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  • ‘Marvel’s Avengers’ Leak Offers First Look at ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Jemma Simmons

    ‘Marvel’s Avengers’ Leak Offers First Look at ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Jemma Simmons

    We have discussed Marvel’s Avengers here quite often. There were the leaks of War Machine and Black Panther’s design. Among them, there was a strange audio leak teasing a ghost-related storyline featuring Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Jemma Simmons. Of course, as a fan of the series, I was excited to see this character potentially getting added in a later update. Well, it looks like she might already be in the game but not in the way you would think.

    Avengers data miner @mmmmmmmmiller has been a reliable source in the past. He revealed quite a few details on the game and was the one to showcase War Machine’s initial design. He initially pointed out that there were voice files for the character. Well, it looks like he managed to get a good look at the character’s earlier in-game design.

    Okay, so she looks nothing like Elizabeth Henstridge, which shouldn’t be surprising. They would have to pay to use her likeness in the game. Also, as Miller points out, this is not a finalized character model as she isn’t in the final build of the game. Still, there are many big takeaways from this. It seems that her unique mission might’ve been scrapped at some point in development.

    Miller also confirms she was far into development, so they might still want to use the existing assets later. He does point out she may have been replaced by Maddy Cho, which is interesting if you consider she is part of the Inhuman Resistance rather than SHIELD. It could be that they used the character model as a template. I have to point out that her surroundings would place her in Substation Zero, so we will see if there is more to this story. I hope to see her added to the Helicarrier in the currently unused science lab.

    These weren’t the only older models he could find that got replaced later on. Sadly, it also debunks the other leak that Big Hero 6‘s Go-Go Tomago could make an appearance, as we finally get a reveal for the character, who was named Tanaka in the audio files. Jitterbug was also in these audio files, so it may confirm that these ended up unused at some point in development.

    It is interesting to see these NPCs so far into development before they got scrapped. They have names, audio files, and rendered models, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we still see them added at a later date. Hopefully, we will see these characters return as the game grows. Simmons’ inclusion would also be perfect once they add Quake, who is mentioned in the game and was part of the DLC leak a while back. Still, this is a nice look into what may have changed throughout development and could tease what else might be coming our way further down the line. 

    Source: Twitter (Simmons), Twitter (Characters)

  • Murphy’s Law Podcast: Episode 69

    Murphy’s Law Podcast: Episode 69

    In this record breaking 69th episode of Murphy’s Law, Charleses M. and V. discuss the casting of Oscar Isaac as Moon Knight, the various Marvel Studios projects that wrapped over the past couple of weeks and the return on Boba Fett to the Star Wars universe in Chapter 9 of The Mandalorian! Dig in with your ears.

  • BOBA’S BACK: What’s Next For the Mythic Bounty Hunter?

    BOBA’S BACK: What’s Next For the Mythic Bounty Hunter?

    Just like a year ago, the new The Mandalorian season premiere left us with a very cool cliffhanger. Last time we were all left wondering who that little Yoda-looking creature was and how it could impact not only the show’s storyline but the entire ongoing Star Wars narrative. This year it’s all about reconnecting with Boba Fett making his way back to Star Wars live-action. Chronologically, the last time we saw him was in Return of The Jedi’s opening act, falling into a Sarlacc Pit as Luke rescued Han Solo. But similarly to what happened with Darth Maul, the character connected with audiences in a way that was bound to lead to its return, even though we were supposed to have watched both of them die on screen.

    Back in 2015, the Star Wars: Aftermath novel gave us a few hints on what could have happened with Boba Fett’s iconic armor following the events of Return of the Jedi, but nothing was said of the man himself. But now, we’ve got official confirmation that Fett lives and five years after his supposed demise is still living on Tatooine. So what has he been up to? Where does he go from here?

     

     

    Be it because the explosion of Jabba’s Sail Barge killed or injured the Sarlacc that was supposed to have eaten him, or his beskar armor managed to protect him long enough to escape the monster’s grasp, the fact is Boba escaped. Either way, it’s hard to believe he would then leave his armor behind for no apparent reason. With the fall of the Empire, it’s perhaps reasonable to think that he would decide to stay hidden (a planet like Tatooine would certainly allow for that), and with everyone thinking he had died he shouldn’t expect too much trouble keeping it that way. And so, stranded in the desert, somewhat like Cobb Vanth a few years later, it would be in his interest to shed his bounty hunter garments and trade them with the Jawas for Tusken Raiders’ clothes so that he wouldn’t stand out from the usual Tatooine desert crowd. The fact that the Jawas had is armor in their possession and that, on that last shot when we see Boba for the first time, he’s got a gaderffii stick and a cycler rifle on his back (both usually used by Tusken Raiders) help support this idea.

    This also makes it less weird that, five years later, he wouldn’t have already found Cobb Vanth and his old armor. One would expect that if someone off-world like Gor Koresh knew a Mandalorian was seen in Mos Pelgo, Boba would too. And if he did know, and did nothing about it, there would be a reason for it. Cobb would then serve as bait for Boba to know who might come looking for him, keeping himself at a safe distance through it all.

     

     

    But now, after the events of “Chapter 9: The Marshal”, it becomes obvious that Boba is ready to take a step forward and reveal himself a bit more to the outside world. And there are two events that seem to be the catalysts to that decision. One being Din Djarin’s exploits on this last episode, the other the death of Fennec Shand in “Chapter 5: The Gunslinger.” The final shot of that episode was someone approaching Fennec Shand’s dead body in Tatooine’s desert, wearing similar clothing to Fett’s. Shand was an elite assassin making it easy to understand how she could have been Boba’s associate, perhaps serving as the only connection he had to the outside world all through his exile. Intrigued by how such a highly-skilled fighter could have been killed, and witnessing what Din Djarin did to the Krayt dragon, should make Boba assume that Din was the one who killed Shand, and that might mean he could be coming for him in the future. Him wearing Mandalorian armor would certainly add to his interest in Mando’s figure.

    In the, now non-canon material, Boba Fett evolved to become a sort of anti-hero in the Star Wars universe, even fighting alongside Han Solo. With news of a possible live-action Boba-centered spin-off being developed by LucasFilm in the near future, it’s only natural that that could be the direction he’ll be headed from now on as well. That would mean that any sort of confrontation between himself and Din Djarin would be decided without any of them having to die, perhaps even leaving each other on good terms. His spin-off show would also indicate that his presence in The Mandalorian won’t be an extended one, being used mainly to reframe his character in a way that when the new show starts, there are just enough familiar elements to it that the story flows naturally.

  • Absent from November’s “Next on Disney Plus” Announcement, ‘WANDAVISION’ Seems Set for December

    Absent from November’s “Next on Disney Plus” Announcement, ‘WANDAVISION’ Seems Set for December

    The first of the month has come and with it has come our first look at what to expect on Disney Plus in the month of November. Noticeably absent from the video was Marvel Studios WandaVision, a streaming series set to be Marvel Studios first shot at original MCU content for the service.

    While Marvel Studios have yet to give an official announcement date, it now seems like WandaVision will stream at some point in December as the studio has indicated a 2020 release for the series. While evidence pointed to a Thanksgiving weekend streaming start for the series, it now seems highly unlikely we’ll be seeing WandaVision while we eat our turkey sandwiches. Though it’s possible that the series could still begin streaming in November, it seems more likely that with reshoots/pick-ups on the series just recently wrapping that the studio will take its time and, hopefully, give fans a holiday season surprise sometime in December.

  • Leaked ‘WANDAVISION’ Funko Pop Description Reveals Major Spoiler

    Leaked ‘WANDAVISION’ Funko Pop Description Reveals Major Spoiler

    A leaked description of an Emerald City Comic Con exclusive two-pack may have revealed a huge spoiler for Marvel Studios Wandavision. The leak comes courtesy of @Serlent pops, who has a stellar reputation for digging up such things, and reveals that the ECCC exclusive will apparently feature Wanda’s dead brother, Pietro, aka Quicksilver!

    As Serlent Pop’s clearly says in the tweet, the two-pack is, at the moment, only rumored but the user’s history with uncovering these things in addition to rumors and what we already know about the series make this one a little easier to believe. Marvel Studios’ first trailer for the Disney Plus streaming series clearly indicated that Wanda has, somehow, created an alternate reality of some sort where her dead lover, Vision, is alive and well and even has the Mind Stone embedded in his forehead. If Wanda can “bring Vision back from the dead”, there’s no reason to believe she couldn’t and wouldn’t do the same thing for her brother, who sacrificed himself in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

    Evan Peters Back for X-Men: Dark Phoenix | CBR

    This isn’t the first we’ve heard of Pietro’s potential return to the MCU. An audition tape for who appeared to be one of Wanda and Vision’s twin sons referenced the boys’ uncle sleeping on the couch and while MCU Quicksilver Aaron Taylor-Johnson has indicated he would not return to the role and was never spotted in or around the Wandavision set, Evan Peters, who played Quicksilver in Fox’s X-Men films was cast in a “mystery” role in the series. While there’s no confirmation of  Quicksilver’s return nor of Peters’ stepping into the role, evidence continues to point in the direction of at least one of those two things being true and, if Disney is true to their word, we won’t have much longer to wait before we find out as WandaVision is supposed to stream in 2020.

    Source: @Serlentpops

     

  • Untitled Vision Series

    Untitled Vision Series

    Premiere: TBD 2026

    Initially mentioned by Jeff Sneider on The Hot Mic with John Rocha, the series was confirmed to be in development by Deadline in October 2022. It will supposedly follow Vision on his path to regaining his memories and humanity, with Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) rumored to be making an appearance.

    In April 2024, it was reported that production on the streaming series was slated to get underway in the UK in October 2024. In May 2024, Variety reported that Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas had taken over as showrunner for the series and that the studio has slated it for release in 2026.

    In August 2024, James Spader signed on to reprise his role as Ultron. In September 2024, Todd Stashwick joined the series as a mysterious assassin.

    Faran Tahir, who portrayed Ten Rings terrorist Raza Hamidmi al-Wazar in 2008’s Iron Man, was announced to be returning to the role via trade reports in January 2025.

    Cast

    • Paul Bettany as The Vision
    • Ruaridh Mollica in an unknown role
    • James Spader as Ultron
    • Todd Stashwick as Paladin
    • Faran Tahir as Raza Hamidmi al-Wazar
    • T’Nia Miller as Jocasta
    • James D’Arcy as Jarvis
    • Kerry Condon as F.R.I.D.A.Y.
    • Emily Hampshire as E.D.I.T.H.
  • Looking Back to What Could’ve Been ‘Silent Hills’

    Looking Back to What Could’ve Been ‘Silent Hills’

    A few years back, I started this tradition of replaying the franchise of Silent Hill. The PlayStation franchise reinvented our understanding of survival horror, as it introduced us to a much more personal nightmare. Each entry in the franchise puts you in the shoes of a new character. Their visit to the quaint town of Silent Hill leads them to face their demons. The suburban town is invested with manifestations of their innermost nightmares, as it forces them to accept their past actions. It wasn’t scary because of a lack of ammunition or a creepy monster. It was what it forced us to think about while playing it.

    We haven’t seen the franchise return since its last mainline entry Silent Hill: Downpour in 2021. Even then, the original team that developed the franchise, known as Team Silent, hasn’t worked on a game since Silent Hill 4: The Room. Konami hasn’t shown much love to the franchise since, as it shipped from one external developer to the next. There was a glimmer of hope in 2014. A secret teaser at the end of the Playable Teaser, or P.T. for short, revealed that it was for a game titled Silent Hills. Hideo Kojima started work on a project together with the film director Guillermo Del Toro and acclaimed horror manga artist Junji Ito. It seemed like the perfect team for such an ambitious project, but suddenly Konami pulled the plug on the game.

    So, the wait continues with the franchise making a somewhat return in Dead by Daylight as DLC. The upcoming The Medium game also pays tribute to the franchise with its former composer Akira Yamaoka joining the production. It almost seems like we are at the point where the franchise will live on through tribute games. Yet, there are rumblings of PlayStation potentially working on a brand new entry for their upcoming next-gen console. Sadly, we never got an announcement or official tease, so it could just be a pipedream. There was even the rumor that Sony wants Kojima‘s new development firm Kojima Productions to work on the project that he once had to delay after purchasing the rights from Konami.

    I would love to see Kojima‘s Silent Hills project come together. Junji Ito is one of my favorite manga artists, whose works, like Uzumaki or Tomie, will brand themselves into your mind. At the time, we even got a concept trailer that showcased what kind of insane and horrific visuals we could’ve experienced once the project was released. It would’ve been interesting to see how Japanese horror would’ve meshed with the Western influences the original games were inspired by. Yet, no matter how interesting the monsters could look like, the game still is a character study at heart that uses the foggy town to explore the inner workings of regret, depression, and whatever may affect our fragile minds. Well, sometimes specific imagery and memories are enough to get the gears turning.

    Source: Metacritic (Downpour), IGN, Game Informer, CNet, RockPaperShotgun, Inverse, YouTube (Teaser), YouTube (Concept Trailer)

  • ‘THE MANDALORIAN’ Chapter 9: Filoni and Favreau Further the FANtasy

    ‘THE MANDALORIAN’ Chapter 9: Filoni and Favreau Further the FANtasy

    In the case of Boba Fett’s death, had I known he was gonna turn into such a popular character, I probably would’ve made it a little bit more exciting. Boba Fett was just another one of the minions, another one of the bounty hunters and badguys. But, he became such a favorite of everybody’s that, for having such a small part, uh he had a very large presence. And now that his history has been told in the first trilogy, y’know, it makes it even more of a misstep that we wouldn’t make more out of the event of his defeat, because most people don’t believe he died anyway. I’d contemplated putting in that extra shot in where he climbs out of the hole, but y’know I figure that’s . . . it doesn’t quite fit, in the end.

     

    When I was a kid, I was fortunate enough to be spoiled enough that my parents paid for me to be a part of the official Star Wars Fan Club Newsletter, Bantha Tracks. I couldn’t tell you how many of them I had before they stopped coming, but I can tell you that what I read in the issues I did have may well have been the genesis of what has apparently been my lifelong pursuit of “insider knowledge.” I read those newsletters front to back and back to front over and over again; I felt like I was in the cool club because I was exposed to a wealth of knowledge, straight from the brain of George Lucas; knowledge like the bit below:

    Bantha Track #5, "Introducing: Boba Fett," Edited (Summer 1979) - Image Galleries - Boba Fett Fan Club

    Not much is known about Boba Fett.

    At the time that issue 5 of Bantha Tracks was published in 1978, there was no way Lucas could have predicted how deeply rooted this minor character would become in pop culture. And while the mystery of just how and why Boba became such an integral part of such an otherwise richly develop mythology is a conversation worth having, it’s not the one we’re having here. The bounty hunter accumulated 392 seconds of screen time in the films but has taken up a lot more space in my brain and the brains of fans than that. Did he escape the Sarlaac pit? What are all those symbols on his armor and what is that braid? Mandalore? What’s a Mandalorian? And people who I always assumed were just as obsessed with all these things as I was thought about these things too and now, as it turns out, a couple of people just like that in Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, have created an entire series that seems like it may have spun out of the mind of a kid who sat on his floor reading Bantha Tracks, watching the movies and trying to figure out just who this mysterious bounty hunter was. And now, with the first episode of Season 2, they’ve reached out to all of you who sat around and overthought every minute detail of every film and they’ve said this: “That time you spent wasn’t wasted. We spent time doing it too and have built an entire world around those thoughts.” It’s validation and as Boba turned and faced me on screen in the twilight of the twin suns of Tatooine, it felt amazing.

    The Mandalorian' season 2 premiere reveals a surprising character | EW.com

    Boba is back but as excited as I am, he’s not truly at the heart of this piece either. Chapter 9 wasn’t enthralling just because we have a now-canonical expansion of the legend of Boba Fett that actually only adds to the mystery but also because, as they do, Favreau and Filoni made an entire episode out of in-universe things that only the truest of fans would love to see. If Seinfeld was a series about nothing, then The Mandalorian is a series about making nothing into something. The creative duo behind the series just gave us 54 minutes of glory by creating a story around a pile of bones that were seen onscreen for 2 seconds, a strange noise Obi-Wan made to scare off some Tuskens and a bounty hunter who “died” in his last chronological appearance. This is what they do and this is the heart of Star Wars. George Lucas created a world, a universe, that was already fruitful when we first saw it in A New Hope. If all we ever got was that film, it would have been enough. But Lucas didn’t just give us the fruit up front, he also planted seeds and, over the years, those seeds have come to bear fruit in the minds of creators like Favreau and Filoni. Creators who just like you and I, probably have spent hours reading character profiles on StarWars.com and know all about those shiny pearls inside a Krayt dragon.

    And that’s what The Mandalorian has been since it debuted last year: a series of shiny pearls, the value of which might only be apparent to the staunchest of fans. That’s not to say that a new fan wouldn’t enjoy Chapter 9. But for fans who have invested countless hours talking, arguing, theorizing and speculating about how big a Krayt dragon would be and what happened to Boba in that Sarlaac pit, this episode felt like a non-contact hug from minds behind Mando. The hug that tells us that all that time spent fantasizing and building a Star Wars encyclopedia in your head was time well spent. In furthering the fantasy, Favreau and Filoni push all the right buttons and hit all the right notes because they’ve walked those same miles. Hell, I bet they read Bantha Tracks, too.

     

     

     

     

     

  • X-Men

    X-Men

    Premiere: TBD

    After the live-action rights to Marvel’s uncanny mutants were acquired in 2019, Marvel Studios’ One Above All, Kevin Feige, teased plans for them to make their way into the MCU at SDCC ’19. Those plans were slow developing but in Fall 2023, the studio began taking pitches from writers. In May 2024, Michael Lesslie, who wrote the screenplay for Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, landed the job.

    Cast

  • ‘Marvel’s Avengers’ Dev Stream Teases Inhumans, AIM Lab Update, Loot Revamp and So Much More

    ‘Marvel’s Avengers’ Dev Stream Teases Inhumans, AIM Lab Update, Loot Revamp and So Much More

    Just today, we got the first full look at Black Panthers’ costume leaked online for Marvel’s Avengers. It was a little something to tide us over until the next update arrives. Players are still anxiously waiting for the first release of the AIM Cloning Lab, which is being teased by Crystal Dynamics. The good thing is that the developers have been very active in their communication. You’ll find them reacting to tweets, Discord chats, and Reddit throughout the day to find the best to solve people’s issues. The developers are very passionate about the game, and it shows. Today, we got a live-stream of the developers that highlight this fact. It included their Community Manager @StrumSlinger and one of the developers from behind-the-scenes Phil, who many might recognize from his many Reddit posts. We didn’t get any reveals as it was a community stream. Yet, they did answer a lot of questions that included some teases for the future. 

    Before we get into any game-related topics, I have to highlight the biggest reveal from this stream. Crystal Dynamics, like many other companies, was hit hard by the pandemic. They confirmed that motion-capture work is happening, but they have to abide by the two-week quarantine rule putting them back weeks. Not just that, they also had to face the California wildfires, which don’t even count issues that they face in their own homes, such as power outage or Internet loss. All this can set you back days or even weeks of work. With the mo-cap reveal, an afternoon of recording turns into multiple weeks of work. The honesty was a great touch, and it must’ve been hard. They also confirmed that all these delays were because of these circumstances. We would’ve seen most of this content much earlier. It doesn’t make it easier for anyone, but I do believe that it is essential to note what kind of circumstances these developers are facing. Even with all of this happening, they still manage to get out patch after patch, which I believe is impressive.

    Now, let us recap the reveals and major talking points from the stream:

     

    • There was a brief mention that caught my attention. It seems a small little addition will be available with an upcoming patch that focuses on a highly demanded Inhuman. CD highlighted it is a small addition. So, this could be a character showing up in an outpost, or maybe even a short cutscene. My theory right now is that it is Inferno, also known as Dante Pertuz. He had a brief cameo in the campaign, so we hopefully get more of him.
    • A frequent question during the stream focused on if they will add Marvel Cinematic Universe skins. It seems they are actively looking into it and that new skins for every character are already in development.
    • One major reveal is that they are actively working on multiple new villains. Currently, the game only includes four Villain sectors, excluding MODOK and Monica from the campaign. So, it is a welcome and needed change to give an incentive for the daily challenges. The way they phrased it gives me some hope that we could see their addition outside of character expansions. So far, it got confirmed that every new character received a unique villain, but that would restrict them quite a bit. I think smaller villain updates could add some flair to the faction missions that tend to repeat very frequently.

    • Our hosts also mentioned that they are adding some complexity to bosses, so that is an exciting prospect. There was mention of the AIM Cloning Lab as the first step towards that direction. It’ll be interesting to see how this game evolves once its content updates start rolling out.
    • They teased the AIM Labs quite heavily. So, there is a chance we might see it sooner rather than later. There was mention that they are doing some final testing over the weekend, so if everything goes well, we could see it next week potentially. They teased a larger patch update, so there might be a connection here. Do not expect Kate before the Labs update. 
    • They are actively looking at revamping their loot system. CD has some short-term and long-term plans for its development, which is promising. I shared my idea of a weapon slot that could add some incentive with visual changes and even gameplay adaptations. If you’re interested, you can check it out here. They also confirmed they are looking into loadouts as well, which will help people with their builds.
    • Currently, they are not planning on anything relating to PvP, so that probably should not be expected anytime soon. I do believe there is potential here with inspirations from Secret Wars or Avengers Arena. Heroes fighting each other is a tradition of its own at this point.

    • Events are coming, but as a result of the current issues, it will take some time. We can potentially expect seasonal additions once things calm down, so here’s looking forward to it.
    • There was a brief mention of them working on better ways to communicate with the community. As I mentioned above, they’ve been much more active. However, they are trying to find new ways to effectively tease content changes and additions, which might be their way of solving the “soon” issue. We got another tease of the road map, which seems to be taking shape. We could see it during the upcoming November War Table video.
    • There were rumors on Reddit that Thor got nerfed, as his Heroic rating is very high. Luckily, those rumors were untrue through an official confirmation during the stream.
    • CD also mentioned some other minor updates. They are working on changing up existing content, highlighted the issue with Captain America’s slow running speed, and that the trophy bugs might get fixed with the next update.

    Overall, this was a fun stream to watch. Yes, we didn’t get any timings, but that wasn’t the point of the stream. They took their time to be as transparent as they can while spending time with the community. A personal highlight was the reveal that Phil created a Mjolnir prop, which got used during the motion capture. There were some fun moments, and sadly I didn’t have the opportunity to join them in a game. Hopefully, I’ll get the chance in a future stream, as they are planning on making this a weekly event. I believe we are slowly nearing the end of the dry spell with Avengers, but I know as little as everyone else. The delays have made it difficult for many, which is understandable, so hopefully, the November War Table video isn’t too far away, and we finally get to see the game grow.

    Source: Twitch