Murphy's Multiverse

Author: Joseph Aberl

  • Activison’s Continued Focus on ‘Call of Duty’ Squashes Hopes on ‘Crash 4’ Sequel

    Activison’s Continued Focus on ‘Call of Duty’ Squashes Hopes on ‘Crash 4’ Sequel

    After the release of Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, we’ve been wondering what might be next for the franchise’s future. Toys for Bob was also the mastermind behind the Sypro Reignited Trilogy. So, it was safe to assume they might even tackle a new entry in the fantasy franchise. Recent announcements by the developer put a damper on those hopes, as they revealed they will be supporting Call of Duty: Warzone‘s third season. At first, it seemed simply like a brief departure, but a tweet by Crash 4′s character designer, Nicholas Kole, may have hinted at Activision’s continued focus on the Call of Duty franchise.

     

    Kole’s work on both Crash 4 and Spyro added a lot of new energy to the projects. The cartoon-inspired designs were able to translate the once very polygonal characters into the modern-day. The fact he is no longer working at Toys for Bob isn’t a great sign if we were hoping to see that style continue with either franchise. There is the hope that Beenox could be working on a sequel, as they were heavily involved with the remake of Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled, but it seems that VGC’s Andy Robinson has heard that Activision has completely shifted its studios to work on Call of Duty.

    What does this mean for the future? Well, it isn’t a confirmation that Activision won’t explore other franchises in the future, but, for now, they have set their focus on their cash cow franchise. Hopefully, this development is only a temporary focus to support the Warzone spin-off before they can tackle new projects. The game has grown at an exponential rate and it is understandable they’ll need resources, but it wouldn’t be wise to put all their eggs in one basket moving forward.

    Source: Toys for Bob, Nicholas Kole, Twitter, Beenox, Twitter (Activision)

  • ‘Judas and Black Messiah’s Dominique Fishback Lands Lead in Steven Caple Jr’s ‘Transformers’ Film

    ‘Judas and Black Messiah’s Dominique Fishback Lands Lead in Steven Caple Jr’s ‘Transformers’ Film

    It looks like Paramount has been busy, as Deadline is reporting that the upcoming Transformers film has cast their next lead to star opposite Anthony Ramos. His casting was announced around a month ago for Steven Caple Jr.’s adaptation of the iconic Hasbro franchise. The studio wants to refocus its efforts with the once cash cow that hasn’t seen a new entry since 2018’s Bumblebee. Judas And Black Messiah‘s Dominique Fishback is now in final negotiations to join the project that is eyeing a June 2022 release.

    Deadline offered some more details, as it seems that Ramos has been the front-runner for quite some time and was screen-testing with various female actresses. Fishback won and brought their relationship full circle, as they have worked on a play together in college. It seems that fate has a weird way of bringing people together. She has been building up quite the career since that play, as she recently got nominated for a BAFTA playing Deborah Johnson. She will also be playing opposite Samuel L. Jackson in the upcoming Apple series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey.

    The return of the Transformers franchise has been highly anticipated, especially now that Michael Bay has parted ways after 2017’s Transformers: The Last Knight. The studio has been focused on revamping the property and even created an entire writer room to develop multiple projects. 2018’s Bumblebee was one of them but momentum died down since. It’ll be interesting to see if this project takes some of the design cues from the 2018 reimagining or if they will still take some inspiration from Bay‘s run on the characters.

    Source: Deadline

  • Leaked ‘Hawkeye’ Set Photos Reveal New Comic-Inspired Hawkeye and Echo Outfits

    Leaked ‘Hawkeye’ Set Photos Reveal New Comic-Inspired Hawkeye and Echo Outfits

    We’ve all been wondering if Hawkeye might get a new costume in the upcoming series. We know that it will introduce Kate Bishop and will be strongly inspired by Matt Fraction‘s My Life as a Weapon run. It will also introduce us to the Daredevil character Echo, who will be played by Alaqua Cox. We did get a first look at her some time ago at the actress but the costume only had some elements from her original design. Well, a new posting on Instagram reveals a more comic-accurate design but also a new look for Jeremy Renner‘s Hawkeye, which might be familiar to comic fans as well. Echo even has some leftovers of her iconic white hand face paint, which may hint at it also appearing in the series.

     

    https://www.instagram.com/p/COO_gklrRp_/?igshid=1q2fmyj4qhhl6

    Let’s start off with Cox‘s Echo costume. It’s interesting that we only really see the fingers of the facepaint but not the rest. The second image in the gallery also adds. lot more color to it that echoes (pun intended) Hawkeye’s color scheme. It may point to her all being a student of the archer. The costumes shown later seemed a bit darker n color,w which could also be due to the lighting. Still, it looks like we’ll get the evolution of her costume throughout the series’ run. Renner‘s new costume looks like it was stripped straight from the comics with the purple arrow. It may be the costume that many connect with the character. So, it is perfect that it gets a spotlight in his upcoming original series. Hopefully, we might also get a look at the comic-accurate costume for Hailee Steinfeld‘s Kate Bishop that was teased by Marvel Studios in the series’ reveal.

    Source: Instagram

  • Amazon Renews ‘Invincible’ for Two More Seasons

    Amazon Renews ‘Invincible’ for Two More Seasons

    It looks like Amazon was sold on Invincible, as it has been renewed for two more seasons. The news came straight from the comic creator Robert Kirkman, who announced it in a fake call with actor Steve Yeun, who plays our titular hero. The very positive reception of the series was a great start as we followed the young hero Mark Grayson, who finally receives his powers but faces an unexpected family conflict. The announcement was perfectly timed as we are only a few hours away from the first season’s finale. You can check out the video announcement by Kirkman here:

    The Skybound/Image comic adaptation has a stacked cast that consists of Sandra Oh, Seth Rogen, Gillian Jacobs, Andrew Rannells, Zazie Beetz, Mark Hamill, and Walton Goggins to name a few. The series is produced by Skybound with executive producers Simon Racioppa, Dave Alpert, Catherine Winder, and Kirkman. The creator also stated the renewal separately to highlight his excitement:

    I’m extremely thankful to Amazon for the support and dedication they’ve put behind Invincible. The comic book is truly a love letter to a genre that Cory (Walker) and I grew up reading and loving, and it’s been a gratifying journey to watch our characters come to life again through the animated series. We’re beyond excited to continue this story for at least two more seasons.

    The renewal makes a lot of sense, as the animation takes a lot of time. They may also be planning to have a short break between the next seasons. Harley Quinn did something similar as it entered production for its first two seasons early on. We’ll see how often poor Grayson gets beat up in the upcoming finale. If the title card continues to fill with blood splatters, we might have a red one at the end of its runtime.

     

    Source: Twitter, Variety

  • ‘Mad Men’s Vincent Kartheiser Joins ‘Titans’ as Scarecrow

    ‘Mad Men’s Vincent Kartheiser Joins ‘Titans’ as Scarecrow

    It looks like HBO Max’s upcoming season of Titans has found its Dr. Jonathan Crane. The official Twitter account has unveiled that actor Vincent Kartheiser will be taking on the role of Scarecrow. The actor is known for his work on the WB series Angel and AMC’s Mad Men. He also just recently appeared on Netflix’s The Social Dilemma. The character of Scarecrow has been a mainstay in Batman’s rogue’s gallery for a long time. He’s appeared in the original animated Batman series, The Lego Batman Movie, Harley Quinn, Gotham, and was famously played by Cillian Murphy in Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight Trilogy. It’ll be interesting to see how Kartheiser reinvents the character for the third season of Titans.

    Interestingly, the tweet points to his influence from within Arkham Asylum. He may be the mastermind behind many villains that’ll make the life of the Titans a living nightmare. He will be joining a stacked cast that consists of Brenton Thwaites, Anan Diop, Teagan Croft, Ryan Potter, and Conor Leslie. The addition of Scarecrow was first teased during DC FanDome alongside Barbara Gordon and Red Hood. We don’t know how big his role will be, but he might have a larger role as the mastermind pulling the strings. The strong focus on Gotham might also see other iconic Batman villains making an appearance in the upcoming season.

    Source: Twitter

  • EXCLUSIVE: ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier’ Malcolm Spellman Talks How Madripoor and Fontaine Were Added to the Series

    EXCLUSIVE: ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier’ Malcolm Spellman Talks How Madripoor and Fontaine Were Added to the Series

    We got a chance to talk with Falcon and Winter Soldier‘s head writer Malcolm Spellman, where our very own Charles Murphy discussed the introduction of a Marvel Comics icon, Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. She was played by the talented Seinfeld and VEEP actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Her character was originally going to premiere in Black Widow, but due to the pandemic, she ended up in the Disney+ series first. In the interview, Spellman revealed that Val’s character evolved in the writing room:

    The way it happens was: Everything that Marvel wants you to create first and they want you to do it without worrying about it. Like, if there is obvious threads to the greater MCU, by you all put them in, they don’t oppose them on you. So, that character existed as a shady-ass CIA operative person as we were mapping out the story. Gradually, she became the Contessa, she became Val. We’ve already created the character first.

    The way she is introduced, it seemed like they were setting up a team-up project shortly, especially with the potential of a Dark Avengers story being considered at one point. Well, it seems that Val’s introduction was only added later. It is great to know that they didn’t force any story elements into this series but rather added them organically into the already mapped-out story. He also confirmed the same happened with Madripoor.

    That’s the same thing with Madripoor. Madripoor was described, it was named after a real-life city initially imagined as a real-life city where the restaurants on the streets serve endangered species and there are open gun bazars. Once we created that city, they smiled because they know, a nerd moment: “What if it is Madripoor?” and everyone freaked out.

    It makes you wish you were in these meeting rooms when their faces light up the moment they realized they could introduce Madripoor. Of course, this does mean that if we want to see the character or the fictional city return in the future, it will depend on the story that is being told. It’ll be interesting to see what other projects end up carrying on the torch set by The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

  • EXCLUSIVE: ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier’s Malcolm Spellman Reveals How Little We Know about Marvel Studios’ Future Line-Up

    EXCLUSIVE: ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier’s Malcolm Spellman Reveals How Little We Know about Marvel Studios’ Future Line-Up

    Our very own Charles Murphy got a chance to sit down and talk with Falcon and Winter Soldier head writer Malcolm Spellman. In a brief moment, they discussed the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the many threads that were left open at the end of the series. Spellman discussed briefly how fans agreeing with Daniel Brühl’s Helmut Zemo make him a popular candidate for more future appearances. Of course, there was also the discussion surrounding He also briefly discussed Sharon’s turn as the Power Broker and how it gives her more time in the spotlight.

    So far, we only know that the fourth entry of Captain America is in development. There are some hints that Sharon’s story might potentially connect to Armor Wars, which you can read our theory in the following link. There was one interesting hint by the head writer that we really have no idea how big the Marvel Cinematic Universe is about to become, as he states:

    I was surprised about how few of the upcoming Marvel movies have been announced. […] Fans will start to become more and more clear as these projects get announced.

    It looks like the many films announced for Phase 4 are just the beginning. We are aware of eleven projects with Black Widow kicking off the cinematic side of the franchise in July. If these are only a “few” of the upcoming films we might have content for many years to come. Kevin Feige. is famous for mapping out his projects far in advance, as he revealed in 2018 that he already planned films up until 2025. It’ll be interesting to see if we get some more announcements this year for what may await us beyond 2023.

    Source: ComicBook.com (Films to 2025)

  • REPORT: Amazon’s ‘Silk’ Eyeing August Production Start

    REPORT: Amazon’s ‘Silk’ Eyeing August Production Start

    It looks like we got some more news on the upcoming Sony-Amazon series adaptation of Silk. The character was famously introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 3 #4 but appeared as a faceless background character in the three issues before. She was part of the Original Sin storyline that revealed that Korean-American Cindy Moon was also bit by the spider that gave Peter Parker his abilities. Variety revealed that Sony was developing the project together with Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who are acting as executive producers on the Amazon series.

    It seems we have an update on the project, as Discussing Film has exclusively learned that they are currently eyeing a late-August production start. They are still actively looking to cast their Cindy Moon. The character actually made their live-action debut in Spider-Man: Homecoming where she was played by Tiffany Espensen. As this project seems detached from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they will most likely recast the character with rumors pointing to them approaching Adeline Rudolph for the role. Sang Kyu Kim is reportedly working on the series as its showrunner with Korean American writer Lauren Moon working on the project.

    This news confirms that they are still actively working on the project with Amazon after making a deal with Netflix. They got a first look deal on future projects. Shortly after, they also made a deal to release their projects on Disney+ and Hulu. So, it’ll be interesting to see if Amazon will connect their project with Sony’s future films and movies based on the Spider-Man universe, or if it will be a unique project for the studio.

    Source: Discussing Film

  • Kari Skogland Offers More Details on How the Pandemic Added to ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier’s Story

    Kari Skogland Offers More Details on How the Pandemic Added to ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier’s Story

    We’ve all been theorizing about how the pandemic may have affected Falcon and the Winter Soldier. After the finale aired for WandaVision, Matt Shakman revealed that they had changed quite a bit and were only able to finish the finale shortly before it aired. They also had to cut down on quite a few stories, such as one involving Ralph Boehner and Monica Rambeau. Now, we wondered the same for Marvel Studios’ second Disney+ show and it looks like their story may have been only slightly affected, as director Kari Skogland revealed in an interview with Collider.

    No. We started shooting in October of 2019 and we had shot about 75 percent [before production shut down]. So we really knew the story we were telling for sure. So when we shut down, we only had about 25 percent left to shoot. So I think the only story changes we made were small character tweaks.

    They highlight a few scenes that got added, such as John Walker and Lamar talking about taking the super-soldier serum. They also added an extra sequence to dive a bit deeper into the motivation of Karli and the Flag-Smashers.

    We had discovered that we really wanted to know Karli a bit more. So I think we added a scene between her and Dovich, where they got to just talk about what it was like to take the serum. I wanted to feel them and their history just a little bit and get a bit more inside how they were thinking and feeling in that moment.

    Skogland does not talk about how their production had been affected. There was noticeable re-use of multiple locations for sequences, which could be part of the 25% that was shot once they returned to production. It is also noteworthy that she confirms that there was no removed pandemic subplot in the interview. Charles Murphy interviewed Skogland where she hinted at how the pandemic affected their production, as they jumped straight back into things once it calmed down. It looks like COVID gave them the chance to add some of the more human moments that made these characters stand out even more. It’ll be interesting if the pandemic may have also affected June’s Loki series.

    Source: Collider via The Direct

  • ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier’ May Be The Last Time We See The Winter Soldier

    ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier’ May Be The Last Time We See The Winter Soldier

    The ending of Falcon and the Winter Soldier came with a new name, as Sam Wilson embraced his role as Captain America. However, it seemed that Bucky Barnes may have still stuck to his Winter Soldiers moniker after finally making amends. Well, it seems that the end title might be a bit misleading. The show’s head writer, Malcolm Spellman, revealed in an interview with ComicBook.com that it isn’t representing Bucky’s state of mind, as he was finally to move on from the dark past. They also seem to hint at a new direction for the character:

    I think Bucky enters this thing truly believing he is kind of the Winter Soldier no matter what anyone says. By the end, he has the moment with the old man, but more importantly, nobody has caught this… I’ve been saying it all day. In the scene with the Flag-Smashers in Episode 6, when one of those people gets out of that van and thanks Bucky, that’s his first time being a hero. So by the end of this series, Bucky is emerging as having shed the burden of the Winter Soldier. He has found a new family, ironically, it’s a Black family in Louisiana, you know what I’m saying? And he has tasted being a hero for the first time. And I think he’s now free to become something amazing.

    The way he phrases it may hint at a new direction for Bucky. His title as Winter Soldier could end with this series. In the comics, he carried on with the title even as he became a hero and returned to it after his time as Captain America. Our very own Lizzie Hill theorized that he may be the focus of the potential Nomad project. Sebastian Stan has the star power to lead his own project. So, it would only really be a matter of time before he gets a new project. Now that Hawkeye already got a Disney+ spin-off with Echo and Captain America 4 has been confirmed, we might hopefully get an announcement for a post Winter Soldier story.

    Source: ComicBook.com