Last week, the Season 1 finale of Loki introduced audiences to Jonathan Majors’ He Who Remains and confirming our support of rumors that Majors would appear in the show. His variant, Kang The Conqueror, will be seen next in Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, fully establishing that the Nexus Event is here and that the Multiverse is truly underway. We’ll see this explored in Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, as the title would suggest, but the studio will have to make sure they’re not overusing it or being too loose with it too often making up things as they go along.
It sounds like Marvel Studios is going to be making sure to set rules for The Multiverse as stated by Kevin Feige to the D23 Inside Disney Podcast (via The Direct). Revealing he had just met with the Marvel team about exactly that.
“As you indicated before we started recording, the multiverse is coming up in a big way. There’s interconnectivity there that people have already started to see and suss out and I had a meeting this morning with the whole broad Marvel Studios team going through the multiverse and the rules of the multiverse and exactly how to really deliver on the excitement surrounding the multiverse,” studio head Kevin Feige told D23 Inside Disney.
It’ll be fun to see multiple versions of Kang and the other variants to become the main antagonists of many Phase 4 movies only to be defeated and return in the next project, over and over. Wouldn’t it be nutty if Kang suddenly showed up in Spider-Man: No Way Home?
Hopefully, the Multiverse comes to a conclusion like with the Infinity Saga and that could with something as epic as Secret Wars, The Russo Brothers have been teasing their interest in the massive crossover event film as a follow-up to Avengers: Endgame it would also allow them to play with X-Men and Fantastic Four characters among others.
I’d personally like to see Kang assemble his own team from various points of the Multiverse putting together a version of Squadron Supreme to combat the heroes/villains of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The characters are cheeky knock-offs of the Justice League and placing them against MCU teams could end up a version of Marvel vs. DC without the headache of trying to get two studios to agree upon all the details.
It looks like Marvel Studios is about to make another big announcement about new film and television projects in the very near future.
The Ronin can now confirm the following LLCs are specifically for Marvel Studios projects, some of these were previously mentioned by us, but we can now confirm they are indeed for Marvel.
BATTLE ANYONE PRODUCTIONS
ACID POP PRODUCTIONS
NATURAL HISTORY PRODUCTIONS
SPEYSIDE PRODUCTIONS
The identity of the projects is unknown, but you’d have to imagine that things like Captain American 4, X-Men, Blade, Jon Watt’s Fantastic Four reboot, and Deadpool 3 could be candidates. However, at least some of these could be for Disney+ shows.
UPDATE: We have some follow-up information from a source that Natural History Productions is a Disney+ project that is aiming to begin shooting in February 2022 at Trilith Studios in Atlanta, Georgia.
It’s unclear what it could be but given it’s a television series we could speculate it might be something like a Ka-Zar or Savage Land (connected to the X-Men franchise) project makes sense given the obscurity of the characters (Disney+ shows seem to be introducing lesser known characters) and the cosmic genetic tinkering going on similar to things like Eternals, X-Men, and Inhumans. At one point, Marvel Studios was developing a feature film based on Ka-Zar but pumped the breaks for various reasons.
Eternals shot a scene at Oxford University Museum of Natural History, which is worth mentioning too.
Battle Anyone certainly gives us Secret Wars vibes given that Battleworld is a thing in the comics. Also, Kang The Conqueror and the Multiverse being established for Phase 4 it’s possible that The Russo Brothers will have a reason to come back and make Secret Wars sooner rather than later. Season 1 of Loki also mentioned a Multiverse War, and could be pushed forward with something like Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, and Season 2 of Loki.
We previously revealed that Ryan Coogler’s untitled Wakanda series was moving forward because Marvel had created an official LLC for the project withMaglev Train Productions.
There is also a new LLC called Ionic Productions, but we can’t confirm if this is Marvel-related. Stay tuned for updates! Other stuff that needs further confirmation include On Your Mark Productions and Bad Egg Productions.
Marvel Studios and Disney waiting over a full year to release Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow is likely going to pay off big time for the studio, as the film is said to have already earned nearly $40 million ($39.5 million) on Friday at the domestic box office and it’s a good start considering the solo film’s $200 million budget.
Estimates from Deadline now place the full weekend opening potentially heading towards $80-90 million, which will give the film a pandemic era box office record.
Collider also recently spoke with Red Guardian actor David Harbour about plans to see his Russian character making a return to the MCU in the not too distant future.
“There is some chatter around certain things. We were pretty focused on just this. They also have a lot of stuff in the pipe that, it seems like in this particular phase, there’s a lot of different… There’s like Eternals…There’s different elements to this universe that I think they’re branching out at this point until they start to do this. I knew I wasn’t involved in that branch. The discussions were… They didn’t really give a sense of what was up next. It was more just really focused on this movie, and some speculation of possibilities,” David Harbour responded to the question of his character Red Guardian’s potential return in the future.
Stuff like a Thunderbolts project or even Anthony Mackie’s Captain American 4 would be a good bet to make for Red Guardians’ return unless Marvel potentially considers giving Alexei Shostakov a solo Disney+ series.
Director Cate Shortland has talked up the idea of returning for a Black Widow sequel focusing on “other characters,” in theory, that could be a way to have him return by including Alexei alongside Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova as the new Black Widow.
“I think following a different character, yes. I think Scarlett is really happy that she’s leaving the party, you know, and she’s not the last to leave. She decided she wanted to go. And I don’t think she would want to come back at the moment,” the filmmaker told the Radio Times when asked about the possibility of a sequel and alluding to Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova taking over the mantle.
As it stands, Marvel hasn’t announced plans for Black Widow 2. However, Pugh’s Yelena will appear in the Hawkeye series that will likely drop on Disney+ later in the year.
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.
***WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR BLACK WIDOW***
Black Widow has been a film that took a decade to get to the big screen as there had been a previous incarnation at Lionsgate with David Hayter (X-Men, Watchmen) attached to write and direct, but because of various superhero films flopping including the other Lionsgate/Marvel collaboration, the R-rated Punisher: War Zone from 2008.
Ultimately, Marvel Studios circled-back with Australian filmmaker Cate Shortland taking the director’s chair, someone that had to be convinced to take the gig and other contenders such as Eternals’ Chloe Zhao being considered. The film launched on Disney+ and theaters yesterday, as with previous Marvel films it seems like it’ll be extremely successful.
The film is sort of a closed loop for Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff since she dies in Avengers: Endgame and will likely stay dead, although, the studio could develop a run of reversing character deaths when it suits them via The Multiverse, but this could increasingly dull post-Loki and resurrection of Gamora in Avengers: Endgame.
However, Black Widow does introduce us to two characters that will likely have a bigger role to play moving forward. That would be Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova (already confirmed for the Hawkeye series) and the mysterious MCU version of Marvel Comics villain Taskmaster.
Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster
While it started to become obvious that Taskmaster was indeed going to be woman (Mason being a red herring from the jump) within the suit/mask because promotional materials (Taskmaster’s lack of crotch bulge on posters was a dead give away), however, it seemed like it was still a surprise that it turned out to be Dreykov’s (Ray Winstone) adult daughter Antonia surviving a bomb and altered with technology to become a perfect mimic. She’s revealed to be played by Quantum of Solace actress Olga Kurylenko.
Gender-swapping Anthony Masters from the comics, isn’t the real problem I have with this casting choice or the big screen version of the character.
I’m personally confused about going with Antonia, mainly, because she was supposed to be a child when Natasha assassinated her and father. However, my biggest problem is that actress Olga Kurylenko is clearly not younger than Scarlett Johansson and is actually almost five years older than her, turning 42 later in the year. Making the the reveal more puzzling for people like myself who understand the age difference between the two actresses goes in the wrong direction.
Retconning both their deaths undercuts Natasha Romanoff’s history as a ruthless deadly assassin, softening her image which sort of does a disservice to that hardened backstory. It’s also unnecessary since the character is dead and had redeemed herself multiple times in previous films.
We’ll likely see Taskmaster return at some point, likely part of the Thunderbolts team that is slowly being assembled. Hopefully, future projects will give us better action scenes with her because Black Widow didn’t do a great job there and felt a bit generic.
Speaking of Thunderbolts, the end credit scene features Julia-Louis Dreyfus’ Contessa Valentina Allegra de La Fontaine meeting up with Yelena to give her a new mission, to take out Clint Barton. This likely explains her involvement with the Hawkeye series and would suggest she won’t start out as a friend.
We previously saw Val recruit John Walker’s U.S. Agent at the end of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, it’ll be curious if Thunderbolts are getting their own project or being assembled to be unleashed as future antagonists like in upcoming movies like Captain American 4.
Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova was the biggest highlight for me in Black Widow and while the solo film wasn’t my favorite because the pre-release hype for the action was a huge let down when the final film didn’t have a lot of memorable action sequences, most felt more cartoony if anything because of the overuse of digital effects for a grounded character like Romanoff. It’ll be nice to have some real stakes with future Black Widow sequels led by Yelena’s incarnation of the character.
We’ll have to wait and see how Marvel will use these characters.
Last Friday, there was a scoop from The Hollywood Reporter that revealed Marvel Studios was already moving forward with Captain American 4 hiring screenwriters Malcolm Spellman and Dalan Musson to begin working on a script.
This new was coming off the success of the Disney+ series Falcon & Winter Soldier, where Spellman was the head writer. That 6-episode series followed the journey of Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson transforming into the new Captain America alongside acknowledging the dark-side of the super-soldier program via Isiah Bradley’s history of being the first black Captain America, but his story being kept from the public and his subsequent 30 year imprisonment. It’s been all but confirmed that Mackie would end up leading Captain America 4 and potential further installments.
However, this has yet to be announced by Marvel/Disney and Malcolm Spellman doesn’t give a strong impression the project is a lock. When asked about the report by Comic Book, Malcolm has seemingly downplayed how involved he currently is with Captain America 4 and points back to Kevin Feige being the one that makes these things official.
SPELLMAN: “Who said it? Did Kevin say it? I would not put faith in anything you do not hear directly from the man himself!”
While we’ll have to wait for some official confirmations about Captain America 4, Falcon & Winter Soldier director Kari Skogland has revealed to Cinemablend’s Reel Blend podcast that she would be game if the offer came her way.
SKOGLAND: “I think if Marvel called me to do anything, if they called me to film the phone book, I would do it. … The Marvel characters are all very, very rich. I’ve become friends with Anthony and Sebastian, and I really enjoyed working with them. And Emily and Daniel Bruhl. I mean, I’ve worked with them for a couple of years, so of course, I have a special place in my heart. But as I said, if Kevin (Feige) picked up the phone, I would answer it.”
I’m pretty sure we’ll end up seeing some cross-pollination between Don Cheadle’s Armor Wars and Captain America 4, given that the heroes and villains are essentially mingling in similar government circles.
*WARNING! MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE FALCON & THE WINTER SOLDIER*
Yesterday, saw Marvel Studios release the finale for Falcon & Winter Soldier and cemented that Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson has moved from the Falcon persona to taking on the Captain America mantle from Steve Rogers. It was also reported that the studio isn’t wasting any time and has assigned screenwriters for Captain America 4 with Falcon’s Malcolm Spellman and Dalan Musson said to be working on a script.
I’m getting a strong feeling that Don Cheadle’s War Machine series Armor Wars could plant seeds for this upcoming Captain American sequel alongside the film’s potential threat. If you remember we saw Don Cheadle appear as Rhodey in the first episode of Falcon & Winter Soldier when Wilson donates the shield to the Smithsonian exhibit. I don’t think it was an accident that the two shared a moment in that first episode as Falcon and Armor Wars might be connected leading up to the events in Captain America 4.
Armor Wars will see James Rhodes crackdown on a wave of Stark technology getting into the black market and allows him to interact with a heap of Iron Man villains that likely wouldn’t have made the cut in feature films. Baddies such as Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, and others could finally get their live-action adaption alongside other canon-fodder characters. There could also be a link towards the introduction of Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams, who will be leading her own series Ironheart.
Armor Wars’ villains could be familiar faces with Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer, who featured predominately in the comic book the show is based on and if I had to guess could easily step-in for Norman Osborn in the Dark Avengers. You might remember that he turned War Machine into Iron Patriot for Iron Man 2, the armor was used by Osborn and briefly by Sharon Carter in the comics. I wouldn’t be shocked if Hammer is recruited into the Thunderbolts potentially combining Dark Avengers with Thunderbolts into a single entity. Traditionally, Baron Zemo is the leader but there are been multiple incarnations and the MCU does it’s own thing.
Speaking of Carter, it was revealed in Falcon & Winter Soldier that she was the mysterious arms dealer The Power Broker and is now going to use her newly returned access to government weapons programs for her benefit. There is a good shot that Sharon and Justin might join forces to get their hands on Stark’s armor tech.
Zemo crushed The Power Broker’s attempt to recreate the super-soldier serum and could attempt to help take-out villains that want to get their hands on Stark’s armor tech as well. At the end of Falcon, we see Zemo’s butler killing a batch of Flag Smashers that were heading to The Raft, suggesting that he’s still dangerous even behind bars.
We currently don’t know what Marvel is planning to do with Captain America 4, but it’s worth noting that the last installment, Captain America: Civil War, was essentially an Avengers event. There is a good chance that with Falcon & Winter Soldier out of the way they can now give Sam Wilson a massive blockbuster as he takes over the Captain America franchise.
One of the main attributes of the Captain America films is that Steve Rogers has fellow superheroes working alongside him with Bucky/Peggy Carter/The Howling Commandos in Captain America: The First Avenger, Black Widow/Falcon/Nick Fury in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Bucky/Falcon/Scarlet Witch/Hawkeye/Ant-Man/Sharon Carter in Captain America: Civil War. Seeing Rhodey and Sam further develop their relationship or even partner up in the future wouldn’t be surprising given their military backgrounds and both taking on superhero mantles.
Could the next Captain America film also become some Avengers event movie like Civil War?
A new Avengers roster is being assembled before our eyes by Marvel with Sam Wilson becoming Captain America, Rhodey is essentially taking up the Iron Man mantle from Tony Stark, Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster aka Lady Thor, Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova becoming Black Widow, Tatiana Maslany’s Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk, a new yet-to-be announced Black Panther for the sequel shooting this summer, Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop aka Hawkeye, and Danny Ramirez’s Joaquin Torres taking Sam’s spot as Falcon. How this might intersect with plans for the Young Avengers and Thunderbolts remains to be seen.
Armor Wars dropping hints for the Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers to appear in future films like Captain America 4 could be great way to have things escalate for Sam’s first film as the new Cap and sort of amp things up in comparison to the Disney+ show.
John Walker becomes U.S. Agent
Wyatt Russell’s John Walker becoming U.S. Agent remains a bit of mystery if he’s going to be part of the MCU’s version of Thunderbolts or will become a pawn of The Serpent Society (faux title for Captain America 3), Zola, and the Mandarin’s Ten Rings. It likely comes down to the intentions of his new boss Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Julia was originally supposed to appear first as Val in Black Widow before the pandemic delayed the film’s release from May 2020 to July 2021. There are already suggestions that she’ll have some connection to Yelena joining the Thunderbolts but that needs to be confirmed. It’s confirmed that Florence Pugh is reprising the role in the Hawkeye series that could also have links to Thunderbolts.
Walker could return for Armor Wars as he teamed-up with The Jury and that group could be replaced with whoever ends up getting bootleg Stark-tech, potentially Val and Justin Hammer. I’d personally like to see The Serpent Society because they would make an excellent surrogate for a modern version of HYDRA and give Sam plenty of villains to battle for the next couple of years.
Thunderbolt Ross might become a very important figure in the very near future and there is a possibility he might appear in Armor Wars given that Rhodey could be activated under Ross’ supervision.
It could be interesting to see the new Avengers going head-to-head against a competing team like the Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers, who would likely be made up multiple villains selected by Thunderbolt Ross at The Raft. Ross himself is a member of a recent version of the team as Red Hulk, a character aspect that could be explored in the She-Hulk series. He’s always been lurking behind the scenes as a government stooge and helped create the Abomination. Having Ross spearheading Thunderbolts as his namesake would make a lot of sense and it’s starting to feel like Phase 4 is leading up to the two teams clashing on the big screen.
Marvel Studios is reportedly already developing Captain America 4 with writers Malcolm Spellman and Dalan Musson. Spellman is the showrunner of Falcon & The Winter Soldier and Musson is a staff writer on the Disney+ show.
It’s all but confirmed that the series will continue the adventures of Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson as the new Captain America. However, a director hasn’t been named but there is a good shot they’ll ask Kari Skogland after tackling Falcon & Winter Soldier and alongside Spellman being a key part of the show’s success.
Villains aren’t named but there is a good shot that Marvel could end up using The Serpent Society, a group of multiple villains that have been the thorn in the side of Captain America. You might remember that Captain America 3 briefly had the faux title of Captain America: Serpent Society before the Civil War angle was confirmed with the reveal of the late Chadwick Boseman playing T’Challa aka Black Panther in the sequel.
The Serpent Society could end up being an overarching group of baddies for Sam’s era of the franchise potentially alongside other unused Captain America villains that can be mined for future movies led by Anthony Mackie. It’s unclear if Bucky Barnes, Sharon Carter, Baron Zemo, Val, and John Walker will be part of the character lineup for the fourth installment.
I’m slightly curious if The Thunderbolts will have a connection as well.
As fans will be trying to figure-out the upcoming Easter Eggs and cameos in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, showrunner Malcolm Spellman spoke to Entertainment Weekly revealing the show will indeed have connections to at least three unnamed MCU projects.
The answers to these questions will have drastic impacts on the MCU moving forward. Similar to how WandaVision leads directly into the film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Spellman says he can think of three projects off the top of his head that tie into The Falcon and the Winter Soldier that he’s “not allowed to talk about.”
Don Cheadle has confirmed he’ll be appearing as Rhodey aka War Machine, which likely means that Armor Wars will have an obvious connection to the series. There are also expectations that it could tie-into things such as She-Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and maybe even a yet-to-be-announced Thunderbolts project.
I’m also curious if Marvel will make an announcement concerning Captain America 4 starring Anthony Mackie, because the actor had once teased in older interviews that he felt the series was meant to line-up his own wave of Captain America films.
After WandaVision, I think fans would be smart to just pump the breaks with the speculation that characters such as Wolverine or Omega Red will be showing up to keep expectations in a realistic realm (even if Madripoor will be a location). The online fan community stoked WandaVision theories to the point that there was sort of a backlash when characters like Reed Richards and Doctor Strange didn’t show up, despite zero evidence that was actually going to happen.
There seems to be enough real connections in the new series that should make fans happy.
While a Season 2 hasn’t been announced and Kevin Feige has previously prepped fans that some of the Disney+ shows don’t currently have plans for multiple seasons. He mentioned during a press conference via Deadline that there are ideas for Falcon’s Season 2. Although, he stopped short from confirming they would be doing that.
FEIGE: “We get asked [that question] much more in television, because people expect it to be like what they know before: Where’s Season 2? We approached it like the movies: We better make this great, because we won’t be able to do another one. If we’re able to do another one, there’s certainly ideas.”
Directed by Kari Skogland, the Marvel series has a cast that consists of Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Daniel Bruhl, Emily VanCamp, Wyatt Russell, Erin Kellyman, George St. Pierre, Adepero Oduye, Veronica Falcon, Desmond Chiam, Carl Lumbly, Miki Ishikawa, and Amy Aquino.
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier will debut on Disney+ this Friday and will have 6-episodes, three less than WandaVision.
During an interview with Variety, the outlet states that Anthony Mackie isn’t sure what will happen with Sam Wilson once the show finishes up as Marvel Studio hasn’t discussed the prospects of a Season 2 for The Falcon & The Winter Soldier and he’s not sure if he’ll automatically get his own feature films.
While bound by standard Marvel-grade secrecy, the actor confirms there have been no discussions of a second season for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. As the majority of domestic movie theaters remain closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, he is equally unaware of the theatrical prospects for his Falcon character — or the Captain he may become by the end of this Disney Plus run.
At one point, Anthony Mackie teased the series was meant to give Sam Wilson his origin to taking over the Captain America mantle before heading into the films and that suggested to us he would end up leading Captain America 4. However, we’ll actually have to see what ultimately happens with the Disney+ series and who ends up taking over for Steve Rogers. It doesn’t seem to be as cut-and-dry as we thought when the series was first announced but there have been toys with Wilson in his Captain America uniform that seems to support that Sam will indeed become the new Cap by the end of the show.
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier debuts on Disney+ starting on March 19th.
So, is Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson not the shoe-in to become the next Captain American we originally thought?
Some new comments made but the actor while speaking on The Rich Eisen Show seems to reinforce previous statements made by Anthony Mackie that The Falcon & The Winter Soldier will reveal who ultimately becomes the next Captain America, but stops short from giving the impression that Falcon aka Sam Wilson is going to be that “right person” for the job.
MACKIE: “At the end of [Avengers: Endgame], Sam didn’t accept the shield. If you remember he told Steve ‘it doesn’t feel right because this shield is your’s’. So, you know, the show is a long way of figuring around who is going to be Captain America and where the shield is going to end up. And if Captain America, if that moniker come back and somebody is going to hold that moniker again.”
Traditionally, Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier took over that mantle but there had been hints that wouldn’t be case. As fans would know that in the recent comics Sam took that spot on a new Avengers lineup. We also clearly saw in footage and set photos that Wyatt Russell’s John Walker aka U.S. Agent will have his hands on the shield or version of it.
There is an expectation that whoever takes the mantle will continue to carry the shield into Captain America 4 as they wouldn’t spend all this time on Steve Rogers’ successor unless they planned on continuing the film franchise as well.
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier debuts on Disney+ on March 19th.
Following the events of “Avengers: Endgame,” Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) team up in a global adventure that tests their abilities—and their patience—in Marvel Studios’ “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.” The all-new series is directed by Kari Skogland; Malcolm Spellman is the head writer. Streaming exclusively on Disney+.
THE RONIN 