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  • Dave Filoni’s New Republic Movie Could Introduce a Major Star Wars Legends Character

    Dave Filoni’s New Republic Movie Could Introduce a Major Star Wars Legends Character

    During Star Wars Celebration 2023, it was revealed that Dave Filoni was set to direct a film that would serve as the denouement of the story he and Jon Favreau have been and will continue telling through their “Mando-verse” streaming series. While it’s easy to look at that film as the end of the stories told in the New Republic era, it’s also important to remember that, at present, two additional eras are open to the telling of further stories set in a galaxy far, far away. Given that the New Republic era can now be seen as a bridge connecting Luke Skywalker’s Age of Rebellion stories to his epilogue in the Rise of the First Order stories, it is worth considering if Filoni, who has shown a penchant for bringing non-canon/Legends characters into the modern Star Wars canon may choose to use his film to bring one of the most popular Legends characters into canon.

    An increasingly popular theory is that Filoni’s New Republic-era film will be an adaptation of Timothy Zanh‘s 1991 now non-canonical novel, Heir to the Empire. That novel, set nine years after the Battle of Yavin, introduced Grand Admiral Thrawn, who has since been adopted into canon and will soon be portrayed in live-action by Lars Mikkelsen. During the Ahsoka trailer which debuted at Star Wars Celebration, the phrase “heir to the Empire”, uttered by Rosario Dawson‘s titular character, created a significant buzz that the next chapter of stories in Filoni’s Mando-verse might be an adaptation of Zahn’s iconic Thrawn trilogy and, if that is the case, Thrawn will hardly be the only major character making a canonical live-action debut.

    Further evidence that the Mando-verse stories might begin to adapt and include Zahn’s trilogy came in Chapter 23 of The Mandalorian when Gilad Pellaeon made his live-action debut as part of the second iteration of The Shadow Council. While Pellaeon played a minor role Star Wars Rebels, he played a much larger role in Thrawn’s plans in the non-canon Zahn trilogy. If Pellaeon is going to play a role, no matter now small, in Star Wars canon, it’s possible another of the Emperor’s servants–indeed the Emperor’s Hand–could appear in Filioni’s film.

    There is, perhaps, no Legends character whose addition to canon is more anticipated than Mara Jade’s. Once one of Palpatine’s most trusted assassins tasked with killing Luke Skywalker, Jade eventually married Luke and played a key role in the foundation of the New Jedi Order. Jade played a major role in one of the non-canonical novels’ most well-known conflicts, the Yuuzhan Vong War, which, coincidentally, would bridge a major gap in the current canonical eras. Would Filoni introduce Mara Jade/Mara Skywalker into the Star Wars canon? Given the work he and Favreau have done with Legends characters and concepts over the years, it’s nowhere near out of the question that Jade could soon be introduced into their Mando-verse and then quickly become a main character in the Rise of the First Order and New Jedi Order timelines.

  • ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Pulls a Record-Breaking $87M in 2nd Weekend

    ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Pulls a Record-Breaking $87M in 2nd Weekend

    It looks like nostalgia remains a powerful tool for box office results. The Super Mario Bros. Movie has denied any expectations of being frontloaded and has pulled in an $87M second weekend, which is a huge hold after a powerful Easter weekend. Once again, it dethrones Frozen 2’s position at the top spot for animated films and marks Illumination’s best ever. What stands out is that this marks a drop of only 45%, the lowest we’ve probably seen in a long time for any project.

    Evil Dead Rise is on the horizon with a potential $20M+ opening weekend after moving away from HBO Max, it doesn’t look like anyone will take the top spot from Mario until the main summer season kicks off in a few weeks. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will likely push them off that top spot but the film has had no real direct family-oriented competition for some time, but it’ll be interesting to see if its main target audience is likely much older than one might expect.

    Sadly, there’s a drawback with such a dominant presence in theaters as other projects are seemingly suffering a bit and not quite pulling in the audiences they want. Normally, counterprogramming is quite effective in using an audience that isn’t drawn in by the latest blockbuster but perhaps this is a bigger showcase of what exactly the audience is behind a film based on a franchise that started in the 1980s.

    Renfield has seemingly bombed in its opening weekend at third place with a small $7.7M. 62% of the box office went to The Super Mario Bros. Movie so it and Russell Crowe’s The Pope’s Exorcist ($8.5M) had to duke it out for what is left. Though the mixed reception on both doesn’t help that isn’t uncommon with many horror films that actually play better than what the general audience reception might make you think.

    Source: Deadline

  • James Gunn Confirms When ‘Creature Commandos’ Will Kick Off the New DCU

    James Gunn Confirms When ‘Creature Commandos’ Will Kick Off the New DCU

    When James Gunn revealed part of DC Studios Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters slate, it was revealed that the animated Max series Creature Commandos was the first project to get the green light. When the series was announced, Gunn has already completed scripting all seven episodes and with casting just recently announced, it’s been pretty consistently clear that it would be the project that launched the new DCU. Now Gunn has given fans an idea of when they can expect to see the motley crew.

    While participating in one of his favorite pastimes (interacting with fans on Twitter), Gunn revealed that Creature Commandos is slated for a 2024 release on Max, the new name of the combined streaming services HBO Max and Discovery.

    Gunn and Peter Safran have made it clear that the plan is for the talent who lend their voices to Creature Commandos to also portray the characters in live-action. It was made clear that Rick Flag Sr., voiced by Frank Grillo, will show up in other projects and it’s likely he won’t be the only one. With the streaming series Waller likely the next project in the queue, and Viola Davis part of the cast of Creature Commandos, it’s possible we might see Flag Sr. in live action sooner rather than later.

  • ‘It’ Prequel ‘Welcome to Derry’ Continues to Expand Its Cast

    ‘It’ Prequel ‘Welcome to Derry’ Continues to Expand Its Cast

    The cast for Welcome to Derry is continuing to grow, as it has now added Revenge’s Madeleine Stowe and Daredevil’s Stephen Rider. The project still technically doesn’t have an official name and the “Welcome to Derry” is more a working title for now, but it wouldn’t be too surprised if it gets the It moniker added as other franchises do nowadays, such as Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.

    The two additions are joining a cast that currently consists of Chris Chalk, Jovan Adepo, James Remar, and Taylour Paige. We currently have no details on who exactly they are set to play and the details are still under lock and key on just how much it’ll explore the history of Derry. It’s very likely going to act as a prequel to the story of Pennywise and how the Dancing Clown came to be but Bill Skarsgard has denied any involvement of far.

    The project is from the mind of the latest It films’ director Andy Muschietty, who developed the HBO Max Original series with Jason Fuchs, who is acting as the series showrunner, and his wife Barbara Muschietti. There’s a lot of potentials to explore this series in a Lovecraftian way as we slowly uncover the creature’s growing hold over Derry and the ones that stood up against him when no other could.

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘Robocop’ Might Return as a TV Series and Movie Among Many Other Films

    ‘Robocop’ Might Return as a TV Series and Movie Among Many Other Films

    If there is one unspoken rule in Hollywood, it’s keeping classic IPs alive with various spinoffs, revivals, or whatever they can turn a project into. Amazon is seemingly mapping out a variety of new IPs under its umbrella as TV series and films for the future. So, let’s go down the IP reboot road to see what exactly Amazon has planned.

    Besides a potential revival of the long-dormant Stargate franchise, one of the big reveals is the revival of RoboCop. This would mark the second reboot of the franchise since 2014 which took a more modern approach to the 1987 classic but wasn’t as well received. The character has recently appeared in the Mortal Kombat gaming franchise and still remains a classic.

    They are also seemingly hoping to bring back Legally Blonde as a series and also a film. It seems they have been trying to revive it for quite some time as a third entry in the franchise has been in development for almost five years. They also are hoping to bring a TV series to life based on Fame, Barbershop, The Magnificent Seven as well as new films based on the Pink Panther (potentially animated) and Poltergeist.

    Source: Deadline

  • Amazon Eyeing to Revive the ‘Stargate’ as a Series and Film

    Amazon Eyeing to Revive the ‘Stargate’ as a Series and Film

    There are many iconic space-based series with the name “Star” in them. Star Wars and Star Trek have been among the most prominent in the Internet’s IP-infected watercooler chatter. Yet, there’s another series that had quite a cult following and a very respectable run on television, Stargate SG-1.

    It seems Amazon sees the potential of bringing the franchise back, as Deadline has reported there are currently talks on reviving it with a TV series and even as a film. There’s no word how exactly they’d build upon it or if that’ll act as a direct reboot to the original taking place in modern times. To be fair, they also have no talent attached so it’s unclear when the series might get released.

    The series ran for ten seasons on Showtime and the SciFi Channel before ending on Sky1 in 2007. What makes the franchise so interesting is that it was initially a film by Roland Emmerich that spun out into a unique series. That was just the beginning, as the Stargate SG-1 series had a variety of spinoffs.

    The series had two direct-to-DVD films The Ark of Truth and Continuum. There was also a direct spinoff series Stargate Atlantis that featured some of the original cast members throughout its run. Stargate Universe was a unique spinoff taking place in the same world but was completely removed from the original series and ran for two seasons. There also was a web miniseries called Stargate Origins that acted as a prequel.

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Becomes 2023’s Highest-Grossing Film

    ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Becomes 2023’s Highest-Grossing Film

    Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has been dethroned as The Super Mario Bros. Movie has now become the biggest worldwide release. It’s also the first film to pass the $500M mark which is quite impressive considering it has a budget of $100M, which is quite a bit lower than Pixar or Disney’s overly ambitious $200M animated production costs. It’s currently on track to stick to the top spot in the second weekend with $58M after pulling in $9.4M on Thursday.

    Internationally, the film has pulled in around $248.4M globally and stands at a strong $260.3M domestically, which totals $508.7M. The film dropped around 63% on its second Thursday which is a strong hold and highlights the power of nostalgia and Nintendo. It seems more and more likely that this is the current winning formula as people relive their own memories and bring the family along for the ride, which is perfect for a kid’s film like The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

    Interestingly enough, the other two big releases are currently duking it out as Nicolas Cage’s Renfield and Russell Crowe’s The Pope’s Exorcist are the newest releases with very similar Thursday night releases at the domestic box office. Renfield is currently still leading the pack with $900K while Crowe’s film is behind only by $850M. The action-horror entry is currently set to overtake the other new release with a slightly better Rotten Tomatoes hinting at a better box office run.

    Source: Deadline, Deadline, The Numbers

  • ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Photos Show a Stylish Matt Murdock, Reveal New Addition to the Cast

    ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Photos Show a Stylish Matt Murdock, Reveal New Addition to the Cast

    Production on Daredevil: Born Again continues in and around New York City which provides ample opportunity for passersby to snap shots of the action. The latest round of photos show Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock about town and having a conversation with an actor whose involvement in the series was previously unknown.

    • I’m walkin’ here!

    From the set photos, it appears that actor Harris Yulin (Ozark, Ghostbusters II) has joined the cast of the streaming series. Disney has yet to comment on Yulin’s involvement in the project and his role is unknown.

    Daredevil: Born Again will continue production for the majority of the rest of 2023 and is expected to hit Disney Plus in 2024.

  • Sydney Elizabeth Agudong Join ‘Lilo & Stitch’

    Sydney Elizabeth Agudong Join ‘Lilo & Stitch’

    As the start of production on Disney’s live-action reimagining of the animated classic Lilo & Stitch draws closer, the cast of the project continues to take shape. According to THR, Syndey Elizabeth Agudong is the latest addition to the cast in the role of Lilo’s sister, Nani Pelekai.

    In the 2002 animated film, Nani is the legal guardian of Lilo and one of the film’s lead characters. Agudong joins Maia Kealoah–who will play Lilo–and Zach Galifianakis. According to THR, the search for a voice actor for Stitch is still ongoing.

    Dean Fleischer Camp is directing Lilo & Stitch, which will be a Disney + exclusive release similar to Lady and the Tramp. The live-action remake is slated for a 2024 release.

  • Rocksteady’s ‘Suicide Squad’ Game Delayed Until 2024

    Rocksteady’s ‘Suicide Squad’ Game Delayed Until 2024

    It looks like the wait has just gotten longer for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Just recently, PlayStation went all out with a showcase of the upcoming looter shooter from Batman Arkham developers Rocksteady but the game was pushed back shortly after. There was no real date confirmed of when we might expect it, as many believed it might just be a few months to tweak the game.

    Yet, some believed it was to rework the entire structure given the negative reception surrounding the Battle Pass system, which was already given a negative reception when the first leaks happened. While it’s not confirmed, the question of why they delayed it right after the showcase had many scratching their head about what is going on.

    Sadly, it seems that they are definitely going to be putting a lot more work into the game, as its release date has been postponed to February 2nd of 2024. That is quite a wait and while they promise to ensure the best quality, it’s still curious that such a massive delay took place in the first place.

    https://twitter.com/suicidesquadRS/status/1646593761022038017

    There’s no real official word on what they are working on, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier believes that the nine months delay isn’t enough time to truly rework an entire system and there’s always a lot more complexity to what it means to “polish” a game. For now, we can only wait quite a bit longer before we finally see what exactly Rocksteady is cooking behind the scenes.

    Source: Twitter, Twitter