Tag: Marvel Comics

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 Television News

Disney+ Alludes To ‘WandaVision’ Airing In December

In two new social media posts from Disney+ on Twitter the streaming service has seemingly confirmed Marvel’s WandaVision will begin airing sometime in December.

A teaser video titled “Coming In 2020” was posted featuring WandaVision.

The series isn’t part of their fall lineup posted below which means it has been defaulted to a December debut.

WandaVision is a key project to future projects (along with Loki) as it’ll likely connect to stuff like Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love & Thunder, Captain Marvel 2, and Ant-Man 3. The series will introduce audiences to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s cosmic counterpart S.W.O.R.D. along with the adult version of Captain Marvel’s Monica Rambeau played by Teyonah Parris, who becomes a superpowered heroine herself.

There are also rumors of the series potentially giving us members of the Young Avengers after twins Speed and Wiccan were confirmed in teaser footage, as babies.

SOURCE: DISNEY

Posted on in Television News

Marvel In Talks With Kat Coiro To Direct ‘She-Hulk’ Series Pilot and Multiple Episodes – Will Also Executive Produce

Deadline reports that Marvel Studios is in talks with Kat Coiro to produce and direct multiple episodes of their upcoming She-Hulk series with Kat expected to start with the pilot (first episode). Her credits include Shameless, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Mick, Modern Family, It’s Always Sunny Philadelphia, and Dead To Me.

Jessica Gao from Rick & Morty is leading the group of writers working on the Marvel show.

Recent rumblings from both The Direct and The Illuminerdi are suggesting that filming could begin as early as February in Atlanta, Georgia. Which would suggest both had access to the same production grid, which may or may not be accurate given that’s five months from now and production dates aren’t terribly reliable these days given COVID-19 can ruin any sort of plans this far out.

Mark Rufflao is expected to reprise the role of Hulk/Smart Hulk in the series but has yet to be officially confirmed by Marvel Studios.

It has yet to be revealed who will be playing Bruce Banner’s cousin Jennifer Walters, a lawyer who becomes the female superhero known as She-Hulk.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

Lord and Miller Producing Live-Action ‘Spider-Man’ Spin-Off Series ‘Silk’ For Sony – Amazon In Talks To Acquire It

Breaking news!

Variety reports that Phil Lord and Chris Miller are set to executive produce alongside Amy Pascal on a live-action series based on the Marvel Comics character Cindy Moon aka Silk, a character that is expected to be explored in future Spider-Verse films.

Adding that Lauren Moon may end up writing Silk and Amazon is in talks with Sony to acquire the Marvel series.

Cindy is a Korean-American superhero and would be a huge boost to the growing amount of diverse superheroes coming from the pages of Marvel Comics including Gemma Chan’s Sersi in Eternals and Simu Liu playing the martial arts spy Shang-Chi.

Having Lord and Miller involved could suggest they might eventually direct something live-action down the road.

Silk would be the first live-action Marvel series for Sony featuring characters from their Spider-Man rights roster. A feature film had once been reported but that seemingly hasn’t gone further than the early development stage if they’ve pivoted to a series instead.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

Director Chloe Zhao Brought Her Strong Manga Roots To ‘Eternals’ – Envisions Them As A Group of Misfits

As Marvel Studios tries to figure out how to resume productions safely and when to roll out their upcoming slate of films and television shows, we have some new insight on Chloe Zhao’s upcoming cosmic superhero film Eternals after a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter. 

The director talked-up her experience with manga being a big influence on the film and how she attempted to bridge East and West. 

ZHAO: “I have such deep, strong, manga roots. I brought some of that into Eternals. And I look forward to pushing more of that marriage of East and West. How much further and bigger can we go after [Avengers:] Endgame? Because I’m not just making the film as a director. I’m making the film as a fan.”

Kevin Feige named dropping One-Punch Man is a manga she digs.

FEIGE: “Chloé will go toe to toe about Malick, or as esoteric and small a film as has ever been made, but also on Star Wars or on [Japanese superhero franchise] One-Punch Man in a way that is quite unique and quite spectacular.”

The Eternals are a group of cosmic heroes created by comic book legend Jack Kirby taking cues from books such as Chariots of The Gods, which explores the idea of aliens seeding Earth (Prometheus also explored this with The Engineers) and in the case of Eternals that would be giant cosmic beings known as The Celestials. They are tasked as immortal god-like beings to be the protectors of humanity from The Deviants, an off-shoot sect of humanoids that also have powers but have a more monstrous appearance. Some of these Deviants break from ranks and join the superhero team such as Kro and Karkas.

Eternals spans thousands of years of human history and will likely be doing a little time jumping. However, it seems like they’ll be mainly focusing on a connection between Sersi and The Black Knight, who happen to be members of the Avengers. It’s said there will be a love triangle that most likely includes Ikaris in the mix. 

The Celestials are also behind tinkering with early humans inserting the mutant gene into their DNA, which could be how mutants are explained in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for their X-Men reboot. 

Chloe also mentions how her vision for Eternals differed from other teams in the MCU as she saw them as outsiders rather than a regular group of jocks, potentially referring to them as being a direct contrast to The Avengers or even The Justice League. 

ZHAO: “I wanted it to reflect the world we live in. But also I wanted to put a cast together that feels like a group of misfits. I didn’t want the jocks. I want you to walk away at the end of the movie not thinking, ‘This person is this ethnicity, that person is that nationality.’ No. I want you to walk away thinking, ‘That’s a family.’ You don’t think about what they represent. You see them as individuals.”

The film’s cast includes Gemma Chan as Sersi, Kit Harington as Dane Whitman aka Black Knight, Barry Keoghan as Druig, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Angelina Jolie as Thena, Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Lia McHugh as Sprite, and Don Lee as Gilgamesh.  

It was also confirmed in the article that Kumail Nanjiani’s Kingo will indeed by a Bollywood star. 

Oddly enough, while the Deviants will appear in the film it hasn’t been officially announced who exactly is playing them and this may suggest they’ll be motion-capture characters not unlike Thanos’ Children in Avengers: Infinity War with voice actors added to the cast closer to the release date. 

A trailer for Eternals has yet to be unleashed by Marvel Studios leading to multiple people taking their guesses when it could drop with the film’s release date set for February 12th, 2021. 

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

‘New Mutants’ Earns A Paltry $7M After Dismal Reviews and PR Blunders – Another Sour Note As Fox’s X-Men Era Comes To An End

Wow, it’s been months since I’ve tackled a box office article, but here we go!

New Mutants had to fight off persistent and incorrect rumors that the film would be simply thrown on the Disney+ streaming service, bypassing a traditional theatrical release. It did magically avoid a streaming dump but hasn’t avoided what looks to be one of the worst PR blunders running up to a major film’s release in recent memory.

First, during the media rounds, writer/director Josh Boone did a piss-poor job defending the white-washing of Roberto aka Sunspot to io9, who is dark-skinned Afro-Brazilian in the comic books. Alice Braga playing another traditionally dark-skinned character with Dr. Cecilia Reyes was another example of the director/studio white-washing these X-Men characters. 

New Mutants co-creator Bob McLeod voiced his concern with the white-washing on social media, while also pointing out the film misspelled his name in the credits to “Bob Macleod” and lamented that this was forever cemented in the film. 

Josh Boone and Fox had been mostly concerned about getting Bill Sienkiewicz’s approval for the film having him get involved with the promotion and marketing of the film.

The film also got tagged for Anya Taylor-Joy’s Magik making odd racial remarks towards Native American character Danni Moonstar, played by Blu Hunt. 

Take this Vulture report with a grain of salt, but they claim that 20th Century Fox had originally hated the original version of the film so much they had planned on reshooting the entire thing. These expensive reshoot plans were seemingly scrapped after the merger between Disney and 21st Century Fox last year was finalized.

Boone and his co-writer, Knate Lee, were reluctant or outright unwilling to implement such script changes requested by the studio, requiring round after round of rewrites and one intervention-like roundtable read just before filming. Once principal photography was finished, Fox was so displeased with the initial cut the studio discussed throwing the entire movie out to “start over” with a total reshoot. 

This could explain why it took so long for the film to get released.

Many outlets flat-out refused to review New Mutants at all citing unsafe environments for employees and that 20th Century Studios didn’t provide reviewers with safe screening options to review their film. This combination didn’t bode well for the film as it’s Rotten Tomatoes critics score currently is at 32% with an audience score of 53%. 

The box office returns this weekend aren’t great either. Deadline reports the film’s estimated domestic earnings for the weekend will be around $7 million, which is nothing to get excited about. This makes New Mutants the new reigning champion of the lowest box office opening for an X-Men film surpassing the previous record holder, Dark Phoenix, that earned $32.8 million. 

The outlet also points out that only 62% of cinemas are open in the U.S. with capacity restrictions in the range of 25-50%. It begs the question, why are studios even attempting to release expensive films at this point in the pandemic?

For some comparison, Russell Crowe’s low-budget thriller Unhinged made $4 million last weekend and didn’t have anything close to the marketing campaign as New Mutants. 

It’s worth no witing that film’s budget is said to be in the realm of $100 million and the estimated $7 million domestic opening weekend is likely going to signal the film might not even be able to cover its budget let alone the marketing costs to turn a profit. 

These low box office earnings are a direct result of the pandemic and an industry desperate to get back on its feet, despite being in the middle of a pandemic and going to the theater is still a massive risk to personal health to yourself/loved ones. 

Looking at this as “a good start” for the return of movies isn’t a constructive perspective, it’s just making excuses when studios releasing pricey films in this environment are more than likely not going to turn a profit from box office sales alone and seriously puts the theater industry in more peril in the future by not giving studios incentives to keep films in their 2020 release dates. 

We’ve already seen Paramount Pictures move the October release date of their G.I. Joe film Snake Eyes to October 22nd, 2021, and I suspect we’ll see more fall films jump to 2021. 

I was really rooting for the film but this would certainly cement that Marvel Studios has zero plans to continue this franchise with sequels or connecting it to the great Marvel Cinematic Universe. Letting the Fox era of the X-Men just end might be a good idea as it allows Marvel the creative freedom to do a complete reboot of all these characters eventually.

Posted on in Film News

‘Triple Frontier’s J.C Chandor In Talks To Direct ‘Kraven The Hunter’ For Sony

Deadline reports some active movement on their Spider-Man spinoff Kraven The Hunter as Sony Pictures is in talks with director J.C. Chandor for the comic book film. Chandor is best known for his thrillers A History of Violence and Triple Frontier.

The film’s script was penned by Richard Wenk, the writer of The Expendables 2 and The Equalizer.

Sony is also said to begin filming Spider-Man 3 in the winter. I wouldn’t be shocked if filming is bumped to 2021 and the release sometime in 2022.

Amy Pascal is producing Kraven The Hunter.

Who will end up playing Kraven is unknown and after the news of Olivia Wilde directing her own female-led spinoff (likely Spider-Woman) for Sony, the studio is really pushing forward with their splinter cinematic universe.

They’re also moving forward with a Madame Web movie directed by S.J. Clarkson alongside solo films in various stages of developing featuring characters such as Black Cat, Silver Sable, and Jackpot.

Next year will see the release of Morbius and Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Olivia Wilde Hired By Sony To Direct Female-Led Marvel Film That Could Be ‘Spider-Woman’

Deadline has breaking Marvel movie news as Olivia Wilde (Booksmart) has been hired by Sony Pictures to direct a new Spider-Man spinoff film which they claim will be Spider-Woman. Wilde will also co-write with partner Katie Silberman, a previous script was penned by Gary Spinelli (American Made, Chaos Walking).

Amy Pascal, who is the main producing force of the Spider-Man franchise at Sony is producing the project as well.

The original version of Spider-Woman is Jessica Drew, a character that is most likely shared by both Sony and Marvel Studios. However, Marvel isn’t mentioned in this write up which could suggest they might not be involved in whatever incarnation they’re attempting despite previous rumblings that Marvel/Sony would talking about coming together for a co-production.

There is a chance this could be a Spider-Gwen project given the character’s popularity in the wake of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse‘s Oscar win and reportedly getting her own spinoff animated film featuring other female characters.

Other female Marvel projects in development at Sony include Black Cat, Silver Sable, Jackpot, and a Madame Webb film from director S.J. Clarkson.

I guess we’ll have to wait for some official announcement from the studio.

Olivia is currently busy with her thriller Don’t Worry Darling shooting this fall with a cast that consists of Florence Pugh, Chris Pine, Shia LaBeouf and Dakota Johnson. This would suggest this Marvel film won’t begin filming anytime soon.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘New Mutants’ Director Says He Approached Sasha Baron Cohen To Play Warlock

In a new interview with Nerdist, writer/director Josh Boone revealed that Warlock was almost going to be in early versions of The New Mutants and they even went as far to look at actors, revealing that comedian Sasha Baron Cohen was eyed for the part.

Josh going on to say that he spoke with Sasha about the role but ultimately 20th Century Fox had him pick between having Demon Bear or Warlock in the film, he ended up picking the former.

He also had plans on using Warlock in the sequel alongside casting Antonio Banderas as Sunspot’s father.

Despite all odds, the film is indeed being released in theaters this month as tickets went on sale today with an expectation it will be released on August 28th.

NEW MUTANTS – Set in an isolated hospital where a group of young mutants is being held for psychiatric monitoring. When strange occurrences begin to take place, both their new mutant abilities and their friendships will be tested as they battle to try and make it out alive.

SOURCE: NERDIST