Murphy's Multiverse

Category: News

  • ‘MORTAL KOMBAT’ Sequels In Development

    ‘MORTAL KOMBAT’ Sequels In Development

    Warner Bros. has challenged 2021 with the most daring strategy. They’ve established that every film would release simultaneously on their new streaming service HBO Max. Of course, it ended up cutting into the film’s box office performance but still kept some hope we’ll see future sequels. Mortal Kombat even managed to keep the top spot of most-viewed release and it seems they’re already working on various spin-offs as a result of its success.

    The reveal is hidden in a piece by Variety where Dune director Denis Villeneuve discusses his trust that this release strategy won’t stop him from developing a sequel to his upcoming release. In it, they also reveal that an insider heard that sequels on various Mortal Kombat characters are in some form of development. It seems they’re planning on creating a universe that explores the many realms within the MK universe.

    Mortal Kombat: Sorgt in den USA für größtes Kinowochenende seit Beginn der Pandemie

    The first film tried to change up the rules of the gaming franchise, as it tries to explain how human characters have special abilities. We also never got to witness the titular tournament, which seems likely what various spin-offs might build up towards. The ending teased the appearance of Johnny Cage, who may get his own film as he’s become the mainstay throughout the franchise.

    Of course, there’s the question if we continue exploring Cole’s story, or they might shift focus moving forward. He was a newly introduced character whose ties to Scorpion made him the main protagonist. Yet, his literal plot armor helped him survive the first onslaught and who knows if the death of Sub-Zero might lure in his brother’s wrath.

    Source: Variety

  • ‘THE BATMAN’ Spin-Off Focused on Penguin In Development for HBO MAX

    ‘THE BATMAN’ Spin-Off Focused on Penguin In Development for HBO MAX

    It looks like The Batman might continue to expand, as Deadline has unveiled an HBO Max series is in early development to explore the story of one of his iconic villains, the Penguin. Dylan Clark and Matt Reeves are acting as executive producers with their 6th and Idaho Dylan Clark Productions alongside Warner Bros. Television and DC Entertainment. The plan seems to give Oswald Cobblepot a Scarface storyline that explores his rise to the iconic mob boss. Colin Farrell will play him in the upcoming film, but there’s no word he’ll also play it in the series.

    It’s the second series that takes place in this universe. It was originally going to explore the corrupted Gotham PD during Batman’s first year. Reports in august hinted at the spin-off getting a new direction and will explore Arkham Asylum in some way. It’s mostly hinted at due to the new working title rumored to be Arkham as it finally enters production.

    It’ll be interesting to see if other characters get spin-offs moving forward, as The Batman will build up an extensive universe around the character’s rogue’s gallery. Exploring the life of a Falcone or Maroni family member with the mysterious Bat luring over their heads would make for a compelling drama. They could even introduce more complex stories of villains before they face the bat in a future film. Reeves remains heavily involved with these projects and it’ll be interesting to see how it continues to grow in the future.

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘MOON KNIGHT’s Ethan Hawke Voicing Batman in ‘BATWHEELS’ Animated Series

    ‘MOON KNIGHT’s Ethan Hawke Voicing Batman in ‘BATWHEELS’ Animated Series

    It’s been almost a year since we’ve first heard of Cartoon Network and HBO Max’s Batmobile cartoon Batwheels. The series is aimed at preschoolers and marks DC’s first foray into the market. Even with its younger demographic, the series has nabbed quite the name as Moon Knight and Before Sunset‘s Ethan Hawke joined the project to voice Batman. He’ll be one of three human characters, which also includes Duke Thomas and Cassandra Cain. It will explore the world from the perspective of five anthropomorphic vehicles from the bat family and the sentient Bat-computer. Here’s also a first look at the three human characters:

    He’s joining the voice cast, as Cobra Kai‘s Jacob Bertrand will voice the series’ main protagonist, as the name suggests, Batmobile named Bam. Here’s the official description:

    Having just been created by the Batcomputer, our heroes are essentially kids with little to no life experience. Led by Bam (The Batmobile), the Batwheels – Bibi (The Batgirl Cycle), Redbird (Robin’s Sports Car), The Batwing and Buff (The Bat Truck) – must navigate the growing pains of being a newly formed super team as well as the growing pains that come with just being a kid. This relatable and aspirational series will follow the journey of this dynamic team as they thrill and entertain with their heroic adventures as well as demonstrate to kids the value of self-confidence, friendship and teamwork.

    It sounds like a great series for young DC fans getting into the franchise. It’s uncertain what role the human characters will have and how much one can expect of Ethan Hawke. His inclusion is a great way to show that actors of any caliber can also do some work for a younger audience to enjoy. It may introduce a young mind to the world of Batman and set them on a journey to uncover their new favorite superhero.

    Source: Comic Book

  • First Look at ‘PEACEMAKER’s New Team

    First Look at ‘PEACEMAKER’s New Team

    Many fans are ecstatic to see John Cena’s return to the DCEU in Peacemaker, a series that’ll continue the man on a quest for peace following the events of The Suicide Squad. Many thought Peacemaker’s fate was sealed upon a fatal gunshot wound from Bloodsport to the throat alongside the debris of Jotunheim. It seemingly ended any possibility of his return. The end credits of the film tell a different story, with Christopher Smith pulled from the rubble and now tasked with saving the world from who knows what.

    The series is set to debut in January 2022 exclusively on HBO Max, and while no exact date has been set for its debut, we’re going to be getting our first real good look at the series just next month at DC Fandome. To tide us over until then, Entertainment Weekly has released a new still featuring Peacemaker alongside returning stars Steve Agee and Jennifer Holland alongside some new faces.

    For those who may have missed the post credit scene for The Suicide Squad. We learn that Amanda Waller has reassigned John Economos and Emilia Harcourt to Peacemaker as punishment for knocking her out and helping Task Force X kill Starro, which led to the saving of Corto Maltese. Joining the team is Freddie Stroma as Vigilante, Chukwudi Iwuji as Clemson Murn, and Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo. It’ll be interesting to see how the events in Corto Maltese and the murder of Colonel Rick Flag may affect Smith’s second lease on life.

    Source: Twitter

  • Amazon Developing Live-Action ‘SHE-RA’ Series

    Amazon Developing Live-Action ‘SHE-RA’ Series

    It looks like the world isn’t quite done with She-Ra, Amazon is in the early stage of development to bring She-Ra into live-action. Variety shares that there is no writer currently attached, but DreamWorks animation will serve as executive producer. They’ve also been behind the latest adaptation on Netflix titled She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. It’s the first time the character has been brought to live-action since the 1985 film He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword.

    Princess Adora was the long-lost twin of Prince Adam, who grew up on the planet of Etheria. While working for the Evil Horde, her brother was able to free her as He-Man and she gained the powers of She-Ra through the Sword of Protection. The original series ran from 1985 until 1986 and amassed almost 100 episodes throughout its two-season run.

    There’s a chance they take the direction of the DreamWorks animated series, which removed any reference to He-Man and her extended family. It follows a similar story but she breaks free from the Horde of her own free will to uncover the darker secrets of those she works for. It even explored her character’s relationship with Catra that became a popular aspect of the 52-episode series.

    Source: Variety

  • Netflix’s ‘TOMB RAIDER’ Anime Adds Hayley Atwell as Lara Croft

    Netflix’s ‘TOMB RAIDER’ Anime Adds Hayley Atwell as Lara Croft

    Here’s some amazing casting by Netflix. They took to Twitter to announce that Peggy Carter herself, Hayley Atwell, will take on the role of Lara Croft. The story takes place after the events of Crystal Dynamic’s reboot trilogy. She’ll take over from Camilla Luddington, who voiced the character in the games. It’s interesting they decided to recast Lara, but there’s a chance the anime will feature her at a very different time in her life.

    It’s the only casting we received from the anime series, and it’ll be interesting to see what other characters might make their return. The last entry in the series was Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which explored her adventure in tropical America to find Paititi while continuing her ongoing war against Trinity. She’s certainly gone through enough in the original games and we might ee a very different Lara once the series release on Netflix.

    Source: Twitter

  • Gavin O’Connor Opens Up on His Scrapped ‘SUICIDE SQUAD’ Sequel

    Gavin O’Connor Opens Up on His Scrapped ‘SUICIDE SQUAD’ Sequel

    The first Suicide Squad film wasn’t exactly a fan-favorite, but it was able to bring a ton of money at the box office with $700M+ in total. With money like that, how could you not greenlight a sequel and try to duplicate that success?. While we did eventually get a sequel with James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, there was a very different sequel in development early on.

    Before Gunn was brought onto the project, director Gavin O’Connor was originally going to be picking up the reigns from David Ayer, as he moved onto a Gotham City Sirens film, which has still yet to make any movement. After a long silence, the director recently went onto the Playlist podcast where he opened up about his sequel that never was.

    What happened there was I wrote a deal to write a script, and they knew what I was writing. At that level, with those kinds of movies, with that budget, no one’s just going off and writing something without walking them through what the movie’s gonna be, and everyone was cool with it.

    Gavin O’Connor

    O’Connor also went into how the project ended up scrapped and how a managerial shake-up affected his film. He even goes on to highlight the direction he was taking with his project.

    What happened was during the latter part of writing the script there was a whole regime change at DC, and when that happened, they wanted it to be a comedy. And I’m like, ‘i’m not writing a comedy.‘ I mean, It [was] fun, but it’s not a yuk-fest. And the new regime wanted a different movie than I was writing.

    Gavin O’Connor

    While it would’ve been neat to see what he had in store for viewers, audiences and critics alike seemed pretty satisfied with Gunn‘s vision. It seems that the comedic direction did help win some viewers over. It’ll be interesting to see if a third installment finds its way into the franchise, or DC moves on to exploring the stories from the individual members, as Peacemaker gets his own HBO Max series.

    Source: The Playlist

  • PS5’s ‘WOLVERINE’ Creative Director Confirms Mature Rating

    PS5’s ‘WOLVERINE’ Creative Director Confirms Mature Rating

    We’ve been left with many questions after the surprise reveal that Insomniac is working on a Wolverine game for PlayStation 5. The brief teaser trailer was filled to the brim with Easter eggs from the character’s long comic history but was mainly to announce it is currently in production. It did give us some small glimpses into the design of their version of Wolverine and that he’ll certainly rough up some people in his new journey.

    Shortly after, we got the confirmation that they are also going to release a sequel to 2018’s Spider-Man in 2023, which also made some concern it might just be a smaller project like the Miles Morales midquel. Well, luckily the game’s Creative Director Brian Horton took to Twitter to not only confirm it’s a full-size game but will also keep a mature tone.

    https://twitter.com/BrianHortonArt/status/1437066535839809544

    It’s great news for fans of the character. While his time in the 20th Century Fox franchise had him mainly in PG-13 projects, the character is known for his bloodier interactions. So, it’s great they aren’t dialing it back and PlayStation isn’t shy to include some mature projects in their line-up that still perform incredibly well. It’s also what made the X-Men Origins: Wolverine game stand out when it got released back in 2009. To this day, it might be one of the best tie-in games to a film and there’s a lot of inspiration Insomniac might take from it.

    Source: Twitter

  • ‘SHANG-CHI’ Dominates Second Weekend, On Par With Pre-Pandemic Performance

    ‘SHANG-CHI’ Dominates Second Weekend, On Par With Pre-Pandemic Performance

    The numbers are finally in and Shang-Chi continues to impress. In its second weekend, the Simu Liu-led film dropped around 53% from its first weekend and is on par with pre-pandemic performances by Marvel Studios. It currently stands at $35.8M in its second weekend after setting a new Labor Day weekend record. That is quite a difference from Black Widow‘s harsher 70% drop. To be fair, the latter also had a digital release simultaneously that managed to garner $125M on top since its premiere.

    Its performance put it at the top spot for a second week in a row and gave Disney the confirmation to keep the rest of their 2021 slate as theater-only releases, which includes the ambitious Eternals. The only real competition the latest Marvel film had to face was the horror film Malignant that released to a very lukewarm $5.57M. With a C-grading on CinemaScore, it’s difficult to say how it’ll perform long-term. It’s also the first horror film to have a weaker performance in the pandemic.

    The film’s performance definitely feels like the jolt of energy the Box Office needed. Even Black Widow‘s success was followed by some concern regarding the future of theater experiences. It’s also currently on par to surpass the first Phase 4 film’s overall Box Office to become the raining champ until the next major release. Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s trailer viewership may pin it as the champion to take the top spot for 2021, but Eternals could still become quite a contender once it releases in November. We’ll have to wait until predictions are in Marvel Studios kicks of their marketing plan.

    Source: Variety

  • ‘GOD OF WAR: RAGNAROK’ To End The Franchise’s Norse Storyline

    ‘GOD OF WAR: RAGNAROK’ To End The Franchise’s Norse Storyline

    The latest PlayStation Showcase finally gave us our first look at the sequel to God of War. After the events of the original trilogy, the Spartan Kratos found his way to the north where he would father a son, Atreus. This Norse tale would see them both face off against familiar faces from northern mythology. At the end of the last game, the death of Baldur started Fimbulwinter, which is the first step towards Ragnarök.

    First look at 'God of War Ragnarök' shows a war with Asgard | Engadget

    The title for the next entry confirms that we’ll enter the final days of the Norse Gods. Alongside the first trailer, we did get a full look at this game’s version of Thor who might be the main threat throughout the story. We assumed it would lead into a final entry, but it looks like the Norse storyline was only ever planned for two entries, as the game’s director Eric Williams confirmed in an interview.

    Yeah, I mean, you can’t call the game God of War Ragnarok and not have Ragnarok happen in the game. So it’s [going to] happen. We’re going to cap off the Norse series with it.

    Eric Williams

    The interesting reveal is that Ragnarok ending the “Norse series” implies that there are more plans for the franchise’s future. In the 2018 entry, we briefly saw teases from other pantheons. It seems likely with the introduction of Tyr we might get a chance to visit other realms one way or another. Artwork teased that the sequel was going to visit Egypt at one point, which might still be in the cards.

    If the upcoming game is the ending of the Norse storyline, it does open up the question of how they’ll introduce the elements of Ragnarök in the story. We know that the World Serpent is from the future, but there’s no sighting of the Fenris Wolf. He’s an integral part of the story that might get explored in the sequel. We’ll see what Santa Monica Studios has in store for players.

    Source: ComicBook, Metro