As part of today’s Hasbro Pulse Fan Fest, a new 6-inch Thor figure has been revealed as part of the Infinity Saga line. As you can see below, collectors are getting a fantastic figure straight from the final fight against Thanos in Avengers: Endgame.
The figure, which is available for pre-order right here, is retailing for $24.99 and included 5 accessories including Mjolnir and Stormbreaker.
The upcoming HBO Max’s Green Lantern will span multiple decades, as we follow Lanterns from past and present. The film will explore the stories of Alan Scott, Guy Gardener, Jessica Cruz, Simon Baz, and Bree Jarta, who is an original character made for the series. It is set to start production next week. So, the timing of this reveal is quite interesting, as Illuminerdi has learned that Sinestro will appear in the upcoming series. Yes, that Thaal Sinestro will have a role of some kind. The warrior of will, who would eventually turn into an agent of fear.
The character is described to be “akin to a warrior monk.” It’s a fitting description for the character, who was previously played by Mark Strong in Ryan Reynolds‘ Green Lantern film. They are looking to cast someone in their 40s to play the “greatest of all the Green Lanterns,” who will serve as a “strategic commander.” He will be a series regular with his darker side being teased prominently. So, we might see the Sinestro Corps make an appearance at some point in the HBO Max series.
Green Lantern currently has no release date but is currently set to release exclusively on HBO Max. The series is set to be written by Marc Guggenheim and Seth Grahame-Smith and produced by Greg Berlanti. The inclusion of Sinestro may hint at future appearances by other major characters like Hal Jordan or John Stewart. It’ll be interesting to see how the series ties together the different decades in the Green Lantern’s history once it releases on the Warner Bros. streaming platform.
Source: Variety, FTIA, Illuminerdi
Toy leaks have become the best way to figure out what is happening in future Marvel Studios projects. We’ve been seeing quite a few leaks that offered a closer look at the upcoming projects of Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings. The latest leak offered a closer look at the Great Protector in Funko Pop form, which was the dragon teased in an earlier LEGO leak. The first we got for the Shang-Chi film was from Marvel Legends, which only offered a glimpse at what is heading our way. The latest leak of the images comes from Twitter user @ShangChiBR. Well, it looks like another leak offered an even better look at Simu Liu‘s costume. It also includes an interesting description of the film’s story:
Trained since childhood by the mysterious Ten Rings Organization, Shang-Chi must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn back into his father’s web.
The description confirms that Shang-Chi found a way to get out of the organization before the events of this film might drag him back in. We know that Wenwu, the real Mandarin, is his father. It’ll be interesting to see how they set up their relationship and how it will be explored throughout the film. The Marvel Legends pieces include three other characters from the upcoming film, whose descriptions might offer some more clues on what we can expect from the film. Marvel Studios still hasn’t released a trailer, but as cinemas are slowly recovering, we might hopefully get something sooner rather than later.
Source: Twitter
It looks like the Star Trek franchise is finally heading back to cinemas, as Paramount has just scheduled a brand new film to release June 2023. It is uncertain if this will be an attempt at a new reboot or if it will continue where 2016’s Star Trek Beyond left off. This reveal comes in the wake of a massive reshuffling of 2021 and 2022’s film line-up. Top Gun: Maverick moved to November 19th while Mission: Impossible 7 was postponed into May 2022. As of now, the new Star Trek film remains untitled and will potentially go up against two unknown films by 20th Century Studios and Universal. So, there is a chance it might get postpone once those are revealed.
The latest incarnation of the team was part of the Kelvin-verse, which introduced us to a brand new timeline with the iconic team led by Chris Pine‘s James T. Kirk. Since Beyond, the franchise has focused more on its streaming ventures. Star Trek Discovery followed the crew of the USS Discovery, which recently ended its third season with a bold new direction. The franchise has also expanded into animated comedy with Star Trek: The Lower Decks. Amazon also continued the story of Next Generation‘s Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the aptly named series Picard. It saw the return of Patrick Stewart in the role he made iconic all those years ago. It will be interesting to see how the new untitled film might tie into the existing series, or if it will explore new parts of the endless galaxy.
Hasbro revealed its latest Iron Man Wave of Marvel Legends today and fans of the Russian super team the Winter Guard have to be ecstatic. The 7 figure wave, which is fully inspired by the comics, includes Winter Guard member Darkstar and the BAF pieces to compile Ursa Major. With Red Guardian and Crimson Dynamo already available, fans can now put together the entire team.
As you can see, the rest of the wave includes several Iron Man variants, the first Ironheart Legend, a classic Ultron and a Guardsman which might be familiar to readers from the Armor Wars era. The big prize here, though, is Darkstar and the BAF pieces to Ursa Major which allow completist collectors to show off Russia’s own super team.
CW continues its work on the live-action adaptation of Craig McCracken‘s iconic superhero trio from Townsville. Now retitled Powerpuff, the upcoming series will follow Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup in their 20s. The Cartoon Network adaptation will see Chloe Bennet, Dove Cameron, and Yana Perreault take center stage as the series’ heroines. We’ll also get introduced to Mojo Jojo Jr. He will be played by Nicholas Podany. It looks like they are continuing to round out the cast, as Robyn Lively will join the production as Sara Bellum. She was played by Jennifer Martin in the cartoon. It’ll be interesting to see if they will continue the running gag that her face is off-camera in the show, but now that the girls are adults, it will be a bit trickier to pull it off.
There is also one character making a grand return from the original series, s Tom Kenny will reprise his role as the Narrator from the 1998 and 2016 versions. We don’t know if he will continue to voice the intro to every episode. There is a chance it is simply a node to the cartoon in the pilot. We know that the three will wear costumes close to that from the original. So, it could be that the first episode plays with the conventions of the original before pulling us into am ore adult version of these character’s life.
Source: Deadline
We finally got the confirmation during Disney’s Investors Day that a new Indiana Jones film was in development. Logan‘s James Mangold will direct the upcoming entry of the Lucasfilm franchise, which will see the return of Harrison Ford in the titular role. Pheobe Waller-Bridge is the first to join the production and well co-star in the fifth installment of the franchise. Steven Spielberg will continue to serve as a producer on the project alongside Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, and Simon Emanuel. John Williams is also confirmed to return to score the film, whose time adventure with the franchise started all the way back with Raiders of the Lost Ark.
James Mangold shared his enthusiasm about tackling this iconic franchise and Waller-Bridge‘s addition to the cast:
I’m thrilled to be starting a new adventure, collaborating with a dream team of all-time great filmmakers. Steven, Harrison, Kathy, Frank, and John are all artistic heroes of mine. When you add Phoebe, a dazzling actor, brilliant creative voice and the chemistry she will undoubtedly bring to our set, I can’t help but feel as lucky as Indiana Jones himself.
The last film in the franchise was 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which introduced the world to Jones’s son, Shia LaBeouf‘s Mutt Williams. It is uncertain if he will also make an appearance of some kind, or they might be steering away from that film’s plotlines. The film will be the first that wasn’t directed by Spielberg. So, it’ll be interesting to see what Mangold offers to make it stand out from the rest of the franchise. It may also be the beginning for the franchise to kick off a new era.
Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier took a closer look at Sony’s recent issues adapting to the market and their strong focus on Blockbuster-level games. It looks like an internal shift at the company led to the company’s Sony’s Visual Arts Service Group to take a more active hand in game development. It ended up leading to some unrest with the various departments of the massive cooperation.
There are also some game-related reveals in this report. It seems Sony is working on a PlayStation 5 remake of 2013’s The Last of Us for their next-gen console. It looks like a secretive team was working on it before it got passed back to the franchise creator, Naughty Dog. The problem was that this team was never fully supported and led Michael Mumbauer, the founder of Visual Arts Service Group, to leave the company after founding this small team. This revelation also confirms that Sony’s conservative approach to its game development may hurt them in the long term. It seems at one point they wanted to remake the first Uncharted but realized that the modern game would’ve been easier to produce, but if their work would’ve been successful, they would return to their initial pitch.
Their strong focus on only allowing successful or proven studios to take the reigns on massive projects has led to some internal strife. Santa Monica, Naughty Dog, and Guerrilla Games have become their go-to choices. Their niche teams and studios have seen a high turnover, such as the Japanese office seeing massive departures. The teams behind Gravity Rush and Everybody’s Golf are no more, as the studio moves away from niche projects that aren’t 100% proven profitability worldwide. This development proves a point made by Iron Galaxy Studios founder Dave Lang.
The people funding the work are often risk-averse, and if they have to pick between a team that’s done it before, and someone trying to do it on their own for the first time, I can see why some people pick the prior developer over the latter.
The Sony Bend division has also seen the results of this new direction. Their pitch for a Days Gone sequel was canceled due to the initial game’s decent sales and mixed reviews. Now the studio is split to help Naughty Dog with a multiplayer game, which many still believe to be part of the initial The Last of Us 2 release. The other half of their team is working on a new Uncharted game. Naughty Dog will supervise the project. Yet, it is uncertain at what stage this project is at the moment. Sadly, the small team led by Mumbauer has pretty much disbanded, and these decisions are opening up a lot of questions about Sony’s future approach in the gaming market.
Source: Bloomberg
Actress Renée Elise Goldsberry has joined the cast of the upcoming Marvel Studios Disney Plus streaming series She-Hulk. According to Deadline, Goldsberry is playing a character named “Amelia”; Amelia is a code name for a yet to be revealed character, but we can add that Goldsberry will portray a high-powered lawyer who keeps her private and work lives very separated.
Though Deadline was unable to get comment from Marvel Studios, it is possible that Goldsberry is playing Mallory Book, a lawyer who worked with Jennifer Walters at Goodman, Liever, Kurtzberg & Holliway and is known as “the face that never lost a case.” First introduced in Dan Slott’s 2004 She-Hulk #1, Book had a very roller coaster relationship with Jennifer Walters and was also a victim of an attack by Titania, who is rumored to be the villain of the show, on the firm.
Goldsberry won several awards for her performance as Angelica Schuyler in Hamilton and can currently be seen co-starring alongside Tina Fey in the Peacock streaming series Girls5eva. She-Hulk, starring Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk, is expected to stream on Disney Plus early in 2022.
Source: Deadline
It looks like Dwayne Johnson’s upcoming superhero film keeps growing with each passing day. The Hollywood Reporter has just revealed that rising actor Bodhi Sabonui will have a key role in the upcoming Shazam spin-off. The plot remains largely a mystery and the 13-year-old actor’s role is also not disclosed in the article. He is joining quite a cast that consists of Pierce Brosnan, Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, and Quintessa Swindell. The Canadian actor has already appeared in another DC project, CW’s Legends of Tomorrow. He has also appeared in A Million Little Things, The Babysitters Club, and The Main Event. Black Adam will be his biggest project yet that is set to film this week.
The film will tell the story of Theo-Adam. In the comics, the character has been commonly known as an anti-hero. We were teased bout his origin during the DC FanDome panel last year in August, where Johnson introduced us to his upcoming origins. He was given the powers of the wizard Shazam before being imprisoned for his misdeeds. After 5,000 years he is free and will take his vengeance on the world. He will also come face-to-face with the Justice Society of America. Jaume Collet-Serra will bring the film to life after working together with The Rock on Disney’s Jungle Cruise film. It’s going to be interesting to see how the film sets up Adam’s story. We’ll see if it might even tie directly into the upcoming Shazam sequel.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter, Instagram
