Murphy's Multiverse

Author: Charles Murphy

  • ‘The Acolyte’ Provides the First Look at the High Republic Era

    ‘The Acolyte’ Provides the First Look at the High Republic Era

    As Obi-Wan Kenobi told Luke Skywalker, before the formation of the Empire, the Jedi Knights served as the “guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic” for “over a thousand generations.” While the order ultimately fell apart, they had a great run but fans of the galaxy far, far away have never seen them at their peak.

    While the prequels at least showed the order intact and in action, their hubris has already cemented their downfall. What’s been seen onscreen so far, in both films and series, is an order far removed from the glory days of the Jedi, which is why there’s been some serious excitement brewing around Lucasfilm’s latest D+ streaming series, The Acolyte. For the first time, fans will see the order outside of the Skywalker Saga timeline, providing some interesting opportunities to compare and contrast.

    Set in the High Republic era 100 years before the events of The Phantom Menace, The Acolyte will center around an investigation into a shocking crime spree which pits a respected Jedi Master against a dangerous warrior from his past. As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems.

    Disney revealed the first look at the new series today, providing the first ever live-action glimpse at the shape of the galaxy during the High Republic.

    Created by Leslye Headland, The Acolyte stars Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Suotamo, and Carrie-Anne Moss. The series is set to debut on Disney Plus with two-episoses streaming on June 4th.

  • ‘Captain America: Brave New World’ Promo Art Reveals Joaquin Torres’ New Falcon Look

    ‘Captain America: Brave New World’ Promo Art Reveals Joaquin Torres’ New Falcon Look

    Though it seems highly unlikely that Danny Ramirez‘s Joaquin Torres will evolve into a vampiric falcon-human hybrid anytime soon in the MCU, he’s certainly due for an upgrade. Having been given Sam Wilson’s EX0-7 Falcon suit in the Disney Plus streaming series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Air Force First Lieutenant Torres is ready to step into the world of superheroics in Captain America: Brave New World.

    Set photos from last May gave fans a very low-res and very unrevealing glimpse of Torres’ new and improved Falcon suit but now some promotional art for the film, similar to the recent art of Tim Blake Nelson’s The Leader, provides clear look at one of the upgrades.

    As is the case in the comics, Torres will be sporting a full helmet in Captain America: Brave New World and that helmet is front and center in the artwork. The image also confirms that the MCU’s new Falcon will be decked out in an all-new, all-different color scheme that is consistent with the character’s recent look in the comics.

    With Captain America: Brave New World set to undergo some significant additional photography this summer, fans may be treated to more set photos which could come with a better glimpse of the suit. Rumors have circulated that the scenes from which the set photos linked above were captured have been removed from the film which means Torres will have to find another reason to break out his new gear.

    Captain America: Brave New World is currently slated to hit theaters on February 14, 2025.

    Source: Twitter

  • ‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ Release Date Officially Revealed

    ‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ Release Date Officially Revealed

    Lucasfilm’s Star Wars streaming series have been fairly successful with The Mandalorian and Ahsoka leading the way. With the third and final season of the animated series, The Bad Batch, underway, the studio is beginning to turn its attention to their next project: The Acolyte.

    Set during the High Republic era, the events of The Acolyte will reportedly take place nearly 100 years before the events of The Phantom Menace. Rumors has recently swirled about when it may drip on Disney Plus but now, thanks to a new poster released by Disney, fans can finally mark their calendar.

    The series is now confirmed to debut on June 4th! Much like Ahsoka, it looks as though new episodes of The Acolyte will release on Tuesday nights. With a trailer expected tomorrow, fans will finally get a first look at the project and the High Republic era in live-action.

    Updating…

  • New Rumor May Shed Some Light on Marvel Studios X-Plans

    New Rumor May Shed Some Light on Marvel Studios X-Plans

    As Marvel Studios continues to move toward the finish line of their ongoing Multiverse Saga, they already have one eye on the future of the MCU. One major piece of that future will be the X-Men, who have already begun to be sprinkled into the Multiverse. While Marvel Studios have laid out no clear plans, they did begin taking meetings with creatives last fall to hear pitches on how to fully incorporate mutants into the MCU. Now, a new rumor may indicate that part of the plan will revolve around one of the X-Men’s most devious villains.

    According to insider Daniel RPK, Marvel Studios plans to put Mr. Sinister front and center as the big bad of the studio’s X-Men reboot.

    Created by iconic X-Men writer Chris Claremont in 1987, Mr. Sinister has become one of most fabulous and deadly villains Charles Xavier and his team have ever faced. He played a large role in X-Men: The Animated Series and recently hatched his greatest plan to date in the comics which led to the end of the mutant’s Krakoan Age. Should Marvel Studios indeed choose to put Sinister in the middle of their plans for the X-Men and keep some semblance of who the character is in the comics, his long and incredibly complex personal history could truly be used to set the table for any number of stories to be told. Over the last 25 years and change, Sinister has had a hand in just about every major X-story and has deep ties to Apocalypse, the Summers family, the Weapon X program and both Charles and Magneto. Fox had planned to incorporate him into their X-Men franchise but never did, providing Marvel Studios with a fairly easy choice in a central villain that both helps set their X-films apart and allows for some very interesting stories to be told.

  • Marvel Exec Shares Disappointing News about Long-Developing Project

    Marvel Exec Shares Disappointing News about Long-Developing Project

    In 2014, the Nova Corps were introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Guardians of the Galaxy. Operating from the planet Xandar, the MCU’s Corps worked as space cops and ultimately stored the Power Stone in their HQ. Though the fate of the Corps and the planet is unknown, Thanos was able to get his hands on the stone so it’s unlikely it was a happy ending. At the time Avengers: Infinity War premiered in 2018, Marvel Studios One Above All, Kevin Feige, told Comic Book that the Nova Corps most powerful hero, known as Nova, was one of a handful of Marvel characters who had “immediate potential” in terms of joining the MCU. Nearly 6 years later, the character still hasn’t joined the fray and some new comments from one of the MCU’s top dogs indicate he’s likely not going to enter the mix for some time.

    In a new interview with Comic Book, Marvel’s head of streaming, animation, and television Brad Winderbaum confirmed the incredibly well-known and widely-reported fact that a Nova project was in development at Marvel Studios before gently letting on that it’s not going to be something fans will see any time soon.

    “We love Nova. We are in really early development on Nova,” explained Winderbaum, confirming trade reports from two years ago which revealed that Moon Knight scribe Sabir Pirzada was working on the project. Winderbaum then went on to detail the oft-discussed changes in the way studios like Marvel Studios go about their business since Bob Iger’s return to Disney and made it pretty clear that fans shouldn’t be trying to slate Nova into their hypothetical calendars anytime soon.

    “We have a new system behind-the-scenes at Marvel Studios,” Winderbaum said. “We’re more like a traditional studio now. We’re developing more than we actually will produce. There are plans to develop Nova. I love Nova, too. I love Rich Rider, too. I hope it gets to the screen. The world is always chaos. There’s always things. You gotta conjure these things to make them happen but I would love to see a Nova show, one day.”

    Taken in their totality, Winderbaum’s response to the question about the status of a Nova project could hardly be regarded as optimistic. The studio is cutting back on new projects and focusing more on “sure things” and producing more projects within currently existing and successful franchises. Given that it’s been a decade since the Nova Corps made an impact in an MCU film, it’s possible Richard Rider’s time to shine has come and gone without so much as a cameo, Easter egg or wasted post-credit scene and whatever “immediate potential” he had in 2018 has waned. For now, it seems all fans of the character have is just a series of bad fan fiction about how the character could have joined the MCU in a genuinely organic way.

    Source: Comic Book

  • DC Studios Developing a Live-Action ‘Teen Titans’ Film

    DC Studios Developing a Live-Action ‘Teen Titans’ Film

    As production gets underway on the DCU’s first film, Superman, another of DC Studios’ co-chairs James Gunn and Peter Safran’s future projects has been revealed. According to THR, DC Studios is developing a Teen Titans film, which will be produced as a live-action film.

    THR reports that the film is currently being written by Ana Nogueira, the scribe behind the studio’s upcoming Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.

    The Teen Titans were first introduced into the pages of DC Comics in the 1960s. The makeup of the roster has undergone some changes over the years but Dick Grayson and Wally West have been semi-permanent fixtures. Characters such as Aqualad, Wonder Girl, Starfire, Beast Boy, Raven and Cyborg have also been part of the team with the latter three most well-known as part of the roster because of the animated series, Teen Titans Go! Recently, the team debuted in live-action in Titans, a multi-season Max series that didn’t click for most fans or critics.

    Teen Titans joins Superman, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, The Authority, The Brave and the Bold, Booster Gold and Swamp Thing as films known to be in development as DC Studios plots a new course for some of comics greatest heroes.

    Source: THR

  • ‘Superman’ Set Photos Provide the First Look at One of the Film’s Villains

    ‘Superman’ Set Photos Provide the First Look at One of the Film’s Villains

    Production on James Gunn‘s Superman has picked up stateside in Atlanta and it didn’t take long for the first photos from the set to make their way online.

    Just Jared has just released photos of Maria Gabrielle de Faria’s villain known as The Engineer. Whether it’s just an early iteration of the character’s costume or if Gunn decides to go a totally different direction for the DCU, the photos show a very different look for the character than in the comics.

    Due to copyright laws, you’ll need to go to Just Jared to check out the new photos!

    Updating…

  • Tom Hardy’s Next ‘Venom’ Film Gets a New Title and Release Date

    Tom Hardy’s Next ‘Venom’ Film Gets a New Title and Release Date

    As Venom 3 resumed filming in November following the Hollywood strikes, star Tom Hardy celebrated the restart of production in an Instagram post in which he referred to the film as “The Last Dance.” As one might expect, that kicked off rampant speculation that the third installment in Sony’s Venom franchise would be subtitled as such. Now, it’s official.

    Sony officially revealed the film’s full title, Venom: The Last Dance, alongside a new, earlier release date for the threequel. Originally slated for a November 8, 2024 release, the film will now hit theaters on October 25, 2024.

    Starring Hardy, Juno Temple, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Clark Backo, the film is expected to follow the Lethal Protector as he returns from his brief visit to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and embarks on some ridiculous, new adventure. Following the theatrical travesty of Madame Web, we can all only hope that “The Last Dance” is more than just a subtitle and a promise that they’ll stop making horseshit Marvel movies.

    Source: Variety

  • Disney Rumored to Be Killing Three Marvel Studios Franchises

    Disney Rumored to Be Killing Three Marvel Studios Franchises

    Since Bob Iger‘s return as Disney’s top dog, the House of Mouse’s major studios have been reflecting on the work they have been churning out. Chief among those is Marvel Studios, who after a string of projects that were critical and/or financial disappointments, has been mandated to slow down production and get back to the basics of what made the MCU the cultural phenomenon it was. The strikes served as a blessing in disguise in that regard, allowing Kevin Feige and the Marvel Studios Parliament to rework several projects that were already in production and get ahead of the curve on others. As a result, it seems as though the end of the Multiverse Saga may ultimately be delayed a bit and while fans wait to find out when it will wrap up and what new projects will join those already known, a new rumor may help put that puzzle together.

    According to Marvel Studios insider Daniel RPK, Disney has decided not to move forward with a trio of sequels, effectively killing three Marvel Studios franchises. The scooper reports that the studio has decided not to move forward with more projects in the Captain Marvel and Ant-Man franchises and has “shelved” a sequel to 2021’s Eternals. The moves come as Iger reportedly wants Marvel to put their energy into projects that are sure-fire hits and reduce the number of risky projects in the pipeline.

    The Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels, was a disappointment at the box office, falling well short of the big money its predecessor made in 2019. The target of a preemptive and hateful social media campaign that was successful in keeping fans out of theaters, the film has been fairly warmly received as it made its way to Disney Plus. The same can not be said, however, for Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. Plagued by rewrites, the film–which was supposed to be a major cornerstone of the Multiverse Saga–is the most critically panned MCU project. Neither of those projects were as risky as Eternals, which was also well-lambasted by critics. Word of development on a sequel to Eternals had been making its way around for some time but for now, it seems fairly unlikely to move forward.

  • Holy Finishing Touches, Batman! Matt Reeves ‘The Batman’ Sequel Gets a New Release Date

    Holy Finishing Touches, Batman! Matt Reeves ‘The Batman’ Sequel Gets a New Release Date

    Rumors and speculation of a delay for The Batman Part II have been making their way around social media for quite some time. Now, there’s no need for them to continue to swirl as Warner Bros. has given the sequel to Matt Reeves‘ 2022 hit a new release date.

    As part of a series of moves, The Batman Part II will now release on October 2, 2026, a full year later than originally planned.

    Produced under DC Studios’ Elseworlds banner, The Batman Part II–like its predecessor and the upcoming Max streaming series, The Penguin–will not be part of the new DCU’s main continuity.

    According to THR, the delay is a result of the strikes which would have put development of the film’s script, being co-written by Reeves andatt Tomlin, on hold for most of 2023.

    Updating…

    Source: THR