Yesterday, news broke via Deadline that Chris Evans’ retirement from the Marvel Cinematic Universe was about to end with talks of the Avengers actor nearing a deal to reprise the Steve Rogers role for an upcoming MCU project and adding a second project could also be in play.
Chris Evans has taken to Twitter to seemingly respond to Deadline’s report stating “news to me” with a shrug emoji.
Deadline is quite reliable and actors connected to Marvel roles have been deceptive before when it comes to them publicly confirming casting reports or returns to various projects before the go-ahead from the studio. It’s also possible Evans’ return doesn’t come together and Avengers: Endgame is the final say on Steve Rogers.
Having an older Steve mentoring Sam Wilson in a Captain America 4 feature film feels like the play here, but I’m not sure that is something they’ll be ultimately attempt as they gave Rogers a solid ending that seemed to sit well with Chris Evans.
The actor signaling on Twitter he would stepping down from the role back in 2018.
There are other ways to have Evans return with his time-travelling to the late 1940s to meet up with Peggy Carter post-WWII and spends a lifetime with her, allowing some wiggle room to have him tackling The Cold War era threats to the United States and world peace via a team like The Invaders.
The role they were talking-up sounds larger than a simple cameo that could take more time than he currently has for other projects as he is about to begin filming Netflix’s $200 million budgeted spy film The Gray Man directed by The Russo Brothers. This might telegraph his work in California could conflict with current Marvel Studios productions such as Spider-Man 3, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness or even Thor: Love &Thunder.
Speaking of the Multiverse, there could be another timeline where Captain America fought through-out the entire WWII campaign beyond just taking down HYDRA and was able to hook up with other Marvel superheroes from that era.
Yesterday, it was revealed by Deadline that Chris Evans was nearing a deal to reprise SteveRogers aka Captain America in a small supporting role (similar to Robert Downey Jr. in Spider-Man: Homecoming) for an undisclosed MCU project. They also mention Evans might be returning for second thing, possibly a film but didn’t reveal what that could be either.
There are a couple of obvious options such as old Steve Rogers becoming a mentor to Sam Wilson in Captain America 4 as he takes over the mantle. Also, seeing what Steve was up to while hiding between Captain America: Civil War to Avengers: Infinity War, not unlike where Black Widow takes place in the MCU timeline. There is the multiple years between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, I’m sure there would still be threats in the wake of Thanos’ snap.
There is another option to add. Thanks to Avengers: Endgame, that Steve was able to go back in time to be with Peggy Carter and stayed there starting in 1948 just when The Cold War begins. Steve as an old man ends up handing Sam Wilson the shield at the end of the film and launching the events that will be covered in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.
The Multiverse also opens the door to other timelines allowing to them return to WWII.
I think it’s hard to imagine with all the threats surrounding him during that timeline and Peggy Carter’s work at S.H.I.E.L.D. that he doesn’t eventually jump back into the fray between his return and Avengers: Endgame. What would make a lot of sense would be Rogers leading his own team which has previously happened with The Invaders, a group mostly made up of WWII era heroes such as Namor McKenzie aka The Sub-Mariner, Union Jack, Spitfire, the original android version of The Human Torch aka Jim Hammond, Blazing Skull, and multiple other wartime heroes that could get some live-action love.
It’s worth noting that Wyatt Russell’s John Walker aka U.S. Agent, Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson, and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes have been established members on the roster.
There is another superhero that was kicking around during WWII and The Cold War that has teamed-up with Captain America the comics that could make for another excellent addition to those ranks, that being the Canadian super-soldier Wolverine.
Luckily, since Logan doesn’t really age he can be able to time-hop to various eras of the MCU including something like WWII or even futuristic setting like with Old Man Logan.
Rebooting Wolverine is clearly a huge priority to the studio alongside the X-Men and having the anti-hero connect to various MCU characters beforehand wouldn’t be shocking since he’s, like Steve Rogers, he is part of a super-soldier program via Weapon. When his origin takes places in the MCU doesn’t seem to be set in stone and Marvel can certainly tinker with it to fit their needs but I’d personally like to see him running around WWII without his indestructible skeleton and then get it during The Cold War.
It might be a good idea to introduce Wolverine as a supporting character elsewhere so that he doesn’t dominate the main X-Men films as much. The fictional X-Men locale of Madripoor is going to be introduced in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, which had many fans jump to conclusions that Wolverine is connected to the Disney+ series, although, there hasn’t been credible information backing up these fan desires. However, it becoming a stomping ground for the mutant eventually wouldn’t a surprise.
If they’re genuinely going to bring Chris Evans back I think it is worth considering giving him another period project since while Captain America: The First Avenger canonically takes place during WWII, it felt like they copped-out by limiting how much fighting he did against the actual Axis. The Cold War era could be another fine option as Steve combating the new threat of The Soviet Union during the height of the nuclear arms race feels just as a plausible of a setting for another adventure.
X-Men villain Omega Red could be a good baddie to use as well given his connections to Soviet Union super-soldier experiments.
It’s worth mentioning we’ve previously seen Easter Eggs to canonical members of The Invaders lineup in previous Marvel Studios films.
Union Jack was teased via Iron Man 2 as Joey Chapman was listed as one of the racers going head-to-head with Tony Stark. The Human Torch is seen encased in glass and Namor’s Atlantis was briefly teased in Captain America: The First Avenger at the Stark Expo (blink and you’ll miss the underwater city nod). The S.H.I.E.L.D. boat called The Lemurian Star in Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a direct nod to Namor villains The Lemurians, a sign that something nefarious was happening onboard.
I’m sure we’ll start to get confirmation what Evans is actually going to show up in but I think fans are also quite comfortable leaving old Rogers alone as well given his satisfying ending.
It looks like Chris Evan‘s break as Captain America didn’t last that long.
Deadline is reporting Evans is closing-in on a deal to play Steve Rogers aka Captain America one more time for Marvel in an unnamed project at Marvel Studios. The outlet stops short from revealing what the project could be, either film or a Disney+ series, claim it’s much more substantial than a cameo potentially more in a supporting role.
In a move that is sure to rock the Marvel Cinematic Universe, sources tell Deadline that Chris Evans is cleaning the dust off his Captain America attire as he expected reprise the role in the MCU in some form. Still vague if deal as completely closed but insiders say its headed in that direction for Evans to return as Steve Rogers aka Captain America in at least one Marvel property with the door open for a second film. Sources add it’s unlikely to be a new Captain America installment and more likely to be like what Robert Downey Jr. did after Iron Man 3, appearing in films like Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming.
A Multiverse project feels like the most current thing he could be doing for Marvel Studios, however, he’s about to begin shooting Netflix’s spy flick The Gray Man for the Russo Brothers in California making it difficult for him to be flying to London or Atlanta anytime soon to shoot a bunch of scenes.
I personally would love to see an Invaders film/series that takes place during WWII since we really didn’t get that in Captain America: The First Avenger, the studio seemed to be squeamish about having one of their heroes taking on a group of real Nazis. A Multiverse project set within the WWII could allow Marvel to return to that era and explore the multiple superhero characters that fought alongside Cap and Bucky. Those include Namor, Union Jack, Spitfire, and the original android version of The Human Torch. Plus, there are many many other WWII era characters they could use that would likely never see the light of day elsewhere.
When Steve goes back to be with Peggy there is a possibility he had further adventures which could allow for the Invaders to come together in that timeline.
Then again, they could use the older version of Steve Rogers from Avengers: Endgame in a project as well.
We finally have a second cast member announced for Marvel’s Moon Knight series starring Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector. The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that actress May Calamawy has nabbed an unknown role in the show that will air on Disney+ in 2022 (we’re hearing spring/summer) and will begin shooting in March.
Moon Knight, aka Marc Spector, a mercenary who has numerous alter egos — cabbie Jake Lockley and millionaire playboy Steven Grant — in order to better fight the criminal underworld. But later he was established as being a conduit for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Most recently, the character was a consultant who dresses in all-white and goes by the name Mr. Knight.
Kevin Feige recently revealed to Collider they hope to give Moon Knight six episodes running about 40-50 minutes per episode, similar to Loki and The Falcon & The WinterSoldier.
The directing team consists of Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Diab along with the indie duo of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead.
Production on Moon Knight is said to begin this March in Budapest, Hungary under the working title Good Faith, a location that was used for their feature film Black Widow. Other filming locations had once included London and the United States.
We are expecting a lot more casting announcements in the coming weeks as production is set to begin in two months.
Another tidbit from Collider’s conversation with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige gives us an episode count for their upcoming She-Hulk series, which will be given 10-episodes, however shorter than normal at 30-minutes.
Some can be much longer than that. But She-Hulk, for instance, is being developed as 10 30-minute episodes.
She-Hulk is directed by Kat Coiro and Anu Valia, with Jessica Gao serving as head writer.
Canadian actress Tatiana Maslany will be playing superhero defense lawyer Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk with Mark Rufflao reprising his role as Jennifer’s cousin Bruce Banner aka Hulk and the return of Incredible Hulk actor Tim Roth as villain Emil Blonsky aka The Abomination.
We’ll likely see more actors from Incredible Hulk make a return just like Roth.
There is an assumption that William Hurt could be reprising Thunderbolt Ross in the show, the character becomes Red Hulk in the comics, something that was considered for Captain America: Civil War but was ultimately cut during development stages. Ross has also been part of the newer incarnation of the Thunderbolts team alongside Deadpool, ThePunisher, and Elektra.
In the comics, Walters needs a lifesaving blood transfusion from Banner leading to her becoming a Hulk herself. How Marvel is going to tackle her origin in the MCU remains to be seen and if they’re going to mimic the comic books that closely. Jennifer is also sort of big crossover character which has already been teased by Kevin Feige during the Disney Investor Day presentation leading many to believe fellow Marvel lawyer Matt Murdock might show up. The heroine had at one time been a member of both Fantastic Four and The Avengers, I’ll be curious if she’ll have a role to play in JonWatts‘ reboot of Marvel’s first family.
Production on She-Hulk under the working title Libra is said to begin this March in Altanta, Georgia.
A release sometime in 2022 on Disney+ is expected given the amount of visual effects work needed to render multiple Hulks in the series, we’re thinking the release could skew late summer or fall of 2022.
It looks like we finally know how long Marvel’s Moon Knight series will be.
Moon Knight, aka Marc Spector, a mercenary who has numerous alter egos — cabbie Jake Lockley and millionaire playboy Steven Grant — in order to better fight the criminal underworld. But later he was established as being a conduit for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Most recently, the character was a consultant who dresses in all-white and goes by the name Mr. Knight.
While speaking with Kevin Feige about various runtimes of the upcoming Disney+ shows, the Marvel Studios president mentions to Collider that Moon Knight will land six episodes but run a bit longer than something like She-Hulk, which is going to have 30-minute episodes.
He also added that the upcoming Moon Knight will fall into the six, 40-50 minute episode category.
A similar episode run and length as 2021 shows such as Loki and The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.
Star Wars and X-Men alumni Oscar Isaac had finally been confirmed for the main role of Marc Spector aka Moon Knight. The American actor had also recently attached himself to Sony’s Metal Gear Solid film based on the iconic action video game series playing Solid Snake.
The directing team consists of Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Diab along with the indie duo of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead.
Production on Moon Knight is said to begin this March in Budapest, Hungary under the working title Good Faith, a location that was used for their feature film Black Widow. Other filming locations had once included London and the United States.
How Marc Spector will fit into the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe is a little less known than some of the other characters given his supernatural and vigilante ways. Various characters getting their own solo series on Disney+ have a clearer path for crossovers, however, there has been speculation it could have some connection to Mahershala Ali‘s new Blade reboot but that yet to be confirmed in any substantial way.
We have been hearing that Disney+ hoped to have the series ready to begin airing sometime in the spring/summer of 2022.
While it was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, that Marvel Studios‘ X-Men reboot would be at least five years away the promise of Deadpool 3 seemingly would see mutants introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe beforehand.
The rights reverted directly back to Marvel after the merger between Disney and 21st Century Fox led to those Marvel Comics characters attached to both X-Men and Fantastic Four headed into the hands of Kevin Feige. You might remember one of Kevin’s first big Hollywood gig was working for X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner on the original films at 20th Century Fox.
It looks like X-Men internal discussions are already happening at the studio as revealed by Kevin while speaking with Screen Rant. A good sign as they’ve already announced that Spider-Man 3‘s Jon Watts will direct Fantastic Four and likely already have an idea what they’re going to do there.
FEIGE: “You know how much I love the X-Men. I already said that’s where I started. I can’t tell you anything before we actually announced it, but rest assured, the discussions have been long and ongoing internally.”
Feige also recently reaffirmed to Collider that Deadpool 3 will indeed keep it’s R-rating (echoing previous statements made by Disney’s Bob Iger and Alan Horn) and finally confirmed the sequel would be taking place within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
While fans have been trying to convince themselves that Marvel will keep the Singerverse version of the franchise for future movies, the headache of those film’s connection to director Bryan Singer, who is during the era of #MeToo a PR nightmare, would be the worse idea imaginable for Disney. Removing that baggage completely with a fresh hard reboot is the best way to go considering those Fox movies weren’t terribly faithful to the comics and characters to begin with.
We have good example of this thanks to Marvel’s Spider-Man reboot bringing in TomHolland as their MCU version for Captain America: Civil War and other films.
It’ll be interesting who they ultimately hire to direct and write this franchise reboot for them. I’ve been extremely curious what that lineup will ultimately look like because for every era of X-Men, the mutant lineup looks completely different and there is an overwhelming characters to choose from.
Fans have all been pushing for their own ideas who should be recast in various roles for the reboot but it seems like the most important casting will be finding the right actor to fill Hugh Jackman‘s boots as Wolverine given he’s their biggest crossover character from the X-Men franchise. I wouldn’t be shocked if we saw his debut before the main X-Men film.
Today, Sony Pictures has announced they’ve again moved the release date of their upcoming Spider-Man spinoff feature film Morbius, starring Oscar-winner Jared Leto as Doctor Michael Morbius, a scientist that accidentally turns himself into a vampire.
The release date has been moved to October 8th after being set for March 19th previously.
It’s first teaser trailer revealed the interconnection with the solo Spider-Man films made by Marvel Studios as it featured Michael Keaton‘s Vulture in some sort of jailbreak scene. This has given fans hope that the character will indeed within the Marvel Cinematic Universe or at the very least, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man.
There is also an expectation that J.K. Simmon’s J. Jonah Jameson from Spider-Man: FarFrom Home will show up too thanks to previous comments made by the actor.
MORBIUS – One of Marvel’s most compelling and conflicted characters comes to the big screen as Oscar® winner Jared Leto transforms into the enigmatic antihero, Michael Morbius. Dangerously ill with a rare blood disorder, and determined to save others suffering his same fate, Dr. Morbius attempts a desperate gamble. What at first appears to be a radical success, a darkness inside him is unleashed and transforms this healer into a hunter.
You might remember an unreliable YouTuber was pushing a rumor that Marvel Studios was considering using a CGI Chadwick Boseman for Black Panther 2, something that was quickly debunked by Marvel Studios’ Victoria Alonso when speaking with Clarin last year.
ALONSO: “No. There’s only one Chadwick, and he’s not with us. Our king, unfortunately, has died in real life, not just in fiction, and we are taking a little time to see how we return to the story and what we do to honor this chapter of what has happened to us that was so unexpected, so painful, so terrible, really.”
“[We] have to think carefully about what we are going to do, and how, and think about how we are going to honor the franchise.”
During the Disney Investor Day back in December, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige revealed they weren’t planning on recasting the T’Challa role. He’s now reaffirmed they have zero plan to use a CGI version of Chadwick in the sequel while speaking with Deadline to promote the upcoming release of WandaVision.
However, he is being vague how they’ll continue the franchise as referring back to writer/director Ryan Coogler working on hard on the project.
FEIGE: “So much of the comics and that first movie is the world of Wakanda. Wakanda is a place to further explore with characters and different subcultures. This was always and initially the primary focus of the next story. We’re not going to have a CG Chadwick and we’re not recasting T’Challa. Ryan Coogler is working very hard right now on the script with all the respect and love and genius that he has, which gives us great solace, so it was always about furthering the mythology and the inspiration of Wakanda. There’s also the task of honoring and respecting the ongoing learnings and teachings from Chad as well.”
Narcos: Mexico actor Tenoch Huerta is reportedly playing an unnamed villain in the new film and has a release date of July 8th, 2022 with production said to begin this summer in Atlanta, Georgia.
Ever since movies started going to streaming, Marvel fans have assumed that Black Widow would be thrown onto Disney+ like recent films such as Mulan (Premiere Access) and Soul (free with subscription), with Disney debunking that theory over and over. Most recently at the Disney Investor Day presentation, Marvel’s Kevin Feige reaffirmed that Black Widow would be released in theaters on May 7th as of mid-December.
Deadline has asked about the chance of Black Widow heading to Disney+ instead of hitting it’s May 7th theatrical release. His response seems to be both vague and politically neutral as it does appear to be that the distribution of the movie is truly out of his hands and really up to Disney at this point.
FEIGE: “If I had a crystal ball, I’d look into it and tell you. I don’t. All I can tell you is that for the past three years since Bob Iger brought me into his office and talked about a streaming platform that would become Disney+ and asked us to start working on programs for it. Our long lead plan was to have the MCU and the storytelling woven between weekly episodic big swings on Disney+ and into the feature big swings in theaters. It’s my great hope that that continues. Don’t ask me week by week what is going to happen in this world, I have no idea and don’t want to guess. Everything we’ve done at Marvel Studios has been based in ‘Ok, if everything goes perfectly, here’s what we’d like to do.’ And until this past year, things have gone remarkably well. And it’s my hope that the world gets back on track and we all get back into theaters, and that people will see and experience week by week for the low monthly fee of Disney+ of what we’re bringing there, and then be excited to get together with people again in real life and sit with strangers and share an experience on the big screen.”
We’ll have to see what Disney ultimately decides to do as they’d lose hundreds of millions of dollars if they simply put the film on the service for free such as Warner Bros. putting Wonder Woman 1984 on HBO Max and Mulan may have scared Disney to use Premiere Access again for such a costly film as it was restricted to Disney+ subscribers later revealed as not the success people had first thought.
The pandemic is getting increasingly worse in the United States and United Kingdom, despite the slow distribution of multiple COVID-19 vaccines. Theaters being a viable option in May or over the summer is increasingly looking less likely, but what Disney does with their massive Marvel movies remains to be seen.
BLACK WIDOW – In Marvel Studios’ action-packed spy thriller Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.
According to Feige while speaking with The New York Times, the pandemic may have delayed some of the release of the shows by a weeks. Their film lineup apparently hasn’t been affected in any significant way.
FEIGE: “If the run we had in 2018 and 2019 had gotten disrupted this way, in the buildup to Endgame, it would have been a bigger headache,” he said. “With these projects, it worked well,” he went on, adding that the debut dates for the TV shows were shifted only “by a matter of weeks.”
THE RONIN 