Deadline reports that Emmy winning actor Peter Dinklage has been set for the lead role in Legendary’s reboot of the cult superhero franchise The Toxic Avenger from director Macon Blair. Peter isn’t a stranger to either comedy or genre projects with credits such as Game of Thrones, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Pixels.
They don’t mention who Peter is playing but the assumption he’ll end up playing Melvin Junko or a version of him, a nerdy New Jersey janitor that is turned into the hulking Toxic Avenger aka Toxie after a prank by a bunch of bullies lands him into a batch of toxic waste.
It’s tone is all over the place as the violence is on par with stuff like RoboCop and Total Recall while being just as satirical as a parody like Scary Movie. I’m extremely curious to see how they want to approach the reboot and if they’ll attempt to be as violent as the original installments. However, with the popularity of a character like Deadpool that was created in the wake of Toxie’s popularity in the 1980s, it wouldn’t tough to see how Legendary might want to let director Macon Blair do what he likes with it. Blair is already working if Peter on the comedy Brothers for Legendary which co-stars Josh Brolin (Deadpool 2, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame).
The Toxic Avenger is an oddball franchise since the films were hyper-violent it still managed to be given a children’s cartoon titled The Toxic Crusaders along with a batch of toys spawned from the cartoon and some comics published by Marvel Comics. I had a couple of toys from the cartoon myself growing up. It wasn’t all that uncommon for R-rated films to have toys released or cartoons marketed towards kids as movies like Police Academy, Robocop, Rambo, and Aliens had similar money-making ploys.
Brothers is seemingly still in the pre-production phase at Legendary and it’s unknown when they’ll want to start on The Toxic Avenger.
While we’re still waiting on official confirmation on who is playing Kate Bishop in Marvel’s Hawkeye series a new rumor is making the rounds.
The Direct claims that Black Widow actress Florence Pugh will be reprising her role of Yelena Belova in the show, although, they can’t say how large the appearance will be or if this will be a reoccurring role.
She is currently busy making the feature film thriller Don’t Worry Darling in California for director Olivia Wilde and if Florence is joining the Hawkeye show she won’t be filming scenes anytime soon.
Yelena Belova is part of the main character lineup of the Black Widow film (takes places between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War) and there has been assumptions from fans that Pugh would continue the legacy of the Black Widow mantle in future films after Natasha died in Avengers: Endgame. However, we don’t ultimately know Yelena’s fate in the Black Widow movie until we actually watch it.
The MCU incarnation of Yelena is meant to be more of a little sister to Natasha instead of a rival.
Filming will mainly take place in Atlanta but there is confirmation that some of the shoot will take place in NYC this week.
Jeremy Renner will be reprising the Clint Barton role as he mentors a young protege named Kate Bishop that becomes a member of the Young Avengers.
Back on Friday, there was finally an update on the status of Deadpool 3 with Marvel Studios moving forward on the sequel by hiring The Molyneux Sisters (Bob’s Burgers) to write the script. Along with it reaffirmed that the project will keep it’s R-rating, which is something that Disney/Marvel brass have been relaying to the press for years now, although, every couple of months it becomes newsworthy again.
I’ve come up with a list of mutants I’d personally like to see in Deadpool 3 and that would fit this R-rated corner of the MCU very nicely. The rating should discourage Marvel from trying to cram the main X-Men lineup into a violent Deadpool adventure which seems like bad idea when they have access to all these other cool X-Men characters that would fit the mature tone. I still suspect they’re going to allow them to work with a larger budget than the 20th Century Fox films.
Anyways, here is who I’d like to see show up in Deaddpool 3.
PSYLOCKE: Psylocke or Kwannon has a bit of a checkered past as the body of the Japanese woman that Betsy Braddock (sister of Captain Britain) inhabits was once an assassin under the purview of both The Mandarin (as Lady Mandarin) and The Hand/Yakuza. The character is more than weird and I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if they simply go with the Kwannon character instead of the messy body-swap stuff.
Kwannon is sort of more interesting given the connections to The Mandarin (the villain of Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings) and The Hand via Yakuza boss Matsu’o Tsurayaba (Wolverine villain). Having Psylocke start out as a villain for criminal syndicates then redeemed to become a superhero joining the ranks of the X-Men and the more violent X-Force would make for an interesting character reboot since she didn’t even get an origin in X-Men: Apocalypse. Actress Olivia Munn has gone on the record with her frustration with Simon Kinberg and Brian Singer’s lack of knowledge.
Psylocke also has ties to the country of Madripoor which is being introduced in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. The fictional Southeast Asian island nation could become a pivotal locale in future projects like X-Men films or something like Deadpool 3, as I think it’s about time they moved filming outside of Vancouver and explore some more different locations.
It would also be nice to see another Earthbound female Asian character outside of the Shang-Chi franchise kicking some ass in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, I wouldn’t rule-out having her moonlight as an assassin for the Atlas Empire or The Ten Rings. Then again, when Deadpool 3 shoots they’ll have full access to The Hand again.
OMEGA RED: Interestingly enough, Matsu’o Tsurayaba also connects to the next mutant.
Arkady Gregorivich Rossovich aka Omega Red originally had a bigger in Deadpool 2 as there was concept artwork making the rounds suggesting he was going to be a bruiser like The Juggernaut but he did briefly “cameo” in the mutant prison scenes. I’m not sure anyone would have noticed unless has had pointed it out and means the villain could get a second chance in the MCU.
In the comics, Arkady was a failed super-soldier experiment cooked-up by the Soviet Union and is considered to be one of the most dangerous mutants, giving Wolverine a run for his money. He’s worked has muscle for criminal syndicates like The Hand and feels within the wheelhouse of both Wolverine and Deadpool. I’m not shy about my desire to get this character on the big screen.
Since he’s Russian it could be a good excuse to connect him to Colossus’ time there.
X-23: Ryan Reynolds has been desperate to make his Wolverine vs Deadpool film, while Hugh Jackman isn’t likely return to the role anytime soon, Marvel is going to recast the role for the MCU making that a possibility in the future.
There is zero sign that Wolverine will be ready to go for Deadpool 3 but there is an established character they might want to use in the meantime that could make for an excellent surrogate, X-23.
We’ve seen Marvel Studios give second chances to J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson and Jamie Foxx as Electro for their Spider-Man franchise, so there is some hope they could soft-reboot Laura Kinney aka X-23 while keeping Dafne Keen in that role for their X-Men/Deadpool franchises. It’s a bit of stretch to think they’d ask Keen to return but if they’re unable to use the new Wolverine, X-23 would be an excellent surrogate as her origin has already been covered in James Mangold’s Logan and you can fill in the blanks later.
MISTER SINISTER: There had been some suggestions that Sinister was going to be part of the never-made Gambit film starring Channing Tatum and he certainly is an untapped X-Men baddie that Marvel Studios could use for multiple films. He essentially could become the less conflicted than Magneto and take secure reigns as the main villain of the X-Men franchise before they attempt to bring in Apocalypse or others.
You could easily have Sinister, a former human geneticist turned mutant, be one of the people behind “the Workshop” from the first film and we ultimately see what has happened to those collared mutants that were sold-off as weapons on the black market. Possibly having him as a puppet master of a character like Sugar Man leading to Sinister being a bigger threat in other X-Men films.
ALPHA FLIGHT: Wade is Canadian and there happens to be Canadian Government sanctioned group of mutant heroes called Alpha Flight that have been long over due for a live-action adaptation. Adding Department H to the MCU could be one way to give a better origin to Wolverine and potentially expand the X-Men universe by including the obscure Canadian mutants. I’ve been championing that Alpha Flight be given their own Disney+ series as there is enough there to deserve a series over a feature film. Wilson is eventually going to get on Department H’s radar and could attempt to recruit him to disastrous results, they’re also goofy enough that they’d add to the comedic nature of the film.
CABLE & DOMINO: I’m still of the belief that Marvel will ultimately keep actors like Josh Brolin and Zazie Beetz in their respective franchise roles while potentiality giving their character designs a soft-reboot to look a little more like their comic book counterparts. They’re lower on the list because I think it’s less of a worry that they’ll get tossed. Although, hiring new actors wouldn’t be shocking given that Marvel can replace them if they chose to do so.
There are now plenty of examples of actors playing dual roles in the MCU and having Brolin return to the Cable part after playing Thanos wouldn’t be the strangest move they could make.
I’m sure we’ll start learning more about Deadpool 3 once Marvel Studios does an official panel for it.
We learned yesterday from Deadline that Marvel Studios are finally moving forward on Deadpool 3 almost a year Ryan Reynolds announced publicly that development started at Marvel. While the report mentioned how closely Ryan would be working with the studio as he reprises the role of Wade Wilson and seemingly will keep his position as part of the creative team while two creatives are missing from the report entirely (“team Deadpool” is mentioned) questioning their involvement.
Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, the screenwriters and executive producers on the previous two Deadpool films are absent from the article announcing that The Molyneux Sisters (Bob’s Burgers) would be tackling the Deadpool 3 script.
Have they’ve exited the project?
The two had been originally set to write Deadpool 3 when the project was at 20th Century Fox and post-merger met with Marvel Studios over the summer of 2019 with Ryan. There had been an assumption they had been chosen to write the outline/story for the sequel or at the very least help produce given their success with the X-Men character. However, their names don’t appear in the Deadline report or in the follow-ups from The Hollywood Reporter and Variety.
The screenwriting duo had been tapped by Disney to pen Pirates of The Caribbean 6 (a reboot) before the script changed hands to Ted Elliot and Craig Mazin. They had also reunited with Ryan for Michael Bay’s Netflix film 6 Underground and a mature take on Clue at 20th Century Studios.
We can’t really ascertain why the pair weren’t mentioned in the article, however, this wouldn’t be the first time a key creative walked away from a Deadpool sequel. You might remember that Tim Miller was all set and ready to direct Deadpool 2 only to exit over “creative differences” which led him to team-up with James Cameron for Terminator: Dark Fate and was replaced with David Leitch. Speaking of David, it’s mentioned that while Marvel is open to him returning as director they’re realistic about his busy schedule and will likely end up hiring a new director.
It’s unclear if they’re even producing or consulting on the film. Hopefully, there will be some clarity in the coming weeks given how much they contributed to the success of the franchise.
Another little tidbit in The Hollywood Reporter’s casting news concerning Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther 2 with Narcos: Mexico actor Tenoch Huerta in talks to play one of the film’s villains. They mention that the returning cast will include Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Wintston Duke, and Angela Bassett with the former possibly getting a much larger role.
Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke and Angela Bassett are expected to return for the new feature, with some saying Wright’s character may take on a more prominent role. Marvel, which had no comment on this story, has not revealed its plans on how it plans to proceed without Boseman, although it has indicated that it will not use CGI to include the late star in the film.
Oddly enough, Danai Gurira is not part of this returning group but I assume she will be in the future.
Chadwick passed over the summer after a battle of colon cancer and everyone involved has been focused on mourning which makes me a little skeptical they’ll at this pointing locking-down production dates after they just lost their lead actor. Marvel Studios executive vice president Victoria Alonso debunked an online rumor that they were considering on using a digital-double of Chadwick Boseman for the film.
While the outlet is pushing this news that filming is set to begin in July the studio hasn’t confirmed if they’ll be promoting Wright’s Shuri to Black Panther status or simply recasting the T’Challa role which seems like the simpler move on their part as weird as it might be. Handing the reigns to Shuri would mean they’d also have to kill-off the T’Challa character and I’m not terribly sure Disney is keen on that idea. However, giving Wright more to do in sequel could lead to her becoming Black Panther at some point.
There seems to be a process where the ruler of Wakanda can retire the Black Panther position and still rule, as was the case of T’Chaka and T’Challa in Captain America: Civil War.
We’ll have to wait and see what Marvel/Coolger ultimately decide to do.
A tiny tidbit mentioned by The Hollywood Reporter suggests that James Gunn’s Guardians of The Galaxy 3 could begin before the end of 2021, as it had been set to shoot in Atlanta, Georgia before Gunn’s firing/rehiring. He’s a busy bee lately as he’s in post with The Suicide Squad and will begin shooting Peacemaker early in the new year.
The studio will have Peyton Reed back for a new Ant-Man movie in 2021 and is ending the year with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 shooting with a returning James Gunn.
James Gunn’s HBO Max series Peacemaker will be shooting from January to June in Vancouver and if all things come together will release The Suicide on August 6th alongside a promotional tour for the film (most likely virtual) before jumping into shooting Guardians 3 in the fall/winter.
The Guardians cast are expected to show up in Thor: Love & Thunder after the announcement Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill will have a role in the Thor sequel which is being considered somewhat of an Avengers-level project (Doctor Strange 2 and Ant-Man 3 will be considered too once more characters are revealed officially).
Other Marvel films said to begin shooting in the 2021 include Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man 3 in London, Nia DaCosta’s Captain Marvel 2 in London, and Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther 2 in Atlanta.
Unlike most of the Marvel slate the sequel doesn’t have an official release date.
Tucked in The Hollywood Reporter’s update and casting information about Marvel’s Black Panther 2 they mentioned the shooting statuses of upcoming Disney+ series She-Hulk and Moon Knight, both said to kick-off filming in March 2021.
Marvel Studios has yet to make any official casting announcements for the two shows but are expected to be led by Oscar Isaac (Dune, Star Wars, X-Men: Apocalypse) as Marc Spector in Moon Knight and Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black, Perry Mason) as Jennifer Walters in She-Hulk as trades have reported they’ve essentially landed the superhero roles.
Moon Knight will be using the working title of Good Faith shooting in London, Budapest, and possibly Morocco with the recent announcement that Mohamed Diab will direct.
She-Hulk’s filming is confirmed to take place in Atlanta under the working title Libra (also being used for Mission: Impossible 7 overseas) with Rick & Morty’s Jessica Gao set as writer/showrunner and Kat Coiro (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia) directing.
We should be getting some new casting information in the coming weeks.
Current productions filming include Spider-Man 3 aka The November Project (Atlanta), Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness aka Stellar Vortex (Surrey), and the Ms. Marvel aka Jersey (Atlanta) series has started filming this week. The Loki series aka The Architect (Atlanta) is a few of weeks away from wrapping joining WandaVision and Falcon as releases in 2021.
The Hollywood Reporter has news that Marvel and director Ryan Coogler are in talks with Narcos: Mexico actor Tenoch Huerta to play one of the villains of Black Panther 2.
Also, they state that Marvel Studios wants filming to begin by July of next year in Atlanta, Georgia.
They’re not naming his role but Huerta would make for interesting MCU incarnation of Namor The Sub-Mariner, as he played a complex cartel member on Narcos: Mexico and I’ve been championing different types of actors for the role when it comes time for Marvel to cast an actor for it.
Namor’s Atlantis and T’Challa’s Wakanda have come to all-out war in the comics with Namor flooding Wakanda along with the two high-tech nations almost exchanging nuclear weapons. There is certainly tension there between them and plenty of unconfirmed rumors that Namor could end up being a villain go all the way back to the first film’s release. The sinking of Atlantis aka The Great Cataclysm in Marvel Comics has a direct connection to Celestials, Deviants, and Eternals which could be introduced in the upcoming Eternals film. Nods to Namor go all way back to Captain America: The First Avenger and have been sprinkled throughout multiple films since.
There are even objects from the Guardians of The Galaxy attraction Mission Breakout! located at the Disney theme parks that tease an Atlantis connection via “Terran Ocean Artifacts”.
Of course, the role could be something else entirely but he’s giving off Namor vibes.
Chadwick Boseman passed over the summer due to a battle with colon cancer (something he kept private) and everyone involved with the project has been taking time to mourn his passing. I’m not entirely sure how fixed that production start is given that was likely when they were planning on shooting before the death of Chadwick and there could be adjustments or delays upcoming.
Marvel Studios still hasn’t announced what their plans are with the T’Challa role but have debunked a rumor of using a digital-double of the late actor for the sequel.
Yesterday, Just Jared posted the first set photos of Ms. Marvel from filming in Atlanta over Wednesday’s shoot which showed Iman Vellani in character as Kamala Khan wearing a Captain Marvel alongside a teenage friend, who happens to be The Walking Dead’s Matt Lintz as there multiple shots of Matt with Iman which looks like some sort of costume party.
Matt’s role in the series has yet to be confirmed but is likely playing a classmate.
Kamala Khan is a practicing Muslim Pakistani-American teenager living in New Jersey, who is a massive fan of Captain Marvel and develops her own superpowers (canonically is group of The Inhumans) then adopting the name Ms. Marvel (Carol’s original superhero name in the comics).
The series showrun by Bisha K. Ali has a group of directors that include Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah, Meera Menon, and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
The Disney+ series is expected to debut in late 2021.
Take the following with a pinch of salt but there is seemingly some evidence on who British actor Richard E. Grant could be playing in the upcoming Loki series from Marvel Studios.
A stuntman working on Loki listed on IMDB (spotted by Murphy’s Multiverse) that he was doubling for “Richard E. Grant – Classic Loki“, however, it’s worth noting that “Classic Loki” could also be referring to Tom Hiddleston’s Loki as stunt people are known to double multiple people as Richard and Tom are sort of the same build. It’s also believable that Grant could be playing an older version of Loki as well given his track record at playing villains as most recently established in Logan and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
The listing has since been removed from IMDB but it’s certainly interesting to consider.
We already know that the series will involve The Multiverse and The Time Variance Authority, but how many different Loki incarnations in the show will show up is extremely unclear and a number hasn’t been confirmed beyond that British actress Sophia Di Martino is playing Lady Loki revealed via set photos of her in the Loki costume.
The series takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame where Loki escapes with the Tesseract and seemingly time travels getting the notice of TVA, as the first look footage from the series showed the God of Mischief in their custody but in set photos was working alongside Owen Wilson’s character.
Marvel Studios’ Victoria Alonso confirmed that Loki has another 4-5 weeks left of filming but we haven’t seen too many set pictures recently. All signs are pointing that it’s Disney+ debut in 2021 is still on track and I’m sure fans are excited to get some new footage.
THE RONIN 