Murphy's Multiverse

Author: Joseph Aberl

  • ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Eyeing a 2022 Holiday Release

    ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Eyeing a 2022 Holiday Release

    There have been many theories when we might expect the release of The Mandalorian‘s third season. Some might even argue The Book of Boba Fett ended up becoming the interlude season to hold us over given Din Djarin’s surprisingly large role in the last few episodes, but a definite continuation is on the way. In a new entry of TVLine’s “Inside Line” series, they revealed that we can expect its release during the Holidays/Christmas time of this year.

    In a way, it makes a lot of sense, as each season so far released in November with the recent spinoff being the first to truly release after the Holidays. So, there’s a good chance The Mandalorian‘s Season 3 might follow a similar pattern. We recently heard a report that production may have shut down temporarily due to COVID concerns, but it may have already started production again.

    It still looks like they’ll manage the release date, and it’ll be interesting to see if we might even get a teaser for the upcoming third season in post-credit sequences similar to how The Book of Boba Fett was initially revealed. Of course, this news dropping now is also perfect timing as the finale is only a few more hours away from releasing. So, we might get some hints soon.

    Source: TVLine

  • ‘Mission: Impossible 7’s Budget Ballooned to $290M Due to COVID

    ‘Mission: Impossible 7’s Budget Ballooned to $290M Due to COVID

    Just recently, we learned that the Mission: Impossible sequels were delayed into 2023 and 2024. As production was affected strongly by COVID, they want to ensure that everything goes smoothly. in a new report by Variety, it was revealed that the seventh entry in the franchise had faced quite the issue with its production budget, as it seemingly has ballooned up to $290M, which is quite a bit higher than what the studio’s had expected, especially with the last entry, 2018’s Fallout having a production budget of around $190M.

    What influenced this was that it had to stop and start production seven times since it initially started back in February 2020. An action sequence that took place during the Carnival of Venice occurred when Northern Italy went into lockdown. They tried to dodge to Rome but the cases spiked there too. So, it’s no surprise that the budget continued to rise at a rapid rate. Variety points out that the production had faced the issue over and over again due to the borderless virus chasing them down even when they started productions in Poland or the United Arab Emirates.

    It wouldn’t be too surprising that other projects were hit in a similar manner, as many were forced to shut down. The only issue was that this production budget led to co-producer Skydance meeting its cap from a financial contributions side, which led to Tom Cruise a director Christopher McQuarrie having to add the missing $50M. We’ll see how that may have potentially affected the product once it releases in theaters next year. For now, Paramount is hoping that the insurance may help ease the burden.

    Source: Variety

  • ‘Madame Web’s Dakota Johnson May Have Hinted at Marvel Studios Involvement

    ‘Madame Web’s Dakota Johnson May Have Hinted at Marvel Studios Involvement

    Here’s a rather curious detail, as The Direct has noticed that actress Dakota Johnson, who was recently confirmed that she’ll tackle the role of Madame Web in her own solo outing, has shared a curious piece from Deadline on the project. That alone continues to confirm that she is past the “in talks” stage but what stands out is that she also tagged Sony alongside Marvel Studios in her post.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CZumGUHvraC/

    Of course, this doesn’t confirm that Marvel Studios have any direct involvement with the project, but it’s not the first time that there have been hints they are starting to co-develop some of the projects currently over at Sony. We had a similar reveal from Olivia Wilde, who is currently working on a Spider-Woman project. She revealed that she was actively consulting Kevin Feige, the CEO of Marvel Studios, who also works with sony on the recent Spider-Man trilogy.

    There’s a good chance that these projects continue to take place throughout different parts of the multiverse while Marvel can focus on their own projects. Yet, as Madame Web is known for her ties to Spider-Man’s own web of the multiverse, they may want to be involved as much as possible to ensure that it connects perfectly into their own plans. Plus, who knows how they might continue to explore the multiverse after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

    Source: Instagram via The Direct

  • ‘Marvel’s Avengers: ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ Black Widow Skin Leaked Early

    ‘Marvel’s Avengers: ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ Black Widow Skin Leaked Early

    It looks like a new skin for an upcoming shipment may have accidentally leaked early, as a recent update of Marvel’s Avengers has led to the reveal that the next shipment will include Avengers: Age of Ultron-inspired design for Black Widow. Currently, Iron Man 3‘s iconic golden armor was made available as part of the next shipments but it seems the update added the next unlockable design for when the next iteration of shipments kicks off, which is the game’s offering to earn cosmetics through grinding various missions.

    User @LewisXI19 shared a good look at the costume that seems mostly true to the films with a very bright red hair. This isn’t the first time that skin like this managed to leak online, as there was a similar case with Hawkeye’s Captain America: Civil War skin, as pointed out by the user this isn’t the first time. The design looks great and the Age of Ultron costume added a lot of neon elements to her costume, which still stands out to this day as she usually focused on primary black, undercover designs.

    We’re still anxiously awaiting any news on what the future has in store for the game. They’ve confirmed they are working on new updates, but it’s uncertain just what we can expect not only from the roadmap but from the year overall. They have mostly focused on teasing content for half a year rather than the full one. So, we shouldn’t expect to know what’ll release by December once the roadmap drops. Still, it’s fun to speculate and we’ll see what the future has in store.

    Source: Twitter

  • New ‘Lightyear’ Trailer Reveals Emperor Zurg’s Redesign

    New ‘Lightyear’ Trailer Reveals Emperor Zurg’s Redesign

    The new Lightyear trailer has finally dropped which gives us a look at a reinvented look of our favorite Toy Story character. Pixar tackles the character’s story as Chris Evans’ Buzz Lightyear heads out into space after being marooned on a planet. In his travels, he’ll face various dangers which include the return of a familiar villainous face.

    In the trailer, he briefly mentions that they are being hunted by a robot that might be familiar to fans of Toy Story 2, as he wields a triple-barreled weapon which many will instantly recognize as the go-to weapon for his arch-rival Emperor Zurg.

    Image

    The design looks great while still keeping elements from the original like his eyes. He noticeably no longer has his cape, but it would seem out of place in what looks like an inorganic world. There was a great sense of adventure and danger for our hero, and it felt very adult for what you usually expect with Pixar’s offerings. So, we’re quite excited to check their upcoming film, which hopefully won’t just end on Disney+ again.

    You can check out the trailer right here:

    Source: YouTube

  • ‘Shang-Chi’ and ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Nominated for Visual Effects Oscar

    ‘Shang-Chi’ and ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Nominated for Visual Effects Oscar

    The Oscar nominations have finally arrived and it looks like Marvel Studios once again remains a strong contender in the Visual Effects department, as Shang-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings alongside Spider-Man: No Way Home was nominated. They join other projects like Dune, Free Guy, and No Time To Die in the category. Sadly, they once again did not receive any other nominations, while Denis Villeneuve’s latest film was quite the favorite at this year’s announcements including Visual Effects, Best Film, Film Editing, and more.

    Marvel tends to land mainly in this category, which is a shame as there are many talented people involved with these projects. Black Panther was the first Marvel Studios project to beat the odds and even land a nomination for Best Picture, but that was quite an uncommon occurrence. It’s great to see other projects like Free Guy also land a nomination, which had some stunning visual effects playing on classic video game tropes. At this point, it’s anyone’s game but Dune or No Time to Die seems like the more likely choice to get chosen by the committee. Until the event takes place, all bets are open and we’ll see if the Marvel Studios projects can nab an Oscar this year.

    Source: Twitter

  • ‘Star Wars Racers’: Podracing Deserves a Disney+ Series

    ‘Star Wars Racers’: Podracing Deserves a Disney+ Series

    The fifth episode of The Book of Boba Fett gave us a nostalgia-filled ride down memory lane to the prequel era. The Mandalorian got a new N-1 Starfighter that he took out for a quick test drive. What stood out was that we revisited the race track from The Phantom Menace, where a young Anakin took on podracers like Sebulba and Ben Quadinaros. While watching this sequence, I thought back to loving the sequence and how I ended up playing hours of Star Wars Racers on the Nintendo 64. It made me wonder how Lucasfilm still hasn’t announced a Disney+ series yet. So, here’s my pitch so that we can soon make our return to the world of podracing.

    While Episode 1 mainly focused on the Tatooine racetrack, the game took us on a cross-galaxy tour exploring some of the most dangerous race tracks a podracer has to face, may it be on Malastare, Theron, or even Cantonica. So, a Disney+ series could explore a different race track with each episode, as the danger continues to grow with each new track. not only do we get to explore parts of the galaxy we haven’t seen in live-action yet, but it can also build up tension as you never know which racer might make it out alive.

    Speaking of, while there’s a risk of losing your favorite character at any point in the race, it adds a similar element that The Suicide Squad toyed with as you never know just who might make it out alive. Imagine we get introduced to an interesting set of characters, each with their arcs only for a wrong turn to instantly end their story. It would not only cement the dangers to the drivers, but also the viewer. The prequel film did give us explosions but most of the racers got out pretty unscathed.

    Imagine the story of a young hotshot racer, who has always dreamed of his time as part of the pod racers. Suddenly, he lucked out as they suddenly needed a new driver and he took his opportunity. Surprised by the fact that no one else would jump at the opportunity, he slowly learns just how dangerous the races truly are. The only thing keeping him moving forward is a promise he made a long time ago that he refuses to give up on. Perhaps it’s exactly the thing he needs to keep going no matter what heads his way.

    He makes friends along the way, an unrelenting rival, and witnesses the galaxy like never before. Maybe throw in some Speed Racer-like conspiracy, as fixed games are dragging down his chances of making it to the top but he makes some unlikely allies that may be the key to his success. While the story may be disconnected from the other shows, it would offer some fun distracting that helps further establish the galaxy with locations that we may end up visiting in other stories. It’s just time to finally bring podracing back Lucasfilm.

  • Marvel Shares First Look at ‘Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur’s The Beyonder

    Marvel Shares First Look at ‘Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur’s The Beyonder

    We’ve been quite focused on Marvel’s future on Disney+, but there are still some smaller projects that have been in some kind of development for some time. Among them, is Disney’s animated series all about Lunella, who is better known as Moon Girl to comic readers. She will be joined by Devil Dinosaur in an upcoming animated series simply titled Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. There’s been a surprising drought of information on the project, but luckily Marvel released a look at the supporting cast, which includes our first look at the series’ take on The Beyonder.

    The designs are great, and it’ll definitely be an exciting prospect to watch once it finally premieres. The Beyonder got a really interesting design for the series, and it’ll be interesting to see how they tackle his character. Those rollerblades are also telling me I’ll definitely enjoy Pops once he is on screen. The series added an incredible talent which includes Alfred Woodard, Diamond White, and Laurence Fishburne, who will tackle the role of the previously mentioned The Beyonder.

    The visual style looks promising and looking forward to seeing these characters in action, especially with how dynamic they look. It’s uncertain if Marvel Studios had any kind of involvement with the project as they took over Marvel TV, but luckily the project continued production without an issue and it’s still on its way to release soon.

    Source: Instagram

  • IMAX Hosting Early ‘The Batman’ Fan Screenings

    IMAX Hosting Early ‘The Batman’ Fan Screenings

    Want to see The Batman a few days early? Well, it seems that IMAX will be hosting a few early fan screenings of the upcoming film that’ll premiere on March 1st rather than the actual March 4th premier. The tickets will go online tomorrow and it looks like it’ll potentially give us our first look at just how popular the upcoming film will be, which currently is predicted to make at least $300M+ at the international box office over its opening weekend. Plus, it’s great for fans getting the chance to see it early that have already been patiently waiting for the Dark Knight’s return to theaters.

    https://twitter.com/Fandango/status/1490783892327911424

    It’s great to see the opportunity being offered, though it’s not specified yet where and when these will be made available. As such, we might have to count on quite a waiting list trying to access any tickets once they are made available. Robert Pattinson takes on the role of the Caped Crusader and the trailers are promising a darker take on the character we’ve seen on screen so far, mostly has he has given in to his darkest desires. It’ll be interesting to see just how Matt Reeves realizes his take on the character, but hopefully, people won’t start spoiling after the screening’s release.

    Source: Fandango, Twitter

  • ‘Spider-Man No Way Home’ Heading to Starz “Over the Next 6 Months”

    ‘Spider-Man No Way Home’ Heading to Starz “Over the Next 6 Months”

    Spider-Man: No Way Home has just dominated the international box office, and eyes are already on when it might find its way into our homes. It turns out, the big winner might end up being Starz, as Deadline unveils in an interview with its CEO Jeffrey Hirsch that it’ll release on the service sometime “over the next six months.” So, we can expect its release sooner rather than later, as they aim to utilize big-name projects to grow their original offerings as well by creating strong viewership retention.

    Ours is a retention game, not an acquisition game. Lining up content week to week, 52 weeks a year. Seeking to move our core audience from one show to the next.

    Jeffrey Hirsch

    It’s a smart strategy, which Netflix has also utilized when offering their originals based on existing IPs. Their plan makes sense, as it focuses on finding crossover between their target audiences between projects, and no project had a wide acceptance like Spider-Man: No Way Home. So, it’s one of the biggest films to get your hands on right now, especially with those interested in watching it again once it’s available at home. It would be interesting to see how big the film will be once it gets a home release, especially with the promise of over 100 minutes of additional content.

    Source: Deadline