You might remember that Marvel Studios almost lost access to Spider-Man not too long ago and that Spider-Man 3 would have been strictly a Sony Pictures affair with Marvel sitting on the sidelines as their initial deal had expired. Luckily, Tom Holland was able to convince both Sony’s Tom Rothman and Disney’s Bob Iger to see eye-to-eye hatching a new smaller deal that would allow Marvel to make Spider-Man 3 and Holland to appear in one more MCU film.
A new rumor coming from The Disinsider Show (via The Direct) suggests that that two-picture deal has seemingly been extended, however, they weren’t forthcoming with details as to how many films are involved along with if Marvel Studios would be getting involved with any of the upcoming Sony Pictures projects like Kraven The Hunter.
While this is very likely given that Marvel would most likely want access to various Sony characters in the future (Miles Morales feels like a no-brainer), as with most rumors take with a pinch of salt. There are a couple of things that might have telegraphed this deal being in the works.
Last week, Kevin Feige confirmed that Spider-Man 3 would directly interconnect with Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness all but confirming yet another crossover there. We’ve assumed for months that this was going to be the MCU film in the second deal given that the productions are close to each other and that Benedict Cumberbatch is confirmed to appear in Spider-Man 3.
It was also announced that Jon Watts will be directing their Fantastic Four reboot after tackling a trilogy of Spider-Man films (second feature film reboot of the hero) and since Spider-Man debuted in the pages of Fantastic Four it wouldn’t terribly shocking if they attempt to at least get a cameo from Peter Parker in there.
A Spider-Woman film is reportedly in the works at Sony Pictures from director Olivia Wilde, which would likely feature Jessica Drew, a character that Marvel Studios is said to have access to as she debuted outside of the Spider-Man comic books having more ties to MCU groups such as S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA, S.W.O.R.D., and the Avengers. She also plays a role in the Secret Invasion (now a Disney+ series) as it’s revealed Drew is actually Skrull Queen Veranke and happens to be pals with Carol Danvers in the comics making a crossover into Captain Marvel 2 a strong possibility. While Marvel’s involvement is assumed by fans this has yet to be made official but it’s very likely.
There has been some rumblings that Kraven will appear in Spider-Man 3, but this has yet to be officially confirmed by either trades or Marvel themselves. A solo feature film directed by J.C. Chandor (Triple Frontier, A Most Violent Year) has been in the works for some time and if Kraven does appear in Spider-Man 3 might suggest that his solo film might be considered part of the MCU. It’s worth pointing out that Kraven’s development has been taking place even before the Spider-Man 3 drama. At one point, there had been talk that Spider-Man would show up in the film.
Other Marvel projects in the works at Sony include a Madame Web movie from S.J. Clarkson, a Jackpot movie, and a live-action Silk series. They had also once been developing a Sinister Six film with Drew Goddard before the Holland reboot, it’s looking very likely that the group of villains may cameo in the next Spidey pic.
In theory, if there is an extension it could mean that Marvel gets to make Spider-Man 4 along with possibly adding him in future films like Avengers 5 or Fantastic Four. With the reasons given Marvel could put their tentacles into things like Sony’s Spider-Woman and other spinoffs.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see if this will be Tom Holland’s send-off or if Marvel will double-down on his incarnation of Spider-Man.
Universal has secured the rights to the upcoming murder mystery novel The Maid written by Nita Prose, which won’t even be published at Penguin Random House/HarperFiction until 2022. Deadline also reports that Midsommar-breakout actress Florence Pugh is set to play the role of Molly the maid in the new film, however, a director nor screenwriter were named at this time.
Set at the Regency Grand Hotel, where Molly the maid leaves every room perfect and pristine, while getting to know each guest’s dirty secrets. A Clue-like, locked-room whodunnit, The Maid explores Molly’s descent into the murderous underbelly of her gilded workplace, while telling a timely story about the strengths of our differences.
Florence has been having an interesting career so far with credits that include The Outlaw King, the AMC series The Little Drummer Girl, Little Women, and will be seen next in the solo Black Widow film opposite Scarlett Johansson. There are even reports she’s already primed to reprise the Yelena Belova role in the Hawkeye series which is currently in production. The actress is currently filming the New Line Cinema thriller Don’t Worry Darling from director Olivia Wilde.
It certainly sounds like genre got a large shot-in-the-arm thanks to Rian Johnson’s popular Knives Out and we expect to see more movies of these types being announced in the future alongside Rian’s untitled sequel.
During the Marvel Studios presentation at the Disney Investor Day, Kevin Feige revealed that Ms Marvel actress Iman Vellani would be co-starring with Brie Larson in Captain Marvel 2, but would be appearing first in Kamala Khan’s solo series first and would begin airing on Disney+ in late 2021.
The rest of the cast announced by Disney/Marvel will include Aramis Knight, Saagar Shaikh, Rish Shah, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, Matt Lintz, Yasmeen Fletcher, Laith Naki, Azher Usman, Travina Springer and Nimra Bucha.
Ms. Marvel, launching on Disney+ in late 2021, is a new series that introduces Kamala Khan—a 16-year-old Pakistani-American growing up in Jersey City. A great student, an avid gamer and a voracious fan-fiction scribe, she has a special affinity for superheroes, particularly Captain Marvel. But Kamala struggles to fit in at home and at school—that is, until she gets super powers like the heroes she’s always looked up to. Life is easier with super powers, right?
The Badlands actor Aramis Knight confirmed on Instagram he’ll be playing Kareem aka Red Dagger.
Another interesting Marvel tidbit announced from the Disney Investor Day events last week is that the She-Hulk series has officially added director Anu Valia. Some of Anu’s credits include Love Life, A.P. Bio, Mixed-ish, and Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens. She also recently worked on the series Love, Victor.
Kat Corio had been previously named as one of the directors as well and was announced by Marvel.
She-Hulk, a new comedy series coming to Disney+, stars Tatiana Maslany as She-Hulk/Jennifer Walters, a lawyer who specializes in superhuman-oriented legal cases. She-Hulk will welcome a host of Marvel characters to the series.
Kevin Feige confirmed during the Marvel presentation that the cast will include Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk, and the return of Tim Roth‘s Emil Blonsky aka The Abomination. Roth previously playing the villain in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk and there had been previous rumors that Blonsky could be part of a Thunderbolts project.
Did he also tease that characters like lawyer Matt Murdock aka Daredevil or potential client Peter Parker aka Spider-Man might be showing up in the series? Check out the brief hint Kevin made below.
FEIGE: “And since Jennifer Walters is a lawyer that specializes specifically in superhero oriented legal cases you never know what Marvel characters might pop-up from episode to episode.”
I guess we’ll have to wait and see what characters he is actually teasing here.
However, it is worth mentioning that Spider-Man 3 director Jon Watts is working on a Fantastic Four film and She-Hulk at one time was a member on that roster, making her a strong contender to play a role in the MCU reboot alongside Spider-Man. Tom Holland’s Peter Parker originally made his comic book debut in the pages of Fantastic Four. However, if Holland’s finally MCU film is the Doctor Strange sequel it might be unlikely we’ll see him show up.
Filming on She-Hulk was reported to begin this March in Atlanta, Georgia which would suggest the series is heading towards a release in 2022 on Disney+.
Brian D’Arcy James has officially joined the cast of Hawkeye according to Marvel Studios and Disney. He was part of the Best Picture Winner Spotlight that featured a stellar cast that happened to include many Marvel Cinematic Universe alumni such as Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Stanley Tucci, and John Slattery.
Spotlight is a personal favorite and the drama is worth checking out if you haven’t already.
The news was announced as part of the Disney Investor Day event from last week and we have missed the casting tidbit in the shuffle.
Marvel also confirmed many other casting additions such as Vera Farmiga, Fra Fee, Tony Dalton, Zahn McClarnon, and newcomer Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez aka Echo. These names had been previously reported on. Filming on the series has been taking place in NYC with mostly exterior shots featuring Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton and Hailee Steinfeld as Barton’s young protege Kate Bishop. The production will eventually move back down to Atlanta.
While not announced by Marvel, there are reports that revealed characters such as Clown, The Swordsman, and Florence Pugh‘s Yelena Belova will be part of the lineup.
As previously reported by The Ronin, Marvel Studios is indeed aiming for Hawkeye to begin airing in late 2021 on Disney+ along with Ms. Marvel. This means there will be five live-action shows coming to Disney+ from Marvel next year not to mention the four feature films.
Marvel Studios had a rather large presentation at last week’s Disney Investor Day event and Kevin Feige had a lot of information to share in such a short period. Below is a rundown of most of the new information and adjusted release dates.
What seemed like the biggest announcement made during the massive amount of information was that director Jon Watts has been selected by the studio to reboot The Fantastic Four for them. Watts having worked with Marvel Studios to reboot the Spider-Man franchise with Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and the untitled Spider-Man 3 (currently filming in Atlanta as The November Project).
When Fantastic Four will begin shooting is unknown as Jon will be busy with Spider-Man 3 until it’s release in 12 months and they failed to mention any screenwriters. This will mark the first Marvel film for Watts that won’t have Sony Pictures’ involvement and might suggest that he won’t be coming back for Spider-Man 4.
Fandom has collectively chosen to campaign for John Krasinski and Emily Blunt to play the roles of Mister Fantastic and The Invisible Woman, however, there hasn’t been any concrete casting news concerning the project as it only just got confirmed.
Feige had telegraphed back at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 that Fantastic Four was the priority former Fox property they were aiming to reboot ahead of the X-Men. There is a possibility that Dr. Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm could appear in other films first.
One of the more frustrating things concerning Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings is that they kept most of the cast unofficial for the entirety of the shoot but they’ve now announced a good chunk of the cast, while not all of them. The cast so far includes actors Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Tony Leung as Wenwu aka The Mandarian, Awkwafina as Katy, Meng’er Zhang as Xialing, Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, Ronny Chieng as Jon Jon, Fala Chen as Jiang Li, and Florian Munteanu as villain William Young aka Razor Fist.
Shang-Chi along with Black Widow are still set to be released in theaters, not on Disney+, with the Destin Daniel Cretton martial arts action film set for July 9, 2021.
Director Sam Raimi has started filming Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness is officially shooting and will not only connect to WandaVision but also Jon Watts’ Spider-Man 3. While Kevin didn’t confirm it, there is a good chance that Tom Holland‘s Peter Parker and other characters carrying over to the Doctor Strange sequel.
However, he did confirm that that Xochitl Gomez will be playing America Chavez aka Miss America. The young newcomer joins Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as villain Baron Mordo.
It’s release date is set for March 25, 2022.
We finally know Christian Bale‘s character in Thor: Love & Thunder as he’ll play the film’s villain Gorr The God Butcher. A role we assume will be done with motion-capture given the design of his comic book counterpart.
Deadline recently reported that Jaimie Alexander will reprise the role of Lady Sif.
The rest of the cast consists of Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, and director Taika Waititi will return to the role of Korg.
Filming begins next month in Australia and it’s release date has been moved once more to May 6, 2022.
Captain Marvel 2 director Nia DaCosta was finally confirmed alongside the return of Brie Larson as Carol Danvers. New additions to the franchise are Ms. Marvel‘s Iman Vellani co-starring as Kamala Khan and WandaVision actress Teyonah Parris as the adult version of Monica Rambeau aka Spectrum.
There is a good chance that it will connect to Secret Invasion as it will also shoot in the United Kingdom.
The film’s date was bumped to November 11th, 2021.
Marvel revealed the title for Ant-Man 3 will be Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania. Peyton Reed will be back as director with Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lily, Michael Douglas, and Michelle Pfeiffer returning as part of the main cast. The title suggesting the film will be entering the Quantum Realm or have strange things come out it.
The big announcement concerning the film is that Kathryn Newton (Freaky) has been recast as Cassie Lang aka Stature with rising-star Jonathan Majors (Lovecraft Country) confirmed as villain Kang The Conqueror. It remains to be seen if the third installment will help introduce The Fantastic Four before their own solo film from Jon Watts given Kang’s connection to the former 20th Century Fox heroes.
A release date wasn’t mentioned but is expected something in 2022.
James Gunn is officially back for Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3 with them aiming for a 2023 release date. They’re also developing a holiday special and Groot shorts for Disney+.
Kevin Feige didn’t give much in the way of details for Black Panther 2 but revealed they would not be recasting Chadwick Boseman‘s role of T’Challa. He stopped short from explaining what they are doing with the sequel and reaffirmed that writer/director Ryan Coogler is still working on the film.
While we suspect potential delays on the project, they announced the film is coming July 8th, 2022. The spot was previously held by Captain Marvel 2.
Marvel also announced another round of Disney+ shows.
The Nick Fury series was confirmed to be an adaption of Secret Invasion, which involved a bunch of humanity revealed as being replaced with Skrulls. In the comics, it was revealed that a bunch of Avengers were uncovered to be Skrulls too. As assumed, Samuel L. Jackson will reprise the Fury role with Ben Mendelsohn back as Skrull leader Talos.
The Fox portion of the Skrull rights via Fantastic Four are now in the hands of Marvel and could allow for Super-Skrulls to come into play becoming a big threat as they mimic superpowers of various Marvel Comics heroes.
It had been reported that Kyle Bradstreet would be developing the show.
There are signs the series will shoot in the United Kingdom around the same time as Captain Marvel 2, which could suggest a direct connection via S.W.O.R.D. and the Skrulls.
Olivia Wilde is reportedly directing a Spider-Woman film for Sony Pictures. It’s worth mentioning that Jessica Drew is an Agent of S.W.O.R.D. and is one of the characters in the comics revealed to be a Skrull (Veranke The Skrull Queen). Marvel’s participation on that film while assumed hasn’t been made official.
Don Cheadle will lead his own Disney+ series as War Machine titled Armor Wars.
If the series takes cues from the comic book series we could see the return of Sam Rockwell‘s Justin Hammer, another fan-favorite that is still kicking around in the MCU.
We could also see the addition of unused Iron Man villains such as the Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, and others.
An Ironheart series will star Dominique Thorne as whiz-kid Riri Williams, who creates her own advance armor. I wouldn’t be shocked if there happens to be a crossover with Armor Wars.
They revealed new trailers for their upcoming slate of Disney+ series including WandaVision (coming January 15,2021), The Falcon & The Winter Soldier (coming March 19, 2021), Loki (coming May 2021), and their animated series What If…? (coming summer 2021). The trailers give us the first look at X-Men location Madripoor in Falcon and the scale of the Loki series with teases of his return to Asgard.
Additional information concerning the upcoming shows includes that Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye will indeed be aiming for a 2021, something The Ronin reported on earlier this month. Kevin Feige providing an sizzle footage for the former which is impressive given it only recently started shooting in Atlanta.
With She-Hulk, Kevin confirmed that the cast will include Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk, and the return of Tim Roth‘s Abomination. The latter addition could help support previous chatter that we might see William Hurt‘s Thunder Bolt Ross and Liv Tyler‘s Betty Ross in the series as well bring most of The Incredible Hulk cast back.
I’m sure there are more things to be announced in the future as they hinted to upcoming news concerning Mahershala Ali‘s Blade. Although, I’m sure fans were a little upset they left-out Ryan Reynolds‘ Deadpool 3 or an update on the X-Men reboot. There is now overwhelming evidence that The Young Avengers are coming at some point given that most have been cast already.
Despite previous reports that Rachel McAdams wouldn’t be back as Christine Palmer aka Night Nurse in Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, Deadline now claims she is returning after all.
The more perplexing information shared in their article is that they believe that filming won’t being until May, however, this seemingly contradicts recent statements made by Benedict Cumberbatch and Empire Magazine that production is currently underway in the United Kingdom.
Sam Raimi will be directing the sequel with crew members The Ronin has been able to confirm will include cinematographer John Mathieson (Logan, X-Men: First Class) and production designer Charles Wood (Doctor Strange, Black Widow, Avengers: Infinity Wars, Avengers: Endgame).
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness is currently set for release on March 25th, 2022.
In the wake of WarnerMedia’s shocking announcement that 17 films in 2021 will be heading to HBO Max with a new day-and-date model, there had been continued fan speculation that Disney would announce something similar to that with their own 2021 lineup of films. However, multiple outlets have repeatedly suggested otherwise and another tidbit from the New York Times is claiming that despite what WarnerMedia is planning to do, Disney will not be throwing the Marvel Studios film Black Widow on the streaming service.
And some of Disney’s biggest movies will continue to receive exclusive runs in theaters before arriving on the company’s streaming services. For instance, contrary to widespread speculation, Black Widow, a much-anticipated Marvel spectacle, will remain on Disney’s theatrical release calendar for May 7, the people with knowledge of the presentation said.
This would likely mean that films such as Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings and Eternals will be spared from Disney+ dumps as well. We’ll ultimately know more later today thanks to the Disney Investor Day event which should shed some light on the roll-out of Marvel films in 2021 and beyond.
Fans have been feverishly trying to convince Disney to place Black Widow on Disney+ since the film’s original delays earlier in the year due to COVID-19, however, the company seems to be realistic after their experiment with Mulan on Premier Access (asking subscribers to pay $30 while the film is now free this month) turned out to be more of a let down.
It was recently confirmed that Florence Pugh will be reprising her Black Widow role of Yelena Belova in the Hawkeye series that is currently in production. The show will focus on Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton working alongside his new protege Kate Bishop played by Oscar nominated actress Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit, Bumblebee).
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.
Ever since Spider-Man: Far From Home was released there has been an assumption or speculation that Matt Murdock would be called in as a lawyer. Over the summer of 2019 there was all sorts of speculation concerning what would happen to Peter Parker now that he was being framed for the murder of Quentin Beck aka Mysterio.
The rumors kept swirling and even caught the attention of director/podcaster Kevin Smith, who off-handedly mentioned the rumor on his podcast Fatman Beyond back in March and had to clarify he wasn’t confirming anything.
Perspective: While I, too, hope this rumor is true, please remember that I only talked about it with @marcbernardin on #FatManBeyond after I read about it on the internet, just like everyone else. This means I have no inside info. Much like everybody else, I’m just a hopeful fan. https://t.co/t8Kn080UIY
In April of this year Daredevil star Charlie Cox spoke to Comic Book denying any involvement and even suggesting if the character was indeed part of Spider-Man 3 he wasn’t going to playing him.
COX: “I hadn’t heard those rumors, but it’s certainly not with my Daredevil. I’m not involved in it. If that’s true, it’s not with me. It’s with another actor.”
Murphy’s Multiverse, who are notably often accurate about production news are claiming that Cox has closed a deal with Marvel to reprise the role in Spider-Man 3 months ago but are unsure the scale of his appearance.
Murphy’s Multiverse has learned that Charlie Cox, star of the beloved Netflix show, is set to make his grand debut in the MCU in the third Spider-Man film in a deal that has been set in stone for several months now.
What happens beyond that appearance wasn’t elaborated to us but any logical person would think that a series is slated at some point in the MCU’s future.
If true, there might be some possible clues in recent casting calls spotted by The Ronin for the Spidey sequel.
A while back there were Spider-Man 3 casting calls in Atlanta for extras to play protesters and shoot for multiple days which suggested it might be for court house scenes. I could see folks outside the court protesting the trial of Parker but that would need to be confirmed once those set photos come in revealing what the protests are actually about via signs or slogans. They’ve been casting high school students for scenes at Parker’s school and one casting call for various people to play “Madison Citizens”, what’s interesting is that the law offices of Nelson & Murdock is mentioned on one of the Wikis as being located in or near Madison Avenue and that Marvel Comics offices used to be there as well.
They are also casting various detectives and criminals for Spider-Man 3, further pointing towards legal/court troubles for Peter.
These scenes are expected to take place in January and some like the ones featuring protesters will be shot outdoors.
If there is a deal in place a trade will likely attempt to confirm the information as The Hollywood Reporter recently did with GWW’s scoop that Alfred Molina would be reprising the role of Doctor Otto Octavius aka Doctor Octopus (despite dying in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2) in Spider-Man 3.
Collider recently echoed previous online rumors that Andrew Garfield and Kirsten Dunst would be returning for Spider-Man 3 alongside talk of there are plans to have Tobey Maguire and Emma Stone come back as well.
Set photos from the NYC set of Marvel’s upcoming series Hawkeye have made their way online and gives fans their first look at Kate Bishop’s superhero costume. You can check out the latest set photos with Hailee Steinfeld’s Bishop all suited-up alongside Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton.
First Look: At Hailee Steinfeld in-costume as #KateBishop in the upcoming #Hawkeye series
The rest of the cast includes Florence Pugh confirmed to reprise the Black Widow role of Yelena Belova, Alaqua Cox is Maya Lopez aka Echo, Vera Farmiga is playing Kate Bishop’s mother Eleanor, Fra Fee is playing Kazi aka Clown, Tony Dalton is playing Jack Duquesne aka Swordsman, and Zahn McClarnon is playing William Lopez (Maya’s father).
Previous set photos suggested the series will take place around 2025, well after the events of Avengers: Endgame. However, we could still see flashbacks to Barton’s dark patch as Ronin between Infinity War and Endgame.
Hawkeye is part of the first wave of live-action Marvel shows at Disney+ that also includes WandaVision, The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, Loki, She-Hulk, Moon Knight, and another show will reportedly focused on Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury.
According to Deadline, Disney is going to announce new Marvel Studios projects this week at their Investor Day 2020 event, which could include some updates on when they plan on releasing upcoming projects on Disney+ along with new movies.
THE RONIN 