Murphy's Multiverse

Category: News

  • ‘Black Widow’ Beats ‘F9’s Pandemic Record to Pass $100M at the Domestic Box Office

    ‘Black Widow’ Beats ‘F9’s Pandemic Record to Pass $100M at the Domestic Box Office

    We’ve covered Black Widow‘s Box Office success throughout its opening weekend. There are many uncertainties with the pandemic still raging, but the film still managed to grab $215M in its opening weekend worldwide. These numbers include an impressive $60M from Disney+’s Premier Access function.

    So, technically speaking, the film made around $80.3M in the domestic Box Office. Luckily, the film didn’t lose any momentum as it has officially passed the $100M mark after only six days. It joined the club alongside F9, A Quiet Place Part II and Godzilla vs. Kong and beat out the Fast and Furious sequel record of eight days during the pandemic.

    It currently holds the record opening during the pandemic and continued the momentum by getting the best Monday and Tuesday showings. The last time we saw these numbers was mid-March with around 7.16M and 7.6M. As such, the film has officially crossed the $200M mark globally. It has been available internationally for eight days and five days domestically.

    The film is keeping up the momentum as it faces new releases Space Jam: A New Legacy and Escape Room: Tournament of Champions in its second weekend. It also needs to be noted that Black Widow is only available in twelve international markets, and there aren’t any releases planned for others. China has been a big question mark as piracy is an issue due to its release on Disney+. Still, the film is performing great and showing the Box Office is slowly recovering.

    Source: Deadline, Forbes, Box Office Pro

  • ‘Marvel’s Avengers’: Black Panther’s ‘War for Wakanda’ Campaign Length Teased

    ‘Marvel’s Avengers’: Black Panther’s ‘War for Wakanda’ Campaign Length Teased

    Entertainment Weekly had a big day for Marvel’s Avengers. We got the confirmation for Christopher Judge as Black Panther alongside some story details. There was also a rather curious claim that the upcoming expansion known as War for Wakanda would be around 25 hours long. Now, we theorized that this might be about the various missions that’ll be available in the game, as the length of the main campaign is around ten hours long. Luckily, Keano Raubun, game and narrative designer on the game, clarified the meaning of the number. It seems that it was definitely not about the story length but rather how long the game’s overall storyline is since the first Reassemble campaign.

    https://twitter.com/xArcky/status/1415693314276438023

    He didn’t clarify how long we can expect the new expansion to end up being, but you can make a decent estimate. He also confirmed that it includes Kate Bishop’s Taking AIM, Hawkeye’s Future Imperfect, and the recent Cosmic Cube villain sector. So, we can guess around five to eight hours’ worth of story in the upcoming Black Panther operation. Now, that is no small feat as it rivals the length of the main campaign and doesn’t include the various additional content that is heading our way. So, you might be playing quite a few more hours, as it only references the story length.

    Of course, we still don’t know exactly how long it will be and some people’s playtime can vary depending on how they tackle each mission. Either way, it seems like the expansion is truly that and with a brand new playable character, a lot is heading our way with Marvel’s Avengers. We also know that a new roadmap will get released in the coming month, which will also give us a better picture of what we can expect beyond the expansion.

    Source: Twitter, Twitter (Included)

  • EXCLUSIVE: Olga Kurylenko Talks Future Taskmaster Appearances

    EXCLUSIVE: Olga Kurylenko Talks Future Taskmaster Appearances

    Regardless of whether you liked the character or not, one thing that rings true with Taskmaster in Black Widow is that the character was underutilized. There’s a lot left to be desired with what they gave us but the character does make it out in the end which leaves the door open for any future appearances. We asked Antonia Dreykov herself, Olga Kurylenko what she thought of a possible Taskmaster come back down the road and she gave a surprisingly candid answer about it.

    Unfortunately, I don’t know if I’ll be returning. It’s not up to me. You can ask Marvel that [laughs]. If I was, obviously what would be great is to know more about the character because she was just kind of introduced here. There was no time and no story to develop. And the thing is there’s so much to explore about the character. There’s a lot to do with it .

    Taskmaster in the comics is a fan-favorite villain who not only brings a lot of killer action with him but also a lot of attitudes. Black Widow reinvented Taskmaster in a pretty big way, one that distances itself from the comics to serve what the writers envisioned for the film’s larger sinister Red Room plot. Kurylenko shared with us what discussions she had with director Cate Shortland on how to portray such a silent character.

    With Cate, we discussed the backstory and all the pain Antonia might have gone through. Things we know, things we don’t know yet. It was about the fact that behind that armor and killing machine, there is a human being. A human who was made to be bad. She wasn’t born bad. She’s manipulated, abused, gone through trauma – both physical and psychological. It was the conflict within one person. We talked about her soul because she does have one. When she’s in that armor, you don’t think there isn’t. That’s what was fascinating.

  • ‘Marvel’s Avengers’: First Story Details for ‘War for Wakanda’ Revealed

    ‘Marvel’s Avengers’: First Story Details for ‘War for Wakanda’ Revealed

    The wait has been long, but Entertainment Weekly finally unveiled that Christopher Judge will voice Black Panther in Marvel’s Avengers upcoming expansion. War for Wakanda is eyeing an August release and will introduce players to a very distinctive version of the famous story. Outside of the story trailer teasing a conflict with Ulysses Klaw, we knew very little about the story. The title certailny gives away the main plot, but the EW article offered a bit more insight into the story.

     

    Marvel's Avengers game Black Panther

     

    The story will continue where the first campaign took place. T’Challa, who has been king for some time now, was negotiating with Steve Rogers to work with the Avengers. Yet, after A-Day, his death led to the closing of their borders once again. Klaw got hired by MODOK to steal their vibranium, which kicks off the events of the expansion. Narrative Lead Hannah McLeod teased his motivation for this personal vendetta.

    [Klaw] has a personal vendetta against Wakanda that I don’t want to spoil. It’s different than the comics,” teases McLeod. “We’ll say he has this sonic technology he developed that is used specifically to make vibranium tech vulnerable, but it also has this issue where it causes corruption in vibranium. That corrupt vibranium is starting to sprout all over the earth, which is why the Avengers get involved.

    As T’Challa has been king for some time, we’ll see a very different version of the character. He has some tension with his sister Shuri, as he believes to know what Wakanda needs. Klaw won’t be the only antagonist, as they confirmed two central villains in the game’s story. You’ll also get to meet the game’s version of the Dora Milaaje and the sorcerer Zawavari. EW teases a 25-hour single-player campaign, which may include quite a few side activities. It sounds like quite a massive expansion if it truly offers that length of content outside of the usual GaaS grind. We’ll find out more in the coming weeks, and we cannot wait to play T’Challa once he is made available in the game.

    Source: Entertainment Weekly

  • ‘Marvel’s Avengers’: ‘God of War’s Christopher Judge Voicing Black Panther

    ‘Marvel’s Avengers’: ‘God of War’s Christopher Judge Voicing Black Panther

    Marvel’s Avengers has drawn in quite a lot of talent to voice their adaptations of the iconic Marvel characters. We’ve theorized for some time that perhaps Christopher Judge would end up voicing Black Panther and even theorized when the first sound bites leaked online. It seems we were right, as Entertainment Weekly has officially announced that he is indeed voicing the king of Wakanda. He will make his debut in the expansion release of War for Wakanda, which is eyeing an August release. He revealed he initially denied voicing the character due to the legacy left behind by Chadwick Boseman but eventually decided to embrace the role.

    I turned it down straight away. There’s many Black Panthers, but I really didn’t believe that anyone should ever do T’Challa again [after Boseman]. The actual talks proceeded and, basically, I wound up doing it because my mother and my children said if I didn’t do it, they would disown me.

    When he did end up taking the role, he decided to make the role his own by taking a different approach on how to lend his voice to the character.

    To be quite honest, I was fearful of being compared to what Chadwick had so wonderfully done. The only way I could really wrap my head around it was to not even attempt a voice match, to let my performance stand on its own. I put all that into it and hopefully people like it

    Evan Narcisse, who wrote the Rise of the Black Panther comics, joined as a narrative consultant to craft the story alongside Crystal Dynamic’s narrative lead, Hannah McLeod. Their goal was to create a very distinct mythos inspired by the comics and films but wanted to add some curious surprises. You can check out a brand new look at the character in the following images:

     

    Marvel's Avengers game Black Panther

    Marvel's Avengers game Black Panther

     

     

    His addition is a great choice and proves the potential of this franchise. Hopefully, his popularity also could spin off into a Wakanda-focused spin-off. There’s a lot of potential with the character moving forward. To add to the excitement, Judge will also be a special guest on this Friday’s Crystal Dynamics stream to promote the character.

    Source: Entertainment Weekly

  • EXLCUSIVE: Olga Kurylenko Reveals How Much of Taskmaster In ‘Black Widow’ Was Her and How They Kept The Reveal a Secret

    EXLCUSIVE: Olga Kurylenko Reveals How Much of Taskmaster In ‘Black Widow’ Was Her and How They Kept The Reveal a Secret

    Black Widow threw fans a curveball when O-T Fagbenle‘s Mason, a character everyone believed to be Taskmaster for more than a year, wasn’t the person behind the mask. The film revealed that it was Antonia Dreykov, played by the wonderful Olga Kurylenko, who was behind the killing machine. With a secret that was constantly pried by many in the years leading up to the film’s release, it stands to reason that a curious fan myself would ask Kurylenko in lengths Marvel went through to keep the role a secret. So, I did when I had the opportunity to interview her.

    It started with me being on set where no one could see me [laughs]. I’ve never gone through that so it was quite interesting. I remember walking out… there was this umbrella created that had fabric hanging all the way to the ground and I had to be underneath. It was quite fun. It started with that and most of the time, I couldn’t really walk around and I had to sit in my tent and trailer. Obviously, I wasn’t allowed to talk about it understandably. That’s what I did. Even my mother didn’t know. She only found out a few days ago. The movie was supposed to come out last year so she saw the trailer and went, “Oh Olga, there’s this super cool movie coming out. I wanna see it! Can we go together?” I went, “What movie?” She goes, “Black Widow.”

    Because the character stays masked for the majority of the film, I also wondered just how much of the Taskmaster we see in the film is Kurylenko in the costume. Her answer wasn’t surprising as the role was more physical and stunt-oriented than it was character-driven. However, it was nice to know that she was in the suit for the film’s last stretch.

    The fighting and the scenes that came after my reveal, I got to do. Obviously, it’s such a complex character with so many abilities so I had to be doubled. There was more than one person involved because the character can so many different things from all specialties. It’s great because the character can do anything.

  • Tom Hiddleston Expected to Make an Appearance in ‘DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS’

    Tom Hiddleston Expected to Make an Appearance in ‘DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS’

    The multiverse is real. The finale of Loki saw the Sacred Timeline branch off and create countless new realities and it also came with a warning that trouble was coming. It’s been known for some time now that Loki would share some connective tissue with the film that will most directly deal with the multiverse, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, especially since Michael Waldron, the creator of Loki, was brought on board to rewrite the Strange sequel when new director Sam Raimi took over; however, according to a trade report, the two projects are going to share more than the brains behind the operation. THR is reporting that Tom Hiddleston is set to appear in next year’s Doctor Strange sequel, reprising his role as (we think?) Prime Loki.

    Loki Trailer Gives Tom Hiddleston New Superpowers and a Slap in the Face | Entertainment News

    Season 1 of the streamer ended with Loki stuck at a remade TVA where nobody, including his bro Mobius, knew who he was. Disney used the finale to officially announce a second season of the series, but an appearance by Hiddleston in Multiverse of Madness means fans will get more Loki before Season 2, which I’ve heard is RUMORED to shoot next Spring, even gets underway. Since Loki is at the TVA, he can presumably get anywhere at any time, which could explain how he finds his way to Stephen Strange.

    Source: THR

  • ‘Loki’ Renewed for Season 2 on Disney+

    ‘Loki’ Renewed for Season 2 on Disney+

    There has been much debate on which Disney+ shows might get a second season. WandaVision had a very clear-cut end for its story, and the nominations as a Limited Series put the final nail on a potential renewal. Falcon and the Winter Soldier seemed like a likely candidate, but there hasn’t been any news on it, as Marvel Studios is moving forward with a fourth Captain America film. Loki seemed like a very likely candidate, especially as there have been rumblings for almost a year now about a potential renewal. Well, after a long wait, the finale finally rolled around and confirmed the second season in a clever post-credits sequence with a stamp on his Time Variance Authority File.

     

    Loki' Will Return for Season 2, Marvel Reveals - Variety

     

    It’s officially our second series by Marvel Studios to get a second season, as What If was confirmed some time ago. The ending of the first season perfectly left the door open to explore the franchise and the TVA in creative ways moving forward. There are plenty of unanswered questions that are worth exploring, especially with no exact date given when the series will return.

    There are some multiverse-focused stories heading our way that may tie into the events of the series. Even the first episode had a line that directly played on the upcoming Doctor Strange sequel, Multiverse of Madness. Marvel Studios’ first animated series focuses on characters we’ve come to love over the years, but in very different scenarios. Marvel Studios is just getting started, and it’s going to be interesting to see where the franchise is heading moving forward.

    Source: Disney+

  • ‘WandaVision’s Matt Shakman to Direct ‘Star Trek Beyond’s Sequel

    ‘WandaVision’s Matt Shakman to Direct ‘Star Trek Beyond’s Sequel

    It looks like Star Trek isn’t facing a new reboot after all on the silver screen. Deadline has just revealed that WandaVision‘s director Matt Shakman will direct the next installment in the Star Trek series, which is led by Chris Pine. As such, they will see the original cast return in their iconic roles to continue where 2016’s Star Trek Beyond left off. The script will be written by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson.

    It’s a huge step for the director whose previous work was mainly on TV. Marvel Studios’ success is not only rooted in finding up-and-coming talent but also in how they catapult their careers. Deadline points out that he chose Star Trek among a long list of offers. The film is already eyeing a production start next spring.

    There have been various attempts at continuing the Star Trek film franchise. The Revenant‘s Mark L. Smith was working on a script for Quentin Tarantino. It’s uncertain if he still plans on directing a unique entry in the franchise. Fargo‘s Noah Hawley also was working on a script before and was even rumored to direct an entry.

    It seems like they might be expanding the franchise in new creative ways that premiere alongside Chris Pine‘s franchise. J.J. Abram’s reinterpretation takes place in an alternate reality of the original series. As their various shows have proven, there are many eras and possibilities to tell new stories within the iconic franchise. So, there might be a lot more Star Trek heading our way in the near future.

    Source: Deadline, IMDb

  • Tom Hiddleston Debuts on Billboard Charts With His ‘Loki’ Song “Very Full”

    Tom Hiddleston Debuts on Billboard Charts With His ‘Loki’ Song “Very Full”

    The various Marvel Studios Disney+ shows have offered some fantastic storytelling and even ventured out into new territory. WandaVision gave the world the classic Munsters-inspired song “Agatha All Along” that was such a popular hit it became Billboard Chart Hit with 3,000 downloads in its first week. Well, it seems Loki managed to do the same thing as Tom Hiddleston‘s song “Very Full” has made its debut at No. 10 on the World Digital Song Sales. Hiddleston sings the song in Norwegian with some English bits. The language doubles as Asgardian and made its debut in the third episode of the Disney+ series.

     

    What's Up With That Song in Song in Loki Episode 3? – /Film

     

    Interestingly enough, the song was titled “Jeg Saler Min Ganger” in the end credits. It translates to “I Seal My Times,” but the title changed to “Very Full” with the release of the first volume’s soundtrack. Norwegian singer-songwriter Benedicte Mauseth and author Erlend Nødtvedt wrote the song for the show. Its success also makes it the first time Hiddleston enters the Billboard Charts.

    As Billboard states, because the song is in Norwegian, it got classified for the World Digital Sales chart, which focuses on non-English and non-Spanish songs. It got downloaded around 500 times since its release. They embraced the cultural background in this song was a great move by the team behind Loki, as the Asgardians mostly spoke English throughout their appearances. Natalie Holt‘s soundtrack is generally a standout among the other Marvel Studios projects and adds an iconic atmosphere to the series. With the success of their songs, it makes you wonder if Marvel Studios might consider a musical series or film at some point.

    If you want to revisit the song from the soundtrack, you can listen to it right here:

    Source: Billboard (WV), Billboard (Loki), YouTube