Former Daredevil actor Peter Shinkoda (played Nobu) reveals to #SaveDaredevil in a panel chat on YouTube some racism behind the scenes from former Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb.
Suggesting that his character Nobu and Wai Ching Ho’s Madame Gao were essentially kneecapped by Loeb because he held some prejudice against Asian characters on the show getting deeper storylines. Revealing his own character Nobu had stuff scrapped directly by Loeb’s racist attitude.
Here is what Shinkoda had to say.
Jeph Loeb told the writers’ room not to write for Nobu and Gao. Saying that Loeb’s reasoning was “Nobody cares about Chinese people and Asian people. There were three previous Marvel movies a trilogy called Blade made where Wesley Snipes kills 200 Asians each movie, nobody gives a shit, so don’t write about Nobu and Gao”.
You can hear Peter’s words for yourself.
He also highlighted on Twitter that neither himself or Wai Ching Ho were later invited by Marvel/Netflix to the Season 2 premiere.
Loeb’s bizarre attitudes towards Asian folks/culture isn’t a new thing. It was on center stage at San Diego Comic-Con in 2018, where he wore a Karate Halloween costume to moderate the Iron First panel when actress Jessica Henwick rightfully had him take the costume off before the panel began.
There had already been some backlash from the fandom that Iron Fist had been a potential entry point to have an Asian-American leading superhero character from Marvel, years before Shang-Chi was announced.
Below you can see that exchange between Jessica and Jeph right here.
Jeph Loeb is now out at Marvel Television with the company re-branded as Marvel TV Studios with Kevin Feige overseeing it. It’ll be interesting to see if Shang-Chi was a direct response to this nonsense and if other stories will be made public.
This isn’t the first claim of odd sexism/racism from Marvel brass. At one point, Ike Perlmutter had direct control over projects at Marvel Studios and was said to be behind the delay of films such as Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Black Widow. Perlmutter was later removed from the film division after an intervention from Disney giving Kevin Feige more control over the studio.
Russo Brothers Tease ‘Secret Wars’ Could Be Bigger Than ‘The Infinity Saga’
The Bro Bible was able to speak with The Russo Brothers about what could coax them to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, such as with another massive event like Secret Wars. Something they have teased in the past they would be interested in tackling while on the press tour for Avengers: Endgame.
JOE RUSSO: “You know, I read that when I was 10 or 11, and it was the scale of getting all of the heroes together. It was one of the first major books to do that — that was really event-storytelling to me at its finest. And what happens when you put all of those personalities together. I also like the idea of villains having to team up with heroes. Anth and I like complicated relationships between heroes and villains, we like villains who believe they’re heroes in their own stories, so it’s all sort of built into this notion of Secret Wars. To execute something on the scale of Infinity War was directly related to the dream of Secret Wars, which is even larger in scale.”
ANTHONY RUSSO: “It would be the biggest movie you could possibly imagine, so that’s what really excites us about the story — the ambition of it is even bigger than the ambition of the Infinity Saga.”
It has yet to be made official that the Russo Brothers are even coming back and Secret Wars isn’t one of the announced projects in development, so it’s hard to say if the pair will get their chance to make it anytime soon. Marvel is already busy trying to finish Phase 4 projects and getting other things ready like their Blade, X-Men, and Fantastic Four reboots.
‘Logan’ Actress Dafne Keen Open To Reprising X-23 In The MCU
When asked by Comic Book if Dafne Keen would like to reprise the role of Laura aka X-23 in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Logan actress replied “definitely”.
At one point, James Mangold had been mulling over developing a solo spinoff film focusing on Dafne’s Laura before 20th Century Fox folded into Disney with the merger.
I think the likelihood of Keen returning is extremely slim just like Famke Janssen reprising the Jean Grey role in the MCU as everything points towards Marvel giving the main franchise a hard-reboot. However, there is a shot that Keen could reprise the X-23 role in something more mature like Deadpool 3 or X-Force.
Keen is currently 15 and would be around 19-20 when Marvel is expected to relaunch their version of the X-Men.
Tom Holland Suggests ‘Spider-Man 3’ Could Wrap Filming In February 2021
Actor Tom Holland has begun filming Uncharted in Germany and a quote was making the rounds from a family interview on Patreon (spotted by MCU Direct) where he hoped to have completed production on Spider-Man 3 by February 2021.
However, he may have either misspoke or is potentially going by outdated studio information concerning the film’s production schedule. Considering that Spider-Man 3 is expected to shoot in places like Atlanta, New York City, and Los Angeles it is increasingly unlikely that will happen anytime soon given the state of COVID-19 in the United States alongside Uncharted‘s shoot just starting. that they’ll be able to begin in the fall.
Marvel Studios Still Seeking An Actress To Play ‘Hawkeye’s Kate Bishop Or Will They Land On Hailee Steinfeld?
After recent news from the Hollywood Reporter that Marvel Studios has hired three directors for their upcoming Hawkeye series starring Jeremy Renner, there still seems to be a search to find an actress to play Barton’s protege Kate Bishop.
Oscar-nominee Hailee Steinfeld (Bumblebee, Edge of Seventeen, True Grit) had been previously linked for talks by Variety and this is what The Hollywood Reporter had to say recently in their report about Hailee’s involvement with the Disney+ series.
One of the arcs of the series is Barton’s mentoring of a new generation of archer, Kate Bishop. Hailee Steinfeld was previously in negotiations for the part but it is unclear if her deal has closed. Marvel had no comment.
If Hailee ultimately doesn’t land the role it could be due to her contract with Apple TV+ for the drama series Dickinson.
Comic Book Artist Rob Liefeld Hopeful For A ‘Cable’ Movie
While speaking with Collider, comic book artist Rob Liefeld and co-creator of X-Men characters such as Deadpool and Cable, revealed he’s still very much interested in seeing a Cable movie coming together in the future.
LIEFELD: “Cable should have his own movie series. He can exist independent of Deadpool in a heartbeat. He has for years. If Deadpool’s been in like 330 comics, Cable’s been in about 520. Yes, I’ve counted…. In between Deadpool 2 wrapping and opening, I got really close with Josh. And he was very excited about exploring Cable in the subsequent sequels. The X-Force standalone movie that was, in his own words, Cable-centric.”
Rob has been extremely vocal over the years about Nathan Summers aka Cable being able to handle his own film franchise.
While Marvel Studios is seemingly set to have Ryan Reynolds carry-overs from the Fox films as Wade Wilson aka Deadpool, it remains to be seen if Josh Brolin will reprise the Cable role in future films. Ryan had confirmed back in December that Deadpool 3 is in actively development at Marvel Studios after moving from 20th Century after the merger.
While Marvel Studios has been having a tough time resuming productions or even starting it with others, they’ve finally found directors for the upcoming solo Hawkeye series starring Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton.
The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Troop Zero directors Amber Finlayson and Katie Ellwood along with Comrade Detective‘s Rhys Thomas have been tapped to work on the Disney+ series that will introduce Barton’s protege Kate Bishop, a member of the Young Avengers.
It’s still unknown who will ultimately take the Bishop role after Hailee Steinfeld had been linked previously but had a conflict with her Apple TV+ series Dickinson.
When they’ll begin filming is a little uncertain as they had been planning on a shoot in Atlanta, Georgia and because of the pandemic they’ve had to pause other shows shooting in the area, which could lead to delays for Hawkeye‘s start. Georgia’s governor doesn’t seem to be taking the situation as seriously as he should be and this could lead to the state having trouble resuming it’s film and television sector in 2020.
The hiring of these three directors for Hawkeye would suggest that it will be the next series to filming while She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, and Moon Knight have yet to officially land their own directors.
As most suspected, The Falcon & The Winter Soldier won’t begin airing next month due to delays in finishing their production. Although there is word that WandaVision might be delayed until spring 2021 despite chatter of a December release.
Following the recent development of the Avatar sequels resuming production in Wellington, New Zealand last month, there is word from Deadline that Marvel Studios is hoping to restart filming on Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings by the end of July.
Filming had been taking place at Fox Studios Australia facility in Sydney, New South Wales.
This comes after Australia productions were halted over COVID-19 concerns and director Destin Daniel Cretton self-isolating when it was believed he might have come into contact with someone that was sick with Coronavirus.
Like New Zealand, Australia has been able to keep Coronavirus cases to a minimum and this means they’ll be able to resume filming sooner than other projects located in other countries.
We’ll have to see if they’ll truly be able to finish the film to meet that May 7th, 2021 release date considering the current delays they’ve seen and new protocols might see completing scenes taking longer than normal.
Delays would certainly impact Thor: Love & Thunder being ready on time as there had been expectations to begin shooting this summer/fall.
The Ronin has been able to independently confirm that Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures’ upcoming/untitled Spider-Man 3 has indeed added veteran visual effects supervisor Kelly Port to the film’s production team.
Port most recently worked on Marvel’s box office juggernauts Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. I’m curious if this potentially hints at the scale of the superhero sequel or they simply wanted someone already familiar with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and has tackled Spider-Man.
He was nominated for Best Achievement In Visual Effects at the 2019 Academy Awards for his work on Avengers: Infinity War.
Kelly has a history with Disney previously working on Beauty & The Beast and Maleficent.
Director Jon Watts is returning to finish his trilogy with a script penned by Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna. The pair of screenwriters also worked on the last two installments.
Outside of Spider-Man being framed for the murder of Quentin Beck aka Mysterio and his secret idenity being revealed by J.K. Simmons’ J. Jonah Jameson, we don’t know much about the third MCU Spider-Man film other than Parker will likely be hunted-down by authorities.
The recent Morbius teaser trailer confirmed that the Sony Pictures spinoff film takes place in the same space as Spider-Man: Homecoming as it featured a brief cameo from Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes aka The Vulture during some sort of prison escape scene.
No casting announcements have been made as the planned summer shoot was squashed by COVID-19, also delaying Uncharted‘s March production start. Sony most likely is going to have Tom Holland shoot the video game adaptation first in Germany (projects filming there expected to resume soon) before moving over to the Spidey project at some point.
While there have been production grids making the rounds online recently suggesting a September start for the Spider-Man sequel (working title Serenity Now) in the United States, it’s really hard to take any of those dates seriously when the COVID-19 pandemic changes day-to-day. Making those listings/dates kind of useless. Most recently, the state of Georgia has seen a massive spike of new cases over the last week and would suggest most filming that was expected to take place in Atlanta won’t be happening anytime soon along with prep/set construction given the size of the crews needed to put that together.
If the production start on Spider-Man 3 is indeed delayed into 2021 (looking more likely every day), I wouldn’t expect the film to be released on November 5th, 2021 and most likely will be pushed to another date in 2022.
The recent extension deal between Sony and Marvel includes another unnamed MCU film that will feature Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, however, what that project ultimately will be remains to be seen.
Here are some interesting Marvel tidbits that have surfaced recently.
‘WandaVision’ Expected To Have At Least 9-Episodes
A stunt person’s public resume spotted by Murphy’s Multiverse seemingly reveals that there might be at least 9-episodes of WandaVision airing on Disney+.
When WandaVision will be ready to begin airing on the streaming service hasn’t been made official. Vision actor Paul Bettany recently revealed that they still have some reshoots before they’re completely finished when that will happen is a little less unclear.
Anthony Mackie Says Marvel Studios Needs More Diversity
While speaking with Variety, MCU star Anthony Mackie took Marvel Studios to task about the diversity behind the camera.
MACKIE: “It really bothered me that I’ve done seven Marvel movies where every producer, every director, every stunt person, every costume designer, every PA, every single person has been white.”
While Marvel Studios has a few non-white producers such as Nate Moore (Eternals, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther), Trinh Tran (Hawkeye, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Captain America: Civil War), and Malcolm Spellman (The Falcon & The Winter Soldier) Marvel and the producing team could certainly be doing a lot better in all areas of hiring and expanding their diversity behind the scenes, not just in front of the camera.
Mackie also stated to Variety that the upcoming series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier is like a six-hour film.
MACKIE: “We’re shooting it exactly like a movie. Everybody who had worked on TV before was like, ‘I’ve never worked on a TV show like this.’ The way in which we were shooting, it feels exactly like we were shooting the movie cut up into the show. So instead of a two-hour movie, a six or eight-hour movie.”
When the Marvel series will begin airing is also up-in-the-air as they didn’t finish shooting and the latest restrictions from the European Union banning American travelers would suggest that they won’t be able to complete those Prague scenes anytime soon.
The United States is also still stuck in the first wave of the coronavirus making it extremely dangerous for studios to ramp-up productions in Atlanta leaving shows like Falcon and Loki in production limbo for the moment.
Ernie Hudson Confirms He Attempted To Play King T’Chaka In The MCU
Ghostbusters and The Crow star Ernie Hudson confirmed to Comic Book that he asked Marvel producers about playing T’Challa’s father and former Black Panther, King T’Chaka. However, he asserts that Marvel thought the role was too small for him.
The original rumor that Hudson was in the mix came from Latino Review back in 2014.
Hulu’s ‘Helstrom’ Series Doesn’t Seem To Have The Marvel Studios Branding
An official logo for Helstrom posted by Hulu when announcing their lineup for Comic-Con@ Home seemingly omitted the Marvel branding from the project, which is based on characters from Marvel Comics and was produced by Marvel Television before Jeph Loeb stepped down. The company has been renamed to Marvel TV Studios and is overseen by Marvel’s new CCO, Kevin Feige.
In Marvel’s Helstrom, Daimon and Ana Helstrom are the son and daughter of a mysterious and powerful serial killer. The siblings have a complicated dynamic as they track down the terrorizing worst of humanity — each with their attitude and skills.
This could support the idea that Helstrom is neither part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (unlike the Disney+ shows) and most likely won’t be getting a second season.
I had been mostly exclusively reporting on the various directors working on the series at HN Entertainment, so I’m curious to see what the Vancouver-shot show looks like.
There have been some signs that the 10-episodes will begin airing sometime near Halloween in October/November.
Here is is a collection of some interesting news, tidbits, and rumors concerning the world of live-action Marvel projects from the last couple of weeks.
Chris Evans Isn’t Interested In Reprising ‘Captain America’
While addressing if he is truly done with the Captain America role, Chris Evans said the following on The Graham Norton Show (via Digitial Spy).
EVANS: “Yes, I think it is. It was a great run and we went out on such a high note that it would be risky to revisit it in my opinion. It was such a good experience and I think it’s better left that way.”
Despite establishing that Old Man Rogers is alive at the end of Avengers: Endgame, Chris Evans tells that he isn’t eager to return to the Captain America role anytime soon. This isn’t shocking given that the mantle is being passed on to Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson with the transition taking place in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.
J.K. Simmons Says He’s Signed On For Multiple ‘Spider-Man’ Movie
In Spider-Man: Far From Home, it was revealed that J.K. Simmons would be reprising the role of Spider-Man’s media nemesis J. Jonah Jameson after playing the character in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. The character is the one to reveal to the public that Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is Spider-Man and attempts to frame him for the murder of Quentin Beck.
Simmons has briefly mentioned to PeopleTV (via Entertainment Weekly) that he is signed-on for sequels but the studio isn’t exactly obligated to have him return.
SIMMONS: “I don’t know if I would use the word expect. It’s great to have the opportunity, as these things evolve, to be one of the holdovers from the previous version.”
This could mean that he’ll be returning for Spider-Man 3 but likely hasn’t been told if he is or not. An assumption I think we all made after the cliffhanger ending of the last film that could allow him to play a much larger role in future films. It might also support previous online rumblings pointing towards J. Jonah potentially showing up in films like Morbius and Venom 2, given that Sony Pictures seems keen on establishing their Spider-Man Cinematic Universe.
Josh Trank Says 20th Century Fox Blocked Him From Casting A Black Actress To Play Sue Storm In ‘Fantastic Four’
While speaking with Geeks of Color recently to promote his Tom Hardy gangster film Capone, Fantastic Four director Josh Trank revealed that he was pushing for a black actress to portray the role of Sue Storm in Fantastic Four.
Josh indicates that 20th Century Fox was behind that not happening, despite allowing him to cast Michael B. Jordan as her brother Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch.
TRANK: “There were a lot of controversial conversations that were had behind-the-scenes on that. I was mostly interested in a black Sue Storm, a black Johnny Storm, and a black Franklin Storm. But when you’re dealing with a studio on a massive movie like that, everybody wants to keep an open mind to who the big stars are going to be.”
“When it came down to it, I found a lot of pretty heavy pushback on casting a black woman in that role.”
Studios being fearful of women of color in leading roles isn’t shocking or new.However, superhero diversity is something I think we can all rally around given and we’ll be curious to see how Marvel Studios ultimately recasts both their Fantastic Four and X-Men reboots.
Trank also mentioned on Twitter (before deleting/deactivating his account) that he isn’t interested in releasing a director’s cut of Fantastic Four.
Rumored Working Title of ‘Hawkeye’ Series Is ‘Anchor Point’
Our pal Charles Murphy over at Murphy’s Multiverse is claiming that the working title for Marvel Studios’ upcoming Hawkeye series will be Anchor Point. Working titles are normally used strictly during pre-production and the shooting of projects.
However, when that show might begin shooting is a little unclear at the moment with a handful of other Disney+ shows that haven’t fully completed their filming and there is some uncertainly concerning when new stuff like Hawkeye, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, and Moon Knight that hasn’t even started will begin production given the backlog they’re undergoing at the moment due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
If filming is indeed going to move forward this fall in Atlanta, Georiga on Hawkeye, we’re likely to get some official casting news concerning the Kate Bishop role in the not too distant future.
Evan Peters Rumored For Mystery Role In ‘WandaVision’
Another cool story coming from Charles Murphy suggests the possible casting of X-Men and American Horror Story actor Evan Peters in a mysterious key role for Marvel’s WandaVision.
However, the report clearly is under the impression that Peters is playing a new character and is unlikely standing in for Aaron Johnson’s Pietro Maximoff aka Quicksilver.
Despite blog and fan speculation that this could mean the Singerverse is carrying over to the Marvel Cinematic Universe if Peters is indeed playing a character other than Quicksilver, this would finally cement that Marvel is rebooting the main X-Men franchise (excluding Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool) and going to recast all of the roles, not just Wolverine.
‘WandaVision’ Might Resume Filming This July In Los Angeles
Speaking of other Marvel shows that haven’t completed their productions, Paul Bettany has seemingly revealed to the Tampa Bay Comic Convention that he cannot attend their convention this summer because the resumed filming of WandaVision is taking place next month.
Here is what the event posted on their Facebook page.
“We finally received word from Paul Bettany’s representation, and unfortunately Paul had to cancel his appearance at TBCC this year due being called back by Disney for WandaVision filming in July, in Los Angeles. We’re working on guest additions!“
However, it’s hardly confirmation as Marvel/Disney hasn’t made any official statements concerning the resuming of any of their projects. It’s worth considering Disney could be asking principal actors in their major projects to be on stand-by for the summer, just in case they do want to resume production sooner rather than later.
There have been indications that WandaVision is much further along than both The Falcon & The Winter Solider and Loki, so the filming needed to be done might be limited or potentially additional footage.
Will ‘Shang-Chi’ Resume Production In Australia Soon?
On the live-action front, Australia and New Zealand seem to be in much better shape to resume feature film productions sooner than the United States and possibly the United Kingdom.
Avatar 2 could very well resume production by the end of the month or sometime in July after director James Cameron and producer Jon Landau arrived in New Zealand last week.
We can theorize that Australian projects like Shang-Chi might be some of the first to resume even before major projects in other countries.
Shang-Chi unlikely projects like Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness and Spider-Man 3 was shooting when Coronavirus outbreaks in the country led to the government telling studios to put a pause on filming.
When stuff like the Spider-Man and Doctor Strange sequels will be able to begin shooting is less clear given that Tom Holland is expected to shoot Uncharted first and if that production is delayed beyond the summer likely means Spider-Man 3 won’t begin shooting until 2021.
Doctor Strange 2 was undergoing new rewrites from Loki’s Michael with new director Sam Raimi jumping in for Scott Derrickson. While the UK government is keen for filming to resume in the country it might not be safe to resume this early, the same could be said about shoots in the United States as well.
Shang-Chi was also going to shoot in San Francisco (Agent of Atlas connection?) and Los Angeles which could likely happen later in the year. However, what is a bit unknown is if they’ll be able to shoot exterior stuff in the various Asian locations they wanted to use before the pandemic.
Has Actress Fala Chen Joined The Cast of ‘Shang-Chi’?
Some social media detective work from Murphy’s Multiverse writer Lizzie Hill suggests that newcomer Fala Chen might have joined the cast of Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings.
They also recently figured out that Solo: A Star Wars Story actress Erin Kellyman is expected to have an unnamed role in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.
Simon Kinberg Open To Directing Another ‘X-Men’ Film For Marvel Studios
Lastly, Dark Phoenix writer/director Simon Kinberg suggested to IGN that he’d be open to the possibility of returning to the X-Men franchise under the new management of Marvel Studios.
Simon Kinberg would absolutely direct an X-Men film for Marvel, if the opportunity came up. "I've dedicated a lot of my life to Logan and Deadpool and the X-Men and would love to do a fresh take." #XMen#DaysofFuturePast#WFHTheaterpic.twitter.com/Le0HwO8Rmg
After Dark Phoenix losing 20th Century Studios (owned by Disney at the time of release) around $100-130 million, I find it hard to believe that Marvel would consider having Kinberg anywhere near their new X-Men franchise. Having new creatives involved isn’t the worst idea and it’s about time to have more passionate people tackling these characters.
THE RONIN 