Category: News

  • EXCLUSIVE: Character Breakdowns & Start Date for Netflix’s ‘XO Kitty’

    EXCLUSIVE: Character Breakdowns & Start Date for Netflix’s ‘XO Kitty’

    Last month, Netflix officially ordered XO Kitty, a spinoff from the To All the Boys… films, to series. While the books are based on the bestselling series by author Jenny Han, XO Kitty appears to be an original series that came about because of the movies and their popularity. Han is the TV series creator and co-wrote the pilot script with fellow author, Siobhan Vivian.

    XO Kitty stars Anna Cathcart, who reprises her role as Kitty Song Covey from the hit Netflix films. While little is known regarding XO Kitty, we here at Murphy’s Multiverse can confirm production will kick off in March of 2022 and go through May 2022 in South Korea. We can also confirm that the series is looking to fill six main roles.

    First up is the role of Dae. The character is a 17-year-old Korean male who speaks fluent English and Korean. He does, however, have a slight accent when speaking English. Dae is Kitty’s long-distance boyfriend and is described as being cute and smart.

    Next up is Jina Han. The character is described as a Korean female in her mid-40s. She is the matriarch of the Han family, and reputation means everything to her. Han is devoted to her husband, a CEO, and makes sure not to overindulge. She is the Principal of the International Korean high school. The role is a series regular role with the character appearing in seven out of ten episodes.

    The series is also looking to cast the roles of Min Ho, Q, Alex Park and Professor Lee. Min Ho is described as a 17-year-old Korean male or Korean expat. He’s handsome, confident and a millionaire playboy. He is afraid of commitment and can appear standoffish. This is a series regular role, with the production seeking an actor 18-year-old or older for the role.

    Next up is Q, a 17-year-old male from Afraid or the Middle East. The character identifies as Queer and is fluent in English, although he has an accent. He’s sociable, tall, muscular and athletic with a winning smile. Physically an alpha, but extroverted in every other sense. This is for a series regular role. The production is seeking an actor 18-year-old or older for the role who can authentically portray LGBTQ+.

    Alex Park is a Korean-American male expat in his late 20s. He is handsome and the brand-new chemistry teacher at the International Korean high school. Park serves as the dorm advisor and quickly gains a reputation as a cool, mellow teacher. He serves as a mentor figure to Kitty. While he’s a beloved teacher, Park has ulterior motives for taking the job at the school. Series regular role to appear in seven out of ten episodes.

    Finally, there’s Professor Lee who is a Korean male or Korean expat. He speaks both Korean and English and is in his early 40s or 50s. He’s a stuffy, by-the-book literature teacher who insists students abide by the rules. He’s a perennial bachelor who has lived on the campus for the last twenty years. Series regular role to appear in seven out of ten episodes.

    XO Kitty focuses on teen matchmaker Kitty Song Covey who thinks she knows everything there is to know about love. But when she moves halfway across the world (Korea) to reunite with her long-distance boyfriend, she’ll soon realize that relationships are a lot more complicated when it’s your own heart on the line. Han, the author of the To All the Boys… books, will serve as co-showrunner alongside Sascha Rothchild.

    As of now, XO Kitty does not yet have a release date on Netflix.

  • 12 IMAX Enhanced Marvel Studios Films Now Streaming on Disney Plus

    12 IMAX Enhanced Marvel Studios Films Now Streaming on Disney Plus

    It looks like Disney Plus Day got started a day early. After recently revealing that they’d make 13 of their films available with in IMAX format on November 12th, it looks like they pushed the button a bit early and made 12 of those films available today!

    Marvel Studios fans can now watch the following films complete with a larger aspect ratio and DTS sound:

    Iron Man (2008)
    Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
    Captain America: Civil War (2016)
    Doctor Strange (2016)
    Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
    Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
    Black Panther (2018)
    Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
    Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018)
    Captain Marvel (2019)
    Avengers: Endgame (2019)
    Black Widow (2021)

    2021’s Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings will join the IMAX enhanced parade tomorrow as it makes its streaming debut on Disney Plus…on Disney Plus Day.

  • Zoya Akhtar Will Direct ‘The Archies’ Indian Adaption for Netflix

    Zoya Akhtar Will Direct ‘The Archies’ Indian Adaption for Netflix

    The Archies are coming to life thanks to director Zoya Akhtar.

    Per Variety, Akhtar will direct a live-action musical take on The Archies that takes place in 1960s India. The project will be produced by Akhtar and Reema Kagti for Tiger Baby and Sharad Devarajan for Graphic India. Plans for ‘Archie in Bollywood’ adaptions were first announced in 2018. This will mark the first of those projects to come to fruition.

    For Akhtar, the chance to adapt The Archies is exciting. “I am super excited to have the chance to bring ‘The Archies’ to life. It was a large part of my childhood and teenage years,” she explained. “The characters are iconic and globally loved, which is also why I am a little nervous. I have to make sure the film stokes the nostalgia of a generation that grew up on the comic and yet resonates with the young adults today.”

    The Archies will mark the first international comic to be translated for Indian screens. As it stands, the project is still in the early stages and a release date has not yet been unveiled. The live-action film will reimagine classic characters like Archie, Betty, Veronica, Reggie, Moose and Jughead with an Indian cast, while still featuring elements of the comics.

    “We are supremely excited to partner with the great team at Graphic India to bring Archie and his friends to Bollywood,” Jon Goldwater, Archie Comics CEO, said in a statement to Variety. “Archie’s lasting and growing presence in India made this move the logical next step as our stellar library of characters continues to expand into other media. It’s a major moment for Archie and its fans around the world.”

    Source: Variety.

  • Paramount Delays ‘Transformers’ and ‘Star Trek’ Films

    Paramount Delays ‘Transformers’ and ‘Star Trek’ Films

    As the pandemic continues to impact the movie industry, we’re seeing a constant shifting of release dates. This is partly due to studios wanting to maximize profits by releasing a film at a better time. This had caused many studios to vacate release dates claimed years ago, as profits have diminished significantly due to COVID-19. The latest studio to make a massive shift in release dates is Paramount.

    On Tuesday, Paramount shifted both Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and an unnamed Star Trek film back on its release calendar. Transformers, which stars In The Heights star Anthony Ramos and Judas and the Black Messiah star Dominique Fishback, has been moved a full year from June 24, 2022, to June 9th, 2023. It is now set to go head-to-head with an unknown Sony/Marvel film, and serve as both Ramos and Fishback’s next salvo in their ascension into the upper ranks of the best actors of their generation. 

    The unnamed Star Trek film vacated the June 9th date now held by Transformers, and will now release on Dec. 22, 2023. Interestingly enough, the move comes after it was recently announced director Patty Jenkins‘ Star Wars movie, Rogue Squadron has been delayed. Rogue Squadron was originally set to hit theaters on Dec. 22, 2023. While Jenkins’ film still retains its 2023 release date, is not expected to enter production in 2022, indicating the film will move on Disney’s calendar in the coming months.

    Source: Variety

  • John Wick Prequel ‘The Continental’ Adds 3 to Cast

    John Wick Prequel ‘The Continental’ Adds 3 to Cast

    The John Wick series has been a critical and commercial success, with a collective haul of $587 million and critics raving about the action and star Keanu Reeves‘ performance. As is the case in Hollywood, if a title is popular, it often leads to spinoffs and sequels. Not only is John Wick 4 happening, but the John Wick series is also getting a spinoff on the small screen.

    A spinoff focusing on the Continental, the famous Hotel for Assassins, was announced in 2018. Since then, news on the project has been rather sparse until last month when it was revealed Mel Gibson would star in the three-episode miniseries. Gibson will play a character named Cormac, who is notably not the younger Winston Scott (Ian McShane‘s character in the films) that the miniseries will follow. While we await the casting of our protagonist, we do have news today of three new roles that have been filled. 

    Thanks to Variety, we have learned that Peter Greene, Ayomide Adegun and Jeremy Bobb have joined the cast with the aforementioned Gibson. Greene will play Uncle Charlie, who is the younger version of the character as played David Patrick Kelley in the films. He’s a cleaner and a body man, as fans of the films know.

    Adegun will play the younger version of Lance Reddick‘s character Charon, who is the concierge of the Continental Hotel in the films. While Jeremy Bobb is joining the series as an original character named Mayhew. The 40 year old actor is best known for playing Herman Barrow in The Knick.

    The cast is starting to shape up, as we await news on who is filling the shoes of a young Ian McShane. We’ll have more as we learn more.

    Source: Variety

  • Disney Plus Streaming Series ‘Andor’ Set for Summer 2022 Debut

    Disney Plus Streaming Series ‘Andor’ Set for Summer 2022 Debut

    In addition to learning that the Marvel Studios streaming series Ms. Marvel would hit Disney Plus next summer, investors on a conference call with Disney today learned that the 12-episode Star Wars series, Andor, would also stream in that same window.

    Q4 for Disney stretches from July 1st through September 30th and with Disney Plus seemingly trying to avoid streaming live-action Marvel Studios series and live-action Star Wars series concurrently, we could hypothetically see Andor pairing up with something like the second season of Marvel Studios What If…?. For more hypothetical 2022 calendar ideas, see V3 of our 2022 hypothetical right here.

    Andor will serve as a prequel to Rogue One and see Diego Luna return in the titular role. Adria Arjona and Stellan Skarsgard have joined the cast while Forest Whitaker, Genevieve O’Reilly and Ben Mendelsohn are among those reported to return.

  • Sam Wilson Will be Outmatched in ‘Captain America 4’

    Sam Wilson Will be Outmatched in ‘Captain America 4’

    Ever since Falcon and the Winter Soldier was released on Disney+, Sam Wilson has become the new Captain America of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Anthony Mackie brought new energy to the role and will embody a very different kind of symbol. He’s not a super-soldier like Steve Rogers and given what we’ve explored in the Disney+ series, he’ll face quite the uphill battle before he can truly embrace the new symbol. Marvel Studios’ Nate Moore highlighted that very fact in an interview with Phase Zero.

    I think is fascinating because he’s a, he’s a guy, he’s the guy with wings and a shield, but he is a guy. So we’re going to put him through the wringer and make them earn it and see what happens when he is outweighed, outclassed out, you know, out everything. What makes somebody Captain America? Cause I’m going to argue with not being a super-soldier. And I think we’re going to prove that with Mackie and Sam Wilson.

    Nate Moore

    We already got to explore Wilson learning to accept the vibranium shield and mantle. Yet, there are a lot more challenges heading his way as he enters the big stage. Of course, it’s uncertain who exactly he’s going to face and how it may tie into his overarching story moving forward. There are many potential angles, such as the exploring the Serpent Society that was jokingly revealed before it got replaced by Civil War. For now, it’s great we got a little tease for what’s to come, and here’s hoping Disney+ Day offers a bit more insight into what we can suspect from future Marvel projects.

    Source: Twitch

  • ‘Eternals’ Producer Hints at Blade and Ebony Blade Connection

    ‘Eternals’ Producer Hints at Blade and Ebony Blade Connection

    Eternals writers Kaz and Ryan Firbo recently hinted that the post-credit sequence was going to be quite different at one point with Anthony Mackie potentially making an appearance. Yet, there’s still the question of why exactly Maharshala Ali‘s Blade appeared in front of Kit Harington‘s Dane Whitman. His brief voice cameo implied that he is aware of what the Ebony Blade, which Dane was about to touch, had in store for the future wielder. Well, it looks like they might have a connection. In an interview with Phase Zero, Eternals and Marvel Studios producer Nate Moore hinted at why he ended up nabbing the cameo in the post-credit sequence, and it makes quite a bit of sense.

    Cause the Ebony Blade, the characteristics of the Ebony Blade are not dissimilar to some degree to vampirism and we think that’s an interesting kind of thing to play with. So we kind of knew that was on the table

    So, in a way, it would imply that the Ebony Blade might have a deep-rooted connection to how the vampires came into existence within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In a way, the origin of the blood-sucking creatures might get tied to the long history of Dane Whitman’s family lineage, as well as the Middle Ages. Perhaps, his role as the Black Knight is further explored within the more mystical side of this universe, as we unravel how they connect. It’s an exciting prospect. Moore has teased “he was for reasons hopefully that would become apparent as you see more things,” which hopefully get unraveled sooner rather than later.

    Source: Twitch

  • ‘Eternals’ Producer Talks Marvel Studios Approach to a Future ‘X-Men’ Film

    ‘Eternals’ Producer Talks Marvel Studios Approach to a Future ‘X-Men’ Film

    Eternals and Marvel Studios producer Nate Moore joined the Phase Zero podcast during a live stream to discuss the recently released film and MCU’s future. In it, he was asked quite a few questions about the future of Marvel Studios, especially with the properties like X-Men or Fantastic Four. especially the former was brought up due to Eternals diverse cast and if there were any thematic connections between these two properties. Moore had a rather interesting answer to the question and highlighted how the Eternals differ.

    To me, our goal with the film wasn’t to make it a film about diversity in a way that I think X-Men has to be. X-Men is a super direct allegory in which these people are, are ostracized and, and persecuted for who they are. And that’s very much the story of X-Men that’s that’s in the DNA. What I find interesting about Eternals is the movie has zero commentary about that. The characters don’t talk about it.

    Nate Moore

    It’s an interesting discussion about the X-Men’s place in storytelling. Moore goes on to highlight that Eternals is “about faith and purpose” rather than its diversity. Yet, he also goes on to highlight that once they approach an adaptation of X-Men, they’ll have to discuss the topic regarding diversity.

    This film is very much a conversation I would argue about faith and purpose and the value of humanity, but not in the context necessarily of the diversity conversation that we’re having in our everyday lives. I think if, and when we get to an X-Men movie, we’re going to have to have that conversation because that’s very much in the DNA of, of that thematically.

    Nate Moore

    So far, we still have no announcement of when we can expect the X-Men or any adaptation of these characters. the last time we heard anything about a potential reboot was back in March when Illuminerdi shared that they are slowly starting work on a project titled The Mutants rather than the iconic name we’ve come to love. Still, it may be a project name that pays tribute to what Stan Lee originally wanted to call the initial comics.

    Source: Twitch

  • Iñaki Godoy Excited to Play ‘One Piece’s Monkey D. Luffy

    Iñaki Godoy Excited to Play ‘One Piece’s Monkey D. Luffy

    After a long wait, the official cast has finally dropped for the live-action adaptation of popular manga series, One Piece. Netflix has quite the undertaking with it being one of the most successful series, but mangaka Eiichiro Oda has an active role in the casting process, as he even shared an official statement alongside the official cast list. In the leading role, young actor Iñaki Godoy will play the Straw Hat’s captain Monkey D. Luffy. Of course, there’s a lot of excitement with what they can offer to bring these characters to life and the actor took to his Instagram account to share his excitement and love for the character.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CWGkyfmrPIT/?utm_medium=copy_link

    The role won’t be an easy one. Luffy is one of the most iconic main characters in Shonen Jump’s history and he’ll have the weight of over 1,000 chapters of character development, while actually only exploring his earliest adventures on the East Blue. He certailny looks like he is doing his research with some of the manga, figurines (most notably of Gol D. Roger mixed in there) and more to highlight he is diving deep into what the franchise has to offer. Godoy showed his carefree excitement in the first tease of the cast, which already teased he might be the perfect chioce for the role. Here’s hoping we don’t wait long until we get the crew in their outfits as they slowly start production.

    Source: Instagram