James Gunn is now the new co-CEO of DC Studios. After the franchise was coming apart at the seams with various dramas happening behind the scenes, there was hope that this would finally push the project forward. The long-established actor has also built up a network of actors he tends to work with on various projects, which has led to some concern that he’ll primarily rely on familiar characters.
Luckily, Gunn has been no stranger to openly reacting to statements on Twitter to offer some insight into how he is approaching this daunting task. When people shared their concern about simply recasting Guardians of the Galaxy actors, Gunn pointed out that his true focus is to ensure that “the actor fits the role and they’re easy to work with” when he’ll cast someone new or familiar in the DC Studios project.
We have hundreds of roles to cast. As I’ve always done, some will be brand new faces, some will be actors I’ve worked with before, & some will be actors you know who I’ve never worked with. What matters most is the actor fits the role & they’re easy to work with. https://t.co/akXKoj70AS
It’s not surprising that a director would also want to bring on actors he has a past with to join a franchise he’s supervising. He’s worked with a variety of actors throughout his career and very likely has an idea of who might be perfect for a specific role. Plus, it’s not like he hasn’t already brought in new actors like with John Cena taking on the role of Peacemaker.
There’s also the aspect that once they find directors to tackle the various projects they are working on. Once more creatives join the franchise, they’ll have more opinions exploring how their take on a classic DC character may require a different type of talent. So, once things truly take shape, we’ll get a better picture of what the future has in store.
Spider-Man: No Way Home may have gone through some of the most changes throughout its production. A multiverse storyline featuring former Spider-Man villains was strongly dependent on actor availability that could make the film work. Plus, some may have only joined later in the pre-production schedule which may have also led to many last-minute changes to make it work.
Somehow the film still managed to pull it off and offer a nostalgic but very personal storyline about loss. Storyboard artist Phil Langone has shared a new storyboard from the film’s earliest days that reveals Jake Gyllenhaal‘s Mysterio originally had a role in the film. It seems that he was going to be responsible for the death of Aunt May, which would eventually carry over to Willem Dafoe‘s Green Goblin in the final product.
The mention of “one of” further hints that there may have been quite a few more different potential scenarios on how this sequence came to be. There’s also a chance that they were creating different scenarios to ensure that not every detail would manage to leak online, as the film was surrounded by quite a few leaks building up to its release.
Still, there’s a lot of potential for knowing that there are plans for Mysterio potentially to return. Of course, this could’ve also been a version from another dimension, as it would’ve been fun to see Sam Raimi‘s original vision for the character with Bruce Campbell in the role. Perhaps we’ll see if some concepts return in the inevitable fourth entry.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has been a multi-faceted success for Marvel Studios as they close the fourth phase of projects. Ryan Coogler and company have been lauded by audiences for their ability to memorialize Chadwick Boseman’s portrayal of T’Challa and continue the enriching narrative of Wakanda. Though one new element from the sequel that’s been met with the same level of praise is the introduction of Tenoch Huerta Mejía’s portrayal of Namor.
The classic Marvel Comics character made his silver screen debut that came with a highly applauded new origin to boot. Huerta Mejía’s portrayal quickly joined the ranks of the best Marvel Cinematic Universe villains and has left audiences excited about a potential return for the character in the future. And according to Kevin Feige, the wait might not be too long before Namor and the rest of Talokan re-emerge in a future project.
You know, people who read the comics know that there’s 80 years of stories with Namor that we can tap into. So, where and when, we’ll keep to ourselves for now. But, we think that this is an incredibly iconic character that’s being introduced. Probably, to most people, most movie-goers for the first time. And we expect them to want to see more.
Kevin Feige
The events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever provides ample room for Namor to be a major player in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Projects such as Captain America: New World Order and Thunderbolts have long been rumored to further the global-political turmoil existing in this universe. The events of these two 2024 projects can easily provide the impetus for Namor to wage war on the surface war as he threatened in Wakanda Forever, something that has occurred previously in the Marvel comic lore.
To lean further into Feige’s quote about Namor’s comic history, there are even more exciting territories Namor can explore in the future. Namely, it wouldn’t now be a surprise to see Namor continue his anti-heroic tendencies as a foil for the Fantastic Four. His long-standing feud with Reed Richards could further culminate in the two joining an Earth-616 iteration of the Illuminati, a concept introduced in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and something that would make sense with Avengers: Secret Wars coming in the near future. And beyond that, Kevin Feige placing Namor as a figure in the X-Men corner of the universe is a tantalizing possibility.
Though regardless of where Namor shows up next in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, audiences should be excited to have more of Tenoch Huerta Mejía portrayal in the near future.
With Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania set to kick off Marvel Studios Phase 5 in February, what better time to take a comprehensive look back at the ups, downs, ins and outs of Phase 4. First up, the year that wasn’t.
Long before Avengers: Endgame hit theaters in 2019, Marvel Studios was already well into the planning stages of the Multiverse Saga. Disney Plus was set to play a major role in said saga, which looked set to introduce a slew of new heroes and villains. James Gunn’sGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was originally expected to kick off the new saga but after that went off the rails for a bit, exactly what to expect and when to expect it was a mystery until October of 2018 when the 2020 film slate was exclusively revealed to consist of only Black Widow and Eternals. When Murphy’s Multiverse went live in November of 2019, Marvel Studios had officially confirmed the news about the two films and also slated the first Disney Plus series, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier for a Fall 2020 release. 2020 wasn’t set to be the big, blockbuster opening year to Phase 4 that fans may have expected but it looked the be the calm before the storm as 2021 was set to feature 3 big films and 4 streaming series including the first animated series made by Marvel Studios…and then, before anyone could process it, Marvel Studio’s very 2020 existence was gone.
Things started off calmly enough in January 2020 as production on The Falcon and The Winter Soldier resumed following their holiday break. The production shot scenes involving the Flagsmashers at a State Park in Georgia, did some work in the downtown Atlanta location that served as Madripoor and was scheduled to head to Puerto Rico. Then, things started to get weird.
On January 9th, director Scott Derrickson and Marvel Studios amicably parted way on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which was set to begin principal photography in May. Just a couple of days later, before a second earthquake in Puerto Rico altered the course of the production of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. By mid-January, production on one of Marvel’s 2021 streaming series, Hawkeye, which was scheduled to begin in July, had been delayed indefinitely.
Even as all that unfolded, Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings began filming in Australia in February and productions in Atlanta for Loki, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk and the untitled third Spider-Man film were all on track and Thor: Love and Thunder, which Christian Bale had just joined, was set to get underway down under in October.
By early February, Sam Raimi emerged as the front runner to take the reigns on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as the studio remained committed to beginning production in May. Then, Hawkeye got back on schedule, booking a September start of production in Atlanta. With Puerto Rico off limits, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier was headed to Prague. All seemed good in the world…
On March 3rd, 2020 the following information was shared to supporters of Murphy’s Multiverse Patreon:
I expect production delays to happen. Things may begin shooting, stop shooting and begin again later. They may get pushed several weeks entirely. I believe it’s possible, even probable, that some projects may see release dates shifted. I believe it’s possible, though I can’t speak to probability here, that some projects may not release at all. I believe Disney may have to consider shutting down their U.S. parks for as little as a few weeks and as long as a couple of months (they’ve already closed parks in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Japan to the tune of a $175 M loss). None of this is good. Not even Disney can afford to keep losing money at this rate.
By March 10th, rumors or release dates shifting started to pick up steam and by March 13th, word reached Murphy’s Multiverse that The Falcon and The Winter Soldier would not make its intended Fall 2020 release. By March 21st, Marvel Studios shut down all of its productions indefinitely (the linked article was published and available for some time before we were asked to take it down as many of the members of various crews had not been informed of the pauses on productions). The COVID-19 pandemic was in its earliest and most frightening days and like everything else, the world of Marvel Studios stopped in its tracks.
With nothing but uncertainty staring them in the face, Marvel Studios had no choice but to start making movies. In early April, they made the first in a series of delays to their film slate pushing Black Widow from its intended May release to November and pushing Eternals into 2021. Additionally, with no clear answers about the safety of the production crews, Marvel Studios production stoppage continued with the studio eyeing a September restart.
Productions resumed and began and, alas, WandaVision didn’t quite make into 2020. By October, production had gotten underway on Spider-Man: No Way Home and in December word of Charlie Cox‘s role in the film was shared to the disbelief of pretty much everyone. A year that began with so much hope and saw so much struggle ended with the promise of Cox’s return.
For those that remember it well, 2020 was all about the news and rumors as any little tidbit gave fans something to cling to while we waited to understand what was happening around us. While it was expected to be slow year for Marvel Studios, nobody could have expected it to be the year with no Marvel Studios presence.
Not too long ago, a rumor hit the internet that Marvel’s Avengers may be ending sooner than expected, there were hints that we’ll get an official statement next week. Surprisingly, the news came even faster as the official blog from Crystal Dynamics announced that the game will get one final update on March 31s. Overall support for the game will wrap on September 30th, 2023 marking its third year since release.
The recent update of 2.7 with Winter Soldier and Cloning Labs will be the last new content update and there won’t be any more cosmetics being added to the game. 2.8 in March will mainly only act as a balance update for those still actively playing the game. They do highlight that even after September, the single- and multiplayer functionality will still be available.
For those that still have credits invested in the game, the marketplace will no longer be available as of March with leftover credits being balanced through in-game currencies to develop your characters. They also will make all challenge cards and shipment cosmetics available for players for free. They are also set to gift all the marketplace cosmetics as a way to show their gratefulness to those that stuck around.
The game wrapping up with its third year seems quite fitting even if it’s a shame we couldn’t at least finish the storyline that was set out with the Kree invasion hinted at ever since the events of A-Day. Captain Marvel has been hinted at as a character ever since Ms. Marvel was first released yet we’ll never know what their original plans were. She was just one of many more that were rumored to release long before the game launched. Guess we’ll never know.
Horror has proven it’s one of the franchises that’ll pull in an audience. Even during the pandemic, the genre has remained a power player and we’re seeing an increase in more projects finding their way into theaters. Warner Bros. has even decided to push Evil Dead Rise into a theatrically exclusive release instead of streaming, and Scream is also about to release its next entry after the franchise’s successful revival last year.
It seems that it was just the beginning, as Bloody Disgusting has shared that Friday the 13th producer and director Sean S. Cunningham is helping revive the franchise once again. He’s set to bring a reboot off the ground but that isn’t all. He’s also working on a reboot of 1985’s House and an original film titled The Night Driver.
There are other classic franchises that might see a return, especially if this new reboot might turn out quite popular. Who knows if perhaps we’ll get a new entry into A Nightmare on Elm Street that could potentially build towards another reunion between Freddy Krueger and Jason Vorhees. With cinematic universes still a big trend, there would be some fun to see some slasher films give it a simple attempt by just offering some classic confrontations between horror icons.
The Mandalorian is about to make its grand return. The series that not only started Disney+ but also Star Wars‘ first venture into live-action is almost upon us. Now, it’s about to enter its third season with a grand scale being teased in the trailer with a long-awaited return to Mandalore. Within 24 hours, the trailer has pulled in 83.5M views, which makes it the most-watched Star Wars Disney+ series.
It has now overtaken Obi-Wan Kenobi, whose trailer was viewed 58M times. That series had the nostalgia of seeing Ewan McGregor back in the role but there’s still something special about seeing Din Djarin reunite with Grogu once again in the upcoming Disney+ series. We haven’t seen them since the finale of The Book of Boba Fett back in January.
It’ll be interesting to see how long-time viewers will jump into the series’ return, especially with one of the main plot points from the last season having been resolved in a spinoff series. Grogu left to become a Jedi with Djarin taking off his helmet to say farewell to his adoptive child. Yet, now their already reunited going into the third season.
Still, there’s something exciting about seeing what the future has in store for Star Wars. The Mandalorian had that perfect mix of nostalgia with enough new to make it stand out. It also feels like a callback to the original trilogy with how it uses similar shot techniques. It’ll be interesting to see what we’ll see in the third season and what it’ll be like with more Mandalorians running around.
The rumor mill surrounding the Persona franchise has been quite curious. The 25th anniversary fell flat for many fans due to the build-up potentially hinting at the confirmation of Persona 6 but no real news coming out of the event. Yes, we did get the remasters of Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and even Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, but it left many wondering what exactly the future looks like for the franchise.
Then we got a surprise development with a new rumor hitting the web that we’re not only potentially getting a new mainline entry, but even a remake of Persona 3 in some form of development. It seems like an exciting time to be a fan of the franchise yet Atlus remains silent on any of its current projects. There have been hints that some of their initial plans for the 25th anniversary couldn’t come quite together as planned, but a new rumor is making the rounds that they’ll make up for it in 2023.
Resetera isn’t the safest place for rumors, but the source is someone that has called the reveals from the anniversary and was the source behind the remake rumor. While no true details have been shared, they highlight that the Remake and Persona 6 are further down the production line with a potential summer reveal planned.
They also highlight that they were originally set to be revealed at an earlier date but things shifted for one reason or another. Still, Atlus has not been shy to hint at “several” unannounced titles heading our way in 2023 which also adds at least some believability that something for the future Persona entries might be revealed sooner rather than later. There’s still hope that the green bucket in one of the anniversary images was a definite hint at the sixth entry.
Marvel’s Avengers has been an interesting project to follow throughout the years. It was an ambitious game when it was first announced, as you’ll get the chance to play a never-ending game that slowly adds more and more heroes to its roster. Games-as-a-Service have always been controversial but the promise was there yet a botched release left a bitter taste in players.
There was still some merit to what the game had to offer with some great combat and some fun story additions. Yet ever since the Black Panther-focused content patch, we’ve not seen any single-player offerings from the game since. We did finally get Cloning Labs recently, but Marvel’s Avengers certainly lost the momentum that it promised during its initial release.
Now that Winter Soldier made his way tot he game, rumors continued to make the rounds that the game will eventually shut production in 2023 but still with one more big batch of content set to release. A new article published by Miller Ross, who made a name online for leaking various details from the game, has shared that the game may be ending sooner rather than later.
In a new piece for eXputer, the leaker has shared details of what he’s heard that is happening behind the scenes over at Crystal Dynamics. It’s no secret that they’ve started work on their next Tomb Raider game under the new ownership and with Amazon Games set to release it. If this piece is to be believed, most of the skeleton crew that was still involved with the project will soon be fully moved to the studio’s new title.
Brian Waggoner took over as Lead Developer some time ago, but due to controversy was no longer going to represent the studio or the project. He goes on to highlight that Waggoner has now completely departed the project and that has shifted some initial plans. It seems they wanted to keep the game running still going into the second half of the year but they are seemingly fast-tracking the game’s end.
We still have to take it with a grain of salt, but Miller claims the game’s official cancelation would follow next week. While it didn’t live to its fullest potential, Marvel’s Avengers still managed to go for over two years after initially hitting shelves back in September 2020. The game isn’t going to shut down from one day to the next, as they may have one final release set and rework some elements allowing for those still playing the game to continue to do so.
Marvel Games is about to enter a new era of offerings with releases such as Midnight Suns and the return of Spider-Man 2. We have a variety of new projects heading our way, such as the new Iron Man game from EA, which is supposedly not the only one as two other games are rumored. We also have a second Insomniac franchise in development based around Wolverine, but it does seem unlikely that Marvel is going to test the waters with a GaaS game anytime soon after the experience with Marvel’s Avengers; if it gets officially canceled soon or still continues moving forward.
Marvel Studios has been busy promoting the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp sequel, but there are a variety of other projects in some form of development. One of the biggest questions surrounded Marvel Studios’ latest attempt at a new group of unlikely heroes joining together to fight a common cause in Thunderbolts.
It wasn’t until D23 that we got our first official look at the team right after the film was announced during San Diego Comic-Con not too long before. So, many were surprised to get a first look at the team but it wasn’t without any controversy, as some felt the team was too one-note given the number of super soldiers involved.
Now, just as rumors are making the rounds that one o its most unique additions might not be a part of the film, it seems that the original artwork is no longer available on Andy Park’s Instagram channel and even missing from the official Marvel Studios Instagram account. It was initially uploaded after the panel for everyone to get a high-quality look at what was revealed but its absence is quite noticeable.
Regarding the rumor, the Internet has been discussing whether one of its key members may no longer appear in the film. Ant-Man and the Wasp introduced one of its most unique villains in Ava Starr, better known as Ghost. She was played by the talented Hannah John-Kamen who had yet to return to the franchise. Now, the rumors are pointing to her potentially no longer being part of the film, which might be a reason they took down the artwork.
Of course, there’s no confirmation in regards to why it is no longer available on their official accounts. They tend to rewrite these projects quite frequently and who knows if they might’ve taken some of the feedback to heart and want to expand the team beyond the cast we’ve already seen. It would be a shame if the one character with a unique ability would end up not appearing, but we’ll have to see once more news drops. For now, the drop
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By using our site, you consent to cookies.
This website uses cookies
Websites store cookies to enhance functionality and personalise your experience. You can manage your preferences, but blocking some cookies may impact site performance and services.
Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.
Name
Description
Duration
Cookie Preferences
This cookie is used to store the user's cookie consent preferences.
30 days
These cookies are needed for adding comments on this website.
Name
Description
Duration
comment_author_email
Used to track the user across multiple sessions.
Session
comment_author_url
Used to track the user across multiple sessions.
Session
comment_author
Used to track the user across multiple sessions.
Session
Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us understand how visitors use our website.
Google Analytics is a powerful tool that tracks and analyzes website traffic for informed marketing decisions.
Contains information related to marketing campaigns of the user. These are shared with Google AdWords / Google Ads when the Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are linked together.
90 days
__utma
ID used to identify users and sessions
2 years after last activity
__utmt
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests
10 minutes
__utmb
Used to distinguish new sessions and visits. This cookie is set when the GA.js javascript library is loaded and there is no existing __utmb cookie. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
30 minutes after last activity
__utmc
Used only with old Urchin versions of Google Analytics and not with GA.js. Was used to distinguish between new sessions and visits at the end of a session.
End of session (browser)
__utmz
Contains information about the traffic source or campaign that directed user to the website. The cookie is set when the GA.js javascript is loaded and updated when data is sent to the Google Anaytics server
6 months after last activity
__utmv
Contains custom information set by the web developer via the _setCustomVar method in Google Analytics. This cookie is updated every time new data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
2 years after last activity
__utmx
Used to determine whether a user is included in an A / B or Multivariate test.
18 months
_ga
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gali
Used by Google Analytics to determine which links on a page are being clicked
30 seconds
_ga_
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gid
ID used to identify users for 24 hours after last activity
24 hours
_gat
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests when using Google Tag Manager
1 minute
Marketing cookies are used to follow visitors to websites. The intention is to show ads that are relevant and engaging to the individual user.
Pinterest Tag is a web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic.
