According to data from the Korean Film Council seen by K-Odyssey, Eternals had sold 200,000 pre-sold tickets in South Korea two days ahead of its release. The film accounted for 78.8% of all tickets sold, while Dune was at 8.6% and Venom: Let There Be Carnage at 2.3% at the time of the data being noted. Eternals pre-sales also outpace Marvel Studios’ Black Widow by 30, 000 at the equivalent moment in its release schedule. South Korean actor Ma Dong-Seok, who is also known as Don Lee, stars as Gilgamesh, one of the Eternals in the film and is the first actor from South Korea to take a major role in a Marvel Studios film. There’s a chance his inclusion might be one of the film’s selling points.
As the film releases this week, box office and audience reactions will be interesting to contrast with critics’ reviews who have remained somewhat divided by the film. Still, with the studio trying big swings at new things, it isn’t completely unheard of for critics and fans to be slightly out of sync with their perception of how well these new attempts land. At the very least, it seems fans will have a whole range of new characters to love and some thematic thoughts to consider!
Alaqua Cox will soon make her MCU debut as Echo in Hawkeye and her spin-off show is looking like it will go into production early next year. The first-time actress will also be making her on-screen debut, so we are just beginning to learn a bit more about her. She was recently selected as one of People magazine’s One to Watch 2021 feature indicating what a special talent Marvel Studios have found themselves. In the interview she not only mentions how serendipitously she came across the casting call but also how important the role is for diverse representation on-screen:
I had no acting experience, I was only involved in one school play in high school, but I was a background actor. [My friends] saw the casting call looking for a Native American actress and female deaf actress. It just matched so perfectly, so I decided to go for it. I had never seen anybody on the screen that maybe looked like me … deaf, an amputee.
Cox who is Native American and grew up on the Menominee Indian Reservation in Wisconsin has been deaf her whole life, has had a right lower leg amputation and was working at a factory before applying for the role. It’s clear that there aren’t many on-screen characters with those kinds of backgrounds, especially in big-budget studio projects, so she also spoke about the impact of playing Echo has had even before she has debuted:
My dad actually cried, and it is rare to see my dad cry. My mom got the champagne — everybody was so excited. I just feel so overwhelmed by support and love. It’s crazy how much my life has already changed because I was a college dropout. I worked at a factory. I’m so excited to show people who I am and what I can do, what anybody can do.
As a first-time actress, and like her character Cox is also learning a lot as she goes. She makes reference to this when talking about enjoying working with Hawkeye himself Jeremy Renner:
I think he’s one of the coolest guys. I learned a lot from him.
Secret Invasionwill be Nick Fury’s 12th appearance in the MCU after he was last seen in the Spider-Man: Far From Home’s post-credit scene. Back then he was looking for his shoes after relaxing in front of a beach projection and telling everyone to “get back to work” while commanding a Skrull spaceship. With our recent reports on Kingsley Ben-Adir playing a villainous Skrull, it is intriguing to think that Nick Fury might be caught between his Skrull friend Talos and his evil brethren as they try to take over Earth.
It remains to be seen exactly what the mission of Fury’s Skrull spaceship was and how it will tie to Secret Invasion, but with cameras seemingly rolling on the limited series perhaps there’s an outside chance we might see some early footage at Disney+ Day on November 12th.
Peyton Reed is currently filming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in London with a cast including Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Jonathan Majors. With the latter confirmed as the villain Kang the Conqueror, it will seemingly continue elements of Loki’s finale where He Who Remains, a Kang variant from another universe, was murdered. His death unleashed the chaos of the multiverse upon the once Sacred Timeline.
Evangeline Lilly is also currently promoting her indie-thriller South of Heaven. In an interview with Collider, she naturally was asked some questions about the Ant-Man and the Wasp sequel. She spoke with particular fondness about Jeff Loveness, the writer of the third Ant-Man film, who she suggested had written the best script so far for the franchise.
I think he is phenomenal. I think he’s one of the best writers we’ve ever had. I think he’s got an incredible mastery of voice. So, on the page, I could hear all the characters, and I knew that he’d really kind of harnessed each person’s unique personality. I just think that it’s going to be really special. I actually think it has the chance to be the best one we’ve done yet.
Evangeline Lilly
Lilly also spoke about watching the Marvel Studios Disney+ series. In particular, she spoke about being excited by the science behind the multiverse:
The science geek in me loves that element of how smart they are and how they tackle such enormous topics that most kind of fluff popcorn movies are not going to tackle. They tackled chaos theory. That’s really brave and really bold and really cool.” […] And the fact that when we explore the two sides to chaos theory, it’s two sides of the same person, is so good.
Evangeline Lilly
Intriguingly, Lilly spoke about chaos theory specifically while praising the Quantumania script. While we don’t have any hints about the storyline in the third entry, the fact that Jonathan Majors is reprising his role as a variant of the character we met in the finale of Loki suggests that they might crossover. The series also has a second season in the works, which may explore the fallout of these events. It will be exciting to see how the film blends its usual themes of “family” with the wider impact of the multiverse.
Cheadle gave us another update yesterday at ACE Universe Comic Con. Not only did he mention a timing update having recently brought the head writer onboard but he also spoke about his excitement for Rhodey’s next stories:
I think the most exciting part is yet to come. I think we don’t really have a super strong idea who he is really, outside of that bubble of the Avengers, outside of necessarily his friendship with Tony, and now he’s gonna kind of be untethered from all of that. So it’s an opportunity to really kind of discover who he is in a way that we have not had before with concentrated time and focus on Rhodey and Rhodey’s journey and hopefully some stuff about his past and and you know teeing up some things about his potential future. I think those kinds of things were hinted at in an Endgame where where this character might go and the things that may be in the offing for him.
Cheadle also reiterated something he’s said a few times before: it is still early days in the development of the show so despite it being announced almost a year ago now, we shouldn’t really expect to see it anytime soon.
It’s very early in the process of Armor Wars, we just hired my boy Yassir which I’m very excited about. […] A great guy, a lot of great ideas but honestly we’re just really trying to crack the spine of what it’s going to be.
So it seems in talking about Armor Wars teeing up Rhodey’s potential future, it might suggest a future beyond that event itself. As a senior member of the Avengers without some close friends like Tony and Steve around, it remains to be seen whether he will become a mentor to other newer members or simply lead by example. Whatever the case, Armor Wars seems like it will show us the potential first step in a new path for Rhodey.
Black Panther is the highest-rated Marvel Studios film by critics. The themes of the film are powerfully and efficiently woven into the characters and plot. Ryan Coogler is celebrated for his worldbuilding with production designer Hannah Beachler. They spent 10 months weaving real-world African history and culture into a 500-page guide to Wakanda and will likely repeat the process for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.Namor, Attuma, and Namora will reportedly be joining Coogler’s sequel with Indigenous Mesoamerican cultures as worldbuilding inspiration. All of this might help us speculate what direction the story and characters might take in the highly-anticipated sequel.
Colonization is a theme that is inherently entwined with Wakanda’s history as the animated sequence that opens Black Panther shows. Vibranium enabled Wakanda to defend itself from the horrors of the Atlantic slave trade and the colonization of Africa by European nations. The threat of it intensely affected T’Challa’s perception of his father, T’Chaka, who killed his brother to keep Wakanda hidden. He states that all of his ancestors were wrong to turn their backs on their neighbors. He speaks about interdependence and taking care of others as he rejects isolation to open up Wakanda. The cultural trauma of colonization provides the personal connection to the film’s themes that Coogler has described as bringing him “closer to [his] roots.”
With the MCU’s Atlantis being inspired by Indigenous Mesoamerican cultures it seems likely that these themes will also be present. Rooting Atlantis in the history of an ancient cataclysm could mirror the real-world colonial destruction of Aztec and Maya civilizations. The Yucatan Peninsula’s historical connections to meteorites hint at a hidden society, mirroring Wakanda’s creation legend of a vibranium meteorite. A sunken yet technologically advanced state like that might be of particular interest to the U.S. In Namor’s first comic appearances he wages a war against the “surface-dwellers” (Motion Picture Funnies Weekly Vol 1 #1, 1939 Bill Everett). Yet the cultural-historical inspiration suggests Atlantis will be the state to be discovered and attacked for its resources. Like T’Challa in Black Panther, Prince Namor’s leadership will likely be tested in the face of colonial tension.
Wakanda’s leadership tensions set the stage for more complex explorations of governance. Chadwick Boseman’s tragic passing impacts the sequel in such a way, suggesting Wakanda might use more collective leadership going forward. If Shuri, Nakia, Okoye, and M’Baku can unite in a leaderful way, there may yet be hope against the rising tide of Atlantis. Prince Namor’s leadership in contrast could be challenged as Namora and Attuma have different intentions in their comic histories. Namora, despite being Namor’s cousin, has spent much time away from Atlantis with surface-dwellers. Attuma is a barbaric warlord banished from Atlantis who wants to conquer it. While undiscovered in the MCU, Atlantis’ leadership could be somewhat united, splitting as the world becomes aware of its existence. How these once hidden societies treat outsiders interested in exploiting them will tell us a lot about their leadership.
Much of Black Panther’s plot is driven by outsiders discovering Wakanda. In the case of Erik Killmonger, he uses his “blood right” as T’Challa’s first cousin to challenge for the throne. The question then becomes whether birthright or culture is the maintaining force in bringing people into society. The cultural trauma of America’s exploitative culture which he grew up in, clashes with the more supportive culture of Wakanda. Killmonger sees no future beyond himself, burning the heart-shaped herb, stating “the sun will never set on the Wakandan empire.” By contrast, T’Challa opens Wakanda up with a learning center in Oakland rather than violent empire and colonialism. The consequences of opening Wakanda’s resources, potentially placing them in the scopes of America’s military-industrial complex is an open question.
Similarly, Atlantis might have resources that place them under the spotlight of outsiders to their society. They might even have outsiders within their existing ranks. Conflicting identities play a role in Namor’s life as they did with Killmonger. He is a mutant in the comics and has a mixed heritage from his human father and Atlantean mother. In the film, Namor will likely have to negotiate with elements of Atlantean society that frown upon his human origins. Similarly, Tenoch Huerta who is reportedly playing Namor has Indigenous origins through Purepecha and Nahua heritage. In the comics, when allied with mutantkind, Namor attacks Wakanda with the full weight of the sea. Whether outside incursions from surface-dwellers or aggressive internal factions will compel him to do so in the MCU is unknown.
Cultural trauma, whether it be from historical colonial violence or exclusion leadership policy, is a rich vein for powerful themes. It seems clear Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will continue some themes of the first film in the worldbuilding for Atlantis. Various other comic adaptations could also take this route. A British-Indian Braddock family would organically confront colonial themes, and provide a strikingly powerful Captain Britain. Similarly profound, could be, a Romani writer writing a Scarlet Witch film, introducing a Romani actor playing Victor von Doom. Magneto’s Jewish heritage could be part of a multi-heritage background. It’s exciting to think that Ryan Coogler’s films can act as a blueprint for how themes of cultural trauma are explored across the MCU.
The multiverse is an unwieldy storytelling device with potential positive and negative impacts. For example, meeting alternate variations of favorite characters has the potential to undermine earlier stories. However, it could also potentially provide emotional flourish to stories that haven’t been possible previously. Some fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s consistency are concerned about how the multiverse could fray the cohesion of the MCU. The multiversal elements of Loki and What If…? have shown us hints of how the multiverse stories we might be seeing in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness can be kept tight and concise.
Loki’s head writer Michael Waldron and director Kate Herron have both spoken in multipleinterviews about the themes of their series. Loki spends much of the season up against the bureaucratic order of the TVA. He also finds himself grappling with his identity in the face of Loki variants from alternative universes. Order versus chaos. Self versus selves. The structure of these debates brought up in the show also show another theme Waldron and Herron have spoken about, in the gray space between villainy and heroism. It’s clear that these themes are present even without confirmation from interviews because of how tightly woven into the narrative action they are.
On the surface, an anthology show like What If…? shouldn’t necessarily have a narrative or thematic coherence between episodes. Yet we have seen enough to know we are getting a conclusion to some of the previous episodes in the finale. In this context, should there be a thematic reverberation between the heroes of each episode? It’s not easy to point one out. Loki’s themes are much tighter as almost every scene has a thematic resonance. An anthology show doesn’t need coherent themes but where there is a continuing story, What If…? is perhaps missing something thematic to bring the season together.
So perhaps if Spider-Man: No Way Home can use the multiverse to weave themes tightly, it can produce an impactful story regardless of multiversal incursions. Much of the trailer is connected to Spidey’s identity as Peter Parker. The public release of that information and Peter’s going to Doctor Strange to have it erased from public consciousness. It’s clear that they “tampered with the stability of [the] space-time” continuum when performing the spell. The full impact remains to be seen but it is easy to see how themes of identity, responsibility, and fate can be tied to this spell gone wrong and possible multiversal variants. It remains to be seen how tightly woven those themes might be into the story.
So can we spot the themes for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as clearly and easily? Given Wanda Maximoff was last seen studying The Darkhold, also known as The Book of the Damned, it stands that she might face some corrupting forces. To some extent, this is a theme that can be extended from Doctor Strange as Kaecilius became corrupted by Dormammu. Corruption, alongside the fraying of the multiverse which Strange admits he knows “frighteningly little” in the No Way Home trailer, can also point in the direction of balance as a theme. How will Strange weigh up the dilemmas of the incursive multiverse? In a meta-sense, if the film can get that thematic balance right, then the rumoured cameos won’t seem as uncoordinated as some fans fear they might be.
Parenthood and family are themes that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania could manifest. With Kathryn Newton taking on the role as Cassie Lang it seems as though she might play more of a role with the heroes, with Scott, Hope, Janet, and Hank having to figure out parental decisions related to that. It’s not immediately obvious how Jonathan Majors’ Kang will connect to that, though being a citizen of the future, it’s possible an ancestor of his might be involved in the story. How they will connect the multiversal elements to the existing Ant-Man themes will be the test for how tight of a story we’ll be getting.
Beyond the second seasons of Loki and What If…? there are no major clues about what other Marvel Studios projects the multiverse incur upon. It will be interesting to see whether Loki can keep up its thematic resonance during its sophomore season. Similarly What If…? could either fully embrace the anthology format or increase the thematic and narrative continuity between the episodes. The multiverse certainly won’t be vanishing so other characters like Doctor Strange, Wanda Maximoff, and Ant-Man might still have to contend with it. Wherever it does emerge though, using the multiverse concisely and closely connected to the themes of the project seems like it will be a successful approach.
As a veteran of some of the biggest film franchises in the world, Andy Serkis knows a few things about what to anticipate in upcoming projects. From performance capture in Lord of the Rings, Planet of the Apes, and Star Wars, and now directing his third feature film with Venom: Let There Be Carnage. He’s also had a rather important role in the MCU.
His character, the arms dealer Ulysses Klaue, appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Black Panther, and even in the animated What If…? series. Given his fate in the original, it’s unlikely he’ll return for the sequel. Still, while talking about Venom: Let There Be Carnage to Gizmodo, Serkis was asked about an element of the MCU he is most excited about. He used the opportunity to share his love for Wakanda and his thoughts on the Black Panther sequel.
Wakanda as a world, as a place, as a philosophy is such an extraordinary thing. So I’m really excited to see how it evolves, how it unfolds. Obviously, it’s very, very sad in the wake of [Chadwick Boseman’s] departure, but I’m sure that the story will go some way to memorialize such an extraordinary performance and such an incredible actor and person in that movie.
Andy Serkis
It’s not surprising to find that someone with Serkis‘ interest in bringing digital to life has quite an interest in this digital world. Ryan Coogler‘s worldbuilding might be one of the most memorable due to interweaving real-world African history and culture into a fictional city. Coogler famously spent ten months on a 500-page worldbuilding document envisioning a futuristic urban space for Wakanda alongside Black Panther’s production designer Hannah Beachler. It seems, with reports of Namor that a version of Atlantis may appear in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, that they might be repeating that worldbuilding process. It will be fascinating to see the contrast and similarities between Atlantis and Wakanda, as well as how Wakanda evolves in itself.
Some social media clues suggest that Marvel Studios has hired several Native American screenwriters for its Echo writers room. Since it was reported back in March that “a writers’ room [had] recently [been] assembled” for the Hawkeye spin-off on Disney Plus, I’ve been curious about who Head Writers Etan and Emily Cohen might have recruited. Now it seems there might be some clues that the writers’ room could include Native American representation matching Emily Cohen, lead actress Alaqua Cox and her character Echo’s backgrounds.
In April, I noticed that Bobby Wilson, a writer on two series with significant Native American cast and crew representation in Rutherford Falls and Reservation Dogs, was followed by Alaqua Cox and Emily Cohen on Instagram. Now it appears Bobby has Marvel Studios written in his Instagram profile among his credits, suggesting he may well be writing on Echo.
Another slightly more tenuous connection might be to Rebecca Roanhorse, speculative fiction author and comic writer of Echo in Marvel Comics’ Voices: Indigenous Voices #1 and Phoenix Song: Echo. She currently has “TV writer (FX, Disney+)” written in her Twitter bio and follows Bobby Wilson and Marion Dayre, who is seemingly another member of the Echo writers’ room. This could indicate Rebecca is also working on Echo.
It’s exciting to see that the Echo writers’ room could possibly include Native American representation matching characters, cast and crew. With 10 still-unannounced projects not reported on, in development, it will be intriguing to see what, if any details, are announced for Echo and other projects at Disney+ Day on November 12th.
Alaqua Cox will make her debut as Echo in Hawkeye, which is set to premiere in November on Disney+.
We’ve previously written about how Marvel Studios continues to innovate and where it could improve. Marvel Cinematic Universe projects are often critiqued for prioritizing spectacle over emotional and thematic resonance in its third acts. At the same time, it’s clear from interviews that the studio seriously contemplates the decisions that go into their finales. This deliberation allows the studio to experiment. While experiments can result in occasional falters, it is a long-term approach that succeeds more often than not in resonant finales.
Marvel Studios’ films and tv series are often reviewed as sacrificing satisfying conflict resolution for spectacle in their third acts. This is also an element those making the films are aware of and are always working to improve. Nat Sanders, one of the editors of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, described on The Rough Cut podcast how the third act was a main focus to improve during the pandemic shutdown:
“We had a hiatus period, we had to shut down and before we came back up, along with really cutting and refining the 6 weeks worth of material we had at that point, our other main big focus was pre-vizing the third act and really continuing to develop the third act because it felt potentially just a hair underbaked in the script, compared to everything else, and we thought there was more to keep working on, so it ended up before a really great thing that we had that time for that part.”
Nat Sanders
The editors also spoke about how Marvel Studios emboldened them to make big decisions with the director Destin Daniel Cretton. They mention cutting half an hour out of the third act, and how these were considered good value even if a change in look for one character cost more than the entire budget of another film. Harry Yoon, another one of the editors, mentions how this empowered decision making met with an experimental attitude that focused towards continually improving the film’s emotional conclusion:
“[With the Marvel Studios producers] there was this attitude of ‘if we can make it 5% better or 3% better by addressing this one comment, then let’s try it.’ […] After a while you start to feel like you have permission within Marvel to make bold decisions […] That’s where it got very exciting towards the end, once we started to understand that character, story and audience were the big priorities and not these other things.
Harry Yoon
All of this suggests Marvel Studios keeps its collaborative spirit from within the Parliament, and extends it out to their project-based collaborators. This in of itself keeps fresh while also consistent. Regardless of personal opinions on the matter, it is a process that strives to keep improving.
It’s fairly commonly received wisdom that a singular vision rather than an interdependent conception is what empowers creative and successful films. Yet Marvel Studios seems to empower its collaborators to make impactful decisions throughout the process and potentially change aspects of the result as they go. Benedict Cumberbatch recently reflected on this experimental attitude in regards to his Doctor Strange sequel:
“With the first film, you’re always locked into a script, because it’s the origin story,” he says. “But there was a lot more freedom this time around. I guess, because we were … not literally making it up as we go along, but sometimes it feels like that. Marvel has this amazing ability to come into production: ‘We really just have to start shooting now. It doesn’t matter that the third act is not quite where you want it to be.’ You really do things on a wing and a prayer sometimes.”
Benedict Cumberbatch
This experimental attitude will always result in hits and slight misses. On one hand it’s brilliant that Marvel Studios gives its creative collaborators freedom to keep improving a script or scene they are not quite happy with. This can, with different perspectives or more thought, often help a scene arrive at a better place. On the other hand, however, an impending production timeline might mean a completely satisfying conclusion is reached. It also suggests that we might get different kinds of conclusions as the studio as a whole works on improving, which we know is a key motivation of the producers there. It seems as though the difficulty of third acts is a studio wider discussion. Jac Schaeffer recently spoke about how hard it can be to resonantly blend scale with emotional conclusions:
It’s the third act of a Marvel movie. I’ve been around the block on some of those, and they’re so fun — but that’s always the hardest to land. The emotional part of the finale was always very clear to me: their goodbye and the goodbye to the children. That was the grounding force. All the pyrotechnics and making sure that Wanda’s win against Agatha at the end really sings, that’s stuff that takes a long, long time.
Jac Schaeffer
The Marvel Cinematic Universe at large is a work-in-progress and this filters down into the production elements of each project. Loki featured a conclusion that was largely an amazing set of Jonathan Majors’ monologues. Yet it was also satisfying through aspects of action, scale, emotion and theme. Post-credit scenes as a feature, are significantly part of the additive delight which makes these films and streaming series so compelling. Characters and concepts are introduced, and for the creatives, part of the fun becomes figuring out how these characters and concepts play into the larger narrative. That wider narrative is perhaps the most significant point. While there might be immediate conclusions in particular projects, the wider narrative remains a work-in-progress. This gives Marvel Studios the freedom to produce better endings that delight us all.
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