Tag: Thunderbolts

Posted on in Features

SPOILERS: ‘Black Widow’ Has A New Take On Taskmaster & The Future Of Yelena In The MCU

***WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR BLACK WIDOW***

Black Widow has been a film that took a decade to get to the big screen as there had been a previous incarnation at Lionsgate with David Hayter (X-Men, Watchmen) attached to write and direct, but because of various superhero films flopping including the other Lionsgate/Marvel collaboration, the R-rated Punisher: War Zone from 2008.

Ultimately, Marvel Studios circled-back with Australian filmmaker Cate Shortland taking the director’s chair, someone that had to be convinced to take the gig and other contenders such as Eternals’ Chloe Zhao being considered. The film launched on Disney+ and theaters yesterday, as with previous Marvel films it seems like it’ll be extremely successful.

The film is sort of a closed loop for Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff since she dies in Avengers: Endgame and will likely stay dead, although, the studio could develop a run of reversing character deaths when it suits them via The Multiverse, but this could increasingly dull post-Loki and resurrection of Gamora in Avengers: Endgame.

However, Black Widow does introduce us to two characters that will likely have a bigger role to play moving forward. That would be Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova (already confirmed for the Hawkeye series) and the mysterious MCU version of Marvel Comics villain Taskmaster.

Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster

While it started to become obvious that Taskmaster was indeed going to be woman (Mason being a red herring from the jump) within the suit/mask because promotional materials (Taskmaster’s lack of crotch bulge on posters was a dead give away), however, it seemed like it was still a surprise that it turned out to be Dreykov’s (Ray Winstone) adult daughter Antonia surviving a bomb and altered with technology to become a perfect mimic. She’s revealed to be played by Quantum of Solace actress Olga Kurylenko.

Gender-swapping Anthony Masters from the comics, isn’t the real problem I have with this casting choice or the big screen version of the character.

I’m personally confused about going with Antonia, mainly, because she was supposed to be a child when Natasha assassinated her and father. However, my biggest problem is that actress Olga Kurylenko is clearly not younger than Scarlett Johansson and is actually almost five years older than her, turning 42 later in the year. Making the the reveal more puzzling for people like myself who understand the age difference between the two actresses goes in the wrong direction.

Retconning both their deaths undercuts Natasha Romanoff’s history as a ruthless deadly assassin, softening her image which sort of does a disservice to that hardened backstory. It’s also unnecessary since the character is dead and had redeemed herself multiple times in previous films.

We’ll likely see Taskmaster return at some point, likely part of the Thunderbolts team that is slowly being assembled. Hopefully, future projects will give us better action scenes with her because Black Widow didn’t do a great job there and felt a bit generic.

Speaking of Thunderbolts, the end credit scene features Julia-Louis Dreyfus’ Contessa Valentina Allegra de La Fontaine meeting up with Yelena to give her a new mission, to take out Clint Barton. This likely explains her involvement with the Hawkeye series and would suggest she won’t start out as a friend.

We previously saw Val recruit John Walker’s U.S. Agent at the end of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, it’ll be curious if Thunderbolts are getting their own project or being assembled to be unleashed as future antagonists like in upcoming movies like Captain American 4.

Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova was the biggest highlight for me in Black Widow and while the solo film wasn’t my favorite because the pre-release hype for the action was a huge let down when the final film didn’t have a lot of memorable action sequences, most felt more cartoony if anything because of the overuse of digital effects for a grounded character like Romanoff. It’ll be nice to have some real stakes with future Black Widow sequels led by Yelena’s incarnation of the character.

We’ll have to wait and see how Marvel will use these characters.

Posted on in Film News

James Gunn Reaffirms ‘The Suicide Squad’ Has “Scratched” His Itch To Make A ‘Thunderbolts’ Movie For Marvel Studios

While James Gunn has been set-out to make multiple Guardians of The Galaxy films, he once mused about the idea of adapting Marvel Comics supervillain team Thunderbolts for the big screen. The group is essentially Marvel’s version of The Suicide Squad and various members have been introduced over the years to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

When Gunn was fired from the third Guardians movie he met with Warner Bros. and led to him writing/directing their sequel The Suicide Squad. During a Q&A session on his Instagram stories, James reaffirmed to a fan that he isn’t looking to make a Thunderbolts movie for Marvel Studios and that The Suicide Squad “scratched that itch.”

This doesn’t mean that Marvel Studios won’t pursue a Thunderbolts project just because Gunn isn’t stepping away from his original idea of adapting the team. As previously mentioned, Marvel seems to be aiming to leave the door open for them to be assembled at some point as Daniel Bruhl’s Baron Zemo ended-up in Thunderbolt Ross’ super-prison The Raft by the final episode of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier series.

Other folks that might be part of the roster could include Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer, William Hurt’s Thunderbolt Ross aka Red Hulk, Emily VanCamp’s Sharon Carter, Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost, Tim Roth’s Emil Blonsky aka Abomination, and the newly added John Walker aka U.S. Agent played by Wyatt Russell. Black Widow’s Yelena Belova and Taskmaster could also be contenders depending on the outcome of that film.

It’ll be interesting to see if Marvel if we’ll see the Thunderbolts introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe before Captain America 4. I’m also curious if the MCU version could combine Dark Avengers and Thunderbolts into one streamlined group.

Gunn has said that Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3 is going to be end of his journey but isn’t ready to say he’s closing the door on making another Guardians project down the line.

SOURCE: JAMES GUNN

Posted on in Film News

James Gunn Teases Tackling More ‘Guardians of The Galaxy’ Movies – “Never Say Never”

While there had been previous hints by writer/director James Gunn that he might end his Marvel tenure with Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3, the filmmaker has now suggested on Twitter that might not exactly be the case and even leaves the door open for Guardians as well.

https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1390858962778664960

It was thought that his dramatic firing and rehiring might have soured his feelings towards both Disney and Marvel Studios, which might be understandable given that the company eventually backtracked from their choice to remove James from the Guardians sequel. However, the opportunity allowed him to play in the DCEU sandbox making The Suicide Squad for Warner Bros. and the spinoff series Peacemaker for HBO Max, so it wasn’t all bad.

We don’t know for sure if he’ll come back to make more installments of Guardians of The Galaxy or move towards other things he’s been itching to tackle like the Thunderbolts, Marvel’s version of the Suicide Squad.

One of his screenwriting tasks for 20th Century Fox early in his career was working on incarnation of the solo Silver Surfer movie that never materialized. The property now back at Marvel Studios is one project that Ant-Man’s Adam McKay has been keen on developing for a while now. Perhaps, we could see James and Adam join forces for a Silver Surfer movie, that could be rad, right?

We’ll have to see how Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3 ends and if Gunn still has ideas he wants to pursue with those oddball cosmic characters for another wave of feature films or Disney+ projects. He has somewhat teased more DC Comics stuff could be on the way but what that might be is a little unclear at the moment.

The Suicide Squad is set for release by Warner Bros. on August 6, 2021 and Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3 will shoot in the United Kingdom in the near future with a release date of May 5, 2023.

SOURCE: JAMES GUNN

Posted on in Features

The ‘Armor Wars’ Series Could Help Setup ‘Captain America 4’

*WARNING! MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE FALCON & THE WINTER SOLDIER*

Yesterday, saw Marvel Studios release the finale for Falcon & Winter Soldier and cemented that Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson has moved from the Falcon persona to taking on the Captain America mantle from Steve Rogers. It was also reported that the studio isn’t wasting any time and has assigned screenwriters for Captain America 4 with Falcon’s Malcolm Spellman and Dalan Musson said to be working on a script.

I’m getting a strong feeling that Don Cheadle’s War Machine series Armor Wars could plant seeds for this upcoming Captain American sequel alongside the film’s potential threat. If you remember we saw Don Cheadle appear as Rhodey in the first episode of Falcon & Winter Soldier when Wilson donates the shield to the Smithsonian exhibit. I don’t think it was an accident that the two shared a moment in that first episode as Falcon and Armor Wars might be connected leading up to the events in Captain America 4.

Armor Wars will see James Rhodes crackdown on a wave of Stark technology getting into the black market and allows him to interact with a heap of Iron Man villains that likely wouldn’t have made the cut in feature films. Baddies such as Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, and others could finally get their live-action adaption alongside other canon-fodder characters. There could also be a link towards the introduction of Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams, who will be leading her own series Ironheart.

Armor Wars’ villains could be familiar faces with Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer, who featured predominately in the comic book the show is based on and if I had to guess could easily step-in for Norman Osborn in the Dark Avengers. You might remember that he turned War Machine into Iron Patriot for Iron Man 2, the armor was used by Osborn and briefly by Sharon Carter in the comics. I wouldn’t be shocked if Hammer is recruited into the Thunderbolts potentially combining Dark Avengers with Thunderbolts into a single entity. Traditionally, Baron Zemo is the leader but there are been multiple incarnations and the MCU does it’s own thing.

Speaking of Carter, it was revealed in Falcon & Winter Soldier that she was the mysterious arms dealer The Power Broker and is now going to use her newly returned access to government weapons programs for her benefit. There is a good shot that Sharon and Justin might join forces to get their hands on Stark’s armor tech.

Zemo crushed The Power Broker’s attempt to recreate the super-soldier serum and could attempt to help take-out villains that want to get their hands on Stark’s armor tech as well. At the end of Falcon, we see Zemo’s butler killing a batch of Flag Smashers that were heading to The Raft, suggesting that he’s still dangerous even behind bars.

We currently don’t know what Marvel is planning to do with Captain America 4, but it’s worth noting that the last installment, Captain America: Civil War, was essentially an Avengers event. There is a good chance that with Falcon & Winter Soldier out of the way they can now give Sam Wilson a massive blockbuster as he takes over the Captain America franchise.

One of the main attributes of the Captain America films is that Steve Rogers has fellow superheroes working alongside him with Bucky/Peggy Carter/The Howling Commandos in Captain America: The First Avenger, Black Widow/Falcon/Nick Fury in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Bucky/Falcon/Scarlet Witch/Hawkeye/Ant-Man/Sharon Carter in Captain America: Civil War. Seeing Rhodey and Sam further develop their relationship or even partner up in the future wouldn’t be surprising given their military backgrounds and both taking on superhero mantles.

Could the next Captain America film also become some Avengers event movie like Civil War?

A new Avengers roster is being assembled before our eyes by Marvel with Sam Wilson becoming Captain America, Rhodey is essentially taking up the Iron Man mantle from Tony Stark, Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster aka Lady Thor, Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova becoming Black Widow, Tatiana Maslany’s Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk, a new yet-to-be announced Black Panther for the sequel shooting this summer, Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop aka Hawkeye, and Danny Ramirez’s Joaquin Torres taking Sam’s spot as Falcon. How this might intersect with plans for the Young Avengers and Thunderbolts remains to be seen.

Armor Wars dropping hints for the Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers to appear in future films like Captain America 4 could be great way to have things escalate for Sam’s first film as the new Cap and sort of amp things up in comparison to the Disney+ show.

John Walker becomes U.S. Agent

Wyatt Russell’s John Walker becoming U.S. Agent remains a bit of mystery if he’s going to be part of the MCU’s version of Thunderbolts or will become a pawn of The Serpent Society (faux title for Captain America 3), Zola, and the Mandarin’s Ten Rings. It likely comes down to the intentions of his new boss Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Julia was originally supposed to appear first as Val in Black Widow before the pandemic delayed the film’s release from May 2020 to July 2021. There are already suggestions that she’ll have some connection to Yelena joining the Thunderbolts but that needs to be confirmed. It’s confirmed that Florence Pugh is reprising the role in the Hawkeye series that could also have links to Thunderbolts.

Walker could return for Armor Wars as he teamed-up with The Jury and that group could be replaced with whoever ends up getting bootleg Stark-tech, potentially Val and Justin Hammer. I’d personally like to see The Serpent Society because they would make an excellent surrogate for a modern version of HYDRA and give Sam plenty of villains to battle for the next couple of years.

Thunderbolt Ross might become a very important figure in the very near future and there is a possibility he might appear in Armor Wars given that Rhodey could be activated under Ross’ supervision.

It could be interesting to see the new Avengers going head-to-head against a competing team like the Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers, who would likely be made up multiple villains selected by Thunderbolt Ross at The Raft. Ross himself is a member of a recent version of the team as Red Hulk, a character aspect that could be explored in the She-Hulk series. He’s always been lurking behind the scenes as a government stooge and helped create the Abomination. Having Ross spearheading Thunderbolts as his namesake would make a lot of sense and it’s starting to feel like Phase 4 is leading up to the two teams clashing on the big screen.

Posted on in Film News

‘Captain America 4’ Moving Forward At Marvel Studios With ‘Falcon & Winter Soldier’s Malcolm Spellman Writing

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.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Television News

‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’ Connects To At Least 3 Upcoming MCU Projects & Kevin Feige Says There Are “Certainly Ideas” For Season 2

As fans will be trying to figure-out the upcoming Easter Eggs and cameos in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, showrunner Malcolm Spellman spoke to Entertainment Weekly revealing the show will indeed have connections to at least three unnamed MCU projects.

The answers to these questions will have drastic impacts on the MCU moving forward. Similar to how WandaVision leads directly into the film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Spellman says he can think of three projects off the top of his head that tie into The Falcon and the Winter Soldier that he’s “not allowed to talk about.”

Don Cheadle has confirmed he’ll be appearing as Rhodey aka War Machine, which likely means that Armor Wars will have an obvious connection to the series. There are also expectations that it could tie-into things such as She-Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and maybe even a yet-to-be-announced Thunderbolts project.

I’m also curious if Marvel will make an announcement concerning Captain America 4 starring Anthony Mackie, because the actor had once teased in older interviews that he felt the series was meant to line-up his own wave of Captain America films.

After WandaVision, I think fans would be smart to just pump the breaks with the speculation that characters such as Wolverine or Omega Red will be showing up to keep expectations in a realistic realm (even if Madripoor will be a location). The online fan community stoked WandaVision theories to the point that there was sort of a backlash when characters like Reed Richards and Doctor Strange didn’t show up, despite zero evidence that was actually going to happen.

There seems to be enough real connections in the new series that should make fans happy.

While a Season 2 hasn’t been announced and Kevin Feige has previously prepped fans that some of the Disney+ shows don’t currently have plans for multiple seasons. He mentioned during a press conference via Deadline that there are ideas for Falcon’s Season 2. Although, he stopped short from confirming they would be doing that.

FEIGE: “We get asked [that question] much more in television, because people expect it to be like what they know before: Where’s Season 2? We approached it like the movies: We better make this great, because we won’t be able to do another one. If we’re able to do another one, there’s certainly ideas.”

Directed by Kari Skogland, the Marvel series has a cast that consists of Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Daniel Bruhl, Emily VanCamp, Wyatt Russell, Erin Kellyman, George St. Pierre, Adepero Oduye, Veronica Falcon, Desmond Chiam, Carl Lumbly, Miki Ishikawa, and Amy Aquino.

The Falcon & The Winter Soldier will debut on Disney+ this Friday and will have 6-episodes, three less than WandaVision.

SOURCE: ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY & DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

‘Hawkeye’: Vera Farmiga Is Set As Kate’s Mother and Fra Fee Playing Villain Clown – Florence Pugh Confirmed

Yesterday, was the official start of production on Marvel Studios’ Hawkeye series currently filming in New York City as Hailee Steinfeld was confirmed by set photos/footage in the role of Kate Bishop opposite of Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton aka Hawkeye.

Variety now reports Vera Farmiga, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee, Tony Dalton, Alaqua Cox, and Zahn McClarnon have joined the series.

Here is a rundown of the characters they’ll be playing.

Alaqua Cox is Maya Lopez aka Echo

Vera Farmiga is playing Kate Bishop’s mother Eleanor

Fra Fee is playing Kazi (thought to be villain Clown)

Tony Dalton is playing Jack Duquesne (thought to be Barton mentor Swordsman)

Zahn McClarnon is playing William Lopez (Maya’s father)

The Direct first reported Pugh’s involvement and return as Black Widow’s Yelena Belova.

Baron Strucker’s son Andreas von Strucker also took on the Swordsman persona in Thunderbolts.

It’s more of an info dump than we had been expecting considering how long it took to confirm Hailee Steinfeld as trades had really done a serious update on the Kate Bishop casting in a while. It’s interesting to see if Hawkeye will be using elements of Thunderbolts and if there will be a connection to The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Television News

‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’ Writer Derek Kolstad Says Characters From Earliest Marvel Movies Are Coming Back – Could Zola Be One of Them?

John Wick creator Derek Kolstad was brought on to help develop the scripts for Marvel’s series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. During a recent interview on the podcast Script Apart (spotted by Empire), Derek seemed to reveal that multiple characters from the earliest Marvel movies making a return for the show.

We already know that Zemo and Batroc The Leaper are confirmed to return for the series, but this sounds like some Phase 1 characters are back as well.

KOLSTAD: “What I will say is that there are characters from the earliest Marvel movies that are coming back. We’re layering them in and reinventing them in a way that’s gonna shift the storytelling structure. It’s fucking awesome.”

I think we’ve all assumed that William Hurt’s Thunderbolt Ross from The Incredible Hulk and Captain America: Civil War is most likely going to show up since he appeared in Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and is expected to also appear in the upcoming Black Widow film as he was featured in the trailers.

Ross could be part of the effort to make John Walker aka U.S. Agent the next Captain America along with past super-soldier experiments that are expected to be in the series as he had access to the serum in The Incredible Hulk. There have also been rumblings that the Thunderbolts are going to be introduced or at least teased in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, given Ross could be their namesake and operate from The Raft would make a lot of sense. Ross’ alter ego Red Hulk just happens to be one of the more modern members of a recent incarnation of the Thunderbolts as well.

One character that is likely a strong contender to return is the digital version of Dr. Arnim Zola, who appeared as a regular human scientist played by Toby Jones in Captain America: The First Avenger only to be brought to the United States and eventually part of the secret HYDRA cell within S.H.I.E.L.D. as revealed in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Zola himself was digitized in an underground bunker and seemingly was destroyed in that film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l3Bhtxqok4

However, concept art from artist Josh Nizzi revealed that there seemed to have been plans at Marvel Studios to bring Zola back a year later in Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man along with the idea of giving him a robotic body. Nizzi attempted to design multiple robot bodies for Zola but the character sadly didn’t appear in the final version of the film.

This new body established in the comic books was teased in Captain America: The First Avenger with the Easter Egg of Zola’s blueprints for that new robotic body.

While Zola didn’t appear in Ant-Man, Sam Wilson aka Falcon had a cameo in the solo installment tussling with Scott Lang on the Avengers campus and then Sam called him in for the airport battle in Captain America: Civil War.

The show’s cast includes Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson aka The Falcon, Sebastian Stan as James “Bucky” Barnes aka The Winter Soldier, Daniel Bruhl as Zemo, Wyatt Russell as John Walker aka U.S Agent, Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carton aka Agent 13, Georges St-Peirre as Batroc The Leaper, Desmond Chiam, Erin Kellyman, Danny Ramirez, Adepero Oduye, Veronica Falcon (confirmed by The Ronin) and Carl Lumbly.

The Ronin first reported back in mid-August that The Falcon & The Winter Soldier would be delayed to sometime in 2021 and not debut in 2020 as originally expected. Disney and Marvel have yet to make an official announcement concerning the show’s new release date.

SOURCE: SCRIPT APART