Actor Idris Elba is currently in Australia shooting the George Miller film Three Thousand Years of Longing and given the proximity to Marvel’s Thor: Love & Thunder production there is some speculation he could end up reprising the Heimdall role.
There is a potential hint that could end up happening.
A new Instagram photo posted by Chris Hemsworth over the weekend on from an 1980s birthday party features himself with Matt Damon and Elba.
You might be asking why would Heimdall be coming back? He was killed-off in Avengers: Infinity War. True, but there are teases from the Loki trailer Elba might have shot a cameo for that Disney+ series (Loki mentions Heimdall by name) alongside Jaimie Alexander’s Lady Sif (also expected for Love & Thunder). There are a few ways to have Heimdall come back, The Multiverse and flashbacks being the most reasonable options.
Oscar-winner Christian Bale was confirmed by Marvel Studios in December as playing the film’s alien villain Gorr The God Butcher.
Filming has been underway since last month at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney with multiple Guardians of The Galaxy actors spotted on the set.
However, unlike other actors we know that Idris is specifically there for another movie production and his presence in Australia doesn’t automatically mean he’ll end up in the film. There is just an extremely good chance that it happens.
Last week, it was finally revealed that everything bad that was happening withing the Hex bubble was Agnes, who was rumored during production is actually Agatha Harkness. Not exactly a villain in the comic books, but seeming is a villain in the MCU. Episode 8 starts off showing her in the 1600s killing her own coven of witches including her own mother and potentially stealing their powers after they accuse her of using dark magic.
Agatha, a witch who uses spells, has been trying to figure out how Wanda was able to change reality and resurrect Vision. She uses the twins as a way to force Wanda show her how she was able to change things on such a large scale and I assume steal the power for herself. Yet again, it’s confirmed that Evan Peters version of Pietro isn’t Wanda’s brother and was used to manipulate her. Sorry folks, no Singerverse era of X-Men for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
While Agatha has been meddling, it’s really was Wanda behind the Hex and bringing an entirely new version of Vision out of thin air. Something that completely puzzles/frustrates Agatha as Wanda is able to do such “magic” effortlessly and without spells.
Watching old sitcoms being Wanda’s way of dealing with grief and explaining the homages, as her father Oleg Maximoff used to bring them home as a way for the kids to practice their English. This further illustrates that Magneto won’t be showing up in some secret cameo.
During the flashbacks it’s revealed that Hayward lied in earlier episodes when he said Wanda broke into the S.W.O.R.D. facility and stole Vision’s body parts, as we see see a flashback to her being let in and calmly leaving without him.
We also see the real motivations of S.W.O.R.D. and Director Hayward as they were trying to nudge Wanda to resurrect the dead body of Vision so they could use him as a weapon. Wanda conjures a new version of Vision which is likely why Hayward had been attempting to track him within the Hex bubble. Hayward and S.W.O.R.D. have been trying to figure out how to power-up Vision and in the end credit scene use the Hex charged drone to bring their version of zombie Vision back online. He’s is now ghostly white (a nod to the comic books) and will likely be used as a weapon against Wanda in the next episode.
The episode ends with Harkness holding the twins and calling Wanda the Scarlet Witch as she uses chaos magic, the first time Wanda has ever been referred to her X-Men name.
Episode 9 feels like it’s going to be some sort of standoff and possible establish the events of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness. It’s a smart move on the part of Marvel Studios as people following WandaVision will likely be more inclined to go see the Doctor Strange sequel. The original while a fine installment, but wasn’t the most memorable or anticipated Marvel film to date and didn’t set the box office on fire.
It’ll be interesting to see if further trauma (possibly in Episode 9) pushes Wanda to become a villain herself or if Agatha/someone else is revealed as the main antagonist for the Doctor Strange sequel.
Yesterday, it was announced by Marvel/Sony that the third Spider-Man film will be titled Spider-Man: No Way Home and it’s lead actor Tom Holland has been doing the press tour for his upcoming crime flick Cherry, revealing some interesting plans in an interview with USA Today.
Holland revealed that he plans to take a break and travel (hopefully safety given the pandemic) as he’s currently without a studio contract which means his current Marvel contract has ended with Spider-Man: No Way Home. Mentioning he’d like to take to go skiing as he wasn’t allowed to previous because the danger of injury.
HOLLAND: “I’m going to take a break and travel the world. It’s the first time since I signed on to (Spider-Man: Homecoming) that I don’t have a contract with someone. I might go skiing because that’s something I’ve not really been allowed to do because it’s obviously a dangerous sport. I’ve been very careful over the years, which is why I’ve become obsessed with golf because it’s the only sport I can play without getting injured.”
He reiterated this over at Collider but added he’d be willing to come back whenever they called.
HOLLAND: “[Spider-Man 3] would be my last one [under contract] so I’ve always said to them if they want me back I’ll be there in a heartbeat. I’ve loved every minute of being a part of this amazing world. It’s changed my life for the better, I’m so lucky to be here. If they want me back I’ll be there, if they don’t I will walk off into the sunset a very, very happy person because it’s been an amazing journey.”
“The way I understand it is that agreement between the two studios has already happened. I don’t think that they’re going to run into the same troubles that they did as we were going into… was it ‘Spider-Man 2’? ‘Far from Home’ had come out and then the whole thing happened between Sony and Marvel. I think the two studios have worked that out, and I don’t think that that will be a problem in the future. That said, I’m just the actor and I was a part of a few phone calls during that process, but I think they love working with each other, I think they found a way in which it can be beneficial for both studios, and I’m just kind of like a kid in the middle of it, between two parents during an argument (laughs).”
Given that Tom shot Cherry, Uncharted, and Spider-Man: No Way Out in a short period of time he’s certainly owed some vacation time.
Spider-Man: No Way Home will be released on December 17th.
During the TCA (via Deadline), Marvel’s Kevin Feige talked a little about Deadpool 3 and the reasoning behind keeping an R-rating that was previously established with the first two films. He seems to allude that they’re not rushing out to make a whole bunch of mature projects but if that something deserves it they’ll have discussions.
FEIGE: “I think we target everything we’re doing for kids and adults, so I think your question is more adult or R-rated. Other than Deadpool, which has already established itself as a certain genre and a certain rating, that we already said we would not mess with when we started working on Deadpool — which we have — other than that, we haven’t encountered a story or a storyline or a character’s journey that a PG-13, or the tone, or the ratings we’ve been using up to this point has prevented us. We haven’t been held back by. If we ever are, than certainly there can be a discussion that can be had now that there’s other outlets like Star. But that just hasn’t been the case. We’ve told all the stories that we wanted to with the tonality and the rating we have now.”
I think Star certainly opens the door for mature series in the future but I don’t think we’ll see PG-13 characters make the jump to R out of the blue.
However, the way Kevin Feige talks about audiences having expectations about future Deadpool movies being mature feels like that point of view could be applied to the Blade franchise too. It was recently announced that the Blade reboot, titled Blade, The Vampire Hunter, nabbed a screenwriter Stacy Osei-Kuffour (Hunters, Watchmen), but it hasn’t been officially confirmed if they’ll be aiming for a PG-13 or R-rating.
I think it’s worth considering that all three Blade movies are mature (Feige was a producer on Blade: Trinity) and given that Eric Brooks essentially murderers blood drinking vampires an R-rating just might be needed due the nature of the Vampire Nation and the violence the franchise is know for, not unlike the Deadpool films.
Blade really should be essentially an action-horror version of John Wick, but watering down the violence or horror stuff for a PG-13 rating feels like a really bad idea on Marvel’s part. I love the Blade franchise but the films aren’t exactly character driven and while Marvel Studios will likely add that element taking away things we expect seems wrong.
A scene like the blood rave just couldn’t happen in a PG-13 film because of how the MPAA punishes movies for their use of blood. Marvel Studios movies certainly have their fair share of violence but nothing that compares to Blade.
We’ve seen PG-13 and R versions of both Wolverine and Punisher, but traditionally we know as Blade as a mature anti-hero just like Wade Wilson.
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.
While speaking during Disney+’s virtual panel at TCA (via Deadline), Marvel’s Kevin Feige says the studio doesn’t have plans to give WandaVision a second season, despite it’s huge popularity. The idea was for the show to directly lead into Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, currently filming in London. However, Kevin doesn’t rule-out making a second season at some point.
FEIGE: “I’ve been at Marvel too long to say a definite ‘No’ to anything as far as a second season of WandaVision.”
“The fun of the MCU is obviously all the crossover we can do between series, between films. So it will vary based on the story. Sometimes it will go into a season 2, sometimes it will go into a feature and back into a series…Sometimes, and yet to be announced, we’re thinking of and planning second seasons for some of the upcoming series.”
The LLC for the Loki series hinted to the series getting multiple seasons and we already know that Michael Waldron will be back for Season 2. Other Disney+ shows such as Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk feel like shows that could also get multiple seasons.
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.
Tom Holland, Jacob Batalon, and Zendaya have been trolling fans yesterday posting faux titles for Spider-Man 3, but have now revealed it’s official title being Spider-Man: No Way Home. It was announced on Holland’s Instagram and confirmed by Marvel on their official website, so we know it’s real this time.
Could the title be a potential nod to the rumored Multiverse aspect of the film and Doctor Strange’s involvement? We know that Benedict Cumberbatch will be appearing in the sequel but how much or why hasn’t been revealed.
Tom Holland has stated repeatedly in interviews that former Spider-Man actors won’t be appearing in the film but trade reports have confirmed that actors such Jamie Foxx and Alfred Molina will be, the duo playing Electro and Doctor Octopus in the previous two incarnations of the franchise.
It’s worth mentioning that Marvel and Sony haven’t announced any new cast members.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is still filming in Atlanta and will be released on December 17th, barring any studio hiccups with Sony’s feature film schedule.
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.
THE RONIN 