The guessing games can now finally end, as “Captain America: Brave New World” actor Giancarlo Esposito (“The Mandalorian”) has announced during the Marvel Studios’ presentation at San Diego Comic-Con that he’ll be playing Sidewinder in the new installment due out in theaters on February 14, 2025. Ending months of speculation about his Marvel casting.
Seth Voelker, aka Sidewinder, is the King of The Serpent Society. Which is a slightly more modern terrorist group from the pages of the Captain America comic books that mirrored H.Y.D.R.A. and had Madame Hydra, aka, among their ranks under the codename Viper and once attempted to take over the group entirely. The other main Serpent Society member in “Brave New World” includes Rosa Salazar’s Rachel Deighton, aka Diamondback, who eventually switches sides.
Another tidbit confirmed was, yes, the giant Celestial sticking out of the planet from “Eternals” is indeed made out of adamantium and could potentially have some sort of connection to the Wolverine/Weapon X Program coming in the future to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, alongside the “X-Men” reboot. The fight over the newly advanced mineral via Tiamut, similar to vibrainium, had been teased in the film’s first-look trailer.
This is likely why there was rampant speculation that Esposito’s character could be connected to the X-Men or a mutant himself.
One of the more compelling reasons to finally use The Serpent Society for Sam Wilson’s Captain American tenure is that it has an extremely deep bench of members, allowing for a steady stream of bad guys for him to throw hands against in future installments as it feels like “Brave New World” could be the start of Anthony Mackie’s trilogy.
Marvel Studios is reportedly already developing Captain America 4 with writers Malcolm Spellman and Dalan Musson. Spellman is the showrunner of Falcon & The Winter Soldier and Musson is a staff writer on the Disney+ show.
It’s all but confirmed that the series will continue the adventures of Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson as the new Captain America. However, a director hasn’t been named but there is a good shot they’ll ask Kari Skogland after tackling Falcon & Winter Soldier and alongside Spellman being a key part of the show’s success.
Villains aren’t named but there is a good shot that Marvel could end up using The Serpent Society, a group of multiple villains that have been the thorn in the side of Captain America. You might remember that Captain America 3 briefly had the faux title of Captain America: Serpent Society before the Civil War angle was confirmed with the reveal of the late Chadwick Boseman playing T’Challa aka Black Panther in the sequel.
The Serpent Society could end up being an overarching group of baddies for Sam’s era of the franchise potentially alongside other unused Captain America villains that can be mined for future movies led by Anthony Mackie. It’s unclear if Bucky Barnes, Sharon Carter, Baron Zemo, Val, and John Walker will be part of the character lineup for the fourth installment.
I’m slightly curious if The Thunderbolts will have a connection as well.
Another week, another batch of interesting stories concerning upcoming Marvel films and shows.
Anthony Mackie Says ‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’ Has Very Little To Do Before Wrapping
While speaking with Jimmy Fallon, MCU star Anthony Mackie revealed they only have a little bit more to shoot whenever The Falcon & The Winter Soldier is allowed to resume filming.
MACKIE: “Well, I’m happy to say we are not canceled, we are on hold. So, we’re going back, hopefully, sometime soon to finish it up. We have very little stuff to do.”
This lines-up with recent comments from Steven Soderbergh that his crime flick Kill Switch was expected to begin shooting in two weeks when productions across the globe were placed on pause. Winter Soldier’s Sebastian Stan was set for a lead role in Kill Switch, which would have meant he expected to have completed the Disney+ series by that time.
Marisa Tomei Hopes Aunt May’s Professional Life Is Highlighted In ‘Spider-Man 3’
Marisa Tomei is on the promotion tour for her new film The King of Staten Island and revealed to Screen Rant what she’d like to see happen with Aunt May in the upcoming Spider-Man sequel.
TOMEI: “Well, I’ve had her – [director] Jon Watts and I always talked about her being a community organizer. And hopefully, that track will expand and be part of this one, as well.”
When Spider-Man 3 (aka Serenity Now) begins filming is a large question mark, as it was set to shoot mostly in the United States, and the country in the middle of a pandemic. Sony Pictures had wanted Tom Holland to shoot their Uncharted feature film before moving on to the Spidey sequel, which had set to begin shooting back in March in Germany before global film production was placed on hold due to the Coronavirus.
There is now an expectation that Uncharted will resume first because pre-production was completed and sets are ready to go. While where Marvel Studios is concerning Spider-Man 3 is a bit unknown given that set construction wasn’t likely happening during stay-at-home orders.
Wolverine Villains Connected To ‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’ Series?
A neat little tidbit was highlighted last week by Murphy’s Multiverse concerning an image of a gang member’s jacket from the Madripoor set of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. The site tried to decode what the Easter Egg might be concerning the symbol on the jacket.
If you’re unaware, Madripoor is a location from the X-Men comics and it’s where that a handful of solo Wolverine adventures took place. It’s located in Southeast Asia and is essentially run by criminal organizations allowing syndicates to conduct business without any interference from authorities. This has led many to believe that Marvel Studios might use the location to tease mutants and maybe even Logan.
I then pointed out on Twitter that this symbol on their jacket is most likely an homage to Ogun’s mask (taking cues from the traditional Hannya mask).
Ogun is a Japanese X-Men villain with telepathic powers that has connections to Wolverine (his mentor), Kitty Pryde (brainwashes her), the Yakuza, and the villainous organization the Serpent Society.
Captain America: Serpent Society you might remember was the fake title for Captain America 3 before Kevin Feige revealed they were tackling Civil War and announced Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa/Black Panther.
The group of villains could easily become the new HYDRA for Sam Wilson’s incarnation of Captain America in the series and potentially in a new wave of solo films as well.
Ogun’s connection to a gang in the series could mean a lot of things, the Yakuza operating on the island could help establish connections to future underworld figures like The Hand or even someone like fellow Wolverine villain Omega Red (resurrected by the Yakuza). The character himself showing up could help establish that criminal villains with powers are starting to show up in the universe, either being mutants themselves or through other means. A way to possibly tease mutants are showing up in the MCU before the X-Men are rebooted.
Madripoor might also tease other Wolverine/X-Men villains.
One of the leaders of Serpent Society was Viper, who is Ophelia Sarkissian aka Madame Hydra. The villainess has a direct connection to the island nation of Madirpoor, as Viper was in control of it. Like Ogun, Viper has crossed paths with Wolverine on multiple occasions and at one point even married him. An altered version of the character was used in James Mangold’s The Wolverine, but unlike her comic book counterpart was referred to Dr. Green and was a snake-like mutant that was able to spit venom.
Marvel Studios is known to make characters fit various projects by slightly altering them for their needs. Zemo is a perfect example of that. Viper doesn’t even have to be Ophelia they could easily have Rachel Leighton aka Diamondback or Sinthea Shmidt aka Sin take that leadership role.
Originally, the series was supposed to begin airing this August or fall, but the production shutdown might have delayed those plans as Disney hasn’t officially announced new release dates for original programming other than The Mandalorian Season 2 sticking to it’s October start date.
Linda Cardellini Interested In Marvel Making A Laura Barton Movie
Avengers actress Linda Cardellini recently spoke with Collider about seeing more of her in the MCU and she brought up the possibility of her character Laura Barton getting her own film.
CARDELLINI: “I mean, you know, it was one of those things where I was sort of brought into the universe and it truly is its own universe. It’s its own entity with this fandom that is incredible and to be part of it is, I don’t know, it’s pretty fun. My daughter’s friends love it. It’s one of those kinds of things, you know? So it’s always fun. I mean, would I love to see a Laura Barton movie? Sure! But I don’t think that’s gonna happen. I think people are more interested in the superheroes.”
I don’t think this would ever happen unless they attempted to give Laura another superhero’s mantle. I personally wouldn’t be opposed to Laura becoming the hard-canon version of Mockingbird. Depending on where in the timeline that the Hawkeye series takes place, there is a good chance that Linda will return for that show giving her more to do.
THE RONIN 