WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE SEASON 2 FINALE OF THE MANDALORIAN
I would advise watching the Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian before reading any further.
A while ago it was reported by Deadline that a secret Boba Fett project for Disney+ had started production ahead of the Lucasfilm presentation where they revealed a heap of new films and series set in the Star Wars universe. Missing, however, was this Boba Fett project and know we know why.
Today, it was finally confirmed by Lucasfilm that the Boba Fett project is indeed happening and will be coming to Disney+ on December 2021 under the title of The Book of Boba Fett.
While the announcement itself isn’t considered a spoiler, how they did it might be.
The teaser footage was presented at the end of The Mandalorian Season 2 finale as a stinger with Fennec Shand and Boba Fett returning to Tatooine then taking over Jabba’s Palace by killing Bib Fortuna. Telegraphing that he’s now taking over that crime synicate which might tease what the upcoming project will be about, the gangs of Star Wars.
The assumption is that Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen will star.
It’s still unclear if this is a full-on series with 8-episodes or simply a 4-episode limited series like Obi-Wan Kenobi.
We still don’t know who will be writing and directing the project but announcements will likely coming soon. This makes the third spinoff announced by Lucasfilm alongside series such as Rangers of The New Republic and Ahsoka, all three are assumed to be taking place within the timeline of The Mandalorian. Allowing further crossovers in the future.
We’ve been all anticipating over the summer/fall when we’ll eventually get to see the Arthurian flick The Green Knight and now we have a better idea when A24 plans to release it. A24 Films has updated the film’s release date on their official website for July 30th, 2021.
The fantasy film is based on the Arthurian legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. They’re seemingly aiming for a much more adult audience as the film had recently earned an R rating from the MPAA for violence, some sexuality, and graphic nudity.
David Lowery directs a cast that includes Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Sarita Choudhury, Sean Harris, Kate Dickie, Barry Keoghan, and Ralph Ineson.
THE GREEN KNIGHT – An epic fantasy adventure based on the timeless Arthurian legend, The Green Knight tells the story of Sir Gawain (Dev Patel), King Arthur’s reckless and headstrong nephew, who embarks on a daring quest to confront the eponymous Green Knight, a gigantic emerald-skinned stranger and tester of men. Gawain contends with ghosts, giants, thieves, and schemers in what becomes a deeper journey to define his character and prove his worth in the eyes of his family and kingdom by facing the ultimate challenger. From visionary filmmaker David Lowery comes a fresh and bold spin on a classic tale from the knights of the round table.
While we have no idea what will happen with the film’s earning potential, I would love to see A24/David Lowery potentially make a bunch of films based around the Arthurian legends given how beautiful The Green Knight looks and could become counter-programming to things like Lord of The Rings, which were directly influenced by these stories. Making a batch of artful fantasy films for adult audiences.
Filming on The Suicide Squad spinoff series Peacemaker will begin next month in Vancouver and there are bunch of new cast/character announcements from James Gunn on his official Instagram account and HBO Max.
The four new additions include Chukwudi Iwuji as Clemson Murn, Lochlyn Munro as Larry Fitzgibbon, Annie Chang as Sophie Song, and Christopher Heyerdahl as Captain Locke.
They join a cast that already consists of John Cena as Christopher Smith aka Peacemaker, Steve Agee as John Economos, Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo, Robert Patrick as Auggie Smith, Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt, and Chris Conrad as Adrian Chase aka Vigilante.
Oh f*ck, it’s Peacemaker! HBO Max is set to explore the origins of the Peacemaker character, the master of weapons from the highly anticipated upcoming The Suicide Squad film, in the new Max Original action-adventure-comedy series Peacemaker. HBO Max has given a straight-to-series order of eight episodes for the first season of the show. John Cena will reprise his role from The Suicide Squad movie to star in the series, and the film’s acclaimed writer/director James Gunn will write all eight episodes of Peacemaker and will direct multiple episodes, including the first.
While details about “Peacemaker” are being kept under wraps, the series will explore the origins of the character that Cena will play in the upcoming film, a man who believes in peace at any cost — no matter how many people he has to kill to get it.
Hot off making The Matrix 4 in Germany, actress Jessica Henwick has landed a role in The Gray Man, a massive $200+ million budgeted spy action film directed by The Russo Brothers for Netflix.
The news coming from Deadline, who also mention that Wagner Moura (Narcos, Elysium), Dhanush, and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood breakout Julia Butters will be joining the cast as well. The high-profile project already has actors such as Ryan Gosling (Drive, Blade Runner 2049), Chris Evans (Snowpiercer, Captain America: The Winter Soldier), and Ana de Armas (Knives Out, No Time To Die) locked-in for lead roles.
Henwick is no stranger to genre projects with credit that include Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Game of Thrones, Marvel’s Iron Fist, Godzilla vs Kong, and 20th Century’s recent sci-fi horror flick Underwater. Jessica recently revealed while working alongside Keanu Reeves for the new Matrix film that she has been lobbying to join the John Wick franchise as Jessica Wick.
It’s script was penned by The Russo Brothers with a polish by fellow Marvel alumni Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.
The Gray Man is the debut novel by Mark Greaney, published in 2009 by Jove Books. It also is the first novel to feature the Gray Man, freelance assassin and former CIA operative Court Gentry. The action thriller will follow Gentry (Gosling) as he’s hunted across the globe by Lloyd Hansen (Evans), a former cohort at the CIA. The film is based on the first installment of the best-selling Gray Man book series.
The Russo Brothers are coming off massive success with Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame becoming the highest-grossing film to ever be released and will follow it up next year with their heist drama Cherry starring Spider-Man 3 actor Tom Holland.
Filming was said to begin next month in Los Angeles, we’ll see if that sticks.
The Gray Man is reportedly the most expensive feature film made by Netflix.
Avatar franchise producer Jon Landau posted on Instagram that they’ve finally completed live-action photography on Avatar 3, after finishing up Avatar 2 months ago. This means they can move closer to finishing them while also moving on to Avatar 4 and Avatar 5.
The image looks to be from a wrap party. Just so people are aware that New Zealand is currently free from COVID-19 which explains why they’re interacting so closely in the photo below as the country has returned to normalcy.
LANDAU: “Celebrating the wrap of live action photography—with Jemaine Clement, Brendan Cowell and James Cameron. Congrats to the entire crew in both New Zealand and Los Angeles. Incredible work!”
Tomorrow will see the final episode of The Mandalorian Season 2 air on Disney+ and we know who will be directing that episode. During an interview with Extra, Pedro Pascal has now revealed that Peyton Reed will be back to direct the Season 2 finale.
Peyton Reed directed the fantastic second episode of this current season which featured the Frog Lady and the live-action version of the Krykna. The director is best known for Marvel’s Ant-Man, Ant-Man & The Wasp, and will shoot Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania next year.
We know that Grogu is in the hands of Moff Gideon and Mando will attempt to rescue him with a handful of his cohorts, how this all turns out remains to be seen and there have been speculation a Jedi may show up.
It’ll be a little while before we get more Star Wars as Andor just started shooting and Obi-Wan Kenobi won’t begin production until March. However, it’s very likely that Season 3 of The Mandalorian will begin filming soon if it hasn’t already. We’re getting a whole bunch of new shows on the horizon with Ahsoka, Rangers of The New Republic, and The High Republic era show The Acolyte.
We’re hearing there are more shows to be announced as well.
In a brief exchange with a fan on Vero, it looks like director Zack Snyder has revealed that his version of Justice League heading to HBO Max next year will be coming out sometime in March.
Zack Snyder has confirmed Zack Snyder’s Justice League will debut on HBO Max in March! pic.twitter.com/MnoIvmVEfe
You might remember that Marvel Studios almost lost access to Spider-Man not too long ago and that Spider-Man 3 would have been strictly a Sony Pictures affair with Marvel sitting on the sidelines as their initial deal had expired. Luckily, Tom Holland was able to convince both Sony’s Tom Rothman and Disney’s Bob Iger to see eye-to-eye hatching a new smaller deal that would allow Marvel to make Spider-Man 3 and Holland to appear in one more MCU film.
A new rumor coming from The Disinsider Show (via The Direct) suggests that that two-picture deal has seemingly been extended, however, they weren’t forthcoming with details as to how many films are involved along with if Marvel Studios would be getting involved with any of the upcoming Sony Pictures projects like Kraven The Hunter.
While this is very likely given that Marvel would most likely want access to various Sony characters in the future (Miles Morales feels like a no-brainer), as with most rumors take with a pinch of salt. There are a couple of things that might have telegraphed this deal being in the works.
Last week, Kevin Feige confirmed that Spider-Man 3 would directly interconnect with Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness all but confirming yet another crossover there. We’ve assumed for months that this was going to be the MCU film in the second deal given that the productions are close to each other and that Benedict Cumberbatch is confirmed to appear in Spider-Man 3.
It was also announced that Jon Watts will be directing their Fantastic Four reboot after tackling a trilogy of Spider-Man films (second feature film reboot of the hero) and since Spider-Man debuted in the pages of Fantastic Four it wouldn’t terribly shocking if they attempt to at least get a cameo from Peter Parker in there.
A Spider-Woman film is reportedly in the works at Sony Pictures from director Olivia Wilde, which would likely feature Jessica Drew, a character that Marvel Studios is said to have access to as she debuted outside of the Spider-Man comic books having more ties to MCU groups such as S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA, S.W.O.R.D., and the Avengers. She also plays a role in the Secret Invasion (now a Disney+ series) as it’s revealed Drew is actually Skrull Queen Veranke and happens to be pals with Carol Danvers in the comics making a crossover into Captain Marvel 2 a strong possibility. While Marvel’s involvement is assumed by fans this has yet to be made official but it’s very likely.
There has been some rumblings that Kraven will appear in Spider-Man 3, but this has yet to be officially confirmed by either trades or Marvel themselves. A solo feature film directed by J.C. Chandor (Triple Frontier, A Most Violent Year) has been in the works for some time and if Kraven does appear in Spider-Man 3 might suggest that his solo film might be considered part of the MCU. It’s worth pointing out that Kraven’s development has been taking place even before the Spider-Man 3 drama. At one point, there had been talk that Spider-Man would show up in the film.
Other Marvel projects in the works at Sony include a Madame Web movie from S.J. Clarkson, a Jackpot movie, and a live-action Silk series. They had also once been developing a Sinister Six film with Drew Goddard before the Holland reboot, it’s looking very likely that the group of villains may cameo in the next Spidey pic.
In theory, if there is an extension it could mean that Marvel gets to make Spider-Man 4 along with possibly adding him in future films like Avengers 5 or Fantastic Four. With the reasons given Marvel could put their tentacles into things like Sony’s Spider-Woman and other spinoffs.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see if this will be Tom Holland’s send-off or if Marvel will double-down on his incarnation of Spider-Man.
The Ronin has been able to confirm that Skydance/Amazon has hired French director Thomas Vincent to helm an undisclosed amount of episodes for their new Jack Reacher series starring Alan Ritchson (Titans, Ghosts of War). The Amazon series is a hard reboot of the character previously played by Tom Cruise in two feature films released by Paramount Pictures and based on the novels written by author Lee Child.
The first season is said to be an adaption of the novel The Killing Floor.
Jack Reacher comes to the little town of Margrave looking for information about the mysterious death of a guitar player named Blind Blake. Instead, he finds one of the largest counterfeiting operations in history.
Vincent is likely best known for directing the first three episodes of the hit Netflix series Bodyguard that was led by Richard Madden (Game of Thrones, Eternals).
BODYGUARD – Set in and around the corridors of power, Bodyguard tells the story of David Budd (Richard Madden), a heroic, but volatile war veteran now working as a Specialist Protection Officer for London’s Metropolitan Police Service. When he is assigned to protect the ambitious Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes), Budd finds himself torn between his duty and his beliefs. Responsible for her safety, could he become her biggest threat?
We previously reported that filming is expected to kick-off around mid-April in Toronto.
They’ve also hired production designer Patricio M. Farrell, who worked on The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor.
Skydance is also behind Amazon’s Jack Ryan series starring John Krasinski and developing an original spy series starring Arnold Schwarzenegger for Netflix.
Universal has secured the rights to the upcoming murder mystery novel The Maid written by Nita Prose, which won’t even be published at Penguin Random House/HarperFiction until 2022. Deadline also reports that Midsommar-breakout actress Florence Pugh is set to play the role of Molly the maid in the new film, however, a director nor screenwriter were named at this time.
Set at the Regency Grand Hotel, where Molly the maid leaves every room perfect and pristine, while getting to know each guest’s dirty secrets. A Clue-like, locked-room whodunnit, The Maid explores Molly’s descent into the murderous underbelly of her gilded workplace, while telling a timely story about the strengths of our differences.
Florence has been having an interesting career so far with credits that include The Outlaw King, the AMC series The Little Drummer Girl, Little Women, and will be seen next in the solo Black Widow film opposite Scarlett Johansson. There are even reports she’s already primed to reprise the Yelena Belova role in the Hawkeye series which is currently in production. The actress is currently filming the New Line Cinema thriller Don’t Worry Darling from director Olivia Wilde.
It certainly sounds like genre got a large shot-in-the-arm thanks to Rian Johnson’s popular Knives Out and we expect to see more movies of these types being announced in the future alongside Rian’s untitled sequel.
THE RONIN 