While Marvel Studios saw the film rights to “Fantastic Four” and “X-Men” returned to them after Disney acquired 21st Century, Sony Pictures moved forward with a string of their own Marvel movies featuring villain characters introduced in “Spider-Man” comic books starting with “Venom” back in 2018. However, seven years into the Sonyverse it hasn’t been terribly successful for them and a new report suggests it could be over after some major stumbles.
Forbes is presenting an early sign that their latest effort “Kraven The Hunter” could end up becoming the studio’s third major Marvel flop within a short amount of time with an estimated domestic opening weekend of $13-15 million, which is sort of on par with what “Madame Web” made opening weekend earlier in the year, and earned a poultry $100.4 million. The Jared Leto-led flick “Morbius” was the first of the Sonyverse films to have trouble making a profit after it took in $167.4 million.
The R-rated film (not originally meant as an R-rated film) reportedly has a budget of $110 million after multiple rounds of reshoots. Making a similar amount of money to either “Madame Web,” and “Morbius” would be another major loss for them in 2024. While the three “Venom” movies have made Sony a decent amount of money the two sequels have had diminishing returns compared to the first installment’s impressive haul of $856 million, and “Venom: The Last Dance” ($473 million globally) hasn’t made enough money to cover the losses on the other two films they’ve released.
Sony Pictures is a business and isn’t looking to break even or lose heaps of money on these films, so, when it was reported this week by The Wrap that the studio was pumping the breaks on future Sonyverse films, it is understandable and makes sense from a business perspective. It should be also pointed out that while there had been a bunch of other Sonyverse film development plans reported on in the past, we’re still waiting on any of them being greenlit including projects like “Jackpot,” “Nightwatch,” and others such as a “Spider-Woman” film that once had Olivia Wilde attached to direct. None of those films have had any concrete updates from Sony.
Spending those seven years trying to convince audiences that their Sonyverse films would have substantial connectivity to Tom Holland’s “Spider-Man” films (set in the mainline Marvel Cinematic Universe and made by Marvel Studios) without much or any real follow-through has felt like false advertising on the studio’s part to get asses in seats. Ultimately, their bizarre marketing gimmick to call the films “Spider-Man spinoffs” without any real involvement of the Web Head in them felt like Sony cashing in on the Marvel/Spider-Man branding by talking up a connection without really showing that on the big screen.
As it stands, “Spider-Man 4” from Marvel Studios and director Destin Daniel Cretton (“Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings”) is the only major live-action feature film project on deck with “Spider-Man Noir” starring Nicolas Cage being made for Amazon bringing the “Spider-Verse” characters to the small screen.
“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.
In 2023, studios across the board had a good amount of their blockbusters tank or have underwhelming results at the global box office. At this point, the phrase “franchise fatigue” is maybe the more accurate term we should start using here over “superhero fatigue.” Mainly, because it’s not just comic book movies that are struggling to make an impact at the box office, earn as much as the last installment, or turn a profit. In this piece, we’re going to spotlight many of these box office hiccups from last year.
Disney saw a massive ding to their 2023 slate with “Indiana Jones & The Dial of Destiny,” with a $300 million budget and the fifth installment of the “Indiana Jones” franchise, which didn’t click with audiences in the way that Lucasfilm/Disney had hoped earning a less than stellar $383.9 million. Speaking of Lucasfilm, a studio built on the juggernaut “Star Wars” franchise hasn’t shot a feature film since 2019 with “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” Their pause on the feature division comes after “Solo: A Star Wars Story” had a weak box office take that scared Lucasfilm from pursuing other spinoff films and pivoted to focusing on their streaming series division at Disney+ instead. There have been endless promises of new films by Lucasfilm from filmmakers such as Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Taika Waititi, Dave Filoni, James Mangold, Shawn Levy, and a mystery trilogy from Rian Johnson. However, we’ll believe all these “Star Wars” movies are happening when the trailers drop considering how many films were turned into series or never happened at all like “Star Wars: Rogue Squadron” that had a release date of December 22,2023 and then the Patty Jenkins-directed pic just vanished.
It’s not just Disney and Warner Bros. undergoing a stress test other studios saw some of their popular franchises taking dings in 2023. Paramount’s “Transformers: Rise of The Beasts” had a somewhat difficult time attracting audiences to the point that it made even less than 2018’s “Bumblebee” with $438.9 million and $166.5 million less than “Transformers: The Last Knight.” Another big stumble for Paramount was “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” and one nobody really saw coming after “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” earned Paramount a whopping $791.6 million back in 2018. The most recent outing led by Tom Cruise only managed to make $395.4 million over the summer which is nearly half of what “Fallout” did. The studio is now abandoning the “Dead Reckoning Part Two” title for “Mission: Impossible 8” entirely.
While I think folks at Lionsgate are happy that their “Hunger Games” prequel has made $322.6 million, yet, that would still be a drop of $338.8 million from “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.” The fourth installment of “The Expendables” distributed by Lionsgate ended up putting up some of the worst numbers with an embarrassing $21.2 million compared to the last pic’s $214.6 million. “Expendables 4” wasn’t the only disappointing Jason Statham film either as Ben Wheatley’s “Meg 2: The Trench” dropped down by $134.3 million.
Universal has many plans for expanding its Universal Monsters franchise with various features tackling different horror characters. However, in 2023 the studio struggled to get folks to watch either of their high-profile Dracula films with both the comedy “Renfield” ($26.4 million global earnings vs $65 million budget) and the grittier “The Last Voyage of The Demeter” ($21.7 million global earnings vs $45 million budget) which took decades to make it to the big screen failed to scare up an audience outside of the Halloween season. Some of the few horror films that struggled.
Meanwhile, on the superhero front, there were indeed signs of audience apathy. Both “The Marvels” ($46.1 million domestic opening weekend) and “Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom” ($27.7 million domestic opening weekend) were follow-ups to billion-dollar successes that failed to make a big splash by not covering their production/marketing costs.
Of course, the headaches that Marvel Studios experienced in 2023 are obvious with “The Marvels” dipping a massive $925.8 million compared to “Captain Marvel” and “Ant-Man 3” saw a significant drop of $146.6 million in contrast to “Ant-Man & The Wasp.” Although, it wasn’t all bad for the MCU since “Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3” topped the superhero releases at $845.5 million with a minor slip of $18.2 million.
The final installment of the DCEU, “Aquaman & The Last Kingdom,” had a soft opening weekend as mentioned above, and has only mustered $258.2 million which is another colossal hiccup. A difference of $893.8 million when put up against the original. Ultimately, the “Shazam!” sequel ended up with one of the worst turnouts for major superhero blockbusters. At $133.8 million (Made a fraction of what the original did when it earned $367.7 million in 2019) and given its hefty budget of $300 million, “The Flash” was another catastrophe for WB at $270.6 million. With the DCU set for a big reboot in July 2025, starting with “Superman: Legacy,” there are some expectations that the reset could help with the studio’s rebranding post-Snyderverse. Then again, “Blue Beetle” (Not technically a sequel/follow-up) was retroactively added to the DCU by DC Studios around its release despite a weak $129.2 million at the box office.
Then again, it’s not all bad since there were a handful of upticks in 2023, and some of these include “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse” hitting $690.5 million, a big jump from the Oscar-winning first installment’s global box office of $384.2 million from 2018. “Creed III” saw a $61 million boost which sounds good for the prospect of a fourth film. When it comes to more mature franchises, “John Wick: Chapter 4” also handed Lionsgate their best numbers over four feature films at $440.1 million. “Saw X” and “Scream VI” did well compared to their last installments too.
Every movie is as different as the reasons for them not becoming massive earners.
We can’t really expect studios to pump the breaks completely on the superhero movies given that it’s still a lucrative venture. There is an overload of sequels on the horizon at Marvel with “Deadpool 3,” “Captain America: Brave New World,” and director Destin Daniel Cretton exiting “Avengers 5” to focus on “Shangi-Chi 2.” “Deadpool 3,” an R-rated sequel, is expected to be the only MCU feature film released this year and gives the studios a bit of a cooling-off period.
While these pics haven’t been given official release dates or announced by Marvel themselves, there is an expectation that we’ll be getting “Spider-Man 4,” “Doctor Strange 3,” “Thor 5,” “Captain America 5,” and possibly “Eternals 2.” There are also a bunch of reboots on the way with things like “Fantastic Four,” “Blade,” “X-Men,” James Gunn’s “Superman: Legacy” shooting in 2024, and a new Batman film with “The Brave & The Bold.”
Sony’s adjacent Marvel films in 2024 include “Madame Web,” “Kraven The Hunter,” and the final solo outing for Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock in “Venom 3.” We don’t know how much appetite audiences have for these movies without Tom Holland’s involvement and a disaster like “Morbius” harkening back to the era of the 2000s when studios were rushing half-cooked superhero films into theaters to meet the demand.
A bunch of non-comic book blockbusters or follow-up installments coming later this year include “Dune: Part Two,” “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” “Gladiator 2,” “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” “Kung Fu Panda 4,” “Inside Out 2,” “Kingdom of The Planet of The Apes,” “Alien: Romulus,” “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” “Mufasa: The King King,” “Sonic The Hedgehog 3,” “The Lord of The Rings: The War of The Rohirrim,” ‘Smile 2,” “Saw XI,” “Transformers One,” “Beetlejuice 2,” “Wolf Man,” “A Quiet Place: Day One,” “Despicable Me 4,” “Bad Boys 4,” “Ballerina,” “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” and Radio Silence’s Universal Monsters film. Hopefully, these do a lot better with audiences.
Solutions? Well, spending $200-300 million a pop for these films is simply going to be unsustainable, and trying to market every blockbuster as an event continues to be difficult for studios when their slate is mostly these kinds of films in an oversaturated market. Studios would likely benefit from seeking out filmmakers who can deliver genre films at lower costs and potentially scaling back the overreliance on VFX. An adjusted expectation for these movies could be closer to a cume of $300-500 million and studios would be smart to think about going back to budgets closer to/under $80-100 million. The bigger the movie the pricier reshoots and overhauls will be to fix hiccups in the editing/post process which has contributed to a lot of these bloated budgets making it tougher for studios to recoup their overall costs.
Some other factors include that COVID is still ongoing with people avoiding crowded theaters/malls and a lot of audiences don’t have to wait long for releases to drop on streaming services they’re already subscribing to. The latter seems a lot more damaging because the shortened theatrical windows mean studios have to deal with not only folks waiting out to get movies for “free” on streaming via subs and diminishes the importance of the theatrical experience. Warner Bros. during the early days of the pandemic attempted to do day-and-date releases which was detrimental to their film division it led AT&T’s John Stankey to bail on the company by handing over the reins to David Zaslav/Discovery (His tax write-off scheme leading to the erasure of films and shows is equally imbecilic).
A good example of this was Disney, who dumped three straight Pixar films “Soul,” “Luca,” and “Turning Red” on Disney+ and seemingly did large brand damage as they’re trying to fix in retrospect by releasing them all in theaters in 2024 (See teaser trailer above). This comes ahead of the release of “Inside Out 2” in June, a follow-up to a $858.8 million hit, that may aim to curb some of the weak box office that “Toy Story” semi-spinoff “Lightyear” saw in 2022.
It’s worth mentioning that things like “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer,” and “Super Mario Bros.” surprised us all with their massive earnings as when these movies were first announced they weren’t slamdunks to the point we were expecting them to be the Top 3 films of 2023. Their theatrical windows gave those pics plenty of time to accumulate a bunch of cash. Also, doesn’t hurt that both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” (Still playing at my local theater in December) came from visionary filmmakers, Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan respectively. Selecting creatives that can contribute to the script or elevate the material to make something appealing to an audience when a lot of genre projects can blend together or seem generic might help. Nolan and Denis Villeneuve have been extremely vocal on the importance of theatrical windows.
We shouldn’t be all doom-and-gloom about the situation. I’m mostly optimistic since there were plenty of good box office stories in 2023 and studios aren’t suddenly going to stop making these movies. Yet, potentially trimming the volume of releases, not trying to manufacture event status for all films, and using their abundant resources more carefully should be a good start. Marvel/Disney have already signaled they’re looking to pivot and make constructive changes. We’ll see if other studios make similar adjustments with their own franchises that are seeing dwindling interest.
Here is a rundown of franchise releases in 2023 to give you an idea of how lopsided the box office of 2023 actually was:
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 ($845.5 million)
FAST X ($704.8 million)
SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE ($690.5 million)
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – DEAD RECKONING PART ONE ($567.5 million)
ANT-MAN & THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA ($476 million)
TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS ($438.9 million)
THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES ($322.6 million)
“The Expendables” was a bit of a curiosity when it originally hit theaters in 2010 as the Sly Stallone-directed action film looked to not only resurrect the careers of various action stars but also tried to bring back a certain type of R-rated action film that got popularized in the 1980-1990s. Echoing the ultra-violence that Stallone had previously brought with his film “John Rambo.” In the wake of the superhero genre, it was a nice bit of counterprogramming to see Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, and others assembling including cameos from Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. This would continue with the second installment seeing Jean Claude Van Damme and Scott Adkins playing villains with Willis and Schwarzenegger getting boosted action-focused scenes also with a cameo of sorts from former martial artist Chuck Norris leaning into his legendary badass status.
However, when it came to “The Expendables 3” the studio decided to court a younger audience by throwing off the mature rating for a more box office friendly PG-13. That didn’t seem to work out for the sequel as it ended up only earning $214.6 million at the global box office, a near hundred million dip from what “The Expendables 2” had made in 2012 and seemed to be a cautionary tale about switching ratings during a successful run in the quest for more box office dollars.
Nearly a decade later Lionsgate/Millineum Media is finally back with “The Expendables 4” as they hoped to coax back that mature audience. An audience that has since been entertained by four “John Wick” installments (“John Wick 4” earning Lionsgate $426.5 million earlier in the year) and expecting a lot more from action leads delivering actual fights alongside inventive sequences, an increasing issue with Stallone pushing 80 and other co-stars not getting any younger. The studio being aware of this seemingly pivoted to Jason Statham’s Lee Christmas stepping up as the franchise lead with new additions like Megan Fox and Curtis Jackson (50 Cent), who aren’t exactly action-genre royalty like Statham has become.
Well, it looks like the opening domestic numbers are in and they’re already drastically behind “The Expendables 3” ($15.8 million) with an estimated $8.3 million and nabbing the #2 spot behind “The Nun II,” which is much lower than the projected $15 million and is now a franchise low for the studio. For some perspective, the original film from 2010 opened to an impressive $34.8 million and given an assumed $90-100 million production budget this isn’t exactly good news for Lionsgate.
This doesn’t bode well for future installments and it’s unclear if the overseas markets can make up these hiccups. Statham isn’t always seen as a box office champ, but earlier this year his blockbuster shark pic “Meg 2: The Trench” at Warner Bros. was able to rake in $390.7 million.
Spider-Man: No Way Home broke some major pandemic era box office records this weekend as the film hit $253 million domestically and $587 million globally, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
It’s certainly a feat for Sony Pictures and Marvel as it’s going to end up the most profitable film in a very very long time. A shot in the arm for a business that is potentially dying a slow death thanks to studios funneling major feature film releases to streaming services or having streaming options compete directly with a theatrical release.
Does this mean theaters are finally back? A statement reused anytime a studio blockbuster makes money.
Well, yes and no. The Spider-Man sequel was always seen as a juggernaut release, given that Spider-Man: Far From Home became the first installment to make over a billion dollars. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with other December releases like The Matrix Resurrections and others going into early 2022.
The Omicron variant of COVID-19 has triggered multiple restrictions across the globe and might continue to get increasingly worse over the winter, leading to reduced capacity or shutting down theaters entirely. This being an extremely transmissible version of the virus means that normal precautions used in the past might not be enough and might directly impact theaters being able to continue to earn big money as populations deal with this new incarnation.
I think we’ll know more once audiences get Spidey out of their systems and realize that this new COVID surge isn’t going away just because people are tired of hearing/dealing with it or the regular apathy that has always been attached to the pandemic. Common sense will have to eventually click in at some point.
For the first time in the cinematic history of Spider-Man, our friendly neighborhood hero’s identity is revealed, bringing his Super Hero responsibilities into conflict with his normal life and putting those he cares about most at risk. When he enlists Doctor Strange’s help to restore his secret, the spell tears a hole in their world, releasing the most powerful villains who’ve ever fought a Spider-Man in any universe. Now, Peter will have to overcome his greatest challenge yet, which will not only forever alter his own future but the future of the Multiverse.
According to Warner Bros., Denis Villeneuve’s first installment in the Dune franchise has earned an impressive $300 million at the worldwide box office.
It’s a huge win for fans of Dune, who have been waiting decades for a studio to make a competent version that was appealing to general audiences. Thankfully, Villeneuve was able to spend the runtime of Dune to properly world-build and explain most of the dense mythology, before jumping into the more action-focused sequel.
The second film, Dune: Part Two, was officially announced last week by Legendary/Warner Bros. for a release date of October 20, 2023.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Villeneuve doubled-down on the idea of making a trilogy and suggests he’s “always envisioned” making three movies. The idea was that he’d adapt Frank Herbert’s second novel, Dune Messiah, for a third movie.
“I always envisioned three movies. It’s not that I want to do a franchise, but this is Dune, and Dune is a huge story. In order to honor it, I think you would need at least three movies. That would be the dream. To follow Paul Atreides and his full arc would be nice.”
“Herbert wrote six books, and the more he was writing, the more it was getting psychedelic. So I don’t know how some of them could be adapted. One thing at a time. If I ever have the chance to do Dune: Part Two and Dune Messiah, I’m blessed.”
As far as we know, Jon Spaihts is only tackling the Dune: Part Two script and they haven’t said they are actively working on a Dune Messiah movie, just the intention to do so in the future. Spaihts was originally tackling Dune: The Sisterhood before the second film became a priority at Legendary.
Denis has indicated he’d stop at three films given that Herbert’s books such as Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, and Chapterhouse: Dune would mean new castings given the time-jumps.
The pandemic hasn’t led to many wins at the box office, however, there is some good news concerning Destin Daniel Cretton’s Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings. A new superhero film that gives Marvel Studios their first leading Asian-American superhero character and the latest addition to the growing ranks of The Avengers.
Shang-Chi has now slid past Cate Shortland’s Black Widow to nab the pandemic record at the box office earning an impressive $196 million, the estimated weekend numbers coming from Deadline. This comes alongside solid global numbers as well $342+ million, as the comic book flick is zeroing in on crossing $400 million.
It’s only a matter of time before Marvel announces a Shang-Chi sequel, as Cretton and co-writer Dave Callaham have previously teased ideas for Shang-Chi 2 having a connection to the origin of the ten rings themselves.
We’re curious to see where Shang-Chi where appear next as cameos/crossovers continue to be an important element of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the television division expanding as well with multiple unannounced Disney+ shows on horizon.
November will see the next big feature film with Chloe Zhao’s Eternals and the Hawkeye series that focuses on holiday adventure in NYC as Clint Barton mentors Kate Bishop.
SHANG-CHI & THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS – Marvel Studios’ “Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings” stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, who must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization.
Joining Simu Liu in the Marvel cast includes Tony Leung as Wenwu, Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s friend Katy, and Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, as well as Fala Chen, Meng’er Zhang, Florian Munteanu, and Ronny Chieng. Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and produced by Kevin Feige and Jonathan Schwartz, with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, and Charles Newirth serving as executive producers. David Callaham & Destin Daniel Cretton & Andrew Lanham wrote the screenplay for the film.
Shang-Chi & The Legends of The Ten Rings is doing pretty decent all things considered, as the new numbers for this weekend have arrived. Deadline says the current weekend estimates for the film’s second weekend at the domestic box office is $35.7 million, which is a 53% drop from their $75.3 million opening and impressive $94.6 million four-day over the Labor Day long weekend.
The new Avenger has made quite the global impact earning $258 million and counting. Disney might have to settle with lower than normal international earnings as it’s looking less likely that Shang-Chi will secure a release date in China due to the increasingly disgruntled government censors that are now looking for excuses to reject western films.
There is already chatter that Eternals might also be passed over for Chinese date too.
Disney recently mentioned that Chloe Zhao’s Eternals will be keeping a theatrical window, not unlike Shang-Chi, meaning that they’ll be avoiding a hybrid release with Premier Access. They also announced four mystery MCU films for 2024, could one of them be for Shang-Chi 2?
It’s not so great for James Wan and New Line Cinema though, as the horror pic Malignant earned a poultry $5.5 million. Not the best news when the high-profile genre project likely is essentially a flop when production, marketing/distribution costs are factored in, it will be impossible for the film to turn a profit from the domestic box office alone.
Interestingly enough, a majority of Wan’s films that he directors or produces tend to do well at the box office, but Malignant, for whatever reason, didn’t seem to interest mature audiences this time around.
Surpassing industry and studio box office projections, Marvel’s Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings is said to be looking at a four-day total of $90 million, according to Variety. This number could increase given we won’t have total numbers for Monday until later in the week and estimates can always go up and come down.
UPDATE: Deadline is reporting that the final weekend numbers are $94.4 million domestically for the four-day long weekend.
It’s three-day total of $75. 5 million not only did better than Black Widow, it also broke a Labor Day weekend record that had been previously held by Rob Zombie’s Halloween back in 2007, when the pic earned $30. 6 million. A weekend not really known for huge box office takes.
The film has already earned an impressive $146.2 million globally on a possible budget of $150 million, which should make Marvel and Disney quick to put a sequel into development very very soon (if it isn’t already).
While YouTubers are trying to convince themselves and their subscribers that the film is a flop, everyone else living in reality can see how successful the film is going to become given that it really doesn’t have much competition until October unless James Wan’s R-rated horror flick Malignant surprises everyone.
Black Widow has officially crossed $200 million internationally at the box office, after an impressive $80.3 million domestic opening last weekend. Sadly, the box office totals for Black Widow won’t include the $60 million Disney claims they earned or future earnings from Premier Access, which will likely deflate the total run once the dust settles. A risk Disney knew they would be facing with a hybrid release strategy.
However, the film is on the path to turn a decent profit and we’ll likely get plenty of sequels/spinoffs.
There does seem to be some hope that not only David Harbour’s Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian might be making a comeback soon, but while speaking with the D23 Inside podcast (via The Direct), Marvel’s Kevin Feige suggested that Rachel Weisz’s Melina Vostokoff aka Iron Maiden could also be poised for a return as well.
“It is always the intention that when characters come in, and great great actors come in to the universe, if we have a great time with them, the audience did, that you always want to see them again. I think it’s a safe bet that we definitely want that to happen,” Feige told D23 Inside concerning the possibility of Melina and Alexei making their return to the MCU in the future.
We never actually saw Melina’s Iron Maiden incarnation, so that could be something fun to explore in the future.
Director Cate Shortland has teased a desire to return for Black Widow 2, there seems to be some inference that Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) will appear in both the Hawkeye series and potentially a Thunderbolts project, and finally David Harbour has teased early talks with Marvel about Red Guardian’s return being open to either a film or Disney+ series (Winter Guard project feels like the smart move).
We’re also assuming that Taskmaster will be back at some point too.
BLACK WIDOW –In Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger. Directed by Cate Shortland and produced by Kevin Feige, the movie stars Scarlett Johansson reprising her role as Natasha Romanoff. Florence Pugh stars as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian, and Rachel Weisz as Melina Vostokoff.
THE RONIN 