Marvel In Early Development On Spinoff Series Focused On Alaqua Cox’s Echo From ‘Hawkeye’ – Etan Cohen & Emily Cohen To Write

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.

SOURCE: VARIETY

‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’: Elijah Richardson & ‘Dark Knight Rises’ Actor Tyler Dean Flores Confirmed For Roles By Talent Agency

After an IMDB listing was spotted months back that had young actor Elijah Richardson listed as Eli Bradley aka Patriot in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, the entry was quickly removed and left a question mark if he had actually joined the Marvel series.

Well, it looks like both Richardson and Tyler Dean Flores (The Dark Knight Rises) have both been confirmed officially by their talent agency CESD Talent Agency (spotted by The Direct). As they congratulated the two actors via Instagram stories as the series premiered on Friday. However, it’s unclear what their roles actually are while Richardson may in fact be playing Bradley that part hasn’t been confirmed just yet.

It’s interesting to see what other characters will be revealed as we now know that Danny Ramirez is playing Joaquin Torres aka Falcon (Sam’s military partner) and Erin Kellyman is playing Karli Morgenthau a female version of the villain Flag-Smasher in the terrorist group called The Flag Smashers.

There have been plenty of rumors since production kicked-off about other characters that could appear and sadly some fan speculation that is already mimicking WandaVision’s outlandish expectations for cameos/introductions. I wouldn’t hold your breath that we’ll be seeing Wolverine or some haphazard introduction of the X-Men, this stuff certainly echoes the Magneto/Reed Richards and X-Men reveal speculation from sites that only angered fans when they didn’t get them in the final episode of WandaVision. Keeping expectations realistic isn’t a terrible thing.

New episodes of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier are expected to keep releasing on Disney+ every Friday, with five more episodes to go.

SOURCE: CESD TALENT AGENCY

Marvel’s Kevin Feige Seemingly Shoots Down Rumor Chris Evans Is Returning To MCU

During a chat with Entertainment Weekly to promote the upcoming Disney+ series The Falcon & The Winer Soldier, Marvel’s Kevin Feige finally responded to the Deadline rumor that Chris Evans was in talks to return to the MCU for undisclosed projects.

Kevin seems to refer to Evans’ own debunking on Twitter when he said “news to me.”

FEIGE: “I rarely answer no to anything anymore because things are always surprising me with what happens, but that rumor, I think, was dispelled rather quickly by the man himself.”

He could have easily side-stepped the question or given a non-answer but seemed to double-down on Evans’ tweet. There has been some speculation that we could see the death of Steve Rogers in Falcon, however, that has yet be confirmed. It’s worth pointing out that we don’t really see a lot of Wyatt Russell’s U.S. Agent and gives me the impression that he might last that long in the show.

SOURCE: ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

‘Deadpool 3’: Zazie Beetz Hopeful She’ll Reprise Domino & Wants A Solo Movie – “I Would Love To Revive The Role”

After some really bad information circulating last year that Marvel/Disney wouldn’t be making Deadpool 3 (at all) or keep it’s R-rating, it was announced that Marvel Studios had indeed hired sibling screenwriters Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin  tasked to pen a script. They are also dead-set on keeping the third installment for mature audiences, which was something both Marvel and Disney brass has been stating publicly for years.

There has been some hints the film would be continuation of the franchise but it’s still unknown if anyone outside of Ryan Reynolds will be reprising their roles such as Josh Brolin’s Cable or Zazie Beetz’s Domino are currently in limbo concerning the sequel. The three actors had been expected to team-up again for an X-Force movie that was going to be written and directed by Drew Goddard. Of course, these plans were being put together well before the merger with Disney killed a bulk of the Marvel projects in development at Fox such as Gambit, X-23 aka Laura, and the Doctor Doom film.

Zazie Beetz was recently promoting her upcoming Amazon animated series Invincible (also extremely mature) when asked by Collider about her status on Deadpool 3 and if she has spoken to Marvel Studios/Disney about reprising the Domino role. She hasn’t talked to anyone about Domino but is interested in returning and even mentioned a desire to make a Domino movie.

BEETZ: “No, I haven’t [heard about Domino’s return]. I would love to revive the role. That was always in the world of what was potentially going to happen. I haven’t had any specific conversations around it. But I’m interested. Not only would I love to revive the role, I would love to figure out a way to make a Domino movie or something like that. We’ll see what happens, but I haven’t had any personal conversations.”

While a solo Domino movie might be a hard sell given how busy the Marvel feature film schedule tends to be, I could totally see the mutant character getting her own series either on Disney+ or Star (their new mature arm on Disney+) to help expand the Deadpool/X-Men universe.

We don’t really know the direction or plot of the third film outside of the brief comment on Twitter from Ryan suggesting they originally wanted to make a road trip film with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. However, at that point Hugh had retired the X-Men character after Logan and would explain why their focus pivoted to X-Force after the release of Deadpool 2. It’s possible they’ve scrapped all that stuff and are doing something completely different as they’ve replaced former screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.

Deadpool 3 doesn’t have release or production dates as a director has yet to be chosen, but there is a really good chance depending on Ryan’s busy schedule that Marvel Studios could begin shooting the sequel sometime in 2022 for a release in 2023-2024.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’ Connects To At Least 3 Upcoming MCU Projects & Kevin Feige Says There Are “Certainly Ideas” For Season 2

As fans will be trying to figure-out the upcoming Easter Eggs and cameos in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, showrunner Malcolm Spellman spoke to Entertainment Weekly revealing the show will indeed have connections to at least three unnamed MCU projects.

The answers to these questions will have drastic impacts on the MCU moving forward. Similar to how WandaVision leads directly into the film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Spellman says he can think of three projects off the top of his head that tie into The Falcon and the Winter Soldier that he’s “not allowed to talk about.”

Don Cheadle has confirmed he’ll be appearing as Rhodey aka War Machine, which likely means that Armor Wars will have an obvious connection to the series. There are also expectations that it could tie-into things such as She-Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and maybe even a yet-to-be-announced Thunderbolts project.

I’m also curious if Marvel will make an announcement concerning Captain America 4 starring Anthony Mackie, because the actor had once teased in older interviews that he felt the series was meant to line-up his own wave of Captain America films.

After WandaVision, I think fans would be smart to just pump the breaks with the speculation that characters such as Wolverine or Omega Red will be showing up to keep expectations in a realistic realm (even if Madripoor will be a location). The online fan community stoked WandaVision theories to the point that there was sort of a backlash when characters like Reed Richards and Doctor Strange didn’t show up, despite zero evidence that was actually going to happen.

There seems to be enough real connections in the new series that should make fans happy.

While a Season 2 hasn’t been announced and Kevin Feige has previously prepped fans that some of the Disney+ shows don’t currently have plans for multiple seasons. He mentioned during a press conference via Deadline that there are ideas for Falcon’s Season 2. Although, he stopped short from confirming they would be doing that.

FEIGE: “We get asked [that question] much more in television, because people expect it to be like what they know before: Where’s Season 2? We approached it like the movies: We better make this great, because we won’t be able to do another one. If we’re able to do another one, there’s certainly ideas.”

Directed by Kari Skogland, the Marvel series has a cast that consists of Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Daniel Bruhl, Emily VanCamp, Wyatt Russell, Erin Kellyman, George St. Pierre, Adepero Oduye, Veronica Falcon, Desmond Chiam, Carl Lumbly, Miki Ishikawa, and Amy Aquino.

The Falcon & The Winter Soldier will debut on Disney+ this Friday and will have 6-episodes, three less than WandaVision.

SOURCE: ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY & DEADLINE

NoobMaster69 From ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Revealed To Be ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s Aaron Played By D.C. Pierson

A new Xbox ad to help promote the upcoming series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier sees he return of D.C. Pierson’s tech-guy character Aaron last seen from Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Aaron revealing at the end of the ad that his gamer-tag is NoobMaster69, a player that was bothering Thor and Korg in scenes from Avengers: Endgame.

You can see the ad below.

It’s certainly interesting to see an ad where you have two actors in-character.

The Falcon & The Winter Soldier debuts this Friday on Disney+.

SOURCE: MICROSOFT

Marvel’s ‘Secret Invasion’ Series Reportedly Adds Kingsley Ben-Adir As A Lead Villain

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.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Box Office Record Reverts From ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Back To ‘Avatar’ Thanks To Re-Release In China

Deadline is reporting that estimates from China’s box office has given Avatar enough money from the re-release to have surpassed Avengers: Endgame, giving the James Cameron sci-fi movie the box office title again making it the highest grossing film. That’s until Disney re-releases Avengers: Endgame and the record flips back to Marvel Studios at some point.

The China reissue of the 2009 3D sci-fi phenomenon had taken an estimated RMB 58M ($8.9M) through 5PM local time on Saturday after re-releasing on Friday in the market. This closes and surpasses what was a $7.82M gap between the two films prior to China’s resissue. Disney/Marvel’s Endgame previously snapped up the top global crown from Avatar in July 2019. The current (and fluid) Avatar global total is an estimated $2,798,579,794 versus Endgame‘s $2,797,501,328.

It’ll be interesting to see if the domestic or global box office will ever fully recover from the COVID-19 pandemic as many don’t believe we’ll see blockbuster movies surpassing $1-2 billion grosses any time soon. While certain international markets might be able to go back to “normal” sooner than places that were harder hit by the virus such as the United States.

The re-release comes at an important time as James Cameron is prepping to release four Avatar sequels and making sure Chinese audiences remember the franchise will be a key element of those films making top-dollar when they’re eventually released starting with Avatar 2 in December 2022. I’m extremely curious to see if Jim can replicate the success of the original film four more times.

Filming on the multiple sequels has been taking place in California for the motion-capture portion and the live-action scenes being shot at Stone Street Studios in Wellington, New Zealand. Hopefully, we’ll end up getting a teaser trailer for Avatar 2 before the end of the year from Disney/20th Century Studios.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

‘Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania’ Working Title Is ‘Dust Bunny’

Production Weekly has listed the working title of Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania as Goat Rodeo, a slang term meant to be used when things go really bad aka a shitshow. Fitting given that Jonathan Majors will be playing the Marvel Comics villain Kang The Conqueror.

UPDATE: Production Weekly seemingly got their wires-crossed as Goat Rodeo is Captain Marvel 2 and Dust Bunny is the working title of the Ant-Man sequel.

A goat rodeo is a slang term for something going totally, unbelievably, disastrously wrong, and there’s nothing left to do but to sit back and watch the trainwreck. In other words, a goat rodeo is a chaotic situation, fiasco, or, more vulgarly, a shitshow.

Filming according to actress Evangeline Lilly, will begin sometime this summer.

We can confirm that production is mainly taking place in England and they’ve hired production designer Will Htay (Andor).

Other recent working titles for the Marvel Studio films include Blue Bayou (Black Widow), Sack Lunch (Eternals), Steamboat (Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings), The November Project (Spider-Man: No Way Home), Stellar Vortex (Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness), and The Big Salad (Thor: Love & Thunder).

Peyton Reed returns to direct after tackling two episodes of The Mandalorian in it’s second season including it’s finale that featured a de-aged Luke Skywalker.

Marvel/Disney has yet to give the sequel an official release date, even if it’s said to be aiming a for date in 2022.

SOURCE: PRODUCTION WEEKLY

‘Black Widow’: Disney CEO Bob Chapek Reaffirms May Theatrical Release

Yesterday, Disney had a shareholders meeting and CEO Bob Chapek said again that Marvel’s Black Widow solo film is sticking to it’s May 7th release date. Never mentioning a hybrid release on Disney+ for the Marvel Studios flick, something fans have been hoping since a full year ago.

The film directed by Cate Shortland takes place between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War before the death of Natasha in Avengers: Endgame, the idea is that the Black Widow mantle is going to be handed down for future films and shows. Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova is also returning for the Hawkeye series set to begin airing on Disney+ in late 2021 but the size of her role hasn’t been confirmed.

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.

SOURCE: DISNEY