Lucasfilm’s next big Star Wars release on the small screen will be The Book of Boba Fett, a direct spinoff from The Mandalorian as we’ll see further adventures of Fett (played by Temuera Morrison) and his newly acquired partner Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen).
We already know that the show has wrapped but details of who worked on the secretive project has been trickling out recently, including some crew and director confirmations.
The Ronin has been able to confirm that Deadwood: The Movie and The Mandalorian (Season 2) cinematographer David Klein (Clerks, Chasing Amy, Mallrats) indeed returned to shoot multiple episodes of Boba Fett, however, the number hasn’t been fully revealed. Klein shot Robert Rodriguez’s Season 2 episode where we see Fett get his armor back and take out a bunch of Storm Troopers.
Previously, it was revealed by American Cinematographer that legendary director of photography Dean Cundey would also be shooting episodes as well. His fantastic list of credits includes Halloween, The Fog, Escape From New York, The Thing, Big Trouble In Little China, Jurassic Park, Back To The Future 1-3, and Death Becomes Her.
Fett’s directing team is expected to include Robert Rodriguez (Alita: Battle Angel, Desperado, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Sin City) alongside other Mando alumni such as Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Extraction director Sam Hargrave.
Lucasfilm confirmed last year that The Book of Boba Fett would be ready to begin airing on Disney+ sometime in December. Other Star Wars shows currently in production include Diego Luna’s Andor, Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Season 3 of The Mandalorian is said to be underway as well.
It’ll be interesting to see how Fett will lead into Season 3 of The Mandalorian and if we’ll indeed see multiple characters cross-pollinate between the two Star Wars projects.
Some rumors would suggest that Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka series could be the next series to go into production alongside Lucasfilm’s next big Star Wars movie Rogue Squadron from filmmaker Patty Jenkins.
Universal Pictures once attempted to copy the Marvel Cinematic Universe with their horror franchise Dark Universe, that was expected to give the studio a PG-13 cinematic universe centered around their legacy horror characters, The Universal Monsters. When Tom Cruise’s Mummy reboot flopped they pivoted away from a connective group of films and seem to be instead focusing on movie by movie after The Invisible Man.
Marvel Studios is actually in a perfect position to do what Universal struggled to do, making their own horror universe within the MCU with both films and Disney+ series. We’re apparently going to see a huge push on the live-action side with Doctor Strange In The Multiverse, Mahershala Ali’s Blade reboot, Oscar Isaac’s Moon Knight series, and plenty more things that have yet to officially announced.
There are plenty of characters that are assumed to be part of Marvel’s horror universe such as Doctor Strange (Stephen Strange), Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff), Blade (Eric Brooks), Moon Knight (Marc Spector), Brother Voodoo (Jericho Drumm), Werewolf By Night (Jack Russell), Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze), Elsa Bloodstone, Abraham Whistler, Hannibal King, Frank Drake, Quincy Harker, Rachel van Helsing, Vlad Dracula, Baron Blood (John Falsworth), Deacon Frost, Lilith Drake, Lenore DeCade, Mephisto, Son of Satan (Daimon Hellstrom), The Devil’s Daughter (Satana Hellstrom), Mother of Demons (Lilith), Glyph (Nadeen Hassan), Vampire By Night (Nina Prince), Warwolf (Martin Renya), The Living Mummy (N’Kantu), Frankenstien’s Monster, Manphibian, and Man-Thing (Theodore Sallis).
But there could be even more characters mined for Marvel’s horror corner of the MCU.
The animated series What If…? is bringing Marvel Zombies to the MCU and there is a character that could easily make the jump to live-action to represent the zombie faction.
That is Simon William Garth aka Zombie, who had his own run of comic books with Tales of The Zombie. The character that was brought back from the dead using voodoo magic has a direct connection to Doctor Strange pal Brother Voodoo and could easily partner up with the occult hero.
Zombie is also a member of the Legion of Monsters alongside folks such as The Living Zombie, Frankenstein’s Monster, and others. Given the popularity of the zombie sub-genre with The Walking Dead (alongside spinoffs) and Zack Snyder recently returning to the genre with Army of The Dead (will also direct a sequel), it’s a no-brainier for Marvel to give audiences/fans a zombie character.
There seem to be strong indications that we’ll see Marvel move forward with a new Ghost Rider project, however, we don’t know if they’ll simply focus on a single character like Johnny Blaze or cover the multiple incarnations of the character.
There is a new Native American version, Kushala, an Apache woman from the 1800s that is possessed by the Spirit of Vengeance and became the Sorcerer Supreme of her era in attempt to cure herself. She goes by the name Demon Rider.
Adding Kushala could allow Marvel Studios to bring in a more diverse Ghost Rider to the live-action side of things and give us a solid Native American character that could get her own solo projects alongside someone like western hero William Talltrees aka Red Wolf. We’ve also seen Marvel use plenty of new characters lately as they slowly assemble the Young Avengers roster.
Speaking of Native American characters, there is someone that has a connection to Canadian indigenous lore that could make for a threat in the future and that is Wendigo.
The Wendigo is a stark white beast that is the manifestation of a curse for anyone who commits an act of cannibalism in the Canadian North Woods. A darker origin than normal for Marvel and anyone can be given the curse.
First appearing as a Hulk villain, the character has also clashed with Wolverine, X-Men, and Alpha Flight in the comics. Wendigo is sort of a mirror image of Walter Langkowski aka Sasquatch, a mutant member of Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight.
Taj Nital was an Indian (Muslim but designed as Sikh) vampire hunter part of Quincy Harker’s team Dracula Hunters from The Tomb of Dracula comics, who dedicated his life to hunting vampires after his son Adri was turned and he had to kill him.
A friend of Blade, Taj is turned into a vampire by the monstrous Varnae aka Lord of Vampires that tragically had to be slain by Blade.
The Blade reboot will hopefully bring back The Vampire Nation and having vampires/hunters from Asian countries would help establish that their tentacles are international, something teased with the original Blade movie from 1998 showcasing diverse members of The House of Erebus.
As part of a group of LLCs that The Ronin first reported on back in May (when we couldn’t confirm if they were connected to Marvel), we’ve been able to confirm that Bad Egg Productions is indeed for a Marvel Studios project either streaming or for film. There is an assumption that Bad Egg could be referring to Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool 3, Mahershala Ali’s Blade or more of stretch might be an unannounced Thunderbolts project.
Deadpool 3 has screenwriters for the R-rated sequel while Blade is seemingly about to announce Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli) as it’s director as he’s reportedly the studio’s front runner to helm the action-horror reboot.
UPDATE: A production grid has made it’s way to The Cosmic Circus, as the outlet claims after our own post that Bad Egg Productions is the upcoming Ironheart seriesand that the Disney+ show won’t shoot until April 2022.
Here is a rundown of other recent LLCs at Marvel Studios we’ve been able to uncover for a multitude of MCU projects that the studio has yet to formally announced by Kevin Feige or Disney. A new update from Feige is all but assured to announce what these new projects could be, officially.
MAGLEV TRAIN PRODUCTIONS (WAKANDA DISNEY+ SERIES)
ON YOUR MARK PRODUCTIONS
BAD EGG PRODUCTIONS
CANTINA PRODUCTIONS
BATTLE ANYONE PRODUCTIONS
ACID POP PRODUCTIONS
NATURAL HISTORY PRODUCTIONS (DISNEY+ SERIES)
SPEYSIDE PRODUCTIONS
Another LLC was picked-up by Murphy’s Multiverse, which is Richmond Street Productions that they claim might be connected to a Ghost Rider project. We can independently confirm the LLC is indeed at Marvel Studios but remains to be seen if it’s indeed Ghost Rider, there is a good chance it is.
Ionic Productions (Monica Rambeau, Wonder Man or Rogue?) and Old Guard Productions (Winter Guard or Red Guardian related?) are two more LLCs The Ronin has uncovered recently and we are still trying to confirm they are Marvel Studios projects. Stay tuned as we update in the future.
There is a likelihood these projects will shoot between 2022-2024. This list excludes Season 2 titles on Disney+ such as Loki, What If…?, and Ms. Marvel (The Ronin first reported on a second season).
The Ronin first reported on a batch of LLCs that were expected to be for upcoming Marvel projects (film, television, and animated), one of those production companies was called On Your Mark Productions and we’ve been now able to confirm it’s indeed a Marvel Studios thing. It’s unknown of it’s for film or television though.
Fans have speculated the LLC could be referring to Johnny Blaze aka Ghost Rider, given the title could be a nod to racing as the character is known for speeding around on a motorcycle.
We can’t verify if that is the character but people have been talking-up a new Ghost Rider project coming for a while now.
Rumors of a new Ghost Rider project has been circulating online for ages going to back when Marvel Studios/Kevin Feige killed Gabriel Luna’s Ghost Rider series at Hulu (spinoff of Agents of SHIELD) when Marvel Television projects were slowing tossed away. Folks had assumed that Marvel had future plans or wanted to reboot with the Johnny Blaze incarnation.
The Direct was one of the outlets talking-up development of a new Ghost Rider project.
Actor Norman Reedus (Blade II, The Walking Dead) has been campaigning for the role with a large amount of fan support behind that effort. However, I’ve been personally rooting for Keanu Reeves (John Wick., The Matrix), who was one of the original contenders to play Wolverine and has his own motorcycle company Arch Motorcycles.
Nicolas Cage previously played the role in two motion pictures.
Adding Ghost Rider to the Marvel Cinematic Universe could be yet one more step towards the studio moving in on a version of Midnight Sons, as Mahershala Ali’s Blade and Oscar Isaac’s Moon Knight are already coming as the horror/supernatural corner of the MCU grows.
Here is a rundown of other recent LLCs at Marvel Studios.
MAGLEV TRAIN PRODUCTIONS (WAKANDA DISNEY+ SERIES)
ON YOUR MARK PRODUCTIONS (GHOST RIDER?)
CANTINA PRODUCTIONS (NOVA?)
BATTLE ANYONE PRODUCTIONS
ACID POP PRODUCTIONS
NATURAL HISTORY PRODUCTIONS (DISNEY+ SERIES)
SPEYSIDE PRODUCTIONS
Two other ones we’re still waiting to confirm include Ionic Productions and Bad Egg Productions.
Despite the death of Peggy Carter in Captain America: Civil War, we’ve kept getting more Hayley Atwell brief cameos in Avengers: Endgame when Steve Rogers did his time-traveling and now we’ll be seeing a Multiverse incantation in the upcoming What If…? series that will debut on Disney+ on August 11.
Peggy Carter is the one who is selected for the super-soldier program and leads a team that includes Steve Rogers, who pilots the HYDRA stomper armored suit.
This has lead to rumors from The DisInsider that Atwell might be seeing her Multiverse incarnation, Captain Carter, appear in Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness. If they’re indeed keen on bringing her back to the live-action corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it would be the perfect excuse to tackle another period adventure but with Captain Carter and various characters from her timeline/universe.
Producer Brad Winderbaum revealed to Deadline recently that Marvel has plans to bring her back for multiple seasons of What If…?, which could make fans extremely happy and that could help signal the studio’s desire to do more with her in the future.
One idea I’ve had about future projects that has been growing like a germ for months is that Marvel Studios finally attempt a version of The Invaders. The other team Steve Rogers led in the comic books alongside his trusty side-kick Bucky Barnes. That lineup also consists of android John Hammon aka Human Torch (Easter Egg in Captain America: The First Avengers), Namor The Sub-Mariner (expected to be coming soon), Joey Chapman aka Union Jack (raced against Tony Stark in Iron Man 2), Jacqueline Falsworth aka Spitfire, and many many more WWII era characters that may never see the light of day (Wolverine and Captain Britain could easily join those allied ranks too).
Captain Carter leading an incarnation of The Invaders during WWII, the Cold War (could add members of Agents of Atlas), or in present time could be worth turning into a live-action series on Disney+ given how hungry Disney has been to adding multiple new shows to the streaming series. Seeing Marvel tackle off-shoot Multiverse projects on Disney+ feels like a better way to tackle this stuff instead of overloading audiences with feature film explorations.
Chris Evans has seemingly bowed-out from the MCU and Peggy Carter could be the one to lead Invaders, if Evans stays away (despite reports of a return that have been denied) and the studio wants to pursue a live-action Carter project.
We know that actress Hayley Atwell was willing to return for more seasons of Agent Carter, but if they’re focusing on new television projects at Marvel Studio. It also doesn’t hurt that she’ll be starring alongside with Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8, highlighting that the actress is still interested in action roles and Marvel should capitalize on that sooner rather than later.
While we know that Marvel’s Armor Wars series will see Don Cheadle’s War Machine finally getting his own solo project and will seemingly adapted the Iron Man storyline from the comics, we’re still sort in the dark concerning returning characters and who is exactly working on the show.
Don Cheadle recently spoke with Collider and mentioned they’re still only in the early development stage on Armor Wars.
“All I know is that we’re going to go into the room in a couple of weeks and actually start trying to break the spine of the story and figure out who, what, when, and where for all of it. It’s super early in the development stages so I couldn’t even spoil it if I wanted to. I don’t know what happens,” Don Cheadle said of Armor Wars’ current status at Marvel Studios.
The actor landed an Emmy nomination for his brief cameo in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier (has confused Don Cheadle just like the rest of us) and there is a good shot that we might see some connections to Armor Wars. At the end of the series, we see a villainous version of Sharon Carter revealed as The Power Broker, the show’s shadowy puppet master trying to get their hands on the super-soldier serum and willing to kill to get her hands on it.
Could The Power Broker move on to Stark Tech and armor suits?
Sharon Carter was able to keep her secret from the heroes and has now return to the U.S. with her access to government projects potential means that she’ll attempt to sell secrets/technology to whoever she was planning on selling the serum to before The Flag Smashers ended that. Interestingly enough, Carter and Rhodey have a connection of sorts. They both wore the Iron Patriot armor and the end scene could telegraph that she might want to get her hands on things like Stark technology and possibly doing a tight-rope act by trying to acquire stuff under the nose of the government and War Machine.
In the comics, the big antagonist is Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer and considering he was thrown in prison after the events of Iron Man 2, it’s unlikely that he’s been able to keep his government contract. But, Hammer could be the person Sharon Carter looks to build and repair the Stark Tech as he’s one of the few people that has got their hands on the suits when he was assigned by the government to put together War Machine in Iron Man 2.
They established Madripoor as a no-mans-land for all sorts of criminal enterprises and might be a location they could be building/selling armor suits to various high-end buyers looking to get their own advanced weapons systems. Carter moving between American and Madripoor could be extremely fun because that setting needs to be further explored along with how she operates over there.
I wouldn’t be that shocked if we see Carter and Hammer working together in Armor Wars, we’ll likely see Thunderbolt Ross and Val causing headaches as well.
Marvel’s animated series What If…? will debut later this month and folks are already sharing their impressions of the first three episodes. We already know that Marvel Studios is pursuing a second season and executive producer Brad Winderbaum has teased about a Season 1 character returning for subsequent seasons.
While speaking with Deadline, Winderbaum revealed that they’re planning to have Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter/Captain Carter back, possibly in Season 1 of What If…?, but we’ll have to wait to see.
Episode one explores the outcome of Peggy Carter taking the superhero serum instead of Steve Rogers. She ultimately becomes the UK hero Captain Carter crusading against Hydra in WWII. Per Winderbaum, we can expect more of Captain Carter in future seasons of What If…?. Added the EP, “I think that without going into great detail, I can tell you that What if…? as a project, as a story that exists in the MCU, is as important as any other and is woven into that tapestry.”
Atwell has been busy shooting Paramount’s next two Mission: Impossible movies starring alongside Tom Cruise and being directed by Christopher McQuarrie. However, that hasn’t stopped online rumors (via The DisInsider) to point towards that actress reprising the Captain Carter role in Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness and seems to be based on things that happen in the upcoming animated series along with connections to Doctor Strange himself as the two characters are expected to interact.
It’s also assumed that Jeffrey Wright will continue to voice Uatu The Watcher for the entire run of the show as it’s going to continue beyond Season 2.
WHAT IF…? – What If…? flips the script on the MCU, reimagining famous events from the films in unexpected ways. Marvel Studios’ first animated series focuses on different heroes from the MCU, featuring a voice cast that includes a host of stars who reprise their roles. Directed by Bryan Andrews with AC Bradley as head writer, What If…?”launches exclusively on Disney+ on August 11, 2021.
Marvel Studios has announced that one of their upcoming live-action series, Hawkeye, will officially debut on Disney+ on November 24 (subsequent episodes airing on Wednesdays) alongside sharing a first look still from the show via Entertainment Weekly.
It’s only a matter of time before Marvel releases a teaser trailer for Hawkeye.
The show’s cast consists of Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton Ronin/Hawkeye, Hailee Steinfield as Kate Bishop, Vera Farmiga, Fra Fee, Tony Dalton, Zahn McClarnon, and newcomer Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez aka Echo. We’ll also see Florence Pugh return to the Yelena Belova role from Black Widow as teased at the end of the film.
Marvel Studios seems impressed enough with the show to already be moving forward with a spinoff show featuring the deaf Native-American character Maya Lopez aka Echo played by Alaqua Cox with Etan Cohen and Emily Cohen overseeing it. Echo first appeared in the Daredevil comic books and also took on the persona of Ronin, just like Clint Barton.
Daredevil actor Vincent D’Onofrio has seemingly hinted on social media to his return to the Kingpin role in the show, but this has yet to be made official.
Other live-action shows coming include Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Moon Knight, Secret Invasion, Ironheart, Armor Wars, a Wakanda series from Ryan Coogler, and the aforementioned Echo spinoff.
Fans seem a bit nervous that Marvel hasn’t announced a spot for Ms. Marvel, but we shouldn’t be shocked if it lands a debut in September-October. Officially Loki and What If…? are landing Season 2 orders. Our own information points towards Ms. Marvel is getting a Season 2 at Disney+ as well.
We’re expecting a big MCU lineup reveal in the near future as there are wave of LLCs being established for unannounced projects. With D23 happening in November, there is a good chance Kevin Feige could reveal more series and films on the horizon.
It looks like we have official word of one of the villains of Marvel Studios’ Moon Knight series starring Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke.
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.
Hamilton Hodell, the British agency website (spotted on Reddit and highlighted by The Direct/MurphysMultiverse) of French actor Gaspard Ulliel (Brotherhood of The Wolf, Hannibal: Rising, A Very Long Engagement) lists him as part of the cast of Moon Knight, as they mention he’ll be playing Marvel Comics villain Anton Mogart aka Midnight Man.
It’ll be interesting to see what the MCU version of the character will look like as Marvel Studios are known to take liberties when it comes to villain characters. We’re also expecting to see another known French actor land the role of Marc Spector’s pal Jean-Paul Duchamp aka Frenchie.
There have already been some exciting teases of the show’s action sequences with some lovely training sequences with Oscar Isaac kicking some ass. Marvel isn’t messing around as we were able to confirm that they hired No Time To Die stunt coordinator Olivier Schneider, signaling that they might be aiming for some high-quality action.
The directing team consists of Mohamed Diab, Justin Benson, and Aaron Moorhead with Jeremy Slater and Beau DeMayo writing on the show.
Kevin Feige previously told Collider that Moon Knight will be getting 6-episodes and is expected to debut on Disney+ in 2022.
Marvel’s She-Hulk has been shooting for months in Atlanta and the newest superhero series is aiming to begin airing on Disney+ sometime in 2022. Tatiana Maslany’s (Black Orphan) Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk is the cousin of Avengers member Dr. Bruce Banner aka Hulk and after a blood transfusion from Bruce is granted her own Hulk powers becoming She-Hulk.
The series officially will see the return of Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky aka Abomination (the new updated design recently revealed in Shang-Chi trailer), Mark Ruffalo back as Banner aka Professor Hulk, Jameela Jamil (The Good Place) was recently announced to be playing the super-strong villain Titania, Renee Elise Goldsberry as Amelia, and Ginger Gonzaga.
Another addition to the cast has been uncovered, as Deadline has revealed that Arrow actor Josh Segarra has nabbed an undisclosed role.
The 10-episode series will be directed by Kat Coiro and Anu Valia with Emmy-winner Jessica Gao (Rick & Morty) set as head writer. Its crew consists of cinematographer Florian Ballhaus (RED, The Devil Wears Prada), production designer Elena Albanese (Lovecraft Country), costume designer Ann Foley (Godzilla Vs. Kong, Altered Carbon), and stunt coordinator Monique Ganderton (Loki, Avengers: Endgame).
Set photos posted by actress Anais Almonte (Gotham, The Punisher) confirmed her involvement.
Fans got a quick glimpse at the redesign of Tim Roth’s Abomination in the latest trailer for Shang-Chi, which might give us a preview of where Emil is in the world post-snap. Hopefully, we’ll get to see a lot more of the character just like when Marvel decided to bring back William Hurt’s Thunderbolt Ross for multiple projects (like Captain America: Civil War and Black Widow) and we very well might might see other characters from The Incredible Hulk show up in She-Hulk.
There is also going to be a lot of motion capture in the series which might mean we won’t see the series air on Disney+ until later on in 2022.
THE RONIN 