With The Marvels’ production in full swing at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever shooting in Atlanta, the next big project is about to kick-off soon with Secret Invasion. The big Skrull-centric series that will bring back Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos together since Captain Marvel and the button scene in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
There is a neat crew tidbit we can now share.
The Ronin can confirm that production designer Frank Walsh is working on Marvel’s big event crossover series.
Walsh has recently worked on shows such as Season 1 of Carnival Row, Season 2 of Lost In Space, and episodes of the comic book Netflix series Jupiter’s Legacy. As an art director, he’s worked on projects such as High-Rise, Inception, Game of Thrones, The Mummy, Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, and the infamous Luc Besson-produced sci-fi film Lockout (film was sued for plagiarism by John Carpenter).
We previously confirmed the show’s director of photography will be French-Canadian cinematographer SylvaineDufaux (Solo: A Star Wars Story, Future Man) and revealed that the series was expected to shoot sequences in Scotland with production gearing up to begin this month in the United Kingdom.
You can check out some of Dufaux’s work here which includes reshoots for Solo: A Star Wars Story.
The crossover event’s impressive cast also consists of Oscar-winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite, Hot Fuzz, The Crown), four-time Emmy nominee Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones, Solo: A Star Wars Story), Kingsley Ben-Adir (One Night In Miami, Peaky Blinders) said to be playing a villain, and most recent addition to the Marvel series is character actor Christopher McDonald (Hacks, Happy Gilmore).
There is an expectation due to the proximity to the filming of Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels and overlapping production schedules, we should see some cross-pollination between the two casts. Samuel L. Jackson has already confirmed on social media that he’s shot Nick Fury scenes for The Marvels.
The show’s head writer is Kyle Bradstreet with directors Thomas Bezhucha (Let Him Go) and Ali Selim (The Looming Tower) shooting episodes.
Secret Invasion is expected to release on Disney+ sometime in 2022.
Disney is finally reviving The Rocketeer with a brand new film for Disney+ written by Ed Ricourt, that might see David Oyelowo potentially star as the titular hero. The Return of The Rocketeer will be produced by David and Jessica Oyelowo under their Yoruba Saxon banner.
The Return of the Rocketeer will have an all-new creative directive with Ricourt’s story focusing on a retired Tuskegee airman who takes up the mantle of the Rocketeer.
At one point, it was said the project would focus on a female black protagonist, so much for that.
The original Rocketeer came out in 1991, during a brief era of period-set comic book films trying to capitalize on the success of Tim Burton’s Batman. Other big-budget studios films from that era include Dick Tracy, The Shadow, and The Phantom.
Considering new technology such as Lucasfilm’s StageCraft/The Volume used on The Mandalorian, it could make for a fantastical new adventure film and potentially lead to multiple installments, given I assume their aim will to be serialize the character.
This action role doesn’t sound terribly foreign to David Oyelowo after playing a Tuskegee airman in the George Lucas-produced WWII film Red Tails.
RED TAILS – During World War II, the Civil Aeronautics Authority selects 13 black cadets to become part of an experimental program at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. The program aims at training “colored personnel” to become fighter pilots for the Army. However, discrimination, lack of institutional support and the racist belief that these men lacked the intelligence and aptitude for the job dog their every step. Despite this, the Tuskegee Airmen, as they become known, more than prove their worth.
THE ROCKETEER – Cliff Secord (Bill Campbell) is a cocky stunt pilot in love with a beautiful actress, Jenny Blake (Jennifer Connelly). When he discovers a jet pack hidden in a biplane, Cliff straps on the rocket, dons a flashy helmet and becomes the high-flying hero known as The Rocketeer. But when Nazis want to use the rocket as a weapon, Cliff must use his alter ego to both protect Jenny from an evil actor (Timothy Dalton) and save the day in this period adventure based on the comic books by Dave Stevens.
It’s been announced via The Hollywood Reporter that Disney+ has order Nautilus, a 10-episode series that will attempt a new spin on Captain Nemo from the Jules Verne adventure novel 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. James Dormer (Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands) will write and produce the series.
Nautilus will be produced by Moonriver TV and All3Media-owned Seven Stories.
Nautilus is set to give the famed 19th century novel a new spin, telling the origin story of Captain Nemo and his legendary submarine, the Nautilus. An Indian prince robbed of his birthright and family, a prisoner of the East India Company and a man bent on revenge against the forces which have taken everything from him, Nemo set sail with his ragtag crew on board the awe-inspiring vessel, battling foes and discovering magical underwater worlds.
Filming is reportedly starting in early 2022 and given the involved with of UK production companies will likely shoot there as well.
However, directors nor cast were mentioned in the article and will likely be announced later in the year. There is the Disney+ Day event in November which makes a lot of sense will be when/where they give updates on Nautilus.
Disney has long been trying to put together a new feature film with directors such as David Fincher (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Seven, Fight Club, Gone Girl) and James Mangold (Indian Jones 4, Logan, The Wolverine). It isn’t mentioned if Mangold’s incarnation has been nixed or if this could help establish that version.
The Nemo character was previously seen in Disney’s 1954 film 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea led by Kirk Douglas with James Mason in the iconic role and 20th Century Fox’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (an adaptation of Alan Moore comic book) starring Sean Connery (his last major film before retiring).
It sounds like another high profile effects-heavy project alongside Percy Jackson that will take place outside the Star Wars/Marvel universes.
Marvel Studios announced back in December that they would be moving forward with a War Machine series led by Don Cheadle. Armor Wars would be directly inspired by the classic Iron Man comic book story that sees a heap of armor suited villains coming out of the woodwork.
On Friday, it was revealed by The Hollywood Reporter that the series has finally landed a head writer with Black Monday writer/producer/actor Yassir Lester landing the gig. Cheadle leads Black Monday, which is a comedic take on the world of Wall Street and the show is essentially of the more bonkers things on television.
Lester could also land a supporting role given his acting career, but that remains to be seen and it’s interesting that Cheadle will be reuniting with a creative from Black Monday, will they pursue directors as well?
An interesting element of the comic book run of Armor Wars is that Justin Hammer is part of the story and would allow Marvel to bring back Sam Rockwell.
We’ll likely have to wait a little longer to know when Marvel Studios plans to announce a target release date or cast members/characters that will appear. I think there is a good shot we’ll see Iron Man baddies such as Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, and many others finally getting their live-action adaptation.
I wouldn’t be shocked if Sharon Carter/The Power Broker and Riri Williams/Ironheart showing up in the project.
We’re excited to see Lucasfilm jump into the realm of real anime with Star Wars: Visions debuting September 22 on Disney+ with 9 short films coming from Japanese animation studios.
A Lucasfilm/Disney press release (via The Playlist) has revealed the English and Japanese voice cast for the episodes of Star Wars: Visions.
ENGLISH VOICE CAST
The Duel: Brian Tee (Ronin), Lucy Liu (Bandit Leader), Jaden Waldman (Village Chief)
Tatooine Rhapsody: Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Jay), Bobby Moynihan (Geezer), Temuera Morrison (BobaFett), Shelby Young (K-344), Marc Thompson (Lan)
The Twins: Neil Patrick Harris (Karre), Alison Brie (Am), Jonathan Lipow (B-20N)
The Village Bride: Karen Fukuhara (F), Nichole Sakura (Haru), Christopher Sean (Asu), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Valco), Andrew Kishino (Izuma), Stephanie Sheh (Saku)
The Ninth Jedi: Kimiko Glenn (Kara), Andrew Kishino (Juro), Simu Liu (Zhima), Masi Oka (Ethan), Greg Chun (Roden), Neil Kaplan (Narrator), Michael Sinterniklaas (Hen Jin)
A new trailer also dropped yesterday showcasing some of the fantastic animation from the Japanese studios. The Playlist also has a breakdown of which studio is working on what episodes.
The studios creating the nine shorts include Kamikaze Douga – “The Duel”; Geno Studio (Twin Engine) – “Lop and Ochō”; Studio Colorido (Twin Engine) – “Tatooine Rhapsody”; TRIGGER – “The Twins” and “The Elder”; Kinema Citrus – “The Village Bride”; Science Saru – “Akakiri” and “T0-B1”; and Production I.G. – “The Ninth Jedi.”
I’m extremely hyped for episodes like The Elder and Lop & Ocha.
With The Book of Boba Fett wrapped months back, it looks like The Mandalorian is on deck in California. We have some small production tidbits to share.
After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.
The Ronin has been able to confirm that cinematographer David Klein is back for Season 3 after working on Season 2 and multiple episodes of The Book of Boba Fett. It’s unclear how many episodes he’ll be working on this time around.
Production designers Doug Chiang and Andrew Jones are back as well, they recently worked on The Book of Boba Fett and should help keep the look of the universe cohesive between the two shows.
There is an assumption that director Bryce Dallas Howard might be back as well, but we can’t confirm this. She recently joined the lineup of directors on The Book of Boba Fett and returning for Season 3 isn’t that huge of a leap to make.
Pedro Pascal is said to be busy shooting HBO’s The Last of Us in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and it’s unclear when he’ll be on the set of The Mandalorian.
Returning cast members have yet to be announced but Carl Weathers and Katee Sackhoff are expected to be named.
We suspect that Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka series won’t being shooting until the fall at the earliest.
The Book of Boba Fett will be the next big live-action Star Wars project to debut on Disney+ in December and Star Wars: Visions begins airing on September 22. Next year is expected to see things like Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Season 3 of The Mandalorian start airing.
Big news was made yesterday when longtime producer Brad Winderbaum was promoted at Marvel Studios.
Winderbaum’s new role at the studio, according to The Hollywood Reporter, will be head of streaming, television, and animation. Essentially, overseeing all the work at Disney+ and other platforms that will be developing animation/television projects using their huge lineup of characters.
Kevin Feige will still keep his role of Marvel Studios head and chief creative officer at Marvel. This just allows someone else to do a lot of the day-to-day business on the television side of things and we have to assume that Winderbaum’s role will be similar to what Jeph Loeb did before Marvel Television was dissolved (rebranded as Marvel TV Studios after Loeb’s exit).
Variety also spoke to Winderbaum, who indicated multiple animated series were on the way and are in “various stages of development” at Disney+, although, no new titles were mentioned. He also indicated that Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige will continue to be closely involved with future projects.
“All of our animation ambitions are going to still be under Marvel Studios, which means they’re going to be produced by Kevin Feige and they’re going to be born of the same stuff that makes the rest of our content.”
Winderbaum also commented on the idea of working with Pixar and Disney Animation at some point, however, isn’t indicating that is something that is actively happening.
“It’s something that we’d be open to under the right circumstances. It all depends on the project.”
We already know that Captain Carter is returning for multiple seasons of What If…? and there had been previous reporting at HN Entertainment that a Power Pack animated series was heading to the streaming service.
Marvel Studios is expected to make a big announcement about their upcoming lineup in the near future and may include a heap of streaming projects alongside new movies.
The pairing of Nick Fury and Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel was an interesting one, as we got a glimpse of an early and fun incarnation of Fury before he became super stoic. We sadly didn’t get to see a reunion of those two characters in Avengers: Endgame, but there are good signs we’ll be seeing that in upcoming projects that will feature them.
Earlier this week, Brie Larson teased to SiriusXM Stars that she’s already shooting Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels, talking up the massive sets (hinting to off-world locations) and comparing them to her own Disneyland.
Now, Samuel L. Jackson is posting set photos of him getting ready to play Nick Fury from the makeup trailer. Interestingly enough, he’s wearing a t-shirt with his Captain Marvel cosmic beeper and his hand turning to dust after being snapped by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War.
Could this be a tease to Nick Fury and Danvers finally getting that reunion in either The Marvels or Secret Invasion?
UPDATE: Yesterday, I posted on Twitter that Secret Invasion might not begin shooting until next month and today Jackson has confirmed he’s indeed working on The Marvels.
#SecretInvasion filming schedule has supposedly been bumped to September-February…which would mean that Samuel L. Jackson's IG post is likely from the set of #TheMarvels as Brie Larson said on Monday they had already started shooting.
The two productions are both shooting in direct proximity of each other in the London area and we’ve been mentioning cross-pollination of those two casts for months now. This seems just like another tease towards S.W.O.R.D. becoming a connective thread between the two projects, possibly alongside the Skrulls element.
We last saw the real version of Fury on some space base being constructed off-world by the Skrulls as Skrull leader Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) was pretending to be Fury in Spider-Man: Far From Home. At the end of WandaVision, Monica Rambeau (lead character of The Marvels) was approached by a Skrull to seemingly bring her to this base (The Peak?).
It’s still unconfirmed who cast members such as Zawe Ashton, Olivia Colman, Emilia Clarke, Kingsley Ben-Adir, and others will be playing in the MCU projects. However, Marvel Studios could reveal their characters at some lineup presentation before the end of the year.
Both The Marvels and Secret Invasion are expected to debut respectively in late 2022.
Marvel Studios is pumping out a multitude of Disney+ shows with a heap of new ones that are likely going to be announced before the end of the year. Next on the docket to go into production is Marvel’s big Skrull event, Secret Invasion, and we have a tiny production update to share.
The Ronin is hearing that with production expected to begin this month (under the working title Jambalaya) it won’t be just filming in the London area as a portion may spend time in Scotland.
However, where in Scotland hasn’t been revealed or for how long.
This wouldn’t be the first Marvel Studios has shot projects there. Scotland was previously used for the box office juggernauts Avengers: Infinity War with scenes filmed in Edinburgh and St. Abbs doubling for Norway in Avengers: Endgame.
We first revealed back in June that French-Canadian cinematographer Sylvaine Dufaux (Future Man) has been added to Secret Invasion’s production team. Dufaux also did various camera/director of photography work on films such as Solo: A Star Wars Story, Source Code, The Fountain, Destin Daniel Cretton’s The Glass Castle, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, John Wick: Chapter 2, and The United States vs. Billie Holiday.
The crossover event’s impressive cast already consists of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Ben Mendelsohn as Skrull leader Talos, Oscar-winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite, Hot Fuzz, The Crown), four-time Emmy nominee Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones, Solo: A Star Wars Story), Kingsley Ben-Adir (One Night In Miami, Peaky Blinders) said to be playing a villain, and most recent addition to the Marvel series is character actor Christopher McDonald (Hacks, Happy Gilmore).
There is some expectation that the series will have a connection to The Marvels and might end up have cross-pollination between the two projects’ casts, but this has yet to be confirmed.
Secret Invasion alongside Moon Knight and She-Hulk are aiming for a release on Disney+ in 2022.
Marvel Studios has been doing an excellent job of jumping between varied genres from war, espionage, action, supernatural, comedy, horror, fantasy, sci-fi, and space operas.
There seems to be one particular notch in their belt missing, that is a western.
Many have compared superhero films to the western genre being the most dominant/popular genre before making way to other trends. What would happen if Marvel Studios tackled a group of western superheroes? It’s something that doesn’t come that often when folks are talking up future projects or their wish lists.
We’re now this deep into the MCU and Marvel has not started adapting their western characters. Those include a large string of heroes from their old Wild West/Mighty Marvel Western comics and the rarely mentioned superhero team The Rangers.
I think you could do a Rangers series where you essentially get a mash-up of Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy, The Magnificent Seven, Young Guns, Tombstone, True Grit, and many more. Marvel could end up combining their various western heroes and placing them in the 1800s.
Here is a rundown of characters that jump out to me as solid contenders for a hypothetical Rangers roster set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Phantom Rider is the original incarnation of Ghost Rider, who was later renamed when the blazing skulled biker version was thrust into pop culture a decade later with Johnny Blaze and obviously is still the better known of the two.
There have been many people that took on the superhero persona such as Carter Slade, Jamie Jacobs, Lincoln Slade, Reno Jones, Hamilton Slade, J.T. Slade, and Jamie Slade (Hamilton’s daughter).
Reno Jones was a black incarnation of the hero and going that route in the MCU could be a huge nod to Bass Reeves, the real-life black lawman that inspired The Lone Ranger and in The Watchmen series on HBO had a huge impact on Hooded Justice.
Phantom Rider appeared in the original Ghost Rider film played by Sam Elliot.
Like with their major Asian superhero Shang-Chi, Marvel Studios could do some modernization and image repair of their lesser known Native American characters as seen with a new character like Demon Rider.
Native American heroes like Red Wolf and Apache Kid (Alan Krandal) don’t deserve to be completely erased because their comics were made by culturally/racially insensitive people, the former has been given a modern update and I think Red Wolf most certainly could be a mantle passed down generation to generation we’ve seen with Baron Zemo and Union Jack.
You could also add a character like Spirit Rider/Demon Rider, aka, Kushala. She was around in the 1800s and could add a supernatural/horror element.
How you change things is bringing Native American writers and creators into the writers’ room/creative process. A recent example is the Taika Waititi-produced FX series Reservation Dogs, which hopefully will lead to more mainstream projects featuring indigenous actors/creatives.
The Kid Trio are likely Marvel’s best known gunslingers with Two-Gun Kid (Clay Harder/Matt Hawk), Kid Colt (Blaine Colt), and Rawhide Kid (Johnny Bart/Johnny Clay). They also did multiple team-ups in the comics and could easily get their own spinoff series.
Rawhide Kid is an openly gay character and could make for some major inclusion.
There are only of a couple of female characters with Avenger member Firebird (Bonita Juarez), Arizona Annie, Shooting Star (Victoria Star), Swift Cloud (Jackie Cassidy), and Spotted Doe. However, Marvel could easily create new characters like Demon Rider or gender swap the excessive amount of male characters since not all of them would likely get starring roles.
Similar to Marvel’s expansive horror character lineup, the studio has just as many of these outlaw, gunslinger, and bounty hunter characters from the old west to pull from for years to come.
The many other characters in their back pocket include Black Rider/Black Mask (Matthew Masters), Kid Slade (Matt Slade), Outlaw Kid (Lance Temple), Gunhawk (William Downing), Kid Cassidy (Richard Cassidy), Ringo Kid (Rand), Western Kid (Tex Dawson), Boom Boom Brown, Tarantula (Clay Riley), The Raven (Thorn Trask), Wolf Waco, Hurricane (Harold Kane), Richard Trask, Tall Bear, Caleb Hammer, Wyatt Earp, Iron Mask (Don Hertz), and super-powered Rangers team member Texas Twister (Drew Daniels).
Marvel Studios could take advantage of Alberta’s growing film and television production industry (alongside the Canadian dollar and tax incentives) as the Canadian city could double for many western American terrain. Alberta was used for Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, The Revenant, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, Little Big Man, Shanghai Noon, Brokeback Mountain, Legends of The Fall, Let Him Go, and Predator 5.
THE RONIN 