The continued story of the Ten Rings organization was teased in Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings, so it wasn’t a complete surprise when, in December of 2021, a Disney Plus spinoff project from the film was announced. While it has not been confirmed by Marvel Studios, it is expected that the series, being developed by Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton, will focus on the Ten Rings, now under the command of Xialing.
Cast
During the Disney Entertainment Showcase at D23 2024, Daredevil: Born Again star Charlie Cox confirmed that a second season of the series was set to start production before the end of 2024.
Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again kicked off in late February in New York City. On March 1st, Matthew Lillard was confirmed to join the cast and was later revealed to be portraying an international power player named Mister Charles.
Krysten Ritter will return as Jessica Jones.
Cast
Though production on the series is currently delayed, we’ve still got an interesting piece of news. IMDB shows (and for those that doubt it, I can confirm its accuracy) that the Minutemen, essentially the police force of the TVA, will have a presence in Loki with Marvel Studios stunt guru Chris Brewster portraying one of them!
First appearing in Fantastic Four #352, the Minutemen are an armored corps of robots, clones and cyborgs used by the TVA to police the Timestream. Tasked with securing TVA headquarters and apprehending delinquents who are messing with timelines, the Minutemen have, on occasion, led by Justice Peace. For the purposes of Loki, you might be able to think of them as red shirts on an episode of Star Trek. As it stand now, Brewster will be joined by Isabelle Fretheim as Minutemen in Episode 2 of the series.
Stay tuned to Murphy’s Multiverse for further coverage of Loki!
If you’ve never read an installment of Connecting Imaginary Dots, allow me to explain the idea. Connecting Imaginary Dots was the title I came up with for my speculation pieces when I was writing at MCU Exchange. These types of pieces basically allow me to unload a bunch of junk that’s circulating in my brain in a way that should never be confused for things I actually expect to happen. I basically take a bunch of facts that are almost always entirely unrelated and do my best to connect the dots with by stretching my imagination. In the past these types of pieces have resulted in me theorizing that the Spider-Man sequel which became Far From Home might end up being a team-up outing of Spidey and Hulk in the Savage Land; however, I also wrote one theorizing that Sterling K. Brown would be playing the father of Erik Killmonger in Black Panther LOOOOOONG before anyone else was considering it and one in which I theorized that Annette Bening was actually Mar-Vell when everyone else still thought Jude Law was playing the character. The bottom line is this: these are fun spec pieces that allow me to just be a fan. With that out of the way…
This piece is probably as convoluted and out there as any Connecting The Imaginary Dots piece I’ve done since I decided that Spidey and Hulk were headed to the Savage Land, but it’s in my head and I’m going to get it out.
Family. The less than subtle theme of this May’s Black Widow has been built up through the trailers and has led us to believe that Nat’s reunion with her Russian family will take her on a bit of a redemptive arc. The film is also setting up Taskmaster as the main antagonist and, often times in film, the antagonist’s arc is a dark reflection of the hero’s. I’m beginning to wonder that as Nat’s reunion redeems her, if we might see a family separated and out for revenge.
There are a lot of dots here, so I’ll lay them out now:
With the dots all laid out, here’s what I’m staring at:
Samuels’ Anya is Taskmaster’s daughter. Marvel Studios specifically wanted a non-white actress for the role because they were casting her as the daughter of Fagbenle’s Mason/Tasky. Her character is is an amalgamation of Recluse and Finesse. Marvel Studios has a lot of great characters and they’re not going to get to them all, so they’ve brought the two together to make an intriguing new character. Recluse is part of the Dark Room Academy where she is trained by her father. At some point during the climax of the film, her father is killed by Nat, or maybe Yelena. When she find out, she swears revenge, becomes the new Taskmaster and will be the face under the mask going forward. Anya’s loss sets her on the very path Nat is trying to step off of. Of course that means she’s not going to get revenge on Nat so, like I said, maybe Yelena…but you guys all think she’s dead! Which is really weird because this series of screenshots pulled from the trailers tells a really different story: one in which she is alive (note she is wearing the same white outfit without the vest when she’s on the table) and being prepped for some sort of medical procedure:
But all that is another story…
The bottom line is this: I look forward to more Tasky shenanigans and a couple more Black Widow solo films starring Florence Pugh.
How crazy and convoluted is this conjecture? Let me know in the comments!!
If you’ve never read an installment of Connecting Imaginary Dots, allow me to explain the idea. Connecting Imaginary Dots was the title I came up with for my speculation pieces when I was writing at MCU Exchange. These types of pieces basically allow me to unload a bunch of junk that’s circulating in my brain in a way that should never be confused for things I actually expect to happen. I basically take a bunch of facts that are almost always entirely unrelated and do my best to connect the dots with by stretching my imagination. In the past these types of pieces have resulted in me theorizing that the Spider-Man sequel which became Far From Home might end up being a team-up outing of Spidey and Hulk in the Savage Land;however, I also wrote one theorizing that Sterling K. Brown would be playing the father of Erik Killmonger in Black Panther LOOOOOONG before anyone else was considering it and one in which I theorized that Annette Bening was actually Mar-Vell when everyone else still thought Jude Law was playing the character and, more recently, one in which I tried to connect some dots that would allow Spider-Woman to be a Sony/Marvel Studios cooperative effort much like the two most recent Spider-Man films. The bottom line is this: these are fun spec pieces that allow me to just be a fan. With that out of the way…
Last week, The Illuminerdi relayed some information on some characters set to play a supporting role in the upcoming Marvel Studios streaming series, Loki. In that article, they included the following information about a character named “Casey”:
Casey – Open to any ethnicity or gender. Casey is a good natured, yet exhausted intern. Extremely likeable. Great comedy skills. Casey’s entire career has been spent indoors and always does things by the books even when things are out of their control. A supporting character needed for 4 episodes
When I first read about the role, a role for which Marvel Studios is looking for non-binary actors, I assumed it was a fairly generic role that was created to add some more humor to the office atmosphere of the Time Variance Authority. Last night, when researching another character set to appear in the series (sorry, I’m not quite ready to run that piece yet today), I was surprised to learn that a TVA employee named Casey already existed!
First appearing in Fantastic Four #354, Casey is an alien of unknown origin who operates a timespace transport (the Illinois Central Cannonball Express) for the TVA. In the issue, Casey helps the Fantastic Four escape the TVA by giving them a lift back to their own time on his impressive cross-time express.
This was Casey’s one and only appearance in the comics and it was a brief one where he openly defied the orders of one of his supervisors, Mobius M. Mobius. Now there is no certainty that the Casey we see in Loki is this Casey, is based on this Casey or has anything to do with Casey in any way, shape or form; however, it’s certainly worth thinking about and, at the very least, opens the flood gates to deluge of new ideas about what might actually be happening in Loki!
When Stan Lee sat down to write the Fantastic Four in the 1960s, he came up with a very sci-fi sounding explanation for how they got their powers: cosmic rays! It sound pretty good: these explorers got hit with some cosmic rays and the strange energy they carried altered their DNA and gave them incredible powers, thus was born the First Family of Marvel Comics.
At some point in the near future, Kevin Feige and the core creative team are going to sit down and determine how to redefine the Fantastic Four on the big screen. After a few failed attempts, Marvel Studios owns one of Marvel Comics most beloved and most high concept sci-fi properties and, as we’ve seen, Feige has no qualms about modernizing these IPs. Nobody knows for sure what route Feige and team will take with the Fantastic Four reboot. It’s possible we could see the team retconned in (similar to how they worked Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne into the continuity) as having worked on a project in the past that saw them disappear for the last 40 years or so. It’s an easy path to take, but one they’ve already dabbled in and one that could very well get stale quickly. Another possible path, and one that I’m growing more fond of by the day, is to modernize these great explorers and bring Reed Richards genius to bear as one of the world’s foremost theoretical physicists studying one of the universe’s great mysteries: dark energy.
Simply put, dark energy is the stuff that scientists don’t understand very well and can’t see but they think they know it’s there because measurable changes caused by it can be observed throughout space because it’s hypothesized to occupy what was originally believed to be the empty space of the universe. Basically scientists think dark energy might be responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe. And while a whole bunch of them love the idea, a whole bunch more (including some from a recent project in South Korea) aren’t really convinced of its existence. If that doesn’t make a lot of sense to you, that’s ideal because stuff that nobody understand is perfect sci-fi fodder. It’s hard to argue about the behavior stuff you can’t see and that nobody is even really sure exists because there’s no proof (think time travel in Terminator…now think about it in Avengers: Endgame).
The accelerating expansion of the universe and dark energy are just a couple of things that theoretical astrophysicists think about in their down time and, if you’ve read anything with Reed Richards in it, are just the types of things Reed would ponder while assembling the update version the Ultimate Nullifier. In particular, Reed might concern himself with the notion that if the universe is expanding relatively rapidly, what happens when it gets too big? What the stars we see at night have gotten so far away from us that their light is no longer visible and entirely out of our reach? This sounds far-fetched, but it’s actually something Dr. Dan Hopper at the University of Chicago has thought a lot about and something that has real implications for the future of an already energy-starved planet.
Why would it matter if we couldn’t reach the stars? Common among post-1800’s sci-fi fare (including Marvel Comics) is the idea of a Dyson Sphere. A Dyson Sphere is basically a massive structure, built around a star that stores the star’s energy and allows it to be transferred to any number of other modes. If we can’t get to the stars, Dyson Spheres really won’t matter…and this thought would really bother Reed Richards. So much so, that he might just try to get a handle on this whole dark energy thing and see if he couldn’t just harness it himself. One seemingly ridiculous way that one might harness dark energy would be to use it to warp spacetime itself, allowing for us to travel to the farthest reaches of the galaxy by MOVING spacetime instead of moving ourselves. And there’s something so crazy about that idea that I just can’t get out of my head the notion that it’s something Reed Richards would try to do and, in doing so, potentially bring himself face-to-face with the true nature (I mean it isn’t really true because we have no idea if it’s real) of dark energy.
So perhaps as Feige and crew work their way towards The Fantastic Four, they might consider something as crazy as making Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny the most modern of explorers. A man and his family who are pushing the limits of science to solve a growing energy crisis on a planet that is quickly running out of renewable resources. I’m sure the people who do this for a living can do a MUCH better job at fashioning a script around these types of ideas, but as a 40some year old who has been reading the adventures of the Fantastic Four for a long, long time…this is just the kind of modernizing I would love to see even if I filled it with made up stuff and a poor understanding of how the universe works.
If you’ve never read an installment of Connecting Imaginary Dots, allow me to explain the idea. Connecting Imaginary Dots was the title I came up with for my speculation pieces when I was writing at MCU Exchange. These types of pieces basically allow me to unload a bunch of junk that’s circulating in my brain in a way that should never be confused for things I actually expect to happen. I basically take a bunch of facts that are almost always entirely unrelated and do my best to connect the dots with by stretching my imagination. In the past these types of pieces have resulted in me theorizing that the Spider-Man sequel which became Far From Home might end up being a team-up outing of Spidey and Hulk in the Savage Land;however, I also wrote one theorizing that Sterling K. Brown would be playing the father of Erik Killmonger in Black Panther LOOOOOONG before anyone else was considering it and one in which I theorized that Annette Bening was actually Mar-Vell when everyone else still thought Jude Law was playing the character and, more recently, one in which I tried to connect some dots that would allow Spider-Woman to be a Sony/Marvel Studios cooperative effort much like the two most recent Spider-Man films. The bottom line is this: these are fun spec pieces that allow me to just be a fan. With that out of the way…
I’m on the verge of tears as I write this. Arriving at this conclusion, no matter how speculative in nature it may be, is the thing my own recent, personal nightmares are made of; however, as information has continued to make its way through my inbox and my phone, I’ve forced myself to at least accept this as one possible outcome out of many: Owen Wilson may just be playing the role of Kang the Conquerer in the upcoming Marvel Studios streaming series, Loki.
Recently Daniel RPK revealed that the series, now in production, was set to introduce the Master of Men to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and, if we are being honest with ourselves, there is plenty of evidence to support the insertion of Kang into the MCU in this series. As many of you know, the production company for the series is called Limbo Productions I LLC. In the comics, Limbo often served as a home base of sorts for Kang, all the Kangs really, and plays a large part in his own, personal stories. While we don’t know specifics about the series, we do know that Loki will see the titular trickster travel through time and become an influence on human history. All sorts of times and locations are rumored, some of which (Egypt and Times Square) could easily be tied back to places that were quite important to Kang in the comics (credit to my friend @3vry1lvsgdstry for digging up some of that information!). Finally, the events of Avengers: Endgame not only put the finishing touches on the Infinity Saga, but also opened multiple storytelling pathways for the future of the MCU and, as Tony Stark said, “when you mess with time it tends to mess back.” In summary, I don’t think anyone will be entirely caught off guard is Kang is introduced to the MCU in the near future. However…
Owen Wilson as Kang the Conqueror would have to be up there with the absolute longest of longshots. It’s not something anyone would ask for and it’s certainly not something fans of the Lord of the Seven Suns have had their hearts set on for some time. So why am I, someone who finds Wilson’s involvement in the MCU an affront to my fandom, connecting the dots that lead to an actor I am not a fan of assuming the role of a comic book character I’ve been wanting to see on screen for roughly a decade? Because there are at least to facts out there that started my mind down this pathway and, as awful as it sounds, I want to offer the evidence up to the rest of you so that you can think it over for yourselves.
We know Wilson’s role in Loki is a major one. It’s a lead role and while it’s probably a very common occurrence with many of the actors who sign on for these Marvel Studios Disney Plus series, Wilson’s contract includes an option for a to be determined number of film appearances. As I said, film options are likely the case for many cast members but I do find it interesting that Wilson’s contract leaves it open ended. It indicates to me that not only can we possibly rule out an obscure character like Justice Peace or another member of the TVA, but also that Marvel Studios wants to lock Wilson into place for the next 3-5 years but, at this point, they aren’t locked in as to what films they might use him in. This jives with some other information I’ve been hearing recently that some changes to the future of the MCU took place as recently as October of 2019, which is why until recently we didn’t have a confirmed Captain Marvel sequel and we still don’t know just what to expect in 2022 and beyond. It’s possible that those decisions were very recently made or remade and that Kang now plays a large role in them.
Admittedly that’s not very good evidence and since this is just a speculative piece, it doesn’t really have to be, but there is one more thing of interest. We know that while Loki is using Atlanta as its home base so they can use the stages, they’ll be going on location all around the U.S. over the next several months. Wilson’s character, whoever it may be, is set to appear in at least 5 episodes and will be traveling to locations with star Tom Hiddleston. Going on location means potentially exposing your leads to fans and paparazzi and I am told that Marvel Studios is taking every precaution to make sure that Wilson’s character is not revealed during these on location shoots because it would be considered a major spoiler. Again, if he’s playing a character such as Justice Peace, someone heavily speculated on since the TVA reveal in the Super Bowl spot, I’m not sure the studio would be very worried about him being seen in costume. However, if Wilson’s costume looks anything like the very unique get up Kang likes to trot around in, you can see why they won’t want that out there.
Kang is one of Marvel Comics greatest villains and a key component of the deal they made with Fox. There is no doubt they’ll be introducing him at some point and his involvement with the Young Avengers, a team which has been heavily rumored to assemble on screen shortly (and the evidence sure is building there, isn’t it?) makes it very easy to believe he’s coming soon. As hard as it is for me to swallow that it’s Owen Wilson who will be filling the role, it is one possible conclusion that can be drawn from the evidence that I’m starting to accumulate. I’ve always treated these Connecting Imaginary Dots pieces as fun speculative pieces and I’ve never been worried about being “right” or “wrong” about them; however, as soon as I hit publish, I’m going to spend the next several months hoping that someday we can all sit down and laugh as we label this theory as “WRONG.”
If you’ve never read an installment of Connecting Imaginary Dots, allow me to explain the idea. Connecting Imaginary Dots was the title I came up with for my speculation pieces when I was writing at MCU Exchange. These types of pieces basically allow me to unload a bunch of junk that’s circulating in my brain in a way that should never be confused for things I actually expect to happen. I basically take a bunch of facts that are almost always entirely unrelated and do my best to connect the dots with by stretching my imagination. In the past these types of pieces have resulted in me theorizing that the Spider-Man sequel which became Far From Home might end up being a team-up outing of Spidey and Hulk in the Savage Land;however, I also wrote one theorizing that Sterling K. Brown would be playing the father of Erik Killmonger in Black Panther LOOOOOONG before anyone else was considering it and one in which I theorized that Annette Bening was actually Mar-Vell when everyone else still thought Jude Law was playing the character. The bottom line is this: these are fun spec pieces that allow me to just be a fan. With that out of the way…
I know there’s a lot of conflicting info out there and a lot of theories, so I am hoping to shed some light on that here.
Over the past week, I’ve read that Spider-Woman is set in the MCU, that it’ll feature Julia Carpenter and that there is no Spider-Woman film, but that there is just a Madame Web movie using the character.
Here’s what I can tell you:
Spider-Woman is a Sony Pictures film and it is entirely separate from Madame Web. But there is something very interesting. Amy Pascal is producing the film for Sony, but it’s also being overseen by executive producer Rachel O’Connor. This is interesting because O’Connor has not been associated with Venom, Morbius or Venom 2, but she has been associated with both Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home. I don’t think you need me to tell you why this is interesting, but at the moment, all I can do is speculate as to what this might mean.
Jessica Drew is set to be the star of the Spider-Woman film. That is a stone cold fact. The character is co-owned by Sony and Disney. Marvel Studios can use Jessica Drew but cannot call her Spider-Woman. In conjunction with the information I stated above, this situation becomes much more interesting to me. I have to leave open the possibility that Sony and Marvel Studios could be working together on this film, meaning we could get a fully realized Jessica Drew rather than a half ass one from either Sony or Marvel Studios.
Be careful though because, as of now, there’s no proof of this. The closest we can come is tying O’Connor to it and speculating that the October 7, 2021 release date that Sony just claimed was actually a sign of cooperation by Marvel Studios, who had originally claimed that date. Of course this would put Drew on the board for some of the big, upcoming MCU story lines, including a potential Secret Invasion adaptation, so…fingers crossed.
My guess is that if there is something to this, we will know very soon.
If you’ve never read an installment of Connecting Imaginary Dots, allow me to explain the idea. Connecting Imaginary Dots was the title I came up with for my speculation pieces when I was writing at MCU Exchange. These types of pieces basically allow me to unload a bunch of junk that’s circulating in my brain in a way that should never be confused for things I actually expect to happen. I basically take a bunch of facts that are almost always entirely unrelated and do my best to connect the dots with by stretching my imagination. In the past these types of pieces have resulted in me theorizing that the Spider-Man sequel which became Far From Home might end up being a team-up outing of Spidey and Hulk in the Savage Land;however, I also wrote one theorizing that Sterling K. Brown would be playing the father of Erik Killmonger in Black Panther LOOOOOONG before anyone else was considering it and one in which I theorized that Annette Bening was actually Mar-Vell when everyone else still thought Jude Law was playing the character. The bottom line is this: these are fun spec pieces that allow me to just be a fan. With that out of the way…
Plenty of people have written up plenty of spec pieces on how and why Kraven is the perfect villain to take on the Web Slinger in the upcoming MCU Spidey film. I’m not here to rehash all that because, for the most part, I agree. I’m here to discuss one SMALL piece of information that may have, to this point, have been overlooked.
The recent report from The Illuminerdi indicated that Sony’s plans for a Kraven solo film revealed that Sony was reimagining the character as a “Bourne-like bounty hunter.” That’s a great take. Sounds tough. But one detail that stands out to me is that as of last Spring Sony had hoped to get production on Kraven rolling no later than the 2nd quarter of this year. That means that their original plans were to begin filming by June…which as of today is just 4 months away. And Sony REALLY wanted to get this film going, but there’s no record anywhere of it being close to filming. So unless Sony is going all JJ Abrams on this production and hiding everything, Kraven isn’t filming any time soon.
It’s the fact that Kraven-a film Sony was so eager to get moving at one point that they had started trying to line up some big name directors (Antoine Fuqua comes to mind)-is NOT filming in June which I find interesting. I find it even more interesting because in addition to Kraven not filming this summer, the third Spider-Man film is.
So, connecting the dots here, I think it’s highly likely that Sony’s plans for a Kraven solo were derailed when they went back to the bargaining table with Disney, at which point the Hunter became the villain of Spidey 3. To me, the nearly year-long lack of any movement on Kraven is as good of an indicator as any of what we can expect to see when Spidey 3 hits theaters in 2021.
Now, as to what role he’ll play and if he’ll be the only villain in the film, I’d say that’s a discussion for another time…
If you’ve never read an installment of Connecting Imaginary Dots, allow me to explain the idea. Connecting Imaginary Dots was the title I came up with for my speculation pieces when I was writing at MCU Exchange. These types of pieces basically allow me to unload a bunch of junk that’s circulating in my brain in a way that should never be confused for things I actually expect to happen. I basically take a bunch of facts that are almost always entirely unrelated and do my best to connect the dots with by stretching my imagination. In the past these types of pieces have resulted in me theorizing that the Spider-Man sequel which became Far From Home might end up being a team-up outing of Spidey and Hulk in the Savage Land;however, I also wrote one theorizing that Sterling K. Brown would be playing the father of Erik Killmonger in Black Panther LOOOOOONG before anyone else was considering it and one in which I theorized that Annette Bening was actually Mar-Vell when everyone else still thought Jude Law was playing the character. The bottom line is this: these are fun spec pieces that allow me to just be a fan. With that out of the way…
Last week I was able to get my hands on some Shang-Chi info. As you probably know by now, I was able to confirm that Leiko Wu, Clive Reston and Black Jack Tarr, allies of the Master of Kung Fu, were all in the script. For the last week, I’ve been doing some thinking about another character and I think I may have figured it out.
I’m writing this as sort of retelling of my thought process and I also want to be clear that the best I’ve been able to do here is connect some dots using my pre-existing knowledge of Shang-Chi comics and the info I was able to get last week.
Here we go…
In addition to the characters mentioned above, the studio was also casting for a character named “YAEKIO.” Now there is no Marvel Comics character of whom I am aware named Yaekio. There’s a Yukio and I’m sure a lot of people would have made the jump to this being that character, but there’s more to the story: they’re open to any ethnicity for this AMERICAN character and, as you know, Yukio’s Japanese origins are crucial to developing that character. None of that is really the important information here, but it is background info that will help fill out the rest of the story. The important information is that Yaekio is described as the partner of a character referred to as Su-Mi.
I spent a few days doing some thinking that kept taking me down the same path. Between Yaekio sounding like Yukio and Su-Mi being similarly constructed to Shang-Chi, I was sure that these were Asian characters who were just codenamed and I was just not thinking of the right ones. Then, I started to go down an different path, focusing more on the “American” and “partner” aspects of the casting and it was down that path that I found the character who I think makes the most sense. Rufus Carter, aka Super-Midnight!
Rufus Carter is a CIA agent who first appeared in Master of Kung Fu #96 who met Shang-Chi and Leiko Wu when their separate missions intersected on a mission in London. Shang-Chi and Wu were already left MI-6 at the time and were working for the private consulting firm known as Freelance Restorations (the name of this film’s production company). Carter left the CIA and continued to occasionally cross paths with the gang from Freelance Restorations and was an ally to Shang-Chi in the way the Felix Leiter often was to James Bond.
For those reasons alone, Carter makes a lot of sense for Su-Mi, but there’s one more thing about Carter that really helps push me closer to believing it’s him. Carter is an elite fighter, skilled in both kickboxing and martial arts. If this “tournament” leak is true and the Ten Rings are the prize, you can be sure that the CIA would do what they could to send an undercover agent in to fight for the prize. If we connect ALL THOSE DOTS, and to be sure that’s all this is, some really crazy guess work, Super-Midnight is the guy! 15 Likes
