Murphy's Multiverse

Author: Joseph Aberl

  • Olivia Colman In Negotiations to Join ‘Secret Invasion’ Disney+ Series

    Olivia Colman In Negotiations to Join ‘Secret Invasion’ Disney+ Series

    It looks like Marvel Studios is continuing its reign as the upcoming Disney+ series Secret Invasion is adding Olivia Colman to its cast. She is currently in negotiations for an unknown role, as Marvel Studios remains silent on the series’ plot. The series will continue where Captain Marvel left off with Samuel L. Jackson‘s Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn‘s Talos returning, as the Skrull infiltrate Earth. About a month ago, Kingsley Ben-Adir has also been cast as the series’ still-unnamed villain.

    Colman has been nominated for the best-supporting actress Academy Award for her work in The Father. Her work alongside Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz on The Favorite landed her an Oscar and other projects. Many might recognize her for her role as Queen Elisabeth II on Netflix’s highly-acclaimed The Crown series. She will also lend her voice to the upcoming The Mitchells vs the Machines animated film.

    Kyle Bradstreet will follow up his work from Mr. Robot as the show’s showrunner, as they still are on the search for the series’ directors. Marvel is still keeping a lot of details bout the series close to the chest, which will most likely lead to the Captain Marvel sequel. There is a chance she could be playing a villainous role, as there is no word on the potential appearance of Queen Veranke. If they do stick to the evil Skrull storyline from the original, we might see some betrayal left and right throughout the series. Yet, there are also some friendly cast members potentially joining the series. So, anything is possible at this point. It’s going to get interesting once we get our first look at this new series, as we’ll never know who to trust.

    Source: Hollywood Reporter

  • ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’: Tony Leung’s Wenwu is an MCU Original Take on the Mandarin

    ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’: Tony Leung’s Wenwu is an MCU Original Take on the Mandarin

    After a long wait, we finally got our first look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first Asian-American superhero, Shang-Chi. Chinese-Canadian Simu Liu will take on the role that introduced the world to the Ten Rings. They were a consistent part of the MCU since its inception back in 2008. Of course, it means that we’ll also meet the organization’s leader, the Mandarin.

    It looks like they might be taking a new direction for the villain from 1964’s Tales of Suspense #50. In the recent coverage by Entertainment Weekly, we got a few details on Tony Leung‘s mysterious character. He was formerly announced as Wenwu and teased to be the Mandarin. Yet, the recent interview may hint at a new approach to the iconic comic villain.

    They confirm that Wenwu is technically an original character for the film. As such, he isn’t a direct adaptation of the iconic character, who has gone through various aliases, such as Gene Khan or Zhang Tong. Producer Jonathan Schwartz and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige hint that he has gone through many names. Mandarin is just one of many. Director Destin Daniel Cretton pointed to how Leung brought a new level to the character’s portrayal. 

    A character like Wenwu could have easily been a one-dimensional villain with no heart. Tony opened this character up [so] this is an antagonist who has a deep ability to love

    Schwartz confirms that their approach to the character was to add more complexity. They didn#t want him to get shackled by its comic roots. The just dropped trailer offered some small glimpses at Wenwu. It even includes a comic-accurate inspired depiction of the original character. Shang-Ch wasn’t related to the Mandarin in the comics, as he was the son of the rather controversial Fu Manchu. Family drama will remain at the core of Shang-Chi‘s story, and it’ll be interesting to see how the legacy of the Mandarin may get expanded in the MCU. If you haven’t had the chance, check out the recent trailer release.

    Source: Entertainment Weekly, Twitter

  • First Look at ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ Released

    First Look at ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ Released

    It’s a bit day for Marvel fans. Black Widow may have taken over Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings‘ original July slot, but it looks like the production company believes they can keep that September release date. To celebrate his birthday, Simu Liu released the film’s first poster with a closer look at Shang-Chi in all his glory. He took to Twitter to share the first look at the new poster that shows the Master of Kung Fu in all his glory:

    Now, that wasn’t all as Entertainment Weekly also released a few new images that offer a small glimpse at what we can expect from the film. It features some of the film’s major cast members, such as Tony Leung‘s Wenwu, Awkwafina‘s Katy, and Meng’er Zhang‘s Xialing:

     

     

    Not just that, it seems like shortly after Marvel Studios already released the first trailer for the film. It seems they didn’t quite coordinate with Simu Liu, who teased that it wouldn’t drop for another few weeks. Marvel Studios wanted to celebrate his birthday by releasing the trailer early and it offered a fantastic first look at the action we can expect from the film.

    https://twitter.com/shangchi/status/1384137506795319300?s=20

    Source: Twitter, Entertainment Weekly, Twitter

  • ‘Spider-Man: Miles Morales’ Outsold ‘The Last of Us: Part II’ and ‘Ghost of Tsushima’

    ‘Spider-Man: Miles Morales’ Outsold ‘The Last of Us: Part II’ and ‘Ghost of Tsushima’

    Here’s a curious showcase of staying power. The original Spider-Man game from 2018 was a massive success for PlayStation and Insomniac. Sony reported that it had already sold nine million copies worldwide by November after releasing in September of the same year. It beat out Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, which held the record at 8.7 million. It didn’t stop there as it managed to continue to grow to sell 20 million copies since. Of course, the pressure is up for their follow-up, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, to perform similarly. Well, it looks like the game has been a mainstay in many people’s shopping lists.

    Initially, the game sold 4.1 million in seven weeks. It wasn’t quite as high as its predecessor, but it saw a considerable boost during Christmas. Now, the game was launched alongside the PlayStation 5’s international launch and there seemed to be a heavy correlation between the two. NPD released sales data for March of 2021, which revealed that the game is still sticking to the top five positions. It has now sold more than other PlayStation exclusives The Last of Us: Part II and Ghost of Tsushima. The fact that PlayStation 5 remains the fast-selling U.S. console helps boost the continuous sales of the Spidey spin-off. Executive Director of the NPD Group, Mat Piscatella, shared their latest numbers on Twitter:

    https://twitter.com/MatPiscatella/status/1383042822601777156?s=20

    March has been a great year overall. Newcomers to Monster Hunter: Rise and Outriders, who have seen exceptional sales even with the release on Xbox Games Pass, had a great start into the sales charts. There were some returning champions, such as Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time getting new legs from 65th placement back into the top 15. Marvel’s Avengers also saw a good bump from 16th into the top ten on Xbox. Overall, it looks like Miles Morales won’t be stopping anytime soon and could potentially even surpass the 2018 original sales. It’ll be interesting to see how the sequel to the original will perform once it eventually releases.

    Source: Venture Beat, Essentially Sports, Games Industry, NPD March, Games Industry (NPD), GameRant, Venture Beat (NPD), Twitter

  • Latest ‘Marvel’s Avengers’ Dev Stream Offers Updates on Tachyon Anomaly, Red Room Takeover, and More

    Latest ‘Marvel’s Avengers’ Dev Stream Offers Updates on Tachyon Anomaly, Red Room Takeover, and More

    Our weekly tradition returns as Crystal Dynamics offered some new details in the latest developer stream. We’ve got quite a bit of information on how they will expand their weekly blogs, as well as teasing upcoming updates for Loot 2.0. As we are about to start the game’s first event, we got a first glimpse at the rewards you can expect alongside a new neon skin set.

    • We might get a first look at Marvel Cinematic Universe skins in next week’s developer stream.
    • The patch for the Tachyon Anomaly will release on Tuesday, but the event won’t kick off until Thursday. It will also include fixes for the Villain Sector. There will be additional options for the Custom HARM Rooms so you can summon Dreadbots and airborne enemies. They discussed some details on the Tachyon Anomaly that got highlighted in this week’s blog, which you can read up here.
    • We will get a special dev stream next Tuesday. They will get joined by the voice actress Sandra Saad, who voices Kamala Khan, will join. If you have any questions for her, you can check out a Reddit thread to drop some.
    • We got our first reveal of the first set of animated nameplates. CD confirmed that these are just the first they are showing, and we’ll see more animations.

     

     

    • Red Room Takeover will be a temporary event.
    • We got a motivating update for the Omega-Level Threats, as they have gotten it down to a few more bugs that need to get squashed. So, we might get a clearer date soon.
    • We will see a new update to the Weekly Blog posts, such as getting progress updates on projects. They will add ongoing bullet points to keep players updated.
    • Crystal Dynamics confirmed that we are getting additional blogs that will offer an insight into Loot 2.0 and requested features (loadouts got specially mentioned). So, we will get a lot more insight into what they are working on currently.
    • Monotronic suits got revealed as the next skin set. They gave us a glimpse at them for Iron Man and Hulk. We’ll see Captain America’s suit next week.

     

     

    It’ll be interesting to see when they roll out the information on the future updates, but it seems like the developers are at a point that they can get information out at a more reasonable pace. I am excited about next week’s first event and play alongside others as a group of Hulks or Iron Man. We’ll see how the next week develops and what we can expect once the Tachyon Anomaly starts.

    Source: Twitch, Twitter

  • Alfred Molina Confirms Involvement with ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ And Shares First Set Details

    Alfred Molina Confirms Involvement with ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ And Shares First Set Details

    Spider-Man: No Way Home might be the worst kept secret. We’ve seen countless reports on what characters are returning in their respective roles. Through various leaks, we learned that many of the iconic characters from past Spider-Man franchises will make a grand return in one way or another. One of the first to break was the return of Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus in the threequel. Now, it seems he gave up on keeping the secret, as he talked with Variety on his role in Promising Young Woman:

    When we were shooting it, we were all under orders not to talk about it, because it was supposed to be some great big secret. But, you know, it’s all over the internet. I actually described myself as the worst kept secret in Hollywood

    So, he just went out of his way to confirm his involvement. Luckily, he even gave some insight about how it was returning to his role and reflecting on the fact he hasn’t played the character in almost 17 years.

    It was wonderful. It was very interesting going back after 17 years to play the same role, given that in the intervening years, I now have two chins, a wattle, crow’s feet, and a slightly a slightly dodgy lower back.

    He even revealed that director Jon Watts confirmed that his character is picking up where he died in the original Spider-Man 2. After tampering with a fusion reactor that was about to blow, he sacrifices his life to save his former student and New York City. What stands out in the interview is that he confirms Doc Ock will be de-aged in the film after he questioned how they would continue his story now that he is 67. The actor even references The Irishman, as he feared that he may look young but not able to move fast enough. Luckily, the good doctor has some helpers to keep him moving around without a problem.

    I then remembered that it’s the tentacles that do all the work! My basic physical move as Doc Ock, as the actor, is just this. I just do that a lot, and the arms are doing all the killing and smashing and breaking. I’m just going —” he glared again — “with a kind of mean look on my face.

    It sounds really exciting and that they considered the differences between the last times they played these characters. Now, the question is how this will tie into the universe and why Doc Ock will return from the dead. His teases offer our first real glimpse into what happened on the set. Now, we will wonder how it will all tie together.

    Source: Variety, Variety (Interview)

     

  • New ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Series to Premiere on YouTube during Earth Day

    New ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Series to Premiere on YouTube during Earth Day

    It feels like yesterday that Nickelodeon announced it formed a brand new Avatar Studio that will dedicate its work to create films and spin-offs of the iconic franchise. After only two months, they surprised us by announcing that Avatar: The Last Airbender will get a new original series this April. It will premiere on the official YouTube channel on April 24th to celebrate Earth Day. The channel revealed that the 3-day event features earth-shattering original videos. They used a GIF of Toph, but that doesn’t mean she will be the series’ focus. It is uncertain if these are just a bunch of mini-episodes rather than the usual 22-minute runtime.

    The series will be available on the service permanently even once Earth Day ends. So, this isn’t a timed exclusive. As Avatar News points out, the voice of Korra, Janet Varney, has teased that a project of some kind is in development. The series has built up a strong connection with the relationship between humanity and Mother Nature. So, it’s a clever tie-in to celebrate the revival of the franchise.

    Avatar was originally going to get adopted as a live-action Netflix series. However, the creators and showrunners left the project due to creative differences. The sudden announcement by Nickelodeon pretty much hinted at that live-action adaptation getting scrapped, as the creators took over the reins to continue development on the franchise through animation. There are no details on this series. So, we might get a vignette with familiar characters or a unique series that simply explores the world in celebration of Earth Day. Whatever it may be, we are excited to return to the franchise after this long hiatus.

    Source: Avatar News, YouTube

  • ‘What If’ Concept Art Leaks Online Teasing the Return of Ultron

    ‘What If’ Concept Art Leaks Online Teasing the Return of Ultron

    It looks like some concept art for the upcoming What If series has found its way online teasing some iconic characters in new designs. It isn’t the first time something related to Marvel Studios’ first animated series finds its way online, as recently a poster was released prematurely featuring our first look at various characters. The art teases some recognizable faces, such as Loki in his Thor get-up and Tony Stark riding a makeshift Hulkbuster. To be fair, we can’t make out his face so anyone could be in that suit.

    We even will have the return of Benicio del Toro‘s Collector. Now, what stands out is that it showcases Gamora in Thanos’ armor. It would hint at her embracing the legacy her adoptive father decided to pass on to her rather than running away with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Yet, the biggest reveal is the return of Ultron, who hasn’t appeared since 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron.

    Now, it doesn’t confirm if James Spader will return to take on the character, but if you consider most of the MCU staff are returning for their characters it is rather likely. His design seems to imply he has become a ruler and could hint at a story if he won the battle for Sokovia. Now, that would imply that his meteor did exactly what it was intended to do and the world was reshaped in metal.

    Now, that is a fun idea to play around with as it would be the MCU’s way of introducing the Wasteland from the Future Imperfect and Old Man Logan series. It recently introduced in the Marvel’s Avengers game as part of the Hawkeye DLC. What If is starting to shape into a must-watch once it releases some time this summer.

    Source: Twitter

  • Amazon Investing $465 Million in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ First Season

    Amazon Investing $465 Million in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ First Season

    It looks like Amazon Studios’ ambitions have reached an all-new high, as recent reports have unveiled that their upcoming The Lord of the Rings series might be the most expensive show ever produced. They are estimated to spend NZ$650 million, which is around US$465 million. Keep in mind, this is the budget for the first season and not the entire series run. As far as we know, they also plan to have future seasons to expand it.

    This investment also has a very important meaning for New Zealand moving forward, as the money is invested into their local economy. Amazon received a $100 million boost for the film production and made a multi-year deal to secure benefits from the country. Minister of Economic Development and Tourism Stuard Nash shared his enthusiasm:

    I think what we have got out of Amazon in terms of the MOU and the industry and how we’re going to train people and our ability to use footage for tourism, the ability to leverage off a lot of what Amazon is doing, is fantastic

    It is a historic development that could be the start of higher budgeted shows moving forward. Disney+ has been moving to give their series movie-level budgets with their originals. The Mandalorian cost $15 million per episode while Marvel Studios’ productions would reach up to $25 Million. As The Hollywood Reporter points out, even HBO’s titan Game of Thrones cost $100 million per season. It’ll be interesting to see if this high investment pays off for them.

    Source: Hollywood Reporter, RNZ, Hollywood Reporter (Disney+)

  • Spin-Off In Development for Netflix’s ‘Castlevania’

    Spin-Off In Development for Netflix’s ‘Castlevania’

    Netflix has been expanding into almost every medium. Recently, they’ve seemed to have a strong liking for adapting anime into live-action. It was recently revealed that Jordan Vogt-Roberts will adapt the iconic anime franchise Gundam. Well, they’ve also been exploring video game adaptations. One of its biggest surprises was the release of the animated adaptation of Castlevania. The series was based on the franchise that started in 1986 on the Nintendo Entertainment System. It follows the story of Trevor Belmont, Alucard, and Sypha Belnades as the unlikely trio comes together to kill Dracula. Sadly, it seems the upcoming fourth season will be the series end.

     

     

    The series embraces the R-rating and tells some truly dark tales. Luckily, it seems that the fourth season may end one series, it is the beginning for another. According to Deadline, Konami and Netflix are already working on a brand new series that will take place in the same universe. The only detail they could reveal is that it’ll focus on a brand new cast of characters. Now, the advantage of the Castlevania franchise lies in its approach to legacy.

    Every entry in the gaming franchise focused on a new member of the Belmont family. So, they could be taking a similar approach. Alucard’s inclusion paid tribute to the PlayStation game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but only loosely. We could get a future season that builds on the stories to adhere by introducing Richter Belmont, who was the focus of Rondo of Blood in 1993. It’ll be interesting to see if the series’ ending might tease what is to come in the future.

    Source: Deadline