Murphy's Multiverse

Category: News

  • ‘Loki’: First Funko Pops Revealed for Marvel Studios’ Next Disney+ Series

    ‘Loki’: First Funko Pops Revealed for Marvel Studios’ Next Disney+ Series

    We are only two days away from Loki finally premiering and it seems that everyone is gearing up for it. Marvel Studios has been dropping quite a few featurettes and even the first few clips on their Twitter channel and now Entertainment Weekly unveiled the first Funko pops for the Disney+ series. They are only featuring our main two cast members Tom Hiddleston‘s Loki and Owen Wilson‘s Morbus. There aren’t any major reveals or hints in these images, but we do get a good look at Mobius’ weapon of choice that was briefly hinted at in the trailers.

     

    loki funko pops

     

    Entertainment Weekly also unveiled a variety of other new merchandise that includes some of the Miss Minutes merchandise that leaked some months ago. She is the TVA mascot and will have a prominent role throughout Loki’s journey with the inter-dimensional bureaucracy. The new show will also continue the tradition that a variety of Funko Pops will get released as the show goes through its six-episode run. We still know very little of what to expect from the series. So, it’ll be interesting to see what other Funkos are heading our way in the upcoming weeks.

    Source: Entertainment Weekly

  • Kevin Feige Teases the Importance of Disney+’s ‘Loki’ for the MCU’s Future

    Kevin Feige Teases the Importance of Disney+’s ‘Loki’ for the MCU’s Future

    Finally, the long wait is about to end as Marvel Studios’ next Disney+ series is about to premiere this Wednesday. Loki will introduce the world to the Time Variance Authority and the return of the beloved God of Mischief. We’ve all been wondering how the exploration of time travel may affect the Marvel Cinematic Universe moving forward and it looks like their next series will do exactly that. In an interview with Empire. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed that Loki might be the most important of the series so far.

    It’s tremendously important. It perhaps will have more impact on the MCU than any of the shows thus far. What everybody thought about WandaVision, and was sort of true, and The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, which was sort of true, is even more sort of true for Loki.

    The introduction of the TVA is a considerable indicator that the multiverse is only truly opening up. There have been concerns about how these shows would affect the bigger picture and it seems that the upcoming series will do exactly that. Feige also hints at how Tom Hiddleston’s character will change throughout the six-episode run, as they want to use these series to let their characters grow in new and unexpected ways. So, here’s hoping we might see more of the trickster god in the future, especially with the uncertainty if he might return in a film as well. Of course, the introduction of Variants and the upcoming What If series could also be a good indicator that the MCU might tackle a lot of new perspectives from across the multiverse.

    Source: Empire

  • ‘The Boys’: First Look at Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy Revealed

    ‘The Boys’: First Look at Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy Revealed

    After months of building up excitement with fans, Jensen Ackles has finally unveiled his latest “superhero” look to fans. The first look comes after Ackles and an official Vought International Twitter account teased the reveal of a comic-inspired suit on social media. The actor, best known for his leading role on the cult phenomenon Supernatural, is set to play Soldier Boy in the next season of Amazon’s The Boys. The character is a riff on Marvel’s Captain America, portrayed as a supposed WWII veteran and the United States’ very first superhero. However, fans of the series should be smart enough to know Ackles’ newest character isn’t as heroic as his corporate sponsors want the people to think. After a long wait, our official first look is finally here:

     

     

    The Boys costume designer Laura Jean Shannon shared the inspiration for his new look with Entertainment Weekly:

    Our goal was to highlight a bygone era of overt masculinity and grit. With that pedigree we dove headfirst into baking in an all-American quality grounded in a military soldier’s practicality with a heavy dose of old school cowboy swagger. We knew that the actor had to have Steve McQueen looks and chops with a John Wayne attitude, luckily Jensen Ackles embodies all of that.

    Ackles was cast as Soldier Boy in mid-2020, reuniting with his former Supernatural showrunner for The Boys’ third season. Since then, the fan-favorite actor has been toying with followers by sharing images of himself performing superhero workouts at the gym and recently surprised everyone with the debut of a shaggy new beard. While the facial hair is a fun new addition to the character, the design of his trusty shield and the overall look is fairly faithful to the source material. A WWII-era design for Soldier Boy was also shown via a statue in the series’ second season. However, much like his Marvelous inspiration, it seems the character has received a modern makeover with a more advanced suit. Perfect for wreaking havoc alongside Homelander in the modern world.

    Source: Entertainment Weekly, Twitter (Comic)

  • First ‘Indiana Jones 5’ Set Photos Reveal Stunt Double Wearing a Harrison Ford Mask

    First ‘Indiana Jones 5’ Set Photos Reveal Stunt Double Wearing a Harrison Ford Mask

    In the last few weeks, we’ve been hearing quite a bit about the next entry in the Indiana Jones franchise. The fifth film will see the return of Harrison Ford and will be the first not directed by Steven Spielberg. Logan‘s James Mangold took over directing duties and will give the franchise a fresh layer of paint as it enters the modern era. After all, it’s been almost thirteen years since Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull released in theaters. Lucasfilm has already been busy casting, as they added Phoebe Waller-Bridges the female lead alongside Mads Mikkelsen in an undisclosed role. Just recently, the film entered production and the first set photos have already found their way online revealing a stunt person wearing a creepy Harrison Ford mask.

     

     

    Now, what stands out about the face mask is the hair color. The main star is 78 and even in 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens was rocking silver hair. In the last entry of the franchise, they didn’t shy away from his age. So, the fact that the stunt double is wearing the mask with dark brown hair implies this is a flashback of some kind. It seems there was a brief accident but luckily no one was injured on set, but the head-mask did fly off. Daily Mail also revealed that the production is a bit delayed due to COVID-19 but it seems only to be a brief one. They are currently eyeing a release on July 29th, 2022 and we’ll see if the production gets affected by any other delays. Here’s hoping we get a look at Harrison Ford in his iconic gear soon.

    Source: Daily Mail

  • EXCLUSIVE: An Interview With The Creators Behind Disney’s New Dance Short Film, Us Again

    EXCLUSIVE: An Interview With The Creators Behind Disney’s New Dance Short Film, Us Again

    Disney’s latest experimental short titled Us Again is now available to watch on the House of Mouse’s streaming service, Disney+. The short chronicles an aging couple dealing with the growing pains of growing old with a fun musical twist. Murphy’s Multiverse got to speak with the short film’s brilliant creators, director Zach Parrish, producer Brad Simonsen, composer Pinar Toprak, and world-renowned choreographers Keone and Mari Madrid, who were generous enough to share some behind-the-scenes details.

    Zach Parrish is no stranger to directing experimental shorts, having done one for Disney+ called Puddles that premiered last year in their Short Circuits series. We asked Zach how he came up with such a fun new concept with Us Again and he revealed how his mother played a huge part in his conceptualizing.

    It started from a very real place. Moving into my 30s and realizing that my body was getting old. Gray hairs and bad knees. I had this emotional feeling of wishing I was young again but then talking my mom who was in her 60s; she was talking about what she was going to do when she grew older. I realized I had my perspective backwards and I was looking at life in the wrong direction. That core emotional place led me to think about this fountain of youth story with the rain and how we could do this neon dance thing with the music. All of that came together fairly quickly early on. Having that core emotion that I responded to and all the visual ideas I had in my head, I needed to get it all out.

    Prior to directing his own short films, Zach cut his teeth working as an animator on a couple of Disney hits. Big Hero 6 was his first stint as a department head as the Head of Animation and he spoke about his experience in that film helped shape Us Again.

    Big Hero 6 was my first time running a department. So we had 95 animators on that film.  Managing your time and making sure that you’re very crystal clear on what the point is and what the core emotion is, I learned a ton. Don Hall, the director of that film was my mentor in the making of Us Again. I learned from him how to communicate that emotion and where I wasn’t being clear. 

    Us Again is Walt Disney Animation’s first theatrical short in 5 years as it was attached to Raya and the Last Dragon. All of us grew up watching these shorts attached to their iconic films so we had to ask producer Brad Simonsen the pressure they felt coming up with a short that could honor the huge legacy of Walt Disney Animation.

    When you’re dealing with a legacy like Walt Disney Animation, there’s always a desire to honor the tradition and history that the building and people bring. Having got to work with Zach Parrish in Big Hero 6, I really knew that if given the opportunity, he would make a beautiful movie. We supported him the right way and we brought on a team that was a yes-team that really wanted to make the movie better at all times.

    Best known for her music for billion-dollar IPs like Fortnite and Captain Marvel, Pinar Toprak was tasked with the job of crafting a contemporary score for Us Again. Given how epic and grand her scores generally are, we had to ask Pinar what it was like to compose such a modern soundtrack.

    That was Zach’s vision. We talked about what genre we were going to play with. Was it jazz? Was it more disco? But then funk and soul really fell into that sweet spot for us. I personally love funk and soul so much. It was really fun to create that because it’s not really that common for a composer to get asked, “Hey, go write a funk score.”

    You can’t have a proper dance film without amazing dancers. In comes world-renowned choreographers Keoni Madrid and Mari Madrid, who pretty much defined the film’s essence with their magnetic choreography. The couple’s dance resume is nothing short of impressive, having choreographed for huge stars like BTS and Justin Beiber. When asked about whether choreographing for pop culture’s most famous company was a challenge, they had this to say:

    Honestly, it wasn’t. Brad and Zach gave us all the tools to make sure we had all the context as possible. That’s rare. Not all projects offer that much information. We got an almost final version of the music early on. Once we had all those tools, it went back to, “Let’s do what we do. Tell stories through dance.” We don’t get to do that for all projects. But for this one, it had all the things we’re passionate about. Once you strip all the Disneyness and scale from it, it boils down to the work.

     

  • New ‘Titans’ Set Photos Offer Closer Look at Teagan Croft’s New Raven Costume

    New ‘Titans’ Set Photos Offer Closer Look at Teagan Croft’s New Raven Costume

    Titans is currently busy filming its third season which might see a new direction for the franchise. Now that the former DC streaming app remains focused on comics, the series is now part of the HBO Max family. We’ve been excited to see if it’ll also see a shake-up in the show’s format with potentially a higher budget. The first showcases of the cast’s new costumes were a promising start and it looks like some set photos have found their way online that offer a closer look at two of next season’s main cast members. Damaris Lewis is rocking her new outfit as Blackfire, which was revealed around three months ago. Luckily, she is not alone as we also get a closer look at Teagan Croft‘s new Raven costume.

    We also got a look at her costume from a distance, which includes Blackfire’s full costume and a tease of Anna Diop‘s Starfire costume.

    Now, the show has taken a very different approach with Raven’s outfit but her iconic purple hair and forehead mark remained. They have teased her iconic hood but it seems she ditched that entirely. There is a chance this isn’t her final outfit in the series. Still, it’s great to see Croft‘s evolution as the character throughout the last two seasons and it’ll be interesting to explore how the events of the upcoming third season might shape Raven even more. Here’s hoping we get an official trailer soon to see if they will showcase the new comics in action.

    Source: Twitter (Close-up), Twitter (Distance)

  • Christina Ricci Secretly Added to Lana Wachowski’s ‘Matrix 4’

    Christina Ricci Secretly Added to Lana Wachowski’s ‘Matrix 4’

    By the time the fourth film in the Matrix franchise releases it’ll have been almost eighteen years since the original trilogy ended. Many were ecstatic to hear that Lana Wachowski would be returning to helm the next film alongside the return of multiple main cast members from the original films. The list includes Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Daniel Bernhardt, and Jada Pinkett Smith. Plot details for the upcoming film remain under wraps with the only clue to the premise of the film being a leak from a wrap gift. It revealed that the film’s title is Matrix: Resurrections. With the film in the can, it seems there’s one rather late addition to its outstanding cast.

    In a new report from Collider, it is being reported that actress Christina Ricci has joined the cast of the upcoming film with details on her character currently unknown. It seems it was a well-hidden secret and recently was added into the recent press kit. She is best known for her work in the Addams Family films in which she played Wednesday Addams, and even once worked with the Wachowskis on the 2008 live-action adaption of Speed Racer.

    The upcoming Matrix film is currently set to be released on December 16, 2021, and will be the first film in the franchise not co-directed by both Wachowski sisters, With Lilly Wachowski only serving as producer on the project alongside Lana due to prior commitments.  Joining the returning cast members is a slew of high-profile talent with the likes of Jessica Henwick, Yahya Abdul Mateen II, Neil Patrick Harris, Priyanka Chopra, Jonathan Groff, and Max Riemelt.

    Source: Collider

  • Third ‘A Quiet Place’ Film In Development Eyeing 2023 Release

    Third ‘A Quiet Place’ Film In Development Eyeing 2023 Release

    Paramount Pictures isn’t done with A Quiet Place just yet. The studio has given a release date to a third installment in the popular horror franchise, which may or may not act as the series’ first spin-off. According to insider Erik Davis, the project will drop on March 31, 2023. The news comes shortly after A Quiet Place: Part II successfully helped ring in the return of movie theaters across the United States. The untitled project will be helmed by Jeff Nichols, who is best known for his dramatic work with films like Mud and Loving. The script is based on an original story by Nichols and franchise creator John Krasinski. This will make the film the first Quiet Place feature not to be directed by Krasinski himself.

    A Quiet Place released in 2018 to critical acclaim and focused around a family attempting to survive in a world populated by noise-sensitive monsters. The sequel was intended to come out in 2020 but was delayed over a year due to the unexpected global pandemic. A third film has been in the cards for a long time, with Nichols’ potential spin-off being announced in November of 2020. In terms of continuing the franchise past 2023, series star Emily Blunt stated recently that husband Krasinski had a “whole arc of ideas” for more films. She was quoted as saying:

    I think he just wanted to see how people responded to [the second one] before he fully engaged his brain on the third one. But he has a couple of great ideas.

    Whatever the case may be with this next movie, it seems likely that A Quiet Place is here to stay.

    Source: Twitter, Digital Spy

  • Disney Developing a ‘Cruella’ Sequel

    Disney Developing a ‘Cruella’ Sequel

    It looks like Cruella was a success, as Disney is fast-tracking a sequel to the Emma Stone-led project. Craig Gillespie will return to direct with Tony McNamara once again working on the screenplay for the film. The One Hundred and One Dalmations prequel explored the early days of villainess Cruella de Vil and how she made her name in the fashion world. The film was released theatrically and on Disney+ Premier Access. While we don’t know how it performed on the streaming service, the film did earn around $48.5M worldwide. A Disney spokesperson shared their enthusiasm for the film’s success:

    The film has been incredibly well received by audiences around the world, with a 97% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes in addition to A’s in every demographic from CinemaScore on opening weekend, ranking it among the most popular of our live-action reimaginings. We look forward to a long run as audiences continue to enjoy this fantastic film.

    Unlike some of their live-action reimaginings of the classic fairytale adaptations, Cruella took a very unique visual approach by integrating a 1970s punk rock aesthetic. It made the film stand out even among the many adaptations that Disney has been working on. What started with 2010’s Alice in Wonderland became a staple of Disney’s cinematic landscape as they saw success with Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. Now, Cruella’s approach to an origin story for the original’s main villain is similar to what they did with the Angelina Jolie-spearheaded Maleficent. Their success could open up the door to exploring other classic villains. Could we see a prequel to The Great Mouse Detective focusing on Professor Ratigan? Probably not, but one thing is for sure, Disney won’t be slowing down anytime soon.

    Source: THR

  • Shamier Anderson Joins ‘John Wick 4’ In Undisclosed Role

    Shamier Anderson Joins ‘John Wick 4’ In Undisclosed Role

    It looks like the cast of John Wick 4 is continuing to grow. Right after they cast IP Man‘s Donnie Yen, the upcoming fourth entry in the Keanu Reeves-led project has added Shamier Anderson in an undisclosed role. Anderson has worked on a variety of projects that include Stowaway, City of Lifes, as well as Syfy’s Wynonna Earp. He also was an important part of forming Canada’s first Black-owned venture capital firm, Bay Mills investment Group. The film’s plot still remains under wraps, but they are eyeing a worldwide production that starts this summer. The film will film in France, Germany, and Japan as Wick takes on the world. Rina Sawayama was cast as the film’s female lead and it will be interesting to see how all the pieces come together.

    Overall, John Wick is a fascinating franchise that started as a small indie project that continued to balloon in success with each entry. It was also the grand return of Keanu Reeves in a titular role. It’s also the aesthetic and worldbuilding that makes this franchise so fascinating standing tall alongside big-budget films. It doesn’t require a CGI backdrop of unfamiliar buildings and structures to make us believe there is a world we know little about. The structure of the Continental hotel chain, the way it showcases assassins living in a completely unique world that is hidden from the everyday person makes it a must-watch franchise for any action fan out there. Here’s hoping we find out what the future holds in the near future once more actors and actresses join the project.

    Source: Deadline