Tag: Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine

Posted on in Features

The Serpent Crown Could Be Next Big McGuffin Coming To The MCU Leading To Lumerians & The Serpent Society

Yesterday, fans discovered the possibility of Namor (Prince of Atlantis) villain Gargantos being involved in a fight sequence in Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness. It felt like a big hint that Namor is coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe or even the Doctor Strange sequel after Scott Derrickson had teased on Twitter before deleting the post and exiting the film leading to rewrites from Michael Waldron (Loki).

Despite believable rumors of Namor (alongside other characters) showing up in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Atlantis and Wakanda having battled each other before), neither the trades nor Marvel Studios have confirmed this exciting potential. Given that Angela Bassett told Entertainment Tonight there have been at least five versions of the script means that things could have been tweaked/changed over the last year or two.

“There have been about five incarnations of the script and I hear another one’s coming,” Bassett said of the script development of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

While the Darkhold (book of dark magic) is being introduced in WandaVision and should play a large role in Doctor Strange 2, we could be seeing more dangerous items falling into the wrong hands.

The addition of Gargantos may mean another dangerous McGuffin could be coming to the MCU as well. As the comic that featured Gargantos included the former ruler of Atlantis, Naga of Lumeria. The Lumerians are sort of antagonists to the Atlanteans, and their leader Naga wears an object of interest of Marvel Comics, the Serpent Crown. Interestingly enough, Captain America: The Winter Soldier gave them a brief nod with the SHIELD ship in the opening sequence being called The Lumerian Star (seemingly a HYDRA operation).

The Serpent Crown has connections to various villains such as Mephisto (Marvel’s cosmic version of the Devil), Ophelia Sarkissian aka Viper, The Serpent Society (once led by Sarkissian), and the aforementioned Naga of Lumeria.

In the comics, Scarlet Witch, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, and the Thing teamed up to fight against Quasar, who was possessed by the Serpent Crown.

The Serpent Society connection is a big standout here. Mainly, because it was the fake title (Captain America: Serpent Society) used before Kevin Feige announced that they would be making Captain America: Civil War and announced the casting of Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa/Black Panther. There had been reports that The Falcon & The Winter Soldier head writer Malcolm Spellman and Dalan Musson had been assigned to write Captain America 4, assumed to star Anthony Mackie. So, setting up the Serpent Society as a threat or giving clues to the Serpent Crown beforehand would be a good way to go.

The Serpent Society has a connection to Lumeria, which makes the Lumerian Star tease in Captain America: The Winter Soldier even more interesting given that it was controlled by HYDRA. Viper, also goes by the codename Madame Hydra. They could easily become the successors to HYDRA and make for foes for Sam Wilson’s new Captain America or even the Thunderbolts.

I wouldn’t be that shocked if Val (was an incarnation of Madame Hydra in the comics) or Sharon Carter’s Power Broker are part of this MCU incarnation of The Serpent Society, given that Viper once controlled the island nation of Madripoor, which seemingly we’ll be revisiting in the future possibly in Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings.

Roxxon’s Hugh Jones (who appeared in Agents of SHIELD) attempted to use the Serpent Crown to gain control of the U.S. government in the comics, it’s possible the MCU could reboot that character as they have with the Darkhold in WandaVision. The Loki series, that gave us a true introduction to The Multiverse, featured Roxxon’s Walmart proxy Roxxcart.

I guess we’ll have to wait on March 25, 2022 to known for sure if Namor, Atlantis, and The Serpent Crown are coming.

Posted on in Features

SPOILERS: ‘Black Widow’ Has A New Take On Taskmaster & The Future Of Yelena In The MCU

***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.

Posted on in Features

The ‘Armor Wars’ Series Could Help Setup ‘Captain America 4’

*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.

Posted on in Television News

SPOILERS: ‘Falcon & Winter Soldier’ Finale Unmasks The Power Broker & Teases Where Characters May Reappear

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE FALCON & THE WINTER SOLDIER

Marvel’s The Falcon & The Winter Soldier has finally ended it’s six episode run and while I feel the last episode was a little long for my liking, it did seem to streamline an ending that opens a bunch of doors for multiple character returns.

We see Baron Zemo conducting super-soldier busting while being behind a cell in Thunderbolt Ross’ super-max prison The Raft, killing four of the captured Flag-Smashers while they were on their way to The Raft as Zemo’s butler seemed to be the one that executed them with a bomb.

Only time will tell if we’ll see Daniel Bruhl return to the role in some Thunderbolts project down the line.

The cat is finally out of the bag and it’s been revealed that Emily VanCamp’s Sharon Carter is indeed The Power Broker, something that has been long suspected and the actress even commented on the theory not too long ago. While this turn might have perplexed some assuming that she was being given a second shot at a heroic run in the MCU, it’s not that dissimilar to that of other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents such as Jasper Sitwell, who seemed level-headed good guys until they were outed as HYDRA cohorts hiding within the ranks of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

To suggest that Sharon had a strong character arc in the Captain America films would be disingenuous and while people might not like the angle Marvel took with her in Falcon, it finally gave the actress something to do outside of being a glorified cameo doing random things off-screen only to be completely forgotten when it came to Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Luckily for Sharon, she killed Batroc The Leaper before he was able to expose her secret and also shoots Karli Morgenthau. In the wake of the assassination attempts in New York City, Sharon Carter is given a full pardon in a post-credit scene and is speaking with someone that she now has access to intel/government weapons programs now that she is officially back on U.S. soil.

Could this hint to Sharon Carter’s involvement in Armor Wars?

While Sam Wilson’s costume (via Wakanda) reveal was spoiled by the toys it was interesting to see how faithful to the comic book design it was and that he’s decided not to take the super-soldier serum, which should be interesting moving forward given that Captain America is now going to be a tech-based superhero. I’m guessing everything he’s wearing is vibraium which should at least protect him from most weapons.

Another interesting thing is that we see Sam return to the home of Isaiah and Eli Bradley taking them to Smithsonian to reveal that Isaiah’s story will be told and history will remember him as he gets his own exhibit alongside Steve Rogers. While there had been rumblings Eli joining a Young Avengers project, there doesn’t seem to be any signs that he has any superpowers in his current state.

I have to assume that with Sam’s new super-suit and being established as the new Cap, we’ll get some sort of announcement concerning Captain America 4 moving forward at the studio.

We see Bucky make amends crossing-off the last name on his list and ending his therapy. I wouldn’t be shocked if he has a supporting role in future Captain America films alongside Mackie or is given a solo project at some point.

John Walker’s time as U.S. Agent begun as Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Val has outfitted him with a new costume and is giving him a second chance, however, her true intentions haven’t been revealed or who she is ultimately working for. Val seeming makes a statement suggesting she’s aware of how bonkers things will be getting with the Skrulls/Secret Invasion but doesn’t elaborate.

There are still some loose ends going on as we don’t know if Joaquin Torres is going to follow in Sam’s footsteps as the new Falcon and if Steve Rogers is really dead, it’s been suggested twice he’s on the Moon. Given S.W.O.R.D.’s upcoming presence in Captain Marvel 2 and Secret Invasion, I wouldn’t be shocked if they’ve established a base on the surface of the Moon leading to believe he’s up there. Nobody seems to talk about Steve being dead or a funeral, given we saw on-screen funerals for Peggy Carter and Tony Stark they would unlikely do that off-screen. Leaving things open is likely being done on purpose.

What did you think about the series and it’s finale?

Posted on in Television News

‘Falcon & Winter Soldier’ Episode 5 Big Cameo Was Supposed To Be Introduced In ‘Black Widow’ First

MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 5 OF THE FALCON & THE WINTER SOLDIER

We’re down to one more episode of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier and it seems to be a bit of a super-soldier showdown. Interestingly enough, while a big cameo was teased for this current episode they sort have delivered on that front when the teases for WandaVision were mostly smoke to confuse fans.

The big cameo in Episode 5 aka Truth wasn’t what I think a lot of people were expecting as Julia Louis-Dreyfus revealed herself as Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine aka Agent 14. Traditionally, a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent that was for a time secretly joined HYDRA as a version of Madame Hydra.

I personally wouldn’t be shocked if she turned out to be the secret Power Broker, given her interest in John Walker and knowledge of the super-soldier serum. If she turns out to be the MCU’s version of Madame Hydra/Viper it would also make perfect sense as the Ophelia Sarkissian incarnation for a time ruled Madripoor. There is also a connection to Sharon Carter via Femme Force, so having the two linked-up wouldn’t be a stretch either.

It’s interesting to see a Seinfeld cast member given all the working titles to Marvel projects honoring the series, including Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love & Thunder going under The Big Salad during filming. A direct nod to a title of an episode. Jon Watt’s Spider-Man films have also honored the show with The Summer of George and Fall of George/Bosco on the first two movies.

Vanity Fair has also revealed that Julia’s Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine was supposed to first show up in Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow and potentially reveal herself as being some sleeper Russian agent connected to the Black Widow Program, not unlike Rachel Weisz’s Iron Maiden. Not to mention that Marvel is said to have “big plans” for her character.

According to sources close to the production, Louis-Dreyfus was slated to first appear in the Black Widow film which, in a pre-Covid world, was scheduled to debut in theaters May 1, 2020. But Marvel, reportedly, has even bigger ambitions for Louis-Dreyfus’s villainous figure. 

They’re still unsure if she’ll still appear in Black Widow or not along with teasing the possibility of a link to The Thunderbolts too. It wouldn’t be surprising if both Walker and Zemo end up on the Thunderbolts lineup alongside Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova. We see Walker building his own shield after the real one was taken away and Zemo is being sent to Thunderbolt Ross’ super-prison The Raft, the latter feels like a huge nod that The Thunderbolts are coming in the future.

Black Widow has been pushed to July 9, 2021 and Marvel really didn’t have a choice to delay Falcon given the demand for original content for Disney+. The final episode of the series will be released next week.

SOURCE: VANITY FAIR