Tag: Marvel Studios

Posted on in Film News

‘Ant-Man 3’ Director Peyton Reed Says Sequel Is Much Bigger and More Sprawling Than Last Two Movies

Marvel Studios is still trying to finish productions on both film and television shows they weren’t able to complete earlier in the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we finally have a neat update concerning Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man 3.

While speaking to The Jess Cagle Show on SiriusXM (via Collider), Peyton mentioned that Ant-Man 3 will be bigger and much more sprawling than the previous two installments of the franchise as they’re still working on the film during the pandemic. 

REED: “We are working away through the pandemic. There’s some really really really exciting things in store, none of which of course I could speak to you about right now, as is the Marvel way. I think the third Ant-Man movie is going to be a much bigger more sprawling movie than the first two. It’s going to have a very different visual template.”

It might be a good idea to see them change gears with the upcoming film given that the Ant-Man films are arguably the ones that have the least connection with global audiences as reflected in the box office returns in comparison to the other solo films. 

Thor had been in a similar situation before Taika Waititi took over with Thor: Ragnarok giving the franchise a much need boost of creativity and Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness is expected to up the stakes in a similar way. The commonality is that they’re including way more characters than previous films to help increase the energy and scale. 

Considering the power-set of Ant-Man and Cassie Lang’s superhero persona of Stature the “bigger” sentiment might actually be literal. 

One way to go is to really lean into the homage of Japanese kaiju movies as Reed previously has mentioned in the past. In 2018, Reed responded on Twitter to a fan question that Ant-Man’s suit was directly inspired by Ultraman and Infra-Man. 

REED: “Ant-Man’s look wasn’t inspired by Kamen Rider, but I will say that we referenced both Ultraman and Infra-Man when discussing the suit. Close enough, right?”

Ant-Man 3 could be an excellent excuse to take on elements of traditional large-scale monster movies placing the MCU into the realm of the Monsterverse (Legendary’s Godzilla and King Kong cinematic universe) and Pacific Rim, given that there are plenty of large monsters in Marvel Comics allowing Scott or Cassie (as Stature) to battle building-size threats. 

Having various creatures escape the Quantum Realm only to increase to a massive/destructive size could be a fun way to go.

Attempting to move things outside of San Francisco would also be nice change and could lead to the film being “visually different”. I’d love to see a Marvel Studios movie take place in Tokyo, Japan as we only briefly saw the location used in Avengers: Endgame.

Before the pandemic, Ant-Man 3 was said to be aiming for an early 2021 shoot and would be spending some of its production in the United Kingdom at Pinewood Studios UK and also return to San Francisco for exterior scenes. 

We already know that officially Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lily, and Michael Douglas will be returning with the assumption that we’ll see Michelle Michelle Pfeiffer back as Janet and newcomer Emma Fuhrmann as the teenage version of Cassie Lang. 

Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings has finally resumed production at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Other productions such as Spider-Man 3, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, and Thor: Love & Thunder have yet to begin as they were originally planned to start up in 2020 but will likely be bumped into 2021 leading to more production/release delays in the future. 

While Disney/Marvel Studios haven’t officially announced a release date for the third Ant-Man movie, there is an expectation it could be ready to be released sometime in 2022 if production gets off and running next year. 

SOURCE: THE JESS CAGLE SHOW

Posted on in Film News

‘The Boys’ Star Antony Starr Open To Playing Wolverine In Marvel’s ‘X-Men’

There has been a small fan campaign online to get New Zealand actor Antony Starr into the mix to play Logan aka Wolverine in the Marvel Studios reboot of the X-Men franchise. 

While promoting the second season of Amazon’s The Boys, Antony spoke to Screen Greek where he revealed an interest in playing the berserker mutant if the opportunity knocked after being asked which X-Men character he’d like to play. 

STARR: “I would say Wolverine!”

“Big shoes to fill, man. Jackman’s pretty much put his mark on that, hasn’t he? So, I never say never, man – but at the moment, I’m just enjoying what we’re doing here. I mean, to be honest, Wolverine doesn’t wear spandex, which is definitely a negative for me. I do like the feel of tight pants, you know, if they can tighten the jeans up, maybe.”

“We can get some kind of tight leather jeans going on – or maybe a pants suit. I could be tempted – but I’m just happy to be doing what I’m doing, brother, and whatever comes, comes. I appreciate the fans, you know. We’ve got a great bunch of fans and they’re really enthusiastic and passionate, so, I love their ideas and their support. I hope they enjoy Season Two of The Boys and I’m just stoked we get a chance to do Season Three as well.”

The actor currently plays Homelander on the satirical superhero series The Boys, an extremely dark take on the Superman archetype. His co-star and fellow Kiwi, Karl Urban, just happened to play Skurge The Executioner in Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok directed by Taika Watititi. 

Season 2 of The Boys drops on September 4th on Amazon Prime Video and they’ve already announced Season 3 is moving forward.

Antony isn’t the role actor being suggested by fans. 

There has been relentless effort to have Kingsman actor Taron Egerton considered for the role which the actor has downplayed in various interviews over the last two years.

Taron has a connection to former Wolverine, Hugh Jackman, as they co-starred together in the sports comedy Eddie The Eagle. He called the persistent Wolverine rumors “flattering” while chatting with GQ recently but, yet again, downplayed their validity. 

EGERTON: “That anyone thinks I would be good for the part is really flattering. I love Marvel, but it’s just fan stuff. There is no grounding for those rumours.”

Speaking of Hugh, he had voiced his support for Mad Max: Fury Road actor Tom Hardy to take over the role before he eventually was cast as Sony’s Eddie Brock aka Venom.

Last year, X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn revealed to Coming Soon he wanted to cast a younger version of Wolverine with Tom Hardy for a film that would take place between First Class and X-Men: Day of Future Past. 

VAUGHN: “That’s one of the reasons I didn’t continue because they didn’t listen to me. My plan was First Class, then the second film was new young Wolverine in the 70s to continue those characters, my version of the X-Men. So you’d really get to know all of them, and my finale was gonna be Days of Future Past. That was gonna be my number three where you bring them all… because what’s bigger than bringing in McKellen and Michael and Stewart and James and bringing them all together?” 

“When I finished the Days of Future Past script with it ready to go I looked at it and said, ‘I really think it would be fun to cast Tom Hardy or someone as the young Wolverine and then bring it all together at the end’. Fox read Days of Future Past and went ‘Oh, this is too good! We’re doing it now!’. And I said, ‘Well what do you do next? Trust me you’ve got nowhere to go’. Then they did Apocalypse and it’s like… If you flip that round even it would have been better. Hollywood doesn’t understand pacing. Their executives are driving 100 miles-per-hour looking in the rear-view mirror and not understanding why they crash.”

Hardy is very unlikely to be considered given his current role in the Venom franchise.

Marvel Studios is currently dealing with a backlog of film and television projects after the Coronavirus pandemic paused multiple productions globally, combined with previous hints from Marvel’s Kevin Feige that they’re not in any rush to make a new X-Men film anytime soon. 

A Fantastic Four reboot is rumored to be the first former Fox property that they’ll be building a film around. However, neither a director nor a screenwriter has been announced. 

SOURCE: SCREEN GEEK

Posted on in Film News

‘Grass-Fed’ Is Officially A Marvel Studios Project – Could It Be A Reference To The Blood Farms From ‘Blade’?

Charles Murphy strikes again!

He has returned with hard evidence that Grass-Fed Productions LLC is indeed a Marvel Studios project and it will also shoot in the United Kingdom as well.

We can also verify this information is 100% correct.

Charles has been considering the project either being Mahershala Ali’s Blade or the unofficial Spider-Woman film. I say unofficial because the title hasn’t been revealed by Sony Pictures or that we’ll see Marvel Studios’ participation. But Charles makes some good arguments.

However, I’m inclined to lean towards Blade since there are plenty of reference to humans being cattle/livestock in multiple films and in Blade Trinity vampires were exploiting this on a larger visual scale with humans being bled at Blood Farms. Marvel Studios also announced Ali’s casting over a year ago at San Diego Comic-Con.

The blood farm concept was later recycled in the vampire flick Daybreakers.

Adding to the cattle/livestock connection to Blade, the opening sequence of the original film from 1998 takes place in a meatpacking warehouse where you see massive cuts of beef hanging alongside human victims for the vampires at the rave. A visual cue to establish the food chain hierarchy of the Vampire Nation and human society from the start of the film.

A little known fact is Kevin Feige has a producing credit on Blade Trinity.

If this is indeed Blade they likely have a screenwriter and director attached.

Then again, this project could be an unannounced/untitled Disney+ series.

SOURCE: MURPHY’S MULTIVERSE

Posted on in Film News

‘Captain Marvel 2’ Indeed Set To Shoot In The UK

This morning, it was first revealed by Charles Murphy that Captain Marvel 2 is going to be shooting in the United Kingdom. A bit of a shakeup after the last film was primarily shot in the United States taking advantage of the California tax credits.

We can also confirm the information is correct and that Marvel Studios film will indeed film in the UK.

Other MCU projects shooting across the pond include Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness at Longcross Studios, Ant-Man 3 (likely at Pinewood Studios UK) and the Disney+ series Moon Knight.

The sequel most likely would be heading to Pinewood Studios UK. The same facility recently used for Black Widow and Eternals.

Candyman director Nia DaCosta was recently hired to direct from a script penned by WandaVision writer Megan McDonnell. Megan’s series WandaVision will be introducing the adult version of Monica Rambeau and S.W.O.R.D., which are expected to be important elements of Captain Marvel 2.

Brie Larson is set to reprise the role of Carol Danvers with an assumption that Samuel L. Jackson, Teyonah Parris, and Ben Mendelsohn will have roles as well.

In post-COVID-19 Hollywood, it really isn’t easy to predict when the sequel will begin production as there are two other major Marvel Studios films expected to shoot there that haven’t started along with a Disney+ series, making the production space a little crowded when you have to factor in multiple studios are shooting films next year as well.

Moving from California to England is also a good idea when wildfires became an issue during the first installment and continue to be a statewide problem. Not to mention the large population of California makes it a prime target for a resurgence of new COVID-19 cases. The live-action Little Mermaid movie is shooting at Pinewood and their comfort resuming the production could be another reason why Disney wanted to move Captain Marvel 2 to a UK facility.

Disney has given Captain Marvel 2 a release date of July 8th, 2022 but remains to be seen if they’ll stick to it if they end up having scheduling issues.

SOURCE: MURPHY’S MULTIVERSE

Posted on in Film News

‘Kraven The Hunter’ Adds ‘Morbius’ Screenwriters Art Marcum and Matt Holloway – Will Tom Holland’s Spidey Still Appear?

On the heels of the news that Spider-Man spinoff film Kraven The Hunter is indeed moving forward at Sony Pictures with Deadline reporting that Triple Frontier director J.C. Chandor is in talks with the studio, it looks like the script will have new writers as well. 

Richard Wenk (The Equalizer, The Expendables 2) wrote the original draft of Kraven and it seems that the studio has brought in some seasoned comic book screenwriters with Art Marcum and Matt Holloway as mentioned in Deadline’s report.

The writing duo is behind the first Iron Man, Punisher: War Zone, Men In Black: International, and fellow Spider-Man spinoff Morbius. They most recently worked with Sony on the Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg video game adaptation Uncharted, currently filming in Germany.

Sergei Kravinoff aka Kraven The Hunter is a Russian game hunter that crosses paths with multiple Marvel Comics heroes over the years but is primarily known as a Spider-Man villain, which has led to some speculation that Kraven could be showing up in Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man 3 and because of comments from director Ryan Coogler assumptions he may appear in Black Panther 2 as well. 

Neither rumors have been confirmed in any substantial way but there is a shot that Sony will attempt to add Tom Holland to this new Kraven spinoff according to previous comments made by the film’s original screenwriter Richard Wenk. 

Speaking with Discussing Film (via SlashFilm) in the fall of 2018, Kraven screenwriter Richard Wenk suggested that Spider-Man would be part of the film. 

WENK: “I’m just starting it. It’s an interesting world. A great character. It’s going to adhere very closely to the lore of Kraven the Hunter. And he is going to come face to face with Spider-Man. I’m just beginning it, beginning the process, and because it’s a big IP, Marvel world, there’s lots of hurdles to overcome before you can start writing, to crack the right story and to get the right tone. It’s a new world for me. But what’s nice about it is it’s a very grounded character, he doesn’t have a lot of crazy superpowers and things like that so he’s more grounded and that fits what I like to do. That’s as much as I know.”

Hiring new writers could put into question if we will ultimately see Holland’s Peter Paker being part of the film as that version may have changed since subsequent rewrites from Marcum and Holloway. 

However, there are clear signs that these Sony-made Marvel films already connect directly to the Marvel-made solo Spider-Man films suggesting a crossover with Holland’s Spidey is only a matter of time. 

Morbius is confirmed to be directly tied to the MCU Spider-Man films after the trailer revealed that Michael Keaton’s Vulture from Spider-Man: Homecoming is showing up in the film during some jailbreak sequence with Jared Leto’s Michael Morbius linking Homecoming to Morbius. 

It also gave a direct nod to the final scene in Spider-Man: Far From Home when Parker’s identity is revealed and is framed for the murder of the villainous Quentin Beck aka Mysterio, as Morbius walks past a Spider-Man poster with “murderer” painted on it. 

J.K. Simmons confirmed to SiriusXM that he filmed another J. Jonah Jameson cameo possibly for Morbius or Venom: Let There Be Carnage along with a plan to do another. Jameson could be another character that moves between the MCU and Sony-made films. 

SIMMONS: “There is one more JJJ appearance in the can and from what I’m hearing there is a plan for yet another one. Hopefully, JJJ will continue now and forever.” 

Kraven’s half-brother may have actually cameoed in Spider-Man: Far From Home, as Numar Acar played Nick Fury (Talos) associate Dimitri, who may or may not be a version of Dimitri Smerdyakov aka The Chameleon. 

We’re yet to see Venom: Let There Be Carnage have any real significant crossover stuff as they have yet to release a trailer for the upcoming sequel, unless they’ve snuck a cameo from J.K. Simmon’s newly revived J. Jonah Jameson. 

Kraven is yet another part of Sony’s greater plans for its splinter Marvel cinematic universe with the unfortunate corporate name Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters, yes that is the official name they’re going with. 

Here is a rundown of the other Marvel projects in the works and releasing from Sony Pictures. 

The studio recently moved Morbius to a release date of March 19th, 2021, and placed the Venom sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage to June 24th, 2021.

Spider-Man 3 from director Jon Watts is supposed to begin shooting this winter with a December 17th, 2021 release date but there is a likelihood that production starts in early 2021. The combination of COVID-19, multiple filming locations, and the Uncharted shoot will likely be determining factors if they’ll be able to start or finish on schedule. 

A potential Spider-Woman film will be directed by Olivia Wilde according to Deadline with a script from Wilde and Katie Silberman, a previous script was penned by Gary Spinelli (American Made, Chaos Walking). If the film is indeed Spider-Woman, it would focus on Jessica Drew and suggests the project could be handled by Marvel Studios in another co-production deal because Marvel has access to Drew as she didn’t originate in the pages of Spider-Man comics.

Madame Web will be directed by S.J. Clarkson but the report from Variety stressed that while a screenwriter hadn’t been chosen the studio was interested in casting Amy Adams and Charlize Theron, then building a script around that actress. 

Jackpot is another female-led superhero project at Sony that will have a script from Marc Guggenheim (Green Lantern, Arrow), a director has yet to be announced though. 

A Sinister Six film was being developed during The Amazing Spider-Man era with Drew Goddard (The Martian) attached to write and direct. It also crumbled to pieces when Sony decided to reboot the character for a second time scrapping the project in the process. Franchise producer Amy Pascal has voiced some interest in circling back to Goddard and Sinister Six at some point. 

Black Cat and Silver Sable could end up getting solo movies after their team-up film Silver & Black saw it’s production halted and was split into two solo projects instead. There haven’t been many updates on the progress of either film. It’s possible that multiple character and plot leaks contributed to Sony ultimately putting the film in ice. 

Nightwatch and Silk might also eventually get their own films, but again there haven’t been recent updates on their status at the studio. 

Back in March, The Wrap reported that screenwriter Roberto Orci was attached to write an untitled Spider-Man spinoff for Sony, but the information hasn’t been supported by other outlets or what that project will be. There had also been rumors from The Iluminerdi that characters such as Man-Wolf and Solo could be getting their own films as well, this has yet to be supported by the trades. Either could end up being this potential untitled Orci project. 

Marvel’s standing deal with Sony for Spider-Man allows them to make Spider-Man 3 keeping it within the MCU and they’ll have access to Spidey for another undisclosed Marvel Studios film. It’s a strong possibility that Disney and Sony could re-up the deal in the not too distant future.

We’ll have to wait and see what projects ultimately go in front of cameras and are released by the studio. It’s worth noting that a production timeline for Kraven The Hunter and Olivia Wilde’s film seemingly hasn’t been locked-down. 

Posted on in Film News

Director Olivia Wilde Confirms Attachment To Sony’s Marvel Film While Teasing ‘Spider-Woman’ – Will Marvel Studios Co-Produce?

Hours ago, Deadline first reported that Booksmart‘s Olivia Wilde would be directing and co-writing a new Spider-Man spinoff film at Sony Pictures. They claimed that sources believe it would focus on Spider-Woman best known as Jessica Drew.

Olivia Wilde has now confirmed this news on Twitter and added a spider emoji, suggesting that the Spider-Woman tidbit was indeed accurate.

Adding to the Spider-Woman thing is that Wilde didn’t correct actor Josh Gad when he brought-up the involvement of Marvel Studios and suddenly after the news Marvel dropped a piece to help inform people about Jessica Drew aka Spider-Woman, the timing doesn’t seem to be an accident. The expectation here is that this could be another co-production between Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios, leading the latter being behind the production like with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man trilogy.

Unlike with other Spider-Man characters that are getting spinoffs at Sony, Jessica Drew debuted in the pages of Marvel Spotlight #32 and 50 issues of her own solo series meaning she is fair game for Marvel Studios to use and is why there had been plenty of expectations of a co-production between Sony and Marvel.

Jessica Drew connects to multiple characters outside of Spider-Man as she was an Agent of S.W.O.R.D., the cosmic version of S.H.I.E.L.D. that will be introduced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe via WandaVision and Captain Marvel character Monica Rambeau.

Drew has origins with HYDRA brainwashing her to become Arachne and Ophelia Sarkissian aka Viper (Madame Hydra) pretended to be her birth mother.

There is an expectation that S.W.O.R.D. will have a sizable role in Nia DaCosta’s Captain Marvel 2, where we could first see Jessica if she is indeed being planned on being inserted into the MCU in a similar way to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man was in Captain America: Civil War.

S.W.O.R.D. could also be carrying over to something like Ms. Marvel as well.

Then again, Spider-Woman would more likely be an origin film given how different it is compared to the various other “Spider-People” connected to Peter Parker.

When this project will begin shooting is a little unknown as Wilde is about to begin shooting her thriller Don’t Worry Darling this fall.

Posted on in Television News

Updates On Marvel Studios’ Disney+ Shows

The Ronin has caught-wind of some interesting developments concerning the releases of the first two Disney+ shows from Marvel Studios and the potential production order of the ones that haven’t started to begin shooting.

First, it seems like WandaVision may indeed be finished enough to debut before the end of the year. We know that the series is still planning to do some pick-up shots or reshoots but it doesn’t seem like it will be enough to hinder a 2020 release.

However, The Falcon & The Winter Soldier is expected to have been pushed back to 2021.

Disney has yet to make solid announcements recently about when either show will be released other than reaffirming that Season 2 of The Mandalorian will be ready to go in October.

One big reason for the delay might not even be related to The Falcon‘s production pause, as it’s been months since Disney+ content has been shot due to the pandemic and that will leave a content gap next year for many streaming services. This could see places being a little more reserved and Disney dropping two Marvel shows alongside The Mandalorian might be a little too much at once.

Loki was always set to be released in 2021, so that doesn’t seem to have changed in any major way.

Also, while this could change due to COVID-19 and location scheduling, below seems to be the current production order of the new shows that haven’t started shooting.

  • Hawkeye
  • Ms. Marvel
  • Moon Knight
  • She-Hulk

This does make sense since Hawkeye and Ms. Marvel are further along in the casting process. Then again, multiple Marvel shows were in production in Atlanta at the same time, so the start dates might not be as staggered as they are with the feature films.

She-Hulk might be done with their scripts but it’s possible that Mark Ruffalo’s schedule is a factor, if he has indeed signed-on as expected.

On the film side, release dates are influx as there is a very good shot that Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings might not make it’s May 7th, 2021 release because of the production delays in Australia shortening the post-production window.

It’s unknown if Black Widow will stick to it’s November 6th theatrical release date or will be bumped to Eternals‘ February 12th, 2021 spot instead. There has been plenty of fan speculation it’ll simply be dumped on Disney+’s Premier Access section like Mulan, but little evidence to support it.

It is a little upsetting that without San Diego Comic-Con Marvel hasn’t made any big announcements. Hopefully, they’ll give some updates in the very near future taking cues from the upcoming event DC FanDome and doing their own in-house version of it.

Posted on in Features

FEATURE: ‘Captain Marvel 2′ Guaranteed To Include Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau In A Significant Role

We finally got a big update on Captain Marvel 2 with the hiring of director Nia DaCosta and it might be yet another hint that Marvel Studios is preparing to give Monica Rambeau a sizable role in the upcoming sequel. 

Here is a string of reasons why actress Teyonah Parris will likely be showing up in Captain Marvel 2 as Monica. 

  • A young Monica Rambeau was introduced in Captain Marvel setting up Carol’s friendship with her mother Maria, a fellow female Air Force pilot. 
  • An adult Monica Rambeau will appear alongside S.W.O.R.D. (cosmic counterpart to S.H.I.E.L.D.) in WandaVision, played by actress Teyonah Parris. Both having an important role to play in Captain Marvel 2 wouldn’t be at all shocking. 
  • WandaVision writer Megan McDonnell is currently working on the sequel’s script and has already tackled the character.
  • Captain Marvel 2 director Nia DaCosta recently worked with Teyonah Parris on her horror film Candyman. 
  • Rambeau took on the Captain Marvel mantle before Carol Danvers in 1982. She more recently uses the hero name Spectrum, a member of the Ultimates team alongside Carol Danvers and T’Challa aka Black Panther.
  • There is a good shot that Monica could replace Nick Fury as Carol’s buddy/sidekick in the sequel as their friendship was previously established.
Posted on in Film News

‘Captain Marvel 2’ Reportedly Adds ‘Candyman’ Director Nia DaCosta

It looks like another Phase 4 film has landed a director!

Deadline is reporting that Marvel has chosen a new director for Captain Marvel 2 instead of bringing back Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, who directed the first installment. According to the new report they’ve hired Nia DaCosta the director of Little Woods and the upcoming Candyman film for MGM Studios that is produced by Jordan Peele.

This news has yet to be confirmed by Marvel Studios or Disney.

Brie Larson is returning as Carol Danvers and it’s a little unknown when cameras will begin rolling.

Considering the current release date of the film is July 8th, 2022, starting production next spring/summer would make sense, however, it’s unknown if the backlog of projects at Marvel Studios due to COVID-19 will have an impact on that.

Feature films like Thor: Love & Thunder, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, Spider-Man 3, and Ant-Man 3 are most likely going to shoot in 2021 alongside various new Disney+ shows. There is a small chance that stuff like Black Panther 2 and Captain Marvel 2 might see their shoots pushed to 2022 with rescheduled release dates sometime in 2023.

Details on the upcoming project are scarce but with WandaVision‘s Megan McDonnell having been tapped to write the sequel this would suggest that it could have a huge connection to S.W.O.R.D. (S.H.I.E.L.D.’s intergalactic counterpart) and an adult Monica Rambeau played by Teyonah Parris, both being introduced in the Disney+ series.

We most likely will see the return of Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, who last we saw was busy on vacation as a group of Skrulls were building a space station. That station would most likely end up being The Peak or another base of operations for S.W.O.R.D. considering that humans aren’t likely able to building something like that as quickly as Skrulls.

It remains to be seen if Ms. Marvel‘s Kamala Khan will also join the project but there is a good shot the teenager might have a role to play in Captain Marvel 2.

There have been unconfirmed internet rumors of the sequel tackling the Secret Invasion storyline from the comics. That might just be a little too ambitious given the scale of that story and the volume of heroes/actors needed to be involved for that to come together.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Natalie Portman Says ‘Thor: Love & Thunder’ Aims To Begin Shooting Early 2021 In Australia

Natalie Portman appeared in a video on Tennis superstar Serena Williams’ Instagram account where she revealed the potential new production start date for the upcoming Thor installment. 

PORTMAN: “We’re shooting at the beginning of next year in Australia.”

As announced at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, Natalie is set to return as Jane Foster but will be taking on the alter ego of Lady Thor in Thor: Love & Thunder allowing her to potentially take on the mantle in future films. 

It’ll be interesting to see if Lady Thor has a connection to The Multiverse via the Loki series or if there is another route they’ll be going to explain how Jane was able to receive the power of Thor. In the comics, Thor has a human alter ego named Dr. Donald Blake (who transforms into Thor taking cues from Shazam!) which has never really been touched upon and could be easily handed over for Jane/Lady Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

Other characters expected to return alongside Chris Hemsworth’s Thor and Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie include Taika Waititi’s Korg (I previously reported last summer of an increased role for his character in the sequel) and Korg’s pal Miek. 

Oscar-winner Christian Bale (The Dark Knight, American Psycho, Ford v Ferarri) is said to be playing the film’s villain and is the first of the new additions to the franchise. 

We should be hearing more casting news before the end of the year. 

Filming on Love & Thunder had originally been slated to begin shooting next month at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. That wasn’t able to happen because Shang-Chi had to pause production after the COVID-19 outbreak in Australia led to director Destin Daniel Cretton cautiously quarantine himself during production and the film paused for multiple months until it was safe to resume. 

Production dates, in general, should be taken with a grain of salt for upcoming new projects even when it is coming from actors because they’re extremely fluid in the age of COVID-19. However, there is a really good chance this one sticks because Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings (hasn’t officially resumed filming) could be completed by then and Australia is certainly in better shape than other countries where Marvel films are expected to shoot. 

Fingers crossed there aren’t any further delays on Shang-Chi that could lead to more headaches for the Thor sequel. 

Marvel Studios and Disney recently updated Thor: Love & Thunder‘s release date to February 11th, 2022, but this could easily change in the coming months if the Black Widow release has to be bumped to February 12th, 2021 from November 6th. 

SOURCE: SERENA WILLIAMS