A new rumor from Collider makes the claim that both Andrew Garfield and Kirsten Dunst will be showing up in Marvel’s Spider-Man 3. Also they’re suggesting that Tobey Maguire and Emma Stone might be coming back as well, although, seemingly less confident they’re currently attached.
Just like Jamie Foxx’s Electro, Andrew Garfield will be back, and if Sony/Marvel can close a deal with Tobey Maguire, he’ll be back too. Kirsten Dunst will return as MJ, and I expect Emma Stone to reprise her role as Gwen Stacy, pregnancy permitting. Why? Because this third Spider-Man movie starring Tom Holland will delve into the multi-verse, just like its animated counterpart Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. I don’t think that’s a big secret at this point, so why do we pretend it is? Because we love the pageantry of it all.
However, the tone of the article is all over the place and I can’t really tell if this is actually sourced reporting or Collider simply echoing established online rumblings that have been circulating for months that Spider-Man 3 is expected to be some Spider-Verse/Multiverse combo along with the return of the aforementioned Spider-Man franchise actors. Possibly trying to make the connection from the confirmation that Alfred Molina is back as Doctor Octopus and Jamie Foxx as Electro.
The Multiverse theory is certainly one with teeth.
Benedict Cumberbatch is officially set to return as Doctor Strange in the Spider-Man sequel but the size of the crossover hasn’t been established since he’s filming Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness at the moment in Surrey, England with Sam Raimi (tackled the original Spider-Man trilogy) directing. Showing up in Spider-Man 3 would suggest that the Multiverse could be involved.
Spider-Man 3 is currently filming in Atlanta under the working title of The November Project and is set to be released on December 17th, 2021.
Last month, GWW reported that Spider-Man 2 actor Alfred Molina was spotted on the set of Spider-Man 3 sparking the rumor that he’d be returning to the role of Doctor Otto Octavius aka Doctor Octopus.
A source within Disney/Marvel has informed GWW that Alfred Molina will be returning to the Spider-Man franchise to reprise his role as the famed Doctor Octopus. Plot details are of course scarce as they always are with the super secretive Marvel productions, but we were informed Molina arrived on set a bit ago to work on some stunt choreography and has started filming his scenes in the past couple weeks.
Alfred Molina is putting back on the metal arms and will reprise his role as the villainous Doctor Octopus, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.
This is starting to feel like Marvel Studios is indeed assembling The Sinister Six as the villains of the film given that they’ve also brought back Jamie Foxx as the villain Electo and while this might seem like more confirmation of a Multiverse project. J.K. Simmons is another actor from the Sam Raimi era that seemingly has made the jump to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as seen returning to the role of J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man: Far From Home, but not back in the version from the original Raimi films.
One way for Marvel and Sony to simply use The Sinister Six without giving all six villains new origins and backstories is to bring back familiar faces that audiences already know as these characters. This is a neat way to bring back villains without too much of a heavy handed reboot of them, although, I personally believe Marvel may end up giving both Electro and Doctor Octopus character updates for the MCU. Even J. Jonah Jameson doesn’t seem his campy self and has certainly been altered to fit Marvel’s superhero universe as he looks to be more like an Alex Jones-type rather than an old timey newspaper man obsessed with Spider-Man photos.
Two other members could easily be Michael Keaton’s Vulture and Michael Mando’s Scorpion both could be part of the prison break suggested in the trailer for Jared Leto’s Morbius. Scorpion’s origin in the comics has a direct connection to J. Jonah Jameson but they’ve already established that he hates Spider-Man since he scared his face and sent him to prison.
Quentin Beck aka Mysterio faking his death also could be a possibly.
Its also worth pointing out that Sam Raimi is working on a Multiverse film with Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness (currently shooting at Longcross Studios) and Benedict Cumberbatch is reprising his role as Strange in Spider-Man 3, however, the scale of the superhero crossover isn’t known.
Spider-Man 3 is currently filming in Atlanta under the working title The November Project and is expected to swing into theaters on December 17th, 2021.
Filming on Marvel’s Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings has officially wrapped their shoot in Australia, however, the studio has yet to give more than four names of the actors that are in the film. We really only know that Simu Liu is playing Shang-Chi and Andy Lau is playing the real version of The Mandarin.
Lead actress Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians, The Farewell) who plays an unnamed lead character in the Marvel film recently spoke with Style Caster (spotted by The Direct) and talked a little bit about her role along with what they’re aiming to do with busting Asian tropes.
AWKWAFINA: “There’s a little bit of me in every character I play, which is a good and bad thing. I do feel like I can relate to her. I can’t say much about the role, but I can say that she is thrust into a world where she doesn’t really know what to do. At the same time, she’s discovering things about herself.”
“When you think about certain things that have characterized Asians and Asian Americans in American media, you think about things like kung fu and martial arts. While this movie is actually about that, we were able to work with world-class stunt teams of people where this is their livelihood. So the authenticity that the studio and Destin approached those tropes is very, very special.”
The film will see Marvel’s first Asian-led superhero film and might end up becoming another cultural landmark for the studio.
Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings is set to be released on July 9th, 2021.
In a report from Deadline, Mike Fleming claims that Disney will make announcements at Investor Day 2020 on December 10th concerning new projects (theatrical films and television) from Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, and Pixar.
Details aren’t mentioned or what those “new” projects will be.
Disney on December 10 will announce its upcoming slate. While the studio will solidify what Deadline revealed recently – that the Tom Hanks-starrer Pinocchio, Peter Pan and the Emma Stone-starrer Cruella will bypass movie theaters to become Disney+ releases, the studio will also announce new projects from Marvel, Lucasfilm and Pixar that will encompass TV as well as theatrical. It will be a gesture toward not abandoning the exhibitors.
Fans will be curious to hear if Disney will attempt a similar day-and-day model that was recently announced by WarnerMedia for their entire 2021 film slate, as delayed Marvel films such as Black Widow and Shang-Chi could be part of that hypothetical announcement seeing large theatrical films landing on Disney+.
Collider recently suggested that Disney might be considering merging Disney+ and mature content from Hulu into a single service, another big update from Disney that could be announced (if true) at Investor Day this week.
Kevin Feige would likely confirm castings concerning Oscar Isaac as Moon Knight and Tatiana Maslany as She-Hulk. A Nick Fury series was announced to be in develop, which we assume will star Samuel L. Jackson and possibly include Skrulls/S.W.O.R.D. but that would need to be confirmed. They could also announce their plans for an MCU reboot of Fantastic Four on the film side or updates concerning things we know are happening officially like Ant-Man 3, Captain Marvel 2, Black Panther 2, Deadpool 3 and Blade.
Concerning Lucasfilm, we know that Star Wars shows such as Boba Fett, Cassian Andor, Kenobi, The Mandalorian (Season 3), and a series coming from Leslye Headland are in varying stages of prep/production. There are a couple of films in development from Taika Waititi and Rian Johnson as well.
They’re also about to begin shooting their Willow sequel series in Wales with director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) and we might finally get a concrete update on James Mangold’s Indiana Jones 5.
Hopefully, we get some new details on December 10th and we’re not hearing new information for projects already made known.
With the second season of The Mandalorian winding-down, we won’t likely have any new live-action Star Wars until possibly next fall. So, I figured I would give a rundown of what other live-action projects are in the works from Disney+ shows to feature films in various stages of development.
BOBA FETT SERIES: Deadline reported last month that a secret Boba Fett project for Disney+ had begun shooting without mentioning who exactly was starring, writing or directing the thing. We can only assume with Temuera Morrison now firmly in the role for The Mandalorian that this might be the incarnation that this new project tackles.
I have my own speculation that this might actually end up being Season 3 of The Mandalorian given the lack of information on who is working on it and the proximity of when Jon Favreau wanted to start shooting Season 3. While Lucasfilm can be sneaky, this would be the first time they’ve started filming a Star Wars project without us knowing who was at least writing and directing it.
At one time, Josh Trank and Simon Kinberg were developing a Boba Fett movie but the project ultimate didn’t come together after hiccups between the two making Fox’s Fantastic Four reboot. There had even been rumors that James Mangold was in talks to resurrect the series but quickly shot that down along with his involvement with Season 2 of The Mandlorian.
CASSIAN ANDOR PREQUEL SERIES: Diego Luna recently confirmed to Jimmy Kimmel that his Rogue One prequel series focusing on Cassian Andor and K-2SO has already started shooting in London with director Toby Haynes (Black Mirror). Haynes stepped in for Tony Gilroy, who may still end up directing an episode.
The cast for the Star Wars series includes Luna, Alan Tudyk, Adria Arjona, Denise Gough, Genevieve O’Reilly, Stellan Skarsgard, and Kyle Soller. Andor will skew more in the spy genre and might continue the tone established in Rogue One.
DEBORAH CHOW’SKENOBI SERIES: Ewan McGregor is officially reprising the Obi-Wan Kenobi role but as we all know uses the name Ben Kenobi while hiding out on Tatooine and overseeing the protection of Darth Vader’s son Luke Skywalker from the Empire. Lucasfilm revealed via a franchise timeline that Kenobi will take place around the time of the Corellia scenes in Solo: A Star Wars Story. The series will be directed by Deborah Chow (The Mandalorian) and there are assumptions that Joel Edgerton will return to the role of Uncle Owen along with a new actor playing a young Luke Skywalker. It’s unconfirmed if we’ll be seeing flashbacks to the Clone Wars or if Kenobi will ever go off-world at any point.
Casting announcements should be incoming shortly.
Filming according to Ewan McGregor is expected to take place this March. The locations are said to be Pinewood Studios UK and Boston, England as the Pinewood facility will have their own Volume/StageCraft which has been used frequently on The Mandalorian.
THE MANDALORIAN: A third season of The Mandalorian is expected to begin shooting at some point after there was word from showrunner and producer Jon Favreau they hoped to get filming started before the end of 2020. We had heard that Jon is expected to direct at least one episode in Season 3.
It’s also possible we could see spinoff series focusing on Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan and Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano. Those have yet to be announced despite the fan assumptions.
LESLYE HEADLAND’SMYSTERY STAR WARS SERIES: Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) is officially working on a new female-centric Star Wars series that according to Deadline would include martial arts elements and take place at a different point in the Star Wars timeline.
Adding to the confusion is the fact that Disney+ is developing a female-centered Star Wars series, written and showrun by Leslye Headland, believed to be a female-driven action thriller with martial arts elements and set in an alternate timeline from the usual Star Wars universe. The rumored spinoff is said to be separate from this Star Wars project but the situation is fluid.
There has been plenty of speculation of what the show could be or who it could focus on but no details have been confirmed by Lucasfilm or Disney.
I’m sure we’ll learn more about the series soon.
RIAN JOHNSON’S BRAND-NEW STAR WARS TRILOGY: Star Wars: The Last Jedi writer/director Rian Johnson has been developing his own original trilogy for the studio but looks to be more focused on his Knives Out sequel at the moment. There haven’t been much in the way of details concerning Johnson’s project but is expected to take place in another era of Star Wars with new characters. Also, there had been some talk that while Rian would oversee all three films he likely wouldn’t end up directing all them.
Here is how the official press release described the trilogy.
Lucasfilm is excited to announce that Johnson will create a brand-new Star Wars trilogy, the first of which he is also set to write and direct, with longtime collaborator Ram Bergman onboard to produce…In shepherding this new trilogy, which is separate from the episodic Skywalker saga, Johnson will introduce new characters from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored.
Johnson has also dismissed multiple claims he’s exited.
TAIKA WAITITI’S STAR WARS MOVIE: After dismissing reports of his involvement, Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi was officially announced for an upcoming theatrical Star Wars film with Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917, Last Night in Soho) co-writing the script. This news wasn’t terribly shocking after Kathleen Kennedy suggested wanting to work with him. Taika later getting his feet wet working on Season 1 of The Mandalorian as both director and voicing the bounty hunter droid IG-11.
The Kiwi director is going to be a little busy as he’ll start shooting Marvel’s Thor: Love & Thunder soon in Sydney, Australia.
JEDI ORIGIN TRILOGY: According to Variety back in October 2019, the Game of Thrones showrunners, D.B Weiss and David Benioff, had been developing a trilogy of films that would have explored the origins of the Jedi.
Benioff and Weiss had ambitious plans to take the “Star Wars” universe in a new direction, one that would exist apart from the Skywalker family saga that comprised the franchise’s centerpiece nine-film series. The Star Wars period the pair was interested in exploring was how the Jedi came to exist. However, Lucasfilm executives and the creators begin to see their visions for the films diverge during meetings last summer.
This would have likely taken place way before eras like the Skywalker Saga, The High Republic or even The Old Republic.
However, the pair left Lucasfilm for a rather pricey deal with Netflix which seemingly squashed the project for the foreseeable future. There are new rumblings online that this project might get resurrected but it’s unofficial for the moment.
THE OLD REPUBLIC TRILOGY:BuzzFeed had once reported that Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar, Ghost In The Shell, Altered Carbon, Shutter Island) was developing a Knights of The Old Republic film that could eventually become it’s own trilogy.
A movie based on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic — the beloved video game first released in 2003 — is currently being written by Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar, Shutter Island) for Lucasfilm, three sources close to the project told BuzzFeed News.
Kalogridis is close to finishing the first script of a potential KOTOR trilogy, according to the three sources.
While this was never confirmed, Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy teased they’ve had internal discussions about projects in that era during a chat with MTV back in April 2019.
MTV: Knights of The Old Republic, a lot of fans wanna see that, is there any development of that?
KENNEDY: “You know, we talk about that all the time. Yes, we are developing something to look at. Right now, I have no idea where things might fall..”
There is also a film project that would see Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige get involved as a producer but there next zero official information about what and when that would be. I have to assume it’s either something already mentioned like Taika’s film or something that hasn’t been made public.
I’m sure with Disney keen to get more originals for Disney+ that we’ll likely hear about more live-action Star Wars shows in the near future.
Filming on Marvel’s Hawkeye series began this week in NYC and there have been a few reveals including Lucky aka Pizza Dog. Another interesting group of set photos from the other day posted on HQ Celeb Corner reveals when the show could be taking place and it’s well after the events of Avengers: Endgame which took place in 2023.
A set dressing poster on a Chinatown set celebrates the Chinese New Year in 2025 (January 29th, 2025) , the year of the snake. This would allude to this scene being set around or after the Chinese New Year.
There had been some question if the series would be taking place after Thanos’ snap leading him down to the path of his violent vigilante persona Ronin or would be taking place post-Endgame. It looks like at least the scenes with Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop will be taking place in or around 2025, around two years after Avengers: Endgame.
We could still see flashbacks to Barton’s dark patch between Infinity War and Endgame.
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).
If production stays on track without anymore hiccups it’s possible that it could begin airing on Disney+ before the end of 2021.
A while ago during an interview with IGN to promote the Netflix film Triple Frontier, Star Wars actor Oscar Isaac revealed he’d like to play Snake in a Metal Gear Solid movie, a project that was in active development at Sony Pictures with director Jordan Vogt-Roberts (Kong: Skull Island) attached. Jordan seemed extremely hot on the idea of Oscar in the role on social media and it looks like we have an update on that casting.
Deadline now reports that Oscar is set for the lead role of Solid Snake, the main character in the original Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots. Raiden was the main playable character of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty with Big Boss featured as the main character prequel games Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
Sony’s long awaited Metal Gear Solid adaptation looks to have gained some major momentum as sources tell Deadline that Oscar Isaac is attached to play Solid Snake in the Jordan Vogt-Roberts film.
METAL GEAR SOLID (1998) – A crack government anti-terrorist squad takes over an obscure Alaskan nuclear disposal facility. Solid Snake is up for the task to infiltrate the facility, rescue the two hostages and thwart the terrorists’ plans.
Derek Connolly (Kong: Island, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdon, Jurassic World: Dominion. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker) wrote the most current version of the script.
Isaac is currently filming Scenes From A Marriage and is expected to begin shooting Marvel’s Moon Knight series in March, when Metal Gear Solid will begin production is unknown at this time given Oscar’s busy schedule.
Yesterday, was the official start of production on Marvel Studios’ Hawkeye series currently filming in New York City as Hailee Steinfeld was confirmed by set photos/footage in the role of Kate Bishop opposite of Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton aka Hawkeye.
Variety now reports Vera Farmiga, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee, Tony Dalton, Alaqua Cox, and Zahn McClarnon have joined the series.
Here is a rundown of the characters they’ll be playing.
Alaqua Cox is Maya Lopez aka Echo
Vera Farmiga is playing Kate Bishop’s mother Eleanor
Fra Fee is playing Kazi (thought to be villain Clown)
Tony Dalton is playing Jack Duquesne (thought to be Barton mentor Swordsman)
Zahn McClarnon is playing William Lopez (Maya’s father)
The Direct first reported Pugh’s involvement and return as Black Widow’s Yelena Belova.
Baron Strucker’s son Andreas von Strucker also took on the Swordsman persona in Thunderbolts.
It’s more of an info dump than we had been expecting considering how long it took to confirm Hailee Steinfeld as trades had really done a serious update on the Kate Bishop casting in a while. It’s interesting to see if Hawkeye will be using elements of Thunderbolts and if there will be a connection to The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.
Murphy’s Multiverse first had on set confirmation that Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit, Bumblebee, Dickinson) has taken the Kate Bishop role in Marvel’s Hawkeye series as they posted first set footage earlier today.
Now, a second video making it’s way on Twitter and Instagram has a much clearer look at Hailee Steinfeld and Jeremy Renner in the subway scene being shot in Brooklyn. Variety was first to report that Hailee was in the mix to play Clint Barton’s protege in the series who is likely to become part of the Young Avengers or a version of that team.
The Oscar nominated actress seemingly teased her involvement with a recent birthday post on Instagram that got rabid attention from fans.
UPDATE: Some high resolution photos are also on Twitter and HQ Celeb Corner as well.
The series is said to be based on the Matt Fraction run alongside villains from that comic and if they’re able to complete filming on schedule could be released before the end of 2021. Filming will return to Atlanta once the NYC shoot is completed.
We’re curious if we’ll end up seeing more cast announcements in the coming weeks as we only know about two cast members at the moment officially, despite the recent rumor of Florence Pugh joining them for an appearance as Yelena Belova.
Filming on Marvel’s Hawkeye series has officially started as a section of shooting is now taking place in a Brooklyn subway under the working title of Anchor Point.
The Hawkeye set, at least for today, is underground in the subway. Good luck getting any leaks. pic.twitter.com/4Pj1vmP5uu
Murphy’s Multiverse has posted what looks to be the first official footage from the Hawkeye set. The footage looks to be taken from someone’s phone from some distance and we don’t get a great look at Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton or what is expected to be Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop (according to the person who recorded the footage).
I personally can’t make out if it’s Hailee or not because of the quality of the video but my opinion likely doesn’t mean too much.
THE RONIN 