Marvel Studios is still deep into production on their Hawkeye series staring Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton) and Hailee Steinfeld (Kate Bishop) in Atlanta but there is word that they have bigger plans for the deaf Native-American character Maya Lopez aka Echo played by Alaqua Cox.
A spinoff series focused on Echo is in early development according to a report from Variety with Etan Cohen and Emily Cohen being hired to both write and executive produce the potential series. However, they are quick to state Marvel and Disney+ have yet to give the show a full series order and it’s still very early in the show’s development.
A show centered on Echo, a deaf Native American character who will be played by Alaqua Cox in the “Hawkeye” series, is in the early stages of development for Disney Plus, Variety has learned exclusively from sources. Etan Cohen and Emily Cohen are attached to write and executive produce the show, with a writers’ room recently being assembled. Marvel Studios will produce.
Echo, whose real name is Maya Lopez, has the ability to perfectly copy another person’s movements or fighting style, making her a formidable opponent in battle.
If Disney+ moves forward with the series it would join the next wave of shows from Marvel Studios that include Secret Invasion, Armor Wars, and Ironheart.
As we first reported, Hawkeye is expected to debut on Disney+ in late 2021 just like Ms. Marvel.
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier has finally debuted after being delayed a couple months as production had been pushed due to the pandemic. The series head writer and executive producer Malcolm Spellman has been doing interviews and recently talked-up another Marvel Comics superhero he’d like to get his hands on next if the studio allowed it.
While speaking with Heroic Hollywood, Spellman reveals he’d love to get his hands on Deathlok and clarifying he would want to reboot him for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, not continuing the Michael Peterson version seen in the ABC series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. played by J. August Richards.
SPELLMAN: “My favorite character, the character I would most love to do next, would be Deathlok. But it would have to be right.”
When they mention the A.O.S. version Malcolm responded by stating he’d want to do another version of the character, a reboot. Potentially, referring to the other versions such as Col. Luther Manning, Michael Collins, Jack Truman, and Henry Hayes.
SPELLMAN: “Yeah. Yeah. Not that Deathlok. A different Deathlok.”
Interestingly enough, there was a Deadline article from 2019 that Marvel Studios was keen on rebooting the cyborg character and the MCU has already introduced time-travel in Avengers: Endgame along with human characters with cybernetic enhancements. Sam jokingly refers to Bucky as a “cyborg” in the trailers/promos for the series, his robotic arm would indeed place him into the cyborg category.
Deathlok was a oft-discussed project back in the 1990s when Marvel characters were still a tough sell in Hollywood and a script by Randall Frakes (Terminator 2: Judgment Day) stirred fan hopes but it never materialized. A version of the character has appeared on the ABC series Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (portrayed by J. August Richards) and there’s been rumors that Marvel Studios may use the character soon.
In his original incarnation he was Col. Luther Manning, a Detroit native killed in battle whose corpse is reanimated in post-apocalyptic future for battlefield domination. He rebels against his makers and goes his own way, including a time-travel trip to the present day.
We’ll have to wait and see if Spellman will get his wish concerning Deathlok. If we start to see Marvel Studios rebooting Marvel Television characters from the Loeb era it might signal that others might end up getting rebooted too.
Deadline is reporting that British actor Kingsley Ben-Adir is taking a role in Marvel’s Secret Invasion series opposite Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn as Skrull Leader Talos. They claim the One Night In Miami actor will be playing an unnamed lead villain, which could mean he might end up playing a member of a villainous sect of Skrulls.
Filming is expected to take place sometime this year in the United Kingdom and will debut on Disney+ in 2022. However, while Kyle Bradstreet is writing the series a director or directors have yet to be announced.
Marvel now has access to many Skrull characters including Kl’rt aka The Super-Skrull after securing The Fantastic Four rights. The Super-Skrull has the ability to mimic the power-set of the Fantastic Four members, a aspect of the Skrulls that haven’t been able to use until now. This could see Skrulls copying the powers and abilities of existing heroes and villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The big power we’ve seen used multiple times is their ability to shape-shift as shown in Captain Marvel, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and WandaVision.
WandaVision ended with Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau meeting up with a Skrull seemingly teasing her addition to Secret Invasion and potentially the S.W.O.R.D. space station The Peak. There is an assumption that Skrull-centric series will lead directly into Captain Marvel 2, which will include Monica Rambeau, Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers, and Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel. It’s possible the three leading ladies could end up appearing in the show along with Zawe Ashton, who is reportedly playing the villain of Captain Marvel 2 and could easily be playing a troublesome Skrull.
The Skrulls and Secret Invasion could be a launching point to see S.W.O.R.D. becoming a much bigger entity in the MCU (even more than S.H.I.E.L.D. was) moving forward, the group comes from the pages of X-Men comics with mutant characters such as Abigail Brand and Dr. Hank McCoy aka Beast are among their ranks. We still don’t know how and when Marvel will introduce mutants outside of Deadpool 3 (possibly shooting next year) being in active development.
Olivia Wilde (Don’t Worry Darling, Booksmart) is said to be co-writing and directing a Marvel film for Sony Pictures, trades claiming that the character she will be adapting for the big screen is going to be Spider-Woman. If the version they are tackling is indeed Jessica Drew, it’s a character Marvel Studios has access to given that Drew debuted outside of the Spider-Man comics and was established as a agent of S.W.O.R.D. making her a good contender to eventually join the cosmic organization introduced in WandaVision. In Secret Invasion, Jessica Drew is revealed to be the Skrull Queen Veranke, the main antagonist of the comic books that the series is going to be influenced by.
Speaking of The Fantastic Four, we still don’t know how Marvel Studios is going to introduce those characters despite fans wishes that Reed Richards would show up on WandaVision. There is a chance that S.W.O.R.D. could end up becoming the connective tissue as they’ve established the group is doing off-world missions and we clearly saw at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home that Nick Fury was getting a space station built by the Skrulls. Some are speculating that Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania (coming in 2022) could be another entry point for Fantastic Four because of Jonathan Majors playing Kang The Conqueror, however, we don’t know if that will be the case. Director Jon Watts more than likely will be aiming to do an origin film or at the very least include a new MCU origin for the team in his reboot.
A new tidbit from The Illuminerdi suggests that Marvel Studios is going to be calling their X-Men reboot The Mutants. Something that had long been suspected because of the high-volume of female characters in the franchise and some calls that the studio somewhat ditch the “X-Men” name for the new big screen incarnation.
The Illuminerdi has learned of a Marvel Studios-led project produced by Marvel CCO Kevin Feige entitled,The Mutants. It’s currently being developed as a feature film and is intended to be a reboot of the X-Men franchise.
There has been speculation since the merger that Disney the studio could go with a gender neutral name for the franchise and seems fitting since most audiences know exactly what a mutant is along with the term’s association with the X-Men.
While the site is known for posting correct information it’s just a rumor for the moment as Disney hasn’t officially announced anything concerning their X-Men reboot. Names of writers or a director involved with the project weren’t mentioned, so its unclear what stage of development The Mutants actually is at this time.
Fantastic Four is expected to be the studio’s first big reboot of the former Fox franchises as they announced Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts would be tackling that next for them. Given the announcement back in December, we have to assume that Fantastic Four would be the first to go into production unless Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool 3 (doesn’t have a director officially) jumps the line.
The appearance of Evan Peters as Pietro Maximoff aka Quicksilver in WandaVision confused Wanda and fans which seemingly was the point according to Marvel’s Kevin Feige. He mentioned today at TCA (via GameSpot) that placing Peters in the series was part of “certain people” messing with Wanda.
FEIGE: “That’s one of the fun things about developing these things are blue skying it in a room. It’s my favorite part of the process. It’s always the very very beginning, when we’re figuring out what something could be and at the very very end, when we’re finally we’re finding it and then putting it out into the world. So there were all all sorts of discussions, but I believe it, we ended up going with what you saw relatively relatively early on in the development process. And just another way that certain people were messing around with Wanda.”
Feige says they landed on bringing Evan Peters in pretty early on, describing it as "Just another way that certain people were messing with Wanda." (he does then indicate that is Agatha, referencing the “catchy song.”) #WandaVision
From this statement from Feige about adding the actor, we can now assume that the choice to add Peters wasn’t a way for Marvel Studios to reinsert his version of Quicksilver or bring the Singerverse to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A theory that has been pushed by fans since the actor’s addition to the series and his subsequent reveal as Pietro.
Showrunner Jac Schaeffer previously mentioned that they really had to convince Kevin about adding Evan on the show.
We’ll likely get more answers with the final two episodes.
Deadline was able to transcribe quotes from Marvel’s Kevin Feige at Disney+ virtual panel at TCA press tour, the company’s chief creative officers talked about the possibility of the Netflix shows finding a second life. While he pointed out that some online rumors are completely wrong he sounds open to the idea down the line.
FEIGE: “I think we probably could do it, I think a lot of that stuff comes back to us. There’s always rumors online about things reverting, sometimes that’s true, sometimes it’s not, but I’m not exactly sure of the exact contracts but perhaps someday.”
You might remember that Feige took over Marvel Television after the exit of Jeph Loeb and re-branded the division as Marvel TV Studios with Kevin overseeing the shows under the same umbrella as the feature films. The Netflix shows included Daredevil, The Punisher, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and The Defenders. We currently don’t have any official word on the fate of those characters and if they’ll be heading to the MCU anytime soon.
Jessica Henwick also revealed Marvel Television had been considering a Daughters of The Dragon spinoff and a Ghost Rider series was killed in development stages.
There have been plenty of rumors about character rivals and shows carrying-over but none of that has actually been made official. Feige’s comments here does suggest there might be some truth behind some of them, but what they are he isn’t sharing.
Disney+’s mature section Star could give Marvel Studios a home for more graphic characters.
Today, it was announced that Marvel Studios’ third live-action series, Loki, will debut on the streaming service Disney+ starting on June 11th, a month later than previously expected.
It’s cast directed by Kate Herron includes Tom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sophia Di Martino, Wunmi Mosaku and Richard E. Grant. The showrunner, Michael Waldron, is also working on Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness.
The series is said to have direct connections to the Doctor Strange and Thor sequels as it will focus on the Multiverse along with the introduction of the Time Variance Agency, the force that polices those that tinker with the timelines. Loki, after the events of Avengers: Endgame starts playing around in different eras in Earth’s history which lands him on TVA’s radar.
WandaVision is going to wrap-up soon with The Falcon & The Winter Soldier starting to air on March 19th.
Background casting company CL Casting has revealed on their Facebook page there will be a courtroom scene shot next month in the Atlanta area for Spider-Man 3 aka The November Project. You can see from the posting they are seeking extras to play attorneys and a stenographer with the scene expected to shoot on March 10th.
We pointed out back in December that this courtroom scene could be taking place after it was telegraphed with previous Spider-Man 3 extra casting calls seeking background actors for protesters, detectives, and criminals.
It’s been long expected that Peter Parker would end up needing lawyer in the next film because of the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home as he’s been framed for the murder of Quentin Beck aka Mysterio. However, the simplest and obvious choice for Parker’s legal defense is Tatiana Maslany’s Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk.
This is mainly because we know that the She-Hulk series for Disney+ begins filming next month in Atlanta, where Spider-Man 3 is already shooting and around when this scene will be shot. Maslany’s casting was announced by Disney/Marvel in December and this means the superhero lawyer is already confirmed/established for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, officially.
While there have been convincing rumors that Charlie Cox will reprise the Matt Murdock role, none of the trades have backed-up the claim or has any photographic/hard evidence that Charlie Cox has been on the set landed online despite talk he’s shot scenes already. Lacking any concrete confirmation Matt Murdock is actually in the superhero sequel, it’s still not entirely settled or a lock that he’ll appear. Sometimes rumors are just rumors, but there is still a good shot he might be in the film and it just hasn’t been made official.
Director Jon Watts is going to be tackling the Fantastic Four reboot next for Marvel Studios and it’s hard to ignore that he might want to include a Marvel character like She-Hulk given her connections to both superhero law and Fantastic Four. Adding Jennifer Walters to Spider-Man 3 allows the new superhero character to debut in a massive feature film (Spider-Man: Far From Home previously earned over a billion dollars at the box office) before the solo She-Hulk series on Disney+ and at the same time potentially plant seeds for Watts’ upcoming Fantastic Four film.
A new rumor from our pals over at The DisInsider is claiming that characters from Big Hero 6 is going to be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but aren’t exactly sure when and where they’ll be getting live-action counterparts. This would be their first entry into the world of live-action as they had a successful animated film and series from Disney.
We have exclusively learned that certain characters from Big Hero 6 will be making their live-action debut in the MCU. We’re not sure on who will be coming but we can at least expect Baymax and Hiro.
It’s unknown if they’ll first appear on a Disney+ series or in a feature film.
UPDATE: Variety is pouring cold water on yesterday’s Big Hero 6 rumor, as the trade has seemingly spoke with someone at Disney/Marvel Studios who denied the information and they also point out that Disney Animation Studios is still working on a Baymax! series for Disney+.
Despite recent reports, however, Hiro, Baymax and the rest of the “Big Hero 6” crew are not currently set to make their live-action debut within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Variety has confirmed with a source at the studio.
Disney also just concluded “Big Hero 6: The Series,” an animated spin-off show with much of the original voice cast from the feature. The final episode aired on Feb. 15 after running for three seasons on the Disney Channel and Disney XD. That might imply the “Big Hero 6” characters are shifting back to Marvel, but in Dec., Disney announced that Walt Disney Animation Studios was producing the TV series “Baymax!” for Disney Plus — suggesting Disney still sees value in further exploiting the animated feature.
A different version of the same characters introduced by Marvel would inject the kind of consumer brand confusion that Disney has scrupulously avoided within its various divisions.
The tidbit comes after the Disney XD animated series was cancelled by Disney last month as first revealed by Entertainment Weekly.
Big Hero 6 The Series will not return for a fourth season, EW has learned exclusively.
We’ve seen animation characters make the jump to live-action recently with The Mandalorian as Star Wars animation characters such as Ashoka Tano and Bo-Katan appeared in Season 2. Ashoka Tano is now getting her own solo series on Disney+ and Bo-Katan will return for Season 3 of The Mandalorian.
I’m more interested to see if Marvel Studios will end up incorporating the fictional city San Fransokyo after previously establishing San Francisco in Ant-Man and Tokyo in Avengers: Endgame.
BIG HERO 6 – Robotics prodigy Hiro (Ryan Potter) lives in the city of San Fransokyo. Next to his older brother, Tadashi, Hiro’s closest companion is Baymax (Scott Adsit), a robot whose sole purpose is to take care of people. When a devastating turn of events throws Hiro into the middle of a dangerous plot, he transforms Baymax and his other friends, Go Go Tamago (Jamie Chung), Wasabi (Damon Wayans Jr.), Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez) and Fred (T.J. Miller) into a band of high-tech heroes.
Despite a dubious tabloid casting and production rumor that is making the rounds recently, Deadline’s Justin Kroll states on Twitter that the studio doesn’t even have a Fantastic Four script as Marvel Studios is only just starting to meet with screenwriters for the reboot from director Jon Watts (currently shooting Spider-Man 3 in Atlanta).
All I’m gonna say is this, Marvel just started meeting with writers on FANTASTIC FOUR, there is no script and it will be awhile before this film starts shooting
The film was only just announced to the public in December and the film’s director, Jon Watts, is still busy shooting Spider-Man 3. A rather large production that will still need to be edited and care given to the post-production process to be ready for it’s December 17th release date. With some basic logic/understanding on how movies are made the idea Fantastic Four is shooting anytime soon seems extremely ridiculous to present as sourced information, and with that busted the casting tidbit seems just as phony. You’d think fans and sites would have more common sense before spreading an obvious bunk rumor from notably unreliable tabloids.
I’m just as excited as everyone else to see what Marvel Studios and Jon Watts do with the Fantastic Four franchise but we’ll just have to be patient for real news on the project.
Watts will also deserve a bit of a breather after making a massive film like Spider-Man 3 during the pandemic Stateside and likely wouldn’t be interested in rushing into a second massive production without a little time to rest alongside the normal 5-6 months of prep needed for these MCU films.
THE RONIN 