Tag: Guardians of The Galaxy 4

Posted on in Film News, News

‘I Am Groot’ Director Kirsten Lepore Open To Tackling Next Live-Action ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ Installment

Earlier this year, with “Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3” we saw what could potentially be the final Marvel Studios film from writer/director James Gunn as the filmmaker is going off to shoot “Superman: Legacy” next year alongside running DC Studios and developing more DCU projects that he’ll end up making himself like “Creature Commandos.” Marvel is still looking to mine the cosmic side of the MCU with the Skrulls revealed to be on Earth in “Secret Invasion,” “The Marvels” releasing in November as we’ll see the return of the Kree Empire as villains, and an upcoming “Nova” project also in the works focusing on the space hero after the destruction of the Nova Corps. at the hands of Thanos.

The Disney+ original “I Am Groot” has returned with a second season focusing on the little rascal in quirky/inventive shorts, and seems like director Kirsten Lepore (“Adventure Time”) after tackling two seasons of the animated shorts would be willing to fill Gunn’s seat as director on the next “Guardians of The Galaxy.” While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, it was brought up about the potential of Lepore continuing the franchise by helming the next “Guardians” installment.

“Yeah, I’m open to it, for sure. Years ago, I was like, ‘I definitely want to do live-action!’ I was trying to move into live-action, and now, I think I’m more at peace. I don’t even want to say ‘at peace’ because I’m not settling. I love animation so much. I think I better understand what I bring to animation because it does take a really specific type of person to direct it. I’ve been doing it for so long and I feel very comfortable in that space, and I feel good at it. So I really enjoy working in animation — and I would be totally happy to work in animation for the rest of my life — but I would also be very curious to experiment with live-action,” Lepore responded when asked about directing the next “Guardians of The Galaxy” feature film.

It’s not like “Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3” didn’t leave room for more installments it ends with Peter Quill on Earth trying to reconnect with his grandfather and homeworld. Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) is now the team’s leader with Groot (Vin Diesel), Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), Cosmo (Maria Bakalova), Kraglin (Sean Gunn), Phyla (Kai Zen), and Blurp on the new roster going on missions.

Lepore isn’t exactly unfamiliar with feature films after having been the animation director on the Oscar-nominated animated film “Marcel The Shell With Shoes On,” and worked as a VFX artist on recent Best Picture winner “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” Having someone with an effects background might be sort of an asset if more than half the members of the new Guardians lineup are going to be digital characters. Marvel has hired directors from within the studio that have previously worked on MCU projects. Seeing Lepore recruited for a hypothetical “Guardians of The Galaxy 4” after already working closely with the studio on “I Am Groot” (already working with Diesel and Cooper) wouldn’t be all that shocking.

“I Am Groot” is currently streaming on Disney+ and you can watch the series trailer below.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Features

Marvel’s Justice League Knock-Off Team Squadron Supreme Could Appear In ‘Eternals’ Sequels or ‘Secret Wars’

Marvel Studios has been recently tapping into their obscure roster of heroes with a feature film based on Jack Kirby’s god-like superhero heroes the Eternals on the horizon this fall from Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao and Taiki Waititi’s Thor: Love & Thunder introducing The Olympians via Russell Crowe’s Zeus appearing in the sequel.

Another group of obscure heroes from Marvel Comics that could be ready to the make the jump to the big screen is The Squadron Supreme. The team includes a heap of characters that are a cheeky pastiche of DC Comics’ Justice League such as Hyperion, Nighthawk, Power Princess, Doctor Spectrum, Thundra, Whizzer, Amphibian, Tom Thumb, Golden Archer, Lady Lark, and Arcanna.

A version of Hyperion’s origin in the comic has him being part of the Eternals and could see them join sequels as another sect that may have alternative motivations. Another way to get them into Eternals sequels could have Squadron Supreme retrofitted into The Olympians (cosmic versions of Greek gods from the realm of Olympus), who have a conflict with Eternals that could be explored in future installments. Some of the Squadron Supreme’s power-sets are meant to mimic Greek/Roman gods already, so having them the children of an older generation of Olympians could be a way to explain them without having to give everyone on the team an Earthbound origin.

With director Chloe Zhao’s Oscar wins over the weekend there is a good shot that Marvel Studios will attempt to secure her for at least two more Eternals movies. Having The Olympians and Squadron Supreme part of that franchise could help introduce those characters to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, leading to various spinoff shows and movies.

We could see the Eternals movie attempt to explain things like Atlantis, Olympians, and even the origin of the mutant gene that will eventually give us the X-Men.

The Multiverse could easily be another way to bring them into the MCU as they were originally introduced in the Avengers comics as The Squadron Sinister, a villain group created by The Grandmaster (played by Jeff Goldblum) that was pitted against The Avengers in some game with Kang The Conqueror (played Jonathan Majors) siding with the heroes.

They could also be pulled-out of the Multiverse by Kang or Grandmaster for a giant event like Secret Wars. The Russo Brothers have suggested that Secret Wars would be a project that could bring them back to Marvel and they stated last year it could bigger than The Infinity Saga.

 JOE RUSSO: “You know, I read that when I was 10 or 11, and it was the scale of getting all of the heroes together. It was one of the first major books to do that — that was really event-storytelling to me at its finest. And what happens when you put all of those personalities together. I also like the idea of villains having to team up with heroes. Anth and I like complicated relationships between heroes and villains, we like villains who believe they’re heroes in their own stories, so it’s all sort of built into this notion of Secret Wars. To execute something on the scale of Infinity War was directly related to the dream of Secret Wars, which is even larger in scale.”

ANTHONY RUSSO: “It would be the biggest movie you could possibly imagine, so that’s what really excites us about the story — the ambition of it is even bigger than the ambition of the Infinity Saga.”

Loki and What-If…? will be our first true introductions to the Multiverse in 2021 ahead of Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, however, it’s unknown if we’ll see Squadron Supreme will appear in those projects or if they’ll attempt to pull other teams out of the Multiverse such as X-Men. There has been a longtime fan theory that one way Marvel could usher-in mutants is simply bring them in from another Earth in the larger Multiverse, however, as the Loki series seems to establishes that the Time Variance Agency aren’t big fans of people tinkering with timelines. However, Kang seems to be an exception and could get his hands on the Squad to use against the Avengers, potentially in a Secret Wars event.

Another way to go is having them become a cosmic team assembled by multiple alien planets to combat future Thanos-level threats and they could bump into The Guardians of The Galaxy in a fourth film. However, James Gunn has stated he’ll be ending his run on the franchise with Guardians of The Galaxy 3 and the Disney+ Holiday Special, it’s unclear if Marvel Studios will continue the franchise without him.

Plenty of options for Squadron Supreme outside of their own solo project.