It looks like Amazon Prime’s latest new series, Wheel of Time, is off to a strong start as Deadline is reporting that the fantasy novel adaptation has become the most-watched series of 2021 for Prime Video. Not only that, Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke has highlighted that it’s in the top 4 of the streaming services launches. So, it looks like they are quite satisfied with its performance and the new series might have a bright future ahead.
She also added that the series had some of the highest completion rates they’ve seen for a series with third parties pointing it to being the most talked-about release for Amazon so far. The Rosamund Pike-led project was even outpacing Netflix’s popular fantasy adaptation, The Witcher. Early predictions have come true, as it was poised to be their biggest opening since the second season of The Boys.
Amazon has also highlighted that they are aiming to offer more transparency for the future, which seems to be a reactionary move due to Netflix also offering insight into their top ten streaming performances on a weekly basis. It’ll be interesting to see if we get insight into how exactly these series perform across the board, especially with the ever-growing competition.
The second part of Masters of the Universe: Revelation has finally found its way to Netflix. Kevin Smith‘s series acts as a continuation of the many story threads left behind in the original 1981 series, while also expanding upon the lore of the world of Eternia and the mysteries of the mystical power’s origin. The first part started on a surprising tragedy that pushed our characters to explore their place in a world without He-Man. Even in the second part, we get some strong character moments surrounding key characters of the original. In a colorful world like Eternia, drama is a surprising addition that adds a unique challenge to its goofier origins.
The characters in this world have some rather curious naming conventions. Some of them even follow the same rule as Digimon‘s titular monster all ending their name the same way. Throughout the journey, we’ll meet He-Man, Beast Man, Moss-Man, Mer-Man, and many other “Man” named characters. One of our main antagonists, or technically protagonist, is unironically named Evil-Lyn, which she pokes fun at not being her choice.
It’s great that the show embraces these names that defined these characters in our childhood. It just accepts that this is their name and it makes sense within this universe rather than mocking every single character. Beast-Man especially gets a great character moment highlighted by his name in the final episodes. But I confess to sometimes chuckling when someone screams out the name Clamp-Champ in a dramatic fashion.
Still, it’s not the namings of these characters that make the drama not always land as strongly as it could. Skeletor has unleashed his power across the world early in the first episode of Part 2 and is, at long last, an actual threat to our heroes. Yet, as this is happening, we have characters like Fisto and Clamp-Champ making jokes during some high-stakes moments. So, when a character screams: “It’s time for this mist to meet my fist!” it takes away a bit from the actual tragedy that is unfolding for a bit.
The music sometimes also takes a more “heroic” direction with some jokes thrown in right before landing on a rather tragic moment. We have burned corpses on the ground mere minutes after a joke was made. Even as the sequence starts focusing more on the drama of how helpless our heroes are and building tension, Skeletor throws out another pun to de-escalate it. It’s not technically an issue and Even with more drama added in, the expansion of the once more kid-friendly cartoon still tries to keep some of the goofier elements alive, but that seems to be at a constant struggle with the more serious additions.
It doesn’t downplay the storytelling at play here and some of the deeper character moments hit quite hard. Sometimes it just feels like the show could’ve done with one or two jokes less, or at least aged up some of the humor alongside the drama. At the end of the day, it’s subjective if the humor and drama hit the right balance for you. It just didn’t quite hit the mark all the time, but I will say the second season ends on a high note that makes up for some of the goofier moments earlier on in the second part. Here’ shopping that momentum is carried over into the third.
From the moment the series was announced in the spring of 2019, it was obvious that Marvel Studios’ Hawkeye was going to draw a lot of inspiration from the comic run by Matt Fraction and David Aja. The promotional material for the show, right down to its title card, has done nothing but point to the live-action Disney+ show borrowing heavily from the vibe and aesthetic the creative duo pioneered in 2012. Yet, in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the series head writer Jonathan Igla revealed that the pages of Marvel comics weren’t the only place he found inspiration when bringing Hawkeye to life.
It would seem all those wonderfully cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies played a role in the writing process as well. Igla spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about watching plenty of the made-for-tv films with Elise Climent, his partner in both life and writing to find inspiration on bringing the Christmas spirit to life in the series:
I couldn’t say they did not inform the Christmas of the show, a little bit. In the same way that those movies are comforting, I was reading those [Hawkeye] comics so many times. There was something that was comforting and relaxing about it. To turn off the stress of the day and try to disconnect from work.
Jonathan Igla
When it comes to stories set around the holidays, there’s no better place to look than the Hallmark Channel. The network pumps out numerous new Christmas-themed projects every year, all of which are laced with the feel-good energy of the season. It’s not a bad thing to hear that the team behind Hawkeye found themselves drawing from the comforting, cozy nature of movies like A Very Merry Mix-Up and Coming Home for Christmas. It’s a bit of a contrast to the influences highlighted by director Rhys Thomas included, such as Die Hard, Home Alone, and even Gremlins. It shows just how many corners of Christmas films are out there.
It looks like the upcoming fourth season of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan has expanded its cast by five new recruits. The John Krasinski-led project on Amazon Prime will add Zulekha Robinson, Louis Ozawa, and Okieriete Onaodowan as series regulars. Derek Cecil and Nancy Lenehan will join the project in recurring roles throughout the season.
The casting is at perfect timing, as production has only just wrapped on the third season, which still doesn’t have a release date. So, it seems they might be jumping into the next season shortly while the other airs. They will play alongside returning actors Wendell Pierce as James Greer and Michael Kelly as Mike November.
The Exorcist star Robinson will take on the role of Zeyara, while Hunters‘ Ozawa is Chao Fah. Onaodowan of Station 19 fame has been tapped as Adebayo ‘Ade’ Osoji. People of the Earth‘s Lenehan will tackle the role of Senator Joan Henshaw with House of Cards‘ Cecil as Senator Morgan.
Throughout the pandemic, it seemed like the only real update we have for upcoming Marvel Studios projects was through merchandise. Even now, as film shave finally returned to theaters, sometimes leaks from toy companies offer some insight into the upcoming project, or at the very least a sign we can expect teases for upcoming projects. Twitter user @preterniadotcom shared a list that may potentially hint at the first wave of Marvel Legends figurines for Thor: Love and Thunder.
Marvel Legends Thor: Love and Thunder Wave UPCs and code names if you'd like to speculate, April 2022 ship date:
Some of these could be quite easy to connect. Necro might be in reference to the Necrosword, so that’ll likely be Gorr the God Butcher. Korg is a good candidate for Cracked, while Pew Pew could be in reference to Star-Lord. Biceps is likely Chris Hemsworth‘s Thor, which could be as a reference to the image teased of him on set included in the tweet. The rest get a bit more difficult but Sabaton, a Swedish heavy metal band could be in reference to Valkyrie while Helm is Jane, due to her character famously wearing a helmet in the comics.
Still, we have to keep in mind that not every single figurine in this line-up will be from the film. Even the What If…? series included at least one character from the comics. Perhaps we’ll get a Loki figurine in addition that isn’t directly connected to the film. IF code names are available and they are eyeing an April release, there’s a chance we might get a good look at them around February or March. Spider-Man: No Way Home’s toy tie-ins were released ahead of the trailer as well that offered some teases of the film.
It looks like the upcoming Super Mario film will change something quite iconic about the popular Nintendo mascot. Throughout the games, the character famously was brought to life by Charles Martinet, who gave the character an iconic Italian accent. He’s also voiced most of the supporting cast including his brother Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi. That all will change when Chris Pratt takes over the voice role for the gaming icons grand return to the silver screen, but it looks like he’ll have a very different approach.
In an interview with toofab, Illumination Entertainment producer Chris Meledandri revealed that we shouldn’t expect his iconic Italian accent for the film. He added that Pratt will add his own spin of the character’s voice, which will be greatly different from what fans are used to. Though, he does highlight that there will be a reason given for the character’s new voice in the film. Meledandri goes on to highlight that:
All I can tell you is the voice that he’s doing for us, and Mario, is phenomenal,” the 62-year-old insisted upon a recent return to LAX. “Yeah I can’t wait for people to hear it
He does highlight that there will be some representation of their Italian heritage in the film, but that’ll be in the form of Charlie Day as Luigi.
Charlie Day, who’s playing Luigi, actually comes from Italian heritage. Yeah so that’s our nod
It’s certainly a strange decision to move completely away from the voice that made the character iconic. Even when the film SCOOB! replaced the franchise’s iconic voice cast, the voice of Shaggy copied that of the original character. It’s a recurring theme that animated projects hire non-voice actors to add as a selling point to its advertising, but we’ll see what Pratt brings to the table.
When the first trailer for tomorrow’s Hawkeye dropped, many have noted a similarity in style to the classic Bruce Willis-led film Die Hard. The comparison was aided by the visual of him escaping out of a skyscraper. Well, it seems that the iconic 90s action film played a role in bringing this series to life, but it looks like they had some other interesting inspiration when tackling the project.
In an interview with ComicBook.com, director Rhys Thomas discussed what influenced their take on the character’s first solo adventure in the MCU, where he lists that the first two Home Alone films and even Gremlin also played a part in their inspiration for bringing the Christmas feeling to the Disney+ series. His full quote states that:
People mentioned Die Hard being one side of things, but yeah. I mean Home Alone is definitely a big atmospheric Christmas touchstone… both the original and Lost In New York. Yeah, I don’t know. Like I, kinda, again, I would just do, I mean, Gremlins as well. It’s like… I’m the type of person that sort of whether a direct reference makes it into a show or a movie or not, I will take any excuse to sort of keep plumbing my memory, my cultural memory.
There have been many classic holiday-themed films in the past years. Of course, Die Hard is the most obvious inspiration due to the action aspect. Sadly, they didn’t use the opportunity to have Shane Black tackle an episode due to his love for projects including the Christmas theme. After his work with Iron Man 3, it’s surprising they wouldn’t have him back to add his unique style. Perhaps he’ll get to tackle a Christmas special another time, as the Guardians of the Galaxy are likely the next one.
Here’s something you don’t expect every day. It looks like the catchy “Agatha All Along” song from WandaVision has been nominated for the Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media. It is joined in the category by From Inside‘s “All Eyes on Me”, Judas and the Black Messiah‘s “Fight for You”, One Night in Miami‘s “Speak Now,” and Respect‘s “Here I Am.” Agatha’s theme song from the seventh episode was written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez with the lyrics sung by Agatha herself, KathrynHahn, with back-up from Eric Bradley, Greg Whippie, Jasper Randall, and Gerald Whites. You can check out the announcement here:
It’s a great win for Marvel Studios and their first venture into Disney+ long-form storytelling. In September, the series won the studio’s first Emmys, which was impressive for their first venture into TV-style programming. Loki also included a song that was quite popular but it hasn’t been nominated. The Mandalorian, however, was nominated for its soundtrack in this year’s Grammys. So, WandaVision won’t be the only Disney+ series represented at the award.
It looks like the upcoming third entry of the Ant-Man and the Wasp films with the subtitle Quantumania has wrapped production. Director Peyton Reed took to Twitter to announce that they’ve finished principal photography on the film alongside some beautiful artwork by Mark James Hiblin. It naturally doesn’t give anything away of what we can expect from the upcoming threequel and they’ll likely enter reshoots in the coming months, but it’ll be interesting to see if we get some casting news or teases about what the sequel might have in store for us.
Principal photography on ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA is now complete! Can’t wait to show you all what we’ve been up to…
The only confirmation we have for the upcoming film is that Jonathan Majors will appear as Kang the Conqueror, which will build upon his appearance in the Disney+ Loki series. Of course, there’s also the confusing choice to recast Cassie Lang with Kathryn Newton taking over the role of Emma Fuhrmann. Just recently, we also learned that Bill Murphy will appear in the sequel as confirmed in an interview with German journalist Patrick Heidmann. It’ll be interesting to see what the film has in store for us with this incredible cast, as we explore the Quantum Realm once again.
It appears Halloween will officially begin its end this January.
We here at Murphy’s Multiverse can exclusively reveal that production on the third Halloween film, Halloween Ends, will enter production in January. Filming will take place in Savannah, Georgia starting on January 19th. Director David Gordon Green returns behind the camera for the third installment, which he has described as a “coming of age” movie which takes place four years after the events of Halloween Kills. We can also report that the film is operating under the working title Cave Dweller.
As for the film’s cast, Halloween Ends is looking to cast a fair amount of roles. Among them are a self-assured nurse named Erin who is between the ages of 28 and 35 and is very judgmental, as well as a Proprietor between the ages of 40 and 80 years old. Other roles being cast for the film are Scott, Donna, Mr. Meade and Mrs. Meade.
Per the breakdowns, Scott is a male between the ages of 52 and 57; he is stern, strong and a straight shooter who is sometimes checked out. While Donna is a 55 to 65 year old female who is Timothy’s overbearing and critical mother. Mr. Meade and Mrs. Meade are the parents to a young boy named Noah who is a nice kid with the ability to switch to a jerk on a dime. Both Mr. and Mrs. Meade are described as being between the ages of 40 and 50 years old. They’re a middle-class suburban family, with the father being described as “tough as nails” and the mother said to showcase “emotional depth.”
Other roles being cast are Brandon, Young Johnny and Veronica. Brandon is a male between the ages of 40 and 60. He is a large man in weight and sense of authority who finds his son to be a disappointment. Young Johnny is a male between the ages of 6 and 10 who has long blonde hair with a slight gap between his teeth; the character is described as having dark eyes being a bit small. Veronica is the last of the trio. She’s between the ages of 40 and 45 and is a strong-willed protective wife who is broken “by the reminders of tragedy.”
Halloween Ends hits theaters on October 14th, 2022.
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