Today, Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings has officially wrapped according to the MCU film’s director Destin Daniel Cretton, who made the announcement on his Instagram account. Filming had been placed on hiatus after the director had to quarantine himself from the cast and crew that was prolonged when Australia paused all productions for a good amount of time.
Simu Liu also commented on the post on Instagram Stories.
The only three cast members announced by Marvel Studios include Simu Liu as the titular hero Shang-Chi, Tony Leung as the real version of The Mandarin, and Awkwafina as the undisclosed female lead. Hopefully, with the film completing production we’ll start to get to official stills or at least the official cast/character list.
Shang-Chi is a martial arts superhero that was an homage to Bruce Lee and seemingly took direct inspiration from Lee’s film Enter The Dragon. While his power-set is mostly being incredibly skilled with weapons and various martial arts such as kung-fu (referred to as The Master of Kung-Fu), he later got the superhuman ability to replicate himself with multiple duplicates.
The new MCU film is expected to explore the real Mandarin’s relationship with terrorist group The Ten Rings (first appeared in Iron Man) and the villain is likely a surrogate for Shang-Chi’s comic book father Zheng Zu aka Fu Manchu.
Production was taking place at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia under the working title of Steamboat and filmed some exterior scenes in San Francisco recently. Now that Shang-Chi is finished principal photography, Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love & Thunder aka The Big Salad can move in to those stages to begin shooting in early 2021.
Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings is currently slated for release on July 9th, 2021 after being moved from February 12th and May 7th previously.
The other day, Production Weekly posted what seems to be the official working title for Marvel’s Thor: Love & Thunder which apparently will be The Big Salad during the filming at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia early next year.
While many believe this could be a hint to “Fat Thor” going on a diet it more likely is director Taika Waititi following in the footsteps of Spider-Man 3 director Jon Watts and honoring classic Seinfeld episodes.
Here are the previous Seinfeld references from the Spider-Man working titles.
Spider-Man: Homecoming = Summer of George
Spider-Man: Far From Home = Fall of George
Spider-Man 3 = Serenity Now
The Big Salad, just happens to be a title of a Seinfeld episode from Season 6, where as you’d guess a “big salad” happens to be part of the plot.
At Elaine’s request, George purchases a “big salad” to go for her from Monk’s. George’s girlfriend Julie hands Elaine the salad in Jerry’s apartment, and Elaine thanks her. George is displeased that Julie took the credit for the salad, and tells Elaine that he bought it. Elaine is irritated at George for making a point of such a trivial matter, and briefly vents to Julie about this. Julie is so irate that George told Elaine she didn’t buy the salad that she breaks up with him.
All four working titles seem to connect directly to the George Constanza character and I’m a little curious if there could be a Spider-Man connection to the Thor sequel.
The cast will consist of Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie The King of Asgard, Natalie Portman as Jane Foster aka Lady Thor, Taika returning in a bigger role as Korg, and Oscar-winner Christian Bale is reportedly playing the film’s villain.
With Tom Hiddleston’s Loki wondering around the Multiverse in his Disney+ series there is a good chance he could end up appearing in Thor: Love & Thunder or even Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness.
We don’t know much about the film but Natalie Portman suggested that they will indeed include Jane Foster’s cancer journey when adapting the Mighty Thor elements for the feature film while speaking with Yahoo! not too long ago. Having a superhero dealing with cancer could be incredibly powerful for kids that are on treatment or are cancer survivors.
PORTMAN: “I can’t tell you that much. I’m really excited. I’m starting to train, to get muscles. If there can be all these female superheroes, the more of them they are, the better it is. I’m trying to think — it’s based on the graphic novel of the Mighty Thor. She’s going through cancer treatment and is a superhero on the side.”
For the time being the sequel is going to be released theatrically by Disney on February 11th, 2022, as week before Valentine’s Day.
We can now confirm that actress Veronica Falcon indeed has a role in the Marvel Studios/Disney+ series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. Her credits include the drug cartel crime series Queen of The South, HBO’s Perry Mason, and worked with Disney on their Jungle Cruise film starring Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson.
She joins a cast that includes Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson aka The Falcon, Sebastian Stan as James “Bucky” Barnes aka The Winter Soldier, Daniel Bruhl as Zemo, Wyatt Russell as John Walker aka U.S Agent, Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carton aka Agent 13, Georges St-Peirre as Batroc The Leaper, Desmond Chiam, Erin Kellyman, Danny Ramirez, Adepero Oduye, and Carl Lumbly.
The Ronin spotted a social media post from Veronica on Instagram that hints to her landing a role in the series and was part of the Prague shoot before everything halted due to COVID-19 back in March.
Her name had recently appeared on the IMDB listing for the series in the role of “Mama Donnya” but had yet to be officially announced by other websites or mentioned in trade reports.
The Ronin was the first outlet to report back in mid-August that series wouldn’t be ready for a 2020 drop and had been pushed to sometime in 2021.
Veronica’s upcoming film Jungle Cruise is set to be released on July 30th, 2021.
JUNGLE CRUISE – Inspired by the famous Disneyland theme park ride, Disney’s JUNGLE CRUISE is an adventure-filled, Amazon-jungle expedition starring Dwayne Johnson as the charismatic riverboat captain and Emily Blunt as a determined explorer on a research mission. Also starring in the film are Edgar Ramirez, Jack Whitehall, with Jesse Plemons, and Paul Giamatti.
It looks like Marvel Studios is neither finished filming or adding to the cast of their upcoming series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.
The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Top Gun: Maverick actor Danny Ramirez has landed an unnamed but “pivotal role” in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. Ramirez is best known mostly for television with credits that include Netflix’s On My Block. He isn’t a stranger to the world of Marvel Comics as he had a small role in Fox Television’s X-Men series The Gifted before the merger moved the X-Men rights over to Marvel Studios.
He plays a fighter pilot with the call sign “Fanboy” in Paramount’s Top Gun sequel titled Top Gun: Maverick set to be released on July 2nd, 2021.
TOP GUN: MAVERICK – After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose.”
Danny isn’t the only actor from the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick that has landed a streaming series as Monica Barbaro is starring opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger’s upcoming father-daughter spy series for Amazon/Skydance Television.
It certainly feels a little late to be adding an actor to the cast with such a big role but it’s possible he was quietly hired and has been able to keep his casting a secret for multiple months.
The Ronin was the first outlet to report that Disney+ would be delaying the release of The Falcon series from late 2020 to sometime in 2021 back in mid-August. The company seemingly confirmed this after it recently left the MCU series out of their “Coming Soon In 2020” programming ad and their website had it listed for a TBA 2021 spot.
Originally, it was supposed to launch back in August before the Coronavirus pandemic paused production back in March and only recently resumed. Given the show is still filming it’s extremely unlikely it will be ready in December or would overlap with WandaVision’s episodes.
Ramirez joins a cast that already includes Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson aka The Falcon, Sebastian Stan as James “Bucky” Barnes aka The Winter Soldier, Daniel Bruhl as Zemo, Wyatt Russell as John Walker aka U.S Agent, Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carton aka Agent 13, Georges St-Peirre as Batroc The Leaper, Desmond Chiam, Erin Kellyman, Veronica Falcon, Adepero Oduye, and Carl Lumbly.
The series will explore the transition between Steve Rogers handing over the Captain America mantle over to Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson in Avengers: Endgame only for the American government to install their own candidate with Wyatt Russell’s John Walker aka U.S. Agent.
Set photos have revealed that one of the locations in the show is most likely Madripoor, a fictional lawless South-East Asian island nation originally created in the pages of the X-Men comics and could be used in the future for X-Men projects along with setting up various villains from that corner of the Marvel universe. Since the island has connections to The Hand (villains connected to Wolverine, Daredevil, and Elektra), Ophelia Sarkissian aka Viper/Madame Hydra, Wolverine, and Psylocke. A gang member’s jacket spotted on the set used imagery of an X-Men character called Ogun, a Japanese villain connected to Wolverine and Kitty Pryde aka Shadowcat.
There have been plenty of rumblings that the series could introduce a version of The Thunderbolts which were led by Zemo in the comic books. It’ll be interesting if that actually comes together as there had been unsupported talk of a Thunderbolts project being kicked-around at Marvel at one point.
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier is expected to drop elusively on Disney+ sometime in 2021.
Deadline has revealed that young actress Xochitl Gomez has landed an undisclosed role in Marvel’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness. The newcomer is likely best known for her role in the Netflix series revival of The Baby-Sitters Club.
Considering there has been rumblings of America Chavez aka Miss America being a supporting lead role (via casting grids/audition tapes) in the film having Gomez be the first new cast member announced for the sequel, this would suggest that Xochitl has landed the role of Miss America.
Chavez like Hawkeye’s Kate Bishop and Ms. Marvel’s Kamala Khan is a member of the Young Avengers.
Xochitl will join previously confirmed cast members Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Winstead, Benefict Wong, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Spider-Man trilogy director Sam Raimi had replaced Scott Derrickson on the film.
The Ronin had confirmed that Logan and X-Men: First Class cinematographer John Mathiesonhas joined Raimi’s production team. Filming is also set to take place under the working title Stellar Vortex at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England.
There is an assumption that both Disney+ shows WandaVision and Loki could plant seeds for the events/characters in Doctor Strange 2. Not to mention that Doctor Strange’s Benedict Cumberbatch is reportedly showing up in Jon Watts’ Spider-Man 3 alongside Tom Holland which is currently slated to be released a few months before Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness.
Former director Scott Derrickson had previously mentioned on social media that both Doctor Strange supporting characters Brother Voodoo and Clea could show up in the film as well. This has yet to be confirmed officially with casting announcements.
Marvel has given the film a release date of March 25th, 2022.
Yesterday, the Walt Disney Company announced a new initiative to get more content going for its streaming services such as Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu from its sports, television, and film divisions. The new division will be called The Media & Entertainment Distribution group led by Kareem Daniel.
It sounds like they’ll be dedicating a lot more resources and money than they have previously as means to compete with competitors like Netflix and Amazon. However, this announcement says nothing about them throwing their 2021 theatrical slate on Disney+ and never mention a thing about ending theatrical releases altogether only pushing to place more content on their streaming services.
We will get more details on these plans on December 10th.
During an interview with CNBC, Disney’s new CEO Bob Chapek was quick to point out that they aren’t looking to stop the theatrical experience and would be announcing further details.
Also, specifically downplayed COVID-19’s role in the decision.
CHAPEK: “I would not characterize it as a response to Covid. I would say Covid accelerated the rate at which we made this transition, but this transition was going to happen anyway. Because essentially what we want to do is separate out folks who make our wonderful content based on tremendous franchises from the decision making in terms of prioritization is on how it gets commercialized into the marketplace. And what we want to do is leave it to a group of folks you can really see objectively across all of the constituents we have and various considerations we’ve got and make the optimal decision for the company as opposed to having it predetermined that a movie is destined to theaters or that a TV show is destined for ABC. So what we really want to do is provide some level of objectivity and really make it a decision that benefits the overall company and its shareholders.”
When pressed on Disney’s commitment to the theatrical model Bob said the following that gives the impression they’re not giving up on the theatrical model just yet.
CHAPEK: “We’ve benefited from a tremendous relationship with theatrical exhibition for many many many years as dynamics change in the marketplace though we want to make sure that we are giving consumers who want to go to theaters to experience everything that a theatrical release can give them, we want to continue to give them that option but at the same time there are a lot of consumers that want to experience a movie in the safety, comfort, and convenience of their own home for whatever reasons they do.”
To me, it sounds like either they are going to pursue a shorter theatrical window or a mixed model of day-and-date which obviously the theater industry wouldn’t be terribly pleased about on either front.
Here is the official press release from the Walt Disney Company website that gets a little more into the weeds about what all this means.
In light of the tremendous success achieved to date in the Company’s direct-to-consumer business and to further accelerate its DTC strategy, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) today announced a strategic reorganization of its media and entertainment businesses. Under the new structure, Disney’s world-class creative engines will focus on developing and producing original content for the Company’s streaming services, as well as for legacy platforms, while distribution and commercialization activities will be centralized into a single, global Media and Entertainment Distribution organization. The new Media and Entertainment Distribution group will be responsible for all monetization of content—both distribution and ad sales—and will oversee operations of the Company’s streaming services. It will also have sole P&L accountability for Disney’s media and entertainment businesses.
The creation of content will be managed in three distinct groups—Studios, General Entertainment, and Sports—headed by current leaders Alan F. Horn and Alan Bergman, Peter Rice, and James Pitaro. The Media and Entertainment Distribution group will be headed by Kareem Daniel, formerly President, Consumer Products, Games and Publishing. All five leaders will report directly to Bob Chapek, Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company. Disney Parks, Experiences and Products will continue to operate under its existing structure, led by Josh D’Amaro, Chairman, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, who continues to report to Mr. Chapek. Rebecca Campbell will serve as Chairman, International Operations and Direct-to-Consumer. Bob Iger, in his role as Executive Chairman, will continue to direct the Company’s creative endeavors.
“Given the incredible success of Disney+ and our plans to accelerate our direct-to-consumer business, we are strategically positioning our Company to more effectively support our growth strategy and increase shareholder value,” Mr. Chapek said. “Managing content creation distinct from distribution will allow us to be more effective and nimble in making the content consumers want most, delivered in the way they prefer to consume it. Our creative teams will concentrate on what they do best—making world-class, franchise-based content—while our newly centralized global distribution team will focus on delivering and monetizing that content in the most optimal way across all platforms, including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and the coming Star international streaming service.”
Under the new structure, the Company’s three content groups will be responsible and accountable for producing and delivering content for theatrical, linear and streaming, with the primary focus being the Company’s streaming services:
STUDIOS: Messrs. Horn and Bergman will serve as Chairmen, Studios Content, which will focus on creating branded theatrical and episodic content based on the Company’s powerhouse franchises for theatrical exhibition, Disney+ and the Company’s other streaming services. The group will include the content engines of The Walt Disney Studios, including Disney live action and Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures.
GENERAL ENTERTAINMENT: Mr. Rice will serve as Chairman, General Entertainment Content, which will focus on creating general entertainment episodic and original long-form content for the Company’s streaming platforms and its cable and broadcast networks. The group will include the content engines of 20th Television, ABC Signature and Touchstone Television; ABC News; Disney Channels; Freeform; FX; and National Geographic.
SPORTS: Mr. Pitaro will serve as Chairman, ESPN and Sports Content, which will focus on ESPN’s live sports programming, as well as sports news and original and non-scripted sports-related content, for the cable channels, ESPN+, and ABC.
The Media and Entertainment Distribution group, led by Mr. Daniel, will be responsible for the P&L management and all distribution, operations, sales, advertising, data and technology functions worldwide for all of the Company’s content engines, and it will also manage operations of the Company’s streaming services and domestic television networks. The group will work in close collaboration with the content creation teams on programming and marketing.
It’ll be interesting to see if Disney+ will start mining IP from the 20th Century Studios side of things soon as Disney+ series and limited series focused on properties like Avatar and Planet of The Apes could be extremely successful. In the press release they suggest that they could end up making episodic projects based on 20th Century properties.
A live-action Flash Gordon series stands out as a property that Disney really could do justice with on Disney+ and be a counter of sorts to their Star Wars shows as it could be way more swashbuckling than the Lucasfilm property that was inspired by it. Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok, Thor: Love & Thunder, Jojo Rabbit) is attached to direct an animated Flash Gordon film and at one time 20th Century was developing a live-action feature as well from directors Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class, Stardust, Layer Cake) and Julius Avery (Overlord) involved at different points.
I wouldn’t even put it past Disney to reboot John Carter eventually given the Volume/StageCraft would allow them to make a series more cost effective that world like Flash Gordon is different enough from Star Wars it would be worth pursuing.
Of course, this could mean a major influx of more shows from Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar universes but might also see Hulu getting a bump of adult content as well with franchises like Alien (Noah Hawley pitched an Alien series to FX) and Predator just collecting dust while they could be helpful to get more eyeballs on Hulu. HBO Max had recently crowed about Ridley Scott’s sci-fi series Raised By Wolves being the most popular original on their service when announcing they were moving forward with a Season 2 order.
Matthew Vaughn has also been talking up the idea of a Kingsman spinoff series that could fit nicely at Hulu.
Disney certainly has a massive gap in the adult market and places like Canada don’t have access to Hulu and that really needs to change if they want to compete with Netflix/Amazon on an international level as those services offer content to both kids and adults alike. Cornering the kid market just won’t be enough for Disney if they want to grow their streaming presence.
I guess we’ll have to wait for December 10th to get more concrete answers about what all this actually means for content that is already in the can or is about to begin filming.
The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Benedict Cumberbatch has joined the case of Spider-Man 3 reprising his role as Doctor Strange. However, they’re not clear when he’ll shoot his Spider-Man 3 scenes as Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness will begin shooting soon in London, while the Spidey sequel is expected to shoot in stateside in Atlanta, Georgia.
This is a crossover that really shouldn’t surprise fans as the two Steve Ditko superheroes have been interacting with each other and teaming up against villains for many decades in the pages of Marvel Comics.
I seemingly predicted the crossover news back in 2016 with this cheeky tweet stating a crossover would happen in 2020, I also do lottery numbers on request.
SPIDER-MAN's Tom Holland might be joining DOCTOR STRANGE's Benedict Cumberbatch in THE CURRENT WAR..I smell a crossover in 2020 pic.twitter.com/EkPCuYd5mm
There has been plenty of rumblings of Spider-Man 3 tackling The Multiverse/Spider-Verse after the casting news of Jamie Foxx reprising the Electro role and the addition of Doctor Strange into the mix would certainly support that narrative. The problem becomes does Marvel go all-in with focusing on various Multiverse characters/cameos or are getting a superhero film focused on an actual plot.
As THR points out there still seems to be a scheduling issue with the two competing Marvel sequels will productions filming in two different countries at the same time. It is possible that they shoot scenes when there is a break in their schedules or do them at a later date once both films shoot most of their scenes.
I’m slightly curious if Spider-Man will now show up in the Doctor Strange sequel as that could be when theses Spider-Man 3 scenes are shot. This could be exactly how Marvel Studios finishes out the recent contract with Sony Pictures as they get one more film with Holland’s Spider-Man before it expires again.
What could be happening is that Spider-Man 3 is part one of this big Multiverse cinematic event with Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness being the final climax, possibly the final time we see Tom Holland’s Spider-Man in the MCU.
It would also give Sam Raimi another hot at directing Spider-Man again.
Jon Watts returns to direct with a release date of December 17th, 2021 (subject to change).
With filming for Thor: Love & Thunder expected to begin around January-February at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, we haven’t really had much of an update on the project until now.
While speaking with Yahoo! Life, franchise actress Natalie Portman briefly suggested that we might indeed be seeing Jane Foster’s going through cancer treatment in the film just like her comic book counterpart.
PORTMAN: “I can’t tell you that much. I’m really excited. I’m starting to train, to get muscles. If there can be all these female superheroes, the more of them they are, the better it is. I’m trying to think — it’s based on the graphic novel of the Mighty Thor. She’s going through cancer treatment and is a superhero on the side.”
Portman could be simply relaying plot points about the Mighty Thor story, but I don’t really see Marvel removing that important element of the hero.
It was announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 that Natalie Portman would be playing Lady Thor in the film giving her a strong reason to come back for the sequel and possibly allows her to play the Marvel Comics heroine for many years.
Having a superhero that is undergoing cancer treatment or is a cancer survivor can be extremely powerful to kids with cancer or in remission. I can speak from direct experience that kids really looked up to Deadpool when they discovered he has cancer in that first film.
I’m sure Chadwick Boseman, the man, will also have a huge impact on kids as well as an example of strength. In the wake of the revelation that actor Chadwick Boseman was secretly undergoing cancer treatment during the film of multiple films including Black Panther, it’s not that hard to imagine that a fictional character could juggle superhero duties while fighting cancer.
I’m sure fans will have opinions on this but I think if handled properly it could be an extremely powerful and important part of Marvel’s new direction of representation.
Joining Portman in the Thor sequel will be fellow cast members Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Taika Waititi, and Christian Bale, the latter reportedly playing a villain.
Thor: Love & Thunder is expected to be released on February 11th, 2022, unless there are further delays or shifts with the Marvel slate.
While we’re still waiting on an official announcement concerning the fate of Deadpool 3 at Marvel Studios, Cabble actor Josh Brolin spoke to cinematographer Roger Deakins on his podcast Team Deakins (spotted by The Playlist) about the differences between working on Deadpool 2 in juxtapose to working with Marvel/The Russo Brothers on Avengers Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
BROLIN: “Deadpool was hard. Even though it was funny, it was harder. That was more of a business transaction, it was more, ‘We need to make this like this,’ which I didn’t feel that way with Avengers.”
“[The Russo Brothers] would constantly go back and reference Scarface or Dog Day Afternoon. Whether or not it was a manipulation, they knew what to throw out there to bring it back into something inspired.”
Josh’s comments here are terribly off-base as the Deadpool sequel underwent specific reshoots because producers/studio felt certain scenes didn’t test well and it’s possible that set had less of a creative environment than with The Russo Brothers.
There have been rumblings of Marvel considering a return for Brolin’s Thanos but that remains only rumor at this point. It’ll be interesting if they do end up moving forward with new Deadpool movies that if they’ll keep Brolin in the Nathan Summers aka Cable role as the only official carry-over from the Fox era is Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson.
Before the merger, the plan at 20th Century was to tackle an X-Force movie from writer/director Drew Goddard before a third solo installment.
Ryan confirmed back in December 2019 that Deadpool 3 was indeed in development at Marvel Studios but we really haven’t a solid update since.
Back in February, up-and-coming British actor Oliver Jackson-Cohen (The Invisible Man) was asked by Entertainment Tonight about playing Marvel’s next big role Marc Spector aka Moon Knight. While not familiar with the character he was game for it.
JACKSON-COHEN: “I have heard this, yes. I don’t understand what a Moon Knight is. Sign me up!. No, I’d love to. Every single time I open Instagram, it’s like, ‘MOON KNIGHT!’ And I’m like, ‘This is so great and thank you, but I don’t know what it is!’. No one’s called me. I would love to be a Marvel superhero. That would be a dream. Tell all of your viewers to go and stand outside Marvel headquarters!”
Moon Knight is the next Marvel Studios series that will announce their main lead in the near future and is expected to shoot in the United Kingdom and the United States under the working title of Good Faith. The character would open the door to more of the occult, supernatural, and horror elements in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, not unlike Mahershala Ali’s upcoming Blade reboot.
The hero is ostensibly Marc Spector, a mercenary who has numerous after 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, he was a consultant who dresses in all-white and goes by the name Mr. Knight.
He’s now reaffirmed that desire to play Spector while speaking with Comic Book to promote his upcoming Netflix series Haunting of Bly Manor.
JACKSON-COHEN: “Listen, Twitter is quite the encyclopedia and I have been very fortunate that people have educated me well on Moon Knight and Marvel and the world of it. The honest response is that I have no idea, no one has called me about this, but, again, I stand by what I said, that Moon Knight sounds like a fascinating, fascinating character, and I’d love to get my hands on that, but you just never know, do you?”
The problem with actors voicing their desire to play a character publicly is that tend to be the kinds of actors that Marvel avoids. Most recent castings of Jonathan Majors as Kang The Conqueror, Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk, and Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel have been people that were never part of the rumor mill and various fan campaigns on social media.
Also, there has been no shortage of random casting rumors/fan campaigns on the internet (take with a pinch of salt) for Marc Spector from Zac Efron, Daniel Radcliffe, Shia Labeouf, and even the increasingly busy Keanu Reeves. Some of the names would conflict with various casting and character information that had been making the rounds because there was talk that Marvel Studios wanted to hire a practicing Jewish actor but Efron (non-practicing and too busy) and Reeves (Christian and too busy) wouldn’t meet that criteria. There was also talk of Marvel looking at younger actors in their 30s, a little young given how much Spector has done before becoming Moon Knight and now that has jumped to actors 40-50. This could simply mean that this information is iffy, to begin with, which is why we shouldn’t take this stuff too seriously until there is an official announcement from trades/Marvel.
Earlier in the year, Daniel Radcliffe specifically debunked those rumblings that he was being pursued by Marvel for Moon Knight while speaking to Coming Soon.
RADCLIFFE: “I’m not averse to doing any kind of franchise thing in the future again, that could be fun. But the Moon Knight rumors are untrue, I can officially debunk that one, I haven’t heard anything about it.”
It does seem like that we’ll learn who is directing Moon Knight before we’ll get the announcement of the actor playing Marc Spector.
THE RONIN 