Murphy's Multiverse

Author: Charles Murphy

  • Jessica Jones’ Return Respects the Seven-Year Gap Since Season 3

    Jessica Jones’ Return Respects the Seven-Year Gap Since Season 3

    When Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones steps back onto the rain-slicked streets of Hell’s Kitchen in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, she won’t be the same person we left behind in 2019. In a move that prioritizes narrative weight over easy nostalgia, showrunner Dario Scardapane has confirmed that the MCU is leaning into the real-world passage of time, treating the seven-year gap since the Netflix era as canon.

    Speaking on the character’s evolution, Scardapane made it clear that they aren’t interested in a “frozen in time” version of the character. “One of the things we’ve leaned into is that time has passed… We’re acknowledging that. These characters have matured; they’ve gone through life,” Scardapane told SFX Magazine.

    The question driving her return is simple but fascinating: What does it look like for a bourbon-swilling smartass to mature seven years in a world that has been through the Blip and a Kingpin takeover?

    The show respects the timeline since Jessica Jones Season 3 ended on Netflix. By the time we see her in Born Again (set in 2027), nearly a decade has passed in-universe since her last standalone adventure. Unlike Matt Murdock, Jessica doesn’t wear a mask. Scardapane noted that this makes her particularly vulnerable in the Mayor Fisk era. While Daredevil can hide in the shadows, Jessica is a known quantity to the Anti-Vigilante Task Force.

    Scardapane hinted that he is drawing from a specific “next chapter” of her life found in the comics. For those following the source material, this has immediately set off alarm bells for one very specific direction things could go, but one that has not been hinted at even remotely in any marketing for the series.

    L-R: Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) and Matt Murdock / Daredevil (Charlie Cox) in Marvel Television’s DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Jojo Whilden. © 2025 MARVEL.

    The official production notes for Season 2 also highlight a 6-month time jump from the end of Born Again Season 1. This means that by the time Jessica enters the fray, Fisk’s administration has truly taken hold, and the underground resistance—led by Matt and Karen—is in desperate need of a heavy hitter who has gone through life and come out the other side.

    By acknowledging the gap, Marvel is finally connecting the dots of the Defenders Saga in a way that feels organic. This isn’t a reboot; it’s a sequel. Scardapane’s reverence for Melissa Rosenberg’s original Netflix run suggests that while Jessica has changed, the hard-edged soul of the character remains intact. She’s just a little older, a little wiser, and likely a lot more dangerous to anyone standing in her way.

  • John Krasinski Returns as Jack Ryan for ‘Ghost War’ Feature Film

    After a three-year hiatus following the conclusion of the Prime Video series, the Dad TV king is officially back, but this time he’s trading the small screen for a R-rated cinematic swan song. Amazon MGM Studios has released the first trailer for Jack Ryan: Ghost War, a feature-film continuation that promises to push the franchise into darker, more visceral territory than ever before.

    The biggest takeaway from the trailer? Jack Ryan is officially shedding its TV-MA skin for a hard R-rating. While the series was never shy about violence, Ghost War is being described as a real-time thriller that leans into “violence and language“.

    John Krasinski, Wendell Pierce, and Michael Kelly (Mike November) are all back, providing the emotional continuity fans loved in the series. The film introduces Sienna Miller as MI6 officer Emma Marlowe. She’s framed as Jack’s equal—razor-sharp, savvy, and his primary partner as they navigate a “treacherous web of betrayal”.

    Jack Ryan is reluctantly thrust back into the world of espionage when an international covert mission unravels a deadly conspiracy, forcing him to confront a rogue black-ops unit, and the clock is ticking. Operating in real time with lives on the line and the threat escalating at every turn, Jack reunites with battle-tested CIA operative Mike November (Michael Kelly) and former CIA boss James Greer (Wendell Pierce), their combined experience the only edge they have against an enemy who knows their every move. Backed by an unlikely new partner – razor-sharp MI6 officer Emma Marlowe (Sienna Miller) – Jack and the team navigate a treacherous web of betrayal, facing a past they thought was long put to rest – making this the most personal, high-stakes mission any of them have ever faced.

    -Official synopsis for Jack Ryan: Ghost War

    The trailer highlights this shift with a sequence showing James Greer (Wendell Pierce) narrowly surviving a brutal explosion orchestrated by a rogue black-ops unit. This isn’t the slow-burn geopolitical chess match of the early seasons; this is a desperate, 105-minute sprint.

    Reluctantly pulled back into the field, Jack is forced to hunt down a rogue black-ops unit that seems to have deep ties to his and Greer’s past. The “real-time” aspect of the story suggests a ticking-clock energy—think 24 meets Clear and Present Danger.

    With an official premiere date of May 20, 2026, the countdown to the “Ghost War” has officially begun.

  • The Wait is Over—’Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Marketing Campaign Officially Swings Into Action

    The Wait is Over—’Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Marketing Campaign Officially Swings Into Action

    The pressure has been building for Sony and Marvel to finally show their hand on Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Today, the dam officially broke. With the launch of the official website, the road to Spider-Man: Brand New Day is finally open.

    Starting off a brand new day, Tom Holland officially launched the marketing campaign for the fourth installment in the Spidey franchise by revealing that ahead of tomorrow’s full trailer release, snippets of the reel will be shared throughout the day by the Spider-Man fan community.

    The first snippet of footage to arrive–via a fan account in Peru–revealed a slow-motion look at a recreation of the cover of Amazing Fantasy #15, the first appearance of Spider-Man.

    The second snippet shows a dazed Peter Parker collapsing

    Peter Parkour!

    Who or what is causing this?!

    Stay tuned for more updates throughout the day…

  • Daredevil Finally Gets the “DD” Chest Logo in ‘Born Again’ Season 2

    Daredevil Finally Gets the “DD” Chest Logo in ‘Born Again’ Season 2

    It’s been over a decade since Charlie Cox first donned the horns in 2015, and while he’s worn everything from black ninja rags to “ketchup and mustard” yellow, there has been one glaring omission for comic purists: the logo. No longer. As has been featured prominently in the marketing for the new season, Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, Matt Murdock has finally graduated to the iconic intertwined DDs.

    For Charlie Cox, the inclusion of the logo isn’t just a design tweak—it’s a narrative milestone. Reflecting on the ten-year journey to this suit, Cox noted, “I doubted whether that would ever happen. They made me earn it… I just waited for it to be something that would be hopefully inevitable.” In the context of the show, the logo represents Matt Murdock fully embracing his identity as a figurehead for the Hell’s Kitchen resistance.

    Fans of Charles Soule’s Daredevil run and the Shadowland event will recognize the aesthetic immediately. The Season 2 suit is predominantly black with red lenses and a blood-red “DD” logo front and center. Costume designer Emily Gunshor revealed a brilliant bit of visual storytelling for the new threads. The lore of the show is that Matt took his red suit from Season 1 and spray-painted it black to stay in hiding from Fisk’s Anti-Vigilante Task Force. As the season progresses and Daredevil gets into more scrapes, the black paint will actually chip and peel away, revealing the original red underneath, providing a literal “Born Again” metaphor for the suit itself.

    Matt Murdock/Daredevil (Charlie Cox) in Marvel Television’s DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Jojo Whilden. © 2026 MARVEL.

    It took Gunshor’s team 18 weeks to construct the suit, with six total versions created for Cox and his stunt double, Niko Stavropolous. They even went as far as creating six different shades of red lenses for the mask to ensure the color remained consistent regardless of New York’s fickle night lighting.

    By saying it with his whole chest, Murdock is moving away from the guerrilla vigilante of the Netflix era and into a symbol of open defiance against Mayor Fisk. Embracing the logo is Matt’s way of telling Fisk—and the city—exactly who is leading the rebellion. As Cox put it: “When I found out I had the double Ds, I was like, I hope I get paparazzi. I was so proud of it.”

    Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again begins streaming on D+ on March 24th.

  • “Let Us Have Our Revenge”: New ‘Maul– Shadow Lord’ Trailer Promises a Darker Side of the Galaxy Far, Far Away

    “Let Us Have Our Revenge”: New ‘Maul– Shadow Lord’ Trailer Promises a Darker Side of the Galaxy Far, Far Away

    The galaxy may be tightening under Emperor Palpatine’s grip, but the underworld is starting to push back. Lucasfilm has officially released the second, even grittier trailer for Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, and it confirms that this isn’t just a survival story—it’s a declaration of war.

    Launching April 6 on D+, the 10-episode series finds Sam Witwer returning as the former Sith on Janix, a planet supposedly untouched by the Imperial reach, determined to have his revenge on Darth Sidious and the Empire.

    The new footage leans heavily into the “pulpy, noir” aesthetic that showrunner Dave Filoni has been teasing.  Maul isn’t looking to topple the Emperor just yet. He’s looking for a “weapon” to exact his revenge for his former master’s betrayal. The trailer gives us a closer look at Devon Izara (Gideon Adlon), a disillusioned Padawan on the run after Order 66. Maul’s pitch to her is simple: “The Empire is our common enemy.” But as a voice warns in the teaser, “Maul will never be our ally.” The Empire isn’t ignoring Janix for long. We see the Eleventh Brother, aka The Crow, and Marrok, last seen in Ahsoka, leading the hunt to “lock this planet down”.

    With a visual style that feels like a heavy-metal evolution of The Clone Wars, Maul–Shadow Lord looks to be giving us a Star Wars we haven’t quite seen before to kick off the Age of Maul!

  • Marvel Launches Official ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Companion Podcast Ahead of Season 2 Premiere

    Marvel Launches Official ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Companion Podcast Ahead of Season 2 Premiere

    If you thought the hype for Matt Murdock’s return couldn’t get any louder, Marvel Television is making sure you’re fully immersed before the first frame of Season 2 even hits your screen. Disney has officially announced the Daredevil: Born Again Official Podcast, a nine-episode video companion series launching March 17.

    This isn’t just a standard promotional fluff piece; Marvel is positioning this as their first official podcast on D+, signaling a major shift in how they handle behind-the-scenes content for their heavy-hitter series.

    The Actors on Actors Deep Dive

    L-R: Matt Murdock / Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) in Marvel Television’s DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Television. © 2026 MARVEL.

    Launching exactly one week before the March 24 premiere of Season 2, the podcast kicks off with a massive Season 1 retrospective. Episode 1 will feature Wilson Bethel, showrunner Dario Scardapane, and Marvel’s streaming skipper, Brad Winderbaum, looking back at the chaos that brought us to Fisk’s mayoral reign.

    Subsequent episodes will drop alongside the series, featuring an unprecedented look at stunts, costumes, and those inevitable Easter eggs. Expect to see Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Deborah Ann Woll in intimate, actors on actors style conversations. In a smart move for accessibility, the video version will stream on both Disney+ and YouTube, while audio-only listeners can find it on all major platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

    The Season 2 Stakes

    L-R: Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) and Matt Murdock / Daredevil (Charlie Cox) in Marvel Television’s DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Jojo Whilden. © 2025 MARVEL.

    The announcement also gave us a fresh look at the Season 2 logline, and it’s grim: Mayor Wilson Fisk is officially hunting Daredevil as “public enemy number one.” The tagline—Resist. Rebel. Rebuild.—suggests we’re moving away from the courtroom and into a full-blown urban insurgency.

    In Season 2 of Marvel Television’s Daredevil: Born Again, Mayor Wilson Fisk crushes New York City underfoot as he hunts down public enemy number one, the Hell’s Kitchen vigilante known as Daredevil. But, beneath the horned mask, Matt Murdock will try to fight back from the shadows to tear down the Kingpin’s corrupt empire and redeem his home. Resist. Rebel. Rebuild.

    -Official synopsis for Daredevil: Born Again Season 2

    With a cast that includes Krysten Ritter and Matthew Lillard, the Born Again era is clearly Marvel’s new flagship. By launching this podcast, they’re creating a sticky ecosystem for fans to obsess over every detail of the Kingpin’s corrupt empire.

    Marvel is taking a page out of the HBO playbook here. Shows like The Last of Us and Succession proved that a high-quality companion podcast can keep the conversation alive all week long. For a show as dense and anticipated as Daredevil, giving fans a direct line to Scardapane and the cast is the best way to ensure Born Again dominates the cultural zeitgeist through the spring.

  • ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’: Sigourney Weaver’s  Colonel Ward is the Missing Link to the Rebellion’s Greatest Icons

    ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’: Sigourney Weaver’s  Colonel Ward is the Missing Link to the Rebellion’s Greatest Icons

    Sigourney Weaver’s role in The Mandalorian and Grogu has proven fertile ground for theorizing about her character’s potential for betrayal. Reports indicate that her Colonel Ward is the one who pushes Mando in the direction of Jeremy Allen White’s Rotta the Hutt, effectively using the Mandalorian as a heat sink to draw out rival syndicates while she quietly consolidates power for the Imperial Shadow Council. But thanks to a massive new feature in the May 2026 issue of Empire Magazine, we finally have the lore bomb we’ve been waiting for and some compelling evidence she may indeed be one of the good guys!

    It turns out Ward isn’t just a new face in the New Republic—she is a foundational piece of the Rebellion’s history who, quite literally, went through it alongside the galaxy’s most sacred legends.

    “We Go Way Back”: The Leia Connection

    The headline-grabbing quote from the Empire feature comes directly from Weaver herself. When asked about her character’s history before the events of the film, Weaver dropped a bombshell: “We go way back,” she said, referring to her character’s relationship with Princess Leia Organa.

    According to Lucasfilm President–and the architect of the New Republic era–Dave Filoni, Colonel Ward belongs to an elite cohort of female leaders who were instrumental in dismantling the Empire. Filoni explicitly named Ward in the same breath as Mon Mothma, Hera Syndulla, Amilyn Holdo, and Leia Organa.

    As Filoni puts it, these women formed a “fearless backbone” of the Rebellion. They weren’t just politicians; they were “crack pilots” and “military leaders” who survived the darkest days of the Galactic Civil War. By placing Weaver‘s character in this specific group, Lucasfilm is instantly giving Colonel Ward a level of Rebel Cred that usually takes three seasons of a TV show to establish.

    The “70s Unrest” Inspiration

    One of the most interesting aspects of the interview is how Weaver connects her Star Wars debut to her own real-world history. She compared the energy of the early Rebellion to the social unrest of the 1970s—specifically the protests against the Vietnam War.

    To be playing someone who is from that time, and from that history, who would have been a cohort of these guys, is a great honor. The ’70s, all the unrest, fighting against the [Vietnam] war. People had that sense of unity. It clicks into a whole thing for George Lucas, and I’m the same generation.

    -Sigourney Weaver

    George Lucas has stated in the past that he originally modeled the Rebel Alliance in part on the Viet Cong and the anti-war movement. By casting an icon of that exact cinematic era, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni are tapping into the DNA of the original trilogy. Colonel Ward isn’t just a character; she’s a personification of the grit it took to topple an Empire.

    So, how does a friendship with Leia Organa affect a movie about a Mandalorian and his foundling? It all comes down to trust.

    In the film, Ward is the one who recruits Din Djarin for what Weaver describes as a “very tricky, very hard commission.” She chooses the Mandalorian not because the New Republic is lazy, but because she—as a veteran who has seen the true face of war—understands that the peace they currently enjoy is fragile, as Filoni so aggressively made clear in Season 1 of Ahsoka.

    While the New Republic Senate, likely led by a frustrated Mon Mothm, is busy with bureaucracy, Ward is the action-oriented leader who knows that the Imperial Shadow Council is a cancer that needs to be cut out. Her history with Leia suggests she possesses that Organa-style pragmatism: sometimes you have to break the rules to save the galaxy.

    While Filoni and Weaver are painting a beautiful picture of Rebel sisterhood, we cannot ignore the persistent rumors of a “Third Act Betrayal.”

    If Ward is as close to the Rebel founding mothers as they say, her being a secret Imperial mole—or a First Order sympathizer—would be among the most devastating blow Lucasfilm has ever dealt to the fanbase. Imagine the fallout if the woman who “went way back” with Leia turns out to be the one who sells out Grogu to the Remnant.

    Whether she’s a hero or a hidden villain, the choice to tie Ward to Leia is a nice touch of world-building. It gives the film an emotional anchor to the original trilogy and raises the stakes for everything Din Djarin is about to do.

    Source: Empire

  • ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Trailer Length Leaks; More Evidence Suggests Web-Head Returns Wednesday

    ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Trailer Length Leaks; More Evidence Suggests Web-Head Returns Wednesday

    The wait is almost over. Following the launch of the official website (SpiderManBrandNewDay.movie), the digital detectives have cracked the source code, and it’s good news for Spidey fans…and a now deleted post from an official Sony distributor seems to have confirmed the release date.

    As shared by Top News, a Kazakhstani distributor shares a post on Instagram that seemed to confirm the rumored March 18th release date at 7:05 AM ET. While it’s not been confirmed to be official, it certainly seems like a case where a partner jumped the gun and was forced to remove the post.

    The specific runtime of 1:59 was first signaled by the insider account The Beyond Reporter. This account has gained significant traction recently for having access to the metadata of Sony’s promotional materials before they go live. According to their report, the cut being sent to theaters for the March 20 release of Project Hail Mary is a 119-second “Teaser 1.”

    This 1:59 length reportedly matches the master cut of the blurry teaser that leaked back in December 2025. Many fans noted that the leaked footage felt like a complete, two-minute narrative arc. The fact that the official metadata matches that length suggests that Sony hasn’t heavily re-edited the teaser since the leak, but is instead finally ready to release the high-definition, official version.

  • Serenity Now—’Firefly’ Animated Series in Development with Nathan Fillion

    If you’ve been a Browncoat for the last 24 years, you know that hope is a dangerous thing. We’ve been burned by revival rumors more times than a Reaver victim, but today, it looks like the Verse is finally calling us home. Deadline is reporting that 20th Television Animation is in early development on a Firefly animated series led by Captain Malcolm Reynolds himself!

    For years, the hurdle for a Firefly revival has always been the aging cast and the massive budget required for a live-action space western. Animation solves both problems instantly. By moving to the same space that allowed X-Men ’97 be so successful, the studio can keep the original crew looking exactly as we remember them while Nathan Fillion—who has become the king of voice acting in recent years—leads the vocal booth.

    The dedication of Firefly fans has kept this 25-year-old show relevant. Clearly, the return of Firefly is something the fans want. More importantly, it’s something they deserve.

    -Nathan Fillion

    While Fillion is the only one officially locked in to produce and star, the report suggests that 20th Television is in active talks with the original cast members, including Morena Baccarin, Alan Tudyk and Summer Glau.

    The series is set between the ending of Firefly and the 2005 film, Serenity.

    Source: Deadline

  • Knowing is Half the Battle: Paramount Passes on Max Landis’ ‘G.I. Joe’ Script

    If there is one franchise that Paramount has consistently struggled to calibrate, it’s G.I. Joe. After the CGI-heavy Rise of Cobra, the soft-reboot Retaliation, and the absolute non-starter that was Snake Eyes, the studio is trying a strategy that is as unconventional as it is controversial.

    According to a flurry of reports from the trades, Paramount had commissioned two separate scripts for the next film in the G.I. Joe franchise. And now in their attempt to find a pulse for the Real American Heroes, it looks like one controversial path has officially been closed.

    Variety is reporting that Paramount has passed on the script treatment submitted by Max Landis. This move effectively ends Landis’s potential comeback vehicle at the studio and leaves the future of the Joes in the hands of a much more fan-favorite creative.

    Paramount had reportedly been employing a dual-track strategy, commissioning separate scripts from Landis and Danny McBride with the absolute asinine idea of eventually blending them into a single film. However, the studio reportedly reviewed Landis’s draft and decided not to move forward. While the studio didn’t give an official reason, the move avoids the inevitable PR nightmare that would have accompanied a Landis-led tentpole, given his history of misconduct allegations.

    This leaves Danny McBride (The Righteous Gemstones) as the primary creative force on the project. Given his body of work, it is reasonable to assume that McBride’s approach may fall more more in line with what fans actually want—a version of G.I. Joe that embraces the over-the-top personality of the 80s cartoon without the soul-crushing self-seriousness of the recent reboots.