'Alien: Earth' Streaming Next Summer, Series Spinoff Is Set Two Years Before Original 'Alien'

‘Alien: Earth’ Streaming Next Summer, Series Spinoff Is Set Two Years Before Original ‘Alien’

Most recently, we finally got some new footage from Noah Hawley‘s (“Fargo,” “Legion”) “Alien” series spinoff “Alien: Earth” from a Disney+ promotional video from earlier in the month, and a “new teaser” from this week has confirmed a summer 2025 debut on Hulu and Disney+. Sadly, this teaser (See below) doesn’t exactly include any new footage, just the previous look at a xenomorph we got over the summer.

If you weren’t already aware, the show’s cast includes Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Timothy Olyphant, Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, David Rysdahl, Adrian Edmondson, Adarsh Gourav, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Diem Camille, and Moe Bar-El.

Olyphant is reportedly playing a new android in the show, and we’re still trying to figure out if the show is indeed going to be regarded as hard canon like “Alien: Romulus” or simply a standalone project that won’t impact past or future stories.

Illuminating the Empty Spaces of 'Alien' | by Nat Brehmer | Medium

From a timeline perspective, “Alien: Earth” takes place in 2120, which directly places it two years before the events of the original “Alien” by Ridley Scott and set much after his more recent prequels, “Prometheus” (27 years) and “Alien: Covenant” (16 years).

“Alien: Romulus” took place between “Alien” and “Aliens,” adding brand new characters and establishing that Weyland-Yutanti tinkered with the Big Chap and had a cloning program before Carter Burke doomed the colonists of Hadley’s Hope or the cloning plot of “Alien: Resurrection.” Until we get official confirmation from Hawley, there is wiggle room for them to retroactively add these new show events to the main franchise timeline in the same way without retconning anything in a major way (Neill Blomkamp’s never-made “Alien 5” would have retconned the films after “Aliens” and explored the company’s experiments with the xenomorphs including bio-suits).

In theory, xenomorphs could have overrun a city or island on Earth only to be nuked into dust and covered up by the company to hide active weapons programs using alien bio-technology. This would explain this hint of previous knowledge of the xenomorphs from Ash and Carter Burke, an established database on them from the occurences of “Alien: Earth” or previous attempts to experiment even before “Romulus.”

Check out the show’s official logline from FX/Disney:

When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat in FX’s highly anticipated TV series ‘Alien: Earth’ from creator Noah Hawley.

Elsewhere in the franchise, writer/director Fede Alvarez is said to be developing a follow-up sequel to “Alien: Romulus” (Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson are confirmed to reprise their roles) potentially with Ridley Scott (had once been developing a third David-centric prequel called “Alien: Awakening“) returning as producer via Scott Free, and the next live-action “Predator” film “Predator: Badlands” is set to hit the big screen next November. There is some hope that with the two film franchises now being set in the distant future and off-world, 20th Century Studios could eventually attempt an organic and authentic new adaptation of “Alien vs Predator.” By ignoring the previous two films and giving fans something closer to what the original comic books and video games were doing with the crossover.

Time will tell if The Colonial Marines (who haven’t officially appeared since James Cameron’s “Aliens”) will be the third splinter group to their own series or spinoff before an off-world clash between the two deadly alien species.

While “Prey” was a Hulu-exclusive film, “Alien: Romulus” was gifted a traditional theatrical release and earned an impressive $350.8 million for the studio at the worldwide box office. Making it the second highest-grossing installment. “Romulus” has proved there is still gas left in the tank despite mixed reactions to Ridley’s two prequels. We’re curious to see how “Alien: Earth” impacts things next summer and what new ideas Halwey has cooked up beyond expanding on the company trying to weaponize the xenomorph (an over-arching theme of the franchise and briefly touched upon in “Alien: Romulus” and “Alien: Resurrection” via cloning technology.

SOURCE: FX

‘Echo’ Trailer: Marvel Studios’ First TV-MA Series Coming January 10 & Releases Under New Marvel Spotlight Banner

While “Loki” season two ends next week, Marvel Studios is looking toward the next series coming to Disney+ with “Echo.” A direct spinoff from “Hawkeye” focusing on the villain Maya Lopez and expanding/exploring her “Daredevil” adjacent solo series that has been now confirmed as Marvel Studios’ first TV-MA show since taking the reigns of Marvel TV Studios (formerly Marvel Television) and should lead to a string of other mature-focused projects. They’ve released a new trailer (See below) highlighting Maya’s complex relationship with The Kingpin and highlights the violence in the upcoming show that will debut in January.

“Echo” is also going to be the first entry in Marvel’s new banner called Marvel Spotlight.

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“Marvel Spotlight gives us a platform to bring more grounded, character-driven stories to the screen, and in the case of Echo, focusing on street-level stakes over larger MCU continuity. Just like comics fans didn’t need to read ‘Avengers’ or ‘Fantastic Four’ to enjoy a ‘Ghost Rider Spotlight’ comic, our audience doesn’t need to have seen other Marvel series to understand what’s happening in Maya’s story,” Head of Streaming Brad Winderbaum said in a statement announcing the new banner.

We previously hoped that Marvel would resurrect the Marvel Knights banner used for “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengence” and “Punisher: War Zone” for projects like these. However, using Marvel Spotlight instead feels like a decent compromise.

Here is the show’s official logline via Marvel/Disney:

Marvel Studios presents “Echo” in which Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) struggles to reconnect with her Native American roots while balancing aspirations tied to a life of crime as successor to the brutal legacy of Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) aka Kingpin. In the first episode, we are introduced to Maya Lopez and her struggles.

Other cast members include Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock, aka, Daredevil (spotted in the teaser footage), Chaske Spencer as Henry, Tantoo Cardinal as Chula, Graham Greene as Skully, Cody Lightning as Cousin Biscuits, Devery Jacobs as Bonnie, and Zahn McClarnon as William Lopez.

All 10 episodes of “Echo” are set to debut on Disney+ and Hulu on January 10, 2024. You can watch that brand-new trailer below.

SOURCE: MARVEL STUDIOS/DISNEY+

Shawn Levy Shares Updates On His ‘Star Wars’ Movie & ‘Real Steel’ Series At Disney+

While producer/director Shawn Levy (“The Adam Project,” “Stranger Things”) is attending the Toronto International Film Festival to promote the Netflix series “All The Light We Cannot See,” he’s been talking up other projects in the works such as his big “X-Men” film under Marvel Studios, “Deadpool 3.” He confirmed that filming was only at the midway point before there was stoppage but that’s not the only massive project he’s cooking up at Disney that has been placed on pause.

Speaking with Collider, Levy gave some minor updates on the status of both his Disney+ series sequel to the Hugh Jackman-led sci-fi sports film “Real Steel” that was announced early last year and his mysterious “Star Wars” movie for Lucasfilm. Levy assures fans of the film that the sequel show is very much “alive” but just like with the film development halted when the WGA strike kicked in (AMPTP refuses to make a good-faith counteroffer to the unions and get everyone back to work by making a fair deal) and the “Star Wars” film is also in a similar situation. It’s still happening, but on hold until the strikes are resolved.

“We were just starting the process of developing my movie, and the writer strike happened. So we are in that holding pattern that so much of our industry is in,” Levy told Collider of the status of his new “Star Wars” movie. And on the ‘Real Steel’ series he said, “Same, I could literally say, ‘See above.’ Same. Still, as I told you, I want it as badly as the lovers of ‘Real Steel’ want it, so alive, but paused.”

Exclusive Interview: We Chat with Real Steel Director - Shawn Levy -  HeyUGuys

Back in 2022, the director was quick to suggest to Collider how protective he is of the property and if they weren’t to get a good idea going, Levy would rather just not make the show.

“But I will say that we heard a lot of pitches. And I realized, over the course of those pitches, that I am fiercely protective of ‘Real Steel.’ I’d rather make no show than the wrong show. And I finally heard a take that takes the lore of the movie and does some really exciting things with it. I’m finally getting really excited about where we’re headed.”

The Amblin project focused on fighting robots didn’t exactly become a huge earner at the box office, $300 million on a production budget of $110 million. However, a series revival might be a bit more attractive given that Jackman’s co-stars would eventually get their own Marvel Comics roles with Evangeline Lilly playing an incarnation of The Wasp and Anthony Mackie (doing a lot of TV lately) originally taking the role of The Falcon only to eventually take the Captain American mantle from Chris Evans.

I think the biggest question going on here is, does Hugh Jackman want to make a limited series? Answering that might be slightly easier with Levy and Jackman reuniting for “Deadpool 3” where the director could eventually convince the Aussie actor to do it. Pending on a really good reason to make a follow-up.

When it comes to “Star Wars” it feels like Lucasfilm/Disney is more interested in making announcements about future films than actually completing them. Some of those growing feature films consist of one from Taika Waititi (“Thor: Ragnarok”), a force/Jedi origin film from James Mangold (“Logan”), Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (“Ms. Marvel”) is tackling a film set 15 years after the events of “The Rise of Skywalker” with Daisy Ridley attached to reprise her role of Rey Skywalker, and Dave Filoni (“Ahsoka”) is going to be making his big jump from TV to the big-screen with another mysterious film set during the timeline of the streaming shows which is years after “Return of The Jedi” (Expected to potentially see the return of Luke, Leia, and Han in some sort of form). It will be surprising if any of these movies crossed the finish line given how many have been scrapped or retooled into Disney+ shows like “Kenboi” and “The Book of Boba Fett.”

“Ahsoka” is currently airing on Disney+ with other live-action shows such as “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” and The High Republic-era series “The Acolyte” (will be littered with Jedi characters) on the horizon.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

‘X-Men ’97’ Will Be Disney+ Revival Of Popular 1990s ‘X-Men’ Cartoon

There has been talk of a revival of the beloved X-Men cartoon series from Fox Kids in the 1990s, it goes back to director and producer Larry Houston stating back in 2020 he was talking with Disney about the possibility.

Well, it looks like that animated revival is indeed moving forward.

The GWW was first to mention that a new X-Men cartoon was in the works for Disney+ and there has been confirmation from The Wrap that it is indeed happening, adding more concrete details that it will be a revival titled X-Men ’97 continue the previous series and is debuting in 2023.

They also mention that Moon Knight writer Beau DeMayo is the head writer along with the voice cast.

Head writer and executive producer on the series is Beau DeMayo. Supervising director is Jake Castorena and supervising producer is Charley Feldman. Consulting on the new series are X-Men: The Animated Series writers Eric and Julia Lewald, and director Larry Houston.

Returning cast members include: Cal Dodd, Lenore Zann, George Buza, Adrian Hough, Christopher Britton, Catherine Disher, Chris Potter, Alison Sealy-Smith, Alyson Court.

X-Men ‘97 is also welcoming a number of new voices to the cast, including Jennifer Hale, Anniwaa Buachie, Ray Chase, Matthew Waterson, JP Karliak, Holly Chou, Jeff Bennett, AJ LoCascio.

It was more a matter of time when the revival was announced.

UPDATE: Old Guard Productions Confirmed As Unannounced Marvel Studios Project

Back in August, The Ronin first revealed two new LLC companies potentially being put together for upcoming Marvel Studios projects with Ionic Productions and Old Guard Productions, a month later we were able to confirm the former was indeed a Marvel project.

Well, today we can also confirm that Old Guard Productions is part of a wave of announced films/television shows coming to Marvel at some point. It’s unknown what the property will be and if it’ll be for the big or small screen.

If I had to guess, perhaps, it’s related to Jon Watt’s Fantastic Four reboot, X-Men, or maybe even something more obscure like the Marvel Comics version of Illuminati. I’m sure Winter Guard or Red Guardian projects could also make sense given David Harbour’s openness to reprising his Black Widow character.

Live-action projects on the horizon include Hawkeye, Spider-Man: No Way Home (collaboration with Sony Pictures), Ms. Marvel, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love & Thunder, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, She-Hulk, Moon Knight, The Marvels, Secret Invasion, Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, Ironheart, Echo, Armor Wars, Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3, Blade, Captain America 4, Deadpool 3, Fantastic Four, X-Men, untitled series featuring Agatha Harkness, untitled Halloween Special, and an untitled Wakanda series from Ryan Coogler.

Here is a rundown of the recent wave of Marvel Studios LLC companies so far.

  • GRASS-FED PRODUCTIONS (SECRET INVASION)
  • BAD EGG PRODUCTIONS (IRONHEART)
  • FREQUENT PRODUCTIONS (EHCO)
  • MAGLEV TRAIN PRODUCTIONS (WAKANDA DISNEY+ SERIES)
  • NATURAL HISTORY PRODUCTIONS (DISNEY+ PROJECT)
  • BLUEBERRY WAFFLES PRODUCTIONS
  • STANDOFFISH PRODUCTIONS
  • CHANGEUP PRODUCTIONS
  • SOLVE EVERYTHING PRODUCTIONS
  • ON YOUR MARK PRODUCTIONS
  • CANTINA PRODUCTIONS
  • BATTLE ANYONE PRODUCTIONS
  • ACID POP PRODUCTIONS 
  • SPEYSIDE PRODUCTIONS 
  • RICHMOND STREET PRODUCTIONS
  • IONIC PRODUCTIONS
  • OLD GUARD PRODUCTIONS 

Between Disney+ Day and D23 this month, there are some expectations of a new wave of announcements from Marvel’s Kevin Feige, which could mean we’ll have a better idea of what these mystery projects are. People I’m sure are hoping to hear announcements for things like Nova, Namor, Young Avengers, Shang-Chi 2, and much much more. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens this month.

Gael Garcia Bernal Reportedly Lands Werewolf By Night Role In Marvel’s Untitled Halloween Special

Marvel Studios is putting together another horror-type project for Disney+ with a Halloween Special that is expected to begin shooting early next year. The studio had been reportedly seeking a Latino actor for a key role and it sounds like Marvel has landed on an actor.

The Wrap has revealed that Mexican actor Gael Gracia Bernal has nabbed a lead role in the untitled Disney+ project. Although the report doesn’t have a full-throated confirmation that the actor is playing Werewolf By Night, they indicate that is a strong possibility he might be while mentioning both Jack Russell and Jake Gomez as role options.

While details about the project are being kept strictly under wraps, individuals with knowledge say the character may be based on Werewolf By Night, the name used by two separate Marvel characters.

We’re also still waiting on plot details along with who is exactly writing and directing it.

Marvel Studios has yet to officially announce the Halloween project or the casting, but could likely do so during the Disney+ Day event next week on November 12.

If this character info turns out to be true it would directly conflict with fan rumors of the werewolf character showing up in the Moon Knight series in a major role, which has long wrapped in Budapest (shot scenes in Jordan and London too) before this casting news. Meaning, even if the character appeared after this casting news (unlikely) it would likely only be a cameo and could rule out that Ethan Hawke is playing him, the actor’s part in the series has yet to be officially confirmed by Marvel.

Marvel Studios flushing out their horror characters for television has been something I’ve been talking up since 2015 before Marvel Television was rebranded as Marvel TV Studios when Kevin Feige took over as Marvel’s CCO and Jeph Loeb exited the company. It’ll be interesting to see if they’ll attempt to adapt more characters like Blade as someone like Moon Knight might skew more in the Doctor Strange/Avengers realm.

The studio could develop a horror universe that rivals the Universal Monsters.

SOURCE: THE WRAP

TRAILER: Fett Becomes A Powerful Crime Syndicate Leader Of The Underworld In ‘The Book Of Boba Fett’

Disney has released the first look trailer for The Book of Boba Fett, which sees the former bounty hunter hang up his spurs for a more ambitious adventure, taking over Jabba’s criminal syndicate. A rather large feat given all the criminal scum of the Star Wars underworld looking to bump him off and take his position.

While Solo: A Star Wars Story waded in the waters of the underworld, it looks like The Book of Boba Fett will explore the real criminal side of things giving us more insight into that side of the mythology. This sort of confirms that Fett is no longer a bounty hunter and might open things up to see what the other syndicates look like beyond Tatooine.

Its directing team is expected to include Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Robert Rodriguez, Bryce Dallas-Howard, and Sam Hargrave.

The new series will debut on December 29 on Disney+ and will continue into 2022.

Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and season three of The Mandalorian are other Star Wars shows that expected to be released next year, giving fans a heap of content ahead of the next film, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron being released in 20223.

“The Book of Boba Fett,” a thrilling Star Wars adventure teased in a surprise end-credit sequence following the Season 2 finale of “The Mandalorian,” finds legendary bounty hunter Boba Fett and mercenary Fennec Shand navigating the galaxy’s underworld when they return to the sands of Tatooine to stake their claim on the territory once ruled by Jabba the Hutt and his crime syndicate.

“The Book of Boba Fett” stars Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen. Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Robert Rodriguez, Kathleen Kennedy, and Colin Wilson are the executive producers. Karen Gilchrist and Carrie Beck serve as co-executive producers, with John Bartnicki producing and John Hampian as co-producer.

Disney also revealed a new poster for the show which you can see below.

SOURCE: DISNEY

‘Ahsoka’ May Feature Anakin Skywalker Force Ghost As Hayden Christensen Joins ‘Star Wars’ Series

It was huge news when Canadian actor Hayden Christensen was announced as reprising the Darth Vader role for the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series, that he’d star alongside fellow prequel actor Ewan McGregor. Well, it looks like Lucasfilm is keen on Christensen returning once more.

The Hollywood Reporter says that Hayden Christensen will be back for the upcoming Ahsoka series that will center around Rosario Dawson’s former Jedi. The assumption here is that he’ll potentially play the force ghost incarnation of Anakin Skywalker as Ahsoka Tano’s appearance in The Mandalorian took place many years after the death of Darth Vader/Skywalker.

Ahsoka and Anakin have a long-established relationship in the animation side of Star Wars canon as she was the apprentice of Skywalker in Star Wars: The Clone Wars before Tano exited the Jedi Order. In Star Wars: Rebels, they were reunited as they came to blows as Skywalker had been transformed into the Sith Lord, Darth Vader.

The beloved Star Wars character was on a mission to find Grand Adrimal Thrawn in her episode of The Mandalorian, which suggests that we’ll be getting live-action incarnations of both Thrawn and Ezra Bridger. Although, actors have yet to be announced by Lucasfilm despite rumblings of certain actors being selected.

It’ll be curious if Anakin Skywalker will help Ahsoka find Thrawn or simply be a force ghost mentor giving her advice. We could also see flashbacks to the Clone War era, which is also assumed for the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.

Disney+ is going to an overwhelming amount of Star Wars shows on the streaming platform over the next couple of years. They have wrapped on shows such as The Book of Boba Fett (to debut in late December), Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Andor. Season 3 of The Mandalorian has started shooting in California and there is an expectation that Ahsoka won’t begin filming until Dawson completes her shoot on Disney’s Haunted Mansion remake.

We’re still waiting on official confirmation when The Acolyte, Rangers of The New Republic, and Lando will begin production as more shows are expected to be announced next month at the Disney+ Day event.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

RUMOR: George Clooney Reunited With Oscar Isaac To Direct Episode Of Marvel’s ‘Moon Knight’

While Moon Knight has wrapped filming, there seem to be plenty of surprises left as we still don’t know the full cast/characters of the Marvel Studios series that will air on Disney+ in 2022.

Moon Knight, aka Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac), a mercenary who has numerous alter egos — cabbie Jake Lockley and millionaire playboy Steven Grant — in order to better fight the criminal underworld. But later he was established as being a conduit for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Most recently, the character was a consultant who dresses in all-white and goes by the name Mr. Knight. 

Filming took place in Budapest, London, and Jordan with an established directing team that consists of Mohamed Diab, Justin Benson, and Aaron Moorhead.

The Ronin has learned that George Clooney (The Midnight Sky, The Monuments Men, Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind) may have directed an episode of Moon Knight for Marvel after finishing his shoot on the Boston-set drama The Tender Bar that stars Ben Affleck.

However, we’re treating this as a rumor as we can’t confirm the tidbit at this time and we’re unsure if he’ll have an acting role as well.

It’s worth mentioning that Oscar Issac and George Clooney have worked together before on the Clooney-directed thriller Suburbicon, so there is an established working relationship.

Clooney wouldn’t be new to directing television as he tackled a series adaptation of the war satire Catch-22 at Hulu and the HBO series Unscripted.

The actor-turned-director has a complicated relationship with comic book projects as he played Batman in Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin leading to a franchise reboot that was eventually assigned to Christopher Nolan giving us The Dark Knight Trilogy.

Recently, Brad Pitt and Clooney took lead roles in a non-superhero pic directed by Jon Watts at Apple Studios, who just wrapped up the MCU’s Spider-Man trilogy with Spider-Man: No Way Home. Watts had also been announced as the director of Marvel’s Fantastic Four reboot last December.

There is an expectation that Marvel Studios will be making a big presentation on November 12 at the Disney+ Day event and give 2022 shows like Moon Knight a promotional push, hopefully, we’ll get some footage or first look images as Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector/Moon Knight.

Kathryn Hahn Returning As Agatha Harkness For Untitled ‘WandaVision’ Spinoff Series From Jac Schaeffer

Another spinoff series is reportedly in the works at Marvel Studios and Disney+, this new one will apparently include actress Kathryn Hahn reprising the Agatha Harkness role that was introduced in WandaVision.

Variety reports that untitled Marvel series is said to be a WandaVision spinoff coming from head writer Jac Schaeffer, who signed an overall deal with Marvel Studios and 20th Television earlier in the year.

Hahn would reprise the role of Agatha Harkness in the series, which is described by sources as a dark comedy, though exact plot details remain under wraps. WandaVision head writer Jac Schaeffer would serve as the writer and executive producer on the project. Should the spinoff go forward, it would be the first project Schaeffer has set up with Marvel since she signed an overall deal with them and 20th Television in May.

In WandaVision, Hahn started out playing the role of Agnes, Wanda and Vision’s nosy neighbor, before it was revealed she was in fact Agatha, a powerful witch. In the Marvel comics and the series, Agatha is shown to have survived the Salem Witch Trials and is more than a match for Wanda, a.k.a. Scarlet Witch. When viewers last saw her in the finale of WandaVision, Wanda traps Agatha in Westview by using her powers to force her revert to her Agnes persona.

However, it’s not clear what the “dark comedy” Marvel show actually is and they don’t mention a title or concrete plot details.

When the S.W.O.R.D./Nick Fury series was first announced in separate trade reports they weren’t aware it was going to be an adapation of Secret Invasion. It’s possible the show could another project with multiple key MCU characters coming together. We also aren’t aware if this series leaves room for other established magic users like Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange or Benedict Wong’s Wong will be involved.

We should be getting a lineup update on new and upcoming Marvel Studios projects at Disney+ Day on November 12.

SOURCE: VARIETY