Tag: Marvel Studios

Posted on in Film News

‘Black Panther 2’: Kevin Feige Reaffirms Marvel Won’t Use A CGI Chadwick Boseman In Sequel

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.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Kevin Feige Not Sure ‘Black Widow’ Will Ultimately Become Disney+ Exclusive & Phase 4 Films Weren’t Affected By Pandemic

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.”

SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES & DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Kevin Feige Refuses To Comment On When Marvel’s Phase 4 Ends

People after San Diego Comic-Con 2019 started making theories on when Phase 4 would end that led to plenty of assumptions what would end up becoming Phase 5 projects, however, a brief comment from Kevin Feige is suggesting he’s not ready to say when Phase 4 is ending and when Phase 5 begins. Because of the pandemic Phase 4 will kick-off with WandaVision instead of Black Widow, which was originally set to be released in May 2020.

Murphy’s Multiverse asked Kevin Feige during a WandaVision press conference for clarification if the Marvel Studios president would reveal when in the release schedule we’ll see the end of Phase 4 and got a straight-up “no” in response.

We’ll just have to wait and see when they want to reveal that information publicly.

It’s worth mentioning that Phase 3 included 11 feature films starting with Captain America: Civil War and ended with Spider-Man: Far From Home. There is a good chance that Marvel might extend Phase 4 further than where they originally wanted.

I think the delays in release could also make things a little more complicated.

Something like James Gunn’s Guardians of The Galaxy 3 might be something that could end Phase 4 if they want to push the slate into 2023-2024.

WandaVision begins airing on Disney+ starting January 15th.

Here’s a reminder of the current MCU movies that are set for release and is still subject to change.

  • BLACK WIDOW – May 7th, 2021
  • SHANG-CHI – July 9th, 2021
  • ETERNALS – November 5th, 2021
  • SPIDER-MAN 3 – December 17th, 2021
  • DOCTOR STRANGE 2 – March 25th, 2022
  • THOR: LOVE & THUNDER – May 6th, 2022
  • BLACK PANTHER 2 – July 8th, 2022
  • CAPTAIN MARVEL 2 – November 11th, 2022
  • ANT-MAN 3 – TBA 2022
  • GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 3 – TBA 2023
  • BLADE – TBA
  • FANTASTIC FOUR – TBA
  • DEADPOOL 3 – TBA
  • X-MEN – TBA

SOURCE: MURPHY’S MULTIVERSE

Posted on in Film News

‘Spider-Man 3’: Kevin Feige Says Some Rumors “Couldn’t Be More Off The Mark”

Spider-Man 3 officially started shooting back in November under the working title of The November Project with director Jon Watts behind the camera and there have been waves of rumors concerning the project. Those rumors include it essentially becoming a Spider-Verse story, The Sinister Six looking like big villains of the film, the return of former Peter Parker actors, She-Hulk potentially being Peter’s lawyer, and most recently the big rumbling was Daredevil actor Charlie Cox returning. 

Most of these rumors have yet to be confirmed in official circles or even by Marvel. While speaking with Comic Book, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige stated that some of the Spider-Man 3 speculations aren’t very accurate, given the volume of them it shouldn’t be a surprise. 

FEIGE: “The fun thing about online speculation when it comes to our stuff is how sometimes it couldn’t be more off the mark and sometimes it’s shockingly close, and that’s held true for the last few years. But saying which is which would take all the fun out of everything.”

“The biggest clue is the title of the second Doctor Strange movie. That’s the biggest clue of where the Multiverse of Madness is taking us and how we’re exploring that.”

We can only further speculate which rumors Feige is talking about here.

Some things are officially known about the upcoming sequel as Kevin confirming that Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness is connected to it and this was signaled when Benedict Cumberbatch reportedly joined the character lineup. Both films shooting at the same time likely isn’t a coincidence. 

We’re also going to see Jamie Foxx as Electro and Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus stoking those Sinister Six expectations. 

Spider-Man 3 will eventually get an official title and has been set for release on December 17th, 2021. 

SOURCE: COMIC BOOK 

Posted on in Television News

‘Moon Knight’: Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead To Direct Multiple Episodes

The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Marvel Studios has hired indie directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead for their upcoming superhero series Moon Knight that will air exclusively on Disney+ and will begin shooting in March. The duo are said to be working on multiple episodes with Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Diab still directing the bulk of them.

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. 

Having multiple directors isn’t a new thing for the Marvel shows as it’s the same case for Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk.

Using the working title Good Faith, the Marvel show will be filming in Budapest, London, and possibly in the United States. Morocco had been recently used as a location for Black Widow and would make sense to double as Egypt, but the pandemic could make international filming a little trickier.

Star Wars actor Oscar Isaac had been in talks for the lead role of Marc Spector and the show’s cinematographer Gregory Middleton seemingly confirmed the actor on his Instagram account this week. There hadn’t been official confirmation as during Kevin Feige’s Marvel Studios presentation at the Disney Investor Day event in December, Oscar wasn’t mentioned in connection to Moon Knight puzzling many of us expecting a casting confirmation from Marvel.

We’ve been hearing that Disney+ is hoping that production could be completed in a timely manner allowing Moon Knight to be ready to begin airing in the spring/summer of 2022.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Television News

‘Moon Knight’ Cinematographer May Have Confirmed Oscar Isaac Has Landed Marc Spector Role

It looks like we finally have some confirmation concerning Moon Knight casting.

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. 

Gregory Middleton (Watchmen, Game of Thrones), the Marvel show’s cinematographer has seemingly confirmed on Instagram previous reports that Oscar Isaac has landed the role of Marc Spector aka Moon Knight.

The Star Wars actor had been in talks according to trade reporting but absent from Marvel Studios’ big Disney Investor Day presentation in December, while She-Hulk‘s Tatiana Maslany was officially announced by Kevin Feige.

Egyptian director Mohamed Diab had been recently announced for the series.

Production is confirmed for Budapest, Hungary where Middleston was located when he made the Instagram post. Budapest is a popular production locale which has been used for Marvel’s Black Widow, Showtime’s Halo series, Blade Runner 2049, Legendary’s Dune remake, The Martian, Red Sparrow, Terminator: Dark Fate, Bloodshot, Gemini Man, Midsommar, and the first season of Netflix’s The Witcher.

Filming under the working title Good Faith was said to begin in March with other filming locations expected to take place in London and the United States.

Morbius production designer Stefania Cella had confirmed her involvement on her website.

We are also hearing that Disney+ is hoping to have episodes of Moon Knight begin airing sometime in the spring of 2022, this will be all dependent if production goes smoothly in 2021 as the pandemic still marches on.

Casting announcements for other roles are coming soon.

SOURCE: GREGORY MIDDLETON

Posted on in Television News

‘Loki’ Writer Michael Waldron Returning For Season 2 Thanks To Overall Deal With Disney

Another tidbit mentioned in a report from Deadline revealing that screenwriter Michael Waldron is expected to return in some capacity for Season 2 of Loki after making a deal with Disney that includes working on Kevin Feige‘s untitled Star Wars movie for Lucasfilm.

We’ve known even before the Disney+ series set in the Multiverse began shooting that there were plans at Marvel to give the Tom Hiddleston series multiple seasons. It’s unclear if Kate Herron will return to direct Season 2 as they’re just about to complete filming Season 1 but there is a really good shot that her return will be announced in the near future.

Set photos have confirmed that we will be seeing Multiverse versions of Loki such as Lady Loki and it remains to be seen if Hiddleston’s Loki will be showing up in upcoming films that has the Multiverse connected to plots such as Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness or Thor: Love & Thunder.

There are plenty of other shows on the horizon for Marvel Studios and when they’ll want to begin shooting on a second season has yet to be confirmed.

Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye are currently in production with She-Hulk and Moon Knight said to begin filming in March. Other MCU shows that are in the works includes Armor Wars, Ironheart, and the crossover Skrull event Secret Invasion.

The first season will begin airing on the streaming service in May.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Kevin Feige’s ‘Star Wars’ Movie Reportedly Adds ‘Loki’ & ‘Doctor Strange 2’ Screenwriter Michael Waldron

Another big update concerning the Star Wars franchise as Deadline reports that the Kevin Feige-produced project has hired screenwriter Michael Waldron (Rick & Morty) to pen a script. Waldron recently working with Feige at Marvel Studios on both Loki and Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness

Feige is the head of Marvel Studios and Marvel’s chief creative officer, which would make this his first non-MCU project as producer since leading the studio. Lucasfilm hasn’t revealed any details about the new film or even what era within the timeline it will take place.

I’m sure people are curious if this means that Kevin will attempt to produce more films within the Star Wars Universe alongside the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It had been previously announced that the next feature film will be Patty Jenkins’ Star Wars: Rogue Squadron coming out on December 22nd, 2023. Taika Waititi is also developing another film which could go into production once he finishes Thor: Love & Thunder for Marvel and Rian Johnson had been announced to be working on an original trilogy for the studio.

There is a wave of Disney+ shows on the way with Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, Season 3 of The Mandalorian, Rangers of The New Republic, Ahsoka, Lando, and The High Republic era series The Acolyte.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Eternals’: Director Chloe Zhao Confirms She Was A Writer On The New Marvel Movie

We’ve been dying to see some footage from Chloe Zhao‘s upcoming Marvel Studios film Eternals as a trailer has yet to be released by the marketing department at Disney. The project is based on the obscure cosmic superhero team creating Jack “King” Kirby that had a limited run but led to characters like Sersi joining the ranks of The Avengers.

It sounds like Chloe had an extensive hand in the creative side of Eternals when it comes the script as she revealed during an interview with Margret Gardiner (spotted by The Playlist) that she is one of the writers on the film and briefly talked about that experience.

ZHAO: “I am the writer on Eternals, the credits just aren’t updated yet. I don’t know what it would be like if I didn’t write the film, if I wasn’t at least a huge part of the writing process. So yeah I haven’t experienced that in my career, I’m scared of that if that happens one day.”

“In the writing process, that’s sort of where I bring my sensibility in, that’s a huge part of it. And creating situations that will allow certain kinds of cinematic language to come in, that is something that I’ve learned from my last three films. I think what Marvel has been so incredible at – Kevin [Feige] and Nate [Moore] and the whole team – they knew from the moment I pitched the film, I really wanted the scope and scale at the same time as the intimacy. They knew I wanted both. They have been so incredible holding my hand through the entire process of allowing me to go as far as possible and as small as possible, and how that fits into the whole MCU. It’s been a pretty incredible process. You’ll have to wait and see.”

You can watch that full interview below which was to promote her upcoming film Nomandland which is already getting Oscar buzz.

Zhao wouldn’t be the only Marvel director to have added their own flare to the script of the project they’re working on as James Gunn and Taika Waititi had a similar process on their first films. The other two credited screenwriters are Kaz Firpo and Ryan Firpo.

It’s cast includes 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, and Don Lee as Gilgamesh.  

The reshoots for Eternals have seemingly already taken place late last year which should allow them plenty of time to focus on tweaking the visual effects before the potential release on November 5th.

SOURCE: MARGARET GARDINER

Posted on in Film News

Patty Jenkins Would Hypothetically Want To Tackle Marvel’s ‘Spider-Man’ & ‘Black Widow’ If Given The Chance

If Patty Jenkins ever decided to tackle other superheroes beyond Wonder Woman, we now have a pretty good idea of who she’d want to use. As a fan on Twitter has asked Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins that very question and her answer consisted of Superman, Spider-Man, and even Black Widow. 

JENKINS: “Thank you for the question. Probably Superman, Spiderman, or Black Widow! So much potential with all of them, always.”

You might remember that Patty Jenkins is currently assigned to direct Star Wars: Rogue Squadron for Lucasfilm making her part of that family of studios under the Disney umbrella. It’s expected to begin production sometime before the end of 2022 as the release date is set for December 22, 2023. 

There are a handful of examples of crossovers between Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios with Thor franchise’s Taika Waititi tackling both The Mandalorian and an untitled live-action feature film. Also, Ant-Man trilogy director Peyton Reed ended up directing two episodes in Season 2 even the emotional season finale. We can’t forget that Jon Favreau, who help usher-in the Marvel Cinematic Universe via Iron Man and Iron Man 2, spearheaded The Mandalorian series with Dave Filoni, producing three spinoffs that include The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and Rangers of The New Republic. Jon also continues to play the role of Happy Hogun, most recently appearing in the post-Avengers: Endgame film Spider-Man: Far From Home back in 2019. 

Despite rumors, there hasn’t been any official word of how Warner Bros. would like to pursue another Superman film beyond having the character potentially have cameos in other projects. There had been development on a Supergirl film but that seemingly has stalled.

Concerning Spider-Man, we don’t know if Sony/Marvel will extend their production deal despite some signals that could be happening behind closed doors as Olivia Wilde‘s Spider-Woman movie could be Sony/Marvel co-production. With Spider-Man 3 director Jon Watts announced for Marvel’s Fantastic Four reboot there is now an expectation he could be moving on to make a trilogy there making it less likely he’d return to make Spider-Man 4 and beyond leaving room for a new director to make a second trilogy, that’s if Sony/Marvel can play nice for another batch of movies. 

Having Patty get involved with Black Widow is an interesting proposition as it seems like Florence Pugh may end up taking that mantle as Yelena Belova in future MCU projects. Such as her reported involvement in the upcoming Hawkeye series that will be airing on Disney+ in late 2021. Yelena could lead a Black Widow franchise of films moving forward because of the death of Natasha during the events of Avengers: Endgame. 

I think it’ll be a long time before we know for sure if Patty will make Wonder Woman 3 or any other superhero films given the next couple of years will be dedicated to Star Wars: Rogue Squadron.