling conflicts.
Another cast member has reportedly joined Marvel’s new Disney+ series Moon Knight.
The Hollywood Reporter has learned that veteran actor Ethan Hawke has landed a villain role in the superhero streaming show. They failed to mention what that role is but the two big contenders sound like Randall Spector aka Shadow Knight, brother of titular hero Moon Knight aka Marc Spector, and fellow mercenary Raoul Bushman.
Moon Knight, aka Marc Spector, a mercenary who has numerous alter egos — cabbie Jake Lockley and millionaire playboy Steven Grant — in order to better fight the criminal underworld. But later he was established as being a conduit for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Most recently, the character was a consultant who dresses in all-white and goes by the name Mr. Knight.
Ethan Hawke might be most recognizable for his roles in action films Training Day and TheMagnificent Seven remake from 2016. He joins a slowly growing cast that consists of Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector and May Calamawy playing the female lead.
Marvel Studios has assembled a directing team that includes Mohamed Diab, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. Filming is said to kick-off this March in Budapest, Hungary and we’ve heard that Disney+ is hoping it can be ready to begin airing on the streaming service in spring/summer 2022. Kevin Feige seemingly confirmed to Collider that the series is going to have six episodes similar to Loki and The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.
We’ll have to wait and see if other superheroes will be crossing over in the show from the horror/supernatural corner of Marvel Comics.
As production is expected to begin soon in Belfast, Northern Ireland for a new live-action Dungeons & Dragons movie from Paramount Pictures, more projects within the fantasy table-top franchise is reportedly in the works. The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Hasbro/eOne is now in the early stages of development on a series with the help of writer Derek Kolstad.
Derek Kolstad, the creator and writer behind the John Wick franchise, has been tapped to pen and develop a pitch for a live-action series based on the Dungeons & Dragons universe.
A screenwriter with massive action chops, Derek is best known for creating the successful John Wick franchise at Lionsgate starring Keanu Reeves, he’s also worked on Marvel’s The Falcon & The Winter Soldier and the Bob Odenkirk action flick Nobody that will be released by Universal next month.
They also mention that other writers are working on multiple other projects, but they stopped short from naming who they are and what they’re developing. This sounds a lot like how a handful of Transformers projects were developed all at once for Hasbro/Paramount, using a writers’ room format to hash-out many different film projects. While there are plenty of stories within the umbrella of the Dungeons & Dragons mythology, it’s unknown if the series will be something original or connected to various table top modules or existing stories/characters.
Paramount’s feature film starring Star Trek actor Chris Pine will be directed by with a release date of Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, the duo behind the comedy Game Night. More casting announcements are expected within the coming weeks/months.
The fantasy genre is getting many high-profile television projects with a Lord of The Rings and Wheel of Time series at Amazon, both expected to have large budgets. HBO is about to begin production on their Game of Thrones prequel House of The Dragon this spring. Streaming giant Netflix has their The Witcher series adaptation starring Henry Cavill that is in the middle of filming Season 2 with another spin-off show in the works and they also recently secured film/television rights to Robert E. Howard’s iconic fantasy character Conan.
A synopsis for The Lord of The Rings series posted by fansite The One Ring and confirmed by IGN doesn’t give us any hard plot details but has now given us two key locations the expensive Amazon project will explore within the Second Age of Middle-Earth.
Amazon had already confirmed that they would covering the island Kingdom of Numenor (Middle-Earth’s Atlantis) that eventually returns to the water after the inhabitants attempt a rebellion against the Elves/immortals sparked by the evil Sauron in his fair-form, a disciple of the original DarkLord Morgoth. Sauron embeds himself into the court after being captured and basically destroys Numenor from within leading to a Morgoth cult that included human sacrifices and turning the rulers/population against the Elves. The Numenoreans eventually made their way to the mainland and led the forces against Sauron at the end of The Second Age leading to the new Dark Lord losing the Ring of Power in defeat.
The two other locations for the show mentioned in the synopsis include the Elvish Kingdom of Lindon and Misty Mountains, the latter being where the Dwarf Kingdom of Khazad-dûm aka Moria that was explored in The Fellowship of The Ring and briefly shown in The Hobbit films. The Kingdom of Lindon was a place that was essentially abandoned by those Elves before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings trilogy that took place in The Third Age.
Lindon included the Noldor and Sindar. The Noldor is the group of Elves that Celebrimbor belonged to, the Elvish Prince who helped forge the Eleven Rings of Power for Sauron in the Second Age and was seen in the Shadow of Mordor video games.
Here is that synopsis.
Amazon Studios’ forthcoming series brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.
These words about the Misty Mountains teasing the Mines of Moria which would suggest we’ll see those Durin Dwarves in the series (ancestors of Dwarves we’ve seen before in the Peter Jackson films), Lindon apparently had Dwarves among their population as well.
Filming is underway in Auckland, New Zealand.
The show’s massive cast includes actors Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Tom Budge, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Daniel Weyman, Lenny Henry, Peter Mullan (Trainspotting, Children of Men), Lloyd Owen, Augustus Prew, Peter Tait, Benjamin Walker (Heart of The Sea, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Arrow, Power), Simon Merrells, Maxim Baldry, Ian Blackburn, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Trystan Gravelle, Thusitha Jayasundera, Fabian McCallum, Geoff Morrell, Alex Tarrant, Leon Wadham, and Sara Zwangobani.
We finally have a second cast member announced for Marvel’s Moon Knight series starring Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector. The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that actress May Calamawy has nabbed an unknown role in the show that will air on Disney+ in 2022 (we’re hearing spring/summer) and will begin shooting in March.
Moon Knight, aka Marc Spector, a mercenary who has numerous alter egos — cabbie Jake Lockley and millionaire playboy Steven Grant — in order to better fight the criminal underworld. But later he was established as being a conduit for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Most recently, the character was a consultant who dresses in all-white and goes by the name Mr. Knight.
Kevin Feige recently revealed to Collider they hope to give Moon Knight six episodes running about 40-50 minutes per episode, similar to Loki and The Falcon & The WinterSoldier.
The directing team consists of Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Diab along with the indie duo of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead.
Production on Moon Knight is said to begin this March in Budapest, Hungary under the working title Good Faith, a location that was used for their feature film Black Widow. Other filming locations had once included London and the United States.
We are expecting a lot more casting announcements in the coming weeks as production is set to begin in two months.
We’ve seen that anything can happen with Star Wars projects concerning the resurrection of characters and having actors reprising their roles. Collider recently spoke with The PhantomMenace actor Liam Neeson while promoting his new film The Marksman where they asked him if he’d be open to returning to the franchise potentially doing a flashback scene for Lucasfilm’s Obi-Wan Kenobi series starring Ewan McGregor as the former Jedi, now in hiding on Tatooine as he protects a young Luke Skywalker from being discovered by his father Darth Vader.
Liam sounded open to the idea of doing something for the Disney+ series.
NEESON: “Sure, I’d be up for that, yeah.”
Last month, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy revealed during the Disney Investor Day presentation that Hayden Christensen would be returning to the franchise and will play Darth Vader. How much we’ll see of Hayden is unknown at this time.
Australian actor Joel Edgerton just might be back as Uncle Owen alongside a new actor playing a young Luke.
There is an expectation as with Andor, we could be hearing more casting announcements in the very near future ahead of it’s production start in a couple of months. We’ll keep our fingers-crossed that some Legends characters that has yet to join canon or live-action could be reworked for upcoming Star Wars shows such as Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Deborah Chow, who directed action-heavy episodes of The Mandalorian in Season 1 will be helming Obi-Wan Kenobi with filming set to begin this March in the United Kingdom as announced by Kennedy and it’s release date expected to be sometime in 2022.
Another tidbit from Collider’s conversation with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige gives us an episode count for their upcoming She-Hulk series, which will be given 10-episodes, however shorter than normal at 30-minutes.
Some can be much longer than that. But She-Hulk, for instance, is being developed as 10 30-minute episodes.
She-Hulk is directed by Kat Coiro and Anu Valia, with Jessica Gao serving as head writer.
Canadian actress Tatiana Maslany will be playing superhero defense lawyer Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk with Mark Rufflao reprising his role as Jennifer’s cousin Bruce Banner aka Hulk and the return of Incredible Hulk actor Tim Roth as villain Emil Blonsky aka The Abomination.
We’ll likely see more actors from Incredible Hulk make a return just like Roth.
There is an assumption that William Hurt could be reprising Thunderbolt Ross in the show, the character becomes Red Hulk in the comics, something that was considered for Captain America: Civil War but was ultimately cut during development stages. Ross has also been part of the newer incarnation of the Thunderbolts team alongside Deadpool, ThePunisher, and Elektra.
In the comics, Walters needs a lifesaving blood transfusion from Banner leading to her becoming a Hulk herself. How Marvel is going to tackle her origin in the MCU remains to be seen and if they’re going to mimic the comic books that closely. Jennifer is also sort of big crossover character which has already been teased by Kevin Feige during the Disney Investor Day presentation leading many to believe fellow Marvel lawyer Matt Murdock might show up. The heroine had at one time been a member of both Fantastic Four and The Avengers, I’ll be curious if she’ll have a role to play in JonWatts‘ reboot of Marvel’s first family.
Production on She-Hulk under the working title Libra is said to begin this March in Altanta, Georgia.
A release sometime in 2022 on Disney+ is expected given the amount of visual effects work needed to render multiple Hulks in the series, we’re thinking the release could skew late summer or fall of 2022.
It looks like we finally know how long Marvel’s Moon Knight series will be.
Moon Knight, aka Marc Spector, a mercenary who has numerous alter egos — cabbie Jake Lockley and millionaire playboy Steven Grant — in order to better fight the criminal underworld. But later he was established as being a conduit for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Most recently, the character was a consultant who dresses in all-white and goes by the name Mr. Knight.
While speaking with Kevin Feige about various runtimes of the upcoming Disney+ shows, the Marvel Studios president mentions to Collider that Moon Knight will land six episodes but run a bit longer than something like She-Hulk, which is going to have 30-minute episodes.
He also added that the upcoming Moon Knight will fall into the six, 40-50 minute episode category.
A similar episode run and length as 2021 shows such as Loki and The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.
Star Wars and X-Men alumni Oscar Isaac had finally been confirmed for the main role of Marc Spector aka Moon Knight. The American actor had also recently attached himself to Sony’s Metal Gear Solid film based on the iconic action video game series playing Solid Snake.
The directing team consists of Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Diab along with the indie duo of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead.
Production on Moon Knight is said to begin this March in Budapest, Hungary under the working title Good Faith, a location that was used for their feature film Black Widow. Other filming locations had once included London and the United States.
How Marc Spector will fit into the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe is a little less known than some of the other characters given his supernatural and vigilante ways. Various characters getting their own solo series on Disney+ have a clearer path for crossovers, however, there has been speculation it could have some connection to Mahershala Ali‘s new Blade reboot but that yet to be confirmed in any substantial way.
We have been hearing that Disney+ hoped to have the series ready to begin airing sometime in the spring/summer of 2022.
Director Danny Boyle is returning to television with a 6-episode limited series for FX titled Pistol according to Deadline.
The project will focus on the British punk band The Sex Pistols, told from the perspective of guitarist Steve Jones and based on his memoir. Boyle, who will direct the limited series is best known for his break-out films Trainspotting and Oscar-winner SlumdogMillionaire.
Pistol is written/created by Moulin Rogue!’s Craig Pearce and is co-written by Frank CottrellBoyce, the latter was responsible for the amazing British comedic biopic 24 Hour Party People. Let’s just say the combination of people working on the project should make any music fan excited to see what they come up with.
Australian actor Toby Wallace recently seen in Babyteeth will play Jones with Game of Thrones alumni Maisie Williams playing punk icon Pamela Rooke aka Jordan.
Here is the rest of the cast.
Anson Boon as John Lydon
Louis Partridge as Sid Vicious
Jacob Slater as Paul Cook
Fabien Frankel as Glen Matlock
Dylan Llewellyn as Wally Nightingale
Sydney Chandler as Chrissie Hynde
Emma Appleton as Nancy Spungen
Filming is said to begin on March 7th.
Danny Boyle previously worked with FX on the limited series Trust which was essentially the television version of Ridley Scott‘s All The Money In The World.
This wouldn’t be the first time the punk bank has been explored before as the Gary Oldman film Sid & Nancy attempted to cover volatile and drug addicted guitarist Sid Viscous and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen.
THE RONIN 