Tag: Marvel Studios

Posted on in Television News

‘WandaVision’ Head Writer Jac Schaeffer Signs Overall Deal With Marvel Studios & 20th Television

Jac Schaeffer first made waves at Marvel Studios when she was originally hired pen the new Black Widow script (currently has story credit), after the first incarnation of the female superhero project fell apart at Lionsgate and Marvel Studios decided to finally give Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff the solo spinoff film they had been teasing since the Iron Man 2 press rounds. She would later become the head writer and executive producer of Marvel Studios’ first series to air on Disney+, WandaVision, which was considered a huge success and looks like will be making more MCU shows for the foreseeable future.

Schaeffer has landed a lucrative 3-year overall deal with Marvel Studios and 20th Television to develop multiple shows, according to Variety. The Marvel Studios projects, of course, will land on Disney+, but potential titles or characters weren’t mentioned in the announcement.

Marvel’s next wave of shows on the Disney streaming platform include Loki (June 9), the animated series What-If…? (August?), Hawkeye (late 2021), Ms. Marvel (late 2021), Moon Knight (2022), She-Hulk (2022), Secret Invasion (2022), Armor Wars, Ironheart, a Wakanda series from Ryan Coogler, and a spinoff featuring Hawkeye supporting character, Echo.

It’ll be interesting to see if they ultimately attempt a second season of WandaVision, but that would likely depend on how Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness ends and if Wanda aka Scarlet Witch survives that ordeal.

There are plenty of existing characters that Jac Schaeffer could end up developing a series around such as Tessa Thompson’s Valkryie, Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova (will appear on Hawkeye), Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster aka Lady Thor, and Karen Gillan’s Nebula. That’s if they don’t attempt to launch other Marvel characters via shows such as the rebooted MCU versions of X-Men’s female team members like Rogue, Storm or Psylocke.

I guess we’ll have to be patient to find out what her new Marvel shows will be.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Trailers

Marvel Releases First Teaser Trailer For Chloe Zhao’s ‘Eternals’

This morning Marvel Studios has unleashed the first teaser trailer for their next budding franchise, Eternals. The newest film in Phase 4 is going focus on a group of cosmic beings created by comic book powerhouse creative and artist Jack Kirby, who are tasked by the Celestials to protect Earth from The Deviants and are endowed with god-like superpowers/longevity.

The first footage was teased not too long ago but with the teaser we finally have a better sense of the world created by director/co-writer Chloe Zhao, who recently won Best Picture and Best Director for the movie Nomadland. It’s use of a exterior locations and practical sets seems to be something fresh but we’ll have to wait a little longer to see the foes, The Deviants it seems.

Eternals originally was supposed to be released in November of last year but was bumped to November 5, 2021 due to the pandemic and multiple other MCU films shifting their spots on the Disney schedule.

You can watch the new footage below.

The cast of Eternals consists of Gemma Chan as Sersi, Kit Harington as Dane Whitman aka Black Knight, Barry Keoghan as Druig, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Angelina Jolie as Thena, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Kumail Nanjani as Kingo, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Lia McHugh as Sprite, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, and Jashaun St. John in an undisclosed role.

Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has stated previously that Chan’s Sersi is the film’s lead which makes sense as there has been talk of a love triangle between her, Madden’s Ikaris and Harington’s Dane Whtiman aka Black Knight.

Despite being protectors of Earth it seems odd that they would have only now revealed themselves given past events like the Battle for New York and Thanos. Interestingly enough, Thanos’ father and brother happen to Eternals from the planet Titan and could have ties to the new superhero team or at least have their connections explored at some point. The film could also help introduce other Marvel elements such as the sinking of Namor’s Atlantis via The Great Cataclysm and having the Celestials behind the mutant gene being added to early humans that will later lead to the X-Men/Mutants.

Zeus and The Olympians are also going to be introduced in Thor: Love & Thunder, according to Oscar-winner Russell Crowe, revealing he’ll be playing Zeus in the film as production is still taking place in Australia. The Olympians and Eternals have had conflict in the comics and we could see the two MCU cosmic teams go head-to-head in sequels.

I wouldn’t be shocked if the studio has already spoken with Zhao about overseeing multiple films and securing her involvement as the filmmaker originally pitched the project to them after losing out on the Black Widow directing gig to Cate Shortland. Zhao could end up being the next James Gunn for the new Marvel franchise.

Marvel also dropped this lovely teaser poster.

SOURCE: MARVEL

Posted on in Television News

Comedic Actor Jon Bass May Have Joined Marvel’s ‘She-Hulk’ Series

The Ronin is hearing that Miracle Workers and Baywatch actor Jon Bass may have landed an undisclosed role in Marvel’s She-Hulk series, which is currently filming in Atlanta, Georgia. Bass is likely best known for his comedic roles but it’s unclear how large the part could be given that Maslany’s Jennifer Walters is a defense lawyer and is expected to be interacting with multiple characters on the show.

Interestingly enough, Jon’s TBS anthology comedy series Miracle Workers shoots in Atlanta, Georgia and you can see a promotional video the show did for Made In Georgia below. One of the show’s writers happens to be Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania screenwriter Jeff Loveness, which is potentially noteworthy as well.

Jennifer is the cousin of Avengers member Dr. Bruce Banner aka Hulk and after a blood transfusion from Bruce is granted her own Hulk powers becoming She-Hulk. The series officially will see the return of Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky aka Abomination, Mark Ruffalo back as Banner, Renee Elise Goldsberry as Amelia, and Ginger Gonzaga.

The 10-episode series will be directed by Kat Coiro and Anu Valia with Emmy-winner Jessica Gao (Rick & Morty) set as head writer.

She-Hulk’s crew consists of production designer Elena Albanese (Lovecraft Country), costume designer Ann Foley (Godzilla Vs. Kong, Altered Carbon), and stunt coordinator Monique Ganderton (Loki, Avengers: Endgame).

Marvel Studios hasn’t announced when She-Hulk will debut but given the visual effects involved likely won’t drop until later in 2022.

Posted on in Film News

Kevin Feige Seemingly Regrets Casting Tilda Swinton As The Ancient One In ‘Doctor Strange’ Instead of Modernizing The Asian Mentor

Marvel has a limited amount of Asian superheroes and villains, so, it was sort of a one-two gut punch when the studio decided to avoid casting Asian actors with The Mandarin in Iron Man 3 and The Ancient One in Doctor Strange.

Luckily, Marvel Studios used Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings to modernize the Mandarin as the father of Simu Liu’s Asian-American superhero taking the place of Dr. Fu Manchu, an even bigger Asian stereotype villain. This reworking was thanks in part to the film’s writing team of Dave Callaham, Destin Daniel Cretton, and Andrew Lanham.

In retrospect, it sounds like studio head Kevin Feige is owning up to that mistake concerning The Ancient One while speaking with Men’s Health (spotted by The Playlist) he admitted that could have done better reworking the character instead of simply hiring a white actor to avoid a stereotype landmine.

FEIGE: “We thought we were being so smart, and so cutting-edge. We’re not going to do the cliché of the wizened, old, wise Asian man. But it was a wake-up call to say, ‘Well, wait a minute, is there any other way to figure it out? Is there any other way to both not fall into the cliché and cast an Asian actor?’ And the answer to that, of course, is yes.”

Shang-Chi having a mostly Asian cast and the hiring of Gemma Chan as Sersi in Chloe Zhao’s Eternals when the major role could have gone to a white actor are signs the studio is committed to incremental change to give audiences stronger Asian characters in their superhero blockbusters. Hiring more Asian creatives is just as important as hiring more Asian talent to star in these projects.

SOURCE: MEN’S HEALTH

Posted on in Television News

RUMOR: ‘Moon Knight’ Might Shoot Scenes In Jordan

Marvel’s Moon Knight is filming in Budapest, Hungary with a spotting of Ethan Hawke but we’re hearing that won’t be the only filming location. We’ve been able to previously confirm that a portion will be shot in the London era and there seems to be a third location for the new Disney+ series.

While The Ronin can’t confirm this at the moment, there is talk that Marvel is looking to shoot scenes or exterior landscapes in Jordan. The gorgeous country has been previously used on Oscar Isaac films Dune and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. This might seem like a difficult thing to pull-off during the pandemic, however, Ms. Marvel recently shot some stuff in Thailand and The Falcon & The Winter Soldier returned to Prague to finish-up filming too. On the film side, San Francisco was recently a filming location for Shang-Chi and is going to be used again for Ant-Man & Wasp: Quantumania.

Moon Knight, aka Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac), 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. 

There have already been some exciting teases of the show’s action sequences with some lovely training sequences with Oscar Isaac kicking some ass. Marvel isn’t messing around as we were able to confirm that they hired No Time To Die stunt coordinator Olivier Schneider, signaling that they might be aiming for some high-quality action.

The directing team consists of Mohamed Diab, Justin Benson, and Aaron Moorhead with Jeremy Slater and Beau DeMayo writing on the show.

Kevin Feige previously told Collider that Moon Knight will be getting 6-episodes and is expected to debut on Disney+ in 2022.

Posted on in Television News

Marvel’s ‘She-Hulk’ Adds ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Stunt Coordinator & ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’ Costume Designer

The Ronin can confirm that Canadian stunt coordinator Monique Ganderton is indeed currently working on Marvel’s She-Hulk series that is actively shooting in Atlanta with Emmy-winner Tatiana Malsany (Orphan Black) starring as Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk. Monique isn’t new to the world of Marvel Studios with credits such as Loki, Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Infinity War, and Thor: Ragnarok.

In the comics, Jennifer Walters is a defense lawyer, who is given Hulk powers after she needs a blood transfusion from her cousin Bruce Banner. It’ll be interesting to see how she’ll get her powers in the MCU incarnation and how closely they’ll be sticking to comic book lore as this will be the first time we’re getting a live-action She-Hulk.

UPDATE: Monique Ganderton has now confirmed her involvement on She-Hulk on her Instagram bio backing up our confirmation from May.

It’s assumed that Ganderton will be doing the motion-capture/stunt work for She-Hulk given that she already filled a similar role for the Avengers villain Proxima Midnight (voiced by Carrie Coons) and seemingly played a motion-capture character for the Loki series as well.

We can also confirm that Godzilla Vs. Kong costume designer Ann Foley is officially working on the Marvel show as well. Ann’s credits include Netflix’s Altered Carbon, ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Sony’s Masters of The Universe remake (seemingly stuck in limbo).

The 10-episode series will be directed by Kat Coiro and Anu Valia.

Joining Tatiana in the Disney+ show will be Mark Ruffalo officially returning to play Jennifer’s cousin Bruce Banner aka Hulk, Tim Roth is finally back as Incredible Hulk villain Emil Blonsky aka Abomination, Renee Elise Goldsberry as Amelia, and Ginger Gonzaga.

Recently, we were able to confirm that Lovecraft Country production designer is Elena Albanese hard at work on the Disney+ series too.

Considering that Jennifer has a strong comic book connection to the Fantastic Four, I’m curious if the series will plant the seeds to her involvement with Marvel’s reboot directed by Jon Watts as She-Hulk at one time had become a member of the team. Watts is currently busy finishing-up Spider-Man: No Way Home due in theaters on December 17.

Given the extensive visual effects involved with bringing She-Hulk, Hulk, and Abomination to life it’s expected that She-Hulk won’t debut until later in 2022.

Posted on in Film News

Nia DaCosta’s ‘The Marvels’ Confirmed To Shoot At Longcross Studios

The Ronin has been able to confirm that the Captain Marvel sequel The Marvels will be shooting mainly at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England. The stages have been previously used for other Marvel Studios projects such as Thor: The Dark World, Guardians of The Galaxy, Doctor Strange, and most recently for Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen.

Candyman’s Nia DaCosta is directing The Marvels as she reunites with production designer Cara Bower (Candyman, Us) and will have the extremely talented cinematographer Sean Bobbitt (Widows, Judas & The Black Messiah, Shame) behind the camera.

The cast officially consists of Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau, and Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan. The only new addition to the cast so far is Zawe Ashton, who is said to be playing a villain. We are assuming that there will be crossover with the casts of The Marvels and their Skrull event series Secret Invasion given the two projects will be shooting around the same time in the United Kingdom.

It’s new title could suggest they might be aiming to add more heroes to the lineup such as Blue Marvel, but that remains to be seen. However, it’s a little odd that the studio has seemingly pivoted from a solo film franchise to what now looks like a team project bumping Larson’s Captain Marvel from the title.

There has been confirmation previously that Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania would be shooting at Pinewood Studios UK, where things like Black Widow, and Eternals have shot in the last couple of years. Other projects heading to the United Kingdom in the next year or so include Moon Knight, Secret Invasion, and James Gunn’s Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3. There is also a chance that Season 2 of Loki could be moving from Atlanta to England.

The Marvels will hit theaters on November 11, 2022.

Posted on in Television News

Marvel Hires Thomas Bezucha & Ali Selim To Direct Skrull Series ‘Secret Invasion’

Marvel Studio is assembling a very solid cast for their Secret Invasion series that will be led by Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos with new additions such as Oscar-winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite, Hot Fuzz, The Crown), four-time Emmy nominee Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones, Solo: A Star Wars Story), and Kingsley Ben-Adir (One Night In Miami, Peaky Blinders) said to be playing a villain.

We finally know who will be directing as The Hollywood Reporter reveals that the studio has chosen Thomas Bezhucha (Let Him Go) and Ali Selim (The Looming Tower) to direct the event show that is going to explore a version of the Skrull invasion plot from the comic books. Multiple heroes are revealed to be the shape-shifting aliens as they were slowly replaced to allow the Skrulls to secure positions of power all over Earth.

Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels will feature three generations of female superheroes and could have ties to the series.

Filming is said to begin this fall in the United Kingdom with a 2022 debut being eyed.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

Disney Announces ‘Shang-Chi’ Sticking To Theatrical Window – Won’t Be Heading to Premier Access

Marvel Studios and Disney decided to release Black Widow on July 9 as a hybrid release on Disney+ with Premier Access and in theaters as well. There had been some question if Disney would adopt the hybrid release for other big feature films and it looks like we got some sort of answer, for the moment.

Today, it was announced by Disney during their Q2 earnings call (via Nicholas Whitcomb) that they’ll be sticking to a 45 day theatrical window for upcoming films Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings and Ryan Reynolds’ Free Guy. Disney could ultimately change their minds but it looks like the two films will avoid Premier Access entirely.

SHANG-CHI & THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS – Marvel Studios’ “Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings” stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, who must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization.

Joining Simu Liu in the Marvel cast includes Tony Leung as Wenwu, Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s friend Katy, and Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, as well as Fala Chen, Meng’er Zhang, Florian Munteanu, and Ronny Chieng. Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and produced by Kevin Feige and Jonathan Schwartz, with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, and Charles Newirth serving as executive producers. David Callaham & Destin Daniel Cretton & Andrew Lanham wrote the screenplay for the film, and experience it in theaters on September 3, 2021.

SOURCE: DISNEY

Posted on in Film News

Marvel’s Kevin Feige Reportedly Has No Ambition To Run Lucasfilm

There has been a growing number of YouTube channels and websites that hellbent on pushing bogus Star Wars gossip for views/clicks. One of the biggest lies circulated from the group of butt-hurt fans known as the “fandom menace” is that Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige is being lined-up to replace Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy and that Kennedy is on the cusp of being fired by Disney (started in the wake of Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s release). This stems from a vocal minority online that have spun a narrative that Kennedy is the real problem behind every single hiccup with the Star Wars franchise, which for the most part comes off as misogynistic as a lot of the gripes have been cited as adding female leading characters and diversity being a priority. It comes off like the same group that have directed a lot of their ire towards actress Brie Larson and her Marvel movie Captain Marvel.

Well, Variety released an article recently commenting on the power structure of Disney’s various studios and specifically mentioned that Kevin Feige has “no ambition” to run Lucasfilm. This would debunk false fan speculation for another couple of months before it’s resurrected by sketchy online sources looking for attention.

After it was announced in 2019 that Feige would produce a “Star Wars” movie, there were rumors that he might assume more control of Lucasfilm. However, insiders say that Feige is fully committed with his Marvel duties and has no ambition to lead Lucasfilm or take more of a role. Few details have emerged about the “Star Wars” film he wants to make, and no production timeline has been set.

The bunk rumor was birthed from legit trade reports that Kevin is aiming to produce an untitled Star Wars film with screenwriter Michael Waldron (Loki, Doctor Strange 2, Rick & Morty) attached to work on a script. However, Feige was granted the new role of chief creative officer at Marvel by Disney. This essentially gave him full creative control of the company and allows him to oversee everything Marvel-related. With that in mind, it really wouldn’t make sense that he would throw that away to run another studio division that is making money and earning Emmy awards.

There have also been chatter among those same fans that Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni are looking to replace Kennedy as well. The problem with that theory is they’re way too busy producing, writing, directing and running multiple Disney+ shows to be stepping back from their current creative roles to become administrators.

SOURCE: VARIETY