Category: News

EXCLUSIVE: Marvel Studios ‘BLACK WIDOW’ Character Breakdowns Revealed as Casting Gets Underway

Note: This article was originally published by Charles Murphy at That Hashtag Show on November 12, 2018.

Recently we broke the news that Marvel Studios had made the decision to slot their solo Black Widow film into the May 6, 2020 slot that was previously believed to belong to the now delayed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. We’ve been told for some time that Black Widow was set to be “next time” for the studio and recently passed along that the studio was ready to move into production early next year and was looking at overseas locations, such as Croatia, for the spy flick. While they still having quite locked down a firm list of locations just yet, they have moved onto the preliminary stages of casting for the film and we have the first look at over a half dozen character breakdowns.

While we at That Hashtag Show have a long history of being the first to share character breakdowns with fans, it has become a bit of a cat and mouse game with the studios. Over time, the breakdowns have become more and more vague, making it harder and harder to come to any sort of conclusion on who the characters may actually be. For instance, the initial breakdown for Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio simply called for someone with “elevated ideas” and was open to any gender and ethnicity. With that having been said, here’s what to expect:

Main Antagonist

The film’s big bad is set to be a male. The villain is simply described as “exciting” and the studio is open to ethnicity, but looking for someone in their 40s.

The Russian super soldier known as The Red Guardian is certainly one of the most popular choices among fans. Given that the studio is open to diverse actors, we wonder if someone like Taskmaster might not be an interesting fit to take on a hand-to-hand combatant as lethal as the Black Widow. Perhaps, with the story taking place at least partially in Europe, someone like the vigilante Night Raven, who was featured in the graphic novel Fury/Black Widow: Death Duty , could even be reworked into the film.

Friends or Foes

This is a Black Widow film, so it goes without saying that not everyone is going to be who they seem. The studio is looking to fill four roles which seem like good bets to end up being potential double agents. The two most interesting roles call for “contemporaries” to the Widow and are looking for actors in their late-20s to early 30s. The first is a “kick ass” female character described as a “female Bond” while the other is for a male with an emphasis on African, Middle Eastern or East Indian actors. Additionally, the search is on for one European Caucasian female and one European Caucasian male, both in the 50-60 year old range. The studio is putting an emphasis on actors and actresses who can speak multiple languages for all of the roles mentioned above, which certainly makes them all feel like spied.

It’s no easy task to decipher what the studio is looking for her. We could be talking about someone like Jessica Drew (a character we speculated might appear in Spider-Man: Far From Home), Black Lotus, an new take on Melina Vostokovna (aka Iron Maiden) or even Snapdragon; the male contemporary could be anyone from an adaptation of Bengal to someone like Raoul Bushman nad anyone in between.There’s certainly no indication here that any of these characters are on Nat’s side and even if they were, who knows if they’d stay that way. Perhaps the two older characters are KGB agents from Nat’s past, maybe someone like Ivan Petrovich or a Red Room relic, who are working with the woman described below.

Secondary Antagonist

While the film’s lead villain will be a male, the studio is also looking for an actress in her 50s to play a smaller, villainous role. The character was only briefly described as a “conniving female villian”, leading us to wonder if she’s possibly a relic of the KGB’s Red Room and someone much more familiar to the Black Widow.

This Guy

The film will also feature another minor role described as a “bookish American” in his late 20s.

Really…take your best guess.

It was late last November when we got our first look at character breakdowns for Captain Marvel, which filmed for a week in January before resuming production full-time in March. While many are still skeptical that Marvel Studios will go ahead with this film, the timing of these breakdowns allows us to speculate that Black Widow is set to begin filming in late-February or early-March, a timeline congruent with the info we’ve been given all along. Though no official word has come from Marvel Studios, we expect Black Widow on May 1, 2020.

November 12, 2018
EXCLUSIVE: ‘THE ETERNALS’ Tentatively Set for a September 2019 Start

Note: This article was originally posted by Charles Murphy at That Hashtag Show on November 9, 2018.

Recently we were fortunate enough to break the news that Marvel Studios had solidified its 2020 slate of films which would feature Black Widow and The Eternals. Thanks to a source with knowledge of the production, we now have Marvel Studios targeted start date for The Eternals. The Chloe Zhao-helmed film which Marvel Studios hopes will kick off a new franchise is tentatively scheduled to go into production in September of 2019. That start date puts the film on track for a November 6, 2020 release, right where we told you to expect it.

Marvel Studios is expected to assemble a very diverse cast for the film which is set millions of years ago when the cosmic beings known as the Celestials genetically experimented on humans, creating the super-powered individuals as well as more villainous off-shoots known as Deviants. The two groups went on to battle each other throughout history to see which would eventually become the ultimate race. Even if the production should be shuffled around by a few weeks in either direction, we should expect the studio to start looking at casting sometime early next summer. The Eternal Sersi, who served as an Avenger for a time, is expected to be one of the film’s leads. In the comics she was known to love living among mortals during her life, even making her way into Greek mythology as the Greek witch Circe. It is expected that she’ll play a major, recurring role and Marvel Studios will be looking to land a unique and diverse star for the role.

While many fans were hopeful to see a Doctor Strange sequel in the fall of 2020, the studio has put their eggs into The Eternals basket. Zhao will be working from a screenplay by Matthew and Ryan Firpo and will be in a unique position to tell the stories of the earliest eras of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, stories that could possibly put into motion any number of spinoffs and sequels.

November 9, 2018
EXCLUSIVE: Kevin Durand In Talks for Villain In DC Universe’s ‘SWAMP THING’

Note: This article was originally published by Charles Murphy at That Hashtag Show on November 8, 2018.

Production on DC Universe’s Swamp Thing is set to begin in just a couple of weeks and the cast of the streaming series has rapidly begun to fall into place. With casting for Alec Holland, Avery Sunderland and more having been revealed, it now seems they may have found someone to portray one of his greatest foes. Kevin Durand is in negotiations for the role of Jason Woodrue, aka The Floronic Man.

Durand, who would join the series in a recurring role, is also a TV vet having starred as Vasiliy Fet on FX’s The Strain. A smart, slick and cunning scientist, Woodrue was an inter-dimensional being in the comics has long tormented the Swamp Thing in his search to control The Green and take over the world.

November 8, 2018
EXCLUSIVE: HBO Looking At Matthew Rhys To Become ‘PERRY MASON’

Note: This article was originally published by Charles Murphy at That Hashtag Show on November 5, 2018.

HBO’s Robert Downey Jr. produced Perry Mason reboot may have found their man. The network is looking to reboot the series, which originally ran from 1957-1966 and was the first weekly television series, and are hoping to land actor Matthew Rhys in the lead role.

Rhys gained notoriety for his role as Phillip Jennings on FX’s The Americans where he starred alongside his longtime girlfriend Keri Russell. The show ran for 75 episodes over 6 seasons during which Rhys won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. Should Rhys join the show, he’d take on the lead role of Mason, a defense attorney with a penchant for helping the wrongly accused clear their names and finding the real criminal.

November 5, 2018
EXCLUSIVE: Marvel Studios Taps ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Screenwriter David Callaham to Pen Untitled Film

Note: This article was originally published by Charles Murphy at That Hashtag Show on November 1, 2018.

Screenwriter David Callaham has been commissioned by Marvel Studios to write an upcoming and yet to be announced film. Since writing the screenplay for 2005’s Doom, Callaham has quickly ascended as a writer. He has done character work on the Expendables franchise, wrote 2014’s Godzilla and has scripts for 3 major upcoming films (Wonder Woman 1984, Mortal Kombat and Zombieland 2) in various stages of development.

Callaham boarded the new project earlier this month, but at this time we are unable to learn the specifics of the project. We do know that it is a film and not one of the limited series currently being developed for Disney Play. The 41-year old Fresno native and University of Michigan grad is no stranger to Marvel Studios, having done some uncredited work on Peyton Reed‘s Ant-Man, and his very diverse resume of projects (including the Amazon series Jean-Claude Van Johnson) doesn’t give us much to go on as we speculate.

What It Is Not

Black Widow, The Eternals and the sequel to Black Panther are set. Black Widow was penned by Jac Schaeffer while Matthew and Ryan Firpo tag teamed the script for The Eternals. Ryan Coogler recently signed on to write and direct the follow up to Black Panther. With Black Widow and The Eternals expected to enter production in 2019, it’s highly unlikely that Marvel Studios has decided to scrap a script entirely and start over with a new writer. It’s much more likely that Callaham is working on a yet-to-be-announced project.

What It Might Be

Literally anything else. Could Callaham be the writer of the Dark Avengers script we reported on earlier this month? It’s certainly possible, though at this point he’s just as likely to the scribe of that script as he is any other film. We know that Marvel Studios is developing a Doctor Strange sequel, that Kevin Feige has teased adding the Young Avengers and that they would like to introduce a number of new characters, including a handful of new female characters. Callaham’s diverse portfolio makes him equally likely to be working on any one of those projects. Whatever the project is, we wouldn’t be too surprised to hear more about it in the near future. With Callaham coming on board this late in 2018, it would be in line with recent Marvel Studios protocol for them to be hoping to get the script in order to film in late 2019 or early 2020, making it a candidate for either the May 7th or November 5th, 2021 release. It’s also entirely possible that Callaham may take his time on this project and we may not even see it in the near future. Whatever the case, we certainly hope to stir the drink and get some more details in the near future.

November 1, 2018
EXCLUSIVE: Marvel Studios 2020 Slate is Set

Note: This article was originally published by Charles Murphy at That Hashtag Show on October 26, 2018.

Kevin Feige has kept his word: while the wheels at Marvel Studios are still spinning, the fans are left to speculate on what films will come when. Black Widow, The Eternals, Black Panther 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 headline a list of projects we know are upcoming, but since it was announced that Vol. 3 would be delayed while the search for a director continued, it’s been unclear and a source of debate among fans which film would take it place. The recent announcement that the studio was dropping one of its 3 scheduled films from its 2020 release slate seemingly confirmed that Vol. 3 would NOT be happening anytime soon and fanned the flames of conjecture even further. So which movies will we actually end up seeing in 2020?

We are told that in addition to dropping the July 31, 2020 film from their slate, Marvel Studios also settled on the 2 films they’ll be releasing in 2020. As many fans have speculated, we are told the studio plans to release Black Widow on May 1, 2020 and The Eternals on November 6, 2020.

We are told that Black Widow is looking to take advantage of the attractive production incentives available by filming in Croatia. Walt Disney Studios used the beautiful coastal nation to film portions of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, allowing for Black Widow to film their as well in keeping with one of many requirements for the handsome rebate. We were the first to bring you a limited synopsis for the film, one that is in line with a longer synopsis also recently revealed:

At birth, the Black Widow (aka Natasha Romanova) is given to the KGB, which grooms her to become its ultimate operative. When the U.S.S.R. breaks up, the government tries to kill her as the action movies to present-day New York, where she is a freelance operative. The standalone film will find Romanoff living in the United States 15 years after the fall of the Soviet Union.

With production set to begin early in 2019, it’s very possible Black Widow is already in pre-production and we expect casting news to begin to leak before the end of the year!

Marvel Studios is also rolling the dice on The Eternals in 2020.

The story of ‘THE ETERNALS’ is set millions of years ago when the cosmic beings known as the Celestials genetically experimented on humans, creating the super-powered individuals as well as more villainous off-shoots known as Deviants. The two groups went on to battle each other throughout history to see which would eventually become the ultimate race. The story involves the love story between Ikaris, a man fueled by cosmic energy, and Sersi, who relishes moving amongst humans.

Chloe Zhao, director of The Eternals, is the big winner in the shuffling of Marvel Studios post-Infinity plans. The studio has a script that they like and when they moved on Zhao, they had hoped things would come together quickly enough to begin production Q4 of next year, which we are told is tentatively planned to take place primarily in the UK, though that’s certainly not been cemented at this point.

Fans of the comics know that The Eternals have two rather diverse interpretations in the comics: the Jack Kirby iteration and the Neil Gaiman iteration. While Gaiman’s turn with the characters held on to some of the key points of the original Kirby work, it was certainly a more modern take. We are told that the script by Matthew and Ryan Firpo was more heavily influenced by Kirby’s 1976 work and will not only introduce the worlds of the Eternals and Deviants, but also connect to several existing characters, leave doors open for the introductions of any number of new ones and establish a deep history of the MCU.

While no further details about who those characters may be were revealed to us, we can certainly speculate. Dating back to the earliest recorded history, the Eternals have direct connections to Thanos, through his father, A’Lars (mentioned in Avengers: Infinity War) and his mother Sui-San; the Greek Pantheon, known as the Olympians, through Zuras, son of Kronos and uncle to Thanos; the Kree and also the malevolent entity known as the Dragon of the Moon. Additionally, the timeless foes of the Eternals, the Deviants, have several interesting connections themselves. Their longtime, underwater capital city of Lemuria could certainly portend some interesting possibilities as could the fact that Skrulls, set to debut in Captain Marvel, are also Deviant offshoots in the comics. Once thought to be a film that could tangentially connect to Thanos and maybe be backdoored via Vol. 3, it’s possible that The Eternals could become a central hub from which many other future story lines emerge.

If we’ve learned anything in the past week, it is that films which seem to have the firmest of release dates (Wonder Woman 1984, for instance) can be shuffled around in an instant so I’m not here to tell you to go get in line for tickets just yet. In a business that’s always in motion, this represents a snapshot of Marvel Studios plans today as I write this, which isn’t even the same day you’ll read it, at which point plans could already have changed.

October 26, 2018
EXCLUSIVE: SONY’S ‘MORBIUS’ VILLAIN REVEALED

Note: This article was originally published by Charles Murphy at That Hashtag Show on October 16, 2018

The box office success of Sony’s Venom means that their planned Universe of Marvel Characters will continue. Up next for Sony is the Jared Leto-led Morbius, which tells the tale of Dr. Michael Morbius. Morbius is a biochemist who in an attempt to cure a fatal blood disease injects himself with a treatment serum derived from bats. Morbius is transformed into a creature with vampire-like traits, including super strength and reflexes and a thirst for human blood. Back in July we brought you the first details on the film’s leads, including the first descriptions of the film’s villain and Martine Bancroft. With filming projected to begin sometime in the first quarter of 2019, Sony has begun searching for its cast and we now have an update on the film’s villain!

In our July exclusive we revealed that the film’s antagonist would be a friend of Morbius’ who turned on him and that still remains true. However, at the time we speculated that friend might be Emil Nikos. While Nikos will be in Morbius (though this iteration of Nikos will be very different from his comic book counterpart), he is not the film’s villain. Michael Morbius will face off against his good friend Loxias Crown!

If that name doesn’t quite ring a bell it’s because Loxias Crown doesn’t exist in the comics…not by that name anyway. It seems as though Sony might be adapting the mutant supervillain Crown, who later went by the name Hunger and came into conflict with Spider-Man and Morbius.

Crown first appeared in 1997’s Spider-Man #76. If Sony is adapting Crown here, they’re making some serious alterations to the characters history. In the film, Loxias Crown suffers from the same rare blood disease as his good friend Morbius. Like Morbius, Loxias will be transformed by the serum that Moribus developed to cure them and the film’s main conflict will center on Morbius trying to stop the killing machine Loxias has become while also fighting off his own blood lust.

With the film hoping to start production early next year, casting for Loxias could happen at anytime, but as of now Jared Leto remains the only actor who has signed on for a role. Stay tuned to That Hashtag Show for more on this story as it develops.

October 16, 2018
EXCLUSIVE: CHARACTER REVEALS FOR ‘THE SOPRANOS’ PREQUEL ‘THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK’

Note: This article was originally published by Charles Murphy at That Hashtag Show on October 15, 2018

Earlier this year it was announced that New Line Cinema had acquired the rights to creator David Chase’s Sopranos prequel film to be titled The Many Saints of Newark. This summer Alan Taylor, who directed several episodes of the show during its six season run, had signed on the helm the film said to be set during the riots that took place in the late-60s, seen in a flashback during the seventh episode of Season 1, titled Down Neck.

Little else is known about the film, though it had been reported that several characters from the original series would be present during it. We at That Hashtag Show are thrilled to report that we’ve gotten our hands on some character breakdowns that reveal 5 of the film’s lead characters and give some insight into what we can expect. We can also reveal that filming on the Sopranos prequel is set to begin in early March of 2019, so casting announcements will be forthcoming over the next couple of months!

YOUNG TONY

Of course it wouldn’t be a Sopranos project if Tony weren’t involved. The Many Saints of Newark will seemingly take place over the course of several years and the studio will be looking to cast multiple actors in the role of Tony. When the film begins, Tony is a first generation 9-year old boy with a passion for the Yankees. The film will follow Tony to age 16 where he is described as a “budding linebacker” with long hair and bellbottoms. According to Sopranos’ canon, Tony was born on August 24, 1959, so we can look forward to seeing the film take place between 1968 and 1975.

This setting would find Tony’s father, Johnny Boy, and his Uncle Junior in their primes working under Dominic DiMeo, the original Boss of the DiMeo Familiy that Tony eventually led. It would also take place near the death of a character that was the inciting factor for a key relationship of the original series…

DICKIE MOLTISANTI

A foot solider for the DiMeo family, Dickie was a minor character in the series, but it was his death and subsequent absence that lead Tony to take in and mentor Dickie’s young son, Christopher. Dickie will be a young man here and while he’s not among the characters we have found out about, it’s almost a certainty that a young Christopher will be present here.

Canonically, Dickie is the first cousin to Tony’s wife, Carmela, and his wife, Joanne, is a Blundetto, making their son Christopher a cousin to the Blundettos, just as Tony is. After Dickie’s death, Tony took care of Christopher, calling him his nephew, though Christopher’s longtime girlfriend Adriana indicated that Christopher and Tony did have a blood relation. In this film, Dickie is described as Tony’s uncle, and a new character may reveal the blood connection described above.

ALDO MOLTISANTI

By all accounts Aldo Moltisanti is an entirely new character and, presumably, the link to the blood relation of Christopher and Tony. Described as an “elegant wiseguy” in his mid-60s, Aldo is revealed as Tony’s grandfather! The implications here could be huge. We know (or at least we think we do) that Tony’s father, Johnny Boy Soprano, was one of 3 sons born to Corrado and Mariangela Soprano. However, little information is known about the familial connections of Tony’s mother, Livia. In the film, Aldo is newly married to 24 year old Giuseppina Bruno, leaving us guessing as to whom he was previously married and what it might reveal, if anything, about Tony’s lineage.

Fans have been rabid for information since the announcement of The Many Saints of Newark and this is sure to stir up a storm! What are your thoughts on the possible implications of Tony’s relationship with the Moltisantis? Let us know in the comments.

October 15, 2018
EXCLUSIVE: MARVEL STUDIOS HAS COMMISSIONED A ‘DARK AVENGERS’ SCRIPT

Note: This article was originally published by Charles Murphy at That Hashtag Show on October 5, 2018

Marvel Studios has enjoyed an unprecedented 10 year run of box office success as that began with 2008’s Iron Man. That film gave the studio the momentum it needed to build a cinematic universe around a few well-known heroes, take some gambles on a few others and tell a longform story unlike any that’s come before. That story, however, will come to an end with 2019’s Avengers 4 as will the tenures of several of the studio’s flagship heroes leaving fans to wonder what comes next. Some of the heroes and franchises will live on post-Infinity with sequels being developed for Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange and Black Panther; other new heroes such as Captain Marvel and Monica Rambeau will be introduced before Avengers 4 and become a part of the story that comes next; new franchises, such at The Eternals, are being developed, showing that Kevin Feige and company are still willing to roll the dice on some lesser known characters even as their deal to bring home the X-Men, Fantastic Four and related characters creeps towards closure.

As exciting as the influx of new characters is for fans, Feige couldn’t have counted on them to shoulder the load going forward until the recent approvals to the deal. As a result, Marvel Studios has been developing dozens of properties for potential films and those dozens of properties probably stand at a dozen different stages of development. Some of those properties will feature prominently in the future of the MCU and others will never be known to anyone not lucky enough to be a part of the Marvel Studios brain trust. We’ve been fortunate enough to find out about similar projects in the past and today we’re happy to share another: Marvel Studios has developed and completed a script for an adaptation of Dark Avengers.

To be clear, Marvel Studios has many scripts for many projects, not all of which will make it to the big screen. It’s a smart move for the studio to commission as many scripts as possible knowing that at any time someone might come up with a take on an IP that blows people away while also knowing some of them will go straight to the bottom of the pile. We at That Hashtag Show don’t pretend to know where in that pile the Dark Avengers sits, only that a script for the IP was completed .

The Dark Avengers were created by Brian Michael Bendis and first appeared in their own title in January of 2009 in the aftermath of the Skrull Secret Invasion. With the people and the government having lost faith in the Avengers, Norman Osborn, who had been in charge of the Thunderbolts, was appointed head of the reformed S.H.I.E.L.D., now known as H.A.M.M.E.R.. Osborn took the opportunity to assemble his own team of “heroes”, including Sentry, Noh-Varr and Ares and to disguise some Thunderbolts as former Avengers. Osborn’s team included a Mac Gargan “Spider-Man”, a Moonstone “Captain Marvel”, a Bullseye “Hawkeye”, a Daken “Wolverine” and Norman in the Iron Patriot armor. The initial run of the comic lasted 16 issues and ran throughout the Dark Regin and Seige line-wide arcs.

October 5, 2018
EXCLUSIVE: ‘ARROW’ SEASON 7 TO FEATURE DC VILLAIN JAVELIN

Note: This article was originally published by Charles Murphy at That Hashtag Show on September 13, 2018

We know that the upcoming 7th season of Arrow, set to premiere this fall, will see Oliver Queen behind bars, leaving Team Arrow to pick up the pace. While Oliver is sure to have his hand full in prison with former enemies and some less than friendly guards, we now know the big bad that the rest of the team will be dealing with in addition to the Longbow Hunters. DC Comics villain Javelin is coming to town!

DC Comics have typically portrayed Javelin as a German Olympic athlete and a thorn in the side of Hal Jordan. He’s been given a bit of an update here, but interestingly enough his Olympic origins may still come into play as a link to Team Arrow member Curtis Holt.

Described as smart and ruthless, Leonard Gibbons, aka Javelin, is a French chemical weapons trader. In the midst of a huge ongoing deal, he does business with an undercover Curtis Holt/Mr. Terrific, bringing Team Arrow squarely into the mix. The studio is currently on the lookout for a French-speaking male in his 30s to take on what was described as a “large principle role.”

Certainly a character like Javelin, with his assortment of tricky spear-based weapons and high level of athletic skill fits in just fine in the Arrowverse. We know that Holt was himself an Olympic athlete, having won a bronze in the 2008 decathlon, so it’ll be interesting to see what shared history, if any, the two men have.

Season 7 of Arrow is set to hit the CW on October 15th!

September 13, 2018