After many rumored and reported names being linked to the role of Hal Jordan in “Laterns,” a new DC Comics series focusing on the pairing of Jordan and new recruit John Stewart as DC Studios attempts to reboot the “Green Lantern” franchise set within the newly formed DCU.
Deadline is reporting that veteran actor Kyle Chandler is currently in talks with DC Studios/HBO for the Jordan part. Chandler is a well-known actor with a string of popular credits that include roles in things like “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Manchester By The Sea,” and the “Godzilla” franchise.
However, “in talks” doesn’t mean he’s 100% in the role just yet.
We’re still waiting for information on who could be possibly playing Stewart, we’ll keep our fingers crossed they try to approach “Rebel Ridge” breakout actor Aaron Pierre.
The creative team behind “Lanterns” consists of Chris Mundy (“Ozark”), Damon Lindelof (“Watchmen”), and comic book writer Tom King.
“Green Lantern” follows human heroes that are selected by a group of cosmic-powered space cops, The Green Lantern Corps, who use power rings to defeat evil within the galaxy and are assigned to certain sectors. There is an expectation that Jordan is going to be the mentor of Stewart in this new series.
A synopsis provided by Deadline’s report reads as follows:
“New recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan (Chandler), two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, Earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.”
The series, which will air on HBO, previously got an eight-episode order back in June. THR adds that filming on the show is expected to take place from January to June in Atlanta, Georgia.
In a surprising reveal today, Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures have selected director Destin Daniel Cretton to helm “Spider-Man 4,” the fourth installment of their Tom Holland-led string of MCU-set Spidey movies. This comes after Destin had previously made “Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings” and is still actively involved with its untitled sequel. An exciting update on the superhero pic that comes to us from The Hollywood Reporter and is backed up by other outlets like Deadline, ending over a year of speculation and rumors of who would take the reigns from Jon Watts.
Screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers are returning with an expectation that filming could begin as early next year. We shouldn’t be terribly shocked if Destin adds his own contributions to the script like he did with “Shang-Chi.”
Cretton had previously returned to the MCU with the upcoming Disney+ series “Wonder Man.”
No official plot details have yet to be revealed for “Spider-Man 4,” but Marvel is in a very good position to do an event-level crossover with Charlie Cox‘s Matt Murdock (who briefly appeared in “Spider-Man: No Way Home” as a lawyer working on behalf of Peter Parker) as the series revival “Daredevil: Born Again” has Daredevil, Punisher, and The Kingpin inhabiting the same MCU space as Parker in New York City. Perhaps, allowing the studio to bring the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man back to his roots as a crime-fighter and tackling crooks like The Hand (aligned with Wilson Fisk) and the New York City mafia by way of The Maggia (Hammerhead, Tombstone, and other mobsters could finally get their big-screen live-action debuts).
A potential mob war plot wouldn’t be exactly a stretch or challenge for Destin, as he previously tackled The Ten Rings in “Shang-Chi,” a criminal syndicate led by Shang-Chi’s father, Wenwu, and is now being overseen by his sister.
Other street-level heroes operating in the same city include Luke Cage/Power Man, Danny Rand/Iron Fist, and Jessica Jones.
The filmmaker had been once attached to make “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” before the project was re-tooled into “Avengers: Doomsday” with Robert Downey Jr. set to star as a version of Victor von Doom and landed the Russo Brothers as Cretton’s replacements.
A release date hasn’t been mentioned, but there is a good shot that “Spider-Man 4” could be ready for the summer of 2026 if production starts up in the new year.
We’ve been hearing for ages that Marvel Studios has been trying to put together a live-action “Nova” project featuring their cosmic superhero (Nova Corps. being first introduced in James Gunn’s “Guardians of The Galaxy”), and more recently was confirmed to be a television series in development at Disney+, as part of their string of MCU shows. However, a new quote from Marvel Television‘s Brad Winderbaum (via Comic Book) suggests the “Nova” series isn’t exactly a guarantee that it will happen and will depend on a strong pilot that everyone is happy with.
“So Nova’s in development right now. We are. But I will say we’re developing more than we make. This is part of the new Marvel,” Winderbaum told Comic Book. “But we should talk about this because at Marvel, everything has a spotlight on it, and everyone gets super excited, and we love Nova. And we want to get it right. But it’s in development. We got a few things in development and we’re not going to go on a show until we are happy with a pilot. Happy with the bible. So it is in development right now.”
When asked about their approach for cosmic material on the streaming service Winderbaum said, “I mean, I’ve been really inspired by what [‘Star Trek’] has been doing over the last few years. I think their shows are incredible. That’s why we hired Terry [Matalas] to do ‘Vision Quest’ with us. But the ‘Nova’ that’s being developed right now, it’s an amazing ensemble piece. I shouldn’t say too much.”
A bit of a promising thread in there from Winderbaum. Even if it doesn’t sound like Marvel is exactly ready to pounce on a pilot anytime soon. We previously heard from Marvel at San Diego Comic-Con back in July that they had been aiming to have “Nova” ready for Disney+ by around 2027-2028, which likely means it might not even begin shooting until 2026 at the earliest. While we’re still waiting on more concrete details, but there have been suggestions that both Richard Rider and Sam Alexander versions of Nova will be featured in whatever materializes.
After the destruction of the Nova Corps. by Thanos, off-screen events leading up to the opening scene of “Avengers: Infinity War,” a new Nova Prime emerges and happens to be a human named Richard Rider and ends up being a new protector of the galaxy.
Hopefully, they are likely going the off-world route with the character potentially taking more cues from things like the first two “Guardians of The Galaxy” films and the recent string of live-action “Star Wars” shows from a production design/VFX perspective, given we’d really like to see more MCU aliens and planets explored in this new show.
Cost will likely be a huge factor here given that originally, Don Cheadle’s “Armor Wars” was going to be a streaming series until Marvel pivoted and turned the show into a feature film, likely due to the huge VFX budget that would be needed to pull off that storyline and how it would essentially be a defacto “Iron Man 4.” Then again, we haven’t heard a peep from Marvel about an “Armor Wars” update in a long time despite having plenty of opportunities this summer with the studio’s big presentations at San Diego Comic-Con and D23.
There is a slim chance that “Nova” could move from the television division to the feature film team. Of course, that’s if they see more potential for a big-screen incarnation of “Nova” given that there doesn’t seem to be too many cosmic movies on the MCU docket outside of “Fantastic Four: First Steps” and the next two “Avengers” installments (“Avengers: Doomsday,” “Avengers: Secret Wars”) coming from the Russo Brothers.
I also wouldn’t be all that shocked if Marvel is simply waiting to see what DC Studios/HBO ends up doing with their “Green Lantern” series “Lanterns” before moving forward with “Nova,” as the two would likely have some similarities. That DC Comics show has Chris Mundy (“True Detective: Night Country,” “Ozark”) serving as showrunner and exec producer along with Damon Lindelof (“Prometheus,” “Watchmen”) also involved.
While filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn has given us movies like the “Pusher” trilogy, the Mads Mikkelsen Viking thriller “Valhalla Rising,” “Drive,” “Only God Forgives,” and “The Neon Demon,” he’s been mostly focused on the small screen with efforts like “Too Old To Die Young,” and “Copenhagen Cowboy” as of late. But is now aiming to make a big return to feature films as announced at the Venice Film Festival by the director this week (via Variety).
”Feature film is still the mother of all mediums” Winding Refn said (while promoting his new short film “Beauty Is Not A Sin“) after previously declaring that “cinema is dead” a while back. The outlet adds that his yet-to-be-titled movie is fully financed and will shoot next year in Tokyo, Japan. This new project is in both English and Japanese and is based on an original story that is being kept under wraps for the moment, but it “will have a lot of glitter and lot of sex and violence,” Refn promises.
He also hinted that themes and characters that inspired his last two efforts, “Only God Forgives” and “The Neon Demon” will make a return. Although, what exactly that means is a little unclear without more details about the plot. However, it’s an obvious nod that the movie will be another effort set within the neo-noir genre.
Tokyo would make for an exciting location to set for a neo-noir project from Winding Refn, given that you have all sorts of ways to enter the country’s underworld, from the nightlife (gaming, clubs, bars, restaurants, hosting services, sex workers, and other entertainment businesses) that has connections to the Japanese criminal syndicates known as the Yakuza to potentially other seedy avenues like Japan’s extremely lucrative pornography industry that certainly would lean into the sex side of things.
This won’t be the first time Westerners have attempted to tackle darker-themed projects set in Japan. We saw it recently used in the Michael Mann-produced crime series “Tokyo Vice,” based on the novel by American crime reporter Jake Adelstein, and the Ridley Scott film “Black Rain” (set in Osaka) from the 1980s starring Michael Douglas, Andy García, Ken Takakura, Kate Capshaw, and Yūsaku Matsuda which was an impressive effort to explore Japanese nightlife/Yakuza from a Western perspective. Both share neo-noir elements and may have an influence on this new movie, if only minor.
Another more recent exploration into the underbelly of Japan was Takeshi Kitano’s excellent trilogy of Yakuza films, “Outrage,” which explored the politics and backstabbing that would most likely occur within the crime syndicates as money/power become great motivators for violence. They’re not perfect movies, but I’d highly recommend them if you want to watch more contemporary efforts that attempt to harken back to the work of the late Kinji Fukasaku (“Battles Without Honor & Humanity” franchise also referred to as “The Yakuza Papers”), the “Outrage” movies might be worth your time.
It remains to be seen if either Ryan Gosling (“Drive,” “Only God Forgives”) or Elle Fanning (“The Neon Demon”) will be part of the new film’s cast, but it wouldn’t be all that surprising if there was a reunion. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that Gosling ends up with another meaty role with limited dialogue.
Stay tuned for future updates on the new project, such as the film’s title, plot, and casting.
“Alien: Romulus” has turned out to be a huge shot in the arm for “Alien” franchise after being on life support when Ridley Scott’s “Alien: Covenant” failed to replicate the success of “Prometheus,” and put his third prequel movie “Alien: Awakening” (Scott had mapped out plans with screenwriter Michael Green for many more installments beyond that) into limbo for foreseeable future. The movie has a budget of $80 million (modest in comparison to other genre-focused studio tentpoles) and is set between the events of “Alien” and “Aliens,” now projected to earn an impressive $100 million-plus at the global box office and nabbing over $40 million domestically. This makes “Romulus” the second-biggest domestic opening (previously held by “Alien Vs. Predator“) for the franchise behind the $51 million “Prometheus” (Budget was $130 million) opening weekend in 2012.
Of course, this success certainly bodes well for more movies, including the potential for a “Romulus” sequel (without spoiling the film, it ends with the open-ended plausibility of a sequel). While on the red carpet promoting the film, director Fede Álvarez was asked by Deadline (See video below) about the potential for a new “Alien Vs. Predator” film project (the IP actually titled “Aliens Vs. Predator” for the video games, comic books, and other material).
Álvarez didn’t exactly reveal too many details on what he would do with the property, but he pitched the idea of co-directing the big-screen crossover with “Prey” director Dan Trachtenberg.
[Laughs] I don’t know, depends on how well [“Alien: Romulus”] does and if people still want to see that. I think [it’s] maybe something I have to co-direct with my buddy Dan [Tranchtenberg]. That could be something we could do…I direct one half, and he directs the other half,” the filmmaker told Deadline.
Álvarez also compared the idea to the collaborative working relationship between Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez on films like “From Dusk Till Dawn” (Fede misspoke as Tarantino wrote the script and Rodriguez helmed) and “Grindhouse” (their horror double-feature). They did co-direct together on “Sin City” and “Four Rooms.”
When we consider 20th Century Studios’ recent attentiveness to these franchises, it’s really only a matter of time before they attempt another “AVP” project.
For his part, Trachtenberg is overseeing the next two installments in the “Predator” franchise, with both “Badlands” (Elle Fanning reportedly is in the mix to potentially lead it) and an untitled follow-up to “Prey.” The latter will most likely feature Naru (Amber Midthunder) being invited into a predator clan, not unlike the “AVP” comic book character Machiko Noguchi, and potentially extending her lifespan via pred-tech, allowing Naru to potentially be still alive in a futuristic setting. Giving them plausible wiggle room to add Naru to a hypothetical “AVP” reboot that could connect to “Alien: Romulus” via the yet-to-be-explored planet of Yvaga.
“Alien Vs. Predator” was released back in 2004 and had director Paul W.S. Anderson take direct cues from things like the schlock sci-fi exploitation movie “Galaxy of Terror” (Roger Corman’s “Alien” knockoff that a young James Cameron worked on at New World Pictures) and H.P. Lovecraft’s “At The Mountains of Madness” (also takes place in ancient ruins hidden in Antarctica with unspeakable monsters awaken by explorers). The PG-13 movie ended up making the studio money but got ripped apart by fans and critics alike, leading to a smaller budget for the R-rated sequel “AVP: Requiem.” A sequel that felt worse than the previous film due to the small-town contemporary setting (used to save studio money on production costs) and weak/unforgettable characters.
Given the poor reception of those movies, don’t expect too much of a continuation or any direct links moving forward. Its been seen those movies take place outside of the main “Alien” franchise timeline/canon and a reason to simply reboot. A couple of integral elements were always missing from those movies, such as the return of the Colonial Marines (oddly enough, we haven’t seen them on the big screen since 1986 despite being a massive part of the “Alien” expanded universe) and a futuristic off-world setting (the Jackson’s Star Colony was a massive highlight from “Romulus”). Those might be more expensive additions but that would be sort of no-brainer if they’re going to take a third crack at this property.
While the bungled video game “Aliens: Colonial Marines” botched the single-player campaign and the game itself was buggy as hell, it did add creative variant types of Xenomorphs (just as “Aliens: Fireteam Elite” did), which really should be a huge part of a new “AVP” film. They could easily give audiences multiple different takes on the creatures, like Rhino, Burster, Spitter, Boiler, Prowler, Bull, Flying Queen, and the Alien King.
How they would get to those variants wouldn’t be all that hard, given an off-world colony would likely have established agriculture farms on the colonized planet, using a mix of animal life imported off-world (think the oxen and dog from “Alien 3”) alongside other inhabitants on an alien planet as their hosts instead of only humans. Another angle could be doing warring Xenomorph hives (A conflict between hives and red xenos introduced via the Dark Horse Comics run “Aliens: Genocide” from 1991-1992) are expansion elements that could be perfect fodder for these new movies, given the aim of each installment seems to be adding to lifecycle lore and creating different variants of the species.
In a perfect world, a new “AVP” installment could bring together “Alien: Romulus,” and whatever Trachtenberg is doing with his “Predator” movies. Instead of simply being it’s own standalone.
I also wouldn’t be terribly shocked if the ‘Alien: Romulus” box office success may boost the idea at the studio of revisiting never-made “Alien” projects like the aforementioned “Alien: Awakening” or even the twice-nixed “Alien 5” with Sigourney Weaver reprising the Ellen Ripley role. Although, the former seems a lot more realistic between the two, allowing for franchise stewards Ridey and Scott Free Productions to complete their planned prequel trilogy and potentially bring back the Engineers (Paradise wasn’t apparently their homeworld but possibly one of many of their terraformed/seeded planets inhabited by devoted humanoids that may have worshiped them as Gods) alongside Michael Fassbender’s David, Katherine Waterston’s Daniels, and Danny McBride’s Tennesse. At the end of the film, we see David now in complete control of the Covenant ship, the final two crew members, and the entire group of sleeping colonists.
20th Century Studios, FX/Hulu, and Scott Free are behind the new streaming series “Alien: Earth” from creator/showrunner Noah Hawley (“Fargo”) and could be another puzzle piece to getting the money folks at the studio to give Scott his wish to complete his David Saga trilogy. Raising the demand and profile of a franchise launched all the way back in 1979 will be key to finding a new generation of audiences to support it.
We’ll just have to be patient to see what the studio does next with these characters and if a crossover like “AVP” or “Alien: Awakening” will ever materialize.
Fede Álvarez reveals his pitch for ‘Alien vs. Predator’ : “Maybe something that I have to co-direct with my buddy Dan (Trachtenberg)” pic.twitter.com/HmhabAXN84
The guessing games can now finally end, as “Captain America: Brave New World” actor Giancarlo Esposito (“The Mandalorian”) has announced during the Marvel Studios’ presentation at San Diego Comic-Con that he’ll be playing Sidewinder in the new installment due out in theaters on February 14, 2025. Ending months of speculation about his Marvel casting.
Seth Voelker, aka Sidewinder, is the King of The Serpent Society. Which is a slightly more modern terrorist group from the pages of the Captain America comic books that mirrored H.Y.D.R.A. and had Madame Hydra, aka, among their ranks under the codename Viper and once attempted to take over the group entirely. The other main Serpent Society member in “Brave New World” includes Rosa Salazar’s Rachel Deighton, aka Diamondback, who eventually switches sides.
Another tidbit confirmed was, yes, the giant Celestial sticking out of the planet from “Eternals” is indeed made out of adamantium and could potentially have some sort of connection to the Wolverine/Weapon X Program coming in the future to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, alongside the “X-Men” reboot. The fight over the newly advanced mineral via Tiamut, similar to vibrainium, had been teased in the film’s first-look trailer.
This is likely why there was rampant speculation that Esposito’s character could be connected to the X-Men or a mutant himself.
One of the more compelling reasons to finally use The Serpent Society for Sam Wilson’s Captain American tenure is that it has an extremely deep bench of members, allowing for a steady stream of bad guys for him to throw hands against in future installments as it feels like “Brave New World” could be the start of Anthony Mackie’s trilogy.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” marks Marvel Studios‘ first big entry into live-action mutants ahead of their reboot of the “X-Men” franchise that is currently in development. The Multiverse-focused movie has over-delivered at the box office and is on the path to surpassing the first two movies within weeks. Deadline is now projecting that the R-rated superhero event pic should earn $205 million domestically and $438.3 million at the worldwide box office.
The success of “Deadpool & Wolverine” is obviously going to give the studio confidence that people will show up to more R-rated projects if they offer them. Marvel’s Kevin Feige has already confirmed their “Blade” reboot, starring two-time Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali, is aiming to be another R-rated MCU entry with the mature angle being “inherent to the character.”
This certainly should give Marvel Studios an extra incentive to proceed with things like “Deadpool 4,” “X-Force,” and potentially the Canadian-based mutant team Alpha Flight. Some other characters that might deserve the R-rated movie treatment include Punisher (Actor Jon Bernthal already reprises Frank Castle in “Daredevil: Born Again”), Deathlok, Psylocke, and the new Wolverine with his solo adventures in Madripoor (established via “The Falcon & The Winter Soldier”) or his Weapon X Program origin.
While the Multiverse angle of “Deadpool & Wolverine” (No spoilers) seemed to point toward Wade’s appearance in “Avengers: Secret Wars,” what’s next for the Merc With A Mouth and the TVA isn’t entirely clear.
As I predicted on Twitter earlier in the month, Marvel Studios’ big announcements at their Hall H panel for San Diego Comic-Con featured the confirmation that The Russo Brothers would be helming the ship for “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Avengers: Secret Wars” alongside the casting of the new big bad.
Marvel surprised Comic-Con audiences and fans online that Oscar-winner Robert Downey Jr. (“Oppenheimer”) would be making his grand return to the MCU in the Doctor Doom role. We’ll now see RDJ’s take on Victor von Doom in both “Avengers: Doomsday” (an obvious title referring to Doctor Doom being the main villain) and “Avengers: Secret Wars.”
Given that Matt Shakman‘s “Fantastic Four” reboot (starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Julia Garner, Ralph Ineson, Paul Walter Hauser, and Natasha Lyonne) has just begun filming in London at Pinewood Studios UK and going to be part of the next two “Avengers” installments, there is an expectation that Robert could be first showing up there as Doom, too, although, its unconfirmed.
There has been a bit of a mixed reaction seeing such a high-profile Marvel actor returning after playing Tony Stark/Iron Man, instead of a new person being cast. We’ll see if the choice was ultimately made for a creative/narrative reason or simply a way to bank hard on using the Multiverse to mine audience nostalgia like they’ve done with massive hits using the Multiverse gimmick to bring back established Marvel actors like with “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
“New mask, same task.”
Robert Downey Jr. surprises Hall H to announce his return to the MCU as Doctor Doom. pic.twitter.com/j1SEjzse3p
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.
THE RONIN 
