Mark Ruffalo seems to be game to keep playing the Banner/Hulk role for years to come, and this is sort of highlighted in a recent chat he had during the Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2024, where the “Avengers” actor revealed that there are zero plans for another solo “Hulk” film (Despite ongoing rumors) but we could end up seeing those events play out over multiple other films in the MCU.
“We’ll never give you a standalone ‘Hulk’…I don’t mean to burst anyone’s bubble but that’s not happening. So, we’ll do it over four movies, how’s that sound?” Ruffalo told the crowd when the subject of a solo ‘Hulk’ film came up without specifically naming what those movies could be and where he’d potentially appear.
This would indicate two things. Talk of a new solo “Hulk” movie is likely bogus (Maybe those elements will be used elsewhere) and rumblings of Marvel Studios getting back full control of both Hulk/Namor from Universal Pictures aren’t likely accurate either. Ruffalo is well-known for spilling the beans including the ending of “Avengers: Infinity War” during press for the film ahead of its release to the public. However, he’s been the one mainly championing a solo film in press interviews because he never was able to get one himself since “The Incredible Hulk” was before he was hired for the gig. If there was a shot of it happening he’d be telegraphing there is more of a chance than “it’s never happening.”
Some fans and outlets have sort of misconstrued Ruffalo’s comments here about “Captain America: Brave New World,” while he said he’s excited about the film after the interviewer brings it up, he never actually says he’s appearing in it. Hardly the smoking gun some folks are making it out to be. I mean, it could make some sense to fans given three big “Incredible Hulk” characters are confirmed to be in the film (Thunderbolt Ross, Betty Ross, and The Leader). Yet, hearing the original quote from Ruffalo he’s simply not saying he’s showing up just that he can talk about that film without getting in trouble.
It’s not like Marvel hasn’t been sneaky in the past as “Thor: Ragnarok” added a heap of elements but not all from “The Planet Hulk” comics without having to be directly part of a solo adventure and it’s a way to avoid Universal entirely. In theory, other Hulk events like “World War Hulk” could be applied to other upcoming films rather than a solo project.
Hell, even the recent Disney+ series “She-Hulk” was able to introduce both Banner’s cousin Jennifer Walters and his son Skaar.
We have to assume that it’s a gimmie that Bruce Banner will appear in both “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” and “Avengers: Secret Wars.” It remains to be seen what other projects he’ll be part of given there might be opportunities for a cheeky cameo in “Deadpool & Wolverine” (Given Ruffalo’s connection to Shawn Levy/Ryan Reynolds via “The Adam Project” and he’d finally go toe-to-toe with Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine) and could end up appearing in “some capacity” in upcoming things such as “Thunderbolts,” “Armor Wars,” “Shang-Chi 2,” or that hypothetical “Thor 5.” Until it’s official it’s worth having a little patience and not jumping to conclusions.
You can watch that exchange with Ruffalo for yourselves below.
SOURCE: SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL2024VIA YOUTUBE
For months now Disney and Marvel Studios have been walking on eggshells by attempting not to comment or spotlight the legal woes of actor Jonathan Majors, who just yesterday was convicted of reckless assault in the third degree and guilty of harassment. This is from a two-week trial in NYC that stemmed from a March altercation between the Marvel actor and his ex-partner, Grace Jabbari. Sentencing for Majors will take place on February 6, 2024, and will shed light on what kind of consequences he’ll be seeing for his actions.
Within hours of the verdict being announced trades like The Hollywood Reporter learned that the studio had finally decided to drop Majors from his contract and sever their ties with him for future MCU projects. Majors had been playing multiple variants of the Multiverse Saga villain, Kang The Conqueror, and was expected to become a rather key aspect of both “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” and “Avengers: Secret Wars” as well. The quickness of the announcement was more than likely prepared months in advance and the studio had just been waiting for the trial’s outcome to make the firing public.
Kang had been mostly confined to variant appearances on two seasons of the Disney+ series “Loki” and played the main villain of “Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania,” the latter project not exactly supported by either critics or audiences. Recently there have been some creative hiccups on the next project said to feature Kang as Jeff Loveness (“Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania”) reportedly exited as the screenwriter on “Avengers 5” with fellow “Rick & Morty” writer Michael Waldron (“Loki,” “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness”) stepping in to do rewrites on the script after being previously assigned to “Secret Wars” too. This coming around the same time as director Destin Daniel Cretton also left the “Avengers” pic to focus on his “Wonder Man” series starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (“Watchmen,” “Aquaman 2”) and a gestating sequel to “Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings” led by Simu Liu (“Barbie”).
It’s clear “Avengers 5” is getting an overall but what that will look like isn’t being revealed officially and we’re still going to have to wait for more concrete details on how much they’re actually changing.
What remains unclear is what Marvel is expected to do about the character of Kang and if they’ll simply recast, given the Multiverse villain has many variants (“Loki” has established that variants can both look like the original character or completely different) allowing for a brand new actor to be placed in the Kang role without much narrative headaches. General audiences likely didn’t get too attached to Majors as Kang after the underwhelming reactions to “Ant-Man 3.” Plenty of names have been thrown around online as potential wishlist replacements such as Oscar-winner Denzel Washington (“Gladiator 2,” “The Equalizer 3”), his son John David Washington (“Tenet,” “The Creator”), John Boyega (“They Cloned Tyrone,” “Star Wars”), Damson Idris (“Snowfall”), and many others. Using the villain’s other variant aliases like Rama-Tut or Immortus could also be a way to distance themselves from using the Kang name alongside retitling the next “Avengers” installment.
Pedro Pascal is expected to play the variant of Reed Richards in “Fantastic Four” after we saw John Krasinski play him as the Earth-838 incarnation in “Doctor Strange 2.” So, Marvel isn’t above recasting these parts and the Multiverse gives them a narrative excuse to do it. We saw a backlash against Marvel’s choice not to recast T’Challa for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” after the sudden death of star Chadwick Boseman due to a private battle with colon cancer, which might have been understandable from a grief perspective among the director, cast, and crew. What I don’t think fans want to see is the erasure of black characters becoming a trend within the MCU and finding another actor doesn’t seem like that much of an ask since the Multiverse angle gives the studio a lot of wiggle room.
LOKI establishes that VARIANTS can look exactly like him or nothing at all. Kang being another force within the Multiverse, could have a new variant that arrives because of the events of LOKI's season finale and looks completely different. pic.twitter.com/NgO2obk6Qh
“Loki” Season 2 also just wrapped up and the ending of the series downplayed the 616/Majors version of Kang allowing for them to pivot to a new variant/actor or simply find another villain altogether, given Loki‘s renewed popularity having him potentially meddling with the Multiverse with his new gig at the TVA might be another way to go here.
Some online have convinced themselves that Marvel is going to “pivot from Kang The Conqueror” entirely to focus on a character like “Fantastic Four” baddie Doctor Doom because he had been an antagonist in a more recent comic incarnation of “Secret Wars.” However, given that the “Fantastic Four” reboot hasn’t even been established it feels odd that the studio would be rushing Doom to shoehorn him into two “Avengers” installments before he’s been properly fleshed out in the “Fantastic Four” films. While many still look to the comics for what might end up happening in the MCU, the studio isn’t exactly known for making one-to-one adaptations of the source material they ultimately do their own thing. It’s worth noting that we still don’t have official confirmation that Doom is even showing up or being cast for the Matt Shakman-directed reboot, Doom’s involvement has only been speculation going back to when the project was first announced by the studio and previous rumors of his involvement in other MCU projects didn’t pan-out.
Before the merger, Noah Hawley (“Legion”) had been quietly developing a solo “Doctor Doom” film for 20th Century Fox but seemingly has moved on with the latest season of “Fargo” and production on his Earthbound “Alien” series at FX/Hulu set to resume in the new year.
There are villain surrogate options for Marvel besides Doom such as “X-Men” Multiverse villain Mojo, who on the Fox Kids animated series (being continued via “X-Men ’97” on Disney+) kidnaps the X-Men forcing the team of mutants to appear on his interdimensional TV station in Mojoverse/Mojo World as a massive boost to their ratings. A plot point that could be easily applied to the MCU version of Battleworld given that the “X-Men” are expected to be coming to the MCU after the events of “Deadpool 3” which is said to involve a Multiverse/TVA angle to it.
In my personal opinion, a group of Multiverse villains perfectly suited for these next two installments would be The Squadron Supreme. Not only do they originate directly from the Multiverse in the pages of “Avengers” comics but including them may remove the need for variant/cameo overloads as Marvel’s version of Justice League would be a compelling pack of antagonists for our heroes to go toe-to-toe with and wouldn’t need to be explored beyond the two event pics. Allowing for some slightly more self-contained threats that don’t need to be established over time in a dozen other projects.
Marvel has yet to announce a director for either “Avengers 5” or “Avengers: Secret Wars,” but the current assumption is that we could end up seeing whoever is hired for one to shoot both films. The next film is slated to be released on May 1, 2026, but we won’t hold our breath that it sticks to that date.
Marvel Studios is indeed retooling their next “Avengers” installment as it’s now been revealed that Michael Waldron (“Rick & Morty”), the creator of the “Loki” series and screenwriter of the Multiverse-focused “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness” has been tasked to rewrite/rework the script for “Avengers 5” that had been previously titled, “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.” This comes after Destin Daniel Cretton was said to have exited the film to focus on a sequel to “Shang-Chi” alongside his “Wonder Man” series on Disney+ that is expected to resume production soon.
Waldron is also working on “Avengers: Secret Wars” and now makes him Marvel’s main screenwriter on their big Multiverse films. Getting someone to pen the next two installments would sort of mirror how the duo of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely were assigned to both “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame” after working on “The Winter Soldier” and “Civil War.”
This would confirm that previous screenwriter Jeff Loveness (“Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania”) has stepped aside from the project. Earlier in the month, there had been rumors suggesting that the studio had moved on from Loveness after the disappointing reaction to his “Ant-Man” sequel featuring Jonathan Majors’ Kang The Conqueror as the main antagonist. It remains to be seen if they’ll keep Kang as their big bad over the next two installments. The recent season finale of “Loki” seemingly sidestepped Kang being such a threat and left the door open for someone else to fill that void, potentially.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed that Multiverse villains, The Squadron Supreme, are considered for the pic. A superpowered team that was Marvel’s evil knock-off of The Justice League that had been originally pulled out of the Multiverse as foes for The Avengers. Instead of having a single menacing baddie, there could be a whole team of them looking to defeat our heroes.
A longstanding rumor over the last year or so has been that “Doctor Strange 2” helmer Sam Raimi is being courted for “Avengers Secret Wars” and could also end up making “The Kang Dynasty” as well. Raimi’s involvement has yet to be officially announced by Marvel/Disney or backed up by trade reports, but we shouldn’t be all that shocked if someone is named in the very near future.
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.
Marvel Studios is attempting another two-part Avengers event with “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” coming from director Destin Daniel Cretton (“Shang-Chi,” “Wonder Man”), and “Avengers: Secret Wars” is currently without a director (That will change in the near future). The latter film has slowly turned into an extremely uninspired reason for fans online to speculate on the avalanche of variants/cameos that may show up in “Secret Wars” from actors who nearly played roles or brought old ones back. Marvel already did this with “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness” and is expected to do the same with “Deadpool 3” using various Foxverse actors before an assumed reset of the franchise ahead of the “X-Men” and “Fantastic Four” reboots.
A fourth attempt to cram in variants or toothless actor cameos in such a bigger film than those would sort of feel like recycling something they’ve already done too often. It would be so much more compelling if they instead used characters that specifically could be used for the next two “Avengers” films that make sense and aren’t just an extended piece of fan service with a movie’s runtime. I’m not sure having a bunch of random actors/variants that won’t really contribute to the story/plot/character development will actually do very much to propel the film other than play out some action-figure dreams of a niche group of fans that just want to see things appear rather than think about how it would actually improve things.
Now, how do you try to outdo a villainous threat like Thanos and The Black Order after they instituted the Infinity Gauntlet, the snap killing half the universe as a cliffhanger, and time travel? Thanos wasn’t just solo in those films as The Black Order or The Children of Thanos did minion work for him in “Avengers: Infinity War” and returned for the climax action sequence at the end of “Avengers: Endgame.” It would have been nice if they had more character depth to them though beyond alien henchmen.
Marvel is under the impression that the Multiverse and Kang The Conqueror will still be engaging enough with audiences to get the excitement levels growing in the next two event films.
I think people were genuinely excited when a Kang variant was introduced in the first season of “Loki” and that character attempted to foreshadow the doom and gloom of unleashing his more dangerous variants with his death. However, Marvel seemed to undercut that promising threat with the wishy-washy audience reaction to Kang being the main villain of “Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania.” This might signal that they’ll need something more to make Kang a bit more compelling/threatening when we’re talking about him going after the entire team roster after tangling with one of the less powerful heroes. It seemed like a big miscalculation on Marvel’s part and exposed that their new event-level villain might need help beyond his horde of variants (I don’t know how compelling this angle is going to be).
Thankfully, Kang has access to the endless possibilities of the Multiverse and other points in time, making him able to assemble his own competing team that could cause extra trouble for The Avengers if need be.
He’s connected to a team that might be worth exploring on the big screen and that would be The Squadron Supreme (I’ve been campaigning for their MCU debut for many years now). A group of characters mirroring DC Comics’ Justice League that were introduced in Avengers comics as The Squadron Sinister, back in 1969, and originate from the Multiverse being from Earth-712. Making them a way more sensible narrative choice than overloading a film with variants of existing characters. Of course, the Multiverse would have a team that could go toe-to-toe with The Avengers and potentially kill some of them in the process. They were first put together by Jeff Goldblum’s The Grandmaster to combat Kang’s champions (The Avengers), however, the MCU incarnation would most likely see Kang being that puppet master or could easily be the team that fills the void of The Illuminati on Earth-838 after Scarlet Witch killed them. I first mentioned Earth-838 potentially becoming a threat to the main MCU universe last year after seeing “Doctor Strange 2” and theorized Baron Mordo gathering a new team or unleashing something as destructive as Dormammu against that universe to avoid any future murderous encroachments from those inhabitants.
That lineup of Squadron members consists of Mark Milton aka Hyperion (Superman proxy that is an Eternal), Zarda aka The Power Princess (Wonder Woman proxy that is sort of a Multiverse version of an Inhuman as the Utopians were another Kree experiment), Kyle Richmond aka Nighthawk (Batman proxy that became a member of The Defenders) Kenji Obatu aka Doctor Spectrum (Green Lantern proxy), Kingsley Rice aka Amphibian (Aquaman proxy), Skymax aka The Skrullian Skymaster (Martian Manhunter proxy that is a heroic Skrull), Stanley Stewart aka Blur (Flash proxy), Acranna (Zatanna proxy), Wyatt McDonald aka Golden Archer (Green Arrow proxy), Linda Lewis aka Lady Lark (Black Canary proxy), Thomas Thompson aka Tom Thumb (Atom proxy), and Thundra (Femizon from Earth-715 that was introduced in the pages of Fantastic Four as part of the Frightful Four).
Seeing Earth-838 taking revenge or aligning themselves with Kang to see two different universes going to war is another way this could go. Potentially taking place on a version of Battleworld (an abandoned alien world could be fun) to avoid any major collateral damage on their versions of Earth, the losers seeing their universe essentially erased from existence could make for good stakes (“Loki” has established the pruning method). Folks have also talked up the potential of DC Studios and Marvel Studios coming together for a massive Marvel/DC crossover film in the future…since that feels like a decade away using The Squadron Supreme against The Avengers could be a nice substitute to that idea.
Marvel would have a chance to establish The Squadron as a much more deadly group than The Illuminati by having them possibly kill a handful of members in their first skirmish or at least put a serious beating on them as they sort of first reunite since the events of “Endgame.” I don’t think we’re going to see them be as cohesive as they once were and might have to step up a bit over the two films.
I wouldn’t be that terribly shocked if they attempted to beef up the roster by replacing some of the less exciting Justice League proxies with members of The Agents of Atlas since they’ve sort of altered the lineup in more recent comics allowing for some of the older members to potentially make the jump to the Squadron.
It’s a Marvel team featuring some extremely old/obscure comic characters that pre-date the Avengers and even the main Marvel brand. Making them perfect fodder for a Multiverse team being put together by Kang.
Led by a very different incarnation of Agent Jimmy Woo (1956) than we’ve been introduced to in the MCU and also features Namora (1947) last seen in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Some of those other members that could be added to The Squadron Supreme include Kenneth Hale aka Gorilla-Man (1954), M-11 aka Human Robot, Venus (1948), Robert Grayson aka Marvel Boy/Uranian (1950), Chuck Chandler aka 3-D Man (1977), and their pal Jane Hastings aka Jann of The Jungle (1954).
The first incarnation of the team appeared in a What-If…? issue published in 1977 that explored the idea of what The Avengers would have looked like if they had been formed in the 1950s instead of the 1960s.
Having The Squadron Supreme as the main formidable obstacle for this new version of The Avengers, which will have to endure without the likes of Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, and potentially more fallen heroes feels slightly more menacing than simply having Kang variants overwhelm them or have to kill/defeat them one-by-one. There would be a little more complexity with pulling from Squadron/Atlas since they wouldn’t simply be variants like with the Illuminati and could have their own unique power sets alongside character designs that would move beyond simply the variants of existing Marvel heroes/villains.
I’m not really going to get into the current speculation/rumblings about where/when the Squadron could be showing up. But it is worth mentioning it was once rumored they’d first appear in Season 1 of “Loki” and that never happened, so always take unconfirmed rumblings with a pinch grain of salt. Possibly more of that rumor/guessing is going to keep happening until their involvement is actually confirmed by the studio but, to me, the most sense is when The Avengers have to combat a Multiverse threat like Kang.
We have to assume that things like “The Marvels,” “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Deadpool 3,” “Armor Wars,” and “Loki” Season 2 might give us a better sense of what to expect from these next two “Avengers” movies.
THE RONIN 