Murphy's Multiverse

Author: Joseph Aberl

  • ‘Loki’ Scenes Featuring Mobius and Ravonna Got Cut Due to Pandemic

    ‘Loki’ Scenes Featuring Mobius and Ravonna Got Cut Due to Pandemic

    The first three Disney+ series by Marvel Studios didn’t have an easy start. Falcon and the Winter Soldier was to kick-start the franchise’s new venture. Yet, that role ended up going to WandaVision. As the pandemic continued to rage across the world, their productions got delayed, and I was uncertain how they might be affected by it. Later, we’ve learned that both series went through some harsh limitations and had to cut quite a few scenes. WandaVision director Matt Shakman offered a detailed look behind the scenes with an entire sequence getting cut due to time restraints.

    We’ve all wondered if Loki was affected similarly, but there was no official word. Luckily, one of the writers and producers of the show, Eric Martin, took to Twitter to offer a glimpse behind the scenes. In it, he confirmed that Mobius and Renslayer were going to share the screen more often but got cut due to COVID.

     

    https://twitter.com/MrEricMartin/status/1415528496701394944

    It’s not surprising that the series had to cut some elements, especially as Gugu Mbatha-Raw‘s Ravonna felt underdeveloped, especially how she just exits the show at the end. Still, it’s a shame we didn’t get more from their dynamic. Luckily, we know that a second season is heading our way, and she’ll very likely make a grand return. It’ll be curious to see how she reacts once she realizes that Mobius and everyone she worked with lost their memory. We are still waiting for details on the second season which will give us some answers on where the franchise is heading and where within the MCU it takes place.

    Source: Twitter

  • Kevin Feige Offers Insight Into How Marvel Studios Expands the MCU

    Kevin Feige Offers Insight Into How Marvel Studios Expands the MCU

    The final episode of Loki has redefined the Marvel Cinematic Universe. All the eons that the Time Variance Authority spent keeping the Sacred Timeline in order was for nothing. One single action has unleashed the multiverse, and Marvel Studios has a brand new challenge ahead of them. Avengers: Endgame gave us the base rules for how time travel works. It seems like they had everything mapped out in advance, but Kevin Feige offered some insight into how they tackle these projects.

    Mary Livanos oversaw WandaVision from start to finish, Zoie Nagelhout oversaw The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on the ground every day from start to finish, Kevin Wright came up with much of what you love about the Loki series and was right next to Kate Herron and Tom Hiddleston the entire time

    It might be the most insight we got into the way they approach projects, as he confirmed they have one person focusing full time on a specific project. The latest Disney+ show helped us understand how time and dimensions are connected within this franchise before breaking it wide open.

    There are people whose sole tasks it is to keep it in their head and deliver it for us and then we have interconnected meetings quite often about how things grow and evolve and [Louis D’Esposito] and I and [Victoria Alonso] bounce between all of those.

     

    Datei:Kevin Feige Infinity War Premiere.jpg – Wikipedia

     

    Head writer Michael Waldron probably built upon the rules set by the last Avengers film that will continue to grow with the next Doctor Strange film. So, it continues to grow with each project and the multiverse might just be the beginning. Before that, What If will be our first follow-up into the multiverse. It seems that the Marvel Studios team found out about the overarching rules now that it is public information.

    As you indicated before we started recording, the multiverse is coming up in a big way. There’s interconnectivity there that people have already started to see and suss out and I had a meeting this morning with the whole broad Marvel Studios team going through the multiverse and the rules of the multiverse and exactly how to really deliver on the excitement surrounding the multiverse.

    He also goes on to say that they do make changes to adapt to the ongoing storylines but never at the sacrifice of the individual story being told. As the franchise continues to grow through films and Disney+, they will have a lot of opportunities to explore the multiverse in new and creative ways. Here’s hoping they’ll share some more information in the coming months.

    Source: D23 Inside Disney via The Direct

  • Farewell, Marvel Cinematic Universe

    Farewell, Marvel Cinematic Universe

    Hello, Marvel Cinematic Multiverse. The Loki finale has changed the landscape. Not only did we get introduced to our main antagonist moving forward, but we also saw the Sacred Timeline meet its end. What once had order has now scattered into chaos. An endless possibility of Variants has now jumped into existence. What If will be our introduction to many of them. It’ll get explored further in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. We always knew it was coming ever since the Strange sequel’s title announcement. The Spider-Man: No Way Home rumors added even more to its existence, but we never knew we’d get to witness the actual birth of the multiverse.

     

    The brilliant 'Loki' finale might explain Steve Rogers' dance with Peggy Carter

     

    We’re about to enter a very new storytelling landscape for Marvel Studios. It adds more credence to our theory that Marvel Legacy projects are technically part of the franchise. No Way Home rumors hint at other Spider-Men making their grand live-action return with old villains confirmed to return. There are no limitations to how they’ll expand the franchise, yet the production company will face a new kind of hurdle. Up until now, our biggest worry was how the storylines fit together. Black Widow takes place between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was a direct sequel to the first but didn’t release until the rest of the franchise moved forward. Moving forward, we’ll also question if we are still part of the main timeline.

    It’s a risky venture to make sense of multiple timelines and dimensions. We played around with the idea of them introducing characters from older franchises, especially with Deadpool joining the franchise in his upcoming threequel. So, it seems likely we’ll get some more multiversal storylines in the future, but it might be time for Marvel Studios to offer an overview. Marvel Studios’ Legends series offer a recap of a character’s history in the franchise, but there are still troubles knowing when every story takes place. Spider-Man: Homecoming offered a definite timeline between it and the first Avengers that didn’t even line up.

     

    Loki season finale recap: Post-credits scene, ending of episode 6 explained - CNET

     

    Of course, I might just be overthinking it. Even if there won’t be a guide through the MCU’s timeline and the future MCM expansion, we’ll have plenty of stories heading our way. Loki did teach us that the connective tissue might be Kang. It introduced us to the concept of the Multiversal War, and head writer Michael Waldron hinted that the familiarity of this storyline may be intentional. Marvel Studios saw the potential of reaching out into the multiverse, and nothing is stoping them now. Hopefully, we’ll find out what else they have in the story sooner rather than later.

  • ‘The Last Of Us’ Voice of Tommy, Jeffrey Pierce, Joins HBO Series as a New Character

    ‘The Last Of Us’ Voice of Tommy, Jeffrey Pierce, Joins HBO Series as a New Character

    HBO’s The Last Of Us recently started production with Pedro Pascal and Gabriel Luna sharing a photo from the set. It seems they weren’t quite done casting yet, as Deadline has revealed Jeffrey Pierce, who voiced Tommy in the original game, joins as a new original character named Perry. He’ll be a rebel in a quarantine zone. As of now, he’s the second actor from the game series to join the adaptation. Unlike Merle Dandridge, he is not reprising the character he voiced, as she is returning as the leader of the Fireflies. The role of Tommy will now be played by Gabriel Luna.

    He’s not the only new addition, as Murray Bartlett and Con O’Neill will play survivalists from an unnamed isolated town. Chernobyl‘s Craig Mazin and Naughty Dogs’ Neil Druckmann are spearheading the project that will revisit the story of Joel, as he smuggles a young 14-year-old girl named Ellie through a devastated post-apocalypse. The pilot episode is getting directed by Kantemir Balagov.

    It’ll be curious to see if more voice actors return to reprise their roles from the game. We haven’t heard anything on the casting of Bill or Tess. They might even plant seeds from the sequel’s storyline, such as introducing Abby to some capacity. It’s uncertain how much the first season will explore from the original game’s story. Yet, the inclusion of the Fireflies leader would confirm the story ends where the original did. We’ll see if they also change elements from the original to push the HBO series into a unique direction from the series.

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘Black Widow’ Beats ‘F9’s Pandemic Record to Pass $100M at the Domestic Box Office

    ‘Black Widow’ Beats ‘F9’s Pandemic Record to Pass $100M at the Domestic Box Office

    We’ve covered Black Widow‘s Box Office success throughout its opening weekend. There are many uncertainties with the pandemic still raging, but the film still managed to grab $215M in its opening weekend worldwide. These numbers include an impressive $60M from Disney+’s Premier Access function.

    So, technically speaking, the film made around $80.3M in the domestic Box Office. Luckily, the film didn’t lose any momentum as it has officially passed the $100M mark after only six days. It joined the club alongside F9, A Quiet Place Part II and Godzilla vs. Kong and beat out the Fast and Furious sequel record of eight days during the pandemic.

    It currently holds the record opening during the pandemic and continued the momentum by getting the best Monday and Tuesday showings. The last time we saw these numbers was mid-March with around 7.16M and 7.6M. As such, the film has officially crossed the $200M mark globally. It has been available internationally for eight days and five days domestically.

    The film is keeping up the momentum as it faces new releases Space Jam: A New Legacy and Escape Room: Tournament of Champions in its second weekend. It also needs to be noted that Black Widow is only available in twelve international markets, and there aren’t any releases planned for others. China has been a big question mark as piracy is an issue due to its release on Disney+. Still, the film is performing great and showing the Box Office is slowly recovering.

    Source: Deadline, Forbes, Box Office Pro

  • ‘Marvel’s Avengers’: Black Panther’s ‘War for Wakanda’ Campaign Length Teased

    ‘Marvel’s Avengers’: Black Panther’s ‘War for Wakanda’ Campaign Length Teased

    Entertainment Weekly had a big day for Marvel’s Avengers. We got the confirmation for Christopher Judge as Black Panther alongside some story details. There was also a rather curious claim that the upcoming expansion known as War for Wakanda would be around 25 hours long. Now, we theorized that this might be about the various missions that’ll be available in the game, as the length of the main campaign is around ten hours long. Luckily, Keano Raubun, game and narrative designer on the game, clarified the meaning of the number. It seems that it was definitely not about the story length but rather how long the game’s overall storyline is since the first Reassemble campaign.

    https://twitter.com/xArcky/status/1415693314276438023

    He didn’t clarify how long we can expect the new expansion to end up being, but you can make a decent estimate. He also confirmed that it includes Kate Bishop’s Taking AIM, Hawkeye’s Future Imperfect, and the recent Cosmic Cube villain sector. So, we can guess around five to eight hours’ worth of story in the upcoming Black Panther operation. Now, that is no small feat as it rivals the length of the main campaign and doesn’t include the various additional content that is heading our way. So, you might be playing quite a few more hours, as it only references the story length.

    Of course, we still don’t know exactly how long it will be and some people’s playtime can vary depending on how they tackle each mission. Either way, it seems like the expansion is truly that and with a brand new playable character, a lot is heading our way with Marvel’s Avengers. We also know that a new roadmap will get released in the coming month, which will also give us a better picture of what we can expect beyond the expansion.

    Source: Twitter, Twitter (Included)

  • ‘Marvel’s Avengers’: First Story Details for ‘War for Wakanda’ Revealed

    ‘Marvel’s Avengers’: First Story Details for ‘War for Wakanda’ Revealed

    The wait has been long, but Entertainment Weekly finally unveiled that Christopher Judge will voice Black Panther in Marvel’s Avengers upcoming expansion. War for Wakanda is eyeing an August release and will introduce players to a very distinctive version of the famous story. Outside of the story trailer teasing a conflict with Ulysses Klaw, we knew very little about the story. The title certailny gives away the main plot, but the EW article offered a bit more insight into the story.

     

    Marvel's Avengers game Black Panther

     

    The story will continue where the first campaign took place. T’Challa, who has been king for some time now, was negotiating with Steve Rogers to work with the Avengers. Yet, after A-Day, his death led to the closing of their borders once again. Klaw got hired by MODOK to steal their vibranium, which kicks off the events of the expansion. Narrative Lead Hannah McLeod teased his motivation for this personal vendetta.

    [Klaw] has a personal vendetta against Wakanda that I don’t want to spoil. It’s different than the comics,” teases McLeod. “We’ll say he has this sonic technology he developed that is used specifically to make vibranium tech vulnerable, but it also has this issue where it causes corruption in vibranium. That corrupt vibranium is starting to sprout all over the earth, which is why the Avengers get involved.

    As T’Challa has been king for some time, we’ll see a very different version of the character. He has some tension with his sister Shuri, as he believes to know what Wakanda needs. Klaw won’t be the only antagonist, as they confirmed two central villains in the game’s story. You’ll also get to meet the game’s version of the Dora Milaaje and the sorcerer Zawavari. EW teases a 25-hour single-player campaign, which may include quite a few side activities. It sounds like quite a massive expansion if it truly offers that length of content outside of the usual GaaS grind. We’ll find out more in the coming weeks, and we cannot wait to play T’Challa once he is made available in the game.

    Source: Entertainment Weekly

  • ‘Marvel’s Avengers’: ‘God of War’s Christopher Judge Voicing Black Panther

    ‘Marvel’s Avengers’: ‘God of War’s Christopher Judge Voicing Black Panther

    Marvel’s Avengers has drawn in quite a lot of talent to voice their adaptations of the iconic Marvel characters. We’ve theorized for some time that perhaps Christopher Judge would end up voicing Black Panther and even theorized when the first sound bites leaked online. It seems we were right, as Entertainment Weekly has officially announced that he is indeed voicing the king of Wakanda. He will make his debut in the expansion release of War for Wakanda, which is eyeing an August release. He revealed he initially denied voicing the character due to the legacy left behind by Chadwick Boseman but eventually decided to embrace the role.

    I turned it down straight away. There’s many Black Panthers, but I really didn’t believe that anyone should ever do T’Challa again [after Boseman]. The actual talks proceeded and, basically, I wound up doing it because my mother and my children said if I didn’t do it, they would disown me.

    When he did end up taking the role, he decided to make the role his own by taking a different approach on how to lend his voice to the character.

    To be quite honest, I was fearful of being compared to what Chadwick had so wonderfully done. The only way I could really wrap my head around it was to not even attempt a voice match, to let my performance stand on its own. I put all that into it and hopefully people like it

    Evan Narcisse, who wrote the Rise of the Black Panther comics, joined as a narrative consultant to craft the story alongside Crystal Dynamic’s narrative lead, Hannah McLeod. Their goal was to create a very distinct mythos inspired by the comics and films but wanted to add some curious surprises. You can check out a brand new look at the character in the following images:

     

    Marvel's Avengers game Black Panther

    Marvel's Avengers game Black Panther

     

     

    His addition is a great choice and proves the potential of this franchise. Hopefully, his popularity also could spin off into a Wakanda-focused spin-off. There’s a lot of potential with the character moving forward. To add to the excitement, Judge will also be a special guest on this Friday’s Crystal Dynamics stream to promote the character.

    Source: Entertainment Weekly

  • ‘Loki’ Renewed for Season 2 on Disney+

    ‘Loki’ Renewed for Season 2 on Disney+

    There has been much debate on which Disney+ shows might get a second season. WandaVision had a very clear-cut end for its story, and the nominations as a Limited Series put the final nail on a potential renewal. Falcon and the Winter Soldier seemed like a likely candidate, but there hasn’t been any news on it, as Marvel Studios is moving forward with a fourth Captain America film. Loki seemed like a very likely candidate, especially as there have been rumblings for almost a year now about a potential renewal. Well, after a long wait, the finale finally rolled around and confirmed the second season in a clever post-credits sequence with a stamp on his Time Variance Authority File.

     

    Loki' Will Return for Season 2, Marvel Reveals - Variety

     

    It’s officially our second series by Marvel Studios to get a second season, as What If was confirmed some time ago. The ending of the first season perfectly left the door open to explore the franchise and the TVA in creative ways moving forward. There are plenty of unanswered questions that are worth exploring, especially with no exact date given when the series will return.

    There are some multiverse-focused stories heading our way that may tie into the events of the series. Even the first episode had a line that directly played on the upcoming Doctor Strange sequel, Multiverse of Madness. Marvel Studios’ first animated series focuses on characters we’ve come to love over the years, but in very different scenarios. Marvel Studios is just getting started, and it’s going to be interesting to see where the franchise is heading moving forward.

    Source: Disney+

  • ‘WandaVision’s Matt Shakman to Direct ‘Star Trek Beyond’s Sequel

    ‘WandaVision’s Matt Shakman to Direct ‘Star Trek Beyond’s Sequel

    It looks like Star Trek isn’t facing a new reboot after all on the silver screen. Deadline has just revealed that WandaVision‘s director Matt Shakman will direct the next installment in the Star Trek series, which is led by Chris Pine. As such, they will see the original cast return in their iconic roles to continue where 2016’s Star Trek Beyond left off. The script will be written by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson.

    It’s a huge step for the director whose previous work was mainly on TV. Marvel Studios’ success is not only rooted in finding up-and-coming talent but also in how they catapult their careers. Deadline points out that he chose Star Trek among a long list of offers. The film is already eyeing a production start next spring.

    There have been various attempts at continuing the Star Trek film franchise. The Revenant‘s Mark L. Smith was working on a script for Quentin Tarantino. It’s uncertain if he still plans on directing a unique entry in the franchise. Fargo‘s Noah Hawley also was working on a script before and was even rumored to direct an entry.

    It seems like they might be expanding the franchise in new creative ways that premiere alongside Chris Pine‘s franchise. J.J. Abram’s reinterpretation takes place in an alternate reality of the original series. As their various shows have proven, there are many eras and possibilities to tell new stories within the iconic franchise. So, there might be a lot more Star Trek heading our way in the near future.

    Source: Deadline, IMDb