After rumors from folks like Geeks Worldwide that Riri Williams would be making her debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Marvel’s Kevin Feige has now confirmed this to Comic Book/Phase Zero and adding that actress Dominique Thorne has already started shooting scenes.
“We’re shooting Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, right now, and the character of Riri Williams, you will meet in Black Panther 2 first. She started shooting, I think, this week before her Ironheart series.”
Williams being introduced could have something to do with Wakanda investing in STEM programs as mentioned at the end of the original film. It’ll be interesting to see if Riri will have time to have a full origin explored or just teased leading into her solo series, Ironheart.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will hit theaters on July 8, 2022.
Coming off a bizarre Prime Time Emmy nomination for his extremely brief cameo in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, actor Don Cheadle is getting primed for his own solo series Armor Wars. However, during an interview with Colldier the actor revealed that show isn’t as far along as many imagined, as they’re only now breaking scripts in the next couple of weeks.
“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 project is expected to be an MCU adaptation of the Iron Man comic book run of the same name and will likely bring back folks like Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer and Emily VanCamp’s Sharon Carter/Power Broker.
What I think most will be curious about is if Armor Wars will connect to Dominique Thorne’s Marvel series Ironheart, which focuses on young prodigy Riri Williams, who builds her own armor suit. Given that Rhodey will be pursuing rogue Stark-tech, it’s possible the two could cross paths and I think fans wouldn’t mind a little superhero mentoring along the way.
This news on the status of Armor Wars isn’t all that surprising given that She-Hulk and Moon Knight are currently shooting with Secret Wars (their Skrull event series) expected to begin soon in the United Kingdom under the working title Jambalaya (still an expectation of a crossover with The Marvels cast). We also don’t have writers or directors officially attached to the series either.
This likely means Armors Wars won’t begin shooting until sometime in 2022 and won’t be ready for Disney+ until 2023, but that is only speculation on our part.
A new Production Weekly update is supporting that Ironheart’s working title during production will indeed be Wise Guy. The production grid info for the Marvel Studios show was first spotted by the folks over at The Cosmic Circus earlier in the week.
Although, we should be cautious as Production Weekly has mixed up a handful of the Marvel Studios working titles lately. They recently attributed the working title of Buzzcut to The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special, only for James Gunn to debunk that on Twitter.
We’re assuming at this point that Buzzcut is likely really being used for Ryan Coogler’s untitled Wakanda series (currently listed for an untitled Marvel project on Production Weekly) as a nod to the bald female warriors, the Dora Milaje. The Ronin recently confirmed the Wakanda series is using the Disney LLC, Maglev Train Productions, which is a direct nod to the high-tech railway system used in Wakanda.
Marvel Studios has yet to reveal who is even the head writer of Ironheart let alone the show’s directors, which could suggest that the show isn’t as close to starting as something like Armor Wars.
However, it was announced back in December that Dominique Throne will be playing Riri Williams, the brilliant youngster that is able to build her own armor suit and becomes a superhero. Williams is yet another character added to the Marvel Cineamtic Universe that could appear in a future Young Avengers project.
There is a good chance there could be some story/character crossover with the War machine series Armor Wars led by Don Cheadle.
Other recent working titles for Marvel projects include the following.
LOKI – ARCHITECT
BLACK WIDOW = BLUE BAYOU
ETERNALS = SACK LUNCH
SHANG-CHI & THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS = STEAMBOAT
DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS = STELLAR VORTEX
Marvel Studios has made a huge impact with their first two entries in the MCU’s live-action series at Disney+ as both WandaVision and Falcon & Winter Soldier seemed to pull-in an impressive amount of eyeballs. Either leading fans to become delighted with Kathyn Hahn’s wonderfully charismatic Agnes aka Agatha Harkness or in the case of John Walker root against him.
The studio has a steady stream of new shows coming soon with Loki, Ms. Marvel, and Hawkeye on deck for release in 2021. But more are in various stages of development including the series Ironheart that will have Dominique Thorne set in the role of Riri Williams, a child genius that is able to build her own armor suit similar to Tony Stark’s Iron Man.
Variety is reporting that Marvel has hired Chinaka Hodge as the head writer of Ironheart, after previously working as a staff writer on the TNT series Snowpiercer, a prequel to the film that was directed by Parasite’s Bong Joon-ho and based on a French graphic novel (first published in 1982) created by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette.
The Hollywood Reporter adding that Ironheart will land 6-episodes just like Falcon & Winter Soldier and that the studio hopes to get the writer’s room running by next month.
Thorne’s Riri Williams could very well have a connection to the upcoming series Armor Wars due to the technology involved with building any armor. Armor Wars sees Don Cheadle’s War Machine tracking down stolen Stark-tech that hits the black market, potentially because of Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer and the Power Broker. There has been fan speculation that Williams could end up joining a growing roster of the Young Avengers, although, Marvel hasn’t announced those plans officially.
Other shows coming in 2022 and beyond includes She-Hulk, Secret Invasion, Moon Knight, a series from Ryan Coogler connected to Wakanda, and a Hawkeye spinoff focused on the new MCU character Echo.
*WARNING! MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE FALCON & THE WINTER SOLDIER*
Yesterday, saw Marvel Studios release the finale for Falcon & Winter Soldier and cemented that Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson has moved from the Falcon persona to taking on the Captain America mantle from Steve Rogers. It was also reported that the studio isn’t wasting any time and has assigned screenwriters for Captain America 4 with Falcon’s Malcolm Spellman and Dalan Musson said to be working on a script.
I’m getting a strong feeling that Don Cheadle’s War Machine series Armor Wars could plant seeds for this upcoming Captain American sequel alongside the film’s potential threat. If you remember we saw Don Cheadle appear as Rhodey in the first episode of Falcon & Winter Soldier when Wilson donates the shield to the Smithsonian exhibit. I don’t think it was an accident that the two shared a moment in that first episode as Falcon and Armor Wars might be connected leading up to the events in Captain America 4.
Armor Wars will see James Rhodes crackdown on a wave of Stark technology getting into the black market and allows him to interact with a heap of Iron Man villains that likely wouldn’t have made the cut in feature films. Baddies such as Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, and others could finally get their live-action adaption alongside other canon-fodder characters. There could also be a link towards the introduction of Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams, who will be leading her own series Ironheart.
Armor Wars’ villains could be familiar faces with Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer, who featured predominately in the comic book the show is based on and if I had to guess could easily step-in for Norman Osborn in the Dark Avengers. You might remember that he turned War Machine into Iron Patriot for Iron Man 2, the armor was used by Osborn and briefly by Sharon Carter in the comics. I wouldn’t be shocked if Hammer is recruited into the Thunderbolts potentially combining Dark Avengers with Thunderbolts into a single entity. Traditionally, Baron Zemo is the leader but there are been multiple incarnations and the MCU does it’s own thing.
Speaking of Carter, it was revealed in Falcon & Winter Soldier that she was the mysterious arms dealer The Power Broker and is now going to use her newly returned access to government weapons programs for her benefit. There is a good shot that Sharon and Justin might join forces to get their hands on Stark’s armor tech.
Zemo crushed The Power Broker’s attempt to recreate the super-soldier serum and could attempt to help take-out villains that want to get their hands on Stark’s armor tech as well. At the end of Falcon, we see Zemo’s butler killing a batch of Flag Smashers that were heading to The Raft, suggesting that he’s still dangerous even behind bars.
We currently don’t know what Marvel is planning to do with Captain America 4, but it’s worth noting that the last installment, Captain America: Civil War, was essentially an Avengers event. There is a good chance that with Falcon & Winter Soldier out of the way they can now give Sam Wilson a massive blockbuster as he takes over the Captain America franchise.
One of the main attributes of the Captain America films is that Steve Rogers has fellow superheroes working alongside him with Bucky/Peggy Carter/The Howling Commandos in Captain America: The First Avenger, Black Widow/Falcon/Nick Fury in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Bucky/Falcon/Scarlet Witch/Hawkeye/Ant-Man/Sharon Carter in Captain America: Civil War. Seeing Rhodey and Sam further develop their relationship or even partner up in the future wouldn’t be surprising given their military backgrounds and both taking on superhero mantles.
Could the next Captain America film also become some Avengers event movie like Civil War?
A new Avengers roster is being assembled before our eyes by Marvel with Sam Wilson becoming Captain America, Rhodey is essentially taking up the Iron Man mantle from Tony Stark, Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster aka Lady Thor, Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova becoming Black Widow, Tatiana Maslany’s Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk, a new yet-to-be announced Black Panther for the sequel shooting this summer, Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop aka Hawkeye, and Danny Ramirez’s Joaquin Torres taking Sam’s spot as Falcon. How this might intersect with plans for the Young Avengers and Thunderbolts remains to be seen.
Armor Wars dropping hints for the Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers to appear in future films like Captain America 4 could be great way to have things escalate for Sam’s first film as the new Cap and sort of amp things up in comparison to the Disney+ show.
John Walker becomes U.S. Agent
Wyatt Russell’s John Walker becoming U.S. Agent remains a bit of mystery if he’s going to be part of the MCU’s version of Thunderbolts or will become a pawn of The Serpent Society (faux title for Captain America 3), Zola, and the Mandarin’s Ten Rings. It likely comes down to the intentions of his new boss Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Julia was originally supposed to appear first as Val in Black Widow before the pandemic delayed the film’s release from May 2020 to July 2021. There are already suggestions that she’ll have some connection to Yelena joining the Thunderbolts but that needs to be confirmed. It’s confirmed that Florence Pugh is reprising the role in the Hawkeye series that could also have links to Thunderbolts.
Walker could return for Armor Wars as he teamed-up with The Jury and that group could be replaced with whoever ends up getting bootleg Stark-tech, potentially Val and Justin Hammer. I’d personally like to see The Serpent Society because they would make an excellent surrogate for a modern version of HYDRA and give Sam plenty of villains to battle for the next couple of years.
Thunderbolt Ross might become a very important figure in the very near future and there is a possibility he might appear in Armor Wars given that Rhodey could be activated under Ross’ supervision.
It could be interesting to see the new Avengers going head-to-head against a competing team like the Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers, who would likely be made up multiple villains selected by Thunderbolt Ross at The Raft. Ross himself is a member of a recent version of the team as Red Hulk, a character aspect that could be explored in the She-Hulk series. He’s always been lurking behind the scenes as a government stooge and helped create the Abomination. Having Ross spearheading Thunderbolts as his namesake would make a lot of sense and it’s starting to feel like Phase 4 is leading up to the two teams clashing on the big screen.
Marvel Studios had a rather large presentation at last week’s Disney Investor Day event and Kevin Feige had a lot of information to share in such a short period. Below is a rundown of most of the new information and adjusted release dates.
What seemed like the biggest announcement made during the massive amount of information was that director Jon Watts has been selected by the studio to reboot The Fantastic Four for them. Watts having worked with Marvel Studios to reboot the Spider-Man franchise with Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and the untitled Spider-Man 3 (currently filming in Atlanta as The November Project).
When Fantastic Four will begin shooting is unknown as Jon will be busy with Spider-Man 3 until it’s release in 12 months and they failed to mention any screenwriters. This will mark the first Marvel film for Watts that won’t have Sony Pictures’ involvement and might suggest that he won’t be coming back for Spider-Man 4.
Fandom has collectively chosen to campaign for John Krasinski and Emily Blunt to play the roles of Mister Fantastic and The Invisible Woman, however, there hasn’t been any concrete casting news concerning the project as it only just got confirmed.
Feige had telegraphed back at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 that Fantastic Four was the priority former Fox property they were aiming to reboot ahead of the X-Men. There is a possibility that Dr. Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm could appear in other films first.
One of the more frustrating things concerning Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings is that they kept most of the cast unofficial for the entirety of the shoot but they’ve now announced a good chunk of the cast, while not all of them. The cast so far includes actors Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Tony Leung as Wenwu aka The Mandarian, Awkwafina as Katy, Meng’er Zhang as Xialing, Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, Ronny Chieng as Jon Jon, Fala Chen as Jiang Li, and Florian Munteanu as villain William Young aka Razor Fist.
Shang-Chi along with Black Widow are still set to be released in theaters, not on Disney+, with the Destin Daniel Cretton martial arts action film set for July 9, 2021.
Director Sam Raimi has started filming Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness is officially shooting and will not only connect to WandaVision but also Jon Watts’ Spider-Man 3. While Kevin didn’t confirm it, there is a good chance that Tom Holland‘s Peter Parker and other characters carrying over to the Doctor Strange sequel.
However, he did confirm that that Xochitl Gomez will be playing America Chavez aka Miss America. The young newcomer joins Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as villain Baron Mordo.
It’s release date is set for March 25, 2022.
We finally know Christian Bale‘s character in Thor: Love & Thunder as he’ll play the film’s villain Gorr The God Butcher. A role we assume will be done with motion-capture given the design of his comic book counterpart.
Deadline recently reported that Jaimie Alexander will reprise the role of Lady Sif.
The rest of the cast consists of Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, and director Taika Waititi will return to the role of Korg.
Filming begins next month in Australia and it’s release date has been moved once more to May 6, 2022.
Captain Marvel 2 director Nia DaCosta was finally confirmed alongside the return of Brie Larson as Carol Danvers. New additions to the franchise are Ms. Marvel‘s Iman Vellani co-starring as Kamala Khan and WandaVision actress Teyonah Parris as the adult version of Monica Rambeau aka Spectrum.
There is a good chance that it will connect to Secret Invasion as it will also shoot in the United Kingdom.
The film’s date was bumped to November 11th, 2021.
Marvel revealed the title for Ant-Man 3 will be Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania. Peyton Reed will be back as director with Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lily, Michael Douglas, and Michelle Pfeiffer returning as part of the main cast. The title suggesting the film will be entering the Quantum Realm or have strange things come out it.
The big announcement concerning the film is that Kathryn Newton (Freaky) has been recast as Cassie Lang aka Stature with rising-star Jonathan Majors (Lovecraft Country) confirmed as villain Kang The Conqueror. It remains to be seen if the third installment will help introduce The Fantastic Four before their own solo film from Jon Watts given Kang’s connection to the former 20th Century Fox heroes.
A release date wasn’t mentioned but is expected something in 2022.
James Gunn is officially back for Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3 with them aiming for a 2023 release date. They’re also developing a holiday special and Groot shorts for Disney+.
Kevin Feige didn’t give much in the way of details for Black Panther 2 but revealed they would not be recasting Chadwick Boseman‘s role of T’Challa. He stopped short from explaining what they are doing with the sequel and reaffirmed that writer/director Ryan Coogler is still working on the film.
While we suspect potential delays on the project, they announced the film is coming July 8th, 2022. The spot was previously held by Captain Marvel 2.
Marvel also announced another round of Disney+ shows.
The Nick Fury series was confirmed to be an adaption of Secret Invasion, which involved a bunch of humanity revealed as being replaced with Skrulls. In the comics, it was revealed that a bunch of Avengers were uncovered to be Skrulls too. As assumed, Samuel L. Jackson will reprise the Fury role with Ben Mendelsohn back as Skrull leader Talos.
The Fox portion of the Skrull rights via Fantastic Four are now in the hands of Marvel and could allow for Super-Skrulls to come into play becoming a big threat as they mimic superpowers of various Marvel Comics heroes.
It had been reported that Kyle Bradstreet would be developing the show.
There are signs the series will shoot in the United Kingdom around the same time as Captain Marvel 2, which could suggest a direct connection via S.W.O.R.D. and the Skrulls.
Olivia Wilde is reportedly directing a Spider-Woman film for Sony Pictures. It’s worth mentioning that Jessica Drew is an Agent of S.W.O.R.D. and is one of the characters in the comics revealed to be a Skrull (Veranke The Skrull Queen). Marvel’s participation on that film while assumed hasn’t been made official.
Don Cheadle will lead his own Disney+ series as War Machine titled Armor Wars.
If the series takes cues from the comic book series we could see the return of Sam Rockwell‘s Justin Hammer, another fan-favorite that is still kicking around in the MCU.
We could also see the addition of unused Iron Man villains such as the Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, and others.
An Ironheart series will star Dominique Thorne as whiz-kid Riri Williams, who creates her own advance armor. I wouldn’t be shocked if there happens to be a crossover with Armor Wars.
They revealed new trailers for their upcoming slate of Disney+ series including WandaVision (coming January 15,2021), The Falcon & The Winter Soldier (coming March 19, 2021), Loki (coming May 2021), and their animated series What If…? (coming summer 2021). The trailers give us the first look at X-Men location Madripoor in Falcon and the scale of the Loki series with teases of his return to Asgard.
Additional information concerning the upcoming shows includes that Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye will indeed be aiming for a 2021, something The Ronin reported on earlier this month. Kevin Feige providing an sizzle footage for the former which is impressive given it only recently started shooting in Atlanta.
With She-Hulk, Kevin confirmed that the cast will include Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk, and the return of Tim Roth‘s Abomination. The latter addition could help support previous chatter that we might see William Hurt‘s Thunder Bolt Ross and Liv Tyler‘s Betty Ross in the series as well bring most of The Incredible Hulk cast back.
I’m sure there are more things to be announced in the future as they hinted to upcoming news concerning Mahershala Ali‘s Blade. Although, I’m sure fans were a little upset they left-out Ryan Reynolds‘ Deadpool 3 or an update on the X-Men reboot. There is now overwhelming evidence that The Young Avengers are coming at some point given that most have been cast already.
THE RONIN 