Episode 60 is now available for your listening pleasure. You can listen to us rant about the changes to DC FanDome, the Fantastic Four news and give our pitches for the 4th Captain America film by simply clicking here! Also, I’m hoping the embed code works and you can just listen to it below!
https://anchor.fm/murphyslawpodcast/episodes/Episode-60—We-Pitch-CAPTAIN-AMERICA-4-eidkd0/a-a30avum
Update: The video has been removed for copyright reasons.
Back in January, the Illuminerdi broke the news that a casting call for Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness indicated that Marvel Studios was looking for a young, Hispanic actress for a a role presumed to be America Chavez. There was some conjecture at the time that the role might not be America, but rather Zelma Stanton, a character more recently introduced into the comics in 2015. It seems like that debate is over as Murphy’s Multiverse was able to dig up this audition tape, made by an actress who fits the revamped age range for the role. We absolutely want to make clear that we are aware that these videos could steer us down the wrong path, so everyone should evaluate the video for themselves and understand that this is NOT official confirmation of anything; however, as you’ll see, the audition, should it be legitimate, would undeniably be for America Chavez.
VIDEO NOW UNAVAILABLE
If you’re not familiar with America, the story here about an orphan (her mothers died sacrificing themselves to save her) popping through the multiverse, unfamiliar with this Earth and is being chased by a demon certainly does not describe Zelma. If this is a legitimate video, it’s America Chavez/
Award-winning writer Kieron Gillen will team with one of comics most singular artists when Marvel Comics launches a new Eternals series this November. Gillen, whose knack for telling winding stories that challenge readers’ established notions of characters such as Loki and Iron Man, is thrilled to take on the Eternals, a group of immortals whose incredible story hatched in the imagination of Jack Kirby:
I said if I was ever to do a book again at Marvel, it would have to be something I’ve never done before. This is exactly that. This is me teaming up with literally my favourite artist of the epic, taking one of those lightning-storm Kirby visions and re-making it to be as new as the day it was forged. While Esad makes whole worlds on the page, I’m applying all the skills I’ve developed when I was away. It’s a lot. It’s everything. There’s enough scale packed in here that I believe that when you look at the comic, you’ll see the pages slightly bulge. Essentially ‘Eternal’ has to mean ‘never going out of style,’ which means we’re aiming for ‘instant classic.’ Also — fight scenes, horror, human drama, emotions, explosions. Comics!
The trailer, which gives the tagline “Never die, never win”, seems to indicate some tension between Ikaris and Zuras, the leader of the Eternals. It also gives first looks at several characters key to the series and the ongoing mythology of the Eternals such as Sersi, Makkari, Sprite, Thena and more while also seeming to promise a take on the Eternals place in the history and evolution of mankind.
Gillen and Ribac represent a next-level creative team for the book. Gillen has consistently proven to be able to interweave fantasy and science fiction and Ribac’s art, as seen recently on Jason Aaron’s Thor and Jonathan Hickman’s Secret Wars, will add to the depth of the story and push Gillen’s creativity at the same time.
Eternals #1 will be up for pre-order this month once Marvel Comics November 2020 solicitations are made completely available.
According to Deadline, highly sought-after director Olivia Wilde has agreed to develop what they believe to be Sony’s solo Spider-Woman film. The report indicates that Wilde will helm a female-centric solo project, but the trade was unable to confirm which. However, they do note that Rachel O’Connor is on board as executive producer and, as I explained earlier in the year, O’Connor is a part of the team developing Spider-Woman along with Amy Pascal.
The character rights to Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman are shared between Sony and Disney, so until clarification is given on the subject, it will always remain a point of great fan interest if this film is going to be a joint production, along the lines of the recent Spider-Man films, or if Sony is going to go it alone, a move which would likely see the character done dirty.
Spider-Woman currently has no set release date but could be in theaters by 2022.
Just 3 days away from their groundbreaking online fan event, DC has made some serious changes to DC FanDome. Originally billed as a massive 24-hour experience, the event has now been broken into separate chunks. The event will still kick off this Saturday, but instead of the original 24 hours, it has been shortened to an 8 hour online experience.
Earlier this morning, the event’s homepage may have actually hinted at the upcoming changes as fans were unable to access their previously prearranged schedules and were instead met with a temporary “We’ll Be Right Back” message, seen below:
At the moment, it appears that a second FanDome event has now been put on the books for September 12th. This weekend’s event will still feature The Hall of Heroes, the hall where DC’s major movie news is expected to break. The September event feature the Explore the Multiverse hall. The details can be seen below:
DC FanDome: Hall of Heroes: On Saturday, August 22, at 10:00 am PDT, fans will be transported into the DC FanDome: Hall of Heroes, an epic world designed personally by Jim Lee featuring special programming, panels and exclusive reveals from a wide variety of films, TV series, games, comics and more. The superpowered eight-hour show will be available for fans around the world to watch exclusively 3 times in the 24-hour period.
DC FanDome: Explore the Multiverse: On Saturday, September 12, at 10:00am PDT, fans will be able to create their own timeline! The great thing about this event is that it will be on demand, giving you the ability to curate your own unique experience via our Official DC FanDome Online Scheduler Tool. A lot of the content you were super excited to see from our multiple islands will now be housed here, and will be available for you to watch throughout the 24-hour period. Fans can now choose their own adventure and will have more time to immerse themselves in all the hours of curated programming — at their own pace and on their own schedule. DC Kids FanDome will also launch on Saturday, September 12, at its own kid-friendly companion site at DCKidsFanDome.com.
Death on the Nile, the follow up the 2017 film, Murder on the Orient Express is still due to hit theaters on October 23, 2020 and Disney has now dropped the first look at the film!
Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot’s Egyptian vacation aboard a glamorous river steamer turns into a terrifying search for a murderer when a picture-perfect couple’s idyllic honeymoon is tragically cut short. Set against an epic landscape of sweeping desert vistas and the majestic Giza pyramids, this tale of unbridled passion and incapacitating jealousy features a cosmopolitan group of impeccably dressed travelers, and enough wicked twists and turns to leave audiences guessing until the final, shocking denouement. “Death on the Nile” reunites the filmmaking team behind 2017’s global hit “Murder on the Orient Express,” and stars five-time Academy Award® nominee Kenneth Branagh as the iconic detective Hercule Poirot. He is joined by an all-star cast of suspects, including: Tom Bateman, four-time Oscar® nominee Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Ali Fazal, Dawn French, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Rose Leslie, Emma Mackey, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Saunders and Letitia Wright. “Death on the Nile” is written by Michael Green, adapted from Christie’s novel, and is produced by Ridley Scott, Mark Gordon, Simon Kinberg, Kenneth Branagh, Judy Hofflund and Kevin J. Walsh, with Matthew Jenkins, James Prichard and Matthew Prichard serving as executive producers.
With the news that Disney has created production companies for what may be two upcoming Marvel Studios projects (Fantastic Four and Blade), there’s plenty of room for speculation. Should Solve Everything Productions and Grass-Fed Productions turn out to be those projects, questions will surface/ Why are these being filed now when there’s such a back log of projects? When will we be seeing them begin production? When might we expect them in theaters (I know that’s a loaded question in the midst of a pandemic)? Who might the studio have found to create the projects? Unlike Reed, I can’t answer all of these questions: the cost is just too high, but we can look into some of them and maybe, by piecing together what’s out there, we can come up with a starting point.
For me the most most answerable of all the unanswerable questions is: why are these being filed now? At the moment, Marvel Studios seems to have a massive traffic jam on the production highway. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, WandaVision, Loki and Shang-Chi were all in production when the world came crashing to a stop in March. If not for that, we’d probably be watching The Falcon and The Winter Solider now, but the domino effect of not only the Marvel Studios projects being halted but also other studio projects that featured actors from various Marvel Studios projects meant that other projects which were scheduled to begin never got up and running. Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness would probably be done filming by now, Spidey 3 would have started up last month, Thor: Love and Thunder would be getting ready to go in Australia right now and Ms. Marvel may have even begun. But, as we all know, none of that happened so here we are with a ton of projects off schedule, Ant-Man 3 having been bumped out of its original slot on the schedule and the uncertainty of the pandemic still causing chaos, so the question of “why now?” is incredibly relevant.
While there’s no hard and fast rule here, there is a pattern worth noting that might get us to an answer to that pressing question. Over the past couple of years, Marvel Studios seems to register these production companies when they have given the green light to projects and have a tentative timeline for start of production. While there are certainly exceptions to the rule (for example, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 stands out because it’s timeline shifted, which shifted Black Widow’s timeline), it seems that Marvel Studios usually creates these production companies about 12-18 months before the EXPECTED start of production. If they follow that pattern here, that means they’d be looking to film these two projects between August 2021 and February 2022.
Continuing down the line of established patterns, whenever possible Marvel Studios also likes to start production on their films about 12-15 months ahead of when the films are expected in theaters. So a film that goes into production in the August-October 2021 window would be ready for theaters around October 2022…and it just so happens that Disney still has a date reserved (October 7, 2022) on their slate for an Untitled Marvel Studios film, a date that would be just right for a vampire film. A film that goes into production around January of 2022 would be ready for theaters around February 2023…and it just so happens that Disney has a date reserved (February 17, 2023) on their slate for an Untitled Marvel Studios film. We all believe that Ant-Man 3 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 are destined for that 2023 slate, but given Guardians A-list status and Ant-Man 3’s rumored big happenings, it’s possible that the studio would prefer them as traditional May and July tentpole releases, leaving room in February for something like the family friendly Fantastic Four. Of course all of this is contingent on studios showing they can keep a production going, the current state of the upcoming slate staying stable and is all based on wild speculation to begin with, but the pieces do fall into place if you let them.
The final and most tantalizing tidbit comes when we try to answer the question of whether or not Kevin Feige and his core group have identified creative teams for these projects. Past precedent suggests that, whenever possible, the studio likes to bring a writer on board about 2 years before they expect the project to hit theaters and pair that writer with a director as soon as possible. You can safely bet that they’ve been searching for those teams for Blade and Fantastic Four for some time now and given all the down time creators had, it’s no stretch to imagine they found their teams. If we buy that, we can come to a pretty exciting conjecture: Marvel Studios is getting ready to announce these teams or they will shortly be leaked through the trades. In the past, Disney has registered their companies shortly before either making public announcements or trade leaks. Simply put, Disney knows these are going to be found so they’ve always been smart about WHEN they create the entities. Fans have been clamoring for Marvel Studios news and I’m sure that they’ve noticed the hype around FanDome but here’s the thing as explained to me by one of my trusted sources: should Marvel Studios want to do their own pre-recorded online fan event, they don’t need to jump through very many hoops. They’ve got their own streaming service and could drop a pre-recorded “con-like event” on Disney + whenever they want. They could go as far as to not even hype or advertise the event and, within 10 minutes, it would be trending on every social media platform across the world.
Again, none of this is confirmed to be true and all starts from a foundation that’s based on guesses to begin with, but this is what being a fan is all about and that’s, first and foremost, what we are here at Murphy’s Multiverse: fans.
Last week, Disney registered two new production companies: Solve Everything Productions and Grass-Fed Productions. On the surface, there’s not much to be excited about as this is a pretty run of the mill procedure for the world’s largest entertainment studio; however, looking at the surface isn’t what we do here and a deeper look into these two newly registered production companies has stirred up some exciting possibilities about some potential future MCU projects!
Before continuing on, understand that as of publication, there was no evidence to confirm that either of these two production companies were for Marvel Studios projects. I contacted several sources and went down some well-beaten paths but was unable to find the type of confirmation I’m happy with. Despite that, there are reasons to believe that these could be Marvel Studios projects and ones we already know to be in development. Papers have been filed for production companies for every project announced last summer by Marvel Studios (either at SDCC or D23) with the exception of two: Fantastic Four and Blade. As you’ll see, it’s very possible that is no longer the case.
For Marvel Comics fans, especially those who have followed Jonathan Hickman’s career, the phrase “solve everything” points in one very specific direction: that of Marvel Comics first family, the Fantastic Four. In October of 2008, Hickman launched his run on Fantastic Four with a three-issue arc (570-572) titled Solve Everything. The story, which began in earnest earlier that year with Dark Reign: Fantastic Four, sees a guilt-ridden Reed build a machine, The Bridge, which allows him to observe the multiverse in search of solutions to the problems for which he feels responsible. After The Bridge endangers the team, Sue asks Reed to tear it down. Before doing so, Reed finds that similar Bridges have been built on other Earths and makes contact with individuals he later comes to understand are his multiversal counterparts: the Council of Reeds. Reed keeps his promise to Susan and tears down the machine only to rebuild it later and hide it in his Room of 100 ideas. Upon firing the Bridge back up, Reed meets the Council again and asks them how to solve his 101st question: how to solve everything.
As on-the-nose as Solve Everything is, Grass-Fed Productions is not. Keep in mind that, as mentioned above, there’s no hard evidence that these are Marvel Studios productions, so in trying to match this up with a potential property, I stretched about as far as Reed did during Hickman’s run. That said, I’m happy to toss out a couple of ideas and explain the trains of thought I had in arriving at those conclusions.
As mentioned in the intro, there are only two announced Marvel Studios properties for which we don’t currently have a production company. If we buy the conclusion that Solve Everything is Fantastic Four, that means we just have Blade. If we follow that logic, then Grass-Fed is the production company for Blade. It isn’t good enough for the burden of proof for that conclusion to be “because Blade doesn’t have one”, so the question to ask is, “does Grass-Fed fit Blade?”. Actually, it just might. In just about every modern vampire story, vamps look at humans as livestock or cattle. It’s possible that Marvel Studios has capitalized on that notion here and chosen Grass-Fed as a reference to the prey of whichever vampire(s) they choose to feature.
If Blade was hard to believe, you won’t like this one. While I feel like Blade is the more likely option, it’s entirely possible that it is something else entirely (including a non-MCU property). But if we’re looking for MCU properties that have a connection, no matter how loose, to Grass-Fed, Secret Invasion is on the table. This is a project about which we know very little and one that, as of a month or two ago, was in the earliest stages of development, but the idea that it’ll almost certainly have to do with Skrulls undetected on Earth provides a potential Grass-Fed connection.
9 out of 10 fictional pollsters agree that when they hear grass-fed the animal that first comes to mind is a cow. As all good comic book fans know, Skrulls were first introduced in Fantastic Four #2 and spent some time impersonating the group before being captured, hypnotized and kept prisoner on Earth as…cows (remember kids, Skrull cows go moo, too). So, if Marvel Studios was being incredibly clever and trying to hide the development of this IP, this would be one of about 10,000 possible ideas.
These two ideas only work if we accept the premise (which is, as of now, nothing more than speculation) that these are Marvel Studios projects in development which, at this point in time, we cannot prove. If they are, we can look a little further into what this might mean but until we get some more proof, disseminate this information responsibly.
Marvel Studios first Disney Plus streaming series, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, looks set to introduce a slew of new characters in its first season while bringing back others in order to really build a world around these characters. Daniel Bruhl’s Zemo and Emily VanCamp’s Sharon Carter are back while Wyatt Russell, Cle Bennett, Desmond Chiam, Miki Ishikawa and Noah Mills have all joined the cast in what appear to be major roles. Russell’s role as John Walker is the only one that’s been officially revealed and Bennett seems a sure bet to play Walker’s best friend and partner, Battlestar (a character we first reported would be appearing in the series). There’s also a group of female thugs whose identity we’ve been unable to confirm but we believe actress Erin Kellyman is one of them and we still have to resolve just who has that purple mohawk we saw in EARLY set photos. Fans have their ideas about who some of these characters might turn out to be; Flag-Smasher, Jolt, Red Lotus, Diamondback, Songbird, the Grapplers and the Serpent Society all come up quite often in discussions with fans and understandably so but the truth is we just can’t be sure at this time.
Despite the ongoing uncertainty, there is something a lot of these characters have in common: they were created by longtime Marvel Comics ace Mark Gruenwald and appeared in his long run on Captain America, a run that will undoubtedly inform The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. The run introduced John Walker to the Marvel Universe but, as readers know, Walker didn’t jump right into the fray as U.S. Agent, much less as Captain America. Walker first appeared as Super-Patriot, his ring name as a wrestler in the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation (UCWF), an organization that focused on superhuman bouts. Walker, like many others, joined the UCWF after receiving treatments from the mysterious Curtiss Jackson, thePower Broker: a shadowy figure from an organization known as the Coroporation who found a way to give super powers to regular folks. While Gruenwald didn’t create the Power Broker, he was a huge part of his Captain America run (issues 329-331 were called the Power Broker Saga).
Much of what goes on in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is expected to revolve around one particular part of Steve Rogers’ legacy: the Super Soldier serum. Between this series and Black Widow, the serum’s legacy is going to play a major role in the proliferation of powered people in the MCU. Gruenwald’s runs on Captain America, Marvel Two-In-One and the Thing solo series dealt with these same issues and saw the Power Broker juice up Walker, Lemar Hoskins, aka Battlestar, Sharon Ventura, Melissa Gold, aka Songbird/Screaming Mimi and other members of the Grapplers (such as Poundcakes and Gladiatrix) and fan-favorite Demolition Man, among others. The Power Broker played a huge role in the comics that inspired The Falcon and The Winter Solider, yet as of now, we have no evidence of the character appearing in the series. Thus the paradox: the Power Broker has to be there, but he isn’t there…or is he?
With Wyatt Russell and Cle Bennett (and even that’s not been confirmed by Disney) being the only actors whose roles we’re certain of, there’s room for any of the other actors mentioned above to fill the role of the Power Broker. Noah Mills, for whatever reason, has the feel of a series villain and could be the guy pushing the buttons at the behest of the Corporation (yeah, there’s no way a series airing in 2020 and surrounding the naming of a new Captain America isn’t going to bring in the “deep state” organization known as the Corporation). However, Marvel Studios has shown plenty of times that they’re not always up for the straight page-to-screen adaptation, so the same could be said for any of the other actors or actresses that have signed on. Miki Ishikawa, who we expected to be Jolt, wasn’t in Atlanta for long but she could easily have been there long enough to film some key Power Broker scenes. Also, let’s not discount the possibility that there are other actors and actresses in the series whose identities haven’t been revealed to us just yet and could be filling that role.
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is going to see the characters go to some shady places and deal with some shady people as they enter what really seems like the MCU’s world of espionage and that’s an appropriate place for these characters to be. We all know that when we’re playing spy games, there’s always someone who is not who they appear to be. In this case, that puts a few interesting characters on the game board. We all expect Zemo to be up to no good despite his apparent affiliation with the good guys in this series, making him the first one we’d expect to be up to something like this which also means most would be quick to discount him because he’s the easy choice.
However, there’s one path we all want to see Zemo follow and even if we discount the possibility that he might be the Power Broker, there’s another really intriguing option that still gets us there: Thunderbolt Ross. We have no hard evidence that William Hurt was on set for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, but he was in Atlanta in October for Black Widow pick ups and it is possible, depending on what exactly his scenes might entail, that he could have shot something then with some stand-ins. Ross pulling double duty as both the Power Broker and the guy in charge of the Thunderbolts would be straight out of the espionage playbook: be the guy behind the illegal arms race and then be the guy who capitalizes on it when you collect all the illegal arms in the name of the government.
Zemo and Ross aren’t the only choices: super spy Sharon Carter is returning and we have evidence of a Wakandan presence in the series meaning the other Ross, Everett Ross, could be working on some shady stuff of his own.Additionally, any number of other characters could have sneaked in and out of Atlanta to film their scenes as the Power Broker or could still do so since there’s some filming left to do.
Yeah, if we’re being fair, this option has to be in play. Just because I have a hard time letting go of the source material doesn’t mean that the creative team behind The Falcon and The Winter Soldier would have to. As with all 3 choices, this one has a 50/50 shot of happening: either it will or it won’t.
With filming on The Falcon and The Winter Soldier set to resume early next month, hopefully we get some resolution to this pressing problem by the end of 2020!
MSTR watches already had a great lineup of Marvel watches and now they’ve upped their game with the limited release of the Spider-Man Ambassador X.
The watch, which like EVERY OTHER one of their line of Marvel watches, is likely to sell out very quickly, can be purchased at their website for $100. I was lucky enough to get my hands on one to review and share with you guys.
As you all know by now, I am nothing if not a Collector and as such, the presentation of the product begins with the packaging and MSTR comes out swinging right away.
The outer box has a simple, classic Marvel logo but once you open up the inner box, you’re greeted with the Spider-Signal logo, making this a great looking storage container.
The watch itself is a glorious testament to the web slinger, showing both the Spider-Signal logo and Spidey’s spider logo on its face. The timepiece itself is both scratch and water resistant and comes with a comfortable and interchangeable 20mm wide rubber wrist band with a u-buckle.
The watch stands out and will absolutely strike up a conversation with your friends. I’ve been wearing it for a while now and it’s lightweight, comfortable, looks awesome and still manages to do what it was meant to do: tell time. With only 250 in existence, you’ll want to web one up for yourself before you miss out. Head over to www.mstrwatches.com and check out their entire line of Marvel watches!
