Murphy's Multiverse

Author: Joseph Aberl

  • BREAKING: Destin Daniel Cretton Returning to Write and Direct ‘Shang-Chi’ Sequel

    BREAKING: Destin Daniel Cretton Returning to Write and Direct ‘Shang-Chi’ Sequel

    It was only a matter of time, but the news has finally dropped that Destin Daniel Cretton, fresh off of his success with Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings, will return to write and direct its sequel. Kevin Feige had the following to say as the director has now inked a deal with the studio alongside Hulu’s Onyx Collection.

    Destin is an amazing collaborator who brought a unique perspective and skill to Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings. We had a fantastic time working together on the film and he has so many intriguing ideas for stories to bring to life on Disney+, so we’re thrilled to expand our relationship with him and can’t wait to get started.

    Kevin Feige

    Marvel Studios has proven its reliability in picking talent and with the deal inked, it means that many other projects might be in the characters’ future. Of course, there are no details given on what the sequel might include, but there’s a lot of potential in exploring the setup we got in Ta Lo. Some time ago, we had our own theory that we might potentially explore an Iron Fist connection in the sequel, which could also build upon the legacy we’re teased off. Of course, they might take a unique direction to build upon the Ten Rings that are still active in one of the post-credit sequences. We’ll see what the future has in store for the titular hero.

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘WandaVision’ and ‘What If…?’ Nominated for Critics Choice Awards

    ‘WandaVision’ and ‘What If…?’ Nominated for Critics Choice Awards

    It looks like the Critics Choice Awards are finally in. HBO and Netflix are leading the charge with 20 and 18 nominations respectively. Yet, Marvel has also made quite the splash this year as WandaVision has garnered four nominations, similar to Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso and Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building. It currently is nominated for Best Limited Series. Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen got a nomination for Best Actor and Actress in a Limited Series. Not just that, Kathryn Hahn also got nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

    That’s not all, as What If…? has also been nominated for Best Animated Series. Sadly, Falcon and the Winter Soldier as well as Loki did not get nominated but it’s still great to see Marvel Studios’ work in long-form storytelling is paying off, especially with WandaVision‘s overall reception, as it won the first Emmy for the studio. Not bad for it being its first series. The Critics Choice Association TV Branch president, Ed Martin, had the following to share on this year’s nominations:

    Although the industry is still recovering from the COVID-19 lockdown, you wouldn’t know it from the wealth of amazing television programs our nomination committees pored through to come up with this year’s nominees. We have even more choices than we did before the pandemic, for critics and viewers to embrace. While the streamers continue to break new ground with some wonderfully unexpected offerings, it has been an unusually strong year for all areas of television. We look forward to honoring the year’s finest shows at what promises to be our most exciting awards ceremony yet.

    Ed Martin

    It’ll be interesting to see if the film manages to win their respective nominations, but WandaVision definitely has a good chance. What If…?’s nomination is a pleasant surprise and noteworthy for it being the studio’s first venture into the media format. So, it’s quite the big day for Marvel Studios and Disney+ with these nominations.

    Source: Critics Choice

  • ‘Falcon and The Winter Soldier’s Kari Skogland to Direct Patty Jenkins’ ‘Cleopatra’

    ‘Falcon and The Winter Soldier’s Kari Skogland to Direct Patty Jenkins’ ‘Cleopatra’

    Here’s an interesting surprise, it looks like Kari Skogland, who recently worked on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, is taking over directing duties from Patty Jenkins. She originally was going to helm the project, which will star Wonder Woman‘s Gal Gadot in the titular role. She is handing over directing duties to focus on her other two projects Wonder Woman 3 and Rogue Squadron, which recently got delayed indefinitely. Skogland has been eyeing quite a few projects since her work on the Marvel Studios project and also comes after her breakout on The Handmaids Tale.

    It’s great to see another Marvel director kickstart their career towards bigger scope projects, which is highlighted in Deadline’s article. The execs behind the Cleopatra project were looking for someone who can handle a project that reflects that scope, as they retell the story of the daughter of Ptolemy and how she grew to power in ancient Egypt. Her relationship with Caeser and Marc Anthony would become cornerstones of how she grew to power, but would eventually become their undoing. Charles Roven, Jenkins, Gadot, and Jaron Varsano will produce the film alongside executive producer Laeta Kalogridis.

    Source: Deadline

  • Chris Hemsworth Expresses Diminishing Interest in Continuing as Thor

    Chris Hemsworth Expresses Diminishing Interest in Continuing as Thor

    As much as we love the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there is always going to be a point where the actors aren’t interested in playing these characters actively anymore. Robert Downey Jr. exited the franchise with Avengers: Endgame when he gave Iron Man his last big stand in the franchise. Some actors that have been with the franchise since its early days still remain, such as Chris Hemsworth as Thor. Yet, it seems that his interest might be reaching a boiling point as revealed in an interview with The Today Show.

    I’ve done six or seven Thors, so maybe. As long as they’ll have me, I’ll turn up, but I feel like that enthusiasm [for me] might be waning.”

    Chris Hemsworth

    It’s understandable that he’ll reach a limit at some point, as he’s already appeared in quite a few films, as he points out. Of cousre, we don’t know what the plans are for the actor after Thor: Love and Thunder releases next year. His character might have a final hurrah before Natalie Portman‘s Jane Foster carries on the mantle. Of course, a personal preference would be to end his run inspired by the actual Norse mythology and inspired by the Fear Itself storyline. Here’s hoping we find out once the film releases and gives us a closer look into the future of his character.

    Source: Twitter

  • Insomniac’s ‘Spider-Man’ Games Adding ‘No Way Home’ Inspired Suits

    Insomniac’s ‘Spider-Man’ Games Adding ‘No Way Home’ Inspired Suits

    It looks like Insomniac’s Spider-Man games are continuing the tradition as two more skins are getting added exclusively to their Spider-Man Remastered Edition as part of Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition. The Remaster is a PlayStation 5 exclusive version that took the 2018 game and added a new layer of paint. It’ll include the new suit we saw on the Empire magazine cover which is a fusion of his classic and Iron Spider design. It’ll also include the black-gold costume that was featured in the latest trailers, where he is using magic webbing. Of course, the game will only include the skins. Sadly, no magic webbing is included.

    It’s great that they are still supporting the games to this day even with the sequel on the horizon. The costumes look great in the game’s engine, which was specifically built to make its titular star stand out. The detail in making the golden elements stand out is quite the highlight and cannot wait to get our hands on it once it releases later this week. We still don’t know how he gets his hands on these costumes, but we’re not that far away from No Way Home‘s release in theaters.

    Source: Twitter

  • Murray Bartlett Accidentally Confirms Nick Offerman Joined HBO’s ‘The Last Of Us’

    Murray Bartlett Accidentally Confirms Nick Offerman Joined HBO’s ‘The Last Of Us’

    Sometimes you never know when you get a confirmation bout an actor joining a project. Normally, trades report when an actress or actor joined a project, but there are some they try to keep a secret. Just like with Bill Murray in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, they may just confirm it personally even if the studios wanted to avoid it becoming public information. Alternatively, a fellow actor might accidentally confirm it, which is the case here. In an interview with The Guardian, actor Murray Bartlett accidentally revealed that Nick Offerman is involved with HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us.

    It’s co-created by Craig Mazin, who did Chernobyl. The scripts he’s written blew my head off. It’s an epic show, but beautifully human and intimate. We filmed it in Calgary. A lot of my scenes are with Nick Offerman. Playing off him was awesome.

    Of course, this now raises the question of what character he might potentially be playing in the upcoming series. The series might stray in some ways from the original, especially with some set photos teasing elements from the game’s sequel getting implemented into the adaptation. So, while the core story might remain the same they’ll build up to a unique take on its core storyline moving forward. Of course, we won’t know for sure until the series officially premieres on HBO.

    Source: The Guardian

  • Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige Teases More Incoming MCU Announcements Soon

    Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige Teases More Incoming MCU Announcements Soon

    The pandemic has changed quite a lot for many people, including movie studios. They have been pushing back releases and kept many projects close to the chest due to the uncertainty of when they might release. We got our biggest info dump from Disney during their new Disney+ Day event. Especially Marvel Studios used the chance to offer us a first look at some of their upcoming projects and even announced some new titles that were rumored or hinted at for some time. Well, it seems that they still have more news incoming, as Kevin Feige revealed in an interview with ScreenRant on what the future for the MCU has in store soon.

    There’ll be news. There’ll be various events. Obviously with the pandemic, the way we’ve announced things has changed and altered, and in some ways that’s been good, because it’s kept the focus on what’s next. It’s kept the focus on the projects as they come out, and certainly the anticipation for No Way Home, I would say, is as big as anything we’ve ever felt before, which is good timing as the movie’s about to come out.

    Kevin Feige

    It certainly has been a very different approach for Marvel Studios, as they usually announce their entire Phase. Well, they technically did back in San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, but the pandemic changed their entire release schedule and reshuffled what would release when. Black Widow was pushed back by an entire year and the Disney+ series weren’t released until January of 2020. It seems this new focus has given them the opportunity to reshuffle their approach to offer faster updates than waiting until an entire Phase comes to an end. With the mention of Spider-Man: No Way Home, makes you wonder if they have any plans to announce afterwards.

    Source: ScreenRant

  • Leaked Live-Action ‘One Piece’ BTS Photo Offers First Look at Zoro’s Three-Sword Style

    Leaked Live-Action ‘One Piece’ BTS Photo Offers First Look at Zoro’s Three-Sword Style

    Just last month, actor Taz Skylar teased his kicking techniques for the role of Sanji in Netflix’s One Piece series. As the cast slowly arrived in South Africa, it opened the question of when they might start production. Future Zoro actor Mackenyu was the only one missing, as the others started preparing for their respective roles. Well, it looks like he may have arrived finally and work has started on bringing these characters and their unique fighting styles to life. Zoro is famous for this three-sword style – also knowns as Santōryū – and a new leaked image from stunt training offers our first look at it in action.

    While it’s a bit hard to make out if this is a stunt double or Mackenyu himself, but we can definitely recognize that they are wielding the third sword during this training. If you are not familiar with the series, Zoro wields a blade in each hand with a third in his mouth, which the person is doing in this new photo which was provided by @OP_Netflix_Fan. It’s also a great confirmation that the team behind Netflix’s live-action adaptation is not going to shy away from the iconic elements of these characters.

    As stated, it’s uncertain if this is actually the actor Mackenyu or a stunt double. We don’t know how long they’ll be investing in pre-production but it seems unlikely they might start production before Christmas, but we might get an announcement similar to the live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. So, we might get a set photo with the cast as they enter production, but we’re still waiting for any other casting announcements for the supporting cast.

    Source: Twitter

  • ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Ahead of ‘Avengers: Endgame’s 24-Hour Presales in Select Markets

    ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Ahead of ‘Avengers: Endgame’s 24-Hour Presales in Select Markets

    It’s looking more and more likely that Spider-Man: No Way Home may finally break the pandemic curse, as it is currently leading the presales worldwide, even going as far as setting brand new benchmarks even with news of the Omnicom variant spreading worldwide. The film already shattered them in the United States, as it was only trailing behind Avengers: Endgame‘s pre-sales from 2019, and is doing something similar in many international key markets. In some, it is even passing the record set by Endgame.

    Deadline reports that the film is currently managed to make $7M in Mexico, which is 40% higher than that of the last Avengers entry. It has managed to do the same in Brazil, Central America, Spain, and noticeably the UK. The latter was currently outselling No Time to Die by three times, where the final Daniel Craig-led James Bond film did incredibly well. Australia and Turkey were on par with Endgame‘s release.

    The impressive release for the film is also that it’ll be available in 90% of markets in its initial release. Most noticeably, China will get a later release, and it is rumored to be Marvel Studios’ first release in the country since the pandemic started. It’s been quite an impressive breakthrough not only for Sony’s latest entry in the MCU Spider-Man films but also a showcase of the nostalgia and rumors surrounding the project. We’ll be keeping an eye on how the release performed.

    Source: Deadline

  • CCXP: ‘Morbius’ Jared Leto Teases a “Sinister” Villain Team Up After ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’

    CCXP: ‘Morbius’ Jared Leto Teases a “Sinister” Villain Team Up After ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’

    Spider-Man: No Way Home will introduce a multitude of iconic Spider-Man villains from previous entries of the franchise. We’re about to see Tom Holland‘s Peter Parker face off against Alfred Molina‘s Doc Ock or Jamie Foxx‘s Electro. Of course, some other new enemies are ready to sink their teeth into the friendly neighborhood superhero, as Sony has been expanding their films featuring Venom and soon Jared Leto as Morbius. It seems that there might be some “sinister” plans on the horizon.

    During the CCXP panel in Brazil from Sony, they showed off a new clip of Leto‘s transformation into the vampiric Moribus. He then also had a brief segment, where he teased rather curious villains to “meet up” with the multiverse opening up.

    If you’ve seen the last Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer, you know the multiverse has officially opened. There’s all kinds of opportunities for villains to meet up and maybe nurture their more sinister intents.

    Jared Leto

    We’ve seen hints of Spider-Man in Morbius trailers, such as the inclusion of Michael Keaton‘s Vulture and even a “murderer” graffiti on the wall. While it is very inconsistent, especially with the reveal of The Amazing Spider-Man‘s Osborn building, they are trying to build towards something. Sony wants to bank on the MCU connection and we’ll see how No Way Home might open up the window to crossovers in the future.

    Source: ComicBook.com