Tag: Fantastic Four

Posted on in News

Marvel Cinematic Universe: Rundown of All The News At Disney Investor Day 2020

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.

Posted on in News

Disney Will Reportedly Announce New Projects From Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm At Investor Day 2020 On December 10th

In a report from Deadline, Mike Fleming claims that Disney will make announcements at Investor Day 2020 on December 10th concerning new projects (theatrical films and television) from Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, and Pixar.

Details aren’t mentioned or what those “new” projects will be.

Disney on December 10 will announce its upcoming slate. While the studio will solidify what Deadline revealed recently – that the Tom Hanks-starrer Pinocchio, Peter Pan and the Emma Stone-starrer Cruella will bypass movie theaters to become Disney+ releases, the studio will also announce new projects from Marvel, Lucasfilm and Pixar that will encompass TV as well as theatrical. It will be a gesture toward not abandoning the exhibitors. 

Fans will be curious to hear if Disney will attempt a similar day-and-day model that was recently announced by WarnerMedia for their entire 2021 film slate, as delayed Marvel films such as Black Widow and Shang-Chi could be part of that hypothetical announcement seeing large theatrical films landing on Disney+.

Collider recently suggested that Disney might be considering merging Disney+ and mature content from Hulu into a single service, another big update from Disney that could be announced (if true) at Investor Day this week.

Kevin Feige would likely confirm castings concerning Oscar Isaac as Moon Knight and Tatiana Maslany as She-Hulk. A Nick Fury series was announced to be in develop, which we assume will star Samuel L. Jackson and possibly include Skrulls/S.W.O.R.D. but that would need to be confirmed. They could also announce their plans for an MCU reboot of Fantastic Four on the film side or updates concerning things we know are happening officially like Ant-Man 3, Captain Marvel 2, Black Panther 2, Deadpool 3 and Blade.

Concerning Lucasfilm, we know that Star Wars shows such as Boba Fett, Cassian Andor, Kenobi, The Mandalorian (Season 3), and a series coming from Leslye Headland are in varying stages of prep/production. There are a couple of films in development from Taika Waititi and Rian Johnson as well.

They’re also about to begin shooting their Willow sequel series in Wales with director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) and we might finally get a concrete update on James Mangold’s Indiana Jones 5.

Hopefully, we get some new details on December 10th and we’re not hearing new information for projects already made known.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Marvel Studios Inching Closer To Making Their ‘Fantastic Four’ Reboot?

A while back it first reported by Murphy’s Multiverse that Disney had listed a new LLC called Solve Everything Productions, that we were able to back-up. The claim made was that it was likely hinting to the studio moving forward with their Fantastic Four reboot before tackling X-Men.

A small update from Charles Murphy further confirms that the Disney-owned LLC is indeed at Marvel Studios. This would mean that they’re going into production on the project which is most likely going to be Fantastic Four given the LLC’s name is connected to the Marvel Comics property.

However, it’s worth noting that Marvel/Disney and trades have yet to announce any screenwriters or directors have joined the project, let alone they are moving forward with a Fantastic Four film or series. All signs are pointing towards a Fantastic Four project will be announced in the near future and could be primarily filming in the United States.

The Fantastic Four has had four live-action films starting with the Roger Corman-produced film from 1994 that was ultimately never released and then 20th Century Fox released two installments from director Tim Story then attempted a reboot from Josh Trank in 2015.

The film rights shifted back to Marvel once Disney finalized their acquisition of 21st Century Fox (included 20th Century Fox). Marvel now has access to Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom, The Brood, The Shi’ar Empire, Alpha Flight, X-Force, New Mutants, X-Men, Deadpool, Wolverine, Silver Surfer, Galactus, Super-Skrulls, and many many more characters to use for their MCU projects.

A one time, writer/director Adam McKay (Ant-Man, Vice, The Big Short) was interested in pitching a Silver Surfer film to Marvel’s chief creative officer Kevin Feige.

Posted on in Film News

Simon Kinberg Is The Latest Screenwriter Hired For Universal’s ‘Battlestar Galactica’ Movie

Universal Pictures has hired a new screenwriter to help them realize their long in-development feature film reboot of the beloved 1970s sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica as The Hollywood Reporter reveals that writer Simon Kinberg is the latest addition to the project.

Simon Kinberg has signed on to write and produce Battlestar Galactica, Universal’s long-gestating feature adaptation of its sci-fi TV franchise.

Screenwriters John Orloff (Band of Brothers, Masters of The Air), Jack Paglen (Alien: Covenat), Lisa Joy (Westworld), and Jay Basu (Metal Gear Solid) previously worked on the film’s script in various incarnations.

Simon Kinberg is no stranger to science fiction as he worked on Star Wars: Rebels and had been trying to help Warner Bros. with their own reboot of the sci-fi thriller Logan’s Run. He was also involved with the Boba Fett film for Lucasfilm that was going to be directed by Josh Trank before the project was ultimately shelved.

His other screenwriting credits include X-Men: The Last Stand, Jumper, xXx: State of The Union, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Sherlock Holmes, This Means War, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, Dark Phoenix, and the unremarkable Fantastic Four reboot.

Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, Red Sparrow, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1-2) was the last director attached.

Universal is also developing a new BSG series for their streaming service Peacock.

SyFy revived the property as a three-part miniseries in 2003 and then moved forward with a series that lasted for four seasons.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA – After the destruction of the Twelve Colonies of Mankind, the last major fighter carrier leads a makeshift fugitive fleet in a desperate search for the legendary planet Earth.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

‘Tenet’s John David Washington Open To Playing Reed Richards In Marvel’s ‘Fantastic Four’ Reboot – “Where Do I Sign?”

We’ve been excited to see what Marvel does with the Fox properties now that they have the film rights to fully explore both a Fantastic Four and X-Men after the merger between Disney and 21st Century Fox led to the rights heading over to Kevin Feige’s Marvel Studios. 

Marvel seemingly hasn’t decided on the main actors for the Fantastic Four reboot. Despite some recent evidence, they are moving forward with a film via LLC information spotted by Muprhy’s Multiverse that Solve Everything Productions LLC just might be Marvel getting their reboot of Fantastic Four ready. 

The recent news that they’ve cast Jonathan Majors in the role of supervillain Kang The Conqueror or Ant-Man 3 (unconfirmed by Majors or Marvel) could suggest if they indeed make the villain a future relative of Reed Richards, as in the comics, that we could be seeing a black version of the iconic character. 

This has led fans to suggest people such as Tenet’s John David Washington after he got endorsed for the Green Lantern role by director Christopher Nolan. 

While speaking with Nerd Reactor, they asked him about playing Richards and Washington seems really open to the idea. 

NR: I think Marvel is going to do a new Fantastic Four movie, so, let’s pretend I’m Kevin Feige I come up to you ‘What to be part of the Fantastic Four, maybe, Reed Richards the main lead’. Would you do it’?

WASHINGTON: Wow, I’d say ‘Well, thank you for having me, thank you for taking this meeting where do I sign?”

You can watch that exchange below. 

There had been a massive fan campaign online to see real-life married couple John Krasinski and Emily Blunt in the roles of Mr. Fantastic and Sue Storm respectively. However, that doesn’t to seem have come together as fans had hoped it would.

Honestly, I as long as they make a compelling story that has audiences finally caring about the Fantastic Four it really doesn’t matter who they end up picking for the roles as long as the character development is there and they can act. I’m optimistic about Marvel handling these characters as I had zero interest in the last three films from 20th Century Fox.

SOURCE: NERD REACTOR 

Posted on in Features

Will The MCU Version of Mutants Have A Connection To Atlantis?

Ever since Marvel Studios got rights to mutants and the X-Men we’ve all be heavily anticipating when that could happen it is starting to feel like we’re getting extremely close to at least an introduction to mutants in the Marvel Cinematic Universe very soon. 

Kevin Feige has previously stated that Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff will “truly become the Scarlet Witch” in her solo series WandaVision and the recent trailer has seemingly confirmed certain elements we all assumed would be explored in the show after the cosmic orgainzation S.W.O.R.D. will be introduced which is directly from the pages of the X-Men comics with folks like Dr. Hank McCoy aka Beast among the team. 

In the comics, Wanda and her brother Quicksilver are the children of X-Men villain Magneto an origin element that has never been used in the MCU incarnations as the studio had shared use with 20th Century Fox at the time of Avengers: Age of Ultron but weren’t allowed to reference mutants or X-Men. Their powers were explained by HYDRA’s human experiments with Loki’s staff to create metahumans. 

Mutants are normally born with a mutant gene that leads to their superpowers.

It’s been assumed for a long time that series would be a version of House of M storyline, where Wanda creates a new reality, this would explain why a very dead Vision can father twins (Speed and Wiccan) and why we don’t see them outside of this suburban neighborhood. 

There was seemingly a direct nod to the comic run in the new trailer with a shot of a wine bottle called Maison du Mepris (House of Contempt), which could be seen as House of M nod from certain perspectives. 

I’m also thinking the wine bottle is a nod to the 1963 French New Wave film from director Jean-Luc Godard titled Le Mépris aka Contempt. 

LE MEPRIS – A philistine in the art film business, Jeremy Prokosch (Jack Palance) is a producer unhappy with the work of his director. Prokosch has hired Fritz Lang (as himself) to direct an adaptation of The Odyssey, but when it seems that the legendary filmmaker is making a picture destined to bomb at the box office, he brings in a screenwriter (Michel Piccoli) to energize the script. The professional intersects with the personal when a rift develops between the writer and his wife (Brigitte Bardot).

The reference might have a double meaning and indicate a future rift between Wanda/Vision with the “House of Contempt” becoming the one they’re stuck in leading to friction. It’s also worth noting we still don’t have any indication that the series will introduce any mutants and if Monica Rambeau lands her powers in the series we don’t know if she’ll have mutant status. 

Then again, Wanda could manifest mutant properties in people across the globe these are comic book stories after all. 

There are likely more casting and character surprises on the way. 

Kathryn Hahn is rumored to be playing legit witch Agatha Harkness, but Marvel has yet to make this official. If she is indeed playing Harkness as the witch costume would suggest, this could connect the character to large events in the Marvel universe’s past including the sinking of the Kingdom of Atlantis. This event is referred to in the comics as The Great Cataclysm and has direct ties to the Eternals. One version has a Celestial and the Deviants causing it. Another one in the Ultimate Universe suggests that Agatha had something to do with the fate of Atlantis. 

I wouldn’t be shocked if S.W.O.R.D. is involved because Mephisto has a part to play with what is going on with Wanda and Vision, a cosmic entity that happens to be Marvel’s version of the devil and could be pulling the strings as he likes to torture various heroes. However, I’m not entirely sure why S.W.O.R.D. is doing there unless they believe that whatever is happen is somehow alien related and it very well could be. 

Chloe Zhoa’s Eternals seems like another perfect oppurtunity to give audiences a new version of the mutants via the mutant gene that inserted into humanity via Celesitials, who are a third offshoot of Eternals and Deviants. It is established in the comics Harkness has been on Earth for a long time and was kicking around during The Great Cataclysm, 20,000 years in the past and would have likely had run ins with Eternals and Celesitials given her age/powers in the comics. 

Harkness given her age making her either mutant or an eternal herself wouldn’t be shocking. I don’t think it would take much of a leap to connect her to Kit Harington’s Dane Whitman aka Black Knight either given his connection sorcery and witchcraft. 

An Atlantis connection via WandaVision or Eternals could help usher in mutants in another way beyond Scarlet Witch’s powers and The Multiverse. 

It’s been established that Namor McKenzie aka The Sub-Mariner is the first mutant concerning Marvel’s publication history as he predates the X-Men as one of the very first legacy superheroes with mutant abilities and there was even a run in 2011 titled Namor: The First Mutant. That same year he joined the X-Men during events like Avengers vs X-Men and was recently seen in X-Men Red. 

While they made sure to separate his mutant abilities like flying from his Atlantean power-set, there is a chance that Marvel alters that for the MCU version. In the 1960s, Professor Xavier and Magneto tried to recruit him into their various mutant factions and only recently has joined their ranks. 

Namor is an extremely important crossover character with connections to the Fantastic Four, The Illuminati, and Agents of Atlas led by Randall Park’s Jimmy Woo with his cousin Namora on the team. He also teamed up with Hulk, Doctor Strange, Valkyrie, and others on the original version of The Defenders. 

There had been some teases from director Scott Derrickson on Twitter that Namor could be part of his sequel Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, but that element hinted to may not have survived the development process or the final version that Sam Raimi makes. Then again, Harkness in WandaVision and Eternals both covering Atlantis could help establish Namor beforehand.  

Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi is part of the Agents of Atlas which could be another entry point to introduce Atlantis, Namor, and Namora into the MCU. There are already unconfirmed rumors that Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings will include a mutant character.

It’s still pretty damn neat we’re getting the mutants in the Marvel Cinematic Universe even if we have to wait a couple more years before the main X-Men team gets a proper reboot. However, it’s still not cut-and-dry when we’ll start seeing recognizable mutant characters but I’m eager to find out. 

Posted on in Features

Tatiana Maslany’s ‘She-Hulk’ Could Become The MCU’s Crossover Queen

Yesterday, Deadline reported that Canadian actress Tatiana Maslany (Perry Mason, Destroyer, Orphan Black) had landed the Marvel Studios role of Jennifer Walters for the upcoming superhero comedy series She-Hulk that will be exclusively on Disney+, airing possibly in 2022 given the VFX involved. 

The Emmy winning actress had previously tested for major roles in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, so Tat had been on Disney’s radar for quite some time now. 

Jennifer is a defense attorney and cousin of Bruce Banner, who transforms into the superheroine She-Hulk after a blood transfusion from Bruce gives her superpowers of her own. 

The series is expected to skew more comedic given that Jessica Gao (Rick & Morty) is the head writer and they’ve seemingly hired Kat Coiro (The Mick, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia) to direct multiple episodes. It’s also said that Mark Ruffalo may reprise the Bruce Banner/Professor Hulk role for the show to help connect Jennifer to the greater MCU. 

Kevin Feige has confirmed that these new Disney+ characters would most certainly make the jump to the feature films and She-Hulk has the potential to become their next big crossover characters given that is how she was utilized in the comics books. 

Here is a rundown of just some of the film projects I think she makes the most sense for. 

SPIDER-MAN 3: There have been plenty of team-ups over the years in Marvel Comics and planting seeds for upcoming projects has always been something Marvel Studios has always been keen on doing. 

Spider-Man 3 is a strong candidate to introduce the regular human version of Jennifer Walters before the She-Hulk series. 

At the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, Quentin Beck aka Mysterio’s death was spun as murder at the hands of Spidey by J. Jonah Jameson and he also outed his secret identity as Peter Parker. Plenty of fans have suggested that Peter Parker if caught by authorities would be in great need of a defense attorney. A noble profession that doesn’t only fall on the shoulders of Matt Murdock aka Daredevil in Marvel Comics but also Walters, who happens to specialize in superpowered cases. 

Interestingly enough, Jennifer has a connection to J. Jonah Jameson as she married J. Jonah Jameson’s son John Jameson aka Man-Wolf. 

A nifty connection to the Spider-Man franchise is that Tatiana just happened to co-star in the Boston bombing drama Stronger alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, who played Quentin Beck aka Mysterio.

It is worth noting that according to production grids (take with a grain of salt) making the rounds online both Spider-Man 3 and She-Hulk shoots are expected to overlap at some point next year in Atlanta, Georgia. This potential shooting schedule could theoretically allow Tatiana shoot scenes as Walters due to the proximity to each other, but this is only speculation. 

Potentially seeing Jennifer seriously injured during the events of Spider-Man 3 via a villain trying to kill Peter Parker just might be a reason to lead to her cousin Bruce Banner to give her the blood transfusion that not only saves her life but gives her superpowers. A perfect way to help establish her origin outside of the Disney+ series and also connect her to the MCU beyond Banner.

There is also the possibility that Spider-Man 3 sees Parker simply on the run from authorities with the help of parental figures Happy Hogan and Nick Fury being tracked down by the film’s villains. 

I don’t see the entire film being a courtroom drama, do you? But if Peter needs a lawyer, Jennifer could be easily suggested by Bruce or Happy. 

FANTASTIC FOUR: After the merger between Disney and 21st Century Fox, Marvel Studios finally got full rights to use both the X-Men and characters connected to the Fantastic Four. 

She-Hulk happens to be an official member of the team.

While there have been hints that there is quiet development on the MCU reboot of the franchise (via Slove Everything Productions LLC), neither a director nor screenwriter has been officially announced by the studio. 

Ant-Man 3 will include Avengers villain Kang The Conqueror played by Lovecraft Country’s Jonathan Majors, who happens to be a villainous ancestor of Reed Richards from the future. Nothing says at the moment that Marvel Studios will carry over that tiny family connection from the comics with the MCU version of Kang but it is worth considering. 

I’m also extremely hopeful that the Fantastic Four franchise will be an excellent excuse for Kevin Feige to take a second crack at The Inhumans, as Crystal was a member of the team. The introduction of Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel in her own Disney+ series, who is part of The Inhumans, would certainly open the door for the studio to explore those other characters in more accurate way than the sub-par ABC series. 

Marvel Studios is expected to make some announcement soon if they are indeed gearing up to shoot Fantastic Four within the next two years or so.

SECRET WARS AKA AVENGERS 5: The Fantastic Four wasn’t the only big-league superhero team that Jennifer joined as she was part of the Mighty Avengers and could easily be involved with the Secret Wars lineup given she was included in the original comic book run. 

The Russo Brothers have teased an interest to tackle the Secret Wars as a follow-up to their box office smashing Marvel film Avengers: Endgame. I’m sure if Secret Wars does materialize they’ll want to wait for the Eternals, Fantastic Four, and X-Men to be well established beforehand so they’re not spending all their time on character introductions. 

Romance hasn’t been a huge part of the MCU but Eternals is expected to change that slightly and could allow She-Hulk’s love life to be explored in the series and films. 

In more recent comics, Thor and Jennifer are in a relationship that could be used for future films. 

She-Hulk has also has had romantic encounters with Hercules and Eros of Titan aka Starfox the womanizing brother of Thanos both are expected to be part of the Eternals franchise the two just happen to be fellow members of The Avengers. Gemma Chan’s Sersi and Kit Harington’s Black Knight are likely also going to join the Avengers ranks just like their comic book counterparts. 

A-FORCE: Marvel actresses approached Kevin Feige on the set of Avengers: Endgame to pitch him an all-female superhero film which most have suggested could be a live-action version of A-Force. A feature film that could easily see characters like She-Hulk among those ranks. 

I also wouldn’t rule-out cameos in stuff like Thor: Love & Thunder, Ant-Man 3, and Captain Marvel 2 to help establish Jennifer’s relationships with Hope (a surrogate for Janet), Valkyrie, and Danvers leading up to an A-Force film. 

There is a lot of crossover potential with a character like She-Hulk and I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of her in the future beyond this Disney+ series. 

Posted on in Film News

‘Lovecraft Country’s Jonathan Majors Reportedly Joins ‘Ant-Man 3’ – Might Be Playing Avengers Time-Travelling Villain Kang The Conqueror

The other day I posted on Twitter that Ant-Man 3 won’t only be bigger as suggested by director Peyton Reed, but essentially an event film.

Well, it looks like there is some support to that as Deadline is reporting that Lovecraft Country’s Jonathan Majors has joined the film and is said to be possibly playing the super-villain known as Kang The Conqueror, who first debuted as Kang in the pages of The Avengers comic books and is also known as Nathaniel Richards (possible descendant of Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards).

The studio had no comment, but sources close to the project say he is likely to play the super-villain Kang the Conqueror.

A character that has been long teased to be feature in Loki, however, never confirmed.

It’ll be interesting if Kang indeed has connections to the Fantastic Four, but this MCU version might differ from the comic book version as Marvel does take liberties with the origins of their villains very often. Also, he more or less is likely coming into the picture because of the use/invention of time-travel in Avengers: Endgame and not exactly because the Fantastic Four are now at Marvel. But we’ll see.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Kang will be a Multiverse villain potentially from Earth X, the version of Earth where everyone has superpowers. It could be one of many way to introduce an adult group of mutants into the Marvel Cinematic Universe as they might have to abandon Earth X for the safety of 199999 aka MCU’s Earth.

Casting would suggest that they are gearing up to begin shooting in the near future and as I confirmed are indeed expected to released the film sometime in 2022, if all goes to plan. Filming is expected to take place at Pinewood Studios UK and most likely will implement ILM’s StageCraft technology which Reed used on Season 2 of The Mandalorian.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News, Television News

MONDAY MARVEL ROUNDUP: ‘Eternals’, ‘Spider-Man 3’, ‘Guardians of The Galaxy’, ‘Loki’, and More

This week’s roundup is mostly female-centric and some interesting characters might be heading to the MCU. 

Salma Hayek Teasing Reshoots On The Way For ‘Eternals’

Eternals actress Salma Hayek, who plays the team’s leader Ajak, has seemingly revealed on Instagram that the film is returning for reshoots very shortly. 

HAYEK: “In anticipation for reshoots, I finally had to do my roots.”

The film had been mainly shooting at Pinewood Studios UK under the working title Sack Lunch and will be getting pick-ups/reshoots like with every other MCU movie. Where the Eternals reshoots will take place is a little unclear as Georgia and California tend to be where reshoots normally happen, which might be tough considering the United States is seeing a steep rise in new coronavirus cases. 

However, the United Kingdom reportedly will be reopening productions next month starting with Universal’s Jurassic World: Dominion at Pinewood. 

Eternals recently saw it’s release date bumped from November 6th to February 12th, 2021. Hopefully, it’s able to stick to that date and it isn’t further delayed. 

J.K. Simmons Confirms He Filmed His Next Appearance As J. Jonah Jameson and Expects To Do Another One Soon

As Spider-Man 3’s production start is a bit of a question mark, actor J.K. Simmons has revealed he has filmed his next appearance as the Spider-Man character during an interview on SirusXM. 

SIMMONS: “There is one more JJJ apparence in the can and from what I’m hearing there is a plan for yet another one. Hopefully, JJJ will continue now and forever.” 

This would suggest he’s either showing up in Morbius or Venom 2 aka Venom: Let There Be Carnage, there had been some teases that this would be happening and Jameson might be the glue that connects all the Sony/Marvel films. The latter part would likely mean he’s coming back for Spider-Man 3, which has been assumed since the cliffhanger ending of Spider-Man: Far From Home. 

When Spider-Man 3 will begin shoot isn’t concrete at the moment as it originally was going to shoot over the summer once Tom Holland wrapped on Sony’s Uncharted film.

Amanda Seyfried Passed On Gamora Role In ‘Guardians of The Galaxy’ Over The Extensive Makeup 

While speaking with Comic Book, actress Amanda Seyfried revealed that the makeup was a huge reason why she passed on the Gamora role in James Gunn’s Guardians of The Galaxy, citing Jennifer Lawrence’s experience playing Mystique in X-Men: First Class. 

SEYFRIED: “I think about it often [laughs]. I’m not really a Marvel movie watcher, which is, I think, why I was just like, ‘Ah, I don’t wanna be green. It’s just so much work.’ I remember Jennifer Lawrence talking about once, how long it took her to get blue. And I was like, ‘That seems like hell on earth,’ because then you get to set and you’re only there for a couple hours, and then you have to take everything off. And that was literally the reason.”

Zoe Saldana ended up in the role and is expected to reprise Gamora once again in Guardians of The Galaxy 3. 

‘Loki’ Actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw Comments On The Disney+ Series

British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw took some time to speak with Variety on their podcast The Big Ticket and gave some interesting insight to both director Kate Herron and co-star Tom Hiddleston. 

MBATHA-RAW: “I feel like even though you’re dealing with this big universe, [Kate Herron] still makes it feel very intimate. She just brings it back down to character and moments and emotions.” 

“Obviously, it’s a big part of our culture, so I had a huge awareness of it and it’s funny because I actually went to drama school at the same time as Tom Hiddleston. Ten years ago when I first came out here to do a TV pilot, ‘Under Covers,’ he was shooting the first ‘Thor’ at the same time. I remember him telling me about this experience of this new movie that he was doing.”

Loki paused production months back in Atlanta, Georgia when the pandemic forced the shutdown. There has been speculation that filming might resume next month but that has yet to be made official and might not be ready to begin airing on Disney+ until sometime in 2021. 

Marvel Rumored To Be Considering Adding Echo, Firestar, and Lucia Von Bardas To The MCU

A handful of rumors concerning a trio of female characters that Marvel Studios wants to introduce to the Marvel Cinematic Universe had been making the rounds over the last week. As with all rumors take these a pinch of salt since where these ladies might show up isn’t being mentioned. 

  • MARIA LOPEZ AKA ECHO (via Murphy’s Multiverse): Charles Murphy is making an excellent assumption based on a recent casting call from casting director Sarah Finn. However, admittedly wasn’t able to say definitely where she might show up and even mentioned this may be a casting call related to a Star Wars series as Finn is also tackling that franchise. 
  • ANGELICA JONES AKA FIRESTAR (via Daniel Richtman): While the character is best known from the animated series Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends, the character being a mutant means she is secured under the Marvel Studios rights umbrella and not Sony. There are already rumblings that mutant Takeshi Matsuya aka Whiz Kid (a fellow mutant) could be showing up in Shang-Chi. Daniel is unsure where Jones might show up despite her connections to Spider-Man. 
  • LUCIA VON BARDAS (via MCU Cosmic): This one implies that Marvel is already working on introducing Latveria as Lucia von Bardas is from the fictional nation that is led by Fantastic Four supervillain Doctor Doom, she becomes the Prime Minister of Latveria. While there had been rumblings in the past that a new Fantastic Four film was in development stages and on the cusp of an announcement, that seemed to be premature or simply false. Noah Hawley had been recently speaking with Marvel about his solo Doctor Doom movie that he was originally developing for 20th Century Fox before the merger. As with the other two rumors, Jeremy isn’t ready to proclaim or even guess where Lucia will first appear. 
Posted on in Film News, Television News

MONDAY MARVEL ROUNDUP: ‘WandaVision’, ‘Spider-Man 3’, ‘Hawkeye’, ‘Captain America’, ‘Fantastic Four’, ‘Shang-Chi’, and ‘X-Men’

Here is is a collection of some interesting news, tidbits, and rumors concerning the world of live-action Marvel projects from the last couple of weeks. 

Chris Evans Isn’t Interested In Reprising ‘Captain America’

While addressing if he is truly done with the Captain America role, Chris Evans said the following on The Graham Norton Show (via Digitial Spy). 

EVANS: “Yes, I think it is. It was a great run and we went out on such a high note that it would be risky to revisit it in my opinion. It was such a good experience and I think it’s better left that way.”

Despite establishing that Old Man Rogers is alive at the end of Avengers: Endgame, Chris Evans tells that he isn’t eager to return to the Captain America role anytime soon. This isn’t shocking given that the mantle is being passed on to Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson with the transition taking place in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. 

J.K. Simmons Says He’s Signed On For Multiple ‘Spider-Man’ Movie

In Spider-Man: Far From Home, it was revealed that J.K. Simmons would be reprising the role of Spider-Man’s media nemesis J. Jonah Jameson after playing the character in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. The character is the one to reveal to the public that Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is Spider-Man and attempts to frame him for the murder of Quentin Beck.

Simmons has briefly mentioned to PeopleTV (via Entertainment Weekly) that he is signed-on for sequels but the studio isn’t exactly obligated to have him return. 

SIMMONS: “I don’t know if I would use the word expect. It’s great to have the opportunity, as these things evolve, to be one of the holdovers from the previous version.”

This could mean that he’ll be returning for Spider-Man 3 but likely hasn’t been told if he is or not. An assumption I think we all made after the cliffhanger ending of the last film that could allow him to play a much larger role in future films. It might also support previous online rumblings pointing towards J. Jonah potentially showing up in films like Morbius and Venom 2, given that Sony Pictures seems keen on establishing their Spider-Man Cinematic Universe. 

Josh Trank Says 20th Century Fox Blocked Him From Casting A Black Actress To Play Sue Storm In ‘Fantastic Four’ 

While speaking with Geeks of Color recently to promote his Tom Hardy gangster film Capone, Fantastic Four director Josh Trank revealed that he was pushing for a black actress to portray the role of Sue Storm in Fantastic Four. 

Josh indicates that 20th Century Fox was behind that not happening, despite allowing him to cast Michael B. Jordan as her brother Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch. 

TRANK: “There were a lot of controversial conversations that were had behind-the-scenes on that. I was mostly interested in a black Sue Storm, a black Johnny Storm, and a black Franklin Storm. But when you’re dealing with a studio on a massive movie like that, everybody wants to keep an open mind to who the big stars are going to be.”

“When it came down to it, I found a lot of pretty heavy pushback on casting a black woman in that role.”

Studios being fearful of women of color in leading roles isn’t shocking or new. However, superhero diversity is something I think we can all rally around given and we’ll be curious to see how Marvel Studios ultimately recasts both their Fantastic Four and X-Men reboots. 

Trank also mentioned on Twitter (before deleting/deactivating his account) that he isn’t interested in releasing a director’s cut of Fantastic Four. 

Rumored Working Title of ‘Hawkeye’ Series Is ‘Anchor Point’ 

Our pal Charles Murphy over at Murphy’s Multiverse is claiming that the working title for Marvel Studios’ upcoming Hawkeye series will be Anchor Point. Working titles are normally used strictly during pre-production and the shooting of projects.

However, when that show might begin shooting is a little unclear at the moment with a handful of other Disney+ shows that haven’t fully completed their filming and there is some uncertainly concerning when new stuff like Hawkeye, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, and Moon Knight that hasn’t even started will begin production given the backlog they’re undergoing at the moment due to the Coronavirus pandemic. 

If filming is indeed going to move forward this fall in Atlanta, Georiga on Hawkeye, we’re likely to get some official casting news concerning the Kate Bishop role in the not too distant future. 

Evan Peters Rumored For Mystery Role In ‘WandaVision’ 

Another cool story coming from Charles Murphy suggests the possible casting of X-Men and American Horror Story actor Evan Peters in a mysterious key role for Marvel’s WandaVision. 

However, the report clearly is under the impression that Peters is playing a new character and is unlikely standing in for Aaron Johnson’s Pietro Maximoff aka Quicksilver. 

Despite blog and fan speculation that this could mean the Singerverse is carrying over to the Marvel Cinematic Universe if Peters is indeed playing a character other than Quicksilver, this would finally cement that Marvel is rebooting the main X-Men franchise (excluding Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool) and going to recast all of the roles, not just Wolverine. 

‘WandaVision’ Might Resume Filming This July In Los Angeles 

Speaking of other Marvel shows that haven’t completed their productions, Paul Bettany has seemingly revealed to the Tampa Bay Comic Convention that he cannot attend their convention this summer because the resumed filming of WandaVision is taking place next month. 

Here is what the event posted on their Facebook page. 

“We finally received word from Paul Bettany’s representation, and unfortunately Paul had to cancel his appearance at TBCC this year due being called back by Disney for WandaVision filming in July, in Los Angeles. We’re working on guest additions!“

However, it’s hardly confirmation as Marvel/Disney hasn’t made any official statements concerning the resuming of any of their projects. It’s worth considering Disney could be asking principal actors in their major projects to be on stand-by for the summer, just in case they do want to resume production sooner rather than later. 

There have been indications that WandaVision is much further along than both The Falcon & The Winter Solider and Loki, so the filming needed to be done might be limited or potentially additional footage. 

Will ‘Shang-Chi’ Resume Production In Australia Soon?

On the live-action front, Australia and New Zealand seem to be in much better shape to resume feature film productions sooner than the United States and possibly the United Kingdom. 

Avatar 2 could very well resume production by the end of the month or sometime in July after director James Cameron and producer Jon Landau arrived in New Zealand last week. 

We can theorize that Australian projects like Shang-Chi might be some of the first to resume even before major projects in other countries. 

Shang-Chi unlikely projects like Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness and Spider-Man 3 was shooting when Coronavirus outbreaks in the country led to the government telling studios to put a pause on filming. 

When stuff like the Spider-Man and Doctor Strange sequels will be able to begin shooting is less clear given that Tom Holland is expected to shoot Uncharted first and if that production is delayed beyond the summer likely means Spider-Man 3 won’t begin shooting until 2021. 

Doctor Strange 2 was undergoing new rewrites from Loki’s Michael with new director Sam Raimi jumping in for Scott Derrickson. While the UK government is keen for filming to resume in the country it might not be safe to resume this early, the same could be said about shoots in the United States as well. 

Shang-Chi was also going to shoot in San Francisco (Agent of Atlas connection?) and Los Angeles which could likely happen later in the year. However, what is a bit unknown is if they’ll be able to shoot exterior stuff in the various Asian locations they wanted to use before the pandemic. 

Has Actress Fala Chen Joined The Cast of ‘Shang-Chi’?

Some social media detective work from Murphy’s Multiverse writer Lizzie Hill suggests that newcomer Fala Chen might have joined the cast of Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings. 

They also recently figured out that Solo: A Star Wars Story actress Erin Kellyman is expected to have an unnamed role in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. 

Simon Kinberg Open To Directing Another ‘X-Men’ Film For Marvel Studios 

Lastly, Dark Phoenix writer/director Simon Kinberg suggested to IGN that he’d be open to the possibility of returning to the X-Men franchise under the new management of Marvel Studios. 

After Dark Phoenix losing 20th Century Studios (owned by Disney at the time of release) around $100-130 million, I find it hard to believe that Marvel would consider having Kinberg anywhere near their new X-Men franchise. Having new creatives involved isn’t the worst idea and it’s about time to have more passionate people tackling these characters.