Murphy's Multiverse

Author: Charles Murphy

  • Deep Thoughts: Hypothetical Marvel Studios 2022 Release Calendar, V2

    Deep Thoughts: Hypothetical Marvel Studios 2022 Release Calendar, V2

    Back in January, we looked at one hypothetical 2022 release calendar for Marvel Studios. We’ve been through another round of production delays and release date shifts and with 2022 just a few months away, have a little bit better idea of when we might expect to see Marvel content next year. With that in mind, here’s version 2.0 of a totally made up and hypothetical way Marvel Studios 2022 release schedule might look.

    Originally set to stream on Disney + in 2021, rumored production delays pushed Ms. Marvel’s MCU debut to 2022. With the number of streaming series Marvel Studios has to get through in 2022, it would seem like they’d want to kick off the new year with a bang, debuting Ms. Marvel as soon as possible, dropping the first of the expected 6 episodes on January 5th.

    Now that Wednesdays are the new Fridays, we know that Marvel Studios has no aversion to dropping a new film while a series is streaming. With that in mind, it’s possible that the they get She-Hulk’s 10 episode run started as early as February 23rd, one week after an episode of Marvel Legends catches fans up on the stories of Bruce Banner and Emil Blonsky, two characters who will have big roles to play in the series.

    While She-Hulk is in the middle of its run, fans will FINALLY get the sequel to 2016’s Doctor Strange on March 25th, 2022 when Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness hits theaters. Marvel Studios will almost certainly have a few episodes of Marvel Legends ready to view to prep fans to remind fans not only of what Stephen Strange, Wong and Mordo have been up to, but also to remind them of the journey of the film’s primary antagonist, the Scarlet Witch.

    Right after She-Hulk finishes its extended run (remember, it’s 10 episodes and will stretch from late-February through late-April), fans will be able to head to theaters for the next chapter in the saga of the God of Thunder when Thor: Love and Thunder comes crashing in on May 6, 2022. Marvel Legends episodes covering the journeys of Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy are almost a sure thing and we’ll certainly need to catch up on Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster, who will have been absent from the MCU for almost a decade when this film releases.

    From the God of Thunder to the avatar of the Egyptian God of the Moon…Marvel Studios Moon Knight, featuring Oscar Isaac in the lead role(s) could hit Disney Plus as early as May 11th. In our first draft, we had Moon Knight streaming about one month earlier, but with Ms. Marvel moving to 2022, it got pushed. Realistically, should Marvel Studios wish to do so, they could move Ms. Marvel to this slot, much closer to the character’s next appearance in November’s The Marvels.

    We’re not sure if Marvel Studios will go this route, but interestingly enough the mythology of Moon Knight has some ties to the mythology of Black Panther. Should Kevin Feige and crew wish to make that explicit on screen, there could be some small connection between the two that would make Black Panther: Wakanda Forever fit nicely in order after the completion of Moon Knight’s expected 6-episode run. Wakanda Forever is one to keep an eye on as well, as production delays due to an injury to Letitia Wright have pushed the expected completion of principal photography into early 2022.

    Marvel Studios intends for the animated series What If…? to occur annually and we know they’ve already done a lot of work on Season 2, so it’s likely it’ll be ready for a Summer 2022 debut. Season 1 was 9 episodes, so we’ll go with that for now and slot July 20th as the drop date for the first episode of Season 2, which will see the return of Haley Atwell’s Captain Carter and adapt a scenario from this year’s Black Widow film.

    Marvel Studios seems to be aiming to have Secret Invasion ready to stream just ahead of The Marvels. Production on the series in kicking off in earnest in October in the UK, allowing for some actors to complete work on The Marvels before shifting over to Secret Invasion. If everything goes smoothly, the series should be ready for Disney Plus by September 28th, 2022, leaving a week to recover before the Captain Marvel sequel hits theaters on November 9, 2022. Truthfully, we have no confirmation that the two projects are tied together, but we’re pretending they are for the purposes of this experiment. Presumably, both of these projects would be preceded by some Marvel Legends episodes recapping the adventures of Nick Fury, Talos, Carol Danvers, Kamala Khan and Monica Rambeau before telling the next chapters of their stories.

    While Secret Invasion is doing it’s thing, Marvel Studios might have to find room to drop the first of its Holiday Specials. Rumor has it that the Halloween special might just feature Werewolf By Night, a character originally believed to be starring in his own streaming series. Production on the special is set to take place early next year, so it shouldn’t be a problem to have it ready to go for, let’s say, October 26th.

    Even though the entire piece is hypothetical, this one has the greatest uncertainty. I’ve recently heard a rumor that production on Echo might get pushed JUST a bit, to April 2022, making it almost impossible for it to stream in 2022. Should it hold to its originally reported January 2022 date, however, we could easily see it debut on Disney Plus by November 16th.

    Should the calendar hold, Marvel Studios could wrap up 2022 with its second holiday special, the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. This one will film during production on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, so it’ll be ready to drop whenever they choose, maybe even on December 28th, 2022!


  • Marvel Comics Launching ‘SABRETOOTH’ Solo Series in January

    Marvel Comics Launching ‘SABRETOOTH’ Solo Series in January

    As mutants have thrived and expanded into the cosmos during the Krakoan Age, Victor Creed has sat in a deep, dark pit at the heart of the island as punishment for killing some humans WAAAAAY back in House of X #1. Next January, we’ll catch up with Creed’s time the hole and, presumably, his revenge on those that put him there in Sabretooth #1 by Victor LaValle.

    After the issue was teased for January in yesterday’s December 2021 solicitations, LaValle took to Twitter to reveal that he was behind the book.

    LaValle is best known for his short stories and has dabbled in comics before but Sabretooth represents his first work for Marvel. Back in March, LaValle announced that he had come to an agreement to work with Marvel on a book for the X-line, but until yesterday’s Twitter announcement, there had only been rumors about what he’d be writing.

    It’s worth speculating that Victor Creed’s return to action will coincide with the events of Jonathan Hickman’s Inferno, which promises to bring the Age of Krakoa crumbling down, presumably at the hands of Mystique who was with Creed on his last mission and who has a promise to keep. We’ll likely see Mystique turn Creed loose on Krakoa and that sounds like something worth reading.

  • 3 Things We’d Like to See Explored in a ‘SHANG-CHI’ Sequel

    3 Things We’d Like to See Explored in a ‘SHANG-CHI’ Sequel

    Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings has established itself as both a critical and popular success, carrying a strong 98% audience score and 92% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metascore of 71 and 7.6 user score at Metacritic. Financially, it has outperformed pandemic expectations and looks to have another good week or two in the tank. All that success combined with Kevin Feige and Destin Daniel Cretton’s comments which have indicated a sequel is essentially waiting to be given the green light mean that a follow up to Shang-Chi is an inevitability at this point. The first film was pretty well self-contained, but as is always the case found ways to connect itself to the MCU and leave some threads left to pull for potential sequels. What could we see in Shang-Chi 2? We have some thoughts…

    The Capital Cities of Heaven

    The pocket dimension of Ta Lo is integral to the plot of Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings. When Shang-Chi and Xialing first arrive in Ta Lo, they get a tour of the small town along with a history lesson: in short, there are other hidden cities that, like Ta Lo, are likely pocket dimensions. As we prepare for the Sacred Timeline debuts of Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk, it’s possible that Shang-Chi also laid the groundwork to bring Daniel Rand-K’ai, the Iron Fist, along for the ride as well.

    Should Marvel Studios decide to take the leap (and make no mistake, bringing Iron Fist to the MCU will come with several big shit storms), a Shang-Chi sequel could easily make use of the pre-established idea of hidden cities to introduce the Capital Cities of Heaven and, should the want to make an absolutely incredible movie, center it around the Tournament of the Heavenly Cities. Introduced during Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction and David Aja’s run on Immortal Iron Fist, the capital cities of heaven are all mystical cities located in pocket dimensions around the Earth, each with their own Immortal Weapon or champion. Among those cities if K’un Lun whose champion is, of course, The Immortal Iron Fist. Every 88 years, 7 of the 8 cities converge into one breathtaking setting, the Heart of Heaven, and host a tournament that pits the Immortal Weapons against one another. Bringing the tournament to the big screen would provide MCU fans with a chance to meet characters such as Fat Cobra, John Aman and Tiger’s Beautiful Daughter while giving Feige a chance to reboot Danny Rand, Dog Brother #1 and the Bride of Nine Spiders, all of whom were done dirty in the Netflix series.

    Where is Madam Gao from? - Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange

    It wouldn’t take much imagination to shuffle things around enough to have Ta Lo be one of the Capital Cities and have Shang-Chi be their champion. Given Cretton’s effective use of flashbacks in the first film, it would be fun to watch him explore the rich history of these cities while introducing characters that could stick around for a while and have their own stories told down the line. Given what we learned in Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings, it’s safe to assume these cities already exist. Now it’s a matter of how badly the team at Marvel Studios wants to explore them.

    The Atlas Foundation

    Mr. Lao screenshots, images and pictures - Comic Vine

    Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings did a wonderful job of establishing the long history of the Ten Rings organization without telling us too much about either the organization or the rings themselves. We know the organization has existed for around 1,000 years and that during that time, Wenwu was known by many names, among them the Great Khan. Logically, if one organization has existed for a thousand years, so could another: The Atlas Foundation.

    The Atlas Foundation’s origins date back to the time of Genghis Khan and have ties to him as each of the Foundation’s leaders have always been descendants of him. Given Wenwu’s long life, it’s entirely possible that he fathered more than the two children we met in Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings and that one of those children could have gone his or her own way from Wenwu and created a secret organization that has grown significantly over the last 1,000 years. This part of the sequel writes itself as, should this organization exist, both Shang-Chi and Xialing would be direct heirs of Wenwu and the rightful leaders of the Atlas Foundation. With Xialing now running the Ten Rings, it would make for some killer sibling rivalry if Shang-Chi took his place atop Atlas and used its resources to work against his sister.

    Introducing the Atlas Foundation opens the door not only for another really cool dragon (Atlas has long been advised by the immortal lung dragon known as Mr. Lao) but could also pave the way for Jimmy Woo to enter the picture and open the door to an Agents of Atlas project as a direct follow-up.

    Fin Fang Foom

    Who's The Dragon In Shang-Chi? Great Protector & Fin Fang Foom Explained

    When we found out that Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings would feature multiple dragons, NOBODY predicted we’d get the Great Protector and the Dweller-in-Darkness. Nobody is complaining about how great they worked out but fans are still crossing their fingers that the one we all thought was coming will show up and the mid-credits scene, while intentionally ambiguous, certainly leaves open the possibility we will see Fin Fang Foom in the sequel.

    As the Avengers explain to Shang-Chi, his use of the Ten Rings activated a beacon that is calling to something ancient. Given the presence of Captain Marvel in the room, it’s easy to believe that this beacon is calling to something far away across the stars, however, that is never made explicit. The opening of the film leaves the origin of the Ten Rings intentionally ambiguous, stating only that Wenwu maybe found them in a crater or in a tomb, leaving room for a sequel to explore just exactly where they came from. Given his comic ties to the rings, it would be pretty great if the answer to that question came in the shape of He Whose Limbs Shatter Mountains and Whose Back Scrapes the Sun.

    Though his story has changed some over the years, Fin Fang Foom is an ancient being from the planet Kakaranthara from where his species, the shape-shifting Makulans, left to conquer other planets. FFF arrived in Ancient China prior to the 8th century and while his fellow Makulans went out to conquer, he was given a reserve role and put to sleep in a tomb. Eventually, the Mandarin ventured into the tomb and took the Ten Rings, Makulan technology that contained the souls of dead warriors, and woke the Foomster.

    Again, the story writes itself and keeps its ties to the comic books while updating it to keep it fresh. Wenwu’s rings are clearly alien tech; the combination of that tech with Ta Lo’s magic could be just the catalyst to bring Foom out of his slumber and into the world where he would lay waste to it in the form of a giant dragon, giving Marvel Studios its very first Kaiju film. While Fin Fang Foom might seem like an Avengers-level threat (indeed the mid-credit scene with the Avengers leads us down that path), Shang-Chi is pretty powered up with the rings and could put up a fight against Foom and maybe even learn something new about the rings along the way.

  • BREAKING: Marvel Studios Sets 4 2024 Release Dates

    BREAKING: Marvel Studios Sets 4 2024 Release Dates

    If you’re still waiting for superhero fatigue to kick in, Marvel Studios has other ideas and is here to tell you it doesn’t think it’s real. Today, the studio planted flags for four unannounced 2024 films.

    According to Borys Kit, the studio is tentatively planning to release films on the following dates:

    February 16, 2024

    May 3, 2024

    July 26, 2024

    November 8, 2024

    Marvel Studios One-Above-All Kevin Feige has long said the number of film projects in any given year would always be dependent on the number of viable scripts; in this case, it seems like the studio is feeling good about what it has on deck. With 2023 currently set to feature five films (Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and three as yet unannounced films) and nearly a dozen unannounced streaming projects in the hopper, it’s apparent that the studio is feeling good about its plans for Phase 4 and beyond.

    As to what films these dates could be for, that remains to be seen. Following the success of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Marvel Studios has two more films slated to hit theaters this year: The Eternals and Spider-Man: No Way Home.

  • ‘WHAT IF… ZOMBIES?’ Is the Closest To ‘MORTAL KOMBAT’ The MCU May Get

    ‘WHAT IF… ZOMBIES?’ Is the Closest To ‘MORTAL KOMBAT’ The MCU May Get

    Episode 5 of Marvel Studios’ first canonical animated streaming series What If…? featured one of the most widely marketed twists of the shows: zombies! Dating back to the earliest teasers for the series, the image of zombie Cap has haunted fans and been used to build hype for the series. While the episode wasn’t the strongest of the series thus far, it did include arguably the most intense and disgusting “deaths” to date in the MCU, showcasing another way that animation can change what the studio can offer.

    Put simply, animation+zombies = free reign to be about as gross as you want to be and the creative team behind What If…? ran with it like they were designing Mortal Kombat fatalities. The episode included two particularly bad cases of being cut in half (Sam Wilson and Steve Rogers were bisected longitudinally and transversely, respectively); Wong continued to trend of librarians from Kamar-Taj being relieved of their heads; and Hope van Dyne got especially nasty, using ants to strip the flesh from Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian and Doctor Strange before decapitating Iron Man, repulsoring Happy in the face and then growing to full size inside a zombified Sharon Carter, resulting in a real gross mess. By the end of the episode, the body count was high and a couple of them might have made the final cut for Zombieland’s Kill of the Week.

    And this is all a part, albeit a gory one, of how animation can change the future of the MCU. Sure, zombies can be killed in live-action and still get a TV-14 rating, but can they be killed in such a spectacular array of ways in live-action? Maybe, but it would be much tougher to accomplish with practical effects or without bumping of the VFX budget. So, in this particular case, an animated zombie episode seemed to be THE best way to bring the Marvel Zombies to the MCU without blowing out the budget and allowing for the creatives behind the show to have some fun without a lot of restrictions. So while it may not have been the most complete episode of the streaming series, it certainly was fun and does showcase how animation can change the game for the studio going forward.

  • Murphy’s Law: Episode 98

    Murphy’s Law: Episode 98

    Charles and Charles are back to talk about the rounds of interviews Charles V. had with some Marvel Studios personnel and the box office success of Shang-Chi. 

  • Sony Moves ‘VENOM’ Sequel One Last Time

    Sony Moves ‘VENOM’ Sequel One Last Time

    Following the surprising box office success of Marvel Studios Shang-Chi, Sony has chosen to move Venom: Let There Be Carnage one more time, this time moving it forward to an October 1st release.

    The sequel has moved several times over the past year and change, recently moving to October 15th from a planned September 17th release. The new October 1st date puts the film’s release almost exactly one year from it’s initial October 2, 2020 target date. The new date also means the sequel will debut exactly 3 years after the original which opened to over $80M, an October record at the time.

    Tickets for the Andy Serkis-helmed sequel will go on sale this Wednesday. Venom: Let There Be Carnage will see Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock face off with Woody Harrelson’s Cletus Kasaday who, after biting Brock, becomes one of Marvel’s most unhinged characters: Carnage.

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘SHANG-CHI’ Sets Meng’er Zhang on the Path to Stardom

    ‘SHANG-CHI’ Sets Meng’er Zhang on the Path to Stardom

    As Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings opens across the globe this weekend, Marvel Studios’ fans are being introduced to an incredible roster of characters. Star Simu Liu brings charisma and a likability to a character neatly modernized for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While Awkwafina, who seems to be making an impression on every available medium, makes a splash and commands a return appearance as Shang’s BFF Katy. And Hong Kong legend Tony Leung, the film’s true protagonist, gives a rich and unforgettable performance. Standing out among them all, however, is newcomer Meng’er Zhang.

    WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW

    From Tweets, Tricks And Superhero Poses: Shang-Chi Cast On How They Nabbed Their Marvel Roles | Geek Culture

    Zhang plays Xialing, estranged sister and daughter to Shang-Chi and Wenwu, respectively, and a character every bit as formidable as her headlining brother despite her father’s efforts to relegate her to the background. Zhang’s performance as Xialing sets her on an ascending pathway that sort of resolves itself in the film’s post-credit stinger while also setting the stage for Zhang to reappear, potentially in the near future, as the lead in her own project.

    And the best part about Zhang’s potential next appearance is that, despite her willingness to cooperate with her brother in the film’s final act, it will probably put her at odds with Shang-Chi. As the film concludes, Shang-Chi is under the impression that Xialing has set about the business of dismantling their late father’s thousand-year-old organization, the legendary Ten Rings; however, as the film’s stinger reveals, Xialing has gone her own way, reimagining the organization rather than destroying it.

    Disney Plus has opened new storytelling avenues for Marvel Studios. WandaVision, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, and Loki have all proven to be successful efforts in continuing the stories of non-lead characters. In light of this, the next chapter in Xialing’s story feels like a perfect fit for Marvel Studios’ continued dive into the streaming world. A Xialing-centric series would be a perfect addition. It would offer an opportunity to establish not only Zhang’s breakout character’s place in the MCU, but also backfill the history of the organization she now finds herself heading up, all while advancing the story for her inevitable confrontation with her brother.

    All of this, of course, thrusts newcomer Zhang into the spotlight. And for that, she seems especially prepared. Zhang has remained cool and unphased during her ascendancy to stardom, handling her interviews with equal parts rookie enthusiasm and veteran smoothness. As has often been the case for the studio over the years, Marvel Studios seems to have struck gold with the casting of Zhang, allowing it to move confidently towards the future of her character in an interconnected universe that can only be made stronger. Zhang has blazed a bright trail into the future both for herself and for Xialing, and audiences should rightfully be looking forward to what’s next.

    Marvel Studios’ Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is in theaters now.

  • ‘SHANG-CHI’ Eviscerates Labor Day Box Office Record, Now Targeting $85M+ Opening Weekend

    ‘SHANG-CHI’ Eviscerates Labor Day Box Office Record, Now Targeting $85M+ Opening Weekend

    Marvel Studios Shang-Chi and The Legends of The Ten Rings is on pace to potentially double early opening weekend box office predictions, destroying the previous Labor Day record along the way. Good word of mouth and return viewers have pushed the predictions, which were originally set around $45M range, to an expected $85M or more for the long 4-day weekend. The film has already surpassed the opening weekend take for The Suicide Squad and now has Black Widow in its sights.

    Shang-Chi took in a combined $29.6M between Thursday night previews and Friday’s full day. With it being a holiday weekend in the U.S., even one where audiences traditionally don’t flock to theaters, the buzz around the film could lead to some pretty impressive numbers Saturday and, especially, Sunday, given that people don’t have to head back to work on Monday.

    The origin story has been equally popular with fans and critics, holding at 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, where it has a 98% audience score. That score lines up nicely with the the A grade from Cinemascore. All this comes at a time when studios are divided between exclusive theatrical and hybrid releases. Shang-Chi’s success (it’s still possible it could beat pandemic box office champ F9’s opening take) will be a significant data point in the discussion about how to proceed for the remainder of 2021 and early 2022 as the Delta variant surges around world will impact theaters.

    Source: THR

  • The Russo Brothers Negotiating Their Return to Marvel Studios

    The Russo Brothers Negotiating Their Return to Marvel Studios

    Two years after they completed an incredible 6-year run in the MCU, Joe and Anthony Russo have entered into negotiations to return to Marvel Studios. The Russos struck gold for Marvel Studios with 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and completed the Captain America trilogy with 2016’s Captain America: Civil War before moving on to helm the 2-part conclusion to the Infinity Saga in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. The tandem made it clear that they had planned to take a break from the MCU but now, according to The Wall Street Journal, they’ve begun planning their return.

    As exciting as that sounds, however, it is worth noting that negotiations with the directing duo recently reached an impasse in the wake of Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit against Disney following the hybrid release of Black Widow. WSJ reports that the uncertainty about how films will be distributed and how the talent will be paid in the new landscape carved out by COVID has become a speed bump in the Russos’ return.

    In 2019, the brothers made no bones about the project that would be most apt to entice them to return: Secret Wars. With Loki openly teasing a multiversal war and the multiverse breaking open in Spider-Man: No Way Home, a Secret Wars film seems like more and more of a sure thing. Indeed, I’ve heard on several occasions-ranging from 2018 to just a few months ago-that an adaptation of Secret Wars is on the big board at Marvel Studios.

    As both studios and creatives navigate these uncharted waters, it’s no surprise that one side or the other (or both) would have concerns about how to share the financial pie. There’s still not enough of a sample size to prove whether or not Disney’s Premier Access strategy, which they employed with Black Widow, can work; on the other hand, it’s hard to imagine large studios continuing to sit on films for years while waiting for the COVID pandemic to “end.” Given the Russos passion for Marvel Comics and their past successes with adapting comic book story lines, let’s all hope Disney can find a way to bring them back into the fold.

    Source: The Wall Street Journal