WARNING HEAVY SPOILERS FOR WANDAVISION IN THIS ARTICLE
Despite multiple calls for fans ease back on the huge character cameos, fans still believed this episode was going to be an entry point for folks like Reed Richards, Hank McCoy, or even Magneto. That has been dashed as those cameos didn’t happen and Wanda doubled-down on Evan Peters version of Pietro not being real. Sorry, Fox era X-Men fans the show won’t be carrying over the Singerverse to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
One of the earlier character rumors has turned out to be spot-on.
We’ve known for a while that Agnes was possibly going to be revealed as Agatha Harkness, however, we don’t know what the character’s intentions are. Which I have to assume will be touched-upon in the next episode given that she’s outed herself to Wanda. The twins also vanish as they were used by Agatha to lure Wanda into her basement.
They panned over to a book that may or may not be the MCU version of The Darkhold, which could cause a lot of trouble if used incorrectly or for the wrong reasons. As it has deep connections to the horror side of the Marvel Comics universe but with anything shown to us in this show looks can be deceiving. It’s a McGuffin that could be the next Infinity Gauntlet, equally as dangerous too.
Monica Rambeau also seemingly got her powers from entering the Hex, but we’ll see if those hold as things keep changing moment-to-moment in the Westview bubble. The mid-credit scene she discovers the basement and bumps into whoever Peters is actually playing.
Today, Warner Bros. has announced that their upcoming sci-fi drama Reminiscence has landed a late summer release as it will drop on September 3rd in theaters and on HBO Max.
The project is part of WarnerMedia’s controversial day-and-date release model.
Directed by Westworld’s Lisa Joy, the film stars X-Men actor Hugh Jackman, who plays a private eye who deals in recapturing vivid cherished memories for clients. He becomes vexed by one of those clients played by Mission: Impossible’s Rebecca Ferguson. The setting takes place slightly in the future as Miami has been transformed by climate change as much of the city submerged underwater.
Other actors in the film include Thandie Newton and Cliff Curtis.
A trailer is likely just around the corner as we’ve seen a glimpse of footage from a recent HBO Max promo. I’m curious if Reminiscence will skew more in the realm of Inception.
WARNING! ARTICLE CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR WANDAVISION EPISODES 1-6
Last week’s episode revealing that Evan Peters is playing Wanda’s dead brother Pietro Maximoff got people thinking that Marvel Studios was about to bring the mutants into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and potentially the Fox era franchise actors as well.
However, this week might have nixed that right off-the-bat.
We get a glimpse of Pietro as a corpse suggesting that like Vision he’s dead too.
There is a point where “Pietro” explains he was “shot in the street like a chump” before showing up at their door and this was revisited when dead Pietro appeared later on in the episode with three bullet wounds in his chest. It doesn’t seem like Peters is going to be sticking around as fans imagined or usher-in Fox version of X-Men to the MCU and possibly is just a reanimated corpse that will eventually disappear.
An excellent red herring if that was their aim.
There is also the potential reveal that Agnes is really just another person being controlled by Wanda as her interactions with Vision gives the impression she’s just another hostage and not the mastermind. This was sort of amplified when Wanda herself started increasing the volume of the Westview bubble which turned the S.W.O.R.D. base into a circus.
While the intentions of S.W.O.R.D. towards Vision is wonky at best as they are revealed to be tracking his movements (is he some weapon of mass destruction?). It is starting to look like Wanda is the one controlling the bubble here, unless someone is manipulating her either by the townspeople or without her knowledge.
One thing that Pietro points out is the children that came out of nowhere in Westview seemingly just for the Halloween episode as we’ve mostly only have been shown adults in the town. I’m slightly curious if they are constructs like the twins or something else.
I guess we’ll have to wait for more shoes to drop in the next couple of episodes.
While promoting their upcoming film Cherry, directors Joe and Anthony Russo spoke with the Lights Camera Barstool podcast (spotted and transcribed by The Playlist) and revealed they’d still love to get their hands on Marvel’s reboot of Wolverine. The pair continually brings up Wolverine and Secret Wars as things that could draw them back to Marvel Studios.
JOE RUSSO: “Wolverine has always been such a special character for me. To realize him on screen, it’s very hard because Hugh Jackman‘s performance is definitive. It’s like Batman; you have to really think of a way to, you have to really find the right actor to come in and give a really different take to that character. But I would really love to see him on screen.”
However, Joe advises that the studio give the franchise some time before jumping into a reboot.
JOE RUSSO: “I think the best thing is to take a break, without question. You need a [palate cleanser], you need to rinse the towel a little bit, let everyone enjoy what was, and then come up with something new. But I’d love to take a crack at Wolverine at some point.”
We already got some signs from Marvel’s Kevin Feige they’re not in any rush to reboot as they’ve chosen to go with Fantastic Four first. It’s still unknown what they ultimately plan to do with Wolverine and the X-Men reboots. Even though, they’ve introduced things like S.W.O.R.D. and Madripoor that are directly connected to the X-Men comics.
There is a good chance they could be able to convince Marvel Studios to allow them direct a Wolverine or X-Men project if they’re that persistent about being able to play with the characters. They were able to bring new blood to both the Captain America and Avengers franchises, with the latter Marvel now hold the box office record for the highest grossing film as Avengers: Endgame toppled James Cameron’s Avatar.
Given their experience working with large groups of heroes and villains, The Russo Brothers could be alongside screenwriters Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus might be the team to reboot the X-Men. We’ve already seen Marvel look at their existing directing bench for the Fantastic Four reboot as they announced in December that Spider-Man 3 director Jon Watts would be tackling it.
Wolverine certain could deserve to have his origin retold for the Marvel Cinematic Universe either connected to Alpha Flight or the Weapon X Program. I also believe that a project set during WWII giving them an excuse to have Wolverine in a period action-film. A solo project could give a new actor a great entry point and give the main X-Men reboot some space, as one of the big gripes that fans had with the Fox franchise is that Wolverine was the predominate character when he isn’t supposed to be.
Ryan Reynolds revealed on Twitter last month that one of the ideas they had for Deadpool 3 before the merger was convincing Hugh Jackman to end his retirement as they wanted Logan and Wade to do a road trip movie. They could also eventually meet up in an X-Force film.
It’s critical to have open, honest and healthy discussions around mental health. By retweeting #BellLetsTalk you can make a difference. In case that’s not enough, before Disney bought Fox, Deadpool 3 was gonna be a road trip between Deadpool and Logan. Rashomon style. For real.
Yesterday, it was revealed by Deadline that Chris Evans was nearing a deal to reprise SteveRogers aka Captain America in a small supporting role (similar to Robert Downey Jr. in Spider-Man: Homecoming) for an undisclosed MCU project. They also mention Evans might be returning for second thing, possibly a film but didn’t reveal what that could be either.
There are a couple of obvious options such as old Steve Rogers becoming a mentor to Sam Wilson in Captain America 4 as he takes over the mantle. Also, seeing what Steve was up to while hiding between Captain America: Civil War to Avengers: Infinity War, not unlike where Black Widow takes place in the MCU timeline. There is the multiple years between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, I’m sure there would still be threats in the wake of Thanos’ snap.
There is another option to add. Thanks to Avengers: Endgame, that Steve was able to go back in time to be with Peggy Carter and stayed there starting in 1948 just when The Cold War begins. Steve as an old man ends up handing Sam Wilson the shield at the end of the film and launching the events that will be covered in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.
The Multiverse also opens the door to other timelines allowing to them return to WWII.
I think it’s hard to imagine with all the threats surrounding him during that timeline and Peggy Carter’s work at S.H.I.E.L.D. that he doesn’t eventually jump back into the fray between his return and Avengers: Endgame. What would make a lot of sense would be Rogers leading his own team which has previously happened with The Invaders, a group mostly made up of WWII era heroes such as Namor McKenzie aka The Sub-Mariner, Union Jack, Spitfire, the original android version of The Human Torch aka Jim Hammond, Blazing Skull, and multiple other wartime heroes that could get some live-action love.
It’s worth noting that Wyatt Russell’s John Walker aka U.S. Agent, Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson, and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes have been established members on the roster.
There is another superhero that was kicking around during WWII and The Cold War that has teamed-up with Captain America the comics that could make for another excellent addition to those ranks, that being the Canadian super-soldier Wolverine.
Luckily, since Logan doesn’t really age he can be able to time-hop to various eras of the MCU including something like WWII or even futuristic setting like with Old Man Logan.
Rebooting Wolverine is clearly a huge priority to the studio alongside the X-Men and having the anti-hero connect to various MCU characters beforehand wouldn’t be shocking since he’s, like Steve Rogers, he is part of a super-soldier program via Weapon. When his origin takes places in the MCU doesn’t seem to be set in stone and Marvel can certainly tinker with it to fit their needs but I’d personally like to see him running around WWII without his indestructible skeleton and then get it during The Cold War.
It might be a good idea to introduce Wolverine as a supporting character elsewhere so that he doesn’t dominate the main X-Men films as much. The fictional X-Men locale of Madripoor is going to be introduced in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, which had many fans jump to conclusions that Wolverine is connected to the Disney+ series, although, there hasn’t been credible information backing up these fan desires. However, it becoming a stomping ground for the mutant eventually wouldn’t a surprise.
If they’re genuinely going to bring Chris Evans back I think it is worth considering giving him another period project since while Captain America: The First Avenger canonically takes place during WWII, it felt like they copped-out by limiting how much fighting he did against the actual Axis. The Cold War era could be another fine option as Steve combating the new threat of The Soviet Union during the height of the nuclear arms race feels just as a plausible of a setting for another adventure.
X-Men villain Omega Red could be a good baddie to use as well given his connections to Soviet Union super-soldier experiments.
It’s worth mentioning we’ve previously seen Easter Eggs to canonical members of The Invaders lineup in previous Marvel Studios films.
Union Jack was teased via Iron Man 2 as Joey Chapman was listed as one of the racers going head-to-head with Tony Stark. The Human Torch is seen encased in glass and Namor’s Atlantis was briefly teased in Captain America: The First Avenger at the Stark Expo (blink and you’ll miss the underwater city nod). The S.H.I.E.L.D. boat called The Lemurian Star in Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a direct nod to Namor villains The Lemurians, a sign that something nefarious was happening onboard.
I’m sure we’ll start to get confirmation what Evans is actually going to show up in but I think fans are also quite comfortable leaving old Rogers alone as well given his satisfying ending.
While it was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, that Marvel Studios‘ X-Men reboot would be at least five years away the promise of Deadpool 3 seemingly would see mutants introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe beforehand.
The rights reverted directly back to Marvel after the merger between Disney and 21st Century Fox led to those Marvel Comics characters attached to both X-Men and Fantastic Four headed into the hands of Kevin Feige. You might remember one of Kevin’s first big Hollywood gig was working for X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner on the original films at 20th Century Fox.
It looks like X-Men internal discussions are already happening at the studio as revealed by Kevin while speaking with Screen Rant. A good sign as they’ve already announced that Spider-Man 3‘s Jon Watts will direct Fantastic Four and likely already have an idea what they’re going to do there.
FEIGE: “You know how much I love the X-Men. I already said that’s where I started. I can’t tell you anything before we actually announced it, but rest assured, the discussions have been long and ongoing internally.”
Feige also recently reaffirmed to Collider that Deadpool 3 will indeed keep it’s R-rating (echoing previous statements made by Disney’s Bob Iger and Alan Horn) and finally confirmed the sequel would be taking place within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
While fans have been trying to convince themselves that Marvel will keep the Singerverse version of the franchise for future movies, the headache of those film’s connection to director Bryan Singer, who is during the era of #MeToo a PR nightmare, would be the worse idea imaginable for Disney. Removing that baggage completely with a fresh hard reboot is the best way to go considering those Fox movies weren’t terribly faithful to the comics and characters to begin with.
We have good example of this thanks to Marvel’s Spider-Man reboot bringing in TomHolland as their MCU version for Captain America: Civil War and other films.
It’ll be interesting who they ultimately hire to direct and write this franchise reboot for them. I’ve been extremely curious what that lineup will ultimately look like because for every era of X-Men, the mutant lineup looks completely different and there is an overwhelming characters to choose from.
Fans have all been pushing for their own ideas who should be recast in various roles for the reboot but it seems like the most important casting will be finding the right actor to fill Hugh Jackman‘s boots as Wolverine given he’s their biggest crossover character from the X-Men franchise. I wouldn’t be shocked if we saw his debut before the main X-Men film.
While speaking with Collider, Marvel’s Kevin Feige has reaffirmed previous details about Deadpool 3 that the film is rated R and will be indeed be set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the latter seemed to be slightly up-in-the-air given the maturity of the franchise.
FEIGE: “It will be rated R and we are working on a script right now, and Ryan’s overseeing a script right now… It will not be [filming] this year. Ryan is a very busy, very successful actor. We’ve got a number of things we’ve already announced that we now have to make, but it’s exciting for it to have begun. Again, a very different type of character in the MCU, and Ryan is a force of nature, which is just awesome to see him bring that character to life.”
We officially know that The Molyneux Sisters from Bob’s Burgers are currently writing the film alongside Reynolds overseeing that work. Oddly enough, previous screenwriters and producers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese were absent from trade articles concerning the new script suggesting they might not be involved creatively.
Deadpool 3 would likely mark the first mutant film for the studio and be released before the main X-Men reboot. What I think fans are still curious about is if the previous two films will be treated as canon moving forward and if they’ll bring back folks like Josh Brolin as Cable.
It’s still slightly unclear when they plan on shooting it, who will direct it, and what branch of Disney will ultimately end up distributing.
WandaVision debuts on January 15th on Disney+ and Deadline is curious if the Phase 4 series will be teasing future things to come including Marvel’s X-Men franchise reboot, given that Wanda has direct connections to the mutants as her father happens to be Magneto. The response from Marvel’s Kevin Feige is extremely vague which might be a bit disappointing for people expecting from clarity.
DEADLINE: We know with Monica Rambeau in WandaVision, her character connects into Captain Marvel 2, and that the series connects to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Is WandaVision a ramp to the revival of X-Men you’re planning?
FEIGE: “In hindsight, in five years if when we’re talking about everything that’s happened, everything can be a ramp to everything, specifically though, yes, Monica in Captain Marvel 2 and specifically to Wanda teaming up with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”
We’ll have to wait and see if the show drops hints to mutants as that could also be the case with Eternals.
There are small tidbits from the X-Men comic book universe joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe with S.W.O.R.D. in WandaVision and the fictional island nation of Madripoor is expected to make it’s live-action debut in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.
Concerning upcoming projects based on the former 20th Century Fox properties we learned last year The Fantastic Four reboot has Spider-Man trilogy director Jon Watts attached and Deadpool 3 recently landed screenwriters The Molyneux Sisters (Bob’s Burgers) pushing forward that film’s development.
Vice director Adam McKay talked about potentially pitch a Silver Surfer movie to the studio and Noah Hawley had been developing as solo Doctor Doom project before the merger that seemed to interest Feige.
How and when we’ll see mutants and the main team of X-Men is still an unanswered question.
People after San Diego Comic-Con 2019 started making theories on when Phase 4 would end that led to plenty of assumptions what would end up becoming Phase 5 projects, however, a brief comment from Kevin Feige is suggesting he’s not ready to say when Phase 4 is ending and when Phase 5 begins. Because of the pandemic Phase 4 will kick-off with WandaVision instead of Black Widow, which was originally set to be released in May 2020.
Murphy’s Multiverse asked Kevin Feige during a WandaVision press conference for clarification if the Marvel Studios president would reveal when in the release schedule we’ll see the end of Phase 4 and got a straight-up “no” in response.
We’ll just have to wait and see when they want to reveal that information publicly.
It’s worth mentioning that Phase 3 included 11 feature films starting with Captain America:Civil War and ended with Spider-Man: Far From Home. There is a good chance that Marvel might extend Phase 4 further than where they originally wanted.
I think the delays in release could also make things a little more complicated.
Something like James Gunn’s Guardians of The Galaxy 3 might be something that could end Phase 4 if they want to push the slate into 2023-2024.
WandaVision begins airing on Disney+ starting January 15th.
Here’s a reminder of the current MCU movies that are set for release and is still subject to change.
Marvel Studios had a rather large presentation at last week’s Disney Investor Day event and Kevin Feige had a lot of information to share in such a short period. Below is a rundown of most of the new information and adjusted release dates.
What seemed like the biggest announcement made during the massive amount of information was that director Jon Watts has been selected by the studio to reboot The Fantastic Four for them. Watts having worked with Marvel Studios to reboot the Spider-Man franchise with Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and the untitled Spider-Man 3 (currently filming in Atlanta as The November Project).
When Fantastic Four will begin shooting is unknown as Jon will be busy with Spider-Man 3 until it’s release in 12 months and they failed to mention any screenwriters. This will mark the first Marvel film for Watts that won’t have Sony Pictures’ involvement and might suggest that he won’t be coming back for Spider-Man 4.
Fandom has collectively chosen to campaign for John Krasinski and Emily Blunt to play the roles of Mister Fantastic and The Invisible Woman, however, there hasn’t been any concrete casting news concerning the project as it only just got confirmed.
Feige had telegraphed back at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 that Fantastic Four was the priority former Fox property they were aiming to reboot ahead of the X-Men. There is a possibility that Dr. Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm could appear in other films first.
One of the more frustrating things concerning Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings is that they kept most of the cast unofficial for the entirety of the shoot but they’ve now announced a good chunk of the cast, while not all of them. The cast so far includes actors Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Tony Leung as Wenwu aka The Mandarian, Awkwafina as Katy, Meng’er Zhang as Xialing, Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, Ronny Chieng as Jon Jon, Fala Chen as Jiang Li, and Florian Munteanu as villain William Young aka Razor Fist.
Shang-Chi along with Black Widow are still set to be released in theaters, not on Disney+, with the Destin Daniel Cretton martial arts action film set for July 9, 2021.
Director Sam Raimi has started filming Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness is officially shooting and will not only connect to WandaVision but also Jon Watts’ Spider-Man 3. While Kevin didn’t confirm it, there is a good chance that Tom Holland‘s Peter Parker and other characters carrying over to the Doctor Strange sequel.
However, he did confirm that that Xochitl Gomez will be playing America Chavez aka Miss America. The young newcomer joins Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as villain Baron Mordo.
It’s release date is set for March 25, 2022.
We finally know Christian Bale‘s character in Thor: Love & Thunder as he’ll play the film’s villain Gorr The God Butcher. A role we assume will be done with motion-capture given the design of his comic book counterpart.
Deadline recently reported that Jaimie Alexander will reprise the role of Lady Sif.
The rest of the cast consists of Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, and director Taika Waititi will return to the role of Korg.
Filming begins next month in Australia and it’s release date has been moved once more to May 6, 2022.
Captain Marvel 2 director Nia DaCosta was finally confirmed alongside the return of Brie Larson as Carol Danvers. New additions to the franchise are Ms. Marvel‘s Iman Vellani co-starring as Kamala Khan and WandaVision actress Teyonah Parris as the adult version of Monica Rambeau aka Spectrum.
There is a good chance that it will connect to Secret Invasion as it will also shoot in the United Kingdom.
The film’s date was bumped to November 11th, 2021.
Marvel revealed the title for Ant-Man 3 will be Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania. Peyton Reed will be back as director with Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lily, Michael Douglas, and Michelle Pfeiffer returning as part of the main cast. The title suggesting the film will be entering the Quantum Realm or have strange things come out it.
The big announcement concerning the film is that Kathryn Newton (Freaky) has been recast as Cassie Lang aka Stature with rising-star Jonathan Majors (Lovecraft Country) confirmed as villain Kang The Conqueror. It remains to be seen if the third installment will help introduce The Fantastic Four before their own solo film from Jon Watts given Kang’s connection to the former 20th Century Fox heroes.
A release date wasn’t mentioned but is expected something in 2022.
James Gunn is officially back for Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3 with them aiming for a 2023 release date. They’re also developing a holiday special and Groot shorts for Disney+.
Kevin Feige didn’t give much in the way of details for Black Panther 2 but revealed they would not be recasting Chadwick Boseman‘s role of T’Challa. He stopped short from explaining what they are doing with the sequel and reaffirmed that writer/director Ryan Coogler is still working on the film.
While we suspect potential delays on the project, they announced the film is coming July 8th, 2022. The spot was previously held by Captain Marvel 2.
Marvel also announced another round of Disney+ shows.
The Nick Fury series was confirmed to be an adaption of Secret Invasion, which involved a bunch of humanity revealed as being replaced with Skrulls. In the comics, it was revealed that a bunch of Avengers were uncovered to be Skrulls too. As assumed, Samuel L. Jackson will reprise the Fury role with Ben Mendelsohn back as Skrull leader Talos.
The Fox portion of the Skrull rights via Fantastic Four are now in the hands of Marvel and could allow for Super-Skrulls to come into play becoming a big threat as they mimic superpowers of various Marvel Comics heroes.
It had been reported that Kyle Bradstreet would be developing the show.
There are signs the series will shoot in the United Kingdom around the same time as Captain Marvel 2, which could suggest a direct connection via S.W.O.R.D. and the Skrulls.
Olivia Wilde is reportedly directing a Spider-Woman film for Sony Pictures. It’s worth mentioning that Jessica Drew is an Agent of S.W.O.R.D. and is one of the characters in the comics revealed to be a Skrull (Veranke The Skrull Queen). Marvel’s participation on that film while assumed hasn’t been made official.
Don Cheadle will lead his own Disney+ series as War Machine titled Armor Wars.
If the series takes cues from the comic book series we could see the return of Sam Rockwell‘s Justin Hammer, another fan-favorite that is still kicking around in the MCU.
We could also see the addition of unused Iron Man villains such as the Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, and others.
An Ironheart series will star Dominique Thorne as whiz-kid Riri Williams, who creates her own advance armor. I wouldn’t be shocked if there happens to be a crossover with Armor Wars.
They revealed new trailers for their upcoming slate of Disney+ series including WandaVision (coming January 15,2021), The Falcon & The Winter Soldier (coming March 19, 2021), Loki (coming May 2021), and their animated series What If…? (coming summer 2021). The trailers give us the first look at X-Men location Madripoor in Falcon and the scale of the Loki series with teases of his return to Asgard.
Additional information concerning the upcoming shows includes that Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye will indeed be aiming for a 2021, something The Ronin reported on earlier this month. Kevin Feige providing an sizzle footage for the former which is impressive given it only recently started shooting in Atlanta.
With She-Hulk, Kevin confirmed that the cast will include Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk, and the return of Tim Roth‘s Abomination. The latter addition could help support previous chatter that we might see William Hurt‘s Thunder Bolt Ross and Liv Tyler‘s Betty Ross in the series as well bring most of The Incredible Hulk cast back.
I’m sure there are more things to be announced in the future as they hinted to upcoming news concerning Mahershala Ali‘s Blade. Although, I’m sure fans were a little upset they left-out Ryan Reynolds‘ Deadpool 3 or an update on the X-Men reboot. There is now overwhelming evidence that The Young Avengers are coming at some point given that most have been cast already.
THE RONIN 