Murphy's Multiverse

Category: News

  • SWCE: ‘Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae Playing a Jedi Knight

    SWCE: ‘Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae Playing a Jedi Knight

    The Acolyte has been quite a mysterious project for Lucasfilm. Not only was there a lot of curiosity about it being the first real disconnected story from a previous iteration in the franchise, but it also hinted at exploring an era that has yet to have been seen in live-action. Luckily, the latest Star Wars Celebration has arrived and we got a good look at what the future has in store.

    Not only did they unveil a new and much cleaner logo for the series. But they also confirmed some of the castings that we can expect for the series. First off, one of their biggest additions was the breakout star Lee Jung-jae after his leading role in Squid Game. They also confirmed that Joonas Suotamo will be playing a Wookie Jedi.

    Source: Twitter

  • SWCE: Inspirations of ‘The Acolyte’ Revealed

    SWCE: Inspirations of ‘The Acolyte’ Revealed

    Among the many upcoming projects on the Star Wars slate is the streaming series The Acolyte. Created by Leslye Headland, the series is set in the High Republic era well before the rise of the Empire giving fans a brand new perspective on the galaxy far, far away. Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy hyped the show at Star Wars Celebration saying that the four finished episodes of the series blew her mind before turning the stage over to Headland, who detailed some of the show’s interesting inspirations.

    According to Headland, her original pitch for the series was “Frozen meets Kill Bill.”

    While that sets up some pretty interesting ideas of what type of action fans can expect from the new series, it was also revealed that the project will take philosophical inspiration from the works of legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa’s work famously inspired Star Wars creator George Lucas’ take on the franchise and, according to Headland, two of his films, Yojimbo and The Hidden Fortress, have inspired her on The Acolyte.

    The Acolyte will stream on Disney Plus in 2024.

  • SWCE: ‘Andor’ Season 2 Eyeing Late Summer 2024 Release

    SWCE: ‘Andor’ Season 2 Eyeing Late Summer 2024 Release

    After a long wait, Star Wars Celebration is back with its big panel teasing what the future has in store for Lucasfilm. They kicked off the panel with their sleeper hit from last year: Andor. The more grounded story of the early days of the rebellion has sparked with many fans and may have become the one series that many believe is even Lucasfilm and Star Wars’ best entry to date.

    We’ve known for some time though that the series isn’t quite done yet and would wrap up with a second season. During the big Lucasfilm panel at SWCE, the series showrunner and creator Tony Gilroy unveiled that we might expect the series sometime next year. He highlights that they are already halfway through production and once again confirms that the series will end where Rogue One starts.

    Source: Twitter

  • ‘Quantumania’ Writer Jeff Loveness Confirms One of the Film’s Major Rewrites

    ‘Quantumania’ Writer Jeff Loveness Confirms One of the Film’s Major Rewrites

    Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania‘s theatrical run had a less than stellar theatrical run as it ran out of steam pretty quickly after a big opening weekend in mid-February. Much of the dropoff has been attributed to the generally poor word of mouth around the film, which was essentially an offbeat sci-fi B movie dressed up as an MCU flick. Writer Jeff Loveness has been the target of significant ire from fans who have consistently criticized some odd edits and lack of stakes in the film’s third act. Interestingly enough, in an exclusive interview with Murphy’s Multiverse, Loveness confirmed that one part of the film’s ending was significantly altered from his original drafts; now, in a new interview, he’s revealed further changes to the film.

    In an interview with Backstory Magazine, Loveness confirmed that he had written the death of a member of the Ant-Family into an early draft of Quantumania. “We were going to kill Hank at one point,” said Loveness, “and I was going to have him be, like, reanimated.” Loveness is a huge comic book fans and has written books for Marvel Comics. When he was hired for Quantumania, I was told that his understanding of the source material was key to Marvel Studios being brought on board, so it’s not too surprising that he was going to “reanimate” Hank Pym in a very comic book-y way. “His consciousness was going to live on through the ants, and he was going to be like mentally controlling them,” he explained before adding, “yeah, he was going to be almost like this hive mind of the ants, and I like that… that didn’t go too far.“

    Given Loveness‘ admission that he liked his own idea, it’s hard to believe he was the one who cut the idea from the script and that it was likely done by the studio somewhere during the editing process. The revelation by Loveness continues to call into question just what went on between early drafts and even early screenings of the film and the final product. Reliable plot leaks suggest a much different cut of Quantumania existed at one point and set photos confirm that the final scenes of the movie were reshot roughly 6 weeks before release. While this news won’t stop the “bad writing” bandwagon from rolling, it’ll hopefully at least give some fans a reason to stop and think about who’s responsible for what when they see a film. Writers write. Editors edit. And someone else makes all the final decisions.

  • HBO Max’s ‘It’ Prequel Scares Up its First Cast Members

    HBO Max’s ‘It’ Prequel Scares Up its First Cast Members

    It looks to have found its first four cast members. The upcoming prequel series based on the popular It duology by Andy Muschietti will further explore the early days of the town of Derry. For now, it only has the fittingly working title of “Welcome to Derry” but it seems that the project is moving forward at full speed after it was ordered straight-to series back in February.

    As of now, four cast members have joined the production which includes Ma Raney’s Black Bottom‘s Taylour Paige, Babylon‘s Jovan Adepo, Oppenheimer‘s James Remar, and Perry Mason‘s Chris Chalk. Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane are serving as co-showrunners on the project with Muschietti acting as an executive producer through Double Dream.

    Currently, the following logline has been shared for the HBO Max original series:

    Set in the world of Stephen King’s ‘It’ universe, ‘Welcome to Derry’ is based on King’s ‘It’ novel and expands the vision established by filmmaker Andy Muschietti in the feature films ‘It’ and ‘It Chapter Two.

    Supposedly Andy Muschietti will also direct multiple episodes, including the pilot. Fuchs wrote the teleplay for the first episode, but it is based on an idea he worked on with Muschietti and his wife, Barbara Muschietti. It’ll be interesting to see how they might tackle this adaptation and how much the focus may be on Pennywise given he’s an integral part of Derry’s history. Bill Skarsgard, who played him in the last two films, confirmed he has not been in talks to join just yet. So, we’ll see if an announcement will follow.

    Source: Variety

  • ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Wahooing Towards $127.5M 5-Day Opening Weekend

    ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Wahooing Towards $127.5M 5-Day Opening Weekend

    Even as the reviews from critics are surprisingly harsh, it seems that the collaboration between Illumination, Universal, and Nintendo is heading towards that 1-Up Mushroom, as The Super Mario Bros. Movie is looking to make quite a big bang at the box office this weekend. Wednesday previews are already looking strong and are heading towards $26M sans Tuesday previews, which would potentially mean an $86.2M 3-day opening.

    Luckily for it, this will be a 5-day opening and it’ll likely end up around $127.5M, which would put it on the path to becoming the biggest opening for a video game-based adaptation. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 opened to $26.3M but that was including Thursday previews. It held the 3-day record at $72.1M and while critics haven’t loved the Nintendo film, audiences seemingly do going by its Rotten Tomatoes.

    Not just that, this film will also pull in the best 5-day debut for Illumination since Despicable Me 2‘s $143M back in 2013. With some strong legs, the film has a good chance of starting its own cinematic universe, as post-credit sequences have already been teased (Luigi’s Mansion, anyone?). The only question is if the legs will hold as family audiences haven’t really been reliable going by previous entries, but this film might be why they weren’t showing up; COVID has led to many saving up for the big releases.

    Source: Deadline

  • Jason Momoa’s ‘Minecraft’ Movie Gets 2025 Release Date

    Jason Momoa’s ‘Minecraft’ Movie Gets 2025 Release Date

    It seems a blocky adventure is on the horizon, as Minecraft finally has a release date. It was in April of last year that it was unveiled Jason Momoa would potentially star in a film based on the popular indie game, Minecraft. While the franchise went on to have more story-focused offerings, it mainly was about a simple concept: survival. In its very simplistic design, you play a character gathering resources and trying to survive the dangers of the night. Now, April 4th 2025 is when we’ll get to enter this blocky world.

    There’s no detail on what exactly we can expect from this film and if they might take inspiration from the Minecraft: Story Mode game or even focus on concepts taken from the Dungeons spinoffs. Some time ago, it was hinted it would follow a version of the female protagonist from the game that was on a hunt for the Ender Dragon alongside a group of adventures; not too dissimilar from the recent Dungeons & Dragons film.

    Steve Carrel was even at one point set to star when the film had multiple directors attached but now seems to be actually moving forward. Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess is still seemingly involved. For now, we’ll have to wait and see what the future has in store for the game adaptation, especially as The Super Mario Bros. Movie faced a surprisingly negative reaction from critics even after positive early reactions. So, we’ll see where the future is heading towards for video game adaptations.

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘Aquaman 2’ Hitting Theaters Earlier This Holiday Season

    ‘Aquaman 2’ Hitting Theaters Earlier This Holiday Season

    As the tides at DC continue to change, the sequel to one of the most successful DC films to date has gotten a new release date. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which was originally slated to release on Christmas Day, will now hit theaters on December 20th.

    James Wan’s sequel, which will now now on a Wednesday rather than a Monday, will be going head to head in theaters with the sequel to Ghostbusters: Afterlife which recently began production.

    Updating…

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘Star Wars’: Donald Glover Eyeing Return As Lando For Future Project

    ‘Star Wars’: Donald Glover Eyeing Return As Lando For Future Project

    Solo: A Star Wars Story actor Donald Glover wants to return as Lando Calrissian in a galaxy not so far away. Glover confirms that he is in talks to return as Lando in a future project. Details of exactly what that project may remain under wraps. According to Glover, Lando’s charming character is a rarity in recent memory, and he says he welcomes the chance to reprise his character.

    “I would love to play Lando again. It’s a fun time, being him. It just has to be the right way to do it. Time is precious…I’m not interested in doing anything that’s going to be a waste of my time or just a paycheck….It just has to be the right thing, and I think it could be. Lando is definitely somebody I like to hang out with.”

    Zak Sharf, Variety

    If this new project is to be successful, it’s got its work cut out. Debuting in 2018, “Solo” was costly as the film narrowly exceeded its $250 million-plus budget. The $392 million worldwide sales did not net Disney a profit. Something else fans should remember: Director Ron Howard has openly said he’s unaware of a sequel in the works. He adds fans primarily drive news of a “Solo” sequel. Howard warns that while not impossible, he doesn’t get the sense it’s a priority for Lucasfilm. Glover returning to the big screen would be under other storylines for now.

    Source: Variety

  • Warner Bros. Eyeing a ‘Harry Potter Revival as an HBO Max Series

    Warner Bros. Eyeing a ‘Harry Potter Revival as an HBO Max Series

    The Wizarding World has lost a lot of steam with its latest Fantastic Beast entry, and it seems that Warner Bros. is trying to bring back the magic, as they are currently eyeing a new adaptation of the iconic Harry Potter books. This time around, however, it won’t be a new set of films but rather an ongoing series for HBO Max that would recount all books. The only troubling reveal is: J.K. Rowling may be involved to produce.

    While it makes sense that the author of the original work would be involved, Rowling has become quite infamous for her views online. It has gotten to a point where stars of the original have quite openly spoken out against her beliefs and the troubles that come with it. It seems that her involvement is due to her creative control over the work.

    The project is among the many ideas that WBD has without any talent involved. So, it is in the very early stages and once they move forward, they’ll likely focus on trying to add a writer that would work alongside Rowling to bring this series to life for the streaming service. The plan, for now, seems to adapt one book per season, which would lead to around seven seasons’ worth of stories to explore.

    In a way, it’s not too surprising as WBD has also been quite vocal about wanting to revive its “big IPs” in the past such as recent movements on bringing back The Lord of the Rings with its original creative team involved, or at least in talks to return. So, they are trying to recapture that magic again and push the franchise back into the spotlight. Perhaps moving it to HBO Max is also a way to give it time before its cinematic potential is revived. Just a shame they didn’t create their own story in Hogwarts to make it stand out.

    Source: Deadline, Bloomberg