Tag: Rogue

Posted on in News

UPDATE: Ionic Productions Confirmed To Be A Marvel Studios Project

A while back, The Ronin listed off a heap of new Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) established by the Walt Disney Company for a bunch of untitled Marvel Studios projects (film and television). We’ve been now able to confirm that one of the companies we listed off in the past, Ionic Productions LLC, is indeed at Marvel Studios.

We could theorize that Ionic Productions is alluding to characters like X-Men’s Rogue (less likely) or Avengers member Wonder Man, given the two superheroes have ionic-based powers.

At one time, Canadian actor Nathan Fillion (Slither, The Suicide Squad, Guardians of The Galaxy) was in the role of Simon Williams aka Wonder Man in James Gunn’s Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.2 (was cut from the final film) and he recently played the Avengers character in Hulu’s M.O.D.O.K. series, however, it remains to be seen if he’ll return to the part in any live-action capacity.

In August, Fillion took to Twitter during The Suicide Squad watch party to campaign to play Walter Langowski aka Sasquatch in a hypothetical Alpha Flight (Canadian mutant team) project at Marvel Studios. It’s an interesting character pick since Nathan’s longtime pal Ryan Reynolds is playing Canadian mutant Wade Wilson in Deadpool 3 and could lead to those characters interacting.

Wonder Man has connections to established MCU characters such as Baron Zemo, Captain Marvel, Vision, and Scarlet Witch.

There is still a good chance this might be simply another Disney+ spinoff either focusing on Paul Bettany’s Vision (Wonder Man teaser art was spotted in a WandaVision promo) or even Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau, but we’ll have to wait to get real confirmation on what the project actually is.

Wonder Man concept art appeared in WandaVision promo

In May, WandaVision head writer Jac Schaeffer signed an overall deal with Marvel Studios/20th Century Television, but future projects haven’t been announced. If this turns out to be Wonder Man, given the concept art in the WandaVision production office, I wouldn’t be shocked if Schaeffer is involved given her extended deal with Marvel.

It’s noteworthy to mention WandaVision’s LLC was Static Productions, so a connection to characters from the show wouldn’t be a surprise to us.

Old Guard Productions LLC is another LLC we first uncovered that is expected to be for Marvel Studios, but we’ll still trying to get that one confirmed. It’ll be interesting to see if Old Guard might be liked to X-Men, Fantastic Four, Winter Guard/Red Guardian, or the original Guardians of The Galaxy lineup (who appeared in Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.2).

Here is a rundown of the other LLCs.

  • GRASS-FED PRODUCTIONS (SECRET INVASION)
  • BAD EGG PRODUCTIONS (IRONHEART)
  • FREQUENT PRODUCTIONS (EHCO)
  • MAGLEV TRAIN PRODUCTIONS (WAKANDA DISNEY+ SERIES)
  • NATURAL HISTORY PRODUCTIONS (DISNEY+ PROJECT)
  • BLUEBERRY WAFFLES PRODUCTIONS
  • STANDOFFISH PRODUCTIONS
  • CHANGEUP PRODUCTIONS
  • SOLVE EVERYTHING PRODUCTIONS
  • ON YOUR MARK PRODUCTIONS
  • CANTINA PRODUCTIONS
  • BATTLE ANYONE PRODUCTIONS
  • ACID POP PRODUCTIONS 
  • SPEYSIDE PRODUCTIONS 
  • RICHMOND STREET PRODUCTIONS
  • IONIC PRODUCTIONS
  • OLD GUARD PRODUCTIONS (UNCONFIRMED)

There is certainly an expectation while this stuff is for new projects (sequels don’t get new LLC names), some of the LLCs are likely for known/announced things like Bassam Tariq’s Blade reboot, Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool 3, Jon Watts’ Fantastic Four or stuff that hasn’t been made official like X-Men/Secret Wars/Avengers 5/Silver Surfer.

New animation projects for the Disney+ lineup are also coming from Marvel.

Other live-action projects on the horizon include Eternals, Hawkeye, Spider-Man: No Way Home (collaboration with Sony Pictures), Ms. Marvel, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love & Thunder, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, She-Hulk, Moon Knight, The Marvels, Secret Invasion, Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, Ironheart, Echo, Armor Wars, Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3, and an untitled Wakanda series from Ryan Coogler.

Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige could easily announce the new film titles at D23 Expo and then television projects at the Disney+ Day event on November 12, as an info dump by the end of the year on their upcoming slate is expected.

Posted on in Television News

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Rogue’ Director M.J. Bassett Joins Amazon’s ‘Jack Reacher’ Series Reboot

The Ronin can confirm that British director M.J. Bassett is part of the directing team of Amazon’s series reboot of Jack Reacher, previously a film franchise led by Tom Cruise and will have Alan Ritchson (slightly more aligned with Reacher’s stature/size) taking over the role in the show.

Bassett had been once involved with Amblin’s new Halo series but dropped out and recently she was behind the recent Megan Fox actioner Rogue. Her others credits include Altered Carbon, Iron Fist, Nightflyers, Strike Back, Endangered Species, Ash vs Evil Dead, and Silent Hill: Revelation.

Bassett joins The Wachowskis as part of the growing club of trans women directors tackling action projects, the more the merrier.

We previously first reported Amazon hired Bodyguard director Thomas Vincent for Jack Reacher.

The first season is reportedly based on Lee Child’s novel Killing Floor.

Jack Reacher comes to the little town of Margrave looking for information about the mysterious death of a guitar player named Blind Blake. Instead, he finds one of the largest counterfeiting operations in history.

Skydance and Amazon are already partners on their popular Jack Ryan series based on the Tom Clancy novels led by John Krasinski, which is heading into it’s third season.

Posted on in Features

Marvel Studios Should Consider ‘Loki’ Director Kate Herron For Their Reboot Of The ‘X-Men’ Franchise

When the Walt Disney Company acquired 21st Century Fox, the rights to Marvel Comics projects such as Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Silver Surfer returned to Marvel. We know that Jon Watts (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Cop Car) is attached to direct their Fantastic Four reboot, Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool 3 is officially in the works with The Molyneux (Bob’s Burgers) handling the script, and writer/director Adam McKay (The Big Short, Vice, Ant-Man, Don’t Look Up) has been publicly interested in tackling a solo Silver Surfer movie.

What seems to be something that won’t be anytime soon is their X-Men reboot, which likely won’t get a release date before 2025, as hinted to by Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige. How they’re going about with Fantastic Four could suggest that Marvel Studios may end up looking at their existing director lineup to handle the X-Men reboot.

A director that is quickly becoming a strong standout is Loki’s Kate Herron, as the series has a strong cinematic feeling and look despite being a Disney+ series. It also echos what Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni are doing with The Mandalorian slightly more than the two previous Marvel/Disney+ shows.

I bring up Kate Herron because she recently revealed in an interview with Trey Mangum that her first introduction to Marvel was the X-Men cartoon series that originally aired domestically on Fox in the 1990s.

“Basically, my first introduction to Marvel was that I loved the X-Men cartoons growing up, I was obsessed with it. I remember trying to turn my dolls into Storm…but I’d always play X-Men with my toys. I think loved it because they were outsiders and I connected with that, I was really drawn into that story,” Kate Herron said.

Having a director with that sort of connection with X-Men would be the complete opposite of Bryan Singer, who was notoriously ignorant of the source material (altering characters at whim) and according to Hugh Jackman, actively banned the comics from the set. Herron has proven she has a visually striking eye and the ability to have the scope needed for a project as big as X-Men, also being able to juggle a good amount of characters as each episode of Loki adds more players into the mix.

It wouldn’t hurt to have someone that might champion the Jim Lee era costumes that were highlighted in the Fox Kids cartoon. Going that route with the character designs would also help separate itself from the Fox films and allow Marvel Studios have their own stamp on the live-action X-Men.

I also think one key element of the X-Men franchise is the high-volume of female characters on the roster, something that wasn’t always handled properly with Fox’s era of the franchise as Bryan Singer/writers/producers took liberties with characters like Rogue and Storm. Those characters alongside Psylocke didn’t get proper adaptations with the previous incarnations. Herron’s Loki series has a strong/diverse female presence and those characters have been given a little more depth, there is hope that she could give a bigger stage to female members of the team.

While some fans will likely be keen to see The Russo Brothers return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe for X-Men, they’ve been clear that what they actually want to tackle is Wolverine and Secret Wars. If they were to oversee the Secret Wars event, the X-Men would likely be involved and scratch that Wolverine itch.

I could see Kate Herron fitting nicely as the architect or godmother of the new era of the X-Men and fans like myself may feel more comfortable with the franchise in her hands after seeing her impressive work on Loki.