Filming on Marvel’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness (working title Stellar Vortex) has been underway at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England with Sam Raimi taking over the project after former director Scott Derrickson exited the film over “creative differences” with the studio.
The Ronin can now confirm that production designer Charles Wood is working on the Doctor Strange sequel. His credits are mostly Marvel Studios films such as the original Doctor Strange, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Thor: The Dark World, Guardians of The Galaxy, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and most recently with Scarlet Johansson’s Black Widow.
The cast so far consists of Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Stephen Strange, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch, Benedict Wong as Wong, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo, and newcomer Xochitl Gomez.
It’s script was penned by Jade Halley Bartlett and Loki’s Michael Waldron.
As the title would suggest the film will explore the Multiverse with expected connections to WandaVision, Loki, and possibly even Spider-Man 3.
Disney has given Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness a tentative release date of March 25th, 2022.
In a report from Deadline, Mike Fleming claims that Disney will make announcements at Investor Day 2020 on December 10th concerning new projects (theatrical films and television) from Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, and Pixar.
Details aren’t mentioned or what those “new” projects will be.
Disney on December 10 will announce its upcoming slate. While the studio will solidify what Deadline revealed recently – that the Tom Hanks-starrer Pinocchio, Peter Pan and the Emma Stone-starrer Cruella will bypass movie theaters to become Disney+ releases, the studio will also announce new projects from Marvel, Lucasfilm and Pixar that will encompass TV as well as theatrical. It will be a gesture toward not abandoning the exhibitors.
Fans will be curious to hear if Disney will attempt a similar day-and-day model that was recently announced by WarnerMedia for their entire 2021 film slate, as delayed Marvel films such as Black Widow and Shang-Chi could be part of that hypothetical announcement seeing large theatrical films landing on Disney+.
Collider recently suggested that Disney might be considering merging Disney+ and mature content from Hulu into a single service, another big update from Disney that could be announced (if true) at Investor Day this week.
Kevin Feige would likely confirm castings concerning Oscar Isaac as Moon Knight and Tatiana Maslany as She-Hulk. A Nick Fury series was announced to be in develop, which we assume will star Samuel L. Jackson and possibly include Skrulls/S.W.O.R.D. but that would need to be confirmed. They could also announce their plans for an MCU reboot of Fantastic Four on the film side or updates concerning things we know are happening officially like Ant-Man 3, Captain Marvel 2, Black Panther 2, Deadpool 3 and Blade.
Concerning Lucasfilm, we know that Star Wars shows such as Boba Fett, Cassian Andor, Kenobi, The Mandalorian (Season 3), and a series coming from Leslye Headland are in varying stages of prep/production. There are a couple of films in development from Taika Waititi and Rian Johnson as well.
They’re also about to begin shooting their Willow sequel series in Wales with director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) and we might finally get a concrete update on James Mangold’s Indiana Jones 5.
Hopefully, we get some new details on December 10th and we’re not hearing new information for projects already made known.
WandaVision actor Paul Bettany recently did an interview for Stir Crazy with Josh Horowitz to promote an upcoming film when the subject switched to the upcoming series along with the prospect of seeing Vision nude in the Disney+ series.
For whatever reason Josh Horowitz went one step further and brought-up the topic of Vision’s penis leading to Paul invoking Watchmen’s extremely hung Dr. Manhattan suggesting that the Avenger can also manipulate the size of his genitals at a whim, going even further to suggest it’s purple.
HOROWITZ: Do we finally get to see Vision’s penis finally?
BETTANY: “There is not nudity so to speak but I think people can answer this question for themselves…Vision can change his density so there’s that.”
HOROTWITZ: What color?
BETTANY: “He’s purple.”
Of course, all joking aside there isn’t likely going to be any nude scenes on the Disney+ plaform anytime soon given the family-friendly nature of the streaming platform but I’m sure weird questions like this will persist and continue now that Bettany has described Vision’s unit publicly.
WandaVision debuts January 15th on Disney+ and it remains to be seen where Viz will appear next in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Not too long ago Marvel Studios executive vice president Victoria Alonso confirmed that WandaVision has finished filming which now allows Elizabeth Olsen to move on to her next big Marvel project, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness. While franchise star Benedict Cumberbatch had previously suggested that he would begin filming this month it was a little less clear when Olsen would begin shooting her scenes as the film’s co-lead.
Elizabeth has revealed to travel outlet CN Traveller that she’ll be in England over the holidays either shooting/prepping for the sequel.
OLSEN: “I did a really strange deep-dive into how an American could legally live in the UK and I saw that there’s a retirement visa once you reach 54. I feel as if British people work to live – they don’t live to work, unlike in LA and New York. I am moving back soon to film the sequel to Dr Strange, so I’ll be there for Christmas, just outside London. Even given the current circumstances, it will be a nice trip.”
I’ve previously confirmed that filming will be mainly taking place at Longcross Studios in Surrey under the working title Stellar Vortex. Secondary filming locations were supposed to include Norway and New York City at one point. Spider-Man’s Sam Raimi has stepped in to direct after Scott Derrickson exited over creative differences with the studio. Hopefully, we’ll start getting some more casting news if they’re really undergoing filming soon.
Doctor Strange 2’s cast also is confirmed to include Benedict Wong as Wong and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Karl Mordo. Newcomer Xochitl Gomez has reportedly joined the film in undisclosed role that many believe could be Young Avengers/Ultimates member America Chavez aka Miss America.
The United Kingdom is currently in their second lockdown which allows for film and television production, but further restrictions are now expected to go beyond December. We’ll have to wait and see if the government drops the hammer on productions in the coming weeks/months.
The Loki and WandaVision series are said to lead directly into films like Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness.
WandaVision’s debut on Disney+ has been delayed to January 15th, 2021 and Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness is expected to release on March 25th, 2022.
The mystery of WandaVision’s release date has been finally solved!
While there was an expectation back in August that they would be able to begin airing episodes before the end of 2020, that isn’t the case. Disney has officially announced on social media that the series will begin airing on Disney+ starting on January 15th.
Many fans had tried to convince themselves that WandaVision could be ready before December but that obviously wasn’t realistic given that production delays due to COVID-19 has seemingly impacted multiple Marvel Studios even the film slate.
Back in August, in The Ronin’s report on the delay of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier to sometime in 2021 there had been an expectation that WandaVision was much further along in the production/post-production process and could have been ready in late 2020.
Fans will really need to dig deep down to find their patience because targeted release dates are written in sand and not stone. We’ll likely see many more delays and shifts throughout 2021 as situations are influx leading to date changes/production pauses.
This news would confirm that 2020 will be the first year without new MCU projects in a long time.
Other live-action series officially on the way include Loki, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Moon Knight, and Hawkeye.
WANDAVISION – Marvel Studios’ WandaVision blends the style of classic sitcoms with the Marvel Cinematic Universe in which Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany)—two super-powered beings living their ideal suburban lives—begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems.
Yesterday, the Walt Disney Company announced a new initiative to get more content going for its streaming services such as Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu from its sports, television, and film divisions. The new division will be called The Media & Entertainment Distribution group led by Kareem Daniel.
It sounds like they’ll be dedicating a lot more resources and money than they have previously as means to compete with competitors like Netflix and Amazon. However, this announcement says nothing about them throwing their 2021 theatrical slate on Disney+ and never mention a thing about ending theatrical releases altogether only pushing to place more content on their streaming services.
We will get more details on these plans on December 10th.
During an interview with CNBC, Disney’s new CEO Bob Chapek was quick to point out that they aren’t looking to stop the theatrical experience and would be announcing further details.
Also, specifically downplayed COVID-19’s role in the decision.
CHAPEK: “I would not characterize it as a response to Covid. I would say Covid accelerated the rate at which we made this transition, but this transition was going to happen anyway. Because essentially what we want to do is separate out folks who make our wonderful content based on tremendous franchises from the decision making in terms of prioritization is on how it gets commercialized into the marketplace. And what we want to do is leave it to a group of folks you can really see objectively across all of the constituents we have and various considerations we’ve got and make the optimal decision for the company as opposed to having it predetermined that a movie is destined to theaters or that a TV show is destined for ABC. So what we really want to do is provide some level of objectivity and really make it a decision that benefits the overall company and its shareholders.”
When pressed on Disney’s commitment to the theatrical model Bob said the following that gives the impression they’re not giving up on the theatrical model just yet.
CHAPEK: “We’ve benefited from a tremendous relationship with theatrical exhibition for many many many years as dynamics change in the marketplace though we want to make sure that we are giving consumers who want to go to theaters to experience everything that a theatrical release can give them, we want to continue to give them that option but at the same time there are a lot of consumers that want to experience a movie in the safety, comfort, and convenience of their own home for whatever reasons they do.”
To me, it sounds like either they are going to pursue a shorter theatrical window or a mixed model of day-and-date which obviously the theater industry wouldn’t be terribly pleased about on either front.
Here is the official press release from the Walt Disney Company website that gets a little more into the weeds about what all this means.
In light of the tremendous success achieved to date in the Company’s direct-to-consumer business and to further accelerate its DTC strategy, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) today announced a strategic reorganization of its media and entertainment businesses. Under the new structure, Disney’s world-class creative engines will focus on developing and producing original content for the Company’s streaming services, as well as for legacy platforms, while distribution and commercialization activities will be centralized into a single, global Media and Entertainment Distribution organization. The new Media and Entertainment Distribution group will be responsible for all monetization of content—both distribution and ad sales—and will oversee operations of the Company’s streaming services. It will also have sole P&L accountability for Disney’s media and entertainment businesses.
The creation of content will be managed in three distinct groups—Studios, General Entertainment, and Sports—headed by current leaders Alan F. Horn and Alan Bergman, Peter Rice, and James Pitaro. The Media and Entertainment Distribution group will be headed by Kareem Daniel, formerly President, Consumer Products, Games and Publishing. All five leaders will report directly to Bob Chapek, Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company. Disney Parks, Experiences and Products will continue to operate under its existing structure, led by Josh D’Amaro, Chairman, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, who continues to report to Mr. Chapek. Rebecca Campbell will serve as Chairman, International Operations and Direct-to-Consumer. Bob Iger, in his role as Executive Chairman, will continue to direct the Company’s creative endeavors.
“Given the incredible success of Disney+ and our plans to accelerate our direct-to-consumer business, we are strategically positioning our Company to more effectively support our growth strategy and increase shareholder value,” Mr. Chapek said. “Managing content creation distinct from distribution will allow us to be more effective and nimble in making the content consumers want most, delivered in the way they prefer to consume it. Our creative teams will concentrate on what they do best—making world-class, franchise-based content—while our newly centralized global distribution team will focus on delivering and monetizing that content in the most optimal way across all platforms, including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and the coming Star international streaming service.”
Under the new structure, the Company’s three content groups will be responsible and accountable for producing and delivering content for theatrical, linear and streaming, with the primary focus being the Company’s streaming services:
STUDIOS: Messrs. Horn and Bergman will serve as Chairmen, Studios Content, which will focus on creating branded theatrical and episodic content based on the Company’s powerhouse franchises for theatrical exhibition, Disney+ and the Company’s other streaming services. The group will include the content engines of The Walt Disney Studios, including Disney live action and Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures.
GENERAL ENTERTAINMENT: Mr. Rice will serve as Chairman, General Entertainment Content, which will focus on creating general entertainment episodic and original long-form content for the Company’s streaming platforms and its cable and broadcast networks. The group will include the content engines of 20th Television, ABC Signature and Touchstone Television; ABC News; Disney Channels; Freeform; FX; and National Geographic.
SPORTS: Mr. Pitaro will serve as Chairman, ESPN and Sports Content, which will focus on ESPN’s live sports programming, as well as sports news and original and non-scripted sports-related content, for the cable channels, ESPN+, and ABC.
The Media and Entertainment Distribution group, led by Mr. Daniel, will be responsible for the P&L management and all distribution, operations, sales, advertising, data and technology functions worldwide for all of the Company’s content engines, and it will also manage operations of the Company’s streaming services and domestic television networks. The group will work in close collaboration with the content creation teams on programming and marketing.
It’ll be interesting to see if Disney+ will start mining IP from the 20th Century Studios side of things soon as Disney+ series and limited series focused on properties like Avatar and Planet of The Apes could be extremely successful. In the press release they suggest that they could end up making episodic projects based on 20th Century properties.
A live-action Flash Gordon series stands out as a property that Disney really could do justice with on Disney+ and be a counter of sorts to their Star Wars shows as it could be way more swashbuckling than the Lucasfilm property that was inspired by it. Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok, Thor: Love & Thunder, Jojo Rabbit) is attached to direct an animated Flash Gordon film and at one time 20th Century was developing a live-action feature as well from directors Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class, Stardust, Layer Cake) and Julius Avery (Overlord) involved at different points.
I wouldn’t even put it past Disney to reboot John Carter eventually given the Volume/StageCraft would allow them to make a series more cost effective that world like Flash Gordon is different enough from Star Wars it would be worth pursuing.
Of course, this could mean a major influx of more shows from Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar universes but might also see Hulu getting a bump of adult content as well with franchises like Alien (Noah Hawley pitched an Alien series to FX) and Predator just collecting dust while they could be helpful to get more eyeballs on Hulu. HBO Max had recently crowed about Ridley Scott’s sci-fi series Raised By Wolves being the most popular original on their service when announcing they were moving forward with a Season 2 order.
Matthew Vaughn has also been talking up the idea of a Kingsman spinoff series that could fit nicely at Hulu.
Disney certainly has a massive gap in the adult market and places like Canada don’t have access to Hulu and that really needs to change if they want to compete with Netflix/Amazon on an international level as those services offer content to both kids and adults alike. Cornering the kid market just won’t be enough for Disney if they want to grow their streaming presence.
I guess we’ll have to wait for December 10th to get more concrete answers about what all this actually means for content that is already in the can or is about to begin filming.
Benedict Cumberbatch has revealed to Watch Time India that Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, directed by Sam Raimi, will begin filming at the end of October or early November.
CUMERBATCH: “I’m in pre-production with the second Doctor Strange film, which is very exciting. We will start filming in late October or early November. And I’m in post-production with two films.”
That production start will likely depend how the United Kingdom tackles the second wave of COVID-19 over the next month as a nationwide shut down would directly impact productions like Doctor Strange 2 aka Stellar Vortex. Yesterday, the UK saw the largest single day for new cases at 7,100 and there could be measures to slow down the spread with a shut down.
Confirmed by myself it will shoot on the stages of Longcross Studios in Surrey, England.
The Ronin also recently confirmed that Logan cinematographer John Mathieson joined the film’s production team.
The Doctor Strange sequel will feature confirmed actors Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch, Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange, Benedict Wong as Wong, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as villain Baron Karl Mordo. There is some strong evidence that America Chavez (aka Miss America) will appear in the comic book film as well, that character’s casting has yet to be announced officially by Marvel.
Marvel has set the film’s release date for March 25th, 2022.
Samuel L. Jackson will return to the Nick Fury role for an unnamed Marvel Studios series for Disney+ according to a report from Variety. Kyle Bradstreet will write and executive produce. His television credits include Mr. Robot, Berlin Station, and Cooper.
The exact plot details of the show are being kept under wraps, but multiple sources say Jackson is attached to star with Kyle Bradstreet attached to write and executive produce. Like all the other Marvel shows at Disney Plus, Marvel Studios will produce.
Variety stops short from saying what the new series which most likely is the rumored S.W.O.R.D. series. The last time we saw Nick Fury was on a space station being built by Skrulls in outer space and we’ll see S.W.O.R.D. introduced later this year in WandaVision with what looks like Monica Rambeau is an Agent of S.W.O.R.D.
S.W.O.R.D. could become the Phase 4 replacement of S.H.I.E.L.D. given that future threats in the MCU are most likely going to be coming from beyond the stars and the Multiverse. With Skrulls on Earth and established there is also the possibility that a version of the Secret Invasion could also be explored.
I’m sure fans will be hopeful that if this turns out to be a S.W.O.R.D. series that characters such as Abigail Brand will be involved and with Cobie Smulder’s television series Stumptown being cancelled I wouldn’t be shocked if Maria Hill is eventually attached.
Captain Marvel 2 has director Nia DaCosta attached and there is an expectation that S.W.O.R.D. will have large presence for Earthbound scenes in that sequel allowing for Fury, Monica Rambeau, and even possibly Ms Marvel aka Kamala Khan to get involved.
Ever since Marvel Studios got rights to mutants and the X-Men we’ve all be heavily anticipating when that could happen it is starting to feel like we’re getting extremely close to at least an introduction to mutants in the Marvel Cinematic Universe very soon.
Kevin Feige has previously stated that Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff will “truly become the Scarlet Witch” in her solo series WandaVision and the recent trailer has seemingly confirmed certain elements we all assumed would be explored in the show after the cosmic orgainzation S.W.O.R.D. will be introduced which is directly from the pages of the X-Men comics with folks like Dr. Hank McCoy aka Beast among the team.
In the comics, Wanda and her brother Quicksilver are the children of X-Men villain Magneto an origin element that has never been used in the MCU incarnations as the studio had shared use with 20th Century Fox at the time of Avengers: Age of Ultron but weren’t allowed to reference mutants or X-Men. Their powers were explained by HYDRA’s human experiments with Loki’s staff to create metahumans.
Mutants are normally born with a mutant gene that leads to their superpowers.
It’s been assumed for a long time that series would be a version of House of M storyline, where Wanda creates a new reality, this would explain why a very dead Vision can father twins (Speed and Wiccan) and why we don’t see them outside of this suburban neighborhood.
There was seemingly a direct nod to the comic run in the new trailer with a shot of a wine bottle called Maison du Mepris (House of Contempt), which could be seen as House of M nod from certain perspectives.
I’m also thinking the wine bottle is a nod to the 1963 French New Wave film from director Jean-Luc Godard titled Le Mépris aka Contempt.
LE MEPRIS – A philistine in the art film business, Jeremy Prokosch (Jack Palance) is a producer unhappy with the work of his director. Prokosch has hired Fritz Lang (as himself) to direct an adaptation of The Odyssey, but when it seems that the legendary filmmaker is making a picture destined to bomb at the box office, he brings in a screenwriter (Michel Piccoli) to energize the script. The professional intersects with the personal when a rift develops between the writer and his wife (Brigitte Bardot).
The reference might have a double meaning and indicate a future rift between Wanda/Vision with the “House of Contempt” becoming the one they’re stuck in leading to friction. It’s also worth noting we still don’t have any indication that the series will introduce any mutants and if Monica Rambeau lands her powers in the series we don’t know if she’ll have mutant status.
Then again, Wanda could manifest mutant properties in people across the globe these are comic book stories after all.
There are likely more casting and character surprises on the way.
Kathryn Hahn is rumored to be playing legit witch Agatha Harkness, but Marvel has yet to make this official. If she is indeed playing Harkness as the witch costume would suggest, this could connect the character to large events in the Marvel universe’s past including the sinking of the Kingdom of Atlantis. This event is referred to in the comics as The Great Cataclysm and has direct ties to the Eternals. One version has a Celestial and the Deviants causing it. Another one in the Ultimate Universe suggests that Agatha had something to do with the fate of Atlantis.
I wouldn’t be shocked if S.W.O.R.D. is involved because Mephisto has a part to play with what is going on with Wanda and Vision, a cosmic entity that happens to be Marvel’s version of the devil and could be pulling the strings as he likes to torture various heroes. However, I’m not entirely sure why S.W.O.R.D. is doing there unless they believe that whatever is happen is somehow alien related and it very well could be.
Chloe Zhoa’s Eternals seems like another perfect oppurtunity to give audiences a new version of the mutants via the mutant gene that inserted into humanity via Celesitials, who are a third offshoot of Eternals and Deviants. It is established in the comics Harkness has been on Earth for a long time and was kicking around during The Great Cataclysm, 20,000 years in the past and would have likely had run ins with Eternals and Celesitials given her age/powers in the comics.
Harkness given her age making her either mutant or an eternal herself wouldn’t be shocking. I don’t think it would take much of a leap to connect her to Kit Harington’s Dane Whitman aka Black Knight either given his connection sorcery and witchcraft.
An Atlantis connection via WandaVision or Eternals could help usher in mutants in another way beyond Scarlet Witch’s powers and The Multiverse.
It’s been established that Namor McKenzie aka The Sub-Mariner is the first mutant concerning Marvel’s publication history as he predates the X-Men as one of the very first legacy superheroes with mutant abilities and there was even a run in 2011 titled Namor: The First Mutant. That same year he joined the X-Men during events like Avengers vs X-Men and was recently seen in X-Men Red.
While they made sure to separate his mutant abilities like flying from his Atlantean power-set, there is a chance that Marvel alters that for the MCU version. In the 1960s, Professor Xavier and Magneto tried to recruit him into their various mutant factions and only recently has joined their ranks.
Namor is an extremely important crossover character with connections to the Fantastic Four, The Illuminati, and Agents of Atlas led by Randall Park’s Jimmy Woo with his cousin Namora on the team. He also teamed up with Hulk, Doctor Strange, Valkyrie, and others on the original version of The Defenders.
There had been some teases from director Scott Derrickson on Twitter that Namor could be part of his sequel Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, but that element hinted to may not have survived the development process or the final version that Sam Raimi makes. Then again, Harkness in WandaVision and Eternals both covering Atlantis could help establish Namor beforehand.
Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi is part of the Agents of Atlas which could be another entry point to introduce Atlantis, Namor, and Namora into the MCU. There are already unconfirmed rumors that Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings will include a mutant character.
It’s still pretty damn neat we’re getting the mutants in the Marvel Cinematic Universe even if we have to wait a couple more years before the main X-Men team gets a proper reboot. However, it’s still not cut-and-dry when we’ll start seeing recognizable mutant characters but I’m eager to find out.
A Serious Man actor Fred Melamed and That 70’s Show’s Debra Jo Rupp have been officially confirmed for supporting roles in the upcoming Marvel Studios show WandaVision.
The the two seasoned character actors can be seen in the black and white segment in the brand new trailer. Comedic actress Kathyrn Hahn is also sprinkled throughout the footage.
Welcome to WandaVision. Coming soon to Disney+. Marvel Studios’ captivating new series “WandaVision” stars Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, and marks the first series from Marvel Studios streaming exclusively on Disney+. The series is a blend of classic television and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in which Wanda Maximoff and Vision—two super-powered beings living idealized suburban lives—begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems.
WandaVision is expected to begin airing in December on Disney+.
THE RONIN 