Yet another cast member of Guardians of The Galaxy franchise has arrived in Sydney, Australia for the shoot of Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love & Thunder, which is currently filming as the first set photos started rolling in.
Canadian actress Pom Klementieff, who plays Mantis, has announced on Instagram she’s arrived in Sydney in what looks like a video of her on the balcony of the quarantine hotel. Pom had been previously shooting scenes for Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8.
She joins fellow Guardians actors Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan, Dave Bautista, and Sean Gunn. The rest of the cast consists of Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Christian Bale as Gorr The God Butcher, Jaimie Alexander, Matt Damon, and Taika Waititi reprising the Korg role.
As filming on Marvel’s Thor: Love & Thunder has officially kicked-off in Sydney, Australia last week. The first real-deal set photos featuring cast members have finally arrived online via The Daily Mail.
The images can be seen by clicking the source link at the bottom of the page.
These set photos include first looks at Chris Hemsworth’s Thor (minus fat suit), Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord, Karen Gillan’s Nebula, and Sean Gunn’s Kraglin is wearing a Guardians patch suggesting he’s joined the team alongside Thor for some sort of adventure. Kraglin also seems to have Yondu’s arrow technology as well which should make him a bit more of an asset than in previous films.
Filming is taking place during Australia’s summer which is why you’ll see many cast members are holding fans, something we often see on these Aussie sets. The scene seems to be focused mainly on Thor’s involvement with the Guardians of The Galaxy as he joined them at the end of Avengers: Endgame leaving Earth and New Asgard behind.
A full casting roster has yet to be announced by Marvel Studios but it looks like it will include Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Natalie Portman as Lady Thor aka Jane Foster, Tessa Thompson as King Valkyrie, Chris Pratt as Star-Lord aka Peter Quill, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Christian Bale as Gorr The God Butcher, Dave Bautista as Drax The Destroyer, Jaimie Alexander as Lady Sif, Sean Gunn as Rocket/Kraglin, Taika Waititi in a bigger role as Korg, and Matt Damon is playing an undisclosed character too.
There is a really good chance given the involvement of The Guardians, that the new Thor movie could help establish the events of James Gunn’s Guardians of The Galaxy 3.
Thor: Love & Thunder is currently set to be released on May 6th, 2022 but I wouldn’t get too attached to that date as there might be more shifts from Disney adjusting their 2021-2022 theatrical schedules.
Thor: Love & Thunder has officially started filming in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia according to franchise star Chris Hemsworth after a new post on his Instagram account revealing the production has begin today during a Welcome to Country ceremony that Chris and director Taika Waititi attended.
HEMSWORTH: “A beautiful start to our shoot today with a Welcome to Country ceremony from the Gamay dancers of the Gadigal and Bidiagal Nation and performance and karakia by Maori dancers from Te Aranganui. Indigenous Australians may be just as proud of this country, but many see January 26th as a date signifying the beginning of dispossession, disease epidemics, frontier violence, destruction of culture, exploitation, abuse, separation of families and subjection to policies of extreme social control. Let’s begin the healing and stand together in unity and support with our First Nations people with solidarity and compassion. Let’s find a date where all Australians can celebrate this beautiful country together”
Production will be taking place at Fox Studios Australia the same facility recently used for Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings.
A full casting roster has yet to be announced by Marvel Studios but it looks like it will include Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Natalie Portman as Lady Thor aka Jane Foster, Tessa Thompson as King Valkyrie, Chris Pratt as Star-Lord aka Peter Quill, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Christian Bale as Gorr The God Butcher, Dave Bautista as Drax The Destroyer, Jaimie Alexander as Lady Sif, Sean Gunn as Rocket/Kraglin, and Taika Waititi as Korg.
At the end of Avengers: Endgame, we saw Thor join the ranks of Guardians of The Galaxy which explains why a bunch of those actors are in Sydney.
Matt Damon is also there to shoot scenes but it’s unknown if he’ll be reprising the role of the Asgardian actor or will take another role entirely. There seem to be more actors yet to be announced or revealed by the Australian press.
Thor: Love & Thunder is currently set to be released on May 6th, 2022 but I wouldn’t get too attached to that date as there might be more shifts from Disney adjusting their 2021-2022 theatrical schedules.
A new post from Guardians of The Galaxy actor Sean Gunn reveals on Instagram he’s also in Sydney which would confirm he’s there to shoot scenes for Thor: Love & Thunder. There had been some footage of a masked Sean Gunn with other cast members making the rounds via The Daily Mail earlier in the month.
Sean plays on set Rocket Raccoon and Ravager Kraglin, the latter character was seen training himself to use Yondu’s telepathic weapon after the character died in the second Guardians film.
There had been a previous report of Jaimie Alexander returning to the role of Lady Sif for Thor: Love & Thunder and the Loki series, this was seemingly telegraphed as the actress flew to Atlanta prior to that announcement.
Well, Jaimie is posting another picture of herself on Instagram flying from New York City to Sydney, Australia. This would suggest that Jaimie is indeed joining the cast of Thor: Love & Thunder as other MCU cohorts are in the city quarantining ahead of their scenes being shot at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Actors flying to Sydney would suggest that they’re going there because of the Marvel film as it’s the biggest thing shooting there and it made headlines in the Australian news when both Christian Bale and Matt Damon arrived on planes.
Marvel has yet to confirm Alexander is in the film.
Bale is playing the main villain Gorr The God Butcher with returning cast members Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Natalie Portman as Lady Thor aka Jane Foster, Tessa Thompson as King Valkyrie, and director Taika Waititi as the lovable lug Korg. It’s unknown if Matt will be reprising the role from Thor: Ragnarok or something completely new.
We’ll also see actors from the Guardians of The Galaxy such as Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan, and Dave Bautista. The reasoning behind this is because Thor joins the team at the end of Avengers: Endgame and he maybe spend some time with them during the sequel this could explain how Bale’s alien baddie Gorr is introduced into the story.
There is a strong possibility we might see Tom Hiddleston‘s Loki make a triumphant return in the film as well given the likelihood the film will connect to the series, a second season of Loki is in the works as well. The Multiverse is going to playing a large role in a bulk of the films and there is assumption this will continue into things like Thor: Love & Thunder.
It’s release date is currently set for May 6th, 2022, however, it is subject to change as Disney continues to adjust their 2021-2022 theatrical slate.
Another high-profile may have joined a large Marvel Studios film.
Local Australian outlets (spotted by The Direct) are claiming that actor Matt Damon has arrived to the country with his family and will begin quarantine, so that he can shoot scenes for Marvel’s Thor: Love & Thunder.
UPDATE: The Daily Telegraph reports that Matt Damon is skipping the state’s mandatory two-week quarantine at a set New South Wales hotel.
Hollywood actor Matt Damon has arrived quietly in Australia, receiving an exemption from NSW hotel quarantine to isolate privately. https://t.co/9HNN5341PC
Damon, you might remember had a brief cameo in Thor: Ragnarok as an Asgardian actor in the role of Loki for the play about his life. He also wore extensive make-up for his other Marvel cameo in Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool 2 along with Rogue One’s Alan Tudyk.
Matt doesn’t seem to have anything else on his schedule at the moment but recently wrapped on the Steven Soderbergh film No Sudden Move and Ridley Scott’s period drama The Last Duel. He had reportedly signed on to star in James Mangold’s The Force before the director agreed to direct Indiana Jones 5 for Lucasfilm.
Christian Bale is confirmed to be playing Gorr The God Butcher, the film’s villain. Bale and Damon previously co-starred in the racing drama Ford v Ferrari.
If Matt Damon indeed has a substantial role in Thor: Love & Thunder, it wouldn’t be the first time an actor has been given a smaller part only to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a completely different role.
Personally, I’d love to see him play Balder The Brave (another son of Odin) or Cul Borson aka The Serpent (Thor’s uncle).
There has been some fan speculation with Nebula actress Karen Gillan (quarantining in Australia as well) that she had been expected to appear in the sequel as well. Since we already know that that multiple characters from Guardians of The Galaxy are showing up alongside Chris Pratt’s confirmed return as Star-Lord.
Karen has now confirmed Nebula’s return on her Instagram stories (spotted by The Ronin) talking about getting her haircut to be more comfortable for Nebula’s bald-cap.
GILLAN: “This is my hair, I cut it the other day in preparation for Nebula, so we don’t have to get so much hair into the bald-cap because I have so much hair, it’s unbelievable.”
Drax actor Dave Bautista is also quarantining in Sydney getting ready for the shoot.
Taika Waititi returns to direct with a cast that includes Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Natalie Portman as Lady Thor aka Jane Foster, Tessa Thompson as King Valkyrie, Taika back as Korg, and as previously mentioned Bale is playing the film’s baddie Gorr.
Filming was said to begin this month at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, under the working title The Big Salad. The Australian stages had been previously used for Marvel’s Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings back in 2020.
Marvel Studios has set the sequel’s release date for May 6th, 2022.
A report from Deadline is claiming that Amazon has now offered Skydance/Paramount a hefty $200 million to secure the rights to their upcoming sci-fi action film The TomorrowWar, which stars Guardians of The Galaxy and Jurassic World actor Chris Pratt.
Tonight, Amazon has aggressively offered $200M. The deal is still not done. Amazon recently bought Paramount’s Coming 2 America for $125M, which was set to debut during the year-end holiday corridor, and Skydance’s Without Remorse which was also set to get a theatrical release via Paramount this past autumn.
It was directed by The Lego Batman Movie‘s Chris McKay and we’re still waiting on more significant promotion materials from the film including a first-look trailer.
The film follows a man (played by Chris Pratt) who is drafted to fight a future war in which the fate of humanity relies on his ability to confront his past.
As pointed out by Deadline, this wouldn’t be the first film that Amazon has picked up from either studio which should give them an edge on other suitors at major streaming services alongside the hefty offer. They’re quick to point that this has yet to be accepted or finalized.
In all likelihood they’re moving quickly on securing a deal quickly, so that Amazon can piece together promo materials for the upcoming Super Bowl, normally a place where studios spend a lot of money to promote upcoming films. However, given the uncertainty of release dates we might end up seeing more spending from the streaming side this year.
Pratt recently completed work on Jurassic World: Dominion for Universal Pictures, has seemingly started or about to begin work in Sydney on Marvel’s Thor: Love & Thunder directed by Taika Waititi, and is set to return again as Star-Lord for James Gunn‘s Guardians of The Galaxy 3.
Another tidbit mentioned in a report from Deadline revealing that screenwriter Michael Waldron is expected to return in some capacity for Season 2 of Loki after making a deal with Disney that includes working on Kevin Feige‘s untitled Star Wars movie for Lucasfilm.
We’ve known even before the Disney+ series set in the Multiverse began shooting that there were plans at Marvel to give the Tom Hiddleston series multiple seasons. It’s unclear if Kate Herron will return to direct Season 2 as they’re just about to complete filming Season 1 but there is a really good shot that her return will be announced in the near future.
Set photos have confirmed that we will be seeing Multiverse versions of Loki such as Lady Loki and it remains to be seen if Hiddleston’s Loki will be showing up in upcoming films that has the Multiverse connected to plots such as Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness or Thor: Love & Thunder.
There are plenty of other shows on the horizon for Marvel Studios and when they’ll want to begin shooting on a second season has yet to be confirmed.
Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye are currently in production with She-Hulk and Moon Knight said to begin filming in March. Other MCU shows that are in the works includes Armor Wars, Ironheart, and the crossover Skrull event Secret Invasion.
The first season will begin airing on the streaming service in May.
The Multiverse is going to be a huge part of the upcoming MCU projects and one of the more interesting one so far is the Loki series starring franchise-favorite actor Tom Hiddleston time-hopping after getting his hands on the Tesseract in Avengers: Endgame leading to him getting on the radar of the Time Variance Agency. A group of people that police the Multiverse in Marvel Comics and it looks like at some point Loki is recruited by them.
Loki is set to debut on Disney+ in May 2021 featuring the God of Mischief as he steps out of his brother’s shadow in a new series that takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Tom Hiddleston returns as the title character, joined by Owen Wilson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sophia Di Martino, Wunmi Mosaku and Richard E. Grant. Kate Herron directs Loki, and Michael Waldron is head writer.
One of the highlight of the news concerning the series seems to be Marvel’s confirmation that Lovecraft Country actress Wunmi Mosaku will be in the Multiverse show.
The trailer teases that Idris Elba‘s Heimdall could be appearing during the 1970s segment with Loki as the infamous criminal D.B. Cooper. Seeing Asgard again wouldn’t be shocking after a report from Deadline has suggested that Jaimie Alexander might be showing up in the Disney+ series as Lady Sif alongside Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love & Thunder.
After watching the series trailer, I’m really looking forward to the show as it feels like live-action version of Rick & Morty, the popular sci-fi animated series at Adult Swim.
As mentioned above Loki will begin airing on Disney+ starting in May.
With the second season of The Mandalorian winding-down, we won’t likely have any new live-action Star Wars until possibly next fall. So, I figured I would give a rundown of what other live-action projects are in the works from Disney+ shows to feature films in various stages of development.
BOBA FETT SERIES: Deadline reported last month that a secret Boba Fett project for Disney+ had begun shooting without mentioning who exactly was starring, writing or directing the thing. We can only assume with Temuera Morrison now firmly in the role for The Mandalorian that this might be the incarnation that this new project tackles.
I have my own speculation that this might actually end up being Season 3 of The Mandalorian given the lack of information on who is working on it and the proximity of when Jon Favreau wanted to start shooting Season 3. While Lucasfilm can be sneaky, this would be the first time they’ve started filming a Star Wars project without us knowing who was at least writing and directing it.
At one time, Josh Trank and Simon Kinberg were developing a Boba Fett movie but the project ultimate didn’t come together after hiccups between the two making Fox’s Fantastic Four reboot. There had even been rumors that James Mangold was in talks to resurrect the series but quickly shot that down along with his involvement with Season 2 of The Mandlorian.
CASSIAN ANDOR PREQUEL SERIES: Diego Luna recently confirmed to Jimmy Kimmel that his Rogue One prequel series focusing on Cassian Andor and K-2SO has already started shooting in London with director Toby Haynes (Black Mirror). Haynes stepped in for Tony Gilroy, who may still end up directing an episode.
The cast for the Star Wars series includes Luna, Alan Tudyk, Adria Arjona, Denise Gough, Genevieve O’Reilly, Stellan Skarsgard, and Kyle Soller. Andor will skew more in the spy genre and might continue the tone established in Rogue One.
DEBORAH CHOW’SKENOBI SERIES: Ewan McGregor is officially reprising the Obi-Wan Kenobi role but as we all know uses the name Ben Kenobi while hiding out on Tatooine and overseeing the protection of Darth Vader’s son Luke Skywalker from the Empire. Lucasfilm revealed via a franchise timeline that Kenobi will take place around the time of the Corellia scenes in Solo: A Star Wars Story. The series will be directed by Deborah Chow (The Mandalorian) and there are assumptions that Joel Edgerton will return to the role of Uncle Owen along with a new actor playing a young Luke Skywalker. It’s unconfirmed if we’ll be seeing flashbacks to the Clone Wars or if Kenobi will ever go off-world at any point.
Casting announcements should be incoming shortly.
Filming according to Ewan McGregor is expected to take place this March. The locations are said to be Pinewood Studios UK and Boston, England as the Pinewood facility will have their own Volume/StageCraft which has been used frequently on The Mandalorian.
THE MANDALORIAN: A third season of The Mandalorian is expected to begin shooting at some point after there was word from showrunner and producer Jon Favreau they hoped to get filming started before the end of 2020. We had heard that Jon is expected to direct at least one episode in Season 3.
It’s also possible we could see spinoff series focusing on Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan and Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano. Those have yet to be announced despite the fan assumptions.
LESLYE HEADLAND’SMYSTERY STAR WARS SERIES: Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) is officially working on a new female-centric Star Wars series that according to Deadline would include martial arts elements and take place at a different point in the Star Wars timeline.
Adding to the confusion is the fact that Disney+ is developing a female-centered Star Wars series, written and showrun by Leslye Headland, believed to be a female-driven action thriller with martial arts elements and set in an alternate timeline from the usual Star Wars universe. The rumored spinoff is said to be separate from this Star Wars project but the situation is fluid.
There has been plenty of speculation of what the show could be or who it could focus on but no details have been confirmed by Lucasfilm or Disney.
I’m sure we’ll learn more about the series soon.
RIAN JOHNSON’S BRAND-NEW STAR WARS TRILOGY: Star Wars: The Last Jedi writer/director Rian Johnson has been developing his own original trilogy for the studio but looks to be more focused on his Knives Out sequel at the moment. There haven’t been much in the way of details concerning Johnson’s project but is expected to take place in another era of Star Wars with new characters. Also, there had been some talk that while Rian would oversee all three films he likely wouldn’t end up directing all them.
Here is how the official press release described the trilogy.
Lucasfilm is excited to announce that Johnson will create a brand-new Star Wars trilogy, the first of which he is also set to write and direct, with longtime collaborator Ram Bergman onboard to produce…In shepherding this new trilogy, which is separate from the episodic Skywalker saga, Johnson will introduce new characters from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored.
Johnson has also dismissed multiple claims he’s exited.
TAIKA WAITITI’S STAR WARS MOVIE: After dismissing reports of his involvement, Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi was officially announced for an upcoming theatrical Star Wars film with Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917, Last Night in Soho) co-writing the script. This news wasn’t terribly shocking after Kathleen Kennedy suggested wanting to work with him. Taika later getting his feet wet working on Season 1 of The Mandalorian as both director and voicing the bounty hunter droid IG-11.
The Kiwi director is going to be a little busy as he’ll start shooting Marvel’s Thor: Love & Thunder soon in Sydney, Australia.
JEDI ORIGIN TRILOGY: According to Variety back in October 2019, the Game of Thrones showrunners, D.B Weiss and David Benioff, had been developing a trilogy of films that would have explored the origins of the Jedi.
Benioff and Weiss had ambitious plans to take the “Star Wars” universe in a new direction, one that would exist apart from the Skywalker family saga that comprised the franchise’s centerpiece nine-film series. The Star Wars period the pair was interested in exploring was how the Jedi came to exist. However, Lucasfilm executives and the creators begin to see their visions for the films diverge during meetings last summer.
This would have likely taken place way before eras like the Skywalker Saga, The High Republic or even The Old Republic.
However, the pair left Lucasfilm for a rather pricey deal with Netflix which seemingly squashed the project for the foreseeable future. There are new rumblings online that this project might get resurrected but it’s unofficial for the moment.
THE OLD REPUBLIC TRILOGY:BuzzFeed had once reported that Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar, Ghost In The Shell, Altered Carbon, Shutter Island) was developing a Knights of The Old Republic film that could eventually become it’s own trilogy.
A movie based on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic — the beloved video game first released in 2003 — is currently being written by Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar, Shutter Island) for Lucasfilm, three sources close to the project told BuzzFeed News.
Kalogridis is close to finishing the first script of a potential KOTOR trilogy, according to the three sources.
While this was never confirmed, Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy teased they’ve had internal discussions about projects in that era during a chat with MTV back in April 2019.
MTV: Knights of The Old Republic, a lot of fans wanna see that, is there any development of that?
KENNEDY: “You know, we talk about that all the time. Yes, we are developing something to look at. Right now, I have no idea where things might fall..”
There is also a film project that would see Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige get involved as a producer but there next zero official information about what and when that would be. I have to assume it’s either something already mentioned like Taika’s film or something that hasn’t been made public.
I’m sure with Disney keen to get more originals for Disney+ that we’ll likely hear about more live-action Star Wars shows in the near future.
THE RONIN 