While the series finale of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier will hit Disney+ this Friday, Marvel Studios has a wave of other live-action shows on the horizon this year. Next-up will be Tom Hiddleston’s Loki series on June 11, 2021 with Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye debuting in late 2021.
It looks like filming on the Hawkeye series has officially wrapped today, according a new social media post from Jeremy Renner’s Instagram account.
Production kicked-off last year in New York City before moving over to Marvel’s filming hub in Atlanta. This post feels like the actor saying goodbye to the Avenger role but we don’t know if Barton will be sticking around for future projects or if this series will the final stretch for Renner and Hawkeye. He first played Hawkeye in a small cameo for 2011’s Thor before taking a supporting role in The Avengers the following year.
Renner’s Clint Barton will be mentoring a young protege named Kate Bishop played by Oscar nominee Hailee Steinfeld (Dickinson, True Grit, Bumblebee). The heroine eventually joins the ranks of the Young Avengers, a potential new team in the MCU that is slowly being assembled which each new project.
While something like Loki is being lined-up to get multiple seasons it’s unclear if Hawkeye will be a one-off or not.
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.
Other Disney+ shows officially on deck include She-Hulk, Moon Knight, Armor Wars, Secret Invasion, Ironheart, and a Black Panther/Wakanda series from Ryan Coogler.
As mentioned at the top, Hawkeye is expected to debut on Disney+ later this year and we should get some sort of trailer by the summer.
Yesterday, it was revealed that Oscar-winner Olivia Colman (Hot Fuzz, The Favourite, The Father) would be joining the Disney+ series Secret Invasion from Marvel Studios. A huge crossover event that will see the shape-shifting aliens, Skrulls, quietly taking over positions of power on Earth replacing humans. In the comics, it also bleeds over to the ranks of the Avengers as well seeing various.
Another high-profile actor is being courted for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Variety reports that Emilia Clarke is the newest addition to the cast of Marvel’s upcoming event series Secret Invasion. The Game of Thrones and Solo: Star Wars Story actress is currently in talks with Marvel to join the Skrull series.
Apparently, this wouldn’t be her first brush with Marvel as she had been wanted for role in Iron Man 3. This being revealed by the film’s screenwriter Drew Pearce on Instagram back in 2019 but things obviously didn’t work out.
Emilia told The Sunday Times she would be keen to join the Marvel family.
CLARKE: “I think, if I did, it would be me having a giggle. I want to do something absolutely stupid and silly, like, you know, The Avengers or whatever. Something where I got to have a giggle with mates.”
She would join Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Ben Mendelsohn as Talos, Olivia Colman in an undisclosed role, and fellow Brit Kingsley Ben-Adir reportedly taking a villain role in the Disney+ series.
Filming is said to begin this fall in the United Kingdom.
As the finale of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier will hit Disney+ on Friday, another big Marvel Studios series event is assembling it’s cast with Secret Invasion. A new casting update from The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Oscar-winner and current nominee, Olivia Colman, is now in talks with Marvel for an undisclosed role in Secret Invasion.
The British actress would join Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Ben Mendelsohn as Skrull Leader Talos, and fellow Brit Kingsley Ben-Adir reportedly taking a villain role in the Disney+ series.
Colman has had a bit oddball career as she had been primarily known as a comedic actress in things like Peep Show and Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz when she took a dramatic pivot with projects such as Broadchurch, The Crown, and Tyrannosaur. Olivia eventually won Best Actress for her permanence in the dramatic comedy The Favourite from director Yorgos Lanthimos starring alongside Marvel alumni Rachel Weisz (Black Widow) and Emma Stone (The Amazing Spider-Man 1-2). She recently landed a Best Supporting Actress nomination for the film The Father, which she co-stars with Thor franchise actor Anthony Hopkins.
Considering her high-profile and previously playing two historical queens, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to assume Colman might end up playing one of the royal members of the Skrulls.
Olivia might not be the only actor currently nominated for this weekend’s Academy Awards ceremony that is being courted by Marvel Studios for upcoming projects.
Secret Invasion is an event from Marvel Comics that sees a bunch of established characters being revealed as Skrulls, not humans. However, in Captain Marvel we learned that Talos and his group were not antagonists but actually refugees looking for a new place to call home. We last saw Nick Fury in the button scene for Spider-Man: Far From Home on some space station that the Skrulls were building, which could have a direct tie-in to both S.W.O.R.D. and Nia DaCosta’s Captain Marvel 2.
I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if Skrulls have a part to play in Black Panther 2 given how Wakanda is invaded by Skrulls and have their asses handed to them in the comics. There is also a huge connection to space with The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda and their vibranium (from a space rock) technology could be appealing to an evil sect of Skrulls looking to defeat/replace Earth’s superheroes.
THR also confirms previous production info that Secret Invasion will indeed shoot in the United Kingdom and that filming on the Disney+ series could begin as early as this fall.
Back in 2019, there were rumblings that Marvel Studios was potentially considering an X-Men series for Disney+ that would include a faithful origin of a popular mutant character, the assumption was this could be Wolverine and his time in the Weapon X Program.
Well, it’s 2021 and the rumor has resurfaced over at That Hashtag Show. They’re adding that it’s in development at Marvel Studios taking an anthology angle and claim the first season will tackle Weapon X. The black ops weapons program that gives Logan his adamantium skeleton and claws could make for a compelling series.
However, we can exclusively share that Marvel is in early development on a series for Disney+. This series would be an anthology series based on the character of Wolverine. Since Wolverine is immortal and has a multitude of stories to tell, each season will focus on a particular story within the Wolverine mythos. Think like American Horror Story, where there’s a season long plot and then it resets. Only in this, you’ll have the center of Wolverine.
I’ve learned that while early in development, Marvel is aiming to adapt the famous Weapon X story arc for the first season.
Over the weekend, I mentioned in a feature article about Marvel rebooting/recasting the Wolverine role could lead to a Disney+ series as it would allow the studio to tackle multiple points in Logan’s life without overshadowing the new X-Men reboot film or other mutant team members. Covering things such as his service in WWII/Cold War, the Weapon X program, connections to Alpha Flight, fights with Hulk, and adventures in Japan/Madripoor.
Mark Ruffalo has talked-up multiple times his desire to see Wolverine and Hulk finally interact with each other, as Wolverine debuted in the pages of the Hulk comics before joining the X-Men. Ruffalo himself is going to be part of the cast of She-Hulk, another series on Disney+ that will focus on Bruce Banner’s lawyer cousin Jennifer Walters.
Wolverine’s Weapon X origin was explored in the forgettable mess X-Men Origins: Wolverine and there was a second attempt with a more faithful version with an action sequence in X-Men: Apocalypse. A new definitive take on Weapon X set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe could be a good way to reintroduce the character to audiences alongside the new actor.
Marvel Studios is developing Deadpool 3 but haven’t officially announced any other plans for their mutant lineup or who is creatively involved with the X-Men reboot. The studio hasn’t chosen a new actor to play Wolverine which means we’ll have to wait for Marvel to confirm this is actually happening.
The fictional X-Men location Madripoor had been introduced in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, which has been a stomping-ground for Wolverine adventures and could be seen again in future X-Men projects. Outside of the Princess Bar making a cameo, it’s unlikely that Wolverine himself will be appearing in the final two episodes of the MCU series.
Logan was R-rated but normally the originally programming on Disney+ has been PG-13, which would suggest this wouldn’t be as violent as Hugh Jackman’s final outing as the popular mutant hero. Star has been recently added to Disney+ in various international markets allowing mature content from Hulu, FX, and 20th Century Studios to be streamed on the service that had been originally imagined for families.
It’s exciting that Marvel Studios has regained the film rights to Fantastic Four and Silver Silver, allowing them to finally use some of their most iconic and well-known characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe either in films or series airing on Disney+. Norrin Radd aka The Silver Surfer, the herald of Galactus, was co-created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. The Marvel Comics character first appeared in the pages of Fantastic Four in 1966. Arguably one of the more popular cosmic characters that had been introduced from that era of comics and appeared in a handful of animated projects.
20th Century Fox attempted to develop a solo film in the 1990s and hired a large group of writers to tackle the script with various drafts. Those screenwriters working over the years included John Turman (Hulk, Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer), Richard Jefferies (TRON: Legacy, Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer), John Rice (Windtalkers, Blown Away), Rudy Gains (The Calling), Mike Finch (American Assassin, Predators, John Wick: Chapter 4, Hitman: Agent 47), John M. Bergmann, Bernd Eichinger (Downfall, Perfume: The Story of A Murderer, The Baader Meinhof Complex), and Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en, The Wolfman, 8mm).
One of the big standouts was James Gunn (The Suicide Squad, Guardians of The Galaxy 1-3, Slither, Dawn of The Dead, Super), as the filmmaker revealed on Facebook that he was approached by the studio in 1999 to write an “extensive treatment” for Silver Surfer.
GUNN: “When I first moved to LA in 1999, one of the first people I met on a meeting was an exec at Fox. He told me they wanted to make a Silver Surfer movie, and I might be right for that, so I wrote an extensive treatment. It was a huge story, cosmic as hell, and featured the Silver Surfer turning on Galactus (but no Fantastic Four – this was before the first FF film).”
Eventually, 20th Century Fox got their Silver Surfer project with Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer in 2007 with Doug Jones (Hellboy 1-2, The Shape of Water) playing the body and Laurence Fishburne (John Wick: Chapter 2, The Matrix Trilogy, Ant-Man & The Wasp) becoming Norrin Radd’s voice.
There had been plans of giving Silver Surfer a spinoff after the Fantastic Four sequel and they hired writer J. Michael Straczynski to tackle it in 2007. The seasoned screenwriter’s credits include Babylon 5, Thor, Sense8, Underworld: Awakening, Ninja Assassin, World War Z, Changeling, The Real Ghostbusters, Captain Power, He-Man & The Masters of The Universe, and She-Ra: Princess of Power.
Two years later, Straczynski mentioned in an interview that the sequel not meeting the studio’s expectations led Fox to question making a direct spinoff.
STRACZYNSKI: “What happened was when FF2 didn’t do as well as they hoped it would do, it caused them to call into question a Silver Surfer movie. The script that I wrote picked up right where FF2 left off. So if they do a Silver Surfer film down the road, it’ll have to be its own separate [thing].”
Director Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City) debunked a rumor he was going to direct the movie while speaking at San Diego Comic-Con 2008 via Slash Film.
PROYAS: “Unfortunately that is just a rumor. I don’t know where that came from. I do like Silver Surfer, but I’m not going to be doing it.”
In 2018, it was revealed by The Hollywood Reporter that comic book and television writer Brian K. Vaughn (The Great Machine, Y: The Last Man, Saga, Lost, M.A.S.K.) was developing a solo Silver Surfer movie before the merger with Disney in 2019 seemingly nixed those plans alongside a bulk of Marvel projects that Fox was developing at the time.
Marvel Studios now has control of the character and announced a new Fantastic Four movie in December that will be directed by Jon Watts, who helmed their Spider-Man trilogy.
Filmmaker Adam McKay (Vice, The Big Short, Ant-Man) stated he was interested in a Silver Surfer movie while speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. In the chat, he cited The Wachowskis’ stylized Speed Racer movie as inspiration.
MCKAY: “Silver Surfer man, that’s the one I want to do. I would do anything to do Silver Surfer because visually….could do what the Wachowskis did with Speed Racer, with the Silver Surfer. At the same time, there’s a great emotional story in there man. Where a guy has to choose to save his planet. You know Norrin Radd has to save his planet…that, that would be the one.I think they’re kicking around a Nova idea.”
While speaking with MTV at the 2019 Gloden Globes, Adam suggested there was some “discussion” and Marvel’s Kevin Feige at the same event seemed open to the idea of meeting with him about the project.
MCKAY: “(Laughs) There actually has been some discussion about Silver Surfer. My agent certainly woke up. They were excited. We’re in the middle of, you know, backing Vice right now, but, who knows, in a couple of months it could pop up. I really am excited by that idea. So, we’ll see what happens.”
FEIGE: “I’ve not gotten a call yet, but I’ve seen Adam tonight and at a number of these awards, he is as everyone knows an incredibly smart guy he’s an honest to goodness fan and you know did a lot of behind the scenes work on the first Ant-Man film and have you seen Vice? A little cameo, a little Galatcus cameo in there that we helped him get. So I look forward to speaking to him more.”
We still don’t know if Norinn Radd will be part of Marvel’s new Fantastic Four franchise (expected) or if Adam McKay will get to make his solo film as Marvel Studios hasn’t officially announced any plans concerning Silver Surfer. However, there are plenty of casting ideas making the rounds online and figured I’d mention the people I think would be a good fit in the role that would likely be a mix of live-action and motion-capture.
LAKEITH STANFIELD (AGE 29): Get Out, Uncut Gems, Judas & The Black Messiah, Knives Out, Atlanta, The Girl In The Spider’s Web, War Machine, Dope, Short Term 12, and Straight Outta Compton.
RYAN GOSLING (AGE 40): The Nice Guys, Blade Runner 2049, Drive, Only God Forgives, Half Nelson, Remember The Titans, The Place Beyond The Pines, First Man, La La Land, and The Gray Man.
BRAD PITT (AGE 57): Fight Club, Snatch, Killing Them Softly, Inglourious Basterds, Se7en, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Moneyball, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Troy, Ocean’s Eleven, The Big Short, Interview With A Vampire, Fury, Legends of The Fall, True Romance, The Devil’s Own, and Bullet Train.
At the end of Season 2 of The Mandalorian, it was announced that The Book of Boba Fett would be a new Star Wars series coming to Disney+ and this led to Lucasfilm revealing that The Mandalorian Season 3 would be delayed. There had been confusion as the Fett project seemingly took over the production schedule that was likely meant for The Mandalorian.
The spinoff project would see Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen reprise their respective roles of Boba Fett and Fennec Shand. It’s also being produced by Robert Rodriguez, Jon Favreau, and Dave Filoni with the assumption they’ll end up directing episodes.
Well, it sounds like a familiar Mandalorian might be popping-up in the show after all.
Earlier in the week, Cinelinx reported that Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin is expected to appear in some capacity on the Disney+ series. Although, details are a bit scarce along with the how much we’ll end up seeing him.
The Book of Boba Fett has just about wrapped filming (if it hasn’t already) and details on the story/set have been ridiculously tight. That said, I’ve heard word from a couple of independent sources that at least one other familiar “face” from The Mandalorian will make an appearance: Din Djarin.
There is an expectation that The Mandalorian Season 3 won’t be filming anytime soon as with The Book of Boba Fett finishing up filming, Obi-Wan Kenobi is officially set to begin production in the California production space sometime this month. Pedro Pascal is also locked-in to shoot HBO’s The Last of Us series over the summer in Calgary.
It’ll be interesting to see how exactly Mando figures into The Book of Boba Fett and if it will to plant seeds for other projects set in the Mandalorian timeline.
Marvel Studios was reportedly said to have kicked-off production on their Disney+ series She-Hulk last month in Atlanta, Georgia. The show seems to be still assembling the main cast as a new report from Deadline has revealed that Renee Elise Goldsberry will be playing a character named Amelia.
While not confirmed by Marvel, people have assumed this role could be Amelia Voght, a mutant nurse from the pages of X-Men comics and member of the Acolytes. It’s also possible it could be another character created for the She-Hulk series as while there have been hints to mutants with the introductions of Madripoor and S.W.O.R.D., Marvel hasn’t officially added mutant characters to the MCU.
The American actress is likely best known from the musical Hamilton, the Netflix cyberpunk series Altered Carbon, and Ally McBeal. The latter series is said to be sort of an influence on the legal Marvel project.
She’ll be joining a cast that includes Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner aka Hulk, Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky aka Abomination, and Ginger Gonzaga as Jennifer’s best friend.
The creative team sees Kat Coiro and Anu Valia directing episodes with Rick & Morty’s Jessica Gao as the head writer.
Walters is a defense lawyer that specializes in superhero and super-villain cases. In the comics, after a life-threatening accident she requires a blood transfusion from her cousin Bruce Banner leading to her acquiring her own Hulk abilities. However, unlike Bruce Banner once turned into She-Hulk she remains in her green form similar to how Bruce/Hulk is in Avengers: Endgame. There had been hints we’ll see other Marvel superheroes and lawyers in the series.
Jennifer has joined multiple superhero teams over the years including Fantastic Four, Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D., A-Force, and Heroes For Hire.
Erin Kellyman is having quite the career thanks to Disney as the British actress has appeared in Solo: A Star Wars Story as Enfys Nest, is currently seen playing Karli Morgenthau on Marvel’s The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, and has a lead role in the Willow sequel series at Disney+ that is filming in Wales.
The young actress is doing some press for The Falcon & The Winter Soldier when she was asked by Screen Rant about the possibility of reprising the role of Enfys Nest in a future Star Wars project. In her response, admitting she hasn’t spoken to the studio about it but would be willing to play her again.
KELLYMAN: “I would love if that was the case. I haven’t heard anything, but I would love to play Enfys Nest again. If Disney came to me and said, ‘Will you play her again?’ I would 100% do it. She was such a fun character to play.”
While the Obi-Wan Kenobi limited series takes place around the events of Solo: A Star Wars Story (follows Han Solo over multiple years), her other commitments to Willow would likely prevent her from appearing even if that was an option. However, depending when the upcoming Lando series is set within the Star Wars timeline, it could allow Kellyman to at least cameo as Nest down the road.
A much older version of the character could appear in The Mandalorian era shows on Disney+, but would likely mean they’d have to hire an older actress or keep Nest in the helmet.
We’ll have to wait and see if Lucasfilm ultimately has her return to the Star Wars universe.
Episode 1 ended with the U.S. government selecting Wyatt Russell’s John Walker as the new Captain America and in Episode 2 we see a little background on the character giving him a little bit of personality. Walker also has his own sidekick with Battlestar being confirmed. However, his existence seems to irk both Sam and Bucky as the latter is frustrated that Wilson turned down the shield letting an outsider take over Steve’s mantle which went against his wishes.
We see most of The Flash Smashers have been enhanced with the super-soldier serum and are on the run from The Power Broker, a Marvel villain that has been teased in the end credits. This might suggest the masked group might not be as villainous as they’ve been made out to be and are trying to keep themselves one step ahead of the real villain. The Power Broker threatening to kill them.
Bucky reveals to Sam that there was another secret super-soldier, Isaiah Bradley, played by Carl Lumbly and there is an assumption that Elijah Richardson was playing Isaiah’s grandson Eli Bradley aka Patriot. It’s mentioned that Bucky and Bradley came to blows during the Korean War along with the horrible revelation that he was thrown into prison to rot for 30 years. Sam is horrified that nobody knew that Bradley existed and there are overtones that Isaiah being a black man played a role to the government keeping that a secret.
Walker and Battlestar are keen to work with Bucky and Sam but the two established characters seem to be reluctant to do so. At the end of the episode our two protagonists attempt to get more answers from Zemo, who is still locked-up. Something is going to happen because we’ve seen multiple set photos and footage Zemo out in the world.
I’ll be curious to see if Walker, Zemo, and The Power Broker are connected.
I also wouldn’t be shocked to see the Bradley family has a link to Erin Kellyman’s Karli.
As Disney is adjusting their 2021 release date, there is official word that their upcoming Pixar film Luca will be heading directly to Disney+ as an exclusive instead of becoming a hybrid release, which we saw with Raya & The Last Dragon.
It will still be coming out on June 18th.
Pixar’s Soul had a similar fate last year and seemed to a huge hit for Disney+.
LUCA – Set in a beautiful seaside town on the Italian Riviera, Disney and Pixar’s original feature film “Luca” is a coming-of-age story about one young boy experiencing an unforgettable summer filled with gelato, pasta and endless scooter rides. Luca shares these adventures with his newfound best friend, but all the fun is threatened by a deeply-held secret: they are sea monsters from another world just below the water’s surface.
THE RONIN 