Tag: WandaVision

Posted on in Television News

Disney+ Claims ‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’ Has Most Watched Series Premiere On The Streaming Service

Last Friday saw the first episode drop for Marvel’s The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. The superhero series is expected to lead to Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson taking up the Captain America mantle. But we’ll have to watch all six episodes to discover if that is the actual plan or not.

Now, Disney via the official Marvel website is claiming the premiere episode had more eyeballs than with WandaVision or the massive-hit The Mandalorian. However, they failed to get into numbers or provide any data to support their claim.

Disney+ Original series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier from Marvel Studios ranked as the most watched series premiere ever on Disney+ during its opening weekend, Friday, March 19 – Sunday, March 22, and the most watched title overall for the same time period on a global basis, including in Disney+ Hotstar markets. The premiere of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier joins the premieres of Marvel Studios’ first live-action series, WandaVision, and the season two premiere of The Mandalorian from Lucasfilm as the three most-watched Disney+ Original series opening weekends to-date.

Variety cites Samba TV data on the debut of both Falcon and Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the latter seemingly squeaking ahead of WandaVision’s debut in January.

While Disney Plus did not include any audience figures for “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” in its announcement, TV software and data analysis firm Samba TV announced earlier in the day that roughly 1.7 million households watched the show, edging past the 1.6 million households that watched the debut of Marvel Studios’ “WandaVision.” (As a point of comparison, Samba TV estimates that 1.8 million households watched at least five minutes of the four-hour “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” on HBO Max over the same time period; HBO Max has not made any announcements regarding the Snyder cut’s viewership.)

None of this can be independently verified as Disney+ isn’t sharing their data to compare with numbers from Samba TV.

SOURCE: MARVEL

Posted on in Television News

Marvel’s ‘Secret Invasion’ Series Reportedly Adds Kingsley Ben-Adir As A Lead Villain

Deadline is reporting that British actor Kingsley Ben-Adir is taking a role in Marvel’s Secret Invasion series opposite Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn as Skrull Leader Talos. They claim the One Night In Miami actor will be playing an unnamed lead villain, which could mean he might end up playing a member of a villainous sect of Skrulls.

Filming is expected to take place sometime this year in the United Kingdom and will debut on Disney+ in 2022. However, while Kyle Bradstreet is writing the series a director or directors have yet to be announced.

Marvel now has access to many Skrull characters including Kl’rt aka The Super-Skrull after securing The Fantastic Four rights. The Super-Skrull has the ability to mimic the power-set of the Fantastic Four members, a aspect of the Skrulls that haven’t been able to use until now. This could see Skrulls copying the powers and abilities of existing heroes and villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The big power we’ve seen used multiple times is their ability to shape-shift as shown in Captain Marvel, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and WandaVision.

WandaVision ended with Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau meeting up with a Skrull seemingly teasing her addition to Secret Invasion and potentially the S.W.O.R.D. space station The Peak. There is an assumption that Skrull-centric series will lead directly into Captain Marvel 2, which will include Monica Rambeau, Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers, and Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel. It’s possible the three leading ladies could end up appearing in the show along with Zawe Ashton, who is reportedly playing the villain of Captain Marvel 2 and could easily be playing a troublesome Skrull.

The Skrulls and Secret Invasion could be a launching point to see S.W.O.R.D. becoming a much bigger entity in the MCU (even more than S.H.I.E.L.D. was) moving forward, the group comes from the pages of X-Men comics with mutant characters such as Abigail Brand and Dr. Hank McCoy aka Beast are among their ranks. We still don’t know how and when Marvel will introduce mutants outside of Deadpool 3 (possibly shooting next year) being in active development.

Olivia Wilde (Don’t Worry Darling, Booksmart) is said to be co-writing and directing a Marvel film for Sony Pictures, trades claiming that the character she will be adapting for the big screen is going to be Spider-Woman. If the version they are tackling is indeed Jessica Drew, it’s a character Marvel Studios has access to given that Drew debuted outside of the Spider-Man comics and was established as a agent of S.W.O.R.D. making her a good contender to eventually join the cosmic organization introduced in WandaVision. In Secret Invasion, Jessica Drew is revealed to be the Skrull Queen Veranke, the main antagonist of the comic books that the series is going to be influenced by.

Speaking of The Fantastic Four, we still don’t know how Marvel Studios is going to introduce those characters despite fans wishes that Reed Richards would show up on WandaVision. There is a chance that S.W.O.R.D. could end up becoming the connective tissue as they’ve established the group is doing off-world missions and we clearly saw at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home that Nick Fury was getting a space station built by the Skrulls. Some are speculating that Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania (coming in 2022) could be another entry point for Fantastic Four because of Jonathan Majors playing Kang The Conqueror, however, we don’t know if that will be the case. Director Jon Watts more than likely will be aiming to do an origin film or at the very least include a new MCU origin for the team in his reboot.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Benedict Cumberbatch Talks Working With Director Sam Raimi On ‘Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness’

Filming on Marvel’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness has been underway in the United Kingdom since late last year and Collider was able to speak with it’s star Benedict Cumberbatch about working with director Sam Raimi.

CUMBERBATCH: “Sam, amazing. He’s so collaborative. God, he comes with the baggage of an icon. He’s an incredible force, especially in this genre. But he’s so humble, he’s so nice, he’s so appreciative, you really wanna serve him. And boy, when he’s happy, you know you’ve done something right. He’s so good at getting you there and getting it there. It’s been a very, very collaborative process, this one. Our origin stories, I guess, and obviously the beasts that were the Avengers films to be a part of were a thrill, but you’re kind of just along for the ride. You do the best with what you’ve already got given to do. The second time around, there’s a bit more of, ‘So, what do you want to do, and how do we go about solving this?’ So it feels very creative. Scarily so, sometimes.”

We know that the sequel will include The Multiverse and WandaVision ended with Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff becoming the Scarlet Witch along with getting her hands on the Darkhold, a dark magic spell book in Marvel Comics that could lead to multiple evil characters coming into their dimension.

Newcomer Xochitl Gomez will be playing Young Avengers member America Chavez aka Miss America as confirmed by Marvel back in December.

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness will be released on Mach 25th, 2022.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

Posted on in Television News

‘WandaVision’s Paul Bettany & Kathryn Hahn Keen To Return At Some Point To The MCU

While their future fates in the Marvel Cinematic Universe seem to be up-in-the-air, WandaVision actors Paul Bettany and Kathryn Hahn are willing to return if eventually called upon by Marvel Studios.

Kathryn recently spoke with The New York Times, revealing she is indeed open to the idea of Agatha’s return but hasn’t heard anything from the studio.

Will we see more of Agatha Harkness in the Marvel universe?

HAHN: “I have no idea. They keep it really tight.“

Well if it’s something you want, I hope you get that opportunity.

HAHN: “Oh, me too. I want to. Now that I have a taste of it, I’m like, ahh. I really, really love it.”

Paul Bettany was a little more blunt when asked by Esquire if he’d be willing to play Vision forever.

Are you going to play Vision forever?

BETTANY: “I love Vision. Yes, I’m in.”

Spoilers ahead.

The Disney+ series ultimately ended with Hahn’s Agatha Harkness being stuck in her nosy neighbor role Agnes in Westview, New Jersey. Bettany’s Vision was erased when the Hex came down and Hayward/S.W.O.R.D.’s reanimated version of Vision (white version) simply flew into the clouds, his return seems extremely likely given he didn’t get a conclusion and Wanda might attempt to resurrect her family via The Multiverse.

Kevin Feige confirmed not too long ago they don’t have current plans to give WandaVision a second season, so we would have to assume the pair might show up in the films down the line.

We know that Wanda’s journey as the Scarlet Witch will be continued into Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, which is currently filming in the United Kingdom at Longcross Studios.

SOURCE: ESQUIRE & THE NEW YORK TIMES

Posted on in Features

SPOILERS: A Rundown of The ‘WandaVision’ Finale & What It Means

THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS WANDAVISION FINALE SPOILERS

Wanda finally becomes the Scarlet Witch leading to giving Agatha Harkness a spell while making her the noisy neighbor in Westview until she needs her help in the future. This is after it’s revealed that Harkness wants to steal her powers and has the Darkhold, an extremely dangerous book of spells. Maximoff also gives up her false reality which included the twins and Vision, as she finally admits what she is doing is wrong. The second button looked like a scene directly from Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In Multiverse of Madness, as Wanda might end up using the Darkhold (potentially doubles-down that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. isn’t MCU canon) to bring back her children into reality from the Multiverse and potentially leading to terrible consequences.

Evan Peters’ “Pietro Maximoff” wasn’t Quicksilver as he was some random Westview citizen named Ralph Bohner, which means that Marvel is indeed moving forward with a reboot of X-Men instead of adding the Singerverse to the MCU. Plenty of fans assumed that Peters would become the new Quicksilver and that the series would somewhat introduce Mutants, that didn’t happen.Ultimately, the Multiverse wasn’t explored which many believed would explain Peters taking over the Quicksilver role.

While Monica Rambeau is approached by a Skrull to seemingly join off-world S.W.O.R.D. in the first button scene that most likely going to be connected to Secret Invasion, but we’ll have to see if her powers are active outside of the Hex and if she’ll be in that series alongside Captain Marvel 2.

The White Vision brainwashed by S.W.O.R.D. director Hayward didn’t end up killing the other version of Vision, but just left the Hex and it wasn’t revealed where he went. I think Vision just leaving annoyed a bunch of people because we didn’t see what his fate was and he was the big “cameo” Paul Bettany was teasing then really didn’t do much in the end.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see how Wanda will be interacting with Doctor Strange in the sequel along with how the Multiverse comes together. Most of us are likely a little confused by all this stuff didn’t catch the attention of people like Strange and Baron Mordo, given all the magic and use of the Darkhold. Strange and the Ancient One previously being established as omnipresent characters that are seemingly aware of everything going on.

Posted on in Television News

‘WandaVision’: Paul Bettany Regrets His Cameo Joke That May End Up Disappointing Fans

SPOILERS FOR WANDAVISION AHEAD

Tomorrow is the big finale of WandaVision and actor Paul Bettany seems to be coming clean about his cameo joke that went a little too far. As fans have been taking actors literally when speaking in various interviews with Paul Bettany setting up an actor he dreamed of working with and had “fireworks” on set with. Now, it’s looking like he was simply talking about working against himself and was sort of trolling with his comment. 

Here is what Paul originally said to the Lights Camera Barstool podcast that sparked fan theories.

BETTANY: “I work with this actor that I’ve always wanted to work with and we have fireworks together, the scenes are great and I think people are going to be really excited. I’ve always wanted to work with this guy and the scenes are pretty intense.”

Now, Bettany spoke with Good Morning America and revealed he was joking in a previous interview amping-up a cameo when he was talking about interacting with himself as we’ll see two versions of Bettany’s Vision in this upcoming episode. 

BETTANY: “You know, when you think something is going to be funny and you say it and actually panic about it? Which is what I did because fans started guessing who it might be and they were guessing people like Benedict Cumberbatch or Patrick Stewart. And I was thinking, ‘My God, that’s a good idea! They’re going to be so disappointed when they find out it’s me.’”

This wasn’t the first time an actor on WandaVision had sort of hyped-up a cameo as Monica Rambeau’s Teyonah Parris suggested the Aerospace Engineer reveal would be a big deal, leading to fans speculating endlessly with any assuming Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards or others would be showing up (based on nothing). However, that didn’t end up being as excited as the actress seemed to promise in those previous comments. 

Anyways, the final episode drops tomorrow on Disney+ and is said to lead directly into Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange Into The Multiverse of Madness (currently filming in England). 

Kevin Feige has stated that WandaVision currently doesn’t have plans for a second season. 

SOURCE: GOOD MORNING AMERICA

Posted on in Features

SPOILERS: Episode 8 of ‘WandaVision’ Pulls The Curtain Revealing Multiple Motivations

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR WANDAVISION AHEAD

Last week, it was finally revealed that everything bad that was happening withing the Hex bubble was Agnes, who was rumored during production is actually Agatha Harkness. Not exactly a villain in the comic books, but seeming is a villain in the MCU. Episode 8 starts off showing her in the 1600s killing her own coven of witches including her own mother and potentially stealing their powers after they accuse her of using dark magic.

Agatha, a witch who uses spells, has been trying to figure out how Wanda was able to change reality and resurrect Vision. She uses the twins as a way to force Wanda show her how she was able to change things on such a large scale and I assume steal the power for herself. Yet again, it’s confirmed that Evan Peters version of Pietro isn’t Wanda’s brother and was used to manipulate her. Sorry folks, no Singerverse era of X-Men for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

While Agatha has been meddling, it’s really was Wanda behind the Hex and bringing an entirely new version of Vision out of thin air. Something that completely puzzles/frustrates Agatha as Wanda is able to do such “magic” effortlessly and without spells.

Watching old sitcoms being Wanda’s way of dealing with grief and explaining the homages, as her father Oleg Maximoff used to bring them home as a way for the kids to practice their English. This further illustrates that Magneto won’t be showing up in some secret cameo.

During the flashbacks it’s revealed that Hayward lied in earlier episodes when he said Wanda broke into the S.W.O.R.D. facility and stole Vision’s body parts, as we see see a flashback to her being let in and calmly leaving without him.

We also see the real motivations of S.W.O.R.D. and Director Hayward as they were trying to nudge Wanda to resurrect the dead body of Vision so they could use him as a weapon. Wanda conjures a new version of Vision which is likely why Hayward had been attempting to track him within the Hex bubble. Hayward and S.W.O.R.D. have been trying to figure out how to power-up Vision and in the end credit scene use the Hex charged drone to bring their version of zombie Vision back online. He’s is now ghostly white (a nod to the comic books) and will likely be used as a weapon against Wanda in the next episode.

The episode ends with Harkness holding the twins and calling Wanda the Scarlet Witch as she uses chaos magic, the first time Wanda has ever been referred to her X-Men name.

Episode 9 feels like it’s going to be some sort of standoff and possible establish the events of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness. It’s a smart move on the part of Marvel Studios as people following WandaVision will likely be more inclined to go see the Doctor Strange sequel. The original while a fine installment, but wasn’t the most memorable or anticipated Marvel film to date and didn’t set the box office on fire.

It’ll be interesting to see if further trauma (possibly in Episode 9) pushes Wanda to become a villain herself or if Agatha/someone else is revealed as the main antagonist for the Doctor Strange sequel.

Posted on in Television News

‘WandaVision’: Kevin Feige Admits Adding Evan Peters As Quicksilver Is “Just Another Way That Certain People Were Messing Around With Wanda”

SPOILERS FOR WANDAVISION AHEAD

The appearance of Evan Peters as Pietro Maximoff aka Quicksilver in WandaVision confused Wanda and fans which seemingly was the point according to Marvel’s Kevin Feige. He mentioned today at TCA (via GameSpot) that placing Peters in the series was part of “certain people” messing with Wanda.

FEIGE: “That’s one of the fun things about developing these things are blue skying it in a room. It’s my favorite part of the process. It’s always the very very beginning, when we’re figuring out what something could be and at the very very end, when we’re finally we’re finding it and then putting it out into the world. So there were all all sorts of discussions, but I believe it, we ended up going with what you saw relatively relatively early on in the development process. And just another way that certain people were messing around with Wanda.”

From this statement from Feige about adding the actor, we can now assume that the choice to add Peters wasn’t a way for Marvel Studios to reinsert his version of Quicksilver or bring the Singerverse to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A theory that has been pushed by fans since the actor’s addition to the series and his subsequent reveal as Pietro.

Showrunner Jac Schaeffer previously mentioned that they really had to convince Kevin about adding Evan on the show.

We’ll likely get more answers with the final two episodes.

SOURCE: GAMESPOT & FANDOM

Posted on in Television News

Kevin Feige Says No Current Plans For Season 2 of ‘WandaVision’ – Other Disney+ Shows Could Get Multiple Seasons

While speaking during Disney+’s virtual panel at TCA (via Deadline), Marvel’s Kevin Feige says the studio doesn’t have plans to give WandaVision a second season, despite it’s huge popularity. The idea was for the show to directly lead into Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, currently filming in London. However, Kevin doesn’t rule-out making a second season at some point.

FEIGE: “I’ve been at Marvel too long to say a definite ‘No’ to anything as far as a second season of WandaVision.”

“The fun of the MCU is obviously all the crossover we can do between series, between films. So it will vary based on the story. Sometimes it will go into a season 2, sometimes it will go into a feature and back into a series…Sometimes, and yet to be announced, we’re thinking of and planning second seasons for some of the upcoming series.”

The LLC for the Loki series hinted to the series getting multiple seasons and we already know that Michael Waldron will be back for Season 2. Other Disney+ shows such as Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk feel like shows that could also get multiple seasons.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

Marvel’s Multiverse Series ‘Loki’ Will Debut June 11th On Disney+

Today, it was announced that Marvel Studios’ third live-action series, Loki, will debut on the streaming service Disney+ starting on June 11th, a month later than previously expected.

It’s cast directed by Kate Herron includes Tom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sophia Di Martino, Wunmi Mosaku and Richard E. Grant. The showrunner, Michael Waldron, is also working on Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness.

The series is said to have direct connections to the Doctor Strange and Thor sequels as it will focus on the Multiverse along with the introduction of the Time Variance Agency, the force that polices those that tinker with the timelines. Loki, after the events of Avengers: Endgame starts playing around in different eras in Earth’s history which lands him on TVA’s radar.

WandaVision is going to wrap-up soon with The Falcon & The Winter Soldier starting to air on March 19th.

SOURCE: MARVEL/DISNEY